Snowflakes at Crafts & Me

For the Passion for Promarkers Blog Hop post scroll down or click HERE!


Its a snowflake challenge over at Crafts & Me for the next 2 weeks and I've gone for my favourite Wintergreen Wishes stamp again *but* I thought I'd try her with a more ethnic look inspired by the lovely Sinitta who's probably the nicest celeb Twitterer going :)
I've coloured her in promarkers using vanilla, sandstone, tan and caramel for the darker skin tone and the hair is vanilla, tan, henna and Umber.  I've added lots of sparkle with a glue pen and glamour dust and a sakura stardust pen.  DP's are a mix with 2 being from Bearly Mine Designs and the base one is embossed with snowflakes and is by Daisy & Dandilion.  Little text tag is from Stamping All Day
 which is embossed in Moonglow embossing powder.  Snowflakes are from The Works.

I actually did this design in pink, coloured it in last week then came to make my card today and its GONE aaaargh!  I searched for an hour and a half for it then gave up and coloured another one in which I didn't like so this is version 3 lol!  I think Wintergreen looks quite nice with darker skin :)
Hope you can pop over and join in over at Crafts & Me Challenges and also have a peek of the very latest artist Lemon Shortbread, whose range of stamps are being previewed this week x


Would also like to enter into...

Totally Papercrafts - Snow & Snowflakes
Pile it On - Winter means... (Snow!)
Magical Mondays - Let it Snow
Totally Gorjuss - Not so traditional
Fresh Brewed Challenge - Show off your style (Wintergreen image, Blues and doing a spin i.e ethnic is my kinda style)
Fussy & Fancy Friday - Christmas with no red or green
Paperplay - Let it Snow
Really Reasonable Ribbon - Christmas
Pollycraft - Blue
Incy Wincy - Blue & White
Creative Inspirations - Xmas/Winter
A Spoonful of Sugar - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking x

PASSION FOR PROMARKERS BLOG HOP

WELCOME TO THE PASSION FOR PROMARKERS BLOG HOP!!
Over at Passion for promarkers challenge this week we are celebrating the change of design teams with a blog hop.  I’m sure you are as excited as I am as there are lots of lovely goodies up for grabs!!  We also have a few new faces on the design team so I hope you will leave them a nice comment to welcome them. 

Firstly if you’ve arrived at my blog from TRACY'S BLOG you are in the right place, if not return to the PASSION FOR PROMARKERS CHALLENGE BLOG and start your hop again.  Our blog hop challenge will last for 2 weeks so you have plenty of time to enter your card (or cards) and hop around the whole design team. 
Our challenge theme for the next two weeks is “old & new” i.e. a brand new stamp/digi with old papers etc.  Please can you tell us your old and new items in your post.  Don’t forget to use your promarkers or aqua markers to be included in our prize draw. 

For my hop card I have used a brand spanky new stamp called Flapper Girl by a new designer Vera aka Lemon Shortbread.  Ain't she just a doll!  For my old bit I have used a corner adourner to make the panel across the centre having discovered after 5 years that the pieces come off so you can use it along an edge *smile*

As you’ve read on the challenge blog the design team are also offering some candy of their own, so please leave me a comment on this post and I will randomly draw a winner for a promarker prize courtesy of Letraset. 

You also have a “mystery word” to find and my contribution is the letter “T”.  Now pop back over to PASSION FOR PROMARKERS CHALLENGE and leave your answer in the comments section of the post over there!

 
I just want to let you know the wonderful prizes up for grabs for our blog hop challenge:

Letraset are offering a full set of Aqua Markers to one lucky winner *woohoo*.

Wendy at The Secret Crafter is offering a Basic Grey ‘Oliver’ paper pad

Emma at Crafty Emma’s Store is offering a 12 pack of Aqua Markers

Sally-Ann from DigiStamp Boutique is offering 6 digi images from her shop

I hope you will be able to join in with our challenge and also have fun taking part in our blog hop.  Don’t forget you need to “hop” on back to Passion for Promarkers blog and leave your answer! Have fun and good luck!

Its Tim Holtz at The Stampman

For the next fortnight the challenge over at The Stampman is Anything Christmas Tim Holtz!  The DT have made beautiful samples usng lots and lots of lovely Sir Tim products and it should get you into good practice when he runs his famous 12 tags of Christmas challenge soon!

For this I've used a Tim Holtz Holiday Collections stamp on Poinsettia Red/Gold starburst stains which I sprayed lightly with bleach across the centre.   The background is also starburst stains sprayed with black webbing (Its an aerosol so only available in the shop) and I've used the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Bigz elegant flourish die.

