New Challenge (#6) at Little Miss Muffet!

Wow, I'm so excited!  Today marks my first official job as a DT member for Little Miss Muffet Stamps!  There is a new challenge starting today at the Little Miss Muffet Challenge blog.  The challenge is to include Stitching (Real or Faux) on your cards.  That should be an easy one for everyone, so hop to it and get your card in!  If you need some lovely new images to inspire you, head over to the Little Miss Muffets Stamps store and pick up some digis!  From one shopper to another, there is nothing like digi shopping for instant gratification : ) - you buy, you download, you print, you colour!

Now normally I would use my sewing machine to add stitching to my cards as I do that for nearly all my cards anyway, but since we are not in Greece at the moment and I wasn't allowed to bring the sewing machine along, I decided to do some simple hand stitching.

Here's my first card (yes, I got carried away colouring in the lovely Little Misses girls and made two cards instead of one card)...

Meet Summer Breeze, the first Little Miss that Barbara released and one of my favourites.   I have used the current Friday Sketchers (Sketch 147) layout for my card:

The papers are from October Afternoon and the flowers are from Prima.  The seam binding is from AB's stash.  I poked holes with a pin and hand stitched around with embroidery floss for framing.  The image is coloured with copics (see below).  The sentiment is from Pollycraft. 

And so, on to my second card:

This is Winter Winds, one of the newest of Barbara's Little Misses.  I just love her hat!   The papers are from My Mind's Eye, the ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl, and the alphabet stickers are from Cosmo Cricket.   She is coloured with copics (see below).  I have poked holes and whip stitched around the image and the papers.

Just in case you are interested, here is a picture of my hole poking tool (a pin and a piece of foam packaging)... very fancy!  

I would like to enter my first card into the following challenges:

Friday Sketchers - Sketch 147

Amber's Crafts and Stuff - Use flowers

Scrapbook Sisters - Challenge 29, Mother's Day

Your Next Stamp Challenges - Stitching
Tuesday Throwdown Challenges - Floral or Flowers
Stamps R Us - Celebrate Spring
Aly's Sunday Sketch - Happy Spring
Sparkles Forum - Challenge #8 Springtime


I would like to enter my second card into the following challenges:
My Partner in Crafting Crime - Three or more buttons
Sugar Creek Hollow - Stitching
Wee Memories - Anything Goes
Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog - The weather (Windy for me)

Here are the copics I used:

Happy Thursday!

Arabella Chickie in Imperia, Italy

Spring is definitely in the air here!

Spring is definitely in the air around here, and clearly around blogland as well as there seem to be a huge number of Spring challenges running at the moment.

I decided to use Wee Suzie for my Spring themed card as she is so cute and has those lovely flowers in her hair...

This little sweetie is from Wee Stamps and I see that Sylvia has some gorgeous new stamps in her shop too.  The design paper is the from the Stella and Rose collection by My Mind's Eye and the ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl (did you see it is green?!!!).

I have coloured Suzie with my copics (see below).

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Creative Stamp Friends - Challenge # 21 Spring
Kaboodle Doodles Challenge Blog - Challenge # 60 Spring has Sprung
Paper Playtime - Challenge #42 Anything Goes
Stamps R Us - Celebrate Spring

Happy Wednesday!

Arabella Chickie in Imperia, Italy

The continuation of the 'non-toy' tradition

hello my fellow chickies,
Just felt I wanted to pop in a post as I've seen Arabella posting away like a little legend with all her cards and wanted to keep her company.

I'm in beautiful Melbourne where the weather is divine and I'm getting a great dose of family and gorgeous friends...and exhaustion!  Phew, the solo travel is a bit harder than expected!  But my little chick continues to behave beautifully most of the time, only pausing to complain following three jabs or a bit of a cold.

He's walking enthusiastically now and leaving all sorts of chair legs and stable spots behind to launch off into the great unknown.  He did attempt a full flight of curved stairs today which we did do together after his first ten or so attempts at the bottom five steps alone.

Thought you'd enjoy this one - a) my boy in a seriously mismatched stripe arrangement (the things you wear in the country!) and b) the choice of toys.  A bucket of corks and a cat food tin....

