Just to show I haven't been completely idle...

Hello bloggers! I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone that has been leaving comments for me whilst I've been away, even though I couldn't visit or leave comments, it touched me that you'd still drop by, and kept me going while I was feeling so poorly. I'm still taking it easy, but glad to be colouring and crafting again. I am NOT glad to be suffering a messy work area once more, I did like having a nice clear dining table, he hee.

Anyway, following Chrissy's post recently where she was asking about what Kraft papers were light enough to go through a printer, I promised her I'd try my Kraft and tell her the results. Well, as I'd test-printed some images, I thought I'd at last get round to experiment with colouring on it. This was my first attempt, using the lovely Summer Dreams by Make It Crafty. I used Faber Castell Polychromos (I only have about 30 shades at the mo) without any blending with Sansodor, and I quite like my first go. I find some of the pencils nice and soft, some are very hard and scuffed the paper up on the hat ribbon. I might have a go with Prismas next, although I only have a handle of pencils. Hope you likey:

Here's a quick card I made using this image and some scraps of paper which happily matched the colours in the image. Not sure what I think of this one, but I'll definitely be colouring on Kraft again:

Will have a DT card to share in a few days....till then, happy crafting!

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

A blog award, and a card for a friend

Hello bloggers! I want to say 'Welcome' to my newest followers, it means a lot to me that anyone would want to drop by my little blog and I very much appreciate your support.  It's also great to follow your blogs too, I never tire of looking at cards and projects that people have made.

One recent follower has very kindly tagged me with an award, so a very big thank you to Sylvie of Gibmiss. She has a lovely blog which is worth checking out.

This means I get to pass the award on too. Well, I obviously admire all the blogs that I follow, so I'd give the award to everyone if I could, but as I can't I'll stick to the aim of this award which is to bring unknown good blogs to light rather than ones with a lot of followers, so with that in mind I definitely want to award this to:

Bron of Bron's Creations,

Shree of Shree's Crafting,

Sue of Craftymoone.

Girls, if you want to accept the award then you get to pass this on to 3 to 5 other blogs, and you need to make a blog post with links to the awarding blog (mine!) and all the ones you pass it on to, then let them know you've tagged them.

So, on to my card, which is one that I made for a friend to send her some love and let her know I am thinking of her. I spent a lot of time on this card and put lots of love and attention into it and tried out a few new things too to fit in with some challenges.

The image I coloured in pencils rather than my usual copics, and I distressed and aged the papers with a distressing tool and some distress ink.  I paper-pricked and hand-stitched around the edges of the papers, and the text at the bottom is part of a DP and I added a doily punched border.  The flowers are from my stash and the leaves were made using a punch.  A computer-printed sentiment and a bit of glitter finish it off. 

It's ages since I did any distressing, and after scuffing up the edges of these beautiful Prima Annalee papers that I'd been hoarding I was very distressed indeed! Gulp, it just felt WRONG to do this to such gorgeous designer paper, but I'm quite pleased with the results.

I realised I'd been too wimpy with my distressing tool in the past and not had much effect, but I just went for it this time and really tore those edges up.  I'll definitely use this technique again now that I've found out how to do it properly.

(Sorry about the photos, they look a bit cloudy to me.....must have changed something on my camera!)

Image: Joy from Sugar Nellie's Simply Adorable range

DP: Prima Annalee

Colouring: Polychromo pencils

Others: Tim Holtz Brushed Corduroy distress ink, TH stickles, Martha Steward doily punch, Woodware leaf punch, flowers from stash.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers - Spotlight on Pencils

Crafty Cardmakers - Florals
Top Tip Tuesday - Fabulous Flowers (sorry, had to re-submit my entry as I accidentally deleted my first one!)
Tuesday Throwdown - Distressing
Crafty Purple Frog - Distressing
City Crafter - Sewing
Paper Pretties - Sewing

Enjoy your weekend and happy crafting!

Carole x