Tuesday 30 November 2010

Digital Tuesday "Animals At Christmas Time"

It's Ellie's turn to choose the challenge at Digital Tuesday this week and she chose "animals at christmas time". Stitchy Bear Stamps is  our sponsor this week and some of the girls have used images from the store on their cards.

I used an image by Gingerloft called "Reindeer Carousel" which is available at the Stitchy Bear Store.

 

 I coloured the reindeer with Promarkers and used some papers by Kaisercraft. The little presents and sentiment are also Kaisercraft (I'm making use of my magazine freebies again lol) and some raffia ribbon stuff from my stash.
I did go round the image with a light grey Promarker but you can't see it here...... it's the only time for ages that my colouring has looked ok and you can't even see it lol.

I haven't been able to get any of my normal cardstock for my card bases or paper for colouring on as my local craft shop has stopped making it (it's made at the papermill next to the shop) and the only thing they had was pearlescent stuff which is great for printing pre coloured images on and they look really nice and shimmery, but it is rubbish for colouring with markers on. The ink dries way too quick on it so you can't blend the colours and it just looks all streaky, so all my images lately have been coloured super quick with one colour and no shading etc (like a 5year old's colouring lol), but yesterday I found a sheet of leather effect cardstock that I must of bought months ago, so I decided I would try printing my image on the back of it as it's only the front that has the leather effect and it printed out great and was so easy to colour on :)...... just a pity I only had one sheet! So tomorrow it's back to streaky images lol.
If anyone out there knows where I can but decent paper for using Promarkers on that does not cost the earth, I would be sooo happy! One of my lovely bloggy buddies recommended create and craft cardstock but I don't have anywhere near me which sells it, and I don't fancy paying all that p&p just for a pack of paper, so any other suggestions would be great :)

Oh before I go, remember to have a peek at my blog candy that I posted earlier today! It's in the post above this one and anyone can enter :)

Thanks for stopping by


Thursday 25 November 2010

A couple of DT cards.

Life has been hectic this week and I haven't had no time to blog at all, but finally got a chance to settle down tonight and post some dt cards.

The first is for Charisma Cardz where the theme this week is "One for the girls".



 One of our sponsors this week is the Digistamp Boutique who kindly gave me an image to use. It's called "Princess Fifi" and I coloured her with Promarkers.
The papers are all from a magazine as is the sentiment and little butterflies.
The purple I have used to mat with is shimmery cardstock from my local craft shop, lace and pearls (which are actualy white!) are from my stash, flowers are made with a SU! punch and a random flower, spacer and pearl from my stash. And the swirls are done with an All Night Media punch that I have had for years.

My other card  is for Digital Tuesday where the challenge is "Let It Snow" and also my Fred She Said DT card.



The image is an older one from FSS called Catching Flakes, I used one of the precoloured ones, which are fab if you need to make a card in a hurry.
Again the papers and sentiment are from a magazine. I don't generaly like using the freebie papers you get inside magazines, but the ones you get in Creative Cardmaking are normaly quite good and not really think like a lot of other mags. This paper and sentiment came in really handy for  this card because I don't have much Christmas papers and the sentiment was perfect for the challenge.
The large snowflake was cut from white mountboard with an original Sizzix die and the small one were done with a Dovecraft punch, and I covered them all with twinklets.

If you haven't heard about the Fred She Said Black Friday sale, you just gotta get yourself over there!
There will be 25% off eveerything in the store! It will run for 24hrs starting today Friday 26th at 12.01am EST.Tracey has some great new images and of course the older ones are great too! If your not into cute characters like me, then how about some of the fab FSS flowers? Or if you like your decoupage, you got to have a look at the medalions, they are perfect for Christmas card!

Thanks for stopping by

Friday 19 November 2010

Charisma Baby

The challenge at Charisma Cardz this week is Babies and I really needed to make a baby girl card for a friend who is due a baby girl in a few weeks so this wass the perfect opportunity to get it made.




I am soooo sick of having to scan cards!! It always gets rid of the base card on at least one side, so you can't see the white around the pattered paper which really annoys me lol. You can see some of the pink card I have used to mat with on this one, but I did use white card for the base and you can't see any of it! I need a new camera so much!!
Ok rant over! lol

I used this sweet baby image by Lili Of The Valley and coloured her with Promarkers. I actually coloured this image a few months back when one of my lovely blogging friends sent me the image, but I had a bit of an accident with a glass of juice and some of my images got soaked, including the edges of this one :( but the actual image was ok, so I cut round it and stuck it onto a scalloped oval and I don't think it looks too bad, does it?
The more I look at this image, the more I love it, it's so sweet :) I don't have any LOTV stamps but I think I really need to get some because they are adorable.The scalloped ovals are from Die Cut Dreams, spotty paper is Bo Bunny, but I not sure about the other strip of paper I used because it was from a sheet that didn't have anything written on it to tell me who made it.
The ribbon is from my local craft shop, sentiment is Stampin Up! and the little "sweet" sticker is from my stash.

