Christmas Love Dragons

🎄🎄🎄 Merry Christmas everyone! 🎄🎄🎄

I am scheduling this post as today I would like to show you the Christmas card I made for my husband …I never publish it until after he has had chance to open it on Christmas Day 😀

Back in September I made him a wedding anniversary card using the gorgeous Lee Holland cuddling “Love Dragons” image (post here); so when I saw the same dragons wearing Santa hats I just had to have that image for his Christmas card 😍

I coloured my image with Promarkers and drew “scales” with fine liner pens, then embellished the hats with holographic glitter, and created snowflakes with my Posca pen. I then matted and layered with my papers, ribbons, die cut and stamped sentiments, and die cut and punched snowflakes. I have to 'fess up that the teeny snowflakes were prompted by one of them needing to cover a smudge with my Posca pen .. but after so many hours creating the card I just had to rescue it!! 

My thanks also need to go to Alyce at Kit & Clowder for her fab colouring class which covered colouring LH dragons and drawing scales .. I think I still have some way to go but I love colouring them nonetheless!

Stamps: Lee Holland Christmas Dragon Couple; sentiments - Me To You;

Media: Promarkers;

Papers: LotV Nitwits ‘Twas The Night;

Tools: Tattered Lace die - Merry Christmas; Cuttlebug Cut ‘n’ Emboss - Ice Crystal; Martha Stewart snowflake punch;

Gems and glitter from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

As You Like It - Favourite Christmas Sentiment and why (2nd entry)

(I actually have several, but I always think Merry Christmas hits the spot, and this ornate Tattered Lace die never disappoints. Also I love making cards with the sentiment “For My Wonderful Husband” 😍)

Christmas With the Cuties #56 - ‘Twas the Challenge Before Christmas

( I have chosen theme #55 - Make A Card for Someone Special)

Crafter’s Cafe # 280 - Use Some of your Favourites (2nd entry)

(I have used.a Lee Holland dragon image, and my favourite Christmas sentiment die).

Crafty Calendar (December) - Christmas (3rd entry) - TOP 3

 Creative Moments #229 - Anything Goes

Cutie Pie Challenge #166 - Cute and Cuddly Christmas

DRU #183 - Anything Goes using a brand of die DRU sells (2nd entry)

(I have used Tattered Lace)

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies #2151 - Anything Goes

Passion for Markers #621 - Mega Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes (2nd entry) 

Uniko Challenge #68 - Celebrate with option of Reds and Greens (3rd entry)

I hope you are all enjoying time with your loved ones - I will be spending the day quietly with my husband, hopefully enjoying a lovely turkey dinner and chilling in front of the TV. Hope you all have a wonderful time whatever you’re doing. I will be taking a break from cardmaking and blogging over Christmas and look forward to seeing you on 1 January with my DT card for the first Allsorts challenge of 2022.

Until then - wishing you all a very happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas, and hope you stay safe in these uncertain times.

Thanks for visiting,

Hugs,

Allsorts Challenge #654

Hi everyone,

The weeks are now flying by as we get into December and Christmas approaches .. hope your Christmas preparations are on track. I managed to post all my Christmas cards yesterday but I still need to make a couple of special ones plus a batch for the neighbours and my husband’s workmates .. so no pressure!!

Anyhoo, it’s Saturday already so it's time for another weekly Allsorts Challenge. This week Ellie has chosen the theme and it is

Wings and / or Tails

... so we would like to see one or more creatures on your make that have wings and / or tails … could include angels, fairies, butterflies, animals with tails, birds or whatever you can think of!!

This week we have two great prizes on offer that tie in beautifully with our theme - 2 winners will each win one of the following Woodware Stamps.

Here's my card for this week.

