PollyCraft Challenge

Morning All!

Remember I said I was looking at new blogs the other day? Well another one that I came across was Tales from Pollycraft which is the blog of Paula, who runs Pollycraft Designs. Both the shop and the blog are fab (they are pink - always a good sign!), and Paula runs challenges. Pollycraft Designs features all kinds of cute characters, with lots of digi images. At the moment Paula is also looking for new members for her fab DT to help with the shop gallery and the challenges she sets - I do really want to become part of a DT so I thought I'd give it a go. To see the challenge take a peek here.

We were given two images from the Pollycraft range and asked to make a card - any style, any theme, any colours......so here we go:

I've chosen the Codi image as I think she really is a funky little character and I decided to design a funky Birthday card to go with her. I've used plain yellow and pink backing papers, topped with a patterened pink Papermania paper. I haven't used any particular layout, I placed the papers in front of me in different layouts until I found one I really liked. I have used some bright yellow ribbon across the card, and attached two pink buttons using yellow thread. My sentiment is a pre-printed one - I chose gold to match the colour combo!

I printed my Codi digi image onto white paper, then coloured her using my brushstrokes. Once finished I cut her out and attached her to my card using 3D sticky pads. The final touch was a little pink glitter glue in the right hand corner...a girl's gotta have a bit of sparkle!

Right, fingers crossed with this card....I love doing card challenges and to be part of a DT helping to inspire others would be brilliant. I know I'm still quite new to all this, but I hope I would bring a different style to the already fab DT at Pollycraft.

I've got another doctor's appointment today - wish me luck! The doctor thought I'd be all better by now...think he'll be surprised when I walk in using my crutch!

Thanks for popping by today.
Wedgie xxx

Sparkle Cupcakes!

Morning All!

Decided to get an early start this morning, and I've already had a look around some of my favourite blogs hunting for new challenges! Over at the Creative Cottage Challenge blog they want to see our projects that sparkle! The DT have designed some lovely cards for inspiration, take a peek here to see them, and as you know I can't resist a bit of sparkle!!

This challenge actually fits in very nicely with some experiementing that I've been doing recently! Above is my new sparkle cupcakes card which has been created very simply by using a stamp - if you are a PaperCrafts Inspirations reader you may recognise the stamp as its a freebie they gave away this month! I've been trying to get into stamping and think with all the practice I am starting to get there!

For this card I stamped and coloured 6 little cupcakes. I also cut out a stand for them to sit on. I used a cupcake backing paper (you can never have too many cupcakes!!) and a sentiment created on the computer. The cupcakes are attached using 3D sticky pads to really make them stand out.

Once everything was essembled I started experiementing!! I've found some gloss in my stash that I didn't realise I had (is that a sign that I've got too much in my stash?!?) ...so I decided to use it to make the icing on my cupcakes really stand out. My lesson here was that you really need to use quite a lot....and it also dries suprisingly quickly!!

Once dried I added some glitter glue for the sparkle! I'm not sure whether you can see it that well on here, but it looks lovely....honest! Now I know you're saying where is all the extra sparkle...but I honestly believe that in this case less is more and I'm happy with the final card...yes I know I'm sounding odd, and I do hope I haven't lost my fascination with all things glittery!!

So, just a quick post today.....I bored you all yesterday with my long rant about my dinner!!

Thanks for stopping by,
Wedgie xx

Spring had sprung...apparently!

More rain today...lots more tomorrow apparently...the clocks are due to go forward this weekend, and spring is upon us...I went for a walk on Sunday and saw loads of lovely flowers peeking up through the grass! I've created some spring flower cards inspired by spring, but I want to share a story first....

I often watch The One Show on BBC 1, tonight they wanted viewers to send in photos of their home cooked dinners..something to do with the British doing more cooking than the French. Well, I got all excited - I was sitting there with my home cooked dinner in front of me! It was my yummy sausage, tomato and bean casserole & I wanted to show it off!! I demanded that Dad got his camera & snap me and mum eating our dinner, I then downloaded the photo onto the computer....then I spent the next 20 mins trying to figure out how to get the photo to TV show!! They said to go to the website...which I have looked throughly around...its very pretty & you can send comments in, but I have no clue how to get my photo sent in!! The programme is now finished & my dinner is cold!! Morale of the story...don't get too excited by what you see on telly!!

