Monochromatic magic at Crafty Cardmakers

Evening all!  I'm early tonight as I dont think I'll be standing much longer!  Had awful headache last night and I kept thinking it was because I was tired and if I get some sleep it will go away.  Of course it doesnt and I had no sleep - The simple sloution would have been to get up and take some paracetamol but it was too cold lol!  Serves me right!

Anyway onto Crafty Cardmakers DT and they would like to see Monochrome this fortnight. There is a fantastic prize on offer by Indigo Blue and also from Digi Doodle Shop so please do pop over to check them out.

For this I went nearly CAS, apart from the stamped letters and base, its as close to CAS that I generally go lol!

I've again used Ladybug Tilda and coloured with cool greys and added black diamond stickles to the base card, punched hearts and stamped letters on 1cm squares.  If you haven't seen my tutorial on colouring in monotones then have a looksie here :)

I'd like to enter into...

Lexi's - Love

Lollipop Crafts - Valentines

Stamp with fun - Love

Stamps r us - valentines

Well peeps I just got Mols out of the bath and the water felt so warm and inviting I'm going to sink into a hot bath x

Crafty Cardmakers & holiday at Rhosydd Bach

Good Evening all!  Now back from a great holiday on the Lleyn Peninsula in Wales.  We decided on a last minute holiday as Molly had never had one except the odd camping weekend here and there and I was very lucky to get one as at place called Rhosydd Bach.  I've never been the peninsula before so thought it would be a nice change of scenery and Rhosydd Bach is a few miles away from Pwllheli in the countryside.  Me & OH are not the type to enjoy big caravan parks with the inbuilt entertainment and watching your neighbours have breakfast, in fact its something we both loathe and we looked at some farm sites but they were just that, farms so when I came across Rhosydd Bach which is a farm site with chickens and ducks *but* it is fully equipt for kids with its own playground, trampoline and toys and it was perfect for us as we wanted somewhere peaceful for us but also somewhere the kids wouldnt be ored stiff and we found just that, its also a short hop to get to anywhere around the peninsula where its based so we did a lot of exploring, went to 5 beaches, my favourite was Morfa Nefyn, the sea is sooooo blue, the kids seemed to enjoy Llanbedrog and Black Rock sands the most, Llanbedrog is a little bit more intimate and Black Rock Sands is perfect for a whole day at the beach as you can drive onto the beach so can go fully laden.  Some piccies - I highly recommend this area and particularly Rhosydd Bach to stay, its stunning, not too touristy (unless you go into Pwllheli or Porthmadog at a weekend!)

Morfa Nefyn - On North side on Peninsula, clean and sandy with facilities (toilets/ice cream/cafe) close by

 The kids mugged a lady for a ride in her boat, they're so cheeky!  This was at Black Rock Sands near Porthmadog which gets very busy at weekends and only has one narrow road down to it and is home to loads of camp sites so I would imagine its rammed on saturdays!  Has ice cream van and burger van on beach plus toilets nearby.  Drive straight onto the beach (£4 a day parking)

 We'd had the day at Llanbedrog beach which is a few miles down the peninsula from Pwllheli then decided to go for fish & chips - in Cricceth!  Was intending to stay there for tea but Ethan fell over and Mols needed a wee so we came back! 

Mols and Ethan saying hello to Matilda the Duck.  She wags her tail when you say hello to her and she apparently steals the farm dogs' food by pecking them lol!

 Beautiful sunset I saw from the decking on the caravan and indeed it was a gorgeous day the day after.

I'd bought a £1.99 kite and attempted to fly it that morning - unsuccessfully!  One of the gentleman in the cottages who came past for a stroll must have been amused to see me at 9am in my PJ's trying repeatedly to launch this thing.  Bit later on we went into Pwllheli and I bought a better version and met up with OH who'd been away on training and we finally got it into the air after restringing so this is Mols first flight of a kite!

