SPS - Love My Choo Choo

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 Love My Choo Choo by Conie Fong which is available from the Sweet Pea Store in both rubber and digi.

To begin with I coloured the lovely image using Faber Castell Polychromos crayons.

 To begin with I coloured the lovely image using Faber Castell Polychromos crayons.

 Next I die cut the sections for the easel card and also the train track

 Using some design paper I had of a farm yard scene I covered the top circle of the card.  The base layer was covered in another design paper which had a grassy effect.  The rail track was coloured with Promarkers.

 I prepared a simple flag birthday sentiment using a cut out from an old craft magazine, a toothpick and to protect the top I added a wooden bead.

 The image was fussy cut and mounted on a stand.  This was then attached to the base layer of the card.  Green Flower Soft was used to cover the white card at the base.

And there we have it, a 3d Circle Easel Card :)

Ingredients:-

• Image - Love My Choo Choo by Conie Fong
• Colouring Medium - Faber Castell Polychromos crayons and Promarkers
• Dies by me
• Flower Soft, DP etc from my stash

I am entering into the following challenges:-

• A Gem of a Challenge 2W (W1)birthday card for a boy 
• Hiding in my Craft Room W,1E  color it 
• Artbymiran Challenge - 2W , SIO, 3E, no digital projects - No.23 - (W2 of 2) - Anything Goes
• Frosted Designs Friday Challenge - 2W - (W1 of 2) - Something NEW (A NEW LAYOUT)
• Jo's Scrap Shack - W, 3E  - No.71 -  Anything Goes
• Sister Act Card Challenge - W, Cards. - No. 89  - Anything Goes
• Wags 'n Whiskers - 2W, 2E, SIO - No. 145 - (W2 of 2) -  Anything Goes
• DL.ART Thankful Thursday Challenge - 2W (2nd and 4th Thursday of the month  3E –  #148 (W2 of 2) Anything With Red
• Dream it Up - M, SIO - January - Birthday Wishes
• Red Rubber Inspirationals - W, E3, must have stamping: #203 Birthday Bash
• Seize The Birthday - 2W - Must be Birthday Card (W1 of 2) - Anything Goes + Topping Option - Sketch*
• Crafting By Designs - F, 3E - Month long Anything Goes
• Digistamps 4 Joy - 2W, SIO  - #108 Bingo* (Buttons, Two Layers or More, Freebie (the Birthday Flag)
• Paper Shelter Challenge -3E, SIO - #186 Punches/Dies
• Penny's Paper-Crafty - 3E -  #210 Anything goes 
• Wonderful Wednesdays -  SIO -  Always Anything Goes 
• Cardz 4 Guyz W, 3E - #53 - Happy Birthday
• Creative Card Crew 2W - #78 - For a Child (week 2)
• Die Cuttin' Divas W, must include a Die-cut - #198  Picture Challenge*
• Digi Choosday Challenge -W,E2, - #2  Birthdays
• Just Inspirational Challenges W, 3E – Add a background image
• Through The Craft Room Door W, 2E - Always Anything Goes

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

SPS - Chincoteague

Sweet Pea Stamps

Today is my day to showcase an image from Sweet Pea Stamps and I have chosen to work with the beautiful rubber stamp Chincoteague by Julia Burgess which is available from the Sweet Pea Store.

I decided to challenge myself with this image by colouring it with one black crayon (Faber Castell Polychromos) - what fun I had :) :) :) In keeping with the image I then followed through in my planning with an all black and white card.  To begin with I designed some horse shoe paper to use as my backing paper, this I mounted on black card.

 Next I designed some horseshoes and cut them with my die cutter.  I used black vinyl on thick white card to make them sturdy.

 Here is the coloured image

 While in the UK a while ago and rumaging through second hand shops in their button boxes I found this wonderful bit - instant love and had to have hahahaha.

 I coloured the bit with black Promarker and then added some ultra fine black glitter.

 To finish of two small black gingham bows to cover up how I have attached the horse bit to the card.

