Tuesday Morning Sketches meets My Grafico Challenge!

This week My Grafico Challenge is joining forces with Melissa's Tuesday Morning Sketch Challenge, which gives you the chance to win TWO prizes! At My Grafico you can win a sporty car set of digi-stamps and at TMS there's another set of My Grafico digi-stamps up for grabs; this time an adorable girl set.

I used a lovely freebie image from My Grafico for my take on Melissa's sketch, printed onto Graphicus Guild paper. The other papers are also Graphicus Guild, the sentiment is Elusive Images. I've matted image and sentiment onto gold card and used card candy from Craftwork Cards to finish off my card. Please forgive the brief description; today should have been a day off work to deal with my beef for the next year or so, with the help of a local butcher, however an ill husband, a work meeting that couldn't be re-scehduled and a long piece of English coursework to be checked and discussed from my older son, as well as my elderly Kenwood Chef blowing up part way through mincing 50lb of stewing beef have made it a long day :).

Don't forget to make a card and enter both challenges - after all you've got to be in to win!

Funky Flamingo

It's time for the My Grafico Challenge again, which I found quite a tough one to work with :). We are using a very cute set of flamingos having holiday fun at the beach and the theme is retirement! Hmm... I've also made my card to a recipe for this week's Simon Says Challenge, which is is a 3-2-1 with 3 embellishments, 2 papers and 1 image.

Image coloured with Copics, yellow Stickles added to the hat and necklace. The background was painted from a Stonewashed Adirondack ink pad. The image was cut out using Rach's out of the frame technique and mounted onto golden sand coloured Bazzill card. The two papers came from a huge K& Co box that I got when I went to Graphicus. The ribbon is from stash and the 2 flowers are Prima from a pack I chose when I was lucky enough to win the Simon Says challenge in July. I thought I had a Happy Retirement stamp somewhere from an assortment of stamps I bought on Ebay but I couldn't find it, so I opted for an Elusive Images sentiment: "Enjoy Yourself" which fits the theme but could also work for other occasions too. The colour scheme is meant to be hot and sunny, hope you like it!

The Last of the Orphans and an ATC

Here's the third and last of the cards I've made with an orphan stamp for the Stamp Attic swap. I should get my stamp back with three cards, can't wait to see what has been made with it :).

For this card I've trimmed the image down to just over 1" of detail, stamped with Dusty Concord Distress Ink; I've drawn some of the colour into the violets.

The card is a pearlescent yellow DL, I've trimmed off the RH edge and used my new Martha Stewart punch on it, mounting Graphicus Guild paper under the shaped edge. I've cut a strip of the same paper and shaped it on each side with the punch. The images are mounted onto gold card and stuck over the paper strip, with an Elusive Images sentiment at the bottom.

I think this is my favourite of the three cards, I won't be sorry to give the stamp back to its owner :). It's a good swap idea though, it's made me think :)

Here's my ATC for the Stamp Attic July swap, which is holidays:

I won the Beachabella in a Challenge from my awesome Blogging Sister Janet. She's coloured with Copics and paper pieced onto Bazzill card and pearlescent yellow. Her sunglasses are highlighted with black Stickles, they really show up well in the flesh. I've stamped a sun and some seashells on there to make her feel at home :)

My Grafico Challenge #10 - Brown & Teal

This week's Challenge at My Grafico is to use the lovely colour combination of brown and teal.
The winner gets the digi stamp set Garden Elements used this week by the Design Team. I can honestly say this is one of my favourite sets. Before I was picked for the DT at My Grafico I was lucky enough to win a challenge. The prize was any one of the sets from the site and this is the one I picked, it's so versatile. Check out the DT work, it's really lovely.

For my card I arranged the three different flowers in a row and printed them onto a teal blue paper from my Graphicus Guild membership, an Artylicous background paper and some pearlized blue card. I've assembled the flowers in several different layers using the papers and added pale blue Stickles. I've edged the image with Distress Ink in Scattered Straw and coloured the stems with Promarkers. I've added some teal organza ribbon and some brown brads and mounted it onto a brown pearlized card and then added it to my card.

You can't beat a good book

I've used a new Mary Hall stamp from Sugar Nellie to make this card. As soon as I saw the sneak peek of it on the SN blog I knew it would find its way home with me :).