We did so much that week, trains, fair, beaches, even found a play area when it was wet (Thats at the end of the prom in Cricceth in the cafe)  Loads more to go back for which we will, definately the perfect spot for us :)

Anyway you'd like to see a card?  Heres one I made for Crafty Cardmakers who's challenge this fortnight is "Summer Holiday Memories" so I've used a beach scene using the gorgeous Faye WHittaker stamp from Joanna Sheen.  I've coloured it with my new FLEXMARKERS - Oh yeah I'm loving these!  I used the antique white to blend and its given a really olde worlde look, love those pens!

I've used real shells I collected on holiday in South Africa in 2006 and some raffia ribbon I've had probably just as long!

Would like to enter into...

Crafty Boots - ANything goes
Kaboodle Doodles - Rik Rak, fabrc or lace
Paper Pretties - Primary colours
Squigglefly - Blue
Victorine Originals - Primary colours
Woodware USA - Anything goes
Aly's sunday challenge - Bows
Sentimental sundays - thinking of you

  

Steampunk or Machines at Crafty Cardmakers

Its what what?  Teamie Ei has chosen the theme Steampunk or machines at Crafty Cardmakers this fortnight and the team gave a mass nervous giggle but were also intrigued, a bit like the moth that cant help banging into the lightbulbs at night!

I had absolutely no idea what steampunk involved so I set about researching and in a nutshell its Steam = Old/Victorian ie the age of steam and Punk = New/Modern ie punk era or futuristic

That cleared up I got my thinking cap on which stayed there for quite some time and I thought about a victorian lady stamp I've had forever and thought I could use that with some modern elements like a rocket or give her a Borg makeover so off I went searching for said stamp to discover I gave it away on last clearout so had to apologise to Ei as I didn't think I could do the challenge.  However Teamie Judie came to my aid and pointed me to some links and I ended up over at Deviant Art and stumbled across this rather stunning beauty which ticks all the boxes.

She's called Steampunk Girl by *SUREYA and you'll find her Steampunk girl here.  She is of course a mix of the very Victorian dress and gun mixed with the very modern chibi, love it!  I've coloured with promarkers and derwent coloursofts using papers from Bearly Mine who have great cogs ones in the Boys Zone collection which are also perfect for Steampunk.

There that didn't hurt too much and I really do love that image, shes fab!  What do you think of her?

Would like to enter this into...

Papertake weekly - sketch
Sparkles forum - Anything goes
Just add ink - Flower
Papercutz - Anything goes

A Royal Wedding

Its a ROYAL WEDDING over at Crafty Cardmakers with the choice of using a red, white & blue theme OR a wedding theme or you can go the whole hog and do a red, white & blue wedding theme!
For this I used a Tilda stamp coloured with promarkers and derwent coloursoft pencil and went with the first option of the red, white & blue theme.
Papers are by Bearly Mine Designs and the blg blue flowers I just got from QVC outlet.  One of the ladies at the craft group in warrington I've just started had a pack on her table so Sarah hot footed it up to QVC to get us the last 2 bags lol!
I've used a couple of tiny butterfly punch outs, one is covering the mistake I made colouring the sleeve in blue when I wanted it white.  Got a bit stuck after I'd put the bottom flowers on and the image so thought "What would Tracy Payne do?" and thought of a swirl so I added that and another couple of flowers and its balanced out OK.  The swirl is a Tim Holtz elegant flourish die cut which I glittered with stickles also glittering the flowers.

So hope you can join in over at Crafty Cardmakers this fortnight for a Royal Wedding!

Would also like to enter into...

Stamp with Fun - Birthday
Just Magnolia - Happy Birthday
Paper romance - paper flowers

Crafty Cardmakers RECIPE

Hellooooooo!  Dee has cooked up a recipe for us this week at Crafty Cardmakers and she has chosen...

USE YELLOW AS YOUR MAIN COLOUR

USE RIBBONS

USE RHINESTONES/GEMS

USE STITCHING FAUX OR REAL

The Stampman are sponsoring us with a £10 voucher for their shop!  BTW they have some great new stamps in called Framies which fit exactly into certain nestie shapes - go check them out HERE! 

