A Raver and an inspiration photo Challenge

I've made two cards today - both for challenges.

The first is inspired by the photo on the Just Inspirational Challenges challenge

As soon as I saw it a digi I own from Jellypark called Girl in a Bee Costume popped into me head  so I made this card :D

The sentiment is from Create with TLC  and the background digi paper is from Sassy Designs

I'd like to enter this into the Just Inspirational Challenges Challenge

Edit: 30/7/12 - WOW how exciting I got picked as Top 3 for the Just Inspirational Challenges :D Thank you so much! I'm over the Moon!

By coincidence the sponsor for the Just Inspirational Challenge is The Stamping Chef & that's who my other digi is designed by. 

I'm a Raver is for the Facebook fan group challenge. 

I used tulip yellow, sunflower, Gold & raw sienna for her hair

and cerise, shocking pink* and maroon for her outfit.

The sentiment is again by Create with TLC

Lots of cards!

I've had a bit of a creative spell recently so thought I'd share some of my creations. As ever I'd love to hear what you think. I've had nearly 150 visitors looking at my last post with the Dutch Saturated Canary Image but only 3 people have left me comments.

My first card uses a digi from Papelitos Stamps.

 The sentiment is a freebie from Ginger's House (there are some great sentiments on there). 

I've coloured her in  pink & would like to enter her into Papelitos Stamps 'Pretty in Pink' Challenge

Digi from Birdie Brown

Sentiment is from an acrylic stamp set (designer unknown)

Digi From Birdie Brown

Sentiment is an acrylic stamp (designer unknown)

Paper from Sassy Designs

Digi from Jellypark

Sentiment from Create with TLC

These roses are a rubber stamp from Imagination Crafts called Shadow Rose. It comes in 2 sizes. I bought it after seeing a card that the lovely Brenda on Aly's Crafty Den made. Brenda is a lovely lady & sent me some Perfect Pearls to try. I've not made any cards with this stamp yet but enjoyed having a play. What do you think?

Stamped with Memento inks

Stamped with Versamark Ink then brushed over with Perfect Pearls

See the shimmer!

Versamark/ Perfect Pearls on burgundy cardstock - it makes the shimmer stand out really well.

Finally Come back Tomorrow and on Monday for exciting news & chances to win prizes x

Exciting News

The amazingly talented Mo Manning had a 24hr freebie in her shop of her new digi 'Laptop Baby' over 1000 people grabbed it and she's now set a challenge to come up with a good sentiment to use with it. The freebie has ended now but you can buy this lovely image at Mo's shop.

Here's my entry. Many of my friends seem to be having babies at the moment but they all live a long way away so I don't get to see them very often - so I thought of this sentiment.

The Image is Laptop Baby from Mo Manning

The Sentiment is my Own

The Paper is from Sassy Designs

I coloured the image using my trusty Promarkers

Skin: Oatmeal, Blush, Pastel Pink cheeks

Hair: Primrose, Buttercup, Pastel Yellow, Mustard

Clothes: Baby pink, Antique Pink

Edges of Picot Circle die cut & mat for sentiment are coloured with Antique Pink

I also made a good discovery today. I have a great big pack of slightly pearlescent card banks which are great but sometimes look odd when made into cards as they're a different tone - not quite white. I experimented with the top half of this card and found that colouring with my baby pink promarker gave a lovely coverage & the pearlecense  shows through :D Yet another great discovery with my Promarkers!

I also made another card using the 'Hug Monster' sentiment from Create with TLC using a different digi than last time. This set of monsters comes from Birdie Brown. I think I like it better than my last attempt - possibly because I didn't try to do fur/ hair this time.

Image from Birdie Brown

Sentiment from Create with TLC

Paper from Sassy Designs

I can't remember which Promakers I used for the orange monster - it was a bit of a voyage of discovery. The Middle monster is Turquoise & True Blue & the other monster is Prussian.

I have other exciting news to share today - I've become a member of 2 Design Teams ...... yes TWO!!! Having never been on one before it feels great :D I'll let you know more details once things are settled.

Hope you're all having a wonderful day. Please leave me a comment - I'd love to know what you think x

Saturated Canary Up Up and Away

I'm having a bit of a spaced day today after watching the Olympic Closing Ceremony last night. I know there are all sorts of feelings about the Olympics & the money that's been spent on it but I must say I've Adored it! I've watched loads and loads of coverage & watched the Opening & Closing Ceremonies. I enjoyed them both but think the comedy moments - Mr Bean in the Opening Ceremony and Eric Idle in the Closing Ceremony were absolutely priceless. The most emotional moment had to go to seeing Gary Barlow performing so soon after his personal tragedy. How on earth he had the strength to sing that beautifully emotional song I have no idea - he's an incredible man. 

I'm really looking forward to seeing the Paralympics  - that's always so inspirational.

So the only thing I've managed today is to make a couple of cards & clear up all the crafting stuff I had over the lounge floor. I had loads out to photograph it so I can list to sell on Facebook as I've got far too much!

