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!

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!

She's all dressed up again!

Good morning, peeps and I hope you're not all frozen in this wintery weather! This little girl certainly ought to be judging by the way she's (not) dressed!
The challenge over at Digi Doodle Shop's Best this week is 'Red and Green.....any kind of project as long as it has these colours' - well I certainly took that literally, didn't I!?
As soon as I saw the title of this challenge my mind went to a card I made some time back (you can see it here) where I had used those colours on the image. Well, since then her twin sister has been drawn so I knew I had to use her for my card! You can buy her and her sister here.
She is coloured with my Copics and various coloured pencils blended with Sansodor and I put glossy accents on the shoes and bag. The DPs are from Papermania, Kars, Nitwit, Dream Street Papers and Kaiser - yes really, that many different brands! The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, of course and the leaves were punched with my McGill punch. This is how I've finished the inside:

The edge of the pocket and the tag are finished with my Fiskars 'Threading Water' punch.
The sentiment is from the Pink Petticoat Curly Girly Sentiments and they can be bought here. I must say that I'm finding this set so useful, there really is something for every occasion.
Well, I seem to have wittered on interminably about this - if you're still with me, thank you and thank you for looking today. I do hope you'll join us for this challenge. I'm also entering this card for:
The Crafty Pad Challenge 98 'Red and Green'
Friday Sketchers Sketch 129

My favourite things

On the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge Blog they're having a DT call and to enter for that you have to create a post that shows three of your favourite pieces of work. Like many people, I suppose my favourites are my more recent projects so, in most recent order, here are the three I've chosen:

I really enjoyed making this tissue box cover and I hope to make some more as presnts - but not necessarily for Christmas! Go here for more detail on this project.
Number two on the list would be this one and here's a picture:

.....and the last one is a lovely glimpse of Summer:

go here for more information on this card.
Well, peeps, wish me luck!

Cameo of a Geisha

Good morning, peeps and I hope today is a good one for you!
Firstly I must aplogise for the quality of the photo on this card but it was taken in the gloom of a November evening and this was the best light I could achieve. I was hoping for better light today but it's nearly as dark as night here now! Anyhoo, this is my card for Digi Doodle Shop's Best Challenge number 34, which is 'Anything Goes'. With such an open subject, I do hope you'll all join us for this one.
I've been admiring this geisha image for some time (she's available here in the shop) because I thought she would be the perfect image for me to try out paper piecing, which I've never done before. Well it didn't go too badly but the washi paper wasn't easy to shade over to show the folds in her kimono so next time I fancy a bit of paper piecing, I'll use standard DP!
The rest of her is coloured with Copics, the blue sky background and shadow is done with Primacolor pencils and Sansodor and the scalloped oval is distressed with Pumice Stone Distress Ink. Since I'd used the largest of my Mega Oval Scalloped Nestie dies to cut out the image, I used the die to mark points around the outside of the oval die and then cut the plain gold oval freehand.
I thought this was the perfect opportunity to break out the red poppies from Wild Orchid Crafts, which is where all the flowers came from, as did the wide organza ribbon. The leaves were punched with my Leonie Em Maidenhair Fern punch and the DP is from K & Co.
I do hope you like it and I'll hopefully see your card in the challenge!
Bye for now