ATCs/CARDS WITH ATTITUDE #13 - BUTTERFLIES AND BLOOMS

This fortnight I chose an image from fresh Brewed Designs - Steamy Romance.

I ran an A6 sized piece of Lost and Found paper through my printer after I had re-sized the digi image to fit an ATC. I then cut the paper to it's final size before colouring over it all with a few different distress stains. The red and green colouring were done with studio acrylic paint and the white of the mug was achieved with picket fence distress stain. A covering of glossy accents on the hearts and a Prima leaf finished it all off.
Pop over to our blog HERE for some fabulous samples from our Design Team, some of which have only joined us this week. They have done so well. Remember, you can make a card if you don't like ATCs and if the theme of this fortnight's challenge doesn't appeal either, just make something with an anything goes theme.

WICKED WEDNESDAY ATC #26 - WOODLAND NYMPHS & FOREST FAIRIES

Thank you Jenn and team from Wicked Wednesday ATCs for picking me in your top 3 last week.  Such an honour.
I have looked forward to this week's challenge so much (to see a list of upcoming themes, pop over to WW blog for details). I wanted to do something different this time so I've made a 3D card. It was such fun:

The fairies/nymphs are made from shrink plastic -

I used a hot glue gun for an immediate result -

The mushrooms were stamped on card and coloured with Distress Markers -

The 'trees' were cut from Alterations strip dies and a Martha Stewart punch -

The forest floor is sea moss, the flowers are Prima and there is some stickles and glitter mixed in too -

This will have to go on my little craft shelf now as there is no way it will fit in an ATC pocket, LOL.

WOYWW - IT's SPRING - I THINK

I was summer last week, winter this week, not sure where autumn went, so it MUST be spring and today it's WOYWW, isn't it Julia??  Julia will know because she knows what Wednesdays are. The day when we all get to visit one another's craft spaces - that's if we get the time. Sorry, but for the last 2 weeks I have been taken up with Tim's Creative Chemistry 101, a whole weekend of workshops with Hels plus some DT work. Phew, I'm crafted out!!
This is my unusually busy little space:

Stickles galore plus bits of card that I was using to make 'trees'.

Glitter, Prima flowers and die cut 'bits and bobs'. If you follow the challenge blog, Wicked Wednesday ATCs this week, you will see what I have been up to. Other than that, I haven't done much else except 2 weeks worth of ir***ng which mounted up because of the Timmy classes. I suppose I should tackle the du***ng next --- or not!!!!!
Enjoy your woyww.

ATCs & CARDS WITH ATTITUDE #8 - ANYTHING GOES

This cheerful little sunflower, called Sunflower Smile by Robyn's Fetish, is dancing merrily in the sunshine.

I printed the image onto printed sticky paper and again onto card. Each was coloured with Copics. The card image was cut out and fastened over the other image with a coloured brad. I punched some grass out of green patterned paper and using 3D foam stuck it to the bottom of the card. A few Prima flowers, seed beads and glossy accents on some of the sunflower petals added interest. I then distressed the edges of the card with spiced marmalade distress ink.

 

Come and join us this fortnight over at ATCs & Cards with Attitude, you can make anything for the theme so long as it's either a CARD or an ATC.
Our wonderful sponsor is Robyns Fetish who is offering the winner their choice of 5 digi images.

3 TAGS CHALLENGE LAST DAY

This month, Heather set us a tag challenge. The themes were:
1.  season of mellow fruitfullness
2.  vintage birds
3.  the daydreamer

The idea was to use the finished tags within a journal page so we were asked to leave some places, both front and back, for journaling.
This is what I came up with:

This is the first one. I prepared the base with stains and then used Terra through a stencil to make the raised flowers. Once dry, I added the vellum Flower Fairy. The leaf at the bottom is from a Marriane design which I anchored by the stem only so that journalling could be added underneath without spoiling the effect with writing showing. I simply covered the reverse with K&Co paper.

The colours go well together.
The second tag had me thinking about Heather's pesky parrot ATC that for some time has fascinated me. I came up with this - not anything as good as that ATC I might add.

