Saturated Canary, Vintage Violet with a Twist of Lime

Good afternoon to all my lovely followers and those just dropping by, and a big welcome to my newest followers.  I'll admit I'm like a big kid and I always get really excited when I see that the number counter has gone up :)  

I am feeling quite a bit better today, I just need to get rid of this chesty cough now, but I did sleep more this weekend and feel more lively.

I have a card to share with you today, this one I made just because I love the image and that was enough to inspire me. I hope you like it.

I seem to have a thing for lime this week don't I lol, but it goes so well with these deep purples.

The image is Vintage Violet from Saturated Canary, I've coloured her up with my Copics.

Skin: E000, 00, 11, R20, 11

Hair: E50, 51, 53, 55

Clothing: V99, 95, 93, 91, YG06, 03, 00, W05, 03, 02, 0

I finished off the image with small small spots of Liquid Pearls in Key Lime (this one doesn't get out much lol)

Papers used are Pion, Almas Sewing Room....so beautiful...if only you could tell under all the embellishments lol.  I've used several die cuts the Clock is from Cheery Lyn, the Swirls are Doo Hickey, the oval frame is Spellbinders and the button border is from Memory Box (I actually forgot I had this one and it works great for this card, I must use it more often)

The large pearl brad and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts except the white daisy which is from the Ribbon Girl as are the pearl beads, lace and top stitch thread.

The small crystal brads, pearls and the charm are from Live and Love Crafts, everything else is from stash, including the buttons which echo the ones on her dress.

I decorated the inside quite simply with coordinating paper from the collection, it leaves plenty of space for writing a message so I didn't add a mat.

I'll be popping this into my Etsy store later today.

*This card has now been sold*

I hope you liked my share for today, I really enjoyed making this one and the image was a joy to colour.

I'll be entering this card for the following challenges:

2 Sisters Anything Goes

Crazy for Challenges Use Bows

Digi Designs Colouring Skills

Drunken Stampers Die Cuts

7 Kids ATG Twist of Marker

Chocolate Coffee & Cards  Flowers

Fussy and Fancy  Punches and Dies

Cute Card Thursday Pretty Ribbons

Creative Belli Ribbons and Pearls

Fab and Funky  Button it Up

Hope you're all enjoying your weekend and I'll be back soon :) xx

Happy Birthday Crafty Catz!

Goooood morning folks, I hope you're having a great Friday.  This is a scheduled post as I'm stuck at work (I'd rather be crafting lol), but the weekend is soon upon us and then I can play with my stamps, dies and papers!

Anyhooooooo on to the reason that I'm here today, 

 is having a birthday!! 4 years ago today our challenge blog started, so Happy Birthday Crafty Catz! If that isn't enough reason to celebrate this is our 200th Challenge, how cool is that?!! :D

To celebrate we are giving away extra prizes this week, instead of one sponsor and one prize we have 3!! Yup you heard it right people, 3 fab prizes

 

 

....but wait there's more, not only will we have 3 prizes drawn by sexy Mr Random,  but ALSO, each of our top 3 will also win a prize 

 we're really celebrating in style.

Just to put the cherry on the top....if we reach 200 entries, Carol will add yet another prize.....wow, prizes enough to satisfy anyone there I would think :)

So onto our challenge.......since it's our birthday what else could our challenge be but to create a birthday card.  The style etc is completely up to you BUT it must have some kind of birthday sentiment on the card.

I'm so glad I made my card ahead of time last weekend, as I've been struggling with this chesty cold and not sleeping too well with the coughing and the wheezing, just about getting through the day at work lol, but hopefully I'm on the mend now and can finish a few projects this weekend.

For my card this week I wanted to do something Cat....or should that be Catz ...themed.

Here's my interpretation.

I wanted to do something quite sassy to suit the image so I chose to use some lime green to offset the pink.  The papers are from the Maja Crea Diem collection (one of my favourite collections).  I distressed them lightly and inked them with Walnut Stain then stitched them with some green top stitching thread for a bit of contrast. I  also used green jute ribbon behind the image and a little cheesecloth. I do think I printed the image out a little bit on the large side lol, but I'm still pretty happy with the way this looks.  I wanted something fun and eye catching and I think this ticks both boxes.

