Josephine's Rainbow

Well, this is my last post as a DT member of the One Stitch at a Time team. My first post was on 4th July 2010 - more than five years ago! It's been fun, but, although I'm still making cards, I've discovered other things which also take up my time and I decided that it was time to step down. I'd like to thank all the other DT members past and present who've made the team such fun to be a part of, and especially our previous DT co-ordinator (Choccy) and, of course, our current co-ordinator, Jane. Thanks for your encouragement and for the friendly and efficient way you've run the team.

So, now, onto the challenge. The theme is, 'Anything Goes with Gratitude', so anything you feel grateful for. In my case, I'm grateful for flowers which brighten up our world with such a gorgeous array of colours. I love colour, the brighter the better, and I can't think of any single thing in nature which provides such a wide range of colours than flowers. For this challenge, I used an image from Floppy Latte Designs called Pretty Sprig of Flowers. I've coloured it using a new (to me) colouring medium - Inktense pencils.

This time at One Stitch at a Time, our challenge is ... anything goes with LOVE. So, it can be a valentine, but it doesn't have to be. In fact, I've chosen to make an anniversary card for my husband.

We're sponsored by

See the challenge blog (link in my sidebar) for details.

I've used Two Hearts by Floppy Latte designs. I added the date of our anniversary and the number of years to the hearts, and a sentiment before printing. The resulting image was cut using a Sizzix die and coloured with Promarkers. I've used another Sizzix die to cut the heart in the background, and embossed. The paper is from my stash - I think it's Papermania. Since it's for my husband, I left it without further embellishment.

I hope you can join us this time.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges;

Brown Sugar where anything goes,

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we're challenging you to 'make one for Christmas'!

My image is from Floppy Latte and it's called Santa Sleigh Silhouette.


And, if fact, I've made not one, but four!

I coloured the image and added the text in Photoshop Elements before printing. Then, I kept things fairly simple - adding some backing paper (all magazine freebies), a border cut with a Memory Box die, some sticky ribbon and some die cut snowflakes (Cuttlebug die.) I added a little glamour dust to trail from the reindeer, although that's not obvious in the photo.
I hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter the top card into the following challenges:

ABC where they want 'no flowers',
Simon says Stamp where they want things that're dotty,
Bearly Mine where they want digital images or papers,
Cuttlebug Mania where they want die cuts,
Party Time Tuesdays where anything goes,
Creative Fingers where anything goes,
Sister Act where anything goes,

This time at Crafty Cardmakers, our host is Marie, and she wants to see our Blooming Images. The main image on the card must be flowers, although you can embellish as you wish.

Our sponsors this time are:

This week at One Stitch at a Time, our challenge is not to be square - so we're looking for shaped cards and projects.

Our sponsor this week is:

My image this week comes from Floppy Latte Designs. I've got to say, I had more fun colouring this image than I've had for a very long time! I generally love colouring flower images, but this one was especially good.

I've been using my first ever set of Grand nesties - in Labels 1 - to shape the card itself. I coloured with Promarkers. The paper is from a Kate Knight pad which was a magazine freebie last year. The flowers were made using a C'art US die.

I hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Lady Anne's Challenge where anything goes,
Die Cutting Divas where anything goes,
Party Time Tuesday where anything goes,
Tuesday Alchemy where anything goes,
One Stop Craft where anything goes,
Crafty Catz where they want 'anything but square',
Totally Papercrafts where they want us to make our own embellishments,

This week at One Stitch at a Time, our challenge is to use a digi. That's it!

We're sponsored by
This week, I decided to add to my stash of Christmas cards using an image from Floppy Latte called Christmas Candles 2.


I coloured the image with Promarkers, and added some sparkle with gold Glamour Dust. I cut the image and mat with a Spellbinders die, and made the poinsettia using a Marianne Creatables die. The paper has been in my Christmas paper stash for at least four years, and the ribbon is of a similar vintage - the last length of a much longer piece!

I hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

LEJ where the theme is 'Season's Greetings',
Tuesday Alchemy where anything goes,
The Pink Elephant Monday Challenge where they want us to use punches/dies
Divas by Design where anything goes,
Just Keep on Crafting where anything (Christmas) goes,
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge where anything goes,
Crafty Catz where they want some sparkle,
Papercrafting Journey where anything goes,
Little Claire's where the theme is Christmas.

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we're sponsored by ...

Our theme this week is Bingo!


I decided to work with the middle line down - embossing, digi and lace. (Whichever line you use, you must come through the middle square.)



I got to work with a gorgeous silhouette from Floppy Latte called Flights of Fancy.

