A Bit Of Colour Inspiration And Name That Stitch Competition...

A challenge card today taking inspiration from the Colour Create Challenge blog which is celebrating a fab 10k hits - well done guys. They have some blog candy to celebrate so hop over ASAP :)


These are colours I rarely use but really like so I had to have a go! I dug about in my stash to find a colour match and after much hunting I found the mix of papers you see on this card.

I've done some hand stitching on the card. For a bit of fun can you name the stitches? The first person who can name the three types of stitch I've used on this card will receive a little stash RAK from me :) So have a guess and leave me a comment or email me.



Materials:
Stamp - Sugar Nellie Gorjuss
Ink - VersaFine Onyx Black
Colouring - Derwent pencils; Prismacolor; Sansodor
Papers - HOTP; Papercraft Essentials cover gift; Others that I have no idea where they came from :)
Usual Suspects - Paper trimmer; Silicone glue; Double-sided tape
Other - Button; Shimmerz Flashee Fuschia; Embroidery thread; needles; Paper files; Seam ripper

Is It Too Early For Some Candy?

Of course it isn't! Especially as it is our favourite non-calorific Blog Candy :)

GCD Studios had a recent DT call and received a phenomenal 471 submissions (Oh heck - mine wont have a chance then! LOL). They are celebrating the decision day with candy, candy, candy so pop over and join in with the GCD Studios Call Day (Good luck guys).



But there is another chance to win some GCD Studios candy (I'm not obsessing honest) over at Moxie Fab World.

Right off to finish a card, will be back to show it later :)

Paper Butterfly Collector

A little collection of paper butterflies for you. If your paper collection is anything like mine then you have a wide range of paper butterflies too :)

Details: These paper butterflies are from the Whoop-De-Doo collection from GCD Studios. Cut out by hand and detailed with a fine marker then shaped on a knitting needle. I've made a frame from cardboard and embossed the cover by hand using a cuttlebug folder as the stencil (well it was just a bit too wide for the machine!). The positive ribs are painted with Shimmerz - Mmm Choc-o-lat.


Materials:
Papers - GCD Studios; K&Co
Usual Suspects - Paper trimmer; Silicone glue; Double-sided tape; Scissors
Other - Fine marker; Shimmerz paint Cho-o-lot; Embossing folder; embossing tool; Knitting needle; cardboard; cardstock

Sweet Sugar Flowers

Have you ever done one of those cards that just changes several times over from first concept to final product? Well this was one of them! It has changed so much that I'm not sure what to call it now. LOL.

Indecisive is my middle name :)

Right, well, anyway this card uses the fab cracking UTEE technique which is this month's technique to try on Sugar Sugar.

Now I was sure I had some clear UTEE somewhere but can I find it? Can I heck as like! So I've used a bucket load of normal clear embossing powder and a lot of patience.

The fabby Sugar Nellie Leanne Ellis image is coloured with pencils, sansodor on a watercolour backwash and the flower, bubbles and embossed detail are painted with yummy sparkly Shimmerz Flashee Fuschia Blingz.



Materials:
Image - Sugar Nellie Leanne Ellis
Colouring - Prismacolor pecils; Derwent pencils; sansodor; Koh-I-Noor watercolours; Shimmerz Flashee Fuschia
Papers - DCWV
Usual suspects - Paper trimmer; Double sided tape
Other - Ribbon; Clear embossing powder; heat gun; versamark; flowers; Flower brad

Ooo I'm excited!

I've been asked to be a guest designer for Making Handmade Cards! Imagine my surprise when Jo from Making Handmade cards emailed me out of the blue. I did a couple of projects for them and they liked them so now I've a new blinkie on my sidebar :) Well I never!

Have you seen their e-kits? If you join the newsletter you get a free Floral kit to start playing with immediately :)

I've been lucky enough to be able to play with some of Claire's new designs soon to be launched into the shop and here are a sneaky peak.


Have a good weekend folks :)

Rumble In The Jungle

Been playing about with my punches. To be precise I've been making background papers using the positive and negatives from a leaf punch as a stencil. What do you think? I thought this worked quite well with this fab digital stamp from Louise Bridgen's Holly and Madison's World Tour set at Charmed Crafts.

Told you I was getting into the digi-stamps at the moment :)

The image has been printed on transparency and card and coloured with pencils on the card and pens on the transparency.

Thought it was a bit of fun and of course I will be entering into the challenge over at Crafty Goings on, I mean who wouldn't with a 72 Copic pen prize :) Oh Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy!



