Cock your hat - angles are attitude.

Hello all!
         Starting off with a quote from Frank Sinatra as our new challenge from the colouring DT at The Outlawz is taking inspiration from the upcoming "Make a Hat" day - who knew there was such a day???
      Anyway I thought the Frankie quote was very apt for the image I used for my card as you shall see.  Before we get there though, I just want to mention that we are being sponsored by the fabulous Vera Lane Studio this month so find some time to join our challenge and you could be the lucky winner!

      I tied in my card with the current challenge from Make It Colourful which is 'Two tone monochromatic with abstract background' - what a title!!  Their challenges always encourage you to stretch your colouring skills and I've missed entering them for a few months as it took a while to get settled back into things after returning to the UK and becoming gainfully employed again!  Anyway I made some time to think about my card design before printing the images and decided I wanted to use MIC tap dancing man in 3 different poses, using grey for the shadowy figures, blending it into a sepia type brown for the front man.

             I achieved this threesome by using Photoshop Elements and opening 3 layers with a different figure on each and then overlaying them - the digis are PNG files so this makes it a whole lot easier. Sorry if I'm speaking gobbledegook for some of you but there are plenty of great tutorials explaining how to do this a lot better than I can.   The abstract background was created by masking all the images (I printed them onto cheap paper and fussy cut around them) and then stamping with a patterned rubber stamp from my stash.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut 2 cardstock frames and added some tickets for an extra bit of bada-bing!

      Here's a close up of the fancy footwork dudes!

   This was fun to do and although not quite as dramatic as the fabulous two tone creations from the Make It Colourful DT, it still follows the guidelines and I'm pretty happy with the end result :)

        I would also like to enter this for the challenges at Chocolate, Coffee & cards, Creative Corner, Left of Centre.

                     Thanks for stopping by - it would be great if you could check out the fab creations from the rest of The Outlawz Colour DT, especially as we have a new member joining us.  You can find Laine's blog here and just click on their names for the rest of the team - Carla , Penny and Kathi.

An angelic challenge.

Hello all!
                 It's Friday again and time for another challenge from The Outlawz Colour DT.  Our theme this week is in recognition of "Be an Angel" day (22nd August), so we are asking you to create something picturing an angel.  You can use any colouring medium you choose but you must colour in a line drawn image as we are a Colour DT after all!!

       For the month of August, we welcome Bombshell Stamps back as our generous sponsor.  The prize is 1 digi set of the winner's choice from the Bombshell Stamps store. They have some fun and sassy vintage and retro designs so be sure to check it out!

     

                For my card I picked a cute little angel from Make it Crafty and coloured her using Copics.  I then fussy cut the image and placed her onto a pale blue, dotted background, adding a simple sentiment and a few gold stars.

         Entering this into the challenges at Copic Marker Europe,  Little Miss Muffet, Winter Wonderland, Addicted to Stamps and Bearly Mine.                                     

    Thanks for popping in!

     

A late post!

Hello all!
I'm late with my Friday posting for The Outlawz Alcohol Markers challenge but I'm enjoying myself on vacation so I have a good excuse.  We've been travelling around for a couple of weeks now and internet connection can be as slow as treacle in some places so I really haven't been online much at all - just adding some daily photos on Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends.
                    Anyway the theme this week is Wedding/Anniversary in line with the summer wedding season and for my card I coloured a Make It Crafty digi and put that over a background of song lyrics - the Beatles "When I'm 64".

                                          Please check out the fabulous creations from my team-mates.   Thanks for stopping by - will be back to commenting and visiting your blogs in a couple of weeks when we've settled back into our English house!

Creative colouring with Make it Crafty

Hello all!
        Finally got around to making a card for the latest challenge over at Make it Colourful which is all about 'creative colouring'.  You really should check out the amazing transformations from the crazy talented DT - they're so very inspiring and a teensy bit daunting if I'm honest.  Anyway, I decided to give it a go as I do like how these challenges really do challenge you!  I know there's a place for the Anything Goes challenges but I do like to push myself every now and then - it's good for you, so I'm told.

                              I decided to 'change' the freebie digi that was being offered on the Facebook MIC page and I had an idea that a touch of Steampunk would work.  I don't have the option of printing in greyscale on my (cheap) printer so I had to stick to the printed lines of the original digi but I added some of my own lines with a thin black marker and then set to colouring him with my Copics.

