Wednesday 30 November 2011

It's that Mischevious Cat Again.....

Today it's time to show another card made using the Cats set from Stamp Addicts......

This time he's been having a good old rummage in the bins, but it looks like he has been caught in the act!

For this card I have stamped and coloured three bins, plus lids and decoupaged the lids so that they are slightly raised.

The pawprints on the base card also come as part of the stamp set......very handy.....

Finally I have broken up the white background by using the dotting technique with a few different promarkers.

No challenges for me to enter today, but I hope you have enjoyed looking at this card.

Sharon x

Monday 28 November 2011

Snowflakes are Falling

Here comes the second post of the day and this time it's Humphrey!

I really love these cute images and they are a real joy to colour as they are not too fiddly.....perfect for an evening after work when you want to do some colouring but you still have double vision from looking at a computer screen all day!


I tried to keep this card clean and simple so that the focus would remain on the beautiful image, which I have coloured with my Promarkers.

Do you like the wool at the top? It is a lovely soft wool called snuggly and, believe it or not, we bought it last year to drape around our black Christmas Tree. Once the tree came down though, I nabbed that ball of wool as I knew I would be having fun with it in a diferent way, the next Christmas.

Plus I have added a little silver charm, which is a first for me. I have bought charms before, but I can never bear to part with them. Never mind - I have bitten the bullet this time and that charm is now firmly attached......I will have to think carefully about who I give this card to, so that the charm will go to a good home!

I am entering this card for two challenges:

Crafters Companion - Let it Snow
I Love Promarkers - Anything Goes.

That's all for today folks. Thanks for dropping by.

Sharon x

A Little Lili of the Valley Lovelyness

Here's the first of two posts today - a card I made using a gorgeous LOTV image.


I chose this particular image to follow the theme of Friends, over at the Stampin' for the Weekend challenge, and hopefully you can see why.

I had real fun colouring in this image and managed to use a selection of my Promarkers, Flexmarkers AND Trias.....quite an adventure for me as I have a tendency to stick to one thing or the other.

I'm going to enter this card for the following challenges:

LOTV - Anything Goes
Stampin for the Weekend - Friends
I love Promarkers - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking.

Sharon x

Sunday 27 November 2011

Angels on my Shoulder.......

Well these Angels aren't actually on my shoulder - they're standing on a bench!

These little lovelies are from a stamp that I bought about a year ago from Sir Stampalot and are part of a lovely range that includes some really nice traditional images with a cute touch. I also have some shepherds from this range which are equally gorgeous.

So fir this card, you can see that I have been playing with my Grand Calibur once again for all the matting and layering, plus the flowers which were bust from one of the Spellbinders flower die sets. I always used to leave the flowers flat, but recently I saw a Tonic Studios programme where the presenter put he flower in the palm of her hand and rubbed it with the embossing tool in a circular motion. I tried it myself and it gave a lovely curl to the petals.

The image is, of course, coloured with my lovely promarkers..... I think I will have to ask Father Chrtstmas for some new ones as I am sure my set will start to run out soon!!

I'm going to enter this card in to the following challenges:

Stampin for the Weekend - Friends

I love Pormarkers - Anything Goes

Ribbon Girl Challenge - Pink and White.

Ribbon Girl - Jingle all the Way

Thanks for visiting on this sunny Sunday morning and I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Sharon x

Friday 25 November 2011

I'm dreaming of a Pink Christmas

Well I decided it was time to indulge myself in a bit of  'Pink' time again - especailly as the Ribbon Girl is having a Pink and White challenge this week......perfect!

Here's the card that I made:

  As you can see, I have stamped some snow flakes on to some white card, using distress inks and mounted it on to the base card. I have used one of my lovely nesties for the mount, and embossed the center area (getting a little bit carried away withthe old Cuttlebug today!)

The lovely image is a digi stamp from Cuddly Buddly, which I have coloured with my faithful promarkers.

And finally - I have used the all important bit of Pink Ribbon for a bit of embellishment.

I am going to enter this card for the following challenges:

I love Promarkers - Anything Goes
The Ribbon Girl - Pink and White
CES Challenge - Snowflakes

That's all from me today.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sharon x

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Gnome Place Like Home

Good morning everyone. I thought I would try my hand at scheduling a post today, so fingers crossed it has worked and that it has appeared on my blog as planned!