Dies used were La La Land Crafts Scallop Border, Spellbinders Ovals, Spellbinders Large Decorative Ovals and Magnolia Doohicky Bloomy Tag.

I love this girl in her Cat hat, isn't she cute?! She's called Kitty Kat Marci, from La La Land Crafts, this is a digi, but she's also available as a rubber stamp too, if you want the stamp you can get her from BunnyZoe Crafts. I coloured her up with my Copics 

Skin: E000, 00, 11, R20, 11

Clothes: R59, 85, 83, 81, YG00, 03, 06, W5, 3, 2, 0

Hair: E40, 41, 43, 47

Flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, I didn't use many this time as I wanted the paper to show, so they just create a 'pop' of colour. 

The Seam Binding is from the ribbon girl, I just wet it and scrunched it up and dried it with the hairdryer.  It's attached to a tag, which you'll see in a later photo.

I decorated the inside to complement the front.

Here's the tag I mentioned which just slides in behind the matting.  The sentiment is stamped with one of the stamps from the Whimsy Film Strip Sentiments set. The little Scrabble style tiles are stamped with Whimsy's Spell it Out Alphabet set.  Both of these sets were from BunnyZoe Crafts. Both sentiments have been stamped with Walnut Stain distress ink to match the edging. I finished off the card with a few flatback pearls, a couple of heart pins and some small Prima pearl flourishes.

I do hope you enjoyed my card and that it's inspired you to come have a go at our challenge this week.  Do drop by and check out the rest of the DTs creations, they really have pulled out all the stops this week as we celebrate.

I'll be entering this card in the following challenges:

Inky Chicks - Pretty in Pink
Papertake Weekly - Sketchie Free for All #51
Crafting When We Can - Seasons (Spring colours)
Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes Birthday
The Sisterhood of Crafters - Tag You're It
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Pollycraft Challenges - Birthday Girls
Pile it On - Warm or Cool Colours - Cool
Paper Shelter - Stitching
Crafty Creations - Split the Sentiment
Crafting by Designs - Anything Goes

Have fun!!  :)xx

Saturated Canary Honey, Shabby Chic Style

Good morning lovely crafty folk.  Today I'm suffering from a very heavy cold, it started early in the week and I got sent home yesterday afternoon (think they got sick of my ridiculously loud sneezing lol), so I'm not entirely sure I'll get anything made today...BUT, I've been super organised the last couple of weeks and gotten very ahead of myself and have a card already made and another half done....get me!!

I've gone back to taking images into work to colour in my lunch break, and that really helps cut down on the time needed.

This one was made with the latest SC Challenge in mind which is Shabby Chic.

This card is like a super saver deal lol and I used some Magnolia paper I bought on sale and the image was bought when Krista was having a flash sale in her store, with all her digis at 40% off with a code, I'll admit I bought a few different images that day, I love Krista's images and I couldn't resist at that kind of saving, I know I'll use them all eventually : )  
I matted her onto a  small scrap of Crea Diem collection from Maja and matted all DP onto teal coloured cardstock.  All papers were distressed and sewn and inked. I've used the edges of a doily and some cheesecloth behind the image.

This little beauty is called Honey, isn't she gorgeous?

I must admit I took liberties with image (I hope Krista doesn't mind), as she was drawn with a toy rabbit at her feet, but I cut it off as I didn't want her to appear too young. I used a little Glamour Dust to sparkle up her underskirt.

Here you can see some of the flowers I used, and also some die cut swirls and pearl flourish.  (You can also see ..just..some ribbon, lace and a strip from a Maja paper sheet that I seem to have once again almost covered up *sigh)

A view of the bow I added, I added a second bow on top with a scrap of ribbon i had left over and held them all together with a pearl brad. There are more die cut swirls underneath.

