Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I've very much enjoyed making Christmas cards this year, especially after inking-up the gorgeous MFT Polar Bear Pals set. What a lovely set this is to use, but I can't help but wonder why there are no festive sentiments included.

I got busy with some distress inking and then stamped the sentiment (oldie from Stampendous, I think) and the polar bear using my Misti. I stamped, coloured, cut and stuck a second bear into place on the bacground. The cards look very cute in real life.

I'm linking my card to the current CASology Challenge: North.

and to Marina's The Librarian's Challenge, inspired by perennial Christmas favourite The Snowman. The bear's smile really reminds me of the Snowman's smile and I used the layout of the cover as my inspiration for the layout of the card..

I'm also linking to The Lost Coast Portal to Creativity Challenge #66 - Cold and Frosty because that cute little Polar Bear must be feeling very cold and frosty indeed.  Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Have a happy Sunday, peeps!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #125 - R id for Rude Christmas.

I'm loving Edna's strategically placed mistletoe - looks like she's totally primed and ready for her 'Rude Christmas'.

My offering for our mid - December challenge isn't so much rude as just cute and slightly cheeky!

Yes, this is hubby's Christmas card from yours truly. It was quick and simple to make, but still heaps of fun. The stamps are from an oldie but goodie Sweet Pea set (I think). I printed the sentiment on my PC.

My fabulous sistahs, and our reigning Queen, have interpreted 'Rude Christmas' quite differently, but all are pretty darn hilarious and totally snarky. This challenge will run across the festive season, so why not make this the time when you join the challenge and impress us with your Christmas Rudeness!

Thanks so much!

Hi cardmakers, remember this?

I was lucky enough to be one of the winners over at the lovely Janis's kitty hop. I won a voucher for Clearly Besotted Stamps and decided to send her a card to show my appreciation for all the hard work she puts in to make the hop such fun.

Don't you just love that little kitty? He's from the set Fluffy Furball, which I just couldn't resist!
Have a good day, everyone.

Card Chain Challenge Reveal - November 2018

Hi there cardmakers, it's time for another gorgeous reveal over at The Card Chain Challenge.

Our options for November were a fabulous sketch from Deborah:

And some lovely colours from Gail:

I seem to remember that I contributed the themes and products options of baubles, deer, friendship and mirror card.

Most of our players saw the festive potential of our options and went for Christmas/holiday cards.

I sent this card to Joanne in the UK.

This is very different to my usual style of card, but I really enjoyed working with Shirley's gorgeous Stamplorations set Layered Mistletoe.

As always, the reveal is a feast of crafty gorgeousness, so why not drop by and take a look.

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #124 - W is for Winter

I'm glad to see that the lovely Edna is well wrapped up on our snowy graphic this week!

For Challenge #124 The Sistahs want to see your WINTER creations.

My card features both snow AND snark... Or is it just downright rudeness?
I made the background by creating a Distress Ink base and then stenciling with a mixture of paste and Icicle Stickles. The image is a stamp from VLVS (my collection of flamingos grows) and the sentiment was computer generated. The tiny snowflakes are from a border punch; I don't know which company it's from as I bought it second hand and unlabeled.

We've been a little low on entries recently, so we'd love it if you played along with this fun challenge. BTW, I can guarantee that you'll want to see our current Queen's card - it's hilarious!

The 25 Tags of Christmas - Tag #2

Ok, so I'm never going to make it to #25, but I'm enjoying following Tracey and the gang's gorgeous daily posts AND I've managed to make my 2nd Christmas tag of the year!

 I always love this little alpaca.

If I ever have to choose which stamps to include in my desert island crafting kit, al always paca this alpaca.

You can find The 25 Tags of Christmas by clicking here.

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #123 - H is for Home

Another brilliant graphic from Sistah Lee ushers in another fun challenge over at SoSS.

  

I struggled for ages with this theme, but then I had a light-bulb moment and this deceptively sweet little card was the result.

I'll make the inside when I know who I'm sending it to, but hopefully you can read the 'punchline' on this temporary mock-up.

The cute little house is part of a larger stamp from Crafty Individuals. I've just searched for this image, but I don't think they sell it now. The papers are from my stash of bits and pieces.

Please come and join us for this challenge, as always, my sistahs (and HRH Queen Donna) have created some brilliantly snarky cards to inspire and entertain you!

The 25 Days of Christmas Tags - Tag #1

I'm delighted to have finally found time to make a little tag to play along with Tracey's 25 Days of Christmas Tags. I've got quite a bit of catching up to do as Tracey and the team have reached Day #11.

My tag is pretty simple. It was made with leftover papers and with stamps and dies received as gifts from two lovely blogging buddies. The string is recycled so you could say that this tag was virtually free to make!

I've really struggled to get into a festive frame of mind this year, but making this tag seems to have kick-started my Christmas creativity. Hopefully now I'll be able to make a start on some Christmas cards.... but first, more tags!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - Challenge #122 - F is for Fantasy

The lovely Edna certainly can rock witchy gear!

Our new challenge at SoSS is F is for Fantasy. Our graphics goddess, Sister Lee, has gone for witches and fairies, but as you can see I've gone for fantasies of a different kind!

The image is from VLVS and I love her somewhat wistful expression as she contemplates her birthday fantasy.

The gals have worked their magic with this challenge, so why not head over and take a look. We're a little short on snark these days, so would love you to play along and be as naughty as you like with this theme!

Card Chain Challenge Reveal - October 2018

It's the final 'Reveal' for 2018 over at Card Chain Challenge as we always take a little break for December, but don't despair if you want to play along the January sign-up starts on December 7th!

This month we had a truly love combo of sketch and colours on offer:

 and our challenge themes were clocks, mermaids and friendship.

My 'make' for this month was very, very CAS.

