Fanfare

I'm feeling really excited right now, as having got back into crafting over the summer I have now decided to get some new playthings to take my crafting in new directions, and have ordered some TH Distress Oxide inks, stencils and masking sheets.  My first order of distress oxides arrived yesterday,  so I just had to have a play with them!  

I have been watching numerous online tutorials recently about blending techniques etc. including one on Craft World which involved layering stamped distressed card on top of a non-coloured image as per the following photograph.

 that is what broadly inspired today's card. 

This was a really simple card - I stamped my main image directly onto my base card, then cut a panel of smooth Neenah cardstock which I distressed with my 3 inks and splattered with water to get some resist effect. I then stamped my image again onto the distressed panel, and sliced it to create the effect where the image beneath can be seen peeking through.  Finished off with a few scattered gems and a simple sentiment - voila! 

I have to say at first sight I am really blown away by distress oxides and will definitely be using them a lot more in future ... I can see why they have taken the craft world by storm over the past 3-4 years when I was pretty much out of the crafting loop.

My main image is an old Penny Black wood-mounted stamp; but I also used my brand new stamp positioning tool to place my sentiment directly onto the base card. On Monday I took delivery of a Press To Impress tool  and it's absolutely fab - don't know how i managed without it! In fact I'm now wondering about converting my old woodblock stamps to unmounted for future use!

Stamps: Penny Black "Fanfare" (3946K); sentiment - unknown;

Media: TH Distress Oxide inks - Picked Raspberry, Kitsch Flamingo, Salvaged Patina;

Gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Time Out #197 - Inspiration Quote

(I have been inspired by the ideas of flowers and friends)

A Bit More Time To Craft #145 - Anything Goes

A Gem of a Challenge #20 - Anything Goes

Crafter's Castle #45 - Anything Goes

Creatalicious #219 - Anything Goes with option of Friends

Cute Card Thursday #692 - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers (Watercolour): September - Anything Goes

NBUS #30 - Use Never Before Used Schtuff (2nd entry)

(mine is my Distress Oxide inks and stamp positioning tool) 

Penny Black Saturday Challenge (September) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

That's all for today, but I will be back soon with more inky experiments. My question for the rest of this afternoon is ... should I play some more with my distress oxides or tackle my large basket of ironing??  Hmmm ....

'Til next time - thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Rudolph the red nosed dragon

Today I’d like to show you my first Christmas card using a cute Lee Holland Art dragon image … this one was a freebie for newsletter subscribers 😀

For some reason nothing seemed to go right in my crafting session yesterday, and I coloured various images and then threw them away !! Most particularly I tried to colour “Dragon building a snowman” which was my original image choice to go with these papers, but I couldn’t seem to make the snow dragon look right at all so I think I will need to think some more about how best to shade him! Also I seemed to suffer a lot today with bleeding of my markers in the detailed areas … I recently bought new Neenah card stock which I thought was what I had before, but with this it is definitely more difficult to control colour bleeding.

Eventually I decided to go forward with this image even though my colouring isn’t the best … I just needed to move on!

I am still working with just my mini craft tote at the moment, so the coloured image was made into a pretty simple card. Normal service will be resumed at the weekend so I should once again have access to all my stash 😀

Stamps:  Lee Holland - Dragon with sleigh (digi); sentiment - LotV “Christmas Grungy Messages”;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: LotV “Frozen Snowflakes”;

Tools: Martha Stewart snowflake punch.

Challenges I would like to enter:

ABC Christmas Challenge  -T is for Two (2 DP’s)

A Perfect Time to Craft (September) - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Colour Crazy Challenge #37 - Anything Goes

Crafts Galore Encore #91 - Anything Goes - DT FAVOURITE

Crafty Creations #425 - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday #692 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Happy Little Stampers (Christmas) : September - Anything Christmas Goes with option of non-traditional

I ❤️ Promarkers #444 - Anything Goes with option of make it square

NBUS #30 - use Never Before Used Schtuff

(mine is my main digi image)

The Holly and Ivy #101 - Anything Christmas Goes

That’s all for today .. take care and back soon. Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Krafting for Christmas

Hello everyone, hope all is well with you all.  I'm currently happily working my way though my Chrimbo paper packs and new Christmas stamps ... I've never really liked kraft card and paper in the past but this year I have really got into them ... and they co-ordinate so well with teddies colour-wise :-)  I'm really enjoying experimenting with different accent colours to go with kraft and white ... here's one with aqua shades.

