Pile It On - Boyish Colors sponsored by In Style Stamps

It's Pile It On time again and this time we have a wonderful sponsor In Style Stamps!
We had great images to work with and our challenge is to Use Boyish Colors!
It seems that all card makers struggle with male themed cards so maybe this week is your chance to get another one made even if you have been putting it off! LOL

Obviously with Pile It On we want you to add as many other challenges to your card as you can and these are mine this time:


Stampin Royalty - Use Your Punches
Inky Impressions - 3 layers, 2 designer papers, 1 ribbon, and three embellishments
Creative Cottage - Circles
Cards For Men - Monochromatic
Your Next Stamp - Going Dotty
Crafty Catz - Spots
Crafts and Me - Sparkle (the dp is glittered)
Digi Doodle Shop - Anything Goes
AI Factory - Buttons
Sophisicats - Card for a Child
Oh Alice - Card for a Child



Card Recipe:
Image - Nathan by In Style Stamps
Medium - Copic Markers
Paper - My Minds Eye
Sentiment - Carolees Creations
Border Punch - Martha Stewart Iron Gate
Chipboard buttons - Colorbok
Ribbon - Hobby Lobby





So it's time to grab your greens and blues and maybe some red and yellow too and go and make us a card fit for the Prince in your life :)
Katie

Lily Boo Too - Shaped Card Challenge

It's a new month and that means a new challenge at Lily Boo Too!
This time we want to see your shaped cards using any shape but squares and rectangles!!

I'm a very square girl when it comes to cards so I needed a little help from some other challenges to get my mojo working this time:

Cupcake Craft - Don't be Square
CRAFT - Shaped card
Meljens Designs - Shaped card
Pennys Challenges - Shaped Card
Practical Scrappers - Buttons
AI Factory - Buttons
Sophisicats - Card for a Child
Belli - Birthday and old stash (the flowers were in a box untouched for a year)




Card Recipe:
Image - Little House collection
Paper - Sugar and Spice stack by The Paper Studio
Medium - Copic Markers
Chipboard flowers - Colorbok
Fabric brads - The Paper Studio
Sentiment - KI Memories
Heart Buttons - Dress It Up by Jesse James





For my English friends in my best Lloyd Grossman voice "I wonder who lives in a House Like This?" LOL!!!
I hope you can get out from under the squares and rectangles and come and join us on our shaped card challenge over at Lily Boo Too!
Katie

Oh Baby! Sneek Peek at New Baby stamps at The Pixie Cottage!

Happy Tuesday,
It's almost Spring, time for new life and so I thought I'd make a baby girl card with one of the next stamps to arrive from The Pixie Cottage.
She little sweetie is just waiting to bring you a smile!

And as always I've added a few challenges too;

Basic Grey Challenges had a beautiful photo inspiration
One Stop want you to Sew Simple
Our Creative Corner had a beautiful Sketch
One Stitch at a Time had a color combo of Purple and Pink
Sophisticats wanted Flourishes and Bling
Cupcake Crafts had a Flower Power theme



Card Recipe:

Image - Pre-order The Pixie Cottage coming later in March
Paper - Basic Grey Oh Baby Girl
Flowers - Wild Orchid Crafts
Sentiment - Letters from Basic Grey Oh Baby Girl
Border Punch - Martha Stewart Deep Lattice
Die Cuts - Sizzix
Medium - Copic Markers



Inside is more dp and a faux stitched message mat.



Here's our baby girl!

I hope you've enjoyed this and if you have a baby card to make in the future remember this cutie and she has a brother too!
Katie

A New Tutorial at The Pixie Cottage and a New Card from me too :)

It's time for another fabulous tutorial from The Pixie Cottage team and this one was created by the very talented Peggy of Beautiful Greetings!
She's showing us all how to watercolor with Distress Inks and I for one will be getting out my paintbrushes this afternoon to give it a go!

Also on The Pixie Cottage news, Michelle has recived so many new stamps in the last couple of weeks and they are all so super cute! You've seen 2 of my cards using them already this week and here's the trifecta!

Cupcake Crafts want Friends/Friendship
Crafty Calendar want Love/Friendship
Rosie Dees had a Friendsip theme too
Cuttlebug Spot wanted to see the Double Embossing technique (they have a great video showing how to do this over there)
Lord Have Mercy had a sketch that worked great with the embossing technique
Sophisicats wanted Embossing
Incy Wincy want Touchy Feely!
Peachy Keen had a recipe. Must contain Green and Yellow, a 3D object/embellishment and a stamped image
Copics Colour Challenge had the combo of YG03 Yellow Green, Y17 Golden Yellow and C7 Cool Grey #7
Paper Garden wanted to say Farewell to Winter



Card Recipe

Image - Spring Friends at The Pixie Cottage
Paper - DCWV The Citrus Stack
Flowers - Wild Orchid Crafts
Paper Lace Punch - Martha Stewart
Sentiment - The Paper Studio for Hobby Lobby
Die Cuts - Nestabilites by Spellbinders
Medium - Copic Markers



Inside is more of the wonderful dp and a message mat.



