Alota Bug - Friday Sketchers

Hi everyone, a card today for Friday Sketchers and a lovely sketch to follow by Emily. I've used my cute Alota Rubber Stamps bug in present which is watercoloured with Distress Inks and then cut out. The papers are from the WRMK Nonense pad and are glittered, beautifully sparkly and such rich colours and bold patterns, so this is probably the busiest looking card I've ever made, not too sure about it on the whole! All the paper edges have been distressed and I've added lots of buttons over the ribbon, a little cut out frame which came with the paper pack as the tag element of the sketch and a sentiment by Woodware. TFL, Chris x

Pink Gem 'Mimi and pig' - Stamp Something Challenge

Hi everyone, hope you've had a good weekend. A card today for Stamp Something challenge and it's sketch something this week with a lovely sketch by Emily which I've flipped. I've used my gorgeous 'Mimi' and pig' stamp by Pink Gem Designs, she's so cute and lovely to colour too, I've watercoloured the image with distress inks and sponged all round the edges of the panel with black distress ink. Papers for the various panels of the sketch are BasicGrey cupcake and blue bazzil for matting and also for the bottom strip which is scored and wrapped with raffia. Everything is mounted on a white scalloped card blank sponged with black. Added a woodware sentiment, stickles and a basicgrey button to finish. TFL. Chris x

Colour Create Challenge 9 - Blue and Lilac

Hi everyone and time for this week's Colour Create Challenge which this week has been set by my lovely DT friend Sharon with the gorgeous colours of lilac and blue and an option ribbons and swirls. Thanks Sharon, I loved your challenge and I love my ribbons so this was perfect as are all the wonderful cards from the rest of the team, all very beautiful and inspirational. There is a wonderful prize on offer this week from Tara to celebrate CC having over 10,000 hits and also because Tara has just celebrated her birthday. There are lots of gorgeous craft items including some Anya's! If you want to be in with a chance of winning the prize then Tara asks that just for this week you don't combine your CC card with any other challenges but if you don't want the prize then combining is fine. Hope you can join in this week.

My card is also a wallet card made from a sheet of lilac A4 card but I didn't photo the inside as I'd already written the message. The image is the gorgeous fairy 'Rosabella' designed by my friend Sandra Dry and is available in her digi stamp shop. I sized her to fit my card, printed her out and she was really lovely to colour with markers. I've added stardust stickles over most of her and then cut her out and mounted with glue gel. The blue background layer is embossed with the branches embossing folder and then sponged with Dusty Concord distress ink. Flower shapes, swirls and scalloped pieces are all cut with the Cricut and sponged with ink on the edges. I added the woodware sentiment, lilac sheer ribbon and gems to finish. Hope you're all having a lovely weekend. TFL. Chris x

BasicGrey Challenge 28 - Sketch

Hi everyone, Saturday and time for another BasicGrey Challenge. This week we have a great sketch to follow designed by my lovely Design Team friend Heather, thanks Heather, I loved working with your sketch, it's one for the archive! Feel free to rotate, resize and flip the sketch or even all three if you want to :), you can also add any more embellishments etc that you would like to, but remember to use at least one item from basicgrey somewhere on your creation, and most of all have fun :) Gorgeous creations abound from the rest of my design team friends too so I hope you can pop over to have a look and join in with the challenge this week.

I decided to resize the sketch and have gone for a square card using a black papermania scalloped card blank. Granola papers in three of the designs are used for the shaped elements of the sketch. The image is my design 'Country Church' for Kadoodle Stamps available from the Craft Barn and is watercoloured with Distress Inks and there's a little bit of Star Dust Stickles for a few highlights here and there. I added the sentiment, 'dad', cut from black funky foam with a GoKreate die from the Milan alphabet also from The Craft Barn and I doodled white dots on top. To decorate I've used some checked ribbon, a BasicGrey button, some doodling with a white gel pen and I also distressed most of the paper edges. The scalloped part of the sketch is done with scalloped scissors but I cut in a wavy line instead of straight across the paper. The image panel is mounted on dimension tape. Hope you're off to a good start with the weekend and manage to get some craft time today. See you tomorrow. Chris x

Frilly Flowers

Hi everyone, hope you all enjoyed your weekend and that all the Mum's had a lovely day yesterday. A card today for Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge and a theme of 'favourite colour'. I seem to be enjoying a lot of orangey colours lately so I think it's my current favourite and I love it teamed with blue. So, the BasicGrey Marrakech paper was the starting point, I've distressed the edges of my piece and wrapped it with the orange satin ribbon. I've used my Kadoodle design 'Frilly Flowers' available at the Craft Barn and watercoloured with Ranger distress inks. The image is cut out with square nestabilities and I've used the corresponding scalloped square for the blue layer. Decorated with paper flower, punched leaves, gems, stickles on the flowers and leaves and a Woodware sentiment. TFL. Chris x

