Inspired

One of my Christmas presents this year was a sketch book from my daughter Emma. I have been thinking about doing some art journaling recently so it was the perfect thing to get me started. 

My multi-talented big sister Jenni has taken the She Art course run by Christy Tomlinson and inspired by the fantastic work she has done I decided to have a go. Jenni's latest piece was inspired by the lyrics of a song by one of her favourite bands which got me thinking about Emma and the band she is in and some of their songs.  One song starts with the line "There are voices in my head telling me what should be said" which struck me as the perfect line to start a journal with! If you are interested you can hear the song here!

So here is the result which I am pretty pleased with, the only problem is I had tidied all my crafts away as Emma is coming to stay for a few days and her old bedroom is my craft room, so now I have to go and tidy all over again!  Ah well when the Muse come what can you do? 

Lastly I just wanted to show off the canvas I created for my lovely husband Steve who is a cycling fanatic.

Happy crafting everyone!

http://sparklesforumchallenges.blogspot.com/ Anything but a Christmas Card

http://thesquirrelandthefox.blogspot.com/ Something New

http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com/ Anything goes

http://fairytale-challengeblog.blogspot.com/ Something new

http://deliciousdoodleschallenge.blogspot.com/ All things new

Thank You

Well here we are in 2012 I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and peaceful New Year. I managed to get north to Scotland this year after being thwarted by the snowy weather the previous two and had an enjoyable stay with Jenni and the rest of the family. The journey back was a trifle hairy driving through gale force winds and horizontal rain but it was worth it, I'm not sure how many more Christmases I will have with my mum who asked me for the first time what my name is but who was very pleased to see me none the less.
Anyway on to our new challenge at Cardmadfairy. I trust everyone had some wonderful gifts to be thankful for, so what better way to start the year than by saying Thank You. I had lots of new crafting supplies and also some gift vouchers for my local craft shop so I am looking forward to testing them all out and having a spend when I need something new! I wanted to keep my card fairly clean and simple for a change so I used the sheet of dotty blooms which you can find here and I printed them out onto patterned paper. I used some pigment powder from Blonde Moments to give them a bit of sparkle and added white Sakura pen over the black dots to highlight them. The flourish was part of my Christmas present from Jenni and the papers were free with a magazine which I can't find at the mo so I can't give credit but it was a great freebie and included some lovely stamps which I can't wait to try out! I used the cut out flowers from the Martha Stewart border punch to finish off my flowers and I printed the sentiment from the computer.

Entering the following challenges:
http://anythingchallenge.blogspot.com/  The Colour Blue + 1 other colour
http://ladybugscraftsinkchallengeblog.blogspot.com/ Anything Goes Using Your New Stash
http://tuesdaythrowdown.blogspot.com/Shiny New Year (Use something Shiny on Your Creation)
http://digistamps4joy.blogspot.com/  something old(button), something new(papers and stamp )
http://fabnfunkychallenges.blogspot.com/  something new (papers and stamp )
http://flutterbywednesdays.blogspot.com/ open
http://www.ibrakeforchallenges.blogspot.com/clean and simple
http://sassystudiodesigns.blogspot.com/ Use Something New
http://sarahhurleychallenges.blogspot.com/ Giving Thanks/ Thank You
http://www.trimmiescraftchallenge.blogspot.com// Thank You
http://cinspirations.blogspot.com/ With Thanks

Playing Tag

Time for a new challenge at Cardmadfairy and this time it is to make a tag, something I have never done before. I bought some die cut tags a couple of years ago and haven't done anything with them up 'til now. I love all the vintage style cards and tags I keep seeing and when I got the new Simply Homemade magazine and saw the free papers I knew they would be perfect. I made a huge snowflake the old fashioned way by cutting into a folded circle then I covered it with glitter glue which I then heated like embossing powder and it puffed up. I should apologize for the picture, my camera is broken and I had to take the tag to work and take a quick picture there and it isn't the best. I used the perforated cutter on my trimmer to make the paper rosettes and the lace trim is from Wild Orchid crafts. The little kitty is of course Cardmadfairy's Christmas kitty. Our sponsor this time is the fabulous A Day for Daisies who generously gave a few images for the design team to work with and are offering a voucher to purchase 3 of their gorgeous images - check out the new'Cozy' release over in the shop now.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

http://artimpressionsstamps.blogspot.com-try something new to you
http://audsentimentschallengeblog.blogspot.com/ Any Winter Holiday Sentiment 
http://www.charismacardz.blogspot.com/ no cards
http://crimbo-crackers.blogspot.com/ embossing
http://pixieduststudiopixiechallenge.blogspot.com/ glitter and bling
http://sassystudiodesigns.blogspot.com/ Non traditional Christmas colours
http://cookingitupwithkatie.blogspot.com/ Anything goes
http://craftsandmechallenges.blogspot.com/ Snowflakes
http://lilredwagon.blogspot.com/ Vintage Christmas
http://diecuttindivas.blogspot.com/ Tags, tags and more tags!

