Give thanks.

Hello all!
Time for another challenge from the Colouring DT over at The Outlawz and this week the theme is "Thanks" which can also include the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday over in the USA.
       This month we are being generously sponsored by The East Wind and I used one of their lovely images for my card - you can find it here.

            I coloured the image with my Copics, distressed and inked the edges of the card and added some paper strips, a paper flower and the  3 gems that I seem to be using on every card I do lately!  Once I see something I like, I tend to go overboard with it!

     

     Entering this into the challenges at 4 Crafty Chicks, Dream It Up, Moving Along with the times, and Addicted to Stamps and More.

    Please take a moment to visit my Teamies' blogs and check out their fabulous cards too!  You can find links to their blogs under the DT tag at the top of the page.  Thanks for stopping by :)

If leaf-ing me is easy........

Hello all!
         A day late and a dollar short but I'm here with my posting for the latest colouring challenge from the Outlawz colouring DT and our theme this week is leaves.  Now you go down the obvious route of using an image with leaves or go off-piste with a 'sorry you're leaving' type of card - the choice is yours and you can use any form of colouring medium you choose, just remember you must actually colour in an image!

                                            I used a very cute image from Birdie Brown, coloured in with Copics and used my Silhouette Cameo to cut some leaf shapes from the cardstock.  I then added some paint chip samples behind the cut out leaves and inked the edges of the popped out shapes, adding them along the side.

    I must apologise for the poor photography as I still haven't found my sweet spot in the house for photographing cards!  The gloomy, grey November light doesn't help much either.

               I would like to enter this into the challenges at Fresh Brewed Designs, Digi Stamps for Joy, Southern Girls and A Crafty Mess.

Thanks for popping in!

 
     

Sparkle & Shine!

Hello all!

              it's time for the Friday colouring challenge over at The Outlawz once more and our challenge this week is to take your inspiration from this colour palette - 

         Our sponsor this month is the delightful Vera Lane Studio so get your colouring pens/pencils/inks and paints out and come join us.  We don't mind what colouring medium you use but you must colour a lined image as we really want to check out those amazing colouring skills!

                              I used an image from our sponsor this week and concentrated on using the blues and greys from the photo.  If I'm totally honest, I thought the pale yellow/cream colour was more of a beigey tone so I thought my skin tone would be a good match but now I see it in daylight........... hmmm not so sure.  Still we do allow some artistic licence on the colours, just make sure you use the majority of what's there please :)

       Please take some time to check out the fabulous creations from the rest of the DT  - you won't be disappointed!  By sheer coincidence, we all used Vera Lane Studio images and you should be able to see them on the Facebook page (if we all remember to link up!!).

         Entering this into the challenges at Crafty Catz ,  Alphabet Challenge and A Creative Romance.

                                 Thanks for stopping by today :)

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.

A day for the bears.

Hello all!
              Time for another challenge from the colouring DT over at The Outlawz - the first one for September and we are very lucky to have yet another sponsor for this month.  For September we are being sponsored by the fabulous Vera Lane Studio who has some delightfully quirky and fun designs to choose from.

     I will be using a Vera Lane image later in the month but for this challenge, the theme of which is Teddy Bears to mark 'Teddy Bear Day' on September 9th, I used a Cuddly Buddly freebie that I have had stored in my files for ages!

          I used Kraft cardstock for a change and coloured the image mainly with Copics, just using a white Prismacolour pencil for the daisies.   Colouring on Kraft card really makes the colours seems more muted and almost gives a vintage feel to the image.  I added a stamped sentiment and some washi tape strips to finish off yet another CAS card - it's the only design style I have time for at the moment!

    Entering this into the challenges at Fairy Tale Challenge , Creative Corner , Crafts 4 Eternity , 

A Creative Romance , Copic Marker Europe and 4 Krafty Girls.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Anything goes at The Outlawz

Hello all!
the end of August has got here far too quickly for my liking and that means another 'anything goes with the optional twist of Christmas' challenge from the DT colouring group at The Outlawz - what a mouthful!
       We have been sponsored this month by the wonderful Bombshell Stamps so I decided I really should use one of their fab digi stamps to make a card!  Time for a guy card, using one of the great hot rod images - I coloured it (and the printed sentiment) with Copics and then matted the whole thing onto some black cardstock.  Super simple and hopefully, simply super!

