So cute!

This week the new challenge at Charisma Cardz is Cutesy so I inked up one of my cutest LOTV stamps - James Bear - wrapped in tinsel and coloured it with my Tria markers from Letraset adding a substantial amount of ultra fine glitter in green and gold on the tinsel! I also used some glossy accents on the baubles to give a bit of extra dimesion. I die cut the frame and distressed it with my handy nail file (for acrylic nails - they're rougher than the average emery board and perfect for distressing). I combined the image with papers from My Mind's Eye Holly Jolly set and added a sentiment from Stampin Up.

Entering the challenges at:
Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT Challenge - Non Traditional &/Or Distressed Christmas
Paper Take Weekly - Anything Goes (+ a bit of bling if you like)
Ribbon Carousel Challenge - Anything Goes
Allways Something Creative - It must sparkle
Card and Scrap - Christmas
Cupcake Craftroom - Sweet Christmas
Christmas Inspirations - Die Cuts or Punches 
Corrosive Challenges - With a Flourish
Little Claire's  - Christmas
Bah Humbug - Die cuts
Floweret - Christmas
I Love Promarkers - Glitter and Glitz
Lili of the Valley - Bright and sparkly
Paper Shelter Challenge - Christmas fun

Another colour challenge

It's Wednesday again and it's back to the Crafty Creations challenge where this week we have a great colour combo going on - we'd like you to use the colours GREEN, PURPLE & SILVER - and include snow in any way shape or form, ie, flower soft, fun flock, snow writer, crystal fine. We are sponsored this week by Stretch and Bubbles who provided a couple of fun images for the team to play with.

The image I chose to work with is called Feed the Birds - it's a really fun digi stamp which I coloured with Promarkers then added some doodled details with a silver gel pen, I edged the die cut circle with some Stickles for a bit of sparkle. I added a handwritten sentiment also with the silver pen and finished the design off with some ribbon (from Tesco!), a chipboard snowflake and a snowman charm. Off to work now so see you all later - have a great Wednesday!

Entering it for these challenges:

Make it Monday - Always anything goes
Squigglefly - "Tickle my fancy"
Die Cut Dreams - So charming
Dream Valley Challenges - Anything goes 
One Stitch At A Time - Christmas
Scrappy Frogs - Something that flies
The Ribbon Girls - Jingle all the way to Christmas  
A Gem of a Challenge - Cold and frosty
Cutie Pie Challenge - Use a charm 
Lexi's Creations - Use charm 
Little Claire's  - Christmas 
Ellephantastic - October recipe: 
3 embellishments, purple & green & 1 image 

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