Trying out pencils...

Since my mum died last year I have been finding other things to do at the weekend, which is when we used to do things together.  And one of those things has been taking some craft classes at my favourite craft shop - In2Crafting at Wickford.

What is really interesting from doing classes like this is getting a whole new take on a technique, or something we all take for granted - like coloured pencils.

I have lots of coloured pencils and for many years they have sat in their tins on my shelf unloved and untouched.  Then, I tried a colouring workshop with Alexandra Kamann, and discovered to my amazement that with a blending solution, you could get a much better effect - almost up there with promarkers...  So I bought myself some some paper stumps and blending solution  (from an excellent supplier - J & T Blackman Ltd) that has a nice citrus smell about it and was really reasonably priced, and set to having a go with my pencils.

It is my friend J's birthday next week - she loves pinks, purples and bling so I thought this Kanban stamp was just the thing if I coloured it in right.

I used bog standard water colour pencils for the hat and the dress, and Derwent Academy watercolour skin tones for her body.  I was quite pleasantly surprised by how well this turned out for a first attempt.  There are some bits that I was not as pleased with as others, but on the whole, I was pleased with the outcome.

I used a 5" x 7" plain white base card, and layered onto that some C&C linen textured card in a pale mauve.  I cut the image out using a nestie, but unfortunately, I needed the largest one to fit her in it.  So I created a base layer in dark purple, and just cut reasonably equidistant to form a stretched octagon shape.

It all still looked a bit bland, though, so I used my quickie glue pen to add some dots of glue on the feathery bits of the dress and added some glamour dust to make it sparkle.  I used some ab gems on the purple backing card, and also on the ribbon around her neck.  Also around the dark purple layer, I added some faux stitching by using some tim holtz distress ink pen (picket fence) topped with some clear stardust gelly roll pen.  I added some silver corner peel offs from my stash to the pale mauve panel just to finish it off.

Last touch was the sentiment - using the same pale mauve card I cut out the small shape in my nestie, and used a memory box tag for the centre.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 87 - Friendship

Welcome to our latest challenge, hosted by Yvonne who has chosen the theme 'Friendship'

Yvonne would like to see the word 'Friend' or 'Friendship' included somewhere on your card/poject.

Please ensure your card has one of the two words stated above to qualify for a winner or Top 5 slot. 

PLEASE BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE RULES BEFORE ADDING YOUR CREATION AND CHECK IT MEETS THE CRITERIA AS LAID OUT ABOVE - ANY ENTRY NOT COMPLYING WILL UNFORTUNATELY BE REMOVED 

For this card, I used a shaped card base that came in a kit I once bought.  Onto the base card I stamped the two swirls (which came, I believe from a personal impressions set).  I coloured the leaves with promarkers and used some very small gems to highlight them.  

I stamped the sentiment (which came from a SWALK stamp set) onto the opposite corners.  The image (Hobbyart?) was stamped onto plain white card, and after being coloured with promarkers, was cut out with a standard oval nestie.  The bottom layer was cut from the next size up nestie, but a scalloped oval, and was then coloured around the edge with one of the promarkers used to colour the mushroom.  Finally, some ribbon was tied at the side with a simple knot.

We are sponsored by 

SATURATED CANARY

with

2 of their gorgeous digis

Hello!  My name is Krista Smith.  I draw characters and do a lot of crafting:).  I gather a lot of inspiration from my two kiddos...they are sweet and goofy.  I love to see how other people color my images...It is always exciting to watch the colors bring them to life!  You can check out my artwork and family tidbits on my blog,Saturated Canary.  
Thanks for having me this challenge! Good luck everyone! 

and
SIR STAMPALOT
 with this fabulous prize:-

Sir Stampalot is a retail shop and online website that specialises in stamps, die cutting and paper-crafting goodies.  We try to offer exceptional delivery times on your orders as well as keeping our stock fresh, new and exciting!  Our dedicated team of card makers means we have a wonderful, inspirational online card gallery with many more cards still to upload!  Sir Stampalot ships internationally as well as domestic so why not check us out if you haven’t already – www.sirstampalot.co.uk. 

