Me at 40

I went to a crop in April and this was the class we took. I had the opportunity to use Bazzil InStitches for the first time too.

Thanks Steph.

Thanks for looking

Love, Sarah C xx

Mother's Day, Dotties' World and an Easel

Happy Mother's Day to all mum's reading this and especially to my Mum (who probably won't see this post), but who I'll be seeing later.

Last week's challenge on Dottie's World was to create either a bright or pastel card. This card is as pastel as I could get. I used a charmed download (as required) from the sugar and spice collection, which I coloured using my pastel brush markers. The card itself is an easel card suggested to me by my friend Hayley, simply decorated thanks to my friend Jane's suggestion.

Thanks for looking. Take care. Love and hugs, Sarah xoxoxo

It's Been A Long Time

My mojo took an extended holiday over the last few months, but it's slowly coming back. So much so, that I joined a CJ on UKScrappers this week. I'm looking forward to doing it as the circle's called All My Own Photos. The object being that we send photos with our CJ and these are what the others use in ours. I'm taking this opportunity of having a 6x6 album done of the wedding I went to last August. Had a job deciding which of the 130 odd photos I took to use in this, but I've got there. Just got to make my album and do my LO ready for the first posting day. I know I have a few weeks to do this, so that's ok.

So, what crafting have I done this year? The grand sum of 3 cards and zero LOs. That will change soon. I've used digi downloads from Charmed Cards and Crafts which are expertly drawn by Lou. Each download bundle gives you black outlined images plus those same images coloured. Some bundles give you backgrounds and sentiments too. I've used images from Sugar and Spice and Boy Oh Boy. You can go here and here to see more examples of how to use the images.

Here's my cards. One for a 2 year old boy and 2 for adult females.

(I scanned them and no matter what I did, it insisted on cutting the bottom off the female cards

plus the images are not this much brighter than the papers IRL.

They're raised on foam pads, so nearer the scanner bed)

I've used a Sakura glitter pen to add sparkle to the girl's bows and all the flowers and pink gems to the flowers the girl is picking.

Thanks for looking.

Love and hugs

Sarah C xoxoxo

UKS Weekly Challenge ~ August 09 week 1 and Kim's SATC August Sketch Challenge

Another 2 for 1 tonight.

The Scrapgoddesses set this week's team challenge on UKScrappers and challenged us to:

* Use travel or a journey as your theme (10 points) ~ journey to Scotland in 2000 and stayed at the Press Castle hotel on our last night

** Use handwritten / hidden journalling maybe in the form of a letter (10 points) ~ have handwritten a letter and hidden it behind the photo of me

*** Use ribbons (5 points) ~ pink organza

**** Use purple (5 points) ~ backing paper is purple

Full points for the Ruby Snippers and Gold Eyelets :D

I've also used the sketch Kim has made and challenged us with on Scrap Around The Clock for August

The floral PP and title have been cut on my ROBO.

Thanks for looking

A LO 'Just Because' ~ sort of

I had a go at doing a LO for a competition, but once I'd finished it, I decided it wasn't what the sort of LO I wanted to enter IYKWIM? So, here it is and I have the week-end to do another. Thinking cap's on again!

The 'Happy Birthday' is ribbon, the 'Now 11' is done by sticking tiny blue gems onto red ribbon. PPs are Basic Grey Cupcake and blooms are Green Tara.

Thanks for looking

Frame It!

Tara set her first challenge on Dottie's World this last Sunday and has challenged us to "Frame It!" Here's what she said:

"I would like to see you creating some sort of a frame or border on your card. You could create a frame for your image, your card or both. Feel free to use the downloads for your frame, or you could try stamping elements, die-cutting, punching shapes, embellishments ............ anything goes really! Just remember to use one of our downloads for your main image too!"

I've used a couple of images from the Pixie Chicks collections and overlaid them before printing onto watercolour paper. I've cut a frame from a sheet of Bazzill and added some stitching detail, a couple of blooms and a sentiment.

Thanks for looking

Mmmm .......... Strawberries and Chocolate

Anyone fancy strawberries and chocolate? If you do, nip over to Crafty Muse as that's what Sammi's given everyone for the next fortnight. Inspired by the scrumptious colours, here's my card. The image is from Sammi's sisters and friends download collection and I've coloured it using my brush markers and a blender pen.

