Finally some cards!!

I finally have a card to share! Well actually I have two!! 

I have a lot going on at home just now and my heart is just not in crafting or blogging just now, which is why I haven't posted on here for ages, but I didn't want to let my design team girls down again, so I forced myself to make a few cards :)

The first is for By The Cute and Girly for our April challenge which is Vintage.

Our sponsor this month is Tea House Bridge who is giving away this lovely selection of goodies to the winner.

The lovely owner also sent me some goodies for the design team to play with, so I have used some of them on my card :)

I used a freebie image that I have had for a long long time and coloured with Copics. The papers are Prima and some old sheet music. I distressed all the edges and inked them with vintage photo distress ink.

The pom pom trim and cute flower buttons are from Tea House Bridge.

Paper flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts, crochet flower from Little Snippets (link in my sidebar) and the cute little charm I found in my stash and thought it went well with the image.

Oh the gorgeous lace which you can't see very well in the pic was a gift from one of my teamies at BTC&G and friend Ger, and the sentiment is a Pink Gem stamp.

 A close up so you can see the charm better :)

You can also see the pom pom trim and one of the buttons from our sponsor better in this pic.

My second card is for Digital Tuesday where the challenge theme is Springtime.

I've had huge problems with the post over there today and for some reason although the post was showing when I went to edit, it wouldn't show on the actual blog! I now have it fixed though and the post is up :)

Our sponsor this week over there is The Paper Nest Dolls

who are giving away a $25 gift certificate to the winner!

I used one of  their images on my card and kept it quite simple as I really wasn't in the mood for crafting last night........I still love to colour, but just can't be bothered making the card....weird!!

Hopefully I will get the crafting bug back soon!

Sorry about the rubbish pics, I had to take them quickly this morning before there was much light.

The image I have used is called Playing In The Rain. I was going to use a different image at first which was a Springtime image, but I thought this one captured what Spring has been like here this year! lol

I coloured with a mix of Copics and Promarkers- mostly Copics.

The papers are MME, ribbon from my stash, border was cut using a Cart-us die and the butterfly was done with a die that came free in a magazine!

I cut the butterfly out twice, one on orange shimmery card stock and the other on patterned paper, just to give it a bit of dimension and then I added a pearl bead body which had fallen off a store bought butterfly embellishment, so I thought I would make use of it.

I'm not sure about the colouring of the hair on this girl. I'm rubbish at hair like this- at the ends where it just trails off , but I think it looks ok?

Finally a close up of the butterfly so you can see the dimension.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I really don't deserve to have any visitors as I have been rubbish at blogging these last few months, but I do appreciate it and every comment you leave makes me smile :)

Digital Tuesday -Easter and save some pennies on a crafty shop this week!

I'm back with my dt card for Digital Tuesday where the challenge theme is Easter.

This is actually the first Easter card I have made this year (yeah I know I am way behind everyone else! lol).

Our sponsor this week is Your or Mine Paper Crafts who is offering a $10 gift certificate for her store.

For a change, this  is not a digital sponsor. She has lots of lovely goodies in her store from the likes of Spellbinders, The Greeting Farm, Hero Arts, Lawn Fawn, MME, Making Memories and loads more!

And as well as giving away a $10 gift certificate to our winner, she is also offering 20% off in store while the challenge is running! So why not pop over to the challenge blog and see all the details.

On to my card.

I used an image from The Greeting Farm and coloured it with a mix of Copics and Promarkers.

I know it's a boy image, but who ever says that your can't use a boy on a girly card?

The papers are My Minds Eye, and I cut a few bits from the elements page that comes in the pad- all the paper flowers and the border strip. I think it makes a nice change to what I normally do with embellishments, and it's super cheap too! :)

I had to use "proper" flowers too though or else I would be having withdrawal symptoms lol. All the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

I also used some pom pom trim which I got in a local craft shop months ago and a piece of lace.

I've never really been a fan of bright colours, but I must admit that I'm loving them just now. I would of never    normally bought the green rose, but it came in a mixed pack and I really like it. I think it's perfect for a Spring/Easter card. Nice and bright and cheery :) Just what I need since it's still snowing here and sooo cold!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Be sure to check out the Digital Tuesday Challenge blog and see what the rest of the design team made and of course check out the discount from Yours or Mine Paper Crafts! :)

A bit of Magnolia and La-La Land :)

I have a couple of dt cards to share today. Starting with my card for the challenge at By The Cute and Girly where the challenge this month is "Favourite Things".

