A Toasty Freebie at My Partner in Crafting Crime... :)

Hello!! :)

I'm here with my DT card for the new challenge over at My Partner in Crafting Crime- apologies for being late but I've had a really bad day :S - and we have a fab theme for you this fortnight... we'd like to see you 'Use A Freebie' on your creations!! :) You can use anything you came by for free, so something you won, a free digi, magazine gift or even something you've recycled from around the house...

...or, if you fancy something new to play around with, then our lovely sponsor Bows & Berries is offering a fab November Freebie 'Toasty Gingerbread Man', which some of the DT, including me, have used on our cards this time- follow the link above to go to the PCC blog where there is a download link if you'd like to use him!! :)

This pretty simple card is actually my second attempt as my first idea was turning out to look a bit of a dog's dinner by halfway through and I'm still not sure how I feel about it... but I think I'm warming to it slowly and I think it'll make a good masculine Christmas card.... something it seems that I find even harder than ordinary masculine cards!!lol In addition to the B&B digi, the papers and stamps I used are also freebies from magazines...

I coloured with Prismas in the end- harder on the hands but every ProMarker combination I tried made the poor little guy look like he'd been for a dip in a nuclear reactor rather than giving him the nice, warm 'toasty' glow I was aiming for!! :S I just had to get my new Glamour Dust out again for their hats and the lights in the borders!! :) I also added some Clear Stardust and Clear Glaze, too, as I almost always seem to, and a doodled border to finish!! :)

When I first saw this image I immediately thought of those paper doll chains you used to cut from folded paper (I'd say 'we' but I don't think I was ever any good at them!!lol) and so I fiddled in my graphics program 'til I got a chain of little toastys and printed them off... much easier than the old-fashioned way- or at least so I thought 'til I realised to do what I wanted I'd have to cut them out anyway and I'd made them kinda small!!lol :)

The List:

• 5" Sq. Kraft card blank
• Image: November Freebie 'Toasty Gingerbread Man' digi from Bows & Berries Digital Stamps Shop
• Prismacolor Pencils... didn't even think to note down the colours though, sorry!! :S
• Free papers from a mag
• Free Xmas lights and sentiment stamps from a mag
• Glamour Dust
• Sakura Clear Stardust and Clear Glaze pens
• Brown Fineliner and Gold gel pen for border

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges: Sarah Hurley- Use more than two images (if multiples of the same is okay?!) :) ; Charisma Cardz - Cutesy :) ; Winter Wonderland - Make Your Card Sparkle :) ; Cards For Men - It's Nearly Christmas :) ; The Poodles Parlour - Let's Hear It For The Boys :) ; Bows & Berries - CAS :)

Thanks for popping by, please do pop over to the PCC blog and check out the rest of the DT's work!! :) Hope you're all well, had a lovely weekend and have a great week!! :)

Spooktacular!! ;D ;D

Hello there!! :)

I'm back again with a quick share- something I'd hoped to post yesterday but I think my inspired week caught up with me- that's the trouble with inspiration, my body can't keep up and so it's exhausting!!- and I spent all of yesterday feeling lousy and too ill to even think let alone think about writing a blog post, though I did finally feel upto managing to edit the pics ... typically, at about the time I should have been heading to bed!! lol Well, at least we had that extra hour – I put mine very good use (not!!) and slept through it…  ;)

So, onto the cards... now, I don't normally do Hallowe'en cards- in fact I think these are my first ever- but when the lovely Robin, Artist and Owner of Bows & Berries Digital Stamps Shop and the My Partner in Crafting Crime challenge, sent me a couple of digis from her fab Hallowe'en release I just knew I was going have to have a play... unfortunately, because of my aforementioned printer issues, it was kind of late in the day before I was able to, but I have managed to get a few cards made and in the post to friends!! :) Kinda had fun, too- you can let go a bit with creations for something fun like Hallowe'en, I think!! :)

These first two are using Robin's fab Silly Pumpkins- they are so fun, I love their grins!!lol I always print/stamp more than one of an image as I so often find I mess up the colouring somewhere along the line but both of these came out okay so I stamped a polka dot background straight onto two base cards- two different colours just for a bit of variety!- and embossed it... the powder didn't take brilliantly for some reason but I didn't worry too much as I knew I was going for a distressed look anyway, and then added a line of black Stickles for definition :)

