16 today!

Good morning blogland,

It's time for a new challenge over at Passion for Markers this week, and it's a special week as well - the challenge blog officially turns 16! 

So because this is officially a 'big thing' it's a big challenge this week - both teams are participating and there are loads of prizes on offer from lots of sponsors.  In with these wonderful prizes the challenge is very easy going and this week we'd like to see 'anything goes' but you must still use your markers.

The sponsors and their prizes are too many to list here, so pop on over to the challenge blog and have a look, while you're there take a look at the wonderful cards my Teamies have created and even, why not, enter the challenge yourself! There is a limit of 3 entries per person this week, but then who's got time to create 3 cards in one week - I know I haven't!

Speaking of cards - here's mine (and it's a total coincidence that it's for a 16th birthday!).

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

Saturated Canary - soda shop introvert (there's no point linking to it as the etsy shop is closed, if you want to find Krista's images you have to subscribe to her Patreon account).

I coloured with my Copic markers

Rubber stamps:

Kaiser Craft - today (it's part of much bigger sentiment and I masked off the rest to get 'today')

taylored expressions - simple strips : birthday

Dies:

Poppy Stamps - scalloped stitch frames

un-branded stitched rectangle

taylored expression - simple strips: well rounded

Anything else:

scrap piece of very old scrapbook patterned paper

acetate

sprinkles

very, very, very old chipboard numbers

And that's about it folks - it's all still all go at home and very out of routine, which if I ever get to make a card 'just because' I will do an accompanying post and explain.  Unfortunately at the moment, I only make cards for challenges, as that's all the time I have - and even then I'm forever running late.

See you soon,

Sarah

One of a kind!

Good morning blogland,

I'm back again and, for me, in super quick time!  This is because it's a new challenge over at Passion for Markers and it's a Special Anniversary one at that!  Both Teams were invited to join in the fun so I'm getting in an extra card for the challenge.

There's so many sponsors that I can't remember them all, best off if you take a wander over to the challenge and look at the huge list yourself and while you're there, and assuming you use markers of some sort, get yourself an entry in the challenge to win some fabulous prizes!  The theme this week is a super simple - 'Anything Goes'.  

As there are so many sponsors the DT were allowed make whatever they felt like, so I went for one of my all time favourite stamp ranges Saturated Canary and this is my card.  I'm hoping that is shows my love of both using my markers (Copics in my case) and the Saturated Canary range of digis - I think I will be a little sad forever that Krista closed her etsy shop!

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

Saturated Canary digi - Steampunk Time

coloured with my Copies

Rubber stamp:

Random one brought from a bargain bin at a craft fair years ago

Anything else:

taylored designs - 6x6 stencil: Scattered Stars

blending brush

Distress Ink

fkat-back gems

wood effect card

un-branded stitched rectangle dies

And that's it folks - I won't keep you hanging around here.  Get yourselves off to the challenge blog and get entering!

See you soon,

Sarah

Enough red?

 Good morning,

After missing my Teams turn a fortnight ago, I was out of the country having a very nice warm holiday with TTT in Rhodes, I'm jumping in with this fortnight with Team Susan's challenge.

The challenge theme this fortnight is 'Use Red' so - along with the required stamping - please use a good deal of red in your project. As always this is a 'for fun' challenge, no prize just the happiness of knowing that your card was picked by The Sweeties!

This is mine:

Supplies used:

Digital Stamp:

Saturated Canary - Jules

coloured with my Copics but no longer available as the shop shut

Sentiment:

Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps - A purrrfect day

Anything else:

un-branded stitched rectangle die set

red card

flat-backed gems

See you soon,

Sarah

challenge/s:

Passion for Markers: Week 715 - Favourite digi or stamp - I just adore Saturated Canary image - was so sad when Krista closed her Etsy shop - so I could pick a favourite from so many of her images.  They are all wonderfully challenging to colour, but this one combines my love of colouring hair and clothes, oh and throws in a cat as well!

Worldwide Crafters and Colourists Challenge: Challenge #10 - Anything Goes

Hellloooo!

Hello blogland,

I'm really going to have to stop saying that I've been neglecting the old bloggy blog lately - it's a bit like a stuck record isn't it! Let's just acknowledge that I'm a terrible blogger and card-er right now and I'll stop harping on about it.

I have no idea why my mojo has up and left - it just has.  It's done it before, and come back, and gone again, and come back - I'm sure this little dry spell will be just the same and when it comes back again you'll have to put up with me posting three times a week!

For now, I'm just going back over cards that I've made and not blogged and DT cards.  This is a made and not blogged one.

