Corrosive Challenge #20 - Summer Fun & Papertake Weekly Challenge - My Favourite Things

Janet's Challenge this week over at the Corrosive Challenge blog is Summer Fun. When I got this month's stamps from Dimension Fourth I just knew I had to use them for this :). Papertake Weekly has a theme this week for its challenge of My Favourite Things: vanilla, mint choc chip, chocolate, strawberry and coffee, with a flake on top. Mmm, that about sums up my favourite things :).The set has two different ice cream cones, a tall ice cream glass, an ice cream cup, various scoops of ice cream and some sentiments for good measure. They'll be really fun to use.

I found a pack of yellow pearlescent DL cards in the drawer, I think they were a freebie with something. Anyway, tall and thin was just what I wanted for my card. I stamped the cone twice and used foam pads to give the top of the cone dimension. All the scoops were stamped separately and glued together to build the sort of leaning ice cream cone that you just know is going to melt before you can eat it:). Colouring is done with Copics and Promarkers; I've used Glossy Accents on quite a bit of the ice cream. Yumm....

Stampin' for the Weekend - double or nothing

This week Stampin' for the Weekend gave a choice of two sketches; I chose to use Donna's pretty sketch with the flower arrangement.

I used my new Gorjuss Girl from Sugar Nellie and coloured her with Promarkers and Copics. The sentiment is an Elusive Images one stamped onto heavyweight vellum with black Brilliance ink. It's tucked under the papers at one side and left free the other side. The papers are all K&K and I used a new punch that I bought at Newbury Art Stamps for the lacy border.

I don't have one of the lovely punches to makes ferns/leaves, I was drooling over them last week and couldn't justify the cost. But I had a brainwave: my friend Marion who isn't cardmaking at the moment lent my a lot of her stash, including a punch of a Halloween tree. The branches, trimmed down, make great leaves! One less thing to spend money on... The flowers are a mix of plain white coloured with the Promarkers and ones cut out with punches. I've used pearl gems for the centres. I love the new Sugar Nellie and I do like the card, it took a lot of thinknig about though :). With the pinks and purples I've used I'm going to send it to my PostPal.

Happy Bella Birthday!

I've been playing with my Promarkers again and used a Stampinbella image that I got in a swap, to make a birthday card. I used a great sketch from Truly Scrumptious, but neglected to read the challenge first, which was to use black and white and one other colour :(. Hey, it's such a pretty sketch that I'll do another one, just not tonight...

Papers from K&K, bought at Newbury Art Stamps, which is also where the pearlescent blue card came from. The birthday sentiment is a clear Hero Arts one. Prima flowers from the Stamp Attic.

Hi! - Passion for Promarkers #7

Having entered last week's challenge at Passion for Promarkers in the nick of time with my new pens, I thought I'd keep up the momentum and make another card with them. This week's challenge uses a sketch, with the colour combo of cornflower blue and cocoa. Again, I only have cocoa but I used blue pearl as a close-ish substitute. T-shirt is in meadow green.

The stamp is a lovely new Mary Hall one from Sugar Nellie, called "Go Fetch". Embarrassingly, the new Sugar Nellies arrived when I was at Newbury Art Stamps. Having ordered them late Friday afternoon I hadn't reckoned with Karen's amazing efficiency at dispatching orders! Oh well...

The papers are all K&K, from 2 pads that were part of a special offer bundle at Newbury. I've used jewellery tags to put "Hi!" for a greeting; the stick is mounted onto a 3d sticky pad cut down to fit. The image only just fits my largest scallop Nestie, I'd have preferred to add a frame but he's just too big. I really like the stamp and I'm enjoying the Promarkers, they seem to colour very easily.

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!).

Cupcake Craft Challenge #47 - no longer the last time!

Cupcake Craft Challenges had announced that this week was to be their last challenge, but happily DT member Donna is to take it over and it will continue. Hoorah! So here's my card for Lisa's Challenge to use only black and white. I was very taken by the landscape stamps by Creative Expressions that were being demoed and sold at Newbury Art Stamps on Saturday.

With superhuman strength I resisted the 3 for £25 offer and just bought one set :). I've stamped with Soot Distress Ink and used a watercolour brush to drag some shading around, then used the ink on the edges too. The sentiment is an Elusive Images one and the DP comes from the Stamp Attic. The card is for a geography teacher at college who is being so helpful with Will and the dilemma of which universities to visit. I really like the way this stamps out, maybe I should have yielded to temptation and bought more of the landscape sets :)

My Grafico Challenge #8

It's time for the 8th My Grafico Challenge. This week the winner will get designs from the cute
Ballet Digital Stamp set. The Challenge is to use Stephanie's fun sketch which I've slightly altered to use on a square card.

