DV #237 Lots of Layers

Our challenge today at Dream Valley, sponsored by All Dressed Up stamps, is to make lots of layers.

I have used one of All Dressed Up’s gorgeous digis called Feeding the Ducks.

I printed it onto Phill Martin’s fabulous alcohol marker card and coloured her in with copics.

The papers, apart from the green mats are all from Nitwits. This was a physical kit but they also do hundreds of gorgeous digital kits to print yourself…. this one is called Perfect Pair. The green mat I created by using the digital kit and just picking out one of the greens in one of the background paper and making my own plain paper.

The sentiment is an old, old peel off from Dawn Bibby which I coloured green, although it’s looking gold on her, it’s not, lol, it is green. The lovely glittery dots are from my stash.

I am entering this into:-

CD Sunday – #48 Anything Goes
Crafters Castle – Nov #35 Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar – Nov: Anything Goes
Crafty Creations – #415 Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – #197 Anything Goes
Creative Moments – #202 Anything Goes
Jan’s Digi Stamps – Nov: Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #146 Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – #2046 Anything Goes
Pattie’s Creations – #176 Anything Goes
Unicorn Challenge – #60 Anything Goes

DV #236 Dies and/or Punches

Our challenge today at Dream Valley, sponsored  by Di’s Digidesigns is to use your dies and/or punches.

I have used some stamps and dies from Aall and Create.

I made a background with distress oxides and stamped various stamps onto it. I also stencilled some dimensional pearl paste and some more oxide to give some detail in the background.

The little monkeys are all from Aall and Create #240 Go Bananas stamps and matching dies. The palm tree fronds are an old Marianne foliage die. The numbers are the waste from another Aall and Create die, #12 Code.

I coloured the monkeys with copics, and I created the sentiment on my pc.

I am entering this into:-

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – #44 Anything With a Critter Goes
613 Avenue Create – Nov: Anything Goes
A Bit More Time To Craft – #127 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – Nov: Anything Goes
Crafty Animals – #44 Anything Goes with an Animal
Creative Fingers – #196 Anything Goes
Love To Craft – #52 Nov: Anything Goes
Mix It Up – #43 Anything Goes + Make Your Own Background
QKR Stampede – #407 Anything Goes
Scribbles Design – #93 Feature A Creature
The Corrosive Challenge – #11 Anything Goes
The Crafters Cafe – #254 Anything Goes
The Crafting Challenge – Nov: Add A sentiment
The Creative Crafters – #33 Anything Goes

DV #235 Autumn Colours

Welcome to our challenge this time. We are sponsored by Bugaboo and our theme is Autumn Colours.

I have used one of their lovely digis called Puppygirlz for my project.

I started with the background. Well to be truthful I started with a cheat!!! This is a pebeo fantasy prisme and fantasy moon pour that my Daugther did and gifted to me. Can you see the hand of god that just appeared on it as it dried? Anyhow, I thought the colours were perfect for the challenge so I scanned it in and printed off a copy for the background of my Journal page!

I coloured my image with Polychromos pencils, and matted it onto some lovely orange cardstock. I cut the background with a very small white border to tone in with the white background of the image and sentiment and matted that onto the same orange.

The above shows the vibrancy of colour a bit better than the first picture, but that one shows the depth of the flowers that I stamped and die cut from burlap paper. I used toning brads for centres.

The sentiment I created on my pc and is a reflection of how I feel about my lovely little pooch who has kept me sane through this whole covid affair!.

I mounted the whole thing into my Dina Wakely journal with all it’s lovely textured pages as I thought it looked great on the burlap background and went with the burlap flowers.

I am entering this into:-

A Perfect Time to Craft – #10 Anything Goes
Bastel-Traum – #94 Background
CD Sunday - #46 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – #80 Anything Goes
Crafty Animals – #43 Anything Goes With An Animal
Dare 2B Artzy – Oct: Fall
Die Cut Divas – Oct: Autumn
LeAnn’s World 101 – #31 Anything Goes
Not Just Cards – Oct: Anything Goes
Papercraft Challenge – #63 Autumn Colours
Pattie’s Creations – #175 Autumn/Fall
QKR Stampede – #406 Anything Goes
Scribbles Designs – #93 Feature a Creature
Sheepski Designs – #43 Autumn
Stamping Sensations – Oct: Autumn Glory
Sweet Stampers – #49 Autumn or Halloween
We Love Chocolate Baroque – Oct: Anything Goes

CCM #265 Create A Tag

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is to create a Tag.

