It's Thursday

It's Thursday and my last day off before some pretty intense work (if you can call working at the library intense!) - I'm working nearly every day for the next fortnight as it's holiday time and there is always plenty of work for supply staff while the permanent members go off on their hols. School breaks up tomorrow and the kids will be coming in droves to collect books for their summer reading 'mission' so I'm not sure how much time there will be for crafting, I may only be able to fit in my DT work but will try my best to sneak in some other cards if I possibly can :o)


The image is by Mo Manning and was coloured with Promarkers, I really had to dig deep to find backing papers to work with the way I'd coloured the image - really ought to decide on the papers before colouring in future! I don't actually know where these ones came from - found them in my scraps drawer. I used some linen thread and a sentiment from Stampin Up, and my scallop circle was a nestabilities die cut edged with a little lilac ink.

My card today was designed with the following challenges in mind:
Simon Says - Check it out
Creative Inspirations - Sketch
I Love Promarkers - Stripes
Creative Cottage - Summer Surprise
A Spoonfull of Sugar - Animal Crackers

New Image and some great news!

First the great news is that I've been invited to join the DT at Crafty Cardmakers and I'm absolutely delighted!
Crafty Cardmakers is a challenge blog designed for newer and less experienced cardmakers and bloggers with a new challenge every other monday. The design team also range from very new cardmakers through to more experienced with a special guest designer each challenge too! We also have tutorials and how to's which you will find links to on the sidebar. You don't have to be new to join in the fun but why not try something a bit different :)
Really looking forward to getting to know all my fellow DT members and to getting started with my first project which will be coming up in a week or two.

Next, I have made a card using my latest digi stamp 'Ellie' - she's a young lady with attitude - I really hope you like her, she's available now over at my other blog Cardmadfairy's Creations

I used the sketch for this week's challenge over at Cupcake Craft challenges and chose some summery colours for her dress which I tried to match up with my background papers & card, don't think I've succeeded particularly well but at least it's bright and sunny (though ironically the bright pink paper is from a set of Christmas papers)!


This card also fits the challenges at:
Digital Tuesday - Summertime
My Time to Craft - Zigzags
Papertake Weekly - In Stitches
Party Time Tuesdays - Anything goes; Birthday
Passion for Promarkers - Think of a Number

Winner of my Blog Hop candy is...

number 7 - Lisa

Well done Lisa, let me know your email address and tell me which 3 extra images you would like from Cardmadfairy's Creations and I'll get them off to you straight away!

Lovely sunny day ....

....here in the south east of Scotland and I have a card to share which is perfect for this lovely weather :o)
I followed the sketch at Truly Scrumptious and also their optional extra which was Strawberries and Cream. I also went with the themes at: The Secret Crafter - Strawberries and Cream , One Stitch at a Time - Seeing Double (doh, used the last theme on this one!!!), Quirky Crafts - Ribbons, Ooh La La Creations - Simply Summer, The Crazy Challenge - Make it in an hour (this was a challenge) and Sundays with Chrissy - Monochromatic (mostly).


Must get off now as I've got some errands to run today, hope it's a lovely day wherever you are!

Creative Inspirations challenge 36

So the challenge at Creative Inspirations this fortnight, set by Suzi, is Paper Piecing. I love this technique but don't do it often enough, I don't know why as it is so effective! I used K&Co Classic McKenna papers and stamped my image, Shaken not Kissed by Diane Duda, onto three different papers - 1 for the dress, 1 for the tights and 1 for the frog and then once more onto white cardstock. For anyone not familiar with the technique, all that you do is just cut out the bits of the image you want to use for your finished design and stick them on to your previously coloured stamped image. This gives a perfectly co-ordinated image and background.
I added some printed ribbon, a prima paper bloom, a button which I altered with Ranger alcohol inks and finished the whole thing off with a sentiment which was part of an old, retired Stampin Up set 'Along the Same Lines'.

This card also fits the challenges at:
Creative Craft - Stamp It Up
Cooking it up with Katie - Alter embellie (button), Sparkle (crowns) & Die Cut (sentiment)
Your Next Stamp - Printed Ribbon Just Add Ink - Just add - Patterned Paper

Anything goes!

