Passion for Markers - Christmas

 Good morning, crafty buddies! Well, there's a definite shift to Autumn this week here in North Wales and the nights are drawing in pretty quickly too! I am not a Winter person and don't relish the thought of six months of shorter days and colder temperatures, but at least it means that I can light the fire and curl up indoors with a good cup of tea!...

It's time for a brand new challenge over at Passion for Markers and this week the lovely Sue has chosen that thing that happens in December...'Christmas', so we'd like to see all of your festive creations...it doesn’t have to be a card but whatever you make please remember you must include a hand coloured image to be eligible for our prize draw...

We're being sponsored by the fabulous Dies to Die For who are offering one lucky winner a £15 voucher to their online store...fabulous, right?!...

For my DT card, I picked an image from a site that I recently discovered called craftycicijoy.com...

 I printed the image multiple times so that I could decoupage it and coloured with my Pro/Flexmarkers, decorating with tiny gems and peel off waste. I used peel off borders to create the chains and a die cut Christmas sentiment and snowflakes...

I hope you can find the time to play along with our festive challenge this week and look forward to seeing all of your wonderful creations...

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Markers - Occasions other than Birthdays...

 Good morning, crafty buddies! Gosh these Tuesdays are rolling around quickly! But you know what that means...yep, it's time for a brand new challenge over at Passion for Markers...

The lovely Marlene is in the hostess chair with a super easy theme of 'Occasions other than Birthdays'... We're being sponsored by Dr Digi's House of Stamps who are offering one lucky winner a choice of 2 digital images from their online store...

We were lucky enough to get an image to play with and I picked out this fun Christmas Angel image... 

I went with a super simple design, with an inked background in Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide and a die cut cloud for my fussy cut Angel to sit on. She was so easy to colour with a limited colour palette of Blush, Dusky Pink, Sunkissed Pink, Pastel Yellow, Champagne, Sandstone, Cappuccino, Cool Aqua, Duck Egg and Surf Blue. I added some glitter to the wings and a few tiny, gold die cut stars, then stamped a sentiment and wrapped some string around the panel with a small tied bow...

I hope you can find the time to play along with our challenge this week and look forward to seeing all of your wonderful creations...

Crafty hugs, 

Passion for Markers - Embellish it!...

 Good morning, crafty buddies! I hope you're all having a good week and enjoying the milder weather we're having here in the UK? I'm glad of it today, especially, as we're having our double garage built...this has been a long time coming since it's order in the Summer and I am so looking forward to getting everything organised and having a good clear out of STUFF. I'm also looking forward to being able to get my garden back to some sort of prettiness in the Spring as with all the construction work it has turned into a bit of a quagmire and dumping ground!...

But for now, it's Tuesday, which means the start of a brand new challenge over at Passion for Markers...the lovely Marie is in the hostess chair with a super simple challenge theme of 'Embellish it!'...so whether you add a few gems to your design or like me, chuck the embellishment box at it, we'd like to see all those wonderful additions - gems, pearls, bows, buttons, glitter, flowers, etc...

 We're being sponsored by Star Jam Lines who are offering one lucky winner 2 digital images of their choice (arranged with Olya as her Etsy store is currently closed)...

 We were lucky enough to get an image to play with and this one's called Gnome Christmas Decoration...

Marker colour list -

Skin - Blush, Dusky Pink, Sunkissed Pink, Nutmeg

Beard - Cool Grey 2 and 3, Prismacolor pencils for texture

Hat - Pale Pink, Dusky Rose, Red, Poppy, Crimson, Burgundy

Top - Apple, Bamboo SN, Camo Green SN

Star and shoes - Ivory, Buttercup, Pastel Yellow, Sandstone, Cappuccino, Umber (shoes)

Baubles - Cool Aqua, Duck egg, Surf Blue, Red, Crimson, Burgundy, Pebble Blue

Although my card is pretty clean and simple, I added a lot of various embellishments for bling!...

Embellishments - Pink and Blue Pearl Stars, Adhesive gems and pearls, Red star gems, Gold peel off stars, Red, aqua and crystal glitter

I hope you can find the time to play along with our fun challenge this week and look forward to seeing all your wonderful creations!...

Crafty hugs,

 

Passion for Markers - Christmas...

 Apologies for the late posting, the Bank Holiday Monday has thrown my ability to know what day of the week it is?!...Turns out it's Tuesday, which means it's time for a brand new challenge over at Passion for Markers!...

The lovely Sue is in the hostess chair with a simple theme of 'Christmas' (unless you're me, in which case you find it really hard to think of that event in December until around the 30th November! Ha, ha!) We're being sponsored by Lili of the Valley (LOTV) who are offering one lucky winner a choice of 4 digital images from their online store...

