Silhouettes

This week's spotlight challenge at Crafty Cardmakers is about Silhouettes another new challenge for me, I've never used a silhouette image before but I'm pleased with how this has turned out.

I used the digi stamp watching you by Stitchy of Stitchy Bear Stamps and printed it onto white cardstock - my printer has been playing up recently and any tone on an image is printing out green (?!) in this case it works quite well although other times it can be a bit of a nuisance! I used distress ink to colour my cardstock and sprayed some Dylusions ink to give the splattered fairydust effect. I added Stickles for sparkle on the wings, and made the flowers with lengths of twisted gold net, adding a light spray of the ink and finishing them off with dew drops to the centers. The sentiment is by Hero Arts.

Entering the following challenges
Corrosive Challenges - Distressing
Allsorts - Make your own Flowers
Card Creations & More By C - Sparkle 
Challenge Up Your Life - Fairytales 
Fabulous Friday - Use metal on your card, project, layout (the butterfly is metal)
Fairy Knoll - Feeing a little green 
Patties Creations - Make your own embellishment 
CCEE Stampers - Distress your papers 
Crafty Purple Frog - A touch of magic 

Creative Inspirations Templates challenge

This fortnight at Creative Inspirations we're focusing on Templates - make any creative project as long as it has been made with a Template. Our sponsor is Regina from the Cutting Cafe. Who has kindly sponsored the winner's prize of 3 sets of their choice from the website.

I used a pillow box template with a frame cut-out from our sponsor and made a joy fold card to go alongside it, both of these techniques were new to me but then that's what these challenges are all about isn't it!! The paper I used is from DCWV Cafe Mediterranean, I really love the rich colours and the floral designs in this stack. The ribbon was recycled from some packaging and the lace came from Hobbycraft. I also made a gift tag to go alongside the set but Neil has gone off with the camera so I can't take a pic at the moment - may add it later.

 

Challenges entered:

Crafty Emma - Flowers and flutterbys
Crazy 4 Challenges - Flowers
Secret Crafter - Sweet treats 
Shannon's Sentiments - Fussy cutting 
Sugar Creek Hollow - Finish inside and outside of your card 
Crafty Catz - Create something for a friend 
Simply Create - Bold & bright 
Stamp Something - Something with flowers
Paper Romance - Anything goes
Rubber Cafe  - Fun folds 

Sugar Bowl win

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to win six fabulous Sugar Nellie stamps in the Sugar Bowl challenge and I had a little time to play yesterday so inked up the first of them - this gorgeous Leanne Ellis stamp Belle Flower. 

When I had coloured the image I realised that I wanted to keep the card very simple to show to it off so I embossed the cardstock with a Cuttlebug folder instead of using a backing paper. I doodled around  the sentiment by Polkadoodles (which was free with Cardmaking Essentials) to tie it in with the border on the image. The roses came from Wild Orchid and the ribbon from Hobbycraft and I finished the card off with three glass flat backed pearls from Kars.

Entering the following challenges:
Forgotten Scraps - Spring or flowers
Freshly Brewed - ribbons and bows
Flourishes - Birthday
Oldie But Goodie Challenge - Spring is in the Air
Scrap-Creations - Birthday Cards
Crafty Sentiments - Spring
Do You Stack Up? - Anything Goes
Shelly's Images - Ribbon
Southern Girls - Brads, gems or dewdrops
Stampin' B's - Use a flower

Sonny Honeycloud

I recently won a set of Pollycraft's Sonnny Honeycloud digi stamps in a challenge and this is the first one I've used on a card - I think she's just perfect for a teen birthday. She was coloured with Promarkers and cut out and mounted on backing papers from Blonde Moments which I distressed with scissors, I stamped the sentiment and inked the edge of the card before adding some faux stitching at the side (minimal I know but hopefully enough to qualify for the challenges at I love Promarkers and The Paper Variety!) Finished it all of with some lace, ribbon & buttons for the Pink Elephant challenge.

Challenges I'm entering:
I Love Promarkers - Use Promarkers and stitching

The Paper Variety - Stitching

Pink Elephant - Buttons, lace and ribbon
A Spoonful Of Sugar - Birthday wishes
Anything Goes - Distressing
Creative Craft Challenges - Cards for teens
High Hopes Stamps - Female birthday
Partytime Tuesdays - Anything goes
Stamps R Us - For the girls
Crafty Emma - Spots and stripes
Simon Says Stamp and Show... - Some stripes!
Creative Inspirations Paint - Polka dots and stripes 

Crafty Creations challenge 107

Claire has chosen the theme for this week's challenge: Down at the bottom of my garden....lives!

