Flowers with All Dressed Up

It's challenge time over at Digi Galore and this time the theme is Flowers. 

I was lucky enough to have Looking Gorgeous from our sponsor All Dressed Up . I've only recently discovered All Dressed Up and I LOVE their digis. I can see a big spend coming up sometime soon. 

The image is so beautiful that I decided to colour it and frame it, altering the frame with some Sunflowers from Samaflora

Here's a close up of the colouring in a different light 

(a nightmare to photograph behind glass so I took it out)

I used Promarkers with a few Copics 

Skin - Burnt Orange, Coral, Sunkissed Pink, Blush, E00 with Pastel Pink Cheeks

Hair - E49, E29, Walnut, Chestnut, Cocoa, E23

Beads & Flowers - Burnt Orange, Orange, Bright Orange, Gold, Sunflower, Yellow

Leaves - Leaf Green, Bright Green, Forest Green

I really hope you like it. I'm off to look at the All Dressed Up store a little more :P 

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

Allsorts Challenge - Spring Blossoms

Sweet Stampin' - Flowers

Crafty Ribbons - Flower Power

Milk Coffee stamps and Crafts U Print

It's challenge time again over at Through the Purple Haze Challenges and we're lucky enough to have two sponsors this week so I had two images to play with. 

The first sponsor is Milk Coffee. I've not come across them before but after seeing their style I'm sure I'll be back to visit their Etsy store soon. 

I had the beautiful Fairy Tiffany to use and decided to make a slightly different card to show her off to her best advantage. This is the result.

I created an oval based easel card and cut it on my Cougar. I then coloured it with my Shabby Shutters and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks (something a bit different for me).

I cut Fairy Tiffany out with the Print and Cut function of my Cougar and coloured her with my Promarkers.

Wings - Purple, Orchid, Blossom, Blender, Stickles

Roses - Maroon, Ice Grey 1 & 2

Vines & Leaves - Meadow Green, Leaf Green, Bright Green, Pine

I've signed up for Kit and Clowder's Skin and Hair colouring class and worked hard to build the shadows and depth on her skin.

Skin - Burnt Orange, Coral, Sunkissed Pink, Blush with Pastel Pink Cheeks

Hair - Tulip Yellow, Sunflower, Gold, Raw Sienna

The roses on the stopper are handmade by Sam of Samaflora. They were white and I coloured the tips with my Maroon Promarker.

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

Crafting with Dragonflies - Shaped Cards

Kaboodle Doodles - Anything but a Square

Emerald Faeries - Girly - Pretty in Pink

Jellypark - Things with Wings

Sweetpea Stampers - Easel Card

Our second sponsor is Crafts U Print. They gave us access to 4 printable decoupage sheets to choose from (You can get them for free if you sign up to the mailing list). I chose this lovely vintage one. I was a bit unsure about what to do as I don't do decoupage, but then I remembered a vintage nail file set I picked up in Poundland ages ago knowing it would come in useful at some point.

The background is a plain white card that I coloured with Distress Inks - Antique Photo, Fired Brick and Stormy Sky. It's only the 3rd time I've ever used distress inks, but I thought they'd work for this.

From the side you can see how high the decoupage builds up.

It was a lovely surprise to find the nail files have the vintage image printed on them as well as on the packet.

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

Simon Says Stamps - D is for Distress

Eclectic Ellapu - Vintage

I hope you like both of my cards. Please come over and join us at Through the Purple Haze Challenges x

Through the Purple Haze Challenges - I'm on the DT!!!!

Hi Everyone, I have exciting news to share with you today! As you know I've been following the Through the Purple Haze Challenge blog since it launched a few months ago. I've really enjoyed taking part in the weekly challenges, so when an opportunity came up to apply for the DT I thought I'd give it a go. I wasn't expecting anything to come of it, so was amazed when my application was accepted! It seems like a really nice team of people and the challenges coming up are brilliant so I'm delighted to be part of the team.

My first project as part of the DT is part of the Double Team Challenge where Team A & Team B go up against each other & everyone who enters gets to vote for the winning DT creation so it adds an extra spice.

The challenge this week was to follow a sketch.

Our sponsor for Team A is Stitchy Bear and I had 'Waiting for You' by Priyanka to play with. 

Here's the card I created.

Here's a close up of pretty Waiting for you

I coloured her using my Promarkers and Flexmarkers (shown with a *)

Skin - Coral, Sunkissed Pink, Blush

Hair - Tulip Yellow, Sunflower, Gold, Raw Sienna

Dress - Cerise, Shocking Pink*, Maroon

Wings - Pink Carnation, Cerise, Shicking Pink, Marooon

Foliage - Leaf greem, Bright Green, Pine

Flowers - Pink Carnation, Cerise 

Sky - Powder Blue

I added quite a few layers to add dimension. I cut the Flower Doily and Grass border on my Cougar Cutting Machine. I also designed and cut the 'Hi' sentiment and Tag on it then coloured the mirri card shocking pink to tie in with her dress.

Don't you just love my daisys? They're made by the very talented Sam of Samaflora. I've been itching to use them for a while and thought they fitted this card perfectly!

I also tried a new technique to make the sky. I had a cloud mask from Sam's Masks and Stencils and I followed her tutorial on using Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks with the foam tool to make the clouds. I've owned some Distress Inks for a while now, but this is the first time I've used them. I need to practice and master them more. For the grass at the bottom I dabbed it with Mown Grass Distress Ink on a foam tool.

Anyway enough from me today. I hope you like it and I'd love to hear what you think so leave me a little message. 

