My Grafico Challenge #23 - sketch

It's time for another My Grafico Challenge, this week the DT have used a set called Arabian Paradise, which is the prize for this week's challenge. You can follow the colour challenge and use purple, cerise and gold and you can follow the sketch, or you can even do both :). I've followed the sketch for my card and, as I've used a long thin card I've stretched my Arabian palace image out to fit it, one of the useful things about having a digi image rather than a rubber stamp is that you can tinker around with the size and/or proportions to make them work for your card. I've printed the palace onto paper that was sprayed with Glimmer Mist and added a gem to one of the spires. This is cut out and stuck onto DP from Artylicious. The rest of the card uses the Glimmer Misted paper again, with a sentiment from Dimension Fourth and a flourish stamp from Personal Expressions, with a few more gems added for interest.

Whiff of Joy Santa

I've just finished this in time for this week's Whiff of Joy Challenge, which is to use red, cream and one other colour of your choice. I've picked the easy option of adding green and making a Christmas card; I've used the sketch from this week's Mojo Monday Challenge.

Santa's coloured with Copics and I've used Fluffy Stuff to trim his coat and hat, the cream edging is Scattered Straw Distress Ink. The sentiment is from a Creative Expressions set, image is matted onto Bazzill Basics card. The red DP is from a Bearly Mine Designs CD and the green berried DP is Fancy Pants. Gems and ribbon from stash.

Giblets anyone?

Shirleys2Girls have some fun ideas for your Thanksgiving table which I've used to enter this week's Corrosive Challenge, which is a "no cards" challenge. First to show you is the fun digi download to make a place card for your festive table. I've used the sunflower, but you can also choose a fun turkey or a pilgrim gent or lady. The download comes with a template and instructions, but having printed it off it's so quick and easy that you won't need to do more than glance at the instructions. Simply trim round the image and fold. Of course, being a digi, you can size it to suit your table decorations. I've coloured mine with Copics and written in the name, you could add names in your Word or other programme before you print the cards out.

Next I've used one of the fun mini stamps from one of the sets called "Giblets", cute little circles that are ideal to use with shrink plastic if you have it. I've simply coloured mine to match the placard and used it for a decorative napkin tie.

They make a fun place setting, don't they?

Christmas Cheers

Cute Card Thursday has a fun challenge theme this week of Midnight Margaritas which works really well with the free digi image that Shirleys2Girls gave away when they reached 150 members on their SNR Cardiverse group. If you join the group here then you can download the image too. I also decided it is a good image to bling up a bit and am entering it for the Simon Says Challenge this week of "all that sparkles".

I prnited out the image onto plain paper and then ran it through the printer again with some patterned paper glued down over one of the images with 505 spray, to make the upholstered chair. The image was coloured with Copics; while I was colouring I thought the outfit was a bright pink but now I've combined it with the papers it looks far too red - oh well... There's lots of bling added: she has a gem bracelet and earrings, as well as gemstones on the background, the wine glass is coated with Glossy Accents and the Santa hat has Perfect Pearls that are coated with Glamour Dust for the brim and bobble. The sentiment, from Hero Arts, has more Glamour Dust around the edges. Ribbon from stash, papers came free with a magazine.

Shirleys2Girls Great Fall Sweep-out - enabler post!

Shirleys2Girls are having a TURKEY SALE!!!

We've rounded up lots of stamps, ribbons, embellies and odds & ends...to make room on the shelves for new stuff. The stamps are ones that are discontinued, without their sayings, or wrong size.
All the items on sale are top quality...so you'll be getting lots of bargains. We think it's the perfect time to have a sale, and make way for all the new things that we are working on.

Our 'TURKEY SALE' starts NOV.1st...SUPPLIES ARE LIMITED... when they're gone...they're gone! So come & GOBBLE up some great goodies.

Oh Deer! No backing papers - Charisma Cardz

I've got a fairly simple card to show you today, made using the Woodware deer set again, which I'm really keen on using for Christmas cards. This week's Charisma Cardz Challenge calls for no patterned papers which I decided was ideal to show off this stepped card. I learnt how to make the stepped card in a class at Made by You, which also used the deer stamps. I've used Distress Inks in different shades of brown to make up the scenes for my card and the sentiment is also a Woodware one. Matted onto bronze pearlised card, a couple of pieces of card candy added in brown and finished!

