With much love...

Today, I thought I'd show you this card that I've been working on. I made it as a birthday card for a young girl who always, more or less without fail, comes to see me demoing at Derby's Craft Central. She is a lovely girl with a wonderful nature.... and after a conversation with her and her mum last time, I know it's her birthday in August..

Well, as I am only there this Saturday, I am going to take it with me, but the greeting inside just says 'With much love' instead of Happy Birthday.. I mean - you don't give a card a month early do you?!

The image below shows what the inside looks like. I decorated it up to match with the front, although I've used a different shape for the greeting panel.

I got this stamp on a whim a while ago.. and thought I could use it for another birthday I have coming up soon for someone.. but isn't she lovely? Quite funky for a teenager I thought.

I made the flower from a range of circle dies... these are new from Docrafts - fab!! I had to use a couple of smaller punches for the inside of the bloom, but it still works.

I hope you like the card today.. More coming soon! And yes.. it'll be that 'C' word coming shortly! That's what I'm working on as we speak. (And actually, what I've been working on all last week too.. lol).

Merry Christmas.  Whoops.. I mean.. Happy Crafting!

I'm sharing today's creation with - 

TSG Challenge - die cuts

KB Challenges - Use flowers

Crazy Challenges - Beautiful women

I Love Promarkers - include flowers

Divas by Design - die cuts and punches

Crafts and Me - birthdays

Sweet Baby

I think I just managed to get this one in time... I started it yesterday, and couldn't really decide what to do with the image after I'd coloured it... usual story really.

But, I found a lovely sketch over at Willow Designs blog and a great theme over at the Passion for Promarkers blog, so thought I'd play along.

Very quickly uploading it now.. but here's the finished card.

I've used a variety of embossing folders to keep the card really clean looking.

I double layered the daisies at the top of the card.

Here's little cutie-pie Hedgebaby looking oh-so-sweet! And finally -

Just a quick look at the main part of the card - I know the PB hedgies are grey.. but I wanted mine to be brown to look like little Hyacinth that we had years ago. She was a little teeny tiny hedgie that we overwintered as a rescue.. she was a right little tubber in the summer when she went out into the wild. Lovely to see her go, and hopefully she went on to live a happy life.

Right.. I've got to get cracking on some samples and bits.. so I'll see you shortly!

Here comes summer

Hasn't the weather been wonderful this past week? Lovely sunshine - albeit a little too hot for me - along with some thunderstorms at night. It's cooled down a bit now, more to my sort of temperature.. lol.

Today, I'm going to spill the beans on a little secret I've had.... I've been chosen as a Design Team member for My Time to Craft !! I got an email this last week from Wendy, who is part of the blog, offering me a place. Well,  of course I said yes please!

I love doing Challenges - not for anything other than the fact that I didn't do them for so long, and I now find it's a way of using my stuff that I've had for a while and never used! They challenge me, and that is what I like. I love sketches, themes etc.. you name it, I'll give it a go. And I'm sure you'll find the regular ones I take part in, up and down my blog!

So.. without further ado, here's the first card that I've made for the Challenge blog. The theme was Here Comes Summer.. and this is my take on it.

This image is a lovely one, don't you think? So reminiscent of my children having a day on the beach. Usually their buckets were full of starfish, where especially my youngest, would pick them up out of the rock pools and take them back to the shoreline.. I think at one count she'd been busy all day collecting them up and putting them in a line that she ended up with about 30!



The button on the flower is one I got from a great little craft shop a while ago. How cute are they? Slightly more dimensional than I would have liked, but still pretty.

Well... I must get on - lots of work to do before I can relax a little on Wednesday.

Happy Crafting everyone!!

Fancy a slice?

My youngest was off school yesterday due to teacher training, and she decided she needed to be doing something other than playing on the computer. So.. this was the end result.

She got out her favourite cook book - Bake - and decided to make a Red Velvet Cake. She's made it before, and it turned out just as nice this time as last.

Fancy a slice? Yes? Well here you go then..

Doesn't it look lovely?!

Just like a bus...

You wait forever, and then loads come all at once... Haha. That's what this post is going to seem like, I'm afraid!

Gosh - where to start...

After a very busy 'Docraft-y' week, what with magasine commissions, 'other' projects, samples to be made etc, I thought I'd take a bit of a step back today and do something for ME before I get cabin fever! lol. (not that I do really, but my mind isn't working too well today - lack of sleep due to the heat and no caffeine).

So.. what have I made?

Well, one of my makes I can't show you for now, as that is for something a little special that happened to me this week. (Wendy, you know what!!) I am so happy with myself too, but I'm not spilling the beans just yet.

Other things I've been doing, is trying to catch up with a few of my favourite challenges.. which is where the long post comes in.... why oh why do they all have to finish on a Tuesday/Wednesday? Haha. Oh well, it gave me something to focus on for an hour or so whilst I ran these off.. so without further ado - here are today's cards.