Ingredients:-

• Image - Chincoteague by Julia Burgess 
• Colour media - Faber Castle Polychrosmos and Black Promarker
• DP and horse shoe die cuts by me
• bit, ribbon etc from my stash

I am entering into the following challenges:-

• A Gem of a Challenge 2W (W2) #135 Something New (NEW DESIGN PAPER)
• Artbymiran Challenge - 2W , SIO, 3E, no digital projects - No.23 - (W1 of 2) - Anything Goes
• Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - 2W, 3E -  No. 82 - (W1 of 2) - NO Circles
• Sister Act Card Challenge - W, Cards. - No. 88  - Anything Goes
• Stempelsonnen Challenge - 2W, 3E, stamp as main focus - No.132 - (W1 of 2) - Anything Goes
• Sassy Studio Designs - W, SIO: #263 Anything Goes
• Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper – M, P1 Anything goes with Patterned Paper
• Cut it Up- 2W, 1E, Must have Die Cuts - No. 61 - (W2 of 2) - Black and White

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

OSAAT - Tall Bounty Ship

Hello folks.  We have another challenge at One Stitch At A Time so how about popping over to see all the fabulous creations by the design team.  The prize this month is an awesome digi pack containing several images and a paper pack too - how cool is that.

Challenge #228

Theme 'Anything Goes with Something New' 

For my creation this fortnight I have used the image Tall Bounty Ship by Kaz Kraftz.  I need a few items for the men folk hence choosing this image to work with.  Now for the 'Something New' - for this I have designed a new box to sit on a desk to hold the likes of Post-Its.  Normally I make this sort of thing as a card so this is my something new.  I am also using some new crayons my hubby bought me, Derwent Artist, a wax based crayon.  So there we have it, two new things in this creation :)

To begin with I made the inside box to hope the Post-Its and a pencil.  I airbrushed the outside of the box with my Promarker.

 Next I cut the card for the outside and covered this with blue hessian material.

 Once the digi was coloured with the crayons I mounted it on navy card and placed this on another mount made of water vellum. To embelish the front I used copper metal sheet and an anchor die by Marianne Designs.

 Oh dear a problem, I don't have any copper coloured brads.  Time to put the thinking cap on.  In the end I used the copper metal sheet again and punched out four small circles using the brad sealing tool I have.  Worked a treat.

To finish off I lined the inner part of the box with some more hessian and added another anchor.  For the pencil I used a freebie from IKEA <g> and coloured it with my promarker.  I then added an anchor brad which went into the wood very easily and one of the copper dots I made.  The other three dots were added to the front of the box.

Ingredients:-

• Image - Tall Bounty Ship by Kaz Kraftz
• Stiff card 350 microns
• Blue card and vellum for the mounts
• Copper metal sheet for the dots and anchors
• Anchor die from Marianne Designs
• Mount die - Spellbinders Labels 22

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-

• A Gem of a Challenge 2W (W2) #135 Something New
• Paper Creator's Crafts M 3E SOR (W1) anything goes 
• ShowCASe Your Style 2W, CAS papercrafts only - (W2) Use at lease one die cut
• Alphabet Challenge - 2W, 1E, JFF - (W1 of 2) - X for X-periment (use a new technique)
• Artbymiran Challenge - 2W , SIO, 3E, no digital projects - No.23 - (W1 of 2) - Anything Goes
• Crafts 4 Eternity Recipe Challenge - W, 3E – No. 208 - Blue Tones
• Cut it Up- 2W, 1E, Must have Die Cuts - No. 62 - (W1 of 2) - Cut It Up
• That's Crafty! Challenge Blog - 2W, E3, Must be a UK resident - (W2 of 2) Blue
• Wags 'n Whiskers - 2W, 2E, SIO - No. 145 - (W1 of 2) -  Anything Goes
• C.R.A.F.T. - W, 5E -#292 Not A Card
• Little Miss Muffet Challenges -  2W, 1E, SIO (challenges listed in tab at top) (W2 of 2) - #101 Something Blue
• Meljens Designs - W, SIR - #242 Colour Challenge*

Thanks for looking and hope you have a happy crafting day:)

IKEsWORLD - New Baby

Time for another challenge over at

IKEsWORLD

Challenge 29
Something Old Something New

Welcome back to the IKEsWORLD challenges :)  do pop on over to IKEsWORLD to join in the challenge, just remember, you must use and IKEsART image to be eligible for the prize.  Why not pop on over to the store too :), Ike produces the most amazing stamps, everything from off the wall to cute and fluffy :) :) :)

Ah what a lovely challenge to start the New Year - hope you all had a wonderful New Years Eve and wishing you a wonderful New Year ahead full of peace :) :) :) and of course plenty crafting time hahaha.