I have used a combination of my new Polkadoodles Stay chirpy stamps and my new Julie Hickey Mini Sunflower stamps.

I have to say those Julie Hickey sentiments are very, very tiny fonts, but my do they ever stamp and emboss beautifully!!

I started with Graphic 45’s Staples range of tags and dies. The black background is one of the staples tags and the paper matted onto it and cut with the matching dies is from one of Art by Marlene’s collage papers.

Before sticking it down I embossed Julie Hickey’s Mini Sunflower in gold embossing three times. The sentiments and hearts between the two birds also came from that stamp set.

The birds and house are from Polkadoodles Stay Chirpy stamps. I stamped them onto Daler Rowney Mixed Media card and coloured them with my progresso woodless aqua pencils. The fancy tail feather on the left hand side bird and the large striped heart tucked under the right hand side bird’s wing are accessory stamps from the same set, as are the borders which I turned into long legs. I stamped both birds’ wings twice and decoupaged them onto the finished birds.

I finished off with some gold shimmer pen over certain areas, some white highlighter and fancy threads.

I am entering this into::-

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – #43 Anything Goes With a Critter
613 Avenue Create – Oct: Anything Goes, Twist Wings
All Fun Challenges – #17 Anything Goes
Colour Crazy Challenge – #40 Anything Colouring Goes
Crafters’ Castle – #34 Anything Goes
Creative Artiste – #65 Anything Mixed Media Goes
Creative Fingers – #194 Anything Goes
Creative Moments – #200 Anything Goes
Moving Along With The Times – #123 Animals or Birds
Polkadoodles – #41 Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge – #10 Anything Goes
We Love 2 Create – #10 Anything Mixed Media Goes

CCM #264 Shabby Chic

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is Shabby Chic.

I have made a page for my Journal.

I made the background with cosmic shimmer pixie powders. I felt it looked like a water scene would belong on it so I stamped a gorgeous Studio Light Collage stamp directly onto it!

This turned out to be a disaster. I don’t know if the background was too busy for the stamp, or the stamp was too busy for the background, but the seahorse, amonite and flower were lost against it. So I coloured them in……. no better. It was all too dark. However, much as we all say ‘it’s only a bit of paper you can start again’ I seriously loved the colours in the background and didn’t want to just throw it away so I found a stamp that would more or less cover the disastrous bits! This was one of Emma Blake of Cleverprints beautiful mindful girls and one set of the wings.

I stamped them onto white linen card on the other side, the non textured side, and coloured them in with my new Koh-i-Noor woodless aqua pencils. Gosh they melt like butter when you apply water and leave NO trace of the original pencil line! I added some sentiments to her wings and a small filler stamp from one of the Mindful girl sets to create a pattern on her dress.

The lovely diecut elements are, I think, from La Blanche, and I coloured them with Pentart metallic wax pastes. A little bit of bleedproof white to add some highlights, some distressing around the edge of the background and stuck down in one of my black paper journals and I hope I rescued it.

I am entering it into:-

All Fun Challenges – #16 Anything Goes
Colour Crazy Challenge – #38 Anything Goes
Crafting Happiness – #68 Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar – Sept: Anything Goes
Crafty Creations – #413 Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – #193 Anything Goes
Elliebelle’s Craft Wednesday – Sept: Things With Wings
Kraftin’ Kimmie – #550 Things With Wings
Shopping Our Stash – #429 Make A Mess
The Corrosive Challenge – #09 Anything Goes
The Fairy and The Unicorn – Sept: Anything Goes
The Sisterhood of Crafters – Anything But A Card
Through The Craftroom Door – Sept 22nd Anything Goes
We Love Chocolate Baroque – Sept: Wings
We Love To Create – #10 Anything Goes

DV #232 Embossing, Wet or Dry

Our challenge today at Dream Valley is embossing. This can be either wet, as in stamped and embossed or dry, as in with a tool or embossing folder. We are sponsored by All Dressed Up.