I decorated the inside to complement the front. 
To finish the card I added some pearls in graduated sizes, coloured with my Copics to match the image and added several die cut butterflies decorated with some tiny copic coloured pearls. Then I brushed the flowers and some of the edges and swirls with a little white acrylic paint.

I used the following:

Design Paper: Magnolia Special Moments and Maja Crea Diem
Dies & Punches: Go Kreate Frilly /XXL Frilly No 5 and Magnolia Leaf and Swirl (just the Swirl) from BunnyZoe Crafts, X-Cut Butterfly Punch
Image: (Digi) Saturated Canary 'Honey' by Krista Smith 
 Inks/Paint:  Ranger Black Soot Distress Ink and White Acrylic Paint
Colouring Medium: Copic Ciao and Sketch pens ( I buy mine from Sir Stampalot and BunnyZoe Crafts)
Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts (rolled paper roses are from The Ribbon Girl)
Ribbon/Lace:Pink Berisford Satin Ribbon, Organza Pleated Ribbon and white lace all from The Ribbon Girl.
Other embellishments:  Black Top Stiching thread (TRG), pearls and Prima flourishes from BunnyZoe Crafts.

I'll be popping this card in my 



shop later today.


I'll be entering this card for the following challenges:

Saturated Canary - Shabby Chic
A Creative Romance - Dies or Punches
Hanna & Friends - Special Cardform
Fussy and Fancy - Punches and Dies
Addicted to Stamps -1-2-3 (1 Brad, 2 bows, 3 different size/colour pearls)
Copic Marker Europe - Photo Inspiration
Live & Love Crafts - Inspiration Collage
Inky Chicks - Pretty in Pink
Divas by Design - Anything Goes
7 Kids - Anything Goes with a twist of Vintage

That's it from me, if my sneezing and snuffling holds off enough today I may get some more crafting in, enjoy your day :) xx

Crafty Catz DT Card Challenge #199 Decoupage

Goooood morning Crafty folks, it's Friday and you know what that means?  Yup that's right, we have another super challenge for you over at Crafty Catz :)

This week it's the lovely Dianne's  turn to choose and she chose decoupage.  I'll admit this threw me a bit of a curved ball, the only decoupage I've ever done it when I first started making cards and bought one of those kits with the bits all printed up and stamped out ready to put together.  It kind of felt about as creative as painting by numbers, didn't feel like there was much of me going into it so I never did one again.

This time I wanted to try and do it properly myself, colouring the image and choosing which parts to build up. I don't think I did too badly all in all, there are some parts that could have been built slightly differently to improve the look, but I really had a lot of fun with it and I really didn't think I would at the start of the challenge lol. So this is what I created.

Those of you who follow my blog will recognise the papers as being the same as the ones I used on my Rosegarden Tilda at the weekend, yup I used up my leftovers lol, they're Maja Designs from the Shall we have Coffee' collection.  These were bought from Live & Love Crafts. All papers were distressed and inked with Walnut Stain DI then stitched. I used Frantage in Aged Wine on the edges of the die cuts.

I wanted to choose an image which wouldn't be too difficult to decoupage, ie: one that wasn't too intricate, and I thought this Tilda would be perfect.  I stamped her out 5 times in all and coloured up all the bits that would be on show with my Copics, shading the rest a mid grey.  I shaped the pieces with a flower tool on my embossing mat and layered them with a decoupage glue.

I added flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and some beautiful ribbon, seam binding, rolled roses and pearls from The Ribbon Girl.

Die cuts used were a spellbinders floral oval and oval nestie from Sir Stampalot and Whimsy mini corner die, and Magnolia So Wrapped Lovely both from BunnyZoe Crafts.  

The inside has been decorated to complement the exterior.

