Julia’s Present

Hi all. As you can see, I am diligently getting on with my Christmas cards and today’s design uses a digi from Mami Doodles called ‘Julia’s Present’. She looks to me to have the face of a porcelain doll whilst retaining the body of a rag-doll, so I have run with this idea, using the lovely sketch over at Truly Scrumptious.

I have added faux blanket stitch to the sketch’s elements, to create a kind of patchwork in the background which I though went nicely with the ragdoll idea. This was done with a Gelly Roll pen. I also wanted to keep the card relatively simplistic for a more child-like feel, again because of the ‘doll’ image. With this in mind I coloured the image with Promarkers with the addition of glitter courtesy of Stickles.

The optional theme running along with the sketch over at TS, is ‘petals, pins and pearls’, and I used pearly heart-shaped pins and handmade flowers. Unusually, I only used the 2 flowers, going against the rule of only using odd numbers, but this seemed right in this case somehow, possibly because her hair beads where in two’s and the card flowers took up the same amount of space as the width of the 3 pins to retain a balance. Don’t know for sure….? Maybe it is just me though, and you would have used 3 flowers! LOL.

Right I think that is it for today. Take care and have a good day!

Tine :)

This card was created for the following Challenges:

Truly Scrumptious – sketch (optional ‘petals, pins and pearls’)

Colour Create – purple/aqua/white

Papertake – sparkly &; bright

Creative Inspirations – glitter, glamour &; girly

ABC – glitter

Bah! Humbug! – presents

Crafty Cardmakers – use a freebie ( image was, though now costs $1 I think)

Tip Top – anything goes.

Best Friends

Hi. For my card today I am using a free digi from Inger Harding called ‘Hello My Friend’, rather apt I thought, considering I was working on the theme suggested by Passion for Promarkers, that of Best Friends. As a single image, this obviously would not work for the theme - but multiply her by two and “voila!” you have a conversation….but placing the girls side by side would be far too boring. This is when the ‘digi plus’ side of the card kicks into effect, the theme suggested by Crafty Cardmakers this week.

I had already participated in the ‘free digi’ theme the week before but this card is a step beyond that. Now, I could have actually merged two images of the girl on the phone but decided against that as if the two could actually touch, then why would they need to phone one another? LOL. Instead I chose to reverse one of the images and positioned it lower and off to the side of the first. Needless to say, I coloured my images with Promarkers. Anyone who knows me would expect nothing less! Mind you, colouring wayward strands of hair with Promarkers can be very taxing! The next part of my ‘digi card’ construction was to use free papers available as a download from Cardmaking and Papercraft. As digis, they are able to be manipulated and resized, keeping various elements proportionate, surely also qualifying for the ‘plus’ element Crafty Cardmakers were looking for. The girls’ co-ordinating dresses were paper-pieced. The red spotted paper was one of the actual papers, but to get a matching green version I had to alter the colour of the digi paper using a graphics program. Once all cut out and stuck down, the dresses’ shading was then done with Promarkers too.

Using the sketch suggested by CLP which tied in nicely with my chosen images, I completed the square card, adding a ‘cord’ to the phones to show they are actually chatting to each other. The phone wire is exactly that, a thin wire (I used fuse wire as my craft wire was a little too thick), and it was coiled around my ‘pokey-tool’ to create the old-fashioned kind of ‘phone wire and a hole made into either end of the girls’ handsets for it to go into. I also poked the wire in and out of the blonde girl’s fingers to look as if she was playing with the wire…and this also helps to secure the wire onto the card at that point. I kept the mats and layers fairly minimal hoping to get across a young and carefree feel to the card.

Hope you all like the finished result!

Tine :)

The recipe for this card came from the following Challenges:

CLP –sketch

Passion for Promarkers – ‘best friends’

Crafty Cardmakers – digi plus

Paper Pretties – make a square card.

#38 Fairy Nearly

….’Nearly’, as she has managed to change her pumpkin to a carriage fit for a pink princess, but she has not quite finished her agenda. There is a quizzical white rat ready and waiting to be transformed too but the question is, is it his dream come true to be a coachman, (his traditional fairytale role for a pumpkin-carriage ride), or is the rat female - and could it be ‘she’ who wants to be the princess for a change and ride in the perfect pink vehicle?

Well, that is my take on our challenge at I ♥ Promarkers this week. We are being sponsored by Digi Doodle Shops Best, and the DT are using images from their Halloween section to create this week’s cards for our ‘Spooky Goings On’ theme, other than poor Julie that is whose printer isn’t working at the moment. There is also a sketch to work to which could help get your creative juices flowing.

