One for my mum

My mum saw this stamp when I'd done it in pink and asked if I could do one in red for her to give to a friend.  The image is Stamping Bella Uptown Girl Quinn in her Boots. The image is coloured in ProMarkers with a bit of black biro to highlight her hair and some glitter to highlight the snow.

Papers are from Lili of the Valley and NitWit Collections - Simple Joy, Lili of the Valley - Classic Christmas and Crafters Companion - BeBunni Christmas.

There's some lace behind the image from Wild Orchid Crafts.  The sentiment is from Hobby Craft.  I've used three diamanté snowflakes from Creative Expressions (crystal sparklers).  The finishing touch is black self adhesive gems in groups of three at the top right and bottom left of the card.

Hmmm.... Looks like I've been doing a bit of shopping around for this lot.  Going to take her to my mum's at the weekend.

I'm going to enter Quinn into the following challenges

I Love ProMarkers - Three of a Kind

Divas by Design - Anything Goes

Fab n Funky - Christmas

Kraftin Kimmie's - Anything Goes

Passion for ProMarkers - Add Some Sparkle

Happy crafting

Andrea x

Red Queen

After doing Cassie this image in purple I decided the see what she'd look like in red.  The image is Kraftin Kimmie's Vampire Queen.  I've used my polychromos pencils again so I could have a play with them (I discovered them during a recent colouring challenge and love them).

The background is coloured with grey copics.

Apart from black and red card stock I used only one design paper from Lili of the Valley & Raspberry Road Designs - Heartfelt.

Apart from some black and white leafy patterned ribbon from DoCrafts Midnight Blush collection the only other embellishments are some red and black flowers and leaves from Wild Orchid Crafts.

I'm entering my red queen into the following challenges

Creative Inspirations - Happy Halloween

Fantasy Stampers - Something Spooky

Happy Crafting

Andrea x

Mischief

I had so much fun making the mini headless horseman I decided to do another mini from Make It Crafty.

I coloured my mini Dracula stamp in a combination of ProMarkers and Copics.  The image is cut using a die and then cut along the bottom edge to make it straight.  I cut the bottom of his cape and legs out so it would look like the rest of the image is behind him.  I've used the bats from my Halloween PaperArtsy stamps so it looks like he's being followed by bats. Some of the bats I coloured with a biro to make them stand out.

For the actual card I've used black card stock, then overlaid some paper from Tim Holtz a Ideology paper I bought in  Hobby Craft a while ago.  At the top right the card is torn and then I've glued some eyes on to make it look like Dracula is being watched while he gets up to his mischief.

Before I mounted the Dracula image I used the tree and ravens part of the Halloween PaperArtsy stamps at the left hand edge.  I then decided to make him a path, some tomb stones and rough grass cut out of black cardstock (these were actually just hand cut I didn't sketch them or anything first).  Once the path and tomb stones were glued in place I put Dracula onto the card.

The final to touch was some wrought iron fencing cut out of black card stock with a die.  I cut some of the fencing to make it look more derelict.

I love this little guy he certainly looks like he's up to no good.

I'm going to enter him into the following challenges

Creative Inspirations - Happy Halloween

Cardz 4 Guyz - It's Spooky - Halloween

Paradise of Stamps - Halloween

Crafty Little Fairies - Only One Design Paper

Without Words - Boo!

A Little Bit Crafty - Boo!

CRAFT - Autumn/Halloween/Thanksgiving/Bonfire Night

Fantasy Stampers - Something Spooky

Happy Halloween

Andrea x

Pink ppinky

This is the first time I've used a ppinky doll from Christhanthi.  I highlighted the image in pink using ProMarkers.  I cut a pink piece if paper with a spell binders die then mounted the image onto it.

Papers are from Lili of the Valley and NitWit Collections - Always and Forever and Solids - Always and Forever.

I've edged the pink square paper with some lace then mounted it onto the backing sheet at an angle.  Flat pearl trim and small organza rose trim edge the bottom and top of the card.  There's a mixture of flowers and leaves around the main image to embellish it.  All the lace and flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Finals touches to the card are a papers butterfly that I found inLili of the Valley ages ago.  I've used some pink self adhesive gems to make the butterfly's body.  There are also some white pearlised self adhesive gems added to give the final embellishment to the stripy paper.

I love it when challenges do thinks I can enter in pink :) I'm entering my ppinky doll into

In the Pink - Spots and/or stripes

A Creative Romance - Pink

Wags n Whiskers - Stripes

Happy Saturday

Andrea x

Embellishing in white

I recently bought some Magnolia stamps, this one Tilda with a small present is the first one I've used. I used subtle colours because I wanted her to be mostly white.  I used ProMarkers to do this.  The image is cut using a Spellbinders die.

