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

Spot the difference...1 card 3 ways...

when I bought this digi-image from Cuddly Buddly yesterday I couldn't wait to use it. But oh no, disaster! My Cool Aqua Promarker has run out.  That's the 2nd of that colour I've got through, I obviously use it far too much! This was the best I could do before it completely gave up the ghost...

Looking at it now I quite like the 'shabby chic' finish I got on the stove.  This card uses a combination of digital paper-piecing (the red polka dot areas) and hand-colouring, then the images were cut out and stuck onto the gingham backing paper.  I designed the sentiment myself using MS Word.

Of course I've ordered another Cool Aqua Promarker (and a few other colours that I 'need') but couldn't wait, and really wanted my stove in that colour  - I love the contrast with the pink gingham and red polka dots.  I decided to try to replicate the colour with more digital paper-piecing, and since the backing paper is also a digi I did it all in one layer to save on ink (and cutting out time) and this is version 2....

I decided to polka-dot the kettle on this one, and make her dress the same colour as the stove to add a bit of balance.The rest of the image I left white and hand-coloured. I quite like the colour on this one, but its more blue than aqua.  So, my final attempt at stupid o'clock last night....

Now this one is far too green! I feel like Goldilocks or something...! I do prefer the digital layering on this one though.  I've left a little white border around the images, to give a more obvious layered effect, I think it just about shows in the picture.

That's it for now, no more till the new Promarkers arrive!

I'm going to enter these in the challenge over at The Play Date Cafe which is a colour challenge, don't you think they're a perfect fit?

                                            

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.

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!)

I'm a bad, bad, blogger.....

I can't believe it's now 2 whole months since my 1st post, where did all the time go?

I'm sure no-one will be surprised to hear I've been too busy crafting to actually blog about it and, looking around the room right now, its in exactly the same state as on 1st January - I'm such an untidy crafter...this is my living-room floor right now...

And my friends and family wonder why I don't encourage unexpected visits! You can see the occasional patch of bare carpet which I use as 'stepping stones' to get from one end to the other - one of these days I'll do myself a serious injury, but what a way to go!

And I'd told myself I wasn't going to craft today, except for one 'must-do' project (that I haven't done...) but I really couldn't resist the new Spring Coco and Friends digi-stamps which I spotted on the Digistamp Boutique blog. They were only released today but I had to have them.

And this is what I've managed to create so far...

image is Coco Easter Stroll from Digistamp Boutique

coloured with Promarkers

scalloped frames from a Nellie's multiframe die

(the frame around the image was pieced together to get a larger frame)

patterned paper is from Imaginisce All Occasion Build-a-Card Pad

flowers cut with a sizzix die

image is Spring Coco from Digistamp Boutique

coloured with Promarkers

Prima flower, smaller flower and paper ribbon coloured with Promarker

backing paper from Forever Friends Hugs & Cuddles paper pack

And a quick close-up of 1 of the coloured images - the first time I've used my Promarkers in such a sketchy, watercolour type way...

...loving this effect!

Well, time to go to work now, the clearing up will have to wait until I get home...