New Challenge At Crafting At The Weekend

Well, that month flew by!!  Hard to believe that we were getting ready for a bank holiday weekend last time I posted for Crafting At The Weekend!  Today, the summer is definitely fading fast, the mornings are crisper and the evenings are starting to get dark much earlier.  And, as of this week, I’m home alone all day, now that my youngest is in school full time!  Why is it then, that I have less time to get inky, rather than more?!!

Anyway, on to this month’s card, which I only just about finished in time!!

I forced myself to raid my stash for this card!  And then I went a step further and made myself open the gorgeous set of Tiddly Inks stamps that came free with Quick Cards magazine during the summer 🙂

This is just one of the adorable little images; I have coloured Wryn with ProMarkers and some Stickles for the fluffy edging of her hat and dress.  All the papers are from my stash, the spotty one is from the Papermania Spots and Stripes collection, but I’m not sure about the others!

The sentiment is a clear stamp I picked up from one of the bargain bins in Hobbycraft!  I think I’ve had it lurking, unopened, for around 18 months……shame on me!!  It’s held in place by a plait of jute threads – I had great ideas for this piece of jute, but now I finally have a piece, I’m struggling to use it on my cards!!  So I figured that introducing it a little at a time might help me overcome my block 🙂

Right, all that’s left for me to do is remind you that the Crafting At The Weekend challenge will be running for a month, the theme is Anything Goes and we have some great prizes from Ditzie Crafts and Aurella 27 up for grabs!!

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

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Tiddly Inks

You may remember that earlier this month, I screwed my courage to the sticking point, and posted an application to join the Tiddly Inks Design Team.

Would you believe I had this card sitting, finished, on my desk for 3 full days, before I finally submitted it?  I umm-ed and aaah-ed and spent ages comparing my finished project to all the fantastic cards that had already been submitted.  I was completely filled with self-doubt – and I don’t like not doing well!!  On the other hand, I feel like I’ve reached a point where I need to push myself on to the next level to carry 0n developing, otherwise I’ll just coast along, and sometimes it better to be a very small fish in a very big pond (if you get my drift!).

Well, the results were posted over the weekend…  And while I didn’t make the team this time around, I was delighted to have made it into Cristy’s list of Top 25 designers!  Thank you!!  It was such a boost to read the lovely comments that were posted about my card too.  Congratulations to all the Top 25 and, of course, the new design team members!

Let’s Celebrate Joyfully!!

I had a shop around earlier this week to find a cute little girl for my daughter’s 5th birthday card earlier this week.  It didn’t take long to stumble across Emma, the character in Tiddly Inks Celebrate Joyfully stamp.  I have a very soft spot for adorable images, and Tiddly Inks images are just that!!

Unusually for a girly 5th birthday card, I haven’t chosen a pink or purple colour scheme – Erin’s favourite colour is yellow (as she announced as I was halfway through decorating her bedroom pink recently….), so, using Pro Markers, I have coloured Emma’s dress in yellow, as well as using a hair colour that is very similar to my daughter’s.

The lemon and peach papers are by American Crafts, and have a lovely texture.  I added a little Scattered Straw Distress Ink around the edge of the lemon to add some definition.  The base layer is from the Snippets collection by Studio Calico.  The banner was a file from the Silhouette store, popped up on 3D pads for extra depth.

I couldn’t resist adding the cute little patch of flowers to the inside of the card, on a mat of yellow and white polka paper from the Papermania Spots and Stripes Brights stack, which matches the die-cut flowers I made for the front of the card.

All in all, it’s a card I know Erin will love!  And if you find yourself in need of a spot of retail therapy, head over to the Tiddly Inks store…you won’t regret it 😉

Now there is also the not so little matter of a DT call over at Tiddly Inks.  I have just had a peek at all the fabulous applications so far – and I’m quaking in my boots!  But, as the saying goes, nothing ventured, nothing gained…!

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

Natalie and Amy’s Challenge – Die Cut Flowers

Sarah Hurley 365 – Favourite Things (birthday card for my daughter using her favourite colours / spotty paper and paper flowers are some of my favourite things!!)

Cosmic Strawberry – Colour Challenge

Bearly Mine – August Challenge

Cards Galore Encore – Anything Goes

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge – Anything Goes With Patterned Paper

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

Annie’s Pressie

This afternoon’s card has been made for a little girl who will be turning 7 later this week.

I’ve used Annie’s Pressie from Tiddly Inks, coloured her with Pro-Markers and added touches of pink candyfloss Stickles to the spots on her bow, dress and the present.

Sticking to a spotty theme, I embossed some white cardstock with the Swiss Dots folder.  There is a piece of spotty vellum behind the white mat and the final layer is a big spot paper from the Papermania Spots and Stripes Pastel Collection.

The flowers embellishments at the corner were made using an assortment of petal punches, finished with a bead in the centre.  The little pink flower gems were from my stash!

I based the card around the first sketch challenge over at Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 (the successor the great Sweet Sketch Wednesday):

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

Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 – see above sketch

Charisma Cardz – Birthdays

MilkCoffee – Celebrations

Thanks for reading x

Boo! Don’t Be Afraid…

I had a bit of spare time today and thought I’d make a Hallowe’en card to share with you. I’ve been quite busy with home stuff and GDT commitments recently, so it was lovely to just switch off and focus on this little bewitching little character!

The image, from Tiddly Inks, is coloured with Pro-Markers. I have managed to avoid colouring in using black up til now…it seemed a bit daunting! As it goes, it wasn’t as bad as I expected and I was pleased with my initial results, although I might be a bit braver with it next time! The mats are both from Shery K on My Grafico. I found a free spider’s web on Birds Cards, which I cut from glittery purple cardstock using my Silhouette, and added them to the black card band to create a border. Finally, the sentiment was also from Birds Cards – this was cut with the Silhouette and clear embossed to add gloss and depth to the colour.

