Wanna win some Sweet Pea Stamps?

Of course you do!!!

Crafts and Me have just launched their brand spanky new challenge blog with 3 chances of winning, how cool's that! Here's what's up for grabs!

1st Prize- Fantasy Art Collection Plate 8 sponsored by Sweet Pea Stamps picked by random org

2nd Prize-Gum Drops Easter Stamps- sponsored by Sweet Pea Stamps picked by the D.T

3rd Prize-A5 set Art Nouveau Stamps sponsored by Lilac Lemon Designs all followers names put in a hat and a winner picked by the D.T's

Come join in the fun and become a follower of the NEW Challenge blog HERE and join us for the 1st challenge and new ones every fortnight after that.
We all look forward to seeing you there.

And here's my DT creation - The theme is Faeries or Wings

The image is a sweet pea stamp called Midnight Waiting coloured with promarkers and highlighted with sakura stardust pens. The white bit on the wings was painted with shimmerz angel wings then I sprinkled some glamour dust (crystal ultra fine glitter) The background is coloured with dark blue promarkers then I painted a thin coat of clear glaze and sprinkled glamour dust. All the flowers are also painted with shimmers fairy wings with a coating of glamour dust, this is a super sparkly card :)

For those wondering how my mind works, its a brand new challenge blog - virginal - white (geddit lol!) I also love white and splash cards, majority white with a strongly coloured image :)

Come pop over and join in the fun, you dont have to use sweet pea stamps to take part if you don't have any so its a really easy one of faeries or wings :D

Debut DT at I ♥ Promarkers!

Its my debut over at I ♥ Promarkers challenge blog today and we are sponsored this week by Willow Designs who gave us all an image to work with each. Mine was Missy.

Its a bit out of my comfort zone but nice to have a challenge sometimes lol!

The challenge this week is to use the sketch and to include swirls somewhere on your project. Pop on over as Karen has been hard at work this week redesigning, making a facebook fan page and putting our mugshots on over at the challenge blog eeeeek! I wanted to be a rebel and use Tracey Coates' eyes but she dragged me kicking and screaming tutting that she knew I'd be trouble hee hee!


So if you use promarkers then pop on over and have a play in the challenge!

And now the Steasel!

I've no idea where my mind takes me some days and on Friday it went towards a see through easel (STEasel!) I got to this as I wanted to use the fabulous new heart stamp from the "Artistic Elements" sheet designed by Tracey Coates available from The Stampman. As I'd been tinkering with glitter this week I thought back to the glitter acetate cards which were popular once upon a time so wanted to incorporate that with a more modern design (the easel) and my own spin - The Steasel.

I've stamped the image with stazon onto acetate and used a clear glaze on the back and glitters. The backing paper is one I've made myself (destructions a little further down the post)
I also used a key and a sentiment from the same plate (Artistic Elements) stamped and embossed with detail white embossing powder.

The easel itself is made as normal and pieces cut out on the back bit. I added some extra card to strengthen it. The silver dots are "Nailheads" which come as a strip you cn cut down to however many you want, I absolutely love them!

Oooh whilst I'm here, check out my teamies blog - Debbie Dolphin She's got some great designs on there and has also got the front cover of Craft Stamper mag this month with her easel card woo hoo! Well done Debbie x

And the background. I wanted a dotty one and to play with my starburst stains so I chose the Black Orchid Silver and painted a base coat of this onto a piece of card and whilst still wet I dropped some distress reinker (red brick) on it. If you vary the height you drop it at it will affect how big a circle you get.

The Stampmans new Alluring Ladies

Here's another one from the new Alluring Ladies sheet designed by the fabulous Tracey Coates available from The Stampman. I love this sheet, its so diverse and I can see this stamp becomming a favourite - So many backgrounds, so many embossing powders to play with!

I'm really in a starburst stains mood lately, not that I'm ever not but moreso! I've stamped and embossed with Midnight Sapphire embossing powder over a background I made using Mountain Lavender Gold and Frosted Forget Me Nots from the Icicle creek starburst stains set. The scrunch background is made with the same colours.
I've used baby blue eyes from the May Day Meadows set on card and then used the new Jules Jewells cuttlebug folder to make the two panels.