Here is a close up showing that double embossing technique. You can see the video tutorial for this Here.
It's hard to show in the photo as the mat is white but I hope you can see both the Swiss Dots embossing and the edge embossing from the Nestability.
I nearly gave up on this technique as I couldn't get it right and then I spotted my mistake and it worked wonderfully!
Be sure to check out all the wonderful new designs that Michelle has in the store right now, perfect for your Spring crafting!
And also remember the latest challenge (a new sketch) is still going on over at The Pixie Cottage and we'd love to see your entry over there!


Katie

Pixie Cottage Showcase - Anything But A Card

Happy Saturday!
It's time for another showcase of cards at The Pixie Cottage and this time the team was challenged to make "Anything But Card". There is some fabulous work over there and I urge you to drop over and take a look :)
While you are there check out the "Once Upon a Wednesday" challenge that is running at the moment and it's "Get Stitchy" theme.
Making something other than a card is always fun for me as I was into scrapbooking and altering stuff way before I started making cards and it's nice to swap out the techniques.

I found a few other challenges to go with this one too.

The Pink Elephant had the theme of "Color Me Wonderful" and wanted your favorite method of coloring
Stamp With Fun had a Christmas theme
Rosie and Dees wanted Red and Green and a Bit of Bling!
Incy Wincy also wanted Red and Green
Sophisticat wanted Snowflakes and Sparkle
Stamp With Sarah Kay had a Christmas theme
Creative Card Crew had a Christmas theme
Gingersnaps had a Winter Wonderland theme and so did Cuttlebug Spot
3 Clovers wanted Gifts (no cards)
My Time To Craft had a theme of "Winter Pals"
Crafty Calendar had a theme of Winter Sparkle
Lots to Do had a Snow theme



I used a wooden plaque for this Christmas Decoration and the image fitted perfectly with it!
I colored this fantastic image by Artish with Copic's and added Puffy Paint for the snow on the tree and the snowballs. This stamp is on it's way to Michelle right now so be sure to check back to order it.
I embossed the snowflake circle onto American Crafts wonderful foil cardstock, the Cuttlebug works great on this.
I then matted the circles on Pinking Circle Nesties.
The rhinestones are Michaels $1 spot and the letters are Spare Parts from Hobby Lobby.

Here is a close up of the super cute group of Snow Buddies!
Be sure to check out all the wonderful work of the rest of the team at The Pixie Cottage!
Katie

Do you need some more Christmas ideas?

Happy Saturday!
It's coming up to the Holidays soon so we all need new stamps ;)
Well today I have a new card with another new stamp from The Pixie Cottage!
This time I'm using an image drawn by the fabulous Eileen Gutierrez and it is so sweet!
All the new Christmas/Winter stamps will be in the store soon

Now that Halloween is over I'm sure the challenge blogs will soon be full of Christmas but the ones I chose for this card are mainly technique and embellishment based.

Creative Card Crew wanted Ribbons and Gems
Sophisticat wanted Buttons and Ribbons
Rosie Dees want Pink, White and a Wafer (corrugated cardstock)
Everybody Art gave me the sketch
The Secret Crafter wanted an Easel style card (and I love those!)
Crazy 4 Challenges also wanted an Easel card
Stamp With Fun wanted a card with a Scene
Pennys wanted a Winter theme with Sparkle and Ribbon
My Time To Craft had the theme of "So Many Scallops"
Sparkle Creations wanted a Christmas card with multiple Squares
But finally I found a Christmas challenge and that's exactly what Stampin B's wanted to see, a Christmas Card!

I'm sure you'll be sick of seeing it soon but I just had to use the Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses collection, it is my first choice for Christmas papers.
I did an easel style card and love the way it displays your art work and yet it is so easy to do.
The flowers are Prima from Michaels but they look to be discontinued.
I didn't have any pink corrugated cardstock so I painted it with Making Memories paint to match the dp.
I used the brand new Extra Deep Garden Lattice border punch from Martha Stewart (I got mine at Michaels so you may lucky and get to use a coupon!)
The button (used as the stop on the easel) is also Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses and sentiment is a Studio G from the $1 spot at Joanns.


I had such fun creating this card and I hope it gives you a little push to get started on your cards for Christmas too.
Katie