Butterflies

This Started off as a card for the Burtonesque dolls blog challenge and Haunted Design House with black flowers and skulls and beastly butterflies. This week has not gone quite to plan and going back to work after 6 weeks sick leave has left me more than a bit tired. Anyway, I missed the deadline for the dolls challenge. Nevermind. They have a corpse bride theme this week by the way.
I still have time for the Macabre Mondays of HDH. Also for Rosie-D's challenge of an easel card.
The Butterflies are a mixture of real and digi stamps. The digis I have added little red horns in place of the antenae and the real are feeding on any left over detris on the skulls. The flowers are a mixture of deep blood red, black and grey with little skulls stamped on the petals.
Paper is from a selection given to me so I have no idea on the origin I'm afraid. All put together on orange card stock. It was all coloured in using promarkers. Another for the Passion for Promarkers blog mega anniversay challenge

Light(ness) and Dark(ness)

If asked if there is a favorite set of images I have today, I would have to say those from Tellen's Place. They are so easy to work with. Not cute, I do struggle with cute. Although I will produce the odd one or two cute cards if the occasion arises.
Anyway, this week the challenge is to produce an item using the colours pink and brown. Pink is definitely not my colour, but we all have to make sacrifices for our friends.
This week I have tried to portray two sides of light (pink) and dark (brown). The first being that although we might have different skin tones, we can still be good friends; the lightness of friendship. So we have the girls having fun while Edward lazes away listening to his own music.


Then there is the dark of the threatening unknown. I have used Hades, one of Tellen's designs from their dark range of images to signify this. Calamity can sneak up when you're least expecting it.






















I have used Promarkers for the colouring in and digi papers for the backgrounds. The boulders that Edward is leaning on are left over from last weeks project. I still have some spare lol. The tree is from Mujka Design Inc.
Thanks for looking. Tellen's Place challenges always bring out the otherside of me.

Also entering this into the Passion for Promarkers challenge as it's as many entries as you like this anniversary week

For someone special

Made this card for a challenge on a forum I frequent, Craft Bubble's "Let's get Stamping" but had one person in mind as I made it. She's not feeling on top of the world at the moment and hope this will soon change. This person has been the biggest inspiration for me in the last couple of months and I hope this little card will cheer her up.

Pear Tree Designs

Some friends of mine have been chosen as the DT team for a new venture. Pear Tree Designs
have just opened their doors for business selling digi stamps. They have set their first challenge with a stonking prize. Go see for yourself. To help support the team I have made the following card following the sketchy set. The DT team were asked to use a cupcake as the image. I'm sorry - I'm holding out against cupcakes. I chose instead this image from Sugar Nellie coloured with PMs .... see I can do the odd cute card. BPs include pearlised papers mixed with digis. Ribbon from stash and the little dew drops from Crafty Feelings.

Also entering this in the anniversary challenge of Passion for Promarkers as anything goes for them this week.

Dragon's Dream - Ticket to ride

Having made this for this weeks challenge over at Dragon'sDream, had a quick peek round a couple of the tags already posted. Glad I'm not the only one with a different take on things. lol. As previously mentioned, my supply of real stamps is limited, means I have to be more creative I suppose with what I have. This week the challenge is "Journey, with a ticket to ride". I picked up on the "journey" bit. Journey = Travel doesn't it? Well I have this little booklet on travel quotes...and decided on this one. I stamped around the edge with a border stamp. Made a matching bookmark, and attached to a book template to match the quotation. The other side, travelling back in time, shows just 4 different methods of transportation for a journey.
Well this is my take on the theme.......

another box ?

Tellen's Place have challenged us with a beach party this week. As I commented earlier - the character that immediately came to mind was the marvelous image of "clawed". However, Lyn had already used him to perfection. So which image to choose instead? I wanted to show two faces of "the beach". Both the sunny, fun side and a darker, more sinister side. Gorgon, in my mind would make an ideal "sea witch". So started the journey into the unknown.
Three sides of the box depict a normal sunny afternoon at the beach, it's the fourth, the entrance to the cave that would take us into the darkness beneath.
Using the same technique as described by Lyn aka Black Dragon on her blog for create your own backing paper for stampInsanity, I painted and daubed bits of card. Making boulders, a simple sea side background, the cave and then under the sea. The freebies from Tellen's Place were the ideal occupants for the beach. I took the liberty of slicing off the frames of the Selina Fenech mermaids going to the party for 2 of the sides and added a couple of small line drawings for the mermaids swimming up from the depths.



