Totally tropical...

Good morning, crafty friends! I have recently subscribed to Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine and my first copy dropped through the letterbox the other day...having card orders and kits to get ready, I haven't had time to play until last night, when I managed to get an hour or two in and came up with this tropical themed card...

 

I love the bolder colour palette - taking me out of my pastel comfort zone, once again!...

 

 

How I made it :

 

I inked the embossing folder with Peeled Paint Distress Oxide, using a piece of Cut n Dry foam to apply it to the printed side of the embossing folder. Once embossed, I applied Cracked Pistachio and Salty Ocean Distress Oxides to the raised areas and then blended around the edge with Tuxedo Black Memento. I have to say, I am getting much braver with my use of black and think it works great with brighter colour tones and really makes the colours pop!...

I coloured the flowers with Pro/Flexmarkers - Watermelon, Cerise, Shocking Pink, Vermillion and Lemon and for the leaves, I used Apple, Grass and Forest Green

I used a strip of green polka dot paper from the Telephone set of A Play on Words and one of the sentiments from the free stamp set. I have added a touch of gold glitter to the ends of the stamens, but it doesn't show up very well on camera...and a few enamel dots and gems broke the white space a little.

I hope you like my tropical themed card and think I'll be playing with the flamingo next...

 

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Promarkers - It's a Summer Thing...

Good afternoon, crafty friends! I'm a little late today due to there being a cue for using the PC...but better late than never!

We have a brand new challenge starting today over at Passion for Promarkers and the lovely Marie has given us a topical theme of 'It's a Summer Thing'...She would like to see all your summery images, summery colours or even just summer themed embellishments; as long as it reminds us of summer we will accept any creations.  We hope you’ll have fun and can’t wait to see what you create this week. Remember you can enter using any type of creation but as always to be eligible for our prize draw you must use your Winsor & Newton (formerly Letraset) products (promarkers, brush markers, flex markers, tria markers, aqua markers or metallic markers). Please can you help us by stating which products you have used on your creation i.e. ‘coloured with promarkers’ etc. Thanks x x

Our generous sponsor this week is Lee Holland Designs who is offering one lucky winner a prize of 2 digi images from his online store.  His images are so super cute and the DT were lucky enough to use Lee’s images on their creations...

For my creation, I picked out the ever so sweet 'Piglet with Flower'...I just love Lee's images, they are absolutely adorable and a pleasure to colour...

Colour List :

Piggy - Blush, Dusky Pink, Coral, Cinnamon 

Hat shading - Orchid, Lavender, Blender

Grass - Leaf Green, Grass, Forest Green

I love how this pretty card turned out and to me, it really invokes a feeling of Summer. The paper is one from The Works Sweet Garden Roses paper pad and I paper pieced the little piggy's hat and added some little die cut flowers for dimension...

Being a summery theme I had to add a couple of clouds (of course!) and a big sunshine, like the one we have been having for the last few weeks! I remembered to do my doodling before I put my card together this time and dug out an eyelet for my ribbon to thread through.

I hope that you can play along with our fun challenge this week and look forward to seeing all of your wonderful creations.
Hugs,

Anemone...

Good evening, crafty friends! I'm popping in to share a card that I made using the bonus image from my Buttercup Mini Kit...

When I'd coloured my Buttercup image up, I thought that it resembled in shape to an anemone flower, so decided to colour one up in shades of pink with dark centres...and I think that I was right....on looking again, I suppose you could even colour them red and have them as poppies too?!...
I used papers from the Wild Rose and Fuchsia kits and used the out of frame technique to cut the image. If you haven't done this before, here's a step by step of how to do it...

 1. Place your die over the image to see which parts sit outside of the cut line...

2. Cut in from the outside edge to the nearest point of each part that needs to be cut (in this case the leaves) and then cut along the image line, ensuring that you do not cut away any parts of the white area, but just cut along the image line...as shown in red above...

3. Place the die over the image (cutting side down) and ensure that the areas that you have cut are on top of the die, secure with low tack tape...

4. Put through your die cutting machine and it will cut the shape but leave the areas that were outside of the die, as above...

I then matted the image onto a cream scalloped circle die and assembled the card...

Dimensions :

Pink circle (Wild Rose kit) - 14cm square 

(edges inked with Victorian Velvet)

Pale Pink - 11.5cm square

Pink Dot (Wild Rose kit) - 11cm square

(edges inked with Victorian Velvet)

Pale Green - 14 x 3.5cm

Green Gingham (Wild Rose kit) - 14 x 3cm

(edges inked with Peeled Paint)

Green stripe (Fuchsia Mini kit) - 6 x 1.5cm and 4.5 x 1.5cm

I used one of the sentiments from the Buttercups sentiment sheet, cut with an oval die and matted onto pale pink cardstock. I added some black glitter to the centre of the flowers and a couple of pearls to finish...it just shows how different an image can look just by changing the colour tones!

I hope you like my floral make and if you create something similar, I'd love to see it!

Crafty hugs,

Buttercups...

