im still here!

For anyone wondering why i havent been blogging for a while, ive recently been away on holiday and since being back ive been very tired and just havent been in the mood to craft.
I must try and get my creative flow going again, and i will use some of the challenges to try and kick start myself again!
Some good news though is i have been accepted on a city and guilds photography course. It starts soon so ill have to get used to a routine again, after being ill for so long and having no routine whatsoever! Im really excited as i love photography but im also nervous as im hoping my energy levels and memory problems wont let me down, but i suppose all i can do is try and see how i cope.
Anyway, i'm off to catch up with all of your blogs and cards!

Nice matters award!

Thank u cheryl for nominating me for a nice matters award. nice is definately the way i want to be!

I now have to nominate 5 people. Im sorry if u have already been nominated but i suppose at least that means more people think ur nice! lol

I nominate :

Kerrie-Kerrie's little corner

Becky-Becky Stewart

Sally-sally's world

Lily-Lily's little blog home

Amanda-Maddies creations

as u've all been nice to me over the time we've known eachother! xxxx

Elzybells girls birthday card

I had to make a birthday card for a good friend of mine, so i found this sweet friend image stamped for me in an image swap, on a forum i go on.

I used watercolour pencils, and sakura pens to colour them, and mounted them onto bright pink bazzill card.

I adore this new paisley black and white paper from doodlebug, and thought it would look great with small bits coloured in, so i used the same pink sakura pen to outline all the teardrop shapes. It looks much shinier IRL.

The small birthday peeloffs are again anitas. I really do need to buy some more birthday sentiment stamps!

Its been nice making cards again today as ive felt really poorly all weekend. My ME is really playing up and ive felt like a zombie most of the weekend. Im still not feeling great, but its been nice to sit and craft for a few hours. it takes my mind off worrying about feeling so ill again.

CPS card challenge

This card is for the challenge over at CPS.

I decided i wanted to try a more distressed look, instead of my usual clean and neat style.

I chose a gorgeous basic grey paper from the gypsy range and cut the wavey line to match the sketch.

I added some pink distressed paper called "petal pink splatter" by Bo Bunny, which i thought complimented the style of the basic grey paper.

I used a fabric white flower and a pink prima held together with a large brad by papermania.

I used some shimmery organza ribbon from ribbon oasis to add to the deliacte look, and added a small peel off greeting from anitas art.

To define the background paper more i added some faux stitching with a sakura stardust pen. The stitching is the challenge over at wednesday stamper, but i will be doing another card with stitching as this was only a small amount done with a pen!

Beate's sketch weekend challenge#15

This card is made for Beate's weekend sketch challenge#15.

I love using pink as u can probably tell and i thought this gorgeous penny black sticker would go great on a pink card. i layered it onto some bazzill card and used a bigger piece of a lighter shade for the background piece. I edged that with a brilliance dew drop ink pad to add some shimmer and give some definition.

I used 2 different doodlebug spotty papers for the background papers, and tied some pretty pale pink organza ribbon, from ribbon oasis, around it.

the sentiment sticker is from anitas art.

sketch this:cards sketch. #22

This card was made for the sketch this:cards sketch challenge#22.

I love these little Elzybells teddy stamps, and the football one is great for little boys.

I used the matching football stamp for the background layer.

I added a folded "frill" under the image piece, that was part of the dare at daring cardmakers, as i wanted to try and use a frill on a boys card.

(cheryl i hope u dont mind me getting inspiration from ur frill!).

Im not sure i like how it worked though, so will have another go at that dare!

The folded frill is a doodlebug paper, and the sentiment is from a woodware clear set.

Di Hickman challenge august#3

This card is based on the sketch by Di Hickman

I decided to try and use a colour that i dont often use so chose this fun green spotty paper, and a smaller piece of stripy paper. Im not sure who these papers are by as i got them as a gift.

I wanted a contrast colour so used an orangy/yellow bazzill card as the top layer of the sketch.

I used a glittery sentiment sticker that i bought from a gift shop(but i think they are now sold by papermania), and folded over 2 prima flowers and held them together with a brad.

I added a small strip of green bazzill card along the top as it seemed too big a space, and added some glitter dots with a sakura pen, and also the indents of the embossed flowers.

Marie's challenge #2

I made this card with Marie's sketch challenge#2 in mind.

The sketch was a simple one and we had to make sure we used a punch on the card somewhere.

I used a previously punched scalloped oval that a friend of mine did for me, and i also used my corner rounder punch on the background paper(which is doodlebug-i am obsessed with doodlebug papers lately as u can see!)

The sweet tortoise image was done for me from the same friend(thanks michelle!) but im not sure who makes it.

I added some sheer pink ribbon with a shimmer down the edges(from ribbon oasis), and a wavey sentiment from savvystamps.

MY sketch challenge card!

On the cardmaking forum i go on, we were invited to have a go at designing the next sketch challenge, so i thought id volunteer.

I sketched a design based on a gatefold card and then made this sample card. I measured out the folds on some white card and scored down both sides to make the gatefold.

The pretty image is penny black as u will all know and again my favourite paper of the moment is by doodlebug.

I added some pretty pink ric rac down the side and balanced it with 2 lareger brads by papermania.

The sentiment is a letraset rub on. I really recommend these rub ons as they go on so smoothly and easily and i have never had problems with them, like i have with other brands.

For anyone that would like a go at this challenge ive added the 2 sketches to work from. If you do make a card using it i would love to see so please leave a link to it in the comments.

caardvarks 1,2,3 challenge.

This card was made for the caardvarks 1,2,3 challenge where you had to use 1 embellishment, 2 patterned papers and 3 flowers.

