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Sunday 26 April 2015

Wendy's Kisses & Daisy Wishes at Little Darlings Rubber Stamps

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend.
I'm here with my 2nd post for Little Darlings Rubber Stamps and I have a super cute share for you today. I've actually had this card scheduled for weeks now, because I made it for a special friend's birthday at the end of March, get me being so far ahead!

I used Wendy's Kisses and Daisy Wishes, isn't she sweet?!

I went for blue and white, (unusual for me), because I chose this Pion paper which I thought worked so well with the daisies. So much so that I also paper pieced her dress. Behind the flowers you can see the Lovely View die peeking out and I also used a sentiment from the Vintage Affections - Friends sentiment set.  I've popped a list of the items used from my favourite stores at the end of my post.



I coloured Wendy with my Distress Ink and Aquatint markers.

Colours used

Skin: Vintage Photo
Hair Walnut Stain, Gathered Twigs
Dress: Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire, Slate (AQT)


A few little close ups.



I'm entering the following challenges:

Live & Love Crafts - Signs of Spring
Challenge up your Life - Watercolour
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Add a sentiment.

That's all from me today, I do hope you're having a lovely weekend and I'll see you soon! :) xx

Friday 24 April 2015

Emma - Rockin' at Dies to Die for

Happy Friday everyone! Well yet again I'm glad to get to the end of another manic week, so much going on at work lately, it's hard even to find the time to take a lunch bread, which is a shame because that's sometimes when I get to do a bit of colouring or some stitching on a card.

Anyway as it's Friday that means it's time for my regular Dies to Die for inspiration post.  It's not often that I get some time to try something different, but I've seen a couple of my friends make rocker cards recently and I thought I'd like to have a try.

Honestly they are very simple, my only problem was that I don't have a large circle die, so I had to go with an oval, which works fine, you just have less space to embellish and it's more difficult to get it stable when displaying it (the rocking part works just fine lol). I will have to try making one of these again once I invest in some large circle dies. [I know a Sillouhette or similar would cut them, but I honestly don't have the space for one in my little craft corner]

Anyway this is how it ended up looking


I kept my design fairly simple as there wasn't tons of space. The strip of paper from the bottom of the paper sheet made a pretty border edged by some pearl trim and under that some lovely lace.  A beautiful bow, one of my favourite embellishments. I managed to fit a few flowers in on the other side and underneath that I added one of the lovely new polymer frames that Tracy has in stock from Scrapberry's. These come in a set of 4 and are very inexpensive. They come in plain white but I fancied mine up with a little frantage, doesn't it look wonderful?


I coloured Emma up with my distress ink and Aquatint markers.
A few close ups for you, isn't that little frame fab?

 I used the following Dies to Die for  products to make my card


This card is available to buy in my Etsy store, just follow the link below
This card is now sold.

ETSY

That's all from me today, have a wonderful weekend! :) xx

Tuesday 21 April 2015

Zoe in Paris, Shaped Cards at Deep Ocean Challenge

Good evening (insert correct greeting for time zone here), it's time for a new challenge over at 
and for this fortnight the theme is

Shaped Cards

You can use any image (or no image at all) but it must be a card and it must be shaped (so no squares or rectangles and yes I know they're a shape but we're looking for a shape that's different from the standard).

Now anyone who has been following me for a while will know that this is not a hard theme for me.  I do love a shaped card, in fact I think I must make shaped cards more than square even. So to give myself a bit of an extra challenge, I decided to make another easel card. My friend and team mate Jenny makes the most amazing easel cards as does another friend from another DT Gina , but they are not something I make a lot of, partly because of the extra time involved, but I do love them.

I decided to colour up Zoe, from Saturated Canary, with distress inks to match these gorgeous papers that came in my Dies to Die for DT pack.  I have had to restrain myself from buying a pad of these simply because I have so much paper and so little space lol, but honestly I'm not sure how long I'll be able to resist, they are sooooo pretty and so versatile!