Materials:
Stamp - Charmed Crafts Holly and Madison
Colouring - PrismaColor pencils; Caran d'Ache pencils; Derwent Pencils; Sansodor; Letroset promarkers; Copic Ciao (Yep - pretty much everything except watercolours!)
Usual Suspects - Paper Trimmer; Silicone glue; Double-sided tape
Other - Animal brad HOTP; Hemp string; Printable transparency; Woodware large leaf punch; VersaColor bamboo ink;

Go Check These Out

Yep - Blog candy!

I haven't posted a blog candy roll call for a while, so here is one for you - but I'm sure you are all way ahead of me and have seen all these already?!




Stamp With Us Have a new blog. (1st April)










Much sort after Hanglar stamps from Malin over at Pyssel mamman. (31st March)










Steph Any Shade Of Green has a Mystery Candy - What fun. (2nd April)










Wendy at Paper Therapy is getting over her last candy give away by doing another candy give away - hair of the dog and all that :) (14th April)








Sheila at Manic Stamper celebrating a MASSIVE 80K Hits and a birthday! (15th April)











Katrina at Whimsical Wishes with SU candy (29th March)










My fellow DT Member for Shimmerz Paints Claudia has some Magnolias up for grabs at Pretty Pressings (2nd April)











Maria at Imagine, Create, Inspire is celebrating a fab 10K hit count (27th March)











Helen over at Helen's Craft Haven is celebrating a fab 5K hits (30th March)







Gosh what a lot of candy - and I'm sure I've missed loads! All wonderful candies - thank you all for your generousity!

And a Heads up folks, watch this space becouse it is my one year blog-iversary in April and there may be a bit of candy of my own on offer.....:)

Make A Little Birdhouse In Your Soul

Have I just aged myself with that title? LOL! (For those who aren't sure it is the title of a song from the 1990s by the group They Might Be Giants!)

I'm enjoying the recent craze in downloadable stamp images at the moment, I shall always love rubber stamps but the downloadable stamped images are instant hits with me, particularly being in the UK where you can't always get those fabby rubber stamps easily from the US.

This image is a download from InStyle Stamps and I've used it for their challenge this week which is a Thank You themed sketch and a Guest DT Call.



I thought the card would make a fab 'Thank you for letting me stay' card :)

A tip for any of you who haven't tried stamped image downloads yet, or who are having problems with colouring them after printing - as soon as you print them use clear embossing powder and your heat tool to seal the printer ink.

Materials:
Stamp - InStyle Downloads
Colouring - Prismacolor; sansodor
Papers - DCWV
Usual Suspects - double-sided tape; Silicone glue; Paper Trimmer; Scissors
Other - Ribbon; X-cut border die cut; Cuttlebug

Surf's Up

I'm always getting ahead of myself, making Spring cards in Winter so here is a Summer ATC at the start of Spring.


Materials:
Stamp - C.C. Designs
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Papers - DCWV
Colouring - PrismaColor Pencils; Sansodor
Usual Suspects - 3D-foam; Paper Trimmer; Scissors

A Rose By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet

It is such a long time since I have shown you some colouring that I thought it would be a great excuse to use my new Mini-Magnolia stamp. This isn't quite an ATC as it is very slightly longer than it should be but I just loved the edge on my rectangle stamp I didn't want to cut it short :)

Details: I've inked up the rectangle stamp with Colorbox chalks, teal and coral pink and then over stamped with the fabulous music script stamp from Artistic Stamper (ok, I 'fess up it was another new buy from the Olympia show). The roses were made using papers coloured with inks and following the fabulous tutorial from Nancy at Scraps and Inks.


The image was coloured with a mix of Colorbox chalk inks and Koh-I-Noor watercolours.


I used Shimmerz Angel Wings paint to highlight the wings and 3D-glue to accent the bee body and the little rose.


Materials:
Stamps - Magnolia Mini; Artistic Stamper Music Script; Whispers Rectangle; Stamps Away Bee
Inks - VersaFine Onyx Black
Colouring - Koh-I-Noor Watercolours; Colorbox Chalks
Usual Suspects - Scissors; Silicone Glue
Others - 3D-glue; Shimmerz Angel wings Paint

A Paper Bunch Of Flowers

Wahoo a NEW card for you today! A bunch of stamped flowers highlighted with Shimmerz Sunflower, Angel Wings and Celery and made from the GCD Studios Whoop De Doo paper range.


I love the way the Shimmerz paints catch the light.