Colour Create Challenge 8 - Navy, Turquoise and Lime

Morning everyone and Happy Mother's Day to all the blogging Mum's out there in the UK where we celebrate at the beginning of spring. I hope you'll have a lovely day and good amount of spoiling! Colour Create Challenge day today and challenge number eight is a lovely colour combination of Navy, Turquoise and Lime chosen by my extremely talented DT friend Sarita who makes the most amazing and beautiful cards. The option Sarita chose is no designer paper as she mainly stamps her backgrounds with the prettiest of background stamps. I really enjoyed using this technique so thanks Sarita for a great challenge. I hope you can join in this week and there's some fantastic inspiration from my design team friends for ideas on how to interpret the challenge.

The image is by Alota Rubber Stamps and is water coloured with distress inks and decorated with stickles so it's very sparkly IRL! The card base of a dark turquoise card is stamped using some Stempelglede scroll stamps and navy ink. The layer over the card blank is made from white card stamped with a flower stamp and versamark ink which has been heat embossed with clear embossing powder, sponged all over the paper with faded jeans and broken china distress inks and then the embossing ironed off to reveal the white paper under the stamped flowers. The flowers are then coloured with lime green sparkle gel pen. I've used this method again on the lime paper layer and added the ribbon and green gem to finish. TFL. Chris x

BasicGrey Challenge 27 Add Texture

Morning everyone and I hope you're ready for another BasicGrey Challenge? This week week it's all about adding texture to your project so there are many possibilities. My lovely DT friends have come up with some great ideas for doing this and have created stunning cards for inspiration so I hope you'll be able to go and have a look and join in with the challenge.

I've embossed one of the layers of patterned paper with a cuttlebug embossing folder, added flowers and pearls, distressed the edges of the paper and used pretty ribbon for my textures. The image is marker coloured, cut out with nestabilities then sponged with dried marigold distress ink and attached with dimension tape. I've used BG Ambrosia paper for the background layer, sponged with vintage photo and I did a lot of distressing on the edges so that it's quite raised up. TFL and enjoy your Saturday. Chris

Kadoodle Snail Wagon

Hi everyone, a card today for Stamp Something where the theme this week is think spring. I love the fresh spring colours, pinks, blues and greens and I've used these colours in the card, buttons and water colouring of the image. The Snail Wagon image is my Kadoodle design available at the Craft Barn and I've water coloured it with Ranger distress inks, added some stickles and glossy crackle accents to the snail shell. The background is blue core'dinations card which has been partially embossed at angles with the Argyle cuttlebug embossing folder and then sanded and distressed on the edges. To decorate I added the three colours of ribbon, buttons and Woodware sentiment.

I'm doing a colouring technique demo tomorrow at the Craft Barn from 10am-4pm so if anyone from blogland is in the vicinity and has any time to pop in it would be lovely see you. Take care and see you tomorrow with my BasicGrey Challenge crad. TFL. Chris

Easter primroses

Hi everyone, a card today for A spoon full of sugar where this week the challenge is 'gems' and Stamp Something with a challenge of 'green somethings'. I've used my 'Easter Egg with primroses' image which is now availabe in the digi-stamp shop, there are two more egg designs each with different flowers in the centre as well as three other spring floral images. I printed the image out twice once on white and once on BasicGrey Porcelain paper and then cut out the egg part of the image and paper pieced it on the white. The primroses are pencil coloured and blended with Sansodor and I've added stickles to the flower centres and to all the scallops then mounted it with dimension tape. The flowers are punched from the same BG paper moulded round a pencil and attached to the card with gel glue, added some candy dots for the centres. The green bazzil background layer has been half embossed with the damask style embossing folder and I attached ribbon around it, then added to the cream card blank. Finished with the Woodware sentiment and gems. TFL. Chris x

Open Tulips

Hi everyone, hope you all had a good weekend and some of the gorgeous weather that we had yesterday, very warm and springlike which brings me onto my card today with spring flowers and violet which makes me think of spring. The image is 'Tulip Bowl' available soon and it's marker coloured and matted on violet bazzil card and attached with dimension tape. The card blank and flowers are cut on the Cricut with the Wild Card and Accent Essentials cartridges. I've embossed the flowers and the circle of blue card under them with CB embossing folders swiss dots and stylished flowers (I think it's called) and the blue embossing which is on Core'dinations card has been sanded on the debossed side. Added the Woodware sentiment, candy dot to the flower centre, doodled dots with a white gel pen and ribbons to finish. Have a good Monday. TFL. Chris x

