Rudolph Finally!.

Time to make a couple of Christmas Cards.
I haven't made any Joyfold cards in ages and it's not like I have any deadlines or challenges about to close on me is it!!
Would someone like to run that past me again in slow motion!!Lol.
So a rummage around in my christmas box produced 2 partially used up sheets of toppers by ' Craft Creations Ltd'  just perfect for what I need.
The first one is sheet CDT518G - Robins/Gold. Just begging for a colour theme of red/green and white.  I have used white leather textured card stock to make the card bases with.

Now the little tag holding the flap shut is making the card look like it's wonky but you can see from the inside that it is not.  I have cut and layered the cardstock on all the panels and adhered images on the inside to compliment the image used on the front of the card.  The gold sticker sentiment is from my stash. 

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Scraps of Life By Scrappy Mo # March Rudolph day

Merry Monday #241 Red/green and white.

The Holly and The Ivy Christmas challenge # 2 Anything goes.

Season's Greetings #4 Anything goes/optional picture inspiration which had birds and ivy on it.

Winter Wonderland # christmas animals or birds.

My second card uses a colour theme of Cream/Burgundy/ Lime. Topper sheet is CDT509G - Christmas Poinsettias. I have used  cream finely textured card stock to make the bases.

These toppers were a different orientation to the others so  have  cut the card bases to suit accordingly. Again I have layered up the different colours of card stock. No separate sentiment needed  as this time it was included  on the main image .

Entering this card into the following challenges:

Christmas Card Throwdown # colour challenge of cream/burgundy/lime green.

A Snowflakes Promise #38 Anything goes.

Crafty Hazelnut's Extra # Anything goes christmas.

Fab 'n' Funky #344 Christmas.

That's all folks. Gotta run.

Periwinkle.

I was actually meant to be making my Rudolph card last night but whilst browsing your blogs and commenting I came across a challenge which as I just happen to have two of their stamps (and I managed to locate them under all the toot on my desk) I had a little play with one of them using my Marvy LePlume II water colour pens. I like to scribble the colour out onto a pallette and then pick up the colour with a damp paint brush. (I find for me that I am getting better results and feel more in control of the amount of colour I'm using and it really is each to his own.)  The challenge is about to close so I needed to get my skates on so here is the card I have made.

The stamp is by High Hopes and called 'Annie's Periwinkle'. I have had in my stash for ages and never used. To be honest I have nearly given it away several times but glad now I didn't.

Background design paper is a freebie (what a surprise ) from Making Cards from the Nancy Watt collection called Pretty Pansies. The additional strip of stripped paper is another freebie by Jane Whelan Designs. Plain cardstock from my stash.  Here is a close up of her. I'm quite pleased with how she painted up. I have not added a sentiment. Will leave that till later. 

Entering into the following challenges:
High Hopes March challenge # Anything goes.
Artistic Inspirations #175 Anything goes.
City Crafter #355 In Bloom.
Little Miss Muffet #159 Anything goes.
Cute Card Thursday #471 Warm colours/tones.
Dragons Lair # Anytthing goes/spring flowers.

Night Skies

Another week flown by (I'm sure they are jet propelled) and it's into the second week of

#75 Butterflies =+ R is for Repeats and/or the colour Night sky

so here is my next inspiration for you.

My first card literally is a Night Sky. The preprinted paper  is a freebie from Making Cards April 2016 called Starry Night which already came as a circle which just happens to fit my 3.5" punch exactly. 

I have cut an aperture into the card front using my Sizzix scalloped circles die cut and used the resulting cut out to adhere the image to and then in turn to the inside of the card lining it back up with the scalloped edging.  The repeat of butterflies are  (SU punch) and  paint sample swatches (that have been hanging around in my stash for ages) glued around the edge of the scallop. The black gems and black sentiment are also from my stash.  The paper on the inside of the card is again  a freebie from Making Cards April 2016.

Entering the card above into the following challenges:

Die Cuttin Divas #310 Anything goes.

Aud Sentiments #176 Any sentiment except birthday.

Crafty Gals Corner #116 Anything goes.

Double 'D' Challenges # Things that fly.

Scrapping 4 Fun #86 Recycling old stash.

Scraper's Delights #64 Anything goes.

