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Thursday 29 January 2015

Make it sparkle!

 
Good morning! Where has January gone??? Only 2 more days to go, then it's February (only a short month) then March...and hopefully signs of spring! I know I shouldn't wish time away but I'm fed up with winter and being cold even though it has been a mild winter here so far!
Here's my DT card for the new challenge over at Southern Girls... the theme is 'Sparkle' and it's sponsored by Concetta Designs, there are some fantastic images available in her Etsy Shop.
 
I used a cute stamp, part of a set by Mo Manning. The little fairy is coloured with copics, glitter added to her wings and a touch of glossy accents to the ladybirds. Random papers from bottomless 'scraps' drawer. I added a little die cut banner and pretty corners and some flowers (with a touch of glitter). The smallest flowers are e cut and rolled (very fiddly!!! but cute!).
I promise this card looks a lot more sparkly IRL!
 
We'd love to have you join us this fortnight, so dig out the glitter and sparkly stuff and get creating!
Please click here to be transported to sunnier climes where you're sure to be inspired by the wonderful work of Team Trace!
 
There is also a DT call at the moment you can check that out here.
Have a great day
Chris
x
 
Challenges entered:
 
pileiton hearts and/or flowers
disdigidesigns add sparkle
fussyandfancy things with wings
 
 
 

Tuesday 27 January 2015

One sketch, two cards

 
Good evening, I've had a lovely lazy day today with time to play, there's a lovely sketch this week at Sketch Saturday, so I decided to follow it to make a card...or two!
 
 
the sketch

 
card 1
 
 
card 2
The colouring medium for both of these cards was copics.  They were both made using scraps and snippets from my extensive stash of 'too good to throw away' left overs, not a new sheet of paper was used so I'm going over to play in the Snippets Playground.
Thanks for looking
Have a lovely evening!
Chris
x

Challenges: Card 1
Sketch Saturday
Snippets Playground
craft hoarders anonymous ...markers, twine, die cutting, distressing tool, brads
craftyboots butterflies

Card 2
make my Monday bright and cheery colours
cutecardthursday colourful



Sunday 25 January 2015

take flight

                                                


Good afternoon, just a quick post from me with a card I made for this week's challenge at LIM. It's a sketch this week and as soon as I saw it  I knew what I wanted to make! This doesn't happen very often, not to me anyway!, so I just had to join in!





                                                    
the sketch
 The stamps were free with a magazine (didn't really want the magazine...but 'needed' these stamps....)The card was quick and easy, a bit of masking, 3 shades of blue distress ink to create the ombre effect , the feather stamped with versamark and embossed in white.
I'm happy with the result!
Thanks for looking, enjoy what's left of the weekend!
Chris
x
Challenges
LIM sketch
citycrafter oh feathers!
inkspirational ombre


Saturday 24 January 2015

Cute and Cuddly

Well, here we are ...last week of January already! How many of you are sticking to all those wonderful, well-meaning New Year Resolutions? I'm feelin' smug because I deliberately didn't make any ...so none to break!! Just as well I didn't attempt to not buy any more craft stuff because I've been baaaaad! Treated myself to new dies, new stamps, new digis, new distress inks......yep, really bad! Am I sorry now? Not a bit!!!Just having fun playing with them!
This weeks challenge over at Sweet Stampin' is a lovely one 'Cute and Cuddly', and our lovely sponsors this week Craft Mojo are giving a £10 voucher to the lucky winner!
My card is made using a sweet image from Saturated Canary (haven't coloured one of these images for ages!),it's called Panda Hugs and I think it's totally cute! I'm having a bit of kraft kick at the moment so I chose to print on kraft  and colour with pencils! Then I broke out the new dies! Stitched circle, mounted on a stitched square, so quick and easy! The leafy border is from Memory Box (another new acquisition...told you I was bad...) I already had the corner die! Papers are definitely not new, had them for years but tend to hoard them because they're so beautiful (DCWV- Far East)! Stitched (actually stitched!) on some ribbon and added three little buttons. Sentiment is from a set by Lawn Fawn (won this...not bought :)
Well that's it from me, finished showing off my new goodies...unrepentant about my extravagance!
Hope you'll be tempted to play along with us this week, we'd love to see your cute and cuddly creations (remember to stamp something), why not hop over here and see what my lovely teamies have made?
Have a fabulous weekend-whatever you are doing!
Chris
x

