Thank You in Blue

I hope you are all enjoying the long Easter weekend. We have family visiting so it's very busy in our house at the moment but I thought I'd take time out to show you this card I made.

I have used a 7"x 7" (18cm x 18cm) card base and matted and layered blue card and a paper by First Edition. I made panels with a Michele R Designs paper and one I created from a vintage text. The sentiment was computer generated.

The image was given to me by the generous Sandra Caldwell for taking part in a bookmark competition held by Holley during her February celebration month. It's called Thank You. It's such a delightful image and can be used for so many different occasion cards.

I coloured this one with Copics before matting onto blue card.

I coloured white flowers from Wild Orchid and used a Cheery Lynn die to create the flourishes. The bow has been dyed with Distress Inks.

A big Thank You to both Holley and Sandra Caldwell for this wonderful image, it will get plenty of use.

Enjoy the rest of your Easter weekend and try not to over indulge on chocolate.

Easter Bunny

I hope you are all well and have a crafty weekend planned. I decided to take a few days out this week to spend time with my gorgeous baby grandson but now it's time to get back to work.

Here is a card I made recently for a friend and to enter in the Champion of Champions Challenge.

I found some yellow embossed card in a forgotten box in my craft room and I printed a couple of blue patterned papers. All the the layers were matted onto white card and assembled on the card base to fit in an 8"x 8" (20cm x 20cm) envelope.

I printed this adorable Easter Mouse image by Sherri Baldy and coloured it with Copics. I cut out a rectangle and edged it in blue ink before matting onto white card.

I embellished the card with flowers from my stash, some Marianne die-cut leaves, a Sizzix die-cut flower and butterfly. I finished the card with a big bow and some blue gems.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

http://championofchampionsdtchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1st-march-2016-champion-of-champions.html x

http://myshericrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/my-sheri-crafts-challenge-177-spring.html Blog Award

http://2craftygirlschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/challenge-15.html x

http://worldwideopendesignteamchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/1st-march-2016-world-wide-open-design.html DT Favourite

http://mybestiesuk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/my-besties-uk-challenge-anything-goes.html

http://scrapbookstampsocietychallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/challenge-87-anything-goes-option-easter.html x

Docrafts Butterfly Card

I hope you've all had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend. I shall be doing a demonstration for Docrafts again this weekend, This time I shall be at The Range in Bracknell so if any of you are nearby, please pop in.

The most popular demo last weekend was the butterfly card. There is a version of it in this month's Creativity magazine with a full set of instructions.

The card base is A5 landscape to which I've added silver mirri card. The centre layer has been sprayed with Artiste Spritzing inks in blue and green and then lightly splattered with silver Artiste acrylic paint. 

I cut a strip of paper from the new Capsule Geometric Mocha collection and added lace and ribbon. 

The stamped sentiment was heat embossed in silver.

The butterflies were die-cut with X-cut dies from plain white card. I then inked them with Artiste Pigment ink in blue and heat embossed with silver powder. I repeated this a few times to build up a thick, smooth surface. I then inked around the edges with yellow Artiste Dye ink and heated again. 

Next I alternately added blue and gold embossing powders, heating in between each layer. 

The butterflies were fixed to the card with foam pads.

The fun thing about this technique is that you can vary which colours you use to get different effects. These butterflies were created with silver, gold and green inks and powders.

Don't forget to visit your local Docrafts stockist to pick up the latest fabulous collections.

Have a great weekend everyone and if you are near Bracknell on Saturday, please pop in to The Range and say hello. I shall be there from 10 am till 4 pm.

Kraftyhands March 2016 Challenge

Welcome to a new challenge at Kraftyhands. We hope you will all join in. 

The theme this month is based on this colour chip

"Green, Lilac, Yellow and Scallop Circle"

The lucky winner will receive a £10 Kraftyhands voucher if they have used a Kraftyhands product.

A full set of the rules are on the blog.

I used X-cut scalloped circle dies to cut the card base and layers. The card stock is textured card and the lovely papers are from the Kraftyhands In Sympathy Mini CD Collection.

There are beautiful florals on the CD and I chose this circular lily topper. Despite the CD title, the  pretty artwork can be used for many occasions. There are Card Making Sets, verses and lots of wonderful papers.

The flourishes are from Cheery Lynn and the butterfly is a Sizzix die. I finished the card with three gold gems.

Please visit the  Kraftyhands Challenge Blog for a full set of the challenge rules and to view the inspirational creations from my talented team mates. This challenge runs until the end of the month. Remember to be a follower of the challenge blog to qualify for entry.

I've entered this card in the following challenges:

http://lauralcraft.weebly.com/dragonfly-dreams-challenge/use-a-die-cut
http://lilpatchofcraftyfriends.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/challenge-29.html x
http://www.hidinginmycraftroom.com/2016/03/himcr-241-spring-colors.html Winner
http://pileitonchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/pile-it-on-103-green-and-two-other.html x
http://inspirationdestinationchallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/AG-NO75.html x

Docrafts Demos March 2016

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. If, by chance, you are anywhere near South West Wales this weekend you might like to pop into The Range in Carmarthen today (Saturday) or the brand new Range store in Swansea tomorrow (Sunday) where I will be demonstrating with the new collections from Docrafts.

There are some fabulous new ranges just released this week. The first is the charmingly rustic Country Life collection. It's full of gorgeous watercolour artwork and linen textured papers.

