SS&S 10: Miss Anya visits Wisteria Lane and Guest DT call

YAY! It's Sunday again, and time for a brand new sketch at Sunday Sketch and Stamp - and this week it's my turn to provide the sketch!! I went with a nice easy design this time, so there's lots of room to add whatever you like, wherever you like, LOL! Also, you can change the shape of the image (oval) if you want to!



As it's our 10th challenge, we have an extra special prize this fortnight in addition to our Sir Stampalot sponsored prize ....

Are you interested in becoming a GUEST DESIGNER at SUNDAY SKETCH & STAMP?

Well, this fortnight, the design team will be picking 3 of you to join us as our Guest Designers for 3 months!! How exciting!! I love being on this team of wonderful gals, who are so friendly, encouraging and lovely! So I'm sure you'd have a blast with us - we are a very welcoming lot! The GUEST DESIGNER CALL is open to everyone from anywhere - all you have to do is join in with this fortnight's challenge! So what are you waiting for? LOL!

For my card I chose Basic Grey Wisteria paper (from the 6x6 pad) and one of my brand new Miss Anya Dressy stamps coloured with Copic Ciaos (face/skin) and my trusty Whispers (the rest!). I added little pearls to her shoes to tie in with the pearls in the centres of the flowers:



I am in love with these tiny weeny Prima Sweet n Sassy flowers! I've wanted to have a jar of each since I first saw them on the web, but as they are old, it has been a fruitless search for me in the UK (online and offline) ... until now! I was so lucky to find them in a small craft shop in Wales, so of course I bought the set!

I popped up the 2 rectangular background panels, the oval panel and Miss Anya on 3D foam pads for lots of dimension:



Sorry about the 'grey' photos. I tried editing them in the photo-editing software we have, but they ended up far too bright!

Well, that's it from me today folks! Thanks so much for stopping by! Would love you to join the fun over at Sunday Sketch and Stamp this fortnight...and maybe look forward to working with you soon?

Have a great Sunday!

Hugs, Sem xx





Ingredients

Basic Grey Wisteria 6x6 paper pad : Bazzil cardstock : Oval nesties : TGF Miss Anya Dressy stamp : Copic Ciaos (E00 & R20) and Whispers Pens : Prima Sweet n Sassy flowers : Pearls and 3D foam pads from stash

My card was featured on TGF blog!

[This is my 2nd post of the day - please scroll down for my WOJ Xmas card - thanks!]

Oops, nearly forgot to say with all the excitement of finishing my very first Christmas card earlier today, that my Miss Anya Dressy card of a few days ago was featured on The Greetings Farm Blog yesterday as their Monday Critique Card! Click here to see the post.

Thank you to Julie for letting me know, and thanks to everyone who commented on it! I can't believe 87 peeps commented! And I'm so glad that people liked the colouring of her hair, as I really felt I did a half-decent job on that for once!!

Thanks The Greeting Farm - you've made my week!!

Hugs, Sem x

Whiff of Joy: Christmas in August!

I've just finished my very first (ever!) Christmas card - WOO-HOO!! I only own 1 Chrissy stamp - 'Herb with Teacup' - so I decided to join in with this week's Whiff of Joy Challenge 44 which is a really great sketch by Rach.

I coloured Herb with my trusty Whispers pens (I still find these quicker and more comfortable to work with than the Copics I own!), but had to mix several colours on an acrylic block to achieve the dark red colour, which I then applied with the blender pen (I get through the blender pens quite quickly, so I bought 5 packs when I last ordered them, LOL!!)


I used my brand new Imaginisce Polar Expressions 12x12 double-sided DPs - one side of each sheet has glitter detail - and chose 'Fun Drops' because it had some cups of hot choc and the sentiment already added, and 'Frosted Forest' so that it looks like Herb is in a pine forest!

I have a large bottle of crystal glitter gel that my daughter used to use for crafting when she was a bit younger, so I used the gel and a paintbrush to glitter-up the red cardstock , the 'falling' red/green/blue snowflakes (tiny Prima flowers, as I don't have a snowflake punch) and most of the raised snowflakes of the white background (white card run through the Cuttlebug embossing folder).

