Hooked on Craft Challenges DT Card-Anything but a card!

Well, it's looks like the scheduling didn't work...so I can only apologise for being late.

 

This one got me a bit...I make cards lol!

So decided on a little gift bag, which I made from Anna Griffin card stock, the cute little bear stamp is of course from Hooked on Craft along with evrything else on the bag-with the exception of the ribbon-which is from the Ribbon Girl.

I had great fun with the sweet little image, coloured him with my Promarkers and did a little extra embellying with Glamour Dust and some micro beads on the daisy.

All of the flowers were also given a light twinkling of the old G.D. too, gotta lurve that sparkle!

Ingredients

Stamp, doiley, flowers, gems and paper butterfly -Hooked on Craft

Card stock - Anna Griffin

Wide organza spotty ribbon - The Ribbon Girl

Okey dokey then ladies, get crafting and get your entries in here after you've spent some time browsing what the super talented DT have created for your inspiration-puts my little bag in the shade! lol.

Thanks for stopping by.

*hugs* Sal x

Hooked on Craft Challenge #8 DT Card - Ribbon and Lace

Well, I seem to have this scheduling lark sorted, so this should be up on time!

This fortnight's challenge is luverly, Ribbons & Lace. You really should pop over and see what amazing creations the team have to inspire you here

Aw, how cute is that teddy?

On to the deets then, lol!

The quilt is a piece of grey chipboard covered with woven velvet ribbon and edged with a deep broderie anglaise lace frill, the beautiful baby bear looks so comfy on top, doesn't he? He's coloured with Promakers and just a touch of Glamour Dust. Some die cut blue gingham and white card mats distressed with dye based ink and all that was needed were some gorgeous embellies!

Card candy, topped some of Karen's adhesive gems, one of those stunning pins that I don't seem to be able to live without anymore, lol, some gorgeous berry stamens, a sweet silver dummy charm, bakers twine and a sentiment. Then the final flourish of some stunning wide sheer ribbon, tied in a giant bow.

Hope you like it :)

Shopping List

Baby bear stamp, berry stamens, adhesive gems, angel pin - Hooked on Craft

Vevet ribbon - Smirk

Dummy charm, divine twine, sheer ribbon - The Ribbon Girl

Sentiment and papers - from stash

*hugs* Sal x

Hooked on Craft Challleng e#7 DT Card-Spring has Sprung

Well, lets just hope that Blogger's scheduling is working tonight!

Sorry I haven't been on for a while, been quite poorly and have new meds which are not so kind lol, but I'm feeling a little like my old self so should be back in the swing of things shortly :)

On to this fortnight's challenge 'Spring Has Sprung', Hooked on Craft is an Australian based supplier and it's spring down in the southern hemisphere! This one caught me a little off guard hehe, I'm working with all my autumnal tones but have just been waiting for the chance to work with Karen's new Geisha Bears stamp range...don't know about you but I'm soooooooo happy that Oriental themed cards are coming back into vogue, I just lurve it! AND nothing says spring to me like Cherry Blossom!

So, here we have my humble contribution to the DT's inspirational cards this challenge...you really should go and have a shufty at what the other girls have created,  truly gorgeous! You can see them and enter the challenge here scrumy prize too!

Well as you can see, I've gone 'all out eastern'! Love, love, love it!

I used DCWV oriental cardstock to make a 'lantern' card base, distressed the edges with antique linen diatress ink and cut out an aperture which has acetate in. I've stamped some cherry blossom onto it and glittered it from behind'

It took me some time to decide on the image to use, as there are soooooo many gorgeous ones in the range but finally settled on the Geisha Bear with fan (way toooooo cute!), coloured with my trusty promarkers and the fan got the Glamour Dust treatment lol as did all of the gorgeous oriental lilies and cherry blossoms, from the store. I finished it off with some adhesive pearls and one of Karen's 'to die for' pins. Topped it off with some lovely champagne pure silk ribbon and hey presto!

Hope you like :)

Ingredients

Cardstock - DCWV

Glitter - Art Institute

Stamp, flowers, pin, pearl gems - Hooked on Craft

Ribbon - The Ribbon Girl

Glamour Dust & Acetate

Come on then girls, get some spring in your step, see you over on the challenge blog!