Winter wonderland

The response to the Texture challenge over at Cardmadfairy has been fantastic and I have visited some amazingly talented card makers and seen such a wide variety of ideas. It really is staggering how many people enjoy crafting and are who are also willing to share their work through tutorials. I spend far too much of my time in blogland but I find it so inspiring. It was also my turn to pick the winner and top three.
Anyhoo the new challenge, baring in mind Christmas is nearly upon us is to create a WINTER WONDERLAND let's see all your cold, wintry and snowy projects this time, the team have been busy making some fabulous cards using a mixture of Cardmadfairy images alongside some gorgeous new images provided by this week's sponsor Meljens who this week have a very generous 50% off their normal prices - so be sure to go and check out their store! 
My card has been made with one of their images which I really enjoyed playing with.
Also entering the following:
.thehousethatstampsbuilt.com/ Christmas card & snowflake
/lilredwagon.blogspot.com/ Christmas
thepapershelter.blogspot.com/ Christmas Sparkle + red, green, gold
.scrapbooksisters.blogspot.com/ Christmas
whimsical-designs.com/ add texture
.4craftychicks.blogspot.com/ snowflakes
audsentimentschallengeblog.blogspot.com/ winter holiday sentiments
trimmiescraftchallenge.blogspot.com// unusual Christmas (image)
charismacardz.blogspot.com/ snowflakes
digidoodleshopsbest.blogspot.com/ animals

Something new

I just wanted to share something new that I have never tried before. My lovely talented big sister Jenni recently started making She Art canvases and enjoys it so much and has made such beautiful pictures that I decided I wanted a piece of the action. I had a look at some tutorials on YouTube and decided to combine a few different styles to make something of my own.
I have made it for my daughter Rachael for Christmas so I hope she likes it. The papers are from an old book about Edinburgh which is where she dreams of living once she leaves Uni in Winchester and the hair style is how she usually wears her hair. I used lots of different stamps round the edges and the butterfly is from a beautiful paper napkin.
I really had a fabulous messy time making it so will definitely be having another go soon. Unfortunately I have to do a different type of painting (decorating) first!
http://fussyandfancychallenge.blogspot.com/ Make a gift/Anything but a card (hope a canvas counts)
http://joyfulstamper.blogspot.com/ Always anything goes
http://craftyribbonschallenge.blogspot.com/ Anything but a card (hope a canvas counts)
http://flutterbywednesdays.blogspot.com/ Open

Textured Teddy

Well here we are nearly in the middle of November and it is still warm enough in the south of England to not need the heating on. I'm not sure what happened to the threats of snow by the start of the month but I'm definitely not complaining. Lets hope we can get all the way to January without it!

The challenge for the next two weeks is - Texture:  it can be embossing, fabric, embellishments or anything that adds some extra texture to your creation.

Once again the winner of this challenge will receive their choice of 5Cardmadfairy digis and, as a bonus, anyone who enters using one of our own designs will be entered into a draw to win another 5!

We are also saying goodbye to one of out lovely DT members and will be looking for someone new to join so if you would like the chance please just add DT to your name when you enter.

Right now on to my card!

I chose the image called Teddy Love this time which you can find here with all of Jenni's lovely images. I coloured it with Promarkers and tried to make the teddy look fluffy. I used a mask to then stamp behind the image instead of having the usual white background. I embossed the gold paper with an embossing plate but I'm afraid I wasn't able to take a good enough picture, you can just about see it at the top of the image. To get some texture into the flowers I took apart some old plastic daisies I have had for donkeys years and added the centres to some new flowers from Wild Orchid and I punched out a felt flower to go behind. It has a few crystals in the centre but again my picture could be a lot better!

The challenges I would like to enter are:

craftyourpassionchallenges  Anything goes & brown

daisydoodlescreativechallenges.blogspot.com/   Anything goes with a Digi

http://craftypurplefrogchallenges.blogspot.com/ Use orange

http://craftingforallseasons.blogspot.com/ Texture

http://createmepink.blogspot.com/ Use flowers

http://craftybootschallenges.blogspot.com/ Young at heart

http://diekreativenstempelfreunde.blogspot.com/ Orange/brown

http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com/ Up-cycle/re-cycle ( flower centres)

Friendship

Goodness me the end of half term week already Christmas before we know it! I am enjoying a few unexpectedly sunny  days in Scotland so will have to keep this brief. I am staying with my big sister Jenni who is definitely one of my best friends so the theme of the next challenge couldn't be more apt. We would like to see any project with the theme of Friendship this time.

I used the Cardmadfairy image called 'Young Love' and coloured it so it has a faded vintage feel. I used an old border stamp and the Tattered Rose alcohol ink pad to stamp round the edge and then added some fake stitches with a jelly roll pen. The ice cream paper is a Basic Grey and the flowers are Wild Orchid.

The entries for the Spots and Stripes Challenge at Cardmadfairy were fabulous, I really enjoyed looking at them. This time Jenni is sponsoring the challenge herself and the prize will be 5 fabulous CARDMADFAIRY  digi images of your choice.

I am also entering these challenges:

http://clearitoutchallenge.blogspot.com/ use old supplies-trims

http://cachallenge.blogspot.com/ remember

http://creativecardcrew.blogspot.com/ "fallen" in love

http://bunnyzoescrafts.blogspot.com/challenge-17-lace-it-up

http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.com/ always anything goes

Charisma Cardz - - Anything Goes

Paper Crafting Journey - Use a Digi (image)

I Love Promarkers -  Cute

Paper Pretties -  Embellish

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
digidoodleshopsbest.blogspot.com/ anything goes

anything goes