I coloured with PMs- much like my pink and green card last week, a lot of these pens have probably never been used before but I'm thoroughly in experimentation mode with my PMs at the mo'- and loving it, even when the results aren't quite up to scratch, 'cause I'm still learning!! :) Then for the distressing... I often apply ink, then use my scissors or paper distresser, then add more ink (because of the white line you get just inside the edge if you distress first and the white fibres you can see if you distress second and don't apply more ink, iykwim), but this time, with two contrasting colours if ink pad sat open in front of me, I decided to try using the opposite colour the second time and, for this sort of fun card, I rather like the effect :) Oh, and I added the doodled spider's web (against all my better spider-fearing instincts!!lol) and little lines in the corners for interest... and promptly felt I'd ruined the whole thing... 'til I remembered I was going for distressed and rustic again... that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!lol

Then I remembered I had printed off a couple of the gorgeous lil’ B&B 2 Cute 2 Spook ghostie, too, so thought I'd make a couple more quick little cards :) And they were very quick- dinky little 4" Sq. cards with a mat, tag for the printed greeting and bit of ink on the edges...

 ...and the little spook took no time to colour with just some pale grey shading and her cute little bow to worry about!! :) If you need anymore Hallowe'en cards, treat bags, decorations, etc. in a hurry for tomorrow, then I'd really recommend this digi!!lol

The List:

For the pumpkin cards:

• 6" sq.  Scalloped On The Edge white card blank
• Silly Pumpkins Digi image from Bows and Berries Digital Stamp Shop
• Coloured with Promarkers – hope you won't mind but, as I seem to have used a ridiculous number of pens and have recently finally got around to labeling the ends of them all, I have taken photo and will add this after the list to save my energy (and patience!) dictating, correcting and capitalising every single pen name in my voice software!! :S (The square one is a Spectrum Noir, and the clear capped one is a Copic Blender as I find the brush tips easier for blending out to white)
• Polka dot border stamp from Waltzing Mouse's Off Beat Background set
• Dusty Concord DI and ???  Big and Juicy ink pads
• Clear embossing powder and heat tool
• Black Diamond Stickles
• Sakura Clear Stardust and Clear Glaze pens
• Black and purple flat-backed pearls

For the little spook card:

• 4" sq.  White card blank
• 2 Cute 2 Spook Digi image from Bows and Berries Digital Stamp Shop
• Coloured with Promarkers – using colours I already had out from the pumpkins, pic above
• White card for matting
• Dusty Concorde DI
• Computer generated greeting
• Sakura Clear Stardust and Clear Glaze pens
• 3mm and 2mm gems

I'd like to enter these cards in the following challenges: Dream Valley – Anything Goes :) ; SweetStampin' – Anything Goes :) ; The Secret Crafter – Spooky or Whimsical :) ; Craft Your Days Away – Autumn/Fall :) ; Charisma Cards - Anything Goes :) ; Fab'n' Funky - Hubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble :) ; Divas By Design - Something Spooky :) ; My Mum's Craft Shop - Spooktackular :)

Well, thank you for stopping by today and for all your comments on all my posts last week- think I shall be taking it a bit slower on the posting (and actual crafting :( ) front for the next little while as I need a rest but will hopefully be back with my DT card for the next FF challenge on Thursday :) In the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed my little bit of spooky fun today... and have a spooktacular night tomorrow!! ;D ;D

A trip to the beach with My Partner in Crafting Crime :)

Hello folks!! :)

Well, what a couple of days it’s been with this sudden heat... perfect timing really as we have a new challenge for you over at My Partner in CraftingCrime and this time we’d like to see you create something with a ‘Beach Theme’ :) :) We're sponsored by the fab Bows & Berries Digital Stamps Shop who have some gorgoeus new releases out this week as well as the lovely sun digi I've used on my card!! :) And here’s what I came up with:

