Mo's Fantasies and Fairies

Where does the time go? It’s all such a rush…& I am even finding it difficult to fit my cards in at the moment. Only managed to do this as my train today was full when it got to my station and no one could get on! The train before had been cancelled and there were still people on the platform waiting around because of that.  At least I hadn’t waited in vain for an hour.  A day’s plans gone in an instant. The next train was already showing as delayed so I thought better of waiting half an hour for the same fiasco to play out.  I decided it prudent to turn back and go home, but at least this meant I had a bit extra time to craft.  I will be more organised again when the rest of the household is back in their regular routine and not disrupting me. LOL.

I coloured Mo’s Fairy Flora with Promarkers, paper-piecing her dress to coordinate with the main DP from Cardmaking and Papercraft.  I used my new Double Do dies to cut the swirling foliage either side of Flora, dotting tiny flowers about which were really the remnants from a Fiskars circular punched pattern, but waste not want not -and perfect scattered tiny flowers. I am not sure you can fully see the sketch due to placement of the sentiment hiding the division of the creamy/sandy card behind, but it is still there to be seen at the top as the watermark doesn't quite hide it. The gems are from Anita’s and the sentiment one of Paulette’s at TLC Creations.  I was aiming for a spring-like cure to the winter weather.  Hope you all like it!

Challenges:

Friday Sketchers - sketch

Mo’s Digital – fantasies and fairies

Sentimental Sundays – baby (well, she’s a baby fairy!) + sentiment

#46 Floral Anniversary

I haven't been too well recently, so I am not too sure about my card today, but I am at least feeling a lot better than I was and on the way back to 'normal', whatever 'normal' actually is!  LOL.  Hey, there isn't time to be ill though is there?  I don't really need to tell you all that it is Christmas time do I!  LOL.  Here at I ♥ Promarkers we are celebrating with a two week challenge where 'Anything goes'.  Good eh?  The DT have all used images from Digi Doodle for their cards and the one I have chosen, called 'Fancy Frames', has a blank box in the centre so that you can add in any message that you choose for your floral tribute.  It is also one of a set of two, the other also having a blank area for your sentiment but features a snowflake design.  I have added a sentiment from TLC which I thought worked rather well for an anniversary card though the Happy Anniversary wording I did on the PC.

I have kept it all pretty simple for this one but I have of course, coloured it with Promarkers and in this instance, matched up to a paper from Melissa Frances.  I know things are very hectic this time of year, but if you do get a chance to play along with our challenge this holiday time we would love to see your creations.  Don't forget to use your Promarkers!

Wishing you all the very best for Christmas and New Year.

Tine :)

Challenges:
Sweet Stamping - celebrations
Digital Tuesday - celebrations
Aly's - anything goes
Papertake - anything goes
Creative Craft - anything goes.

#45 Excuse Me Santa

Our theme this week at I ♥ Promarkers is good ol’ Santa and for my DT card I have used this ever-so-cute image from Elizabeth Dulemba, popping it into a circular mat and colouring with Promarkers. I have only used the one design paper today, running it horizontally behind the image but clear of the sewn presents in each of the card’s corners. The sewn embellishment was done with a plain running stitch on the machine going very gingerly when it reached the parcels and even turning the wheel manually when it came to the bows so that I was sure where the needle was going. Rather than mat the image I added gems where white met white.

Right, I have managed to keep it fairly short and sweet this time, but do try to join in with our challenge. Just remember to enter you must use Promarkers on your project and don’t forget Santa! We look forward to seeing your work go up onto our blog and hope to be able to leave you a comment soon.

Tine :)

Challenges I would like to enter this card for:
Passion for Promarkers - Christmas anything goes
Stamp with Fun - Christmas
Stamptacular Sunday - winter wishes
Aly's - Christmas movie theme (Santa Claus the Movie)
Dutch Dare - Christmas card, tag or ornament
Allsorts - last minute Christmas
Stamp Challenges - use a digi
Creative Inspirations -  Christmas anything goes
ABC Christmas - Z for Zero (use an older challenge - S for Santa)



Winter Wonderland

Well, I am not quite bored of my snowflakes yet…getting there…but not yet! LOL. Today’s card uses an image from Mo Manning called, ‘Skating’. Isn’t she so sweet – Bella dragging pet Bronte to play, albeit perhaps a little reluctantly onto the ice.

