Totally Papercrafts Challenge #17 and Charity Blog Candy News

Good Morning

Ooohhhh it's absolutely gorgeous outside and it's set to get warmer over the weekend, dare I mention the BBQ word...lol.  But it is definate Strawberry Daiquiri's weather which will give you a slight clue to this weeks challenge for you over at Totally Papercrafts.

Thank you to everyone who entered last weeks Wedding/Anniversary challenge, so many wonderful pieces of work, this week your host is the lovely Lols and her challenge for you is a photo inspiration one...

Now don't you think that screams summer and even Wimbledon, such a delish image.

We welcome back Ellie from Digital Stamp Oasis as our sponsor for the challenge, the lucky winner will get to choose 3 images of their choice from Elllie's Esty Store.  Ellie has also joined us as our guest designer for this week, so be sure to check out her's and all the other wonderful work from my DT buddies to see how this photo inspired them.  Here's mine...

I just had to use this fella for my card he is, 'Sammy Squirrel Eats Strawberries' and is one of Ellie's images which is available from the Digital Stamp Oasis Etsy Store.

RECIPE

Digi Image - Details above

Papers - My Minds Eye and Papermania

Colouring Mediums - Watercolour Pencils with Sansodor, Copics and Promarkers.

Sentiment - Done on PC

Embellishments - Flowers, Charm & Chain and Card Candy all from stash

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I used watercolour pencils blended with sansodor to colour Sammy's body and Copics & Promarkers for all other areas.

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CHARITY BLOG CANDY NEWS!!!

Crafty Emma is still doing an amazing job at raising money for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, and she now has running an awesome blog candy full of yummy prizes, but this time round to enter you need to donate at least £1 to the YAA using Emma's 'Just Giving' page.  I have mentioned this before but sorry I'm gonna mention it again the YAA need to raise £7,200 A DAY to keep both helicopters and the air ambulance staff running, they don't get any government funding.  These guys do an amazing job and save so many life's.  Why not nip over to Annie's blog Annie's Antics and read the story of her husband who was in an horrific accident about 9 months ago, and if it wasn't for the YAA he may not of been here now.

So if you would like to help Emma with her fundraising in memory of her dad 'Ronnie' then please go visit her BLOG for full details. EVERY £1 MAKES A DIFFERENCE!!!

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I hope you are all enjoying some glorious weather and have a fabulous day!!

Hugs

Joanne xxx

Totally Papercrafts Challenge #16

Good Morning and Happy Friday to you all!!

It's time for a new challenge over at Totally Papercrafts.  This week my good friend Emma is your host and her theme for you is....

Wedding/Anniversary

Well it tis the season for many weddings and anniversaries, so we would love to see your wedding or anniversary themed papercraft creations.

We are this week being sponsored by the lovely Di from Di's Digi Downloads and the prize is 5 images of the winners choice, I can tell you it will be so hard to choose!!

As always the DT will blow you away with their inspiration for you, and here's mine...

RECIPE

Background Paper - Used from my scraps stash, not at all sure where it's from or who it's by.

Embellishments - All from my stash

Sentiment - Kanban

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We do hope you will be able to join us for this weeks challenge, we can't wait to see your creations.

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Before I go I just want to tell you about a little givaway going on over at Emma's. As many of you may know Emma has over the past few weeks been fundraising for Yorkshire Air Ambulance in memory of her dad Ronnie.  A tremendous amount has been raised for YAA through the sales of the special edition 'Ronnie Relaxing' image.

If you don't have this image yet, he is still available for £1.50 with all monies going to YAA, you will find the links of where to get him at the top of my right-hand side bar.

Going back to the giveaway, Emma wants to say a huge thank you to everyone for their support and donations so far and has 4 Alota stamps to giveaway.  To be in with a chance of recieving one of these stamps you need to hop on over to Emma's Blog, follow a few little rules then add your name and blog to Mr Linky.  But you must hurry the giveaway closes tomorrow (15th May) and the winners will be drawn on Sunday.  After this Emma will be announcing another candy in her ongoing fundraising events.

