I've been published!

Good morning, peeps!

Yes, it's finally happened - one of my projects is in print!  Polka Doodles have released issue 2 of the Pen and Paper Circle Club magazine, 'The Creative Chronicle' and I produced a card featuring watercolouring for this issue.  Of course, unless you were fortunate enough to pre-order it, I'm afraid you're too late to get a copy.  However, the good news is that you can pre-order issue 3 if you follow this link.  It really is superb value for money with 12 stamps and a CD containing 130 coordinating backing papers for you to print as well as other goodies.

Anyhoo, without further ado, here's a piccy of my project for the current issue:

..... I hope you like it.

I'll be back tomorrow with my card for this week's Polka Doodles Challenge.  Thank you so much for looking today and here's hoping your day includes some crafting fun!

Hugs

Flutterfly Fairy Gracie

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

Today I have a card for the Polka Doodles Challenge this week, which is to create a card for a 'big number' birthday and I hope you're all going to join in with us!

My card celebrates a 40th birthday and here it is:

The image is one of the Fairy Flutterfly stamps, Gracie and I just love her hair and her funky tights!  She's coloured with Copics, Promarkers and Prisma pencils and I've stamped her on to a Go Kreate die cut shape that's distressed at the edges with Spun Sugar DI.  The gorge paper is printed from the new Sugar Plum Daisy CD which is overflowing with the cutest images, papers, sentiments and all kinds of goodies - the numbers on the 'stop' were printed from there too!

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the lighting right to show the lovely embossing on the corners that were cut from a lovely Marianne Die and they look a bit plain without it but plain they definitely ain't!

The ribbon is from my stash and these are the Copics I used:

Skin:  E000, E00, E21, R20, R11
Hair:  E50, E53, E33
Top:  RV00, RV02, Pink Carnation Promarker and Raspberry pencil
Shorts:  BG10, BG11, Tea Green Promarker and Muted Turquoise pencil
Boots:  G12, G14, Apple Green and Cool Grey 50% pencils
Wings:  V000, V01, V13 and bright pink and clear Wink of Stella Pens
The tights and flowers are a combination of the colours already mentioned.

I drew the flower stems and leaves with a Whipsers black marker pen but the flowers themselves are a part of the stamp plate, as is the sentiment used.

Thank you for looking today, this was such a fun image to colour and I hope you enjoyed seeing it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Hugs

Something 'A Little Bit Different'

Good morning, peeps!

Well, did you watch Sheena presenting her new stamps on the Create and Craft Channel yesterday?  I have a stinking cold at the moment and it was a good excuse to sit on the sofa for a couple of hours and have a good chuckle at Sheena's new A Little Bit Different range.  Here's what I did with the stamps:

The sky on this 'Just 4 Ewe' card was created with a cloud shaped card template and Adirondack Stonewashed ink brushed over it, whereas the sheep were coloured with Copics.

On this one, I created the sunset sky with Twinkling H2Os and use Distress Inks to colour the sheep.  The DP is a really old one from the depths of my stash!

 

It's a shame that it can't be shown on a still photograph but the Silly Moo with the crown is cut out and mounted on an Action Wobble Spring so that she dances on the card if she's given a gentle nudge - what a silly moo!!  Both these cows are painted with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink and the gold crown and its jewels are painted with Twinkling H2Os.

 All of the effects on this image are created with Distress Inks and the background is embossed Coordinations card and I used the Darice Clouds embossing folder and then sanded over the raised bits.

I hope you find this new range of stamps to be fun - I certainly think they are and it's good to be able put some humour into our crafting!

Thank you for looking today and I'll be back again soon with a Polka Doodles Challenge.

Hugs

Dawn on a gift bag

Good afternoon, peeps and what glorious weather we're having at the moment!  I really do think that all our seasons are beautiful but there is certainly something rather special about Spring.

Well I've been absent for far too long (again!) but I just thought I'd make a quick post and show you a project I taught to a class at the beginning of the month.  The inspiration for this came from the very talented Jane's Blog and she shows a simple way of making a gift bag by folding a piece of DP around a book - here's the result:

 The cute little image is a Nelie Snellen stamp called Dawn with Birthday Cake, which I just thought was appropriate for a gift bag.  The handles and the trim are punched with a Martha Stewart punch, as are the butterflies and the flowers are made with a Tonic Petal Pairs punch.  The ribbon is from Stampin' Up and the pearls are from The Hobby House.  The tag is cut from a Go Kreate die and the sentiment is a very ancient anonymous one that's been in my stash forever!

Copics

Skin - E000, E00, E21, R20, R11
Hair - E23, E25, E27, E31
Skirt - R20, R32, R35
Top - BG70, BG72
Shoes - Tea Green, Grey Green (Promarkers), W1, W3, W5
Cake - Y000, Y11, Y21, E21, E23, E50, E51

Hey!  Are you impressed or what?  I kept a note of the colours I used!

Well it's onwards and upwards with Design Team work.  My cards for Barbara Gray's show on Sunday on Create and Craft TV have just gone postal.  She's on at 9.00 a.m.and 3.00 p.m. so don't forget to watch if you're a fan - watch closely and you may just see some of my cards as well as my talented teamies' creations.  If you miss the shows, the cards just may appear here afterwards!

Whatever you have planned, have a great weekend if I don't 'see' you before and I'll see you again soon!