 We were lucky enough to get an image to play with and I picked out the pretty 'Woodland Baubles' and went with a clean and simple design...

I coloured the image with my Pro/Flexmarkers and used a Spellbinders wave border die to cut the edge of the cardstock. I layered over some traditional plaid paper, then matted onto red before adding some red grosgrain ribbon. I decoupaged some of the bauble elements of the image and highlighted with glitter and gems. I added peel off waste dots to the border scallops and mounted everything onto a 6x6 kraft card base....

I hope you can find the time to play along with our simple challenge this week and look forward to seeing all of your festive makes...

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Markers - Mega Christmas Mid challenge reminder...

 Hey there, crafty friends! I hope you're all nearly ready for the big day and keeping well? I'm struggling to get into the Christmas spirit this year and have promised myself that I will be organised next year (although I promise myself this every year and have yet to follow through, so maybe 2022 will be the one to watch?!) 

It's half way through our month long Mega Christmas challenge over at Passion for Markers and so I'm popping in to share my DT make...

I used my own hand drawn Snowdrop image and coloured using my Pro/Flexmarkers, teaming the simple white and green colour tones with a contrasting navy blue. I embossed the background with a random snowflake folder and added some die cut snowflakes to add to the wintry feel, before highlighting with Stickles coated in crystal glitter for a snowy effect...

We've had lots of wonderful entries already and there are some fabulous prizes up for grabs! To play along with our Mega Christmas Challenge of Anything Goes (which couldn't be simpler!), hop over to the original Passion for Markers blog post HERE, or to see my talented teamies creations for your inspiration, visit our midway challenge post HERE...

I hope you all have a very Happy Christmas and wish you all the very best for the coming year, may 2022 bring you all good health and happiness!

Take care,

Passion for Markers - Christmas Critters...

 Good morning, crafty friends! It's the last day of November and we have a new challenge starting over at Passion for Markers with the lovely Julie choosing a topical theme of 'Christmas Critters'...so think robins, reindeer, penguins and polar bears!

We're being sponsored by Clearly Besotted Stamps, who are offering one lucky winner a £15 voucher to their online store...how fab!

There's a bit of a story behind this week's card... Storm Arwen goosed my monitor power supply, so although my PC is working I couldn't see anything! All my images are on my PC and because I have only recently got into 'proper' stamping, I discovered that I don't have many Christmas stamps, let alone animal ones...so it was time to improvise! I found these bird stamps that came with an embossing folder in the bottom of my stamp basket and turned them into Christmas robins...

I used a couple of different sentiment stamps, mistletoe embossing folder and some die cut holly leaves as the main embellishments, keeping the design clean and simple...

I have to admit that it was nice to create something from start to finish without touching my PC but think I am still going to be a hybrid crafter in the future, although my stamping stash needs some attention...maybe in the New Year?!

I hope that you can find the time to play along with us at Passion for Markers this week and look forward to seeing all of your wonderful creations...

Crafty hugs,

Lisa x

Passion for Markers - Anything Christmas...

Hello there, crafty friends! Yet another Tuesday arrives, which means we see the start of a brand new challenge over at Passion for Markers...

 This week it's the lovely Sue in the hostess and she's given us a topical theme of 'Anything Christmas'...I'm sure you are all much more organised than me, as I can't seem to get my head around Christmas until the month of December at least! Every year I promise myself that I will be more organised and every November I think, "Well there's no time to do anything about it now!"...

We're being sponsored by LeAnn's World who are kindly offering one lucky winner 2 digital images form their online store...

We were lucky enough to get an image to play with and I picked out the traditional 'Presents' Christmas tree image...

 I kept my card clean and simple, colouring the tree with my Pro/Flexmarkers and then cutting out leaving a white border. I inked behind the image with Salty Ocean Distress Oxide and added a strip of lilac gingham to contrast with the aqua colour tone of the card base. I doodled a hand drawn border and added some sequins and tiny star gems, then glittered elements on the tree ad presents.

The sentiment stamp is from Simply Creative Happy Christmas stamp set and I also added a Memory Box Precious Star die cut in silver pearl...

I hop eyou can find the time to play along with our festive challenge this week and lool forward to seeing all of your wonderful creations!

Hugs,

Passion for Markers - 3 or more patterned papers...

 Hello there, crafty friends! Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween weekend and didn't eat too many sweet treats?!...or get washed away?!

Another Tuesday comes around which means that we have a brand new challenge started over at Passion for Markers...

