Hugs........

I'm back today with another Christmas card, this time in traditional colours. I used a cute image I picked up a while ago from Pollycraft, that has been sitting extremely patiently, waiting for me to add some colour. Wait no longer my friend........here's Sydney........

So I chose this image called Sydney Hugs, mainly because she reminded me very much of my eldest dd, or rather her unconditional attachment to a certain brown bear. It's not actually a Christmas image, but I thought it would work well with the sentiment I had in mind. I must confess also........I did intentionally 'chop off' the bottom portion of this image.........(not something I'm all that keen on doing after someone has gone to the trouble of designing the whole thing!), but I think sometimes you need to, such as here, where I wanted to concentrate on the 'HUGGING' theme.

On to the 'deets'..........as you can see, no Prisma pencils! I'm having a bit of a Copic's phase right now, probably due to the fact that I invested in half a dozen new shades. Be prepared, I will be back with a few more Copic creations in the near future, as I've been colouring like crazy the last few days. Whether I'll actually get around to blogging them is another matter!

So what do we have here........DP's are from SEI (they're embossed and have lots of lovely glitter on there which I don't think you can see in the photo!), stickpins from Maya Road, a chipboard heart, button and ribbon from my stash....not sure of manufacturers, and the sentiment is printed from my PC. I also used a Martha Stewart punch to create a co-ordinating photo corner.

Sydney will of course be entering a few challenges (anyone would think it's getting close to Christmas!):

Christmas Stampin All Year Long - #70 Stripe challenge

The Stamp Man Challenge Blog - #9 Christmas

Crazy 4 Challenges - #63 Christmas

Totally Gorjuss -#56 Traditional Christmas colours

Creative Inspirations Challenge Blog - #47 Anything Christmassy/Winter

2 Sisters Challenge Blog - #13 Christmas

Sentimental Sundays - #29 Childhood

I Did It Creations Challenge Blog - #29 Traditional Christmas Colours

Scrappy Frogs Challenge Blog - Merry Christmas

Lexi's Creations - #27 Traditional Christmas colours

Pollycraft Challenge - #70 Glittery Christmas

Lollipop Crafts - #16 Very Girlie

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge - #93 Christmas

Tuesday Throwdown - #26 Buttons and Bows

The Pixie Cottage - #45 Sketch and/or ribbon and bows

ABC Christmas Challenge - X is for Xmas

Really Reasonable Ribbon's Ramblings - #12 Christmas theme (plus ribbon)

Digi Stamps 4 Joy - #6 Inspired by Christmas

Have a great weekend.....I'll be back soon.....I hope.

A little mermaid..........

Well, I'm back again, twice in two days.....Wow! Hope you're having a great weekend and enjoying what is probably the last of the good weather in these parts. It's Sunday and that means of course, time for a new challenge over at the OSAAT Challenge Blog, and therefore, a new DT creation from yours truly. The challenge this week is pretty much an 'Anything Goes' type of thing, but using your favourite colours. I don't think I have a particular favourite, as it tends to be whichever colour scheme I'm creating with at the time........I think they call that 'fickle' or something like that!

Anyhow, enough rambling. I got to play with a really pretty little image from Hope Jacare this week, which you can find at the Stitchy Bear Stamps and I Did It Creations Store. I chose to use those yummy shades of turquoise/aqua blue, you know the ones, and they are one of my favourites at least! Here is one super sweet mermaid............ Madeline.............

I have to tell ya, I love her tail, it's so pretty.

When I saw this image, my idea was to use some sort of net behind her with seashells and starfish caught in there.....great in theory! Couldn't exactly find anything that I could substitute for fishnet (not being of the fisherman type of card maker and having some on hand!), and I wasn't prepared to break out the needle and thread at this stage. So you know what I thought I'd use.............a Hairnet, or I think they were more correctly termed as a 'Wave' net........remember? Armed with this idea (last minute I might add), I hit a posse of dollar stores, as I certainly wasn't prepared to fork out big bucks on a package of 'Wave' net's..........despite what you may think I do not sleep in one of these each night! I quickly realized one thing.............anyone that is likely to wear a 'Wave' net probably dyes their hair 10 shades darker, cause the colour I had in mind was maybe a nice sandy or dirty blond and no-one (and I mean no-one!) sells anything other than dark brown/black!

OK, rambling over with, I hope the 'Wave' net wearers amongst us haven't been offended and surfed to the next blog(lol).