I’ve had this Gorjuss image coloured and just waiting to be used since it arrived on my doormat from a lovely friend a couple of months or so ago and this seemed the perfect opportunity!! :) I’ve seen lots of people using sandpaper to great effect to create beachy scenes and thought I’d have a play myself- originally the scene was going to be the full size of the card but when this idea of a Polaroid style scene popped into my head at the last minute I just had to run with it- the smaller scale meaning less energy needed was actually just a bonus this time!!lol 

I began by getting a rough idea of the size I wanted my ‘Polaroid’ to be and printing out the gorgeous ‘Sun Love’ digi from Bows and Berries, which is just such a happy image :) I then masked the digi, placed clouds cut from my Cricut onto the sky (all attached with 2-way glue) and then inked in a similar way to Bev’s Tutorial with a cheap shaving brush form Wilkos and Tumbled Glass DI- think I went a bit heavier with my ink than you would for the softer look Bev gets but I wanted a real bright summer sky so I’m happy :) Then I crumpled and sanded some Core’dinations Whitewash for the sea and stuck that and the sandpaper onto the inked piece, which I mounted onto another layer of white for the frame :)

 

The sun has a second layer on foam pads and some glitter and glaze to add dimension :)

All the little Sea Life embellishments are cut from white card on my Cricut- they’ve been sitting on my desk since I coloured the image, too!!lol- and coloured with Promarkers. Before I coloured the shells I used several sizes of embossing tool to score and shape the card- a small thing but I’m glad I thought of it on the last minute as I think (in reality at least- not sure it shows too well in my pics) that it makes a big difference. I shaped the starfish and seahorse slightly, too, and they all have Clear Stardust and Clear Glaze for extra pretty-ness!! :)

A little bit of sandpaper and a white doodled border to frame the whole arrangement and I was done :) I know I took too amny photos but I kind of like this one!! ;D

The List:

·    

• 6x6” Aqua card blank from stash
• Images: Gorjuss Girl stamp from Sugar Nellie and ‘Sun Love’ Digi from Bows & BerriesDigital Stamp Shop
• Promarkers to colour images and embellies – no idea of colours, I’m afraid :(
• White card, Blue Core’dinations Whitewash card and sandpaper
• Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and shaving brush for sky
• Antique Linen DI for 'photo' edges
• Cricut to cut Sea Life embellies and embossing styluses to shape them
• Sakura Clear Stardust and Clear Glaze pens
• Inksentials White pen
• Brown and Green fineliners for the sentiment and detail on the seahorse
• Stickles in Frosted Lace, Stardust and Diamond

I’d like to enter this in the following challenges: Pollycraft – Make a Splash! :) ; Papertake Weekly – Here Comes the Sun :) ; Fab ‘n’ Funky – Summer Loving :) ; I ♥ Promarkers – Anything Goes :) ; Sparkles Forum – At the Beach :) ; The Secret Crafter – Embossing (my shells) :) ; Sweet Stampin’ – Something Old, Something New (my new is my digi and sandpaper, my old is the card blank discovered when rooting through a box I thought was all junk!!lol) :)

So, I hope you enjoyed my little trip to the beach as much as I did- I have no idea what I’ll ever be able to do with this card but I so enjoyed making it that I really don’t care!!lol :) I rarely let myself make cards that I don’t think I’ll have any way to use as it just doesn’t seem a justifiable use of my energy but every so often I let myself play and it’s so much fun!! :) Please do pop over to the PCC blog and check out the fab creations from the rest of the DT- we’re all going on a summer holiday of sorts as we’re taking a little DT break after this challenge... but we’ll be back in September with more fun challenges to get stuck into!! :)

Sorry I’m a bit late in the day with this one, by the way, but I spent all the energy I had yesterday on getting my new drawers in situ opposite my desk, and swapping things around between the old set, the new set and my desk drawers etc. in an attempt to make it easier to get hold of what I want while I’m working... I think the new drawers (six shallower ones in the place of three I had to dig through to find things) will help a lot but there’s still more to do as I never have the energy to just keep going ‘til things are all sorted so I’m still not sure quite what’s been left where atm... :S Good job I don’t have anything I need to make in a huge hurry right now, then!!lol Anyway, I didn’t get round to getting my post ready the day before, as I try to do with DT posts in case my brain won’t work on the day... and sure enough, my brain hasn’t wanted to play nice at all today so apologies if this has been even more rambly and incoherent than usual!!lol

