Hi Karate!!

Sorry if the title has brought back bad memories of that aftershave from the 80's - but couldn't think of a better title!! Had a very productive day today. Spent the morning tidying the garden, and planting some more seeds. Unfortunately a mouse has got into the shed again (happened last year too) and decided to much on my seed potatoes that were chitting. Oh well - not much I can do about it - will just have to try to mouse proof things as best as I can.  

And then this afternoon I decided to start making some decisions over the website issue. I have spent some time updating it in terms of the stock, and sorted out all the junk email. But I still don't know whether I want to continue with it. It's not been that successful - but maybe that is because I have just not promoted it well. I have a load of stock that I want to shift - so maybe I need to have an on-line sale!! Ah well - something to ponder another day. 

Anyway, you may have worked out that the theme of this card is Karate. My brother-in-law (along with my youngest niece) is into his karate. So I had a look around and found this digi image called Karate Kirk from Scrapping Memories. 

I coloured him in with Promarkers: Skin = Almond, Ivory, Blush; hair = Eggnog, Daffodil Bloom, Pastel Yellow; the bench = Henna, Terracotta, Cool Grey 1,2,4; and Black for the other bits and bobs.

I cut it out with a Spellbinders Long Scalloped Rectangle and inked whilst still in the die. This was matted onto black card from my stash, and straw coloured Bazzill card. The textured silver paper is from Papermill. I used an insert from the Spellbinder Classic Postage Stamp Edgeabilities to cut the circular pattern from the silver and black layers. The letters were cut using my XCut Roma alphabet die and made sticky with my little Xyron.

Passion for Promarkers have a challenge this week which is 'Make it Digital' - ie to use something digital - be it an image, paper etc. So, as dear old Kirk is digi, I am going to enter this into their challenge. 

And I Love Promarkers challenge for this week is to Use A Die Cut - so hopefully my Spellbinders Nestabilities and Edgeabilties, along with the XCut Alphabet die will count there.

See you soon,

Cxxxx

A little more melt pot!!

Good morning - and another week has started. We're almost into March - where is the time going. Just a quick post today. This is a card that that I have put together - and incorporated things made with my lovely melt pot! 

I started out with a piece of mountboard, as I knew I wanted to apply some wet stuff - and didn't want the card front buckling. I have used black mirror card, on top of which is a piece of Papermania card (been in my stash a very long time). It was a 12x12 sheet of double sided card - one side is very vintage pearly pink, and the other is the stripes. So, having layered all this onto the mountboard,  I then took some Deco Mache paper (Pink Roses) and a few pieces of the Papermania card and applied them to the corners with Indigo Blu Slap It On Matte. I painted the whole of the front with the same medium to ensure the texture looked the same.

When it was dry, I used a craft knife to cut along the outside of the largest black mat - so you can't see the mountboard underneath on the finished card.

Next, I used a La Blanche flourish stamp with Indigo Blu Flitterglue, and stamped around the edges. I then applied some black foil. The foil didn't adhere to all of the glue - so I filled in the gaps with some gilding flakes (Crafty Notions - Variegated Red).

The four matching flowers were cut from the same Papermania card, with a Spellbinders Bitty Blossom die. Once rolled and stuck, I dunked them into clear UTEE in my melt pot for the faux porcelain look. 

I then added a whole cocktail of UTEE into the pot - including Lava Black, Tropic Pearl, Black - and also some old Do Crafts red embossing powder. The diamond shapes were made using Spellbinders square bezels as moulds. The flower that sits on top of the larger diamond was from a second mixing in the melt pot - and of course the colours never come out the same. For this one I used a little silicone chocolate mould. 

This is a close up of the large diamond, as the photo of the whole card doesn't do justice to the colours. It sits on top of three layers of ribbon from my stash - black, olive green and white.

I would like to enter this into:
Pumpkin Spice - Flowers

Digi Designs Challenge Blog - Tic Tac Toe - Embossing (hopefully UTEE counts?), Ribbon, Flowers

So, that's that for today. Be back soon.

Cxxx

Bright and cheerful!!

Bright and cheerful sums up a lot of things for me today!! The weather is definitely brighter - which always makes me cheerful! And today's parkrun was brilliant - not just because of the fab weather - but because I smashed my personal best by 45 seconds!! So that has also made me cheerful!! And things are starting to grow in my greenhouse - I just love it when those green shoots start pushing through!! 

