ASM - Make Your Mark ....

....  Good evening everyone!  You really enjoyed our Anything Goes challenge last week - it's going to be so tough to pick a winner!!  It's time for our Make Your Mark challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More!  In this challenge your creations must feature the use of markers - Copics, Promarkers, Pencils, Gels, etc.  Here's my take:

Stamps: StampArt Design - Stitched with Love
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Sakura Pens - Stardust, Glaze and Moonlight

This is about as clean and simple as it gets.  I simply printed this fun digi image, from our sponsor StampArt Design, directly on my card and coloured it.  I used Copic pens for the frame and a selection of Sakura pens for the main image.  I used glaze on the hearts, they have a wonderful shine in real-life, sadly not caught in the photo!  But I took a close up which really catches the shine on the hearts!  To colour the hills I used glaze, stardust and moonlight pens in shades of green.  I left the inside blank for me to write a message.

I based the colours on the ones from this week's CAS - Colour & Sketches - CASC&S#60, the layout is based on the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch - CTS#63 and it's a one layer card so I'm going to submit it to Less is More - LIM#158 where the theme is Anything Goes so long as it's one layer. 

The winner of this week's challenge will get 5 digi images from StampArt Design. 

We are joined again this week by our Guest Designer, Dawn of Lily Pink Scraps, she and the rest of the team have some wonderful inspiration cards for you.  Have fun!  See you soon.

ASM - Make Your Mark ...

.... Hello everyone, from an incredibly cold, but brilliantly sunny, Northville.  At the time of writing this post (Tuesday, 10.30am) the temperature outside is -24°C (-12°F) and at the moment there is very little wind so the chill factor hasn't really kicked in.  It did this morning; it felt more like -35°C when Jonathan left for work.  You can see some photos of the snow on my earlier post!

It's time for our first challenge of 2014 at Addicted to Stamps and More!  This week it's "Make your Mark" time - by that I mean you use pencils, paints, markers to colour!  Here's my take:

Stamps: Serendipity - Sun Garden; Craft's Meow - Circle It
Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black, London Fog; Versafine - Onyx Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Copics (lots); Sakura Stardust Pens; Stampin' Up! Markers - several; Ribbons

I've used a couple of challenges to make this card.  I got the sunshine inspiration from MUSE - MUSE#49, not literally sunshine, but the flowers from a sunny garden.  I'm also submitting this to the new, updated One-Layer Simplicity Challenge - OLS#1 which is now monthly.  Their theme is to restock the card stash and, obviously, be one layer.

I love this flower stamp, it just yells "colour me!" - so I did.  I had so much fun using Copics, Stardust and SU markers - you can't really see the Stardust sparkle in the photo above, but in real-life it's fab!  I grounded the flowers with a couple of lines of ribbon (go me - I've had this ribbon for years).  On the inside I simply repeated the flower image in a softer shade of grey and added a simple, bold sentiment of thanks.  This is for my stash of Thanks cards.

For more inspiration with Make Your Make, check out the inspiration cards from the rest of the design team.  And this week we are also joined by our Guest Designer, Gemma - do check out here card too.  Last, but by no means least, our sponsor this week is DeeDee Digis, the winner of the challenge will gets 3 sets of digis - and they are lovely!

That's all for now.  See you soon.

ASM - Holly Jolly Christmas ...

...  Good evening everyone.  Only three weeks to go until Christmas!!!  It seems to have suddenly arrived.  It's time for our new challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More!   This week our challenge is Addicted to CAS.  Our sponsor this week is DigiDarla Designs and the prize is five images of the winner's choice.  Here's my card using our sponsor's image:

Stamps: DigiDarla Designs - Christmas Presents 4; Stampin' Up! - A Banner Christmas; My Favourite Things - Christmas Sentiments
Inks: SU - Tempting Turquoise; Versafine - Onyx Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Sakura Stardust Pens; Copics; SU Card - Pacific Point

One of the things I like about digital images is that you can print off multiple copies of the image and at sizes to fit your cards.  I took the basic image, copied it several times at different sizes, printed them and coloured them using a selection of blue and green Copics.  Then I cut them out being careful of the ribbons.  I used my Copic pen to create the mat layer so that it matched the parcels.  Most of the parcels have been glued directly to the card, but the three square parcels have a bit of dimension.  I went for a simple, bold sentiment for the front of the card.  Inside is simply a mat layer to match the front of the card and a bold Christmas sentiment.

