The very last Christmas card for 2010 and an announcement

Good morning, peeps! Well, it's New Year's Eve and tomorrow we'll all be starting a brand New Year, which is an exciting thought - I wonder what it will hold for us all? One thing I know that it holds for me is the opportunity to work with the fantastic DT over at the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge Blog so how good is that? I've been so excited about it and have been bursting to tell you all for ages! We've got some really great challenges coming up over the next few months so I do hope you'll join us. The first project you'll see from me as a member of the DT will be on Friday 14 January but I have a project on my desk at the moment that I shall enter in the challenge starting today, which is to make a celebration card and a 3D item to go with it so I'd best get busy and get it finished! Before I go, I thought I'd show you this card that I made for my wonderful hubby for Christmas - the picture looks a bit blurry so I'm sorry for that: It's the Christmas Hottie image from the wonderful Kenny K. I know her hair is longer but don't you think she looks just like me (not!)? Anyway, I don't think he's been taking much notice of the card because he went down with 'flu' on Christmas Eve - not just man 'flu' but the real aching, burning proper 'flu'! What good timing is that and my wonderful hubby turned into a bear with a sore head! As you can guess, it's been a very quiet Christmas but, thankfully, he's better now and I can stick my head out of my craft room without getting it bitten off! Here's the inside of the card: The wonderful sentiment on the front of the card is from the talented Lynne at Sentiments 4 You and it was a freebie so, thanks Lynne, it was perfect for this card. The grey DP is from Papermania and the red is an anonymous sheet from my stash. The rest of the ingredients are fairly standard and came from my stash and the colouring was done with Copics. All in all, a really simple card to make. This post seems to have become much longer than I intended so thank you for staying with me this far and a wonderfully happy and fulfilling New Year to all of you and to those you love and I'll see you next year!

Papertake Weekly GDT spot

Well, hello again! I said I'd be back and I don't think I've ever posted twice in one day before but how lucky am I to have two GDT spots this week? Woo hoo!! Anyhoo, this card is for the Papertake Weekly Challenge, which this week is 'Be thankful' and, at this time of year, we all have thank you cards to send. Here is my offering that uses an image from Lili of the Valley. I'm afraid that I don't have the Copic colours for you on this one because it's been coloured for a while. I just finished it off with some Prismas to create depth and hand wrote the thank you message on the tag on the flowers. I cut the image out with Nesties and distressed the shape with Antique Linen Distress Ink. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the DPs are fro the Prima 'Annalee' paper pad. The little sentiment is another from the Pink Petticoat Girly Curly Sentiment Collection of endlessly useful digital sentiments. The pink pearls are from The Hobby House. I'm also entering this card in Phindy's Place Challenge. I should be back before the New Year is with us so I'll see you then and thank you for visiting with me today!

An Oldie but a Goodie Sketch Challenge

Good morning, peeps! and how are you all after the rush and bustle of Christmas? Where did those days go? Every year we spend so much time in the build up to this celebration and it's gone in a flash!
This will be the first of two posts from me today. The first being this card for An Oldie but a Goodie Challenge, which this week is to use this lovely sketch:

Of course, since the idea of the challenge is to use an image you've owned for more than 6 months, that sets the little grey cells working that bit harder! and here is what I decided to go with:

I think Tilda looks a little blurry in this photograph but I spent ages trying to get a decent piccie - I do hope my camera isn't on the blink!
Anyhoo, this little cutie was part of the Hoppy Easter Collection at the beginning of this year and I believe she's called 'Tilda with three flowers'. I do find the images of Tilda with a scarf tied around her head in this way so appealing and I don't know why! She's coloured with Copics and the shadows are deepened with various coloured pencils. The DPs are all from the Basic Grey 'Kioshi' collection (love those papers!) and the CS is Bazzill. I cut the circles with Nesties and then stamped with Penny Black 'Scrolling Along' in Aloe Vera Versamagic on the central one, which I embossed with detail clear EP. The flowers are all from Wild Orchid crafts, the leaves are punched with the Leonie-Em Maidenhair Fern punch and the sentiment is from Whimsy Stamps.
Copics used:
Skin: E000/00/21, R11/20
Hair: E50/51/53/55
Tilda's lilac outfit: V000/01/12/15/17
Flowers: R11/20/32, Y13
Leaves: YG93/97
This is my final card as GDT for this challenge site and I do hope you like this over-the-top flower bower of a card - I think I went a bit berserk after all the snowflakes of recent efforts!
I'll be back later with another GDT contribution.

Digi Doodle Shop Challenge #39 - Anything Goes

Good afternoon, peeps!
Well, it hasn't got any warmer here in the North of England and my card for this challenge is looking pretty frosty, too!

