Pink & Sparkly at Crafts and Me

Well we're over to Karen to host her first challenge at Crafts and Me this week and she has chosen the favourite theme of lots of us - Pink & Sparkly :D :D :D

For this I used the digi stamp by Hannah Lynn called Moonglow which I think will become a firm favourite with me as she has lovely lines to colour.  I went for just a few strands of a darker pink using mulberry and lighter pinks using baby pink and the pink lavender flexmarker on her hair.  Her skin is coloured with ivory, blush, coral, cinnamon, soft peach and cocoa and I think I used some rose pink on her cheeks!
All the white bits (on her top, flower and spine of wings) are glittered with glamour dust and the flowers are all glittered with stickles crystal.  The boingy things in the flowers already came glittered :)
Thats not green card on there BTW its holographic silver.  Isnt it funy how your tastes change, 3 years ago I used to despise holographic card now I love it!

Flowers are from wild orchid, the cute butterfly is by papermania and I've used a butterfly embossing folder which brand escapes me!

Hope you can come and join in Karens first pink and sparkly challenge over at Crafts & Me this week :)

I'd like to also enter my card into...

Deep Ocean Challenge - Sparkling

Flutterby Wednesday - Embossing

Birthday Sundaes - Birthday sentiment on front

2 sisters - embossing

Hotshot crafts - flowers

Let the music move you

Rose has set a challenge this fortnight at Crafts & Me and she has chosen "Let the music move you" and would like to see song words, musical instruments, notes or simply be inspred by music.  For this one I used one of the brand new digis by Hannah Lynn called Moonglow, now you KNOW I just had to have that one given my addiction to moonglow products!

This was inspired by a track you might remember called Blue Monday but not the Depeche Mode version, the version I like is a by a band with a rude name and is a synth rock version - Link to video here if you're interested lol!

I've coloured with promarkers and used distress ink and stains around the edge in stormy skies and dusty concord.  The flourish is by sizzix

Would like to enter into....

Papercraft Star - Flourish
Papertake Weekly - Anything goes
Pretty little ribbon shop - anything goes

Eeeek! Cards for Men at The Stampman!

Jill does lke to scare us a bit over at The Stampman challenges and this fortnight is MENS CARDS aaarrgh!  I thought should I pull a sickie, I've been run over by a bus or something but gave myself a good kick and set to work!

Recently I've been playing with triple embossing having been asked to demo it at Port Sunny which is actually Jills demo but she was engaged elsewhere so whats a girl to do but oblige!  A customer wanted to see how it was done so I showed her and they are fun to do especially with yummy Moonglow embossing powders!  Jill's also got these fab chipboard tiles in the shop which are perfect for triple embossing so I started with one of the tiles, added a green pigment ink for the base and triple embossed with Moonglow Adobe Fire embossing powder.  I've inked up the dragonfly stamp which is from Aspects of Design 03 Botanical plate with gold brilliance ink and pressed into the tile.  The background paper is from.... I have nooooooo idea lol!  I got it in a swap I think!  The panel is a fab stamp called Stone relief border which just looks great on any colour background, been playing with that one lots this week (and its HALF PRICE!)  I stamped it onto Moonshadow Ethereal Emerald which is one of my favs!
The rusty looking nail heads were black, I didn't have any gold so I splodged them with a gold acrylic dabber and also used that on the edge of the tile.

See Men's Cards aren't so bad eh!  I did keep it simples and for any occasion as the tile and moonshadow background provide enough visual appeal (in real life!)

Hope ya come an join in over at The Stampman challenges x

The Stampman Blog Hop!

Ooooh its all exciting!  Its another STAMPMAN BLOG HOP!  If you're in the right order you should have landed here from Michelle (Midnight Crafter) if not jump to the start of the hop which you will find here.

We are running it alongside our regular challenge which is to Alter something.  You don't have to take part in the altering challenge to do the blog hop but Jill has put an extra big prize on the blog to entice you to have a go at it :)

Onto the hop, the destructions are below:
To qualify for a prize you will need to do the following.
- Display The Stamp Man Challenge blinkie on your blog (if you have a blog), simply copy and paste the code to your sidebar.