Don't to forget to check out the inspiration cards from the rest of the Design Team.  Oh yes, it seems that the Holiday theme was very popular, it's going to be very hard to pick a winner!!

That's all for now - I'm looking forward to seeing your creations!  Bye for now!

White Christmas two ....

...  Hello again!  I've had another go at my white on white Christmas card for this week's Less is More - LIM140 challenge and I've used the Freshly Made Sketches - FMS107 layout again.  Here's my card:

Stamps: Uniko Studio - Hands of Time
Inks: Versamark
Accessories:  White Lustre Card; Hemp Texture Card; Vellum; White Embossing Powder; Sakura Stardust Clear Pen; Silver Peeloffs; Basic Grey - Silver Enamel Dot

This one is ultra clean and simple.  I cut a square of white hemp texture card onto which I attached some simple silver peeloffs.  I stamped the doily onto vellum, heat embossed with white powder and then coloured with a clear Sakura Stardust pen - which in real life has a lovely shimmer.  I finished the front with a couple of silver glitter enamel dots.  The photo above is taken in direct sunlight and the one below in shade.  I've included both photos as you can really see the texture in the photo above, but in the photo below you can see that the peeloffs are actually silver and not black as they look above.

Here's a close up of the doily showing the subtle glitter effect achieved using the Sakura Stardust pens.

I've not done the inside yet!  But it'll be a simple one with the snowflake and bold Christmas greeting.  I'm pleased I've had another go and this time I think it'll be more in line with what Chrissie and Jen are looking for ;)

Home decor .....

Click here for my 52CCT card.

...  Hi - no card in this post.  I attended a craft class on Thursday night at my local craft shop, Stampeddlar.  The class was to create some wall art for your home and was run by the very talented (and fun) Valerie Brincheck.  We 3D wall art from Kaisercraft (an Australian crafting company that I just love) called Bird on a Twig.  Here's my finished project:

Products: Kaisercraft - Bird on a Twig; Elegance DP (12" × 12"); Sakura pens - Glaze and Stardust; Distress Stains - Evergreen Bough; Distress Inks - Broken China; Gems; Flowers

I picked this gorgeous paper to decorate my wall art - I just love the colours - I actually have the 6½" pad!  It was so easy to create.  The first thing we did was stain the edges of each piece with Distress Stains - in my case it was Evergreen Bough (goes perfectly with these papers) and allowed them to dry.  I picked my favourite patterns, cut four 3" strips and a smaller 2" strip (for the backing bits) and ran them through a Xyron (you can you wet glue, but it's so much quicker and easier to make the strips self-adhesive) and I cut a larger piece for the bird.  I did each panel in turn, sticking on the paper, turning the panel over and used a craft knife to remove the excess, then sanding the edges to make them smooth (and ensure they won't lift up from the panel).  The bird was a little fiddly, but it worked okay.  I decided to do the twig in a different paper to the bird, and I'm really pleased how it turned out.

Once all the panels and backing mounts were covered, and I'd decided on the order I wanted, I flipped over the panels and pencilled a line 2" from the top and 2" from the bottom - applied some super sticky glue to the outer panels and attached the top mounting strip - making sure the edges of the panel and mounting bar were level; I repeated this for the bottom mounting bar.  I allowed the glue to dry a little, carefully turned the assembly over and added the two inner panels.  I used the super sticky glue on the back of the bird and twig and attached it to the backing panels.

