A cute little stinker!!

I thought I had scheduled this post to post yesterday morning and I forgot to check it because I have been so busy with sponsor stuff for both my challenge blogs this week but I obviously didn't schedule it at all! I have scheduled my post for next weeks Digital Tuesday challenge and thought I done this one at the same time. Better late than never I suppose.

The challenge over at Digital Tuesday this week was chosen by me "Just For Laughs"- make a card/project that will make someone laugh or smile.

Now I'm not quite sure what came over me when I chose this challenge as it's so not my kind of thing, but our sponsor this week is Doodle Pantry and they have a lot of images/sentiments that make me smile, so the challenge was quite easy for me.

 I have used Doodle Pantry's Quirky Skunk image and sentiment and coloured with copics and promarkers. I really like this image, but I am really disappointed with how the colouring looks here. In this pic is looks like the colours are not blended at all, but it doesn't look like that in real life.....weird!

I used some scrap papers from my stash, so I have no idea what make they are except I know the blue one is Hot Off  The Press.

Some flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts, blue American Crafts ribbon and some green ribbon from my stash.

I thought the sentiment was quite funny, but not sure who I would actually give this card too lol.

 That's it from me for today, but I might be back tomorrow with a card, otherwise I will be here on Friday with my project for the June By The Cute and Girly challenge.
If you haven't already entered this months challenge at BTC&G, you still have until tomorrow to get your entries in!! The theme for May is Spring and you can enter with any craft. As always there are some fab prizes up for grabs, so why not pop over to both challenge blogs and join in the fun!

Thanks for stopping by

A little bit of vintage for a change

I was looking on deviant art a few weeks ago and came across some manga images that the artist has given permission to use, but I went back to find them so I could put a link on and I can find them.....I did take note of the artist though, so will have another look later on and will update this post and give credit to the artist :)

I made a card about a week ago because I had the urge to make something a bit vintage, but I was really stupid and for some reason, I made most of the card without choosing which image I would use (normally I would pick out the image I want to use, them my papers and colour the image to match), and after I had made most of the card, I couldn't find an image that would go with it!! I wanted something vintage but didn't want to print out one of those vintage pics you get everywhere because my printer is so greedy when I am printing coloured stuff, so I went through all my digital images and found one of these manga style ones that I had saved a while back and found a steampunk sort of image, so went with that :)

And this is how it turned out

The papers I have used are Basic Grey and Paper Cellar (I think!. I'm certain that the strip in the middle is Basic Grey) and I distressed the edges of them all with my scissors (still haven't got a distressing tool!! lol) and inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I also inked the flowers a bit with the same ink. Flowers are all from Wild Orchid Crafts.

 The image as I said is a digi from Deviant Art (will add link asap) by Sureya.

I know it is a manga style one and I wouldn't of thought of putting a manga style image with a vintage card, but as this was a steampunk kinda image, I think it worked ok??

She is coloured with Copics and Promarkers (Promarkers for the blue on her dress and Copics for everything else).

I also distressed and inked the edges of the image and added some ink around the actual image too, so it looked older.

 I ripped the to paper a bit, rolled it back and inked it, then pocked some holes and threaded some tulle through and tied in a knot at either end so it wouldn't come loose. I was planning on putting some eyelets in the holes, but couldn't find any!! lol

One last pic of the tulle bow :) I can't remember where I bought this tulle, but I need more because I only have a tiny bit left! I have loads of light purple and some dark purple and I think I have a little bit of white, but no cream one left, so will have to look out for some more :)

That's it from me for today, I'm off to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts!!

Thanks for stopping by and leaving lovely comments. Every comment left is appreciated, even if it's to give me some constructive criticism :)

2 DT cards in one day.

I have 2 cards to show today, both for different design teams.

The first is for By The Cute and Girly where the challenge theme this month is "Spring Is All Around".

I didn't choose a very springy image for my card (the image was kind of an after thought lol), but I used pretty papers that have a lot of flowers and my usual mountain of flower embellies piled on, so that's Spring enough for me lol.

