Happy Mother's Day UK

I love this Hedgehog Squares stamp from Little Claire, and I think I will use it a lot. I haven't managed to make any Mother's Day cards for the shop for this year, maybe I should make them ready for next year! Anyway one of the Mum's will be getting this one tomorrow.

Images coloured with Promarkers, sentiment from a Hero Arts set, ribbons from Fantastic Ribbons bought at the Exeter Show.

Anyway I have been buying lots of stamps in various sales, and some new Metallic Promarkers,and a set of skin tones. I bought lots of Little Claire stamps in their sale, and this was one of them. I have also won a few things, a stamp from Visible Image that I hope to show you very soon, a set of Distress Markers and a set of Marianne Dies from Crafts U Love were the latest prizes to arrive.

I have entered the following challenges:

Passion for Promarkers - one for the ladies.

Joanna Sheen Challenge blog - Mum's the Word.

Lets make a Quirky Mess, you know you want to!

Caro asked invited us to Make a Quirky Mess for the latest Quirky challenge, and we didn't need asking twice! We have three great sponsors, Crafty Ribbons, Bugaboo, and Squigglefly. 

My first card is made with Artistic Bear from Squigglefly. I first printed him on my cardstock in a position that allowed me to fold the card into a card blank, which eventually I had to change. First thing was to mask him and I used Artist's Masking Fluid which was painted on, and is very quick to dry so tricky stuff! Then I got my acrylic paints out and got messy, first painting the flower head freehand, then filling in all the white space, and this paint is quite thick and textured (at least mine was).  When all the painting was done I removed the mask to reveal the bear and colour it with Promarkers. The paint dripping from the paintbrush and in puddles on the floor and on the bear is 3d Paint. I found I couldn't get the lid off the paint, or unblock it so resorted to cutting the top off and squeezing the remaining paint into a jar! Finally I added some Crafty Ribbon, and stamped Happy Mother's Day with a Hero Arts clear stamp. The card wasn't up to acrylic paint and was buckling and curling and so I cut off the back and mounted the panel on a new stronger card blank.

Guy New Job is from Bugaboo, and he is coloured with Promarkers and his suit is decoupaged (mainly because the first Guy had a grey face as if the ink ran, or the pen was dirty, and I decided he needed to be on a panel. This background was acheived using my Creative Expressions Messy Mat for the first time. I dropped Distress inks in three colours (Broken China, Peeled Paint, and Dusty Concord) and then brayered the mat. The result was a lovely mix of inks which opened up in places to leave gaps, hence the white space. The white card was placed down on the messy mat and rubbed over, and the background here is the result. I stamped a London background stamp by Hero Arts over the panel, and cut it out. Guy new Job and sentiment are cut with Nestabilties. Crafty Ribbon added, and I think it looks like tie material.

Inside, the card insert is also stamped with the London background stamp, masked to leave a panel to write on one side.

Faux airbrushing, Craft Stamper technique.

This is my first attempt at Faux Airbrushing, and the Take it Make it challenge at the Craft Stamper blog is to make a card using the technique which was explained in the Feb issue of the magazine (take the technique and make it).  Having done this one I will have a go at some more, the examples on the blog are inspiring me to try this in a different form. I am not totally happy with this one.

There are a couple of stray blobs opf Distress Ink (I used Dried Marigold and Spiced Marmalade), I hope that adds to it. Stamps by Hero Arts the flower is stamped and die cut with a Sizzix/ Hero Arts set of dies and stamps.

Love and Lace

I made this card for the Hero Arts Love and Lace challenge, it ends I hope today (are the USA behind or ahead of us?). I stamped the large image in white ink and embossed it onto black card, coloured it with Prismacolor pencils which I haven't picked up for a long time so it was a joy to use them. One of the wonderful things about these pastel pencils is that they colour over any other colour card. I wrote Love Grows with a white pencil and went over some of the lines to make them whiter and added a bit of chalk mess to make it look more chalkboard like. I stamped the craft blank along the bottom with a heart bloom stamp, I will check the name, and the top of the background is stamped with a dots flourish stamp from a clear set, all stamps are Hero Arts. The background is also coloured with Prismacolor pencils. I mounted the main image on a panel of green, and added a border in red punched with a MS punch, and after adding some black lace this was adhered to the card blank. A few of the hearts punched out of the border are scattered around.

