Sunny sunny Sunday!

Hello hello hello, I hope you're all having a lovely day :D
It's Sunday again, which means it's time for a new challenge at One Stitch At A Time (OSAAT) AND it's Dollar Day at DezinaWorld!
Double woohoo!
The challenge this week at OSAAT is "Stars and Stripes", and we'd like you to use stars or stripes or both in your creation. We're being sponsored by Stitchy, and the prize is three digis of your choice :D
I've used the wonderful Daisy 2 by Hope Jacare which you can find HERE in the Stitchy Bear Store.


Here are the challenges that I'm entering with this one:
A Spoon Full of Sugar - Good luck or best wishes
Paper Cutz challenge - Circles stars or squares
Stamptacular Sunday - stars and stripes
Tuesday Morning Sketches - followed the sketch
CRAFT - black lime and lilac
Sew Many Challenges - anything goes



And this second piece uses an image from the Dressed Heads sheet available at DezinaWorld, and it's just one of the sheets that June has made available for only a dollar each! It's a one-day-only sale, so you'll have to be quick, but if you miss it this week then you can always check back next Sunday, whn a different selection of sheets will be on offer.
These are the challenges for this second piece:
Corrosive Challenges - lots of flowers
Magical Crafts - Flower Power
Fresh Brewed Designs - anything goes

Just a quick ATC

Oh I'm having fun today, I'm finally feeling better and I'm enjoying just playing. This piece uses another of the collage digi stamps that I've been working on, and I made it for the following challenges:
Off The Wall Craftiness #13 - use this hoto as inspiration (I hope it's obvious I've gone for the wonderful colours)

Order of the opus Gluei - anything but a card
Three Muses challenge - eyes
Fab n Funky - sew and sew (there's a cross stitch border all around the edge of the stamp)

Just for fun, yay!

I made another piece for which I had no obligations, yay me! And I'm not even sure if it will count for all the challenges I have in mind, but I had fun doing it anyway :D
A few weeks ago, the Lots To Do forum challenged us to use birds. At the time, I was just teaching myself to make my own digi stamps, and I made one specifically for this challenge, but then never got around to actually using it. So today I thought it should get an airing, as it fit with a few of the challenges I wanted to do.
So, here goes:
Something Completely Different - make a skinny with flora and fauna.
Allsorts - embossing
Crafty Ann - embossing
I'm not really sure if digital embossing will count for either of these, but I just worked out how to get the effects you can see on the bgs, and I love it, lol, so that's why I'm entereing :D
Challenge Up Your Life - vintage
Stamp Something - Vintage with flowers
Again, I'm not really sure if the bright colours I've used stop this piece looking vintage overall, but the digi stamp I used is definitely vintage :P
Crafty Catz - let's go digital
Theme Thursday - collage
Kah Wink E Dink - anything goes
Speedy the Cat's Friends' Challenge - at least three flowers
And finally, all the summer challenges that made me want to use the bright colours, that may make it not-so-vintage-looking :)
Daisy Doodles - Summertime
Quirky Crafts - Summer
Stampin' B - Summer Fun
Tellen's Place - Summertime

Wedding card in turquoise black and white

I made this piece today using my Wedding Trends Turquoise paper set, for the following challenges:
Corrosive Challenges - Black white plus one other colour
Hidden Treasures - followed the sketch
Creative Craft World - wedding
Secret Crafter - wedding or anniversary
Lots to Do - quote. This one is by Aristotle. And yay for me for finally getting a piece finished on time for this challenge, usually I'm late.

Wedding piece.

I entered the Darkness Inspiration Dark Baroque challenge yesterday before I'd looked up the definition of "baroque" so, lol, here's another take on it :P
The lovely June at DezinaWorld has started running a Dezina Dollar Day on Sundays, and yesterday the Wedding collage sheet, where I got this beautiful bride, was featured. I have recoloured her digitally, so I could also enter the Monochromatic challenges listed. In fact, lol, I recoloured everything digitally :P
Here are the challenges I'm entering:
Darkness Inspiration - dark baroque
Tellen's Place - Going to the chapel
Fussy and Fancy - monochromatic and wings
Craftalicious - monotone
Secret Crafter - weddings/anniversaries
Challenge Up Your Life - vintage

Deliciously dark birthday glee and special offers!

