I ♥ Promarkers #98 - Buttons and lace

Good morning all, and welcome to the first I ♥ Promarkers challenge for 2012. Thanks so much to everyone who entered our last challenge of 2011 - don't forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you are a winner.

This week we have a fabulous challenge to start the New Year ...

Buttons and Lace

and an even more fabulous prize ... a £10 online store gift voucher for Joanna Sheen

I wish I could enter!!

Don't forget that to be eligible for this prize you should submit a new piece of work that is coloured using Letraset Promarkers, Flexmarkers, Aquamarkers or Trias.

the rest of the DT have as always created some stunning samples for the first challenge of the year ... here's mine.

I sat down to make this card on Monday - my last day of holiday before going back to work yesterday ... and I couldn't help but notice the number of "new beginnings" challenges around. Therefore I decided to make a baby card , and what could be more appropriate than this adorable Stamposaurus elephant which I got last year but have never inked up until now?

 Unfortunately I only remembered right at the end of making this card that I have thrown out my pink ink pad that I would have ideally used to stamp the sentiment with as it had gone dry; and I also had to hand cut out my sentiment because shortly before Christmas I went and lost my nestie circle that I usually use. I reckon I must have accidentally swept it into my rubbish bag one time .... oh dear!! Last  but not least I also discovered that I have absolutely  no twine or teeny ribbon to tie through my buttons so I had to leave them plain. I think I need some New Year stash lol!

Stamps: Stamposaurus "Ellie No 3"; LotV Sentiment Circles;

Media: Promarkers (Cool Grey 1-4, Pink Carnation, Blossom, Meadow, Apple, Baby Pink) and Flexmarkers (Pink Lavender);

Papers: Pink Petticoat (dotty) and free from craft magazine (striped);

Supplies: flower from Wild Orchid Crafts; large pearl brad from The Hobby House; ribbon, lace and buttons from my stash;

Tools: large, small, large scalloped and lacy circle nestabilities; Marianne D swirl from "Ribbon Flower" set.

Challenges:

Bling It On - New Beginnings

By The Cute & Girly - New Beginnings

Sweet Stampin'  - New Beginnings

Allsorts #135 - New Beginnings

Simon Says - New Something
My Mum's #38 - Something New
Kaboodle #100 - Celebrate!
Daring Cardmakers - Spots & Stripes

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes + option of new (new baby)
Partytime Tuesdays #49 - Something New
Top Tip Tuesday #67 - Anything Goes

Incy Wincy #127 - Anything Goes

Looking forward to seeing your creations, and hope you can join in the fun at I ♥ Promarkers this week. 

 

Something Old, Something New ...

Well here we are with a brand new year, and here I am with my first card of 2012. 

This card fulfils the theme of "Something Old, Something New", which I thought was a good theme for the start of a new Year ... the "something old" is my papers which I have had for quite a long time; whilst the "something new" is the darling LotV stamp which my dear friend Lil gave me when I went round to her house for a pre-Christmas visit and to admire her craft room, as she had got this stamp twice and thought of me first to pass it on to - thanks so much hun :-) !!

Stamps: LotV "Rosie Posy";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; glamour dust on flowers and edges of matting;

Papers: Papermania "Rose Garden";

Supplies: flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts; lace from The Ribbon Box; buttons and peel offs from my stash.

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp & Show - Something Old, Something New

Paper Sundaes #101 - Something Old, Something New

Fabulous Friday - Something New

The Squirrel & The Fox #8 - Something New

Joanna Sheen (January) - Celebrations (birthday)

Totally Gorjuss #112 - Happy

Fussy & Fancy #53 - Happy Birthday

Simon Says - Anything Goes

Sentimental Sundays #83 - Anything Goes

Pile It On #1 - Anything Goes

Top Tip Tuesday #66 - Anything Goes

Crafts & Me #66 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Rainbow Lady #185 - Your Choice

Papertake Weekly - Sketch

That's all for today .... back to work tomorrow (sigh!) so I'm just off now to do a bit of DT work.

Hugs

2011 in cards ... and my top 5

I have loved looking around at my fellow bloggers' entries for Debbie's challenge  to pick your top 5 cards for the year ... I had a look back through mine yesterday and found it really hard to choose my favourites!! But I decided to have a go anyway ... so here are my fave cards by month, followed by my top 5 for the year :-)

Sorry not got time to explain why each of these is a favourite ... but they all involve either fave stamps, papers, or I was just very happy with the way they came together with flowers and other embellies! 

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

...and my top 5 (in no particular order!)

Wow that was difficult ... and I'm sure I'd choose different ones on another day lol! 

