Remember, remember the 5th of MOVEMBER! (and free digi)

Hello all!
For those readers not from the British Isles, the mish mash of a blog title might not mean a thing to you but for those of us who look forward to Bonfire night, the old folk rhyme should ring a few bells!

Remember, remember!
    The fifth of November,
    The Gunpowder treason and plot;
    I know of no reason
    Why the Gunpowder treason
    Should ever be forgot! 

Briefly we celebrate a failed plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament back in 1605 by a group which included a chap called Guy Fawkes.  We do so by having bonfires upon which we burn "Guys" - homemade effigies of Mr Fawkes and letting off fireworks.  More and more people now call it "Fireworks Night" but whatever you call it, GuyFawkes himself had a dashing 'tache!

   So now we finally get to the point of this blog posting - (at last!).  This month has become known for changing it's name to "Movember" and you can read all about it here.  So jumping on board with that, I am posting a free digi collage for the rest of the month for you to use!  This is also my DT example in the current Black & White challenge over at Eclectic Ellapu so why not check out the rest of the DT's fantastic work?

      It would be lovely if you would link back to me if you do use this :)  Enjoy!

Thanks for popping in!

Guest DT at Oozak.

Hello all!
       Happy 1st October :) A gorgeous day is forecast here today which is great but where on earth did the last 9 months go????  Anyway my post today is for the Oozak challenge blog where I was very pleased to have been asked to do the guest DT spot this week.  I love ordering from OOZAK as they have such a fabulous variety of products and you always get super quick delivery!

      I used my new Prima Mixed Media Doll stamp and after stamping her onto white cardstock, I used masking fluid to mask her (stating the obvious!) and then stamped the background flowers with white embossing powder, blending some Distress Inks over them once heated and set.  I added a few more stamps to the background using the same Distress Inks and then rubbed off the masking fluid to reveal the "naked" or uncoloured doll image.  I coloured her skin and hair with Copics and paper pieced her dress and hairband and added a few adhesive gems to the background flowers.

    I would like to enter this into the challenges at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday , Chocolate, Coffee & Cards , Wags 'n' Whiskers , LadyBug Crafts .

           Thanks so much for popping in today :)

Eclectic Ellapu Treasure Hunt

Hello all!
                Just a quick post to tell you about the HUGE treasure hunt that will start on October 1st with the many DT members of the wonderful Eclectic Ellapu challenge blog.
                      You can find all the details HERE.   Don't miss out as there are 29 prizes to be won!!!  Plus a Grand Prize too :)

(You also might want to check out my blog on October 1st - I'm just saying..................)

Well you can't have a treasure hunt without a pirate, can you????

Bye for now!

 

Floral fun.

Hello all!
It's time for another challenge over at Eclectic Ellapu and it's the turn of the PINK team this week- the challenge is being hosted by Kelly and the theme is flowers so why not come and show us what you can do?

           For my card I left the CAS path (it's only temporary!) and used one of my own digis, available from Can You Digi It.  I've been playing around with some images from a vintage Sears catalogue - they're what's known as 'in the public domain' and so I've been digitally cleaning them and repurposing them as digi stamps.  I used this corset one as a tag, coloured the image with Copics and aged it using alcohol inks and Distress ink pads.  The card background is made up from scraps of designer cardstock, distressed and inked at the edges, fabric scraps, buttons, a length of vintage tape measure, a metal charm and some punched out flowers.

I would like to put this in for the challenges at Craft Room Challenge , Through the Craftroom Door , Card Crafter's Circle , Colour Me Creative and The Hobby House.

Thanks for stopping by!

"Time" for another Eclectic Ellapu challenge

Hello all!
             As you may have guessed from the post title, the current challenge over at Eclectic Ellapu is "Time"  Lots of scope for artistic interpretation with this one and if you head on over to the blog you can see the wonderful creations from the DT, which may give you a head start!
         I decided to whip up another scrapbook page and kept going with my CAS trend for this one.  I picked 3 photos of one of my super cute nieces, from a couple of years ago to use - she would run everywhere and it was difficult to get ahead of her to capture these shots.
     I'm trying to use up some of the many scraps of paper I have and this layout was ideal for that.  I printed the journalling ticket myself and added some Cameo cut butterflies for decoration.  I was trying to say how quickly time goes by - especially when you realise you are several years behind with your scrapbooking!

