A colour combo

We have a colour challenge for you today at Crafty Cardmakers, our combo is Pink, Brown and Cream. This has made a bit of a change from all the Autumn colours and Halloween challenges around at the moment and I quite enjoyed using the limited Promarker palette to colour the digi stamp from Paper Makeup  which I won in a recent challenge.

I used pink cardstock as my base then took some cream card and used a stencil and distress inks to create a patterned backing. I mounted that and my image onto brown cardstock, rounding all the corners with a corner punch. I added some pink cord and some felt 'buttons' to embellish my card. The sentiment is from a Whimsy Stamps set and I used a rub down to create the rounded box for it.

Challenges entered:
Come and Get It Challenges - Anything goes 
Dream Valley Challenges - Anything goes   
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes 
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Anything goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes
Scrapbook Sisters - Anything goes
Partytime Tuesdays - Anything goes 
Make it Monday - Always anything goes

Friendship

It's another beautiful morning here in South East Scotland, we have been pretty lucky with the weather this week  - great timing as we have had my sister Gillian and her husband Steve staying this week and we've been able to get out and about a bit in the sunshine, it is getting a bit colder but as it's almost November now I suppose it is to be expected!

Our new challenge today at Cardmadfairy's Digi Days has Friendship as a theme and my card has been made with one of my favourite images- Lucy's Ted which is available here and also in the sidebar over at Cardmadfairy's Creations. 

I used Promarkers to colour the image and papers by K&Co, the sentiment is from Studio G and the brown lace came in a bargain bag I bought on Ebay :o) The flower I actually crocheted myself - after a great number of attempts which did not turn out right I finally ended up with one I was happy with!

Challenges entered:
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Anything Goes
Paper Crafting Journey - Use a Digi
Paper Pretties - Embellish
Paper Shelter Challenge - Anything goes
Whimsy Inspiration - Buttons
Digital Tuesday - Buttons & Twine
Passion For Promarkers Challenge - For a Child
Partytime Tuesdays - Anything Goes
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Lace
Paper Playtime - Sentiments + buttons and bows
Lollipop Crafts - Embellish it!!

Leaves and colours of Autumn

Crafty Creations challenge this week has a theme of Leaves and the colours of Autumn so I've used a stamp I received as a Secret Santa present (from my blogging buddy Tracey) last Christmas -  Tilda in the Autumn Leaves which I coloured with Letraset Aquamarkers and added a little extra colour with Promarkers, the backing papers are Papermania and the flowers are from Wild Orchid. Leaves and flourishes are both from Marianne's dies.

The team are now looking for a new DT member so pop on over and enter the challenge and if you are interested in working with us just add DT to your name when you submit your card.

Challenges I'm entering:
Crafty Boots - Autumn or Halloween
Get Hippity with Ippity - Fall colors
Kaboodle Doodles - Halloween/fall
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
There She Goes - Halloween or Autumn
Stamps & Fun = Creativity - Autumn
Victorine Originals - Fall
Gingerloft - Halloween or fall 
Totally Tilda - Autumn leaves
Fashionista Friday - Halloween or fall
Wags 'n Whiskers - Fall colours 
Celebrate the Occasion - Fall 
Oldie But Goodie Challenge - Forever Autumn

Feeling wintry!

The weather has been pretty cold this week and my thoughts are definitely turning towards winter, I'm going to have to look out gloves, scarves and hats very soon. 

So today I'd like to share another of my new Christmas digi stamps, this one is called Snowball Fun and can be found over at Cardmadfairy's Creations along with the rest of my new designs :o) 

I may have mentioned before that I'm currently developing a new web site for my digi designs and am considering offering coloured versions for sale as well as line art - what do you think? I know there are lots of us crafters who get great enjoyment out of colouring images ourselves and personally that is one of the best bits of the cardmaking process for me but equally there are many crafters who don't feel they have the skills, the time or want to invest in the materials required. It would be a bit of a mammoth task, colouring all of my current digi stamps (almost 100 images) so I'd love some feedback before making the decision.