The theme for our challenge at OSAAT/One Stitch At A Time this week is Seeing Double, and originally I was going to use my two flowers to qualify. But then I really couldn't make my mind up as to which way around I liked the colour scheme, so I did both :P
The image is the wonderful Berry Fairy by Beary Dust Stamps, available at the Stitchy Bear Store. And, for one week only, there are some FANTASTIC savings to be had, because we're running a DIY Bundle Sale. YOU choose the products you like, YOU get loads of savings, YOU get to play with lots of new products. LOL, yup, this sale is all about you, the customer ;) Go see the store for details :)
AND, DezinaWorld are having a Dezina Dollar Day today, and June has made a selection of her collage sheets available for only a dollar each!
These are the challenges that I'm entering:
I Did It Creations - Be creative (AND there's a freebie image available when you play along here)
The Burtonesque Dolls - Burtonesque birthdays
Stamp Insanity - Betcha Bottom Dollar (currency-inspired sketch)
Darkness Inspiration - Dark baroque

Is it summer yet?

This piece has been making so smile so much, I just love the little guy's cheeky grin :D
I used pieces from the fab new Candy Kids set available at DezinaWorld. And don't forget about the wonderful Spot Prize scheme that June has going on, see the DezinaWorld blog for details.
Here are the challenges that I'm entering with this piece:
Quirky Crafts - Summer
Sentimental Sundays - Summer + sentiment
The Shabby Tea Room - Summer fun
Pollycraft - Sing Song.
Raise the Bar - Sweet Music
Now I had these two challenges and all the summery ones in mind already, and I kept trying to think of summery songs that would help inspire me, and also (hopefully) give me a sentiment so that I could enter the Sentimental Sunday challenge. But I was stuck. None of the songs in my head were working for me, and I couldn't come up with a sentiment I liked at all. And then I must have heard a snippet of Lollipop (I don't know who it's by, but I think it's on an advert at the minute. "Call my baby Lollipop, tell you why; her kiss is sweeter than cherry pie" And suddenly I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and what I wanted it to say :D
Pals Paper Arts - Summer
ABC challenge - W is for Weather
Spoon Full of Sugar - Sunshine inspiration
I Love Digi - Anything but a card

AIFactory challenge

I was asked to be GDT at the AIFactory challenge blog this week, and here's the card I made. I've used the new Father's Day images, available in the store. As well as using the image as the main focal point, I also created a backing paper with it (just one of the marvellous bonuses that you get when using digi stamps) They're on Challenge #40 and the theme is Distressing. You don't have to use an AIFactory image in your entry, but they do have a wide selection of freebies for you to choose from, so there's really no reason not to :P The deadline for entries is next Wednesday at 10:30pm EST. If you upload your entry to any public galleries, please use the keyword AIF040.
Here are the challenges that I'm entering this card into:
Sketch Saturday - followed the sketch
Magical Crafts - Father's Day/male card
Incy Wincy Designs - one for the guys
Color Chef - cream, muted green, soft blue
Daisy Doodles - Father's Day/manly
Crafty Cardmakers - Card for a man
Kah Wink E Dink - Father's Day
My Time To Craft - for someone extra special
Creative Inspiration - one for the boys
Fab n Funky - Just for Dad
Stampin' Royalty - masculine

Sunday again

And that means that it's time for another challenge over at OSAAT, woohoo! This week we have a VERY special offer going on. Each of the creators has put a brand new item in the Stitchy Bear Stamps store today, and if you use one of these new items to enter the challenge, you get another item from the same creator for free!
And the theme this week is to Celebrate Something! It doesn't have to be a big something that you traditionally celebrate (although of course it can be! :P), you can also choose to celebrate something smaller - see all the wonderful DT cards for examples, they've celebrated everything, a new house, a wedding, a new puppy, a new pair of shoes, the precious days of summer. So, what will you celebrate this week? I can't wait to see :D
I've used the brand new, fabulously sweet image from Robyn's Fetish called Dad's Fishing Hole, and I decided to use it to celebrate all those small, everyday moments that usually get over-looked. Even if you don't make a card, just take a moment this week to personally celebrate something small - a flower in your garden, the smell of a tasty dinner, a smile on the face of a loved one. Ahh, I'm going all soppy, lol, can you tell? :P


