Twit Twoo ...

It's funny, I'm not really into owls but I do seem to use quite a few in my card projects

This one is from the What A Hoot digital kit by Melissa Bennett at Sweet Shoppe Designs and the big bow is made from satin ribbon from the Ribbon Girl. I've left it without a sentiment or greeting because he looked a happy sort of chap that would be useful for all sorts of occasions.

Merry & Bright ...

The current Caardvarks challenge is to create a clean and simple card  - and this is just about as clean and simple as it gets :o)

(Sentiment stamp - Papertrey, bakers twine and polka dot button - Ribbon Girl, dies - Nestabilities)

WaltzingMouse Sketch Challenge

This is my second post of the day, scroll down for my earlier post about a new challenge at The Ribbon Girl blog.

The sketch at Waltzingmouse this week is lovely and simple and inspired me to use this fab digital kit from Nitwit Collections. I printed out several small pieces of paper, cut into squares, inked and then glittered all the edges before adhering them to a black cardblank to make the colours really pop.

The ribbon is new from the Ribbon Girl, gorgeous saddlestitch ribbon which is exactly the same as some that I have been buying from a US rubber stamp company - I am such a happy bunny about that!

Ribbon Girl Colour Challenge #1

Over at The Ribbon Girl blog we are hosting our first colour challenge and these are the two cards that I made. The colour challenge is to use black, orange and white in your project and there is a prize too :) The challenge closes on October 3rd so you have plenty time to join in!

So, these are the two cards that I made



(Bewitching digital kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs and twine, braid, ribbon and button from the Ribbon Girl)

(Lori Boyd Lollipop stamp, ribbon, button and pins from the Ribbon Girl)

The bumble person card is a bit of a cardlift from my friend Jan who made a gorgeous card for another of our friends. We were celebrating Gail's birthday last night and I loved the card that Jan had made so decided to try and make my own version this morning but I couldn't really remember how she made it so I just went with the flow and this is what I made!  I used the digital stamp on the back of the card agin and changed the colour to tie in with the orange/black colour scheme. I'm hoping that Jan will put the card on her blog so I can have another go :o)

Toot Toot!! and a Blog Hop ...

I have nearly burst with excitement during the last couple of weeks because of an email I got asking me if I would be interested in joining a new Design Team from ..............  Lori Boyd! Oh my goodness I just about exploded doing the excited dance as I replied to her email. Not only is Lori one of the sweetest people I know but she designs the cutest digital stamps (or you may have seen her rubber stamps here and here) and she makes gorgeous cards too.

So, there you have it - my exciting news! And I have a new badge to add to my list of people that I design for over there on the side of my blog

We thought a Blog Hop was in order as we are celebrating the new team as well as some new releases by Lori which can be found in Lori's shop here.

The whole Design Team are joining in and if you hop to each of them leaving a comment as you go you will go into the draw to win Lori's latest Grandparent and Bride & Groom stamps as well as 5 other digi's of your choice from Lori's shop. You have until Saturday night (midnight US time) to leave your comments on all the blogs to enter the draw

Lori

Andrea - that's me!

Arielle

Hannah

Jane

Jayne

Linda

Sheri

Sherryann

Tanja

Vera

I have played with the Grandparents stamps but as I didn't need a Grandparent card - I actually needed to make a 40th birthday card for a man - I changed his trousers to jeans and gave him brown hair instead of grey, snuffed out the old lady and he instantly appeared 20 years younger! I wonder if this could work in real life? I could be onto a winner there :o)

(papers by Crystal Wilkerson, Button twine from Ribbon Girl)

A Baby Card

I made this card at the weekend using a gorgeous graphic from The Clipart Fairy

I added Doodlebug glitter to her dress and hat

The bow is a combination of white organza, Lemon Cream loopy ribbon, yellow Divine Twine bakers twine and teardrop pins and I added a length of guipure lace

Sponsored by The Cutting Cafe ...

This week the Pink Elephant Challenge blog is sponsored by the Cutting Cafe

This is the card I made using some of the back to school files

Together with the Cutting Cafe files I used a cuttlebug embossing folder, Copics, Nestabilities die, this gorgeous and bright, cheerful spot paper from Crystal Wilkerson and that wonderful spotty ribbon is from the Ribbon Girl. I added the little white marks to make my apple look shiny and bright with a white inksentials pen and I drew the black checks around the border by hand

A Decorated Gift Box ...

Cutting it fine I know, but I finally finished this decorated gift box for a wedding we are going to tomorrow! It started off life as a pink and blue patchwork effect heart shaped box with a leaf pattern all over it - it really was as dreadful as it sounds - so I changed it.

The papers are all from a digital kit by Zoe Pearn called Serenity

I used these gorgeous pearls from 3DJean, I love that in one pack you get all the different sizes which was just perfect for this project as I wanted to use lots of different sizes

All the ribbons, lace, braid and rose flower are from the Ribbon Girl.

Papertake Weekly Challenge ...

... Having a whale of a time!

The challenge at Papertake Weekly is 'just one' and there are a couple of 'just ones' on this card - 1 scalloped circle, 1 digital stamp, 1 whale and 1 ribbon - and have you seen that ribbon?? It's reversible so pink with turquoise spots on one side and on the other side turquoise with pink spots!

