Friday 30 September 2011

TGIF

Yeah it's Friday, I've had a busy, but productive week so I'm looking forward to a bit of a chill out weekend. Maybe even manage a barbecue in October OMG.  I have a very simple but effective card to share today. Lilies are one of my favourite flowers and yellow is one of my favourite colours so I combined the two. I even had Calla lilies as my wedding bouquet, it was gorgeous.
Happy Friday
Mel :o)
This card is entered into the following challenges:-
Craft your passion - challenge 77 - use black, green, white and yellow
Simply less is moore - week 34 - sketch challenge

Thursday 29 September 2011

Happy Halloween

I can't quite believe we're almost in October. To get myself in the Halloween mood I've started making my cards this one is for my daughter, I'm going to add her name to it before giving it to her :o). I love this little witch, I got her from my favourite online store Jellypark. I wanted to make a twisted easel card as she always likes to display the cards I make for her. I printed and coloured the witch with my promarkers, what else :o) and then printed another digi from Jellypark which has Halloween accessories, that's where I got the text stopper from, the little trick or treat bag and the spells book. I cut around the witches fingers and stuck the little bag underneath so that it would stick out of the card.


Happy Crafting.
Mel :o)
This card is entered into the following challenges:-
Send a smile for kids - Halloween or fall cute cards for kids
The paper shelter - challenge 33 - for girls
Lollipop crafts - challenge 50 - anything goes
Crafty boots challenges - things with wings - bats
Digistamps 4 joy - challenge 28 - anything goes
Celebrate the occasion - challenge 32 - any occasion but use a ribbon - purple ribbon on the base layer
My mums craft shop challenges - challenge 25 - dress up

Tuesday 27 September 2011

I've only gone and done it!!!

A wee while ago I came across a blog called Make Something Nice where the owner had posted a promarker storage tower tutorial. I have been getting increasingly fed up rummaging around in a box for a pen which is invariably at the bottom, so I decided to give it a go. The beauty of this storage unit is that it uses up craft stash (ie A4 card stock) along with cardboard which you use to reinforce the shelves. Luckily for me my OH is obsessed with buying Vinyl music online, so I had lots of perfect packaging lying around. It took me 2 days to make and I don't think it will last forever but I am really happy with it.
One of the down sides of making the unit is that once I'd made the charts for the shelves I realised that I didn't have enough promarkers ;o)

Anyway here it is

Sssh look what's just arrived.

I won a card challenge a while ago and received Joanna Sheen vouchers as a prize, which I spent very easily I might add, anyway the service was so amazing that I popped back to her store for this lot as she had every single colour I wanted :o)
Oooh


Exciting delivery it's not far off being full now!


Aye up where did they come from? lol
Oh no I feel another storage unit coming on :oO

Happy Crafting
Mel :o)

Friday 23 September 2011

Jellypark Challenge Number 6

Oh my goodness we are already on Challenge Number 6 over at the Jellypark Challenge Blog where does the time go! We had some gorgeous entries for our "Pass it on Challenge" plenty of very lucky people out there receiving some gorgeous cards and gifts.

Now on to the current challenge. It's a "design seed challenge", "what's that" I hear you exclaim, well, over on the Challenge Blog on the right hand side you will see something called Design Seed, it's a colour chart with some of the most glorious colour combinations ever. I had a terrible time picking my favourite but I finally settled on.
"Icy teal", aren't the colours just glorious!
I decided to make my own backing papers for this card so I pulled the picture into my design software and using the colour picker tool I was able to replicate the colours perfectly.
This is another new release image which is now available to buy in the Jellypark Store and it's perfect for this colour scheme.
I coloured the image using my promarkers, I love them soooo much I had no problem finding colour matches either. I used lots of gems in the background to, I lurve gems, can you tell :oO
Another Christmas card made yeah, that's 6 now lol.

I feel very fortunate to have a place on the Jellypark Design Team, it's a lovely place to be. I found out recently that the lovely Diane is leaving the team after this challenge. It has been a real pleasure being in a team with Diane. I am in awe of her cards and blog and will still be visiting regularly. :o)

Hope you like what you see and it inspires you in some way to take part in our challenge.
Happy Crafting.

Jellypark New Release 23rd September 2011

It's that time again when I have the opportunity to show a new release image from Jellypark, and it's a Christmas one whoop. I adore Christmas crafting, my favourite time of year by far. :o)
I used some deckle edge scissors to cut the image out and then ran a thick gold marker around the edge. I coloured the background in with my satin promarker I'm not sure that it photographed very well though. The backing papers are from My Minds Eye, I love love love their papers and I got this set from a Michaels store when I was in Florida last year. I added quite a few gems and I realised I like to put gems on my Christmas projects because they remind me of twinkling christmas lights, one of the most relaxing things to look at in the world, in my opinion.



She looks so happy, love it!!
Happy Crafting
Mel :o)
She is entered into :-

Monday 19 September 2011

Challenging Challenges

One of the many reasons I love to participate in blog challenges is that you often come across a challenge which really stretches you, makes you craft in different ways, using unusual colour schemes or layouts. I think it's a wonderful way to stretch your creativity. For instance a couple of weeks ago I created my first card based on a sketch and this week I plan to make a project for an ABC challenge, "anything but a card".

