Craft Academy

Me again…lol.

I really am off to bed but I forgot to say that it’s my turn to do a tutorial over at Sarah’s Craft Academy.

This week it’s creating texture when colouring with ProMarkers. So if you would like to see how I coloured the fur on this card just head over and take a look.

Patterned paper is from the First Edition 6x6 Dreamcatcher pad, sentiment is from Craftwork Cards, roses and stick pin are from Wild Orchid Crafts, image is from Whimsy Stamps and coloured with ProMarkers and the lace and ribbon are from The Ribbon Girl.

I based my card on the following sketch from A Gem of a Challenge so would like to enter my card to that challenge.

I would also like to enter this into the following challenges:

• Sundays with Crissy – Animals
• MAWTT – Cute & Cuddly
• My Mums Craft Shop – Stamp Something
• Divas by Design – Stamp Something
• Simon Says Stamp – Anything Goes
• Stampin for the Weekend – Anything Goes
• Little Claire Challenge – Spring
• Lollipop Challenge – Anything Goes
• Paper Sundaes – Spring Blossoms
• Creative Belli – 3 Shapes (Circle Square and Rectangle)
• Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog – Spring is in the Air

Night night all.

Lisa

Easter at Sarah Hurley

Back, but a little later than planned as Little One didn’t have an afternoon nap today, so by the time everything like tea, bath, Hubby coming home from work and our own tea was done, I have only just managed to grab five minutes peace now to write this post.  It will be a quick post and then I’m off to bed to catch up on some sleep. It’s a shame as I had a few ideas in my head that I wanted to make a start on but I'm just too tired.

Today is the start of a new challenge at Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog and this time the theme is:

EASTER

My card base is made from a scrap of 12x12 Papermania Kraft card and my patterned papers are from Sarah’s Easter Digi Kit, as is the cute bunny which I have coloured with ProMarkers. I made some rolled flowers out of scraps of the blue gingham (just by cutting some small spirals by hand – no fancy dies for me), added a scrap of blue ribbon attached with tiny staples, a sentiment made on my Dymo label maker and lastly just a little bit of doodling with a red fineliner.

I based my card on the following sketch from A Gem of a Challenge  but rotated it 108 degrees so would like to enter my card to that challenge.

I would also like to enter this into the following challenges:

• Sundays with Crissy – Animals
• Anything Goes Challenge Blog – Get Ready for Easter
• Crafty Sentiments – Easter
• The Paper Shelter – Easter
• MAWTT – Cute & Cuddly
• Paper Play Challenge – Easter
• Dream Valley Challenges - Easter
• Lexi's Creations - Easter
• Clear It Out Challenge – Easter (my stash used up is the ribbon)

Don’t forgot to hop over to Sarah’s Challenge and see what the rest of the team have been up to and also for more details on the fabulous prize from our sponsor for this challenge…Joanna Sheen.

Thanks for stopping by.

Lisa

Time for Tea at PCJ

Afternoon all, I’m running a little behind today. Little One and I spent a lovely lazy day yesterday, with my sister and niece, in the garden at my parents house. Little One did so much playing with sand, watering Nanny's plants and general running around that he tired himself out. He was so tired he fell asleep in the car on the way home and didn’t wake up until 9am! I don’t bother setting an alarm as usually he wakes me about 7am, so this morning I stayed asleep until 9am as well, so I must have needed a lie in.

Enough waffle, it’s time for a new challenge over at Paper Crafting Journey and this week it’s time for a PHOTO INSPIRATION challenge:

photo credit

However the picture inspires you just go with the flow. It could be the colours, the cakes, the shop, the shapes.

As you can see I’ve used the colours from the photo as inspiration for my matting and layering. The patterned paper is part of Sarah Hurley’s fab Easter Digi Kit and I resized the paper so the little teacups were in proportion with the card, but they don’t show too well on the picture.

We were very lucky this challenge and were given some Jelly Park images to use. I’ve used a combination of Bunting, Wedding Cake and Cake Shop. I’ve paper pieced the bunting and cake and coloured the cake shop with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers.

Don’t forget to stop by Paper Crafting Journey and see what the rest of the DT have created.

For now thanks for popping by and I’ll see you later for the new challenge over at Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog, where I’ve used yet more goodies from Sarah’s Easter Digi Kit.

Lisa

Ps: Jelly Park are supporting Little Havens Hospice this year and 100% of the proceeds from the sale of these stamps will be donated to the Charity!

Hippy Chick

As I said in an earlier post I’ve been trying to get ahead with other things so I can just sit and play and join in some challenges. This one is for the sketch challenge over at The Sugar Bowl.

