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

JOYFUL LAMB BAPTISM CARDS

We had baptisms in the afternoon at church this Sunday, so it was an extremely busy and tiring day with a service in the morning too and food etc to prepare, but I wouldn't miss a baptism at our church for anything even when I feel so weak and useless as I did yesterday. But at least I had a good reason to make some cards over the weekend LOL

My friend Angeline asked me to make 3 cards for her. The first one was for a male baptism candidate so no bling on this one! I like the texture on this card which was achieved using a Cuttlebug embossing folder...

I used an old rubber stamp by Stampendous (1994) of a very joyful leaping lamb for all three cards. I started with this image and the three cards kind of evolved from there! I cut a template for the clouds from scrap card and sponged the sky with china blue distress ink, the grass was created with a little grass stamp and distress inks, I used my Promarkers to colour the rest of the image and I used a Zig fine pen to create the flying birds.

For this one I used one of my my Marrianne Design Anja oval dies for the background and a punched cross which I added clear gems to, I was gonna add gems to the background but it just didn't look right. Each of the cards had the same computer generated sentiment.

I used my Martha Stewart lace border punch for this one and added some bling, think I will use this layout a lot in future its simple but effective. All three cards were based on a folded A5 white hammer card blank, 

I chose blues and aqua colours on each card (I had water on my mind LOL) 

I love the way each one turned out a little different but had the same image, that's a bit like the three people who were baptised, each of them were individual very different people but they had all found the same God, all filled with joy and so blessed at their baptism. I havent felt well for some time and struggled yesterday with a real lack of strength which to be honest really got to me. but I wouldn't have missed this baptism for anything, it was well worth the extra effort to see how God changes peoples lives.

CHALLENGES

I have entered these cards in the following challenges, although they are very simple cards some of them still meet the criteria, I will share the cards I made for kev and I to give in the next post

SOUTHERN GIRLS CHALLENGE  #56 Animal Crackers

BROWN SUGAR CHALLENGE  #13Anything Goes

FUSSY AND FANCY CHALLENGE  #74 Anything Goes

STAMPIN' FOR THE WEEKEND CHALLENGE  #20 Anything Goes

DO YA STACK UP CHALLENGE #95 Embossing (entering the first card which is embossed)

PSX Botanicals Pansy

I used my PSX Botanicals Pansy stamp this afternoon to create another centre step card. I am so pleased with the finished card, it turned out even better than I imagined. so why don't I use this image more often I ask myself? I love my PSX Botanical stamps, most of them were a gift from mother,

I am entering this card into some challenges.....

CREATIVE CARD CREW Purple! errr yes theres plenty of purple ;o)

CUTE CARD THURSDAY Lotsa Ribbon! I have a large bow plus ribbon under the licalc braid ;o)

PAPERTAKE WEEKLY Anything Goes! Happy 5th Birthday Papertake \o/

CHARISMA CARDZ Badda bling! yes I have clear ab gems blinging on the image and the sentiment ;o)

click on the underlined title to go to the 

I layered the pansy image decoupage style once I had coloured it with Promarkers, the wonderful thing about this pansy image is the multitude of different ways to colour it as pansy's come in an array of colours. The photographs do nut display the purple coloured background as the actual colour it is! it seems a lot more blue than the mauvey purple it really is!

Centre Step Card Penny Black Primp Cat

Hello everyone from a cold and wet seaside town in North West England brrrrrrr. Well there's always something to be thankful for........I dont live near a flooded river and at least I have something to do when the weather is too yuk to go out :o)

I have been looking at different card shapes and having a go at my own take on them. So this week I made a centre step card. I found it quite easy to make, it just consists of two cuts and some measured scoring. Then its up to you how to decorate it with papers etc. I did however, make up my own measurements so that it fitted into a 6"x6" envelope and so that the framed image fitted nicely in the centre of the card. 

I am entering this card into the following challenges....

CHARISMA CARDZ Badda bling challenge

STAMPIN' FOR THE WEEKEND Feeling Floral challenge

PAPERTAKE WEEKLY Anything Goes 

(click on the pink challenge name to go to their blogs)

I needed to make a card anyway as I had been asked to make a card for the daughter of a friend.

