Color Cue 12

WPlus9's Colour Cue Challenge is a new one for me.  I don't have any WPlus9 products but continuing on with PTI's fun foam theme I pulled out these adhesive fun foam stars I'd gotten at our local Dollar Store.  (When it opened everything cost $1.00 - now everything costs $2.99).  As with much of my stash they've been sitting in a drawer for a few years so were not exactly sticky anymore but I added some glue and now they're good as new! 

Supplies: Card Blank: Jillibean Soup; Stamp: PTI; Ink: ColorBox Frost White

Liebster Blog Award

While I was away last month, Kim of Joyful Creations with Kim awarded me the Liebster Blog Award and explained what I have to do upon receipt:

1. Let me know if you accept 

2. Post the image on your blog 
3. Link back to my blog
4. Choose 3-5 blogs that you like, preferably lesser known blogs to give them some traffic!!

Kim, many thanks and I am thrilled to accept the award!  Kim explained that the object of the award is to point out blogs that are fairly new.  She mentioned that she and I started blogging around the same time (the end of 2010) and I have to confess I didn't realise Kim was that new to blogging.  Not only are her cards gorgeous but her blog rocks.  She has a great feature called Friday Focus where she gives tutorials on different products and design techniques.  They have step by step instructions and photos and I've put quite a few of her ideas to use.


Now for my nominees.  The blogs I've chosen were all started in 2010 (which makes them "fairly new" in my book!) and (like Kim's choices) have less than 100 followers:

Just Made From Paper - Agnieszka doesn't blog very often but it's worth checking in regularly to see her cards when she does post.  Her cards are fun and colourful and this maze card is super cool. 

Hownowbrownkow - I love all the bright colours Keva uses and she also has an impressive sentiment collection.  Love this star card.   

Jay Gee's Nook - Not only does Jay Gee post fabulous cards on her blog but she also has an online store and runs a monthly challenge!  How cute is this paper-pieced fish card?  


My Paper Secret - Ok, so Cristina has more than 100 followers but her blog was started in 2010 and I love her designs.  This card is my favourite - the bold colours and the shading on the birds rock.  


Share the love and check out these ladies!

Funky Fun Foam

While our vacation was wonderful, it unfortunately coincided with a whole lot of fun stuff going on over at Papertrey Ink.  Looks like I missed lots of challenges and prizes but I'm ready to join in now!  The new Make It Monday challenges look really fun and this week is Creating with Fun Foam.  It just so happens that when I did a tidy up the other day I found a big tub of Fun Foam die cut shapes that I must have bought about 3 years ago.  Bonus!  So I pulled out my PTI Little Bitty Bird dies and stamps and made a Bitty Bird rainbow.  I love this set.  The birds are super cute and I can see them getting a lot of use.     

Supplies: Card Blank: Handy Hippo; Die: PTI Little Bitty Bird; Stamps: PTI birds, Hero Arts sentiment; Ink: StazOn Jet Black, SU Perfect Plum

Since it was such a grey, chilly day I continued with the rainbow theme and made another birthday card for my stash using PTI stamps and ColorBox inks.  Love how those bright colours cheer up a gloomy day!

The Craft Cave

I've got a few pictures of the Craft Cave to show you.  I am very lucky to have such a great space to work in.  Luis built me a new bookcase last weekend so I did some tidying and reorganising (it does not usually look this neat in here!).  I almost feel like I'm sharing a dirty secret because you're going to see the extent of my stash hoarding.  Here we go:

The chest of drawers is full of punches, dies, markers, coloured pencils and paints.  On top are SU inks, Papertrey Ink stamps and drawers full of embossing supplies.

The desk is never normally this empty.  About 5 minutes after the photo shoot it was trashed again!

Scrap pile on top of the rolling cart.  I've since put all the scraps in a box as every time I opened the window they would blow everywhere.  It's a bit sad how many times I had to pick everything up off the floor before I finally got around to getting a box!

