DV #162 Use a Stamp or Digi

Good afternoon from a gorgeously sunny Hampshire!

Our challenge today, from Dream Valley, is to add a stamp or digi image to your project. We are sponsored by All Dressed Up Stamps and I have used one of their fabulous images, Springtime, for my card.

I coloured the image with copics, adding some small touches of glamour dust to the flowers, and also to the wings of the bees, which I stamped and diecut.

The background, and the patterned diecut, Sue Wilson’s Double Pierced Circles and Spellbinders Grand Decorative Circles 1, surrounding the image I created myself with Broken China, Cracked Pistachio and Wilted Violet Oxides. In order for the image to stand out from the background, as I used the same sheet and it was blending in to the background I added it on foam pads.

The final mat and corners are a turquoise mirri.

I am entering this into:-

Crafty Creations - #348 Anything Goes
Crafty Friends - #65 Birthdays
Crafty Gals Corner - #137 Punches and/or Dies
Creative Moments - #125 Anything Goes
Crop Stop - August Challenge Link Party #31 - Use Anything from the Crop Stop Store
Make My Monday - #53 Lazy Days of Summer
Making Memories Craft Challenge - #8 Anything Goes
Moving Along With the Times - #52 Things Beginning with the Letter B (Bees and Bunny)
My Creative Scoop - Monthly Link Up #25 Anything Hand Coloured Goes
Scrapy Land - #72 Anything Goes with a Brand of Die that Scrapy Land sell
Stamping Sensations - Aug: Anything Goes

CCM #194 Under The Sea or At The Beach

We have been having a Summer break at Crafty Cardmakers, but we are back to day with a still summery themed challenge of either Under the Sea, or At The Beach.

I started with the background which I created on my A4 Gelli Plate, by brayering on some Fresco paint from Paper Artsy in three different ‘sea’ shades of blue. I used a Tim Holtz Texture tool to scrape through to give the impression of movement in the water, and also dabbed some cling film over it in a few places to add to the movement.

I stamped a few fish and bubbles, a seahorse and a rock for one of my mermaids to sit on, along with some seaweed.

My mermaids are from Hunkydory and I stamped them onto white card and coloured in their skin and hair, and then re-stamped their bra tops and tails onto shimmer paper, and paper pieced those over the top. One mermaid has a small gem for her necklace and the other has three in her hair.

I diecut lots of Sheena Douglas Floristry and Magnolia Seaweed dies in the same shimmer paper as the tails, but in twi different shades of blue/green. I also diecut several strips of a Marianne die that has lots of little fish on it, in three different shades of the shimmer paper, plus in a lovely frosty linen look paper and scattered them around.

The bottom of my sea is a combination of some glass round gems and prills. My Mermaids were added on foam pads to give dimension.

I am entering this into:-

A Bit More Time To Craft - #50 Anything Goes
A Perfect Time To Craft - Aug: Anything Goes
Classic Design Team Open Challenge - #16 Anything Goes
Crafty Friends - #64 Anything Goes
Create and Inspire - #65 Anything Goes
Eclectic Ellapu - Aug: Anything Goes
Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends - #64 Anything Goes
My Creative Scoop - Monthly Link Up #25 Anything Hand Coloured Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies - #1734 Anything Goes
The Artistic Stamper - Aug: Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge - #8 Aug: Anything Goes
We Love 2 Create - #16 Anything Mixed Media Goes

DV #161 Christmas Animals

It’s really chilly today, considering it’s Summer, so it’s appropriate that our challenge at Dream Valley is Christmas Animals.

We are sponsored by both Crafty Ribbons and also Di’s Digi Stamps.

My image came free with a magazine and is by Adam Pescott, at least I think it is. I coloured it with copics. The turquoise mirri was in my stash as was the snowy background papers which I have been trying to use up for years! The tree diecuts are Doohickey dies from Magnolia.

No idea where the sentiment die comes from, nor the snowflakes. as I put them down after cutting and they upped and disappeared!.

