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Monday 27 February 2012

FOSTV Challenge 9 for 2012

The weeks seem to fly past lately - it is Monday again and fortunately I have the day off work.  I am sorting out my craft space and getting in one holy mess.  Hopefully I will be glad I did it when I get to the end but if you are like me you usually find a few things near the end that have "no home"!  I completed this card before the major sort out began so I am really glad I did.

The challenge at  FOSTV this week is to use embossing.  Now you could use dry embossing by hand or with an embossing folder or you could you embossing powder and a heat gun - I got a bit of both onto this card..


The brown background card is embossed and then lightly sanded.  The main image was stamped onto a brayered background and then coloured with pencils.  The grass and sentiment were stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed.  The cat, sentiment and grass are from two different MFP sets - Big Cats and Buffalo Spring. Please join in the challenge this week - we would love to see what you create.  You can find the challenge here.  I am also entering this card in a recent inspiration challenge IC324 and the inspiration piece I chose is this one

Take care and have a good week.

Sunday 26 February 2012

Can't say NO

When one of the senior executives of your company asks if you have "a card in your box for wife, likes golf, birthday" it doesn't pay to say NO.  However I had nothing suitable so asked if he would like something made.  He said yes and said he needed it by March 1st.  However he then told me he wasn't in the office except Monday and I am not in until Thursday!  Fortunately one of my team live nearby so now this is done I can drop it round to him and he has agreed to take it in for me.  Why do I do these crazy things?
The image is from Impression obsession, the sentiment on the golf ball is from LOTV and the one on the flag is computer generated.  The designer papers are from Paper Cellar and the image is coloured with Copics and sponged with Old Paper distress ink.  I have used lace along the border and pearls along the top and the flag so I am entering this card for this Sunday's Sentimental Sundays challenge.

Saturday 25 February 2012

Gilded Cage

Today has been a long day - we have been assembling and positioning flat pack furniture  so right now I am aching and tired but also quite happy with what we have achieved.  I brayered this image earlier in the week but it has sat unloved until tonight when I have turned it into a simple Mothers Day card.  The stamp is from CraftyIndividuals and the sentiment from LOTV.  I am entering this is the Stampin Sister for Christ challenge of last Sunday to use flowers.
Thank you for looking and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Friday 24 February 2012

Wishing you Success Calum

Calum, our nephew, takes his first GCSE on Monday week so I have made this masculine card to wish him well.  I have used the VLV Feb week 4 sketch, the OCC colours and this is also for the Sentimental Sundays challenge to focus on the sentiment.  It was a difficult card to photograph as the DP stopped the camera from getting a proper focus but there is a star all glittered up on the end of the swirl.
The sentiment is from Verve.

Thursday 23 February 2012

Make a Wish

This is yet another card for a 5 year old - sorry if I am boring anyone reading my blog.  This card uses an image from Lili of the Valley and another paper from a magazine gift.  The Spellbinders die seems very appropriate for the Make a Wish sentiment.  I used Copic markers on this one and I sponged Antique Linen distress ink around the edges before removing the die.  This one has also gone to a work colleague.

Quick Post

This is a very quick post to share another card that I am entering for Jugs124.  I very rarely make two cards for a challenge but having stamped and brayered this I ended up with something hat I could enter for this week's Jugs colours so that is what I plan to do.

Wednesday 22 February 2012

Another Girl Card

This is another 5 year old card for my work colleague - his daughter is 4 and her friends are turning 5 soon!  It is made using the VLV Feb 2012 week 3 challenge sketch.  The image is another Sarah Kay one and it is stamped on water colour paper and coloured with water colour pencils. 

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Jugs124 Colour Challenge


This card is another one for a work colleague who requested 5 cards for 5 year old girls.  It uses a cute Sarah Kay image and was stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured with water colour pencils.  It was cut out with a Spellbinders die and edged with a yellow ink pad.  Some perfect pearls were painted onto the hat.  The background paper was from a paper pack received with Card Making and Papercraft magazine.   The colours were chosen to fit with the Jugs124 challenge.  Thank you for looking.

