I ♥ Promarkers #99 - Cute & Cuddly

Wow the week is flying  by ... Wednesday already, which means it is time for another  I ♥ Promarkers Challenge. Thanks as always to everyone who entered last week's Buttons & Lace challenge - there were some really pretty creations, and the winner is on the main challenge blog.

This week we have a theme of

Cute & Cuddly

which ties in very well with the type of images produced by our sponsor, Stamp Fairy, who are offering a $10 gift certificate for their online store where you can find a wide selection of whimsical and cute digi images.

Don't forget to be eligible for our prize you should submit a new piece of work that follows the theme, and where your image is coloured using Promarkers, Flexmarkers, Aquamarkers or Tria pens by Letraset.

Stamp Fairy very kindly provided some digi images for the DT to play with, and I chose the adorable Molly Fairy ... here's my card.

This is really rather a departure for me, as I have always deliberately steered away from stamps where the faces have no mouths - I find eg. Tilda really creepy for some reason (I can still admire other people's Tilda cards for their composition and details, but I don't like the images per se). However this stamp seemed to me to have a more appealing face than many stamps of that type, and in the end I really enjoyed colouring her :-)  Here's a closeup to try to show the sparkle on her wand and wings!

I decided to go for a spring-like colour scheme ... partly to distract myself from the dark miserable days of January, but also so that I could use my brand new Me To You "Spring Chic" papers - just bought a 12" * 12" pad and they are absolutely scrumptious! I think they will be appearing on here a lot over the next few weeks lol!

Stamp: Stamp Fairy "Molly Fairy";

Media: Promarkers (Dusky Pink, Blush, Ivory, Sandstone, Vanilla, Duck Egg, Cool Aqua, Buttercup, Primrose) and Flexmarkers ( Soft Aqua, Pale Citrus, Lemon Chiffon, Tea Rose, Nutmeg); glamour dust on wings and wand;

Papers: Docrafts "Me To You - Spring Chic";

Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts & Sweet Lilac; lace from The Ribbon Box; pearls from The Hobby House; ribbon from my stash;

Tools: X-Cut nested star die; Marianne D "Branch Forest" (LR0150); Martha Stewart small monarch butterfly punch; Cuttlebug "daisies" embossing folder.

Challenges:

Craft Your Passion #92 - Mythical Creatures

Cute Card Thursday #198 - What's New?

( papers and star shaped die)

Crazy 4 Challenge #118 - New Toys / New Techniques

Crafty Creations #152 - Something New
Papertake Weekly - Die Cute Special
Really Reasonable Ribbon #39 - Sparkle & Ribbon
Passion For Promarkers #131 - Inspired By A Song
("Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star")
Sweet Stampin' - Spots & Dots 
(2 of my 3 papers have dots on)
Simon Says - Spots &/or Stripes
(as above, plus one of my papers has both spots & stripes! :-)  )

One Stop Craft Challenge #164 - Bingo! 

(flowers, diecuts/punches, embossing) 

Dream Valley #23 - Anything Goes

CES #67 - Anything Goes

Magical Mondays - Anything Goes

Anything Goes #58 - Anything Goes
Sketch Saturday #189 - sketch 

Looking forward to seeing all your cute and cuddly creations ... have a great week! 

Penguin Fun

I absolutely adore this cute Pickle stamp from Wild Rose Studio - he looks like he is having so much fun delivering his sleigh full of presents. This image is one of several I coloured in a few weeks ago and I have been gradually working my way though them since. A few days ago while having a bit of a crafty clear out I found several squares of embossed pearlised white card sitting ready to make up into cards ... so I quickly put the two together to make another Chrimbo card. I tried to add a bit of interest with these yummy poinsettas from my local craft shop Crafts4U2Do, who are now stocking their own fabulous brand of flowers called "Sweet Lilac", and finished off with my new Cheery Lynn die which is just sooo gorgeous and I'm really pleased with it :-)

Not the best light for photos again ... for some reason I have a real problem getting a true colour when photographing red, as  it always comes out far too bright. I have photo-edited it to calm it down although it is still too light, but that has made my green go a bit off-kilter lol!

Stamps: Wild Rose Studio "Pickle with Sleigh";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; glamour dust all around!

Supplies: poinsettas by Sweet Lilac dusted wtih Stickles; gems from The Hobby House; ribbon and peel off my stash;

Tools: Cheery Lynn die "holly flourish"; Cuttlebug Snowflake folders.

