A Heartfelt Crafty Moment

Merry Christmas, all ye bloggers! Wanna see what old Julemand brought me?

A Danish weaved paper heart kit! And I actually made one, as per the instructions (I usually deviate wildly at that point.....) How cool is that? 

For many more fine examples (i.e. not made by me) check out this blog which has many excellent designs in the traditional red and white of Denmark :)

Missing in Action? Yep, that's me. . .

Feels like I've been gone for ages, and alas, so had my mojo. I have been trying to coax it back with a random assortment of craft purchases, but in the end I've decided that maybe I should just stick to colouring.

My Mum had requested a birthday card for a friend of hers, and I've been reliably informed that most biddies like pink and green. The image is from Beccy at Beccy's Place (must remember to add the link - yay for me! I did it!), and it's been coloured with Promarkers. Nuff said?

Christmas tree of a different kind

"Step away from the cute images, step away from the promarkers" cried Marley's ghost! Well maybe not quite, but you get the gist.
Faffing with post it notes and Distress Inks is always fun, so I made a quick and easy Christmas card this afternoon - daringly undertaken whilst my small person was still awake. He did wander off with various bits of paper and rubber stamps, but luckily nothing sharp or ink based. An experiment in carfting which will need to be tried again I think.

So there it is, I used a stamp from Clarity Stamps, a couple of Distress Inks (Stormy Sky, Broken China, Wild Honey and Vintage Photo), and a plethora of post it note "masks".
First I had to stamp the trees with Vintage Photo, and heat emboss it with clear detail powder, then make a mask for each tree. Punched a 1.5 inch circle in a post it note for my moon, and then inked over the whole lot. Once I took away the masks, the trees looked a bit too stark so I added a bit of shading with Warm Greys 2 & 4. Nothing terribly difficult or even time consuming, and looks pretty cool :)
Challenges for this week:
Quirky Crafts - CAS I would like to think this is Clean & Simple?

How hard can it be?

Adventures in crafting part 754 - Vintage. 

Given my penchant for Distress inks you would think I would find vintage relatively straightforward, wouldn't you? Well no, actually, I find it incredibly painful, and still I force myself to try! Not sure what brought on the notion today, but I have surpassed myself and have managed to use just about every crafting material which normally gives me a palpitations - pearls, glitter, lace and ribbon. Honestly don't think I've ever had so much "stuff" on a card before! Yet still I feel it's not quite there. Too straight and angular? Needs more "stuff"? Not dark enough? Any suggestions gratefully received :D

Used: Vintage Photo, Victorian Velvet and Bundled Sage Distress Inks, Hatbox stamp (possibly Angel Company?), organza ribbon, lace, pearls, art institute glitter, Cover a Card script stamp (Impression Obsession) and unknown sentiment stamp and BP.
Challenges (of course):
Totally Papercrafts - Victorian
One Stop Craft Challenge - Ribbons & Lace
Crafty Emma's Store - Roses and Ribbons

Non-Cute Card, as promised....

I do believe I foolishly promised to show a card which didn't involve any cute little people, so today I finally managed it. A struggle, to be sure.

Just a bit of white card, some ink, glitter and a leaf/branch stamp and it's done - 3 hours later! I have no idea why it took me so long, think I spent more time staring at it than actually doing anything with it. But, I guess that's all part of the "Creative Process", right?

Just a couple of challenges, it would be rude not to enter.....
Fab n Funky - all white on the night
My Time to Craft - Sun, Moon and Stars

On the fifth day of Christmas...

