Keep Fit Kenneth

Oh I remember the days when I said I would be on no more more than 3DT's lol but how could I resist joining Dr. Digi House of Stamps - the images are so different and full of character and are in total contrast from what I usually colour.  So here we are today with my first design team creation for Dr. Digi.

I really need some cards suitable for men and need to get away from the serious type which get a bit boring after a while.  So here I have used Keep Fit Kenneth, he is coloured with alcohol markers and the background with Pan Pastels which I love for quick coverage and the ease of blending with them.  I first masked off the digi image and then got to work with the Pan Pastels, then removed the mask and continued with the image colouring.  A couple of sports stamps were added as you really can't lift weights all day, a bit of skipping does you good hahaha.  The backing paper was embossed with a brick wall effect and then coloured with Pan Pastels too.  To finish off the image layer was backed with black paper and the sentiment was added using foam tape for a bit of dimension.

I am entering this card in the following challenges : -

• Crafty Gals Corner  M, 2nd W, E3, #198 - Emboss It
• Creative With Stamps Challenge (M, P1, E3, C11, use stamps or digis) #41 - Dad or Masculine
• AAA Birthday (M, 1st Mon, Birthday cards only)July - #4 - FOR THE BOYS
• Aud Sentiments Challenge 2W,E5  Must include a sentiment #234 Masculine Project & A Sentiment+ A DT Call (W1 of 2) 

Gemini - Abundance Twins

How could I resist colouring this new image by Aurora Wings, GEMINI - ABUNDANCE TWINS.
isn't it just so beautiful :)  Gemini is represented by The Twins, pretty obvious in the digital image but thinking about how to colour it to keep this theme without showing too much of a split personality had me pondering.  The colours of Gemini are yellow and blue so that was my starting point and I decided to go with yellow for the brighter side of Gemini and orange for the 'other' twin,  changing that on the lilies to show appreciation for how the 'twins' are intertwined.  The background, although mainly purple/violet because I just love these colours,  is blue for the orange flower twin, I stencilled a design in dark blue/violet.  The background was coloured with Pan Pastels.  Gemini Abundance was coloured with Promarkers, Polychrome pencils, coloured biros and finished off with Liquid Pearls and Stickles which you can't really see in the photo but add the wonderful sparkle in real light.  I mounted the image on black and then gold mirror card.  The card base was covered with some awesome pineapple paper I got in Thailand several years ago and has the most awesome texture.  To finish off the card I added a couple of die cut corners also cut from gold mirror card.

Image used :- GEMINI - ABUNDANCE TWINS by Aurora Wings
Colouring :- Promarkers, Polychromes, Pan Pastels
Other items :- stencil, die cuts, Stickles, Liquid Pearls

I am entering this card in the following challenges :-

• House that Stamps Built 1W, 3E - Inspiration Photo*
• The Flower Challenge (M, P4, C6, E5, must use flower image/stamp) #35 - Favourite flower - LILIES, especially the Oriental Lilies, the smell just makes me tingle from top to toe :) :) Alas they make hubby sneeze and we have cats too so I can only enjoy them when I go to the supermarket and can't resist a quick sniff :) :) 
• Lemon Shortbread 2W, E3, no digital projects - #100 - Always Anything Goes (Week 2)
• Dream Valley Challenges  (2W, 3E, C10) #207 HAND-COLORED IMAGE (WEEK 2)  
• Dragonfly Dreams - M, Winner + Top Picks – (August) No Patterned Paper
• Colour Crazy Challenge - W, 2E  - Wk 32 (W1 of 2)  and Wk 33 (W2 of 2) -   ANYTHING COLORING GOES (NO Precolored Images) Weekly Challenge run for 2 Weeks 

Blossom Shoe

The challenge this fortnight at I ❤️Promarkers is

 'Anything Goes'

and the sponsor for this challenge is IKEsART with $15 prize to spend in the store

For my design creation I have used the IKEsART image Blossom Shoe (one of a set of 4)  I love this image and have used it a few times, always colouring it in. For this Promarker challenge I thought I would try something different and use my Promarkers to colour the background and use the colours to only colour the flowers and leaves on the shoe.  There was a bit of experimenting going on lol, to begin with I just used a ruler but soon discovered although my lines were straight there was a positive lean on the left side of the card and at the rate this was happening it would soon be a steep mountain effect :).  Next I tried adding the lines in Photoshop using the colours I would be colouring in, that looked like a good idea but my brain cell didn't really think how small the areas to colour would be once I had printed, anyway I completed the background with in this case Flex Markers and then coloured the leaves and flowers.  The Happy Birthday sentiment was heat foiled in gold and the flowers on the shoe have two coats of Mod Podge Dimensional Magic although the scanner when I scanned the image has not picked this up. 