I have used their cute digi Little Patch Puppy, which I printed onto media paper and watercoloured, and then fussy cut out.

My embossing is the layer beneath the puppy which is a Creative Expressions 3d Embossing Folder. My green and mauve papers are from my stash and the lovely patterned paper is from a pad designed by Elena Guzinska, aka Zinski Art, of New Moon Craft. The sentiment came from the same pad.

I am entering this into:-

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – #42 Anything With a Critter
All Dressed Up – #108 Anything Goes with an ADU image
Allsorts Challenge – #588 Use A Hand Coloured Image
Country View Crafts – Sept: Complimentary Colours
Crafters Castle – #33 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – #79 Anything Goes
Crafty Animals – #42 Anything With an Animal Goes
Creative Craft Cottage – #133 Include an Animal
International Art and Soul – #91 Include an Animal
LeAnn’s World 101 – #30 Anything Goes
Love To Craft – #50 Anything Goes
My Time To Craft – #440 Embossing Wet or Dry
Not Just Cards – Aug: Anything Goes
Papercraft Challenge – #61 Animals
Sheepski Designs – #42 Use Layers
The Crafters’ Cafe – #250 Anything Goes

CCM #262 Things With Wings

Our challenge today from Crafty Cardmakers is Things with Wings. We will be happy to see ANYTHING you care to enter, as long as there are wings in it, and preferably not a tiny insect in the corner of your project!

I have made a page in my tiny Art By Marlene Journal, using a cute new die I recently got. I made the background with distress oxides, first a watercolour wash of twisted citron, and then some stencilling with squeezed lemonade and more twisted citron. The borders are using two staedler fine point pens.

The wings on my dog are courtesy of Janet Klein’s Aall and Create range. The sentiment I made on my pc.

I cut the die a few times so that the dog, the cat and the lord knows what the other little creature is, could all be different colours. I did start off with the dog just being black as in the photo below, but sadly I managed to get glue all over it and it actually looked dreadful in real life, so I cut it again in pink glitter card. However, I do think I prefer the black version. What do you think?

I am entering this into:-

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – #42 Anything with a Critter
A Bit More Time to Craft – #123 Anything Goes
Classic Design Challenge – #9 Anything Goes
Craft-Dee Bowz – September Anything Goes
Crafty Animals – #42 Anything With An Animal
Heart 2 Heart Challenges – Anything Goes
Papercraft Challenge – #61 Animals
The Crafting Challenge – September Anything Goes
We Love 2 Create – #9 Anything Mixed Media Goes

DV #231 Shaped Cards, no Squares or Rectangles

Our challenge today at Dream Valley, and Sponsored by The Paper Shelter, is shaped cards. Any shape you like as long as it’s not a square or a rectangle.

I have used an image from The Paper Shelter called Coffee Break, which I coloured with polychromos pencils. My shape is made with Sue Wilson’s noble octagon dies, as are all the mats and layers. The papers are from Craft Consortium from their Watercolour and Light Tones Grunge papers. Gems also from my stash.

I made up my own sentiment as the card is for my Daughter who, when not working, is either taking photos of birds and wildlife or editing them!

I am entering this into:-

All Fun Challenges – #14 Anything Goes
Alphabet Challenge – J is For Jewels/Jewellery
CD Sunday – #42 Anything Goes (image is digi)
Craft-Dee Bowz – August: Anything Goes
Crafters Castle – #32 Anything Goes
Creative Knockouts – #364 Something to Say
Cut It Up – #207 Old School (the dies, years old!)
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #140 Anything Goes
Sparkles Monthly Challenge – #131 Use At Least 3 Patt Papers
The Happy Craft Challenge – Anything Goes
The Paper Shelter – #437 Punches And Dies

CCM #261 Lots of Layers

I hope you have all had a fabulous Summer. We are back today at Crafty Cardmakers after our long Summer break, and we are kicking off the challenges with Lots Of Layers.

I have used a cute new set of papers from Craft Consortium from the Gift of Giving range. What better way to get lots of layers than decoupage! So also from the same range they have a decoupage kit. I have used two papers from the 6” pad, plus the kitten decoupage. The ornate frame diecut was cut from the lemon paper from the centre as it was going to be covered by the balloon paper, so why waste the middle!

