I Fancy Mirrored Monotone.

Good Morning, a bit of an early start for me today, I just couldn't sleep. I ended up getting up after laying there for ages, my mind working overtime on things that I need to achieve over he next few days both at home and at work.

 So I decided to get up, catch up on some comments and then suddenly remembered that I hadn't made this post.

As this week saw the last challenge of the year for Southern Girls, I thought I'd join team Trace in there challenge 

"A Bit Of What You Fancy"

even though it was really a bit of what my daughter fancied, being a name card for her friend's birthday.

So, if you fancy joining us this month, there are some great sponsors as always and we would love to see your creations!

I'm using this card for the Challenge:-

Keep On Crafting, Anything goes.

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x

Lavinia Expects Some Snow!

It's time for the new challenge at Lavinia today, and the theme this time is 

Let It Snow!

I got out my masking fluid, flicked it over my card and waited for it to dry. I then stamped my Spring trees, dobbing some masking fluid over the edges of branches to look like snow was settling.(Dobbing really is a technical term ;)) After the fluid had dried, I inked my background before rubbing off the now rubbery fluid, leaving the white of the cardstock showing through. The sentiment is from seasonal words set. 

The masking fluid came out again for my second card.I stamped my background using various trees and added snowflakes to my card base before adding my fussy cut cat to my window frame.

A sprinkling of glitter was added to both cards!

I'm using these cards for the following challenges:-

CSD, Winter,

CCC101, Cold Outside,

CM, Embossing,

HJCC, Embossing.

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x

Brusho Love

We've been having some internet issues lately so there's been very little blogging opportunity for me. 

I made this one a few weeks back and I have to say I rather love it. I had the idea in my head and just went for it. Initially the heart focal was going to be just the lined paper that I had been ripped out of a little scrap book to make space for thickness of the papers and photos. I die cut lots of hearts, folded them in half  and glued them all together using only a thin line of glue down the centres. I inked the edges and placed them but wasn't happy with the look so I  decided to spray them with water and sprinkle with red brushos. Then the magic happened purely by accident, I got out my heat gun to dry them quickly and the heart really puffed up giving the perfect look. I faked the stitching down the centre by piercing with my pattern makers tool and adding the inky stitches.

I'm using this card for the following challenges:-

Little Red Wagon 316, Technique,

TCA4, Die cuts,

CCC100, Sprinkle.

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x

Mixing It Up! With A DT Call

Good evening crafters, I'm here this evening to share with you the latest challenge at Southern Girls.

 The theme is 

Pattern Paper Mix-Up.

Now if you know me, you'll know I don't tend to use a lot of patterned paper, I'm more of a CAS kind of girl but I have to say, I rather like it.

The image that I used is 

"Little Christmas Girl" 

It's by one of today's sponsors All Dressed Up, please check the challenge blog for full details of all of the sponsors this time.

I'm using this card for the following challenges:-

A Snowflake Promise, Winter/ Christmas,

Inky Chicks 59, Silent Night,

Papertake, Let it Snow,

Unicorn 3, Christmas.

Here's Some Information For You!

Do you fancy joining the Southern Girls?

We are having a little Dt call at the mo!

If you want to find out more, make your way 

Here

 for full details.

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x

Christmas?

It's time for Lavinia's new challenge theme today, and to get you started on those Christmas cards, the theme is 

"Christmas"

For my first card I used the Holly stamp, after several attempts at creating a wreath with the sprig, I ended up drawing around the inside of a circle die, adding a freehand doodle then tapping the stamp with two shades of green ink pads to give a more variagated look. A twine bow twisted amongst the leaves and glitter to the leaves completed the look.

For my tag, I masked the top and bottom sections, lightly adding colour to the background using pale pink and blue, I then randomly stamped the beautiful "Zen snowflakes" in pink, lilac and blue adding the seasonal words, I wonder why I ended up singing songs from "Frozen" .

A pierced edge, a bit of bling and glitter complete my tag.

Now, I struggled a bit with my final card, I toyed with not sharing it but I just love this Santa stamp! The card originally was just the Kraft section but a longer piece of card, then a little voice in my head said,"how can a brown card with a bit of gingham ribbon say Christmas?" so I trimmed it down and mounted it on a red card base, still wasn't happy so I cut off the back and mounted it on a white card. Am I happy with it? no! I wish I'd not listened to that little voice and left it as a longer Kraft card.

For future reference, what do you think, is a Kraft card acceptable to send at Christmas?

