Clean & Simple Characters - Clean & Simply Gorjuss...

Hello there!! :)

Well, I'm finally back after another unintended hiatus from blogging... have still been crafting though, so plenty to share with you!! :) Starting with the first post in my new little personal challenge series inspired by the lovely Jen :) I mentioned here that around the same time as Jen started her fab CAS Mondays with LOTV, I had also been having a craft-space sort out and realised anew just how many character stamps I had and how little use they were getting recently within my recent CAS stamps/inks/dies phase... and so, following Jen's lead, I decided I would set myself a little challenge too... and to keep me motivated, I thought I'd make it a series on my lil' blog...

... I am calling it Clean & Simple Characters and the idea is to still make CAS cards which are relatively quick and easy to put together but which also include all my lovely character images and give my ProMarkers and FlexMarkers a bit of use... until I started this they had barely been out of the box all year!! :S

I have been wanting to give sepia colouring with my PMs/FMs a go for a while since I saw my lovely friend, Elaine, making some fab cards this way and I decided to restrict myself to just the colours I have in my FlexMarkers to keep it all as simple as possible... I started with this lovely Gorjuss Girl stamp I got a little while ago, from the new DoCrafts GG range, and hadn't used yet (as the size of it threw me a tad to be honest- it's huge!!lol) and, until I had the CAS idea, I hadn't been able to work out what I could do with it...

... and I had so much fun that I went on, over the next few days, to colour my other three Gorjusses and a Simply Sassy in the same way, too, (along with a couple of flowers which I'll share soon but don't fit the series)!! :)

 This one was the first GG I got from Sugar Nellie years ago and is still my favourite... I just think she is so pretty with her little flowers :)

I embossed all the images with WOW! semi-dull powder before colouring and added a little Antique Linen Distress Stickles to them at the end :)

The frames on these two were leftovers/waste from some kraft squares I cut ages ago but saved as I thought they'd make great frames... nearly chucked them a few times as they were getting on my nerves on my desk but glad I didn't now!!lol

And for this last one, I pulled out a fab Simply Sassy stamp which I've had for ages and really love but, for some strange reason, hasn't been used that much... like the GGs, she was a dream to colour in this way and I had fun- and possibly got a tad carried away!!lol- playing with some teeny hearts and stars from CBS to make a bokeh-ish background for her :)

{ The List }

Cream card blanks (top- fold A6 and 5" Square) and more cream card from stamping on

Stamps - Simply Gorjuss - New Heights from Do Crafts

Gorjuss Girls - Poppy Fields, Little Goth Girl and Sitting from Sugar Nellie

Simply Sassy - Luv a Latte by Krista Smith from Sugar Nellie

VersaMagic Ink pad in Jumbo Java

Wow! Clear Matte Semi-dull embossing powder and heat tool

FlexMarkers - Rosewood, Auburn, Saddle Brown, Nutmeg, Cappuccino, Sandstone, Light Fawn, Champagne, Linen, Antique White, Sunkissed Pink

Button Twine and Seam Binding - Brown and Rose Petal from The Ribbon Girl

Clearly Besotted Many Thanks stamp set and VersaMagic inks in Wheat and Sahara Sand for hearts and stars background on Luv a Latte card

Sentiments - Poppy Fields card- Woodware Clear Magic Salutations

Sitting card- Papermania Honey and Hugs set

Little Goth Girl and Luv a Latte cards- LOTV Tags stamp sheets

Antique Linen Distress Stickles

Sakura Clear Stardust pen

I'd like to enter all but the first of these into the Sugar Bowl - Anything Goes challenge :) and the rest into: Passion for ProMarkers - Ribbon, Lace or Twine :) ; Addicted to Stamps - Make Your Mark :) ; Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes :)

Well, that's the first post- and the first *five* cards- in my little Clean and Simple Characters series... I love the sepia look and limiting my colour palette definitely helped the process go more quickly and feel much more relaxed... I have a lot more images I think would look great in sepia but I'd also like to try some other restricted palettes... and it was so much fun to play with my images and pens again!! :) Thank you again Jen for the inspiration!! :) My challenge is just for me- no linky or anything like Jen's) and it will be an 'as and when' kind of thing but I hope that it might be fun to read and maybe even inspire a few people to have a go and mix those character with CAS!! :)