This week it's the lovely Marlene in the hostess chair and she would like you to use '3 or more Patterned Papers' on your projects....just remember that to be in with a chance of winning this week's prize, you must use your markers (of any variety) and follow the challenge theme...

 We're being sponsored by Crafty Sentiments who are offering one lucky winner a choice of 3 digital images from their online store...

 For my DT card I used the ever so sweet Snowman at the Window image and created a collage style card using paper strips. I framed the snowman with a Polaroid style frame, cutting around his scarf and hand so that they made an out of frame effect and then decoupaged his scarf for added dimension...

I used a snowflake embossing folder for the background, glittering some of the snowflakes and added some silver glitter paper stars and gems. I then mat the panel onto black before attaching to a blue 5x7 inch card base...I have to admit that I am getting more inclined to use coloured card bases these days, thanks to the talented Gina K and her inspiration!

I hope you can find the time to play along with our fun challenge this week and look forward to seeing all of your wonderful creations!...

Crafty hugs,

Noel Christmas cards and a Penguin...

 Hello there, from a sunny North Wales!

I'm popping in to share the cards we made at our last workshop on Sunday...

 

The NOEL cards were inspired by a creation by Yana Smakula - Handmade Cards which I saw on Pinterest (if you're not familiar with her work, please go check her creations out - so inspirational!)...

 

...and the second uses my penguin image with a fab layout by Inge Groot...

I really enjoyed making these, especially the inked Noel cards...hence why there are four of them - just had to try them in different colour combinations!

Thanks for dropping by,

 

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Markers - Dies and/or Punches...

 Happy Tuesday, crafty friends! Another week whizzes by and it's time for a brand new challenge over at Passion for Markers!...

This week it's the lovely Marie in the hostess chair and she's given us a SUPER EASY theme of 'Use Dies and/or Punches'... I have to admit that it is very rare for me to create a card without using one or the other of these, so this was an easy one...

We're being sponsored by Dies to Die For who are offering one lucky winner a £15.00 voucher to their store (can I play along?!)...

 For a crafter who doesn't do Christmas early, I have been making quite a few festive makes and this one uses the free dies that came with Simply Cards and Papercrafts magazine Issue 222...

 

 I decided to show that using your markers doesn't have to mean colouring an image and created an ombre effect on the lettering and vellum background on this simple Christmas card. I used a Blender pen, Pastel Blue and Arctic Blue to create the shading on the letters and attached them to the white background die which was edged with Broken China Distress Oxide and glittered...

I attached an embossed snowflake panel to some paper from my stash and then adhered the marker coloured vellum panel, just using adhesive in the centre where it would be covered by the decorative panel. I added some white, sparkly, organza ribbon, wrapping it around the snowflake paper and then attached to my card front, before adhering the lettering panel using foam tape.

I finished off with some die cut snowflakes and a few diamantes for holly berries. A really simple make...

I hope you can find the time to play along with our easy challenge this week and look forward to seeing al of your wonderful creations!

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Markers - Use Red...

Good morning, crafty buddies! So it's happened!...I have the back to school lurgy! "Little man" was full of it last week and I spent yesterday feeling sorry for myself with a throat like sandpaper and a foggy head. Managed to get SOME sleep and am feeling a little better in myself, just now I have a head full of snot and my nose is like a running tap...oh, the joys of Winter!

 

But on a positive note, it's Tuesday and you know what that means?...yep, it's time for a brand new challenge over at Passion for Markers! The lovely Lorraine is in the hostess chair and she has given us an easy theme of 'Use Red'...

We're being sponsored by Di's Digi Stamps who are offering one lucky winner a $6.00 voucher to their online store...

 I don't normally do Christmas until next month (despite doing festive makes with workshop from September!), but thought that this was the perfect theme for a festive make...

I used my own image and coloured the sweet robin with my Pro/Flexmarkers before embossing the whole panel with a random snow embossing folder. I used a white pencil to colour the flakes over the image and then added some die cut snowflakes.

I used Simply Creative Happy Christmas stamp set for the sentiment and cut out the large Christmas word, popping up on foam pads. I mat the image onto dark brown and then onto a pretty red plaid, continuing the theme. I finished with my favourite holly leaf die and some red pearl berries...

I hope you can find the time to play along with our fun challenge this week and look forward to seeing all of your wonderful 'red' creations!

I'm off to blow my nose (again!) and disinfect all the surfaces I've touched!...

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Hugs,

Passion for Promarkers - Glitter & Sparkle...

