Last post of 2009!

If you're looking for The Stampman blog hop just scroll a bit further down or click here!

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Well here's to the end of 2009 and the start of 2010! It was my birthday on Monday and my OH bought me a dishwasher so you know what that means? More crafting time yay!! Well some days it will be but its certainly given me some freetime to indulge my favourite hobby!

Over the past couple of days I've managed to do 3 cards, all of which I'd already done the image part and stashed it so just had to put the cards together. My nan also gave me some pennies for my birthday so after taking some advice from the fabulous Judy I went for the John Lewis Mini which is very similar to the mini janome she has. I'm a bit dim on things like that so it took me an hour to learn how to wind a bobbin and thread it, I've got the hang of it now though!

I've had a pretty good 2009, cant complain! Had a glass of baileys but I dont really drink anymore so thats me done now, will be having probably a cup of coffee at midnight! Here's hoping 2010 will be a better year if 2009 wasnt so good and look forward to all the creations for next year!

I'd like to say a huge thank you to Jill from The Stampman for asking me to be on their design team and I hope I do them proud! I love their products and have been using them for many many years so being on the team is an absolute pleasure for me!
Also the same to Nikki from Dewdrop Craftz who has some of the most interesting digi stamps on the net which I find such fun to colour as you know I LOVE my promarkers!
Also thanks to Joanna Sheen for sponsoring my challenge blog Crafty Cardmakers and helping get it on its feet and also to all the special guests who freely give their time and support to help fellow crafters and finally to all the team who willingly give their time and effort to help shape the blog and provide inspiration to all levels. Thank you girls xxx

Also a special mention to Sheilakins who has been a close friend for many years now, she is one of the most talented people I know and has had an excellent year since I kicked her bum to get blogging and to share her talents!

And to Cath who I've also known for many years who continues to be my mentor and inspiration with loads of beautiful examples and tutorials and advice on all levels.

Lastly to Bridget, this lady is battling breast cancer after losing her beloved husband this year and is one incredibly brave lady. She's also a fellow crafter so pop over to her blog and give her some healling loves and support :)

Thanks to you all xxx

Okies here's my last 3!

Butterfly Beauties stamp plate, starburst stains and lots of diamonds and pearls! Embossed with kaleidoscope EP and my first go at stitching on a card!

I can't remember the name of this stamp plate, Cath sent it me last year! Embossed with moonglow midnight violet, cuttlebugged french lilac violet starburst stains on half the card and swiped over with brilliance black ink.

I coloured this image AGES ago! I remember mentionning it on Vickys blog as she'd just coloured the same image at that time too. I embossed with UTEE then cracked it. The background is starburst stains jack in the pulpit teal swiped with black, the teals go so well with black. I felt the image was too "perfect" given the background so I grunged it a bit by rubbing brilliance black ink over the cracked UTEE and pushing it in with a slightly damp baby wipe. This made the ink spread on the paper giving it a grey and old look so was happy then lol! Its my last one of the year so here's to tommorrow!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Crafty Cardmakers 11 DT - Favourites of 2009

If you're looking for The Stampman blog hop just scroll a bit further down or click here!

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Over at Crafty Cardmakers we have a nice challenge for you - You're Favourites of 2009. This is something that is new to you this year, product or technique and you can use one or several items so long as you tell us what and why (coz I'm interested!)

New to me this year are Copic pens which I first got at Port Sunny back in May. However these dont last me very long so I switched to Promarkers around August and have settled with them. Also new for 2009 has been digital stamps which have been so much fun, so many styles to choose from and just a click away, I'm so impatient so these have been a nice addition!


New again are the bead caps and I've also gone for some printed papers this year, this card uses K&Co and MME. Also favoured this year have been beads and charms! My secret santa last year was Freyja whi sent me some beads and I've been rather taken with them and have built up a nice stash!

Image is Summer Fairy by The Greetings Farm coloured with copics and promarkers. I love the pastel green shades and I've used the new copic spica glitter pen on her wings, I luuuuurve this pen as it doesnt affect the underlying colour at all!