I'd made it for one of my daughter's friends - however said daughter forgot (at least three times) to give it to said friend, so it is now languishing, with at least a hundred other cards, in my 'made, but what do I do with' box!

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

Saturated Canary coloured with my Copics

Rubber stamp:

Catherine Pooler - All Around Wishes

Whimsy Stamps - You're my Always

Dies:

un-branded stitched rectangle set

Julie Hickey - Birthday

Anything else:

very old foam numbers

And that's it really, nothing amazing happening here - we are settling into our new routine, TTT is enjoying 6th Form and I'm not making cards!  Hope you're doing better! :-)

See you later,

Sarah

Challenge/s:

Passion for Markers: Week 707 - Pink or Blue.  It's, obviously, blue - but I'm not sure it'd be enough blue for you? No problems if it's not what you were thinking of.

Crafty Catz: Anything Goes - optional with dies

A little catch up

 Afternoon blogland

This post is mostly about TTT and her GCSE results, but somewhat about cards!

So if we do the cards first - as that's what I'm guessing most of you are here for.  I made this card - ooooh last year now! - for the daughter of someone I follow on Instagram.  She'd said her daughter would love some birthday cards and asked if anyone would like to send one.  I was one of quite a few carders who said yes and the card then went half the way around the world - to Australia.

I'm planning to get back into regularly making cards soon. Hopefully this is the last 'from the vaults' for now.

Card:

 Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

Saturated Canary - Dressed Up

coloured with my Copics

Rubber stamp:

Catherine Pooler - All Around Wishes

Dies:

Pretty Pink Posh - Scallop Borders 1

Creative Expressions - Double Stitched Squares

Time for Tea - Dream Big

Paper:

First Edition - New Bloom

Anything else:

Flat backed gems

glitter (which I appear to have lost the pot of and can't remember it's name!)

What you can't see from the picture is that the paper has a lovely glitter to it as well, I thought would really complement the glitter I added to the dress.  Wish I could find that damn pot of glitter - it was really pretty!  Currently though it looks like the glitter fairy ate it!!

Now - moving onto to TTT.  Well she did good in her GCSE's - she took 12 subjects / exams in total and got a 9 for Maths, 8 for Computer Science and a raft of 7s for most other subjects.  We'll accept the couple of 6s and gloss over the Religious Studies grade :-)  This means that she will be going to 6th Form at the Grammar she's been at since leaving Primary.  

The trouble we've been having is she wanted to do French and English Language (some of her grade 7s) but school dropped those subjects as financially un-viable to run due to not enough student interest / numbers.  It caused a lot of upset at the time - we even went so far as to look at other 6th Forms and, as we live 45 mins drive from the nearest, a lot of soul searching and serious debate ensued.

When the final list of subjects 'our' 6th Form were going to offer came out, the consensus was that a 45 min to 1hour drive every day to a different town / school just wouldn't work.  The final decision was made when she went to 'our' schools' Induction Day. She could still do Maths and Computer Science (subjects she was never going to compromise on) and tried Psychology and Sociology as 'tasters' instead of French and English Lang.  Luckily she really enjoyed both of those subjects and so the final decision was made! 

She's going to 6th Form in September to study; A level Maths; Computer Science; Psychology and Sociology.

My goodness - those are some subjects to pick! Personally I think she's going to love picking over people's brains - she already tries it with me and her dad!

Onwards and upwards - we are now looking forward to the 6th September with great interest! 

It also feels a bit like I've just written my novel - so I'm going to scoot now and get on with actually making some cards, or some housework, or some washing, or some cooking, or maybe even just relax with music and a book - who knows!

I hope everyone else is doing well - I do hope those of you with kids / grandkids going through the same as our TTT are coming happily out the other side of it.

See you soon,

Sarah

Challenge/s:

Passion for Markers: Week 704 - Embellish it - I do hope it's enough embellishments to qualify?  I'm not so into heavy embellishments anymore, this is about my limit (well generally anyway, unless I feel in a super 'go for it' mood!)

Polkadoodles Challenge: Wk 33 - Anything Goes

Inkspirational Challenges: #297 - Word Prompt : Clothing/Closet.  I hope the sparkly dress qualifies?  No problems if not.

My Time to Craft Challenge Blog: #515 - Die-cuts

Inspiring.....

Good morning blogland,

Late again, and for two posts this time! I think I can't have set the 'publish on' button right - I really must check my work more thoroughly and not do things in a rush next time!

This means this post and the next are posts without waffles - even though I've been on a holiday since last we spoke. Nothing fancy - just a weeks jaunt to County Durham and Yorkshire but I did have pictures to share. That will have to wait.

