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! 

Penny Black Saturday #179 - Christmas with Red & Embossing

Good morning all and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. Thanks as always to everyone who entered last week's challenge - those of you who are keeping up with our month of Christmas themed challenges should be getting to grips with your Chrimbo makes by now lol!

Before we get on to this week's challenge I need to offer a mahoosive congratulations to my teamies Helen and Nat, who have both won prizes in Cardmaking and Papercraft's Cardmaker of the Year 2011 .... full details here. In Helen's case her prize was in the Penny Black category - woo hoo!!

This week we are continuing with week 4 of our  Christmas themed challenges, and would like to see

Christmas + Red + Embossing

This week's gorgeous prize for a randomly drawn winner is from Fantastic Ribbons,

and is 4 ribbon reels of the winner's choice - lovely!

There are loads of fab sample cards from the rest of the DT on the main challenge blog - here is my effort.

Stamps: Penny Black "Royal Mail" (3766J); sentiment unknown (I've lost the packet!!);

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; polar white flowersoft with glamour dust on the snowy areas;

Papers: Dovecraft

Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; pearls from The Hobby House; ribbon from my stash;

Tools: Crafts Too embossing folder "snowflakes".

Challenges:

Crafty Pad #148 - Festive Cheer (Red + green + gold or silver)

Kaboodle #94 - Baby It's Cold Outside

Fun With Shapes and More #97 - Cold As Ice

Deep Ocean #13 - C is for ...
(Christmas, cute, circles)
Pile It On #47 - Anything with a "P"
(Postbox, papers, pearls)
Charisma #46 - Snowflakes

Crazy 4 Challenges #115 - Snow
Totally Gorjuss #108 - Sparkle
Papertake Weekly - Christmas Crackers

The Ribbon Girl - Jingle All The Way To Christmas

Scrapbook Sisters #61 - Christmas Time

Totally Papercrafts #94 - Christmas

Forever Friends (fortnight) - Christmas Is Coming

Penny Black & More at Allsorts - All Creatures Great & Small (3rd and final entry)

Creative Craft - Free For All

Hope you can join in with us this week - have a great weekend whether you're crafting or braving the Christmas shopping crowds :-)

Christmas Angel

Good morning - here we are again with (surprise ... surprise ...!!) another Christmas card! For today's card I have used this darling LotV angel stamp which I bought last month at Port Sunlight.

I managed to find some very girly Christmas papers with delicate stars in pastel colours, which I hope tie in quite nicely with the little stars on the image :-)  I really do think this particular image is just soooo pretty !!

Stamps: LotV "Little Trumpet";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; Stickles on angel wings and flowers;

Papers: Kaisercraft;

Supplies: ribbon from Hobbycraft; lace from Wild Orchid Crafts; flowers by Sweet Lilac; sparkly gems from The Hobby House; small wooden star from John Lewis; peel off greeting from my stash;

Tools: Marianne D Creatables "Bauble/Star" (LR0183).

Challenges:

Sparkles Christmas #10 - Angels

Colour Create #83 - Turquoise, Deep Pink & Ivory

The RIbbon Reel #14 - Hot Pink, Turquoise and Cream
My Time To Craft #165 - Sun, Moon and Stars

Secret Crafter #159 - Flowers, Ribbon and Lace
Marianne's Design Divas - Dying To Die Cut (3rd entry)

Papertake Weekly - Christmas

Totally Gorjuss #105 - Sketch

This is the last of the cards I made in my mega crafting sesh. I haven't done any crafting this week as I've had a bit of an upset tummy, but touch wood I'm feeling quite a bit better now so hope to be back with some more cards by the weekend :-) Thanks for visiting.

Penny Black Saturday #171 - Down On The Farm

Good morning everyone and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge! Sorry I'm a bit late - messed up my scheduled post again (blush!!). Alas I didn't join in last week as I was just on my way home from my holiday in Greece and hadn't managed to get that far ahead in my DT makes (though I managed to schedule a post for the week before :-)  ). Anyhoo I've had chance since I got back to look at the entries for last week's monochrome challenge, and they are fab as always! Don't forget to check out the main challenge blog to see if you have won!

Now I'm back to reality and have managed to get myself geared up to join in with this week's challenge which is

Down On The Farm

Yes, it's time to break out all those cute PB creatures you may find down on the farm ... don't you just adore the PB cows, pigs, geese, hens etc? I think they just make such fun cards!

And to help you get in the mood we have two fabulous prizes for two randomly drawn winners :

From Penny Black, this gorgeous stamp: 3888K "Winter Glitter"

and from The Ribbon Girl, this gorgeous mini-kit in lavender

The rest of the DT have been happily singing "Old MacDonald" this week and have come up with some adorable creations. Here is my attempt.

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "bundle of wishes" (2612H) coloured wtih Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Sentiment: LotV;

Papers: ??;

Supplies: flowers by Sweet Lilac; ribbon, lace and pearl brad from my stash;

Tools: Scalloped square and lacy circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart "garden trellis" edge punch.