Twisted Thursday #31 - Friendship

It's time for Twisted Thursday where Shirleys2Girls challenge you to follow a sketch - with a twist! Here's what you have to do: Create a card, following this week’s sketch and “Twist” which is to use Flowersoft, Flocking or Felt - something soft. You are not required to use Shirley’s 2 Girls stamps, but if you've got them, we'd love to see you use them! Upload your card to your favorite online gallery and/or your blog. If you upload to SCS or PCP, please use the keywords S2GSC31 AND shirleys2girls. Post a direct link to your card using Mr. Linky on the Challenge Blog, here. The deadline for uploading your card is Wednesday, 4 November, 2009 at midnight PDT.The winning card will be chosen by Random.org, the lucky winner will get to choose a stamp from the Shirley’s 2 Girls product list, and their winning card or other project will be showcased on the Shirley's 2 Girls Challenge Blog Please do visit the other Ladies with Attitude, check out their amazing creations and leave them some love:
Karolyn
Debbie
Joy
Justine
Pat
Erin


Now onto my card: I used the adorable Friendship stamp, available here from Shirleys2Girls.

I was truly challenged by the Twist here, I do NOT like Flowersoft or Flocking and I was not prepared to use them around the image :). So I coloured my image with Copics and added a smidgeon of Flowersoft to the centre of my sunflower, which wasn't too bad. Then I added more Flowersoft to a line of double sided tape on my card and decided that enough was enough LOL! I'll be interested to see how the rest of the Ladies With Attitude use it, hopefully they will be a little more adventurous than I am :). The papers I've used are Basic Grey Indian Summer, but I have added my own Twist by overstamping with the Peace Page stamp from Shirleys2Girls onto the square and the circle. I do love this stamp for backgrounds, it's beautiful, isn't it? The jewel brads are from stash and work with the Autumn colours.

I can't wait to see all the entries to this week's Twisted Thursday, be sure to enter and then you're in with a chance to win!

Close up:

My Grafico Challenge #22 - sketch

This week at the My Grafico Challenge we have a great sketch from Mary to work with. This week we are showcasing the pretty Mix and Match Flower Stems set by Mujka, available here. To win this set you need to enter the Challenge, which is either to make a Thank You card, or follow Mary's sketch, or even do both! You have until midnight Sunday to enter.

My card follows the sketch. I've printed the stem out onto pink pearlised card matted onto bronze pearlised card. The image is stamped onto the same card and added to it. The two papers behind the image are Basic Grey Indian Summer and some ribbon from my stash completes a very simple Get Well card.

Whiff of Joy Challenge #52

Here's a card I made for this week's Whiff of Joy challenge, which uses a sketch by Heather. I found the sketch quite a challenge, and I also made things tricky by using some very pretty, but non-traditional coloured DP from My Mind's Eye. I like the image, like the DP, but I'm not sure they are a match made in heaven!

This is a bit of a blog candy card: I was lucky enough to win the Father Christmas stamp from a Patchwork Planet celebration of a new stamp launch and the charm on the card was one I won from Lorraine's Simon Says candy :).

Father Christmas is coloured with copics, edged with Broken China Distress Ink and with Fluffy Stuff added to his hat and coat. The papers is My Mind's Eye with some plain cardstock to contrast, stitching added and the charm.

The First Shirleys2Girls Blog Hop - with Blog Candy!

Hello and welcome to the 1st S2G Members Blog Hop sponsored by Shirley's2Girls! If you've just happened upon my blog, you can CLICK HERE to start from the beginning at the S2G Challenge Blog.

The first card I've got to show you is a clean and simple card for a change (ahem the truth is I made a humdinger of a Halloween project, photographed it, posted it off and lost the photos from my hard drive, so this is a late substitute). I've used the fabulous Bee-lieve stamp from Shirleys2Girls stamped direct to a Kraft card. Don't forget, because these are clear stamps you can shape and curve the sentiment. Shape behind the dog is paper pieced and there are co-ordinating punched borders either side of him. My second card is a pop-up, I learnt an easy way to make these just a week ago and I think they're fun! This uses Ghoul Friends, I saw a wonderful project by Karolyn (check it out here) of a light that uses this stamp for a silhouette and thought it would work well for a pop-up. The paper is Basic Grey Eerie, I just have a little of my 12" sheet left now...

Now you've checked out my cards, how about a prize? In addition to the fabulous eye candy, we have decided to hide a prize somewhere along the hop! One pre-selected blogger will draw a random winner from the comments on her post, and the winner will receive a free stamp from Shirley’s2Girls. The fun part is...we're not telling you who it is! So as you hop, make sure you leave comments on every post so you have a chance to win!! We will announce the winner on Monday in the SNR S2G Forum.Thanks so much for stopping by! Now it's time to hop on over to Deanne's blog , hope you've enjoyed your visit :).

