Basic Grey Challenges Cold and Frosty

Morning and a Happy Saturday to you.  Can't believe that this time last week we woke up in sunny and warm San Francisco ready for our  journey home!  It's certainly cold and frosty here compared to San Fran!  Apparently it's their rainy season now but we didn't see a drop -  just lovely clear skies and warm, sunny days.  Quite funny looking at all their Christmas decorations in the sun! 

On to today's card and it's for our new challenge at Basic Grey Challenges where we have a theme of Cold and Frosty for you.  I struggled this week, what with jet lag, a heavy cold and being busy  at work, so decided to use one of the ready coloured images from a Lili of the Valley Christmas Art Pad. For me colouring an image is usually a big part of my card making, so I felt I was cheating (myself) but you know, I still put in a fair amount of time making the card.  

I also decided to kick off the frosty theme by covering the image with some transparent stardust embossing powder and I don't know if I'd have had the courage to do that if I'd spent a couple of hours colouring the image!  Especially as you get this effect where the image becomes very soft and muted - good for hiding any colouring mistakes though!

 

I cut out the card blank and frames with Go Kreate Frilly dies and then stardust embossed one of the frames which I then layered onto Basic Grey Lime Rickey Blue Moon 12x12 papers. I then added some clear twinkly embossing powder to the tree, deer fence and stars, and also over the sentiment to complete the cold and frosty vibe. The sentiment is from Cat's Life Press, and the various dies are Tim Holtz, Marianne and Whiff of Joy.  The chiffon roses are from the Hobby House. 

As always, our terrific sponsor is Simon Says Stamp who are again offering their very generous prize of a $25 dollar voucher to the lucky winner of the challenge.

Check out the rest of the Cold and Frosty fab makes from the rest of the BG DT here!

I've got a bit of shopping to do today, a bit of cardmaking, a lot of tidying up to do in my craft room and a lot of eagerly waiting for my youngest, Emily who returns from her three months travelling around Europe tomorrow!  Can't wait to see her and give her the biggest hug!

Howdy Y'all - SNS Challenge 112 - Distressing

Well, Howdy to y'all!  We  have a new challenge starting today at Sketch N Stash,  and it was my turn to choose the optional theme to go with the sketch below, so I chose Distressing.

I've used this rootin' tootin' cutie from Mo's Digital Pencil called Howdy which you can find here.  I've coloured her with Pro and Flexmarkers and layered her up with some My Mind's Eye Howdy Doody papers which even match in name!!  The papers are the item that have been in my stash for a while.

I also added some chicken wire edging around the image and over one of the mats for that extra country feel!  The star banner is a Whiff of Joy Die, and the scrabble tiles, I managed to track down in WH Smith of  all places just before Christmas.

Crafty Individuals are our wonderful sponsors for this fortnight's challenge and you can see a pic of their brilliant prize just below

Take a peek here for the rest of the SNS team's fabulous creations for this challenge.
Hope you have a good week - at least we finally  had some gorgeous sunshine over the weekend!

Whiff of Joy Challenges - Celebrations

Well,  look at me posting three days in a row - don't worry it won't last!

We have a new challenge starting at Whiff of Joy Challenges today where we have a theme of Celebration so it could be a birthday, an anniversary or just celebrating the new year!

As you can see, I've gone with birthday and I've used Maya Watching a Ladybug which is such a cutie.

I've coloured her with my Pro and Flexmarkers including the new colours that came out recently!  ( I purchased them from Angelcrafts who had such a good deal on them and also gave great service, no connection just a happy customer!)  As you can see, I also used the fabulous Tied Together embossing folder, papers from Bazil Basics, called I think Vintage, and the majority of my flowerw were from Wild Orchid Crafts. 

Our sponsor for this challenge is Whiff of Joy themselves, with a fab 15% discount on their next order for the lucky winner! Don't forget to check out the rest of the makes from the fabulous challenge team at Whiff of Joy here.

I'm back to work proper today, be good to get back into the normal routine again, I suppose!!

Hope you enjoy your day.

Whiff of Joy Challenge - A Pic to inspire you!

Morning! It's time for our new challenge at Whiff of Joy this week and can I just say, it was fabulous to see so many people joining in with the last challenge!  We have a gorgeous wintery photo for you to use as inspiration this week so hope we continue to see lots of awesome cards again!

I've used one of my favourite WOJ gnome images and guess what, yep, more embossing powder!  I've used it on the wreath, the white and blue tree, and the icicle strip.  This time, it was Stampendust Stardust transparent.  My trees are a mixture Tim Holtz and Marianne dies and the sentiment is from Lili of the Valley.           For the larger tree and the tree border at the back, I used white core paper and sanded off the edges for that snow effect.  I also love my new Tim Holtz Tree border die!

Our sponsor for this challenge is Whiff of Joy with a fabulous prize of 15% off your next order from the Whiff of Joy store!!!
 

You can see the rest of my teamies' awesome cards here!

Brown and White Whiff of Joy new challenge

This card is for the latest challenge at Whiff of Joy Challenges and we have a colour theme for you of Brown and White.

I've used this gorgeous  Norma Frickel gnome called From Heaven Above and I've gone with some heat embossing, including the image, using a copper coloured powder.   You can just make out the sheen in the pic below.  I then decided to heat emboss her hair which I kind of like. Her wings are embossed with a gold embossing powder although my pic doesn't really pic up the glittery effect.