    I would like to enter this into the challenges at Through the Craftroom Door , Crafting By Designs , Crafts and Me , Flutterby Wednesdays and Lady Anne's Challenges.

Summer time!

Hello all!
Another fortnight has flown by and it's the turn of the PINK DT over at Eclectic Ellapu to host the challenge and this time the theme is Summer Sunshine.  Hopefully you are actually getting some sunshine where you are - it's a bit of a mixed bag here in New Jersey with some lovely hot days and plenty of thunderstorms thrown in!

                    I've been dipping my toe back in the scrapbooking waters lately as I've got so many hundreds of photos I want to scrap with that I've just got to get a move on!  Anyway, this one is a photo of one of my nieces from a couple of years ago when she was 3 years old.  We went for a Teddy Bears' picnic; the first time she had been on a picnic and she was very excited about it all.  We did take along a couple of teddy bears as obviously you have to when it's a Teddy Bears' picnic.  This is her showing off her melon smile :)

         I used several different patterned papers, a few chipboard sentiments and some punched out butterflies.  I always add the journalling after I photograph the page as it's personal to me.


          I would like to enter this into the challenges at Creative Corner, Creatalicious , Crafty Calendar , Craft Lovin' , Bearly Mine and Paula Holifield crafts.

Thanks so much for popping in :)

Captain Hook / key hook

Hello all!
     This is a very quick posting as the internet connection is a bit dodgy where we are at the moment.  I must also apologise for not commenting on your blogs as I'm on holiday at the moment :)  Normal service will be resumed next week!

                 Anyway, this post is for the latest challenge over at Eclectic Ellapu which is another 'Anything Goes' one so we're expecting plenty of entries!!  We also have some fabulous new DT members so please go check out their blogs from the links shown.

              I wanted to try and work with a digi on a wooden surface so after I paint primed the wooden board, I transferred the The Octopode Factory Captain Hook digi using the mod podge method - see here for a tutorial.  I then painted Captain Hook with acrylic paints and added the quote using Cameo cut vinyl letters.  I screwed in a vintage coat hook where his hook is on his arm and sealed the whole thing with more mod podge.

I would like to enter this into the challenges at Through the Craftroom Door, One Stop Craft , Inspire me Fridays and Crafting Musketeers. 

Sorry it's a quick one but I'm exploring Virginia so we've got a lot to get through :)

Thanks for popping in and I will get to your blogs when I'm back.

Anything Goes and some Art for Eclectic Ellapu.

Hello all!

Once again it's the turn of the PINK DT over at Eclectic Ellapu and it's an easy one for you all this time - Anything Goes.  I have taken this opportunity to share some artwork of mine - not an easy thing for me to do as I'm super critical of my own stuff but I do actually like this one :)
                         I recently undertook an online art course, the first time I have ever done anything like that and learnt so much from it that I actually painted something!  It might not sound like a big deal but this is the first time I have ever painted a face - at least since primary school anyway :)
             I have played around doing some mixed media techniques on cards and have done a few abstract paintings too  - if you love getting messy with paper, paints and ink then this is definitely for you!  For the background of this painting I ripped and tore some dictionary pages and some patterned cardstock and added some travel-related tickets, making a textured and wrinkled layer.  I painted and inked over this using basic acrylic paints, some gelatos and some permanent inks with a variety of rubber and clear stamps.  After letting that all dry, I began to paint the face with acrylic paints and Faber Castell Pitt pens - the headband and dress are inked and paper pieced for additional texture.  I finished off by stamping a few random words and then sealing it all with a thin coat of Mod Podge.

                              So, there she is - what do you think?  I call her 'Travelling Girl" and she's currently looking down on me from above my craft desk.  I would like to enter her into the challenges at The Artistic Stamper, Crafting Musketeers, Our Creative Corner, Inspire Me Fridays, Craft Stamper and Simon Says Stamp and Show.

