Passion for Markers - Spots and/or stripes 13th Anniversary challenge

Good morning, crafty friends...these Tuesdays sure are coming around at speed!

It's time for a brand new challenge over at Passion for Markers and this week it's a special one as it's our 13th Anniversary challenge! Denise has picked the challenge this week with a super simple theme of 'Spots and/or Stripes'...for me this is one of the easiest themes as it is rare for me not to use one or the other on my cards!

 We have multiple sponsors this week with some fabulous prizes up for grabs!

Dies to Die For are offering a £20.00 voucher

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Crafty Sentiments Designs are offering 3 digi images

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Leann’s World 101 are offering one lucky winner 2 digi images

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All Dressed Up stamps are offering 2 digi images

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Uniko Stamps are offering 1 stamp set (which must be in stock)

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Di’s Digi Stamps are offering a $6.00 voucher

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Polkadoodles are offering 3 digi images

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Colour of Love digis are offering 3 digi images

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Sheepski Designs are offering 3 digi images

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For my card I picked out an old Digistamp Boutique image called Harry with Beer and thought I would use it to make hubby's birthday card (which is TODAY...Happy Birthday to my best friend and my rock!)...

As hubby is not a very big beer drinker, I changed up the beer bottle that was in his hand for a more appropriate mug of tea! (We must be getting old?!) I used some paper strips from my scrap drawers and kept my card clean and simple, although I was going to add a bit of an inked background but stuck the paper on first without thinking! (Definitely getting old?!)

I coloured Harry with my Pro/Flexmarkers :

Skin - Blush, Sunkissed Pink, Coral

Hair - Storm Cloud, Cool Grey 5, Black

T Shirt - Denim, Blue, Cadet Blue, Cool Grey 1

Mug - Pebble Blue, Tea Green, Nutmeg, Sandstone

I used my favourite WOW! Happy Sentiments set and the cheers stamp was from a freebie with SC&P, then finished with some coloured gem sprinkles...

Crafty time is rather scarce at the moment...although so is time to do anything other than the essentials, to be honest! My craft room is like a bomb site and I keep getting tempted to have a major purge and get rid of a LOT of stuff, but then chicken out in case I may NEED it sometime?! The only thing when you're a maker is that you can see potential in everything and find it so hard to just let things go...but maybe one of these days...maybe?! Organised life, organised mind and all that?!...

I hope that YOU can find the time to play along with our celebratory challenge this week and look forward to seeing all of the wonderful creations that you share...and don't forget that BOTH Teams are sharing creations this week to give you plenty of inspiration too!

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Markers - Gems and/or Pearls...

Good morning, crafty friends! Another Tuesday arrives and with it a brand new challenge over at Passion for Markers!...

This week it's the lovely Marlene in the hostess chair with a super simple theme of 'Gems and/or Pearls'...you can use either or both on your creations and we all love a bit of bling, surely?!...

We're being sponsored by Stamper's Delights who are kindly offering one lucky winner a choice of 3 digital images from their online store...

Just remember that to be in with a chance of winning the prize, you must have a marker coloured element on your creation and it really helps if you could let us know where you've used them, for example, coloured with alcohol pens...and follow the challenge theme, which this week couldn't be simpler!

We were lucky enough to get an image to play with and I picked out the modern 'Art Tools 5'...

With my love of CAS cards not waning, I thought this image would be perfect for a simple creation and resized the digistamp in Photoshop to fill most of the card base. I printed a couple of layers so that I could decoupage some elements and positioned the wording so that the sentiment worked. I inked the card base with Cracked Pistachio and Salty Ocean Distress Oxides and paper pieced the pocket with a denim colour polka dot.

To follow the theme, I added some gem sprinkles in various colours and some grey pearls to underline the word Art. This is definitely my favourite style of card making and I love the way this one turned out, plus the image was easy to colour too!

Colour List :

Bristles - Gold, Honeycomb, Spice

Metal shafts - Champagne, Sandstone, Cappuccino 

Handles - Red, Poppy, Burgundy, Cool Aqua, Duck Egg, Surf Blue, Pastel Green, Soft Green, 

Peacock Green

Heart - Cocktail Pink, Watermelon, Lemon, Canary

I hope you can play along with our challenge this week and look forward to seeing your wonderful creations!

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Markers - Flowers...

 Good morning, dear Blogger buddies and a happy Tuesday to you all! I'm popping in to let you know about our new challenge that starts today over at Passion for Markers...

The lovely Marie is in the hostess chair with an easy, peasy theme of 'Flowers'...this could be floral papers, floral images or floral embellishments...

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

We were lucky enough to get an image to play with and I picked out the ever so pretty Maiara Indian Maiden...

I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed colouring up this image and love the way she turned out...for all you Promarkerists, here's the colour list I used :

Skin - Putty, Tan , Cinnamon

Hair - Caramel, Auburn, Henna, Umber

Lips - Dusky Rose, Antique Pink

Feathers - Honeycomb, Halloween, Spice, Powder Blue, Denim Blue, Cornflower, Cadet Blue

Shawl - Powder Blue, Denim Blue, Cornflower, Cadet Blue, Pastel Green, Soft Green, Peacock Green

Accents - Sunset, Firebrick

I picked out some coordinating papers, including the mandala style floral one to compliment the colours in the image and mat Maiara onto a dark brown with two photo style corners.

I used the hydrangea type die from Tim Holtz Sizzix Funky Floral #2 to cut some small flowers in coordinating colours and added some in her hair and around the image, with a leaf die as a background. I added a pale blue fishtail flag (one of my go to embellishments when you just need something) and a stamped sentiment from the Wild and Free set that came free with SC&P some time ago...

I hope you can find the time to play along with our simple challenge this week and look forward to visiting your blogs.

