Friday 28 October 2011

Fairy Fantasy

Good morning, peeps and it's time for anew challenge over at Polka Doodles!  The title of the challenge this week is Magical and Mystical so of course it had to include a fairy for me and this little beauty has been waiting in my stash to make an appearance for 9 months - here's what happened when she finally saw ink!


She's called Garden of Wishes and she's from Lili of the Valley.  I just love the way her blue eyes are gazing at that star she's caught and the movement in her dress.  She coloured with Copics, Flexmarkers and Promarkers (of course) and Prisma pencils and I added Glamour Dust to her rainbow wings and Star Dust Stickles to the star (what else?).

The gorge papers are from the Polka Doodles Pretty Sweet CD, so delicate and girlie.  Those of my lovely followers who've been around for a while will know that I've never really been a CD crafter but I'm sold now that I've discovered Polka Doodles.  I just print the designs on Ultimate Graphic card and I have superb quality DP at a click!  No more wondering if I should use a piece of DP because it's nearly gone, stroking it and putting it back in the box.  If I like a paper I can have as much of it as I want and not worry about whether or not it's gone from the shelves - yay!!

The swirly leaves are cut from a Cheery Lynn die called 'Fanciful Flourish' and it's available from Tracy at Dies to Die For and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.  It's been a while since it's felt right to add half a florist's shop to a card and I love it!

The scallops at the bottom of the card were produced with my EK Success Diamond Lace punch and it's available here at The Hobby House.  Ribbon and rhinestones were from the same shop.

I didn't keep a note of all the pens I used in the colouring but I can tell you that I went through a range of RV Copics to get the colour I wanted and ended up using mainly Promarker in Blossom and Rose Pink and Pale Blossom Flexmarker.  The dress colouring was all enhanced with a Raspberry Prisma Pencil.  For the rainbow wings, I used the palest Copics (0000) in the RV, YR, Y, G, B colour families and a Pale Lavender Flexmarker.  Her skin and blonde hair were my usual ones, which you'll find in previous posts.

The frame for the fairy portrait is a Spellbinders Nestie Fleur de Lis die.

Do come and join us for this challenge - you have until next Thursday to join in and thank you for looking today.  Have a great weekend!

Hugs



Wednesday 26 October 2011

Christmas Place Setting

Good morning, peeps and a wonderful sunny one it is too!  Don't you just love these sunny Autumn days full of glorious colour?

Guess what I was doing yesterday - teaching a small group of ladies to make these items for glamming up their Christmas tables.


I just love Molly Blooms stamps and this image of Rudolph is so cute and I thought he was perfect for the job not looking either too feminine or too masculine.

This is a really simple set to make, it just requires some concentration to measure and cut the shape for the cracker shaped box from 12" x 12" cardstock.

If you're around Brighouse on Saturday morning, I shall be teaching the same class again at Samuel Taylors and there are still places left.

Well, it looks as though my place at the table for Christmas lunch is secured!  Better get on with some more.

I'm sorry I didn't keep a note of the Copics I used but the pine branch is a Marianne die and the DP is a gorge one from Kaisercraft.

Thanks for looking today and I'll see you again soon.

Hugs


Friday 21 October 2011

Starlight Tilda

Good morning, peeps!

Well, I'm finally back with a new challenge for Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge and the challenge this week is three Bs - Black, Border punch and Bling!  As you can see, my card has all three:



The colours don't seem to have shown up particularly well in this photograph but you can at least clearly see the bling - plenty of that on view!

As well as being my challenge card, this is one of the card designs I'm teaching at a workshop at Samuel Taylor's in Roseville Street, Leeds tomorrow and I'll show you the other one another time.

I realised as I put the card together that the colours are quite halloween-y, which was quite unintentional since I don't 'do' halloween.  They were inspired by the gorge papers from Bo Bunny.

Recipe:

Stamps:  Magnolia
Snowflakes & lace:  Martha Stewart punches
DPs:  Bo Bunny (one of last year's Christmas designs)
Ribbon & diamante: from my stash
Copics:

Skin:  E000, E00, E21, E01, R20, R11, R30
Hair:  Just about all the cool greys!
Dress:  V12, V15, V17 + black Prisma Pencil
Wings and star:  BG70, BG72 + Muted Turquoise Prisma Pencil
Wand stick:  E71, E74, E77

I do hope you'll joi n in with this challenge, it's a reallt easy one!

Thanks for looking today and I hope to have something else for you to see soon.

Hugs


Friday 7 October 2011

Handmade flower challenge

Good morning, peeps and it's Polka Doodles Challenge day today!