I have found two spring challenges this week - one appears on Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, where the DT have come up with some fab designs.

The other challenge is on the Allsorts Challenge blog, take a peek here to see the DT's gorgeous cards.

I've run with the flower theme for my spring cards, the pink card above features handmade flowers crafted from scrap papers in my stash. I've used a pink flowerly backing paper & some plain pink backing paper (just visible), along with some pretty pink ribbon & a flower button. The second card is much more simple & features a drawing that I did myself. I've coloured my drawing with my brushstroke pens & used coloured pencils to shade the background. I've used a bright yellow backing paper to balance out the deep pink flowers.

I'm not sure which is my favourite card out of these two, but think I'll enter the hand drawn one into both blog challenges as I like its simplicity - a really different style for me!

However, I bet what you're really interested in seeing is what my dinner looked like...since I couldn't get it on BBC 1 I thought I'd spoil you & add it here!! Yes, I know it doesn't look fab, but believe me it tastes delicious!! This photo also proves that I really need to edit my profile picture on here....as you can see I'm a real brunette these days!!  Also featured in this photo is my mum.....bet she'll be pleased to make her blog debut holding her plate of dinner up in the air!! Ha,ha!

Anyway, thats really enough rambling for one evening....you've probably all got bored by now!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wedgie xxx

A nice cup of tea!

Yuck...what's with this drizzerly rain?? It's the worse type of rain isn't it?! You seem to get very wet, but there isn't much to show for it...I suppose I should be grateful that we're now not all flooding again!!

I got some fab news today, my physio has said I can try driving again! I haven't driven in mid-November when my stupid knee decided to blow up like a big balloon! I'm so excited! I know I have to take it easy, but hey its a step towards getting my independence back! Woo hoo!

Thought I'd celebrate by sharing a new card with you....

......this pretty card combines several of my favourite things in life...pretty colours, flowers, afternoon tea, pretty bone china cups, cute sentiments, photography and of course yummy cupcakes!

It also fits in nicely with Cupcake Craft's Challenge this week, the theme is food and drink! What a brilliant theme to have!! The DT have created some gorgeous cards to fit the theme, take a peek at them here.

I've used a beautiful blue and pink backing paper to start with on this card. I found the quote on the internet and thought that it is just brilliant for any tea lover out there. The picture is actually a photo taken by me at an afternoon tea held by my sister....if you've stopped by my blog before you might remember our obession with proper afternoon teas!! The bone china all belongs to my sister (a gorgeous set) and I made that wonderful looking cupcake......and yes it tasted just as good as it looks there! For a little more girliness I decided to back the photo and quote with some bright pink paper, and I left the cutting a little uneven to give it a shabby chic feel.

As you can probably tell I love this card and I'm very pleased with how it turned out! I came across a lot of other tea quotes and so I think I might do some more tea themed cards!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Wedgie Xxx

Good advice....

Afternoon all - what a lovely day I've had...I'm at a craft fair in Liss tomorrow so I decided to take an annual leave day today from the job which pays all the bills! I had a lovely lie in, watched some craft TV, got all my cards ready for tomorrow, prepared dinner for some friends tonight, made some yummy brownies and made lots of new cards!! Utter bliss!!

Here is one of my new cards...its a Birthday card which features some good advice....

I love finding new and unique quotes for my cards, as I think they make people smile...this one from Lucille Ball is a perfect example! I decided this was a girlie girl and so I've used two different pink backing papers. I then added my sentiment, which I found using Google.

Finally I thought about what topper I should use to compliment my sentiment and I decided that one of my favourite ways to celebrate my Birthday is with a glass or two of champagne! So I made my champagne bottle and glass out of scrap paper, and once attached I added a little glittler glue to add some sparkle!

I'm entering this card into this week's Cute Card Thursday challenge. Caz is celebrating her 21st wedding anniversary this week (Congratulations!!) and she set the theme for this week's challenge - anniversaries. It doesn't have to be a wedding anniversary...it can be anything you celebrate every year....so I think this fits quite nicely! The DT have all come up with some gorgeous cards, take a peek here to see them all.

I've just had a nibble on the edge of the brownies that I made earlier and they are rather delicious, so I think I'm off for a cup of coffee and a piece of brownie! I hope you all have a lovely weekend, and I'll be back on Monday!

