#109 Lenny & the Champers

Theme at I ♥ Promarkers - 3 different design papers
Sponsor & prize this week - Stamp Fairy ($10 gift certificate)

This week's DT card uses one of our sponsor's image, that of Lenny (Happy New Year 5) but as this dapper young bear is clutching a rather nice looking champagne glass, I reckon he could be easily used to celebrate anything, not just New Year. He was coloured with Promarkers of course.

The layout I have chosen to use is another fab one from CLP but if you ladies on the CLP DT notice I have actually tilted a couple of the layers, so I hope you forgive me. LOL. Why? Well, obvious really when you think about it - look at the size of the champagne glass against the size of the bear.  If you consumed your own body weight in champers then I reckon you too would be having to lean on the glass and be seeing the world all wonky! LOL.  I reckon I would be spark out on the floor mind you! LOL. I have indeed used 3 dps too, not just the two orangey ones, it is just that the blue one in the background also has a woven texture to it, making it match perfectly with the base card I chose to use. Actually, I used the blue & orange patterned one twice - a tiny bit was paper-pieced for Lenny's very smart tie.

I cut my sentiments out on the front to tie in with the design LO too and added the Dovecraft twine just because I liked it and it worked for me. LOL. Hope you like it too.

Tine :)

Challenges:

CLP - design sketch
Crafty Ribbons - birthday
Aud Sentiments - song title (Champagne Supanova - Oasis)
Cardmadfairy - sentiment
Totally Papercrafts - male card
Crafty Pad - pair (two shaped sentiments)
Sundays With Crissy - animals
Passion for Promarkers - animals
Heidi'sHobbystuggu - animals
Lothian Crafts - 2 main colours
Gingersnaps - 2 colours
Stamp & Create - paper piecing (only a small amount but his isn't wearing much! LOL)
Digi Makeover - field of flowers colour inspiration of blue, orange & yellow
Bearly Mine - dots (only on one dp but you wouldn't want too much of a good thing now would you, LOL)
Poodles Parlour - anything goes.

#108 Sweet Birthday

Theme at I ♥ Promarkers this week - anything goes!!!!!
Sponsor & prize this week - Joanna Sheen -£10 voucher

All together now, "Aw..." isn't this a cute image!  These two meeces who have stuffed themselves with all that resplendent cupcake are a House Mouse stamp. Yes, my Promarkers coloured them in as usual and that includes the tiny one in the centre of my sentiment from Bird's Cards. Can you ever have too many cupcakes? LOL. The dps with the jolly balloons perfect for a party atmosphere are both from TLC and cut into a fancy border shape at the bottom. The card is sugar-candy coloured.

Another little mouse is on the inside of the card, 'reading' the large circular sentiment from Cindy Close. The calendar, to which the relevant birthday date has been added using a fine liner was also one of Cindy's. Yes, I can get away with saying 'All the best people were born in March' as it is my birthday in March too, LOL, and not only in the same month as one another, as my friends know, I share 'my day' with my daughter for whom I have made this card.  I will let you do the detective work out what day that was last week! LOL.  I made the tag shape too, cutting out her name and layering an off-cut from the dps (well, I don't like waste when it can be put to good use), from the front of the card placing it behind the cut-work so that it would peep through for a bit of added interest. I have written who the card is from (as if she didn't know!! LOL), on the reverse of the tag before slipping it into the pocket. The ribbon was from my stash.

Tine :)

Challenges:
Sundays With Crissy - animals
The Pretty Little Ribbon Shop - Spring colours
House Mouse - (cupcake) photo inspiration
Poodles Parlour - birthday)
Pink Elephant - photo inspiration
Totally Papercrafts - favourite things (colouring with my Promarkers/border cut using cutter)
Hotshot Craft - ribbon
Jellypark - favourite things (colouring with my Promarkers/border cut using cutter)
Truly Madly Crafty - colour inspiration
Gingersnap - border punches
Joanna Sheen - spring is in the air (colours)
Papertake - for a girl/mother (my daughter).

On Mother's Day

Well, I have managed to squeeze a Mother's Day card into my itinerary - for my MIL, who apparently was unaware that all the cards she ever got from me were actually coloured by me too.  She thought I just bought everything 'as is' and stuck it down!