Hugs

A moment of Clarity

Good afternoon, peeps!  Well it's just about afternoon isn't it and I'm posting this from wonderful Aberfeldy in Scotland where we're having a great and relaxing time at the moment.  Home on Saturday though and the holiday has passed by all too quickly.

I thought I'd just catch up by posting a few of the cards I've created for Barbara Gray's shows on Create and Craft TV - I think I'm at least two shows behind showing you some of samples, so here goes:

This picture looks a bit lopsided but I really enjoyed colouring all these pansies and leaves with my Copics.  The letter 'O' is embossed in green because I wanted it to stand out and the rest of the word 'flower' is stamped in Memento London Fog in the hope that it facded into the background a little.  The gold filigree corners are from Wild Orchid Crafts.  I don't recall this card being shown during the broadcast.

This was one of my favourite designs from the February show and it would appear that the audience agreed because the stamp sold out in a flash!  I watercoloured the images on 300 gsm hot pressed, watercolour paper, tore the edges of the paper and finished with the corners cut from a Spellbinders die and some ribbon from my stash.

This was another favourite, the Mandarin Duck and Bullrushes.  It reminds me of when I used to see one of these ducks regularly when I used to travel the Staffs and Worcs Canal and they are just so cute and colourful!  This image was coloured with Copics and I created the clouds using a cardboard template I cut out with Stampin' Up Bashful Blue ink and an old make-up brush.  I love creating skies this way.  The vines are a Marianne die and the flowers are Sweetheart Blossoms from Wild Orchid Crafts.

I loved the simplicity of this card and I simply embossed the image with Moonglow Embossing Powder and it's a shame that you can't see from the picture how it shines different colours asyou move the image in the light.  I recall that the presenter commented on the fact that I hadn't coloured the image but you can't please everyone!  The DP is a really old one from my stash but I couldn't resist using it because it has the Lily of the valley on it.

Well before this post turns into a real marathon, I'll sign off and see you again soon.

Thanks for looking today and I'd love to read your comments!

Hugs

I'm back and an announcement

Good morning, peeps!  Did you think I'd left the country then or maybe given up blogging?  I'd like to say thank you to all those loyal followers who are still here reading this on my poor, neglected blog - I promise I'll try and do better.

Where have I been?  Well I went to the trade show at the NEC and picked up some weird bug that wiped me out for a week and then life just continued at it's usual hectic pace here at Whitehouse Towers and I don't seem to have had time to do anything but work and I'm still behind!  Hey Ho - got a holiday coming up from tomorrow so maybe I'll get some time to post some of the work I've been doing that you haven't yet seen!

Today, I thought I'd show you a couple of cards that I'll be teaching at workshops at Samuel Taylor, Roseville Street on 20th March and Samuel Taylor, Brighouse on 31st March, the topic is 'Watercolour Techniques using stamps'.

This card is made with one of the stamps from the uber talented Sheena and is part of her Little Bit Sketchy collection.  I have tried to make the scene look like a tinted photograph, which I think it does and I created the effect with Distress Ink Pads.  I would have preferred to put a reflection of the hillside in the water but I don't have a great deal of success with the acetate method that Sheena uses and, whilst I could have done it with my 6" brayer, I didn't think it was fair to the ladies on the workshop to make them think that they have to have a new piece of equipment to reproduce the card, so it is as it is.

The 'frame' is created with a Go Kreate Die and the ivy is cut from a Marianne die.

This card was made from an Indigo Blu stamp called 'Poppy Meadow' and the effect was created by using water based markers.....

.....and the announcement I hear you ask.  Well, I'm absolutely delighted to tell you that I've been asked to join the lovely Sheena's Design Team and what do you think I said?  I can tell you that I'm still doing the happy dance and really looking forward to working with all the wonderful designs, many of which I already own because I think she is such a talented lady.  If you think that all she does is Paint Fusion then follow the link above and find out just how diverse the range is.

Well, tomorrow we'll be taking the High Road (or the Low Road - not sure which yet) up to Bonny Scotland for a week's relaxation, walking and eating (not necessarily in that order) but I may well be posting some more card samples from the far North.  At least the midges won't have hatched yet!

Thank you for looking today.

Hugs

Quick Valentine's Day Card

Good morning,  peeps and I’m saying this from the edge of the Northumberland National Park where we are just coming to the end of a lovely week’s holiday!  Time to go home tomorrow and it looks like there’s snow in Yorkshire so it could be an interesting journey home!

This week the challenge over at Polka Doodles is to make a quick Valentine’s Day card.  As you know, quick cards are not part of my vocabulary since I can spend many hours just colouring an image so this was a challenging challenge for me.  However, Polka Doodles CDs came to the rescue and this is what we produced together:

 

The main image was taken from the Double Sprinkles of Kraft CD and I just love the misty hear images that blend in with the clouds in this.  The words are taken from the Love and Cherish CD, as is the background paper.  There are so many wonderful images and sentiments on both of these CDs that I was almost spoiled for choice and if you’re looking for inspiration for any romantic occasion, especially wedding, then I would heartily recommend the Love and Cherish CD.  The Double Sprinkles of Kraft CD has something for every occasion.

I do hope you’ll join us for this latest challenge and get making some of those Valentine cards.  You can even collect a free digi image to use in enetering the challenge so that's an even more powerful reason to join us!  I just have to come up with something for Valentine's Day for my lovely hubby not because he’s seen this one!

Thank you for looking today and keep warm!

Hugs