A couple of announcements...

Hi everyone, I don't have a card to share today...I haven't done any crafting for a week! But I do have a couple of things to let you know about.

First up, Make It Colourful are having a birthday blog hop! Well, it's Zoe's birthday on the 27th so we are having a Christmas blog hop to celebrate! Some new Make It Crafty Christmas digis will be getting their debut so if you fancy seeing what we've done with them then be sure to join in the hop.

And secondly, Crafty Cardmakers are having a Design Team Call right now, so if you'd like to join an ace team of girls (I work with some of them at Dream Valley and they are a terrific bunch of girls and I so enjoy working with them) at a great challenge blog then hop over here to find out the details.

Not sure when I'll have a card to show, bit low on energy and mojo right now. I've been colouring for the blog hop though so that's kept me out of mischief ;)

Happy crafting!

Dream Valley #16 - Buttons

Morning all, today is a new challenge at Dream Valley, and this time the theme is Buttons. We're sponsored by Digis With Attitude this week, so a lucky winner will receive a prize of $10 Canadian dollars to spend on their images.

I thought I'd try something different this time and make a card with no colouring on for a change. Instead I used some chipboard shapes from Make It Crafty which I coloured using Copic markers and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder - a new technique for me! These 2 gorgeous chipboards, a mannequin and a cotton reel are from a set called Sew It Up, aren't they nice? I used papers from K&Co, which I aged and distresed then added some handstitching to fit in with the sewing/dressmaking idea, and completed the card with some lace from my lovely blogging friend, Kevin, a little seam binding, pearls, Prima flowers and lastly some buttons to follow this week's challenge. Hope you like it.

I'd like to enter this is these challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks - Embossing (heat embossing on the chipboard shapes)
Anything Goes Challenge - Vintage/shabby chic
CES Crafty Emma's Store - Embellish Me More (buttons, flowers, pearls, chipboard bobbin, lace, seam binding)
Crafty Ribbons - Anything goes
Creatalicious Challenges - Anything goes
Creative Inspirations - Anything goes
Cupcake Craft Room - Pink & green
Deep Ocean Challenges - Lace
Heart Song Inspirations - Glitter and/or chipboard (I used 2 chipboards)
Kaboodle Doodles - Chipboard
My Sheri Crafts - Sew Simple
One Stop Craft Challenge - Girlie
Wags & Whiskers - Lace

The challenge runs for 2 weeks so there's plenty of time to upload your buttons projects to the main challenge blog - check it out for lots more ideas with buttons from my clever teamies.

Happy crafting!

Get ready for Halloween!

Hello everybody, I hope all are well. Welcome to my newest followers, I'm so happy to see you here.

We have a fun challenge starting at Make It Colourful today.....colour with Orange and Black. The Design Team have made some Halloween projects because there are some terrific new images at Make It Crafty, but you can of course make a project for any occasion you like. I've not really used my orange markers much so this was a good time for me to get to know them.

I used a brand new image, Spooky House, and kind of experimented with an orange sky.  Well, I went a bit mad with those Yellow Reds, didnt I? he hee, but it was fun. Having a new image that I've never seen anyone colour before is a challenge but one I really enjoy, it's cool to see what you can make with it and then see how others use it. This week I also had a play around with the Mini Headless Horsemen which was another that was such fun to colour, isn't he great? I printed it off again slightly larger and used just the pumpkin head as an embellishment, added some lettering and a couple of bats, a bit of Atyou Spica glitter around the lettering (you can't really see on the photos) and it was finished. I don't do Halloween cards, so this will end up as a page in my art journal when I finally get around to making one.