 Excuse the mark on the image! I got some photo glue on it somehow and didn't notice it until after I took the pics! It is gone now though. Just as well it was photo glue and it just rubs off or else I would of had to colour another image.

The photo is blurry too! Not sure what's going on with my camera, but I just couldn't get any decent pics.

Anyway, the pretty papers are Websters Pages, the image is of course a Hanglar & Stanglar coloured with Copics and Promarkers on kraft card. The flowers are mostly Wild Orchid Crafts except the peach rose which I got in Hobby Craft. Both die cuts were made with Nellie Snellen dies and the lace and paper ribbon is from my stash.

See the offending glue mark?!! lol

My other card was a bit of a rush job (actually it was coloured and made in about 20 minutes because I thought I had an image coloued for the challenge, but couldn't find it!). It's for Digital Tuesday where the challenge this week is "Clearly Beautiful"- use a clear element on your card/project.

 Our sponsor this week is Stamp Fairy who gave the design team some images to work with, and this is one of them. I have ran out of colouring paper though and had to use some normal card which isn't smooth and just doesn't blend lol. You can see all the patches where it didn't blend, especially on the bears face.

I have ordered some proper paper and will print out and colour a new image and swap it for this one as soon as it arrives! I did order it on Thursday, but it hasn't arrived yet :(

The paper is one I found in my stash, so no idea who makes it.

I did want to use acetate as my clear element but didn't have any, so I had to go looking for other clear bits.

 I have a clear button, tied with some American Crafts bakers twine, and the clear bead spray thing.

and also some Inky Dinky Drops from Inky Impressions. Oh and some organza ribbon....well it's kinda see through lol.

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you are having better weather than I am! We have lots of rain and then hailstones yesterday and today it has been dry but sooo cold!

Ribbon and Buttons for Digital Tuesday

I'm a day late with my Digital Tuesday card because I was having a new bathroom put in yesterday and didn't get any time to blog, so here it is today instead.
The challenge this week at Digital Tuesday is ribbons and buttons, nice and easy huh?.....well you would think so, but I hardly ever use buttons and couldn't find my button bag! I don't have much buttons but what I do have is in a little zip lock bag (I know I am sooo classy!! lol) and I just couldn't find them anywhere!
I eventually came across a yellow button which must of fell out the bag at some point and was at the bottom of a box, but I wanted a pink or green button lol. It had to do, so a Copic came to the rescue and I finally got my card finished!

The papers I used are ones that I got from dt friends when I first moved house and had no stash at all (still don't have much but I can make a card out of what I have now. Thanks so much ladies! You were lifesavers!! xxx :)) so not sure who makes them but I wanted a nice fresh look for a change and these were perfect for that.
The sweet image is from Spesch Stamps who is our sponsor this week. This image is quite a new one by Jessica and is called Butterfly Girl. You can find her here.
I love all the sweet images at Spesch Stamps and use them a lot, but I have to admit that the ones by Jessica (and a few other artists) intimidate my slightly because you have to draw in the middle of the eyes yourself. I am rubbish at eyes, so I used to shy away from these kind of images, even though I loved the image itself, but I gave it a go and I don't think it has came out too bad. Just need lots more practice, which is a great excuse to buy more digis :)
As I said, the button was from my stash, as was the ribbon, the bakers twine is by American Crafts and all the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. The little tiny buds started out white, but I just coloured them with a marker the same colour as I used for the image shadow so that they would match.

 Just pretend you can't see the bits where the ink has bled at her hair lol. I ran out of my normal colouring paper, so had to use cheap stuff and the ink just went everywhere! I wanted to go to town on her hair and do a lot of shading, but was scared to add too much layers of ink because it would of bled everywhere, so I couldn't really do much with her.
Never mind, I will order some new paper tomorrow and can colour her up again when it arrives :)

I'm off to go clean a very dirty bath!! lol. It's absolutely filthy but I just couldn't be bothered doing it last night after the workers left because they had been here from 10.15am and didn't leave until after 8pm, so I just wanted a bit of peace without drilling and hammering after they left, so went and made a card instead of cleaning the bath lol.
Tell me, how can I brand new bath be so dirty anyway??!! It looks like a hippos mud bath right now!

