Steampunk birthday.

Hi, it's my turn to host this fortnight's challenge at Fab'n' Funky,

the theme I've chosen is

 FANTASY.

It's my eldest granddaughter's 17th Birthday next week and this is the card I made for her.

She's an avid reader, it's her favourite pastime and grew up with the likes of Harry Potter and Skulduggery Pleasant (she still loves them!) - anything fantasy appeals to her.

I saw this beautiful freebie image (Gecko Galz) and immediately thought of my Livvy. 

I made a triple stepper card, decorating each layer with  stamps and die cuts from various companies.

It was easier to take photos than go into long descriptions.

second panel

third panel

Please do check out the Challenge blog for more ideas and inspiration, I hope you like the theme and are tempted to join in with your own fantastical fantasy creations....just let your imagination fly free!

Thanks for visiting

Chris

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Challenge entries:

digichoosday #12

classicdesign #03

creativefingers #274

cards galore encore #121

geckogalzs March Steampunk Challenge

creative creases #78

craftrocket #112

creativeinspiration #12

 

Snowy

 Good morning, as it's almost Easter I thought I'd share a Christmas card, well why not?!

I used my much loved Penny Black Snowy stamp, he who narrowly escaped the jaws of death when Marvin was a pup and chewed everything he could get his teeth around- rubber stamps were a firm favourite!. He would lurk nonchalantly in my craft room waiting for an opportunity -then quick as a flash he would nick something and leg it out of the room, looking for somewhere to lie down and have a good old chew. Fortunately, on this occasion, I spotted him straight away and managed to retrieve Snowy more-or -less intact (one of his arms is slightly damaged but stamp is still usable)

I've coloured his scarf and hat with my markers, and added loads of glitter to the trim and pompom. An embossed background, some panels of left over DP from the scrap drawer. I added some die cut snowflakes with tiny red gem centres to finish.

Thanks for visiting

hope you have a good day

Chris

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Challenge entries:

rudolph days March Challenge

christmaswiththecuties #79

pennybfriendssaturdaychallenge March Ch.

peaceonearth #60 (ATG)

PFM #732 -3 snowflakes, 3 colours

christmas-craft-creations

Girls Rock!

 The last two weeks have just flown past and once again it's time for a new challenge at 

Crafty Catz.

Janet is hosting this fortnight and her optional theme is 

Use an embossing folder.

Our sponsor this time is

THE PAPER SHELTER

The Design Team were given a lovely digi to play with but I chose to use one I already had and really wanted to colour up.

So here's Rebel, coloured with markers , fussy cut and popped up with foam. I used a brick wall embossing folder, no idea of make and ripped and distressed some  papers that must be donkeys years old - I think they were magazine freebies. I die cut the splat and stamped the sentiment onto it.

For loads more inspiration please check out the challenge blog- my teamies have created some beautiful cards for this challenge. Remember the theme is entirely optional, Anything Goes at Crafty Catz.

Thanks for visiting and have a lovely weekend.

Chris

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craftrocket #112

digichoosday #11

aplacetostart March

aperfecttimetocraft. March

mirtillamente #29

sheepski#84

morgansartworld.#74

worldwidecrafters #15

Beautiful Day

 Good morning, hope you are all keeping well and have been lucky enough to see some spring sunshine over the weekend. This is such a beautiful time of year- especially when the sun shines- nothing looks quite as good when it's lashing down with rain!

It's time for our mid month reminder at Stamping Sensations, the optional challenge them is Spring, with some lovely prizes courtesy of Aall & Create, our fabulous sponsor this month.

I made a card using my favourite spring colours of green and yellow and a pretty daffodil stamp that was a magazine cover gift some time ago.  The embossed panel with the aperture is cut from card that I had previously smooshed and sprayed with brushos and shimmer powder. I layered it onto a square of pale yellow cardstock with the stamped sentiment already in place. The daffodil spray is coloured with markers and fussy cut an d I added 3 tiny pearls to finish.

As always there's loads of fabulous creations from the rest of the team, so please do pop over to the main challenge blog for some inspiration and for full details of prizes and how to join in. 

Thanks for visiting, have a good week.

Chris

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Challenge entries:

mmmchallenge #221

creativecraftinguncles #51

pearlysparkles #93

flowerchallenge #89

thefourseasons March

tripleb March

beautifulblossoms #15

Easter bunnies

 Good morning, It's time for a new challenge at Sweet Stampin ' , the theme for this fortnight is EASTER.

I made a card for Charlotte, my youngest granddaughter using a cute A&C stamp set. The bunnies are coloured and fussy cut and popped up on foam inside the die cut frame, along with some die cut grass. The clouds and eggs are stencilled.

It doesn't seem possible that Easter is only two weeks away, we haven't had any spring yet, just rain and more rain, although to be fair it has been mild and much drier this week- even most of a day of beautiful sunshine on Thursday. I took the opportunity to dead-head the primulas in the big pot beside my front door and got a bit of a shock when the hugest bumble bee landed on my hand! I left the primulas after that- the bee obviously wanted them for herself and I wasn't going to argue! 

There's plenty to see over at Sweet Stampin' , as always my lovely teamies have  produced some fabulous inspiration for you to enjoy and we'd love to have you join us with your own beautiful Easter creations.

Thanks for visiting

Chris

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Challenges

allsorts #772

TIOT Spring

cutiepie #192

daisychain #83

Spring

 Good morning, for this fortnight's challenge at Fab'n' Funky Buffy has chosen the theme of SPRING.