Thanks for stopping by today and for reading this v long post (I was going to post all the cards seperately but it seemed daft to spend energy on several different posts when they'd all be so similar!!lol)... hope you enjoyed it anyway!! :) I'm not sure when I'll make it back but I hope it won't be too long :) Hope everyone's okay and had a lovely long weekend... I got to meet Jen who came to visit and we chatted like we'd known each other forever so I had a fab weekend- thanks hon!! :D :D

Summer’s here... at Dream Valley at least!! ;)

Hello there!! :)

I’m back again with another fab new challenge over at Dream Valley- and very timely it is too, seeing as the sun has decided to come out to play at long last here in my little bit of the UK at least!! :) So, if you haven’t already guessed, our theme this fortnight is ‘Summer’ and we are sponsored by Squiggle Stamps!! :)

Now, my card may not immediately scream summer as many of the gorgeous creations from the rest of our fab DT do but, as my health means no chance of going on a ‘sun, sea and sand’ type holiday (or even a ‘rainy English summer’ type one, come to that!!lol), I thought I would make my card reflect what this summer means to me... which, with the Jubilee last month and now the Olympics starting so very soon, is a celebration of all things British... oh, and a simply gorgeous SC digi ‘cause I love it!! :)

So, I have used my Portobello Road papers, stamps and buttons with some kraft card and Distress Inks to give this card a lovely vintagey-London feel... this is one of those cards that just came together so easily and enjoyably from the first moment of colouring to the last touch of embellishment- a challenge can be good but I just love the times when creativity just flows, don’t you!?!! :)

This image is my one of my fav SCs, I think- which is saying something as I love so many of them!! :) – I just think she looks so beautiful in her gorgeous dress, with that flowing long hair and the butterflies as the perfect finishing touch... everything about it just says summer to me, too, so perfect for this challenge!! :) I coloured with PMs, of course, using some new colour combos inspired by the Portobello papers... that’s what I love about paper packs- they challenge me to get out of my colour comfort zone... in fact, I have a pad on my desk at the mo’ which I would never have bought had I seen half the papers in it as it contains one of my most hated colour combos of purple and yellow... but, I’m actually still glad I got it as it has made me work with PMs which I have probably never even picked up before and, even if I don’t *love* the results, I’m pleased to have met the colouring challenge!!lol

I stamped Big Ben and the Postcard from the lovely Portobello stamp set on a piece of the Portobello paper, trimmed and distressed- the detail stamps so well, too!! :) - and then tucked them in behind the image... I was going for a bit of a clustered look with all my little extra embellies... not sure it was quite how I planned... but I like it anyway!! :)

Another of my little crocheted flowers with a button and twine and a little seam binding to finish it all off... I’m liking that I can have the Union Jack feel to the colours without necessarily needing to have bright red and royal blue as that’s not really me!! :)

The List:

• 6” sq. Scalloped cream card blank (Craftwork Cards)
• Saturated Canary digi- Cerridwen
• PMs (mostly) to colour (I actually can’t find my pic of the pens I used for this but have tried to piece it together from other pics/lists and my v dodgy memory, think it’s right, though!! :S): Dress- Cardinal Red, Antique Pink and Dusky Rose; Butterflies- Indigo Blue, True Blue, China Blue and Blue Pearl; Gloves- White Pearl (Spectrum Noir), Blue Pearl and Glacier Blue (FlexMarker) – had a bit of an indecisive moment over colour with the gloves!!lol; Skin- Satin, Blush, and Dusky Pink with Sunkissed Pink for cheeks; Hair- Caramel, Cocoa, Henna, Walnut, Umber, Burnt Umber; White Pearl around image and Ivory PM all over the white cardstock to tone in
• Spellbinders Nestie Labels 17
• Kraft card stock
• Papermania Portobello Road papers, stamps and buttons
• VersaFine Vintage Sepia
• Scissors to Distress
• Distress Inks- Antique Linen and Vintage Photo
• Tile Blue seam binding from The Ribbon Girl
• One of my little crocheted flowers in pink embroidery thread
• Ivory button twine from TRG
• Sakura Clear Stardust pen and waterbrush
• Ivory Flat-backed Pearls

...phew- long list!!lol

I’d like to enter this in the following challenges: Papertake Weekly - All Things Girly :) ; Fab 'n; Funky - Make Your Own Flowers :) ; Divas by Design - Anything Goes :) ; Allsorts - Distressing :) ; Charisma - Your favourite Animal (Butterflies, if they are big enough on my card to count?!) :)

Okay, that’s it from me for now- thank you so much for stopping by and reading my waffle and I hope you like this one!! :) Pleased pop over to the DVblog to see the rest of my teamies fab summer creations and I hope you get some lovely sunshine to inspire you to join in wherever you are!! :) Hope you’re all well and have a lovely week... I’m hoping to make the most of the sun out in the garden while we’ve got it!! :)

A Fairytale Birthday... For A Special Lady at Dream Valley :)

Hello there folks!! :)

Well, I thought I’d be all prepared with this post as I had the card sorted over a week ago but my body’s had other ideas again... and now I just can’t get my head in gear to write either... so big apologies if this comes out even more garbled than usual!! :S lol Anyways, better late than never- here goes...

