I've Been Visiting Sweet Pea Stamps

I recently heard that Sweet Pea Stamps were doing a 30% reduction on everything, including digis, so I went to have a look. I've bought a few of their rubber stamps before (via Crafts and Me) and I love the style of some of their artists. I ended up buying quite a few ... So far, I've only coloured up a couple, and here are the results:

This is one of two images I bought from the range of Conie Fong. Despite its very oriental appearance, I decided to colour her as a blonde. No idea why, it just seemed like a good idea at the time! I teamed her with some Kate Knight paper, and coloured her with Promarkers. I finished with a floral arrangement where the flowers were hand made using die cuts from Sizzix, Memory Box, and Crealies.

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

Moving Along with the Times where the theme is 'pretty pastels',
C.R.A.F.T where they want us to make our own embellishment (lots of flowers),
Creative Knockouts where the theme is 'flowers galore',
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge where they want pastel colours,
Scrappers Delights where they want pastel colours,
Creative Card Crew where they want 'girly',


The second one is rather different!

This is one of two I bought from Norma J Burnell's range. These are very 'different', and just seemed to me to cry out for bold, bright colours. I've teamed it with a rather bolder Kate Knight paper, and again coloured with Promarkers. This time, I've added a Sizzix die cut in the background. It's actually too big for the 6 by 6 card I made, so I cut a chunk out of the middle of it! It matches up pretty well, but I decided to finish with some pretty ribbon so no one can see the join!

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

Milk Coffee where they want us to 'use those bright colours',
Sassy Studios where the theme is 'so bright gotta wear shades',
Crafty Ribbons where anything goes (with some ribbon),
Inky Impressions where anything goes,
Inklings and Yarns where anything goes,
Crafting by Designs where anything goes,

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 115

This week at Crafty Cardmakers, the challenge has been set by my team mate Kim, and her theme is 'It's a Bug's Life'. She wants your project to have an insect of some type as the focal point of the piece - so, adding a butterfly at the end won't count!

Our sponsors this time are

See the challenge blog for details. (There's a link in my sidebar.)

Now, I followed a link from a group I belong to, as the technique described looked interesting. It took me to this site where a lady called Pam Sparks has been using an inlay technique to make cards. Now, a while ago I bought a set of Sizzix dies and stamps, of which the centrepiece is a dragonfly, so I decided this challenge was the ideal time to combine the idea with the die, and this is the result.

 The first thing I did was to assemble the dragonfly. I've used both parts of the Sizzix die, and I added some Perfect Pearl in Smoke Blue to the 'outline', while I stamped the wings with Versamark using an Inky Doodles die before adding more Perfect Pearl in a pink shade. I've actually done several layers of inset here. The wing pieces were inset into the outline, and raised a little. The flowers were also stamped with Versamark and shaded with Perfect Pearl. The lower flower is snset into the background while the upper one is layered on top, using some glue gel to give it a little more prominence. The paper is from a magazine freebie pad.

Here you can see the insetting a little more clearly, and you can even spot the very faint patterning on the flower and dragonfly wings.

I hope you can join us this time.

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

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge where anything goes (with patterened paper)
Crafty Girls where anything goes,
Brown Sugar where anything goes,
Crafty Catz where anything goes,
Sister Act where anything goes,
The Squirrel and the Fox where they want us to use a punch or die cut.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 210

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we're having another 'anything goes' challenge, so show us what you've been up to!

We're sponsored this week by

See the challenge blog for details.

This week, Hazel chose an image from Cootsy Creations called Squirrel, which consists of a digi stamp and a paper pack.

There are four gorgeous papers in the pack, and because I couldn't decide which to use, I decided to combine two of them in stripes as you see. The image is coloured with Promarkers, and I've embellished with some branches and oak leaves. The branches were cut using a die from the Susan's Garden range, and the leaves were punched. Both were highlighted using Pan Pastel.

I hope you can join us this week.

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

FanTastic Tuesday where anything goes,
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge where anything goes (with patterened paper),
Crafty Girls where anything goes,
Brown Sugar where anything goes,

Sister Act where anything goes,
613 Avenue Create where anything goes,
Ditzie Digi Designs where anything goes,
That Craft Place where anything goes.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 209

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we want to see your favourite things! That can be images of something you love or a favourite technique or favourite colours ... Lots of scope here!

Our sponsor is

This week, I got to choose from Stitchy's collection of images which is perfect for this challenge because my one of my favourite things to create with are Stitchy's silhouettes. And one of the advantages of having been on the OSAAT team for a while is that I've got quite a selection! Another favourite thing for me is designing on my computer. And among my favourite images are fairies. So, here's what I came up with!

For this, I created a background in Photoshop Elements using various shapes and gradients. Then, I added various images from Stitchy's selection of ground-cover silhouettes called Grazin' in the Grass. I then added two of Stitchy's fairy images - the larger one is called Reach and the smaller one is from a pack called Rainbow Magic. Once everything was composed, I copied everything, cropping it using a circle, then faded the background before pasting the circle on top. Apart from matting, the only other addition is another favourite - hand-made flowers. These used dies from Crealies and Cheery Lynn.

I hope you can join us this week.

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

ABC where the theme is, 'Just as you Like it',
Crafting Musketeers where they want monochrome,
Everybody Art where anything goes,
Party Time Tuesday where they want die cuts,
Crafty Girls where anything goes,
Crafty Calendar where they want 'things with wings',
Digitally Sweet where they want flowers,
Totally Gorjuss where they want die cuts,
Savvy Handmade Cards where they want fantasy creatures,
Sister Act where anything goes.