The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

There's a new challenge over at Scrap Creations today - and it's 'Fairytales'. It's sponsored by Pink Cat Studio, so we were lucky enough to work with some of their gorgeous images! Here's my card:

Yep, it's a twisted easel!! I've had the 'blank' made up ready to use for ages, but I was waiting for the right card IYKWIM!?!? I've coloured the image with promarkers and all the papers are from Cosmo Cricket Delovely, as well as some purple card from Bazzill Basics. The flowers are a mix of Woodware, Wild Rose Studio and Papermania. The glitter foam swirl is from QVC and sentiment is Craftwork cards. Oh, and I've used my MS grass and butterfly punches. I must admit to having taken some inspiration from a card in Quick Cards magazine.
Now if you're a bit puzzled about whether the Sugar Plum Fairy is a fairy tale, I must admit - we all knew the theme when we picked our images and then as we were all uploading our cards, we started realising that they weren't actually fairytales, but hey, close enough!!?? LOL!
I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

• Paper Playtime - Challenge #42 Digi Monday (Anything Goes).
• Flutterby Wednesday's - Challenge #147 Anything Goes with an Angel, Fairy or Butterfly.
• Make It Monday - #30 Anything Goes.
• Fab n' Funky - Challenge #65 More than one fold.
• Fairy Knoll - Friday Fun.
• One Stop Craft Challenge - Week #124 Angels and Fairies.

And that's about it. And that's about it from me for Scrap Creations, as this is my last post as a DT member, there's a new team starting on the 1st April. I wanted to step down and dedicate more time to my other DTs, so it's all good.

I'm not having a very good day today - my dog, Tippy was ill on Saturday (dodgy stomach!) and so I went through the usual procedure, starving him for 24 hours then introducing plain food and he's been OK for a couple of days. Well, last night all I can say is, we had a rather explosive episode!! I won't go into anymore detail than that but you get the picture! Anyway, it continued through the night, so I've had hardly any sleep. Fingers crossed he gets over it this time cos he's got a really sensitive stomach and he's had this quite a few times but a couple of times, I've ended up having to take him to the vet for some injections and it's not a pleasant experience for either of us!! Anyway, enough rambling!! I hope you're day's better than mine. Bye for now........

A Colour Challenge

It's Monday and with the start of a new week brings a new challenge over at Paper Cupcakes and this time around, Gloria set us a colour challenge - she wants us to use Pink, Green and Yellow. Here's my card:

I've used prismacolour pencils and sansodor on the Paper Cupcakes image and blended the background with chalks - I really like using chalk lately, I think it's under rated!! All of the papers are from Wild Rose Studio - it was lucky really, when I knew the colour scheme I looked through my papers and the Butterfly Garden ones from WRS were all yellow, pink and green!
I'm also entering my card into the following challenges:

• Inspirational Card Sketches - ICS #107.
• Colour Create - Challenge 67 Pastels.
• Paper Cutz - Challenge 84 Use 3 or more patterned papers.
• Wee Memories - Challenge #49 Anything Goes.

Oh, and you'll never guess what - I won over at Crafty Ho's last week!! Found out last night and wanted to shout from the roof tops being as I never win anything but cos I'd already posted 3 times yesterday, I thought I'd better not bore you again!!! So - I'm Crafty Ho (now normally, I wouldn't be too impressed if someone called me a Ho but on this occasion, I'll let it pass LOL!!) Have a great week everyone and don't forget to join in with our challenge!

Doggy Beer

Blimey, sorry - me again!! Just a quick one cos I've made something for the Cards for Men sketch challenge and I've just realised that the deadline is in a couple of hours......so, here's my card:

I'm a recent convert to Digistamp Boutique having seen their images used around blog land, I've finally succumbed, so this image is one of theirs - coloured with promarkers, with a bit of glossy accents on the beer glass. The papers are Wild Rose Studio, the sentiment stamp is Papermania and I've added a bit of card candy.
And that's it - I promise to leave you in peace now to enjoy the rest of your evening - and the end of the Dancing on Ice final!! I won't be back again....well, not til the morning at any rate (mwah, ha, ha....!)

Oh, to be a teenager again....

Yep, back again! I was very honoured to be asked to be Guest Designer over at PaperWorks Co. Blog this week, which every Sunday is a sketch challenge. Here's my card:

I'd been asked by a family member to make a card for her Grand daughter, so thought I'd 'kill two birds with one stone', so to speak! All the papers are Basic Grey Hopscotch and I've used a stamp from The Greeting Farm, one of the new Creepin' Crew ones, which I think are perfect for teens! I used nesties and my cuttlebug for the oval mat in the middle and then cut the number out with my Slice. The sentiment is from a Kanban kit that I nicked!! Ohh, just realised how that sounded - I meant I nicked the sentiment out of the kit that I had, not that I nicked the whole kit, am not a tea leaf - hee, hee!!!!!
I'm also entering my card into the following challenges:

• Everybody Art - Challenge #134 Happy Birthday.
• Chrisma Cardz - Challenge #12 Birthday for a Teen.
• Send A Smile 4 Kids - Challenge #5 Birthday Girl.

Right, I think that's about it! Pop over and check out the PWCO blog - they have some good sketches. Hope you've had a good weekend. Mwah!

Sweet.....