         If you join in with our challenge, you could be the lucky winner who gets to pick a set of digis from Bombshell Stamps so why not give it a go?  You can use any colouring medium but just make sure you are colouring in an image please!

                          

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!

     

Delight in the little things

Hello all!
             I'm back with my Friday card for the colouring challenge at The Outlawz.  Our theme is a colour/photo inspiration and you can use any colouring medium you like, as long as you have a line drawing that you are actually colouring - does that make sense?  How many times can you use the word 'colouring' in one paragraph, or 'coloring' for my friends across the Atlantic?
      So, probably best to move on and tell you that we are being sponsored this month by the fabulous Bombshell Stamps - they offer both rubber stamps and digital options so you could pick up a great prize by joining us.
          Another CAS card from me - no big surprise there!   My mojo seems to be stuck in CAS mode for now so I'm just going with it until the patterned paper and embellishment fairy comes by to visit!  I used a Whipper Snapper rubber stamp for this card, coloured with my Copics, mounted the image on some cardstock and added a stamped sentiment.

                       Entering this in the challenges at Crafty Little Fairies, Cute Card Thursday, Crafting for all Seasons and Inky Impressions.

                          Please come and join us at The Outlawz and check out the fantastic inspiration from the rest of the DT.  Thanks for popping by today! 

Eat, drink and be merry in the great outdoors!

Hello all!
      Time for another Friday colouring challenge over at The Outlawz and our theme this week is 'Picnic/BBQ' - basically eating al fresco.  

    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 this week, I used a Dude Time Doodles digi (not sure that they're still operating so please let me know if you are and I'll link up!).  I kept it CAS again as I do find it easier and just added a few scraps of paper and a Tom Holtz ticket.  I figured that Santa would have festive coloured beachwear so limited the colours to red and green.

     Entering this into the challenges at Fan-tastic Tuesday , Through the Craft Room Door , Crafty Girls , Delightful Challenges , Addicted to Stamps and Hambo Hoedown.

Thanks for stopping by - please check out the fabulous creations from the rest of the team, (you can find their blog links on the DT page of my blog).

Friday friends at The Outlawz

Hello all!
Another Friday, another challenge from The Outlawz and the fab Friday colouring DT are asking you to celebrate Friendship Day (the 1st Sunday in August) with a friendship inspired creation.  We recently changed from just Alcohol Markers to any form of colouring medium but you must have a hand -coloured image as the main part of your creation.

               For the month of August, we are being sponsored by the wonderful Bombshell Stamps with a prize of a digi set so get those entries in!   I used a digi from All Dressed Up and my Copics for my card, adding a computer printed sentiment and a co-ordinating card mat.

                                          Entering this into the challenges at 4 Crafty Chicks, Addicted to Stamps, Addicted to CAS, The Crafter's Cafe and Divas by Design.

Thanks for popping in!

Christmas in July

Hello all,
it's the end of the month colouring challenge over at The Outlawz this week and that means an optional twist of making a Christmas card.  For the whole of this month we have been sponsored by All Dressed Up stamps, with a fabulous prize of 2 digis of the winner's choice so get those cards coming in!
      As we have now changed from just alcohol markers to any colouring medium, I decided to try using something different this week.  I have a few Distress Markers that I haven't really used much yet so I picked out a Christmas stamp by Stampendous and stamped it onto some watercolour paper.  I only have a few colours of the Distress Markers so when the image came out fairly muted, I decided to add a few touches of red to jazz it up a bit!

              I fussy cut the image and placed it on some vellum, adding a computer printed sentiment.  It's another very CAS style card and I'm sticking to my excuse of not having all my craft bits to hand yet!

                                  Entering this into the challenges at Aud Sentiments, Creative Knockouts, Southern Girls, Crafting for all Seasons and Hambo Hoedown.   Please take some time to check out the fabulous creations from the rest of the Outlawz DT - Carla, Penny and Kathi.

Thanks for popping in!

Friday colouring challenge with The Outlawz.

Hello all!
well this week completely got away from me!  I can't believe that it's Friday again and I very nearly forgot to do this blog post - oops!  Anyway it's a colour challenge for you this week over at The Outlawz Colouring group - remember that you don't have to just use alcohol markers now, we want to see all your colouring mediums on line drawn images, digital or hand stamped.
        The colour palette is a pretty range of soft, muted colours, (photo courtesy of Design Seeds), and you don't need to match them exactly - we just want to be able to recognise that you did use them!

