Coffee and Chocolate - 2 essentials for life

I'm sorry to see that this is the last Isabella's Sketch Challenge, I've played along with quite a few of them.  This time the challenge is to make your own flowers.  I've followed the layout from Saturday Sketch Challenge and used some gorgeous papers that are from Prima.  I haven't seen their papers before but I'll certainly be buying more!  The cup is paper pieced from a lovely flowery pattern that looks a bit like fine china, I'm also entering this for the Simon Says Paper Piecing Challenge.

The flowers are punched from a Woodware punch, I used a Martha Stewart doily lace border punch and used some Liquid Pearls for the flower centres.  I've not added the sentiment from the sketch as I think the sentiment on the image says it all:)

Summertime and the living is easy

Earlier this week I got an email from Little Claire stamps about their sale; I was lucky enough to get this Martha Stewart Grass punch for a very good price.  As I had new stash it seemed a good idea to enter this week's Sketch and Stash Challenge.   I was a bit stumped by the sketch, until I decided to use my design twice, cutting out as two circles, one smaller than the other and popped up on silicon glue. 

I used a flower design from Isabella's Sketchbook.  Isabella's Sketchbook Challenge this week is get punchy and I've used my new punch as well as a leaf punch on my card.  DP is Basic Grey Green at Heart, image is coloured with Copics and a bit of Stickles.  I've added Stickles to my flower and the sentiment is from Elusive Images.  I'm also entering my card for the Summer Days Challenge at the Allsorts Challenge Blog and the Summer Holidays theme at Secret Crafter Challenge.  

Berry Simple

I needed a quick Thank You card and, as I'd coloured this beautiful strawberry image I decided to use it and add some computer generated text. The main image is from Isabella's Sketchbook, love it! The tiny strawberries, leaves and flourishes are tiny tapestry stamps on wooden dowel, that were all the rage a couple of years back. Main image coloured with Copics, sponged with Distress Inks, Glossy Accents added to those juicy berries.

This card is for the following challenges:
Digital Tuesday - Summertime
Crafty Cardmakers - Inky Fingers
Isabellas' Challenge - Summer Fun
Secret Crafter - Strawberries & Cream

Nearly black and white

I was lucky enough to win at Isabella's Sketchbook Challenge last week and I wanted to join in again with one of the lovely images that I won. This week's challenge is to make a black and white card where the only colour used is on the image. When I saw this week's Card Patterns Sketch I knew just how I wanted to do my card! I'm also entering it for A Spoonful of Sugar's Floral Delight challenge.

The card is put together directly onto the white card, the dotty embossed borders are matted onto black card and have dotty ribbon added. The centre of the card uses some more of the mesh ribbon that I bought recently. The dotty flowers and the sentiment are from also Craftwork Cards. When I put it together I realised that the dots are silver rather than white, hopefully they still give a b&w impression:). Image is called Beyond the Garden Gate and it's cut out with a Nestie and set at an angle on its frame.

Life's just beachy

I love this image from Isabella's Sketchbook, I have a couple of these vintage-style beach ladies, this is how a trip to the seaside should be:). It's for Isabella's Challenge this week, which is based around Memorial Day for those who celebrate it and patriotic colours for those who don't. I've used the red, white and blue theme and, instead of Memorial Day, we have the Spring Bank Holiday which should be glorious sunshine and picnics. You'll note that I said should, LOL, it's grey and chilly here and all that you can say is that it's not raining - yet!

I've used a sketch from the Pixie Cottage Challenge for my card, haven't come across their site before. Charisma Cardz has a Going in Circles Challenge, Stamptacular Sunday has Life's a Beach as their theme this week, Cupcake Craft Challenges' theme is Summer Delights and Cute Card Thursday wants us to use no designer papers.

Image is coloured with Copics and cut out. The backgound is made from paper that has been Glimmer Misted. Sentiment is Elusive Images. I've set eyelets into the red circle - woo hoo - finally worked out how to use the setting tool, the white card is dry embossed with a CB folder.

Summer Flowers

Geraniums are so evocative of summer, that lovely scent that they give off when they are bathed in sunshine is second to none. Today I've had a day off work and filled my pots and tubs with geraniums and other tender plants, I just hope the summer is as kind to them as it is today:).

This lovely image is from Isabella's Sketchbook and I'm entering their birthday card challenge with it. The sentiment underneath is Hero Arts. Image is coloured with Copics and the DP is Basic Grey Green at Heart. Card candy is from Craftwork Cards. The sketch is from Card Patterns
Challenge I'm also entering it for Papertake's say it with flowers challenge.