Images: Spooky House and Mini Headless Horseman, both by Make It Crafty

Colouring Copic markers

DPs: DCWV All Dressed Up Matstack

I'd like to enter this in these challenges:
Charisma Cardz - Sky
Crazy 4 Challenges - Create something with a pumpkin on it
Creatalicious Challenges - Anything goes
Creative Inspirations - Anything goes
Cute Card Thursdays - Anything goes
Digi Doodles - Autumn colours
Digital Tuesday - Celebrate the season
Di's Digi Designs - Anything goes
Lexis Creations - Autumn
Sew Many Challenges - Halloween


So get out those orange and black pens, pencils, paints and inks and have some fun. If you'd like to join in with us, we are now using the NEW Make It Crafty gallery for the challenge - you just need to register and upload your photos directly to it, whether that be a completed project or simply your unfinished colouring - you don't even need to blog it first! Happy colouring :)

Make it Purple

Hi all, I'm really late in getting this card made for the Make It Colourful challenge this weekend, I've been in bed with a bug for a couple of days. But better late than never, as they say.

The challenge this week is to colour with purple. Until recently I hardly ever used purple, now I'm quite getting to like it!

We are sponsored this week by Some Odd Girl, and I used one of Kristy's images, Roller Mae, on my card.

I used purples in different ways in my colouring....Roller Mae's jumper is coloured in blue violets, her scarf is coloured with violets, her socks are violets and blue violets, I used BV25 to add some of the shadows on the fence. The far end of the field was coloured with BV31 before I added the greens to try and make that part recede some - not sure if this was successful! The hills in the background are made of some blue violets, and I used blue violets and violets to make the sky too.

Images: Petals & Palings, Old Oak Tree, and 2 elements from the Urban Street Collection, all by Make It Crafty; Roller Mae by Some Odd Girl

Colouring: Copic markers

Lasercut chippies: Round Leaves by Make It Crafty

Metal corner: Wild Orchid Crafts

Flowers from my craft stash

Purples I used: 

jumper: BV02,04,08;  scarf: V04,06,09;  socks: V04,06,09,BV02,04,08; 
hills: BV20,23,25;  sky: BV31,V0000,01.
Some BV31 added to grass at far end of field.

I'd like to enter this card in these challenges:
Charisma Cardz - Inspired by a song....."Brand New Key" (the Rollerskating song) by Melanie
Crafty Boots - Anything goes
Creative Card Crew - anything goes
Di's Digi Designs - Anything goes
One Stitch At A Time - anything goes
Secret Crafter - Inspired by a song....."Brand New Key" (the Rollerskating song) by Melanie
Stamp Something - something to say goodbye, anything goes

I'm heading to bed now so goodnight all!

Happy crafting,

Friendship at Sundays With Crissy

 

Hello everyone, I hope all are well. Today I'm showing 2 DT cards I made for Sundays With Crissy - the theme this month is a warm and fuzzy one of Friendship.  I wouldn't usually make 2 cards but we were lucky enough to have some brand new images from Crissy this month, and after colouring one and loving it that much I had to stay sitting and colour the other one up as well! Which not only tells you how adorable I found them but also how easy they are to colour too.

The 2 images are called Birdie Friend and Frog Friend....aren't they sweet? I used Copics and a little pencil to colour them up, and for the cards I used papers that were kindly sent to me as pressies over the months so I can't tell you the makes except for the dark blue paper on the boy card which is Stampin Up. Sentiments were printed out in Word on my computer, and some lace, flowers, laser-cut chippies and gems were added to the Birdie card (along with some distressing of the paper), and buttons and twine finish off the Frog Friend card.

Image: Birdie Friend by Crissy Armstrong

Colouring: Copics

Lasercut Chippies by Make It Crafty: Butterfly Leaves

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts

Lace and gems from my craft stash

Other: Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Tattered Rose

Image: Frog Friend by Crissy Armstrong

Colouring: Copics

Buttons & Twine from my craft stash

Other: Nestabilities large standard circles and lacy circles

I'd like to enter the Birdie Friend card in these challenges:
2 Sisters - Friends
Anything Goes - Vintage/shabby chic
Aud Sentiments - card/sentiment for a girl
Cardmaking Mamas - Go digital
Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes
Kaboodle Doodles - Ric rac, fabric or lace
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Stamp Something - Digi day

I'd like to enter the Frog Friend card in these challenges:
2 Sisters - Friends
Allsorts - Green & blue
Challenge Up Your Life - Something for a man
Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes
Emerald Garden Faeries - Buttons
My Craft Spot - Friends are the best
Papertake Weekly - Anything goes
Stamp Something - digi day

If you'd like to enter this challenge, full instructions are on the main blog, which you can find HERE.