I hope you’re all well and had a great weekend enjoying the sun- or found a nice cool place to avoid it if that’s what you prefer!!- it’s cooled off a bit here in the last few hours thankfully as it was pretty unbearable earlier!! :S 

  

  

New Stash... and a new challenge at My Partner in Crafting Crime :)

Hello again!! :)

Sorry that this post is a little late- should have been up yesterday but I'm really struggling at the mo', had a v bad M.E. day yesterday indeed and was in no state to even think about let alone type a post :S Slightly better today so I’m going to try to make something sensible out of the bits I started typing on Sunday night- when I was already feeling rather befuddled and ill- so apologies if it’s a bit disjointed!! :S lol ...Anyway...

It’s time for a new challenge over at My Partner In Crafting Crime and this fortnight we’d like to see you using ‘Twine, Jute or String’ on your cards- a nice and easy one for you!! :) - and we’re sponsored again by the fab Bows & Berries Digital Stamps Shop!! :)

I used a fab digi from our sponsors Bows & Berries, which I won when I came in the Top Three in their own challenge a few weeks ago- as soon as I saw this gorgeous Mannequin I wanted to try and colour it to look like it was covered in black velvet- and I have to say I’m quite pleased with the way it came out as it’s the first time I’ve tried colouring anything this dark before :) – and it needed a rich, deep colour to go with it... purple’s always an easy decision for me, especially as I found this gorgeous plum Baker’s Twine at the Ribbon Girl a few weeks back (the perfect excuse to finally place my order and get the seam binding, lace and buttons I've had my eye on for ages, too- all firsts for me!!lol)!! :) I decoupaged the body of the mannequin, too, for a bit of extra depth, which I think adds something :)

I needed to make my DT card as well as a 21^st for a neighbour and wasn’t feeling well enough to make two cards in time so the two ideas got combined into this one design with a computer generated sentiment to personalise it and I tried to create a clustered effect with that and all the embellishments, which is a look I’ve been seeing a lot recently and really love :) My photos aren’t great for some reason and it did all look better in reality but the card had been given before I had chance to check the pics!! :S lol

A few close-ups of some of the details :)

The List:

• 6” x 6” white blank
•   Gorgeous Mannequin Digi Stamp from Bows & Berries Digi Stamp Shop :)
• Promarkers: Cool Greys 4 & 5, Black, Grey Green, Aubergine and Copic blender
• Core’dinations purple card
• Silver Linen-textured satin mirror board
• C’bug D’vine Swirls Embossing Folder
• Dusty Concorde Distress ink Pad
• Tim Holtz Paper Distresser tool
• Seam Binding, Baker’s Twine and Pearl Button from The Ribbon Girl
• Digi Sentiment designed in my graphics program
• Nesties: Labels 4, Large Circles and Petite Scalloped Circles
• Pearl Hat Pins
• Glitter filled domes
• Purple Flat-backed Pearls
• Sakura Clear Stardust and Clear Glaze pens

I’m going to come back later and try to find some challenges to enter this in as I haven’t been up to looking around much yet...

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges: OSAAT - Anything Goes :) ; Creative Craft Challenges - Vintage/Distressed :) ; Crafty Cardmakers - Embossing :) ; The Shabby Tea Room - Monochromatic :) ; Stamps R Us - Goin' Digital :) ; There's Magic In the Air - Embossing :) ; Paper Sundaes - Birthday Creations :); PaperPlay - Anything Goes :)

I also made a candle as a gift to go with the card, which I thought I’d show you, too- if I don't show you now, I'll probably forget for months!!lol

I used the same colours though I used a different stamp as our neighbours have a gorgeous little dog and so this Pampered Pets one seemed perfect!! :)

Hope you’re all well and had a good weekend!! :) Thank you for visiting and I hope I’ll be able to get back to blog hopping a bit myself soon- as Mr Blogger’s malfunctions last week showed, it really is an addiction and I miss visiting you all like mad!! :) Please pop over to the main PCC blog, too, and have a look at the fab Twine creations from the rest of the DT!! :)