Saturday 20 August 2011

Take a Present

Here's another Christmas card with one of the new Nellie's Choice Dawn stamps, this one is called Take a Present.

I've coloured with Copics and simply added a scallop mat behind the image over a piece of pale blue dotty paper on another of the scallop base cards. A few snowflakes to embellish and a little greeting and job done! The colours are pretty much the same as yesterday's card with the addition of B41 and B52 for her blue jacket and the stripes on her hat.

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long have a non-traditional challenge, so no red or green allowed - perfect then for my little Dawn card! And the Totally Gorjuss girls are looking for cute and cuddly this week, well I have a cutie cuddly bunny in the picture so will enter with them too.

Friday 19 August 2011

Hokey Pokey!

I treated myself to the new Nellie's Choice Dawn Christmas stamps now available at Cuddly Buddly and have managed to colour in 3 of the 4, but only made the one card so far. Fingers crossed I can get the other 2 finished and scheduled for the next couple of days while I am moving stuff down to Mum's. This first one is called Hokey Pokey! and could be used for winter birthdays or festive party invites as well as for Christmas. I've coloured with my Copics and added lots of clear crystal glitter with a glue pen, as well as touches of Stardust Stickles around the edges of the image and paper.
Link
Here's the card, not so bright as the flash didn't go off this time. I've inked the edges of the image with Spring Pansy Versamagic chalk ink after I finished colouring to tie in with the piece of pink snowflake paper I had in my odds and ends box. As I'd coloured with a lot of creamy brown shades I used a cream card to mat the image and the paper before fixing to a white scallop card (the only pack that didn't get boxed) - I hope it works. I managed to cut and layer up various Marianne dies to create the embellishment then finished with cream pearls made with my pearl maker pen.

I remembered to make a note of the Copic colours I used to colour, so here goes:
skin tones - E000, 00 and 21. hair - E30, 30, 55 and 44
creamy browns - E50, 51 and 53. pinks - RV00, 63 and 66
the touch of green - G20 and G12
background B0000 and B000

Crafty Catz have a pink and brown colour combo challenge so I'm entering as I've used soft creamy browns with the pinks. And Totally Papercrafts have a Christmas in August theme so I can enter with them too.

Enjoy your weekend - I'm not sure when I'll be around to link up and blog but hopefully I'll be able to schedule a couple more cards to share with you until I'm back again.

Flash Back!

Moving Along With The Times have a flash back challenge this week, to show a card that you made a while back that you are particularly pleased with. This WOW creation is a favourite of mine that I don't think I could improve on - it's a combination of paper pricking and dry embossing on a shimmery pearl paper in the background, different pearl papers cut with various dies and fixed at different heights with foam pads, die cut and punched butterflies, roses made with the Marianne make a flower die and punched leaves. The centre text is by LOTV stamped with Pearlescent Blue ink which is actually more grey in real life. I've inked the embossed areas on the larger butterflies and the edges of the leaves with a very pale pink chalk ink and smothered the card with pearls. It's been sat on my shelf for a while, in a protective cello bag to keep it clean, waiting for a special occasion .. .. but now it's been packed away so hopefully wont be squashed. I'm going to copy it and this time add pale blue ink to the highlight areas, once I get unpacked that is!

Thursday 18 August 2011

Another new Christmas Toby

I made another Christmas card with one of the new Toby Tumbles digi designs from Cuddly Buddly, this is Christmas Bells, coloured with Copics plus inked edges to give a bit of a vintage feel, well that's what I was aiming for anyway. Sorry no list of colours as I started this one ages ago and forgot to take a note of the pens before I put them away. Here's the card:

The papers are from the Toby Christmas digi pack and I've matted with a bright red cardstock. My ribbons are already boxed up and down at Mum's but I found this bit of gold in amongst the wrapping papers on top of the wardrobe so rescued it for the card! Another simple design with limited embellishments from my bit box - it will be great to get things unpacked again .. ..

A quick look at the challenge blog list and I found out that Crafty Creations are after red, orange and green and as those are the colours I used to colour the main part of my image, I'm going to enter. And as the Secret Crafter Saturday challenge is Christmas is Coming I can enter with them too.


Tuesday 16 August 2011

New Christmas Toby Tumbles

I've given myself a day off from packing today and played with the new Christmas Toby Tumbles digi designs over at Cuddly Buddly, this one is Christmas Me to You. I've coloured with Copics and remembered to list the colours - Toby is E30, E31, E55 and E44 plus a little R20 on his cheeks and inside his ears. His clothes are Y21, Y28, G21, G28, R22 and R27. The mistletoe, holly leaves and berries are with the same red and green colours, the edges of the stamps and the label are E40 and E81, then for the background I've used B000 and B0000. Oh, and I nearly forgot, the ribbon is RV00, RV63 and RV66.

Here's a pic of the card, quite simple as I've not got much left to play with. The patterned paper is a digi design from Cuddly Budly's Quilted Holly collection matted with dark green card onto a scallop square base. I've cut various Marianne bits and pieces to create the poinsettia embellishment and used waste dots in the corners covered with Stardust Stickles so they look like sparkly brads. I stamped the Jolly Holly text with Momento Cottage Ivy ink as it seemed appropriate! As the Marianne's Design Divas is an anything goes challenge this week I'll enter my card with them, and over at My Time To Craft the theme is something beginning with G .. .. mine is all the green I've used.

