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! 

All Things Bright and Sparkly

Hi there and hope you are all well. Today I would like to share another card I made at the weekend using one of my latest LotV Christmas stamps. The whole concept of this one was to tie in to the theme of bright and sparkly over at this week's LotV challenge.

I had so much fun with this, cutting out trees and snowflake flourishes from glitter card and dusting glamour dust around ... again the pic was taken in a fiarly poor winter light but I can tell you that irl this card is REALLY sparkly !!

Stamps: LotV "Shine A Light";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; glamour dust on coat and snow;

Papers: Bo Bunny;

Supplies: gems from The Hobby House; Craftwork Cards sentiment; button from my stash;

Tools: Marianne D Creatables "Christmas Tree" (LR0136); Memory Box "Frosty Border" die.

Challenges:

Lili of the Valley #119 - Bright & Sparkly

Marianne's Design Divas #2 - Dying To Die Cut (2nd entry)

Simon Says - Buttons

PaperPlay #44 - Button up!

Crafty Calendar (November) - Winter Wardrobe

Top Tip Tuesday #59 - Anything Christmas Goes

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Use Your Favourite Sketch Challenge (see  below)

Sketch Saturday #180 - sketch

At last I'm starting to make some real inroads into my Christmas card makes, though it's still a long way to go!! ...

All Things Bright And Beautiful

I always try to enter the monthly By The Cute and Girly challenge if I can, as they have both brilliant challenge themes and also fab prizes :-), but this month has just flown by what with holidays and one thing and another. However I have been confined to barracks for the past couple of days due to this stinking cold, so I thought I would make a bright and beautiful card to cheer myself up!!  I found this cute stamped Forever Friends image lying around so decided to colour the flowers using some of my new funky bright tones of Flexmarkers (I always colour fur using Copics, but I'm looking out for what new Flexmarker shades appear later to see if I can get some fur colours from Letraset too!!).

Here's the result of my efforts, which is attempting to address the theme of "bright and beautiful" in 2 ways - "each little flower that opens" (from the hymn lyrics) and bright colours (which I always find a bit scary, but I made myself do it lol!).

I also decided to use one or two neglected bits & bobs from my stash ... the flowers that teddy is holding are daisies, so I dug out some flat flowers from my stash plus some metal spacers .... not been near them for quite a while!

Recipe:

Main image: Forever Friends, coloured with Copics and Flexmarkers;

Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;

Papers: Papermania "Forever Friends - Springtime";

Supplies: pearls and spacers from The Hobby House; ribbon and daisies from my stash;

Tools: large circle, large scalloped circle nestabilities; Martha Stewart "doily lace"edge punch; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

Challenges:

Sketch Saturday #174 - Sketch

Cute Card Thursday #184 - Animal Crackers!

Crafty Purple Frog - Lots of Layers

Deep Ocean #9 - Happy Birthday

Cupcake #161 - If You Go Down to the Woods Today ...

Sentimental Sundays #74 - Step Out of Your Comfort Zone (bright colours!)

Corrosive #133 - Punches &/or Dies

Ooh-La-La #89 - Punches / Dies

Wee Memories #69 - Patterned Paper

By The Cute & Girly (September) - All Things Bright & Beautiful

Simon Says - Anything Goes

Southern Girls #28 - Anything Goes

Sweet Stampin' - Anything Goes

Lollipop #50 - Anything Goes

Anything Goes #50 - Anything Goes

Creatalicious #26 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

That's all for now ... back tomorrow with a new Penny Black Saturday Challenge ;-)

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 :-)

