Cuppa anyone?

I love a cuppa and so this Leanne Ellis is right up my street. I have coloured her for this week's CCT which is food and drink, and LOTV bright and cheerful.

I coloured her in my fave media at the moment and resisted the urge to distress the background. I just ran the ink pad round tthe edges as I didn't want to layer her too much. I love these MME papers, but have yet to use them. I thought the flowers would match Annie's. I cut Annie and the backing layers out using my nesties, added the ribbon, and a papermania brad flower. Decided not to do anything else as its busy enough!!

Recipe:
Stamp(s): Sugar Nellie Cup of Tea
Colouring Media: Distress inks
Papers: MME Magnolia; cardstock
Embellishments: ribbon from stash, Papermania flower brad.

DDCC Tropical card

This week's Dutch Dare Card Challenge theme is Tropical. Oh I have struggled with this ... I haven't anything really suitable, so I have interpreted this theme loosely.

I love this image, but don't use it very often. I have watercoloured the image, and used my nesties to matt it. I have only used cardstock, but tried to use hot, tropical colours. I embossed and sanded the background, and use D'vine Swirls to create the feel of water. I doodled round the papers and added ribbon and cord. The star fish is from the bottom of my embellishment stash.

Do try to look at the other DT creations.
Recipe:
Stamp(s): Sugar Nellie Rockpool
Colouring Media: Distress inks
Papers: Coredinations, cardstock
Embellishments: ribbbon, cord and starfish from stash

Lavender and Lace

This week's WOJ challenge is Lavender and Lace ... one of my favourite combinations.

I stamped this image up when I was at Vicky's, and she is lovely. I watercoloured her and distressed the background. I have followed sketch 42 by Katharina. I have kept it all readlly simple again - only a little embellishment, partly as the flowers I have didn't look right on here with the patterned dp.

Recipe:
Stamp(s): WOJ Melinda Helping Angel
Colouring Media: Distress inks
Papers: DCWV Nursery stack; cardstock from stash
Embellishments: ribbon and lace from stash

Hot Chocolate Annie

I got back from Mum's and Tots and Preschool to a fabby envelope full of Leanne Ellis stamps!!! How quick did lunch appear for the girls?!! I have inked up this fab one of Annie pouring tea ... but I am pretending it is hot chocolate, as this week's Papertake Weekly Challenge is hot chocolate (use the colours orange, brown and pink).

I tore the edges of the image and the pink dp (Spoonfull of Sugar challenge) and distressed the image in orange and pink ink. I have kept it very simple as that floral paper is a bit busy. I have coloured the flower centres in orange as they were more yellowy. Finally I added some brown and pink ribbon.

Recipe:
Stamp(s): Sugar Nellie Cup of Tea
Colouring Media: Distress inks
Papers: Basic Grey Sugared
Embellishments: ribbon from stash

ABC Challenge ... D is for ...

DISTRESSED

Yeah - I LOVE distressing so this is a dream challenge for me!

OK so what didn't I distress!!
The image is coloured in distress inks and thebackground and edges distressed usingdistress inks. I love these dp (Still don't know whose they are) and I gently (?!) took my distressing too to them and then inked up the edges.

I added some muted lilac ribbon and a couple of scrolls stamped in distress ink. Brads and a lovely hydraenga flower finished it off.

Please do pop over to the other DT members' blogs to look at their distressing.

Recipe:
Stamp(s): Sugar Nellie Rope Swing; Scroll a freebie
Colouring Media: Distress inks
Papers: ?
Embellishments: Prima flowers, brads and ribbon from stash

Ddiolch'ch iawn lawer

Well I am a little late with this one but .. Happy St David's Day!!! With a Welsh husband (who is stoically not mentioning the rugby!!) I should have posted this before .. but life seems to be a bit manic this week, and its only Tuesday!
Anyway on Sunday it was St David's Day, and the girls dressed up in Welsh national costume, kindly made for them by a Welsh friend. I have made a thank you card to send with some pics of the girls in it (you get a preview of the pics!)Here is Draco, coloured in red (as is the Welsh Dragon) and highlighted in gold. I have stook to the Welsh national flag colours of red, green and white for the background. It is very simple and all the papers are embossed and scuffed. The ribbon is black velvet and I threaded some through the greeting which says Thank you very much in Welsh (or so hubby says!! Me I'm a proud Lancastrian!!)
I have used Katharina's WOJ GDT sketch - it is really different from the last card i did using the same sketch (you can see it here). It is amazing how rotating and using no embellishments changes the look. But I am liking very clean and simple cards at the mo.

Anyway here are the sneaky previews of the girls ...
This is Ellie ....

and this is Beth.
So cute and adorable ... but then we were having a good day LOL!!

Recipe:
Stamp(s): WOJ Draco dragon
Colouring Media: Distress inks; gold gel pen
Papers: Core'dinations, cardstock
Embellishments: velvet ribbon

Help!!!!

OK so life is wonderful... i have two healthy, well adjusted children and a hubby that adores me (well most of the time!) ... so why can't I do this card?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love the oustside and the frame that took me ages to cut out ...

Doesn't look too bad from this angle ...

