Amazing Animals at Digital Tuesday

It's time for another challenge at Digital Tuesday, and this week it was Jenn's turn to choose the challenge theme and she chose "Amazing Animals".

Our sponsor this week is My Grafico who are giving away a digital stamp set of the winners choice and also 20% off an order in their store.

My Grafico also gave the design team one of their digi stamps sets to play with this week so most of the design team have used little animal images from that set on their sample cards.

The set is called "Woodland Animals" and the designer is Pixel Paper Prints. It's full of cute little animals and also some grass and toadstools/mushrooms (can't remember which lol).

I did want to use a few of the animals and do a fancy fold card, but I ran out of time, so I just used the cute little fox and made a normal card.

The papers I have used were scraps so I have no idea who makes them. The bigger flower is a Prima , orange ribbon is Bo Bunny and everything else is from my stash.

I cut down the smaller skeleton leaves as they started off as bigger strange shaped ones lol (different from the larger ones I have used at the top). They were more of a circle shape then had this huge long pointy bit and just looked stupid lol, so I cut them into little leaves :)

The image is coloured mainly Promarkers, I just used Copics for the grass as I find it easier to do grass with Copics since you can "flick" them better than you can with Promarkers.

I printed this image on some old Cannon special printer paper that I got in a mixed selection paper pack from Barry's mum's friend who is moving to a smaller house and doesn't have room for all her craft stuff, so I got some bits and bobs as she knows I lost most of my crafts stuff a while back.

I was actually surprised how well it took the colour, but the image printed a bit weird. Not sure if it was the paper, my printer or the image itself, but it came out with grey bits all around it.

Has anyone else had that problem with digis? Most of the ones I have used print out perfectly and this is the only My Grafico one I have had that hasn't as all their images are normally very clean lines (as is this one) and print fine, but I have found with ones that have thicker lines, they sometimes have grey bits all around the image.

I didn't take a close up of this pic as my camera battery went dead on me, so hope you can understand what I mean?

Anyway, while I remember, I got an email from someone yesterday asking which paper/card I like best for colouring digis with Copics/Promarkers and to be honest, I couldn't really choose a fave because I like a few, so I said that I would do a write up on my blog of which papers I have tried so far and what I like or dislike about them.

This is just my personal opinion of course, but if it helps even one person, then I am glad to share what I have learned :)

Since this post is quite long, I will do the post tomorrow, so remember to check back for that if you are interested.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for all the lovely comments and emails :)

Digital Tuesday- Tag It

The new challenge is up at Digital Tuesday and this week the theme is "Tag It!"- make a tag card or use a tag on your card/creation and of course use a digital image or other digital element.

Our sponsor this week is the fab Spesch Stamps and Tracey as always offered the dt an image to play with, so of course I had to use one because I love the images at Spesch Stamps.

I was going to make a tag, but because I was using an image, I would of had to make the tag quite big and I don't really have any use for large tags (I've got it into my head that I should make things that I will actually use lol), so I went with a card.

This is actually the second card I made with the same image as I finished my other one last week sometime and forgot to take a pic and now I can't find the card! So last night I had to rustle up another card for the challenge. When I find the other one, I will show it as it's totally different to this one even though I used the same image.

 Can you believe I actually picked a boy image??!! lol, there is sooo much pretty girlies, but I wanted to do something a bit grungy and this image fitted perfectly.

The papers I have used are old Basic Grey ones that I have had for ages and I lightly sanded the edges and then inked them with antique linen distress ink and done the same with the red card I used to mat all the layers on. It doesn't really show up in this pic but it shows a bit more in real life.

The  music paper is from an old (and I mean old!! lol) sheet music book which I picked up the last time I was in Stonehaven a few weeks back. 

