First DT card, and a new challenge starts today

Hello everyone. This is quite an exciting Sunday, as it's the very first challenge over at Melly's new blog, Dream Valley Challenges, where myself and the other girls are showing our first DT cards!! 

This week it's a nice, easy challenge for you all to whet your appetites and get started: Anything Goes. Which means that whatever you are working on right now will surely fit the bill, so why not enter?

The challenges will be fortnightly, every other Sunday, but this first challenge will run for ONE WEEK to get us all started. I hope you'll join in, it'll be fun and you never know you might win a prize.

Speaking of prizes, Melly herself is providing them this week, and there are definitely worth winning!

 
 

Anyway, on to my DT card.  I used a freebie digi image from Digital Two For Tuesday, coloured in copics as usual, and just went to town with the flowers and lots of glitter, with some punched leaves amongst the flowers.  I also added punched borders down the left side, 3 layers of them. It seemed a nice idea to use some fresh spring colours of yellow, green and blue as they suited the image. Sorry about the photos, it's really hard to get decent light levels so they are a bit grainy.

Image: freebie from Digital Two For Tuesday

Colouring: Copics Y0000, Y000, Y00, Y02, Y21; YG06, YG11, YG63, YG67; B000; C1, C3, N4, N6, N8; W3, W5, W7

DP: Prima, Annalee

Flowers: Wild Orchid

Computer-printed sentiment, everything else from stash

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers: Fairies plus use 2 punches
Crafty Purple Frog: A Touch of Magic
Lexi's Creations: Flowers
A Spoonful of Sugar: Birthday Wishes
Top Tip Tuesday: Bling it On
Tuesday Throwdown: 3D
Creative Card Crew: Fantasy
One Stop Craft Challenge: Spring Flowers
Crafts & Me: Time to spread your wings
Digital Tuesday: punches
Crafty Creations: At the bottom of my garden lives...... (a fairy!)

Little Claire: Anything Goes
Paper Pretties: Glittery

Maybe I'll see some of you in the challenge. Have a good day everyone.

Carole x

Some very exciting news!

Hello bloggers (and non-bloggers who pop in for a read). Just wanted to share some exciting news with you before I go to bed......I've been chosen to be on the design team for Dream Valley....YAY!  It's a new challenge blog and as soon as I saw it and read a little I just knew I wanted to be involved.  Check it out here! It's bright and upbeat and I just love the name!

Challenges will start every other Sunday and I hope you'll join in, it'll be fun and we all like a good challenge, don't we?

Better get some sleep cos I reckon I'll need to get my thinking cap on for my first DT project :)

G'night all,

Carole x

A challenge card, and a blog award

Hello everyone, I hope this finds you all well and happy today. Did you have a good weekend? Mine was quiet and sneezy......yes I've caught a cold! Don't worry, I shall try not to sneeze in your direction, he he.

As the weather outside has gone quite cold again, I have a card in some nice warm tones to show today.  The theme at Copic Creations this fortnight is for warm colours, which is good for me as I like using reds and yellows, and the challenge at Make It Colourful this week is to have smooth gradients in your colouring, which is what I tried to achieve on my little Tilda for this card. Her coat is made up of no less than 7 different shades of red, and the umbrella also has a lot of smooth blending on it. I love colouring her coat, and this was the first time I'd tried to get the light shining through her umbrella like this.  Still have to work on making the puddle look better though, he he. No flowers and fussy embellishments today, I kept it fairly simple with some faux stitching, a lacy border made with a Martha Stewart punch, a recycled bow and a circular sentiment.  Hope you like it.

Image: Magnolia

DPs: K&Co, Brenda Walton

Colouring: Copics - Coat: R00 R20 R22 R24 R27 R29 R59; Brolly: Y11 Y21 YR23 Y28; Boots: R32 R35 R37 R59; Hair: Y21 E31 E34 E37 E29

I'm entering my card in these challenges:

Make It Colourful: Smooth Gradients

Copic Creations: Warm Colours

Top Tip Tuesday: All Stitched Up

Simon Says Stamp And Show: Show Some Stripes

The lovely Anne of Stamps and Paper has passed on the Stylish Blogger award to me.....thanks Anne! Check out her blog - she is an accomplished cardmaker with some smashing designs.

