Digital-Ink Co Challenge - still one more week to enter!!!!

Hello everyone,
Just a quick reminder that you still have a whole week left to enter the current Digital-Ink Co challenge.  The theme is animals or babies birthdays and to use the primary colours red, green, blue and yellow and one neutral colour.  There are some fabulous prizes up for grabs - Digital-Ink Co images being just one of them!!

So what you waiting for my crafty friends - get those projects made and linked to Digital-Ink Co for your chance to win.

A Diorama for Jungle Fever Release at Clear Dollar Stamps

Hello everyone,
I'm here to let you know that Wendy is having another New Release at Clear Dollar Stamps on 1st February 2010.  I am here today to show you the sneaky peek for the set called Jungle Fever.  This set contains 16 stamps and is very reasonably priced at $14.99.
So here is the card I made for this release:

I decided to try and use as many of the stamps as I could on one card so I had a go at doing a Diorama.  I stamped all the images I was going to use on to "post it notes" at the sticky end and then one at a time I stamped them onto the base card which was white.  The branch across the top is just the same stamp used two and a bit times and then I stamped the monkeys to they looked like they were hanging off the branch.  Then I stamped the other images randomly on the card and each time put the post it note image on top so that I could put some animals "behind" others. 

I added the words at the top and then I put all the "post it" stamped images onto the card and used a hanging vine stamp from Clarity Stamp to make it look like foliage.  Then I chalked the background in green pearlescent chalk.  I matted the image onto sage green card and then stuck that onto a lemon card.  I added a green and brown bow on the side.  This is my first attempt at a diorama and I'm actually quite pleased with the result.  I hope you like it too.
Look out for the posts for the other releases tomorrow and the information posts regarding the actual release day on Monday.

A cute bear for the girls on a Friday Sketch

Hello everyone,
Well this is a last minute post for one challenge as I really wanted to submit a card for the Just Cute Bears challenge blog.  I love teddy bears and didn't want to miss this challenge.
So without further ado here is the card I made for this challenge:

I took a Cuddly Buddly freebie image of a bear holding a heart and coloured the image using ordinary pencils and felt pen.  I used pearlescent chalk around the bear image and then used a chalk ink pad in pink to go around the edge of the card.  I layered the image onto some olive green polka dot paper from a Pink Paislee pap called Pop Fashion.  I used two other papers from the same set as the background DP and the DP across the middle. 

Before I stuck down the image I laid two pieces of new Pink Ribbon from Crafty Ribbons across the card and then tied them into bows across opposite corners. 

I added a sentiment stamped in pink chalk ink  and went around the edge of the oval with the same ink and added a pink rose to the top middle of the sentiment.

I used the sketch at Friday Sketchers (above) and flipped it slightly by putting the sentiment on the opposite side (because the ribbon would have obscured it otherwise)

The other challenges I will enter this for are:
Crafty Cardmakers - Hearts and Romance
The Pink Elephant - Polka Dots A bow and pink
A Spoon Full of Sugar - Freestyle
Rainbow Lady's Challenge - Fur and or feathers (well bears are well furry!)
Die Cut Dreams - Bears
I love Digi Challenge - DT call
Lily Boo Too - Valentine
Magical Crafts Fortnightly - Valentine
Bee Crafty - Romance
Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog - scallops (across the middle of the card)
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Hearts
Paperplay Challenges - Pink White and Green
Fussy and Fancy - Hearts
Fab n Funky - Use any digi image or sentiment
Dare U 2 Digi Stamp - Hearts and Valentine

Freebie Friday at Digital Delights.

Hello buddies,
A quick heads up to remind you all that it is Friday Freebie time at Digital Delights today.  Wendy has done something a little different this week and I am sure you will agree that these would work perfectly with an image in the middle and large circular die cut behind it.  Your only limitation is your imagination!!!

Hop on over to Digital Delights and click on the Friday Freebie tab at the top of the page.  Here you will find links to PCP and SNR in order to pick up your freebie.

There's Magic in the Air - Could it be love????

Hi all,
I hope you are well relaxed on this Thursday evening.  I have one project for you tonight and it is a little different for me.  I am a cardmaker at heart but since taking up blogging have been tempted to try many other different little projects.  Tonight is no exception.  Nina at There's Magic In The Air has asked us to make a box/bag/container and incorporate her Freebie image on it.  The image is this adorable little giraffe thinking about love!!

