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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Pretty Polly!

Warning!!  The following post includes references to “that time of year“!  Readers of a sensitive nature may wish to pop back tomorrow!!

Well, here goes….my first Christmas card of 2014!  If I’m honest, I’m normally start my Christmas crafting in November, or even in a blind panic in December.  It feels a little bizarre to have spent my afternoon with Poinsettia Polly, when the sun is (finally!) blazing outside – but I am feeling very proud of myself for starting early.  Not sure if one card counts as really starting though, guess we’ll have to see what the next few week’s crafting result in!

For this week’s challenge at Crafting From The Heart, we have three amazing sponsors; Lacy Sunshine, Sassy Designs Studio and PaperNest Dolls!  As always, our theme is “Anything Goes” so you are bound to be able to join in!

I have used Poinsettia Polly for my DT card; this little cutie was coloured with ProMarkers.  The layout is based around the current sketch challenge at Your Next Stamp.  Unfortunately, I can’t remember where these papers are from – I can tell you that the bauble paper is from the first paper stack I ever bought though!

As usual, my teamies over at Crafting From The Heart have been crafting their socks off – we’d love you to pop by and leave us some lovely comments!

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

Paper Nest Dolls – Anything Goes

Bunny Zoe’s Craft – Layers

Fan-Tastic Tuesdays – Anything Goes

Fairytale Stamper – Flowers

Pile It On – Use Patterned Paper

Love To Scrap GDT

I’m delighted to share with you today the card I have made for my first GDT post with Love To Scrap!

The challenge this week is “BINGO” – simply pick a column from the grid below and make a project that includes all the elements listed in that column…simple, eh?!

I choose the final column for my project, so I needed to include purple, brads, twine, embossing and any sentiment.  My image, Emmilou Boo, came from one of this week’s sponsors, Lacy Sunshine, who are offering 3 images for the winner of the challenge!  In addition, there is also the chance to win 3 images from the challenge’s other sponsor, The Stamping Chef!

I coloured Emmilou Boo using Pro-Markers.  I hadn’t thought about the lack of straw coloured markers in my collection….so I ended up spending a good while patch testing a variety of colour combos!  In the end I settled on Mustard, Tulip Yellow, Pastel Yellow and Putty, but to create some texture I tried my hand at Pointilism, putting down dots of colour rather than blending the inks.  I’m not 100% happy with the grass – I picked the colours in daylight, but it was late by the time I coloured and the end result is slightly more neon than I’d hoped, and not really in keeping with the pastel colours I’d used in the rest of the card, but on a positive note, I like the texture that the different shades of green have made!  Can’t win them all, eh?!  Stickles for the dandelion clocks and a glittery purple frame finished the image off.

I was originally planning to base the card around the curent sketch over at Crafting When We Can, but I couldn’t find an element for the top corner that I was happy with – I tried a few options, but they either made the card feel to cluttered or they looked insubstantial.  For the base layer, I have embossed some white cardstock using a freebie flower folder that came with a magazine, then blended some Dusty Concorde Distress Ink and mounted it on a pearlescent purple Bazzill cardstock.  The next layer just uses half a doily, mounted on the same cardstock.

The flower border is from the Silhouette Online Store, cut from a darker shade of purple cardstock.  The sentiment was created in Silhouette Studio, edged with Distress Ink, backed by some glitter cardstock and secured with a purple flower brad that has been living in my stash for a good few years, along with the butterfly beads, which I have secured using twine.

I have to confess that I had pretty much finished the card and was running through the list of required elements when I realised I’d missed something off – it went something like this “purple, check; embossing, check; sentiment, check; brad, check; twine……..ooops!”.  Luckily I was able to take the brad off, add the twine and butterflies and pop it all together pretty easily 🙂

Anyway, that’s just about it for now, make sure you head over to Love To Scrap for a look at the DT makes!  I’ll be back with another Love To Scrap GDT post later this month.