I am entering this into:-

Christmas Card Challenges - CCC #19 Optional Blue and White Snowflakes
Craft Rocket Challenges - #40 Animal Kingdom
Crafty Hazelnut’s Christmas Challenge - #346 Anything Goes
Crafty Hazlenut’s Christmas Challenge Extra - Aug: Anything Goes
Crazy 4 Challenges - #398 Monochromatic
Dragonfly Dreams - Animals
Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge - Aug: Anything Goes
Jingle Bells - Peace on Earth
Sparkles Forum Christmas Challenge - #79 A Festive Sentiment
Sweet Stampin’ Chrismtas - Aug: Anything Goes
The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - #12 Anything Christmas Goes
The Merry Christmas Challenge - #29 Anything Christmas Goes

CCM #193 Lots of Layers

Our challenge at Crafty Cardmakers this week is Lots of Layers. Please bob by the blog to check out the fabulous designs by the team.

My card was made for my Niece who is currently in the middle of chemo for breast cancer. She had an enforced spell in hospital because of cellulitis and neutropeania brought on by the chemo. Before that she was very positive and I wanted to remind her of her positivity, and also to give her some lovely bright colours.

My layers are two different mats, one dark purple matt card and the other purple mirri, and of course the flowers which I layered over the ones I stamped flat on the background. The background was made with distress oxide inks. I discovered that if you put your inks on a craft mat and spritz them with water first and then pick them up onto your card and let it dry it is next to impossible to remove the colour later, which is possible if you apply the ink direct to your card/paper! The white spots are because I dripped water onto the background before it dried, but when I tried later to ‘bleach out’ the colour from the flowers so that I could colour them in it wouldn’t shift! I stamped them all again and watercoloured them in with Koh-i-Noor watercolours. The flowers and sentiments are from JOFY’s most recent design as are the birds, but from a much earlier set. The insects come from an impression obsession set with matching dies. I added some glitter highlights too.

The sentiment was perfect for what I wanted the card to say.

I am entering this into:-

Alphabet Challenge - I for Insects
Artistic Inspirations - #183 Use Summer Colours
Cardz 4 Galz - #51 Butterflies
Craftaholics R Us - #27 Summer
Craftliners - #40 Many flowers
Crafty Friends Challenge - #62 Floral
Daisy Chain Challenges - #10 Floral
Dare 2B Artzy - July: Bright Colours
Eclectic Ellapu - July: Summer Colours
My Creative Scoop Colour Inspiration Monday - #24 Anything Hand coloured
Sheep Ski Designs - #4 Square Cardz
Scrap & Craft Inspiration Challenge - #5 Summertime with Butterflies
Stamping Sensations - July: Anything With Flowers
Stempgarten - #63 Anything That Can Fly
Stinkin’ Inkers - summer Heat

CCM #192, Tic, Tac, Toe

You wouldn’t believe the week I have had. On Tuesday my Daughter put herself in hospital as an ambulance emergency because she took an out of date antibiotic for a chest infection she was suffering with rather than visit the GP! Within minutes of swallowing it she was convulsing in pain, her whole body was swelling, she was having difficulty breathing and her head was spinning. Fortunately she realised it was a mistake and immediately dialled 999, and luckily the emergency services were there within 5 minutes, administering steroids and morphine. Several hours later, very red faced she was allowed home. She assures me she will never try that again! Scared the pants off  of me and her husband though. Who knew old out of date medication could be so dangerous!

Fast forward to yesterday. I can no longer walk any distance so my poor dog only get as much exercise as she can get on the park fetching a launched ball or down the ford swimming. I take her everywhere on my mobility scooter. We were bombing down the road to my Sister’s when suddenly she just shot off the scooter. I immediately stopped, terrified of what I would find, but luckily she was unhurt. I had forgotten to clip her to a safety harness. Thank goodness there was nothing behind me because she would have been run over for sure.

So that’s the two most important people (things ) in my life both put in danger through stupidity! Here’s hoping this week will not be fraught with danger.

Anyhow enough of my waffling, and on with today’s Crafty Cardmakers challenge which is a Tic, Tac, Toe one, following this grid

I have chosen top left to bottom right, Gems or Pearls, Stamp or Digi and Die Cuts. Apologies for the poor quality of the image. I had posted it before I realised just how poor it was and it was too late to re-photograph it.