I distressed the edges of the card and then stamped all around with some mini flower stamps. The parrots were from free downloads, the punched border was made with a Martha Stewart punch and the centre paper is from some of Tim's stash. Again I used a download and altered it a bit for the reverse.

The addition of some peel offs helped the appearance.
The last one was fun too.

I stamped the girl and carefully cut her out. I then prepared the base by making it from a nestabilities die, distressing it and stamping the girl onto it. The word is a Tim stamp, the flowers and leaves are Prima. I finally glued the cut out image over the stamped one by the log at the top only. This gave a hidden space ie. the reverse, on which to include writing. I had fun with the back on this one.

I used the stencil from the first tag but blended subtle colours through it. I added my details around the white bits to show the recipient where journaling could be included.
I had to make these tags within a couple of days of the challenge beginning because we went away for a couple of weeks and are really busy now we are back. But for all my rushing to join in, I had great fun.
Thank you once again to Heather for this challenge and roll on the next one.

A CUTE CARD

Not very often I make a 'cute' card but this one happened because I toyed with the idea of applying for another DT. Third time lucky I thought. Anyway, I haven't really got round to doing it and for me, that isn't the way forward. I thought if I can't get on and DO IT, I have no right to be thinking about it. Something so important needs commitment and I don't seem to have that inclination this week.
I had a rummage through my pretty paper drawer, found a lovely little digi image, pulled out the DIs that matched, picked out some coloured brads and found some tiny Prima flowers. This was the result:

The deep edge Martha Stewart punch matched the gorgeous embossed red paper to a 'T'.

I used a water brush and DIs to colour the image so the little girl's skin is quite patchy really. However, as she has been in the garden all day picking flowers in the sunshine, I thought she looked a little tanned!!!

She is printed onto thin card so I could cut her out and mount her onto the card with 3D foam.
The little flower brads match perfectly too. I cut off the prongs and stuck them down with Multi Matt Medium.

Finally, I stuck the Prima flowers to the bottom of the card, leaving the stems long apart from those at the edge.

It all worked out really well. I think the moral of making this card was to stick to the same pallet for all the items. Maybe cute isn't that bad after all.

SPRING INTO ACTION

When we were preparing our configuration box at Tim's workshop, he asked us to remove 3 of the inside boxes. This was to create a large compartment in the middle. We could keep the ones we took out for further projects. I decided to use one of them to make an entry for the Artistic Stamper Design Team Challenge this month which is SPRING.

Before I stuck the papers down I stamped the inside one with peeled paint DI and Tim's Spring Sprung flourish stamp and the outside paper with the Artistic Stamper's stamp, mini chicken wire using bundled sage DI. All the edges are covered with tissue tape.
I then began to stick mini Prima flowers in various parts both inside and outside.

I used  multi matt medium for this as it's quick and efficient. The little chicken is wearing an Easter bonnet stuck using some very sticky double-sided tape, but again, she is stuck with matt medium.
I struggled a bit with the little rabbit peg and bunch of flowers and in the end I used double-sided tape for that too.

The flowers on the top of the box, plus the 'spring' wires, are glued on with silicone. This gave a bit of height as well as something in which to stick the wire.

Finally, I worked out where to place the silver beads (taken from a really cheapo necklace I found in a really cheapo shop) and glued those with matt medium.

What a fun little project.

AUTUMNAL LAYERS

I know a lot of people absolutely love the Autumn. The colours are simply amazing I do agree, but for me it's the end of so much. The summer - ok, I know we don't usually have one of those LOL - the beautiful flowers and their scent, birds singing and rushing about trying to bring up their young, holidays where there is some sun, being able to sit outside and to have the door open, long daylight hours - have I convinced you yet??

