Molly in the snow

Good morning, peeps!  I hope you're all bright and bushy tailed today, thank Crunchie it's Friday and I'm off on hols tomorrow - woohoo!

Anyhoo, the challenge over at Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge this week is 'Let it Snow' and I tried not to make this card look like a Christmas card but I'm not sure I succeeded, see what you think:

I love these Molly Blooms images and I have so many that I don't have time to use and they sit there uninked :-( ... but this cute little Molly has been coloured with Copics and Prisma pencils (of course!) and cut out with a Nestie Wonky Rectangle shape, which is such a useful set of dies.  The DPs are oldies from my stash - I think the red one came from an old Kars pad and the ribbon is somewhat anonymous too.  The sentiment is a Clarity Stamp that I overstamped with snowflakes from an old Papermania set I found in the Christmas drawer.  The flowers and berries are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the snowflake border is from Dies to Die For and is a Memory Box one.  Sad to say that I don't actually own this die, the cut-out I've used here is a sample the lovely Tracy sent me with another order but, as you can imagine, I intend to own it before I have to make another snowy card!  The leaves under the flowers are cut from a new Cheery Lyn die that I think will prove endlessly useful.

It's hard to see in the photo (click to make it larger) but I added Stardust Stickles to the snowflakes.

Colouring

Skin:  E000, E00, E01, E21, R20, R11
Hat/sweater/boots:  E30, E31, E33, E35 and 70% French Grey pencil
Trousers and scarf: G24, G28, G29 and Olive pencil
Reds:  R22, R24, R27 and Tuscan Red pencil
Snow:  C0, C1, C2, C3

Thank you for looking today and I do hope you'll join us for this challenge.  We have a new format for the New Year and you could be a Guest Designer - click on the link to read all about it.

I'll be back again later because it's Polka Doodles Challenge day too - but don't feint with shock at the thought of my posting twice in one day!

Hugs

Mardigras!

Good morning, peeps!

Are you feeling in a party mood this morning?  It's hard to feel much like a party when all the Christmas and New Year celebrations are over and it's gloomy and cold outside, so I thought I'd show you something bright and cheery to help the day along a little.

These cards were produced for the Stamping with Clarity show on Create and Craft TV last Sunday.  When the stamps arrived, I was delighted with them and I think they hold many possibilities.

This is another of my not very good photographs but I hope you can see the effect.  It gave me a good opportunity to play with my Twinkling H2Os to create the background.  They haven't been out to play since I can't remember when and I've promised myself that I won't leave it so long before I bring them out again!  To get this effect, I first painted a sheet of A4 card with pale pink and then stamped all over it in random fashion with the small mask and the harlequin stamps using Versamark. I then applied clear embossing powder and heated it.  Then out came a large-ish flat paint brush and I splodged several colours all over the top (red, pink, green, yellow, blue, purple).  At this stage, it wasn't looking so clever but then I spayed it with Pearl Glimmer Mist and the magic happened when all the colours ran and blended into one another so I finally had the effect I'd been aiming for.  Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?!  With all this colour going on I decided to keep the large mask image to just black and white and it's stamped on to Centura Pearl Card, coloured with a black ProMarker then cut out and glued on to the background.

I wanted to create the impression of fireworks, which is how the gold ribbon came on to the scene. Having found the ribbon, the problem then was how to make it curl.  The answer was to wind it round a wooden chop stick, secure the ends with little metal bulldog clips and apply the heat gun.  However, I have a tip for you with this technique - wait for the bulldog clips to cool before removing them otherwise you're stuck holding an ice cube for some time until your fingers stop throbbing, ask me how I know!!

I then used the large mask stamp with one of the Clarity Alium stamps to produce the firework effect for this card:

 

The alium image was embossed with several different shades of  Moonglow Embossing Powder.  The main image has been stamped and enbossed in gold and then painted with the H2Os.

When it came to creating a card with the Dippy Toe Lady set, I knew I wanted to have the effect of the lady in a leafy glade at sunset then, having created the sunset, I was trying out all the colours of card to mount the image when I suddenly realised that I'd used all the colours of the Mardigras background -I am slow sometimes!  Good thing that I'd created a whole A4 sheet wasn't it?  Here's the result:

Well, if you've stayed with me through this marathon post, thank you and well done!  I hope you enjoyed seeing the cards and thank you for looking.  I'll be back later in the week with some challenge cards but, in the meantime, if you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours!

Hugs

Mrs Claus

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

Well, I bet you thought Christmas was over for another year but I thought I'd just show you the card I made for my lovely husband, Brian:

This is one of those fabulous digi images from Kenny K and I chose it because Brian is often teased about looking like Santa because of his white hair and beard although both are close cropped and not flowing like Santa at all.  So I suppose this is my alter ego and it might have been 35 years ago but now I have to say that the only similarity is the red hair!  Anyway, a girl can dream.....

The image is coloured with Copics and Prisma pencils and I added Ultra Fine Flowersoft to the fur trim of her outfit.

The DP is from the wonderful Bo Bunny Father Christmas Collection - fabulous papers these in lovely traditional colours.  The ribbon is from Stampin' Up and the charm was from The Works a couple of years ago.  I'm pretty sure I bought the huge poinsettia from The Hobby House and they come in a pack of mixed red and white flowers.

