Happy Day

Good evening. It's been a very quiet day today, not much going on here apart from a nice walk with husband and dog and a  brief visit from my granddaughters, so plenty of time to play! I'm well up to date with DT commitments (virtuous smirk) so I thought it'd be fun to colour some images that I've been lucky enough to win recently. Here's a card I made using Alex, a little cutie from Oddball Art Stamps. I coloured her with copics and die cut with a stitched oval die which is lightly distress inked and a tiny bit of white frantage added (doesn't show very well in photo, light not very good today!). The background design is made up of squares of dp matted onto larger squares of kraft, all die cut using stitched square dies. I added a die cut swirly bow (MB) with a (very old) butterfly brad and a small tag with a stamped sentiment and a twine bow.
On reflection the sentiment is apt for my day...quiet, but happy.
Hope you have had a happy day too!
Thanks for calling by
Chris
x


Challenges entered:
craftycreations -four ( matted squares behind image)
toptiptuesday bingo line-kraft, sentiment, stitching
craftytime  punches or dies
oddballstamps use a die cut
allsorts add a butterfly
inkspirational kraft

Wet Sunday.....

It's wet here today....very wet! What better place to spend a wet and miserable Sunday than in your craft room! Doesn't matter what it's doing outside then! I've been very lazy today, got up late :), then sat around reading, then visited a few blogs....there are some extremely talented crafters out there, and I'm often amazed at how creative and imaginative my 'bloggy friends' are! The time, effort and love that go into cards and creations are staggering!

I'm sharing a couple of Christmas cards today. This year I'm so determined not to leave making them until it's a panic rush to get them finished, and although I know I'll never be in Kath's league, she's probably making next year's now :D, I'm feeling quite proud of myself! I'm also trying to use the stamps I have already (don't know how long I'll hold out!) and these beautiful Penny Black deer stamps are some of my favourites so I thought I'd give them an airing! I used the same stencil (Memory Box) for both cards, just quickly dabbing over them with distress ink, then stamping the deer on top. I've kept the designs simple, just adding greetings and some die cuts (OK the dies are new....I said no new stamps...). These are flat enough to post :)

Thanks for visiting, hope you're having a good day....whatever the weather!

Chris

x

Challenges

mytimetocraft Christmas

creativecorner Christmas

thatscrafty stencils/masks

christmasatsweetstampin Oh Deer

crafterscafe Christmas

cardz4guyz Christmas

Rudolph Day

Have a blast with Sweet Stampin'!

Good morning! Last Saturday of July, the kids have started their summer break and summer is well and truly here....or has summer well and truly gone???!! Picked my girlies up from school yesterday in torrential rain (why DOES it always rain heaviest at 3.15?! and why are my granddaughters always last to emerge :( Anyway here's hoping for some lovely weather over the next few weeks, it's so much easier  (and a lot less expensive!) to amuse the children when the sun shines!
This week our challenge theme at Sweet Stampin' is 'Boys and their toys' and as every little (and not so little...) boy I know just loves to play with water I chose to use this gorgeous Mo Manning digi to make my card. This cutie looks just like my son when he was a little lad right down to the snazzy swim shorts! I coloured him with copics, fussy cut him and mounted him over my die cut circle which I had stamped with the water drops. The sentiments came with the image. The small punched circles and his goggles have been glossy accented (can I say that...). 
We are sponsored this week by Funky Kits so if you want to be in with the chance of winning a fabulous prize hop over here and join us now!
Thanks for visiting, have a great weekend -hope the sun shines!
Chris
x

Challenges
craftforthecraic summertime
alohafriday summer fun
Bronte and Bella's #253 summer fun
/thesisterhoodofcrafters summer heat
craftycardmakers water

Bingo!