I started by reversing it in Photoshop elements, so that the image is white on a black background. Then, I printed it onto film. I decided to use some Stickles - I've got various shades, but don't often bring it out. When I want glitter, I tend to go for either Glamour Dust or Sakura Stardust pen, but the first has a limited colour range, and the second doesn't work too well on film. So, I put Stickles in Blueberry on the back of the image over the swirly background, but not the fairy herself. When that dried (and it took ages!) I mounted the film onto some blue holographic card backed by silver mirror card, using brads.

I embossed the background black card in my Wizard, and added some pretty white lace to finish.

Hope you can join us this week!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Creative Crafts where anything goes,
Digital Tuesdays where they want 'things with wings',
Shopping Our Stash where they want embossing,
Crafting for All Seasons where they want 'things with wings',
Fab 'n' Funky where they want 'things with wings',
Stampavie and More where they want glitter,
Whimsy where anything goes,
Charizma Cards where they want 'things with wings',
Sarah Hurley where they want 'something magical',
Digi Doodle Shop where anything goes.

This week at One Stitch at a Time, our theme is the sun! So, colours or shapes or something else that means 'sun' to you!  We're sponsored this week by

This week, I chose a gorgeous image from Floppy Latte designs called 'Funky Flower'. I chose a theme with circles, and golden sunshine colours coupled with sky blues. And flowers, of course, need lots of sunshine!
First, I printed the image four times. I coloured it with Promarkers, and layered it as shown. Before I layered, I scanned the base layer matted to a nestiblity scallopped circle. I used this image to make a backing paper which included the borders as shown. To add a final touch of dimension, I layered the three corner 'buttons'.

Finally, I added an insert to match.

Hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

The Crafty Bloggers Network where anything goes,
Papertake Weekly where anything goes,
Sassy Cheryl where anything goes,
Stamp N Plus where anything goes,
Creatalicious Challenges where anything goes,
ATCs and Cards with Attitude where anything goes,
Chocolate, Coffee and Cards where anything goes,
Fat Pages and Cards with Attitude where anything goes,

(Back later to link to the challenges!)

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we're challenging you to be square! We want to see square cards, gifts, tags ... whatever you want. And don't forget, our lucky winner will get a gift voucher for the Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps!

The image I chose this week is from Floppy Latte Designs and it's called Christmas Lamp. It's available here.

I had so much fun colouring that image! I used Promarkers, of course, although I added some sparkle to the flame with a Sakura Stardust pen. The background card is some gorgeous textured card I've had for ages (but didn't want to use!) I think it came from Payper Box when I was one of the Olympia shows a year or two ago. I've cut some red and green squares using my nesties and added them on top. (Well, the requirment of the challenge is to be square!) I've even made sure I cropped the image to a square too. The final addition is some sticky gems.

Hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Creative Craft Challenges where they're having a 'free for all',
AI Factory where they want 'something red',
Fab 'n' Funky where anything goes,
Paper Shelter where anything goes,
Joanna Sheen Challenge where the theme is Christmas Wishes,
Creatalicious whose theme is 'Christmas and make sure it sparkles',
Gingerloft where the theme is Christmas or Winter.

It's the last Sunday of the month again, and that means we're previewing next month's fabulous free gift at Stitchy Bear Stamps. Spend $10 in the shop during July, and you'll get a fabulous selection of images and papers, and if you check out the various design team members, you'll see what it includes.

We're sponsored this week by


This time, I worked with some lovely papers from Panda Bear Designs. The theme of the challenge (and the collection) is sympathy/weddings. Two very different occasions, but it's amazing how some images and papers will work well for both if given a slightly different treatment.

Typically, I couldn't make up my mind which occasion to choose, so I made one of each.
First, I made a wedding card. The roses just seemed so beautifully romantic! I kept the design simple so as not to swamp the very pretty paper.  I used an image from Sylvie, coloured with Promarkers, and layered it with silver mirror card and some white card coloured to match the paper. The roses were made from the same white card, again coloured or shaded with Promarkers, punched into basic blossom shapes, and assembled.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Art Impressions where they want hand-made flowers,
Rainbow Lady's challenge where they want digis,
Everybody Art Challenge where anything goes,
The Crazy Challenge where they want weddings,
Prairie Fairy Fridays where the theme is wedding.




