Sneaky peeks - part the second!

Good morning, peeps!  A really good morning it is too - the sun is shining so brightly I've had to draw the curtains to see the computer screen!

I thought I'd show you a different flower today from Sheena's new 'Little Bit Floral' series of stamps that go on sale on Create and Craft on Saturday.

The botanically minded amongst you will know that this is an iris and the stamp is just a single flower, which makes it really versatile because I've just used a mask and stamped three times to create a little group.  As with yesterday's card, I've painted the images with Twinkling H2Os to create this shimmery plant portrait.  I'm sure that some of my teamies will have been much more creative with techniques but when I see a realistic flower image, my mind automatically goes to botanical illustration techniques.  It's one of those areas of art that I would do lots of if I had the time - TIME - yeah, that would be a novelty then!  The metallic corners I'm fairly sure came from Wild Orchid Crafts and the card itself is actually white not the wavy green colour it looks here!  (that new camera is getting closer methinks!)

Anyhoo, just to prove that I can sometimes be a little more adventurous using different techniques with flower images, here is that dahlia image I showed you yesterday looking a little different:

The dahlias are embossed with WOW Black Glint Embossing Powder over a background produced with Distress Inks in Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon and Picked Raspberry.  I flicked water splashes over it and lifted the colour off using kitchen paper then sponged three colours of Twinkling H2Os over the top but I'm afraid I can't remember which colours I used for that.  There were little pots of lovely colour all over my desk!!  I've used the dahlia word in the background to the panels.

I hope you like them and will join me tuning into Create and Craft to watch Sheena on Saturday .  The show times are still showing as 9.00 a.m., 12 noon, 4.00 p.m. and 8.00 p.m. AND the stamps are part of a half price event!!

Thank you for looking today.

Hugs

Wedding Card with a Difference

Good morning, peeps and I'm back with a new Polka Doodles Challenge, which is to create a Wedding Card with a Difference.  Here's my example:

To join us in this challenge, your card must have something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue so now I must explain to you how my card fits these criteria!

Something old - I used the PD Love and Cherish CD, which has been around for a while now but is absolutely invaluable for any 'loving' occasion and that's from where I took the central picture with the wedding rings.  The second thing in this category is the Spun Sugar DI used to distress the edges of the card.

Something new - I opened my new packets of Which Craft 'Additions', both the Rectangle and Squares and the Heart Toppers.  These are so useful when you need a quick but different card.

Something borrowed - similar to the above, in a way.  When I bought the Additions, there was a young lady demonstrating on the stand and she had used the Rectangle and Square Additions to make a twisted easel card so I 'borrowed' the idea from her - I hope this counts!!

Something blue - well this one's fairly obvious!  Firstly, there are blue hearts in the lovely paper on the base of the card, which was one of those on the CD that was part of Pen and Paper Circle Issue 2 - not available now but at least you can pre-order issue 3!  I then picked up that blue in the flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts.  The lovely leaves underneath the flowers were cut with a Marianne Creatables Die.  This is a die I use fairly frequently because I do love the swirly style of it.

The ticket sentiment is from the Sugarplum Daisy CD.  There's a wonderful selection of these sentiments - one for every occasion and I just love them!

Well, I hope you like my wedding card with a difference and that it's helped to inspire you to make your own and join in the challenge fun!

Thank you for looking today.

Hugs

This may be the last one....

Good afternoon, peeps - or is it evening?  Anyhoo, I know I'm being a bit late today with showing you another sneaky peek at another of the lovely Sheena's new stamp designs:

The images on this card are from the 50s plate.  They're coloured with my beloved Copics, mounted over some Craft Creations DP and finished off with some poppies from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Why might it be the last one?  Well the stamps are being launched on Saturday so it's not long at all now until you'll see all the cards from the whole DT on the telly and I may not get to post another one tomorrow.

Whatever you're doing tomorrow, enjoy it and don't miss Sheena's shows over the weekend.

Hugs

Tilda's in the Strawberry Patch

Good morning, peeps!  Have you dried out yet? - what dreadful weather we had yesterday and I know some people are really suffering so, if you're one of them, I hope the water is going away.

Well, over at Polka Doodles we're having a Red and White Challenge to mark St George's Day next Monday so I printed some wonderful red and white paper from the fabulous Sugar Plum Daisy CD (doesn't it remind you of strawberry flowers?) and then created this little scene for Tilda to play in:

I'm not sure those red and white toadstools would be growing  so close to the strawberries but, hey! it works in card-land!  The whole thing was, of course, coloured with Copics and Prisma Pencils and I must say it was great to get back to some colouring.

