P is for Poppy

At last I have managed to find time to finish my altered dictionary for The Craft Barn's Alpha Challenge letter "P".  I don't know where the time goes, two weeks have flown by so today has been busy catching up on a few things including my dictionary page.  My "P" word is poppy, Poppy Day, poppies in wheat fields, and Monet's poppy field paintings came to mind, these were the ideas in my mind and this is what I came up with.. 

The word poppy was highlighted with a black pen, I drew a "P" on vellum and cut round it and printed a picture of a Remembrance Day crossstitch on vellum too.  The picture was placed below the word Poppy Day and the "P" above the word Poppy, the poppies were printed, coloured and fussy cut to place round the page.  The background was coloured with DIs in scattered straw, broken china and a little crushed olive.

The opposite page looked bare so I painted a few poppies in a corn field, to bring in my thoughts on poppies growing in fields of wheat.  Not my best page but I have had fun playing around with it today.

Spring Greens

Good morning everyone, hope the weather where you are is not too bad, and if it is that you are safe and warm keeping yourselves busy crafting. The weather here is dull and cold and I will be taking Poppy out on the beach as soon as I finish this post, I would prefer to stay in the warmth crafting but will get no peace until she has had here walk.

I was lucky enough to be picked  in the top three for the Scribbles Designs challenge last month and my reward was a digi download of my choice.  I picked Cool Carl who will be used for some of my mens' cards,  and as the challenge at Scribbles Designs this month is "Shades of Green - Easter" here is Carl's first outing on my spring greens card.

Using the Silhouette I made up the word Spring, making the S slightly larger so Carl had something to lean against.  The word was cut out using white linen card, coloured with squeezed lemonade and mowed lawn DIs, and stamped with  bullrushes and flowers using Craftwork Cards Graceful Grasses & Birdcages clear stamps.  Carl was printed directly onto a 15cm square card along with the "has sprung" sentiment and coloured with DIs, his classes were covered with glossy accents to give them a glass like appearance.  Once the glossy accent was dry I attached the word under Carl with 3D sticky fixers.

Jumping for Joy in the fairy wood

Good afternoon all you blogland ladies, I hope you are enjoying a little bit of sunshine today, at the moment it is streaming into my work room.  it may still be a little cold but it is lovely to see a little bit of sun.  Today, after a walk on the beach with Poppy the pup, I  finished my card for the Lavinia Stamps Blog Challenge, I have been trying to get this done for weeks but every time I started working on it something crops up, other projects but mainly the grandchildren.  My daughter-in-law has just passed some exams and I thought of her jumping for joy at passing, so this is going to be a congratulations card for her.  

 

To start the card I stamped the Pixie stamp in jet black Impress dye ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.  The background was coloured using DIs in squeezed lemonade, mowed lawn and peacock feathers with water flicked over to add some interest.  I bleached out the toadstool and other areas I wanted to colour and coloured them again using DIs. 

 

A square of card was dry embossed in the corners and an aperture cut out of the center.  This was coloured with the DIs keeping it lighter than the image background.  I added some embossing powders and a few sparkly flakes and bleached round the aperture for contrast.  The image was layered onto black card and the aperture layered over the image.  This was then attached to a 15cm square white card. 

I have two or three Lavinia stamps and will be making some more cards in different colours but this one was green because I have the greens out on my desk (lots of green this month due to St. Patricks day!), I did think the green was right for the pixie though.

 

Inspiration in pastel

 

The weeks are flying by and another Inspiration Monday over at The Crafty Bloggers Network Challenge Blog, there are some wonderful inspirational cards on show from the Design Team check them out HERE.  There are also some fab prizes, the sponsors this month are Just Some Lines Digital Stamps and Petal Lu flowers. 

This is my DT card using a Just Some Lines Digi stamp and some of those lovely Petal Lu flowers.  I wanted this card to represent the "pastel" element of the challenge, although the cute images make me think of Spring.

I have used Just Some Lines "Emo Hello World" to create a card and gift tag.  Both the card and tag were printed with the digi image which was then coloured with promarker pens.  The image  on the card was masked and an oval aperture set over it so I could stamp some script in clear embossing ink, this was heat embossed with clear embossing powder to create a resist effect when coloured.  The oval aperture was placed back over the image and the background was coloured using broken china DI and a blending tool.  I left the card plain and simple with just the greeting "treat yourself to a wonderful day", but the possibilities are endless for adding embellishments if postage is not an issue on the card.

The tag was made in the same way as the card using the resist technique, but reversing the aperture.  The beautiful Petal Lu flowers and pastel green and pink ribbon were added to finish the tag.

