We want to see your 1st cards at Crafty Cardmakers!

Good Afternoon!!  We're having very special challenge here at Crafty Cardmakers for the next 4 weeks and its something a little bit different and a lot of fun!  We've also managed to pursuade the sponsors or their representative to join in the fun :)

We'd like to see your LATEST OR GREATEST creation so anything you like or a particular favourite AND here's the important bit, we'd also like to see your FIRST or the OLDEST one you have a photo of!  I can see you cringing and thinking oooooh nooooo mine's really baaaad!  Don't worry, we ALL started somewhere and I hope you can see from the samples that everybody was new once and with a bit of practice you can get better and you'll also see how much you've already got better by digging out your first efforts!
The Rules:

You can enter up to 3 times but each must contain a picture of one of your first designs and must be different techniques or items e.g. first card, first stamped card, first scrapbook page, first tag etc.  They must also be separate posts.


You can enter your latest creations or your favourites previously published alongside your old design.  You can enter in as many other challenges as you wish but many challenges do not accept older creations so just be mindful of that.


Please link back to this blog and mention Crafty Cardmakers in your post.

The challenge runs for 4 weeks from 13th Dec and closes at 9am GMT on Monday 10th January


We are very proud to be sponsored by a number of very kind stores for this challenge with lots of winners for this one and the prizes on offer are...

£10 voucher from Joanna Sheen

£10 voucher from The Stampman

$10 voucher for Stitchy Bear Stamps

Pack of 5 promarkers from Letraset

£10 voucher for Crafts & Me

£10 worth of stamps of your choice from Stamping all day

So here's some cringeworthy creations of mine to get you into the spirit of things!  These are my first 3 cards hehe!  I think the first one I wanted to use all the stash I had which was pretty much anything holographic, some cut outs of Newtons Law from a tissue box, peel off holograohic hearts and butterflies, mulberry paper and a random teabag rosette to show my new 'skill' of tea bag folding :)

 Another holographic nightmare, its a gemni peel off on black and gold glitter card on silver holographic card with star peel offs and a sequin star (which I've probably still got!)

 Getting a little bit more structure on my 3rd go but dont know where winnie the pooh quite fits in with the butterflies and flowers on funky foam theme....

This one won the Makins Clay category of Cardmaker of the Year (2007?)  Yes really it did lol!

If you want a real laugh theres a whole site full of my early ones from 2003 - 2007 HERE

This is my 1st blogged card (Jan 2008)

Fast forward to now and this is the kind of stuff I do now so here's my LATEST!

Thats better lol!  THANK GOD FOR PROMARKERS!!  Equipment is so much more sophisticated nowadays with so any gorgeous stamps and digis available to colour in and promarkers at an affordable price so things have really stepped up several notches!  This image is one of my favs to colour called 'The Butterfly Keeper' by Hannah Lynn from Crafts & Me here.  I was thinking of a real clashing colour scheme and then noticed one of the kids snakes (a piece of fluffy material on a stick!) and that was turquoise and orange so thats where thats come from :)  She's coloured with promarkers of course and highlights with sakura stardust pens.  The globe I've filled in with a 3d gloss and the cute little text tag is from Stamping all Day here.  Flowers are from Wild Orchid.  DP's I'm not sure what the blue one is but the orange is dcwv pocket full of posiees and Moonglow Starburst Stains red hot poker orange from the stampman here which I've embossed with the divine swirls embossing folder.

Hope you can come and play in our challenge and see how far YOU have come!

Entering into...

ONE STITCH AT A TIME - ANYTHING GOES & SURPRISE YOU (Well my 1st efforts are a surprise for anyone!)

THE CRAFTY PAD - EMBOSSING

FLUTTERBY WEDNESDAY - OPEN WEEK

CREATIVE CARD CREW - ANYTHING GOES

Moody Blues at Crafts & Me

Its time for another challenge at Crafts & Me and my turn to host so I have chosen one of my favourites - MOODY BLUES as in case you haven't noticed I'm rather fond of my blue promarkers!

We're also sponsored by Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps who are offering a choice of stamp from their shop HERE.

For this challenge I used the Cinderella stamp from Kraftin Kimmie which Crafts & Me stock here  I just love the dress on this one, she's a joy to colour.  I used the sky blue, azure and french navy for the dress to make a really rich satin blue, I've tinkered wth the photo to try and get it as true colour as I can as the dress is actually a couple of shades darker than that.

I've added some lilac versamagic around the edges and stamped using the hero arts fabulous flourish stamp.  The little text is one of my favs from Stamping all Day.  DP's are from Bearly Mine designs from the plaids collection and the darker blue is a freebie here.  Flowers are Wild Orchid, the rosebuds I've coloured 2 tone with promarkers.

Would like to enter into...
Cute Card Thursday - The Blues
Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes

Mega Christmas Challenge at Passion for Promarkers

Following on from our blog hop & special challenge we now have a Mega Christmas challenge for you which will last until January 4th 2011.  I’m sure you’ll agree that the design team deserve a little break to catch up on their last minute gifts and cards.  However to make up for the lack of challenges we again have some magnificent prizes up for grabs. 
Our theme for the Mega Christmas challenge is a nice easy one “anything goes”, just remember to use your promarkers or aqua markers to be eligible for our prizes.  Don’t forget you can enter as many times as you like and combine with any other challenges. 