I went and got a card reader today so I can transfer photos from  my friends camera to my computer so tomorrow I will get a pic of the goodies I have to give away on my blog! So check back tomorrow for some sweet stuff!!:)

Thanks for stopping by

Lora x

Tuesday 16 November 2010

Digital Tuesday Things With Wings

Over at Digital Tuesday this week the challenge theme is "Things With Wings", so I just had to combine 2 DT cards and make one for Fred She Said as well so I could use this sweet image again :)



 I hate having to scan my cards because it doesn't show the real colours of the image and papers and everythign always looks so flat :(
I used some papers by Bo Bunny and some Bo Bunny ribbon. The image is of course by Fred She Said and is called Emma The Caroling Angel. I printed her onto ice gold shimmery card and coloured her with Promarkers. Usign this kind of card makes her look lovely and shimmery in real life :)
The ticket sentiment is a digi freebie but I can't remember where I got it from....sorry. I inked it with some distress ink and stuck it on with foam pads.

Well that's my card for today, I'm off to see if I can find a usb cable for a camera because I borrowed a friends camera to take a pic of my blog candy, but I can't transfer the pics because my slot on my computer for the memory card is broken so got to find a cable that fits before I can get any pics onto my computer!!
Hopefully I will find one though and I will have some nice candy on here soon!! :)

Thanks for stopping by



Friday 12 November 2010

Fred She Said Blog Hop!!

Welcome to the Fred She Said blog hop!!
If you have came here from  Michelle's blog, you are on the right track but if not, you should go start at  Tracey-Lynns 's blog and hop your way along from there.

Tracey has been busy drawing some lovely Christmas images this month and the design team are using the blog hop to show them off :)

As always with our FSS blog hops, you must stop by each design team members blog and collect a word from each blog along the way, then when you reach the FSS challenge blog at the end of the hop, you should have a phrase which you will then need to email for the chance to win one of 2 prizes.

The 2 prizes are a $25 gift certificate to spend in the Fred She Said store and a $25 gift Certificate for the Crop Stop!!

I used the new pair of robins image from the Christmas Bird Series.  These images also come pre coloured but I coloured mine myself.


 

The picture is really blurry because I had to use my scanner again....... I really can't wait to get a new camera!!
I used some freebie papers that I got in a magazine and some dark green shimmery card stock.
The robins were coloured with Promarkers, ribbon is some I have had in my stash for forever, the red roses are from my stash and the poinsettias are both from Janlynn.com and I just added some stickles to give them a bit of sparkle.

The word you need from me is ARE and the next and the next and final stop is at the Fred She Said Challenge blog.

Thanks for stopping by today and hope you are enjoying the hop!




Thursday 11 November 2010

Charisma DT Card

We have had thunder here all last night and this morning and I need to go to Tesco for a few things before taking the kids to school but I can't get a taxi for another hour at least because of this weather! Normaly I phone and it's at my door in about 3 minutes but everyone must be booking taxi's  today because of this weather and there is no way I am walking there lol. So while I am waiting I thought I would write this post :)

Anyway at Charisma Cardz this week it's Leah's turn to choose the challenge and she wants us to make a sympathy card.
I have only ever made 2 sympathy cards before and I must admit that I really don't like making them because I think sympathy cards should be clean and simple but I am useless and CAS cards.
But I had a go and this is what I came up with.



 The colours look a bit off here espacially the angel, but it's a lot better than some of  the other cards I have posted lately where my scanner has totaly changed the colour of everything!
I am rubbish at using flower images as well but I thought this image would be suitable for a sympathy card, so gave it a go. I'm not sure who makes this stamp as a friend sent me the stamped image, but it had been embossed in black and I coloured with Promarkers.
The papers  are from Paper Cellar's Victorian Classic pad, which has some really pretty papers in it. I actualy bought it because I love vintage style cards and thought it would be perfect for that but I was looking through all my papers and couldn't find anything suitable, but came across this pad and found a few papers that would work well for sympathy cards.
The lace is a light pink colour although it looks more white here. Barry got it for me one day when he went into town on his own, he quite often picks up ribbon/lace or buttons for me and most of the time it's something that I would never choose to buy myself, but I always end up using everythign he has bought lol, but actually this time he came back with a huge budle of lace and ribbons and this pretty pink one was in amongst them.
I didn't want to add a load of embelishments, so had a look in my stash and found the embroidered angel which is the same colour as the paper I have used on the image mat (although it doesn't look it in this pic), so added that. I got it from my teamie Geraldine who owns Little Snippets Etsy store and makes the most beautiful embroidered and crotchet embellishments. If you haven't had a look in her store, you really should, there is so many pretty "snippets" as Geraldine calls them and they are useful for so many different craft projects.