The card I'm blogging about today was one of those challenging subjects, the card is predominantly white which was really difficult to do and is also particularly hard to photograph, so apologies if it doesn't show up very well.

Using just one colour does make you think more about textures as you have to find a way of clearly defining the different elements of the card so I used a textured card stock as my base card, then embossed a plain card stock with a lovely snowflake pattern. I found some white glitter card which I cut out with a spellbinder die. The cake image is from the Polka doodle - Magical Winter cd. I had to use a very pale blue promarker just to add a bit of shadow and definition and I also used some ice white stickles for a bit of sparkle. I attached each of the background layers with foam pads as I liked the effect and shadows it creates. I also decoupaged the cake for some extra dimension. Next step will be to make a card box for this card as it won't fit in an envelope :o) I think I've got about 5 christmas cards made now whoop, well it's a start.
Happy Crafting
Mel :o)
This card is being entered into the following challenges:-
Polka doodles Challenge Blog - theme whiteout


Totally papercrafts - challenge 84 - clean and simple


Rainbow ladys challenge - challenge #170 - christmas sweet treats


Less is more Challenge - week 33 - anything goes

Friday 9 September 2011

Jellypark Challenge Number 5 and new release

Wow what a response we had for the die cut and punches challenge, 180 entries how cool is that! I had such a lovely time looking through all of the fab creations and a very well done to the top three.

We are on to challenge number 5 over at Jellypark Friends Challenge Blog and this time the theme is "pass it on" basically show us a card that you are going to send to someone, it's that simple.

We are also very excited to introduce our guest DT member for September Sara Moreno pop on over to her blog "luminous in my chaotic dreams(life)" and peruse the loveliness of her creations :o). I hope you will also visit my fellow DT's blogs for a look at their wonderful projects (links on the right).

As usual I have 2 new Jellypark Store  release images to show you. I'm going to combine my posts this time as I was able to use both the new release images for "pass it on" cards.

First up is the card I made for my daughters friend who's birthday it is next week, how cute is this image?  This one is also going on a card I'm making for a 21 year old as a remember when kind of thing, I'll post a piccie once it's done :o)
Card 1


I did a bit of paper piecing on this one, I also printed the backing paper out twice so that I could cut around a few butterflies and have them flying out from the paper as if it's coming to life. I liked the end result so much that I made 2 and after a bit of my usual tweeking the other one will be off to my etsy shop.

This card is entered into the following challenges :-
Craft your Passion - anything goes but add a flower
C.R.A.F.T - card for a child


Card 2





I made a digital backing paper and then coloured and cut out the rocket, it's attached to the card by a wired spring so that it looks like it's actually taking off from the planet where he seems to have made a friend  lol :o)

This card is entered into the following challenges:-

I Brake for Challenges - theme is backgrounds
Send a smile for kids
Polka doodle Challenge - setting a scene
Happy friday one and all and keep on crafting.
Mel :o)

Monday 5 September 2011

BOO

Did I scare you lol :oO. Over on the Sew many cards challenge blog they are giving away a freebie ghost image to use for this weeks challenge. I've had a great time working with it and this is what I created.
I decided to cut him out and hang him from the card to make him look like he's floating, I also flipped the image and cut that out so that he looks the same from the inside of the card too. I made a digital backing paper for the inside of the card and a batty frame for the front and I added a couple of black cats for extra effect.
Mel :o)
I have entered this card into the following challenges:-
Sew Many Cards Challenge Blog - use the freebie ghost digi image
One Stitch at a time Challenge Blog - challenge 78 - use a digi

Fetch a Sketch Challenge

There's a new challenge over at the Fetch a Sketch Challenge Blog and the very generous Claire from  Jellypark is the sponsor. I was invited by my lovely Jellypark Challenge DT buddy Ruth to make a card to show over there, how exciting. I've never, ever made a card from a sketch before so I decided to follow the sketch quite closely. I really enjoyed the challenge and am definately going to have another go at a sketch challenge very soon.

Here's what I made using a gorgeous Jellypark image which I bought from the store a little while ago.


Happy crafting people and don't forget to pop on over to the  Fetch a Sketch Challenge Blog and have a go yourself.
Mel :o)
I've entered this into the Craftyboots Challenge

Friday 2 September 2011

Ooh Happy Friday

I've been following the Sew many cards challenge blog this week so that I could catch a glimpse of some of the new release images over there. If you left comments on the DT blogs all week you could win a few of the images. I just clicked on to the site and read that I along with another diligent crafter have won the images whoop. All the images are gorgy but I'd fallen in love with a particular one during my travels so I can't wait to create with it :o)
There's another blog hop going on at the moment along with an opportunity to grab a freebie image for their latest challenge.
Thinking the day couldn't get any better I then popped over to Polka doodles challenge blog and found out I'd come 2nd in a challenge over there, whoopeeee.
Happy Crafting
Mel :o)