DT Posting - Corrosive Challenges #64 - Easel Card

It's time for another Corrosive Challenge - this week the challenge is to make an easel card. I've made a few of these now, I'm getting the hang of custom measurements. However this is an easy one, I've used a standard square card and added the front onto it.

The image is one of my favourites from Isabella's Sketchbook, click on the photo and you can read the words: "With a lot of coffee and a bit of chocolate there isn't a problem that can't be solved". I'm entering my card for the Isabella's Sketchbook Challenge, which is to use the background colours of their blog for a project.

Card is printed onto DP, the bow coloured with Copics and the cup and saucer paper pieced and coloured with Copics. The flowers come from Quixotic Paperie and I've punched the ferns from Bazzill card. All DP is Basic Grey, the card candy is from Craftwork Cards..

Sweet summer sun

This card began with the background, another Distress Ink experiment. It made a lovely beach scene so I used one of my Isabella's Sketchbook digis, colouring her with Copics and cutting her out and adding her to the background. I drew the lines back in on the sand using a Pigma pen.

I've used the Sketch Saturday layout for my card, which I'm also entering for One Stop Craft Challenge's theme of Summer Breeze. Basic Grey's Challenge this week is Punch It; I've created flowers using my DP and assorted punches. Crafty Cardmakers has Distressed for its theme this week so the background fits their challenge too. One final challenge: DareU2Digistamp has the theme Anything Goes.

The background is Broken China and a little Weathered Wood at the top, with Scattered Straw and Spiced Marmalade below. I've splashed plenty of water on with my fingers to get the colours to run together. The DP is Basic Grey Cupcake, the sentiment is from Elusive Images.The flowers are made with 2 Woodware flower punches and the smallest Nestie circles.

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.

Summer is on the way... I hope

Today has been beautifully sunny but there was a hard frost overnight and there's a biting wind. But I'm being optimistic and what could be more evocative of a hot summer's day than a pot of geraniums, can't you just smell them in the sunshine? I began this card to enter Isabella's Sketchbook Challenge, for their Anything Goes week. I hope to get another entry completed before their challenge closes but we'll see...

Along the way it fits the theme for Lili of the Valley Challenges, with their theme of Here Comes Summer, Paper Sundae's colour challenge of Red, Yellow and Green, Crafty Cardmaker's Distressing Challenge and the Sketch from Just Us Girls.

I've coloured the image, from Isabella's Sketchbook, with Copics and edged it with Scattered Straw and Broken China Inks. I'm trying to use up scraps and I decided to use some of those plain bits of white cardstock that gather by the trimmer. I edged them with Barn Door ink and sponged Scattered Straw on top. The sentiment is Stampin' Up, the green pearls are from the Hobby House and the DP is My Minds Eye.

There isn't a problem that can't be solved...

I've a second card to blog today; I really didn't have time to make another card but I just couldn't resist this image from Isabella's Sketchbook, though I wonder whether the wording is quite right, maybe it should be a little bit of coffee and a lot of chocolate LOL! But really, isn't it perfect! This week Isabella's Challenge is to use a food related image in your project, just got this one in before the deadline:).

I've based it on Jo's pretty sketch at Sweet Stampin' and I'm also entering it into A Spoonful of Sugar, where the challenge is to 3D something. The theme at Charisma Cardz is "Quote me" and you can quote me on this one any day:).

Image is printed onto Basic Grey DP from the Kioshi pad, which is used for all the card. Cup and ribbon coloured with Copics and Glossy Accents, cut out and stuck with silicon glue to give dimension. Ribbon and gems from stash, Martha Stewart lattice arch punch used. I put the swirl on top of the coffee with my Copic blender pen, I'm pleased with the way this looks.

Head in the Sand?

There seem to be more and more digi artists around each day, some good, some not so good. Another wonderful and talented artist to add to the list is Isabella's Sketchbook, who have just launched their first challenge, which is a sketch. I've tried to be restrained and just bought a couple of images from Isabella's shop, this gorgeous ostrich with his head in the sand is one of them.

My card covers a few other challenges: Charisma Cards has Animal Magic for this week's challenge and Pile it On has Animal-riffic. The Simon Says Challenge theme is "It's so distressing" and Creative Card Crew has Vintage/Aged. Last but not least, Totally Papercrafts challenges us to Go Digital.

I coloured my image with Copics and Distress Inks, distressing the edges of my image with scissors. The dotty orange DP is heavily inked and torn. The DP is Basic Grey Sugar Rush, the eyelash yarn is from my stash, flowers are Prima. Sentiment printed onto vellum is computer generated.