And alongside all of the great new growth in there, my long suffering fuchsias are holding their own! They do end up fending a little for themselves over the worst of the winter - but they seem to have got used to being dumped in the greenhouse - and always come out bright and cheerful in the spring. Which leads me to today's card. Definately bright!! And hopefully cheerful!! 

My fuchsias have given me the inspiration for taking part in I love Promarkers challenge this week. It's a sketch challenge - and I really love the layout. Added incentive is that they are sponsored this week by Just Inklined - and I am becoming very fond of their digi stamps (remember my Shoes and Handbag card from a few weeks ago?). 

I have used a freebie digi from Just Inklined called (no surprise) Fuchsia!! I've not really coloured flowers in with my Promarkers before, but thought I would give it a go! I stuck to very traditional fuchsia colours - the candy pink and dark purple variety!! The colours I used are: Carmine, Cerise, Baby Pink, Sugar Plum, Aubergine, Amethyst, Olive Green, Marsh Green, Apple Cider, Green Shoot, Lime Zest, Soft Lime, Denim Blue and Pastel Blue. I cut the image out with the large circle from Crafter's Companion Chantilly Lace Stamping Frame set. 

The purple base card is from my local market - and I embossed the whole sheet with my Grand MBossabilities folder to give it texture. I then inked over the raised areas with Seedless Preserves DI, before scoring with my Ultimate. The pink circle is cut from C&C Texture Effect card with large Chantilly Stamping Frame, and inked with Worn Lipstick DI. This was mounted onto more purple card as I wanted it to show through. I decided to add some more layers between the image and frame, and used two Spellbinders dies - a circle, and a Lacy circle. The yellowy/green card is Bazzill - as is the light blue. I embossed the purple circle with the bottom part of CC's  Embossabilities Elegance folder, and inked with DI.

To create the strips at the top and bottom, I used Spellbinders Triple Scallop Edgeabilities to cut the yellowy/green card, embossed with CC's Regency Swirl folder and inked with Crushed Olive DI. The pink card was cut with two of the inserts from the Edgeabilities Decorative Inserts 6, and backed with more purple card. The finishing touches include Glossy Accents, Cosmic Shimmer Aqua Twinkles, Card Candy and two butterflies from the waste of the border. 

So, I would like to enter this into:

I love Promarkers - Follow this Sketch

See you soon,

Cxx

Ooh La La!!

Ooh La La indeed!! Thanks to everyone who entered into my Challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers and More! There were 125 cards entered - so I have had a busy fortnight visiting and commenting on 125 blog posts! There were loads of fabulous creations - I could have had a top 10 instead of just a top 5. Please pop over the to the blog to see who the winners of the prizes were - and who made my agonized-over top 5. 

There's a new challenge starting today, hosted by the lovely Viv. The theme for the next two weeks is 'Come Fly With Me' - so she would like to see something bird or bird related as the main focal image of your project. Hobby Art and Di's Digi Stamps are kindly sponsoring this time.

My card today is not for the challenge, but a 6" square boxed card that was a commission. I was asked for something with shoes - and my Ooh La La Shoes in Bloom CD came to mind. So I asked what her favourite flowers were  - and it was poppies!! Once I found the image, the colours kind of took care of themselves. I was worried at first that they were a little bright - but the person who asked me to make it, absolutely loved it - as did her sister!!

I started with a large piece of red Centura Pearl card (The Range) which I used for the base card, the box, and for matting and layering. The green mottled DP is from an old Brenda Pinnick pad, and the the black is from my stash. I embossed the red mat with Crafters Companion Embossalicious 8x8 Elegance folder, and cut the fancy green mat with Spellbinders Decorative Labels 27.

The red satin and green gingham ribbons are from my stash, the letters and numbers cut with XCut dies, the black hat pins are from Creative Expressions, I glitzed up the shoes with some Cosmic Shimmer Aqua Twinkles to make them glittery, and added a few gems.

I used more images from the CD to create the insert for the card.

For the box, I scored the base and lid with my Crafters Companion Ultimate Pro - always get a perfect result! The decoration on the box lid is identical to the card itself, whilst the inside has a different Brenda Pinnick paper, a smaller version of the topper, and the red mat is embossed with the Embosallicious 6x6 Florabunda folder.

I would like to enter this into the following:

The ABC Challenge - F is for Flowers
The Crafting Cafe - Embossing

See you soon

Cxxxx

Double Trouble!!

