Hold a Poppy!

Hello again.

Thanks so much for dropping by.

I do hope all those of you that entered our October challenge enjoy using your free image "Dark Moon".  Thank you for supporting Ching Chou's challenges for the last five years, it really does mean the world.

As you know our November challenge over at Ching Chou Kuik's Facebook group is under way and our theme for this month is:

REMEMBRANCE/THANKSGIVING/THINKING OF YOU

There is plenty of scope there isn't there?

Today I have a gorgeous image to share with you.

The beautiful,

HOLD A POPPY

Isn't she just beautiful?  Mind you I do say that about all of Ching's images.  She is such a talented artist.

So, anyway on to my small piece of inspiration for you.

I have coloured the image using my Faber Castell Polychromo pencils.  These have to be my favourite pencils if I'm honest.  I do like the Prismacolours too but my Polys are my first love.

I am really pleased with the owl on this one.  

I have been a member of the colouring classes over at Kit & Clowder since they first started, over four years now, nearly five actually.  My colouring has changed sooooo much in that time and I will be forever grateful to Alyce Keegan for introducing them.

The sentiment is a Claritystamp which I have stamped in Black Archival and then overstamped, moving the stamp down and to the left slightly, in Red Archival.

The Poppies and the ribbon are from my stash.

So there you go then.

I can't wait to see what you all come up with.

Have fun.

Challenges:

Brown Sugar Challenge - Anything Goes

Creative Fingers #174 - Anything Goes

Pattie's Creations - Anything Goes

Aud Sentiments - Anything Goes and a sentiment

Crafting with an attitude #57 - Anything Goes

Creative Playground #11 - Anything Goes

QKR Stampede #371 - Anything Goes

Cardz TV #102 - Anything Goes

A Perfect time to craft #11 - Anything Goes

Halloween Dusk!

Hi everyone

So, did you manage to get a project done for our very special anniversary challenge?

I do hope so, and I hope that if you did, you will enjoy using the Dark Moon image which was given to every entrant.

So, I would just like to say congratulations to all of our winners.

There were some fabulous entries this month.

I do love seeing what you all come up with.

Anyway, I just thought I would pop in and show you my latest card.

For this card I have used the fabulous Halloween Dusk.

This comes as part of a set of two images, both of which I think are gorgeous.

Ching Chou really does the most expressive faces, don't you think?

Anyway, here is the card I made using Halloween Dusk.

I have coloured this using my Polychromo pencils this time although the background was done using my Prismacolours.  I do think they lend themselves more easily to backgrounds as they are such a softer pencil.

Having said that, I think I prefer my backgrounds done with my Pan Pastels.  I do think they give a better coverage on the paper.

I really need to practice my black cats though!! I mean, look at him! He looks like a startled rabbit rather than a cat. Lol.

Right, I'm off to do a bit of crocheting now - Christmas presents and the like.

So, remember to look out for the new challenge starting at the Facebook page and the Blog too.

Look forward to seeing what you all come up with.

See you soon.

Challenges:

A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes

A Perfect Time to Craft - Anything Goes

Classic Design Team Challenge - Anything Goes for a DT

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge - Anything Goes

Love to Craft Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Sweet Stampers - Autumn or Halloween

A purplicious birthday card.

Hi everyone.

Here I am again to show you my latest creation.  This is a birthday card I made for a lovely young lady.

It is Choosday again folks and you know what that means don't you?  You're right, a new challenge at Digi Choosday and a fabulously wonderful huge discount off selected digital items from the Polkadoodles store.  So why not hop over to the challenge blog and grab your code and do a wee bit of shopping.  

But, wait, hang on a minute.  Just let me tell you about my card first.

I thought I would try and show you all how versatile the world of digital stamping really is.

My card is 100% digital this time.  Yep that's right, this card is totally flat although there are elements that make it appear not to be.

Let's take a look at exactly what I did to achieve this final result shall we?

I have a digital image programme called Craft Artist and that is where I do all my manipulation of the digital images.

So, firstly I downloaded the images I wanted to use on my card.  There are three paper pieces, five digital images and two digital sentiments.  I will give you all the product details in a minute or two, just in case you want to go an spend that fabulous discount code. 😉😉

Let me show you a closer view of the finished item and you should then be able to see all the individual items.

First off I added one of the sheets of paper at the back as the base.  Then I put the other two pieces onto a black background (like matting and layering).  The programme lets you put the pieces in any order so you can move things from front to back and vice versa.

Then, on top of the lightest piece of paper I added an image of a candle.  Now this is from a Christmas set so was red with holly on.  I changed the colour in my digital programme to fit in with the rest of the card and I hid the holly by putting presents in front of the candle.  Again, the presents are from a Christmas set so the colours were all wrong for my theme so I changed them to purple.  This is great as it changes the whole image into shades of purple rather than a block of colour.

Then I added my image - the gorgeous Winnie, May Your Wishes Come True.  The only thing I did with the image was to add a shadow to it to make it look 3D and I placed her so that she looks like she is standing on the frame rather than floating in mid air.  So this is how she comes if you buy the pre-coloured image.  I wanted her to stand out against all the purple so left her in her original colours, which are of course, gorgeous.

