The Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Good afternoon, peeps!
That's what happened yesterday at my son's house - the tea party, I mean! Number two granddaughter is 11 years old tomorrow and yesterday she had a few friends home for an Alice in Wonderland themed party - hence the reason I chose this fantastic Mo Manning image for her card. The image is called 'Hatter' and you can buy him here. There are other Alice in Wonderlad character images as well, all with Mo's unique touch!



Isn't he a picture of sartorial elegance in his multi-coloured outfit? I'm sorry I don't have the Copic colours for you because this is another image that I coloured whilst on hols recently. The DP is Basic Grey Kioshi, the pearls are from The Hobby House and the sentiment is another from Pink Petticoat Girly Curly Sentiments Collection, which was one of my better investments, I feel. The flowers are, of course, from Wild Orchid Crafts and the leaves were punched with a McGill punch. The ribbon is from my stash and here is the inside of the card:


The tags were punched with a Sizzix punch, edged with Adirondack Dabbers in Cool Peri and Purple Twilight and I think you can see that the one on the left is just for the greeting (a Clarity Stamp) but the one on the right is my homemade attempt at a voucher providing funds for the birthday girl to spend at the craft show at Harrogate in March. She's following Granny and Mummy and becoming a crafter - way to go, Lucy!
Well I'm just about to follow the Mad Hatter and have a cup of tea that my darling hubby is presntly making for me.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll see you again soon!
Thank you for looking at my blog today and I hope you enjoy what you see!

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!

Tea Light Card

Good morning, peeps and a very chilly one it is too!
I've been wanting to make one of these cards for some time and I've also wanted to use this image for some time so it feels like two accomplishments in one! I think this is a lovely way to send a card combined with a little gift and it doesn't have to contain tea lights, a similar construction could hold sweets or any number of different small gifts. Hmmm....I'll work on that one - watch this space!
The photgraphs here don't seem to do it justice, which is very disappointing because it looks so much better IRL.
I got the instructions for this card from the StampARTic site and it's a really easy card to make. The trick is to use a Nestabilitie shape for the box window that will hold in all the candles and that allows you to extract them all easily. The ribbon bow stops them falling out - ideally, it would have been a wider ribbon but I simply didn't have anything suitable and if you could see the amount of ribbon I'm looking at here, that's hard to believe!
The Mo Manning image is called 'Prince Edward Island' and she's coloured with Copics and various coloured pencils blended with Sansodor. I'm sorry I haven't been giving you colour numbers lately but I get so absorbed with the colouring, just grabbing what I need that eventually my desk becomes covered with pens and pencils and I have to have a clear up to be able to carry on working - noting down colour numbers just gets lost in the general chaos! The image is framed with my Nestabilities Classic Frame and I stencilled through the die with Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue, which has also been used around all the edges. The pearls are from The Hobby House here and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. I punched the leaves with my Leonie Em Maidenhair Fern punch. The papers are digital ones downloaded from Nitwits and I think I shall be using more of these. You can see some of the coordinating ones inside the card:

I think I may add a sentiment to the pocket that holds the tag (cut with a Sizzix die) but it's really a question of finding the right one.
I hope you like this one peeps and that you decide to have a go yourself - it really is an easy project - promise!
Keep warm!

The Holly Fairy

Good morning, peeps and it certainly was a cold one here this morning but it's clear blue sky and sunshine now - wonderful!
Good light meant I could take some photographs this morning, yippee! The light was dreadful yesterday. So, here is the result, Mo Manning's wonderful drawing of the Christmas Fairy Holly. Isn't she gorgeous?
I've used the sketch from the Papertake Weekly Challenge Blog and will be entering this one there.
The DPs are from a collection I picked up at my local craft shop and all it says on the back is 'Carol Wilson Fine Arts Inc.' and each piece is mounted on Bazill card. I really like these papers from the colours in them to the wonderful sparkles on the paper with the snowflake pattern! The holly leaves are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the berries are from Craftwork Cards.
The sentment is from a wonderful collection of digital sentiments available from Pink Petticoat called Girly Curly Sentiments. It's a really good buy and I heartily recommend them.
The fairy is coloured with my Copics (of course!) and the colours are:
Skin: E000, E00, E21, R11, R20
Hair: E50, E51, E53, E57, YR21
Skirt: V12, V15, V17
Sash/Shoes: B000, B00, B02
Holly: YG23, YG67, G28, G29
Shadow (surrounding her): Y000, Y00, Y02, 0
Shadow(at her feet): W1, W3, W5, 0
I'm also going to enter this card in the Totally Gorjuss Challenge 53 which is 'Sparkle'.
I can now tick another Christmas card off my list and I hope you like it.
Bye for now!
Diane x

