ZzZzzzing In The Garden.

Yes, I'm Snooozzzing in the garden, not! but it is very sunny so I could be! The bee's are buzzing and the flowers have started coming through, so I should be in the garden...but...well...it's nicer here in my Craft Room (with the Visiting Cat fast asleep next to me!)

I've made another Double Z card, so thought I'd show you, and at the same time remind you about Quirky Craft's latest challenge. "First Signs of Spring" AND to use a double Z card! (I've shown you how I made mine in the post below) Don't forget to read the Quirky Rules!

This time I've used some papers from a 6x6 paper stack, which came free with CardMaking & Paper Craft Magazine a while back. They're by Kate Knight called Totally Tropical Summer Papers. It's worth a visit as they always have loads of freebie papers to download. The little sticker is from a set, which was also a freebie from the same magazine ages ago.
The Blue sky papers came from....(Hang on, just looking!) 'Let's Fly Away' 6x6 paper Stack freebie with Quick Cards Made Easy Magazine, also a little while back.

I've used my own digi 'Hedgie with His Watering Can', I've 3D-ed him and coloured him with Promarkers. I've also coloured the flowers and the fern leaves with Promarkers too.

The freebie font I used inside the card is called Good Dog, you can download two types of it HERE
I've added Stickles Glitter to the papers to add a bit of bling and also used Nesties, Memory-Box, XCut and Martha Stewart Dies and Punches. Ribbon and that odd tangle of wool is from my stash. I've made this card with a couple of challenges in mind...making sure I don't enter too many others! Oopps, nearly forgot!! This card hides a secret! I'll show you what in the next post!! (I forgot to take the picture!) Thank you for dropping by!!

Challenges
Sirstampalot-february challenge-In The Garden.
Onestitchatatime- use digi/Spring/Easter (spring)
Fun with shapes and more-Punches, Die cuts, Package. (see next post!)
Pileitonchallenge-fun folds
That Craft place-Anything Goes
Partytimetuesdays-anything goes

Quirky Madison Comes For Christmas

And... at last, my latest DT card for Quirky Crafts, Mad Madison (Limited Runs) is coming for Christmas Dinner! Uninvited I should think!!
Weirdly, when I decided the theme to Quirky Craft's latest Challenge was going to be SNOW and Limited Runs was kindly sponsoring us, the first digi I thought of wasn't cute snowmen or fluffy carol singing puppies or angels, but Madison with her axe, and a vision of 'The Shinning' horror film came into my mind!
I usually like to colour Madison as a blonde but decided for this card she should be her normal self, black hair with blue hi-lights.
First, as the card on the post before this one, I covered the top half with blue spotty paper and then layered Madison and her 'snow' scene over the top.
Coloured her with Promarkers and used a silver gel pen and Stickles glitter on the axe on the outside, but found a Sakura metallic gelly-roll pen did a better job on the inside (of the second insert) added the sequin trees (using very thin foam pads) and the sentiment. I also added some Glossy Accents to her eyes, just to give them that mad glazed look! (They've cracked a little, but I don't think that matters!)
I couldn't decide on the wording to put on the inside of the card, so made these two this afternoon. Which one would you use??? I know, your family's not that mad!! Actually, it was only made for fun.... honest...!
The inside was quite easy even a little long winded. I did it on the computer just using Word (and the rest!) Ok, first put Madison into PaintNet (freebie) and added the words over her head, then printed it out, scanned it and then pasted and copied it to Word, where I made her bigger and tilted her a little...(page setting landscape) then added the Merry Christmas in a text box to the other side... then printed it out again and cut to size...see, told you it was a bit long winded! There's probably an easier way, like using My Craft Studio, or Photoshop, which I could have done but it's really slow on my computer and I wanted to get it done today, not next year! And in any case my tiny brain just shrivels up trying to work out what to do!
As I said, it's all coloured with Promarkers except the black hair in the insert, as Tom (S-I-L) has borrowed a few of my ProMarkers, black being one of them, to finish off his Christmas Cards, so I found my... (Trumpet dah dah da da!!!) Whisper pens, which haven't seen the light of day for about two years!)
The Font is freebie, it's called A Little Pot. Download it HERE or Google the name.
Ohoo nearly missed you! New Follower out the back and in the dark, hi and a big ((wave)) to dcurtin01 who has a link to free digital Stamps, where everyone should call in every day to grab all the fabulous freebies they find hiding in Blogland! (keep up the good work! and don't forget my new one tomorrow!) I think that's it!! Hoping there's a few challenges I can find...Thank you for stopping by!

