One Stitch at a Time Challenge 164

This week at One Stitch at a Time, the challenge is to use a digi! So, easy, isn't it?

We're sponsored by

See the challenge blog for more details.

This week, Haze chose a lovely image for us to use. It's called Rustic Bench from Gingerloft.

I coloured the bench and pots with Promarkers and Flexmarkers, and did the background with Distress Inks using a stencil brush to dab colour. The area behind the bench uses Faded Corduroy and Old Paper, but the paler bit isn't really visible in the photo!

The paper is from Dovecraft's London Collection, and the flowers are from my stash. The various die cuts are from Spellninders, and I finished with a butterfly charm.

I hope you can join us this week!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Our Creative Corner where anything goes,
CMC where anything goes,
Wags n Whiskers where anything goes,
ABC Challenge where they want three or more embellishments,
Country View Crafts where the theme is 'How does your Garden Grow?',
Sandy's Crafty Creations where they want three or more flowers,
My Sheri where anything goes,
One Stop Craft where anything goes,
Simply Create Too where anything goes.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 153

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we're (sort of) celebrating Spring with our theme of 'Go Green'! That can be literal (with green colours) or you can recycle.

Our sponsor is

See the challenge blog for details.

I had a image from Barbara Jensen to work with this week, and I chose a cute girl who goes by the name of Lolly Poppy. And I chose to use the colour green since I didn't have anything handy to recycle ...

I added the sentiment in Photoshop Elements before printing, then coloured with a mix of Promarkers and Flexmarkers. I cut the image and matt using a Sizzix Framelets die set. The background was debossed using a Crafter's Companion embossing folder. (Yes, it was an accident - but I liked the effect so it stayed ...) The card is Papermania pearlescent, and I've finished using a new Sizzix Thinlits border die and some sticky gems.

I hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Bearly Mine where anything goes,
Creative Card Crew where the theme is 'birthdays',
Digital Tuesday where the theme is 'birthdays',
Pink Elephant where anything goes,
CRAFT where they want embossing (hope 'debossing' is ok!)
Craft Us Crazy where anything goes,
Crafting for All Seasons where they want us to use dies or punches,
Crafts and Me where they want us to use dies or punches,
Divas by Design where anything goes,
Digi Haven where the theme is 'green',

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 152

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we just want you to use a digi. Other than that, it's whatever you want!

We're sponsored by

See the challenge blog for details.

This week, I got to work with an image from a new artist at Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps - Luke Carr Designs. The image is called Adventure Kid Float.

Since it's a digital challenge this week, I decided to combine the image with a background from another Stitchy Bear artist - one of Panda Bear's gorgeous Rainbow papers. I combined them and added a sentiment Photoshop Elements then printed onto my usual (when I'm going to use Promarkers) Ryman Ink Jet card.

And really, apart from colouring with a mix of Promarkers and Flexmarkers and a bit of matting, I didn't do anything.

I hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Creative Card Crew where they want birthday cards,
Crafty Bloggers Network where anything goes,
Daisy Doodles where anything goes (with a digital element),
Digi Makeover Challenge where anything goes,
Craft Us Crazy where they want us to show our favourites. (Panda Bear's set of rainbow papers is a long-time favourite of mine, and I love combining backgrounds and images digitally.)
Cute Card Thursday where the theme is 'Simplify',
Penny's Papercrafty Challenge where anything goes,
Totally Gorjuss where the theme is 'happy',

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 85 - 'Blooming Images'

This time at Crafty Cardmakers, our host is Marie, and she wants to see our Blooming Images. The main image on the card must be flowers, although you can embellish as you wish.

Our sponsors this time are:

and

I started with an image by Floppy Latte Designs which you can get via the Stitchy Bear shop. I love this image! I'm not an artist, but this image is shaded so beautifully that it guides you through colouring, and each time I've coloured it up, I've been pleased with the results.