The sentiment comes from a huge year of sentiments pad from Craftwork Cards, but it was the wrong shape so I had to trim it into a square. The gems are coloured with copics to match the design.

I am entering this into:-

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – #41 Anything With a Critter Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft – #122 Anything Goes
All Fun Challenges – #13 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – #78 Anything Goes
Crafty Animals – #41 Anything with an Animal goes
Crafty Friends – #142 Anything Goes
Crafty Hazlenut’s Patterned Paper Chall – August
Creative Fingers – #191 Anything Goes
Dare 2B Artzy – August Anything Goes
Let’s Craft And Create – #162 Anything Goes with Lots of Layers
Lil’ Patch Of Crafty Friends – #140 Anything Goes
Love to Craft – #48 Anything Goes
Not Just Cards – August Anything Goes
Papercraft Challenge – #61 Animals
QKR Stampede – #402 Anything Goes
The Creative Crafters – #31 Anything Goes

DV #230 Add Gems or Pearls

Our challenge today at Dream Valley is to add gems or pearls. We are sponsored by Crafty Sentiments

I have used their lovely image ‘Oh My’ for my card. I printed her and then coloured her with my copics, and fussy cut her out.

My papers are all from Kaiserkraft’s Pink Gelato 6.5” paper pad. I love this size of paper as it’s a perfect fit for a 7” scalloped card base!

The scalloped and plan circles are using Julie’ Hickey’s die, but the intricate diecut is a spellbinder die.

My butterflies are a combination of different brands.

The pearls are white pearls coloured with the same yellow I used on her dress to match the design. The gems on the butterflies are coloured to co-ordinate with those too, and there are two little gems on the centres of her hair bows.

I am entering this into:-

CCC Digi Creations – #117 Include a Butterfly/Butterflies
Crafters’ Castle – Aug #32 Anything Goes
Crafty Animals – #41 Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar – Aug: Anything Goes
Creations in Pink – #24 #Anything Mainly Pink Goes
Creative Craft Cottage – #132 Ribbon/Lace and/or Pearls
Digi Doodle Studios – #30 Things With Wings
Dragonfly Dreams – Aug: Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #139 Anything Goes
Pearly Sparkles Challenge – #54 Anything Goes
Sheepski Designs – #41 No Rules, Anything you Want
The Artistic Stamper – Aug: Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge – #8 Anything Goes
The Crafters Cafe – #248 Anything Goes

DV #229 Christmas In July

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is Christmas in July and we are sponsored by Crafty Ribbons.

My card is a combination of Amy’s Design and Tonic Dies for the main area., Amy’s Design being the decorative frame and Tonic the sentiment.

I die cut these from white pearl card. They are matted onto mauve shimmer card/paper.

The little ice skate is a chloe stamp. It does actually also come as a combo stamp and die but I bought it when it was just the stamp. So I stamped it onto shrink plastic and cut it out by hand! Tricky round the actual blade part and coloured it with crayons and then shrunk it.

A few mauve gems in the opposite corner and the card was done!

I am entering this into:-

Christmas Crafts All Year Round – July Cool It
Crafty Hazlenut’s Christmas – #500 Anything Christmas
Crimbo Crackers – #211 Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday – #644 Christmas In July
Die Cut Divas – Christmas In July
Dies R Us – #149 Christmas in July
Digi Doodle Studio – #29 Christmas in July
Jingle Bells – Colourful Christmas (Inspired by the hanging wreaths)
Lost Coast Portal – #103 Christmas in July
Merry Little Christmas – #24 Anything Christmas Goes
Sheepski Designs – #40 Christmas in July
Sweet Stampers – #46 Christmas in July
Sweet Stampin’ – Christmas in July
The Holly and The Ivy Christmas Chall – #75 Anything Christmas Goes
The Paper Girls – #204 Christmas in July
Winter Wonderland – Hip to Be Square

CCM #260 Create Your Own Background

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is to create your own background. As usual you can enter anything you like as long as it follows this theme.

My piece is for my Art Journal and it’s a little glimpse into my brain during these difficult times!

