Get Whale Soon

This is a little card I created using DigiSparkle Get Well Soon stamp set.  I popped the black background up on dimensional's so that I could add the raffia and charm.  

I bought my charms from ebay (much cheaper but you have to buy in slightly larger numbers).

Crafty Den Candy

This is from Denise over at Crafty Den.  She has an amazing blog and she constantly inspires me.  Pop over and check her out. 

Pink Gem Candy

Here's a little bit of candy being offered by Janet over at Pink Gem.  Check out the details here, wouldn't you just love to win this candy - I'd love those stamps, they're gorgeous!

OLW - Christmas

I'm not at my craft desk at the moment but I thought this card was perfect for this week's One Layer Wednesday card - Christmas. This is a fav set of mine at the moment; Stampendous' Perfectly Clear Snowflake Symphony.  

Crafty Sentiments blog hop

 Pop on over and check it out - some brilly creations and some lovely new stamps.

Pollycraft Tortoise

This is the second part of Flash Your Freebies over at Pollycraft.  This is one of the cutest freebies I've ever got my hands on. I decided it was a perfect for a male card. My dp is new (think it's Mind's Eye) and a papermania sentiment. Must go, so many jobs to do!

It's for these challenges:
Pollycraft - Pollycraft
Cards for men - Men + 1 image 2 dp 3 embellies (There are 3 gems under the sentiment)
Digi Tuesday - Happy birthday 
Papertake - Cute

A before and after shot!

This is my second post for today but I had to share my distress with you (I very nearly cried when I saw it!)

Well this is the before shot (technically it's the after shot touched up - wish it was this easy to touch up in real life!) This is how my card looked until my 2 year old son got hold of my sponge daubers! And below you can see his 'creativity'!!!!! I found it just after I'd finished telling my dh how pleased I was with this card that had taken me ages to make (mainly as I kept changing my mind about the layout!).  As he sat in the naughty corner my little lad's face just screamed ''What have I done? I only did what you do Mummy! I love you''. It's hard not to melt when they look like that, I didn't melt but I think the rest of the family felt my wrath!

This card uses a freebie Crafty Sentiment digi image, isn't it gorgeous (without the green splodge!)? I used Papermania pink papers, my Leone ash branch punch, my Ek Success flower punches and I added a liquid pearl centre.

Well, before it was destroyed this card was for these challenges:

CAS-tastic - Summer inspiration

Fab'n'Funky - Reuse or recycle (I'm recycling the pink paper as it is actually a paper plane!)

Creative Cottage - Touchy Feely (I love the texture of that pearl and the flowers and leaves)

Crafty Sentiments - Sketch

Summer Fun

This is a totally different style of card for me.  It was originally inspired by the waltzing mouse sketch (although I'm not sure if it bears much resemblance now!) 

This card is for these images:

Secret Crafter - Summer holiday

Sweet Stampin' - Photo inspiration

Waltzing Mouse - Sketch

Pile it on - Pennants or banners

OLW - Watercolour

Ok, this challenge (Simplicity's One Layer Wednesday) really took me out of my comfort zone.  I could have just coloured an image using my water colours but no, I decided to have a go at colouring my stamp then spritzing.  Turns out I don't really have many stamps that work particularly well with this technique! Oh well just another reason to go and buy more! As if I need a reason! The multicoloured bug is stamped using the watercolour the stamp technique but the others are all stamped using memento fog ink.

Sorry about the photo, I had to take it myself as my dh was busy. Oh and just don't mention the smudge - yes, I tried to rub out my pencil lines before the ink had dried.  Rookie mistake but it turns out I'm a rookie!

Scraps

Over at Kristina Werner's blog she has created this beauty of a card and I just felt I had to have a go at recreating it.  Kristina used ribbon scraps, I'm not fortunate enough to have any really nice ribbon scraps but I do have plenty of dp scraps (I keep everything!)  I used a piece of kraft card, it was from the inside of a wrapping paper roll - it was still curled and I really should have curled it the other way a bit, oh well - hindsight!

This card is also for these challenges:
DigiDoodles - Use up those scraps

Donkey Smiles

Hi all, just a quick post tonight as I'm shattered - kids!

This card is for Michelle who has suffered badly and in order to cheer her up there is a card drive over at Spoonful of Sugar.  I have loved reading Michelle's blog for quite a while and I send her all my best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Birthday Fun

This little turtle (or tortoise, how do you tell the difference?) is well cute and I just knew I wanted to do him with the cps sketch.  I tried something different this time - I glued the red paper to the yellow before cutting out with my nestie so the cross looks like it was supposed to be.  Not quite sure if the dp goes but it was the only choice I really had (although in retrospect I could have created my own dp using stamps and a slightly better colour background - hindsight is a wonderful thing!)

This card is for these challenges:
Pollycraft - Bold and bright
Craftalicious - Birthdays
Card Positioning Systems - Sketch

Crafty Sentiments

I've only just found Crafty Sentiments and they've got some amazing stamps, I just adore their little girl ones.  I also noticed they have a challenge blog as well.  As I only found it today (and today is the end date for this weeks challenge) I'm entering this card but hopefully I'll be able to use one of their stamps for the next challenge (I noticed they have a couple of free digi's - cute!!)

Ooo, just noticed they have a new release of digi's - take a look.

Thinking of You

This little cutie is a Pink Gem freebie and I wanted to enter it in this month's Pink Gem challenge so I've sort of followed their sketch.  I have created the layout by masking and using ink, so it looks like the correct layers even though it's not layered (except the popped up image) - does that make any sense?