Challenges:
Joanna Sheen Challenge #1 - It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Pollycraft Monday #120 - Christmas Fun

Stamptacular #140 - Anything Christmas

Craft Your Passion #86 - 'Tis The Season

Ooh-La-La #94 - Lots of Sparkle

Dream Valley #21 - Sparkle
Colour Create #85 - Red, White and Green
Cooking it Up With Katie #86 - Anything Goes

Simon Says - Anything Goes

The Ribbon Reel #16 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)
Scrapbook Sisters #62 - Anything Goes
Crafty Creations #146 - Picture inspiration

(I was inspired by the red for the flowers, the green holly wreath, and the wood for the sleigh)

Thanks for looking - have a great day.

Ol' Blue Eyes

The theme this week over at Less Is More is the colour of your eyes .... and mine are blue (see profile pic!). So after I'd caught up with various DT work this afternoon I made time to make a quick monochrome card ... and here it is.

Recipe:

Main image: Inkadinkado "Tin Can Mail" stamped with fluid chalk ink, and distressed using TH "faded jeans" and "tumbled glass" distress inks;

Sentiment: Penny Black transparent set "Salutations".

Challenges:

Less Is More #35 - The Colour Of Your Eyes

Dream Valley #17 - Monochrome

Crafty Creations #137 - Clean & Simple
Truly Scrumptious #66 - Clean & Simple

Simon Says - Anything Goes

 (3rd entry .... trying to help SS get to 1000 entries this week!!)

That's all for now ... enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Penny Black Saturday #165 - Shabby Chic

Good morning - it's Saturday and time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Oops - just realised at 1.30pm my scheduled post didn't work - sorry! Thanks to everyone who joined in last week - fab entries as always! Sorry if I haven't managed to get round all my commenting .... I have had a rotten cold for a full 2 weeks now which for some reason I seem unable to shake off - oh the misery of sniffling and vicious nose blowing all day long!!

Anyhow ... onward and upward! This week we have a brilliant theme for you which I really love -

Shabby Chic

The possibiilties for this are endless .. cute creatures used in conjunction with shabby chic techniques, or you could use any of the vintage style figure stamps, or even go for a traditional look with florals (esp the fabby brushstroke stamps)! However just a quick reminder of the rules ... in order to qualify for the weekly prize you should submit a new piece of work which features a Penny Black image stamp, large sentiment or stickeroo is its main focus .. that's why we're called the Penny Black Saturday Challenge ;-).

And talking of prizes .. this week we have an adorable stanp for you from our lovely ex-teamie Carole

"Love Nip"

Awww!

Do hope you'll check out the shabby (but in a very good way!) examples created by the rest of the team - here is my effort for this week.

My starting point for this card was my Martha Stewart PATP punch set. I have used the individual punches several times, but had never yet created a completed PATP square as the size is slightly bigger than a normal square card (15.4 cm to be exact). However I started trying to think creatively, and decided to make an easel card whereby I would cut away the part of the easel which supports the front of the card, so that you would be able to see through the cut outs in the punchwork when the card is standing up. It was a bit fiddly but I'm actually rather pleased with the result :-)

I selected my BasicGrey papers on the basis of a shabby chic colour scheme, and then realised that the space  left for an image isn't very big ... so I turned to a cute but vintage style hedgie from one of my transparent sets - I'd never inked him up until now, shame on me!! I also tried to add a few other elements which I interpret as shabby chic such as lace, seam binding, vintage gold coloured spacers and charm, pearls, deckle edging and a vintage tag. This card actually took forever to produce, but I am pleased with it and think I will give it to one of my best friends for her birthday.

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black transparent set "Tiny Wishes", coloured wtih Promarkers and edges distressed wtih TH distress ink;

Sentiment: See D "Celebration Messages":

Papers: BasicGrey "Capella" (thanks Laurie);

Supplies: Prima hydrangeas (thanks again Laurie!); seam binding from Wild Orchid Crafts (thanks Helen); pearls and spacers from The Hobby House; lace, brads and charm from my stash;

Tools: Martha Stewart "Wild Flowers" PATP; Magnlia doohickey "vintage tag" die; Leone Em "Ash Branch" leaf punch; X-Cut small butterfly punch.

As easel cards are so notoriously difficult to photograph, here's a closeup of the front.

Challenges:

I ♥ ProMarkers #79 - Easel Card

Bunny Zoe's Challenge #15 - Easel Card
Fuzzy Wuzzy #12 - Shaped Card

Flutterby Wednesdays #167 - Punches or Die Cuts + a Butterfly

Fussy & Fancy #43 - Use A Lot

Fussy & Fancy 1000 followers - Celebrate Something

Papertake Weekly - Eyes Down, Look In

(Blooms/Pearls/Lace)

Ribbon Girl - Use Ribbon

Dream Valley #13 - Distressing

Penny Black at Allsorts (August) - Free & Easy (2nd entry)
BasicGrey #51 - Anything Goes

Hope you can join us at Penny Black Saturday this week - have a great weekend.

