Tiddly Inks and Sketch Saturday challenge card

Yesterday the artist behind Tiddly Inks celebrated her birthday and so this weeks challenge is in honour of Christy's birthday.  Create a card using Christy's favourite colour combination of black, white and red.

I also used the latest Sketch Saturday sketch.  Here's the sketch :

And here's my card :

Isn't Minnie brilliant.  She's one of the new releases over at Tiddly Inks.

She is coloured with copic for the dress, skin and hair, and sakura stardust pens for the flowers and the rim of her glasses.  I used glossy accents on her glasses.  The edge has been distressed with barn door distress ink and then a dotty border added with my black sakura stardust pen.

The PP is by Bo Bunny and is called santorini poppies.  The white card is embossed with my crafts too swiss dots folder and the black shimmer card came from everycraftsapound.com

The sentiment smile, on the top left was first stamped in black ink and I then went over the wording with the black stardust pen.  The sentiment is on a sheet of sentiments from Lili of the Valley.

The card is finished as always with card candy, now known as candi, and is the new spots and flowers range they have recently released.

Thanks for popping over,

Hugs

H xx

What's on your workdesk wednesday - A bit of a mess

Now when I say a bit of a mess TBH I'm lying.  A bit of a mess would imply you could see my desk!!

Right what you see??  Well you can see the unfinished Lady dog scrapbook that must be finished by Sunday as  it's my Mother's day present for my Mum.

A Lili of the Valley stamped card, big card candy store, I out grew the one they used to sell so had to upgrade, and my netbook that usually sits on my envelopes drawer that I pull out to rest it on as there's never much space to actually put it on my desk.

Right I'm off to check up on some forums and then I really must do more scrapbook pages plus the front and back cover.

Hugs

H xx

Tiddly Inks Sale - 25% off today only

You have to be quick to catch this one.

Tiddly Inks is having a sale for today only.

Why???

Because it's Tiddly Inks artist Christy Croll's birthday.

So what are you waiting for???

Run over to the Tiddly Inks Store right away and grab a bargain,

H xx

Doodle Dragon Studios Challenge - Hop to it

This challenge has come along at exactly the right time for me.

I am hosting an Easter Bunny Swap over at UKScrappers. You have to buy craft stash for the person you are the Easter bunny for, stash shop for them checking their likes and dislikes lists, and then send them their goodie in time for Easter.  I finished my stash shopping on Friday and had decided to send their goodies in a personalised bag.  So when I read on The doodle Dragon Blog that the challenge was to make anything but a card using an Easter theme, I nearly danced for joy.

Here is my Easter Bunny bag :

And here is a close-up of a very grumpy looking Easter bunny :

This was no quick make, it probably took me around 3 hours!!

So how did I do it??

Well first off you have to order from your local take-away so you can get a nice brown paper bag, hey the things we do for our art!!

I then measured the bag and opened up a page in adobe elements the exact size of the bag.  I then played around with various images until I had created the scene I was happy with.

I used the fence, the Easter signpost and Grumpy Bunny.  The Easter images are from the February membership.   I printed out the fences and signpost separately to the grumpy bunny.  I then coloured the fence, and signpost with my copics, highlighted the signpost with white gel pen, coloured parts of the Easter eggs with metallic pens and then used bundled sage distress ink to do the grass. 

I then coloured my grumpy bunny with copics, used caroles white fluff (it's like white flower soft) then cut around the bunny and the scene with my craft knife.

Next I cut a piece of blue paper the size of my bag and distressed around the edges with faded jeans distress ink. I then cut a cloud shape out, split it in two and glued then onto my sky.

The sky and scene were then stuck flat onto the bag and finally my grumpy bunny was stuck on the front using foam pads to pop him from the background.

I love how this bag has turned out and in all honesty I don't know if I can give it away.

If you like my bag then you'd best nip over to The doodle Dragon Store and grab some digi's,

Hugs

H xx

Tuesday Morning Sketches using a Tiddly Inks image

Over at Tuesday Morning sketches the theme is K.I.D.S.  Which stands for keep it delightfully simple, with a kids theme.

I have had Daddy's girl printed out for a while now and when I saw Marlena's post using the daddy's little girl image I decided to use her colouring/shading as inspiration to finally get mine coloured in.

Please take time to wander around Marlena's blog, she has some amazing things to share with you.