Challenges
Limited Runs December Challenge- use a Limited Runs digi.**WINNER!
Christmas cards all year round December-anything goes (4th Card).

One stitch at a time 91- be square

Pollycraftchallengeblog.-christmas fun (or maybe not!)

It's A Quirky Red Hat

It's time for another quirky challenge over on the Quirky Crafts Challenge Blog. It's Cazzy's turn to chose the Challenge, and seeing our Sponsors Robin's Fetish have some lovely sets of digi's called The Red Hat Society, she thought it would be a great idea to have...

A Red Hat Challenge!

The only thing your projects must feature, is a red hat or a hat with a lot of red on it, such as a wide red hat band, or red flowers, or a red feather...glitter etc... O...K, sez me slowly, someone, very close to me, who I shan't name, has just mentioned... Father Christmas and a ...gnome....right...onwards and up! The first thing I thought of was my sister-in-law's red hat at my daughter's Wedding. It was gorgeous!! So of course I just had to choose Jeanette Red Hat Gal from our sponsor. (Not that Debbie looks anything like Jeanette Red Hat Gal!) I sliced a little off the front of the card, to change the shape a bit and so you can see the yellow and orange dotty paper inside. I've 3D-ed and layered Jeanette Red Hat Gal, coloured her with red, gold, yellow and green ProMarkers, added loads of Stickles glitter, a red metal heart shaped brad, paper and felt flowers, red gems and a 'hat pin' to the bow. The bow/ribbon did look a lot redder in the dark hours of this morning, but once out in the sunlight to take the pictures, I could see it was a little closer to cerise pink than cerise red, but I don't think anyone will notice! The leaves were cut with a Woodware punch from a scrap of paper coloured with the same green ProMarker. The corner details were cut from a Provo craft diecut, using my trusty old BigShot. The papers I used were a free set exclusively from Simply Cards & Paper Craft ages ago, Nitwits The Never Not collection. (You can still buy them!) Think this is my first card using yellow, red and orange! (For my Tuesday tip you can see the white blu tac in this pic)

I've layered lots of different shapes up with red Bazzil paper. The sentiment, 'Have A Very Happy Hat Day!' I did on the computer. Nothing inside at the moment, until I decide where it's going, but it will be a Happy Birthday card...for someone who likes hats...(Debbie's birthday's in November) .

The Font I've used is a freebie, (some sites charge) it's called Troutkings BTN: or just Google the name. There's a background digi freebie at the moment from Robyn's Fetish, you'll find it here why not add it to your challenge make! A Tilda wearing a red hat, a Dustin Pike dragon would look spiffing in a red hat and not to forget...Robin's Fetish, The Red Hat Society digi's! I've found a few Challenges I hope this will fit into. One of my next cards coming up also has a red hat.. thank you for stopping by!

Challenges Robynsfetishchallengeblog- a different shaped card (I've cut the card shorter in front & used lots of layered shapes, hope that counts!) Makeallwithlove-Flowers Ellephantasticchallenges-add some layers (On the card and the image is 3D) Aspoonfullofsugar-happy birthday craftyourdaysaway-birthday celebrations**TOP SIX Tuesdaythrowdown-Birthday Cardmakinmamas-birthdays Anythingchallenge-birthday celebration Birthdaysundaes-its all about brads (I've used 5) Stampinfortheweekend-spots and dots Toptiptuesday-Straight Edges My Tip, if you've run out of silicone glue or 3d foam pads and just have to get your DT card finished, use Blu Tac instead! (shh! yep! She's suck on with blu tac...)

Forever Friends...Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day every one! (this side of the pond) This is the first time ever that I have made two cards for the Mother's that are totally different. So now I'm wondering, which one is for which Mum! Anyway, which ever Mum gets which ever card I'm sure they'll love the chocies that go with them! Yes, last weeks Mother's Day Easel card/ box is now filled with chocolates rather than the brownies that Hubby made last weekend. There was no way they were going to last all week!! Course, they would've gone stale, wouldn't they? I mean, I couldn't let that happen!