Monday 20 February 2012

Pansy Punched Joy Fold

This week at Friends of Speedy TV our challenge is to use 3 or more punches.  I used about 5 on my card in the end - a border and matching corner punch from Martha Stewart, another border punch from EK Success on the purple piece, a butterfly punch for the tiny butterflies and a tag punch to make the sentiment piece.  I think these pansies from MFP are perfect for spring Birthday or Easter cards.  I have several Birthdays coming up so I chose to make a Birthday card.  Thanks for looking and please join in the challenge if you find a few spare minutes.

This is a look at the card opened up.

Sunday 19 February 2012

Brayering - VLVFeb2012_Week2

I have been playing with my brayer as I have joined the Brayering class at MCC.  Having produced a nice varied background with Sailboat Blue, Raspberry and Purple Twilight Adirondack inks I decided to cut it up and use it for the VLV Feb 2012 Week 2 sketch.  I stamped it with images from Lavinia stamps and sentiments from Cloud 9 and Innovative Stamp Creations.  I used Purple Stazon for the images and sentiments.  The background is done using a Craft Concepts embossing folder.

Thank you for looking.


Janine

Friday 17 February 2012

With Love

A little Penny Black creation for this week's Penny Black challenge done with watercolour pencils and using the SFF021012 sketch and the challenge from WT362 for Bountiful Borders. I used the same punch from Martha Stewart on the red and yellow card stock.

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Hello! Welcome to Mark's Finest Papers a Heinrich Company's February Blog Hop!
This month's New Stamp Set Releases are
Relax A Bit Featured February 14
North American Woods Featured February 15
Blessings Featured February 16
Dogwood Blossoms Featured February 17
Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs, each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All four winners will be announced on February 18, 2012 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 11PM EST on Friday February 17, 2012.

Lois
Vicky
Anne
Pat G.
Karen H.
Patty P.
Mary
Dawn M.
Marilynn
Chrissy
Karen K.
Pam
Debbie
Nancy
Bonnie
Harriet
Kathy
Brenda
Mark's Finest Papers


Our new promotion begins this month! With the purchase of the February New Release Package, you will receive this stamp set for FREE!

Our February New Release Mini:
Spring Joy

Monday 13 February 2012

Superstar

I took a call on Friday from one excited young lady who wanted to share her news "I am going to be following in your footsteps".  What she was really saying was that she had been accepted onto a teaching course for next year once she gets her degree.  Like I did she will be training to teach 5 to 11 year old children and hopefully unlike me it will be what she does - I taught secondary school Maths!  Lauren is really good with youngsters and I think she will make an excellent teacher.

I already had this High Hopes bookworm out as I was going to send her some encouragement for her studies but the bright colours and the sentiment are there because of her wonderful news.

I am entering the card for the following challenges
JUGS 123 - use buttons at the centre of your design - 2 on there!
F4A103 - Rainbows
Sentimental Sundays 89 - Shaped Card with a sentiment
Stampin Sisters in Christ 126 - Happy News
High Hopes 127 - Seeing Stars

No Bull, You're Old

Now there are not many people I would be brave enough to send this card too but Dave and his old school mates quite happily trade these sort of cards and as Dave has already had his Birthday we can get away with it! 

The card is for this Speedy TV Week 7 challenge for 2012 and we would love you to play along too. The challenge is to decorate the inside of the card as well as the outside of course!  I decided to make a Swing card and decorated lots of surfaces so I think it counts.




The images are from the MFP stamp set called Buffalo Spring.  The bull is coloured with Copics and I used Distress, SU and Memento inks.



Sunday 12 February 2012

No Words Unspoken

Verve stamps has some beautiful sentiments and I paired one of those with the rose bud from MFP and some SU papers to make this card.  The sketch is Mojo227 and the colours are from CC361.

