Hand in Hand Forever

This week I have made and very symbolic card using the stunning and very emotive image - Hand in Hand Forever by Lynne Stansbery.  I have to admit, this was a hard image to colour and took me four attempts trying different media.  In the end I coloured the hands with my Blush Promarker and then added the shading using Faber Castell Polychromos.

I mentioned this was a very symbolic card, it is for my daughter and her husbands 6th Wedding Anniversay and paper and elements link directly to that most wonderful of days.  For the backing paper I used a photo of my daughters bouquet, well a section of a photo really hence it is rather blurred at this size but as it is backing paper the softness was rather perfect.  Two sheets were printed, one for the outside of the card and one for the inside.

 My wedding bouquet many moons ago was orchids and my precious daughter decided to have them in her bouquet too, a wonderfully sentimental thing for her to have done.  So, the card had to have orchids on it.  I die cut the shapes and coloured again with Faber Castell Polychromos.

When I make a card to celebrate my daughter and her husbands special day I always try to include elements of the colours as a special memory.  This year I have done both.  Instead of writing their names I decided to just use their initials and place these amongst a spray of pearls and crystals. The pearls represent the necklace I had made for her which included some real pearls from my mother's necklace which she gave me and I had restrung and made a bit shorter.  Along with the necklace for my daughter there were matching earrings.  The crystals represent the wee gift she gave her guests, a Swarovski crystal ball to hang in front of their windows so when the light shone through wonderful dancing strobes of light were reflected onto their walls.  For the initials I used some silver metal sheeting and used the Tattered Lace Alphabet die set.

Here you can see I have placed the initials so they touch representing unity instead of adding hearts etc.

My card base is white and this is looking to stark as I put the card together so I decided at the last minute to stamp roughly a pattern stamp I have and then I mixed green and cranberry embossing powders together to match up with the card colour theme.

For the inside I used the ruby paper I had mounted my design paper on along with the second piece of design paper and a simple die cut light green for the writing area.  To finish off a few Liquid Pearls.  The ruby needed to be included in the card as the wedding invitations were cream with images of the orchids and tied together with ruby/burgandy organza ribbon.

I wanted lots of dimension on this card so fussy cut the hand image and then using foam pads only at each side attached it to the card creating a domed effect.  I also added a wire wedding ring to the image as is only showed an engagement ring and I added a Swarovski crystal gem to the engagement ring to represent her solitaire diamond.

 Finally I added a large bow, using the same ribbon as was used for her wedding invitations, promise you it is the same ribbon hahahaha.  We bought three large rolls and I promised I would add what was left to her future cards, so here I am holding true to that promise.  A wee charm was added to the centre of the bow, alas the pack of 5 I bought to make her wedding card and used for the following 4 years have run out so from now on a generic charm will be the way to go.  I have not done this before but I am sure my daughters won't mind :) Here is a pic of my eldest (the bride) and her sister (on the right) and cousin (on the left) so you can see how I have really tried to bring back memories of this super special day with this card :)

Ingredients:-

• Image - Hand in Hand Forever by Lynne Stansbery
• Colouring Medium - Promarkers and Faber Castell Polychromos
• Dies - Tattered Lace Retro Alphabet and Sizzix - 657914
• From my Stash - ribbon, pearls, crystals, Liquid Pearls, embossing powder, charm and gem

I am entering into the following challenges:-

• CAS-ual Chic - M, shabby chic, mixed media - July - Embossing
• Crafting-With-Friends - 2W, 3E - (W1 of 2) Anything Goes
• Creative Corner - W, 3E  - Wedding Bells are Ringing (WEDDING ANNIVERSARY BUT HOPE THIS STILL MATCHES YOUR THEME)
• Card Mania (M, P1, E3) #70 Anything Goes
• Crafts Galore Encore (M,P1,E3) Stamp or Digi Anywhere
• Lia Stampz Challenge (1E,P1,SIO) #90 Handmade Flowers
• The Sisters of Craft (M,P1) Anything Goes
• Scrap & Craft Challenge - M 1st Thurs, 3E,(W3)  #11 Celebrations

Another Fish Story

Gone Fishing

To begin with I coloured the image with Faber Castell Polychromos

Next I used vellum with a water design to cover my base card and then sprayed it with blue Shimmer Mist.  For the mat behind the image mat I stamped a fishing scene with black Memento several times and embossed with both black and clear embossing powder to give lots of texture.

