Be yourself!

There's a fab new sheet available over at DezinaWorld today, and here's what I made with it :)
These are the challenges I'm entering:
TechnoStamper Monday Lunchtime Sketches - sketch 132
Getting Creative with Ann - challenge 98, sweet black vanilla cherries
Flutterby Wednesday - use a butterfly fairy or angel
The Crafty Pad - vintage (this is my third entry here, no need to include it in the prize draw)
Dutch Dare - anything goes

Back to normality :P

I was updating the challenge blog earlier and I realised that I hadn't entered this week's Off The Wall challenge, and it was in colours I love, so I whipped up this one this evening, I think I'm just in time. And after all that red and yellow in the last post, I needed to get back to my favourites or purple/pink and turquoise :P
And of course, I found a few other challenges to inspire me, here they are:
Off the Wall Craftiness - use the colours in this photo:

Sweet Sketch Wednesday - Sketch 60
Corrosive Challenge - use the colours in this photo:

Tiddly Inks - Fit for a princess. The image is Everyday Princess, isn't she fab?
Lots to Do - shapes. When I saw that the sketch had both circles and squares, that reminded me of the Shapes challenge, and I went a bit crazy. As well as the circles and squares, I added diamonds in the backing paper, hearts across the middle, stars in front of the circles, a rectangle for the text and triangles in the corners of the top mat :P

Thanks for looking, now go have yourself a totally princess kind of weekend :D

Not too sure about this one . . .

These are not colours I would usually work with but since challenges are about challenging oneself, I gave it a go :)
These are the challenges:
For Fun - bright summer colours
The Burtonesque Dolls - Create a Big Fish-y scene. I went for the field of daffodils, the red from the circus twins, the tree from the poster and the birds and sentiment are my own interpretation of the overall theme.
Three Amigos - Movie (Big Fish)
Incy Wincy Designs - followed the sketch
Gingersnap Creations - yellow orange red
C.R.A.F.T. challenges Hot and Spicy colours
Oh, Alice! - Ravens and writing desks (use birds)

Happy Birthday LeAnne!

LeAnne over at ColourQ is celebrating her birthday today, and her team-mates wanted to create a mini blog hop as a surprise, I hope it worked and no-one spilled the beans in advance :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LE-ANNE!

If you'd like to wish LeAnna Happy Birthday, please pop over to her blog and leave some love.
The image was a freebie from Some Odd Girl, the stripy paper comes from my Mint Choc Chip Muddle set, and everything else was made for this card.
These are the other challenges that I'm entering with this card:
ColourQ - old olive, peach parfait, bermuda bay, early espresso
Sketch Saturday - sketch 113
Some Odd Girl - spots stripes and a big title
Ooh La La - birthdays
Crazy Challenges - birthdays
Totally Stampalicious - birthdays
Party Time - anything goes birthday
Craftalicious - birthdays

And this is the rest of the birthday blog hop list, pop along and see the lovely creations

Will you step into my parlour?

Barb over at Haunted Design House chose the theme "Appalling Arachnids" and if you'd like to see an absolutely scrumptious tin, have a look on the blog as Lynx has made a beauty :)
And a fter I'd made my piece, I liked the colour scheme so much that I created a paper set around it, the delicious yet dirty "Mint Choc Chip Muddle"
The spider started as a public domain vintage image, and the text of course, comes from the poem by Mary Howitt.
These are the challenges I was working towards:
What If Wednesday, sketch J1410
Creative Inspirations - chocolate and mint
Alphabet Challenge - M is for Men
Speedy the Cat's Friends - masculine
The Crafty Pad - vintage
Donna's Den of Crafts - mostly green