I do apologise for the photos, they're not quite up to my usual standard but with winter setting in I'm finding that I can only get decent shots at the weekend so I'm trying to find a decent lamp to take photographs without it costing me an arm and a leg lol

Anyhoo I do hope you like my creation this week, pop on over to Crafty Catz to see the rest of the design team's creations and give them some love, they've gone all out this week with some fabulous designs.  Don't be scared to have a go at this, it's much easier then you'd think and is really a lot of fun, and to encourage you to join in we have a fab prize from our Sponsor 

 

so come join in the fun!! :) xx

I'll be popping this card into my Etsy Store tonight

I'll be entering the following challenges:

Fashionista #1 Anything Goes
Crafty Sentiments - Fall/Autumn Colours
Midweek Magnolias - Autumn Colours
Lovely hAnglar - Favourite Embellishment (flowers/die cuts)



I'll do these tonight once I'm in from work :)

Autumnal Rose Garden Tilda

Good morning folks, I hope you all enjoyed your Saturday.  There was no lie in for me yesterday as I was up bright and early to get to the post office first thing, but I did get a lot done as I had lots of time to do it in.

I managed to get my DT card for next week all finished and blogged up ready to be scheduled and had enough time to do a bit more work on an ongoing project AND make a card for some challenges and I even got shopping and some housework done too, get me!!

Anyway here's the card I made.

I decided to go with a kraft base as I thought that gave it a nice autumn feel and I chose some paper by Maja from their Shall we have Coffee collection.  The colours made me think of autumn berries.

All the papers have been distressed and then the edges inked with distress ink in Tea Dye. They've all been stitched with Top Stitching thread in Nutmeg.

The watering can and flower seed packet come from a Pion  Vintage Garden - Seed Packets sheet.

The stamp I used is Rose Garden Tilda by Magnolia.  I've coloured her with my Copics as usual, I chose the colours to go with the paper and because I thought that they were lovely autumnal colours (some of the challenges I wanted to enter were based on using autumn colours).

Copics used were:

Skin: E000. 00, 11, R11, 20

Hair:  E11, 17, 19

Clothing & Flowers:  V91, 93, 95, 99, YR 20, 23, 24, E51, 53, 55

I used 4 different dies, Heart Border by La La Land Crafts, the leaf is from Leaf and Swirls by Magnolia (both from Bunny Zoe Crafts) and a plain and decorative Spellbinders nestie.

Lilac roses and rosebuds are from Wild Orchid Crafts, bling was old stuff from my stash and all other ebellies were from The Ribbon Girl.

I decorated the inside to complement the outside.

I do hope you enjoyed my share today, I had such fun making her and I'm popping her into my Etsy store.
*This card has now been sold*

I'm entering this card for the following challenges:

Totally Tilda  #80 Tilda Gardening with Seed Packet and/or Garden Tools

Stamp & Create with Magnolia  #18 Fall Feathers or Leaves

Midweek Magnolias  #73 Autumn Colours

Magnolia-licious  Bling it Up

Sketch & Stash   #121 

Enjoy your Sunday, I'm off around blogland to catch up on my commenting on people's lovely blogs  and I'll see you again soon!  :) xx

Crazy Catz DT Card: Challenge #198 Men's/Boys

Good morning crafty folks and anyone else who's reading this, it's Friiiiiiiday!! ....or at least it will be when this post goes live and I am just in the best of moods.   I've been having a super time with my crafting lately, lots of Top 3/Top 5 places, 2 invitations to GDT and.....drumroll....I made my first 2 sales on Etsy....I'm over the moon and then some :D :D

But enough about me and on to this week's challenge at Crafty Catz.

This week it's Kim's turn to choose and she chose Men's/Boys.  I must admit this one had me quaking in my boots lol, it's not often that I make masculine cards as I find them quite hard to do inspiration wise....so I was totally out of my comfort zone here lol.

I thought I'd go for something a little different to my normal coloured focal image, so this one didn't use a single Copic, shock horror!!

This is what I came up with...and the pictures are not great tbh, I'm really fighting with the lack of light lately so I think it's a trip to buy myself a photography lamp this weekend.