I was going to use an image from Bugaboo Stamps who is one of our sponsors this month (the other sponsor is Lili of the Valley), but I ran out of paper to print on, so I had to use something I've been using up images that I had previously stamped/printed.

Bugaboo Stamps are offering one winner digital images (winners choice) and Lili Of The Valley are offering a £10 gift certificate.

I didn't have much of a choice of pre stamped or printed images, so I chose this Tilda and coloured her up with Copics. Not sure what occasion this card would be for though lol.

I couldn't decide on one or two favourite things to use, so I used loads! haha

So my favourites are, lace, flowers, pearls, and of course my favourite things is Copics :)

The checked paper is from a little craft shop that prints their own papers, the music paper is from an old sheet music book and the crown one I think is Raspberry Road.

I can't remember where I got the gorgeous lace from, but I love it:) Flowers are all from Wild Orchid Crafts and I attacked them all with stickles lol, pearl heart thing is from Hobbycraft, pink trim I got in a pack from Poundland! and the pretty crochet flower is from Little Snippets Etsy store.

A close up of the lovely crochet flowers from Geraldine at Little Snippets, just because I love em :)

I added a button and threaded through a scrap of lace.

My other card is for Digital Tuesday where the challenge this week is "Frame It", and I really didn't want to post it because I hate my colouring on this card (which is why I am posting it today instead of Tuesday when I should of posted it!)

I used Copics and the dark brown colours went all waxy and streaky :( and I didn't have time to start over again, or another image to colour anyway. The rest of the image is ok, but the hair is horrible! Just skip over her head! lol

I do love this image though :) It's from La-La Lan Crafts. I cut her out and stuck her onto a frame digi image which is from our sponsor this week- My Grafico. It's from the Delicate Frames digital stamp set by Lil Ellaboudy Design I'm just glad that I printed the frame out before I ran out of paper! I wanted to add little pearls to the dots on the frame, but I couldn't find any. I know I have but they have vanished....probably some little hands have taken them....aka my Daughter!! lol

So I added some stickles instead.

The papers are by Prima, flowers which again are stickled are from Wild Orchid Crafts, the pretty butterfly I got from The Works and I used a little piece of stringed pearls beside the flowers. They pearls were white but I wanted them blue, so I just coloured them with one of the Copics that I used to colour the image so it would match perfectly.....don't ya just love markers :)

Oh forgot to say that the prize this week is any digital set from My Grafico (no price limitation,  so the set the winner chooses could be worth up to $20!).

Thanks so much for stopping by and for any comments that you leave.

I have been rubbish at blogging lately, but I will be on a mission this weekend to visit everyone who has left me comments :)

Lora x 

Digital Tuesday Blog Hop

Welcome to the Digital Tuesday 200th challenge blog hop!!

We are having a blog hop to celebrate alongside our normal challenge, which is "Buttons or Bling"with the added option of making an anniversary card/gift, and we have prizes on the dt blogs as well as a prize for the challenge from our sponsor this week which is Robyn's Fetish who is giving away 5 digital images to one lucky winner.

For a chance to win a prize on the dt blogs all you have to do is comment on each dt blog, then leave a comment on the Digital Tuesday Challenge blog to let us know you have completed the hop. Your name will then be put into the draw and winners will be announced on the challenge blog next Tuesday along with the new challenge.

You can also enter this weeks challenge for a chance to win the Robyn's Fetish prize and if you combine the buttons or bling theme along with something for an anniversary, you will be given an extra entry into the challenge prize draw.

The hop starts at Amy's blog, so you will want to start there.

I didn't have time to make a card for this weeks challenge, but I made one last week just for fun which I forgot to blog, and it had buttons and bling, so it came in handy for this weeks challenge post :)

I like to use our sponsors images as much as possible, but as I already had this card made, I couldn't this week.

The image I used is from La-La Land Crafts and I coloured with Copics and added loads of stickles, then stuck her onto a die cut frame which was done with a Nellie Snellen die.

