Little Scientist

Last week was the birthday of someone who has become a close friend over the last 3 months. We met originally at school as she is James's chemistry teacher but she moved onto our subdivision in December and we have been great friends since.

So for her birthday I I thought The Sweet Stamp Shop's Element set was very appropriate

I die cut a circle from a scalloped card blank and then used 2 Tonic circle nesting dies to make a frame to fit over this. I then lined the inside of the front of the card with blue card and stamped all the tiny word stamps randomly inside the circle.

I then colored some of the other elements and the little female scientist using my Spectrum Noir Markers - this was the perfect opportunity to use the fluorescent pens in my set as they have never been used!

After fussy cutting them all out I used foam squares to place these around the circle. I stamped the birthday sentiment directly onto the card and inked the edges with distress ink to balance the colors of the card and remove the plain white

Happy Days - I have news!!!!

Hi Just a quickie from me today. A few weeks ago I blogged about applying to join Dreamtime Craft Supplies design team

This is a company that sell a mixture of craft supplies most of which I love using already. Well I found out on Sunday that I had been successful and have joined the brand new design team. We are currently a very small group and are working out how things are going to run so watch this space!!!

This will involve a challenge blog which is due to start next month and our first challenge will be Anything Goes so keep your eyes out for that!

Lisa also does flash sales in her online store,usually on a Friday, and I will be letting you all know about these both here and on my other Social Media sites.

In the meantime here are some of the products that she sells

Bazzill Cardstock

Spellbinder and Magnolia Dies 

Inks and Paints

Scrapbooking supplies 

Magnolia Stamps

Spectrum Noir Markers, Distress Markers 

This is just a small collection why not pop over to her store and check it out for yourself!

The luck of the Irish

Next month brings St Patrick's day - The patron saint of Ireland, I've never made a card for this holiday but when The Scrapoholic Candy Store released their latest digi stamps I just couldn't resist Lucky Penguin.

OK I hear you - what has a penguin got to do with St Patrick??? Nothing but you have to admit that he is so adorable!

I just had to color him up and this challenged me as I don't usually use green in my designs but I couldn't avoid it with this little fella

I colored him with Spectrum Noir Markers adding white highlights to give him some depth.

I chose to do a large card for this one and matted an 8x8" base card with Green card. I then chose some shamrock digital papers and again matted these and my image with the same green card. Placing them in a symmetrical design on my base. The added shamrocks are sticker I bought in my local papercraft store which just balanced the image.

Oh and the little fella "adjusted" his sentiment after all he is so much cuter than a duck would have been!

You will find more inspiration over at The Scrapoholic Facebook Page where all of my teamies hang out!

Faery Ink Freebie!

Good afternoon! It's hard to believe that it is still February here - all the snow has melted and it is kind of mild for the time of year! hey but I'm not complaining!

OK onto the reason for the post Faery Ink have a gorgeous digi stamp freebie until 11pm EST tonight! Meet Bella Spring Magic 

You can get her by clicking here 

Isn't she just stunning? I had an 8 year old's birthday to create for and thought that she was just perfect for the little lady who is starting to out grow the usual fairies 

I chose to use my favorite colors on her

Pinks and purples from my Spectrum Noir Marker range. I then matted her onto purple card and used the same to mat my card base. I then chose some design papers from Trimcraft Pretty in Pink collection before adding my image.

The sentiment is a stamp from Lili of the Valley and I have placed this onto a scalloped die cut using the same purple card. I used purple heart ribbon to balance the design.

Thank you for stopping by and now pop over to the Faery Ink Facebook page to see my teamies inspiration using the gorgeous Bella before going and getting your own free image!

A little Faerilocks Inspiration

Good afternoon, time is just passing too quickly we are already in mid February! Oh and it soon will be spring!!!! 

Today I have a gorgeous Faery Ink image that has masses of curly hair!

Meet Destiny Faerilocks

Isn't she adorable!!! She is one of the February releases that you can find in the store

I have decided that I am going to try and get out of my comfort zone when coloring and for this one I decided to try bright colors!

I colored her with Spectrum Noir Markers and added highlights to her clothes with a white gel pen. Her hair was the most challenging so I colored this first - she has lots of it as you can see from this close up!!!!