*hugs* Sal x



Hooked on Craft Challenge DT Card

It's time for a new challenge over at Hooked on Craft Challenges folks! Sooooooo, without further ado-and with many fingers crossed that Blogger's scheduling is working! lol-I will just get on with it :)

This fortnights challenge is....Things With Wings....and I had so much fun with this one!

Karen has loads of cute stamps with 'things with wings' on them but I just couldn't resist the butterfly sets! There are large and small to choose from...but you know me, I just couldn't choose, so used loads of different ones lol :)

See how they shimmer and shine!!!?

I wanted the butterflies to look like they were 'fluttering'

 over the paper, so they were all coloured with Promarkers and cut out, then covered in Glossy Accents and sprinkled with Glamour Dust-gotta have the sparkle on the butterflies don't ya? This technique means that when the paper/card stock dries, the Glossy Accents 'plasticises' it, making it pliable so you can mold it and it keeps it's shape. So the wings were shaped and I coiled little springs out of fine lilac wire and attached them with silicone.

I used a white dotty embossed 8x8 card blank,  Back to Basics paper, Coredinations cardstock-what else? lol, pretty lilac Hunkydory glitter card, lime green die cut doily, white satin ribbon, some lilac fibres, beautiful 2 inch sheer glitter organza ribbon, lilac die cut banner and sentiment stamp all from my stash.

The butterfly stamps, stunning oriental lilies, lilac stick on gems and the gorgeous handmade butterfly pin are all from Hooked on Craft

What are you waiting for ladies? Get crafting! Lol.

It would be really good to see you all in this challenge.

*hugs* Sal x

Azura has arrived!

I really should be asleep but hey ho...not happening right now, I so know that I'm not going to be bright and breezy for work in the morning, lol, oh yes, I do have a meeting first thing-not to mention the decorators coming in to fix up a community room, for a group of adults with learning disabilities who are going to be recording their own radio shows. How cool is that?!

 I thought I'd share a little something with you :)

As part of their birthday celebrations The Ribbon Girl were giving away the sweetest little fairy, made by the super talented Gail, in a competition to name her! Well I took one look at the cute little thing and decided that she should be called Azura-it means sky jewel, in fairy speak! Didn't know that I could speak Fairy did you, huh?

Well, the loverly Mary and Andrea picked me! Yay and double yay!

Yesterday she fluttered into my craft room-carrying some uber gorgeous Ribbon Girl goodies no less-and has made herself perfectly at home on my desk! She's been hovering there ever since, inspiring me to create glittery, flittery gorgeousness!

Want to meet her? Yes? Well here she is!

Isn't she just B-E-A-utiful?!

Gail is such a clever lady and I'm soooooo very lucky to have won this little beauty :)

Still not sleepy, so I'm going to have abash at making something for their new challenge-USE RIBBON! lol, you know me, just lurve the ribbon! The prize for this one, is some seriously gorgeous bling-has to be worth a go ladies, doesn't it? :)

Night, night folks hope you all sleep soundly and have happy dreams!

Thank you for popping over, I really appreciate your comments.

*hugs* Sal x



Advice needed and a hoooooge winge-My Craft Studio

Having never been huge on computer crafting-nothing wrong with it, just not for me-I am however, pretty much addicted to that 'Crafting Channel', you know the one where they craft all day long? Never bought anything from them,t ried once and it sold out but was still on the website-put me off a wee bit methinks, lol, just like to have it on in the background when I'm at my desk, having a coffee, well any time really! hehehe

Well, while they were demo'ing the MCS, Encyclopedia of Papercraft, Templates and Folds DVD/CD collection, I got it into my head that I could use this one. Not the artwork but the templates could really be handy. Soooooo, you know me, looked on the bay of e and got them, hmmmmmm. Breaking strain of a Kitkat me!

My thinking was, print off and laminate the templates, or just print them onto acetate and pass the disks on to someone who would use them for the whole package-I'm nice like that me lol!

Well they've come, put them on the poooter and guess what? They won't blooming run!

Talk about frustrating. I've installed, uninstalled ans reinstalled the professional version 3 times, then had a brainwave-I only want the templates-sooooo, have installed, uninstalled and reinstalled the standard version twice! Still won't run, although at least I'm getting a message up now-registration request not allowed-haven't requested one of them!