That's the challenge this week at Mo's Digital Challenge, so I have followed the sketch from Our Creative Corner and made this card using the fun Bronte & Louis image from Mo's Digital Pencil, as usual I have coloured it with Promarkers - what on earth did I do before Promarkers? The backing papers are Hopscotch from K&Co and I embossed a piece of Not Quite Navy Stampin Up card with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I used a recycled button and some wired twine which came wrapped round a crafty parcel from Blonde Moments. The sentiment is by Studio G.

Also entering the challenges at:
I Love Digi - Emboss it!
Charisma Cardz - For the Boys
One Stop Craft Challenge - One for the Boys
and
Cute Card Thursday - Reuse, renew, recycle (my button and twine are both recycled)

Couldn't resist!

When I saw the latest challenge at Creative Inspirations was a colour challenge and that my fave colour Turquoise was part of the combo along with Cream & Gold I really couldn't resist joining in! I also used the sketch from I love Promarkers to base my card on and here is the result.


I have used the scrumptious Summer Fairy Finna from Mo's Digital Pencil and coloured her with my Promarkers adding a mix of glosssy accents and ultra fine glitter on her wings. My backing papers are from DCWV.
The card is also entered for:
Crafty Creations - Shine
A Spoonfull of Sugar - GoodLuck/Best Wishes

Wishes for Bella Blog Hop - week 1

Hi there, if you have arrived at my blog following the link from Jennifer's blog you're on the right track, if not you should go to Denise's blog to start the hop from the beginning.

Today's Blog Hop (the first of 4 happening over the next few weeks) is all about an eight year old called Bella who developed a serious illness at Easter this year. Although the survival rate was very low, she was a brave fighter and made it through a 5 day coma. Unfortunately, she lost her arms and legs to the disease. You can read the story in depth at http://www.bellatucker.org/

We are calling on the crafting community to bring a little sunshine into Bella's life over the next 4 weeks by sending her your cards and good wishes, I couldn't decide between the two cards I have made so plan to send them both!
The address to send your card to is:

The Bella Tucker Fund P.O. Box 199 Londonderry NH 03053 USA




My cards feature my two newest digi stamps Chloe and Sophie - available now from Cardmadfairy's Creations - and I plan to give both of these new images along with 3 other images of the winner's choice to one random commenter when this blog hop ends on Monday, once you have left your comment you need to pop over to Lisa's blog to continue the hop.
There will also be a Grand Prize for one lucky blog hopper and the details can be found here on Erin's blog.
Thanks so much for joining in today!

Scrap the Art challenge 10

The tenth challenge at Scrap the Art is using this mixed media work by Sascalia , it is titled Dream Mermaid and it inspired me to print out a copy of my own Molly Mermaid (available over at Cardmadfairy's Creations) and colour her up with my promarkers. I used some stickles on her tail and then covered it all with glossy accents for a wet scales effect. The backing paper was a plain bluey green so I added some distress ink and then spritzed it all with a mixture of water and Pearl Pigments from Blonde Moments to give a watery effect then added some flat backed gems to look like bubbles.

The sponsor for this fortnight's challenge is Michelle Perkett who also has some lovely mermaid images in her Etsy shop here. The Design Team would love to see your entries so please go over and join in the challenge.

Grrrr...

...have just wasted the last hour and a half (not to mention the cost of the petrol and the £1.20 parking charge - for 5 minutes!) driving elder son Owen to an appointment at the fracture clinic at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary to have his fractured knuckle checked out, when we arrived the waiting room was absolutely stuffed full of people with stookies, slings, crutches, in wheelchairs - Owen had even taken of the little dressing they had put on his hand so felt like a real fraud in amongst all these poor wounded people! When the receptionist told us the waiting time would be one and a half hours we decided not to bother and about turned and came home!

nb a stookie is a plaster cast in Scotland :o)


Anyway my card today is for the new Sugar Nellie sketch challenge. I have used my Scattering Love stamp which I stamped on to water colour paper after seeing a tutorial about the use of Promarkers on it, it does certainly seem to cut down the amount of bleed and I was quite pleased with the results. The flower embellishments are Petaloo, the sentiment is Hero Arts.

Entering this one for the following challenges:
Sugar Nellie - Sketch
Charisma Cardz - All about Bling
Lots to do - Birds/Wings
Quirky crafts - Summer
Miami Dooodles - Summer
StampARTic Challenge - Flowers
Fun with shapes Challenge - Flowery

Does anybody recognise this image???