Shall we talk about cards? Yes, lets. My solution to the fishnet (or lack of) problem was to use a length of white tulle ( which I've had for ages trying to decide how or what to use it on), gathered in to the bow, which is pretty subtle and I'm guessing you probably can't see it too well, but at least it gave that little bit of texture I was looking for. The image is coloured with Prisma pencils and Copic markers for the fleshy areas. There is loads of glitter of course on her tail and a fair bit of Glossy Accents on her and the seashell. The sentiment is printed from my PC, torn and then inked. The two starfish, really pretty, were a $ store find I've had for a while gathering dust, and the treasure chest charm, I bought recently, I believe Blue Moon Beads, and have been itching to put it on something. Lastly, the DP's are from Queen Martha, and the seashell is chipboard I had in my stash, covered with card stock and sanded. I almost forgot to mention that I did 'pop' parts of Madeline's headgear and the seashell she is holding, to create a little more dimension.

OK, sorry if I bored you all with that.....I obviously have nothing better to do right now! Please hop on over to the OSAAT blog and check out what the other lovely ladies of the DT created, and why not join in this weeks challenge.........there are goodies up for grabs as always.

I hope you'll visit my blog again sometime if I promise not to rant over 'Hair' net's, 'Wave' nets or anything else remotely 'un'craft related!

Madeline will be swimming into the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion Challenges - #31 Recipe (use 2 of something)

Totally Stampalicious - Monday Blues

Digital Tuesday Challenge - #84 Use your never used stash (plus a digi)

The Pixie Cottage - #44 Sketch and/or 2 colours only

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - #58 Paper Tearing

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - #109 Sparkle and Shine

Order Of The Opus Gluei - #79 AnAttitude of Gratitude

Paper Sundaes - #44 Pick you Sundae Toppings (I chose blue and ribbon)

Enjoy what's left of the weekend.

I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas (card)..........

Finally.......... made it back to my blog after another busy week. I managed to finish a couple of cards I've been working on, so at least I'll be back on Sunday with my second creation, but for today's effort........I'll admit......I could resist no longer.............my first 'white on white' card.............


I did an easel card for this one and unfortunately, I'm a little disappointed with the photograph due to too much glare. I tried all different angles with the same result, so I guess that'll teach me for using white satin ribbon, a crystal tipped pin and enough glitter to fill a snowglobe! Oh well, we live and learn. You'll just have to take my word for how awesome it looks in real life. (lol!)

So, need I say where these super cute images are from? For those who are not aware of my addiction to anything Lori Boyd.......they are, of course, just a small collection of Lollipops and Sugarsticks from byLoriDesigns, which you can find at the Lollipop Shop. As the sentiment reads "From our family to yours", they are meant to represent my family on this card, and I've gotta say, they're a pretty good match up! The images are (for those who such as myself, really need to know!) from left to right, Avery Lollipop, Tammy Sugarstick, George Sugarstick and Lacie Lollipop. My goodness, are we cute.....hee, hee!

I coloured everything with my Prisma pencils and used Copic markers just for skin tones. I used a silver gel pen for Tammy's necklace and belt and there is oodles of glitter on everyone....except George of course! The figures are popped at various levels to create dimension, which you probably can't tell from the photo, as well as the background where I've used two different embossing folders. Here's another view of the card closed, although I'm not sure if it helps.......

There's a fair bit of stuff going on on this card so I'll try to quickly skip through the 'deets'. For anyone whose interested, it's a 6"x6" card, I used both a Spellbinders and Cuttlebug embossing folder, and a Martha Stewart 'icicle' punch (which I glittered) for the outside, and a snowflake EK Success punch for the base. You are blinded of course by the white satin ribbon, and there is white lace also on the base. The stick pin is from Maya Road and here's my little tip......I love using pins on cards but I'm always wary of sending them due to the obvious hazards. So, I always conveniently place an embellishment nearby, in this case a snowflake, and use a foam dot whenever possible (or maybe a glue dot) to 'pop' it, thereby giving me a relatively safe place to insert, hide and enclose the end of the pin. Obvious huh? No-one said it was going to be enlightening (lol).

Anyhow where was I............I made the tag from a piece of chipboard, printed the sentiment from my PC and adhered, sanded and added the ribbon. The snowflakes are all punched using 2 different sized EK Success punches I've had for a while and not used........they were glittered and then layered to create more depth, and finally the 'Merry Christmas' sentiment is again printed from my PC and cut using a Nestie.

Is that it......hope so. OK, after all that hard work, this baby is heading into a whole load of challenges. The nominees are as follows:

Bee Crafty - #42 Christmas

Crafty Cardmakers - Dry Embossing

There She Goes - #80 Create A Scene

A Spoonful Of Sugar - #129 Snow/Snowflakes

Top Tip Tuesday - #9 Use an Image and/or leave a Tip

For Fun Challenges - Dry Embossing

The ABC Challenge - H is for Holidays

ABC Christmas Challenge - W is for Winter Wonderland (and White)

Crafts and Me Challenges - #17 Glitter

Some Odd Girl Challenge Blog - Digi Day Early Bird Challenge....Dimension

Delightful Challenges - Glitter It Up

Crafty Purple Frog Challenge - Time for you to Sparkle

If The Shoe Fits - #54 DIY (a handmade embellishment)

The Character Cafe - Embossing

Stamp Something - Digi Day

Easy Craft Project The Challenges - #25 Red

Alota Rubber Stamps - #46 Tag You're It

Have a great weekend.

