Stamping Tilda

Evening all! Just been playing with inky stuff this evening doing some backgrounds so got mucky mitts now :)
Its craft club on Sunday, my escape for the day where I can chill out in good company and colour or mess all day, see you over there gang!

Wanted to mention tonight Im all excited as I ordered a new stamp (or two!). and they're sooooo cute!  This one is Stamping Tilda available here

http://www.creashop-duymelot.nl/nl/product/special-stamp-02-stamping-tilda/

How adorable is that!  Its been shipped so should get in a few days as I've had excellent service from there before.

Anyway will be back tommoz so night night x

For Janessa

Evening all!  Howz your day been?  The kids went down to their little friends house today and had a ball, its Ethan's little girlfriend and they always greet each other with hugs and hold hands and stuff since they were in pre-school ahhhhh!  He has good taste, she's got blonde curly hair and is a pretty little thing, they're 4 god love em!

I'm back tonight with the one I was engrossed in last night, bit of a story behind it.

A while ago I looked at Hannah Lynn's paintings and saw that one of them is called Janessa.  I have a cousin called Janessa and its such an unusual name I said to Teresa I'd love her forever if that was made into a stamp.  Anyway 1st of this month it was so I sent my cousin a message asking her to pick me 2 colours.  She ended up not getting the message till a couple of days ago and she replied with Black and Beige.  I said dont you like pink thinking awww gawd its not going to look too good,  mean its a Hannah Lynn and they're meant to be colourful!  Janessa said her favourite colour was green so I settled on black and green and got to work.

Its the first outing for this image for me so was only right Janessa picked the colours so I've made it into an easel post it holder so its useful too and added some bling, a feather, flower and a black swarovski heart crystal under the bow.  I unmed and ahhed over the hair as was going to do black but settled on brown as she has brown hair.

I quite like the black and green, will have to bring that out more often :D

So Janessa sweetie this is Inspired by you and your disco costume lol!

Image is Janessa by Hannah Lynn from Crafts & Me

I'd like to enter into...

Divas by design - Wings
Flutterby wednesday - Open week
Top tip tuesday - Magical/Fantasy
Truly madly crafty - ribbon and bling
One stitch at a time - anything goes
A gem of a challenge - Fairies
Allsorts - Free and easy february
Charisma - Things with wings
Rainbow ladys - Have a heart
Southern girls - Magic & mystery


Distressing at Passion for Promarkers

Evening all!  Huff puff just about making it tonight!  Been making one for tomorrow and been totally engaged with it, ever had them where you just cant put it down from start to finish?

Tonights creation is for Passion for Promarkers DT and the theme this week is distressing.  There is a £10 voucher up for grabs for the winner from Joanna Sheen.

For this I did something a bit different.  I started with a die cut from my Go Kreate set then folded it in half, adding paper from Tim Holtz.  The image is Magnolia Hawaiian Flower Tilda and I actually coloured this in bed in the dark using my flashlight app lol!  I used all browny colours and I love love love the look of it.  That colour doesnt work well with everything but looks splendid with that stamp :)

If I remember rightly I used cocoa, cinnamon and the new Ltd Edition pens, March Hare and Daffodil Yellow.

I added distress stickles (antique linen and vintage photo) to parts of it and the flowers and added vintage photo distress ink around the edge and stamped a flower pattern.  The swirls are gold and are a sizzix die.

Hope you can come join in our distressing challenge this week!

I'd like to enter this into...

Challenge up your life - monotone

Paper Pretties - Flowers

Craft us crazy - anything goes

Sugar Creek Hollow - Vintage/shabby chic

Creations for sale

Evening all!  Im shattered tonight, kids on half term keeping me on my toes and haven't had much time past few days. I think I'll have early night tonight.
Just wanted to tell you tonight that I've put some (lots!) of creations up for sale in my Facebook album. As most of you are crafters and its a bit selling coals to newcastle i'd appreciate if you have any friends who might be interested and share the album which is HERE.
Im on a task this year to pay for the kids holiday in August based on sales of things I've made alone. Sometimes you need to feel a sense of achievement and have a goal that drives you and last year Nan gave me some pennies and I booked a last minute holiday at Rhosydd Bach (blinkie on my sidebar) on the Llyn Peninsula. It was the kids first proper holiday and we all loved it, Molly still talks about it often, even today, so I've booked again for August and the lovely Ger gave me a great discount so Im on mission Rhosydd now :)
They're not priced, they're 'Make an offer'. Dunno maybe peeps would prefer a set price?  Eitherway it all goes towards Mission Rhosydd!
Please do share with friends as Id really appreciate it plus they're in 2 massive boxes and i need space lol!

