Christmas at Fab N Funky

Firstly thank you to everyone who entered our spots and stripes challenge last week the winners are on the blog at Fab n Funky.

As it is the last Wednesday of the month the theme is Christmas and we are being sponsored by Lacy Sunshine this  week and have been given some beautiful digi's to play with.

I used Santa's List for my card below and you can buy it here

I coloured him using ordinary coloured pencils and then fussy cut around him. The paper was from a pad I got as a freebie with a magazine and I die cut a circle from gold card and an inverted scalloped circle from white card which I edged with dark green using a Spectrum Noir JG5. I matted the paper onto plain white card that had been coloured round the edges with JG5. The sentiment was computer generated and I just used a handwriting font and typed out the lyrics of the song. I cut round this edged with the green pen and then mounted it onto gold card. The finishing touches were the three large green brads.

I am entering this card into the following challenge
http://throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - coloured pencils

Spots or Stripes at Fab and Funky

Goo morning every one it's time for a new challenge over at Fab n Funky

Firstly  thanks to everyone who joined in with us last week, so many fabulous entries. Please check out the  blog to see if you were a winner.

For this week the challenges is 

Spots or Stripes
......or even both!

Here is my card

I have used Mr Bunny's Eggs from StampArt Design by Kathryne. 

I am so fed up of looking out of my window at the gloomy weather I chose a fresh spring colour palette for the card. I coloured the image using promarkers. The bunny was coloured with cool grey 1 and 3. I added blush and pastel pink inside his ears. His bow is duck egg and china blue. For the eggs I I used the following, Pear, Mos,Mint, dusky pink, lilac, sunflower, poppy, canary bright orange and fuschia.

The papers are from My Craft Studio's essentials range and I matted these onto pale green card stock from American Crafts. The flowers were cut using a tattered lace mini flowers die and I used white paper and coloured these with promarkers in blush, blossom, and vanilla. The finishing touches are the computer generated sentiment and the pink pearls using Cosmic Shimmers pearlised PVA glue.

Our Fabulous Sponsors this week are...

Colour Me Creative Classroom



Prize: Copic Class by Suzanne

And

StampArt Design by Kathryne

with a prize of 5 digis of the winner's choice
and the chance of a GDT spot here at Fab'n'Funky Challenges

So go on give it a go and good luck.

You'll Never Walk Alone

Having been a 'red' since I was old enough to remember following the footie I was delighted to be asked by a friend to design a card themed on football for her son. Especially when she added 'It's got to be Liverpool by the way'

So here is a very simple design that I came up with for her.

I kept to a really simple colour scheme using red, white and black which is always a really striking combination. I had the little football kit in my stash from ages ago, so long ago in fact that it was the old Liverpool colours of red shorts and white top, so I coloured the top red to reflect the current kit.

I used red as my background layer and then added a black layer before adding a white panel that I had embossed using a 'happy birthday' embossing folder. I die cut a label from white and mounted this onto black and red card trimming by hand each time to leave a really narrow border I then stuck the kit down onto this panel and added it to the card.. The football was cut from black using a tattered lace die and then mounted onto white card to give the full effect before sticking it onto the card. I finished off with the sentiment.

The insert is a larger version of the  crest on the shirt with the liver bird and the words football club removed and the greeting added in their place.

I am entering the card into the following challenges.

http://artisticinspirationschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - anything goes Macsuline

http://throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Embossing 

Fashionista at Ooh La La

Once again a huge thank you to everyone who entered the use a heart challenge last time you can check out the winners at http://ooh-la-la-creationschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/. This time we want to see your projects with a Fashionista theme.

Again I have gone down the Scrapbook route with this project.

These pictures of my mum were taken at the house where I grew up, She was entering an Easter Bonnet competition and covered an old sun-hat in fabric t match her dress before decorating with flowers and fluffy chicks. She was so proud she had these photographs taken and sent them t me as I no longer lived at home and was some 200 miles away in London.