Second card was even simpler to make. Just design paper a freebie this time from Paper Crafter magazine Jun 2016 by Hunkdory called Boutique Chic. Lots of repeat buterflies on here in pretty shades of dark blue and adhered to front of a card base. The picture frames are wooden MDF cut outs that I have coloured using my distress marker pen 'Chipped Saphire'. Again  I have used paint sample swatches but this time a woodware butterfly punch and white pearl gems. The frames have been attached straight onto the design paper and the butterflies have 3d pads behind them to raise them up. Sentiment is a silver glitter sticker. The frames are on straight but I had to take the picture at an angle so that the sentiment showed up clearly. 

Entering this card into the following challenges:

Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.

Crafty Creations #338 Anything goes.

Creative Inspirations #271 Anything goes.

Inspiration Destination #125 Anything goes.

Penny's Paper Crafty #318 Anything goes.

Jo's Scrap Shack #181 Anything goes.

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper challenge # Anything goes.

Hydrangea Mark II

I have been having a play with the  Chinese Brush Painted Flowers Book again  (my bargain buy for £3) and have tried the tutorial for The Hydrangea doing it in Lingnan Style.
The book tells me that Lingnan style uses vibrant colours and spirited brushwork to express the beauty of Hydrangea by contrasting florets over a base of fused colours.  My effort sort of resembles the picture in the book.
I have  used my Marvy Le Plume II  water colour pens to draw and paint with.

I trimmed the watercolour card down in size using Crafts - Too rectangle dies stitch hole and then layered up using various different coloured card stock to compliment the colours in the painting.

Entering into the following challenges:
Come and Get IT Challenges #Spring time.
Crafty Card Makers #185 Spring into Spring.
Love To Craft #8 Anything goes.

Little Lighthouse.

This is a painting I did for a post card swap in February.   

The stamps are from Art Impressions Water colour range and I have been watching their videos  on how to use them. I have coloured in using my Marvey Le Plume II water colour pens by scribbling the colours out onto a palette and then picking the colour up with a paint brush. You have to send the postcard as it is so after painting it I left for several days and then sprayed it with Spray and Shine varnish to protect it from  the elements whilst in the post. I made a slight boo boo on this swap as I didn't read right to the end of the instructions and missed the bit which said the theme for the month was 'Faces' . Ooops!!!  I emailed my partner and said to imagine that there was a face peering out of one of the little windows instead.  The swap for March is anything with Wings and strangely enough I have not chosen to do a butterfly!!!

It was lovely weather last week for working in the garden and here are two photos of the what is in flower right now.

Repeats.

A new challenge has started over on the Butterfly Challenge.

#75 Butterflies +R is for Repeat and/or the colour Night Sky.

For the purposes  of the challenge  for the theme of " Repeat"  you just  need to have  something on your card  repeated maybe as a pattern or more than one of. The colour to use is "Night Sky". Again it is up to your interpretation of night sky colours. It could be the colour of twilight, a glorious sunset or even the colour of a  moonless night. 

Here is my inspiration for you.

I have gone with a repeat of the butterfly which is a pre printed card cut out. There is no name on the sheet unfortunately that I bought on Ebay. I have added pearls to each of  the wings on both butterflies. Card base is dark blue card stock and layered with gold pearlised card to match the markings on the butterflies. Sentiment is a gold sticker from my stash.

Entering into the following challenges:
Scrapper's Delights #64 Anything goes.
Creative Ladybirds Creations #24 Anything goes.
Love To Craft #8 Anything goes.
Crafting By Designs # Anything goes.
Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends #54 Anything goes.
Alphabet Challenge # A is for anything with wings.
Brown Sugar #242 Anything goes.
Crafting With Friends #39 Anything goes.
Creative Fingers #126 Anything goes.

Hanging Basket.

I've just  sent off my card for the March Chain Card Swap that I am participating in and still  have February's card  to show.  My partner for that month was Jeanne in Minnesota.  The  colours to use on your card were Sage, Willow and Raspberry . I chose the theme of Nature and to incorporate the product Embossing.

I used an embossing folder which came as a  magazine freebie from Practical Publishing International Ltd and Spellbinders Nestabilities 'Marvellous Squares' to die cut the frame work from raspberry card stock. The images is a clear stamp from Imagination Crafts that I have coloured in with my promarkers and a silver gel pen. Stamped onto very pale green paper before colouring. The little butterflies are a Tonic Butterfly punch. 

Iv'e decorated the inside of the card with the negative card die cut from the  front of the card. The little bird  was stamped on the envelope that I received from my swap partner in January so I simply cut him out, coloured him in and he has now winged his way back to America on the inside of this card. (I do like to recycle!).