Magical pearls and swirls

Well I had a brilliant day out yesterday. For quite a while I have been getting friendly online with the lovely Katina, and we had been meaning to meet up since last autumn at Port Sunlight craft fair. However Katina wasn't well that day, and since then time has flown by and we have never managed to meet up ... until now :-) We both live in different parts of Liverpool, and I had the idea of us going on a little jaunt to a large craft shop with coffee shop I know in St Helens called Crafts4u2do, so we could chat over coffee and cake and get to know each other.

Woke up yesterday morning with the sun cracking the flags, so it was a perfect day for a litle drive. We met late morning and before we knew it we were chatting for England over tea and chocolate cake (which Katina INSISTED on buying despite my protests .. thanks hun :-) We have both had a few trials and tribulations recently but it didn't feel at all awkward talking about what's happening in our lives, and time flew by.

Eventually we thought we ought to have a look around the craft shop and we certainly weren't disappointed. I hadn't been over there for about six months and was very impressed with their new stock - especially their own new range of flowers which could give well known online flower retailers a run for their money!! Katina was very good as she is trying to save at the moment and only had a very moderate spend ... I didn't get too carried away, but quite a few of the flower packs did fall into my basket along with some lace, card, a couple of distress inks and just the one rubber stamp.

By the time I got home mid-afternoon I was in cheerful mood, having made not only a few new craft purchases but also hopefully a new friend :-) The whole thing put me right in the mood for crafting, so I made a couple of cards in the late afternoon and evening - here's one of them which I made for a few challenges.

Recipe:

Main image: LotV "Freedom" coloured with Promarkers and decorated with Glamour Dust;

Sentiment: free with craft magazine;

Papers: BasicGrey "two scoops";

Supplies: yellow roses by Sweet Lilac (from Crafts4U2Do); other flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby House; lace and ribbon from my stash;

Tools: small, large and lacy circles nestabilties; Marianne D Creatable swirly leaf die; Magnolia doohickey "vintage tag" die; Cuttlebug "swirls" embossing folder.

Challenges:

BasicGrey #41 - More Than One Fold

Magical Mondays #19 - Magical Pearls and Swirls

Anything Goes #38 - Pearls

Passion for Promarkers #94 - Yellow and Pink

Simon Says - Spring Colours (2nd entry)

Crafty Pad #116 - Spring Is in the Air

Flutterby Wednesday's #149 - Open Theme with Butterfly, Fairy or Angel

Dream Valley #4 - Things With Wings (2nd entry)

Freshly Brewed (April) - Flowers

Stamptacular #106 - Girls and Swirls

Back tomorrow with another very different card I made with a couple more of my new purchases :-)

Duckling and daffs

I decided I needed to get a wriggle on if I were to get a reasonable amount of Easter cards ready in time now that the season is looming up on us, and I felt inspired by the couple of sunny days we've had plus the lighter nights since the clocks went forward last weekend.

I absolutely love this Penny Black duck - I've had him a long time but he still always makes me smile, and of course think of spring.

Recipe: Main image: Penny Black "Duckling" (3347H), coloured with Promarkers; Sentiment: Penny Black; Papers: Papermania "Forever Friends - Springtime" (I've actually bought two packs of this paper, I love it so much!!) Supplies: pearls from the Hobby House; ribbon and small silk daffs from my stash; Tools: Martha Stewart "woodland bough" edge punch (just seen); "Decorative corners" Shapeabilities.

Challenges:

I followed this week's sketch for Sketch Saturday #149

Dutch Dare #107 - Spring Has Sprung

Simon Says - Spring Colours / Easter

I ♥ ProMarkers #60 - Easter

Everybody-Art-Challenge #136 - Easter

Stamp With Fun #105 - Easter

Ooh-La-La #77 - Happy Easter

The Pink Elephant #97 - Easter

Dream Valley #4 - Things With Wings

Crafts and Me #29 - Glitter

Spoon Full of Sugar #146 - At Least Two Different Textures

(glitter card and silk flowers)

My Partner in Crafting Crime #24 - Layer it Up

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

The Crazy Challenge #61 - Just Add Flowers

Still keeping the posts short as blogger is still runing all my text together unless I put all my div separators in manually. I'm looking to maybe install Windows Live Writer soon, in which case I will be able to get back to my chatty self :-)