Who needs Gold Rings when you could have five Mo Mannings? Regular viewers may have noticed my complete obsession with Christmas cards featuring Mo Manning images. Tonight is no different, so turn away now if you have had enough of my compulsion. I promise I will post a card in a day or two which features no cute girls in winter attire. (Darn, did I really just say that?)
Yesterday I was busy colouring and tonight I did the faffing with paper and sentiment, and lo and behold a set of 5 cards which are almost identical. How did that happen? Sheer laziness I expect.
Here they are in all their Quintuplet glory:

and for you added viewing pleasure here's a close up of just one, bottom right I do believe:

Lighting/photography is a bit ropey this evening so even more profuse apologies from me. I also know that Birdie will be tutting, sighing and shaking her head of the lack of glitter involved, K will be searching for ribbon, whereas P will be hunting for embellishments and gems etc. Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Just can't seem to get beyond quick, easy and light on postage!
Challenges for this one is to go in are the usual suspects of:
Make it Monday - Always Anything Goes #62
OSAAT - use a digi
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Winter Wardrobe

There's always time for Cake.

My friend Anne is an expert on cupcakes, and indeed cakes in general, and let's face it, a birthday is not a birthday without cake.
Tonight's humble offering is a squidgy looking cake-y delight with oodles of icing......and a bloomin' great fairy in the middle of it! Not what you usually expect as a birthday treat.
I randomly decided I would follow a sketch, which generally causes me much pain and anguish, but tonight it actually wasn't too bad. Not enough layers on mine - but a combination of image too big and card too small made me run out of space. That's my excuse anyway :)
The sketch I followed was this weeks from Tuesday Morning Sketches and should look a little like this:

It actually looks a lot like this:

Not quite the same is it? We'll just call it Artistic Licence and it'll be fine. The image is one of the new releases from Lili of the Valley and it's not actually released until 10th Nov (I have my sources....), she's called "never too old for cake" and has been coloured in with my trusty Promarkers, and her wings glittered with ultrafine stuff. The sentiment is also from Lili of the Valley. What else can I tell you? Probably not much of interest, so I'll just go now, shall I?
Oh, of course I need to let you know which challenges I doing this week -
Make it Monday - Always Anything Goes
I love Promarkers - Glitter and Glitz
and obviously the aforementioned Tuesday Morning Sketches, or that would be just silly now, wouldn't it?

Adventures in Kraft

Firstly, I must apologise to regular viewers for the excessive use of Mo Manning digis, I admit to being deeply obsessed with her Christmas images, and have coloured them in in virtually every colour combination known to man/woman.
It occurred to me yesterday that although I have seen it numerous times in blogland, I have never attempted colouring in an image printed/stamped onto brown Kraft card. So in an effort to make my growing pile of Mo Manning Christmas cards look slightly different from each other, I gung-ho-flung myself into printing and then colouring on, let's face it, dull and drab card.
I tried with pencils first and got fairly good coverage, but not sure if it's me not blending the pencils properly or if that's just the way it is, but I found the black lines of the image went a bit "foggy".

Next, I tried colouring with my trusty Promarkers, I'd already decided that reds and browns would probably look pretty good on drab brown, but wasn't sure about the rest of the rainbow. Skin tones were also a concern, would the paler colours cover the cardstock? Must admit I still can't decide the answer to that one! For the record, yellow and pale blue virtually disappear, as does grey....

The Joy of Pythagoras
On a side note, since my Saturday Sketch palaver the other day, I have now fully embraced the joy of triangulation - it uses less of my hoarded backing papers, and I don't need to measure anything! Just cut of a couple of corners from complimentary papers, stick them on a piece of plain cardstock and it's good to go! I have absolutely no doubt that "Mo Manning and the Triangles" will feature heavily from now until Christmas. Sorry!

Challenges to enter today:
Make it Monday #60 - Anything Goes
Totall Gorjuss - Pastel Christmas

Secret Pal Stories....

Many of you will already know, but for those that don't, from October 2010 to October 2011 I took part in a Secret Pal exchange on Papercraft Planet, set up through the group "Anything Goes". I stumbled across it completely by accident about a month before it started, and as I was fairly new to cardmaking and very new to blogging and online forums, I thought it would be fun to give it a go.
I have to say it's probably one of the best things I've ever done! I was truly sorry when it came to an end, however, all is not lost because it's starting up again on 1st Jan 2012 and runs for another year! Sign ups are taking place until 31st October and all the information you need is here. New pals will be assigned in the next month or so - in the last round I received mail from a lovely lady in California, and I sent mail to sunny Florida. The requirement is to send 6 cards in a year - one every two months. Not hard for card-making fanatics, is it?
The icing on the cake for me was all the smashing ladies I got to know through participating, and I received a whole raft of cards from various people taking part......