Here are the challenges that I made this card for:
Cute Card Thursday - anything but square
Daisy Doodles - Manly
The Shabby Tea Room - Just for Dad
A Crafty Little Place - anything but square
Tuesday Morning Sketches - followed the sketch, but I squashed it down a bit and cut off the corners
Tellen's Place - Father's Day
Inspiration Avenue - Summer fun and relaxation
Color Chef - cream turquoise, chocolate and kraft
CRAFT - for a man
Cute Card Thursday - anything but square
Charisma Cardz - spots and stripes
Stampin' for the weekend - Summer
Craftalicious - New
Just Us Girls - Digital technique. Obviously, this isn't a new technique for me, but I love love love the fact that card-making now has digital components :D I have poor eyesight and I'm frankly rubbish at rubber stamping, but now that I can do stuff digitally I can zoom right in to whatever I'm working on and see all the detail and colour all the small bits that I would have had to just smudge over without my pc. LOL, if you haven't tried digital images or paper before, I highly recommend it, my craftwork has come along in leaps and bounds since I started using the pc to help :D
Craftalicious - New. You can either celebrate something new or use something new, and I've used a brand new image, as mentioned above :)

Just a quickie

Here's a piece I did this morning, using no backing papers, which is way out of the box for me. I'm actually really pleased with the way the background turned out, what do you think? The tree and horse silhouettes are by Bethany Lerie, who very kindly shares her work on DeviantArt.
I made this one for the following challenges:
The Burtonesque Dolls - Sleepy Hollow inspiration
Whimsical Ink Sorority - repeating image. I used the same tree repeating, yay for being able to resize digital stuff :D
Haunted Design House - sinister shadows. This is more "shadowy" than containing any actual shadows but I wanted to enter it anyway :P

Birthday card and DT call

Hello folks, it's Sunday again and that means it's time for another OSAAT (One Stitch At A Time) challenge. The theme for this challenge is "Boys to Men" and you have to make something for a male. We're sponsored by the lovely folks at SEWNTogether stamps, and the winner will get to choose five digital stamps of choice from the SEWNTogether store.

And, OSAAT are having their first DT call! With the blog growing so quickly and summer approacing, we'd like to set it up so that our DT only have to do alternate challenges, rather than every week as we do now. The blog challenges will still be running every week, but the DT will alternate. If you fancy joining in with this lovely bunch of ladies (not me so much, I'm a grump, but the rest of them are wonderful :P) see the OSAAT blog for details. :)

Now, onto my card. I've chosen to make a birthday card for a young boy, and I used Miki in Helicopter. The blue patterned papers come from my "My Little Guy" paper set, which is available in the Stitchy Bear store.



These are the challenges I'm entering:
Friday Sketchers - followed the sketch
Incy Wincy Designs - for the little ones
Color Chef Challenge - light blue, dark blue, red and white or cream
Die Cut Dreams - celebration card, must include a number
The Pink Elephant - use bright fun colours
A Spon Full of Sugar - celebration
For Fun - male card
Tellen's Place - use two patterned papers
Simon Says - Fathers Day or male card
Dare U2 Digi Stamp - red white and blue
Theme Thursday - bright colours
Stampin' B - card for a male
Crafty Ann's Challenge - Fly the flag (use the colours in your national flag, in my case the Union Jack and red white and blue)
Stamp Something - Digi
Drunken Stampers - Birthday card

Offers and dicounts and cards, oh my!

This may end up being a very long post, but I have coupons and discount codes and other goodies to tell you about, so please bear with me :)
I've just started selling at I Did It Creations (promise, no more mention of my world domination plans :P) and there's a fab discount going on over there for our blog readers and members of the new forum. The forum is called "I Did It, Stitchy Bear Did It, You Can Do It Too" LOL, yes, we know the name's a tad unwieldy but the place is lovely, and there will be be special events and challenges and maybe even the occasional freebie, so pop along and say Hi.
The discount code is valid throughout June for 20% off any purchase of $5 or more, just enter JUNEBUG at checkout.

