#500th Challenge Post

 Hello and welcome to all the hoppers,

I am so happy to be hosting our very special challenge post here at Fab'n'Funky Challenges. I am also happy to be your first pot-of-call.

So I shall do my best not to give anything away, you have to follow the clues 😃

I believe Kraft is a very understated colour when it comes to card making, which is a shame.

Kraft always reminds me of freshly baked cookies and if you stick it with a colour like yellow........aah warm cookies on a sunny winters day. (oh dear, now I'm going to have to bake some cookies)

As you may have already guess I use this stamp a lot. I think out of all of my LOTV stamps he is my absolute favourite.

 I used  sandstone, tan & cinnamon ProMarkers for the bear and lemon, sunflower & gold for the flower, the stem & leaves are pear green with a hint of forest green. The flower were created using a punch from S.U. and their centres are tiny wooden gems.

I hope you have enjoyed my post, don't forget to leave a comment before you take your next hop.

Your next clue word is 

Favourite

Enjoy your hop

Hugs & Happy thoughts

Buffy xx

Christmas is coming

 Hello 

So this week over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges we are thinking about

CHRISTMAS

That's right, with only 10 weeks left until the big day, we just have to think about all those cards.
Especially if you have loved ones in far off places. Those Last Post dates will be here in no time.

There is also the important job of ensuring all Eggnog ingredients are present and correct 😉

But now for the important sharing part, I've gone all 3D with this little project. 

I used the Sizzix Thinlits 661555

It starts Life as a flat card basically 

But when you stand it up

Add a tealight 

(please note:- As this is a paper project only a small electronic tealight is safe)

And it becomes something much more magical

I have coated the snowflakes and sentiment in iridescent glitter to give them a frosty feel. 
For the open panel sections I used iron-on interfacing from my sewing stash (I knew it had more uses 😉) and just glue it around the edges.

Remember to leave some love for all the love DT's

Hugs & Happy Thoughts
Buffy xx

Belated Birthday

 Hello my lovelies,

Once again we have a Fabulous challenge for you over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges.

This week we are looking at 

Birthdays

Yes that's right, good old birthdays. Let's face it we all have dozens of birthdays to card-make for every month. 

BUT

If you are anything like me there is always that one birthday you only remember the night before, Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh.

On those days you need small and simple, so here you go

Compact but beautiful. No, I never put belated on the front of the card and sometimes I don't mention my error inside either. 

Stamps is LOTV (proper stamp not digi) and a wide variety of ProMarkers.

I can tell you that I am getting very excited for Fab'n'Funky's #500 post, so amazing to know we have been sharing our passion with all of you for so long.

Please visit our lovely DT's and leave them some love.

Now, I got an interesting message the other day from my youngest daughter. It read

"Can I be cheeky and ask a favour?"

My first thought , oh dear what does she want me to make now, and I was correct. Then I received a jpg of a sketch she had done, then a delivery

Now I'm not going to share her sketch just yet, but the above fabric arrived. Best part is she ordered it from a local-ish company (they are just over the border in Leicester) so I'm very proud of her for that.

I will share this with you in the next couple of weeks, first I have to convert her sketch into a pattern 😅

Back soon with more sharing

Hugs & Happy Thoughts

Buffy xx

Christmas card

 Hello again lovely peeps,

We are celebrating with Christmas cards over at Fab'n'Funky challenges this week. 

I don't like being the bearer of bad news but Christmas is fast approaching, there are only 90 days until the big day 😲 Scary!!

A sweet little stamp from LOTV. I've gone for a Blue colour theme. 

The squares in the corners are foam mosaic tiles I found in a little tub in my loft, I have absolutely no idea where I got them but I reckon they have been up there for at least 10yrs (so ashamed).

Back soon with more sharing

Hugs & Happy Thoughts

Buffy xx

Add a Button

 Hello lovely peeps,

So this week at Fab'n'Funky challenges we are adding buttons to thing.

We have all had great fun spreading the buttons and of course I had to dig out one of my favourite stamps for this. 

I love this little guy, Sunflower Teddy from LOTV. He is the stamp I turn to when I really don't know what I want to create. 