Have lovely days!

Bookie Bird

A little bit of Attitude

The challenge this week at Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge Blog is "Show me some attitude".  Mo's images are perfect for this challenge as they really have a lot of attitude!  Do go and have a look at the DT's cards... they are very cute.

Here is my take:

The image is called 'Anna in Time Out' by Mo Manning.  The papers are from October Afternoon and Echo Park and the ribbon is from my stash.  The image is coloured with copics (see below).  I hand stitched around the framing with embroidery floss.  I can't imagine why my husband wouldn't let me bring the sewing machine to Italy on the boat?!  Perhaps it could be to do with having to fly it home again if the boat sells...

Here are the copics I used:

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Crafty Creations Challenges - In Stitches
Mo's Challenge Blog - Challenge #75 Show me some Attitude

Happy Tuesday!  (I just realised I have gained a day as I thought it was Tuesday yesterday)

Arabella Chickie in Imperia, Italy

I don't like green

I don't know why, but I just don't like green that much unless it is a bright and vibrant green.  But I thought I would go ahead and make a card for the colour challenge I found on the Simply Create, Alford blog as I loved the inspiration board.  Here it is:

And here is my card:

I just had to add some yellow in there as well.  This lovely image is called Winter Winds from the Little Misses series at Little Miss Muffet Stamps.  Isn't she lovely?

The papers are from October Afternoon and Echo Park an the ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl.  The sentiment stamp is from Pollycraft.  I have coloured the image with copics (details below).

Here are the copics I used:

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Simply Create, Alford - Inspiration board

The Ribbon Girl - Colour challenge #6 Green and Yellow

PaperPlay Challenges - Distressing

Simon Says Stamp - Mother's Day or Girlie

Crafts and Me Challenges - Challenge # 27 Anything Goes

Happy Tuesday!

Arabella Chickie in Lavrio, Greece

Pearls and Swirls

Well I haven't had much spare time lately for crafting and I had to choose between crafting or blogging about crafting... crafting won out.   So, I made a last minute card for the Pollycraft Monday Challenge this week which is Pearls and Swirls.    I hope black pearls count!

The image is one of the Sonny Honeycloud girls from Pollycraft and the papers are from October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket.  The ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl.  The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley.  I have coloured the image with copics (see below) and added Stickles to the cupcake frosting and white dots to the cupcake wrapper.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Pollycraft Monday Challenge (Pearls and Swirls)

Dutch Dare Card Challenges (Celebrations)

Happy Sunday!

Arabella Chickie in Imperia, Italy

Another Teen Card

Last week I made two teen birthday cards for my two teenage god-daughters, but I only posted one of them.  The challenge this week at Charizma Cardz Challenges is to make a birthday card for a teen and there is also a challenge at Simon Says Stamp to make a Mother's Day or Girlie themed card for a special girl, so here's my card:

This image is one of the Sonny Honeycloud digis from Pollycraft.  I have coloured her with copics (see below) and added Glossy Accents to her glasses.   The papers are from October Afternoon and then sentiment is also from Pollycraft.  The ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl.

Here are the copics I used:

Happy Thursday!

Arabella Chickie in Imperia, Italy

Sweet Pea Stamp Off Round 2

Voting has started for Round 2 of the Sweet Pea Stamp Off.  There are some amazing entries!  Please take a few seconds to go here and vote and be inspired!  The challenge was to make an over the top Fancy Fold card where the card is the gift.

This is my entry:

This fold is called a Triangle Tri Fold card and I got the tutorial from here.  This stamp is one that I won in a giveaway from Angela from In My Quiet Time.  The papers are from October Afternoon and the three little bells on the front I got in a haberdashery store in Prague.  The seam binding ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl.  On the inside of the card, I have wiped away some of the image to make it less angular before stamping it with Distress Inks in Antique Linen, then I have masked the edges of the card and misted over it with Tattered Angels Shimmer Mists in Gold and Blue - it's a bit hard to see in the photos, but it has a lovely shimmery effect.  The sentiment is made with Doodlebug rub ons.