When I saw this theme the first thing that sprung into my mind was dragons!! … or more specifically, Lee Holland dragons. I’m not a big user of digis but I do love this range, even though I’m still not very confident with my marker colouring so wouldn’t yet tackle some of the more complex images. As I’m still in Christmas card mode and Lee has had a sale on Christmas images this week 😍 I nipped online and ordered 3, and here’s the result with one of them - I just love this baby dragon celebrating by scoffing Christmas pud and mince pies! His wings are fairly teeny tiny though, so I’m not confident he could fly away when weighted down by all that Christmas pud .. though he could of course set light to it!! 😀🔥

I coloured my image with Promarkers and Flexmarkers, and mounted it simply. I try to keep my cards flatter for postage nowadays but I couldn’t resist adding a small holly die cut and some pearls for festive berries, plus a sprinkling of glamour dust to represent snow underfoot. 

Stamps: Lee Holland “Dragon with Christmas pudding” (digi); sentiment - LotV set 5 “Circular Sentiments - Christmas";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; Glamour dust;

Papers: LotV Nitwits "'Twas the Night";

Tools: Tattered Lace holly die;

Gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

As You Like it - Favourite Christmas Embellishment and Why

(As I mentioned in my previous entry I love everything sparkly ... so you can't go wrong with Glamour Dust in my world)

Country View Challenges (December) - Anything Christmas Goes (4th entry)

Crafter's Cafe #279 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Crafty Calendar (December) - Christmas (2nd entry)

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #572 - Anything Christmas Goes with option Quick and Easy

I ♥ Promarkers #449 - Anything Goes with option Christmas

Passion For Markers #621 - Anything Goes

Sheepski Designs #57 - Embellish It

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Uniko Studio #68 - Celebrate with option of reds and greens

Hope you can make time in this busy pre-Christmas period to join us, and I look forward to seeing your entries this week. Don't forget to visit the challenge blog to see more inspiration from the rest of the team. 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,

Love dragons

Not long ago I won a gift voucher for Lee Holland Art, and since then I have developed a bit of an obsession for his cute dragon images. I now own several including the adorable "Love Dragons" which I got specifically to be able to make my husband's wedding anniversary card. Today is our anniversary, so here is the card I have given him with love 💕💕

I have also just completed a class in colouring this type of dragon image at Kit & Clowder - it was my first full class and was absolutely fab!! My main reason for completing that class first (as I do have a few others in my inbox!) is so that I could make this card as good as it could be.

I thought that this image would definitely hit the spot this year as it is a bit different from the usual cute teddies, bunnies, hedgehogs etc. ... I really am hooked!

I really did take a long time colouring this image, and did my best to incorporate various techniques I had learned in my class such as drawing dragon scales and giving them some dimension, iridescent shading (on the tummies and horns), and a resist  mottled effect on the sky. 

Outside of that I kept the card fairly simple as I don't think men generally like too much fuss, though the card is quite large (8" square) and very sparkly with sparkly base paper, glitter card and metallic woven ribbon.

I certainly need to practice these techniques more, but it is very satisfying learning something new and then trying to apply it to a real life project.

Stamps: Lee Holland "Love Dragons" (digi); Woodware anniversary sentiment; Me to You husband sentiment;

Media: Promarkers:

Tools: Marianne Creatables heart dies; Provo Craft "Hippie Chick" alphabet and heart lettering dies;

Papers, ribbon and gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Allsorts #641 - A Challenge for Kath : favourite stamps with option of paper piecing

( 2nd entry - this time I  have chosen favourite stamps option)

As You Like It - Round Corners or straight edges and why

(This is an 8" square card which is my favourite for special cards as it gives so much space to showcase an image and embellishments).

Crafty Calendar (September) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Creative Challenges #105 - Anything Goes (no twist)

Creative Moments #222 - Anything Goes

 Cute Card Thursday #692 - Anything Goes

Cutie Pie #163 - 10th Birthday Challenge - Cute Celebrations

Daring Cardmakers (September) - Oh the Romance!

Passion for Markers #609 - Something beginning with B (blue, bow)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Sparkle and Shine (2nd entry)

Stamping Sensations (September) - Stamp of the Moment

We Love Chocolate Baroque (September) - Anything Goes with option of Celebrations (2nd entry)

Hope the weather will be ok today so we can celebrate together ... still not going out to restaurants etc. due to Covid, but we will hopefully have a lovely meal together later 

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs, 

Magic and Sparkle!