 

I coloured today's image with Promarkers, used papers from PaperArtsy and used Marianne's dies for the snowflakes. The fluffy trim (which always reminds me of snow) has been in my stash for literally years and gets brought out for the occasional Christmas card. The sentiment is from a Crafty Sentiments set - Christmas Circles.

Entering this for the following challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks - Marker it Up
Aud Sentiments Challenge - Use any Sentiment
Shelly's Images - Anything Goes
Clear It Out! - Trims 
Ooh La La Creations - Let it Snow
Sketch and Stash - Sketch 
Christmas Inspirations -  Die Cuts or Punches

A new baby!

My youngest sister became the first of the three of us sisters to become a Grandma this week - her stepson Jim and his wife have had a gorgeous little boy - Cameron Ewan, only problem is that I made a baby girl card! I knew that the baby would arrive this week as the due date had passed and Sarah had been given a day to be induced so because I had a challenge card I needed to get on with I decided to make it a baby card but which sex to do? Well I knew that whichever one I picked the baby was going to be the opposite - Sod's Law isn't it!!

The Charisma Cardz challenge is all about Embossing this week and I decided to go for a quilted effect for my dt card, I embossed the two colours with two different embossing folders then cut the card into squares, stuck them onto more of the cardstock and (particularly proud of this bit) stitched them with my sewing machine which I happened to have out this week as I'm busy making sock monkeys for craft fairs at the moment. I coloured the Meljens image with Promarkers, and made some pretty bunting with my new die set from Whimsy Stamps - love it! 

Of course I also had to do it all over again in blue :o)

Challenges entered:

Anything Goes Challenge - To The Letter

Creative Craft Challenges - Congratulations 
Sweet Stamps - Lots of Layers
Top Tip Tuesday - Layer It
Kaboodle Doodles - Squares or Inchies
KB Cute Monday - Anything Goes
Make it Monday - always Anything Goes 
By the Cute & Girly - Anything Goes
Passion For Promarkers Challenge - Stars
I Love Promarkers - Cute 

A Christmas birthday

This week's challenge at Crafty Creations is Christmas birthday for all the people who have birthdays within a few days of Christmas - they often miss out and are given Christmas cards instead of birthday cards, so we'd like to see birthday cards but with a bit of Christmas thrown in! I have used a Whiff of Joy stamp - Willow Dressing Up, and coloured her with Promarkers, the Christmas backing papers are My mind's Eye Holly Jolly, the holly is Sizzix die cut and the ribbon is recycled (it has Starbucks printed on the other side!!)

Challenges entered:
Incy Wincy Designs - Recycle (the ribbon)
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
Pollycraft - Girls, girls, girls 
Stamptacular Sunday - Anything goes
The Squirrel & the Fox - One for the girls
365 Cards - So sophisticated
Di's Digis Designs - Girly challenge
Fashionista Friday - Girls/women
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes 
Polkadoodle - Ribbons & bows
Top Tip Tuesday - Layer it

Cute with a dark twist

Cute with a dark twist is the theme of the new challenge today at  Crafty Cardmakers  and I have used a Stitchybear Stamps image called Edward and Bella which I thought was quite cute and made a Halloween card - as I've said before I don't generally do much for Halloween but as I have a couple of craft fairs before the 31st I thought it might be useful to have a couple of cards to display.

I have used Promarkers to colour the image, distressed all the edges of the patterned papers and doodled a little cobweb which is perhaps a little small for the spider crawling out from behind the sentiment (it's half hidden because one of my cats had chewed off a leg!) Some lace and a button from my stash and a freebie sentiment from Marion at When the Scrap Hits the Fun completed my card.

