Fab'n'Funky Challenges #160 - Pastel Colours

Hi Crafting Lovelies,

Well, that's been a quick week!  We are back at Fab'n'Funky Challenges with a brand new theme for you today.  However, we just want to thank everyone for entering our last challenge - Flower Power.  What an overwhelming response.  Flower power was certainly flowing in craft land last week!

Now onto our current challenge - the wondeful Sue (you might know her better as Sue - Bearhouse!) is our host and we are sponsored by the one, the only Saturated Canary.  *insert squeal here*  My absolutely favourite digi company - if we are allowed to have favourites!  Okay, I won't keep you in suspense any longer, our theme is...

Pastel Colours

Simples!  Just use a pastel colour palette for your project and link up to be in with a chance to win a fab prize from Saturated Canary. 

The team were so lucky to be able to choose a digi from Krista's amazing collection and I chose Vintage Violet.  She is just too cute!  And here is my card...

My cardstock is all Hunkdory Adoreable Scorable and I embossed the blue with Spellbinders M-Bossabilites Dainty Dots.  I added three stripes of the green and then layered the pink at an angle with foam pads.  My image was cut with Spellbinders Grand Rectangles. 

I used Flexmarkers and ProMarkers to colour Violet up and used these colours - Ivory, Vanilla, Satin, Blush, Dusky Pink, Pale Blossom, Pink Lavendar, Lemon, Soft Lime, Soft Aqua, Glacier Blue.  I've actually lost my list but i think this is the full set of colours used.  This is the first time I've tried using Ivory and Vanilla for blonde hair but I really liked the result.

Unfortunately, my camera skills haven't shown up the shading too well.  It is very subtle.  I added Glossy Accents to make her glasses shine.  My sentiment was stamped from that great set that I can't remember where I bought!  I used Spellbinder Framed Tags One to cut it out.  My gems are from Create and Craft.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Digital Tuesday Challenge #199 - Birthdays
The Cutie Pie Challenge Blog #38 - Pretty Pastels
Sweet Stamping Challenge Blog - Mother's Day or for a Special Lady

I hope you can join us in our Pastel colouring challenge.

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

The Cuttlebug Spot DT Projet - Sweet Like Chocolate

Hi All,

We are back at The Cuttlebug Spot with another great challenge for you.  But first, thanks to all the great entries for last week - you were all as Cute as A Button!

Now I know you are wondering what challenge we have for you this week.  It's a scrumptious one!

Sweet Like Chocolate

We would like to see you use chocolate in some way - you could use a chocolatey image, chocolate cardstock or even make a chocolate wrapper.  And this is what I've done this week. 

Before you all think I've lost the plot colourwise - this is the favourite colour combo of the recipient.  My friend's daughter invited me to her cupcake making party on Saturday night and I knew I wanted to take her a little something and this is what I came up with. 

I started with a piece of orange cardstock and wrapped tightly around the chocolate bar secring at hte back with super stick red liner tape.  I used my Cuttlebug to cut the Spellbinders Floral Doily Accents border to make the borders in green.  Finally I aded the tag, cut with Spellbinders Framed Tags One and then stamped using the ClarityStamp Letterbox Alphabet kit.  The A is for Alyssa.  I love that name.  I attached the little tag with some baker's twine from Creative Expresssions.

We had so much fun making the cupcakes on Saturday night and I'm only sad that I never took a picture to show you all.  The girls did a fab job of decorating.

I hope you can join in with our chocolatey challenge this week.  The winner will receive a mystery prize from the DT.

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

Fab'n'Funky Challenges #159 - Flower Power

Hi Fab'n'Funky fans!

I hope you are all having a great week.  We've had fantastic weather here the last couple of days so I hope this isn't the calm before the storm!  If you entered our challenge last week, check out the Fab'n'Funky Challenges blog as the winners have been posted. 

The lovely Wendy is our host this week and if you want some great inspiration head over to her blog here.  Wendy has picked a very girly theme this week and I loved it!

Flower Power

We would like you to use lots of flowers on your project - they can in any form.  We are really spoiling you this week too with two sponsors!  First up is...

Flonzcraft - a great stamp manufacturer from New Zealand

Our second sponsor is...

the lovely StampArt Design by Kathryne

This is my inspiration for our Flower Power challenge...

I started with a Hunkydory card blank in a tag shape and then embossed the front using one of the Crafter's Companion Embossalicious embossing folders.  Using Cut'N'Dry foam, I inked the edge of the card blank with Soothing Sunset Big and Juicy inkpad.  I stamped my lovely Flonzcraft Smiling Fairy with Butterfly stamp in the same inkpad and then cut out with Spellbinders Labels Eleven.  Once cut, I inked the edges of the die cut too.  My flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and I attached with Pinflair glue gel.  I stamped my sentiment in Soothing Sunset again and then cut out using Spellbinders Framed Tags One. 

