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

Mother and Baby GIrl

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 Mother and Baby Girl  by Conie Fong which is available from the Sweet Pea Store in as a digi and in rubber.

This card is for a friend of mine who is just about to have a baby girl in the next week or so.  She is keeping very quite about what she and her hubby are going to call their baby daughter so I couldn't add the name to the card lol.

To begin with I coloured the image with Promarkers

Using the colours I have chosen I am trying to have a vintage feel to this card but the mum to be is far from girly or vintage.  She does wear a lot of fawn colours so I am hoping with all the lace etc I am adding to the card she will still like it.  Maybe I can call it funky vintage lol.

To make the frame for her I used the die cArt decorative Oval Frames and then attached white lace behind the frame which I ruffled.  A couple of flourishes were cut using Crafty Ann -Flourish-5.  All these sections were airbrushed with Warm Brown 5, 4 and 3 Promarkers.

For the card base I used brown paper and then pink card which I embossed with a Tattered Lace embossing folder. Some rather special lace was added along the bottom. Next onto the digi, with her
coloured I then fussy cut her.   Some lace I had which was the perfect colour was placed at the back of part of the frame and then up to the top left edge of the card.  I made some roses from hand made paper using the Spellbinder die Bitty-Blossoms-6 and then added a pram charm, baby girl ribbon bow and some pearl strands.  Liquid Pearls were added along the bottom of the Mums dress to hide the join where it meets the frame and to balance the out I also added some Liquid Pearls to the lace edges of her dress and the babies dress.

 The inside of the card was finished of with some design paper I had floating around and the writing area created with die Sizzix - 657914 which I then air-brushed with my warm brown Promarker.  The flourishes on the front were a bit big for what I wanted so I had trimmed them down, no point in wasting anything so I placed them on the inside :) :) :) .

Ingredients:-

• Image - Mother and Baby Girl  by Conie Fong
• Colouring Medium - Promarkes and chalk (chalk was used for the flowers)
• Dies -  cArt decorative Oval Frames, Crafty Ann -Flourish-5 and Spellbinder die Bitty-Blossoms-6 
• From my Stash - lace, charm, peel off sticker sentiment, peals sprays and ribbon

I am entering into the following challenges:-

• Card Mania - M, 3E - (June) Metal Embellishment
• Craft-Dee BowZ - M, E3, project must have bow - (June) Anything Goes with a Handmade Bow 
• Get Creative Challenges - 2W, 3E - (Week 1) Flowers
• 613 Avenue Create - W - #130 Anything Goes with option, Use a pearl and/or a rose
• Addicted to Stamps - 2W, must use stamp- #107 Bingo (W2 of 2) (LACE, FLOWERS, PEARLS)
• Dragonfly Dreams - M –  June -  Special Occasions
• Robyn`s Fetish - W - #270 Add Lace
• Open-Minded Challenges 2W,3E (W2)vintage
• A Vintage Journey - M First Friday of M (Vintage)- June - Celebrations
• Craft for the Craic - M, 5E (First Friday of the month) - June - The Big Occasion
• Simply Create Too - 2W - No.88 - (W2 of 2) - Old, Vintage, Shabby Chic
• Card Mania (M, P1, E3) # 69 Use Metal Embelishments
• Creatalicious Challenges (M,P15) #76 Ribbon & Pearls
• Emerald Faeries Challenge (M,P1,E3,SIO)   #68 Pearls & Lace
• Ladybug Crafts (M,P1,3E) Use Your Dies
• SLS Lines Challenge (M, P12, SIO,E2) #10 Use Die Cuts or Punches
• The Vintage Challenge (P1/15,E3) #104 Flowers (Vintage Style ONLY)
• Whimsy Inspiration -Monthly 3rd Wed posting, 3E, SIO  - #84 Use Ribbon, Lace or Twine

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

Unicorn Dreams

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 Unicorn Dreams by Karen Middleton which is available from the Sweet Pea Store in both rubber and digi.

A friend has asked me to make a card with a white unicorn.  The unicorn bit is easy as I have this delightful image but white - now that is a challenge to me :) plus no fussy bits, just nice and clean.  Anyway I started by printing the image twice, once without a background which I will fussy cut late and the other with a background.  The top image was coloured with Promarkers in very light greys.

 I coloured round the edges of the image with grey just so if my fussy cutting was a bit off then it would not be white that showed through but grey which I hope will look like a shadow.

 For the card base I covered a piece of card with black velvet. My friend and her friend who this card is for are both none fussy people so no lace or bling on this card hahaha.  Instead, to go with the texture of the black velvet I am adding some hessian (burlap) which I have coloured with Promarkers again.

