Snowflakes in September!

Aaaaah... 'tis good to be getting back into the swing of things.  It's been a while since my energy and my mojo have worked together and I've been absent through necessity.  But I'm picking up my Copics again and slowly getting back to business, I hope.

And what better way to come back than with a Mo!?  This card is my entry for this week's One Stop Craft Challenge, where the theme this week is (you guessed it!) Snowflakes in September.

Image: Mo's Digital Pencil, 'Dani with Gifts'

Paper: October Afternoon, 'Ducks in a Row' collection

What a super image! This is perfect for any teenage girl or young woman - bright, fresh and happy. 

As soon as I saw Dani, I had this paper in mind.  I wanted to use the pink polkadot in particular - luck would have it that the reverse is this beautiful pink and grey design, which gave me the overall colour scheme for the image.  It was easy, peasy, lemon-squeezy to get this one done! What a welcome relief, after all the mojo-less days I've spent over the last few weeks. 

Pink and grey reminds me very much of the 1980s - even home decor ventured into this particular colour combo - including my bedroom!  So it must be time for a comeback - everything else '80s' is returning, including some of the more, er, questionable fashion statements! I mean, did we ever really look good in harem pants!?

I coloured Dani up with my Copics, of course (and she even has grey eyeshadow on!) and the light blue glow was added with my Prismacolor pencils, as always. I added some sparkle to the snowflakes and (although I don't think the main picture has picked it up very well), some sparkle to the edge of the image and underfoot. 

A bit of colour with her packages just lifts the image, which might otherwise have been a bit too pink and grey, and a nice pink satin bow adds the finishing touch!

So, I'm off to link up before bedtime - early nights these days, dear Bloglanders!

Happy crafting.
xx

Lucky Seven at Karen's Doodles!

Gosh! Is it really Monday again? I'm sure someone stole last week, time is running by so quickly!

Wasn't last week's blog hop fun?  Thank you for all the wonderful comments you left - don't forget to check whether you were a winner, will you.

So here we are with our next Karen's Doodles Challenge. This week we need to see 7 (seven) of something - flowers, gems, buttons, ribbons, whatever you choose, just give us seven of them!  The Design Team have come up with some wonderful samples again, so be sure to stop by my Teamies' blogs and leave some love.

Karen has recently released a whole range of fantastic Fall images, which you can find here. I love them - I love Fall (autumn, here in the UK) in fact, the colours are so rich and beautiful.  So I though I'd celebrate the beginning of autumn (21st September) with my card this week:

Images: Karen's Doodles, 'Scarecrow Boy' and 'Pumpkins'

Paper: Scenic Route

I decided to use '7 of ' several things this week - if you look closely (and you can only see a little of the 7th one), there are 7 pumpkins, 7 pumpkin tops and, of course, 7 autumn leaves in the bottom right-hand corner.

I used two images this week - three, really, if you count adding Pumpkins twice.  With a little careful editing in Paint.net, I manged to get Scarecrow Boy to stand among several pumpkins! Of course, this then leaves a lot of background to cover and I was wondering how I could do this when I remembered Sandy Hulsart's tip for adding a gradient background.  I was so impressed with the background idea that Sandy used on her scarecrow card, that I decided to have a go at my own version.  Mine is a single-colour background and is probably easier seen in the close-up shot. I must say, Sandy, this is a great way to colour a big background on a scene such as this - hope you don't mind me stealing your idea! 

I think I've limited my palette a little too much on this one - I could have brightened things up a little but I really wanted the pumpkins/squashes to stand out and I feel I've really achieved that.  I love these images! 

Using my leave spray punch, I added leaves to the tops of the pumpkins for extra detail.  As the main image is so vibrant (with all that orange and the blue background!), I decided to keep the card quite minimal, so only covered half the card in DP, leaving the other half as plain kraft.  I then decided it looked too bare and cut out, marked, chalked and bent
7 autumn leaves to cluster one corner. 

So there you have it - my 7 things.  And now it's your turn. Use a Karen's Doodles image and show us your lucky 7. There will be three winners, as usual:


* 1st place winner of 3 digi stamps of your choice from Karen's Doodles will be awarded by merit. The Design Team members will vote for their favorite entry and the winner will also get a Card of the Week blinkie to display on their blog.