So we have four sides - now enter the cave and have a look around.........











Thanks for looking and for taking this journey with me.
Also going to enter this into Stamp Insanity SISC9

Stamp Insanity

Book mark, Maddie and all with a background I had made myself. All 3 in one hit for Stamp Insanity. (SISC9 and SISC10)
I used the method as detailed by Black Dragon aka Lyn on her blog. We don't use mousse in this house and I don't have any ink... yet. But I have a lot of acrylic paint with all manner of sponges and daubers and some washing up liquid. Bucket and spade mind set on. I printed out little Maddie twice, reversing the image on the second and reversing the colourways, coloured her in with PM's and fineliners. Added a towel from striped paper, a beach ball (drew round a 1p coin). Painted a couple of crabs and some floating seagulls on the marker. The hardware consists of some shrink plastic on chain and a couple of flipflop brads on a detachable ribbon. (Metal press stud rivet). Ribbon from Crafty Feeling.

Fathers' Day

Well it's not that far away and many of the challenges are doing "cards for men" in readiness I suppose. Polka Doodles being one of them. They have kindly supplied the digital raw materials as well in 2 "flavours", muted and earth colours. All they ask is that the freebie d/load be used to create something with dimension and texture. I used the Earth colourway. Infortunately I do not yet own any form of embossing/cutting machine so have had to employ other means. Dimension - making pages and adding embellishments with sticky pads. Texture - ribbon, brads, and those little gold stars are stamped then heat embossed.

Happy Birthday Tuesday Taggers

A big Happy 1st Birthday to Tuesday Taggers. I have been a follower for a little while but until this week never had the confidence to work in miniature. Now I know you DT teams collaborate and many ladies are on more than 1 DT team because so many blogs are setting challenges for tags at the moment, but this humble offering is just for you as it's your birthday.

DragonsDream Tag

OK - I was spurred on by that wonderful artist, Dragon. Have a look at the blogs and you'll see what I mean...Tag It On, start there and work your way round. This weeks challenge is dream "along the river". All you need is a real stamp. Well, having only been crafting since the beginning of this year, my stock of stamps is waaaaaayyy short of a lot of you peeps out there; as you can probably imagine. But, going through my stash, I happened along some stamped images that my good friend Karen had left for me on her last visit. One seemed perfect. I have no idea, I'm afraid, of the origin (maybe someone will enlighten me) and I masked a part of a stamp I do have for the reedy bit. This I stamped onto acrylic. The "river" is some handmade paper that I painted with acrylics and sprinkled a touch of glitter dust on while wet to give the illusion of sun dappling the water and pieced behind the top of the figures. The reedy/grassy bits are from the bamboo growing in my garden. The sound of the wind through this is great. The ribbons etc are from stash. Hope the image is as pleasing for you to look at as it was for me trying out new things. Maybe it's a bit big for a normal tag @ 6"x4" but smaller wouldn't work.
Wow 2 tags in 2 days - I'm on a roll. LOL

My first Tag

Yes - my very first!!!
Tellen's Place challenge this week is "Tag you're it". Armed with a few of their wonderful images, which one to choose? I plumped on Sheerah. Using her for the first time, I decided to do a bit of research on her name. It means "Kinswoman" in Hebrew. She is actually mentioned in the Bible as the woman who founded two cities, one of which was named after her. (Lower and Upper Beth-horon and Uzzensheerah). I developed this tag around this info. using a deep red to signify blood for the base tag (in those days a lot of blood, sweat and lives would have been sacrificed) The Hebrew writing forming the base backing paper and a picture depicting the workforce were google images (I did "age" them with the help of an old T-bag and some ink). Sheerah is then in place to oversee her workforce.
The whole tag measures 4"x5".
As a bonus, I'm getting to know this camera now having been through the handbook that was squirreled away by OH!

