Indian Summer

  We've been enjoying lovely hot sunny weather and a beautiful end to summer, something that certainly keeps going into autumn is the weeding, everything is growing like mad!  With this in mind, I've made an autumn card using Flowertop Fairy Dandelion Puff from Phindy's Place, I've seen a lot of gorgeous cards made with this image but not used it before myself.  I was aiming for deep, saturate colours after reading some of the links from this week's Copic Colour Challenge, but I'm not sure if I've achieved it - or not - what do you think?  The DP is Basic Grey Indian Summer, sentiment from Stampin' Up and punch is EK Success.
My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Stamps RUs - autumn/fall
Stamptacular Sunday - photo inspiration
Copic Creations - saturated colour - I think I got it for the hair, not sure about the dress?
Simon Says - anything goes - trying for 1,000 entries
Rainbow Lady - autumn flowers
Crafty Catz - things with wings
Basic Grey - nursery rhymes and fairy tales - anyone remember the rhyme when you blow the seeds from a dandelion clock?
Woodware USA - anything goes
iCopic - all about Fall
Daisy Doodles - fall colours
Creative Stamp Friends - autumn colours

Hydrangea Bouquet

Our neighbours are getting married soon and I needed a card to say that we will be coming to the evening reception, I don't have a sentiment for this and I decided that "Thanks" would do fine and I can write on it that it's an acceptance Thank You:).  I made a step card that is something a little different for Tracey and Nev to keep, I embossed and Distress Inked cardstock, adding pearls and a bow (the bow is on the back section, doesn't show too well in the photo) and a beautiful Hydrangea image from Fred She Said which is popped up on Pinflair glue to give it dimension.  I found the blooms not as bad to colour as I thought, might really challenge myself with white ones another time:).

My card is for the following challenges:

Simon Says - make a multi fold

Stampin' for the Weekend - tickled pink

Shopping our Stash - vintage, distress, shabby chic

Magical Monday - shaped card

House of Gilli - embossing

Tuesday Throwdown - pearls

Everybody Art Challenge - flowers

Copic Creations - pretty in pink

Stamp Something - anything goes final challenge

How are you duck?

This adorable duck is part of today's new release at Tiffany Doodles, isn't he sweet?  There is a choice of different Nestie Labels shapes in the set; I don't have this die so I cut round it instead.  And how funny is that sentiment, which is a Joanna Sheen stamp.  The duck is coloured with Copics, he was very easy to colour so I did some stippling with my Copics on the background for fun.  The card is based on this week's Midnight Madness sketch and uses Stampin' Up DPs, stitching and some dew drops.
My card is for the following challenges:
Midnight Madness - sketch

Copic Creations - doodling
Little Darlings - favourite colour combo (blue & green)
Crafts & Me - stitches
Hooked on Craft - anything goes

Phindy's Place Challenge #58 - Sketchtime!

Good Morning and welcome to a new Phindy's Place Challenge.  This week we have a lovely sketch by Anne-Marije for you to interpret.  I've gone with a vintage/shabby chic version that started out with a new DP pad called Butterfly Collection, by Pink Paislee.  My month's stash diet has finished and I just *happened* to be in my local craft shop that day when I saw the papers lol!  The Little Swinger image was perfect for my papers, I paper pieced her dress and used soft colours in my Copics.  I stamped some random text in grey around the image and then burshed Distress Inks on.  The lace, printed tape and flowers all happened to find their way into my basket when I was shopping too...  I've added lots of stitching, distressing of edges and cut outs of some of the images from the DP, which have Glossy Accents to stiffen them.

My card is also for:
Paper Sundaes - vintage/shabby chic
Copic Creations - Distressing with Copics (though I have also used DI on the background, hope that's ok)
Spoonful of Sugar - flower power
Stamptacular Sunday - bugs or boys (plenty of bugs!)
Bunny Zoe - lace
Bearly Mine - diecuts and lace
Anita Be Stampin - lots of layers
Paper Creations - ribbon or lace
Ai Factory - distressing
Crafty Purple Frog - things of beauty
Wags'n'Whiskers - stitching

Lenten Lily

This is a bit of a sneak peek as this stunning hellebore isn't yet in the store at Fred She Said - but it will be soon!  It's a design I was asking for and Tracey has exceeded my wildest expectations with her drawing. If you think I've not blended the petal edges very well, there are quite a few types that have very strong colour at the edge and fade quickly into the centre...  The ones that are out in my garden at the moment are the browny-red ones with speckles, not the same but so very welcome, they mean spring is really on the way.  I think these are also going to be available as pre-coloured digis and I'm really looking forward to these.

My card is based on what I thought was quite a challenging Sketch Saturday layout, I spent a while playing with bits of paper and I'm pleased with the way it's ended up.  DP is Basic Grey Kioshi with lots of stitching on it, the centre oval has script dry embossed then it's been heavily inked with Peeled Paint and Dusty Concord.  Sentiment stamp is Hobby Art, flowers coloured with Copics and Stickles.
My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Copic Creations - complementary colours (purple and gold)
Woodware USA - anything goes
Bunny Zoe - Spring flowers everywhere
One Stop Craft - Spring flowers everywhere
Sundays with Chrissie - stitching
For Fun Challenges - purple, green and yellow
The Rubber Cafe - stitching
Cute Card Thursday - signs of spring
Stamp Insanity - texture (embossing, stitching, cut and decoupaged image, layers)
Fussy & Fancy - embossing and/or paper piecing (dry embossing used)

Baubles and bling!