I have had this image of Ike's for quite while just waiting for a baby card but not had time to create just for the fun of creating.  This challenge has given me the perfect opportunity to use it - thanks Ike.  So now for the link between old and new, well we have the new baby's feet in the older adults hands, it as simple as that.  To create the link to the challenge theme and make it a little clearer I came up with the sentiment 'When old and new meet for the first time it is a moment to hold close to the heart forever'.  Rather chuffed with myself as I am not a wordy person :)

I have recently discovered a way I can use the chalks which hide away in a drawer unused, I just can't get the hang of them until this method which works for me.  I have stamped both the tag and the background paper with a clear embossing and then used the chalks to add the colour, I love the way this is so organic and the chalks stick wonderfully to the stamped images.

 Next I coloured the image with Promarkers and then made my mounts using Spellbinders Ornate Squares, Scallopes Squares and Labels 20.  Seemed to have forgotten to take pics of these bits, blame that grey cell matter that was obviously not multitasking :)
Onto the flower spray, here I used a paper flower as the base then added the button beads with the letters B A B Y which I attached to stems of gold wire. I then used a teddy charm and again attached him on a stem of gold wire.

 Lace was added behind the stamped design paper and this was attached to the card with foam tape.  A few buttons and a wee bow were added by the flower spray and a simple gold sticker sentiment added to the tag.  The edges of the image mount were finished off with more of the lemon yellow pearl chalk used throughout this card.

Ingredients:-

• Digi - New Baby  available from IKEsART 
• Colouring media - Promarkers, Flex Markers and lemon pearl chalk
• Sentiment by me
• Dies - Spellbinders Ornate Squares, Scallopes Squares and Labels 20
• Lace, flower, buttons, bow, charm from my stash

I am entering this project into the following challenges:-

• Crafting from the Heart - W, E3 - Anything Goes
• Love to Scrap - 2W, 3E, F, digi or real stamping - (Week 1) Use something beginning with at least one of the following letters: L, T, S, C, B (lace, button, bow, charm, chalk)
• Ooh La La Creations - 2W, SIO - (Week 1) Words to Inspire
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - W, 5E - Old + New
• The Crazy Challenge - 2W, 4E - (Week 1) Buttons
• A Gem of a Challenge 2W (W1) #135 Something New
• Little Claire's M,P15, 3E, SIO  #52 A Special Card
• My Time to Craft W All Things New
• Sweet Stampin W, 2E, must Stamp New
• Chalk-Ah-Lot Cafe - 2W, SIO, F - must use chalk in project – #73 Anything Goes w/chalk
• Ladybug Crafts M,P1,3E Say it with Flowers
• The Crafting Cafe M,P1,E1 Lots Of Layers
• The East Wind Challenge P1/15,3E  #22 ~ Button Up

Uniqueness - Part 1

Good day my lovelies.  WOW this is pretty exciting for me, to be a guest designer on the Path Of Positivity blog.  I have long admired this blog, there is something just that little bit special about the themes chosen and the thought that has gone into them, a inclusiveness, a meaning behind the thinking and the use of values etc. which are so important to me - not something usually seen:)

So, onto the challenge this month over a Path of Positivity - UNIQUENESS

Do you ever get the feeling that being UNIQUE is getting harder and harder as so many folks follow trends, live their lives through other, are moulded by school, government, church, fashion, media etc. to 'conform', to be one of the 'group'.  The surface of us to me is really far from unique but underneath, when we look at our inner thoughts and for those who dare speak out, dress differently etc. yep each and every one of us is Unique - it just needs to be looked for, bit like not judging a book by it's cover lol.

Right, I have said my bit, I could go on forever about finding uniqueness is life but I won't hahahaha.  So onto this months sponsors for this challenge:-

For the first of my two postings I am working with the image Movember Boys by ScribblesbySandy.  A really fun image which caused me to really put my thinking cap on. Now I realise this image was made for the moustache November fundraising that men folk do and it does fit in with my thinking of 'following trends' but to make each individual unique - well !!!!! After searching the net for some good quotes I came across this one - If everyone would look for that uniqueness then we would have a very colorful world by Michael Schenker. Perfect, works well with the image and works with my thinking too :) :)
Here is what I have come up with so hope you like it.

Right - onto the prizes for entering this challenge before I go any further with my creation.