I added the 'strawberry leaves'using a Marianne Designs die - one of my faves and made up the strawberry flowers using an EK Success Small Retro Flower Punch.  It seems you have to be somewhat eagle eyed to spot one of these but they are around if you search and it's one of the most useful punches in my collection - I just cut a small notch out of the end of each petal to change the shape slightly.  Go here on this blog to see a little tutorial on how to make these flowers with colour added.

I also added another Marianne Designs die, this time LR051, shaped as a vine and a little spray of flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts to add a little depth to the scene.  Some ribbon from my stash was the finishing touch.

Whilst we're on ared and white theme, if there are any of you lovely peeps that knit, please take a peek at this post from the very talented Dawny P about the poor Fish and Chip Babies in Africa and see if you can help.  I've knitted this little contribution in red and there's another blue one on my needles as I type.  They knit up in a flash and are so easy to make - I'll be adding more to the collection as the weeks pass.

Thanks again for looking today and I do hope you'll join in the challenge with us to celebrate the slaying of the dragon!!

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

Apple Harvest

Good morning, peeps!

Apple Harvest - is it that time already? Well it is on my card for the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge this week, where we are challenged to use a sketch inspired by Korin Sutherland and here it is:



and this is what I produced for it:



I'm ashamed to say that I've had this lovely image of Mimosa with Apple Basket for the better part of a year and this is the first time she's seen ink! If you like her, she's available here at Bunny Zoe's Crafts with an amazing 25% off the normal price! She still looks as pretty as when I bought her and I really enjoyed the colouring, on which I spent hours - literally! Everyone says how therapeutic colouring is and I certainly find it so and I never get bored when I'm colouring or try to find an excuse to do something else (I'm sure you all know what I mean!). You may have noticed that I still stamped the image in Memento London Fog after I said in a previous post that I thought I might go over to using black for the outline. Immediately after I posted that, I noticed a trend amongst many artists to work with a light outline so I'm still persevering with that but I think I need to get more definition into the lighter areas like the skin and blonde hair so that these areas don't fade into the background - more practise is required.

Our sponsor this week is Sweet and Sassy Stamps so do come and join in this wonderful challenge. The sketch is a great one to work with and I can see myself using it again sometime.

If you're wondering what happened about the wallet damaging trip to find a new car for me, I'm now the proud owner of a 3 year old Smart car, whose name is Black Bess so no prizes for guessing what colour it is then! I'm still getting used to driving her and it's weird not having a clutch but it gets better with every trip.

Anyhoo, here's the recipe for the card:

Recipe

Stamp: Bildmalarna 'Mimosa with Apple Basket'
Sentiment: Pink Petticoat Curly Girly Sentiments
DPs: Basic Grey 'Sweet Threads' (one of my current faves!)and the dotty one is from Polka Doodles CD 'Sundae of Seasons'
Flowers & Stamens: Wild Orchid Crafts
Lace: from my stash
Leaves: Magnolia Doo Hickey Die
Copics:
Skin: E000, E00, E01, E21, R20, R11, R30
Hair: E50, E51, E53, E55
Dress & wellies: R21, R22, R35, R37, R59. The wellies have Glossy Accents added.
Petticoat: R81, R83, R85, RV0000
Grass & apples: G20, G40, YG11, YG93. The apples have Glossy Accents added.
Basket: E40, E41, E42, E43
The 'sky' effect behind Mimosa was added with Prisma Pencils blended with Sansodor.

Have a great weekend, whatever you have planned!

Hugs

My fave embellies!

Good morning, peeps!

Well, it's Friday aagain and time for another Fussy and Fancy Challenge, which is to use a lot (meaning 3 or more) of your favourite embellies. Well I don't think there'll be any prizes for guessing that mine are flowers and this card is something of a flower fest, as you can see!



I think it's not just the flowers, although I do love them for themselves, but it's the process of putting the arrangement together and seeing how they absolutely transform a card whether there are lots or just a few.

Having said that, pearls are another fave of mine so they're on here as a sort of supporting act!

The image I've used here is from Lili of the Valley and it's called 'Summer Days' (the sentiment is from them too). It was my out and out favourite from the June release of their new designs and this is thefirst time it's seen ink. I've stamped it with Memento London Fog ink, which I've long preferred because it gives the impression of a pencil drawn image but the card is sitting on my desk beside me to next to another card that I'll be posting shortly which has the images stamped in black and I think I'm starting to prefer the greater definition that the black outline gives. Looks like there's a change coming in my cards, peeps!

Do come and join us over at Fussy and Fancy Challenge this time, there are two prizes from our wonderful sponsors Digis with Attitude and Inspired Stamps so get out your fave embellies and see what you can create!