Right I better get going. Thanks for stopping by today and check back tomorrow as I may have some blog candy up for grabs tomorrow!



Tuesday 9 November 2010

Digital Tuesday and FSS DT cards

I forgot to schedule this post last night so will have to make it quick because I have to take the kids to school in a min! It's freezing here again today and I am dreading going out especially since we have to wait around for buses because both Liam and the girls school's are quite a bit away.

Anyway enough of my moaning lol, the challenge at Digital Tuesday this week is to use up your stash.
I thought I would combine my card with my DT card for Fred She Said since I have quite a few digital images that I have not used yet. So I had a look through my FSS images and found one that I have had for a very long time and never used. I have no idea why because she is such a cutie, so had to use her and also some Christmas papers that I bought last year.


My scanner decided that is doesn't like shimery paper and has went all blurry!
I printed Emma The Snow Angel onto some silvery shimmery paper and coloured with Promarkers so she looks all lovely and sparkly but the paper looks more yellow here for some reason...... stupid scanner!

The small snowflakes are done with a Woodware punch, larger one is cut on mountboard with a Sizzix original die and covered with flower soft and the other bits and pieces are from my stash.

Right got to run to catch the bus now, thanks for stopping by :)



Saturday 6 November 2010

No card, just a quick post

I've no card to share today, just wanted to post about a special offer from Meyer Imports which is running through the month of November.
 I haven't personaly ordered from this company before but their glass glitter looks fab and the mushrooms are so cute :)

Ths next bit has been taken from their website.

Every order gets a Free sample set of Vintage Spun Cotton and Plaster Mushrooms! And, in fact, you do not even need to order them to win! Here's how it works:
For every order we get during the month of November, we will add a free Sample Kit of our Vintage Mushrooms with the other items you ordered. Just for you to play with and have fun! We just want everyone to know we are more than just great Glass Glitter!






Thursday 4 November 2010

Christmas at Charisma

Over at Charisma Cardz challenge this week teh challenge is "With Love At Christmas" and the girls have made some gorgeous cards!
I haven't made much Christmas cards yet this year, so I had fun getting out my glitter and snowflakes for this one :)



 Unfortunately this scan doesn't show all the glitter very well and the colours look a bit washed out, but it looks really sparkly irl.
The bottom paper is DCWV and the other one is Stampin Up! as is the borders I used. It is actually 2 border stickers but I just stuck one on top of the other to make it one wider border.
Tilda is coloured with Promarkers and I added some stickles to the bottom edge of her dress and her hairband but you can't see it in this pic.
I really like this Tilda but I don't own the stamp :( A friend stamped me some Magnolia images a while back but I only have one or two left and none of them are Christmas ones so think this will be the last Christmas Tilda card from me unless I can  convince Barry that I need to buy some lol.

The small snowflakes were done with a woodware punch, then covered in stickles and a gem added in the middle, and the large one was cut with a Sizzix die from some mountboard, then covered with SU! Dazzling Diamonds glitter, it looks really pretty irl :)
Oh and the sentiment is from a Hot Off The Press clear stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by today. Please leave me a comment to let me know you have been :)

Lora x

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Digital Tuesday - I've been framed

It's time for another Digital Tuesday challenge and this week t he challenge is "I've been framed".
We are sponsored by Robyn's Fetish who also gave the design team some of their images to play with for the challenge.

I was intending on using a sizzix die cut frame that I cut a while back from mountboard, but for the life of me I just couldn't find  them ....typical!
I don't have the die to cut more as I cut them out at the kids school with Rhianna's teacher's (well her tacher from last term) sizzix machine which she lets me borrow along with all her dies for the craft club I run at school.
So I had to find another frame, so off I went looking through my stash and I came across a pack of stickers that I got from a friend a while back and thought I will just use one of them, but when I opened the pack I realised that it also contained acetate tags and frames, so I just had to use one of those :)




Unfortunately the card didn't scan very well and it looks a bit washed out (and  the flowers are all squished!) but it looks really good irl.
I used an image from Robyn's Fetsih and it's called Katie Kitty and of course I coloured with Promarkers, then I used the acetate frame as an overlay. It's just a pity that I already had my image coloured or else I would of made it a little smaller so the pattern on the frame didn't cover her feet.
The papers are by Papermania and I used my Fiskars scalloped border punch on the bottom layer.
I followed the sketch over at the Sweet Stamping challenge blog but then got to the embelishments and kind of went a bit off track lol.
The ribbon and flowers and pin are from my stash and the pretty butterfly is from Little Snippets Etsy store.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will join  in with this weeks challenge.




Monday 1 November 2010

BTC&G Jungle and a mini mission from Rhianna!