It’s time for another challenge over at Dream Valley and this is one that’s had all us DT girls v excited over the last couple of weeks as we have a fab sponsor... but first, the challenge itself!!lol This fortnight we’d like to see your cards ‘For A Special Lady’... a lovely easy challenge indeed!! :) And our fabulous sponsor is Krista Smith of Saturated Canary, who is offering the winner a $10 voucher for her Etsy store!! :) And she also gave us lucky things on the DT a chance to choose an image for our projects- hence the excitement!! :D So- thank you, Krista!! :D

Now, as some of you will know, I’ve been kind of avoiding my papercrafting supplies recently but I needed a card for one of my best friends and this challenge and the beautiful digi I chose were perfect to tempt me back to my desk to try to make her something special :) I was wary to start with, not sure I wanted to do it, but I loved every minute in the end!! :)

I tried to keep it simple to show off Krista’s gorgeous image and also the beautiful Bo Bunny Gabrielle paper that my friend and I both love... and also to go a bit easy on myself ‘cos I was feeling a tad rusty after a month and more off!!lol 

I chose the amazing ‘Rapunzel, a Princess’ image... I hadn’t seen this one before but I knew I had to colour her the moment I saw her!! :) My ongoing mission to improve my colouring is currently stuck in a hair-obsession phase and I think I have been getting better... but when I think that I only plucked up the courage to try colouring my first Simply Sassy stamp about six months ago (having had several in my stash for at least six months before that!!) because I was so bad at colouring hair and Krista draws such gorgeous hairstyles on her images that I was a tad intimidated... and now I jumped at the chance to colour this one when I’d have had nowhere to hide had it gone wrong as it’s a DT project... well, that has given my kinda shaky crafting (and life atm :S) confidence a much needed boost!! :) :)

I’ve added a second pic as I struggled to get the colours right in the pics and I think this one's the best likeness :S Thank you to Krista’s images, ProMarker Fine Nibs and MiC colouring tuts for the improvements!!lol

This card is based on the one I made with that first Sassy last year, which I loved but haven’t got around to sharing on here yet... I used the same paper pack and similar ideas for layout, embellishments, etc. but this time I chose this gorgeous butterfly paper and had a play with my new gilding flakes and Flitter Glu and they do look similar but quite different...!!lol The sentiment is stamped with the Flitter Glu and it worked a treat first time...I now have so many ideas buzzing around my head for stamps I want to try this with!! :)

The butterfly is gilded, too, but I just traced over the design on the paper with a Quickie Glue pen... so easy but it looks so stunning... and is incredibly difficult to photograph to in any way do it justice!! :S I smooched some Distress Stickles over the wings with my finger for interest, too- love doing this!!lol

Everything is distressed and inked and the corners got some Stickles, too :) I tore the corners off one of the sheets from the pack as so many of the designs have a lot of lovely detail on the corners, but which would almost all be lost if you trimmed the sheets enough to fit on a 6” card... and that made me sad!! :( Not sure what I’ll do with the middle of the sheet mind!!lol

The List:

• 6” Sq. Scalloped cream card blank
• Saturated Canary digi- Rapunzel, a Princess
• ProMarkers to colour (see picture below, click to view it bigger- the Copics are the blender and a pale Warm Grey)
• Papers from Bo Bunny’s Gabrielle pad
• Gilding Flakes (Variegated Green from Crafty Notions) with Indigo Blu Flitter Glu and a Quickie Glue pen to adhere
• Distress Inks – Antique Linen and Vintage Photo
• Sentiment stamp from Cat’s Life Press
• Cream Seam binding from The Ribbon Girl
• Antique Linen Distress Stickles
• Sakura Clear Stardust pen
• Cream Flat-backed Pearls from stash

I’d like to enter this card in the following challenges: Saturated Canary – Happy Birthday :) ; The Stampman – Shabby Chic or Distressed :) ; Paper Sundaes – Ribbons and Pearls :) ; MAWTT – Flowers or Gardens (my butterfly):) ; Creative Inspirations – Anything Goes :)