Sunbursts

Time is flying by again and the girls in the Christmas Card Club have been busy with  their latest makes. The theme this time was set by Granmargaret who is asking for 'Two or more pattern papers'.
This just screamed one style of card for me so I have abandoned the recycled christmas card box  in favour of my christmas paper box. I had a look on You Tube to remind me on how to make the card and found so many variations that I sort of got carried away and ended up making six altogether and here  they all are.

First card uses freebie papers from Making Cards 2015/2016 christmas papers. Sentiment is a  clear stamp by Dovecraft  'Tis the Season'. Red card stock used to make the base card.

My second and third cards use papers  by Dovecraft 'Back to basics christmas '. These were all snippets left over from a project I made a few yrs ago now. Snippet of ribbon was out on my desk so I used it!. Sentiment stamp also by Dovecraft.  Card bases are made tent fold style.

This design is also known as Starburst as your centre point is  off to one side of the card.  

On the fourth card I used the same design as on card 1 but repeated the pattern on the bottom half of the card  to make a complete design .  Papers are freebies from  Making Cards Nov 2016.Sentiment is a clear stamp by Kaisercraft.

Fifth card again used the Starburst design but upright this time and the pattern has been inlaid onto a piece of card with spaces left between the papers and gives quite a different effect.  Papers are freebies from Making Cards Nov 2016. Sentiment is by Hot off the press in their ' Forever christmas Cards paper stack.' 

The sixth and last card is my own design.  Papers are all from  Hot off the press  'Forever christmas cards paper stack ' along with the Noel sentiment.  I don't know why the card has come out this odd colour as the backing card is the same red as on the design papers. I have given up trying to work out the mysteries of my camera's choices!  I laid the design papers onto card to make a complete pattern and then die cut out using my sizzix scallop circles. I think it sort of looks like the patchwork 

'Dresden plate.'

As I have used loads and loads of snippets I'm off to play on the swings in the playground. 

See you all there. If Miss has put the pogo sticks out don't touch em!!

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #273/274. Use up your snippets. (I most certainly did but thev'e created loads of little triangles now. )

Butterflies and Bees.

What a gorgeous day it has been today. Seen a couple of butterflies again in the garden and a huge bumble bee  busy searching for somewhere to make a home so my first card for you  is quite appropriate.
It's the second week of  #74 Butterflies +E  is for Edges and/or the colour Mint green.
Here is some more  inspiration for you.

Card base has the pre cut butterflies edge already on it. The image is by Hunkydory from their 'Second little book of flowers'. I backed the inside of the card with a very pale mint card stock that matched the leaves on the flowers perfectly.  Sentiment is a multi coloured sticker  from my stash.

Entering this card into the following challenges:

Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.

Catch The Bug # Birds, Bees, Butterflies.

Come and Get It Challenges # Things with wings.

Crafting By Designs # Anything goes.

Love to Craft #8 Anything goes.

My second card uses  darker mint card stock for the base card and a Digi paper  'Shabby Roses 02c' by Cameo Shop on Etsy.  The butterrfly edges are a tonic border punch.  Sentiment is a glitter sticker from my stash as are the white roses. The butterrfly created in the middle is 'Theo Butterfly' by Poppy Stamps. I die cut from a square of card and then inlaid the butterfly back inside. Turned both over and secured the butterfly down at the the edges and then covered with a piece of acetate cut to the same size as the square. I have adapted an idea I saw here on Laurel's blog  and created the  shaker element using the little waste butterflies from the tonic die punch edge strip for the inside. You can just see them inside the wings of the butterfly. 

It was such a nice day that I took the photos out in the garden.
Entering into the following challenges:
Jo's Scrap Shack #179 Anything goes.
Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper # Anything goes.
Creative Ladybirds Creations #24 Anything goes.
Scrapper's Delights # 64 Anything goes.
The Flower Challenge #6 Anything goes with florals.

Unicorn Challenge #19 Go green.
Win and Tonic # Anything goes.(Used Tonic butterfly border punch.)

Rose Cottage.

This is a little painting I did for a post card swap back  in January.   

The stamps are from Art Impressions Water colour range and I have been watching their videos  on how to use them. I have coloured in using my Marvey Le Plume II water colour pens by scribbling the colours out onto a palette and then picking the colour up with a paint brush. You have to send the postcard as it is so after painting it I left for several days and then sprayed it with Spray and Shine varnish to protect it from  the elements whilst in the post. Happy to say it arrived safely and unscathed.

Has anyone else noticed how hard it is to now to follow back people who become your follower.