And here's another view of my new home, just a little bit further along from yesterday's view.
The garden isn't large, you can see the shed in the back corner - it could make a nice little craft room but I think it's going to stay as a shed as my hubby has designs on it too! The prickly beriberis hedge is going and the new bedrooms will be along the side of the garage with enough room left for a new drive leading up to that shed. The garden is wider at the front then at the back on this side so once the building is finished I'll have to see if there is any lawn left to rescue and create some flower beds behind the picket fence.


Monday 15 August 2011

Love Angel

There have been so many changes over at Cuddly Buddly since I last blogged! New designer Karen Middleton has joined the fabulous designers producing gorgeous digi images, there's a new DT blog called Fabulous Crafty Friends, and if you stop by you can see our latest creations and also get instructions on how to load the fabulous free blog backgrounds - but I'm still fiddling with mine so please cut me some slack! My list of followers and other stuff that was on the side bar is now at the bottom of the page, and unfortunately I've had to do a bit of pruning until I can decide where to put things - it's a bit like that in my life at the moment too!

On to my card, this is Karen's Love Angel digi and I've coloured her with Copics as well as using a piece of Karen's coordinating digi paper. I've also added inked edges and lots of sparkle, but as it was a while ago I created this card I can't be sure what colours I used, but can say the sparkle was Stardust Stickles and Glimmer Mist pearl sprayed on my flowers and leaves, and also painted onto the hearts - a real shimmery creation in real life.

Here's a close up for you. And a reminder that the current theme on the Cuddly Buddly Challenge blog is 'anything goes!' - so you can use any of the digi images available on the Cuddly Buddly web site and be in with a chance of winning a £10 voucher to spend on anything in the Cuddly Buddly shop - how fab is that! And if that's not enough, there's a sticky candy post over on the Fabulously Craft Friends blog too.


I'm busy colouring in a few more images but with most of my crafty stash in boxes it's not easy putting a card together - I might manage a couple later in the week if you are stopping by.

Our move is hapening over the August Bank Holiday weekend, not ideal with the traffic in and out of Cornwall so I'm trying to take the smaller things down at each visit. Yesterday I cleared out Mum's spare bedroom and gave it a blitz so it's ready and waiting for my bed, the phone line should be installed next week so hopefully I wont be too long without internet - but it could be that the pc goes to Mum's before me so I might not be able to link up with the world until I join it.
And this is my new home. The porch is being enclosed in the next few weeks to provide a space for wet cocker spaniels to dry off after visiting the beach. The garage is hopefully going to be a new bathroom at the front with utility area at the back and the new bedrooms will be built along from that. The existing tiny bathroom will become Mum's ensuite and the two small bedrooms she has at the moment will be made into one large bed/sitting room for her with access to a decked area at the back of the bungalow. As you can see the garden is just grass and one small bed of roses, so I've lots of scope to create more flower borders. I'll take more pictures as work progresses.



Wednesday 3 August 2011

Best Friends

ok - that wasn't the last card. I started to colour this LOTV image at my friend Wynneth's home on Monday afternoon and managed to find enough bits and pieces to put this card together. Mind you, I did have to go digging in boxes to do it! My craft room is almost empty but at least there is room now to make up a bed for my granddaughter who arrives very late Friday night, or even Saturday morning. She and her Dad will be staying for a week on holiday so with trips and then moving I'll be busy, busy, busy!

The stamp is best friends from LOTV, coloured with Copics and then I followed the sketch on the LOTV Challenge blog so I can enter at the last minute. The new Fab 'n' Funky theme is friendship so I'll join in with them too.

Short and sweet I'm afraid as I'm off to price up a bathroom this afternoon.

Monday 1 August 2011

Petals and Pearls

This is probably the last card I'm going to be able to share with you until after I've moved. Most of my belongings are in boxes, and a fair amount is already down at Mum's. I am planning on being there before the end of August and hopefully my husband will be along shortly after, once the loose ends are tied up here. It's been a stressful week or so and my health is suffering a little, so when I'm not filling boxes or travelling across the breadth of Cornwall with them, I'm collapsed in a heap!

Anyhow, this little cutie has been half finished on my desk for over a week and this morning when I finally got to catch up with the crafting world, I saw that the theme on the Cuddly Buddly digi challenge for this week is petals and pearls so added a sprinkling of both. The image is another of the Wee digi designs and the papers are from a magazine matted with kraft cardstock. I've coloured my cute little fairy with Copics then inked the edges of the image with Versamagic pale brown chalk inks to take off the stark white. But, as it was so long ago I coloured her in I can't give you a definitive list of the colours I used, but I can say the pinks are mostly R81 and R83, the blues are the B91, 93 and 95, and my usual skin tones are E000, 00 and 21. Her hair looks like E41, 42, 43 and maybe 44.

As I've not been around for almost a week I'm not sure if I can enter any other challenges with my fairy card - perhaps you can let me know .. .. I hope to be able to come back and catch up some more later this week.