- Create a post about our blog hop with a link back to our challenge blog

- Leave a message on each blog you visit, if you do not leave comments at each one, you will not be eligible for the prize. If you don't have a blog you must put your full name in your comment.
There is a letter on each of the blogs, once you have worked out the anagram leave a comment in the relevant post at the end of the hop with your answer (these are moderated so you won't be able to peek lol!)

My letter is M so make a note of that!  I created mine using a couple of coats of gesso, sanded it down then dried starburst stains Tibetian poppy teal onto it with a heat gun, stamped the smaller fairies randomly then cut out one of the larger fairies which is embossed with moonglow embossing powder, added lots of bling bling too and painted the edges with black acrylic paint.  I used....

ASPECTS OF DESIGN 59 - STARBURST FAIRIES which just happens to be the prize you could get from my blog whoop whoop!
Your next stop on the hop is Lisa (Sparkle & Stamps)  Don't forget to leave me a comment before you hop, good luck!
The blog hop is open until 9pm GMT Thursday 7th October.  Good Luck and have fun!

Time for another Stampman ATC swap!

Its Time for another monthly ATC swap over at The Stampman and this month's theme is - Time! The Stampman ATC swaps are actual physical swaps so you send in your lovely ATC's and get some back - fab!
There was a good response to the first challenge and Janet is in the process of sorting them all and posting them back to players (She got the bestest job eh!)
Hope you can come over to play :D

This is mine and I used moonshadow ink for the background (yum!) and overstamped with a clock background who I don't know who its by as I borrowed it from Jills demo box when I was up there last week lol! I used moonglow embossing powders (double yum!) and the small butterfly from Aspects of Design butterfly beauties set stamped on starburst stains with some teal nailheads at the bottom.

My Arty Journal Page

I've been pondering over this art journal page for a couple of weeks now and originally I tried doing it in acrylics as that seems the done thing and I struggled. I realised what was bothering me was the materials, they weren't ME. I couldn't express something as personal as an art journal page using things that were impersonal to me so I ditched it and went with what I know and what works for me whether thats conventional or not because I'm not the most conventional of folk.

In this case I went with distress inks, a splash of moonshadow, a misting of radiant rain, a splodge or two of gesso and good old ink.

What did I want to write about is my next challenge and following the thought of changing materials as they were more me I went with how others may view me and how I view myself so I've stamped the eyes from Tracey Coates' Alluring ladies sheet which is of course from The Stampman. I use this as a blog header as its distinctive and it took me an hour to colour and I'm very pleased with the result :)

I've used distress inks and moonshadow ink to colour the page and swiped some gesso here and there and added a band of an old book gessoed and distressed across the centre. After I stamped and embossed the eyes I left it for a bit of pondering and the words from the same stamp sheet were jumping out at me and I thought well I don't have ANY of them! Anyone who actually knows me personally (and only the very brave few stick me out!) will agree I'm not in the slightest bit elegant, graceful, glamourous, don't have flair and most certainly don't have any sense of style.

My favourite shoes are black CAT boots which are a bit like steel toe caps without the steel. OK I've added bright pink laces to mine.

I've reflected this by using Helitrope purple plum starburst stains (From the Japanese gardens set) which is like a hot pink with a purply tint. The embossing is midnight teal, another firm favourite. I've also added the flying heart from the Artistic Elements sheet because I think its just fabulous and reflects my love of art & craft and the sentiment is also from there.

So here's a little page about me and my unconventional self complete with sparkly bits :)

I kissed a girl and I liked it!

I simply could not resist doing this card! I can't help it, when I see something I get fixated on it until I express it and in this case it was the fantastic picture of Katy Perry getting gunged last week. I loved the colour clash and it wouldn't be colours I'd ever choose myself so I had to give it a whirl! Sorry for Katy but dang those colours look amazing hee hee!

I've used Wisteria purple blue starburst stains for the base and overstamped it with the solid and round circles from the new fabulous Alluring Ladies stamp sheet. The image is also from the same sheet (Isnt she fab!) and I've stamped with a purple and blue inkpad and embossed with moonglow hydrangea blue mauve embossing powder. The background is coloured with lime green promarkers (Lime zest, lime green and leaf green) with some added sparkle from a clear sakura stardust pen. The lips are also embossed with the hydrangea blue mauve.

Its a lot brighter in the flesh with lots of sparkle from the starburst stains and totally not my usual colour choice but I just HAD to do it!