Anyway, there are a couple of challenges I thought I might just have a go at:

Something Completely Different - Oct. theme - anything with Colour
Week 1 - Outside colours - brown, orange etc.
and
Artistic Stamper Challenge - Oct. theme - Layers

I thought I would make a tag for a change and this one came directly from Sir Tim himself. After last year's 12 tags of Christmas, Tim had a few bundles of 20 tags for sale. As you can imagine, I was in there straight away and the handsome Mario sent me a pack.
I distressed the tag with a mixture of distress inks, then used one of the leaves I had just cut with my new tattered leaves die to act as a mask while I did a bit more inking and then a bit of spritzing with gold perfect pearls and water.
I covered pieces of grungepaper with some dictionary text and die cut some tattered flowers and tattered leaves. I also cut some from the retro grunge paper stack. Once dry I distressed some of them with fired brick and dried marigold inks and assembled the flowers together with a tiny Prima flower and one cut from inked mulberry paper with a tiny brad. They are all glued down with glossy accents. I then put a little bit of tea dye distress stickles on the leaves. The top 2 leaves are also Prima with a little butterfly charm on top.
I then stuck some more dictionary paper on a piece of thin card incorporating the word Autumn, and distressed it before punching out with a Martha Stewart oak leaf punch. I then added this to a memo pin, stuck it in the flower and hey presto - job done.

TIM INSPIRED

I had a go at this faux enameling thingy yesterday, but it was really hard to cover that big flower I made. Some woyww'ers were interested to see the result so I'll leave that one for next Wednesday. Don't get excited.

In the meantime, I've been making some ATCs as my stock pile has diminished. I tried to use some of the bits lying around on my work desk, but only managed to incorporate 3 little bits. Anyway, here goes.

For this one I used Tim's 'scallop' die and cut both patterns in mount board before juggling them together to make an ATC sized card. I had already distressed the edge of the bottom layer with wild honey before doing this. The top layer was distressed with scattered straw and mustard seed with a touch of milled lavender over a mini scroll mask. I have a stamp which reads ' bloom where you're planted' so I masked off all the words leaving the 'bloom' bit which I stamped in black archival. The little barbed-wire type stamp down the side is an oblong border stamp which I used with pumice stone DI. The flower is cut from vellum and the little flower in the middle is a successful faux enamelled one from yesterday. The titchy button finishes it off.

For this card I distressed the base with all the orange inks before overstamping with a Wendy Vecchi background stamp that miraculously came in the post from Simon Says Stamp in the USA!  I used barn door for this. The ziz zag is a Tim stamp and the word is from a stamp I've ages. I used black archival to stamp these. The flower is cut from grungepaper using Tim's tattered florals die. I inked this with rusty hinge and walnut stain overstamped in black archival and one of Tim's acrylic script stamps. The sprocket, spinner and brad are all Tim's. The leaves are cut from grungepaper, inked with peeled paint and then covered in distress stickles in the same colour. They were cut with his regal crest die.

I can't take full credit for this one because I've based it on a sample on the Wendy Vecchi stamps I received. Obviously it's not exactly the same but I've tweeked it to make an ATC. I used wild honey and dried marigold as the base, leaving a lighter patch in the middle. I then overstamped with the gorgeous chequered stamp using black archival. Then I went round the edges with a permanent marker pen. I inked over a piece of scrap card with barn door DI and overstamped it with bits of stems from Tim's spring sprung stamps using pumice stone DI. That is then stuck under a piece of Tim's film strip. The bits of calendar were coloured with tumbled glass and cut to shape. The leaves are made from some lovely green pearlised card using a Martha Stewart frond punch, the little flowers are Prima overstamped in wild honey with a background stamp from the Artistic Stamper range and finished off with tiny sticky gems. The butterfly is a pre-cut grunge one again stamped with the pre mentioned stamp inked with tumbled glass.

Phew! I think  I need a lie down now. Hope Blogger doesn't swallow this post like it swallowed my last 2 posts on Lindsay's Rant blog.

BABY WIPE BUTTERFLY

One of the amazing techniques I learnt from Lindsay last week, was making a multi coloured background 'paper' using baby wipes.
You simply run a Big and Juicy multi coloured ink pad onto your craft sheet and then lay a baby wipe onto it to pick up the ink - a plastic glove is a must for this.
The end result is quite lovely and being a bit textured, adds to the appeal.
I used my piece to make a Tim butterfly to go on  a birthday card for a friend's little girl. (don't tell Emily if you are reading this Sharon).