Here’s my take on the sketch:

I’m still busting that stash of patterned papers so this card uses Echo Parks Springtime 6x6 pad which I’ve teamed with some green Core’dinations. I’ve also used the gorgeous Simply Sassy ‘Hippy Chick’ image (coloured with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers), a PolkaDoodles sentiment, a Papermania flower punch some bling and some lovely velour/velvet ribbon found in Hobbycraft. Although in the picture it looks a slightly odd colour when IRL it matches beautifully to the dark pink on the patterned paper.

I actually finished this card yesterday but as I had already made a fair few posts I thought I would wait and share it today, albeit a little later than planned as we took an impromptu picnic out to the New Forest to make the most of this Summery weather…

And with the cute picture of Little One and his Ben 10 ball I will leave you….but I may be back later with another card if I get 5 minutes.

Thanks

Lisa

It All Worked Out

Well my idea that I mentioned yesterday worked out just how I wanted, so that may just be two LIM cards on the trot that I really like. Wonders will never cease!

It’s a different take on yesterdays card and uses the negative of the punched circles. The three weeks challenges I have used for inspiration are:

• Week 56 - Recipe Don’t Scrap It
• Week 51 – Theme Cut it Out
• Week 43 – Bit of Bling (hope my little pearls count, i tried it with gems but they looked too sparkly..lol)

This time I stamped and embossed a second image on patterned paper and layered this beneath the punched panel using foam pads for dimension. I’ve added some pearls, inked some edges, matted it onto some pearlescent pink card and added a small pink ribbon. This has all been added to a DL card base with a sentiment from PolkaDoodles.

The picture doesn’t do this card justice, the images on the two layers are embossed in gold and silver and not sure this shows up in the pic. IRL it looks a lot more delicate.

Thanks for stopping by.

Lisa

12 Tags of 2012 March

Last post tonight…I promise.

I’ve always wanted to join in on Tim’s 12 Tags of Christmas but it’s always such a busy time of year, even more so now I have a Little One. So I was really pleased when I saw that the tags are going monthly.

Here is my take on March's Tag:



There is quite of bit of improvisation (AKA Make Do and Mend) on my tag as I don’t have many of the products Tim used (I think Glossy Accents maybe the only one…lol….no hang on there’s Walnut Stain DI on there too!!).

It’s a little different from my usual makes but I like it and for now it’s going to hang on my notice board but when I have made a few more I might try making it into a little tag book.

Thanks for stopping by.

Lisa

You’ll never guess….

Time got the better of me last week and I missed a challenge, so I was determined to not only make but also blog a card today.  Now you might not believe this but I’ve actually made a LIM card that I like! And it’s turned out exactly as I wanted…

It's recipe this week to combine three previous challenges. My card could have worked for quite a combination of the weeks (bling, scraps, masking) but the three I’ve settled on are:

• Week 53 Colour Aqua
• Week 55 Theme Punches or Die Cuts
• Week 24 Theme Circles

I began by stamping the Grungy Script stamp on a piece of square white card in Weathered Wood DI, then I masked and inked the stripes with VersaColour Turquoise ink on a make-up sponge. I then stamped and embossed the swirls twice, once on the card in Turquoise and one on a spare piece of card in silver. I pinched elements of silver image with various circle punches and layered onto the card with various depths of foam pads. Lastly a sentiment from PolkaDoodles and all edges inked with the same turquoise ink.

I may try and get another picture in daylight tomorrow as in the photo the square of card looks cream and IRL it’s most definitely white.

While blogging this I’ve just had an idea for something using the waste from my punched out circles so hopefully if Hubby takes Little One out to the park tomorrow I’ll give it a try.

Thanks for stopping by.

Lisa

Seeing Stars

Not getting side tracked by all the pretty things to look at on the internet sure has left me with a lot more time to craft, so I have a few things to share with you that I made during the week and this afternoon but I waited until now to post so I could do so in peace and quiet.

I’m trying to get ahead with my own personal cards so that I have a bit more time to take part in some of my favourite challenges. This is my card for my Brother in Law.

