Tree-mendous Trees @ Pins HQ!

Autumn (Fall) has hit London. Its windy, it's getting colder and I need to wear a coat out now! Boo :( Summer is over. Even more of a big boo. But... the next season is upon us - Christmas! And at Pins HQ we've got a tree-mendous challenge for you to enter in!

Here's this week's picture to be inspired by:

And this is my creation below:

Based on our inspired picture this week, I've made my first Christmas Card - with awesome Christmas Trees! :) This stamp is new from the Greeting Farm Sept 1st release, which I bought when they first came out - far too eager (I waited 14 days for it to get it shipped from the US, when I could have ordered in the UK and got it within 5 days! *shakes head* Oops!) Totally worth the wait! I think the stamps are awesome! I used paper from the Stocking Fillers First Paper Edition 6 x 6 pad and craft cardstock as the base. I used a Martha Stewart lace punch, green Anita's Art ribbon and used the Ornaments embossing folder from Sizzix :) From this week I'll be making Christmas projects - cards, gifts and items etc to sell - so watch this blog space! :)

Our sponsor this week is: Stitchy Bear

I hope you enter in our challenge this week! Make sure you do at our Pins Blog and create a project or card inspired by this week's picture! Spread the word and tell your crafting friends to join in! Don't forget to check out our DT's creation to inspire you! They're awesome!

Challenge ends on Monday, October 1st (Newfoundland Time)

Back to School @ Pinspirational Challenges

The weekly challenges at the Pinspirational Challenges blog are coming thick and fast, so make sure you join in every week for a new challenge!

This week we have been inspired by this picture on our blog:

 

We are also this week sponsored by: Shelley's Images!

 So for this week's challenge I created this card below:

For this card I used Teacher Anya from The Greeting Farm as the main image, as this week's theme is a 'Back to School' theme! This has been mounted on a Sizzix ticket die cut, used with K and Co's Amy Butler matt card, as well as plain chocolate brown and light blur cardstock. The ribbon is from Anita's Art in light blue and the twine is from my stash :) It's a pretty simple card, vibrant colours and sweet sentiment

Join us at our challenge blog this week to enter this week's challenege, more up and coming challenges, as well checking out inspiration from the design team!

Thanks for stopping by! :)

I've Got Your Number

Two weeks go by so quickly these days. Its nearly September and Summer nearly over! So, hopefully bringing a smile to your faces is another brilliant Aud Sentiments Challenge! 

This fortnight we are asking you to design a card with... a number on it. 

We're are sponsored by the lovely guys at Digi Darla who have provided us with some great digis to play with for our lovely design team members!

Digi Darla - Here's some info about them below:

DigiDarla is the brain child of Kim Eskola and her daughter Emilea.

Emilea and I both enjoy creating and when the idea of creating digital stamps came up, it sounded like the most wonderful way to earn ever!

There was only one problem! We are both shy and dislike the center of attention! As a way of "hiding behind the scenes" and avoiding having one spokeswoman, DigiDarla was born!

The stamps you will find in the store and on this site come from our art as well as a few family friends that help to digitize so we can keep up. Even Emilea's art teacher has granted permission to create digis from her artwork.

So.. onto our challenge ... Here's my card below:

I've gone pink overload with this one as its one of my favourite colour to work with! I used a few die cuts from Sizzix, the image is coloured in with Promarkers and the paper used on this card is from First Edition Paper's Birdsong Collection, plus some Anita's Art ribbon!

Please check out our Challenge Blog and join in with this fortnights challenge! We love looking at all the entries and creations :) The awesome Team A Design team have created some fabulous cards this week to inspire you! Next week, Team B will inspire you with their brilliant creations too, so make sure you come back to the site! :)

Gloria! (In Excelsis Deo)

Hey there! Thanks for visiting today :) The title of today's post is actually a hymn I used to sing when I was back in school many, many years ago in assembly with other children in our year, and is coincedently the name of a lovely friend of mine who I've known since I was probably still at school too!

I made a card for my gorgeous friend Gloria as she's been in hospital for the last week because of her condition - Hydrocephalus.

Hydrocephalus is a condition known as 'water in the brain' where there is an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the cavities / ventircles of the brain. Gloria has suffered from this condition since she was a child and she's now in her late 20's. More recently her condition has caused her to frequently be in and out of hospital for check ups, monitoring and treatment.

She's an awesome girl, I've known her for about 9 or 10 years now, we first met through a mutual of friend of ours and I've shared many great moments of her life and I'll no doubt continue to share more moments with her :) She's been in hospital this week and I visited her yesterday (Saturday) to see how she was doing. And as always to let her know I'm here for her and hope she gets well soon - the crafter in me made a card to cheer her up and let her know I'm thinking of her! So here's the card below:

I've used the Greeting Farm stamp 'Cuddle Anya' which I've always thought was a really cute 'Get Well Soon' stamp - the teddy bear outfit just gives it away :) And I used the Anna Lee collection of papers from Prima. I used some Anita's Arts Blue ribbon, some cotton string and a sentiment from my stash. I used the Lacy Ovals Spellbinders Nestabilities and cream cardstock for the base and added layering. I'm really obsessed with ribbons lately, no idea why - big ribbons too. The more ribbon the better it seems! :)

Gloria really liked the card, and posted a picture of it on Facebook :D and thanked me for cheering her up (Yay!) We always manage to have a laugh together, so I hope she's feeling a lot better! <3

To find out more about Hydrocephalus, here's some links below:

- Shine Charity UK
- NHS Choices UK / Hydrocephalus
- Wikipedia / Hydrocephalus

Thanks for stopping by, have a great week!