So now for the exciting bit – the prizes! 

Letraset are generously offering a set of 40 promarkers in specific craft colours stored in two promarker wallets – fab eh!

Simon Says Stamp are generously offering 3 x $10.00 gift certificates to their online store!

Just Tracy’s are generously offering a variety of prizes including 3 promarkers, a memento ink pad, 10 sheets of suitable smooth white paper and a stamp from their own range

 

Whiff of Joy Stamps are generously offering 1 stamp of winner’s choice

Some Odd Girls are offering 3 digi images of the winner’s choice

if that wasn’t enough - they are also offering a 25% discount to everyone on any order placed on their site during the challenge period using code PRO25 (excluding sale items)!!

For this challenge I wanted to step away from the Christmas cards and challenge myself a little bit. I don't do pastels very often (as you may have noticed!) so I went for a really pastel look using my new stamp I actually won from Passion for Promarkers before I was on the DT a few weeks ago.  Its called Dancing Willow by Whiff of Joy and I liked the fun she seemed to be having!

I've coloured her with promarkers using baby pink, salmon pink and coral for the dress and pear green and moss for the green bits.  I've added a little bt of sparkle in her hair with a sakura stardust clear pen.  Papers are a mix of Bearly Mine Designs and My Minds Eye, ribbon is Stampin' Up, flowers are from Wild Orchid (gosh how excited do you get when you're waiting for a delivery from there lol!)

Hope you like my NON Christmas card and join in the Anything Goes fun at Passion for Prommarkers!

Would also like to enter into...

One Stitch at a Time - Old stash new stash (Old is the MME papers, New is the stamp)

Gingerloft - Bows

Some Odd Girl - Girly

Thanks for looking!

Melody's Beads - A little Tutorial

PLEASE ALSO SEE MY 2012 SERIES OF PROMARKER TUTORIALS HERE!

Good Morning!  I've been asked a couple of times how I did the beads on Melody's Dress so thought I'd show you how I created some tones and the bead effect.
For this I've used promarkers, the purples I chose were ORCHID, PURPLE & AUBERGINE.  For the beads you will need an opaque white pen, preferably ball point such as Inkssentials.

The image is Flapper Girl Melody by Lemon Shortbread which you'll find HERE. at Crafts & Me.

STEP 1 - Colour your face tones in (previous tutorial here) then use the ORCHID promarker and colour most of the dress and hat in.  Next take the PURPLE promarker and add some shading as shown below leaving part of the Orchid showing.

Step 2 - Use your Orchid promarker and colour over all of the hat and dress to blend it with the purple then take the AUBERGINE promarker and add darker shading as below.  Colour rings of Aubergine underneath the beads to give a shadow effect.  Again use your Orchid and blend all the colours together.

Step 3 - Continue to add Aubergine and blend in with the Orchid, you may need to do this a couple of time until you're happy with the tones achieved.  I've added a dark patch on the left hand part of the dress now and under her left hand for a deep shadow.

Adding the beads - For the beads I used a ball point type pen rather than my usual sakura souffle whch has a fatter nib.  I used a white opaque pen by Inkssentials and if you press hard it leaves a dint rather than a solid white dot on some of them which gives a good effect :)  If you press softly you will get a solid white dot.

Detail of the beads.

Finished Card

I've used papers by Bearly Mine Designs and are from the Christmas Sparkle pack, Stripes and Just Plaids.  I've added lilac ink around the image using versachalk ink and stamped swirls from the gorgeous Hero Arts 'Fabulous Flourish' in the corners.  I used some shimmery lilac two tone ribbon, a ribbon flower and shimmery white flower for her hat (All from Hobbycraft) and the sentiment is I *think* HOTP from a set.

I'd like to enter this into...

Stampin B's - Purple, Turquoise & Shiny (thought this was an interesting combo!)
The Crafty Pad - Anything Goes
Daring Cardmakers - Turquoise
Fab N Funky - Birthdays
Party Time Tuesdays - Birthday
Hodge Podge Shop - Birthdays

Tri colour Xmas at The Stampman

Its a new challenge over at The Stampman this fortnight and its a Tri Colour Christmas challenge. For this I decided to make something different as I've never altered a jar before so first time for everything!  I went for a blue/silver/white combo and started by using Tim Holtz Shabby Vintage paper on silver & blue card.  The sentiment is embossed and is by Stampendous - Wish you Joy which I cut out with Nesties Labels 11.  I painted the lid with adirondack dabbers (pearl white, aqua and sailboat blue) added some fluffy fibres and a big felt snowflake (stampin' Up fankoo Sheilakins!)

Hope you can come jon in the challenge over at The Stampman!

Would also like to enter into...

Bunny Zoe's - Christmas but not a card
Creative Cottage - Untraditional Xmas
Lexis - Blue & Silver
Polkadoodles - All about the sentiment
Fussy & Fancy Friday - Anything but a card