This time, I went for three Promarker/Flexmarker shades from the Magenta range, and two greens. I cut the image using a Spellbinders die, and matted using a scalopped octagon. The paper is by Paper Cellar. I bought it ages ago, and, although I love the various designs in the pad, I rarely use them because the colours are quite muted. (This isn't called Josephine's Rainbow for nothing ... I generally like my colours bright!)

I finished with some Wild Orchid Crafts roses and some silver flowers from Hobbycraft. (They actually had their first use in my daughter's hair when she went to her Year 11 Ball (over two years ago!)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:


A Gem of a Challenge where they want die cuts,
Sweet Pea where they want digital images,

I Love Promarkers where they want something 'for the girls',


And because I had so much fun with that, I tried a different colourscheme!

Blues this time, again coloured with Promarkers and Flexmarkers. The background this time uses white card that I embossed. Now, I've seen so many people using Pan Pastels and I'd love to have a play. But, my eldest pointed out to me that he's got a set of 'normal' pastels that he doesn't use, so I thought I'd see what I could do with them. They're too hard to brush or sponge on, but I simply ran the side of the stick over the embossed areas and then brushed to soften the result. I used a couple of blues and a green to get the effect you see. I think the technique could use some fine-tuning, but I was pretty happy with my first attempt.

I made the flowers using punched white card, adding colour with the pastel sticks and finishing the tiny ones with a seed bead.

The die cuts are courtesy of Spellbinders and the pearlescent card is from Papermania.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Craftroom Challenge where they want us to make our own embellishments,
Tuesday Throwdown where anything goes,

I hope you can join us this time.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 151

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we want you to go 'girly'! So, break out your frills, flowers and pearls.

We're sponsored by

This week I worked with a lovely image from Gingerloft.

I went for girly colours (well, I love peach and aqua shades ...) and coloured the image with a mix of Promarkers and Flexmarkers. (Love that Rose Peach shade!) Theb I matted using some Spellbinders die cuts and embellished with some Sizzix swirls. The paper is from Papermania and the rosebuds and pearls are from my stash.

Hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown where anything goes,
Bunny Zoe where they want flowers and pearls (rose buds and pearl gems.)
Eureka Stamps where they want pearls and swirls,
I Love Promarkers where they want something 'for the girls',
A Gem of a Challenge where they want die cuts,
Sweet Pea where they want digital images,

Phlox Princess

While perusing the Crafts and Me website the other day, I spotted a digi stamp that I just had to buy. It's called Phlox Princess and it's by Sara Burrier who has the most gorgeous images!

So, I've coloured her up and this is the result.

Now, I know a phlox is a flower, but I don't have any idea of appropriate colours, so I found this lovely Kate Knight paper and took colours from that! I used a mix of Promarkers and Flexmarkers. I used a Spellbinders border die to cut some purple mirriboard. The paper is so bright that I didn't want to add anything else, so the actual design is quite simple. (I think I generally prefer simple designs.)

Although I love the image, and it's obviously possible to colour it sized for a six by six card, I think next time I use this image, I may go bigger - the floral pattern in her skirt was quite fiddly due to the tiny size of the flowers - even using the very fine tips available for Promarkers.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Eclectic Ellapu where they want 'girly',
I Love Promarkers where they want 'One for the Girls',

March is Apparently Birthday Month

It seems to me that a lot of people have March birthdays. And, because I hate doing things last minute, and because I spend the end of every year concentrating on Christmas cards, I often find there's nothing ready-made in my box! So, I've been working on a few, and of course, Valentine's Day is coming up too.