For this I chose an image by Pink Cat Studio, I won a challenge at Charisma a while back and this was one of the ones I chose.  I was having a look through the Postpals site and I have a little girl in mind for this one.  In fact there are quite a few of their stamps that are great for little uns!

I've coloured with promarkers and used glaour dust on the flowers, bobbles and belt so its super sparkly.  I've also used some dewdrops from Robins Nest.  The flowers are airbrushed to match although I'm going to tinker with the white ones as they look a bit like fried eggs lol!

Hope you can join in Dee's recipe challenge at Crafty Cardmakers!

I would also like to enter into...

The Sweet Stop - Sketch

Charisma - Bling & Sparkles

Stampin Sisters in Christ - Card for a child

Crafty Emma's - Children

Paper Playtime - Digi Anything goes

Kaboodle Doodles - Girly

Digital delights - Flowers

Crazy Challenge - Flowers

Thanks for looking!

A Water Challenge & A Mermaid!

I'm catching up *again* lol!  Actually I think I've pretty much caught up and tonight I'm going to do absolutely nothing but put my feet up and cabbage in front of the telly!

I have a couple to show ya here and I'll start with the new soon to be released stamp by Jasmine Becket-Griffith at Crafts & Me and this one is Pearl Swirl Mermaid.
I took a break from the norm with this one and coloured nearly all with PENCIL! Now dont die of shock lol!  I've been playing with them and the only way to get better is to use them and practice eh!  I put down some ivory and blush promarkers on the skin but the highlights and the rest is pencils.  I've used some sakura stardust pens to add sparkle too, she's mounted on starburst stains, the white paper lace is iridescent and if you look closely I wrapped a load of turquoise blending filaments on the base of the card.  The pearls I put in with sakura souffle :)

Hope you love her as much as I do!  Would like to enter her into...

ABC Challenge - N for Nesties

Fab N Funky - Chocolate & Blue

Sketchy Colors - Blue, Brown & White (2nd entry)

Pile it on - Punch it

The rubber cafe - Glitter & Shine

Some odd girl - Scallops

Next up its a water challenge at Crafty Cardmakers, you must use water (a product you add water to or containing water i.e H2o's, starburst stains, cosmic shimmers, water colour pencils etc)  For this one I had a play with Jasmine's Pink Lightning and gave her a more grunge look with heavy eye make up.  The wings are coloured with sakura stardust so is the dress.  The background is starburst stains overstamped with the hero arts flourish stamped with acryllic paint and the black bubbles across the centre are stamped with brilliance.  Image was coloured with a mix of promarkers and pencil.

Hope you can come join our watery challenge!

Tilted in the light :)

Would like to enter this into...

Crafty Ho's - No DP

Gingerloft - Things that fly

Challenge Reminders

Its nearly the New Year, have you got any plans?  I'm a stay at home person, have been out once on New Year in 18 years lol!  Prefer to be around my kiddie winks as they're important to me so I like to see in the New Year with them :)

Anyway just a few reminders of challenges if you're looking for an excuse to use all that new stash you got!  I got a letrajet for my birthday on Tuesday, the promarker airbrush system so will be playing with that soon!

Tomorrow over at The Stampman we will be hosting an end of year blog hop with candy to be won!  It will run for 2 weeks and all will receive an award for presenting their favourite project of 2010!  It starts at 12pm tomorrow so hope you join in the hop!

Meanwhile over at the ranch - CRAFTY CARDMAKERS is asking to see your first or oldest projects (Scroll back to your first blog posts if you have nothing older)  Its a bit of fun, shows you how far you've come and some inspiring words from guests including Suzanne from Joanna Sheen's DT, Jill from The Stampman and Linda Elbourn designer for Craft Stamper.  You can make an anything goes with it but you must show an old card!