Don't forget to pop over to Through the Purple Haze Challenges and join in - see you there x

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

One Stitch at a Time - Use a digi

Flowers and Butterflies .... part 2

I had such fun playing along with the Butterflies and Flowers challenge with Ribbons Fairy from  Saturated Canary  that I thought I'd try her with a slightly darker sky to show up her colours better. I can't decide which version I like better.

This one

Or this one?

I still can't decide!

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

Hair - Bright green, Canary, Yellow, Buttercup

Dress - Forest Green, Lush Green, Bright Green, Leaf Green

Leaf - Holly, Pine, Lush Green

The sky in the top one is Sky Blue, in the bottom one it's Powder Blue

The butterflies are clear stamps from a Penny Black set x

The gorgeous flowers are from Samaflora

I'm entering this into the Butterflies and Flowers Challenge at Through the Purple Haze

 Winged Things Challenge and Saturated Canary Challenges

Butterflies at Stampin' for the Weekend

Fairy Tale Fantasy at Wags 'N Wiskers

Craft Mojo Butterflies challenge

Butterflies and Flowers

Wow! I'm so over the moon to have been awarded Top 3 at Through the Purple Haze Challenges for my Tag card!!! It really made my day as I'd slightly lost my confidence with my cards for some reason. Thank you so much lovely DT ladies.

The challenge this week is is Flowers and Butterflies. As you all know I'm lucky enough to be on the Samaflora Design Team for 3 months and as I'd just received my next delivery of flowers I had lots to choose from. I decided to use the lovely Poppies. I'd seen the new Fairies released by Saturated Canary this week & thought Ribbons Fairy would look rather cute peeking out of a bunch of poppies.

I used my Promarkers as always:

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

Hair - Bright green, Canary, Yellow, Buttercup

Dress - Forest Green, Lush Green, Bright Green, Leaf Green

Leaf - Holly, Pine, Lush Green

The butterflies are clear stamps from a Penny Black set x

I've entered this into the Craft Mojo Butterflies challenge

Simply Betty - Favourite Colours and 'Heavy on the Embellishments

Now those of you who know me know I tend to go for a fairly clean and simple design in the cards I make. Sam is corrupting me with Dylusion sprays & masks but I'm still a clean and simple girl underneath, so I decided to challenge myself by taking part in the 'Heavy on the Embellishments' Challenge at Simply Challenges. 

Simply Betty is also sponsoring this week's challenge at Through the Purple Haze Challenges the theme for which is 'Favourite Colours' so I decided to combine the two challenges.

Choosing my favourite colour is difficult as I have a range of favourite colours rather than just one. I love the bright Jewel colours - reds, deep pink, royal blue, teal etc but I'd be hard pressed to choose a favourite from them. The colour I've been drawn to most recently is teal so I decided to go with that. I used SBS's Movie Gala Betty and prepared to use all the embellishments I could!

What do you think? Still fairly clean and simple (it's me after all!) but as many embellishments as I could bear to put on it! So so many more than normal. I used Samaflora Roses, a florish cut from the Dienamics Medium Fancy Flourish coloured in with Promarkers, Gems and Pearls! She even has a glittery ring!

The colours I used are:

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

Hair - Tulip Yellow, Sunflower, Gold

Dress - Turquoise, Marine, Petrol Blue, True Blue

Shawl - Cool Aqua, Duck Egg, Blender

I hope you like her - I'd love to know what you think x

Samaflora Flower Hair Grips

After the lovely comments I received on my Roses Headband I decided to make some Roses hair grips with some more of my Samaflora roses.

I took a pair of lovely yellow roses & dipped them in clear UTEE in my Meltpot. This isn't entirely necessary but makes them more endurable.

I then cut a strip of yellow card & used it to glue the hair grip to the back of the rose. I used Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive as it dries nice and strong.

A really simple idea but with these roses it looks so effective.

The Challenge this week at Through the Purple Haze is 'Flowers' and I thought these little pretties fitted the bill perfectly x

I'd love to hear what you think x

Samaflora Roses

I've been lucky enough to be accepted on to the Design Team for Samaflora for the next 3 months. Sam makes the most amazing paper flowers. If you look at photos you can hardly tell they're made of paper at all!  I've never been one for using flowers in my designs before, but these I couldn't resist :D

Being on the DT means I had a wonderful pile of roses come through the post a few weeks ago which I got to play with :D (it's a hard life!!!)

I've made 2 creations so far - a wedding card & a hat band. The roses are a pleasure to work with an so versatile.

Here's the Wedding card. I used the lovely Wedding Couple from Redonkadoodles  & made it lovely & bright. I used my lovely yellow roses & foiled the wording with gold foil on my Foil Master. I love the depth the roses give the card.

My second creation was a flower head band to go around my hat. I've had one on my hat for years with cala lilies on it, but unfortunately my young niece decided to 'pick' the flowers last year so it was left a bit bare. I kept the basic head band and when the Samaflora roses arrived I knew they were perfect for the job. 

This is what I stared with -the band, some leaf trim & 6 lovely white roses from Samaflora 

To make the roses more durable I dipped them in UTEE melted in my Meltpot. I used my heat tool to the thickness of the UTEE as it ended up quite thick when first dipped & meant the detail of the roses was lost a little. Blowing it carefully with the heat gun worked perfectly.

I attached the roses to the head band by winding the wires around it and then wound the leaf trim around the wire to make it look nicer. 

Here's the result

and on the hat 

I hope you like them. I'd love to know what you think. 

I have some more roses to play with so will create something else very soon x

I'd like to enter my head band to the Anything Goes challenge on the Through the Purple Haze Challenge blog. It's a new challenge blog with a challenge every week & I'm going to do my best to enter every week. A huge challenge for me, but something I'd love to try x