A very distressed card

Hooray! I've actually been able to make a card, lifes been so hectic lately. This card is for the Whiff of Joy Challenge - Lets get dirty- Distressing, and I followed the sketch from the Friday Sketchers Challenge.
I have coloured in my image with Distress Inks and also used them to dirty around the edges of all the papers, I even dirtied the faux brads and edges of the flowers with them, not forgetting my hands and nails, even my nose,(I had an itch). Not bothered though it was fun to play. Hope you like. Sue

Spend, Spend, Spend

I have been up to the Papercraft Show at the Yorkshire showground today. I was up at 7am, 2 hour drive there (thank goodness for my Sat Nav as road works took me a different way). Bought loads and loads, spent a fortune, watched loads of demos, took some photos for inspiation, then drove home another 2 hours. I've had a great but exhausting day. Cant wait to play with all my fantastic new stuff. Only 1 week of work then we are off for 2 weeks over Easter. Yippee!!

Hopefully I'm back...

I have been the worlds worst blogger lately. Firstly I'd like to apologise to everyone, as I haven't been around to leave many comments. The reason being, my laptop has been playing up for the last couple of months, off and on. Then a few weeks ago it finally gave up altogether. So the only way I could get onto the internet was to go and sit in my sons bedroom and use his computer, that wasn't ideal, as I usually blog hop at night whilst sitting in bed. Now I think I've got my laptop working properly (hands together praying),so I can start to blog hop again and leave some comments. Cant wait to see what you've all been up to and you're latest creations. Hugs Sue x

My 1st Award

I just received an award from the very talented Sandra. Everybody should check out her blog @ Sandra Dry Designs her work is such an inspiration. Thankyou so much I am absolutely thrilled. I always try to leave comments because I know how fantastic it is to receive nice comments about our creations. It's great to get feedback and inspires us to carry on. I would like to pass this award on to my follower - Elaine, she always take the time to leave me a lovely comment. "Thanks Elaine they are very much appreciated".

Papertake Weekly Challenge

Here's my card for the Papertake Weekly Challenge, only just in time. This style of image is a little different for me, but I just received the candy I won and had to have a play with the lovely images and paper that were included. Thanks again Sandra, I love it all. I think I'll enter it into the My time to Craft Challenge too, this week its - Woman. Thanks for looking :)

A card for all challenges.....

As I have to get the kids in the bath, finish the ironing and get ready for work tomorrow I have very little crafting time, so I've combined challenges in this one card.
1st I used the Saturday Sketch #41.
2nd I used these free papers as they fit the challenge over at Lili of the Valley- Bright and Beautiful.

3rd This Penny Black stamp- Cheesecake Party will fit the Cute Card Thursday- Food and Drink
4th I added hand drawn doodling, so that it is suitable for Our Creative Corner- Add a doodle Challenge.
Better get back to that ironing :(

Whiff of Joy Challenge

This weeks Whiff of Joy Challenge is - Lavender and Lace. Here's my card, I water-coloured my image from the Spring Kit. As I didn't have a piece of lace I used my punch to create a lacey layered look. I actually used a sketch from last weeks Our Creative Corner Challenge, which I turned on its side. I know the sketch doesn't have corners on , but I just had to try my new Cuttlebug corner die set. I also didn't have any flowers in this colour way, so I coloured a prima with an ink pad and used punches under it. The center of the flower is a Papermania gem brad. Seems like I had to do alot of adapt and make do for this challenge.

New crafting buddy....

I seem to have a adopted a cat, or should I say I have been adopted by a cat. Isn,t he a beauty, he's a local cat that has suddenly decided to come and stay. The children say his name is Sailom but we have no idea who he belongs to. He has visited us for an odd hour quite a few times in the past, but now has decided to stay. I don't mind a bit he's lovely and he loves nothing better than sitting with me in my craft room. Its nice to have company that doesn't come with "mum, can I have," or "mum, can you," just nice quiet purring. The purrfect companion!.

Combined challenges

Hi everyone, I'm back in the old routine of work and chauffeuring the kids around to all their activities, so there's hardly any time left to craft. I've managed to grab an hour tonight so I've made a card and combined 3 challenges. Who knows when I'll get to play again this week. Here goes .... I've followed Saturday Sketch #40, but turned it upside down.
The colours used Pink, Orange and Brown are so that I can enter this weeks challenge over at Papertake weekly and I stamped one of my favorite Penny Blacks, this adorable mouse sitting in a box of chocs - Sweet Slumber- so that I can also enter the card in the Penny Black Saturday Challenge- Something to eat.
I used my new Brushables to colour the image and then used some glaze on the chocolates to make them look good enough to eat. The flowers were my bargain shop, only £1.50 from Hobbycraft, for a bag packed full of different sizes, absolutely loads. I actually bought them for my daughter, but there's plenty to share. I tinted the edges and glued a button in the center.

I won....

I cant believe it I have won my very first blog candy from Sandra over at White Dazzle . I cant wait, I'm so excited. Thank you so much Sandra. It must be my lucky time, I also won a prize last week on A Spoon Full of Sugar challenge blog.

Truly Scrumptious - New Challenge

A new Challenge - Truly Scrumptious #1 -Sketch. Just found this new challenge blog, so decided to have a go. A lovely sketch to follow,

I stamped my favourite image at the moment from the new spring set - Whiff of Joy, water coloured and layered up using nesties. I used papers from a Papermania pad, some button brads and a piece of velvet ribbon. I didn't have a thin piece of ribbon in the right shade so used a strip of card at the bottom and embossed a yellow,metal bow brad in copper to try and achieve a similar colour to the button brads.

Just one more challenge.....

Here's my card for the Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge #20- sketch. This is a lovely sketch, quite simple, yet stylish. I had this paper from Papermania, that I think is yummy and I took inspiration on how to colour this cutie from Whiff of Joy from a card Sandra made over on Saturday Sketch challenge, "thanks for the inspiration Sandra". Finished with a few gold peel offs.

Sketch Saturday #39

Warning!! Sunglasses needed to view this card. LOL. Here's my card for this weeks Saturday Sketch. I got this paper free from a magazine and it really made me feel cheery, so had to use it. I chose this image Summer Ice Cream - Sugar Nellie in keeping with the bright summery paper, I lightly water coloured it with Marvy pens. The Ribbon is American Crafts -Elements. Flowers and brads from stash.

Two challenges in one

Here's my card for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. I am doubling up again and am going to enter it into the Our Creative Corner. - Use a Tag Challenge as I've used four shaped tags.
The Bashful badger was water coloured and then I put a little glaze on the flowers. As I've already said the flower like embellishment is made up of four tags with the sentiment stamped on the center one.

One card, two challenges

I took the sketch from A Spoonful of Sugar and the recipe from Lili of the Valley - 1 flower, 2 papers, 3 brads and this is what I came up with. Papers are K & Co yet again. I found a box full of K & co pads the other day, thought I had better start using them. The image was a little large for this sketch really, but I had just been stamping and colouring in so decided to use it any way (I never make things easy on myself) besides I love these Sugar Nellies.
My pictures always seem to come out either a little dull or washed out looking, I do use a daylight light above them. Can anyone offer any advice on taking pics of their cards? Please!!