Goodness me - what a day!! The rain hasn't let up all - have just seen on Twitter that Dorset was one of the wettest spots in the country today - with 31mm of rain in 12 hours!! A lot of schools had staff training days today - my nieces included. So I started my day with a 2 mile rain run accompanied by my 13 year old niece. Her fitness is improving so much - and today she ran the whole time without stopping. And more importantly without moaning or whinging!! Also had a lovely pub lunch with my parents and both nieces!! But now I'm sitting writing this, listening to the wind howling, and hoping that the trees at the bottom of the garden are still standing in the morning. A panel has already come out of the greenhouse and the garden is flooded. We're nowhere near as bad as a lot of people - so have to count our blessings. 

Anyway, onto crafty stuff. These are the cards I made for my the second birthday of my friend's twins. They are the most gorgeous pair - and I love spending time with them. But they can be a pair of pickles when they put their minds to it! Hence - double trouble!!

The toppers are from the Kanban Birth and Celebration set called 'Babies Cuddly Friends'. I love the natural colours of the toppers and stuck to the beige/kraft and cream tones for both cards. 

The base card is Papermill Buff (Kraft), whilst the decorative piece is from the matching cardstock in the set. The Mink Centura Pearl strips and mats are embossed with Grand MBossabilities Dainty Dots folder.

On Harley's card, I used the Teddy topper. The strip of Centura Pearl was wrapped with a wide cream satin ribbon, and a thinner brown ribbon with gold stars. I also chose darker brown and caramel tones of buttons from my stash. The original buttons from the patterned card were glazed with Glossy Accents, as were the Teddy's ears and eyes.

For Layla's card, I used the Rabbit topper, and kept the colours lighter. On the Centura Pearl strip. I layed a piece of spotty cream ribbon next to some cream grosgrain. And the buttons were all cream and beige tones. As well as the buttons on the card, I also glazed the heart balloons.

For both cards, I cut the number and letters with XCut dies.

I would like to enter these cards into:

Penny's Paper Crafty Challenges - Monochrome (hope this counts)
Simon Says Stamp - Get Krafty (base card is Kraft)

Back soon,

Cxxxx

Reasons to be cheerful ......

ONE:   I am really excited because the card I posted at the beginning of the month - the 'Shoes and Handbags' one - well, it was picked as one of the top 5 cards on the Passion for Promarkers Challenge blog that I entered it into!! My colouring skills must be improving, as there were 176 entries!! Have added my new badge over there ----------->> on the right!!

TWO:  This is my 150th blog post. OK - a bit random, but a little milestone for me. 

THREE: It's not raining and my greenhouse heater is working again - so will be all systems go in there later this week!

Moving on!! This is a card I made for my friend's little girl. The topper is from the Kanban -Sugar Buttons - Fairy Friends sheet! The base card is gold pearlescent card that I found at my local craft stall at Wimborne Market. I have never found it anywhere else - so if she has it in when I visit, then I have to stock up.

I matted the image onto a Spellbinders scalloped oval, cut from the gold. The pink stripe card used for the front mat, and the pink textured card used for the back mat, are also from the same craft stall (great value at 10 pick and mix sheets for £1). The pink flowery DP is of unknown origin - was lurking in my scraps box!! The silk and organza ribbons are form my (extensive) stash, as are the clear gems and little silk flowers. The letters were cut using my XCut Roma Alphabet die.

Don't forget that we still have our 'This is a Man's World' Challenge running over at Crafty Cardmakers and More. I am hosting this one - and have visited over 50 blogs already, looking at the amazing creations people have come up with. There is still time to get your entries is - it runs until this coming Sunday!! So get creating!!

I would like to enter my card into the following:

Come and Get It Challenge - Make It Girly

Back soon!!
Cxxxx

My Valentine!!

I have decided to go with some pretty unconventional colours for my husband's Valentine's card this year. I've got a thing about blue and green at the moment (the previous two posts have also had this colour combination!)- and couldn't tear myself away from it. So, here it is:

The image is from Pink Gem Designs - called Flower Heart. It comes in four colour ways - black, black outline, coffee and pink. I used the PNG versions to layer a black outline stamp on top of a black stamp. I then took my Promarkers and coloured the edges with Marine and the flowers with Green Shoot. This was cut out with the largest of my XCut heart nesting dies.

At this point, I decided it needed more height, so printed the image again twice - this time onto Papermill Spring Green card. I fussy cut out a layer slightly smaller than the original, and also the three largest flowers. Initially I was just going to leave them like that, but decided to colour over them with the Green Shoot pen - hence the slightly different colour in the middle. The centres of the flowers are coloured with Marine. I drew around the large heart die to create the Spring Green mat for the image to sit on. 

