Another Rainbow!

Another of my new stamps - this one is a Molly Harrison from Crafts and Me.

I went a bit mad with the colouring - Promarkers, of course! I thought I'd go for a sunset-type sky, and blended like mad. I've got to say I like how it turned out, although, I'm just a tad biassed - I mean, I don't call this blog Josephine's Rainbow for nothing! And given the rainbow theme, I had to use that gorgeous paper from Panda Bear at Stitchy Stamps. I finished the card with some flowers made with a Marianne Creatable die set and coloured with Promarkers.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Crafts and Me where anything goes,
Passion for Promarkers where anything goes and
I Love Promarkers where anything goes.

Long Time ... No Blog

It's been a while! Well, to be honest, I've made a couple of cards and things, but I can't show you those yet ...

We had a good Christmas. Both boys got home despite the weather and then it was just the five of us.

I made a card today just to show off some of my new crafty bits!

I've used one of my new Ching Chou Kuik stamps and coloured the image with Promarkers. The paper is part of a pad from Papermania's Capsule collection  which I got from my Secret Santa at work. I used a Martha Stewart border punch, and added a butterfly. I've had that stamp for a very long time, and I used Versamark ink and then brushed it with Perfect Pearls in Bronze and Copper and finally sprayed it with Crafters Companion Spray and Sparkle.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Crafty Catz whose theme is 'Your Choice'
Sweet Pea Stamper whose theme is 'Anything Goes'
All Sorts whose theme is 'Anything Goes'
Passion for Promarkers whose theme is 'Anything Goes'

I Love Promarkers whose theme is 'Anything Goes'.

I know I've already shown you this card - it's one I made for an OSAAT challenge earlier this year - but I wanted something seasonal on the page! It's one of my favourites of the Christmas cards I've made this year - I like the colours and the fairly clean and simple layout.

I haven't been around these last few weeks. I picked up one of the many lurgies that're going around, and while it didn't stop me completely, it slow me down a lot! Between work and Christmas preparations, all I've done lately craft-wise are the various DT commitments I've had. A week into the school holiday, I'm feeling a lot better, and finally think we might be ready for Christmas.

It's been an interesting year for me in terms of cardmaking. This summer, I joined two design teams which has definitely proved  both challenging and enjoyable and I'm looking forward to further challenges in the New Year.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who visits my blog - either regularly or occasionally - and to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas (or Festive Season) and the very best for 2011 when it comes.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 36

For this challenge, we are very proud to have a number of prizes up for grabs.

£10 voucher from Joanna Sheen

£10 voucher from The Stampman

$10 voucher for Stitchy Bear Stamps

Pack of 5 promarkers from Letraset

£10 voucher for Crafts & Me

£10 worth of stamps of your choice from Stamping all day

How's that for a line up? Not surprisingly, we want you to do something a little bit different this time. Not only are we challenging you to show us what you're doing now, but we also want you to show us one of your first efforts!

For this challenge, I got to work with one of Stitchy's images - called Flutterby. I teamed it with some paper which also came from the Stitchy Bear shop, but which was designed by Panda Bear Designs.

I coloured three copies of the humming bird with Promarkers, shading between a blue/green shade through to magenta. I made the flowers using layers of tissue paper coloured with Promarkers to the same shades as the bird, and cut with a Marianne Creatables die in my Wizard, layering them with a brad.

(A close up so you can see the layering)

I finished the card with some layered flowers and a label from my collection.

And now I've shown you something recent, I'm supposed to show you something older.

I started making cards back when I did a lot of cross stitch and Hardanger, so an obvious way into 'paper' cards was stitching, and I did quite a few. Like a lot of cards I did then, this is a 'single technique' card - apart from adding a peel off greeting and dragonfly, it's just the stitched image. There's no layering - something I rarely do without these days. The other big difference is the size and shape. A6 used to be my preferred card size, but these days I prefer a square format, and I love the (almost) six inch square cards that are available.

So, if you find you've got some time over the festive season, show us your 'first' and 'last'!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges: Creative Card Crew where 'anything goes',
Passion for Promarkers where anything goes (providing you use Promarkers/Aquamarkers)
Cute Card Thursday where the theme is 'floral frenzy'
Digi Doodles where the theme is 'animals/insects'
Southern Girls where the theme is 'heating up' the picture definitely depicts something warmer than the UK at the moment!
Little Red Wagon where they want die cuts (Mariane Creatables die used to cut flower layers)

Stamp Something where it's 'December Digi Day'
Digis with Attitude where anything goes provided there's a digi stamp
Sew Many Cards where they're looking for flowers and a digi stamp.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 43

It's time for the last One Stitch at a Time challenge of 2010, and what we want you to do this time is to surprise us - it's an 'anything goes'! And you've got until 9th January to show us what you can do. And to make it even sweeter, there's a chance to win a £10 token from One Stop Card Crafts.

This week, I got to work with some fabulous papers by Panda Bear Designs. I've used two papers from her Rainbow Paper pack (and if you pop into my blog tomorrow, you'll see a third one which I've used for a different challenge.)

These papers are just so vibrant that the photo doesn't do them justice.

I printed them on my usual Ryman Matte coated photo paper which gives brilliant colour while appearing like a 'normal' document paper. The paler background, like others in the pack, is a perfect base for all sorts of images with a mixture of sky and rainbow colours, and for this, I chose a Ching Chou Kuik fairy stamped in Memento ink, coloured with Promarkers with added glitter and cut with an oval nestibility die. To finish the card, I cut some flowers from the papers using a Marianne Creatable die set, and finished them with some flower gems.

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


Creative Card Crew where 'anything goes',
Flutterby Wednesday where the challenge this time is open
Passion for Promarkers where 'anything goes' providing you use Promarkers
Cute Card Thursday where the theme is 'Floral Frenzy'
Little Red Wagon where the theme is 'die cuts' (Mariane Creatables dies used to cut flowers.)
Craft you Passion where 'anything goes'
Stamp Something where it's 'December Digi Day'
Anything Goes Challenges where they're looking for 'All the Colours of the Rainbow' (various colours in the dark backing paper)

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 42

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we're sponsored by http://www.michellesscrap.com/ who are offering a $10 voucher to the lucky winner. And the theme is Old Stash/New Stash, so that's easy, isn't it? Just let us know what's new or old that you've used, and otherwise, anything goes!

This week I was able to work with an image from Card Mad Fairy called 'Stylised Flower' (available at the Stitchy Bear shop)and this is what I came up with.

It's such a pretty, bold image, I decided to print it a bit larger than I usually would. I added the line detail in the petals and leaves by backstitching with holographic silver 'thread' after colouring the image with Promarkers in a range of pinks and reds and greens. I finished the image with a couple of large sticky gems. The background paper is from MME, as is the sentiment, and I cut the floral border with a Martha Stewart edge punch.

In terms of what's old/new, the image is new, the thread I  used is old - had it for years!

I hope you can join us this week!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges: A Crafty Little Place where 'Anything Goes',
Partytime Tuesday where 'Anything Goes' provided it's a birthday card,
Top Tip Tuesday where 'Anything Goes'