Summertime

I have another summer card to share today and it's my last dt card for Creative Inspirations, I've been on the design team there for more than 2 years and although I'm sad to leave I have decided it's time for me to move on to pastures new and to spend a bit more time trying new things. 

I'm really enjoying the art journalling I've been doing and have also been dabbling in mixed media canvases and would like to have more time to play so cutting back on my design team commitments should allow me to do that.

Anyway back to today's card, the cute little LOTV image was coloured with Promarkers and I found the scraps of lovely pink and cream papers buried deep in my stash of 12x12s so unfortunately don't know the manufacturers. The flowers are from Petaloo and the border punch at the bottom is an Xcut

from Docrafts. I've added some ribbon I won in a recent challenge and some brads to finish it off.

Also entering the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge - M is for metal

Crafty Ann's - Summertime

Fairy Tale - Summer, sun, sunshine

Fashionista Friday - Summer

Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes

Polkadoodle - Anything you would find in an English garden

Stamp Something - Summer fun

Colour Create - Pink green, white

Little Miss Muffet Challenges - Summer

Paper Play - In the garden

Shelly's Images - Summer

Amber's Crafts and Stuff - Patterned paper

Divas by Design - Summer

I Love Promarkers - Anything goes 

Little Darlings Challenges - Girly

Stampavie and More - Summer

...and back to Christmas!

I seem to be jumping backwards and forwards between seasons at the moment, there are so many Christmas in July challenges and, at the same time, summer challenges are also abundant.

My dt card for this week's new challenge at Crafty Creations, where Christmas is the theme, once again features Teddy Bea and this time she's all wrapped up in her cosy winter outfit. I coloured the image with Promarkers and added some ultra fine glitter on her fur collars, cuffs, pompoms etc. The circles are die cut, the snowflakes are punched and the sentiment comes from an Inkadinkadoo set. I hope you like my Christmas card, I'll be back in a few days with another summer challenge one :o)

Challenges entered:
Craft Your Passion - Christmas in July
Paper Creations Ink - Christmas in July
Pollycraft - Christmas in July
Christmas Inspirations - Anything goes 
Creative Inspirations Paint - Christmas 
Designed 2 Delight - Christmas in July
Fun with Shapes & More - Christmas in July
Simply Create - Christmas time
Polkadoodle - Christmas in July

Very clean & simple

I've a quick little project to share today, it's something I made a couple of weeks ago for Lynsey's birthday. Well actually I didn't make it, I just decorated this mini kraft Moleskine notebook. Lynsey writes for a living and she loves her notebooks - always carrying one around with her - so when I saw these cute little Moleskine ones on Amazon I decided to pretty one up for her. I used the Gorjuss girl stamp Little Miss Attitude and coloured the image with my Prismacolour pencils. The only addition was the stamped word Inspire which came from an Inkadinkadoo set.

Entering this for the following challenges:
Just Us Girls - Decorate a Gift/Kraft Bag
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Clean and simple
Sassy Studio Designs - Clean and simple
Squigglefly - Use Kraft paper

Just for fun

Had time to fit in a quick 'just for fun' card yesterday, I had a couple of new Teddy Bea stamps I wanted to play with and there are so many summer challenges around at the moment that I thought I'd join in with some of them :o)

Challenges I'd like to enter:

Blogger's Challenge - Summertime 

Fairy Tale - Summer, sun, sunshine
Fussy and Fancy - Summer
Stamp Something - Include embellishment
Little Miss Muffet Challenges - Summer
Crafts and Me - Add a flower
Craft Room Challenge - Butterflies
Teddy Bo Challenge - Project Featuring Teddy Bea
Craft Your Days Away  - Summertime 
ECP Challenges - Summer Theme

Oh so girly

Our new challenge today at Cardmadfairy's Digi Days has the theme Oh so girly and I have chosen to use Rosie one of the many girly images available from Cardmadfairy's Creations and teamed it with the pretty Basic Grey papers, colouring the image with Promarkers to tie in with the papers. The paper roses were cut with a Marianne's Creatables die and finished with glitter

 

Craft Room Challenge - Butterflies 

Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT Challenge - Summer Birthday

