Darling: Sketch Saturday's challenge card

I'm still in a card making groove at the moment. To be honest my scrapping mojo has gone walkabouts, I think I need some newer photos printing to reinspire me. So until it returns I'm enjoying making cards as they don't take up too much time and I'm still doing something crafty.

 I recently discovered another card challenge blog, Sketch Saturday's, and decided to have a go. As the name suggests each week there is a different card sketch to get the creative juices flowing. This is this weeks sketch #414

I decided to have a play with one of my new Gorjuss girl stamps and made this card

I coloured her as always with Promarkers before doing a so so job of fussy cutting her out. I also decided to use the corner flourish, leaves, and little fox stamp which came in the set. I used a piece of 6x6 paper from American Crafts Autumn Crisp, taking inspiration from the leaves I stamped out. I finished this with some white and gold bakers twine, some flower wood veneer and a sentiment from a Crate Paper cut apart sheet. 

Quidditch: My final NSD layout

The final challenge I managed to complete for NSD was a scraplift challenge on the For the Love of Pretty Paper Facebook group. The challenge was to scraplift this layout. 

I stuck pretty much to the layout and scrapped this layout from the Harry Potter Studios

I used papers from Simple Stories, Bella Boulevard and Fancy Pants all from my scraps box. I love doodling around the edges of papers and layouts and might do more of it! 

Paint the Rainbow one colour at at a time: Daring Cardmakers Challenge

This weeks challenge over on the Daring Cardmakers blog was to use rainbows. I knew I had a rainbow stamp in a set I brought from Love Cynthia last year. I decided to just use the rainbow and not the unicorn (don't all fall over in shock!) and made this card.

I used the rainbow to make a background and coloured this with Promarkers. I back this onto some paper from Dear Lizzy Daydreamer collection and used the hot air balloon from her Fine & Dandy collection. 

I Love That Smile: NSD layout

The second challenge on the For The Love Of Pretty Paper National Scrapbook Day weekend crop was to stamp our own embellishments. I looked through my box of stamps to look for anything I could use to make an embellishment and found a tag and heart stamp on a Gorjuss Girl set which I thought I could use and a gorgeous camera stamp from Stampin Up and scrapped this layout. 

I love this photo of Boo taken last summer at the park. I stamped out the tag and stamped the heart on top of this before layering some stickers from MME and Kesi Art to make an embellishment.

 I stamped the camera and decided to fussy cut this for a simple embellishment to place at the top with a Fancy Pants sticker which I used for my title and a Heidi Swapp bow. 

The papers are from a Recollections pad, transparency is Becky Higgins Project Life. 

Nanny & Grandma: A NSD challenge

The second layout I scrapped for NSD weekend was for a challenge on Shimelle's website. The challenge was to use lace and/or trim. This gave me the perfect opportunity to rummage through my untidy ribbon box. I found some sheer trim with hearts and the last of some of my favourite Pom Pom trim and scrapped these photos from Boo's Christening two (I can't believe it was two) years ago. 

I used both the trims to make as held for my photos to sit on. The papers I used are from Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm, I chose papers with colours which matched the outfits in the photos. I also fussy cut. Rose from a paper from Maggie Holmes Flea Market thinking I might use more of them but decided against it although the rose I did cut came in handy to cover a balloon design which was printed on the paper!

Triskaidekaphobia: Daring Cardmakers Challenge

Are you superstitious? I am. I never walk under a ladder (if I have to if its on scaffolding, etc I cross my fingers), I never put new shoes on the table and I salute magpies when I see them! There are probably other superstitions I have but I can't think of them at the top of my head. What are yours?

As it was Friday 13th last week the challenge on the Daring Cardmakers blog was to make a good luck card. I looked through my stash to see if I had anything with a horseshoe or something like that but I didn't. So I looked through my stamps and found a stamp I brought ages ago from a Facebook group, I thought the image was sweet for a good luck card and made this. 

I used papers from Dear Lizzy Daydreamer as the colours matched the image after I'd coloured it and embellished with a felt doily and letter stickers from Elle's Studio. 

Hello Mr Frog: A NSD Challenge

As I said in my last post I didn't get many layouts done for National Scrapbooking Day but I'm happy with the ones I did. The first challenge I did was for Challenge over on For The Love of Pretty Paper Facebook page. 

