Thursday 30 June 2011

A Christmas card

Yep, I started early this year. I hope not to get caught napping this year or rushing to get them done. This week the challenge over at Delicious Doodles is for cute and cuddly. Well I think this would fit the bill. (No pun intended). It's about as cute as I'm going this week. Loosley following the sketch over at Fetch-a-sketch, I came up with this.

The penguin, from the range over at Delicious Doodles, is coloured with promarkers with a touch of silver gel pen. Some glossy and crackle accents used to add some shine.
Papers all from various sources in stash. The only one I know the origin is behind penguin - Crafty Chaos. Ribbon also from stash.
Sizzix corner diecuts using scraps.






I am entering this into the challenge over at
Delicious Doodles - Cute and Cuddly

Sunday 26 June 2011

Make It Crafty - 1st Birthday

Make it Crafty and their challenge blog, Make it Colourful have been the main reason for the improvement in my colouring skills from where I was, even 6months ago. These girls are fantastic.
Anyway, they are celebrating their first year anniversary this month and are having a massive party all July. Several competitions of which this card is going to be entered into one - #5, create a project with Make it Crafty images and coloured with Blue, Mustard/Yellow and Brown (Make it Crafty Logo colours!). They are even giving away an image to celebrate.
I had to make a card for a work colleague and this fitted in just right.
I followed the sketch over at Sketch Saturday and came up with this.


I have used yellow and mustard (a bit of artistic license lol)
The image itself is cloured with sakura pencils in shades of brown, blue and yellow blended with m.o.
The edges are ink distressed with "faded jeans" DI.
Backed onto some mustard hand made paper and then onto brown.


A few dabs of glossy accents on the flowers on the shoes, eyes and a touch on her ribbon to give the impression of satin.

The little tabs held on with bronze glizzer brads. As is the sentiment banner up top.

The ribbons are dark brown organza, topped with lace that I coloured blue with promarker and topped with a thin mustard organza ribbon.
The flowers have just a slight dusting of diamond stickles.
I have updated the pics as the light seemed to have washed out the colour yesterday.

So that's my entry into the challenges at

Make It Colourful - challenge #5 use the logo colours
Sketch Saturday - Their sketch
Dream Valley Challenges - Ribbon

Friday 24 June 2011

Steampunk/Goth

"Steampunk is where Goth finds brown." A quote I came across on the 'net this week. Sparked something in the depths of what can loosely be called a brain in my head. So another art journal page was born.
The base of the page is acrylic paint, cracked using the pva glue technique. There are so many vids on youtube now. All give different advice. So I experimented. I came up with a couple of finished sheets that I was happy with. This was one.
Terracotta brown on top of black. Well I liked it.
I used 2 of the images from Delicious Doodles to illustrate the Goth and the Steampunk. Both coloured in using promarkers, fussy cut out and mounted onto a slightly pearlised brown card. Both these cut out using a "cog like" fancy edged scissors. The quote was written onto a ribbon slider and ink distressed with "old paper". Some black organza and brown velvet ribbons threaded through.
The "cogs" at the top are circles cut from one of those aluminium take-away cartons, notches cut and alternately folded down the "bits". Some alcohol ink dripped on to colour. Layered with die cut flowers in dark brown and terracotta attached using brown brads.
The layout was inspired by this months sketchy challenge over at the Smeared and Smudged forum and also fitted into this weeks project over at Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack - paint.

It would have been entered into last weeks Delicious Doodles challenge as well - but what do you know - I was too late.
I am sharing this at The Joyful Stamper, Inspire Me Fridays
A couple of challenges that I am entering this into
Simply Create - Come Fly With Us
Southern Girls Challenge - Anything Goes
Creative Craft Challenges - Make your Own Backing Paper(s)
The Cheerful Stamp Pad - Mixed Media, Things with Wings

Monday 20 June 2011

Halloween card

A new challenge blog has started. I missed the first few weeks and was only because I went via some links that I happened upon it. It being Making Halloween Cards! This fortnights challenge. #4, is "Tags and Tall"
"I can do this" thinks me. I'm all glitzed out from making other projects and needed some respite. Back to the darker side of me.
So a 3 tag card. I had just the stamps. A set of 9 from Inkadinkadoo, haunted house inchies.
3 stamps per tag. Using scraps of orange, red and rust card stock. The main card was well and truely ink distressed with black soot DI. and 3 square apertures cut out. The front covered in deep green, again that black DI with a Smeared Ink "Holy City" graveyard.


I constructed some carriers for the tags and adhered inside. This enables the tags to be moved in and out so that all pics can be seen.

I just happened to have some halloween ribbon, so this was stapled to the tags.





















The carriers were covered with a handmade paper panel. More ink and a grid pattern stamped on.
The opposite is just some orange paper, and you guessed it, more black DI.



I am entering this into the challenge over at
Making Halloween Cards #4 - Tags and Tall

Saturday 18 June 2011

Stampin' Dymonz' Scrap Shack Blog Hop

Welcome to the Designer Dymonz Father's Day Blog Hop! We are the design team for the Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack, which has 3 online locations: the Village, the Challenge Blog, and the Online Craft Magazine. The Designer Dymonz are happy to showcase for you Father's Day cards with a fun image courtesy of Tellen's Place Designs. Our blog hop starts with Stampin' Dymonz's blog and ends with Joyce's blog. If you joined the hop at any point other than the first stop, please go back to the first stop and work your way through.