Then I added a flower from the Horace and Boo Floral collection.  I added the image twice, grouped the two images together, (this means that you can manipulate them both at the same time in exactly the same way, making them the same size etc) and then made them look 3d decoupaged using my programme.  Again I changed the colour to match my colour scheme.  Then I copied that image twice to give me three flowers, grouped them all together and placed them in the top corner.

Then I added two sentiments.  Again I added them to white and black backgrounds to make it look as though they were matted and layered.

Printed it off and stuck it to my card base and there you go! Simples!!

So here is what I used. I have indicated which things have been edited in my digital programme just so you know.

Papers - Halloween/Autumn Paper Heaven 2 digital download

Winnie Celebrations 1 - May Your wishes come true - pre-coloured digital image

Candle and presents - Embellishments -Winnie White Christmas Printable Digi Downloads (Colour Changed)

Flowers - Floral Foliage - Horace & Boo download printable bundle  (Colour changed)

Happy Birthday Sentiment - Winnie Celebrations 3 Sentiments

May all your wishes come true sentiment - Winnie Celebrations 1 Sentiments

So, if you haven't ever thought of digital stamping, why not give it a go?

Then you could come back and leave me a message with a link so I can see what you did.

Can't wait to see all your fabulous entries in our latest challenge.  You always make choosing a Top 3 really difficult. Lol

Have fun.

TTFN

Challenges:

CD Sunday Plus Challenge - Anything Digital goes. (Everything here is digital)

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes

Corrosive Challenge - Anything Goes

A bit more time to craft - anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge - anything Goes

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - Anything goes with patterned paper

World Wide Open Design Team Challenge - Anything for a DT goes

Wicked In Mist!

Hi there.

I would like to show you my latest creation for the current challenge over at Ching Chou Kuik's Facebook group.

This fantastic image is called Wicked In Mist and you can purchase it at Ching Chou's Etsy store here.

I usually colour with my Polychromo pencils but decided to use my Copics for this one.

Some time back I coloured another of Ching Chou's witch images with the colouring classes at Kit and Clowder so I used that as my inspiration.

Now as I was colouring this image, I just knew that my colours were too bright for the look I was after.  Grrrr, what to do?

💡 - black pencil!!!

So, I went over all my colours with a black pencil and then rubbed over it with my finger.

Tadaaa!  Just what I wanted.

Then for the background I decided to use my Pan Pastels.

So I used five different colours and the colourless blender.

Then using the black pan pastel, I "drew" the trees into the background.

These are already on the image I just went over what was already there.

Lastly I matted the image onto some Kraft card and then added that to the background paper which is from a Lili of the Valley with Raspberry Road Designs pad called Father Knows Best, sadly now unavailable.

So there you go, my little piece of inspiration for the current challenge which is of course Fall/Fall Colours.

Remember also, if you enter the challenge this month, because we are celebrating our 5th Anniversary you will receive the image Dark Moon for free at the end of the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by, please let me know what you think.

I always read all my comments, (good or bad) and they do mean the world to me.

See you soon.

Challenges:

Crafter's Castle - Anything Goes, option of Fall/Autumn

Crafty Calendar - autumn colours/halloween

Di's Digi Designs - Halloween/Harvest

My time to craft - Halloween or Cats

The Fairy and the Unicorn - Anything Fantasy Goes

Colour Crazy Challenge - Big Pumpkin!

Time for a new challenge at Colour Crazy Challenge.

As you know our challenges are always

ANYTHING GOES

However, we are a colouring challenge so we must see some hand colouring on your projects.  We don't accept digital or pre-coloured images, sorry.

Our sponsor for this challenge is the fabulous:

CHING CHOU KUIK

I am sure you know already that I ADORE Ching Chou's images.

For this challenge I chose to use

BIG PUMPKIN

She is so cute isn't she?

So, I coloured her up using my Copics and here she is.

I have never done white hair before so I am really pleased with how this has turned out.

I decided to stick with the traditional pumpkin colours on this one and thought the cat should be grey rather than black.
I decided to add a couple of die cuts to add a bit of interest.
The sentiment is from Claritystamp, one of their fabulous word chains and the backing paper is also from Claritystamp.  This paper is such superb quality, trouble is it is so nice I never want to actually use it. Lol 

I am not really a huge lover of Halloween although I do like to see the little kiddies having a good time trick or treating.  I always have a huge bag of sweets to hand out for all the door knockers!

Mind you, I am thinking of giving it a miss this year.  We will see.

So there you go then, my little piece of inspiration for you.

I do hope you will be able to join in with our challenge and can't wait to see all your fabulous projects.