The challenge was to use flowers on our layout. Now I'm not much of a flower person, I brought a ton of Prima Flowers when I started scrapping (I'm sure I wasn't alone) but since gave these away as I just didn't use them. Thinking out the box I started looking for some floral paper to use as a paper layer but then I decided instead to fussy cut some flowers out instead. I'm not the best at fussy cutting, I keep my scissors still and move the paper like you're supposed to but I still end up with sharpe square edges instead of lovely flowing curves following the pattern! I found a gorgeous floral paper in Dear Lizzy's Serendipity collection and went from there. 

I chose a random photo of a frog I used to pass on my way to work when I worked in town. The title is Hey There Mr Frog as this is what I used to say to him as I passed him. I pulled more papers and the Thickers from the same collection to make sure everything tied in. I thought the white background was a bit plain so went made and stamped some brush strokes from a Stampin Up set in Picked Raspberry and Mermaid Lagoon, I probably went a tad OTT but never mind. 

Sunny weekend

 I'm going to start this post by sounding very British but what is going on with the weather?!? Seriously, the weekend before last we had snow but the weekend just gone we enjoyed beautiful warm, sunny weather! 

Even though it was National Scrapbooking Day and I had planned to sit at my desk and scrap, we decided instead to go out and make the most of the weather and went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park not too far away from us. 

I had seen a couple of posts on Instagram from friends who had gone and when I looked on google maps found it was only about half an hour away from us. It was well worth the trip as it is huge! It's free to get it, you just pay for your parking which you can do when you get home as they have number plate  recognition cameras, ideal if you have no money on you and you don't want to be clock watching to make sure you don't run out of time! Top tip: take a picnic we wish we had as once you get exploring it's a long walk to the cafe which is expensive! 

Some of the sculptures were a bit random but the ones I enjoyed the most were the Karws exhibition which is there until June. It reminded me of an Alternative Disney! 

I did manage a bit of scrapping when I got home so I'll share those with you soon. 

Hello Adventure Card: Daring Cardmakers challenge

One blog I have recently started following is the Daring Cardmakers  blog where each week there is a different challenge to give you some card inspiration. This week I decided to take the plunge and join in. I'm not the best cardmaker so I'm hoping by joining in with these I'll improve while using up my stash and getting some cards stocked up for any occasion.

This weeks challenge was an elemental challenge, make a card using three elements from this picture. 

I was immediately drawn to the bike in the picture and knew I had a Papermania bicycle stamp which also had a basket on it so I used this as my second element. For my third I pulled some wood grain paper and made this card. 

I stamped the image using Stampin Up Mint Macaron and fussy cut it out, again I'm not the best at this but practise makes perfect! I used papers from American Crafts Autumn Crisp as I did think about using a leaf paper but decided against it. I rummaged through my tin of cut apart embellishments and pulled an old Amy Tangerine piece as my sentiment. 

Alfresco Dining: Sketchy Scrappers April Sketch

Ooh I've scrapped again, get me! This time I'm back with my take on the April Sketchy Scrappers sketch which was created and set by Sue. 

When I saw the rectangles next to the photo I immediately thought of project life cards so I decided to delve into my stash of cards and scrapped this layout. 

I pulled some project life cards from Maggie Holmes and some papers from her Flea Market collection and scrapped this photo of Boo having her lunch in the card last year. For the circle elements I cut some plates from a paper from the collection, face it when else am I going to use this paper? 

I am never gonna look back: Challenge YOUrself #29

Hi everyone welcome to another month and another Challenge YOUrself  challenge. First of all I must apologise for being AWOL for last months challenge, I did complete a layout for challenge 28 but as we had no wifi I couldn't do a blog post to go along with it but I will share it with another time if you want to see it.

Anyway onto this months challenge, and this month is a little different to normal as we've teamed up the guys over on the Scrap it With a Song blog so you have two challenges com into into one to play with this month. For those who don't know the Scrap it with a song blog, each month they give you a choice of two songs to inspire you whether it be the title or one of the lyrics. This month the songs are Best Day Of My Life by American Authors and So Am I by Kensington. To go along with this our challenge is to use this mood board. 

I was inspired by a line from Best Day of My Life, the colours of the mood board and incorporated a sunburst and feathers into my layout. 

This photo was taken the summer before I joined Slimming World and the line "I am never gonna look back" struck a chord with me as I wanted this to be a reminder of how far I've come and how I don't want to be that weight again. 

I used papers from Studio Calico Wanderlust collection as the colours matched the mood board while the patterns complimented my dress. For my background I used some mists from Mister Huey, Heidi Swapp and Tim Holtz and tried the packaging technique. When I saw the sun bursts I knew I had a Shimelle Stamp Gemma gifted to me so used this. 

I finished by using stickers from Simple Stories

Make sure you pop over to both blogs to check out both Design Teams work and to join in