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Markers - In or On the Sea...

 Good morning again, crafty friends! It's time for a brand new challenge over at Passion for Markers with the lovely Lorraine picking out a fun theme of 'In or On the Sea'...so whether it's boats, buoys, fish, or seahorses, if you can find it in or on the sea, we want to see it on your creations...

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

We were lucky enough to get an image to play with and I picked out Little Fishes...

I coloured this sweet little sailor with my Pro/Flexmarkers and here's the colour list I used :

Skin - Blush, Dusky Pink, Tan

Hat - Sapphire, Midnight Blue, Blender, Pebble Blue

Reds - Sunset, Firebrick

Dog - Champagne, Caramel, Cocoa

Boat - Sandstone, Cappuccino (Prismacolor pencils for texture)

Tug - Buttercup, Mustard, Gold

Fish - Pumpkin, Bright Orange

Sea - Duck Egg, Pastel Blue (Prismacolor pencils for texture)

I kept my card quite clean and simple, using the image as the top two thirds of the card and adding a blue gingham to the lower third. I paper pieced the flags of the boat with patterned paper and hand drew a couple of birds in the sky. I then added a die cut sun, inked with Wild Honey Distress Oxide and of course, a couple of die cut clouds (because it would be rude not to?!) A strip of soft orange and a stamped sentiment finished the card...

I hope you can find the time to play along with our fun challenge this week and look forward to visiting your blogs to see what you come up with!

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Markers - Animal Magic...

 Good morning, crafty buddies! It's Tuesday, which means it's time for a brand new challenge over at Passion for Markers...

It's my turn to host this week and I've picked a fun theme of 'Amial Magic', so I'd like to see all of your creations with animals on...these can be the main design image or an accompanying animal as in my DT card...

We're being sponsored by Di's Digi Stamps who are offering one lucky winner a $6 voucher to their online store...

For my card, I pulled out an image from one of my all time favourite designers who sadly no longer trade, Digi Stamp Boutique - I just love the Rosie and Dan characters and picked out this one of Dan Fishing with his frog friend...

I coloured Dan with my Pro/Flexmarkers but sadly forgot to write a colour list, but if I would have to hazard a guess, I would say:

Skin : Blush, Disky Pink, Sunkissed Pink, Coral

Hair - Pastel Yellow, Champagne, Sandstone, Caramel 

Top shadows - Cool Grey 2

Jeans - Patel Blue, Arctic Blue, Celestial Blue, Cobalt Blue, China Blue

Frog - Apple, Chartreuse, Lime Green

Quay - Sandstone, Caramel, Cinnamon, Umber,

Fish - Mustard, Gold, Honeycomb

...(I think!) 

I picked out some papers from my scrap drawers (which I need to make a concerted effort to try and use up before I have to have a major cull) that contained the majority of colours in the image...now I know most people would say that it would be easier to pick out the papers and then colour the image accordingly, but my brain doesn't work like that?! Hence the scrap drawers full to bursting point!

I added a pop of orange in the two fishtail flags and finished off with some buttons and stars and an Avery Elle sentiment...

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

Crafty hugs,

First Workshop Cards of 2022...

 Good afternoon, everyone from a sunny North Wales! We had our first 'in person' craft workshop on the 5th of this month and it was so nice to see everyone after two whole years of having to go postal! I think we were all a little rusty, myself included, but that's to be expected and I'm sure we'll soon get back into the swing of things!...

Anyway, I thought I would pop in and share the cards that we made...

First up was a wallet card that was inspired by a post I had seen by the talented Lady E (Emilia Sieradzan) - this was a bit of a challenge to try and show a room full of people that are socially distanced, but we got there in the end! And here's the inside...

Secondly we created a pretty butterfly spanner card, which is such a simple but effective card design, as there is an acetate strip along the bottom of the card which separates it into two flaps...

I got the inspiration on Pinterest HERE - thanks Lisa's Stamp Studio!

It's day 5 of me testing positive for Covid and there are no signs of it letting up just yet - the line appeared instantly and really boldly when the fluid even touched it this morning! I'm getting really fed up of it now though and just want to get back to some sort of normality, but on the same strength, know I have symptoms and don't want to spread it around...here's hoping tomorrow brings a negative result!

Thanks for dropping by and sorry for not being around very much, it's funny how life changes and things take on different priorities...we are lucky to be busy with the business at the minute, so all of my attention is going into helping out with that (before I had Covid!). Crafting for pleasure has become a rarity and I find that I tend not to choose crafting when I have spare time just now...I think I am becoming more of a seasonal crafter, making more when the days are short and the weather cold, but who knows what the future holds?!

Crafty hugs,

Passion for Markers - Anything Spring...

 Good morning, crafty friends! It would seem that Spring has arrived in our little corner of the world and it's forecast fine and sunny for the week ahead...yay! 

The lovely Julie has a topical theme this week over at Passion for Markers, choosing 'Anything Spring'...so it could be cute baby animals (there are lots of new lambs in the fields surrounding us), flowers, chicks, Easter or simply sitting in the garden drinking a cup of tea! (One of my favourite pastimes when the weather is like this!)...

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

We were lucky enough to get to choose an image to play with and I picked out the pretty Magnolia Branch, as it is one of the first flowers of Spring in my garden!

I kept my card clean and simple, allowing the image to be the star of the show! I coloured the flower up with my Pro/Flexmarkers and then fussy cut the lower edge, leaving a white border. I contrasted the pale pink flower with a strong, navy blue colour stamped with a sentiment from Altenew's Beautiful Day stamp set and mat onto the same pink tone. A couple of fishtail flags and some pink gems finished everything off...

I hope you can find the time to play along with our Spring challenge this week and look forward to hopping over to your blogs to see what you've created!

Crafty hugs,