I've used the ballet shoes from the set, printing them out onto some cardstock heavily Glimmer Misted. They have pearl gems on them and lots of Glossy Accents and are mounted onto foam pads on Nestability circles.

The papers are free papers from a magazine; the text is computer generated onto the Glimmer Misted cardstock. I've added green organza ribbon and some green faux brads from Craftwork Cards.

Farewell Ismaki and Thank You

I was sad to be making a card for the last challenge at Ismaki, but I now have slightly mixed feelings; I was lucky enough to win the last challenge at Ismaki, so I'm the last in a long line of creative people :).

The same team have come up with something new, Ready-Steady-STAMP!, which begins on 15 July, so not too long to wait...

Thanks Ismaki, can't wait to see the new, different challenge which says "This is NOT another "cute" challenge... You will enjoy this one if you like stamps...inks.. lots of inks... paints.... and push things a bit further... but I'm not saying anymore now... Talk soon"

My Time to Craft - no patterned papers

My Time to Craft has a challenge this week to use no patterned papers. This is a card using June's Dimension Fourth Project Club stamps, very slightly modified from the suggested project.

I've cut away the right hand side of the card and used the long thin piece of card from this to stamp and silver emboss the border. It's mounted onto silver and then lilac card. I used a border die cut to make a bright pink border and stuck it to the card. The flapper girl is watercoloured (she's brighter in real life). I've added some Stickles and a gem to her, also some gems to the RH border, and tied a ribbon round the image, after mounting it to silver card. She's then matted onto the lilac card. The greeting is an Elusive Images stamp, matted onto the bright pink, the silver and then the lilac card.

There are two girls in the set, Grace and Serenity. This one is "Serenity" though I think she might be better named Patience, she looks like some who has been waiting a while for something or someone!

Ismaki - the last challenge

This week, sadly, is the last challenge at Ismaki. The blog is to close, though the team is working on something totally new for the future - watch this space :). I'd like to thank them for all the fun that I've had entering their challenges and wish them all well for the future.

Kiki created the last sketch and to enter, the card must have at least five of the same type of embellishment. I always find it tricky to overstamp layers of cardstock to make the scrolly decorations on Kiki's sketch, so I decided to use lace for these and to add it to the rest of the card as well. So I have five pieces of lace embellishing my card.

The starting point for my card was a sheet of paper from a Basic Grey pad called Cupcakes, with cakes and ice creams on it, I'm very much in summer mode here :). To go with it I coloured in a very pretty Sugar Nellie image called Summer Ice Cream that I got in a SCS image swap, she's really sweet, don't you think? I used watercolour pencils to colour her and matted her onto pink card. The "Thanks" stamp is from an Elusive Images set and is stamped onto a tag cut out from the pink card with a Big Shot die. The main background paper and the contrast strip are free papers that came with a magazine. I've trimmed the scallop design and then added lace beneath the scallop at the bottom edge of the main paper.

Hollyhocks!

It's been so hot over the last few days that I've not been crafting much. After the last few summers we've endured though, I won't complain about the lovely sunshine :). Last night when I went to do the horses, the scent of the limes trees at the farm where I keep them was almost overpowering, the sweet peas and the mock orange in the garden are fabulous for scent and the roses are looking great.
But the stars of my garden at the moment are the hollyhocks. I didn't plant them, the flowerbed is a new one we've dug out. They've just arrived and thrived :). Aren't they beautiful?

Tomorrow I'm planning to go to the Newbury Art Stamps show, which is only twenty minutes away. I have a list, but I know it will be ignored when I see all the new stamps and papers and must-have gadgets... Have a lovely weekend, wherever you are and a Happy 4th July to my friends across the Atlantic:)

My Country - and some Midnight Madness

I began this card after noticing that today is Canada Day. My blogging "Sister" Janet, from Canada, kindly sent me a voucher to use with the Canadian company Stampinbella after I was on her blog design team. The stamps have been waiting for me to add Ezmount and to ink them up and I decided that today I really should use them and even better I should try to use them to enter Janet's Corrosive Challenge.

Hmm... this week the Challenge is "Your Country Rocks... to honour our countries your theme this week is to make something to represent your country, use the colours of your flag, something common in your country, anything you want really, just make it about your country." - and I got a cocktail drinking Bella and a Bella with wellies and a brolly. Tricky! I'm not a big fan of red, white and blue cards but I had an idea: what do we all know about England? Yup, it rains a lot! Mind you, it's very hot today and Bella would do better to use her brolly as a sunshade :). I hope this is ok as a card to represent England Janet, it's also doubling up as a Get Well card, I need to send one.

I've used a fun sketch from Midnight Madness Week 8, which has lots going on in it. I've slightly changed it to fit a square not an oblong card, as the papers I wanted to use are 6x6" and wouldn't work on anything but a small oblong.