Once the whole assembly was dry (I took it home and completed it here) I had fun adding some embellishments.  I kept it reasonably simple.  I used some gems in the flowers and paisley designs, traced over the flowers on the grey panel with my clear Stardust pen and added some glaze detail to the flowers and paisley with the clear glaze pen.  I brushed the edges of the flowers with distress ink and then spritzed them with water - allowing the water to bleed into the flowers, giving a lovely soft effect.  Once dry, I attached them with gel glue. I finished off by cutting out some butterflies from the left over paper (panel on the left), adding some glaze to highlight the design on each butterfly, adding gems and then adhering to the panels.  Here's a close up of the completed panels:

I wish I'd taken some photos of the other panels made - they were all so pretty.  I had such fun making this wall art - I think I may make some more!

Edited to add:  If you want to see what my piece looked like before I decorated it - check out the link to Stampeddlar here.  The link also shows the boards created by the other ladies - all just lovely!

That's all for now, I've got to go out and plant some flowers that I got for the garden - I think I'm going to be working between the rain!  Still, it'll be good for the plants!  See you soon.

Lola Rose Christmas ....

... I've been on a roll this afternoon - here's another Christmas card featuring a digi image for this week's Jingle Belles - JB38 challenge.  I've kept the design really quite clean and simple as it's another towards Chrissie and Mandi's Less is More - LIM33 - Anything Goes 1,000 challenge.  At the time of typing this post there are 401 entries - almost half way to their target of 1,000 entries for the week.  There's still time to join in!

The image is from Pink Petticoat - who make some really lovely digital images and papers.  Sadly, this image of Lola Rose at Christmas is no longer available - but it is such a fun image.  I decided that Lola would be dressed reasonably casually in jeans and blue t-shirt - both coloured with promarkers.  The stars, baubles, handbag and present have been coloured with Sakura glaze pens - they have a lovely shine in real-life.  The backing paper is one of my digital papers from Pink Petticoat - I printed it onto some iridescent paper, which just about shows up in the photo!  The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards - edged with some silver!

Image: Pink Petticoat
Spellbinders:  Long Rectangles Scalloped Sm (S4-144) #4, Long Rectangles Sm (S4-145) #4
Accessories: Promarkers, Sakura glaze pens, card from stash

That's all - back soon!

Nautical Dad's Day ...

For my Waltzingmouse Blog Waltz post - see here.

... this is a card for my father - I used the wonderful colours from this week's Colour Q challenge - the inspiration picture is a striped tie, so it made me think of cards for men!

I've had to adapt the colours a little, as I think the burgundy and blue must be older Stampin' Up! colours.  I made my card using some new stamps that I got from QVC last week - they're made by Kanban and the set is called All Occasions - and there's not a stamp that I don't like.  I've gone for a nautical theme.  I started off by stamping the anchor in the corner of my card and then masked it before stamping the main lighthouse image (love the swirl).  Next I added the flying birds and the simple sentiment.  I added some colour to the image using my aqua painter - I like the watercolour effect.  I added a bit of sparkle to the light in the lighthouse and the moon using Sakura Stardust pens.  Sadly the sparkle doesn't show up well in the scan.

Stamps: Kanban - All Occasions, Words (don't know the name of the set, but also from QVC)
Inks:  Stampin' Up! - Cherry Cobbler (Bravo Burgundy), Bashful Blue (Bordering Blue), Cajun Craze, Basic Grey
Accessories:  Sakura Stardust pens, card from stash

For various reasons, my father and I have not been in touch for many, many years and I thought it was time to try and make contact again.  Since my sister died in March I've been thinking about my father more and more, so I sent this to Dad this morning.  And now it's up to him.  Families are funny things!! 

I'm off to do a bit of reading and resting my knee.  It's feeling very much better than yesterday, but I have to keep remembering not to use it too much - I'm scared that it will go again!!  See you all later.

Funky flowers ....

.... I've made another card for the St Luke's Charity Card Challenge where the theme this month is to

"Say it with flowers!"