Enjoy your Friday!!

Hugs

Joanne xx

Something Special...A Charity Challenge

Many of you may of heard of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, even if you don't live in Yorkshire, they were involved with the airlift of Richard Hammond when he had that awful accident a few years back and he brought them much publicity nationwide with his fundraising efforts.  Did you know that they need to raise £7200 a day to keep both air ambulances maintained and up in the air 7 days a week 365 days a year?  Well the YAA is something close to my heart because it is so close to the heart of my special buddy Emma.  Many of you probably know Emma (aka Crafty Emma) and remember that back last year on the 15th September her dad died after an horrific accident at work.  The Yorkshire Air Ambulance were involved in airlifting him to hospital.  Though very sadly Ronnie didn't pull through Emma and her family want to raise money for YAA in memory of Ronnie.  Now Emma has a few fundraising events coming up but is kick starting them today with a very special challenge involving this special fella....

Meet Ronnie...Paula from Pollycraft kindly drew this special edition image for Emma in memory of her dad, he is available to purchase from the Pollycraft Shop or from Emma for just £1.50, all proceeds will go to YAA, every single penny!!  I have purchased Ronnie this morning and couldn't wait to get a card made up..

I was lucky to of met Ronnie briefly a couple of times, and after just those brief times I could tell he was one top bloke and can see why he was so special to all his family and friends. 

Now along with the release of the image Emma is running a challenge with some AWESOME prizes to be won, to enter you will have had to purchase the 'Ronnie' image and use him on your card.

So hop on over now to Emma's Blog and find out all the details!!

Also please take a moment to visit the YAA website, there are lots of fundraising things going on, one of which includes 'BRA's', check out their recycling section for more details.

As well as Emma's challenge I'm also entering this card into the following challenges....

Papertake Weekly - Sketch

Crafty Creations - Distressing

Penny's Challenges - Anything Goes

Your Next Stamp - Stitching

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Happy Birthday

Stamp Something - Layers

Creative Card Crew - Happy Birthday

Corrosive - Paper Piercing

Sophisticat - Distressing

The Crafty Pad - Stitching

Paper Sundaes - No People

Allsorts - In Stitches

Sweet Stampin - In Stitches

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Please if you can help by buying this image, making a donation or even donating your old bra's I know it will be much appreciated by Emma and everyone else who continually try to raise money for YAA.

Hugs

Joanne xxx

Secret Cafter Saturday Challenge #31 and Can you help out Sammie??

This week over on SCSC they would like see brads and/or eyelets on your creations.

Coloured this Gorjuss Girl image with Copics, chalked the background in pink, cut with circle scalloped nesties then inked the edges in pink. Added two eyelets either side of image then used pink ribbon from my scraps through them. Papers are all K & Co. Punched a flower from one of the dp's then added a fabric flower from my craft stash then attached with a pearl brad.

Quite a pink card but thats for a reason. Sammie is taking part in The Race For Life, but she wont be running the 5km, she wont even be walking it, on no, her and her friend's will be belly dancing the race in pink!!! Sammie doesn't have very many sponsers, so instead of collecting more sponserships she is collecting 'Pink Cards'. Thats where all us friendly, crafting bloggers come in. If you would like to help Sammie by donating any pink cards you might have spare, then please visit her blog 'Buttonz and Bradz' for further details. Sammie will be selling the cards at her church and all money raised from the sales will be donated to Cancer Research. As the race is on Sammie's birthday she is offering some candy to one lucky participant which will be drawn on the 24th May.

So this card, with a few others will be making it's way to Sammie. I'd like to wish her and her friend's all the best of luck with belly dancing the race and with the sale of the cards.

Awards, News and a Catch-Up

Firstly, I've recieved this lovely blog badge from Heather on behalf of Incy Wincy Children's Charities as a thank you for the cards I designed and for helping to spread the word about the charity. Have you checked out the website yet? You can see the cards I designed in the post below this. Anyway here is the fabby badge:

Here's my NEWS, a few days ago I recieved an email inviting me to be a guest designer for Making Handmade Cards...woohoo. So I have been working on some cards for them this morning and hope to be posting them on here soon, so keep a look out.

