DT Posting - Corrosive Challenges - #85- Sketchtime

 This week at Corrosive Challenges we have a fun sketch for you to follow.  Sadly I have decided to step down from the Design Team for Corrosive, life is getting in the way of my crafting a bit at present:).  Janet who runs the challenge is one of the first blogging friends that I made online and I'd like to thank her and all the gals at Corrosive for the fun times I've had being part of the team.

My card uses an image from this month's sponsor, Robyn's Fetish.  I've coloured using Copics teamed it with Basic Grey Indian Summer DP and a few Prima flowers.  Leaves are cut with a punch and sentiment is a new one that I bought from Elzybells, who have sadly closed down.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

The Stamp Man - Autumn

Charisma Cardz - Autumn Colours

Paper Romance - Halloween or Fall

Indian Summer

As soon as I saw the theme at Truly Scumptious this week - Indian Summer - I thought of these two Elzybell's stamps and knew I wanted to use them with Michelle's sketch. Sunflower Fun is stamped onto the card with the Sunflower used around the edge at random to make a border. I've then stamped the sunflowers separately and cut them out, adding silicon glue to attach them to the card with their petals curling up.

The images were coloured with a mixture of Promarkers and Copics (still undecided about which to opt for) and some yellow Stickles on the sunflowers. The image and the DP were mounted onto brightly coloured Bazzil card, the yummy DP stripe is by On a Whimsy, the ribbon is from my stash. I hope my card makes you feel a bit more like the sun is shining :).

A day in the life of Bronte the dog

This is a very simple card using Mo Manning's digital art. Bronte was a rescue dog that Mo had, who was thought to be a cattle dog. Both our dogs are rescue dogs and these images are just right for me :).

Coloured with Copics, matted on to the reverse of double sided card which is used for the main DP. Sentiment by Elzybells. There, I said it was simple :).

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 :)

Bee Happy - Elzybells Challenge #20

Earlier this week I made a gatefold card for Elizabeth's challenge on the Elzybell's blog, which is to use more than one fold in a card. I liked the images I used but the folding wasn't too exciting, which bugged me a little.

So when I saw a tutorial link on Splitcoast Stampers to a card called a Tri Shutter card, I decided I'd better give it a go :). The tutorial can be found at The Craftiblog and has been made by Bonnie Swalkiewicz. The tutorial is very clear, I've never successfully made a folded card before, but with the help of Bonnie's photos and words I found this straightforward to achieve; I would like to thank Bonnie for her excellent how-to skills. :) The card she made is astonishing, take a look at her blog to see the detail she has put into it.

Having had a try-out with a piece of scrap paper, I cut my card and found a pretty piece of strip paper to use on it. For goodness sake please shoot me before I think of using a non-repeating stripe for something that needs to match across the width of the card again! There's nothing like jumping in at the deep end with a new technique, is there!

Card closed

Once I'd cut and glued the stripes into submission I got out my Elzybells stamps and played. All images are Elzybell's stamps, all are coloured with Inktense pencils. The bear is cut out and attached with silicone glue, his butterflies are highlighted with Glossy Accents. I got so carried away with adding more images to my card that I realised I've only left a 2" square to sign the card! Oh well, there's always the back...

I had so much fun with this, thanks Elizabeth for making me think outside the box, and thanks to Bonnie for her tutorial. Elizabeth I make it NINE folds in the card! :)

Card stretched out flat

Elzybells Challenge #20

Elizabeth's challenge at Elzybells is to use more than one fold in a card. I had great ideas about using some of the folded card tutorials I've cut out of magazines and saved - but I can't find them! So I've made a good old gatefold card, which I really like :).

The image on the outside is "Dog Paper", coloured with Inktense pencils. His nose has Glossy Accents on it, so he's a healthy dog with a wet nose :). I've used my new Nestabilities dies from the Craft Barn (bought with a voucher won from the Ismaki Challenge - thank you!) and he's mounted on octagons of card. Mmm... think I need scalloped octagons too... smile. The paper is free paper from a magazine. Inside I've used "Torn Paper", again coloured with Inktense pencils.

I'm not sure who I'm sending the card to, I see the image as a "Sorry" card. I'm leaving adding the sentiment until I know who the cards's going to, I've saved a little of the tan card and will put it in the envelope to mat a sentiment when it's needed.

