Last of the sun's rays

Happy Wednesday lovely crafty people.  I hope you are all diddling okay.  It's been a tad soggy here in fact I think it's rained every day this past week, but on the upside it's perfect weather for hiding yourself away in your craft room.

I have another card to share with you guys.  It's another one I've made using lots of Lavinia Stamps.  Still out of my comfort zone as normally I just stamp and colour, but really enjoying getting inky and theres lots to learn.  In my head it wasn't meant to turn out quite so bright but hey I love it all the same.  The background was made using Distress Inks, Lavinia Stamps stencils and Versafine Clair inks and I just accented the sun and mountains with soft pastels.  I also grabbed my Inktense pencils and added a little colour to the toadstools and fairy wings.

The beautiful fairy is 'Raven' and she has got to be one of my faves and she's just perched on the branch taking in the last of the evening sun. 

Stamps used:

Lavinia Stamps - 'Raven', slender mushrooms mini, lavender, 

meadow mushroom, fairy toadstool.

Versafine Clair ink pads:

nocturne, chianti

Distress Inks:-

scattered straw, spiced marmalade, seedless preserve

Okay so that's all from me today.  I've managed to grab an unexpected day off so time to play I think.

Happy crafting folks.

Take care, 

Ann-Marie

xxx

Challenges:-

Crafting Happiness challenges  -  anything goes

Love to Craft  -  anything goes

Allsorts  -  anything goes

Creative Fingers  -  anything goes

A sprinkling of fairy dust

Happy Monday lovely crafty peeps, it's been a little while since I've popped on my blog to share anything.  I have still been making things it just kinda gets uploaded to Instagram first and that's as far as it gets.  However, this is me making a concerted effort to contribute more to my little old blog.  

So let me share my latest with you.  Well you know how much I love anything fairy and magical so after watching a fair few You Tube videos I finally took the plunge and ordered some Lavinia Stamps.  It's a completely new direction for me what with inking my own background and making scenes and stuff.  So out of my comfort zone but I had so much fun.  I had a few disasters before I actually got to the finish line, but hey what a fun learning curve!

Okay so my background was made using Distress Inks and I used a Lavinia Stamp mask to create the moon with gesso and soft pastels.  I dug out my Inktense pencils to add a little colour to some of the stamps especially the beautifully tree 'Druids Inn'.  All of the stamps used to create the scene are Lavinia Stamps and I've stamped using a range of Versafine Clair ink pads.  I used a touch of soft pastels here and there where I wanted a little more depth such as on the mushrooms and the door in the tree and as finishing touch I used some metallic markers to make all of the little tiny flowers as it needed something and I didn't want to add any more stamping.  

I must say I'm quite pleased with the outcome.  Considering I didn't really know what I was doing I just went with it I'm quite surprised I had something worth photographing.  After matting it on complimenting cardstock and I have one finished fairy card which will probably makes it way to my mum for her birthday.

That's all from my crafty cubbyhole for today which incidentally is a complete mess after making this so let the clean up operation begin!

Take care folks and I promise to not leave it so long next time.

Happy crafting.

Ann-Marie

xxx

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:-

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends  -  always anything goes

Allsorts  -  create a landscape or scene

Sweet Stampin  -  things with wings

The Fairy and the Unicorn  -  anything fantasy goes

Creatalicious challenges  -  anything goes (option of 'things with wings')

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge  -  feminine

  .  

Winnie Christmas Wreath

Hello crafty peeps.  It's been a bit of an odd week in our household.  My daughter returned to school and my son has now left.   It was hard seeing her go but it needed to happen.  She was so excited to see all her friends again it was lovely to hear about everything when she got in from her day.  The school, to be fair, have done an excellent job in trying to get 1800 pupils back into education and it's going to be a learning curve in these strange times so I think we'll just take each day as it comes.

So, how have you all been?  I've noticed a fresh crispness to the air first thing in the morning now and the leaves are just starting to turn so looks like Autumn is just around the corner.  This pleases me greatly as it's my favourite season.  I spent a day switching up all my planters on my decking and front garden with flowers in beautiful autumnal colours and it's lovely to sit on the decking of an evening and watch my solar lights slowly come on one by one and light up the flowers, so pretty.

