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!

The Stamp Man Award Event

As part of the Stamp Man's Blog Candy and Award Event (see details on previous post), you are asked to pick your best (or favourite ) project for the year and leave a comment on the blog post so that they can come and look at your work. As Jill says, a great way of starting another blog hop and seeing other crafters' artwork. I've just finished their blog hop and it was really fantastic to see all the different blogs with completely different styles-very inspirational.
I've chosen the above card as it features a background paper made using watercolour crayons that was actually my first technique posted on here. I chose it because it is a technique that I use time and again as I love a shabby chic look. It's really easy to do and is ideal for making decorative papers for cards, scrapbooking and embellishments.
If you'd like to see how to make it, click on the watercolour crayon technique sidebar label to see more examples and a short tutorial.
Fliss xx

Blog Hop by The Stamp Man

Just to let everyone know about the Stamp Man's fun blog hop, details above. As you'll see, there will be giveaways so it's worth adding it to your reading list so you don't miss anything.
I took part in the Hero Arts one last week and it's really great fun as you get to see lots of different blogs with some fantastic artwork on them.
Merry Christmas, Fliss xx

Merry Christmas Everyone

This one's for all of my friends and followers to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very happy and hopefully prosperous New Year.
Thank you all for all the lovely comments and support that you've given to me since I launched my blog in April this year. I can hardly believe that 7 months has passed since then. It only seems like yesterday that I didn't know how to add links, pictures etc etc here (there are still a few things I can't do though!)

Hoping that you all have a lovely time and manage to get a bit of rest, and crafting done.
Sending hugs, Fliss xxx

Crafty Individuals Gallery

I've just had an email from Crafty Individuals and am thrilled to say that my 2 Turtle Doves (Part of the 12 Days of Christmas UK Stampers Challenge) is now in their gallery. It's actually the first thing that you click on and you can see it here if you're interested. They've also put a link to my blog which is great.
This has really cheered me up as I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself at the moment having unintentionally gone ice skating yesterday morning on the nasty patch of ice and ended up flat on my back on the pavement, having banged the left side of my back and my head on the way down.
As you can imagine, I felt a complete idiot and today has been difficult as I'm getting more aches and pains as the day goes on and the bruises haven't even come out yet. I don't normally want it to rain but I do at the moment as the ice is all still there today and our council doesn't seem to be doing any gritting. At least the ground here is mostly level. In Brighton several people have broken bones due to no gritting in the streets there. Some friends of ours who live there haven't been able to get their car out since Thursday as the street where they live is a hill.
I hope everyone is OK and not suffering from the same problems.
Fliss xx

Polka Doodles Challenge 31 DT Gift Set

Morning everyone! Woke up today and discovered that the world has turned white-a really big surprise as I live on the South coast just one road back from the sea and we don't get snow very often. The South Downs tend to act as a barrier but not today! It's caused chaos of course with closed roads, slow trains and lots of school closures-a real shame for all those children looking forward to the last day of term parties.
Anyway, enough of that and on the the next challenge at Polka Doodles where anything goes! You can make anything you like so do join in if you can. On the DT, we've all made things using the gorgeous Back to Nature CD. I'd never used a CD before joining the team and I'm definitely converted! The CD has loads of backing papers, coloured images, digital stamps that you can colour yourself, decoupage elements, shaped card elements....... the list goes on!
I've chosen to make a gift set using the Stackies Floral Collection with a little box and a matching card. I've also sneaked in a bit of stamping (couldn't resist lol) using the lovely Daisy Doodles set which has a total of 26 stamps in various sizes with cute little owls, ladybirds, flowers, leaves, flourishes and sentiments.

The box (one of Papermania's Back to Bare Basics round box set) was painted with deep lilac acrylic paint. I then stamped the flourish design all over with black dye ink. The stamp can be twisted in several directions to make really pretty patterns and I know I will be using this one a lot!
I printed out the Stackies Floral set in green and mauve and cut out various sizes of flowers. I layered these up for the top of the box using foam tape. I added a ribbon band.
The card has a decorative stamped panel again using the flourish stamp and all you do is stamp it in a row up the card, stamping the image upside down every other one to make a very stylish pattern. I embossed the card itself on the right side with the Cuttlebug Textile folder.
I made a further layered flower with various sizes and foam tape and made leaves by resizing the largest green flower and cutting some petals into leaf shapes. The stalk was made from a scrap of diagonal striped paper from the CD. I finished with a sentiment from the large variety you can choose from and a little ribbon from American Crafts.