I then used a Crafter's Companion embossing folder on some bright blue card adding rickrack ribbon to the band. The flowers are from my stash and they match perfectly with the color scheme as did the enamel dots!

Please stop by the Faery Ink Facebook group where you can find freebies, challenges and all my teamies inspirational makes using these stunning images.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

You Giraffe me Crazy

Good morning, well the snow from the weekend is starting to recede and temperatures are rising again - supposedly not for long though - this winter has been so strange but hopefully spring will be here soon.

We had a holiday weekend so didn't get much crafting done however everyone back to work / school so had time to play. 

I just had to color up this little chap from The Scrapoholic Candy Shop. He is part of a collection called A day at the Zoo.

I printed him onto Spectrum Noir ultra smooth card stock and colored him with my Spectrum Noir Markers. 

Once colored I chose a color pallet of browns and oranges and made up my card design

I matted a reddy brown card onto my base card, using a slightly lighter shade I then matted my image and some design paper from Lili Of The Valley and added these to the card. The sentiment is from the same collection as the digi stamp - I matted this onto some of the darker card and positioned it alongside the image. I then used some enamel dots from my stash to balance the card.

You can find him and his friends in the Scrapoholic Candy Shop along with lots of other cute designs. If you are looking for inspiration pop across to our Facebook page where all the design team are showcasing their work. 

Valentines Day

Mollie's class had a Valentine's party and each child was asked to take in cards for each other and the staff. They made this educational by insisting that all the children wrote their own cards.

This meant she had 27 cards to write and I took on the challenge of making them all. All I can say is thank goodness for the MISTI. 

I used 4 Stamps simultaneously and made red cards for the boys and pink for the girls

The large heart and sentiment are both from So Suzy Stamps and the smaller hearts are from the  Gorjuss Dear Apple collection

I cut 27 pieces of white stamping card to size, lined up the stamps using my MISTI and off I went on a production line of stamping, changing ink colors half way through. I then cut 13 red mats and 14 pink mats, 27 card bases cut and folded. whilst I was making the cards up Mollie sat and wrote in every single one and her friends names on the envelopes!

It took us both an hour and 20 minutes from start to finish - Oh and along with these she also helped make a card for her Daddy and one for James!

Baby Sampler

Last year I made birth congratulations card for a colleague of my husband's to give to a relative. She asked him if I did picture's with birth details etc on.

Having never done one he said I would be open to the challenge, Mollie has a picture that was painted when she was born which shows all her birth details, Kev showed a photo of this to his colleague and she said yes something like that would be good, she wanted it as a Christmas gift - no pressure then!

I had to think long and hard about how I was going to do this - yes I craft, yes I can color but I am no artist and I worried that there was greater expectations than I could deliver.

First I watercolored a background and tried to use stamps but just couldn't get the look I was after. I then decided to use some digital software called Serif CraftArtist 2. I started by designing an 8 inch by 12 inch background to look like a nursery room 

Adding elements to represent different aspects of the parent's and baby's life such as the Universities the parent's attended, their careers which included teaching and sports coaching. Baby's full name weight, birth date. These were then printed on the main picture. I also printed extra copies and used these to decoupage the picture giving it some dimension which unfortunately doesn't show too well here. I added a die cut clock set at his time of birth. I then used glossy accents on the nose of the teddy, face of the sheep and  windmill for extra depth. 

It did take a few days to get the design together and I was very unsure as to whether I had captured what she was looking for but when I took it into Kev's colleague she loved it. I'm not sure whether it is something I would do again it was certainly a challenge which once I started I did enjoy doing.

Thanks for stopping by - I would love you to leave a comment expressing your thoughts.

Dreamtime Craft Supplies DT Call

Good Morning - Well the snow and the arctic temperatures has returned this week so I've spent most of my days inside keeping warm.

This has given me plenty of time to play in my craft room and time to make a card to enter the design team call over at Dreamtime Craft Supplies. They are a paper craft supplies company who sell a full range of goodies for people like me who want to indulge in a crafty passion. 

I was inspired to enter their team call because they appear to want a team with a friendly approach which I believe is one of my qualities, I enjoy browsing other people's blogs to see how they have made things and leave them some love - this is often how I get my inspiration for my own makes. I like to use a variety of products and always promote where these are from on my blog posts. As well as my blog, I am an active member of a number of social media sites and love posting my makes on there sharing info of the companies I am designing for. If I am doing design team work I always try and make a focal point of the image or product I am using so it is shown to it's best advantage. Because of this, I like my cards to be clean and simple in design unless the product or challenge calls for a different style.