Here's a closeup of the sweet image. I'm still getting to grips with my new Flexmarkers - I used the Blue Grey 1 and Glacier Blue for shadowing but they are incredibly faint ... can you see them??

Challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Sketch

Crafts & Me #54 - Flowers

Allsorts #123 - At Least 5 Flowers

(hope the ones on the image and paper count lol!)

Stampin' For The Weekend #17 - What A Cutie!

Charisma #39 - Love

Simon Says - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Paper Sundaes #88 - Anything Goes

Creatalicious #26 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

I am also entering this into the Penny Black Blog Guest DT post for World Cardmaking Day - they are asking for your best new PB card between Saturday morning and Sunday evening ... well this is actually my ONLY PB card that I have managed to produce over the weekend lol! I have uploaded it onto Flickr but am mentioning it here also :-)

Hope you can join in this week! Have a great weekend.

Hugs

Penny Black Saturday #169 - Friendship

Good morning all, and welcome to another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. the DT had a totally delicious time last week looking at all your yummy creations .. don't forget to check the main blog to see if you are a winner!!

This week we have a theme that I'm sure you'll all enjoy ...

Friendship

What's not to like about making a card for a special friend? .. and Penny Black stamps have a whole variety of images and sentiments that suit this theme so well :-) The other teamies have made some fabulous creations - do go take a peek!

Taking of sentiments ... I decided to ring the changes this week and make a sentiment stamp the focus of my card. I really like a lot of the PB sentiments, and so it was good to be able to give one prominence on my project.

I would love to be able to say this card was quick and easy to make seeing as it didn't involve any colouring of an image - but alas that wouldn't really be true lol!! I actually spent ages faffing around choosing flowers and ribbon ... I'm sure you know how it is!

Recipe:

Main image; Penny Black setiment stamp "friends matter" (4073F);

Papers: Pink Petticoat "Vintage Rose";

Supplies: All pink flowers by Sweet Lilac; white cherry blossoms and green roses from Wild Orchid Crafts; floral ribbon, pearls and pearl spray from my stash;

Tools: martha Stewart "eyelet lace" PATP and large monarch butterfly punches.

Challenges:

Simon Says - Sing It! (I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends)

Die Cut Dreams #98 - Flower Power

Everybody-Art #159 - Flowers

Papertake Weekly - Things With Wings

Paperplay 37 - Punches & Dies
Flutterby Wednesday's 171 - Open Theme
Cute Card Thursday 182 - Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations 129 - Anything Goes

Creatalicious #26 - Anything Goes

Hope you can join us this week - have a great weekend!

Penny Black Saturday #168 - Delicious!

Good morning all - it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge! Thanks so much to everyone who joined in with scenic creations last week ... a bit lower number of entries than usual so I guess some of you struggled ... but those who managed it made a wonderful job!

This week we have a theme that we hope you'll find sweet in all senses of the word - we would like to see something

Delicious

on your projects :-) As always you  an interpret this however you choose so long as you submit a new project and we can see a Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo as its main focus.

This week's fab prize is a $20 store voucher from 1-2-3 Stitch - lovely!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the DT's deliciousness - here is mine for this week.

I actually have three or four Penny Black images that involve food (plus a couple more that involve champagne and that's also pretty delicious in my book!!) ... but I can never resist this cute mouse falling asleep in the chocolate box after over-induging!  I decided to make an easel card specifically so that I could enter a couple of additional challenges; and I added a charm so I could enter a couple more :-).  How cute is this charm??

Easels are very difficult to photograph as I'm sure we all know, and also on this one I couldn't seem to get a true colour in the dull light ... but here is closer view of the front anyway. It also seemed particularly appropriate for the image to use a big "chocolate box" bow!

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black "Sweet Slumber" (1916J), coloured with  mixture of Promarkers (Cinammon, Tan, Cocoa, Sandstone, Blush, Dusky Pink, Baby Pink, Cerise) and Copics (RV02, RV10, E31, E50, E51, E53)

Sentiments: Penny Black transparent sets "Salutations" (on card) and "Bubbly" (on tag);

Papers: Papermania "Forever Friends - Springtime";

Supplies: pearls from The Hobby House; Papermania pink heart gems; ribbon, lace and choc bar charm from my stash;

Tools: labels ?? nestabilities; Martha Stewart "doily lace" edge punch;  Marianne D Creatables doily die; Magnolia doohickey "vintage tag".

Challenges:

CLP #40 - sketch

Top Tip Tuesday - Easel Card

Simon Says - Multi-fold Card

Birthday Sundaes #25 - Birthday Card

Crafty Purple Frog - Birthdays

Fussy & Fancy 1000 Followers - Celebrate! (2nd entry)

I ♥ Promarkers #82 - Metal Embellishment or Charm

Creative Craft - Just Charming

My Mum's - Layer It Up

Deep Ocean #7 - Hearts

Stampavie & More #151 - Pearls & Lace

Crafty Catz #99 - Ribbons

Paper Variety - Use Stamps On Your Project
Fuzzy Wuzzy (September) - Pink!

