New DT News!

Hope you're all having a good weekend. I have some news to share in that I've been asked to join the Design Team of AiFactory which is owned by Mia who has an online shop of gorgeous images and digital papers etc.
Some exciting things will be happening in about a week's time so keep an eye out for the next post.

Polka Doodles Non Traditional Valentine

Morning Everyone. Hope you have better weather than we have today as it's raining hard at the moment.
This week's challenge over at Polka Doodles has been set by Kerry and it's to make a Valentine card using non traditional colours.
I decided to use rich gold and yummy chocolate brown for an elegant style card.

I've used the beautiful rose paper from the latest Love & Cherish CD which are a real favourite of mine and I printed out the gold and mocha colour options.
I cut out a flower shape using a Nestabilities set and matted this on 2 circles, one embossed with the Cuttebug Textile folder. I added a strip of the mocha paper at the base of the card and finished off with 2 hearts from the hearts scetion, embossed with the Cuttlebug Roses folder and a simple stamped greeting (mine is by Hero Arts).

Cupcake

Evening everyone. All in the pink at the moment and this card is for 2 challenges.
The first one is A Spoonful of Sugar with a theme this week of Anything Goes.
The second is The Pink Elephant with a theme of A Bow, Polka Dots and Pink.

This really cute image is called Cupcake Tilly and is the creation of the very talented Wendy at Digital Doodling. It's well worth paying her a visit to see more of her lovely images. I coloured Tilly with Promarkers and cut out an oval shape which was matted on a slightly larger pink oval. I added gems to the flowers in her hair and sponged blue ink round the edges.
The pretty polka dot backing papers are from the Polka Doodles Love & Cherish CD. You'll probably haved noticed that I'm using this CD a lot at the moment and this is mainly because of the huge variety of lovely backing papers on there. Something I'm using more now that I'm working with digital stamps a lot.
I've finished the card with a Cuttlebug embossed border, trimmed with scallop scissors, a pink polka dot bow, some pearl trim and a stamped sentiment.

Missing You

I'm entering this card in the current Sophisticat challenge which has a theme set by owner Lisa of Mother, Miss You or Tribute as she sadly lost her mother 3 years ago yesterday. Having lost my own dear Mum 5 years ago after several difficult years when she suffered from Alzheimers' disease, I do know how Lisa must feel. This card, however, is also inspired by my daughter Claire who is on her year abroad studying in Japan and we all miss her a lot.

The lovely image here is by Dezinaworld from the Mono Touch collage sheet. The rose paper and the polka dot paper are from the latest Polka Doodles Love & Cherish CD.
I stamped on the polka dot paper and some white card using images from the Papermania Chatsworth Collection Vintage Furnishings clear stamp set. The white panel was embossed using the Cuttlebug Victoria folder. I embossed a panel of the rose paper with the same folder.
I layered everything on to the card base and added lace, pearls and a computer generated text panel to finish.

In The Navy

Another card today for 3 challenges this time and this one is for the men. As it has a nautical theme, I couldn't resist the In the Navy title, the only trouble being what springs immediately to mind is the rather camp Village People song (are you all singing now lol).
The first challenge is the ABC Challenge with a theme this week of M is for Masking and I've used Tim Holtz's Compass Mini Mask to make the background paper.
The second is Fab 'n' Funky Challenges with a colour theme of Blue, Green and White.
The third is Quixotic Challenges with a theme this week of Ink Up An Old Stamp which is my Hampton Art Nautical collage which hasn't been out of the box for a couple of years.

To make the background I sponged acrylic paint in shades of blue and green on pale blue card using the Tim Holtz mask to make the compass pattern.
I stamped the Hampton Art Sail 4528 image in VersaFine Deep Lagoon ink on pale blue card.  I trimmed the edges and matted it on green card.
I photocopied an old naval recruitment poster from one of my hubby's many nautical books and tore the edges. The sentiment is computer generated and I added 2 sea themed charms to finish.

Love Cat

Hello everyone, another day, another challenge-well 2 actually! My card is bright and sunny unlike today's weather which is really dull but al least it's not raining.
I'm entering this one in this week's Allsorts challenge which is Hearts and Flowers and also this week's challenge at Incy Wincy Designs which is called Colour Me Wonderful and you have to use your favourite colouring medium which in my case (as if you hadn't noticed!!!) is to use inks in various creative ways.