See you all soon

Challenges:

2 Sisters on the blog - Autumn

A bit more time to craft - Anything Goes

A perfect time to craft - Anything Goes

Animal friends challenge - Cats

Classic Design Team Challenge - Anything Goes for a DT

Creatalicious challenge - Anything Goes option Autumn/Halloween

Daisy Chain Challenges - Pink or Halloween

Traumfabrik challenge (Dream Factory) - The Little Witch

Fabrika Fantasy - Halloween

The Crafting Challenge - Autumn and/or Halloween

Blue Pumpkins for Halloween

Hello again

Here I am with my second inspiration project for our Halloween theme over at Ching Chou Kuik.

This image is called Blue Pumpkin and you can find it in Ching Chou Kuik's Etsy store here.

Because Pumpkins is one of the elements of the theme this month I thought I would be brave and use a pumpkin on my card this week. 

Now obviously the image is called Blue Pumpkin so I thought I would go with a more blue theme than my previous two cards.  

Now I have to be totally honest here and say this isn't how I wanted the pumpkin to turn out.  There are so many layers of colour on this pumpkin you just wouldn't believe. Lol

Still, I don't think it looks too bad does it?  Let me know what you would have done differently to make it more of a blue without the blue hitting you in the face, which was the problem I had.

In the end I just kept changing the shades of blue, yellow and green and then decided enough was enough and had to step away before my card disintegrated before my very eyes. Lol.

I guess that's the good thing about using Markers, you can keep going over colours until you are happy with the results. (well almost happy). 

The background on this image was again done by blending Pan Pastels.  I decided I wanted her to look like she was in an area with lots of leaves/reeds so just used the edge of my Sofft tool in the black pan pastel and "drew" the "leaves".  Do you know what, I kinda like the effect.  What do you think?

The two border strips were done with a Crafter's Companion embossing folder, brushed over with black ink and then I added Inka Gold to add a bit of grungy shine.

I brushed the gold roses with black ink to dull them down a bit and sponged ink on to the die cut and then rubbed some gold perfect pearls over it to match the borders. (well sort of match).

Remember, if you enter the challenge this month you will receive the fabulous image "Dark Moon" for free at the end of the challenge.

As always, I welcome all your lovely comments so please, don't go without leaving me a few words of advice/encouragement/criticism (only nice criticism though!) Lol

See you again soon with some more CCK inspiration.

TTFN

XXX

Challenges:

Crafty Catz Challenge - Anything Goes

Creative Fingers - Anything Goes

Patties Creations - Autumn/Halloween

Scrapper's Delight - Anything Goes

Simply Create Too - Anything Goes, option spooky/scary

Crafting with an attitude - Anything Goes

Creative Knockouts - Halloween

Creative Playground - Anything Goes

All will be revealed!

Hi all

That got you didn't it?  Lol.  I am here to show you my latest project which is this cute little Reveal card.

This is my project for the new challenge over at Digi Choosday.

As you know our challenges are always Anything Goes but the Design Team always receive some extra challenges to incorporate into their projects.

This time we were tasked to make a shaped card which had a "Reveal" on it.

The other aspect we were to incorporate was Halloween/Autumn/Fall.  I instantly thought of Halloween and racked my brain for inspiration - not easy at the best of times! Lol

Well, whilst looking through my Polkadoodles images I came across some gorgeous Autumnal images which included the word Bonfire! Eureka!

Why do I never think of Bonfire night when someone mentions Autumn?  

Well, today I did.

So these images are taken from the Autumn 2015 Bundle - this is a fabulous collection of Autumnal images and was perfect for what I had in mind.

I used my Craft Artist to manipulate the images.  I made three identical sized frames and put my images inside the frames.

The first image (above) is a complete image from the bundle.

The second image is one of the many leaves in the bundle.  I just added lots of leaves in ever decreasing sizes to make my "bonfire" and then added the word Bonfire underneath which again is a standalone image in the bundle.

The third image, again a standalone image, I added the wording to, to let everyone know where and when the bonfire was going to be held - my Reveal!

The gorgeous spotty background paper is from the Winnie Sugar Sprinkles Paper Heaven 1 bundle digital download

I used one of my Martha Stewart Corner stamps to do the detail on the pull tag, which I think looks kinda sweet.

Then I added two Bare Basics wooden flat beads to finish it off.

I did think of adding some leaves to the bottom of the card, to make it look like a floor of leaves but I decided against it as I didn't want to detract from the main purpose of the card.

What do you think?  Is it too simple?

Or, does it do what it is supposed to do.

Now I have added this little video so that you can see the full "Reveal"

I'm not used to doing videos so it is a bit on the shaky side but you get the idea right? Lol

I am looking forward to seeing what you all come up with.

Remember, you will also be able to save a whopping discount on selected digital downloads today too.  Just use the special code on the Digi Choosday blog.  Let's face it, you can never have enough Polkadoodles stash right? 

TTFN

xx

Challenges:
CD Sunday Plus - Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
Challenge Up Your Life - Frames
Crafter's Castle - Anything Goes (Option Fall/Autumn)
Di's Digi Designs - Include a pumpkin
Just us girls, trend week - Frame It!
Brown Sugar Challenge - Anything Goes
Corrosive challenge - Anything Goes
Shopping our Stash - Pumpkin/Autumn
Allsorts Challenge - Spots and/or stripes