Just because....

Sending a card "just because" has got to be the best reason to send a card in my most humble opinion, so as I haven't sent one in a while, I thought I should.

There is a slight problem - I am rubbish at using embellishments and I am also pretty rubbish at following sketches, however when the lovely and exceedingly talented Anne told me that Mo Manning was sponsoring the Sketch Saturday Challenge, I pretty much gritted my teeth and got down to business. Probably not the right attitude for successful crafting but hey ho....

 Here is aforementioned sketch:

To console myself, I worked out I can not only enter the Sketch Saturday Challenge 178, but also the following too:
I Love Promarkers - Cute
DP2 Challenge - fave Mo image and sentiment

Ooops forgot to mention, she is coloured with Promarkers, and the digi is called "Bunches" and is available from Mo Manning's shop.

Anything but a card?

How about a work in progress? Here's what I did this afternoon, whilst supposedly playing/potty training/feeding/entertaining a certain small person....

Well, I do find colouring very soothing, and Mo Manning does make it so easy.....

Hurry hurry quick quick

Late post, need to get to bed, work tomorrow! Did some colouring, made a card, blah blah blah. Lovely Mo Manning again, lovely Promarkers again, freebie magazine papers again. You get the gist? Ok.....

Challenges, please?
One Stitch At A Time - Anything Goes
Make it Monday - Always Anything Goes
Passion for Promarkers - Christmas Critters

Christmas, here I come!

It has been nagging me for a while that I should have made a start on my Christmas cards by now, and while I have made 3 so far, I have not been inspired by any of them to make more. After a long and hard ponderage on my lack of Christmas crafting, I came to the startling conclusion that I didn't have any Christmas images I wanted to colour/play with. Now, in that situation what would you do? Yes! Go shopping!

First and only stop was the awe inspiring Mo Manning's Digital Pencil store where I found her Ragged Angel. During my hours of ponderage, I also discovered I seem to be in a "place" where I can only colour and craft with cute, girlie images (I know it makes me shudder too, but you just have to go with the flow). I find Mo's drawings to be a happy medium - yes they are cute, but they do have character and are so very well drawn that they can be forgiven for any suggestion of cute-ness.

So here's what I did:

She's coloured in with Promarkers and the backing papers were magazine freebies froma month or two ago. The sentiment stamp is a rubber stamp from Polka Doodles. I did use pretty much the same colour combination as the pre-coloured example on Mo's site, but I'm sure I'll play about with that on later cards - I did print off another 5 of them, so it may become a regular feature ;)

I also found out if I iron my digis between two sheets of copy paper, the lines don't bleed with the Promarkers. I've noticed this can happen sometimes when using the lighter colours and the blending pen. Obviously, make sure you don't use the steam setting as I'm sure that would be really messy.

Not many Christmas challenges to be found - everything is Fall/Halloween at the moment, which is fair enough I suppose, but I did find one at OSAAT - use a digi, so I'm good to go....

Colouring up a Storm

Contrary to popular belief, the weather has not been balmy and summery throughout the whole of the UK, and whilst we did hit the highs of 23C on Friday, it plummeted back down to 14C by Saturday. Followed by fairly continual rain. So, what do I do when I can't work on my tan? I colour :)

I have made a few cards over the weekend, all slightly random and haven't a clue who they will end up going to, but today's card does have a home to go to. My niece turns 5 in a week or so, so this little lady will be winging her way over to Ireland, where hopefully it won't rain quite so much. Hmmm, why is it called the Emerald Isle again?