This little cutie is Whatzup Dog by Crissy Armstrong for Whimsy and I’ve had him coloured up for a few weeks (when I get a new Digi I tend to print several of the image and colour them at the same time) so I thought he deserved to be turned into a card. I’ve gone for a very masculine black and grey colour scheme with just a couple of little pops of Royal Blue. I coloured my image using ProMarkers and FlexMarkers. Other items are: Patterned Papers from the First Edition Up Up and Away pad, plain card from stash, Sizzix Framelits Star Dies, Tonic Studios Border Punch, ribbon from stash, Swiss Dots Embossing folder, Stickles, and sentiment is a PolkaDoodles Magazine freebie.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Sundays with Crissy – Animals
• I Love ProMarkers – Three Different Papers (hope this counts as I’ve used two patterned papers and also two colours of plain card)
• Passion for ProMarkers – Animals
• Papertake Weekly – Bingo (Die cuts, free and glitter)
• My Mums Craft Shop – Let’s Get Digital
• Alphabet Challenge – D for Dry Embossing

Thanks for stopping by.

Lisa

It’s a Sketch at Critter Sketch Challenge

I’m going to try and keep to the point tonight as I’m very tired and have had a long day. This week over at the Critter Sketch Challenge Blog it’s time for a sketch challenge…

Here’s my card:

I’m still in stash busting mode so patterned papers are from a Melissa Frances paper pad (Kitschy Kitchen) that has been buried in a draw for a very long time. For me I’ve stuck very closely to the sketch! I’ve used the gorgeous Duck Mum stamp from Little Claire (which can be found here)  and I’ve coloured it using a mix of FlexMArkers and ProMarkers. A few sparkly gems and a Craftwork Cards sentiment die cut (coloured to match with a ProMarker) and that’s my card complete.

I did decorate the inside as well…

I would also like to enter my card into the following challenges:

• Little Claire – Spring/Easter
• Joanna Sheen Challenge – Spring/Easter
• I Love ProMarkers – Anything Goes
• Pollycraft Challenge – Check it out

Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to pop across to Critter Sketch Challenge Blog and see what the rest of the DT have created.

Lisa

Last through the Door?

Last week over at LIM I managed to be the last entry. Well guess what…I think it’s going to be me again this week. I actually made three cards last night, but quite late, so planned on photographing and blogging them this morning whilst Little One was still in bed.  Things didn’t go to plan as I woke up with wonky vision and a bit of a headache, a migraine on it’s way, so I took medication and rested as much as I could while Little One was playing. By early afternoon I felt ever so poorly, so when Little One went for nap so did I! After my nap, some tea and a nice refreshing shower I feel so much better, just quite drained so after I’ve posted this I’m off to lie on the sofa and watch a film with hubby (The Guns of Navarone).

All of three cards are pink, tan and brown and I’ve stamped and watercoloured the flowers using various inks. The flower and flourish stamps are Little Claire, the script stamp is Prima Marketing and the sentiments are ‘Happy Birthday’ – Hero Arts and ‘Sending you happy thoughts’  - Kaisercraft.

First card has the best stamped panel but I made a boob with the masking and the flourish on the right hand side is too far to the right (I tried to fill it in but you can see it’s wonky…

I will rescue this card. As hubby helpfully suggested last night “Can’t you cut the panel out and put on another base?” Well yes….but I had to explain that I couldn’t for LIM as it’s one layer week!!

The second card is identical but I boobed again and the forgot to second stamp the pale pink flourishes, so they are too bright, I washed over them lightly with a water brush which has helped a bit…

After two failed attempts at that card I tired to vary it slightly, but you know me I’m still not happy. This time the water colouring on the flower has lost some of the definition in the centre of the largest lily. When I get a spare moment I will go back over the lines carefully with a fine line pen.

You wouldn’t think it but I really do love the LIM challenges, and one day (maybe a long way in the future) I’ll make a card that I’m 100% happy with!!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend.

Lisa

Steampunk at Sarah Hurley Challenge

Can’t believe it got so late already? Don’t think I’m going to get much time for crafting tonight, oh well at least I got to have a lovely long soak it the bath after Little One went to bed.

It time for another challenge over at Sarah Hurley and boy this one was a challenge for me…

STEAMPUNK

Now if you have read my blog before you’ll know I’m not a huge fan of the whole Steampunk genre and when your heart isn’t it you just can’t create something. So instead of trying to hard, I just printed off some of the lovely papers from Sarah’s Steampunk CD and set to with my craft knife, Kraft Card, Distress Ink and scoreboard and this is what I made:

It’s a little Sticky Note holder. I’ve kept it quite simple as the papers are so fab and need to be showed off. I’ve only added some chipboard flowers, which I covered in the same papers, a button, some ric-rac and a little metal butterfly charm (that I coloured with my ProMarkers so the colour matched).

