Peace on earth

Wouldn't it be great if we could all live together peacefully just like the cute couple on this CuddlyBuddly digital image that is so aptly named Peace on Earth?

I took inspiration from this older sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches:

Materials used:

Red cardstock of an unknown brand

Echo Park papers (blog win)

Cuddly Buddly digital stamp, Peace on Earth

Spectrum Noir alcohol markers (Crafter's Companion)

Lifestyle Crafts dies

Glossy accents

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

Winter Wonderland - Red and green

Crafter's Companion - #27 Best friends

A Gem of a Challenge - #53 Animals/teddies

Christmas Card Challenges - #39 Sketch (theme always optional)

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

Charisma Cardz - #34 No embellishments

CHNC - #87 For a couple

One Stitch at a Time - #128 Use a digi

Make It Monday - #105 Anything goes

Vintage Santa

Since I've already missed a couple of challenges over at Tuesday Morning Sketches, I was determined to enter one this week. Fortunately, we had 4 sketches to choose from, including the sketch I used for today's card. Having also missed several Jingle Belles challenges because I left things until the last minute, I decided to enter a card early for a change LOL. I couldn't make up my mind which bingo chart row to take, so I worked around the corner, taking the first row horizonal (santa, stamping, bling) as well as the first row vertical (santa, lace - nobody said it had to be real lace - and embossing).

And these were the sketches to choose from:

The card came together fairly quickly (unlike most of my cards LOL).  I used a digital image from Create with TLC (one of the many December 2011 freebies Paulette offered) and embellished the printed string of beads and crystals with my Sakura gel roller and rhinestones from a Dutch bargain store (Action). The background was made by adhering a strip of blue parchment on a piece of off-white cardstock (Papicolor "anjerwit") and running this through the Cuttlebug in a Sizzix folder that I had inked on the inside with Antique linen distress ink. The Christmas sentiment is from the Verve stamp set Glad Tidings and was stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa. The pearls in the top right corner are from Kaisercraft.

I'm also entering this into the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday - #231 Bling it up

Craft Your Days Away - #52 Anything goes [Farewell challenge]

Crafty Ann's - #72 Christmas in August

Dutch Dare - #179 Bling it on

Make It Monday - #105 Anything goes



Birthday cupcakes

Last week I received my very first Verve stamps from the Verve store, just in time to join the fun of the anniversary festivities. For this card I used the great sketch from the Anni-VERVE-sary 2012 Challenges Day 3 at Splitcoaststampers.

The image comes from the Birthday Bash set. I stamped the image with Memento rich cocoa and coloured it with Derwent coloursoft pencils. The circle and scallopped circle mat were cut with a Lifestyle Crafts die. The papers are from my new BasicGrey 6x6 pb&j paper pad. Don't you love the fresh colours of this PP? I inked all the edges with Antique Linen distress ink and finished the card off with a few buttons from my stash and a ribbon from Artemio.

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

BasicGrey - #75 Anything goes

Bunny Zoe's Craft - #27 Summer

CYDA - #52 Anything goes [farewell challenge]

The Crafty Pad - #184 To die for [use dies/punches]

Craft Your Passion - #124 The power of three [use 3 of something - cupcakes & buttons]

Thank you for visiting. I would love it if you left a comment.

Fairy birthday wishes

When I first started making cards, I bought loads and loads of decoupage sheets, especially when there was a sale, and I've had this cut out and glued up sweet flower fairy (don't remember the brand) for I don't know how long, waiting to be used on a card. Well, that time finally arrived after I saw last week's sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to play along before the deadline, but I really love how this card turned out.

Here's the sketch I've used:

Materials used:

Cardstock - Papicolor

PPs - 2 different Vintage paper pads from the (Dutch) Action store (nameless brand)

Image - Flower fairy decoupage sheet (don't remember the make)

Inks - Brushed corduroy (Ranger's) for the edges, Rich Cocao (Memento) for the sentiment

Sentiment - Sweet November, A Little Bit of Magic Sentiment stamp set

Button - came in a surprise goodie bag with my delivery from Verve stamps yesterday

Button twine - Ladybug Crafts Ink

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

Sir Stampelot - Take flight

ABC Challenge - V for Vanish

Totally Gorjuss - #145 String's the thing

Craft Your Days Away - #52 Anything goes (Farewell challenge)

Charisma Cardz - #32 Monochrome

Mojo Monday sketch 253

This week's sketch over at Mojo Monday seemed like a good opportunity to use one of the new paper pads I bought during the summer sale. For this card I used papers from the Cubierta Miniatura mini deck by Cosmo Cricket.