Hope you can come over and play, remember anything Tim Holtz (thats a LOT of stuff!) and Christmas goes!

I'm a day late putting my post up as I'm getting a lot of headaches lately.  Was going to do it when I got home last night but I went shopping and found out Diva Fever from X Factor were performing live so came home with an absolute raging one but they were worth it haha!  They were my favs to win as I've got a very clear camp taste in music!

Would also like to enter into...

ABC Christmas - X is for Xmas
Caardvarks - Christmas and using die cuts

A Catch Up

Good Evening all!  So much for my early night!  I was literally dropping by 7pm tonight but then got distracted by altered photo frames and the like - you know how it is!  I'm actually very very busy craft wise at the mo but I cant show any of it haha!  Not yet anyhow....  So I shall have a rummage through my archives as I spotted a few I haven't blogged yet so its a bit of a show and tell session tonight :D

First up a baby card I made a few days ago for an order using one of Meljen's gorgeous digi stamps called "Cuddle Cloud Baby" its definately my most favourite baby stamp it soooo cute!  He's coloured with promarkers with some glittery bits using a sakura stardust pen.

Next up a little swarovski charm I've made for somebody, I luuuuurve swarovski beads, could work with them all day but way too expensive lol!  I've used Clear AB, Turquoise, Light Sapphire AB and White Opal bicones with Clear AB disco balls plus silver stardust and silver heart beads.

 My little Princess Miss Mookins in her Halloween garb, bless her!

 Both of my monsters having a tender moment on a bridge in Chester, they're rarely like that lol!  Ahhhhhh!

 Next up a couple of art decos I made ages ago!  I'd coloured the blue one in and turned my back for literally 20 seconds to set up my cuttlebug to cut it and Miss Mookins attacked it with a pen aaaargh!  It couldn't be rescued so this is version 2!  I did Fire & Ice for these :)

Another set of Art Decos using images I won at Pollycraft a while ago called Sharing Sherbet and they are Heartstings and Lovenotes. 

 And lastly another easel clock which is a man card eeeek!  This was made with a Dustin Pike digi (the fence) Another set of digis who's name I cant remember (the plantpot and tools) and a WOJ tree.  The archway has flowersoft and some vine die cuts on and the card base is moonshadow ink.

Well I think I've about caught up now so I'm off to beddy byes!

Altered Candle tutorial at Letraset

Good Afternoon all! I have a tutorial to share over at Letraset's Blog today on altered candles using promarkers and aqua markers. They're really easy to make with a step by step guide and make lovely gifts and decorations. Pop over to Letrasets brand new blog for a peek and follow them for their latest news and giveaways - they've just given a full set of promarkers away wow!

Letraset's new blog is http://letrasetuk.blogspot.com/

Birthday sale & New release at Bearly Mine Designs



Its Donna's Birthday today over at Bearly Mine Designs and she is having a sale on all of her amazing digi sets and CD's from today until 19th Nov.  She is also celebrating her new release digi set Christmas Dreams, these are stunning!
I've used Donna's digi papers for over a year now and the advantage I get from them is they are unlimited.  I tend to make my inserts when the card is ready to be dispatched somewhere which may be quite soon or a while after I've made it and I never have any trouble looking for a piece of matching paper to go on the inside and finding I've run out, I just print another one off - simples! 

The card I've made today I used one of the papers from the new Christmas Dreams set which has the most beautiful hanging heart but it seemed such a shame to cover it so I've used a sheet as the backing then cut 2 squares out of another sheet and layered these over the top so the heart shows again :D
I've coloured Tilda with promarkers using cool aqua around the edges of the clothes and the blender pen to get the really pale shade with added sparkle on the lace on the clothes, stars and around the edges of the backing and squares and the heart.  She's sat on a shaker I made with a Nellie Snellen die, I've no idea why I made a shaker as I'm usually rubbish at them but the mood struck!

Anyhow I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Totally Tilda - Icy Christmas Tilda
I Love Promarkers - Icy Colours (Entry #2)
Creative Belli - Old, New, Borrowed, Blue (Old - the glitter snow in the shaker which is about 6 years old!  New - The new release DP's, Borrowed - Tilda stamp borrowed from Ms Dolphin, Blue - yep!)
ABC Christmas - Winter Wonderland
A Spoonful of Sugar - Snowflakes
Paper Sundaes - Let it Snow
Crafty Calendar - Winter Snowflakes

Thanks for looking!