You no longer get a direct link back to their blog when you click on the little icon so unless they leave a comment on your blog at the same time as linking  or you do recognise who they are then your, to put it mildly 'Up a creek without a paddle'! Conversely I have now noticed that I no longer have an image of me when I follow a new blog and the name is showing as my full name and bears no resemble to my blog or blog address and I can't find out how to fix it back to how it was. I am so annoyed. Can you see the steam!!!!!

Thankyou to all my new followers and please leave comments so I can find you back.

Hugs 

Spring Pansies

I'm just about to send off my card for the March Chain Card Swap that I am participating in and realise Iv'e not shown the card I sent out in January yet. My partner for that month was my lovely blogging friend Greta. The  colours to use on your card were Royal Purple, Crocus and Buttercup which just screamed out pansies to me. I chose the theme of Friendship and to incorporate the products  Buttons and Twine if you wanted to.

I used a scalloped blank card base and then yellow cardstock to die cut the Spellbinders Nestabilities 'Marvelous Squares'. From the insert I then further die cut 'Pansy CR1305 ' by Marianne Design. I relaid the insert back into the piece of yellow card that I had cut it from and adhered to the card blank front. This left me with the pansy recess So I recut the pansy die from snippets of green, purple and mauve card and carefully glued the little pieces back into the recessed area to recreate the pansy. I then used a really tiny hole punch to make a yellow centre for the flower. The buttons are Joy Crafts 'Button die 6002/0057'  which I threaded with a scrap of mauve/white bakers twine from my stash.  The sentiment is from a combined stamp/dies 'Notelets set 'by Sizzix which I stamped onto a snippet of white card and die cut using SU's 'Word window' and 'Modern label'.

For the inside of the card I die cut a purple Marvellous Squares and popped the left over yellow insert from the yellow card on top. Sentiment is from the same Sizzix combined set and Su's 'Decorative label' die from an offcut of white card.

I have used lots and lots of snippets up so I'm off to join the rest of the gang in the playground
Pixies Crafty Workshop #271/272 Use up your snippets.

P.S. Please check out the recent winners of my 7yr Itch blog candy as not everyone has claimed their prize yet. You have until 15th March. After that if you haven't  come forward I will do a redraw. 

Mint Edges.

A new challenge has started over on the Butterfly Challenge.
#74 Butterflies + E is of Edges and/or the colour Mint green.
 Here are my inspiration cards for you.

The first card is a bit special as I have used a Tattered Lace die set that I have recently won which was part of the Candy on Sue's Crafty Corner Blog. Thankyou Sue. This set is going to fast become one of my favourites to use.  I cut the the front of the card shape (from an existing card blank) using the largest of the label dies and only putting my cutting plates on half of the die as I wanted the back of the card to remain square.  Then I used the next lable size down and cut from half  a sheet of  mint  green card. The remaining piece was used to matt inside the card. I then chose the Edge 3 mat to cut the pattern on the green card. My Big Shot is getting a bit old and worn now so I found I needed to run it through on several passes and move the die round to a different  position on the plates but it came out fine and the little pieces all fell out cleanly.  Looking through my digi papers I found this one from Funky Hand's 'Minty Madness Collection' paper No5 and it had a very similar daisy pattern on it which looked good with the die edge. The butterfly was  a freebie from Making Cards and was on a sheet called Florals and Flutters. I trimmed a wide edge round the butterfly first and glued onto a scrap of white card stock to strengthen  and then fussy cut more closely. Sentiment is a ready made one from a  Hunkydory Set in my stash. 

Entering this card into the following challenges:

Artitstic Inspirations #174 Anything goes.

Creative Knockouts #183 Die/Punch frenzy

Brown Sugar #240 Anything goes.

Fussy and Fancy #182 Anything goes.

International Art and Soul #3 Fancy borders.

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends #53 Anything goes.

Crafting By Designs #Anything goes.

Creative Ladybirds Creations #24 Anything goes.

My second inspiration card for you uses another paper from the same Minty Madness set by Funky Hand  No 19. I used cream card stock to make the base card  and adhered the paper to the front. The embellishments are from a ready made decoupage set by Hunkydory. I cut the butterflies from a left over piece of the edging strip and placed around the top of the circle (thus making another edge for the theme). The pearls were from my stash. 

Entering this card into the following challenges:
Dream Valley #151 Lots of layers.
Deep Ocean Challenges #150 Dots and or stripes.
A Bit More Time To Craft #39 Anything goes.
Crafting With Friends #38 Anything goes.
Jo's Scrap Shack #178 Anything goes.
Card Mania #90 Pastel colours.
Crafts and Me # Springtime.
Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper # Anything goes.