I'm going to enter this card into the following challenges:

1. Whiff of Joy: Challenge 44 - Rach's sketch

2. Simon Stays Stamp: Christmas in August

Thanks for looking folks!

.....only 9 more days until hubby starts back at school and 13 more days until daughter goes back....sniff sniff!

Hugs, Sem xx

Ingredients
Imaginisce Polar Expressions 12x12 double-sided DP : Core'dinations cardstock 'Poinsettia' : Cuttlebug Embossing Folder 'Snowflakes' : WOJ Herb with Teacup stamp : Whispers Pens : MSBP Arch Lattice : Prima 'Sweet n Sassy' flowers : Gems, 3D foam and ribbon from stash

Your Next Stamp 1st Design Team Call

A brand new stamp company called 'Your Next Stamp' has arrived and they need a design team to help them promote all of their fun and whimsical stamps, so I've decided to have a go!

To enter, we need to create a post on our blog with 2 of our best cards. They are looking for creativity and originality, great colouring abilities, and the ability to provide a great picture of our work. It was really hard for me to choose 2 of my cards, as I still feel I am a newbie and have so much to learn, but in the end I went for these, as I feel they best show the attributes 'Your Next Stamp' are looking for......

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

~ Card 1 ~

Sugar Nellie 'Daisy' card using Basic Grey 'Sugared' papers (made as part of a gift set):

(Please click on the images to enlarge)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

~ Card 2 ~

Two of The Greeting Farm's 'original' Miss Anya stamps for a card which is supposed to look like you are looking out of a window at two best friends returning home from a shopping trip! [The patterned paper is supposed to be the wallpaper!]

(Please click on the image to enlarge)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

You can click on any of the images to enlarge them and see them in greater detail!

Although the DT call requires you to post just 2 of your best cards (which I have shown above), I'm going to add a few piccies to the end of this post, as I'd like to show 'Your Next Stamp' my paper piecing and colour matching skills.

Finally, to everyone at 'Your Next Stamp', I use Whispers Dual Tip Brush Pens to colour my images (they can also be used as watercolours, plus the colour can be blended to make new colours), but I have recently bought a small set (36A) of Copic Ciaos and also have a few Letraset Promarkers. I now use either Copic Ciao E00 and R20 to colour skin/faces or Promarker Blush.

Why don't you pop along to My Next Stamp and check out their cute stamp lines. If you'd like to apply for the DT, then click here to be taken to My Next Stamp's blog post where you can read all the details, but be quick as the deadline for applications is 28 August 2009.

TTFN!
Hugs, Sem xx

Paper Pieced Miss Anya

The Greetings Farm 'Wild Sprout'

TGF Farm Fresh Friday: Dressy Miss Anya

Afternoon everyone!

First, an apology for being such a slack crafter/blogger this week. It's still the school hols here in England, and as both hubby and daughter are home, this week has been spent out and about and away together!

This morning we all decided to stay home. Hubby wanted to watch the All Blacks and dd wanted to colour images with me, so I decided to make a card using one of my brand new Miss Anya Dressy stamps, following this week's sketch by Jess (Farm Fresh Friday Sketch 5) over at The Greeting Farm's blog.


I do love my Miss Anyas - I've had the 1st set for ages, and now I've got this 3rd set (Dressy) - and as TGF had the 'Rain Snow Shine' set on special at only US$10 this week, I obviously had to order those as well, LOL, so soon I will have all nine Miss Anyas in my inky mitts!


Red is my favourite colour (I have lots of red clothes), but not a colour I often use on cards. Green & pink seem to be safe combo for me, so I decided to root around to see if I could find some red papers for this card. The only stuff I could find was this OA Cherry Hill paper and some BG paper (from the June Bug and Cupcake pads), so I went with the OA, combining it with one of my faves from their Weathervane range 'Chilly Mornings' (the reverse of this paper is gorgeous!) for a brown, red and white colour combo card ... the colours of The Greeting Farm!!