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
QKR Stampede Challenge #26 - Anything Goes
Created With Love Challenges #29 - Things That Fly

I hope you can join us for our Flower Power challenge this week. 

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

The Cuttlebug Spot DT Card - Cute as a Button

Hello Everyone,

Phew, what a blog hop at The Cuttlebug Spot last week!  I hope you enjoyed hopping to all of your blogs.  Thanks so much to everyone for the lovely comments and follows. 

We've got a fantastic new challenge for you this week.  Our theme is...

Cute as a Button

We would love you feature a button on your project and tell us how you used your Cuttlebug.  Here is my inspiration...

I started with 6" scalloped card blank from Anita's.  I made my papers by using the colour picker tool in Craft Artist 2 Professional.  My image is produced by Hunkydory for Crafter's Companion and is from the Angelic and Friends range.  As soon as I saw this collection, I knew I had to add it to my basket!  Just as well Create and Craft had it on such a good deal! 

My harlequin cardstock is also from the paper kit.  I cut this with Spellbinders Grand Decorative Circles in the smallest size as it fits perfectly through the Cuttlebug.  Using Spellbinders Standard Circles, I cut a layer for my topper.  The vertical strip of paper was passed through a paper crimper to create texture.  I bought the ribbon a few years ago from Hobbycraft and it's from DoCrafts' Papermania range.  My finishing touch was to add my buttons and I used Spellbinders Sewing Elements to cut them.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Milk Coffee - Make It Cute
Crafty Ribbons Challenge #39 - Button Up
A Gem of a Challenge - Dies and Punches

Be sure to check out my teamies creations.  Hope you can join in our challenge this week.

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

Fab'n'Funky Challenges #158 - What's Inside

Hi Crafty Friends,

It must be Wednesday as we have a brand new challenge for you at Fab'n'Funky Challenges.  We loved all of your romantic and heart projects last week - what a lot of love is going on in the world this week!  The winners and Top 3 are on the blog now so do take a look.

And now to let you in on our new challenge, we have the brilliant Beccy and she has chosen...

What's Inside

We would like to see the inside of your cards decorated.  You can decorate it in any way you like, just make sure there is something extra special in there for the recipient.

Our sponsor this week is one of my faves - Stamp Fairy.  You can click here to check out their fab designs.  The randomly picked winner will receive a $10 voucher to spend in the online store.

So, I bet you are wondering what I've created this week, so without further ado...

Isn't he cute?  This is Garden Goblins 1 from Stamp Fairy and you can find him here.  I took him into Serif and used the Cut Out Studio to cut away the main white part of the mushrooms.  I added a red polkadot background paper behind and then once printed out I fussy cut around with scissors and a craft knife.  I coloured using my ProMarkers and Flexmarkers in Satin, Almond, Dusky Pink, Cinnamon, Cocoa, Caramel, Burnt Umber, Lipstick Red, Ruby, Surf Blue, Aquamarine and Soft Aqua.  I hope you can see the shading.

My red layer is a piece of Coredinations cardstock which I distressed with my Tim Holtz paper distresser.  I embossed the mushroom frame from the Cuttlebug Freshly Picked set and then sanded back to reveal a bit more of the design.  My circle of clouds was made using a Darice folder and an X-Cut circle die.  I printed the blue and brown papers from Serif, recolouring using the colour picker tool.  My card blank is from Hunkydory and I used Antique Linen Distress Ink to age the edge. 

I layered up more of the papers that I had used on the front and then added a border of mushrooms.  This paper was also printed from Serif.  My mushroom die is by C.C. Designs and I've had it in my stash for ages but only just cut with it today.  I used a stamp set, with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Fired Brick, that was a free gift from Create and Craft as part of my club membership.

I hope you can link up your creations this week.  The team have come up with some brilliant ideas to I hope you can visit them for some inspiration too.

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

The Cuttlebug Spot Valentine's Blog Hop

Hi Everyone,

It's here!  Today is day for The Cuttlebug Spot Valentine's Blog Hop.  We will be hopping all week long!

I hope you are all excited to hop with us.  We have some amazing inspiration from the DT and we would love to see your creations too.  So, let us begin.  All you have to do is visit each of the blogs of the DT, following the list in green below, give us a follow and comment on our Blog Hop post and then link up using the usual linky after the main post on The Cuttlebug Spot blog.  We have great prizes this week too so make sure you are in it to win it!