I used so many pens to colour this image that I didn't keep a note of them all but I'll put what I can remember below:

Recipe:

DPs: Prima 'Sweet Fairy'
Pearls: The Hobby House
Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts
Leaves: Woodware punch
Sky: Tumbled Glass DI
Copics:
Skin: E000, E00, E21, R11, R20
Hair: E50, E51, E53, E55 (blonde) E21, E23, E25, E27 (brown)
Pinks: R81, R83, R85
Purples: V12, V15
Greens: YG01, YG03, YG17, YG25, YG95, G20
Blues: Promarker Cool Aqua

Well, that's all for this post, peeps - can you believe that I have another one to make today so is this a record or what?!!

See you later!

Hugs

A card for a child

Good morning, peeps! Yep, that's the title of the current challenge over at Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge at the moment. I couldn't get my card ready in time for the first DT group so one of my kind teamies stepped in for me and I'm part of the second week's team for this challenge. Anyhoo, it got me thinking about what appealed to me as a small child and it was definitely a fantasy word of fairies and fairytales - so what's changed I hear you say!! Here she is surrounded by her fairytale land(provided via a bit of masking):

I think this could be a Fairy Godmother Tilda .... in my imagination anyway. She's coloured with Copics and Prismas and the rest of the 'recipe' is below. I hope you have a wonderful day whatever you decide to do with it. I have a sample card for next week's class to finish then, later on, I'm assisting in the moving of (some of) my hubby's office from the dining room table to a proper office. Whoop, whoop - I may even see it's (sometimes) polished surface again and not have to move piles of paper every evening to eat supper! I live in hope!

Recipe:

DP: First Edition 'Spring Feast' Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts Die cut leaves: Marianne Creatables Forest Branch Punches: EK Success small Retro Flower punch and Leonie Em Maidenhair Fern Pearls and other bling: The Hobby House Sentiment: LOTV Hugs

From the birds

Good morning, peeps! The sun is shining, the birds are singing and I hope it's a wonderful morning wherever you are as well!

Speaking of birds, as you can see, they're involved in my sample card for this week's challenge over at Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge this week. The challenge is actually to include either a feather or a zipper in your project and it's sponsored by Robyn's Fetish Digi Stamps who have provided the lovely bird house and flower image that's part of the little scene I've created. By entering the challenge, you could win 5 of Robyn's wonderful digi images or 4 images and 1 digi design paper so let's see your projects with feathers or zippers!
The DP on my card is from the Memory Box 'Gossamer' pad and the swirls are cut from a scrap of anonymous DP with my new Tim Holtz 'Elegant Flourishes' die that I got at the Harrogate Show. The images are coloured with Copics and Promarkers and I actually made a note of which ones, yay! so they're at the bottom of this post. The sky and clouds were created with Prismas and I also used the pencils to deepen the shadows. The tag and sentiment is another new purchase from Harrogate, this time from Lili of the Valley and it's from their new Additions range. The pearl brad that's holding the tag in place is from the Hobby House. The feather that the birds have dropped down for Tilda is from my stash and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. The chubby birds are a Magnolia image and they may be a little optimistic if they think they're going to squeeze their way into that bird house!
Well I think that's all from me this morning and I'm off to get my hair cut shortly then food shopping and back to work on Clarity design team cards for the show on Create and Craft TV on 3 April. Got lots to do on that front!
I'm doing a demo day at Samuel Taylor in Brighouse tomorrow so maybe I'll see you there.
Thanks for visiting me today and enjoy the sunshine if you have it!

Copics and Promarkers used:

Skin: E000, E00, E01, E21, R11, R20
Hair: E25, E33, E47, E49
Dress: Promarker Pale Pink, Dusky Rose, Antique Pink
Basket & shoes: E40, E41, E42
Birds: Promarker Tea Green, Grey Green, Copics Y00, Y02, Y21, R00
Birdhouse: E44, E47, E49, Y00, Y02
Flowers: V91, V93, V95, YG03, YG25 the same Promarkers as Tilda's dress and also Pear Green

Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge #30 - Sweet Treats

Good morning, peeps! Here I am, back again with another challenge and this one got my little grey cells working because the team over at the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge want us to use something edible on our project or to go with our project. Anyhoo, this is what I came up with:

Yes, it's the familiar, impossible to photograph successfully, easel card! I decided to make this one separately from the shaped box that holds the Cadbury's Mini Eggs (I love these things - wasn't I strong not to eat them?) for reasons that escape me now and I'm thinking that maybe the card should have been the top of the box. Oh well, it's made now and I can always make something similar another time and for a different occasion. Tilda is writing her diary sitting on top of a lovely heart shaped cushion, which is an image from our generous sponsor, Lauretta's Digital Stamps. This one is called 'Heart' and it's perfect for any of your sitting characters. Why not pay Lauretta a visit and see the other lovely images?