Good morning, my lovelies! It's looking to be another gloriously sunny day here in North Wales and the fabulous weather has definitely been a help to my design work - Mother Nature is truly a talented artist! For my latest design, I found inspiration in the fabulous field of buttercups that is across the road from our house...

So I now have another brand new mini kit in my Etsy shop in homage to these pretty little cups of sunshine...

You get the digistamp and precoloured versions of the flower, 3 coordinating papers, 4x6 photo size sentiment sheet, plus a bonus image (which I'll share later), all for just £2.40...

I had to make another card in the style of the Fuchsia one I made, just because I love how it turned out and I think it works well for this pretty Buttercup image too...
https://www.etsy.com/…/…/798184702/buttercups-mini-paper-kit

Hope you like my nature inspired design and I'll be back later with a card made using the bonus image...

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Promarkers - 11th Anniversary challenge...

Good morning, crafty friends! It's a special week this week over at Passion for Promarkers, as it's our 11th Anniversary! I have been lucky enough to be a member of the DT for over 7 years now and would just like to thank Denise and Gina for all of their hard work over the years, bringing us together in our crafty passion!

So on to the good stuff...we have an amazing array of sponsors this week, so you're going to want to play along, plus we have a super easy theme of Spots and/or Stripes...

Dr Digis House of Stamps - 2 digi images, 

Dies to Die For - £20 voucher, 

Leann's World 101 - 2 digis, 

Uniko - 1 stamp set (must be in stock), 

Cowling & Wilcox - 12 pack of Brushmarkers set 1, 

Di's Digi Stamps - $6 voucher. 

Wow! What a brilliant set of prizes, just remember, that to be in with a chance of winning a prize, you MUST use your Letraset/Winsor & Newton mediums and follow the challenge theme. Also, due to it being our anniversary challenge and the possibility of high numbers entering, we need to limit the number of entries to 3 per person...

Now I don't know what came over me, but I actually made a Christmas card for my inspiration...in May!...I don't normally do Christmas until about the end of November, but I wanted to see if I could use my Flower Garland image for a festive theme...

 ...and I think it turned out alright?! I kept the colours to a traditional festive palette and added in some gold accents. I used a similar layout to the Gina K cards that I have been seeing of late and kept the background quite muted to stop it being over busy...looking at it now though, I think I need to chuck a load of glitter at it, because if you can't have glitter for Christmas, then when can you have it?!

I really hope that you can play along with our challenge this week, as there are some fantastic prizes up for grabs and look forward to hopping around Blogland to see what you have all created!

Crafty hugs,

Fuschia step by step...

So, as promised, I'm back again to share a step by step on how I made this pretty Fuchsia card sample using the papers and precoloured images from my Fuchsia mini kit...

My card base is a 6x6 inch (14.8cm) square...

1. Print off the 3 coordinating papers and the precoloured Fuchsia image x 2 - I printed the image onto 4x6 sized paper (I often do this to save paper) and used Photo Size 3.5 x 5in
2. Cut the Pink circle paper to 13.5cm square and ink the edges - I used Picked Raspberry Distress Ink
3. Attach to your card base, using the adhesive of your choice
4. Cut a piece of the green Fuchsia stripe paper to 14.8 x 4.5cm (14.8cm should be the width of your card base front when folded, but check yours and adjust if needed) Ink the edges - I used Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide
5. Mat the green stripe onto a piece of white paper 14.8cm (or whatever width your card base is) x 5cm
6. Attach the green stripe panel (with white mat) to the centre of your card
7. Cut a piece of white paper 10cm square and attach to the centre of your card

For the aperture topper :

8. Cut a piece of the aqua Fuchsia dot paper to 10.5cm square and cut a circular aperture in the centre, using a 9cm circle die
9. Cut a piece of blue cardstock to 11cm square and lay your dot panel with the aperture on top, ensuring that all the border edges are equal.
10. Holding the dot layer in place, lay a slightly smaller circle die inside the aperture and secure with repositionable tape, then remove the dot layer before cutting. Adhere the two layers together.

11. Attach the aperture topper over the white cardstock in the centre of your card using foam pads.
12. Cut around the Fuchsia image leaving a white border and attach inside the aperture - you will need to use a combination of foam pads and glue to attach the image level.
13. I printed off 2 of the images and decoupaged some of the leaves and main flower, before adding a touch of glitter to the flower stamens
14. Print the sentiment from a graphics program, sizing to 4.5 x 3cm and matting onto a fuchsia coloured cardstock 5 x 3.5cm in size
15. Finish off with some 5mm pearls

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

I hope that this little step by step guide is easy enough to follow along and that you will have a go at making something similar...and if you would like to use my Fuchsia image and papers, it is available as a mini kit in my Etsy shop HERE for just £2.40...

Right, off to tidy my crafty table before I think of starting again and don't forget, if you use my tutorial or any of my images, I would love to see what you create!

Crafty hugs,

Fuchsia...

Good afternoon, crafty buddies! I have a brand new image in my Etsy shop...
This pretty Fuchsia image comes in a mini kit including digistamps, precoloured image, sentiments and 3 coordinating papers for just £2.40...
https://www.etsy.com/…/lis…/810549503/fuschia-mini-paper-kit
I have to say, this was a pleasure to colour and I love how it turned out...might be something to do with the pink?!! Hope you like it too...