I didn’t follow any instructions I just measure and cut so I’ll give you my measurements in case you would like to have a go at making one yourself (my sticky notes are standard square ones measuring just under 3” square)

1. Start with a piece of card measuring 3 1/4” by 8 1/4”

2. With the longest part of the card going left to right, score at 3”, 3 1/2”, 6 1/2” and 7” (hope that makes sense, it should if you have an MS Scoreboard)

3.Fold each score line. The end that measures 1 1/4” is the closure flap, you can leave it as is or like I did snip the corners, you could even use a fancy corner punch

4. Decorate. I won’t give you the measurements for all the little bits of paper I used, if you have a go at making one you’ll want to decorate it in your own style.

Tip: I’ve used DS tape as the closure, but I pressed it onto my jeans several times so that it wasn’t so sticky. I could have used Velcro or repositionable tape and I think you can buy proper little Velcro dots but I don’t have any so had to make do.

I hope this has been helpful and don’t forget to stop by the challenge blog and see some real Steampunk creations, rather than what I have decided to call my version…GIRLY STEAMPUNK!!

Thanks for stopping by

Lisa

Pretty Pastels at PCJ

Afternoon all. Little One has just gone down for his afternoon nap so I’m popping on to tell you about the new challenge at PCJ. This fortnight the theme is:

PRETTY PASTELS

There is a fab prize on offer as we are being sponsored by Kenny K. Now I have to admit I don’t own any Kenny K images so was thrilled that we were given an image to play with for this challenge. I chose the cute Wasn't Me image and here is my card.

I’ve made this card for my Mum for mothers day, and I’ve used colours I know she’ll love. The image has been coloured with a mix of ProMarkers and FlexMarkers (I got a few more as a birthday present from hubby last week) and the papers are a mix of magazine freebies (I’m still stash busting my patterned paper). The sentiment was written on the computer and punched out with a Woodware Tag punch. I’ve used another birthday present, the gorgeous Tonic Studios Dotty Scallop border punch, which because it only punches one scallop at a time I’ve managed to punched around the outside of the green circle to male it look like a doily. And finally just a little flower gem and three beads spelling ‘MUM’.

A close up of the image, I struggle with lighter hair colours so I’m practicing my shading.

And in another stash busting effort I’ve decorated the inside of the card, and managed to use only the scraps leftover from the front of the card plus a smidge more white card.

Don’t forget to pop over to Paper Crafting Journey and see what the rest of the team have made, we’re also joined by two fabulous guests from the Kenny K DT.

I’ll be back later this evening with another post as it’s also Sarah Hurley challenge day but I’m going to make the most of Little One napping and get on with a few more jobs.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• MAWTT – A Special Lady (My Mum)
• Card Makin Mamas – Let’s see some green (with a coloured image)
• A Gem of a Challenge – Perfect Pastels
• Sparkles Forum – Mother Day or Spring
• Dream Valley – Mothers Day

Thanks for stopping by

Lisa

LIM By the Skin of My Teeth

Whoa, how did that week disappear? It has been a bit hectic, away at the weekend for my parent’s Golden Wedding Anniversary, Aunties Birthday on Monday, mine on Wednesday and I nearly missed this weeks LIM challenge. Anyhoo here is my card for the ‘Neutral’ colour theme.

Short and sweet tonight, hubby’s computer desk gives me backache and I need to link up to LIM in the next 13 minutes!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Lisa

PS: I’ll pop back and update a little later on how I made the card.

Pastels at Pink Gem

Just a quick post from me as I’m off out to run some errands, not to mention as I type Little One is pulling my ink pads out and saying ‘Press Press’ which means he wants to stamp!!

Our friends had a little baby girl on the 29th February. A ‘Leap Baby’. And despite knowing for months that it was going to be a girl I waited until she was born to make the card!!

I have made this using a really cute digi from Pink Gem and some papers that came free with a couple of different magazines (one maybe a Pink Petticoat freebie but I can’t remember the other). The image has been coloured with ProMArkers and FlexMArkers. I’ve also used a MFT border die and some flowers that have been in my stash far too long. The sentiment was written on the computer.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

• Totally Papercrafts – My Favourite Things (Pink, Flowers, Babies!!!)
• A Gem of a Challenge - Pastels, but hope it still counts as I’ve used some navy blue card to do the matting and layering.
• Passion for ProMarkers – For Mum/Female relative (please delete me if you think my link is too tenuous, I would hate to upset someone. However I made this card for a very dear friend who has just become a Mum, it’s just that she isn’t my Mum or my relative)
• Simon Says Stamp - Mother's Day/Special Girl
• Dream Valley - Mother's Day (Again please delete if my card is not appropriate)

Thanks for stopping by

Lisa

The Craft Cupboard Trilogy

I’ve seen a couple of people blog about the challenge over at The Craft Cupboard Trilogy to use the free heart stamp that came with last months Craft Stamper Magazine.

