More Be Creative products

 Hi There! I am here with a few more cards using Be Creative papers and embellishments. When I opened the Nature themed papers from Be Creative and saw the fish, I knew the Inkylicious Create a scene: Boating stamps would go perfectly. I added a few highlights using a copper sharpie pen (not as carefully as I would have liked. Note to self - wear your reading glasses!) If one of the men in your life likes fishing, then you definitely need this paper pad! There are some gorgeous deer and birds in there too.

My second card uses another paper pad. this one has some lovely florals, polkadots and hearts in pinks greens and beiges with a vintage feel. I topped it with a diecut (Spellbinders) stamped with Inkylicious Lazy Daisy and coloured with Alcohol based markers. The pearls, tag and buttons are from Be Creative too.

My third card is an easel card. The papers from this pad are beautiful shades of purple blue and green. At 160gsm the papers are stiff enough to not have to pre-mount them on card for the top part of the easel card. The stamp is a very old Sugar Nellie one, coloured using distress inks and a water brush. Again the tag, buttons and pearls are from Be creative too.
Are you going to Happy Stampers at Port Sunlight? If so you will be able to lay your hands on some lovely goodies, as Once upon a Stamp will be stocking these wonderful products.
Thanks for looking!

Cute snippets

I had a couple of little girl birthday cards to make, so I dived into my snippet box and found the images, already coloured on holiday last year! The little girl is from Sugar Nellie and the Dragon is from Wild rose studio. Both are watercoloured with distress markers and a water brush. The sentiments are from Little Claire.

The papers are all ones that have been in my snippet drawer for ever. The ones on the first card were from cuddly buddly I think. These strips needed using as they were looking a bit battered, which gave me the idea to go for a distressed look with some tea dye DI! Does the bottom one look odd with that strip of base card down the middle? I was going to use the ribbon down it, but forgot and had stuck it together good and proper before I realised! I have no idea of the make of those papers! Both of these are very much outside my comfort zone, so I may have to lie down to get over the shock of doing cute!I used up some peel-offs too, as 5 year olds quite like them!
I should be back in blog land a bit more now as I have finally finished my reports and the phonics check. Hope the girls in the snippets playground haven't forgotten who I am, I have been away so long! Sorry Miss Di! I will try and do better ;)
Thanks for looking!

Snippet makes

I made these cards before I went back to work, but am only just getting round to blogging them.

 This first one is a cute Mo Manning image coloured in promarkers and mounted on a piece of paper from my snippet drawer. I think the paper was a download from Pink Petticoat. The card candy and greeting are both from Craftwork Cards many moons ago

 My next offering is a Michael Powell Stamp, again coloured with promarkers. The two scraps were home made, the vertical one was done with paint dabbers and the horizontal one with iridescent colour sprays. I can't even remember how I used the rest of the sheet I made these for, but was loathed to throw them away as they were such lovely colours. I coloured my image to blend in and was quite pleased with the result.

Finally, another cute one (I may need to lie down with all the cuteness!). I stamped direct onto the base card to make the floral pattern (Waltzing Mouse stamp). I coloured it with distress ink markers. The image (wild rose studios, coloured with distress inks) and the panel beneath it were both snippets I have had in my drawer for a long time.
I am off to the Snippet playground with them and a big bag of cola cubes to share with all the construction crew, and my lovely playmates. Miss Di seems to be having a great time on her jollies "course". I'm not really jealous cos I am off on my own Educational visit on 22nd, and I might see what I could bring back for the playground... Thanks for looking and I will try and repay your visit this week.

July Challenge at Sir Stampalot

Good morning and welcome to this months challenge at Sir Stampalot.This month we decided to ley you have a bit of a free for all so the Challenge is Anything Goes.

I used one of the new Molly Blooms stamps (Flake-tastic Molly) and one of the older ones (Dandelion clock flower) to make the frame, with Distress inks in Victorian Velvet and Wild Honey. The background scene was stamped with the Hobby Art Scene-it clear set called Harbour. All stamping was done with versafine black apart from the frame and all colour was added with distress inks, either sponged or watercoloured and aqua markers. I cut the frame with a Go create die called Large Frames Frilly #5.

