Digital Tuesday- Red, Black and White

The challenge over at Digital Tuesday is a colour combo of red, black and white. I never use this combo so I had no idea what I was going to do, but Digital Delights is our sponsor this week and gave us some images to use which fitted in perfectly with the colour combo, so I  just coloured it in and went from there.
I think I will have to start using combos that I never usually use as I quite enjoyed making this card and I like that it is a bit different to my normal girly coloured cards.

I don't have much red Promarkers so couldn't really blend the red in this image, but it is a rather cute image, don't you think? It actually is supposed to have text above the image, but I wanted to cut the image out and it looked a bit silly with the text when it was cut out, so I just cut it off.

I popped the image up with foam pads, done a bit of embossing with a cuttlebug hearts folder onto shimmery red card. Not sure who makes the papers as they were a gift which came in really handy as I never have this colours of papers in my stash.

I used some ribbon from my stash and made some flowers by just sewing a length or ribbon and then pulling it tight to create a circle, then layered a black paper flower in between and sewed it all together with a button on top.

 I must make more of my own flowers as my flower stash is rapidly disappearing!! It also means that you can have flowers in any colour you want to match your card/project :)

Oh before I forget, the new design team members were announced today over on the digital tuesday blog and I decided that we would also have some guest designers too :) I'm looking forward to getting to know all the new ladies and seeing what fab creations they made for the challenges!

Thanks for stopping by and for leaving such lovely comments. Every comment gets read and it makes a huge difference to know that people are stopping by to see what I am up to :))

Digital Tuesday- New Beginnings

It's time for a new Digital Tuesday challenge and the theme this week is "new beginnings".
Our sponsor this week is Bugaboo Stamps who kindly gave the dt an image to work with for the challenge.

I'm not sure who makes the paper that I used on this card, it's a pad I have had for ages and the front cover is no longer on it (I think the pad split in half at some point and I can't find the other half lol)

The sweet image is from Bugaboo Stamps and is called Fancy sunbonnet bride and I coloured it with Promarkers and used a bit of stickles but I am really not happy with the colouring :( The ink was bleeding everywhere when I coloured this one!

I'm not sure if it is because I am using different ink in my printer (my cyan ink is a compatible and the rest are genuine epson as I ran out of cyan a while ago and just bought a cheap compatible to try but it doesn't print as well as the genuine epson ink does), or if it is just because the image has quite thick and dark lines, but whatever the cause I am not happy with the ink running everywhere.

I don't think it's the paper I used as I printed this on the paper that I normally use (Neenah) and never have any trouble with it bleeding, and I have tried the hairspray trick, heat setting and leaving it a few days before colouring but still didn't make any difference.

Anyway apart from the image, I used some coredinations cardstock and embossed it with the hearts cuttlebug embossing folder and then sanded it to reveal some of the core. I also embossed the "congratulations" using a new embossing folder that I got as a Christmas pressie, and again sanded it to make the embossing pop.

For embellishments, I just used a few flowers and some ribbon from my stash and some silver skeleton leaves, which is something I never use, but I kinda like it......I think lol.

 

I wasn't going to show a close up of the image because my colouring is terrible!! but the image is cute so I figured she deserved a close up shot lol.

I hope you will find the time to join us at Digital Tuesday this week.
I made a wedding card, but as the theme is new beginnings, you could do a new baby (not literally...I wouldn't think you could produce a real baby in a week! lol, but a baby card), new house, wedding, engagement, new job etc. There is so many ways you could go with this weeks challenge, so I'm sure you could fit in a few other challenges with this one, and the prize from Bugaboo is 7 digital images!!

Thanks for stopping by today xx

I'm really late!!!

I am sooo late with this card!! I am positive that I scheduled a post for last Tuesday to post my Digital Tuesday dt card, but it didn't post and I can't find it anywhere!! So I am nearly a week late with my card, but thought I might as well post it.

The challenge was to make a romantic card and the sponsor is My Grafico who also gave the design team one of their digital stamp sets to work with for the challenge.
The set is called Heart Fairies and is by Stockberry Studios, and I used a few images from the set for my card.