Hope you're all enjoying your weekends. It's my weekend 'off' - Sam's at his Nan and Grandad's, so I always have lots of fun on these weekends (aka get lots of crafting done LOL)!! Today there's a new challenge over at Sunday Sketch and Stamp and this week, it was Mira's turn to design the sketch that we had to work with. When I first saw it, I was a bit stumped but to be honest, I'm really pleased with how it turned out - and it was much easier than I thought it was gonna be! Here's my card:

I've coloured a CC Designs image with promarkers and rested it on top of a word cut with my slice. All the papers are from Crate Paper 'Katlin' (had them for absolutely ages and it's the first time I've used them - sooooo naughty!!) All the flowers and leaves were cut with a Magnolia Doohickey and I've used my Martha Stewart butterfly punch. And that's it - Simples!!
So, what d'you think? Hope you like it and I hope you'll join in again. Feel free to leave me a comment, I really do appreciate it, ya know! Enjoy the rest of your weekend - oh, and don't forget the clocks have gone forward in the UK. I'll be back later..........

Spotlight on Me!!! (LOL!)

Today I was very honoured to have been spotlighted as the 'Featured DT Member' in The Stamping Boutique Journal. If you've never read it, it's definitely worth subscribing to - even if for nothing else, you get a free image with every issue (this week's is the one that I've used on my card). You can get the newsletter sent to your email address by going here and filling in your name and email addy in on the right hand side. Here's the card that I made for the feature:

 And here's my interview (I won't be offended if you can't be bothered to read it all LOL!)

SENIOR DT MARIE

1. Tell me about yourself.
I'm Marie and I'm a single mum to one amazing son, Sam who's 10. We live in London in the UK with our dog, Tippy who's a chorkie (a cross between a chihuahua and a yorkshire terrier). For many years I worked at an advertising agency in central London and I was far too busy working and socialising to have any kind of hobby. But then in 2006, all that changed - I was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer and after having a major operation and radiotherapy, I found myself on the road to recovery but being unable to work, with a lot of time on my hands!! I don't know what drew me to card making but I thought I'd try it and I haven't looked back!!! My house has now been taken over by stash and my clothes obsession has been replaced by a paper and stamp obsession LOL!!!! I started blogging at the beginning of last year and it's opened up a whole new world to me - I love visiting other people's blogs and taking part in challenges. There's so much talent and inspiration out there!! In a lot of ways, card making has saved me - at what could have been a very dark time in my life, I've found something that I'm passionate about and that I find very relaxing. Not only that, the friends that I've made are fantastic. I can't imagine my life now without cards and blogging!!!

2. How long have you been with The Stamping Boutique?
I got the email inviting me to join the team at the end of August last year and haven't looked back!! Tracey is amazing for bringing out new (and gorgeous!!) images all the time, I don't know how she does it!!

3. What is your favorite TSB image or line and why?

Oh, that's a hard one!! I love Fairy Cynthia and Princess Jennifer Latte - both so much fun. But then I've seen so many beautiful cards made using the enchantment line.

4. What is your favorite coloring medium?
I love the effects of prisma colour pencils blended with sansodor like on the card I've made here and I love watercolouring with distress inks but I must be honest, 9 times out of 10, I turn to my promarkers for quickness!

5. When you are not crafting what do you like to do?
I'm a big TV fan! I love American shows. I enjoy walking around the heath where we live with our dog but most of all, I like spending time with my son - one of our favourite things to do is to go to the cinema.

6. If you could do or be anything...what what you do or be and why?
My absolute dream would be to open up a little craft shop - I'd love to be able to sell things that I'm passionate about and pass on my love of papercrafting to other people. And to be able to sit in a little corner and make cards during the quiet times would be my idea of heaven!!

7. What are your favorites? papers, colors, embellishments, tools.
Well, TSB images, of course! LOL!! I love MME, Basic Grey and October Afternoon papers. The flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts are TDF. My fave colour is purple. And at the moment, my favourite thing is my Slice machine!! I got the new Elite version and it's fab!!!

If you did manage to make it this far, I hope you found it interesting - or that you're at least still awake, hee, hee.

I'm going to enter my card into the Fussy and Fancy Friday sketch challenge, Flutterby Wednesday's open challenge #147 and Crafts and Me challenge #27 Anything Goes.

OK - that's about it from me for tonight, I'm off to watch a bit of telly and do some crafting! Bye for now.......

Quack, quack...........

There's a new challenge starting today over at Delightful Challenges and this week we want to see Pastels and Ribbon. Here's my attempt:

How cute is Dilly the Duck??? I've coloured him with promarkers and used my nesties and cuttlebug to cut it out. The papers are from Prima and I've used a Martha Stewart corner punch. The ribbons are from Really Reasonable Ribbon, who are sponsoring the challenge this week - there's a $10 certificate up for grabs for this week's winner.
I'm also entering my card into The Crafty Ho's sketch challenge, The Crafty Pad's challenge #113 Use a Digi,  Make it Mondays Anything Goes and Colour Create's challenge #67 Pastels.
You know it's funny cos as the week goes on, there are lots of challenges that I see - mainly sketches - that I think are fab and want to take part in and time seems to fly by and I end up missing half of them!! Anyway, I hope you're still enjoying the spring weather in your part of the world and I hope to see your pastel and ribbon creations.