Yes, I used this LOTV image not too long ago (Rosie Posy), and yes, I certainly do have other LOTV images I could have used, but you can't go far wrong with a bunch of flowers for Mother's Day can you?  This time I put the image into a frame I cut using a design by Bird's Cards and added the required elements at Lili's Little Fairies this week - lace (from Fantastic Ribbons) and ribbon from my stash.

I chose the fab sketch to work to from Creative Belli and one of the required elements was a sentiment on the front, in this instance, a circular one from Bluebird Flats. As the writing in the centre of the sentiment was rather small, I repeated it on the inside of the card but enlarged it to make it more legible having layered the papers on the opposite side to the sketch. The white rectangle is of course for my hand written 'from' - as long as I don't forget to do that bit! LOL.

Tine :)

Challenges:
Lili's Little Fairies - ribbon & lace
Little Darlings - pearls
Passion For Promarkers - mum/female relative
Crafty Catz - Mother's Day/special lady
Crafty Ribbons - celebrate a mother figure
Crafts 4 Eternity - special mum (for my MIL)
One Stop Craft - Mother's Day with ribbon
Dream Valley - Mother's Day
PanPastel - girly/Mother's Day
Allsorts - say it with flowers
Cupcake Craft Room - spring bouquet
Sweet Stamping - layers (&/or sketch if you want)
Joanna Sheen - spring is in the air
Mark's Finest Papers - bingo (lace, bling (pearls) & circles)
Hotshot - ribbon
Totally Papercrafts - fav things (Promarkers & a new fav toy too, my cutter)
Jellypark - fav technique/product etc (Promarkers!!!!)
Papertake - anything goes
Paper Shelter - anything goes

Creative Belli - design sketch

#107 Wedding Tryptic

Theme at I ♥ Promarkers - ribbons & bows
Sponsor & prize this week - Lili of the Valley - £10 gift voucher (I want to enter too....!!!)

This card is going to my God daughter/niece who gets married this year so I am getting this done in good time.  I designed, created & cut out the card base myself - well, you never know if you can until you try do you!  It was a bit problematic at times but for once, I managed to do exactly what my head had created.  A kind of tryptic with lattice side panels all cut from shimmering white & ivory heavy weight card.  I hope you can see it clearly enough. I even changed the colour of my light-box back drop so you could see it a little more easily.

I chose to use a simply gorgeous stamp from LOTV, (our generous sponsors this week), which I am sure most of you will recognise as 'Wedding Couple', and I did the honours with my Promarkers once again.  All the dots at their feet are meant to be the confetti in case you were wondering were I was coming from with that one. LOL. You might wonder too at the blue frame and coordinating coloured ribbons on the image but this apparently is the colour of the bridesmaids' dresses so I thought I would try to personalise the card entirely.

The fabulous satin edged ribbon which is such a brilliant match to my ivory card, was part of the stash I won over at Jak Heath's blog fairly recently. Wasn't I a lucky girl?!?!  Having run some of it across my embossed card, I managed to tie a fairly small bow for above the central panel's set of ringing bells.  The small crosses on the front & reverse of one of the side panels was cut using a couple of dies from Spellbinders rather than me cutting them out. This also meant that I could emboss them. I was a little tempted to add some flowers I must admit, but wanted to keep the card  flat enough to fold together. So although there is a bit of dimension from matting using a touch of glue gel there is nothing to impede the tryptic closing.

I then personalised the rear panel too, cutting out the name of the 'happy couple' with a space beneath so that I can write on the 'from' later. You can see the front of the side panels too from this angle and I have put a second layered Spellbinders' cross in a similar position on the circle so both crosses back onto one another.

Have really enjoyed making this one & I hope you all like it!

Tine :)

Challenges I would like to enter this card for are:
Little Claire's - Romance
Lothian Crafts - 2 colours (white & blue)
Emerald Faerie Garden - embossing (on the front panel)
Crazy4 - fun folds
Our Creative Corner - music (White Wedding - Billy Idol)
Crafts 4 Eternity - digital (cutter)
Pan Pastel - stamped image
Love to Create - monochromatic
Simon Says - either Mother's Day or special girl (my God-daughter)
Pink Elephant -  at least 3 layers
Whimsy - no sentiment
Paper Minutes - colour combo
Clearly Inspired - anything goes
Papertake - anything goes.

