CCM 47 Love – The Lasting Kind …..

This weeks Crafty Cardmakers Challenge which is hosted by Benita,  is to make a card that shows who you love and why.
There is a £10 voucher on offer for the winner, sponsored by
Mine was simple. Sadly as my parents are both gone and I am no longer married, thank heaven’s for small mercies, that just leaves my beautiful Daughter and my oh so cute Poppy dog. No contest really, in case you were wondering squiddy, hands down it has to be my Daughter!

 

I have kept the card simple, and in fact it’s 8x8 so is going to end up in a scrapbook, because I wanted her to be the focus of attention and sometimes with all the frippery we add to things it can detract from the central image. I wanted this to be about her, not beautiful flowers and flouncy ribbons.

The background is from the ever so lush DCWV Luxury stack, the sort of card you look at but don’t want to chop into. 

I am a sentimental old softy, and the sentiment, a rub on, just about says it all really. I manipulated the picture in Photoimpact so that rainbows were beaming out  from her, although it does look a little like the sun caught her tiara! 

I’m addressing this last paragraph to her …….. 

I made this for you, my lovely Daughter to show you how I see you, which is with beauty radiating from within, as the sentiment says. You have been my rock, my joy and my laughter, since the day you were born when I looked into your little pinched up face and my heart was lost forever. Of course there were moments as you grew that were frustrating, but on the whole you have been a person to be proud of. One whom friends can call on and know you will be there, fiercely loyal. One who sticks up for what is right no matter what the cost to yourself, as your recent brush with the idiot where you worked showed only too well,  and one who has shown me more love than I could ever wish for. You have filled my heart with love and my life with delight and wonderment and have become my absolute best friend. ………….  Sweetheart I LOVE YOU.

I’m entering this into the following challenges:-

Crafting for All Seasons – Anything Goes

Crafty Purple Frog – Things of Beauty

Creative Inspirations Paint – Inspired by Friends – as mentioned above my Daughter is my best friend, and she was the inspiration for this creation

Divas By Design – One For the Girls

Drunken Stampers – Something magical – My image manipulation has created magical rainbows emanating from within

Little Miss Muffet – Something Metal – my corners are filigree metal

Papertake Weekly – Pale Pretty Pastels

Secret Crafter – Clean and Simple

Sentimental Sundays – Anything But A Card – As this is going to end up in my scrapbook I hope it qualifies, if not girls, please yell out!

Sparkles Forum – Something Metal – my corners are filigree metal

Stamp Something – Use a sentiment

Lexi’s Creations #41 – Father’s Day

Our challenge over at Lexi’s Creations this fortnight is Father’s Day. We are once again sponsored by the fabulous Letraset and the winner will receive a pack of 5 Promarkers.

My card is made using Lexi’s image Golfer Max, as that’s where a lot of Dads would really like to be on Father’s Day. My Family were in Golf for years as Greenkeepers and my Grandad and his Brother actually built one of the courses at Wentworth.

I’ve coloured Max in with promarkers and the green behind him is chalk. The golf balls I found online, and the gorgeous golf bag is a resin embellishment I have had for ages.

I’m entering this into the following challenges:-

Craft Your Days Away – Father’s Day/Special Man

Creative Card Crew – Anything Goes

Digi Doodle Shop’s Best – Anything  Goes

ECP The Challenges – For Dad

Here Come The Boys – Father’s Day/Hubby/Partner

Karen’s Doodles – Father’s Day

Stamping, Scrapping Challenge Central – Masculine Challenge

The Outlawz Copic Challenge – Anything Goes

Dream Valley 8 Stamp Something

Over at Dream Valley our challenge this time is to ‘stamp something’. 

That's it! No digital images allowed and anything you make must have some sort of hand stamping on it! As usual you can make enter anything into our challenges from cards to ATC's, Scrap page layouts to altered items! As long as your item has stamp and ink!

We have 2 sponsors this time for you all!!

Firstly with a £10 voucher

and secondly with a choice of a stamp

This challenge was perfect timing for me because I had just received the gorgeous Art Deco Bride/Flapper stamp from Crafts and Me after keep missing it every time it was in stock, so I was eager to stamp her up.

I was originally going to colour her in with promarkers, but fancied a softer approach so got my prismas out. Her hat feather’s were made by feathering small strokes of a turquoise shade with whispers pens as they come with a fabulously fine point nib as well as a brush tip. I have added glamour dust to the front part of her hat, and the roses on it, and also to her dress and arm decoration, and finally the rim of the mat, which I first edged with DI.