My image is a Sarah Kay one, they are no longer made, sadly, because the quality was excellent. I coloured it with polychromos pencils, and added glitter highlights to the hat and dress. The Die cuts are from Magnolia’s Doo Hickey Range and also the Polynesian Sails Oval from Cheery Lynn Designs.  My papers are from Die Cuts with a View and that includes the scalloped background. The Happy Birthday die is from Britannia.

I am entering this into:-

A Bit More Time to Craft - #47 Anything Goes
A Perfect Time to Craft - July: Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar - July: Anything Goes
Dragonfly Dreams - July: Anything Goes
Incy Wincy Designs - Friends Forever
Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends - #61 Anything Goes
Love to Craft - # 12 Anything Goes
Paru’s Card Making Challenges - July: Birthday
Sheep Ski Designs - #4 Square Cardz
Stempelsonne - #191 Anything Goes

DV 159 Ribbon, Lace and Bling

Our challenge today at Dream Valley, sponsored by Beccy’s Place, is Ribbon, Lace and Bling. I used a lovely free image from Beccy to make my card.

I printed it up and then coloured in the flower on it to match the ribbon and mirri card I used for the back mat. I embossed a piece of white card with a paisley embossing folder and matted that onto the mirri. The ribbon, lace, lace motif and fabulous pearl floral piece are all from my stash.

I am entering this into:-

A Bit More Time to Craft - #46 Anything Goes
Crafting With Dragonflies - #83 Sentiment Main Focus
Creative Craft Cottage - #90 No Patterned Paper
Creative Ladybirds Creations - #27 Anything Goes
Daisy Chain Challenges - #9 Monochrome
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - #60 Anything Goes
Monochrome Magic - #2 Anything Monochrome Goes
Scrap N’ challenge - June: Happy Birthday
Scrap & Craft Inspiration - #4 Anything Goes plus Ribbon
Sparkles - #93 Embossing Heat or Dry
Sunny Day Crafting - June: Tic, Tac, Toe Diagonal- Sentiment, Digi, Embossing

CCM #191 Here Comes Summer

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is 'Here Comes Summer’ although I am currently sitting in roasting hot temperatures and kind of wishing it wasn’t. The trouble with the UK over the last few years is that the weather is very bi-polar and it never seems to sit at one temperature long enough to acclimatise, so that when a burst of Summer happens, we can’t handle it!

Nothing says Summer to me quite like the heady scent of beautiful Summer flowers, and the buzzing of bees and flitting of insects.

Anyhow enough of my waffling.

My card was made completely from scratch. The background is Distress Oxides, which I splashed some water onto to create the larger white patches. The more I used these Oxides the more I like them and hope Tim Holtz releases more colours soon! All the small white accents are a Signo white pen.

I then stamped various Paper Artsy Kay Carley stamps to form a sort of summer garden scene. These were coloured in with Koh-i-noor watercolour pencils.

The camera hasn’t picked it up but all the butterflies and dragonflies are coloured with Gansai Tambii starry colours, which have a lovely soft shimmer. I had to stamp the bees, because in my effort to give the edge of the card a nice black outline I slipped with my promarker and ran right across the butterfly I had stamped in the middle of the right hand side of the card. For once I couldn’t stick a butterfly on it as the black line ran right through it and out the other side! I stamped a smaller flower head and coloured that in and then put the bee on the top to cover up the fact that the centre of the flower was a butterfly!

I am entering this into:-

Addicted to Stamps - #150 Flowers
Artistic Stamper - June: Winged Things
Crafting By Designs - Things With Wings
Crea Chickys - #11 Flowers
Dare 2B Artzy - June: Summer
Di’s Digi Designs - Summer Days
Do-1(1) Creative - #6 Early Summer
Hanna And Friends - #275 Summer
Heartful Stamping - Monthly - Welcome Summer
Mod Squad - Make It Square
My Time to Craft - #348 Summertime
Noor Design - June: Summer
Paradise of Stamps - #57 Summer
Pink and Main - #22 Summer

DV #158 Square Cards

Our challenge today at Dream Valley is a lovely easy one, at least for me because it’s my favourite shape, square cards.

