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

Handmade flower challenge

Good morning, peeps and it's Polka Doodles Challenge day today!

The challenge this week is 'Handmade flowers'- well that sent me into a bit of a panic I can tell you because I usually rely on Wild Orchid Crafts for flowers but I resorted to my tried and tested ones and you can see them here on my card:

I decided to place these two gorgeous friends from the Pretty Sweet CD in a lovely summery scene with the flowery fence from the Summer section of the Sundae of Seasons CD.  The girlies are coloured with my Copics but the flowery fence came ready coloured.  I have kept a note of the Copic colours and I'll be back later to edit this post and give you the colours but I have a hair appointment this morning - got to look glam for the big demo day tomorrow at Samuel Taylors, Roseville Street, Leeds!  Actually, I had the appointment anyway and the dates just coincide but it sounds good.

Can you believe that amidst distractions and interruptions (some people would call it work) it finally took me two and a half days to make this card - unbelievable!  The lovely DPs came from the Pretty Sweet CD as well.  I'm absolutely in love with them and there's something for everything when you're making unashamedly girle cards like this one.

I've got some photos to show you how to make the fowers as well so, see ya later!  In the meantime, do get making some lovely flowers and join us for the challenge.

Edit

Right, I finally have chance to tell you about how I made the flowers for this card.

First, you punch out the basic flowers from a small Retro Flower punch.  Then you take some scalloped edge scissors and cut a notch out of the end of each petal.

Then you take a cotton bud and add Distress Ink in whatever colour you need to the centre area of the flower and fade it out up into the petals.  Now add tiny dots to the petals nearest the centre of the flower- I used a Marvy Le Plume pen for this.

Finally, use a ball tool to shape the flowers - turn them over so that the coloured side is facing a foam mat and, using a circular motion, rotate the ball tool out from the cente so that the flowers become cup shaped, then do the same with each individual petal.

Finally, flip the flower over again so the coloured side is facing up and press down in the centre and, presto!! you have quite a realistic looking little primrose-like flower!

I used a Viva Pearl Pen to create the centres once I'd glued the flowers in place but you could use anything you choose.

OK, now for the Copics and Prisma pencils I used - loads here, I'm afraid!

Skin:  E000, E00, E01, E21, R20, R11, R30
Blonde hair:  E50, E51, E53, E55
Auburn hair:  E31, E33, E35, E37, E39 + Dark Brown Prisma pencil
Pink clothing:  RV00, RV10,  Promarker, Pink Carnation, RV34 + Raspberry Prisma pencil
Green stripes:  G12, G20, G24, G82 , G94
Blue trousers:  B000, B00, B02 + Muted Turqoise Prisma pencil
Khaki trousers:   BG93, BG96, BG99
Roses:  Promarker Antique Pink, R46, R59 + Tuscan Red Prisma pencil

Phew!  That was a marathon edit - I hope you managed to stay with me!

Hugs

Polka Doodles DT Call

Good lovely sunny afternoon, peeps!

Okkkaaayyyy! We're looking for some new teamies to join us over at Polkadoodles!

Yep, we need some new blood to join our lovely talented team on the challenge blog and also to make samples for shows and TV! So, if you LOVE colouring and you're great with your Promarkers, Copics, Prisma's and Watercolours (or any other colouring medium) and it's your speciality then please email Nikky with a link to your blog and NO MORE than 50 words about yourself and why you want to be on the Polkadoodles team. If you don't like colouring then don't worry - Polkadoodles caters for everyone, but you do need to be able to use digital products and rubber stamp.  

It doesn't matter if you're a cardmaker, scrapbooker, a stamper or a CD crafter, we need someone who can be versatile and fit within the other talents on our fabulous, happy team. We look for all kinds of abilities and styles so you've gotta be in it, to win it, as the saying goes! You MUST have a blog where you post regularly. You MUST be able to commit to participating in the challenge blog 3 times per month, making TV samples when required AND commenting on challenge entries each week, so please ensure you can do all this before you apply - this is a permanent position and you must be able to offer the commitment we need. 

Entries from around the world will be considered but, as we need people who can also make samples, because of time constraints entries from the UK may have an advantage - if you're not in the UK please don't let that put you off, really we just need someone awesome, and we're looking for more than one person!! We will be choosing someone over the next two weeks and results will be posted here. 

Please do not leave comments etc on the challenge blog, all bloglinks must be sent by email by 13th OCTOBER. Please ensure your links are correct and link to the homepage so we can see your blog properly. email Nikky with a link to your blog and NO MORE than 50 words about yourself and why you want to be on the Polkadoodles team. (please note: Final decision will be announced on the challenge blog after 13th October) ---- 

 

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!! 

 

Hugs

Perpetual Calendar

Good morning, peeps!  Are you enjoying the sunshine then if you're in the UK?  We ceratinly waited a long time for it, a whole Summer in fact!

I thought I woud just make a quick post to show you a liitle project I taught yesterday to a lovely group of ladies at a workshop at Samuel Taylor in Brighouse.

This was inspired by a project on the talented Jane Johnson's Blog some time back, so thanks go to her for doing all the complicated work with measurements and stating which numbers go on each block to make the calendar work.

The blocks are distressed with Milled Lavender DI and over stamped with a Penny Black stamp 'Scrolling Along'.  I cut the numbers from a Spellbinders Presto Punch alphabet die called 'Plain Jane'.  This is designed for their punching device but also cuts in the Big Shot.  The months were printed on the computer and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.  The other decorations come from a Sizzlits die and Martha Stewart punches.

