Girl with a rose...

Thanks to Sally with her Scallywags blog for introducing me to Birdie Brown digital stamps - I headed straight over to Birdie's Etsy shop and bought 2 images, but I had such a tough time deciding that I know I'll be back for more!

This is my first card using 'Girl with a rose' - how cute is this little sweetie?

The image is coloured with Flexmarkers & Promarkers, and I've added some faux stitching around the edge. One day I'll try real stitching on my cards - it would be quicker than the fake stuff!

The background papers are both from digikits from Sweet Shoppe Designs - the blue is from 'Blooming' by Jady Day Studio, and the green is from 'Her Name is Lola' by Libby Pritchett.

I've added some buttons that I found lurking forgotten in a drawer, from the My Minds Eye 'Bloom & Grow'  collection. I coloured the green button with a Promarker as the original green was too pale.

I'm entering this in the Cutie Pie challenge - real or faux stitching
One Stitch at a Time - stitch it
and By the Cute and Girly - use buttons

Thanks for looking!

Lesley x

So much crafting, so little time...

Apologies once again for the distinct lack of blog posts over the last few months. It's certainly not because I haven't been crafting, more like I'm so busy with the making and doing that I never seem to get time to tell you about it!

But after getting some bargain digistamps over at Jellypark earlier in the week I felt I should at least join in the Jellypark Friday Challenge. The theme this week is 'Boy Crazy', which I'm quite pleased about since the only finished card I've produced with a Jellypark image is this one

I have to apologise for the poor photo, but I haven't been home in daylight all week so I had to take this one with flash.

I've kept the card very simple, with the image coloured using Promarkers and Flexmarkers. The cardboard box is paper-pieced using the horrid Papermania Kraft cards I bought ages ago, with shading added with Flexmarkers. The sentiment is computer-generated and I've pricked and drawn faux-stitching around the image and the sentiment. It doesn't show very well in the photo, but the background of the image has been coloured in the same way as the sentiment.

Daft as it sounds, I don't actually know any little boys about to turn 4...but the space between the box and the sword-arm seemed to be the perfect shape for a big number 4 so that's what swung it. It'll keep in my 'to sell' box...

Thanks for looking!

Lesley x

Wow, long time no blog!

And it's not that I haven't been making cards, I just haven't blogged any of them for months. It seems I can only really concentrate properly on 1 project at a time, which since May last year has been my weight loss. I went back to WeightWatchers meetings back in May, and most of my free time on the laptop has been spent 'tracking' online, and keeping up with the message forums for hints, tips and support. With only half a stone to go now I'm hoping I can wean myself off the WW message boards and get some cards shared with my (slowly) growing number of followers before you all delete me!

So my first card of the year to share is this one, which I made with the Willow Sketchie Challenge in mind. To be honest I'm not sure I've followed the sketch closely enough, but maybe they'll turn a blind eye since I've used a digi stamp from the new Polly Pickleberry CD.

I've used a combination of Promarkers and Flexmarkers to colour the image - I love the very subtle colours available in the Flexmarkers. And then I used my Glacier Blue Flexmarker to colour the background of the Pink Petticoat backing paper too.

The sentiment uses an embossing folder that I think came in a Docrafts Goody Bag, and the embossing folder used on the backing strips was a magazine freebie.

The hyper-critical me doesn't love this card, so I might have another go at the sketch with a different image if I have the time.

Thanks for looking!

Lesley x