We are sponsored by Star Stampz, and the team had a couple of lovely images to work with. I chose Sunshine.

I printed her onto Mixed Media card. Similar to watercolour card but not quite as thick. I then coloured her with the ‘extra colours’ from the Caran D’Ache Neocolor ii Watercolours range. They originally made a tin of 126 but discontinued them and now only make 84 as the largest tin. As I couldn’t get the tin I wanted the ‘extra’ 42 colours to complete my large tin. I finally tracked most of them down and used just those to make this card.

I also stamped MFT’s Modern Mosaic Background stamp onto the same cardstock and embossed it. I watercoloured it with the same colours I used in the image. I matted it and the image onto black cardstock. The birthday sentiment I die cut twice, the top layer from the Mixed Media card and coloured randomly with the same range of colours. I also went over the sentiment with a clear glitter pen, and matted it slightly off centre onto a black die cut.

The little circles are glitter enamel dots I got from China!

I am entering this into:-

Allsorts - #419 Use At Least 2 Dies
Brown Sugar - #254 Anything Goes
CAS Watercolour - June: Summer
Challenge up Your Life - #69 Mosaic
Classic Design Team - #15 Anything Goes
Colour Crazy - Week 23 Anything Goes
Crafty Gals - #126 Emboss It
Di’s Digi Designs - Birthdays
Hannah and Friends - #275 Summer
Let’s Craft and Create - #126 Girls, Girls, Girls
Moving Along With The Times - #47 Embossing
Paradise of Stamps - #57 Summer
Sunny Day Crafting - June: Tic, Tac, Toe Diagonal Top left-bottom right
The Corrosive Challenge - #6 Anything Goes

DV #157 More Than One Fold

Our challenge for the next two weeks at Dream Valley is to create a card with more than one fold. We are sponsored both by All Dressed Up and by Oddball Art and we were lucky enough to get to choose an image from their fabulous ranges to play with. I went with Oddball Art and chose Sally and Charlie.

As you can see from my card below I saw this image and thought of the sea…. It wasn’t until I was colouring it I realised she was a fairy and Charlie had wings…. but ho hum. I like to think of it as fancy dress and a funky rubber swimming ring! At least that’s my excuse, lol

For my ‘more than one fold’ I started with a Spellbinders die that cuts a step card and cut the base from centura pearl. It’s a fabulous die and comes with all the toppers but I only wanted it for the base card and matting layer.

Next I stamped the background with MFT’s background stamp Whimsical Waves, with versamark and embossed it with white embossing powder. I then watercoloured it with the Prima Confections, Pastel Dream, selection, in various shades of green/blue.

I then cut them out with the layering die and matted them onto the base. Next I started on my image, and it was at this point I thought, heck that’s a fairy and a dragon! But hey ho I was committed now…. I coloured Sally with my copics and fussy cut her out.

The Turtle die I think is Memory Box, but I am not 100% sure. The other diecuts are from Marianne and come on one strip. I cut those out a couple of times.

I coloured them with copics and stuck them all down with foam pads. I finally added some bubbles with a cute little bubble stamp that comes on a mermaid set from Hunkydory. My favourite diecuts are those doody little Angel Fish and the Seahorses.

I am entering this into:-

Addicted To Stamps - #149 Animals
Addicted To Stamps and More - #243 Holiday
Chocolate Baroque - #35 Colour Challenge
Come and Get It - Nautical
Crafting From the Heart - #161 Anything Goes
Crafting With Dragonflies - #81 Animals
Crafty Friends - #58 Summer Colours
Crazy 4 Challenges - #387 Summer Destination
Cut It Up #122 Fun Folds
Hiding In My Craftroom - #302 Any Holiday (Summer)
Kitty Bee Aloha Friday - #95 Animals
My Creative Scoop - Color Inspiration Monthly #22
Pile It On - #130 Animal
Send a Smile 4 Kids - Bright Colours
Simply Create Too - #127 Must Use A Digi Stamp
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - #85 B is for Beach

DV #156 Things With Wings

Our challenge today is Things with Wings and we are sponsored by Sayasaki Glitter. I have used one of their lovely digis to create my card, You Blow Me Away. The digi is show at an angle as if she is about to take off in flight, but I preferred it straightened upright so manipulated it in my graphics program.