Sympathy cards are very useful things to have in your collection, but it's a variety I'm often reluctant to make. This pretty paper with its lovely soft pink tones seemed perfect, and I teamed it with an image from Floppy Latte Designs which I've coloured with Promarkers. It's matted onto some lovely apricot-gold embossed card. To me, Sympathy cards shouldn't be too fussy, so I didn't add any further embellishment, but again, the paper is so pretty, I don't think it's really lacking at all. Those are just two of the papers Panda Bear Designs has contributed to the July collection, and don't forget all the other designers!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Dutch Dare where they want 'clean and simple'
Papercrafting Journey where anything goes,
I Love Promarkers where anything goes (with Promarkers),
Ruby's Rainbow where they want flowers,


I hope you can join us this week.

This week at One Stitch at a Time, our challenge is to make something with wings! That's right - a bird, fairy, butterfly, bat ... as long as it's got wings, you're ok.

And even better, we're sponsored this week by the amazing Joanna Sheen. Remember, she ships around the world without charging extra for postage!


And this week, the artist in the spotlight is Floppy Latte Designs. There are some gorgeous papers and images in her collection, among them some stunning silhouettes.
The image is coloured with Promarkers and I added a little Glamour Dust in gold to her wings. The paper is from Papermania. The butterfly was cut using a Marianne Creatables die in my Wizard. Now, I find those intricate non-Spellbinders dies hard to cut cleanly, so I turned that disadvantage into a positive by cutting it from some fairly thin white card that I use for punching. Then, I coloured the die cut with Promarkers, using the same range of reds I had in the image, and again, added some gold Glamour Dust.

I hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Stampavie and More where they want butterflies,
Craft Your Passion where the theme is 'magical',
Bunny Zoe's Crafts where the theme is 'fairies',
Top Tip Tuesday where there's an open challenge this time,
Delightful Challenges where anything goes,
Southern Girls where anything goes,
Delicious Doodles where they want things that flutter,
Polka Doodles where their theme is 'all of a flutter',
Simply Create where they want us to fly with them,
The Stampman where they want butterflies and dragonflies.

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we're challengeng you to 'Tag It'. That's right, anything goes providing it's a tag or has a tag somewhere on it. And we're sponsored by
I started out to make a single gift tag, and then wondered what it would look like in a different colour combination, and this is the result! I did all the manipulations in Photoshop Elements and added some background paper which is taken from some Permission Free samples from a CD called Crafty Image Emporium from Crafty Computer Paper which I altered to match.

But, of course, I couldn't leave it at that, so I made a card to match one of the colour options!
The details are similar to the tags, and I added a border of Coredinations card that I cut using a Martha Stewart punch, and a die cut frame which was embossed in my Wizard. The swirls were also die cut, and the flowers were made from punched shapes and coloured with Promarkers.

Hope you can join us this week.

This week at One Stitch at a Time, the theme is 'Make it Sassy'. Now, that theme gave me some problems. It's probably because I'm from the UK (and not still a youngster) but that word just doesn't have any positive connotations for me. I can think of many words I'd use instead, but all of them are rather insulting. So, I checked a US online dictionary looking for something I could use and it said it meant 'bold'. Now that can be negative too, but I took it to refer to colours, and that works for me!

We're sponsored this week by Joanna Sheen, and remember she doesn't charge postage to anywhere in the world, so it's a great prize wherever you are!
This week, I got to work with an image from Floppe Latte, and chose the lovely 'Floral Border 2' image. As the name would imply, it's one of a series, and the only problem I had was picking just one!

Given the theme, I wanted some boldly coloured papers to go with the image, and I decided to use a couple from Floppe Latte's Fun'n'Funky papers set which I got a while ago. And they're so bright and cheerful, I couldn't decide which to use, so I ended up with two cards!
I placed the digi-stamp over the paper in Photoshop Elements, filling the inside areas of the stamp with white, then added the greeting. Once I'd printed the combined stamp/backing, I coloured the digi-stamp with Promarkers, and then coloured copies of the main flower and leaf to match before layering them over the image.

To finish, I used some heat-embossing. I die cut a flower shape using my nesties and Wizard, then embossed with some pastel coloured powder I've had for a while. I used four or five layers of embossing powder, and when I was happy the layer was thick enough, I added some Perfect Pearl powders to the surface before melting it into the embossed surface. One more heating of the embossing, and I stamped with a floral background stamp to give some texture. Both are finished with a sticky gem.

And so you can see the cards in a little more detail ...








Hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter these cards into the following challenges:
Papertake Weekly where the theme is 'Truly Dimensional',

Top Tip Tuesday where the theme is 'Spring has Sprung' and what says 'Spring' better than flowers!
Crafty Calendar where the theme is 'April Showers bring forth May Flowers'
Daring Cardmakers where the theme is 'Easter or Spring', and to me, Spring means flowers.
Digis with Attitude where the theme is 'Spring has Sprung'
Totally Papercrafts where the theme is 'Springtime'
Stamp Insanity where the theme is 'Flower Power'

One Stitch at a Time is having a birthday! And to celebrate, there's candy on some DT blogs, and loads of prizes for this week's challenge. And the theme for the challenge is 'Pretty Things'.