Have I seen you somewhere before?...

...well, the answer is 'Yes you have'! because this is the same image I used for my other grandaughter's 'Back to School' card but doesn't she look different in these colours and in this setting? This card is for number one granddaughter, Holly who is starting senior school this month - another new beginning for her!

Go here to see her in a different setting and to pick up the image details.

I'm afraid I didn't keep a note of the Copics I used for you - sorry!...but I can tell you that the edges of the image are distressed with Chipped Sapphire DI. (Don't know what I'd do without these inks!!) The blue spotted paper is a digital download from Bearly Mine Crafts and this one is just the perfect colour for the image. I used Bev's wonderful tutorial on Resizing Digi Papers, so thanks so much for that hun - it worked perfectly! The pink stripey paper was from my stash and just a scrap, so I can't tell you whose it is. Also from my stash is the butterfly ribbon, which I picked up at a craft show somewhere - I have a habit of picking up things at craft shows, that's why I have to keep working! LOL

The wonderful flowers and stamens are from Wild Orchid Crafts (link in my sidebar) and the sentiment was computer generated.

I believe this qualifies for the Oldie but a Goodie Challenge, which is New Beginnings. I think this image has been around long enough to fit the bill.

You'll no doubt be relieved to hear that you've seen the last of Back to School cards...well, at least for another year, so now we can get on with something different.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope you enjoyed looking at this project.

Diane x

Here we are again!

Good morning peeps and TGIF!

This is another image from the truly talented Mo Manning, which is called 'Paul Texting' but in my mind it's Martin Texting! Martin is number 2 grandson and that's who this card is for - we had a family trip to Chester Zoo and when he wasn't looking at the animals, he was texting his friends! So you can imagine how I couldn't resist using this image - it so reminds me of him. As you can see, it's to celebrate the return to school (well at least I think his Mum is celebrating!).

The DPs are from Diane's Daughters, 7 Gypsies and the Tim Holtz Vintage Shabby pad, which is so gorgeous I thought I was very brave to cut into it LOL! The image is coloured with Copics (numbers below) and I deepened the shadows with my Faber Castell pencils, all the distressing is with Pumice Stone Distress Ink and the buttons are a mixture from my stash.

Skin: E000, E00, E21, R11, R20
Hair: E53, YR21
Clothing: E43, E44, E47, E49, BG000, BG10, BG11, BG13
Bag: BG15, BG23, BG18, BG75
Phone: C9, C7, C5
Shoes: E41, E43
Shadow: W1, W3, W5

I do hope you like this one and be brave, there's only one more to go in the 'Back to School' series!

By for now,
Diane x

Air guitar

Good morning, peeps and I hope you're all having a great start to the week this fine and sunny Monday morning! Well, the series continues and all the cards are now delivered! This one is for my number one grandson, Matt who is off to sixth form college this week to start a BTEC National Diploma in Music Technology - I won't pretend to know exactly what that means because just the name of it makes me feel like an old fogey! All I know is that he has aspirations to be a radio DJ in the future and I just think it's great that he has a dream!

The image is another from the wonderful Mo Manning and is called 'Air Guitar'- I just thought it was very appropriate as I did with the music printed paper in the layout. All the papers are from 7 gypsies, by the way.

