One Stitch at a Time Challenge 152

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we just want you to use a digi. Other than that, it's whatever you want!

We're sponsored by

See the challenge blog for details.

This week, I got to work with an image from a new artist at Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps - Luke Carr Designs. The image is called Adventure Kid Float.

Since it's a digital challenge this week, I decided to combine the image with a background from another Stitchy Bear artist - one of Panda Bear's gorgeous Rainbow papers. I combined them and added a sentiment Photoshop Elements then printed onto my usual (when I'm going to use Promarkers) Ryman Ink Jet card.

And really, apart from colouring with a mix of Promarkers and Flexmarkers and a bit of matting, I didn't do anything.

I hope you can join us this week.

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

Creative Card Crew where they want birthday cards,
Crafty Bloggers Network where anything goes,
Daisy Doodles where anything goes (with a digital element),
Digi Makeover Challenge where anything goes,
Craft Us Crazy where they want us to show our favourites. (Panda Bear's set of rainbow papers is a long-time favourite of mine, and I love combining backgrounds and images digitally.)
Cute Card Thursday where the theme is 'Simplify',
Penny's Papercrafty Challenge where anything goes,
Totally Gorjuss where the theme is 'happy',

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 85 - 'Blooming Images'

This time at Crafty Cardmakers, our host is Marie, and she wants to see our Blooming Images. The main image on the card must be flowers, although you can embellish as you wish.

Our sponsors this time are:

and

I started with an image by Floppy Latte Designs which you can get via the Stitchy Bear shop. I love this image! I'm not an artist, but this image is shaded so beautifully that it guides you through colouring, and each time I've coloured it up, I've been pleased with the results.

This time, I went for three Promarker/Flexmarker shades from the Magenta range, and two greens. I cut the image using a Spellbinders die, and matted using a scalopped octagon. The paper is by Paper Cellar. I bought it ages ago, and, although I love the various designs in the pad, I rarely use them because the colours are quite muted. (This isn't called Josephine's Rainbow for nothing ... I generally like my colours bright!)

I finished with some Wild Orchid Crafts roses and some silver flowers from Hobbycraft. (They actually had their first use in my daughter's hair when she went to her Year 11 Ball (over two years ago!)

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


A Gem of a Challenge where they want die cuts,
Sweet Pea where they want digital images,

I Love Promarkers where they want something 'for the girls',


And because I had so much fun with that, I tried a different colourscheme!

Blues this time, again coloured with Promarkers and Flexmarkers. The background this time uses white card that I embossed. Now, I've seen so many people using Pan Pastels and I'd love to have a play. But, my eldest pointed out to me that he's got a set of 'normal' pastels that he doesn't use, so I thought I'd see what I could do with them. They're too hard to brush or sponge on, but I simply ran the side of the stick over the embossed areas and then brushed to soften the result. I used a couple of blues and a green to get the effect you see. I think the technique could use some fine-tuning, but I was pretty happy with my first attempt.

I made the flowers using punched white card, adding colour with the pastel sticks and finishing the tiny ones with a seed bead.

The die cuts are courtesy of Spellbinders and the pearlescent card is from Papermania.

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

Craftroom Challenge where they want us to make our own embellishments,
Tuesday Throwdown where anything goes,

I hope you can join us this time.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 151

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we want you to go 'girly'! So, break out your frills, flowers and pearls.

We're sponsored by

This week I worked with a lovely image from Gingerloft.

I went for girly colours (well, I love peach and aqua shades ...) and coloured the image with a mix of Promarkers and Flexmarkers. (Love that Rose Peach shade!) Theb I matted using some Spellbinders die cuts and embellished with some Sizzix swirls. The paper is from Papermania and the rosebuds and pearls are from my stash.

Hope you can join us this week.

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

Tuesday Throwdown where anything goes,
Bunny Zoe where they want flowers and pearls (rose buds and pearl gems.)
Eureka Stamps where they want pearls and swirls,
I Love Promarkers where they want something 'for the girls',
A Gem of a Challenge where they want die cuts,
Sweet Pea where they want digital images,

Phlox Princess

While perusing the Crafts and Me website the other day, I spotted a digi stamp that I just had to buy. It's called Phlox Princess and it's by Sara Burrier who has the most gorgeous images!

So, I've coloured her up and this is the result.

