Promarkers

I accidentally stopped off at Hobbycraft yesterday and a set of manga 3 & additions promarkers fell into my basket. Ooops. Got home and found the nib of one was busted, grrrrr so I had to pop back over there this morning. Wouldn't you know it another set or 2 fell into my hands. Manga 1 and additions 2 this time ;o)

This is my first play with them. Mimosa stamped with Brilliance graphite black heat set on to Bristol board. First image smudged so badly I didn't even bother finishing the face, thankfully I had to go shopping so the others were left to dry out. I still had a wee bit of smudge on the inner line of the flower. Haven't a clue what colours I used as I wasn't expecting it to be any where near good enough to use. Paper is Doodlebug and I used scal to create a shaped background. Martha Stewart punch border and some ribbon & gems. Quite chuffed with it for a first attempt but I think I'm going to need to add some lighter shades of copics to my collection.

Sketch Saturday 39

Not so sure on this one for Sketch Saturday. I put the stamped image on the wrong part of the paper and covered up the deep red area of the pattern.

Mimosa stamp from Bildmarna, coloured with deep red f&c watercolour pencils and the bear is cream with dark naples ochre. Kelly Panaci paper with trimcraft brad, cuttlbug snowflake and Penny Black sentiment. The "ribbons" are debossed silver pearl in a bug folder then wiped over with grey and azure blue stayzon.

Truly Scrumptious challenge

Naughty bloggers, you all keep tempting me into buying new nicies and quite fittingly for a new challenge blog, Truly Scrumptious I've used my new scrummy stamp from Bildmarna.

Instead of using watercolours I've used Polychromo pencils in madder lake and spring green and blended with baby oil and cotton buds. I think I've come to the conclusion that I need to practise with these instead of dolly out the pram because I don't get good results yet.

Papers are docrafts and doodlebug.

Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge 40

Unusual is the word for this weeks Spoon Full of Sugar challenge which was to make a card which wasnt the standard square or rectangle.

A long time ago I made an oriental card from Janet Wilson & Tiny vd Plaas book More Teabag Folding, which involved cutting a latticed pagoda by hand. I still love the book and have saved the pattern on the pc. Perfect for my new craftwork cards stamps and this particular theme.

These days I'm addicted to seeing how far I can push my cricut so I fiddled with the pattern and sent it to scal to cut. Naughty I know and I am working on my own pc drawn version but it's going to take me longer than this challenge.

The pagoda was cut in 2 pieces, the main 3 part panel with a middle panel & roof. I attached some thick oriental vellum (bought from Xyron peeps at a show donkeys years ago.) before adding the roof & back panel. I then added 2 lil stamped ladies, a few coins strung on some mizhuhiki cord (I havent cleared away from yesterdays playtime and it was handy lol).

Not the easiest thing to photo as I needed to use artificial light to show how the vellum gives the impression of a paper wall that you would get in a Japanese home. You can see the lattice on the back where it's photoed with a light behind.

Candy alert

The lovely Bev has 2 rather scrummy blog candy prizes up for grabs both of which include some of her gorgeous crocheted flowers.

Friday Sketchers 40

3 posts in 1 day, don't know what's wrong with me but I do know the housework hasn't been touched lol.

This is for the Friday Sketchers challenge. I'm trying to use up just a small part of my 4ft high pile of patterned papers. This is using a Sugar Nellie stamp I bought yesterday, she's coloured with middle purple pink & bluish turqouise f&c pencils with terracotta hat and dark naples ochre hair. I've mixed vandyke brown with splodges of dark cadmium orange for the lil pussy cat.

Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge 40

Mixing the old and the new with my card for the Spoon full of Sugar challenge.

The papers are oldish Trimcraft ones in my favourite combination of colours, purple & green. The stamp is a new one from Craftwork cards bought at Farnborough yesterday. She needs to be coloured in copics to get the eveness of tone. Gutted really as I wanted to buy some yesterday but didn't see them :o(

Old is the mizhuhiki cord, I've had it for well over 10 years but I rarely make oriental cards. The knot represents Good Luck and although it's easy to tie you need half a dozen fingers on each hand to get the first cord right.

Choosing nestability dies

One of the most frequently asked questions is "Which shape & size nesties should I buy?" Personally I'd just say buy the lot, they're addictive and you'll end up wanting more.

Shapewise I think the circles & the ovals are the hardest to cut by hand so chose 1 of the scalloped versions first if you are just getting one set. My own preference is circles as I just find they work better with Tildas.

