Thanks to my lovely DT colleague Nataliya, I recently came across the rather fab artwork of Rick St Dennis and just had to get some of his awesome digi stamps. I must say, I do love shopping for digi stamps - it's instant gratification stash shopping! :lol: If ever I get bored or in a crafting rut, all I need to do is have a poke around the internet and find some new images to create with and be inspired by. And I love finding new digi stamp designers that I hadn't come across before! :)
I've been playing with and colouring in a couple of Rick's images lately and yesterday I finally found time to turn one of them into a card. And this is the result:
I love love love this cute yet sassy little fairy image and I was immediately inspired to use her with a fab new circular frame die that I picked up. She's coloured with Promarkers and I used some freebie papers, a Martha Stewart punch, some crocheted lace ribbon, some pink glittery cardstock and a Marianne Creatables leafy flourish die to complete the card.
Expect to see more of Rick's fab images on my cards in the future! :)
Well, it certainly has been recently! Thankfully, the worst of the weather seems to have moved on now and we even had sunshine for most of today! I'd almost forgotten what it looked like! :lol:
Appropriately enough, the theme of this week's challenge at the Dilly Beans Designers and Friday Challenges blog is autumn colours and I decided to play with my Distress Inks and make a pretty autumn-coloured tag:
I used Distress Inks and Perfect Pearls to make the background and coloured the image with my Promarkers, adding a few highlights with a white gel pen. I stamped the sentiment (a Stampotique stamp) and some foliage (a K&Co stamp) in black Archival ink and rubbed a little Inka Gold around the edges, finishing things off with some butterflies cut from gold textured card (cut with my Stampin' Up! Beautiful Wings Embosslit - I use this die sooo much! :lol:) and some lace and wooly fibres.
One thing I'll say about using Perfect Pearls... much as I love the effect they give, it doesn't half make it hard to photograph the results when using a daylight lamp! :lol: Might try and take some better photos in daylight tomorrow. In the meantime, here's an attempt at a better look at the sentiment and here's what the tag looks like without the daylight lamp... the autumn colours look really nice and warm in artificial light. :)
Oooh lookit! It's Wednesday morning and for once there's actually something creative going on on my desk! :lol:
Actually more than one thing... as ever, too many ideas, not enough time!... as I've been working on a couple of new cards at the same time. I've been playing with a few new things - some new digi stamps I picked up recently and also some of my new SU stamp sets that I snapped up before they get retired at the end of this month!
There's lots more workdesks to visit over at Julia's Stamping Ground blog, where you'll find the WOYWW master list.
That's the new challenge theme at One Stitch at a Time this week. You need to choose a line from the bingo card (it must pass through the centre "Digi" square) and include those elements in your creation - or heck, go mad and try and use 'em all and get the full house! :)
For my card I chose the middle horizontal line, giving me Sticker and Bling, along with the use a Digi requirement. D'you think I managed to get in enough bling....? ;)
Be honest now! :lol:
By the way, I know I'm usually complaining about photographing cards etc in the gloom that we call daylight in this part of the world but on this occasion I am gonna say that sparkly, glittery cards + bright sunlight = bl**dy hard to get a decent photo! :lol:
I chose this gorgeous silhouetted image by Floppy Latte Designs called Flight of Fantasy. As soon as I saw this image I knew I wanted to print it onto acetate and put something pretty and sparkly behind it. So that's what I did. I printed in reverse onto printable acetate and then played around with glue and lots and lots and lots of pretty glitter! :)
The papers used are from DCWV's gorgeous Once Upon a Time stack and the foiled flower and butterfly stickers are some (I think, DoCrafts) ones that I've had sitting in a drawer for aaaaages.
You don't need to use a Stitchy Bear image to join in the fun at OSAAT though obviously we'd like to see your projects using Stitchy Bear digi stamps and doing so puts you in with a chance of winning a prize from our sponsor. If you enter without using a Stitchy Bear product you still have a chance to win a $3 gift voucher to spend in the Stitchy Bear store.
As the saying goes, you gotta be in it to win it! :)
Am entering this card into the following challenges:
Well, the bad news is that my hope of getting my hurty tooth sorted once and for all today have come to nothing. The dentist and I agreed it was better coming out but unfortunately, despite numbing me to the nines, it was still hurting when she tried to grip the tooth... so, it's another course of antibiotics and go back and try again next week!
