Paperplay Challenges '11 - Week 38 - Autumn Leaves

These days I rarely get the opportunity to enter a card challenge, which is a shame because I enjoy doing things like that. Sadly between various work and social committments, plus the fact that I'm not as energetic as I think I am I get distracted and sidetracked. That should read as sucked into the great white box on the computer desk!

Anyway, it just so happens that Autumn or Fall is one of my favourite times of the year and I've been lucky enough to be able to take a few days off this week. The result is that while I seem to have done very little around the house or in terms of sewing as planned, my fingers have been very active elsewhere.

Amongst other things I've updated a number of blogs and websites that I'm associated with, caught up with correspondence outstanding, arranged radio interviews and telephone interviews with journalists in a last bid to save our gymnastics club (to put it bluntly we're being evicted!)

I've also attended two meetings with the dyslexia group here in town, a business networking meeting, made a load of cards for friends and generally taken life easy this week. The card went down so well with the young man who ordered it for his wife and earned him a few brownie points for the weekend!

My time had been tentatively booked to clean out and tidy up my 'studio.' At the moment it's looking more and more as though a bomb's hit it, but like I said earlier, I got distracted. Maybe that's why I couldn't find my PTI leaf prints collection of dies. It's bad enough that I actually broke my beloved Cuttlebug a couple of weeks ago, but this is ridiculous - they've vanished into thin air!

That of course led to fussy cutting of the oak leaves, which while it's not an arduous task is really juat a bit daft under the circumstances. For the rest of my card I've used WMS Blessed By You & Victorian and the PTI Leaf Prints stamp sets with Ranger Inks Big & Juicy Ink Pad in Spice on card from the PaperMill Shop, ribbon from my amazing stash of grosgrain and the DoCrafts Scalloped Border Punch...

I'm entering this into this weeks PaperPlay Challenges ('11 - Week 38) Autumn Leaves Challenge, I hope you like it!

Have a great weekend!

Polly

Polly Shows Off Her Favourite Waltzing Mouse

A friend of mine; Claire Brennan of Waltzing Mouse Makes, recently released her own line of stamps which have taken off like a bomb since her first set back in May. Anyway, Tuesday is a special day for Claire. Not only is she having a huge bumper release this month; ie six stamp sets (wow!) but she is also re-releasing her range of stamps.

This coincides with the opening of her new on-line store; which promises to be interesting not least because of the new range of stamps that she's been torturing her fans with over the past few days. Her release dates are always exciting due to the fact that she's been giving us sneak peaks; which are wonderful. Personally, I'm beginning to feel something like a peeping tom as I seem to be stalking the poor lassie...

Here in the world of Crafting with Polly, ie Vinca Cards I always think that it's nice to be nice. I love to give local businesses and friends of the flesh & blood and the cyber variety a little bit of a write up from time to time. I'll be honest though, there are times when my motivation to do this can be a little clouded by the fact that occasionally these friends are offering some really nice prizes for doing so. That said, this is mainly in terms of my crafting pals and their blog candy!

Well, today is simply one of those days. I can't miss the opportunity to give Claire a fanfare; which I would do anyway as I love her style and find her stamps invaluable, but also to wish her the very best of luck. Now for the ulterior motive which is to show my favourite stamp which has to be printed out in green - those were the conditions, honestly! It doesn't have to be one of Claire's, it can be any stamp which is your fave but it does have to be green, very green...

I don't know whether this card really fits into that category but I can't get it out of my head because this truly is my favourite stamp of all time. It is my all time favourite card which features a combination of the ornate heart from the Celtic Heritage stamp set from Waltzing Mouse Stamps, the most amazing designer backing paper from Die Cuts With A View's Luxury Stack (8"x8") a golden organza ribbon and my favourite paper of all time which is a luxurious metallic bronze type of colour with more than a hint of green in the right light.

Add all this together with Luxury Pearlised Cream card and some fabulous Gold Velum from The PaperMill Shop at Junction #1, Antrim and you've got something pretty special. So much so that I seriously can't get that card out of my mind! The name of the bride and the groom were hand-written in a matching bronze/green Sakura Gel pen along with a traditional wedding message written in Italian. As you can see Vanessa & Norman got married on the 9th September 2009 at Lake Garda in Italy and I have to say that this is the most romantic wedding card that I've ever made. I just hope that this sentiment continues into their lives for years to come and that they will be very happy...

I know that there's not a whole lot of green included in this card, but that which is there really does make this one stand out from the crowd. Regardless, I enjoyed the making and the giving of this card and that's what counts.

Meanwhile, if I'm lucky Claire might include me in the MONSTER COMPETITION for all six (yes, all six!) sets due for release on Tuesday. If anybody reading this fancies entering this competition why not whip up a card and post a link on Claire's blog - you've got until Midnight tonight!

Ciao!

Polly Pierce
Exclusive Hand-Made Cards From Ireland

PaperPlay Challenges - Week 34: No Patterned Paper!

This weeks challenge is to make a card using no patterned paper:

(sorry about the blur...)

I know that the white printed purple background appears to be patterned paper. That's because it is, but the trick is that I made it myself using various stamps from my crazy collection of clear polymer stamps, some puce coloured card from the Papermill Shop and Fresh Snow Pigment Ink from PTI.

The card itself was made for a friend of mine whose wife is very much into her fashion and jewellery. I masked off the heart in this lovely Penny Black stamp and replaced the heart with a perfume bottle, it somehow seemed appropriate!

Add to this the lovely shade of pale pink/mauve coloured dress using Pro-Markers and a Sakura gel pen or two, a pretty white organza ribbon and a black metallic charm in the shape of a heart; what more could a girl ask for? Nothing, except perhaps a great quote from the iconic Mae West: "Too much of a good thing is Wonderful!"

Maybe I'm wrong, but somehow I think this fit the bill on more than one count! What d'ya think?

Polly