Happy crafting! 

No black lines

Morning all, I'm here with my latest project for Make It Colourful, which today has a very interesting new challenge. You may have spotted this new technique around blogland recently, Zoe has had all the girls in the MiC Facebook group trying it and there have been some gorgeously-coloured images as a result.

Well the technique is one that Zoe is calling No Lines - you stamp your image in very pale ink, or print your digi stamp at a reduced opacity, so that you are colouring inside very faint lines, not the heavy black outlines that we are all used to as stampers. Interesting, eh?

For my project I used a new freebie digi that Zoe made available to the Facebook group - her name is Pipi and she comes with long hair on either side of her head, but I gave her a quick trim, he he. Colouring is Copics as usual with a bit of pencil here and there, and for the dress I used my favourite copic pinks: R81, R83, R85 and R89.

Image: Pipi, a freebie from Make It Crafty

Colouring: Copic markers

Computer-generated sentiment

Magnolia Rose Leaf Doo Hickey die

Doily, DP, ribbons, flowers and gem brad from my craft stash

From this week, we will be using the NEW Make It Crafty gallery for the challenges - you really must check it out, you can join and upload your own projects as well as seeing all the makes from the Design Team.....loads of inspiration all in one place!

This is another image I tried using the No Lines technique....I stamped Tilda in Angel Pink memento ink and used Copics to colour her. I find it's necessary to concentrate much more when you don't have the thick black lines to help keep your ink under control, and you have to add the eyes back in using inks or pencils. My tip for this technique is to persevere even if you think you have messed up - it sort of comes together at some point, and if it doesn't then you've still had some practice.

Image: Magnolia Secretive Tilda

I'd like to enter this card in these challenges:
Aud Sentiment Challenge - card/sentiment for a girl
By The Cute & Girly - All things bright and beautiful
Cardmadfairy's Digi Days - Add flowers
Cardmaking Mamas - Go digi
Copic Creations - Pretty in pink
Crafting For All Seasons - Bingo (I chose Ribbons-Glitter/Shine-Flowers....2 ribbons, shine in the form of a gem brad in the flower centre, and flowers in the embellies, image and paper)
Crafty Purple Frog - Birthdays
Delicious Doodles - New and Fresh (the image is new as is the 'No Lines' colouring technique)
Ellephantastic - Here come the girls
Stamp Something - Digi day
Top Tip Tuesday - Shabby chic (I chose the backing paper and colour scheme for this challenge as it looked very shabby chic to me)

So that's me, sorry I've not been in blogland much again, I'm afraid I'm struggling with the M.E. a lot more these days and have to ration the time and energy spent crafting and blogging/visiting blogs. But I'm still making it round to visit, just try and keep me away, he he.

Happy crafting!

A clean-freak in paradise!

Hi all, I've found something else I can clean!  I thought I'd show you some before and after photos of my copics. I've spent the last couple of days cleaning them up with some rubbing alcohol. It's only after seeing these photos that I realise just how mucky my poor markers were....the ink was literally congealed and sticky around the ends of the markers and in the lids.

BEFORE:

These weren't even the worst!

Caps like this had to be soaked to loosen some of the gunky ink

The ink on that Y28 in the foreground was actually hard!!

Oh, the shame! How could I do this to my beloved markers?

Well, these babies are workhorses, you know!

AFTER:

Shiny shiny markers; happy face :)

Please tell me I'm not the only shamefully grubby colourer!


It took me about 150-200 ml of alcohol , many cotton buds (Q Tips), 2 pairs of protective gloves, loads of paper towels, and a big fat fume-induced headache to clean about 200 markers, but now they are gleaming.

Happy cleaning!