Papers are K&Co sweet stack and My Minds Eye. The swirly stamp I've had for at least 3 years but its only got a run out this year and I used cut n dry foam to colour round the image with heritage shimmer inks, again I've had these years but only come out to play this year. The mulberry flowers and the beady strand I've also had at least 5 years or more but have had a new lease of life thanks to Tab Robinsons beautiful use of them on her blog. Sticky gems are my personal favourite and I use them on most cards! The big flowers I got from port sunlight show in October :)

Thanks for looking and I hope you can join in the challenge x

The Stamp Man Blog Hop, Candy, and Award Event

Hellooooooo and a very warm (or maybe snowy) Welcome/Welkom to The Stampman blog hop, candy and and Award event! This event is running from 27th December through to midnight GMT on 3rd January 2010

If you've landed here from Michelle's blog then you're on the right track. If not then hop back to the start of the Blog Hop which is at The Stampman Blog so that you don't miss out on your chance to win goodies along the way! You need to visit all the blogs and collect the letters AND leave us lovely comments so that we know you've been and when you're done you'll end up back on The Stampman blog where you can post a link to your favourite creation and enter the prize draw!

Here's what you have to do
Find a project of your own from this year that you feel is your best/favourite and write a post on your blog about it. It can be a card, a layout, an altered project, or even a new technique that you have mastered this year. It must be anything crafty that you have made and designed yourself. You can mention why you liked this project, details or instructions for it, or simply just post the picture, this is up to you.

Firstly an Award! More details of these can also be found on The Stampman Blog.

This is my award for showing my best or most favourite crafting project of 2009. Jill said it would be easy this, errrrr no lol lol! Took me a while to decide as my style has changed so much over the past 12 months, I kinda went full circle away from my regular style towards the more cute then back again and have taken some elements of differing styles with me so this card uses several of the styles I've explored this year including cute, digital, distressed and making my own embellishments.


The background, palm leaves and even coconuts (which are shaggy by the way!) are all made from starburst stains. For full destructions on what I used you can view the original post here


I also like this project because of the lion which ties in with my South African links. My OH is South African so my 2 babies are half Saffers and I also have several crafting friends who are SA too :-) The card actually went off to live in Denmark though!





Okies are you looking for a letter??

Tell me tell me what is it?? I'm such a tease hehe! Its.........

O

Jill is also being a tease and only letting you (and us!) know along the way what the prizes are so for visiting my blog my prize is.....

A selection of MOONGLOW products woo hoo!

Remember you need to leave comments on ALL the blogs to be eligible x

Your next stop is the awesomely talented Tracey Coates who is the designer of the fabulous starburst fairies, butterfly beauties and classical instruments stamp sheets you'll see used on my blog very often!

Dewdrop Craftz #4 - Love, laugh, live

There's a new challege up over at Dewdrop Craftz This time its "Love, laugh, live" so can be interpreted in many ways. Thoughts of romance, sharing funny times or life itself :)

There is also a Pre-January sale on in the shop which lasts until 31st December so pop over to have a look at their cool and very versatile images. One of my favourites I've used for this challenge as is called "Scorcerer" I like using her as she's lovely to colour and can be for any occasion, she also has a cute little face too :D

I also did a special little trick with this one which you'll see on the last pic ;)

Image is coloured with Promarkers and cut out. On the original image she is holding an Orb, I cut this off. Then I've used a piece of white card and distressed it with heritage shimmer inks in pinks and brilliance red gold lightly towards the corners and edges. I overstamped with the red using a swirl stamp which I think is HOTP. Backing paper is printed from bearly mine designs designer extreme III and I've hand stamped the words with the red and edged with pinks & red again.