I created the background by first smooshing some distress oxides in squeezed lemonade and dried marigold onto my page. When that was dry I dotted on some areas of contrast colour using bleeding art tissue paper. In this particular case I scrunched it up and made it wet and then pounced it onto the background. You can also tear it in random strips and lay it on your background before wetting, diecut it and lay those down before wetting. Well anything you can think of really!

I used various stamps to add even more mess in the background.

The hands are from Woodware which I stamped onto white stamping card and cut out then just stuck in place. The various statements are in my own terrible handwriting and you can see why I don’t normally use it. But it added to the messiness of the background!

I wanted the whole piece to represent the muddle in my head right now, as here in the UK, we are constantly getting conflicting advice from the Powers That Be. One minute we’re following the science and the next the Scientists are telling us they disagree with what decisions have been made. So my head is all of a muddle and I don’t know which way to turn which is what the hands all pointing in different directions represent. And the general messiness of the background is what it’s like to be in my thoughts!

Because it’s quite messy, the joined up writing (doesn’t that sound odd) says, Round and round and round we go, where the virus stops nobody knows. All the other block capital words are words that have been flung at us these last few months.

Anyhow enough of my confuddled thinking……… I am entering this into:-

613 Avenue Create – #234 Anything Goes, OT Blended Background
Arty Divas – #24 Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – #189 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp – Wednesday Chall Anything Goes
Southern Girls – June Team Trace Anything Goes
Sweet Stampers – #45 Something Beginning with B – Background
Sweet Stampin’ – Create Your Own Background
The Corrosive Challenge – #6 Anything Goes
Tuesday Throwdown – #460 Anything Goes
We Love 2 Create – #7 Anything Mixed Media Goes

DV #228 All Occasions

Our challenge today at Dream Valley is All Occasions, so that might be a birthday, Wedding, Christening, etc.

We are sponsored by Morgan’s Artworld.

I created this with a cdrom of Morgan’s Artworld that I have had for ages. It has some lovely toppers, which I printed out, along with the backing papers. I matted all three layers onto black cardstock to create the card and added a sentiment using again a very old die from Tattered Lace. The final touch was to draw some glue lines in her hair and glitter it with glamour dust. I love glamour dust because it takes on the colour beneath it but still sparkles beautifully.

I have quite a few cds, which I used to use frequently, but they hardly see the light of day currently. However, they often have some gorgeous images, such as in this case and they are reasonably quick to create with, and in the case of this one. Totally flat for posting!

I am entering this into:-

A Bit More Time To Craft – #118 Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments – #253 Anything Goes
CCC Digi Creations - #115 Anything Goes
CD Sunday – #38 Anything Goes
Crafters Castle - #30 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – #76 Anything Goes
Morgan’s Artworld – #6 Anything Goes
Not Just Cards – June Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #400 Anything Goes
The Creative Crafters – #29 Anything Goes

CCM #259 Masculine

Our challenge today is Masculine, which should give you lots of scope. And as it’s Father’s Day next weekend any of those lovely projects will be very welcome too.

I used a die set from Crafters Companion to make my masculine card. It very much reminds me of the trophy shields that they used to dish out in school for sports winners.

The brown happy birthday card has been in my stash for soooooooo long, it’s nice to find something to use it on!! The diecuts on the bottom half of the easel are from Tim holiz I think, and the sentiment again from Crafters Companion.

I am entering this into:-

CCEE Stampers – #2024 Father’s Day
Crafty Gals Corner – #208 You’re the Man
Cute Card Thursday – #638 Masculine
Dare 2B Artzy – June Masculine
Dragonfly Dreams – Make It Masculine
Paper Fun Day – #18 Anything Goes Twist Make It Masculine
Papercraft Business Challenge – #30 Fathers Day/Male
Try It On Tuesday – Make It Masculine

DV #227 Summer Colours

Today’s challenge at Dream Valley, sponsored by Crafty Sentiments, is Summer Colours.

I have used one of their lovely images, Ladybird and Butterfly, for my card.

I coloured her with copics, and the dots on her dress and stripes on her hair ribbon are stabilo 0.3 pens. They have a lovely range of colours and are super fine for adding detail like the dots. I die cut the image out with one of my Sue Wilson octagon dies, along with an orange polka dotted background. The rainbow striped paper is from the same pad that the polka dot orange came from, Studio Light PPSL129.