OK now it as bare as ... well a very bare thing. I had planned to sit her on a floor of prima flowers in blues and oranges - how naff did that look ... any ideas girls ... I need help/inspiration/or the binmen tomorrow!!!

I have had to take Beth back to the doctor's - the steroid cream hasn't really touched it so we are now on to another regime. Even the GP felt sorry for her ... she really can't stop scratching. Dave is going to have to cut her nails back to the quick to help in the regime.

A for my back he said, and I quote ..." take it easy, no lifting or standing for considerable lengths of time." Obviously he doesn't look after children, cook, clean or iron on a regular basis!! Oh and no perscription "cheaper to get over the counter if you need them!".

OK off to have a glass a wine and a couple of pain killers ... see you all tomorrow.

Sketch and Stash #5

Becky has done a cracking sketch for this week's Sketch and Stash challenge. For this challenge I have rotated the sketch.

Well, can you guess what my new stash is ... yep I have used one of my WOJ stamp kit, yet uncoloured (the only one, saved just for this!) I watercoloured her and distressed the edges. I used lots of Coredination papers whih are sanded and distressed to add a vintage flavour. I haven't added a bow as I used lace. The papers are relatively new, only 1 sheet of the pad used prior to this sketch.
For Ali ... yes I know ... it's pink ... but vintage pink LOL!!
Do take a look at the other DT members' cards and a peek at their latest stash!

I have been given this award by Vicky, Ann and Val - thank you ladies, I am honoured to be in your top ten blogs ... I need to pass this on now and will do with my next post.

Recipe:
Stamp(s): WOJ Willow with sunhat; PB Salutations
Colouring Media: Distress inks
Papers: Papermania Love; Coredinations cardstock
Embellishments: lace and brads from stash

A couple of quick cards

We have been away overnight at Vicky's -I got to play with her stamp collection and she played with my distressed inks!
I coloured the images at Vicky's and have made the cards this afternoon.
The 1st one is for the PBSC challenge which is food.
The image is watercoloured and I have distressed the backgound. I have used a mix of pink cardstock and DCWV Nursery stack. The ribbon is from my stash and I doodled the stitching and the sentiment.
The 2nd card is for this week's Secret Crafter challenge ... transport.

Again the image is watercoloured and I have distressed the papers and inked them. I have kept the layout simple and only added brads as embellishments.
Hubby is cooking tea so I think I am going to have a play with my Gorjuss Girls.

Recipe:
Stamp(s): PB Sweet Slumber; Sugar Nellie Sk8tr Boy
Colouring Media: Distress inks
Papers: DCWV Nursery stack; Basic Grey Archaic; cardstock
Embellishments: papermania brads; ribbon from stash

Sugar Sugar March Project

This month's Sugar Sugar Project is Cracked Glass, and I have been lucky enough to be a guest Sweetie. I really love this technique and have made several cards using it - non blogged so as not to give the project theme away.

So this is the finished card - I have done a more detailed tutorial, using my WOJ GDT challenge card which is later on in this post. I would have done it for this card but the light was so bad the photos haven't come out well.

I used Girl and Birdhouse for the project, as I wanted to create the illusion of a photograph. I coloured the image in distress inks and distressed it. I then used the cracked glass technique (tutorial further down) and rubbed brown ink into the cracks. I distressed the papers and added organza ribbon. I used my ribbon punch to make holes to thread the ribbon through the image.
Prima flowers, brads and spacers, and scrolls cut using a sizzix die complete the card.

This is the coloured image ...

and after the heat embossing ...

The WOJ challenge is a guest design team call, following one of Katharina's sketches. I made this card when the challenge was posted, but have held off entering until the Sugar Sugar project was announced, so as not to spoil that challenge.

I have used Willow with floral wreath and masked her onto the stump. I coloured her using distress inks and distressed the edges. I then applied the cracked glass technique to the image. The dp are BG Mellow and I used lace and organza ribbon for parts of the sketch. I added flowers and swirls to complete the card.

OK so on to the tutorial for how to do Cracked glass...

1. colour your image as normal, and cut out to desired shape/size

2. Cover the image in Versamark or similar, and clear embossing powder. Heat the powder until melted. Repeat the inking and embossing until you have clear,smooth glaze. I found it worked best to leave the image to cool between each embossing, and that about 5 layers was enough to get a smooth glaze.

3. Put in the freezer and leave it until it is cold. As soon as you get it out crack the image in different place - the glaze will split like cracked glaze. I was careful to avoid the face area.

(I did find if I left the image for a few minutes and then tried to crack it it didn't work, so crack it immediately)

4. Finally rub brown ink into the cracks and clean off to create a vintage look.

Its really that easy ... go on have a play and join in the Sugar Sugar project this month.

Recipe:
Stamp(s): Sugar Nellie Girl and Birdhouse; WOJ Willow sitting with floral wreath
Colouring Media: distress inks
Papers: Basic Grey Mellow; unknown; cardstock from stash
Embellishments: prima flowers; charms, spacers, brads, lace and ribbon from stash; sizzix swirl

Other: Versamark ink; Heat it Up clear embossing powder; Versafine Sepia