Here's my card :

Isn't she so adorable??

She is coloured with my copic ciao's, with the border done with my uni pin fine liner.

The PP is Andreavictoria by MME.

The card is finished with the usual card candy.

If you havn't heard of card candy, or their re-branded name of Candi, where have you been??

You can find them at the Craftwork Cards website here. There are so many varieties to choose from you will be spoilt for choice.  If you do buy some make sure you buy the white pack as then you can colour them to match you projects exactly.

Hugs

H xx

Tiddly Inks Challenge 43 - Picture Me

Over on the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog there has been a slight change to the challenge policy.  Only projects using Tiddly Inks images can be entered for the challenge.  It's not a problem for me as I have so many tiddlies to choose from.  And so onto this weeks challenge.  The challenge is two fold this week.  The first element of the challenge is to produce a shaped card.  You cannot use an electronic die cutter, such as the cricut but you can use manual die cutters such as the big shot teamed with say a nestabilite die.

You also have to use the photo below as inspiration for your card.

This is the second card I have made for this challenge.  The first one I can't use for this challenge as I didn't use the image as inspiration, but I will enter it into another challenge later today.

I don't own an dies to use in my cuttlebug as I sold them all to help pay for my cricut so this challenge was a bit more challenging than normal.

As a circle was out of the question (it wouldn't look like a circle when I'd finished cutting it) I chose to use a shape with straight sides so I could use my trimmer.  I chose the above shape as it was simple to cut and also simple to produce a smaller shape for my patterned paper.

The image I chose to go with is called Fairy Fae, I thought she was the perfect image to go with my chosen colour scheme. I coloured her with copics and used sakura clear stardust pen in her flowers and glamour dust for the details on her wings.  I then doodled a border around my fairy Fae.

The backing paper was made by blending my spun sugar, weathered wood and dusty concord distress inks.

I then sprayed it with my home made pink mica spray, to give it the fairy sparkle it needed.  I them went around the edges with a simple stamp in black memento ink.

The lace is from stash and the card is finished as usual with card candy.

Thannks for dropping by and leaving me some lovely comments, I really appreciate them all,

Hugs

H xx

C S Designs Big Extravaganza Entry number 2 using Sweet Sketch Saturday Sketch

I told you I'd be back to show you another card using Lulu didn't I?.

Well I made today's card using the Sweet sketch Wednesday.  Well I've just been over to download the sketch ready to post it on here, when I read there was an extra challenge of using a bunny on your card.  Now I'm not sure if you have to or with it saying "extra" you don't have to.  So if I'm disqualified for not using a bunny I don't mind as the sketch was a great one to use.

Here is the sketch :

And here is my card :

And here is a close-up of Lulu :

As the card is destined for Mike's Gran I coloured Lulu's hair grey.  Her dress, handbag and shoes are coloured with copic's.  The spots on her dress have been given a bit of sparkle by colouring over the green with my sakura stardust pen and her wings are glamour dusted.  For her hair-piece dangley bits, first they were coloured with copics then I applied glossy accents over the top.  If you look in the close-up you will see that the GS hasn't dried properly yet. The dotty border is done with a black stardust pen.

The aqua shimmery paper, black paper, lace and white ribbon are from my stash.

I think Lulu looks great with grey hair, a perfect glamorous Grandma.

Hugs

H xx 

If it wasn't for my Dog's.....

I think I would have gone mad a whole lot sooner than I did.

I have three wonderful Labradors that share mine and my husband’s lives.  We have got each of at them at a different part of their lives.

First came Zara, who I puppy walked for Guide Dogs for the Blind from the age of 8 weeks.   Due to her epilepsy she has since become our pet.  Next up came Max who was 6 years old when he joined us from Labrador Rescue.  Max was chosen as he looked like Bungle bear from a children’s programme Rainbow.

Finally came Leah, at the age of 11 months.  Her previous family were moving to look after a elderly relative and were not allowed dogs in their rented property.

I have had Dog’s all my life, nearly always three dog’s at a time.

I also owned Gloucester Old Spot pigs (when I lived on my parents farm) and I now own a dexter cow called, now don’t laugh, Fluffy.  She has a very fluffy fringe, hence the name.

Here's my lovely dogs:

And now onto my questions:

#1 : Who did Max look like when we adopted him?