Sponsors this week: The Stamping Boutique, Robyn's Fetish, Copic Markers, Hobby Habitat, Dezina World, and Robin's Nest. How's that for a lineup?

'Pretty' is one of those words that describes so many possiblities. For me, it means lovely colours, shiny things, lace, flowers, butterflies. I loved the image I chose for this challenge. It's a silhouette from Floppe Latte which is available from the Stitchy Bear shop. In fact, I liked it so much, I used it in two different ways!

This first project is fairly traditional - except that I've used Twinkling H2Os instead of my usual Promarkers. I thought the 'pretty' tag suggested adding that bit of sparkle. I adjusted the colour of the silhouette in Photoshop Elements before printing it onto watercolour paper. Then, I tried to reproduce a gradient effect using the paints. The papers are from the Papermania Capsule collection, and I've coloured some Prima flowers with the paints I used in the image.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Pear Tree Designs where it's a 'Free for All',
Craft Your Passion where 'Anything Goes'
Charisma Cardz where the theme is 'Myth and Fantasy'
Sweet Stamping where the theme is 'Love Bug' or an insect on your card (butterfly in image).
Little Claire's where 'Anything Goes'

And now for something a bit different. This time, I've gone for a largely digital effect.

I coloured the image in Photoshop Elements - the sky is a pale lilac shading in to turquoise but doesn't show well. Then, I printed five copies on polyester film. I cut panels to size, and cut out rectangular apertures using my nesties to make the 'fairy light'. The card uses the last printed image, and I've mounted it on holographic card. Here, I've also used my borderabilities and some ribbon, and on both, I've added a die cut butterfly.

Here's a picture of what I'm calling my 'fairy lights' where you can see some of the shading.

I'd like to enter this into the Simon Says Stamp challenge which is for 'Anything but a Card.
And a close up of the card so you can see the detail.

I'd like to enter this card and 'fairy light' into the following challenges:
Top Tip Tuesday where the theme is 'Frame It',
Stamping with the Dragon whose theme is 'Anything Goes'.

Hope you can join us this week, and don't forget to check out the other DT members' beautiful creations..

This week at One Stitch at a Time, we're inviting you to celebrate with us! That's right, we want to see you make something for a celebration - doesn't matter what - birthday, Christmas, wedding ... your choice. And the prize this week is five digis from the Stitchy Bear shop.

This time, I've been working with some papers from Floppy Latte Designs whose work is available here. I chose a couple of sets from the selection - the Fun'n'Funky papers and the matching Alphabet.

Firstly, I did a purely digital card. I had fun with this, playing with the various elements in Photoshop Elements and this was the result.

But then, just to prove I could do a 'real' card with those 'bits', I printed the elements and came up with this.


It's a non-specific celebration card, that I think might be useful to have in my box. I added some extra matting over the digital version, but otherwise, they're about the same.

And, because I've decided to have some calendars as Christmas gifts this year, I did one of those too!





Those papers are just so bright and cheerful, they're ideal for something that's going to be around for a whole year!

This time, I added some 'cookie cutter' shapes from Photoshop Elements, and the phrase which I've loved since I saw in a stitching pattern years ago - 'Life is a Patch-work of Love'. I've used all six of the papers here, and while I used the alphabet set for the card, I didn't for this one because I wanted more structure to the pattern, and that meant I needed certain letters to use specific papers. I did those in some very elderly software I've got called Namo Web Canvas, which allows any vector shape (including text) to be filled with a pattern. Once I'd done that, I imported the letters into PSE and did the rest! To add to the interest, I raised every alternate letter on foam pads. The calendar is an easel-style construction, using some extra-thick card to support it's A4 width size. The flowers used more of the papers, cut with the Blossom 2 die in my Wizard and with the edges inked in Pine Needles Distress Ink, and finished with sticky gems.

Hope you can join the celebration at OSAAT this week!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges: Stamp Something where the challenge is to use something digital - well, it's all digital!

Pear Tree Designs whose theme is 'Anything Goes',
Meljens Designs whose theme is 'Anything Goes'
A Crafty Little Place who want easel cards. (I've got an easel calendar card, hope that's ok!)
Challenge Up Your Life  who're looking for easels (Again, an easel calendar card, hope that's ok),
Gingersnap Creations who're looking for something inspired by a quilt pattern. (My calendar may not be a traditional quilt pattern, but I think it's in the same style.)