Barry is really good at spotting stuff I can use for cards and he spotted this pile of old music books in a charity shop (we went looking specifically for things like this.....well you can't find old stuff like this anywhere else can you? lol). There was loads of books but I only got 4 and was only £1 for the lot! If  had known they were so cheap, I would of bought the lot lol. Although I would never use that many, but I could of shared with crafty friends :)

Anyway, I sanded the music paper very lightly but wasn't getting the effect I wanted, so I just scrunched it up, inked it with the distress ink and hoped for the best lol.

For the tag part (which I almost forgot about so it was kinda an afterthought), I cut a luggage tag out on my Cricut (Fabulous Finds), inked the edges and used some tag string that came with Christmas tags (which I inked as it was really white) then stamped a sentiment (sorry can't remember which set I used) and stuck it on. I was going to stamp straight onto the tag but I used textured card and thought it might not stamp well, so went for the safe option.

Oh and the cute buttons were from my bloggy friend Ger (thanks again hun xxx)

 The image is coloured with Copics. I have ran out of my normal skin colours in both Copics and Promarkers, so I had to improvise and he looks he's had a bit too much sun!! lol

I used E11 and E50 which doesn't blend so well together lol, but it's the only skin like colours I have just now so it will have to do. I also added a bit of R20 for his cheeks.

I was thinking that I should start keeping a list like I used to of which Copics/Promarkers I have used for each image as I have had a few emails asking me for a list of colours, so if anyone would like me to start listing which markers I used, let me know and I will try to remember to keep a list..........although you should all know by now that my memory is not the best lol.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for all the lovely comments you leave :)

Cute as a Button

I have a sick little girl at home today.  I think she may have tonsillitis :( Her throat is really sore, she's finding it hard to swallow and her body is aching. Poor baby, she's only 7 and I know how sore tonsillitis is because I used to always get it as a kid. On top of that, she has a sore tummy and feels sick, so no school for her today. She's just laying on the sofa just now having a nap, so I thought I would pop on here and get my dt post done for By The Cute and Girly.

The challenge theme this month is "Cute as a Button" and as always you can enter with any craft.

 Sorry about the pants pics again, I really need to get a day lamp for taking pics as it's so dull here lately.
I used a freebie image from Saturated Canary that Krista gave away on her facebook page a few weeks back. I love Krista's images and they are so much fun to colour.
I coloured the little cutie with Copics and went with bright fun colours for a change.
The papers I have used are Hot Off The Press and I think First Edition, but I could be totally wrong about that as I got the pink one from a friend.
The ribbon was in my stash and I have no idea where it came from, think it might of been in a pack of cheap embellies I bought ages ago. It was yellow and didn't really go with my image, so I coloured it with a Copic to match my image.
I have no idea who makes the flower I used today as I bought them from a blogging friend a while back. These flowers tend to sit a bit funny sometimes, so I stuck some of it in behind the image and stuck a button on top.
Flourish was cut with a MFT die, buttons from my stash and the bakers twine is by American Crafts.

 I love this cute image and had fun colouring her, but I am looking for new colouring card/paper again as I bought x-press blending card the last time and although I do like how it blends, after a few layers of ink, the ink starts to sit on top of the paper and goes all shiny and weird. It's such a shame because I would love this paper if it took more ink.

Oh well, time to do some more paper testing lol. I think my fave so far is Neenah, although it does sometimes bleed a bit.

I've heard that Gina K's paper is good, but I can't get that here and also Cryogen white from the Paper Temptress is supposed to be great, but I have never been able to get my hands on some of that either......why is shipping costs to the UK soooo expensive!!??

Any paper/card suggestions, please let me know. Finding a good paper for markers surely can't be this hard?? lol

Thanks for stopping by.