So I was not totally happy with drawing in the faint lines so for a second attempt I added a wee grid to each side of the image and printed again.  Using a ruler to give cleaner, sharper edges I drew my lines in the colours I was colouring with using my Promarkers then coloured in the areas that needed filling.  Much better, just needed to remember to clean and dry my ruler after each line draw :) :) Just a shame here the lines look squint but that is my fault with the scanning and straightening of the image.  Can I blame that on my glasses hahahaha or maybe tired eyes after a long day :) :) Again I heat foiled the sentiment and finished off with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic.

Image used -  Blossom Shoe (one of a set of 4) by IKEsART
Colouring - Promarkers and Flex markers (now made by Windsor and Newton)
Other items - small gems, heat foil and heat foil die, Mod Podge Dimensional Magic

I am entering this creation in the following challenges :-

Layered Stencil Flowers

 International Art & Soul, a challenge which has been put together to incorporate any type of craft, paper, wood, flowers, recycling, glass - the world is your oyster :).  Come on over an join us with you artwork :)

Challenge #65
Flowers

This fortnights challenge Flowers has been chosen by DT sister Maggie.  I love flowers, the colours and delicate textures hold me in awe so thank you Maggie for choosing this challenge, I had many hours of pure joy :)

I don't know if any of you have seen the Sheena Douglas layering stencils, when I first saw then all I could think about was the get dirty fun I would have using them but they were somewhat out of my budget.  Spending my pennies on inks, paper, adhesives, pencils etc. tends not to bother me as I can use these items in so many ways but buying something I may only use a few times makes me think twice, thrice or more and my shopping basket is often deleted as I think I will not use the item enough to justify the cost and hope my lucky stars will shine one day and I will find them in a sale.  This was the case here, the stencils were originally £10 each but a few weeks ago I saw them in a sale where 5 of the stencils were in a group lot for £10 (£50 for £10 is what I call a bargain).  They were popped into my basket without a second thought and then off to checkout before I lost the chance.

For this set of cards I have used 4 of the stencils, the 5th stencil was butterflies.  A bit of experimenting went on to find what mediums I liked working with for these as it was a first attempt at a stencil card.  In the end I opted for Distress Oxides for the backgrounds, Pan Pastels for the base layer of the stencil and then used Altnew inks for the second 2 layers of the stencil.  This way I was able to get good coverage quickly and keep the depth of colour I wanted to give a real arty look.  I also stencilled the background with Altnew inks using one of the colours from the flowers.  Once the art work was complete I mounted it on black card and then on a silver card blank, finally finishing off with peel off silver line stickers.

Challenges entered:-

• CAS on Friday – 2W, E1,  No. 162 - USE A STENCIL - Don't Forget Make it CAS (This challenge will Run until September 4th for Summer Break)
• The Flower Challenge (M, P4, C6, E5, must use flower image/stamp) #35 - Favourite flower - HIBISCUS - many years in Africa and this was a flower we grew many off.  This flower brings back such fond memories of times now gone :)
• Addicted to Stamps and More W, C10, #354 - CAS
• Unicorn Challenge M, E3, No fully digital projects August  #46 - Fully Loaded or CAS
• Dragonfly Dreams - M, Winner + Top Picks – (August) No Patterned Paper

Happy Hour Horace

The challenge this fortnight at I ❤️Promarkers is

 'Birthday'

and the sponsor for this challenge is Dr Digi's House of Stamps with a prize of 2 digital images of the winners choice.

For my design creation I have used the Dr. Digi's House of Stamps Happy Hour Horace image.

Oh so much fun with this image, all the time while colouring him with my Promarkers I couldn't help but think of my hubby, he hates birthday's with a passion saying it is just another day.  I teased him none stop on the birthday he became a pensioner and thankfully lived to tell the tale hahaha.  Happy Hour Horace is certainly not a happy birthday bunny or maybe he does not have his teeth anymore and forgot to put his dentures in :)

I am entering this card in the following challenges : -

• The Male Room 2W, male projects only, #117 - Birthday (W1 of 2)

4 legged pals

Just a very quick post from me this time.  I was given some fabulous CCK rubber stamps last week and just had to stamp and colour some up - it has been a manic 4 days lol and not much else has been done in the house.  I think the stamps were probably from the days when Sweet Pea Stamps was in operation but that is only a guess. 