I went through some offcuts of papers i had and these 2 seemed to go together great with the colours and the square designs. The papers are both doodlebug i think. they were mounted onto mirri card but it doesnt show up well in photos.

The 3 flowers and prima sprites mounted on top of eachother with the middle one being a slighty different shade of green.

The embellishment i chose to use was a simple, small lilac brad to hold the flowers together.

The greeting is from a sheet of anita arts birthday peel offs. I wasnt sure if a sentiment was classed as an embellishment but didnt thinks so, so i used these.

Jen's sketch challenge

This card was based on a sketch by Jen (i heart2stamp) . I wanted to keep it nice and simple so i used a busy paper with lots of detail in and a gorgeous penny black sticker to add the image.

I liked the way the white space around the papers seemed to frame the design, so i left it untouched.

The gorgeous paper is a stripy stitched look paper from doodlebug and the sticker, as i said, and the wording are from the penny black sticker sets.

The card was bazzill as always.

forum challenge card

This card was inspired by a challenge given on a cardmaking forum i belong to.

I wanted to use this gorgeous black and white paisley paper from doodlebug so thought id go monochrome again.

The embellishment is again from the papermania embellishment sets and ive mounted it a few times on black and white to make it stand out from the base black card. The tag was attached with a foam pad as well to add more dimension.

To add a small amount of bling i added a small embellishment to the shoe and 3 clear gems in the top corner to add some sparkle.

Clare's birthday card

This was for a lovely friends birthday recently. I adore this penny black stamp and thought it symbolised friendship and helping eachother out.

The pretty dotty paper is one of my faves from doodlebug, and the flowers are primas i think!

The sentiment is done using a magnetic set of stamps called stick and stamp, but i cant remember what company they are from.

Very behind!!

I've been away at Matts for the weekend until last night so am very behind on my challenges and card making. I will have to try and get going again now i'm home!

We've finally booked our holiday! We are going to Santa Eulalia, Ibiza the first week of september. The hotel is right on the beachfront and the area is gorgeous. i cant wait!! except for getting on a plane again. that part will scare the crap out of me but hopefully with diazapam i will cope!

Off to look at all ur cards and challnges now!!

2 cards for boys

I took some inspiration from my friend Kerrie to use some stamps that i havent yet used/or barely used.

I bought this cute set of Woodware boys stamps from the Glitterpot ages ago, but have barely used them as they have been tucked under a pile of cards and papers!

So i decided to dig them out and make 2 cards from them.

I kept it simple and unfussy as it'll be for a young boy, and kept the colours similar. On the more colourful card i used some patterned paper but am not sure where it is from as it was a gift.

Lauren's sketch challenge

This card is from a sketch challenge by Lauren. I found this one really tricky. Her card looked so great and funky but i just couldnt get the look right. I started with the flower from a Basic Grey Romani Paper(Hippie) for the circle part of the design, and then tried to find some papers to match colourwise. I settled on the yellow swirls from Making Memories, and a burnt orange splattered effect paper from a Provo Craft Bitty scrap pad.

I added a thank u sentiment from an Inca stamp, and matted it onto bazzill card. I felt the yellow swirls needed something else so matted it onto limeade bazzill.

I still felt the card looked out of balance so added some yellowy/orangey gems.

Not my best card but it did really challenge me.

Studio S- challenge card

I really liked this sketch from Susie at Studio S. I decided on the prima flower straight away so worked the colour of the card around that.

I found some pretty Making Memories swirl paper and added some yellow bazzill along the bottom.

I added a second prima in a contrasting colour and attatched them with a yellow brad.

The stem was a bit tricky as it was curved and caused me some trouble! i managed to curve the ribbon but it left bumps, so i tied extra little bits of ribbon to cover these, making them leaves.

I stamped the pretty rubber stampede sentiment stamp and matted it onto another shade of yellow bazzill.

A simple but cheery card with sunshine colours, even though ive almost forgot what colour the sun is!! lol

Technique thursday-challenge

The challenge over at Technique Thursday is to go through some old mags/books and find something that inspires you.

I grabbed the first mag that came to hand, "cardmaking and papercraft, issue 37" and the first thing that jumped out at me was a page of gorgeous easter cards by Stamping Caz. I decided to use all the elements of one of her cards, which included ribbons tied to a longer piece of ribbon, handdrawn black outlines around the card, a central hedgehog design and some sparkly dots.

She had used a lilac card so i covered a white card with lilac bazzill, and used a cute hedgie penny black stamp i have. As always i coloured in with watercolour pencils, and mounted it onto some pretty dusky pink bazzill. I tied some stripy ribbon along the top and then tied 3 different types of ribbon along it.

I then drew my outline around the outside with a fine liner pen and added glitter dots all over the card with stickles.

I really loved doing this card and it made me realise just how much inspiration i have in the huge stack of magazines i have kept. I will be doing this challenge whenever i need some inspiration.

DCM "little extra"

This is my card for the DCM "little extra" challenge. It is to make a sorry card and as i had forgotten a friends birthday today, i decided that was the perfect sorry card.

I cut some of the front flap of card so i could overlap with the image.

The gorgeous image is by Elzybells and i watercoloured her, cut out her dress from some pretty paper, and H2O'd her flowers and bow in her hair.

The dotty paper is from doodlebug and the ribbon is from a papermania set.

I added the sentiment with doodlebug rub on's and a few sweet little flowers in the corners of the image.

Ive been tagged with pay it forward!

Thanks caz. I like the idea of this one. Rules here

Im going to have a good think about this as i wanna send someone a card that i dont normally, so its more of a special thing and a nice suprise to make someone smile.

I now have to tag 5 others. But as im new to all this i dont have a lot, and those i have have already been tagged to anyone that hasnt been tagged by this and sees it please consider yourself tagged and pay it forward!