ONE FOR THE BOYS.

It's time for challenge #106 over at THE CRAFTY PAD and this weeks theme is 'Something for the Boys'. I find most crafters seem to have trouble with men/boy cards, including me lol, but I'm sure you'll all come up with some great designs.
Our sponsor this week is CRAFTY SENTIMENTS and she is offering this lovely uncoloured image as a prize.


Before I show you my card, I've just a bit of news to share. We'd like to welcome ALI and LEESA to our design team. We're really looking forward to working with them, so why not go visit their blogs and see what fabulous inspiration they can offer you. They will be making their first cards for us next week. Also, as of next week, I will be taking over the running of The Crafty Pad challenge blog. Debbie will still be sending out your prizes and Maxine will be setting the challenges, but I'll be doing the posts and announcing the winners etc, so I hope to still see you all there (and so does Debbie, or she'll sack me, lol).

So, here's my card for this week. The image is 'Birthday Meeces' available HERE at The Crafty Pad Stamp Designs and my paper is Basic Grey 'Oliver' and that's pretty much it, lol.



Also entering into:
ALPHABET CHALLENGE - M is for Men.
DELICIOUS DOODLES - Spots or stripes.
FUZZY WUZZY - Anything goes (with animal).
POLKA DOODLES - Party Time.
AI FACTORY - For the boys.
DO YOU STACK UP #4 - Patterned paper.

THE HOBO'S PRAYER

So, we've come to the last challenge of the year over at I ♥ PROMARKERS and we are going to leave you with a theme of ANYTHING GOES. This challenge will run until the evening of 4th January and we'll be back with a new challenge on Wednesday 5th. Our sponsor this week again, is the lovely DIGI DOODLE SHOP. There's a 50% off everything sale on over there too, so why not go take a look.

Now, to be quite honest with you, I don't care if I never see another Christmas card as long as I live, lol so as our theme is Anything Goes, I obviously chose not to make a Christmas card. :o) All the design team used a Digi Doodle Shop image and I chose to use another hobo image. This is not an image that would immediately jump out at most people to use, but I think it's fabulous and if I say it myself, I think this is one of my most favourite cards of the year. I am so pleased with how this turned out. Coloured of course, with my Promarkers.

I'm not sure whether he is praying for more or saying thank you for what he has, but I prefer to think it's the latter. I think we should all be grateful for what we have and think of those that have very little or nothing at all, especially at this time of year.

My papers are Basic Grey 'Capella' with a little strip of a Papermania 'Hamstead'. I distressed all the edges and inked them with a Walnut Stain distress ink pad. The stitching is a rub-on. The tree was embossed with a Crafts Too folder and lightly inked. A Tim Holtz on the edge die cut the right hand side. The hobo was cut out and mounted on foam pads and the greeting is a Personal Impressions clear stamp.


Also entering it into the following challenges:
PASSION FOR PROMARKERS - Anything goes.
CRAFTY SENTIMENTS - Anything goes.
CREATIVE CARD CREW - Birthday.
AI FACTORY - Anything goes.
CRAFTY EMMA'S - Anything goes.
ONE STITCH AT A TIME - Anything goes (surprise us).
DIGI DOODLE SHOP - New Beginnings. (You never know, his prayers may be answered). Won.
GINGERLOFT - Distressing.
PAPER SUNDAES - Cut it out.
I DID IT CREATIONS - Anything goes.
SUNDAY SKETCH - Anything goes.
STAMPTACULAR SUNDAY - TREEmendous.
ALLSORTS - Free and easy.
OPUS GLUEI - Anything.
CRAFTY CATZ - Your choice.
SUGAR SWEET PAPER TREATS - Anything goes.

INK IT UP...

Ooooh, two posts in one day. A rarity for me, lol.

I was in the mood for some inking and rubber stamping so I got out my distress ink pads and some of my gorgeous stamps from Onyx Impressions and sat down to see what I came up with. Onyx Impression stamps are just so beautiful. They have some super designs, cut in black rubber and really well made.

I stamped my tiger onto some orange paper from my Fancy Pants 'All Fall' pad but the black background didn't come out as dark as I'd like, so I stamped the tiger again, cut him out and used it as a mask. Then I used my Memento Black and some foam and really deepened the background. Some Marmalade was used to give some patches to the Tiger. That's Spiced Marmalade ink, not the stuff in a jar, lol and I used my black Promarker to draw my own stripes.

The frame is one of the newer Nestabilities...beaded oval.



Then I made a tunnel card. I'm quite fond of these at the moment, but this one didn't come out as well as I'd hoped. I'd actually binned 3 before deciding I'd had enough and going with this one. The black inking around the edges is a bit untidy, but I used a chalk ink pad, which I'd not done before, so I'll not be using one again.

I inked a piece of plain card with my distress inks and then stamped the scene on to it, making sure I had a yellow patch where the sun was. I then inked another the same and stamped the image again. This was cut along the tree and horizon line to make the middle 3D layer. The concertina folds were stamped with an orange swirl on the outside and inked black on the inside. More marmalade ink was added to the panels and then they were stamped with some Basic Grey swirl stamps.







They're really easy to make but just takes a little care (a bit more than I gave this one, lol).

ONLY 3 COLOURS.

Another day, another dollar or should I say another week, another challenge. Boy! where does time go, eh?
Anyway, this week over at I ♥ PROMARKERS we had to follow a sketch by our very own Wynneth, and use no more than 3 colours (excluding flesh tones). We are sponsored this week by the gorgeous JOANNA SHEEN who is giving the winner £10 to spend in her online store.