Well, considering that today is the 5th, I haven't exactly made a good start in my resolution to be a better blogger, but I am working on it - 'onest, guv! so I shall be back soon with something else to show you.  I really need to do some work throughout the year on Christmas cards so you may see some unseasonal posts from time to time.

Are you busy taking your Christmas decorations down today?  Whatever your doing, have a great one and thanks for looking!

Hugs

Monochrome Christmas

Good morning, peeps!  Did you think I'd left Blogland?  I confess that it must have seemed like it but my absence has simply been due to a holiday and a badly sprained ankle - the latter has meant that I left the apartment yesterday (with the aid of crutches) only for the second timein in two weeks.  Anyhoo, I'm back with a cutie card for the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge.  This week we are challenged to make a card that is monochromatic with sparkle and here is my effort:

Apologies for the rather dull photo but the weather here has been so gloomy lately that it's hard to get something decent.

As you can see, I chose blues and white for my monochromatic scheme, mainly because I found this little cutie already coloured in the box and thought that I shouldn't leave her lying there feeling neglected any longer.  It also reminds me how my colouring style has changed over the months.  She was coloured with Copics of unknown numbers and I did deepen the shading somewhat with Prisma Cool Gray 90%.  I think that the image is one of the older Elizabeth Bell ones but I didn't label her so I can't be sure.  The DPs are from a Dovecraft pack that I've had for at least 2 years and the shapes are cut with Nesties, the snowflakes with a Martha Stewart punch and blinged with Glamour Dust.  The lace is from The Ribbon Girl.

Thank you for looking today and I do hope you like it.  I won't be absent so long this time!

Hugs

Molly and George on a date......

...... noooo, not that kind of date, this kind of date:

Good morning, peeps!  Did I fool you?  It's another one of those Perpetual Calendars like I showed you here except this one is larger and decorated with this cute duo.  They are of course coloured with my Copics and Prisma pencils (sorry I don't have the numbers) and everything else is from my stash.

Right, this is just a brief post because I'm off to work on some Polka Doodles samples now (and Clarity ones for December and coming workshops).  I don't think I'll ever be stuck for something to do!

Have a great weekend y'all!

Hugs

Christmas a la Tim

Good morning, peeps and a chilly one it is too!  The frost was so thick this morning it looked almost like snow!  Still, it's appropriate waether for a post about Christmas cards and I have four of them to show you this morning!

 

All of these cards are for a workshop that I'm teaching at Samuel Taylor's, Brighouse tomorrow.  The objective being not just to loosely follow the style of Tim Holtz but to make quick Christmas cards as well.  There is plenty of Distress Inking in evidence as well as embellishments made fom Grunge Paper.

The stamps featured in the above card are from Indigo Blu, Hero Arts and Viva.

This one has stamps from the same sources and I've added Distress Stickles holly berries to the Grunge Paper holly sprigs.

There's not quite so much of Tim in this one because I've used some wonderful DP from Kaisercraft.  The die cuts are Marianne Christmas Tree 1, the white one being distressed with Forest Moss DI and on the green one I tried all sorts of things to get the snowy effect.  Adirondack Dabber in Snow Cap went really cream when it dried so I went over it with a white wax crayon.  When that wasn't white enough, a white gel pen finally got the result I wanted!

All the little snow flakes were produced using a Martha Stewart edge punch - these are the bits you normally throw away when punching a snowflake border!

Finally, this is a card that has the wishes for the season from another Indigo Blu stamp, as are the trees at the bottom.  The Christmas wishes I've used for the background are from the Viva plate and are stamped in Antique Linen DI.  The ribbon is from my stash.

Well, I hope this has given you some ideas for some quick Christmas cards for your own needs.  I think everyone's beginning to think that time is getting short for making cards - including me!  Although I only send handmade cards to close family and friends who appreciate the effort that goes into them.

Keep warm!

Hugs

Featuring a sentiment

Good morning, peeps and thank Crunchie it's Friday!  You got anything special planned for the weekend? - I'm gonna take it a little bit easy and that's special!!

Well, the challenge over at Fussy and Fancy this week is to Be Thankful and Feature a Sentiment.  I must admit that I slightly misunderstood this challenge because I thought it was to be thankful Or Feature a Sentiment and this is what I did:

The sentiment I've featured is more of a blessing than a verse expressing thanks but I hope you all like it nevertheless.

The blessing comes from Claritystamp and I've centred it in a Nestie shape which I've coloured with Antique Linen Distress Ink before removing the die.  I love this effect because it looks as though the verse is double mounted, which it isn't - it's just mounted once on to the dark brown card.

The wonderful DP is from a K & Co pad I've had for ages and it has no name on it.  Add one of the large gardenias from Wild Orchid Crafts, some stamens from the same source, flourishes cut from a Magnolia Doohickey die and, finally, butterflies cut with Martha Stewart punches and you have a card!

I must thank a teamie from a former DT I was on, the uber talented Dana for this idea, which I saw on her blog some time ago.  Her work is fabulous so do pop over and pay her a visit.  She's not too well at the moment so Get Well Soon, Dana!

Do come and join in this challenge, which is sponsored by Sweet and Sassy Stamps.

Thank you for looking today, please leave me a comment to let me know I'm not talking to myself here!  Whatever you're doing this weekend, have a great one!

Hugs