Both 2nd and 3rd place winners will be chosen by Random.org and the prizes will be:

* 2nd place winner - 2 Digi stamps of your choice from Karen's Doodles.
* 3rd place winner - 1 Digi stamp of your choice from Karen's Doodles.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Happy crafting.
xx

Thank You - or should I say ....

It's been a few days and I'm still feeling a little less than creative, my dear Bloggy Friends.  Hopefully normal service will resume at the weekend, once this tiring week is out of the way and I've managed to grab some zzzzzzzzzzs!

Just Inklined have released lots of new images recently - you really should go see.  This one tickled me so much that I just had to use it:

Image: Just Inklined, 'Daisy and Watson'

Papers: Cosmo Cricket, 'Early Bird' collection

This is darling Daisy Bumblethorpe, daughter of Bertha and Aubrey and the happy gardener of the family.  She's in her element when pulling weeds and won the prize at the local show for 'Best Marrow' - which weighed in at an impressive 20 lbs!  What a big one, Daisy!

Although Daisy knows the importance of good fertiliser, she is less than impressed about dealing with Watson's natural habits on their daily walk! Oh, the embarrassment!

I had no choice but to turn this into a 'Thank you' card, really!  The minute I saw this image the words 'grassy-ass' came to mind! He-he! 

Coloured her up with my Copics, and added the grass and the 'glow' with my Prismas.  Then I went in with some darker Prismas and added some more texture to the grass.  Daisy has Sakura glazed glasses and wellingtons - unfortunately, I couldn't capture them very well on the photo but they look good IRL!

Right, off to add this to the Just Inklined blog, as part of my Guest Designer stint and then I'm going to eat! I'm soooo hungry!

Happy crafting.

xx

Hopping Around at Karen's Doodles!

Today is an exciting day for me ... it's my very first Karen's Doodles blog hop!  And what makes it even more special is that we are hopping along with Karen's Doodles Kids Blog, too, so be sure to leave the young ones some love too!

So, if you've arrived here from Pernille's blog then you're on the right track.  If not, why not hop back to Lori's blog and start at the beginning - you wouldn't want to miss anything along the way!

The blog hop will kick off this week's challenge, which is 'Lace' -  we want you to put some of the pretty stuff on your projects this week and join in with the fun!  We've got lots of new ways to win this week (for the blog hop only!) - leave as many comments as you can along the way because we will be awarding digi image prizes to people chosen at random from those who comment.  And if you are a random winner and you've also entered this week's challenge, your prize will DOUBLE! How wonderful is that!?

So, without further ado, here's my little bit of inspiration for you this week:

Image: Karen's Doodles, 'Winter Angel'

Paper: Scenic Route, 'Garland'; ivory glitter card

It was the paper that first gave me the idea of this lace 'burst'.  I liked the flower/snowflake/star mix and realised that the guipure lace I had would work wonderfully well in the same way, if I detached each 'drop' from the next, which took quite a bit of snipping, I must say!

I love blue and brown together, particularly with rich cream, so that's what I chose to do with this beautiful image.  I added gold for her wings, which I then picked up in the additional ribbon across the centre. A little glitter finished her off.

And there's even more news today.  In addition to our normal 3 winners, the Design Team will also pick a favorite entry who will be invited to join us as a Guest Designer for the month of October.

And now it's time to hop over to Tanjaak's blog to see what wonderful inspiration she has for you. If you get lost along the way, you can always return to the Challenge blog for a complete list of blogs to visit.

All winners will be announced on Tuesday 28 September.

Enjoy hopping and don't forget to leave comments along the way to be in with a chance to win.

Happy crafting.
 xx

Mo's Dream Team Project of the Month Blog Hop!

Hello Mo Fans! Another month has whizzed by (and how!) and it's time for the Dream Team to inspire and delight you with their Project of the Month.  This month it's all about 'Clean and Simple (CAS)' and, boy oh boy, this was really a challenge.   If you've arrived here from Liza's blog you're on the right path; if not, why not hop back to Lori's blog and start from the beginning so that you don't miss any of the wonderfulness along the way.

So, back to the challenge that was 'clean and simple'.  Moons ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I first started making cards (he-he), everything I did was clean and simple - very minimal, very chic and very simple.  Time passed and when I returned to card making last year, I discovered digistamps, and, most particularly, Mo and my clean and simple went out of the window.  And that's where it stayed so it was very difficult to get it to come back in when I needed it as it felt entirely unloved!  And with my mojo wandering and my clean and simple sulking, I was left to my own devices and this is what I came up with:

Image: Mo's Digital Pencil, 'I Love Ya, Tomorrow'; text by Create with TLC

So, could you get cleaner and more simple?  I suppose that, technically, the ribbon/bow shouldn't be there but I just had to have something to jazz it up! 