The image I've used is from Alison at Stretch 'n' Bubbles and as you can see, her shop has the most gorgeous whimsical images. She also has freebies on offer to her followers every so often so why not pop over and check out her shop. To me the greatest thing about digital stamps is that once you have them,  they can be resized and altered really easily to fit your particular project. I resized this one slightly and printed it out on both white and pink card.
I coloured the cat using my Millefiori technique (see sidebar for the technique labels) using pink and yellow inks. I cut out various parts of the pink image and adhered them on the floral cat. I then added a heart sticker.
For the background, I printed out the pretty daisy paper from the latest Polka Doodles Love & Cherish  CD and added some colour by sponging with the pink and yellow inks. I ran my pink panel and a yellow one through the Cuttlebug with the Floral Fantasy folder. I trimmed the edges of the yellow panel with scallop scissors and sponged on some deeper yellow ink.
The card was assembled as shown, with the addition of some ribbon, daisies and some Prima leaves. The greeting is from the Polka Doodles Back to Nature CD.

Flutterby

I've made this card which fits 2 challenges with the same theme of Punch It! The first is Creative Card Crew for which I have to thank Brenda of Floral Fantasies as I saw it on one of her posts. The second is Simon Says and is my second go at entering one of their challenges.

Ingredients Used:
Butterfly Stamp from Stampscapes 14B Butterflies Set
Black Pigment Ink
Crystal Transparent Embossing Powder
Martha Stewart Arch Lattice Edge Punch
Woodware Rose Corner Punch
Paper from Heritage Collection Polka Doodles Back to Nature CD
Greeting Stamp from Polka Doodles Daisy Doodles Set
White Paper and Lilac Card
Pearl Edging and Lilac Stick On Jewels.
Thanks for looking.

Polka Doodles Week 3 Sketch Challenge

This week over at Polka Doodles we have a sketch challenge and the DT were all challenged to use red and orange with the sketch.

Here's what I made which uses a mix from 2 CDs.

I've made a bright and cheerful card using the daisy paper from the new Love & Cherish CD and the lovely Flower Stackies from the Back to Nature CD.
I embossed red and orange card with the Cuttlebug Bloom Dots folder and punched opposite corners with the Woodware corner daisy punch. I layered the flower up with a button centre and matted this on a square of daisy paper with the side edges trimmed with scallop scissors.
I made a small tag with daisy paper and added a small flower from the Stackies sheet. I stamped a greeting using the Daisy Doodles stamp set and cut this out. I assembled the card trimming the top edge of the red panel with scallop scissors.
Nikky is on Create & Craft on Monday 25 January at 3pm with both of these fabulous and versatile CDs. She will also have Promarkers which I'm now becoming a fan of having just tried them out.

Hello Spring

Hello everyone, it's actually a bit better down here today-still cold but lovely and sunny. It's amazing what a little bit of sunshine does for you and I've decided to enter this card in the current Sophisticat challenge which is Spring. This is my very first attempt at colouring with Promarkers as I bought the Spring set a couple of months back and have only just plucked up the courage to use them. You've probably noticed that I don't do much colouring on my projects, tending to rely on inks! This might change now as I didn't realise how well the Promarkers seem to blend and I think with a lot more practice I will like these a lot. I had to raid my elder daughter's desk drawer (you may remember Claire is in Japan and she's a very good Manga artist) for some flesh and hair colours.

The sweet image came from the Polka Doodles Back to Nature CD as did the pretty daisies round the frame. The daisy paper came from the brand new Love & Cherish CD and I've altered it a little with pink, lilac and yellow inks for a brighter look. Nikky is on Create and Craft TV again at 3pm on Monday 25 January with both these CDs and Promarkers so if you missed the last show, you can catch her then. She'll have loads of samples from the Design Team too and hopefully mine too this time as the snow caused late delivery of my cards last time and they missed the show!
I used a Nestabilities set to cut out and emboss the flower shapes and embossed my lilac panel with the Cuttlebug Floral Fantasy folder. I trimmed the top edge with scallop scissors. I finished off with a greeting from the Back to Nature CD.

