The image is a digi from Bugaboo, JJ Christmas Candy Cane, coloured in with pencils and Stickles, and the sentiment also from Bugaboo, Stella Christmas boy list. The Zipper flowers are from Creative Expressions.
Friday, 11 December 2015
Another naughty Christmas card
I'm getting quite carried away with naughty cards - in fact I have another scheduled to appear soon, but sadly too late for the Naughty Christmas challenge at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers. However this one is just in the nick of time for my second entry to the challenge. And while I was making it, I kept in mind the colour scheme of the optional photo inspiration at Christmas Card Challenges - another last minute entry!
The image is a digi from Bugaboo, JJ Christmas Candy Cane, coloured in with pencils and Stickles, and the sentiment also from Bugaboo, Stella Christmas boy list. The Zipper flowers are from Creative Expressions.
The image is a digi from Bugaboo, JJ Christmas Candy Cane, coloured in with pencils and Stickles, and the sentiment also from Bugaboo, Stella Christmas boy list. The Zipper flowers are from Creative Expressions.
Thursday, 10 December 2015
Naughty or nice?
Hello everyone, I'm back from a wonderful holiday in Mexico - I'll be posting about it and sharing some photos very soon. But for today, I want to share a card that I couldn't resist making! Just as we were packing to leave, I saw that the challenge at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers this fortnight is "Naughty Christmas" and I couldn't wait to get started. I have several festive digis from Bugaboo designs that I hadn't even unzipped, and I knew they would all be perfect for the challenge, so while poor Mark was cramming my flip flops into the suitcase, I was busy printing them out ready to get colouring as soon as I got home.
Now we come to the reason those digis had remained unzipped. I am utterly rubbish at colouring them in. My first attempt was with a Stella image, great fun but I tried to colour it with Promarkers. The printing ink bled into the marker ink and poor Stella ended up with a pale green face, looking rather like Shrek with a hangover. Not really the naughty effect I'd hoped to create!
So I moved onto the second image I'd printed, JJ Christmas Cheers, and coloured her in with water based markers. The problem I had here was that the nearest I could find to a skin tone among my markers is this dark flesh, a colour I can only think of as TOWIE (if you are outside the UK, you may not understand the reference - TOWIE is a TV show called "The Only Way Is Essex" that features some remarkably orange fake tans). But actually, the overdone spray tan look turns out to be ideal for this image! Even the streaks, from using water based markers, are realistic.
The sentiment is stamped from my current favourite Dylusions Christmas sentiments sheet - I don't know how I made Christmas cards without it! The borders and corners are from an ancient set of peel offs and the sparkly hearts left over from a project I made a few weeks ago and forgot to photograph before sending it to a friend. The backing paper is from docrafts.
I'm sharing this with
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - Naughty Christmas
Crafting Musketeers - Use a Sentiment
Clear it out - Anything Goes
Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes
Glitter and Sparkle - Anything Goes
Now we come to the reason those digis had remained unzipped. I am utterly rubbish at colouring them in. My first attempt was with a Stella image, great fun but I tried to colour it with Promarkers. The printing ink bled into the marker ink and poor Stella ended up with a pale green face, looking rather like Shrek with a hangover. Not really the naughty effect I'd hoped to create!
So I moved onto the second image I'd printed, JJ Christmas Cheers, and coloured her in with water based markers. The problem I had here was that the nearest I could find to a skin tone among my markers is this dark flesh, a colour I can only think of as TOWIE (if you are outside the UK, you may not understand the reference - TOWIE is a TV show called "The Only Way Is Essex" that features some remarkably orange fake tans). But actually, the overdone spray tan look turns out to be ideal for this image! Even the streaks, from using water based markers, are realistic.
The sentiment is stamped from my current favourite Dylusions Christmas sentiments sheet - I don't know how I made Christmas cards without it! The borders and corners are from an ancient set of peel offs and the sparkly hearts left over from a project I made a few weeks ago and forgot to photograph before sending it to a friend. The backing paper is from docrafts.
I'm sharing this with
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - Naughty Christmas
Crafting Musketeers - Use a Sentiment
Clear it out - Anything Goes
Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes
Glitter and Sparkle - Anything Goes
Tuesday, 8 December 2015
Traditional Christmas Colours at Cardz 4 Guyz
It's our final challenge of 2015 over at Cardz 4 Guyz today and we'd like to see something in traditional Christmas colours this week.
To me, traditional Christmas colours are red, green and gold, with white to represent snow. So this tartan Hunkydory card fitted the bill perfectly. And I do love tartan on male cards! With all the decoration around the border of the card (it's an integral part of the card, not added by me!) I decided to keep the image simple, just a white embossed Christmas tree.
Do please drop in at Cardz 4 Guyz with your own creations and to see what the rest of the DT have made - and we'll be back with new challenges and inspiration on January 5th.
To me, traditional Christmas colours are red, green and gold, with white to represent snow. So this tartan Hunkydory card fitted the bill perfectly. And I do love tartan on male cards! With all the decoration around the border of the card (it's an integral part of the card, not added by me!) I decided to keep the image simple, just a white embossed Christmas tree.
Do please drop in at Cardz 4 Guyz with your own creations and to see what the rest of the DT have made - and we'll be back with new challenges and inspiration on January 5th.