I had a printed  image and sentiment from Pink Petticoat that I wanted to use, but instead of printing the whole thing and using it that way, I printed the moustache, cut it out and then coated it in Glossy Accents to make it nice and shiny and 3dimensional and then once dry I used foam pads to mount it on a diecut made with a Spellbinders labels die.  I typed out the sentiment again using a different font and printed it off and cut it and curled it around the end of a paint brush, lightly distressed it and edged with Black Soot DI and then covered it in more Glossy Accents so that it would dry in the shape and end up hard and shiny.

The papers are from Glitz and Maja, I used a Die from Cherry Lyn to cut all the gears, some were embossed with silver embossing powder and the ones cut from green corrugated card were rubbed with a little distress ink. I distressed and stitched all the papers with green top stitching thread and added embellishments in the form of eyelets and small Tim Holtz brads that look like screws which I thought looked really cool.

A bit of a side on view showing the 3D elements.

I didn't decorate the inside this time as I wanted to keep things fairly simple and not too bulky.  I do really like the way it turned out but I have to say it does look much better in real life, but that's probably due to the photography and the lack of good lighting.  Anyway, I had a lot of fun making it and it's nice to do something different and get out of your comfort zone once in a while (but the card/s at the weekend will be totally girly lol!).

Do pop over to Crafty Catz and check out the rest of the DT's fab designs and join in the fun, we have a great prizes from our fab sponsors

and 

so come on over and give it a try! :) xx

Tiddly Inks Druscilla Art Nouveau Style

Hello crafters, I'm here again and this time with a card to share, yay!  Much better light today than yesterday so I finally managed to take some decent pics, they could be better, but then I'm never satisfied with my pictures lol.

Anyhoo...enough babbling and onto the card.

Ok I'm going to fess up here, this card had a mind of it's own.  I started out thinking I was going to something slightly Gothic/Romantic but by the time I was in full creative flow it ended up being quite (I think) Art Nouveau-esque, which I actually love. 

I have a mix of papers here, the main background is from DCWV, it's from the Black Currant stack and I've mixed it with Maja Design, Crea Diem Filled with Love, using both sides, Pink and Grey is one of my most favourite colour combos.  I distressed all the papers and inked them with Black Soot DI and a little Stickles in Black Diamond, (which sadly doesn't show in this photos),  and hand stitched them with Top Stitch thread.  

I used some Grey Satin Ribbon and some Black Lace on the base of the card and a little Cheesecloth behind the frame.

Dies used were Spellbinders Floral Ovals and Stately Circles, Magnolia Doo Hickey Leaf and Swirl (just the Swirl), and Memory Box Dancing Butterflies.

The image is Druscilla from Tiddly Inks, this one is a Digi, but she's also available as a clear stamp set which comes with sentiments.  I coloured her with Copics, details are here from my previous post.  I added a little glamour dust to her wings and around her to give her a magical feel and added some accents from a Sakura glitter pen and some crystal gems.

I also added gems to the swirls and around the frame, I must admit this card is rather more 'blingy' than my usual lol. I added some crystal bead string behind the flowers, love the effect of this dangling down.

I used Roses, Sweetheart Blossoms and Rolled Roses in various shades of pink and a sprinkling of butterflies to finish off.

The sentiment was typed and printed off.

I decorated the inside to complement the front, a little more elaborately than usual but I was in full flow lol.

Anyway that's my card finally shared with you, I enjoyed making this one sooo much I hope you will enjoy it too.

I recently opened an Etsy shop after much prodding from the other half...I think he's just scared the house will be overtaken by cards lol! 

So I'll be popping this card in there later along with some others, you can find the shop here. *This card has now been sold*

I'll be entering this card into the following challenges:

Tiddly Inks  #117 Saying Thanks

Paper Playtime #18 3 Different Papers

Cute Card Thursday #285 Pretty in Pink

Pile It On #35 All that Flickers 

Inky Chicks #12 Stitching

Copic Marker Europe #20 Favourite Colour/s

7 Kids #81 ATG with Twist of Marker

Papertake Weekly  Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps #63 Anything Goes

The ABC Challenge  U - Unlimited

Enjoy your weekend, whatever your decide to do with it, and I'll see you soon :) xx