I am a winner wahoo!

wahoo....
I won the Sketch Saturday challenge #300  here! with my lovely black, white and silver easel card

The sponsor of the challenge was "Simon Says Stamp" who generously gave $25 prize of goods from their

I chose this Penny Black cling stamp with my winnings (including $14.99 postage)

I just can't wait for this cute stamp to arrive all the way fom Ohio USA, I so love these Penny Black bears

A big Thank You to Simon Says Stamp and the Sketch Saturday challenge

Thanks for Visiting
enjoy your day
Love Crafteresa xx

NAVY BLUE EASEL CARD, when I pray!

I've been playing with some of my birthday pressies this weekend. I've created a card using my new 6x6 pad of papers,    I love the navy blue and creamy colours and the different pretty floral patterns in this pad.  It's the Papermania Capsule Collection The 6x6 size is scaled down so it's fabulous for card making.

So here's the easel card I made using these papers

Unfortunately my lovely navy blue card has photographed a lot darker than it actually is :o( 

on my monitor it looks black GASP! 

Anyhow, that's the front of my card, the scripture is a rubber stamp from Our Daily Bread Designs and the praying hands were cut from a Sizzix thinlet die, I have used this die so many times, it's become an old friend! I used Promakers to add some shading  and some faux pearls to accent the frame. 

Here's the inside of the card.....

I also played with my Serif Page Plus program on my laptop and produced a cicular sentiment for the inside of my card using part of a scripture from Micah 7;7

I am so pleased with this card I am gonna make some similar cards using the same dies but different papers and colour themes just for fun and to see how differently they look!

I'm entering a few challenges

click on the name below!

Word At Wednesday

Crazy 4 Challenges

The Stamping Boutique

Just For Fun

Picture and Scrap

Country View Challenges

Sister Act Card Challenge

Talking of Healing..

I have been challenged lately as to what I really believe about healing! I find it's so easy to believe God will heal the friends I pray for and even folk I don't know, I have seen it happen! 

But when it comes to myself and my personal need for healing I am not so sure, maybe it's the pain that overtakes my thoughts, or just simply doubt that diminishes my faith? I don't know ?

But what I do know is that God is true to His word and I have to hold on to that in the battle I am in! 

Back To My Card...

For this card I have used 2 new dies from 2 new sets I had for my birthday.

Here's the fabulous Umbria set from the Italian collection, Creative Expressions by Sue Wilson.

I fell in love with this as soon as I saw it, think I will be using this beautiful die set a lot! Creative Expressions by Sue Wilson is a new company to me I love the size of the dies.

I also bought the Creative Expressions filigree bow die set also by Sue Wilson 

but only used the lacy strip die from this set on my card. 

Tonic Studio 

Then I used dies from a very practical set of circle dies,.. The scalloped circle layering dies from Tonic Studios. The set has 14 dies in it so it was a no brainer to get this set with my birthday money! 

I had some beautiful tattered lace dies fo my birthday too but that's another post!!!

Thanks for Visiting today,
have a great week
Love Crafteresa xx

50+1 today! it's MY day!

Today it's my day. I'm gonna eat cake...lots of it, I am gonna play with my new dies and make a mess being creative. Gonna enjoy my cell group getting into the word of God this morning, and have lots of fun at the church craft group this afternoon. Gonna chat and share family love with my son Matthew, daughter in law Micheala, and grandson  Ethan on the phone. Gonna be blessed today and let that blessing permeate every part, every fibre of my being.

My heart will sing  "it is well with my soul"

Gonna bless others today too. it's not a selfish day....

it's my birthday! 

gonna spend some quality time with my Kev today. When I finally get to bed and feel myself falling asleep I am gonna still be smiling a cheesy grin from ear to ear, thanking my God for all He is to me and for the many blessing He showers upon me. Then I will blow a raspberry at the devil for all he is NOT. 

oh yes, today is my day, 

my 50+1 day 

and I am gonna enjoy it, 

Thank You Lord

Thanks for Visiting
enjoy your day too!
Love Crafteresa

Sweet Blossom Whimsy Centre Step Card spring is here!

Hello everyone, it's a beautiful day here in Lancashire, the sun is shining and it feels like spring is finally here.
I have a busy week ahead and its my birthday tomorrow so I am just trying to relax today and enjoy being creative while I have the opportunity!
I have made another centre step card. I really love this card shape, it adds a lovely 3D dimension to cards without taking forever to create, and most people who don't make cards think it's so special!

Today I used one of my favourite Whimsy stamps "Sweet Blossom" by Sylvia Zet. This sweet girl image with her pretty flowers really reminds me of the joys of spring when the flowers are blooming and the sun is shining, everyone seems to feel better in spring. Isn't she just so super cute with her little teddy bear!.

Iused my Promarkers to colour the image and then I raided my stash of patterned papers to cover the front of the card. I then added some punched flowers and some pretty gem centres. I wanted to create a card where the image speaks for itself... I didnt want to over do it with embellishments as this card is for a lovely young girl who celebrates her 7th birthday next week, I think she will like it!

