Gold Dalmatian

This is the first card I made with my new Dalmation brooches. In a weak moment, I bought a whole load of them...

They are gold with black dots and small diamonds in their eyes - is that as bling as can you get with Dalmations?

They came in two varieties, one with its head turned which looks kind of cheeky. For this card, I have chosen the other one for its more frontal view.

Hedgehog birthday card

Blog candy in French

How about an opportunity to use your French? You can do so by entering blog candy offered by francophone crafters, for example:

• Pour faire connaitre son livre Edwige a décidé de lancer un blog candy (jusqu'au le 28 février 2009 minuit). A gagner: un Lot Scrap avec kit papier ,rubons, découpe chipboard, pochette d'embellissements, et un tampon Love non monté.
  
  
• Voici le 2eme blog candy de notre Scraposphere:
  Pour tenter de le remporter il suffit bien evidemment de copier ce message, de le coller sur votre blog ET de venir mettre le lien vers votre blog en commentaire ci dessous http://scraposphere.over-blog.com/article-28004966.html
  (tirage au sort le 16 mars 2009). Les photos des lots à gagner sont sur Scraposphère! La Scraposphere ajoutera également 10€ de tampons au choix (montés sur mousse statique) à chacune des 4 gagnantes si nous depassons les 100 commentaires avant la date limite... passez le mot ...

New Elzybells stamp range

Elzybells stamps have just come out with their new February releases - if you are into stamping, why not go and check them out. I can recommend her cute images - everyone likes sweets and cupcakes! - and particularly the funny Eggstravaganza sentiments which would be great on Easter cards.

Three daffodils

After planting a lot of spring bulbs in the garden, I'm really looking forward to seeing them come out and blossom.

In the meantime, we will just have to look at the painted version! I used the water color image by Val Pettefar because it's so fresh and crisp - what a contrast to the dried flowers in the background of the photo!

ATC with bunch of flowers

The blossoms on this ATC are made from fruit nets. The leaves are taken from artificial flowers which I tend to pluck (though it's a bit of a shame to do that) to use blossoms and leaves separately.

Lace card

My aim for on this Christening card was to use lace in a creative way.

The body of the butterfly was originally an earring which I purchased for cardmaking because of its beautiful shimmering stone.

Parrot card

I just happen to know that some of you guys are absolutely mad about parrots...

When I saw these bling parrot brooches, I just had to get my hands on them - to make cards with, of course!

This is the first result. I left the brooch closing mechanism intact in order to allow the recipient of the card to remove it from the card and use it as a brooch again.

The right side of the card features a real feather (though probably not from a parrot...).

Candy without the calories

... that would be - yes, Blog Candy! Especially if you are a blogger yourself, you should consider entering a few blog candy offers even if you haven't done so before. Not only is it a good chance to win some lovely crafting goodies, but it will also indirectly spread the word about your own blog. Here are a few current blog candy offers:

• Patricia is offering handmade cards in her blog candy until 26th Feb.
• Clare Curd is celebrating her 10,000 hits with blog candy until 27th Feb.
• Carlz anniversary blog candy with stamps and flowers ends on the 28th
• Alison is celebrating her hits until the 28th of Feb.
• Marlene is offering blog candy for 4 lucky winners until the 28th of Feb.
  
• Diane of Nellie's Nest is offering blog candy until the 1st of March
  
• Heidi is celebrating her hits with blog candy until 2nd March
• Nes is offering blog candy until the 3rd of March
  
• Wendy is offering a Scor-Pal until the 5th of March
• Allison's blog candy is open until March the 4th
  
• Lim has anniversary blog candy until 6th of March
  
• Steph is offering Promarkers as blog candy until the beginning of March
  
• Nikki has blog candy on offer until 8th of March
• Sem See is offering blog candy - great for making cards (not only) for males - until the 8th of March - which is her birthday!
  
• Jill is offering blog candy (including some lovely Laura Ashley products!) until 8th of March
• Zoe is offering blog candy until her birthday which is on the 8th of March
  
• Kath is celebrating her blogoversary with cany until the 10th of March
• Cardmaking Galore is offering two sets of blog candy until the 15th of March
  

A musical card

The guitar can be removed from the card to be worn as a badge.

Valentine's card

2 cards with Circles

... using metallic stickers, round satin ribbon and - yes, pipe cleaners!

Froggy card

You will need to kiss many frogs to find a prince... this is what the card should say inside, I think. At the moment, it's still a multi-purpose card.

The metal charm hanging from the ribbon is a leaping frog - unfortunately it has turned over for the photograph... It is attached with a jewelery fastener so it can live longer than the card, as a talisman on a bag, zip or key ring for example.

Card with a bow

I would like to share a multi-purpose card that did not take me very quick to make. I have recently started trying to use wrapping paper as backgrounds on my cards. The choice of designs is so tempting, and you get lots of it on a roll, so no fear to use it up too quickly...

BUT a word of warning, too: wrapping paper is often very thin, which means it will need to be matted onto another piece of card if you want to raise the design. And most of all, at least if you use a waterbased glue like I often do, it can be hard to attach to your card without wrinkles... doh!