Crafts & Me #17 Glitter

Its a sparkly one this next fortnight over at Crafts & Me and we are challenging you to use GLITTER!  Not hard given the time of year - mind you its not hard ANY time of year!

For this challenge I was colouring in The Gift by Molly Harrison but checked the DT blog and my teamie Tracy who's hosting had also chosen to do The Gift and also in the blue colours I'd picked out lol!   I hastily cobbled together another one haha!

Sooo this one is KRISTA by one of my favourite artists Hannah Lynn. 

She's coloured with promarkers in my favourite blues (Cool Aqua, Sky Blue and Azure) and I've used a sakura stardust clear pen to accent the hair.  I've used glitter card punched with a martha stewart doily lace punch and the blue card I sprayed with crafters companion iridescent spray & sparkle (Which says is non toxic but smells like nail varnish so spray outside unless you want to choke lol!)  I've embossed with the divine swirls embossing folder.  I also sprayed the flowers with the the crafters companion spray (by which time I really was choking!)
Starry background paper is a freebie from Bearly Mine Designs HERE.  I've drawn round the edges of the larger stars with the sakura pen and used stickles glue around the edge of the card.  The harlequin paper is a daisy and dandilion one which I've distressed with scissors and some broken china distress ink.
Sentiment is another by Stamping All Day (I do love their little text stamps!) which I've embossed with Moonglow Morning Glory Azure Teal. 

Hope you can come and join us for our sparkly challenge!

Would also like to enter...

Anything goes - Emboss it
Flourishes - Glitter
I love Promarkers - Icy Colours (My fav, I'll be back!)
Crazy Challenge - Things with Wings

Crafty Cardmakers spotlight on Embossing

The spotlight challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers this fortnight is to use DRY EMBOSSING.  The spotlight challenges look at a style, technique or product and show various ways of using them in designs so come and pop over to see what the team have created!

For this challenge I used the divine swirls and script texture embossing folders.  The script is on the rainforest green card which is edged wth a gold acrylic dabber and I also used a Tim Holtz elegant flourish die from The Stampman on a sheet of red metal I've had for yeeeeears which I also embossed with the script folder.
Image is called Wintergreen which is from Crafts & Me here.  She's coloured with promarkers and I've used the metallic gold promarker on the hair blended in with the pastel yellow and gold promarkers.  (Tip: Colour the pastel yellow and gold first, add the metallic gold and reblend with the pastel yellow and gold)  I've used a sakra stardust clear pen on the fur bits, stickles glue on the snow on the trees and flowers and a white gel pen for the dot detail on the clothes.  Papers are from Bearly Mine Designs from the Christmas fun set which you'll find here.  Cutest little tag is from Stamping all day which is embossed with detail gold.  Flowers are plain white from Wild Orchid Crafts with stickles glitter glue for sparkle.

Any questions just gimmie a shout and thanks for looking x

Would also like to enter into...

Christmas Card Challenge - Photo Inspiration
Crazy 4 Challenges - Square Cards
Fairytale - Anything goes
One Stitch at a Time - Winter Wonderland
CRAFT - Dry Embossing
One Stop Craft Challenge - Embossing
Lexi's Creations - Anything goes
ECP Challenges - Red
Whoopsie Daisy - Christmas
A Spoonful of Sugar - Relish to Embellish
Charisma - With love at Xmas
Little Red Wagon - Red
Stamp & Create - Tis the season
Tip Top Tuesday - Christmas

New Design Team & Challenge

News ths week is that I've been invited to join the brand new Bearly Mine Design Team which will also be starting up a challenge blog from January 2011!  I've been using Donna's papers for about a year or so now and they really are fabulous.  If you've never seen Bearly Mine papers go check out the shop blog which also has probably the best freebies available and a huge selection of packs and CD's to buy.  I absolutely love them as there's always something 'just right'

Donna's taken on a bunch of new ladies and the lucky ones are...

Donna (owner)

Amy (DT Co-ordinator)

Donna

Gina
Tracy
Anne

Marie
Sarah-Louise
Doreen
Shirley
Bella

  Vix

Watch out for the new challenge blog starting January!

Christmas at The Stampman

Its Christmas at The Stampman for the next 2 weeks and our challenge is to see your anything goes Christmas cards!  If you make your own and havent started yet, now is the time to panic lol!  Pop over to the challenge blog to see the team creations and meet one of our newbies Sarah.

For this challenge I have used my favourite Bling Maiden stamp, you can really use her for ANYTHING!  I've already made a winter verson of her in blues with snowflakes so I went for the more traditional red/green/gold combo for this one.