This is the fabulous 'Christmas Door' image and you can download it here from the Digi Doodle Shop Store. In fact, why not get yourself some more Christmas images ready for next year while they're on at half price. You can get some inspiration from my teamies at DDS Challenge site. This challenge is an 'Anything Goes' one so not all the images are Christmas ones but that's OK because all the images are half price at the moment!
Anyhoo, back to the card. It's coloured with Copics and Prismas and here are the colours:
Blue bows and glass: BG18/72/75
Wood: E15/25/27/29
Leaves: G24/29/99 & YG67
Door & bows: R22/24/27/29
Bells & baubles: YR21/23/24
Glass: C1/3
Shadows: W1/3/5
The DP I downloaded from Websters Pages and the small sentiment is a Stampington one. The snow/frost is created with Glamour Dust and the brads are from my stash.
I'm entering this card in the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge, which is to show some snow and in the Papertake Weekly Challenge, whcih is another 'Anything Goes'.
I'd like to thank you all for visiting me and for your wonderful comments over the past year - please come back again soon. I wish you and those you love a very peaceful and joyous Christmas and a New Year full of happiness!

The Penultimate

Good afternoon, peeps! Well the snow is lying frozen outside and I'm in the warm colouring away....feels good to me! I'm just sorry for the poor people who have to go out in this freezing weather. Still, it's definitely seasonal - especially for this card, the last but one of my Christmas renderings! I'm sorry about the lighting on this one, which isn't quite right - I didn't use flash but it rather looks as though I did. This dull and gloomy weather isn't kind to our card photography is it, peeps? It's fairly unusual for me to buy a stamp soon after it's released but I quickly decided that this Tilda was my favourite from the latest Magnolia Christmas collection. I coloured her with Copics and Prismas and cut her out to mount over the Magnolia Silent Night music image, which I stamped with Versafine Vintage Sepia and distressed with Old Paper Distress Ink. When that was dry, I added Stardust Stickles to the edges for a bit of bling. I've been itching to use some of this paper from the Memory Box 'Mistletoe' paper pad and this card seemed like the perfect occasion. I kept the design simple because I think the paper does the work. I added some corners die cut from gold card with a Quikcutz (I think!) die. Well, this card is in the post now, winging its way to an old friend from my patchwork and quilting days. There's only one more Christmas card to show you now and the image is still on my desk being coloured. Needless to say, that won't be going out this year! I'm sorry I don't have the Copic numbers for this one but I'll do better next time....promise! Keep warm!

New beginnings

Good morning, peeps! Yes, that's the title of our challenge this week over at Digi Doodle Shop's Best and this is my card for the challenge:


This wonderful image is called 'Sleeping Infant' and can be bought here at the Digi Doodle Shop store and don't forget that all images are reduced by 50% for December, so grab a bargain while you can!
I have three young friends who are all pregnant at the moment so I think the odds are in favour that at least one will be a cute little baby girl just like this one!
I followed the sketch over on Sketch Saturday this week, so I'll be entering this card for that challenge too.
The DPs are from the Prima 'Jack and Jill' pad, which was given to me as a birthday prezzie by my good friend, Alison, mwah, mwah, hun! I must say that I think that Prima have come up with some fabulous papers recently and you may have noticed that they're making fairly regular appearances lately on my cards!
I coloured the image with Copics (numbers later) and the cute greeting is from Pink Petticoat and this set has been a fabulous investment!
The flowers are, of course, from Wild Orchid Crafts and the leaves were punched with a McGill punch.
I do hope you'll join us for the challenge this week and do stay warm and safe - we have such cold, horrible weather here in the UK at the mo .
Copics:
Pillow: B000, B00, B12
Sleeping suit and hat: R00, R11, R20, R22
Leaves and ribbon: YG11, YG03
Skin: E000, E00, E21, R11, R20
and I used Prismas for the shadow.

GDT on An Oldie but a Goodie Challenge

Good morning, peeps! I hope you're all full of festive spirit and storming into the Christmas season. Please do me a favour, if you find any - festive spirit that is, please send some my way because I'm struggling to find some this year for some unknown reason!
Anyhoo, let's get on to a card that's not Christmassy at all. For the month of December, I'm GDT member over at An Oldie but a Goodie Challenge Blog....woo hoo! How good is that?!!...and here's my first card in that role.

The title of the challenge is 'You're a star' and we have to have a star on our project so, just to be on the safe side, I've got 3 on mine!
Tilda is coloured with Copics (numbers at the end of this post) and Prismas and I think she's having something of a 'Harry Potter moment' because there's plenty of magic sparkle around in the form of diamonds from my jewelery box ...well...from my stash, anyway and Glamour Dust added to her star wand. Just for a bit of extra interest, I turned her purple shoes into patent ones with the addition of some Glossy Accents.
The Nestie shape is distressed with Antique Linen Distress Ink and the doily behind Tilda is cut with a Marianne D die and blinged up with some pearls from the Hobby House, which is where the star charm came from as well. The butterflies were punched with a Martha Stewart punch and the leaves were made with a McGill punch. The gorge paper is from the Prima 'Fairy Flora' pad and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. The lace is cut with a Magnolia Doo Hickey die and the velvet ribbon is from my stash.
Copics:
Skin: E000, E00, E21, R11, R20
Hair: E50, E51, E53, E55
Dress: RV10, RV34, RV000 and Promarker Pink Carnation
Shoes: V17, V15, V12, V000
Star: YG03, YG11, YG25
I do hope you'll come and join us for this challenge and I'll see you again soon with a different one.

