WINTER GARDENING

Sorry friends I've been a useless blog pal this week and I do hope to catch up with you all but please bear with me. My guests left yesterday and we've had a wonderful time. We hadn't seen them for 3 years but it was great to just chill and catch up like they'd never been away and it was quite sad to see them head off and back to Australia. They're already planning to return next year for an extended stay and tour of Europe so that'll be great fun.

Anyway I really don't know how to get my head back to crafting ... any suggestions!!! I've looked everywhere for my mojo and it's disappeared - maybe down-under with my friends!

So I decided to kick-start my blog activity with a card I made a couple of weeks ago and enter it into the Paper Players Challenge where the theme is 'Masculine Birthday Cards' and I've used a Digistamp Boutique image so I'm going to drop in on their monthly challenge too. Those wellies are going to come in handy for tidying up the garden for Winter though the bees and bugs won't be hanging about in this cold!

Hopefully I'll get down to some crafting this afternoon as the weather is pretty glum here so perfect excuse to hide away in my crafty space. Just not sure how the photos will pan out later but here goes with the first one...

Card Recipe:

Image: Digistamp Boutique coloured with Promarkers
Leaf Embossing Folder from Crafts-Too
Paper: TK Maxx
Sentiment: Clearly Besotted
Twine from my stash

A SMILE FOR BABY LAUNDRY

First of all I need to thank everyone who has offered advice on photography in the 'dark' - it's much appreciated and I'm going to be trying a few 'tricks' in the hope that my posts are still worth posting through Autumn and Winter! :-)

So on to today's post and I'm hoping this will pass for the CAS(E) this sketch challenge. I love making baby cards - a bit like Christmas time with all that love and excitement. I'm helping with a local fund-raising event next month and need some 'occasion' cards for the box to sell and as it's a Digistamp image I've used I'm going to pop this in to their monthly challenge too.

I made a few of these including the girlie ones but I always prefer the 'blues'...think it must be imagining the cute, little chubby knees in the romper suit! LOL!

Card Recipe:

Image: Digistamp Boutique
Papers: Pink Petticoat
Sentiment: Pink Petticoat
Button and Gems from my stash plus a sprinkling of glamour dust to baby's socks

POST NUMBER 100!!!

I cannot believe that I've managed 100 blog posts since I joined blogland at the end of April this year. Whoosh have I really made 100 blog-worthy cards??? It's a good job I love making them!

Anyway hope you are all enjoying this Sunny Sunday weather.  Mr Dazzle managed to get out and cut the lawn as it was 'shin deep' following our holidays. He's complaining that it was a long job as he had to go over it 3 times. At least it's done now.

So onto my card for today and if you read my blog yesterday you may have noticed that a family friend had a miracle baby just over a week ago and this is the congratulations card I'm going to send to the happy parents.

Oh I'm trying a few different things with the photography as I was getting bored of the 'white only' look but not sure if I'm entirely happy yet so you may get a bit dizzy while I trial and error a few different styles! Feedback welcome.

I'm going to enter this card into a few challenges first and foremost on a Sunday is Pixies Snippets Challenge, a must when you manage to raid the scrap box and make a little 'dent' in the contents. Secondly, over at A Gem of a Challenge the theme this week is anything with a 'B' so I've gone for 'Blue for a BOY'! Thirdly Freshly Made Sketches and the sketch I've followed is below if you want to have a stab at it and last but by no means least The Digistamp Boutique Monthly Challenge, this being one of my favourite Digistamp images as I love making baby cards.

Hope to catch up with you all soon and enjoy the rest of your Sunday

Sarah
x




Card Recipe:

Image: Digistamp Boutique
Papers: Pink Petticoat
Sentiment: Pink Petticoat
Brad and buttons from my stash
Plus a drizzle of glamour dust for that added bit of sparkle.

BOBBI BEAR IN THE SNOW NO.2

As promised here's the second card I made which the Dazzles preferred as my 2nd entry to the Digistamp Boutique Monthly Challenge and this time I've loosely based the layout on the Deconstructing Jen sketch #112 which I enjoyed using a few weeks ago.

Card Recipe:

Image: Digistamp Boutique - Bobbi snow day
Papers: Freebie from Quick Cards Made Easy
Sentiment: Pink Petticoat
Brad, gems and ribbon from my stash
Dies used: Marianne Creatables Christmas Tree and Snowflake, Nestabilities label dies with a hand cut border and Sizzix Framelits Circles plus my beloved x-cut corner punch

CHEEKY CHRISTMAS TEDDY BEAR

Into the second week of my holiday now and if Mr Schedule has done his job then I'll be sad to go home but excited to get my hands inked and glittered up and catch up on all the blogs and challenges I've missed.

This is my entry to The Digistamp Boutique Monthly Challenge and I couldn't resist this cute little teddy bear when he was on offer last month. I ended up making 2 cards at the same time and can't decide which I like best. So as I've been missing for a couple of weeks on blog and craftland I'm going to enter both to the Digistamp challenge. AND, because it includes a teddy and lots of dies, cuts and punches I'll pop him in at Ready Teddy Go as a 2nd entry. I've used lots of Christmas snippety bits too so I'm hopping over to the Snippets Playground with my entry for this week.

I ran both cards past Mr Dazzle and Mr Dazzle Jnr and they chose the second one I'm going to post.  I'm torn that's why both are going in!

The background layout is loosely based on a previous sketch from Sketch Saturday #269.

Card Recipe:

Image: Digistamp Boutique - Bobbi Snow Day
Papers: Freebie from Quick Cards Made Easy
Sentiment: Pink Petticoat
Christmas Tree die was another lovely freebie from Dies to Die for
Snowflake: Marianne Creatables Die, Nestabilities Labels Die with hand cut border, X-cut corner punch
and last but not least MFT Die-namics Party Banners Die
Button, Twine and Gem from my stash

HAPPY LITTLE BIRTHDAY PANDA

Hi there, another scheduled post from me today.

It's my entry to the Digistamp Boutique and Sketch Saturday challenges.  This panda image is sooooo cute and I've seen him popping up on quite a few of the blogs I follow so had to dash over to Digistamp Boutique and guess what he's a freebie this month!  Superb!  So here's my first little play with him.

I'm using another lovely freebie from Dies to Die for which is the purple oval die cut which kind of dictated the colour scheme.  I used to make loads of lilac cards but it seems to have taken a back seat recently.

Card Recipe:

Image: Digistamp Boutique
Papers: Lakeland Limited - very old pack of papers
Sentiment: Digistamp Boutique
Gems and cord from my stash and the flowers are new from my Crafty Auntie
Martha Stewart Butterfly punch used

READY TEDDY GO ... DIGISTAMP BOUTIQUE ... SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

Well I don't know about you but I certainly wish Spring had Sprung.  It looks the business today but it's rather chilly out there.

I'm dipping my toe into another new challenge for me today over at Ready Teddy Go.  It's a monthly challenge so plenty of time to join in.  The theme is 'Spring has Sprung' and what better evidence than the daffodils popping their heads out.  I just happened to have some daffodil papers in my stash and there was my inspiration.

The Digistamp Boutique also have a monthly challenge so I'm going to pop my card over there too.  Anything goes providing one of Digistamp Boutique's images has been used and there's plenty of lovely ones to choose from.

Card Recipe:

Image: Bella on a Swing from The Digistamp Boutique
Papers: KandCompany - these are a Tim Coffey illustrated design.  I've had them a long time.
Sentiment: Computer Generated using Great Vibes and Gingersnaps
Tools: Nestabilities, Cricut and Promarkers
Plus a sprinkling of DAZZLE with glamour dust and pearls from my stash