Entering the following challenges:

Dream Valley Challenges - Halloween
Gingerloft -  Halloween or Fall  
Paper Sundaes - Halloween or Fall 
Quirky Crafts -  Something Spooky/Halloween 
Sparkles Forum - Halloween  
Creatalicious Challenges - Distress your Edges 
Through the Craftroom Door - Happy Halloween
Challenge Up Your Life - Halloween
Craft Your Days Away  - Halloween Colours
Designed 2 Delight - Halloween (Cute)
Drunken Stampers - Halloween

Spots and stripes

This week at Cardmadfairy's Digi Days the new challenge is spots and stripes and I'm using some gorgeous Stampin Up papers on my card, I love the colours of these papers and how well they all work together, they are double sided and I like them so much I had to paper piece my Imogen image (available here) and make my own flowers so that I could show the other sides of the papers! I made the frame around my image by cutting the Marianne's Creatables die cut 3 times and patching it together - I'm quite pleased with the result, hope you like it too :o)

Entering the following:
Creative Craft Challenges - Congratulations
Top Tip Tuesday - Use Design Papers (Optional, make your own flowers)
Heart Song Inspirations - Use Die Cuts and/or Sponged Backgrounds
Squigglefly - Yipes Stripes
Cutie Pie Challenge - Bingo - Flowers, punches & ribbon
Di's Digis Designs - Girly Challenge 
Little Miss Muffet Challenges - Girly Girl
Meljens Designs - Use a Ribbon
I Brake For Challenges - Girl Power 

A 3, 2, 1 recipe for Crafty Creations

Our challenge this week is a recipe for fabulous creations - the ingredients are - 3 patterned papers, 2 embellishments and 1 image - mix them all together and let us see what the result is!

 

 

For my DT creation I have taken 3 Stampin Up papers, a length of ribbon and a button as my 2 embellishments and added one of my own new Christmas digi stamps - coloured with Promarkers, the addition of 1 extra ingredient - a sentiment from Inkadinkado - completes my card. I also used a sketch from Crafty Sentiments and rotated it 90 degrees for the layout.

Challenges I'm entering:

Crafty Sentiments  - Sketch 

Ribbon Carousel Challenge - Sparkle & bling

Make it Monday - Always anything goes

Simon Says Stamp and Show... - Things with wings 

Christmas Card Challenges  - Photo inspirations

I Did It Creations - Anything goes

Little Claire's  - Christmas

Bah Humbug - Glitter & glitz 

Floweret - Christmas 

Golden Wedding

A colleague asked me for a bit of a rush card last week for her parents who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and had told her that they didn't want any fuss, however her brother and sisters had all been and got presents unknown to my colleague and she felt as if she was the only one who had taken them at their word and not made a special effort so the card was a last minute token from her to celebrate their big day. 

I had a copy of a picture taken of them on their wedding day 50 years ago and printed it from my (not very good) inkjet printer, punched out their heads and inked them with distress ink to give them a bit of a vintage look. The backing paper is My Mind's Eye and I printed the numerals onto gold card then cut them out adding gold Stickles round the edges for a glitzy finish. I also used a piece of gold glitter cardstock behind my die cut border at the bottom  for some extra sparkle and added a little bouquet of flowers from Wild Orchid and a sentiment also from My Mind's Eye to finish it off.

I'm entering this for the following challenges:
The Crafty Pad - Vintage
Secret Crafter - Anything goes as long as it sparkles
Penny's Paper-Crafty - Anything goes
Simon Says Stamp - Sparkle and bling
Truly Scrumptious - Distressing
365 Cards - Beautiful bouquet
Crafty Sentiments - Pearls, flowers & pins
Digital Tuesday - We like to party
Make it Monday - Always anything goes

Another Christmas Digi

Hello bloggers from a very grey, wet and windy Scotland - the weather has definitely taken a turn for the Autumnal - leaves falling already! It's hard to believe that the clocks will be going back in just a couple of weeks, it doesn't seem like 5 minutes since they went on to British summer time - our summer here in Scotland consisted of only about a dozen warm and sunny days this year :o( 

I suppose then that it's only natural to have started thinking of Christmas and the card I'm sharing today has been made with Xmas Owl another of my Christmas digi stamps available here at Cardmadfairy's Creations. I used papers from My Mind's Eye, this set is called Holly Jolly, and cut them both with circle templates, then I cut out the pennant shapes and layered them up,  finishing each with a glitter card punched snowflake. I punched a circle of the same embossed, pearlised card I used for the decoration (see previous post) to resemble the moon and popped it behind my owl. The sentiment is from Inkadinkadoo.