Please, please help dear blogging buddies, if you have any ideas can you let me know? I can't watch the DVD's any longer-'lift your craft knife so that the point goes in first', 'keep your hand steady when you're cutting a circle', 'make sure you line up your edges'-man oh man, I had to watch them all, all the way through-you know, the way you have to watch a really bad film?! They would be great for 'virgin' crafters starting from scratch though, soooo glad I didn't pay full price, I reallly wouldn't have been impressed lol x

Thanks for popping over and 'listening' to my ramblings.

*hugs* Sal x



WOYWW #114

Well, I know I'm late for the party but in no way as late as I was last week! lol

If you've in the outer reaches of the cosmos for the last 2 years and have no idea what I'm talking about...get on over to the loverly Lady Julia's blog, here and join in the snoopery, that is What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday!

So I'll keep it short peeps, I have to go pack goodies for my Candy winners :)

I've been shopping on the bay of e AGAIN! Got some cracking bargains :) feathers (tons of them) for a couple of quid, book by THE DUKE OF DISTRESS-less than a tenner, I'm so gonna give this ditrssing/grungy lark a darn good go!

In the background you can see my very first little-and I mean TINY-altered canvas in progress and see all theose promarkers? Less than £1 each!

Anyhoo, I'm off to nosey around your desks now.

Thanks for popping over to peruse my space.

*hugs* Sal x



Thank You Candy Winner................and a surprise!

It's ti...iime to announce the winner of the thank you candy folks!

How exciting!

Well, let me tell you first off that I employed the help of my daughter, Poppy, for the draw lol, I put the names in the pot and she pulled one out :)

So here goes!

Six of you loverly ladies got your comments in

So I put your names in the pot-incidentally this is where my new herb seedlings will be living from the weekend!

Poppy shuffled them around and picked one out!

AND the winner is.....drum roll please!

VON!

Woohoo well done hunni! E-mail me your snail mail and I'll get your goodies posted out to you :)

Now for the surprise hehehe, I also have a little thank you for the other five of you loverly ladies who make me smile by popping in and cheering me with your comments and support!

Soooo, if you e-mail  me your snail mails I'll get your 'runners up thank yous' out to you too!

Thank you all for your support, your comments mean soooo much!

*hugs* Sal x



Candy Draw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Super quick post

I'M DRAWING THE CANDY IN 2 HOURS FOLKS (9PM GMT) 

SO IF YOU'VE NOT PUT YOUR COMMENT ON THE CANDY POST YET, YOU HAVE ABOUT AN HOUR AND HALF LEFT

*hugs* Sal x



DT Card Hooked on Craft Challanges

Hey there peeps!

It's challenge #5 at Hooked on Craft Challenges and the theme for this fortnight is SWEET TREATS this can be anything you can eat, lol cake, sweets nom nom nom. It can be your image, papers or embellies-as long as we can see something sweet!

Here's my effort for this one. I started off wanting a bit of a 'retro' feel-hence the blue and white polka dots-then veered off with the black and red. I think it's cute!

I have to be honest, I couldn't decide which onof Karen's lush little stamps to choose-I settled on just 2 in the end lol!

Both are coloured with my fave Promarkers, with their little noses covered in Glossy Accents. This one had his milkshake glass also covered in Glossy Accents, the froth was 'blinged up' with Cosmic Shimmer diamond sparkles.

This greedy little munchkin's cherry was also topped with Glossy Accents and his cupcake frosting covered in Glamour Dust-you know I love it! The spoon is a Maya Road chipboard piece, covered with liquid pearls, in pewter and then Gloosy Accents...toppped off with one of Karen's bows.

The ingredients are as follows;

Paper - Anna Griffin

Gingham ribbon - The Ribbon Girl

Stamps - Hooked on Craft

Gems - Paper Cellar

Flowers - Hooked on Craft

Cardstock & miri - Kanban

Hope you like it my hunni's, don't forget to head on over to Hooked on Craft Challenges to get your entry in!

*hugs* Sal x

Challenge Card

First of 2 posts tonight-the next is a DT card later on!

Well I've done a bit of crafting just for me today! With the new Hougie Board-it came yesterday but I was working all day so couldn't play!

Anyhoo back to the card...it's a stepper...soooo much easier with the Hougie let me tell you!