You still have until the end of the month to enter the challenge nd one more inspirational Monday next week to encourage you.

Hoppy Easter Bunny

Over at Papermill Direct there is a Hand Made Easter Project Challenge,  this is my entry, an Easter card for the grandchildren.

 

The digi image from Pink Petticoat (as are the pattern papers) was printed and coloured with watercolour crayons, cut out in an egg shape and edged with worn lipstick DI.  Patterned papers were matted and layered onto a 15cm white linen card which had been made from an A4 piece of linen card from, you guessed it, the Papermill Direct.  The egg shaped image was attached with sticky fixers and bent slightly so it domed on the page.  Various flowers and a bow were added to finish the card. 

This is the card for the girls, the boys' cards will have the little boy bunny on and boyish papers.

Must dash, another challenge that ends very shortly and I need to post my entry NOW!!

Fairies at the bottom of the garden

A new challenge for me, over at  the Just Some Lines Challenge Blog, the theme is fairies and they have a cute digi image you can use on your card.  I am cutting it close but The Charisma Cardz Challenge is a sketch and I want to enter this too.

 

Following the Charisma sketch I  stamped some script and flowers onto the individual layers and coloured them with DIs in broken china and arranged on the card.  Ran off the image from Just Some Lines, coloured with watercolour pencils, cut out and mounted onthe card with a doily at the back.  Printed "Fairies at the bottom of the garden" on the computer, cut it out and mounted it on the card. finished with some flowers from my stash.

Sorry if this is a bit rushed but I only have an hour to post for the Charisma challenge.  Still plenty of time left for the Just Some Lines if you want to take a look.

Circles and Lines with a touch of Green

Good morning blogland ladies, and may I take this opportunity to thank all you lovely ladies who have commented recently on my posts, they have all been great and much appreciated.  The days are flying by again and I am losing sight of some of the challenges I wanted to enter this month, over at Artful Times  it is "Spots and Stripes, Circles and Lines" and Anything But A Card have "Anything Green,  or Irish,  or St Patrick's Day". 

My challenge entry is a Green Birthday Tag with Spots and Stripes using the Euro Clown With Flower image from Rick St Denis. 

 The tag was coloured with DI in mowed lawn, I used my Artefacts three dot stamp  and stamped it in lines across the tag, I then ran the blender with some squeezed lemonade DI over the dots to create a lighter stripe.  The digi image was printed and cut out with an oval die, this was coloured and mounted with sticky fixers.  The greeting was printed on the computer, coloured, cut out and place on the tag.  The green dots had a look of a shamrock (call it artist interpretation!) so I added the greeny yellow beads to the center of each and attached some green cord to finish the tag.

 

One Layer of Spots and Stripes

Good morning ladies, followers new and old and friends who visit the blog occasionally.  The weather here is cold with an icy wind and a tiny bit of sunshine today,  I am warm and snug in my craft room posting one or two  blog challenges, did my crafting yesterday when the weather was, you guessed, wet, dull and cold!!

My third blog of the day is a card for the Simply Less Is More Challenge which is Spots and Stripes and a one layer card.  I was inspired by an article in one of my Craft Stamper Magazines for this card, the digi image fits the style perfectly and I really enjoyed the doodling and using the warm orange/yellow combo which makes the black stand out. The image is from Rick St Denis a digital image seller on Etsy, he has some fantastic digital images.  My altered dictionary (featured in my Alpha Challenge post) was inspired by a fantastic cat digi I found on this site.  Anyway less of the prattle and down to the card.

The digital image and the sentiment were printed directly onto a 15cm square card.  The image was doodled round with a black pen and the center (after masking the image) was coloured with DIs in squeezed lemonade and a little dried marigold,  the stripes on the image were coloured with a black pen and the flower and pompom with a little spiced marmalade DI.  I found a piece of die cut card with holes in and used this as a stencil to add a few circles in spiced marmalade.

I liked how this turned out and have made one or two more for some birthdays coming up soon, just moved each one around a little and personalised with a name so everyone gets a unique card.

Again not wonderful photos, just imagine the white whiter and the yellow/orange warmer! I tried to photograph it again today but the weather is not playing ball.

Spring into Inspiration Monday

The first Inspiration Monday of March over at the Crafty Bloggers Network  This month's challenge theme is Spring or pastel and the sponsors are Just Some Lines Digital Stamps and Petal Lu beautiful hand made flowers.  Why not pop over and take a look at the fabulous DT creations and have a look at this month's challenge.

Here is my DT card for this week's Inspiration Monday which I based on "Spring".
  