I normally struggle to use the really long thin cards thought I'd give it a go today. I've seen quite a few lovely cards made with the Teddy Bo tag designs & thought I'd try something similar with a Saturated Canary image I got with the 30% coupon that the lovely Krista had available this weekend. I expanded the image until it filled almost the whole card then cropped and added a border.

It's a bit of a shame that as normal the colours loose something in the photos. There's actually a reasonable amount of shading on the face but it just doesn't show up for some reason.

I love the way that two different colour conversations can make the same image look totally different.

The image is Up Up and Away from Saturated Canary

The sentiments are both from Create with TLC - my favourite source of sentiments. Paulette is an amazing lady who shares a free sentiment every day. Make sure to stop by & see what she has and leave a comment thanking her as that's always nice.

Coloured as ever with my trusty promarkers. I made the clouds using Hazel's tutorial that I posted about a few weeks ago. I made a very good discovery today - the barrel comes out of my old 'Spritzer' so it will take a Promaker :D :D :D Needless to say I'm a very happy bunny! I've also been asked to be on the Admin team of the lovely Aly's Crafty Den on Facebook so am really touched by that. So apart from not achieving much today it's a nice day.

I'd love to hear any comments you have on my cards xxx

Three Cards this afternoon

A day off work today so I made a few cards. The first is one for a male friend who has rather a soft spot for Betty Boop! I was going to make him a tractor card but then decided this might be more fun. The image was a colouring page I found online & coloured myself. It's my first attempt at an easel card and I'm pleased with how it looks, but do wonder if the recipients of these know how to make them stand up or just think we've sent a very odd card x

The image was from an online colouring page

The sentiment is from Create with TLC

I then made a quick silly card for a lady on the Crafting Facebook group I'm on who's having a rough time of it at the moment. I had this lovely sentiment from Create with TLC so went on a search for a Hug Monster to go with it. I found this freebie who did the job, but my hair creation didn't go very well. It gives the general idea though. Yet again I created the matting layers by colouring white card with my Promarkers.

Image is a freebie from Away with the Pixels

Sentiment is from Create with TLC

Coloured with Prussian, True Blue & Turquoise Promarkers

My final card was made using an image from a new company I've found - Jellypark. They have some lovely images. I have this one twice as I bought it, then also got it on the free DVD that comes with this months edition of Complete Cardmaking. I've generally stopped buying magazines but did give into this one as the DVD of digis & papers that came with it is brilliant. I really love the Jellypark images & have signed up to their free club & newsletter.

I resized one of my papers from Sassy Designs & printed a second copy of the stamp off so the dress printed on top of the paper. I then cut it out & glued it on the main digi stamp. I coloured it with my Promarkers (as ever) and even added some bling to the jewellery with my metallic gold & a tiny bit of stickles on the earings & necklace.

The backing paper is the same paper from Sassy Designs printed at a bigger size. The Sentiment is from Create with TLC.

That's all for today - I think I might follow this lady's idea & have a nice glass of wine. Then again maybe not x

Olympics & Challenges

Am I the only one loving the Olympics?! I watched the opening ceremony on Friday & loved it. What a spectacle - especially the cauldron at the end. I'd have loved to be there but must admit watching snuggled on the sofa at that time of night was the best option for me.

Today Deborah Gill set a 60 min challenge on Aly's Den - the crafty group on Facebook. She posted the theme 'Proud to be British' at 3pm and we had until 4pm to make a card & post the picture! It was quite a challenge - it makes you realised how long you normally spend making a card! I had also seen the current challenge on I Love Promarkers which is Gold, Silver or Bronze so I thought I'd combine the two. This is the result:

The Image is A Big Whoop from the wonderful Mo Manning of Digital Pencil Two. The circle is the largest Picot Circles Nestabilities which I really love, the outside is coloured with my metallic gold Promarker.

Promarker colours:

Skin - Oatmeal, Blush, Pastel Pink

Hair - Walnut, Cocoa, Cinnamon

Dress - Cardinal Red, Poppy, Red

Top - Royal Blue

Background - Powder Blue

The matting layers are plain white card coloured with my Poppy & Royal Blue Promarkers to ensure they matched.

It's not my best colouring but it was in a limited time frame.

The Sentiment is from Create by TLC - I added the 'is for British' myself as I thought it worked well both for the British Pride theme and the Gold, Silver & Bronze. I printed it on my lazer printer then foiled it with my Black Cat Foil Master from Thyme Graphics. I bought it second hand a month or so ago & havn't had a chance to play with everything that's gone on this month. It was really nice to put it to use. 

Here's a better photo showing the effect of the gold foiling.

As I had it up and running I had a play and foiled some words for an invitation & also some of the beautiful free vector ornaments available here. I love the effect the Foil Master gives! I need to work a bit on getting the temperature settings exactly right for the different cardstock & I need to play more with coloured card but I'm so impressed with the results.

I must play with this more - it's soooooo pretty!