Yesterday we put the Christmas tree up, it never goes up until after DS's birthday on the 18th.  In celebration I managed to finish this superbly blingy card using one of Fred, She Said's Christmas Ornament digis, you can buy them here.  I coloured this a few days ago and was really chuffed with the "shine" I got on it with my Copics.  I added some Stickles and some gems to it as well as Glossy Accents on the holly berries and then combined it with one of the last sheets from my Basic Grey Jovial pad, I LOVED this DP!  I finished it off with gold mirri card and Martha Stewart lattice punch, some blue snowflakes with gems and a Craftwork Cards sentiment.  What do you mean I can't have blue snowflakes?  I think it's cole enough for blue snowflakes LOL!
This card is for the following challenges:
Create4Fun - Anne-Marije's sketch
Corrosive Challenge - non traditional Christmas
Copic Creations - sparkle
Digital Tuesday - sparkling digi
Digis with Attitude - anything Christmas

Who ate all the cookies?

I was so sad not to be part of the Phindy's Place Blog Hop to celebrate the launch of the Christmas Cuties.  I've been trying to give myself a metaphorical kick to get a few nearly finished cards together and here is one of them.  Delivery Man who is one of the Christmas Cuties is totally adorable, isn't he, just look at his cheeky expression.

I've followed Tara's sketch from this weeks Basic Grey Challenge, the DP is Jovial.  I also tried out a background technique from Copic Creations current challenge of shading on and around images.  As a quilter I spend a lot of time teaching people how to stitch random, meandering lines which they often find difficult.  Well now I know how they feel LOL, I find it very hard to make random dotty backgrounds:).  The felt snowflake border came from Stamp Attic last Christmas.  I'm also entering A Spoonful of Sugar's Anything Goes Challenge , the Fussy & Fancy Christmas Colours theme and as my little Cutie has his Santa hat on I'm entering ABC Christmas Challenge of S is for Santa, hope that's ok.

Don't forget, there's still time to enter the Phindy's Place Blog Hop!

Summer's on the Way - Part 2

Hooray! Made it in time, here's my second entry to Isabella's Sketchbook Challenge, a second post in one day and both cards mde from scratch in a day too. You'd think I could have been this productive on a Bank Holiday when I wasn't at work but somehow it never seems to work like that!

I think this is just the most elegant seaside image I've ever seen, doesn't she just sum up vintage elegance? The amount I've eaten over the winter, her swimsuit looks like it's about the right style, shame I don't have her shape :).

Image coloured with Copics and a white Inktense pen for the waves, I've used my blender pen on the sky to make it streaky. Most days I can colour streaky without even trying LOL, but never happens when you want it to! Tag cut with a Big Shot die, background emossed with a Bigz plate, forgot I had it, great for a 5x7" card. Sentiment is Shirleys2Girls and little clear flowers are Impression Obsession I think. The ribbon is translucent white, coloured with Copic pen

I'm entering this card for the Copic Creations Challenge, which is colouring other surfaces this week, Midnight Madness' Anniversary Challenge (sketch) and a second entry for Lili of the Valley's Here Comes Summer Challenge.

Trying Something New

Phindy O'Neill's group on Papercraft Planet has the challenge to try something new. No, not a new image :), the challenge pushes a bit further than that. You must try out a new technique, tool or material. I've not been cardmaking that long, but I've been fairly adventurous and I've been racking my brains over this challenge. In the end, I've tried two new techniques so I'm pleased with that.

First, I realised that I have never attempted one of the easel cards that are so popular at the moment. I've even seen challenges specifically to make easels and for some reason I've shied away. There was a great tutorial on Splitcoaststamper's newsletter this week so I had no excuse.
I used Dawn's sketch from Papertake Weekly Challenge as the basis for the front of my easel card, love this sketch! And my second new technique came from the Copic Creations Challenge, which is being sponsored by Phindy this week. The challenge is to use ethnic skin tones in a project, all too often we reach for Caucasian colours for a card and never think to use anything else. When I looked through the images I have, it dawned on me that I've never coloured in an image as anything other than white. Mmm... quite shocking and thought provoking. I notice that both Mo Manning and Phindy O'Neill provide a variety of images, black, white, Asian and they seem very aware of this, no doubt because they're both children's book illustrators. So the second new technique just happened thanks to me reading the Copic Creations Blog.

I used Phindy's image Setting The Stars, colouring with Copics then cutting it out and decoupaging it onto Stampin' Up DP. OK the decoupage wasn't in the plan but the colours bled a bit from my angel's feet and this was a rescue mission :). The sentiment is a Woodware stamp and the inside sentiment comes from Imagepac. As the tutorial suggests I've added a border as a kind of "stop" for the easel, using a Martha Stewart punch.
For some reason my photo doesn't show how raised up the angel is, I've used silicon glue and she looks so pretty against the background.

Bronte Goes Ice Skating

This is the first Christmas card I've made with Mo Manning's wonderful digital art. It stars Bronte, the grumpy sort-of cattle dog that Mo's family gave a home to. The image is coloured using that classic, favourite colour combi of red and green, to enter Copic Creation's challenge this week. I used Woodware Fluffy Stuff for the fur trim on the hat and muff, just squeeze it on and heat it to make 3d, fluffy snow. Or, in this case, furry trim :). Isn't this a fabulous image to use? I love it...

The Merry Christmas is a clear stamp I've had in for ages, added to one of the Creative Expressions circles that are designed to fit Nestabilities. I've embossed with brown ink that isn't intended for embossing and didn't like the cool, metallic grey-brown that I ended up with. So I coloured it with my brown Copic - much better. All the DP is Basic Grey Infuse, which is not a Christmas set as such, but I think it works really well on a Christmas card. I cut along the wiggly design lines for the centre strip, added a narrower piece of pink stripe and then the most beautiful velvet ric-rac that I bought at the quilt show. I couldn't resist it but it was quite pricy, so it'll be on special Christmas cards only :).