Sizewise there's little to chose between them, it's not really large and small rather larger and inbetweens. The largest of a small set is the inbetween size of the 2 largest in the large then they step between each other. Sometimes it's easier to see what someone means than just words so I've cut the 2 sets of scalloped circles and stacked them together. I've overlaid a 1cm grid so you can see the size but it's not to the nth degree accurate.

Once you have your scalloped set you might want to add a plain set. I've shown the large scalloped with the large plain.

If you have small scallops and large plain you wont get much of the scallop showing unless you use a size down.

Be warned about mixing the petite ovals with the original ovals, they're a totally different oval and DONT nest together.

Saturday Challenge

This is one of those times when the card doesnt look the same in real life as I imagined it. Technically it should work, all the colours are right and it's a fab sketch from Secret Crafter, but it just doesnt work.

Unknown um stamp, madder pink, rose carmine, walnut brown, apple & juniper green f&c pencils. Heidi Grace? paper, quilled corner flourishes, overstamped with Brilliance gold. I think I'm going to risk whipping off the quilled corners...

Blog candy alert

Rachel is offering the most amazing blog candy including a couple of those gorgeous & elusive punches. Even if it's after the closing date of feb 22 her blog is well worth visiting.

Magnolia v Stampavie challenge

This weeks challenge on Magnolia Vs Stampavie was to use no colour other than chocolate brown, nearly navy, old olive and pale blue.

The brown paper is from a papermania set and the paisley from DCWV stack. Sarah Kay is coloured with helioblue reddish, and leaf green yellowish with walnut brown for the hair. A few pearls, 2 ribbons and a sentiment. I might photo it again when we have better whether as the blue of the nestie, silk flower and ribbon are looking decidedly dodgey.

Sketch saturday challenge 38

The crocuses and snowdrops are just beginning to mark the start of spring so I went with a light clean look for this weeks Sketch Saturday.

The papers are from a DCWV spring pad and I used a dimension fourth flourish stamp with a Fresco lilac chalk ink on some pink card. Tilda is coloured with light ultra marine and pink madder lake with delft blue (it's purple) lilacs. I've used good old stickles over her wings and the lilacs and added a few gems to the nestie circles. I covered a mauve button with versamark and dipped in holographic ep before tying with some pink mizhuiki cord. Penny Black sentiment and a silk flower.

Whiff Of Joy Challenge

Sadly I've only got a few Whiff Of Joy stamps, well that is until the postie arrives ;o)

This week it's a fab sketch on the Whiff Of Joy challenge blog. I fancied some muted papers this time so went with a single double sided sheet of K&Co. Melinda is coloured with pompien red & juniper green f&c pencils with naples yellow & raw umber for her hair. The burgundy mesh was hand embossed & cut using my favourite marianne stencil. I then made a set of nested shapes using a } sign and sent it to SCAL & the cricut. A couple of prima flowers, 2 buttons, a ribbon and a sentiment.

Last ones

I've finally finished the samples for Art of Craft using Marianne Design Pink stencils.

Both are using papers from Crafts Too pads.

This one is with a Mattie 3d, possibly my favourite sheet ever as it lends itself to so many shaped backgrounds.

It's been a long time since I made a spring card but I had fun with this one. As a sample it's going to live its' life in a poly bag otherwise I'd have liked to add ribbon streamers from the 2 sides.

Again I've used scal & the cricut to create a nice even mat for the butterflies. Probably takes longer than cutting by hand but it does create such a nice even border around them.

3 more samples for Art Of Craft

I'm having fun at the mo making some more samples for Art Of Craft using Marianne Design's Pink Stencils.

This one is using just cream & gold pearl card. I've used a cuttlebug leaves & birds folder to emboss the panel and added a 3d from the Mattie range.

I did cheat a bit and used some small Lucido flower peels offs instead of doing all the embroidery. It works for me though and I am hoping to finish all the samples and get them sent up in time for the Make It show this weekend.




For this one I continued with the weddingy theme. The pink paper is from a Papercraft 4 You pad and I've used it underneath some really old silver heart vellum that I've never known what to do with. The thread is a pale pink silky Gutterman and I drew the scalloped rectangle in PSP and cut with the cricut. I was going to use my nesties but they're just a bit too short for this. A few gems and some pink organza ribbon to finish.







