A Crafty Half Term

It's been half term this week and has been heavenly not having to get up at the crack of dawn each morning! I spent a lot of my time crafting the days away and managed to get loads done, so while it looks like I've gone mad, these cards were all done in the space of a week or so. And as per usual they cover a multitude of challenges. I did actually think today that I should maybe stop doing so many, but I can't!!!

First up is a cute Anya card for the Case of the Curious Card over on Splendid Stamping, which was to CASE the layout of one of Maria's cute cards and for Linda's Tackle It Tuesday Colour Challenge #3 to use Sage Shadow, Pretty in Pink, Basic Black and Rose Red. Ok so I'm a bit short on the Basic Black but everything else is there.

Recipe:

Stamps: Happy Moments SAB set, Birthday Anya

Papers: Sage Shadow, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red DSP, Non SU white cs

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic Ciaos

Accessories: Pretty in Pink Striped Grsograin Ribbon, Curved Rectangles Nestabilties, Square gem brads from Making Memories

My next card is a late one all round. I actually did this one last weekend and forgot to upload it to my blog and missed the deadline for the Charisma Cardz male challenge. It is also for Taylored Expressions #99 and Splitcoast Stampers Color Combo 197 to use Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Basic Gray and Not Quite Navy. A very simple card that took forever to colour in!

Recipe:

Stamps: Graffiti Edwin, Graffiti Wall, Circle of Friendship, Vintage Labels

Papers: Kiwi Kiss, Basic Gray, Baja Breeze DSP, Not Quite Navy DSP

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic Ciaos, Not Quite Navy

Accessories: Circle Nestabilities

My next one is for Mojo126 and Curtain Call #17 to use So Saffron, Going Gray, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, and More Mustard. I thought this colour combo was going to be really hard at first, but it all came together so easily with some pretty DSP.

Recipe:

Stamps: Floral Frenzy Remixed and Wishing You from Verve

Papers: So Saffron, More Mustard, Going Gray,Whisper White, Tea & Crumpets DSP

Inks: So saffron, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, More Mustard grosgrain ribbon, Double Loops Martha Stweart Punch, Diamond Stickles

Card #4 is for Splitcoast's Sketch #268 and Color Throwdown's Challenge #80 to use light green, rust and burgundy. I chose to use Mellow Moss for my light green.

Recipe:

Stamps: A Rose Is A Rose, Whimsical Words

Papers: Mellow Moss, Bravo Burgundy, Whisper White, Spiced Cider DSP

Inks: Bravo Brundy, Really Rust, Mellow Moss

Accessories: Bravo Burgundy grosgrain ribbon, Icicles Stickles, Victoria Cuttlebug Embossing Folder

And next up is a card for Splitcoast's Color Combo #258 to use Perfect Plum, Pale Plum and Soft Suede and for Mercy's Sketch #61. I did swap over the middle square on the sketch as I wanted the sentiment to stand out a bit more and the other 2 squares covered it up too much.

Recipe:

Stamps: Garden Dream, Whimsical Words (this set is coming in so handy!)

Papers: Soft Suede, Pale Plum, Very Vanilla Perfect Plum DSP

Inks: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Soft Suede, Mellow Moss

Accessories: Soft Suede Polka grosgrain ribbon, Corner rounding punch, Oval Nestabilities

On to the next one! This is for Taylored Expressions Sketch #101 and Splitcoast's Color Combo 190. Taylor is also doing a card drive for Sanford Medical Center in Sioux Falls, SD and wanted you to include a dragonfly on your card. The only one I have is in Papertrey Ink's Wishing You set, so I had to use that one! Not sure about the placement of ribbon, but it follows the sketch!

Recipe:

Stamps: Wishing You and Polka Dot Basics from PTI

Papers: Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Pixie Pink, Whisper White

Inks: Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Pixie Pink

Accessories: Tangerine Tango striped grosgrain ribbon, Card Candy from Craftworks Cards

The next one is a card using Cameo Coral, one of my least favourite colours in the Stampin' Up colour familes. It's not pink enough and not orange enough and it usually doesn't work for me. But today Cameo Coral must have been feeling nice because I really like this card and this colour combo. It's for Just Us Girls' #21 to use Rich Razzleberry, Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral and Very Vanilla and also for Our Creative Corner's Sketch #3.

Recipe:

Stamps: Greenhouse Garden (again!)

