Flower Power

This time of year it's lovely to see all the spring flowers appearing in gardens and hedgerows, which certainly makes me feel that summer is just around the corner.  For this week's I Love Promarkers challenge theme we've got 'Flower Power' which is so topical.  Our prize sponsor this week is Digi Doodle Shop.

For my DT card this week I've used the lovely 'Butterfly Blossoms' from DDS and coloured the image with my Promarkers - guess you could say I've gone totally flower crazy with my design !

The bp is from the Isabelle paper stack by First Edition Papers - many of the sheets in the stack are glittered and all are of a good heavy weight and are actually more like cardstock.  I've used a couple of my lovely Memory Box dies to cut out the flower garland and border from Garden Green SU! cardstock.  The tiny flowers were punched with a Martha Stewart Hydrangea punch from another sheet from the paper stack and the tiny pearl centres were created using a Waco Pearlmaker Pen. 

I created the sentiment on my computer (I do have this sentiment in a stamp set somewhere, but my craftroom is a bit of a disaster area at the moment and needs a serious amount of tidying so that I can access all my stamps !) then cut out using a Marianne's label die. Finally I added touches of Stickles to the butterflies and the flower centres in the image.

I hope you'll join in the fun this week and enter a card for our challenge on ILPM, I look forward to seeing your designs.  Thanks for dropping by my bloggie to check out my project, hope you have a great wednesday. 

Let's Go Shopping.......

.. that's the theme over on the I Love Promarkers Challenge Blog this week and our prize is sponsored by Crafty Emma's Store

I've been staying with my Dad for a while to help him recover after his recent hospital stay and surgery, so raided his small craft stash for the materials for my card.

I've used a 6x6 base card, papers from the Wild Rose Studios Polka Dots paper stack and a freebie set of stamps from a magazine.  The stamps are from Docrafts' Born to Shop range.

I stamped up the main image and the small handbag and shoes stack with black Memento ink on to smooth cardstock.  The main image was cut using a scalloped oval nestie and I stamped the sentiment from the set to the left of the main image using pink ink.  I then took the small flower stamp from the set and stamped around the edge of the oval with green ink. 

All the images were coloured with Promarkers and I then added some Glossy Accents here and there to give some of the elements a little dimension and touches of Stardust Stickles around the edge of the oval layer and on the flowers.  As a final touch, I added three pieces of silver Card Candy to complete the design.

I hope you've enjoyed today's project, thanks for visiting and I hope you'll enter this week's I Love Promarkers Challenge.

My No 1.....

Today I'm sharing the card I've made for my Hubby's birthday.  It's the Big Day on wednesday and I think we are heading out for a nice steak dinner in the evening. 

I've used the fabby Papermania Portobello Road paper stack, some Platinum Stickles, gold mirror card and a sentiment created on my computer for my design.

With the forthcoming Olympics everywhere we look at the moment, the design idea I came up with was to create a gold medal effect. 

I diecut a spikey circle using a nestie and some gold mirror card.  I then added faux spirelli using my Hougie Board, finishing the 'medal' with the sentiment I created on my computer.

The background Union Jack layer is one of the sheets from the paper stack, the shaped layer is a diecut from the same stack which I added over a square of blue paper, also from the stack.

I finished the layers by adding Platinum Stickles around the edges of the shaped diecut and the square layer. 

Nice and simple but I think Hubby will like it.  I'm safe to publish his card on here early as he rarely looks at my blog !! 

Thanks for taking the time to check out my project today.

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words

Happy Monday everyone !  Welcome to my little crafty space, I hope you had a great weekend.

The project I'm sharing with you today is my entry for this week's Sketchie Challenge over on the Craft Mad and Loving It group on Craftbubble.  The lovely Cherry set the sketch and theme this week, providing us with an inspirational picture of some story cubes. 

At first glance this week's theme was a bit daunting, but a quick look through a few stamps and the idea for my card popped into my head. 

For my design I used a deckle edge C6 cream base card, Botanical Print stamp set by Papermania, Antique Linen Distress Ink, Promarkers and a sentiment created on my computer.  I matted the main text image over a scrap of shabby chic style brown polka dot paper, stamped then cut out the butterflies from the stamp set and coloured them with PMs.  The bodies of the butterflies were created using some tiny sparkly gems and I added touches of Stardust Stickles on the wings to give a little subtle bling.