Back to what should have been happening in this post.

Hello campers!

This is my inspiration post for the new challenge that started (insert correct date here!) yesteday - Saturday 5th - over at Sweet Stampin' for this fortnight the challenge theme is 'Based on a book/film/song'.  Please remember we are, at heart, a stamping challenge so there does need to be some stamping on your project (rubber or digital) but your project doesn't need to be a card.

This is my inspiration card:

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

Saturated Canary - My Song

coloured with Copics

Dies:

un-branded stitched rectangle die set

Pretty Pink Posh - scallops

Anything else:

DCWV - Text Prints: the paper stack

(extremely old paper pad set)

My inspiration is from Elton Johns' Your song (link in case you're not familiar with it).  I know the song is more of a romantic one - but the sentiment on the digi was perfect - and I would imagine, if you're sending a birthday card to someone, you are happy to have them in this world!

Gotta go - another post to fix.

Sarah

Challenge/s:

Passion for Markers: Week 701 - Favourite Colour Combo : Weeeelll - although I'm a bit random with colours sometimes - there are a few combos I tend to return to time and again.  I've used one here - red and black (OK with a hint of blue thrown in!) Seriously though - red and black make for a striking contrast and it is a colour combo I use a lot.

Krafty Chicks Challenge: #675 - Week 1: Stamp Act

Gem of a Challenge: Wk 16 - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers: August Birthday Challenge

Seize the Birthday: #266 - Birthdays or Themed 'Inspired by a book '.  It's just Birthdays for me, my card is music, not book, inspired.

Wot no!

 Good morning blogland,

An unexpected appearance from me this morning - I'm joining in with Team Susan for the new challenge over at Sweet Stampin'.  The theme this fortnight is 'No Designer Paper' which is something I do a lot of and, as I have been churning out 16th birthday cards, I thought I'd join in.

As always, this is a 'Just for Fun' challenge and the only rules are - Follow the theme, use stamps (digital or rubber) and have fun! No need for a card either - enter any project as long as it's got stamping on it.

This is my card:

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

Saturated Canary - no point linking or naming the image as Krista closed the Etsy shop. :-(

coloured with my Copics

Rubber stamp:

Concord & 9th - Fashion Shoppe stamp set

Dies:

Creative Expressions - Noble Collection: Double Stitched Square squares

Creative Expressions - Mix & Match Friendship

un-branded Alphabet / Number set

My Favorite Things - Die-namics

Anything Else:

Pretty Pink Posh - Stencil: Medium Polka Dots

Distress Ink

Aaand, that it for today folks.

I'll be back during the week to waffle on about TTT's 16th birthday and share the cards - which is more important than the waffle I know!

See you soon,

Sarah 

Challenge/s:

Cardz 4 Galz: #201 Dies/Punches

Seize the Birthday: #264 - Number crunching

Tic Tac Toe Challenge: TTTC #214 - end row down - Die cut / Bright Colour / CAS

Fab 'n' Funky Challenge: #575 Use a Sentiment

Variations on a theme

 Good morning blogland,

It's Saturday and Team Wends' turn for the new challenge at Sweet Stampin' - this fortnight the theme is Clean and Simple (CaS). As always this is a stamping challenge - so there has to some stamping (digital or rubber) on your project somewhere. Doesn't have to be a card and doesn't have to have colouring, just stamping.

So, as I'm sure you long time bloggy friends (if I have any left after my lacklustre performance so far this year!) will know I'm rather enamoured of the CaS style.  I like it almost as much as I love colouring, so I've popped up two cards for this challenge. One I would consider my 'pared back style' and one more classic CaS.

Cards:

Paired back style:

Supplies Used:

Digital stamp:

Saturated Canary - '60/'70 Decades fashion (there are two images and I used one)

unfortunately Krista closed her etsy shop closed so I don't know where you'd get this image anymore.

Coloured with my Copics

Rubber stamp:

taylored expressions - Simple Strips: Birthday

Dies:

taylored expressions - Simple Strips: Well rounded

un-branded stitched rectangle

Anything else:

scraps of patterned paper

More traditional Clean and Simple:

Supplies used:

 

Rubber stamp:

Catherine Pooler - All Around Wishes

Dies:

Whimsy Stamps - 'Birthday' word and shadow die

Anything else:

My Favorite Thing Stencil - Wonky Dots

Cosmic Shimmer - Victorian Gold

I like both the CaS styles and probably my favourite is with colouring (as I love to colour, I might have mentioned that) but the 'proper' CaS really does get my brain thinking and I enjoy that as well.

Why not pop over to the challenge and see what fabulous cards my Teamies have made as well - and they are fabulous!