• A prize package worth $10 of digi images (digital papers not applicable) from Scribbles Designs, one of our guest sponsors this month, for the post or project that the DT deems most inspiring of the bunch.

•  A $10 gift certificate from Ike's Art, one of our guest sponsors this month, for a person chosen in a random draw based on all entrants.

• One digital image from Creative Bug Digital SnapShots for each person chosen as a DT Delight.

There will also be:

• One digital designer paper (made to order in a couple different ways) from Décosse's Dynamite Doodles for one lucky voter who leaves a comment.
• One digital sentiment for every single person who enters the challenge.

WOW - that is a lot of prizes <g>

So back to my card now and a little about what I did.
To begin with I designed some paper in Photoshop which had all the colours of the rainbow in it ready to go with the colourful sentiment.  I fancied making this card into a Birthday one so I also designed the Happy Birthday using the words of the challenge 'UNIQUENESS'

 Now you can read the sentiment two ways - Revel in you birthday, after all it is you very own special day or revel in your Uniqueness :) :)

After printing the paper background it embossed it.  I do love the way printed paper, when embossed hard is distressed at the same time, killing two birds with one stone works for me.  The birthday sentiment was then cut out and mounted on black card.  The image was printed with the added quote (not part of the original image) and coloured with Promarkers, this was then mounted on card and placed on the card with foam tape.  Wiggly eyes were add to a few of the figures, just for a bit of added interest. A very simple card but with a bit of depth of thought to it.

So just in case you have forgotten what the card looks like here it is again

Ingredients:-

• Image - Movember Boys by ScribblesbySandy
• Colouring media - Promarkers
• Embossilicious A4 embossing folder
• DP by me
• Wiggly eyes from my stash

I am entering this creation into the following challenges :-

• Love to Scrap - 2W, 3E, F, digi or real stamping - (Week 1) Use something beginning with at least one of the following letters: L, T, S, C, B (Blue, Birthday, sheep, lion, cat)
• Ooh La La Creations - 2W, SIO - (Week 1) Words to Inspire
• Through the Purple Haze - W, E3, C10 - Anything Goes
• Monday Mood Board- M, first Monday of the month - (January) Photo Inspiration*

SPS - To the Moon and Back

Sweet Pea Stamps

Today is my day to showcase an image from Sweet Pea Stamps and I have chosen to work with the beautiful image To the Moon and Back by Courtney McAnsh which is available from the Sweet Pea Store.

The challenge this month on the Sweet Pea challenge blog, One Sweet Challenge is Art Inspiration Day.  When I saw the theme of this challenge I fell in love hahahaha, interpreting this as using inspiration from artists who are close to my heart.  I have three artists from the old schools which send tingles through me, Michelangelo (I am sure I was a concubine of his in a past life hehehehe), El-Greco, so different and for his time with his elongated images instead of realism and Van Gogh (not his dark realistic stuff but his more manic style of painting), I just love his mega amounts of movement in his artwork.  So for my creation I decided to use the inspiration from Van Gogh and his Starry Night, one of my favourite paintings of all time and one where the image from Sweet Pea, To the Moon and Back by Courtney fitted perfectly.

To begin I printed my sentiment and the hands and then coloured the background using regular oil pastels so try and create the texture of the brush strokes.

Next I coloured the image with Promarkers and used gold pen to embellish it.  A few gold stickles finished off the image and the surrounding area later on.

Now to deconstruct a wee book by removing the inner section.  I then covered the book with my design.

Two coats of Gesso to protect the cover and make it hard wearing.  It is the first time I have used this product and I just love the way it feels - awesome stuff.

While that was drying I coloured a small pencil with Promarkers and gold paint then added a small bead chain for a bit of interest. The pencil is attached to the book with a ribbon loop.  Once the book was dry and the loop in place I then backed the paper insert with card and used this section to stick to the front and back covers thereby covering up my inside image folds at the same time as putting it all back together.

