Dolphin Birthday

Now dinner is done and dusted I can upload my second and last card for the day.  It was such a rude interruption to have to vacate my chair and occupy the dreaded kitchen but I really should not complain as hubby is so good at taking his turn <g>

This card was specifically designed for the Delicious Doodles challenge - Make it Fishy.  OK, I know a dolphin is not a fish but it does swim in the sea so is close enough I think.  I was itching to make this card all day after seeing the challenge last night and just having to go buy the digi I used which I have had my eye on for some time, it is just so goooorrrggeous don't you agree.

As usual, I really wanted to show the digi off and had thought of using some wonderful water velum I have stashed away but then thought, material.  I have not made a card using material instead of DP for ages and knew I had what I thought would be perfect in my drawer.  The material was a scrap given to me by a friend (also in four more colours) which she bought of an event here in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, to decorate the tables.  I tried to pucker it up to make it look like the motion of the sea but by the time I had added the text border, digi and embellishment it kind of got hidden, never mind, I know it is there and you can feel it in the real world.

Recipe:-

• White Linen card from Craft Creations
• Digi - Leaping Dolphins by Teri of Delicious Doodles
• DIes - Spellbinder - grand scalloped ovals and  fantastic flourish one, Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 4pk - Borders by Rachael Bright
• Background is material from my stash
• Sentiment by your truly
• Pearls, Stickles, gems, dolphin charms and Extreme Glitter also from my stash.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

• Delicious Doodles - Challenge #33 - Something Fishy
• JAI #163 - Just Add...a FUN background!
• Polkadoodle - Birthdays With Bling
• Aud Sentiments - Happy Birthday to US!!! Challenge 79
• Sarah Hurley - Challenge 79 - Projects with Character
• DTC - challenge #207 Birthdays
• Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - Insects or animals
• Tuesday Throwdown - Make Your Own Background

Thank you for stopping by and happy crafting.  Hugs Mimi

Heard you need a hug!!!

Just a very quick post.  It has been a busy afternoon in this household, two cards. Here is the first on using a Mo Manning image.

Recipe:-

• White Linen card from Craft Creations
• Digi - Two Jill from Mo's Digital Pencil
• Swirly die - Spellbinder - fantastic flourish one - 1
• Mounts - X-Cut - #2 rectangle-parenthesis
• DP - Docrafts Papermania, Red Hot Paper Pack
• Purple Stickles
• Gems, crystal stems and bow from my stash

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

• Mo's DP2  - Challenge #182 - Pastel Colors
• Dilly Beans - Think Pink
• Stamping for the Weekend - Die cuts and/or punches
• Paper Crafting Journey - Use a Sentiment!
• Whimsy Stamps - Challenge # 58 Theme Pretty In Pink
• Love to Scrap - Challenge #4 - Cut It Out!
• Sparkle N Sprinkle - Use a digital image

Welcome to your new home

I have not made a new home card for ages so thought it was about time I did so, you just never know when one will come in handy.

Close up of background brickwork embossing

Recipe:-

• White Linen card from Craft Creations
• Digi from 'Window' by My Heart Pieces Digital Stamps with fussy cut fence for dimension
• Paper flowers made using Spellbinders-bitty-blossoms-6
• Brickwork embossing folder but I don't know the company who made it - no name on it
• Mounts and sentiment - my design and print/cut on my Black Cat
• Flowers, ribbon, backing paper etc from my stash
• Gem bits are recycled from an old broken necklace

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

• My Heart Pieces -  Add embossing, die or wet
• Die Cuttin Divas -  Challenge #112 ~ Flowers
• Tuesday Throwdown - Make Your Own Background
• Simply Challenged - April 23rd Embossing Folders
• Sweet Stamps - Challenge #114 Use 3 of Any Item (I used 3 die cut flowers, 3 birds on the digi)

After the rain!!!

Could I resist - easy answer to that - no <g>.  I have had this super cute digi by Stitchy called 'rain drops' for a wee while now and just needed an excuse to use it.  After a really long winter in the UK and now half way through Spring hardly knowing that it had even arrived (so I am told as I am in Saudi, well away from all the rain <g>) I thought it would be rather nice to create a card for all my family and friends a couple of thousand kilometers away telling them it is now time to look for the rainbow.  Warm, dry weather can't be far away now!!!!