I've added green sparkly highlights with light and dark green sakura stardust pens and added some prima wildflowers.

I can see this one bringing me hours of fun with all the colour combos you can do :D

I made the I ♥ Promarkers DT!

I'm really chuffed to be asked to join the I ♥ Promarkers design team for their challenge blog which I applied for earlier this month :D

Its a great challenge blog that I've played all of their challenges so far and love seeing their creations and inspiration. You don't need to use any specific colours which helps us that don't have a full set (yet!) so pop along as there's still time to play this weeks challenge which is a really sweet sketch. There's some great prizes up for grabs every week from some fab sponsors!

They also have a Fan Page just started on Facebook with plans afoot so to keep up to date, join in discussions and say hello you can add it here.

Hope to see you joining in the challenges which are every Wednesday x

The Stampmans new Glamour Lady

Here's the Glamour Lady from The Stampman's new plate designed by Tracey Coates. She has a solid dress so you can have a lot of fun with embossing powders, foils, glitters and imagination.

I never know what colour mood I'm going to be in on any given day and todays mood is blue and lavender so I used my Starburst Stains from the Icicle Creek set which are a wonderfully pale collection as I wanted a strong contrast with the dress. I made a scrunch background and covered a blank card base. To flatten this out more use a wetish glue like pva or a pritt stick and push the crinkles down. I then used a piece of black card embossed with the new Jules Jewells embossing folder for the lower half.
I used the icicle creek set again to make a piece of card to stamp on, I do this by puddling the Starburst stains so just paint a base coat on of any colour starburst stain and add blots of other colours and use your heat gun to push the colours around. This will give you a nice flat surface to stamp directly onto.

I stamped and embossed the Glamour Lady with moonglow midnight sapphire embossing powder (These really are gorgeous powders!) and I've restamped the lady separately using a glue pad and added glitter, cut it out and stuck it over the embossed one. I've edged round with a light and dark blue and overstamped again with the dark blue using the fab circles you get on the plate in the corners.

On the dress I've added some feathers which come with a gem and the flap on the dress is a prima flower folded over so it sticks up a bit. I shaded the lady in with a skin toned promarker.

Hope you check out Traceys new sheet over at The Stampman as you get so many stamps in this set to use (the sentiment is also from it) and a range of styles too.

September Rhythm

I'm making my debut tonight over at Crafts and Me stamps blog so be gentle with me lol! Teresa asked me over the weekend if I'd like to join their Design Team and as you know I love fantasy and fairy stamps and Crafts and Me are the only outlet in the UK to sell the gorgeous Sweet Pea Stamps and those designed by the immensely talented Ching-Chou Kuik.

Crafts and Me are also starting up a new challenge blog next week so pop over and become a follower to join in the fun!

I've chosen September Rhythm which was the first one that caught my eye and led me to checking out the sweet pea site who pointed me to the Crafts and Me site where I could get hold of them!

I used a couple of dotty backgrounds and followed the sketch from I love promarkers this week. Image is coloured with promarkers lets see if I remember lol!

Skin - Ivory, blush, vanilla, saffron, oatmeal and touches of sandstone
Hair - Pale Pink, rose pink, cerise with a hot pink sakura stardust pen for highlights.
Tail - Soft lime, lime zest, lime green, and touches of lush green
Flowers - Sakura stardust in yellow and orange
Background - Twinkling H2O - Bashful blue

Flowers are prima wildflowers with others from stash.

Entering this into...

I Love Promarkers -Sketch & Use dots
Creative Card Crew - Going dotty
Crafty Catz - Spring
Allsorts - Spring
Secret Crafter - Spring
Crazy for Challenges - Spring

Crafty Cardmakers 17 DT - Spring into Spring

And its time again for another challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers! We have cardmaking ROYALTY in the house this week. Oooooh you'll have to pop over and see who's special guesting for us but we're all really nervous, we even gave the blog a lick of paint and tidied up before she came! This is one thing I love about blogging, there are so many people willing to help out where they can and especially with our challenge blog which is designed for newer cardmakers and bloggers to find their feet and its so nice that people take the time to share :)

I was late putting my card on today which is a first because I went to upload it from my camera last night only to find my camera had gone AWOL!!! DD1 had asked me earlier on yesterday if she could borrow it for Blackpool today, I ummed and ahhed as I dont like anyone borrowing it as I'm so reliant on it so when evening came she'd disappeared along with my camera eeeek!