I've stamped and embossed in moonglow poinsettia red/green, coloured with a fern green aqua marker and I'm such a bad mummy but I nicked the kids metallic confetti for her hair!  The background is the red and green from the starburst stains holiday wreath set using the scrunch technique then sprayed with black webbing spray Jill has in the shop.  I've also stamped the awesome Hero Arts fabulous flourish stamp in a gold brilliance ink in the corners.

Would also like to enter into:

Creative Cottage - Embossing

Items used:

Vix used:
Aspects of Design 61 - Butterfly Beauties,
Hero Arts - Fabulous Flourish,
Starburst Stains - Holiday Wreath, 
Moonglow Poinsettia red/green embossing powder
Ranger Gold Acrylic Dauber,
Black Webbing Spray (Only available in the shop)
Metallic christmas confetti (Nicked from kids)
Aqua Marker - Fern Green
Red flatback pearls (From my girlfriend Corry, fankoo sweetie x)

Have you ever......?

Seen a stamp that you *knew* in an instant you not just wanted it you NEEDED it!  I'm sure most of us have been there probably with every stamp we buy lol!  Well this stamp I saw and I just had to have it!  Teresa hadn't got it in yet but it came in last week and bless her she remembered my yearning (or my pleading and pretty pleases with sugar on the tops!) and popped it in the post for me lol!

This one is by Kraftin' Kimmie and is called, go on I think you can guess!  Yes its Cinderella!  Look at that dress Oooooooh!  I was so excited when I saw this as I just couldnt decide what to colour her in first so I had a rummage through my papers instead and settled on blue!  I know I'm a big kid and its like one of those dress up dollies where you can change her hair and clothes hehe!  I think she would be fantastic for New Years cards too but this one is a wintery any occasion card :)
Its quite appropriate at the moment as my DD (Age 2) has just taken a shine to Cinderella, she also wanted to colour her in so I'll post hers below!

Cinderella is coloured with promarkers, I'm always asked about the blues so this one is my fav combo using cool aqua, sky blue, azure and french navy.  Speaking of promarkers did you know that Letraset have a brand spanky new blog?  No?  LETRASET HAVE A BRAND SPANKY NEW BLOG!  There dont say I didnt tell you lol!  You will find their brand spanky new blog HERE!

Anyway, Cindrella is coloured with promarkers and I've used my fav glue pen and glamour dust to add sparkle to her bodice and shoe.  On the dress I used a clear copic spica pen so its all sparkly.  I've had my copic spica pen 12 months and its always been a bit dodgy so I flicked the end then gave it a mad shake and it then decided to work so there are sparkles on the ceiling and floor now lol! 

Papers are a mix of a Daisy & Dandilion set I got locally and the stars one is a printout from Bearly Mine designs which is a freebie here.  Snowflakes are punched from same card I used as matting which you cant see but it is a deep sparkly blue from papercellar.

Thanks for Looking!

Would like to enter into...

Midnight Madness - Sketch

Crafty Creations - Fables & Fairytales

I Love Promarkers - Snowflakes

Artful Inkables - White, Blue & Silver

Gingersnap Chestnut - Haute Couture

Creative Card Crew - Punches

Incy Wincy - Anything Goes

Our little Molly (Aged 2 and 1/4) wanted to colour her in too!

Night All!

New Releases at Crafts & Me

I got this pretty girl in my post a couple of weeks ago to have a play with for release day which should be tomorrow!  She's by Molly Harrison and is part of the Crafts & Me range of stamps and is called The Gift.  Teresa should be loading them in the shop tomorrow so check out the new releases here

I've coloured her with promarkers, to get the really light blue effect use cool aqua around the edges and the blender pen, this gives it a blue shadowy look.  I've also scribbled a clear sakura stardust pen on her and uickly blended in with my finger so her dress is sparkly,  I've coloured her wings with glamour dust (also on the flowers) and added an ickle swarovski blue bead to the centre of the snowflake.  The lace is all glittery and the swirls are a prezzie from my girlfriend Corry (thanks petal x) 
Paper is from Bearly Mine designs and is a freebie so go grab it and leave Donna a comment :) 

Would like to enter into...

Alphabet challenge blog - A for Angels
Fussy & Fancy Friday - Winter Wonderland
Pocket Full of Posies - Winter Posies
Ellephantastic - Blue
Secret Crafter - Anything that Flies
Stamp with Fun - All that can fly
One Stitch at a Time - Christmas
Cowgirl Sundays - Bling it On
Paper Players - Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations - Glitter, Glamour & Girlie