Well, thank you for stopping by today!! :) I’m sorry I’m still being so rubbish at leaving comments... really hoping I’ll be well enough to do better with that soon... in the meantime, thank you so much to those of you kind enough to still leave comments for me!! :) And hello and thanks to my new Followers, too- I'll try and visit you as soon as I can!! :) I hope you’ll join in our challenge- pop over to the DV blog to see all the fantastic creations from the rest of the team, too!! :) I hope you’re having a good weekend despite this awful weather... here in Manchester it’s like the middle of winter... a very stormy winter at that!! :S Tomorrow’s supposed to be lovely, though, so fingers crossed!! :)

My first Saturated Canary image... and more Valentine’s over at Dream Valley!! :)

Hey folks!! :)

Sorry I'm a couple of days late with this one- I’ve had a bad week and an even worse last few days... but it’s definitely a case of distraction-therapy rather than waffle-about-it-therapy needed so I’ll do us all a favour and crack straight on with the point of my post...

It’s time for another fab new challenge over at Dream Valley and this fortnight we’d like to see you Valentine’s inspired projects!! :) Another lovely easy one at the moment!! :) We’re sponsored this time by the fabulous Joanna Sheen!! :)

Now, for someone who doesn’t normally do much in the Valentine’s card line I put a rather disproportionate amount of time and effort in to the various digi files I created for the card in my last post and so really wanted to enjoy playing with them while I had the excuse... so this card uses many of the same items along with the rather fabulous addition of one of the (quite a few!!lol) Saturated Canary images I got from the lovely Krista while she had her discount running last weekend!! :)

While not exactly CAS, I did go for a simpler, less busy look to this one as I wanted to see how I could get different looks with the same basic materials... I think the two do have quite different feels to them despite both being suitably masculine... or masculine enough- they are Valentine’s cards after all!!lol

This is by no means the first SC image I have bought or coloured but it is the first that has made onto a completed card so far (Christmas kinda took over!!lol) and I’m pretty happy with how she came out- though I can see massive room for improvement in virtually every area of my colouring... the hair is the *most* glaringly obvious mess-up, but you’ll be kind and not look at that, right!?!!lol Seriously, every time I think I’ve cracked ‘hair’ at last, I prove myself sooo very wrong!! :S I wasn’t sure if I should get this image, if I would get that much use out of it, but I really loved it and I do think I’ll be to use it for plenty of other occasions in different colours :)

I’d cut the circles in alternate colourways and embossed and sanded them as before, then layered them up with some leftover paper. I then had fun with a Fineliner, some gems and a glitter pen!! :) The sentiment stumped me to start with... ‘til I remembered a freebie set of Val’s Day stamps from a mag last year (or maybe the year before!!) and the hearts allowed me to add a pop of red to balance out the gems, too :)

I just took this for my own curiosity regarding the similarities/differences really but thought I may as well add it in!! :)

The List:

• 6” Sq. White card blank
• Fab Saturated Canary Digi ‘Love Letter’ from Krista’s Etsy shop, coloured with FlexMarkers, ProMarkers and Fine Nibs (photo included below to save energy!! FMs- Ice Grey 1, Soft Aqua and Copics- Blender and Warm Grey 1)
• My own design digi paper
• Core’dinations cardstock- red from the vintage selection, grey an All-in-the-Family pack
•  My own design embossing mask and cut files for the heart circle and lacy rectangle, created in my graphics program and cut on my Cricut
• Sanding block for cardstock
• Black Fineliner and Sakura Clear Stardust pen
• Red gems 

I’d like to enter this card in the following challenges: Cards for Men– Seeing Red :) ; Joanna Sheen – Love is in the Air :) ; Sarah Hurley – Love is All Around :) ; OSCC – For the One I Love :) ; Allsorts – Free and Easy :) ; Sweet Stampin’ – The One I Love :) ; MiC – Shading Red :) ; Crafter's Companion - Anything Goes :) ; Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes with optional 'Love' theme :)

Well, thanks for stopping by today and I hope you like my first SC card... I’m off to link that lot up now and then have a much needed rest, I think... or maybe the other way around!! :S Hope you’re all keeping well and warm (what a weekend here n the UK, eh?!)!! And don’t forget to pop over to the Dream Valley blog to have a look at all the wonderful inspiration from the rest of the fab team!! :)