Challenges
4craftychicks best friends
craftyribbons atg with ribbon
MAWTT button it
crafterscafe stitching
inspiration destination atg
sisterhoodofcrafters new stash
craftycardmakers something old (papers) something new (dies)
perfectlyrustics animals

Wednesday 21 January 2015

Getting sketchy at Creative Moments

 
 

Hi I'm back! This time with my card for the new challenge at Creative Moments . This fortnight we have a lovely sketch for you to interpret.  Here's my take on it, as you can see I followed the sketch pretty exactly (sometimes I take the easy way out, LOL!) We are sponsored by Sassy Studios and I've used this fabulous image 'Steampunk Josephine'.  I love steampunk it gives me an opportunity to use all my distress inks and get stamping! The image is coloured with copics,  the edges are embossed with copper and I sprinkled some over the image, hence the freckled thighs! She's matted onto some metallic embossed copper coloured cardstock. the background is coloured with distress inks, stencilled, stamped and randomly heat embossed with copper and gold embossing powders. I added a 'ribbon' made of a kind of plasticy stuff which I've had for ages and some wooden lazercut cogs from Hobbycutz.
 
Hope you like my card, there's loads of fabulous inspiration to be seen at the Creative Moments challenge blog and we'd love to see how you interpret this fabulous sketch so why not join us this fortnight!
Thanks for calling by
Chris
 
Challenges entered:
Come and get it Steampunk
cardsgalore anything goes
partytimetuesdays anything goes
tuesdaythrowdown #228 embossing
 
 

Button it!

 
 
OUR BLINKIE
 
 
 
Good morning, I'm delighted to be posting my first DT card for the fabulous Fab'n'Funky Challenges! I was so excited to be asked to join this fantastic team! The challenge this week is a fun and easy one...button it- just add a button to your creation. We were given some brilliant images to play with by our lovely sponsors this week, Bugaboo. I chose to use Gus -birthday recount, this  brilliant image really makes me laugh! I coloured him with copics, then cut him out, mangled him a bit with a ball-tool and mounted him on my card using pinflair glue to add some dimension. Glossy accents on his specs. Some buttons and a bit of twine (recycled from a clothing tag!).
Now it's your turn! Just pop over to Fab'n'Funky Challenge blog to check out the wonderful creations from the rest of the team, then click the linky to add your own fabulous make!
Thanks for looking, I'll be back later with another card (two posts in one day! sure doesn't happen too often on this blog!)
Chris
x
Challenges entered:
OSAAT -atg new (new DT, new image)
sentimentalsundays -new beginnings (DT!)
craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper anything goes
natalieandamy all things new
dragon's lair new beginnings
audsentiments atg
cutecardthursday just for laughs
cardz4guyz anything goes
craftysentimentsfor a man
catchthebug Wednesday challenge- humour

Saturday 17 January 2015

...and all the angels sang for Him..

 
Hello, happy Saturday, hope everyone is enjoying the weekend...and not snowed in! There's no sign of snow here...yet! Long may it last, I like the look of fresh fallen snow but could do without the inconvenience...and as for icy footpaths and roads...!
Just sharing a card I made using Angel a beautiful image from The East Wind. This is a first for me...a Christmas card in January, but I love this image so much I wanted to use her again, so I did in triplicate! I layered the image 3 times (another first, I'm so proud of this achievement being a bit of a numpty where technology is involved!), so now I have a choir of beautiful angels! I coloured them with pencils, using blue, grey and black shades, then added Wink of Stella to their wings, so lovely and sparkly IRL shame it doesn't show in the photos!
 