The papers are Prima, flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts, flourishes were done with a Marianne die, the funky lacey ribbon stuff was a gift from a friend and the buttons and ribbon which has sequins, beads and glittery bits on it were from my stash.

A close up of the image (sorry it's a bit blurry, my camera is really playing up, think it's time to buy a new one.....again!!). I love these images, they are so much fun to colour.

I took a funny angled pic so you can see the sparkle on the image, and you can just see some of the beads and sequins on the ribbon peeking through :)

I haven't really had a chance to shop for a prize yet as we just decided to do this hop last week and I was rushing about doing wedding stuff, so I decided my prize would be a mystery prize (it's just as much a mystery to me as it is to you as I have no idea what it will be yet! lol).

So whoever wins my prize will get a surprise package! 

I can tell you that it won't come in a box like this and is not likely to fill a box that size either lol.

Just leave a comment on this post for a chance to win my prize.

You must have commented on every dt blog on the hop for a chance to win our prizes.

No need to follow my blog (unless you want to of course), or any other silly rules, just comment on the dt blogs and we will chose winners at random next Tuesday.

All winners will be announced on the challenge blog, although some of the design team may also post their winners details on their own blogs too.

I'm the last dt stop on the list, now you just have to hop over to the Digital Tuesday challenge blog and leave a comment to let us know you have finished the hop :)

Here's a list of the hop order in case you loose your way

Amy

Anneke

Jenn

Maya

Naomi

Natascha

Linda

Lora (that's me :))

Digital Tuesday Challenge Blog

Thanks for stopping by

Digital Tuesday Pink and White

This weeks challenge at Digital Tuesday is "Pink and White" and we are sponsored by Some Odd Girl.

If you are a regular visitor to my blog, you will have probably noticed that I love pink :) but I actually had a hard time finding papers that I liked that were just pink or pink and white. I did find some though and decided that I would follow the sketch over on the La-la Land Crafts facebook page and used a cute La-La land image. This is the first time I have used any of  these images, but I have had my eye on them for a while and since Irina had a 20% sale on for presidents day, I caved in and bought a couple of digis ;)

Aren't these images just the cutest? This one is called Sweet Friends Marci and I coloured her with Copics and a couple of Promarkers.

The papers are a mix from different companies, the scalloped circle is from a Forever Friends pad, rose one is by Wild Rose Studio and the spotty one I have no idea where that came from! lol

I used a Cart us die for the border and some pretty lace that I got from my friend Geraldine (thank you!). The sketch had some ornate corners and I don't have a corner die, so I improvised. I used a Marianne Designs frame die then just cut off the corners and used them :) The flowers are all from Wild Orchid crafts and the pretty butterfly I got from The Works.

I went a bit mad with the stickles on this one lol. I glittered the flowers, the corner and border die cuts and also around the edge of the papers, except the for the spotty strip. I actually didn't use any glitter on the image though, so I didn't do too bad lol.

Isn't this just adorable? 

Wish I had a bit more time to work on colouring up the image, but I was in a bit of a rush. I would of added a bit more shading to her skirt and boots but it looks ok as it is :)

Finally a close up of the pretty butterfly. Just because I love them and they were cheap lol. I got them from The Works which is a shop that I rarely go into since we don't have one near me, but I was in Aberdeen last week and popped in :) They had these and lots of other embellies and ribbons etc and at only £1 a pack and  they are doing a 3 for 2 deal, so I got 3 different packs for £2!!  I didn't really look at these properly, just chucked them in my basket along with some ribbon and heart embellies, but I wish I had got more because they are so pretty and you only get 4 in a pack. Think I will have to pop a pile in my basket next time I'm there :) 

Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope you can join in with the challenge this week for a chance to win some digis from Some Odd Girl

By The Cute & Girly midway card

We are more than half way through February already! Where did it go? This month has just crept up on my and I just realised that it's Liam's (my sons) 15th birthday on Friday! Haven't got him any pressies yet, so better get my bum in gear and go shopping for boy stuff. I hate shopping for Liam because he never tells me what he would like, but suppose someones got to do it lol.

So the mid month post at By The Cute & Girly has just been posted and I have a card to show that I made for this months "Roses Are Red" challenge.