The image is Just Some Lines Digital Stamp Emo Springtime and the flowers are hand made by Petal Lu.  I started with a plain white linen card and printed the digital image directly onto it, the image was coloured with distress inks.  A circle was die cut from a piece of card slightly smaller than the card, stitched round the edge and attached to the card with sticky fixers.  The flowers were grouped together and fastened to the bottom of the aperture.  The sentiment was printed on the computer, cut to size and stitched round before attaching to the card and adding three crystals.

This is a narrow DL card featuring another image from Just Some Lines called Emo Hello World.   I have printed the card with the image and some additional flowers and leaves. The image was coloured with Promarker pens and Petal Lu flowers added over the printed flowers.   Unfortunately the photos are a little dark due to the dull weather and the flowers do not represent the correct colourings,  so pop over to Petal Lu and have a look at the beautiful flowers she has on offer, the colours are amazing.

There will be more inspiration from the Design Team next Monday.

 

A Wizard Idea For The Alpha Challenge

Have been trying to get on with my altered dictionary page this week but things have had to be put on hold, the grandchildren left their germs behind last weekend and I have been full of cold since Tuesday.   It did give me time to sit back and think about the word for The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge which is "M" but only words beginning with ma and me.  The word I came up with was magician.  I  have a fantastic digi stamp, bought to use on childrens' cards, which I have been wanting to use for some time but with such a detiled image what do I put with it??  This weekend has been great fun finishing the dictionary page and catching up on card making even though I still feel a little grotty.

The cat magician was printed onto a "ma" dictionary page which had the word magician towards the top, coloured it with DIs and gold and silver glamour dust. The intention was to leave the word showing when I cut out the magician but in the end it was fussy cut and stuck to the page just below the word magician which was highlighted with dark blue DI.  I drew a letter M with a few stars scattered about it and this too was coloured dark blue with silver stars.  When looking round for something to do with magic tricks I came upon some magic trick cards, none of which would go with the wizard style of the cat, but as luck would have it inside was the piece of vellum with the "Magic is believing in yourself" quote.
 

The "M" and the vellum quote were attached and although I tried to add other things, a bunny coming out of a top hat, playing cards etc, they all looked out of place, definately a case of less is more!!  So this is my Ma/Me Altered Dictionary page. 

On now to post some more work done over the weekend, it's going to be a busy day.

A Bunny and some Sugar and Spice

Last minute as always with my card for the  Simply Less is More Challenge, as the CASology Challenge cue card is Bunny I thought the two would go together for a sweet Mother's Day card.  I hadn't though about the colour challenge until I came across some lovely doilies and chintzy papers in my stash.  The bunny had been cut out to make my March tag for the 12 tags of 2013 over on Tim Holtz blog and as the cue card at CASology was "Bunny" I just had to use it, waste not want not and all that!  

 

The problem was making my mind up how to use my finds.  I started with a 15cm square pearlescent card and printed the Pink Petticoat greeting (Mother's Day sentiments).   A strip of Prima Botanicals paper was cut out  but it didn't look right just plonked on the card so I scored a piece of the pearlescent card top and bottom and fixed the paper in between. The strip was fastened to the card then layered with the Magnolia Doo Hickeys swirl , doily (Freebie) and rabbit.  A little bit of  worn lipstick DI on the rabbit and a little on the patterned paper, a rhinestud for bunny's eye, card finished.

Didn't think I would get anything done today but it's amazing how sorting through your stash kick starts you into action!

Hopping Along with a Tag for March

This month I wanted to get my Tim's 12 Tags of 2013 finished well before the end of the month so started it yesterday afternoon.  As usual I didn't have very many of the items Tim used but enjoyed improvising. 

I have been playing about with my Adirondack Inks and Dylusions Inks this week so the tag was coloured with these, yellow, green and mushroom and a smidge of turquoise were dropped onto a felt pad and dabbed onto the tag giving it a lovely stippled effect.  The bunny aperture and surround shape was cut with my Silhouette as were the butterflies and flowers.  Looking through my ribbon box I found some silver mesh and sparkly silver ribbon.  I combined these to back the bunny, a little cotton wool was placed behind to puff him out a little and some DI round the edges, then pink ribbon tied round. Bunny was placed on the tag with double sided sticky tape, the padded backing gives it a little height bringing it off the tag.

Bunny completed I moved on to the grass, this was hand cut from paper and coloured with Mown Lawn DI and two layers stuck to the tag and curled a little.  The flowers and butterflies were coloured with broken china, lemonade and lilac DIs and assembled.  A wire with a bead attached to the end was put through the center of each flower to make a stick pin to stick in the grass.  I printed a banner with Happy Easter, coloured with broken china DI and attached to the top of the card with two butterflies and finished with a blue satin ribbon.