I've had a bit of a scout around the challenge blogs, and so I'm going to enter this card into the following 4 challenges:

1. PollyCraft Monday Challenge #22 'Favourite Things' : My Miss Anyas are definitely my favourite stamps and I've used my fave technique - paper piecing!

2. ABC Challenge 'B is for Buttons' : I've added 4 brown buttons to this card.

3. Creative Inspirations Challenge #23 'Spots, Dots and Circles' : My spotty OA definitely fits the bill!

4. Scrappy Frogs Challenge #11 'Paper Piecing' : My favourite technique! I've paper-pieced Miss Anya's dress using the spotty OA paper.

Anyway, that's it from me for today! Would love to know what you think.

TTFN!
Hugs, Sem x


Ingredients
October Afternoon 'Chilly Mornings' (12x12) and 'Sunday Dishes' (8.5x8.5) patterned paper : Core'dinations 12x12 cardstock 'Heartfelt' and 'French Roast' : The Greetings Farm 'Miss Anya Dressy' rubber stamp : Whispers Pens & Copic Ciaos : VersaMagic Dew Drop 'Wheat' : Prima Sweet n Sassy Clueness flowers : MME 'Bloom & Grow' Button Box buttons : Brown & Red ribbon, 3D foam pads, and self-adhesive gems from stash

Sunday Sketch & Stamp 9: Love & Marriage...

Hello folks!

This morning I'd like to share with you my DT card for Sunday Sketch & Stamp's new challenge 9, which starts today! If you play along with us, you could win a brand new collection of fab digi stamps donated by our regular sponsor, Crafts 4 Eternity. The DT were lucky enough to be given these stamps to play with for this challenge, and our sketch this fortnight is a great one by our fearless leader, Maggie!


I've never made a wedding card before, and as crafting is my hobby (I don't make my cards to sell), and I don't know anyone who is getting married, this card will join the rest of my creations in my finished card drawer...which is now full to the brim!

I wanted to use a B&W theme with a splash of colour for this card, so I dug out my neglected Dovecraft papers! I was going to go with pink as the accent colour, but in the end, after trying lots of different colours, I settled on yellow.


I knew that a flourish swirl wouldn't look right in the left upper corner because of the print of the paper, so I used my slightly forgotten (LOL!) Cuttlebug ornamental die and trimmed the shapes to create these hearts.

I used my one of my Spellbinders Ribbon Tags Trio die for the sentiment, and instead of using ribbon to attach it to the card, I used the 2 thin strips of cardstock that I trimmed off the edge of the 6x6 piece so it would fit the card blank. Yes, I am a stickler for getting the most out of my stash!! LOL!

Thanks for popping by, folks. I'd love to know what you think about this card, and I'd love you to join us over at SS&S this fortnight.

Have a happy day!

Hugs, Sem xx

Ingredients
Dovecraft Kate Knight Hint of Pink 8x8 Paper Pack : Core'dinations cardstock 'Scotch' (HY010) : Digi image from Crafts 4 Eternity : Whispers Pens & Copic Ciaos : Nestabilities 'Classic Circle Large' 'Ribbon Tags Trio' : Cuttlebug Die 2x6 Ornamental : Prima flowers : Spacer, brad, pearls, 3D foam pads from stash

Creative Inspirations: Gift Trio

Hello everyone!

Today I made a gift box and a gift wallet to go with the card I made on Tuesday (for the Basic Grey Challenge), which now completes the gift set I have made for someone in particular (...can't say who it is, or I'll ruin the surprise! Hee hee!).


The gift box was made following the Split Coast Stampers Origami Box tutorial which you can find here. I only made one box (for the bottom), using a 22cm square piece of heavy-weight paper, which I subsequently sanded to give a weathered feel. I cut out 2 of the largest Nesties Labels 1 in Brown Core'dinations cardstock and also sanded them. I stuck the bottom of the origami box onto one of the nestie shapes, then cut a piece of the same paper I used for the box (green) and stuck it on the inside of the box at the back and then onto the underside of the other nestie shape to form a hinge. So the lid of the box is the other nestie shape, which can be opened by lifting.