I used a really eclectic mix of papers on this project the pink flowery paper is from shoes in bloom and the lovely subtle yellow check is from the bonus papers folder on Passion for Fashion. I printed off the images of ladies in hats from the waterfall folder on Passion for Fashion. The plain green paper was also from the passion for fashion CD, you can buy the CDs here

I did lots of matting and layering on this page and used pale pastels to give it a spring time feel. I added lacy borders to the papers using a Martha Stewart punch. I added a computer generated title, and printed out two panels with lyrics from the song 'Where did you get that hat'  I fussy cut one of the photos of mum because the background left a lot to be desired (dad's compost heap and garden incinerator don't ask!) I also fussy cut a close up picture of the hat which is more an embellishment to the page. The gorgeous pearly swirls are also from Ooh La La creations check out their bling section of the website here .

I used some glittered flowers from my stash using neutral colours so as not to detract from the pictures and finally keeping with the neutral theme I added 3 wooden butterflies, because when I first started paper crafting mum always seemed to be drawn to butterflies when I used them.

So there you have it a page about my mum and her hat sadly she passed away in 2009 but she will always be a true fashionista in my memories.

Love is in the Air at Fab n Funky

It's Wednesday so that means a new challenge over at Fab and Funky. Firstly thanks to every one who entered last weeks challenge. You can find the winners over at Fab n Funky Challenges.

As it's Valentines day at the weekend we have an appropriate challenge this week with a

Love/Valentine Theme

Our Fabulous Sponsor this week is...

The Paper Shelter

The lucky winner will receive a $20 Gift Certificate

Here is my card made using  

 true love pre-coloured image and true love paper from The Paper Shelter.

I love the gorgeous colours on the pre coloured image and because it was ready done fro me that gave me time to play with matching digital paper. I opened it in My Craft Studio and printed off the original and then used the effects tab and used the colour change option and the rainbow setting to produce a negative effect swapping the colours over and printed another sheet.

I trimmed one sheet to fit an 8x8 card and then cut just the central pane from the other sheet and layered them up to form a stripe across the centre. I wrapped the polka dot ribbon round the paper then matted the paper panel onto holographic silver mirror board before sticking the panel to the card blank. I used the out of the box cutting technique on the image (fussy cutting round the feet and then using a plain circle die to cut the rest of the image.

I stuck the image to the card using glue gel to add height the added the paper lace border by sliding it up and under their feet before pressing down on the card. 

I added the Love is in the Air computer generated sentiment, a double bow made from the same ribbon as I wrapped round the card and finished off with a wonderful little pin badge designed to look like a 'Love Heart' sweet  that I found in my local super market. 

I am entering this card into the following challenges 

http://thepapershelter.blogspot.fr - Be My Valentine

A little bit of ribbon can go a long way.

 recently received a phone call from my Sister-in-law. My niece is getting married in a couple of weeks and as she always wanted to get married in Gretna Green she is off north of the border to tie the knot over the old anvil at the blacksmiths cottage. It will be a really small wedding, her mum and dad and her daughter and her future in laws.

The purpose of my Sister-in-Laws call - can you make me two wedding cards one for her and my brother-in-law to give and one for her daughter to present to her Mum. The conversation went something like this.

'Will you be able to do it? You know a couple of those lovely large square cards you do'
'Yeah no problem I have a day off on Wednesday I'll do them then'
'Ahh the thing is Patrick is wearing a Kilt and we've got this ribbon in the same Tartan that Amanda will have on her dress. If I send you some can you include a piece on both cards'
'No Problem'
'I'll put it in the post first thing Monday and you should have it Tuesday'
'OK I'll do the cards and get them to you before you go to Scotland'

So I arrive home from work on Tuesday and there's an envelope with my Sister-in-Laws writing on. trouble is it feels really thin, on opening it there was a length of ribbon that would do one card but not enough to do two. So time for me to get creative.