It doesn't have to be Valentine related since Valentines day is now past (hope you all got spoiled!!), you can just use the colour red or some roses, or however else you would like to interpret the theme.

I decided to go with the colour red and roses :)

I used an old CC Designs image that I have had for a few years and coloured her with mostly Promarkers and a couple of Copics, then cut her out with a Marianne Designs die.

The die cut off some of her hair at the top and I really couldn't be bothered colouring up another image, so I just placed the tiny die cut bits back it and stuck them down so all her hair is there now lol.

The papers are some Forever Friends ones that came with a magazine and I just happened to get the magazine on the day I made this card, so as the papers were the right colours, that's what I used :)

I used my Martha Stewart heart punch and some white ric rac for the border and used a couple of the hearts left over from the border on the image.

All the flowers are from Wild Orchid crafts and I gliitered them for a bit of sparkle, and the flourishes and leaf die cuts were also done with Marianne dies.

You can see in this pic that I have "paper pieced" the hair back together lol. It looks really obvious here as I took a real close up pic, but you don't actually really notice it in real life.

To be honest the card will just sit in a box somewhere anyway like most of my cards do, so nobody will actually receive it.

Is it just me who has hundreds of cards in boxes that will never be used, or is anyone else the same?

What do you do with all the cards that you make (except for ones you have made specifically to give to someone). Do you sell them? I can't get any of the shops here to sell my cards :( Although the gift shop owner here does love my cards, but she has said no to selling other peoples cards, so it wouldn't be fair to them if she sold mine........I understand that, but it is annoying that I know she likes my cards but won't sell them incase it hurts someone else's feelings. Oh well, just means more cards to sit gathering dust lol.

Oh before I forget, our sponsor this month is Template Dreams who is offering $5 for the winner to spend on digi products from her selections of digi kits and papers etc.

She has some really pretty ones and they are all very reasonable priced :)

Right, I'm off to finish up another card and then get started on my dt card for next weeks Digital Tuesday challenge.

Thanks for stopping by and the lovely comments you leave.

Up, Up and Away

The challenge over at Digital Tuesday this week is Up, Up and Away, hence my title today :)

Our sponsor is Bugaboo Stamps who always generously offer the design team an image each to play with, so I took them up on their offer and made a card with one of their digis.

 The image I used today is from the Kidz line and is called Girl Balloon, and you can find her here.

I coloured her with a mix of Copics and Promarkers. As I have said many times, I do prefer Copics, but I'm not too keen on most of the pinks as most of them are very bright, so I normally use Promarkers when I'm coloiring pink as they have a softer look to them.

I also added some stickles to bits on her hat and also to the highlights on the balloon.

 I think these Kidz images are quite cute :) Only problem I have is that the lines are quite thick on these images and they tend to bleed a bit when using light colours like the skin. Although that's probably just my printer. I never have problems with printer running normally, only when the image has thick dark lines, and I have tried heat setting, leaving for a few days, using cheap hairspray and all the other tricks I can think of, but it doesn't make any difference, so I just make sure to be extra careful when colouring the light bits.

However, even after being careful colouring this image and not really having bleeding, I later noticed (once the whole card was finished!) that there is a blue pencil or pen mark on the image which was defo not there when I was colouring it! I think I must of sat the card on top of one of the kids colouring pencils while I was getting my camera! I was too scared to try rub it off incase it smeared all over the image, so I just left it lol.

You can see it in the above pic if you look closely (under the balloon string).

The papers I used are ones that I got from my friend Ger (thank you hunnie, you spoil me!! :)) and I've went and put the pad away and forgot to take a note of who makes it. It might be MME but I'm not sure.

I used Coredinations to mat with and glittered all the edges with stardust stickles.

The lace and ribbon is from my stash (this was my last piece of ribbon, but Geraldine is sooo lovely and sent me a pile so I now have lots of new lovely ribbon to use :))

 The little bunting, was cut out with My Favorite Thing mini pennant dies in the same papers and I also glittered the edges, and the flowers were made from the same paper pad using a Cart Us flower die, and of course I glittered those too lol.

Oh I also used a Marianne die and a MFT die for the flourishes.