Happy Crafting!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 86 - Masculine Birthday

Welcome to our latest challenge at Crafty Cardmakers, hosted by Rebecca, who has chosen the theme 'Masculine Birthday' 
Rebecca would like to see a masculine birthday card that includes some technologyor a gadget. The technology or gadget could be a computer, games console, rocket or car for example.

Please ensure that you do add the technology or gadget aspect to qualify for a Winner or Top 5 slot.

PLEASE BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE RULES BEFORE ADDING YOUR CREATION AND CHECK IT MEETS THE CRITERIA AS LAID OUT ABOVE - ANY ENTRY NOT COMPLYING WILL UNFORTUNATELY BE REMOVED

My new years resolution this year was to actually use some of the crafty goodies I have bought rather than just stroke them and store them.!  So, for my card, I once again delved into my box of stash.

This time, I used elements of card and toppers from either Kanban or Hunkydory (sorry - removed the packaging so I am not sure which!) and simply layered them up onto a base card cut to 6" x 5.5" from an A4 piece of plain card.

I am taking the bike and the helmet to be the "technology/gadget" element of the challenge.

We are sponsored by 
DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS
with a $10 GIFT VOUCHER

 
I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with likeminded people.
I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw myself.
This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. Long may it continue! 

and
THE STAMPMAN 

 We are kindly sponsored for this challenge by The Stampman (and Lady of course!) who are ofering the winner a £10 voucher for their store, you can spend this online, in the shop or if you're lucky enough to see them at a show!  They have a ton of items in store, enough to tickle any crafty taste bud.

Challenge 84 - Vintage Love

This week our latest challenge at Crafty Cardmakers, hosted by Kylie, has the theme of 'Vintage Love'.

As Valentine's Day is fast approaching Kylie would like to see your creations incorporating a Vintage Love theme. 

 Your project MUST be VINTAGE and SHOW at least one object that portrays love. Perhaps a picnic basket, gold locket, love letter, hearts etc etc. 

Please ensure your project meets the challenge theme and has the required element mentioned above in order to qualify for a winner or Top 5 slot. 

PLEASE BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE RULES BEFORE ADDING YOUR CREATION AND CHECK IT MEETS THE CRITERIA AS LAID OUT ABOVE - ANY ENTRY NOT COMPLYING WILL UNFORTUNATELY BE REMOVED

For my card this time, I decided to use up some of my stash.  You know the sort of thing - the L shaped piece of 12" x 12" paper, the length of ribbon, that die cut image from a kit where you have used the other bits, the square of red felt paper...

The background papers for my card were slightly too big for my normal preferred base card size - so I had to make up my own 7" x 7" card.  I used the burgundy coloured paper as my first layer, and edged it with a straight line peel off.  The next layer was a background from a mycraft studio cd (filligree?) and I had printed it out and never used it.  But the colours matched, so I just wrapped some plain white ribbon that I had coloured with the burgundy promarker around one side, then layered it onto the first base.I edged this background with the bobbly line peel off, and finished it off with 4 corners.

The next step was to apply the bow and to attach this, I used my hot glue gun.  I have only just rediscovered this and it is SO USEFUL when you are attaching embellishments, because once it cools down?  It's set.  Over the middle of the bow I attached my Love Sentiment (one of the criteria of the challenge), again with the hot glue.  Love it!!

Finally, I used some scrap red felt paper and cut out the fancy shape (Spellbinder Parisian Motif) and stuck the die cut topper from my stash on top of it.  As the glue gun was still hot, it would have been wrong to ignore it, so it was used instead of my usual foam pad or pinflair to attach this last element to the card.

Other symbols of Love used on the card were Roses, and of course, the Kiss in the image.