So I was hoping to be pain-free by now and instead I'm still popping painkillers. :( But the good news is that, despite this, I have managed to get a bit of crafting done. I felt like a lazy evening on the sofa so I grabbed a load of printed digi stamps and my boxes of Promarkers and sat and did some colouring on my lap in front of the tv and a cosy fire. :)
And I did manage to tear myself away from the warmth of the fire long enough to get into the craft room for a little bit and turn one of my coloured images into this card:
I made this for the current challenge at Dilly Beans challenge blog, where the theme is Robots. I do love these cute new robot images from Dilly Beans. :) I've coloured the image with Promarkers and I've kept the card really simple with some Spun Sugar Distress Ink daubed over a cogs frame stencil and a simple stamped sentiment (a Stampin' Up! stamp). I'm also entering this into the current CAS (Clean And Simple) challenge at Passion for Promarkers.
It's Wednesday again (seriously, where are the week's going lately? It'll be the C word before you know it! ;D) and time for a sneaky peak at the desks of crafty folk all around the world, all joining in with the weird and wonderful blog hop known as What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday! :D
Not much on my desk this week... I've not been doing much crafting cos I've had a crummy toothache for over a week and I've been doped up to the eyeballs on antibiotics and painkillers and generally feeling really wiped out and lacking in energy.
But... while I may not have been crafting... it appears I was still feeling well enough for shopping... ;)
So gracing my desk this week is the bumper pile of Stampin' Up! goodies that arrived yesterday. Just waiting for me to open em up and have a play... and then try and find somewhere to store em! :lol:
I hope to have something more interesting to share next week - I'm off to the dentists tomorrow to get this tooth either filled or pulled (depending on x-ray results) so hope to be feeling a lot better after that and able to craft again!
Another Sunday is upon us and another fabulous challenge over at One Stitch At a Time. The theme this week is Autumn and here's the card I made:
I used this gorgeous Daisies and Butterflies image by Delicious Doodles. I coloured it with my Promarkers in lovely, warm, autumnal colours and went a bit wild with the whole butterfly theme, using papers from the DCWV Mariposa stack and some butterfly peeloff stuck onto acetate and cut out.
I gave this card to my SIL for her birthday. :)
You can enter the OSAAT challenge with any image/product you like, as long as your project meets the theme, though of course we'd love to see your creations using a Stitchy Bear image. Entering with a Stitchy Bear image enters you into the draw to win some goodies from our sponsor, Crimson Cloud, or if you enter without a Stitchy Bear image you can be in with a chance of winning a $3 gift voucher for the Stitchy Bear Stamps store.
Don't forget, until 1 October if you spend at least $12.00 in the Stitchy Bear Store, you get this fabulous "Mega Collaboration" of digital goodies for FREE! :D
So don't delay, get crafting today!* :lol:
*Heh, I like that. Shall I make it my new slogan? :lol:
That's right... after a bit of a hiatus and a redesign over the summer, the Sweet Pea Stampers challenge blog is BACK, with a brand new challenge *and* a brand new redesigned blog.
The challenges are monthly and you can enter using Sweet Pea Stamps images or not - although obviously we'd love to see your Sweet Pea Stamps creations. :) There are prizes on offer, with the chance to win yourself some gorgeous Sweet Pea Stamps, and there will also be the "Designer's Choice" award, with the Design Team voting for and choosing their favourite projects each month.
The first challenge is an easy one - Anything Goes.
Here's my card for the Anything Goes challenge:
I used this gorgeous image from Karen Middleton, called Summer. I've had this stamp for a while and been dying to have a play with it. I ummed and aahed for a while about what colour to do her hair and then decided to go completely off the wall and colour it an unusual colour - and went with green. :)
The image is coloured with Promarkers and I made the background by colouring a piece of card with Distress Inks, water and Perfect Pearls. I used some textured gold card for matting and used the same card to cut flowers using Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals die (and embossed them with a Tim Holtz Texture Fadez embossing folder). The greeting was stamped with StazOn onto seam binding ribbon that I'd coloured with Distress Inks. I finished things off with green chiffon ribbon, butterflies cut with my Beautiful Wings embosslit from Stampin' Up!, gems and a resin flower.
To celebrate the relaunch of the Sweet Pea Stampers challenge blog, I'm going to offer a bit of a mini giveaway here. If you'd like to have a play with some of the gorgeous Sweet Pea Stamps images, just comment on this blog entry - I will pick 5 commenters at random and send you an assortment of stamped Sweet Pea images (stamped with Adirondack ink onto good quality card - Adirondack ink works well for colouring with Promarkers, if you prefer to use a different colouring medium and would like your images stamped in a different ink, just say so in your comment) for you to create with... on the proviso that you use one of them to create something for this month's Sweet Pea Stampers challenge. :)
So what are you waiting for? Leave me a comment to be in with a chance of winning some images to play with... and don't forget, you can still enter the challenge without using Sweet Pea Stamps images.