And there's also a brand new offer over at Creations by Penny, where if you buy any two of my paper sets you can choose a third set for free. For this one, just enter CC3for2 at checkout.

And, over at Stitchy Bear Stamps, a selection of products have just been reduced to 99 cents each. The products in this section change monthly, so it's always worth having a look.

Now, on to my makes :D


This piece uses my Muted and Male paper set, which I grunged and distressed and decayed. (Links in my sidebar for where you can buy my papers) The bottles come from Dorthi Designs Very Vintage set, and I digitally aged them, the flies came from arty.dk, and the quote is by Henry Miller
I made this postcard for these challenges:
Sunday Postcard Art - insects
Haunted Design House - Vile Vintage. I'm not really sure if this counts as "vile" or not. I find the sentiment quite uplifting, and while I thouroughly agree with it on an intellectual level, I still can't get past the "Ugh, creepy crawlies" feeling.
Tuesday Morning Sketches - followed the sketch
ABC challenge - V is for Vintage
Tellen's Place - Two patterned papers
Drunken Stampers - Time and vintage. I wanted to use the passing of time and decay as a theme, but there's no actual "time" element in my piece.
Digital Tuesday - Let's get trendy. I combined two trends, vintage and grunge.



This birthday card uses my brand new Bubblegum Princess paper set, what do you think?
The digi image came from Princess Elemmiriel at DeviantArt, available to colour for free as long as you give credit. This image is called Koko-Chan, and you can find her here.
Here are the challenges that I made this one for:
The Pink Elephant - use bright fun colours
Daisy Doodles - anything goes
Quirky Crafts - girly girl. I wasn't entirely sure if this was "girly" enough to count, because the image has such a funky attitude. And then I realised that there's lots of pink, some sparkly hearts, a dress, high heels, long hair and cute balloon pets. It suddenly seemed much girlier :P
A Spoon Full of Sugar - celebrations
The Shabby Tea Room - hearts
Truly Scrumptious - sketch and optional embossing. I followed the sketch and tried some digital embossing for the very first time, I'm quite pleased with the way it came out; it's the pink oval behind the image, I started with a plain pink oval and used a photo of a wire fence to frame where I wanted it to look embossed. I think it would be much more difficult with a less-straight pattern, but hey, it's digital, it looks like embossing and I did it :D
Kah-Wink-E-Dink - use 6 of something. I changed the five embellishments from the sketch into 6 on my card
Color Throwdown - Bright pink, lime green and turquoise with black. My papers use yellow as well, hope that's ok, the rest of the colours fit so well :)
Fab n Funky - paper piecing. I used another of the papers in the set to digitally paper-piece her dress, but I couldn't get the inside of the material to look right with the pattern, so I made the inside bits a plain green. Ahem, on this dress, the flowers are only on the outside :P


This last piece uses the brand spanking new collage sheet from DezinaWorld, and if you like vintage with a touch of quirky attitude, you'll love this one! And don't forget that June has a permanent Spot Prize challenge going on at the DezinaWorld blog. If you make anything that uses a DezinaWorld image, show it to June at her email on the blog and she regularly picks pieces to get a free sheet from everyone who sends her a picture. You can even enter with the freebies available, so what are you waiting for? The backing paper is from my Basic Black set, which I don't think is in all my shops yet, but will be soon. These are the challenges I used for this one:
Sketch and Stash Saturday: I rotated/flipped the sketch and my new/never used stash is the image of the dancing lady.
4x4 Friday - Eclectic.
Paperplay - Flowers and sparkle
Crafty Creations - Black white and a splash of red
Little Red Wagon - alter an embellishment. I altered the pearl swirls, which came in a shade of pale pink. A lovely shade of pale pink, but not the colour that I wanted for this piece. You can see the original, by Delicious Scraps and available free, HERE
Charisma Cardz - Flowers
So Artful - I am woman
Oh Alice! - swirls
Allsorts - black white and one other
One Stop Crafts - Swirls and Pearls

Wow, this feels like a long post, hopefully it won't be too bad once things are neatly linked rather than all the html that's showing here. Have a wonderful day, and thanks for looking :D