Having turned the sketch on its side for my card, I have used paper from Create & Craft as a background but I have also used the same one on the top of the large, now horizontal, mat which I am interpreting as a ‘magical road’ for the enchanted pumpkin. The other two papers (a stripey one behind the largest mat and the pink rectangle behind the carriage), are also from C & C. I chose this muted pink as a base as I wanted to convey the message that the original pumpkin is entirely transformed (which it wouldn’t be if still orange), but this particular shade of pink fading out to the sable browns, is to my mind, far classier than a Barbie Pink would be, and surely more suited to a refined Princess. I think that this also makes the imagery ‘darker’ and less playful. The sentiment follows the direction shown on the sketch but has been taken just off the main card onto a tab.

There are two ‘supporting’ images to the main carriage and they are a fairy from Elizabeth Dulemba and a rat from Nana Vic. The fairy was originally reading a Fairytale book but I drew a front cover of ‘Spells’ instead so it would look as if she was making sure she cast the spell correctly. All colouring has of course been done with Promarkers other than some highlights of a gold gel pen to the stalk and sinuous stems. There’s glitter glue on her wings, but photos rarely show it up unfortunately. I then added the stars and diamante for the ‘magic effect’, hopefully echoed too by the simply gorgeous golden/black mat on the card base, but whilst that too picks up the light beautifully when catching the sun in real life, it looks rather flat on a photo, especially when we have had nothing but rain!

I would love it if you could join in with our Spooky challenge this week. I have gone a little off tangent with mine it is true, (though it would frighten the hee bee gee bees out of me if I really saw a vegetable change form!!!!), LOL, but you can go the regular ‘Spooky’ route - with ghosts, ghouls, witches and black cats for your Halloween card. Don’t forget to use Promarkers on your project and the other girls on the DT and I look forward to leaving you comments in the near future - I can see it in my crystal ball. LOL.

I would like to enter this card for the following Challenges also:

CRAFT – spooky

Stamp Challenges – use a digi

Stamp Insanity – pink

Creative Inpirations – Halloween or fall

One Stitch at a Time - any celebration.

Tine :)

Hey there, Georgie BOY!

Hi all. My card today uses the adorable ‘Georgie’ by Mo Manning. I love the dynamism of the rotation of the image and I hope that I have emphasised that with the additional diamond behind the image – and of course, with all the goodies falling out of his pockets as he cartwheels over. LOL. A sling-shot, two sweets (purple ones from a well known choccy manufacturer- all donations welcome!), and two marbles. The first two were drawn using a fineliner pen and the marbles were punched out of card using the largest hole on the Crop-a-Dile before a narrow Promarker line was drawn down the middle.

The image itself has also been coloured with Promarkers with softer tones of orange, purple, green & black and which tie in nicely with my chosen paper. I kept the layout very simple as I wanted to get a ‘carefree’ idea across whilst still adding to the movement of the image. At least I hope I have… LOL….that was the idea anyway! Hope you all like it.

Tine :)

Challenges:

Mo’s DT – ‘Frogs and snails and puppy- dogs tails, that's what little boys are made of’(I think Georgie sums this up perfectly......!)

Dutch Dare– Orange, green, purple and black

Paper Pretties - Orange, green, purple

Allsorts – spots and stripes

Stamp Challenges – use a digi

Karber – kids or babies

Cupcake – boys ‘n’ toys

Cards for Men –birthday.

Autumnal Finna

I had only just recently posted an autumnal card using a Mo Manning image for my DT card at I ♥ Promarkers, so I had to change my mind-set to start all over again with another autumnal card using ‘a Mo’. Having posted my last card too, and realising as I pressed the button that I had missed out mentioning some of the challenges I had intended entering, this at least meant I had another chance to enter those I had inadvertantly missed typing into Blogger.....LOL...  So apologies for my longer than usual list at the bottom! :)

The image I have chosen this time around is the glorious Fairy Finna and I have made her so autumnal, she almost looks like she is in her camouflage kit! LOL. Not the first image you might of thought for an autumn challenge, perhaps, but why shouldn’t she be an autumnal fairy too, and surely so well hidden in her seasonal garb, you really wouldn’t find her too easily at the bottom of your garden! LOL.

Coloured as usual with my beloved Promarkers, I have her making a leaf boat and she is happily sailing it down stream on a card following the lovely sketch over at Truly Scrumptious this week. I hope you all like today’s card enough to leave a comment and if you do, I thank you so much for all the kind words you leave me.

