My Bestie Valentine

Good morning everyone. Not only is it Monday again but, unbelievably, February is here already! Yesterday saw the sad death of yet another British icon, Terry Wogan. He was on the radio and TV throughout my life and another person who, like David Bowie, seemed immortal. I'm certainly glad to see the back of this January.

Today at My Besties UK we have a new challenge Anything Goes with option Buttons and Brads. Don't forget to pop over and see the other DT cards, as they are fabulous as always.

I chose a Valentine image for my card, IMG 452, available to buy here. I chose to colour her in bright pink to complement the new papers I bought recently (from the Sara Davies Crafter's Companion Love and Romance collection).

The colours used were:

Skin FS2 FS4 FS9 CR2

Eyes TB1 TB3

Hair TN1 EB1 EB2

Clothes BP1 BP2 BP6

The dies used are a Tonic Frame die and the Heart Cluster from the Sara Davies collection. My heart shaped buttons are from Trimcraft's Serendipity collection. 

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:

Crafts Galore Encore Use a Digi

Whimsy Stamps Challenge With Love

Delicious Doodles Love is in the Air

Ooh La La Challenge #197

Whoopsi Daisy Hand Coloured Image and Love

Scrapbook Stamp Society Challenge 84

My Besties Aussie Challenge Valentine's Day Use of Hearts

Thank you for visiting today and for your lovely comments x

Nordic Reindeer card

It's been a mad few days for me, so I haven't managed to either make many cards or write my blog. However, I have now finished work for Christmas and I'm looking forward to catching up with my backlog and with reading other people's blogs.

Today's card is a cute nordic card. The stamp is from the Crafter's Companion Nordic Christmas range and has been coloured with Spectrum Noir markers. The sentiment is from the same range.

I have teamed the image with these fabulous Trimcraft First Edition Christmas Wishes papers. I love the vivid colours of the papers and the Christmas jumper pattern of the green paper.

I would like to enter this card for the Spectrum Noir December Challenge Clean and Simple.

Thank you for visiting today and for your lovely comments. Cathy x

2 Crafty Girls Challenge

Last week I told you how happy I was to get a new Design Team post at 2 Crafty Girls Challenge Blog.. Well,  I can now share my first DT card as we have a new challenge starting today. The challenge is Anything Goes and our sponsors are:

Holly Durr Art

Pattie's Creations

You can visit the challenge post here - please do drop by to say hello as the DT have created some fabulous cards and we have some great prizes to win if you join in.

For my card I chose an image from Pattie's Creations called The Night Before Christmas, which is available  to buy here. I love the traditional look of this Christmas Fireplace. I've coloured it using Spectrum Noir and Spectrum Sparkle pens:
Fireplace TN6 TN7 TN8 IG3 IG5 IG7
Fire OR1 OR2
Floor IG1 IG2 IG3
Clock TN7 TN8 EB1 EB2
Candles LY1 LY2 EB1 EB2 Sparkle pens: Red Berry, Holly Leaf
Stockings Sparkle Pens Red Berry, Clear

I've kept with a traditional look with these Docrafts Jolly Santa papers, backed onto Crafter's Companion Desert Storm Neenah card. I've finished off with a Jolly Santa ribbon and bow and some gems.

Thanks for visiting on this exciting day for me and thank you for all your lovely comments.

My Besties UK Same but Different for November

Hi everyone. Can't believe a week has gone by without blogging- such a busy time of year! Today we have a new Same but Different post over at My Besties UK. This time I got to choose our digi so I chose this gorgeous girl with her sack filled with love. You can buy this digi here in the My Besties store.

Pop over to the My Besties Blog to see all the DT cards, they are really fantastic. If you comment on the post, you will be in with the chance of winning this lovely digi image.