 With the image coloured I then added some Extreme Silver Glitter, it is not very obvious until the light catches is so not really bling but hopefully they will like the effect. The Extreme Glitter was added to the horn and the light sections of the mane.

 A simple finish to the inside of the card to make up for the Extreme Glitter.

 And the final touch, some brown ribbon and a name tag.

Ingredients:-

• Image - Unicorn Dreams by Karen Middleton
• Colouring Medium - Promarkers
• Dies - X-Cut Labels
• From my Stash - velvet, hessian (burlap), ribbon, Extreme Glitter

I am entering into the following challenges:-

• Simply Papercraft - 2W, E3 - No. 6 (W2 of 2) - Anything Goes
• Sister Act Card Challenge - W, Cards - No. 110  - Always Anything Goes (Cards only)
• Seize The Birthday - 2W - Must be Birthday Card (W2 of 2) - Birthday +  Topping -Animal
• Animal Friends Challenge (M,P1,E3) # 27 Fantasy Animal (unicorn, dragon...)
• Lacy Sunshine - 2W, 3E, SIO, digi available -  #60 Wild About You - Animals (W2 of 2)
• Challenge Up Your Life 2W,E1,(w1) monochrome

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

Nectar of Life

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 Nectar of Life  by Charmaine Flannery which is available from the Sweet Pea Store in both rubber and digi.  I so love decorating my candles and what a great feeling when just the right image is found :) :) I have a passion for Native American themed images so you can imagine I was in my element with this creation.

To begin with I printed my candle wrapper on tissue paper.  The image in the background is a photo and I added some feathers using a Photoshop brush by Obsidian Dawn.  Next I added the digi image and added the name of the digi to the left hand side.

The image was coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos coloured pencils.

I have a few wax strips which are for candles and I often use to finish off the top of the candle but today I am trying something new.  Using some wax sheet I bought ages ago and so far have not been able to work out what to do with them lol, I have tired using a small cutter today which I have for Silver Metal Clay work.  Worked pretty well and I cut loads of these wee ovals and used them to decorate the top of the candle to hide where the wrapper end.

Still feeling like experimenting I have used and embossing folder to make a light impression on the gold wax discs.  I did try pressing harder but then the discs clung to the embossing folder so that was not working.  Have to think of something else I can try in the future.

To finish off the candle I added some gold candle bronzing powder and some gold trim on the bottom edge.  Last job was to varnish the candle with candle varnish, a water based varnish especially for candles and fire safe. All parts, with the exception of the bottom trim are fire safe, I don't mind using something not so fire friendly at the base of the candle as this is a long way from the naked flame and I am sure the candle would be thrown away long before it burns to the area of the trim.  If you would like to see how I do my candles I have a wee video you can watch.  Candle Wrapper Video

Ingredients:-

• Image - Nectar of Life  by Charmaine Flannery
• Colouring Medium - Faber Castell Polychromos
• Dies - I used a small cutter designed for Silver Metal Clay
• From my Stash - Candle, candle varnish, candle gold bronzing powder, gold trim

I am entering into the following challenges:-

• A Gem of a Challenge 2W (W2)something blue 
• Simply Papercraft - 2W, E3 - No. 6 (W2 of 2) - Anything Goes
• Crafting with an Attitude - M, 1st Thurs, E3 - #4 Anything Goes + A DT Call (New Blog Owner)

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

Art Nouveau Two

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 Art Nouveau Two  by Karen Middleton which is available from the Sweet Pea Store in both rubber and digi.

This week is Artist week and the whole DT will be creating with the wonderful images by Karen Middleton - a exceptional artist who has images to suit every taste, from the cute we animals to the stunning figure drawings.

I think this is the only time I have bought a die to use with a specific image and would you believe it has taken me almost a year to get round to using it hahahahaha - life does have a funny way of getting to busy at times :)

I started by colouring the image with Faber Castell Polychromos colour pencils and a silver pen.

 Next I cut my lovely Sizzix - 657556 die using silver card.  This was mounted on black card and I filled in the spaces with Glossy Accents hopefully to give a glass effect when dry.

 For the spray on the right hand side I made some gem stems using red beads, black pearls and silver beads.

 The bead stems were grouped with silver lilies, red and black feathers and the fabulous metal heart, so perfect for this card theme I think.

 I covered the inside of the card with red card which I embossed then cut the die again in silver and mounted it on black.  The die was cut again using white card so I could include a white writing area.