There is also an Anything Goes Mega Christmas challenge over at Passion for Promarkers, it can be any theme but you just need to use your promarkers or aqua markers and loads of great prizes up for grabs!


Finally there is also an Anything Goes theme at Crafts & Me until Wednesday and the prize being 2 stamps from their new artist and let me tell you my jaw hit the floor when Teresa told me who she'd signed, wowwwwweeeeee!  I am so excited to be working with this stamp range! 

I'll be back tomorrow to show my favourite Stampman project so pop back!

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

Alcohol Inks at Crafty Cardmakers

We've dusted down our alcohol inks over at Crafty Cardmakers and are using them for our "Spotlight challenge"  The spotlight challenge is all about using techniques, styles or products to show different ways of using them so if you're one of the people who avidly bought said alcohol inks at a show, splodged them around a bit and consigned them to the cupboard then now's your chance to master them!  The team have come up with some beautiful samples to inspire!

Here's mine :)
The background I made with Claudine Hellmuth sticky back canvas and I sprayed blending solution on before dropping blotches of cool peri ink which spread and turned shades of pink and purple.  I've smudged on some gold reinker for some bling.  The other background is pink and purple alcohol inks on glossy card and I've used a cuttlebug folder.
Image is Melinda Christmas Angel I got at Crafts & Me here coloured with promarkers, sakura stardust pens and quickie glue pen with glamour dust.

Thanks for looking :)



Clean & Simples at Crafty Cardmakers

Its a Clean & Simples theme over at Crafty Cardmakers this fortnight and the team have made some absolutely beautiful samples! I must say as much as love my papers and embellishments sometimes its just nice to do something straightforward and let the image do all the work :)
Its not actually my turn to play this week but I couldn't resist once my new Lili of the Valley stamps arrived and I saw that Secret Crafter, Sparkle Creations and Paper Players had the same theme so I'm playing too! This is my first one of the year too :)

Image is by Lili of the Valley and is coloured with promarkers, Ive used 2 shades of blue around the edge then the blender pen to merge them. Kept very simples with this one and added sakura stardust clear pen on the tinsel to make it sparkly, glaze pen on the baubles and stickles glue around the edge of the card. Mounted on gold and white cardstock with a couple of iridescent sticky gems :)

Would like to also enter into...

Secret Crafter - Clean & Simple
Sparkle Creations Christmas Card Challenges - Clean & Simple
Paper Players - Clean & Simple
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - Christmas
Cowgirls Sunday - Anything goes

Crafty Cardmakers #26 Joy's Recipe

I'm back from my little jaunt up to Skipton to go play at The Stampman and I've been surrounded by yummy scrummy moonglow products all weekend ooooh lucky me!! Really enjoyed myself and was lovely hooking up with Jill, Ian, Janet, Michelle and Jill B. I was demoing with one of Kay Carleys stamp sheets (Funky Flowers) and couldnt resist it anymore as they make the most beautiful little cards so watch this space lol!
Also if you haven't entered already then The Stampman challenge is still open with an Anything goes theme!


Crafty Cardmakers is back with another challenge and this time our teamie Joy has chosen us a recipe which is

1. Use stickers or punches
2. Use the colour orange or yellow
3. Include and animal or fish

We're also sponsored by Gurlee Girl stamps who are offering a $20 voucher for her store! Thank You Chelsea!

Here's my take! I've used an image by Pollycraft coloured with promarkers and coloured the hearts on the dress with an orange sakura stardust pen. The ribbon has been dyed wth a yellow promarker and the faux stitching is a sakura souffle pen. I used a martha stewart punch (my one and only one!) and sprayed the whole card with diamond dazzles glimmer mist.

Entering into...

Dare U 2 digi stamp - Stitching

Create for Fun - Flowers

Bunny Zoes - summer

Stampavie - Anything goes

Crafty Cardmakers #23 Mens cards!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!! Its Man Card time over at Crafty Cardmakers! You know how much I just luuuuuurve man cards (NOT!) hehehe!