For my card, I decided to use blue and brown with a bit of green on the flower stems. I used the digi stamp 'Flower Girl' from KAREN'S DOODLES which, obviously, was coloured with Promarkers. My background paper is Basic Grey 'Capella' and the blue are some scraps of Rusty Pickle 'Chocolate Bunnies' I had left over from the pocket book I made. I punched down each side of the strip for the centre and then cut the squares from another punched edge to make the corners (I added 4 instead of just 2). All edges were inked with walnut stain distress ink. Little pearls and the bow were added to finish it off.



I'm also going to enter this in the following challenges:
KAREN'S DOODLES CHALLENGE - Anything goes.
MAMI DOODLES - Anything goes.
O.W.H. - Patterned Paper.
2 SISTERS - Punches.
WHOOPSIE DAISY - Blue and Green. (OK, not a lot of green in mine, but it is there, lol).
DUTCH DARE - Anything Goes.
TELLENS PLACE - A candy link rather than a card challenge.
ONE STOP CRAFT CHALLENGE - Patterns.

AUBERY BUMBLETHORPE

Meet Aubery. Isn't he just fabulous? When I saw him over at Just Inklined, I had to have him. Rock On!!!! lol.

He is coloured with Promarkers. Papers and brad are Papermania 'Hampstead' and a bit of Basic Grey too. The lattice is done with the Martha Stewart punch and I used a label nestie for the greeting.


I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
ALPHABET CHALLENGE - M for Men
PASSION FOR PROMARKERS - The colour Green.
PEAR TREE DESIGNS - Birthday.
ANYTHING GOES - Punches.
GINGERSNAP CREATIONS - GC62 Markers
CREATIVE INSPIRATIONS - Anything goes.
MAMI DOODLES - Anything goes.
COWGIRL UP - Anything goes.

POCKETS IN BLUE.

I recently hosted a pocket page book swap on the craft forum that I run. It was great and the girls produced some fabulous little books. They all used the tutorial that I did some time ago over at MAKE SOMETHING NICE (which reminds me, it's time I got some more up) and this was mine.




I used my last pieces of Chocolate Bunny papers from Rusty Pickle (really didn't want to part with these, sob!) and inked the edges with Ranger walnut stain distress ink. The key holes were cut using the fabulous T.H. die and I thought they'd make nice tab pulls as well as a faux fastener - it actually fastens with a small Basic Grey magnet. For the inner pages, I used plain old printer paper and using my Crafters Workshop template, I stencilled with the walnut stain ink and weathered wood alternately. The back of each pocket is stamped with a lace background stamp. Each tab in the pockets has a quote on it.

Martha Stewart (as usual, involved in a lot of my work recently) provided the lattice punch on the front cover and I finished off with a couple of flat back pearls as I didn't want to pierce the cover.

I made a card last night too with an image I fell in love with when I saw him, so I'm off to do a challenge search and see if he fits more than the one I made him for.
Have a great day, everybody.

SOOOO DISTRESSED!!!!! I ♥ PROMARKER #22

Ha, ha. Not me - my card. :o)
This weeks challenge over at I ♥ PROMARKERS is distressing. A technique close to my heart. I love it. We are sponsored again this week by the lovely JOANNA SHEEN and she is giving a £10 gift voucher to the winner.

For my card I used one of my fave stamps from Lost Coast Designs and the ruler stamp is also LCD. The papers are Basic Grey 'Recess', other stamps from Paperartsy and the gorgeous leather look lace was a RAK from my mate, Karelyn. There's also lots of inking with my Walnut Stain Distress ink pads.


I'm also entering this into a few challenges.
ONE STOP CRAFT who want distressing.
CRAFT CATZ WEEKLY who also want distressing.
CRAFTY CARD MAKERS who have Inky Fingers so need inks used on your card.
FLUTTERBY WEDNESDAY who have an open week but it still must have wings of some sort on.
PRAIRIE FAIRY DESIGNS anything goes.

FAIRY FIRST

So, here's the cards I've been making. I have never used a fairy image as I'm just not that into them and I absolutely loathe glitter and glitter glue (ooops! sorry - posh name of Stickles now isn't it, lol) but.........when I saw these images over at COWGIRL-UP RANCH I just couldn't resist them. She has some beauties. I also got another fairy, Jessica but I screwed it up so you can't see it, lol. All 3 of these images are from there. You really should pay her a visit. :o)

This one is Check Faery. I coloured her with Promarkers and then used Marianne Designs border and flower dies. Rock Candy clear stickles was used on her wings. I actually combined Fairy with a freebie foliage image from Dewdropcraftz (after asking permission from CJ at Cowgirl-up). The foliage was a jpeg and I overlayed Check Fairy as a .png so that the wings would be transparent and show the foliage behind them. The stickles actually enhanced this effect. Papers are goodness knows what. I think they were a magazine freebie ages ago.


This one shows the stickles on the wings.


This adorable little fella is Casey. Isn't he just so cute? Again coloured with Promarkers and the papers are Basic Grey 'Recess'. I also used Sizzix and Nestie dies. The tree trunk that Casey is leaning against was from In Style Stamps. If you go look for Casey, you'll find Jack and Jill. Jack looks like Casey but they are such a sweet couple and I can't wait to do a card with them on.


Finally, this is Christy. Cowgirl-Up has loads of stamps like this. I think they're fabulous. The papers are Basic Grey 'Koishi' - yummiest papers I've seen for ages.



I shall definitely be getting more images from Cowgirl and I will also try again with the fairy I messed up, and ones I haven't coloured yet, and I will soon be showing you weird elf type lady 'Jadyn', unless of course you've been to see her and bought her yourself.