A few florals

I bought a new Forever Friends stamp last week and have been having a play colouring it in with Promarkers.
I really enjoy colouring this little bear as he is so easy to get into some simple shading. I'm still learning with my promarker pens, but have found a combination of colours I like for these images. I've teamed him up with papers from K & Co and some fabric flowers and brads. The flowers in this first one and the papers, I think, were a gift from Lynn. I know she'll correct me if I am wrong.

This last card uses a stamp I bought way back in October but has just had it's first inking. I can't remember the make but she is coloured with Promarkers. Again it is teamed up with paper from the same Sparkly Sweet designer pad by K & Co. The bench from Magnolia I know was from Lynn as I think were the flowers with their shiny beaded centres.

Any of these cards , but particularly the last one I think is suitable for the 'Blooming Gorgeous' theme on the Cute Card Thursday challenge blog this week.

More shakers

After making the shaker card for the Crafter's Companion challenge last week I decided to make a few more.

This first one is again an 8inch square card. I've used pearlescent pink card for the background and pearlescent blue card for the matting and circle on top of the acetate on the shaker element. The stars backing paper is from the Cute companions Cd.

The Christmas tree stencil, from Dreamweaver, has been embossed and then inked with Brilliance ink. The silver stars inside are from my stash and the snowflakes are from Nesties and have been cut in the same blue and pink card with the addition of a glittered silver snowflake, all held together with a pale pink brad.

The sentiment is from Lakeland.

The stars and sentiment look pink but it must just be the reflection from the pearlescent card.

These next two are A5 in size and use the same stencil embossed and coloured with Brilliance inks in purple and pink. I've used glittered snowflakes from Craftime and peel-off sentiments. On one I have used silver paper and the other pink pearlescent paper for the backer. The circles are pink pearlescent card or purple matt card. Silver trees and stars under the acetate are from my stash.

Dotty organza ribbon from Ribbon Rasis and lace complete the cards.

I bought the stencil with the idea of using it with glitter on double sided sticky sheets but haven't got round to that - maybe next year!

Crafter's Companion #11

As usual this time on the Crafter's Companion blog challenge there is a sketch but also a few requirements.

The card must have the colours blue/silver/white and some ribbon as well as a shaker element.

Now the colours and ribbon were ok but i've never tried a shaker card before. This is my second attempt as the first wasn't quite right somehow.I've used a large 8inch square white card and covered it with matt silver paper. The star panels are from the Cute Companions Cd and have been layered with the same silver paper. Silver ribbon overlaid with white lace with a touch of silver has been placed over these.

The shaker element uses an image from the Popcorn Christmas Cd printed onto card and layered onto the same 2 backing papers. The top of the shaker is acetate held in place with a ring of blue pearlescent card. Inside are holographic silver snowflakes.

A peel-off greeting and snowflake cut with Nesties topped with a white brad complete the card, which is for my Grandson's first Christmas.

I just have to make 2 girly versions now for my Grandaughters!

Crafter's Companion #4

On the Crafter's Companion challenge blog this week Christine has provided the sketch which also asks for brads and some ribbon. I've used an image from Popcorn Floral cd again simply cut out and mounted up onto pale green card.
The card is ready embossed from DCWV and i've just edged it with purple ink as I have with the 2 backing pieces. I've used my still favourite combination of purple and green, with a touch of white and lemon in the flower and glittered brad. Purple brads are on the corners of the image topper and a silver greetings peel-off.

My Canvas

This is my canvas prepared in the same way as Faith's with a pale green base coat. It measures about 7x9.5 inches.

I'm quite pleased with it for a first try but, ever critical of myself, I feel the Paisley designs could be angled better and the flowers spaced differently at the bottom. I know now I should have used acetate instead of card for the stencils so that I could see better where they were being placed.

I made the stencil using Paisley images from the computer and painted them with Brilliance ink. They were decorated them with swirls and spots using Stampin' Up marker pens, although they don't show up too well in the picture.

Seed beads were stitched all around the outline of the design between the small dots.

Thank goodness for the flexibility of beading needles but it does help to try and thread the right end no matter how miniscule the hole!!

I used a Cuttlebug die to make myself a small flower/leaf stencil and used pink and green Brilliance inks.

The flowers here are Primas with a small brad in the centre.These flowers are fabric ones from W H Smith. They have been trimmed a little at the back so that they sit flatter on the canvas and attached with Pin Flair glue.

The ribbon round the edge is from Hobbycraft.In reality the painted images are all slightly shimmery due to the inks used. I'm not sure what I am going to do with mine, probably hang it in my craft room once we have decorated as the colours are what I would want in there.

NRC challenges

A group of ladies from the Bubbly Funk forum took themselves off on friday for a long weekend of crafting fun, those of us left behind were not to be forgotten as Kathy arranged a last minute Non Retreaters Crop. Referred to as the NRC.

I have combined 2 of the challenges in this little book. It is just over 4 inches square, covered in paper from K & co, fastened with a length of ribbon and decorated with fabric flowers and funky star brads.

The first is a 10 minute mini book and the second a photo challenge.

