Exciting News - I'm on the Hougie Design Team!

Very exciting news to share with you today! I'm very very lucky person as the amazing Kay Rutter of Hougie Crafts put out a call for a Design Team and I was lucky enough to be picked! I can't believe it & am still slightly in shock even though I've known for several weeks now. I'm so pleased to be part of a DT for a piece of equipment I use regularly & for a lovely lady like Kay.

I first met Kay years ago at one of the Westpoint Craft shows in Exeter when she was running a workshop for another company. The next time I went to the show she was there on her own stall - Hougie had been born! I bought a Hougie Board as I was planning to make my wedding invitations which involved accurate folding & the Hougie fitted the bill perfectly. It was a godsend for making the envelope fold design I'd chosen. Since then I've used my Hougie regularly in all my crafting. I often make card bases from scratch so even for that simple activity my Hougie comes out.

As a member of the DT I'm lucky enough to get a sneak peek at the soon to be released new project book - Everyone Needs a Hougie 3. I've made a few projects from it & have ideas for loads more. I hope you like what I've made.

In all of these projects I've used Die Cut Toppers from The Hobby House

Double Diamond Card

'It's a Guy Thing' die-cut topper by Kenny K from The Hobby House

(Alternatively the uncoloured digi Cool Trucker is available from Kenny K)

Papermania Chronology Urban Stamp - Cogs

Papermania Chronology - Brads

Anita's Peel Off Stickers

Centre Diamond Card 

in two colourways

I liked the red as it coordinates with the colour of the toppers, but the brown looked more mud-like

'It's a Guy Thing' die cut topper by Kenny K

(if you prefer the uncoloured digi Dirt Bike Mike stamp is available from Kenny K)

Papermania Chronology Urban Stamp - Cogs

I added 'mud' to the toppers so the motocross bike was doing what it does best. 

I used my Henna, Walnut, Chestnut & Burnt Sienna Promarkers 

Bendy Card combined with Corrugated Topper

Now this one is a bit more outside the box. I took the instructions for the Bendy Card in the Everyone Needs a Hougie 3 and thought it would look good as a big birthday cake. 

I used the technique from the Corrugated Topper to make the cake wrapper, scoring it at 1cm intervals as that corresponded to the 'dips' in the scalloped circle punch. 

The 'cake' was cut from white card & coloured using my Promarkers.

The candle was made by rolling the card around a pencil & glueing the join using 3M Quick Dry Adhesive. 

I cut two small slits in the bottom so it would slot onto the cake. 

I then coloured a flame & slotted it into the top of the candle.

I'm not sure it looks exactly as I was hoping, but hopefully near enough to give the idea. 

Card - DCWV Blossoms & Butterflies 8x8 Stack (Butterfly was cut from one of these pages)

shaped with Stampin Up Scalloped Border Punch

Bassil Basics Dotty 12x12 Card - Slipper

Anitas Peel Off Stickers

Promarkers - Cake - caramel, cocoa, satin, ivory

Candle - Red, Bright Orange, Canary

Match Box Gift Set

I loved making this - it took quite a bit of time to make all the pieces & glue them in exactly the right place but I think it looks great. It has 4 drawers and because I used the recommended mount board for the base & top it's nice & sturdy. I coloured the edges of the white mount board to coordinate with the covering card so the white edges didn't stand out.

'Day Dreaming' die cut topper by Mo Manning from The Hobby House

(Alternatively the uncoloured Digi stamp Thursday's Child is available from Mo's Digital Pencil)

Card - Lidl Card pack

Patterned Paper - Winter Wonderland - The English Paper Company

Brads - Papermania

AB Self Adhesive Rhinestones

White Lace

Hope I've not boggled you too much - more to come but probably not in this quantity all at once.

I'd love to hear what you think 

& don't forget to pop over to the Hougie Crafts Gallery to see all the other amazing creations.

Digi Galore Challenge - Love

It's time for another challenge at the Digi Galore - this time the theme is Love.

