Second challenge today.....

This is my second blog challenge today, and it is for Passion for ProMarkers - Any colours and a theme, the theme this time being Vintage.

I love vintage so this one came pretty easily. I chose a stamp called Lottie Collage by Impression Obsession. I firstly did her using a sepia Versafine ink, but when I coloured her in she looked a bit "muddy", not enough definition. So tried her with Memento black, and liked her much better.

I have to thank my daughter, Jenny, as she suggested I tear the background layers instead of cutting them, something I have done lots in the past but have neglected of late. Works well on this card, I think.

I can't seem to get a picture that gets the colour just right, so I have used two, one with flash and one without. The true colour is somewhere between the two!

Anyone for Anya - Make a Fake

Well, here we are again, time for the Anyone for Anya challenge of the week. This week it is Make a Fake which has to include Anya, obviously, and anything fake or false. My piece of fake is the fake broderie anglaise frame which I cut on my dye cutter - Polly Pazzles.
I cut the frame out of some lovely light-weight card which is quite perfumed. It has a lovely sheen to it and cuts like a dream. The lavender mat was cut from Glitter Girls card - the dark collection, can't remember what it is called, but it cuts beautifully.

Just Magnolia meets Friday Sketchers....

Two challenges today with this card. I have sweated blood on this one. The Just Magnolia challenge this time is Masking. I did the stamping using two Magnolia characters slightly overlapping, and realised they were both sitting down. So I needed them to sit on something. So I got a stamp which was trailing ivy, but stamping it sideways made it look like a tree branch. I used that, then decided I didn't like it. Then I lost it, so I started again! This time I used a stamp which was a pile of stones and flowers, which, when repeated looked a bit like a dry-stone wall.

Then I really didn't know what to do with the rest of the card, so I mounted some flowery paper onto some royal blue card and put it on that, stuck it all down, scanned it, then decided I hated it. I wasn't having a very good day yesterday, felt really ill, so I left it until this morning.

Then, last night, I found the sketch challenge over on Friday Sketchers, and my problem was solved. So this morning I cut around my masked stamping (couldn't peel it off), and re-used it on this card.

This is the sketch for the Friday Sketchers challenge -

Some more challenges................

Made this card today, to enter it into a challenge, and while making it I realised it could qualify for two!

The original challenge was on Mo's Challenge Blog, and it was a recipe of 3 papers, 2 ribbons and a decorative edge. It obviously needed to include a Mo Manning image, so I chose this Holly Fairy, she is so cute (I am really learning cute these days!). I thought (as I have just learned how to do them) I would do an easel card.....so easy to make.

The second challenge I thought it would fit with is the Papertake Weekly Challenge (did I tell you I won it last week?), which this week is Christmas Cracker, doesn't have to be a cracker, but just a Christmas card.

Did I tell you............................

I won another Blog Challenge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yippee!!!!!!!!!! I won the Papertake Weekly Challenge for the Sketch, with this card.

I am liking this challenging stuff!

Just found another challenge I can do!

I have just been looking around Blogland (waiting for OH to "suddenly" decide he wants to go out) and I spotted a challenge on Cupcake Crafts Blog - the challenge is "Digital Images", and I have decided to give the Mermaid another chance to shine. Technically speaking she is not an old image because I have made her since the start of this challenge. She is so cute she deserves as many chances to win as I can give her ............... LOL.
She is a lovely digi stamp I got with my friend's birthday in mind. She is mad on mermaids, and it looks like her (although she doesn't have a fish tail - at least not all the time!)

Colour combo and sketch

Second posting of the day! I have been working on this card on and off all week, it has been a bit troublesome owing to me trying to make it fit too many challenges! I was trying to tie it into the Crafty Cardmakers challenge which needed something clear on it, but everything I tried didn't work. So I gave up on that one and used the Mermaid card.

This one is going into 2 challenges -

Passion for ProMarkers this week is a Colour Combo - Burnt Umber and Marsh Green. I showed my husband the two colours and asked him for a suggestion as to what kind of image he would use them for - all he could come up with was wood and trees! I looked through all my stamps, and when I came to this set (Madam Chic from Butterfly Kisses) the example was actually coloured in almost identical colours, so that made up my mind.

Papertake Weekly this week is this sketch.

Here's Dahlia!

This little cutie is called Dahlia, and she is one of Anya's friends. The card is for the Anyone for Anya challenge, which this week is called Getting Round To It. The idea is to use an Anya (or her friends), and anything round, e.g. spots, circles, etc.
Was a bit stuck on this one, but then remembered the spotty paper, hope it has worked. I quite like it, but then I could be biased.....LOL.
Dahlia was stamped onto the spotty paper because of the fiddly bits like the flowers, didn't fancy cutting them out. Then I stamped her onto white card and coloured her in using ProMarkers (my favourites!).

My friend the Mermaid!

My hairdresser, Nicky, is absolutely mad on the Little Mermaid, along with many other Disney characters, and has requested for christmas a card showing Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, and Pocahontas sharing Christmas!! Not sure I will manage that, although I do have an image of Ariel at Christmas, so she might have to settle for that.