Hi, I'm back again with my card for the new challenge at Creative Moments.

this fortnight we have a bingo board

for you to choose from

We have two fabulous sponsors

           and

               

Here's my card using Maxi Skirt Momma from Sassy Studios

I used ribbon, die cuts, charm (well everything really apart from pearls and flowers!)
This card is for my lovely niece who is expecting her first baby, a little boy, in November, so very exciting!
Thanks so much for visiting today, hope you'll find the time to pop over to Creative Moments to see what my lovely teamies have come up with! We hope you'll play along -remember the theme is optional -anything goes!
Chris
x
Challenges
/toptiptuesday Bingo, embossing, sentiment, dies
/craft-deebowz July challenge
craftyourpassion  #271 atg
dreamvalley embossing
disdigidesigns hand coloured image
hidinginmycraftroom lots of layers

Fab 'n Funky Challenge #269

Good morning! It's my turn to host the challenge over at Fab N Funky, which means I get to choose the theme...I chose 'no patterned papers' by which I mean no pre printed designer paper or designer paper downloads, it's perfectly acceptable to make your own by stamping, stencilling, inking, painting etc!
Our sponsor this week is the fabulous Stitchy Bear, who allowed each of the DT to pick an image to play with.

I chose to use Berry, this sweet little fairy is pre shaded so I decided not to colour her, just printed her onto white card, die cut with a stitched rectangle die and stamped 'magical' in the top right hand corner. I matted this onto a piece of the same white card which I had stamped and embossed with white detail ep and then coloured with pale blue and yellow pan pastels, doesn't show up tht well in the photos!

I stamped the butterflies and trails and embossed in black, then stamped the butterflies again onto acetate, I coloured both lots of butterflies with copics, then cut out and adhered the acetate butterflies over the original stampings. I used tiny gems in matching shades to fill in the trails.

Sorry I couldn't get the colours to photograph well, they are much more vibrant IRL!

I do hope you'll be tempted to join us for this challenge, as it's summer holidays here and everyone is busy, this challenge is running for 3 weeks to give you plenty of time to join in!

Thanks for visiting

have a lovely day

Chris

x

Challenges:

craftingfromtheheart #69

whoopsi daisy bling it on

incywincy things with wings

lilpatchofcraftyfriends #14

sparklensprinkle atg

/natalieandamy summertime

Get inky with the Southern Girls

 

Good morning, where did the last fortnight go??? I know I spent a little (quite a lot...) of time watching the tennis last week, but I was convinced that this card wasn't needed until next week...seem to have lost a whole week somewhere! Anyway...it IS Thursday (again) and it IS time for a new challenge at Southern Girls. This fortnight we challenge you to 'get inky'!

For my card I decided to use distress inks and very little else, apart from the lovely Oddball Art image courtesy of one of our lovely sponsors for this challenge. I printed the fairy onto watercolour paper and painted her with distress inks, quite challenging as I haven't done this before! I then inked the edges of the paper, stencilled on the leaves and stamped the sentiment.

There are lovely prizes to be won from our generous sponsors this fortnight The Paper Doll Company and Oddball Stamps, so get out your inks and stamps and join us! Just click here to be inspired by the lovely inky creations from the rest of Team Trace and to add your link!

Have a lovely day

Chris

x

 

Challenges

inspirationdestination anything goes

pennyschallenges  #236 anything goes

craftygirlz #4 anything goes

sugarandbetty anything goes

aurorawings sprite delight

craftyourpassion #270 anything goes

craftingfromtheheart #68 anything goes

 

 

Getting ready for Christmas...

...well it is good to be prepared!
I was delighted to be invited to Guest Design for Crafting by Designs, they have a monthly 'Get ready for Christmas' challenge which I think is a brilliant idea...so, having been given a choice of challenges to design for I opted for this one!
The LO of my card is really simple as I decided to print the lovely Dilly Beans image fairly large! I coloured this sweetie with copics, just adding some gold coloured stickles to the flowers, the sentiment is a Paper Smooches die cut. One bow and a little Christmas tree charm to finish!
I'd like to thank Doris and the rest of the talented team at Crafting by Designs for giving me this opportunity to work with them, hope you'll pop over and check out their blog!
Thanks for visiting!
Chris
x

Challenges:
whimsy Christmas
craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2 atg Christmas
cuteasabutton Christmas
emeraldfaeries Christmas
karleighsue Christmas
onesweetchallenge Christmas
papercreators Christmas
deepocean Christmas

An economical card...

Here's a quick card I made for one of my granddaughter's friends. The papers are left over from a long ago scrapbooking class, the ribbon is recycled from a box of chocs and the flowers are punched. I drew the image, coloured her with copics and paper pieced her dress, how's that for economical!

Thanks for visiting.