Instead of putting the usual tag or label shape in the middle to old the 'easel' back, I decided to carry on the photography theme on the front to the inside and used these die cuts at the sides to lock the card behind, I'm quite pleased with how it came out.


Zoe is such a gorgeous image,  this digi cames in a pack of 5 and they are all gorgeous!  I blew her up reasonably large and cropped her, then once she was coloured in I fussy cut her and placed her so she looks like she is about to step out of a photo.  The polaroid die and all the accessory dies came from the .....La-La Land Club Kit. It's no longer available but this set of dies from the November 2014 kit,  should be released sometime after November 2015, so look out for them! The love die is also from La-La Land but not part of a club kit, so you can get that now, it come as part of a set with the Hanging Hearts Dies.


This is a view of what the card looks like when it's closed.
A few close ups for you.

I used the following products
from Saturated canary

Spring Pack - 5 Digitals

 from Dies to Die for

Dovecraft Sweet Paris 6 x 6 Pad
La-La Land Hanging Hearts and Love Word 

 from The Ribbon Girl

9 mm Rose Pink Velvet Ribbon
38 mm Phoebe White Guipure Lace
Pretty Blossom Pink
Sweetheart Blossom White
Tulip Flower Baby Pink
Tulip Flower White
Hip Rose Bud Pale Pink
Chrysanth White Kort & Godt

This card is for sale in my Etsy store

This card is now sold.

ETSY

I've entered this card into the following challenge:

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - Use a Die Cut
Crafty Catz - It's a Girl Thing


That's it from me today, don't forget to visit the rest of the team, they've made some truly stunning cards, and do join in with our challenge, we can't wait to see what you make!

Happy crafting! :) xx

Friday 17 April 2015

Baby Marci at Dies to Die for

Happy Friday everyone! Just a few (well quite a few lol) hours and it will be the weekend! Yay!  This week has been soooo busy at work, you know how it is, you have some holiday and the work is all piled up and a mess to clear through when you return.  What happened to it being quieter over the Easter holidays?! 

Anyway, I managed to make this card last week when I was on my hols and I have to say that I love the way it came out. Baby Marci is a fave of mine and these papers from Carta Bella....well what can I say, I had to really restrain myself from buying extra pads lol, I still may cave in, they are just sooooo pretty and such a nice change from the usual mainly pink (though there's enough pink in there too to please).

I kept my decorations fairly restrained (for me!) because I really did not want to cover too much of the lovely paper.

I've popped links to the items used at the end of my post.


I coloured Baby Marci with Distress Ink and Aquatint markers.

Skin: Vintage Photo
Hair Antique Linen
Clothing, Accessories and Bunny: Spun Sugar, Rose Pink (AQT), Victorian Velvet, Evergreen Bough, Slate (AQT), Brushed Cordury,




Products from Dies to Die for

La-La Land Rocking Horse
Feet Charm

Ribbon Girl embellishments

Clementine Lace
3mm Satin Ribbon Aqua
3mm Satin Ribbon Pink
Small Pink Spotty Button
Celery Green Ruffle Edge Sheer Ribbon

and yes, I've been getting a little creative with my photo editing. I've been trying out picmonkey and I have to say that so far I'm loving it!

This card is for sale in my Etsy store just follow the link below
This card is now sold.

ETSY

I do hope you like my make today, I hope your Friday is a good one and I'll see you again soon! :) xx





Monday 13 April 2015

Laila at Little Darlings Rubber Stamps

Happy Monday! Well I'm not so happy that I'm back to work today lol, but I'm super super happy that this is my first official post for Little Darlings Rubber Stamps!!
I still can't quite get over that I was asked to join the team, I mean have you seen the line up? Sooo much talent in one spot ...and then there's little old me quaking in the corner hehe.