This card uses the precoloured image and papers, plus I teamed it with a sentiment from my recent Craft Stash bargain haul...

I'll be back later with a step by step of how I created the sample card for my Etsy shop...but first, lunch! The monster inside has been awoken!

Hugs,

Two cards, one background...

Good afternoon, crafty friends! I have a freebie for you today and a bit of inspiration too...

I created this mountainscape to compliment my Happy Campers Project Kit and used the red tone background with the caravan image...

I added Impression Obsession die cut trees (DIE217-E) and a sentiment from Olga's free download, as part of Craft Stash's 5th Birthday...

The blue background inspired me to make a Christmas card (which is a rarity for me, as I don't 'do' Christmas until at least November!)...

Once again, I used my Obsession Impression tree dies and added some Sizzix snowflakes, peel off waste dots, string and a stamped sentiment...

I love both of these cards and think these backgrounds could be used in so many ways...they would even coordinate with the free digital collection that I created for Simply Cards and Papercraft Magazine Issue 202...

 Please note : this image carries an angel policy which allows the user to download and use the image for personal use in any craft/ home decor project. It IS NOT to be shared or duplicated in any way or used for commercial use. Please direct people to https://ellas-design.blogspot.com/ to download

and credit where applicable

To download the image, click on it to open, then right click on the picture and click Save As... name the file whatever you like and save it to your computer. I hope you like my freebie and I would love to see anything that you create with it!

Happy crafting,

Passion for Promarkers - In the Pink...

Good morning, crafty friends from a sunny North Wales! It's my turn to host this week over at Passion for Promarkers and in homage to my love of pink when it comes to crafting, I have given you all the theme 'In the Pink'...you can create anything you like, not just a card and use any other colours, as long as the predominant one is pink!
We are kindly being sponsored by JMC Designs who are offering one lucky winner a complete digital collection of their choice, from her online store...

Don’t forget you can enter any type of creation it doesn’t have to be a card but remember, as always, to be eligible for our prize draw you must use your Winsor & Newton (formerly Letraset) products (promarkers, flex markers, tria markers, aqua markers or metallic markers) and of course follow the theme.  Please can you help us by stating which products you have used on your creation I.e. ‘coloured with promarkers’ etc.  Thanks x x

We were lucky enough to get an image to play with and I picked out the pretty 'Camille Amore'...

I didn't want to go all out PINK, so paper pieced her dress and hat in a lovely blue ticking stripe - I am a big fan of contrasting colours and I think the cool blue stops the whole card being to sugary sweet...

The papers are whatever I found in my scrap drawers, as I am still trying to use them up rather than cutting into new sheets, but I know that the floral and pink dots are from The Works Sweet Garden Roses and the blue ticking is from the Cooker and Washer set of Words at Play...

I once again tweaked the layout of the flamingo card I made in November 2017, making it fit a square card base and added a touch of glitter and some sparkly hearts for a touch of bling...

I hope you can find the time to play along with my challenge this week and look forward to visiting you all and seeing your wonderful creations...it's always difficult choosing a Top 5!

Crafty hugs,

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges :

Papercraft Challenge - May

Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday

Feminine closes tomorrow

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

Anything Goes closes tomorrow

Wax paper resist technique...

Good morning, crafty buddies! I have to say, I am on a bit of a roll at the moment and it is a VERY long time since I have managed to get as many posts in between my Passion for Promarkers challenge posts!...

Today, I have a couple of cards to share, using a technique reminded to me by the talented Gina K... wax paper resist. I saw this technique a good few years ago and promised myself to have a go, but have never really been in the right frame of mind to just play...but yesterday, that was different!

The first try I had ended up a little psychedelic...

The wax resist worked great, I just went a little over board with my inks and created a rainbow...I'm sure they'll get used for something and it's amazing what a difference adding a black mat can make...

These were the cards that Gina made, so on my second attempt I just used 2 colours per background...

I had this cutie already printed out on my desk and thought he looked lovely on the tonal background (Abandoned Coral & Wild Honey Distress Oxides edges with Vintage Photo)...

...and then for the other, I used my Wild Rose digistamp (again!) printed to 6 x 8cm (wallet) and coloured with my Promarkers - Primrose, Yellow, Gold, Apple and Forest Green, with Salty Ocean and Pistachio Green Distress Oxide background edged in Vintage Photo. The Taylored Expression embossing folder is the one I used and I love the batique style finish that the technique gives, one side being slightly more subtle than the other...

So how do you do it, I hear you ask? I found this quick tutorial on Pinterest, although the link doesn't seem to work, so here's the picture...

I didn't use glossy paper, but a cardstock that I know will take ink relatively well and it worked fine...

I really enjoyed making these backgrounds and am sure will be making more in the future, but for now, I hope you like them and if you're inspired to have a go, please send me a link to have a look...

The Fox image and Wild Rose images are available to purchase in my Esty store...and if you're on Facebook, be sure to send me a friend request - you can find me HERE

Crafty hugs,