I used bundled sage and shabby shutters distress ink to shade the card before stamping a swirl with shabby shutters ink. I then cut out the butterfly by putting 2 layers of black card through my Big Shot. I stuck the baby wipe onto the plain pieces of the butterfly and then overlaid the cut out layers. I then stuck each bit to the card using both extra sticky double-sided tape and 2 sizes of black 3D foam. I put a small purple brad through a green plastic flower then a purple Prima flower after which I wrapped the end of some purple wire round the stem of the brad which I had threaded through some seed beads and 2 metal charms.
I finished off with some gorgeous stickles on the butterfly body and a few sticky gems on the bottom of the card.
The butterfly die is really beautiful and cuts so cleanly and easily. I can see me using this a lot.

LILI OF THE VALLEY #55

I just had to make a card for this weeks LOTV challenge because I so want to win the prize. It's some gorgeous flowers. Have a look at the link in my sidebar for the details.
My LOTV stamps are mainly Christmas ones, so I thought I would make a start on my seasonal cards with this challenge.
The gorgeous papers are from Creative Imaginations as is the epoxy sentiment. The flowers are Prima apart from the little roses which I got from a wholesale store locally. The punched leaves are made using my new Martha Stewart oak leaf punch - been after that punch for ages and managed to get one last Saturday. I coloured the LOTV image with Copics and added some icicle stickles for snow. Lastly, the ribbon is from Anna Griffin.
I enjoyed making this card and it will go to someone very special at Christmas.

ALLSORTS CHALLENGE #50 - ANIMALS

Another quick card, this time for the Allsorts challenge which this week is Animals.
Their sponsor is Digi Boutique who produce some cute digi images. If you enter this challenge and use a DB image, you will be entered twice. Have a look at their blog:
http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.com
I've used some Debbie Mumm papers, a few Prima leaves and Digi Boutique image Mikey Monkey. I coloured him with Copics, cut him out and mounted him on the card using a mini spring.
Don't forget my blog giveaway on May 24. All you have to do is leave me a comment on any post between now and midnight on the 23rd. The candy will be a surprise but plenty, and I don't mean a roll of that kitchen paper either!!LOL. Check out my previous post for more details.

A 3 CHALLENGE CARD

At last I've managed to get on the net after trying for days. As soon as I get on, it kicks me out so fingers crossed for this post.

This little card meets these challenges:

Copic Colour challenge #60 Click Here

B93 -light crockery blue or BG93 - green grey

E47 - dark brown

Y23 - yellowish beige ( I used Y21)

Lily of the Valley challenge # 51 - a sketch click here

Totally Papercrafts challenge #12 - spring click here

I hope that if you click on the post title you will be ushered to the relevant blogs, but if not, their links are in the side bar of my blog.

I've had this flower fairy stamp for ages and think that this is the first time I have used it. I used the Copics to colour her then distressed the edges with bundled sage ink. The base paper is from K & co and the flower fairy card is from my stash as is the ribbon. The lovely little flowers are Prima. I tried to colour a gold peeloff greeting using a green Copic but it didn't come out too well.

I'm glad I've got this far tonight. Let's hope it loads now.

WEDNESDAY AND WOYWW ONCE AGAIN

Don't these Wednesdays come around quickly?

I look forward to the Copic Colour challenge every Wednesday but where the other 6 days go is beyond me. Anyway, Wednesday now also means 'what's on your work desk' where you can join in and post photos of your crafty area and give other crafters an idea of what you are up to.

Because the link to WOYWW in my sidebar is hard to follow (thanks to IE8) have a look at: http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ if you want to join in.

I thought my little space looked similar to last week so decided to give you a little look inside one of my wall cupboards. There's glues/tapes, Sakura pens, Xyron, wire/cutters, Prima flowers, light box, brads etc, crop-o-diles, stationery, beads, silent punch/setter, treasured swapped ATCs etc. etc. But what is on the doors is the best bit - Toby keeping an eye on that bloomin' parrot of Heathers!!!

ANYTHING GOES

From today, Pollycraft have altered their challenges to run weekly. Hop over to their site and click on the link at the top of the page or type this in your search bar:

http://pollycraftchallengeblog.blogspot.com/

Today's challenge, #38 is - Anything Goes

Couldn't be easier could it? I made this memory box for a little girl I know and thought it may just be enough to enter. I started off with one of those brown papier mache boxes you can buy from hobby shops, mine came from Hobbycraft. Having tried Adirondak paint dabbers on it, I soon realised that the box was too big and I would need dozens of dabbers, so a trip to B&Q (several actually) saw me buying about 6 pots of tester paints! They worked a treat, and I have loads left.