The image is called "Coriander" and is by Sweet November Stamps, and she's been coloured in with Promarkers, and has some heavy handed application of glitter on her wings. The sentiment is by Lili of the Valley, and my circle wasn't quite big enough....

I would like to enter into the following challenges:
Make it Monday #57
For Fun Challenges - Warmth (well she is basking in sunshine!)
Crafty Catz - Things with Wings
Crafty Cardmakers - Anything Goes

Reinvention

So I made this card a few months ago, which I knew at the time was far too random to be of any use, and tonight I decided it had languished long enough, so set about taking it apart.
On the whole I was fairly successful and any rips and tears are nicely covered up :)
I'd printed of the Designed to Delight image months ago and had never got around to colouring it in, but handily it was the right size for this space. Just noticed it involves Spring flowers, but hey, a girls got to look forward to something....

Slight change in ribbon and it's good to go, and infinitely more useable I think. Of course, there are challenges to be entered, and this week it's:
Try it on Tuesday - card inspired by Louis Armstrong "It's a Wonderful World" ok, so not quite trees of green or red roses, but there is a bit of blue sky in there....
Anything Goes #50 - Anything Goes (phew!)
Make it Monday #55 - Anything Goes

Truths for Mature Humans

I received an email from my good biddie-friend Birdie containing the link for these "Trueisms" - I have never thought of myself as mature before (incredibly immature, why yes, indeed) but I found myself nodding and smiling to practically every one of them.

Into the Unknown....

So the irresistible lure of paper crafting continues to wind me around it's little finger and I have recently dabbled in Scrapbooking. I must confess I find it harder than card making - no pretty pictures to colour, and far too much cutting out for my liking! However, I've started so I'll finish....
On the advice of scrappy chick, P I joined the site Let's Scrap, and they do a decent layout I can follow pretty much every week. Tonight's attempt is based on their sketch for this week:

I've only been brave enough to do half of it, as I seriously dislike making the photo frame. Obviously mitered corners are not my forte.

The various embellishments on the corners are covering up a multitude of paper sins.....
I would also like to enter into a couple of challenges, because, well hey, why not?
OSAAT - Anything Goes
Quirky Crafts - Anything but a Card

How very English.....

What could be more "English" than a quaint little village, complete with church spire and babbling brook? All very chocolate box pretty, but they do still exist - I grew up in one! We moved away before I hit my teenage years, and the place has remained frozen in time, as an idyllic place of long summer days and playing out late, and I could almost swear it never rained.....
Whenever I see any images remotely similar to "my" village, nostalgia steps in and frugality goes right out of the window, so when I saw a whole series of digis from Just Inklined, I bought just about all of 'em!
Fancied a bit of colouring, and fully intended it to be with Promarkers but somehow ended up watercolouring with distress inks.

Only one challenge to enter today and that is OSAAT - #78 use a digi.

Christmas in August? You gotta be kidding me....

OK, I struggle with blog titles, and I really do feel that Christmas comes far too early each year, but I guess we all have to started making our Christmas cards sooner rather than later.
Very quick card this evening, made with some My Minds Eye papers which handily came free with a craft magazine this month. Gotta love those freebies.... 
I have never really got to grips with chipboard shapes - in my world they have no known purpose, but as the magazine came with matching chipboard shapes I figured I should at least try and use them. So I chose the smallest one I could find and tried to hide it on the card.....

The red paper at the bottom does have a subtle snowflake pattern, but I must admit I am tempted to jazz it up a bit - might have to stamp some random snowflakes on it later.
As usual, I can't make a card without entering a couple of challenges, and tonight is no exception :)
Christmas Inspirations - Clean & Simple
Tuesday Morning Sketches - Sketch

Oh boy, too many men....