I couldn't resist entering this challenge with one of the cards I made which has a 4 legged furry friend on it :) :).  Should mention, I have popped over to the Etsy store to get the link for this image but I can't find it, either I am missing it or it has only been available in rubber.

To create my card I stamped the image then hand drew in some of the background in the style that was used on the stamp as I wanted to create the image over a large area of the card.  Next I stamped the image again on to a bit of paper and fussy cut so I could use this for masking which I needed to do for the background.  Out with the Distress Oxides to colour the background and then time to move onto the image where I used Promarkers and Prismacolor pencils along with a gold pen for the dots.  I then stamped a border stamp in black and picked out a few areas to go over with Stickles.  The background paper was also created with Distress Oxides then embossed.  The image was mounted on black then gold card before being attached to the card base.  To finish off a simple Happy Birthday sentiment.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:- 

• Ching-chou Kuik Digital Stamps (M,P1,E3,SIO) August - Four legged friends
• Tuesday Throwdown W -   #437 - Furry Friends (week 2)
• Dragonfly Dreams - M, Winner + Top Picks – (August) No Patterned Paper
• Stamping Sensations - M, 3E, Winner + Top 3, must use stamp (no pre-colored digis) Stamp must be focal point of project – (August) Things with Wings
• Di's Digis Designs 2W, 3E,SIO Things with Wings or Tail (W2 of 2)
• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies (M, P1, E5, must have a critter) #29 - Anything Goes with a Critter

A Hint of Wedgewood

IKEsWORLD

Challenge 123
Hats

Welcome back to the IKEsWORLD challenges :)  do pop on over to IKEsWORLD to join in the challenge, it is always so much fun and  Ike produces the most amazing stamps, everything from off the wall to cute and fluffy :) :) :)

Before I say anything about my card I have to apologise for my very squint photography, totally ashamed of myself.

We have a lovely challenge this month, something very different, it is all about hats.  When I saw the theme of the challenge my thoughts went straight to a cameo idea and as you can see I went totally by this using a close colour to Wedgewood Blue and a black cameo instead of the traditional white the pottery company Wedgewood used to do.  I used one of the images from  IKEsART HATS Set of 4, coloured it with Promarkers and fussy cut it.  It was then placed on a blacked out ladies head which I printed on white card.  Next layer, a pretty oval die cut in black and then a white cut and embossed layer which is actually designed for a quick birthday card from Crafter's Companion.  Thankfully, the oval centre pieces I had created covered most of the die cut birthday cake underneath, you can just about make out out now I have mentioned it :) :).  Finally, I covered a card blank with a blue paper to match the Promarker colouring.

Ingredients:-

• image - HATS - set of 4 by IKEsART
• colouring medium - Promarkers 
• other items - cutting/embossing die, oval die, black ribbon and bow, gem

I am entering this project into the following challenges:-

Embossed Spider Box with Bead Spider

 International Art & Soul, a challenge which has been put together to incorporate any type of craft, paper, wood, flowers, recycling, glass - the world is your oyster :).  Come on over an join us with you artwork :)

Challenge #64
Embossing Heat or Dry

This fortnights challenge Embossing Heat or Dry has been chosen by DT sister CG.  You know when you have something you bought ages ago and for some reason you never used it but struggled with other methods of doing something, that was the case here.  It must be at least 8 years since I bought the Crafters Companion Ultimate Pro, a set which includes embossing scoring plates, fold scoring plate, envelope maker and the box maker.  I was not very impressed with the embossing scoring plates but I am sure they have their use, the regular scoring plate I use all the time and recently I have started making my own boxenvelopes so that plate is used too.  However, I have normally got my die cutter out to make boxes, a hassle designing them or faffing on with transferring files etc. but it never entered my brain to used the boxer plate that came with the Ultimate Pro set until the light came on as I was about to do this project.  The box was so quick and simple to make I am kicking myself for several years of struggling and the amount of time consumed :) :) :).