This card has been covered with Pink Petticoat Vintage Rose Papers (so at least that's the same!) Stickles Glitter, ribbon, (The same but darker pink than the other card) gems, die cut corners and a Forever Friends Decoupaged Bear. I'm sure I've used this one before, but that's the beauty of making your own cards, they can never look exactly the same, no matter what! (well, not when I make them they don't!)
The sentiment I did on the computer, cut out with Woodware and **Crafts-too punches. The Font is a freebie, it's called Amazone BT and you can download it HERE
The inside of the card (pink) also has some Forever Friend stickers of the same bear holding his flowers.
This Card will probably go to John's Mum, as she has said, no flowers!! So, it's a way of giving them without her having to worry where to put them, apart from on her mantelpiece! Thank you for stopping by!
(**very hard to use 'up side down' so you can see the writing)

Challenges
Creative Inspirations Challenge- Mother's Day/Mum
Delicious doodles -for mum
Crafty sentiments-mother's day
My time to craft - mum's the word
Ooh-la-la -mother's day
PaperPlay - for mum
Sarah Hurley - mum's the word
OSAAT- 3D

Box Shaker Card. (Made with Freebie Papers)

I made this Shaker Valentine's card for a sketch challenge over on Card Making and Paper Craft, (front of house rather than on the main forum) I've used only papers that you can down load for free from the same place.. (or come with this month's magazine!) I've squashed in five flowers instead of four, which only proves I can't count! So I hope that won't matter! Also, look out for Bev's card on the Front Cover of the Magazine!!! (and crafty bits inside) How cool is that!!

I've made more of a box shaker this time, only because I used some thicker 3D foam pads. I've added an extra strip of paper around the box so's to hide them.

The little Forever Friends bear (is part of a set) has been coloured with Promakers, although the heart was paper pieced so the colour matched with the card. (My only red Promaker didn't match at all!) If you're very quick there's still time to join in! I have tried to enter but unfortunately all you can see is four empty spaces...!! (doesn't that make you mad when you can't delete something that's gone wrong!?!) Anyway. This is the card! Go hunt out those freebie papers, 'From The Heart.'
There's a few valentine Challenges I've found while blog hopping. I hope I'm not too late to enter and will add them as soon as I've double checked!

New Followers ((Big Wave!!)) Daverod46962 a new blogger! Please pop over and say hi, Dave would love a visit! Thank you for your email and comment Dave, so I could find your link and blog! Then there's Mikila with no link (yet) and Irene S has lovely things to have a snoop at!
Oops, forgot to add and link my Challenges!! Hope I'm not too late! For these challenges I've added a bit more sparkle to the card, die-cut corners and a tiny sentiment. The font is called Honey Bunches and you can download it free HERE Thank you for stopping by.

Challenges
Totallypapercrafts-add a heart
Papercutzchallenge-your choice
PaperIssues-Valentines Party!
Fresh Brewed Designs-Valentines Day (show some love)
Bunny Zoe's Craft: Love is in the air
Secret Crafter Saturday: With love
Pileitonchallenge-love is in the air
Penny's - Anything Goes

Another Snowman?

First time ever I've used this Snowman stamp by Rachelle Anne Miller. Cute and whimsical I think, so I've added quite a lot of mirco glitter to make it sparkle, then fitted it to two scallop circles cut by my Nesties, and coloured the image as always (well, nearly always!) with Promakers.

I've cut off a tiny bit of the edge of the card with my Xcut scalloped edge boarder punch, so you can just see a glimpse of the paper inside the card too. On the front of the card I also let a little bit of the pearl card show to emphasize the scalloped edge. Papers are once more from Forever Friends, which I've added Stickles Glitter, to make those springs of holly sparkle.
The Merry Christmas sentiment is from a clear pack of 12 assorted Christmasy what-knots-thinga-me-jigs by Papermania (including a tag and sentiments) I did punch it out with my woodware punch, but it left too much white around the edge so I ended up cutting it out and fixing it to a smaller scalloped Nestie circle too. MS punch for the fern leaves. Flowers, gems and ribbon from my stash. The ribbon was put through one of those X shaped sticky labelling gizmo's, so it's stuck on too, and the bow is a bit of a cheat as I fixed that on afterwards using silicon glue! Oh and the Candy 'brads' came in a packet of about 400 mixed shades from my 'local' (miles away) craft shop.
The inside font was done on the computer and is a freebie. It's called A Yummy Apology and you can download it HERE Not sure where the little wreath sticker came from, it suddenly appeared while I was taking the pictures, so of course I just had to stick it in! I'll be giving this card to my Mum and dad this year.
New Followers... (Hi and a big wave) to Dragonflydreamz1..... out the back and in the dark with no blog link yet and Sarah with a New Blog called Crafting with Sarah, so pop over and say hi!
Hope you're not snowed in... I'm now off to clear the snow from my car and (aagghh!!) try and get to work!! (What's the betting I'll turn round and come home again?? Update...No I didn't ,I got there ok and only had one tiny slide ) It's not the main roads, it's the side roads, they are soooo slippery! And people, mainly ladies, (sorry but that's what I've noticed!!) have no idea how to drive in the snow!! Like the rest of us, huge 4x4's will not stop in the snow if you're driving too fast and slam your brakes on!! Low speed, high gear!! Ok! I'm such a scaredy cat!! Thank you for stopping by...