Right well I'm off now to do some stretching as, not only did I get Covid recently (from which I've totally recovered thankfully), I've also now done something to my back from lugging wood effect tiles around!  We are having our dining / sitting room re-skimmed and painted with a new tile floor being laid next month.  The new tiles we ordered were delivered to the drive but not brought in - so me and hubby have lugged 100mm thick 1200x800mm long/wide ceramic tiles from drive to conservatory and my back went pop.  Oh what a fun Easter holiday it's been!

See you soon,

Sarah

Challenge/s:

Crafty Catz : Challenge 633 - Anything Goes (option for a child). Entering first card - it was made for a teenager!

Gem of a Challenge: Wk 8 - Anything Goes. Entering first card.

Fab 'n' Funky Challenges: Challenge #570 - Use die cuts. Entering second card.

Less is More: Challenge #481 - Anything Goes.  Entering second card (I'm guessing the first one would be too busy for the rules).

Lots of birthday wishes

Morning blogland,

Time for a new challenge over at Sweet Stampin' and this fortnight it's a theme of Birthdays! The reason for this theme? It's because Sweet Stampin' Challenge is 13 years old today! 

Makes me feel old - I remember joining the team first time round when TTT was SWMbO and to explain to anyone who is wondering what nonsense I'm spouting these are my names for my daughter.  She's currently known as 'The Terrible Teen' (TTT) but when I was first blogging was a small child who liked to get her own way hence 'She Who Must be Obeyed'(SWMbO). My goodness where does the time go!

Anyways, onto the official stuff - you can enter any craft project you like into the challenge, it doesn't have to be a card, but as we are a stamping challenge, there does need to be some element of stamping on your project. We don't mind if rubber or digital, that's up to you!

I make mostly birthday cards and haven't blogged many of them recently so had a lot to choose from. I couldn't pick from a couple of favourites, so I gave the choice of which to choose to Susan of Team Susan and she said - use both! So here are both.

Card one:

Card Two:

Supplies used:

Card one:

Digital stamp:

Saturated Canary - Be You

coloured with my Copics

Rubber stamps:

Time for Tea Designs - Bold Sentiments

taylored expressions - Think Happy Thoughts

Whimsy Stamps - You're my Always

Dies:

un-branded stitched rectangle and alphabet sets

Card two:

Digital stamp:

Saturated Canary - Cupcake Cutie

coloured with my Copics

Rubber stamp:

taylored expressions - Simple Strips: Birthday

Dies:

un-branded stitched rectangles

taylored expressions - Simple Strips: Well Rounded

LaLa Land Crafts Dies - Heart Banner

It would be lovely if you could find time to pop on over to the blog and join in - 13 years and still alive in Blogworld I think is a good achievement! You'll also see the fabulous array of cards my Teamies have made, and they are fabulous - Teamies and cards both!!

Hope to see you again soon,

Sarah

Challenges:

Card One:

Krafty Chicks Challenge - #638: CaS

Polkadoodles - Wk 46: Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with Dies (November)

Card Two:

Gem of a Craft Challenge - Wk 24: Anything Goes

Seize the Birthday - #251 : Many of Something (Cupcakes)

Doodle, doodle, doodle

Good morning blogland,

Not waffle, waffle, waffle this morning instead it's doodle, doodle, doodle! The reason for this? Well that's that it's time for a new challenge at Sweet Stampin' Challenge - and it's our theme this fortnight.  We'd like to see stamping and Doodling on your entry.

For me doodling is basically drawing wavy lines somewhere on my card / image - and that's what I went for with this card. I'm not very inventive! I'm sure y'all out there can do heaps better than mine!

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

Saturated Canary - Birthday Girl

coloured with my Copics

Dies:

Creative Expressions - Noble Collection : Double Stitched Squares

Time for Tea - 'Dream Big' sentiment

Anything else?

Copic fineliner for the doodled edge

I do hope you can see the sentiment - I thought I'd try and do something different than my usual black card sentiment die - but the white on white really doesn't show in the picture. Happy with the technique not so happy with the pic, a 'try harder' I think!

My Teamies over at Sweet Stampin' have really outdone themselves this challenge - please do pop over and take a peak and then why not get your doodling heads on and chuck in an entry! It doesn't have to be hand-drawn doodling, a stamp is perfectly acceptable!

Aaaaand that's me done folks,

Be back soon,

Sarah

Crafty Catz: Anything Goes (optional twist Christmas in July)

as You Like It Challenge: Favourite Warm or Cool Colours - I would've said that I don't have a favourite colour palette - but looking back at recent cards I think it looks like I'm tending to work with cooler colours.  Other than hair if I'm colouring a person - that is more often a warm colour.

