Passion for Markers - Sentimental...

 Good morning, crafty friends! A flying visit before I pop off to work, to let you know about our new challenge which starts today over at Passion for Markers!...

The lovely Marie is in the hostess chair and has given us a super easy challenge theme of 'Sentimental', so all she would like for you to do is add a sentiment to your project...how easy is that?! We're being sponsored by Di's Digi Stamps whoa re offering one lucky winner a $6.00 voucher to their online store...

Don't forget that since the New Year, you are able to play along with our challenges using any brand of marker pens, alcohol or water based and can enter any type of project, not just cards...so no excuse not to play along!

I decided to play with another of my latest stencil purchases - Lou Collins TEXTures Heart Fragments Stencil and rather than ink through it, I thought I would emboss it and then inked a pretty rainbow using Distress Oxide Inks. I used an image from Time for Tea Designs called Phoebe Hugs and coloured her in with my Pro/Flexmarkers, paper piecing her dress with a plaid paper. I added a couple of pretty heart die cuts and the sentiment from Altenew Beautiful day stamp set...

Right, have to dash or I'll be late for work! I do hope that you can find the time to play along with our simple challenge this week and look forward to seeing all of your wonderful creations!

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Markers - Feminine...

Good afternoon, crafty buddies! Another Tuesday rolls around, which means a brand new challenge starts today over at Passion for Markers...the lovely Lorraine is in the hostess chair and she's chosen a simple theme this week of 'Feminine', so we'd like to see all of those pretty, girly creations...

We're being sponsored by All Dressed Up who are offering one lucky winner the choice of 2 digital images from their online store...

We were lucky enough to get an image to play with and I went with the pretty Beret Girl...

I started my feminine creation by picking out some pretty papers from the Sweet Dreams and Vintage paper pads from Make & Create at The Works and then coloured my image to coordinate (this makes a change from my usual "colour an image only to find I don't have any papers to coordinate with it?!")

I coloured Beret Girl with my Pro/Flexmarkers, using one of my favourite pink colour combinations -

Skin - Blush, Dusky Pink, Sunkissed Pink

Hair - Cinnamon, Shale, Umber

Skirt - Cocktail Pink, Cerise, Shocking Pink, Vermillion

Top and Beret - Cool Grey 4, Cool Grey 5, Black, Pebble Blue, Blender

I gave her a yellow rose in her hair and then tied this in by adding the yellow stars. The sentiment was stamped using Waffle Flower Crafts Birthday sentiments and the word wishes is from the O Christmas Tree set that came with Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine. I finished with a die cut star from Memory Box Precious stars set and some glitter...

I love the way this card turned out - pretty and feminine without being too sickly pink (if that's possible?!) and hope that you can find the time to play along with our challenge this week! I look forward to seeing all of your wonderful creations and if Lorraine has a hard a job as I did trying to pick out a Top 5 last week, then I don't envy her!

Hugs,

Take one stencil...

 Good afternoon, crafty friends! So it seems my obsession with stencils is not waning yet?!...I needed to order some basic white card stock from Craft Stash and whilst there, I noticed that there was a BOGOF on selected stencils...well, it would have been rude not to put a couple in my basket?!

I decided to have a play with the Art Style Flowers Stencil from the TEXT-ures range by Lou Collins and wanted to try and make a card using this as both the background and focal point...

I began by inking the whole stencil background in Cracked Pistachio and Speckled Egg Distress Oxides, then removed the stencil and softened the image by blending over the top with the inks, using my blending brushes. I then inked some of the flowers using Cracked Pistachio, Peeled Paint, Tattered Rose, Abandoned Coral and a touch of Wild Honey in the centres, before fussy cutting leaving a white border...

I cut the panel down to 15.5 x 10.5cm and inked the edges with Cracked Pistachio before attaching to a 5 x 7 inch card blank. I cut a white panel 12.5 x 7.5cm and mat this onto cream. I stamped and gold embossed the word Birthday from Waffle Flower Crafts Birthday Sentiments stamp set onto pearl vellum and wrapped it around a piece of peach tone polka dot paper, cut to the card width by 3cm and mat onto cream. I also stamped the word wishes from Bright Rosa's free stamp set with SC&P, embossed with gold and fussy cut, again leaving a white border...

