Lovely Lavender

Well I am have been playing with my inks again for the latest challenge at Lavinia Stamps which is 'Lovely Lavender'

I admit It took me a couple of attempts to create something I was happy with, mainly due to the fact that I was using pink and blue ink to create lavender and I wasn't happy with the colours the 1st attempt.

I used Adirondack inks in Cloudy Blue, Pink Sherbert and Raspberry for the background and stamped the large leaves in Eggplant.

The Castle is stamped in Versafine Smoky Grey and the Ivy in black.

I coloured the ribbon with an amerthyst promarker to match.

The sentiment is a digital freebie I got ages ago, but it was before I was organised and didn't note who it was by (please let me know if it is yours, so I can credit you)

Challenges I would like to enter are:

Lavinia Stamps - Lovely Lavender
Tuesday Throwdown - Fantasy
stempelsonne - Fairytales
Inky Impressions - Anything Goes
Lady Annes Challenges - Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #94 Steampunk

Welcome to our latest challenge, which is hosted by ME!

I have chosen the theme 'Steampunk',

I have seen and admired many Steampunk cards, but have never tried to create one before, hopefully you will all feel the same and join in with our Challenge.

I think I have fulfilled the brief, but I did find it harder than I thought I would.

Finding the image I wanted to use was fairly easy as I had recently downloaded some free line art  by Jade Dragoone (J Dufort) on Diviant Art.  I decided to use her image 'Steampunk Boudoir' and she is coloured with Promarkers and Flexmarkers.

The corset backing paper is from Stampin D'Amour, which I aged a bit more by holding over a candle. Think I may have gone too far in places!! - lol

The Top post card is LOTV and the other postcard, watch and backing paper is from my PMA Chronology CD, all were distressed with various Tim Holz inks.

The Key, Ribbon and brass cogs are all from my craft stash.

I wanted to put some rich colours in the digi image to make it stand out a little from the muted distressed tones of the backing papers, so I picked purple and green and just tried to stick to these along with the grey for the cogs.

We are sponsored by

DI'S DIGISTAMPS

with a

$10 GIFT VOUCHER

and

THE STAMPMAN

I look forward to visiting your blogs to see what you all come up with.

Challenges I would like to enter are~:-


The Squirrel & The Fox - Use something Metal

Sparkles Forum Challengs - Steampunk/Vintage

Clear it out Challenge - Male Card/Use metal ( Key and brass cogs)

Crafting when we can - Mad about Markers

Simply Steampunk - Timepieces

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #93 - Fathers Day

This Fortnights challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers is hosted by Feebs, who has chosen the theme of   'Father's Day'.

Fathers Day is a busy time for me as I have four cards to make, my Dad, my Step-Dad, my Father-in-Law and one for my hubby from our boy Dexter.

On writing this I have just realised that I have only done one so far and I only have 2 weeks to go, I feel some late nights coming up this week, oops!

Anyway I started with a card for Hubby from our son, as I knew which image I wanted to use.

It is by one of our lovely sponsors The Paper Shelter and is called 'Happy Times', this image reminds me of Hubby lazing in the Hammock at my Mums house in France and Dexter loves to join him in there too.

I coloured mainly with Promarkers but used Copics for the hair.
The sky and grass were brushed on with my new Inkylicious Ink Dusters and Adirondack ink pads, the Dusters are great to work with and I found it so easy to get the ink on smoothly.
You can find them here.

The bunting is 'Tea Party' by Dovecraft and the letters were cut with my Cricut and 'Mickey Fonts' cartridge.

The Backing papers are by First Edition - Up Up & Away.

This weeks Challenge is sponsored by 

THE PAPER SHELTER

with a $20 gift certificate for their fabulous store

And 

Woodware

with a £12 voucher to be spent at one of their Retailers.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the Design Teams work and look forward to seeing what everyone comes uo with.


Challenges I would like to enter are:

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Fathers Day
Paper Crafting Journey - Masculine
Creative Craft Challenges - For a Fella
Melonheadz Friends - Fathers Day
Lady Bugs Crafts - For the men in your life
The Craftining Cafe - Here come the boys

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #92 - Tri-Shutter Card

This fortnights challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers is hosted by Annette and she has chosen the theme of a Tri-Shutter Card and for an added twist the colours Light Blue, Yellow & Light Green with a stamped image.

Well first off I had to check what a Tri-Shutter card is (Novice here) lol and its a good job I did, otherwise I would have created a Gatefold card!! - lol.

I found a great tutorial on YouTube Here by splitcoast stampers.

The actual card fold is a lot simpler than it looks and I cut several cards at the same time, but the cutting of the elements to decorate is a little trickier, maybe it would be easier if the card was not so small.

Here is my finished card

and here it is closed

Card Recipe

Image - Wee Stamps - Sympathy Bugs -  I coloured with Pastel Flexmarkers and added some fine translucent glitter then cut the image out with a Spellbinder circle die and matted it onto another one.

The ovals in the middle were stamped in green and blue Brillance ink using a flourish stamp.