 The main card was embossed with the same Embossilicous folder I used for the inside and on the right hand side I added a broad velvet die cut lace I have (the image has been over exposed here so you can see it).  On the actual card this velvet lace is more for a tactile theme than to be visible, sort of like an extra surprise :) :) :)

The die mount was turned 180 degrees from that of the inside die just to give a bit of difference.  And there we have it, all done.

Ingredients:-

• Image - Art Nouveau Two  by Karen Middleton 
• Colouring Medium - Faber Castell Polychromos colour pencils
• Dies - Sizzix - 657556
• From my Stash - Feathers, black pearls, beads, flowers, silver and gold pen, velvet lace trim and metal heart

I am entering into the following challenges:-

• A Gem of a Challenge 2W (W1)flowers 
• Open-Minded Challenges 2W,3E (W1)  inspired by a song (LADY IN RED)
• Alphabet Challenge - 2W, 1E, JFF - (W2 of 2) - G for Glitz & Glamour
• Artbymiran Challenge - 2W , SIO, 3E, no digital projects - No.32 - (W2 of 2) - Anything Goes
• Graph'It Colour Challenge - W (any medium)- No.21 - Pearls & Bling or Cream & White
• Sister Act Card Challenge - W, Cards - No. 107  - Always Anything Goes (Cards only)
• As You Like it Challenge - 2W, E3- (W1 of 2) Favourite Period (& Why) (ART DECO - we don't see much of it around in the card world but I love the elegance of the figures and simple, clean lines of patterns/shapes)
• Red Rubber Inspirationals - W, E3, must have stamping: #221 Shape Up- see blog (HEXAGON for image)
• Little Red Wagon - W - #290 To Dir For
• Addicted to Stamps and More - W - C10 - #145 Photo Inspiration (the colours and geometric shapes formed by the sofas)

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

Aphrodites

Today is my day to showcase and image from Sweet Pea Stamps and I have chosen to work with the beautiful image Aphrodites by Gabriella Szabo which is available from the Sweet Pea Store in both rubber and digi.

This week I have decided on another candle, this image just shouted at me that it was the right proportions :)

To begin created the background and then placed the image without the white background.  This was then printed on tissue paper and coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils.

 Once coloured I then mixed some Pearl Ex powders with very watery PVA glue and painted this on the wings and the light spots.  I had a wee bit left over so also added some to the petals on the roses.  If you would like to see how I decorate my candles I have a tutorial - click here to view.

Here you can see the two side views of the candles.

 Front view of candle

Ingredients:-

• Image - Aphrodites by Gabriella Szabo
• Colouring Medium - Faber Castell Polychromos pencils
• From my Stash - Candle varnish, Pearl Ex, gold wax strip, tissue paper

I am entering into the following challenges:-

• Dragonfly Dreams - M –  May -  How Does Your Garden Grow
• Great Impressions - M, 3E, SIO - May - Celebrate Spring
• Opus Gluei - JFF, 2W - #209 Garden Inspiration (W1 of 2)
• Allsorts W,3E  no squares allowed 
• Crafty Calendar M,1E  May - Things with wings 
• Craft for the Craic - M, 5E (First Friday of the month) - May - Wings
• Creative Corner - W, 3E  - Spring Is In The Air
• Digitally Sweet - M, Digital images/projects - (Does not have to be 100% digital.) - No. 134 - May - April Showers Bring May Flowers
• Fussy and Fancy - 2W - No.138 - (W1 of 2) - Lavender & Yellow - see image*
• Crafting with an Attitude - M, 1st Thurs, E3 - Anything Goes/Spring Fever
• Crafter's Cafe - W,F, 3E - #116 Feminine
• Crafting By Designs - W,F, 3E - Flowers 
• Crafty Gals Corner -  W, E2 - #19 May Flowers
• House That Stamps Built - W, SIO, 4 challenges at the same time starting each Wednesday weeks  - Anything But A Card
• Deep Ocean Challenge 2W - #103 - Flowers - (Week 2)
• Digi Choosday Challenge -W,E2, - #19 - Flower Power
• Doodle Pantry  M,First Tuesday,1E,SIO - must use digital image -  Anything Digital Goes
• Going Grey With Scrap-Creations 2W, 2E - Anything Goes  (Week 1) 
• All Crafts Challenge - 2M, 1st Monday of the month every other month, NO CARDS - (Apr/May) Anything But a Card
• Crafting from the Heart - W, E3 - Always Anything Goes
• Craft Your Passion - W, E3 - Always Anything Goes
• Dream Valley Challenges 2W, 3E - (Week 2) Things with Wings
• Not Just Cards - 2W - (Week 2) Always Anything Goes
• Whoopsi Daisy - M, SIO - (May) Things with Wings

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

Sweet Pea Stamps

Hope

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 'Hope' by Rebecca Sinz which is available from the Sweet Pea Store in both rubber and digi.