I used a fishing basket and fish button as part of the embellishment.  The fish button was coloured with silver paint and a blue Promarker then I added some fishing line through the button holes.

The card fish were cut using the die Fishing Fun by Joy Crafts and then I used three fish made from clay which I coloured again with silver paint to make my shoal of fish.  A very simple Happy Birthday sentiment was added to the bottom of the coloured digi.  I did have a wee accident with the image lol, after chalking the background and putting to one side I had moved onto the embossed mat and did not realise I had black ink on my finger - yep, you guessed it, when I picked up my coloured image I accidentally put my mucky finger on it.  Oh what to do and then looking at it I thought it was rather cool, my finger then when into my black stamp pad and I added more finger prints. What fun I had and the end result is pretty cool hahahaha.

Ingredients:-

• Image - Another Fish Story by Lynne Stansbery
• Colouring Medium - Faber Castell Polychromos
• Dies - Fishing Fun by Joy Crafts
• From my Stash - fish button, fish basket, fish, Shimmer Mist, Black Memento Ink, fishing stamp, chalk and vellum

I am entering into the following challenges:-

• Crafts 4 Eternity Recipe Challenge - W, 3E – No. 234 - Sport
• Left of Center Creative Challenges - W - No.86 - Tic Tac Toe* (Die Cut, Ink, Charm (think my basket and fish count as charms))
• QKR Stampede – W, 4E, SIO – No. 147 - Fishing
• Sisterhood of Crafters  - 2W, 3E -  Birthday    (Week 1 of 2)

Thank you for stopping by today and hope you have a happy crafting time ahead of you :) xx

A Man and His Grill

I love a man who will do the cooking as the kitchen and I don't like each other very much hahahaha - yep, chef in the house is the perfect handy man to have around!!!! :) :) :) And so, that leads me onto my card, the ideal chef in the garden cooking some wonderful burgers, sausages etc. on the BBQ - I can smell it now and my mouth is watering :)

To begin with I coloured the image with Promarkers and  Faber Castell Polychromos

For the design paper used I rummaged through all my freebies from magazines which I hardly ever use, I remembered seeing in the past a great arty leaf paper in dark browns and greens which I hoped would be perfect.  Luck was on my side, it was not my imagination and it worked perfectly.  I also used one of the sentiments that came with the free paper ' My Hero'.  To mount the image I used some black paper which I corrugated with a machine which I bought on a whim but really don't like much :( :(, the second matting used is a dark red hand made paper.  Black peel off line stickers and corners were used to finish off the mount.
For the My Hero sentiment I die cut some silver metal foil using the Tim Holtz Vintage Lace border die and then coloured the metal with my black Promarker.

Here is the inside of the card using the same dp as the front and then adding a writing area with Spellbinders Adorning Squares.

I made my sentiment and mounted it on the the red hand made paper.  For the leaves I used die -Crafts Too Leaf Flourish.

Ingredients:-

• Image - 'A Man and His Grill' by Lynne Stansbery 
• Colouring Medium - Promarkers and  Faber Castell Polychromos
• Dies - Tim Holtz Vintage Lace border, Spellbinders Adorning Squares and Circle, Crafts Too Leaf Flourish
• From my Stash - dp, metal, peel off line and corner stickers

I am entering into the following challenges:-

• Crafty Sentiment Designs W, 1E, SIO - Anything Goes
• Die Cuttin' Divas W, must include a Die-cut - #220 Masculine
• Tuesday Throwdown W- #249 Mr. Handyman
• Southern Ridge Trading Company  (M, P1, C10) Masculine
• Words 2 Scrap By (M,P1,C10) #18 It's a Man's World
• Crafty Cardmakers - 2W, C15 - (Week 1) For a Man/Boy
• Ooh La La Creations - 2W, SIO - (Week 2) Here Comes Summer
• Come and Get It - W, Unlimited - For The Guys
• Crazy 4 Challenges W,1E  masculine  
• Kraftyhands  M 3E SIR (must be a follower) June - for the dads

Thank you for stopping by today and hope you have a happy crafting time ahead of you :) xx

Buddies

This card really is all about the image :) :) which I coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos

The card front was just some very simple layering, the red layer was embossed with an Embossilicous folder and I added a sentiment which I computer generated along with the the title. The only dies used on the front was for the sentiment - Spellbinders - Lables 22 and one of the wheels from Xcut-Chronology-Cogs.  For the inside of the card I used Spellbinders-Grand-Nestabilities-Labels 1.  The background of the image was coloured with chalks, I was trying to get a bit of a distressed look going on :) :) :)

