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 They originally made a tin of 126 but discontinued them and now only make 84 as the largest tin.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