I did have such a hard time deciding which Little Darlings stamp to use on my first project for them and they are all so delicious but this one has been jumping up and down shouting 'chose me' at me for a little while now.
She's Laila from the Dollhouse Premiere collection, these girls are all sooooo gorgeous and adorable, and you will not be able to contain yourself when you see the new release of these, oh my, so lucious!
(I do have to mention that I had the Eric Clapton song running around my head for DAYS, after colouring up this cutie)

So I stamped her up with Versafine Onyx Black ink on Canson Montval watercolour paper and coloured her up with my Distress Ink and Spectrum Aquatint Markers. I've listed the colours for you below, and at the end of my post are a list of links to the products I used from my favourite shops.


Colours used
Skin: Tea Dye, Barn Door, Tattered Rose
Hair: Antique Linen, Gathered Twigs
Clothing: Scarlet (AQT), Evergreen Bough, Evergreen (AQT), Leaf Green (AQT), Wild Honey, Sunset AQT


I thought this paper looked so perfect for her and I used colours to match. As I thought this card would be suitable for many different occasions, I added a non specific sentiment. 'For Someone Special' from the Vintage Affections - Love set.  The fabulous new Dewdrop Circle die was perfect as a background for both image and sentiment.

I used the following items from my favourite shops on my card:

Yellow Seam Binding

I do hope you like my first post for Little Darlings, do hop across to the Little Darlings Blog, it's full of beauties from the rest of the uber talented design team (we also have a group for those of you on Facebook).
Enjoy the rest of your Monday whatever you're doing and I'll see you again soon! :) xx


Sunday 12 April 2015

Orchids - Use Ribbon/Lace at The Ribbon Girl


Happy Sunday everyone, I hope you're enjoying your weekend, I'm busy getting everything sorted ready to go back to work tomorrow, my break was lovely, but my goodness it seemed to hurtle by.

I'm here today to share my card for the new 'Any Image' challenge over at The Ribbon Girl and this week the theme is Ribbon or Lace.......not a hard one for me eh? :P  You can find all the rules on the blog.

I went for ribbon (though I also used lace) and thought I'd do something a little different from how I normally use it, so I chose 3 colours from my image/papers and ordered some of the very pretty narrow satin ribbon that Mary and Andrea stock. It's just 3 mm wide and I've used it here in loops among my flowers in the same way that I would use twine. It gives such a pretty effect. 


The gorgeous image is by Jeremiah Ketner, I have been chomping at the bit to colour up some of his artwork!  This one is called Orchids and it's just divine, love his work!

I coloured it up with my distress ink markers and I've totally forgotten what colours I used here! I do know that the hair is Evergreen Bough mostly and that the skin is Vintage Photo.

I tried something a little different on her hair and outlined the edges with a Sakura Stardust pen in Clear Star, I was inspired to do this by the fact that on Jeremiah's paintings he uses a lighter colour on the edges of the hair strands to really make them pop, and it made me think of Elise Dinolfo's white gel pen technique. The gel pens I have never seem to work well though (must remember to buy myself a Sakura one) so I used a Star Dust one instead.
Now I have to say I was holding my breath the whole time as I really did not want to ruin my already coloured image, and it could have gone so horribly wrong.....so, you might want to experiment on a practice coloured piece first lol!  It really does look lovely in real life, the camera (or my photography skills do not do it justice here.

The lovely paper is from a Kaisercraft pad, I've used an old Doily Flower Doo Hickey die and a Cherry Blossom branch from La-La Land Crafts.

I used the following Ribbon Girl goodies on my card, and I've added the links so you can click on and go straight to the item in the store.


You can buy amazing butterflies like this one from Karla's Kreative Korner

If you'd like to see more of Jeremiah's work (make a drink and set aside some time, there's lots to delight the eyes) you can find him here. If you want to try your hand at colouring one of his images you can find digital stamps of his work on his Etsy shop here. This won't be the last of his I colour, I have plans for a 'few' more lol.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the team's amazing makes, and we'd love to see you enter the challenge!