Hugs

Something To Tell You.

I have something to tell you.

Mother hen here is fluffing her feathers out and strutting about  proud as proud can be.

Faye (Stampin FlufnStuff)  our daughter  is going to be on 

 HOCHANDA

tomorrow 8th March  showing off her skills with 

COPIC MARKERS!

Her time slots are 10am and again at 5pm.

Probably not many of you are aware that Faye is a

European Copic Colouring Master.

(There are not many of them I can tell you and she is the only one in UK.)

So if you are  interested in seeing the real mccoy at work you can catch her on

SKY 663

FREEVIEW 85

FREESAT 817

 I'll be watching. 

Bird of Paradise

I've tried my hand at another flower from the  Chinese Brush Painted Flowers book by Joan Lok.
A Bird of paradise.
(This style is usually created without a sketch and the composition is adjusted as the paintings proceed.) Not too keen on this as your applying the colour straight to the page from the brush and shaping the petals and leaves as you go. I don't have any of the correct paints or brushes and used my Marvy Le Plume II water colour pens scribbled onto  a palette and then picked up with a wet brush.

I'm pleased with the colours of the actual flower head and when I had mounted it onto two shades of orange card and then a green frame it looked a lot better. Will probably just add the sentiment to the inside as I think it would be too much on the front of the card .

Off The Wall

Time once more  for the girls in the Christmas Card Club to show our  next cards. Zoe has set the theme this time and it was quite a brief.  Zoe wanted  to see Off The Wall. i.e. non traditional, a little whacky, unusual colours. OK then. A quick rootle through my used christmas card stash turned up a couple that I thought would work well.
Here is the first one. I have had this in my stash for years and years. Not because I thought I would ever actually use it but the colours and design were so bold I rather liked it in a odd kind of way.

I trimmed the front down very slightly to fit within the die cut frame which  I cut from white 300gsm watercolour card. Base card is from purple cardstock which matched the birds plumage perfectly. There is a sheet of acetate between the frame and the image but I have managed to take the photo without any reflection showing. Don't ask me how as I had bright spotlights beaming down from the ceiling right above at the time! The frame is a die cut by Crafts -Too  'Rectangle Stitch Hole  ' my favourite go to at the moment. The sentiment is  a die cut by Creative Expressions.  I had it just  in white to start with but it looked lost against the white frame work so I cut another in the purple card  and attached it slightly to the side to create a shadow effect and suddenly the card all came together.

My second card uses  another card front that I have simply trimmed down and attached to purple card stock. 

 I attached acetate that has a pattern of stars on it over the top and held it on with matching purple brads in each corner. The whole image was then adhered with sticky 3d pads (to add dimension) to a card base made from  cream leather effect card stock.

Hope these are both unusual enough for you Zoe.

Hydrangea with Contour Lines

I purchased a floral  painting book  last weekend  firstly because the title caught my attention 'Chinese Brush  Painted  Flowers' and secondly (being one of the last big spenders) it was reduced from £15 down to £3 so it really would have been so rude of me not to have done so. We were away from home at the time but a quick look through the book and I was itching to have a go at one of the flowers. There are 36  in total illustrated and how to paint them for all levels of artist from beginner up (a third reason for buying) and the artist is Joan Lok. There are 5 distinct styles in Chinese brush painting and Contour is one of them.
I had a little play Mon/Tue and this is the result which I have made up into a card as more inspiration for  #73 Butterflies +G is for Glossy Accents and/or the colour Slate Blue.  which still has 1 week left to run.

I don't have any chinese paints or the correct brushes so I used my Marvy Le Plume  water based pens instead and was pleased that my painting sort of resembled the picture in the book. I used a butterfly dimensions sticker by Anita's (a) because I needed a butterfly on the card and  (b) its hiding the awful mess I made underneath it! (Having spent 2 days painting it there was no way it was going in the bin.)

 The glossy accents element is the pink spotty candi that I gave a liberal coating to before adding to the card and which I managed to catch on camera. the inside of the card was finished with light and dark slate blue card stock and another Dimensions butterfly sticker.

Entering into the following challenges:

Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.

Crafting By Designs # Anything goes.

Crafty Creations #336 Anything goes.

Penny's Paper Crafty #318 Anything goes.

Brown Sugar #239 Anything goes.

Crafting With Friends #37 Anything goes.

Crafty Catz #359 Anything goes/thoughts of Spring.

Jo's Scrap Shack #177 Anything goes.

The winners of my 7yr Itch blog Candy are in the post below. Be sure to check it out.