 
Tim's Tag done, now to move on to the Craft Barn Alpha Challenge which is "M" (only words beginning with "ma" or "me"), still thinking about this one!!  

Red Hot Hugs and Kisses

 

Good morning everyone and a big hello to my new followers.  I had a good afternoon and evening crafting yesterday and am now more focused and getting on with my list of things to complete and projects to start.

Last night I managed to complete my card for the Scribbles Designs Challenge  "Shades of Red".   This is their second challenge, you have to use a Scribles Design Stamp on your card but this month they  have the balloon digi image for you to use if you don't have any of their digi stamps.

This is a very simple card, Me to You With Love papers in red and white were layered onto a square card blank, the image was copied into a desk top publishing program three times, moved around to form a bunch then printed on white  linen card.  The image was coloured with red promarker pens, mounted onto red card and attached to the card .   A computer generated sentiment was also mounted on red card and attached to the card.  A ribbon and crystals were added to finish.

Funny day here today, misty with a hint of sun peeking through, off to take the dog for a walk them back to finish my Tim Holtz tag for March 2013, hope to get it finished and posted by tomorrow.

Flowers for your twinchies this month

Twinchie time again, this month the theme is "Flower or Flowers".  Pop over to the "Show Us Your Twinchies" challenge blog and take a look at the other fabulous DT twinchies.  Come and join us in the challenge there is a cute LOTV Stamp up for grabs this month.

The above twinchies were created using LOTV stamps and coloured with chalks,  I love this very pretty set of stamps with the beautiful cherry blossom and cute characters.

 

The above two twinchies were made using embossing folders, die cut Chloe Stem and distress inks.

For these two I used glossy card and a brayer to colour smoothly.  The daisies, one a freebie the other Carol's Cube by Judikins were stamped and embossed.  The gerbera was stamped onto the pink background, embossed in gold and bleached to reveal some white in the center.  The daisy was also stamped and embossed in silver and the center coloured with ink. 

Come on ladies, join us in the challenge and "Show Us Your Twinchies"!

 

Spring Has Sprung....

Good morning followers old and new and all you lovelies out in blogland.  March has us thinking of Spring, or rather hoping the weather will start to brighten up a little.  The daffodils have pushed their heads through the cold ground to giving us a show of colour, they look so pretty and brighten up the garden on the dull days we are having.

So onto this month's challenge over at The Crafty Bloggers Network.  There are two sponsors this month, Just some Lines Digital Stamps and Petal Lu Flowers run by Lucinda Lucker, and the theme is Spring or Pastel.  Check out the Crafty Bloggers Network challenge page for more details on the sponsors, the challenge, and the fabulous DT Team cards.

 

Now on to my DT card featuring the cute "Happy Day" Just Some Lines image and the very pretty hand made Petal Lu flowers.

The edges of a 15cm square white card were rounded before attaching  patterned paper (from my stash, yet another freebie with a mag) and sewing round the edges. The butterfly and flower border was cut using my Silhouette and the Petal Lu flowers were added to give a Spring like appearance.  The dress was paper pieced with a piece of the patterned paper and the rest of the image coloured with promarkers, the edges were coloured with DI to match the distressing on the papers and sewn round before attaching to the card. the sentiment was printed on the computer and a butterfly drawn in the corner, this was sewn round and attached to the card.

Click here to pop over and check out the challenge.

The dull afternoon has changed into a beautiful sunny one, Spring must be on the way!! 

"H" is for a Safe Harbour

Another two weeks have flown by and this is my offering for the Craft Barn Alpha Challenge.  I would like to thank all you lovely ladies who have left me comments on my Alpha pages your comments are alway appreciated.

The letter for this page is "H" and my chosen word is "Harbour". There was  some indecision here, I nearly went with hair, then Halloween but eventually decided on "Harbour".  I used my Michael Powell stamps "Harbour Master" and "Harbourside", and some photos I took when on holiday whilst walking on the harbour side.

 
A black line was drawn round the definition then I decided to add a little rope round it and added an anchor just for fun.  Not sure if this is a good idea I do want to be able to close the dictionary so too many embellishments may not be a good idea!
 

 

I stamped the lighthouse stamp next to the definition and coloured it with promarker pens.  The "H" was cut out and stamped with part of the Harbour Side stamp and coloured, I then stamped part of this stamp above the definition and mounted the "H" over it.  A  few seagulls and the word "harbour" were added to, finish off the page I printed two photographs onto paper and hand coloured them to make them more like the stamps.