I'm entering this card into a couple of challenges:
Yikes. I've been so busy today that I honestly, genuinely, completely forgot about WOYWW. I was vaguely aware that it was Wednesday but the concept of photographing my craft desk and blogging about it never even crossed my mind! And I've been so busy that it's only now, at gone 10pm, that I've even looked at Blogger and seen other people's WOYWW posts and thought, "Ooops!"
Ah well. Not much to share on my desk this week anyway. DH had one of his passive aggressive tidying sessions again on Sunday evening where he wants every surface cleared (but doesn't actually want to take the time to sort through stuff and find a proper place to put it away, so it pretty much all just ends up dumped in my craft room for ME to sort out and find homes for). :/
So it's a bit messy in there. Annoying, cos I'd just started tidying a bit in there!
And I was going to get in there and do some crafting tonight but that idea has been derailed by the perfect ending to a manic, stressful day - awful toothache! :(
It took over an hour for the painkillers I took to properly kick in and deal with the pain so I am spending the rest of the evening chilling in front of the TV and the nice, warm fire - dayum, but it's gone cold this evening!! - and after The Finder is finished, I'm heading off to bed for an early(ish) night!
So apologies to my followers and my fellow WOYWWers, Normal service will be resumed shortly. ;)
I made my card using this cute image by Digi Blessings - aren't the bunnies just too cute?
And the image is depressingly appropriate for the wet summer we've had (although, at the risk of jnxing things, the sun is shining today! :lol:)! I coloured the image with my Promarkers and used some pretty freebies papers and elements (from some craft magazine or other! :lol:) that I've had laying around the craftroom for ages and that were just the perfect pastel colours to go with my image.
Et voila. A quick and cute card. :)
The OSAAT challenge is sponsored by Creative Craft World this week so make a card or other project using a Stitchy Bear image and you may be lucky enough to win yourself some Promarkers! You can still enter using a non-Stitchy Bear image and be entered into the draw to win a $3 voucher to spend in the Stitchy Bear store. :)
My niece turns 21 this month. Unfortunately we can't make it to the "do" as small children and evening events over 2 hours drive away are not a good combination. So we're heading down to the wilds of Lincolnshire this afternoon to say hello and drop off a card and gift.
And this is the card I've made for her:
This pretty image is an A Day for Daisies digi stamp and I coloured her with Promarkers and inked the edges with Distress Inks. I used an old book page (from The Iliad, if anyone's interested! :D) for the background and coloured it with Distress Inks and Perfect Pearls (it has a lovely shimmer in real life). I used Tim Holtz Idea-ology numbers, coloured with alcohol ink, and added a die cut flourish (from a Memory Box die) and some flowers and a stamped greeting to finish.
I think this came out really bright and pretty but without being too little girly. I hope. :)
I'm entering this card into a couple of challenges:
Thank you so much for all your lovely comments on my ATC Printer's Tray project created for the Blue day of Creative Craft World's rainbow birthday blog hop. We at the CCW DT had a great time putting together the rainbow-themed hop and I'm sure you'll agree there were some gorgeous projects to enjoy!
As promised, I will be giving away my goody box of blue crafty stash to one lucky commenter on my blog entry..... and the winner, as selected by Random.org, is......
Comment no. 33, which was 2kidsand5minis!
Congratulations to the winner - please email me at alipeeps@hotmail.com with your full name and postal address and I will get your goodies in the post to you. :)
Don't forget to check out the Creative Craft World challenge blog later today for a full list of prize winners from the blog hop and to find out who has won the gold at the end of the rainbow - the main blog hop prize from CCW!
Sorry for the juvenile humour... I think a steady diet of cBeebies has rotted my brain cells! :)
This card was made for the current "black and white and one other colour" challenge at the Dilly Beans Friday Challenge blog. I used this cute little ladybird image and coloured her with Promarkers and added Stickles to the wings:
I added some texture with a Tim Holtz Texture Fadez embossing folder (I like how the geometric design of this embossing folder echoes the border of the Dilly Beans image) and finished things off with some layered paper flowers and some pretty butterflies cut with my Beautiful Wings Embosslits die from Stampin' Up! :)
A quick flyby WOYWW post from me this week - I've got so much going on this week that I keep staying up late trying to get stuff organised and yet I still feel like I'm meeting myself coming! :lol:
Not a lot to share on the old craft desk this morning... I've been busy doing another kind of crafting! ;)
So no crafty projects on show, just the new Autumn/Winter Stampin' Up! catalogue, the new edition of Craft Stamper magazine (hee.. total coincidence but has anyone seen the ATC display project at the back of the mag... a freakily similar concept to the ATC printer's tray project I blogged here on Monday (don't forget, if you comment on my printer's tray post you'll be in with a chance to win a goody bag of crafty stash from me and could have a chance to win a fab prize from CCW if you follow the rest of the rainbow blog hop)! :D), and my ever-growing pile of images, both digi and stamped, awaiting colouring and creating with.