   For my card I used a Tiddly Inks digi and kept it CAS by just adding a Cameo cut word as the sentiment and a pearl stick-on for the picture frame to hang on.   The 'hello' has been my go to sentiment lately as it just seems to cover a multitude of occasions.

                   Entering this into the challenges at  Tiddly Inks , Addicted to Stamps , Crafty Girls , As You Like It , Charisma Cardz and Little Miss Muffet.

Thanks for popping in!

Back on board with blogging!

Hello all!
well, it has been a long time since I hit the "New Post" button here!  After a 3 week vacation while our worldly belongings were chugging across the Atlantic, we then arrived back at our house near Cambridge and have spent the last few weeks in a flurry of cleaning, redecorating, shopping, and unpacking.  The house now looks as if it's ours again and although we still have to tackle the jungle that exists at the the front and back of the house, we can actually see the wood for the trees or in our case, the fields through the cut grass!
 
    As it's a Friday, that means it's time for another challenge over at The Outlawz and there's been a change for the Friday group - we are now a colouring group without restrictions, not just alcohol markers so we're hoping to see more of you join in the fun.  Our sponsor this month is All Dressed Up , with a generous prize of 2 digis  - another great reason to play along!

        The theme this week is "At the Beach/Pool" so dig out those stamps or digis and join in!  For my card, I kept it simple and used a digi from Create with TLC , a pair of flip-flops and a Silhouette Cameo cut-out sentiment.

I added a few ink splatters and a couple of stick-on pearls just to jazz it up a bit.  Entering this into the challenges at Addicted to Stamps and More , Crafting with Dragonflies , Fab 'n' Funky , Ruby's Rainbow , Whimsy Stamps , Crafty Girls and Charisma Cardz.

Thanks so much for popping in!  I'm looking forward to visiting all my favourite blogs and seeing what everyone has been up to over the last few weeks :)

Colour challenge at The Outlawz.

Hello all!
This is a scheduled post that I wrote last week as I wasn't sure I would have time to do so now (if you get what I mean!)    Anyway, hopefully we landed back in the UK yesterday after a fantastic vacation taking in Yellowstone, Monument Valley and other sights in Utah, Nevada, Montana and Wyoming.  We now need to stock up on new electrical appliances and a complete food pantry for our English house and wait for all our belongings and furniture to arrive after being shipped across the Atlantic!!  We also need to get an internet connection set up so I can start blog visiting and commenting again - it's been a while......

                    So, on to the challenge from The Outlawz Alcohol Markers DT and this week, it's a colour challenge using this palette as inspiration - 

          We're being sponsored this month by Delicious Doodles with a great prize of 4 digis for the random winner - great incentive to join in.

                     For my card, I used a Dilly Beans digi, coloured with Copics and added a flourish and sentiment cut using my Silhouette Cameo, adding all of these onto a patterned cardstock base.

Thanks for stopping by and hanging in there with my endless whinges about all that is involved in moving home from one country to another.  My life will soon be settling down to some sort of normality again!

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!

A couple of cards.

Hello all!
This is a scheduled post, written before we took to the road so fingers crossed that it gets posted!

    I have 2 cards to share - the first one is for the challenge over at Time Out Challenges, where the theme is "Summer" with the optional twist of flowers.  I used a A Day for Daisies digi, coloured with Copics and put it on a splattered background, adding a stamped sentiment.

        The second card is for the Friday Alcohol Markers challenge over at The Outlawz where the theme is "Inspired by a book/movie/song".  We are being sponsored by Delicious Doodles for the month of June and I used one of the fab digis for my card.  I was inspired by the song "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" and used my Copics to colour the image, framing it with some colour-matching cardstock, adding a few punched out butterflies.

Thanks for stopping by and again, apologies for being so slack in blog visiting and commenting but we're on vacation and have very limited internet access for the next two weeks.   We're hoping to be fully connected again a few days after we move back to our Cambridge house at the end of June!

A Christmas card and no fixed abode.