A Winter's Tale

I've put aside computer woes for a little while and spent some time getting inky, so here is my House Mouse Challenge card. This week's challenge is movies. I checked and yes, Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale has been made into a film, so I can get away with that for the title of my card. I've followed Claudia's sketch from Friday Sketchers Challenge, just adding in a round sentiment. Great sketch Claudia, thanks.

House Mouse stamp coloured with watercolour pencils, sentiment from Creative Expressions (trimmed down), Fancy Pants papers from Stamp Attic, ribbon from stash.

Back up your designs & photos!

Thanks to several blog entries that were scheduled ahead of time you have hopefully not noticed my absence from my seat at the computer! The hard drive on my shiny new computer, less than a year old, has totally failed and I have lost all my data since I last backed it up. And when did I last back up? Umm... months ago. So that's all my digi designs, family photos, music downloads, emails, you don't realise how much stuff until it's disappeared. We've checked and no, it's not recoverable. I've got the old pc set up now and I have one thing to say to everyone:

Always back up your hard disk - just because it's not your work pc doesn't mean it's not important!

I'd like to give a shout for Mo Manning's Digital Pencil, Bearly Mine Designs and for Makinghandmadecards.com; I've bought from allrecently and all have been quick to replace the data I've lost - so a big THANK YOU!

Twisted Thursday #30

It's time for Twisted Thursday where Shirleys2Girls challenge you to follow a sketch - with a twist! Here's what you have to do: Create a card, following this week’s sketch and “Twist” which is to use a pumpkin somewhere on your card. You are not required to use Shirley’s 2 Girls stamps, but if you've got them, we'd love to see you use them! Upload your card to your favorite online gallery and/or your blog. If you upload to SCS or PCP, please use the keywords S2GSC30 AND shirleys2girls. Post a direct link to your card using Mr. Linky on the Challenge Blog, here. The deadline for uploading your card is Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at midnight PDT.
The winning card will be chosen by Random.org, the lucky winner will get to choose a stamp from the Shirley’s 2 Girls product list, and their winning card or other project will be showcased on the Shirley's 2 Girls Challenge Blog Please do visit the other Ladies with Attitude, check out their amazing creations and leave them some love:

Karolyn

Debbie

Joy

Justine

Pat

Erin
My card uses the fab digi image It's Hallow-scream! available from Shirleys2Girls, coloured with Copics and a white pen. The cat is printed and coloured twice and popped up on foam pads to give him dimension, not sure how well it shows in the photo... I've cropped the background away from it and put it on a circle of DP. Couldn't resist buying a sheet of Basic Grey Eerie for the background, added in ribbon from stash, flowers cut with a punch.

Copic Colour Challenge #36 - Join me for a spell

I was lucky enough to be invited to be a Guest Designer for Copic Colour Challenges for this week. This week the colours to use, if you have them, are Adele's choices: G99 Olive, V17 Amethyst and YR68 Orange. If you don't have them, use the closest you've got, as long as you use Copics :).

The colours just shouted out Halloween to me, so I reached for a Jinx stamp from Shirleys2Girls, you can buy them here and, even better, they are on special offer, 25% off until 31 October. Jinx is, of course, coloured with my Copics, there is some Glossy Accents on her hatband and the bubbles. The background to the image is painted with watercolor paint in a blotchy olive.The cobweb DP is a free download from the generous Summer Driggs, purple and green are from a Bearly Mine Designs CD. The ribbon is white organza that I coloured with my Amethyst Copic, it's stiched down with a decorative machine stitch, as are the other papers.

Hope you like my card and that it's inspired you to join in this week's Copic Colour Challenge.

Feeling Crumby?

It's challenge time at My Grafico and this week we've gone retro with a fun digi set of vintage appliances which you can buy here. If you'd like to win this set there are two challenges on the blog, one a colour challenge, the other a sketch and you can enter either or both.

The theme at the Simon Says Challenge this week is Get Well Soon and was published just as I was getting ready to post this. Couldn't resist entering, I think this is a really fun Get Well card. I'm trying to decide whether or not to send it to my Post Pal, usually we're asked not to put things like "get well soon" on their cards because their illness is likely to be so serious, but I thought this might make her smile... What do you think? I'd like to interrupt my blog post with a quick commercial for Post Pals here :) If you're a cardmaker please think about looking at their site and sending off a few cards to brighten the day for an ill child who may be undergoing treatment for cancer, leukaemia, any of the life threatening illnesses.