The birthday girl is an excellent card maker so no pressure there then LOL.

 The stamp I used is by Penny Black, 3965k "Primp" I coloured it with Promarkers then 3D decoupaged some of the image, (paws, ribbon, mirror, perfume). I added some clear AB gems to the pin tops, mirror, perfume bottle and to the name on the sentiment to bling it up.

I love the colour combo of black and white with a touch of another colour like pink here or perhaps lime green. the lovely backing papers are by Papermania. The frame is by spellbinders, I had to cut off the heart at top and bottom so that it would fit into position. I finished off the card with flowers, ribbons and a couple of pale pink pearls. I have a sentiment stamped inside the card but didn't take a photo before I delivered it. duh!!!

Looking at the photo's now I wish I had added a couple more of the punched flowers to the sides or perhaps small butterflies but I am pleased with how this turned out and so was my friend!I think I may try a side step card next but I have to say it does look a lot more fiddly to cut/score! all advice appreciated!

Thanks for looking!

black and white cat easel card

A friend had a birthday this week, she loves black and white together and she adores cats so I decided it had to be a cat card!

I used my Papermania paper with black and white card and a penny black rubber stamp entitled "Primp" to create this easel card I used a spellbinders frame die but cut the bottom cut work off as it did not fit how I wanted it to! A Martha Stewart lace edge punch was used for the lacey edges and daisy punches were used to create the flowers which all had clear AB gem stones for the flower centres.

I think this is one of my better cards and will definitely use this as a template for other cards, 

but perhaps display the sentiment in the middle next time!

let me know what ya think

Blingy Forever Friends Tunnel Card

I found a Kanban Tunnel card blank at my local arty shop which was half price. there were two blanks in the pack. So I have used one of them to make a 50th birthday card for a lovely lady at church who is so young at heart.

The tunnel card blanks are so easy to use but just dont stick the two sides together till you know you have finished decorating it!
Over at the Forever Friends & Co Challenge blog there challenge #43 is "ANYTHING GOES" I am really pleased to be entering a Forever Friends challenge again as I was on the DT about 3 Years ago. I think my card fits the challenge LOL, I still love my Forever Friends bear stamps a very lot!
"ANYTHING GOES" on the Ready Teddy Go Challenge blog too so i am entering my cute birthday bear to that challenge too! I hope that's not against any rules?!

Over at Cute Card Thursday Challenge blog, their challenge #231 is "BLING IT UP" well I think my card is well blinged up LOL and coincidentally the Dutch Dare Card Challenge blog have also asked for bling in their challenge #179  "BLING IT ON" so I am sure theirs enough bling for both of these blingy challenges

The biggest challenge for me was taking a photograph I was pleased with! it was real hard to illiminate the shadows but still show it was a shoadow box type of card! think I got there in the end though!

So here's what I used for my card...
Kanban Tunnel Card Blank (but I would call this a shadow box card)
Forever Friends Stamp FFS9061012 H it may be called "For You" which I chopped from my image.
Nestabilities Scalloped Rectangles (stripey background is Renae's House scrapbook paper)
Cheery Lynn Die "Fanciful Flourish" which I cut and re-arranged to fit
prima flowers
basic grey bling on flowers, numbers and corners of the image.
number "50" cut with cuttlebug die (cant remember the name of the set sorry)
X-Cut labels die cut behind the number 
and a small amount of lilac ribbon

House-Mouse & Friends Challenge Double Trouble

After blogging my card yesterday I popped over to the House-Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge  just to peep at my old Mousey friends! sigh! I love my House-Mouse stamps almost as much as my bears! I used to love entering their challenges when I lived in my previous house and had a craft room (another sigh). 

Well moving swiftly on... I noticed it's "Double Trouble" for the current challenge meaning more than one mouse in the image so I thought I would dust off this cutie stamp which I bought in a closing down sale over 2 years ago and never got to use it.

The stamp is named "Baby Shoes 02" (HMIR1006) I used my cuttlebug embossing border die for the embossed buttons down the side, the ovals and  gingham label background are all cut using my nesties and the heart is from a nellies set. buttons and gingham ribbon finish my card off.

I am so glad to be getting back in the flow of cardmaking again.