SCRSC49: Recycled item challenge

Happy Tuesday everyone! Welcome to a brand new Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps challenge! This week we are challenging you to use a RECYCLED ITEM on your project.  Can you guess what recycled item/s I used on my card? ...

I recycled an old card I made just over 2 years ago, back in May 2009, when I had only been crafting for a little while. You can see the original here.  I used to colour using Whisper Dual Tip Pens, and I have been meaning to redo the images on all my old cards using Copics for ages. So as soon as I saw this challenge was recycling I thought it was a great excuse to get started! 

I made a completely new image plate using my RAINY DAY RUBY stamp (paper piecing her umbrella, coat and boots) and changed the strip across the bottom to some SEW SWEET Seam Binding, but I recycled everything else from the original card!
Do pop along to the rest of the SCRS DT's blogs to take a peek at their awesome challenge creations:

Tanya Johnson {June Guest Designer}
Alice Wertz
Kim Yu
Shaela Odd
Simonne Clay (me!)
Sparkle Smith
Stephanie Kraft

Thanks for dropping by! Hope you have a fab Tuesday!

Hugs,

SS161: Whimsy Time Flies

It's Saturday (woo-hoo!) and so time for a brand new Sketch Saturday challenge! This week we are being sponsored by The Craft Barn and here is Jo's awesome sketch for you to follow:

I used the wonderful pocket watch stamp from the Whimsy Stamps Time Flies rubber stamp set for my card and paired it with some paper from my Echo Park 'For the Record' 6x6 paper pad (available HERE at Quixotic Paperie).  Whimsy Stamps Time Flies stamp set is available direct from the Whimsy Stamps store HERE or if you are in UK/Europe you can buy it from Elaine at Quixotic Paperie HERE).  Whilst I was rooting around my black ribbon bag I found some fibre which looked like a pocket watch chain (albeit black!) so I added it to the top of the watch!  Quite a simple card, but I didn't want to cover up the gorgeous paper!

If you haven't already, do hop on over to the Sketch Saturday blog and see what gorgeousness my SS DT sistahs have made!

Thanks for dropping by and hope you have a wonderful weekend whatever you're up to!

Hugs,

SCRSC48: Sweet Cupcake Ruby

Happy Tuesday everyone! Welcome to a brand new Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps challenge!

As Sparkle is sponsoring Tuesday Morning Sketches today, we thought it would be a great idea to use their sketch as today's new SCRS challenge.  So we'd like you to follow this wonderful sketch by Theresa Winslow this week:

I used CUPCAKE RUBY for my make today (all Ruby stamps are currently on sale at 15% off!) and paired her with some more of the yummy MME Lime Twist 'Life of the Party' 6x6 paper:

Here is a close up of Ruby (if you click on the pic it will enlarge even more, although don't look too closely otherwise you will spot a couple of colouring errors, LOL!):

Do you like the crinkle seam binding that I've added? This is the first time I've used seam binding and I LOVE IT!!!  I have used the Aquarelle colour and this is just one of the 27 colours of seam binding that Emma has added to the Sew Sweet Store. You can choose to order your seam binding flat or pre-crinkled - mine was flat and I crinkled it myself, plus I frayed the ends a little!  I added a lovely pink button from the 50g Summer mixed button bag and finished it with some Green Apple Divine Twine.

Sparkle Creations challenge is open to all players. Each week a random winner will be chosen, and they will receive a SCRS rubber stamp. [In order to qualify for a prize, you must use a Sparkle Creations image on your creation.]

Do pop along to the rest of the SCRS DT's blogs to take a peek at their awesome challenge creations:

Tanya Johnson {June Guest Designer}
Alice Wertz
Kim Yu
Shaela Odd
Simonne Clay (me!)
Sparkle Smith
Stephanie Kraft

Thanks for dropping by! Hope you have a fab Tuesday!

Hugs,

SS160: It's 'sew sweet' to Bling, Baby!

It's Saturday (woo-hoo!) and so time for a brand new Sketch Saturday challenge!

....but first I have some FABULOUS news ... I can now officially announce that I am a SEW SWEET DT Member! YIP-YIP-PEE!!

