One Stitch at a Time Challenge 170

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we've got the best of all challenges - anything goes!

Our sponsor this week is

See the challenge blog for details.

This week, I got to choose some paper from Panda Bear Designs, and I decided to go for an underwater theme with her Ocean Blue Paper Pack 2. And to go with that, I chose Stitchy's image Ocean Floor. And this is how I combined them!

I love the colours in that gorgeous paper, so I mirrored them when I coloured Stitchy's mermaid image with Promarkers. And of course, the colours are exactly what's available in my range of Shimmer paper, so I used some green for matting and some of the beautiful gold shade for the ocean floor.

I hope you can join us this week

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

My Heart Pieces where they want a digi stamp,
Crafting By Designs where anything goes,
Crafts and Me where anything goes,
Pollycraft where anything goes,
Sister Act where anything goes,
Stamping for the Weekend where anything goes,
Stamping with the Dragon where anything goes.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 169

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we want anything but squares!

Our sponsor this week is

who are offering three Promarkers to the lucky winner. So, which ones do you need?

This week, I worked with an image from Pookie Designs which is available from the Stitchy Bear shop.

I cut the image and matte with my trusty Nestibilities, and coloured the image with Promarkers. The paper is from Papermania, and I finished with some corners cut using Spellbinders dies.

I hope you can join us this week!

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

Paper Makeup where they want die cuts,
Paper Playtime where anything goes,
Without Words where they want 'hot colours',
I Love Promarkers where anything goes,
The Hobby House where they want die cuts,
Emerald Faeries where they want dies/punches.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 94

This time at Crafty Cardmakers, the challenge has been chosen by Doreen, and she wants projects with a steampunk theme.

Our sponsors this time are:

and

See the challenge blog for details.

Now, steampunk isn't my favourite theme. In fact, I've got to say that I don't really get it at all, and my first reaction was to give it a miss. But, I hunted around, and came across a fabulous image from Make It Crafty called Metallic Flowers, and once I had that, I was off.

First, I imported the image into Photoshop Elements, then I added a filigree frame. I printed the result, and coloured with Sakura Metallic pens and water. The background was created in Photoshop Elements using a background that came with the software and an image from Delicious Doodles called Cogs Corner Piece which I placed at each corner. Then, I copied the smallest cog, making a 'string' of them between the corners.

I've cut with Nestibilities, and matted with gold mirror card.

I hope you can join us this week.

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

Nana Vic's Challenge where anything goes,
Charisma Cards where they want digi stamps,
My Heart Pieces where they want clean and simple,
Daring Cardmakers where they're having a 'Festival of Flowers', (5)
Digi Haven where anything goes.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 168

This week at One Stitch at a Time, our challenge is to use a digi! Hazel chose our image this week, and she chose some cats by Barbara Jensen which just ooze character!

Our sponsor is

When I saw the images, I just knew I had to add some text, so I went looking for something. I finally came up with a quote from one of the two writers whose writing makes me laugh out loud - Terry Pratchett. (The other one is the late lamented Douglas Adams: Eddies in the space-time continuum (Sorry, just had to put that in.))

Anyway, on to the card.

And, so you don't have to stand on your head or turn your computer upside-down, it says:

In ancient times, cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.

I combined the two images and added the text frame in Photoshop Elements. The background paper was also created in PSE using a gradient and some paw prints.

I hope you can join us this week.

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

Bearly Mine where anything goes,
Nana Vic's Challenge where anything goes,
Aud Sentiments where anything goes,
Charisma Cards where they want digi stamps,
My Heart Pieces where they want clean and simple,
Digi Haven where anything goes.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 167

This week at One Stitch at a Time, our theme is: Pretty it Up! You can do what you want, provided you add something pretty to the mix - flowers, butterflies, glitter ...

Our sponsor this week is:

who are offering some Promarkers as the prize. And who doesn't need a few more of those?

This week, I chose a gorgeous silhouette from Stitchy herself. To be honest, I think it's really pretty on its own, but I added some flowers anyway!

I printed it on my usual favourite Ryman matte ink jet paper and cut the image using a Sizzix die. The paper is from the Papermania Capsule collection. I assembled the flowers using a set of Sizzix dies designed by Susan Tierney Cockburn. I bought one of her books a while ago and have played with making flowers using punched shapes, but to be honest, I only tended to do 'as close as I could' with those due to the cost of punches! Having said that, there were enough ideas that I was able to make some pretty flowers even though they're probably not botanically correct. When she brought out his range of dies, I had to take a look and have bought a few - including the one I used here which is the daisy set. It's probably my favourite because it produces the smallest flowers. Having said that, I intentionally kept them fairly flat so the card will go into an envelope. I dusted the tips of the petals with black pastel, and finished each flower with a dollop of glitter glue. The die cuts at the bottom use silver mirror card, and were also cut with Sizzix dies.

I must say that, when I had my Wizard, I stuck almost exclusively to Spellbinders, Marianne and Nellie Snellen dies. Having bought the Big Shot Pro, I've tried some dies from different manufacturers, including those that have ejection foam, and I've got to say, that it seems like it's a way of ensuring the dies don't last very long. The foam seems to become damaged quite easily, and bits of card can become lodged in the foam. I'd much rather have to poke die cuts out with my trusty poky tool and even use some wax paper for the more intricate dies. I'm very glad the flower dies are from the Sizzix Thinlits range which are more like Spellbinders style - no ejection foam!

I hope you can join us this week!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Card and Scrap where they want flowers,
Bearly Mine where they want dies/punches,
Creative Card Crew where they want punches/dies,
Papertake Weekly where anything goes,
4 Crafty Chicks where they want flowers,
Nutcrafters where they want monochrome,
The Paper Shelter where the theme is 'flower power',
The Hobby House where anything goes,
Digi Haven where anything goes,
Totally Papercrafts where they want more than three different dies/punches (flower petals, 2 different leaves, two arched labels, swirls)