Gem of a Craft Challenge: Week 15 - Anything Goes

Digi Choosday: Wk 27 - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers: Anything Goes with Dies - July

Queen of Hearts

Good morning blogland,

It's Saturday - which means a new challenge over at Sweet Stampin' Challenge, for Team Wends! This time round the challenge theme is Inspired by a Fairy Tale - Fairy Tale Creatures or Characters - as always please note there must be some stamped (digital or rubber) on your project, but your project doesn't have to be a card!

I however did make a card, oh the surprise!, and with a Saturated Canary image called 'Queen of Hearts' then had a mild moment of panic (I'm a proper follower of rules) and suddenly thought is Alice in Wonderland a Fairy Tale or a Modern Classic? Arggh - panic!  In the end I ran out of time to make a different card - and one of my Teamies has made a fab tag from another Queen of Hearts stamp - so peace restored!

Here's what I made - I was going to do something a bit more fancy with patterned paper and layers, but it would appear that's just not me at the minute (or at all?), so it's all relatively Clean and Simple again.

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

Saturated Canary - Queen of Hearts

coloured with my Copics

Rubber stamp:

Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips : Birthday

Dies:

Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips: Asymetrical

Creative Expressions - Noble Collection: Double Stitched Squares

Stencil:

Pretty Pink Posh - Layered Hearts Stencils

Anything else:

Distress Ink

Blending brush

Self-adhesive pearls

Hope you have time to pop over to the challenge and have a look at my Teamies work - amazing as always! 

Have a good weekend,

Signing off now,

see you soon,

Sarah

Challenges:

Passion for Markers: Week 641 - Pearls and/or gems

Krafty Chicks Challenge: Challenge #613 - CAS Week 3

Seize the Birthday: #238 - real or faux stitching.  Mine is faux - the dies used to cut-out the black card and stencilled panel both leave a stitched look.

Unicorn Challenge blog: #76 - Include pearls / bling (Hopefully someone from the DT will see this comment - I've been trying to leave a comment on the blog to say thanks for picking my card as a Top 3 - but my Anti-virus software is blocking me! So saying here - thanks for the Top 3 (5!) Pick and congrats to the other winners as well.

Dream Valley Challenges: Challenge #270 - add embellishments - I don't do a lot of embellishments but there are pearls on my card - hope that's enough!

Gamer!

Good evening blogland,

A very quick post here, again to share a card to join in with a challenge - I really ought to get myself more organised so I'm not limboing under the finish post of challenges all the time!

Fairly excited here for Sunday - I'm off to Harrogate Stamperama! Bit of a long drive, takes 2 1/2 hours to get there, but it's worth it! Anyone else going? 

Here's the last minute entry to challenge card - just a random, coloured for fun image made into a card.

Stamps used:

Digital stamp:

Saturated Canary - Gamer

coloured with my Copics

Rubber stamp: 

Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips: Man, Myth, Legend

Dies:

My Favorite Things - Skinny Strips

Sunny Studios - Stitched Circles

Patterned Paper:

echo park - A Boy's Life

Anything else?

Blue paper twine

And that's it folks, till next time! 

Signing off,

Sarah

Challenge/s:

Crafty Catz: #592 - Anything Goes / option add ribbon/twine, paper twine for me.

Passion for Markers: Week 638 - Favourite Colours.  Well I do seem to be leaning into shades of green, blue and a bit of red at the minute. Maybe it's because I find those the easiest Copics to work with! (Ha, and for once it's not PfMs that I'm linking up with at the last minute!)

Addicted to Stamps and More!: #428 - Birthdays

Make My Monday Challenge: #173 - Happy Birthday

Rainbows and Rainy Days

Good morning blogland

Today I'm here with my DT card for the new challenge over at Sweet Stampin' where the theme is 'Rainbows and Rainy Days - Welcome Spring'. Your project doesn't need to be a card it can be anything you like, as long as there is some stamping in there somewhere (digital or rubber).  For this challenge, I went with the Rainy Days part of the challenge as the main focus and Rainbows in the sentiment. 

I'm quite happy how this one turned out in the end but had a couple of 'damn' moments on the way! One moment was the dreaded Copic blob on my colouring, I'm pretty sure I've managed to work it out but I know it's there. Second moment was when I realised there are same Copic colours in both her hair and coat, and I lost some of the definition of the hair where it lays over her coat.  I should've done the coat and skirt the other way around, I think!