Our sponsor for this challenge is Stamping Dragon Designs 

and I got to play with Penny Dragon with Valentine

I found a lovely heart overlay Silhouette file shared by the talented Kelly Shults and with her permission changed it to a SVG file so I could cut it on my Cougar. I also welded it to a frame so it created a freestanding card front. I highlighted it with a dash of Stampin Up Champagne Mist 

I coloured Penny Dragon with Valentine with my Promarkers. I used:

Body: Turquiose & True blue with a touch of Petrol blue

Ears & Belly: Cool Aqua & Duck Egg

Ribbon & Hearts: Red, Berry Read, Cardinal Red

Please pop over to Digi Galore & join in the challenge - it lasts for a fortnight & is very easy to enter. You could win 3 of Stamping Dragon's fun digis x

Happy Birthday Rio

Today is time for a very special blog hop! Rio - Betty's Daughter & the inspiration for many of Simply Betty's Stamps is celebrating her birthday & we grouped together to throw this blog hop in her honour!

Happy Birthday Rio!!! 

Hope you're enjoying the hop & having a great day :D

Betty designed a very special image for Rio & we've all made different projects with it. It's been amazing seeing how the same image can look so completely different.

You should have come to me from Carrie if you haven't and would like to start the hop from the beginning head over to the Simply Betty Stamps Blog & hop away.

Here's my humble attempt. Now zombie's are not my thing, but once I got started I really enjoyed colouring her. I tried one of the new hair combinations I've been playing with & for the first time ever I actually seem to have got frills to looks like frills!

I used a large acrylic Birthday stamp (designer forgotten) to make the card background.

Zombie Rio was then coloured with my trusty Promarkers (what else would I use!)

These are the colours I used:

Skin - Cool Aqua, Duck Egg, Turquoise

Dress & Socks - Orchid, Purple, Aubergine

Hair - Tulip Yellow, Sunflower, Gold

Shoes - Marine, Petrol Blue

Books - Salmon Pink, Antique Pink, Carmine & Aegean, French Navy

This is the inside of the card - I used a sentiment stamp from a Stampin Up Hostess set I won a couple of years ago.

I hope you like it Rio x

You should now hop on to Kaylou


Here's the full list in case you've got lost. I'd love to hear what everyone thinks x

SBS http://simplybettystamps.blogspot.com/

Corinne http://wishuponascrap.blogspot.com

Irene:  http://irenescardcreations.blogspot.com/

Rachel http://www.rachelstampshappy.blogspot.com/

Michelle http://www.inkandsew.blogspot.com.au/

Kathy http://kathyand3kids.blogspot.com/

Carrie : http://carriescreativecards.blogspot.co.uk/

Lucy http://loopylass2010.blogspot.co.uk/ <----------------- You are Here

Kaylou http://kayloucraftyblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Louise http://louisescraftycards.blogspot.co.uk/

Jill http://cuddlyscraftycreations.blogspot.co.uk

Darcy S. http://craftingwithdarcy.blogspot.com

Patricia http://preybueno.blogspot.com

Berenice http://karbersweetescape.blogspot.com

Anita http://kardmakingheaven.blogspot.co.uk

Beth http://bethscraftycorner.blogspot.co.uk/

Roz http://wolfepak5.blogspot.com

Sheri http://www.mammasscrappin.blogspot.com/

Dawn http://www.stampersgonewild.blogspot.com

Celina http://www.scrapvamp.blogspot.com

Fabi http://www.thescrappingfactory.blogspot.com

Jacki - http://papermoments.blogspot.com/

Jennifer Dove http://just4funcrafts.blogspot.com/2013/02/party-with-big-girlz.html

Katya : http://www.kattyxotica.blogspot.com/

Sharon: http://www.mrslumpys.blogspot.com/

Precious Twins - Robin & Flynn

My Cousin & his wife had twins recently & I had a lovely time making their congratulations card & gifts. I love being able to personalise things & this was a perfect opportunity.

I used Mo Manning's Plain Twins for the card - she has several different combinations of twins to choose from - girls. boys, mixed & plain. Colouring this made me realise how challenging it is to colour bald heads!!!

