Phew!!!!

Haven't been able to do much crafting this month and none at all this week as I have been busy marking exam papers - just finished the last of 300 this morning. I just wanted to say thanks for all those who have looked at my blog while I  have been neglecting it myself and for the lovely comments on my last card as well as a welcome to some lovely new followers.

I have another marking session coming up next month so must get crafting in the meantime or you will all forget me! Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend - despite the weather.

Grandson's Birthday Card

I suddenly realised today that I had a birthday card to make for my grandson who will be 12 on Wednesday. It's always difficult to make cards for boys - especially so as they get a bit older and much more fussy about things. I haven't made many boys cards lately but now I have made three in quite quick succession!

I decided to use my new founded ability to merge digi stamps and make a card with his dog Barney on it. He loves Barney more than anything and I know he will be pleased to see him on his card. Of course - I couldn't find a stamp that looked anything like Barney who is a Yorkie Poo - a cross between a Poodle and a Yorkshire Terrier but was able to find a stamp among my digis that looked quite like my grandson!

In the end I thought I'd try to see if I could use an actual photograph of Barney  - this was the result. I guess I could have cut the image of the dog out and decoupaged him over the boy's image but I must admit I enjoyed playing with Gimp again. lol

It took quite alot of fiddling to get the proportions right but I was quite pleased with the result.

The front of the card is covered with paper from my stash and a piece of bright blue mirriboard which I embossed with a  cuttlebug folder of birthday greetings.

The digi image of the boy is 'Music Micky' which I bought from Charmed Cards and Crafts and I coloured him with my Promarkers to look as much like my grandson as possible. I used three shades of Warm Grey for the hair, Ice Grey for the shading on the shirt, shoes and discs and cornflower blue for his jeans. The skin was done with Ivory, Vanilla and Blush.

  The image  of the boy and the dog,  which was one image, was then cut out and mounted on the mirriboard using silicone glue to make it stand out in relief.

The greetings banner was made in Word, using Word Art and this is the first time I have made a sentiment like this - I think I might use it again.

I am going to put this card into Here Come the Boys first challenge which is 'Anything Goes'.  Hope you like it. xx

You're a Star

This was quite a labour intensive card and a bit different from any I've done before but it gave me the chance to try something new  - weld together two different digi stamps to get a similar result as masking a stamped image and stamping  a second image to look as if it's behind it.

These are the two stamps I used.

I read how to do it a little while ago but haven't tried it before.

I  used the photo programme, 'Gimp' that I downloaded when I bought my recent watermark as that allows me to work with layers and after a few attempts I managed to sit the little 'Ride em Cowboy' stamp from Digi Doodles on to a dinosoar stamp from Digi Sparkle. I had to do a lot of resizing because the stamps were differently proportioned but I finally managed it and I thought it would suit this week's Promarker challenge which is 'Prehistoric.'

Once I had printed my efforts out I realised I had to draw over the cowboy as the lines were lighter than those of the dinosaur which loked a little odd!  When I had done that, with a very fine black marker,  I scanned the image into my computer  so that I could print it out and then wait for the ink to dry so I could use my Promarkers.  I said it was labour intensive!

I enjoyed colouring the dinosaur to match the striped and spotty papers from my stash. I used Marsh green, Olive green and Light Lime green to colour him. I then used Ivory, Vanilla, Blush, Ice Grey1 and Sienna to colour in the little boy. His star badge was cut from a piece of star patterned card.

The speech bubble was cut using my Cricut and SCAL and was backed with a slightly larger version in the spotty green paper. The sentiment was from the new LOTV selection of  sentiment stamps.

The mat was also cut with SCAL and shaded with a pesto ink pad and a shaving brush over a moon shaped mask. It was edged with a bronze Kraylon pen.   I then cut the image out and shaped it before mounting it onto the  mat  with silicone glue to give it a bit of movement,  placing  the little boy just in front of the moon.

I finished off the card with three little card candy circles to match the dinosaur's lighter colouring.

Phew!!!

I am entering this into the Promarker Challenge - 'Prehistoric'
and Here Come the Boys' first challenge - Anything Goes.

Precious Baby

I was making this card when I saw Pink Gem's challenge for 'Pearls and Swirls' so I thought it might fit the description.

The stamp is a digi stamp that I have had for some time and I can't remember where it came from I'm afraid.

The flowers around the card are made with a Clarity Stamp and coloured with Promarkers, as is the main image, with tiny pearls in the centre of each flower.
The pearls are from my stash and the swirls cut with my Cricut and a swirl cut with SCAL from mirriboard to match the image and sentiments' backing.  The mirriboard does not scan very well but does look nice in reality. The sentiment was computer generated.

I'm late in posting this because I have been watching that wedding!

Wasn't it lovely?

Lattice Card

Hi again everyone

Well- we  didn't get to go on our  balloon ride again today as it was too windy again! I think it's going to be a long time before we actually find a day that's suitable at this rate. So - I decided to do a bit of crafting instead.

This card was made from an SGV file and cut with SCAL on my Cricut. I
bought the file from Sue Playing with Paper's webpage. The file cuts a card with a latticed front and leaves  a square mat in the centre. It's alovely file and I think I'm going to use it a lot - I have already thought of several different ways  I can use this particular card front.

For this particular card I backed the latticed front with a piece of blue and white  shaded vellum that I have had in my stash for a long time. I then made a flower using the same method that I used in my tutorial further down  this blog, although this one is a bit bigger than the little ones I made before and it's very three dimensional.

I edged the petals with  pale blue stickles to give them a frosted appearance and to pick up the blue of the backing paper and I also edged the sentiment with the same colour.

My computer seems to be on a go slow today and it has taken me ages to upload this card so, although it hasn't reproduced as well as I would have liked in the picture, I think I'm going to leave it as it is  and hope you can use your imagination a bit. lol

This is also the first time I have used the  new Watermark that I bought from Whimsy stamps to go with the signature below that came with it.

Hope you like my efforts of today and that you have all had a lovely Bank Holiday Monday.

Happy Easter Everyone

Hope everyone has had as nice a day as I have. My husband and I shared a lovely long lunch with my daughter and her family and her very best friend (she calls me her surrogate mum) who is staying here with her husband and little boy from their home in Rhodes.

I got home to find the signature that I bought last week from Whimsy stamps had arrived by e-mail  and I couldn't wait to try out how it looked. So - no card today, just a new signature! It was really large so I followed the information given on the DC forum by Kathleen Mc. last Thursday on how to make it a bit smaller - hope this size doesn't look too ostentatious!

I also bought a watermark to use on my cards - that will have to wait until I've caught up on my zzzzzzzzzzs and made some more cards,  as I am very tired after all the talking I have done today.
Let's hope the sun shines again tomorrow.

Poppies - White on White

This card was inspired by the Promarkers Challenge, 'White on White.'

Ingredients:

Poppy stamps by Sheena Douglass

Sentiment Stamp LOTV

Promarkers used:

Poppy and Magenta for the petals

Apricot for the petal edges

Black and Moss Green for flower centres

Moss and Olive Green for the leaves

Pesto Adirondack stamp pad for the swirls
The white Poppy mat was edged with a black Promarker

The backing mat was made with a Martha Stewart Punch, the sentiment was mounted on a white  paper flower and it was all mounted on a white 6x6 card.