First, the card I made for my OH. I'm a firm believer that valentines should never be signed, so although he's going to know it's from me, it'll be signed 'an admirer'! I've used some gorgeous shimmer card I picked up at the BSSBS at Alexandra Palace in September, and embossed it using one of my new Embossalicious square embossing folders! Thank goodness that there's one company out there who have realised that most people seem to make square cards! The heart dies are from Marianne, and the label die is from Spellbinders.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Top Tip Tuesdays where the theme is 'Let me call you Sweetheart',
Party Time Tuesdays where the theme is 'love and romance',
Crazy Amigos where the theme is 'hearts',
Celebrate the Occasion where they want a valentine card with ribbon,
Emerald Faeries where the theme is 'love',
Cards for Men where the theme is love/romance,
Created with Love Challenges where the theme is Valentines,
Kaboodle Doodles where they want hearts,
Dream Valley where they want valentines,
The ABC challenge where they're going dotty.

This is the first of two birthday card in this post. The image is from Delicious Doodles via Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps.I coloured it with Promarkers and Flexmarkers and cut it with my Spellbinders Octagon die. I matted with more octagons. The paper is from the Papermania Capsule collection - one of my absolute favourites from that pad. I finished with die cut 'leaves' and some flowers made from punched shapes. I added shading to the petals using Distress Ink.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Craftroom Challenge where they want us to make our own embellishments,
Bearly Mine where anything goes,
Papertake Weekly where anything goes,
Happy Campers where they want flowers and something digital (the image is a digi),

And another birthday card. This one uses an image from a stamp I bought at Alexandra Palace. I can't tell you whose stamp it is - it was in a bargain bucket and I just fell in love with the simplicity of it. It kind of reminds me of Clarice Cliff images. I stamped in Memento ink and coloured with Promarkers and Flexmarkers. The first mat is die cut using a Nellie Snellen die. In the background, I've got some paper I've had for many years - it was a magazine freebie. I've also embossed some card. The folder is a Sizzix one and I've added some colour to the embossing using some pastel sticks and softened the effect with a brush.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Artistic Inspirations where they want embossing,
Bunny Zoe where anything goes,

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 62 - A Recipe!

This week at Crafty Cardmakers, we want to see what you can cook up with a recipe devised by DT member, Kim! She wants you to create something using one (preferably stamped)  image, two patterned papers and three embellishments one of which must be a heart. So, not too difficult, and lots of scope to put your own 'stamp' on the project. Our sponsor this week is Di's Digi Downloads.

I don't know about you, but I love my Promarkers. They're my first choice when I need to do some colouring - especially if time's at a premium. And for digi stamps they're absolutely invaluable! But, there are some colour ranges where I've struggled to find colours to shade together - especially among the reds, pinks and violets. The normal Letraset descriptions don't help much, I don't think. But, some time after I started collecting Promarkers, they started putting colour codes on them, defining a colour family as well as hue, saturation and luminosity. Now, they're not measures I'm particularly familar with (give me good old hexadecimals any day ...) but I'm a scientist by training and inclination, and numbers are meant to be crunched. So, I set out to categorise my pens, started up a spreadsheet and finally mapped the colours into something I can get my teeth into.

The first project I used after that, is a Ching Chou Kuik image I've used many times before, and this is what I came up with.

Now, my colouring's still not as good as I'd like it to be. (Not an artist! See above!) but it's much better than I've managed with these colours before. I've mainly used colours in the Magenta and Violet sets, with a tiny bit of blue for the bird, and I've added some very pale shades from the Flexmarkers I've recently added to my collection. I've used some paper and card from the Papermania Capsule collection, and cut a mat using the Spellbinder's Fleur de Lis rectangle which is definitely my favourite die at the moment. The flowers were cut using a Marianne Creatables die set, and I've added a sticky gem heart to complete the challenge.

Hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Top Tip Tuesday who've got a Fantasy theme,
Inky Impressions where they want us to use dies or punches (die cut mat and flowers),
Shelly's Images where anything goes,
Sarah Hurley where they want die cuts,
Digi Doodle's Shop where anything goes,
Crafty Purple Frog where the theme is Flower Power
4 Crafty Chicks where they want doubles (two papers and two flowers)
Guylou's Inimitability where they want 'girly girly' creations,
Crafty Ann's where they want 'bold and bright'