Anyway, I will be back tomorrow hopefully with a card for my Dad's birthday. That's if I actually get it made today. How I am going to make a male card without any buttons?! It's my go to embellishment for male cards, only because I have no idea what else to use! lol
If anybody has any ideas what else I could use instead of buttons, please let me know! :) Oh, but not flowers as he's really not a flowery kind of person lol.

Thanks so much for stopping by and reading all the rubbish I write! I do appreciate it so much.

Oh and I am entering this card into the Fab 'n' Funky challenge which is buttons and bows.

Sunflower Smiles

I can't believe I have actually blogged 3 days in a row now after not blogging at all for a month! I missed of missed you all too much! :) lol

I actually got a card made yesterday that wasn't for any dt's, decided I would make one just for fun for a change. I didn't even follow any challenges. It's been so long since I have made a card just because I want to!

I'm not very keen on it mind you, but thought I would show it anyway, and I also found a card pic on my computer that has been there for about 6 weeks and never been blogged, so thought I would show that one today too.

Ok, so my first card is a happy sunflower one :) I found a printed image by Pink Cat Studio, that I must of printed out months ago but never coloured, so I coloured her up and made a simple card with it.

I thought this was a nice bright, fun image to use since we have been having such horrible wet weather in Scotland lately :) 

The paper I used is one from a pad that came with a magazine and I can't remember for the life of me who it's by. We have been getting some great paper pads free with the mags lately though, haven't we? I never buy magazines unless they have a nice free gift with them! lol It's normally cheaper to buy the mag than it is to buy the paper pad itself, so I figure that I'm getting a bargain and also have a mag to read if I'm bored lol.

The lace was a gift from my lovely blogging friend Ger and I threaded some green organza ribbon from my stash through it.

The flowers are ones I have had from when I designed for Janlynn.com/Stamps Happen, and they no longer sell them. I'm not a big sunflower fan, but thought these went well with the image.

The image is coloured with a mix of Copics and Promarkers and I actually used my Cricut to cut out the scalloped squares and also the leaves. Told you I would only use it for normal shapes lol.

I am having problems getting the correct pressure/speed etc though, so it's kind of put me off using it :( It's just a waste of good paper/card (which I have hardly any of as it is!) when it won't cut properly and tears the paper to bits! The girl I bought it from said that it was a new blade that was fitted in it, so I'm sure it's just me not being able to use it properly! lol. As I bought it second hand, it didn't come with any instructions, so I have had to do a bit of searching online to find out what pressure etc I need to set it at, but even after following all the recommendations on the Provocraft site, I still can't get it right! lol

My second card is Springy too :) I think I should of maybe used one of these cards for the By The Cute and Girly challenge instead of using one that isn't very springy lol.

I love this cute image from LOTV, but I'm not happy with the way I coloured it. I don't have this stamp, but I got some LOTV stamped images months back in a magazine (told you these mags come in handy! lol) and they are on really thin paper, so you can't really add much ink without it bleeding.

The papers I used on this one are K&Co, roses from my stash, the big flower I have no idea who make it because I bought them off a blogging friend (thanks again hunnie), and the embroidered leaves and butterfly were from Little Snippets, but unfortunately Ger has stopped selling her embroidered bits :( Such a shame because they are beautiful. Oh and the ribbon is also from Little Snippets.