Black white and one other colour

Well it's Sunday again, and that means it's time for another fabulous challenge over at the One Stitch At A Time (OSAAT) blog, and this week we'd like to see your creations made with black, white and one other colour of your choice. I'm leaving the shop, as I've decided that I just want my own small site, but I'm staying on as DT, (they just can't get rid of me, I'm having too much fun :P) and the rest of the team this week have all used my papers, please pop along and see their lovely creations.
This week I got to work with our newest creator, Sylvie's Stamps, and she has some beautiful digi images available at the Stithy Bear store, so pop along and see :)
This particular stamp is the Kokeshi Dolls group 2, and I loved working with it :D
And don't forget thatthere's still a 30% off sale going on throughout the store, so now's the time to stock up on all your favourite digi products :)
These are the challenges that I'm entering with this card:
Creative Card Crew - sketch
Pollycraft - Happy Birthday
Papertake Weekly - Cutie patootie
Digital Tuesday - Happy Birthday
Crafty Creations - happy or sweet
Dare You To Digi Stamp - stitching
Craftalicious - birthdays
Stamp Scrap and Doodle - use a digital image
Whoopsi Daisy - vibrant colours
Mami Doodles - anything goes

Warmest Winter Wishes

I made this today, a very grunged up vintage Christmas card. The main image is from DezinaWorld, and other pieces came from cuddlebeez, mitsybelle, dorthi designs and SKrapper Digitals.
These are the challenges that I'm entering:
Magical Crafts - Christmas in July (don't forget to check out the new challenge blog that will be taking the place of Magical Crafts, Craft Your Days Away) I'm not eligible for the prize on this one, just entering for fun :)
Friends Having Fun - Christmas in July, long and narrow, and something from your home town or country. The vintage image in this is Victorian, I hope that counts as English. This also isn't excatly the right dimensions, but it is long and narrow.
Ready Steady Stamp - this is a new challenge for me, your entry musn't be cute, and you have to use at least five ingredients from a very cool list. My ingredients used are - music sheet, torn/distressed paper, pink, wings (I put a bird on the tag), pearls, metal flower and lace.
Moving Along with the Times - sketch + vintage pastel. I followed the sketch, and it's definitely vintage, but the pastel seems to have been grunged up enough to make it look dark, hopefully I'll get time to do a proper pastel one as well.
Charisma Cardz - anything but square
Aud Sentiments - choose your own Christmas sentiment
Raise the Bar - distressed torn ripped
PolkaDoodle - Christmas in July
Bah Humbug - Christmas scene
Fairy Fun Fridays - lace it up/use lace
Frosted Designs - use a song lyric. Not only the lyric, but the music as well on this one :P

Fantasy tag

I made this using a couple of images from DezinaWorld, and it's June's wedding anniversary today, so please pop along and wish her well :D
The woman in the beautiful dress is from the brand new Cinderella dresses set, and the wings come from the Flyers 2 sheet, both available at DezinaWorld.
These are the challenges that I'd like to enter:
A Crafty Little Place - followed the card sketch. I'd also like to point out that there's a very lovely offer going on with this challenge. As I'm sure many of you are aware, there's been a few card drives going on for Michelle Oatman, who suffered a tragic accident recently. Well, for this challenge at Crafty Little Place, DCRU have promised to donate a dollar towards Michelle's medical bills for every participant in the challenge. It's a beautiful sketch anyway, but just in case you need an extra incentive for taking part, please remember Michelle :)
The Crafty Pad - photo inspiration. There's a beautiful photo of flowers, in red pink cream and green, so those are the colours I've used.
Crafty Creations - happy or sweet. I definitely think this counts as happy, she has a big dress and a pair of wings, that would definitely be enough to put a big grin on my face :P
Theme Thursday - vinatge tags
Charisma Cardz - anything but square

Mermajesty

My second post for today, this uses Dark Royalty by Ching-Chou Kuik, sheet available from Crafty Purple Frog.
ETA: I need to add a note here, I've had ome lovely comments on the coluring of tis image. It is absolutely fabulous, but it's not mine, the image comes pre-coloured. I WISH I could be that good :P
I made this card for the following challenges:
Crafting Life's Pieces - July sketch
Color Throwdown - Marina Mist, Wild Wasabi, Not Quite Navy
Cooking It Up with Katie - Button me a blue bow! Use buttons blue and a bow
Stampin' Royalty - Splish splash
My Partner in Crafting Crime - Under the sea
Daring Cardmakers - sea-themed
Oh, Alice! - Dancing under the sea
KL Stampin' and Scrappin' - ribbon
Hedgehogs and Ladybirds - buttons