Oldie But A Goodie #15 - Colour Combo

Good evening all, and welcome to a new Oldie But A Goodie Challenge. I'm running a bit late today, and I have to confess that the reason is very simple ... I got my weeks wrong and didn't make my card in time - oh the shame!! had to rush my card out last night and then take a photo this morning before rushing out the door for work ... so hope you will all be kind!! Thanks so much to everyone who entered last fortnights's OBAG challenge - fab entries as always. Don't forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you are a winner. So onto this fortnight's challenge, which has been chosen by Liza, and is a colour combo Pink/Blue & Brown We also have a fabulous prize by our new regular sponsor Stämpelkällan which is these darling stamps ... Don't forget that in order to be eligible for the prize you should submit a new piece of work and use a stamped image (not a digi) that is at least 6 months old ... so have a little riffle through your stamp box to find an old but loved stamp ... and of course have fun!! :-) The other DT ladies have made some gorgeous samples - here's mine (at last!) Now I have to confess that I am not big on brown when it comes to crafting, so I immediately thought of incorporating the brown through an animal, with most of the decorative elements being pink and blue. So what better than this adorable LotV bear ... would you look at his little face?? I think this little guy was released in either spring or summer last year, so he's just nicely old enough for the rules of this challenge :-) Recipe: Main image: LotV "Bear and Butterflies" coloured with Promarkers and Copics, and butterfly wings dusted with glamour dust; Sentiment: Penny Black "Birthday Dreams" (3849E); Papers: Pink Petticoat "Vintage Rose"; Supplies: cherry blossoms and lace from Wild Orchid Crafts; Dovecraft dragonfly brad; ribbon from my stash; Tools: "Labels 3" nestabilities; Marianne D Creatables doily die; Cuttlebug "birds and swirls" embossing folder (on the doily). Challenges: I used this week's Sketch Saturday #147 sketch Simon Says - Happy Birthday (2nd entry)

Everybody-Art #134 - Happy Birthday

Stamp Something - Something Sweet (I think this is an adorably sweet image!)

Passion For Promarkers #92 - In The Garden

Paper Sundaes #61 - Embossing

Teddy Stampers #32 - Embossing PaperPlay #11 - Embossing

Wild Orchid Crafts #19 - Dieing to Punch It Out (2nd entry)

Shabby Tea Room #54 - Bingo! (2nd entry)

(This time I have used lace, flowers and embossing) Now I've finally caught up with myself i'm off to get my feet up with cup of tea lol! Have a great week!

Simply scary

I don't really "do" Hallowe'en, so I'm not exactly over-burdened with supplies when this time of year comes around. However, as a Penny Black lover and PB Saturday Challenge DT member I considered it my duty whilst at Port Sunlight last Saturday to snap up one or two of the bargain PB Hallowe'en stamps which were on half-price-or-less offer - it would have been rude not to!!

Here's the result of my first playtime - the card is relatively simple as I have very little in the way of Hallowe'en embellies and I'm not really prepared to splash out on them - I just bought a couple of pieces of Bo Bunny Hallowe'en paper and a bit of cobwebby lace.

I followed the sketch at this week's Sketch Saturday #124, which I rotated by 90 degrees to the right, and also interpreted the 3 dots at the top fairly liberally with my hanging spiders lol!

This card is also for

Fussy & Fancy Friday #21 - Hallowe'en
Everybody-Art-Challenge #112 - Hallowe'en
Crafts & Me #15 - Hallowe'en
Creative Cottage #25 - Hallowe'en

Stampin' Royalty #41 - Hallowe'en
Aly's Sunday #23 - Hallowe'en

Double Dutch #54 - Boo to You!
Cupcake # 112 - Scary Creatures
Creative Crafts - Trick or Treat
Creative Belli #102 - Pumpkins
Cute Card Thursday # 134 - What's Buggin' You!
Tuesday Taggers - More Than Two Legs
Passion For Promarkers #73 - Orange, Black, Green & Purple + option of Hallowe'en

Let's ink It Up #4 - Hallowe'en Colours
Simon Says - Recipe - 3 types of embellishment, 2 patterned papers & 1 image
(I have used lace, pearls and peel off embellies, 1 striped and 1 mottled Bo Bunny papers {it does have a subtle pattern - honest!!} )
Ooh -La-La #64 - Nothing Floral

I've managed to stop just short of 13 challenges - how scary would that have been?? Edited ... I just found 6 more open Hallowe'en challenges .. and I just couldn't resist ;-)

Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "Frightful Flight" coloured with Promarkers;
Sentiment: Penny Black;
Papers: Bo Bunny;
Supplies: pearls from The Hobby House; lace and peel offs from my stash;
Tools: Labels nestabilities.