The challenge this week is 'Handmade flowers'- well that sent me into a bit of a panic I can tell you because I usually rely on Wild Orchid Crafts for flowers but I resorted to my tried and tested ones and you can see them here on my card:



I decided to place these two gorgeous friends from the Pretty Sweet CD in a lovely summery scene with the flowery fence from the Summer section of the Sundae of Seasons CD.  The girlies are coloured with my Copics but the flowery fence came ready coloured.  I have kept a note of the Copic colours and I'll be back later to edit this post and give you the colours but I have a hair appointment this morning - got to look glam for the big demo day tomorrow at Samuel Taylors, Roseville Street, Leeds!  Actually, I had the appointment anyway and the dates just coincide but it sounds good.

Can you believe that amidst distractions and interruptions (some people would call it work) it finally took me two and a half days to make this card - unbelievable!  The lovely DPs came from the Pretty Sweet CD as well.  I'm absolutely in love with them and there's something for everything when you're making unashamedly girle cards like this one.

I've got some photos to show you how to make the fowers as well so, see ya later!  In the meantime, do get making some lovely flowers and join us for the challenge.

Edit

Right, I finally have chance to tell you about how I made the flowers for this card.

First, you punch out the basic flowers from a small Retro Flower punch.  Then you take some scalloped edge scissors and cut a notch out of the end of each petal.


Then you take a cotton bud and add Distress Ink in whatever colour you need to the centre area of the flower and fade it out up into the petals.  Now add tiny dots to the petals nearest the centre of the flower- I used a Marvy Le Plume pen for this.

Finally, use a ball tool to shape the flowers - turn them over so that the coloured side is facing a foam mat and, using a circular motion, rotate the ball tool out from the cente so that the flowers become cup shaped, then do the same with each individual petal.


Finally, flip the flower over again so the coloured side is facing up and press down in the centre and, presto!! you have quite a realistic looking little primrose-like flower!


I used a Viva Pearl Pen to create the centres once I'd glued the flowers in place but you could use anything you choose.

OK, now for the Copics and Prisma pencils I used - loads here, I'm afraid!

Skin:  E000, E00, E01, E21, R20, R11, R30
Blonde hair:  E50, E51, E53, E55
Auburn hair:  E31, E33, E35, E37, E39 + Dark Brown Prisma pencil
Pink clothing:  RV00, RV10,  Promarker, Pink Carnation, RV34 + Raspberry Prisma pencil
Green stripes:  G12, G20, G24, G82 , G94
Blue trousers:  B000, B00, B02 + Muted Turqoise Prisma pencil
Khaki trousers:   BG93, BG96, BG99
Roses:  Promarker Antique Pink, R46, R59 + Tuscan Red Prisma pencil

Phew!  That was a marathon edit - I hope you managed to stay with me!

Hugs


Monday 3 October 2011

Polka Doodles DT Call

Good lovely sunny afternoon, peeps!

Okkkaaayyyy! We're looking for some new teamies to join us over at Polkadoodles!

Yep, we need some new blood to join our lovely talented team on the challenge blog and also to make samples for shows and TV! So, if you LOVE colouring and you're great with your Promarkers, Copics, Prisma's and Watercolours (or any other colouring medium) and it's your speciality then please email Nikky with a link to your blog and NO MORE than 50 words about yourself and why you want to be on the Polkadoodles team. If you don't like colouring then don't worry - Polkadoodles caters for everyone, but you do need to be able to use digital products and rubber stamp.  
It doesn't matter if you're a cardmaker, scrapbooker, a stamper or a CD crafter, we need someone who can be versatile and fit within the other talents on our fabulous, happy team. We look for all kinds of abilities and styles so you've gotta be in it, to win it, as the saying goes! You MUST have a blog where you post regularly. You MUST be able to commit to participating in the challenge blog 3 times per month, making TV samples when required AND commenting on challenge entries each week, so please ensure you can do all this before you apply - this is a permanent position and you must be able to offer the commitment we need. 
Entries from around the world will be considered but, as we need people who can also make samples, because of time constraints entries from the UK may have an advantage - if you're not in the UK please don't let that put you off, really we just need someone awesome, and we're looking for more than one person!! We will be choosing someone over the next two weeks and results will be posted here
Please do not leave comments etc on the challenge blog, all bloglinks must be sent by email by 13th OCTOBER. Please ensure your links are correct and link to the homepage so we can see your blog properly. email Nikky with a link to your blog and NO MORE than 50 words about yourself and why you want to be on the Polkadoodles team. (please note: Final decision will be announced on the challenge blog after 13th October) ---- 

 
GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!! 
 
Hugs