Thursday, 30 June 2011

Special month-long challenge at Make It Colourful


Hi all, hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. I have a new Make It Colourful DT project to show you, but first I want to let you know about a month-long celebration challenge we are having in association with Quixotic Paperie, where there are 5 times as many chances to win than usual, plus details of random prizes, mega candy giveaway, and a really tempting discount available for the next few days only. Read on for info about these, and my DT project follows that....I've left some sneaky peaks along the way to introduce you to a few characters that made it onto my project.

Make it Crafty is turning ONE!!

Woohooo – The celebrations have begun at Make it Crafty!!!

It's a double celebration because Make It Crafty is now a year old, and Quixotic Paperie, who were the first company to take on the Make It Crafty stamps, laser embellies and blending card, are having their second anniversary during June.

So to mark the events, there will be a special challenge throughout June using Make It Crafty products - the challenge is divided into 5 categories so there are 5 prizes up for grabs! There's also random winners throughout the whole month - the numbers have been pre-selected and as soon as an entry is added that matches that number they WIN! (Winners will be announced soon after entry on the sidebar of Make it Colourful.)

To get inspired, hop on over to the Make it Colourful challenge blog where you will see the amazing creations the fabulous DT’s from MiC and QP have created for this event. PLUS find out all the details on how you can play along.

PLUS there’s MORE!!
Quixotic Paperie have a little something for you too - make sure you pop on over to HERE to enter your name for a chance at MORE Make it Crafty Goodies.

PLUS THERE’S MORE!!!
Zoe, the owner of Make it Crafty has a super duper HUGE Candy give away – choc-a-block FULL of Make it Crafty goodies!! AND I have heard a whisper that she is planning on having random giveaways on her blog throughout the month of July! All you need to do is leave her some love here as she’ll randomly be choosing people who have commented on her posts throughout the last year.

PLUS THERE’S EVEN MORE!!!
You’ll also receive a set of steak knives when you...  hahaa ONLY Joking BUT... for THREE DAYS ONLY you’ll be able to get 40% off Make it Crafty Digi Stamps when you enter the coupon code: CELEBRATE
(Ends June 28th)

So I do hope you will celebrate with us this month and get into the Make it Crafty spirit of FUN!!




I can tell you, if I wasn't on the Design Team, I'd be entering this for sure! LOL. Now as I said the challenge is divided into 5 categories:


1.       Merge as many images as you can
2.       The most creative combination of images
3.       Rubber stamps only
4.       Chipboard Only (no image)
5.       Colour using the MiC Logo colours – blue/mustard/yellow and brown

As you can see, whether you like working with rubber, digis, chipboard embellies or colour challenges, there is a category for everyone, so if you feel like joining in and don't have any Make It Crafty products yet, use that 40% discount and come along and play.

I've made my DT project for the first category, and I managed to merge 7 digi images to make this wall-hanging as a gift for one of my little nieces who'll be 7 next month:

Using Paint.Net to merge the images, I started with the Hilly Lane background, then in layers I added 2 Old Oak Trees, 2 Petals and Palings (the fencing), the Mushroom House, and then 3 characters: Vixie, the little fairy blowing a kiss to Notti, who is falling off his mushroom in shock, all watched over by Fluttering Sapphire Fairy, who isn't fluttering here as I've stationed her behind the fencing.  Yes, it's a challenge to colour up a complex scene like this, but if you take each item at a time it's much easier, and it was really fun to make this. It's coloured as usual in Copics, and I'd printed it off way too big to fit on a card, which is why it's a wall hanging - mounted on sturdy card and with only a little embellishment. Here is a shot of the colouring only - you can click to enlarge it:



Merging digis is actually quite easy with Paint.Net (which is a free programme you can download from the WWW, just Google for it - it's not the same as Paint which comes with your computer though) and you don't need to merge this many to enter, just try a couple.....go on, you'll be addicted to it in no time!


I'd like to enter this into these challenges:
2 Sisters - Fairies
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Fairies
Pixie Cottage - Outdoor Fun


Hope you like my wall-hanging, and don't forget if you like any of these images you'll need to be quick to get them at that discounted price.

Phew that must be my longest ever blog post!

Happy crafting!