Halloween is Hoppin' at Tiddly Inks

The Tiddly Inks Challenge blog are having their second blog hop. I quite recently discovered their digital stamps and I love them :D This card uses Gossmere from Tiddly Inks and my own Halloween Bride paper set. To join in the blog hop, we have to make a Halloween card using a Tiddly Inks image and link it up on the blog. And this one also (kind of) fits into the Wayward Words theme over at Haunted Design House Macabre Mondays, which makes it a double bonus for me :)
I'm actually writing this post in advance as I'm in the wrong time zone and will likely be heading to be bed very shortly after the blog hop begins, but thankfully it's open for a few days so I'll have time to check it out tomorrow. I wanted to demonise a nursery rhyme for my text, the first one I came up with was
Boo! Boo! Dark witch, have you any ghouls?
Yes Sir, yes Sir, my dungeon is full.
One for the churchyard, one for the school
And one to follow anyone who takes me for a fool.
But I decided that one wasn't right for the lovely Gossmere, so I came up with the one you see on the card. And to save you hving to embiggen the image, the text on this one reads:
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your graveyard grow?
With toads and weeds, and bats to feed,
and headstones all in a row
I also digitally paper-pieced her dress with the same paper as the background.
Here are the other challenges I used to create this card:
Monday Lunchtime Sketch 131 - followed the sketch
Verona's Saturady Challenge - two patterned papers
WildFlower Wednesday 24 - lace and sparkle. As well as the three gems at the side of the image, she also has gems on her tiara and necklace.
Alphabet Challenge - L is for lace
Stamp Something - digital

I'm so excited I'm squealing! :P

I have my own little site for selling my papers and other digital stuff!
It's CraftyChaosDesigns.co.uk, what do you think? And here's the first card I've made that I can link to my own store, do you think this is how Marks & Spencer would have started if they'd been setting up now? :P
Anyway, this card uses one of my new paper sets called Sunday Afternoon and the image was a freebie from a children's colouring page site, but I've lost the link now and it's just called "Fairy 2" so there are no clues in the name :(
These are the challenges that I had in mind when I made the card:
Crafty Creations - sketch
Flutterby Wednesday - 3+ layers plus a fairy butterfly or angel
For Fun - your favourite colouring technique. Mine is digital, I just LOVE being able to zoom right in and being able to undo any mistakes ;)
Stamptacular Sunday - Ice cream colours. I've gone for neopolitan, strawberry chocolate and vanilla.
Inspiration Avenue - books
The Pink Elephant - brown
Lexi's Creations - stitching
Artful Inkables - stitching
Party Time Tuesdays - anything goes birthday
Craftalicious - birthdays
Pollycraft - Happy Birthday

Wayward Words!

This is my first piece created as one of the DT for the Haunted Design House Macabre Monday challenge, yay me!
The challenge this week is Wayward Words and we'd like to see a piece that focuses on the text. Remember, this challenge is specifically for all of the goth princesses out there who have a penchant for the dark, creepy and ghoulish. Do you have a dark side? We'd love it if you came and shared your creations with us :D
I made a postcard for this week, using the 3 Big Cats stamp from StampItCrazy. I made up the ditty to go with the cats and fir into the current Magic challenges, and the font is called A Lolita Scorned, available from DaFont.com
These are the challenges that I had in mind when creating this card:
Sunday Postcard Art - magic
The Burtonesque Dolls - black and white
Moving Along With The Times - sketch + animals
Dare U2 Digi Stamp - stitching
Stampin' B's Design Challenge - focus on the sentiment
Some Odd Girl - spots stripes and a big title
Stamp Something - go digital
Lots to Do - stitching
Stamp Scrap and Doodle - animals
Mami Doodles - anything goes

