Pooh Bear

I've been itching to make a card for the Library Challenge since it went live but I've been a little bit busy lately.  Anyway, today gave me a chance to have a go.  I love Winnie the Pooh and I've had a clear stamp set for ages (heaven knows who made them) so I dug around and showed them the light of day.  When I first got pregnant with Patrick - all those many years ago - Pooh Bear was the first teddy we bought him.  Come to think of it, his bedroom was decked out in Pooh Bear too.  Anyway, back to the present.  I cut a honeycomb background with my cricut and mounted it on the same colour card blank.  Then I added the rest.  To be fair, I think I should have made the whole card smaller as I added the bling to fill the space.  I'm not sure I'm convinced by it but it needed something.  What do you think?

When I've got time I may do a smaller version.  That's the trouble with clear stamps instead of digistamps, you're stuck with the size.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

All at Sea

Morning all.  Time for a new challenge over at Cardz4guyz and this time we are 'All at Sea'.  It's funny how this one stumped me.  I think because there are so many possibilities, I couldn't settle on one idea.  In the end I just went through my digi stamps and found the first thing that fit the bill.  I bought the Sea Life Set from Digistamp Boutique ages ago.  For those of you who don't know, Digistamp Boutique images are now available through the LOTV site.  I love Sally Ann's cute designs and use them a lot.  I have way too many (is that even possible) and she's one of the places I look first when I need something.  Anyway, I chose a cute whale from the set and coloured him with my Spectrum Noir pens.  For the sea I sponged Salty Ocean distress oxide onto some card and splattered it with a couple of different H2O's - and I haven't used those in forever!  I'm really chuffed with how they turned out.  I hope you like it too.

My original plan was to make this a 'Get Whale Soon' card but he's far to happy to be ill so I used one of the sentiments from the set.

Pop over and join us.  It's really not hard to create male cards and there is so much fun inspiration from the DT ladies.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Say Hi Dragonfly

Morning all.  It's time for a new challenge over at Cardz4guyz.  They do seem to come around quickly.  The challenge this time is Bugs (the insect variety, not the VW variety).  I have to admit to being stumped for a while.  I knew that some of the DT ladies had already chosen bees so I wanted to do something else.  Anyway, after a lot of searching, I found the cutest dragonflies over on Etsy by SLS Lines.  I've matched it with a sentiment from a set I have from Polkadoodles and just popped it on a panel of washi paper.  I paper quilted the background panel to give it a bit of a lift and finished it off with the obligatory bling.  You can't see it very well but I used a spectrum noir sparkle pen on the wings and they really shine,  I've only used one dragonfly on this card so I have two more that I can use for other cards.  I hope you like it.

We'd love to see your interpretation of the theme so please pop over and join us.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Crafts and Books...My Idea of Heaven

As my regular readers know, I'm a bit of a one for blog stalking.  I especially love the odd challenge blog.  Can you imagine how I felt when I found The Library Challenge .  Oh my goodness, I'm in heaven.  If I'm not crafting, I'm reading - and this covers both bases.  I've been stalking it for a few weeks now but this week's I just had to join.

Several years ago (over twenty but who's counting) I did a home study course in A level English Language and Literature.  I know I have an odd idea of what's fun but learning to me just is.  One of the books we studied was Maya Angelou's 'I know why the caged bird sings'.  I'd not come across her before this but I've read all her biographical books since.  I also had the chance to see her on stage in Manchester.  Unfortunately, and to my eternal regret, myself and my friend chose to go by train.  We got on the train but it didn't move.  We couldn't afford a taxi and we'd left it too late for a bus so I never got to see this amazing women.  Anyway, as this is the subject of this current challenge I chose to pay tribute to her in my own way.

The card is made using an old Sheena Douglas Stamp from the Kimono set (I don't think it's available any more).  I decided not to use the cage in the set but to keep it simple with this gorgeous bird.  I hope you like it. 

I added the simple sentiment and a few obsidian dots over the inked background.  I must have been psychic as I bought the Spiced Marmalade distress ink on the way home from work this evening and it was just what I needed for this challenge.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn 

Feeling Off Colour

Morning all.  It's time for a new challenge over at Cardz4guyz.  I can't believe how quickly these challenges come around.  This time we have a Get Well Soon theme and the design team have come up with a wide variety of options that fit the bill.  Please pop over and have a look.  I was really impress by how different they were.

My card uses a stamp from 2 Cute Ink but I think it must have been a club exclusive as I can't find it in the shop.  Heidi has a tonne of cute images but I've been through the shop twice and it's not there.  I hope you like what I've done with it.

It's the first time I've used a stencil for the background and I'm really pleased with how that came out.  

I hope I've inspired you to join us at the challenge as I love looking through all the entries.  It never ceases to amaze me how much talent is out there and how one theme can throw up so many interpretations.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Yay, It's a Fab Friday!

Morning all.  It's been one of those nice serendipitous mornings for me.  I was browsing through some of my most recent pins on Pinterest and found this sketch.

It was perfect for a project I had in mind and I clicked on it and found the page.  I was chuffed to bits that the challenge was still live so I've started following Fab Friday on Bloglovin and I thought I'd enter my effort into the challenge.

I've had the stamp coloured up and hanging around for ages.  It was beginning to get on my nerves as I kept moving it around my desk so I thought I'd do something with it.  It's an old one from Dustin Pike and I don't think it's available anymore.  Here's what I did with it.

I'm so pleased with it.  I think it was meant to be.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

My Kryptonite

Afternoon all.  I'm feeling a little sorry for myself at the moment.  Age seems to be sapping my energy levels, my balance and my confidence.  I think I must have been near some Kryptonite.  Having sprained my ankle recently in one of those un-balanced moments (and you never fall over without an audience, do you)? I found myself with a little extra time to colour.  I found today's sketch challenge over at Sketch Saturday and decided to have a go. I used another fun image from Dr Digi's House of Stamps - they seem to be my favourite site at the moment - and I created this.

I found some fabulous papers that came free with a magazine about a million years ago and I'm quite pleased with the result.

Here's the original sketch.

I hope you like what I did with it.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x