Saturday, 5 December 2015
Flowers at Twofers
It's time for a new challenge at Twofers. Now, here in the UK it is the middle of winter, so it makes a lovely change to think about flowers, which is what we are asking you to use as the theme this week.
I decided to go for a Clean and Simple look this time, using a medallion stamp that has been in my collection for many years. The brand name has worn off the backing sheet - all I can see is that it started with a letter K! Instead of using it to make a dimensional, stacked card, as we used to when medallion stamps were all the rage, I decided to keep it pretty much flat, by stamping the layers onto primrose yellow and green papers and sticking them all right down on the card, to give the effect of paper piecing. To keep the CAS look, I only added a very faint touch of colour to the flower centres, using light strokes of pencil.
Why not pop over to Twofers and see what the others on the team have created? And while you're there, we'd love it if you shared your flower-themed creations with us. Don't forget you only need to make ONE item (although we are delighted to see more if you care to!) and there is a prize for our favourite. Your work MUST include some stamping but no digis.
I decided to go for a Clean and Simple look this time, using a medallion stamp that has been in my collection for many years. The brand name has worn off the backing sheet - all I can see is that it started with a letter K! Instead of using it to make a dimensional, stacked card, as we used to when medallion stamps were all the rage, I decided to keep it pretty much flat, by stamping the layers onto primrose yellow and green papers and sticking them all right down on the card, to give the effect of paper piecing. To keep the CAS look, I only added a very faint touch of colour to the flower centres, using light strokes of pencil.
Why not pop over to Twofers and see what the others on the team have created? And while you're there, we'd love it if you shared your flower-themed creations with us. Don't forget you only need to make ONE item (although we are delighted to see more if you care to!) and there is a prize for our favourite. Your work MUST include some stamping but no digis.
Let it Snow
I'm absolutely thrilled to have been invited to be Guest Designer for the latest challenge at Inkspirational where the current word prompt is FLAKE
As I'm away at the moment and can't be around to add the Guest Designer badge to my sidebar, I'm popping it here for now:
Hastily dismissing all thoughts of that chocolate bar in the yellow wrapper (does it still exist?) I opted for the more obvious Snowflake, most appropriate for this time of year (at least, here in the UK). The snowflake stamp is an old PSX one called Ornate Snowflake, stamped and embossed in white and then sponged with a mixture of individual inks from the lighter end of a Kaleidacolour Blue Breeze pad, fading away as I worked out from the snowflake. I added tiny specks of Stickles as extra flakes around it, and the sentiment is stamped with a recent magazine freebie.
I am sharing this with
Craft Rocket Challenges - Anything Goes
Fantast Stampers - CAS Christmas
Tuesday, 1 December 2015
CAS Christmas at Cardz 4 Guyz
If you still have Christmas cards left to make, you'll be wanting some quick and simple ideas, and I'm sure you'll pick up a few over at Cardz 4 Guyz where this week's challenge is CAS Christmas. Do please pop over and see what the rest of the DT have made, and of course share your own ideas with us!
I think the colours black, silver and red look very masculine together, and very stylish when used in a CAS way. For this card, I've used a strip of the odd-textured ribbon that I bought thinking it was washi tape, a simple stamped greeting from a Studio G mini set and lots of carefully positioned black and silver Candi.
I think the colours black, silver and red look very masculine together, and very stylish when used in a CAS way. For this card, I've used a strip of the odd-textured ribbon that I bought thinking it was washi tape, a simple stamped greeting from a Studio G mini set and lots of carefully positioned black and silver Candi.
Die Cuts at Sparkles Christmas
It's December 1st and Christmas is almost here - have you made all your cards yet? This month at Sparkles Christmas Challenge, we are looking for cards that use die cuts.
We have two prizes this month
I've used die cuts to make a festive wreath. To make the basic wreath, I taped two Spellbinders circles to my gold card before cutting, to make sure neither of them slipped. The bow at the top is cut with a Cuttlebug Christmas Baubles die, the pine branches and cones with a Spellbinders die, the poinsettia with a die that was the cover gift on the November issue of Papercraft Essentials and the ivy trails with a Marianne die. I'm afraid I don't store dies in their original packaging so I don't have any record of their names.
To give the card a bit of dimension and movement, I attached the ivy trails and pine boughs just at the ends with 3-d glue, adding a tiny touch further along only in places where I thought the card might suffer damage in the post if the ends were left too loose.
I am sharing this with
Use die cuts and/or punches at The Crafters Café
Christmas at Dies R Us
We have two prizes this month
a $10 voucher from Di's Digis
this lovely stamp from Crafty Individuals
I've used die cuts to make a festive wreath. To make the basic wreath, I taped two Spellbinders circles to my gold card before cutting, to make sure neither of them slipped. The bow at the top is cut with a Cuttlebug Christmas Baubles die, the pine branches and cones with a Spellbinders die, the poinsettia with a die that was the cover gift on the November issue of Papercraft Essentials and the ivy trails with a Marianne die. I'm afraid I don't store dies in their original packaging so I don't have any record of their names.
To give the card a bit of dimension and movement, I attached the ivy trails and pine boughs just at the ends with 3-d glue, adding a tiny touch further along only in places where I thought the card might suffer damage in the post if the ends were left too loose.
I am sharing this with
Use die cuts and/or punches at The Crafters Café
Christmas at Dies R Us
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)