....... in need of birthday cards. Although the same sentiment could apply to our household. Ages range from 44 to 13 to 2, and strangely enough they all behave in exactly the same way.
Anyway,  tonight's quickie male birthday card was inspired by the front page of Papercraft Planet where they were highlighting a masking technique. Always ready to have a go at most things inky, I had a rummage through the stash to see if I had anything suitable. I had already decided on my marvellous Impression Obsession Cover a Card stamp, but couldn't find anything suitable in rubber to use as my image. So I turned my rummaging into scrolling through folders of digi stamps and found one I liked which could be used for a man from Just Inklined.
The technique involved was really quite simple - stamp/print your main image (windmill) and sentiment, then stamp/print them again on scrap paper and cut out to make a mask. Place mask over main image and sentiment, and stamp your background design over the top. Lift off the mask and you have a perfect foreground and background. It worked a treat, but my windmill did look a little lost in the busy background, so I coloured it in very quickly with my trusty Promarkers. Layered up on a piece of blue Bazzill and job done.

I would like to enter into the following challenges:
The Outlawz - Copic/Promarker Challenge
Crazy 4 Challenges - Masculine
Passion for Promarkers - Week 114

Red-eeming Features

Hey ho folks, figured I better get on a do a post before P gets cross with me. She needs a bit of a light entertainment in the morning to take her mind off work - although I'm not sure her boss feels the same when he stomps in her office and sees her blogging, but there you go.
So today's shopping spree involved some Adirondack inks, which I've never used before, but I have it on good authority that they're great fun to use, if not slightly messy. On this recommendation, I went out and bought 6 of the blighters. Not a huge selection of colours - I would have preferred some blues and a richer green, however that can wait for another day.
I spent the first part of the evening engrossed in some Youtube demos of Mr Tim Holtz using the inks, and off I went. They are indeed messy, and in my opinion, incredibly smelly. I feel like I've been inhaling cheap gin. They do make for some lovely vibrant backgrounds though.
Here's tonight's card:

I used the Red Pepper and Butterscotch inks dabbed on the a felt pad. The flower stamp is by Hero Arts, the sentiment from Stampin' Up, and then I simply mounted it onto a piece of satin gold card and kept it very CAS.
I would like to enter it into the following challenges:
Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Autumn Colours
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Hot Colours

Fabulous Follower Award....

"Well finally" I hear AM cry! The world famous "Copperknob of the 29 Stockings" has been nipping my head about showcasing the wonderful award she gave me for stalking her blog, and it's time I passed it on....

Of course she passed it on to just about EVERYBODY I know but there are a couple of folk who are very kind and visit me often, and they actually say nice things about my blog posts (Ahem, AM are you listening?) so I would like to pass on the Fabulous Follower Award onto.....(drum roll, please)

Ali @ Aqualeiga's Escape (who by some random quirk of fate got me into blogging and Papercraft Planet)
Claire @ Claire's Crafty Corner who stops by regularly and is nice to me (Ahem, AM...)
Sam @ Sparkly Moo Just love that name!
Cole @ Cole Meyer's Blog she would fire me if I didn't give it to her....

Grab your nice and shiny award here, ladies!

Thorn in my side.....

So, today my good friend P challenged me to a blog post, and whilst there have been crafty goings on this evening, I have nothing paper based to show you ;)

Hopefully this will do instead.....


Rose, the sign of love,
Beauty is picturesque
Speaks for itself,
An Inspiration.

by Elizabeth Grant Price

You inspire me!

Yes, you do and tonight I made a card using some of the tips and techniques which I have seen on various blogs, following my regular stalking of some lovely bloggers (no injunctions please, I am perfectly harmless).

To name-drop a few of the crafty ladies I took the inspiration from:

Petra for her unceasing dedication to using up scrap paper
Anne for her ability to turn her hand to virtually every handicraft known to man/woman
Anne Marie for her sweet smelling, fresh faced charm and charisma (and clever tips and tricks)
And finally Birdie for her never-ending support and guidance. She is my Guru :)

There are many, many others whose blogs I follow, and I'm sorry if I haven't mentioned you tonight, but hey, I have a very short memory, and can only remember four things at a time.