I coloured the image with my Copics (of course!) and I'll list them at the end of this post for you but I did add to the shading with my Faber Castell pencils. The little stars are punched with a Carla Craft punch and covered in Distress Stickles in Walnut Stain. I've also used the endlessly useful Stampin' Up Word Window punch for the sentiment, which was computer generated. All of the ditressing on all layers was done with Pumice Stone Distress Ink and the brads are from my stash.

I hope you like it - I always find cards for the boys more of a challenge.

I'll be back soon with yet another in the 'Back to School' series.

Copics used:
Skin: E000, E00, E21, R11, R20
Hair: E31, E25, E29
Vest: R35, R37, R59
Jeans and boots: W7, W5, W3, W1, E43, E41
Shadow: B000 + chalk

Bye for now, Diane x

Back to school again!

Good morning peeps and a fine and sunny morning it is here in Yorkshire although, you can probably tell from the picture above that it wasn't quite so fine and sunny when the photo was taken!

Anyhoo, this is the second in the 'Back to school' series and you'll probably be sick of them by the time I've been through all my grandchildren! This is for number three grandson, James and I've used another lovely Mo Manning image, Yale. These images from Mo are so expressive and an absolute delight to colour. I coloured him with my Copics and carefully kept a note of which colours I used on the reverse of the image. I got up early this morning to work on this card because it needs to be delivered today and, guess what? I stuck the image down without transferring the Copic numbers so they now cannot be seen! What am I like?

The DPs are mainly from 7 Gypsies but also from the Girls' Paperie and Stampington. I created the star from a Papermania stamped image and then cut it out. I'm entering this for the Truly Scrumptious Challenge, which is a sketch with an optional extra to include a knot somewhere on your card. Of course, I had to fiddle a bit with the layout but I think the sketch is still recognisable!

I hope you like the card and I should be back soon with number three in the series - are you bored yet?

Bye for now.

Diane x

Cornell goes back to school

Good afternoon, peeps! I hope you're all bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready for the Bank Holiday weekend.

This is one of the wonderful Mo Manning's images and Cornell is the name that Mo has given to her. I thought she's be perfect for a Back to School card - I have five to make in total for my five grandchildren. Three of the five are making new beginnings this term - number one granddaughter, Holly and number three grandson, James are both starting at senior school and number one grandson, Matt is going off to sixth form college. This card is for number two granddaughter, Lucy who is about to start her final year at Junior school.

I used a sketch from the lovely Bev and it's so kind of you hun to provide this wonderful resource for us all to use - thank you! I'm afraid I haven't the faintest clue which Copics I used to colour the image because this is part of the batch of images I coloured when I was last away from home and I didn't keep a note. I'm off again this weekend with my Copics ready and packed but I'll try to keep some notes this time!

The papers are from my new Prima pack called 'Fairy Flora' and The Glitter Pot have it here at a very good price - I thought I should just stop stroking all these papers and use some. Every one of the designs in the pad is absolutely gorgeous and you could well be seeing more of these! I punched the edge of the top paper with my Martha Stewart Doily Hearts punch.

The flowers are some Prima ones from my stash and some are from Wild Orchid Crafts (link in my sidebar) and I just cut some leaf shapes from some scraps of very old DP. I wasn't sure about using the rainbow ribbon after I first put it on to the card but I think it's grown on me. Anyway, it was from Fantastic Ribbons although I can't see this width on their web site now.

Finally, I distressed the edge of the Nestie shape the image is on with Forest Moss Distress Ink.

I hope you like this card and have a great weekend all of you!

Bye for now

Diane x

Video Girl

February is a real bumper birthday month in our family and this card is for one of my granddaughters, so I hope she likes it - the colours are really appropriate for her.

The image is from Mo's digital pencil and is my first venture into 'digital stamping' but she was great fun to colour with my Copics. The sentiment was computer generated, the leaves were punched with my McGill pine punch and everything else was from my stash - you know, all that stuff you bought because you knew it would come in useful one day!

I've scanned the image using instructions from Susie Jefferson. I don't know why it never occurred to me before that you don't have to squash the card down by closing the lid on the scanner, you can just cover the card with sheets of white paper to block out the light.....duh!!

Hope you like it.