Today I have something a bit different to share with you. A few months ago I joined the online community at Kit and Clowder as I wanted to refresh and upgrade my marker colouring skills so I could get back into crafting. I got a gift voucher from good friends for my birthday 😀 and purchased a class, but haven’t actually completed it yet as I keep getting sidetracked by the wealth of online resources and free classes available to members (and quite a few to non-members too). The teacher  - Alyce - is really good and so nice .. she offers 1-2-1 email feedback and is so supportive. There is also a very active K&C FB group which welcomes posts of all kinds .. not just the colouring taught in the classes. So overall I’m very impressed and would recommend anyone not familiar to have a look.

Over the past couple of days I completed a free rose colouring class which I really enjoyed, and decided to make the resulting image into a card for my husband to show how much I love him ❤️. I printed the class image bigger than what I would normally use on a card so I could colour it in more detail, but still just small enough to fit a 6” square card. This meant the focal image filled the card and didn’t really need any further embellishment .. I just used a little faux stitching to frame it and a couple of teeny gems to represent dewdrops.

For my first attempt I was really pleased with how this turned out. Alyce is a great teacher and explains a lot of detail about light source and use of texture. I haven't really got the texture right but alas that is easier to achieve with brush nib markers such as Copics ... I'm not sure whether I'll get there with bullet nib Promarkers but I'll keep trying!

And here is a view of the coloured image before I used it on the card ..

Stamps: Power Poppy Rose (digi); sentiment - Lavinia Stamps;

Media: Promarkers with white pencil highlights;

Gems from my stash.

AAA CAS Challenges #200 - Celebrate

(I am celebrating my love for my lovely husband❤️)

Crafts Galore Encore #92 - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday #693 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

The Flower Challenge #61 - Use a Shape (2nd entry)

(Square)

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Good morning everyone,

It's Saturday so it's time for another weekly Allsorts Challenge.  Thanks to all the other members of the team for their kind welcome last week, and to other commenters both here and on FB for your kind words. 

This week Lolo has chosen the theme and it is

We have 2 great prizes on offer for you: firstly

Crafty Ribbons is offering a £10 gift voucher for their store (winner pays postage and packing)

And secondly we have a sizzix die for you

Back in the day when I was previously crafting regularly I was definitely into my embellies big time - I was something of a "fussy and fancy" girl and went by the motto "more is more"! Now however I try to keep my cards a bit flatter ... not least because the padded envelope size I used to use for my embellished cards is no longer readily available, and this week I needed to post a card I had made in the past laden with flowers and it was a bit of a nightmare!! Nonetheless I still love my ribbons, gems etc. I also felt the time has come when I need to start seriously cracking on with some Christmas cards, so here's what I did.

I've scarcely made any Christmas cards for about 5 years now other than a couple for close family, so I was casting around in my stash for inspiration and found a couple of LotV rubber stamps I had bought 3 or 4 years ago with good intentions of doing some Christmas makes but never used .. how shocking is that? I always loved James the Bear, so I thought it was about time this stamp got inky. I coloured him with my Promarkers and added some glamour dust to his hat; and my embellishments consist chiefly of a triple loop bow (I couldn't remember how to do these so had to make a few attempts with my Bow-Easy!), and a couple of jingle bells! 

Stamps: Lot\V "James Christmas Tree" and "Grungy Christmas Sentiments";

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: LotV Nitwits Collection - "Festive Trimmings";

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities "labels one" dies;

Jute and gingham ribbons, pearls and bells from my stash.

Colour Crazy Challenge #40 - Anything Goes

Crafter's Castle #46 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Hope you can join us this week, and I look forward to seeing your entries. Don't forget to visit the challenge blog to see more inspiration from the rest of the team. Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

As I'm now not working and am trying to get back into cardmaking, I have decided to try to make some Christmas cards this year ... up until about 2015 I had made all my cards for several years, but then it all kind of drifted away! 

I have signed up for an online colouring class which I'm hoping to get started on in the next week (as soon as I can stock up on stamping card!!) but in the meantime I found a few coloured images when I was rooting in my stash, so here is my first Christmas card of 2021 - the countdown begins!

As I have made only a handful of Christmas cards over the past few years I am determined to try to make use of the stash I have already - particularly stamps (who knows how long that resolution will last)?

I noticed a bit of Promarker bleed ing on the post box which i did my best to repair with some Stickles glitter glue ... it doesn't actually look nearly as bad in real life as on a blown up photo!!

Stamps: Penny Black "Royal Mail" (3766J); LotV "Circular Christmas Sentiments";

Media: Promarkers;

Papers: LotV Nitwits "Festive Trimmings";

Flowers and ribbon from my stash.

Crafty Calendar (August) - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday #691 - Anything Goes

Jingle Belles - Red and Green All Over

Passion for Markers #604 - Christmas in August

(As I said in my previous post this is a really difficult one ... but Penny  Black were the stamps that first got me into stamping and at one time were almost all I ever used. Although things may have moved on since then they'll always hold a place in my heart)

I'm off to make a friend's birthday card now so I'll be back soon.

Hugs,

Here is a large (8*8) but fairly simple card I made for a friend’s milestone birthday, which actually happened last year during first lockdown so sadly we couldn’t all celebrate together. It was also during the period when I wasn’t blogging so hasn’t been published on here before.

Hi everyone .. well it's something rather different from me today.

My friend and fellow craftaholic Lil invited me to come along to a crafting workshop she had heard about. It was given by Helen Ding, an independent Stampin' Up demonstrator, and was held in Warrington near where I work.