I don't usually make bags etc but I thought I'd give it a go.  So I used a template from Mirkwood Designs to make a heart shaped basket.  I cut out the template using lemon coloured card and glued it together.  Then I threaded an orange ribbon through each side.  I used an eyelet setter with a heart shape to stop the hole from "spreading".  I decided to stay away from traditional Valentine colours and instead went for colours based around the image.  So here is the basket (looks more like a bag to me) that I made:

I cut out the image and then coloured it in with ordinary pencils.  I used promarkers for the grass and around the "thought heart".  I added a little felt orange heart into the middle of the thought cloud and used gems for the thought bubbles.  I added yellow ribbon down each outer edge of the heart shape and put an orange rose head at the point of the heart.  To soften the top edges of the heart I used yellow/gold heart shaped gems which I adhered using silicone glue.  I used silicone to add the image to the heart to give it some depth and then added complimentary flowers at each side of the image.  Here is a close up view:

I did the same on both sides of the heart shaped basket so that it would hang correctly (otherwise it is front heavy and won't hang right).  I put a few chocolates inside the basket and they were........................... well obviously...................they were ROSES!!!
The other challenges I will enter this for are:
Crafty Cardmakers - Hearts and Romance
Crafter's Companion - Orange and Yellow
A Spoon Full of Sugar - Freestyle
Die Cuts R Us - Ribbon
Artful Inkables - Think Spring (well these are spring colours)
Rainbow Lady's Challenges - Fur and or feathers
Crafty Catz - Love
Corrosive Challenge - Fancy Folds (well this is a fancy fold isn't it?)
Fab n Funky - Use any digi image
Lily Boo Too - Valentine
Magical Crafts fortnightly - Valentine
I love Digi Challenge - DT Call

Proud to be a part of Digital-Ink Co and an award

Hi friends,
No card to post just yet - working on a couple but they're not quite ready yet.

My friend and team mate on Digital-Ink Co, Harriet gave me this award - thank you Harriet you are such a sweetie.  I am so proud to be part of the Digital-Ink Co family who are all so chatty and friendly. You all make it so easy to be a member of the DT and I am chuffed to be part of it.

Here are the rules of the award.  I have to :

1) Copy and Paste the award on my blog. {tick}

2) List who gave you the award and link to her blog. {tick}

3) List 10 things that make you happy. {tick}

my husband

my daughter

my family

my cats

my new friends

my old friends

my crafting

sunshine

a really nice feel good film like Matilda

watching Brits win at sport

4) Pass the award onto other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know! {tick!}

I am passing this on to:

Ali aka Dragonlady

(for your encouragement and support and for being you!)

Clare

(for your friendship and warmth)

Elizabeth

(for your friendship and generosity)

Jude

(for giving me a chance and to say I'm thinking of you)

Anne

(for taking me on and giving me a laugh!)

(obviously it goes without saying that my team-mates at Digital Ink Co would all get it too - if they hadn't already - and Judy that includes you too!!)

Pixie Dust DT Call

Hello everyone,

Here is a card I made using the freebie at Pixie Dust Studio - ain't she a little cutie??  I used an old Friday Sketchers sketch to base my card on.  Firstly I coloured in the image with blending pencils, Sakura Gelly Glaze pens and ordinary pencils.  For the heart in her hand I used red stickles.  I punched two heart shapes with one of my Fiskars punches and added a ready punched sentiment which I topped off with a red heart embossed ribbon.  The DP I used are SU papers and I chalked the background to the image with pink pearlescent chalks.

I added a little bit of crystal stickles to her boots just to try and give a bit of light bouncing off them.

The other challenges I shall enter this card for are:

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Freestyle

Crafty Cardmakers - Hearts and Romance

Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Fire and Ice (Red and White)

The Pink Elelphant - Polka Dots, a Bow and Pink

Creative Card Crew - Punch it

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Red

Cute Card Thursday - Fairy Fantastic

Crafty Catz - Love

One Stop Craft - love and kisses

Fab n Funky - Use any digi image or sentiment

Lily-boo too - Valentine

Magical Crafts Fortnightly - Valentine

I love Digi Challenge - DT call

Have you noticed the new badge in my sidebar??