I used a Magnolia cupcake stamp, coloured with Whispers, cut it out and matted it onto another piece of the original paper, again sanded. Pink ribbon, a pink organza hand-made bow and pearls completed the gift box. This is going to be filled with embellishments....or maybe chocolates...I haven't decided yet!!

I also made a gift wallet, for which I devised the template myself (I spent ages looking on the www for a template, but couldn't find one!!)


This has been sized specifically to put a particular rubber stamp in, but the size could be easily altered to house a stash of stamped images or a gift certificate or gift card. The size of my finished wallet is 13cm wide x 10cm high x 0.5cm deep. If anyone would like a tutorial on how to make this wallet or the gift box, please let me know and I'll put one together.


I'm actually really pleased with how this gift 'trio' has turned out, especially as it's my first time at making the gift box and gift wallet!

I'm going to enter these gift creations into the following 2 challenges:

1. Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Anything bu a card!
2. Creative Inspirations - Challenge 22: Gift (Boxes, Bags, etc)


Thanks, as ever, for visiting! I'd love to know what you think!

Hugs, Sem xx

Ingredients

Basic Grey 'Sugared' 6x6 paper pad : Core'dinations cardstock 'French Roast' : Bazzil Basics cardstock : K&Co 12x12 double-sided paper : Pink, brown and gold organza ribbon : Pink Satin ribbon : Sugar Nellie 'Sweet n Sassy' and 'Daisy' stamps : Magnolia 'Love Muffin' stamp : Whispers pens & Copic Ciaos : Nestabilities Labels 1 : Martha Stewart Doily Lace Border Punch : Woodware corner rounder punch : Scallop scissors : Versamagic Dew Drop 'Wheat' : Sandpaper : Prima flowers : Spacers, brads, pearls and 3D foam pads from stash

The Circle of Friends Award

Woo-hoo! I've just been given this wonderful award by Angela (Sparkly Cards) - thanks so much, hun! I now get to pass it onto 5 blogging friends, so here goes...

1. Dawn (Crafty Dawn)
2. Vicky (Cuddly Cards)
3. Julie (Julie's Inkspot)
4. Jo (Rambling Boots)
5. Janny (My Little Pieces of ART)

I'm sorry I couldn't pass it on to each and every one of you who pops by and leaves me such wonderful comments! Just know that I consider you all my friends!

Hugs, Sem xx

BasicGrey Challenges #1: Daisy

First, huge apols for the absolute pants-ness of this photo! I've tried every room in the house, and the garden, but I can't get a good piccie! Probably too late in the day now! I'll take another tomorrow and update, but I want to post this now as I'm going to enter it for a few challenges, and one ends today!

Okay, so as I'm sure everyone knows, the hugely missed BasicGrey Challenge blog is back!! Woo-hoo! Well, the first challenge started on Saturday (8th August) with a gorgeous sketch by Tara G, and this is my effort!

I had a good ole look through my BG pads and decided to use one I haven't used in ages - 'Sugared' (I love the combination of gold, olive, pinks and brown). I also had a good rummage through my stamps and decided upon my very neglected Sugar Nellie Daisy stamp!

I sanded the dark brown Core'dinations cardstock to give it a more aged look, plus I used a couple of Versamagic Dew Drops to ink around the background DP and also the edge of the image. (Piccie doesn't really show this!).

I've left off the sentiment, as this has been made for someone in particular and I don't want them to realise its for them (and they won't be getting it for a while!) - hope that's okay?

I'm going to enter this card into the following 3 challenges:

1. BasicGrey Challenge - Week 1: I have followed the fab sketch by Tara G
2. Simon Says Stamp: Buttons and Bows
3. PollyCraft Monday Challenge - #21: Buttons and Bows

Thanks for popping by!

TTFN! Hugs, Sem xx

Kreativ Blogger Award from Juls!

I'm such a lucky duck cuz ... Juls has just given me this award! Woo-hoo! Thank you so much hun, you've made my day! I have to tell you that I'm very jealous of Jul's blog name - her blog is called The Glitter Chick (such a cool name!). Be sure to hop over there to see her wonderful creations - the wedding candle & matching card she's just made is so beautiful!

