Sparkle and Shine

Today sees a new challenge at the Sweet Pea Stampers challenge blog and our theme this week is Sparkle and Shine. So I kind of went to town with the glitter and sparkle on my card... :)

 

I used one of the new digi stamps by Valarie Wade.. this one is called Planting Seeds:

 

 

Isn't she just adorable? I coloured her in with my Promarkers and then used my favourite Spellbinders die to cut her out. And then, in keeping with the theme, I added some lovely sparkle and shimmer to her wings with some Stickles, and a few touches of Stickles in the flowers in her hair too.

 

 

I used a 6x6 white card blank and turned it on its side to use it as a tentfold card and added a piece of fabulously glittery cardstock. I topped this with a panel of white cardstock, the bottom section of which I had embossed with a Stampin' Up! border embossing folder. Across the bottom of this panel I added a length of Tim Holtz rose ribbon which I had first dipped randomly into some Spun Sugar Distress Stain.

 

 

To finish off, I mounted my cut-out image onto the card front using foam pads and added a little dotted border around the centre panel using Waterfall Stickles.

 

 

Lots of lovely sparkle and shine on this card... now let's see what you can do! :) You've got two weeks to enter the challenge - just make a project that fits our challenge theme, post it to your blog and link up your entry at the Sweet Pea Stampers blog. You don't need to use a Sweet Pea Stamps image to enter, though obviously we love to see your Sweet Pea Stamps creations. There will be a randomly-drawn prize winner and also a further prize for the Design Team's favourite creation (which will be voted on by the DT from the entries using Sweet Pea Stamps images).

 

Can't wait to see what you create. :)

I'm entering this into a couple of challenges:
A Creative Romance - Pink
Alphabet Challenge - R for Roses
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes
Craftitude - Anything Goes/Things beginning with the letter S
Pattie's Creations - Ribbon
Sister Act Card Challenge - Anything Goes
Stampin' For The Weekend - Anything Goes
Wags n Whiskers - Pink : Breast Cancer Awareness
 

 

I see the moon...

...and the moon sees me.

 

I love this Moon Fairy stamp by Meredith Dillman from Sweet Pea Stamps. It's so delicate and pretty, with her gossamer wings and flowing gown.

 

 

I decided to do a fairly clean and simple style of card with this stamp. I coloured the image with my Promarkers in pale shades of blue and white:

 

 

And then added lots of shimmer and sparkle with Stickles on her wings and pearlescent embossing powder on the moon:

 

 

I used a white card blank and sponged Weathered Wood Distress Ink through a star-patterned stencil:

 

 

To finish I attached a torn strip of punchinella and attached the coloured image over it using foam pads and then added a few tiny gems.

 

 

This gorgeous stamp is available in digi or red rubber format from the Sweet Pea Stamps store.

 

 

 

Tear it to pieces...

Time for a new challenge at Sweet Pea Stampers and the theme is "tear it to pieces"... in other words, show some torn edges on your creation.

 

 

I used Joanne Schempp's Ice Ice Baby digi stamp and coloured her with my Promarkers in pale, wintery shades:

 

 

I added touches of glitter to the moon and stars with Stickles and also added a few tiny star-shaped crystal gems:

 

 

I used pretty papers in shades of pink and blue and tore and curled the edges. I added a pretty layered flower and a decorative pin...

 

 

...and some gemstones:

 

 

The challenge runs for 2 weeks and you don't need to use a Sweet Pea Stamps image to enter, though of course we'd love it if you do.

 

I'm entering this card into a couple of challenges:

Passion for Promarkers - sketch

Card Crafter's Circle - Winged Things

Creative Corner - Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge - Anything Goes

Wags 'n Whiskers - Fairytale/Fantasy

 

 

 

 

Art Nouveau

I love the whole art nouveau style and when I saw Karen Middleton's gorgeous new digi stamps, Art Nouveau One and Art Nouveau Two, I just had to have them. I couldn't wait to colour them in and I started with Art Nouveau One:

 

 

I love this stamp. It perfectly captures the art nouveau style and she's just so glamorous and striking. I used my Promarkers and coloured her in vibrant shades of blue and gold and gave her vibrant red hair.

 

 

I made a background using Pan Pastels and a Donna Downey stencil and used gold mirri card for matting. I added layered ribbons and lots of flowers and added detail with a gold Perlen Pen and some blue Stickles.

 

 

This gorgeous digi stamp is available from the Sweet Pea Stamps store.

 

Spinner Card

Ching Chou Kuik's The Moth is one of several gorgeous rubber stamps by this amazing artist that each comes on a single sheet with a lovely sentiment stamp. As soon as I saw this stamp I had an idea for a card:

 

I've never made this type of card before (in fact, I wasn't even sure I knew what the name for it was, I just knew I'd seen some in magazines etc) but just thought this circular framed image would look fabulous on a card where the image could spin around... and have the sentiment on the reverse:

 

 

I have to say though, as pleased as I am with how this card came out, it's a bear to photograph properly! :lol: Here's what it looks like closed up:

 

 

And here's the reverse side:

 

 

I coloured the image with my Promarkers and added some Stickles over the moths:

 

 

I cut the card shape out from coloured card using my Cameo and decorated it with some pretty paper and added some flower flourishes cut from gold mirri card using the Cameo. I stamped the sentiment onto a circle of white card and blended Spiced Marmalade and then Salty Ocean Distress Inks around the edges before attaching to the card.

