Molly in the snow

Good morning, peeps!  I hope you're all bright and bushy tailed today, thank Crunchie it's Friday and I'm off on hols tomorrow - woohoo!

Anyhoo, the challenge over at Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge this week is 'Let it Snow' and I tried not to make this card look like a Christmas card but I'm not sure I succeeded, see what you think:

I love these Molly Blooms images and I have so many that I don't have time to use and they sit there uninked :-( ... but this cute little Molly has been coloured with Copics and Prisma pencils (of course!) and cut out with a Nestie Wonky Rectangle shape, which is such a useful set of dies.  The DPs are oldies from my stash - I think the red one came from an old Kars pad and the ribbon is somewhat anonymous too.  The sentiment is a Clarity Stamp that I overstamped with snowflakes from an old Papermania set I found in the Christmas drawer.  The flowers and berries are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the snowflake border is from Dies to Die For and is a Memory Box one.  Sad to say that I don't actually own this die, the cut-out I've used here is a sample the lovely Tracy sent me with another order but, as you can imagine, I intend to own it before I have to make another snowy card!  The leaves under the flowers are cut from a new Cheery Lyn die that I think will prove endlessly useful.

It's hard to see in the photo (click to make it larger) but I added Stardust Stickles to the snowflakes.

Colouring

Skin:  E000, E00, E01, E21, R20, R11
Hat/sweater/boots:  E30, E31, E33, E35 and 70% French Grey pencil
Trousers and scarf: G24, G28, G29 and Olive pencil
Reds:  R22, R24, R27 and Tuscan Red pencil
Snow:  C0, C1, C2, C3

Thank you for looking today and I do hope you'll join us for this challenge.  We have a new format for the New Year and you could be a Guest Designer - click on the link to read all about it.

I'll be back again later because it's Polka Doodles Challenge day too - but don't feint with shock at the thought of my posting twice in one day!

Hugs

Featuring a sentiment

Good morning, peeps and thank Crunchie it's Friday!  You got anything special planned for the weekend? - I'm gonna take it a little bit easy and that's special!!

Well, the challenge over at Fussy and Fancy this week is to Be Thankful and Feature a Sentiment.  I must admit that I slightly misunderstood this challenge because I thought it was to be thankful Or Feature a Sentiment and this is what I did:

The sentiment I've featured is more of a blessing than a verse expressing thanks but I hope you all like it nevertheless.

The blessing comes from Claritystamp and I've centred it in a Nestie shape which I've coloured with Antique Linen Distress Ink before removing the die.  I love this effect because it looks as though the verse is double mounted, which it isn't - it's just mounted once on to the dark brown card.

The wonderful DP is from a K & Co pad I've had for ages and it has no name on it.  Add one of the large gardenias from Wild Orchid Crafts, some stamens from the same source, flourishes cut from a Magnolia Doohickey die and, finally, butterflies cut with Martha Stewart punches and you have a card!

I must thank a teamie from a former DT I was on, the uber talented Dana for this idea, which I saw on her blog some time ago.  Her work is fabulous so do pop over and pay her a visit.  She's not too well at the moment so Get Well Soon, Dana!

Do come and join in this challenge, which is sponsored by Sweet and Sassy Stamps.

Thank you for looking today, please leave me a comment to let me know I'm not talking to myself here!  Whatever you're doing this weekend, have a great one!

Hugs

Starlight Tilda

Good morning, peeps!

Well, I'm finally back with a new challenge for Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge and the challenge this week is three Bs - Black, Border punch and Bling!  As you can see, my card has all three:

The colours don't seem to have shown up particularly well in this photograph but you can at least clearly see the bling - plenty of that on view!

As well as being my challenge card, this is one of the card designs I'm teaching at a workshop at Samuel Taylor's in Roseville Street, Leeds tomorrow and I'll show you the other one another time.

I realised as I put the card together that the colours are quite halloween-y, which was quite unintentional since I don't 'do' halloween.  They were inspired by the gorge papers from Bo Bunny.

Recipe:

Stamps:  Magnolia
Snowflakes & lace:  Martha Stewart punches
DPs:  Bo Bunny (one of last year's Christmas designs)
Ribbon & diamante: from my stash
Copics:

Skin:  E000, E00, E21, E01, R20, R11, R30
Hair:  Just about all the cool greys!
Dress:  V12, V15, V17 + black Prisma Pencil
Wings and star:  BG70, BG72 + Muted Turquoise Prisma Pencil
Wand stick:  E71, E74, E77

I do hope you'll joi n in with this challenge, it's a reallt easy one!