Supplies used:

Digital Stamp:

Saturated Canary - Umbrellaclosed

coloured with my Copics

Sentiment:

A quote found on the internet

Dies:

Unbranded stitched rectangles

Anything else:

Striped card

Rhinestones

There, that's my project, why not pop over to the Blog now and see the cards my Teamies have made - they are fabulous one and all! 

Signing off now and see you soon, 

Sarah

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Rain or Shine

Digi Choosday: Wk 15 - Anything Goes

Try it on Tuesday: I Can Hear Music - Song title 'Raindrops Keep Failing on My Head'

Inspiration Station: #38 - April Showers - colours and Season 

Stamping Sensations: April - "I Love..." Stamping and colouring - currently my favourite digi stamps to use are Saturated Canary, as they challenge me to improve my colouring.

We Love Stamping: April challenge - Favourite Stamp - at the moment my favourite stamps come from Saturated Canary, couldn't pick a favourite from them, love them all!

Back to my desk

Good morning blogland,

I'm back! As always school holidays throw my routines up in the air and it takes a couple of days to recover them. I'm getting there now.

Hope everyone had a good break (and Easter if that's your thing), we went on mini break to London - to see another musical, 'Wicked' this time  and do the touristy thing of wandering around.  I do like my musicals, TTT and hubby just really get dragged along with! Although TTT appreciated the trip as we went back to Camden Lock and back to the shops that sell Manga / Anime books, collectibles and Japanese food that she likes.

I am sorry I've not been visiting anyone's blogs - keeping up with my DT commenting was about as much as I could manage. Will rectify that from now.

So cards - all I've managed to make are essentials, no playing for fun! Birthday card I'm sharing today was for a friend of TTT's. Hard to believe all these 'little children' most of whom I've known since they were babies are starting to turn 15, GCSE's next year as well - time has really flown by!

 Supplies used

Digital Stamp:

Saturated Canary - Coffee Needed

coloured with my Copics

Rubber Stamp:

Catherine Pooler - Happy Birthday Many Ways

Dies:

Unbranded stitched rectangles

Catherine Pooler - 'bestie'

Anything else?

Black card

HobbyHouse - self-adhesive rhinestone

Mei Flower - pearl heart

Now I'm off to take a look and comment on all the cards I've missed in Blogland over the Easter break.

Signing off,

See you soon,

Sarah

Challenge/s:

Krafty Chicks Challenge: Challenge #608 - CAS

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends: #180 - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers: April Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Seize the Birthday: #236 - Birthday (option Spring)

Aud Sentiment Challenge: #293 - Use a Birthday Sentiment

Duck, Duck, Goose, Easter

Afternoon blogworld

I'm here to join in with a few challenges with this post.  Of which some are Easter themed, I struggled with that a bit - as I'm sure you know I don't 'do' religious things. I've had a thought about how I can join in with them all without making a card which will just sit in a box forever and I think I've worked it out - for the challenges I'd like to join in with anyway.

This card, I hope, covers all bases:

Supplies used:

Digital Stamp:

Saturated Canary - Duck, Duck, Goose

coloured with my Copics (background drawn freehand)

Dies:

Un-branded stitched rectangle

Sentiment:

Created in Word and cut out then used a corner rounder punch and inked the edges.

It's Easter enough, I hope, to pass muster as a non-religious Easter card, but open enough that it can be used for other purposes.

 As an aside, I often wonder how other people manage to sell their cards and for a long time I thought it must just be my cards were under par, now I look on my hobby as art and relaxation. I don't really care any more that no-one wants the physical card! They'll get given to a charity shop at some point and hopefully be useful to raise a bit of cash.

That's probably it for now, I'm now off to exercise away the chocs I got brought yesterday by TTT for Mothering Sunday! Which, if celebrated, I hope went well for you. It's not really a big deal in our house, I'm happy that I know she appreciates me enough (even if it's not shown all the time) to not feel I have to make a big deal about one day a year!

Signing off now,

See you soon,

Sarah

Challenge / s:

Passion for Markers: Week 633 - Anything Spring

Crafty Catz: #588 - Anything Goes (Optional Twist - Easter)

As You Like It Challenge: Favourite non-traditional Easter character.  I did think about dragons, but I found this stamp and loved the Goose, it's just sooo sweet! I can't make up my mind if it thinks it's a Rabbit or a chick or was looking for chocolate!

We Love Stamping: March - Anything stamped Spring

Gem of a Craft Challenge: Wk 7 - Anything Goes

Fancy that!

Good afternoon blogland,

Another flying by the seat of my pants post to join in with a challenge!