Sew Happy Birthday

It's my daughter Sarah's 19th Birthday today and as she doing an Art Foundation year now studying textiles prior to her degree in September,  I've gone all out with a stitching themed card.
I'm also going to enter it in a couple of challenges:
Sew Many Challenges with a theme of anything goes (how about that with my card theme!!!)
Sunday Stampers with a theme of Birthdays as it's Hels Sheridan challenge's second birthday

To make the card I stamped my favourite brocade background stamp (sadly very old and source unknown) in VersaFine Vintage Sepia directly on the cream card blank.
I then trimmed scraps of fabric with pinking shears and stuck these on. I printed out an image from Dezinaworld's Sew 1 collage sheet and cut it out leaving a narrow white border.
I also cut out the scissors and a thimble from the sheet and assembled the card as shown, adding 2 gingham fabric flowers with buttons stitched in the centre, a scrap of ribbon and a greeting on a frayed piece of aida fabric.

Young Heart

This card is my entry for the shabby chic challenge at Simon Says this week and I'm also entering it in their current DT call.

Ingredients Used:
Crafty Individuals CI-100
VersaFine Vintage Sepia Ink
Papermania Nostalgia Warm Collection Paper
Corrugated Card
Laura Ashley Connemara Velvet Rub-On
Hero Arts Printed Flower
Maya Road Metal Flower
Empire Beads Brass Charm
French  Vintage Bias Lace
Ranger Tarnished Gold Embossing Powder
Coffee and Dusky Pink Acrylic Paint
The corrugated card is painted with the acrylics and one edge trimmed with scallop scissors. The edges were embossed with the tarnished gold powder.
The rose paper edges were torn and embossed with the gold powder.
The image was stamped on pale pink paper 3 times with the sepia ink and cut out with the scallop scissors. Parts of the remaining images were cut out and decoupaged. Some areas were coloured with a pink Prisma pencil.
The elements were assembled as shown in the photo.

Two Hearts

This is my entry for this week's challenge at AI Factory with a theme of a Valentine card with lace. I've used one of their lovely digital image sheets for my card (if you pop over you'll be able to see the link to the online shop where you can try out some of the gorgeous images free) and I've resized the images and printed them out on to some of the gorgeous patterned papers from the new Love & Cherish Polka Doodles CD (click here for the shop).

Firstly, apologies for the rather bad photo of the front of the card as the colours are like the inside which was scanned. I couldn't scan the front as the pearls looked terrible!

All I've done to make the gatefold card is to stick on the printed out heart panels and add crocheted lace top and bottom. I then stuck on pink and cream pearls to decorate the hearts. I lined the inside with more of the polka dot paper and added a deeper pink heart embossed with the Cuttlebug textile folder and the sentiment from the digital sheet printed on patterned paper,  cut out with an oval cutter and matted on black. The sentiment on the front is computer generated.

Polka Doodles Challenge 2 LOVE Theme

Morning Everyone, this week over at Polka Doodles   Nikky our head Doodler has challenged us all to make something with a love theme using the brand new Love & Cherish CD which had it's debut last Sunday on Create & Craft. If you didn't manage to catch the show and see all the fabulous papers on the CD, the show will be repeated and you can also check out the DT members blogs to see what we've all been doing with them.
Here's my DT card:

For my Valentine card, I couldn't resist using the gorgeous Diamond heart embellishments which come on a sheet in a variety of sizes and I've used a small heart in the centre of my large one. I cut the hearts out and layered the large one on strawberry coloured glittered card and then black. I glued a silver heart charm at the top.
I also made a decorative border with the smallest diamond heart by cropping it closely and copying it in a row on a blank document in the Word programme on my computer. I then printed out some of the black and white Fleur De Lys paper from the Elegance collection on both white and red card. As quite a few of the patterned papers are black or grey and white,  you can see the possibilites are huge!
I cut strips from the printed papers and layered them across the card with a panel at the top embossed with the Sissix Floral Flourishes and Vines embossing folder set. I stuck the heart near the top and added computer generated text and a key. The key came from a set in various colours on the CD and I cut out a black one and covered it with Ranger Glossy Accents for some added dimension.

Special Challenge and Blog Hop

Brenda has yet another surprise with news of a special challenge and blog hop on 1st February with big prizes on offer.  Details are still secret at the moment but click here  to go and see what you need to do to be in with a chance at winning a prize.

Brenda Has Blog Candy!!!

Thought you might like to know that Brenda over at Floral Fantasies who's a fellow Polka Doodler has some fab blog candy on offer for her followers at the moment.