Today I thought I would show you a card which I have made with the Gnome Place Like Home stamp set from Stamp Addicts. It turned out to be bit of a labour of love but I quite like how it turned out.....I hope you all like it too.

So here's the card........


And here's what I did......
  • I started with a piece of white card and rubbed Distress Inks in greens and browns on it to create the mottled effect.
  • I creased the card to create the two front steps which you can see in the picture.
  • I stamped and coloured the main image and the mushrooms, using my Promarkers.
  • After mounting the gnome in position I cut a piece of acetate and looped in over the back of the card, before attaching to the bottom step.
  • The greeting and the mushrooms were positioned on the front step so that the line where the acetate is joined is covered.
  • The variety of leaves that you can see have been printed from the Polka Doodles Sundae of Seasons CD. You can print a whole page of lovey autumn leaves, and then it is simply a case of cutting the all out and arranging them around the edge of the acetate. This took a little bit of time, but I think it was well worth it!
Here's a shot from a different angle....

I was really pleased how this card turned out, as it certainly had some dodgy moments along the way!

Hope you like it too, and thanks very much for looking.

Sharon x

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Mice and Cosy

Today I thought I'd post a picture of my first attempt at a box card, which I made for someone who did something nice for my family. The recipient happens to like knitting and buttons so, I bought some buttons during my recent visit to Hobbycraft at the NEC and I thought it might be nice to make something to put them in.

I had to photograph this one in a bit of a hurry, so apologies for the poor quality, but, as you can see, I have used a gorgeous House Mouse set which came from Joanna Sheen.

I thought that the wool balls may present some problems, colouring wise, but I was surprised at how easy these were to colour and shade as you can do it quite randomly and it still comes out looking pretty good. I simply used two shades of colour; coloured the lightest shade all over the ball first, and then added low lights by following the lines of the wool at the base of the ball and also on the stands which are'inside' the ball.

For the lovely little mice, I used the tried and tested Joanna Sheen recomended combination of Sandstone and Blush.

I think this is such a cute image - that little mouse trying on the hat really puts a smile on my face!

Thanks for dropping by.

Sharon x

Sunday 20 November 2011

A Pile of Trouble.....

Here's one of the cards that I made with the Elephant and Rhino set from Stamp Addicts, which appeared on their afternoon show yesterday.

I have to admit that this was not my favourite card but the Presenter seemed to quite like it, so that was something.

Rather than using a masking technique, I simply stamped the elephant out 5 times and the rhino once, and coloured them in. I then glued them together in a pyramid shape and then placed in on to my base card and drew around  the right hand edge. This gave me a cutting edge to get the right shape for the 'cut away' effect on the front of the card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharon x

Saturday 19 November 2011

I Love Promarkers Christmas Trees Challenge

Well it's been a liitle while since I've had the time to enter any challenge, so I am really pleased that I managed to get this card all coloured in for the Trees challenge over at I love Promarkers.

This stamp is from the Popcorn Christmas range and, as you can see, it's quite large and fills up most of a 6 by 6 card. So other than colouring the image itself, there wasn't really much else to do, other than to mat and layer some backing paper from the matching CD and add some lovely blue ribbon. I also coloured the baubles with a Sakura glitter pen, which adds some lovely sparkle - such a shame that it  doesn't pick up in this picture.

It's a simple 'no frills' card, but I hope you like it!

Here's the challenge I'm entering.....

http://ilovepromarkers.blogspot.com/2011/11/challenge-92-christmas-trees.html

I am hoping to get a few more Christmas cards finished this weekend ......I am starting to feel a bit more festive now, after my Bah Humbug moment in M&S last week

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Sharon x

Thursday 17 November 2011

More 'Ant'ics.......

Hi all,

A quick post today to show another card made with the Ants stamp set from Stamp Addicts, which you can also see  on their Blog - The Purple Zone.

I have gone for a fresh and bright colour pallette here and I have also distressed the edges of the paper - especially the blue as I thought this gives an impression of sea spray.