10 minutes my ar*e it took me longer than that to choose my papers! Add 2 phone calls from Sallie and Mick arriving home from work.

It is a very easy book to make though and all the papers are from K & co. The photo challenge was set by Hazel who gave us a subject matter every couple of hours during saturday and sunday. The initial letters of which were B.U.B.B.L.Y.F.U.N.K.

Sallie was here and took part in some of them and we had great fun both looking for old pictures and taking new ones.

I printed them all out and combined them into this book.

BLUE - my slippers.

UNDERNEATH - my crafting workspace.BEAUTY - Faith in her frilly pink dress. BOTTLES - the booze is hidden behind the soft drinks!LEATHER - Sallie wearing her stripey socks with my shoes.YOURSELF WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG - me aged 20 on holiday in Spain.FACES - Sallie and Me this Easter in Barry Island.UP ABOVE - the snow seen through the conservatory roof earlier this year. NATURE - the view from our veranda in the Dominican Republic a couple of years ago.KNITTED - a couple of garments i've just finished for my niece's baby boy.
I did the writing by hand (can't you tell!) on white card cut into ovals with Nestabilities.

2 for Dad

We are going up to the Midlands on wednesday to see the family and take cards for events this month and next.
These are cards I made for my Dad for his birthday and Father's day.
This is for his birthday - he always wears a shirt and tie when he goes out so it's very suitable for him. The image is a stamp from Funstamps called 'Gent's shirt'. I ve coloured the stripes with Whispers pens and decoupaged the cuff, collar and tie on the blue one and added a blue brad for the cufflink.
The shirts are in pink, green and blue which fits in with the theme on the Lilli of the Valley challenge site. This second card is for Father's day, which is 2 days before his birthday.
I've stamped an image from the Daisy and Dandelion collection by Design Objectives onto brown paper and again coloured it with Whisper pens. The letters have been stamped and glittered. Multi layered flowers with brad centres complete the card.
This fits in with the challenge on Cute Card Thursday to include letters or numbers on a card.

Son's birthday

A card for my son's 30th birthday yesterday, gosh it does make me feel old! I used white cardstock and folded it to make a landscape card with a top fold and covered it with pale blue paper.
The letters have been cut out of blue holographic card and layered up onto pale blue paper embossed with swiss dots from a Cuttlebug folder. This was layered onto matt silver paper.
The greeting from Personal Impressions is embossed in pale blue and layered onto the same colours with 3 small brads.
A small double layer flower with a brad in the centre finishes it off.

Spring Flowers.

2 cards here using the same Sarah Kay stamp. They have been coloured with a combination of Stampin' Up markers and watercolour pencils. The backing card mounts for both is from DCWV. The stamped greeting is from Personal Impressions. This first one has the greeting embossed in pale blue which shows better IRL. It has 2 layers of flowers and some spotty white organza ribbon held together with a brad.

This has the greeting embossed in purple and is decorated with flowers and brads. It also features an oval cut with my very first set of Nestabilities.

52Q

I've just managed to catch up on 52Q challenge before the next question is set on Monday.

Question 7 was - What would I do if I knew I could not fail?

Question 8 was - What was the last thing that made me laugh out loud?

Both of these were very easy for me to answer.

As usual the background and text for Q7 was done using Walk in Wonderland Cd. I added a piece of printed ribbon on the front and an image from Clipart on the back.

The wording for Q8 was from the same Cd but the images are See-D stamps. 3 tiny brads in various shades of green add the finishing touch.

Bubbly Funk crafty calendar

Some of the girls over on Bubbly Funk put together an online crafty calendar with a new project each month.
January's project was for a clock made from an old Cd. I adapted this slightly from the theme of 'Time flies' to fit in with the items in my stash.

This is what I started with and with the help of the online tutorial transformed it into something quite different.

I covered the Cd with Antiquity Tan Parchment paper by K & Co and then added colours from the Aurora set of Brilliance inks using finger daubers. The dragonfly stamp was a magazine freebie, so long ago I don't remember which one, and was stamped using the Peacock set of Brilliance inks. The flowers are Primas with the addition of small sparkly brads.

The original clock was bought very cheaply a couple of years ago from Ikea. I simply took it out of it's casing and re-assembled it onto the Cd.

Why not nip over to Bubbly Funk and check out the rest of the calendar, there's sure to be something to catch your imagination.

52Q

It's week 5 on 52Q and the question is....

How do I feel today?

My answer....

I've once again used backgrounds from the Walk in wonderland Cd and added a photo of the baby.

Spotty organza ribbon and a tiny sparkled brad finish it off.

New Baby

We heard yesterday that we have become Grandparents again.

Our son's partner had a little boy, born around 11am by 'C' section. He weighed in at 7lb 15oz but as yet does not have a name. This is the card I have made, using the photo sent to us, to Congratulate them on the birth. I used white cardstock with a silver mat. Onto this I layered a background and wording taken from the Walk in Wonderland Cd. The photo, raised on foam pads, has a heart design frame around it and is printed onto matt photo paper. A strip of spotty organza ribbon and a brad with a blue stone complete the card.