Copic Creations #57 - Pretty in Pink

Stampin' for the Weekend #16 - Tickled Pink

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Stamp Something - Anything Goes

I hope it is ok to enter for both Promarker and Copic challenges seeing as I have used both ... unusually I have listed them just to avoid confusion. I must confess I do major on Promarkers, but I have a few Copics for specific purposes such as colouring fur, and I have a couple of pink ones!! :-) 

Hope you can join us this week with your delicious creations - have a great weekend!

.... and talking of something delicious, whilst writing this post I have just had a knock ont he door, and a neighbour has handed over a package that the postie left with them this morning, containing my 24 all new Letraset flexmarker pens - YAY! Woo hoo!! (Pity the postie didn't see fit to leave a card through the door but I guess you can't have everything!)

It is Friday night now as I write this for scheduling, and I really don't know how I'm going to contain myself until tomorrow to have a play with my new toys ;-)

Bank Holiday Offerings

Hope everyone is enjoying the Bank Holiday in the UK despite the miserable weather ... I'm just pottering about wondering whether to brave going out this afternoon, but in the meantime I thought I would post a couple of cards I made on Saturday.

My first card was primarily inspired by Dawny's wonderful sketch for this week's Simon Says Challenge. I actually couldn't wait to get started as I have several deep border punches which would be ideal for this sketch. Here's what I came up with.

In the event I was feeling very flowery, so I used my Martha Stewart "wildflowers" PATP and made a card in restful tones of lilac ... I also managed to play with my gorgeous new Magnolia swirly butterfly; and I took the opportunity to incorporate one of my Marianne D Creatable dies as they really are my favourites, and it meant I could also enter the new Marianne's Design Divas challenge :-). I decided to slightly cut down diecuts from my swirly leaf die to make them suitable as a leafy frame for my large flower - I rather like the result and think I will use it this way again.

Recipe:

Main image: LotV fairy coloured with Promarkers and liberally dusted with glamour dust;

Sentiments: Penny Black transparent set "Party Critters";

Papers: Papermania Forever Friends "Springtime";

Supplies: large gardenia from Wild Orchid Crafts; Papermania gems;

Tools: Martha Stewart "wildflowers" PATP; Marianne D Creatables leaf flourish die; Magnolia doohickey "swirly butterfly" die.

Challenges:

Simon Says - Sketch by Dawny P

(rotated by 90 degrees to the right)

Flutterby Wednesday's #168 - Open Theme

Sparkles #19 - Punch It

Papertake Weekly - Dies To Die For (2nd entry)

Fab 'n' Funky #87 - Mono Madness

Marianne's Design Divas #1 - Anything Marianne D Goes!

Spoon Full of Sugar #162 - Happy Birthday (2nd entry)

For my second card ...this week Chrissie and Mandi over at Less is More are challenging us to combine any three of the previous challenges. I had a little time left over after making my previous card so decided to make a quick one ... and here it is.

I simply embossed the flowers onto pearlised white card and mounted onto pink and black pearlised matting, then added a die cute sentiment with a single gem heart on the "i" in "friend" plus two punched butterflies. This to fulfil the following three previous challenges:

Week 1- Pink, White & Black

Week 2 - Flowers &/or Trees

Week 15 - Embossing

Week 16 - Butterflies

Recipe:

Supplies: pink and black gems + heart gem from stash;

Tools: Cuttlebug Cut 'n' emboss folder; Martha Stewart small monarch butterfly punch.

Challenges:

Less Is More #30 - Take Three Challenges

I think that will be all for today .. enjoy the rest of your Bank Holiday.

Penny Black Saturday #166 - Sketch!

Yippee! not only is it a Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK, but it's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge. So plenty of time to get down to some crafting and submit your entries this week :-)  Yikes my scheduled post failed again this week so it's a good job I logged on again this morning!!

Thanks very much to everyone who entered last week's Shabby Chic challenge - fabulous entries everyone!

This week we have a brilliant sketch for you by our wonderful teamie Nat.

We are also offering a brilliant prize as always - this week it is 4 rolls of ribbon of the winner's choice from our regular sponsor Fantastic Ribbons

Yummy!

All the ladies on the DT have really rocked the sketch, and I really enjoyed working with it. Here is what I produced.

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black transparent set "Christmas Critters" coloured with Promarkers and Copics;

Sentiment: LotV Christmas sentiment circles;

Papers: Dovecraft "Jolly Holiday" collection;

Supplies: poinsettas and gold leaf from Prima Christmas Bubble; pearls from The Hobby House; sparkly ribbon from my stash;

Tools: large and small circle nestabilities; Marianne D Creatables flourish die.

As I am entering this for a "glitter" challenge, here is a (not very good) closeup of the glitter on the poinsetta and glittery ribbon ...

Challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Dies To Die For

Stampavie and More #150 - Christmas In Summer

Christmas Card Challenge #38 - Glitter

Penny Black At Allsorts (August) - Free & Easy (3rd & final entry)

Totally Gorjuss #95 - As You Like It

Have a great weekend whatever you've got planned, and I look forward to seeing your creations.

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.