So, to officially accept this award, I have to do the following:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog
3. Link the person who nominated you for this award
4. Name seven things about yourself that people might find interesting
5. Nominate seven Kreative Bloggers
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate
7. Leave comments on all seven blogs letting them know you nominated them

Okay, so 7 interesting things about me that you might find interesting....hmmm...easy to list them, but not sure you'll find them that interesting! LOL! But here goes:

1. I started learning the piano when I was 5 years old and have a degree in music.
2. Although I'm British-born, I used to live in New Zealand.
3. My younger brother is a member of the British Olympic Archery Squad, and represented GB in Athens & Beijing (...okay, it's not about me per se, but he is my little brother!!).
4. I love eating lemons, but try not to because it's so bad for my tooth enamel!
5. I bite my nails, and wish I didn't!
6. I own more than 80 Nintendo DS games!
7. I love karaoke and want to buy a home karaoke system!! (...oops, that was supposed to stay a secret forever!!)

Ha, ha - so now you know a bit about me!!!

The 7 lovely blogging friends I would like to pass this award onto are (in no particular order):

Julie - http://trulyjulie1966.blogspot.com/
Barb - http://madeforkeeps.blogspot.com/
Clare - http://wilky-clare.blogspot.com/
Maggie - http://maggiebob.blogspot.com/
Sparkle - http://sparklecreations.blogspot.com/
Chris - http://cattsscratchingpost.blogspot.com/
Dei - http://deifen-allthatglitters.blogspot.com/

Now, I have at least another 70 people (LOL!) that I would have liked to pass this award onto, so please know that even if you name is not on the list, I appreciate you just as much!

Okay, that's it from me for today - it's almost 10.30pm, and I've spent far too long on this computer for one day!! LOL!

Night, night everyone!

Hugs, Sem x

WOJ Challenge 42: Jacqui's Sketch

G'day everyone!

Darling hubby took even more darling daughter to the beach today for a bit of father-daughter time, so I had a rare few hours to do some crafting. I've been having MASSIVE trouble lately with my mojo - just not feeling it, for some reason - and I seem to have reverted back to taking hours to complete one card.

Anyway, I've made this card for this week's Whiff of Joy Challenge (#42), which is a fab sketch by the uber-talented Jacqui. I decided to use (for the first time ... slap my wrists!) Whiff of Joy's 'Melinda Blowing Kisses' stamp from the Guardian Angel Collection (Fall 2008) by Elizabeth Bell. I glittered up her wings and highlighted some details using my Sakura clear gel glitter pen.

I couldn't find ANY dark brown flowers (...why is that despite having 100s upon 100s of Prima flowers, I can never find the shade I want, LOL!) so I had to make do with punching one out of brown cardstock. I think I may treat myself to one of those embossing flower punches that Woodware make!

I used my new MS Heart (Valentine?) border punch and also ran the pink paper through the swirly Cuttlebug folder to give it a bit of interest and to continue the 'swirly' theme of Melinda's clothes, DP and flower jewellery!

I'd love to know what you think!

As always, thanks so much for stopping by!

Hugs, Sem xx

Ingredients
Basic Grey 'Bittersweet' 6x6 paper pad (Cherry Cordial, Crushed Berry, Brittle) : Core'dinations cardstock 'French Roast' : MSBP Valentine Lace : Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls Embossing Folder : Nesties Label 4 : Whisper Pens : Sakura Clear Glitter Gel Pen : Versamagic Dew Drop Wheat : Prima flowers, brads, bead caps & 3D foam pads from stash

ASFOS meets PaperPlay: Enchanted Daughter...

Good morning, one and all!

This is a scheduled post, so fingers crossed Mr Blogger plays nice! As you're reading this, we should be enjoying a fun family day out at Longleat Safari Park ... weather permitting, of course, LOL!

So today I'd like to show you a card I made for our dd's birthday (hence the blurred out sentiment). She wanted me to make her a card especially for her, because it would "mean more" to her (....awwww!), so I got her to pick out which paper she liked and also which image she'd like. She loves these Enchanted Lily images from Pink Cat Studio, probably because I ordered them for her straight from Canada so that it said her name instead of 'Lily' on the stamp packaging!! She also wanted the colour red included too!