The dies used are from Spellbinders, the ribbon and lace from my stash and the image was coloured with Copics.
 
I hope you have a good week and thanks for looking.

Lois 4

Wow what an exciting time to have a little girl coming up for 4.  A friend at work asked for a card for Lois who is 4 on Tuesday and this is what I came up with.  I hope my friend and Lois like this very girlie card.

The image is a Messy Rabbit one and it is coloured with Copics.  I have used Spellbinders and Cuttlebug dies and also a punch from Martha Stewart which sadly feels a bit odd now when I use it.  The papers are from Doodlebug


If anyone can share a fool proof and easy way to sharpen punches I would love to hear about it.

Thanks for looking

Friday 10 February 2012

2 More Valentines

I received the MFP Love Remains set this week and immediately had to stamp and colour the large rose.  I also coloured two rosebuds that have yet to make their way onto cards.  As I laid out a few valentine cards close to my desk at work and a few people showed some interest bought them I made two more and took them in today.  These are the cards I made - one has an added sentiment from Verve but the other I left the rose to do all the talking!

Wednesday 8 February 2012

True Gift

I have made another 6 Christmas cards so that is 16 for February and 4 more than my target for each month, so I am quite chuffed.  I used the VLVFeb2012 Week1 sketch and some Verve stamps and dies for these cards.  I was also mindful of the Stampin Sisters in Christ post this week and even though this card has a partially hidden heart and no mention of the word LOVE it is all about true love.  The photo shows the batch of 6 and a single card.  There are a few variations but they are roughly the same.



Thanks for looking.

Monday 6 February 2012

Pucker Up

It is Friends of Speedy TV challenge week 6 and this week we are making Valentines cards.  I had to make a card that is not my usual thing as my beautiful rose set from MFP with the valentine sentiment has not reached me yet.  I made this simple card using the SFF sketch from last week.  The hearts are just punched, the lemon flower is coloured with Prismacolor pencils and the dots are added with a Cuttlebug embossing strip.








When you open the card this is what you will find.







Please join in the FOSTV challenge this week. We would love to see your creations.

Sunday 5 February 2012

Mojo226_IC322 Christmas Set

Decided to get on with my February Christmas cards today, after shovelling snow this morning it sorts of seems appropriate.  I used some small cards and an even smaller stamp and came up with this set of 10. The image is an inchie from Inkadinkado set o a punched square and each card has a section of the Memory Box snowflake corner mounted under the image.


I used this piece from IC322 as my inspiration - I know the image should have been round! 

I have photographed a single card as well

Monkey Love

Another High Hopes monkey - this time in the pink.  I used Kraft, grey and predominately pink for this word card.  I am entering it in the OCC and High hopes challenges and I have used the tutorial shown this week on Splitcoast. The OCC challenge is to use the 3 colours above, plus a heart and glittery stuff.  My brads are nice and sparkly and there is Stickles on my small heart.  The monkey is coloured with Copics and two shades of pink were used for the sponging.  Both patterned papers contain pink although the one on the letter I looks rather red in the photo. 


Thanks for looking and if you are in the UK keep safe in the snow right now.

Saturday 4 February 2012

Back to my roots

The Stampin Sisters in Christ challenge last Sunday was to show your style - one issue wasn't sure what my style was!  Ended up going back to my first love Penny Black stamps but rather than using a cute stamp I went for something a little more sophisticated.
Camera has been playing up big time and another card I made has gone off but the photo was no good - the memory stick has had it!  Fortunately checked this one out and managed to get another photo before it hit the post.
I am entering this card in a few challenges
Stampin Sisters in Christ Challenge 124
Sentimental Sundays Challenge 87 - dry embossing - background and central strip
Jugs122 - sketch
Penny Black Saturday Challenge 187 - colours, fence style punch