My brain cell was not working properly and although it was inadvisable in this frame of mind to try something new I did anyway.  I really wanted a plastic looking umbrella and found in my stash some 3D effect stuff by Anita.  Sounded like just the thing to use.  Image coloured and cut and time to apply the compound, brilliant, just the effect I wanted but, yes there is a but ..... the area was far to large for me to cope with and I was to mean to use nearly a whole bottle :)  - oh dear, no good, something else to fill my bin with and start again.  Back to my normal method or using a sheet of plastic transparency.  It has sort of given the effect I was after in real life but as I didn't use the  flash on the camera you can't really see it in the photo.  The bottle of 3D effect stuff was still sitting in front of me shouting out - 'hey come on use me on the card, I am feeling rejected'.  How could I refuse and so the wellies, yes the wellies could be plastic too and the area not to large.  With a happy bottle of 3D effect stuff in my hands I covered the wellies.  Alas, like the umbrella, they too have not shown themselves in their glory due to not using the flash.

Recipe:-

Recipe:-

• White Linen card from Craft Creations
• Digi - Stitchy's 'Rain Drops' available from the StitchyBear Digital 
• Sizzix die for border - Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 4pk - Borders by Rachael Bright
• DP paper from Panda Bear also available from the StitchyBears Digital Outlet called, funnily enough, 'Rainbow Papers'
• Gems, lace and strange grass stuff I found in a stationary shop one day from my stash.  No idea what the grass stuff is, when I tried biting it, it was like acrylic wool - yuk but it feels like dried plant matter :)
• Sentiment - by yours truly

Reading this post I think I am in a very odd mood - beware anybody in my vicinity lol

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges

• Digi Haven - Rain/Umbrella Challenge
• Rogue Redhead - Rebel Challenge 22: April Showers!
• Crafty Calendar - "Sunshine and Showers"
• Card Crafter's Circle - Challenge #71 APRIL SHOWERS
• DL.ART Challenge #107 - Rain
• Digital Tuesday - Challenge #206- Springtime
• Paper Take Weekly - One Paper Taker
• Lexi's Creations - 'Add Lace and/or Ribbon'

Thank you for stopping by and have a happy crafting time <g>  Hugs Mimi

Earthday - Earth our Home!!

What a busy week card wise, I think this is the fourth card posted this week.  This post is a bit special, I was browsing around last night and came across the Just Some Lines site who are having and Earthday challenge.  You do have to use one of their digis to enter but wonderfully they provide one free if you don't have any in you collections.  I love the digi they were giving away and just had to have it and in return I have made a card for their challenge.  Not a hard trade off as I would not be making cards if I did not find it a more than pleasurable passtime :).  Thank you Just Some Lines for the gift, you are stars.

The topic is very close to my heart, our earth, our home is such a special place and I get so wound up with all the devastation, greed etc caused by us so called responsible humans.  No I am not going to get on my soap box, I am in far to good a mood to go there you will be pleased to know.  I think most people will go down the route for this challenge, of save our trees, recycle etc but I believe we are all one people, we are all the same.  I found a wonderful quote by Dr. Wayne Byer - "When you live on a round planet, there's no taking sides." - which I think is more than apt regarding my thoughts.

Recipe:-

• White Linen card from Craft Creations
• Vellum from Folia called 'Starry Night' for the background
• Digi - Earthday 1 from Just Some Lines, placed onto an image of the world from IClipart.com, cut out and attached to the card with foam tape for a 3d effect.
• Dies - Spellbinder - Fantastic Flourish one - 1, Tattered Lace - Corners & Border Die- Buckle Set and X-Cut - large tags
• Gems and star brads from my stash.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

• Just Some Lines - Earth Day
• 2 Sisters Challenge - Challenge #140 ~ Color Challenge - BLUE and/or GREEN
• One Stop Craft - Challenge 225 - Not Square
• Pumpkin Spice -  Challenge #16 Faithful or Meaningful Sentiment
• Speedy Fox and Friends  - Week 156....."Punched Borders".
• Love to Scrap - Challenge #4 - Cut It Out!
• Whoopsi Daisy - Not a Square
• Die Cuttin Divas - Challenge #111 ~ A Star for Astronomy Day
• Eclectic Ellapu - It's in the stars......