Dreamtime Craft Supplies have some fabulous Magnolia stamps so I browsed through mine and chose to use Edwin and the butterfly. 

Isn't he a cutie - I stamped him onto Spectrum Noir Ultra Smooth cardstock and used my Spectrum Noir Markers to color him adding darker highlights to his hair with a Spectrum Aqua Marker.

Once colored, I die cut him with a Spellbinder die, using the edge die to cut a further 2 panels in contrasting papers.

I used a white card blank and layered the die cut pieces onto a design paper from Lili of the Valley, (which have unfortunately been discontinued) along with some yellow gingham paper from my stash. 

I used some yellow checked ribbon as a border across the lower part of the card and stamped a Dreamy sentiment again from Lili of the Valley onto some of the matching paper. This was then framed with more of the gingham paper before being adhered to the center of the ribbon. A die cut Precious Butterfly from Memory Box was then added to tie in with the stamped image.

Thank you for stopping by - I would appreciate if you could leave me a comment before you leave.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Girls Creations - Anything Goes 

A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes 

Crafts Galore Encore - Use a Stamp or Digi

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - Use Patterned Paper

One Crazy Stamper - Anything Goes 

Scrapy Land - Use a die Scrapy Land Sells

There's a new designer in town!!!!

Good Morning! This week is flying by I can't believe it's Wednesday already - well they say time flies when your having fun and I've been having fun coloring up a brand new digital stamp for a brand new design team!

The Scrapoholic candy Shop 

Amanda has some adorable digital stamps that are so easy to color up. 

She is currently having a design team call too so if you are interested pop along to either the online shop or Facebook page for more details 

As it's Valentines day this week I have chosen to use A Piece of my Heart for my first showcase,

This set includes sentiments and 3 adorable mice all clutching puzzle pieces which fit together as a heart?!

I have used the main stamp and one of the sentiments. I have colored them with Spectrum Noir Markers then matted them onto pale pink and red card. I have then used my markers to color some pearl hearts and randomly placed these around the image.

Come and pop over to the FB group and check out the fab inspiration!

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Joy Clair - Love
Crafting By Design - Hearts
Crafting For All Seasons - Love is in the Air
Crafty Creations Challenges - Hearts
Creative Moments - Anything goes optional twist Love
Moo-Mania - Hearts
The Crafty Addicts - Anything Goes / Cute and Cuddly

Princesses in Fairy Land

Good morning, Mollie was at a princess birthday party on Saturday and all the little guests got to dress up in the most beautiful princess dresses. 

Since she got the new dress for Christmas Mollie went as Cinderella

All the girls had a great time!

Of course I had to make her a card to take and I chose to use one of the NSR (No stamp required) images from My Craft Studio's Fairy Land CD. 

The image is called Princess but I think it's obvious who she is! I printed both her and the wording out on my PC and colored the image with Spectrum Noir Markers.

I then matted my design onto blue card and a white card blank. I added blue pearls to opposing corners to balance the card.

It was loved by its recipient and well as Mollie!

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Cards Und More - Anything Goes

Lemon Shortbread Challenge - Anything Goes 

Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes 

Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes

Not Just Cards - Anything Goes 

Our Crafty Corner - Anything Goes 

The Paper Nest Dolls - Anything Goes 

Thanks for stopping by, comments are always welcomed if you have time to leave me some love

Birthday Box

Good Morning - We have had thaw over the weekend and can see green grass which is unusual for this time of year in Michigan. There is more snow forecast though so not getting too optimistic!

Friday was James's Girlfriend - Liz's birthday and he had bought her lots of little pill cases which he filled with soppy little love notes. He asked me to make him a box to put them all in and also wanted a card making so I decided to combine them in one!

I made a set of drawers box and added an easel on top.

I made 4 matchbox style boxes and glued these together on a base and lid of matching card. Pearl brads were used as handles for the drawer. I then made and easel card the same dimensions as the box and adhered this to the top. I used Love Never Melts Poppy Stamps set  colored with Spectrum Noir Markers and matted this onto matching card and design papers from my stash. I decorated the bottom part of the Easel with the same card and paper.