Now, I know a phlox is a flower, but I don't have any idea of appropriate colours, so I found this lovely Kate Knight paper and took colours from that! I used a mix of Promarkers and Flexmarkers. I used a Spellbinders border die to cut some purple mirriboard. The paper is so bright that I didn't want to add anything else, so the actual design is quite simple. (I think I generally prefer simple designs.)

Although I love the image, and it's obviously possible to colour it sized for a six by six card, I think next time I use this image, I may go bigger - the floral pattern in her skirt was quite fiddly due to the tiny size of the flowers - even using the very fine tips available for Promarkers.

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

Eclectic Ellapu where they want 'girly',
I Love Promarkers where they want 'One for the Girls',

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 150

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we're having everyone's favourite challenge - Anything Goes!

Our sponsor this week is:

(See challenge blog for more details.)

This week, I got to work with some beautiful paper from Panda Bear Designs. It's a set of six papers called Serenity, and the only shame is that I only had time to use one of them for this project.

I've kept the card very simple - the paper is so lovely that I just wanted to add some inspirational words!

I printed one of the papers to fit a five by seven card, and matted it with some textured blue. The verse is an Apache blessing that I found online. In case you can't make out the words from the photograph, it says,

May the sun bring you new energy each day,
May the moon softly restore you by night,
May the rain wash away your worries,
May the breeze blow new strength into your being.

May you walk gently through the world and know its beauty.

I put the verse onto a blue background in Photoshop Elements and printed, before cutting it with a Spellbinders die in my Big Shot Pro.

I hope you can join us this week.

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

Anything Goes where they want monochrome,
Bearly Mine where anything goes,
Papertake Weekly where anything goes,

A Couple More Birthday Cards

I've managed to get a couple more cards photographed, so here they are!

This is an unusual card for me - not least because it's watercoloured! The gorgeous image is from Becky Muir and I printed it out ages ago. I also watercoloured it ages ago - about the time I first got my Aquamarkers. But for various reasons, I never did anything with it and it's languished in a box until recently. I've always loved the image, and I was reasonably happy with the watercolouring although I'm not generally.

So, I cut and matted the image with various Labels 8 Nesties, added some paper from Papermania and a Sizzix die cut finished with some sticky gems, and that's it!

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

Craft Us Crazy where they want us to 'get cutting',
Lady Anne where anything goes,
Crafty Bloggers Network where anything goes.
Sweet Pea Stampers where they want digital stamps,

Now, for the second card, if, by any chance, my daughter is visiting here, she should leave now. No scrolling down, please. (I don't think it's likely she'll visit, but it's a possibility.)

So, now, the other card is for my daughter's 19th birthday.

Of course, this is a Ching Chou Kuik image, and it's been coloured with Promarkers. The stamped image was kindly given to me by a blogging friend ages ago, and I've been saving it for a special occasion!

In the background, I've used some paper I got on clearance from Craft Creations last time I put in a card order. It's really pretty - embossed and foiled too. The other paper is from Papermania.

The die cut is from Cottage Cutz. I'm reasonably impressed with how it's cut the mirriboard here - although it took a lot of passes through my machine. I think the problem I've had before with this die is due to the ejection foam. Attaching the die to the card as I would a 'normal' die doesn't work as the card seems to stretch during the first pass and subsequent passes shave bits off each cut line. Here, I've used eight bits of tape to hold the card securely all round, and I've then run it through with extra shims and at different angles until it seemed to be cut. Even so, there are a couple of areas where the paper behind the mirror finish wasn't completely cut, but I've managed to finish that by hand.

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

Forever Friends where they want animals/butterflies or birds,
Hanna and Friends where anything goes,
Moving Along with the Times where it's 'Only Girls Allowed',
Flutterby Wednesday where it's an open challenge.

March is Apparently Birthday Month

It seems to me that a lot of people have March birthdays. And, because I hate doing things last minute, and because I spend the end of every year concentrating on Christmas cards, I often find there's nothing ready-made in my box! So, I've been working on a few, and of course, Valentine's Day is coming up too.

First, the card I made for my OH. I'm a firm believer that valentines should never be signed, so although he's going to know it's from me, it'll be signed 'an admirer'! I've used some gorgeous shimmer card I picked up at the BSSBS at Alexandra Palace in September, and embossed it using one of my new Embossalicious square embossing folders! Thank goodness that there's one company out there who have realised that most people seem to make square cards! The heart dies are from Marianne, and the label die is from Spellbinders.