    I suppose it would make sense to show you the original digi so you can compare that with my creatively coloured version -  you can find him here.

             Entering this into the challenges at A Creative Romance, Left of Center, Wags n Whiskers, 613 Avenue Create and Glitter n Sparkle.

Thanks for stopping by!

End of the month challenge at The Outlawz

Hello all,
             our regular end of the month challenge with the Alcohol Markers DT at The Outlawz is here again - each month we have an Anything Goes with a Christmas twist option, which gives you the chance to get ahead on those festive cards.
            I used a Make it Crafty digi and tied it in to the easy challlenge at Make it Colourful , which is purple and turquoise, using my Copics for the colouring.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the dotty background, the scalloped edged frame and the sentiment.

                             Also entering this into the challenges at Addicted to Stamps and More, Simon Says Stamp, Crafty Girls and Charisma Cardz.

Thanks for popping in today,

Under the sea

Hello all!
I managed to get 5 minutes away from a painted furniture commission I have been spending all my time on this week, to get this card posted before I completely forgot!  Every month there are 2 different challenges at Make it Colourful - they split them into easy and hard challenges and they really do come up with some original ideas.  This month, the hard challenge is to colour on something other than white cardstock so I decided to try out some vellum.
                  I printed out the very cute Cordelia the mermaid onto the vellum and set to with my Copics.  The first problem I ran into was that Copics do not blend very well on vellum!  You have to do a little bit at a time and if you put down too much ink, you can end up with some nasty inky blotches.  I've seen some people colour on the reverse side of the vellum but my vellum was too thick for this.
                                Anyway, once coloured, I layered the vellum over some patterned cardstock which gave the impression of an underwater scene and used my Silhouette Cameo to cut a seashell frame and some wispy seaweed.  Very "The Little Mermaid", don't you think?

           She looks a bit mottled in the picture but that's the background pattern showing through.  I layered the frame over the vellum as it's always so difficult to stick vellum without the glue or tape showing through.  I did have some special vellum tape but it's somewhere in the black hole that is my half-packed craft room!

                                  Entering this into the challenges at Make it Colourful , Deep Ocean , Through the Craftroom Door , Creative Moments and Addicted to Stamps and More.

Thanks for popping in!

Keep Calm, it's Friday!!!

Hello all!
     so we got to Friday once again, (a bit too quickly for my liking) and that means it's time for another challenge from the Alcohol Markers DT at The Outlawz.  In recognition of it being National Stress Awareness month here in the States, we are asking you to fill in the blank with this iconic expression -

Keep Calm and ........................

  I love all the Keep Calm things that are available to buy but did you know that Keep Calm and Carry On was originally a motivational poster produced by the British government in 1939, several months before the beginning of WWII and was intended to raise the morale of the British public. It was then rediscovered in 2000 and has been used as a decorative theme for a whole range of products and art work since then.

                    So for my card, I decided to take on board the "Calm" part and used the most laid-back digi ever from Make it Crafty, who are our sponsors for this month.  Urban Johnny was coloured using Copics, as was the computer sentiment - for those of us not in tune with text-talk (that's definitely me!!), 'HBD' is the shortened form of 'Happy Birthday'.  It seems that this guy is so calm and stress-free, he doesn't even talk in full sentences!!

Entering this into the challenges at 4 Krafty Girlz, Copic Marker Europe, The Crafting Cafe, 2 Cute Ink, Without Words, Craft your Passion and the Make It Crafty Facebook challenge.

Thanks for popping in and please do take a look at the fantastic work from the rest of the DT - you can find links to their blogs on the Design Teams page, just click on the tab at the top of my blog.

Spring time challenge at The Outlawz

Hello all!
           well it does seem as if Spring is finally here in the Garden State after what seems to be the longest winter ever and for this week's challenge with the Alcohol Markers DT over at The Outlawz, we are asking you to join in with a "Spring has sprung" theme.

                         Our sponsor for the month of April is the fabulous Make it Crafty and they have generously offered up an extra prize for an additional draw made for those who use a MIC image.  Such a great prize so make sure you get those alcohol markers out and get colouring!

         For my card I coloured up a springtime scene using the Pond a lily digi but I spent so much time colouring it, I ran out of time to make a fancy card with it - so apologies for the very plain nature of the card design but hopefully the bright scene will make up for that.