I'm rather late posting this week, had soooo much I've needed to do, my schedule is all squiffy and my youngest DD is driving me round the bend! My eldest DD has flown off to Crete for her first holiday without us old duffers so hope she has a good time! She's learnt not to have ice in her drink lol!

Our Special guest over at Crafty Cardmakers is Sandy Hulsart who has a wonderful stampscapes & photoscapes blog here

I was extremely short on time to make my card this week (uploaded 8 minutes before live!) so this was a really quick make using an alcohol inked background I saw on Sandy's blog and thought That'll do!

I applied alcohol inks with a stiple brush and blending solution, dropped a few droplets of ink on, dropped more drops of solution on and gave it a spray with iridescent gold glimmer mist (Well I have to have sparkle dont I!!)

Stamped the mountains and cove, oak tree branch and man in boat and used brilliance ink around the edge to make a spotlight. Its all done on linen card for a textured effect. I've also spread paper glaze on the water bit.

10 minute make (which is totally unheard of from me!) and I've no mans birthdays for a while ha!

Entering into...

Cards for Men - Fathers Day

Magical Crafts - Fathers Day

Pear Tree Designs - Fathers Day

Incy Wincy - One for the guys

Crafty Cardmakers #19 - Desert Island

Oooh another toughie from me at Crafty Cardmakers hee hee! Imagine if you were to be stranded on a desert island for at least 6 months. What items would you absolutely *need* to take with you, what wouldn't you grow bored of? The thought behind it is to help newer crafters make some choices on whats REALLY useful and a sure fire winner for their hard earned pennies. We're faced with so many choices but where would a newer cardmaker start given the huge array of products? If you wanted to start cardmaking what are essentials?
I will be compiling a hot list at the end of it based on entries so if you're more experienced please do come and play as your input is very valuable!


So what would I take?

I think for me it absolutely has to be starburst stains. I love the shimmer and the way they all come out unique when making backgrounds. I don't feel a desperate need for printed patterned papers, they're nice but I do prefer my own.


I would also need flowers, I love prima flowers and paper roses.

Also ribbon especially white satin as I can colour it with my promarkers which are an absolute must for me to take and I just love sticky gems and pearls, so much easier nowadays instead of fiddling with glue with the non sticky ones.

Stamp wise most definately the butterfly beauties stamp plate with The Bling Maiden as there are so many possibilities I'd never get bored. Also embossing powder, I love moonglow midnight embossing powders which are black but change colour (I've used midnight teal here) I've also used a woodware leaf punch which is a firm favourite and cuts card easily.

Brilliance ink is another must for me, it can be embossed, dries on most surfaces and has a lovely shimmer and finally stickles glitter glue as its high quality and dries 3d instead of the glue seeping into the paper and most of the sparkle disappearing.

I've made this card using starburst stains in bachelor buttons blue and french lilac violet and swiped across the blue with black brilliance ink. Image is stamped and embossed with moonglow midnight teal and I've coloured the face with promarkers and watercoloured the hair with starburst stains in frosted forget me nots, baby blue eyes and tibetian poppy teal. I've added lots of sticky pearls and iridescent gems and some white paper roses swiped with brilliance sky blue and added stardust stickles glue for sparkle. The leaves I've made by swiping the brilliance blue onto card and punching with a woodware punch (1.5" grass)

I do hope you'll come and join us at Crafty Cardmakers and show us your absolute favourite must haves!

Also entering for...

ABC Challenges - Sparkle
Penny's - Anything goes
My Time to Craft - Pearls (2nd entry)
Cute Card Thursday - Touchy Feely
Flutterby Wednesday - 2nd Entry

Crafty Cardmakers #14 - Digital Delights

Its digi fortnight over at Crafty Cardmakers and we're sponsored by Dewdrop Craftz who are offering the set of their new release digi Bees as a prize! There's one shown in the post below this, they're just the cutest!