Chris

x

Challenges entered:
cutiepie Cute as a button - 3 teeny tiny buttons, 1 on dress  2 on boots:)
simplypapercraft atg
sisteract atg
wagsnwhiskers birthday
craftingbydesigns reuse/recycle

Christmas in July

Good morning, Saturday again and that means time for a new challenge at Sweet Stampin'. As you've probably guessed we want to see Christmas creations this week. I used one of my very favourite stamps to make this card, one of the first stamps I bought online from Art Journey. I think this little girl is so innocent and beautiful! The card was actually really quick to make as the image fitted almost perfectly onto a frame on a piece of dp (All is Bright MME) so I inked her up with black Stayzon and stamped her on! I cut around the frame, distressed and inked the edges and layered it onto another piece of dp from the same pad. The diecut fir branch is MB and the 'peace &joy' are Sizzix. I added some lace, part of a brown felt doily and a few pearls.
There are some beautiful creations from the rest of Team Jacky over on the Challenge blog, so just click  here to pop over and check them out! Why not make a Christmas card yourself...you'll be so glad you did when December looms closer! Our sponsor this week is Wild Orchid so you could be the lucky winner of a fabulous prize!
Thanks so much for visiting, have a great weekend!
Chris
x
Challenges:
craftycalendar Christmas in July
alohafriday Christmas
simplycreatetoo get ahead for Christmas
4craftychicks Christmas in July
sassystudiodesigns Christmas
digichoosday Christmas in July

Happy together!

Here I am again with my DT card for this week's challenge at Fab N Funky, a lovely one this week hosted by our very talented Judith - the theme she has chosen is 'Inspired by a song' and our sponsor is the one and only Bugaboo Stamps.

I chose to use this fun and fabulous image Girls happy trio -this just makes me smile! I coloured it using my copics then stamped and embossed the corner stamp (an oldie from Kelly Pannaci) onto a piece of faintly striped DP. I then stamped just the 'laugh' over the edge of the image to match up. My song is an oldie from 1967 'Happy Together' by the Turtles...it just seemed very apt!

Team Funky have created some wonderful cards this week so just click here to be inspired! We'd love to see what you come up with for this fun challenge too!

Have a great day

Chris

x

Challenges:

craftyourpassion #269 atg

craftycardmakers sentiment

craft-deebowz July Challenge

catchthebug atg

inspirationdestination #41 atg

 

 

Make it monochrome

 

Good morning! Another fortnight gone and time for a new challenge at Creative Moments. This week we are sponsored by Angie's Digi Stamps and Karleigh Sue Digis, there are some fabulous images available at these two Etsy shops so well worth a visit!

I chose to use this beauty Sunday Afternoon courtesy of Karleigh Sue- thanks! As our optional theme is monochrome I decided to use sepia tones. I coloured her with copics to fussy cut and position her over a circular aperture which I had filled in using a leafy border die from Memory box to give a kind of filigree effect (does anyone understand what I mean or is it complete gibberish???) The remainder of the design is fairly simple!

Thanks for stopping by, don't forget to visit the Challenge blog, there's some fabulous creations from my teamies and we'd love it if you joined us this fortnight, don't forget the theme is optional - anything goes!

Chris

x

 

Challenges:

 

creativecardcrew die cuts

ttcrd atg

dreamvalley distressing

getcreative flowers

incywincydesigns spots and dots

thepapernestdolls #07 Atg

cagichallenge flowers

lilpatchofcraftyfriends atg

Treasure

Good afternoon, hope this finds everyone well and enjoying life! We've had some glorious summer sunshine here in the SE...perfect Wimbledon weather....but today started dull and damp! I'm not complaining, I needed to do some housework (don't worry I didn't overdo it :) and it's much easier to feel motivated (as motivated as I get over housework!) when the sun isn't shining. So now I'm feeling virtuous and taking time to play!
I made this card using this month's amazing freebie from The East Wind. Their current challenge is 'Patriotic' -use the colours of your flag. I coloured e image with copics and polychromos, cut it out and mounted it on top of some stamped images of iconic London landmarks and added some bunting and buttons.
Thanks for visiting.
Enjoy the rest of the day
Chris
x

Challenges
The East Wind
onestitchatatime red white and blue
a gem of a challenge red white and blue
brownsugar red white and blue
crafts4eternity red white and blue
sassystudio red white and blue
craftycreations red white and blue