Thanks for stopping by,
Wedgie Xxx

A flowerly card

Wow!!! It's early!! I haven't been up and dressed this early (intentionally) in ages! I'm off to a doctor's conference in London today lucky me! Anyway, thought I'd get a quick post in first!

I've found a new challenge blog that is only it's second week.....The Creative Cottage Challenge Blog!

I missed their first challenge, but remembered to look for their second one, which has a nice easy theme...flowers! The DT have come up with some fab designs, take a peek here at their lovely work.

This is my card for the challenge - I've used a cute stamped image which I love. I've coloured it with a mixture of pencils and pens. The sentiment has been created on the computer.

I used a blue backing paper, topped with some lovely blue and white checked paper (I think I was keeping it for a baby card, but hey ho!!). I have backed both the image and the sentiment with the blue backing paper too.

I used some fab spotty ribbon, which is attached around the blue and white paper. I then attached the image, sliding one side under the ribbon, followed by my sentiment. The sentiment is attached using 3D sticky pads, everything else lays flush on the card.

I am really pleased with how this cards looks! Anyway, better get going....my cab will be here soon!

Have a fab day whatever you're up to and thanks for stopping by today.
Wedgie Xxx

Going Green!

Happy St Patrick's Day! I actually saw a tiny bit of the St Patrick's Day parade in London on Sunday lunchtime.....we ambled along the street just in time to see the very last float and all the street cleaners!! Ha, ha!

The theme over at Cupcake Craft Challenge this week is green - they want to see our projects featuring lots and lots and lots of green! The Dt have come up with some fab designs, all really different....take a peek here.

My card isn't to celebrate St Patrick's Day, but it is very green. Ok, there is a tiny bit of yellow, but my flower needed a yellow centre and I hope the ladies at CCC will forgive me!! Ha, ha!

This was originally a Mother's Day card - the backing paper was the same and there was a white panel with the sentiment "to an amazing mum" on it. A work colleague saw it and really liked the backing paper, but already had a mother's day card. They did however need a card for their mum's Birthday!So I decided to recycle the original card.

I kept the backing paper because they liked it so much, but attached a new white panel with the sentiment "Happy Birthday Mum".

I then punched two big flowers out of green paper and attached a big yellow button by sewing it in place. I think this makes a lovely cheerful card and hopefully my colleague will like it! It's a nice idea to have "Happy Birthday Mum" on the card, makes it a bit more personal. I have used people's names before, but never thought about other familyt members!

I'm also working on some new designs with a tea theme...so watch this space!

Thanks for stopping by today, enjoy the sunshine before the rain comes back!
Wedgie Xxx

Have a GGGGreat Birthday!

Morning All - another lovely morning! The sun has got her hat on! Although I hear that rain is forecast for the end of this week...typical I've got an annual leave day booked for Friday!

So, over at Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge they are celebrating the launch of new stamps with an anything goes challenge...wow the imagination ran wild! Take a peek here to see the new stamps in use in the fab DT designs. I think the cards and the stamped images are just gorgeous.

I decided to go with a completely different theme for my card.....

Not my usual style I know, but I fancied trying my hand at a children's card. I've created my lion topper out of yellow and orange paper, adding details with black pen and giving him some googly eyes to make him more child friendly! To keep the card bright and simple I have used a green backing paper on one side of the card and some lovely spotty paper in a smaller size on the other side. I completed the card with a pre-printed topper.

I think this card is fab....even if I do say so myself...it makes me smile and thats a sign of a fab card in my book! Ha, ha! I also made an elephant card, which I'm not so happy with....plus there is debate in my family because they think I've created a hybrid creature...take a look....

Apparently elephants do not have short curly tails....thats pigs! So I've created a piggie-phant!

Again, this card is created using plain and patterned backing papers. I'm not as happy with my colour combo in this card though.

For the ladies at SCSC its the lion card that I want to enter for the challenge - not my weird piggie-phant!!



Thanks for stopping by today, enjoy the sunshine wherever you are!
Wedgie xxx

Colour combo Challenge!

Morning All! What a lovely sunny morning again....I love the spring time!