Entering this into

Sketch Saturday - Sketch

Very Vintage

I've gone all vintage today wanting to play with my distress inks and moonshadows :) Made some backgrounds yesterday so I chose a nice area of one I'd used greens, red and brown distress inks on and stamped the keys from Tracey Coates' new "Artistic Elements" sheet and embossed with Moonglow Midnight emerald. I've painted inside the two outer keys with a yellow H2O paint to make them stand out and stamped some swirls in the corner which are actually part of the flying heart off the same sheet.

I've attached a chain to the sentiment at the bottom which are two stamps from the sheet, mos of the sentiments can be used inside this frame. I've mounted the top panel on 3d foam so that the sentiment moves and I've also added a little key charm painted with alcohol inks to blend in more.

The bottom pic shows the card tilted and the moonglow effect, midnight embossing powders are black but change colour when tilted so this one is midnight emerald. The stamps in this set can be seen further down the post.

Moonglow - In a pen!

It works yay!! I asked Jill over at The Stampman a few weeks back if the moonshadow inks were actually inks or stains, she replied INKS! Oooh you can see the cogs turning! Xmas and new year got in the way plus my complete lack of a short term memory despite having a dozen lists and prompts on my blackberry, I forgot to look at them so only recently did I remember to acquire myself a fountain pen with a convertor. The convertor is the important bit, this allows you to suck up ink from an ink pot or in my case a pot of yummy moonshadow in phantom fuchsia :)

I bought a cheap one off fleabay with 4 nibs and the all important convertor and gave it a whirl! Now as mica settles quite quickly you do need to shake the pen before use. I recommend you hold a piece of kitchen towel over the nib or it will decorate your ceilings!

The image I've used is by The Greetings Farm (Autumn Fairy) and is coloured with promarkers. The wings are painted with shimmerz pixie dust and I have used distress ink in antique linen and vintage photo around it which I've also used to make the vintage flower. The faux stitching is done with the moonshadow in a pen as is the writing. Its my DD's 17th birthday today so its for her :)
The lace was already naturally vintage, my nan gave it to me for xmas having found it in a long forgotten drawer at home and she knew (rightly) that I'd love it! I aged it some more with distress ink, firstly swiping ink over it then spraying it with water and scrunching. I added a drop of lavender to some paper towel to dry it off so it smells kinda vintage too!

Paperwise I've used lots of layers as I couldnt resist the A Spoonful of Sugar challenge which has a fab fab fab personalised stamp as their candy prize this week! They're a mix of MME Wild asparagus and HOTP.

The hydrangea centres were a candy prize from stampin for the weekend a few weeks back, fab bead caps which I've also added a sticky pearl to the centre and coloured them brown with a promarker. The pins originally had just a clear gem head so I added some of my own beads which are silver hearts and red teardrops.

*I've been asked a couple of times what colours I used on the dress and it was (promarkers) Red, Poppy & Crimson using the blender for the highlights and using cool grey 5 for the shadow and creases and blending that in with the red.

I'm entering this in

A Spoonful of Sugar - Lots of layers

Cute Card Thursday - Fairy Fantastic

Creative Card Crew - Punch it (Flower is punched)

C.R.A.F.T - Red

This is a sneak peak of tomorrows DT card to show you a bit more of the moonshadow in a pen and how pretty it looks! If you're good at calligraphy (which I'm not) imagine how outstanding this would look ooh!

Time for something vintage :)

Oh how chuffed was I to see the theme at stampin' for the weekend is days gone by! I love love love doing aged, vintage type cards with modern materials (starburst stains!)
Also at The Pink Elephant this week their challenge is to use Turquoise, Brown & neutral.
Also entering for the Allsorts challenge which is vintage.

Background paper is a vintage green which I distressed with scissors and distress ink (vintage photo) and the vertical panel is made with SS in turquoise, brown and a touch of green. I just blew it around with the heat gun in puddles and added more until I got a nice pattern then chucked it through the cuttlebug :) The horizontal panel is SS in opal sea oats with some sprays of moonshadow ink in pirate plunder gold. The image is stamped with moonglow midnight sapphire on SS in turquoise and brown and the edges distressed with distress ink in faded jeans is it called? Not sure but its the same colour as Molly's eyes! Text is stamped on moonshadow ink, flowers have been distressed and the leaves already were!
I'm happy, I got inky messy fingers and I managed to get it ourt in the post all in the same day whoop go me!