Hello my blogging buddies,
Well, I can't believe it - Heather has asked me to be a DT member for The Rusty Pickle.  If you haven't been there yet then you really should give it a look see - there are some fab digi images with more on the way from the very talented Michelle.
Anyway, The Rusty Pickle have decided to do a challenge on a Tuesday and it is called Tart and Tangy Tuesdays.  Each week there will be a different theme, either a colour challenge or a sketch and you will be able to win some fab digi images.
So this Tuesday's Tart and Tangy challenge is Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery and Bashful Blue (all are Stampin' Up colours but please feel free to substitute the nearest colours you have in your stash)
So without further ado, here is my card for this week's challenge. 

I have based it on the sketch over at Tellen's Place;

and will also enter it into the challenge at Rainbow Lady's Challenges which this week is Fur and/or Feathers.
The image is called Bunny and Skunk and is available at The Rusty Pickle.  I coloured the image with watercolour pencils and chalked around the image with pearlescent chalk (hopefully as near to Certainly Celery as possible). 

I then used the other colours for the bottom three bands on the sketch.

Feeling Fruity?

Well, me neither really but this is the subject of the challenge over at Charisma Cardz where they want you to use Fruity Colours.  The challenge at Cute Card Thursday is Fairy Fantastic and I think this Fairy - called Sugar Plum Fairy from Pink Cat Studio - is pretty fantastic.
I based the card on the challenge at Sketch and Stash (challenge 27) - now you know I love their sketches because I was lucky enough to be asked to be a Guest Designer for December/January - and I had a ball thanks girls!
So here is the sketch for this week:

And here is the card I made for it:

I used DP from a K&Company pad called Sparkly Sweet and a ribbon from my stash.  The three green gems at the bottom are also from my stash and the flowers are made up from my stash and candy wins as are the brads. 

The image is coloured with watercolour pencils and ordinary pencils and I used some green glitter for her wings.  I am really pleased with how this turned out and I hope you like it too.

Today's the Day.....................................

......................for the first Digital-Ink Co Challenge of 2010.  The first challenge is to use Pets (animals) or Babies Birthdays and the primary colours Red, Green, Blue and Yellow.
The sponsor for this week's challenge is Paper Wishes and the prize they are offering is worth over $75!!!!!  How good is that.

So without further ado, I have two cards to show you for this challenge, the first uses an image from Lexi's Creations called Hot Horse!  I think you will agree that she does look likes she's just run the Grand National!  

Now as I said,  the other part of the challenge is to use the Primary colours Red, Blue, Yellow and Green so I decided to go for DP in these colours rather than try and colour a multicoloured horse!  I mean, please..... a multicoloured horse - this isn't Walt Disney.blogspot you know!!!! 

This image is one of the prizes on offer this week so you may be lucky enough to be the proud owner of Hot Horse if you enter our challenge.  Please visit the Digital Ink Co store to see more of Lexi's fabulous digi stamps.

My second card uses an image called Eris With Flower from Angela at SEWN Together and you can see more SEWN Together creations at the Digital Ink Co store.   This time I used three of the primary colours in my image, a couple of them on the DP and one on the ribbon too..

I hope you like my creations and I hope they have inspired you to enter our fabulous challenge.  After all, with such  fabulous prizes who wouldn't give this a go?????

Remember, if you haven't already signed up for the Newsletter you can do so by visiting the Digital-Ink Co challenge site and clicking on the Green Envelope.  You will receive a free digital stamp each week just for subscribing to the newsletter - and what's more - you won't ever see these digi images in the store as they are specifically for Newsletter Subscribers.  So please hop over to the Challenge site and become a follower - and remember to mention who sent you!!

Ooh La La - Take #2

Hi everyone,
Well this is my second challenge for Ooh La La and I have to say this is probably going to be my most difficult.  This fortnights challenge is to use distressing on your card somewhere!! OM Gosh, I don't do distressing very well but hey, that's what challenges are all about - stretching yourself to do things you don't normally do - so without further ado, here is the card I have made for this challenge. (Sorry about the flash!!)

Now I had the choice of whether to use Beautiful Baby from the Kiddiwinks CD or Orange Margarite from the Fleur D'imagination for this challenge (both of which you will find in the store), so I chose to use Beautiful Baby.  I decided to go for a gatefold card on this occasion - don't know why - just fancied a change from the norm I guess.  I chose a piece of sage green card for my  base card and used my Multiscore Board to make my gatefold card.  Then I used one of the DL inserts from the CD for the inside of the card and cut it so that the baby image appeared but not the lines down the side.