The surprise for me came when I discovered that the published detail of the workshop said that the calendar was decorated with Molly Blooms images.....whoops!  Better make more comprehensive notes when I'm booking workshops in future and thanks go to the good natured ladies who didn't seem to mind at all that their calendars didn't have characters on them!

Have a wonderful day and I hope you all manage to get out into the lovely sunshine.  Thank you for looking today and think of me here in my craft room running to catch up!

Hugs

A distressed card

Good morning, peeps!  Thank Crunchie it's Friday again - don't they roll around fast?  I'm trying not to think about it frankly and at least this week's challenge at Polka Doodles isn't to make a Christmas card!  (we're going to be needing those far too soon!)  It's 'Distress it', which is really good because I don't seem to have done any distressing for a while and, when that happens, we can often forget these techniques so it's good to revisit.

This little cutie pie is Bella and she appears on the new Simply Sweet CD.  Here she is on her garden swing under a lovely blue sky with just some light fluffy clouds - she clearly doesn't live in Yorkshire, that's all I can say!

Anyhoo, I distressed the edges of the main image with a distressing tool and Pumice Stone DI and the put some Stardust Stickles over the top, which almost obscures the distressing!  Well I did say that I hadn't used this technique in a while!  I also applied the same DI to the sentiment and the lovely DP, both of which were printed from the same CD.  The leaves were cut from a Marianne die and the flowers are Sweetheart blossoms from Wild Orchid Crafts.  The ribbon is from my stash.  Speaking of which, have you ever noticed that however many spools/lengths of ribbon you have, you've never got quite the right one?  Who wrote that rule then?

Of course, Bella is coloured with Copics and Flexmarkers and the shading is enhanced with Prisma pencils blended with Sansodor but I'm sorry that, in the chaos that is my craft room, I didn't keep a note of the numbers for you.

I do hope that you'll join us for this challenge and hop over to the Challenge blog to see all the wonderful work that my teamies have put in.

Whatever you're doing this weekend, have a good un.  I'm teaching a colouring class at Samuel Taylor in Roseville Street, Leeds tomorrow and there's great excitement about the place there at the moment because a new store opens in Harrogate tomorrow - let's all wish them every success because it's great to see a new craft shop opening it's doors.

Hugs

Snow and ice already!

Good morning, peeps and a bit of a chilly one it is too!

Well it's been really busy around here lately and I've hardly emerged from my craft room!  However, I shall be heading over to Craftrange.com at Burnley later for their big demonstration evening that starts at 5 o'clock.  I'm demonstrating the wonderful Polka Doodles range and my fantastic DT teamies have made some stunning samples for me to take along so I thought that today I'd show you one of the samples that I've made myself and here it is:

I've used stamps from the Christmas Neighbours set, which I love - there's just everything you need in this set to make a Christmas card with a difference.  I've coloured it in the style perfected by Nikky herself using Copic pens from the Cool Grey range.  The 'light' in the windows is created using Y11 and then enhanced with a Wink of Stella clear pen although it's not really showing in the photo, probably because the light was virtually gone by the time I took the picture!  Glamour dust provides the snow effect and the snowflake die is a Whimsy one called Winter's Jewel, which I think is the perfect description for it.

The background papers are from the Paper Boutique Vol 2 CD, which is called 'Creative Christmas' and has loads of wonderful papers you can print as well as 21 templates for Christmas crafting.

This is one of those cards that definitely looks better in real life because the cool greys look a little odd on blue background papers in the photograph but not on the card that's beside me as I type.

If you're planning to be at the demonstration evening later, do come and say hello - it would be great to meet you but, whatever you're doing today, have a good one.  I'll be back tomorrow with another Polka Doodles Challenge card.

Thank you for looking today and I hope my icy card didn't make you shiver too much!

Hugs

Reminder of Summer

Good morning, peeps and how are you all today? Isn't it getting autumnal? The hillside I look out on from my craft room is changing daily it seems and I watch the lovely greens change to the wonderful Autumnal colours. Wouldn't it be great if we could have the rich colours of Autum without the cooler weather? I know it's not possible but I can dream! Anyhoo, speaking of losing the lovely greens of Summer, I thought I'd share this card with you today:

If you've been watching Barbara Gray on the Pick of the Week Show on Create and Craft TV, you'll have seen this card already because Barbara asked me to make some staged samples for her to help out with the massive task of preparing so many demonstrations for all the shows being aired this week. Please follow the link if you want to buy Barbara's DVD 5 at a real bargain price!

If you didn't see the show, this card was made by stamping the Birch Tree stamp twice across an A6 Clarity Card using a dye based ink pad, then covering the trunks with Versamark pen and embossing with clear embossing powder. The clouds were produced over a cloud shaped template using a make-up brush and Adirondack Stonewashed ink. The Birch Tree Leaves were then stamped with Kaleidacolor Fresh Greens ink. I used the same stamps and inks to make the backing paper on the base of this card but blotted the stamps twice before planting them on the paper. The pale blue card mount is cut from a Go Kreate die because I was trying to echo the shape of the clouds and make the whole design fit with the lovely verse that forms the stop for the easel card.

I'm making every effort to be a better blogger and post more regularly although I can't promise every day. I really don't know how you peeps that post every day manage it but perhaps I just need to be more organised.

I'm working hard on samples for the Polka Doodles dem on Thursday evening that I told you about in yesterday's post. Some wonderful sample cards have just arrived in the post from my lovely Teamies Dee, Emma and Lis. Do hop over and look at their work, it's just fabulous!

I do hope you like this memory of Summer and thank you for looking today - I'll see you again soon.

Hugs