Tis the season.........

Happy Sunday everyone, hope you're having a good weekend. Today of course means it's time for a new challenge over at the OSAAT challenge blog. The theme this week is an Anything Goes type of Winter Wonderland, and we have a great sponsor...........

............Di's Digi Downloads will be offering 5 digi's to the winner!
I got to play with one of Di's digi's for my DT creation, so here is 'Come on, we have a lot to do'..............


Yay.......another Christmas card done! My Prisma pencils were used for colouring, no Copic's on this one at all. I used my lacy square Nestie (still love it!) and some yummy new twine from Jillibean Soup. The DP is from My Little Yellow Bicycle, and has been sitting all forlorn in my stash since last Christmas, along with the Christmas Tree cookie cutters, which have never been used till now. I also embossed, inked and 'Stickled' those to make em look pretty. The ticket (love, love, love it!!!) is actually a freebie I could not say no to from 'Lisa' over at her blog One Happy Little Crafter, so thank you to her, and if you'd like to pay her a visit.......please do! I glittered all furry bits and used Flower Soft for the first time as snow. Almost forgot.......you can't tell from the photo but I did stitch around the edge of the card.

That's about it for the 'deets' so pop on over to the OSAAT blog for some more awesome Christmas inspiration from the rest of the DT. Don't forget to enter this weeks challenge for a chance to win those digi's.

This card will be entering the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes - #43 Let It Snow

Pollycraft - #68 It's Chill Time

Critter Sketch Challenge Blog - #38 Christmas

Paper Playtime -#23 Use a clock ticket or tag

Creative Belli Blog - #103 Flocking or Flowersoft

Charisma Cardz Challenges - #44 With love at Christmas

Crafty Purple Frog - Time to sparkle

If The Shoe Fits, Scrap It - Feeling Blue

Bee Crafty - #42 Christmas

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

You've gotta pick a pumpkin or two!

Well, I finally managed to finish colouring some of the new 'PJ's' that were released recently from byLoriDesigns and.........oh they are cute! Introducing Katie and Grace............

So these images are from a new line of digi's called the 'Wagon Trails' which you can find over at the Lollipop Shop , and who knows what may appear in those wagons in the future..........the possibilities are endless!

Now, when I'm deciding on sentiments for cards, I often wonder if anyone is on the same page as me. Take this card for example. Whilst I was colouring this image, a particular song was running through my head, with the word 'pumpkin' replacing one of the lyrics, and that's why it's ended up on today's creation. I thought it was quite witty (in my own sad little way!) and fit perfectly, but my question to you is...............does anyone have a clue which song I'm talking about? I'm guessing not, but I thought I'd throw it out there, so leave a comment if you think you know (and that includes you Mom if you're reading this!). I would say the Brit's amongst us would probably have a better chance at guessing correctly, and you'd definitely have to be no younger than 35...........although the movie this song came from, was a favourite of my 7yr old niece at one time, if I remember correctly. OK, no more clues, just take a guess and I'll call it market research! (lol)

Back to the relevant stuff! I coloured of course with my Prisma's and you know, Copic's for skin areas. DP's are from Queen Martha as I affectionately call her, as is the punched border. I covered a chipboard leaf with a scrap of DP from my stash, and added the button on there, along with a little twine from Jillibean Soup. The ribbon is again from a $$ store.......I'm lovin' the bargain ribbons I'm picking up from there recently! I embossed the brown cardstock using a Cuttlebug folder, and the sentiment is printed from my PC, then cut freehand and doodled.

Done. Cute I'd say, and perfect for Fall.
There are more new digi's over at the Lollipop Shop just bursting with 'cuteness'. Here's a little preview for you..............

They are $3 each and you can find them here.

So there you go, hop on over and take a look.........I'm just a touch excited trying to decide which image to colour up next!

'Katie and Grace' will be heading into the following challenges:

Stampavie and more - Orange

Stamps R Us - Buttons and Bows

Creative Card Crew Challenge - Let's Punch It

City Crafter Challenge Blog - Wk29 Get your Digi on

The Creative Cottage -#26 Embossing

The Sisterhood of Crafters - Leaves

CRAFT Challenge - #75 Dry Embossing

Stamp Insanity - #34 Punch-Drunk Love

Have a great weekend and I'll be back on Sunday with a creation for the new challenge over at OSAAT.