I wish it felt more like spring here! Yes we have loads of pretty spring flowers...bowing their heads in the rain which we've had for days on end now! Not going to mention the mud...

I drew round a template to make this flower shaped card then die cut a circular aperture in the centre. The image, coloured with Copics, is from Krista Smith and made me smile when I saw it. It brought back a memory of my eldest granddaughter as a small girl. We visited a butterfly sanctuary that had many species of large butterflies flying around, she was fascinated by them and desperately wanted to touch but knew it wasn't allowed- then one decided to settle on a lady's head...that was it...she refused to come out of the greenhouse because she wanted one to land on her! No luck!  Eventually, we managed to persuade her away with promises of ice cream but not before I thought we were all going to melt in there! 

Thanks for visiting my blog today, please check out the challenge over at Fab'n' Funky, I hope you'll be inspired to share your own beautiful spring- themed creations with us.

Chris

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Challenge entries:

allsorts #771

PFM #730

shoppingourstash #517

aperfecttimetocraft March Challenge

thepapershelter #587

Another polar bear

 Hello, I had time for a little play today and some more cute stamped images to colour up- courtesy of the very generous Bunny. This cute guy is another Whipper Snapper stamp. I wish they were easier to buy here in the UK, very few stores seem to stock them now, there are some on Ebay but a limited range. Anyway, here he is- all coloured up with my markers and heading for the slopes! The papers are very old end-of-pad leftovers that I found lurking at the bottom of a drawer. I've added some die cut trees and a stamped sentiment.

I followed a sketch from Cheerful Sketches

Thanks for visiting today, enjoy your weekend.

Chris

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Challenge entries:

leighsbdesigns #27

cardz4galz #220

shoppingourstash

peaceonearth #59

christmaskickstart #84

cheerfulsketches March Ch.

Polar bear trio

 Good morning, a new challenge is starting today at Crafty Catz.

Ginny is hosting and has picked the optional twist of Monochrome.

Our sponsor this time is

 

DI'S DIGISSTAMPS

I love the look of monochromatic cards so I was very happy with Ginny's choice.

The image I have used is Three chilly polar bears, coloured with Copic markers and fussy cut.

The background panel with the sentiment was recycled from gift card packaging and placed onto a panel of design paper and embossed 'snow'. I've added some glittery silver die cut trees.

Don't forget to check out the fabulous inspiration over at Crafty Catz- hope you can play along this fortnight.

Chris

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Challenge entries:

asyoulikeit colourful or monochrome. Difficult to choose a favourite as both have their own appeal, but I always like the look of monochrome.

CRAFT #711

hollyandivy #158

dreamvalley #311

CCAYR March Challenge

craftyanimals #81

MLCCB #55

POE Christmas #59

Spring Chickens

 Good morning, first Sunday of the month means it's time for a new challenge at

  Stamping Sensations.

This month the optional theme is Spring, sponsored by AALL & CREATE.

My first thought was to create a floral card with beautiful spring flowers but I'm not very good at those so I decided to trawl through my stamp collection hoping for inspiration to strike... these crazy chickens 'sprang' out at me. They are Paper Artsy stamps,  I bought this pre-loved set from Ebay a while ago and promptly forgot about them in the furore of finishing off Christmas cards. I made the background during a session with splatter stamps, fun but lots of mess to clear up so I made several at the same time. I stamped the chickens on the splat coloured their legs and feet with watercolour pens, then stamped them onto white card, coloured and paper pieced them. I drew their springs with a line marker and white gel pen. I used a very old peg stamp alphabet to stamp Spring Chickens. The border is coloured with markers.

Hop over to Stamping Sensations for some wonderful inspiration, all the details of how to enter and the lovely prizes on offer this month, hope to see you join in this month.

Chris

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Challenge entries:

allsorts #770

MTTC #528

kraftychicks #705

paperfunday #62

critter crazy #84

FQGSCB #13

thefourseasons March Challenge

March Challenge at Crafty Calendar

 Good morning- March has arrived- yay!!! I know we can still get wintery weather in the UK (and often do) but for me the arrival of March means that spring is almost here- warmer, brighter, longer days, such a relief after the dreary dark days of the beginning of the year. It will be so nice when the ground dries up a bit and we're not sloshing around in mud taking Marvin for his walks- he doesn't care one jot about how muddy it is, how cold or wet but hosing him down twice a day does get a bit tedious! Fortunately he doesn't object in the slightest to being vigorously 'outdoor showered', just lifts his legs obligingly so we can reach the muddiest bits! Then comes the battle over the towels, they're his so he thinks it's fine to drag them around in the puddles if he so wishes! Then peace for a while as he snuggles up to the radiator to dry off and re charge his batteries ready for the next walk...it doesn't take him long.

Anyway, I've waffled on for long enough so onto today's card. It's my DT make for this month's challenge at Crafty Calendar which begins today. We're sponsored by Lawn Fawn with a lovely prize for our lucky winner, the theme is MORE THAN ONE FOLD.

I made this Tuxedo fold card a while ago for a friend's birthday, she's a very bubbly lady who loves bright happy colours and CAKE. She was very happy with this card. I used a mixture of balloon, number and alphabet dies from various companies, the cake is a Bugaboo digi.

Please check out the challenge blog for some great inspiration from the rest of the team.

Thanks for visiting and have a super weekend.

Chris

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Challenge entries:

creative-creases #77

kraftychicks #705

mmmchallenge #220

2sistersontheblog #84

cutitup #298

I spy #12 (balloons, banner, birthday cake)

thesisterhoodofcrafters dots/stripes

die-cut-divas March Challenge