We are sponsored by 
DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS
with a $10 GIFT VOUCHER

I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with like minded people. I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw myself. This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. Long may it continue!

and also by

HOBBY ART

with these two gorgeous stamps:-

 As a family business we're a friendly, helpful, bunch at Hobby Art.  All our stamps are designed by us and manufactured in Britain. Look at the gallery on my blog - jennymayes.com - for lots of card ideas using the Hobby Art range.  We're pleased to sponsor the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge and look forward to seeing the entries. 
Good luck everyone.  Jenny and all. X 

Challenge 83 - Belated Birthday

Apologies for the colour quality of the photo - it's more muted than this!!!

 Our challenge to you today at Crafty Cardmakers is to create a card for a belated birthday, and is hosted by Kim, who says:

As I am always notoriously late with sending my cards it seems appropriate for me to choose a Belated Birthday challenge. Any image, Stamped or Digi, will do but your card MUST include a sentiment indicating that the card is for a belated Birthday, for example - Sorry I missed it, Have a very Happy Unbirthday, Better late than never, Your birthday came, your birthday went, here's the card I should have sent!!

So see what you can come up with to amuse us, or just a straightforward belated birthday wishes will do, but remember it does need a sentiment as outlined above to qualify.

For my card, I used a digi image from our sponsors. 

Also sponsoring us this week is SIR STAMPALOT

I used a plain white 6 x 6 card base and onto that layered a sheet of burgundy paper from my stash which I had embossed with a Couture Creations embossing folder.

I coloured my image with promarkers (but if you look closely at the skirt you will see where I accidentally used a deep red aquamarker by mistake - oops??).  I had already cut it out with (I believe) an X cut die and coloured everything else in, so after working on it a bit with more promarkers, left it alone!

I edged the image topper with some victorian velvet distress ink and stuck it onto my base using foam pads.  Over one corner I used a swirl from the spellbinder jewel flowers and flourishes die set, and some punched leaves cut from scrap.  I used some pre-bought flowers as the base for my middle flower, but topped it with tonic punches.  The smaller flowers were made from tonic punches also, and in the centre of each flower I set a gem. The greeting was hand written, onto a Woodware clear magic stamp.

Finally, I added a ribbon bow made from ribbon in my stash.

The sentiment inside the card reads "I am so sorry... it took me so long to get ready for your birthday, I forgot to post your card!!"

I am entering this card into 
the "Anything Goes" challenge at Challenges4everybody 
the "Girls, Girls, Girls" challenge at dreamvalleychallenges

Challenge 82 - Fairytale make a scene

Well, I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, and are feeling refreshed and ready for the new year!

The challenge this week at Crafty Cardmakers has been set by Eva, and she has asked us to make a Fairytale scene.

Now, making a scene was always my mum's thing, not mine.  But never ventured, and all that...

Anyway, after several abortive attempts to use the magic brayer so beloved of Barbara Gray, I gave up and went back to MY beloved inkylicious duster brushes and some cut and dry foam!

I used a 6" x 6" square plain card base, and layered onto that some bright green card.   I then made up my background, using a 5" square of Neenah card, and a combination of distress inks and the Waterfall Big and Juicy Ink Pad.  The hills were made using the torn paper technique to create a mask and I used the cut and dry pad to get a more intense colour than you get with the blending brushes.

Now, what I should have done (like any sensible person) was to stamp my fairy and then mask her before doing the background, but instead I had to do it the hard way (duh!) and as a result after colouring with promarkers,  she has one very shadowed leg!  I made the wings sparkle using some twinkling H2o paint and glittered the "fairy dust" using a quickie glue pen and some glamour dust.

All the stamps used were from my stash, but alas, were from before I started to make a note of what make they were.  The sentiment, however,  was a clarity stamp. 

The last two touches was the Marianne swirl in the bottom left corner, cut from cream card and coloured with distress ink, and the ribbon bow in the top right corner, which started out white, but got coloured the right green with a promarker pen.

I'm not 100% about the swirl in the photograph - the colour seems a bit off to me - but it's on there now and in real life it does sort of blend with the fairy wings!

