Dream Valley 44 – Glitter and Bling

Our challenge today over at Dream Valley is Glitter and Bling, so basically anything sparkly, twinkly or with a bit of bling!

Our sponsor this time is with four of their fabulous images on offer to our winner.

It’s always difficult getting a picture of something with mirri on it, as there is always a glare, so apologies if this is rather bright!

My image is from IndigoBlu and she is called Ella Bella. I have tried very hard to get on with IndigoBlu’s flitter glue but to no avail, things do not go according to plan. However, luckily I had some Stampendous Stamp’n’Bond, which is a lovely glue embossing powder. I stamped Ella onto cardstock with a versamark pad and then sprinkled on the Stamp’n’Bond. You heat it until it goes clear at which point it is tacky. I dunked Ella into a tub of Lancashire Rose gilding flakes and made sure she was generously covered. After tidying it up this is what I was left with.

My corners were slightly more tricky. I put some double sided adhesive sheet onto card and the first one I cut out with the Memory Box Macarena corner and then peeled back the protective paper and dunked it into the flakes. However, this particular die is very slender and has very thin tendrils and it was extremely difficult to rub with the scoochy sponge to remove the excess flakes without also tearing the diecut. So the other three I had to waste flake by dunking the whole of the rest of the sheet and covering that before cutting out the remaining corners. I still have the excess, trying to see if I can find a small die or punch to use with it!!! Waste not, want not………….

The picture above is of the first one I cut, and you can see small areas where it was next to impossible to remove the excess flakes, but the other three, whilst wasteful were much easier. I dare say a thicker die would have been fine but not this delicate one.

The card was finished off with a Marianne Creatables die cut from both the white cardstock and gorgeous copper mirri paper.

I am entering Ella into the following:-

Amusing Challenges – Anything Goes

Brown Sugar Challenge – #13 Anything Goes

Card Makin’ Mamas – Anything Goes

Die Cuttin Divas – #88 Shimmer, Glimmer, Gloss

Flourishes – #192 Birthday

Fussy and Fancy – #74 Anything Goes

Gingerloft Challenge – GL51 No Colouring Allowed

Hot Shot Craft – #12 Bling It On

The Outlawz – Twisted Thursday Anything Goes/halloween twist

The Poodles Parlour – Anything Goes

Sympathy Card

This is one of those cards we all hate to have to make.

A forum friend’s Husband recently lost his battle with cancer, and I sent her this card.

I just wanted something simple with a heartfelt message and I felt that this gorgeous verse said all I wanted to say and more.

The background is a Die’Sire Embossing Folder, a lovely new 8x8 folder. The mat is Spellbinders Decorative Labels 8, and the verse I have had for a while but found on the internet.

I hope it gave her some comfort. I know my Mum used to go back to the cards sent when my Dad passed away again and again and they certainly gave her some comfort.

I am sharing this in the following:-

Challenges4Everybody – #5 Anything Goes

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge – #176 Monochromatic

Craft Punked – #41 With Deepest Sympathy

Crafts and Me – #105 Anything Goes

Crafty Sentiments – Anything Goes

Delicious Doodles – #6 Monochrome

Divas By Design – #56 Anything Goes

Eclectic Ellapu – #1 Anything Goes

Guylou’s Inimitability Challenge – Just to Die For (as in the fancy die cut not a pun!)

My Heart Pieces – Monochromatic

Lexi’s Creations #76 Hallowe’en

Our challenge today is Hallowe’en.

We are sponsored by Joanna Sheen with a £10 voucher for her store

Like my Dream Valley challenge earlier this image was mainly digital. The papers are from Memory Box’s Nightfall paper and I ran it through the printer and printed various witches and bats onto it. It already had the ravens and tree and text. Then I stamped the spooky house from Elusive Images with the tree and scrolly bit and embossed with black sparkle embossing powder. I also stamped a couple of bats from the same stamp sheet and embossed them in black and then trimmed them out. The railings are also from Memory Box, along with the gate. I created the cobwebs in the same was as before on my besom by pulling apart a cotton wool ball. I did try to make them look really old and dusty by running them through dust on my lounge unit (shhh you didn’t really hear me say that my lounge is full of dust!), but although that showed up in real life a photograph didn’t capture it.

The text was from Simply Cards and Papercrafts free downloads.

I am entering this into the following challenges:-

Aud Sentiments – #65 Use a Halloween Phrase or Word

Broken Box Stock – #11 Halloween

Card Makin’ Mamas – Time To Get Spooky

Challenge Up Your Life – #80 Autumn/Halloween

Shelley’s Images – Tic, Tac, Toe {I chose the colour orange, free (most of my images) and digi (most of my images again)}

Crafty Calendar – October All Things Spooky

No Matter Which Challenges – #3 Halloween Creations

So Artful Challenges – Harvest Moon

Scrapper’s Delight – Scaring Up Some Fun

Scrappy Frog – Fall/Halloween Challenge

ABC Z for Zoo

Our challenge today at ABC is Z for Zoo, which means that we want to see animal inspired creations, for example we would like you to use an animal or animal print on your creation, you can add other images too if you like just as long as you have an animal or animal print there too ( Sorry but bugs and butterflies don't count!)

We are sponsored by Pretty Little Ribbon Shop with this fabulous prize

which will be perfect for your Christmas creations!

