Happy birthday to us!

Good morning, peeps!

Yes, it's happy birthday to Team Doodle today because we're celebrating our third birthday and we're asking you to join in the celebrations by entering our challenge to make a birthday card for a special friend!  The only other proviso is that you must use 3 of something - easy to spot my three on this card:

Well actually, there's two lots of three - roses and leaves both made with a Marianne Creatables Die and these are my first attempt at rolled roses and I can say that the process was not as bad as I feared and I was actually quite please with the result.

Everything else was printed from the lovely Sugar Plum Daisy CD and layered on to Stampin' Up card and finished with some matching Stampin' Up seam binding ribbon.

If you haven't yet tried a Polka Doodles CD yet, I would heartily recommend them.  I work slowly and it usually takes many hours to make most of the cards you see here but these CDs make life so much easier even for a slowcoach like me!

Thanks for looking today.

Hugs

A Monochrome Fairy

Good morning, peeps!  It's that day again - the day for another Polka Doodles Challenge and this week, the challenge is to produce a monochrome card.  I'm actually trespassing into the group I'm not normally in to catch up because I wasn't able to make a card last week for the group of which I'm usually a part.  That means you'll be seeing another one of my cards again next week to get back into my normal sequence.  Anyhoo, here's my Monochrome Fairy:

I do believe that this is the first time I've ever created a monochrome card and I found colouring the image really interesting and challenging.  It's one of the gorgeous fairies from the Sugar Plum Daisy CD and they're all lovely - it was really hard to choose but this little cutie seated on the toadstool won the day because it fitted with my red/pink theme.  The lovely ticket sentiment is from the same CD, which is packed full of goodies including loads of wonderful papers.

The ivy sprays are cut with a Marianne Designs Creatable die - I've used this one a lot - so useful.  The edges of the ticket sentiment and the Go Kreate central panel are distressed with Barn Door DI.

Copics used:  E000, E00, E21, R20, R11 for the skin and the rest of the image was coloured with R000, R11, R20, R22, R24, R27, R29, R30, R59 oh and a little black Promarker on the ladybird!

I do hope you can join us for this challenge, I can assure you it's great fun colouring an image in tones of one colour!  Thank you for looking at my efforts for this week.

Hugs

Flutterfly Fairy Gracie

Good morning, peeps and a very Happy Easter to you all!

Today I have a card for the Polka Doodles Challenge this week, which is to create a card for a 'big number' birthday and I hope you're all going to join in with us!

My card celebrates a 40th birthday and here it is:

The image is one of the Fairy Flutterfly stamps, Gracie and I just love her hair and her funky tights!  She's coloured with Copics, Promarkers and Prisma pencils and I've stamped her on to a Go Kreate die cut shape that's distressed at the edges with Spun Sugar DI.  The gorge paper is printed from the new Sugar Plum Daisy CD which is overflowing with the cutest images, papers, sentiments and all kinds of goodies - the numbers on the 'stop' were printed from there too!

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the lighting right to show the lovely embossing on the corners that were cut from a lovely Marianne Die and they look a bit plain without it but plain they definitely ain't!

The ribbon is from my stash and these are the Copics I used:

Skin:  E000, E00, E21, R20, R11
Hair:  E50, E53, E33
Top:  RV00, RV02, Pink Carnation Promarker and Raspberry pencil
Shorts:  BG10, BG11, Tea Green Promarker and Muted Turquoise pencil
Boots:  G12, G14, Apple Green and Cool Grey 50% pencils
Wings:  V000, V01, V13 and bright pink and clear Wink of Stella Pens
The tights and flowers are a combination of the colours already mentioned.

I drew the flower stems and leaves with a Whipsers black marker pen but the flowers themselves are a part of the stamp plate, as is the sentiment used.

Thank you for looking today, this was such a fun image to colour and I hope you enjoyed seeing it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Hugs

A moment of Clarity

Good afternoon, peeps!  Well it's just about afternoon isn't it and I'm posting this from wonderful Aberfeldy in Scotland where we're having a great and relaxing time at the moment.  Home on Saturday though and the holiday has passed by all too quickly.

I thought I'd just catch up by posting a few of the cards I've created for Barbara Gray's shows on Create and Craft TV - I think I'm at least two shows behind showing you some of samples, so here goes:

This picture looks a bit lopsided but I really enjoyed colouring all these pansies and leaves with my Copics.  The letter 'O' is embossed in green because I wanted it to stand out and the rest of the word 'flower' is stamped in Memento London Fog in the hope that it facded into the background a little.  The gold filigree corners are from Wild Orchid Crafts.  I don't recall this card being shown during the broadcast.

This was one of my favourite designs from the February show and it would appear that the audience agreed because the stamp sold out in a flash!  I watercoloured the images on 300 gsm hot pressed, watercolour paper, tore the edges of the paper and finished with the corners cut from a Spellbinders die and some ribbon from my stash.

This was another favourite, the Mandarin Duck and Bullrushes.  It reminds me of when I used to see one of these ducks regularly when I used to travel the Staffs and Worcs Canal and they are just so cute and colourful!  This image was coloured with Copics and I created the clouds using a cardboard template I cut out with Stampin' Up Bashful Blue ink and an old make-up brush.  I love creating skies this way.  The vines are a Marianne die and the flowers are Sweetheart Blossoms from Wild Orchid Crafts.

I loved the simplicity of this card and I simply embossed the image with Moonglow Embossing Powder and it's a shame that you can't see from the picture how it shines different colours asyou move the image in the light.  I recall that the presenter commented on the fact that I hadn't coloured the image but you can't please everyone!  The DP is a really old one from my stash but I couldn't resist using it because it has the Lily of the valley on it.