I'm totally unfamiliar with Stampin' Up products so thought I would go along to see what was what, and also just for the social side of an evening out with fellow crafters.

The aim of the class was to do various techniques for getting ink to paper ... including the "baby wipe" technique with reinkers, and using dye-ink marker pens to colour images and/or ribbon (I'd never coloured ribbon before!!).  

The whole thing was very enjoyable, and here's what I made ...

I'm not enetering these cards into any challenges as theya re not my own original designs, but i just thought I'd like to share them with you today.

Thanks for visiting, and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

hugs,

Good morning everyone,

It's Thursday again, so it's time for another Crafty Little Fairies challenge, and this week it's the turn of the Pink Fairies to host the challenge.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered last week's challenge - we always love looking at your fabulous entries .. don't forget to check the challenge blog to see if you have won last week's prize.

This week our challenge theme is

Shopping

and we are very pleased to be sponsored  by  Delicious Doodles

who are kindly offering 4 digis of the winner's choice.

Please remember that in order to be eligible for our prize you must use stamping (rubber or digi) as the main focus of your project.

Well I honestly don't know where the past fortnight has gone to, as this is the first card I have managed to make in that time. I'm definitely not fitting in nearly as much crafting as I used to ... but I'm trying to be kind to myself and not put myself under too much pressure - after all crafting is supposed to be fun!!

Personally I definitely think shopping is fun if  I'm in the mood for it, so I thought this was a really sweet challenge. Here's what I did - do check out the main challenge  blog for some fabulous inspiration from the rest of the DT.

Good evening everyone, and Happy Valentine's Day!! I hope you all managed to get through your front doors without being obstructed by the massive pile of cards on your doormats lol! Personally I didn't have too much trouble getting past my pile of Valentine cards, but I do have one to show you which I made for my darling husband :-) I prefer not to publish his Valentine's card before February 14th, as I like for him to see it first!! :-)

This is an 8" * 8" card - soooo much space to fill!! I did keep it fairly simple though, as I always do with male cards.

Here's a closeup of James - isn't he just totally adorable??


Stamps: LotV "James Big Heart" and "Love Sentiments"; sentiment on heart free with an old craft magazine;

Media: Promarkers & Flexmarkers;

Papers: LotV "Country Gentleman" (plaid) and Dovecraft "Tilly Daydream" (hearts)

Supplies: ribbon from Hobbycraft; wooden heart buttons from my stash.

I got the "Love Sentiments" set free in a recent LotV promotion, and I was so inspired by all the cute little love stamps and postmarks that i stamped onto the front of the envelope as well  (I've just shown a teeny corner, as Ihad to give this card to my beloved before I had chance to photograph it this morning , so his name is on the front!)

Challenges:

Cutie Pie #62 - My Cutie Valentine!

Fussy & Fancy #107 - Be My Valentine

Fab'n'Funky #203 - Love / Valentine

Totally Papercrafts #206 - Valentine / Love
Divas By Design - With Love

Corrosive #192 - Feel the Love

Deep Ocean #71 - Love Is All Around

Crafty Calendar - Love Is All Around

Papercrafting Journey - Love Is In The Air

Whimsy #68 - Love Is in The Air
Bunny Zoe's Challenge - Hearts / Love
Passion For Promarkers #234 - Have A Heart

Papertake Weekly - With  A Heart

Ooh La La #150 - Use A Heart

Kaboodle #210 - To My Sweetheart

Crafting For All Seasons #70 - Show Us Some Romance

LotV Ideas to Inspire - Name That Tune
("Put A Little Love In Your Heart" - Dolly Parton)
Creative Romance - Let's Get Sentimental

Well that's enough love and romance for one day I think ... hope yoy have a great day.
Hugs,

Good morning everyone,

Hope everyone reading in the UK is safe and well after the horrendous gales we had last night ... here in the North West it was absolutely wild, but at least we're not in the desperate situation of people in some parts of the country who have had weeks of flooding ... so keep safe everyone!

It's Thursday, which means of course it's time for another Crafty little Fairies Challenge ... with the Pink Fairies in the chair this week.  We so enjoyed looking at your lovey-dovey creations for last week's challenge - don't forget to check on the main challenge blog whether you are a prize winner.

This week we have another cute theme ...

Teddies

And we are thrilled this week to have not one but two sponsors ...

Live & Love Crafts

Marianne Design.

Please don't forget that in order to be eligible for these fab prizes you will need to use a stamped image (digis are fine) on your creation, and submit a new project - no backlinking please!!

How sweet is this week's theme?? Reviewing my recent care output I think that most of my favourite stamps are teddy images, so I certainly had plenty to choose from when I came to make my card. This week it's just a fairly simple card from me as the past couple of weeks have somehow flown away .. not sure what i've been doing but I've been very busy doing it lol!) Anyhow, here is what I did ...

Stamps: Stampavie "Teddie's Stocking" and sentiment by Perfectly Clear Stamps;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: Forever Friends "Kraft notes";

Supplies: poinsetta flowers and ribbon from Hobbycraft; pearls from The Hobby House.

I made a little secret pocket for my tag ...

Challenges:
CRAFT#246 - Christmas

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Get Krafty

Simon Says (Monday) - We Love Stamps

Dream Valley - TAG You're It!

Crafty Creations #256 - For The Birds

ABC - E is For Embellish

(flowers, ribbon, pearls)

Craft Your Passion #200 - Pick Any Challenge from the Past 12 months

(I picked #158 - Adorable Animals)

Little Red Wagon #224 - Pocket

Sparkles Christmas #37 - Anything Goes

The Hobby  House Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks so much for visiting today - hope you can join in with this week's challenge.

Hugs,