Thanks for looking

Blooming Beautiful at Dottie's World

Lou challenged us to create something 'blooming beautiful' on Dottie's World this week and to take inspiration fromm either our own or someone else's garden.

I've used this challenge to make my Mum's retirement card.

I've placed the pre-coloured Holly in the Garden digi-download from Charmed Cards and Craft, onto a photo of daisies from my garden. I faded the photo first, then printed it all onto photo paper. The wording is done using Word's WordArt and has been filled with the original daisy photo before being printed onto SafMat.

Thanks for looking,

Scrap Around The Clock June CyberCrop ~ challenge 7

An 18th Century Chic LO is Karen's challenge on Scrap Around The Clock's CyberCrop. She's asked us to use 4 of the following:

Layering of PP's ~ YES

Lace ~ MADE A LACE FLOWER

Ribbon

Feathers

Pins ~ HATPIN ON THE FLOWER

Hand Stitching ~ I'VE HAND-STITCHED THE LACE FLOWER

Flowers ~ DEFINITELY

Buttons

Bling ~ STICKLES ON THE TOP BLOOMS AND GEMS ON THE HATPIN

Oops, I've used more than 4!!

I've also used Pencillines Sketch #140

Thanks for looking,

Take care, love and hugs

Sarah C xoxoxo

UKS Weekly Challenge ~ June Week 3

Set by the Paper Addicts, this week's team challenge on UKScrappers was to:

* Use this sketch (5 points)

** Do a LO based on the ladies in your life (10 points) ~ Mum, my sister's and my niece

*** Use whatever stash/tools/techniques you're addicted to (10 points) ~ My Mind's Eye Bohemian PPs, Green Tara blooms, Craft ROBO, cutting a title a few times and sticking/stacking together before inking, chipboard, chalk inkpad, hand-written journalling

**** Use yellow (5 points) ~ the centres of the brown flowers are yellow

Here's my LO and I've managed to claim full points for the Ruby Snippers and Gold Eyelets

Thanks for looking

Take care, love and hugs

Sarah C xoxoxo

BLOOM and grow

I took this photo of my large bloom the other day and it's just as well I did. We had heavy rain and wind the day after, which destroyed it completely.

PP is Basic Grey. Isn't it just fabulous? It's so lovely, I didn't want to waste any, so I cut out the centre piece that would have been hidden by the photo to use on something else! Waste not, want not eh? This LO was done 'just because' but I've used ScrapSketch's #78 sketch. It had a lot of stitching on it, so I narrowed it down to stitching the frame to the PP and the PP to the Bazzill. Title was cut on my ROBO before inking, with the BLOOM word cut twice and layered.

Thanks for looking

Take care, love and hugs

Sarah C xoxo

Growing Up

The weekly challenge on UKScrappers this week was set by the Butterfly Bonanza's, they challenged us to:

Design your own sketch based on packaging, a film poster or a book cover ~ 10 points ~ yes

Include something transforming ~ 10 points ~ yes (my eldest nephew as he grows up)

Use spring colours ~ 5 points ~ yes (my garden's only got orange and green in it ATM)

Use something gold ~ 5 points ~ yes (pen for the swirls and brads)

I found this film poster on the net and did the following sketch from it

I then found some photos of my eldest nephew as he was growing up, printed the latest one so it would almost fill one side and went with that for my theme. The journalling tells of some of the many things I just love about him ~ his sense of humour, his caring nature, his dimples .....

I'm planning on doing a LO of his sister now and will do one of his younger brother once he's a little more grown up as he's only just turned one.

Thanks for looking

Take care, love and hugs

Sarah C xoxoxo

Living On The Edge with Shimelle

On UKScrappers, Shimelle challenged us last time to 'live on the edge' by using the edge of our LO in some way. Either by cutting it fancy, putting something right at the edge, overhanging something or ......... The choice was ours.

So, I decided to cut the edge of my green card, put ribbon at the edge on 2 sides and use blooms on one corner.

It's a fairly simple LO, but hopefully one that draws your eye to the yellow rose in the centre. Apologies for the flash, but the photo was taken at night.

Thanks for looking

Take care, love and hugs

Sarah C xoxo

Just Jeans for an Altered S

I fancied having a go at doing some altered art yesterday, so I used my ROBO to cut 16 A5 size S's using light weight card. Repositioning spray adhesive came in very handy for sticking them together and after lightly sanding the edges, I got to decorate it. Might make more things like this in the future.