To make this box, as mentioned, I used the Ultimate Pro by Crafter's Companion.  With both the top of the box and bottom scored and cut I set to decorating the top before sticking it together.  As I had used black for the bottom I decided on black heat embossing for the top.  Box made and it was onto the spider, a cased project from CraftyGirl, one of our lovely DT sisters who made a bunch of these for one of our challenges and I fell in love with them.  I chose beads to match the colour of my box.

This will be a wee birthday gift for my youngest daughter who is on deploy at the moment attached to the UN and is away for her birthday.  Where she is there are lots of snakes, spiders, mosquitos etc. it is the rainy season too.  A bit tongue in cheek sending her a bead spider but that is my warped sense of humour in action lol.  I hope she likes it anyway when she finds it in her care package :)

Challenges entered:-

• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies (M, P1, E5, must have a critter) #29 - Anything Goes with a Critter
• Inspire.Create.Challenges  2W, C3, no digis, #48 - Birthday (W2 of 2)
• Pearly Sparkles Challenge (M, P1, E3) #43 - Something beginning with  B - BEADS

Thinking of You

Oh what a privilege - to be a guest designer with Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge blog.  I so wish there were more hours in the day so I could colour more of these fabulous images. In July I was lucky enough to gain a Top 3 and the wonderful prize digi I chose which I have used for the 2 cards below in preparation for being a GD this month with the theme 'Pets'.   When I saw this digi I fell in love, it is not one that, to me, is Mo's usual style, this one has less detail more free flowing but it was the emotions that oozed from the image which drew my eyes to it - sympathy card shouted at me :) :) but I didn't want to make a sympathy card at this moment in time. However, my youngest daughter is on a 6 month deployment with the British Army and has had to leave her beloved dog here in the UK.  Her dog is called Grey and is a Staffie, an adorable lady too.  I know the image is not a Staffie but what does that matter, it is the heart inside that counts far more.

I do love creating with added meaning behind what is visible and that is the case with this card which I will be sending to my daughter in her next care package :).  I lived for many years in Africa, born in Nigeria, 5 years in Zambia and then onto Kenya in 79.  I met my hubby there, got married had our 2 kids, eventually returning to the UK in 85.  With my youngest daughter back on the beautiful continent of Africa linked to the UN this card had to have an Africa home feel along with my thoughts and no doubt Grey's too of thinking of her.  The colours represent the beautiful sun sets and sun rises we saw so often .

For this card I used a digital photograph because I can't draw for toffee :) :).  The downside of digital is the finished printout still 'feels' flat so to get around this I then coloured the background with Pan Pastels and white pen for the crests of the waves.  Mo's image - Thinking of You, was coloured with Promarkers and then touched up with Prismacolour Pencils.  The backing paper was stamped with a large stamp I have and so perfect for this creation with the maps, compass and hand pointing to the Hello text.  To finish off a simple black mount for the coloured image and a few black die cut hearts.

This second card was sort of planned, I printed the image twice in case I made a boo boo.  Thankfully the colouring came out as planned first time so I thought I would make a second CAS card with a grey dog.  Now that didn't work, I do find the ice grey Promarkers hard to work with so I printed the image again onto water colour paper and raked out my water colours, it has been a long time since they have seen the light of day.  Such good fun, quick to do and very relaxing, I should use them more often but it is not easy to colour with water colours when you have your feet up hahahaha.  A simple embossed background was all this card needed, it really is CAS.  Hope you like it, I do :)

Image :- Thinking of You by Mo Manning
Colouring :- Promarkers, Pan Pastels, Prismacolour Pencils, (image 2) watercolours
Other items :- large background stamp, die cut hearts, embossing folder

I am entering in the following challenges :-

• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies (M, P1, E5, must have a critter) #29 - Anything Goes with a Critter
• Ching-chou Kuik Digital Stamps (M,P1,E3,SIO) August - Four legged friends
• SheepSki Designs Challenges (M, P1, 3E, C10, SIO) #29 - Animal madness
• Colour Crazy Challenge - W, 2E  - Wk 30 (W1 of 2)  and Wk 29 (W2 of 2) -   ANYTHING COLORING GOES (NO Precolored Images) Weekly Challenge run for 2 Weeks 
• Polkadoodles - W, C10 - No. 31 - ALWAYS ANYTHING GOES 
• QKR Stampede – W, 4E, SIO – No. 359 - ALWAYS ANYTHING GOES