I mounted the image 3d onto the card but in place of the printed orb I used a 10mm rondelle bead with AB coating so its all shimmery. Below this is 2 6mm red hearts and some pink organza. Now the little trick is with the orb. Its shimmery in daylight because of the AB coating but put it under light at night (i.e halogen lights in a room) and the orb glows and reflects onto the card as seen on the last pic.

Hope you can come an join us over at Dewdrop Craftz challenge now that most of the xmas cards are out of the way yay!

The Stampman Blog Hop, Candy & Awards Event!

The Stampman are hosting a Blog Hop, Candy & Awards event starting on Sunday 27th December and running through until Sunday 3rd January. Details will be posted on The Stampman blog
on Sunday 27th but in the meantime please post this picture on your sidebars to let everyone know about the fab event as the more the merrier and its bound to be a lot of fun fun fun!

The Kids xmas crafting

What was I thinking haha! They both had colds so were stuck in bored so having to think up of new things to entertain them with so I just gave them some circles, some glue sticks, glitter glue and metallic xmas confetti, sequins and wooden xmas trees and........ a tub of glitter! Then I stood well out of the way lol!

Ahhh look at the concentration!

I heard Ethan giggling every few seconds then realised he'd found the glitter and he thought this was just the best!

A future C&C presenter me thinks! hehe!

Crafty Cardmakers 10 DT - A Sketch

Jenny has made us a lovely little sketch this time on Crafty Cardmakers which I did enjoy working with indeed! Our special guest for the challenge is Debbie Dolphin who has some wonderful work on her blog. Pop over for a peek as she has some lovely varied work on there.

For this sketch I used an image by The Greeting Farm called Summer Fairy. I bought that and the Autumn one, I didn't buy the set because, well Sue from Crafters Corner is probably having a chuckle as she knows why lol!

I coloured her with promarkers and much use of the blender for lighter shades and a copic spica glitter pen on the wings then used heritage shimmer ink in light and mid blue around the image and edges then very gently with a black brilliance blending in towards the centre. This was mounted on silver paper.

The image itself holds a flower so I've added a flora doodles one with a large bead cap, a spacer and a crystal gem brad through the centre to add more dimension with 2 small chains and a glass heart bead and made with love charm. (Tip: If you struggle to get the brad through the bead caps give it a nip with a cropodile or very gently twist the brad till it goes through)

The 4 squares backing paper is a printout from Bearly Mine designs - Designer extreme vol 3 and I added a square of blue card beneath the circle that matches the base card and stamped around the corners with a star stamp using white stazon (Doesnt show up well in the pic) from Tracey Coates' butterfly beauties sheet. The sentiment is from Tracey's Starburst Fairies.

I'm also going to enter this into Quixotic Paperie challenge which is Stars (They are there on the corners of the blue square)

Moonglow blog candy winner

Thank you for your entries and comments of support, muchly appreciated! I've had a good look round and have counted 23 entries so without further ado the winner of the scrummy yummy moonglow candy is.....




Making it Vicky! Congratulations hunny, please email me with your details and I'll pop these in the post to you.

Cards for Men - New challenge blog

Donna from Donna's Den of Crafts has started a new challenge blog for purely mens cards. Now Men's Cards are a bit like marmite, love em or hate em, I fall into the latter mainly because I like cute pretty fings and dont really have many men to make for! However one must overcome fears and have a go so here's my entry!

Cards for men challenge blog

Its a christmas card off the kids to my OH and is made using 2 images by Mo Manning - Two Jill and Sam in trouble. I reduced Jill to 80% so it was more accurate to what my kids look like and merged them using paint shop pro.

To try and explain how its done here...

Open a new image then add a new layer.
Open your digital images and use the magic wand and click on the pic then selections ->invert and copy it. Paste that onto your blank sheet as a transparent image.
Make another layer then copy the 2nd image and paste that too and move them until you're happy.
In your layers panel on the screen click on the the one at the back so in this case Jill and use the eraser tool to erase parts that are showing through on the front image (i.e Part of the dress showing through Sams hand) Also this image is a funny one as Jill is sandwiched between 2 layers, part of Sam's image is the wall which Jill is in front of but she is behind Sam so you have to click on Sam and erase parts of that that Jill is actually in front of.