Gotta dash now to get ready for the evening's visitors and festivities - so I'll just finish by wishing everyone a 

Happy New Year

and all the best of everything for 2012

Hugs

   

Win 20 Promarkers of your choice from Handy Hippo

The lovely Jules (always With  a Heart) is promoting this fab prize from Handy Hippo 

..... 20 Promarkers of your choice  - to celebrate them starting to sell single Promarkers - woo hoo!!

And as I ♥ ProMarkers (sorry, couldn't resist that lol!) but don't have a full set yet, I'm fantastically excited by this fabby candy!

So why not pop over to Jules' post about this candy here ... and follow the easy peasy steps to enter?? 

 

My Favourite Five Christmas Cards of 2011

It has been great fun looking around everyone's entries for Debby's 5 Favourite Christmas Cards of 2011 Challenge, so I thought I would join in.

I realised that I hadn't actually made that many Christmas cards this year even though I bought quite  a bit of new stash ... unless of course you count the 37 last minute "panic makes" over the past couple of weeks that didn't involve any stamping or colouring lol!!

So I've had a look through my makes and here are my favourites :-)

I bought this adorable LotV stamp at Port Sunlight in October, and have made quite a few Christmas cards with it this year, all of which I was pretty happy with. I was particularly pleased with the colour scheme and vintage look I achieved on this one, and I have discovered how fabulous white Wild Orchid Craft carnations look on Chrimbo cards :-)

I love making all-white cards, but often find it difficult to find enough textural interest. During the year I bought a new snowflake embossing folder so I now have three, and when I used them in conjunction with some fabby new Memory Box dies (border and corner) I was quite pleased with how this one turned out (also as this is Debby's challenge - this was Debby's Chrimbo card!! :-)  )

This was the A5 card I made for my mum and dad. Penny Black "Snowy" is one of my all time favourite stamps, and I really loved these delicate papers by Crafter's Companion. Another fluffy paper carnation along with the other embellishments and this one was good to go.

Here's another of my fave Christmas stamps - I find this Christmas FF teddy totally adorable, and this was my first attempt to colour him using Promarkers and Flexmarkers rather than Copics, as this was a DT card for the I ♥ ProMarkers challenge. I needed to use this stamp as it is quite dinky - the challenge was for a shaped card and this is as big as it gets with my nesties lol!!

  

Last but not least is my husband's Christmas card .... how could that possibly not be one of my faves, even without the adorable WRS stamp and romantic die-cut mistletoe ....aaaaww!!

So there we are - Chrimbo cardmaking all done for another year. In 2011 I never made my first Christmas card until about July, so I'll have to see whether I manage to get a bit further ahead for 2012. Time will tell I guess!!

Enjoy the rest of your Christmas
Hugs

 

With Love At Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone - I am scheduling this for Christmas Day ... and hope you will all be having a happy and peaceful time.

I would like today to show you the Christmas card I made for my darling husband ... it has almost become a tradition in our house that I make it on Christmas Eve evening, but this year I got ahead of myself and made it on Friday lol! I never publish it before Christmas Day .. although he never looks on here it just somehow wouldn't seem right lol!

I always really enjoy making this card, as it gives me a rare opportunity to express myself romantically - I just love choosing a suitable image and embellishments! This year I bought this adorable Wild Rose Studio stamp and Magnolia mistletoe die; and I  used some Magnolia mistletoe papers left over from last year!

Stamps: Wild Rose Studio "Christmas Cuddles"; Pink Gem sentiment;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers; polar white Flowersoft mixed with glamour dust on hats and snow on the ground;

Papers: Magnolia;

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

Tools: large, small and lacy circle nestabilities; Magnolia Doohickey "mistletoe with berries" die.

Challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Last Christmas ... Card of the Year

Totally Gorjuss #111 - For Someone Special

Creative Belli #133 - Merry Christmas!

Divas By Design #17 - Merry Christmas!

Top Tip Tuesday #65 - Anything Christmas

Deep Ocean #15 - Warm Wishes

One Stop Craft Challenge #163 - Winter Wishes
My Time To Craft #169 - Winter Pals

Crafty Catz #113 - Santa's Hat

Craft Your Passion #89 - Things With Wings 

(penguins have wings!! ;-)  )

Simon Says - Bingo! 

(Ribbon / Gems / Glitter & Sparkle)

Stampin' For The Weekend #23 - Anything Goes

Crafts & Me #66 - Anything Goes

Charisma #50 - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations # 43 - Anything Goes

Scrapbook Sisters #66 - Anything Goes

Secret Crafter #166 - Anything Goes
My Mum's #37 - Anything Goes

Really Reasonable Ribbon #38 - Anything Goes + Ribbon (2nd entry)

Well that's about it from me - have a wonderful Christmas.