Colour Create Challenge 7 - Red and Green

Hi everyone and here we are with Colour Create Challenge 7 - red and green with an option of wings. Hope you can join in this week with these gorgeous colours and that you'll pop over and take a look at the amazing creations of my DT Friends, those girls are incredibly talented and really look forward to seeing what they make each week. I had the perfect floral and wings digital image from Sally-Ann at Grab-a-doodle-do which was lovely to colour with markers and a strong enough image to hold up against the checked downloaded paper from Raspberry Road. I added stickles to the flowers and leaves, a little Woodware sentiment then cut around the upper part of the image and did the same with the red card I matted on. The image panel is attached with dimension tape. For the card blank I had a pre-cut scalloped circle which I cut in half and then folded in half, I traced around this onto the Raspberry Road paper and hand cut. To finish the card I've added tiny red half pearls to all the scallops and some gorgeous red polka dot sheer ribbon. TFL and enjoy the rest of your weekend. Chris x

BasicGrey Challenge 26 - All Rounded Corners

Hi everyone, hope you're ready for another BasicGrey challenge and that your weekend is off to a good start. This week the challenge is all rounded corners and I've totally mucked this one up it seems as I didn't read the instructions properly and only have one that's rounded off, I'm too late to change it, sorry everyone! I hope you'll join in and if you need any inspiration then the design team have absolutely stunning creations to show you, they amaze me every week.

I've rounded off one corner on my card at the bottom right with an extra large corner rounder punch and I've done this on both the white card blank and the BasicGrey Two Scoops paper. The image is by CC designs and is marker coloured, matted on more of the BG Two Scoops and mounted with dimension tape. I pierced a scrolling butterfly trail pattern all over the card around the image and placed far too many butterflies punched from the patterned paper, edged with Ranger distress ink and applied to the card with glue gel, can't seem to put these punches down this week, I must put them out of sight for a while I think! Added the Woodware sentiment to the rounded corner using a great idea I saw on Kim's one of my BG DT friends blog where she curved a clear stamp sentiment then stamped it. I didn't quite get the curve right but I'll definitely try this again, thanks Kim! I've just realised I didn't glitter her wings which I intended to do, poor little girl, will have to do that later. See you tomorrow. Chris x

Design Team Call

Hi everyone and I hope you're all having a good week. Just when you thought all the challenges were sorted up pops another one ;D and I'm pleased to announce that myself and my friend Sandra (sandradrydesigns) will be hosting a new weekly challenge Dare U 2 Digi Stamp which will be starting on Friday 3rd April. We hope that you'll be able to join us using your digital images and for challenge #1 there'll be a prize and occasional prizes at other times, you can use digital images from any company and combine challenges too but most of all have fun creating.

We're looking for a Design Team who love using digital images in their projects with active blogs to join myself and Sandra so if you'd like to enter, email us at dareu2digistamp@yahoo.co.uk by Tuesday 24th March with a link to your blog so that we can come and visit you. The call is open internationally and the new team members will be announced on Friday 27th March.

Daffodil Jug

Hi everyone, a card today for Sketch Saturday which has a great sketch by Ria. I've used my 'Daffodil Jug' digi-stamp which will be available soon and I've paper pieced the jug with some Doodlebug spots paper, the daffs are marker coloured and stickled and the background has been sponged with distress inks. I punched some borders with the MS doily lace punch and not too well by the look of the top part then layered these and the image on black card that I've doodled dots onto. Butterflies are punched from the same doodlebug paper, can't seem to stop putting butterflies on everything at the moment, must be a spring thing! TFL. Chris

Flower bunch

Hi everyone, a card today for Mojo Monday Challenge and another really lovely sketch to follow and also for The Cuttlebug Challenge where this week the theme is 'water colour'. The image is 'Flower bunch' which will be available soon on my digi-stamps blog and I've coloured it with markers and then overpainted with Twinkling H2o water colour paints in green and gold. I've embossed all the card layers with either the swiss dots or stylised flower folders, the large white panel stylised flowers have also been water coloured with the H2o's. At the top of the white card blank I've scored some lines but I don't think they're showing up to well in the photograph, I've punched and glittered some butterflies for three elements at the side of the sketch and added the woodware sentiment and stickles to the bow on the flower bunch to finish. TFL. Chris