The image is coloured with copics.

And we are just now coming into port in Imperia Italy.  There is a fair bit of snow on the mountains above, so it could be quite cold here!

Arabella Chickie in Imperia, Italy

Dutch Dare sketch challenge

At first glance I thought the sketch for this week at the Dutch Dare challenge blog looked a bit too complicated, but then I saw the Design Team samples and I really liked what they had done with it, so I decided to join in the challenge.

Here is the sketch:

And here is my card:

The image is a Gorjuss Girl originally from Sugar Nellie Stamps, now I think sold under the Gorjuss Stamps label (purchased from Funky Kits).  The paper is from Echo park and October Afternoon.  The sentiment is from Pollycraft and the buttons and thread are from Blooming Felt.

I coloured the image with copics, but it was a while ago when I first got my copics and I wasn't recording the numbers I used then.

We are now anchored in a Bay off the island of Elba after a lovely flat trip from Napoli today.  Tomorrow we take the final (and shortest) leg of the trip to Imperia.

Happy Tuesday!

Arabella Chickie in Elba, Italy

Blues (with a touch of red)...

Well we are now in Naples (or Napoli if you prefer), Italy.  We had a fairly rough trip (about 28 hours, 4 hours on watch, 4 hours off) very little sleep and a few minor mishaps, but nothing major.   We arrived here around 1 this afternoon and thought we had better take this opportunity to visit the ruins of Pompeii as it is unlikely we will be here again.  Very interesting and such a huge city, but we were pretty tired, so we probably didn't do it justice.

*****Did you know that voting starts on Wednesday for the Round 2 of the Sweet Pea Stamps Spring stamp off challenge?  You can vote here on Wednesday.  I will post my entry on Chickie Chirps on Wednesday too.  The challenge for Round 2 was Fancy Folds... it should be interesting to see what everyone comes up with!*****

I have a card to share today that I made for the Blues challenge at the Copic Creations blog and the brads, pearls and gems challenge at Little Miss Muffet Challenges.

I have coloured this cute digi image (from Little Miss Muffet stamps) using three different blue shade groupings and a little bit of red for contrast (details below).  I also used Rose's technique for adding a bit of texture to the bunny with the copic colourless blender.  The papers are from October Afternoon and the seam binding is from The Ribbon Girl.  I added Stickles and Glossy accents to the balloons and wrote 'For You' on the tag.  I coloured the green brads I had blue with copic B18.

These are the copics I used:

Have a lovely evening!

Arabella Chickie in Napoli, Italy

PS Tomorrow we head to the island of Elba... think of us pitching around at sea for 11 hours!

A tickled pink little faerie...

Just wanted to prove to Arabella that her lovingly crafted cards are received with absolute delight by all! I think this little face says it all.

April Blackbird

The luck of the Irish

Are the Irish really lucky people?   I've always wondered... or maybe because they believe they are, they are...

This week's challenge at the Tiddly Inks Challenge blog was another hard one and I have to confess that I wasn't going to enter it, but it would be rude not to wouldn't it?  Especially since I was the lucky winner last week.

This week, there were two options, either a St Patrick's Day/Green/Luck theme or an environmental Earth day theme...  Green is definitely not my favourite colour, so once again I struggled with this one... don't you just love challenges that actually challenge you though?!

I decided to use Donna once again (Donna and Belinda definitely seem to be my favourites) and I altered her a little by drawing a bunch of four leaf clovers and sticking them over the frog she was holding in her hand.

This image was coloured up before I started recording my copic numbers.  The papers are from October Afternoon and Bo Bunny and the ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl.

And in other news, we have started our 1000 or so mile boat journey to Imperia in Italy.  We are hoping to average around 20 - 25 knots and stop in Naples (and hopefully Elba) along the way.  So no crafting for me for the next few days, but luckily I have a stockpile of cards to post!  For those friends and family members that know how, we have our AIS tracking turned on, so you can track our progress on http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/ or the Google version (http://www.vesseltracker.com/en/Googleearth.html).

Happy Sunday!

Arabella Chickie in Lavrio, Greece