However, it is her birthday on Monday next (she will be 24, not 12), so I have come up with a mermaid card for her. While browsing on Dewdrop Craftz page for digital stamps I found the mermaid designed by Carly. I used a background from My Craft Studio World of Watercolours, and coloured the mermaid in with ProMarkers. The shell and fish were buttons which I have had for years and never found a use for until now (motto girls - never throw anything away, you never know). I added the two "bubbles", which were two of those transparent thingy's that you put in little pots around the house, so that I could enter it into the latest challenge on Crafty Cardmakers which is called Clear as Day and requires you to use something transparent! I am also entering it into the Dewdrop Craftz challenge, which is called "Summer of Love" - anything bright and colourful and NOT depicting Christmas (I am all for that one - keep Christmas at the end of December), and using a Dewdrop Craftz stamp. I think this meets all that criteria (big word!).

Let's go blogging again!! More challenges.

This is my latest "Blog Challenge" card. It hasn't scanned particularly well unfortunately, and, naturally, my husband has taken the batteries out of the camera and I can't find them!

The first challenge that I am putting it into is Anyone for Anya - 3-2-1, It's Recipe Time. The recipe to follow is 3 pieces paper/card (not counting the card itself), 2 buttons and 1 bow, and, of course, Anya!

I decided to combine that challenge with the Passion for ProMarkers challenge, which this week is this sketch.

I had great fun doing this one. The Anya stamp is a new one, only got it on Tuesday, and I just love blue. Also I did the hair with the Ice Grey ProMarkers which I got as my prize when I won the Passion for ProMarkers challenge a few weeks ago.

October swap - Halloween

Yes, I know it is November, but I am a bit behind thanks to Royal Mail deciding to swallow one of the entries! I have given it more than 2 weeks since they were posted, but nothing has turned up, so I have worked round it.

Here are this month's ATC's............

Didn't they do well??

Goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo........You can come too, too, too

Getting away from blog challenges briefly, thought I would share our day at the zoo.

My husband is a member, and today members could take people in at half price, so Jennifer and I went with him for the day.  It was a bit rainy, but it didn't spoil our enjoyment.  Quite often it is better to go on days like today, as the animals are sometimes more active.  For instance, we saw 2 lions running around today, instead of them sleeping in the sun! (When I say running around, they were still in their compound, not running round the zoo!!)

First stop was the Elephant House, where a couple of them were out by the waterfall.

Next stop was the gorgeous Butterfly house, which today proved to be a bit of a problem.  It was, as always, very warm and humid, but because it was a lot cooler outside, when we went in our cameras kept steaming up, so we only managed to get a few pictures that were any good.

When you go to Chester Zoo, you just HAVE to go to the Jaguar house - brilliant.  There is quite often a Jaguar "posing" on top of the waterfall, but today they were quite active.

Next we found the Sea Lions.  There were only a few, but they were good to watch playing in the water.

 On to the Penguins.....................

There was a lot more, but I can't have you getting bored now, can I?

Club Anya Challenge - I wanna be just like...........

Found another challenge to go in for (you would think I had nothing better to do!), and made this card for it.

This is for the Club Anya Challenge - I wanna be just like...., and the idea is to copy a card (not exactly, but using the layout etc.).  This is the card for copying, hope I did OK.

Challenge time again!

This is my latest blog challenge card.  I am entering it for 3 challenges this week, and keeping everything crossed as usual.

First challenge is the Passion for ProMarkers Colour Combo, and the colours they require are Grass and Canary.  This really was a challenge, as these are definitely my colours!

Second challenge is the Crafty Cardmakers Stamp Something Challenge.  The challenge this time is just to stamp something, but an extra challenge (optional) was to do something you have never done much of.  My extra challenge, as I said above, was to use colours which are alien to me.

Lastly, I am entering it into the Papertake Weekly Challenge Sketch #27.  The sketch is this one -

Just Magnolia Challenge - Monochrome

Here I go blogging again - another challenge.  This time I have managed to actually make a card for the Just Magnolia weekly challenge, for which the theme is Monochrome.  I usually miss this one because I never remember that it ends on Thursday evening.

Well this time I remembered - not until this morning, I admit, but I remembered, and mercifully (in terms of me getting this card done) it has been quiet in the shop today.  Probably because of the horrendous rain!

As I said, the theme for the challenge is Monochrome, but having checked out all the DT cards, it seems to allow skin and hair colours as well (couldn't really have Tilda with a blue face now could we?).

This is the card I have made for this one.  It had to be shades of blue because that is my favourite colour.  I have used a teardrop card, and the background papers were printed from Sharon Duncan's Embossibilities CD.

I used a little leaf spray stamp to decorate the oval, as it looked a bit stark white against the blue background.

Here goes then, everything except my eyes crossed!

Wow, I must be on a roll!!

I think I must be on a roll - first I won the Passion for ProMarkers challenge, then I got printed in the Creative Cardmaking magazine, and now.......................................

I made the Top 3 in the Crafty Cardmakers Autumn challenge (with a little help from my husband who took the photo)!!!

Perhaps I should buy a lottery ticket....................that would soon put a stop to the winning streak...LOL