Don't have nightmares and sleep tight lol!

Creative Card Crew #54 - Die Cuts

Hello and welcome to another Creative Card Crew Challenge. The past fortnight has whizzed by - hope you have all been enjoying the summery weather. It was fabulous seeing all your easel cards last fortnight - what an artistic lot you are :-) Don't forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you won the prize.

So on to this fortnight's challenge, which is

Die Cuts

Yep - we would like to see you use one or more die cuts on your creation. And to get you in the mood, we have a fab prize from our sponsor


which as a $20 voucher to spend in the online store - lovely!! :-)

Just in case any of you aren't familiar with Simon Says Stamp yet (where have you been?? lol!!) here's a little about the company ...

In business since 2002, Simon Says Stamp is striving to offer you the best selection of Rubber Stamps, Altered Art, Scrapbooking, Artist Trading Cards, and Paper Crafting Supplies in the world. We stock over 100,000 items in our warehouses so that we can offer you quick service and one stop shopping at a great price! Happy customers are the heart of our business. We work hard to find and deliver to you the latest in stamping and paper crafting supplies! Attending classes, workshops, and sales meetings around the world, our goal is to keep our product offerings fresh and current. Make us your one stop easy shop - and we'll deliver right to your door! Simon Says Stamp has over 100,000 items in stock. They have all of the latest releases from Magnolia, Whiff of Joy, Tim Holtz, Spellbinders, Copic and so much more! With free shipping for all International orders over $200 and USA Orders over $70, it’s a great time to shop with Simon Says Stamp.

The other ladies on the DT have made some fabulous samples - do go check them out! Here's my die cut card.



Recipe:
Main image: Penny Black "day-dreams" (3947K), coloured with Promarkers and edged with Colorbox Queue inks;
Sentiment: Penny Black transparent set "Flowers and Wishes";
Papers: Papermania "Summer Bloom";
Supplies: flowers by Wild Orchid Crafts and Petaloo; Doodlebug sparkly brads; flower spacers from the Hobby House; Papermania sparkly gems; pink velvet ribbon from my stash;
Tools: "Labels four" nestabilities; Marianne D Creatables "Swirl leaf" die-cut; martha Stewart "monarch butterfly" punch.



I specifically made this card to fit with a number of other challenges:

Penny Black at Allsorts #1 - A Burst of Summer Colour

(I deliberately chose these fab new Papermania papers to add the required zing, and then chose a summery floral Penny Black stamp to fulfil the challenge requirements).
Dutch Dare #81 - photo inspiration

(this also inspired the choice of floral image and brightly coloured papers).

By the Cute & Girly (July) - Warm Summer Days
I ♥ ProMarkers #21 - Stripes
Pile it On #26 - My Favourite Things
(that would be Penny Black stamps, flowers, butterflies and the colour pink!)

Last but not least I followed this week's Sketch Saturday #110 sketch.

Looking forward to seeing all your creations !

Anya with flower basket

I had an image coloured in of Anya with flower basket from when I had been practising with my new Promarkers, so I thought I would use it to make a summery card ... looking out of the window at the weather yesterday that was unfortunately a triumph of hope over experience lol!! Still, I hope and believe the weather is supposed to be getting better towards the end of the week - will probably wait until everyone has gone back to work - typical!

This image was sent to me ages ago by the lovely Marcea and although it was on lovely card I wasn't sure what it was inked with ... so I just had a practice and hoped for the best - hardly any colour bleed so I was quite pleased :-) However I have now also got some of this image stamped for me by Uma which are defo using Memento on some very smooth card, so it will be interesting to compare results.

I followed the sketch over at Sketch Saturday #105, (happy birthday Sketch Saturday :-) !!)



and would also like to enter this card for

Everybody-Art-Challenge #93 - Summer
Stamp with Stampavie #97 - Summer
Cupcake #93 - Summer Delights
The Pink Elephant #69 - Gotta wear shades! (bright, fun colours)
Magical Crafts #16 - Metal madness

Recipe:
Main image: Anya with flower basket, coloured with Promarkers;
Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;
Papers: My Mind's Eye "Quite Contrary", with BasicGrey plain paper;
Supplies: flowers by Petaloo; spacers from The Hobby House; Doodlebug sparkly brads; ribbon and charm from my stash;
Tools: large classic ovals and large classic scalloped ovals nestabilities; martha Stewart "woodland bough" edge punch.