Really Retro

This is my entry for this week's Play Date Cafe challenge set by Alison. Here's the inspiration to use:

The colours screamed retro at me so that's what I decided to go for and I've developed an easy inking technique inspired by retro textiles.

Ingredients Used:
VersaColor Ink Cubes in Scarlet, Lime and Orchid
Textured Card in White
Pink Card
Image from Dezinaworld Mono Touch Collage Sheet
Ribbon by American Crafts
PaperMania Floral Ribbon Brad
Bright Brads and Fabric Flower
Clear Embossing Powder
Cuttlebug Paisley Embossing Folder
The retro background paper is really easy to make using the ink cubes. You simply start at the top of the card with your first colour (I used pink) and press the side of the ink pad on the card, repeating to form a zigzag pattern across the card angling the ink pad up and then down. You repeat this with the next colour (scarlet here) and then the third (lime). Once you have reached the bottom, you fill any gaps at top and bottom with the corresponding ink colour in the pattern. You then emboss the whole panel with clear powder.
My card also features a white panel embossed with the paisley folder and 3 brads pushed in at the top right side. I cut out my chosen collage image complete with the border as the colour worked so well here. I finished off with ribbons and a fabric flower with a brad centre.

White Christmas

Hello everyone, hope you've all had a lovely weekend. I'm sitting here typing whilst watching the X Factor final. From my point of view, it's been really difficult this year as I've actually liked quite a few of the final 12 and I think they're all winners. I'm hoping they will all get a singing career out of it as they do deserve it.
I've got a card here which fits several challenges:
Sophisticats with a theme of a verse and flowers but no image
Stamp Something with a theme of Winter Wonderland
Gingersnap Creations  also Winter Wonderland
Paper Cutz with a theme of a Snowman or Snowflakes
Kaboodle Doodles with a theme of Snowflakes
Crafty Calendar with a theme of Winter Sparkle

Ingredients Used:
Inkadinkado Snowflakes a Plenty 98397 Clear Stamp Set
Black Dye Ink
Pink Ink
Blue Card, White Textured Card
White Glitter Border Stickers
Flowers and Glitter Brad
Cuttlebug Machine and Snowflakes Folder
The background is simply stamped with a variety of snowflakes in black ink on a square of blue card. I then embossed it with the snowflake folder. You may notice that the whole square is embossed. This is because I have found that with certain folders, it is possible to pass the card through the machine a second time and emboss again without getting a messed up piece of card. The overlap does not show when using the snowflake folder.
I printed the words to White Christmas on white textured card, cut the rectangle out and edged it with the glitter border. I then inked 2 of the flowers with a little pink ink and layered them with a deep pink and a silver flower and glitter brad.

Songbird

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend.  Before anything else, I want to say a big welcome and thanks to all my new recently joined followers. It's lovely to see you all.
I have a card here which I think fits 3 different challenges:
Papertake Weekly  with a theme of red or green must not be seen
Saturday Spotlight with a theme of music
Stampin for the Weekend with a colour theme of blue and brown

Ingredients Used:
Crafty Individuals Stamp CI-224
Magenta Cling Set CSET15
Clearly Inspired Stenciled Flowers MCS216
Music Background Stamp
VersaFine Vintage Sepia Ink
VersaColor Smoke Blue, Sky Blue and Lilac Inks
Neocolor 11 Watercolour Crayons in blue shades
Cream Card
The background paper for this card was made using my watercolour crayon technique and the blue crayons. Please click on the side label if you'd like full instructions on how to make this paper. I stamped the roses on in smoke blue, then sepia. This gives a lovely antique looking paper.
I stamped the bird design twice and inked one with the VersaColor inks. I cut just the bird from the second and stuck this on top of the coloured bird panel.
I stamped the music background in sepia and tore the edges. I then stamped the square floral design from the Magenta set in sepia down a long strip of cream card. I stamped the music text in sepia and cut out by hand the piece I wanted to use. I assembled the card as shown in the photo.