The rules/mini challenge for this award are:

Step 1 - Make a post linking back to the person who gave you the award

Step 2 - Share 7 random things about yourself

Step 3 – Award 7  recently discovered bloggers with this award

Step 4 – Contact these bloggers and tell them they’ve won the award

What 7 things can I tell you, let's see..... Well these are pretty random:

1. I keep staring at curtains and clothes to try and work out how to colour pleats (yes, I am mad!)

2. My favourite piece of music is Bach's Air from Suite 3, even the music score is beautiful.

3. My favourite chocolate is a Daim bar, luckily they don't seem to be widely available!

4. I'm a bit addicted to distressing since I learned how to use my distressing tool properly. 

5. My favourite colour is green, although it's a colour I hardly ever use in crafting.

6. I used to be a footie fan and could even tell you the offside rule. But that was over 20 years ago and I have long since lost all interest in the game.

7. I have a lunch date with a handsome gentleman today!!!

These are the stylish blogs I'm passing the award on to:

1. Joan from Stamping With a Passion

2. Kevin from McCraftys Cards

3. Doreen from Doreen's Dream

4. Jackie from Craft Designs

5. Jami from Sgt Stamper

6. Alex from Eisbaerentraeume

7. Sue from Craftymoone

 

Check out their blogs, each and every one makes inspirational cards.

Happy crafting!

Carole x

IMPORTANT: to users of Internet Explorer

Hello everyone. Some of you may have experienced problems with clicking on some of the photos on my blog today in order to enlarge them. You may have received a very scary security alert stating that this site had been reported as unsafe and that you were advised not to continue with the site. I have spent many hours researching this problem, found it occurring on other blogs as well. It seems it is a problem for Internet Explorer users only and concerns photos that are stored on a particular server of Blogger's. I have edited the HTML code for those pictures on my blog that I know are affected so you should be able to enlarge them now without being frightened out of your wits, but if it happens with other pics please let me know. I can't say this won't happen again to one of Blogger's other servers, but let me reassure you THAT THERE IS NO SECURITY THREAT ON THIS BLOG.


This won't have affected anyone using other browsers. Sorry if anyone was concerned.


Carole

My first tag

Hello everyone, how are you all today? I hope you're well and enjoying crafting.  I seem to be trying new things at the moment - this is the first tag I've had a go at, and the image was another little experiment I did while my porridge was cooking.  This project began life as a pared-down, very clean and simple card, but it's ended up as a distressed and very busy tag......how did that happen? lol.

The Make It Colourful challenge this week is to add shadow and depth to make the image pop from the paper, so I picked up this image of two hearts with an arrow (a freebie from AI Factory) to practise on.  I used my favourite Copic colour family - the R20's, I'd use them on everything if I could! - and then cut a Nestie circle. The image just didn't work on a card so I made a tag instead. I added a bit of distressing, some new Guipure lace, a Tim Holtz adage ticket and some metal corners I found buried and forgotten about in my stash. A heart-shaped eyelet and a little more lace complete the tag. 

Now I've done one tag I think I'll do some more, it's very different to making cards, isn't it?

Image: freebie from AI Factory

Paper: K&Co Bailey

Colouring: Copic markers R20, R22, R24, R27, R29, R59, Y13, YR23, Y38

Others: Prima and Wild Orchid flowers, MIC metal corners, TH Adage ticket, everything else from stash

I am entering this tag in these challenges:

Make It Colourful: Shadow & Depth
C.R.A.F.T.: Not A Card
Spoonful of Sugar: Anything But A Card
Crafty Cardmakers: Hearts
Kaboodle Doodles: Hearts and Flowers
Top Tip Tuesday: All Stitched Up
Cupcake Craft Challenge: I heart You
Lollipop Crafts: Use Your Favourite Colouring Medium
Pink Elephant: Be My Valentine
Fresh Brewed: Anniversary
Samuel Taylor: Copic/Promarker gals
Crafty Catz: Valentines/Love
One Stop Craft Challenge: Love Is In The Air
Whoopsi Daisy: Free and Easy
The Crafty Pad: Hearts

Have a good evening, and Happy Crafting!
Carole x

A new toy

Afternoon bloggers :) Hope everyone is loved up and having a happy Valentines day.  I am a happy bunny at the moment as there is a new toy to play with, a bright shiny red laptop! It became obvious that the cheapo desktop computer wasn't very reliable and it was decided that a new one was necessary, it's not particularly fancy but it should be better than the old PC. I got all excited and had to hop from foot to foot when I realised that I could sit in bed and watch DVDs and even talk to you all WITHOUT WIRES!!!! Fancy that! I know that this is probably very old hat to most of the world, but technology has made very slow inroads into my home so believe me this is a big deal, lol.