I think most of us have that little "Go To" item we rely on.

I went for simplicity, first I stamped my image using Tuxedo black momento ink and coloured it using ProMarkers (Sunflower, Ginger, Tan, Caramel, Burnt umber, Pear & Olive & Moss green, Pale rose, Orchid And Amethyst), A5 card blank, Kraft card-stock, ginham ribbon and butchers twine, TL flower & leaf dies, foam pads, double-sided tape and a Button (the vital ingredient.) 

First I stuck down the Ginham ribbon using double-sided tape I then wrapped the butchers twine around the ribbon.

Now for our stamped image. Use Black ink for the stamp (Note: if you are using alcohol pens ( Promarkers, Copics, Spectrum noir, you need to use a water-based inkpad like Momento Ink)

First and most important decision is to which direction the light is coming from. I have a very simple rule, I always have my light coming from the top left corner of my image. This means I can instantly look at any stamped image and know where the "Dark-Side" is 😉

1. Colour bear in Almond (this allows better blending in the end)

2.Add the Burnt Sienna to the shadow side of your character. 

See below as I accidentally add the tawny owl colour too early.

3. Now add Tawny owl, (remember to work in tiny circles it helps the colours blend better)

4. Use Tan over the whole bear  (tiny circles) 

The flower at the lower part of my card is not cut from coloured cardstock. I usually die-cut my everything in white cardstock and then colour it in to match my project.

I hope some of that it helpful and remember to check out the DT's fantastic creations.

Back soon

Hugs & Happy Thoughts

Buffy xx

Holiday Tutorial Time

Hello and welcome to our second annual Holiday Tutorial Time.

Last year we went through the "masking" technique. This time we are doing CAS, for those of you new to card-making CAS stands for Clean And Simple. 

Some purist might say it also has to be one layer, it definitely doesn’t. It just has to have a lot of unused space.

So let's begin:

You will need:-

Stamping blocks, stamps/sentiment, Inkpads, Markers/pencils/crayons, card-blank, A4 white card, scissors, double-sided tape/foam-pads, blending pads, stencil, and a HUGE sense of fun

Don’t worry if you don’t have a shop-bought stencil

 Here I show you a range of stencil, the top left I bought, the top right was free on a magazine, but my absolute favourite is the bottom stencil which I made myself. You can probably tell that it is well used and loved.

The first thing we will do is use our stencil

Use your low tack tape to hold it in place and prevent ink getting onto the card where it isn't wanted.

Ink up your sponge/dauber/foam and gently rub over your stencil.

You should have something that looks a bit like this. Now before you remove your stencil we will add our sentiment in the same colour ink.

You could just use a black ink for the sentiment, but I like to colour coordinate.

Believe it or not you could just stop there. Or add a few gems

So that could be card one

But I said we would do the topper card, so let's go...

So now that we have our card base, we are going to stamp our topper (the decoration that will sit on top of the card)

Now colour in your stamped image. I am using ProMarkers, but you can use whatever you have. Pencil crayons are great for beginners or young children.

Then cut them out (daughter doing a little hand modelling here)

If you have sticky foam-pads the stick them to the back of the cut-outs, if you do not have foam-pads then double-sided tape or glue will do.

Find your ideal spot on your card and stick down your toppers.

Hey presto a lovely CAS card, with or without toppers.

Here’s a little secret, the card itself does not have to be white, yeah I know, how about that.

Hugs & Happy Thoughts

Buffy xx

Creative Free for All at Fab'n'Funky

Hello my lovely peeps,

So this week we have a really exciting challenge over at Fab'n'Funky challenges

CREATIVE FREE FOR ALL

But Add PINK

(we want to see your creativity set free, so you can make a card or crochet or knit or paint or sew or paper-piece. Absolutely any craft BUT make sure there is a good dollop of PINK!! 😁)

Lets take a better look at my little creations

Lets start with a clean and simple card.

It's just a plain white card with a PINK layer topped with a simple design of multiple butterfly stamps all in a PINK ink that matches the PINK layer. I deliberately left space on one side for a sentiment stamp. Here I've used happy birthday but on a design like this you could easily use "just for you", Thank you".....the list goes on.