Apologies for the photos – it’s turned into a murky, miserable day here in Essex, and the light is really poor!

Thanks for reading x

Challenges:

Tiddly Inks – Anything Goes

613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes

Glitter n Sparkle – Add Some Orange

Robyn’s Fetish Challenge – Square Cards Only

Ladybug Crafts – Halloween

Card Makin Mamas – CMM75 – Trick or Treat

Paper Crafting Journey – Use Halloween Colours

Meet Roboto!!

Today’s card (the latest in my current pile of birthday cards for boys!), features a very cute robot digital stamp from Tiddly Inks.  I was delighted to find that there are even some freebie papers and a present included in the download!  Perfect, thank you Tiddly Inks!

I coloured Roboto with a selection of the Cool Grey Pro-Markers and added some brighter colours to the balloons, then a little clear embossing powder to give the balloons a nice sheen.

I coloured and clear embossed the present too, attaching it to a banner with a sentiment printed on it.

 The blue mat in the photograph was from my stash of random bits of cardstock.  Luckily, it was just the right colour and I had just enough!  The balloon paper is one of the two lovely freebie papers included with the stamp.

Thanks for reading x

Challenges:

Tiddly Inks – Anything Goes

Paper Crafting Journey – For A Boy

Seize the Birthday – Anything Goes

Inky Impressions – #128: Blue as the Main Colour

Stamp-n-Doodle – Boys and Their Toys

http://cisforchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/challenge-7.html

Bunny Zoes Craft Blog – Something Blue

Aaarrggghhh!! Monster!!

Today I’m sharing another birthday card for a seven year old boy – there are a lot of birthdays in my son’s Year 2 class in the next few weeks! 

The stamp for today’s card is from Birdie Brown on Etsy – there are loads of cute stamps in this collection that may just “happen” to make their way to my stash in the next few weeks!  I coloured the monsters with Pro-Markers, choosing lighter shades so that I could shade the monsters easier.

Both of the background papers were from Mel Stampz.  Mel has created and listed hundreds of papers as freebies; they are great quality and there is such a variety of colours, patterns and shades that the challenge is not finding what you’re looking for…!

To personalise the card, I welded the birthday boy’s name (with offset) to the card base, using my Silhouette and then re-cut the name (without offset) in glittercard and attached it to the base.  Finally, I added a little banner sentiment, using Chiller font to tie in with the monster theme.

I’m planning to enter this card in a few challenges, including Partytime Tuesdays, Paper Crafting Journey and Passion for Promarkers.

Thanks for reading x

Challenges:

Paper Crafting Journey – For a Boy

Passion for ProMarkers – One for the Boys

Partytime Tuesdays – Challenge #139: Anything Goes

Crafting by Designs – Anything Goes

Designed To Color – Challenge 20: Anything Goes

Ladybug Crafts – Anything Goes

ART – Anything Goes

Seize The Birthday – Anything Goes

Card Makin Mamas – For the Kids

Keira’s birthday card

I’m popping in today to show you the card I have made for Keira, who will be 5 next week.

I followed the sketch for this week’s Seize the Sketch Challenge: 

I used the cute little “Annie’s Prezzie” stamp from Tiddly Inks.  I coloured Annie using my ProMarkers, trying to use the blender pen more effectively this time, as I didn’t have a pale enough pink.  I laid down a coat of the blender on the skirt, then some Pale Pink on the areas I wanted to keep darker; then, using the fine nib of the blender, I drew some ink from the chisel end of the Pale Pink and then worked the paler colour into the skirt.  I was so pleased with the outcome that I used the same technique for the spots on the dress and hair bow!

The pink mat is “Slipper” by Bazzill Basics.  The white scalloped piece was simply cut from a piece of cardstock and embossed using the Swiss Dots folder for the Cuttlebug.  The rose was made using one of the Petal Pairs punches – I’ve been having great fun with these recently, using YouTube to create various flowers!

Finally, I added plenty of Star Dust Stickles to give the dress, present, shoes and rose some sparkle!

Thanks for reading x

Challenges:

Seize the Sketch – Challenge 4

Seize the Birthday

In the Pink – Challenge 28: Bling it up

Passion for ProMarkers – Embossing

Hip, hip, hooray…..18 on Saturday!!

No, not me!!  😉

This weekend, my niece will turn 18!  It only seems like yesterday that I first met her when I started dating my (now) husband; she was a cheeky little almost 2 year old….time really has flown!  Now, I’m proud to say, that she has grown into an amazing young woman and I can’t wait to see what adulthood has in store for her.  Still, enough of the sentimental or I’ll be sitting here sobbing over my keyboard, and that just won’t do!

Here is the card I’ve made for her:

The little birds are from Tiddly Inks; I added the letters into the pages by hand, and love the how flexible this makes the stamp.  I can see it being used over and over again!  I chose relatively muted colours for the birds – partly, if I’m totally honest, as I don’t yet have many sets of colours in Pro-Markers that blend well and look good alongside each other!  I outlined the images in Powder Blue, to give the illusion of a blue sky in the background.

I got the idea for the banner hanging from the tree from the Tiddly Inks site, but adapted it to suit this occasion.  The banner shapes were cut and printed by the Silhouette and I simply coloured in the numbers and letters in the same colours as the birds, threading a little piece of lilac baker’s twine through to “hang” the banner from the branch.

Thanks for reading x

Challenges:

CAS(E) this Sketch – Challenge 45

Seize the Birthday