Kiddie cards

Evening all!  Howz your day been?  Today I took Molly to a party for a set of twins (Boy & Girl) and it was fab!  Us parents were well looked after with coffee and cake and once the kids had had their buffet there was loads left over so the parents were let loose, it was what I call proper party food, cheese and pineapple on sticks, sausage rolls, ham sandwiches etc, dont you just love party food like that :D

At the end of the party Mols decided to make a show of me by hitching her dress up and smacking her bum....!  She gets it from her dad!  She sticks her bum out at home and says Smack my bum and you have to try and smack it before she runs away screaming with laughter :)

I made the kids a card each, I dont usually do kiddie cards much but I have a collection of images because I knew eventually they would start going parties and I'd be needing them! 

The first one is a Teddy Bea from Teddy Bo and I coloured her with promarkers using the new budding rose pink from the limited edition colours and added lots and lots of glamour dust as little girls love pink and sparkly :)  Its edged with distress ink and mounted on silver holographic card and tatty teddy spring papers. 

This one is by Dustin Pike coloured with promarkers and flex and added sakura souffle to the lights on the ufo.  I used a backing paper from bearly mine and punched out some stars.

And a couple of pics of the kids today too.  Ethan and Molly engrossed in Mario Kart on the wii.  Mols cant drive for toffee but she enjoys herself so thats all that counts :)  Ethan can beat me fair and square now, I need more practice lol!

And Miss Moo at the party, took her picture before she got too grubby which never takes long lol!

I'd like to enter into:-

Fun with shapes & More - Birthdays (boy)

Charisma - Things with wings (girl)

Digi doodle shop - men/boys (boy)

Crafty Ribbons - Men/boys (boy)

Papercraftng journey - Fairies/angels (girl)

Meljens designs - Pastels (girl)

Take one pack of Promarkers - A review of the Limited Edition 2012 Spring Colours

Good evening all!  I have a little review for you tonight of the brand new 2012 Spring Limited Edition colours of promarkers by Letraset.  These are only available for a limited period of time and once they're gone they're gone!

Postie sent me my pack courtesty of Letraset Paul (Fankoo muchly!) and they arrived this morning so after Ethan finished his footie practice I have a whirl with them.

There are 6 in the pack and they are:-

BUDDING ROSE

MARCH HARE

DAFFODIL BLOOM

FRESH MEADOW

APRIL SHOWER

MORNING MIST

I'd already seen these posted up on facebook the other week but its different once you get the pens in your hand and you start scribbling.  One thing I noticed straight away was that there are 2 potential skin tones, a blusher, sky and grass and you'd also be able to do hair so with this in mind I wanted to see if I could colour an image using ONLY these colours.  I have a couple of 'Shoestring tutorials' in my tab up there which are designed for those wanting to try a pack or just a handful of colours so I was looking at if I was a newbie and bought THIS pack would I be able to do anything with it or would I need to expand?


I chose a Magnolia image for this, Beautiful Tilda as I love her wings and love colouring them in in multi-colour so I started with this and used budding rose, feathered into daffodil bloom then fresh meadow and finally april shower.  I quite liked how this turned out so I moved onto the skin tones so using March Hare I added some shadows then some Budding Rose for the cheeks and also added this as a shadow mixing it in with the march hare then used the morning mist to fill in.  I felt it was a bit *too* brown so I used a blender pen to lighten it then added another layer whilst it was still a bit wet from the blender to give more tone.

The hair I used the daffodil yellow and the March Hare as the shadow keeping a bit white.

Onto the dress I added Budding Rose just in the shadow areas then coloured over with the blender and added a little more so so far so good!

Onto the sky I drew in my clouds then coloured the sky with April Showers then coloured over it all with the blender and again repeated.  When that was dry I added a bit of shadow using the april showers underneath the clouds to give some definition.

The grass I coloured the floor bit first with the blender then added the Fresh Meadow using the chisel end then coloured over with the blender.  I then coloured a smaller area in and gave a quick colour over with the blender then when that was dry I added a shadow underneath with the bullet end.

So there you go yes you can do an image using just one pack and a blender pen.  I do have my favourites for skin tones and this wouldnt be my first choice but I think its perfectly acceptable as a combo if you're wishing to try a small pack out and don't know where to start then you have skin, hair, clothes, sky and grass in a pack of 6 pens right here :)

If you're a hardened Promarker addict like myself then yes its a great addition.  The yellow is like a paler pastel yellow, the green is delicious, love the pink and I think that will replace my usual baby pink as a cheek colour and the blue reminds me of stormy sky distress ink :)

BTW the papers I have used are the Taddy Teddy Spring Collection and they match PERFECTLY to these ;)

These pens are available at LETRASET and other promarker stockists.

