Bugs!!! At Passion for #Promarkers :)

Its a bug theme this week over at Passion for Promarkers and that can be creatures or cars!  We also have a fab sponsor, Some Odd Girl whos is offering 3 digi stamps!  I Luuuuurve their stamps so good luck!

I was a bit stumped with the bug theme as I have several bug digi stamps but you know when you just don't fancy any of them at that time and I'd leaned towards Tilda dressed as a butterfly (Which also counts!) until I went to the park on Friday afternoon with Sarah armed with promarkers, a picnic and sunshine for the kids to play :)  It was a 'Promarkers in the Park' you never know we could make it into a big event lol!  Anyway flicking through Sarah's stamps she had a BUG yay!  Sarah's are all organised in a folder, mine are just chucked in drawers lol!  So I've used this one by Sweet Pea Stamps coloured with promarkers and sakura stardust.  Speaking of ladybirds, there seems to be a lot of them around this year!  I couldnt get a decent pic of this for some reason so it looks a bit washed out :/


Would also like to enter into...

In a sweet pea dream - Spring
I love promarkers - Go Dotty
Paper Sundaes - Photo Inspiration

Sarah and I doing Promarkers in the Park lol!

Sketch by Marie at Bearly Mine

I'm back again!  This one is for a sketch designed by Marie for Bearly Mine Challenges which starts today for the next 2 weeks and the girls have done a fab job!  For this I used Bearly Mine papers - Delicious Delights, Summer Light & Spring and Summer Stripes.  I fancied using the cherries and the other 2 papers worked well with that set too, especially stripes, you know I love stripes and dots!  Prizes for this challenge are - Bearly Mine Designs - 2 Digi sets of the winner's choice (Oooh get stripes, always useful!)  Crafty Emma - £10 Gift Certificate, Fred She Said - $20 Gift Certificate & Fantastic Ribbons - bag of buttons



I've coloured Tilda in promarkers, cut her out and put her sat on the magnolia background and stamped the birthday sentiment (which I pinched from The Stampman's butterfly Beauty set!)  Added flowers and pearls and punched Martha Stewart flutterbies, even put one on her hand :D  They all have tiny pearls with a other of pearl coating on.  I also found my cherry charm so added that to match the papers!

Would also like to enter into....

Sparkles Forum - Spring
Stamps R Us - Spring
Aly's Sunday Challenge - Spring
Pile it On - Cute
Creative Stamp Friends - Spring

Thanks for looking!



Anything Sir T!m of Holtz goes at The Stampman

Theres a new challenge at The Stampman this fortnight and we'd like to see Anything Tim!  For this I used quite a number of Tim's products, I don't have any stamps so improvised!
I started with a box canvas Ive had for about 3 years lol!  I built up some colour with distress inks in broken china and wild honey which make a lovely green when mixed and dried with a heatgun between coats.  I've added streaks of acrylic daubers again drying then used the flourish die cut as a stencil and applied gold painty swirls.  The corners are distress crackle paint and I've literally thrown some white pearl paint on and heated till it bubbled (I was outside in the sunshine with my heatgun btw!)  Added some black dots with sequin waste.

The embellishments are quite personal.  The key is from one of my MANY house moves when I just want to stay put.  The mini domino is from my huge collection of various shapes and sizes, I'm always looking in charity shops for old ones :D  The flowers I pressed myself, they're proper naff but I love them coz they're so naff.  The buttons were white and I altered them with distress ink and I had to add the shrink plastic at the bottom to give Janey and Jill a laugh.  I'm RUBBISH at shrink plastic and these were an attempt (or 3) of shrinking one of tim's flourishes.  I thought I'd include them as well why not, I'm rubbish at it and this canvas is quite personal.  I dont have a lot of altered nick nacks and this is my first go so be gentle lol!

Heated acrylic making it bubble and giving texture

The crackle paint, thrown on paint and naff flowers :)

And my rubbish shrink plastic, I thought they deserved a place :)

Tim Holtz/Sizzix flourish die (Used as stencil and rubbish shrink plastic)

Distress Inks (Broken china, wild honey, vintage photo)

Adirondack acrylic paint daubers (Pearl, gold, sailboat blue, black)

Alcohol Inks (Raisin, Meadow, Slate)

Tim Holtz Distress crackle paint (Antique linen)

Shrink Plastic

So come on girls and guys, drag that Tim stuff out and show The Stampman what you're made of!