I haven't done a Tilda in ages and had so much fun with this one!

Isn't she sweet?

As I said the stepper took very little time itself, the board is brilliant (although I don't think I'm done gripeing about the 'lady' who sold it to me!)

Okies, the deets.....

I used a 300gsm linen textured card for the base and matted and layered with some  pretty yellow glitter card with some loverly backing paper-it's from my stash and honestly can't remember what it is, sorry. The main topper is my sweet little girl, coloured with Promarkers and literally covered in Glamour Dust, layered some gingham and white die cuts (I ditressed the edges of the white one with a die based ink pad), a punched out border and finished off with some little half pearls.

The bottom stepper is finished with some larger half pearls, the middle one took a little time. It has pleated white lace, some mimosa seam binding-from The Ribbon Girl, pearl trim, yellow paper roses interspersed with some little pearls. The top 'step' is finished with some die cut swirls, which were again distressed with the ink pad, some more little pearls and a sentiment topper-yes you've guessed it, distressed with the same ink pad and a touch of Glamour Dust to the tiny flowers and a big bow made from the seam binding.

I'm entering this one into the following challenges;

Just Magnolia - Anything Goes (with the option if adding glitter)-hmmm think I have that option covered lol)

Totally Tilda Challenge Blog - Pearls, Swirls, Ribbon and Lace

Totally Papercrafts Challenge - Bling It Up!

Hope you like it my loverlies and thank you so much for taking the time to drop in!

*hugs* Sal x

ps. only 3 more days to go until I draw my CANDY folks, you've got to be in it to win it! lol



Tutorial #1.....Faux Tortoise Shell.....it's my first one on Blogger, please be gentle :)

I've been promising to do this for a while now...and since my mojo's gone AWOL (may have something to do with the fact that I have this awesome idea for a card but am still awaiting the delivery of my Hougie Board and until I get the card done I think I may be in limbo tssk) so figured I'd do it straight away...have told Vickie aka Okienurse that I would, so here you go hunni, just for you!!!

Tis the simplest of techniques but soooooo very effective lol!

 

To start off with, this technique relies on ink 'bleeding a bit', so all your materials need to be water based.

Here are the ONLY things you need for this fab effect!

 

Here I have a plain white chipboard buckle slider, it has a coated paper on it. Don't panic though, you can just cover whatever piece your doing in either PVA (craft glue) or give it a quick coat of white acrylic paint! I use Whispers water based brush markers (a mid brown and a black), only because I bought the whole blooming set about a gazillion years ago (an impulse buy because I just HAD to have them all!) and am determined to get some use out of them other than water colouring my stamped images lol! A gold gel pen, mine's a Pentel one and some Ranger Sepia Accents, I use this as I think it gives a better depth of colour but you can use Glossy or Crackle accents for a different effect, or indeed ANY water based gloss medium.....

You start with the mid brown colour...

Draw 'wiggly' lines and a few blobs, leaving about a quarter of the white showing through, then get your black pen...

Drop in some odd shaped blobs of black, still leaving some white, just really randomly...then get your gold gel pen...

Fill in most of the white areas with this, slightly overlapping onto the brown and black ink...

Please excuse the fuzzy'ish picture here folks...then cover the whole thing with your Sepia Accents...it will look like a hooooge cloudy mess at this point but don't panic, this is where the magic starts.

The water in the glaze gel starts to dissolve the water based ink...this wouldn't happen with alcohol or oil based pens! BUT it doesn't mix up completely because the gel is soooooo thick, that it dries before that could happen. Leaving you with a lovely shiny piece of faux tortoise shell.

Make sure you leave it for at least 2 hours before touching it though...or you will leave finger prints or worse in the glaze! lol

Still a wee bit fuzzy but hey, it's an extreme close up, that buckle slider is less than an inch across!

The whole process of colouring and glazing takes minutes.

Hope you found this helpful, please let me know, I have lots more tips and techniques that I would be happy to share, if you're interested!

Tutorial #2 will be Old Battered Metal Effect, with embossing powders! That's if you'd like it of course!

Anyhoooo my loverlies, thanks for seeing this post through to the end :)

*hugs* Sal x

ps, if you haven't already left a comment on my candy post...what are you waiting for peeps?! lol