Hello all!
Just a quick posting with my card for the last challenge of the merry, merry month of May over at The Outlawz Alcohol Markers DT .   As usual, the end of month challenge is an Anything Goes theme with the option of Christmas if you so choose.
            We're sponsored by Ditzie Digi Designs this month with a very generous 3 prizes on offer so plenty of reasons to join in.  For my card I used a Mo's Digital Pencil digi, coloured with Copics and my Silhouette Cameo cut out the frames and corners.

                                     My posts will be short and sweet for the next few weeks as we're on the road!  We will be living out of suitcases in the states of New Jersey, New York, Montana, Nevada and Utah for our "Fab vacation before we return to England" until the end of June.  Internet access will be sporadic at times and I really want to enjoy our final fling over here in the States so I won't be doing much blog visiting and/or commenting - Sorry!  I'm sure you understand :)

                              Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Colour challenge at The Outlawz.

Hello all!
Here we are at Friday once again which means a new challenge from the DT at The Outlawz and as the post title says, it's a colour one this week.

  This is the colour palette (courtesy of Design Seeds) and if you join in you get the chance to win a fabulous prize from Ditzie Digi Designs , our sponsor this month.

      For my card, I used a digi from 'Hello, That's Fabulous' which sadly, is no longer operating.  I kept the card simple as I'm still packing away my craft supplies for the big move - I sound like a stuck record banging on every week about packing and moving so I'm sure you'll be as relieved as I am when it's all done!

    This sentiment seems quite appropriate at the moment!  Please take some time to check out the rest of the DT's fantastic work - you can find their wonderful blogs on the Design Team page by clicking the tab at the top of the page.

                             Entering this into the challenges at Fan-tastic Tuesday, Through the Craftroom Door, 4 Crafty Girls, It's all about the vintage, Cards Galore and Feeling Crafty.

    Also linking up at Runaway Cards for a birthday celebration for Sandie at London Days - Happy
Birthday Sandie :)

                                     Thanks for stopping by - I hope to visit your blogs soon, apologies once again for my absence but I simply don't have enough hours in the day at the moment.  Normal service will be resumed at some point in the not too distant future (I hope!!).

With a cherry on top!

Hello all!
A wet Friday morning here in New Jersey should mean some crafting time today but before I get started, here's the latest challenge information from the The Outlawz Alcohol Markers DT.  Our theme this week is "Food for thought" in recognition of the upcoming 'Eat what you want' day on May 11th.

     For the month of May, we are sponsored by Ditzie Digi Design.  They are actually offering 3 prizes this month!   First prize is 3 digis, second prize is 2 digis and third prize is one digi of the recipient's choice, all from the Ditzie Digi Design Etsy Shop!  I used a Ditzie digi for my card this week - she's pretty hot stuff which makes her ideal for a guy card.  I coloured her with Copics and added a Silhouette Cameo cut sentiment and a few scraps of paper and that's all she wrote!

         Entering this into the challenges at Addicted to Stamps and More , Panny's Paper Crafty , The Male Room , Paper Makeup, Craft your Passion and Crafting from the heart.

Thanks for stopping by!

Garden Meditation Day

Hello all,
               yes, there is a day for everything now and May 3rd is Garden Meditation Day!  So in light of that fascinating fact, we are using May flowers as our theme for this week's challenge over at The Alcohol Markers Outlawz DT.
            For the month of May we are pleased to have yet another fantastic sponsor offering not just one  prize for the month but 3 prizes!  How generous is that?  Please take some time to check out the Ditzie Digi Design shop and if you enter our challenges this month, you could be picking out your prize from the shop. All we ask is that your colouring is done with Alcohol markers of any brand and that we can see some link to our challenge theme!
             As I've been slowly sorting through and semi-packing up my craftroom, I came across a few coloured images that I had yet to do anything with.  I picked out one that was appropriate for this challenge - I think the image is from D2D but I apologise if that's not correct.  You'll have to make allowances for my colouring on this as it was in the early stages of practicing with Copics!  I will admit to having a slight problem (one of many!) when it comes to throwing things out so I'm trying to use up these older coloured images - can't stand to waste things!

    Entering this into the challenges at Through the Craft Room Door , Simon Says Stamp , Paula Holifield Crafts , Bearly Mine , 4 Krafty Girlz and Creative Knockouts.

Thanks for stopping by!