I added some 'Arty' effects to the photograph just for fun - hope you likey !!

Happy Birthday Jacqueline

Happy Birthday Jacqueline ! I hope you have a lovely day and that you like the card I made for you.

I'm a great fan of  'clean and simple' (CAS) designs and decided on a black and white theme for the card. 

Tools and materials used were: sentiment stamp from SU!, Cuttlebug embossing folder, scalloped oval nestie, EK Success border punch, Spellbinders Persian Accents Shapeabilities and some tiny black gems from my stash.  I added a few touches of Stardust Stickles around the edge of the sentiment and on the Persian Accents border. 

Thanks for taking the time to visit my bloggie today.

Emperor Swan

Welcome to Wednesday, hope you're having a great day everyone.  I'd like to say a huge welcome to my new Followers, thanks so much for joining and I hope you'll drop by again from time to time to see what I've been up to in my crafty space !

This week over on the I Love Promarkers Challenge Blog we have a White on White theme for Challenge #112 and our prize sponsor this week is Di's Digis.

I really love WoW it's great for any occasion even Christmas.  For my DT card I decided to use my Promarkers in a different way than colouring in stamped images.  I've used one of the new colours from the limited edition Spring Collection, this one is 'Fresh Meadow' and I just love the colour.  I cut an oval the same size as the centre diecut image, using a nestie, then coloured it all over with the PM.  I really like the slightly mottled effect it created so didn't add more layers to even out the colour this time.  The coloured oval is a great contrast and shows up the intricate design of the white diecut image, giving it a sort of 'Wedgewood' effect.

This is the first time I've used the new dies by Cheery Lynn Designs which I bought a few weeks ago, I've used 'Emperor Swan' and 'Victorian Romance Flourish in the design.  The edges at the sides were cut using an EK Success border punch and the embossed background behind the image was created using a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  The gems have been in my stash for some time, I find clear gems are always useful to have in stock as they can be coloured with PM's to match a project. 

I'm still staying with my Dad at the moment to help him during his recovery from the recent hospital stay and surgery, should be home in a few more days now that he is getting his strength back, thank goodness.   

Thanks for dropping by today, I hope you enjoyed today's project.

A card at last !

My life has been in such a whirl for the past few weeks that I just haven't had the opportunity to get on with any cardmaking.  I've done some knitting in odd moments, but that's the extent of my crafting recently. 

I created today's card as my DT project for this week's I Love Promarkers Challenge #111 - this week's theme is 'Springtime'. 

I've used this cute Lili of the Valley bunny as this image makes me think of Spring.  Our prize this week is sponsored by Joanna Sheen.  I've used nesties and a number of Marianne's dies to diecut the various elements, coloured the image with Promarkers, of course, and added touches of Stardust Stickles on his tail, paws and tummy (although this isn't showing up in the pic).  The background papers are from 'Pocketful of Posies' by DCWV.

Now a few details of what's being going on in my life:

This was the view I saw each morning for two weeks as we headed out to Spain for a break, which was just what I needed in my post-surgery recovery.  We were very lucky with the weather as it was lovely and warm and sunny every day.  It was so nice walking in the fresh air and enjoying the sun on my skin. 

Sadly, during our time away my Dad was taken seriously ill and has been in hospital ever since.  Today they fitted him with a Pacemaker which has already increased his very slow heart rate.  We are all hoping this will help stabilise him and give him chance to recover.  We are anticipating he will be discharged from hospital on friday and I shall be going to stay with him to look after him for a week, so may or may not have more creations to share with you over the next few days.  Mind you, he does have a great craft stash himself, so I may well raid it for goodies to use !

Whilst I was away, I did do a some knitting and managed to finish these lacy cowls.  They're cosy to wear and easier than tying a scarf in the neckline.

My plan is to get well ahead with making handmade Christmas gifts this year and this is a good start.   It's a nice pattern to knit and I shall go on and make a few more in different colours I think before starting on other gifts.