Challenges
Order of the Opus Gluei - anything goes
Sparkles Challenges - Christmas
Stampinfortheweekend.-Christmas
One Stitch At A Time - anything goes
Aly's Sunday Challenge - Anything goes
The Pink Elephant- Winter Wonderland
For Fun challenges - Christmas
Freshly Brewed Designs - Merry Christmas

ATC Swap: 3D Poppies

So, what can you make from a 6x6 sheet of backing paper? Four ATC's and an Inchie, what's what!

Which gave me the idea for these. Seeing we didn't have quite so many swappers on the November ATC swap over on the CM&C forum, I decided to make a few more.
Of course I wasn't going to heat emboss the added (ready cut chipboard) Inchie, but I rubbed the PVA glue off a little too hard on one of them and it roughed it up a bit. I thought, (wrongly) a bit of clear embossing might hide it!

Of course I had to use two 6x6 sheets of paper in the end to make these, but we won't mention that!
I ended up using the left over scraps and decoupaging a few more bits. They're a bit curly in the photo as my daylight lamp gets very hot!! And you can't really tell they've been decoupaged.

I think these papers might be from K&Co, but seeing my local (not really a) craft shop only sells them as single sheets, I'm not sure.

Now, can you tell which Inchie got roughed up a bit? probably not. (Do you care? Not really!)

I still think they need something else don't you? (besides throwing in the nearest bin)
How about a little bit of Stickles glitter? Hang on a sec...
There you go...That's better.
I was hoping to find a few little challenges somewhere and have ffound one for the 'butterfly' ATC... that's of course if they don't mind ATC's! (as it has a butterfly on it!) and a few others too...
Other ATC's in this CP&PC Swap here and here...or just scroll down
New Follower. ((Hi and a big wave))) to Dawn, who's out the back and in the dark with no link. ((yet)) Come and say hi then I can come and say hi to you too! Thanks for stopping by!

Challenges

Flutterby Wednesdays-Anything goes.
(As long as it has a Butterfly Fairy or Angel..)
Fussy and fancy -Anything But a Card
Creative card crew-anything goes.
One Stitch At A Time -Old stash new stash
(Papers very old! and new Stickles!)

It's Not All Quirky Black & White...

It's Cazzy's turn to set the Challenge this time, and no, it's not all black and white over on Quirky Craft's Challenge Blog this time round, it's...

black, white and one other accent colour...

plus

use one or more punches!!
(oho, take that! ouch!)

Here's my DT card. I've left off the sentiment so I can change it into whatever whenever, but most likely a birthday card.
I used DoveCraft Papers, Stickles Glitter, and stuff from my stash, The Glittered black butterfly was fixed to acetate first and then adhered to the card with silicone glue.
As you can see by the picture, I've gone a bit mad with the magenta. This I added by colouring some white card with my oldest and favourite colour Promaker pen, (maybe I should have used the paler pink?) then used my Martha Stewart lace punch. I also touched up the pink that was already on the papers. Plus a few flowers I made using Woodware punches, they have velum centres (covered with Stickles) That's about all I can add to this card, I think!

Pop over to see who you picked as overall winner via the voting! (that doesn't mean they've won an overall!) We on the team decided to choose a winner too, just for its real 'Quirkiness' !!

Now, here's a challenge for you! How many different punches do you think I used in the end???

Answers on a postcard please...no, honest...have a guess... email me on dragonsmoore at goolemail dot com or leave a comment. I did have a few challenges for this card but, sawdust brain here has left her little note book at home, so I'll add them later! Now it's time to walk those darn doggies again!! Thank you for stopping by...