Hope you will go check out the challenge:)

Digital Tuesday- Butterflies

The challenge over at Digital Tuesday this week is "Butterflies"- nice and easy one huh?
We have a new sponsor this week, Caroline's Creative Stamps who is offering £10 to spend in her store to our winner. Caroline does digi stuff and also rubber stamps and she gave the design team her butterfly duet digikit to use this week. The kit is all pre coloured (great for a quick card when you don't have time to colour an image) and has some pretty plain and patterned butterflies, borders, frames and papers in 6 different colour combos, so there's a lot to choose from in this set.
I was having a look at her rubber stamps and she has some lovely butterfly stamps that have text on them which I love. Think my wish list has just been added to.....again!! lol

So since we had the digi kit to use and I like to support our sponsors, I used a butterfly from the set instead of doing my normal thing and colouring up an image, so this is a little different for me.
I would of liked to print out more of the elements, but I was running low on ink, so I just worked with one of the butterflies from the set.

 Sorry about the rubbish pic! It's so dull here this morning and I just couldn't get any decent pics.
I printed out the same butterfly twice but in different sizes on glossy paper, then used some stardust stickles around the edges and once they were dry, I shaped them a bit and stuck them on with some silicone glue to keep the shape....man I forgot how much that stuff stinks!! lol I'm sure I have some pinflair glue somewhere which is the same as silicone but doesn't smell like it, but I couldn't find it anywhere.
The butterflies printed out really well on the glossy paper and look so pretty in real life.
I will have to print out another one though and swap it for the bottom butterfly as I scratched it with my nail when I was sticking it on! That's the downside of working with glossy paper when you have long nails!! lol
The papers I have used are by Stampin Up which I have had forever.
I used some stickles around the edge of the image mat, stuck on a pretty butterfly and metal corner which I got from my fab blogging friend and dt buddy Ger (thank you hunnie xx) and some ribbon from my stash.

 You can kinda see the that I have used glossy paper in this pic. It's just a pity that I couldn't get some decent pics because they look so much better in real life and I was actually surprised how well they printed!

 Just a pity I messed one of them up with my nail. Why does things like that happen to me just when I am about finished the card? It never happens when I have just started making it, always when I am almost done! lol
Isn't that metal butterfly beautiful? I just knew as soon as I got it that I had to use it for this challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping  by today and I hope you will check out this weeks challenge and also check out Caroline's  blog where she sells her digi stuff and rubber.

Digital Tuesday- Anything Goes

I can't believe it's Tuesday again, where did last week go??!! My kids are off school today for the Queen's Jubilee so I will have no crafty time today! lol There is something on at the town square at lunchtime today so we are going to head down there later. As far as I know, there will be a BBQ, live music and some fun for the kids, so hopefully the kids have a good time and tire themselves out a bit! 

I have my dt card to show for Digital Tuesday today and I also thought I would show some bits that I made for my girls for their Jubilee street party at school yesterday to go with their outfits. I'm not sure how they managed to have a "street party" inside the school lol, but apparently it was fun.

So first up is my Digital Tuesday card. It's anything goes this week, so no theme but our sponsor this week is Digital Delights who gave the design team a choice of 2 images to use for the challenge, so I used their Honey Pot Larry image.

 I coloured Larry with a mix of Copics and Promarkers. I had finished the whole image except the top of his honey pot and then the ink started to go all funny and sit on top of the paper and wouldn't blend! It's only a little bit on the lid but it really bothered me and I would of started over again if I had only done a little bit of it, but since I was done the whole image, I just left it.

The papers are by Papermania and Nitwits and the cute little bee is also Nitwits. It came with the heart/flower paper which was free with a magazine ages ago and I spotted him while I was looking for something else and thought he would go well with the card.

The lacy tulle stuff was some that I got from one of Barry's Mum's friends who is moving to a smaller house and couldn't take all her craft stuff with her, so she gave some to me :) A lot of it was decoupage and card blanks (but not in the size I use) but there was also a pile of ribbon :) Most of it is really thin stuff, but I found this in with it and thought it went quite well with the yellows in this card.

Ok so the card is done and I did say that I would show some bits that I made for my 2 girls.