(INGREDIENTS - plain white card blank, SU  Strawberry Slush Ink-pad and card-stock, Momentos Tuxedo black Ink-pad and plain white card-stock. TOOLS- Acrylic stamp blocks and Stamps from "For the love of stamps" range.

These 3 are my evening relaxation past-time, I happily sit crocheting whilst my husband plays on our PlayStation or we watch TV together. It's a nice simple pattern, I created the smaller ones as key-chains. (pattern can be found in tomorrows post). (INGREDIENTS - DMC Petra No.3 [54458 pale pink, 53803 fuschia, 5712 beige] and 2.5mm crochet hook and key-chain accessories)

 

We return to our Strawberry Slush card-stock for this little 3D card.  On a piece of 12x12 card-stock draw a line 5" from the bottom edge and cut along this line. Now on the 5" wide piece measure 2.5"  from long edge and draw a faint line (this is your centre fold-line) now measure 2.5" markers along the line you've just drawn, these will be the flaps of your faux-box. Once marked up cut down to the centre fold-line but no further than this. (the rest of the instructions can be found in tomorrows post)

Last but by no means least in the top left corner we have my Bedtime Story Buddy 

I designed this cuddly toy with a book pocket at the back to help encourage a love of book in very young children. No plastic eyes or nose so it's safe for children under 2, although I've put them up for  sale as 3+ (mainly to reduce the quantity of drooling 😂) I'm sorry but no instructions or tutorial for this one, I spent the best part of 3 months perfecting this pattern, I am on version 3 now and kind of happy with it, this Owl is not the only character in my Bedtime Buddy range but that is to follow.

If you would like one check out this link - ow.ly/mKh550AthYa

PLEASE - check out the wonderful inspiring design our lovely team at

 Fab'n'Funky Challenges 

have come up with and leave love x

Back tomorrow with the Ice-cream cone crochet pattern and the faux-box card instructions.

Hug & Happy Thoughts

Buffy xx

Down on the farm

Hello my lovelies,

We got a smashin challenge for ya over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges this week.

Down on the farm
(we want to see humorous farmyard fun 

and why not give CAS card a go)

I went for CAS card with a smidgen of humour. This is one of my stamp sets from "For the love of Stamps" called Hogs & Kisses. It's just so cute.
After stamping the pig I created a mask so I could stamp the mud puddle under his feet (see my tutorial on masking HERE )

I made this card for my lovely friend Heather, she and I usually have girly days when she's not working and I'm not busy. Once every other month normally but alas no and I am missing her terribly. She is an ICU nurse in Shrewsbury, so I decided since we couldn't hang-out I would do my bit to help.
More scrubs - Yes I have been frantically sewing scrubs for our local NHS.

I joined a fabulous group of sewers, back in march, and we have managed to supply our 2 local hospitals and several care/nursing homes with desperately needed PPE.

 Several of our lovely Fab'n'Funky ladies have been adding tutorials to their Blogs to help people cope with being cooped up.
So to all of you out there who has been doing your bit, whatever it may be.

Well Done xx

Please pop over and give our lovely Design ladies some much needed love.
And remember

STAY CALM
&
KEEP CRAFTING

Back soon with more sharing

Hugs & Happy Thoughts

Buffy xx

Anything But A Card

Hello Lovey peeps

We have an exciting challenge for you this week over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges. So put away your card-making gear and get ready to make.........

Anything But A Card

(yes we want to see your crafty creations just NO CARDS

you can sew, knit, crochet, clay, paper-mache.....so go wild)

I can honestly say I have been sewing my heart out over the last 6wks. But I haven't made anything for myself or family, so I decided to take a little time to make something special for someone special.

I whipped up this little top for my granddaughter

The adorable love-heart fabric I picked up whilst out on a girly day with my friend Dawn, I rediscovered it in my stash two days ago and instantly knew who I wanted to use it for.

We all know how messy little ones can be so I used the darker jade-coloured fabric for the upper section. But to add a little bit of gentleness to such a strong colour I picked out the peachy pink from the centre of the love-hearts to edge the armholes and bottom.