Not sure what the stamp is called but it was a simple expressions plate.

Stampin for the weekend week 6

Strawberries dipped in chocolate is the theme for this week over at Stampin' for the weekend! Oooh I love working with brown as I'm a huge fan of moonglow moonshadow inks. These are walnut inks with a colour which shows when you move the card in the light.

I thought I'd use this image of Annie which my fwend Sheilakins sent me a little while back as Annie suits red and with her sat on the tree stump there is the brown.

Base card is red then I added a layer of brown which has been cuttlebug embossed using swiss dots then I added another layer using moonshadow bucket o' blood red. Annie is coloured with copics and the flowers are made with paper using moonglow bucket o' blood red and starburst stains in poinsettia red gold with a brown brad to hold them together. The swirls are chipboard coloured with brilliance red.

More Magnolias :-)

I've not been able to make much since Moonbeams was born, not because of her but because of Eefie! Sounds daft but I cant work when I finally manage to get them to sleep as the fuse in my lamp has blown and i keep forgetting to get some and fix it and cant root round in the garage that time of night when i remember! I must must must remember to fix lamp lol!


Also need to go the village and pick up my photo printer ink for Molly's thank you cards, they're ready but just need photos to put on them!



Anyhow, this is one I made for Michelle's birthday who is a chums 4 mums co-ordinator from Crewe. She has rescued horses so I thought she might like it :) Background is moonglow shadow ink (the purple one!) Bronte the horse was painted in distress inks.

This is one I made for my nan's birthday. Its my usual shadow inks and starburst stains only this time I stamped Tilda onto paper matching the background, cut out the top and trousers and glued them on.

This one a bit out of focus sorry, was a rush job! DD came home with this grey piece of card with some ribbon and wooden flowers superglued on and asked if I could do anything with it as it was their english teacher retiring. The kids had written happy retirment..... ummm not good for an english teacher lol! She then told me she needed it for the morning! Was up till 2am working on it for her but did it!

Recent cards

OK I can't actually take the credit for this one although I helped a little hehe! This is Eefie's first crayon drawing which I thought would look great for a fathers day card. Looks like a red indian with feather and headband to me so WELL DONE EEFIE!

This is a stampbord domino book I recently made for the Something Different swap on our yahoo group. Its my first project like this, I've done a couple of half books before so this is my first full one. Its made with moonglow shadow ink, stamped with adirondack ink and glazed with added micro beads.

This is a birthday card I made for Rachael from my UKS team, I was experimentin' and like how it turned out. The background for the stamp I did by running the vintage photo inkpad round the edge, wetting it with a brush and gradually pushing the colour inwards. I like all the colours on it, moonglow shadow and ranger distress inks.

This is one I made DD's mate who's recently had a little boy. I used the cuttlebug with moonglow starburst stains daubed on and again its painted with distress inks. (I need more colours!)

This was made for Olive on our yahoo group for the teddy bear's picnic swap. Its the glitter acetate technique which I love doing but dont do very often anymore so thanks Olive, I enjoyed making it!

This is one I made for Benita for the IrRESISTable swap. It has the resist technique for the background. I tried using distress reinkers instead of inkpads and it went on like a dream so will definately switch to that in future. The butterfly is actually a rub on I've had for eons and "saved for best" I customised it a bit with sticky gems and added highlights with dimensional glaze and stickles glitter glue.



This is Arlyns birthday card - Shhhhh it isnt until Sunday ;) Its my favourite Tilda with flowers in her hair I coloured with distress inks only added lots more water for a more pastel effect. Then I've stamped round the edge with tapestry stamps and added dots of glitter and some real flowers in the corner.
This is Jack L's birthday card. This time its painted with versamagic (chalk) ink. Tapestry stamps again and the background is made with moonglow starburst stains. I liked how Tilda turned out on this one using chalk ink :)

This is flying off to Spain tomorrow as its for the yahoo groups Cutie Pie swap. Its on pink bazzil bling card with hero arts flowers and Tilda is painted this time with dee gruenigs blending blox.

And lastly this is one I've made for my 2 main midwives Alana and Helen as I wont get time after Molly Moo is here! I had Alana as a midwife with Eefie too so I've used Magnolia baby Alvin (how cute is he!) and Tilda with baby Tingla stamps painted with distress inks, marvy pens and adirondack ink. The lettering is a cuttlebug one - You're not the boss of me.