Then I used a sheet of green vellum and a couple of different backing sheets from the CD and layered these onto the panels of the card having first distressed all the edges.

I used a hole punch and eyelet setter to make two sets of holes in the flaps and secured two pieces of cord type fibre in order to have a bow tied at the top and bottom of the image on the front. 

Again I distressed the edges of the image and curled the corners slightly before layering it onto the backing card and I used to sage green and silver brads to tuck the picture under when the card is closed.  I hope you like it.  Please hop on over to Ooh La La Creations to see what the rest of the DT have come up with this week and please leave me a comment to let me know you popped by here too.  I shall also enter this card into the challenge at La La Lands which is Fancy Folds (Gatefold)

Just in time........................

.........................to enter the challenge at the Pink Elephant this week.  The challenge this week was to use their sketch, shown below:

Now I do like using the Pink Elephant sketches and I had just the image in mind - changed the shape slightly from an oval - hope they don't mind!!  I used an image from Tellen's Place which I think is hilarious, thanks Terry.  That set me thinking that perhaps I should also enter this for the challenge at Stamp Something which this week is "Funny Somethings" - well I thought it was funny!!
So here is the card I made:

I coloured the image with ordinary pencils and gel pens and chalked around the edge of the image with blue pearlescent chalk.  I used three different DP from a Hot off the Press paper pad called Sapphire and used my Fiskars shape cutter to cut the scalloped edge.  I printed off the sentiment on the computer - changed the text to blue to match the rest of the card and BINGO there you have it.

Thanks for stopping by and remember your comments as always are very much appreciated

Creative Inspirations DT Card

Hello all.
This week is my first week as a Guest Designer for Creative Inspirations.  This week's challenge is based on the sketch as shown below:

When I first saw this sketch - I thought yikes!  But I read a blog somewhere that said treat each sketch one piece at a time - so that's exactly what I did.  I chose all my DP first and then placed them onto a blank piece of paper to see how it all looked and then set to work on my image.  I chose an image called Carousel by M&M Designz and you can find this image, along with many other fabulous images, over at the Digital-Ink Co store and click on the Creators tab at the top of the page.

The base paper is some purple sparkly paper from my stash and the gingham paper is from a Funky Fairy Kit that I won in the Fab n Funky Challenges - although sadly Shaz decided to close the doors at Funky Fairy so I don't think you can get this any more.  The purple polka dot is ribbon I bought from Hobbycraft before Christmas and the brads are from my stash.

The purple double bow at the top is from a Birthday RAK present I received last week.  I have coloured the image using sparkly gel pens, sakura gelly glaze pens, watercolour pencils and ordinary pencils.

I used two self adhesive flat gems on the canopy just to add a little something different and I used silicone gel to raise the image and give it some shape.  I shall also enter this card into the following challenges at:

A Spoon Full of Sugar which is layering.
Bee Crafty - Downloads - Favourite colour combo (purple and pink)
Cooking it up with Katie - Non Human image/add some texture (gelly glaze pens, brads and gems) and use something you've never used before (including a stamp or digi image) - mine is the image and the gingham papers - both of which are new.
Crafty Cardmakers - What's new (use something new - as I said above)
I Love Digi Challenge - DT call
Raise the Bar - The Gift that keeps on giving (my RAK'd ribbon and my prize digi papers)
Saturday Challenge - Inspirational Photo (I went with the colour - purple)

I'd just like to say................

.....................A very big thank you to my blogging buddies who sent cards and pressies for my birthday on Tuesday.  You have made it one of the most special birthdays I have had in a long time.  I'm so thrilled with everything I received and just to show how talented you all are I have done a little showcase here so that everyone can visit your blogs and see your other fantastic projects as well as the wonderful birthday cards you made.

So first up we have my bestest ever blogging buddy Ali aka Dragonlady:

Next we have another wonderful friend Crafty Clare:

Then there's Lisa aka Allisa:

Then there's Jude at Crafts International:

Then there's Clarky J:

Then there's Angela:

Then there's Julie:

Then there's Terry from Tellen's Place: (Terry has challenges here too!)

Aren't they all fabulous cards??  Please click on the links to visit their blogs and leave them some love.  They are all wonderfully talented ladies and have some fabulous projects on their blogs so have a mooch around whilst you're there - you may even want to follow them (if you're not already that is).
Thank you again my friends - I am very lucky to have met you all.

LOADZA HUGS TO YOU ALL!