Is it wild life or fairies??.... we'd love to see your interpretation ! 

Some of the images used by the design team were provided by this week's sponsor Teri at  Delicious Doodles - my one is called Mushroom Fairy and I used my Prismacolour pencils to colour the  image and added stickles on her wings. The papers are Bloom & Grow, the flowers are Prima & Petaloo and I've finished them off with Dew Drops.

 

Entering the following challenges:

Sweet Stamps - Flowers 

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Spring - flowers everywhere!

KB Cute Monday - Glitter

Lexi's Creations - Flowers

Corrosive Challenges - Magical Creatures

Sparkles Forum - Fairies

Stampin' Sisters in Christ - Use Green

Allsorts - Inspired by nature

Squigglefly - Digital Delights (use something starting with D) 

Jude has half-term candy

My blogging buddy and Creative Inspirations teamie Jude has some rather special half-term candy - pop over to her blog and take part in the draw now!!

I'm back!

I've had a lovely long weekend with my sisters in Hampshire but now it's back to reality - I've a shedload of housework to catch up on and I need to get ready for the family coming to visit for a few days from Wednesday. So loads to be getting done but I've promised myself to leave a little time for cardmaking as long as I get enough done around the house today! It's surprising how much I miss sitting down and playing with paper when I'm not able to do it whenever I want. 

My two sisters and I did manage to fit in a little fun time playing with feltmaking and I made a little bag/holder for my phone which turned out quite well - what do you think?

Today's card is one I made before going away last week, I used - a new digi stamp available here- coloured again with a mix of Promarkers and Prismacolour pencils, Bloom & Grow paper and flowers from Wild Orchid. The sentiment stamp is by Stampin Up.

 

Some challenges I'm entering:

I Did It Creations - Anything Goes

Scrappy Frogs - Love

Crafty Ann's - Love is all around

Guylou's Inimitability - Anything goes

Totally Papercrafts - Use a digi

Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Anything goes

Paper Crafting Journey - Anything goes
Karber Monthly - Use a digital stamp & love & friendship

Little Claire's - Anything Goes

Cardmadfairy's Digi Days

Today is the start of the second challenge at my new blog Cardmadfairy's Digi Days and the theme this week is Distress it.  Sketching Stamper is sponsoring this week's challenge so if you'd like an opportunity to win 6 of Chris's fabulous images pop over and take part now.

I have used my newest digi stamp Sara for my dt card, the image has been coloured with Promarkers and Prismacolour pencils, I then used Distress Inks around the edges of the cardstock. I made a flower using punched circles from an old book which I also coloured with Distress Inks and sprayed with Glimmer Mist. I crumpled the circles while they were wet and dried them with a heat gun before adding a brad to the centre. I also spritzed the image with a glimmer mist to give it a bit of sparkle.

I'm entering my card in a few other challenges:

Creative Cottage - fabulous florals / lots of flowers

Fab 'n' Funky - make your own embellishment

Forgotten Scraps - Spring or flowers

Little Red Wagon - use mist

Simon Says Stamp - make your own embellishment

Stampin' Royalty - mark it up / use markers

My Time To Craft - circles

Crafty Creations Thankyou

Our challenge this week at Crafty Creations is Thank You,  and we'd like to take this opportunity to thank you, our participants, for supporting our blog and inspiring us each week. We are sponsored by Stamp Fairy who provided the team with some cute bear images and the fab Thank You sentiment roundel which I have used on my card.

The image I've used is one of my own, available in the digi stamp shop on my Cardmadfairy blog, she is called Flirty Fairy and I've coloured her with Promarkers and used glossy Accents with extra fine glitter on her wings. My backing paper is from DCWV and the flowers are punched, embossed and layered with pretty metal findings and buttons which I found in a charity shop last time I was down staying with my sister Gillian in Hampshire - heading down there again tomorrow for a few days & wonder if we'll have any time for craft shopping?! The little dragonfly was made from shrink plastic which I coloured with Alcohol Inks before shrinking.

I'm entering my card for these challenges:
Incy Wincy Designs - Use a minimum of 2 colouring mediums: I used Promarkers to colour the fairy and Alcohol Inks on the dragonfly
Sparkles Forum - Fairies
Patties Creations - Recycle something: Buttons
Tellen's Place - Stripes
CCEE Stampers - Dry embossing: embossed the flowers 
Scrap Creations - Spring fever
Ooh La La Creations - For someone special 

Oops - nearly forgot!!!