Thank you for stopping by and happy crafting <g>  Hugs Mimi

Birdhouse Swirl

Hello folks.  We have another challenge at One Stitch At A Time so how about popping over to see all the fabulous creations by the design team.

Challenge #160

Theme ' Use A Digi'

The sponsor this week StitchyBear Digital Stamps with a prize of all the images the DT used in challenge #158 to spend in the store.  To win this prize you need to use a digi from the StitchyBear store.  You can still enter without using a StitchyBear digi and the prize for the winner is $3 to spend in the store.

This week it was Tracey's turn to choose a stamp for Ali and me to work with.  Exciting stuff as the designer to be choose a digi from was Tami and I love Tami's digis.  Tracey certainly game me a challenge <g>, the stamp she chose was Birdhouse Swirl by Gingerloft.  Sometimes I find some digis are so hard to work with and this was one of them.  A really beautiful stamp but hard to make a card with as so much of the artwork is done.  With a digi like this I always feel it does not take much for the card to look overdone and cluttered and before you know it the digi is no longer the main focus of the piece of work being created.

I opted for a classical look with the main play on subtle colour.  The digi was so free flowing that I really wanted to keep this alive so tried a water colour effect, think it worked <g>.  Enough chatter, here is my card for this weeks challenge, hope you like it :)

Recipe:-

• White Linen card from Craft Creations
• Digi - Birdhouse Swirl by Gingerloft
• Background paper created by me and used for all three layers of the card
• Text topper created on my Black Cat - tried something new here, the pen tool to do the text - amazing.  I used a 0.5 fine liner pen.  SVG file for this by me too.
• Fine line border stickers from Craft Creations
• Lace from my stash

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

My friend is not really a creeper!!!!

Wow - on a card making session this week, two cards in two days and another tomorrow when the OSAAT DT card goes up:)

I was having a look at one of my DT sister's blogs yesterday, she also designs for Delicious Doodles (Teri's work) and saw the challenge was Green and Brown, colours I love to work in along with blues and purples (notice no pink or orange mentioned there lol).  Teri's stamps, like Stitch of StitchyBear's are just awesome and I just can't help collecting them.  If you have not seen her stamps it is worth popping over to her shop to have a look - Delicious Doodles.  I had a browse through my collection and found one which I thought would be perfect called The Ivy Queen.

A bit of research on the good old net turned up the symbolism of ivy in the Celtic world - strength of friendship through different paths and directions related to the intertwining, twisting and turning of ivy as it grows.  Also, the ivy's ability to grow even in hostile situations which relates to a friendship standing strong during the good times as well as the bad.  Perfect, this worked so well with the image and made for a lovely friendship card.  Hope you like what I put together, must say, I think is is one of my favourites.

Recipe:-

• Green Hammered card from Craft Creations
• Backing paper - ancient, from my earliest days of card making when I started off using wrapping paper as my backing paper <g>
• Digi - Delicious Doodles The Ivy Queen
• Spellbinders die - Adorning Squares-7
• Ivy and ribbon from my stash.  I had forgotten about this ivy and designed my own but remembered about it in bed.  Such a frustrating day at work this morning, all I wanted to do was go home and see if the ivy trails really did exist or were a figment of my imagination <g>.  As you can see, they did exist!!!
• Green Stickles on the flowers of the digi.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

• Delicious Doodles - Challenge #32 - Colour Combination (green and brown)
• Alphabet Challenge - E for Emerald
• QKR Stampede - Challenge #35- Punches and/ or Dies
• Stampin for the Weekend - Friendship
• Paper-Crafting Journey - Use a Sentiment!
• Sparkle N Sprinkle - Use a digital image
• Whoopsi Daisy - Not A Square
• Fairies Challenges - # 5 - For a Lady...