For this challenge I have used a number of images by Dewdrop Craftz. They are Summer Flower Girl, the dragonflies and snails and the fox and chick are from the Animals/Bugs mega pack set.
I used Paint shop pro to create layers and resized the animals and bugs and have added the fox both in front and behind the girl and put the chick in her hand (Its a little bit complicated to explain so I've wrote a photo tutorial which is coming very soon!)

It was coloured with promarkers. I actually coloured her in another colour then found I had no stash to match *doh* Something you really have to retrain your brain to do is to find stash first THEN colour lol! The sky is done with cut n dry foam and brilliance sky blue swiped from side to side, press down harder in some areas for the streaky bits.

All papers are courtesy of my SU Rep Helen who was having a clearout and she also gave me the fiskars scallop punch. The twine is some raffia ribbon I cut down and some I sharked from DD1 who got some flowers from her OH and I kept the twine as I thought it would be useful (smile)

Crafty Cardmakers 9 DT - Alternative Xmas

Have a very alternative xmas! This challenge is designed to get you crafting out of the box, looking at your stash and using it a little bit differently. The challenge set is to make a card/layout/project using either....

1. A christmas image using non traditional colours so NO red, green, gold combos here. Think lilac, pink, blues instead

or

2. Use a NON christmas image such as shopping Anya or a summer tilda etc but use traditional xmas colours (red,green,gold)

I've taken option 2. I cannot begin to tell you how special this stamp is! It was custom made for me by Nikki at Dewdrop Craftz and is PERFECT! Exactly the look I wanted! Its styled on the simple expressions stamps that Katys Corner used to do and is a converted photo of my Great Grandmother, My Aunt Gerrie who died earlier this year, my Dad and my Grandmother aka Nan! Nikki has also made me a 2nd one showing just my Dad and Nan which is ATC sized.

Here is the original photo taken in the Isle of Man circa 1951

Here it is ready to print

And here is the stamp in use!

The background to the stamp is starburst stains Cathedral pines green, peony scarlet red and winter jasmine gold which has been sprayed on. I changed the dauber cap to a spray and dried inbetween colours. This is a nice method as it doesnt use up too much of the ink and dries super fast. The image was stamped and embossed with black sparkle powder so its a silver glitter and I made the panel at the bottom with green card which is cuttlebug embossed and I used metallic rub ons in the corners. The holly leaves are brads I turned up with pliers to act as the stopper and the poinsettia is from a simple expressions plate coloured with promarkers and made 3d.

**Cath is offering the plate with this stamp on as candy which closes today so hop over quick to try and win it!**

The background papers are printouts from the bearly mine designer extreme III disc.

Thanks for looking!

Crafty Cardmakers 9 - As clear as day

Oh yes we have another challenge for you over at Crafty Cardmakers. This time it is to use something clear, transparent, translucent or see through. It doesn't have to stay see through but it should start life as such i.e. acetate you coloured with inks. There is the easy road of course where you can opt for something simple like clear sticky gems but who wants simple? OK I know some folk do but Crafty Cardmakers is a learning resource (hopefully ha!) so its as much about challenging yourself!


The girls have done some fabulous and inspired works over there so pop over and give them some loves :D

Here's my creation for it and dah dah daaaaaah I finally did an easel card. Its one of those "Is that IT?!" moments when you make the base as its soooooo simple! Amanda who's my DT teamie over at Dewdrop Craftz has made an easy picture tutorial here but the rule of thumb is fold whatever size card you make in half and then fold the back of the card in half so it touches the centre to make your mountain fold. If you made a 5"x5" card then you need a piece of card 5"x5" extra to make your design on and simply glue this onto the fold.