I have coloured her mainly with copics, but with touches of Sakura Koi brush markers as well. I also added glitter to the hem and collar of her dress and to her wings.

The paper behind is from First Edition. It has lovely touches of glitter in it too. The frame is a Sue Wilson Doubled Pierced rectangle die, which I cut from white card and coloured with my copics to match the colours in the image.

I am entering this into:-

CAS(E) This Sketch - #221 
Crazy for Challenges - #385 Green
Cut it Up Challenges - #121 Wings
Great Impressions - May: Feminine
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - #57 Anything Goes
Little Miss Muffet - #162 Anything Goes
Love to Craft -#10 May: Anything Goes
Making Memories - #5 Anything Goes
Pink and Main - #21 Anything Goes
Sheep Ski Designs - #2 Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations - May: Butterflies, Fairies and Fantasy
Star In My Pocket - Make it For Mum/special Lady

CCM #187 Pearls and/or Gems

I’m back! Don’t expect anyone missed me.

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is Gems and/or Pearls. I went with just gems for my card.

I started with a sheet of Clarity paper from their Brighton Rock pad. I am so lacking in energy that even just stamping on that exhausted me. I would love to have made my own, I had all sorts of plans in mind but my lack of any get up and go put paid to that. Anyhow I stamped a large Carabelle stamp, Texture Soleil Levant, in versamark on the paper and embossed it in white. This is a lovely A4 stamp, but I only used about two thirds of it for this card.

The background mat is some pale green satin mirri, and I edged it with alcohol inks to almost match the lovely bird die cut, also from Carabelle, which I cut from an old coke can and then coloured with alcohol inks. I diecut the sentiment from the same green mirri as the mat and inked that also. The birds, although difficult to see in the photo, have little tiny gems for eyes, the same gems I used to scatter down the sun’s rays.

I am entering this into:-

2 Crafty Critter Crazies - #1 Anything Goes with a Critter
Connie Can Crop - #57 Reduce, Reuse, Recyle (coke can for the birds)
Crafting From the Heart - #156 Just For Fun
Crafts and Me - April: Things With Wings
Heart 2 Heart - All Creatures Great and Small
Heartful Stamping Challenge - April: Anything Goes and a Stamp
International Art and Soul - #6 Wings
Make My Monday - #44 Embossing Heat or Dry
Scrap n Challenge - April: Embossing
Sweet Stampers - #6 Animals
Wow Embossing Powders - April: My Favourite Embossing Technique

DV #151 Lots of Layers

I’m here with this fortnight’s Dream Valley challenge, sponsored by Lemon Shortbread, Lots of Layers!

We were lucky enough to be given a couple of lovely Lemon Shortbread images to choose from and I picked Bob Pixie Girl with Flower. She does actually come with a branch under her bottom, but because of the diecut I wanted to sit her in I trimmed off the branch.

I coloured her with copics, adding some glitter highlights to her dress, underskirt and flower in her hair. As I said above I then trimmed off the branch she was sitting on.

The pretty butterfly diecut is from Tutti Designs. All the papers and the diecut, plus the layered butterflies on the diecut and the layered flowers on the diecut all come from the gorgeous Kaisercraft Fairy Dust paper pad. The second I saw this pad I knew I had to have it as it’s a combination of my favourite colours, purple and aqua/green. The mats and the floral diecut all came from one sheet of paper too. I do like to be frugal, lol. You can’t see it behind, so why waste it!

I die cut all my layers with Sue Wilson’s double pierced squares. I was very annoyed the first time because I accidentally cut the layer the image is sitting on and it’s mat with the same die set, instead of the alternate set, and they were too far apart. So I have a little tip for you if you have these dies. Flip over one set of them and mark them in some way so you know if you want a tight mat and layer that you are using dies from the different sized sets and not dies from the same set. I marked mine with a little dash on all four sides with a sharpie white pen. Hopefully that will stop me making the same stupid mistake in the future.