Lovely in lavender

When I saw the sketch for this week's Sketch Saturday #102, the large area of the image made me think immediately of this darling Penny Black image that I received from the lovely Paula as part of my birthday gift (thanks hun!). I really do think it is adorable so I really wanted to make the most of it :-)

I'm very lucky at the moment, as not only do I have a number of items from my trip to Aintree that I haven't played with yet, but also I received some delicious gifty bits & bobs from various crafty friends - you're all wonderful!! I'm just hoping that when it comes to giving credits I will be able to remember accurately who gave me what ... if I get confuddled (particularly between various yummy flowers!!) please do excuse me as dopiness does tend to set in when you get to my age lol!!

Recipe:

Main image: Penny Black - gift from Paula, so sorry don't know what it's called, coloured with watercolour pencils and Sakura sparkle pens (roses);

Sentiment: Craftwork Cards;

Paper: Craft Creations (lilac gingham), Bazzill plain card;

Supplies: lace from Bunny Zoe's Crafts; lilac pearls from The Hobby House; large two-tone rose from John Lewis; medium lilac rose and tiny lilac/cream rose - Hobbycraft; tiny lilac/pink rose - gift from Helen (guess it is from Wild Orchid Crafts ); all roses decorated with Stardust Stickles;

Tools: Martha Stewart "doily lace" edge punch; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

I would also like to enter this card for

Stamp Something - Birthday Somethings

Inky Impressions #34 - Summer Creation

Crafty Calendar #8 - The Great Outdoors

(this cute hedgie is literally outside the door lol!!)

Simon Says - Birthdays / Celebrations

(2nd entry - my first was "celebrations")

Spoon Full of Sugar #102 - Furry Friends

Creative Belli #90 - Birthday Cards + something old ....

well I bought the lace some time ago, and I haven't used my doily lace punch in quite a while !!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Creative Card Crew #45 - Get Well Soon

Happy Tuesday everyone and welcome to another Creative Card Crew challenge. It was fabulous to see everyone's Valentine projects this past fortnight ... what a romantic lot you are!! Don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog to see if you have won last week's prize.

On then to this week's challenge, which is

Get Well Soon

So you can make a card to cheer someone up who's under the weather, or just to have ready in your card box just in case :-).

This week's prize is a scrummy selection of ribbons, buttons and charms form our sponsor

Truly Scrumptious Crafts

So without further ado, here's my card.... hope you'll also check out the fabulous creations from the rest of the DT :-)

I followed this week's fab sketch over at Sketch Saturday #90 for inspiration ....

...and I would also like to enter this card for this week's Stamp Something - Something Cute.. I just couldn't resist inking up my new LotV teddy ... I really do think this range of stamps is the cutest!! I'm just waiting patiently now for my EZ Mount to arrive and then I'll be able to ink up the rest of the stamps I ordered loL!

I think teddy is looking quite spring-like what with the profusion of flowers and happy colours - so I hope this one also qualifies for this week's Spoon Full of Sugar #91 - Spring is in the Air.

Last but not least, I would like to enter this card for Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #54, which is All About Me - ie to use the things you love :-) Well I'm really loving these LotV teddies, and I always love my flowers, spacers and large pearl brads.

Recipe:
Main image: LotV "Teddy with Flower", coloured with watercolour pencils;
Sentiment: die cut using Cuttlebug Cut & emboss set "Everyday Greetings";
Papers: My Mind's Eye "Pretty Please";
Supplies: pearl brads and spacers from "The Hobby House"; flowers and wrought iron brads from my stash;
Tools: large classic circle and large classic scalloped circle nestabilities; Leone Em "Ash Family" leaf punch.

Looking forward to seeing all your creations.