THE STAMPMAN

 We are kindly sponsored for this challenge by The Stampman (and Lady of course!) who are offering the winner a £10 voucher for their store, you can spend this online, in the shop or if you're lucky enough to see them at a show!  They have a ton of items in store, enough to tickle any crafty tastebud. 

DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS

$10 GIFT VOUCHER

I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with likeminded people.

I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw myself. This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. Long may it continue!

Joanna Sheen blog candy

Joanna Sheen is giving away some gorgeous housemouse stamps as blog candy this week....

Why not go and comment on her blog, and you may be the lucky winner of these stamps!!

I can see the table...!

I have had a go at clearing my craft room of all the christmas card detrius.  I have put equipment back where it is supposed to be.

 And I have come to the conclusion I have far too much stash...

But right now, I can see the wood of the table.  Woo hoo.

Of course, it won't last long.  I have cards to make for friends, and challenge cards for crafty cardmakers to start on.  But right now it looks quite orderly...

Challenge 81 - inspired by a song

The Crafty Cardmakers challenge to you for the next month is to take inspiration from the song lyrics of  'Time In A Bottle' written and performed by Jim Croce.

As this is a month long challenge the whole team will be voting on whose entries they want to win or take out top spots, if there are enough entrants we may have a Top Ten instead of a Top Five.



When we first discussed the challenge I was a bit stumped, but then decided to just take it literally - and for my card, I chose to take the title, Time in a bottle.


I used a plain white 5" x 7" card base, and layered it with some backing paper from my stash.  I then printed off a white wine bottle from the wine buffs cd, and stamped it with a fob watch and chain stamp (sorry - no idea whose it is).

I used some leftover ribbon folded in half to make the backing for my image, which, as this card is for a Senor Simone loving Strictly fan, is of Flavia and Vincent.


The word sentiment is a Barbara Gray clarity stamp and all was distressed at the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink.  The swirly die was a die lite, Fantastic Flourish 3.

It was quite nice to do something other than  a Christmas card for a change (I am still behind with those - eep!!) and I hope everyone else enjoys the challenge too.

And if you want to know the lyrics....

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
Till Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with

If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with

Challenge 80 *Christmas Photo Inspiration*

Our Challenge this week at Crafty Cardmakers, which is hosted by Fiona, is a photo inspiration challenge.  She has asked us to make a card or project  that is inspired by the photo that is shown here - either image or colours.

For my card, I used a textured white card base that was 6" x 6" and folded the front  back in half again. I used some printed paper from my stash (I can't remember which CD I got it from - sorry!) to layer on the base of the card, and on the front flap.  I then cut a layer from the same white card as the base (it was actually the piece I cut off to make the card 6" x 6") and stuck to it using foam pads a stamped Christmas tree from a Hot off the press Enchanted Christmas stamp set that had been heat embossed using turquoise embossing powder.   I decorated my tree with faux pearls and  I then added some die cuts - the Memory Box frostyville border and Spellbinders Make a flake 4 as embellishments.

Finally, I stamped the sentiment onto some turquoise card which was in my scrap box and attached that to the card base.

 We are sponsored again by

DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS

$10 GIFT VOUCHER

I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with likeminded people. 
I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw myself. 
This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. Long may it continue!

CROP STOP

$15 Gift Certificate to the Crop Stop Store 
If you’re passionate about paper-crafting whether it be scrapbooking your memories, making cards or altered art, CropStop is your one-stop solution. We offer an extensive selection of dies, embossing folders, inks, stamps and punches by all the popular manufacturers and the CropStop die and embossing folder storage solutions Pocketz Pages™ to keep everything organized. Our selection of embellishments and adhesives is continually expanding and we are excited to be the home of the colorful Ribbon Candy™. 
In need of inspiration? Visit the CropStop Gallery, Blog or Message Board and participate in a competition or class. If you have questions concerning your machine, we have a team of experts waiting to help you. 

Message Board - come and meet like minded paper-crafters.
Blog - we have prizes and giveaways every week.
Gallery - lots of inspiration from all over the world.
YouTube - demonstrations, how-to’s, projects and much more.
FaceBook page - be the first to know of new arrivals in the store.
Twitter - we always find something worth Twittering! 
CropStop ships internationally as well as domestic. Our personalized customer service is only one of our strengths. Call or come visit us atwww.CropStop.com and see what’s new in the world of paper-crafting.