I die cut the image, distressed the edges and matted it onto a piece of dark blue cardstock which I had previously stencilled and stamped. I added some die cuts and tiny gems to finish. The sentiment is hand written, it comes from a Christmas carol my children used to sing when they were at primary school (many years ago!)  which remains a favourite of mine- 'On a starry night'.
Thanks for calling by
Chris
x
 
Challenges
alphabetchallenge x for experiment- new technique
craftycatz new beginnings (technique)
theeastwind winter blues
inky impressions monochrome
scrap-creations new (technique, wink of stella)
sweetstamps winter blues
throughthepurplehaze anything new to you
 
 
 
 

Wednesday 14 January 2015

The rest of the gang!

Good evening, I've had a busy day, finally time to play so
 here are the rest of the cards I made using the MayLeeDee image! (see previous post!)
Sorry about poor photo quality, not a lot of daylight here these days!


 
This one is printed on kraft and coloured with polychromos.
 
I would like to enter this one in these Challenges:
useyourstuff buttons
 
 
 
Using similar colours, this one is coloured with copics.
 
I'd like to use this one for these Challenges:
 
 
 
and finally, sporting the knit dress, coloured with copics in more vibrant colours.
I love how different the same image can look depending on how it's coloured!
 
Challenges for No 3:
craftycatz polka dots
 
Thanks for visiting and have a good evening.
Chris
x
 

Saturday 10 January 2015

Colouring practice

Good morning, hope everyone's had a good start to 2015 and that those of you who have made resolutions are sticking to them without too much trouble!
Today there's a brand new challenge starting over at Sweet Stampin' - 'Girly-but NO pink'!
I 've been practicing my colouring inspired by a tutorial in last months Craft Stamper magazine, I  have always loved the effect of coloured pencils on kraft so I just had to give this a go! I even bought the same image used in the article, although mine is a digi!(instant gratification and I got 2 images, one in a plain dress, one in a knit dress) She's called MayLeeDee and is available from PaperbabeStamps although sadly no longer as a digital due to those pesky new VAT laws!
Anyways, I printed this cutie out 4 times, 2 on kraft  and 2 on smooth white card
 
 

The kraft was coloured in pencil, the white, copics. Such different effects! Anyways I ended up with 4 cards I could use for this Challenge!



 
I chose to use the first image I coloured.
I'll post the rest later, time permitting!
 
I really enjoyed this colouring practice, and I was quite pleased with the results of the pencil colouring...I am usually not at all happy with my efforts with pencil, but I quite like this!
As this is such a lovely easy challenge I hope lots of you will be inspired to join in, we're sponsored by the fabulous  All Dressed Up , so you could be the lucky winner of a wonderful prize, just remember to stamp something! Click here to go directly to the challenge blog where there are some amazing creations to further inspire you from the rest of the very talented Team Fi!
Thanks so much for visiting today.
Have a lovely weekend.
Chris
x
Challenges entered:
polkadoodles tic tac toe (first column)
creativeknockouts girly girl
 

Wednesday 7 January 2015

New Year, New beginning


 
Happy New Year! A week into 2015 already and life is nearly back to normal! I've hidden the remaining chocs and other goodies at the back of a cupboard and am trying to forget they're there! Hope I don't see another mince pie for a long time!!!
I don't make New Year's Resolutions, I only break them, but I am trying to be healthier... walk more, eat sensibly, drink less wine (sob!)....don't expect it to last long but I'm trying!
My card today is my DT card for Creative Moments, the theme for this challenge is ' New Beginnings' so plenty of scope for interpretation there! We have two fantastic sponsors this fortnight

 
and
 
For my card I used the super cute Baby Spiky Bear digi from Creative Bug. He's coloured with copics

die cut and matted onto a circle of green card. Papers are First Edition 'Up and Away', the 'baby' letters are punched from the dp and matted onto circles. My daughter will pinch this card as her friends and colleagues seem to be  doing their best to rapidly increase the population of the UK!
We hope you'll join us at Creative Moments this fortnight, just click here for further  inspiration from my talented team mates and to share your own 'new beginning'!
Thank you for visiting!
Chris
x
 
Challenges entered
LTSCB - Letters, Bear Buttons, Copics, Circles
crazychallenge buttons
.throughthepurplehaze atg
brownsugar bears
 craftysentiments new beginning