This is my card for our Valentine's Blog Hop...

Not a traditional colour scheme but I hope that you all see the message I was trying to portray - you are the key to my heart.    I started with some gorgeous gold matt cardstock and used my Spellbinders Grand Scalloped Squares to make a card blank.  I added a layer of brown pearlescent cardstock and then embossed a piece of the gold cardstock using my Cuttlebug with the Couture Creations Without a Lock embossing folder.  This is a new folder that also came with a great mini cogs embossing folder called Replacements. 

For my top layer, I ran an X-Cut die through my Cuttlebug to create an aperature and then added some Creative Expressions silky crush ribbon in gold.  My sentiment topper came from the new Spellbinders Framed Tags One set, also cut on my Cuttlebug.  I embossed with gold embossing powder and heated with my heat tool.  The stamp actually has tiny hearts within the lettering but it hasn't really shown up with the heat embossing.  The key was cut using my new Silhouette Portrait.  It is so clever and easy to use.  I just need another three days a week to be able to play some more!

Now then, on to the Blog Hop sequence...

The Cuttlebug Spot

Kerry

Jennifer

Deneen

Brianna

Gloria

Rachel (you are here)

Andy

Jannie

The Cuttlebug Spot

I really hope you can join in with us on our blog hop.  Don't forget, your next stop is Andy.  The prizes are really something this week.

Happy crafting,

Rachel x

Fab'n'Funky Challenges #157 - Valentine's or Hearts

Good Morning!

I'm so grateful for everyone who linked up their shoe projects last week at Fab'n'Funky Challenges.  I had so much fun checking out all the entries.  Fab colouring, great layouts and super inspiration.  The winner and Top 3 are on the blog right now so why not head on over for a visit.

We have a great new challenge for you today and this week it's the wonderful Pat K playing host.  If you would like to be inspired and amazed - check out Pat's blog here.  I love her style.  Now I better let you in on our theme..

Valentine's or Hearts

Simples!  Love is definitely all around this month!  Our sponsor is one of my favourite stamp companies, ever!  We have Lili of the Valley (LOTV) this week and they have such wonderful images and papers to lust over on their site.  Click here to start lusting!

I have a wedding card this week as I went with the heart theme using a LOTV image and sentiment.

What a sweet image!  I started with a 5.5" kraft card blank and added a sheet of Webster's Pages paper that I received as a free gift with a magazine last year.  I wrapped some Creative Expressions cream lace around this layer and really fell in love with how gorgeous the lace looks. 

My topper was stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed with gold detail embossing powder.  I cut out with an X-Cut heart shaped die and then inked through with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen for a vintage feel.  My sentiment is also LOTV and I simply stamped in brown ink and then cut out by hand.  I inked all over with Antique Linen DI.  I curled the sentiment over the edge of my table.  Love this technique! 

I love this image and have just realised that I bought it when I was in Glasgow for the SECC craft fair last March at the same time I bought the magazine with the free papers!  Meant to be I think!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 84 - Vintage Love
Whoopsi Daisy - Ribbon or Lace
Natalie and Amy #6 - Something Old and Something New (something old is my heart die and something new is my lace)
Southern Girls Challenge #61 - Get Krafty
Deep Ocean Challenge #44 - Love and Lace
Party Time Tuesday #106 - Love and Romance

I hope you'll be able to link up with us this week at Fab'n'Funky Challenges. 

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

The Cuttlebug Spot DT Card - Love Is In The Air

Hiya,

I'm back with another challenge brought to you by The Cuttlebug Spot.  We are in the mood for love and have lots of romantic inspired challenges for you during February.  If you haven't already, mark your calendars for 12 February as we are having a Valentine's Blog Hop with loads of great prizes to be won.  Hope you can all pop by and join in.

So this week we would like to see projects on the theme of...

Love Is In The Air

Easy peasy for February, right?!  Just make sure that your card features something romantic and get those Cuttlebugs cranking!

Here is my card...

Super romantic!  I have to say I've never made a Valentine's card before!  I'm still looking for Mr Right so I won't be sending any either!

I started by using my brand new birthday present even though my birthday isn't until the end of April!  My parents bought me a Silhouette Portratit!  Yippie!  I used my new toy to cut the swirly heart frame with matt black card and layered this onto a double layer of red vellum.  I whipped out my Spellbinders Fancy Framed Tags One and Cuttlebug for the sentiment which was embossed with silver embossing power.  I curved the tag over the edge of my craft table.  I matted my topper onto red mirri-card and then onto pearlescent black card.  I finsihed off with the four gems.

Hope you can join in with our romantic challenge this week.

Happy crafting,
Rachel x