A pretty little banner sentiment from Craftwork Cards’ Year of Sentiments book, brad and some touches of glitter finished it off.

I am entering this into:-

A Bit More Time to Craft - #39 Anything Goes
A Perfect Time to Craft - #03 Anything Goes
Allsorts - #405 Spring Inspiration
Card Mania - #90 Pastel Colours
Crafting From the Heart - #149 Always Anything Goes
Crafty Hazlenut’s Patterned Paper - Mar: Anything Goes
Creative Craft Cottage - #82 Tic, Tac, Toe Centre Line Top to Bottom Flowers, Image, Purple
Dare2BArtzy - Mar: Lots of Layers
Dragonfly Dreams - Girly With Die Cut/Punch
HIMCR - #291 Spring Colours
Paper Nest Dolls - #3 Anything Goes
Stamps & Fun - #296 Die Cuts
The Paper Players - #334 Cut It Out

CCM #183 Go Green

As St. Patrick’s Day is a couple of weeks away we would love to see your ‘green’ creations for Crafty Cardmakers.

I don’t do St. Patrick’s Day myself so I have gone down the route of making something mostly green instead.

I started with a topper from one of the gorgeous Heartfelt Creations paper pads that I have. They are a fabulous way to make a relatively quick card. I added glamour dust to all the edges of the faux layers and also to the peacock’s tail, the speckled part of his body and those little quirky feathers on top of his head.

I made the card base myself with a Tonic die which I think is called Bow-wave from Centura Pearl Hint of Gold card.

The sentiment tag comes from the same paper pad and I trimmed it out with the luggage and tags die that matches most of the Heartfelt pads.

I am entering it into:-

Brown Sugar - #239 Anything Goes
CAS on Sunday - #102 Critters
Crafting From the Heart - #148 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore - Kenny K and Anything Goes
Crafty Friends - #52 All That Glitters
DL Art Thankful Thursday Challenge - #199 green
Imagine That Creative Playground - Feb: Anything Goes
Make My Monday - #40 Birds
The Crafty Addicts - #33 Anything Goes with a Sentiment
UnstampaBelles - #65 Anything Goes (Except Stamping!)

DV #150 Add Some Metal

Our challenge today over at Dream Valley is to add some metal. We are sponsored by Starz Stampz.

My metal is in the centre behind my image and started off life as a can of Diet Coke

I carefully cut off the top and bottom of the can. At this stage it is VERY easy to cut yourself so be careful. I then flattened it out under some heavy weights. I actually have a pile of this stuff, cut and flattened and ready for use because I find it takes quite a while to get the curve out of the can.

I diecut an oval to match the coloured matting and then put it through the BigShot with an embossing folder, and finally coloured it with alcohol inks.

My image is from Kenny K, Veruca Venom, and I coloured her skin with copics and the rest of her with polychromos pencils. I also added the clear sakura jelly roll pen to her boots to make them look like patent leather.

My patterned paper is the Viola set from WRMK, the bow is from Memory Box and the plain matting papers were from my stash, along with the heart brad and gold tinted centura pearl card I used to create the card base.

I am entering this into:-

A Gem of a Challenge - #188 Your Favourite Colour Combo
Brown Sugar - #238 Birthday
Craft For the Craic - Feb: Something with 2 on It (2 diffrent types of media, paper and metal to create the layers)
Creative Artiste - #23 Anything Mixed Media Goes
Dragonfly Journeys - #86 Bodacious Bows
Happy Little Stampers - Feb: Anything Goes With Dies
Hiding In My Craft Room - #289 Embossing
International Art & soul - #2 Recycling (Coke Can)
Moving Along With The Times - #39 For a Man
The Corrosive Challenge - #2 Feb: Anything Goes
Your Next Stamp - #58 Sketch and Colour Challenge

CCM #181 Love, Love, Love

It’s my turn to host over at Crafty Cardmakers and today I have picked the theme of Love…… As Valentine's Day is just a couple of weeks away now is the time to make something special for the one you love, or just for someone in love!

I have gone for my favourite Lili of The Valley stamp. The wedding’s colour theme was purple, so I coloured it in greys and mauves with my copics.