I attached the polka dot panel across the bottom third of the card and then slipped the white panel underneath the vellum strip. I then arranged the flowers before attaching with glue at the bottom and foam pads at the top for a bit of dimension. I added the wishes with foam pads and embellished with some glitter on the birthday sentiment and a few pearls in different sizes...

I just love the soft finish that stenciling and Distress Oxides give and hope I've inspired you to have a play with stencils too!...

Off to get ready for work...I need to win the lottery so I can just play at my crafty table - working is so overrated! 

Crafty hugs,

Orchid Notelets...

Good morning, dear crafty friends and a Happy Easter to you all! I have a set of notelet cards to share with you today that I made using a pretty layered flower stamp set from Papercraft Inspirations...

I picked these up from the lovely Marianne when she was having a crafty clear out and have to admit that I struggled with the layering stamps and my Distress Oxides, so I decided to make a stencil from Mylar sheet and then used the outline stamp...

For my first card I used patterned cardstock and the orchid flower head and sprig, fussy cut leaving a white border. I also created a stencil using the fern leaf die from Bright Rosa that was the freebie with SC&P #202 and inked this to create a background for my second card. I added the orchid flower head and sprig and a sentiment from Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set...

For my other two cards I switched and used the orchid head as the background image and the fern leaf as the embellishment and inked a white card blank with Broken China Distress Oxide, before adding the fussy cut elements...

I really like the way these pretty cards turned out and will definitely be making more of my own stencils from dies and stamps...it gives such a different, delicate feel to the images and is a great way to colour images too (as you can see in my Daffodils card HERE)...

Thanks for dropping by and don't forget that there's still chance to play along with my eye spy 'Something beginning with B' challenge over at Passion for Markers!... 

Crafty hugs,

Spring Daffodils...

Good morning, Blogger buddies! I'm back to share another card made using one of the fabulous images from Ruth Hamilton Design...

This card uses the pretty Daffodils image and I decided to share another way of colouring up your digistamps without having to be an expert colourist!...This time I decided to create a stencil and colour using my Distress Oxide inks...

I printed the image using Paper Size 4 x 6 and Image Size 3.5 x 5in, twice onto copy paper and once onto my 160gsm Navigator paper. I then cut out the flower parts on one of the copy paper images and just the leaf parts on the other to create two stencils. I laid them over the image in turn and inked through with Squeezed Lemonade and Wild Honey for the flowers, and Cracked Pistachio and Peeled Paint for the leaves...

I fussy cut the daffodils, leaving a white border and then proceeded with my card base. I began with a white piece of paper 9.5 x 14.2cm and inked a circular area in the top half using Broken china Distress Oxide, I then pressed the ink pad onto a blending mat and diluted with water before adding splatters to the panel, using a paint brush. I added a piece of plaid paper to the bottom of the panel and mat onto black 9.8 x 14.5cm (if you don't have black paper, I use white and colour around the edges with a black marker)

I attached the panel to a 5 x 7 inch card blank and decoupaged the daffodil image on top using foam pads under the flowers and glue under the stem, then cut a strip of white card and stamped the sentiment from Waffle Flower Birthday sentiments stamp set, before matting onto yellow and attaching to my card. I cut some butterflies from a piece of scrap 12 x 12 paper and added to my card before finishing with a few signature pearls and some gold glitter on the flower stamens...

It's funny how my crafting style has changed so much recently and now I look at every image wondering if I can make a stencil from it...I have definitely expanded my crafting repertoire recently and learnt to embrace all aspects of papercrafting, blending different techniques and products to best utilise the things I have...

I hope I have inspired you to have a play with different techniques and look at your images in a different way, adding colour without having to have years of experience colouring or feeling as though you need to be an artist! The main thing is, crafting should be fun...it should be a way to express your creativity and bring enjoyment...

Crafty hugs,