Ingredients:-

• Image - Buddies by Lynne Stansbery
• Colouring Medium - Faber Castell Polychromos 
• Dies - Spellbinders - Lables 22, one of the wheels from Xcut-Chronology-Cogs and Spellbinders-Grand-Nestabilities-Labels 1

I am entering into the following challenges:-

• Sweet Stampin W, 2E,father's day or special man 
• Sister Act Card Challenge - W, Cards - No. 108  - Always Anything Goes (Cards only)
• Stempelsonnen Challenge - 2W, 3E, stamp as main focus - No.142 - (W1 of 2) - Anything Goes
• Chalk N Stock - M, 2E, F, must use chalk-  Always Anything Goes With Chalk
• Crafter's Cafe - W,F, 3E - #118 One For The Boys
• Creative Moments - 2W, 3E - #69 Anything Goes/Inside Out (Week 1of 2)
• DoubleClick Skittles - 2W, E1, F -  #23 Father's Day or Man Project (Week 1 of 2)
• Mod Squad Challenge - W, F - Masculine
• Doodle Pantry  M,First Tuesday,1E,SIO - must use digital image -  Anything Digital Goes
• Going Grey With Scrap-Creations 2W, 2E - Celebrations  (Week 1) 
• Tuesday Throwdown W- #246 Anything Goes

Thank you for stopping by today and hope you have a happy crafting time ahead of you :) xx

Blow Me A Kiss

Sweet Pea Stamps

Today is my day to showcase and image from Sweet Pea Stamps and I have chosen to work with the beautiful image Blow Me A Kiss  by Lynne Stansbery which is available from the Sweet Pea Store in digi format.

I started by colouring the image with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils.

Next I needed some green card as my card base but did not have the colour I wanted so out with a white sheet of card and airbrush it with my Promarkers.

 Next I cut my card blank with my die cutter and a design I created.

Next I embossed my contrasting mat with an Embossilicious folder.  I then distressed the edges and added some very slinky lace behind.

 Now for some flowers.  I have used flowers I bought but I removed the centres which were an orange/yellow and did not fit in with the colour scheme of the card and replaced each centre with a dark pink pearl surrounded by pale pink pearls.

For the inside of the card I used the Spellbinder Oranate Square die.  The front of the card was finished off with a bit more lace, a Birthday sentiment and a luscious bow, with a few more pink pearls dotted around for good measure.

And here is the front of my Spring themed Birthday Card

Ingredients:-

• Image - Blow Me A Kiss  by Lynne Stansbery
• Colouring Medium - Faber Castell Polychromos pencils and Promarkers
• Dies - Spellbinder Adorning Square, Grand Squares and Label 20, floral card shape by me.
• From my Stash - pearls, ribbon, lace, sentiment peel off.

I am entering into the following challenges:-

• Artistic Inspirations - 2W, E3 - (Week 2) Anything Goes with a Twist of Flowers
• Card Mania - M, 3E - (April) Flowers
• Craft-Dee BowZ - M, E3, project must have bow - (April) Anything Goes with a Handmade Bow 
• Craft Hoarders Anonymous Challenge - M (2nd Monday), no 100% digital projects, E3, use "hoarded" items - (Deadline April 12) Green (GREEN CARD IS 7 YEARD OLD :) )
• Crafting from the Heart - W, E3 - Always Anything Goes
• Craft Your Passion - W, E3 - Always Anything Goes
• Creative Cutting Challenge - 2W, must use at least one SVG diecut - (Week 1) Anything Goes
• Dream Valley Challenges 2W, 3E - (Week 2) Lace, Ribbon & Pearls
• Melonheadz Friends Challenge - 2W, 2E, SIO - (Week 2) Spring
• Ooh La La Creations - 2W, SIO - (Week 2) Easter/Spring
• The Crazy Challenge - 2W, 4E - (Week 2) Floral
• TimbroScrapMania Stamping Challenge - M, Must use stamp - (Deadline April 14) Ribbons & Pearls
• Whoopsi Daisy - M, SIO - (April) Flowers
• Pile It On - W #63 Diecuts and/or Punches
• Di's Digis Designs 3E,2W,SIO(W2) spring is here 
• Craft for the Craic - M, 5E (First Friday of the month) - April - Die-ing for Spring or Easter themed
• Simply Create Too - 2W - No.82 - (W2 of 2) - Anything Goes
• Simply Papercraft - 2W, E3 - No. 1 (W2 of 2) - Anything Goes
• Sister Act Card Challenge - W, Cards. - No. 100  - Anything Goes
• Card and Scrap (2W, P1/15) # 94 Spring or Easter colors
• Card Mania (M, P1, E3) # 67 Flowers
• Cosmic Colours Challenge (M,P1) Color Palette Inspiration 
• 
• Fitztown Challenge (M,P5,E3,SIR) #69 Use Green
• Our Creative Corner (M,P1,3E) Color your World...colors of spring
• Aud Sentiments Challenge - 2W, E5 (W2 of 2) #128 Anything Goes + A Sentiment
• Seize The Birthday - 2W - Must be Birthday Card (W2 of 2) - Birthday +  Topping -Anything Goes 
• Simon Says Stamp - W, 5E - Happy Birthday