I created the circular sentiment in Craft Artist 2. It's great to find a programme that I can work out how to do this with - in the past I've got very frustrated trying. I foiled the words with my Foilmaster from Thyme Graphics. I love the effect it gives. I laid the foils on in a bit of a patchwork so the main bit of the words were gold, but the names were in pink & blue. Here you can see the light catching the pink & blue words

I made them personalised presents too. 

I bought some babygros & cut their names out of t-shirt vinyl on my Cougar cutting machine using the font Jokerman. I applied them using the iron & they stuck beautifully.

I love being able to make unique, personalised & meaningful presents for people.

Kam's Heart - a Child in Need

Today I made a card for a special little boy. Kam is the son of one of the ladies on the Simply Betty Fan Group. He was born with complex congenital heart defects and has had many operations in his life. He's now travelling to the USA in the hope that surgeons there can perform corrective & reconstructive surgery to ready him for a heart transplant.

The lovely Betty of Simply Betty (being the big hearted woman she is) decided to create a digi just for Kam & use it to raise money to help towards his medical costs in America. The digi costs $5 and all the money goes to Kam's family. You can find out more about Kam & the digi here on the Simply Betty Blog

Here's the card I've made to send to Kam. I thought he might like the fun of a pop up card so used my instructions from here. I used my Hougie board to score & fold the base and I printed Kam on Diamon White Cardstock (my new best friend) and coloured him with my Promarkers.

You can't quite see but his hands create a heart shape.

The sentiment is the tag from a pair of pyjamas I bought in the summer - I knew the tag would come in useful sometime & it seemed perfect for this. 

(I won't tell Kam it came from pyjamas as I'm sure he wouldn't be impressed :P )

Here's a sequence of photos so you can see how it opens - it folds flat for posting

The Promarkers I used were:

Skin - Coral, Sunkissed Pink, Blush, Pastel Pink for the Cheeks

Hair - Tulip Yellow, Sunflower, Gold (a new combination I came up with)

Eyes - Sky blue, Azure, True Blue

Top - Red, Berry Red, Carmine Red & Ice Grey 1, Ice Grey 2

Don't forget to pop over to Simply Betty's to buy your Digi & help Kam on his way 

I've entered this into the following challenges:

Creative Creations #3  - It Must be Love

Digital Tuesday Challenge: Hearts

Cards for Men - All My Love

Daisy Doodles Creative Challenges - Love/ For a Man 

Great Impressions Stamps -  Have a Heart

Digi Galore Challenge - 3 Colours only - Dilly Beans

It's Challenge time over at Digi Galore! This fortnight the challenge is to use only 3 Colours. A bit of a challenge but it was actually fun to do. Our sponsor this time is Dilly Beans - I love the faces she draws.

I must admit I got a little carried away with this challenge as I enjoyed it so much. I ended up doing 3 sets of 3 Colours with the great image Girl & Butterfly. I pushed myself outside my comfort zone & did non standard coloured hair but LOVE the way it turned out!

I love the way that a different colour choice can make such a difference to the look of an image.

I loved the look of these simple cards. 

I made the Happy Birthday Sentiments myself & the Fluttering by sentiment is from Create with TLC

Laura on the DT commented that they looked like Polaroids & that got my brain sparking again ........

The result was another set of three!

Again I love the fact that changing the background colour again makes the image look very different. Here are each pair side by side.

Red/ Orange/ Yellow Promarker Colours:

Berry Red

Orange

Canary

Red/ Pink/ Turquoise Promarker Colours:

Reds - Cardinal Red, Berry Red

Pinks - Hot Pink, Cerise

Turquoise - Turquoise, Marine, Petrol Blue

Blue/ Purple/ Pink Promarker Colours:

True Blue, Royal Blue

Purple

Cerise

Don't forget to pop over to the Digi Galore Challenge blog to see the work of the entire DT & to enter yourself - the prize is 3 digi stamps from Dilly Beans 

I'd like to enter this into the challenges at:

Flutterby Wednesday - Anything Goes

Creative Creations Challenges - Keep it Simple