This is the first time I've used my new liquid pearls and it was looking quite disastrously until I remembered watching someone flick the card to make them settle into a blob rather than a mountain (or something else my dirty mind was thinking of!).  They look ok now but hopefully my next attempt will be better.

This card makes me think of summer - sitting in amongst all those flowers with butterflies flying around, hence why I've entered this into quite a few summer themed challenges.

Anyway, I want to enter this card into quite a few challenges, so here goes...

Allsorts - summer
Bee crafty - 3d (the main image is popped up)
By the cute and girly - Summer days
Pink Gem - Sketch
Little Paper Shop - Distressing (I added ink around the edges of the heart)
Bunny Zoe's - Summer days
Daisy doodles - Summertime
Papertake Weekly - In the garden
CAS-tastic - SIMPLE (Stamped, Inked, Masking)
CRAFT - children

Christmas in July

Seeing as this is a major theme in blogland I thought I'd tag along with you all and try and be a bit more organised this year, hence Christmas in July!

As I've recently created some Christmas digi stamps I thought I'd create a little something (which has turned into a few somethings so you'll probably see a few more over the next week or two!) This digi is from the Christmas Carols digistamp set over at DigiSparkle.

This is also for these challenges:
Magical Crafts - Christmas
Stamp Simply - Christmas
Cute Card Thursday - Christmas
Fab 'n' Funky - Christmas

Birthday Candy from Clair

To celebrate her birthday Clair is offering a £10 voucher to buy some stampin' up products from her. Pop over and see her blog for more details and to glimpse some of her awesome products (not to mention her ever talented daughter!)

Just a little flash.

Paula, over at Pollycraft is asking us to flash our freebies.  Create a card using one of her Friday Freebies (you can still find her latest ones on her blog - here is the latest) and you get a special freebie - and then there are more instructions! Just hop over to her blog to read all about it.

 I adore this image from Pollycraft, a freebie I picked up a while ago.  I coloured with copics, added some papermania dp and then handwrote the sentiment. As per usual it's in my inimitable (lol!) CAS style!

Simon Says Stamp Giveaway

Pop on over to Simon Says Stamp to see more about their amazing Christmas in July giveaway.
This is what they say:
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....well, at least in our craft rooms it is! The big holiday is only 167 days away. Are you ready? Have you started making Christmas cards or Christmas gifts? Are you making your list and checking it twice?

Well, we are already starting to get into full blown Christmas mode here atSimon Says Stamp! We have been diligently cleaning out our warehouse to make room for the upcoming Holiday releases from all of our favorite vendors. We even have some of the new holiday stuff available for PRESALE now - Tim Holtz anyone???

Our warehouse will soon be filling up with all things merry and bright from Tim Holtz, Ranger, Magnolia, Hero Arts, Penny Black, Graphic 45, Maya Road, Jenni Bowlin, Stampabilities, The Greeting Farm, Prima Flowers, Spellbinders, Wendy Vecchi, Basic Grey, Darcie's, Tattered Angels, 7 Gypsies, Unity Stamps, Cuttlebug, Sizzix, Copic Markers, EK Success.... and SOOOO many more we can't even list them all! We are sooo excited, we want to do the happy dance with Santa!

Speaking of Santa......since we are having such fabulous weather here.....Santa has come to Ohio for summer vacation and is giving out oodles of gifts this week here at Simon Says Stamp! What a generous man he is! (We have Santa and the Mrs. set up in a swanky hotel here in Columbus and his 8 tiny reindeer are enjoying some quality time in my backyard. Let me just say this....those reindeer are NOT tiny and there is A LOT of clean up involved;)

Want a chance to win some goodies??? Well, here's what you have to do...Become a follower of our blog (if you aren't already) and leave a comment saying which Vendor's Holiday Release you are anticipating the MOST and WHY! We want to know which lines make you do the happy dance! Winners will be chosen randomly from the comments. Please also copy and paste this giveaway link on your blog (or email it to all of your crafty friends and family if you don't have a blog). We want everyone to have a chance to win!

And here is the best part......the more comments we have, the more Santa gives away!!! Woooohoooooo!!!!! Every 10comments we will draw one name. That person will win a sampling from Santa's Stash pictured below (Santa's choice;). I know, I know...can you say HOLY GIVEAWAY BATMAN!!! Remember, the more comments, the more Santa dips into his goodie bag! And...he is always full of surprises!

Look for winners to be posted on the blog periodically throughout the week. Good Luck to everyone! The giveaway will end on July 18th, so hurry and tell your friends that...Santa Claus is coming to town (EARLY!!!)

DigiSparkle Freebie

This month's Newsletter Offer is this Birthday Plane Freebie.  
Just click on it and then 'right click' and 'save as'

If you do use this then I'd love to see your creation.  Just leave me a comment here so I can see how you've used this freebie.

I'm back ...

Well, I'm here in body if not mind!! We had a lovely holiday (we had quite a bit of rain and not much beach weather but hey ho!) and I can't wait to get back to my craft desk.  However, catching up on your blogs is quite a task, google reader informed me of the 418 posts to read - oh my, you have been busy bloggers while I was away!  But just in case I don't get anywhere near my craft table in the near future (what with all the blogs and the mounds of washing and the tent currently drying off in our living room!) here's a card I made a little while ago.


I used this Whale stamp set from Digisparkle. I paper pieced the whales and stuck them onto a kraft background.  There is a sentiment at the bottom, it says 'lovey dovey' but it turns out I did it in too light a shade of brown - I will go over it before I send it!