Firstly - a theme card for Passion for Promarkers, and the theme is 'Park Life'... something you would do in a park... so I decided to go with 'Picking Daisies'. This is also being entered for the 'Anything goes' challenge over at the I Love Promarkers site too...

And here's the close up.

I absolutely love, love, love this stamp... it is so beautiful. It just reminds me of my older daughter when she was little, and in fact my younger one too... such sweet memories.

I kept the background quite simple by just doing a bit of layering on the base layer of paper, but I added some glitter around to give it a bit of bling. I also shaded her with a bit of prisma pencil.

Now for the Challenges, Top Tip Tuesday and Simply Less is More.. these two I've tied in together to create this card with a stamp set I've not often used... (not often = never!)

For the Top Tip Tuesday, the theme was 'Cross it'... and this is where my punch border came in. I specifically chose the crissy-cross one as the card was predominantly for a boy's card. The railway track also crosses the apertures in the card.

I followed the sketch that was put up on the Simply Less is More blog to create the card, and kept it really as it was. I was going to do squares around the trains, but decided to keep it a little softer by using circles.

I am also entering this one into the I Love Promarkers challenge too... Anything goes. What a great theme for a freestyle card eh?

Something I found useful too, when I was doing my track.. I had decided originally that I wasn't going to include it, so I cut out my circles... then decided actually I did want something there. I was too scared to stamp straight onto where I'd punched, as I thought it would go over the edges, so I placed the cut out circles back into the holes and stamped over the top... a type of masking I guess.. but it worked, and the card wasn't ruined.. so I was happy!

Right.. must dash and get the rest of my paid work done. lol. See you soon - Happy Crafting!

I'm getting there.. still crafting away!

I am not-so-quickly managing to get through a big pile of work that needs doing - you know how it is.. you start something then change your mind, so the original card ends up at like 30 different versions.. lol..

Yesterday, I took a bit of a break to take some bits and pieces over to Sharon.. and on the way saw a little puddy tat get run over.

The poor little mite didn't stand a chance, it just darted into the road, and the lorry that hit it obviously wouldn't have seen it.. but no-one stopped and just kept driving past making sure they didn't hit it! I mean... come on... I know it is 'only a cat' (as some people would say).. but it's still someone's beloved pet! They weren't even driving that closely to each other that they wouldn't have noticed!! So, I stopped the car immediately, and the traffic, and picked up the poor thing, and although it had already passed away from its horrific injuries, still put it safely at the side of the road.

I was so infuriated that nobody had the decency to stop for a minute! How heartless! It was bloody obvious it was still alive for the few minutes they were driving past!! Then the thought of it looking like Sharon's cat, same sort of markings, made me panic even more, and when I got to hers I was a bit of a state. Thank heavens for a good strong cup of coffee! And also to find out later that her Mitzy was just fine, and at home.

I know when this happened to one of my cats quite a lot of years ago, the car that hit her didn't stop either and we had to deal with the aftermath of what happened. It's not very nice, and I accept that it's something that can happen (not to ours - they're both too lazy to go venturing and were indoor cats when we got them.)

So, even though I talked to the little cat whilst I was carefully moving it, I hope its journey to Rainbow Bridge was a quick and very painless one.. Sweet Dreams Little Cat. You were very beautiful.

(no.. this is NOT the cat, it is a picture taken from Google)

It's one of those weeks...

You know how it is sometimes - very quiet when you don't want it to be, then so inundated with stuff it's a bit manic? Well.. that's what it's like here.. Not that I'm complaining at all.. but I'm on a bit of a countdown now for a few major life changes and it seems everything is coming all at once! lol.

So..... .... there are not really any crafty updates that I can share with you at the moment.. I only wish there were, but I'd probably get linched if I did.. Ha ha.

I've not had time to join in any blog challenges this week, as I have a mountain of commissions to get through before the weekend.. (fantastic product too!!), contracts to sort out, sign and return before I forget ... bags to pack for our weekend away ... and this is how I'm feeling a bit this week.... in a good way though!

But normal service will resume shortly.. in the meantime - enjoy yourselves.. Happy Crafting!

Thank you Miss Promarkers... !

Just popping on to say that after quite a stressful few days, I've had a great day of achieving lots of things crafty.. lol.. and it was finished off nicely when I nipped onto the Promarker challenge blog to see what this weeks challenge was.

OH MY WORD - I can't believe that my wedding card HERE got me a place in the Top Five Passionista.. !

It has truly made my evening! Thank you Misses Passion for Promarker Ladies!

A quick card link

I can't upload my project, but there's a new card over on the Docrafts site that I've recently made.. you can see it HERE.

I hope you like it..