Talking of springtime and new beginnings and things like that I've been thinking about trying out a new technique or two in my cards....I've recently started dabbling with stamps again and after a dodgy start I'm starting to enjoy that now. It's my Birthday in April and people always ask what I want so I thought I'd ask for new stash!! Any ideas would be much appreciated - whats your favourite technique to use??

So, last night I promised a card to fit in with this week's Allsorts Challenge, their challenge is a colour combo of pink, black and white.....gorgeous colours to use together. The DT have come up with a really varied selection of examples, all very gorgeous. Take a peek here to see them. So here is my card.....

Now I know I have been a little bit naughty here and there is some grey on there....but grey mixed with white makes grey and I hope the ladies over at Allsorts will let me off!!!

The paper with the hearts is gorgeous, I thought I'd used it all up on previous cards, but then at the bottom of my paper pile I found one last sheet! I'm not sure where its from originally and so this will be the last card to feature it, but I thought it would look great for an engagement card. Under the hearts I have used a fab vivid pink backing paper and I have used the same paper to cut out a heart embellishment. Before attaching the heart with 3D pads I have stitched around the edge using pink thread. Finally I used a pre-printed "engagement" sentiment to finish off the card....oh and a added a little pink gem! I like how this cards looks, as I think its quite romantic, but also quite modern.

I hope you've enjoyed today's card. Leave a comment below if you've got any ideas about new techniques for me to try....I'm open to all ideas as I love experimenting with craft!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a lovely day.
Wedgie Xxx

Time to Celebrate!

Hello everyone - sorry no blogs from me in ages! Not too sure whats happening...I'm still crafting and making loads of cards, but I always seem to run out of time to actually blog! Obviously there are not enough hours in the day!

I hope everyone has enjoyed Mother's Day - whether you're a mother yourself and being spoilt or a daughter or son or other family member doing the spoiling! We took our Mum for her annual Mother's Day afternoon tea - a tradition which started a number of years ago with a trip to The Savoy. Its tunring out to be a pretty expensive tradition, but hey I love it! I get to drink tea out of bone china and eat delicious sandwiches and cakes in wonderful surroundings....I hope we keep this up for a very long time! Today we went to Browns in London - I'd highly recommend it!

So, over at Cute Card Thursday they are celebrating two years of blogging! Thats a lot of card challenges to come up with! This week's challenge is "Celebrations" and the DT have come up with some lovely designs...take a peek here. In honour of their birthday celebrations, I have decided to create a cute Birthday card.....

So, I've created a cute cupcake out of paper and added a cheeky little sentiment to make people smile. I've kept the colours soft and girlie - you can't go wrong with pinks and purples! I've added three different sized buttons as an added embellishment and to add to the overall girlieness!

I hope the ladies over at Cute Card Thursday like their card!

Right, just a quick post this evening...I've got more cards to create and some personalised bookmarks to make! Watch out for tomorrow's post...it'll feature a card for this week's Allsorts challenge!

Thanks for stopping by

Wedgie Xxx

Flower Power!

Wow! I've been rubbish in the last week, not sure what happened really....but here is my first blog since last Thursday!!

My card for today has a flower theme, which is the theme for this week's challenge over at Cupcake Craft Challenges. The ladies want to see our projects with flowers on them! The DT creations are truely fab - take a peek at them all here. So I decided to continue experimenting with my stitching to create this card:

The first thing I did for this card was to cut out a square of plain white paper to use as a base for my stitches, I didn't want to stitch directly onto my card for fear of getting it wrong and because I didn't want the stitches to show through on the inside of the card.

I cut two flowers out of patterened paper and they are attached to the card using 3D squares, lifting them off the surface of the card. Before attaching them I added the yellow buttons for the centres, which again were stitched onto the flowers. The stalks were created using a back-stitch in green thread. To be honest I probably should have sketched the stalks first so I had a guide, but me being me I didn't! Ha, ha!

I didn't want to use any backing paper on this project as I wanted to keep it simple and keep the flowers the main focus of the card. There is also no sentiment so it can be used on any occassion.

For my next project I want to start looking at how you create digi images...I have started doddling and would love to turn some of my sketches into usable digi images to put on my cards....but at the moment I haven't got the foggiest.....can anyone point me in the right direction please??

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you have a fab day whatever you're up to.
Wedgie Xxx

Round and Round

Morning everyone! I did not want to get out of my cosy bed this morning! I was so snug and warm and comfortable!! Maybe I need to get a job as a bed tester??

