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

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)

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)

Pretty Team Teddy Easel Card

I am really getting onto the flow with these easel cards! 

I needed to make a card for my friend Stephanie so here's the card I created for her and the Penny Black & Friends Saturday Challenge for the October challenge they have set a sketch which I have followed...

Embelishments and sentimenrts may be placed wherever I wish but I left it without a sentiment as I think my friend will want to leave this out on show for a while or even frame it!

I started to make this over a week ago but have been poorly and just not well enough to think straight!

I intended this card to be entered into a challenge that called for paper piecing, therefore I pieced the teddy arm, the gift, then the ribbon and bow and the tag on the gift then I used glossy accents on the bow to make the ribbon shine!

Here's the easel card opened up and showing the inside too. I wanted the sweet image of the teddy and the rose paper to really be the focal point of this card so kept embelishments to a minimum.

The image is a Penny Black stamp 3981K Team Teddy, 

I coloured  it with Promarkers. I have only used half of the image, masking off the other little creatures 

as there wasn't enough room for all of them to fit within the circle. 

I love the feminine feel of this card, it's just right for the friend it's intended for!

thanks for looking

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!

House Mouse Autumn Challenge

Here's my second House Mouse and Friends Challenge Guest Design Team card for the Autumn challenge.  If you would like to join in the fun then go to the challenge blog through this link

I must admit this was a bit of a stretch for me as I thought I didn't have anything suitable for an autumn card but yet again little Mudpie came to the rescue! this is such a versatile stamp...Mudpie Wonders 02 HMG1004

I used a stamp from my Our Daily Bread Designs set and used punched leaves to accent the scripture along with gold coloure leaf brads

I used my favourite Basic Grey papers and some coloured raffia to finish it off.

I wanted to create the sense of the mouse running through a pile of leaves 

and then realising its autumn again LOL.

Thank you to the House Mouse and Friends Challenge team for inviting me to play along for the month of september as a guest DT I have really enjoyed myself \o/

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