We've had a steady number of entries, but it's such a good cause and a really super challenge that I'd like to encourage you to have a play!  Here's my card:

This one is really quick and easy.  The central image is a piece of clip art that comes from Microsoft - I like some of the abstract images you can get, they make great cards.  The base card is from Papermania - they made a series of beautiful pearly cards in dark colours, sadly now discontinued, and I only have a few left.  I decided to use peel offs on this card - they are incredibly versatile and can be really lovely.  I stuck them to plain white card and coloured them in with Sakura Stardust pens - so the flowers have a fabulous shimmer.  I attached some direct to the card and some on dimensional pads.  I finished it off with some of the flourishes from the peel off sheet.  I decided not to put on a sentiment, as I think it can be used for almost anything.  I'll be sending this one to St Luke's when I get back from India.  If you send your cards to St Luke's please can you make sure you use a stamp on your parcel - unfortunately, we can't use the Freepost address.  Thanks for your assistance.

Peel Offs: Elizabeth Craft
Pens:  Sakura Stardust
Accessories:  Card from stash; Image from Microsoft Clipart

Our first evening in Mumbai has been really lovely.  We went to the Phoenix Shopping Centre, which is a complex of fabulous shops.  One thing is very obvious, and that it the extremes.  On the way to the shopping centre - extreme poverty with homes on the edge of the pavement if, indeed, they can be called homes.  More sheets of canvas hung across poles.  And then in the shopping centre, itself a magnificent air conditioned building, are some of the most exclusive shops names around - Dior, Clarins to name only two.  They are very, very expensive.


We had dinner in a lovely Thali restaurant - small sample of lots of different dishes - all vegetarian, all superb.  Well, Jonathan and I enjoyed the meal, but Kathryn wasn't quite so keen.  Fortunately, there's also a McDonald's there too - so she was able to have an ice-cream there.


Today Jonathan is at work and that leaves time for Kathryn and me to have a restful day.  Oh yes, don't be fooled by the time of posting - I'm typing this at 8.45am Mumbai time.  Bye for now.

Jingle bells ...

... that's the name of this little card.  I bought a couple of packs of small cards (3" x 3") from one of my local shops recently as I thought they'd be ideal for my daughter to make cards for her friends.  But I've used them instead :)))   They make the sweetest little cards.

As the cards are so small, I've kept the design really clean and simple.  I stamped the images using Memento - Tuxedo Black; and then coloured the baubles with Sakura Stardust pens.  It's a shame that the sparkle doesn't show up on the photo - in real-life the card shimmers as you move it.

This is the first of my scheduled posts as I'm travelling to Mum's house.  I'm helping her move from a large house to a small bungalow - it's fun!  Sort of!!  Do come by again.

OLW28 - Multicoloured ...

... this week the challenge is being hosted by Jennifer at Styles Ink.  Jennifer has taken inspiration for her card from the multicoloured magnetic letters on her fridge.  I remember having letters like those on my fridge!!  Apart from the usual requirement of it being a card with only one layer - this time Jennifer stated that we must use at least five, yes five, colours.  We can use black and white, but they don't count in the number of colours used.

So I kept my card really simple.  I found this lovely Christmas Tree peeloff (can't remember who makes it) but it has lots of lovely little circles - just right for colouring in.  You could also stick in buttons or glitter.  But I opted to colour in - a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon.  I used my Sakura Stardust pens - I think there's about eight different colours in the tree.  I'm quite pleased with it, but it does feel a bit like cheating!! :)

This is just a quick post, as I've got to get ready for Scouts this evening.  I've also got to get packed as I'm off to help my Mum move house.  It's all very exciting - but so very stressful too.  I got a few posts scheduled while I'm away, so do drop by.  I'll be back again on Thursday.

Beginning to feel ....