This card was made up using some free papers which came with a magazine a couple of months ago, and have languished in a box ever since, the bunting formed part of the free papers and I just cut it out and stuck it on. Anne Marie made a card this evening where she stamped a flower straight onto her BP, so I blatantly copied that idea!

I would like to enter into the following challenges:
For Fun Challenges - Anything Goes
Anything Goes Challenge Blog - Birthday/Celebration

Every cloud has a silver lining

Yes, apparently so. Tonight's silver lining is that my blog post does not contain any of my cards :)
Today we took a trip to the seaside - this time to Broughty Ferry. Slightly warmer and sunnier than our last day out at the beach!

Seven swans a swmming (or standing)

Broughty Castle

Splashing in the Play Park

A Question for you.....

When is a card handmade and when is card handcrafted? Is there a difference? If a card take ten minutes to make or two hours, is one a "better" card than the other?
That the question (or rather, questions) I was asking myself this evening - I'm currently on a mission to challenge myself to make quick, and yet still effective, cards. This obviously rules out pretty colouring and lots of fiddly bits, so what is left? A couple of bits of paper and a splodge of ink?

Or a quick dash over an image with some distress ink?

I'm not sure if either of these cards could possibly be sent out to anyone even remotely crafty, but what would a non-crafter think?

Random Card # 824

Ok, so maybe it's not #824 but I've made quite a few over the last 11 months! I fancied to do a spot of colouring this evening, with no real idea of who I needed to make a card for. Sometimes I find this a lot easier than if I have a person in mind, as I don't need to worry about a persons particular taste in colour or image, and I don't need to try and fit in a sentiment - which can take me literally hours! So, does that mean that tonights card is a true reflection of my taste? Honestly? I have no idea! I do like green though....

I also like colouring the Sarah Kay images - I find they have enough detail in them that it makes it easier to colour, as you can add depth to the colouring without having to think to much about it! I've coloured it in with my alarmingly rapidly expanding stash of Promarkers (69 and counting) and inked the edges with Victorian Velvet Distress ink.
Handily, it just so happens to fit a couple of challenges (it would be rude not to....)
I Love Promarkers - Anything Goes
Tuesday Morning Sketch #104

If anyone wants a card, just ask....

Rain, Sea & Sand

Seem to be following the trend and not posting anything crafty today :)
Instead I'm going to show you some photos of today's family day out to the beach in deepest, darkest Fife (well it was very cloudy). The weather has been truly awful this summer but it's got to the point where you just have to say - there's no such thing as bad weather, just people who are badly dressed for the weather. So off we all went in our two car convoy laden with a picnic, blankets, fold-up chairs and lots of raincoats. The temperature peaked at 13C/55F and we had a couple of rain showers, but we still managed to get sand in our shoes and paddle in the sea. Although we skipped the ice cream and had hot chocolate instead.

Christmas? In July? You gotta be kidding me...

I guess I have to get used to the idea that all the Christmas cards I need to send cannot be produced in one day - unless I buy a box from Tesco. Let's face it, that's not going to happen, so I better get started.

My recent experimenting with silhouette digi stamps inspired me to search for a Christmas one, but I couldn't find one I liked in digi format and so I searched for, and found, a reasonably priced polymer one from Visible Image Stamps who I'd never heard of before Mr Google tracked them down for me, but I have to say I was impressed with the quality of the stamp and the clarity of the image it produced (look at the reins on the sleigh).

My new stamp arrived today, so after small person went to bed, I hauled out the distress inks and got messy. Here is the result

The moon was just a post-it note mask punched using a 1.5" punch, and I used the Stormy Sky and a touch of Peeled Paint Distress Inks to make the background. I did wonder about making some stars using embossing powder or something but for a first attempt I'm rather chuffed with the way it's turned out. I kept the rest of the card very simple, after all a picture paints a thousand words, right? The inked panel is simply mounted up on some dark blue Bazzill card stock, then green and finally some silver mirri card.