Tine :)

Challenges:

Truly Scrumptious - sketch

Mo's Digital - autumnal colours

Stamp Challenges - use a digi

Stamping for the Weekend - halloween or fall

Crafty Creations - red, brown and green

Crafty Calendar - Autumn

Sir Stampalot - Autumn
Bunny Zoe's - Autumn love (Finna seems to love autumn to me!)
Tip Top - anything goes.
Flutterby Wednesday - open (using wings).

Blogger is at it again!!!! Grrrr....this is why it is so easy to  mess up the posts ...it just doesn't want to play. :(

#37 Autumn

The theme of our challenge this week at I ♥ Promakers, chosen by Ruth, is Autumn and we are being sponsored on this occasion by Simon Says Stamp, so I do hope that you will play along with us.

My card uses a digi called ‘Fall Kitten’, the ever-so-cute cat entranced by a falling leaf as drawn by the talented Mo Manning and I have combined all the other elements of the card to fit in with the sketch over at Sketch and Stash. Well, that and a bit extra I have to admit, as I then added, what might otherwise have been a square card, to folded black A4 card with a sparkling mat.

The leaves were made using two Martha Stewart punches and were, like my main image, coloured with Promarkers, and just as in real leaves, each and every one is different. Once coloured, they were then shaped a little and secured with silicone glue to fit in with the sketch and to give the impression of a pile of fallen leaves and yet others still resolutely hanging on in there to their respective twigs. Look carefully and you will spot that two of the leaves feature bugs from Arthur’s Clipart which I have coloured in, again with Promarkers, and I think they give a nice touch of authenticity to the aging foliage. Whether the recipient is of the same opinion is another matter!

Well, good folk of Blogland, it has got to this part of the posting for my weekly reminder to bear in mind that you must use Promarkers when you enter the I ♥ Promarkers Challenge. I look forward to seeing your autumnal entries this week and leaving you a comment. I would love it too if you could leave me a comment in return so that I know that you have visited, and I thank you for each and every one of them.

Tine :)

Challenges I am entering this card into:

Sketch and Stash – design sketch (the second element of the challenge to use new stash is that I have not used this image before).

Charisma – more than one fold

Cute Card Thursday – bugs (beetle and fly)

Crafty Cardmakers – use a freebie (main image was and the two insects were free from Arthur's Clipart)

Stamping for the Weekend – halloween or fall

Crazy 4 Challenges – autumn/fall

The Shabby Tea Room – chocolate covered autumn

The Stampman – autumn.

Harry & the Tree

For my card today, I have used the lovely simplistic layout from Mo’s Digital Challenge. Now, whilst I know that the image is certainly one of Mo’s, I had all but forgotten I had this one. Shock, horror I know….it was bereft of all my other Mo images, hidden away in another folder. Don’t remember when I must have put it there, or why, but at least it can ‘go and live’ with the other Mo’s now. I have a very good friend who ADORES pigs, and this card will be perfect for her Christmas card this year.

Whilst I have used the sketch as the base, I have added the extra dimension of this fab card shape. I know, I know, I have used it before, and not too long ago,…but I like it! So I hope you do to.

Having coloured the image in with Promarkers, (though the star on top of the tree and the paper it was supposedly cut from near the tree base was silver gel pen for sparkle), I drew myself a few baubles, one of which was put through my text editor to get the short, but sweet message following the spherical shape I was after. One of the baubles has also been paper-pieced with co-ordinating paper before Promarkers gave it depth at the edges.
Right, I think that is all for this one, though this posting looks rather short for me, so I am sure I must have left something out!! Hope you like seeing my card as much as I have loved creating it.

Tine :)

Challenges:

Mo’s Digital – layout sketch

Christmas Stamping – photo inspiration

Tuesday Taggers – more than 2 legs

Ooh-la-la –nothing floral

Crafty Cardmakers - fancy fold

Quixotic – anything goes.

P.S - is anyone else having a Blogger nightmare today? It has literally taken me hours to post this! Pictures won't go on..... post isn't saving.....loses the links..... and alters the spacing....arghhhh!!!!!!!!!

#36 Cupcakes

No prizes for guessing what the challenge here at I ♥ Promarkers is this week. You really couldn’t tell from looking at the card alone could you! LOL. Yes, that’s right. Cupcakes – or should that be, at least here in the British Isles, Fairy Cakes? Mine are definitely more of the smaller Fairy Cake variety, but either are most welcome as the design feature this week. Just remember that you MUST use Promarkers on your project (our name does kind of give this away, but the occasional entrant does seem to miss this in their haste to join in!) LOL.