The card is for several challenges: first of all the colour scheme is from this week's Passion for Promarkers Challenge: Gold & Ruby with jewels or gems. I've got Gold but I had to substitute Poppy for Ruby as I don't have too many colours yet. I've used the sketch from The Next Level, which is to be used with a 3D effect. I've decoupaged the image, the girl and cushions are raised on pads and then I've put a third layer for her mug, the cat and the book. Stamp with Fun and Dutch Dare both have Challenges to use dies or punches; I've used Nestie circles and I've cut the flowers with a die as well.

On to the card: I've used all Promarkers to colour the image, which is stamped with Cocoa Brown Memento onto white card. Face is Vanilla with some grey shading, dress is cocoa and the rest is Poppy and Gold. I also used the Promarkers to colour pearls to give the card its gems, to colour the flowers I diecut from white card and to colour the lemon yellow ribbon. Aren't they brilliant for this? I plan to buy a couple of reels of ivory ribbon, knowing I can colour it however I want...

The two papers are Artylicious, one from the Seasons Greetings CD and one from Graphicus Guild membership paper. The sentiment is by Elusive Images. The picture isn't the best, I hope to take a better one in the morning, in daylight :).

Saturday Challenge #40 - the orphan stamp

Jane has supplied this pretty sketch for this week's Secret Crafter Challenge. I still have two more cards to make for the Orphan Swap at Stamp Attic's Club and I decided to use the sketch for this. For the orphan swap, we each brought in a "wonder why" stamp - as in "Why did I Buy this?", "Why don't I use this?". We took home someone else's stamp, in a bag, without knowing what came from who, and need to make 3 cards to return with the stamp, to give its owner some inspiration.

I've stamped onto navy card with clear embossing ink and powder, then painted it with resist colour paints. The flower centres have Perfect Pearls in them. I stamped a spare image and added flowers and leaves to the card on 3d pads, for interest. I cut the navy card into a circle with Nestabilities, added a larger gold card circle and then a navy scalloped circle, hopefully giving it the look of a gold ring. The papers are Artylicious, from my Graphicus Guild membership. The sentiment stamp is also Graphicus Guild, an Elusives Images stamp and I've had the sheer ribbon for ever - well pre cardmaking anyway :). Two cards made, one to go...

Passion for Promarkers #6

I got my first Promarkers at Newbury Art Stamps at the weekend and decided to give them a go. I've had trouble getting to grips with Copics and though it was worth trying a different brand. I've found them easier to colour with as they don't seem so "juicy", maybe if I use my Copics more they will work better. But I took to the Promarkers from the word go and decided to enter Passion for Promarkers Challenge, even though I only have one of the colours in the combination of poppy and moss :). I follow Debbi's blog, one of the Passion for Promarkers Design Team, she does wonderful tutorials that I've found very helpful, thanks! Of course when I finished the card I noticed that it must also include something tasty. I'm going to ask you to use your imagination a little here :). Inside the box that the Sugar Nellie girl is holding, she has chocolates and, of course, what could be more tasty :)

The image is "A gift for you" from Sugar Nellie, kindly sent to me by my blogging Sistah Vanja
who has made some awesome cards with her. I've coloured her with poppy, meadow green and pastel yellow for her hair, with gold on the ribbon of her chocolates. The flowers and the organza ribbon are all coloured with Promarkers to match. The background papers are Artylicious, from my Graphicus Guild membership pack. I've not put a sentiment on it yet; I think the colours look quite Christmassy and I'm thinking about making it a Christmas card (yes I know it's only July, these things creep up on you!).

Purple & Pink for Alice

Dutch Dare's challenge this week is one close to my heart, they are asking for cards to be created for Post Pals. Post Pals is something I already support, I send cards to Alice, who currently undergoing chemotherapy. Her favourite colours are pink and purple, so that's what I've used for my card.

I've used the gorgeous sketch from Sketch & Stash Challenge this week and I've used butterflies on my card, which is this week's challenge for A Spoonful of Sugar . I love Danni's butterfly challenges and this week she gave us the very straightforward challenge of using a challenge sketch and including butterflies (or fairies) so I've covered that one too :).