Good morning, crafty friends! Another Tuesday appears and it's time for a brand new challenge over at Passion for Promarkers! The lovely Julie is in the hostess chair and she has given us a topical theme of Glitter & Sparkle...Julie would like you to include something sparkly or glittery on your creations this week i.e. glitter paper/card, stickles, sequins, gems and with the festive card making season in full swing I’m sure this will prove to be a super easy challenge this week!  We can’t resist some glitter and sparkle on our creations at this time of year can we?

We're being sponsored by The Paper Shelter who are offering one lucky winner 3 digi images of their choice from their online store...

The DT all got an image to play with this week and Julie picked out the ever so sweet 'Fairy Christmas Eve'... 

As this super cute image is so detailed, I decided to keep my card clean and simple! I printed the image in PS, after adding the night before Christmas verse and decoupaged the head and stocking of that little sleeping fairy.

I added some Tim Holtz Festive branches and a die cut paper bow, before adding glitter to the fairy trim, wings and candle and the pine branches and snow. There seemed to be a lot of empty space in the bottom right corner, but I needed something simple, so added some die cut snowflakes for texture more than anything.

As you can probably tell from my well spaced posts, things are still rather busy in our household and priorities have to be made to try and build our new business. I am working two jobs, completing card orders, DT cards and workshops, plus trying to keep on top of the housework and feeding the family! As you can imagine, my days are pretty full and I certainly sleep well at the end of it!

I hope that you can join in with our fun challenge this week and look forward to seeing all of your wonderful creations! Thanks for stopping by and I hope tobe back soon!

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Promarkers - Make it Festive...

Good morn-afternoon, my lovelies! It's Tuesday, so you know what that means, don't you?  Yep, that's right! It's the start of a brand new challenge over at Passion for Promarkers...

This week it's the lovely Marie in the hostess chair and (unlike my challenge) she would like to see all of your festive makes for that event that happens in December! So get out your markers and Make it Festive! We're being sponsored by JMC Designs who are offering one lucky winner a digital collection of their choice from the online store...

 Just remember that to be in with a chance of winning the prize, you MUST use your Letraset/Winsor & Newton mediums (although they can be mixed with other mediums) and follow the challenge theme...

I decided to use the ever so fun image 'Edna' and had her trying to tackle her tinsel, with limited success! It was a good challenge to use a non Christmas image for a festive make and I think it's made a really fun card with a difference!

I coloured Edna with my Pro/Flexmarkers and coloured some fluffy wool before adding crystal glitter, for my tinsel. The papers were all from my scrap drawers - I always try to go to my scraps first, but it seems that I make more than I can use! I created the sentiment in Photoshop and added some die cut snowflakes with crystal gem centres...

I hope you can find the time to play along with our festive challenge this week and look forward to seeing all of your wonderful creations!

Crafty hugs,

More Wordart cards...

 Good morning, Blogger buddies! So, who says poinsettias have to be red?!...

I have to say, I really like the way this card turned out...probably because I am a sucker for frosty colour tones when it comes to festive makes. I printed two copies of the Christmas Wordart digistamp at 4" x 6" and then coloured with my Pro/Flexmarkers...

Colour list - 

Poinsettias - Pastel Blue, Denim Blue, China Blue

Holly - China Blue, Navy Blue

Mistletoe - Soft Green, Marine

Happy word and berries - Cool Grey 2 & 4

I cut out the image leaving a white border and also cut away some of the inner areas to give it a more open look. I then mounted the image on to a 5" x 7" card base that had been lightly inked with Cracked Pistachio Distress Ink and added some corners using the aqua polka dot from my Fuchsia mini kit. I decoupaged the words and used my Quickie glue pen to colour in before sprinkling with crystal glitter.

I finished off with some Liquid Pearls on the white berries and dots and added small crystal gems to the flower centres.

But what if I don't do colouring, I hear you say...well this next card is loosely coloured using Distress Inks (or any other ink pads or even chalks)...

Once again, I printed off two copies of the Christmas Wordart at 4" x 6" and gilded the word on one using my Quickie glue pen and gilding flakes, before fussy cutting with my scissors. For the second image, I used a cotton bud to apply ink over the different areas, not worrying too much about staying in the lines (but still being a little controlled in my application) and gilded the holly berries.

I added some border strips from the bonus red polka dot paper onto a 6" x 6" kraft card blank and then attached the image on top, decoupaging the wording. I added some gold line border peel offs between the layers and a couple of green polka dot corners, then finished with gold pearls, white pearls and a die cut gold bow (that just happened to be lying around on my crafty table!)

I hope you like my festive creations and that I have given you the inspiration to try different colours to the 'traditional' ones...

There's a definite Autumn nip in the air today but I'm still going to make the most of the cool sunshine and get the washing line filled. Have a fabulous Friday, whatever you're up to...

Crafty hugs,