And here's the sketch I've used:

The flower and butterfly were fussy-cut from one of the flower papers and then adhered with foam pads for dimension. I also used foam pads for the sentiment strip. The sentiment stamp is by Studio Light and the ribbon is from my stash. I added some Glossy Accents to the flowers for some added interest.

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

Mojo Monday - Sketch #253

Top Tip Tuesday - #82 Focus on the ribbon

Simply Create Too - #19 Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp - Bingo: die cut - free- glitter

Charisma Cardz - #31 Flowers & fauna

Crafty Catz - #145 Anything goes

Craft Your Passion - #122 Anything goes

Papertake Weekly - #71 Anything goes

Santa Baby

This fortnight the lovely Jingle Belles want to see inhabitants of the Norh Pole featured on our cards. Of course that includes Santa himself.

I still had this Santa sticker from the BasicGrey Eskimo kisses paper pack, so this seemed the right time to pull it out of my stash to create the following card.

I took inspiration from the following sketch:

Materials used:

Papers and Santa - BasisGrey Eskimo Kisses

Sentiment stamp - Your sentiments exactly

Ink - Aged Mahogany distress ink (Ranger's)

Scalloped circle die - Spellbinder's nestability

Button twine - Ladybug Crafts Ink, coloured with a Spectrum Noir marker

Ranger's Glossy accents for the pom pom on Santa's hat and to make the eyes pop

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

Jingle Belles - Santa Baby

Deconstructed Sketch - Sketch #63

Christmas Card Challenges - #36 Use sth. new (optional; my Glossy accents are new)

BasicGrey - #74 Bright and bold

PaperPlay - #31 Layer it up

Craft Your Passion - #122 Anything goes 

Hippo Hippo Hurray

This card was made at the request of a friend who needed a card for her brother's birthday, preferably with a hippo on it. So I did some browsing and found a cute hippo freebie digi with sentiment at Stitch and Hootch. I coloured the image with Spectrum Noirs and paired it up with some old PP from my DCWV stash. The border was made with my new Spellbinders die and the circles were cut with Lifestyle Crafts dies. The text for the sentiment came with the image, but I typed it in Word to create the sentiment and the numbers in the same font. I inked the edge of the inner circle with Stormy Sky distress ink (Ranger's) and added some Glossy accents to the hat, balloon and eyes.

The inspiration for the design came from this week's Sketch Saturday sketch:

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

Sketch Saturday - Sketch 218

One Stitch at a Time - #124 Use a digi

PaperPlay - #31 Layer it up

Delightful Challenges - Birthdays

Simply Create Too - #19 Anything goes

Make it Monday - #100 Anything goes

Two tiny fairies

Boy, did I set myself a challenge with this card. I decided to paper piece my brand new Sweet November fairy images for the challenge at the ATS blog. The images are part of the Little Bit of Magic stamp set consisting of nine totally cute but tiny fairies, so it took quite some fiddling to cut the paper-pieced dresses and attach them onto the coloured images. But hey, don't they look cute?

And here's a close-up of the little beauties:

I coloured the images with Spectrum Noirs. The sentiment comes from the matching Little Bit of Magic sentiment set, stamped in Memento Rich Cocao and then die cut with a Spellbinders Nestability. The layout is based on that of a card I saw in the June issue of Crafts Beautiful.

Other materials used:

Backing papers - Wild Rose Studio

Paper-pieced dresses - Vintage paper pad from the Dutch Action shop

Ribbon - from my stash

Distress ink - Tattered Rose by Ranger's

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

All That Scraps - Paper piecing

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

Crafts and Me - #94 Anything goes
The Crafty Pad - #181 Things with wings