Digital Tuesday- Use Your Scraps

It's time for another Digital Tuesday Challenge and this week it was my turn to choose the challenge.
Since I lost a lot of my craft stuff a few months back, I have been trying to use up my scraps, so that I can make the papers I have last a bit  longer lol, so I chose "use your scraps" as the challenge this week.
I have loads of scraps off of 12x12 papers and some of them are big enough to cover a whole 6x6 card, but they always get forgotten about, so for this card I had a good rummage about in my scrap box and was surprised at the amount of usable scraps that I actually have! (I know that every little scrap is usable in some way, like using them to punch out shapes etc, but I mean usable as in they are big enough to make card layers with).

Our sponsor this week is Spesch Stamps who very kindly let the design team chose an image each to work with again. I love the weeks that Tracey sponsors because she is always so generous and lets the design team chose an image and her images are fab! :)
This time I chose Lidia and I actually coloured her up twice because I enjoyed colouring her so much:) I have another card almost completed with her, so I will post that one another day, but for now, here's the one I did for Digital Tuesday.

 Sorry about the poor pics, I had to take them last night because my camera needed charged during the day when I was planning on taking pics.
I went for a colour combo that I very rarely use these days, but I do love these colours. I am not sure about the striped paper, but the others are by Papermania. I wasn't sure about the darker one, but I matted the layers with dark purple paper (although it doesn't look purple in this pics!), so I think it works ok.

I coloured the cute image with Promarkers as ususal, used some flowers, lace, ribbon and a little butterfly from my stash and the pretty embroidered leaves are from Little Snippets Etsy Store, but unfortunately Geraldine has decided to stop selling her embroidered embellies :( It is a lot of work for her as they are all done of material which she has to then cut around and she feels it's not worth the effort anymore. It's such a shame because all of her "snippets" are gorgeous and add something special to your cards and other projects and they look even better in real life than they do in the pics. I know if you were to buy some, you would go back for more, because they are so pretty.
The shop is closed just now, but Ger is still planning on selling her crotchet bits and also hat pins and ribbons etc, so there will still be some lovely items there :)
I am just lucky to have been on her design team and still have a little stash of embroidered snippets that I can use up :)

Well that's it from me for today. I will be back tomorrow with my mid month dt post for By The Cute and Girly, where the theme this month is Love Is In The Air. The girls already posted some fab inspiration on  the challenge blog at the start of the month when the challenge began, but we have started doing an extra post in the middle of the month to show you some more projects made by the design team, so you have plenty inspiration.
There is some fab prizes up for grabs and you can enter as many times as you like as long as it is a different kind of item each time, like a card, a scrap layout, an altered item, a tag etc. So lots of chances to win and we have 3 sponsors, so that means 3 fab prizes up for grabs again this month, from Simon Says Stamp, Joanna Sheen and Bugaboo Stamps.
I know that by tomorrow Valentines day will be past, but you don't have to make a Valentines card/gift, it could be a card just to say I love you :) It doesn't need to be valentines day to tell someone you love them, right??
We all love our family, so how about a scrap page of the family? I'm sure you crafty peeps can think of lots more ideas too :)

Thanks for stopping by today and thank you for the lovely comments you have been leaving, I do read them all and it makes me really happy to know that people have taken the time to leave me a comment even when I am being a bad blogger and not doing regular posts:)
Happy Valentines Day!! Hope you all got something lovely and are being spoiled by your other half today :)

A bit of sugar...nellie

Today I decided that I was going to go through my rubber stamps and use some that I haven't used in a long time, mainly because I don't have any new stamps lol, but also because....what's the point in buying stamps if you are only going to use them once or twice?? So I inked up some old Sugar Nellie stamps and made a few cards.

First of all I made one following the sketch at the Sugar Bowl, but I forgot that the extra option was to paper piece, and I really wanted to do the extra option (I don't know why, but even though the challenges say that you don't have to do the extra option, I always have to....I just think if someones took the time to think up the extra challenge, then why not do it :)), so I made a second card and paper pieced the image lol.

I flipped the sketch so that my image would fit better. Used Hot Off The Press papers that I got free with a magazine, and used the same papers to paper piece the image and made the flowers. I coloured the skin and hair of the image with Promarkers and everything else is paper pieced, even the tiny bow on the dolls hair, the dolls shoes,  the little bits of her belt and the pocket and patch on her trousers......think I got a bit carried away!! lol I also used promarkers to darker some bits of the paper piecing.
The flowers were made by cutting out 3 rough circles, scrunching them all up, layering and then I made a rolled flower to go in the middle. Then I took a small piece of wire and twisted it, then to finish, I added a tiny sead bead on the end of the wire.
The butterfly is from Little Snippets Etsy store.

 I am entering the above card into the Sugar Bowl challenge, but thought I would show the first one I made as well.

 I followed the sketch as it is for this one. Used some scraps of paper and some flowers from my stash and a little dragonfly and butterfly from Little Snippets. Unfortunately Geraldine has decided to stop selling the embroidered embellies in her etsy store, but she will still be selling  her crotchet items and some other bits and bobs too.

As usual, I coloured the image with Promarkers.

I have another card to show that I made for Sketch and Stash, but I will show that tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by

Love Is In The Air

This months challenge theme over at By The Cute and Girly is "Love Is In The Air" and we have some wonderful sponsors as always :) As well as Simon Says Stamp and Joanna Sheen who sponsor us every month, we also have Bugaboo Stamps who very kindly gave the design team an image each to use for the challenge.
I made 2 cards for the first post this month and have made something else for our mid month post which will post on the challenge blog on the 15th, so today I am showing the 2 cards I made.

 First up is the one I made with a Bugaboo image. Sorry about the rubbish pic, for some reason my camera just doesn't like taking pics of anything orange or red and it always goes a bit blurry. It's probably just the photographer, not the camera but blaming my camera instead of me taking the blame sounds good lol.
I used a Valentines Critter and sentiment that comes with this image.
The papers are a bit of a mix and I have no idea who makes them, all I know is the the stripy one is the reverse of the one with the hearts.
I used some flowers from my stash (Prima's and some satin ones), some satin ribbon from Little Snippets and just cut the sentiment into a heart shape, freehand because I don't have a heart die or punch and inked the edges.

And here is my second card that I made for the challenge.

 I used Hanglar images for this one and some DCWV papers. I had already coloured and cut out the little girl, and then decided that I wanted something for her to sit on, so I just cut out the other image and stuck her on top with foam pads instead of masking and stamping like I normally would.
I used a heart doily and got a bit carried away with colouring bits of it! I thought it might look nice if I went around the edges with a Promarker in the same colour as I used for my image, and got a bit carried away and coloured around some other bits too lol.
I used some Prima flowers from my stash (which I forgot I had because I never ever use the small ones), a little rose, some paper flowers (which are layered with Primas on the bottom flower), some gems, a pearl brad and a Tim Holtz adage ticket.

 Unfortunately I didn't have enough Promarkers in this colours to shade properly but I think she doesn't look too bad! Just pretend she is beautifully coloured! lol

Thank for stopping by and I hope you will pop over and check out the challenge blog to see what the other girls have been up to.

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!