A Tropical Christmas

How are you doing with those Christmas cards?  I'm just getting started and this month's theme at Christmas at Sweet Stampin' £couldn't be more perfect for thinking about going somewhere warm to get away from this brutal cold weather we have been having.  Not a lot of snow this year but the temps are frigid and I do hope Mr. Weatherman is right when he says it is supposed to warm up.  It will eventually, right?  Enough of my rambling and whining about the cold!
The theme this month is Tropical Christmas and I think Mr. Claus is looking very svelte and tanned.  hahahah... as I sit here looking at this, I see that what I thought was his cheek is in fact the other side of his mustache - isn't that odd how you don't see those 'mess-ups' until they are up on the big screen.  I haven't time to change it though because as per my usual self, I seem to be running late.  Good grief... now I can't stop staring at it and thinking, 'Why did I not know that?' Ah well, another opportunity has been created!
This was a tricky challenge for me because I just couldn't find an image which seemed suitable so I finally decided to combine the Beach from Make it Crafty with Surfin' Santa by Dr. Digi and other than the rogue moustache, I'm happy with how it turned out. 
Make sure you drop by Christmas at Sweet Stampin' to check out the gorgeousness the team have put together.  Our sponsor this week is The Hobby House and they are generously offering a £10 voucher to the winner.

Supplies:
Stamps -  Beach digi from Make it Crafty with Surfin' Santa digi by Dr. Digi;  Sentiment - Good Cheer by Ali Edwards (Technique Tuesday)
Paper - Simple Stories Handmade Holiday
Twine - Tim Holtz
Brad - Seashore Brads from Eyelet Outlet
Copic Colours:
Water:  B12, B00, B000, BG72
Sand:  E11, E01, E00, E000
Beard and 1/2 Mustache:  C2, C0, C00
Board:  Y26, Y23, Y21;  YG25, YG23, YG21
Skin:  E11, E00, E000
Challenges:
Jingle Belles - Text Me
Crafty Bloggers - All About Boys

Sketch Saturday - Soprano Opera Singer

Another great sketch from the gals at Sketch Saturday  for my second week as guest designer and again, thank you ladies for having me. 

This image just cracks me up... I can almost hear her singing 'WaaaaAAAHHH' and I laugh every time I look at it.  This is Make it Crafty's Soprano Opera Singer and she's a perfect fit for this week's sketch.  

 Make sure you head on over to the challenge to see what the talented team has created and while you are there, grab the sketch and create your project for an entry to play along with us at Sketch Saturday!
Supplies:
Image:  Make it Crafty - Soprano Opera Singer digi
Sentiment: Computer generated
Chipboard Flourishes - these were made by Make it Crafty and I've had them for ages.  Sadly, I don't think they make them anymore but they are fabulous and adding a little Shabby White Frantage jazzes them up.  I also added a little bit of red embossing powder to it
Paper:  Authentique
Copic Colours:  Dress - W5, W3, W1, W0;  Cape - R89, R27, R24, R14, R00;  Skin - E11, E01, E00, E000;  Mouth - I forgot to write down the red colours for the mouth but I did do the dark, inside part with BV20
Have a great week and thanks for stopping by.
Challenges:
One Crazy Stamper - Anything Goes
Emerald Fairies - Let's See a Banner
Just B Creative Crazy - Anything Goes
Simply Create Too - Mother's Day or card for a female
Crafty Girlz - Anything Goes
Inky Impressions - Someone Special

Anastasia

 
Gosh, it's July already and time for another A Die for a Sketch challenge and Dunja's given another great sketch to work with.  I've used Make it Crafty's Anastasia which is available in either digi format or a rubber stamp. The image has been coloured with Copics and all papers and flowers are Graphic 45.  I've had this image for ages and have finally got some colouring done - the hair seemed so intimidating but once I started it, it didn't seem so bad.

One of the best purchases I've made in a long time was the Quickutz circle dies... I bought them from one of my favourite online shops called Creating Everlasting Memories.  It's a fabulous little set with so many sizes of circles (21 pieces) and they cut like a dream and I've used those to cut all the circles.
Make sure to check out what the rest of the design team has created for inspiration and here's the sketch:

 

 To participate in the challenge, you need to follow the sketch and use at least one die cut so have some fun and join us.
Challenges:
Jackson's Digital Expressions - A Rose by Any Other Name
LEJ Designs - Use Flowers
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Crafty Bloggers - Anything Goes

Ahoy Matey!

 Cold, cold cold... apparently we are now paying for the wonderful unwinter-like weather we've been having for the last 2 months because what a blast of old-man winter we've had for the last couple of days!  All the more reason to stay inside and make some cards!  