Happileigh Scrappin - Make your own embellishment

KB Cute Monday - Use a digi stamp

Ellephantastic - Celebrations

Marks Finest Papers - Bright and Cheery with Pink, Yellow & Green

House That Stamps Built - Glitter

Your Next Stamp Challenge - 3 embellishments, 2 patterned papers, 1 image

Southern Girls - Happy birthday

Seeing Double

This week the challenge at Crafty Creations is all about using the same image twice so I have taken my Meljens digi image and placed two on the same page, flipping the second one to face the opposite way. When printed out onto card I used distress inks to colour the background and Promarkers to add some colour to the bees, using some stickles for a bit of sparkle on the wings. I added some doodling round the edge, a sentiment from and some nice bright summery flowers to complete my card.

Entering it for the following challenges:

Creative Stamp Friends - Summer

Paper Playtime - Summer

Pollycraft - Summer Fun

Stamps & Fun = Creativity - Digistamp 

One Stitch At A Time - Flowers

Scrappy Frogs - Summer flowers

Digi's With Attitude! - Anything goes challenge

Fussy and Fancy - Summer

Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes

Paper Cutz - Anything you might see in the sky

Stampin For The Weekend - Wings and things

Spotlight on ATCs

The Spotlight falls on ATCs for this week's challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and although some of the other dt members have made sets, I have made just one for this challenge - I quite enjoy making them and used to like swapping but I haven't made any for a while so it was fun doing this one. 

 

I used Dylusions spray inks applied with babywipes to create the background, then stamped, sponged and splodged on some more inks using a mask, a couple of stamps and some bottle tops to make it a bit more interesting. I stamped the PaperArtsy image on a separate piece of card and coloured it with a mix of distress ink and Promarkers then cut round it and stuck it onto the base card. Finally I added some handmade mesh paper which I  coloured with Promarker in the top corner to add texture.

 

Other challenges I'm entering: 

ATC Challenges - Windows or doors or anything goes

Allsorts - Free & easy 

Artistic Stampers - Use hot colours

Totally Papercrafts - Girly girl

Craft your Passion  - Text it

Make it Monday - Anything goes

Christmas in July

It's time for a new challenge at Creative Inspirations and this week our theme is Christmas in July so a good opportunity for me to use a set of Christmas stamps from Inkadinkadoo which I bought in the January sales and put aside for just this sort of challenge :o). 

For my first Christmas card since the winter, I stamped the large snowflake circle and cut it out with a nestie die and inked the edge to soften it, I then stamped the individual snowflake and used a punch to cut it again inking the edge, finally adding another contrasting circle behind and layering them all together using foam pads. The sentiment was also part of the stamp set and I layered it with more of the blue card and stamped a couple of tiny snowflakes to tie it in with the PaperArtsy backing paper. A bit of silk binding ribbon and a clear gem in the centre of the snowflake finishes the card off. Our sponsor this week - Letraset are offering our lucky winner a set of pens and a bleedproof pad so pop on over and start your Christmas cards now if you haven't already!

More Christmas challenges for this week:
2 Sisters - Christmas In July 
Crafty Emma - Christmas
Fairy Knoll -  Christmas in July
Jellypark Challenges - Christmas In Jul
Stampin With The Dragon - Christmas in July  
Craft Us Crazy - Christmas in July and/or distressed/vintage
Digistamps 4 Joy - Christmas
House That Stamps Built - Christmas in July

Party dress

I love this beautiful image from Gayle - creator of Teddy Bo which is one of several I won in a recent challenge so when I was looking for something pretty to use with some gorgeous Basic Grey backing papers this one stood out. The image was coloured with Promarkers, cut out carefully with scissors and mounted on foam pads, the dp's are from the Hello Luscious 6x6 pad. I also coloured a piece of ivory silk binding ribbon to match in with the paper - so easy with the Promarkers!

 

Entering it for these challenges:

Little Red Wagon - Lime, pink, white

Pixie Cottage - Sketch* and/or ribbon

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

Your Next Stamp Challenge - Buttons (2nd wk)

Color Throwdown - Color

Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - At least 2DP's & at least 2 embellishments 

Kaboodle Doodles - Use those scissors

Simon Says Stamp and Show... - Some stitching

There She Goes - Fabric

Crafty Sentiments - Use stitching 

Do You Stack Up? - Faux or real stitching 

Rainbow Lady's - Real, faux stiching or pinked edges 

Pixie Dust Studio - Girly girly 

Boyz to Men

It's time for a new challenge at Crafty Creations and this week our theme Boyz to Men has been chosen by teamie Christine, she would like to see the full range of male cards - anything from babies through to granddads! Our sponsors the very fabulous and definitely one of my favourites -  Lili of the Valley - supplied the team with a couple of digi images to choose from and I was excited to see this one as there are quite a few guitar playing male members in my family! 