Sorry for my lack of cards and blog hopping this weekend, have been so busy with babysitting, gardening and helping Steve with his end of year books. I did do a little crafting but that was my DT work for Funky Fairys, which you'll have to wait until Wednesday to see for the start of the new challenge. Have checked out the current challenge yet on Funky Fairys Challenges? There's still a few days left to enter and you could win a fab FF download and Emma's gorgeous clock. Go check it out!!

Finally I have recieved an award from Poppy and Leanne, thank you ladies, it is so much appreciated.

As I've already passed this award on in an earlier post and as many of you have already recieved this award, I am giving this to anyone who visits my blog, and would like it. Please take with love from me xxx

Incy Wincy Children's Charity

Heather from Vanilla Hev'n is a co-founder of the Incy Wincy Children's Charity Inc. The charity shop on the website has just gone live, amongst other items you will find crafting goodies which also include some beautiful Digital-Stamps. Heather asked myself and some other crafters a few weeks ago if we could design some cards using some of the digital-stamps. Here are the cards I made.

This Koala digital-stamp will be available coloured or uncoloured, I've used the coloured image for this card.

This cutie was coloured with copics makers and I've added a stamped cake from the Daisy and Dandelion stamp range.

Please go and take a look at the wonderful digital-stamps that have already been added to the charity shop.

Those of you who know Heather, will know she has been working so very hard over the past few weeks getting the website launched, so please if you haven't already, show her your support by visiting the Incy Wincy website and why not sign up for the newsletter too. You can find out what the charity is about and how it was set up on the website as well as on Heather's Blog.

I would just like to finish by wishing Heather and all the other founders of the charity, every success in their fundraising.

Sketch & Stash Challenge #3 and Marie Curie

I've made some cards today specifically for Marie Curie. One was made following the sketch for challenge 3 over on Sketch & Stash.

Hopefully I've stuck to the sketch ok, as it was for a square card, and as you can see I've done A6, which is the size the cards need to be for Marie Curie, so I hope it's ok. The stamp is one I've had for a couple of years and naughty me never got round to using it until today. The image was coloured with copics and sakura stardust pens for a touch of sparkle, lightly chalked the background in green and inked the edges in deep pink. The oval was cut using nesties in the bug. The pink papers are PM 'Sweet Nothings' which I got yesterday in the Do-Crafts goodies bag, the green paper was from my scraps stash. The pink felt ribbon was also from the Do-Crafts bag, then punched the flowers out of one of the pink papers and chalked the edges in green then added flat pearls to the centres. Sentiment is from Kanban. Below is the sketch to follow:

Emma and myself picked up some Marie Curie bags yesterday from the Range, so today was a good time to get started on them. Here are the other two A6 cards I made (not following the above sketch):

Though it snowed all morning it just left slush on the ground. Luckily Steve set off from Manchester at 10 o'clock this morning, and he said everything kept flowing steadily and the gritters were out in force, especially across the Pennines so with that and with everyone driving sensibly he got home safely just after lunch, thankfully. Thanks to everyone for your messages this morning.

In the Pink

We decided to go to bed a bit earlier last night so we would be up earlier today, so we could get to bed early tonight to ease Steve back into getting up at 4:30 a.m. for work tomorrow...lol, bit of a mounthful there, sorry. Anyway, we went to bed just before midnight, thats early for us of late, but then Steve's youngest, who is 23, came home at 2:30 a.m. very drunk. She isn't the quietest of people at the best of times, she'd brought a friend and the chatting, laughing and doors banging was enough to wake us up. Steve went to make a cuppa, had a word with her about keeping a bit more quiet, and all went downhill from there...lol. She ended up making more noise the quieter she tried to be, lol, I'm sure it's happened to us all when we've had a few drinks, try to be quiet and it just isn't happening no matter how hard you try. She dropped a glass on the kitchen floor, slate tiles so glass went everywhere, then spilt all the milk, woke up Mollie who started barking and all we could constantly hear was Sssshhhh after laughter. I gave up, got up, went and cleaned the kitchen floor, though she'd picked up most of the big pieces of glass, there was still lots of shards some of which was now mixed in with milk, once it was safe for Mollie, let her out, put her back to bed, and I was now wide awake. So now on to the pink cards, which I made in the early hours...lol.

