On a Viva la Verve Roll!

Goodness me, if you've popped back from the earlier posts of today, great to see you again, if this is your first visit, hello!

My mojo has well and truly been restored, I'm onto sketch number 3 of this months Viva la Verve sketch challenge, and this one deserved to be a very special card, it's so pretty! My niece will be sweet sixteen next month so this will be her card. Here's the sketch

I went ultra girly with this giant 8x8 inch card, well you're only sweet sixteen once! I love the multiple layers, and knew I had to get my Sweet and Sour DSP out for this one, shield your eyes this ones very bright and colourful!

The colour combo I've used for this one is Elegant Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie and Rose Red. I love to make personalised cards, hopefully this will be a card that she keeps for a long time to come.

I'll be back with one last card today, hope to see you then, xx

Viva La Verve Marathon

Hello again,

If you checked my blog this morning you will know that I have discovered (thanks Sian) the Viva La Verve sketch challenge, each Friday a new sketch is released, and let me tell you they are gorgeous, so much so that I have decided to go back and attempt all of this months.

So lets start with the first (seems logical to me) I have teamed week 1's sketch with the colour combo from the Play Date Cafe, I apologise for the poor quality of the photo, the colours are much better IRL, honest!

I really liked this sketch, it's simple but uses a number of layers so great for using scraps or multiple DSP, this will definitely be getting used again. I think this colour combo deserves another go too I think maybe my proportions are off. Here is my card,

The colours I've used are Night of Navy, Rose Red (which is actually pink) and Wild Wasabi, may have to take another picture of this one and change it. I die cut two butterflies one in the Rose Red CS, and one off vellum, which I embossed.

I'd also like to enter this one for the Less is More challenge which this week is 'things that move', I just hope this card is CAS enough to be considered, it is definitely not as embellished as my usual style!

Pop back later for the next installment, xx

Colour Throwdown Anniversary

Hello you,

If you read yesterdays post you'll know that I was looking for inspiration for a anniversary card for my friends daughter and son-in-law. She told me that she wanted the card to be girly but not too girly so that her son-in-law wouldn't feel left out.

I found the perfect colour combo over at the Colour Throwdown challenge, perfect mix of feminine and masculine, don't you think.

I didn't have all of these exact colours, I think Barely Banana retired here in the UK last year, and we don't have Kiwi Kiss, so I substituted these for So Saffron and Old Olive, but I really liked this combination.

My friend Ann seemed pleased with it, so I hope the happy couple are too.

I hope you'll pop back and see me again soon, xx

Paper Players and Shabby Tearoom Challenge Card

Good evening all,

What a day, my cat is poorly again! This time he has a dental abscess, which means a very swollen lip, and a thoroughly fed up puss. The poor little man doesn't know what to do with himself. He's struggling to eat and drink, as a result he has no energy and coupled with a very high temperature his joints are sore so he can't jump or co-ordinate himself properly. So we have more antibiotics and painkillers, which he will also not be happy about.

Anyway back to happier things, I'm always on the look out for new challenge blogs and I found this one last week, it's called The Paper Players. This weeks challenge is a colour combo of triple pinks.

I was a little worried about this combo until I got the colours out of my stash, they look really pretty together, here is the very feminine card that I have come up with.

I am also entering this card into another new challenge I'm found called The Shabby Tea Room whose theme this week is polka dots, I love polka dots so I can see me entering this one more than once!

Hopefully the rest of the week will be less eventful than today, xx

Happy Birthday Amanda!

Good Morning, all you crafty people!

I made this card for my fabulous up-line Amanda, happy birthday!! I made it earlier this week and have been dying to show it, but I didn't want to spoil the surprise just incase she wondered over to my blog before hand.

Those of you who know Amanda will know that she always says that envelopes have a be decorated so I couldn't very well leave it blank, so I carried on the theme to the envelope. I really liked the look, I may have to start decorating all my envelopes this way!

I have used the gorgeous Sweet and Sour speciality papers for this card and envelope. You may have guessed by now that I LOVE challenges (I'm officially addicted to them) So I took the opportunity to combine a few for this card.

The sketch is from Mojo Monday, I have missed out the bow (very unlike me) as I wanted the Daisies die to have more of a focal point and I have swapped the large tag for three small ones (aren't these Tiny Tags just the cutest).

Next I wanted to use a great colour combo, colour challenges are fast becoming my favourite, they really push me out of my safety zone. So I just had to head over to Color Throwdown for my colour inspiration. This week there is an added twisted with the addition of 'pick your own' guest colour. I chose to add Rose Red, which is the colour of the DSP.

Lastly I thought that I would also add in the theme featured on SU-only which was May Flowers, and as I'm loving my Daisies die, that was no problem what so ever!

I do hope that Amanda likes her card, I'm sure she will get tons of them! Enjoy your surprises, birthday girl!

See you soon - xx

Blissful birthday

Every card that I make at the moment seems to be made with the bliss set, I don't know why my hands just seem to head directly for it when I'm creating.
Today's card has a very girly theme, I've used the Sweet and sour speciality papers, I love them especially the glazed one which I have used on this card. I never thought pink and orange would make a good combo but I was wrong!

I love the butterfly from this set, I think it's because it's more delicate than butterflies in other sets, but still simple enough to cut out easily.

Here's the recipe
Stamps, Bliss SAB
Paper, Sweet and Sour speciality, Rich razzleberry CS Rose red CS
Ink, Rich razzleberry, Versamark (I have used the flower stamp on the back ground of the pink squares)
Accessories, Rich razzleberry taffeta ribbon, scallop trim border punch, dimensionals

Hope you have a great weekend, it's perfect weather for crafting!
xx