I coloured the image with my Promarkers to tone in with the Basic Grey backing papers and was pleased when I found some music printed ribbon in my ribbon box, the buttons are die cut card finished with Glossy Accents which makes them look pretty real I think. A little bit of faux stitching,   a punched tab finished with a Basic Grey brad and a sentiment printed from the computer complete my card.

Entering the following challenges:
Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - At least 2DP's & at least 2 Embellishments 
Use It Tuesdays - Animals 
Happileigh Scrappin - Critters
Simon Says Stamp and Show... - Some Stitching
A Gem of a Challenge - Lets Hear it For The Boys 
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes
Phindy’s Place - Buttons 
Sew Many Cards - Recipe: blue; ribbon; die cut; 3 round buttons 

Lynsey's birthday

Thursday was my gorgeous daughter Lynsey's birthday so of course I had to make a card for her. I'd forgotten I had this stamp and although I'm a big fan of Leanne Ellis's images I hadn't got round to using it yet so when I spotted it while flicking through my unmounted stamps I thought this was a suitable time to ink it up for the first time. 

I coloured the image with Promarkers (have you checked out the extra fine nibs yet - I'm just about to order a batch!) and once again used backing papers from the Cloisonne set from GCD Studios - loving these papers :o) The lace is almost the last of a length I've had in my stash for ages and I swapped the pale blue ribbon it came with for one which matched my colour scheme.

I also decorated the box (a lovely necklace Neil picked out as one of her presents was in), to match the card.

 

Entering the card for these challenges:

Paper Creator's Crafts  - Special Occasion 
Wags 'n Whiskers - Birthday
Art Impressions Stamps Challenge - Use something from your stash
Charisma Cardz - All about flowers - plus a *DT Call*
Cute Card Thursday - Lace
Stamp Insanity - Anything goes

Include an Animal

Our latest challenge at Cardmadfairy's Digi Days is Include an Animal - so I have combined two of my digi stamps Henry and Sophie - both available from the Digi Stamp Shop at the Digi Days blog and also at Cardmadfairy's Creations.

The backing paper is once again Cloisonne from GCD Studios and the ribbon is from my stash, the image was coloured with my new Tria markers from Letraset - the extra fine point was perfect for colouring the pattern on Sophie's dress.

Also entering my card for the challenges at:
Freshly Brewed - 2 patterned papers, 2 embellishments, 2 shapes
Anything Goes Challenge - The Letter 'D' (dog)
Bearly Mine - Anything Goes
Craft Room Challenge - Summer Birthdays 
Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - Summer
Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT Challenge - Summer Birthday
Forever Friends - Must include animal - Birthdays
Stamps R Us - There was a little girl
Sarah Hurley - Circles

Paris theme at Crafty Creations

This time at Crafty Creations our challenge is to make anything but a card with a Paris theme. We are sponsored this week by Black Leaf Studios who supplied the team with a set of digi stamps Poodle in Paris from which I chose to use the signpost which I cut out and added the letters to make a Metro sign, I really enjoyed creating this tag and plan to add it to the art journal about myself I'm currently working on - Neil & I went to Paris for our honeymoon 21 years ago - seems like only yesterday :o)

  

Entering it for these challenges:

A Spoonful Of Sugar - Sewing 

Bows 'n Berries - Use Kraft paper 

Paper Sundaes - Stitching

One Stop Craft - Make a Tag or include Tag in Project

So sweet

I have a just for fun card to share today - I really love the Lili of the Valley image and wanted to make a card with it,  I also just got the backing papers and was keen to use them for something so this is the result! The papers are Cloisonne from GCD studios which I came across while mooching around WH Smith the other week, the sentiment is from Funky Kits and the other bits are from my stash.