The BPs are from various Bearly Mine sets and I tried to match the colours of the rose paper in her dress. The ribbon was white ribbon which I dragged the DI ink over, feathers were from my stash, as were the roses and the diecuts are Marianne dies. The peel offs were chosen to match the pink areas.

I’m entering this into the following challenges:-

2 Sisters Challenge – Anything Goes

Bearly Mine Challenges – Die Cuts and Lace

CES Challenges – Embossing – My die cuts are embossed and inked over

Crafting For All Seasons – Anything Goes

Crafts 4 Eternity – Alter Something – My lacey ribbon has been altered by changing it’s colour to a soft blue

Creative Craft World – Use 3 or more flowers

Delicious Doodles – Lovely Lace

The Emerald Faerie Garden – Anything Goes

Paper Sundaes – Vintage or Shabby Chic – My image is vintage

Papercrafting Journey – Anything Goes

PaperPlay Challenges – Blossoms and Blooms

Scrappy Frogs – Happy Birthday

The Outlawz POM Challenge – Anything Goes

The Paper Shelter – Anything Goes

Truly Scrumptious – Anything Goes

Lexi’s Creations #40 Spots And/Or Stripes

This week over at Lexi’s Creations we want to see spots and/or stripes in your creations.

Our sponsor for this challenge is 'Fairy Dust Crafts'

Check out this fabulous craft store there is such a lot there, including Lexi’s own images,  and the prices are amazing!!!

For full details of the challenge and to see some absolutely beautiful inspirational creations from our design team call across to Lexi's Creations Challenge Blog.

For my card I have used Lexi’s gorgeous Butterscotch Fairy.

I have coloured her in with promarkers, and added some glitter glue to her wings and a small gem for her necklace. The spotty paper is from Basic Grey and the stripes, which I did with the Hougie Board is a sheet of coredinations card. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, the central one has been stuck onto some Marianne Diecuts and I have edged it with the same glitter glue as on the fairy’s wings, to give it more ooomph! The sentiment is an old metal tag I have had hanging around for years, coloured with promarkers. I think I should have left it to dry a bit better before I went over it again as it looks a bit patchy here.

The ribbons are from my stash.

I should like to enter this into the following challenges:-

Catch The Bug  – Polka Dots and Stripes

Crafty Creations – Anything Goes

Creative Belli Blog – The Letter S – My Spots and Stripes

Divas By Design – Anything Goes

Make it Colourful – Dotty Backgrounds

Mami Doodles – Spots And/Or Stripes

One Stitch At A Time – Anything Goes

Penny’s Paper Crafty Challenge – Anything Goes

Scrappy Frogs – Anything Goes

Send A Smile For Kids – May Flowers

Stamp Scrap and Doodle – Old Supplies – The Metal Tag

Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog –Spots, Stripes and Sparkle

The Spotlight Challenge #45 Inchies

Over at The Spotlight Challenge this fortnight we are highlighting Inchies. Please pop on over to the blog for a more detailed explanation of what is required but essentially it involves using 1 inch squares, and our hostess for this challenge, Cazro, has requested that there be a minimum of 3 inchies on your project. There are some interesting DT samples so please pop on over and check them all out.

So down to business, lol. When I saw we had this challenge coming up I scouted around for something suitable to cut into 1 inch squares and my Stampendous Corset stamp seemed the perfect one as it is divisible nicely by 3 in one direction and 4 in the other.

Having stamped and embossed it I cut it out and layered it over some purple paper that I had. Then my mind began wandering off at a tangent as it so often does, and I started thinking about inches and corsets and before I knew it I had a theme for my card. I made my own background paper using another corset stamp in the same colours as the main image, and I designed my sentiment to be a play on the theme of inchies and the theme of my card, as the whole thing is meant to look like an advert for a corset making company. All sorts of dressmaking odds and ends have ended up here including a lace flower and you don't want to know where that came from *winks*

The bits and bobs are meant to look like the components that might go into the making of a corset, and the inchie topper itself is meant to resemble what it’s like looking through one of those old fashioned lead windows  at a corset on display inside the store. Don’t know their architectural term but the ones that are made up of squares of glass.  

I had a great deal of fun with this one, but setting out those inchies so they were neat on the background paper was hard work so if anyone has any tips for lining up please yell out!