As you will see from the super inspiration on the challenge blog, we are all using Molly Blooms stamps showing you just how versatile the new Molly Blooms Summer 2011 collection is, just right for all those Summer creations. You can find all the stamps used in this card at Sir Stampalot waiting to make their way to your craft desk.

And as you might expect, this months fabulous prize has several of the new Molly Blooms stamps along with lots of other summery crafty goodies to keep the lucky winner occupied for days.

 Even if you are not into cute there are lots of great stamps to create scenes with, like the tree-house, daisies and beach-huts.
I do hope you can join in with us this month. Just remember  - only combine your creation with 5 other challenges - that's six in all. Thanks for looking and I will look forward to visiting you!

A bit of this and that

Thought I'd share with you a few cards I've made recently from images I coloured with promarkers whilst on holiday. I'll start though, with my anniversary card that I made for Steve in July.

The image is a penny black slapstick called loving and hugging. Perfect as he loves ducks. I watercoloured it using distress inks and used large scalloped nesties to cut it out. The backing paper is from an artylicious cd and the sentiment was computer generated.

This card and the next are both penny black stamps coloured with promarkers, kindly stamped for me by my lovely blog friend, Jules. Aren't they cute?

The papers for my first one were in my stash and for the second one were on my computer entitled May Freebies - sorry, I'm not sure where from! Edit: The lovely Pinky tells me the pink ones are from Tinker and co.The flowers on the first were punched and made myself, but the second has prima flowers and punched leaves.
The post  below this one will be from the walk we did yesterday. If you don't like bees and wasps you perhaps won't want to look!

More cute ones!

I'm still making Christmas cards, although I haven't got the brain power or inspiration to do anything other than cute, I'm afraid. Panto is over and I have had what was probably the most important meeting of my career. The Head has been off sick for two and a half weeks so I've been really acting up ;o) !!! I thought I would be able to relax a bit after Tuesday's meeting and Wednesday's Nativity and Carols, but no. I won't say any more other than I will really enjoy Karate on Friday night!
Anyway, onto my cards. The reindeer is a Pink Gem stamp and the mouse is from Digistamp boutique. They are both coloured with promarkers. The blue paper is from Dovecraft and the tartan paper is from Funky Fairies. The mouse one brought back memories of a dress I had when I was a little girl. It was red tartan, with bodice that had two lines of lace down it, and a sash that tied at the back. Crickey, I'm really rambling now! Maybe I'm cracking up... or hallucinating on promarker fumes!!!

Two challenges

Here is my entry for this week's Allsorts Challenge that has a theme of Furry Friends, and Passion for Promarkers, where the theme is animals.
The image is a digistamp by Mo Manning and has been coloured with promarkers in Terracotta, Saffron, Dusky Pink, Sandstone and Pastel Blue. The papers are from Summer Driggs, the card candy is from Craftwork Cards and the sentiment is computer generated.
I really didn't know which animal to pick for this one. It was very nearly a mouse, then another mouse and then a reindeer! Thanks for looking!

What's a girl to do?!

What do you do if you've got a whole afternoon to yourself, you aren't going to work for 6 weeks and you don't want to go out for fear of being accused of having swine flu? Surf the internet for digistamps and do some colouring, that's what!

Yes, I spent more money at DigiStamp Boutique yesterday, but aren't these images sooo cute?
The cat is called Olive, and as I have so many friends who have cats, I know they will be very popular. Now for the next one. I have said before that I like to see little girls with all their features. I am not a fan of Smirk, Gorjuss or Tilda, but wanted a girl with eyes, nose and a mouth. Let me introduce Sophie, my next digistamp purchase from digistamp Boutique. She has all her features, cute stripey tights and some rather daring heels for her age! I coloured her with promarkers in Cool Aqua and pastel pink. I'm pleased with the hair and skin tone on this one too.
Finally, I stamped a messy rabbit and coloured that too. Background papers on all three are from Funky Fairy. The little flowers and the swirls are free downloads from their inspirations blog. The scribble swirls are from the cupcake crazy download in their shop. I didn't buy this one yesterday though. I 've had it a while, honest!

