Saturday 27 October 2012

Sweet You

Hello everybody, hope everything is good with your world. Well, I'm ever so slightly sad because it's my last week as Guest Designer with Sweet Stampin' (sniff) but only slightly sad because I've really enjoyed being a Sweetie for the month of October and I was glad of the incentive to get crafting again.  And at least now I can enter their challenges again, he hee. Have you seen their prizes? Definitely worth winning.

The theme for this week's challenge is What's Cooking/Something to Eat. So I've made a card using this sweet little girl holding a bowl of fruit. How do you like them apples?

I already had this cutie coloured up, she's done entirely in pencils, not a copic marker in sight this time. A friend sent me this image and I have no idea what she's called or where she's from, so if anyone has an idea, please let me know so that I can credit and link to the artist. *(Edit: the lovely Elaine has again come to my rescue and told me that this is an image from The Greeting Farm, and she is called Twinkle Tots Lottie....thanks Elaine!)

 
I did my usual thing with the papers, and inked and handstitched them. Then, flushed with excitement at finally working out how to make these intricate Floral Oval dies cut properly in my cuttlebug, I went ahead and used them twice in one card! The smaller one is popped up onto some 3d foam pads for a little dimension, and the stamped image is popped up on another layer of pads. A strip of flower trim bisects the layout (there's a really nice sheen on these flowers which the camera hasn't caught), and a gauzy bow in apple green sits by a sentiment that I printed onto SafMat and affixed in the corner of one of the papers.

Close up of the sentiment and bow


Card Recipe
Image: Twinkle Tots Lottie, from The Greeting Farm
Colouring: pencils
Designer Papers: Memory Box 'Brioche' and Melissa Francis '5th Avenue'
Dies: Spellbinders Nestabilities Floral Ovals
Ribbons from stash




I'd like to enter this card in these challenges:

Brown Sugar Challenges - Anything Goes
Delightful Sketches - Stitching
Emerald Faeries - Anything Goes
Fashionista Challenge - Anything Goes
Papercrafting Journey - Ribbon or Twine
Poodles Parlour - Anything Goes
Stampin For The Weekend - Anything Goes
Stamptacular Sunday - No Rules
The Squirrel & The Fox - Use a Ribbon
Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes


Thanks so much for stopping by to visit today, and I do hope you like my card. Happy crafting!

Saturday 20 October 2012

Halloween at Sweet Stampin

Hi everyone, I'm here with my third Guest Designer project this month for Sweet Stampin, and the theme this week is Halloween - wooo hoooooooo!!

This is actually a page layout that I did last year using images from Make It Crafty, I was trying my hand at colouring a dramatic sky. All the colouring - the house, sky, headless horseman and pumpkin in the corner - is done with Copic markers, and the bats were hand-cut from black paper.


I'll be back next week with a new project, until then have a great weekend, and Happy Crafting!

Saturday 13 October 2012

Autumn Tilda

Hello everyone, aren't you just loving the sunny autumn days we are having right now? This weather was kind of the inspiration for my card today, which is my second Guest Designer card for October for Sweet Stampin. The theme is Autumn Leaves/Trees, and I decided to go with an early-autumn feel where the leaves are just starting to turn golden.

My diecut leaves are green, golden and brown, much like they are in the gardens right now. I had to google sunflowers to check that they are actually in season at this time of year (they are!) because I really wanted to use this Tilda image....it's my favourite one to paper-piece (which very craftily gets me out of some colouring). I actually paper-pieced her clothes and shoes in 4 parts, and lifted the ends of the layers in her dress for some extra dimension.

Layers of paper-piecing


The scalloped frame is a diecut mat and I cut an aperture in the centre through which you can see the image.  However, now that the card is all assembled it looks like I simply stuck the image on top of a mat...doh! I should have done that, it would have been a lot easier and quicker LOL.


The backing paper was aged with ink, distressed and handstitched. A die cut with a sentiment, some lace, rose ribbon, pearls, rose and a little glitter finish it off.



I'd like to enter this card in these challenges:
2 Sisters - Anything Goes
Crafts & Me - Anything Goes
Crafty Mess - Anything Goes
Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday - Paper Piecing
Deep Ocean Challenge - Anything Goes
Divas By Design - Anything Goes
Gingerloft Challenge - Stitching
Magnolia Stamp Lovers - 2 different shapes of diecuts (my Doohickey Rose Leaves, and the Spellbinders Nestie used for the sentiment)
Oldie But A Goodie - Inspired by a song (mine is All I Have To Do Is Dream by The Everly Brothers) (items more than 6 months old are: image, sentiment stamp, lace, all inks, rose ribbon, rose on leaves, leaf die cuts, scalloped mat, glitter, papers & mats.....almost everything! LOL)

I hope you like my card today - thanks so much for stopping by. Have a good weekend, and happy crafting!




Saturday 6 October 2012

Guest Designer at Sweet Stampin'



Hello everyone - it's a busy few weeks for me as I'm Guest Designer at Sweet Stampin' for October....yay! I found their blog a while a go and it quickly became one of my favourites, so when they asked if I'd like to play along for a month, well you can imagine I was pleased!

The theme this week is Through The Window, and I thought that this would suit a scene I merged up some time ago but never got round to colouring. It's an indoor scene, obviously, but there's another scene which can be seen through the window. The inspiration for this card came from the wonderful Joanne, who used this cute Robyn's Fetish image months ago and I fell in love with it. Of course, I had to do it my way so I added a few background images from Make It Crafty to create this cute little scene for a boy's Christmas card:



The background stamps are the window, table and flowers (called By The Window); the snow-covered tree that you can see through the window (called Large Pine Tree, from the Winter Objects collection of images), and the picture frame on the wall (from a digi called Fireplace). Do you see the picture inside the frame? It's a watercolour scene I did some years ago, and I quite like the thought that it possibly includes the same tree that you can see through the little mouse's window, just painted from a different direction. This is a scan of the watercolour:




I added some dots of silver ink to the sky to make stars:

 
 
The papers have been distressed around the edges with distress inks, and one of the papers has been handstitched. The sentiment is printed on the computer and also distressed and aged with a little ink. The ribbon, poinsettias, leaf and pearl are from my stash. 

This is also a Colouring Inspiration project for Make It Crafty, and you can read more about the colouring HERE (from 7th Oct).  It was quite a challenge to colour the reflection of the lamp on the wall - I had to study my own bedside lamp and take photos to try and work out the colouring!

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On a personal note, I wanted to say a big thank you for the comments, emails and even cards that lovely bloggers have sent, they meant a lot. I am still feeling weak and don't have any answers from the docs yet, but am sort of getting into a new routine with it all and as you see have even taking up a bit of crafting again. As I always say: you can't keep a crafter down! lol.

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I'd like to enter this card in these challenges:
Bunny Zoe's Challenge - Distressing
Cards For Men - Animal Magic
Crafts & Me - My Sentiments Exactly
Crafty Mess - Anything Goes
Deep Ocean Challenge - Use More Than 2 Colours
Inky Impressions - Let's Hear It For The Boys
Paper Shelter - Distressing
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Pixie Dust Studio - Anything Goes
Tuesday Throwdown - Cute & Cuddly
 
 
Thanks for visiting, enjoy the rest of your day, and of course Happy Crafting!