#106 Games Over - sketch

Theme at I ♥ Promarkers - use the sketch
Sponsor & prize this week - Digi Doodle Shop ($10 gift voucher)

For my take on the sketch that Karen has devised for us this week, I have used an image from our sponsor, Digi Doodle called, 'Games Over', of this poor, dejected lad whose side would have appeared to have lost given the sad look on his face. Now, you could write on a postage stamp what I know about baseball, but the outfit I have given him looks good enough to me. LOL - and by the way, that is indeed a red shirt & hat I gave him, but try as I might it kept coming out in the photos a little pinkish rather than a colour very similar to the circles around him that it actually is. Grrr. In fact, all the colours on the image look washed out compared to the original today. No idea why.

Still, whatever team this might or might not be, it was coloured using Promarkers and I continued the ball kind of theme with the border around him, using red as well as white, as I believe they 'sew' the baseball with red stitches.  I then set the bordered image so it was slightly above the card base using foam pads.

The layers of card are all Papermania textured cardstock and for the detailing on the sketch I cut out two circles at the top & bottom of the card so that the white below (yes, you guessed it - more balls, LOL) would peep through.  Nothing like running with a theme is there! LOL.

Tine :)

Challenges I would like to enter this card for are:
Crafty Catz - 'b' is for baseball
Hotshot - one for the boys
Wags 'n' Whiskers - masculine birthday
Sweet Stampin' - it's a man thing
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - manly or for a boy
Cupcake Craft - boys and their toys
Sisterhood of Crafters - use a digi
Pixie Cottage - (either use their sketch) or anything goes.

#105 Reading Time in Olden Times

Theme at I ♥ Promarkers - time
Sponsor & prize this week - Crafty Emma (£10 voucher)

I inked up for my DT card this week, in order for me to use this adorable image from Sarah Kay and one, I have to admit, I haven't used for a long while. If it has a proper name (which I am sure it has), I sorry but I can't tell you as it's not on the original packaging which I still have to safely keep it in before it goes into my 'Stamp File'.

The sketch I have followed is from the CLP challenge this month, but me being me, I rotated it so it was upside down.  The image was stamped onto white card before I cut the shaping around it using the largest of the Spellbinders Labels 22 dies (embossing it too for good measure) and I then created my own larger mat for it from the same blue card-stock as I had chosen for the base and mounted it using glue gel for dimension. I coloured the image, needless to say, with my Promarkers, including a couple of the new Spring release colours which of course, I simply had to get my mitts on!  Yes, the little lad has ginger hair, but my son had this kind of hair style when he was small (it was fashionable at the time I hasten to add!!!) and he seems to think I have to always colour this one so it looks vaguely like him with his big sis - so when he saw which stamp I had got out I was under orders. LOL.

The several layers of papers I have used were distressed at the edges before being sewn into position and the horizontal cut work designs following the design layout were made from a deep cream 'woven' textured card (as were the swirling leaves) and also from off-white pearlescent card too which I used on the taller row of flowers.  I also made the 3 blue flower embellishments from two different shades of blue card and the two pink horizontal elements of the sketch (see below), I interpreted as two ribbon/bow 'butterflies' with blue pearls in the centre to match the 3 pearls I added to the corner for balance.

On the inside of my card I replicated the basic elements of my layout, reducing it a little in size. The sentiment on the nestie shape is from TLC and the February calendar from Cindy over at Bluebird Flats. Having cut myself more floral borders, I made a less dimensional flower (well, whilst pretty dimensional considering it is for the inside of the card is nothing like as 3-D as the roses on the front, LOL), and also the two-layered tag with the word birthday cut out of it. This was slotted behind the central mat (which was attached using glue gel along 3 sides especially to accommodate the tag fitting behind), the tag having the 'to' and 'from' written on the back of it.  So, a very dimensional card overall but I am giving it to a friend by hand this weekend and not having to squeeze it into an envelope!

Hope you like it!

Tine :)

Challenges:

CLP - design layout              
Glitter Geeks - girls & boys
Stamping Boutique - stitching
Bunny Zoe - celebration
Do You Stack Up - layers 
Sundays With Crissy - birthday
Corrosive - dimension
Allsorts - free & easy February
Secret Crafter - bingo (I have actually managed two rows! LOL, - middle row of swirls, flowers, pearls & bottom row of ribbon, bow & leaves)
Whimsy - monochromatic
Totally Papercraft - ribbons & bows
Sentimental Sundays - use a sentiment
Die Cuttin' Divas - favourite pets
Tuesday Throwdown - winter blues (use blue)
Fashionable Stamping - (no digi images) - monochromatic plus one
Stamping for the Weekend - photo insp

#104 Nature

Theme at I ♥ Promarkers - nature
Sponsor & prize this week - Stampeezee (£10 voucher)

No, not a square card this week, but a rectangle for a change and I tried to keep it all relatively simplistic & uncluttered. Yes, I know it looks pretty square to you, but the back of the card actually extends out with cut circle detailing - it is just when the card is open you can't actually see that element at all!  Best laid plans going astray I think we can safely say on that one. LOL. However, if you look at the angled photo you can see the glossy black die cuts on the back.

