Kenny K's Krafty Girlz Christmas Hues of Blues Challenge #73 and I love Promarkers Blue and White challenge

I chose the Christmas Hottie image from  Kenny K for this weeks challenge. As I was short on time (mrs unorganised AGAIN) I used my Serif Craft Artist software to create the background. I really love using this but need to spend more time experimenting to use all the different effects and things! As the challenge suggested I used loads of different blues to mat and layer the background and added snowflakes and the sentiment on the tag, changing the font colour to match the rest of the card. I printed the image out seperately and coloured it with promarkers before adding highlights with foiling. I used foam pads to attach the image to create more depth and finished by adding gems and stickles glitter glue to the snowflakes.

A closeup of the finished snowflake ! Love the effects you can create with this method !!

Trying out My New Kanban Stamps

I ordered these stamps from Kanban and couldn't wait to try them out! Like most of us I often find it more difficult to make men's cards. I decided to make this card as part of my entry for the simply cards and papercraft magazine's cardmaker of the year competition.

I started off with the mannikin which I coloured with promarkers and cut out, finishing it off with gold foiling. This was layered onto a label-shaped piece of card that was embossed using a Tim Holtz embossing folder. I highlighted the embossing with copper versamark ink.

I stamped the clock, ticket and the cogs and cut them out , layering them onto the 'label'. The label was finished by setting a large eyelet at the top and tying a piece of garden twine through it. The card blank was created using an A4 piece of acetate, folded in half. I cut a piece of harlequin paper 7.5cm wide and stamped it with script. I cut it into 2 and rounded the corners. 6 eyelets were set into it and after adhering it across the card I laced it with twine. The Happy birthday tag was created using antique gold metal magic fromhttp://www.debbimoore.co.uk/. It's fab stuff and lets you make your own embellishments that really look like metal!

The finishing touches were added with some larger cogs which I stamped, cut out and arranged in the top right hand corner to balance out the design. Finally I adhered some paper from papermania to the inside of the card so it could be seen through the front of the card. Pleased with the results and won't be so 'shy' of making male's cards in the future. Really enjoyed playing with my new stamps!!!

St Lukes Let it snow challenge and Teddy Bo White Christmas Challenge

I made this card for the two challenges above this week. The St Lukes challenge could be anything snowy and the Teddy Bo challenge had to use mostly white in the design.

I made a 'box' card and cut an aperture in the front panel. On the back panel I adhered a snowy image which I'd enhanced with stickles glitter glue. The gorgeous bears on the sledge are Teddy Bo and Teddy Bea fromhttp://teddybo.com/. Aren't they just adorable??? I can safely say I'm becoming quite addicted to them!! I coloured the Teddys with promarkers then used irridescent H2O's for their clothes which produced a lovely pastel look which went well with the white scheme of white christmas. The side 'tabs' were decorated with diecuts using sizzix shapeabillities lace doily accents.

 I used my crop-a-dile to add snowflake eyelets to the side tabs and the front of the card. Atriple bow was fixed on using abutton and the whole thing was finished off with lots and lots of gorgeous white stickles!

I Love Promarkers Challenge # 94

Hi wanted to get cracking on some of the Fab challenges for this week.http://ilovepromarkers.blogspot.com/ challenge this week is 'snowmen and snowflakes'.

I used a digistamp from http://www.sassycherylsdigis.com and coloured it with my promarkers. Love this design.... just a bit different from the usual snowmen stamps!. I added some lovely crystal glitter(don't know the make) but it doesn't show up well on the pic.

I added some eyelets to the corners after matting the design onto glitter card as double sided tape doesn't stick so well on glitter card ! Some lovely silver ric rack was threaded through the eyelets to add a bit of texture. As a background I used some really nice 'patchwork' paper from nit wits.

 As the challenge said Snowmen AND Snowflakes I decided to make some 'snowflakes' like we all used to make in nursery school! Using small cicles of silver holographic paper I folded it and snipped bits out then backed the snowflakes with double sided tape, attached them to the front of the card and filled in the spaces of the flakes with white glitter....... just a bit different..... unless ur 4 lol !!

Kenny K's Challenge #71

Haven't had chance to enter KKKG challenge for a few weeks so thought I'd make an early start this week lol.The challenge was stitching, faux or real so I went for both!!

The background was created using the serif craft artist software. It has loads of embroidery brushes and I wanted to use them all! Maybe I went a bit ott but never mind. The colour scheme is one I haven't used much before but I really like it. I used Kittykatastrophe digistamp from KennyK and coloured her in with promarkers.

I added loads of bling using stickles and foils on her jewels but the pic doesn't do them justice!The sentiment was computer generated.
A wide ricrac was coloured with promarkers to match the colourscheme and I hand stitched it to the left hand side of the card using a herringbone stitch in silky machine embroidery thread. This stitch is ideal for stitching ricrac n gives a pretty finish.

I finished off with a huge bow recycled from a posh box of choccies and a vintage button off my mam which I attached using the machine embroidery thread to match the border.

Pleased with the overall look .... fits in with the girly 'best friend birthday' sentiment.

WOW!!!!! Craft Barn Blog Candy to be won

Wow!! Take a look at the FAB Blog candy up for grabs at http://thecraftbarnblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/look-look-look-blog-candy.html? You've got until the 25th November to be in with a chance of winning over £200 of crafting goodies to celebrate them reaching over 600 followers. Congrats Craft Barn. Good luck with the blog candy prize xx

i'm a teddybo-aholic !!! LOL

I made this card for a competition in papercraft essentials mag. You had to create a birthday card using some type of digital elements.

The focus of the card was a digistamp from http://teddybo.com/. which I coloured using promarkers in a pastel pink and lilac to give it a really 'girly' feel.

The ruffly part of her tutu was finished in lilac glitter which looks soooo pretty but you can't see it properly on this  photo.To add a bit of extra texture I used a quickie glue penon the pompom on her hat and once it had gone clear I pressed some cottonwool onto it, giving it a woolly fluffy look. Isn't she just adorable? I'm quickly becoming addicted to these gorgeous teddy images !

The background of the card was created using the serif craft artist digital software. I'm not an expert but am getting more comfortable with it and it's so easy to create dimensional embelishments like this metallic look swirl which I highlighted with a jewelled brad to create more dimention. Fingers crossed for the comp :)