Crafts 4 Eternity Challenge

As I said yesterday one of the teachers at the school had asked me to make two cards for her. My instructions for the birthday card was it for a male and something cheeky or cute. As I did cute for the 'thinking of ewe' card thought I would do cheeky for this one. Here is the second one.

The layout and recipe came from Crafts 4 Eternity challenge - Recipe 17. My image is a freebie image from Cuddly Buddly that one of my crafting friends passed on to me and which I coloured in with copic pens. The papers are from Bo Bunny's 'U bug me! dot' and 'Orange Citrus Dot' both are back to back papers.

The final ingredient in the recipe was some brackets. My brackets are the photo corners done in copper shiny card. Finishing off with a peel off 'Happy Birthday' sentiment.

Thanks for popping by.

Countdown to a New Challenge on the Block

Just to let you know that there is a new challenge on the block. Pop over to A Gem of A Challenge. It is a monthly challenge and will start on the 8th of every month.

Some of the challenge rules are

- any number of entries but they must include a Pink Gem design.

- it can be a card, box, bag or any papercraft

- use Mr Linky to link it to your project not your blog.

- use only new creations.

If you are lucky enough to win the challenge, the prize is two Pink Gem Design stamps (subject to availiability.

Why not pop over and have a look for yourself and while you are there become a follower.

Thanks for popping by.

Thinking of Ewe

One of the teachers at school asked if I would do a couple of cards for her. Here is the first one, the second one still has to be made. Her instructions for the first card were that the sentiment had to be 'thinking of you' and that the image had to be cute. So I think I have ticked both the boxes. The stamped image, is a new one for me, from Pink Gem Designs, which I coloured with a couple of copic pens. With this image, the sentiment could only be 'thinking of ewe'. The paper were a set of freebie papers from one of my crafting magazines.

I have entered the card into Sunday Sketch and Stamp's fortnightly challenge. The only stipulations for their challenges is that you use either a digital or traditional stamped image and that they can recognise the original sketch.

Thanks for popping by.

Sugarplum Spring Candy

Kellie has some fabulous candy on offer. All you have to do is post a photo of the candy on your blog and link it to Kellie's blog. On Kellie's blog using Mr Linky make a link to the candy post.

If you are a bit confused, Kellie has a full set of instructions in her post. If I am not lucky to win I hope some one who found it candy through me is lucky.

Thanks for popping by.

Tilly for a Grand-daughter

After waiting 29 years the owner of the school where I work, has another girl in the family, a grand-daughter called Mai. Needless to say it looks like grandma is going to spoil Mai rotten.

I thought I would do a card for to celebrate the occasion and combine it with a challenge. The challenge is taking place over at Stampin' for the Weekend. The only stipulation for their challenges is that you must use either a stamped or digi stamped image. I opted for a digital stamp from Digistamp Boutique called Tilly and coloured her with copic pens. For the various mats, two of which I rounded off the corners came from BoBunny's Ella range. For the floral emblemishments I punch out two sizes of flowers .

PS - On Thursday while checking up on the blogs that I follow I came across a challenge of Simon Says which I can use the Tilly card for.

Oh and by the way gave my boss the card this morning and she was chuffed to bit, saying it will go into the album she is making.

Thanks for popping by.

Yesterday's Card, Another Challenge

I entered yesterday's card into another challenge today which I came across whilst looking for inspiration for a couple of cards that I have to do.

When I saw the colour scheme for The Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge I knew knew the colours of yesterday's card were just right.

At least I have found some inspiration for the cards I have to do so do drop in in a couple of days to see the results of today's hunting.

Thanks for popping by.

A Birthday and Two Challenges

Now that things have quietened down after last week's debacle, I got my first February birthday card done, one of my gal pal's daughter and decided to include it in two challenges - Get Funky and Sketch Saturday.

The cardstock is all from Funky Hand and the image is from Funky Fairy which was coloured using copic pens. For the ribbon I used from gift ribbon and stamped the birthday greeting. Punched photo corners using an EK corner punch.

Thanks for popping by.

Haggis Hunting

After finishing the 'Will You Be My Cupcake' card had planned to get a couple of cards made to send home for February's birthdays, but things in the Palace took a turn for the worse and causing me not end of stress.

It all started last Monday when Billy asked me to check if the haggis which I had ordered for Awali Callies Burns Supper had arrived at the hotel. I check the carrier's website only to find that the haggis shipment was on hold. When I phoned up to ask why, and after several phone calls I was told that haggis was banned as it was beef product and that all beef products from the UK/EU was banned due to mad cow disease. I explained that we had always brought it in for Burns Night and that we could buy the same haggis on the island but I couldn't get the quantities that I needed on island. I was advised to go the carrier's office and they would take me to Customs and see if I could get it out.

So off I toddled to Customs, only to be told that yes I could get it but we couldn't use it as a detention order had been put on it.

After many telephone calls we were told that the haggis would have to be destroyed. So here we were with the prospect of having a Burns Supper without no haggis. But we Scots are a resourceful bunch and we managed to get enough haggis from various sources to serve up haggis at the Burns Supper on Friday night.

And, Yes, we had a great Burns Supper, now the fight starts to get the detained haggis out of detention.

Thanks for popping by.