Entering my card for the following:
CCEE Stampers - One of your favorite color combo's + half circle on it
Rainbow Lady's - "In the Misty Moonlight"
My Mum's Craft shop - All creatures great and small
365 Cards - Punchy embellishment
There's Magic in the Air - Go green
Bah Humbug - Glitter & glitz
Crafty Ann's - Inspired by any Christmas song ("Holiday Hootenanny" by Paul & Paula 1963)
Floweret - Christmas
Stamp Man - Circle it
Just Some Lines - Reminds me of a song (see above)
Little Claire's  - Christmas

I loved this image from A Day for Daisies as soon as I saw it and was waiting for an opportunity to use it for a few weeks until I had a flash of inspiration and decided to alter a tin I had lying around - I'm so pleased with the result!
First I primed the tin with Gesso then painted it brown with acrylic paint and distressed it with rubber stamps. Then I added a piece of patterned paper which I distressed adding some doodling to define around the edges, I used Promarkers to colour the parts of the image I didn't paperpiece then stuck the image on adding some flowers and gems and a bit of gold chunky glitter. I next glued some glittery gold braid round the edge of the lid and decorated the sides of the tin with more flowers, a couple of doilies and some more gems. When I had finished with the decorating I modpodged the whole thing to seal it and added a decorative jewelled clasp to complete the project.
Now I have a great tin to either give as a gift or maybe just to keep on my desk and admire :o)

Entering my project for these challenges:
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Distressing
Pixie Dust Studio - Anything but a card
Stamp Insanity - Anything but a card
Do You Stack Up? - Inspiration picture* Brown
Creative Belli - Paper piecing
Passion For Promarkers Challenge - Alter something that is not square (hope this counts?)
Hooked on Crafts - Anything but a card
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle - Anything but a card

Orange & black

Orange and black is the colour combo for this week's Charisma Cardz challenge - perfect for Halloween maybe but as I have no real use for  Halloween cards I have used the colours to make a non-spooky card this time. My image is a digi stamp from one of our sponsors - Pink Cat Studios, I coloured the image with Promarkers teamed it with a patterned paper from DCWV keeping the design very simple but adding the gorgeous satin ribbon for a bit of wow factor! The ribbon was recycled from some gift packaging. I added a handwritten sentiment to finish the card off.

Entering the following challenges:
Craft Room Challenge - Featuring Felines
Crazy Amigo Challenge - Animals
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes (plus Ribbons)  
Crafty Boots - Zoo or animal
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
Paper Creations Ink - Black and/or orange
Gingerloft - Colour orange  
One Stitch At A Time - Use a digi
Cooking It Up With Katie - fabulous, fun & feline
Crafts and Me - use a digi
My Mum's Craft shop - all creatures great and small

Decorating for Christmas...

...or for Halloween or any other occasion if you prefer! Maybe some bunting, candles, door hangers,

pictures, crackers, storage boxes - anything decorative will fit the theme of this week's challenge at Crafty Creations. I have chosen to make a Christmas decoration and have used another of my new Christmas digi stamps - you can find them all here.
I cut the scalloped circle with a Nestability die and the flourishes are from a Marianne's Creatables die set, I have had the embossed cardstock for such a long time I've no idea where it came from :o)
There is a fabulous Polkadoodles prize for the winner this week so pop on over to Crafty Creations and join in the fun!