The die cut on the back of the card can only really be seen when fully closed  or from an angle.

The image of this resplendent peacock is from A Day For Daisies and as he is something of a stylised bird I decided to colour him with Promarkers in quite a stylised way.  I layered my papers and cut out ovals which themselves were layered up to echo the feathers' eyes. Hopefully, the die cut border (a Spellbinders'), on the glossy black card has something of the same effect.

Tine :)

Challenges:
Charisma - things with wings
Flutterby Wednesday - ANYTHING with wings
Divas By Design - wings and things
Truly Scrumptious - all creatures great and small
Scrappy Frogs - die cut  (Spellbinders Borderability die on the edge of the back of the card)
Inky Impressions - punches or dies (....see above)
Stamps Are Us - anything goes
Penny's - anything goes
OSAAT - anything goes.

For Dorcas.....

Welcome to this special hop in honour of my blog-buddy, Dorcas, who is understandably feeling a bit low at the moment after her much loved feline companion of many years was sadly killed in a road accident. This card then, Dorcas, is FOR YOU!  I do hope you like this one - it was a bit of a rush to get it made for you & posted out at short notice - & you know I don't do quick cards, LOL, but I hope that it cheers you up a little at least at this difficult time). Bet you can't wait to check your postbox! LOL. You should have arrived at my blog from Tracey's blog - and if anyone else around Blogland would like to join in with our hop you might want to start at the beginning at Stacey's.

The Promarker-ed image is of course, LOTV, this one being 'Rosie Posy' with her bouquet of flowers.  I only got her & a few other LOTV gems a couple of weeks ago & haven't had time to ink her up before now. The card base, whilst still square is actually a little smaller than I usually use as I generally create my own base from A4 card but this was a pre-scored card complete with envelope so was perfect for a quick turn around card that had to go through the mail. I even managed to find some card to match the pretty, spring-like floral papers which I though rather cheery. I also paper-pieced her outfit for a soft pattern effect to match in.  Her mat was cut using the largest of the Spellbinders' Labels 18 set of standard dies so I had to I do the 'fake Nestie' trick of drawing around the die & cutting out by hand to give me the pink mat to go behind the image.

Whist relatively flat still has some dimension.

It actually took a few dies & punches to create my floral embellishment. The largest of the flowers was created using 2 different dies - the outer section being from the newish Marianne Craftables lacy oval shape set (CR1204) which came with a flower too. This section was the smallest of those included 3 floral dies. The centre petals were cut using one from a set of Marianne Creatables flower dies. The tiny pink flowers scattered about were punched using a Woodware punch but I went 'all creative' for the blossom that I thought matched the pattern of the dp pretty well really. For those 2 dimensional blossoms I cut out the berries from Spellbinders' poinsettia set of dies from pink card, folding back one of the berries to lie against the other 2. I then punched a circle (from Do-Crafts), coloured it with Promarkers and cut 2 'V'-shapes into it at the top & bottom to echo the dp flower design. These were set onto 2 differing swirling sprigs (Double-Do dies) and there is the perhaps recognisable punched trellis of Martha Stewart's running across the background. All I had to do then was dot my flowers with a few gems and I had managed to keep this relatively flat for posting too. Well, I did use some glue gel to raise my image up slightly - but I do like a bit if dimension if I can.

I kept the insert relatively simple (& flat!!!!) by printing a sentiment from TLC onto deckled-edged paper. Now that I have finished telling you about my latest creation, you should hop along over to Babs' blog who has a gorgeous creation made especially for you, Dorcas.

Tine :)


P.S.  I am sure you won't mind me entering this card into a few challenges.....

Sir Stampalot - in the garden
Crafts & Me - (use a new image)
Sparkles Forum - new crafty goodies (believe it or not this adorable stamp as well as 2 of the dies)
Crafty Pad - fresh, spring colours
Digital Tuesday - red or pink
Papertake - anything goes.