As you can also see, I haven’t actually used an image as such this week but created my own cakes, their paper-cases and even some of the cake decorations all out of card. I am sure that you will have a favourite flavour or topping and that is what I have gone for with this card, a variety of cakes, all appealing to someone, all individual and each delicious in its own little way. The cakes themselves are nothing more elaborate that circles coloured with Promarkers to give me various coloured icing before adding the variety of decorations. ‘Sugar strands' of bugle beads, ‘hundreds & thousands’ aka tiny beads & not to mention a ‘sugar flower’ and jelly diamonds of Promarker-ed card, all glued to the top of their respective ‘baked’ confection.

The central top cake with the ‘bite’ taken out of it uses a sentiment from TLC, but the one lower down literally glued to a cut-down cocktail stick, I created on the PC before adding into the silicone glue of the butterfly cake. All the paper cases are made from white or silver card just cut with pinking sheers.

Right, that is how I made my card for this week’s challenge & I hope that you will find a cupcake image somewhere in your stash and join in our challenge this week too as I look forward to visiting your blogs and leaving a comment. Our prize on this occasion is from Die Cut Dreams – some scalloped circles, book shapes and stands for the finished cards –shame I can’t enter myself! LOL.

Challenges I am entering this card into:
Crafty Calendar – birthdays (optional autumn)

Crazy4Challenges - birthday

Polka Doodles – make your own embellishment

Cute Card Thursdays - make your own embellishment

Allsorts – Song title (Sugar, Sugar – The Archies)

Craftalicious - anything goes

Ooh-la-la - nothing floral (I don't reckon the 'sugar' flower counts! LOL)

Fab 'n' Funky - yummy, yummy, yummy .

Tine :)

Monique - Christmas Love

I have tried to get the sparkle to show up too - lucky the sun has decided to shine today!

Challenges :
Mo’s Digital – Colours of the Rainbow - blue

Allsorts – Song title (Sacrifice – Elton John)

Sweet Stamping - bling

Sketch Saturday – design sketch

Creative Cottage – bling

Stamp Challenges – punches

Alphabet - Christmas

Flutterby Wednesday – open (wings).

Today’s card uses a fab image from Mo Manning, that of Monique. Having decided to bite the bullet and make another Christmas card, I then had to decide how to colour Monique in - and as I do try to enter the Mo’s DP2 Challenge each week it was then a choice of which colour of the rainbow did I want. The DT there had all used one particular colour of the rainbow for their individual cards and I decided to follow that route too, rather than go for the whole rainbow. I also wanted to tie in the fabby sketch over at Sketch Saturday so with that in mind, I created my card.

There are two tonal blue papers cut & aligned to follow the sketch but I also added a line of Martha Stewart punched snowflakes across the ‘dividing line’. These snowflakes were given a liberal dosing of Crafter’s Companion Spray & Sparkle for that bit of extra ‘something’. The image, coloured with Promarkers, was then given a paper-pieced dress using one of the same papers of the background, and this too was shaded with Promarkers and then glittered with the same spray. The Bible verse is from Digi Doodle, and I split the ‘Love’ heading away from the rest of the text to follow the layout I had chosen. This was mounted using both an adhesive runner and foam pads, depending on the overlapping.

Right I am keeping this post relatively short as I have ironing to crack on with! I hope that you have enough time to leave me a comment, and I thank you for each and every one of them.

Tine :)

#35 Think Pink!

At I ♥ Promarkers this week we are supporting breast cancer awareness with a Think Pink theme and hope that you will join in with a pink card of your own. My card is somewhat overtly breast cancer themed, though yours doesn’t have to be – just a pink card will do. Our sponsor is Joanna Sheen this week too, so definitely worth winning!

I personally know four people who have battled, or are indeed still fighting, breast cancer so I really wanted to do this theme justice. I then totally threw myself into the challenge, & I mean totally! I drew the image myself, drawing a young woman wearing a pink ‘cancer support’ bangle before turning her into a digi design and printing her out onto card, colouring everything bar the dress, with Promarkers. I then cut out the dress area. (Why do I usually take a difficult route to anything?.....Still, it wouldn’t be me now would it, if I didn’t! LOL)

To create the dress I made my own stripey paper before cutting it into strips so that I could iris fold a ‘target area’, (well, I hope it looks like a target! LOL.) Now I know that this dress is not pure iris folding, but I didn’t want the ‘iris’ part. It would also be rather difficult to create a full dart board-like target without a bit of paper manipulation. It took a bit of construction to get something like the effect I wanted. Having secured the iris folded elements, I then cut out my image and matted it up, but in order to keep the iris folded part unobtrusive, I gutted the mats immediately behind the image so that the bulk would be hidden away.