I coloured this image using the colours suggested by Colour Create, grey, green & white and I have used green tones all the way from the jade-like marine to leaf green. These were the fabulous shades in the backing paper I chose to use, which when I saw it on Jak Heath’s pages, I knew I would have to use – it just ‘spoke to me!’ LOL. Mind you, these colours on the DP are hiding behind the image and of course these are the very snowflakes I was matching up to! Ah, well, can’t be helped…. but to get round this lamentable fact I printed off a bit more of the DP and used that central section to create the horizontal MS snowflake border and the escaping snowflakes. I like the large grey snowflakes at the DP’s edges mind you, and I have added Stickles to various points for a bit more ice and a general frosty feel. To continue the textured ‘cold’ elements on my card I added Polar White Flower Soft for snow at the base of the image and white paint around one of the mats as ‘frosting’ as a change from my usual distressed and ruffled ‘iced’ borders . I then edged the banner, which uses a sentiment from Birdscards, the same way. Takes a bit of drying time mind you, but there again so do Stickles! LOL.

I went for the design over at Truly Scrumptious this week for the card’s layout, rotating it 180° - though I did add the diamond shape behind the image’s mat for a bit more movement. Having used my favourite Marianne Creatables snowflakes to die cut the vellum, I then added white & silver pen highlights as well as Stickles to give a bit more definition and lustre. All I had to do then was to pop on the odd gem and the card was finished!

Tine :)

Challenges I would like to enter this card for are:

Truly Scrumptious – design sketch
Mo’s Digital – Winter Wonderland
Colour Create – grey, green and white
Gingersnaps (GC82)– white glitter
Wags & Whiskers – snowflakes
Paper Pretties – punches ( Martha Stewart snowflake border)
Creative Belli – Christmas embellishments
Allsorts - last minute Christmas cards
Passion for Promarkers - Christmas anything goes
Digital Tuesday – It’s cold outside.

#44 While Shepherds Watched

 A Christmas Carol/Song 

Go on, admit it….you’ve been there…either trying not to cry or sat there with tears rolling down your face as your offspring stands frozen with stage-fright at being the third angel from the right whilst their angelic class mates sing Away in a Manger. You, with your camera in your hand, wanting to take the photo to immortalise that moment forever - whilst not really wanting to put your eye to the view finder as you can no longer see the real life version playing out before you.

Yes, at I ♥ Promarkers this week we want you to illustrate a seasonal carol or song, and this little cherub with his pull-along lamb from Sarah Kay is representing those earnest shepherds tending their sheep in the carol, 'While Shepherds Watched'. Coloured with Promarkers as is the requirement at I ♥ Promarkers of course, I have used a nestie (labels 8) to mat him up. The papers might not be the first kind of design you would think of for a Christmas card, but I thought them appropriate for all the homemade Nativity outfits – the old curtains and tea-towels taking to the stage this month. Each and every child a rising star.

For the other elements in this school-play Nativity scene I have drawn a couple of push-pins, coloured with Promarkers and snipped the end off the one on the sentiment so it looks like it is stuck into the card wheras the other one lies on the floor as it supposedly fell out of position (hence the sentiment being at an angle!). LOL. The real-life brads are 'Papermania Designer' with a twisted cord between.  I also lightly distressed the bottom of the horizontal mat before cutting loads of little lines up to the second horizontal paper and ruffling it up a little just to help illustrate the 'homemade' idea. The star peeking out at the top was made using a Fiskars Squeeze punch from gold mirri.

So then, why not think of a Christmas Carol or even a seasonal song as the theme of your card this week and play along with us at I ♥ Promarkers. Don't forget to use your Promarkers and we look forward to seeing your creations.

Tine :)

Other Challenges I will be entering this card for:
Ooh-la-la - Christmas Song/Carol (While Shepherds Watched)
Dutch Dare - Christmas or Winter
Passion for Promarkers - mega Christmas/anything goes
Sundays with Crissy - Christmas is Coming/Winter is here
Papertake - no red or green
Simon Says - not red or green
A Spoonful of Sugar - Christmas card.

Glitz and Glimmer

The image for my card today is ‘Hanging the Star’, one of the latest images available from the talented Mo Manning. There is a different feel to this cutie compared to Mo’s other images as she is drawn in a more sketchy style and that to me also denotes some movement. I coloured the image with Promarkers, hopefully with the same sketchy feel of the outline. I thought I wouldn't go with the usual pink colour for a little girl but I rather like lilac, in fact it is one of my favs but the colour combo I have used is a bit more unusual.