... a bit Christmassy!!!  Another card made.  And I'm really pleased with this one.  I used the resist brayered snowflake background which I posted on Monday 18 (still haven't worked out how to do internal links).  Here's the card:

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse Stamps - Nutcracker Sweet, Nestie Eggs; Stampin' Up! - Serene Snowflakes
Inks:  Kaleidacolour - Blue Breeze; Memento - Bahama Blue, Paris Dusk, Tuxedo Black, London Fog; Distress - Tumbling Glass, Chipped Sapphire
Spellbinders:  Long plain and scalloped rectangles, Stars
Pens:  Promarkers - but I coloured him a while ago and I can't remember which pens I used!!  I also used Sakura stardust silver
Paper:  Silk card for resist; silver embossed paper from stash and pearly white card from stash

The resist background gave me the idea of adding some blue snowflakes on the background card - and I stamped them using Memento inks.  I'd coloured the Nutcracker two weeks ago, and I decided to add a little colour around the edge - which I did using the lovely Distress inks.  I wanted to have a slightly different greeting and opted for a star shape - the pattern inside the star comes from Claire's Nestie Eggs set.  The final touch was to add some plain silver ribbon.

It's been awful weather here today - on my drive home from Chester I could barely see beyond the end of the car bonnet!  It's really feeling like autumn or maybe even winter now.  So it was nice to be able to sit in my craftroom this afternoon and make this card, and a few others.  Pop back tomorrow for something completely different!!

That's all for now.  See you soon.

Variations on a theme ....

.... or just how many ways can you use a stamp!!  Now, I have to state that I don't have these stamps, and that I borrowed them from my friend.  I do, however, think that the Elegant Ladies set by Creative Expressions is just great.  There are four beautiful images of ladies in a variety of different fashion styles, along with six sentiments, a large greyhound and a couple of smaller images.  I used Versamark ink and embossed with both silver and gold, and got multiple images.

For Buffy's birthday card I used some papers that came free with one of the magazines - I think Nanci Watts is the designer (apologies if she's not).  I used the vellum which coordinated with the diamond paper as the main backing sheet.

I stamped the lady on a piece of plain white card and then again on some of the diamond paper.  I then cut out the dress and stuck it to the other image.  I used Promarkers to colour the lady's skin, hat, scarf and shoes.  I think this was the first time I actually used my Distress inks too, and I was really pleased with the soft smudged effect around the image.

Intially, I didn't have a sentiment on the card, but once I'd decided this was going to Buffy - I knew just which sentiment was the most appropriate.

I made this card for my Mum's friend, Catherine; she's been a great support to me and my Mum since Mum had a stroke last year.  Catherine is an extremely elegant and stylish lady, and for her birthday I needed a card to reflect that.  So on Catherine's card, I used Sakura Stardust pens - in a watercolour technique.  Sadly, you can't really see the effect on this picture - which is a shame as it looked lovely in real life, with lots of lovely shimmer.

Catherine likes to wear clothes in neutral colours, so it was easy to make the dress look like her style.  I finished the card by mounting it on the very elegant Spellbinders Labels 10.  The backing paper was free with another of my many magazines.  And the final flourish on this card was to add some gold scrolled corners.

My Mum said that Catherine was delighted with the card.  I certainly enjoyed making it.

I like this stamp so much that I've made lots of cards using it.  The lady in blue is coloured with Promarkers, although I added a little bling with a silver Sakura Stardust pen for her shoes and bracelet.

The lady to the right was done using the paper piecing technique - this time I used some lovely flowered paper to make a bright, cheery card.  This time I added a birthday greeting.  I used chalks to highlight the pre-embossed card.  On both cards I added some flower embellishments.

Two more cards using the same lady. 

I've kept both cards quite simple, with only the minimum of embellishments.  One has a birthday greeting on it, but the other has nothing - yet!!

In all cases I found the image really easy to colour - using both Promarkers and Sakura Stardust Pens.  And it really works well with the paper piecing technique. 

I think my favourite card of this set is the next one.  I used the paper piecing technique - again - I like the way this makes each dress look quite different. 

I found this lovely checked paper (another of my free supply) which reminded me of a dress that my grandmother used to wear - brought back lots of lovely memories.  I used Promarkers for the lady's skin, shawl, shoes and hat; and distress inks (again) for the lovely soft edge.  I used the lace doily Martha Stewart punch to add some interest to the coordinating backing paper.  This card is still in my stash - waiting for a good home.

That's all for today, as I'm off out to Scouts shortly. I've got a busy weekend planned with family outings and the like, so may not be able to post much.  See you soon.