Stamps: LotV "Teddy With Penguin" and "Christmas Grungy Sentiments";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; glamour dust on snow and penguin's hat;

Papers: LotV "Krafty Christmas";

Supplies: button and gems from The Hobby House; twine from The Ribbon Girl;

Tools: small, large and scalloped circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart "Large Arctic Snowflake" punch; Cuttlebug "Snowflakes" embossing folder.

Challenges:

Sketch Saturday #232 - Sketch (rotated 90 degrees to the right)

Crafty Calendar (November) - Wrap Up Warm For Christmas
(optional string, fibre or twine)
Cupcake #217 - Get Krafty
Divas By Design #60 - Let's get Cute!
Fab 'n'Funky #146 - Bingo!
(twine / embossing / kraft card)
Everybody-Art #212 - Embossing
The Stamp Man (November) - Embossing
Crafty Catz #157 - Add Texture
Paper Pretties Monday #64 - Two or More Circles
Ribbon Girl (November) - Add Sparkle
Crafty Creations #195 - No Flowers
Totally Gorjuss #156 - Anything Goes - With A Button
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
(optional - Christmas card)
Bearly Mine #60 - Anything Goes

That's all for today - I'll be back tomorrow with the latest Lili's Little Fairies challenge :-)

Hugs,

Penny Black Saturday #199 - May Day

Wow - this week  has flown by, and it's time once again for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks to everyone who joined in last week's no patterned papers challenge - sadly I didn't get round to look as I've had a bit of an eye infection, which has meant I've tried not to do too much close work (on top of sitting at a computer all day in work :-) )

This week we have a seasonal challenge for you, with a theme of

May Day (Spring Time)

So we'd love to see your cheerful spring time cards ... goodness knows we could do with something cheerful what with the absolutely awful weather we've been having here in the UK!

Our prize this week for a randomly drawn winner is from our regular sponsor Fantastic Ribbons, and is this scrummy selection of Kendra crystallised lace in fabulous summery colours - hot pink, light pink, lime and opalised white - woo hoo!!

Don't forget, to be eligible for this delish prize you need to submit a new project which features a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as its main focus.

I'm sure you'll feel cheerful when you've looked at the rest of the team's fabulous spring-time cards - here is what I did.

This image is the first one that always comes to mind when I think of PB stamps for spring .. the kitty is so cute and I just love the big bunch of daffodils .. and it gives me opportunity to use up some of my left over paper daffodils from Easter :-)

Stamps: Penny Black slapstick "You are the bestest" (PB/40-015); sentiment from "Salutations" transparent set;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: Me To You "Spring Chic";

Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; gems from my stash;

Tools: Magnolia doohickey "lovely fence" die; Martha Stewart small monarch butterfly punch; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

Challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Sketch

CRAFT #152 - Animals

Secret Crafter #183 - Cute & Fluffy

Penny Black & More at Allsorts (April) - Oh So Cute! (2nd entry)

Passion For Promarkers #146 - Cut It Out

Stamptacular #160 - Loaded With Layers

Simon Says - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations #160 - Anything Goes

Crafty Catz #130 - Anything Goes

Try It On Tuesday - Anything Goes With A Twist ...

(I used a Martha Stewart Monarch butterfly punch available from The Craft Barn)

Looking forward to seeing your creations this week.

Oldie But A Goodie #22 - Anything Goes

Hello strangers, and welcome to another Oldie But A Goodie Challenge. It's been a whole 10 days since I have posted a card ... just been SOOO busy I don't know where the time has gone to!! July is looking set to be pretty hectic too, but after that I'm hoping that things will calm down a bit and I can get a bit more "me" time :-)

This week we have a very easy peasy challenge that you are bound to love ....

Anything Goes

Just remember there are only a couple of simple rules for the challenge - you should submit a new piece of work that uses a stamped image (no digis please) that's at least six months old ... that's why we're called An Oldie But A Goodie ;-)

This challenge we are sponsored by The Angel Company, who have kindly offered this cute prize ...