Baby powder plus water will NOT ceate a real baby :P

This card uses one of the fab new images from the Woman Roundies sheet at DezinaWorld, and don't forget that June has regular challenges freebies and special offers so it's well worth having a browse :)
These are the challenges that I made this one for:
Meljen's Place - We challenge you to create a LONG or TALL card! Business size = 4in x 9-1/4in
ColourQ - Pink passion, pretty on pink, black, grey, white.
KAH-Wink-E-Dink - funny or punny. Plus there's a very special freebie offer going on this week, you don't want to miss it!
Crafts and Me - black pink white. This is actually my second entry, so don't count it when you do the draw, I just wanted to share :)
Order of the Opus Gluei - make someone smile. And they have a wonderfully easy tutorial for dancing tissues that certainly made me smile :D
Pollycraft Challenge - bold and bright
Pixie Cottage 27 - use 3 of something
Lots to Do - people or places
Charisma Cardz - pink
TechnoStamper - followed the sketch. Except I didn't follow the correct sketch, oops :P
C.R.A.F.T. challenge - babies or children. Well, my baby in this is in powdered form, but it is there :P
Theme Thursday - something round
Off the Wall Craftiness - use the colours from this photo:

Stampin' B's Designs - use a sentiment as a focal point
AIFactory - flowers
Stamp Insanity - ribbons and gems
Your Next Stamp - flower power
Whoopsi Daisy - bright and vibrant

Non-family scrap page

I had a few scrapbook challenges that I wanted to combine, and one of them has the theme of Heritage, when we were meant to dig out our vintage family photos. Well, I don't have any, but I do have lots of vintage photographs, so I went with one of those instead. This beauty was a freebie from DezinaWorld, pop over and have a look at all the gorgeous images she has.
Challenges entered:
Scrapping with I Did It Creations - LO sketch
Lexi's Creations - real or faux stitching
Oops, I just discovered that I'm too late for the Heritage-themed challenge anyway :P
Think Ink - stitching
Tuesday Throwdown - stitching
Flutterby Wednesday - at least three layers + a butterfly fairy or angel
Paper Sundaes - lots of layers
My Time to Craft - Butterfly Bliss
Color Throwdown - Kiwi Kiss, Black, Kraft, Baja Breeze
Creative Cottage - no cards allowed
Create 4 Fun - anything but a card

Quirky Velvet Dragon

The dragon digi is by Outlaw by Design and the papers are from my Velvet Descent set.

Challenges I'm entering with this one:
Quirky Crafts - I followed the fab sketch by Lyn
Daisy Doodles - use 1 digital image, 2 patterned papers and 3 brads
Darkness Inspiration - monsters
Theme Thursday - animals
Aud Sentiments - no sentiment
Make Up for the Weekend - critters
Sweet Stampin' Challenge - things with wings

The art of being wise . . .

I had fun making this one, lol, you can always overlook things like mis-matched buttons and paint spills and just enjoy the overall effect ;) These are the challenges that I made it for:
Sentimental Sundays - I can see clearly (use clear embellishments), so I found some digital buttons and played with them to get the look you can see. It was harder than I was expecting, with digital stuff, clear can often end up as just being invisible, so I'm quite pleased with the effect of the buttons :)
Getting Crafty with Anne - anything goes
Crafty Hos - black white + one
Tuesday Morning Sketches - This blog is celebrating its first birthday, so they have a full list of all their past sketches and you can use any one of them. I love having such a choice all in one place, you really should give it a go. I've used sketch 2 for this, and I think this will be my second entry this week, if that's not allowed, just disinclude one of them :)
Crafty Creations - make your own button. I'm not sure if digi will count for this one, but I did actually alter the buttons you can see, they started out as a large red one.
Penny's Challenge - use 7 of something (buttons)
Wildflower Wednesday - grunge
Crafts and Me - black pink white
Stampin' B's Challenge - polka dots
Totally Gorjuss - Water. Another one where I'm not really sure if it will count. Do digital splashes count as wet enough?
Hedgehogs and Ladybirds - buttons
Incy Wincy Designs - distress it