I coloured Lily with my trusty Whispers Pens and glittered up her wings and the flower 'buds' with my Sakura clear glitter gel pen.

I'm pleased to say that dd really loved her card, and as she said "it's special because you made it especially for me mum, with love!".

I'm going to enter this card into the following 2 challenges:

1. A Spoon full of Sugar - Challenge 63: Floral Fantasy : something floral on our cards. My card has floral DP, flowers included in the stamped image, and Prima flower embellishments!

2. PaperPlay Challenges - Week 28: Dimension : make our projects as 3D as possible. I've popped up everything on 3D foam pads (as I usually do!) - I just love dimension!

Thanks as always for taking the time to stop by. You are appreciated more than you know! And I'd be so honoured if you're inspired to leave a little comment - they always brighten my day!

Big hugs to everyone!

Sem xx

Ingredients

October Afternoon 'Cherry Hill' 8x8 paper pad ('Egg Basket A' and 'Sunday Dishes A') : Core'dinations cardstock : Martha Stewart 'Scallop Dot' Border Punch : Woodware Corner Rounder Punch : Pink Cat Studio 'Enchanted Lily' Stamp : Whispers Pens : Sakura Glitter Clear Gel Pen : Prima flowers : Brads, spacers, ribbon, 3D foam pads from stash

Sunday Sketch & Stamp 8: Whiff of Joy

Heeeellllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooo!!! And good morning to everyone!!

Yep, I'm back in the land of the living! Feeling much, much better now [big thanks to all you lovelies who sent me get well wishes], and I've even managed to make a card! Woo-hoo!

So today I'd like to share with you my DT card for challenge 8 over at Sunday Sketch & Stamp. The Craft Barn is sponsoring this fortnight's challenge with a fabulous £10 gift voucher (The Craft Barn ships worldwide, btw!), and we have a scrumptious sketch to follow designed by my teamie, Clare.

Since being really naughty and buying my first (and only!) set of Copic Ciaos, I've been using these more and more over my original (and cheap!) Whispers pens. Of course, my Copics Set A has only 36 of the 144 pens you can get, and I realise that I am severely lacking in certain colours (hence the wrong shade of pink on the girl's dress!). However, what with the credit crunch and all that, I can't justify buying anymore at the moment - one set of 36 Copics is about 75% of our weekly food money!! I was hopping around blogland earlier and came across quite a few piccies of people's craft rooms/craft space and realised that I have NOTHING like the amount that everyone else does!! LOL!!

So onto the card! I used the cherry paper from the new Basic Grey Lemonade 6x6 paper pad. As you all know, each pad has 2 pieces of each design in it. Stupid me has none of the cherry paper left anymore, as I cut the first piece 1cm too small (duh!), so that's now gone into my scraps box to be used in the future!!

I was going to use one of my Tilda stamps (with cherry dress), but then I remembered that my very good friend, Shelia (aka DippyDog), sent me a wallet full of theWOJ Summer kit images, and this one fitted perfectly. This was my 2nd attempt at colouring, as the first had a green dress, but just didn't look right. As I said earlier, I don't have very many Copics, so the pink of her dress isn't quite the right shade to match the DP, but I still think she looks pretty in pink! LOL!

Also, I don't have many charms, but really thought I had a cherry one from a RAK a while ago. Couldn't find it, so I added a strawberry one instead!

I'm going to enter this card into the following 2 challenges:

1. Whiff of Joy - Challenge 41: Floral (to use flowers)

2. Cute Card Thursday - Challenge 71: Let's get fruity (I've used cherry DP, strawberry charm, and my image has cherries on her dress and hat!)

Despite all the kerfuffles, I am actually really pleased with this card!!! Hope you like it too?

Wishing you all a fab day!

Hugs, Sem xx

INGREDIENTS

Basic Grey 'Lemonade' 6x6 Paper Pad : Bazzil cardstock : Whiff of Joy image from RAK : Ribbon, charm, pink gems, Prima flowers, brads, spacers from stash : Sentiment from Simon Says Stamp set