Vintage Steam Engine

I've made this card for my hubby Andrew's birthday tomorrow as he likes anything to do with the sea and railway engines and that sort of thing. As I usually do a nautical themed card, I decided to do a steam engine one this year having found this image on a sheet of railway themed stuff at a local craft shop.

Ingredients Used:
B Line Designs Time Stamp HC513E
Basic Grey Aged & Cofused Sublime Cinnamon Paper
Engine Image by Hunky Dory
Distress Ink in Black Soot, Vintage Photo and Antique Linen
Habanero VersaFine Ink
Old Book Paper
Dymo Machine
Woodware Screw Head Brads
To make the background paper, I simply cut a square of the Basic Grey paper and stamped the time image all over in the Habanero ink, only re-inking after stamping it twice. I rubbed black soot ink round the edges.
I cut out the train image and ribbed the edges with the soot ink. I then stuck this to a mount of torn edged cinnamon paper with the screw head brads (just perfect for men's cards). I rubbed ink on the torn edges.
I tore a square of old book paper, rubbed it with Antique Linen ink, crumpled it up, smoothed it a little and added Vintage Photo on the creases.
I assembled the card as shown with a greeting printed on the Dymo machine.

Dreamer

A bit of purple passion here as my decorated paper turned out slightly darker than intended due to a slightly blocked misting bottle. One of the hazards of DIY but I like the result so it could be serendipity which I swear has to be my middle name!

Ingredients Used:
Stamps: Hero Arts Old French Writing
              Rubber Stampede Woman in Repose 3942F
              Magenta I0359
              Hero Arts Zinnia Style E3274
              Penny Black Dreams 2711F
              Stampers Anonymous Paisley K5-1153
Memento Inks in Tuxedo Black, Grape Jelly, Sweet Plum, Lulu Lavender
VersaFine Ink in Imperial Purple
VersaColor Inks in Heliotrope and Lilac
Watercolour Paper and Paints
Glimmer Mist in Wine and Roses
Adirondack Color Wash Spray in Wild Plum
Paper Flowers
The background paper here is very easy to make. All you do is cut a piece of watercolour paper to the required size and paint it with watercolour paints-I used deep pink and purple. I dried it with a heat gun (I'm impatient but you could air dry it) and sprayed on the color wash and Glimmer Mist. I stamped the Magenta flower in Grape Jelly and then Imperial Purple. I stamped the Hero Arts flower in the gaps in black.
I stamped the woman in Imperial Purple and cut her out leaving a narrow border. I then cut a slightly larger piece of lilac card and stamped the paisley design in the lavender ink. I cut a larger piece of watercolour paper and inked it with the heliotrope and lilac inks. I then stamped on the French writing in grape jelly. I inked all the edges and layered the panels up.
I stamped the Penny Black text on lilac card and hand cut it out. I inked the edges in black. I assembled the card as shown, using a left over scrap from my second RSS banner trimmed with scallop scissors across the background paper. I finished the card with paper flowers and a glittered centre.

Polka Doodles DT Cards

It's now time for the next challenge on Polka Doodles and this is my first week on the team.  I've been having a play with the gorgeous Back To Nature cd which has loads of papers and digital stamps, plus lots of elements to make shaped and 3D cards.
I've actually got 2 cards to show you as I didn't scroll down the page quite far enough to realise that it should be a New Year card. How silly am I! Here's the sketch to follow

The brief is to make a card with an envelope on it or that is an envelope and with a New Year theme. Here's my first one which isn't a New Year one!

When browsing the cd contents, I fell in love with the shake a tail feather collection which has loads of peacock themed papers, toppers, greetings and images in gorgeous shades of aqua, lilac and green. If the colours sound familiar, it's because I have chosen those very colours for my Christmas banners.
I chose various papers and a border from the collection and put them together with an image and some paper flowers. I really love a mix and match look.
Here's my second one which is for New Year:

For this one, I've used some of the cute little owls with their house. The house comes in various sizes and can be used to make a gorgeous 3D shaped card. I printed mine out and cut out aperture then adhered it over some Home Is Where The Heart Is and plaid papers. I made a little envelope from some stripy paper and added the greeting. I cut the owls out and used my favourite trick with an embossing ball tool to shape them. For anyone who hasn't seen this before, all you do is use a large ball tool, turn the item over on a soft mat and rub in a gentle circular fashion on the back. This gives a lovely rounded appearance to flowers, animals, birds and so on and makes them look 3D with very little effort.