Anyway its here now and the challenge is Spring into Spring! I chose a green and yellow colour combo as my interpretation of spring. Judie knows what my interpretation is and is probably having a right old chuckle!

I had a delivery from Sheenie Towers on Friday as my OH had got me a voucher for mothers day so thought I'd give my newest promarkers a whirl. I also got one of the Prima wildflowers pillar packs and gosh these are LOVELY! I'm so impressed with mine :D I'm still rubbish at flower embellishments unless I'm physically looking at Tab Robinsons blog! If my flower arrangement looks quite good and is glamour dusted you can put money on I've been stood in the kitchen with Tab's blog open on my blackberry!

I followed the sketch from Passion for promarkers this week and coloured using promarkers in the following:

Skin - Ivory, blush, vanilla, saffron, pastel pink (oooh a change!) Digressing a bit here but do other peope change their usual colour choice or style depending on the brand of stamp? I tend to do magnolias a lot more pinker so go heavier with the blush....

Sorry lol! Hair, I used my new ones for this, vanilla as the light and the new tan and caramel this time with cocoa for the shade.

Clothes - Primrose, buttercup, pastel yellow and the teesiest touch of gold and I put some ice grey 3 on too.

Jeans are Soft lime, lime zest, lime green with marsh as the shadow.

The flowers in her hair are coloured with yellow and orange sakura stardust pens.

Entering this into Passion for Promarkers - Sketch

Its all in the eyes

The Stampman have a new release this week designed by Tracey Coates. They are "Alluring Ladies" and "Artistic Elements" which you'll find in their shop

They will also be at Harrogate GNPE show tomorrow so stop by and say hello to Jill & Ian :)

My set of stamps from Jill arrived today and gosh I've been itching to get my mitts on this one since I first saw it a couple of weeks back and knew what I wanted to do with her.

Shes from Tracey's Alluring Ladies sheet and I wanted to try a technique I've been playing with recently just to see if it worked.

Hope you like and check out the new stamp plate below available at The Stampman :D

Dark Royalty

Still working my way through the sweet pea stamps lol! This one is Dark Royalty and doesnt she look regal so I thought its only fitting she have regal colours :D

The challenge this week over at I Love Promarkers is a sketch and to not use patterned papers, imagine my joy as theres nothing more satisfying than making your own backgrounds :D
You just KNOW the first thing I reached for was starburst stains! For this background I used a puddling method so paint on a base layer (I used baby blue eyes blue, I did want to use bachelor blue but Ive run out!) I dried it with DD's hairdryer which is quite fierce but wont scorch the paper which a heat gun can. Then I used Sweet Violet Purple Teal putting on puddles and blowing it across the card. NB: Dont put the hairdryer/heat gun close or it will blow right off the card, keep it at a distance to gently blow it across.
That colour is purple/violet and when you tilt the card it turns teal. I also used some Jazzy Jivin purple for more depth of the purple and kept adding the blue until I was happy with the background.

I then used one of Tracey Coates' ickle fairies from her Starburst Fairies stamp plate and stamped and embossed using Moonglow Midnight Teal embossing powder. I have to tell you this is my most favouritest embossing powder in the entire universe :D It is black but tilt it and it is teal. I have most of the midnight ones, I'm so spoilt now I can't go back to regular black EP's and have been using these for years!
I've then coloured the fairy wings in with a sakura stardust pen in clear for sparkle and thats my background :)

Onto the image which is Dark Royalty by Sweet Pea Stamps. I've coloured her with promarkers, the colour list is probably MOST of them but I'll try and remember!

Tail is done with mulberry going into maroon then amethyst, aubergine,cornflower and prussian.
Hair is cool aqua, duck egg, turquoise, marine and petrol
Wings are mulberry, maroon, cornflower, prussian, cool aqua, duck egg, amethyst and aubergine.
Skin is almond, ivory, blush, vanilla, oatmeal and sandstone and cool grey 3 for shadows
Eyes are amethyst and violet
Flowers are lime zest, grass and emerald. The flowers are painted with an orange H2O which was watered down for the yellowy bits.