Challenges entered:

Hero Arts as I mentioned above - Love and Lace

Cute Card Thursday - Something old - my Prismacolor pencils

Alpha Challenge H for Haunt

My next page for The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge is H for Haunt. I used Cherry Pie Gothic Halloween plate 47.  I stamped the tombstones in Memento London Fog so they are showing up faintly in the background and the other images in black. Everything stamped on the Gesso comes out textured.

Alpha Challenge - H is for Hedgehogs and Hexagons

  The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge is on H. H is a thin section, at least in the French to English part of the dictionary so it made it easier to choose and on this page two words leapt out at me, one was Herisson meaning Hedgehog, and the other was Hexagone meaning - well hexagon!

O.K. Hedgehogs was easy enough, I had a new Little Claire stamp of hedgehogs, and failing that I have loads of Penny Black hedgehogs. Hexagons were a bit more of a challenge. I thought I must have either a stamp or die but no hexagons anywhere. While I was looking I turned over a Really Useful box to see if I could see any magnetic stamps at the bottom that I had forgotten I had that might be hexagon shaped, and lightbulb moment - the bottom of the RUB was patterned with - hexagons!

 So without futher ado I inked up the box and tried it out, and then stamped the page and went over the lines with a Promarker because they were a bit faint. Then I wanted to fill the hexagons and somehow my Hero Arts owl flock crept into it, so lots of Hs on this page, but only the two words! The next word will come from the English part of the book.

I have taken two photos, I cannot get the book to stay down flat, and I cannot stop the corners curling, what does everyone else do I wonder, theirs all look so perfect and flat! So I took one with the book weight down with some hedgehogs which seemed appropriate, and the other is held with my fingertips hence the missing bottom of the page!

Beauty in the water, mermaid on the beach....

This card reminds me of the Josh Grogan song that has been playing on the radio all week! The characters are all from Limited Runs who are sponsoring the latest Quirky Challenge A Quirky Supernatural Love Story, along with Doodle Dragon Studios. I coloured the mermaid with mica paints and the frog prince and butterfly with Promarkers. The die cut island and waves are cut with an X Cut build a scene set, the sun is cut with an Accucut die and the heart with a Spellbinders shapeabilities die. Romance is stamped with an Inkadinkado set, I don't know if I will keep that or come up with something better! Birds are doodled. The mermaid has a few small hearts which dropped out of punched corners which have some red Stickles applied.

The challenge runs until next Saturday and there are three prizes.

I hope to show you anothe Doodle Dragon creation soon!

I have entered this in the I love Promarkers challenge - 4 legged friends.

Quirky Supernatual Love story

Daire set the challenge of Supernatural Love Story, and we have two sponsors. The first is Doodle Dragon Studios, and Dustin sent us a couple of files full of images, I think I got carried away with these insects and I'm not sure they are supernatural enough! I made them into a little wall hanging (or it will be when I can work out how to attach a hanging ring to the back) for the room my grandson sleeps in when he is here. The canvas was pre-primed with two coats of Gesso so I could work on it right away and I used Alcohol inks to make the background before adhering the images with Decopatch glue and sealant. The images were all coloured with Promarkers and Trias and the spider's web with Ice Stickles in silver. I painted over the images with Decopatch to seal them.

This card is more like the idea Daire had I think, and features two images from Limited Runs, Gober and Sally Stitches. Both are coloured with Promarkers and Trias, and I cut a couple of Spellbinder hearts, added a freebie sentiment from Limited Runs which reads Pucker up Lover, and finally added some black fibre. The cardstock was preprinted with swirls.

Once again there are three prizes to be won at Quirky crafts challenge blog so hop on over and enter.

Whoops I posted the Quirky challenge too early, sorry about that folks, and can't take it back because we had an entry right away!

I have entered the following challenges:

That Crafty Place - Valentines

Creative Inspiration Paint - based on Valentines

A little more love

I Toadily Love you image from Paper Pretties coloured with Promarkers and die cut with Nestabilities. Ribbon from Crafty Ribbon. Corners punched with  

Next one is a very cute bunny eating chocolates by which is a House Mouse and Friends stamp. Coloured with Promarkers and a Spellbinders doily, with Card Making papers.

Finally for now a Fluffles stamp coloured with Promarkers and set inside a Cuttlebug embossing and cutting die. The ribbon is Crafty Ribbons. The sentiment is a Sizzix and Hero Arts die and stamp set, You & Me is a Basic Grey stamp from a clear set, and I stamped the frame again to put inside.