Today is one of my good friend's  birthday, so here is the card I made for her using the second adorable dragon digi image that I recently won as a challenge prize from Lee Holland Art.  

I have to say that I am totally in love with this range of images, to the extent that I have now followed Lee's site and thus got a free dragon Christmas image to play with - whoop whoop!! .. so you'll have to watch this space for that one which I''m sure will be coming soon!

I have also recently signed up for my first colouring class with the lovely Kit & Clowder, as I was lucky enough to receive a voucher for my birthday. I selected a detailed techniques class (colouring skin and hair) and I'm still at very early days with that, but I have already popped a couple of extra classes into my online basket including one to colour a Lee Holland dragon painting a rainbow!  I think that will be an autumn project for me, but it will be interesting to see how my colouring of dragons  changes as I get that class done.

This card involves a lot of sparkle on both the glitter card borders and the flower; and as it was a sunny day yesterday I was for once able to capture it pretty well in my photos. 

Stamps: Lee Holland "dragon with birthday cake" (digi); sentiment - unknown;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: LotV Nitwits Collection - "Perfect Pair";

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities  - Fleur de Lis Squares; Marianne Design Creatables - LR0110 (flower and swirls)

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Gem of a Challenge #17 - Anything Goes (2nd entry). - TOP 5

Allsorts #637/638 - Add Some Sparkle (2nd entry)

Crafter's Cafe #272 - Fantasy

Crafty Animals #53 - Anything Goes With an Animal - TOP PICK

Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes

Creative Knockouts #415 - Birthday Wishes

Cute Card Thursday #691 - Anything Goes (4th entry)

Penny's Challenge #503 - Anything Goes With Paper (3rd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Add A Sentiment

We Love Chocolate Baroque (August) - Favourite Stamps 

(at the moment I am just in love with these dragons!)

That's all from me for today. Hope you're having a nice evening, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Magical dragon

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to win the Cutie Pie Challenge, and my prize was 2 digi images from Lee Holland Art

I have to confess that although I have a few digi images I have rarely used them up to now as I’m not overly familiar with how to resize them etc., but having won a couple I thought I’d give it a go. Lee has lots of fab images in his online shop so it was pretty difficult to pick 2; but I was particularly drawn to his images of cute dragons, primarily as they are quite different from anything else I’ve seen.

So here is a birthday card for a friend that I needed to make straight away, using one of the images.

What is not to love about this cute baby dragon?? ❤️ I’m also a big lover of butterflies so this image ticked all the boxes for me. I wasn’t too sure how to colour him so I’m not altogether confident about that, but I did my best and had a lot of fun. 

I am also starting to look through my stash and reacquaint myself with what I’ve got after three years of doing very little cardmaking … including absolutely loads of dies!! I rooted out these fabulous Magnolia Doohickey flowers which haven’t been used in toooo long!

The card is actually pretty sparkly, but the light wasn’t too great when I was taking photos so the pics don’t fully capture that. 

Stamps: Lee Holland Art - “Dragon with butterfly”; sentiment free with Simply Card and Papercraft magazine ;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Tools: Spellbinders dies and Magnolia Doohickey “doily flowers” dies;

Paper, gems and ribbon from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Bit More Time to Craft #143 - Anything Goes

A Gem of a Challenge #16 - Anything Goes

Alphabet Challenge - I is for insects

Cute Card Thursday #690 - Anything Goes with optional theme of summer

Passion for Markers #603 - Favourite Colours 

(I definitely love pastels, and think lilac and green work very well together)

Simon Says (Monday) - Birthday Celebration

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations (August) - Any Celebration 

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

We Love Chocolate Baroque (August) - Favourite Stamps 

(that is a really difficult one as I love lots of stamps … but I do tend to love stamps that a feature cute animal gazing at a butterfly, and this cute dragon has got to be my new favourite (for now!!))

That’s me done for today. Thanks for visiting. 

Hugs,