Challenge 79 - More than 1 punch or die

For this week's challenge at Crafty Cardmakers, Betty C would like to see More Than 1 Punch or die Cut, and you can use any combination as long as you have more than 1. For example, 1 die cut, 1 punch, 2 die cuts, 2 punches.  Obviously you can use more than 2, but you must use at least 2.

SPONSORS HOBBY ART and MILK COFFEE STAMPS - see the challenge blog for details of prizes.

My friend J asked me to make a christening card for her friend who had twin boys, and I thought this one would fit this challenge perfectly.

She wanted to incorporate their pictures, so I used the picture background to set the colour scheme.

For the base mat I used a mica mask (fretwork) which I used as a stencil after running it through the grand calibre and coloured with the butterscotch ink pad.

So that I got the colour I wanted, I used the same ink pad to colour the edges of my  base layers.
The wooden flower and ladybirds embellishment came from my stash and I finished the card off with some faux stitching around the edge.

What I used

• A4 folded to A5 pearlescent card
• embellishment wooden flower and ladybirds from stash
• white ribbon
• D-lite medallion 4 base die
• D-lite fantastic flourish 1
• A2 matting basics dies
• Back to basics tags
• Creative Expressions fretwork mica mask
• yellow promarker
• Butterscotch Adirondack inkpad
• peel off letters

Sponsors are

Hobby Art 

As a family business we're a friendly, helpful, bunch at Hobby Art.  All our stamps are designed by us and manufactured in Britain. 
Look at the gallery on my blog - jennymayes.com - for lots of card ideas using the Hobby Art range.  
We're pleased to sponsor the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge and look forward to seeing the entries.   Good luck everyone.  Jenny and all. X

Milk coffee Digital Stamps
Cute digis for cute creations 

MilkCoffee Stamps is a digital image shop specializing in cute and girly images. We provide high quality digital images with high resolution so you could resize it at big enough size. We have many different image styles, sophisticated lady, cute girl, whimsical image, cute stuff, fairytale creature, and many various themes so it could fit any crafter with different style.

Birthday cards

 Two birthday cards today...

The first was for my friend C's little boy to give to his Daddy.  I used a white base card with some nestie shapes to mat and layer onto red card with the corners cut inwards using a punch.

The image was a lili of the valley stamp, coloured with promarkers, and the sentiments were peel offs.

The second card was for C herself to give to her husband.  She had taken this photograph when they were on holiday, and I used it as the focal point of the card. 

I coloured some white ribbon with blue promarker to blend and used that over the base mat.  Further simple mat and layering in shades of blue and some silver photo corner peeloffs were used to frame the main image. 

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 78 Shaped card with Reindeers

This week's challenge at Crafty  Cardmakers is hosted By Tracey


She said that as Christmas will be here before we know it, she would like to see a   shaped card featuring a reindeer or two. No square or rectangle cards please.

Now, I have been on a bit of a mission recently, to use up some of that stash that I have bought over the years and just squirrel away.  So when I saw the theme was reindeer, I immediately thought of the very large Kanban collection I bought last year and which I still had the majority of left!  

There was a sheet of very nice reindeer just begging to be chosen, so I used the theatre style card base card in the kit and simply stuck the reindeer onto the front flaps using foam tape.  

Inside the card, I used one of the sentiments from the kit, and two small christmas trees, which I coloured to match the sentiment using an Hazelnut adirondack ink pad.

Even though it isn't a DL shaped card, it fits very nicely into a DL envelope.

This is not a card which really inspired my creative juices, but it really took no time to make (and at this time of the year, with the number of christmas cards I still need to make, that is a BIG plus point) and the extra bonus is that my stash has been very slightly depleted.

