How chuffed am I ... my vintage tag has been shown on Waltzing Mouse's Big Cheese of the week post ...

And this is what was said ....

A glittered up ornament from 2011 Holiday Ornaments is the showpiece of this creation. The holidays are the perfect time to create some tags, and Cathy demonstrates a perfect balance of rich colors and beautiful complimentary patterns on hers. Great inspiration - I see some tag creation in my future.. how about you?

 Thank you so much xx

CRAFT GDT card

I am Guest Designing for the CRAFT challenge during November, and we have a fab challenge for you this week ... Stars in your eyes.

We are sponsored by ...

I used this cutie pie, Delia, from Sugar Nellie, and coloured her using distress inks for a change.  The dp is MME Penny Lane, and I used a couple of scraps of it for the top part of the card ... it's bad enough cutting this paper, let alone throwing even the tiniest scraps away.  I added some gingham ribbon, flowers and flat backed pearls to finish, and a sentiment from Craftwork cards

 Challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
CES - roses and ribbons
Craft your days away - embellishment bingo - flowers, pearls, ribbon
Magical Monday - use scraps
Ladybug Crafts Ink - fairies
ABC challenge - D is for Dazzle

SMASH!!

So its Wednesday and time for What's on your Workdesk, led by the amazing Julia ... (grab yourself a cuppa ... going to be a long post this one!! I have Smash stash from K and Co ... been itching to get my hands on this since I found it on you tube ... and now I have it in my hot little hands!!It has taken over my crafting space ... and suddenly I am tidier ... not that i am overly messy!

Now I confess to having dabbled with Scrapbooking, but to be honest I am a slap, stick and paste kind of person ... just like those scrapbooks we all kept as children, roughly cut articles and photos with captions.  I struggle with layouts and embellishments, as as a cardmaker primarily, all my pages end up looking like cards!!! The fab thing about SMASH is I can do the kind of scrapbooking I feel comfortable with!!!
So this is what I got ...

The Eco green smash book and a mini folio book (more on that later!), pockets. tabs. clips, labels, jotting pads ... lots of yumminess ready to play with. I have decided that I am going to dedicate this book (yes I will be ordering more LOL!!) to crafting.
Here's my intro page ...

And now for the pages I have started so far ...

Stamping onto the page, doodling, sticking in tag, tape, a glassen butterfly, died flowers, filmstrip and a crackle painted grungeboard heart. The tag was made for the page but the flowers and heart are all bits I have kept from play sessions ... not perhaps good enough for a card ... but fab for a SMASH book!

I love this tag, made it using rusty hinge, vintage photo and aged mahogany DIs, a TH flourish mask and a smattering of tattered leather glimmer mist.  I painted over the masked area with glitter glam from Tattered Angels ... LOVE this stuff!!

I just want to stroke that died flower!!
As well having a slight obsession with the Man himself, I also LOVE my glimmer mists, and Tattered Angels screens ... so need a page for them!

Its very much work in progress - tag created using a screen and mists, spritzed flowers, and plays with mixing colours ...Again these bits and bobs are all from play sessions, and trial gos before doing the real thing ... very rarely get it right 1st time LOL!!

Isn't that flower fab ... I pressed the cardstock into the waste from spraying the flowers, so I got the petal mask, and its been glitter glamed. A technique I am going to do again.

And another page .. pretty much finished .. I have blocked out some of my doodling as it is very personal.  Love this Sassy, Amelia, and stamped her directly onto the page and added the inspirational quote from Amelia Earhart that I love. Also added a couple of sentiment stamps that have meaning to me.
Got a gingham page and a colour page and a my style page all with bits and bobs ready to smash in ...
And the mini folio book is going in my handbag .. so I can record days out, trips, just 'those' times with the girls as and when they happen ... don't need to try to remember what they said ... got my book to hand!
Hope you're not too bored ... have a fab Wednesday!

Christmas Garland

 A quick-ish Christmas card ...

 I used Christmas Garland from Sugar nellie and coloured it using promarkers and flexmarkers, before adding lots of sparkle..  The dp is from DCWV Linen Closet, and I used the same dp, just debossed some snowflakes onto one of the peices.  I stitched the dp ... not easy with a kitten trying to climb on my knee!! and added some lace, ribbon and a snowflake charm.  The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.

Challenges:
Dream Valley- stitching
Craft your Passion - let it snow
Cupcake Craft challenge - two's company
Incy Wincy - Tic Tac Toe - sewing, metal, ribbons
Stamps fun = Creativity - recipe - 1 dp, glitter, lace
Pink Elephant - embossing
Shabby tearoom - shabby pastel Christmas

Amelia

 I have been have been cracking on with DT cards and Christmas cards as I am going to be working silly hours in the run up to Christmas ... but i had to have a play, so I went a bit to town with inks, techniques and mess!!!

 I love this Simply Sassy, I think if I had to have a favourite it would be Amelia.  I stamped her twice, colouring her in just warm greys, and then in autumnal colours.  I used the cracked glass technique on the warm grey image, having distressed the edges, and cut out 3 sections of the other image using my nestie saquare, and matted them onto chippy squares. I then placed them on the base image when it had been cracked and distressed.