I'm entering the following challenges:-

Allsorts 335, Christmas,

C4C310, Christmas,

Polkadoodles, Sparkle Bling or glitter,

RRR128, Christmas,

WW, Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x

Rocking The Stripes.

I'm feeling mighty guilty, we had internet troubles last weekend and I forgot to check the date of team Lou's challenge, how bad am I, I'm almost a week late with giving it a mention and I completely missed adding my card.

So just to let you know, the theme for the Southern Girl's present challenge is 

"Stripes"

As usual there are some great sponsors this month, check out the challenge blog for full details.

I'm using this card for the following challenge:-

CCC, No stamps,

SPC16, Anything goes.

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x

Cover Up.

I thought I'd share a little something that I made for a gift. 

I picked up some little notebooks in the reduced basket in the local chemist last year, I wish I'd taken a photo of the original, it already had a little fold over cover in a matchbook style with a nice strong magnet fastening.

I just felt that by covering it would make it look nicer and slightly more classy that the black and white polka dots it came with.

Now, I don't know about you but I love to look round the Pound shop, a while back this hair accessory  caught my eye, the jeweled flowers are in fact rather lovely but I can't imagine that the flimsy comb that it came on would ever be strong enough to hold it in anyone's hair. 

The Kraft card looks good with the black embossed card, I can't remember what I used to highlight the embossing, it may have been a gold ink pad or some gilding cream, I did make it a couple of months ago so I've forgotten.

I'm using this notebook for the following challenges:-

WLTC, Mixed media,

Altered Eclectics, Mixed media,

RCS, Mixed Media.

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x

Razzle Dazzle Em!

It's time for the new challenge theme at Lavinia today,

"Glitter and Gems"

For my first card I rubbed over my white card base with glycerin before sponging over red, yellow and pink inks, I don't know if you've ever tried it but it gets the inks moving a treat, the colours blend together beautifully. I used  the background script, ivy border was stamped onto the inked card that backs the sentiment and I finished the card off with the stunning Zen butterfly. I added stickles to the edges of my card and the butterfly wings and tiny crystals to the centres of my punched flowers.

For my second card I used the gorgeous Celtic Dreams butterfly die, cutting it 3 times to create the inlays of the wings which I stamped with the background script, the glittered green background and the white outlines, I added some gems to the body of the butterfly.

I'm using these cards for the following challenges:-
CFAS 111, Autumnal Hues,
CM78, Autumnal colours,
MSCB, Wings,
SAM246,Birthday,
CIO, Glitter,
DCD235, Die cuts.

If you fancy joining in with the challenge you could end up with a £40 voucher to spend on more Lavinia stamps to add to your collection. All you need to do is get creative using Lavinia stamps or dies, you don't even have to have a blog to enter as we accept email entries.

Thanks for stopping by,
Julie.x

Southern Girls Go Cute, Fun And Whimsical

It's just a shame that I didn't quite follow instruction.

My image is rather cute though, it's by Zuri, one of the challenge sponsors this time, they also have a sale on at the moment if you fancy treating yourself to Chise or any of the other cute digi images available.

Please check out the Challenge blog for full details of all of the sponsors this time.

This is the first time in a while that I've got out my Copics, I really enjoyed colouring her, I even did a little fussy cutting of the legs, allowing me to do a bit of Out of the box die cutting, not done this in a while either.

I also did a bit of patchwork with my punched flower adding some inky blanket stitching to tie in with the lovely design paper.

I'm using this card for the following challenges:-

FBD, 3 or more papers,

GCC24, Fantasy,

House Of Cards, Stitch it up.

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x

Eight

I thought I'd share another card from a few weeks back designed and cut using the ScanNcut. I'd originally planned on making a football card as the recipient is a keen player, my ideas didn't work but as I'd got black and white cardstock on my bench I decided to just go with it. The embossing and inky stitching add a little interest.   

I'm using this card for the following challenges:-

TTCRD, Anything goes,

TT262, For a child,

BZ.September, Teens and tweens,

CYP279, Anything goes,

RFC281, Cards with numbers.

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x

Krafty Odds And Ends.

A bit of a throw it all together card here today using a few odds and ends up. can you see the perforations on the felt leaves? I used a "Lawn Fawn" die for this, gently pulling the edges of the leaf to open them slightly more.  

I'm using this card for the following challenges:-

 CFAS 109, Tic, tac,toe, top line,

Lawnscaping, Texture.,

MMM, "F" flower/Felt,

TCP30, Mixed media.