I did want to use the challenge colours, but just couldn't make the card work with the shades that I had so decided to swap things around a little. My recipient this month was the lovely Hilary.

My October sender was Marga in Spain, and I was delighted to receive this lovely creation from her. I especially like how Marga has used the texture of the water colour paper to add texture and interest to her card.

Here's a close-up of my card to Hilary. I doubt if you can see the subtle Wink of Stella on the flowers, but hopefully the Diamond Glaze effect is visible on the vase.

You can see the whole reveal in all it's glory by heading over to The Card Chain Challenge blog here.

2018 Cats Lovers Hop

I'm dropping by to share a kitty card made for Janis's Cat Lovers Hop 2018.

I did a little masking on a Woodware Magic stamp (Les Chats) so that I ended up with this cute little duo. This was quite a quick card to make as I went for simple colouring and layering style.

The hop finishes today, so I'm going to grab a cuppa and wander over to take a look at the gallery! I played along last year and am delighted to find that Janis has once again bagged some brilliant sponsors and done a great job of whipping-up some fabulous feline fun.

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #121 - S is for Skull

I'm more than a little concerned for Edna's welfare in our current graphic... She's not looking well.

It's all about SKULLS for our new challenge at SoSS.

This fabulous image from Vera Lane was all I needed for my card today. For some reason (insanity perhaps?) this really tickles my funny bone. I printed out the image and sentiment and then carefully stenciled with Serene Stripes from Newton's Nook. After a quick colour with pencil crayons it was ready to mount. Such a quick and fun make!

Check out the fabulously crazy, and kinda creepy, creations of the sisterhood by clicking here.

Growing in Unity Blog Hop!

Turns out that this is my 700th Blog post!

The girls from July and August 2018 Growing in Unity are delighted to be hop, hop, hopping today!

If you are following the hop you should have arrived from Helen Smit's blog.

Here's the full hop in case you get lost along the way!

Jennifer Mitten
Jeanie Marie Hays
Denise Sayers
Sue Nagata
Aimee Phillips 

Helen Smit
Jo Avery - You are here!

Teresa Godines.

For my hop creations I decided to use the gorgeous kit I picked as my GIU prize: Stories to Tell (smak 8/18).

I've not had time to play with this set, so picked out the stunning smaller sunflower image to be the focal point of my card and tag. I think it was this image that originally drew me to the set.

Just look at all the different images in this kit - what a beaut! You can see why I bagged this one as my prize.

I hope you've enjoyed your visit here today. Don't forget to leave a comment as there are two lovely Unity prize packs up for grabs along the route of the hop.

Thanks for hopping with the GUI gals today. Your next stop is the blog of the lovely Teresa Godines. Have fun, and thanks for visiting!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #120 - P is for Pink Halloween

Another fabulous graphic from Sister Lee and another fabulous challenge from The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers.

October is very special for the sistahs: we go all pink and Halloweeny in order to celebrate all things spooky and to remind all us girlies about Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 

I wasn't planning to buy any new products for this Halloween as I have accumulated enough to last me a lifetime, but then I saw these brilliant Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations/Thinlits and before I knew it they'd jumped into my basket and I was clicking 'checkout'. Strange how that happens!

The sistahs would love you to play along with this special challenge, so please come and join us here.

Now, let's talk boobies.

Here's a little something I copied from the brilliant Breast Cancer Now website:

Why should I check my breasts?
More women are surviving breast cancer than ever before and the earlier breast cancer is diagnosed the better the chance it can be treated successfully. That's why it's important to check your breasts and go to your doctor if you spot anything unusual  - you won't be wasting their time, even if it turns out to be nothing. For information about the signs and symptoms of breast cancer please click here.

Card Chain Challenge Reveal - September 2018

I have to admit that I really enjoyed putting together this little card for the CCC September Challenge. For some reason I especially like his glossy accent eyes!

At first, I just wasn't sure I could make the colours work, but after I decided on a ginger coloured cat things just seemed to fall into place perfectly.

I sent my card to CCC new player Beverly in Alabama

and am looking forward to receiving this cutie from Lucille in Colorado, USA.

I love how this challenge hugs the globe and there's still time for you to become a link in our October chain by clicking here.

Still experimenting...

I really do love VLVS stamps and have six of their little pink plastic flamingos to prove it!

I thought this sentiment paired well with this image, and really enjoyed creating the inky background and then watercolouring those three ladies.

Once again, something a little different for me, but isn't that part of the fun of crafting and stamping?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Trying something different...

Recently, I've been experimenting and trying to step out of my comfort zone.

Don't you just love this fabulous stamp from Technique Junkies?
I stamped in Versafine Crimson ink onto card and then onto tissue paper. I layered the tissue paper and 'fluffed' it up. I did a little masking and stenciling with Distress Ink, and finally, went totally crazy with red Stickles.

Sometimes it's fun to play and experiment!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #119 - M is for Monsters.

There's a new challenge over at SoSS, and it's given Edna and the team heaps of fun: the sistahs have really worked some magic!

My card technically doesn't feature a monster, but it has got the world's cutest dragon on offer instead!

I hope you can play along with us!

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge #118 - L is for Leaves

Suddenly, the trees by where I live have turned all 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness'. Yes, autumn in all it's glory is upon us and so Edna and the sistahs are looking for your leafy creations for Challenge #118.

Sadly, my card is snark free yet again. My snarkiness seems to have gone AWOL... I hope it comes back very soon as I kinda feel like I've lost my superpower!

My card is a very simple one using a leftover 'negative' die cut and another 'iffy' background which I splattered with gold paint and tucked behind the die cut panel. This looks gorgeous IRL as it's so sparkly.

Please come and play along with us at SoSS and please bring your snark to the party as I need to get back in the snarky saddle and will welcome the inspiration.