I used a Crafters Companion embossing folder for a panel behind the main image and the sentiment comes from Craftwork Cards year of sentiments pad. I placed the heart panel into the inside of Chloe Endean’s Christmas stamp! I only inked up the frame edge of the stamp and embossed it with a sparkly powder, but I wasn’t satisfied there was enough bling, so I went around the inside edge with a glue pen and added glitter to that. Both the image panel and the outside panel were edged with a purple copic to tone in with the image. A couple of gems and that cute little arrow and heart charm finished it off.

I am entering this into:-

Allsorts - #400 Let’s Celebrate
Bastel-Traum - #49 Friendship/Love
Brown Sugar - #235 Anything Goes
CAS on Sunday - #100 Hearts
Come and Get It - 3 or more Layers
C.R.A.F.T. - #400 Love/Valentines/Anniversary
Crafty Purple Frog - New Beginnings
Daisy Chain - #4 Add Some Sparkle
DigiDesigns - All about Love
Dragon’s Lair - Jan: New Beginnings
Simply Create Too - #123 New Beginnings

DV #148 All About Love

I can’t believe we are three weeks into the New Year and already thinking about a date in February! I swear the older you get the faster the time spins past.

Anyhow our challenge at Dream Valley today is All About Love. We are sponsored by Pink Gem Designs and I chose to use Chloe With Daisy for my ‘love’ themed card.

I coloured her with copics and prisma pencils, and used a sharpie white pen for highlights in her hair and to make the butterflies pop a little in her hair.

My frame was created by cutting an oval from the centre of a previously embossed piece which I had embossed in white, with Sue Wilson’s Noble Oval dies. I coloured the white embossed hearts with Dr. PH Martin’s Bombay Inks with a colour I made myself by mixing a blue green, blue and white together. I also die cut an oval out of purple mirri, which I then used to cut the Valentine message from as well.

The background paper is from Craftwork Card’s Refresher pad, one of my favourite pads because the colours are so fresh and zingy and remind me of the way those Refresher chews taste when the sherbet explodes on your tongue!

I edged both the frame and BP with glamour dust and then added three dragonflies cut from another pattern in the Refresher pad, and glamour dusted them also.

I’m entering this into:-

A Gem of a Challenge - #186 Hearts and/or Flowers
Addicted to Stamps - #225 Photo Inspiration (I chose the daisy as my inspiration)
Allsorts - #399 Daisy, Daisy
Crafty Gals - #106 Add a Heart
Cute Card Thursday - #461 Cool Colours/Tones
Let’s Craft and Create - #121 Things With Wings

CCM #180 New Beginnings

Our first challenge for 2017 at Crafty Cardmakers is New Beginnings. We want to see your creations related to new beginnings, that might be the arrival of a baby, a new relationship, marriage, engagement, a new year's resolution even!

I have gone for a baby card! I was going to go for something very arty to do with resolutions BUT that went out the window when I went down with that awful chest thing that has been doing the rounds. I am still coughing, although not as badly, and my ribs no longer feel like they have been bruised really badly when I do. So anyhow I plumped for the easier alternative and made a baby card. I have deliberately made it multi-coloured so it will suit the sex of any possible new baby who might arrive in the year!

My patterned paper is from an old DCWV stack called Nanna’s Nursery. All the little elements, apart from the star, also from Nanna’s Nursery, were cut from the same slightly pearlescent white card I used to mat and layer behind my patterned shadow frame, and then I coloured them all separately by hand.

My ‘new’ also applies to all the dies, which are having their first outing here and, apart from the stars, they are all from Sue Wilson.

I am entering this into:-

A Gem Of A Challenge - #185 Something New
CCC Digi Creations - Die cuts and/or Punches
Craft Rocket - #30 Something New
Crafts and Me - New Beginning/New Stash
Crafty Friends - #49 New Beginnings
Crafty Purple Frog - New Beginnings
Delicious Doodles - Jan: Something New
Dragon’s Lair - Jan: New Beginnings
Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes With Dies
NordSalten HobbyKlubb - #153 Baby
Simply Create - #123 New Beginnings