I love this image - Daughter is a curly readhead (when she hasn't had the straighteners out!) and when she was little she looked so much like little Annie!  And yes, we did encourage her to sing 'Tomorrow', which she did in such a sweet little voice.  Aaah - good times.

I created a background for the card by using my Scor-pal equivalent and scoring a pattern (look reeeeallly closely!) of squares and diamonds.  The image and text were merged in Paint.net, where I also turned her dress into red polkadots!  I then printed her out and coloured her skin and hair, adding shading to the dress and colouring up her pretty red shoes.  No Prismacolor this time (shock! horror!), just a simple warm grey outline. Oooh, I had to work sooo hard to get so little to look anything like right!

So you'll want to be hopping off to see what the wonderfully talented Debbie has for you today - it's bound to be something scrumptious.  In case you get lost along the way, here's the hop list in full:

Lori, Kerttu, Jak, Liza, Peri (that's me!), Debbie, Mina, Shell, Elaine and Rosette.

Enjoy the hop and Happy Crafting.
xx

Time to Cross Over to Karen's Doodles

Happy Monday all - it's the start of another week (already?!) and a new challenge at Karen's Doodles.  This week we're challenging you to make a criss-cross card and, in case you've never made one before, here's the tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers.  It's not a difficult card to get the hang of and it's easy to customise to suit any occasion. 

So, without further ado, here's my sample for you:

Image: Karen's Doodles, 'Born to Ride'

Paper: Black 'leather embossed' paper from (aged) stash!

Other: KDS Motor Company logo, put together on PC.

The moment I rediscovered this piece of paper, I knew it would be for this image.  The 'leather' embossing is perfectly reminiscent of an old leather panier bag and with the addition of a few brads it turned perfectly into the base for this card.

I transformed a black and white version of a well-known motorbike badge into the KDS (Karen's DoodleS) badge by adding some wings, and then, for the inside of the card, enlarged it and printed it as a watermark beneath the sentiment.

And I couldn't resist using this sentiment! It's what I used to say to an ageing, motorcycling friend of mine when he regaled me with stories of his speedy tours of North Yorkshire.  Mind you, this guy looks too cool and relaxed to speed, don't you think?

I coloured him up with my Copics and added the road and the 'glow' with my Prismas, as always but, very unusual for me, I distressed the edges of the image a little to give it some texture.

So, now it's your turn. Use a Karen's Doodles image and show us your criss cross cards. There will be three winners, as usual: 

* 1st place winner of 3 digi stamps of your choice from Karen's Doodles will be awarded by merit. The Design Team members will vote for their favorite entry and the winner will also get a Card of the Week blinkie to display on their blog.

Both 2nd and 3rd place winners will be chosen by Random.org and the prizes will be:

* 2nd place winner - 2 Digi stamps of your choice from Karen's Doodles.
* 3rd place winner - 1 Digi stamp of your choice from Karen's Doodles.

Don't forget to check out the wonderfulness of my Teamies' creations too - you'll not be disappointed!

Cross my fingers for lots of entries this week!
 
Happy crafting.


xx

Something Spooky This Way Comes ...

JUST INKLINED'S HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

Ready for another challenge?  The Just Inklined Design Team have put together some wonderfully spooky inspiration this month and we'd love you to join in with our Halloween Challenge.  There are now some wonderful new Halloween images available, so there's no excuse!

Here's my little bit of inspiration for you:

Image: Just Inklined, 'A Good Read'

But no papers!

This is a shadow box - not strictly a card, although it's more than possible to add something to the back to make it so.  But I wanted the effect of Witchy-poo being in her secret hideaway, and us looking in through a window, just being able to see her sitting there, preparing her spells.  (Yes, I know - mad, but hey!)

You'll see a bit better what I mean from the next photograph.

Can you see the depth now?  (Look harder - I'm not a good photographer!)

This is basically a 2.5 cm (1") deep box with a frame.  IRL this gives some real dimension to this image and actually does (kind-a) look like you are peeking in through a window.

The 'cobwebs' are sewn into a secondary frame, which is stuck to the outer frame to hide the knots and pierced holes!  Then I made a button spider with little paper legs and let him hang from another piece of thread.