#2 :  What is the name of my cow?

#3 : What is the title of this blog post?

So now all you have to do is become a follower if you arn't already, leave me a comment so I know you've popped on by and make a note of the the questions and answers from this post.  Once you complete the blog hop you need to email Chris with all the questions and answers you find.

Your next stop on the blog hop is : Theresa Gerber

Note: If you are lost here is the list of Designer Sites. Each link will open in a new tab. Once you visit a blog you can close their tab but you should leave this one open just in case something unforeseen happens and you loose your way.

You Start Here...  

Sharon Rogers / Sharon's Showcase

Melissa Oeters -  Needful Things

Melissa Sackman I have Prettier Stuff

Chrisssie Tobas - Harvest Moon Papiere

Dana Seymour - Kismet, Art Life

Hazel  Parr - Just Add Glitter - YOU ARE HERE

Theresa Gerber - Crafts, Friends, Angels

You End up Here ... Chris Stern - CS Designs

Tiddly Inks Challenge 42 - Lucky Me

Over at the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog  the theme is all about GREEN!! With St. Patrick's Day (for those of you who celebrate) coming up and Spring knocking at our doorsteps we want you to GO GREEN this week!! In your creation you can either encompass a St. Patty's Day theme OR run with the environmental theme of Save The Earth!

I chose to use Spring HuggaBugg.

Here she is on my card :

Spring HuggaBugg is coloured with my copics and then the centre of the flowers I used my clear sakura stardust gel pen.  The wings have been glamour dusted.  The PP are both from my PP scraps drawer.  I know the bamboo leaves on the right is Kanban and I think the paper on the left is from a magazine.

I have gone around the oval with bundled sage distress ink.  

The sentiment is from a die-cut sheets from Kanban and has also been inked with bundled sage distress ink.

The scalloped oval and the fancy edge card were cut on my cricut.

The card is finished with the usual card candy.

Thanks for dropping on by,

Hugs

H xx

Doodle Dragon Studios Challenge - Spring Showers

Sorry for being a bad blogger this week.  I've swapped some of my daily painkillers for a patch and it's taking a bit of getting used to.  I'm just sooooo tired.  Hopefully once my body gets used to it, I will feel more awake.

Anyway onto this weeks challenge over at Doodle Dragon Studios.

Here's what Dustin has to say about this weeks challenge "  Make something fun using "Spring Showers" as your theme.  This could be wedding showers, baby showers, spring, rain showers with my images...use your imagination.  I look forward to seeing what you have created.  Remember all who submit something using my images receives Pike's Points."

Here's my card :

The cute bee is from the latest release, which you can find here.  He's called bee basket.  I chose him as I saw my first bumble bee this week.

He's coloured with my copics and I have used some glamour dust on his wings to give that little sparkle.

The scalloped circle was cut on my cricut and i have faux stitched around the edges with sakura black star dust pen.  The patterned paper was made using 3 small flowers stamps and black chalk ink.  These has yellow gem centres along with the flower he's holding in his hand.

The ribbon is a left over from my childhood and the yellow card candy is some of the newly released flower patterned candy that I got at the GNPE show yesterday.

I will be back later to show you all the goodies I got yesterday,

Hugs

H xx 

Lili of the Valley Challenge 87- Say it with Flowers

Over on the Lili of the Valley Challenge Blog the challenge is called say it with flowers.

For my challenge card I used the following sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday

And here is my card :

The image used is called Glamorous Gardening and she is coloured with copics and I used my clear sakura stardust pen on the bow on her hat and the flowers in the plantpot.  I used adhesive pearls for her necklace and bracelet.

The lemon background paper has been stamped with a swirly background stamp in lemon chalk ink.

The panel running down the centre on the card is yellow angel paper/fibres.

The ribbon is actually a relic of my childhood when I had long hair and Mum used to put bows in it.

I used a glittery flower brad either side of the computer generated sentiment.

Thanks for popping on by,

Hugs

H xx

Miss Anya Mother's Day Card

I've finally got this image onto a card.  It's been coloured in for a few days now but I have lacked the time to put her onto a card.

This card is being entered into the Friday Sketchers Challenge (see sketch below) and the Anything Goes Challenge where you have to use die cuts.