As you can see it's a really generous lot of stash and if you click on the link above you can see what it's all about. It's running until 26 January so why not pop over and take a look and while you're there, have a look at all the fabulous artwork on there too.

Bon Chance

Here's a card I've made using the inspirational sheet from Soartful Challenges with a theme of chance. As the tickets on the sheet had several languages on them, I decided to go for a Parisian theme. This also fits the latest challenge at Theme Thursday as the theme is Paris so I'm entering it in that one too.

To make the card, I printed out the ticket sheet and tore off the edges. I stamped Paper Artsy Backgrounds Plate 6 in black ink on blue card and tore the edges of this too.
I stamped B Line Designs Eiffel Tower and Paris directly on the ticket sheet in black ink. I stamped Rubber Stampede's Tip Your Hat in black on pink card, cut it out and coloured just the lips and beret with a raspberry pencil.
I assembled the card as shown with Dymo generated text and a butterfly cut from my book of butterfly illustrations.

Rose For My Rose

Morning everyone! Something a liitle different from me here this time as I decided to do a small canvas. I bought a few canvas boards a little while ago as they're much easier to stamp on than conventional canvasses so I decided to do something with a small one to get me going.
I've made this one for this weeks challenge at the Play Date Cafe with a colour theme of black, white, silver and gold.

As it also fits in with the Sophisticat theme of Fancy Borders, I'm entering it in that one too. It also fits in with the theme of Precious Metals at Paperplay Challenges as it has gold embossing, a gold German scrap border and gold and silver card.

To make this, I painted the canvas with white acrylic paint and stamped on various background images with black ink. I then dry brushed antique gold plus more white over the top to soften the effect. I rubbed embossing ink in places and embossed with tarnished gold powder. I stamped over the top with white, then black acrylic paint and a flourish image.
The digital image is from Dezinaworld, the mono collage sheet and I matted this on black, gold, silver and more black card. I stamped a small flourish image on white card to make a border and glued this on with checked ribbon at the top and a German gold scrap border at the bottom.
I added a stamped butterfly with a black jewelled body and a punched flower with a black jewel centre to finish.

Polka Doodles 2010 First Challenge

Happy New Year everyone and it's now time for the first Polka Doodles challenge of the year. The challenge for this week is to make a project inspired by a song title. As we all love a bit of music in our lives, I'm sure there will be plenty of crafters up for this one.
My DT project is an altered mini clip board (actually sold as a Bingo board!) which I found in the local garden centre. I've made it into a really pretty decoration for a little girl's room. It was inspired by the song "Swing On A Star" although there isn't a star in sight but there is a swing!

 

I've used some of the really pretty floral papers from the Back to Nature CD in lilac and purple shades together with one of the matching floral borders. The number of gorgeous papers on the CD have to be seen to be believed and if you have a look at the challenge blog and also at the online shop where you'll find lots of examples.
To make the clipboard, I painted the top and sides with lilac acrylic paint and then stuck 2 co-ordinating floral papers on. I covered the central join with a floral border and stuck white crochet lace either side of it. I stuck narrow doubled sided tape all around the edges and covered them with candy pink glitter.
I printed the scallop frames from the CD onto lilac card and cut out the large flower shaped one. I inked the edges with lilac and purple ink. I then printed out some of the single flowers and the little girl on a swing. I assembled these on the scalloped flower and added a few coloured pearls in the flower centres. By using foam tape in some places, you can achieve a really lovely 3D effect.
Finally a reminder that you can catch Nikky Hall on Create & Craft TV on Sunday 10th January at 11am with the brand new Polka Doodles CD entitled Love & Cherish which I've been privileged to work with and the papers on there are just stunning. Do catch the show if you can.
 

Vintage Monochrome

Hello everyone, hope you're not all too snowbound in the current weather. I've been marooned at home for another day with my hubby and my daughter due to the snow so I decided to get back into stamping which I haven't done much of since before Christmas. I've also done some hand drawn and doodled elements on my card to get the rusty fingers going again. I'm hoping to do some more stamp designing soon so hand drawing will probably feature quite a lot for a while.
My monochrome card is for this week's challenge on Tuesday Taggers with a theme of black and white and as it also features a face, I'm entering it in this week's Sunday Stampers too.

