Wednesday, 3 November 2010

#39 Snowflakes





















Hi everyone. For our Challenge at I ♥ Promarkers this week we want to see snowflakes on your finished project. For my card I have created ‘shaker’ featuring ‘Kai in the Snow’ by Mo Manning. Isn’t he adorable? I coloured the image with Promarkers of course, though paper-pieced the red hooded outfit before shading that with my Promarkers too. I have hopefully given him a fleece scarf and hat with a satin edge to keep the cold out and they, along with the pom-poms and shoes, are coloured exclusively with Promarkers.


Having made a circular card base, I then cut an inner circle out of it for the image to be place behind and then created a series of snowflakes to decorate the created circle. The ones running around the circumference are actually made with the Martha Stewart Double-Edge snowflake punch, which whilst a straight punch, I put a few cuts at strategic points so I could manipulate it to go round in a circle. To further embellish the edge with ‘falling’ snowflakes I used the MS snowflake corner punch to layer onto the largest snowflakes on the card and those were die cut using a Marianne Creatable die. Other layers of these snowflakes, as well as the smaller individual ones, are just some snowflake shaped confetti I had in my stash combined with those shapes punched out with the MS punches. I then put some Stickles onto various points of the snowflakes so they would glisten. I have a love/hate relationship with my Stickles bottle. I love it, but it seems to hate me! That sticky stuff really doesn’t want to come out most of the time, however much I coax it with a pin! The circular sentiment is from TLC Creations and that is matted onto matching cardstock and edged with more Stickles.

Before securing the layers of the shaker card together with foam tape I added tiny MS snowflakes & some tiny stars (pretending to be even smaller snowflakes!) which were remnants from the larger MS punched borders. These are the snow in the ‘Kai Snowglobe’! LOL. I also made a second circular base to attach at the side of the first with tape behind the sentiment, as the card would not quite fit in its entirety (that is the front & back) onto one sheet of A4.

Hope you like it!

Tine :)

Challenges I would like to enter my card for:
Mo's Digital - pick a season (Winter)

Fussy 'n' Fancy - Winter Wonderland

Cute Card Thursdays - transparent

One Stitch At A Time - Christmas

Ooh -la- la - Remember, remember...(In this case the image so reminds me of my son when he was tiny, and I mean tiny. We had bought him a brick red all-in-one suit to wear during his first winter though it was still so large on him he was like baby Maggie on the Simpsons in her's......arms and legs stuck out as if a star! LOL.

Tip Top - Christmas inspired

ABC - glitter

Simon Says Challenge - all white

Lexi's - anything goes.

Sunday, 31 October 2010

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.

Thursday, 28 October 2010

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.

Wednesday, 27 October 2010

#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 :)

Sunday, 24 October 2010

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.

Friday, 22 October 2010

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:
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. :(

Wednesday, 20 October 2010

#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.

Saturday, 16 October 2010

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!!!!!!!!!