Penny Black Saturday #148 – Happily Ever After

Good morning everyone … welcome to Easter weekend and another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Hope you have been enjoying the fabulous weather we’ve been having … let’s hope it will last over the Easter weekend!!

Thanks as always to everyone who entered last week’s challenge – wonderful Easter cards, so hopefully you will now all be completely geared up to give your Easter greetings :-) Don’t forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you have won last week’s adorable prize.

This week we have all been overtaken (along with much of blogland, it seems) with Royal Wedding fever, so our challenge theme isn’t really such a big surprise ….

Happily Ever After

Now this phrase is usually taken to refer to weddings, but we realise that not all of you will necessarily have got PB wedding stamps, as they have only ever made a few (I know I don’t have any!). So we have decided to be kind, and this theme can encompass any other event to do with living happily ever after, such as engagements  and anniversaries.

This week’s prize is four rolls of yummy ribbon on the winner’s choice from Fantastic Ribbons.

Please remember that in order to be eligible for this week’s prize you should submit a new project which features a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as its main focus.

The other ladies on the DT have produced some fabulous romantic cards – here’s mine for this week.

As i  mentioned I don’t have any PB wedding stamps although I do have several romantic hedgies, mice and cats; so I decided to make an anniversary card.

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black “You’re a Treasure” (1589F) coloured with Promarkers and roses dusted with glamour dust;
Sentiments: LotV circle sentiments and Woodware sentiments;
Papers: Pink Petticoat “Vintage Rose”;
Supplies: large and small roses and lace from Sweet Lilac (Crafts4U2Do); middle size rose from Wild orchid Crafts; Papermania pink crystal heart; velvet and organza ribbon from my stash;
Tools: Magnolia doohickey “vintage tag”; Martha Stewart “Valentine lace” edge punch; Leone Em “Ash branch” leaf punch; Spellbinders “decorative photo corners” die.

Challenges:
Spoon Full of Sugar #148 – Let’s Celebrate!
Crafts and Me #31 – Pink and Sweet
Creative Inspirations #108 – Animals / Pets
Cupcake #138 – Lots of Layers
I ♥ Promarkers #62 – Anything Goes
Top Tip Tuesday #30 – Open Theme
Create4Fun (April) – Sketch

Hope you have a great weekend and look forward to seeing your creations!

Here comes the bride

My dear crafty friend Samantha is getting married to her fiance Efisio today, so I was delighted to be able to make them a card and I hope they are having a wonderful day. I used this adorable LotV stamp "wedding couple", which I coloured with Promarkers and decorated liberally with glamour dust. Instead of using patterned paper I took some white pearlised card and scored a "quilted" pattern using my Martha Stewart scoring board, and then decorated with little pearls from my stash. I wanted the colours to be soft, romantic and "shimmery" so I also used irisdscent pink card for the matting and hearts, and holographic silver paper for the floral swirl at the side.

Recipe: Main image: LotV "Wedding Couple", coloured with Promarkers, decorated with glamour dust, and edges sponged with pale pink ink; Sentiment: Whiff of Joy "Wedding Sentiments"; Paper: none - used white pearlised card, pale pink iridescent card and silver holographic paper; Supplies: roses and rosebuds from Wild Orchid Crafts decorated wtih stickles; "love" ribbon from local market; pearls from my stash;

Tools: large classic circle and large classic scalloped circle nestabilities; Marianne D Creatables "leaf swirl" die; Martha Stewart heart punch; Martha Stewart scoring board.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges: Creative Craft Challenges - Here Comes the Bride

Totally Gorjuss #40 - Congratulations!

Crafty Creations #77 - Happy or Sweet

Wild Orchid Challenge #1 - Say It With Flowers

Stamp Something - Something Flowery

Create4Fun #30 - Use flowers

Passion for Promarkers #61 - Distressing

(edges of image sponged with soft ink effect)

Papertake Weekly - Cutie Patootie

Creative Inspirations #39 - Anything Goes

The Stamp Man #1 - Anything Goes

So ... to Samantha and efisio ... here's Wishing you a lifetime OF JOY AND HAPPINESS.

Promarkers - my latest passion!