The Alpha Challenge E for Enfants

Here is another page for The Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn blog. This time E is for Enfant, I hope I am improving each time on this project. The black and white children stamps are by Paper Artsy, the baby in arms is Kraftin Kimmie from a set I won. the boy and girl are by The Stamp Barn, and I am not sure about the hands and feet. The meaning includes alter boys and giving birth, I didn't have stamps for either!

Now can anyone tell me how to get dried on Gesso out of my favourite best purple fleece? 

Alpha challenge - E

It is E in the Alpha challenge at the Craft Barn and this is my first page, I have a few ideas and hope to work on a couple more pages yet.

I picked Equestre which means Equestrian, Equitation which means horse riding and I couldn't resist Escargo  meaning Snail! I used a mix of stamps, Crackerbox Palace horse silhouettes, sentiment and horseshoes. The pony with the envelope is a Cuddly Buddly stamp and the mare and foal are by PSX and this is one of the first three stamps I bought together in Blade Rubber Stamps along with some daisy stamps. The snail is Penny Black. I found out that Memento doesn't dry very quickly on gesso, and picks up embossing powder so some bits are silver that weren't supposed to be. Also some of the lines have been smudged by the Promarkers because the ink didn't dry, oh dear.

Quirky reminder

You still have one week to enter the Quirky Crafts Challenge and win a great prize from Crackerbox Palace.

I made this card from Crackerbox Palace stamp Sea Breeze and the Woman of Many moods sentiment. You could choose these stamps and a whole lot more (or any other stamps you like) with the very generous voucher prizes from Crackerbox Palace.

Prizes are:

1st place $20 worth of stamps

2nd Place $ 15 worth of stamps

3rd place $10 worth of stamps

and Cazzy's special prize of two of the sentiment stamps (and maybe more if we get lots of entries and one I love), the one used on this card and the one on the card below which I posted last week.

If you pop over to the Crackerbox Palace blog you can see some of the gorgeous new stamps and have a chance to win some more!

I looked everywhere for Sea Breeze, spent hours looking in wood mounted boxes and unmounted folders and began to think I imagined that I had it, then I checked my old invoices and sure enough there she was in 2009. So I looked in the box of stamps waiting to be sorted out with laminated sheets to go in folders and there she was! Not only that the cowboy stamp Riding Away was there too, which means I liked it so much I bought it twice! So I may be adding that to the little special prize if we get lots more entries and there is one I really like the best (or maybe if you comment here as well to tell me what you think I might do an extra draw).

Life is like a Quirky Box of Chocolates - part 2

Here is my 3rd project, a hanging heart. One side has letters cut with a Quickutz alphabet from a Lifestyle set, I wanted small letters, the ejection foam has never stayed in the letters and I had to hunt around through the dies to find it all, and I hope that now I have used it the foam will stay put for once. I added Perfect Pearls ...... Hearts cut with Spellbinders Shapeabilities.

The other side has the chocolates (I love you more than chocolates - geddit?) and the chocolates and word "yummy" are Crackerbox Palace stamps. I punched holes through the lot and added an eyelet each side before glueing the hearts together and threading some polka dot ribbon through to hang it by. I enjoyed making this and it evolved from maybe being a card, or an easel card to a hanging. I had to replace the brown heart due to squashed perfect pearls, I cut another and peeled the letters off to re-use and stuck it over the top of the first heart, the things we have to do to rescue disasters! I coloured the chocolates with Promarkers and Trias, added Stickles and Anita's glitter glue and finally when that was dry and the colours were as I wanted I covered the chocolate parts with Anita's 3d gloss.

I have entered the following challenges:

Anything but a Card - share the love ends Sunday 17th Feb

ABC challenges - G for going Dotty

Crafty Ribbons Challenge Blog - anything goes with ribbon 13th Feb

Here are the stamps! You can see two at the back that I didn't use and they are two that I won from Crackerbox Palace blog. All you have to do is go and comment on each Thursday's new makes, and you can be drawn randomly to win the some stamps, and if you also comment on Karen the designer's blog you get two chances. Then if you use your stamps and blog your make you get to win another stamp! Pretty good and so easy.

The two in the pack at the front are two I have already and will be my special little prize maybe I will add some more bits to that too, the person who enter my personal favourite project and who follows all the requirements will win this special prize.