I die cut an orange layer, also with Sue Wilson dies. Sadly the paper is only A5, so it wasn’t large enough to get a matching mat from the polka dot paper. The Sunshine sentiment is from a Studio Light die. The final touch, the enamel dots came from a very large chinese version of ebay!!!

I am entering this into:-

A Bit More Time to Craft – #117 Anything Goes
A Perfect Time to Craft – June Anything Goes
Angie’s Digital Stamps –#43 AG twist Summertime
CCC Digi Creations – #115 Eileen’s Anything Goes
CD Sunday – #37 Anything Goes
Classic Design Challenge – June Anything Goes
Crafters Castle – #30 Anything Goes
Crafty Friends – #137 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – #76 Anything Goes
Crafty Hazlenut’s Patterned Paper – June Anything Goes
Die Cut Divas – June Summertime Fun
Just Add Ink – #508 Just Add F (flowers)
Just Us Girls – #539 Word Week: Sunshine
LeAnn’s World 101 – #27 Anything Goes
Love to Craft – #47 Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #400 Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations – June Make It Colourful
The Crafting Challenge – June Anything Goes
The Paper Players – #494 Sunshine and Rainbows

CCM #258 Wedding

I hope everyone is keeping well. Our challenge at Crafty Cardmakers today is Wedding. I had no idea when I chose this challenge for the 1st of June, a traditionally popular month for weddings here in the UK, that there would be no weddings! What a surreal situation we find ourselves in.

So my card started with the gorgeous Tiddly Inks image, which comes in both jpg and png formats and also comes with or without the veil. I obviously plumped for the one with the veil.

I coloured the image with my copics, and glittered over her veil with a combination of a lovely soft pink and some white very fine glitter. I also added gems for her ring, her heart pendant and her tiara.

My papers are from Crafters Companion’s Garden of Love set. They have several with lovely dots of gold foiling on and I chose two to complement the colours in my image. I Cut an aperture in the rose background paper and placed it over the image. I then created both a frame for the image and a frame for the card itself with Sue Wilson double stitched dies in both the square and the circle from some lovely soft pink paper with more gold foiling.

The sentiment is a Spellbinders Glimmer foil plate and I foiled it in rose gold foil and cut it out with the matching die.

  

My flowers and the gems and glass teardrops dotted amongst the flowers are all from my stash.

Once again I must apologise for the quality of my photography. I desperately need a new camera but I keep buying craft and can’t afford both!!!!

The image right at the top is closest in colour tone and hue to the original, but the warmer ones beneath do show the floral arrangements better.

I am entering this into:-

A Perfect Time to Craft – #6 Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments – #252 Flowers and a Sentiment
Colour Crazy Challenge – #21 Anything Colouring Goes
Crafty Friends – #135 Anything Goes
Crafty Hazlenuts Patterned Paper – June Any Patt Papers goes
Creations in Pink – #22 Anything Goes in Mainly Pink
Di’s Digi Challenge – Include A Sentiment
Digi Doodle Studios – #28 Anything Goes
DL Art – June Anything Goes
Just Us Girls – #538 Two or More Patterned Papers
Krafty Chicks – #509 All Occasions
Love To Craft – #47 Anything Goes
Polkadoodles – #22 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday – #273 All About Occasions

DV #226 Add Some Sparkle

Today at Dream Valley we are sponsored by the lovely Paper Shelter and we all got to play with one of their fabulous digis. I have used Angel for my card.

I printed her onto watercolour card.. I used copics for her skin tones and Zig Clean Color brush pens for the rest of her. I die cut the image with Spellbinders Floral Ovals. I then added some shabby embossing powders in both blue and pink and edge the diecut with three colours of Pentart Wax pastes, magenta, purple and turquoise. The glitter diecuts around the edge of the frame are from the Tutti Butterfly Oval which I cut into two to place around the edge.

The lovely butterfly paper is from Tracey Hey, In The Navy. The paper is matted onto silver glitter card, the same as I used for the butterfly frame and also for the sentiment, which I created with my brand new We R Memory Keepers Word Punchboard!!! Come on WRMK, a nice set of lower case punches please!!!!