That's it from me for today on the card front, but I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who left my comments these last few days. They really cheered me up and gave me the incentive I needed to keep blogging :) You are all fantastic and I appreciate every one of you coming to visit and taking the time to leave me comments :)

Digital Tuesday Bugs and Blooms without the bugs! lol

Well I was going to do this post yesterday but the kids decided that Mum wasn't getting on the computer yesterday! lol. I got one post done here and my challenge blog posts done yesterday so I think I was chancing my luck when I wanted to do another post! lol

The challenge over at Digital Tuesday this week is Bugs and Blooms. It was Maria's turn to choose the challenge and she wants to see bugs and/or blooms.
The sponsor this week is Robyn's Fetish and I was planning on using one of her images for the challenge, but I bought 2 digi's from Wee Stamps a few weeks back that I had never used yet, so I kinda got sidetracked and coloured those up instead lol. I have used one for my card and after I added it to the DT blog on Monday, I noticed that I hadn't even used an image that had a bug on it! oops, just as well we could use bugs or blooms, or else I would of had to start all over again!

 I coloured the little cutie with Copics, and I never do blue and red together, but I only have a few copics just now and wanted to colour an image with just copics for a change, so this is just the colours I had lol.
I had a problem finding red and blue papers to match though, because it's colours I never use together, and never buy red papers, but I found the red one in an old paper pad that I think came free with a magazine months and months ago, and the blue patterned and plain papers are from a 12x12 pad that I got in The Works a while ago (same time as I bought the white paint I used yesterday:). They are by Kit 'N Kraft and I must admit that they are not very good quality (a bit on the thin side), but at £2.99 for 25 sheets of 12x12, they were a bargain, so I got 3 different pads lol. I would of got more but there was only 3 different ones.
The flowers are all Wild Orchid Crafts except the big red rose which was another bargain buy from Hobbycraft (I know it's not a likely place to find bargains!! lol, but they were reduced to 29p per bunch!:)
I covered the all in stickles, and they look ok in real life, but it looks a bit of a mess in these pics lol. I used icicle stickles because I couldn't find my star dust or diamond ones (think my girls have gone off with them again!!) and I really don't like them! The particles are too big and it all comes out in big blobs most of the time....or maybe that 's just the bottle I have lol.
I used a Stampin Up punch for the notebook style border, some American Crafts ribbon, the flourish was made with a MFT die and I got creative with the one a Marianne border die for the scalloped matting around the image.
I don't have a scalloped square die, or a scalloped punch for that matter (I had 2 before we moved house, but none now) and I wanted a pretty mat, so I cut out some borders with a Marianne die, then chopped them in half lengthways, cut them to the lengths I needed to go around the square and stuck them on :)
I was going to use the bigger scalloped edge, but it didn't join up very well, so I used the small side and it worked perfectly...well almost perfectly lol. Two of the edges didn't match up exactly, but I just covered those with embellies. You can hide a multitude of sins under flowers and flourishes you know lol.

Isn't she a cutie? I must get more of these stamps, they are just gorgeous.

Oh, before I go, I wanted to ask all you UK girls a question..........

I am seriously running out of coloured card to use for matting and layering and I used to get all my card from the Papeterie (for those of you who don't know, it's a shop that sells paper/card that is made in the papermill next door), but I can't get from there anymore as I live too far away.

They do deliver, but it's £6.50 delivery per box (or you can get up to 6 boxes delivered for the same price, but I have nowhere to store 6 boxes...or even 3 boxes because my house is so tiny!).

Also they don't have pics of their paper/card colours on their website, so you don't really know what colours you are going to get delivered to you or what weights they will be etc. Last time I just asked for assorted colours (I bought 2 boxes of white and 2 coloured to make up for the postage lol), but most of it was colours that I would never use and I ended up giving them to the kids to draw on.

I have been looking online, but can't seem to find anywhere that does card at a decent price!

So my question is, where do you all buy your coloured (or white because I need that too) cardstock?

I don't want it in huge quantities as my house is tiny so I have nowhere to store it.

Most websites I have looked at are really expensive for shipping (I know card is heavy but the prices I seen were way over the odds) and they don't do assorted colour packs/boxes. I don't want to have to buy a pack in pink, one in blue, one in brown etc, I just want an assortment of different colours.

Surely it can't be this hard to find an assorted box of card at a reasonable price and reasonable postage......or can it??

Answers on a postcard please! lol

By The Cute and Girly- Spring Is All Around (well maybe somewhere in the world!)