The papers are from Lili of the Valley and Raspberry Road Designs - Timeless Victorian and Lili of the Valley and NitWit Collections - Solids - Always and Forever.

Apart from some golden self adhesive gems all the other embellishments are from Wild Orchid Crafts.  Flowers and leaf, lace, small organza rose trim and flat backed pearl string.  Most of the  embellishments are white.

I'm entering her into the following challenges

Ribbon Girl - colour challenge White

Addicted to Stamps - Anything Goes

All that's left to do is to load her up

Happy Crafting

Andrea x

In the snow

Time to make more Christmas cards - yay!  I've still got loads to do and the current challenges from I Love ProMarkers - Snowflakes and Inky Chicks - Christmas is a good excuse.

I've used Snow Family from Lili of the Valley and coloured it with my ProMarkers.  The image was cut with a die and the bottom lopped off so it had a flat base. I used a cut border in brown across the flat base and used a couple of pearlised self adhesive gems to make it looked pinned in place.  I recently bought a paint brush so I could paint glue on where I wanted it and then sprinkle glitters hic his what I did with this image.

 I've used just one design paper from Lili of the Valley's Frosty Christmas for the background, but have cut a piece out of  Lili of the Valley & NitWit Collections Winter Wishes for the top left brown patterned paper to which I've added some large pearlised self adhesive gems and the snowflakes sign is fromThe same paper.

The brown oval sentiment and the wooden tree embellishments are from Hobby Craft.

Another one down - probably about fifty to go :)

Happy Christmas Crafting

Andrea x

Sarah's baby card

Sarah was looking through my cards at work this week because she wanted a baby girl card for a friend.  I only had one made up with words on.  When I showed her a card I'd made with this stamp - All Our Dreams from Lili of the Valley she asked if I could make her a card using it.  I've coloured the image with ProMarkers then cut it out with a Spellbinders die.

For a change I decided to use a shaped card.  I've no dies this large so I had to hand cut the backing paper to the same shape.  The papers I've used are from Lili of the Valley & NitWit Collections Always and Forever, Solids - Always and Forever and First Edition - Rose Garden.  It's not often I put spots and stripes together but it works well with the subtle colours.

There's some crafting gauze between the layers and some white lace ribbon both of which I bought from the Lili of the Valley shop.

I've made a tag up with tiny hands and toes button embellishments to insert under the cut image. The tag is edged in pink ProMarker and has some vintage seam binding attached.  There's a selection of mixed flowers and leaves from Wild Orchid Crafts to the bottom left. Finally the "BABY" at the bottom right in pinks is from a pack of adhesive letters from Hobby Craft.

Sarah will love her, she's pregnant herself so is all gooey about babies at the moment :)

I'm going to enter Sarah's card into the following challenges

Passion for ProMarkers - Oh Baby

In the Pink - Spots and/or Stripes

Wags n Whiskers - Stripes

Lili of the Valley - Anything Goes

Andrea x

Mini pumpkin head and sketch

I had a bit of a busy week last week with requests for cards so I've been busy crafting over the weekend.

My boss saw my Mini MonstaBoyz from Make It Crafty I'd got through the post and asked if I could do a pumpkin head for her son Harry.

I wanted him to pop from the card and also do something simple because Harry is only four so would probably pull off embellishments if I used them.  So after thinking about it for a while I decided to create a scene.  I stamped the image in the bottom right hand corner of some crafting card and then sketched by hand a spooky house, tree and moon.  The background and his clothed are coloured with copics in various shades of grey.  The pumpkin head and window are coloured with ProMarkers.

 The background of the card is layered black and orange card stock.  On the left I've used some glitter letters from Hobby Craft for the word Halloween.  The fence is cut from white card stock with a die.

The final touch was to draw a bat in black biro over the moon and highlight the windows and pumpkin head with the biro.

I'm going to enter this card into the following challenges

Paradise of Stamps - Halloween

Crafty Cats - Black and One Other Colour

Without Words - Boo

A Little Bit Crafty - Halloween

Graph It Colouring Challenge - Extra FX

Andrea x

Chloe in the spotlight

We call this stamped image little Chloe at work because it looks very much like a younger version of one of the girls we work with who rides horses.  She also wants to be a model so the title is very appropriate for her.

 I'd coloured image Me and My Pony from Lili of the Valley with ProMarkers a while ago, but when I was going to cut it out I found I'd got it too close to another image.  So, I stamped another one and was all ready to bin the original when I saw the challenge from Creative Inspirations in the spotlight and thought I could put her to good use.