Good grief - here we are at Monday again and I forgot that today I should be posting my card for the Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight challenge - should have saved my earlier post for tomorrow!!

Anyway - the spotlight this week falls on Plastic - we want you to use some kind of plastic on your creation - Friendly Plastic, Shrink Plastic, Acetate & I'm sure there must be many other kinds too!

I used Friendly Plastic for my DT card, I melted the Friendly Plastic with my heat gun and used a heart shaped cutter (like a metal cookie cutter but much smaller) to cut the hearts - I can only do 1 at a time because the plastic has to harden again before you can safely remove the cutter. I stamped a swirl on to the stamped & distressed background and glued the hearts on to resemble flowers. I made the word love from alphabet stamps and stamped it onto another piece of card. Added lace and flowers to finish it all off.

This card is entered for these challenges:
Paper Sundaes - Use 2 of the following: Flowers, Lace, Distressing and the Colour Pink
Stamp Something - Something for your Valentine
Stamp Man - Hearts
AiFactory  - Valentine's Day/Love 
Paper Crafting Journey - Love is in the air 
Pixie Dust Studio - Be my Valentine 
Rainbow Lady's - It's all about love
Creative Craft World  - Love

Love for Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day,  I'm showing off another of my new love images today, Heart Vase can be found over on my new challenge blog Carmadfairy's Digi Days in the digi stamp shop

I used Promarkers to colour the image and Glossy Accents on the vase to give it a look of glass, the flower is a handmade felt one to which I added some Stickles for sparkle.

I'm entering this for the following challenges:

Crafty Pad - Hearts

Creative Cowgirls - Hearts

Paperworks Co - Hearts

Scrappy Frogs - Love

2 Sisters - Hearts

Bee Crafty - Digi and hearts

Crazy 4 Challenges - Hearts

One Stop Craft - Love is in the air

Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - Love is in the air

Card Makin' Mamas  - Valentine

Crafty Ann's  - Love is all around

Crafty Catz  - Valentine's/love

Fabulous Friday - Use the word love

Fairy Knoll - Hearts

Fun with Shapes & More - Love/heart

Sew Many Cards - Valentine    

C.R.A.F.T. - Valentine's

Crafty Purple Frog - Valentine's Day/romance 

Crafty Sentiments - Valentine's/Love     

Cute Card Thursday - Hearts & flowers 

Dutch Dare Card Challenge - Love is in the air / red, white, pink 

Distressed at Creative Inspirations

This week at Creative Inspirations we are distressed - well at least that's our challenge! We want to see your distressed cards, Atc’s, Altered art... anything as long as it has been distressed.

We are sponsored by Simon Says Stamp

 

and by Stitchy Bear Stamps

 

Stitchy very kindly provided the DT with images and I have used this beautiful fairy, the image, because I'm having problems with my printer at the moment, came out more green than black but I decided I liked the effect so I didn't add much colour to it - apart from the skintones, I just added a bit of glitter and sparkle. I distressed the edges of all the designer paper and cardstock, stamped some swirls, cut the image out and mounted it with foam pads. I added some sparkly ribbon, some fibre and a little bunch of flowers and buds, then finished it off with a sentiment from a set by Hero Arts.

Hope you like today's card which I'm entering for the following challenges:
Charisma Cardz - Mythical / fantasy
One Stitch at a Time - Make it pretty
Fab'n'Funky - Tempting texture
Our Creative Corner - Cut something out
City Crafter - All that glitters
Craft us Crazy - Anything goes 
Craft your passion - Anything goes 
Little Claire's - Anything goes 

Another Valentine's card...

... and another new image - this one is Lulu - a little fairy with a big heart! She was coloured with Promarkers and the background is the result of a little playing with Distress Inks and a Tim Holtz mask. Patterned paper is Prima and the sentiment is also one of my latest digi stamps available now at Cardmadfairy Creations and also at my new challenge blog here.