Sew Sweet is an awesome online shop run by the super sweet Emma.  Sew Sweet stocks the most gorgeous wool felt, ribbons, twine, buttons, brads, findings and pins, and Emma is adding new products every month.

I used to be on a couple of DTs with Emma a little while ago (one of them being Sketch Saturday).  I was so honoured to receive an email from Emma asking me to design for her!!!  I am just SO happy and excited to working with her again and with such gorgeous products!! And I'm in amazing company as the one-and-only Judy is also designing for Sew Sweet! Judy is one of my all-time crafting idols and I'm stoked to be on a design team with her again! So I think another YIP-YIP-PEE is called for, hee hee!!! (Can you tell I'm excited just a tiny little bit? LOL!).

Here's the link to the Sew Sweet store, and here's the link to the Sew Sweet blog.  Be sure to hop on over to the blog and become a follower so you can keep up-to-date with all the news, new products, updates and giveaways.  Emma is currently running a DT call, so if you fancy applying, you can read all about it HERE.

Okay, so onto Sketch Saturday! {grin} This week we are being sponsored by the fabulous Pollycraft who is offering an AMAZING prize for one lucky entrant.  The winner of SS160 will win all 3 sets of the gorgeous Swings and Slides digital stamps - that's 18 digi stamps! (Can I 'retire' for a week and enter? LOL!).  Here is Jo's awesome sketch for you to follow:

For my DT make I used one of the brand new, just released, Whimsy Stamps Kenny K Collection rubber stamps for my card - this sassy gal is called 'Bling Baby'  (which I'd already coloured a little while ago).  It was quite a challenge to colour dark skin and afro hair, but I hope I did an okay job!  It's quite difficult to see in the photo, but I did use several Spica glitter pens to colour her jewellery and the rim of her glasses, so there is a nice subtle sparkle IRL! :o)  My sentiment is from the newly released Whimsy Stamps The Good Life Tickets stamp set.

I used some of Sew Sweet's gorgeous wool felt and my Marianne Creatables Chinese Roses die to create my felt rose.  (I used the 'Coral' coloured felt, but there are 65 different colours to choose from!).  I didn't know whether Marianne Creatables dies would cut through felt like MFT Die-namics do, but I am pleased to report that they did perfectly first time (and of course it's so much easier to roll felt than paper, LOL!).

I used a couple of heart-shaped Olive Buttons for the leaves of the felt rolled rose and a blue-green button from the Garden Green Button Grab Bag in the middle of the Prima flowers. FYI Emma hand dyes these buttons herself. They are GORGEOUS! Amazing quality and so many of them in each bag! I am in button heaven, hee hee!

I was quite pleased with myself for thinking a bit outside the box (...well, for me anyway, LOL!) and used some May Arts Striped Twill Ribbon in Celery as an alternative to patterned paper!

If you haven't already, do hop on over to the Sketch Saturday blog and see what gorgeousness my SS DT sistahs have made!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.  Unfortunately here in Bristol we are forecast heavy rain today (what's new? LOL!) Sunday is supposed to be dry (we'll see!) and then more rain forecast for Monday! Feels more like October than June.  Hopefully the awesome summer temperatures and sunshine are saving themselves for August!!

Thanks for dropping by!

Til next time...

Hugs,


Supplies
COPICS: Skin: E31 E33 E35 E37 R20; Hair: E43 E44 E47 E49; Jeans: B99 B97 B95 B93; Top: YG00 YG03; Boots: E44 E43 E41; (Spica pens for jewellery and glasses)
Cardstock: Coredinationrs 12x12 Colorcore OS010 Aqueduct, CC040 French Roast
Paper: MME Lime Twist 6x6 'Life of the party'
Stamp: Whimsy Stamps Kenny K Bling Baby rubber stamp (also available from Quixotic Paperie if you live in the UK/Europe); sentiment is from Whimsy Stamps The Good Life Tickets
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad
Embellishments: Buttons, Striped ribbon and felt from www.sewsweet.co.uk 

Whimsy Stamps June Rubber Release Blog Hop!