This is, of course, a stashbusting card as it's for Sketch & Stash :). I began with something new: the lovely butterfly stamp from last month's Graphicus Guild themeplate, which I hadn't used yet. It's stamped onto Glimmer Misted paper, the butterfly stamped again and coloured with Koh-i-Noor pencils then with Glossy Accents on top. The sentiment stamp is part of this month's Graphicus Guild themeplate, again I've not used it before.

The pink pearlescent card came from a box of paper that I filled at one of the first craft shows I ever went to, this is neglected stash, as are the two DPs, which are both from my Graphicus Guild membership papers. The pink background is obescured by the images, but it is a lovely large-scale flower print, and of course the butterflies had to go onto this card :). Butterflies diecut with a punch that I've had for a while and just begun using, ribbons and flower from stash.



Post Pals is a lovely organisation, please join in and send cards if you can :).

Dusk till Dawn

New Challenge blogs seem to be popping up every day and there is more and more choice of challenges to take part in. If only someone could sell some more hours for the day so I can keep up with them all... :)

Stampin' for the Weekend is a new one, with my friend Vanja as one of the Design Team, having seen her lovely card and their great theme - From Dusk until Dawn - purple and yellow - I wanted to be sure to take part in this one. I went with a really nice sketch by Dawn from Inspirational Card sketches challenge #19 . I also included the Secret Crafter's challenge #35 for this week, which is bling, using some glitter, some gemstones and some Glossy Accents. Cute Card Thursday's Challenge #63 is to use punches and die cuts; I've managed to include this on the card too. Phew! I think four challenges in one card is my record, I'm always in awe of those who manage to fit umpteen challenges into one card, which takes some multi-tasking! OK that's the challenges, now on to the card :).

I have used all Elusive Images stamps for the card; the Graphicus Guild stamps this month include the bird and birdhouse, the brilliant "Best Wishes" stamp is from another, older, Guild stamp set. The papers are all from the papers included with the Guild membership. The birhouse is embossed with Adirondack Eggplant onto patterend paper, with a gem on top of it. The bird is stamped onto pale yellow Bazzill card and then again onto a pale yellow patterned paper, in Eggplant dye ink this time. I've used the birdhouse stamp around the edges for the leaf pattern. The bird is mounted onto the card using silicon glue and then painted with Glossy Accents, which seem to have turned the Eggplant a bit blue.

When I assembled the card I was going to use the thin piece of the sketch to the left for the sentiment, until I remembered the pearlescent card that I used a butterfly punch on a couple of days ago, the negative shapes were just too pretty to throw away so it went into the scrap box. I think it fits the sketch really well.

I stamped the "Best Wishes" onto the card when it was assembled, in Eggplant again, and added faux brads to the corners and gemstones below the butterflies. I've coated the brads in Glossy Accents and dropped some Prisma Glitter on them to give them a bit of bling. I also used a tip from a workshop I went to at MadeByYou last week for the ribbon: I used double sided tape wider than the ribbon, with a narrow sticky border each side of the ribbon and again, coated it in the glitter more some more bling. I think this is a great idea, may come in useful for any accidental sticky tape left showing :) .

Love the Dusk Until Dawn theme, great one to work with and it came together with the other themes quite well, I think.

Inspirational Cards Sketches #11 & Flutterby Wednesday Week 52

I got out my Elusive Images butterfly daisy and poppy collage stamps for this week's Inspirational Card Sketches Challenge. I coloured some glossy card with Distress Inks. The colours are Tea Dye and Weathered Wood. I stamped the lovely text and scrolled background onto it and cut an oval from it with Nestabilities dies. Then I stamped a large butterfly onto the glossy card and cut round it. I've chopped off its antennae as too fiddly to cut round though, and can't decide whether to try to draw some in on the background... The butterfly is attached so as to be 3D, sorry it doesn't show up well here.



The two sentiments come from Graphicus Guild stamps, they are stamped onto Glimmer Misted paper that has had cling film crumpled onto it while the ink was wet. The design paper is from the Graphicus Guild membership pack and I've stamped the smaller corner scroll from the butterfly daisy collage set onto the paper. All stamping was done with black Versafine ink.