Entering my project for the following:
Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT Challenge - No design papers
Paper Take Weekly - Anything goes
Sweet Stamps - Anything goes
Heart Song Inspirations - Anything goes
Woodware USA - Anything goes 
One Stitch At A Time - Use a digi
Anything Goes Challenge - Diecuts/Punches or Both
Paper Crafting Journey - Die cuts and/or punches 
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes (plus Ribbons) 

Autumn colours for Anything Goes

We're back!! Yes the Crafty Cardmakers are back with a new challenge and some new faces - we're so happy to welcome all of our new members!

I decided to go with an autumnal colour combo for my Anything Goes card, the image is by Pollycraft and was coloured (as always) with my Promarkers, I added some faux stitching with a fineliner and distressed the edges of the patterned papers with my fab new distressing tool - a heavy duty emery board designed for acrylic nails!

Challenges I'm entering:
CR84FUN Colour Challenge - Inspiration picture* Orange, Yellow, Brown
The Hybrid Chick Card Caravan - Autumn/Fall
Just Some Lines - Fall(Autumn) colours
Rainbow Lady's - Autumn/Fall flowers
Crafting for all Seasons  - Fall colours
Phindy’s Place - Autumn/Fall
Creative Stamp Friends - Autumn colours
Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge - Fall colours and/or Thanksgiving
House of Gilli - Fall/Autumn 
Make it Monday - Always anything goes

Trimming the Tree

I wanted to share another of my new Christmas images today, this one is called Imogen Trimming the Tree and is available with all my other digi stamps at Cardmadfairy's Creations.

The image was coloured with Promarkers and finished off with ultrafine glitters on the stars and tinsel, I used papers from My Mind's Eye  Lost & Found Christmas set again - (still loving them!), a Sizzix die cut scalloped border and a Christmas sentiment stamp from Stampin Up, then finished it all off with seam binding ribbon, lace from my stash and a glittery snowflake charm which I was sent as part of a little blog candy recently.

  

Entering my card for these challenges:

Fun with Shapes & More  - Shabby vintage

Winter Wonderland  - Use charm

Crafty Purple Frog -  Lots of layers

Paper Crafting Journey - Die cuts and/or a punches 

Southern Girls -  Anything goes

Inky Impressions - Punches or dies

Craft Room Challenge  - Anything Christmas

Die Cuttin' Divas -  Shabby chic or vintage

Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - It's a girl thing

Jen's Digi Stamps - Let's hear it for the girls

Top Tip Tuesday - 2 or more, ribbon, twine, lace, fabric

Halloween time at Crafty Calendar

It's back to work for me this morning after a great week off, I've really enjoyed my break and it couldn't have been better timed because of the fabulous weather we've had this week :o)

On Thursday evening Neil and I went to an open evening to view the brand new visitor's centre at Rosslyn Chapel and to listen to an update by the stone and glass conservators who have been working on the chapel for quite a number of years now - the improvements they have made to the fabric of the building has been tremendous and although they will be continuing with their painstaking work for a bit longer the chapel is looking stunning with it's restored stained glass. Neil has his first full day as a guide for the chapel today and although very nervous is looking forward to his new challenge and sharing the fascinating history of building with visitors from all over the world.

October's theme at Crafty Calendar is Halloween - not a theme that I particularly like as we don't really send Halloween cards in the UK so I never really know what to do with the cards I make. However it was an excuse to use this fantastic Mo Manning digi again, I so love Bronte dressed as a cat - hilarious! The image was coloured with Promarkers and I added a little stamped spider and web which are long retired Stampin Up stamps.

Challenges I'm entering this for:
Art Impressions Stamps Challenge - Halloween
Bronte and Bella's Challenge - Furry Friends
Little Miss Muffet Challenges - Animals and Monsters
Crafty Ribbons - Halloween Projects-Pretty Spooky
Stampin' B's - Make a Halloween Card
Moving Along With The Times - Spooky Halloween Cards 
House That Stamps Built - Animal
Little Darlings Challenges - Fall/Halloween
My Mum's Craft shop - Dress up
Raise The Bar - Hats
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes
Crafts 4 Eternity Recipe Challenge - Anything goes