Card:

Supplies used:

Stamps:

Digital - Saturated Canary : Fancy

Rubber sentiment: Lili of the Valley - not named set of sentiments

colouring done with my Copics

Dies:

Pretty Pink Posh - Eyelet Borders

Anything else?

Scraps of red card and patterned paper

And done!

It's been an odd week chez Sarah - we went to a wedding reception first weekend in March, first evening we've been out with a lot of other people in nearly two years and, yes you guessed it, TTT caught Covid!

Do not panic, friendly blogland, she's been (mostly) fine!  She went to school the week after the reception with just a little sniffle, by the end of the week she was complaining of tiredness, headache and stomach pains. To be honest, as we've managed nearly two years avoiding it, I thought she was faking it a bit (swinging the lead as my Mum used to say to me when I wanted a day off school!). So she missed one day and then went back, however I was out on the Saturday and thought best we all do a test - and she only went and tested positive. The Best Dad and I, however, did not and still haven't! We've been testing for nearly a fortnight now and she stayed positive until Sat, he and I have dodged a bullet!  

All three of us have had all the jabs we are supposed to and the only difference is, as far as I can see, is that he and I didn't mingle that much at the reception, whereas she did. Oh, and we've heard from the Bride that pretty much everyone came away with an unexpected present of Covid. Hmmm, not sure how I feel about that!!

Anyways, that's my exciting news, it has thrown me out of routine again, but I'm coping better this time which I put down to keeping my morning alarm going the whole week she's been off school. No lazing around until 9am for me, lay-in until 7.30 and then on with! 

And I'm off now to link up to my challenge/s.

Signing off

See you soon,

Sarah

Challenge/s:

Passion for Markers: Week 632 - birthstone inspiration (I'm an end of July baby so mine was Ruby, hence all the red!)

Allsorts challenge blog: Week 668: Feminine

Gem of a challenge: Week 6: Anything Goes

Krafty Chicks Challenge: #603 - CAS

Look who's 12!

 Good Morning Blogland

It's Saturday morning, which means it's time for a new challenge over at Sweet Stampin' Challenge and this fortnight the theme is Birthdays!

The reason the theme is 'birthdays'? It's because the Sweet Stampin' challenge has been in Blogland for 12 years! Can you believe it! I first joined The Sweeties probably about 10 years ago and was part of the DT for a couple of years until I totally lost my mojo and stopped crafting 7 or 8 years ago. When I re-started crafting last year I was very kindly asked if I'd like to join again and I almost snapped Susan's hand off!  They are a lovely group of crafters and I'm very privileged to be on the DT.

My contribution to the festivities are these two cards - whilst browsing my gallery I found I've got a fair number of un-blogged birthday cards.  I found it very difficult to pick a single card, so I've gone with two - one a recent make for one of TTT's friends and one a more elegant CAS style.

Card one - Elegant CAS:

Supplies Used:

Rubber Stamp:

Inkadinkado

A very old flourish stamp which has no packaging so you're lucky I remembered it was Inkadinkado!

Dies:

Lawn Fawn - Happy Birthday Border

Memory Box - Chloe Butterfly

Spellbinders circle - to make a mask that inked the grey circle through

What I did:

Die cut out the Birthday border (x2 white card x1 black card) and stacked it. 

Die cut out the butterfly and circle mask.

I put the mask on the card blank and inked through with a grey ink pad to get the circle, then glued the butterfly on - just by it's middle so the wings are loose.

I stamped the flourish across the bottom of the blank in black ink and then glued the stacked Happy Birthday border across the top of the flourishes.

et voila, job done!

Card two - Teen birthday:

Supplies used:

Stamps:

Digital Images:

Saturated Canary - Peace Out Selfie

The Greeting Farm - Birthday Party (a digital images background pack)

coloured with Copics

Rubber Stamp:

Catherine Pooler - Happy Birthday Many Ways

Dies:

Catherine Pooler - Bestie word

Anything else?

Copic fineliner

lilac coloured card

What I did:

I re-sized and arranged the digital stamps in Word until I was happy with them then printed onto Copic friendly paper and coloured them in.

Stamped Happy Birthday onto the paper.

Cut the panel to the right size to fit my 5x5 card blank with the card mat just showing.

Die-cut 'bestie' out x3 - x2 white card and x1 lilac card - stacked them and attached to the panel.

 Drew stings onto the balloons with a Copic fineliner.

et voila, job done!

Now we would love to see what you make! As always, please remember this is a stamping challenge, so there has to be some sort of stamping on your make, but your make doesn't have to be a card!