The frame of snowflakes behind her was stamped (and embossed!) with a Martha Stewart Stamp around the page set.  The papers are My Mind's Eye and the Silent Night sentiment is from the new Christmas Grungy sentiments from Lili of the Valley

Our sponsor for this challenge is the fabulous Simon Says Stamp with an awesome $25 dollar voucher going to one lucky entrant!

I'm off to work now but need to get dressed first! Don't forget to check out the creations of my fabby WOJ teamies - they're gorgeous!! Have a lovely day whatever you're up to! 

Whiff of Joy DT card - Sketch!

Hello peeps, it's time for another challenge and another Christmas card! This card is for our new challenge at    Whiff of Joy Challenges and we have a fabulous sketch by our fabulous Kathrin!  And yet.....I had to play about with it didn't I and why?....because I had new toys and I was desperate to use them in this card.  And you know what else, you can barely see them!

So, the original sketch is below and my twisted, rotated and flip version is below that!

Hopefully you can just make out the sketch now me having spelt it out!  If not, I offer my deepest apologies to you Kathrin, for totally changing your perfectly fabulous original!!

Any way, this little lad has done nothing  wrong and is called Christmas Treasure ( to be found here).

My new toys are these fabulous Memory Box border dies - Pine trees and Country Landscape - a close up below just to show you!

I've also used some Marianne Fir tree dies for the slanted layer, and two more MB dies Frostyville border and the holly leaves with some stickles for the berries. The papers are My Mind's Eye Signature Christmas and the sentiment was a magazine freebie.

Well, hope you like it and hope you can see the sketch - I'd love to see your interpretations of it  so hope you will play along.  And if you want to see some truer versions of it, check the rest of the awesome DT cards here!  And, don't forget that we have  our regular sponsor,  Simon Says Stamp, with a fabulous $25 credit voucher for the Simon Says Stamp store!  

Thanks for popping in and I do hope you'll sign up for my candy, I already have something else to add but will wait for it to arrive until I show you what it is!!!

Whiff of Joy - White on White

 Well look at this, two Christmas cards in a row - I'm on  a roll!! This is for our next challenge at Whiff of Joy Challenges where the theme of White on White suits Christmas cards perfectly! I've coloured up this little lovely from last year's Christmas Collection and then layered her up on some icicle and snow  embossed paper. There's also a Memory Box Frosty border in there and a Martha Stewart Pine Needle punch round the edge.

 I followed the sketch over at Sketch Saturday which was a nice clean one - nice to enter into a challenge too, I never seem to have the time to do this!

 

 In the pic above you can just make out the Crystal Glamour Dust that I added to the tinsel in her hair and her belt.  I also added some Viva Decor pearl drops and Glamour Dust round the image.

 

The sentiment is also from the Whiff of Joy  Christmas set and the diamante drops and ribbon are from stash.

This fortnight, our fabulous sponsor is  Whiff of Joy themselves and there is a fabby 15% off for the lucky winner!

 

Check out the awesome creations by the WOJ girlies here - they're beautiful!  I do hope that you'll be inspired to play along!

I've got this week off work and it's been lovely so far. Son's birthday on Monday, my youngest home from a holiday with a friend and family yesterday, and today I'm off for a day of crafting with best matey, Lesley.  Thursday we're off to the Olympic Park for the day, and Friday has some retail therapy ear-marked in!

 

Whiff of Joy Brads or Eyelets

Morning bloggers -  time for a new challenge at Whiff of Joy Challenges and a nice easy one for you - we want you to use Brads or Eyelets, of course, remembering to use a Whiff of Joy image. This little lovely is Fall Willow Catching Leaves and she's on special offer at Whiff of Joy at the minute - half price!!!

The tree frame is a gorgeous Memory Box die and the little basket die is a Marianne one.  The grass is actually a  Whiff of Joy die - a fairly recent purchase!! The sentiment is PaperTreyInk.

We're back with Simon Says Stamp sponsoring us this fortnight and a fabulous $25 dollar  credit voucher on offer to spend with them if you're the lucky winner.



 

Ooh I do hope you'll join us as we want to see more of your gorgeous Whiff of Joy makes!  Pop over here if you'd like to see the DT ladies' beautiful creations!!

Whiff of Joy Sketch and bright colour alert!!

Have you been blinded by the colours on my card?  Think I went a bit overboard with the primary colours on this card for the new challenge over at Whiff of Joy Challenges!  We have a fabulous sketch for you too, designed by our awesome Karina, great sketch to work to.

I've used a new WOJ image called Maya Watching a Ladybug, she is just so cute!!!  I've layered her up slightly onto another stamped image - only because I thought I'd add some clouds using a template mask that I have - and my clouds ended up blue with the sky white -DOH!!!  So cut her out and started again!  My colour scheme was inspired by  the little retro image in the centre of my flower.  This came from a teeny  pack of playing cards with this picture on the back.  My papers are from a variety of October Afternoon pads, including I thinkg 5 and Dime and Thrift store.

The grass is a Whiff of Joy die and the Picket Fence, a Tim Holtz die.  The little flower tag is PaperTreyInk and the sentiment Stampin Up. 

My teamies at WOJ Challenges have made some stunning cards to share with you so check them out here!  And I do hope you will be tempted to play along with us at Whiff of Joy - our sponsor this fortnight is the brilliant Simon Says Stamp with a $25 dollar voucher available to the lucky winner!

You can take your sunnies off now!!