Hugs,

 

I ♥ ProMarkers #97 - Anything Goes

Good morning and welcome to another I ♥ ProMarkers Challenge. Thanks to everyone who entered last week's colour combo challenge - don't forget to check the main challenge blog to see if you have won last week's prize.

This week is our last challenge for 2011 so it's a nice easy peasy one ....

Anything Goes

This challenge will stay open until 8pm GMT on Tuesday January 3rd 2012 - and we will be back with a  brand new year of I ♥ ProMarkers challenges on Wednesday January 4th. :-)

Don't forget that to be eligible for our challenge prize you need to use Promarkers, Flexmarkers, Aquamarkers or Tria pens on your creation - this week we are sponsored by Di's Digis who are offering a $10 gift certificate for their online shop - lovely!

For this week's challenge I decided to take a pause from my last minute frantic Christmas card making (I have somehow managed to make no less than 37 simple Chrimbo cards in the past 10 days!!), so I took the opportunity to make a card for my boss who will be celebrating her 50th birthday over the New Year.  (She's not into cardmaking so I think I'm safe to post it on here!! ... but as it is the only card I've had time to make with Promarker colouring it just has to be done regardless!!)

I adore this FF stamp and think he is very versatile for celebratory occasions. I made an A5 card to make it a  bit more special, but cut away the front of the card and then lined the inside of the  with Bazzill, punched out to form a border on the right hand side.

I also had my first go with my new Bow-Easy which I bought a couple of weeks ago from Bunny Zoe's Crafts. Took me  a little while to get the hang of it, but once I'd viewed this great Youtube video I was up and running ...and although you can't see it too well I actually made my first ever double loop bow - yay!

Stamps: Forever Friends;

Media: Flexmarkers (Capuccino, Champagne, Tea Rose, Pink Pearl); Promarkers (Sandstone, Ivory); Stickles on flowers and champagne bubbles;

Papers: Crafty Individuals "Springtime" pad;

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

Tools: large oval and large scalloped oval nestabilities; Martha Stewart "wildflowers" PATP; Crafts Too "daisies" embossing folder; Cuttlebug "Hippie Chick" alphabet dies for numbers.

Challenges:

Paper Sundaes #100 - Celebrate!

Passion For Promarkers #129 - Celebrations (2nd entry)
Secret Crafter #165 - New Year / Celebration

(I have chosen celebration)

Penny Black & More At Allsorts (December) - Happy Birthday! (2nd entry)
CES #66 - Party, Party, Party!

Totally Papercrafts #97 - Time To Party!

Sparkles - Anything But A Christmas Card

Crafty Pad #152 - Anything But Christmas

Corrosive #139 - Anything But Christmas

Sweet Stampin' - Sparkle & Bling

 (sparkly holographic silver card, sparkly champagne ;-) and Stckles on flowers)

Fussy & Fancy #52 - Monochromatic & Sparkle
Pollycraft #121 - Punch It!

Hotshot Crafts #1 - Promarkers (3rd entry)

Everybody Art #173 - Anything Goes

Really Reasonable Ribbon #38 - Anything Goes + Ribbon

Look forward to seeing all your creations - Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year from the I ♥ ProMarkers DT!

 

Penny Black Saturday #182 - Make A Tag

Good afternoon peeps ... my goodness I'm running late today with the latest Penny Black Saturday Challenge - so I'll get straight to business!!

Today's challenge is our last for 2011, so I hope you'll be able to join us. Many thanks to everyone who has joined in last week's challenge, and indeed all the PBSC challenges throughout this year. We will be back on Saturday 7th January 2012 - raring to go with another year of fab Penny Black Challenges.

In the meantime, this week's theme is an easy peasy one for a last minute Christmas make ....

Make A Tag

We have another fab prize for a randomly drawn winner - a cling stamp and three sheets of stickeroos from the DT :-)

Don't forget that to be eligible for the prize you need to use a Penny Black stamp, large sentiment or stickeroo on your creation.

The rest of the DT have made some stunning samples to inspire you - mine is (as you've guessed already) a rather last minute effort and I'm not altogether pleased with it (my sentiment went smudgy!!) but here it is anyway ...

Stamps: Penny Black "Solitaire" (3241K); Inkadinkado (Holly swirls); Woodware sentiment;

Media: flower watercoloured with Marvey markers and spritzed with water; TH distress inks in Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters;

Supplies: teeny gems from The Hobby House.

Challenges:

Charisma #49 - Last Minute Christmas

Paperplay #50 - Christmas

Crafts and Me - Christmas

Anything Goes #56 - Anything But A Card

Ooh-La-La #95 - Anything But A Card

Craft Your Passion #88 - Tag You're It!

Hope you can join us - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the PBSC DT :-)