Anyway, I digress lol.  I'm actually popping in today to share my latest DT make for Polkadoodles Crafting Challenge.  Our theme for the team this week was 'Christmas' but for all you lovely peeps wanting to join in with us you can share anything you like it doesn't have to be Christmas related or even Polkadoodles goodies for that matter.  You can share anything with us and we'd love to have you join us and be in with a chance of winning some goodies.

Well, for my make I decided to ink up Winnie Christmas Wreath.  I stamped and coloured her with my copics to match the beautiful LDRS 'Country Christmas' papers.  I used a little Frantage around the edges of the die cut oval.  I love this stuff and I really should use it more.  I didn't really want to crowd my card with too much so opted for a simple bow and a couple of poinsettias.  I just love these poinsettia dies too.  They cut and layer up beautifully and I love how delicate they look.

Image:  Polkadoodles 'Winnie Christmas Wreath

Medium:  Copics

Papers:  LDRS 'Country Christmas'

Dies:  Polkadoodles 'Poinsettia Lace' die set

Ribbon and pearls from stash

My usual close up of Winnie.  She's so sweet isn't she and what struck me when I got her is it's a real decent size stamp to work with and you get a little separate robin stamp in the set too, although I haven't used it on my card.

Okay so that's all from me today.  I better dash as I've got school uniform and stuff to get ready for tomorrow.  I guess that's one thing I didn't miss ... getting the lunch boxes ready and ironing school uniform lol!

Take care folks and happy crafting.

Ann-Marie

xxx

Challenges

Allsorts  -  incorporate things you love (for me that's my favourite colour red, absolutely anything Christmas, my favourite colouring medium copics)

Jingle Belles  -  Baby it's GOLD outside

Krafty Chicks challenge #524  -  Christmas

It's a Magnolia Christmas kind of day

Happy Wednesday lovely crafty peeps.  I'm popping in today to share a little something festive.  I've made my first Christmas card of the year and again I seem to be very late to the Crimbo party as everyone's been making festive goodies for a little while, but hey I'm here now and that means that all my Christmas crafting goodies won't stray far from my desk now that I've made a start lol.

So as the title suggests I have something Tilda related to show you.  I have the pleasure of being a guest designer over on the fab Magnolia Forever blog for this month's challenge and the theme we were given to work with was black and white and this is what I came up with.

Image:  Magnolia Tilda 'it's cold outside'

Medium:  copics

So the card itself is made from acetate and I've just layered up some embossed white card which I've roughly torn to look like hills/snowdrifts and stuck it to the front as foreground snow and then did the same for the inside but placed them higher up the acetate to look like snow in the background.  All the die cuts are in black for contrast and Tilda is coloured in copics in shades of grey to compliment it all, cut out and 3d'd on the front.  To finish I die cut some snowflakes and added little black gems in the centre and then dotted some liquid pearls around to fill in some of the gaps to make it look like it was snowing.

I really enjoyed making this card.  It was actually quite simple to do but very effective I think.

Okay so that's all from me today.  I'm off to colour some new stamps that fell through my letterbox yesterday and hopefully I'll be back shortly to share them with you.

Take care and happy crafting folks.

Ann-Marie

xxx

Challenges I would like to enter:-

The Holly and the Ivy Christmas challenge  -  anything Christmas goes

Love to Craft #50  -  anything goes

Merry Little Christmas challenge #26  -  anything goes

Crimbo Crackers  -  anything goes

Simon Says Stamp  -  Stamp it

It's all about the paper!

Hello lovely crafty peeps.  How are you all?  We're all good here.  We've had the school uniform marathon buying session this week.  What a nightmare that was but I think we're almost there.

So I'm popping in today to share my DT make for the new Polkadoodles Craft challenge.   The DT were tasked with making a shaped card this week and I went with something I've been seeing around blogland lately and have been wanting to have a go at for a little while.  I decided to try my hand at a 'hat' shaped easel card and decided not to use an image this time on my make.  Instead I focused on some really pretty papers from Polkadoodles and actually it was nice to be able to showcase them as normally I end up covering the majority of them up with layers and embellishments.  