I am entering this into:-

Art Impressions – #283 All Layered Up
Arty Divas – #22 Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments – #251 Anything Goes + Sentiment
Colour Crazy – # 20 Anything Colouring Goes
Craft-Dee Bowz – May: Anything Goes
Crafters Castle – #29 Anything Goes
Creativ Fusion – #17 Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – #186 Anything Goes
Di’s Digi Challenge – Include a Sentiment
Elliebelles Crafty Wednesday – May: Make It Feminine
Pattie’s Creations – #170 Anything Goes
Polkadoodles – #21 Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #399 Anything Goes
Southern Girls – May: Anything Goes
The Crafters Cafe – #242 Feminine
The Creative Crafters – #28 Anything Goes
The Fairy and The Unicorn – #5 Anything Fantasy Goes
Unicorn Challenge – #54 use Dies

CCM #257 Butterflies

Hi from sunny Hampshire. I hope everyone is still keeping safe and well, despite the confusing advice we are now being given about going out and about again!

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is butterflies. I have to say I am personally missing the dragonflies and damselflies that I would normally be seeing when I take my dog out down to the river on my mobility scooter, but I am shielding so we are stuck in and all we can see are pigeons pooping on my scooter cover!

I created my card with some Crafters Companion products. The gorgeous butterfly diecut is from them as is the pretty backing papers.

I diecut the butterfly from the lilac paper and then used it as a background behind the die cut butterfly, when I matted it over another of CC’s lovely papers. The other matting layer is white glitter card, which I cut the die sentiments from and also another butterfly layer. There are now two butterflies fluttering in the gap that the original one was cut from.

The sentiments are all from Studiolight.

I am entering this into:-

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – #38 Anything Goes with a Critter
A Bit More Time to Craft – #116 Anything Goes
Animal Friends – May: Insects
Aud Sentiments – #251 Anything Goes with a Sentiment
Crafts Galore Encore – #75 Anything Goes
Crafty Animals – #38 Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – #186 Anything Goes
Dare2BArtzy – May: In The Garden
Get Creative Challenges – #91 Make It Sparkly
Happy Little Stamper – May: Anything Goes with Dies
International Art & Soul – #83 Flowers & Butterflies
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #132 Anything Goes
Love To Craft – #46 Anything Goes
Not Just Cards – May: Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge – #5 Anything Goes
The Creative Crafters – #28 Anything Goes

DV #225 Favourite Colours

Our challenge today at Dream Valley is Favourite Colours and we are sponsored by Dis Digidesigns.

I actually don’t have a single favourite colour, but a combination of colours like my image actually is my favourite use of colour.

This is a more accurate representation of the subtlety of the colours, but the picture was too flat, and the butterfly looked flat, whereas the top picture although darker and maybe with more yellow in it, shows the butterfly’s dimension.

So I stamped the word stamp behind the butterfly in various shades of Tonic Nuvo Inks. I then stamped the butterfly over the top, and stamped the butterfly a second time onto spare card. I coloured it with Lyra Aquacolours and cut it out and then decoupaged it over the top of the one stamped directly on the card. The word stamp is from No Words and the Butterfly from Life is a Canvas both by Tracey Hey.

Using the same Tonic ink colours I randomly inked some spare card, from which I cut the Alexandra Renke Birthday Sentiment. I also cut it again in black and created a drop shadow effect with the black layer.

The shaped mats and layers were cut with Phil Martin’s Inverted double embossed rectgangle dies. which I also used to create the base card.

I am entering this into:-

A Place to Start – May: Create a Custom Background
AAA Birthday – #13 Things With Wings
Animal Friends = #86 Insects
C.R.A.F.T. – #555 Annual Blog Hop Birthday
Crafting Happiness – #48 Anything Goes Option Nature
Paperminutes – #639 Butterfly
Seize The Birthday – #190 Anything Goes Birthday
The Paper Shelter – #426 Happy Birthday
Unicorn Challenge – #54 Use Dies
Use Your Stuff – #397 Flowers and/or Butterflies
Watercooler Wednesday – #270 Anything Goes with a feminine twist

CCM #256 Celebrations

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is Celebrations. I know we might not feel much like celebrating at the moment, but friends and family are still having birthdays, Wedding Anniversaries, giving birth etc. So there is still lots to celebrate.