I've taken a slight liberty with the sketch and made it into a pop-up card, after all what could be more appropriate for an image of a toaster? :0). Image is coloured with Copics in that vintage appliance blue and the words use a free font download, they are also coloured with Copics. The images are edged with China Blue Distress Ink and matted onto navy. The papers on the pop-up part of the card were free ones that came with a magazine and I've stamped swirls from a Personal Impressions stamp set around the edge of the main card in the same China Blue.

Autumn elf

This week Mo Manning's digital challenge is to use colours that remind you of Autumn. I love this image which is one of the first Mo images I bought and he works really well in Autumn colours. Truly Scrumptious also has an Autumn theme to use with its sketch. The slight complication to combining these challenges is that Mo's challenge can only use two embellishments and the Truly Scrumptious sketch could use lots! I've limited myself to two embellishments: flowers and card candy (faux brads). There's one Prima flower and the others are cut with a punch but hopefully the different species still count as one :)

Mo Manning image coloured with Copics and Promarkers, edged with Distress Ink in Scattered Straw and Tea Dye. Papers are a mixture of Basic Grey and Summertime Designs.

Jinx is haunting a magical ten challenges!

There are an astonishing number of Halloween Challenges to play along with this week and I thought it was time to use another of the fab-boo-lous Jinx stamps from Shirleys2Girls. You can buy Jinx here, all the Halloween stamps are currently on sale at 25% off.

• I started with Domi's sketch from this week's Simon Says Challenge
• Corrosive Challenges has the theme Spooky Times
• Papertake's Challenge is The Dark Side
• Cute Card Thursday has a Spook Fest challenge
• Cupcake Craft Challenge this week is Things That Go Bump In The Night
• One Stop Craft Challenge this week is Boo!
• ABC's Challenge is F for flying
• StampArtic is another Boo! Challenge
• Creative Friday is a Halloween Challenge
  
• Pile It On has a Ready for Halloween Challenge which makes it a magical TEN challenges. Now I know lots of people manage to fit many more challenges than that into one card, but it's a lot for me :).

Jinx is coloured with Copics, the moon and sky are painted with Distress Inks. Image and scalloped mat cut out with Nestabilities, purple lace, brads and flowers are from my stash, the flowers are coloured with Copics. The background paper is from Summer Drigg's free downloads.

BOO! - Heads up for a Halloween Sale

Shirleys2Girls have a scary 25% off all their Halloween stamps until 31 October, be sure to pick up what you need while the sale is on :)

Let it Snow

Here's another card made with that Woodware deer stamps set, this time looking very different for Stamp Something's Bling It Up Challenge and also for If The Shoe Fit's Bling It On Challenge. I've also discovered a new-to-me blog called Saturday Spotlight Challenge, their challenge this week is to make a scene. This is a variation of a card I saw in Made By You when I went there for a class. This card looks much better in real life than in the photo, I find mirror card and sparkly embossing very hard to photograph, sorry.

The idea of the card is to experiment with some quick and easy cards for Christmas. The hills are made by sponging Versamark onto navy cardstock, over torn photocopying paper hills and embossing with Silver Tinsel embossing powder. Then I've added trees, moon and deer and embossed again. The snow is made with Liquid Pearls, that have Glamour Dust scattered across while they're still wet, there's also some on top of the hills, though it's hard to see in the photo. Matted onto silver card and then more navy, sentiment added and also a couple of rhinestones in case it needed more bling :).

It's quite a quick card to make, what do you think? I think it needs something more, but then it may not be a quick and easy card any more...

Yes, Deer, it's a Pop-up Card!

A month or so back I bought a beautiful Woodware stamp set of reindeer and backgrounds, fell in love with it but couldn't think how or what to make. I was in the shop where I bought them earlier this week, Made By You, and the owner showed me a series of three gorgeous and different cards that she made with them, for a class. I never seem to be available for a class on the days they are being taught, but Pat very kindly let me tag onto another stamping class today and play with the reindeer!

This is all stamped and sponged with Distress Ink in Soot and Weathered Wood, so I'm entering it for Charisma Card's Challenge this week, It's so Distressing

Torn paper was used to shape the hills which were added using ink on Cut & Dry foam. The moon, trees, fence, grass and deer silhouettes are all from the same set, as are the reindeer embossed in white on black card. The reindeer are cut out and attached with foam pads. A Christmas sentiment is stamped and matted onto the pop-up and I've stamped black scrolls around the main card. Here's a detail of the pop-up:

Now I've made this card I can see how simple pop-up cards can be, but this was something I've put off doing - until now. The pop-up was easy, the most time consuming part was cutting out round those antlers! Please forgive the pun but I can see this card style popping up a lot on my blog in the near future :).