Signing off now,

Sarah

Challenge /s:

Krafty Chicks Challenge: #586 - CAS (Card one)

Gem of a Craft Challenge: Wk 23 - Anything Goes (card two)

Crafty Catz: #573 Anything Goes (sorry no additional twist) (Card two)

Time out Challenges: Challenge #201 - Da Vinci quote (took the 'simplicity' part of the quote and entering card one)

Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog: #288 - Anything Goes and a Sentiment (Card two)

Dreams

Good afternoon blogland,

Hmmm, routine out the window yet again!

Now we have a TTT off school with a cold and chesty cough, but feeling better and going to school tomorrow.  A Hubby who is just starting with said cold and feels terrible.  A Me who, so far, fingers crossed, is absolutely fine!  We've all done PCR tests and come back negative so I can cheerfully say it's just plain, old fashioned colds, not Covid.

Not surprised she's caught cold though, there are so many with coughs and sneezes at school, and they've not really mixed a huge amount over the last year or so - so ripe fields for colds to be passed around.  She's also a good kid really is TTT, even when she was feeling rotten on Friday she still did some homework that could be electronically handed in! 

Anyway, all this means - again - interrupted day-time crafting.  Still I managed to carve out a bit of 'me' time on Saturday when TTT was sleeping and Hubby was feeling rough and this is what I made:

Am not over impressed with my hair colouring - something about black hair defeats 9 times out of 10.  More practice, me thinks!

Supplies used:

Digital Stamp:

Saturated Canary - Fall Angel

coloured with Copics

Papers:

First Edition - New Leaf

Prima - Doodle Deux

Anything else:

Piece of ribbon

bit of bling

metal word charm

Tim Holtz - Distress Ink

What I did:

Printed out the Digi onto Copic friendly paper and coloured her in with Copics. 

Inked around the edges of the panel with some Distress Inks.

Added a bit of bling and a word charm then mounted the whole lot onto a bit of black card and trimmed. 

Took at card blank and, with the fold at the top, added two bits of patterned paper to the front, then covered the join with a piece of ribbon.

Mounted the coloured and inked panel on the front of the card with 3d foam.

et voila, job done!

I will, no doubt be back towards the end of the week - when I've had some time to colour (and assuming I don't come down with the dreaded cold!).

Signing off,

Sarah

Challenge /s:

Passion for Markers: Week 610 - International Day of Peace (hope Angel wings are OK in the rules?)

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge: Week 38 - Anything Goes

As You Like It Challenge: Favourite: Autumn or Winter - hmmmmm, to be honest Summer!!  However, if I had to pick it would probably be Autumn as it's still Summer like right into late September and there's no frost or freeze to make me shiver.  I really do not like being cold!!

Dream Valley Challenges: Challenge #255 - 2 or more Patterned Papers

A quick hello

Hi Blogworld,

Nearly another week has gone by, hard to believe we are at the half-way mark of the summer holidays. Looking forward to getting my craft time, and it has to be said, my routines back as well!  

It's all very well to have holidays, but I actually like knowing which day of the week it is.  We were in Skegness on Sunday and I missed getting into B&M (I do like a bargain!) because I forgot it was Sunday and the shops close early. 

Obviously we were there for TTT - it was a friends birthday last Friday and TTT had been invited for a day in Skeg-vegas to celebrate. They did a 'Clip & Climb' (attached to harnesses climbing what looked like giant Lego pieces stuck together) - voted a thumbs up; a Virtual Reality game - a thumbs down; played on the 2p machines in the arcade - a thumbs up; had McDonalds - a thumbs down from TTT (McD's are not vegetarian friendly); Laser Quest (shooting each other in the dark with lasers) - a thumbs up and a go in the only bit of soft play that they are allowed in now they are teenagers - a thumbs up.

We were there from 11am to 6pm - can you see why I get no craft time in holidays!!

So I had to make a very quick card for said friend and here it is:

Supplies:

Digital Image:

Saturated Canary - Peace and Chill

coloured with Copics

Digital Sentiment:

Lili of the Valley - Grunge Stamp Sentitments

Rubber Sentiment:

Catherine Pooler - All around wishes

Think it's fairly obvious I printed the image and sentiment onto a piece of Copic friendly paper and coloured it - giving a very simple background - then mounted it on black card onto my card base. Done!

Hopefully see you again before next week!

Signing off 

Sarah

Challenge / s:

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge: Week 32 - Anything Goes

As You Like it Challenge: Favourite Primary Colour and why. It's either red or blue for me and, as TTT wouldn't let me put any red anywhere on this card (it wouldn't look like Holly then, mum!) I'm picking blue. Blue sky and eyes specifically this time but blue in general any time.

Digi Chooseday Craft Challenge: Week 33 Anything Goes