The challenge is a fitting tribute to Sarah Lawrence (who designed the stamp) as she sadly passed away last December. I was never lucky enough to see her demonstrate in person but have seen her on Create & Craft many times. She was a source of inspiration and will be missed by many many crafters.

This little project started out as a birthday card, but then morphed into something completely different.

I’ve used the heart stamp to make butterfly wings. I covered black card with Washi tape, stamped and embossed the hearts and cut them out. I used the stamp again to add a shadow under the butterfly and I used some more rolled up Washi tape to make the body. The antennae are hand drawn with small pearls at the ends.

The panel is made from some glittered polka dot card that I had left over from a couple of wedding anniversary cards. The edges of the panel are distressed and embossed with Gold EP. I’ve stamped the heart in gold and black repeatedly along two edges of the panel to create a border. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts Valentines set and the words seemed fitting, this is what made me change it from a card to a wall hanging. So I made a box frame, inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, stamped through some sequin waste and added a bit more Washi tape. Lastly a cream ribbon (coloured brown with a ProMarker) and my little wall hanging was complete.

Thanks for stopping by

Lisa

Buttons at Critter Sketch Challenge

My laptop is still broken, so computer time is quite limited at the moment. I really should be in bed by now (it’s 12:45 am UK time) but I got a little carried away playing with the lovely Steampunk CD from Sarah Hurley and then I remembered I wanted to blog my card for this weeks Critter Sketch Challenge otherwise I probably wont get another chance until late tomorrow afternoon when my Little One is having his afternoon nap.

The theme this week over at Critter Sketch Challenge is:

BUTTONS

Now it’s plural so you need to use more than one, but they can form the focal point of your project or like me they can be an embellishment.

I’m still stash busting my way through all the unused patterned paper pads I have and these are from the Fancy Pants Summers End 6x6 pad.  Sometimes I colour an image first other times (like this) I pick the papers first and colour the image to match. I fell in love with the zingy colours in this pad immediately so coloured up this cute little fairy from Digi Stamp Boutique to match. I have used a scalloped nestie to cut a mat fro the image but the large scalloped border was created using plain punched circles cut in half and layered up. I have also used some Core’dinations card, some flat back pearls, gems and cute teeny tiny little buttons from Papermania. The sentiment was written on my Dymo Label Maker and seemed perfect for the image.

Don’t forget to stop by Critter Sketch Challenge and see what the rest of the DT have made.

I would also like to enter this into the following challenges:

• Crafty Calendar Challenge – Spring Clean (I’m stash busting all my patterned papers)
• Stampalot Challenge – Inspiration Challenge (I took inspiration from Brenda’s colours and the fancy card shapes inspired my scalloped border)
• Allsorts – Spread your wings
• One Stop Craft Challenge – Button It
• Sparkle Forum Challenge – Things with Wings

Bye for now

Lisa

Birthday Celebrations at Sarah Hurley

Quite a few of us on Sarah’s DT have birthdays in March, me included. It’s Nicky turn to chose the challenge and as Nicky also has a birthday coming up she has chosen the theme for this challenge as:

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

I’ve used papers, embellishments and images all from Sarah’s new Steampunk CD, which I have to say is absolutely fantastic. From someone who isn’t a great fan of the whole Steampunk theme, that's high praise. Sarah has managed a cute and quirky take on Steampunk which I really do love. The colour palatte on the CD is perfect for all those difficult masculine cards, and the images are perfect too.

These two cards are destined for my Nephews who are 22 and 24.

Please pop over to the main challenge blog and see what the rest of the team have made.

Thanks for stopping by

Lisa

Anything Goes at PCJ

Happy Thursday. I’ve got a couple of posts to make to today and I’m packing for a weekend away to celebrate my parents Golden Wedding Anniversary, so I will keep the waffle to a minimum, if I can!

It’s time for another challenge at PCJ and this fortnight we are being sponsored by The Paper Shelter. The theme is nice and easy…

ANYTHING GOES

I’ve used the wonderful image ‘Spring Swing’ which I treated myself to just after Christmas and I’ve coloured using ProMarkers and FlexMarkers. Papers are a Forever Friends 6x6 pad and to this I’ve added a border die cut from MFT and a mix of Joy Crafts and CC Designs flower die cuts. A piece of ribbon, some pearls and some gems and that’s my card. I also decorated the inside but silly me forgot to take a picture of that.

Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to hop across to the main challenge blog and see what my fellow team mates have made.

Lisa