Sounds complex but its easy with practice, promise!

These two are exactly like my kids Ethan (2 and 3/4 and Molly (18 months) Molly is a stroppy little diva and Ethan is not usually deliberately naughty and can be quite remorseful when he knows he's in the dog box!

Image was coloured with Promarkers and the backing paper is a hand painting the kids did to make it more personal for their Daddy. I've stamped and embossed Merry Christmas and added xmas tree and hat brads. I think it sums them up nicely and may not be a traditional xmassy image but their dad will relate to it :)

Sex on the Beach & SFTW!

Whaaaaaaaaat? He he all will be explained!

I've won over at stampin for the weekend whoop whoop! And double whoop because I not only won stamps but also some CHARMS and spacers from The Hobby House yay! So Fankoo muchly, you'll see why I'm so chuffed at winning charms now!

So why Sex on the Beach?

Well during winter I hibernate a bit. I dont cardmake much in the evenings so only make what needs to be done and a couple of just because I felt like it cards so normally I'd sit in a warm cosy bed and cross stitch instead but not this year since becomming kinda obsessed with beads! It started last year with my secret santa Freyja from Katys Corner group. Part of the gift was some "Really old beads" which I thought were absolutely fabulous! From there I bought more and just added to them along the way. Then Judie kept mentionning beads and things and I was looking for an accessory for my phone and spotted some phone charms made from beads. I thought I could make them just as well if not better and charge a whole lot less for them too so from there I make phone charms, bag charms, keyrings and dangly bookmarks.

They're all UNIQUE too, I dont make exactly the same twice :)

To make them distinctive the colour combos I use all have names so Sex on the beach is based on the cocktail so is clear, yellow, orange and red topped off with a green leaf. Night at the Opera is black, red and silver and christmas lights is red, green and gold, see innocent explaination lol!

The way it works is people select the item (Phone charm, bag charm, bookmark or keyring) then select the colour combo and what theme i.e what end charm. I've made a fan page on facebook (coz it seemed more info could be put on than a group) if you want a proper look or to just stop by and say hello :)

I am working on a site but its a slooooooow process!

Sweet Art UK on Facebook

Some examples below.

"Sex on the Beach" colour combo on small phone charm

"Mint choc chip" colour combo on small phone charm

"Very Viola" colour combo on small phone charm

"Night at the Opera" colour combo on a bookmark
"Ice Storm" colour combo on a bookmark"Naughty & Nice" colour combo on a large phone charm

"Tranquil Seas" colour combo on a bag charm (Made for Jill @ The Stampman and it has a fairy, butterfly & violin to match Tracey's stamp plates along with a 4 leaf clover)

"Pretty Posy" colour combo on a small phone charm

"Ice Storm" colour combo on a large phone/small bag charm with guardian Angel

"Christmas Lights" colour combo on large phone/small bag charm with Guardian Angel

So thats what else I do on rainy days :D

Challenge Me! A new challenge blog by Dewdrop Craftz

All new singing and dancing challenge blog from Dewdrop Craftz - Challenge Me! The theme for this challenge is "Natures Elements" anything depicting nature itself.. be it something in natures flaura/fauna - or a season of the year...


Pop over to see what its all about and the Design Team creations & become a follower so you'll stay up to date with the latest challenges.

CHALLENGE ME BLOG

Here's my DT creation for this challenge.

I chose the image "Warmth of Winter" and coloured him with Promarkers. Nikki assures me this is a boy, I thought it was a girl so I guess you could colour in masculine or feminine - bonus!
The background paper is DCWV Once upon a Time, lovely rich brown colour and the centre circle is an altered CD. First I added some ink (brilliance) and then some gold leafing foil (from the stampman) which stuck to the ink. I did a little distressing so that some of the CD shone through giving points of light then I added some heat proof acetate over the top and embossed a stampscapes oak tree branch around part of the edge and mounted the image 3d.
The leaves are punched from starburst stains cathedral pines green, some of them I gave a light spray of solar gold radiant rain. The faux brads are also gold leaf put on with a quickie glue pen.