                               

Entering this into the challenges at Animal Friends, Bearly Mine, Scribbles Designs 4 Crafty Chicks, Through the Craftroom Door and 2 Cute Ink.

Thanks for stopping by and please check out the rest of the DT's wonderful creations 

Linda

Carla

Penny

Kathi

     Finally before I go, I'm having to sell all electrical items as they won't be suitable for use in the UK and I have a barely used Teresa Collins Stampmaker among the 'to go' items.  It retails between $120 and $180 depending on where you look but as I have used it twice, I'm willing to let it go for $50 plus postage - now that's the kicker as I don't know what postage would be .............$25?????  Could be less if I packed it in a smaller box than than the original.  You can buy all the necessary refills for this and I will say that the quality of the stamps is very good - they result in a clear stamp that you fix to acrylic blocks to use.   Please drop me a line if you are interested - don't want to sell it but neither do I want to but a transformer when we get back to England!

                           Thanks for stopping by!

       

Naughty or nice?

Hello all!
                   Friday is upon us again which means it's a new challenge over at The Outlawz from the The Acohol Markers DT and as it's the last Friday of the month, it's our Anything Goes with a Xmas twist challenge!  At the end of every month, we encourage you to create a card for the Holidays which means one less to do when the panic starts to set in later on in the year.  This will also be the last chance for you to win a couple of Elisabeth Bell digis from our sponsor this month.

         For my card I wanted to do another box card - you can see my first one here . I used a Make it Crafty digi, coloured him with Copics and using one of the box card templates from Silhouette, cut out the box and assembled it.  The snowflakes and sentiment were also cut using my Cameo and the tickets are from my Etsy shop , ( I added colour to them with Copics to match to the Xmas elf).

As I said before, these fold relatively flat so you can post them  - 

   Entering this into the challenges at Creative Cutting , Addicted to Stamps , Fab 'n' Funky , Crimbo Crackers and Paper Crafting Journey.   I'm also adding it to the Make it Crafty Facebook challenge.

  Please take a minute to check out the fabulous work from the rest of the DT - you can find links to their blogs under the Design Team page tab at the top of the blog.  Thanks so much for popping in!

Spring is coming, so they keep saying!

Hello all!
we managed to avoid the predicted snow storm but have still got the cold temperatures and blustery winds today - when will Spring finally arrive in the Garden State???
             Anyway, at least I can pretend it's Spring by joining in with this month's challenges at Make it Colourful, where they have an easy and hard challenge every month to encourage your colouring skills.  This card fits in with both themes - the easy challenge is to colour flowers and trees with a Spring feel and the harder challenge is to make wood look realistic.  I think my tree trunk looks realistic........in a cartoon type of way at least!
       I merged the Tree of Love and Geeky Love digis and the whole scene was coloured using Copics.  I framed it and cut a sentiment using my Cameo to finish it off.  I definitely wanted to keep the layout quick and simple as colouring the scene took hours to do.

       I would like to enter this in to the challenges at Make it Colourful, Crafty Bloggers, Kaboodle Doodles, Marker Pop, Stamp and Create, Fan-tastic Tuesday and Through the Craftroom Door.

Thanks for popping in!

Make It Crafty Facebook challenge

Hello all!
Back showing a card with a difference today - it's a 3D card in a box and it's for the current challenge over at the Make it Crafty Facebook group.  There are plenty of directions and tutorials out there on how to make this but I took the easy route and purchased the template from the Silhouette store - mainly because I liked the shaped edges of the box flaps!
    I coloured Pipi Petal Sprite from the MIC store using my Copics and chose to go for a very bright colour combo in hopes of fooling myself that Spring is here already!  Bit hard to believe when there's still snow around from early January :(    Anyway, I had used the Print and Cut feature on my Sihouette Cameo to cut out Pipi, leaving an edge around her and as this was going to be a 3D card, I cut another outline only (no printed image) so I could stick that to the back of the coloured image and you wouldn't see the bleed through from the Copics.   I also used my Cameo to cut the flower embellishments and the sentiment, making it a very Cameo-involved project!

    It's a little bit fiddly putting the box card together but the beauty of this design is that it folds relatively flat for posting as you can see in the next snap - 

                        Here's a view from above so you can see how the image and sentiment are attached to different inserts, giving the card depth - 

                     I would like to enter this into the challenges at 613 Avenue Create, Corrosive Challenges, Artistic Inspirations, Created with Love, Creative Cutting, Marker Pop, Simon Says Wednesday and Silhouette America.