I stamped the little girl image and coloured her with watercolour pencils. Then I added some patterned paper, gorgeous ribbon, Prima flowers, painted grunge letters and a little angel charm which is inscribed with 'made for an angel'.

The whole thing was a huge effort because it took me a week to make and cost a fortune in the end, but I think it was worth it. Hopefully it will hold many treasures and memories which, when looked at in years to come, make the owner happy.

COPIC COLOUR CHALLENGE #58

I keep having a go at the Copic Colour challenges in the hope that my colouring gets better and maybe one day I may just have my efforts picked out.

Challenge #58 was to use the following colours:

R17 - lipstick orange

Y13 - lemon yellow

YG21 - anise.

I only have R17 as the others aren't ciaos so I used Y11 and YG23 instead. The lovely little girl is a sugar nellie stamp called 'curtsy'. The background paper was part of a bundle I bought from Cardcraft plus - now Inspirations -in Preston, when they used to sell the misprints or test papers in a great big box for about £6. Alas, no more. The green was also from there and I've used a Martha Stewart deep edge punch on it. The gingham glitter card has been in my stash for years but the frame I used to cut it and the image is part of the new goodies I bought from Harrogate. The flowers are Prima apart from the roses which are from a wholesale warehouse locally, and the leaves were bought from a craft shop in the centre of Chester ages ago.

I leave most of my cards without a greeting so that when I come to send them, I can include one particular to the recipient.

DREAM

I made this little card for this weeks Copic Colour challenge #57. The colours are:

G99 - Olive

BV08 - Blue Violet

E59 - Walnut.

The walnut number isn't a ciao so I used E57 - light walnut.

The lovely image is a Pollycraft digi image, the paper is Basic Grey Wisteria, flowers are Prima, the leaf ribbon, brads and dream stamp are all from my stash. Oh! and I used walnut stain distress ink round the edges of the paper and bundled sage around the image.

Check out the blinkie in the sidebar for the link to these exciting weekly challenges and have a go. You don't even have to use the same colours, just Copics.

CAKE

I should have posted this challenge entry last night but when I looked at my card I realised I had forgotten an element. As the light was artificial - even though I have a daylight bulb - I thought it better to leave it 'til now. The Lili of the Valley #49 is a sketch. Check liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.com for details.

The little duck was a free download and I've coloured him with copics and used a nestability frame to cut him out. The rest is simple, K & Co papers, DCWV ribbon, Prima flower, some little flowers from Lakeland when they used to sell craft and finally, a couple of sticky gems.

It's nice and cheerful and just the job to brighten a rainy today.

CHALLENGES

Check out these blogs for some exciting challenges:

1. http://dareu2digistamp.blogspot/

2. http://totallypapercrafts.blogspot/

3. http://allsortschallenge.blogspot/

Having just spent hours on the phone over the past couple of days trying to get the modem up and running again, I thought it time for a challenge. The above blogs are running these themes this week,

1. No patterned paper

2. Things with wings

3. Pink, black and white.

My simple little card is made with core'dinations card which I embossed with a cuttlebug folder through my Big Shot and punched with a Martha Stewart deep edge punch. The little fairy is a digi image coloured with watercolour pencils. The pink card is Bazzil, the flower is Prima and the ribbon and brads are from my stash. The lovely little angel charm is engraved on the back with 'made for an angel'.

COPIC EASEL CARD

Another whole day to make just one card. I will be so glad to get rid of this cold and clear my head. Better go tomorrow as I have a workshop on Saturday.

Yesterday's Copic Colour challenge #54 was to use these lovely colours:

BG15 - Aqua

B93 - Light Crockery Blue

Y21 - Buttercup Yellow

I used Sugar Nellie stamp, Manga Girl #1 together with some Bazzil cardstock, Basic Grey papers, Prima flowers, Martha Stewart deep edge flower punch and a few embellishments.

Considering the time I keep spending on just one card, I am also entering this into the Lily of the Valley challenge #48 - Easel card .

Please check out the side bar for links to both of these challenges.