I now have a corner rounder punch! No more drawing around a template and cutting out corners by hand :)

Have a fabulous weekend.

Materials:
Stamps - Stamps Away
Inks - VersaFine Onyx Black
Papers - GCD Studios Whoop Dee Doo
Paints - Shimmerz Celery; Angel Wings; Sunflower
Usual Suspects - Silicone Glue; Paper Trimmer; Corner rounder punch
Other - Rafia; Hemp string; Kraft Card

Ah Craft Shows :)

Back from the Olympia Stitch and Craft Show (apologies to Sarah if you have picked this up again LOL) and managed to not spend all of my money - I know I'm just as suprised!

Bargain of the show for me was some mixed textured threads/yarns that I needed for my embroidery and they were on special offer. Wahoo.

And for the papercrafters amongst you - I also bought myself a couple of very, very cute mini Magnolia stamps but it wasn't my fault - Jo made me do it LOL!

Heart Felt Thanks

Last of the cards from last year that I haven't blogged yet but you might have seen it in Papercrafts Essentials :) and on my new slideshow - which I uploaded yesterday and just realised that I hadn't blogged this card yet - D'oh. Thought I better post the card quickly before anyone noticed ;)

This one uses BasicGrey Recess Paper pack, which I really like but you don't really see a lot of.


Materials:
Stamp - HOTP; Studio G Alpha
Ink - Versafine Sepia brown
Paper - BasicGrey
Usual Suspects - Paper trimmer; Double-sided glue

Is It Really Spring?

Hey folks, we have had a few lovely, sunny days here in London so I'm kinda hoping that Spring has Sprung :) The daffodils are out in force and the parks and gardens are a wash with Spring flowers.

A change to the usual pace, no card today, but a photo I took of the Daffodils in Hampton Court a few years back.

Hope the weather is fair with you.

Olympia Stitch and Craft

Anyone planning to go to the Stitch and Craft Show at Olympia this week and fancies meeting up for a coffee, and to compare shopping bags of course (LOL), then drop me an email. It would be great to start putting real faces to bloggy names :)

New Shimmerz Colours And Website

Shimmerz Paints has some lovely new colours: Shimmerz Blueberry Cobbler, Caramel; Choc-o-lot and Fire Engine Red and some fab new Blingz colours: Mellow Yellow and Under The Sea to add to their 39 Shimmerz and 11 Blingz colours.

You can have a look at these fab new colours and the other yummy colours in the range at the new website http://www.shimmerzpaints.com where you can order the paints directly from the shop.

Oh but wait there are some even cooler stuff on the Shimmerz horizon. What cooler than these lovely new colours? Yep! I can't really say any more except you might want to watch the Spritz space on the website - Tee Hee!

I can't wait - too impatient me :)

Inky Impressions 1st Design Team Call

Inky Impressions has a it's first design team call going on until 22nd March and I thought I would join in the fun :) There are three stages and the first stage is to post a couple of your favourite cards with coloured images.







So guys, if you want to join in, just pop over to the Inky Impressions blog and challenge blog to find out more.
Thanks for looking :)

Paper Star

Another all paper card today and this one uses the lovely Cosmic Cricket Get Happy Paper Pack available from Sassy Crafts. I've distressed the papers with paper files and then inked the edges with the Tim Holtz Distress Inks Soot Black.

Thanks everyone for the lovely birthday greetings :)


Really I should be showing lots of cards with coloured images seeing as I have some copics now LOL.

Materials:
Papers - Cosmic Cricket Get Happy
Stamps - Studio G Alphabet
Ink - Tim Holtz Ditress Inks
Usual Suspects - double-sided glue; Scissors; Silicone glue

Have You Seen....

The new GCD Studios blog? I recently bought some GCD Studios paper and I can safely say that they are GORGEOUS, beautiful designs and wonderful textures.

As soon as I saw them I knew that I was a fan and wanted more, more, more :) Well imagine my joy when I found their new blog and saw that they have some blog candy running with a chance to win a whole paper pack.

But you better get over there quickly as the deadline is today.

There Is A Challenge Going Down...

At Kaboodle Doodles and this fortnight it is a sketch:


And here is my interpretation:


I've actually kept completely to the sketch for a change LOL. So hot foot over to the Kaboodle Doodles Blog to have a go and win fabby paper downloads and of course see the other DT members fabby makes :)

Materials:
Papers - Kaboodle Doodles Aliens Kit
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Usual Suspects - Scissors; Double-sided tape; silicone glue
Other - Computer; printer