Sunday, 26 June 2011

Dream Valley #10 - Ribbons

Hi everyone and happy Sunday to you all! We have a new challenge for you at Dream Valley Challenges today, and you'll love the theme cos it involves a crafter's staple item.....USE RIBBONS! Who doesn't like to use a bit of ribbon on their projects, it's simply an essential! lol. Our sponsor is Crafty Ribbons, so a lucky randomly-picked winner will receive a prize from them.

My card this week is a very simple one and fairly quick to make because I didn't colour this fabulous image, but I am really pleased with the result. I used a Crafty Purple Frog download that I won last week - it's actually a decoupage sheet but I just used the base image. I cut a circle from the image, stuck that onto a scalloped circle Nestie, fixed another Nestie to it for the back of the card, and wound ribbon through all the holes round the edge. I tied the ends in a bow, added some flowers and glitter and voila! a very simple idea but I hope you will like it.

This is a printed image.....I DIDN'T COLOUR IT, wish I could colour like this!

Image: Night Glimmer (Decoupage sheet) from Crafty Purple Frog
Spellbinders Nestabilities Lacey Circles diecuts
Ribbon, flowers and glitter from my stash


I'm entering this in these challenges:
C.E.S. Challenges - Anything but square
Spoonful of Sugar - Ribbons & Bows
Whoopsie Daisy - pile on the flowers

That's me for today, enjoy your weekend and I'll see you when I pop into your blogs during the week. Bye for now!

 

Saturday, 18 June 2011

Make It Colourful #23 - Colour Cast

Hello everyone, hope you're enjoying your weekend.

It's Saturday, which means another challenge at Make It Colourful, and this week the theme is Colour Cast. We are sponsored this time by the fab Whimsy Stamps.

What is Colour Cast?
Now, I have to admit, I didn't know what this meant, but it's to do with the temperature of the light on a subject - some lighting is warm, like incandescent lightbulbs, candles or a sunny day, and some lighting is cool, like fluorescent bulbs, TV/computer screen glows or early-morning light. 
Reflect the colour of light or background or elements onto your main subject/s.
 
So, I've done 2 projects for this challenge, using the same image and the same colours, but one I've coloured with a warm tinge and the other with a cooler look. I've used exactly the same markers for each, just added a warmer or cooler colour as well.

The card shows Tilda in warm lighting and I've made the frame around her a gold colour; and the little picture frame has Tilda in cool lighting with a silver frame. Both projects are basically the same: a Tilda image and Make It Crafty digi frame, the card has aged and distressed and hand-stitched papers, with computer-generated sentiments and a little lace, a couple of vellum/pearl flowers and a heart pin to finish it off, and the photo frame simply has some decoupaged flowers added.


Tilda with a warm tint on the left, same image and colouring but with a cool tint on the right



A card

A little photo frame

Images: Ornate Floral Frame, digi image from Make It Crafty
Tilda With Balloon, rubber stamp from Magnolia
Colouring: Copic markers
Designer papers: Anna Griffin
Lace, flowers and heart pin from my stash

If you head on over to the main challenge blog, you'll see some more projects from the talented design team, and tomorrow it's Hints & Tips day with some ideas to help with the challenge.  

I'm entering these in the following challenges:
C.R.A.F.T. - Include stitching
Charisma Cards - Pink & Green
The Crafty Pad - Just because you can...
Going Grey/Scrap Creations - Anything Goes
Shabby Tea Room - Pink, green, neutrals and flowers
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Distressed/torn edges
Southern Girls - Anything Goes
Top Tip Tuesday - Open Challenge
Whoopsi Daisy - free and easy

Hope you like my little offerings today, have a good weekend everyone :)


Reflect the colour of light or background or elements onto your main subject/s.

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Make It Colourful #22 - my first DT card

Hi bloggers, crafters, colourers and visitors, today is a new challenge at Make It Colourful, and it's a special one for me as it's my first time as member of the Design Team. Yes, for those that missed yesterday's post, I'm on the Z-List (that's Zoe's List, way better than the A-List, he he). The challenge this time is to:

COLOUR WITH BLUES

You can use other colours in your colouring, but blues need to be featured somewhere. 

We are sponsored by Tiddly Inks, and one lucky person will win a prize from them. If you use a Make It Crafty image in your project you will be entered into a second draw and have another chance of winning a prize of 2 more Make It Crafty images. Nice, eh?

Some of the Design Team have used Tiddly Inks images, and all of us have used Make It Crafty images. If you pop over to the main blog you'll see their stunning creations, and full challenge rules are there too. Sunday is 'hints and tips' day, so you might find something useful to you about using blues in your colouring.

