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

Thank You Card - Less is More Week 13

This week's theme over at Less Is More is Thank You or Congratulations and this is my entry...

The image and sentiment are a digi from Pink Petticoat, with a faux-stitched border added on the PC before printing the whole thing as a 12cm square card. I've coloured with chalks and added a couple of buttons and a bit of ribbon, very simple really.

Lesley x

Fairy Special Birthday Wishes...

this is the card I made for my niece Adel - yes an unconventional spelling of the name, but it means personalised gifts/cards can be even more special as you don't come across them in the shops.

The image is a digi-stamp from Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine, given as a freebie if you bought the mag or available to buy individually from the website. I paper-pieced the image digitally using papers from Zoe Pearn but left her skin and hair blank and hand-coloured with Promarkers. I've used Stickles on the wings and crown, which played havoc with trying to get a decent photo, sorry!

I've used rub-ons to add her name and age, although I'd usually do this digitally before printing too.  The spotty backing paper is also from Zoe Pearn and I ran the scalloped card base through the printer too so it co-ordinated perfectly.  Finished off with a little quilted star.

Fabulous Shoes

Another commission, this time from my work colleagues for our manager who has taken early retirement.  The only real brief was 'she loves shoes'.  As she's seen most of the work I've done lately I wanted to try something a little different and remembered I had a freebie digi of a shop-front somewhere. Unfortunately I can't remember who this one was from, will have to have a search of the web.

The brickwork and other aqua items were coloured with Promarkers and the green polka dot and pink stripe papers are downloads from Pink Petticoat. It doesn't show in the picture but I put acetate in the windows.

This is the view from another angle to show the dimension - the awning is popped up with a couple of generous dollops of pinflair glue gel. If I do a similar card again I probably won't cut around the doorway as there was only a very narrow strip left to attach to the base card

The card measures a massive 7 x 9 inches but I think it would've been too fiddly in a smaller size.


Edited to add - have found the website for the freebie, Crafty Boutique by GTC

Bubbling over...

...with fun and birthday wishes.

This is one of my favourite cards of the year, using my favourite Pink Petticoat Vintage Rose papers for the background and digital paper-piecing on the image, which is also from Pink Petticoat, from a set called Lola Rose - You Make Me Feel Bubbly.

The frame is hand-doodled and the skin and hair coloured with Promarkers. Fonts used are Auburn and Hiccups.

Pure Innocence...

Isn't she cute? I'm loving these digi-stamp images from Heather Ellis, who can also be found on Etsy.  At first I was using these the 'old-fashioned' way - printing off the black and white outlines then colouring with Promarkers then cutting out and sticking to my background layer, and hand-writing sentiments as in this card....

Then I decided to have a bit of a play around with them in Paint.NET, making the background transparent and converting to png files so I could layer up onto the digital backing paper before printing.  I've added the sentiment at this stage too.  

Don't worry though, the Promarkers aren't redundant - I've still hand-coloured the images, and I've gone over the red sentiment and other red areas of the design with a red Spica pen just for a subtle hint of glitter.


I think I feel a notelet set coming along....

Back in my comfort zone...

with a much simpler card, although it is another challenge entry (I know, 2 in 1 day, lol!)...

This one is for the Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Let's have a sing-song where the theme is 'inspired by a song'. I think my entry speaks for itself, no explanation needed, lol! This has been one of my favourite songs for years so thank you to Glee and of course Joe McElderry for bringing it back!

Image is the Lilybean Fairy Clover Butterfly Wishes digistamp from Pollycraft

coloured (badly!) with Promarkers

backing paper 'Ice Cream Curls' from Pink Petticoat

and the little butterfly in the top left is a dimensional sticker from Anita's (strategically placed to hide the black mark left by my printer - silly me coloured and trimmed the image before running back through the printer to add the sentiment!)

Simply baby boys...

Just a quickie to post these two, have been wanting to use the images for a while so out came the Promarkers last night and these are the results...

This first one uses an image (think it was a freebie?) from Pollycraft, I'm not sure if he's still available.  My cool aqua Promarker is on its last legs so I inked the edges of the die-cut panel with the aqua colour from a Kaleidacolor Inkpad in 'Caribbean Sea' colourway. Simple matting and layering (love the textured cardstock!) and a few mini buttons to finish it off.

This was also a freebie image, this time from Bodils Scrapperverden and again I've left the matting and layering very simple. The gingham paper has been punched with my new Martha Stewart Doily Lace, then I decided to colour the edge with the PM used in the image. I haven't put a sentiment on this one as I thought it could be used as either a new baby or a 1st birthday card.

That's all for today folks - will have some girlier designs next time...

Lisa's special RAK event for her sister

I can't believe how long its been since my last post - how do people manage to find time to blog every day??? Actually if I did more blogging and less reading of other blogs then I might get somewhere, lol!

My card today is for a very special RAK which you can find here.  Lisa's sister is terminally ill with lung cancer and she has asked us to send her sister cards to make her smile, preferably including a frog.  Paula from Pollycraft has very kindly donated a freebie digi image to use.

This was my first effort, I love how the red (which is actually 'hot pink' Promarker) goes with the green.  For once the card came together almost exactly how I'd pictured it in my head...

I designed the sentiment circle myself using wordart - the flower in the centre is cropped from the main image to co-ordinate perfectly. Once I'd scanned the card however I had another look at Lisa's post and saw the request for funny cards and thought I needed a funnier sentiment so eventually came up with this one...

Again the frog's head in the centre is cropped from the main image (and to save making the card all over again I just stuck the new sentiment on top of the old one!)

The backing paper is a pink petticoat download which I only bought last night (how's that for speed?), printed at half size, and everything else is coloured with Promarkers.  Now I'm just wondering whether to add googly eyes if I can find them amongst all of my clutter lovely stash....

Off to colour in some more frogs while watching the footie now x