Here is the Friday sketchers sketch :

And here is my card:

This Miss Anya is from the Miss Anya Love Collection and is coloured with copics and the flowers and headband are coloured with sakura stardust pens.  I used the same sakura pens to give her a dotty border.

The PP in the background is from Kanban and all other papers were from my scrap bag.  The lilac panel was embossed with the cuttlebug d'vine embossing folder.

The die cut flowers were done using a woodware punch and then coloured with chalk inks.  The gem in the middle was originally white but I coloured them with my copics to match the image.

The small gem hearts on the embossed panel are actually nail art purple hearts.  Don't they look great??

Thanks for dropping on by and leaving me some amazing comments,

H xx

Dad's Surprise Party

Sssshhhh, its a secret but my Dad turns 70 in may and we are throwing a surprise for for his close family and friends. 

My Dad's a farmer and so his invite HAD to include a cow somewhere and I'm really pleased with how the invite turned out.

You'll have to excuse the rubbish photography as it was just a quick photo in-between sorting them all out.

The cow stamp was bought over a year ago from ebay so no idea who the maker is.

The cow was stamped onto cream cardstock in vintage photo distress ink and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

The cow panel and the invite are then distressed with the same distress ink.

*Please note, no cows were harmed in the making of this invite*

The cow panel was then mounted onto brown card and card candy were used in the corners.

Only 14 more invites to make now,

H xx

Sketch Saturday and Cute Card Thursday Challenge Card

I needed to make an 80th birthday card for a relative,Peter who turns 80 very soon in Australia and as soon as I saw the sketch from Sketch Saturday I knew I had to use that sketch, and here it is:

And here is the card:

I have used one of my favourite male stamp images from Lili of the Valley called Lazy Afternoon.

He is coloured in with my copics.  The circles have got tea dye distress ink blended around the edge.  The fancy cirles were cut on my cricut using MTC and a file from Penny Duncan Designs.

I think the PP may be one I downloaded from the Lili of the Valley website.  The large circle is cut from a sample of leather effect wallpaper my SIL gave me.  The mesh across the middle was bought from the Stamp Pad Saddlesworth.  The card is finished as usual with card candy.

This card is also entered into the Cute Card Thursday challenge blog, where the theme this week is birthdays.

Just 7 more sleeps till we go to the Papercraft Extravaganza in Harrogate!!!

Can you tell I'm excited??

Hugs

H xx

I've got an award!!

One of the blogs I visit every week is run by Elenor.  She has just moved her blog over to blogger and you can check out her blog Here.

She has nominated me to get the stylish blogger award, so thanks Elenor, you're a star!

I have to tell you all eight things about myself and then nominate 8 people whose blogs I love.

Here are the eight things about me:

1. I've only been card making 12 months

2. I've only been using copic's 3 months

3. I spend every thursday evening having a drink with my mother-in-law

4. I have 4 best friends, my Mum, Mandy,Kath and my Mum-in-law

5. I always have a bruise somewhere on me where one of the dogs has stood on me on their way across the bed. 

6. I have a dexter cow called Fluffy (she lives on my parents farm, not at my house)

7. I used to own lots of Gloucester old spot pigs.

8. I love to drink rum but it doesn't agree with my meds so haven't managed to have any in years :0(

And now onto my list of eight nominee's

1.Melissa

2.Femke

3. Lisa

4.Carin

5.Jennifer

6.Hannah

7.Toni

8.Claire

Hugs
H xx

Tiddly Inks Challenge 41-Kraft with me

Over on the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog this weeks challenge is to use Kraft paper somewhere in you project.

I only possess one small piece of kraft paper that I had as a leftover from a card making class so I had to think very hard as there was no second chances if I messed up.

I used the following sketch from Friday Sketchers :

And here is my card:

The very cute little girl is called Whatcha doin? and she is coloured with copics.  The spots on her bow are just by holding the blending pen on the bow for a couple of seconds.  I have dotted the edge of the image with pink sakura stardust pen.  The piece of kraft cardstock is by woodware and I have stamped a baroque swirl background stamp in versamark ink to give a light pattern that hasn't shown up on camera.

The circular cardstock is pearlised pink and is embosses with a flowers and vines cuttlebug embossing folder.

The raffia was given to me by my very good friend Kath.  The pearls are from my stash.

This card is also being entered into the Bugaboo anything goes challenge.