Thank you for stopping by today and hope you have a happy crafting time ahead of you :) xx

SPS - Do Your Own Thing

Sweet Pea Stamps

Today is my day to showcase and image from Sweet Pea Stamps and I have chosen to work with the stunning new image in the store - Do Your Own Thing by Lynne Stansbery which is available from the Sweet Pea Store as a digi.  The image comes with the wonderful sentiment too :)

I have really messed up here, it is not like me to not take lots of photos as I am going along but today I only took two and neither one is worth adding to the blog.  I hope you will forgive me:)

For this card I used a very soft pink pearl card base which I cut to my usual 140cm square size then trimmed down so I could incorporate and over the edge lacy top using the Marianne Designs Creatables Anjas Vintage Decoration which I then embossed the section which was not part of the cut out, this formed my first matting layer.  The base layer of my card was covered with pink lace.  I then spent the next 4 hours or so colouring in.  I really did have issues here, should I just colour the background, skin and hair of the dancers and leave the rest uncoloured as this image is so beautifully drawn and shaded or should I colour with something a bit different, I really did not want to do pink.  With having the dark skinned child in the quartet whatever colour used had to work with browns, that left me with turquoise as my first option or maybe yellows which I am not keen on.  I don't think I have coloured anything in peach before so, with fingers and toes crossed, this was the route I took.  Not sure If I really like the outcome but I don't dislike it either hahahaha.  Chocolate brown was used to as the contrasting colour for the flourishes, mount behind the sentiment, bow and Stickles.  I also added two bronze metal butterflies and a sweet wee shoe which sort of looks like a ballet pump.

Ingredients:-

• Image - Do Your Own Thing by Lynne Stansbery
• Colouring Medium - Promarkers
• Dies - Marianne Designs Creatables Anjas Vintage Decoration, Spellbinders Ovals, Scalloped Ovals and Spellbinders Floral Flourishes
• From my Stash - Stickles, metal butterflies, shoe charm, ribbon and lace

I am entering into the following challenges:-

• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - W, 5E - B is for... (BALLET)
• Whoopsi Daisy - M, SIO - (March) Add a Sentiment
• Clear It Out W, 3E, Must use stash item - Challenge Theme: Orange  Stash: Orange things
• ABC Challenge (P1/15) ‘E is for Exceptionally Cute’
• Creative Craft Cottages Challenges (2W,P1/15,E3) # 34 Include a sentiment 
• Karleigh Sue Challenge (M,P1/15,SIO) Use Pastel Colors
• Marianne's Design Divas (M,P15,SIR) Ribbon and/or Pearls
• Crafting for all Seasons - 2W, 3E - #97 Girly Girls (Week 2 of 2 )
• House That Stamps Built - W, SIO, 4 challenges at the same time starting each Wednesday weeks  -  #311 Die Cuts and/or Punches with Stamping
• Little Red Wagon - W - #280 Cute,Cute,Cute
• Paper Shelter Challenge - W,3E, SIO - #194 Girly
• Penny's Paper-Crafty - W,3E -  #218 Ribbon and Bows
• Whimsy Inspiration -Monthly 3rd Wed posting, 3E, SIO  - #80 Use A Sentiment
• Wonderful Wednesdays -  W, SIO -  Always Anything Goes 
• That Craft Place - 2W, 1E - Add a Charm

Thank you for stopping by today and hope you have a happy crafting time ahead of you :) xx