It's been a whole month since I last posted on here! I've had internet troubles for the last week and a half, but to be honest, my mojo completely left me and I just haven't felt like crafting or blogging. I was considering giving up both but I didn't want to let my design teams down at By The Cute and Girly and Digital Tuesday as it would mean that I would no longer have my challenge blogs either, so I gave it a few weeks and Mr Mojo is coming back slowly :) It was my birthday on the 13th of April and I never get anything crafty, but I did get some pennies so I added some of my own money to it and bought a cricut from a blogging friend and 2 cartridges too :)

I have wanted a cricut for ages, but when I got it, it just sat there and I never used it! So I decided the other day that it was time to make some use of it and made a few cards (I will show the others I made over the next few days).

I'm not into die cut cards, like the ones where there is no stamped images or embellies etc, just all die cuts so I don't think I will ever make one of those. I just really wanted one so that I can cut basic shapes lol. I only have a few dies and only one set of nesties (the scalloped circles) and simple things like not being able to layer my scalloped circle nesties onto a plain circle drove me nuts! So I will probably only use it for matting my images and things like that, but you never know, I may get creative with it one day!

I would also like to get a fonts cart as the 2 I have are shapes, because I like the idea of being able to cut out names etc for cards to personalise them, but that will have to wait until I have some spare pennies!

Ok, so enough of my rambling. I have a card to show that I made for the By The Cute and Girly challenge. The challenge for May is Spring Is All Around, and as always you can enter with any craft. 

My card is not very Springy, but I made this one a long time ago and just never got around to posting it, and it has flowers on it, so I thought it would fit the theme.

I must warn you, this post will be long as I have a few pics to show and I haven't been able to ramble on my blog for a whole month, so I have to make up for that!! lol

Sorry for the pants pics! They all look so washed out :(

 

I was experimenting with white acrylic paint on this card lol. I really wanted white picket fence paint, but couldn't find it in any of the stores here, so while I was in The Works buying some pencils and stuff for my kids, I came across a big tube of white acrylic paint that was reduced to 99p and decided I buy it and use it sometime. Well that paint has been sitting for months never opened!! So I got it out and experimented on this card, but to be honest, you can't really see it in these pics! lol

The papers I used are My Minds Eye from the Lost & Found collection, as is the brown sparkly ribbon. I love these papers so much! I really need to get some more!

I edged all the papers with the paint and inked them with antique linen distress ink. I really wanted to use Walnut Stain so it would show up better and I know I have it somewhere, but I couldn't find that inkpad anywhere! So I just done a few layers of the antique linen instead.

I cut out a few die cuts from kraft card (the frame, leaves and bottom flourish is Marianne Designs dies and the other flourish is by MFT), then covered them with a few white paint and added some stickles :)

The flowers are of course from Wild Orchid Crafts and I also used some clear Inky Dinks from Inky Impressions, oh and some pom pom trim that I picked up when I was in Montrose a while back.

The image is of course from Saturated Canary and is coloured with Copics. I printed the image onto kraft card, then used my little score board to score a border, then sewed around the embossed border by hand. Then I put some paint on the edges, inked them and then added some star dust stickles. I would of never thought of scoring lines around my image and I have no idea what gave me the idea to do it, but I kinda like it :)  You can't really see the embossed lines in these pics, but it shows up much better in real life.

You can just about see the top line on the pic above though.

 No idea why I took a pic at this angle! lol Think I must of been trying to show the glitter on the flowers, or maybe the die cuts?? No idea! lol, but you can see the pretty flowers better in this one :)

That's it from me for now. Sorry this post was so long! I have really missed blogging and reading the comments that my lovely blogging buddies leave me :) Thanks so much for stopping by. I really do appreciate your visit and any comments that you leave. I think the only thing that has actually kept me blogging on my own blog is the lovely comments I get, otherwise, I think I may of packed it blogging long ago.

I have a card to show for the Digital Tuesday Challenge where the new challenge also starts today, but I will do another post later on today for that card. I think this post is long enough!! lol