I knew I was going to use Tattered Lace dies for the focal points on the cards because they do look stunning. I have just bought the Tattered Lace magazine and used a project from there to make the card for her mum and dad to give Amanda and Patrick

The background panel was made by cutting the Deco Arch 6 times and layering it onto white card. By snipping the ribbon I was able to make it look like it was wrapped round the whole panel when in fact there is a gap hidden by the topper. I used another of The Deco arch shapes and stuck it to white card this was then matted onto a really dark purple pearl card that matched the purple in the ribbon. I cut the couple twice once in purple and once in silver. I snipped the man off the silver die cut and before layering the lady onto the purple die cut I cut a small section of tulle and pushed it through one of the cut section in her hair, to form a veil. I made a faux bow and added more tulle behind it and the heart is made from Martha Stewart paper clay and the bells were from the die included as the free die with Tattered Lace magazine. The sentiment I generated on the Computer.

So there was card 1 almost finished I needed something for the inside plus I now only had a small piece of ribbon for the second card and even hiding a gap behind a topper wasn't going to work on that one. Also a pit of Tartan ribbon added at Random wouldn't look right. That' when the idea struck.

I placed the remaining piece of ribbon on my flat bed scanner and scanned it into Paintshop pro. I used the crop tool to crop the image to a single pattern repeat of the ribbon and saved the image. The using My Craft Studio I imported the image and used the tile feature to create my own tartan backing paper,

I printed of a sheet with the full colour intensity for the second card and then used teh opacity feature to create the insert sheets.

I found a lovely verse in a very useful little book 'Just The Right Words' and typed this onto white card and die cut this before adding it to the left hand side of the card. So after a couple of hours it was one down and one to go.

The card I created for Amanda's daughter to present to her was next and I used the tartan paper that had been printed at full opacity and more of the purple pearl card and silver card for mats and layers.

I added a panel of white card that I embossed with a interlocking ring design. Then added two overlapped horse shoes these were cut with a Tattered Lace die and I threaded white organza polka dot ribbon through the tops and intertwined this before sticking the horse shoes down. I added the remaining ribbon to the bottom of the horseshoes and then added three sprigs of 'lucky' heather and a rose from Wild Orchid Crafts as well as some organza flowers from my stash and some leaves which I die cut and coloured with promarkers.

I finished off with computer generated sentiments and another tartan insert.

Adding a die cut heart for the verse. So there we go from that little bit of ribbon two cards and I just hope that on the Big  Day Amanda and Patrick like them.

I don't feel comfortable using the first card for a challenge entry because it is almost a straight lift from The Tattered Lace Magazine, so I can't really claim any credit for it. However I am entering the second card into the following challenges

http://artisticinspirationschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything Goes/Valentines Day
http://craftycatzweeklychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/  - Love is in the Air
http://lilredwagon.blogspot.co.uk/ - Love
http://throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything Goes

Calling All Brads at Fab n Funky

Well it's Wednesday which means it's time for another challenge over at Fab n Funky. Firstly thank you to everyone who entered the last challenge and if you check out the blog the winners are posted there. Our current challenge is all about using brads in your design, large ones, small ones, plain or patterned it is up to you just show us your brads. Our fabulous sponsor this week is the super talented Kenny K - who is providing the prize check the challenge blog for details. We have as always had some super images from the sponsor to work with and in an attempt to get organised I have chosen to use my DT card as a chance to make Hubbies Valentine card.

I used Kenny K's Sexy Cupid which you can buy here 

I coloured her using a mix of mediums

Hair - Spectrum Noir - CT2, GB1, GB3 GB7

Skin - Promarkers Ivory, Satin, Vanilla and Blush

Dress - Promarkers - Poppy, Ruby and Maroon.

Wings and boots - papermania Metallic pencil in gold, overlaid with Sakura Sparkle pen

Tips of the Arrows and Earring - Sakura Glaze Christmas red 

Bow - Promarker - Cocoa and Poppy

The black highlights were added using a fine tip marker 

Once coloured I fussy cut round the image leaving a thin white border. I then mounted her onto a white heart cut using Marianne nesting dies and then mounted this onto a gold heart cut using the largest of the dies to get the lovely scalloped edge.