I made my own flowers, going for a carnation like variety, edging the white one with a Promarker. The leaves though are from a Marianne Creatables die. The rest I am sure is pretty self-explanatory. Right good folk of blog land, I would really love it if you could join in with our ‘Think Pink!’ week, with a timely reminder to please keep yourself safe with a regular check. Why not browse to the other DT members’ blogs to see how they created their cards for this week’s challenge too? Having made your own cards, pop your pretty in pink creations (& don’t forget to use your Promarkers!), onto our challenge blog as I would love to be able to leave a comment on them - as I hope that you would leave one on mine if you like this card.

Take care,

Tine :)

Challenges I am entering this card into:

Crafty Cardmakers – no square cards

Creative Inspirations – get well soon (maybe not just ‘Get well’ here, as ‘Keep Well’ & ‘Keep fighting!’

CRAFT – fancy floral

Polka Doodles – fancy fold

Karber – digital image (drew, then digitised & printed off my own image)

Paper Sundaes – something from your stash (the ribbons & die)

Creative Card Crew - flowers

Creative Craft - glamour puss .

Bella on Mo’s Birthday – altered item with matching card

CD case back

CD case front

Inside view of the CD case, with a gift card illustrating where the pocket is...unfortunately it now looks as if there is a deformed owl peeping out! LOL

...........................................................................................................

Here is something new from me, a matching set. A card and altered gift item to be exact - but taking the photo in the appalling weather we have had today has been ‘challenging’ in itself. Why make a matching set? Well my brain had been mulling over how to enter the Mo’s Digital Challenge this week & combine it with Quixotic's, when my son asked me to make a card for a friend of his whose 18th birthday is coming up. So I had to oblige of course, and thinking cap on, it occurred to me - I could throw in a gift item for good measure! Then it was down to what he might want to give and how I could then set about constructing something around that idea. Money, voucher or gift card – small, compact - and disguised in a CD case, more intriguing surely!?!?!? LOL.

The matching card was made following the sketch over at Bunny Zoe’s & I chose vibrant coloured papers to give the card a certain energy but I decided to keep the colour range for the Mo Manning image (Bella on her birthday), very limited as I felt it would have otherwise been a bit too ‘busy’, and a distraction from the image itself, well to my mind anyway. The image was coloured with Promarkers.

The altered item is far more complicated in some respects, not least as it took a while to decide how to do it! LOL. Getting rid of the inside part of the CD case was a task in itself before I could even begin, but that done, I then measured the pieces of card already inside the case so I knew the parameters I was going to be working with. The one thing I did know for sure was how I wanted to make the cover - using the same image as the card but making use of the ‘spotlight’ effect & with a magnifying glass as the highlighted area.

I drew the magnifying glass very simply (two rectangles and a circle) and coloured it in using Promarkers and a Letraset Fineliner Pen, and I am really pleased at how well that turned out, though I say so myself! I am rarely completely happy about my work, and whilst not 100% satisfied with it, it comes pretty close. LOL. Having cut the centre of that out, I then knew the circumference I needed for the ‘spotlighted’ area.

Opening the CD case reveals one side to be constructed to the same layout as the card (ie Bunny Zoe’s sketch but this time with the horizontal strip towards the top). The opposite side was constructed in one piece for both the pocketed side, and the back of the CD case. Onto a 12cm square I dotted randomly over the paper, smaller versions of Bella & Bronte as if it was a regular stamp creating a backing paper & added the birthday text. To the lower edge of the square I added a further 6.5 centimetres deep rectangle, so that this could be folded backwards to create the pocketed area, and to this rectangle, tabs to the sides of so that I would be able to secure the pocket into position. On the reverse side of the square (that is the internal side of the CD), I then added a slightly smaller square of co-ordinating paper so that it would decorate that inside of the CD behind the pocket. I am sure I am not explaining this too well! That done I could then fold the pocket into place and secured it with tape along the tabs. I created the mini sentiments on the PC, cutting them out using smallest Spellbinders, adding to front of the CD and pocket.

I do hope I have explained this sufficiently……..I am worn out now!!!

Challenges:
Mo’s Digital – altered item

Bunny Zoe - sketch

Quixotic - gift

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge – layers

Paper Sundaes – something from your stash (take your pick, nowt new! LOL)

Crafts & Me – teenager

Crafty Emma - wear a hat.

I apologise for the poor photos and what is more, Blogger is playing me up.........arghhh!!!

Hope you like my card and gift set and I thank you for all the kind comments you leave.

Tine :)