easel card with sugar nellie

This little image from Sugar Nellie is destined for someone special in our lives and I thought that while I'm making it, I'd follow the sketchy for Delightful sketches and use the brown theme for Paperplay Challenges and the easel request for Sew many cards. Also entering this into the Alice in wonderland challenge - their challenge this week is "Mushroom Inspiration" and Sir Stampalot's awesome challenge for May.
As I said - the image is one of Sugar Nellies, The flowers all from Crafty Feelings. All put together with other bits and pieces from stash. The papers are all digi as I am still stocking up on BP's and didn't have quite the right colours I wanted. With a few little punched butterflies to finish off.

2 for 1

Fairies, those elusive creatures from the bottom of the garden. Humans, being what they are, have prettied them up now we have other scary things to frighten our children with. I'm not complaining though as I do like the odd pretty things, but cute? Fairies in my eyes can't be cute. I found some beautiful fairy images c/o Selina Fenach and decided to make something other than a card with two of them. So armed with my PMs, some stickles, a bottle of glossy accents, an embossing pen and a few glittery gems, I created the side panels for the chest of drawers I had in mind. I decided that the drawers should open on both the "open sides" and attached some brads to act as knobs. The drawers are the origami fold the I had done previously, thanks to the tutorial on KL stamping n scrapping. The top I decorated with some leaves, homemade and purchased flowers. I am going to enter this into a few blog challenges that are around at the moment. I took a few pics as it's difficult to see it all from one. I just wish it were as easy to take the pics in the right light.






Challenges I'm entering are
Whoopsi Daisy Challenge - as you like it
Crafts and ME - anything but a card
Little Red Wagon - Brads
Creative Inspirations - Fairies
Crafty Ann's Challenges - Anything goes

Mum loves me

I've been itching to use this image from Dustin Pike for a while and the challenge on Digital Tuesday has prompted me to do just that. Their twist is "Make Me Laugh" and a lot of mums of teens will relate with this I think. The sponser this week is the talented Dustin. So in this little beauty went to my printer ready for a makeover. I used the sketchy from Tickled Pink's new challenges so am going to enter him in there as well. They like quirky and cute, and this little fella, I think, fits 1 of those.
He was coloured with promarkers and the little buttons in the corner from stash are similar to teddies. The papers are all digital as well collected over the months I have been crafting as I didn't have the appropriate designer papers. Not many I've seen feature mummy dragon, lol. The sentiment computer generated by me seemed to fit.

Tied together

What do you do when you need to make some little boys birthday cards? My grandson's birthday in 6 weeks time and all the family need a card to give him. So needed to start early, give them all a chance to choose.
This image from Meljen's Designs fitted the bill for one of the cards. Also Fitted in with a challenge set by The Pink Elephant Blog. Their challenge was for Yellow, Buttons and designer papers. Well this little card fits all those criteria so am going to be using Mr Linky and entering it into their challenge. Have used papers from papermania's range for the males in our lives, a couple of buttons to support the "tie rack". Ties made from a variety of satin ribbons in my stash. Little sentiment was computer generated by me.

Glamorous?

Hahaha me do a glamorous card??? Well that was the challenge set.
I don't have a single rubber or clear stamp that can be, in any way, glamorous. Digi it had to be. A while ago when blog hopping I happened upon 2 particular stamps and saved them - just in case. Well I turned them into what I hope can be called glamorous. Certinally has lots of sparkle, and it's red - 1 of the colours that suggests glamour. So with a shoe from Lauretta's Digital Stamps and the gal from Sassy Studio Designs I came up with this. I pieced her onto some holographic card which was coloured red with permanent marker. The red sparkly lace made from red and white glitter some lace and some double sided tape. The pink pearlised backing card seemed to be the best choice here. Added some glossy accents and more glitter in appropriate places and voila....
a card so out of my comfort zone - you would not believe. But hey - I had a go!!!!
Entering this into Craftsandme challenge. They want sparkle and this sure does sparkle.
Also it Tuesday taggers as their challenge is for something outside the comfort zone