I'm also making this my third Charisma Cardz rubbernecker challenge entry :)

The cards uses all Basic Grey DP, I've paper pieced Bella's dress, boots and brolly from it. There is ric-rac across the corners, the sentiment is also Stampinbella.

Sweet Summer Sun - and 8 challenges!

It's been a lovely hot day today, in fact it's been hot for a few days and I've been drawn to making a hot summer sunshine card. I've begun with the very simple, very usable sketch from the CPS Challenge blog this week. I've used some lovely images from My Grafico, a set called Garden Elements and I've coloured them with Koh-i-Noor pencils in hot pinks and oranges to match Michelle's Summertime theme on the Digital Tuesday Challenge. This is also the theme at Cupcake Craft Challenges so I'm entering it for this Challenge too. Sadly Cupcake Craft is closing down as a challenge, it will be their last challenge next week. A Challenge blog is a big commitment and a lot of work, thank you to all the Cupcake gals for running their challenges for so long :). There's yet another Summer Challenge to enter at A Spoon Full of Sugar this week!

The challenge this week at One Stop Craft Challenge is to use Fruity Colours, so I'm entering my orange and raspberry card, though it has no actual fruit on it, it still fits the bill. Charisma Cards has an open challenge that you can enter up to four times, that they've called Rubbernecker Week after their sponsor, so here's entry #2 to their challenge. And last but definitely not least, my blogging friend Danni has a Flutterby Wednesday theme of creating an outdoorsy card with a butterfly of fairy. OK I make that SEVEN challenges in one card - yippee! :).

PS My Grafico has a Summer/4th July challenge which Martha has reminded me about (see my post below). So that makes it a record EIGHT!

Now, on to the card...

Digi images from My Grafico were printed twice and coloured with Koh-iNoor pencils. Flowers were cut out and added to the image with 3d sticky dots. The image was edged with Distress Ink in Worn Lipstick and matted onto pink card. The DP is an Artylicious printed paper from my Graphicus Guild membership. The Hero Arts sentiment is stamped onto orange Bazzill card and the whole of it matted onto pink. The butterfly from the set was then stuck down, some Glossy Acents and Stickles blinged it up a bit and I added two butterfly brads from a special offer pack I bought at Made by You. Enjoy the summer and I hope you enjoyed looking at the card!

Happy 4th July - My Grafico Challenge #7

This week's challenge at My Grafico is a 4th July or a summer card. Do go and check out the Design Team's cards, they've done a great job. If you enter the challenge you can win two of the images from from the Fourth of July stamp set. I chose to use a great stars and stripes image from it. I coloured the image with Inktense pencils, added some Perfect Pearls to the start and cut round the image. I mounted it onto some lovely papers that are a free download from Summer Drigg's blog called Freedom. The text is computer generated, 4th of July cards and stamps are not big business in England :)

Truly Scrumptious Challenge #10 & Charisma Cardz Challenge #25

This is the first time I've entered either of these challenges: The Challenge at Truly Scrumptious this week is to use Sharon's great sketch and also to use some neglected stash. I was playing with some new stash, the Retro Vases stamp plate from Elusive Images, when I used some very old and very neglected stash - one of some tiny pigment ink pads that I bought before I even knew there were stamp shops :). I'm also entering my card for Charisma Cardz' any theme challenge; the sponsor rubbernecker is allowing up to four entries, so here's #1 :), I wonder how many more I'll get done...

I wanted to make a glossy vase for the flowers and as I don't have lots of colours of pigment ink I went back to the old ink to use to clear emboss. The ink was very poor quality and the glimmer misted background showed through very badly. So I added more embossing powder - twice - until I got a thick, glossy vase that you can just see the background through - like a real vase. I stamped a bit of a shadowe under the vase and added some of the flowers to it. The vase has crackled slightly and it looks much better in real life than in the photo :). I used another Elusive Images stamp for the sentiment.

The DP is Que Sera Sera from K&K. I've gold embossed the sentiment onto it and also two more flowers from the themeplate, which I've cut round and mounted on foam pads. There are a lot of different colours going on on this card, but that's just how the garden is in June :). It's been a busy but fun few days, more creative blogging tomorrow...

Twisted Thursday #16 - one challenge 2 cards!

I've run out of time for Shirley's2Girls Challenge the last couple of weeks and really didn't want to miss it again. This week the challenge is a sketch with the twist of adding something sparkly. I've made a card ready for this week and then made a second one. Why ever would I do two? OK, there is a reason!