Stamp Addicts have tow shows on Create and Craft this Saturday, and I'm pretty sure that this set will be on there, as well as some of the other new additions - well worth a look if you get the chance!

That's all for me today. Thanks for stopping by.

Sharon x

Friday 11 November 2011

Something's buggin' me!!!!

TGIF.......or thank goodness it's Friday, for those of you who don't do abbreviations!

I am very glad it's Friday....work has been mental, life has been busy and, for some reason, I feel like I am getting ready to hibernate as dragging myself out of bed is just getting harder and harder!!

So I'm quite glad right now to be sitting down with a cuppa and doing a little surfing to catch up with my favourite blogs.

And on the subject of surfing........here's a card that I have made using a soon to be released stamp set from Stamp Addicts. I consists of a variety of surfing ants and two 'Surfy' sentiments.

This is a really fun set and I had great fun playing around with it - particularly as there is also a girl surfer which means that this set can cater for everyone who's a bit of a 'Surf Dude'!!

As you can see I've gone for some nice bright colours here and I've created an octaganol stepper card. The image itself is quite big, so it really fills the space on your card and it's also nice and easy to colour too.

To get away from the plain white card I've 'dotted' with my promarkers in the hopes that it will look like the spray from the sea - not sure if that has worked or not. I think I need a bit more practice!!

Well that's my card for today folks. I'm going to be busy making some more DT cards this weekend so lots of fun ahead - rain or shine!!

Have a great weekend all, and thanks for popping by to visit.

PS - Can't leave without a little X Factor comment.......thank goodness Frankie's gone at last.....and how silly he is to throw away what could have been a great opportunity for him. I hope he manages to sort himself out and come out of this with a bit of maturity. Getting off my soap box now......

Bye!

Sharon xx

Sunday 6 November 2011

An elepant for Christmas???

Not exactly your traditional Christmas image, but what can I say except that I was having a festive moment whilst creating some of my Stamp Addicts DT cards!

This little cutie comes as part of a lovely two part set which also contains a rhino. Both of them are really lovely to colour in and shade if you happen to have some pros or speccy's as there are lots of open spaces which leaves rooms to scribble and shade till your heart's content.

Now this little Ellie didn't come with a Christmas hat, but I found that the hat from Stamps by Judith fits perfectly so I just stamped, coloured, cut out and stuck it on. Also, I'm not sure if you can see but I stippled the red with a blender pen to try to created a bit of a fluffy appearance, and of course it was the perfect opportunity to add a bit of glitter to an elephant.

By the way, the lovely papers came free with a magazine but you can find them at Wild Rose Studios.

Well I hope you like this card, and thanks for coming to visit me once again, today.

Sharon x

Saturday 5 November 2011

What a Cat - astrophe!!!

Last weekend I dropped off a bunch of DT cards to Stamp Addicts, using the new releases that they will shortly be bringing out. There were eleven cards, all in all, made using 3 different stamp sets so I guess you will now know why you haven't been hearing from me lately.

Well a few of my cards have appeared on the Purple Zone blog over the last week and also the Stamp Addicts mailers so I guess it's OK to start showing them on my blog now.

With that said, here is the first one using the Cats and Dustbins set.


Within the set you get a dustbin, a separate dustbin lid, a small cat, a large cat, a tree bough and a fish bone, so it is really good value and there is plenty to get your imagination going. Also, these kind of images are great for those times when you want to make something a little on the humorous side.

So for  this sample a stamped coloured and cut out the three dustbins, plus two lids and the large cat. The cat is in fact 'whole' but you can only see his top half of him in this example. I had to cut his feel off to fit him in the bin - it felt very wrong to do that....even though he is not real!!

For the background I used distress inks to  smudge green and blue around the edges of the card stock and I used my Stamps by Judith grass stubbie for........you guessed it......the grass!!

I stamped the fish in the top right hand corner, and used a fine black pen to draw the string that it is tied too.

Then it's just a case of stacking the bins so that the cat is in the right place to look like he can reach the fish.

Quite simple really, but a great card for a cat lover - particularly if these antics remind them of their own little bundle of fluff!!

Well I hope you enjoyed this card, and thanks very much for coming to visit me today.

Sharon x