Papers: Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Rich Razzleberry DSP

Inks: Rich Razzleberry, Cameo Coral

Accessories: Rich Razzleberry polka grosgrain ribbon (I sewed me a flower - that's a first!!), Latte buttons, Love & Happiness Rub Ons (from SU umpteens years ago - ok actually about 2-3!), Brown embroidery thread

The next 2 cards I really dislike, but thought I'd upload them for the challenges anyway as I doubt I'll find anymore time to redo them as I still have a ton of work to do tomorrow before I go back to school - stuff like planning and marking which I should have done at the beginning of half term, but as usual I left it to the last minute!

This one is for Mojo #111 - an old one I missed before, A Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge #19 - Spring Time and Papertake's Weekly Challenge - Check This Out! This piggy stamp looks so cute in the packet, but is an absolute nightmare to ink up if you want the flowers and dots in different colours. It's a clear acrylic stamp and really doesn't like my SU markers at all. I think I tried 4 times in the end on various different pieces of white cardstock and it still came out naff! And I've order the owl stamp from the same collection too - AARRGGHH!!!

Recipe:

Stamps: Honey & Hugs Piggy from Papermania

Papers: Groovy Guava, Yoyo Yellow, Whisper White, Old Olive DSP, Honey & Hug Paper Pack from Papermania

Inks: Groovy Guava, SU markers in Cameo Coral, Old Olive, Yoyo Yellow

Accessories: Circle Nestabilities, Yellow Gingham ribbon, yellow velour flower from Doodlebug (the biggest one I had for this sentiment!)

My final card is actually not THAT bad, but there's too much blank space on it for my liking. It uses ColourQ's #20 to use Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Brilliant Blue and Yoyo Yellow and Mojo#108 - I'm slowly getting through all these gorgeous sketch challenges. I did move the sentiment panel up as I didn't leave enough room at the bottom for it - oops!

Recipe:

Stamps: Queue Up (Hostess Set), Whimsical Words, Birthday Wheel

Papers: Yoyo Yellow, Brilliant Blue, Whisper White, Real Red DSP (from retired hostess pack)

Inks: Basic Black, Yoyo Yellow, SU Markers in Yoyo Yellow, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Brilliant Blue

Accessories: Turquoise and Yellow paper ribbons (I bought these in a sealed packet thinking they were thin grosgrain ribbon but they're paper type stuff and are awful!!! These are going to school for the kids to use up!)

And my final project for today is a easel matchbox (at least that's what I think they're called!) I made this for Just Add Ink's Challenge #5 to Just Add Dimension. It's such as cute and quick box to make and a lovely twist on the easel card as well. I've been dying to try it for ages and finally found the time to do so!

Recipe:

Stamps: Retro Remix Wheel, Hello Again

Papers: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Whisper White

Inks: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery

Accessories: Pale Plum buttons, Purple embroidery thread

I just want to show you a quick photo I had to take during the half term as well. My crafting area was over-flowing with boxes and boxes of stuff and it was getting more and more difficult to get anything out. We only have 2 bedrooms and neither of them are big enough to swing a cat in really so all my crafting stuff is in a corner of our bedroom, while all my wardobes and bookcases are in the other one! My boyfriend very kindly (NOT!!)decided that I needed to sort it all out and rearrange it and put things I didn't use at all in the other bedroom so I would have more space. It took the whole day basically and I constantly moved things round until I was happy (I won't really be happy until I get a huge craft room all to myself, but that's not gonna happen for a while yet!). I then decided, last thing, to move all my SU stamp sets out of their 5 plastic boxes (as well as a handful on my desk as there was nowhere else to put them) and put them all on one of the shelves above the desk, with some columns double rowed as well. And this is what they look like....

I have 124 sets!! Way more than I thought (but still not nearly enough!) I have old US retired ones, current US only ones, UK retired and current ones up there. They are now organised by size and in alphabetical order, so I can easily find the set I want without having to rummage through 5 boxes worth!!! I have 3 humungous sets, 18 extra large sets including 7 background stamps, 34 large sets, 52 medium sets, 14 small and 3 miniscule ones! This doesn't obviously include my other company stamp sets which are in boxes under my desk!

One bad thing about doing this though was revealing all to my boyfriend who straight away said, "Surely you don't need anymore?!" Admittedly I don't necessarily NEED any more stamps as I have all occasions covered, but I do WANT more. He doesn't mind what I spend my money on as it's all mine anyway and I work damn hard for it, so I spend it how I choose. So how many SU sets have you got?! I want to know if my collection is normal or not :P

Right after this incredibly long post I'm off the link all my cards to the various challenges.

Happy Stamping!