I should perhaps have gone for a different colour backing paper on this last one - a bit too much brown I think!

I was reaching for the tissues every few minutes yesterday, so I couldn't get too inky, but I could colour!

More Owls

Digistamp Boutique have a competition that if you make a card with their offer of the month then you can win the following months offer for free. Hope that makes sense - I have come down with a stinking cold and seem to have a head full of cotton wool! Anyway, here is my offering. I used promakers to colour the owls and used antique linen distress ink to shade the cuttlebugged and stamped moon (Stamp was cracked background by crafty individuals) The paper was a free background from papercraft inspirations magazine website.

Been busy!

Of all the cards I listed at the weekend, I have made most of them in a mad few days. The first is a wedding card for a colleague getting married in early August. her dress has a red train and the flowers are going to be red and ivory roses, so this is what I came up with. The oval frame was stamped with DI in antique linen using two crafty individuals stamps. the rose bud outline is from Stamp to your Art's Content. the backing paper was from my artylicious floral fantasy cd. The main rose and the small heart are from the Elusive Images Harlequin Rose Plate from Graphicus.
That first card was to prove I can still stamp, because I seem to be using a lot of digistamps at the moment! This owl one was from Digistamp boutique and goes by the name of Bernard! I coloured him with promarkers.

This cow is a stamp from Pink Gem designs, and again I coloured it with promarkers. Finally the leaving card is for a colleague who got a new job on Friday and will be relocating to near Birmingham very soon. The stamp is by Penny Black and I love the fresh simpicity of it.

Passion for Promarkers challenge 6 - poppy and moss green

Here is my entry for the Passion for Promarkers poppy and moss challenge. The stamp is from Joanna Sheen's Messy Rabbit collection, and the something tasty is a carrot (well, I'm trying to diet!!) I used promarkers in poppy, moss green, pastel pink, cool grey 1, cinnamon, pumpkin, pastel blue and dusky pink. The lovely patchwork paper was from Summertime Designs - the Angel Mother Kit (free download). It seemed a perfect match colour wise. Thanks for looking!

Passion for promarkers challenge #2- apple and pastel pink

Here is my entry for the next passion for promarkers challenge. The challenge is to use predominantly two colours - Apple and pastel pink. I've also used canary, pumpkin, saffron, cool grey 1 and pastel blue . The stamp is a Messy Rabbit one from Joanna Sheen. This is another cute stamp I really didn't need, but it was pointed out to me by the ladies at 'A bit more than...' and I just had to buy it!

Distressed Cute!

I stamped a couple more cute images onto watercolour paper and then painted with distress inks. The first stamp was from Pink Gem designs. I didn't need it, but it was in the sale and I was ordering other stuff... I must stop doing that. However, if I sell two of these I will have got the money back, so it isn't the end of the world.
The second is Willow with Cookies from Whiff of Joy. The colours reminded me of a dress I had in the late 70s, as does the backing paper! Least said the better really! Having said I don't do much cute, I have been doing rather a lot recently. Cute is definitely growing on me.

Passion for Promarkers challenge #1

Here is my entry for the Passion for Promarkers first challenge. I used lime green, meadow green, pastel yellow, gold and a little bit of pastel blue around the edges. I looove them! they are so lovely to colour with. I am off to buy a few more tomorrow so I can take part again over the next few weeks (Hopefully!) The stamp is a stamporium one.

Sketch Saturday - # 52

Here is my entry for this weeks Sketch Saturday challenge. The stamp is a Daisy & Dandelion clear stamp, coloured with Distress inks. The papers are from an artylicious cd (Butterflies) Canon creative Park (Flowers) and a freebie from the Daisy and Dandelion blog (polkadot).

Still More Babies!