I think you can see the image better in this front view but taking photos is quite a challenge at the moment with the dull and gloomy weather - hurry up Spring! Tilda is coloured with Copics and Prismas and the heart is coloured with Copics only. The papers are from the K & Co McKenna pad, pearl brad from The Hobby House and the ribbon is from my stash. The card shape and box are cut from Nesties Labels Eight and the tag for the sentiment is also a Nestie shape. The sentiment itself is from Pink Petticoat Girly Curly Sentiment Collection and it says 'you make life sweet' - perfect for this project, don't you think? The distressing was done with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink and the flowers are, of course, from Wild Orchid Crafts. Copics used: Skin: E000, E01, E21 R11, R20 and Promarker Satin Hair: E50, E51 E53, E55, E33 Dress, socks and ribbon on the cushion: R81, R83, R85 Lace on the dress, RV000, R000 Diary cover: YG93, YG95 Diary pages: E40, E41, E42 Heart cushion: E50, E51, E53 Well, I hope you like my little sweet treat and I'll be back again soon with another project. In the meantime, do come and join with us for this challenge and make your own sweet treat. I'm teaching a class at my local craft shop tomorrow morning and the project is a Tim Holtz style tag book so my work desk is currently covered in Distress Crackle paints, Adirondack Dabbers, Distress inks, etc., etc. Projects after the style of the talented Tim used to be all I produced - how times change and now all I really want to do is colour. Anyhoo, wish me luck with the workshop, peeps!

A frog he would a-wooing go....

...leastways, that's how it looks to me!


Good afternoon peeps! and how is your Thursday going? I hope it's a good one for all of you!
This card is for the new challenge over at Digi Doodle Shop's Best this week, which is to make a project suitabe for Valentine's Day and I do hope you'll come and join us - there's a wonderful $10 gift certificate up for grabs that you can spend in the shop here, where you will also find the image I've used on my card - it's called 'Love Frogs' and it was quite a popular choice with the DT, as you'll see from the Challenge Blog and who can blame them? What a fun image it is and really easy to colour!
After I'd finished the colouring (Copic colours below) and drawn in the pond and the reeds behind, I realised that I'd basically created a red and green colour scheme. (My work doesn't often have a careful plan like some of you talented peeps out there - it just 'develops'!) So, the obvioous place to go looking for DP's was my Christmas box and this is just a random selection taken from my stash there, likewise the ribbon. The lace was cut with my Magnolia Doo Hickey Die and the heart shape was cut with a Sizzix Original die. The sentiment is computer generated and then cut out using the Sizzix shape as a template. The distressing on the heart is Barn Door Distress Ink. The leaves are cut with a McGill punch and the flowers are all from Wild Orchid Crafts.
Copics used:
Frogs: YG01, YG03, YG25, YG17
Lily pads & reeds: YG91, YG93, YG95, YG97
Pond: BG10, BG72, BG75, BG78
Sky: B000
Frog's lips and bow: R20, R22
Hearts: R29
Well, that's all from me today. I'll be back tomorrow with another challenge but, in the meantime, I'm also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Challenge which is 'Love is in the Air' and the Papertake Weekly Challenge, which is 'Anything Goes' with an optional extra of flowers. Also, Cute Card Thursday Challenge 150, which is to 'Banish the Blues' - they're looking for humour and Bunny Zoe's Challenge, which is also 'Love is in the Air'.

New beginnings

Good morning, peeps! Yes, that's the title of our challenge this week over at Digi Doodle Shop's Best and this is my card for the challenge:


This wonderful image is called 'Sleeping Infant' and can be bought here at the Digi Doodle Shop store and don't forget that all images are reduced by 50% for December, so grab a bargain while you can!
I have three young friends who are all pregnant at the moment so I think the odds are in favour that at least one will be a cute little baby girl just like this one!
I followed the sketch over on Sketch Saturday this week, so I'll be entering this card for that challenge too.
The DPs are from the Prima 'Jack and Jill' pad, which was given to me as a birthday prezzie by my good friend, Alison, mwah, mwah, hun! I must say that I think that Prima have come up with some fabulous papers recently and you may have noticed that they're making fairly regular appearances lately on my cards!
I coloured the image with Copics (numbers later) and the cute greeting is from Pink Petticoat and this set has been a fabulous investment!
The flowers are, of course, from Wild Orchid Crafts and the leaves were punched with a McGill punch.
I do hope you'll join us for the challenge this week and do stay warm and safe - we have such cold, horrible weather here in the UK at the mo .
Copics:
Pillow: B000, B00, B12
Sleeping suit and hat: R00, R11, R20, R22
Leaves and ribbon: YG11, YG03
Skin: E000, E00, E21, R11, R20
and I used Prismas for the shadow.

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!

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