Each DT Member is offering a chance for blog candy and we don't want you to miss out on your chances to win! Stampin' Dymonz is giving away 2 blog candy gift packs, so be sure to look for the rules on each blog in order to be entered to win.

We hope you enjoy our first design team blog hop! Please be sure to leave blog love for the designers as you visit each of their blogs.

Stampin' Dymonz
Terry O
Kathy
Croms - that's me
Joyce

What did I make with the image?
2 cards. Using 2 of the different folds that have been featured in the card making group in The Village.
The first is a simple stair step fold


Image coloured with promarkers. Bottom strip is from a 6x6 paper docrafts masculine pack. Middle is striped vellum with peel off sentiment.
Back is a scrap of brayered paper from a previous card made, covered with webby "ribbon". MS punched "scary fence" threaded behind the image.

The second - a flap card

Trust me to make it more complicated than it really is by cutting a hole out.
The star cut from the main body was matted onto silver to form the "attachment"

The hole is covered with acetate then more from the docrafts masculine paperstack

The image coloured with watercoloured pencils and matted onto pearlised brown. DAD lettering from stash.




Blog candy was promised, wasn't it. Well to get mine (4 Liquid Pearls, 4 Stickles, and some "general" embellishments) I'm going to make it easy. I'll do a random drawing from the names that leave me a comment here and under my profile in The Village.
The different Dymonz will have different rules, so you have to look on their blogs.

So get hopping and have fun.

In the meantime there are 1 or 2 challenges I am entering into

card 2 Star Dad -
Ooh La La Creations - Fathers' Day/ Special man
Dream Valley Challenges - Fathers' Day

Friday 17 June 2011

Catchup time again

WOW. Where has the time gone?
Before I know it, 2 weeks have flown by and I've not been here. I've not been idle and have crafted a few things. Mostly in my role as a DT member of The Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack.
I have made things I never knew I could, a few cards but above all, loved every minute.

Tomorrow we're having a DT hop, so thought I'd better have a minute or two here and show one or two things that we're doing over at The Village.

The first thing I want to show is the cover of the Art Journal I've finally gotten round to putting together. Instead of slipping the pages into an old scrap book, I have made a purpose built album.
Covered with black jersey fabric with thin chip board pieces that have all been triple heat embossed.
All the lettering has been cut free-hand. The sign and carrier are a TH die cut. The flower, voile, another TH die, Tattered Florals, pinned together loads of layers and heat gun played over it to seal the edges.
Here's a closeup of the sign, The chain, beads and charms from stash.

















Last thing I made was because I was challenged to.
The mixed media group were challenged to decorate a letter. Now most have access to a crafty type shop that sell ready made letters. Be they wood, chipboard or paper mache. Not so here in this corner of Scotland. Next opportunity to go buy one would be in a couple of weeks. Make from scratch was my challenge. So I did.
"C" cut from 3mm chipboard, 3 times. sticking the layers together and again, making my own stencil.
and the reverse.....the other side of me...

All the items on the front were from stash, the larger flower at the bottom was hand made.
The images on the back are from a collection of inchie stamps.

Saturday 4 June 2011

Skull Appreciation Day Blog Hop

Today's the day.
The idea started over at the Skulladay blog. To have a day set aside to be an official international day of cranial love!
Smeared and Smudged, in time honoured fashion rose to the challenge and have organised a massive blog hop, to include not only S&S members but any artist that wants to join us.
There're some amazing prizes up for grabs as well. For full details go here.

I have got so many projects started. I have skulls all over my crafty room. Unfortunately, only one got finished, and this was a rush at the end. So sorry.
It's a fridge magnet. Even this was painted and repainted because I wasn't happy with my first attempt. It's been that kind of week.



Made from plywood. sealed with watered down PVA then painted with acrylic paints. Sealed with glow in the dark mod podge.
Edged with ink. A few of the small flowers from TH Tattered Florals die cut from voile and heated to seal and crinkle.

This is the list for the Smeared and Smudged Blog Hop

Get on over to these blogs for some seriously amazing artwork.
Thanks for popping by

Wednesday 1 June 2011

25th Wedding Anniversary

I was asked to make a 25th Wedding Anniversary card. Something special for a special couple.
I followed my oval stepper card idea - with a bit of a difference.


The oval was replaced by a heart shape.

The theme was silver and purple for the party so went with these colours.

The image is purple as well but surrounded by all the silver, refused to come out true to colour.

Using Delicious Doodles' The Lovers image, digitally altered to the correct purple colour, printed twice. The top layer was relieved of the white lines and stuck to the other image that had the white lines coloured silver. A small gem placed in where the earring was. This was in turn layered onto silver then more purple heart shapes.

The base card is a stepper card but with a difference. The tutorial for this can be found at Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack. This was made with pearlised silver card stock.

The left hand panels were stamped with heart images in silver.
Some silver peel offs to add that extra little something.

The right hand side
One of the homemade roses from purple and silver paper and the 25 from silver peel offs and the same border peel off round the edges.

The bottom, some more purple paper and peel offs but this time also a silvery white lace. Another of the silver and purple roses I made.





Then the box. Can't have a card without the box.
Pearlised white card stock this time. More of the lace from the card and some more of the paper roses.


The card nestles in silver tissue paper and a suitably mushy verse was stuck into the lid.

I am entering this into the challenges over at
Delicious Doodles - Lovely Lace
Claudia & Co - Fancy Folds
Party Time Tuesdays - Anything Goes
The Cheerful Stamp Pad - Cards For a Special Reason