Thanks for looking today and I hope to have something else for you to see soon.

Hugs

Apple Harvest

Good morning, peeps!

Apple Harvest - is it that time already? Well it is on my card for the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge this week, where we are challenged to use a sketch inspired by Korin Sutherland and here it is:



and this is what I produced for it:



I'm ashamed to say that I've had this lovely image of Mimosa with Apple Basket for the better part of a year and this is the first time she's seen ink! If you like her, she's available here at Bunny Zoe's Crafts with an amazing 25% off the normal price! She still looks as pretty as when I bought her and I really enjoyed the colouring, on which I spent hours - literally! Everyone says how therapeutic colouring is and I certainly find it so and I never get bored when I'm colouring or try to find an excuse to do something else (I'm sure you all know what I mean!). You may have noticed that I still stamped the image in Memento London Fog after I said in a previous post that I thought I might go over to using black for the outline. Immediately after I posted that, I noticed a trend amongst many artists to work with a light outline so I'm still persevering with that but I think I need to get more definition into the lighter areas like the skin and blonde hair so that these areas don't fade into the background - more practise is required.

Our sponsor this week is Sweet and Sassy Stamps so do come and join in this wonderful challenge. The sketch is a great one to work with and I can see myself using it again sometime.

If you're wondering what happened about the wallet damaging trip to find a new car for me, I'm now the proud owner of a 3 year old Smart car, whose name is Black Bess so no prizes for guessing what colour it is then! I'm still getting used to driving her and it's weird not having a clutch but it gets better with every trip.

Anyhoo, here's the recipe for the card:

Recipe

Stamp: Bildmalarna 'Mimosa with Apple Basket'
Sentiment: Pink Petticoat Curly Girly Sentiments
DPs: Basic Grey 'Sweet Threads' (one of my current faves!)and the dotty one is from Polka Doodles CD 'Sundae of Seasons'
Flowers & Stamens: Wild Orchid Crafts
Lace: from my stash
Leaves: Magnolia Doo Hickey Die
Copics:
Skin: E000, E00, E01, E21, R20, R11, R30
Hair: E50, E51, E53, E55
Dress & wellies: R21, R22, R35, R37, R59. The wellies have Glossy Accents added.
Petticoat: R81, R83, R85, RV0000
Grass & apples: G20, G40, YG11, YG93. The apples have Glossy Accents added.
Basket: E40, E41, E42, E43
The 'sky' effect behind Mimosa was added with Prisma Pencils blended with Sansodor.

Have a great weekend, whatever you have planned!

Hugs

Sketch Challenge

Good morning, peeps and happy Friday to you! The start of the weekend, yay!!!
I'm a little late with this morning's post so I'm sorry if you've visited before wondering what happened to my card for the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge but here it is!



This time we have a wonderful sketch from Cheri AKA Graphicat and a great sketch it was to follow:



I love adding tickets to cards by way of a greeting and the tickets that are partly covered by the bow say 'Love' and 'Hugs'. I may be just an old romantic but I like the idea of having a ticket for some love or some hugs!

Do come and join us for this challenge. Our sponsor this time is Simply Betty Stamps, and she is offering our random winner 6 digi's from the new Jude and the Rockers line and some of my talented new teamies have used these images in their sample cards, which are just bound to inspire you! While you're visiting the challenge blog, you'll be impressed by our brand new look - it's fabulous and you can collect a brand new blinkie to display in your sidebar!

Whatever you have planned for the weekend, I hope the sun shines on you, which it isn't doing here at the moment but tomorrow's a brand new day!

Recipe

Stamps: Magnolia 'Sweetie Tilda' & Magnolia Branch, LOTV Additions Grunge Tickets & Words for Tickets
Pearls: The Hobby House
Rafia ribbon: Wild Orchis Crafts
DPs: Basic Grey 'Sweet Threads'
Punch: Fiskars 'Threading Water'
Copics:
Skin: E000, E00, E01, E21, R11, R30, R30
Hair: E50, E51, E53, E55, E33 & Sandbar Brown Prisma pencil
Dress & hair bows: R81, R83, R85 & Raspberry Prisma pencil
Grass & leaves: YG61, YG63, YG67, G70
Tree brach: E70, E71, E77
Flowers: RV0000, RV000, RV00
Sky: Tumbled Glass Distress Ink
Distressing: Pumice Stone Distress Ink

Thank you for looking today and please leave me a comment so I can come and visit you!