For my card I used a combination of Prima papers from the Fairy Fauna pad and also Memory Box Viola paper pack. The corrugated pale green paper I had in my stash.

My image is from Delicious Doodles at Stitchy Bear Stamps and I think she is just beautiful. I coloured her with copics to match the background papers. The flower is from some lush glittery leopard print card that I wanted to use, but was a bit too overpowering in a larger capacity, as the colours were more yellow than orange, but as a flower I felt it fitted in better. The mat behind Katrina is the Spellbinders Decorative Labels 8 which are just gorgeous and the border was cut with a punch that doesn’t have a name so no idea what it was called.

I am entering this into the following challenges:-

2 Sisters Challenge – #113 Anything Goes

Challenges4Everybody – #5 Anything Goes

Crafts and Me – #105 Anything Goes

Divas By Design – #56 Anything Goes

Eclectic Ellapu – #1 Anything Goes

Frosted Designs – Wild (my big cat!)

Guylou’s Inimitability – Just To Die For

Southern Girls – #55 Tie A Ribbon Around It

Sugar Creek Hollow – #33 Show Some Sparkle

Totally Papercrafts – #138 Make Your Own Flowers

Dream Valley #43 Hallowe’en

Our challenge at Dream Valley this time around is Hallowe’en. So any guesses what that could mean? Hmmmmm. Ghosties and ghoulies and long legged beasties and things that go bump in the night! Clean bumps only please, LOL

We are sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps with a $21 dollar prize!!!

My creation is largely digital, well papers, and images anyhow. The papers are from Bearly Mine and were various freebies that were on offer! The images were also freebies from Simply Cards and Papercrafts Magazine, and were from last year and this year’s hallowe’en digital images that were freely downloadable.

They are coloured with promarkers. The spider web lace is from my stash as is the little besom! The cobwebs were made by pulling apart a cotton wool ball.

If you look closely I stitched around the outside with purple thread as the gorgeous spellbinder die I used created a lovely even circle of dots just begging to be stitched. I think it might have been better to have used a less busy paper though so that they would show up more.

I am entering this into the following challenges:-

Allsorts Challenge – #176 Too Cute to Spook

Challenge Up Your  Life – #80 Autumn/Halloween

CI Paints – Inspired by Halloween Treats

Crafty Calendar – October All Things Spooky

Hooked On Craft – #25 Halloween

Ink It Pink – #15 Fall/Halloween

Just Some Lines – Too Cute to Spook

No Matter Which Challenges – #3 Halloween Creations

Scrapper’s Delight – Scaring Up Some Fun

Scrappy Frog – Fall/Halloween Challenge

Design Team Call at ABC

Just to let you all know we are running a Design Team call at ABC Challenges and the details can be found here. If you think you would enjoy working with the team and can meet the requirements listed in the link then add your name to the list before 1st November.

Lexi’s Creations 75 Pink

Our challenge to you at Lexi’s Creations this time is ‘pink’ in recognition of the fact that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

My Mum was a breast cancer survivor of 25 years, but she acted quickly and was fortunate enough to only have a lumpectomy.

We are sponsored by and a lot of the team have used Priyanka’s lovely images for this challenge. I used a Saturated Canary freebie, thank you Krista, which I coloured with my copics, and trimmed out with a scalloped nestie. The glitter paper behind the image was trimmed out with another spellbinders die. This is particularly lovely glitter paper and I did not want to waste any so I gutted it by trimming a piece to fit behind my embossed bit and then placed the decorative die roughly central and cut my image mat from there. I do so hate the thought of lovely card like this going to waste behind something which you can’t see!

The embossing was made with the lovely Tied Together embossing folder. After I had embossed the card I realised I didn’t have any pink pearls to place in the crossing areas of the embossed design so I made my own. I dotted plain PVA glue into each join and let it dry for approximately half an hour, after it had enough of a skin so that I hoped it wouldn’t flatten I liberally dusted over with Cosmic Shimmer glue and left to dry. I was perhaps a little early as a couple of the dots did drop, but the rest hardened up a treat and looked lovely and pink and sparkly.

I did every dot on every join, but realised later that I really only needed to do those that were outside of the bright pink mat, so spent a lot of time creating dots you can’t see!

The hatpins and flower are from my stash, and I made the Breast Cancer ribbon with a small scrap of white seam binding which I died pink with the same DI that I used to shade around the outside of my image. It’s one of the limited edition ones called Picked Raspberry. Originally I had used Spun Sugar around the edge to just give a soft shade, but when I came in about 30 mins after edging the image the colour had changed from light pink to a sort of yellow! No idea if this was residual ink on my new Splodgeaway Mat or residual ink from the edge of the scalloped die! You can still just about see some yellow at the very edge of the embossed area surrounding the image!

I am entering this into the following challenges:-

A Gem of a Challenge – #56 For the Girls

C.R.A.F.T. – 174 Make Your Own Embellishments (Bow Posey)

Crafty Ribbons – #29 Anything But Square

Frosted Designs – Embossing

Kenny K’s Krafty Krew – #113 No Squares Allowed

Saturated Canary - #27 Anything From Your Office/Desk (pva glue to make glitter pearls)

That Crafting Place – Make Your Own Background (the tied together folder plus pva and glitter glue pearls)

The Outlawz Copic/Promarker Challenge – Anything Goes

Totally Gorjuss – #151 Punch and Die

Totally Papercrafts – #136 Pretty Pastels