Craft a Scene let your light shine week 3

Good Afternoon, Lovely Bloggers and welcome to my latest offering for Craft a Scene. For this one I decoupaged my Michael Powell Lighthouse, the same one that is in my blog candy here, but hurry as it ends very soon!
I coloured the whole thing with promarkers and made it into a tall narrow easel card, about the same width as DL but slightly shorter. The stripy paper was a freebie from Canon Creative Park and  the sentiment was from Waltzing Mouse. I added some eyelets and faux stitching to finish it off.
There are more offerings from my very talented teamies on the challenge blog. I do hope you can join in this month.
If you want to be in with a chance of winning this stamp and several other goodies, then please leave a comment on my blog candy post.
Thanks for looking!

A birthday card for someone special

I have been working on my God daughter's twenty first birthday card for about a week in every spare moment I have had, and finally it is finished!

She will be away from home having a holiday by the sea with three friends, so when I saw this stamp and papers from crafty individuals I had to have it, especially as the second girl from the left looks just like her from the back! I added the bunting (Whimsy stamps and Whimsy Dies) and added a few stamped shells (Crafty Individuals) on the base of the easel card. It was really easy to match up the colours of the beach huts/ papers with the bunting by using distress inks in Fired Brick, scattered straw, faded jeans, worn lipstick and bundled sage.

The challenge at Allsorts this week is to make a Birthday card for someone special, so I think this qualifies. The challenge is only a part of their third Birthday celebrations, which includes a blog hop and lots of prizes too.
I am not sure if I will get round to the hop as I am marking SATs at the moment.
Thanks for looking!

I will make a mid week card!

I have been doing little bits of this card since Tuesday and I was determined to finish it today.

It is an easel Christmas card. I brayered a background with Eggplant and Peach Bellini Adirondack inks before stamping in Memento Paris dusk. The lovely cottage is Art impressions (T-1221), The fence is from a set by Lindsay Mason called 'Build a snowy scene' and the Fir trees are from Inkylicious. I added a few highlights and shadows with promarkers, white gel pen and glitter.
Here is a close up of the scene...

and here is the poinsettia 

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:
Allsorts - Christmas easel cards
Ladybugs crafts ink challenge - Non-traditional Christmas colours

Thanks for looking! Don't forget there is still time to pop a comment on my candy post here

Allsorts Challenge - inspired by a garden or park

When I got back from holiday I decided to treat myself to a couple of cute stamps from Sugar Nellie. I saw this one used on a card in a recent challenge and instantly fell in love with it. It's called Searching by Kathy Hare. I'd stamped it in Versafine sepia and watercoloured the image with distress inks. When I saw the Allsorts challenge this morning I thought it would be perfect! Their sponsors this week are one stop cardcrafts. I teamed it up with some very old papers from my stash - a Bitty Scrap pad called windswept from provocraft. I just love the blues and greens on this pad. they go so well with the distress ink colours.

My easel card was finished with punched flowers, some rainbow drops (Crafty Notions) die cut flourishes (Marianne designs) and some sticky ribbon.
Thanks for looking, and have a great weekend!

The Stampman Challenge - Easel card

I've been playing with a few newish things that I bought in July and have only just got round to using.

Firstly there is a rather lovely Dreamweaver stencil. I felt a bit naughty buying it, as I rarely use metal stencils these days, but the design was so gorgeous! The spellbinders leaves were also bought at about the same time. Finally, after visiting my friend Lynne and seeing her Artylicious Essence of Nature CD I just had to have that too!
I began by securing the stencil onto some black card and pressing my versamark pad all over it. I then brushed some blonde moments pearl pigments (Art from the heart) onto it and sprayed with water to fix the pigments. I layered it on to paper from the CD and cut out and embossed the three leaves. I applied pigments in the same way. Finally I made it into an easel card, adding a stamped greeting (Papermania?). It really gleams when it catches the light.
I'm entering this into the Stampman Challenge where the theme is Easel cards. There are some fabulous DT cards offering wonderful inspiration. Thanks for looking!

P.S. If you like Digis and haven't heard my mate Teri has freebies up for grabs every day this week. Click on the link on my side bar to have a look.

I've been inspired by Allsorts!

Here is my entry for this week's Allsorts Challenge where I've take my inspiration from a beautiful bracelet belonging to Emma. The circle of the bracelet and the variety of the butterflies really drew my eye, so hopefully I've done a decent job in interpreting it. The background is stamped with a mixture of Crafty Individuals and graphicus stamps, and the butterfly is from Innovative Stamp Creations. I used bundled sage, tumbled glass and peeled paint distress inks, then embossed with silver over the top. The butterflies I coloured with watercolours and then sprayed with creative colour sprays, attaching to my easel card with 3d glue. I managed to find a few minutes this morning to take a photo of it out in the garden in my skimmia japonica.