I would like to enter into the following challenges:
ABC Christmas Challenge - N is for No Nonsense
Creative Inspirations Challenge - Christmas in July
Papercraft Planet - Anything Goes Group, Christmas in July

Not to put too fine a point on it.....

Birdhouses. Correct me if I'm wrong, but birds find it mighty tricky to open doors? So why would birdhouses have doors? Who knows.... However, it is still a cute digi image from the new Polka Doodles CD and it looks very effective water-coloured with distress inks for a soft muted effect.

Tonights card creation is a new home card for my friend Rosie, who has quite literally catered to the stars (not sure if that includes the DO). She's one of those people you meet that seems to have crammed so much into her life you wonder when she ever slept or ate. She lived in France for years running a catering business, then she became a touring catering manager for the likes of Michael Jackson, REM, U2 and countless others and now she runs the best little cafe in a small town in Scotland. And she always gives me free cake when I visit.....

I would also like to enter into the following challenges:
Pollycraft Monday Challenge - The Great Outdoors
One Stitch at a Time - Anything Goes

Adventures in Grunge

Grunge is the new Black, and Tim Holtz is a Hero, blah, blah, blah. A body can't help but see marvellous grungy creations and altered items popping up all over blogland, but I suspect it's not for the faint hearted, or those who like things clean and simple.....Distress inks are not "clean".
With the Dunderthal's birthday rapidly approaching, I figured a card was in order, and as he likes "old stuff", then a grungy collage was going to be attempted. Not so easy.
Choosing my focal image was a lucky strike - the nice lady at Create with TLC had this freebie on Friday which is just perfect for him. I  had some newspaper print backing paper and some postage stamp backing paper which I could hack to pieces, already in my stash. I also made a load of panels of text using dictionary definitions from various sites of words like "Vintage", "Classic" and "Antique", and also printed off some slightly larger quotations about cars and aging etc. Some string and buttons were thrown into the mix and I started layering it all up. That's when it all went downhill. I just could not fill the card with all these bits and bobs - I can't do clutter!
So, after deciding a grungy collage was going to be a bit of a failure, I settled for a very watered down version, which I can just about live with. I still have two more evenings of crafting time available, so this may not be the birthday card the Dunderthal eventually ends up with.....

Handily, the challenge on Crafty Catz this week is for a Vintage Look so all is not lost.

Inky Fingers

Working my way back to crafty happiness, but strangely not feeling the urge to colour-in images, so I spent a happy couple of hours trawling through the Stitchy Bear Shop and settled upon some silhouettes. Being a gal who prefers to make cards Clean & Simple, I think silhoutte stamps are marvellous, I have a couple in rubber and love to play about embossing and distress inking, as I did with yesterdays post. So I was curious to know if I would enjoy them as digital images, as embossing and shadow stamping would be a bit of a task. Well what d'ya thunk?

I did blast it with a heat gun to (hopefully) heat seal the printer ink, and then inked it up using "Wild Honey", "Fired Brick" and "Bundled Sage" Distress Inks, and kept away from the main image in case in did smudge, which it did a little but nothing too drastic. It's then been mounted on a couple of contrasting layers of Bazzill cardstock. The card blank has been inkified using my marvellous Damask Cover-a-Card stamp from Impression Obsession, and "Brushed Corduroy" Distress Ink. Really quite a quick and painless experience. So much so, I made another card nearly identical, but used the "Summer Fence" silhouette instead of the "Pheasant".....

I would like to enter the following challenges:
Quirky Crafts - Make your Own Background (Just for fun, as I'm a GDT this week)
One Stitch at a Time - Use a digi

A moment in time

Well, howdy to all my Groupies! My mojo decided to go on vacation (without warning) and I have been remarkably disinclined to attampt anything for at least 4 days. And in my world that's a really long time. I haven't watched this much TV since I was a teenager, and the DVD's I borrowed 3 months ago have now actually been watched (Eat, Pray, Love should have been called Dull, Dull, Dull in my opinion).