I was blog hopping this morning and found a lovely card which had been entered into more than 25 challenges! The card was really gorgeous but I don't want to go that far! I have found quite a few challenges today though that I had not heard of before. therefore I am entering this into a few more challenges than usual, but only 9! I wanna stay within the rules LOL
Here are the links to the challenge blogs I have entered this card into....
(click on challenge name)

Penny Black and More  (So Sweet)
Crafty Hazelnuts   (Anything goes +patterned paper covered card)
V'S Sweet ideas  (Kids theme)
Natalie and Amy  (Flowers)
Sister Act   (Any)
Ribbon Girl   (Birthday)
Sweet Stampin   (Cute)
Crafty Catz   (Anything Goes)
Deep Ocean  (Just for a Girl)







Thanks for Visiting enjoy your day
Love Crafteresa

Team Teddy centre step card

Today I want to show you a centre step card! Thanks to Brenda I have been thinking for nearly a week about what my "favourites" are in card making.

I wanted to enter her blog candy challenge, it's her 5th bloggerversary celebration (congratulations Brenda! what an achievement!) so this talented and generous papercrafter has put some Spellbinders dies up for prizes on her  Floral Fantasies blog,  here's the link To enter Brenda's Spellbinders candy challenge we are asked to use our all time crafting favourite item to create something new for the challenge.
My problem is that I have a lot of favourites! LOL

Here on this card is one of my all time favourite range of teddy bear stamps.  Anyone could tell you that I love my teddy bear stamps. I have a number of rubber stamps from different collections, I love the Forever Friends range,  I have a few PSX teddy stamps and some Funstamps teds too, I just love teddies! But my all time favourite has to be Rambling Ted and the more recent similar Team Teddy range by Penny Black
this stamped image is part of the Team Teddy bear stamp 398K
I have also used my very favourite papers which are from an A4 pad (front page missing so dont know the name of it) there are many different scaled rose patterned prints in either blue or pink and some checked papers too its so pretty.

I used my favourite flower stamp too it's a rose by Penny Black which is very well used and has been since I started card making,. This stamp was one of the very first rubber stamps I bought. back in 1990's

As I got into the flow of thinking "favourites" I used my present favourite card shape  too which is a centre step card. I think I have hit the favourite spot with every element!  so here's hoping for a prize!!! it would make a great pressie for my birthday next week!

As this is another Penny Black stamped image I am entering this card to the Penny Black and More Challenge HERE as a 2nd entry. They they ask us to add some sparkle! so I blinged it up with lovely AB clear gems, I love the way they sparkle with hints of rainbow colours.
I have so enjoyed myself today, my teds always make me smile!


Thanks for Looking
please leave a comment

Love Cafteresa xx

Rambling Ted again and again!

Getting back into card making after all this time hasn't been as easy as I expected, The biggest problem is that I have become quite indecisive...I found it hard to decide what to do once an image had been coloured (I use Promarkers mostly). So I had the brain-wave to look at some of the cards which I made back in 2011-12, and use them as layout inspiration until I get back into the flow!

so here's the card I shared back in august 2012...

I have always loved my Rambling Ted rubber stamps by Penny Black, 343J "Bunches of Wishes"

is the one used for these cards. I love the feel of this card with its pretty pink and brown colour combo, so I copied it! I didnt have the same papers and used a different die to create this card...

I am not very pleased with the sentiment. the banner backgound should have been a bit lighter

but I am quite pleased to actually create a cards!!!

I had stamped and coloured this image four times so now I felt ready to attempt something a little different but loosely based on the same layout. I wanted to enter a challenge, after all my confidence was growing and I needed the practice! I found the Penny Black and More Challenge" Blog   their February challenge is "Make it Sparkle" which was just right for my card

The sparkle was added to my card by using stick on gems to the image flower centres, the prima flower centres and the little banner which was cut using a Sizzix die, I finished the card off by using guipure lace at the top. here's a close up...

 I like the gentle feminine feel of this card, but anyone who knows me will know I love pretty and cute!  I have enjoyed myself and feel eager to create some more cards.

thanks for visiting, please leave a comment ;o)

Westie and Scottie dogs first cuts

I finally found a little space to play with my Quickutz dog die and boy did I have fun!!!
I made the white ones first in honour of our Lulu our Westie. Lula has a selection of Bandannas so I made a template to create the ones on these dogs! I just can't decide which way round I like it best as she wears them both ways and looks mega cute whichever way around. Our Lulu wears pink ones but I want to sell these on eBay so I gave them a classic tartan look! I made some black Scottie dogs too;0)
What do you think?

My New Fabulous Die

I know its a little late but...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I have had a break from blogging mainly due to health problems and general extreme busy - ness over Christmas so please excuse my absence. 

I can't get anywhere near my craft area at the moment as we have been having a clearout and guess where Kev has stored some "work in progress boxes?" yep right where I don't want them to be..... filling up my tiny craft area gggrrrrrrrrrrr ;o( But unfortunately I have no-where to move them to yet while we continue in our attempt to make more room in this tiny cramped little flat. This re-organizing is causing me a lot of frustration as I really want to play with some of my new dies I had for Christmas, especially this one.....

It's a Quickutz Revolution die and when I opened it I was shocked at how big it is. Whenever I think of Quickutz dies I think of those tiny little ones they are famous for. So the size of this die is a real surprise! This lovely image is on a 4"x4" metal plate and the actual dog will cut at approx 3.5" x 3" which is a fabulous size for card making and scrapbooking, One of the reasons that I am so thrilled with this Christmas gift in particular is that I am the proud owner of LULU.....

 

She is our adorable West Higland Terrier, and the most character-full dog I have ever known.

I can't wait to try this die using white or ivory card to see how much it resembles her. I may have to use a bit of colour and add a few hair stokes! but I think it will be super cool to send birthday cards to our friends who know Lulu with her image on the front.