The most unusual thing about this is I used a pattern with making major adjustments....YES....No major adjustments!!!!.......Menopause I reckon......😂😂😂

Pop over tho see what other makes our wonderful design team have created.

I would also like to give a big shout out to the adorable little shop where I got this fabric "The Corner Patch" in Eccleshall. It is only a tiny shop but friendly and welcoming.

Back soon with more sharing
Hugs & Happy Thoughts
Buffy xx

Christmas in Spring

Hello all,

It might be the end of April but we at Fab'n'Funky challenges are getting ready for that time of year,

Christmas

(We want to see all your christmassy creations)

I used a Woodware stamp - Bubble Christmas Tree and a sentiment from WMS (I miss waltzing mouse stamps)

It's quite difficult to see on this photo but I used a Sakura sparkle gelly roll pen (green) for all the bubbles

Layers are a nice way of adding a little bit of depth and I used a black layer to tie in with the black on the tree image and the sentiment.

I toned down and simplified this card by using green glitter-card from my stash to make the background pop. I have basically tried to make it as masculine as possible. One of our friends is determined to stay a single man...😁

Please pop over and give our lovely team some well earned love

Back soon

Hugs & Happy Thoughts

Buffy xx

Spots or Dots

Quick apology, this should have gone live last week

Hello all
We have a dotty spotty dilemma over at Fab'n'Funky challenges this week.

We want to see all your

Spotty or Dotty projects 

Here is my little bit of simple inspiration

I have used multiple layers of spotty paper to create a vibrant background. This also allows my flowers to pop, giving the card more depth.
A simple elegant sentiment to finish.

Remember to pop over and leave our lovely design team some well deserved good vibes.

Back Soon
Hugs & Happy Thoughts
Buffy xx

Masculine

Hello Lovelies

Over at Fab'n'Funky challenges we have a new challenge for you.
This week our theme is:

Masculine

(show us your projects with a masculine touch such as cars, trains or maybe the special man in your life has a favourite hobby)

I've used a simply theme based on one of my hubbies hobbies, going hiking on his birthday.

We of course won't be hiking at our usual spot this year, but there is an old railway line that has been turned into a rambling path not to far from our home.

Pop over and share some happy vibes with our lovely DT.

Hugs & Happy Thoughts
Buffy xx

Love is in the air

Hello again,

Nothing say love like a folded piece of card-stock 😉
That's right peeps this weeks challenge at Fab'n'Funky Challenges is all about

💖💖💖LOVE💖💖💖

We would like to see your beautiful Loving projects

I know, I know, we're just soppy, but I like soppy. There isn't enough soppy left in the world anymore.

I will happily confess the I usually write my husband a poem every valentines day.
(and before anyone asks No he doesn't write poetry, a cheeky limerick maybe But NO poetry) 

Thankfully he doesn't read my blog so sharing this with you won't ruin the surprise.

It's another Dolly Dimple Crafts stamp, this is Fab Cake 1

Pink!!

Hello lovely people,

this week over at Fab'n'Funky challenges we are going a bit girly, this weeks theme is

PINK

We would like to see your Pink creations please

I'm feeling very happy for this challenge as my new stamps had arrived just in time and they are delicious 😉 Dolly Dimples Crafts, Fab Cake 2

I call it strawberry delight, you can just make out the strawberry backing paper. I used a darker pink strip with strawberry backing to tie the different layers together.

So dig out your Pink, pop over to our blog and join in the fun.

Remember our lovely team enjoy sharing their creations with you, so send a little love their way. 

Back soon with more sharing

Hug & Happy Thoughts
Buffy xx

Christmas in January

Hello lovely peeps

We are getting ready for Christmas over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges.......Yes I know your thinking "Already?", but you can never start to early.

I have a very simple monochrome offering for you, it might seem a little understated but I was inspired to make it after visiting a friends newly decorated home.

She had gone for a very minimalist look, so I decided this very minimalist card would look fabulous on her mantle at Christmas.

It's simply grey inked stamp on white with a glitter gel pen highlighting the edges & tinsel section.