I took another inside to try and capture a bit of sheen from the creative colour sprays on the butterflies. Thanks for popping by!
Edit: I've just found out that Emma has chosen this card as one of her top five. Thanks Emma!

Mmmmmm...Distress inks

I've spent a bit of time playing with distress inks, because there were two things I wanted to do this holiday. I wanted to make a shaped easel card, like Debbie's and I wanted to make some backgrounds like Paula's. I've been admiring  Debbie Dolphin's shaped easel cards for some time, and in honour of her getting on the front cover of craft stamper I thought I'd better pull my finger out! If you don't know of Paula's blog get yourself over there as she is one mega talented lady. I regularly drool over her wonderful creations. Anyway, earlier in the week she posted this and this. I loved the blue, gold and yellow combination, and was inspired! I'm not sure if mine has worked, as my background is rather busy, so I kept my focal points to a minimum. I stamped the script and daisies (graphicus) in black versafine, then embossed the flashy floral (inkadinkado) in gold, along with the butterfly (I.S.C.). The base card was coloured with distress inks in Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire, Mustard seed, scattered straw and rusty hinge. As I've used no patterned papers I'm entering it into this weeks Allsorts challenge. It also has a ditressed feel, so I'm entering it into the Simon Says Stamp Challenge.  Thanks for looking!

Sir Stampalot challenges you !

Good Morning to you all! Hopefully you have ventured here from the Sir Stampalot Challenge - if not make sure you are signed up to follow and pop over there for the low down on how to win an AMAZING prize! Over the coming months we have some fantastic themes lined up for you, along with some fabulous prizes from Sir Stampalot. There are more details on the Challenge blog in the sidebar and on the post. Our first theme is:

"Fantasy"

Sir Stampalot have been so generous with the winners prize .......pinch yourself first because it's:

A Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter

PLUS a Pooh Font Cartridge

Good stuff, eh? Guaranteed to get you motivated! We will also select our Top 3 who will be able to display our special logo.
So here are two cards that will hopefully help to motivate you too.

My first card is an easel card. I made the background with acrylic dabbers and stamped over the top with some lavinia stamps. The bubbles are 3d paint and the starfish was made with air drying clay and painted with metallic paint. The corner flourish is a sizzix die.

 

My second card features the Fantasy tree by Penny Black and the Wizard by Non Sequitur. The Celtic border was embossed with kaleidoscope embossing powder. I made the background with Adirondack colour washes.  The highlights are made with a white gel pen and some icicle stickles.
For some fabulous ideas to help you on your way, please visit the Design Team's blogs - they are truly inspirational! Thanks for popping over. Now go and make a fantastic creation and join in the fun!
Edit: A quick reminder to check the rules in the sidebar
1) Entries may be combined with a maximum of five other challenge - i.e: six in total

Steve's Birthday

Steve reaches the big 50 at the end of the month and I was racking my brains as to what I could put on his card. He loves ducks but I couldn't get hold of the penny black stamps I'd had in mind and with all the snow delivery might be tricky, so I asked Teri if she was prepared to draw me a duck. She is such a lovely lady she drew two! This is the mandarin duck, which is available at Delicious Doodles. I coloured it with promarkers, adding a few highlights with a white gel pen.
I made an easel card using some papers I inherited from my Auntie Margaret when she cut down on her crafting stash. the sentiments are all from Graphicus except the 50th which was computer generated. The border was punched with an EK success punch (dotted scallop), bought from Sir Stampalot.
On Friday night  Meg and I went to Karate. We hadn't been for 4 weeks (Two weeks christmas break, weather and a problem with the hall). We really enjoyed it and took part with enthusiasm, but boy do I ache! The backs of my thighs and my shoulders are the worst, and I'm struggling to dress myself!!! I'm hoping it will have worn off by tomorrow. In the meantime I am able to sit at my desk and craft without any pain!!!

Allsorts Challenge - Pearls and swirls

Hooray! I've finally made an easel card! I must be the last person in Blog Land to make one! My friend asked me to make a birthday card for her Mum who is 91 at the end of December. She had seen my nesties frames card and got hold of a picture of her Mum aged 18 to use in the centre. I was intending to use my Crafty Individuals flourish and some flat backed pearls, so it fitted perfectly with the Allsorts theme for this week. the two later pictures I managed to take in daylight, but wanted to add a sentiment and didn't manage it until much later, hence the varied colours! The script stamp is also Crafty individuals. The Sentiment and small damask block are from Graphicus. The lace stamp is Impression Obsession. Most stamping was done with antique linen and tea dye distress inks. The papers on the frames are K & Co and DCWV. I managed to include more roses a la Brenda and used my Martha Stewart punch again! I'm rather pleased with the result. Why is it I have most mojo when I have least time?!
Thanks for looking!