Elzybell's Challenge #19 & Cute Card Thursday #58 - Mirror Mirror

Isn't this dog image from Elzybells cute? There is a matching image of a dog carrying a rolled up newspaper but I like this one best, he is giving a very feeble tail-wag because he knows he shouldn't tear up the paper but sometimes you just can't resist temptation :).

I've used Rachel's sketch from this week's Elzybell's Challenge and I've included lots of gold shiny card, which means I'm also entering it for Cute Card Thursday's Mirror, Mirror Challenge.


I've coloured the dog with my Copics; I'm a bit underwhelmed with the effect I'm getting, doesn't look all that professional :(. The edge started out with faux stitching drawn in with a Pigma Micron pen. Annoyingly I smudged a corner so went over it with a waterbrush and Distress Ink to blend it in. To my surprise, the "permanent" ink ran into the blend... Hmm...


Flowers are Hero Arts, Design Paper is from a gorgeous Basic Grey pad I bought at Ally Pally. The card blank is left showing in the background, I like the contrast of brown matte with gold shiny.

Sketch Saturday #45

I was looking at greetings cards in a shop last week and thought that, sometimes, I'm making cards for cardmakers not for all the other people I need to send them to. By that I mean that they have more and more layers, embellishments, gems, everything but the kitchen sink added :). So I'm having a go at some challenges, but keeping the cards as clean and simple as I can.

This uses Tracie's sketch from Sketch Saturday and I think it's a good one to start with, it can be dressed up or dressed down.

I've stamped Busy Bee from Elzybells twice onto white card and coloured it with Inktense pencils. It's mounted onto green card and stuck onto a plain white greetings card. Two bees, also from Elzybells, are stamped direct to the card as a substitute for the dots on the sketch and I've added in a stamped "Happy Easter" below the ribbon. As there is nothing to wrap the ribbon round I've folded its edges in and glued them under, the ric-rac is just glued down and hopefully it won't fray. I coloured some flowers withCopic pens but put them aside for another project, I think it looks best with a single white flower.

Happy Mother's Day

Here in the UK it's Mothering Sunday, here is the card that I made for my Mum. Mum loves to bake, I thought she'd love this image, spoke with her this morning and sure enough she does :)

I had another go at decorating the inside of the card, for fun. The sentiment is a stamp belonging to my friend, no manufacturer's name on it. The stamps are from Elzybells, new stash from my Cheltenham winnings :) and the papers are free papers that came with a magazine last year sometime. I've used the polka dot paper so it can take part in the Elzybell's Challenge. Images coloured in with watercolour pencils.

I'm enjoying a quiet Mothering Sunday, my elder boy is away on a school field trip so there are just three of us home. I've had a lovely ride across the Downs on my horse and have the afternoon to play in the craftroom and in the garden... Happy Mother's Day to you all.

The Corrosive Challenge Blog - Week 1

Today is the grand opening of Janet's new Challenge Blog - the Corrosive Challenges Blog ! Here is my first Design Team card for her. The first week has a very straightforward, usable sketch. I chose to use my Elzybells stamps with it. The dog is stamped onto cream paper and mounted onto Glimmer Misted paper. The golden frame is also Glimmer Misted. Both sentiments came from Elzybells, as does the bee. The design paper and the bee ribbon are both from the Stamp Attic, the green ribbon behind was from some chocloate truffles I was given at Christmas. The chocloates are long gone, but there's still some ribbon left :)



Looking forward to seeing lots of entries on the Corrosive Challenges Blog :)

Elzybells - new stamps and blog candy

Elzybells have brought out several new sets of stamps today and there is the chance to win them as blog candy.

I have more cup cake stamps than I need, but having seen the tea and coffee stamps I loved them. Then, when I saw the Just Desserts set, they are different again to anything I have. Check out the wording stamps that they have brought out too, they contain many wise words such as "Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may diet", "A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand" and many others :)

Sketch & Stash Challenge #1 - buzzin by to say hi

http://sketchandstashchallenge.blogspot.com/  is a brand new challenge blog, there is a sketch to follow and you use your new/unused stash to create with.  This card was nearly finished before I went down with the lurgy and I wanted to add it so as not to miss out on week one.  Now I've checked the site it is a fortnightly challenge!

Stamps are all Elzybells; I had to order some for Janet, my SBS25 "sister" as she had kindly bought some stamps for me that I couldn't get in the UK.  Of course, I added a couple in for myself ;).

The Nestabilities dies are also new, a kind Christmas present from my FIL (with thanks to my DH who knows what to buy me!).

More about card method etc. later.