Hope you like :)

Recent ATC'S

Uploading quite a few recent dabblings as I wont get much chance for a while! I've developed diabetes apparantly so they wont let me go overdue. Seeing consultant tomorrow so should get a date for Molly Moo to make an appearance, hopefully she'll come before they start interfering!

Anyways I shall start with some recent ATC's I've made for various swaps and things.
This one is Baking Tilda Blue and is coloured using ranger distress inks. I'm getting the hang of the skin tones now with many thanks to Marlene's blog!

Next up is Daydreaming Tilda (the stamp is Tilda waiting) again coloured with distress inks. The wording is done with scrapito foil and the background is alcohol inks.


Thought I'd squeeze one more swap in before Molly got here so these are for the Africa swap on Do Crafts. First one is a lovely stamp given to me by Shamela when we met in Cape Town. Its stamped on moonglow shadow ink that I swiped lightly with gesso so you get some tone & highlight. I then added more tones with distress ink. The background is made with moonglow starburst stains and the stamp is by Judikins. The African lady also had highlighs on her armband and crown using scrapito foil.




This was made using Dee Gruenig's blending blox in shades of orange. Same Judikins stamp (its one of theose cube ones) I added glimmer to the water with sakura stardust in clear and the lion I bought in Cape Town a couple of years ago.

Same as above, letting is chipboard (Z) and peel offs I painted with white acrylic and made the stripes with sakura glaze in black.

Last up is Gracious Pink. I had lots of enquiries for swaps over a couple of cards i posted on Do Crafts a while ago as people thought they were ATC's so now I'm getting round to doing an ATC version! The pink is moonglow starburst stains and the stamp is Da Vinci cosmos collage stamped on the background then partially on a 1x1" piece of stampbord, coloured with adirondack ink and highlights scraped away.

New toys!

I went to the Port Sunlight show yesterday and got new toys yay! Sir Stampalot was there with a big range of Magnolias so I got 3 new Tildas and some magnolia accessory stamps, a new cuttlebug embossing folder, some flowers and new distress inkpads. I saw a tutorial on Marlene's blog about colouring using distress inkpads so thought I'd give it a whirl (at 3am when I was up pottering!)

This is one I made for the Opposites attract swap on Crafty Cardmaking, the idea being you use 2 dominant colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel, I chose Blue & Orange.

Tilda is coloured using distress inkapds in tattered rose for the skin tones, vintage photo for the hair, basket, signpost and boots, peeled paint for the grass, faded jeans for the jeans and spiced marmalade for the top. The grass line is hand drawn and the blue sky I sponged on Moonglow starburst stains in azure sea asters. The card background is cuttlebug then I daubed on starburst stains in glory of the sea gold (which looks yellowy orange) I filled the basket using flowersoft to give some dimension. This one is going to Spain hence the signpost!

And now a change of style :)

The good thing about swaps and challenges is that you're often pushed to create something outside your usual comfort zone.

Stace asked for "Pink, fluffy & preferrably playboy"

She wouldnt let me do a magnolia on the grounds of them being "too cute" humph! So had to have a think about this one as Zoe is her Bezzie! Got some naked chipboard letters and wanted them glossy black so had a root and found some silver tinsel embossing powder which is black with silver flecks. Nah I thought, I want pink flecks so got out some hot pink glitter & mixed some into some black EP. When it was heated the pink disappeared and in its place was a dazzling array of colours! Basically kaleidoscope embossing powder in that it changes colour depending on how much you heat it. I did 2 layers of that and 2 layers of UTEE to make it really glossy. The playboy bunny I made by printing a template off the net and cutting out one then another in reverse. Its a spinner card so that the bunny spins round hense why its double sided. The embossing on the card is cuttlebug divine swirls :)

Next up is a card I made for my good friend Sylvia off the yahoo group. The stamp is from a plate by simple expressions called The Orient (Available from http://www.katyscorner.org.uk/) and it's embossed in moonglow midnight obsidian EP. The background to the stamp is made with moonglow starburst stains and gesso.

This one's a tad out of focus sorry. I cut off 2/3rd of the card and added a panel of acetate then a strip of matching paper at the bottom. The images are peel offs I've coloured with sakura souffle and added stickles glitter glue over the top.