I love blue and silver for Christmas cards so chose that colour scheme for my card. I also wanted to use my new Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens. They are really fantastic, particularly if, like me, you're not a fan of using glitter but love sparkle. I used the Clear Sparkle pen on the hat, cuffs, boots and snowflakes and Solar Red and Emerald Green on the hat decoration. You can really see the effect in this picture:

The rest of the image has been coloured with Spectrum Noir markers:
Skin: FS2 FS4 CR2
Eyes: LG5
Hair: TN1 EB1 EB2
Hat and Dress: TB1 TB3 IG1 IG2
Bow and Boots: DR1 DR2 DR3
Sack EB1 EB2 TN1

To make the card I have used Crafter's Companion BeBunni Christmas papers and silver card from the Create and Craft Member's Gift. The snowflakes were cut using Spellbinders Dies (2012 set I think). The ribbon is from Next and I've finished off with some Papermania gems.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:
Scrapbook Stamp Society Challenge Anything Goes Option Ribbon
My Besties 3D and more Anything Goes with a Bestie
My Besties Meet at the Scrapper's Corner Challenge #18
Crafts Galore Encore Use a Stamp or Digi/ DT call
Spectrum Noir November 2015 Challenge

Thanks for visiting today and for your comments, I really do appreciate them. Cathy x

Stamping with Folk Floral

Good morning everyone, hope you have a good week. Today's card is another made with the Docrafts Folk Floral range. I do love the papers in this collection so enjoyed making this one.

This is the first time I have used the large heart stamp from the collection and must say it stamped beautifully. I used Momento ink as I have coloured using Spectrum Noir markers and the image was really clear. The sentiment and banner are stamped with Staz On for a crisper look.

The card itself is very simple to make the heart a real stand out element. I began by layering paper on to a kraft card blank. I cut a circle aperture from one of the papers to place over the heart and added this centrally. I die cut flowers using a First Edition die and finished with contrasting buttons.

Thank you for visiting and commenting today, I really do appreciate your comments. Cathy x

My Besties UK September Same But Different

Hi everyone. We have a new post over at My Besties UK this morning with our Same but Different projects using the gorgeous Little Cutie Patootie digi. Pop over to the blog here and comment on the post to be in with the chance of winning this digi. You can also purchase it in the My Bestie Etsy shop.

Here is my DT make for the post:

I have used BoBunny Isabella papers for this card. They were free with a recent issue of Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine and I love both the colours and Parisian inspired designs. The butterflies were cut using a Crafter's Companion die from the Kimono collection.

As usual, I have used Spectrum Noir markers for colouring. The colours used are:
Clothes: PL1 PL3 BG1 BG2
Skin: FS2 FS4 CR3
Hair: TN8 EB3 EB4

Thanks for popping by today. Don't forget to visit the My Bestie UK blog to see the other fabulous DT creations.
Cathy xxx

Rugby World Cup

My 7 yr old son has been playing rugby (the tag version) for 3 years and we are very excited that it is the start of the Rugby World Cup today. To celebrate I made this Scruffy Little Kitten card, using Alfie the rugby player stamp.

I have used Graphic 45 papers from the Mother Goose 8x8 pad. I hoard Graphic 45 papers so decided to force myself to use them! I have also used the Craftwell Argyle embossing folder which came with my Cut n Boss machine. This was the first time I'd used the machine for embossing and I'm really impressed. The red card is just cheap card from my kids' crafty stash but it has embossed beautifully.

The image has been coloured using Spectrum Noir colours:

Hair TN1 EB1 EB2

Skin FS2 FS4

Clothes IG1 IG2 TB6 TB7 DR2 DR3 IG8 IG9

Ball IG1 IG2 DR3

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Spectrum Noir September Challenge Embossing

Eureka Stamps Challenge Fall Sports

Allsorts Challenge Buttons

Hope you like this little chap as much as I do. Fingers crossed for an England win tonight xxx

Crowning Affair

I am off on holiday tomorrow so won't be posting for a little while. Before I go, I wanted to share these cards I made recently using Trimcraft Dovecraft Crowning Affair papers. These papers are beautifully designed in fabulous colours and, best of all, come from the value range.