I used a plain white card blank and cut the front using a sizzix lattice die. I added the four brads to the corners and then lined the inside of the card with red paper, before sticking the image on top.

The sentiment was computer generated and mounted on the red paper (and is a bit of a standing joke as My hubby thinks it's incredibly funny to come up behind me grab me round the waist and shout Gotcha!) 

Inside the card I have die cut a white heart and mounted it on a red scalloped heart to write my message. 

I am entering this into the following Challenges 

http://artisticinspirationschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything Goes / Hearts 

http://www.craftyourpassionchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Love 

http://www.throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Love is in the Air 

http://thepapernestnorway.blogspot.no/ - Valentine or Love

Use a heart at Ooh La La

Well it's time for another fortnightly challenge at Ooh La La creations. Firstly thanks to everyone who entered our Men's cards challenge last time there were some wonderfully inspirational designs entered into the challenge and you can find the winners as well as our latest challenge over on the blog at http://ooh-la-la-creationschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/.

As the title suggests we are loved up for the next fortnight and we want to see you using hearts in your creations. I have been on the DT with Ooh La La for two years now and wanted to try something a bit different for this challenge. Ooh La LA have a reputation for producing fabulous CDs for card making but when I received the latest CD The Shawn Jenkins Collection I was so enamoured with the designs and the artwork I wanted to use them in some different projects so having finally got round to sorting through the hundreds of family photographs we have decided to use them in some scrapbook projects. So here is the first of several I have now created using Ooh La La papers in the layouts.

I chose three photographs I came across in a box that we inherited from my husband's Mum when she passed away. They were taken at our wedding, because Stephen was divorced our local vicar was not allowed to marry us in church because the Bishop did not approve so, we married at a registry office and had a wonderful blessing in our local church 5 days later. These photographs are from the registry office.

I wore a silver grey suit and I chose a lovely grey and white striped card from my stash as the background. Because my mum wore a beautiful raspberry colour I wanted to pick this out in my choice of papers and used the Love folder on the Shawn Jenkins CD, I also printed out the card topper from that folder as well to incorporate in my design. I think the sentiment running across the bottom fits the subject of the photographs so well 'All because two people fell in love'. I wanted a contrast to the Love paper and printed out a backing paper from the 'Elegant Rooster' folder on the same CD.

I used a journalling card from my stash and mounted that and the photographs on light grey card. I die cut the heart from a Tattered Lace folder that includes text but I removed the text and replaced it with single word cut using a Lili of the Valley die. The flowers were again cut with Tattered Lace dies the marguritte and daisy dies. Some of the flowers were cut from plain white card and coloured with a selection of pink and grey promarkers, finishing the centre with crystals and pearls. I also used theplain dies that come in the sets to cut flowers from the left over backing papers and layered these up adding pearls to the centres.

The title was made using wooden letters that had been coloured using promarkers and the coated with glossy accents.

I also added the topper from the CD into the second page and used bright pink gems as flower centres on some of the flowers to pick out the bright pink of the butterfly. I also added two intertwined hearts to the corner of the smallest photograph.

the addition of some die cut flourishes and pearl swirls completed the page. I have now found several photographs that Stephen's Mum had of out Church Blessing taken by a family friend whilst the official photographer was busy arranging us all our friend just clicked away and got some pictures that are far better than the official ones. They are next on my list to scrapbook. If you would like to get the Shawn Jenkins CD and see what I mean about the wonderful artwork you can get one from the Ooh La La Website.

I am entering this into the following Challenges 

http://artisticinspirationschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything Goes / Hearts 

http://www.craftyourpassionchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Love 

http://www.throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Love is in the Air 

http://thepapernestnorway.blogspot.no/ - Valentine or Love