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x

Hot, Bright Colours With Lavinia.

The new challenge starts today with Lavinia Stamps, and the new theme is 

"Hot, Bright Colours"

I stamped the frame using "Background Script" then inked the edges with orange and pink, the "Zen flowers" were stamped and shaded with the same inks. "Thank you" looked rather harsh when I'd stamped it in black so I softened the look to suit the rest of the card by dotting over it using a white chalk pen.  

I used the same "Background Script"stamp on my tag along with two stamps from the 

Gorgeous newly released stamps

,"Dragon pods" and "Seasonal words".

I'm using these for the following challenges:-

CCAM, No patterned paper,

GCC22, No patterned paper,

WLTC18, Anything creative.

If you fancy the chance of winning the £40 prize voucher, all you need to do is get creating using your Lavinia stamps, Lavinia digis or Lavinia dies, you don't even need to have a blog to enter as email entries are accepted.

Thanks for stopping  by,

Julie.x

It's A Lottery!

A forgotten birthday card needed a quick recovery and sometimes just a card doesn't fit the bill.

So I bought a lottery ticket and made a match book style wallet to hold it, just a shame it wasn't a winning ticket!

I'm using this gift wallet for the following challenges:-
CIOC, Anything goes and stash/ (nail heads),
GGWSC, Anything goes,
TTCRD, Anything goes,
CFTH75, Anything goes,
NJC23, Anything goes.

Thanks for stopping by,
 Julie.x

Just Fishing.

Thought I'd share the card I made for my fishing loving brother-in-law. I created the card blank using my ScanNcut, cutting another of the shape in silver card which I then inked, stenciled and scored to hopefully make it represent a rainbow trout.  

I attacked my feather duster and used some wire and a paperclip to make my "fly" using some recycled silver thread for the "line" and then inked over a googly eye to make it look a more realistic colour.

I'm using this card for the following challenges:-

Bloggers, Fly (Play on words),

Allsorts, recycle,(silver thread saved from gift wrapping)

Frosted Designs, Metal,

SCT93, Special Occasion,

SPC12, Anything goes.

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x

Flowers with Southern Girls.

It's time for a new challenge with the Southern Girls today and we have another nice easy one for you.

Flowers

I didn't have chance to use the sponsors image today but there are some great sponsors this time, please check out the challenge blog for full details.

I used my Scan and cut to make my card, shaping and welding together petal shapes to make the shape then cutting out individual petals and inky stitching each one by hand the leaf and stem image is a built in shape. I shaped each petal with a ball tool and used glue and foam pads to place each one. The centre of my daisy was cut from felt with a nestability circle. The sentiment was also created using the draw option before sizing the tag, angling and cutting it.

I'm using my card for the following challenges:-

TIOT, Flowers,

IDCB48, Anything goes,

CGC3, Anything goes,

CWAA6, Anything goes.

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x

Forty

I thought I'd share a card that I made a while back using the ScanNcut.

I love that you can use it to make shaped cards with very little hassle.

I'm using this card for the following challenges:-

BZC, Shaped cards

CFTH73, Anything goes,

CYP275, Anything goes,

NJC 23, Anything goes.

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x

Boxing Clever, Anything Goes!

Good morning, does anyone know where July disappeared to? I'm sure it must be to do with my age but goodness the months just fly by!

So that means it's time for a new theme at Lavinia, and this month it's

"Anything but a card"

So, I thought I'd use one of the gorgeous Lavinia dies make a pretty box, it's the perfect size to fit a gift into.

I've actually done step by step instructions for this one and you will soon be able to see it on the Lavinia website.

It was a great way to use up some of the hundreds of tiny seed beads that have been in my drawer for years.

If you fancy joining us in the challenge this month, you could find yourself with a £40 Lavinia voucher to spend. All you need to do is use your Lavinia stamps or dies to create something, you don't even need a blog to join in as email entries are accepted.

I'm using my gift box for the following challenges:-

SBBCB91, Anything goes feather/wings,

F&F, Wings,

PolkaDoodles, More than 1 fold,

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x

Anything Goes With The Southern Girls

It's time for a new theme with the 

Southern Girls challenge today, this time we are spoiling you all with an

"Anything Goes!"

 I used "Candy Circus" by Ppinky Dolls art, one of the sponsors this time. Please check out the challenge blog for full details of the challenge sponsors this time.

I'm using this card for the following challenges:-

CC127, Buttons,

FNF269, No patterned paper,

CCC92, banners.

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x