Thanks for dropping on by,

Hugs

H xx 

I won Sketch Saturday Challenge

Sorry I haven't been around very much this week, I'm not feeling too crash hot.

I did get some very nice news on Sunday.  When I was adding my link to the sketch Saturday post I saw I had won the previous weeks challenge!!

Hopefully I will back at the weekend as there is no time for crafting in the next two days.

Hugs

H xx

A birthday card for Eleanor

I've been asked by my Mum to make a birthday card for one of her friends.  She owns a beautiful labrador so I chose little girl on a swing as she is is sat with her labrador. I am entering it into the following challenges:

Paper Sundae Challenge Blog - Stripes

Cute Card Thursday - signs of spring

Sketch Saturday- using the following sketch

And here is my card :

The image is coloured with copics. The circles were cut on my cricut.  The stripey paper is from a spring stack I think and the ribbon is from dcwv.  The sentiment is a Lili of the valley sentiment circle.

The pearls and pink paper are from my stash.

I didn't add the three elements in the lower left of the sketch as I couldn't get anything to look right there so I added some more pearls instead.

Hugs

H xx

Lili of the Valley Challenge Card - Challenge 86

Its so long since I made a http://liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.com/ card isn't it? So I though I would put that right today and create a card using one of the new stamps.

There is a sketch to follow this week and here is it :

And here's my card :

The image is called The Little Things which comes with a sentiment that reads Love is in the little things.

I stamped the image in rich cocoa memento ink and decided the image was so beautiful that I would not colour just add some walnut stain distress ink around the edge of the oval.  The gold mirror frame was embossed with a daisy embossing folder that came free with the Do-Crafts magazine the other month.

The brown paper was embossed with a crafts too dotty folder and then I've used card candy along the edge of the curve.  The bow was tied with my bow-easy and has a beautiful pale gold/brown hat pin secured through it.

Thanks for dropping by and leaving me some wonderful comments,

Hugs

H xx

I made the Tiddly Ink top 5!!

I seem to have come with a very grotty bug and am feeling far from my best and have done NO crafting at all today!!  And so you can image the smile I made when I saw that the bone shaker card I made for last weeks Tiddly Inks Challenge came in the  Tiddly Inks Top 5!

I had planned on sowing you my very first scrapbook page but that would involve moving from this chair and it ain't happening.  Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow and can share it then,
Hugs
H x

Bugaboo Green with Envy challenge card

Over at Bugaboo challenge blog there's a colour and a sketch theme going on.

You have to follow the following sketch and make a card featuring the colour green.

And here's my card featuring the very cool Clyde.

I don't know the PP used for this card I'm afraid but I did like it.  I've gone around the edge of it with olive green chalk ink. The satin ribbon was from my stash and is held in place with 2 metal snaps.

Clyde is cut out and placed on foam pads to pop him out from the nestie shapes.  The nestie shapes were cut on my cricut.  The top one was given a hint of brown to match Clyde's tummy and the bottom was was splodged with the same olive green chalk ink used on the patterned paper.

Thanks for dropping by,

H xx

Tiddly Inks Challenge 40 - Colour Me incorperating Sketch Saturday

Over at the Tiddly Ink Challenge blog the new theme is colour me and here's what those guys have to say about their latest challenge :

"I don't know about you but this is SUCH the time of year for mega winter BLAHS!!!! So we thought we'd bring you some serious COLOR to enhance your day and week and month!!! This week's Tiddly Challenge #40 is COLOR ME!!! You will notice, however, all month long we'll be having super fabulous color challenges to wake everyone out of their wintery slumber and make your eyes pop with colorful fun!"

And so without further ado here's my take on the challenge :

And here's the sketch from Sketch Saturday :

I chose this sketch as I thought that each strip could represent a colour of the rainbow.

The cute girl hiding under her umbrella is Donna and she's coloured in with copics to match the colours used on the card.  Her umbrella and a bit of her wellies have glossy accents on to represent the wet look.  The oval was cut from white cardstock then brushed very lightly with blue chalk ink then I went around the edge of the oval with a squidgy blue pigment ink pad.  All the coloured card is by American crafts.

The hello stamp is from my stash.

The verse inside the card reads "friends are hidden treasures who come out like a rainbow after a storm, to brighten our days in their special kind of ways."

Thanks for dropping by and leaving lovely comments,

H xx