I'm not embarrassed to say it took me all my strength not to add colour 

Please pop over to the Fab'n'Funky challenge and leave some love for our lovely DT.

Back soon

Hugs & Happy Thoughts

Buffy xx 

Dainty Doily

Good morning to you all

It's a wee bit foggy here but it looks like the sun is going to win the battle.

We have a fabulous challenge for you this week over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges.

Doily

We would love to see your card/project with a doily

 I have turned my doily into something girly

Yes I've taken the Fan option, it was originally a circular tea party doily from Dovecraft. 

To make each fan blade stand out I used a sakura clear gel pen.

Give it a nice shiny edge

We always look forward to seeing your entries so pop on over to Fab'n'Funky and remember to leave our lovely design team some positive vibes.

Back soon with more crafting

Hugs & Happy thoughts

Buffy xx

A Fab Halloween

Hello All,

We are celebrating all thing s spooky over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges. This weeks theme is:

Halloween

(so share your scare, get out you ghouls, any creepy creation)

I am Halloween mad, and get disappointed if children show up without costumes on the night, so of course invitations are a must.

Super simple, LOTV stamp inked with SU cherry cobbler and trails of cardindal red promarker, the cobweb & skull dies are from my TL Advent calendar (last year)

Please pop over and share some love with our lovely design team 

Last year I actually bought dry ice to create fog on my front lawn..........
Covered my walls in cobwebs and spiders
And did my best to scare small children 💀

I will try to remember to take some Halloween piccies  and share with you. (My next door neighbour is currently the king of scares but I shall better him one year, oh yes. 😂

Hugs & Happy Thoughts
Buffy xx

We're all going on a Summer Holiday

Hello again,

We are currently taking our summer vacation over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges. But that doesn't mean we aren't all crafting....

To help you through the long summer break, here is a tutorial. If you are new to card making I hope you find this help, if your a seasoned crafter then I hope this brings you inspiration. It's also a great project for little hands.

Simple Masked Aperture

You will need a selection of inks, stamps, sticky notes, bone-folder & card blank.
Plus either a circular punch or die or hand-cutting.

Cut the mask out of the sticky note and place in centre of card front

(you can off-set it if you want)

Start with the lightest ink  and largest stamp first

Slowly moving through the different size stamps and inks

Deliberately used the smallest stamp for the darkest ink

Remove the mask

You have a nice clean centre

Finally add your favourite sentiment

The die-cut sentiment was my favourite for this particular project.

What about adding some glitter or pale blue gems?

Back soon

Hugs & Happy Thoughts

Buffy xx

Pearls and Gems

Another week, another challenge.

Over at Fab'n'Funky challenges we would like you to create a project using:

Pearls/Gem

(or both)

I've created another masking-technique card. This is for a lovely lady who is retiring. It was quite difficult to decide what theme to use for her card. She loves travel, has a small interest in sewing (she's been working on a wee quilt since she was 19) and she loves flowers.

Every flower has a gem centre, because why not! The sentiment is another one of my "need to use stamp-sets, this is "FTLS-Blooming Sentiments" The flowers stamps are from Honey-Do Crafts.

Please pop over to Fab'n'Funky challenges and leave some love for our lovely design team

Back soon with more sharing

Hugs & Happy Thoughts
Buffy xx

Sunny Summer

Hello again,

We are thinking summery thoughts over at Fab'n'Funky challenges.
Well you they say, cover up and seek shade, so I have masked up and multi toned for our lovely

"Sunny Summer"

I'm very much a flowery girl at heart

For this card I first stamped the sentiment, then created a mask with a sticky-note. Once the sentiment was masked I stamped the darkest coloured flowers (Plum), then the dark pink, and final the light pink. A few well placed leaves/foliage in two shades of green.

The sentiment - LOTV

Flowers - Cardio

I'm quite pleased because as I finished the card I noticed  my purple Campanula were flowering.

My fellow design team have some stunning cards to inspire you, so please pop over and leave them some sunny thoughts.

I'm still working on that beer mat bathrobe, but I'm hoping to share it with you the weekend after this one.

Back with more sharing soon

Hugs & Happy Thoughts

Buffy xx