The Southern Girls Make It Sparkle!

It's time for the first challenge of the year with the "Southern Girls" and the theme for this fortnight is "Make it Sparkle", I for one need no excuse to get out a bottle of stickles and glitter it up!
I used the rather cute image "Bathtime Baby" by Pink Gem Designs,one of this fortnight's sponsors, Check out the rather gorgeous,new look Southern Girls Challenge Blog for full details of all the sponsors and challenge rules.

I made a small, Nestability card, punching out various sized circles in shades of white and acetate,shaping them and making a frame which I raised on foam pads to surround the cute image, I then added highlights of stickles to my Bubbles. 

I'm using this card for the following challenges:-
CIU86, Anything goes,
MMCS 38,Something new,
RR19,Baby or child,
Whimsy 20,New beginnings,
Bearly Mine 26, Anything goes,
EKEF96, Birth,
GGWSC,Something Old,Something new,(new baby,Old punch which I broke punching the circles :( )
Papertake Weekly,New,
Sassy Cheryls 96,New,
Bling it on, New Beginnings,
 BTCAG,New beginnings,
Card and Scrap 23, Baby.
Thanks for stopping by,
Julie.x

Baby Baby.

Oh my word,what an amazing amount of talented card makers joined the Scrapbook Sisters Card Challenge for a fortnight of anything goes! Apologies for not getting round to everyone for a close up look,but even from the thumbnail photos I could see the talent shining through!
The challenges are back to weekly now that Karen and Julie  have had time to recharge their batteries and the new theme for this week is "Baby Baby"

My card was a real easy make. Just a small card cut with my Nestabilities and Cuttlebug,I keep toying with the idea of a die cut machine to cut the Grande Nestabilities, any recommendations would be gratefully received. I coloured my old favourite image by Pink Gem, using Copics,It's a gorgeously easy image to colour!

The Hello stamp is hand cut and check out my lovely woolly bow, I picked up a skein of darning wool ages ago,does anyone actually darn anymore?  I hope I can find some more,I just love the look it gives. I then just tied some knots of ribbon to the die cut ring before adding a bit of inky stitching,some 3d pads and some teeny tiny buttons.

I'm using my card for the following challenges:-
Pretty Little Ribbon Nov4,Buttons and bows,
Crafty Sentiments,New Baby,
Oldie But Goodie,Buttons and bows,
MIM62,,Anything goes.
Thanks for stopping by,
Julie.x

Scrapbook Sisters Card Challenge 23

Happy Wednesday! A nice change for me today as this weeks Challenge at Scrapbook Sisters is Baby Baby, I haven't needed a baby card for a while so thought I'd keep to a simple design to add to my card box. I used a stamp from my stash, some pink gingham paper and 3 buttons. Simple but effective,I like it.....

Hope you join us for this week's challenge,don't forget to see what the rest of the design team have come up with.
Thanks for stopping by,
Julie.x

Just A Quick Post

Haven't had much in the way of spare time this last week,don't know why but time seems to have just run away from me. Thought I'd follow a sketch for a change and use the Pink Gem stamp that I'd coloured up at the weekend using Copics.The boots are a bit on the bright side I know but they'd certainly brighten up a dull Autumn day that's for sure.The tiny scalloped strips and the flower were both cut using the Cricut Plantin School Book Cartridge. The flourish is a revolution die.

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

The Crafty Pad95,Stitching,
Sketch Saturday 127,Sketch,

Bunny Zoe's 5,Autumn Love,

Craft Your Passion 30,Anything goes,
IWD66,Anything goes,
Lexis Creations 26,Anything goes,
that's me for tonight,be sure to call by tomorrow as I've a couple of posts lined up
Thanks for calling by,
Julie.x

Ribbons........Sorted!

Well,the tangle of ribbon I was telling you about yesterday is all smoothed,sorted into colour categories and wound onto acetate so that in theory I should be able to see all my ribbons at a glance,the only trouble is that I have far more than I realised so I could do with a couple more of the pencil cases I've put my rolls of ribbon in a separate box. Once it was all done I rewarded myself with a little play,again using unfamiliar crafting colours for me but it's good to take yourself out of your comfort zone once in a while....

Don't look too closely at the colouring though,I'm trying out some different card, I thought it was going ok till I used my blender to remove a tiny blip and it ended up bleeding a large splodge over the line! So annoying!
I think I must have felt a bit Autumnie(is that a word?) when I made this card,it started with the Basic Grey paper and led on from there,I stamped my Pink Gem Apple Mimi and coloured her to match using Copics (badly) I distressed the edges of the card using Antique linen then used some brown stickles. The rather huge looking buttons are flat backed self adhesive pearls which I touched with colour,I think I cast a shadow when I photographed them as they look unevenly coloured in the photo. I cut some swirls using a Revolution flourish die and placed toning shades of gems onto them.I find that the easiest way to attach lace to a card is to use a tape runner along the edge before placing it,here I used a toning strip of paper to lay it on first,I then folded the ends around it,removing the bulkier pieces so that it glued fairly flat to the front of the card but still leaving enough to make sure it stays secure. If anyone has any handy tips on how they attach their lace I'd love to hear them,it's good to share :) What do you think of the greeting? I found it in the drawer,had no idea I had it.

I'm going to enter this into a few challenges:-

FFF week 34,Pearls and Lace,

Simon Says Stamp,Pearls and Lace,

Stampin Royalty Challenge 35,Rhinestones and Pearls,

Wild Flower Wednesday 30,Fall colours.

That's me for tonight,I'm off to try out an idea for a card,will let you know how it goes tomorrow.Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to make a Pink and Black card for Scrapbook Sister's new card challenge

Julie.x

Sunny Sunday

Thought with all this sunshine I'd take an outside photo of my second entry for A Gem Of A Challenge 4 Apple Mimi looks a little overdressed for the sunshine though lol!

I added some clear Dew drop gems over her buttons to give dimension and used some 3d glaze to the apples to make them nice and shiny. I'm sorry that this is such a short post today,this is my second attempt at posting,lost the last in Cyber Space,lol!.
Enjoy the sunshine,
thanks for stopping by,
Julie.

Happy Birthday!

It's my son's 14th Birthday today and as he's on a ski trip with his school I wanted to make him a card appropriate for the occasion.

I'm not sure who the papers were by as they are leftovers from a class scrapbook kit,was very pleased when I spied them in my drawer. Have used my very useful Autumn Max from Pink Gem designs again but hand cut some skis for him to hold to replace the conker (one of these days I'll make a card using the full image as it is so lovely) The sign post was on one of the papers so I added his name to it and stamped Have a Happy Day on the swing board below. I mounted it onto the card using foam pads. I hope he likes it,it's his first day of skiing today,hope he is so looking forward to it.
Thanks for stopping by today,
enjoy your day,
Julie x