Freedom, Honour, Courage

The theme for the challenge at OSAAT (One Stitch At A Time) this week Military. but your entry can of course be tangential if you're scratching your head for ideas :P
I've used the beautiful Aloria stamp by Lexi's Creations to make my piece, and you can buy it HERE. And don't forget that there's a massive 30% off sale going on at Stitchy Bear Stamps for the month of July, so you can pick up some bargains too :D
These are the other challenges that I had in mind when creating my card:
Mojo Monday - sketch 146 (turned on its side)
Craft Your Passion - stitches
Critter Challenge - use at least 4 stars (I'm not sure if you can see them in the small picture, but all the white bits on the unicorn are stars)
Friends Having Fun - vintage red, patriot blue, tattered white
Think Ink - stitches
Digital Tuesday - red white and blue
Riley & Co - use the colours of your flag (Union Jack and red white and blue in my case)
Theme Thursday - Animals
Make Up for the Weekend - critters

I hope I'm in time

This is another one of the new digital images from Stamp It Crazy, this one is called Missy. I'm really rushing because I think I may be late for a couple of the challenges and hubby wants the pc and Criminal Minds is on, olo, I may tidy this up later :P
I want to enter this into a few challenges, here they are:
Tuesday Morning Sketches - you have a whole list of sketches to choose from, as they're celebrating their first birthday. I've used the sketch from challenge #6
Haunted Design House - Wacko Jacko (Jack o' Lanterns) I spotted this one the other day, isn't it fab?)
C.R.A.F.T. - purple green and gems, with a photo inspiration. Doesn't the madam in the image look like she'd wear that ring? I bet even her dagger is bejewelled :P)
Theme Thursday - torn paper

Stressed? Me?

I realised tonight that I haven't made any scrap pages for a while, so I hubted up a few challenges, and here's the result. Thanks for looking :D
Scrapping with I Did It Creations - greens and browns
Yellow Umbrella - digital
A Crafty Little Place - LO sketch
The Crafty Pad - Animal Fun
Pile It On - my favourite things used here are: cats. digital crafting, making my own papers, and combining challenges :)
Craft Your Passion - stitching
Critter Challenges - use at least 4 stars
Papertake Weekly - in stitches
Fab n Funky - sew and sew
Simon Says Stamp - Check it out (use checks, plaid, gingham)

Wonda the witch

Barb over at Stamp It Crazy has gone digital! Woohoooooo! I love Barb's images but I'm really just dreadful at rubber stamping, so this is the first time I've been able to really get to grips with one. This one is called Wonda, isn't she fab?
And here are the challenges that I'm entering:
Totally Gorjuss - followed the sketch
Cowgirl Sunday challenge - scallops and/or embellishments
Fairy Fun Fridays - anything goes
Off the Wall Craftiness - Kim has chosen another fab photo for us to be inspired by and follow the colour scheme

Love your life!

Yay, what a wonderful sentiment, I hope you can all find something to love about your own life as you go through your day :)
I've used an image from the new Blue Moon set available at DezinaWorld today and gone for a red white and blue theme, which isn't usually a colour combo I enjoy but there are a few challenges I want to enter, and I must say I really like the end result :)
Here are the challenges I was working towards:
Sketch and Stash - I followed the sketch and my new stash is the image
Sentimental Sundays - encouragement or support
Curtain Call - red navy white kraft (I skipped the kraft, hope that's ok)
Crazy Challenges - make it in an hour. I just made this in under an hour, lol, it was 64 minutes but I made a cup of coffee in the middle, so I think it counts :P)
Stamp Insanity - red white and blue
AI Factory - red white and blue
Meljen's Designs - red white and blue
Pixie Dust Studio - red white and blue
Aud Sentiments - use the word "love"
Paper Cutz - 4th July (since I'm in the UK, I don't specifically celebrate the 4th July, but I hope the sentiment, colours and general Americana feel of this piece mean it counts
Raise the Bar - colours of your flag (Union Jack, red white and blue)
Frosted Designs - stars stripes, red white and blue
I Did It Creations - red white and blue