 

Entering this card here:
Crafts and Me - red
Creative Craft World - love
For Fun Challenges - hearts
Penny's Paper-Crafty - hearts a flutter
Scrapbook Sisters - my Valentine
Sisterhood of Crafters - in love with Valentine's
Tiffany Doodles  - Valentine's
Stampin' Royalty - hearts
A Spoonful Of Sugar - show some love
My Time To Craft  - hearts & flowers
Everybody-Art-Challenge - Valentine
Flourishes - buttons
Karen's Doodles Netherlands - Valentine
Digital Tuesday - from the heart/Valentines
CRAFT - Valentine's

Crafty Creations 105 - Three little words

Today's new challenge at Crafty Creations is Three Little Words - we just want you to use three words on your project - easy!! Our sponsor this time is Glitterbabe's Digis and she's offered 2 digi designs from her brand new store:

Well the obvious three little words - especially at this time of year - would be I love you but I've been making so many Valentine's cards with hearts and love recently I wanted to do something a little different - love is still involved but maybe a little more subtly!

The stamp this image is part of is a long time favourite of mine Falling Softly from Stamps Happen.  It is a really big stamp and when I've used it in the past I've stamped the whole image but this time I wanted to do it differently so I cut out the pixie (I think that's what she is anyway) and mounted her on a dark background - I'm really pleased with how it has turned out. Hope you like it too.

I'm entering my card for these challenges:
Cards & Things - COLOUR purple, blue, green
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
Magical Mondays - FANTASY and Love
Aly's Sunday Challenge - Bling Bling
Stampin With The Dragon - Anything goes
Sweet Stampin - Spring Flowers
Pear Tree - Free for all
Paper Play - Stamp it out

Key to my Heart

Another of my new digi stamps Key to my Heart is the image I've used for the card I'm sharing today, there are so many challenges about just now based on love & Valentines it's hard not to be inspired to create something romantic! 

I coloured the image with Promarkers and added Glossy Accents and Sakura Stardust highlights to the details. I also stamped a  Stampin Up key lightly in the background to soften it a little then inked the edge of the cardstock with the same colour. The papers are from  Funky Vintage from Dovecraft & Papermania Capsule Collection and I made the flowers by die cutting a scalloped circle then cutting into it and layering the contrasting coloured paper in the centre, the edges of the petals were also inked to create a bit of dimension. I added a tiny key charm as a finishing touch.

You will find all of my new digi stamps here.

 Challenges entered:
Passion for Promarkers - Let there be Love
Crazy Challenge - Lots of Love
Incy Wincy Designs - Love
Paper Playtime - Use Cupid or hearts 
Pink Elephant - Be my valentine
Stamp with Fun - Love
Stamping Vacation - Vintage - Keys and Locks
Stamps R Us - Love/Valentines
Crafty Pad - Love is in the air
Creative Cowgirls - Love is in the air
Creative Inspirations Paint - Hearts
I Did It Creations - Love is in the air
Sentimental Sundays - SENTIMENT and Happy Valentines Day

Rachael's birthday

My lovely niece Rachael turned 20 on Friday and I made this card for her, the free digi image by the very generous Ann Bodil reminded me a lot of her!

The papers are by Doolicraft, the numbers are die cut using Cuttlekids dies and the sentiment is handwritten. I used my Promarkers to colour the image and a white gel pen for the dots.

Entering the following challenges:
One Stop Craft - Use number/s on your card
Catch The Bug  - Anything Goes
Alphabet Challenge  - "N" is for numbers
One Stitch At A Time - Use a Digi
Craft Us Crazy - Anything goes
C.R.A.F.T. - In the roll of a die (use die cut)

Button Heart

Today's card uses another of my new dig stamps - Button Heart available here now, I coloured the buttons with Promarkers adding Glossy Accents on some, I also coloured the background to match one of my backing papers, I then cut out the whole shape and used foam pads to give it a bit of dimension. The backing papers are K&Co Classic K - Bailey, I sanded the edge of the green one to distress it a bit then tied the white organza ribbon in a bow, adding pearl pins and a matching button from my stash. The sentiment is also one of my digis and can be found in my digi stamp shop.

Entering this for these challenges:
Allsorts - Love Love Love
Bee Crafty - DIGI and Hearts
ECP Challenges - Love
Crazy 4 Challenges - Valentines
Ellephantastic - Distressing, with a Love theme
Secret Crafter - Valentine
Dutch Dare Card Challenge - Buttons
Pixie Cottage - Buttons
Paper Variety - Hearts
Try it on Tuesday - Feel The love

Sundays With Chrissy - All About Love

  

Crafty Calendar - Love

So glad it's Saturday, it's been such a busy week and I've not been sleeping too well - a long lie this morning was just what the doctor ordered!