I'm entering this card into the challenge at Totally Papercrafts where the challenge this week is to make you own Embellishments (my flowers and bunting)

That's all from me for today. All 3 of my kids have been away since Friday afternoon so I have had nothing to do since then and have been soooo bored! but today we are going into town (Barry and I) to meet Liam and go kilt shopping (well looking in kilt shops for kilts that we can hire for Barry's sisters wedding which is at the beginning of March), and maybe see if I can find some shoes to go with my new dress. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I very rarely wear dresses (I sometimes wear skirts in the Summer but not very often and I only have a few) but of course I needed to buy one for the wedding and I really liked it until I tried it on, but now I'm not so sure lol, maybe I will like it more when I find the perfect pair of shoes :/ At least it's an excuse to buy new shoes right? lol

 Then we will get the bus home with Liam (I hate not having a car now!!) and pick up the girls from their Nana's in Stonehaven on the way.

So lots to do today and my piece will be shattered by tea time lol, but I've missed them all so much and am glad they are coming home today :)

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Please leave a comment if you have the time and I will come visit you back :)

Oh and don't forget to check out the challenge and the other dt memebrs blogs. They have all done a fab job again this week! :)

Digital Tuesday- Hearts

  I think I'm finally getting back into the swing of things and blogging :) 3 posts over the last few days......that's a miracle!! lol
I'm enjoying cardmaking and blogging again, so think it's maybe time to look for another dt position to keep me occupied....... Of course I have Digital Tuesday and By The Cute and Girly, but I have weekdays to myself with the kids all being at school and I miss being on other design teams.

Anyway, I have a dt card to show for Digital Tuesday Challenge, where the theme this week is "Hearts" and our sponsor is Sans Design, 

who is giving away 5 digis of the winners choice and is also offering a runners up prize of 2 digis if we reach over 50 entries (which I'm sure we will :))

The pretty image is by Sans Design and is called Valentines. I coloured her with a mix of Copics and Promarkers as usual. Wish I had added some glitter to the heart now, but never mind.
The papers are from the same pad, but I can't remember which one! I've had them for a long time and don't have the pad cover anymore so no idea who makes them.....sorry.

I kept this card quite simple and just added some flowers. All the roses are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the paper ones underneath the little roses are made with a selection of Tonic Studio petal pairs punches.
I got 4 of these punches the other day as a subscription gift from a magazine, but I was really dissapointed, because the gift was supposed to be some Promarkers (which I got a few weeks back) and some American Crafts border punches, but they must of ran out of the border punches and sent me these Tonic flower ones instead.

I've seen these petal pairs punches everywhere lately and have never been tempted to buy them. They are a bit small for my liking and although you can mix and match them all to make different flowers, they just don't appeal to me. Maybe they will grow on me, but after using them yesterday, they got put back in their boxes and chucked in my craft box.....probably to stay there and collect dust!
I should maybe sell them and buy some new ones that I will use more often :)

 Thanks so much for stopping by and hope some of you can join in with the challenge at Digital Tuesday.  

A card just for fun

I've really got back into cardmaking these past few days and have quite a few cards to show, so thought I would pop on and share one that I made just for fun :)

I also found a few challenges that I can enter with this card, so that was a bonus :)

I coloured up a digi image from Deviant Art by Sureya which I have had for ages and never got round to colouring. I love her images! Most of them have lovely long hair to colour which is my favourite thing to colour, so I really enjoyed colouring this one.

She is coloured with mostly Copics and a few Promarkers.

The spotty paper is by Template Dreams which I had printed out for my dt card at By The Cute and Girly where they are sponsoring this week, but although it is a purple colour on the screen, it printed out brown and was no use for my dt card, so I kept it and used it on this one.
The other paper is from an old paper pad, but I have no idea who makes it....sorry.

The roses are made with a cart us die. I cut some with the left overs of the spotty paper and the others with some coredinations and added stickles to them all.
I also added a few pink gems around the flowers and on 2 corners of the image.

I really need more practice doing hair, but it was fun to colour and took me ages! I need some more hair colours though as I only have a few and most are Promarkers. I like doing hair with Copics better as I can get a better "flicking" motion going on with Copics, but I had to make do with what I have :)

 Sorry this pic is really blurry, but wanted to show the flowers a bit better. I love this flower die and it was under £3!! There is so much different flowers you can make with this die, but I do like these ones best.