The other DT ladies have created a fabulous selection of cards for your inspiration, and this week we are welcoming a new DT member - Claire - so please do go and check out her creation. Here's my effort ....

I had to overcome the temptation to use one of several uninked newbie stamps I have got around the place at the moment; as I wanted to make a card which would also tie in with this week's sketch over at Lili of the Valley. This image seemed like a good choice to fit both the sketch and the new papers that I was itching to play with lol!

Recipe:

Main image: LotV "Fairies - On Tiptoe" coloured with Promarkers and decorated wtih Stickles on the wings;

Sentiment: Debbi Moore Designs;

Papers: sei;

Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; lace from Crafts4U2Do; pearl spray from local craft shop; ribbon from my stash;

Tools: small, large, and large scalloped circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart small monarch butterfly punch.

Challenges:

Lili of the Valley #102 - Sketch

Bunny Zoe's Challenge #13 - Fairies

2 Sisters #45 - Fairies

Bloggers Challenge - Things With Wings

Totally Gorjuss #86 - Ribbons and Lace

Ooh-La-La #83 - Summer Flowers

Deep Ocean #2 - Flowers

Crafty Pad #127 - Soft Pastels

Dream Valley #10 - Ribbons

Crafty Creations #124 - Let It Shine!

Stampin' For The Weekend #11 - My Favourite Things

(LotV, WOC, lace, pastel colours)

The Shabby Tea Room #68 - My Favourite Things

(favourite papers are always my newest, and my fave embellishments are flowers, lace and pearls)

Pile It On #26 - Circles

Kaboodle #73 - Circles

Top Tip Tuesday #40 - T is for ...

Turquoise, Tiptoe Fairy, Two Butterflies, Two Papers

I ♥ ProMarkers #71 - Anything Goes

Paper Crafting Journey #13 - Anything Goes

Hope you can join in with us this week - have a great week and let's hope the weather will hold!

Oldie But A Goodie #11 - First DT card :-)

Good morning, and thanks for looking in on my first DT card for the Oldie But A Goodie Challenge. I was really thrilled when Francesca asked me to join the team, and the ladies have all given me a really warm welcome so I couldn't wait to get started. Luckily I managed to get myself organised for once in advance, as my cardmaking has had to go out of the window the past few days!

This fortnight is Tracy's turn to pick the challenge, and she has chosen

Fairies, mermaids, dragons or any magical being

Tracy has also donated this yummy prize - an adorable "Pepper & Friends" clear stamp set.


There are just a few simple rules to follow to be eligible for the prize - just follow the challenge theme with a new project, and use a stamped image (no digis) for a stamp that is at least six months old ... and don't forget to have fun!!

The other ladies on the DT have created some really magical creations, so please do check them out - here's mine.


As it happens I only have one fairy stamp that is older than six months, so there wasn't a lot of agonizing to do there! I really do love this LotV fairy - she was one of the first (of many!!) LotV stamps I ever bought, and I think she looks really pretty in so many different colour schemes. Here is a closeup of the front, as I find easel cards soooo difficult to photograph successfully!

I remembered that I had also got an old Penny Black sentiment stamp which combines the notions of spring and magic, so I decided to make a fairy card in spring colours decorated with spring flowers.

Recipe:
Main image: LotV "Fairies - On Tiptoe" coloured with Promarkers and sprinkled with fairy dust (I mean ... glamour dust!);
Sentiment: Penny Black "Spring Magic" (2852C);
Papers: Papermania "Forever Friends - Spring Time";
Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby House; large pearl brad and ribbons from my stash;
Tools: large circle and large scalloped circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart "floral vine" deep edge punch; Marianne D Creatables "Flower swirl" die; Magnolia doohickey "vintage tag" die.
Challenges:

Magical Mondays #14 - FlowersCrafty Cardmakers #38 - Flowers
Kaboodle #51 - Bling It Up!One Stop Craft Challenge #115 - More Than One Fold
Paper Sundaes #53 - Distressing
(inked edges on the vintage tag)
Corrosive #100 - Reuse, Reduce, Recycle
(the ribbon used for the bow is recycled as it was wrapped around a bed throw I bought from Laura Ashley a bout a year ago)
Simply Create #35 - Use your Punches
Penny's Paper Challenges #45 - Anything Goes

Hope you can join in the OBAG Challenge this fortnight, and look forward to seeing your creations!