An unusual Christmas present

Good morning, peeps!
I'm not sure whether this parcel is in the process of being wrapped or unwrapped but someone's certainly in for a surprise at Christmas! Anyway this gorgeous image is for sale here at Digi Doodle Shop and it was great fun to colour with my Copics and pencils. No doubt you'll all be surprised to hear that I kept a note of the colours I used on this project and they're at the foot of this post!
This card is for Challenge #37 at Digi Doodle Shop's Best, which this week is to put animals on your project. Hop over there now and see what my talented teamies have produced for this challenge and we all hope you'll join in the fun.
The papers are from K & Co and the 'Noel' embellishment at the bottom is one of the die cuts from the pad,which is a Brenda Walton design. I simply distressed the die cut with Antique Linen Distress Ink and doodled some faux stitching around it with a black pen. The Nestie shape that the image is on is also distressed with the same ink. The gorgeous wide red organza ribbon is from Wild Orchid Crafts and the jewel brad and bead spacer are from The Hobby House. The green jewelled star looks most peculiar in this photo but it's a trick of the light - IRL it's the perfect green for the papers.
Copics used:
Mouse: W1, W3, W5, R11, R20
Box: E31, E33, E35
Paper inside: Y000, Y00, Y11 then I put E50 over the top to make the colour creamier
Paper outside: E50, E51, E53, G24, YG67, G29, R24
Ribbon: YG11, YG03, YG25, R22, R24, R27
Pillow: BG000, BG11, BG34
In virtually all parts of the image I used various coloured pencils blended with Sansodor.
Keep warm, peeps and I'll see you again soon!

The Perfect Tree

Good morning, peeps!
The challenge over at Digi Doodle Shop's Best this week is 'Let it Snow' and we have to show snow somewhere on our project. Well I think I went a bit overboard, don't you?!! But it's entirely appropriate to the weather outside because we certainly have plenty of this white stuff!
The title of this post is also the name of the image and you can buy it from the Digi Doodle Shop here. I think this image is just lovely with the little boy looking very adult carrying his axe and almost dragging his rather reluctant looking sister off to complete the task of finding the perfect Christmas tree. I really enjoyed the colouring, which I did with Copics and various coloured pencils blended with Sansodor. I added Polar White Flower Soft to the fur trim on their clothes and Glossy Accents to the little girl's wellies and the boy's axe blade. The 'snow' is twinkling with DecoArt Glamour Dust - I love the subtle shimmer this stuff gives!
The large snowflake (top left) is created from acetate cut with a Cuttlebug die, then Glossy Accents applied around the edges and the whole thing dipped in Twinklets Diamond Dust that I got from The Hobby House. It's out of stock at the moment but I'm sure that Gill will be getting more in soon. I do love this effect but I always find it difficult to cut the shape from the acetate and end up doing fine surgery with my scalpel to extract the full shape! On top of the acetate snowflake is a second one cut from vellum with a Marianne D die and I applied Quickie Glue to it and used the Glamour Dust again. I gave the same treatment to the small snowflakes and the pine branches. The gem brad and the buttons are from my stash. The doily behind that large snowflake is cut from a Docrafts 'Penelope and Percy' DP with a Marianne D die. The other papers are from a K & Co pad. All the distressing was done with an Adirondack Aqua ink pad.

I finished the inside with more of the K & Co paper and I used the scrap paper that was left over from cutting out the doily to create a frame on some card for a jotting panel - it seemed a shame to waste it! The photograph here looks very 'blue'...the light created from all the snow outside is really distorting the colours of the pictures and it looks much better IRL!
I do hope you'll be able to join us for the challenge this week and I'll see you again soon.
Bye for now!

Mo's Dream Team entry

Good afternoon, peeps! Well with all the snow outside, I thought I'd make something Spring-like. This image from Mo Manning is called 'Savannah on Easter' and, considering we haven't even celebrated Christmas yet, I think I'm a bit early, don't you? Anyhoo, you can buy her in Mo's shop here. I just think she's gorgeous bending down to see the little chicks and showing all her bloomers!
Of course the first problem was that I chose to make an easel card (or at least a bit of a variation on one!) and that gave me the probelm of how to get a decent photograph! As if the snow storm outside wasn't making it dark enough in the first place! So I'm sorry for the quality of the pictures but they're likely to remain poor until we get some decent sunshine again (she writes as even MORE snow falls!).
Back to the card, I've used some wonderful Websters Pages DPs and I just love that gorgeous guipure lace from Wild Orchid Crafts, which is where all the flowers came from, too. The sentiment panel was cut with Nestabilites Fancy Tags and the tag inside for the sender's greeting was shaped with my EK Success Diamond Lace punch.

The distressing on this tag and on the main image was done with Rusty Hinge Distress Ink. The ribbon was from my stash. Here's another piccie to see if that enables you to see the card any better - by the way, I got the inspiration for this shape of card from a post on the Lili of the Valley Blog a while back:

and here's one of just the little cutie herself.

She was coloured with my Copics and various coloured pencils, mainly Prismas, blended with Sansodor.
I do hope she makes you all forget the snow - I'll see you tomorrow with a snowy one!
Bye for now!