Hello and welcome to the Whimsy Stamps June new rubber release BLOG HOP!

We have 15 fabulous new Whimsy Stamps plus 2 new wonderful dies to show you today! These new goodies are available to buy right now from the Whimsy Stamps store along with all your Whimsy favourites. We also have our wonderful special guests joining us for this hop - Beate Johns, Deb Routledge, Deb Mitchell and Elaine Hughes.

The Whimsy Stamps DT have been sneak peeking these fabulous stamps for the past 5 days, so if you missed them be sure to hop on over to the Whimsy Inspirations Blog for some more inspiration!

Here is a full list of the wonderful new rubber stamps and dies being released today:

3 stamps from Crissy Armstrong
Bart’s BBQ ~ Fairy Day Dreams ~ Journey Into The Sea

4 stamps from Meljen's Designs
Garden Bird House ~ Garden Fence ~ Mailed With Love ~ Sick Little Bear

4 stamps from Kenny K
Alice Chains ~ Bling Baby ~ Showgirl ~ Surfer Dude

4 stamps/sets from Raindrop Echo Designs
The Good Life Tickets ~ Into The Farm BG ~ Summer Letter Seals ~ Thank You Tiles

2 dies/sets from Raindrop Echo Designs
Cloud Die Set ~ Hot Air Balloon Die

If you would like to participate in the hop and you didn't arrive here from Crystal's blog, please CLICK HERE to return to the beginning of the hop at Chris’s blog.

The hop starts today (Wednesday June 15th at noon EST) and ends on Wednesday June 22nd at noon EST.

For this hop we have 6 different prize draws! We have not one but TWO grand prize draws, so two lucky hoppers will win a large selection of new release stamps. Grand Prize 1 will be for those who help us advertise the hop, and Grand Prize 2 will be for those who hop along with us. We also have 4 mini candy stops throughout the hop where you can enter to win a new release stamp! I'm not going to tell you where they are, so if you haven't found them you'll just have go back to the beginning and start hopping! *wink*

Today Whimsy Stamps is also releasing its first issue of the Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Magazine! It's packed with amazing samples from the design team and customers as well as three different tutorials that you can follow along with step-by-step. We are excited to bring you samples that have never been seen before and we hope that they will inspire you to create using your favorite Whimsy products! You can find the magazine here: http://issuu.com/whimsystamps/docs/issue1 Please feel free to leave your comments and click the Facebook "Like" button to let us know that you enjoyed it!

For my blog hop creation I used one of the stamps from the Thank You Tiles set and made a set of notelets complete with matching box:

I used SU Kraft card (I'm almost out of that now, *sob*!) and SU Whisper White cardstock for the matting and layering.  The DP is from the Prima 6x6 'Botanical' paper pad and I distressed everything with my Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink pad.

I wanted to emboss the actual stamped image but didn't have any brown embossing powder.  So I used the Distress Ink with clear embossing powder...but you need to work fast!  I got all my supplies to hand, stamped the image using the Vintage Photo ink, quickly sprinkled it with extra fine clear embossing powder before the ink had a chance to start to dry and then heat embossed:

I love that Spellbinders have produced the small Labels 1 and small Labels 4 nesties so that there is now no need to cut one of the shapes out to if you want a slim border.  Well... I don't actually own the Labels 1 small, just the normal Labels 1 nesties, so I used them to die cut the kraft matt and then used the same die cut as a template to draw the smal and hand cut the white card.  I've put the Labels 1 small nesties on my wishlist now, ha ha!!

I have been ooh-ing and aah-ing over the gorgeous handmade rolled roses for a while now, and so as I've been commissioned to make a wedding card I bought the Marianne Creatables Chinese Roses die.  Once I'd received it I thought that perhaps I'd wasted my money as it's quite easy to cut out the unrolled shape yourself!  So I made a rolled rose myself, then opened the die cuts and used them, and much prefer the lovely precise cut they give! Once I'd cut them out of white card using my Cuttlebug, I inked them up with the Vintage Photo ink before rolling them.  Then once they were rolled I gave a final swipe of the pad to the top to emphasise the edges:

Unfortunately I haven't been well for almost a week now which stopped me participating in the sneak peeks - boo!  I did, however, manage to colour up BLING BABY, and once I feel better I shall make a card with her. I used some Spica Glitter pens on the rim of her glasses, her hooped earrings, her necklaces and the buckle of her belt (if you click to enlarge you may be able to see just a touch of sparkle!).  I think her glasses should be white rimmed to stand out against the deepness of her skin, but I'm not brave enough to use my white pen, ha ha!  So the green sparkly glasses are staying!