A good friend and workmate is on maternity leave and was due at the weekend. I prepared four images ready for putting on cards (2 boys and 2 girls), not knowing what she was going to have. Last night I stayed up too late, knowing her waters had broken and she had gone in to the hospital. This was the card I was going to circulate at work if she had a boy. However, contrary to what she thought, she had a beautiful little girl, 7lb 5oz late last night. They have called her Anna, and this is the card we are sending to her. I'll probably make another just from me, but not tonight. I need to get to bed earlier!

The stamps are from Pink Gem Designs coloured with promarkers and mounted on a variety of 'cuttlebugged', 'nestied' shapes. The sentiment is a See-Dees stamp and the 'baby girl' is a sizzix sizzlet. The peachy paper is from canon creative park (free download).

A warm feeling!

Last week and this week we have been completing key stage 1 SATs at school. As I'm the Year 2 teacher and key stage 1 coordinator, it is a rather busy time for me. Last week we ran a breakfast club for them from 8am each morning, and sneaked in the odd pack of biscuits and minstrels for the tests (Shhh! Don't tell anyone!) One little boy said 'This is the best day of my life!' I asked him why and he replied 'I come to school, you give me breakfast with toast and jam and fruit, then I do maths and get to eat chocolate and then you give me a biscuit! I don't think I have ever been so lucky!' To know that he was finding SATs week such a joy made my day! Some people say it is a stressful time for children, but I think it is what you make it. My class seem to think it is some sort of festival, where they try their best and then have a feast!!! They have really made me very proud of them and have worked exceptionally hard.
Because I have been doing alot for school my mid week crafting has had to take a bit of a back seat, and my mojo is very much here - so frustrating! Anyway, this card was started last Thursday, and I have finally finished it. I like to think of it as cute with a bit of class! The stamp is Willow with Flowers (Whiff of joy) and the papers I have no idea as they were scraps in my drawer. Prima flowers, green ribbon and gold tulip paint finished it off. I used watercolour paper to stamp on and coloured it with distress inks. The sentiment is from Crafty Individuals.

More babies!

One of my workmates has lots of twins in her family, and another set are due very soon. She knows they are girls, so asked me to make a card. I used my new Pink Gem stamp, Girl Bundle on shrink plastic, colouring after shrinking with Pro markers. I used clear shrink plastic so I could reverse the image on one side. I stuck some plain white card that had been through the Xyron to the back and attached to the card with double sided tape. I normally use clear glaze to attach shrink plastic, but it makes the colour from pro markers run. Pro marker ink also makes stazon run, so colouring the images on the reverse is a good plan, and this is easy on clear shrink plastic.

This second card uses the Pink Gem boy bundle. I decided I would go for something different to the traditional pink and blue and opted for this lovely pale green. My stamped image was coloured with Pro markers. I think this could be quickly adapted into a girl card with a few flowers.

A few more cute ones

Here are a few more cute cards for my box and a few of Megan's friends. Hettie the Hippo is a Pink petticoat Digi-stamp, and the blue paper is from Funky Fairies Doodlementals range. I used watercolour pencils to colour her.

I coloured both images of Willow (Whiff of Joy stamps) with my Promarkers. I didn't realise I would love them quite as much as I do! Strangely they keep disappearing from my craft table and I find them on Meg's desk...I can see more going on my shopping list!

Finally, Meg bought me Daisy and Dandelion for my birthday. I coloured this with my promarkers too.

A Few Cuties.

Whilst my computer was away I went through a few sheets that I printed a while ago. These hippos are digistamps from Pink Petticoat and I knew they would go down well at work! The background papers were from Funky Fairies Doodlementals range. I thought they went quite well together! The other thing I did just before my old computer went was order three stamps from Whiff of Joy. I know I said I didn't do cute, but it was so nice to see a little girl depicted with a mouth, cos they do have them - very definitely!!! The mouse with a cake nearly as big as him made me think of one or two people, so I got him too, along with the girl baking cookies - a regular pastime with Meg these days! No card using the last one yet, but watch this space...

The background papers on these last two are from Canon Creative Park (mouse card) and my Artilicious Filligree Fusion cd.