        Finishing off with one more snap - a close up of Pipi.   Thanks for stopping by !

Last Christmas card for 2013?

Hello all!
       I wasn't going to do any more Christmas cards but the latest challenge over at Make it Colourful had me feeling festive for one more time!  There are 2 challenges - 1.) use red and green and 2.) add texture so I decided to combine both and coloured up Scruffy Elf with my Copics.  I tried as best I could to add texture to his clothes by adding some wrinkles and folds..........what do you think?

    I'm also using the Sketch challenge from the Make it Crafty Facebook challenge so 3 for the price of 1!

Also linking up to 613 Avenue Create , Crafty Sentiments, Through the Craft Room Door , Oozak and Addicted to Stamps and More.

Thanks for popping in!

Ho, ho, ho!

Hello all!
Bet you can guess from the post title who's featuring on my card today?  Yep, it's jolly old Father Christmas, although this guy does look as if he's up to no good with that cheesy grin!
                It's challenge time over with the Alcohol Markers DT at The Outlawz again and as it's the end of the month (yowzer! not long until Xmas!), that means it's our anything goes with an optional Christmas twist theme.  I went for a very CAS look this week and used a Make it Crafty digi, coloured with Copics, some washi tape for the sentiment and some Cameo cut number pennants, all on a Cameo cut shaped background.

    I would like to enter this into the challenges at Simon Says Stamp , Divas by Design , Addicted to Stamps and More , Charisma Cardz and 4 Crafty Chicks.

Thanks so much for popping by - please check out the fabulous creations from the rest of the DT.  You can find their blogs under the Design Team tab at the top of this blog.

Practice, practice, practise.....

Hello all!
       I've been feeling a bit 'blah' about the whole colouring thing lately so I decided to forget about cards for a while and just focus on the colouring bit and where better to do that than over at the Make it Colourful challenge blog?  Their current challenge is colouring eyes and you should check out the amazing inspiration from the DT over there - Wow, big time!!!
       Anyway once I picked my jaw up from the floor, I decided to give it a go as I figured the practice would be good even if the results may not be.  I used the Melyssa digi and started off with a Halloween style in mind.  I used Copics and a white gel pen for all of these but as usual, I haven't listed the colours ( I'm just not organised enough to remember to do so - I'm very organised in real life but when my artistic side takes over, organisation goes flying out the window!)

    No 1 - Halloween girl

   This was fun to do as the colours are obviously not the usual ones you would pick for a girl's face!  However, I felt the eyes looked a bit flat so I tried again, this time making her into a woodland nymph (that's what happens when you have a glass of Pinot Noir on the go at the same time!)

No. 2 - Woodland Nymph

  A bit happier with her eyes but I still felt there was lots of room for improvement so I decided to do one more and this time I would keep it plain and simple.

No. 3 - the last one (for now)

   I do like the eyes in this one even though they are miles away from the fantastic examples of the DT - more practicing is needed but for now, I'm happy :)

Thanks so much for popping in today!

Some scholarly appreciation.

Hello all!
               Fabulous Friday is here once again and so begins a new challenge at The Outlawz for the alcohol markers DT.  Now for those of you who are not familiar with alcohol markers, there are a number of different brands out there, all of which contain alcohol-based dye ink which have special properties: they allow you blend colours together without tearing up your paper as you might with a water-based ink.  I have only ever used Copics as I like the fact that they are refillable - I would love to hear anyone's thoughts on any other brands.
    So, not a DT that drinks alcohol whilst colouring - well, I'm not admitting to anything anyway!

    The theme this week is Graduation/school's out but I did go the other way with mine and did a 'back to school' card.  We're a very flexible group when it comes down to it - all we insist upon is that you use alcohol markers and then you can interpret the theme in your own way :)
               For my card I used a digi from Make It Crafty and some inspiration from this very creative lady - Alice's Little Wonderland .  You can see some wonderful colouring and some gorgeous CAS cards here so it's well worth a visit!

I would like to enter this into the challenges at My Heart Pieces , Through the Craftroom Door , Addicted to Stamps and More , Penny's Paper Crafty , Charisma Cardz and Bearly Mine.

Thanks so much for stopping by !