I mentioned the other day in a post that I'm doing a couple of cards for a friend of a crafting friend who wants to raise some money for Breast Cancer Awareness in memory of her mum. Well, here's the two I made:




I used my new Amy Butler K & Co Stamps and papers and coloured using copics, cut image with circle scalloped nesties. I've kind of followed this weeks sketch again from Sketch Saturday but turned the corners inwards. Finished with some little pink gems on the corner flowers.






Tilda is coloured with a mix of copics and sakura stardust for a little sparkle, cut with oval scalloped nesties and chalked the edges. Paper is from my scraps stash but I believe it's a DoveCraft paper. Added tie-ins to the corners and run funky pink wool around the edges. Embellished with heart and star buttons and a little sequin flower on each heart.


Well I went back to bed at 7 a.m. and got up again just after 11. Steve got up at 10, so our best laid plans didn't happen, but I think we're both still quite tired so will try and stay awake and have a really early night tonight. Charlotte's just got up, for a drink, she's not feeling too well, but has just apologised, but can't remember a bloomin thing not even how she got home..lol. It was her leaving night out from work, so I think she had a good time. She'll be moving to Manchester in the next couple of weeks to start her new job.


Boy what a long post, hope no one fell asleep..lol

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge # 13

This weeks challenge over at SCSC is a sketch by Wendy. I loved the simpleness of this sketch, but I went for A5 sized and I think I'd have been better going smaller, as I kept getting the feeling it needed something more as there was to many spaces left, and I didn't want to diverse away from the sketch itself. I was going to scrap the card, but Steve couldn't see what was wrong with it, so this time I'm going to trust his judgement and went ahead and entered it.




I used my new stamp from Pink Gem Designs 'Party Mimi' I've coloured her with copics and sakura stardust for a little sparkle. The patterned paper is s.e.i. and the plain pink is from my scraps stash. The sentiment is stamped then added some knotted pink ribbon and a little dangly heart both from my craft stash. Then I got to the large spaces that were left over, so I used three pink flower buttons along the top and pink heart and circle gems on the corners of the image and on the left hand bottom corner.
Below is the sketch:




I'm still not too sure about this one, I really hate it when I feel like this about a card. I went for pink colouring as I'm making some cards for Breast Cancer Awareness for a friend of a crafting friend who is hopong to raise some money for this good cause after losing her mother last year to breast cancer. Maybe it will grow on me, if not it'll go in my little rejects draw.

Have a lovely weekend all, whatever your plans xxx

Charity Card Competition for October

This is my October entry to the charity card competition I take part in monthly. This month we were supplied with some fab new die-cuts by Dianne's Die-Cuts. As you'll see I've created a christmas card, using the die-cuts to make a christmas tree, and decorated with some purple tinsel string and a gem star. The wording was cut in my cuttlebug using the Fancy Pants Alphabet Die Set. This is about as good a picture as I could get due to the heavy use of mirror card and the die-cuts being in glitter card. This month's supported charity is PACT Animal Sanctuary .



You can see other competition entries on Dianne's site , showing plenty of different uses of the shapes, and whilst your there why not check out Dianne's online store, there are some fab die-cuts available.

Cards for Jerry Green's Dog Rescue

I've made a selection of cards for a friend to help raise money for the Jerry Green Rescue Centre in Thirsk. There are a number of JG Centres throughout the UK, their aim is to provide care to stray and unwanted dogs, by looking after them for the rest of their lives or by rehoming. No animal is put to sleep unless certified to be incurably ill or are unmanageably aggressive. My friend has three dogs herself from her local centre and she is constantly fundraising for them. I hope these cards will help in the fundraising.

http://www.jerrygreendogs.org.uk/