Anniversary Heart

Wow, check me out!  Two blog posts and two competition entries in two days!

I mentioned yesterday that I'd had some birthday money from my Grandma and I'd been on a bit of a digistamp shopping spree.  Well, it does seem the all my digi shopping tends to start with the Digistamp Boutique these days.  I'm a bit of a sucker for there designs and I couldn't resist this new one when I saw Lorraine Bailey's design team card.  I loved that fact that it would work so well as a clean and simple card cause it does all the wow factor for you.  Here is my card

I just added a bit of bling and coloured the border with the same colour as I'd used on the flowers.  I have to say I'm really pleased with it. Plus, if I'm quick, I can enter it into their January Challenge.

Thanks for reading

Love Dawn x

What a plonker!

I am the world's worst ProCraftinator. I will freely admit that I spend more time on Pinterest and Bloglovin looking for inspiration than I do crafting.  I hadn't realised that, in doing so, I had also been missing out.

Pinterest is probably my biggest problem, with almost 2900 pins as I type.  One of my boards is for card sketches for when I can't figure out what layout to use on a card.  There are numerous sketch challenges on the Internet and I frequently pin layouts marked 'I {heart} sketches', but that's as far as I ever went.  I just pinned the sketch for future reference.  Imagine my surprise when I found a Bloglovin post (don't ask me who's - although I will be eternally grateful to them - I follow so many) which took me to From the Heart Stamps, the creator of the sketch challenge blog that I so often pinned.  Best of all, they do digis.  Yeah!  I can't believe that I've been missing out for all this time 'cause I didn't click on the pin, Doh!

Needless to say I've been shopping this week (thanks Mamma B for the birthday money) and I can now enter the challenges as well as pin them.  Here's this week's challenge

and here is my interpretation.

I used one of the stamps I bought, Birdbrain wine, although for this card I only used part of the stamp.

I hope you like it.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn 

Things with wings

As this is my first post of the new year I should mention that I am useless at New Years Resolutions.  As this is the case I won't be making any this year.  If I was going to make any though it would be to enter more challenges.  I follow loads of challenges on Bloglovin and it's a great way to get inspiration.  However, my efforts at card making (well, taking photos and uploading really) are often too late to enter the end result.  Not so this week.  Yeah, I got one done in time.

This weeks theme at Sweet Stampin Challenge is 'Things with Wings' and, handily enough, I had a digital stamp already printed and ready to colour. I bought Party Time Pixies a while ago and it's been sat in my folder ready to colour ever since.  So, here is the finished card

I had great plans for using various papers on this card but, in the end, it looked better kept very simple.  I hope you like my efforts and, you never know, this may be the first of many challenge cards this year!

Thanks for reading

Love Dawn x

Lots of layers

Get me!  Blogging twice in two days!

To be honest, I wasn't expecting to have time to do much more this week but my other half's surgery was put off by a day so I've had to have an extra day off to hubby sit.  He's fine, but I wasn't supposed to leave him for 24 hours after his operation.  Well, my craft room is in the same house!  I don't really think he needed me to actually hold his hand or anything.

So, what to do with an unexpected day off.  Maybe I should join another challenge.  It's a bit of a luxury as I don't always get time.  I follow lots of challenges on Bloglovin. It's an easy way to see lots of inspiration. Anyway, this morning had a challenge from Passion for Promarkers and this week it's being sponsored by one of my favourite digistamp shops.  I couldn't resist.  I am a huge fan of the Digistamp Boutique and I happened to have some of their stamps printed out ready to go.  The challenge doesn't need you to use one of their stamps but it just seemed a good excuse so I used one from the Cute Robin Chicklets Set.  I used a mixture of Tria Markers and Promarkers and used non traditional Christmas colours.  The challenge was to use lots of layers and here is what I came up with.

I layered two co-ordinating papers (sorry, I never remember where my papers come from) and stuck another panel from the same set where I wanted to put my robin.  I added some hand stitching and layered two lots of ribbon before sticking it to my card blank.  I finished it off by layering gemstones onto snowflakes.  I hope you like it.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Sorry it's late

It doesn't matter how often I promise myself I will blog more often and I will upload my cards to my Facebook Page I just can't seem to keep on top of it.  Anyway, this week I've made a couple of cards to echo my feelings on this.  The first one I coloured the image for and then couldn't make work how I wanted it, so I left it.  Anyway, inspiration has now struck and I've simplified it.  I like it much better than the fussy layout I originally had planned.

My second card I want to enter in this weeks Simply Less is More Challenge .  This week's theme is masculine, which usually fills me with dread.  However, I already had an image printed out (I think it's from Doodle Pantry) and a card in mind.  I don't know why but the sentiment wouldn't leave my head so I just went for it.  I hope no-one is offended.

When I've looked at them both I have realised that they both fit the male/CAS idea so I will enter the challenge.  

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

It's just not cricket!

Well, the good old British bank holiday weather strikes again.  Today's best laid plans involved a 6 a side cricket tournament in aid of Ashgate Hospice for which I had volunteered to do the barbecue.  We really should have known better.  This is the view from my craft room window this morning

Not exactly barbecue weather is it?

Plan B involves rearranging it for a later date (which is a good job as I have 170 burgers in my freezer).

This is the nearest I am going to come to a Barbecue today, I feel

The image is by Mo Manning and can be found here. I've had him for a while now but only used him once before.

Oh well, I suppose this rubbish weather has allowed me to play in my craft room.  I should be grateful for small mercies.

Thanks for reading

Love Dawn x

Up, up and away

It's Saturday so it's Less is More day, and today's challenge is 'Up, Up and away'.  Funnily enough, this suited me down to the ground as I've had a card in mind for a while.

A few weeks ago I was gutted to find that Meljens Designs was closing it's shop.  Melissa has decided to go back to Etsy and do other things (although she's taking some of her favourite digis with her).  Now, as with most digi designers I use, I had a wish list to purchase before the shop shut for good and one of them was perfect for this challenge.  Now, when people say less is more to me I instantly think of lots of white - but that doesn't have to be the case.  When I first saw the balloon design from Meljens I saw it in pastel colours. Does anyone else just look at an image and know how you want it to be coloured?  Anyway, for ages I have had some card stock which reminds me of clouds.  I've got it in various colours (although I seem to have Borrowers in my craft room and they've 'borrowed' most of it, along with my mod podge and two bone folders!).  I did find it in pink, but that is fine because - for some bizarre reason - that's what I'd got in my head.  I did want to add the text on the matching blue but I've had to use some other blue card stock as I wanted to enter the challenge and I have run out of patience searching for things this week.  Although my craft room got a really good tidy and I still can't find my mod podge, grrr.

Anyway, here is my pink and pastel 'Less is More' challenge card.  I hope you like it.

Thanks for reading

Love Dawn