I am entering this into the following:-

Catch The Bug Challenge Blog – Anything Goes

CES Challenges – Your Favourite Colour Combo – Purple and Black

Crafty Catz – Give us a Quote/Sentiment

Crafty Purple Frog Challenge – Purple and Lace

Creative Cowgirls – Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations Paint – Inspired by Your Favourite Colour – Mine happens to be purple

Do You Stack Up – Purple

Secret Crafter – Dust off Your Stash – My old Stampendous Stamp and all the odds and sods from my sewing box

Scrappy Frogs Challenge – Anything Goes

Sentimental Sundays – Anything Goes

 

ABC T is for ……

Two Or More Images. This week at ABC we want to see two or more images on your card, not including a sentiment or text. They can be two separate images, masked, digitally merged (as I have done) etc.

We are sponsored by

And our winner will get this adorable new Milton stamp as their prize

So onto my creation.

I had a lot of fun with this one. I have used digital images from two different companies. The first is the background one which is called Whimsical Log and comes from Make it Crafty, and the faerie is from Debs Mitchell Creations The Emerald Fairies Collection and is called Ally and Beeble. The MIC images are perfect for merging with other images to make a whole scene, and the Emerald Faeries come in both rubber and digi, whatever is your preference, but I went for digi because they are in Australia so it was quicker and cheaper, lol. I imported the first image into Paint.Net and then brought the second one in over the top and using the programme merged the two images together. I then printed onto watercolour paper and coloured in with Inktense watercolour pencils.

I glittered up Ally’s wings, the flower she is sitting on, the flower over her head and the mushrooms. The image is matted onto some dimensional craft paper, it’s like a sort of net with white blobs of paint dotted onto it and it put me in mind of the mushrooms. The paper is from a digi scrapkit whose name escapes me, sorry. The little charms are from my stash and coloured with promarkers. The words were made on my PC with Letraset’s Safmat and the rest of the embellies are potpourri, so the card smells nice too!

Don’t forget to come on over to ABC and join in the fun and check out the other DT samples whilst you are there.

I am entering this into:-

Anything Goes Challenge Blog – Home Sweet Home (clearly a Faerie lives in a Glen)

By The Cute and Girly – Anything Goes

Craft Your Passion – Anything Goes

Creative Craft Challenges – Get Recycling (My potpourri is recyled!)

Papertake Weekly – Anything Goes

Pollycraft – Anything Goes

Scrappy Frogs – Anything Goes

The Emerald Faerie Garden – Anything Goes

Top Tip Tuesday – Open Challenge

Try It On Tuesday – Something Old, Something New (My old is the good old recycled potpourri and my new is the faerie part of the image)

 

My First DT Post for Lexi’s Creations - Friendship

I was honoured to be picked for the Lexi’s Creations Design Team a couple of weeks back and this is my first post.

The theme this week is Friendship and I was asked to pick an image to work with before I knew what the challenge was going to be. Silly me I should have asked first, cos you can imagine what I thought when I realised I had chosen the three wise monkeys and the theme was friendship! However, hey ho, that’s why they are called challenges ………

I have coloured the monkeys in with prisma pencils , the diecuts are Marianne and the papers are Basic Grey. I made up the sentiment myself.

The button and blingy bits are from my stash.

I am entering this into:-

Alphabet Challenge Blog – Z is for Zoo Animals

Amber’s Crafts and Stuff – Use a Digital stamp

Art Impressions Stamps – Use an Animal

Crafts4Eternity – Anything Goes

Drunken Stampers – Say It Like It Is

Moving Along With the Times – Anything Goes

Paper Cutz Challenge – Anything Goes

Party Time Tuesdays – Anything Goes

Sew Many Challenges – Easel Card

Wags ‘n Whiskers – Use A Die or a Punch

Dream Valley #6 – Flowers

It’s time for another Dream Valley challenge and this fortnight we are looking for your creations with flowers on them. This can be anything a card, scrapbook LO, altered art, something for the home. You name it, we would love to see it. As long as it has flowers on it then it will qualify for our lovely prize.

My ‘flowers’ creations is a Paint Fusion poppy frame. With a picture of Poppy inside it! Now you can’t get any more floral than that!!

I started off with a Brenda Pinnick frame from a kit of lots of different sized frames, and to be honest the pattern on it was so not me. I first painted over it in black acrylic paint and then added a layer of pva glue, I partially dried that and then added a layer of white acrylic paint. I was thrilled to see it cracking before I even got a chance to get the heat gun back out.