So now it's time for you to continue the hop by hopping on over to Erin's blog.

Finally, here is a complete blog hop list in hopping order:

Chris Olsen
Deb Routledge
Stephanne Maraver
Deb Mitchell
Crystal Irwin
YOU ARE HERE ---> Simonne Clay <--- YOU ARE HERE
Erin Bailey
Annika Ryan
Crissy Armstrong
Marley van der Heijden
Debbie Eastman
Vicki Parson
Ann Vento
Donna Smith
Elaine Hughes
Minna Paajanen
Patricia Garcia
Iris Wiechmann
Beate Johns
Lori Pachkowsky
Denise Lynn

Thank you so much for hopping with us today and I hope you enjoy the new release!

Hugs,

Sparkle Creations: News and Challenge

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Unfortunately I don't have a Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps challenge make for you today as I've been sick since Friday afternoon!  A tummy upset that is staying upset - boo! Went to my GP yesterday afternoon and she is running some tests.  Hope to have the results back by the end of this week, and really hope that it's just an infection and can be treated with some antibiotics, otherwise more tests and possibly a referral to a specialist!

Anyhoo, even though I don't have a make to show you I can tell you that this week over at SCRS we are challenging you to make an EASEL CARD.  I love easel cards...but don't make enough of them!  The SCRS DT have made some super examples, so why not hop on over and take a look.  If you join us you will be entered into the draw to win the adorable Charlotte with a Rose stamp (one of my all-time faves!).

Sparkle Creations challenge is open to all players.  In order to qualify for the prize, you must use a Sparkle Creations image on your creation.

Finally, I want to let you know that Ruby is our featured character for the month of June, and all Ruby stamps are currently 15% off until June 24th! How fab is that? :o) And if you haven't signed up for our newsletter yet, you'll find the sign up box in the sidebar of the SCRS blog!

Hope you're all having a better Tuesday than me, LOL!  At least the sun is shining here in the South West of England - yay!

Hugs,

Sparkle Creations Release Day: Bicycle Chloe

Hello everyone and welcome to Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps RELEASE DAY!  Woo-hoo!

Yesterday the Karber team previewed "Bubble Millie and Happy Times sentiment". Today it's the SCRS DT's turn to showcase the last of the brand new SCRS stamps that are available to buy right now from the SCRS store! So without further ado, I am pleased to introduce BICYCLE CHLOE who comes with a darling sentiment stamp that reads "Adventure Bound" - how fun!

Be sure to visit all rest of the SCRS designers for more peeks of Bicycle Chloe. Sparkle will be giving away Bicycle Chloe to one lucky person! For a chance to WIN, you need to visit and comment on all of the designer's Bicycle Chloe blog posts (links listed below). Then head on over to the SCRS blog and comment on the Bicycle Chloe post there. You have until midnight EST today to comment, and the lucky winner will be announced tomorrow!

Alice Wertz
Kim Yu
Shaela Odd
YOU ARE HERE ---> Simonne Clay <--- YOU ARE HERE
Sparkle Smith
Stephanie Kraft
Tanya Johnson {June Guest Designer}
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Blog

Thanks for dropping by and hope to you enjoy our new release!

Hugs,

SEW SWEET: New store and DT call

Happy Thursday everyone!  I hope you're having a good week?

I just wanted to pop by and let you know about a new online store that my crafty friend Emma has launched.  I was honoured to be able to work with Emma on a couple of DTs and I am so excited for her in this new venture.

Her store is called SEW SWEET and she stocks the most gorgeous products - buttons (including hand-dyed buttons - amazing!), brads, felt, findings, pins, ribbon....  and she ships WORLDWIDE!!