Love...........

OK, for today's card, something waaaaay different from my 'Lollipop's' and 'Bella' stamps I usually grab for. We're going..........Vintage! I love this style of card but never make one very often, cause I think I'm scared of messing it up. Anyhow, when I saw this beautiful image...........'LOVE' by Stitchy Stamps, (which you can find at the Stitchy Bear Store right here) I knew I needed to roll back the years and go for it. I know it's not perfect, as I kept itching to add a little more, but I am pleased with it, so here goes..............

Did I mention that I 'LOVE' this image.....so classic. I also 'LOVE' the papers from Graphic 45.........been hoarding them forever!

I coloured the image of course with my Prisma pencils, and a touch of Copic markers for skin tones and the word "love". I glittered the letters and fur and then fussy cut around the image. The telegram is cut from a sheet of the DP then inked, and the ticket is from a K&Company vintage pack. Ribbon and the pearly swirl are from a $$$$ store and the stick pins are from Jenni Bowlin. I also stitched and distressed the edge of the papers, and the sentiment is cut from a Nestie, printed from Word, and inked. Phew, that's all the 'deets' over with.

This classy Lady will be entered into a number of challenges of course, one being over at Flourishes Timeless Tuesday, whose challenge this week is to chose a particular print from Cafe Baudelaire Prints, as inspiration. I chose the following, so I'm hoping you can see a connection.............
The other challenges being entered are as follows:

Creative Craft Challenges - Anniversary/Celebration........It's their 1st year 'blogiversary' so lots of prizes up for grabs!

The Crafty Pad - #95 Stitching

Incy Wincy Designs - #66 Anything Goes

Crafty Cardmakers - #33 Stitching

Kaboodle Doodles - #43 Make It Vintage

A Spoonful Of Sugar - #128 Relish to Embellish

Cooking It Up With Katie - #36 Texture/Swirls/Black

Creative Inspirations Challenge Blog - #46 Glitter, Glamour, Girlie

Crafty Emma's Store Challenges - #10 Chocolate Caramel

See you tomorrow.........I'm actually organized and have something else prepared!!!! Also, don't forget the current challenge (Christmas-traditional or modern) over at the OSAAT Challenge Blog is still open til Saturday midnight!

Someday my Prince will come..........

Just thought I'd drop in with a quick post today, and show you a quirky little card I made last week. I used a very sweet image from byLoriDesigns.......the Lollipop Princess which you can find at the Lollipop Shop right here. Here she is..........Lollipop Princess, having a little trouble with.......shall we say...........an uncooperative frog!


I can tell this was made when I wasn't feeling 100% as there are very little (if any!) embellies on there. However I liked the idea of using a new fold (again from my 'Fast and Fun Folded Cards' book by Annies Attic)and that together with the frog leaping from the card , didn't allow much room for anything else. Here's the inside view............

Well, it makes me chuckle if no-one else! I guess the sentiment could apply to Princess or the frog. Hey, whichever side you take.....I'm not judging! Either way, I thought it would work as a good 'Pick Me Up' type of card.

The DP's are from the Pixie Licious line by Cosmo Cricket, and what little colouring there is, was done solely using Copic's, as I paper pieced the dress and frog. I inked around the paper edges using Tim Holtz Distress Ink and used a Fiskars punch to create the trim. I also doodled the froggy leaps, and around the DP, and printed a duplicate image of the Princess, to create the abandoned crown. There is a little glitter used on the crowns and wand, and also Glossy Accents on the frogs spots.

There you have it............never trust a crown wearing frog!

One other thing............there are some exciting new arrivals over at The Lollipop Shop............brand new Puddle Jumpers, or I should say PJ's have arrived in digi form. Yes, a whole new line of digi's, starting with the Wagon Trails series, created by the awesomely talented Lori Boyd, are now available to purchase right here. Far too cute to go into any detail, so get yourself over to the shop and take a look. I'm super excited to be colouring 'Katie and Grace' right now, so hopefully I'll be back soon with something to show you.

OK, I'm now going to hunt down some challenges for this little Princess, so I'll be back a little later with some hopefuls.

Have a great day.........hope the post Halloween sugar rush is easing a little. Oh well, probably only another 2 months till we reach the bottom of the stash!

Enjoy!

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OK, the challenges being entered are as follows:

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - #83 Hide and Seek

Crafty Cardmakers - Digital Plus

Lexi's Creations - #26 Anything Goes

Craft Your Passion Challenges - #30 Anything Goes

Fab'n'Funky Challenges - #46 Keeping It Simple

Simon Says Stamp - Punch Em'

Meljens Designs -#31 It's a 2-fer