 

 

 

Pretty It Up

That's our theme at One Stitch at a Time this week so we're looking for pretty things on your creations - flowers, butterflies, sparkle and glitter, the choice is yours! :)

 

I made a twisted easel card using BeeBee Kakes' sweet but sassy Mz Emolie - Flapper image:

 

 

I coloured her with Promarkers and teamed her with red dotty paper and black cardstock, using some pretty new Marianne Creatables dies to cut and emboss some decorative shapes:

 

 

I finished things off with some pretty flowers and die-cut foliage....

 

 

...and lots of butterflies! :)

 

 

I used a die-cut on the lower card section to hold the card open and added dots of green stickles around the edges.

 

 

The challenge is open for a week and you can enter any project you like. If you use a Stitchy Bear product you will be entered into the draw for our main sponsored prize and if you enter without a Stitchy Bear product you can still be in with a chance to win, with a $3 gift voucher for the StitchyBear Digi Outlet on offer.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Passion for Promarkers - All That Glitters
A Gem of a Challenge - Emboss It
Crafty Calendar - Things With Wings
The Hobby House - Anything Goes
Digi Haven - Anything Goes
Sister Act Card Challenge - Anything Goes
Stampin for the Weekend - Cute
Totally Papercrafts - Punches and Dies
4 Crafty Chicks - Flowers
Flutterby Wednesdays - Open

 

 

Floral Fairy

A happy confluence of events came about for my DT card for One Stitch At a Time this week - I needed to make a birthday card for a good friend, I was given a cute but sassy fairy image to use for my card (perfect for my friend), and I got these goooorgeous floral papers free with a craft magazine:

 

 

 

 

I also got bored of making mostly square cards and decided to do something a bit different. :) This is what the card looks like closed:

 

 

I card my shaped base card and covered it with the floral papers and coloured the digi stamp with my Promarkers. I wanted her to extend out over the edge of the front of the card:

 

 

I also added some glitter to her wings with a touch of Stickles:

 

 

To decorate the rest of the card, I added a sentiment (also free with the craft magazine! :D), positioning it so it would be hidden when the card was closed, and finished off with some flowers and a few dots of Perlen Pen.

 

The theme at OSAAT this week is Use a Digi so it couldn't be easier to enter - you don't have to use a Stitchy Bear image to do so but if you do you will be entered into the draw for the main prize. If you enter with a non-Stitchy Bear image, you'll be entered into the draw to win a $3 gift voucher to the Stitchy Bear store. :)

Pretty in pink...

...and not a mermaid, for once! :lol:

This week's challenge at Dilly Bean's challenge blog is Worn, Torn and Distressed so I dug out the paper distresser and the Victorian Velvet Distress Ink for this card:

The yummy papers were freebies with a magazine and I coloured this lovely image with my Promarkers to match with the papers. I added some highlights with a white gel pen and some Stickles.

I inked and distressed the edges of my papers and also punched a large flower from patterned paper, wetted it, scrunched it up and dried it out again before inking the edges/creases. I used a Memory Box die, snipped in to, for the floral flourishes and added accents with Perlen Pens and more Stickles.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Dilly Beans Challenge - Worn, Torn and Distressed

Crafts and Me - Use a Digi

Avadares - Anything Goes

Mermaids everywhere!!

They do seem to be something of a recurring theme in my crafting atm... this is, what, my third mermaid card in just over 2 weeks? :lol:

However, I'm blaming this one squarely on Julie. I loved her DT card for this weeks "At the Beach" challenge at Passion for Promarkers so much that I had to head over to her blog for a closer look... and then I had to go and have a look at where she got the cute mermaid in a jar image from... and that was me falling in love with and buying a bunch of A Day For Daisies digi stamps then! Including the one I used on this card:

I coloured her with Promarkers and added some Stickles highlights and even a bit of real sand ("borrowed" from my daughters' sandpit! :D). I used scrummy paper from the Crafty Individuals "The Seaside" 6x6 paper pad and some pearlescent cardstock for matting. I added a ruffle of turquoise chiffon ribbon and, for a real seaside touch, a couple of pieces of real Scottish sea glass, sent to me by my good friend Lisa. :)

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Passion for Promarkers - At the Beach

Inky Impressions - Ribbon
Crafts and Me - Use a Digi
Emerald Fairies - Bling
Avadares - Anything Goes

Paint and glitter

Is there anything more fun? :)

I wanted to have a play with paint because of the fun "Paint It Up" challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show this week. But I also desperately wanted to have a play with my new summer colours Distress Inks... ever since I saw them used in this project by Sarah Engels-Greer, I just *loved* the colours and decided I had to have them! And they arrived this week. :)

So this is what I made:

Aren't the colours just lush?

I cut a piece of card and used Tim Holtz's Wrinkle Free Distress Technique (from the fab Chemistry 101 online class I did earlier this year) to make the background and then stamped some abstract foliage around the bottom using Jo Capper-Sandon's Splatter Long stamp from Stampotique and then stamped and embossed the sentiment (another Stampotique stamp).

I also used the Distess Inks to paint in the stamped dragonfly and added a layer of magenta Stickles over the top before cutting it out.

I added paint into the mix by dabbing little "flowers" of Paper Artsy Fresco paint across the foliage, adding dots of more Stickles on top.

I used the same paint to paint a larger piece of card and then stamped the edges using a Tim Holtz foilage stamp, and added some more Stickles. Both pieces of card were then matted onto black card.

To finish off, I added a piece of ribbon, mounted the whole piece onto a card blank and added a couple of metal pen nibs which I'd painted with Vintaj Patinas (curse you, Craft Stamper magazine, you keep making me buy new stash! :lol:). Et voila!

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Paint It Up

Stampotique Designers Challenge - Sketch

Inky Impressions - Ribbon

The Stamp Man - Metals