Witchy-poo was coloured with my Copics (of course) and I added some crystal lacquer to the bottle for a little bit of glass effect.  Then, using a Nestie, I drew a circle with yellow Prismacolor and added some quite deep 'glow' around this, leaving the inside white at first, and then dragging just a little of the colour into the circle at the end.  A liberal sprinkling of yellow fairy dust glitter adds a magical sparkle.

IRL you get to see the bottom of the image too (honest) because you can see into the frame from all directions. 

Despite the poor photography (and it's getting more difficult as the mornings and evenings are darker now), I'm really pleased with this shadow box and I hope you like it too.

Don't forget to stop by my Teamies' blogs too - there's some brilliant inspiration to be had - bwah-ha-ha!
So, it's over to yoo-hoo-hoo - spook us, be as ghoulish as you wish and let us see your wicked side.  Winners will be picked on Monday 20th September - there will be a first prize of £10.00 credit for the Just Inklined 'shop', with two runners-up prizes of a Just Inklined image of your choice.

Can't wait to see your Halloween creations.

Happy crafting.
xx

Motor Cycle Maniac

Evening Peeps! Sorry I'm a bit hit and miss at the moment - aside from all the extra work involved with 'the takeover', I now have a stinking cold, which always impacts on the RA, unfortunately.  Still, I'm hoping normal service will be resumed shortly and that by the end of next week I'm starting to colour up a storm again.

In the meantime, I thought I would introduce you to a friend of mine:

 Image: Just Inklined, 'Aubrey Bumblethorpe'

Papers: October Afternoon, Cosmo Cricket and Scenic Route

So, this is Aubrey, beloved eldest son of Flossie and Sylas (cos he can fix things!) and long-suffering husband of Bertha Bumblethorpe.  He's motorbike mad and thinks the dining table is a much better place for motorbike fixing than it is for Bertha's cooking!  Still, oil on the best tablecloth gives Bertha some practice in her bid to retain her 'Washerwoman of the Year' accolade. 

Isn't he darling?  Couldn't you just cuddle him.  Mind you, the faint aroma of 'eau de Petrol' might be a bit off putting late at night!

I coloured him up with my Copics and added grounding and shading with my Prismas.  I found these scraps of masculine papers in my bit box and, actually, I think they work quite well together.  The check reminded me of a finishing flag in a motorcycle race, so I thought it was quite appropriate.

I haven't had a moment to myself this week - but it's exciting, it has to be said.  It's lovely to get my teeth stuck into new systems and processes and I'm using Office 2007 now as well, which is a bit of a learning curve but I'm really enjoying it. 

Mind you, with this cold my head has become filled with cotton wool so how much use I'm being is anyone's guess!

I'm entering Aubrey into this week's City Crafter challenge - One for the Boys + colour challenge.

Happy crafting.
xx

Just Inklined to Blog Hop!

Wooo - today is my first hop as a Guest Designer for Just Inklined and I'm very excited.  If you've arrived here from Debbie's blog, then you're on the right track.  If not, hope back to Toni's blog and start from the beginning, because you won't want to miss any of my Teamies' wonderful samples. 

Our theme this month is Buttons and Bows and we've been lucky enough to have beautiful ribbons and buttons from Fantastic Ribbons to use in our projects.

So, without futher ado, please welcome the happy couple! (with sincere apologies for the awful photography - not good without natural light, methinks!)

 Image: Just Inklined, 'Flossie Congrats'

Papers: Digital downloads from Pink Petticoat, 'Vintage Rose' collection

Other: Ribbon and buttons from Fantastic Ribbons

So, dear old Flossie and Sylas are celebrating what must be (or seem like!) their 100th wedding anniversary!!! Flossie, of course, is a loose woman and is just waiting until she can slip outside to meet her fancy man, Albert.  Sylas is just waiting for Flossie to disappear so that he can ogle the young nurses and get plastered on beer.  Aah, life's sweet pleasures. 

Seriously, though, isn't this the most delightful anniversary image? Perfect when you need to send something a little humorous to the happy couple.  I love it!

I love these papers too - they give just the right impression of faded wallpaper, which will have been on Flossie and Sylas's walls for many years, I don't doubt. I coloured up this happy pair with my Copics before adding some paper piecing to Flossie's dress and hat band and to Sylas's blanket.  Then I added shading with my Prismas, as always. 