This one is using a raspberry, mid blue coloured pearl card and swiss dots bug folder. I've left a space for a greeting/3d/flower. The dotty papers are from a Crafts Too pad. An organza bow threaded with some flower beads on a narrow satin ribbon and a few blue gems.


Shhh, dont tell anyone but all three of them have had the shaped mats cut with scal & the cricut ;o)

Sister's been playing

My lovely brother in law is decorating the stairs and hall for us at the mo so my sis came for a visit today. She gets all overcome with my playroom, wants to dive in and play but she cant ever decide what to use let alone have a finished card in mind.

So I decided to introduce her into the delights of sketches :o) We found a sketch she liked on Saturday sketch challenge blog and a Hero Arts rose stamp then we spent best part of 2 hours going through my papers!!!

She finally settled on 2 papers from a K&Co pad and I showed her how to use the martha stewart punch to create the frilly ribbon. She coloured the rose with juniper green and pompien red. The sentiment was a freebie with a card mag last month, ribbon from a Brenda Pinnick tsv and a few papermania pearls. The biggest challenge was the 2 flowers by the greeting, as per normal no matter how many primas I have I didnt have the exact shade needed so we used an old mosaic punch and added a couple of gems.

She's quite rightly chuffed with her masterpiece, just hope bil is just as chuffed.

I will say tho Sally if you're reading this...... watching you use a knife and scissors was worse than pulling TEETH!! ;o)

Whiff of Joy Challenge 18

The Whiff Of Joy challenge this week is a recipe,

3 patterned paper

2 flowers

& 1 brad/button.

I decided it's time to make a pact with myself, no buying magazines and leaving the papers aside for "one day". The pink paper & tag paper is from this months Making Cards and I've used a light mottled green paper underneath. 2 U-Create flowers and a pink gem brad. Bit of ribbon and my martha stewart punch to anchor the flowers. Melinda is coloured with leaf green, rose carmine, madder and a mixture of other faber & castell watercolur pencils and a bit of stickles glitter glue.

Whiff of Joy Challenge 17

Dont you just love weekends when the weather is so horrid you can justify staying in the playroom all day. We've only had deep snow in Bristol twice in the last 12 years so I've made the most of it and played with papers all day.

This is for Whiff Of Joy challenge 17. Paper Salon, Doodlebug & Pebbles papers mounted on a dusky pink card. Corner punch (Kars I think?) and a Martha Stewart border punch. Prima flowers with sequin & gem centres.

Melinda is painted with f&c water colour pencils, light ultramarine & rose carmine. Dark naples & brown ochre hair, and the book is earth green yellowish with terracotta corners. Madder used for the bangle & flower. Sentiment is a Studio G clear stamp I've had for ages and to me there can be nothing more perfect than a day with a good book.

Friday Sketchers

This was for Friday Sketchers challenge. Instead of playing with cute images I decided to use some of the mountain of old stash. The stamp is from an um sheet from Simply Stamps and is one of my favourite stamps. Papers are all from a papermania 6" stack. Prima flowers and a bit of organza ribbon.

Sketch saturday challenge

The Docrafts forum Tilda theme this week is Love and it had to have the word Love and something red. I managed to combine it with the Sketch Saturday challenge.

Docrafts dotty paper, lilac pearl card stamped with basic grey love flourish stamps using plum versafine. Green love paper my own design. Nestie circles. Tilda painted with F&C watercolour pencils, juniper green, mauve, deep red, with mixture of walnut brown & raw umber for hair. Ribbon bows with docraft gems.

Friday Sketchers

I must be on a roll, this is for Friday Sketchers

I stamped these as soon as they arrived from Magnolia and thought they would make a sweet card. The frame is dry embossed with a really old Marianne Design stencils and I've use docrafts paper behind the frame. There's also some hero arts flourishes stamped with Fresco chalk ink on the white background, it's such a pale lavender colour that the camera hasnt really picked it up.

Whiff Of Joy Challenge

I've sadly not had much time to join in with challenge blogs lately but last weeks Sketch Saturday was so sweet I just had to get the rubber out and make a Valentines card for this weeks Whiff Of Joy challenge.

This was using a stamp from Whiff Of Joy, Melinda Blowing Kisses painted with f&c pencils, cobalt, delft blue (is actually a purple), madder (pink) and dark naples ochre for her hair. The papers are from this months Docrafts goodie bag and I used a sentiment from this months Cardmaking & Papercraft mag. A few brads, gems & a border made using a Martha Stewart punch.