Well before this post turns into a real marathon, I'll sign off and see you again soon.

Thanks for looking today and I'd love to read your comments!

Hugs

Wonderful Springtime!

Good morning, peeps on this wonderful Good Friday morning!
Well, it's time for a new challenge over at Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge and for the next two weeks we'd like you to create a project with Springtime colours, images or both. Our wonderful sponsor is Digis with Attitude and the winner will receive a generous $10 voucher to spend in the store so we'd love to see your entries!
Here is my DT sample:

So is this flower overkill or what?!! Having said that, I do like the effect but it took me ages to get it right for me. I have five plastic drawers full (and I don't mean half full!) of flowers and I had every one out and stacked up around me. Anyhoo, I achieved what I wanted, which was to make it look like Tilda is walking in a leafy, flowery dell - having picked some flowers on the way, as you can see! I've recently bought the Stone Path image that forms the background and was itching to use it. To create the Springtime fluffy, cloudy sky behind Tilda I used the technique shown by the uber talented Annika Ryan and if you click the link you'll be taken to the video tutorial on her blog. When you see it, you'll know that I definitely need to practice more! I also need to buy the B0000 and C00 Copic markers to make the effect better so those are on the (never ending) shopping list now.
To help with the colouring generally, I also used Promarkers and Prismas and I remembered to make a note of the colours - wooo hooo! (In the recipe below.)
Whatever you have planned for the Easter break, I hope you have a wonderful, happy time of celebration. I shall have to spend part of it on Clarity DT work, but that's OK because it's crafting, right?! If you're a fan of all things Clarity, Barbara's on TV on Sunday morning from 9 - 10 a.m. UK time or you can watch the show online on the Create and Craft TV site.

Recipe:
Copic colours:
Skin: E000, E00, E01, E02, E11, R11, R20
Hair: E50, E51, E53, E55, E33
Dress and socks: RV00, RV10, Promarkers Pink Carnation and Blossom + Raspberry and 50% Cool Grey Prismas
Shoes: BV31, BV23, 0 (blender) + 50% Cool Grey Prisma
Tilda's flowers: Y000, Y02, Y06, Y08
Basket: E40, E41, E42, E43
Stone path: E40, E41, W1, W3 and Promarker Umber
Flowers: V000, V01, V12, V15
Leaves and grass: YG01, YG05, G20, YG93 and Promarkers Olive Green and Pear Green + Marine Green Prisma
Sky: B000, B91, C0, 0 (blender)
Shapes: Spellbinder Nestabilites Classic Circle and Classic Scalloped Circle
Doily: from my stash
Sentiment: Whimsy ticket stamp and die but the 'happy' word is from LOTV
Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts
DP: Crafty Individuals 'Springtime' pad
Tall leaves: Marianne D Die
Small leaves: Leonie Em punch
Butterfly: Martha Stewart punch decorated with Star Dust Stickles
Phew! Lots of ingredients in this one!
See you after the holidays, peeps - have a good one!
Hugs

Fussy and Fancy Challenge #31

Good morning, peeps and TGIF! I hope you all have something good planned for the weekend - for me it'll be dog sitting the gorgeous black lab, Dylan for my son and working on DT projects! I'm joining a new DT but more of that another time.
Firstly, here is my project for the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge, which this week is to use embossing or paper piecing on your project:


As you can see, I elected to use dry embossing, which is a technique I often feel I don't use enough - here I've used a Crafts Too embossing folder called 'Butterfies'. The sponsor for this challenge is Paper Pretties, who have some wonderful digi and conventional stamp images. I've used the digi image 'Sunny Bumbles' here, which makes a wonderful backdrop for Honey Tilda don't you think? Do go and visit my teamies as well to see what amazing work they've produced and join us in the challenge - there's a fabulous prize up for grabs!
The DP I used is MME 'Bloom and Grow' (very appropriate name!) and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. I've also used a Marianne D Doily die and distressed it with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and the leaves are punched with a McGill punch I bought from The Hobby House.
The images were coloured with Copics and on the Tilda image I deepened the shadows with Prisma pencils.
Copics used:
Flowers: R12, R14, R17, YR12, YR15, YR16, YR18, G00, G02, YG63, YG45, YG67
Sky: B000
Tilda's clothing: R12, R14, R17, YR12, YR15, YR16
Tilda's wings: C0, C1, C2
Skin: E000, E00, E01, E21, R11, R20
Hair: E25, E27, E29, E31
I do hope you like this one, peeps and thank you so much for visiting me today!

Digi Doodle Shop Challenge #44 Swirls

Good morning, peeps! Here I am again but this time with the latest challenge from Digi Doodle Shop's Best and, this week, we'd like to see swirls on your project! Here is my DT card, which I really enjoyed making:



The image is called 'Fairy 1' and you can buy her here in the store. Isn't she gorgeous? I think that the artist must have used me as a model (I wish)!!
She's coloured with Copics and I may even be able to remember some of them but I coloured her whilst I was on holiday last week. The DPs are Papermania 'Rose Garden' and the swirly stem and vines are cut in pearlised card from 2 different Marianne D dies. The roses and stamens are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the sentiment is again from Pink Petticoat - it's from the Girly Curly Sentiments collection.
I think she looks lovely perched there on her rose with the her rainbow wings glittered with Glamour Dust. I hope you like her and that you come and join us with your very own swirly project!

Bye for now