I also realised - after it being pointed out - that my Blogoversary has been and gone without me realising.. so if you'd like to become a follower of my blog, I will put some bits together for you and a lucky winner will be picked at random.

Happy Crafting..
Jo xx

The Dragon's name...

Well.. the time has come!

I asked people to choose a name for my little Dragon that sits on my windowsill in the Craft room, and I had quite a few responses..

so, without further ado.. here's the one I've chosen.. GRUFFLEPUD.. 

So, Redrottie.. if you'd like to get in touch and send your address to me, (leave a comment - they have to be authorised to be posted so I won't print your address. lol) then I'll get your Candy out to you.

Thank you to all that have entered... and sorry you couldn't all be winners!

Redrottie said...

ohhhhhhhhhhhhh he looks like a GRUFFLEPUD to me xx

16 June 2011 15:43 

Love boat..

I had a bit of a play with the Country Companions collection I've got, as I've had them a while and not really used them too much. So I thought I'd break them out of their wrapper and have a play along with Katy's Sketch from Docrafts.

Here's what I came up with.

It's just a simple card, but it was just a simple (although very nice as I love clean and simple) sketch.

Here are the close ups for you.

I kept it all very 'Docrafts' and used the Papermania brush markers to add a layer of colour, then went over it with the watercolour pencils to add some depth to them. If you're clever, you can use the brush markers exactly as you would the promarkers and they look sortof the same. I've shown this at my demos, and people are always suprised.

I then stamped the boat twice and layered it up to give some dimension. Finished with some glitter then mounted up onto the card.

Anyway.. must make a move - I really want to get some crafting done this week so I've got things to show you.. Happy Crafting, and have a really lovely end to the weekend.

How to heat emboss..

Another quickie here.. this one's for Beryl from the Docrafts forum.

She wanted to know how to do heat embossing, so here's a quick video.. enjoy!

Techniques and tutorial

Hi again!

Just popping on to upload a video I've just finished editing. Someone on the Docrafts forum was talking about using shaving brushes for creating clouds - but I mentioned that I use fairly dry babywipes.

I was then asked to do a video, so this is what I've done. And here it is. I've done the video in three sections - the first is the Baby Wipe cloud technique, the second is colouring with Promarkers, and the third section is using prisma colour pencils to shade your image... and you've got some really jazzy music to boot! Perfick eh?!

Enjoy!

Mad as a Hatter

Not me personally - although some would probably agree with that statement! But I'm talking about my card for today.

I was asked to make a Mad Hatter card for a birthday boy, so I duly purchased and downloaded my Mad Hatter from Mo's Digital pencil and got colouring. I used my promarkers - and I don't think I left the ink to dry long enough as they ended up looking rather muddy, but okay. Then I started to add shading around the image and it all went wrong! It looked like he'd got smoke coming from his derrière! lol..

So after another print out, I set off colouring my next image. Let me tell you... I was really mad that I'd messed up my first one after an hour of colouring!!

Anyway.. here's the result.

I chose to colour the card completely in my prisma's and I didn't have any papers to hand for colour matching but fortunately these old Doodlebug ones suited the image perfectly!

As the card was for a boy, I kept it quite simple and just used buttons to embellish. These buttons were from the same Doodlebug pack that the papers and card were in. It also fits in perfectly with the Samuel Taylor challenge for June, which is a card for a MALE.

This close up shows the shading of the image.. and the image below is the sentiment.

I hope you like it!

Here comes the bride

Morning folks... well, I don't know about where you are, but the weather here looks like it's going to be an odd sort of day. I've got a pack of Christening invitations to make a start on today, as well as a few other things to get sorted in the next few days, so I'm going to be busy.. what about you? What have you got planned?

Today though, I want to share this card with you. I didn't want to use a traditional style wedding stamp, although the theme on Passion for Promarkers Challenge was Here comes the Bride.. but I've gone for these little cuties.

I decided to make some of my kitties ginger tabbies, and others are chocolate brown.

The stamp is a Lili of the Valley stamp, and I've coloured using promarkers and added shading using prisma pencils. As you can see, I've added a bit of sparkle to the horseshoe and yes, my kittens have blushy cheeks again. (as I said before... it's the law! lol)

I made the organza flower by sticking pins into a piece of foam and wrapped the ribbon around. I've fastened it all together with a brad, and then added a lovely silver charm. This means it also qualifies for the challenge over at Pink Gem - Flowers and Charms.

I've decorated the inside of the card too - something I love to do, rather than use a plain insert. You can see how it looks above.

Right.. onto my other projects now... so see you soon.

Happy Crafting!

Followers..

Bloomin' eck!
I didn't realise I'd not reinstated my Followers button when I changed my blog address.. And now I have to start from scratch again.. it looks like I have no fwends... lol.

In the frame and a tutorial.

Oh where is this week going? Time is just going so fast!