Background of the image is also painted with H2O's using a pink, purple and blue.
Card is mounted on holographic paper and Lucky Shamrock Green starburst stains.

I've gone over some areas with a copic spica clear pen to add sparkle and then other areas with a sakura stardust pen in clear which isnt entirely clear, its a bit silvery but I wanted those bits to stand out more.

As Cilla would say I had a Lorra Lorra fun with this one :D

Entering this into:

I Love Promarkers - Sketch and own background
Flutterby Wednesday - Use the color green and/or shamrocks. Not sure if its passable but I did use green and its called Lucky Shamrock green (does that count lol!)
Challenge up your life - Flower
Ooh-la-la - Anything goes

(I'll try and pop a daylight pic on when I get chance!)
This is the card tilted so you can see the starburst stains change colour and the teal of the embossing powder.

You can see the sparkly bits in this lol!

Red Hearts

OK its pink lol! The challenge I spotted for it was Pink, Black and White so here's Red Hearts....In Pink :)

Its a wallet for a swap and I used lots of sakura stardust pen on it but CANNOT get it to photograph the sparkle which is right round the wings, bodice and vines with black sakura on the hair. I've added sakura glaze pen on the eyes, black bits on the wing, the hearts and lips.

Entering this into..

Allsorts - Pink, Black & White
Flutterby Wednesday - Open week

A touch of Green

Thought I'd have a go at colouring my new sweet pea stamp which is Its my Birthday, she's got such pretty wings and I love the star background. There are some GREEN challenges around this week so I've headed that way and coloured her with promarkers. This time Ive used sakura stardust pens as highlights rather than the spica pen as they seem more sparkly so Ive used cler, green and purple sparkly ones with red, orange and yellow for the candle and stars.

A perfect choice of background for these stamps is the beloved starburst stains. I've used Tibetian poppy teal which is one of my favourites and simply painted on a couple of coats so the whole image is super sparkly!
I've edged around it with brilliance black and mounted it on black card torn at the bottom (A Kim Reygate influence!) and put that onto a cuttlebugged background coloured with starburst stains in french lilac violet which I also made the paper rose and punched flowers with.

DP's are from designer extremes vol 3. Ribbon is a white organza with a gold/green stripe.

Entering this into...

Fussy & Fancy Friday - Green
Cupcake Craft Challenges - Going Green
Crafty Creations - Make your own flowers
The Secret Crafter - Anything goes
Clearly I Stamp - Think Green
Raise the bar - Go Green

It must be spring!

I've done a bit of stamping recently for a wallet swap I'm doing and I havent used this one for months, she's so pretty I thought I'd give her another run out again!

All DP's are Designer Extreme vol 3, the flowers are yeas old from stash and have been altered with well I started with shimmerz pixie dust but its gone funny in the pot and dried out, its not leaked or anything and the lids been on so dunno! Had to switch to shimmerz angel wings and then added some glamour dust.
Image is Magnolia - Tilda as a butterfly coloured with promarkers with added sparkles from a sakura stardust pen.


Entering into:

The Pink Elephant - Spring
Pile it On - Pastels
Rosie D's - Think Spring
By the cute & girly - Spring is in the air
Pollycraft 36 - Sparkly things

Altered Anya

Over at Quixotic this week they want to see an Altered Anya (or friend!) I havent had my Anyas out for aaaaaaages! The challenge is to alter Anya in some way so she's had a haircut :)
I followed the sketch from I love Promarkers who also want to see some embossing.
I couldnt find anything that fitted the background for anya so decided to draw a city scape with her walking away laden down with shopping. I've added little windows to the buildings with a sakura stardust pen. All coloured with promarkers.

The embossing is cuttlebug divine swirls swiped with versamagic sea breeze and the ribbon is a strip wraped round and I knotted 2 extra bows on.

Entering this into...

Quixotic challenge - Altered Anya

I Love Promarkers - Sketch & use embossing