New Challenge At Crafting From The Heart

Time for a new challenge over at Crafting From The Heart!  We are lucky to be sponsored by The Doodle Garden and Bugaboo this week and, as always, it’s Anything Goes!  Sadly, The Doodle Garden closed last month, but you can still win the lovely images we used for our DT makes!

I used Flight Lesson for my card – it’s such a sweet little image!  I coloured it with ProMarkers with a very slight touch of Wink Of Stella on the wings and hairclip.  I made the background with some Distress Inks and a water spritzer – I was a little heavy handed with the DI, so I needed the water to lighten things up a bit!

Don’t forget to head over to Crafting From The Heart to have a peek at the other DT makes.

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

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Jolly Snowfolk

A new challenge is starting today over at Crafting From The Heart.  As always, our theme is Anything Goes and our sponsors are Dilly Beans and Angie’s Digi Images.

As I’m sure you know, I’m a huge Dilly Beans fan, so I jumped at the chance to use one her her great stamps.  As Christmas is also rapidly approaching, I decided it was time to break out the Snowman Border!

Why is it that the simplest things sometimes end up taking much longer than they really should.  My card isn’t complicated, there aren’t many detailed layers, just some cute snowmen, who had a little Tea Green ProMarker and blender added to their edges and a paper pieced hearts and scarves.

Well, technology has failed me today!  My Silhouette firstly decided not to cut Kraft, then decided not to cut anything at all.  So I dug out a trusty craft knife and cut my frames by hand (a little wonkily, I’m afraid!).

The embossing was easy – my Cuttlebug obliged happily!  But then came the button decision….  I settled for my 5th choice – it’ lucky I had a deadline to meet or I’d still be puzzling over it now, I reckon!

So, long story short – Dilly Beans have some great, versatile images that are a pleasure to use – and I’m going to avoid technology, decisions and buttons for the rest of the day!

Make time this week to share your projects over at Crafting From The Heart!

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

Christmas Challenge – Anything Goes

Christmas Card Challenges – Embossing

Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes

Avenue 613 Create – Anything Goes w/ no twist

I Just Want To Dance!

I’m back with another challenge for Sentimental Sundays!  This week, we are sponsored by Calypso’s Crafty Things – and there’s a fabulous prize for the lucky winner!  The theme for this challenge is “Inside and Out”, another first for me!  I always pay a lot of attention to the front of my cards, but I can’t remember ever continuing the theme inside!

I based my card around sketch 60 at From The Heart Sketches.  I love to flick through the old sketches when I’m struggling to pin down a design, it’s just packed full with inspiration! So, the details for my card….  The image I have used is a MilkCoffee freebie from a while back – not sure how I have overlooked her for so long!!  I coloured her using Pro-Markers as usual.  I’ve tried a new hair combo – Ivory, Satin and Tan – and I’m really pleased with the way it’s turned out.  The image on the inside of the card is by Patties Creations.  I’ve coloured the ballet slipper with ProMarkers, then mounted on a lilac mat before popping it inside the card.

To create the frame on the front of the card, I designed a “ring doughnut” shape in the Silhouette software by laying a smaller circle over the larger circle and the subtracting the top shape.  I then welded the letters of my daughter’s name to the outside edge of the doughnut.  The banner pieces were also cut from glitter card on the Silhouette, before being hand stitched to the corrugated card with some matching ribbon.

The papers on the front of the card are from the Papermania Spots and Stripes collection; all the other papers are from my stash.

Make sure you pop over to Sentimental Sundays to see what the rest of the DT have been up to this week!

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

Kitty Bee May Spotlight

It’s that time again – the days are just flying by at the moment, life really seems to have stepped it up a gear…

Anyway, for today’s Kitty Bee spotlight card, I used the adorable Best Friend Buns stamp.  It’s my 13th Wedding anniversary in a few days, so I chose the image with an anniversary card in mind.  As my regular followers may remember, my better half prefers his cards CAS, which is good for me as that’s my comfort zone!  Even so, I was delighted with the finished card:

I printed the image and used my Silhouette to cut the image with a slight border.  I coloured the bunnies in a variety of Cool Grey ProMarkers, using a selection of reds for the heart and bow.  The sentiment is actually a freebie cut file from Amanda Robinson Studios, but I chose to print it directly on the card base instead of cutting it (love the script style!).  I popped the bunnies up on 3D pads, added some grey/white twine and a heart that I cut from red cardstock and smothered in Glossy Accents.  Couldn’t get much simpler 🙂

Pop over to Kitty Bee’s store now if you’d like to add Best Friend Buns to your collection!

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

Fantastic Tuesdays – CAS

 Inky Chicks – CAS

Ruby’s Rainbow – Animals

 

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

Happy 18th Birthday!

Today’s card was made for my next door neighbour’s oldest son, who turned 18 at the weekend.  I’ve kept the colours simply and masculine and opted to focus on the age, rather than add an image to this card – after all, it is a landmark birthday, so it’s all about the numbers!

The die cut is by Lori Whitlock in the Silhouette Online store (I also have similar ones by Alaa’K).  The side panels were embossed with the Darice Chevrons folder.  And, to top it all, I’ve managed to make this card entirely from my leftovers box 🙂

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

Artistic Inspirations – CAS

Crafty Bloggers Network – Die Cuts and Embossing

Whoopsi Daisy – Emboss It!

Stamped Blessings – Chevrons

Robyn’s Fetish Challenge – Square Cards

Crafting Musketeers – Monochrome

While I’m here today, I’d also like to let you know that I’ve (finally) claimed my blog on Bloglovin, and have added a button in the side bar for you to click on if you’d like to join my band of followers!  I’ve recently swapped from WordPress Reader to Bloglovin as I was having trouble receiving posts for the blogs I was subscribed to – I’ve found Bloglovin really straight forward to use, both as a follower and blogger; it’s all there waiting for me when I get five minutes peace with a cup of coffee 😉

 

 

 

Kitty Bee Spotlight

It’s that time again!!  This month’s spotlight card for Kitty Bee features an adorable little Hanging Around Bear.  I cut the image using the Silhouette and coloured him using Pro-Markers.

The background was made with the latest addition to my rapidly expanding  embossing folder collection!  I inked one side of the Darice Clouds folder with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink, then ran it through the Cuttlebug to create a sky backdrop for the little bear, so that he looked like he was a long way above the ground!  The image was popped on 3D foam pads to add a little depth.

I chose a Kraft background layer to tie in with the colour of the bear and embossed it with the Darice honeycomb folder to tie in with the bees and hive.

Finally, I attached a sentiment after inking the edges with a little Vintage Paper Distress Ink, and mounted the whole panel on a white card base.

This little guy is just one of many cute images over at Kitty Bee – hurry over there now to see the others!

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

Digi Sketch Challenge – Bears

Just Inspirational – Embossing

Passion For Pro-Markers – Add A Sentiment

Tip Top Tuesday – Cute

Flat Friends – Include A Sentiment

Natalie and Amy – Embossing

The East Wind – Use a Sentiment

Come And Get It – Bears In Mind

The Squirrel and the Fox – All Creatures Great And Small

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

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