It has also been quite an exciting week, my daughter Lynsey got the keys to her first flat on Wednesday so myself & Neil spent a few hours with her and her boyfriend Fin at Ikea picking out new furniture and other smaller items, we then went to see the flat which is in Edinburgh and then out for a celebratory meal with them and our two sons - a fun night ;o) 

Also yesterday was the launch of my new challenge blog, our very first challenge (Romance) and a release of new digi stamps mostly with a love theme just in time for Valentine's day.

Last but not least I won a challenge - my Water card from Monday's post won the ABC challenge  and a set of fab digis from Pollycraft - thanks guys!

Anyway - onto my dt card for this month's Crafty Calendar challenge our theme this month is Love

and our sponsor Squiggle Stamps was kind enough to supply some digi stamps for the team to use, my image is called Lovey-Dovey and was coloured with Promarkers,  I wanted to keep the card very clean and simple so I embossed a small piece of white cardstock and softly inked the edges to go behind my image instead of using patterned paper. I printed and coloured my image twice and used the little hearts from the branches to scatter round and add a little clour to the background. My ribbon was re-cycled from a Christmas present and the sentiment is by Heidi Swapp.

Entering the following challenges:

Card Makin' Mamas - Valentine

Fairy Fun Fridays - For a sweetheart
Mami Doodles - Magic of love
Polkadoodle - With hearts
Raise The Bar - Hearts
Simply Create - Give your heart away
Stampin For The Weekend - Valentine's Day
Tellen's Place - Hearts 
Stamp Something - Use a digi
Southern Girls - Dry embossing

Today's the day!

Today sees the launch of my new challenge blog Cardmadfairy's Digi Days challenge and we are starting with a popular theme at the moment - Romance.

I have used one of my newly released images, Love Mug, and made a tea bag holder to mount it on - (there really is a teabag inside), the image was coloured with Promarkers then cut out and stuck on with foam pads. The scalloped and plain circles were cut with Nestability dies and the edges inked to make them stand out from the backing paper a bit more. Designer papers are K&Co and the ribbon came from Dotcom gift shop. The tag on the teabag was cut with a Stampin Up punch and the little teapot and the sentiment stamps are both also from Stampin Up.

New images available from the Digi Stamp Shop on  the Cardmadfairy's Digi Days blog.

I hope you like my card and will pop over to check out the new challenge and see the great work my design team have made with the new images :o)

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Creative Craft World - Love
I Love Promarkers - Anything goes
Penny's Paper-Crafty - Hearts a flutter
Scrapbook Sisters - Red, red, red
Simon Says Stamp - Love is in the air
Sisterhood of Crafters - Anything goes
Sliekjes Card Challenges - Love

Crafty Creations - Red, Red Rose

Our challenge at Crafty Creations this week is taking inspiration from the poem A Red Red Rose by Scotland's favourite poet Rabbie Burns. Our own Claire (Hope Jacare) designed the lovely digi image Art Nouveaux Vase 2 I have used on my card, I coloured it with Promarkers and added some glitter using Sakura Stardust pens. The backing paper is Angel Breathe by Prima, the mesh was from a swap and the sentiment I picked up at a stamp fair a long time ago and have no idea who made it.  winner Our winner this week will receive some lovely Prima Roses - Roses of Spain Anais and other surprise flowers.......

My card fits the challenges at:
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Love is in the air
Karens Doodles - Love and Red / Pink / White
Lexi's Creations - Valentines
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Show some Love 
Stamping Scrapping Central  - Valentines
Cheerful Stamp Pad - Be my valentine
Creative Cowgirls  - Love is in the air
Creative Inspirations Paint - Love
I Did It Creations - Red for Valentines 
Craft Your Days Away - Love
Marks Finest Papers - Valentine Card

For a change

Yep it's a male card!! I hardly ever do them (even though I have two boys, a husband, five brother's in law and a nephew) but sometimes I'm asked to make one for a friend and this is one of these times.

The theme was to be skiing but although I searched for a digital image on the subject I couldn't find anything suitable so I just had to make my own! I found a picture of a skier and altered it in Illustrator, enlarged it, gave it a blurred effect and printed it out. I then made a tiny outline version and made it into a repeat pattern for the paper which I then stuck onto cardstock, coloured with Promarkers and cut out the numbers. Some striped backing paper to match from DCWV, a handwritten sentiment and a few matching eyelets completed the card.

I'm entering my card for these challenges:
Aly's Sunday Challenge  - For the guys
Crafty Pad - Something for the boys
Paper Playtime - Anything goes with a digi
Alphabet Challenge - "M" is for men
Tellen's Place - Make it for the guys
AiFactory - For the boys