I couldn't decide which image to use from this set, so I made a step card so I could use 3 of them :)
I haven't made one of these cards for a long time, but they are great for when you want to show off a few images and really easy and quick to make.
I kept the decoration quite simple since there are 3 images. Just used some ribbon from my stash with a little bow also from my stash that I stuck on and card candi in the centre, a Prima flower and fabric one from my stash with another card candi and some die cuts to finish it off. Die cuts are MFT and Marianne Designs and the designer paper I used is by Papermania.

The images are all coloured with Promarkers and have some stickles on their wings.
The top one I matted onto some Spellbinders scalloped circle nesties so that is sticks out on top of the card.

And a close up pic of the other two little fairies.

  And finally a side on view of the whole card.

 Sorry for all the pics but these cards are quite difficult to photograph (well for me anyway!) and to get all the elements seen properly in one pic so I had to take a few.
I will be back tomorrow with my Digital Tuesday card for tomorrows challenge (away to write up that post now and schedule it for 9am so I know that I have done it and then will check in the morning that it has actually posted!! lol).
Thank you to everyone who left me comments yesterday and gave me advice about cutters and some suggestions. Any more suggestions are welcome! :)

Thanks for stopping by and leaving such lovely comments!

Wags N Whiskers DT, a forgotten card and I need some crafty advice!

I was just intending posting my Wags N Whiskers card for this fortnights challenge which is Valentines/Love, but while I was looking for the pics, I also found I card that I made and never posted which was made for Digital Tuesday. Not sure why it was never posted on my blog, but thought I may as well post it today anyway.

So first up is my Wags N Whiskers dt card. I was getting a bit tired of making Valentines cards since all of the dt's I am on have had Valentines as a theme and I made them all over a couple of days, so I decided just to make a "love you" card for this one.

I used the WnW "He Loves Me" stamp and coloured with Promarkers. I used the rubber stamp version but if you like digi's, you can also get any of the Wags 'n Whiskers stamps in digi form too.

The papers are DCWV (I think!) and I used some paper doilies, lace and ribbon from my stash, and a pretty rose bud from Little Snippets (link in my sidebar). The sentiment is from a stamp set I got ages ago as free gift with a magazine.

 I am having trouble cutting ribbon just now as I left all my good scissors in my old house!, so I am having to use a cheap pair that are really rubbish at cutting ribbon, or anything else for that matter! and the ends of all my bows look terrible! I have ordered a pair of scissors along with my Tesco food shop so hopefully they will be a bit better and do me until I can get in town and get a decent pair!

My other card as I said is one I made for Digital Tuesday. I can't even remember what the challenge was!, but the sponsor was Spesch Stamps and I have used one of their lovely digi images on my card.

 

The papers are all scraps, I am not sure where the base one came from but the others are Dovecraft.
For the flowers, I used a SU! 5 petal punch and also a woodware punch for the smaller flowers and added a tiny pearl in the centre.
Oh and I just remembered that the challenge was "punch it out" lol, which is why I used punches for the flowers. I also used a punched border, some lace from my stash and some leaves cut with a Marianne Designs die and the flourishes which were cut with a MFT die.

 A close up of the sweet image, and that's it from me.

Actually before I sign off, I wanted to ask all you lovely crafters for some advice :)
I desperately need a new paper cutter or guillotine but have no idea which one to get! At the moment I have a horrible cheap one which I bought just to tide me over until I could afford something better after my old one broke. It is the worst cutter in the world!!! It rips some papers and when it does actually cut I have to tidy up the edges with scissors because the blade is not sharp enough to give a crisp cut (although it has always been like that since I bought it), and I can never get a straight cut with it!
To make things worse, the plastic guard thing which holds the paper in place moves around when it should stay still, so I never know what the paper will end up looking like after I cut it!! lol
So, my question is, what cutter or guillotine do you recommend??
I don't have a huge amount of money to spend on one, so it has to be a reasonable price, and I'm not bothered about it having different blades (like the ones you get with wavy cutters etc), just something that cuts straight and crisp that won't break the bank:)
Any advise would be very much appreciated.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for all your lovely comments :) I have been trying my best to get around everyones blogs, but blogger isn't cooperating and doesn't want to load up some blogs for me, but I will keep trying!

