Higher….Higher!!

It’s time for a new Anything Goes challenge at Crafting From The Heart.  As usual, we’ve been lucky to have some great sponsors – Lacy Sunshine, Chi Chi Memories and The Stamping Chef!

I’ve don’t think I’ve ever used a Chi Chi Memories image before; difficult to believe as they are sooo cute!  I have used Summer Fun Girl for my DT make, pairing it with a branch from Tiddly Inks For The Birds.  With a little playing around, I was able to merge the two images in the Silhouette software, then cut the shape out as a whole.  I used ProMarkers to colour the image, with a Sakura Jelly Roll for the polka dots.

For the background, I just added some clouds that I had left over from my hot air balloon box card, to a piece of sky blue AC cardstock (which has a lovely texture to it).  I added a little shape to the clouds by popping some shadow to the edges and blending out; they are cut from a lovely piece of hammer embossed cardstock, so they have some good cloud texture too.  I attached the sky behind another piece of the hammer embossed card using 3D pads to give some depth and then added my image to the front of the circle aperture.  A little pink and white twine, with a pink and white polka button and pink seed beads finished it off!

It looks like it’s a week of firsts for me….my first Chi Chi Memories image and now, my first entry into the Muse Challenge.  Marion Vagg’s adorable owl makes good use of his branch (see below), as does the little girl in my image!  My white layer creates a frame around the image, and I have also echoed the blue frame in Marion’s card by bringing my background through to to edges of my card.

Head over to Crafting From The Heart to see what the rest of the DT have made to inspire you this week!

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

 Silhouette Challenges – Print and Cut

2 Cute Ink – Anything Goes

Love To Create – Bright and Sunny

Muse Card Club – see pic above

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Cute and Cuddly

“Cute and cuddly, boys.  Cute and cuddly.”  Any other Madagascar fans out there?  I’ve had Skipper’s voice going round and round in my head since I saw the theme for the new challenge over at Sentimental Sundays!  Must spend some time on the sofa with the kids and a DVD this weekend, I think 😉

So, as I mentioned, our theme is Cute and Cuddly, and we were very lucky to be sponsored by MilkCoffee, home of some really cute and cuddly images!!  I chose Lola and Bear (I think it may now have been retired) for my card – definitely the perfect image for the challenge!

The backing papers are all from the Harper Finch I’m Yours (Pack 1) digital paper collection.  I thought the XOXO paper was just perfect!

When it came to the image, I faux paper pieced the dress with the bluebell paper from the I’m Yours stack on the Silhouette – I love the way the pattern is smaller on the top than on the skirt.  I was then torn over how to colour the bear – should I faux paper piece him too?  Or should I attempt fur with the ProMarkers….?  I headed to Google to find a fur tutorial and came across an excellent tutorial on Ideas To Inspire.  I loved the way the inks worked with the watercolour paper, and then remembered I had some in my old stash!  I dug it out and set to work using the tutorial as a guide.  Firstly, I printed the image, with the faux paper pieced dress on a piece of watercolour paper and then coloured the image with ProMarkers – although it looked a little uneven when the ink was dry, I’m delighted with the blends I’ve achieved.  I’ll admit that the image on the card is my second attempt though; I tried browns for the bear in the first attempt, but didn’t like the combination of colours when I put it with the backing papers.  I find the grey works much better in this case.

The banner was cut on the Silhouette; the bluebell paper is a larger version of the pattern on the dress from the Harper Finch papers, the two solid colours are just colour matched to the other papers from my stash.

The button was also a bit of an aha! moment!  I have some epoxy buttons in my stash, but they’re the wrong colours or wrong sizes for this project.  So I adapted a button cut file from my Silhouette library, coloured it in light grey and pink before printing and then cut four copies.  I stuck them all together with Mod Podge, then stuck a generous layer of Glossy Accents all over to create a shine!  Added to a piece of twine, it finishes the card off just as I hoped!

I based the card around the current sketch at Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 and I’ll be entering the challenge later today!

Make sure you pop over to Sentimental Sundays this week – I’m sure you’ll have some cute and cuddly projects to share with us this week!

I’d also like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Sweet Sketch Sunday 2 – see sketch above

Eureka!!

It’s time for another new challenge at Crafty Girls, and our sponsors are Eureka Stamps this fortnight.

I chose to use this adorable Baby Animals stamp for my card.  They animals reminded me of some stuffed toys my children had as babies.  I’m a little bit hooked on faux paper piecing at the moment, so I headed off to my Silhouette to start my card.  I was thinking of colouring the animals in pastel colours, maybe with a new baby theme, but at the last minute I used the solid colours from the Sweater Weather digital paper collection by Harper Finch.  I was a bit disappointed that the lovely texture in the papers didn’t show up as well as I’d hoped, but I think that may have been because I was using the papers in a relatively small area.

I popped a circular frame cut from chevron embossed Kraft card over the coloured image using 3D pads, then finished the card off with a little twine and a natural coloured button.  I’ve left the sentiment off for now as I’m not sure whether it will be a new baby card or perhaps a birthday card for a young boy….

Make sure you head over the see what the other Crafty Girls have been up to!  I look forward to seeing your lovely entries 🙂

I’d like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Through The Purple Haze – Use a Digi

Eureka Stamps – Anything Goes

The Corrosive Challenges – Animals

The Crafty Calendar Challenge – Animal Antics

The Crafting Cafe – CAS

A Christmas Surprise!

Today I’d like to share the first of three cards that I’ve made for the C…Is for Challenge GDT.  Today’s challenge theme is “Use a Button” and is sponsored by StampArt Design by Kathryne.

I’ve used the Christmas Surprise stamp by StampArt Design, available exclusively at Whimsy Stamps.  This adorable little elf, perched atop a lovely gift box caught my eye and was a pleasure to colour!  I used Pro-Markers to colour the image and cut a scalloped frame from red cardstock on my Silhouette.

The mats are from a Forever Friends Chirstmas paper stack; I chose them as they echoed the colours of the elf’s outfit!  Along with a red polka grosgrain ribbon, I added a lovely festive button (from the Santa’s Workshop range) which I couldn’t resist on a recent research (!) trip to a large craft store…  The sentiment was simply printed on kraft card and then cut on the Silhouette.

Thank you to Anna for letting me play along with her GDT!  Pop over to the C… Is For Challenge blog now and add your own button-filled creations!

Thanks for reading x

Challenges:

Cutie Pie Challenge – #56 Cute With Embellishment

Created With Love – CWLC 64: Anything Goes

Perfectly Rustics – Challenge 9: Patterned Paper

Paper Crafting Journey – Anything Goes

Bunny Zoe’s Craft – Ribbon

Scribble and Scrap Craft  – Always Anything Goes

Christmas Cards All Year Round – October Challenge