Thanks for stopping by and please do take a look at the fabulous talent from the DT over at Eclectic Ellapu.

It's in the stars.

Hello all!
           Time for another challenge from the PINK DT over at Eclectic Ellapu and this week the theme is my choice - as the post title says, 'It's in the stars'.  You can interpret this in a number of ways so don't feel shy about entering!  There's the whole zodiac thing or you can take it literally and use the night sky as your theme - feel free to think outside the box.

                         For my card I used a Mayzy Art digi and merged her onto a background that I created myself - a subway word art block of star sign characteristics in different fonts.  I'm working on all twelve signs and will put them up as a set to sell in my etsy shop.  They'll work with any number of people digis for birthday cards but also look pretty good on their own as artwork too!  The fab digi was coloured with Copics and I kept the whole thing very simple by just adding a simple tag as an embellishment.

         I would like to enter this in the following challenges - Simon Says Stamp and Show, Mayzy Art, JellyPark, Copic Marker Europe and Cas-ual Fridays.

   Thanks so much for popping in and have a great finish to your weekend :)

Just for you........

Hello all!

      Back with a new challenge for the Pink Team over at Eclectic Ellapu and this week we're asking you for a creative project for a wedding, engagement or anniversary - basically it's a couples thing!
    For my card I used a digi from Make It Crafty called 'Geeky Love' and I will admit that I had coloured it well over 18 months ago!  I have a box of coloured images from when I first started colouring with Copics and I need to do something with them so have decided to start using them up :)  I just added a few more bits of shade and highlight here and there and decided to make the image the main focus of the card.  The background is simply a page from my trusty old recycled dictionary with some random stamping and I used photo corners to add some definition to the edges.

 

              The colouring does seem a bit flat but it was one of my early ones so I'll forgive myself ;)

 

                  I would like to enter this into the challenges at Bugaboo , Little Miss Muffet , Papertake Weekly and Through the Craftroom Door .

 

Thanks for popping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

 

 

A touch of whimsy.

Hello all!
I'm back (if a little late) with this week's challenge over at Eclectic Ellapu for the PINK team and this time the theme, chosen by Berni is 'whimsy'.
     The reason I'm a bit late in posting this is that we headed off to the wilds of Connecticut early this morning - well, to New Milford anyway as we wanted to check out the Elephant's Trunk flea market.  It was good but absolutely freezing!!  I think we plan on keeping our junking trips to indoor places until it warms up a bit.  We didn't come back with much but yesterday I did manage to score a very cheap load of small furniture bits to redo so I'm set for a couple of weeks.  It's another hobby of mine - redoing, repainting, restyling small furniture and bits.  I may do some posts about it at some point.....

            So enough of the waffling and back to the challenge - with April 1st coming up fast, it's the perfect time to create something fun and for my project I decided to make my own mini art journal.  I've been playing around with paints, inks and mixed media stuff for a while now and so I wanted something I could do this in.  I didn't want a full sized book though so cut some cardstock and watercolour paper to about 7x9 inches and made a chipboard cover, binding it with my Zutter Bind-it-all.  For the cover I used a fabulously whimsical Octopode Factory digi -( 'sad little pierrot') which I printed over some song lyrics and then masked as I attacked the background with Dylusions Inks, various stamps, chalks, inks and markers.  I painted the digi with acrylic paints and inks and added some definition with a fine nib Sharpie.

       I would like to enter this into the challenges at 613 Avenue Create, Challenges 4 everybody, Creative Inspirations Paint, No Matter Which challenges and Through the Craftroom door.

I'll leave you with a close-up of the little clown.

