A dual celebration

Good morning, peeps and a lovely sunny one it is too!

The reason this is a dual celebration is, firstly that number one grandson is 17 tomorrow and this is his birthday card and secondly, it's my first DT card sample for Digi Doodle Shop's Best...woohoo! The challenge this week is 'Orange you glad' - we have to use orange on our project, and I just couldn't resist this image of the mice having a party in this Jack 'o Lantern! Especially cute is the baby mouse asleep under his leaf blanket in the bottom right-hand corner - what imagination the artist has to create an image like this!

It was a joy to colour and watch the pumpkin take on depth and dimension as I used my Copics. The colours I used were:
Pumpkin: YR00, YR12, YR15, YR18
Stalk: YG13, YG25, YG95, YG97
Mice: E41, E42, E43, E44
Spoon: C1, C3
Grass: All the colours that were in the stalk + YG00, YG01, YG03
Sky: W1, B000, Colourless blender and pale blue chalk

The DPs are from American Crafts, the flourish is cut from a Marianne D die, the label for the sentiment is a Spellbinder one and the sentiment itself is from Lili of the Valley. The ribbon and button are from my stash.

I'm also entering this for a few challenges:
Stamp Challenges Something to Celebrate
Stampin' for the Weekend Use the colours of Autumn
An Oldie but a Goodie All Creatures Great and Small

Thank you for looking today, everyone and I hope you like my first DT efforts - I hope my grandson, Matt does too since it's for his birthday!

Bye for now,

Diane x

Christmas is pink and some news

Good evening, peeps! I hope you've all had a good day and that you had a good weekend too - despite the weather here in the UK!

First of all, I thought I'd challenge myself to make a card the same but not at all the same at all, if you understand me! In other words this is another tri-fold shutter card but I hope it looks a whole lot different from the last.

The image is Christmas Morning Tilda, which is a delight to colour with all those flowing locks and all the folds in her pretty dress. The lovely DPs are from Kars Speciality Paper Pad, which has 24 sheets of lovely and slightly different Christmas papers.



The charm is from a selection at The Works and the lovely organza ribbon and the roses are from Wild Orchid Crafts. The other little flowers are from my stash and have been there for a long time! I only wish I'd kept a note of the Copics I used to match the papers. However, the good news is that the next card I post will have the Copic colours with it!

Speaking of the next card I post brings me to my news....I'm really happy to say that I've been accepted to join Digi Doodle Shop's Best, which means that I'm on their Design Team for the next six months! WoooHooo!!! Aren't I the lucky one getting to produce a card from one of their wonderful images every week? I'm so looking forward to it.

See you soon for the first of the challenges on Thursday!

Bye for now

Diane x

Another day another challenge!

Well good morning, peeps and I hope the sun is shining wherever you are! It's really trying its best to shine on the Pennines here, although the painters are working outside, all the windows are open and I'm sitting here in two woollen sweaters! Hey ho, better get this typed before my fingers freeze up.

Today's card, as you can see, is fairly seriously PINK! but I think it suits Sweet Tilda. She's coloured with Copics but she's been coloured for a long time and I'm sorry to say I don't have the numbers....oops! I think that when I'm colouring, I'll have to note the colours on a Post-it note and attach it to the image so that I can be more helpful to you. So I promise that, when I've used up the current lot of pre-coloured images, I'll do better - honest!

All the distressing has been done with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink and I thought I'd give my new Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page punch an outing. It's not yet available here I don't think but was posted to me from the US by the lovely Claudia Rosa, so thanks so much for that, hun! I believe it's called 'Laurel Leaf' and I'm absolutely delighted with it and it's the only PATP that I have....at the moment!! I also used the Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly punch with some DP from my scrap box for the butterflies. The background DPs are from the Prima 'Annalee' pad, which I'm absolutely loving (and stroking frequestly!). The sentiment is a Lili of the Valley stamp.

I punched the leaves from some really ancient DP with my McGill Leaves punch and the pearl brad, spacer and pearls are from The Hobby House who have such a wonderful selection and a very efficient postal service. The flowers are, of course, from Wild Orchid Crafts (link in my sidebar) and the ribbon is from Fantastic Ribbons.

Well I hope you like this card and I'm entering it in the following challenges:
An Oldie but a Goodie Pink and Girlie (I think it's certainly thet!)
Just Magnolia Challenge Dawny's Sketch which was great fun to work with.

Have fun, peeps, I'll see you again soon and thanks so much for looking today.

Diane x

The first this year

Christmas card, that is!

Well, good afternoon, peeps and I hope that the week's being good to you so far. I thought I'd share this card with you - I do love this tri-fold shutter design and it's perfect for showing off DPs. These are from the Papermania 'Classic Christmas' collection and I chose them because it just felt right to make a card in traditional Christmas colours.



Tilda is coloured with Copics and if I ever find the piece of paper I noted down the numbers on, I'll edit this post later to tell you! I cut the ovals from Nesties and all the ditressing is with Forest Moss Distress Ink. The pointsettia is from Prima and the rose buds from Wild Orchid Crafts.

I may well make another of these cards, it was great fun and I hope you like it. I'm entering it in the following challenges:

Wild Orchid Crafts Challenge - Ribbons and bows
Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge - Christmas Colours
Christmas Card Challenges - Distressed Cards

Sorry about the photography, which looks a little blurry!

See you again soon!
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