Front cover

Side view

Ingredients:-

• Image - To the Moon and Back by Courtney McAnsh
• Small note book and an IKEA pencil
• Sentiment  - by me plus the hands
• Colouring media - oil pastels, Promarkers
• Gesso to seal the image

I am entering into the following challenges:-

• ABC Challenge - P1/15 ‘A is for Anything Goes’
• Altered Eclectics - M, P7 - ANYTHING GOES
• My Artistic Adventures Challenges  M P2/16 #1: Anything Goes
• The Sisters of Craft M,P1 Anything Goes
• Artbymiran Challenge - 2W , SIO, 3E, no digital projects - No.22 - (W2 of 2) - Anything Goes
• QKR Stampede – W, 4E, SIO – No. 120 - Anything Goes
• That's Crafty! Challenge Blog - 2W, E3, Must be a UK resident - (W1 of 2) Blue

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

Spring Flowers

Hi Peeps, how is your day going :) :) 

Today I am helping out at the Chalk-Ah-Lot Cafe for their challenge Anything Goes With Chalk. Sweet Pea Stamps are sponsoring Chalk-Ah-Lot Cafe for this challenge and as I am on the Sweet Pea DT thought I would give this a go.  Now chalks and I are new to each other.  My chalks are inherited and live in a drawer that hardly sees daylight.  I did try to use them when I was first given them but had very little joy, from there I seemed to move in different directions and totally forgot about them - until this challenge.  Now you see why I had to take part hahahaha.  The image I have used for this card is Spring Flowers by Conie Fong, one of the many artist whose images are available from Sweet Pea Stamps.  

First stage - check out some tutorials on ways to use chalks successfully :)  The tutorial which really appealed to me was using a clear stamp pad with rubber stamps and then chalking over.  This made so much sense, just if you are interested, here is the URL of the tutorial I followed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L95w2E5ogSg

I decided to try and make my own backing paper

WOW - I am pretty pleased with the outcome and love the soft organic sort of look, chalks will now not be in a drawer never seeing light, think we have just become buddies hahaha.

 Next I die cut my digi and then chalked the frame in the same way as I did the background, well almost the same way, I just dabbed my clear embossing pad on the edges of the frame and then applied the chalk,

 The next bit of chalking was the tag, again I used the clear embossing bad to apply the sticky surface to my vellum then applied the chalk.  On top of that I used a peel off sticker and then cut this out carefully.

 Finally I made a charm dangly bit using a very special bead - they turquoise one.  I have just come back from my hols and while away I found these wonderful beads hand made from recycled glass - just had to have them hahahaha.

 I mounted my chalk stamped paper on card, added a lace bow with some of the same beads I used for the charm hanger.  Next I attached the digi and frame and finished off with my tag sentiment, some flowers and a couple of butterflies.  Now the completed front panel was complete I attached it to the card base with foam tape.

Ingredients:-

• Spring Flowers by Conie Fong available from Sweet Pea Stamps in both rubber and digi
• Colouring medium - image/Faber Castle Polychromous, background/chalks
• Die - cArt Decorative Oval Frames
• Tag - peel off sticker
• Charm, lace, vellum, flowers, butterflies etc. from my stash

I am entering this card in the following challenges:-

• Cards Galore Encore - M, P1, E3 Anything Goes!
• Country View Crafts' Challenge - M, P1 you must use something new to you (made my own background using chalks - new technique to me)
• Crafting Musketeers - M, P2, 1E #21 Hats/ Valentine
• Ladybug Crafts M,P1,3E Say it with Flowers
• Lia Stampz Challenge 1E,P15/29,SIO Anything goes
• My Artistic Adventures Challenges  M P2/16 #1: Anything Goes
• Seemacrafts M,P1,E1 Anything Goes
• The Sisters of Craft M,P1 Anything Goes
• The Vintage Challenge P10/25,E3 must be vintage frame it
• Artbymiran Challenge - 2W , SIO, 3E, no digital projects - No.22 - (W2 of 2) - Anything Goes
• Crafty Catz - W, 3E – #260 - Anything Goes
• QKR Stampede – W, 4E, SIO – No. 120 - Anything Goes
• That's Crafty! Challenge Blog - 2W, E3, Must be a UK resident - (W1 of 2) Blue
• 4 Crafty Chicks - W- #227 Celebrations
• Art Impressions Stamps Challenge - 2W 2E, SIO (tab at top of page)(W1 of 2) (new technique used)
• Dream it Up - M, SIO - Birthday Wishes
• Little Miss Muffet Challenges -  2W, 1E, SIO (challenges listed in tab at top) (W1 of 2) - #101 Something Blue

Thank you for stopping by and hope you have a wonderful crafting day ahead of you :) :)