Here is my tip for colouring with blues:  blue-green shades are great for water; a bit of dark blue brings in some shadows, and is also good to help give the look of deeper water further away from the coastline.

————

So, on to my DT card....I used Paint.net to merge 2 Make It Crafty digi images: the girl is one image, and the background of the beach, ocean and island is another one. I moved the sea shell and star fish to another position in the scene, and coloured it all up to show a sunny day. I think the finished result has the look of a postcard or a holiday photo, what do you think? I used one set of blues for the dress and ribbon, a brighter blue for the sky, and the water is made from blue-greens (scroll down to the card recipe to find out the exact shades I used). Instead of designer papers, I used coredinations cardstock with a white coating, which I embossed and sanded - I felt the whitewashed weathered look would suit the carefree beach vibe.  Some flowers, a little ribbon and a sentiment ticket complete the card. Hope you like it.



Card Recipe:
Colouring: Copic markers -  Sky: B00
Dress & Hat Ribbon: B000-B32-B34-B37-B39
Water: BG000-BG72-BG75-B97
Prima flowers and Tim Holtz adage ticket
Coredinations whitewashed cardstock and flower ribbon from stash

I'm entering this is these challenges:
Aud Sentiment Challenge - Summertime
Bling It On - Embossing (my background is embossed and sanded)
C.E.S. Challenges - Inspired by a movie ("The Beach")
Deep Ocean Challenge - anything goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Paper Pretties - Summer
Shabby Tea Room - Embossing
Spoonful of Sugar - Here Comes Summer
Sundays With Chrissy - Here Comes The Sun
Totally Gorjuss - Flower Power
Totally Papercrafts - Summer

Whoopsie Daisy - Free and Easy

Thanks for looking and for any comments you might like to leave. Have a good weekend everyone.

Sunday, 12 June 2011

Dream Valley #9 - Fathers' Day

Hello bloggers! Happy Sunday to you all. We have a new challenge at Dream Valley this weekend, and the theme is very timely as it's Fathers Day. Time to get your thinking caps on and get some male cards made.

We have 2 sponsors again: One Stop Card Crafts, and Karen's Doodles.

Here is my card, one of the very few male cards I make, he he.  I used a Karen's Doodles image called Time To Relax - don't you think it's perfect to use on a Fathers Day card? I coloured with Copics, as per, and made an embellishment from a flattened Stella bottle top (other beers are available LOL). A bit of twine and a few eyelets are the only other embellishment. Hope you like it, and don't forget to check out my fellow DT's projects on the main challenge blog, they're a clever bunch and always have some great makes to show.




Image: Karen's Doodles - Time To Relax
Colouring: Copic markers
All papers and embellies from stash


I'm entering this in these challenges:
Aud Sentiment Challenge - Summertime
C.R.A.F.T. - Fathers Day
Creative Inspirations - card for Dad/man in your life
Fab N Funky Challenge - Magnificent Men
Fresh Brewed month-long challenge - It's a guy thing
Lollipop Crafts - Inspired by a song ("Lazy Sunday Afternoon")
One Stop Craft Challenge - Fathers Day
Secret Crafter - a male card
Sundays With Crissy - Here Comes The Sun
The Paper Variety - for the guys


Happy Crafting!


Friday, 10 June 2011

Someone pinch me!!

Hi all, just wanted to share some brilliant news with you.....the amazing Zoe has asked me if I'd like to join her team at Make It Colourful!!!  You bet I would! I've loved the Make It Colourful challenge ever since I found it and have tried to enter most weeks as I knew it would be a good way to improve my colouring skills, so to be on her Design Team is a bit of a dream.

Look! I've got a spanking new badge on my sidebar as well LOL.


Zoe has her DT complete a little interview questionnaire too, and gets us to show a childhood photo. Aaaargh, it's bigger than I thought it would be!!! lol. You can find it here.

I've been busy making my first DT card, getting to grips with all the new stuff to take on board, plus having a little tremble in case I suddenly lose my mojo, so I've not been able to be flitting around blogland as much this week. Hopefully I'll be able to visit all my regulars now.

A little about Make It Colourful....it's a colouring challenge and is a great place for anyone that loves to colour. Like all challenges, it aims to take you a little outside of your comfort zone and maybe try something new, so it's for all levels, all mediums and all sorts of projects. There's hints and tips on there too, so you may learn something new just by flitting along for a browse.