So, hop away, dear Crafty Bloglanders, and enjoy the fun.  Don't forget to leave some love on the way - we always enjoy getting your comments.  And if you haven't tried a Just Inklined image yet, why not pick up a couple at the end of the hop and enter next month's GDT call. 

Just in case you should get lost on the way, the full hop order is:

Toni, Mina, Karen, Lydia, Debbie, Peri (that's me), Cathy and Jak

Happy crafting.
xx

Karen's Doodles is Pretty in Pink!

Welcome to another week, dear Crafty Bloglanders, and to another Karen's Doodles challenge.  This week we are challenging you to create something Pretty in Pink.

Now, you might have noticed that pink isn't one of my usual colours, and to create a card primarily in pink was a bit of a challenge for me, it has to be said!  However, I stuck with it and came up with:

Image: Karen's Doodles, 'Fairy Princess'

Papers: Digital papers, although I can't for the life of me remember where from or who by - sorry.

Other: EK Success Retro Flower Punch, medium; small stamen punch

Sentiment: word art by Create with TLC

Isn't she just a delightful little fairy?  As I don't use pink much, I decided that my pretty in pink card had to be super girly and what's better than a sweet little fairy?  Perfect for a little girl's birthday.

Coloured with my Copics and shaded with my Prismas, this little one needed only a little glitter on her wand and wings to bring her to life.  'Nuff' said, really. 

So, now it's over to you. Use a Karen's Doodles image and show us your pretty pink creations. There will be three winners, as usual:


* 1st place winner of 3 digi stamps of your choice from Karen's Doodles will be awarded by merit. The Design Team members will vote for their favorite entry and the winner will also get a Card of the Week blinkie to display on their blog.

Both 2nd and 3rd place winners will be chosen by Random.org and the prizes will be:

* 2nd place winner - 2 Digi stamps of your choice from Karen's Doodles.
* 3rd place winner - 1 Digi stamp of your choice from Karen's Doodles.

Don't forget to check out the wonderfulness of my Teamies' creations too - you'll not be disappointed!

I'll be tickled pink to see what you come up with!

Happy crafting.
xx

A Quick Up-date

Sorry I've not been around much this week - the mind is willing but the body is completely pooped! It was a hectic week at work last week, with the takeover of the firm, which left me so tired that I just had to sleep rather than create.  And I've had a busy weekend too, carting the last stuff over to Daughter's new shared house, now that she has returned to university.  So I just thought I'd pop up and say that I haven't dropped off the face of Blogland - watch out for the Just Inklined blog hop tomorrow and, of course, my regular Karen's Doodles DT post.

Happy crafting.
xx

Domestic Goddess!

Whew! I'm poooped! What a day at work - so busy but very exciting.  New IT, new phones, new people - the takeover has finally happened and it's all go.  The start of something new is always good for the brain.

And speaking of something new, I'm delighted to announce that I've been invited to be a Guest Designer this month at Just Inklinked - how wonderful is that!?  You know I love their humorous images but they have such a lot of styles and such a lot of great digi stamps that I urge you to take a look, if you haven't done already.  You're sure to find something just right for you.

So here's my first GDT card for September:

Image:  Just Inklined, 'Bertha Bumblethorpe'

Papers: October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket.

In Peri-land, Bertha is Sylas's younger and most beautiful sister.  She was voted 'Bumblethorpe Most Likely to Succeed' by her family in 1973 and, it has to be said, succeed she has - she was the winner of 'Washerwoman of the Year (1989) and won a 'Gleamie' for the quality of her whites in 1991.  Well done Bertha!

(I know, it's been a long day - I'm tired and slightly ga-ga!)

I love Bertha - she is another in the line of those wonderful 'Les Dawson'-type characters so typical of British humour.

I coloured Bertha with my Copics, although I haven't got quite as much definition in the skirt as I would have liked.  Next time maybe.  A bit of Prisma ground and glow and she was good to go - no need for any frills 'cos she's a 'no frills' kinda gal!

I'm so looking forward to my month as GDT - maybe I'll work some more on that Bumblethorpe family tree.

Right, I'll pop her over to Just Inklined and then I'm feet up with my book tonight! My new fee-earner arrives tomorrow and I want to give him the impression I know what I'm doing, which will be impossible unless I get some zzzzzzzzzzz.

Happy crafting.
xx