Emma is looking for some designers to join her team.  All the details can be found in THIS POST at the Sew Sweet Blog.  If you're interested, hop on over to the blog and read about how to apply (it's easy-peasy!). 

And that's not all, tomorrow will be a FRIDAY FREEBIE DAY on the Sew Sweet Blog! Emma will have a gorgeous bundle of goodies up for grabs so be sure to visit tomorrow - I know I will, LOL!

I hope you will join me in wishing SEW SWEET huge success!  And I will leave you with a piccie of some of the gorgeous hand-dyed buttons you can buy at the store ... they are so yummy (click on the pic to be taken to the store):

Hugs,

Sparkle Creations: Introducing...Cherry Blosson Rin

Hello everyone and welcome to the second day of our Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps new release sneak peeks!

Yesterday the Karber team previewed "Breakfast Leslie and Have a Nice Day sentiment". Today it's the SCRS DT's turn to showcase the first of 2 brand new SCRS stamps that will be released on Saturday. So without further ado, I am pleased to introduce CHERRY BLOSSOM RIN ...

Cherry Blossom Rin comes with a darling sentiment stamp that reads "Let us be grateful to those who make our souls blossom". Such a beautiful sentiment!  She will be available to buy from the SCRS store on 12 June!

I followed Mojo Monday Sketch #194 for my layout... I hope you can still see the sketch, LOL!  And here is a close-up of Rin, complete with paper-pieced kimono:

Be sure to visit all rest of the SCRS designers for more peeks of Cherry Blossom Rin. Sparkle will be giving away Cherry Blossom Rin to one lucky person! For a chance to WIN, you need to visit and comment on all of the designer's Cherry Blossom Rin blog posts (links listed below). Then head on over to the SCRS blog and comment on the Cherry Blossom Rin post there. You have until midnight EST today to comment, and the lucky winner will be announced tomorrow!

Alice Wertz
Kim Yu
Peggy Toole {Sponsorship Coordinator}
Shaela Odd
YOU ARE HERE ---> Simonne Clay <--- YOU ARE HERE
Sparkle Smith
Stephanie Kraft
Suzanne Bier {Newsletter Coordinator}
Tanya Johnson {June Guest Designer}
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Blog

Have you signed up for the new SCRS monthly newsletter yet? Each month we will be featuring one of the darling SCRS characters and Ruby is our featured character for June. So be sure to sign up to learn more about our darling Ruby and to receive an exclusive sale coupon! All Ruby stamps will be 15% off from release day (11 June) until 24 June.

Thanks for dropping by and hope to see you on Saturday for release day!

Hugs,

SCRSC46 - Favourite Colour(s) challenge

Happy Tuesday everyone! Welcome to a brand new Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps challenge! This week we would like to see you use your favourite colour/s on your project.

[Apologies for the not-so-great-quality photo - I will update as soon as possible]

My two favourite card-making colours are turquoise and green, and my all-time favourite accent colour is chocolate brown.  Also, a personal favourite colour of mine is yellow.  I always find yellow a tricky colour to craft with, and unfortunately it's a colour that I just can't wear, but that doesn't mean I don't love it! So I have turquoise in my sky, green in my grass, and yellow in the sun and car, all finished with some Vintage Photo distress inked edges!

I have followed this week's Card Patterns Sketch #118 for the layout.  As soon as I saw this sketch I  knew I had to play along with my Cruisin Chloe stamp!  The sky paper is October Afternoon, the paper for grass and paper pieced car is from Basic Grey, and I made the sun and road from Coredinations cardstock scraps. Oh and the sentiment is computer generated and printed straight onto the card base!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

- Card Patterns Sketch #118
- The Corrosive Challenge #119 Summer Colours
- Crafty Hos' Summer, let the fun begin!
- Creative Cowgirls Summertime Fun
- Paper Cutz #94 Travel
- Crafts and Me #37 Punch it Out

Sparkle Creations challenge is open to all players. Each week a random winner will be chosen, and they will receive a SCRS rubber stamp. [In order to qualify for a prize, you must use a Sparkle Creations image on your creation.]