That's all from me for today, time to go and do some ironing, see you soon! :) xx


Tuesday 7 April 2015

Seraphina - Things with Wings at Deep Ocean Challenge

Good evening everyone (or whatever time it is for you when you read this). I hope everyone had a lovely Easter. I'm still in holiday mode here but my goodness it's going fast.

It's time for a new challenge over at Deep Ocean, and this time we want to see things with wings....so think, fairies, angels, butterflies, birds, bees .....basically if your creation has wings on it it's good for the challenge.

I used a stamp that I've had sitting in my collection un-inked for simply ages. I must admit that I have a lot of stamps with wings so it wasn't an easy choice to make, but as this had wings in the form of angel wings and lots of cute little birds, I thought she deserved an outing :)

I've listed some of the products used at the end of my post.


I inked up Seraphina Angel and for a change I used my Copics. I must admit to feeling quite rusty with them, I seem to colour 90% of my images with watercolour inks lately.

Skin: E13. E11, E00, E000, E4
Hair and Birds: E40, E42, E44, E47, W0, W2
Clothing and Wings: RV10, RV91, RV93, RV95, RV99, W0, W2, W5, W7



I added some dies cuts using dies from La-La Land and  Magnolia, and added some beautiful Prima bling. I can't remember where the ribbon came from, I found it in my stash, I think it's been there a while. The gorgeous flowers are from The Ribbon Girl.


I decorated the inside very simply with more of these beautiful strokable papers from Maja, I love them but they are so pretty I do have a hard time cutting into them....deep breaths Linda, deep breaths......this collection is actually reduced at the mo, time to stock up!

Products Used:

Kraftin' Kimmie - Seraphina Angel
Prima Say it in Crystal - Vintage Swirl, Clear/Dark Grey (I coloured some stones pink with a marker)

The word Dream is cut from a LDRS Vintage Senitments set



Well that's all from me today, but don't forget to pop over the blog to see my lovely team mates wonderful makes!

TTFN! :) xx

Friday 3 April 2015

Gothica at Dies to Die for


Happy Good Friday everyone. If it's a holiday for you I hope you get to spend a lovely day....I now have 10 days without work...woohoo! Lots of crafting to be done methinks ;) I also want a good sort out of all my crafting stuff, I think it's taking over lol!

Anyway I'm here today with a bit of inspiration for you (I hope you find it inspiring anyway), and I must admit 2 things. 1 is that I've had these butterflies for like ....forever! I bought them because I loved them and then I just haven't gotten around to making the right project to use them on (I had an idea of the type of thing I wanted to do).

2 is that I fell in love with this stamp as soon as it was released, but again, time just wasn't my friend, I thought right away that she would go perfectly with these butterflies...she does, don't you think?

I've coloured her with my distress inks, colours are listed below and there are links at the end of my post to products used on my card.


Distress Ink Markers

Skin: Vintage Photo, Barn Door, Festive Berries
Hair: Pumice Stone, Black Soot
Clothing: Pumice Stone, Black Soot, Fired Brick, Festive Berries


I went for a Victorian Gothic look on the card, well with a name like Gothica I just had to didn't I?
Her dress has lashings of sparkle with some black stickles but I just couldn't get it to sparkle on camera. I added a clock behind her and a chandelier, I thought they really helped to set the scene. Lots of cheesecloth and a finishing of Gesso help to set the mood.


The lovely edging on the card is made by using 4 strips of the border die on the front and 3 on the inside. Use a fairly thick stiff card if you want to do this or it will collapse under the weight of your finished card.

I used the following Dies to Die for products:


I used the following embellishments from The Ribbon Girl:


The unusual and gorgeous butterflies are from Karla's Kreative Korner.

Well that's all from me for today, I'm off to visit some blogs I've neglected, ahh to have time....bliss! Hope you all have a lovely Easter! :) xx