Angels Galore

This card was made using this week's sketch from Polka Doodles and was a work in progress when I received my fab DT news on Sunday. The theme on Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stamper is angels so I'm entering it in that one. If you haven't had a look at her work, do pop over as she has some fantastic artwork on there as well as the weekly challenge.

Ingredients Used:
Crafty Individuals Stamp CI-173 (flourish)
Crafty Individuals Stamp CI-258 (text)
Crafty Individuals Miniatures-Christmas
Ranger Distress Inks in Scattered Straw, Peeled Paint, Fired Brick, Broken China
Brilliance Pearlescent Poppy Ink
Black Dye Ink
I cut 4 x 4.5cm squares from textured card stamped twice with the text stamp in black dye ink. I sponged the squares with the Distress inks. I inked the edges of these and 5 angel images from the book of miniatures with black ink.
I cut a square of white card and trimmed the edges with scallop scissors then stamped the flourish design all over in the poppy ink. I stuck the decorated panel to a red card blank with the fold at the top and added the stamped squares and angel squares.

Vintage Christmas

Hello Everyone,
I've at last managed to finish my entry for the Play Date Cafe with the colours red, green and white. As it also fits the Lots to Do theme of snow, I am entering it in that one as well. I couldn't resist using a gorgeous vintage image of a little girl with a sledge kindly shared by Kerry at the Graphic Addict for my card as I have a friend who loves the vintage look and the colours are her favourite too.

Ingredients Used:
Holly Stamp by Personal Impressions
Poinsettia Stamp by Stampendous
Ornate Border Stamp by Impression Obsession
Red and Green Pigment Ink
Green Dye Ink
Peeled Paint Distress Ink
Clear Embossing Powder
I printed out the vintage image and trimmed the edges with deckle scissors then mounted it on a narrow border of white card. I made a frame by stamping the border round the edges of a white card rectangle (I masked the side edges after stamping and embossing them and then did the top and bottom) in red ink and embossed with clear powder. I then sponged Peeled Paint Distress ink over the top.
I stamped the holly all round the edges of a red card blank in green dye ink. I then stamped the poinsettia in both red ink and green ink and embossed them with clear powder. I cut out the whole image in green and just the flower in red. The card was assembled as shown and a computer generated greeting added.

FANTASTIC NEWS! And More Of Tim's Tags

I'm so excited at the moment that I'm practically bursting with it lol. On Sunday afternoon I received an invitation from Nikky at Polka Doodles asking me to join the Design Team. How fantastic is that?! I've been on cloud 9 ever since (after I'd picked myself up off the floor!!!) and am soooo looking forward to working with the team and the gorgeous Polka Doodles stash.
I would like to send many congratulations to my fellow new DT members too:

Brenda

Dolly

Kate

Nettie

And now I'd like to show you my versions of days 3 and 4 of Sir Tim's gorgeous tags. Day 4 was quite a challenge as I didn't have anything to make the focal point and had to think outside the box lol

Here's day 3 and my Santa stamp is CI-163 by Crafty Individuals-this will be getting a lot of use methinks! I made the little tag myself using a cut down punched tag which is inked and the text written with a Sharpie marker. It was then double embossed with clear powder. I've used grey raffia instead of jute string.

And here's day 4 which was the most challenging yet. Tim used a little memory frame but as I didn't have this or anything else small enough, I made the shape from mount board and cut a window in it. I stamped the little snowman and snowflakes (Hobby Art Town House clear set) on another piece of mount board cut to the same size and inked it. I covered the front piece in embossing ink and coated it with 2 coats of pewter embossing powder. I added a little frosted lace Stickles at the top and stuck the 2 parts together so that the snowman showed in the window. I attached a K & Co charm and attached the little house with wire through a picture hook. I added a ribbon bow at the top.

The remainder of the tag was made in a similar fashion to Tim's by stamping and masking then inking with various Distress inks.

Hope you like my version.

Tim's Tags and a Challenge

First I have a challenge entry which is for Polka Doodles Challenge 28 where you need to use 3 papers and a stamp.

The papers I've used for this card are by Basic Grey which have are just beautiful. I chose 3 and cut them out to fit in 6 panels on lilac backing card. I then stamped on faux stitching to emphasise the patchwork look. I added a stamped image by Stamp-It, coloured with my Prisma pencils and then inked around the edges. The finishing touch is a layered paper flower.