Now its your turn to show us your creations over at Dewdrop Craftz new challenge blog, hope to see you soon x

A crimbo card shhhhh!

I know I'm NOT MAKING ANY but but I had a swap to do, I was very late with (smacks hands) and it ended up as Christmas.... Had a mooch round blogger for inspirations and decided on a red/green/gold combo. Hey it matches my xmas tree, well it would if the kids would leave it alone for 5 minutes and stop pulling everything off!

The swap is called the Slam Dunk which is a combo of 3 other swaps we had on crafty cardmakers group (Christmas, look outside i.e. colours outside and transparent) I was thinking oooh autumn colours yum then realised it had to be xmas themed hmmmm..... Good old red and green come to the rescue!

I'm entering this into....

Stampin' for the Weekend - Christmas Time, Mistletoe & Wine
Dare U Digi - Red, Green & Neutral
The Pink Elephant - Fav Xmas combo
Cute Card Thursday - Swirly Girly



Image is a digital Swiss Pixies (Nora) coloured with Promarkers. I've used a copic spica glitter pen on the wings and added little iridescent gems as earrings. Background paper is HOTP mounted on gold card. Another piece of gold card the same size was stuck on the back for the writing :) Card is of course acetate stamped with white stazon with more iridescent gems added.
Thanks for looking x

I made a box :D

Yes this is a major achievement for me! I don't really do boxes, they don't travel well and the presents I give are usually too bulky for a handmade box however not this year since falling into the "Addicted to beads" trap coz of Judie!

Took me a while to absorb the destructions, I was going to make a smaller one that Helen made on P4P blog but decided that would be too small for what I wanted it for so finally managed this 5" square one :D Whoop go me lol!

I'm entering this into the following challenges...

Passion for Promarkers - Anything but a card with christmas theme

Quixotic Paperie - Be Charming

Creative Card Crew - Christmas

Stamp with fun - X-mas

The Pink Elephant - Color me wonderful (Fav colouring medium)

Digital Tuesday - Christmas Sparkle

The image is Butterfly Swirl by Dewdrop Craftz coloured with Promarkers (fav medium) I love this stamp and wanted to see how she looked in christmas colours so here she is :)

Off the top of my head colours used were:

Face/skin - Ivory, blush, vanilla, oatmeal

Reds - Red, poppy, crimson

Greens - Meadow, grass, emerald, forest

Blender

The red parts on the wing and the crystal she is holding I have gone over with a copic spica glitter pen in clear so they're all sparkly, wish promarkers would make a glitter one, I'd be first in the queue!

I went round the image with versamagic aloe vera and towards the edges in brilliance pearlescent ivy also stamping the stars in the same and added an iridescent gem.

The papers used on the box are from bearly mine designer extreme III and I have attached a charm to the ribbon which is a tibetian silver made with love and the rest are beads from my now extensive stash including green and red crackle beads (sparkly!) gold stardust beads (sparkly!) and swarovski crystal AB beads (super sparkly!)

Thanks for looking!

Crafty Cardmakers is looking for occasional sponsors

Starting in the New Year! We have Joanna Sheen as a regular monthly sponsor so are looking for a number of sponsors to cover the other challenge we have.

If you're unfamiliar with Crafty Cardmakers blog it is a learning resource aimed at newer cardmakers and bloggers rather than a standard challenge blog with tutorials running regularly on various aspects of cardmaking and stamping also information on setting up a blog and how to enter challenges.

We run 2 challenges a month often giving an easy option or a more complex one.

It is based here - Crafty Cardmakers
Pop over and see how it all works :)

We would ideally like a range of sponsors on an occasional basis. If you're interested and could be of help to us then please email me to discuss :)