I have not made any of my candles recently and now seem to be on a bing with them.  I did one a couple of weeks ago, this one today and another one in the pipeline which I am trying to do a video tutorial on - that is a challenge in itself lol.  Anyway, here is todays candle :)

So many folks ask how I do these candles hence the trying to make the video but in the meantime I will do my best to explain the basics.  I start by using temporary adhesive spray on a piece of paper about 220gms in weight and then lay the tissue paper over the top doing my best to avoid any wrinkles.  Next I trim the excess tissue paper off so it will run through my printer with no issues.  To prepare my wrappers I use a template I made of the candle sizes I use regularly.  I then browse through my photos to find a suitable background.  For this wrapper I used two images, the sky was a photo I took in the Maldives on my 25th Wedding Anniversay - a fabulous second honeymoon lol, and for the foreground I used a beach scene taken while lying on my belly to get the rocky outcrop.  Next, in Photoshop, I imported the two images and removed the sections I did not want, here it was all the see and sky from the beach photo so I was only left with the rocky outcrop which I thought would be perfect to place the digi on.  Next I removed all the background from the digi so I was left with the equivalent of a .png image which I could then hand colour in line with the Terms of Use of most of the image we use these days.

I use crayons to colour my candle wrapper images as I find they work the best, this one was coloured with Faber Castelly Polychromos

And here is the image fully coloured.

Next I tried something new and tried rubber stamping a gold border, sentiment and a floral design to represent stars.  The sentiment worked fine and the flower stars were not to bad but the border was a disaster.

When working with candles it is imperative to think of fire safety, I would so hate to be the cause of a fire in somebody's home from one of my candles, so I have a couple of produces which are totally safe for decorating.  One is a gold dust and the other is a water based varnish.  To cover up the rubbish gold border I used the gold dust and tried to get a a vibrant distressed look.  This was applied with a soft sponge for the top and then I used a wide paintbrush to sweep around the upper section of the wrapper. To balance the gold out I added some more to the rocky outcrop at the bottom of the candle. Finally a quick layer of the candle water based varnish to add a shine and all done :)

Ingredients:-

• Image - 'Hope' by Rebecca Sinz
• Colouring Medium - Faber Castelly Polychromos
• From my Stash - gold dust, candle varnish and the candle.

I am entering into the following challenges:-

• 2 Creative Chicks (M,P1,JFF)  # 25 Anything Goes (no cards)
• Altered Eclectics (M,P7) Anything Goes (Altered Art/Mix Media only, cards or ATC will be deleted)
• Creative Craft Cottage Digi Creations (2W, P1/15, E3) #23 Add Some Sparkle
• My Craft Creations (M,P1) Anything Goes
• Paradise of Stamps (2W,P1/15,E3) #16 Bling
• Rhedd's Creative Spirit (M,P1,E3) Anything Goes (Mixed Media Altered Art / Mixed Media ONLY)
• SLS Lines Challenge (M, P12, SIO,E2) # 8 Anything Goes 
• The Crafting Cafe (M,P1,E1) Flights of Fancy
• Allsorts W,3E   bring on the bling 
• Brown Sugar – W, E2 - No. 143 - Anything Goes
• Crafty Catz - W, 3E – #276 - Things with Wings
• Digitally Sweet - M, Digital images/projects - (Does not have to be 100% digital.) - No. 133 - April - Anything Goes
• Fairy Tale - 2W, 2E - No. 116 - (W1 of 2) - Now or Never (use a stamp you rarely or never used) (FIRST TIME TO USE ANGEL STAMP (NEW) AND FIRST TIME USING STAMPED SENTIMENT STAMP WHICH I HAVE HAD FOR 5 YEARS LOL)
• Stempelsonnen Challenge - 2W, 3E, stamp as main focus - No.139 - (W2 of 2) - Anything Goes with a hand-colored stamp
• Aud Sentiments Challenge - 2W, E5 (W1 of 2) #130 Things With Wings + A Sentiment
• Crafting with an Attitude - M, 1stThurs, E3 - Freestyle/Fantasy
• Sassy Studio Designs - W, SIO: #278 Come Fly With Me (include wings)
• Wonderful Wednesdays -  W, SIO -  Always Anything Goes
• All Crafts Challenge - 2M, 1st Monday of the month every other month, NO CARDS - (Apr/May) Anything But a Card
• Craft Your Passion - W, E3 - Always Anything Goes
• Not Just Cards - 2W - (Week 2) Always Anything Goes

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