Entering these challenges:
Stamps R Us - There was a little girl
4 Crafty Chicks - Stitching
Southern Girls - Childhood memories 
Paper Sundaes - Stitching
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
KB Cute Monday - Anything Goes
Make it Monday - Anything Goes

Masking in the Spotlight

It's time for another spotlight challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and this week the spotlight falls on Masking - this can be using a bought mask (or stencil), making your own, stamping your main image and masking over it before you do your background, using torn paper as a mask, but NOT a picture of a mask.

There is a great stamp as a prize for our winner this week so pop on over to the challenge blog and check it out!

I have used two images from Lavinia stamps, masking the fairy one while stamping the fairy houses  as a background. I also used a masking method I saw in Craft Stamper magazine to stamp a flowery border - using a rectangle of paper held down with blu-tack and stamping a variety of flowers in different colours to create a frame. I used a combination of distress inks and Promarkers to colour the image and stamped the flowers with the distress inks.

Entering this in the following challenges: 

Crafty Pad - particular style, easel/fold back/tri shutter/rocker, etc. 

Stamptacular Sunday - Must use a stamp - use 2 of the same thing

Secret Crafter - Here Comes Summer

Alphabet Challenge - I for Insect  (butterfly)

Crafty Catz -  Colors of Summer 

Little Miss Muffet Challenges - Red, orange, yellows

Some Odd Girl - Bright & blinding colours (no pastels) 
Gingerloft - Add beads
Happileigh Scrappin - Frame it

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Fairies

Red, white & blue

There is a new challenge today at Creative Inspirations and this time the theme is Red, white & blue and we are sponsored by our regular sponsor Simon says Stamp.

My card features Flirty Anya from The Greeting Farm - I won this image a while back but this is the first time I've inked it up. I coloured her with my favourite Promarkers pens,  trimmed round the image and mounted it on a white die cut circle. The lacy die cut is from a Nellie Snellen set and I cut it out twice then used the second one to create the border at the bottom. The backing paper is from 7 gypsies and is the reverse of the one I used in my second last post. I added a fab crochet flower from and some other embellishments from my stash to finish it off.

Also entering some other red, white & blue challenges:
Bloggers Challenge - Red, white and blue
Card Makin' Mamas - Red, white and blue
Fairy Knoll - Red, white and blue
Off the Wall Craftiness - Red, white and any shade of blue
Craft Us Crazy - Red, white and blue and/or Summer theme
Delightful Challenges - Red, white and blue
Pixie Dust Studio - Red, white and blue with optional stars
The Rubber Cafe - Red, white and blue
Amber's Crafts and Stuff - Red, white and blue
Crafting for all Seasons - Red, white and blue
Digistamps 4 Joy - Red, white and blue

Whoops!

So who forgot that it was the first Saturday of the month and who should have been posting her DT card for this month's Crafty Calendar challenge - that's right silly me! What with all that's been going on this week I just let it sneak up on me without realising! Fortunately I did have my card done - just forgot to add it to the admin blog so it's missing from the challenge post - sorry teamies, will try to be more on the ball for the next one :oP

The theme this month is Under the Sea and I have used some of my new digi images (available here) for my DT card. The image was coloured with Promarkers and I've added Glossy Accents to the bubbles and used various fibres from my stash to embellish.

Also going to enter it for these challenges:
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes
Mami Doodles - Heavy metal
Stamp Something - Use a digi
My Partner in Crafting Crime - Beach themed
Paper Creations Ink - Beach theme
Pollycraft - Make a splash

Free stamp

It's been a really busy week, I've been working full-time and helping Owen to get organised for his first holiday abroad with his friends - they left in the early hours of Thursday for Ibeza, and I've been trying to get ahead with my dt cards as well as taking an online course with the fabulous Kirsty Wiseman - check it out here and in between these things I picked up a copy of this month's Craft Stamper and liked the free stamp so much that I had to knock up a quick card. 

I have used backing papers from 7 Gypsies and a sentiment stamp from Stampin up along with the free stamp then added a couple of lines of faux stitching and some lace from my stash to complete the card.

Entering these challenges:
Art Impressions Stamps Challenge - Distressing
4 Crafty Chicks - Stitching
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Anything goes
Just For Fun - Anything goes
Truly Scrumptious - Things with wings
Craft Your Days Away  - Vintage