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

Top Tip Tuesdays where the theme is 'Let me call you Sweetheart',
Party Time Tuesdays where the theme is 'love and romance',
Crazy Amigos where the theme is 'hearts',
Celebrate the Occasion where they want a valentine card with ribbon,
Emerald Faeries where the theme is 'love',
Cards for Men where the theme is love/romance,
Created with Love Challenges where the theme is Valentines,
Kaboodle Doodles where they want hearts,
Dream Valley where they want valentines,
The ABC challenge where they're going dotty.

This is the first of two birthday card in this post. The image is from Delicious Doodles via Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps.I coloured it with Promarkers and Flexmarkers and cut it with my Spellbinders Octagon die. I matted with more octagons. The paper is from the Papermania Capsule collection - one of my absolute favourites from that pad. I finished with die cut 'leaves' and some flowers made from punched shapes. I added shading to the petals using Distress Ink.

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

Craftroom Challenge where they want us to make our own embellishments,
Bearly Mine where anything goes,
Papertake Weekly where anything goes,
Happy Campers where they want flowers and something digital (the image is a digi),

And another birthday card. This one uses an image from a stamp I bought at Alexandra Palace. I can't tell you whose stamp it is - it was in a bargain bucket and I just fell in love with the simplicity of it. It kind of reminds me of Clarice Cliff images. I stamped in Memento ink and coloured with Promarkers and Flexmarkers. The first mat is die cut using a Nellie Snellen die. In the background, I've got some paper I've had for many years - it was a magazine freebie. I've also embossed some card. The folder is a Sizzix one and I've added some colour to the embossing using some pastel sticks and softened the effect with a brush.

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

Artistic Inspirations where they want embossing,
Bunny Zoe where anything goes,

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 84

This Crafty Cardmakers challenge is hosted by my team-mate Kylie, and she says, 'I would like to see a challenge that incorporates "Vintage Love". Your project must be vintage and show at least one object that reminds people of love. Perhaps a picnic basket, gold locket, love letter, etc.' Here are some photos for inspiration.

I've got to say that vintage isn't my favourite style, but I raided my stash of digital images and came up with an image and paper from the Crafty Image Emporium CD which I've had for several years but used less often that I would have thought, and I came up with this:

I altered the image in Photoshop Elements, removing the background and adding one of the digital papers from the CDrom. (I had to do that to make the image fit a circular format!) I sized it for my circle nesties, added the text, and printed on glossy photo paper. I matted using a scallopped nestie, and then used one of my Christmas presents - a doily die from Cottage Cutz - and backed that with a circle cut with my Martha Stewart circle cutter.

I printed more of the same design paper, this time onto matte photo paper, and cut that, and the bits for the easel card using my circle cutter. The doily die I used cuts two separate shapes, so I've used the smaller doily on the base, and finished with a sticky gem and a locket and key die cut set.

I hope you can join us this time.

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

Die Cutting Divas where anything goes,
Party Time Tuesday where anything goes,
Shopping Our Stash where they want red/love/hearts/valentines
Tuesday Alchemy where anything goes,
Crafty Calendar where the theme is 'love and marriage',
Lady Anne's where anything goes,

Di's Digis where the theme is valentines/love,
One Stop Craft where anything goes,
Sugar Creek Hollow where the theme is 'romantic love',
Card Makin' Mamas where 'they're in the mood for love',

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 149

This week at One Stitch at a Time, our challenge is not to be square - so we're looking for shaped cards and projects.

Our sponsor this week is:

My image this week comes from Floppy Latte Designs. I've got to say, I had more fun colouring this image than I've had for a very long time! I generally love colouring flower images, but this one was especially good.

I've been using my first ever set of Grand nesties - in Labels 1 - to shape the card itself. I coloured with Promarkers. The paper is from a Kate Knight pad which was a magazine freebie last year. The flowers were made using a C'art US die.

I hope you can join us this week.

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

Lady Anne's Challenge where anything goes,
Die Cutting Divas where anything goes,
Party Time Tuesday where anything goes,
Tuesday Alchemy where anything goes,
One Stop Craft where anything goes,
Crafty Catz where they want 'anything but square',
Totally Papercrafts where they want us to make our own embellishments,