The stamps I've used are Le Brun by B Line Designs and Stencil Roses Clear Stamp Set by Clearly Inspired. The hand drawn element is the flower which I drew on black with an Inkssentials white opaque pen and on white with a Sharpie marker,  the card having been sprayed with water and scrunched prior to drawing on. This makes the card much softer and easier to manipulate as I rubbed the backs of the petals with an embossing ball tool to give the flower a 3D textured look.
The border round the image was hand doodled with a black Sharpie pen and next time I must do it in a well ventilated area as the smell made me feel light headed! So, what's new you say!
The background paper was made in a similar manner to my watercolour crayon technique in that I sprayed white card with water and scrunched it, repeated this then rubbed Black Soot Distress ink across the creases and sprayed and scrunched again. I then ironed the paper flat (ish) and stamped a rose design on in black dye ink. I ran a black ink pad round the edges too.
I assembled the card with some white crochet lace across the decorated paper and a flower shaped white button in the layered flower centre.

Valentine

I know it's a little early for Valentines but I've just finished making some samples up for Nikky of Polka Doodles whose brand new CD entitled Love & Cherish is being launched on Sunday 10th January at 11am on Create & Craft TV.

There are some absolutely gorgeous papers and toppers on the CD suitable for all sorts of occasions, not just those involving love (!). There will be more samples appearing here soon too, although I'm entering this one in this week's ABC Challenge with a theme of L for Layering. I found out about this challenge from Brenda, a fellow Polka Doodler and if you'd like to see a fabulous sample from the CD that she's made, click here.
The card is made using 2 of the papers with a border layered across the middle along with some black lace. I've added one of the cute toppers, matted on black card and a paper flower embellishment with a punched flower centre and a jewel to finish.

Peggy's Ornament

I just had to show you this lovely surprise that came in today's post. Last month I won a gorgeous ornament from Peggy Gatto who does the most beautiful mixed media artwork. Click here to see more of her fabulous work. I did'nt know which one I was going to receive and I felt I had to let you see it as it's now hung on my tree (until tomorrow that is!)

Isn't this absolutely beautiful. I think I might have to hang it up somewhere after tomorrow as it's much too lovely to hide away and only show at Christmas.

Quixotic Challenges Mystery Candy

Quixotic Challenges has a mystery prize blog candy on at the moment and wants to see your favourite project of 2009.

To see what it's all about click here and the instructions to enter are shown. But don't delay as it finishes on Tuesday 5th January.

I've already done something similar for the Stamp Man and it was so hard to pick one as there are several that I really enjoyed doing. I've picked one that is special to me as I loved using the bold colours and this one came second in the Trimcraft Glamour challenge in August.

This card has lots of different techniques on it, including my Twist on Resist technique (see sidebar for link on how to do it) for the background paper, cuttlebug embossing, a pressed flower frame and one of June's gorgeous Dezinaworld images (click here to see more of these).

Believe In Angels

I've finally managed to finish my entry for Hels' Sunday Stamper Challenge with the theme of Believe. As the colours fit a challenge at Gingersnap Creations with the theme of Purple, Gold and Green, I'm entering it in that one too.

Ingredients Used:
Stamps :
Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps Cherubs-SM02
Impression Obsession Word Frames WP118
Hero Arts Pixie Letters LL032 and LL033
VersaFine Inks in Spanish Moss, Olympia Green, Imperial Purple
Memento Ink in Grap Jelly
Purple Acrylic Ink
German Gold Scrap Border
Nature's Illusions Butterfly
PrismaColor Pencils

Fantastic Start To 2010

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year and hope that it's everything you wish for. Thank you all so much for supporting me in my first few months as a blogger. I can't believe that I started this up in April as the time has just flown by and so much has happened in that time.
I have some more great news to share with you all too. I've got a fabulous start to the new year as I have a project in the February 2010 issue of Craft Stamper magazine which is out today.

I can only give you a very small sneak peek at the things I have in there:

Those of you who are subscribers have already received a copy and have very kindly left me some lovely comments so thank you so much for that (you know who you are!).
If you're not a subscriber, it's well worth a look as it's packed with fabulous projects including the gorgeous one on the cover which is by Hels Sheridan and if you'd like a peek at her fab blog click here 
I don't know about everyone else, but I've been thinking a little about New Year resolutions and have decided that I'm going to be a lot more adventurous in my artwork and hope that some really special things will come out of this. I also want to do more designing of the stamp sort so all I can say is watch this space!