The girls had to get dressed up yesterday and wear something red, white and blue if they could, but I bought Rhianna a dress a while back for the occasion and couldn't see anything for Chiara at the time and then I forgot about it, so the poor kid had nothing in red, white and blue to wear! So she decided that she would wear a pretty black party dress that she already had and I asked if I could make her something for her hair in the colours, so I had to have a go!!

I have never made anything like this, so please go easy on me! LOL

I just made them on Sunday night and had to just use the bits I had in my stash because all the shops were closed. I made a bow thing and stuck it on some hairbands they already had. I would of liked to use red, white or blue bands but I had to just work with what we already had.

Excuse my hand and my keyboard in the background! lol.

I was trying to get a quick pic yesterday morning before they went off to school and when I put it down on the paper, it just looked all smushed up, so I had to hold it so I could get a proper pic lol.

 I kind of just went with the flow with these and hoped that they would turn out ok because I didn't have a lot of time lol. I thought they had turned out too big to put on a hairband but they actually looked really pretty on and everyone was asking the girls where they got them from :)

I also made a little rosette flower thing and stuck it on a bangle.

I only took a pic of Rhianna's one, but Chiara's was on a plain red bangle.

The red and white ribbons frayed like mad! and if I done this kind of thing again, I wouldn't use satin ribbon, but I had to just work with what I had and it kinda give it a shabby feel lol.

The girls were please anyway, so that's all that matters to me :)

Well I think that's enough from me for one day! 

If anybody is interested in how to make these, let me know and I will gladly give instructions, but they are both super easy to make.

Thanks for stopping by

Easel Card with box

The new challenge is up at By The Cute and Girly and our theme this month is "Cute As A Button".

Now I don't need any excuse to make a cute card, but I don't often use buttons and after looking through my stash, I only found a handful! Think I'd better stock up on buttons!!

This month instead of making another card, I wanted to do something different but had no idea what.

I have seen some of these easel cards with boxes underneath before around blogland but have never made one, so thought I would give it a try. Try I did, but it didn't turn out very well!! lol 

It would of probably helped if I looked for measurements or a tutorial on the net, but I decided I would just try work it out myself...bad move!! lol

I didn't have 12x12 paper that was thick enough (only got some thin(ish) glossy card, so need to stock up on that too!), so instead of my usual 6x6" card, I made a 4x4 easel card and then the box to fit underneath.

I'm not happy with how it turned out, 1 because it's a lot smaller than what I normally make and there wasn't enough room for lots of embellies and 2 because I don't have a proper score board (only one of those little things that don't have measurement on) and can you believe that I don't own a ruler??!!! lol So I had to kind of work out the measurements using my cutter which was a problem because I have the crafters companion 5 in 1 thing (which I hate by the way!! lol) and you can't see the measurements between 7 and 8 inches.

Anyway, the bit that wraps around the drawer could of been a bit smaller, but all in all for my first attempt without a tutorial, I think it's turned out ok and I will have another try at it.

 All the papers I used are K&Co and I even decorated the back but I didn't take a pic lol.

The image is a digi from Di's Digi Downloads who is one of our sponsors this month and I coloured it with Copics.

The scalloped square was cut with a Nellie Snellen die and the top leaf with a Marianne die. Buttons and pearl hearts from my stash. Crotchet flower and embroidered leaf are from Little Snippets etsy store (unfortunately Ger is no longer selling her embroidered bits no more) and the top flower is a Prima one.

The lace is some I got a while back from my teamie Ger. To make it sturdy enough since it is used as the drawer handle, I stuck it to a strip of card which worked well as it meant I could shape it to stay the way I wanted without it just flopping over.

 Isn't this image cute? :) I popped it up with foam pads to give it a bit of dimension.

The BTC&G dt have done a great job again this month and have loads of inspiration for you, so why not pop over and see what the rest of the team made and join in with the challenge too.

We have prizes from our 2 regular sponsors, Simon Says Stamp and Joanna Sheen and also from our digi sponsor this month, Di's Digi Downloads.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you are having a great day!