The first card has a tropical feel. The flamingo and sentiment stamp are, like the fish stamp, from the set free with this month's Creative Stamping magazine. I have coloured this one with Spectrum Aqua markers. The flowers are punched using a Tonic punch and the card finished with lots of gems and a bright pink ribbon.

I would like to enter this card into the Crafting Musketeers Challenge Blog Challenge #27 Anything Goes.

My second card is an anniversary card for my husband. We have been married for 8 yrs on 21st July and we will be celebrating it on our first sunny holiday abroad since our honeymoon.

It is a more simple card- I have just layered papers and die cut hearts using X Cut Nesting Dies. The four hearts represent our family, the two of us and our 2 sons. The sentiment was created in CraftArtist 2 and printed on card.

Thanks for popping by. Hope you all have a great week x

Beach Hut Card

The sun is shining again today so I thought it was a good day to share this Beach Hut card. It has been made using free papers available from the Trimcraft website and a beach hut template from the Craft's Beautiful website.
When I saw these fantastic papers, the colours made me think of the seaside and the fabulous beach huts you see there. 

The card itself is very simple to put together. I coloured the image using Spectrum Noir markers and cut it out. I then added it to a square of one of the papers which has been layered onto a square of kraft card. I used another paper and added this to a 6x6 kraft card blank, then added the beach hut square in the centre. I finished the card with some die cut bunting, again cut from one of the papers, using a Crafter's Companion die.
There has been a great reaction to this card and it has been shared on the Trimcraft Facebook and Twitter pages. Hope you like it too x

Another Football Crazy card

Regular visitors to my blog will know that, in May, I made a card for my football mad son, which featured my first attempt at colouring using Spectrum Noir markers. Tomorrow, he is off to party for one of his friends from his football team, so I have had the chance to use this cute footballer stamp again.
Although this little boy is also a Chelsea fan, he always wears the away kit to training, so I have used yellow markers for this image. I've kept the background fairly simple and used papers from the Crafter's Companion Angelica and Adam boy's paper pad. I think these colours work really well together and are perfect for a summer birthday.
Products used:
Spectrum Noir Markers:
Skin FS2 FS3

Hair GB8 GB10
Clothes CT3 CT4 TB5 Boots IG8 IG10
Grass DG3

Crafter's Companion Angelica and Adam 6x6 Boy's Paper Pad, Adam Stamp
Docraft's Papermania A4 card
Momento Ink in Tuxedo Black

I would like to enter this card for this week's Mod Squad Challenge

Thanks for visiting today, please leave a comment if you have time,

Cathy xxx

Football Crazy

My eldest son will be 7 next week and is totally football crazy. I wanted to make him a special card so decided to put my colouring skills to the test to personalise a football image. I am a complete novice when it comes to colouring so it was a big challenge for me.

The stamp used is Adam from Crafter's Companion. I used Spectrum Noir pens for colouring- I have coloured the boy's clothes in Chelsea colours (my son is a huge supporter of theirs) and tried to match my son's hair colour.

I embossed a piece of Core'dinations cardstock with a football embossing folder and arranged this and the stamped image on a football background. I added die cut bunting, some twine and an age rosette to finish. I'll blog some instructions to make a rosette in my next post 

Products Used:

Spectrum Noir pens- Shirt TB5 TB6, Hair GB5 GB8 TN4, Skin FS2 FS3, Boots and ball Black IG10, Grass LG3 CG1

Core'dinations Tim Holtz Distress Inks Card in Faded Jeans

Crafter's Companion Angelica and Adam 6x6 male pad, Adam stamp, Football embossing folder. 

Crafter's Companion dies- Bunting and 1" Numbers

Football card from Touch of Craft

Momento ink in Tuxedo Black and Paris Dusk

Baker's twine

I am entering this for the Spectrum Noir Facebook Challenge Use a Die Cut Shape