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

Make My Monday – Seasonal Colours

 Perfectly Rustics – Bling, Bling, Shine and Sparkle

Melonheadz Friends – Circles

Incy Wincy – 4+ Papers/Brads

Bunny Zoe’s – Distress

Card Mania Challenges – Embossing

We Do Doobadoo – Layers

Grab Your Punches And Dies…

Ready for a new challenge at Crafting From The Heart?  Our new challenge starts today, for one week only….that’s right, today’s the day Crafting From The Heart goes weekly!  The theme this week is Punches Or Dies, so it’s very easy to play along.  We were very fortunate to be sponsored by The Stamping Chef and Lacy Sunshine, so many lovely images to choose from….

But I eventually picked Eleanor Painting Butterflies by Lacy Sunshine, because I’m having withdrawal symptoms from my Martha Stewart punch and figured I could definitely use some 3D butterflies to embellish this card!

I coloured the image with Pro-Markers, sticking to blues and yellows, the perfect Spring/Summer colour combo in my humble opinion!  I’m trying very hard to improve the way I colour hair, and spent ages reading through tutorials.  Unfortunately, I don’t think much of it went in, I’m none too impressed with the way it turned out….back to the tutorials I think!  Once coloured, I added touches of Stickles to the butterflies and paint pots and created a sky with some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.

The butterflies were punched with the Martha Stewart punch and then glued to make the wings stand out.  The paper I used for the blue and white one was too flimsy really, but it seems to be holding up ok for now.

For the layout, I have based it on the current sketch over at Papertake Weekly (flipped upside down) and hope I haven’t missed the challenge by the time this post goes live – I forgot to work my days out on my fingers, I just got carried away (again!).  Either way, it’s a great sketch to play along with!

The vellum panel is cut from a piece of Papermania Sienna, which I had left over from some wedding invitations I made last year.  The lemon and white paper is from Dovecraft.  The final layer is a piece of linen textured card, which I have lightly rubbed with some Scattered Straw Distress Ink.

I think that’s all….make sure you pop over to Crafting From The Heart to have a look at the great cards my team-mates have prepared for you.  And don’t forget, you only have 1 week to play along, the perfect excuse to grab your crafty bits straight away, I reckon!!

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

Papertake Weekly – Challenge 87: Sketch (see above)

The Craft Garden – Pastel Colours

Lacy Sunshine – Use Spring Colours

The Squirrel and The Fox – Use Something Spooled

613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes w/ Use Your Stash (all papers are from stash)

HMICR – Spring Colours

ABC-Challenge – G Is For Girls

Fairies Challenge – Spring

Allsorts – Spring Is Coming

Card Makin Mamas – Stack It Up

Jellypark – Things With Wings

Thanks for reading x

New Challenge at Crafting From The Heart

Aah well, here we go, the first Monday of the year…!  And that means it’s time for a new challenge over at Crafting From The Heart.  There’s a small change to the challenges for 2014 – we’ve added in some optional  themes for you to follow, if you fancy!

The theme or this fortnight’s challenge is “Buttons and Pearls” and we were delighted to be sponsored by Lacy Sunshine, Angie’s Digi Stamps and A Day For Daisies.  I chose to use Valentina by Lacy Sunshine – it’s the first time I’ve coloured a Lacy Sunshine stamp, but I think I might be hooked!!  She looked cute uncoloured, but I think she looks amazing now she’s had the Pro-Marker treatment!!  I used the print and cut facility on the Silhouette for the image, choosing to add a little stitched border too.

The papers are from the I Heart You collection by Harper Finch.  I’ve used several of these collections now and have found them so versatile – I loved the greys mixed with reds and pinks!  I only managed to include one button on my card – the little heart button on the banner, but I think it works pretty well with the image and papers.

I based the layout on the current sketch over at Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge:

Make sure you pop over to Crafting From The Heart with one of your New Year creations – remember, anything goes if you’d rather not use the theme, we would just love to see what you’ve been up to!!  There’s also a DT Call on right now – if you’re interested, make sure you pop over.

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

Lacy Sunshine – Challenge 24

I Love Promarkers – Frame It

Crafting By Design – Anything Goes

Robyn’s Fetish Challenge – Use a Digi

Silhouette Challenges – Challenge 9: Anything Goes

Card A Day Blog – Valentines

Thanks for reading x