I created my card for a friend’s 80th Birthday.

CCM #255 Anything But A Card

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is Anything But a Card.

Because most of the world seems to be in lockdown at the moment, and I myself am shielding due to underlying health issues, the threat of Covid-19 seems to be ever present in my mind. As a consequence the idea for this journal page came to me. I know that the threat of this dreadful virus is serious, and I am actually quite paranoid myself about it, but I have tried to see the fun side of being stuck at home. I have a quite dark sense of humour hence the possibly inappropriate start to the sentiment that I came up with for my page. Just so you know, the only scooter I have is the mobility sort and the closest I come to a pool in my garden is when we had all that rain and my walking stick got stuck in the ground by over two inches with a layer of water permanently there! But a girl can dream, lol.

Anyhow enough of my waffling. I used a page from my lovely studiolight 6.5” journal, and with a clarity stencil I created a few different coloured circles in cracked pistachio, faded lilac and mustard seed. Over the top of that I spread texture paste through the Aall & Create Lotza Dotz stencil. I edged the whole thing with the same DIs as in the background. I’ve also used a few Aall & Create stamps to add some extra detail.

The little duck is also from Aall & Create, Quack, and it has a matching die set. I coloured him with copics and my polychromos pencils. The scooter comes from a Katzelkraft stamp set, as did the drink and the sunglasses.

I created the sentiment on my pc, and edged it with a black copic.

I am entering this into:-

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – #37 Anything with a critter goes
Art Impressions – #280 Kid At Heart
Artistic Stamper – April In the Garden (hope my unusual take of the theme is okay!)
Country View Crafts – April Animal Magic
Crafters Castle – April #28 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – April Anything Goes
Crafty Animals – #37 Anything Goes
Creative Artiste – #58 Anything Mixed Media Goes
Creative Fingers – #184 Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday – #630 Wings
Die Cut Divas – April It’s all about Animals
Fab ‘N’ Funky - #477 Spots Or Dots
Happy Little Stampers – April Anything Goes With Dies
Modsquad – April Birds
Not Just Cards – April Anything Goes
Polkadoodles – #16 Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #394 Anything Goes
Sheepski Designs – #37 Show Us Your Wings
Simply Create Too – #159 Anything but a Card
We Love 2 Create – #4 Anything Mixed Media Goes

DV #223 Things With Wings

Good Morning and Happy Easter.

Today’s challenge from Dream Valley, sponsored by Morgan’s Artworld, is Things With Wings.

I have used one of the sponsor’s images called simply digistamp 15. I printed her onto Elegance cardstock and coloured her with my polychromos pencils. The wings and bird in her hair were glittered with glamour dust.

The backing paper is very old from Elusive Images, now Chocolate Baroque! The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Crafters Companion’s new Edge’able dies.

I cut the sentiment piece twice, and then having added a layer beneath the flap so that they would stay in place, I paper pieced the white letters back into the holes that the die leaves, when it’s cut.

In the picture above I have pushed the flap with the sentiment on down flat, but actually it stands proud like the picture below so you can see more of the gorgeous backing paper.

The flowers are again really old, from my stash, and by Prima, and the ferns are cut with a MS punch from the same backing paper.

The image was cut out with Julie Hickey’s rectangle frame dies, including the scalloped black mat and the tiny frame diecut.

Here is a close up of glittered areas.

I am entering this into:-

Alphabet Challenge – A For Anything Goes
Artsy Stamper – #13 Things With Wings
Aud Sentiments – #248 Anything Goes with a Sentiment
Crafty Friends – #133 Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – #183 Anything Goes
Daisy Chain Challenges – #40 Birthday
Di’s Digi Challenge – Pretty In Pastel
Fab ‘n Funky – #476 Birthday
Not Just Cards – Apr: Anything Goes
Pattie’s Creations – #169 Birthdays
Seize The Birthday – #187 Anything Birthday Goes
Sheepski Designs – #37 Show Us Your Wings
The Fairy and The Unicorn – Apr: Anything Fantasy
Through The Craftroom Door – Anything Goes

Stay safe and well everyone.