Colour Create Challenge 6 - Orange, Green and Yellow

Morning everyone, Sunday and time for another Colour Create challenge, I can't believe how quickly the weeks are going by, already we're up to challenge 6! The colours this week are orange, green and yellow with an option of 'not a card'. I found a tutorial on Inspirational for this one sheet mini album and decided to use it as a wallet as the ends are open. I think the orange dotty paper is 'my minds eye' but I've totally forgotten in between making it and writing the post! The inserts are made from core'dinations card embossed with circles and dots embossing folder as is the scalloped circle on the front and these are sanded to reveal the colour core, Ive also added some panels to the inserts and added sentiments which is where I'll write my message, I'm afraid I didn't photograph these. The image is marker coloured, matted on more core'dinations and attached with dimension tape. I've cut the sentiment from fun foam with a Go Kreate die and added some stickles over the top and glued it down with Pin flair glue gel, same with the prima flowers which have little half pearls for their centres. I also added a spine of core'dinations card where the album is folded in half to make it look a bit more like a book. Finished off with the two types of ribbon and an orange gem. Hope you decide to have a go at this challenge the inspiration from my DT friends this week is absolutely amazing and Tara has a long list of suggestions for what to make if you're stuck for an idea. Enjoy your Sunday. TFL. Chris

Mojo Monday 76

Hi again everyone, another post from me today but I've been trying all week to get a card done for the Mojo Monday sketch challenge as I really loved the sketch, I love all of their sketches but this is the first time I've managed to enter. The image is a gorgeous little Hanglar girl which I've coloured with markers and matted on black card. The blue gingham paper is matted on black too and all the layers are mounted with dimension tape. I've sponged around the image with vintage photo and black distress ink and added the blue ribbon to the bottom panel and a bow to the top. The sentiment is from Woodware, Tiny Phrases and I've done a row of piercing in line with the sentiment. TFL. Hope you've all had some craft time today. Chris

BasicGrey Challenge 25 - Sketch

Hi everyone, hope your weekend is off to a good start and you're ready for another BasicGrey challenge which this week is a great sketch by Martine. I hope you can join in this week and as always there's some absolutely fantastic inspiration from my DT friends, they amaze me every week with their stunning creations.

I've used a cute Penny Black bear image and water coloured it with Ranger distress inks, all the edges are sponged with black soot ink as are all the BasicGrey Sultry papers in the background. The white card has been embossed with the Houndstooth Cuttlebug folder and sponged with black soot and tattered rose ink, the vertical piece is also punched with the MS doily lace punch for the scalloped element. I mounted the panel under the image on dimension tape and added some pretty sheer dotted ribbon and bows. There's a little bit of stickles on the roses for a bit of sparkle and I made the photo corners with square nesties one inside the other to make a tiny frame and then cut on the diagonal. TFL. Chris

Kadoodle 'my flower garden'

Hi everyone, a card today for ABC with a challenge of distressing in any form. I chose Ranger distress ink in vintage photo and black soot which I sponged around the edges of the image panel. The stamps I've used today are Kadoodle stamps from the Craft Barn 'my flower garden' and 'my garden accessories' which I've stamped in Black versafine ink and coloured with markers. Everything is mounted on the great quality A4 mid blue card also available from the Craft Barn. I don't know the make of the patterned paper as it was a pressie from my lovely friend Martine. I punched a little border with the MS doily lace punch and mounted this with the image on dimension tape then finished it all off with some doodled dots done with a white gel pen and some lovely May arts ribbon also from the Craft Barn. TFL. Chris

Tara

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend. My card today is for ABC where this week the challenge is a child's card. I've used my new image 'Tara' which should be available later today and she's marker coloured cut out around the top of the image and mounted on pink and then yellow coredinations card. The background papers is BasicGrey Sultry and I've also punched out some butterflies from the this and also from some of the yellow card which are glittered and mounted with glue gel. The right hand corners are rounded off and I finished off with some sheer ribbon, a Woodware sentiment and a yellow half pearl. TFL. Chris

Colour Create Challenge 5 Brown and Blue

Hi everyone and here we are already on week five of the Colour Create challenge! There's fantastic inspiration to be found on the blog from my super talented design team friends and also it's brilliant to welcome the lovely and very talented Kim from Kim's cards. I'm so happy that you're able to join us Kim and looking forward to working with you on the challenges.

This week the colours are brown and blue with an option of lace and pearls. I didn't have any real lace and have used a lace punch for this element. I've used my 'Vicky' image, soon to be available which is marker coloured and her dress stickled for a bit of sparkle. The background paper is BasicGrey Granola and I've die cut the sentiment from brown fun foam. The ruffled pale blue strip aka paper chenille was found featured on a blog and is really easy to make. Once again I'm afraid I don't have a link to the tutorial, I'm sure I do save them but I think I need to rename them for easier finding. In the tutorial I saw that the papers were stitched together on a sewing machine but I just glued mine and it worked fine. I cut three strips of mulberry type paper of the same size, glued them one on top of the other with a thin line of glue and then to the punched strip of brown cordinations card. When the papers had dried I cut snips along all the edges then ruffled them up a bit to create the effect. I added some blue pearls to decorate and a little sponging around the edges of the image. TFL. Hope you're all having a good weekend. Chris