This time:

We're sponsored by

THE STAMPMAN

 We are kindly sponsored for this challenge by The Stampman (and Lady of course!) who are ofering the winner a £10 voucher for their store, you can spend this online, in the shop or if you're lucky enough to see them at a show!  They have a ton of items in store, enough to tickle any crafty taste bud. 

and

DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS

$10 GIFT VOUCHER

I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with likeminded people.
I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw myself.
This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. Long may it continue!

Someone still loves Robbie...

Everyone wants photos on their cards lately!  This one was made for a friend whose daughter (in her thirties) still loves Robbie Williams...

I simply matted the photograph onto some lavender papermania textured cardstock.   Then, I used my cheery lynn swirl die and a papermania paper flower, coloured using a big and juicy ink pad to add interest.

Final touches were the squared gems, the small tag sentiment and the faux stitching around the edge of the base card.

Spiderman, Spiderman....

It's my friend C's sons birthday this week and she asked me to make her a card for him.  His current love is the Hulk and Spiderman, so I thought I would incorporate both into his card.

The picture of the Avengers was simply matted onto the base card, but Spiderman was cut out and "hinged"  so that he could come out from the main part of the card front.

I was quite pleased with this one...

Autumn colours

I've been collecting the Making Cards magazine for some time now, and some of the papers inside are just lovely.  Usually, I put them carefully in the magazine holders and just pet the papers, but this time I thought I've got to get over this and actually used some!

My card was a birthday card for an ex colleague and I used a plain heavy white base card (6" x 6").  I used the patterned owl backing paper from the magazine (September 12 edition - cute creatures by Nancy Watt) for the base layer, and distressed the edges using an adirondack (woodlands) ink pad. The green coloured card I used for the topper bases was textured cardstock from paper mania.  The toppers were also from the magazine,

As a finishing touch, I went round the base card and the green backing card with an orange promarker (using a fine tip) to make a faux stitching effect.

 I coloured some clear gems with the same colour pen, and used them on the main topper base. Finally, I went over the owls and the bird on the sentiment with some pinflair glaze to make them "pop" out from the background.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Challenge 42 - Use orange over at Use it Tuesday
Week 77 - Autumn Colours at Allsorts Challenge blog

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 77 Autumn or Autumn festivals

Our challenge to you today from Crafty Cardmakers is 'Autumn or Autumn Festivals - NOT Hallowe'en' and is hosted by Josephine, who says 'There are always so many Hallowe'en challenges around! So instead of creating a Hallowe'en card I would like to see something that depicts the Season of Autumn, or maybe Harvest Festival, Guy Fawkes, Diwali or some other festival that happens in the Autumn. If your theme is a lesser-known festival, please tell us about it in your post! But remember, this is not a Hallowe'en challenge!'

I like to think of autumn as a time when everything slows down ready to sleep through winter, and I thought this cute image of a sleepy fairy  from this week's sponsors,  Milk coffee Digital Stamps absolutely fitted the bill.

I used a sheet of orange 6 x 6 colourcore cardstock from core'dinations for my base card, and around the edge I paper pricked and went over with a white pen for a faux stitched effect.  I used some hunkydory foiled leaf card for my bottom and side contrast strips.  I used the ironwork accents border strip to make the embellishment for the bottom.  
Because I didn't have the right colour ribbon, I coloured some white organza ribbon with a terracotta promarker, and put a strip across the bottom and made a double bow.

I used labels 5 to cut round the image, and to make the sentiment.  I tinted the background of both with a woodlands Adirondack stamp pad.  

The image was coloured in with promarkers (Lots of colours!) and the final touches were the leaves from another sheet of the coredinations card (in yellow) and two tiny butterflies were punched from the piece of scrap I had after cutting down the backing sheet.

We are sponsored by

Milk coffee Digital StampsCute digis for cute creations 

MilkCoffee Stamps is a digital image shop specializing in cute and girly images. We provide high quality digital images with high resolution so you could resize it at big enough size. We have many different image styles, sophisticated lady, cute girl, whimsical image, cute stuff, fairytale creature, and many various themes so it could fit any crafter with different style.