Practising With Tilda

Well as I can't do much else at the moment - thought I'd have a go with Tilda and my PM's. I'd love to get more colours - but have to work with the few I have. Pink...... not a colour that comes easy to me, but sooooo many girlies like it so have to use it occasionally. Well this tilda is wanting a hug so that led me to the sentiment which in turn led me to the round layering.
I used a baby pink organza ribbon laid on top of electric pink satin and tied the bows like that as well. A few bits of glitter on her wings and the flowers from Crafty Feeling and some glaze on her shooes all led to the little sparkle gems. The buttons are from an old cardi that have been sitting in my button box for a couple of decades and wanted to come out and play. Card is pearlised pink with digi papers.
Going to enter this into Die cutDreams challenge this week cos they want pink Tildas

Sarah's birthday

I was asked to make a card for a special girl in our lives... son's g/f. She's 20 on Sunday, wow. Well she's a "pink and green" kinda person and the challenge on Doodle Dragon studio was for just such a card. With The little dragon pieced onto a pearlised pink card to give the icing that glossy look, a mixture of satin and organza ribbon and some little tiny buttons and blingy sparkle jewels, topping off some digi papers mat and layered with yet more pink. For that extra bling I used some silver fine lines round the whole thing and ended up with this ....... Even the insert is pink and green.

Mmmmmmmm - Lunch

Well I'm still off work and still having "funny turns" but during the time I'm functioning I practice crafting. Aspiring to be even half as good as most people out there in blogland. Well this weeks creation saw me using acetate for the 1st time. I had some images from Tellen's Place Designs. Had to be different from other works of art I've seen this week. Well The Burtonesque Dolls have their first challenge this week and have chosen stripes as a theme and Tellen's Place want butterflies and/or dragonflies. So incorporating these 2 themes I came up with something a bit different for me. A box. Not just any old box though. Took a few piccies so it can be seen from a few angles. I wonder if Haunted House Designs will mind another entry - it is a different type of project.
The image is Devilen from Tellen's Place Design's. The branch he is stalking his lunch from is a scrap of old brown fabric I've had for years. I've torn some papers stripes and added to some of the sides so that they flow from one panel to another better. Three of the dragonflies are painted with acrylic onto acetate the other 3s wings are cut from paper on which I had mixed a couple of different embossing powders. The waterlillies added a bit more interest to the "water", now that I've had a little practice with homemade flowers. Rest of stuff from stash.

Ode to the Bruise

Oh dear, I just had too much fun making this. I have little spiders taking over my crafting room hahaha. This weeks challenge over on Haunted Design House is to make a SOMETHING with bruise colours, and we all have had our fair share of them. Well my little beauty is sure to cause more than a bruise if it gets upset so this is my offering this week.
You like my little cobweb in the corner?

All images were already on pc, just adjusted slightly using a graphics prog. and papers from stash.

Cemetery Gates

Having happened along to a marvellous blog - Haunted House Designs, I was taken back to when I started making cards earlier this year, searching out "different" images along the gothic lines. You only have to look at my first post on here to see that. Well had to join in the fun and my song inspiration is Pantera's Cemetery Gates.

The gate is from Dustin Pike and the bat paper by Printable Heaven. Rest of bits and pieces from stash.

Flowers take 2

Make my own flowers - well without the marvellous tutorial from Karen on Die cut dreams, these flowers would never have been attempted. After over 30 circles later, some for practice, I ended up with this little offering.

Going to enter it into a few challenges, as so many this week have a criteria of make your own flowers.


Challenges entered
Die cut Dreams
Tellen's Place
Simon Says
Pollycraft Monday
Creative Card Challenges
Cute Card Thursday

Flowers... take 1

Sitting here wondering through blogland.... you can tell it's spring. So many challenges and most with flowers as a focal point. A lot with make your own. So many gorgous works of art out there, but most people, it seems, have access to some sort of die cutting machine. Well this newbie had to make do with good old traditional pencil and scissors, just takes that bit longer.

This first card I am entering into Creativecardcrew's challenge because that is for "April showers bring May flowers"......
and into Creative Card Challenges