Good morning, hope you all had a fab Halloween yesterday.
This is gonna be a really long post, so go get a cuppa and make yourself comfy before you start reading.
Hopefully I won't bore you to death and you will actually get to the end of the post before falling asleep lol.
I took my 2 girls out around the neighbourhood to do some trick or treating and they had loads of fun except Rhianna jumping out of her skin twice when our neighbours dog barked at her! We couldn't even see the dog because it was dark and the dog is black, there was just a bark from out of nowhere and Rhianna about took a heart attack, then it did the same on the way back home.... think Rhianna's heart is still recovering lol.
They came home with a pile of sweets and have stuffed themselves silly, although they are both still complaining about all the monkey nuts they got lol. Neither of them like the nuts but everyone around here buys them for Halloween and they got loads of them each.

The new challenge is up over at By The Cute and Girly and it's Kate's turn to host. She has chose a Jungle theme and as always the design team girls havemade some fantastic samples.
We also have a new designer who is actually our guest designer for November, but she will be back to join us in December as a full time member.
Her name is Tammy and she is very talented! She has made some fantastic cards and a lay out too for the challenge which you can check out over on the challenge blog as well as all the other gorgeous inspiration from the rest of the design team.

We have some wonderful prizes up for grabs again this month! Our regular sponsors are back this month with the usual fab prizes.

 Simon Says Stamp with a $20 gift voucher to spend in their fabulous store. As you all know, this is a great store and they have everything a crafter could want.




Joanna Sheen with a £10 gift voucher. Another great store with tons of goodies to choose from.


Little Snippets Etsy Store with a $15 gift voucher. This is my design team girl Geraldines Etsy shop.
She sells the most beautiful embroidered and crotchet embellishments, which can be used for so many different craft projects. If you are a regular visitor to my blog, you will have seen me use some of her gorgeous flowers and butterflies, they really add a special touch to any card or project.



And we have a new digi sponsor this month, Fairy Dust Crafts.


I say Digi sponsor because she is sponsoring us with 5 digital images of the winners choice, but this shop has so much more than digi images. I just purchased some Promarkers from here a few weeks ago at a great price and fab customer service too.


I left my cards till last minute again this month, and by last minute I mean last night! I did have the images coloured for ages and actually started a card at the beginning of the month, but I can't find it lol, so I whipped up 2 cards last night and had to use the dreaded scanner to get pics of them....... I miss my camera soooo much.



I used a digi from Dustin Pike on this one. I was going to colour the bear brown but then looked closer and realised that he is holding some bamboo and is a panda bear lol.
I haven't been able to get my usual paper for printing my digis on from my local craft shop, so I tried some new stuff and it is terrible! The ink goes all streaky and it's very difficult to shade with markers on it, so the colouring on this one is terrible, but in real life, the streaky bits actually look ok as it looks a bit like fur.
The spotty paper is My Minds Eye as is the spotty bit that the bear is on (it's just the reverse side of the same sheet) and the black strip is some handmade paper I got years ago in a pack.
The raffia ribbon stuff is from a craft shop in Montrose and the leaves are digi ones from Fred She Said which I just coloured with Promarkers. These leaves are both in the Paper Roses and Leaves Template set.


 The sweet image I have used on this one is from Fairy Dust Crafts and is called "Ellie Blowing Bubbles", I coloured it with Promarkers as usual and added some glossy accents to the bubbles.
The base paper is by Paper Cellar, but I am not sure who makes the green paper as I got it from a friend and there is nothing written on the sheet.
The leaves again are from FSS Paper Roses and Leaves Template set and the flowers are also Fred She Said. I can't remember now which ones I used but I think they are the round dahlias.
I just printed them on pearlescent cardstock and coloured them with promarkers, then cut up the middle of each petal and added a pearl to the centre.
As I had to scan this card, it has flattened the flowers, but they are not flat like this irl.

Now if you are still with me, I have a card to show that my Daughter Rhianna made.
This is her DT card for Messy's Mini Missions kids challenge. If you have crafty kids under the age of 16, this is the place for them to go! :) They can enter with any craft and there are some fab prizes to be won every month.
The challenge this month is "Christmas" and they being sponsored by Lili Of The Valley and Digital Delights who also gave the kids some images to play with.




Rhianna has used Pickles The Penguin from Digital Delights and coloured him with my promakers.
The papers and sentiment are from a magazine, ribbon from my stash and some punched snowflakes done with a Woodware punch and she added some silver glitter glue in teh centre of each snowflake.
She done all this herself, except cutting the patterned papers because my cutter is on it's last legs lol.
I'm really proud of her *smile*, she is only 7 so please leave her some love if you like her card. She loves getting comments and reads them over and over again :)


Thanks if you stuck with me to the end! Remember to check out the new challenge at BTC&G and get your kids over to Messy's Mini Missions, and while you are there, please leave some love for the kids, they have all done a fantastic job with their design team samples! :)