Anyway, I thought that this card is quite appropriate today, this might be me very soon, blogging in my dressing gown and playing with the new toy.  Coloured in copics, I tried to make it as if the light from the laptop was illuminating her face but the light should have been a bit cooler than I've done it. It was an experiment though so I'm happy enough with it.

I am entering this in the Make It Colourful challenge, which this week is to add shadow and depth to your image, I hope I achieved it with my colouring.


Happy Crafting!
Carole x

I made the top 5! Plus trying something new again

Hello everyone :)  I want to say thanks for all the lovely comments left for my last card, I very much appreciate them all. That card made the top 5 in the Cupcake Craft Challenge, which I'm really happy about, so if you heard a squeal recently, it might have been me when I discovered it!

Now, my latest card is me practising something new.  I'm out to improve my colouring skills so I keep an eye on the Copic Creations and Make It Colourful challenges. This week the 2 themes coincided - colour in cool blues, greens & purples for Copic Creations, and blend blue and purple for Make It Colourful.  This is another challenge that made me nervous, as I tend to add shading in my colouring with a darker version of the main colour, so to use a different colour for shading was outside my comfort zone. 

This is the very first Tilda stamp I bought, and I only picked her because I was practising and didn't want to spoil my favourite images, lol. I don't like colouring her dress, it's too large an area for my comfort, I prefer colouring small things. I blended blue & purple in several areas: the jeans are blue and shaded with purple; the shoes are purple and shaded with blue, and I feather-blended both colours on her wings and to make the sky.

There's much room for improvement in the way this image has been coloured - it was definitely a stretch, but I like the effect of adding shading with a completely different colour, it seems to add interest and depth.

Image: Magnolia, Tilda in Long Grass

DP: DCVW All Dressed Up Matstack

Sentiment: one of Jami's tickets, find them here

Colouring: Copics B45, B32, B91,  BV08, BV04, BV02 (jeans); B0000, BV0000 (sky); B0000, V0000, 0 (wings); BG09, BG05, C7, C5 (dress); YR31, Y17, Y38, E39, E29, E49 (grass)

I'm entering this in these challenges:

Make It Colourful:   Blending Blue & Purple Together

Copic Creations: We Are Cool

Just Magnolia: Anything Goes + Ribbons
Tuesday Throwdown - Buttons (in the flower centre)
Kaboodle Doodles - Break out that ribbon stash

Happy crafting! and enjoy the rest of the week.

Carole x

Monochrome image

Morning all :) Hope everyone is bright and breezy today and having a good weekend.

This is my latest card: I wanted to do an image in monochrome after I saw it on a blog challenge a few weeks ago, it's something I'd never done and as I want to improve my colouring I thought I'd bite the bullet and have a go. It made me nervous, but I'm quite pleased with the results, and in the end I found it easier than using many colours.  I used pencils again on this card, 2 shades of warm grey plus black, and aged and distressed the background and added some handstitching, lace and flowers. I used off-cuts of papers as I felt that suited the style of the image: she has patches on her apron of a circle pattern and a stripe, so that's mirrored in the paper scraps I chose.

The image was donated, so if anyone knows the make and name of it, let me know what it is, she was lovely to 'colour' and I wouldn't mind using it again.

Image: unknown

DPs: base: DCWV; burgundy circles: unknown; stripes: K&Co

Colouring: Polychromo pencils, Warm Grey II, Warm Grey V, Black

Flowers: Prima, Wild Orchid plus others from stash

Other: TH Brushed Corduroy & Tattered Rose Distress Inks

I'm entering this card in these challenges:

Cupcake Craft: Old MacDonald Had A Farm (the little chicken)

Tuesday Throwdown: Stitching

City Crafter: All You Need is Love (the word 'love' appears in the tag, and the heart is nestled in the flowers)

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes + Flowers

Totally Papercrafts - Friendship

Enjoy your weekend, and Happy Crafting!

Carole x