The base is made from a piece of Papermill Teal card. On top of this is the Spring Green embossed with Grand MBossabilites Dainty Dots. The next layer is Bazzill Bling, with a piece of DP from a cheap 6x6 Vintage paper pad. Another smaller piece of Bazzill Bling is topped with Spring Green embossed with Creative Expressions Cascading Hearts A4 embossing folder. 

The large piece across the centre is from a Create and Craft Textured effect pad. The ribbon is a green/gold colour. I was instantly drawn to it when looking through my ribbons, but then hummed and hawed about using it. Having exhausted all other possibilities (and believe me I have a very extensive ribbon stash) I somehow couldn't find anything else I liked better. The small hearts are cut using the smallest of the XCut Heart and Scalloped Heart nesting dies. The two buttons and the pearls are from my stash.

I finished off by stamping his name and 'love you' with Blue China DI onto scraps of the Spring Green.

As I said - very unconventional colours - maybe even a little jarring for some people. But I kind of like that - and I hope he will too.

I am entering this into Papermill's Valentine competition. He has promised me he won't look at my blog until after he has seen the card!! 

Cxx

CCM&M 109 - This is a man's world!!

Yay!!!! It's my turn to host the challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers and More!! And I have chosen 'This Is a Man's World' - so any project suitable for a boy or a man. We are sponsored by Flourish with a Bling - who have a wonderful $15 gift voucher on offer. And also by The Stamping Boutique. They are offering 3 images of the winner's choice - BUT if the winner has used one of their images, then this goes up to 4 images!! Get on over to their website to check out their fab digis!! 

So, we all tend to moan about making cards for the men and boys in our lives - me as much as anyone else. I've lost track of the variations of football themed cards I've managed to come up with over the years. But, in truth, there are some really fabulous images out there for male cards - we just need to look!! Check out the DT inspiration on the CCM&M blog to see what they all came up with.

I have used an image from our sponsors The Stamping Boutique called AJ the racing car driver. 

I already had the striped backing card in mind when I chose this image, so I cut a little sample, stuck it on a piece of card and then matched my Promarkers to it. From these base colours, I added in a few more for blending, some skin colours and the Warm Greys for shading and the tyres.

I made my A5 base card using a piece of brown card from my stash. Both patterned cards are from a very old 12x12 DCWV Spring Glitter Stack. I used more of the brown to matt and layer, along with a piece of white card from my stash onto which I mounted the image. The blue organza and brown satin ribbons are from my stash, as are the buttons (the greens are from the Papermania Sew Lovely range). I tied a little twine through the buttons for added interest. Finishing touches are Cosmic Shimmer Aqua Twinkles on the front of the car, and Glossy Accents on the headlights.

I am really looking forward to seeing what you all make - and am sure I will be busy visiting your blogs over the next couple of weeks.

I would like to enter this into:

Glitter n Sparkle  - Buttons

Send a Smile for Kids - For the Boys

Cxx

Shoes and Handbags

A friend asked me to make her a 40th birthday card to give to a friend. The theme I was given was 'shoes and handbags'. After a little bit of searching I came across the perfect thing in the Wedding section at Just Inklined - their Fashion Shoe and Wedding Purse digi stamps.

The feather effect on the back of the shoe, made me think of peacock feathers, so I decided to to for that kind of colour combination. To help me (and to give me an idea of the shading on a shoe), I made myself a mood board.

I started with using the PNG versions of both files, so I could place the bag slightly behind the shoe. The image was printed onto 300gsm Elegance card. I chose the following Promakers to colour the image:

These picture hopefully show the stages of colouring in the image. Am getting better at it - but still need a lot of practice. If you have any colouring advice or tips, please feel free to leave a comment on this post. 

And here is the finished card.

I used a 6" square base card, with a large green mat. The next layer of white is embossed with the XCut A4 Butterfly Pattern embossing folder, and edged with the Umber pen. The strip of mink card is Centura Pearl embossed with Grand MBossabilities Dainty Dots, and the blue layer is Bazzill Bling. I used a little Cosmic Shimmer Aqua Twinkles on the flowers, and the ribbons and pearls are from my stash. Finally the numbers were cut with XCut Roma Alphabet die set.

Passion for Promarkers have an 'Anything Goes' Challenge this week - so am going to enter this card.

And if you have dropped by and like what you see, please feel free to follow my blog. Leave a comment to let me know how you have signed up - either through Blogger or by email. I really appreciate your interest.

Be back soon!!

Cxxx