The next challenge begins tomorrow, so I'll be back with my DT card then. Here's a sneaky little peak for you:


I just want to say thank you to everyone for the fantastic and encouraging comments you've left for my colouring and cards over the last few months, it's really given me the confidence to try my hand at more colouring.

Happy crafting!

PS - got a proper signature now....how cool is that? Not sure if it's an apple or a pear tree, though!

 

Thursday, 9 June 2011

Not been around much...

Hi all, just a quickie to say sorry that I haven't been around much in the last week, so I haven't visited as many blogs as I'd like to have done - my apologies if you haven't seen any comments from me on all your cards.

Check back tomorrow when I may just have some exciting news to explain my absence (big wink!)

Happy crafting!


Friday, 3 June 2011

Lilly the Fairy of Enchantment

Hi fellow bloggers and visitors, we have some lovely weather in Brum right now, hope you have a little sun wherever you are.

Today's card I've made for 2 specific challenges: at Make It Colourful, we're asked to colour using yellow and purple, and as you can see I used yellow for the sun and purple for the dress and wings; and at Michelle Perkitt Studio there is a Bingo challenge, and I've actually got 2 bingo lines on my card: Scallops, Ribbon, Flowers, and the second line is Pearls, Ribbon, Diecuts.

I coloured up Lilly The Fairy Of Enchantment by Michelle Perkitt using Copic markers and a little bit of pencil colouring. A glitter pen was used to lightly trace the swirls on her wings, but this was difficult to photograph. She was layerd up with silver mirri and blue cardstocks, mounted on  pale blue and white printed cardstock, matted again onto silver mirri and purple cardstocks, all mounted onto a scalloped card blank. The fairy looked vaguely Art Nouveau to me, so I used a couple of leafy diecuts that a friend sent to me, coloured them black to look like silhouettes, and arranged them in a curved shape to go along with the Art Nouvea feel and placed a couple of flowers over the join. I also used an Art Nouvea font to make the sentiment. Some pleated ribbon beneath the sentiment and some pearls in the corners were the finishing touches.




You can just see some of the glittery tracing on the top left wing

Image: Lilly the Fairy of Enchantment, by Michelle Perkitt
Colouring: Copic markers - Sun YR07-YR23-Y17-Y15-Y11. Dress BV08-BV04-BV02-BV00-BV0000. Wings BV02-BV00-BV31-BV0000 + prisma pencils. Sky B39-B37-B34-B32. 
Diecut leaves and flowers: gift from friend but I think they are Marianne designs
Computer-generated sentiment, font is Art Nouvea Caps from Dafont.com
Ribbon and pearls from stash.

This is for the following challenges:
Allsorts Challenge - Things With Wings
Charisma Cardz - Something that flies
Crafty Purple Frog - Things of Beauty
Fab N Funky Challenge - What eva
Flutterby Wednesday - Open challenge
Make It Colourful - Colour with yellow and purple
Michelle Perkitt Studio - Bingo (Scallops-Ribbon-Flowers and Pearls-Ribbon-Diecuts)
Ooh La La Creations - Happy Birthday
Top Tip Tuesday - Wrap it up with ribbon

Wednesday, 1 June 2011

Dream Valley Challenge #8 - Stamp Something

Hi all, this post was meant to go out on Sunday, but silly me saved it as a draft instead of scheduling it (rolls eyes).

Here we are with another challenge at Dream Valley, and this time the theme is to Stamp Something, so get those rubber and clear stamps out and show us what you can make. No digi stamps, please, hand stamped creations only.

We have 2 sponsors this time: Papermaze and Funky Kits, and the fab prizes on offer this fortnight are £10 to spend at Papermaze, and a stamp from Funky Kits.....nice, eh?

This is what I made as my DT project: I'd had some Tim Holtz stamps for over a year and they had yet to be inked up (shame on me!) so this seemed the ideal time to get them out and play with them. I made some sentiment tags to use on future cards by aging some postal tags with distress inks and just stamping on top with black archival ink. Simples!

Don't forget to check out my teamies creations too, they are really gorgeous.

We are also having a DT call, so if you fancy joining in the fun, pop over to the main challenge blog, where you'll find details.

Have a good week everyone, and happy crafting!

Carole x