I used:

A Christy Croll digital stamp

Nestabilities dies

Cuttlebug embossing folder

Copics

Dewdrops from 3DJean

and that gorgeous reversible spot ribbon from the Ribbon Girl

The Pink Elephant Challenge ...

The challenge over at The Pink Elepant this week is a colour challenge - mostly white.  I seem to be going through a 'white space' phase at the moment so I really enjoyed making this card - even more so as it was a sponsored challenge this week and I got to use this adorable digital stamp from Meljen Designs

I embossed my background with a Cuttlebug embossing folder to create a pattern without colour and made a tiny tag using a rubber stamp from Papertrey Ink.  I also chose to use this gorgeous striped twill from the Ribbon Girl, the colour is called celery - how delicious is that?

An Owl Card ...

This is my card for the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge

There is a tutorial to make it over on the Ribbon Girl blog today. I love these papers by Crystal Wilkerson - they seemed very 'owlish' to me :)

Now, whilst I was looking for the link to Crystal's papers I noticed there is a new category in the designers section over at Jessica Sprague.com   ~~~ COSMO CRICKET!!  Goodness me I hope this is what I'm thinking of because I just love Cosmo Cricket papers :o)

Some Hanglar Cards ...

I've spent some time playing with my lovely Hanglar stamps recently, I love these stamps and they are so easy to colour with my Copics

(October Afternoon paper, the sentiment stamp is from 3DJean and the ribbon, bakers twine and polkadot button from The Ribbon Girl)

(digital papers from Sweet Shoppe Designs, sentiment stamp from Papertrey, ribbon, ricrac, twine

and polkadot button from the Ribbon Girl)

(Cosmo Cricket papers, October Afternoon letter stickers, Nestabilities dies

and twine and ribbon from the Ribbon Girl)

Some Cards ...

I have spent a happy few days this weeks nursing a bit of a cold, making cards, playing with some new purchases, visiting lovely friends for a craft day and generally enjoying still being on holiday - and trying not to think about going back to work!

(digital kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs)

(Sweet Pea stamps from 3DJean)

Exciting News Monday...

Exciting News Monday ... I just invented that! I thought that if any day needed a spot of excitement then it would be a Monday :)

Anyway, onto my exciting news - my lovely and so very talented friend Lori invited me to be on the Design Team of The Pink Elephant Challenge and today is my first time of playing along with the other girls.  It's a sponsored challenge this week by Inktegrity Digital Stamps and this is my card that I made based on the sketch

(I used On Sail digital stamp, cloud and sea digital papers, Copics, glitter and spotted ribbon from here)

Hello!

Today over at the Pink Elephant Challenge we are showcasing some of Lori's digital stamps as well as focussing on how we colour them using our Copics. Our lovely friend Claudia at DieCutsRUs is having a huge Copics Sale so if you are in need of a few more pens to add to your collection then that is the place to go!

So, this is my card and how I coloured it. I am in no way an expert, just a beginner really so who knows if I'm doing the colouring correctly but I like how they look so for now I'm sticking with my method :)

For this card I cropped my digi stamp so that I only had the part I wanted to colour, enlarged it to fillmy cardblank and printed it. When I colour with copics I have my colour chart right next to my image so I can select just the right colours and compare what they will look like together

I start with the darker colours and blend outwards with lighter colours

I try to think about where the light and dark shadows would fall - but I'm not so good at that part :lol:

For the skin I used colours E00, E50, E53, YR0000 and I used the same colours for her neck, hands and arms

Moving onto the dress I used the darkest yellow at the top, sides and just a little around the spots

As I moved in towards the centre I used the lighter colours of yellow blending the edges so that they merged together

I used the same process to color the sleeves of the dress, starting with the dark and moving towards the light

For her bow in her hair I used the same darkest yellow as the dress in the centre of the bow

Then moved out towards the edges with the lighter colours, blending each colour over the top of the previous one

Here is the hair bow coloured in and you can see the darker and lighter areas

For the dress and bow I used Y17, Y15, Y08, Y00

I find colouring the hair really difficult so I will be watching the other girls to see how they do it. But me, I start with the darkest colour at the top of the hair

I blend over this with my middle brown colour

And then move down the length of the hair with the lighter of my brown colours

See how you can see the join where the lightest colour meets the middle brown, there is a line across her head!

So I blended all the colours using my lightest brown to take away the join lines

For the hair colours I used E29, E37, E49

Moving onto the spots on her dress I colour with the darkest pink first

Then blend in the lighter and I use the same process for the frills on her sleeves and around her neck

I used RV21, RV23, RV34 for the pink spots and the frill

And this, is the card that I made. I love the effect enlarging the digi stamp has and then just using a part of the stamp and I teamed it with Papertrey and Doodlebug cardstock and my circle and scalloped circle Nestabilities and some new ribbon that is coming soon to The Ribbon Girl.

See her cheeks - I cheated with my colouring and added her lovely rosy cheeks with Stampin Up chalk! and her freckles are done with a white pen