I stamped a few of Sheena Douglass’ fusion poppies around the frame and then loosely, very loosely (as you can see none of them are the same, lol) used the fusion technique and painted them with three different acrylic colours on the brush at the same time. I also went back over with the gold colour to emphasise the petals a little as I was a bit hit and miss with my original painting. I also stamped and then painted the leaves around the edge.

Originally I left it here

but it didn’t look quite finished off. So I took the pic of Poppy back out of the centre as I had printed it slightly too small anyway for the aperture in the frame, and embossed with black sparkle powder around the aperture opening and the outside edge of the frame. I also stamped and embossed some curly swirlies in gold embossing powder, and re-printed Poppy at a better size. I’ve noticed I seem to have a few five petal poppies, I bet you didn’t realise I am a plant breeder – or is that what they call poetic licence?

Isn’t my little Pooch just the most darling thing? She is getting bigger and bigger but still so full of mischief. I take her for a walk around the park and we never get all the way round without someone stopping to fuss her and tell her how beautiful she is. I am sure that’s why she wants to go so much cos she is vain and loves the compliments. She even gave a stranger that ‘look’ one day last week which elicited a few puppy treats from the poor woman who seemed to fall under Poppy’s spell.

I have such an embarrassing story to tell as well. I had let her off the lead, throwing her a ball. If we are alone on the park she comes back quickly loving the fetch game, but the second someone appears she gets distracted so I try to grab her in advance.  So this one time she does a runner straight towards this somewhat attractive man, and he very kindly stops and scootches her into his arms to await my coming to collect her. He is really rather nice looking himself and I enjoy a brief chat.

So when I get home later on the phone I tell my Daughter about it, and jokingly tell her that I have rewarded Poppy for running off cos she ‘pulled a cute bloke’! Imagine how completely mortified I was a week or so later to have my Niece tell me that she is chatting to this bloke in the pub and he says ‘I think I met your Aunt last week’ and tells her about Poppy’s running up to him. ‘Oh so you’re the cute bloke then’ she replies ‘Auntie Lin rewarded Poppy for misbehaving that day’. So as if that wasn’t bad enough and now being afraid to stick my face back outside my front door she then falls over laughing as she explains that the cute bloke my Poppy ran into is none other than my Daughter and her Partner’s recently moved out Lodger!!! Of course my Daughter and her fella keep laughing at me every time they talk to me now and I am dreading running into ‘Tim’ again as my face will be the colour of these poppies.

I am entering my embarrassing story, errrr I mean my frame into these challenges:-

CES Challenges – Picture Inspiration I used the red from the picture

Crafty Us Crazy – Mother’s Day and/or Flowers

Charisma Cardz – April Showers, May Flowers – Poppy has just had a shower, during April, in the picture and she is surrounded by flowers I painted in May!

Prairie Fairy Fun Fridays – April Showers, May Flowers – Please see above

My Mum’s Craft Shop – Flowers

My Time to Craft - Pets

Sparkles Forum – Anything Goes

The Emerald Faerie Garden Challenge #1

There is a brand new challenge blog just started called The Emerald Faerie Garden Challenge. I came across these gorgeous designs by accident a couple of weeks or so ago and so I am thrilled to be able to enter into their first ever challenge.

This started life as an ordinary card and ended up as a wedding card as it was the most suitable thing I had available when my Daughter phoned me half an hour before she was leaving for a friend’s wedding. They do look awfully fond of each other so I thought it might make a cute wedding card, and even I can’t throw something together in less than 30 minutes!

The image is called Willy & Mia, coloured with my promarkers, and I have used papers from Bearly Mine Designs, Summer Lace, I think, lol

The embellishments are from my stash.

These were a treat to colour as they are just so cute.

The light conditions were either too bright or too dark, arghhhh, so I have used the bright sunlit one for the main image above, but the darker one for an image close up. The actual colour was closer to the darker image, but the darker picture overall doesn’t look as good.

 

Emergency Wedding Card insert …. KIDS!!!!!

I am entering this into:-

Catch The Bug – May Flowers and Pastel Colours

Cardmadfairy’s Digi Days – Wedding

CCEE Stampers – Add A Butterfly to your creation

Everybody Art - Fairies

If The Shoe Fits – Things With Wings

Kaboodle Doodles – Here Comes The Bride

Scrap Creations - Flowers

Stamp Something -  Something With Wings

The Emerald Faerie Garden Challenge – Anything Goes

The Stamping Boutique – Winged Things