Tuesday 19 February 2013

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


Saturday 16 February 2013

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.


Tuesday 12 February 2013

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! :)





Tuesday 5 February 2013

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.  



Sunday 3 February 2013

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)
Crafts and Me- Fave embellishments (flowers)
Thanks so much for stopping by


Friday 1 February 2013

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 :)