Scary huh?  The clear plastic drawers on the left are full of fabric.  Next to the stack of paper shelves the white drawers are full of stamps.  The grey storage containers on top are full of buttons, brads, eyelets, seed beads, etc.  The wooden bookshelf on the left houses cardstock, patterned paper, chipboard shapes, flowers, felt and cardboard scraps.  The wooden bookshelf on the right has magazines and more card stock and patterned paper.        

Love the ribbon organiser.  May get another one to put above it as those 2 clear plastic boxes are also full of ribbon.  The brown box is full of Stickles and other glitter products.  


Realistically, I shouldn't have to buy any supplies for the next 10 years!!!  So why do I always want more??  It's like a sickness.  Between the craft stash and my book collection I think I really have a problem.  (I recently worked out that if I keep reading at my current rate it will take me 25 years to read all the books in my house.  Terrifying).  Right.  I'm going to get off the computer and start putting a dent in the stash.  Wish me luck!

Less Is More

The Less Is More challenge blog is only in it's 4th week but it already has a huge following.  This is my first time joining in  and I doubt it will be my last.  The challenge this week is a recipe: 3 squares.  I used colours inspired by last week's ColourQ challenge.  I didn't manage to play along with that one but I love the bright colours and will definitely be using them again.

Supplies: Card Blank: The Stamp Pad Co; Stamps: Hero Arts squares and sentiment & The Paper Source images; Ink: SU Rich Razzleberry, Wild Wasabi & Pacific Point

The Hero Arts funky frame stamp was given to me by a friend a few years ago and this is the first time I've inked it up.  I love the doodliness of it!  The Paper Source stamps were part of a set I bought in 2007.  I think I've mentioned before how much stash I have hoarded and I am determined to stop buying and start using.  I'll post some Craft Cave pics one day soon so  you can see how out of hand it has become.  Part of the hoarding has to do with the fact that I don't have any local stores I can pop out to when I need something.  I have to order everything online.  Due to shipping costs it's not economical to order just one thing here and there so I tend to do bulk orders and always go overboard.  I'm a bad, bad stash hoarder.  Is there a stash hoarder's anonymous I can join?

Multi Challenge card

Supplies: Cardstock: SU Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight and River Rock;  Stamps: Woodware  USA image and Hero Arts sentiment; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Cherry Cobbler; Copics: R59, Y17, YG91; Martha Stewart Daisy Dot punch; Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder

I'm on a birthday card kick at the moment.  I never seem to have one when I need one (or when someone else wants one!) so I'm trying to build up a stash.  This birthday card was supposed to be for three different challenges but one has already closed.  Doh!  I have to remember the time difference when I'm entering a Just Add Ink challenge.  :)  I used the JAI colour combo and the the sketch from Card Patterns Sketch 104. 

I also used a Woodware stamp which means I can enter it in the Woodware USA Challenge #16 - Anything Goes.  I really like Woodware's stamps and as a company they also provide fantastic customer service.  I had an issue last year where it appeared that my order had gone missing.  The rep that I dealt with was lovely and worked quickly to sort everything out and not only did they resend the order but they added extra goodies to the order to say sorry for the delay!  Woodware is definitely on my thumbs up list.   

Curtain Call Colour Challenge: Act 71

I'm really enjoying these colour challenges but I'm going to have to order some more Stampin' Up paper pretty soon.  I seem to be going through it at quite a clip!  I made another one of my no-sentiment cards using the above colours from Curtain Call Act 71.  I also christened my Martha Stewart butterfly punch although I was a bit disappointed with it.  I had hoped it would make a cleaner cut but I spent quite a bit of time tidying up the edges of the butterflies.  I tried punching through some tin foil to sharpen up the punch but it didn't seem to make that much difference.  Has anyone else had this issue or did I just get a dud punch?

Supplies: Cardstock: SU Cherry Cobbler, So Saffron, More Mustard, Crumb Cake; Stamp: PTI - Asian Fusion; Ink: SU Cherry Cobbler;  Punch: Martha Stewart; Copic: W-3