This month I took part in an orphan stamp swap at the Stamp Attic group: we each brought a stamp that either we'd bought and not got used, or one we'd bought and used a lot and can't think of any more ideas for it. The stamps went into paper bags, anonymously, and we all took a different stamp home. We have to make three cards with the stamp, adding other stamps or whatever we want and give them back to the owner, complete with cards for inspiration. Of course we can stamp the images for ourselves if we want while we have the stamp.

I came home with a very uninspired stamp of a bunch of violets which actually works ok with S2Gs sketch, so that's one of my orphan stamp cards out of the way:).
The stamp is coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils and the background washed with colour from the pencils. It's mounted onto purple pearlescent card and then onto a larger circle. The main DP is the reverse of the strip paper used for the circle. To add the glitter I've put Stickles in the centres of the violets and onto the brads in the corners. Paper is from the Stamp Attic, I have no idea where the stamp came from!

Now onto the fun card, which was made with a Shirleys2Girls stamp called Domino's Amusing. Isn't it brilliant? I love the dog and I love the sentiment!

I've paper pieced Domino onto a blue circle and then onto a beige circle from the DP he's pieced from. The sparkle is in the main DP which has glittery bits all over it, I've also used some blue Stickles on his hat and Glossy Accents on his nose. Although it's not part of the sketch I've added the sentiment, it's too good to leave off :)

Take Time to Smell the Flowers - Sketch & Stash #13

This week's Sketch & Stash Challenge has an optional challenge of using animal themed stash. This made my mind up as to what I was going to stashbust this week :) - a lovely dog stamp that my friend Anne bought me from Little Claire's stand at Ally Pally. I fell for 2 dog stamps and have coloured the larger one several times and not been happy with the effect I've got.

For this card I pulled out the little terrier stamp and inked it up at last. I masked it off and stamped an Elzybell's flower stamp onto the background. I coloured the images in with Koh-i-Noor pencils and blended them, adding some Distress Ink around the edges.

The gorgeous papers are Basic Grey from their Porcelain 6x6 pad, fairly new stash from the Stamp Attic, and the two flowers are new stash. I've bought the most beautiful stamp plate from Elusive Images called Retro Vases, with, I think, 40+ images to it. It's taken me a while to cut them out and now I need to start to use them :). This hardly gives much idea of their potential, but I stamped the little star flowers with pink chalk ink, cut them out with a circle punch and shaped the edges. They looked too white so I rubbed more Distress Ink across them and painted the flower middles with it.
I think the dog looks a bit like Sweep, our terrier, but those who know her may think it looks rather better tempered than Sweep :)

Exciting News - I've made the My Grafico Challenge DT!

I'm really excited to be able to tell everyone that I've been accepted as a member of the My Grafico Challenge Blog Design Team. I've been using some of their images for a few weeks now; they are a great way to dip your toe into the digi-image pond as there are lots of freebies and special offer sets on their site.

I'm really looking forward to working on their challenges, watch this space :). In the meantime, why not check out this week's Challenge: Weddings.

Tea Dyed Daisy - Stampin for the Weekend #3 & Sugar Bowl #13

I'm having a second try at Lilian's sketch for this week's Sugar Bowl Challenge; I'm not totally convinced by the colours on my earlier card :).

I've often thought that Daisy, who is such a lovely Sugar Nellie to colour in, would look good as a monochrome image. So I've stamped her with Tea Dye Distress Ink and dragged some of the ink into her clothes and hair. I suppose the answer is that you can't go wrong with such a great stamp, but I think this looks good.

With Stampin for the Weekend's Challenge #3 in mind, I've kept to the soft neutral colours, she's A Whiter Shade of Pale, which fits their Rock'n'Roll 60s Challenge. The papers are Antique Cream Creative Tones from Papermania, I've added some Stickles to the flowers in Daisy's hair and to the daisies in the paper. The images are mounted on Kraft paper to fit the Sugar Bowl Challenge. There's ribbon in Daisy's hair and on the card, and that's it, a pretty clean and simple card.

Bird Song - Midnight Madness Challenge

I came across the Midnight Madness Challenge blog when following a comment left by Jeni on my blog. The Challenge is running for June; for each week you can enter once. The grand prize is cash - the more people enter the bigger the prize. Sounds fun, wish I'd found it sooner :).

The sketch is an interesting one, that could use either thin strips of paper, lace or ribbon, depending how you chose to interpret it. I've used a favourite line of double sided paper by Crate Paper, that I've bought from the Stamp Attic. Each time I use it up, I buy some more, it's so versatile.

The focus of the card uses a Basic Grey clear stamp from a set that also came from Stamp Attic. I've gold embossed the cage, but the cage door is open and my birds are flying free :). The wording comes from an Elusive Images stamp and the edges of the sentiment and the image are inked with Distress Ink. I love this stamp set, I think it'll get some heavy use.