I was inspired by My Time To Craft's latest challenge 'Just Jeans' and mixed acrylic paints to a denim colour for the base, over which I've used a cream ink pad to give it a distressed look. My name is also cut on my ROBO and has been inked and doodled on. I finished with a mix of blooms, brads, lace and fibres

Thanks for looking

Take care, love and hugs

Sarah C xoxo

Holly and Card Positionings System

I've used the Holly Hipster download with the latest sketch for Card Positionings System. Holly has been coloured using watercolour paints. The sentiment was one of loads I designed and printed when I dabbled in card making a few years ago.

Thanks for looking

Take care, love and hugs

Sarah C xoxo

Madison goes to France for Sketch Saturday

This is the latest sketch from Sketch Saturday and they said: "as you can see, all squares this week! (of course you can use other shapes if you wish to)".

I've printed Madison onto watercolour paper and coloured her with my Prismacolours. I've also used blooms in place of the squares. And yes, I am cutting up my blooms a bit now. I've realised that by doing so, I get to use one bloom in more than one place which can only be a good thing.

Thanks for looking

Take care, love and hugs

Sarah C xoxo

Dottie's World Sketch Challenge

Karen set the challenge on Dotttie's World last Sunday and is giving away a fabulous prize too.

Here's the sketch she's told us to use:

and here's my take on it:

I used my new ROBO to design the scallops and cut the poppy paper, but had the paper the wrong way up. If you look hard enough you'll see that I've turned and flipped the sketch and elements a bit so that everything fits in.

The image from the Girls About Town Collection, has been coloured with Prismacolours. I got brave and tried them on a card I'm giving away. I need more practice, that's for sure.

Thanks for looking

Take care, love to you all

Sarah C xoxo

Latest Scrapping

Here's some scrapping I've done for a couple of challenges on UKScrappers

First one was for week 10 of Shimelle's Scrap Like You Mean It challenge and was to scrap a funny photo. I've used a photo of one of the young girls at my sister's hen party a couple of weeks ago. There was a chocolate fountain and she ended up with chocolate over her face and a strawberry hanging out of her mouth.

Second LO is of one of my Ruby Snipper's teamies at Ally Pally last September when we all met for lunch. This week's team challenge was to scrap something we're addicted to, use blue, a flower and song title/lyrics in the LO title. I couldn't think of anything I'm addicted to, but I do keep checking in to UKS to see what my friends have been up to, so went with that. The title is 'Photograph'  by Nickleback and the journalling is some of the lyrics "look at this photograph, every time I do it makes me laugh".

Thanks for looking

Take care, love and hugs

Sarah C xoxo

Sketch Saturday

One of my friends has moved home and I've made a card to send to her. She's an Elvis fan and this image from the Dottie & George Rock & Roll collection is perfect. I coloured it in using my watercolour paints as usual and used the latest sketch from SKETCH SATURDAY.

I then found out today that my Great-Aunt is 80 tomorrow, so I had an unexpcted card to make. She doesn't seem 80, so I decided to go for a youthful looking card using a Holly download also from Charmed and coloured it using my watercolour paints. I used the same sketch as I did for the Elvis card above.

Thanks for looking

Take care, love and hugs
Sarah C xoxo

Inspire Me!

I was at my youngest sister's yesterday waiting for a delivery for her and her husband-to-be and spent the morning happily colouring in some of Lou's amazing images that I'd printed onto watercolour paper. It's amazing the difference that the correct paper makes. I must get some more paper as I've run out of it now. Still, I have plenty of images to keep me going and some still need to be coloured. I've used one of those images for this weeks challenge on Dottie's World.

Juliet set the challenge on Sunday and gave us this photo saying:

"You can take whatever you like from the photograph: you could focus on the colours, use a cupcake on your work or make a cupcake shaped card - it's up to you. You must include one of the Charmed downloads on your project and please tell us how the photo inspired you in your make ... "

I took the colours and made a card using one of the new Holly and Madison downloads that I've watercoloured using watercolour paints. When I cut a large flower in half  it reminded me of the chocolate colured icing on the cakes. I was horrified when Mellie said she'd cut a flower ages ago, but now I know why. In doing so, we get to use the flower twice which is a great bonus!!

Thanks for looking.

Take care, love and hugs to  you all

Sarah C xoxo