And the other crafty project I've been working on? Sewing name labels into these:
For today is the big day: DD1 starts pre-school, 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, complete with adorable little uniform. I'm a crazy mix of emotions over this momentous occasion... excited for her, proud of her, worried about her, and a wee bit sentimental and weepy at the end of an era... this is the beginning of years and years of the daily routine of the school run. The carefree days of baby/toddlerhood where we could do what we wanted, when we wanted, are over. *sigh*
Creative Craft World are celebrating their sixth birthday with a rainbow-tastic DT blog hop! Each day a member of the Design Team will be sharing a stunning colour-themed project on their blog, there's some prizes along the way, and if you follow the entire blog hop, leave a comment on every DT blog and then comment on the blog hop post at the Creative Craft World challenge blog, you will be entered into a draw to win a fabulous prize - the gold at the end of the rainbow! :)
Today I will be sharing my Blue creation and from here you need to carry on to Sue's blog where tomorrow she will be sharing her Indigo project.
For my project I decided to combine one of my favourite crafting pastimes - ATCs - with my long-held desire to make/decorate a printer's tray. And this was the result:
I've long lusted after the 7 Gypsies ATC printer's trays but somehow never quite gotten around to splashing the cash to get one... so I thought.. why not make my own? :)
I started off with two sheets of plain white mountboard and on the first sheet I used a pencil and ruler to mark out a grid for the tray. ATCs are always 3½" by 2½" so I measured out the "boxes" on my tray to slightly larger than that 39/16" by 29/16" with a ¼" gap between each box and a slightly larger (7/32") border around the edges.
I then took my metal ruler and a craft knife and cut out the boxes, leaving myself a 9-aperture frame.
Tip: If you want a "deeper" tray, at this stage you could repeat this part and make a second frame section and then layer them on top of each other when assembling the tray.
I then took the second piece of mountboard and drew around the outside of my frame and cut a piece of mountboard to fit behind the frame.
And now for the fun part... decorating! :)
I started by spraying both the frame and the background section with a selection of spray inks, some with mica, some not (I used Dylusions and Cosmic Shimmer sprays). Tip: I also used a paint brush dipped into a spray ink bottle to add ink to the insides of the apertures and also around the outside edges of the frame, where the spray inks had not given a complete coverage, so as not to have any white patches showing through.
I allowed the inks to dry and then used a spatula to scrape some glass bead texture gel here and there onto the frame section.
Once the texture gel had dried, I used my fingertip to rub some Inka Gold onto the texture gel areas and here and there randomly onto the frame.
Then it was simply a matter of attaching the frame to the background. I wanted a good, firm hold so I used red high tack tape.
And that was the tray finished.
To make the ATCs, I cut a piece of card 7½" by 10½" (so big enough to cut into 9 ATCs) and used Tim Holtz's Marbled Stains technique (using Distress Stains in Picket Fence, Broken China, Faded Jeans and Wild Honey) to colour it. I then cut the coloured card into my 9 ATCs and background stamped them with a variety of Tim Holtz stamps in Broken China Distress Ink, before stamping a focal image on each card using black Archival Ink. To finish, I added Glossy Accents to accentuate the word LIFE on the cental ATC.
Et voila! I attached my ATCs into the tray using Tombow glue which I allowed to dry fully, making it repositionable. So if I wanted to, I could remove these ATCs from the tray and put different ones in. But, to be honest, I don't think I'll ever want to! ;)
Thanks for stopping by - I hope you're enjoying the blog hop and that you found my little printer's tray tutorial useful. Don't forget to visit and comment on all the other projects in the in the hop to be in with a chance of winning the gold at the end of the rainbow!
I am also be offering a little prize as part of the blog hop - all you need to do is comment and be or become a follower of my blog. I will select one commenter at random to win a mystery box of blue goodies culled from my crafty stash! :D
And now... let's finish with a song! Who else remembers this? :)
