The Crafty Goldfish

This card is for the sketch challenge over at Di Hickman's site.
I first thought it was too simple and that i wouldnt be able to make a decent card with it, but once i chose the gorgeous paper (from creative imaginations) it just seemed to come together. I used a few primas and flowers to be the focus of the card and even used one of my sugar coated brads to hold them together. I find it hard using these as they are so pretty i don't want to give them away! lol
I then added a small bow with some lovely shimmery organza ribbon and a tiny sentiment at the top.
It came out far better than i imagined and i'm really pleased with it.

This card was made based on a sketch over at Ismaki . I loved the sketch and had seen some lovely examples of the card so wanted to have a go myself. It really inspired me and after i'd stamped nellie and drawn a circle round her i got the idea to stamp little elzybells flowers around the edge to give a lovely border to her. I stamped them all and then cut around them to create the circle, then added some shimmer with some sakura pens. Again the lovely paper is from K+Co. I added some stitched ribbon to add the stitching effect on the layout. I finished by adding some primas and a get well sentiment.

I'm so pleased with this card and again am loving doing sketch challenges today!

I made this card for a sketch challenge over at taylored expressions . It's called a cupcake challenge but it saus u don't have to use a cupcake! which is handy as i dont have one. But i love that the layput is so different from my normal style so it took me out of my boring comfort zone.
I've used one of my favourite bella stamps and some gorgeous paper from a K+Co pad called sickly sweet. I love the colours and matched them with some lovely yellow bazzill card.
The base card is a shimmery pink which held it all together and the stitched ribbon matched the pink as well.
I've loved the cards i've made today and am pleased there are inspiration and sketch blogs to help change your style a bit! which is what i was needing.

I wanted to try and improve on yesterday's creations so i had a go at trying to add things i dont often do.
This is the first(or second?) time i've used this sweet little lily of the valley stamp and thought it would be perfect for a little girl called erin on postpals thats only 5 and likes pink. there is lots of glitter and shimmer on it especially for a little princess.



This next little one was a stamped image from a friend of mine on the forum. i automatically go for pink normally so i went with blue but still for a girl. i layered the bits differently to how i normaly would, as i'm such a straight and even type of crafter. I then used my silent setter to put some eyelets in (thanks for the inspiration maddie!) and added some swirls from a doodlebug love set in brilliance dew drops.













This is my fave of the day. I love this swirl cuttlebug die and i love lilac so it all seem to come together well. i added some eyelets again to the image matting and stamped hello with stampendous(i think) alphabet set.I haven't got the energy to run upstairs to check! I love these prima blooms and attached them with some big brads. All of these cards will be for children who are going through horrible illnesses and deserve to be treated to a card or gift. For anyone that hasn't heard of postpals please click on the link and see how much these kiddies are going through and how badly they need volunteers to bring a smile to their faces! thank you x

I'm not really overly happy with any of these to be honest, but 5 cards in day seemed worthy of doing a blog entry.they all seem too plain and just same old same old.
This first one is for someone on postpals. The sitting tilda is so cute but i dont think the LO is quite right on the card.







This second card is again for a postpals member and is the first time of using my mermaid tilda. I used glittery sakura pens for the scales and they look better IRL. The card behind her is glittery too. i need to learn to take better pics of my cards.













This 3rd one is for someone on postpals and again is the first time i've used the horse. Thank u maddie for the stamped images. He is so cute, but i dont think i'll use the reddy brown on him again as i had trouble matching paper colours. I want to get the fencing stamp as well to make it look like the horse is in a paddock, with tilda infront of it.













This card is for someone on my forum that has not been well and i think deserves a bit of cheering up.













This again is for someone that going through a rough time on my forum and needs some support.











I'm loving crafting lately but today seem to have lost my mojo a bit. Some days i love my cards and others like today they just dont seem good enough. I would love to be able to make cards like some i see on blogs, esp the tilda blog. some of those are amazing! i know we all have our own styles but i wish i could vary mine a bit. maybe thats a small challenge to myself.

Whilst watching the FA cup final and the grand national today i fancied doing some scrapping. On the forum i go on we've got some scrapbook page layouts on there for some inspiration(taken from an inspiration blog i think), so it gave me something to work with. It's the first time i've done a LO from a sketch and i did find it easier to follow what was there.

I had these lovely photos of my sis and niece and thought they fit well into the sketch. There is meant to be a 3rd photo on the biggest circle, but i hadn't got anymore printed from that day(yet) so the space is there to add one if i want to.

I used some pretty pink flowery paper as a background and some good old bazzill. The gorgeous blue spotty paper is from sandilion and i'll be stocking up with more of it!

I chose pink and blue from colours in the photo and added some light green as that brought it all together with the title, which is from K+Co.

For the circles i cut round some of the flowers of the background paper and added some chipboard flowers i got free with scrapbook inspirations and some primas. One of the centres of the chipboard flowers didnt match with the colours so i drew round the centre flower onto some other chipboard and covered it with some of the blue paper to tie it all in. A few brads, including a gorgeous sugar coated brad from doolebug added detail to the flowers, and i finished adding some heart+flower rub ons from doodlebug.

i really enjoyed making it and will be ordering lots of photos now to do more for Emily's scrapbook.

Postpals is a great charity set up by some friends of mine who also suffer with ME(but far worse than me). It is a scheme where very sick and poorly children sign up to their site and people can then send them cards, letters, gifts and anything to put a much needed smile on their face while they are suffering so much. having been ill for 6 years myself now, and being bedbound at times, i know how lovely it is to get some post that cheers you up and makes u feel like someone out there is thinking about u. So I decided to create a section on a cardmaking forum i belong to, so that the members can make cards for the featured pals on the site each month, who need a bit of extra love and support. I have made 4 so far but will continue to make cards every month for as many of the kids as i can. For anyone that doesn't know of the site and would like to see it the link is :www.postpals.co.uk




i really do adore these tilda stamps and can't wait to be able to afford more! I expect i'll get one or 2 at ally pally in 10 days time!!

Thank u to Maddie for the lovely PIF u sent me! That ric rac is gorgeous!!!
It is now my time to Pay It Forward. I don't know what goodies i will give away yet, but the first 3 people to reply to this post will get sent a few bits. You will then PIF and give away some stuff to 3 other people on ur blog.
ready, steady, go!