It's been awhile since I've posted but I have been busy and do have some wildly exciting news to share with you.  Denise from Whimsy Stamps asked if I would be interested in joining her magazine staff designer team as one of the two new positions which would  feature digi stamps for Whimsy Stamps Inspirational Magazine.  Would I?  Really?.... you bet I would!  So that is what I've been doing with my time... digging in and getting some projects ready for my debut (hahahha... it's like being a movie star!)

Okay, time to get to the card - this one something I'd done awhile ago for our grandson's 3rd birthday but hadn't got to posting it.  He likes pirates so of course he should have a pirate card to go along with his loot and birthday treasures.  I merged Mo Manning's Pirate Stuff (the palm trees) and her Captain Hugh into Make it Crafty's Treasure Map.    For the front of the card, I used only the scroll portion of the map and pulled in the scene and little pirate.  The complete treasure map was for the inside of the card and it was perfect because there was plenty of room on the bottom of the scroll to write his birthday wishes.  The lettering was done with two colours of sparkly paper using a set of alphabet dies I have had forever.  The image was coloured with Copics, the lock embellishment is Tim Holtz, the paper was from the pile I hoard and the sentiment computer generated.
Challenges:
Celebrate the Occasion - use polka dots (mine is the paper)
Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
Deep Ocean Challenge Blog - Sparkling &/or Glitter (the lettering)
Scrap Creations - use die cuts (lettering & number)
Partytime Tuesdays - Happy Birthday projects or cards
Stamp n Doodle - Birthdays
Crafty Cardmakers - no floral embellishments

Blog Hop - Whimsy Stamps and Make it Crafty

I do apologize in advance for this poorly written post with the description of my card,  but I am not home at the time of writing this and did not think to bring my card along with the details.  I will edit this as soon as I return home late Sunday evening.   In the meantime, there's plenty of fabulous hopping for you to do.

Whimsy Stamps & Make it Crafty have come together to create a fun Urban Themed digi collection! Ann Vento has whipped up her magic and designed an incredible collection of funky wall sayings, city landscapes and of course a range of super cool street signs.Check out the Sentiments collection HERE.  Make it Crafty is trying something new offering all the different elements for you to build your own urban backdrop.Check out the Urban Street Collection HERE Then of course, what better characters to incorporate into such a scene than the fabulous KennyK rubber stamps available from Whimsy Stamps! Our incredibly talented Design Teams have had a blast playing with all the different elements to bring you LOTS of inspiration!

We have broken it in to TWO HOPS

HOP A Starts Here & HOP B Starts HERE! There will be a winner for EACH HOP and if you hop your way through BOTH, you’ll go in the draw for the GRAND PRIZE TOO! HOP A & B Winners will each receive a $15 voucher from both Whimsy Stamps and Make it Crafty GRAND WINNER will win our full Urban Digital Collection 4 Digi Sentiment sets by Ann Vento & the Urban Elements Collection from Make it Crafty You are currently on HOP B and should have arrived from Carole's blog.

 

For my card, I used the Kenny K Alice in Chains stamp from Whimsy and used Copics to do all the colouring. The sentiment is from Ann Vento's Cityscape collection. After colouring it, I placed the Make It Crafty Urban Street Collection brick scene behind a piece of Stampin Up designer paper, distressed the edges and added some walnut stain. I stamped the image, cut her out and stuck her down! The chipboard embellishments are also from Make it Crafty.

Your next stop on HOP B is Cheryl, but before you go make sure you leave a comment below! You have until August 21st 8PM Australian QLD time to make your way through the hops! Be there... or be square! J

Siren of Pearls

I've been fooling around trying to figure out how to merge digi files and although this is my first attempt, I'm quite happy with the result.  The images are Make it Crafty and I think they are so very cute!  The mermaid is called Siren of Pearls and I sat her on the Clam Shell.  The images are coloured with Copics and then Icovered her fins and the shell with Diamond Stickles.  The sentiment is from Whimsy's Birthday Letter Seals which I stamped onto white paper and then cut both it and another pink one using Whimsy's Double Scallop Tag Die (love the shape of this die).  The flowers were cut using a Joy Crafts Flower die and the leaves with Martha Stewart's Oak Leaf Punch.  I added some pearls for the flower centrers and some dew drops around the image, thinking they would look like bubbles.

Challenges:

Art Impressions - Make your own flowers

Deep Ocean - Use flowers

Mark's Finest Papers - Make it Sparkle

Papertake Weekly - Here comes the sun