Penny Black Saturday #120 - Indian Summer

Good morning everyone, and welcome to week 120 of the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. You all certainly rocked last week's sketch and the team really enjoyed looking at your entries - don't forget to check whether you are one of last week's lucky winners.

We have a theme for you for this week's challenge

Indian Summer
... and as always you can interpret this however you like so long as you use a Penny Black image, sentiment or stickeroo as the focus of your project.

Once again we have some fabulous prizes on offer - this week we have not one but THREE prizes for 3 randomly drawn winners.

Dick at Penny Black Stamps is offering one winner a 15% lifetime discount voucher for his online store ...

Fantastic Ribbons is offering 4 rolls of ribbon of one winner's choice


and Valentine's is offering one winner a SU paper piercing tool.


The rest of the DT have made some really stunning sample cards this week so I hope you will pay them a visit.

Here is my card .. I don't know what the term "Indian Summer" makes youi think of, but for me it conjurs up the idea of lush colours, along with a profusion of flowers, butterflies and dragonflies in the garden.

The basis of my card was really the piece of paper covered in flowers and dragonflies in lush colours, and that guided me towards which image I would use; and I also bought several new assortments of flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts this week so I couldn't help myself .. I just had to go to town with them!!


I also love this Martha Stewart "garden trellis" punch for creating a garden feel .. this time I punched it out twice, and then cut the looped edging from one piece to stick to the other punched piece so it would have looped edges on both sides (if that makes sense!!)

Main image: Penny Black "Day-dreams" (3947K) coloured with Promarkers;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Critter Party" transparent set;
Papers: Papermania "Summer Bloom";
Supplies: large curly wild rose, assorted cherry blossom and amll roses all from Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls and ribbon from my stash;
Tools: Martha Stewart "garden trellis" edge punch and small "monarch butterfly" punch.

I used the sketch (which I flipped vertically) from this week's Simon Says Challenge:

... and would also like to enter this card for

By The Cute & Girly (September) - Indian Summer
Stamptacular Sunday #77 - Grid
Flutterby Wednesday #123 - Open Theme - Any Winged ThingAn Oldie but a Goodie #2 - Pink & Girly
Penny Black At Allsorts (September) - Punch Away (3rd & final entry)
Charisma #38 - Anything Goes

Looking forward to seeing all your entries for the PBSC. have a great weekend.

Creative Card Crew #55 - Sketch

Good morning, and welcome to another Creative Card Crew Challenge. Many thanks to everyone who joined in last time's die cuts challenge - there were some amazing entries. Don't forget to visit the main challenge blog to see if you have won the prize. Sorry I didn't get round to comment on everyone's that I should as life has been very hectic - will try harder this fortnight lol!

On then this to this fortnight's challenge which has been set by Sandie - and it's this fabulous sketch. Hope you will all have as much fun working with it as I did.

This time we are sponsored by another regular sponsor -

For details of this week's prize and all the rest of the fab DT sample cards, please do visit the main challenge blog.

Now then, I'm really not quite sure where the past fortnight has gone to ... work has been very hectic with long hours, and somehow the time has flown by with hardly a craft session in sight. Here's my best attempt at the sketch though .. hope you like it.


Recipe:
Main image: Sugar Nellie "Pickin' Apples", coloured with Promarkers;
Sentiment: Penny Black "Teddy and Company" transparent set;
Papers: Papermania "Rose Garden" and a teeny bit of MME "Quite Contrary" for the small green strips;
Supplies: flowers by Wild orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby House;
Tools: Fiskars cutter "Victorian" blade; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.


I deliberately chose my image so that I could enter this week's Simon Says challenge - Let's Get Fruity; and I would also like to enter it for the following:

By the Cute & Girly (July) - Warm Summer Days
Bunny Zoe's Challenge #2 - Summer Days
Allsorts #61 - Summer Days

Crafty Calendar #10 - Summer

Wild Orchid Crafts #1 - Say It with Flowers
Crafty Cardmakers #25 - Photo inspiration - I took the shades of aqua and green

Stampavie & More #102 - Anything Goes
The Town Scrapper - Anything Goes
(Town Scrappers have gone to town this week as they are taking a holiday until Labour Day)

Have a great week, and look forward to seeing your creations :-)