I am entering my card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp- Anything Goes

One Stop Craft- Anything Goes

Die Cut Divas- Anything Goes with a die cut (my flowers are die cuts)

Through The Craft Room Door- Anything Goes

Crafts and Me- Fave embellishments (flowers)

Moving Along With The Times- punches/dies

Thanks so much for stopping by

A couple of DT cards

I have a few cards to share today, one which I should of blogged on Tuesday (oops!).

The first one is my dt card for By The Cute and Girly where the challenge this month is "Roses are Red".

Our sponsor is Template Dreams and I have used some of their digi papers on my card.

Template Dreams also have a Facebook page is any of you are interested. You can find it here. She sometimes posts freebies too :)

Sorry about the blurry pic, I had to take it at night.

The flowery paper is by Graphic 45 (I think) and the other 2 are from Template Dreams Distressed Elegance kit. The redish one printed out much darker than it looks on screen. I used this one on a digi layout and it looks a totally different colour, but I think it's because I printed when one of my ink colours were running out, so it came out a browny red colour. It actually looks purple in the kit, but it worked for my card this way :)

Oh and it also has an embossed look heart pattern on it but you can't see it here because my pic is rubbish!

The image is an old digi from Some Odd Girl and I coloured her with a mix of Promarkers and Copics.

I used my Martha Stewart heart punch for the border and some ribbon from my stash and the flowers are made with a Cart Us die. 

I also done some stitching by hand which is why it looks wonky! lol

My other card is for this weeks Digital Tuesday Challenge where the challenge is "Winter Wonderland".

My Grafico is our sponsor and they are offering a prize of any set in their store. There is no price limitation on the set the winner chooses, so you could choose a $20 set! :)

Sorry again about the rubbish blurry pic!

I used a penguin from Paper Pixel Prints Penguin digi stamp set at My Grafico, and coloured it with Copics and Promarkers (Promarkers for the black/grey as I don't have any grey copics yet). I also added some stickles on her tummy and on her earmuffs :)

The papers are a random mix from my scrap box. I'm trying to save money and use up all my scraps lol.

The snowflakes were cut with a Marianne die and the flower with the same die as I used for the flowers in my card above (I rolled the flowers on my other card and just kinda twisted this ones a bit to give it a different look). Oh and the border was done with a Cart Us die. These are super cheap and do the same job as any other die :) I was under £3 for the border one and only £3 something for the flower! Got to love a bargain!! :)

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have time to join in with the challenges.

The winter wonderland challenge at Digital Tuesday runs until Monday evening and the Roses are Red at By The Cute and Girly runs until the last day of the month, so plenty of time to join in with that one :)

Digital Tuesday dt layout

I haven't blogged on here since the beginning of December!! It really doesn't seem that long because I have done posts over on my challenge blogs.
Anyway speaking of challenge blogs, I have a layout to show which I made for this weeks challenge at Digital Tuesday where the challenge is to use your favourite colour combo.
I ordered printer ink last week but I'm still waiting for it to come! and I had intended on printing out some digi papers from our sponsor Template Dreams, but as I had no ink, I had to do a digi layout.
I was going to use My Memories software but for some reason it wouln't work, so I used a free graphics program that I have had for ages but had no idea how to use! So I kept it really simple and didn't do lots of layers (because I had no idea how to! lol).
I couldn't decide on what was my fave colour combo, but I'm really liking rich colours just now and I spotted a scrapbook kit from Template Dreams that I liked, so that's what I used :)

 

The photo is my oldest Daughter (who is now 9) when she was about 5 :)

Everything else is from the Distressed Elegance Bundle at Template Dreams.

I love that you get so many different papers and other elements in this kit. Just a pity that I didn't do the lovely designs justice! lol. I will however be playing with this kit again once I get some ink as it could also be used for cardmaking :)

Look how innocent Rhianna looks......it did only last until I took the photo though and then she was back to her cheeky self! lol.

Well that's it from me today, but I will be back tomorrow or Thursday with some cards as I have so may to show now that I have a camera again :) I have been doing a lot of crafting but just haven't been able to show anything here as I didn't have a camera, so I have lots of pics to take over the next few days.

Thanks for stopping by