Hugs

Cake card

Good morning, peeps and TGIF! Nearly the weekend - do you have something exciting planned? DT work for me! Speaking of which, here is my card for the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge which, this week, is a recipe:

3 papers
2 embellishments
1 ribbon

I love this type of challenge and here's what I did with it:

When I first saw this cake card on the talented Cabio's Blog it was another 'Wow, I must make one of those' moments and it was perfect for this recipe challenge!

Of course, being basically another easel card it was the usual challenge in the photography department - not one of my major talents at the best of times! The little box that is tied on with my 1 ribbon holds six birthday candles and, just to illustrate how they would be used, I've placed three spares in the holes of the 'cake', which is simply made with card covered with DPs.

This is a really fun project so do have try with it if you have need of a birthday card soon. I shall certainly be using the design again and stocking up on candles in readiness! I've also seen it produced with just one larger candle for the centre of the cake and four candles for Advent - both look great! The other good news for me in producing this card is that I've found a Red Violet (pink) Copic combination that I actually like - some of the colours in this colour family are so harsh that I hesitate to use them but this one could be used a lot!

Card recipe
Stamped image: Magnolia 'Tilda with Wedding Presents'
Copics: Skin: E000, E00, E01, E21, R11, R20. Hair: E50, E51, E53, E55, E33. Apron/socks: RV11, RV13, RV14 + Raspberry Prisma. Dress/shoes: BG70, BG72, Cool Aqua Promarker + Muted Turquoise Prisma. Parcels: Y32, Y35, Y38, Y13, Y15, Y17 + Golden Rod Prisma. YG01, YG03, YG25 + Moss Green Prisma. V12, V15, V17. BG70, BG72, Cool Aqua Promarker. Shadow: French Grey 50% & 70% Prismas.
DPs: Echo Park 'Summer Days'
Flowers: Wild Orhis Crafts
Dies: Magnolia Swirl and Sizzix Primitive Stars
Sentiments: Pink Petticoat (Happy Birthday) and Lili of the Valley (on cake)
Ribbon: from my stash

Whatever you're doing this weekend, have a great one and do try and join us for this challenge.
Hugs

A new challenge and an apology

Good morning, peeps!
Well, I can't believe that it's 2 weeks since I last posted anything to my blog so I'd like to apologise to all my lovely followers that there's been nothing new to see here. Excuses? Well I've had a really heavy, flu-y cold that's totally wiped a week from my life when I've been unable to do anything much and I don't 'do' ill so that's been a bit of a shock to the system! I'm still not good but better than I was. Then there was the Clarity DT work, which I must confess tends to absorb me totally so I need to be more organised about that and not neglect my blog - watch this space!
OK, moan over and let's get on to the challenge:

The challenge over at Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge this week is a sketch from my talented teamie Mindy. Here it is:

As always with Mindy's sketches it was great fun and easy to work with and I've echoed the design on the inside of my card, as you can see here:


I do like the insides of my cards to be properly finished but I must confess that too often lately I've just completed the outside to meet a deadline and I now have a whole box full of cards that are waiting for the insides to be prettied up and have a box to live in. Hey ho! That sounds like a little occupational therapy for when there's nothing else pressing!
Anyhoo, on to the card - the recipe is at the end of this post although it doesn't have the Copic numbers with it I'm afraid. The image was coloured some time ago (if it hadn't been I don't think there would have been a card this week!) and there was no note of the numbers with it.
Thank you so much lovely followers and visitors for looking today. I do hope that you'll join us at Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge this week where there's a great prize up for grabs from our generous sponsor Simply Betty Stamps.
I'm teaching a Copic/Promarker/Prisma Pencils colouring class tomorrow at Samuel Taylor in Brighouse and I've still got lots of prep to do. My lovely son tells me I sound like a warbling chipmunk so I hope all the students manage to hear me OK! At least I'm no longer infectious!
Supplies:
Images: Magnolia on the front and Penny Black 'Scrolling Along' on the jotting panel inside
Sentiment: Hero Arts
Colouring: Copics and Prisma pencils
DPs: Basic Grey 'Kioshi' and a Freebie from Making Cards magazine ages ago!
Dies: Spellbinder Nesties and Magnolia Doohickey Swirls and leaves
Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts
Ribbon: from my stash
Pearls: The Hobby House
See you again soon!
Hugs