Shabby chic? Well distressed anyway :)

As promised earlier, I am back with a card that I made a few days ago for some challenges (although some of them are now finshed because I have taken so long to post it!), but as my title suggests, I'm not sure if it is shabby chic. That's the look I was going for, but I don't  make these kind of cards very often and I am never sure what to call the style it turns out to look like lol.
Anyway, here it is.

I used another of the images from LOTV, these are so handy when you don't want to spend ages colouring an image. I added some stickles on some bits of the image just to add some extra detail.

The papers are all ones I got from my dt girls and I have no idea who makes any of them, but I love the muted tones on  them and two of them are glittery :)

I distressed the edges of them all with a pair of scissors (I really need to get one of those distressing tools!) and inked them with distress ink.

The dies came out again for this card, MFT was used for the bottom flourish and the other one was with a Marianne Designs die.

The pretty pearl swirl and the butterly in the corner are both by Prima.





The pretty crotchet flowers are of course from Little Snippets, as is the pearl trimming, I added some flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts on top of the crotchet flowers for a change, and I used the crotchet flowers upside down, just because the cherry blossoms seemed to sit better on them that way.

The embroidered lace butterfly is of course from Little Snippets. I always seem to use a colour that Ger doesn't have in the shop!, but she does have white ones and spring shades listed just now and she can do any other colour you want if you just ask.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly- Die Cute

Stampin' for the Weekend- Out with the old (I have had the prima bits for ages)

Anything Goes Challenge- Anything Goes

My Mums Craft Shop- Here come the girls

The Crazy Challenge- Lace and Pearls

Thanks for stopping by and thank you for your lovely comments. I do read them all and I will try to get around all your blogs to leave you a comment :)



A winter wedding??

I can't believe we are half way through January already! Where did the month go??!!
We have started doing a mid month post over at By The Cute and Girly since we have a bigger design team now, which means a lot of projects to show in one post! So we are now posting half of our projects on the 1st of the month and  the rest on the 15th, so now there will be two eye candy posts each month from the DT :) and of course all the same fab prizes from our sponsors.

So here's what I made for our mid month post.

 The theme at BTC&G for January is New Beginnings, so I made a wedding card.......ok that is a total lie! I made a baby card, but when I went to take a pic of it yesterday, I noticed that part of the image has vanished!! I had stamped an image a few times and decoupaged it and a branch had somehow managed to fall off and I can't find  it anywhere, so will have to fix that first! lol, so I already had this card made for another dt challenge that is not due for a few weeks yet, so I decided to use this one and make something else for the other challenge.

This is not the usual kind of colours I would use for a wedding card, but I thought I would use this cute LOTV square as my image and couldn't really find any papers to go with  it, until I found these papers that I got from my lovely teamie and dt boss Ger (she is my boss at Little Snippets and I am her "boss" at by the cute and girly lol).
They are from a Me to You pad by Docrafts, Winter Wonderland, but they are not really Christmassy (is that even a word? lol), so I think they can be used for any time of the year.

 The flowers were made using a Marianne Designs die. I just cut out a few and then made a kind of rose with them. It doesn't really work the same as the roses that you make using 6 petal flowers as these only have 5 petals but they come out ok....until I squish the petals on one while taking a photo!!

I added some flourishes made using Marianne Designs and My Favorite Things dies, then some pearl trimming from Little Snippets and I also cut off 2 pearls to put in the centre of each flower.

Well that's the card done, and I will be back later with a card I made for a few challenges.