  I  made the dp for the card using distress inks, glimmer mists and masks.  For the background one I wanted to have a sort of circle as per the sketch i was following, so I used a fab mask called chicken wire.  I used distress inks to build up the depth of colour, dried it off and then added walnust gold glimer mist.  The watch/compass mask is from Tattered Angels and I sprayed over it using tuscan sunrise, brick and tattered leather.  I cut the middle out of the watch/compass mask and used that to punch the butterflies (waste not want not!!!), and added a gold organza ribbon.  Lace and raffia add texture, and a few pearls.  I stamped a TH journalling tag using a TH sentiment, scrunched and inked it.

 Challenges:
Saturated Canary - autumn colours
2 Sisters - anything goes
Daring Cardmakers - inspired by jewllery (antique gold and fob watches)
Paperplay- cracked glass
Addicted to stamps - lace and pearls
One Stop Craft - ribbons and lace
Cupcake Inspirations - colours and gemometric shapes taken from the cake
Pink Ink Sketches - sketch
Stamptacular Sunday - punch it

Baubles galore!!!

 I have been playing with my Spellbinders Ornaments dies and inks, mists, paints ... craft room has been a hive a creativity and mess LOL!!

Ist up is my card for this week's Basic Grey Challenge, which is mix and match, so get those papers from the different ranges mixed up!!

 I got all arty and creative with this ... the bauble is cut out blue cardstock, and then glimmer misted using walnut gold mists.  I did about three lots of spritzing and drying to get the depth of staining and sheen I wanted.  I then inked round the edges using vintage photo DI.  Then I ran it through my baubles folder, and painted rock candy crackle paint into all the debossed bits.  I scrapped a piece of card across the top to remove the excess.  After drying it off I matted it up on the Blitzen and Periphery papers by Basic Grey.

 I used the same technique for this bauble (just needed to try out different colours LOL!!) and then matted it simply onto an embossed background and kraft paper.  I added some bakers twine and a bow to finish it off.


And finally ...

This is made using the piece of cardstock left after cutting the bauble out for the first card.  I embossed some white cardstock using my baubles folder and then simply matted it up onto navy and white cardtock before adding a Craftwork Cards sentiment.

Challenges:
Simon Say Stamp - photo inspiration
Creative Craft - minimalist
Crafting for all seasons - texture
Top tip Tuesday - Anything Christmas Goes
Fabulous Friday - embossing
Totally Gorguss - Christmas traditions

As always, the Basic Grey Challenge is sponsored by the wonderful  Simon Says Stamp who is offering one lucky winner a fab $25 shopping spree in the Simon Says Superstore, just think of the goodies you could treat yourself to with that !!

(Please note: This is a voucher code that entitles the winner to a $25 saving off their order in Simon Says Stamp, P+P charges will still apply unless the conditions are met to earn free P+P, please check here if you would like to see these conditions)

Totally Papercrafts Challenge

I love Fridays, partly as it is the last working day of the week, but mainly as it is time for the Totally Papercraft Challenge, and the DT are all amazing people, with a wicked sense of humour!!!!!

 Anyway this week's challenge is Victorian.

 I made a tag using GCD papers and a bauble from Waltzing mouse's Holiday Ornaments set.  I stamped it in Cherry cobbler ink and then took my quickie glue pen and 'coloured in' the no-inked parts of the bauble and added gold glamour dust.  Everything has been distressed to give it that vintagey feel, and these dp are very Victorian in their style.  I just need to make the card for it to go on!!!

And we are sponsored this week by ...

Meljen's Designs

Prize will be FOUR digi images of winners choice.
Challenges:
Everybody-Art-Club - advent
Papertake Weekly - Christmas
Simon Say Stamp - photo inspiration

Poppy

 I love making CAS cards, don't often blog them, perhaps I should.

 I used this Hero Arts stamp, and coloured it in reds and warm grey promarkers.  I embossedthe kraft cardstock with a leaf folder, did some scoring and added some red gingham (loves me gingham!), very simple really.

Challenges:
Simon Say Stamp - photo inspiration
Passion for Promarkers - kraft + 1 other colour
Craft your Passion - anything goes + brown
Cute Card Thursday - red for remembrance
Just inspirational   - Remembrance day

GDT card - C.R.A.F.T. Challenge

Wow I was picked as the CRAFT challenge's Star of the Month for October, and am one of their guest designers for November - thank you girls.

The theme this week is Cute ...

I used Cherry Pip from Sugar Nellie's Homegrown range and coloured her in using my promarkers.  The dp is from MME Laundry line ... love these glittery papers, just need to be brave enough to cut them once in a while.  Its a bit of a colour explosion for me ... problem with having little helpers who know what papers to put together ... the dark panel wouldn't be there if it was just me, but as it is for a friend of older DD (age very nearly 7!!!) I had to use it!!  She picked the embellies as well, hence that smattering of pink lOL!!

Challenges:
Stamptacular Sunday - sketch
Colour Create - turquoise, deep pink,ivory
One Stop Craft - 3 is the magic number (3 flowers, 3 layers, 3 dps)
My Mum's Craft shop - sugar and spice
Charisma Cardz - Cutsey

Candy winner

The winner of my Charlotte candy is 

........

No. 44

which is

Paula

Congratulations.

Please send me you snail mail to cathywallington@yahoo.co.uk.

Please claim by Sunday or I will re-draw it.

And there will be more candy up for grabs at the weekend.