There's not been a lot going on with me on the crafting front this week, as I've been laid up with a real stinker of a head cold ... I have been off work sick for 4 days and had the whole days to myself but not felt up to making a card ... it must have been bad lol!!

Today though I thought I'd give it a go, and with good reason ... I mentioned last week that I had bought my first Promarkers and I had a little "dabble" insomuch as I managed to colour in Daisy the cow's hooves and horns. Since then though I have bought some more pens and a blender (naughty!!), so I at last felt up to tackling colouring in an image full on!


Lucky for me that the theme this week at Passion for Promarkers #52 is fantasy/ mythology - as I don't have a huge number if images suitable for colouring with the selction of pens I've got, but I do have this dainty LotV fairy ... and I have been eagerly watching the fab colouring tutorials on LotV's brilliant new Ideas to Inspire blog. I'm very pleased to be able to enter my first ever Promarker card into the Promarker challenge - well, it would be rude not to ;-)

I also followed the sketch from this week's Create 4 Fun Challenge #42



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

Flutterby Wednesday's #110 - butterfly, fairy or angel + flowers

Charisma #20 - 3D (roses)

Stamp Something - 2 of something ... I have used 2 main colours (lavender and blue), 2 papers, 2 punches, and 2 types of embellishment (flowers and pearls)

Recipe:

Main image: LotV "Fairy on Tiptoe", coloured with Promarkers and decorated with "Blueberry Ice" Stickles;

Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;

Papers: Papermania Henbury Lane";

Supplies: Mixture of roses from my stash and birthday gifts from Helen and Paula; pearls from The Hobby House; lilac ribbon from my stash;

Tools: large standard circles, small standard circles, large scalloped circles nestabilities; "fancy tags" shapeabilities; Martha Stewart "woodland bough" edge punch; Leone Em "Ash branch" punch.

Back tomorrow with another Penny Black Saturday Challenge .. and I've got one or two more promarker efforts waiting in the wings :-)

A Time for Celebration!

Well here we are, almost at the end of 2009 already ... where on earth has the year gone to??

In anticipation of the New Year's party I'm hoping to get to on (weather permitting!) I have made a New Year celebration card for the hostess.

I followed the excellent sketch at this week's Create4Fun Challenge #52, which I rotated 90 degrees to the left. I tried for once to be a bit imaginative and get a bit of artistic licence going (!?!). It's the first time I have cut out a figure and placed her over a background shape .... I know people do this a lot with Tildas but I don't have any of those .. thought I'd try it with Annie, and I'm pretty pleased with the result :-) I also went in for a bit of criss-crossing with some cord ... hope this is close enough to the original sketch!

This card was also made with quite a few other challenges in mind:

Cupcake #71 - A Time for Celebration

Everybody-Art-Challenge #71,
Stamp with Fun #39,
Stamp with Stampavie #75,
and
Lili of the Valley #43
all have the theme this week of
Happy New Year

Simon Says Stamp - Party!
(well, it's for a New Year Party, and I have to say Annie looks like she's started already lol!!)

Daring Cardmakers - New Beginnings
Our Creative Corner - Celebrate Food or Drink
One Stop Craft Challenge #60 - recycled
(my silver star holographic card is recycled from an Asda tissue box!!)

My Time to Craft #72 - Anything Goes
Creative Card Crew #41 - Anything Goes (3rd entry!)

Blimey! I've just counted up and that's 12 ... just about my best effort yet lol!! I actually also made this for 2 more challenges but alas due to poor lighting conditions today for taking phots plus going out for the day .. I've missed them - never mind!!

I love easel cards but am finding them very difficult to photograph (and the miserable daylight conditions don't help lol) ... so here are a couple more closeup shots - first of the "front" of the card ....

... and also the "base" part of the easel.

Recipe:
Main image: Sugar Nellie "Fizz", coloured with watercolour pencils;
Papers: free with issue 10 of Creative Cardmaking magazine;
Supplies: silver gems and stars, silver cord all by Papermania; silver/white ribbon from my stash; recycled silver holographic card from Asda tissue box!;
Tools: large classic circles and large classic scalloped circles nestabilities; numbers cut using Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet dies.

I'd just love to wish everyone who visits my blog, end everyone who I visit a

Happy New Year!

Take care, have fun, and here's to more fab blogging and crafting in 2010 ! :-)