The second image was cut out using a Spellbinders die.  I then went rummaging in the kitchen for small circular objects I could use to get the right size for a spotlight.  My hubby often wonders what l'm doing bringing loads of strange object to my crafting area and looks at me with raised eyebrows saying I won't ask :)

Papers are from Lili of the Valley & NitWit Collections - Country Lady and Solids - Always and Forever.  I picked up the lace last time I was in Lili of the Valley.  The mixed flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.  I've finished the card off with some pearlised self adhesive gems.

An unusual one for me but I do like to do something a bit different and have a challenge.

Andrea x

James bear

I just heard from Lili of the Valley his week that they are retiring James Bear - noooooooo...... He's one of my favourite characters from them.  This particular one is James Presents.  I've coloured him with my old faithful ProMarkers and then cut him out with a die, colouring the edges so it looks like he's been mounted on some black card.

Papers are from Lili of the Valley & NitWit Collections 'Twas the Night

Embellishments are some red pearlised self adhesive gems, black gems, a XMAS sentiments from one of the packs currently available at Hobby Craft and some present brads.

How many days is it left to Christmas?

I'm entering this card into the following challenges

Inky Chicks - Christmas

Deep Ocean - Christmas in October

Christmas Cards All Year Round - Embellish It

Andrea x

Cassie's Vampire Queen

I decided to play around a bit and do some Halloween cards just for a bit of fun.  I bought this stamp this week Kraftin' Kimmie's Vampire Queen.  I love reading horror (not the Dark Fantasy stuff but the real gruesome horror stuff) so I didn't want her to look girly.  I started colouring her at lunchtime at work using polychromos pencils.  Cassie saw her and said how much one of her friends liked Halloween and if I had time to finish her before the day she would buy her from me.  I used copic markers for the grey background and then finished her off today by stamping some bats from a PaperArtsy Collections.  I used a biro to fill in the "bite me!" and a few of the bats to make them stand out.

I've used black card stock for the background on the card and also used this to mount the vampire image.  The other papers are Lili of the Valley & NitWit Collections - Solids Promises and Lili of the Valley & Raspberry Road Designs - Father Knows Best.

The purple ribbon is a piece of satin and is from Lili of the Valley - Little Bags of Ribbon Purple.  Here's the freaky bit as I was preparing to mount the image over the top of the ribbon I managed to slice my thumb open with my craft knife - the lady obviously demands BLOOD!!

Anyway, once mounted, I gave her some purple and black roses from Wild Orchid Crafts and finished the card off with some black self adhesive gems.

She came out much better than I'd hoped and I know Cassie will love her.

I'm going to enter her into the following challenges

Creative Card Crew - Black Card Stock

Without Words - Boo

A Little Bit Crafty - Halloween

Crafty Cats - Black Plus One Other Colour

Paradise of Stamps - Halloween

Papertake Weekly - Superfly

Bite me :)

Andrea x

Santa

I loved this Santa stamp from Lili of the Valley when I saw it.  I decided for a first go I'd colour it in traditional colours.  To do this I've used ProMarkers.  I've also added some glitter to the snow and snow flakes.

The papers are from Lili of the Valley & NitWit Collections - 'Twas the Night and Classic Christmas. I've also used some black card stock to create some black borders to all the sections.

To keep with the reindeer theme I've used some ribbon with reindeers on from Lili of the Valley Little Bags of Ribbon and a wooden reindeer embellishment from Hobby Craft.  The red corner at the top of the image is also from Hobby Craft.  The final touches are a couple of green button trees and some self  adhesive gems.

I'm submitting this card info the following challenges

Deep Ocean - Christmas in October

CRAFT - Christmas

Totally Gorjuss - Traditional Christmas Colours

Christmas Cards All Year Round - Embellish It

Creative Card Crew - Black Cardstock

Not long to go now :)

Andrea x

Pearls and lace

I tried something a little different with this angel card.  I don't often use gauze and I tend to get completely stuck up with it!  I've used it in two places so I'm a gluten for punishment.

The image which I've coloured with ProMarkers is Lili of the Valley - Holy Light.  I've used an oval die to cut the image out and hand cut a circle in pearlised paper (only because I've no die this shape yet).

Other papers used are Lili of he Valley & NitWit Collections - Enchanted and Lili of the Valley & Raspberry Road Designs - Beach Bliss.