Finally I'd like to extend a very warm welcome to our new SCRS DT members: Amber, Elena, Kadie, Mary and Piali. If you popped by the SCRS blog yesterday you would have read the exciting news that Berenice and Karla from Karber Digital Images are going to start releasing new images in RUBBER and these stamps will be sold in the US throught the SCRS store!! Yippee!! So Amber, Elena, Kadie, Mary and Piali are the SCRS 'Karber' DT! Welcome gals!

I'd also like to welcome Tanya Johnson as our June Guest Designer - welcome Tanya!! Do pop along to the rest of the SCRS DT's blogs to take a peek at their awesome challenge creations:

Tanya Johnson {June Guest Designer}
Alice Wertz
Kim Yu
Shaela Odd
Simonne Clay (me!)
Sparkle Smith
Stephanie Kraft

Thanks for dropping by! Hope you have a fab Tuesday!

Hugs,


Recipe
STAMP: SCRS Cruisin Chloe
INK: Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad; Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink pad
PAPER: OA Weathervane 'picking pumpkins'; Basic Grey 'origins' 6x6 pad
CARD: Coredinations 12x12 Colorcore
COPICS: E000 E00 E02 R20 E31 E33 E35 E37 YG000 G82 G84 BG01 W-s C-s Y08 Y06 Y02 Y00

SS158: Big Guy Grilling

Hi everyone!

It's Saturday, so that means one thing - time for a new Sketch Saturday challenge! As it's the first Saturday of the month, Jo gets to have a week off and one of the SS DT hosts the challenge.  This month it's Jeanette's turn and she has produced an AMAZING sketch for us all:

We are being sponsored by MFT Stamps this week and they are offering a $25 gift certificate to one lucky winner!  I love MFT, especially their dies, and I used the Die-namics Flat Bottom Clouds die set on my card. You can buy this die set direct from MFT Stamps here, or from My Mum's Craft Shop if you're in the UK/Europe.  I finally used my Mo Manning's Big Guy Grilling stamp (I've had this for quite a while, *blush*). You can buy this super image as a digi stamp at Mo's Digital Pencil right HERE, or if you fancy owning the rubber version, Elaine has it in stock over at Quixotic Paperie HERE (10% off until 8 June).

I forgot how much I LOVE colouring Mo Manning's stamps!! {grin}  I used my Copics (of course, LOL!) and paper pieced his shirt.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

- Crafting for all Seasons #2 Father's Day
- The Paper Shelter #16 Dad
- Freshly Brewed #49 It's a Guy Thing
- Scrapbook Sisters #38 A Man's World
- Simon Says Stamp Father's Day / For a Male
- Craft Your Passion #60 What a Guy
- Karen's Doodles #65 Father's Day
- Lexi's Creations #41 Father's Day
- Here Come The Boys #3 Father's Day
- Simply Create #45 Dad
- The Stamp Man #24 Boys and Men
- Aud Sentiments #29 A Sentiment/Card for a Male
- Some Odd Girl Manly Challenge
- Fussy and Fancy A card for a Man or a Boy
- Patties Creations #23 Wedding or Father's Day

If you haven't already, do hop on over to the Sketch Saturday blog and see what gorgeousness my SS DT sistahs have made!

Thanks for dropping by!

Hugs,

Recipe
CARD: French Roast & Blue Moss
PAPER: OA PP036 (Weathervane 'Picking Pumpkins'; AA PP076 (Farm Fresh 'Hay Barn'); OA PP050 (Farm Fresh 'South Forty'); BG Green at Heart
STAMP: Mo Manning 'Big Guy Grilling'

Winner of my Sketch Saturday Party Bag Candy

Thank you to everyone who joined our 3rd Birthday celebrations at Sketch Saturday this week.  Without further ado I would like to announce the winner of my Party Bag Candy.  I plugged the numbers into random.org and it came out with....

...which means it's you Debs from Pink Dandelion's Craft Space. Congratulations Debs! Please send me an email including your full postal address and I will organise for your prizes to be sent out to you!

Be back in 10 with today's new Sketch Saturday make!

Hugs,