Following this week’s sketch over at Crazy4Challenges, I used 2 backing papers from Bearly Mine. For the half circle though, I lightened the starry paper and sprayed it with Crafter’s Companion iridescent spray and then outlined in Icicle Stickles. I was hoping to give the impression that the semi-circle was the glow from the brightest star in the little girl’s hand which had also been Stickled, this time with Star Dust Stickles on top of its Promarker shading. I then punched out tiny sparkling stars and added translucent sequin ones to decorate the edge of the ‘glow’ further. The horizontal element to the sketch is pearlescent paper, punched & embossed with a Fiskars punch and then cut with a fancy blade for a deckled edge top. The actual base card is also fabulously pearlescent for some serious ‘gleam’. Further sparkle, is on the Fiskars’ squeeze punched star, bearing the age of the recipient with a Christmas birthday. This had been printed on the PC before being spritzed with the iridescent spray and then punched out to follow the angle of the star the child is holding.

Hope you like it!

Tine :)

Challenges for this card:

Crazy4 Challenges – design layout
Mo’s Digital – glitz and glimmer
Aly’s – Christmas movies (Disney’s ‘The Christmas Star’)
One Stitch at a Time – old/new stash (old punches/new image)
Prairie Fairy – use a star
CRAFT – Christmas birthdays
Ooh-la-la – Christmas Carol/song (Carol - Brightest and Best).

Winter Birthday

Well, I have been so busy making Christmas cards, I really ought to get a move on with the necessary birthday cards. This one is for a male (hubby actually and he loves his cuppa tea so much it would be easier giving it to him by drip!!!!) and having chosen the layout from Truly Scrumptious to work with, I then found this relaxed mouse image which seemed to sum up just what I wanted for a winter birthday card’s message – relax and enjoy the day - not to mention brew in hand!  LOL. The image is from Torico and is called ‘Have a break’ and I decided to colour him in monochromatic colours. To make his lovely jumper even warmer for him I added a 'knitted pattern' in pencil before colouring it in. Yes, I do know that his outfit looks decidedly sepia, but you will have to take my word on it that it was coloured in the Warm Greys of my Promarkers & looks nothing but tonal grey in real life. No matter how many times I have photographed it, the photo still looks like he has a brownish jumper…Grrr. Ah well, it can’t be helped.

The whole image was of course done in my beloved Promarkers, not just the jumper and I kept the image relatively unfussy, even to the exclusion of a mat because of the very busy background I had used. These were actually scrapbooking papers from Shabby Princess and I matched the pattern up from one layer to another for a sophisticated feel. If you look carefully, as they don’t show up very well, the two arrows have black gems on them. They started life as regular clear gems until my pens altered them to suit. As they are unlikely to be handled I reckon the colour shouldn’t come off. The ticket sentiment is from Sentiments4you.

Hope you all like it!

Tine :)

Challenges for this card include:

Truly Scrumptious – design sketch (optional pink - didn't dare, this is for my husband's birthday, I would never hear the end of it! LOL)
CRAFT – Christmas birthdays
Paperplay – monochrome
Allsorts – monochrome
Tip Top – anything goes (+ tip – you can colour your clear gems with markers).

#43 Christmas Trees

The Coordinated Tree

The theme this week at I ♥ Promarkers is to use a Christmas Tree on your card or project and for my DT card I have chosen an image by Mo Manning, combining it with a single DP from Barely Mine. This gorgeous paper just so happens to be filled with stitched swirl designs and so is not only perfect for the theme at Mo’s Digital Challenge (to use swirls on your card), but hopefully also perfect for the illusion of decorations on my paper-pieced tree. The swirls are representing the tinsel draped over it - well, it makes sense to me! LOL.

So to emphasis this even further, having added shading using my Promarkers to the paper-piecing, I went over some of the swirl design with my silver pen which was also used on the star at the top of the tree and the ‘paper’ at the bottom from which this star had supposedly been cut. Anita’s gems passing as shiny baubles complete the coordinated tree.

The rest of the image was coloured with Promarkers too of course. Further swirls to each side of the triangular mat were cut using a Marianne Creatables die in pale grey card and the large silver stars were cut using a very old punch of mine with no branding, so I can’t help with that one. These, along with the corners of the triangle were then wrapped with this fabby angel hair yarn. Twinkles nicely when the light is on it too. It’s like miniature tinsel. The whole triangle and the silver stars were then added to the card using foam pads. Hope you like the result!

Tine :)

Challenges for this card:

Mo’s Digital – swirls & flourishes
Paperplay – stars
Fussy ‘n’ Fancy – Christmas, not red & green
Crafty Catz – Christmas
Paper Sundaes – corner embellishment
Scrappy Frogs – Christmas
Ooh - la - la - Christmas song - (Oh, Christmas Tree)
Charisma – for a girl (pink Christmas card...need I say more! LOL)
Passion for Promarkers - (old & new - old the digi image/new the DP)
Digital Two for Tuesday - digi animal+ Christmas.