Papers are printouts from Bearly Mine designer extreme volume III then I have stamped Tracey Coates' butterfly from the butterfly beauties plate in the middle of a piece of acetate and stamped the edge of the smaller butterfly in the corners. I flipped it over and used glue to add some glamour dust to the back of the butterflies and corners and waited a long time for it to dry lol! Once dry I attached this panel over the card (which has the DP's on) using brads and hung a butterfly charm from the corner. The pink gems are nailheads I got from the stampman, they come on a sheet and you simply cut off how many you want so no messing round lining thisngs up. They're actually more like flat pinheads but are a lovely metallic colour.

The butterfly at the bottom was made by swiping a brilliance tri colour inkpad (Twilight) across some card and stamping the butterfly twice and mounting it 3d. I was thinking of doing these as acetate or shrink plastic but had a few issues and coz I've been ick ick I just went with the brilliance ones so I could go back to bed :D

Many thanks for looking!

Crafty Cardmakers 6 Autumn DT

A quick note from my friend Shell over at Challenge Addict. Shell is collecting cards for our troops in Afghanistan to send back home to their loved ones so if you have any spare particularly xmas cards pop over to Shells blog for details.

This is my DT entry for Crafty Cardmakers challenge 6 - Autumn!
I also used the sketch from Passion for Promarkers so I'm entering that too. Lisa on our team also used the sketch which made me laugh when I received her card, great minds hunny!

Its a gatefold card which I'm quite enjoying doing at the moment! Outside panels are starburst stains in cocoa bean coffee and Cathedral pines green. The flower is a lollipop flower made from various scraps of starburst stains I have around. I embossed the panels with the divine swirls embossing folder.

The inside the panels are cathedral pines green which I debossed (turned the card back to front) Added some punched flowers and leaves from the SS scraps. Background paper is starburst stains in reds, oranges and brown. Image is Rian by Elisabeth Bell coloured with promarkers.

Skin: Blush, baby pink, vanilla, oatmeal
Jeans: Vanilla, sandstone, Cinnamon, cocoa
Wood: Almond, sandstone, cinnamon, chestnut, henna
Clothes: Buttercup, gold, honeycomb
Grass: Lime zest, pear green, marsh green

Around the edge of the image I've used a stampscapes oak tree branch stamp. Firstly I used versamagic in aloe vera going quite far into the image. Moved the stamp further back and did a layer of hint of pesto which is darker green then moved towards the edge and stamped in brilliance coffee bean. This gives a sense of depth.

Thanks for looking and I appreciate your comments x

DT Crafty Cardmakers challenge 5 - Ribbons & Fibres

********** XMAS GIFT IDEA **********

The challenge this time over at Crafty Cardmakers is to use Ribbons, fibres, lace or anything similar somewhere on your design. Nice n easy eh!

I decided to make a notebook to give my BIA a run out! I love making notebooks I does!

If you don't have a bind it all machine fear not! Go and have a look in any stationary section and pick up the notebooks on offer. Don't get spiral bound, you will be there forever taking the covers off! Look at the inside back and it should be an "O ring" type one like this....

These prise apart easily allowing you to take the covers off and leaving the paper still on the loops.

You just need to find some suitable backing paper and cover it like doing a school book. Glue your paper on and ALLOW TO DRY COMPLETELY. Once dry you can put the holes back in by shoving a pair of scissors through them :) If the glue is still wet you will tear the paper whereas if its dry they cut back through easily. I also cut out a piece of card for the insides of the covers to cover where the backing paper is folded over and for a more professional looking finish.

They are so easy to make and well received. Little girls absolutely love them with their names on so have a go for some xmas handmade gifts!

Here's my one using the BIA....

I've made the covers with mountboard TIP: Ask your local picture framers if they have any scrap mountboard, they're normally glad to give it to you for free!

I've then covered it with some paper dyed with starburst stains and also used this for the matting card. The image is Victoria Case "Sitting Fairy" coloured with promarkers. There is a black hair tutorial here if you want to have a go at that!
I've used adirondack ink with some cut n dry foam around the image in blue and painted the wings with shimmers pixie dust. Then I put the covers back on and tie small lengths of ribbon onto each hoop. I tend to use 3 lengths per hoop for a bit of bulk.