I did manage to get some crafting done yesterday for a couple of challenges (just for a change!) and I've done you a little tutorial in the process. It's an Open Theme over at Top Tip Tuesday, so I'm entering my tutorial and tips for this challenge.

I'm loving doing these challenges - it makes a change to do some crafting for ME and I'm getting to use all the papers and stuff that have been hanging around my craft room for a while. Good all round!

Anyway, this is the card that I've got for you today -

I've used a new stamp, and I love the 'bigness' of it (is that a word?). I love daisies too, so the I love Promarker challenge (Black, White and one other colour) was the perfect one to use it for. I also combined it with the Less is More Challenge (One Layer Card - in the Frame) as I am loving the clean and simple look of these challenges. Can you see the glitter?? That was the spray glitter from Crafters Companion - fantastic stuff! You can see it better on the photo below.

The greeting I've used here was a PI one, and it comes on a sheet with loads of tiny sayings on. Perfect for those little spaces where you need a word or two. And here's another picture showing the glitter.

I've used Promarkers to colour, but added a little shading - right in the corners - with the Prisma pencils. It just added that little bit of depth.

So. Onto the tutorial, and I wanted to show you how to do some MASKING so that you are not stamping all over the front of the card. This just makes it easier to keep things 'in the frame'.

The first thing to do is to mask off the area of the card you're not wanting to stamp on. You can see here (almost) that I've layed a sheet of thin acetate to the right of the card, and held it in place with the masking tape. I've also applied a length of tape to the left to create a thin border. I also decided where I wanted my sentiment to go towards the bottom, and masked this too.

• Tip - Stick your masking tape to your clothes a couple of times to take off the excess stickiness. It helps to peel off the card without lifting any of the top layer.
• Tip - When you are trying to judge how much to mask off for your sentiment, stamp it onto masking tape then cut to length before sticking onto your card.

I then took my stamp and stamped across this central section of the card.

Now peel off the masking tape carefully

Once all the tape is peeled off, you can clearly see the edges of where you need to do the border if you would like one.

The first thing I did on mine was to draw in the sentiment box. I used a promarker black outliner and did a criss-cross style of box as I wanted to colour around it.

I then took my ruler and lined it up along the sides of the flowers. I drew a double border, again because I wanted to colour it in. You can draw a straight line, or a dashed or dotted line - the choice is yours really.

I used a black promarker to edge the card. I held the pen so that the nib was on the edge of the card and pulled it around. I only wanted a really fine edge.

Next, take your colours and colour in the design. I've used Pastel Yellow, Ivory and Mustard to colour mine.

Here's the card with the daisies coloured in.

Now, when you've stamped your sentiment in the box (the PI stamps are clear so you can see where you're positioning them), colour in the borders and the flower centres. You can also see where I've added the shading to the daisies.

To finish the card, I laid a couple of sheets of inkjet paper either side of the border and sprayed on the glitter. This is what I used. I chose the irridescent version.

I hope you liked the card, and enjoyed the tutorial.

Until next time, happy crafting!

Someone's Happy Birthday

Last night, it was Craft Class and one of my lovely ladies, Tracey, had had a birthday at weekend. She is one of the nicest people you could meet, always has a smile on her face, and has a great creative talent.

I made a card, gave it to her, and now I'd like to share it on my blog. (Hopefully Tracey won't mind).

I used a variety of different things on here, but the colouring was Promarkers and Prismas. I am dragging out my prisma's more and more - and to say that I was going to sell them the other week!! They just add some beautiful shading to the images that it can be hard to know when to stop.. but I only needed a little accent here and there so not much was added to the card.

**Now a little Tip or two for you, if you are using promarkers, or copics, and want to make sure that the colours match  your papers, then do same as me and make your own colour reference chart.

I have a little book for my Promarkers, and copics, and I have printed out data panels onto the paper I use for stamping on, and this list has every colour of PM or Copic available. They are all listed in colour families - blues, greens, yellows, reds etc. I then colour in  next to the number/name of the pen and I have a Colour Reference that I can lay next to my papers to ensure the correct colour combos. Now, you need to make sure that you print onto the paper/card you use for your images.. each paper or card will show the colours in a different way. I personally use Whisper White from Stampin' Up, so I print my charts on that.

Now... when I'm shading with my Prismas, I start with the same type of colour that I used on the image. Add shading in where it needs to be, then go in with a contrasting colour - ie.. blue/purple, aqua/pale blue etc. This just adds some toning to your image. You can then use a little bit of black to deepen the shadows. And voila.. a lovely coloured image.

The idea for the card came from the theme over at Pink Gem Designs, where it said to use a Bloom and a Charm. Now... I have oodles of charms that I never {very rarely!} use, so thought I'd add one to the card as I wanted it to be Super Special, like the birthday girl herself.

I really hope you had a lovely birthday, Tracey, and that you were completely spoiled rotten! You deserve it.