Embellishments I've used are some tiny sliver angel wings tied with some white organza ribbon, some gold self adhesive gems, lace and flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and some pearl elements with the flowers from Hobby Craft.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges

Ribbon Girl - Add Lace

Deep Ocean Challenge - Christmas in October

Winter Wonderland - Lace and Pearls

Christmas Cards All Year Round - Embellish It

Happy crafting ladies

Andrea x

Favourite colour combo

So although I'm a pink girl through and through when doing a colour combo this is definitely my favourite - blues and purples.  So I was delighted when I saw the current challenges from Passion for ProMarkers and A Creative Romance and decided to go a bit more fantasy with my colouring :)

Once I'd got over my biros challenge (in my previous blog) I set to work colouring Lili of the Valley's Midsummer 's Night with my ProMarkers - old faithful and no hand cramp from clinging onto the pens!  I added some glitter to the stars and on her wings.

The back ground paper is some I found recently from Amazon and is from Craft Creations - Pastel Chic.  The other papers used are from Lili of the Valley - Petal Fresh and Lili of the Valley and NitWit Collections - Solids - Snow Princess.

 To the left of the stamped image is a piece of purple ribbon from Lili of the Valley.  The sentiment I've used is from one of their art pads.  I've used a purple ProMarker to highlight the sentiment.

All that remains are the embellishments - some self adhesive pearlised gems, two brass metal mushrooms and flowers/a leaf from Wild Orchid Crafts.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges

Lili of the Valley - Anything Goes

Passion for ProMarkers - Favourite Colour Combo

Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes

Fab N Funky - Anything with Ribbon

A Creative Romance - Photo inspiration (blues/purples)

Paradise of Stamps - Girly

I love the way this card has turned out - hope you do too

Happy Crafting ladies

Andrea x

Anastasia in biros

I've been very busy over the weekend colouring stamped images in mediums I'm not used to all because of the new challenge from Zoe at Make It Crafty.  This was one of the ones I was working on and it took me three hours to colour it!  The image is Anastasia.  The colouring I decided to do in Autumn colours and is done with biros I bought from W H Smith.

After colouring and submitting the image to the Make It Crafty gallery I decided she deserved to be made into a card.

I've softened the edges of the white card white a ProMarker before mounting her on black and orange card stock to make the image pop.

I've only used one design paper as I didn't want to detract too much from the actual colouring.  The paper used is from Lili of the Valley and Raspberry Road Designs - Father Knows Best. I've mounted this over the top of some orange card stock.

To complement the colouring I've added an orange organza ribbon, some red 

pearlised self adhesive gems, a metal scroll corner and some orange and red flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Onto the next experiment/challenge

Andrea :) x

I'm putting this card into the following challenges

Crafty Creations - Use Orange

Paradise of Stamps - Girly

Creative Inspiration - Anything Goes

Fab N Funky - Anything with Ribbon

Crafty Catz - Autumn

Creative Card Crew - Black Card Stock

Crafty Little Fairies - One Design Paper

Stamping Sensations - Warm Autumn Colours

Golden angel

So back to Christmas cards.  I've done this one with my mum in mind.  She doesn't read my blog I don't think so I'm safe :). She saw the angel stamps and art pad in Lili of the Valley last Christmas so I thought I'd do her one for a surprise this year.

The image is Holy Light which I've coloured with ProMarkers.  Once I'd coloured and mounted the image onto the card I added some glitter for the snow effect.

I wanted this card to have an overall golden glow.  I've used a shaped card and cut some backing paper in the same shape from Papermania Capsule Collection.  Over the top of this is a square piece of plain gold card then a square piece from First Edition Gilded Winter.  The angel image is also backed with some plain gold card.

The embellishments I've used are some self adhesive lace border from Hobby Craft, a piece of cream ribbon edged in gold from Lili of the Vally Little Bags of Ribbon, a pearlised laser cut tree and dove from Hobby Craft, a white poinsettia from Lili of the Valley and some self adhesive gems in clear and gold.

Hope my mum likes her.

Andrea x

I'm going to enter her into the following challenges

Sparkles Challenge -Things With Wings

Christmas Cards All Year around - Embellish It

Lili of the Valley - Anything Goes

Ribbon Girl - Glitz & Dazzle

Deep Ocean a Challenge - Christmas in October

CRAFT - Christmas

Shop till you drop.....

..... Is something my mum and me do regularly.  The current challenge from Fantasy Stampers - 

Here Come the Girls inspired me to make this card.

The image I've used is Stamping Bella Uptown Girls one - Posh Has A Present and is coloured with ProMarkers.