Papers & Card - Blue & Green - Papermania
                          Yellow & Green patterned paper - K & Co

Flower - Wild Orchid Crafts

Butterfly and Lace - I think is magnolia - I purchased these pre cut a while ago on ebay.

I really enjoyed creating this and hope you will come and join us with your own Tri-Shutter Cards

Our sponsors for this challenge are:

DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS

with a $10 gift voucher 

And 

HOBBY ART

with this fabulous prize:-

Anna's Collection Oriental and a Colorbox Chalk Queue.

Challenges I would like to enter are:-

Dream Valley Challenges - Animals

Dis Digi Designs - Winged Things

Crafty Catz - A Fancy fold or two

Digi Haven - Butterfly

Carabbie Moments Of Craft - Circles

Passion for Promarkers - Anything Goes

Wryn

Just a quick post to share a card I made today using the lovely Wryn by Tiddly Inks, she is available free at the moment to use in this weeks Challenge.

You can get her here Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog.

I coloured her using my Promarkers and once again tried pleats on her dress - I still have a long way to go with this technique, but I am not gonna give up - lol

As I was adding the embellishments to her I noticed a smudge of black ink on the page, so tried to disguise it with a little grey for grounding - not sure it worked, but I didn't want to waste her. :(

The frame is Cricut 'Fancy Frames and the sentiment is framed with Spellbinders Labels One, the large flower is Wild Orchid Crafts.

Challenges I would like to enter are:

Tiddly Inks - Use a Wryn
Polkadoodles - Spring Colours/Pastels
Bythecuteandgirly - Flowers
One Crazy Stamper - Flowers
Sandys Crafty Creations - Flowers
The Cupboard Trilogy - Spring Flowers
I Love Promarkers - Simply does it

Thanks for stopping by x

Pastel Pixie Dust

This months challenge over at Lavinia Stamps is Pastel Colours.  So when my lovely new stamps arrived this week I couldn't wait to put them to use.

I decided to make a little wall hanging instead of a card, but also think these make a great card that can then be hung up displayed after your birthday is over.

The background was done with a brayer using Adirondack inks in Cloudy Blue & Pink Sherbet. I also mixed the two colours to make a lovely soft lilac.

I used the following Lavinia Stamps:

Fairy Web

Dancing Fairies

Creeping Vine

They were all stamped with Versafine Black Onyx

Then I added the Miniature flowers in Adirondack Eggplant, Pink Sherbet, Cloudy Blue and a Memento Lavender.

I dotted the Fairy web with Glossy accents and added some ultra fine glitter to look like morning dew.

Challenges I would like to enter are:

Lavinia Stamps - Pastel Colours
Forever Friends - Pastel Colours
Melonheadz - Sparkle & Shine
Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes
No Matter which Challenges - Things with Wings
Pink Gem - Things with Wings
One Stop Craft Challenge - Add some Glitter
Alphabet Challenge - Glitter & Gems
Simply Create Too - Anything Goes
Flutterby Wednesdays - Fairy/Butterfly

Thanks for visiting :)

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #91 - Three different techniques

The latest challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers is hosted by Sharon, who has chosen the theme 'Pick Three Different Techniques'

Sharon has taken inspiration from her youngest daughter's recent 3rd birthday and therefore would like to see 3 different techniques on your card or project. Take your pick of 3 from the following list and be sure to state which 3 you've used:

Embossing (wet or dry)
Distressing
Masking
Making your own flowers
Paper piecing/patchwork
Shrink plastic

The three techniques that I chose are Dry Embossing, Masking & make your own flowers.

For my card I knew I wanted to create some kind of Fairytale scene, so started by picking the digital stamp 'Soya takes a nap' by Milk Coffee Stamps, who are one of the sponsors this week, then coloured her up with Promarkers and cut her out.

I then used a Sweet Poppy 'Love Tree' stencil to emboss the tree, I tried several attempts directly onto the card but was left with the stencil outline embossed too, so I decided to cut it out and then add to the background.

The background was done with some masking and laying down some Adirondack inks with my blending tool, then I used a Lavinia Stamps mini stamp to add the flowers.

The Butterflies are punched in velum and the flowers are cut with Cricut 'Flower Shoppe'.

I'm not sure that I am entirely happy with how the masking turned out and I really think if I had managed to emboss the tree on to the main card, I would be happier.

This weeks challenge is sponsored by

MILK COFFEE DIGITAL STAMPS

WITH A PRIZE OF 5 DIGIS FROM THEIR STORE

And also by

SIR STAMPALOT

with this fabulous prize:-

One Kit containing 5 small pots of the new Fran-tage Mica Fragments from Stampendous

Colours include: 

Pearlized

Guilded

Bronze

Tarnished

Tea Stained
Each pot contains 7.5grams

Challenges I would like to enter are:

Pink Gem Challenge Blog - Things with Wings

Brown Sugar Challenge - Angels & Fairies

Creative Corner - Things with Wings
Challenges4everybody - Anything Goes
No Matter Which Challenges - Things with Wings
Stamping Sensation - Embossing & Texture



Thanks for visiting :)