Will You Be My Cupcake

One of the girls at work asked for a card for Valentines Day, the only instruction was it had to be cute.

Had planned to use an image I had picked up at school until I got a delivery from home of goodies that I had ordered when I was home at Christmas. The first parcel I opened was a Hello Kitty Valentines Decoupage kit and knew that I had to change my original design.

Made a DL card using white cardstock. For the bottom mat used some matching blue cardstock that I had in my box, then used the pink and white sheet from the kit. For the cake ribbon used the ribbon strip from the kit and matted it onto the same blue cardstock that I used for the bottom layer, finishing off with the Hello Kitty image decoupaging the speech bubble and Kitty.

Thanks for popping by.

Lazy Cardmaking

Over the last couple of days have taken the lazy route to cardmaking - using a kit. This kit is by Basic Grey and called Nook and Pantry and makes 8 cards. Although it might seems a lazy and uninspired way of making cards, but it is a good way to build up a stash of cards to fit most occasions.

Thanks for popping by.

January's Birthdays Finished

January is a fairly quiet month on the birthday front so a fairly easy month to ease me back into making cards after all the rushing about getting organised for going home to Scotland, Christmas shopping and all the other chrismassy things one gets to do.

While looking for some inspiration for my aunt's card I swithered between two challenges, Sketch and Stash and Sketch Saturday. As I plumped for Sketch and Stash's sketch for my aunt's card I thought I would still use Sketch Satuday's sketch for my last birthday for January.

As I still hadn't put away the bits of cardstock that I used for my aunt's card I thought I would use it for this card. The cardstock is BoBunny's Alissa Spunky and Alissa Twirls. The image is another Indadinkado stamp, this time from a clear stamp set, Doodle Flowers and coloured in again with copic pens. The sentiment being a peel-off and the buttons and ribbon from my stash.

Thanks for popping by.

A January Birthday into a Challenge

I find it hard to make a card for a fellow cardmaker and this one more so as it is my aunt. Decided to have a search of the challenge blogs that I follow for some inspiration and Sketch and Stash's Challenge 26 seemed to fit the bill. What caught my eye was the embellishment at the right hand side and as one of the criteria for any of Sketch and Stash's challenges, I knew exactly what I would use. I had bought some buttons when I was home at christmas, I think inspired by Charles Rennie MacIntosh and which were hand made by women in South Africa. You can see the range of their work at Incomparable Buttons.

For the image, I had a look through my stamps and found out which seemed to fit into the Charles Rennie MacIntosh style from Inkadinkado, colouring in the image with copic pens. Using a rectangle and scalloped rectangle nestability cut out the image and the backing mat for the image. The black mats are BoBunny's Alissa Twirls and the bluish green mat is again BoBunny but Alissa Spunky.

The final touches were a sentiment printed on the computer and matted onto the black cardstock and three black gems.

I just hope that my aunt likes it. No doubt she will examine it closely to see how I put it together.

Thanks for popping by.

First of January's Birthdays

This morning woken early, and I mean early - 4am - and couldn't get back to sleep. So got up and with a cup of tea in hand headed for the craft table. Made a start on the card for the next January birthday, our good friend Dan over in Saudi.

The papers I used were a recent purchase from Funky Fairy before she closed the shop, from the range - More For The Men. The image was a freebie from Cuddly Buddly that a crafting buddy forwarded on to me.

For the image I brought out my copic pens and added a wee bit of colour. Then cut out the circle using one of the nestabilities circles. To make the topper I used two different circles, one a plain circle the next size up from the one I used for the image, and the second one was the inverted scalloped circle.

For the mats I used two of the sheets which I had printed off from Funky Fairy. The ribbon effect strip across the card was made from another two sheets from Funky Fairy.

Later on in the morning met up with my Bahrain crafting buddy, Linda and Norma, Linda's crafting buddy from the UK who is out on holiday, at our favourite crafting and coffee shop. After tea and cake we had a wee bit of retail therapy.

Thanks for popping by.

Shaun the Sheep freebies

When I was home for christmas took the opportunity of buying a couple magazines that I don't normally get. One was Let's Make Cards! - Shaun The Sheep Special. Have spent the last couple of days making cards following the instructions. Couldn't believe that I would have got 20 cards out of the kits, plus there is still quite a bit of bits left over.

Although the cards are not my own designs, well two are my own, following the instructions, especially for some of the uncommon card folds has given me the inspiration to use the folds when I am using stuff my stash. And like all crafters, stash is something that I have a lot of, hehe.

Thanks for popping by.

Crafting afternoon

Having recovered from the New Year celebrations, I decided to tidy up my crafting area and put away all the things that I had brought back with me. One of the things I brough back was a kit from Craft Creatives that my eldest daughter, Tara, had given me. She had bought to have a go at cardmaking but then changed her mind.

Once I got all the goodies put away, took out the kit and made a start, following most of the layouts as shown. The components were in the kit all I added the foam pads to give dimension.

Hope that this start to my 2010 year of cardmaking continues.

Thanks for popping by.

Happy New Year

Just want to wish everyone a happy 2010. As usual Christmas was spent at home in Scotland with the family and we brought in the New Year in Bahrain. This year we brought the new year in at the Fire and Ice Ball at the Diplomat Hotel, with good food, refreshements and company.

Thanks for popping by.