I've used paper from Our Daily Bread - Christian Faith Collection for the backing paper.  The other papers used to complement the image colours are Lili of the Valley & NitWit Collections - Snow Princess and Lili of the Valley & Raspberry Road Designs - Shabby Shack

The finishing embellishments are some purple glitter shoe buttons, some self adhesive gems and a happy birthday sentiment and star from Paperchase.

Happy shopping ladies!

Andrea x

Fairy on a rose trellis

So here I am again experimenting with flowers, one day I might find my comfort zone.

There are a few challenges that inspired me to do this one.  Sparkles Monthly Challenge - Things with Wings,  A Creative Romance - In The Garden and Addicted to Stamps - White and One Other Colour

The main stamped image is Make It Crafty - Fairy Celandine.  The image is coloured with ProMarkers and I've added some glitter to the wings at the outside edge.

The pink paper at the back is Lili of the Valley & NitWit Collections Solids - Bonnets and Bowties.  I used some dark pink ink and used Lili of the Valley stamp Set 21 - Grunge Corners to give it a flower effect.  The other paper I've used is Solids - Always and Forever.

To make the rose garden trellis I've used a pre-cut die I bought in Hobby Craft a while ago.  The roses pushing their way through the trellis are from Wild Orchid Crafts as are the mixed flowers at the bottom of the image.

The finishing touch is some self adhesive gems and some metal butterfly beads.

Onto the next experiment :)

Andrea x

Groovy pink celebration

I did one of these images a couple of weeks ago in purple and loved it so much I thought I'd try it out in pink.  The stamp is from Make It Crafty - Melody.  I've coloured the image with ProMarkers.

I've then used the current challenge sketch from Sketch N Stash as the template.  I also used this as the template has three embellishments which fits in with the challenge All the Threes for the Cutie Pies Third Birthday.

 The background paper is Lili of the Valley and NitWit Collections - Country Meadow.  I chose this because it fits in well with the flower power theme.  Laid over this are Lili of the Valley & NitWits Collections - Solids Bonnets and Bowties and Solids Always and Forever.

I chose to do the three embellishments as three daisies to match Melody's dress.  The daisies are from Wild Orchid Crafts.  These are fixed to some cream ribbon from Lili of the Valley - Little Bags of a Ribbons - Pink.

The finishing touches are some pink organza ribbon I bought in Hobby Craft tied in a bow with a flower beads tied to it.  A Celebrate sentiment from Express Yourself and some self adhesive gems.

Hope you like her :)

Andrea x

Winter snooze

I must get on soon and make more Christmas cards, the time seems to be flying by and I feel like I'm falling behind.  So when I saw Papertake weekly have a challenge on at the moment to use one of their sketches (sketchie free for all) I decided to take the opportunity to use their current one to do a Christmas card.

I've used Lili of the Valley's Christmas Bunnies - Tree and coloured it with ProMarkers, then used a die to cut the scallop shape.

I've tried to keep the theme Christmas trees and baubles using Bebunnie paper from Crafters Companion as the backing paper.  The other paper used is Lili of the Valley and NitWit Collections Festive Trimmings paper, being cut it so "under the tree" was showing below the bunnies.

The ribbon is something I've had for a while which I'd bought from Hobby Craft.  The green corner embellishment is from a pack that Hobby a Craft are selling for Christmas this year as is the heart sentiment.

Finals touches were a bottom left corner bit of bling in yellow, some black pearl self adhesive gems and some red and clear to highlight the baubles in the tree.  The glitter was added last to highlight the snow.

Happy crafting 

Andrea x

Birthday surprise

I'm slowly collecting Uptown Girl stamps from Stamping Bella.  Paisley has a pressie is one of the ones I bought recently.  I usually go for girlie pinks or purples but decided to experiment and do her in turquoise shades of ProMarkers.

I used papers from Lili of the Valley & NitWit Collections Solids - Snow Princess and Snow Princess for the layered papers.

The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley Art Pad 8 - Sentiments. I hand cut it then used the same turquoise ProMarkers.

After I'd mounted the stamped image onto the card  over the layers I decided where I was putting the embellishments.  Then, I edged the image with white pearl self adhesive gems to create a frame.

I wanted a flower cascade look so started with a large white flower which I bought in Hobby Craft yesterday.  I then used two different shades of turquoise flowers scattered down and across the card.

The final touches were some butterfly beads and a white paper butterfly which I'd bought from Lili of the Valley a while ago.  To this I added some pearl self adhesive gems.  

I'm entering this card into the following challenges

Paradise of Stamps - Girly

Fantasy Stampers - Here Come the Girls

Addicted to Stamps - White and one other colour

Passion for ProMarkers - Make it feminine

Deep Ocean - At least one flower

Andrea x