I've changed the proportions around a bit to fit my ideas to Dawn's sketch but I'm quite pleased with the end result. I'm also submitting it for Danni's Flutterby Wednesday challenge - Danni has been challenging crafters for a year now! Congratulations Danni, hope you like my butterfly card :)

Cupcakes Crafts Challenge #33

Cupcake Craft Challenges has a nice sketch to work with this week. Here's my take on it. I've used a Leanne Ellis image from Sugar Nellie and covered it with thick embossing powder multiple times to give it a glaze. I put it in the freezer and cracked the glaze when it was rigid. I'm pleased with the crackle effect but a little disappointed in the embossing ink I used. I was sold it to do this technique with, as being cheaper than Versamark and more sticky. It has a slight tint to it though, which I thought would disappear when it was heated. As you can see it's still there though luckily it tones with the card.


Circle is cut from paper that was glimmer misted, dry embossed and then inked. The background paper is from Graphicus Guild's paper pack. The ribbons are from a pack in the bargain box at the Stamp Attic; they inspired the colourscheme.

Corrosive Challenges - #5 - Christmas Cards with Animals

This week's remit for Corrosive Challenge's Blog is to make a Christmas card with animals on it. I've used Foxy, one of the Gorjuss Girls stamps, masked her and added Snow Loved behind. Both stamps are from Sugar Nellie. Coloured with watercolour pencils, mounted onto Graphicus Guild paper, then onto a kind of matt metallic gold card that I bought at Stamp Addicts. The sentiment (from Imagepac) is black embossed onto the card. Last paper is red and gold glimmer misted paper.

I think she looks quite festive, what do you think? At any rate, one card down, ??? still to make :)

Flutter By Wednesday Challenge

I've come across a great new blog with a regular challenge called Flutter by Wednesday. The challenges all have butterflies as part of their theme and this one uses a very attractive sketch.

As my new Elusive Images stamps are butterfly collage stamps, that I'm loving playing with, this challenge is just made for me :). I don't have as many butterfly stamps as tree images but it's a close thing! I've coloured the image with watercolour pencils and a little Stickles glitter, mounted it onto dark blue card. It's teamed with two papers from my Graphicus Guild papers, a couple of toning ribbons, a daisy from the same themeplate and a butterfly sentiment from Craftwork Cards, coloured with Copic pens.

I love these stamps, hope you like my flutterby card :)

Sketch & Stash Challenge #6

Look at my lovely new stamps! The daisy and poppy butterfly stamp plates are from Graphicus, they are new Elusive Images stamps. These are the rest of the stamps I got with my Cheltenham winnings, there are so many ideas in my head for projects to make with these images :).

It seemed a good idea to use them for this week's Sketch & Stash Challenge. I couldn't decide which stamp to choose, so I ended up making two cards. The poppy one doesn't exactly fit the sketch though; I've not added a sentiment so that I can add an appropriate one when I send the card.

Both stamped with timber brown Stazon, coloured with watercolour pencils and some highlights added with Stickles. The papers are from my Graphicus Guild membership pack, apart from the scarlet/gold on the poppy, which is glimmer misted paper. The butterfly is stamped onto the background and then onto a matching paper, cut round and stuck on with a small foam pad.

Ismaki 09/11

Ismaki has a very pretty sketch by Kiki this week that I used to make a card for a friend who is not moving house but moving back into her home after nearly a year while it's been extended and had building work. So "New Home" isn't really appropriate and I opted for "Congratulations" instead.

The yellow backing paper came from the new Graphicus Guild paper pack and the butterfly is from a paper that I bought at the Stamp Attic . Both the Congratulations stamp and the lovely birdbath stamp belong to a friend who is not crafting at the moment and lent me a big box of stamps to play with. Neither has a manufacturer name visible on the wooden mount, so I don't know where they came from :(. Marvy le Plume pens used to colour the image and Glossy Accents added to the bluebirds.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge #37

This week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge is to make a Get Well Soon card. I've used a very pretty PB stamp that my older son bought me for Christmas from the Stamp Attic of an iris. I've coloured it with Marvy le Plume pens and blended them a little with a wet brush. It's mounted onto Glimmer Misted papers, first mauve, then a goldy colour. The main paper is from a Graphicus Guild paper pack. I found the perfect co-ordinating colour to go with this paper - and then realised that it matched so well that it was invisible!

So the second paper was left out and I used the gold paper to give contrast :). The Get Well Soon stamp and the Prima flowers are, again, from Stamp Attic. The ribbon came from some Christmas chocolates and the "brads" on the flowers and the image are Card Candy from Craftwork Cards.