There are mosaic tiles, charms, die-cut sentiments, ribbons and wooden signs to compliment the designs.

A new colourway has been added to the Capsule Geometric family with the Capsule Geometric Mocha collection. The rich earth tones and gold foiled touches work wonderfully with the geometric patterned papers, ribbons, washi tape and embellishments. 

There are 12 more mini dies this month too. These little die sets are so affordable and fun. The nesting hexagons work perfectly with the Country Life and Capsule Geometric collections and the bunting, pinwheel and doily are fabulous for those homemade touches to your cards and projects.

Make sure you grab the Mini Stars and alphabets too.

All these new products means lots of samples which, hopefully, means lots of inspiration for you. I hope you now go and check out your local Docrafts stockist so you can grab some of these fabulous new goodies for yourself.

You can check on the Docrafts website to see where your nearest The Range store is and if there is a demonstration local to you. I will be at Carmarthen today and Swansea tomorrow from 10am until 4pm if you get the chance to pop in. I will also be at the Bracknell store next Saturday - 12th March.

Have an enjoyable and crafty weekend.

Creative Artiste #12 March 2016

I hope you are all well and are looking forward to the weekend. I will be demoing for Docrafts both Saturday and Sunday at The Range stores in Carmarthen and Swansea respectively. So a busy weekend for me.

The first Friday of March means it's the start of a new challenge at Creative Artiste We are a challenge blog for everyone who likes to mix their media. As long as you use more than one medium on your creation we'd love to see you enter the challenge. This is a month long challenge so you have time to create projects and enter up to three times. A full list of the rules is on the challenge blog.
A big Thank You to everyone who entered Challenge #11 for February. We had a fantastic turnout. The winner has been announced  on the blog.

The theme this month is
"Anything Goes" 
with an option of
"Use Chipboard, a Stencil or Die-cut Topper from our Sponsor"
Which leads me nicely to tell you that our wonderful sponsor for this month is

Scrapmatts & Papertole Australia
The prize is $30-35 (Aus) worth of the latest designs from the store.

As it's Mother's Day here in the UK on Sunday I used a wooden heart to make a hanging plaque for my lovely Mother in Law.

I painted the heart with white Gesso and then a coat of white acrylic before adding pink embossing powder around the edges. I then coloured a piece of card with Distress Inks Weathered Wood and Spun Sugar and stamped the text using a LaBlanche stamp. I cut the card to fit on the front of the heart and tattered the edges.

I coloured card with a pink Pan Pastel and stamped with the LaBlanche text stamp. I then used my trusty Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers dies to create the flowers. Once assembled I dry brushed grey acrylic paint over them. The leaves are from a Spellbinders die and were cut from coloured grey card and inked whilst still in the die with Bundled Sage and Shabby Shutters DIs.

The banner was stamped and embossed using a Docrafts stamp on pink coloured card. I tattered the edges and fixed it to the heart plaque with foam pads in the centre for dimension and I added grey pearls.

I recently bought some air dry clay to play with and one of the first things I made was this little butterfly. Once dry I painted it with H2Os and added it as the finishing touch.
Please visit the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog to see the fantastic projects created by my talented team mates. Remember to have fun and enter your mixed media creations in the challenge for a chance to win the fabulous prize.
I'll pop back tomorrow morning to show you some of  my samples from the fabulous new Docrafts collections. Until then, enjoy your crafting.

I've entered this project into the following challenges:

http://alteredeclectics.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/march-challenge.html
http://thatcraftplaceblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/anything-goes-challenge-28th-of-february.html x
http://rheddscreativespirit.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/march-challenge.html x
http://alphabetchallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/for-anything-pink.html x

Crafts Galore Encore March 2016

It's the first of March, so,
Happy St. David's Day to my Welsh friends.

The first of March also means it's time for a new challenge on the Crafts Galore Encore Challenge Blog. Thank you to everyone who joined in with February's challenge. The winners are on the challenge blog 'winner's page'. This is a month long challenge and you can enter up to three times. A full list of rules are on the challenge blog.

Our theme this month is a nice easy one:
"Make a Card"
We are being sponsored this month by the fabulous KennyK Stamps who are offering a generous three digis of the winner's choice to two winners.

There is also a fun KennyK Stamps contest on the Crafts Galore Encore blog where everyone who joins in can claim 50% off two KennyK Stamps images. The full details are on the blog.

I have made a 6"x 6" card. The base has been coloured with Pan Pastels before I added a paper printed from a CD. I made a panel from another printed paper and fixed a length of wide ric-rak across the front.

I chose the "Mermaid" image from KennyK Stamps and coloured her with my Copics. I then loosely cut round her and mounted her to the card with foam pads. I die-cut the seaweed from Marianne and Spellbinder dies and tucked them behind the mermaid.

The sentiment was printed on the computer and the "bubbles" were made with X-cut flower centre dies. The shells and starfish are from Marianne dies and I finished the card with a seam binding bow,
Now visit the  Crafts Galore Encore challenge blog to see the fabulous projects my team mates have created with KennyK Stamps images for your inspiration. Don't forget to enter the KennyK Stamps contest while you're there.
I've shared my card on the Club KennyK Facebook group page and
I've entered this card into the following challenges:
http://crafting-with-dragonflies.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/51-birthday-card.html x
http://suzypantssmarty.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/27-february-challenge-119-anything-goes.html
http://abitmoretimetocraft.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-bit-more-time-to-craft-challenge-15.html x