Challenges
Stampin' Royalty - make a feature of your patterned paper
Stamps R Us - sparkles and scallops
Rainbow Lady - fancy edges
Daring Cardmakers - We three . .
(flowers, brads, frills, three different types of leaves)
Southern Girls -Your Favourite Colour- (Magenta )
Drunken Stampers - no stamps
C.R.A.F.T. challenges vellum (on the flowers)
The Crafty Purple Frog - flowers
Treehouse Challenges - glitter
Hodge Podge Shop - Anything Goes

An Iceland Baby Shaker Card

I haven't made a shaker card for ages so when Tom asked me to make a baby boy card, I thought I'll make a few for him to choose from, but one of them's going to be a shaker! I decided to use my Quirky Craft's sketch for this one (with a square instead of a circle) The new baby boy will be flying back to Iceland very soon! I found some icy blue papers, used white faux stitching, using a white gel pen, added Stickles Icicles glitter, frosty silver and silvery eyelash wool and tiny snowflakes inside the shaker as well as on the corner with the flower. Penny Black image of course, coloured with my ProMarkers. I stamped out the letters using my Quickutz. I've also (although it's hard to see) embossed the rectangle behind the shaker, with hearts. The little stork I'm sure I brought back with me from USA last year. I've also added a bit of silver and white ribbon, which wasn't on my sketch but I thought it looked nice. Hope I'm not too late for some of the challenges I've found. There were some shaker card challenges but I think I've missed those.

New Follower, hi and a big ((wave)) to kobies crafty corner pop over and say hi!
Thank you for stopping by.

Challenges
i love promarkers-icy colours
Fuzzy Wuzzy Challenges -must include an animal -Winter
Crazy 4 challenges - square card
Crafty Cardmakers - dry embossing
Cardsformen-animals (baby boy Card-hedgehog)
Raise The Bar - baby
Cute Card Thursday-Anything Goes
Lexi's Creations - Anything Goes
Digi Doodles - Anything Goes
Freshly Brewed Designs - two or more patterned papers

Quirky Challenge: It's My Sketch!

Yep, it's my turn this time round to set the challenge over on Quirky Crafts Challenge Blog. This fortnight we'd love you to join us in our Crafty Quirkiness and use a sketch.

It's nice and easy, so we look forward to seeing Hundreds of entries!! (or I'll sulk and stamp my foot)
We'd love to see anything crafty, a card, scrapbook page, tag, fat page, altered art, ATC, or even Inchies, if you think you can!

Quirky Crafts Sketch

Sunday 7th Nov- Saturday 2oth

See, told you it was easy! Feel free to rotate the sketch, add bits, invert it or use it in any way you wish, fold it in a cone and put chips in it if you like, just so long as we can still see the sketch within your work!
We're also looking for some new DT members. Someone who has a blog, who can make a card/scrapbook page or anything crafty, every two weeks and take a reasonable picture, is really all you have to be able to do! Easy! (We don't do hard coz we can't!) If you don't think you could manage every two weeks but would still like to give it a go, why not think about becoming a Guess Designer. All you have to do, is join in this sketch challenge (as many times as you wish) and add either DT or GDT to your name in MR Linky or send the Quirky Team an email and we'll get back to you! Simples! Of course, sometimes we have sponsors for our challenges and they send us their goodies to use, obviously you'll also be sent the same goodies to use too!

That's enough blurb! Here's my card.
First I took a square card a chopped about an inch off it. Covered it first in the blue side of Forever Friends 'Gift Wrapped' A4 Double-sided Cardstock (240gsm) and then the dotty side and inked the edges. Then I did the same thing with the smaller rectangle, only this time, used the stripes, added white brads and fixed on with 3D foam pads and silicone glue. Both the circles were cut from Woodware Punches.
I then stamped and cut out the little 'Padded Paws', Animal Ark (by DoCrafts) clear stamp image and coloured it with ProMakers and also 3D-ed the balloon. At one time thought about doing a spot of paper piecing with the balloon, but once again, changed my mind.
I added Stickles Glitter in Baby Blue, the flowers are from my stash and those tiny gems (I added three) are by Anita's, using a Quickie Glue pen to fix them on.
That's it! Click on the pictures to make them larger as I've scribbled on some of them. I had a suddenly rush of madness and put mock stitching all around the card with a blue gel pen, but....wasn't sure about. But I've ended putting them both on here... what d'you think? (Click the pictures to make them larger) The inside I've left plain with a white scalloped circle to one side ready to write in.
If you fancy having a go at this challenge but haven't got a blog why not email us a picture and we'll add it to the challenge for you! That's it from me, catch you all later! Thanks for stopping by.

Challenges
Fairytale Challenges - Anything Goes (Their first challenge pop over and join in!!)
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes

Incy Wincy - Anything Goes

Iris's Spot - Anything Goes
Lexis Creations - Anything Goes

Crafty Cardmakers - Stitching (On the bottom right picture)

Cards for Men - For a guy (Little boy card)

Creative Card Crew - punches (Woodware & MS)

Stamp Insanity - punches (Woodware & MS)
meljendesigns - Use 3 Different Shapes
paper play's -circles