Wishing Gatefold - SBS Challenge

Janet, from my SBS "sisters" has challenged us all to make a gatefold card this week. I've used my Leanne Ellis Wish image again, stamped onto glossy paper and coloured with a mixture of Copics and Marvy le Plume pens. I've cut round her and put her onto a Glimmer Misted background.

There is some silvery prisma glitter (Hero Arts) on her wings. The wings nearly went horribly wrong. I decided I wanted gold shaded wings and coloured them with a yellow Copic pen, using the mauve of her skirt for the splotches. Oh no! Instant leopard-skin Chav wings! Disaster! I rescued them by colouring over them with a blue Copic, making them a grey-green and covering up with the prisma glitter. This was a close escapre, I'd hate to be responsible for the first Chav Sugar Nellie card :0)

The main background paper is from the Graphicus Guild paper packs and the darker purple is from the Stamp Attic. I've embossed a sentiment from Elusive Images and swirls from my Paper Artsy "free" set, using silver tinsel powder.

Ismaki 09/006

At last, it is raining and I think the snow is in retreat. I still have plenty of double sided tape but we've used most of the hay we bought on Saturday as there has been no grass for the horses to eat. Expensive stuff, this snow :).

I've used Kiki's pretty sketch for this card, turned on its side. I began with a brayered background which used two Adironack dye inks on glossy paper - denim blue and then bottle green. Then I black embossed a Hero Arts dandelion stamp on top. The gold embossed sentiment is a Graphicus Guild stamp from Elusive Images, stamped onto a bluey green distressed card.

I'd planned to use a paper with stripes of dandelion-like silhouettes of flowers but it didn't work as I'd hoped, so I used the other side of the card that the Happy Birthday is stamped on.

Each shape is matted onto a dull gold card and I've added little flower and leaf gems that DH bought for me from the Stamp Attic. The final touch was to gold emboss a railing image from a Paper Artsy stamp that came free with Craft Stamper magazine's subscription. It didn't emboss perfectly across the bulk of the card layers; I filled in a bit with a gold pen.

Winter Tree - Sketch Saturday #37

Jeanette has created a lovely sketch for http://sketchsaturday.blogspot.com/ that I just had to use with my Penny Black tree stamp. I've not put a sentiment on it as I think it could be a winter birthday card - unless it becomes the first of my Christmas 09 cards that is :).

I embossed the tree onto white card using clear ink and white powder. I then took chalk inks and a sponge and rubbed them into the card to create a grey/pink/blue cold sky background. The ink doesn't stick to the white areas, if it does at all just wipe it gently with a baby wipe.

Cut it into a circle with Nestabilities die and gave it some colour with Stickles. The two patterned papers I used are both from Graphicus Guild's paper packs.

Mojo Monday Contest 72

More snow than ever today! This is the fourth day in a row that the boys haven't got to school/college, however DH managed to follow the gritter up the hill out of the village and get to work. So why was it that yesterday, the only day he didn't get into work, was the day my first Sugar Nellie order arrived? You see, I was only going to get a couple of the Leanne Ellis images, but they kept going in and out ofstock and it was better value to get the set ;).

I've fallen for the Leanne Ellis designs in a big way and also the Gorjuss Girls, but the GGs will have to wait for another month :). I made a start watercolouring a couple of the images and used True Love for Mojo Monday's sketch. She's watercoloured with Art Quest watercolours and mounted onto Bazzil textured card. The sentiment is the centre of a circle stamp that would have been too big for the card, it's mounted on navy card, both circles cut with the Nestabilities.

I've used a stamp-edged cutter blade for the base of the two navy layers, as I don't have a punch to do this. The background paper is from a Graphicus Guild pack, the contrast strip is Glimmer Misted. I didn't want to card to get any busier, and detract from the image, so I just used a peel-off strip on top of the contrast strip, and made the flower from a scrap of Glimmer Misted paper and some of the mauve Bazzil card.

Love these images, they are not exactly cute, there is just a little edginess there, at least on the three framed ones... Can't wait to play with the others now...

Hmm... it's great to live within walking distance of my office, but just think how much crafting I could get done if I had a "snow day" :)