Thanks for stopping by

Wags n Whiskers- White on White

The challenge this fortnight over at Wags n Whiskers challenge is white on white with a splash of one colour.
I have never made a white on white card and I was a bit nervous about making this card, especially since I wasn't using any designer papers!!, but I really enjoyed making it and I quite like the way it turned out, so I think I will have to make some more :)

 I only own a few embossing folders and never really use them, but I got two news ones for Christmas so this card was the perfect excuse to use one of them :)
I used the Cuttlebug swirl folder (not sure what it's proper name is) and the other one that my image is on is the one I got for Christmas. I had never seen this make before but Barry got it for me in a little craft shop in Stonehaven (after asking what I would like and me saying to get me a new die! lol. He didn't know the difference and bought me 2 embossing folders instead! typical man!!! lol), but they are really pretty. The one I have used is the swirl frame by Bringing Crafts-Too you, and then I stamped, coloured (with Promarkers of course) and cut out my WnW's image to stick in the frame.
I was going to stamp her in the frame straight onto the card, but she was a little too big so I had to cut her out and stick her on instead.

This little cutie is Wee Ones- Happy Day which is available to buy at Bunny Zoe's or if you are in the US or Canada, you can get her at Stamp and Create. I used the rubber stamp, but you can also get her and all of the other Wags N Whiskers stamps in digi form.
Oh and I just noticed that this little cutie is on sale at Bunny Zoe's right now with a huge 25% off!!! :)

I used some paper flowers from my stash, a pearl brad and some flourish die cuts made with a Marianne Designs die.

The gorgeous butterflies are all from Little Snippets. Aren't they gorgeous?!!
The beaded crotchet butterflies can be found here. The ones in the listing are cream, but Ger can do them in any colour for you, just ask :)
The lace applique butterfly I cannot find in the store just now, but there is all sorts of other butterflies and Ger has sooo many different patterns that it would be impossible to list them all, so if you really want ones the same as these (because let's face it they are gorgeous!! :)) you can covo Geraldine and tell her that you would like some of the ones you saw on my card. Edited to add: The white lace applique butterflies are not back in stock and you can find them here
The beautiful white double faced satin ribbon is also from Little Snippets and you can find that here.
I added a little ready made bow with pearls on top of my big bow.

If you haven't been to check out the Little Snippets store lately, you must go have a look! Ger had listed some lush ribbons, pretty rose buds, pearl trim, hat pins (which you could embellish with any of the snippets or beads etc), raffia and of course lots of lovely embroidered and crotchet "snippets".

That's it from me today, if you got to the bottom of this post, you really deserve a medal!! lol
Thanks for stopping by :)

New Beginnings at By The Cute and Girly

Happy New Year!! The first challenge of the year is up at By The Cute and Girly and this month we have the theme "New Beginnings"- new year, new baby, new house etc.

Although this challenge theme was picked by our dt Kate a while back, it couldn't of been better timed. Apart from it being New Year, we have new beginnings over at By The Cute and Girly, with 6 new dt members joining us for their first challenge today :) If you haven't already checked out the girls blogs, you really should. They all have different styles and are all very talented :)

For the challenge this month, I decided to make a baby pram/carriage. I had a look online for some tutorials/templates, but in the end I decided to just go for it and try make it myself.
I don't have any circle dies except for scalloped circles which I used for the wheels, so I just used a jar and a cup to draw round for the circles.

 I used some Papermania paper and some plain yellow card for the whole thing. As I said I drew around a jar and a smaller plastic cup for the main part, then cut out a section, cut out a strip of card to join the two sides together, added some scalloped circle wheels cut with the smallest scalloped circle nestie, some punched out flowers for the middle and card candy. Then I added some pretty lace and cut out some flourishes with a Marianne Designs die for the handles. I had to cut out 3 layers for each handle to make it strong enough to stay up because with just the one layer they were flopping over, but it was really easy since they were cut with a die so they were all exactly the same size.
I did cut a few swirls off the die cuts as they didn't look right with the full die cut, but I think they look ok now??
My youngest Daughter loved it and claimed it 5 minutes after I made it! I had to ask for it back just so I could get a pic lol.

As usual we have some prizes from our regular sponsors Simon Says Stamp with a $20 gift voucher and Joanna Sheen with a £10 voucher, so why not pop over and enter the challenge? If you win, you could buy yourself a belated Christmas pressie:)

Thanks for stopping by