Using a Memory Box die, James had made these little shopping bags to put the pill cases in inside the boxes:

I took one and matted it to match with the card design, added a stamped heart and sentiment it was then used it as a stopper for the easel as you can see here:

Once completed the drawers were filled and I am told she loved it!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges

Crafts Galore Encore  - Use a digi or stamp

Crafty Time Challenges - Buttons bows and Brads 

Just Keep On Creating - Anything Goes 

Kreativeinkauf - Snowman 

Live and Love Crafts - Love is in the Air

One Crazy Stamper - Anything Goes 

Paper Creator - Must be Love

The Crafty Addicts - Anything Goes /Cute and Cuddly

Faery Ink is going steam punk!

Good afternoon! Well we are having a very mild winter this year, most of the snow has dissipated and we've even had rain! The Great Lakes aren't as frozen as they usually are - OK I bet now I've opened my mouth I bet things change!

I'm showcasing a new release from Faery Ink today, The more I color these images the more I fall in love with them. This month Amanda has released some fab steam-punk images - this is something I usually shy away from and thank goodness my chosen image this month wasn't too much within the theme!

Meet Clockwork Cupids

Isn't the image adorable? - just look at the tiny cupid sat on the top of the heart in his flying cap!

I pondered over it for a few days wondering how I could avoid coloring the heart in red as it was such a big part of the image. I first tried the no lines technique but quickly decided that just didn't suit this image. In the end I just started coloring and let my imagination take it.

I used my Spectrum Noir markers and chose to go with delicate pale tones, using browns so I could incorporate Kraft card into my design. I was still stuck with what to do with the heart and as you can see the traditional red would just not have been the right way to go. After discussing it with a great friend we decided leaving it white worked. but to add interested I used one of the new Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens in clear.

You can just see the shine here - these pens are fab, the shimmer is much more obvious than other similar pens I have used but without being over the top like loose glitter can sometimes be.

Once I'd colored the image I die cut 2 different sizes of clock from Kraft card - using a brad and some pale turquoise card for the hands on the smaller clock. I then used some design papers from Lili of the Valley and Kraft card to mat the 8X8in scalloped card blank.

A few small enamel dots just completed the design.

The image can be found in the Newest Digis section over at the Faery Ink Store

and if you want further inspiration my teamies on the Faery Ink Design Team will be posting throughout February over on the Faery Ink Facebook Group

Winter Wonderland

Good evening - well my post title doesn't reflect the weather here - it has been unseasonably warm today. We woke to thick fog and black ice causing the schools to close but then the day turned into a gorgeous sunny fairly warm one. It has melted lots of the snow - feels really odd after 2 years of very cold snowy winters!

On to today's make, It's the start of a new challenge over at 12 Months of Christmas Link up - Yes keeping making your Christmas cards our challenge runs all year!

Our sponsor this month is Scribbles Designs 

They are offering a $10 gift Certificate to one random winner

The theme this month is Winter Wonderland.  In order to have a chance to win the prize from our wonderful guest sponsor this month,make sure that your card has some snow on it in some form or other.  Snow, snowmen, or snowflakes, it is completely up to you!  If you do follow the optional theme, be sure to add FT after your name so that we include you in the draw for the prize

Remember, you don't need to follow the theme to link up your cards and earn a free paper each month, and have your name thrown into the year end draw for some extra digital goodies.  You only need to follow the theme if you want a chance to win this month's sponsored prize of a $10.00 gift certificate from Scribbles Designs.

As always Decosse's Dynamite Doodles is offering an additional prize of a free digital paper for everyone who links up 2 cards and a mini set of 6 digital papers called SnowBiz to a random winner

On to my design team make 

I have used Snowflake mason Jar  I have lightly colored the jar with my Spectrum Noir Markers to give it a glass look. Then I glittered the snow flakes to make them shimmer. I cut this out and wrapped twine around the top before using dimension dots to adhere to my card which had one of the new Decosse Dynamite Doodles digital papers matted over blue card. I then used 2 So Suzy Stamps - the butterfly and snowflake sentiment to complete my design.

So get started with your cards for the 2016 holiday season and come and join our challenge you never know you may win!!!

Thank you for stopping by