Thanks so much for popping in :)

A simple Happy Birthday

Hello all!
Hope your weekend is going well and don't forget the clocks have changed over here Stateside so if you havn't done it yet, you're about to lose an hour!  No idea why this is done on a different date to the UK but it is and there is also another different date for things between the two countries - Mother's Day.  It's today (Sunday) over in the UK but it's not until May here in the USA - this means that I very nearly forgot to send a card to my mum!  Why can't all these things be on the same date?  It would make life a lot easier for those of us with a foot in each country :)

                Anyway there's a new challenge in all countries at the same time over at Eclectic Ellapu and the theme this week, from fellow Pink DT member Nana Connie is BIRTHDAYS .
            Nice and easy so I hope to see plenty of entries from all of you out there in blogland!  For my card I decided to go with a cropped digi from one of my favourite online stores - Teddy Bo .  I cropped Teddy Bea down to her face, hat and flower as I wanted to do a Spring time card.

                  Isn't she pretty?  I would like to enter this into the challenges at Teddy Bo , 2 Sisters, Allsorts and One Stop Craft .

Thanks for popping in!

One for the guys!

Hello all!
Time for another challenge from the Pink Team over at Eclectic Ellapu and this week the theme is Masculine.  Now this does always seem to cause problems for some cardmakers but I actually enjoy making cards for the guys as they're usually much simpler to do and don't involve too much of the frou-frou that I find difficult to add and still keep the card looking cohesive!  Please go to the EE blog and check out the rest of the fabulous DT's work to get some great inspiration.
      I also wanted to tie this card into the current challenge over at Craft Stamper - I get this magazine whenever I visit home (UK) and love it so I was very pleased to find that they had started to do challenges!  Their first challenge is faux airbrushing so I decided to give it a go using some Dylusions Ink sprays and some diluted white acrylic paint.  I masked off an area on some cardstock and sprayed it with the red and blue inks, letting it dry before adding some sprayed white paint.  The motorbike stamp (I think it was from Blockheads ) was stamped and embossed with some black embossing powder and then I added the sentiment, from the same stamp set and the chequered pattern.

                       One thing I should mention for those of you who have not yet used the wonderful Dylusions Inks is that they do react with water so as you can see, the red started to turn a bit pink when I sprayed the white paint over the inks!  I wanted 'Red, White and Blue' as the background so I didn't spray too much of the white.

    I would also like to put this in for the following challenges - Addicted to CAS , Art Impressions , and Craft Room challenge .

Thanks so much for stopping by and please do join in with our Masculine challenge over at Eclectic Ellapu :)

Girly grunge!

Hello again - back with another catch up DT posting and this time it's for Eclectic Ellapu and the challenge, hosted this week by the wonderful Sheena is 'Girly' - plenty of scope there to come up with something fabulous!   As the post title states, I went for 'Girly Grunge' and decided to do a canvas board using mixed media and a Kenny K digi called Star.

                 My base was an 8" x 10" board canvas which I primed with gesso and then added crumpled tissue paper whilst that was still wet.  I added some designer cardstock from my stash and some torn dictionary pages and music sheets and inked and painted with various Distress Inks and acrylic paints until I was happy with the background.  Then I stamped the word music with some foam letters and added a few rub-ons, finishing with a painted chipboard heart and the fussy cut Kenny K image which had been coloured with Copics.

Entering the following challenges - 

kennykskraftykrew

Crafty Bloggers

Creative Creations

Love to Create

Simon Says Stamp and Show

Thanks for stopping by!

     

Black & White and read all over.

Hello all!
It's time for another challenge from the PINK team at Eclectic Ellapu and this week, it's my turn to pick the theme.  I love black and white photos and most art created with text so I decided that should be the challenge - to create something with black and white and to use text as well.  I know that those of you who love bright colours may think this isn't for them but I would encourage you to give it a go.  It's always fun to try something new and you can get so much variety from just using black and white - take a look at the fabulous creations from the DT if you don't believe me!!

                        For my card, I decided to use one of my own digis available from Can You Digi It - LilyPink Designs - a silhouette couple in a heart.  With the addition of a computer generated script background and some Cameo cutting of the main sentiment, I had a simple and easy card ideal for Valentine's Day, a wedding or anniversary or just plain 'because'.

I would like to enter this into the challenges at - 

Card Makin' Mamas

Sweet n Sassy

Addicted to CAS

Through the Craftroom Door