Faith in nature .....

Second card of the day.

I borrowed the stamp for this card from my Mum unfortunately we don't live very near to each other (it's a 300 mile round trip!) so sharing isn't very easy!!!

The stamp is from the 'Faith in Nature' set by Stampin Up.  I also used Stampin Up Inks - Not Quite Navy and Lucky Lemonade.  The twine for the frame also came from my Mum but I've no idea where she got it from.

I'm going to enter this into the challenge on "Less is More".  I think it fits the criteria better than the cute elephants.

Two Cute elephants .....

I've had a busy week so far - not a great deal of card making but an awful lot of craft shopping and card design chatting with my Mum! But now down to business I need to get crafting. 

My first card of the week is using the cute elephant digi stamp from Little Claire Designs (see my previous post for details) I flipped the design so that the elephants would look at each other and hold onto the sentiment banner.  The elephants are paper pieced with free paper from a magazine (but I can't remember which magazine or when.

I used some bakers twine to attached the sentiment to the elephants!

I am going to enter this into three challenges:

Seize the Birthday where anything goes, as long as it's Birthday; Little Claire's Designs where the challenge is to create a Child's Birthday Card; and "Less is More" where the challenge is to use string or twine.

Little cute elephant ...

This is the first evening of the half term holidays and as I work in a school office that means a week off work!!  Will it be a week of housework, tidying and washing or will it be a week of fun .... we'll just have to wait and see.

After mentioning Little Claire Designs in my previous blog I popped along last night to see what was new.  I discovered that they have a blog too! and they run challenges!  So you know what's coming next .. I decided to have a go.  The theme is a 'child's birthday' you can find all the information here.

I downloaded from Little Claire Designs a cute elephant digi stamp and paper pieced it using some free paper from a magazine.  I've used very gentle colours (except for the background layer)  I may have another go and maybe next time I'll try it with bright cheery colours.

I had to show the cute elephant in close up

Birthday flowers ....

My friend is celebrating her 50th Birthday this weekend so I thought I would make her a special card that made no direct mention of the number 50!! 

I have a stamp sentiment from Little Claire Designs that I think is ideal for a 50th - it says "Don't think about the candles it's the memories that count".  I love Little Claire designs and have quite a number of their stamps especially the sentiments.

I took inspiration for  the layout from one of the sketches from the clean&simple challenge - it's a good job that they give you two weeks to enter otherwise I would be too late.  Here's the sketch:

And here is my card:

I had to include a close up of the cute sentiment.

When I've been wandering around and looking a other craft blogs it's been really useful to see what supplies they've used to complete their designs.  I though I would give it a go although the list will not include everything because all my supplies don't have the original packaging!!

The card stock and the paper came from my stash - the pink striped paper was a freebie from a magazine.  The circles were created using a selection of small flower stamps from different sets and stamped with the following inks from Stampin Up - Lucky Limeade, Regal Rose, Riding Hood Red - and Distress Inks - Tea Dye and Pine Needles.

The only thing left to do is upload it to clean&simple!

A Tree Trio.....

With the amount of rain we've had this afternoon I think I should have been building a boat instead of making cards!

This week's challenge at "Less is More" is based on the theme of TREES.  I've made quite a number of cards for Christmas that feature trees but the rules of the challenge don't allow for linking back (this is a great idea) so I had to think of something else.  This is what I came up with - back to black and white with the merest hint of sparkle!

This is a die that came free with a magazine - it's very fiddly to use but with the help of some waxed paper I managed to do it.  You'll have to look real close to spot the sparkle!!

Sew mice ......

Once again I've taken this week's challenge sketch from clean&simple this time I've come up with a Thank You card.  I've also tried a different technique (for me) of colouring a stamped image with pro-markers but I think I need more practise!! I've had trouble with the black from the image bleeding into the colour - I need to establish the best ink pads to use with alcohol based markers.  This is the result:

I used small buttons to add detail and texture

Enjoy!

Paper Angel 2 .......

I've decided against doing the housework ..... instead I'm going to craft all day.  I'm fairly certain that the housework will still be there for another day unless the helpful elves visit overnight!!

Less of my ramblings.  Here is the second card I've completed using my current favourite Angel stamp and my current favourite technique of paper piecing.  The card is based around this week's sketch  for the challenge on clean&simple number 263! I like the sketch so I may make another card in this style.

The stars are peel offs - the closest to bling in my stash!

I visited a new blog this morning (new to me!) they also run weekly challenges - this week is anything goes as long as it's a Christmas Card and as this is a Christmas card I thought I would enter it there too.  Oops nearly forgot, you need to know the name of the blog C.R.A.F.T.Challenge