Anything Goes at Crafts & Me

Over at Crafts and Me Challenges we have a big change!  We are now going to run the challenges weekly and we also have a brand new digital team too!  My team; the Dynamite Digis have 5 new teamies so please pop over and welcome the awesome talent!  We are hosting this week and the Rockin Rubbah team will be hosting next week. 
We are running an Anything Goes just so you know we're now weekly and remember to come visit us!

For this challenge I tore my hair out, seriously ha!  I started my design as pink and yellow as there are a few spring colour themes around this week and made a lovely base then coloured in my image which is Forever Rose digital by Hannah Lynn and you know what I'm like for my dark bolds, she kinda changed from a pale pink and yellow to violet and gold lol!  So time ticking on and I am so busy this week I had no time to recolour and stick to the pink and yellow so I decided it would be easier making another base for her so I pulled some papers together and then decided to make a twisted easel which I haven't made before!  Why do I do it to myself!!  I can make easels no problem but the twisted ones the flowers sit a different way etc and it takes a little adjustment to get used to them.  The clock was screaming at me by now and I know I'd said I'd do Lexi's Challenge which is ribbon with no bows or knots.  Sounded interesting but its a thinking challenge and prob not one when I've spent 3 hours making a card and I'm short of time but hey I'm ME so I met that challenge lol!  I secured a length of gold sparkly ribbon, you know the type that doesn't stick, under neath the flowers only it wouldnt stick so I then had to hunt my silicone glue out **again** 
I seem to be on a perpetual hunt for my silicone glue.  I ALWAYS find it in the back of my box of glue dots as thats a logical place to keep it yes?  Only my memory is that chronic I forget I've put it in this logical place! DOH!

Now because I have some pretty chunky flowers there I decided I didn't want more flowers on
the top of the card so opted for some die cut lettering.  So I used one of the Tim Holtz alterations alphabets, you know the ones that the cutting boards turn into bananas - actually I saw that happen on C&C and had a good chuckle as they tried to hide it lol!  I secured the lettering which is a mother of pearl colour with my now found silicone glue and added a 6m iridescent gem to dot the i!

So here's my humble offering for Crafts and Me anything goes challenge!  Please do come and play and make me feel better haha!

BTW The text around the image I did myself in PSP x

Would also like to enter into the following!

Lexi's - Ribbon with no bows or knots (gosh that was hard!)

Creative Inspirations - Easel Cards

Gingerloft - Die Cuts (Alphabet)

Fab N Funky - More than one fold

Papertake - Girly

Spring is in the air!

Spring is definately nearly here, my magnolia tree is nearly ready to burst into all its splendour, the daffs and tulips are growing nicely :)

I've got a couple to show today, both challenging myself a bit!  First up is a new digi by Crafts & Me called Valentines night by Sara Burrier, reminds me a bit of my two kiddywinks!  I've used a variety of mediums, mainly promarkers and coloursoft pencil and then some sakura stardust and distress ink.  I dont usually do green but there seems to be an awful lot of green/spring challenges this week so I've taken the plunge! 

The digi team will be starting challenges from next week alternating with the rubbah team so pop over to join in Vicky's photo inspiration challenge this week and come back next week for the daring digi teams new challenge!

I'd like to enter this into...

Creative cottage - Spring

Flutterby Wednesday - Sketch

By the cute & Girly - Spring

KB Cute monday - Fantasy

Magical Mondays - Spring colours

Digi Tuesdays - Magical

The Pink Elephant - Springtime

Squigglefly - Spring

The cheerful stamp pad - Springtime

Now this one I challenged myself a little.  I know theres a growing trend for colouring images on Kraft paper so I recently got some to try it out and this is my first attempt.  Its all coloursoft pencils, what do you think?  Also a completely different style to my norm but I do like to challenge myself sometimes to step out of the comfort zone, that way you might discover a flair for something.  Actually it was our Sheila who's just joined the team who sent my my first copic pen so I could add shadows around the images!  (I switched to promarkers after 3 months!)

This is a rubber stamp by Lemon shortbread called "Petal Melody"  Isnt she just beautiful!  I'm not usually one for lace and I've no idea why I went that way but I just go with the flow and see where it takes me :)

I'd like to enter this into...

Make it Mondays - Anything goes  This is a showcase blog and thought I'd share this one as its a step outside the box for me and probably for others!
Tuesday throwdown - Lace
Creative craft friends - Lace

Thanks for looking!