A lightning make

Evening all!  Kids broke up today so I have them for a whole week, and I can UNSET my alarm for a whole week too yay!  I have to drag Ethan out of bed most mornings so I think he'll appreciate a lie in as well :) 

I've got a lightning make to show you tonight using brand new digi papers by Crafts & Me.  I absolutely love them as I love fantasy things, purples, blues and green so was thrilled with these and with new printer they're printing out a dream. 
I wanted to try a really quick make as I usually spend at least an hour on colouring an image alone so I used one of the new digi papers and dropped another digi on and printed out, OK not quite that straight forward but I'll try and explain further down lol!

These papers are called Forest Fairy and you can find them HERE.  There are 30 in the pack and are available for immediate download.

From printing to photographing this took me 32 minutes which must be a recond for me!  OK the arm needs a little more blending but I'll do that tommoz!  If you're familiar with photo editting software (I use paint shop pro) then I made a copy of the paper then then opened up my digi image, May by Sara Burrier Oh it needs to be the JPG format as the PNG is transparent and you DONT want that!

You might need to resize your stamp so do this then I used the magic wand and clicked outside the lines on the stamp then selected SELECTIONS -> INVERT then copied and went back to the background and pasted as NEW LAYER.

With Layer 2 selected in layers panel I clicked on any white bits I wanted removing with the magic wand then used the eraser tool.  This will erase just inside the area you selected with the magic wand and only affect the 2nd layer (the digi stamp) as thats selected.  Most should be OK and only need a touch up but remember you'll need the JPG version.  This then leaves your image filled in white on top of the background so you can colour as you like :)

For this I used flexmarkers on everything but the skin and added glamour dust to the wings and turquoise glitter to the stars then gave it a spray with dazzling diamonds glimmer mist. Really quick make for me and will be handy for last minute birthdays!

Thanks for stopping by and back tommoz x

I'd like to enter this into...

Crafty Bloggers Network - Pink & Blue

Thank You's and a new toy

Evening all! Hope you've all had a great day!  Had a lovely post day today. First I got 2 postcards from the mixed media postcard swap. Im doing mine next week but its so exciting to get my first two, aren't they fab!
The one with the flower is by Jenna and is canvas and material and very sparkly and the strange but beautiful one is by Cindy in Canada, love them both, thanks girls!

Then this afternoon my new printer arrived!  I wasn't expecting it until 20th and im thrilled with it. I can't believe how much they have evolved since my last one which is easily 10 years old and this is a 3 in 1 and half the price I paid for old one!  Its so fast and touch screen and swishy!  My old one was getting well past it and leaving lines and flecking round the printing and my separate scanner broke a while back so I decided to invest in a new one given its used about 5 times a week and as there is a newer model to this one that means the price dropped and its so much more sophisticated than the 2 we have here so im well happy with it :D

Anyway that's my news for today. I'll have something nice to share tommoz using my printer and promarkers of course ;)

BTW have you got your new limited edition promarker colours yet?  Im excitedly waiting for mine, can't wait!

Use a new image at Crafts & Me

Evening all!  Blimey where's the time gone tonight?  Still got loads to do tonight so flying by with my DT for Crafts & Me and this week I'd like to see you use a new image.  Doesn't matter if its rubbah or digi or even if its brand new today or a year old so long as it's its debut performance.  We all have them don't we lol!

For this I've used a new rubbah which will be debuting at the Stevenage show on Sunday so if you're there pop over and say hi to Teresa and Tracey on the Crafts & Me stall.
This stamp is one from the new Jasmine Becket-Griffith collection and is called Emerald Angel.  I coloured with promarkers in similar colours to the original (although not a patch on it lol!) but I think I'd like to see this one in lighter pinkys and purples.  I made quite a basic card as the team all contribute to the show books so if you go to the stall you can see a live example of all the rubbah stamps they sell but we also keep them quite simples so the books dont get too bulky :)

So I do hope you'll join in my little challenge and get round to using that new image that hasnt had an inking yet :)

I'd like to enter into....

Colour theme at Passion for Promarkers

Evening all!  Its Tuesday again (just about but you know I'm a cinderella blogger!) and that means another challenge over at Passion for Promarkers and this week is a colour theme of Purple, Lilac and Grey.  I was a bit dubious at first but I think it turned out nicely and the grey complements the purple really well.
There is a great prize from Whiff of Joy stamps this week - you get to choose one from their store and theres loads of gorgeous ones!

For this I used a new Magnolia stamp - Tilda with peony tails which is coloured with promarkers and flexmarkers and added glamour dust to the peony.  I used the flexmarkers to create the shadow around her and mounted on card and papers cut with a go kreate die.
Fnally treated myself to some new C & B plates really cheap off ebay,  Not official ones and you need to use a shim but for the price I can live with that :)  Means everything is cut out much cleaner now so I've gone a bit mad die cutting everything lately!

Anyway hope you like my DT offering this week and hop you have a go at the colour theme as you can see it works out really nice :)

I'd like to enter into...

Celebrate the occasion - anything goes birthday

Papertake weekly - Anything goes

Sew many cards - Birthday