Today's card is just for fun - it's a while since I crafted just for fun and I've used a digi stamp from ...... can anyone tell me where this image is from??? I download quite a lot of digi stamps, paid for and free and often receive ones for Design Team use and I really must start filing them properly with the names of the illustrators so that I can always give credit to the artist when using one of their images. So if anyone knows where this one is from I'd be very happy to know so I can update my post.
Anyway, I have coloured this sweet image with Promarkers and Stickles, the backing paper is Papermania, the pretty lace came from Hobbycraft and the ribbon from my stash.
I'm entering the card for the following:
Prairie Fairy - Glitz & Glitter
Frosted Designs - Glitter
Meljens Designs - Glitz, Glitter and Bling
Allsorts - Lace & Buttons
Whoopsi Daisy - Ribbons & Bows
and
Stamp Something - Happy Somethings

Special offer on all my digi images

For the duration of the Creative Inspirations challenge which I am sponsoring (see previous post), I am offering all digi stamps at half the usual price. Please pop over to Cardmadfairy's Creations for a look ;o)

It's monochrome at Creative Inspirations

This week's Creative Inspirations challenge has been set by me - monochrome is the theme so we want to see your cards using one colour only! For inspiration go and have a look at all the gorgeous creations by the rest of the DT. This week's sponsor is also me - I am offering a surprise selection of images from my digital stamps blog Cardmadfairy's Creations.



I chose black as my colour scheme and used my Dotty digi stamp, the backing papers are from Southfield Stationers and Papermania, sentiment is Stampin Up.
I'm also entering the card for these challenges:
Stampavie - Dots Just us Girls - Let's get Digital Simon Says - recipe: 2 patterned papers, 3 types of embellishment. Spoonfull of Sugar - Floral designs

Sew much for summer!

Well I don't know where that lovely summery weather we've been having has gone - it started raining late on Sunday and hasn't stopped since! I'm sure it's good for the garden but that's about all. It's Owen's prom tonight and I was looking forward to getting some great pics of him and his friends heading off in their limo but if the weather doesn't brighten up I don't think we'll get much of a photo op!
Anyway I have a card to share today, not done too much cardmaking in the last 10 days or so what with visitors, visiting and sewing taking up much of my time. I have been making some felt and fabric brooches as well as the sock toys and hope to sell some at an event at the weekend.


This card was made for the Pear Tree Designs challenge who have a sketch to follow this week. I have used my brand new LOTV stamp 'On Tiptoe' and used Promarkers to colour the image. Crafty Cardmakers have challenged crafters to use their most and least favourite colours this week so my slightly unusual combo consists of my favourite (at the moment) Duck Egg Blue and Red which I normally only use at Christmas!

My card is also good for the following challenges:
Craftalicious - New (my stamp)
Cupcake Craft - Dazzle Us
Pink Elephant - Red, Scallops & a Bow
Quirky Crafts - Girly Girl

Sock toys and a challenge card

Had my sister Gillian up to stay at the weekend and then her daughter, the lovely Emma came up from Manchester to join her for a couple of days. We were looking at potential care homes for our Mum who is suffering from Alzheimer's and have found a lovely one only a few minutes away from my home so are keeping all fingers and toes crossed that we can get her a place there. Anyway while Gillian was here we had a shot at making some sock toys from a book I had borrowed from the library - these are the results:

Gillian made the Winking Bunny and I did the little Pink Piggy and when Gillian and Emma went back to their respective homes on Wednesday I made the Lucky Cat, I'm sure there will be more to follow very soon - it's quite addictive - I'll be looking for interesting socks whenever I'm shopping now!

After work today I had to make my DT card for the new Scrap the Art challenge. This time our inspiration comes from this photograph by Susan Weller "One-A still life"


My card is a very simple design using an image from Lavinia Stamps, I coloured the background with Distress Inks and spritzed the card with water mixed with Pearl Pigments from Blonde Moments, I used Stickles and a flat-backed gem for a bit of bling. The sentiment is from Stampin Up.


Going to enter this for the Charisma Cardz challenge - Flowers and My Time to Craft challenge - Wild Thing