Today's card is a pink delight....

This week's challenge over at the Cupcake Craft Challenge is round and round....the lovely ladies want to see projects with circles on. The DT have come up with some fab designs, Donna has designed a really unique circular card and I love the colour scheme on Denise's design......take a peek here.

I needed a new baby girl card, so thats what I made! I've used stamps from a set that I bought on the weekend.

I started with some pink and blue dotty paper (really tiny circles!) and on top of that I've layered a semi circle of pink. I then attached some pink ribbon across the card and added a cute button and two little shiny stickers.

Finally I added my two stamped images. I'm still not fab at stamping, but practice makes perfect!! I stamped the images onto plain white card, cut them into circles and then backed with some hot pink paper which again was cut into circles (albeit a little wonky!).

I'm kinda chuffed at how many circles I manged to get onto one little card!!

Anyway, gotta fly this morning.....hope you all have a fab day!
Thanks for popping by.
Wedgie xxx

Come on...own up.....

....who stole the sunshine?? Where has it gone?? The weather forecast is predicting more cold weather too - thats not good!!

I've been looking for more card challenge blogs......and still can't believe how many are out there! I came across the My Time to Craft challenge blog yesterday and thought I'd enter their challenge this week which is called "Just for Mum".....the DT have posted some lovely designs to inspire us, take a peek here. My Time to Craft is a papercraft challenge blog with weekly challenges which are posted on a Tuesday.

The gorgeous Allsorts challenge blog also has a Mother's Day theme this week, again fab designs from the DT - pop along and take a peek here.

So, here is my card to fit in with these two challenges - I've gone with a traditional theme......

.......a bunch of flowers!

This card is so simple to make, and great fun too. I used blue backing paper and created the plant pot complete with the sentiment on my computer. I then selected several different patterned pink papers and used my flower punches to cut out flower shapes. I think this design looks best if you use different sized flowers.

I then had fun placing the flowers on the card, rearranging them until I was happy with my arrangement! I've layered some of the flowers to give contrast. I then used glitter glue and other embellishments for the flower centers.

Finally I got my green pen out and added the stalks and some leaves - simple!

I do like more complicated cards, and have spent ages creating some of my designs....but equally I do like simple designs like this one - easy to make, but looks fab and most importantly....it makes people smile!

Anyway, hope you have a fab day today, and hopefully the sunshine might make a little appearance!
Thanks for stopping by.
Wedgie Xxx

I'm faking!!!

Morning All!

Well....the Make It! show was just brilliant, I had a brilliant time and spent LOADS of money! I'm pleased to say that my friend Becca also enjoyed herself and even bought some bits and pieces! The show wasn't as big as it was a couple of years ago, but if it had been bigger I would probably have bought more!!

So, today I've decided to be a faker! Over at Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge they set us the challange of using stitches on our projects - either real ones or fake ones! Take a look at the lovely DT cards here. As you know I love experimenting and I've produced a lot of cards recently with (wonky) stitching on....so this time I decided to fake it and add drawn stitches.......what do you think......

This is a cute little card that would also work with an ice cream as the image - anything with a cute cherry on the top!

I've used a gorgeous light blue backing paper and made the little cupcake out of paper scraps. I attached the cupcake to the middle of the card before embellishing with a little glitter glue.

I made the sentiment on my computer and backed it with some more blue paper before adding it to the card as well.

Then I finally added the fake stitching, which I drew around the edge. The funny thing is that my fake stitches are just as wonky as my sewn stitches!! At least I'm consistent!

I've always liked making cupcake cards, I think they are so cute. At the moment they are also right on trend - cupcakes seems to be everywhere....not just in crafting. There are cupcake shops popping up everywhere, my sister had cupcakes as her wedding cake and you can now take classes especially dedicated to making these gorgeous little creations!! Woo hoo - I'm fashionable! Ha, ha! It doesn't happen very often!!

Anyway, I'd love to get this card on my Birthday - its cute, bright and makes me smile. It's my Dad's Birthday today....not sure he'd appreciate it, bit too girlie for him....so I've made him a card with a computer console on! Happy Birthday Dad - not sure you'll ever find my blog, but just in case you do!

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope the sun is shining where ever you are in the world!
Wedgie Xxx