I've been following the super talented Tim Holtz this week as on 1 December his 12 Tags of Christmas started. If you haven't yet had a look, it is worth it for the fab tutorials with loads of great hints and tips. I've started making the tags but have only finished 2 so far as my challenge to myself is to make them with the supplies I have. Hopefully you'll like what I've done so far.

This is day 1 and I made my snowman by creating a paper template and cutting him out of white card which I coloured with black ink. I stamped snowflakes on him and embossed them with white powder. I then covered him with Glossy Accents.
My background is covered with several coats of clear embossing with a crackle stamp impressed due to lack of Rock Candy Crackle Paint.

This is day 2 and my frame is made using the new Cuttlebug Frame. I rubbed the raised edges with embossing ink and embossed them with gold powder. As the method of applying the ink is not perfect, the end result was a slightly distressed look which is in the spirit of Tim's tag.
I'll be working on days 3 to 5 tomorrow and it will be a definite challenge as I hardly have any of the supplies he used for days 4 and 5.

Joy Is Where You Find It

A very appropriate title for my latest creation as this saying is so true today. The builders have gone and I have heating and hot water-absolute heaven as you don't know how much you miss it until you haven't got it!!!
The icing on the cake today is not this however, but the news that my Enchanted Dreams card took second place in Polka Doodles Challenge 27. To say I'm thrilled to bits is an understatement!
The card I have made is for a one day only challenge on Dezinaworld and you have to make something using lilac and silver. As this is a favourite combination, I just had to enter and the prize is fantastic too as it's one of June's gorgeous collage sheets due for release next week. So hurry if you want to enter as time is ticking away.

Ingredients Used:
Stamps:
Impression Obsession Ornate Borders WP130
Hero Arts Old French Writing H2365 and Find Joy C3065
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Paisley K5-1153
A homemade stamp (foam heated and brooch pressed in)
Palette Lavender Sachet Ink
Silver pigment Ink
Silver Embossing Powder
Image from Art Freebies blog
Flowers and Pearl Brad
The background papers were made by stamping the writing and the paisley on lilac card with the lavender ink. The scallop edged strip was made with the homemade stamp using the silver ink and embossing powder.
The papers were layered up with the paisley strip stuck to lilac card with a border stamped and embossed in silver.
The card was assembled on a silver embossed pattern square card and flowers were layered with a pearl brad. Finally the greeting was stamped and added.

Christmas Wishes

Hello everyone. It's been a few days now since I've been able to do any crafting as we've been without heating since Monday morning (really bad timing as Monday night went down to 1 degree!!!) and hot water since yesterday morning. Also have had a house full of very noisy workmen as we're having to have a new boiler because the old one packed up. Doesn't do much for creativity!
I've finally managed to get the second banner for the Ready, Steady, Stamp Challenge finished so without more ado. here it is

The brief this time was to include a Christmas Tree, Eyelets, Cut 'n' Dry Stamping and Kraft Paper with your colours.
Ingredients Used:
Swirl Tree SC2009E by Hobby Art
Crafty Individuals CI-237
Christmas Wishes F3682 Hero Arts
Border from Impression Obsession WP130
Brilliance Pearlescent Olive and Purple Inks
VersaFine Spanish Moss Ink
Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
Acrylic Paints in Aqua, Lilac and Olive
Krylon Gold Leafing Pen
Brown Kraft Paper
Ranger Tarnished Gold Embossing Powder
Crystal Transparent Embossing Powder
Gold Bow
Purple Eyelets and Purple Pearl Cotton
Cut 'n' Dry Foam and items to impress (brooch and texture plate)
My banner background was painted with acrylic paints and stamped with the Crafty Individuals background in Spanish Olive.
I ended up with 2 Cut 'n' Dry backgrounds as I couldn't decide which I liked best! The lilac one was a texture plate impressed and stamped in Pearlescent Purple. The other was a heart shaped metal brooch which was then stamped in Pearlescent Olive on lilac card.
I stamped a border on the torn Kraft paper and embossed it with the gold powder. The tree was stamped in Spanish Moss and embossed with the crystal powder.
I threaded purple cotton through the eyelets several times. The gold bow and stamped, inked text completed the banner.