After tonights movie of choice (Jane Austen's Persuasion) I decided enough was enough and I was going to get inky fingers and see what happened. It also got me thinking about various crafty people I have "met" over the last10 months in the world of internet craft forums. Some of whom appeared from seemingly nowhere and disappeared again almost as quickly, and others who I  hope will be friends forever. So with fondness I smile, and present tonights achievement which will be sent to one of those ladies who appeared and disappeared, but who I still think of, and wonder how she's doing.....

Quirky but Nice

Evening all! I'm turning into a regular blogger now, P will be so pleased! I have another card for you all which I made for a GDT spot on Quirky Crafts Challenges which this week is sponsored by Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps. They have such a huge range of digi stamps and papers, all of which are marvellously affordable, you really could "fill your boots" in that shop....

The Challange this week was to create a card without using any patterned papers - a real Do-It-Yourself job (without the hammer and wonky shelving).

I chose a lovely image from Stitchy Bear called Camelia's in a Watering Can, which I've coloured with my trusty Promarkers. To create the background, I used a fabulous new stamp of mine from Impression Obsession, called the Damask Cover-a-Card stamp. At nearly 6" square it certainly does exactly that.

I inked it up with Tattered Rose Distress Ink and stamped it onto a 135mm square card blank, and then used some clear embossing powder over the top, and blended a bit of Old Paper distress ink on the edges of the basecard. I die cut the image and a piece of green (pistachio, I think) Bazzill card stock with Nesties Labels 1, and mounted it all up on 3D foam pads. A sweet sentiment and a couple of gems and it's a done thing.

Make sure you check out the other DT's beautiful cards and blogs and have a go at the challenge yourself.

Box? What box?

Ok just a quickie tonight (no, not you dear... I have a headache) here's a card I made for the latest Sassy Cheryl Challenge which was to leave part of your image overhanging the edge of it's frame. I hadn't tried this before and watched a youtube video which made it look sooooo easy. However, I still managed to make a complete hash of it!

I ended up using my Nesties label as a stencil and cutting it out by hand, but think it still works ok?

Not more watercolouring? Oh yes!

And so on and so forth, another A Day for Daisies image coloured again using tombows and a sprinkling of glitter. The backing paper is also glittered so it sparkles quite nicely.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges, and then I will give the whole watercolouring thing a bit of a rest for a while!
The Outlawz - POM Anything Goes
Digi Doodles Shop Challenge - Anything Goes

Adventures in Watercolour Part 2

Well actually it's part 3 but you haven't seen the second card, so I've called this part 2. Make sense? Ok then, moving on.....
Here's another image I watercoloured last night, and again it's from A Day For Daisies this time from their challenge blog, and really I should have paid more attention and coloured this one to fit their challenge rather than the image I blogged about yesterday.
I watercoloured it in with tombows again, and have added a bit of glitter on the wings (just for you B) and mounted on some blue Bazzill cardstock, and the red backing paper is from a Papermania Pink Paper capsule thingy I bought yonks ago.This one is again a teeny 4" square card. Makes one wonder what on earth I would do if faced with a 12x12 scrapbook page. Run and hide most probably.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:
Paper Playtime - use a Digi + red, white and blue
Crafty Calendar Challenge - June, things with wings

Adventures in Watercolour

So today I had a notion to do some colouring, and not just any colouring, oh no. Watercolouring. Could this be because it hasn't stopped raining since May 2nd? Possibly.
However, having the notion is all very well, but it does help if a body owns more than 8 tombow markers. Hence the exceedingly limited colour palette on the finished example.
The image is from A Day for Daisies and as I said, she's been coloured in using tombow markers and a waterbrush, it doesn't show up on the photo but I've also added a touch of glitter to some of the flowers. A bit of green and purple Bazzill cardstock and she's good to go. Oh, and she's also teeny tiny - I used a 4" square card blank.

I would like to enter into the following challenges:
Try it on Tuesday - Here comes the sun
Fab N Funky Challenges - Summer Lovin'

A Day for Daisies - Pastel but no Pink