Papers:  Polkadoodles 'Winnie Celebrations Papers 1' 

printed on to Ultimate Graphic Paper

Sentiment:  Polkadoodles 'Winnie Celebrations 3' sentiments

Dies:  Spellbinders Grand Nestabilities 'Stately Circles'

Magnolia label die

Ribbon and flowers from stash

Okay so that is all from me today.  I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and get to do a little something that makes you happy as life is far to short not to!

Take care and happy crafting.

Ann-Marie

xxx

Challenges I would like to enter:-

Creative Knockouts  -  anything goes

Simon Says Stamp  -  anything goes

Creative Fingers #191  -  anything goes

Polkadoodles Summer Fun

Good morning lovely crafty friends.  I've woken up to a rather dull Friday but hey at least it's a little cooler than it has been so I'm a happy bunny.  Roll on Autumn I say!

So with it being Friday we have a fresh challenge up over on the Polkadoodles Craft challenge blog and I'm popping in to share my DT make.  The team were challenged with 'summer fun' and citrus colours this week but for all you lovely peeps it's as always an 'anything goes' theme.  Well I had a little think and a looksie around my images and decided to colour up Winnie 'Stepping Stones' as she reminds me of when I was a child playing in the stream in summer ... oh I had such fun I'd spend hours down there with my friends.  Anyway, she's been coloured up with copics and I added a touch of my white gel pen to give her a spotty hat.

Image:  Polkadoodles Winnie 'stepping stones'

Medium:  copics

Papers:  Polkadoodles 'tropical sorbet' printed on to Ultimate Graphic paper

Flowers and dragonfly from 'tropical sorbet' collection

I decided to matt all the papers onto black cardstock as I love how it makes all the colours pop.  I wanted a flower in the corner but didn't want it flat so printed it three times and layered it up.

Okay so my last piccie is my usual close up of sweet Winnie and I am really pleased with how she turned out.  I used my RV copics with a touch of BV for shadow and extra depth.

copic list

Skin:  E41, E50, E53, E33, R20

Hair:  E41, E43, E44, E47

Clothes:  RV21, RV23, RV25, RV29/Y35, Y38, YR16, YR68 + BV23, BV25 for shadow

Grass:  YG11, YG13, YG17, G28

Stream:  BG0000, BG000, BG01, BG07/C1, C3, C5

Okay so that's all from me today folks.  I'm off to work now unfortunately so no crafting for me until later on this evening.

Take care and happy crafting.

Ann-Marie

xxx

Challenges I would like to enter:-

Cute Card Thursday  -  bright colours

Crafty Gals Corner #210  -  summer fun

Creative Moments #196  -  anything goes (optional citrus colours)

Sweet Stampers  -  outdoor fun

Creative Inspirations  -  summer fun

Little Rocco in shades of grey

Well happy weekend lovely crafty people.  I hope you have had a good week and are ready to craft it up at the weekend.  We are all good here ... I think lol!  No seriously we are good I'm doing the usual chasing my tail kinda thing but hey that seems to be the norm around here.

Anyway, there is a new Polkadoodles Craft challenge up over on the blog and I'm here to share with you my DT card.  The team were challenged this week to come up with a card in shades of grey with one coloured paper so here's my take on that.  However, for all you lovely craft folk the theme is as always 'anything goes', so why not pop over and share what you've been working we'd love for you to join us.

I printed off little Rocco and coloured him in cool grey copics and my pop of colour is this beautiful paper which I printed off onto Ultimate Graphic paper.  For something a little different I used the spray die (sorry I don't know it's name) and cut into the edge of the card.  To tie everything together I coloured his flower to match the papers and popped a couple of gems on the edge and flower and I think it worked.

Image:  Polkadoodles 'Flower Bunch' from the Winnie Special Moments collection

Medium:  copics

Papers:  Winnie Christmas Wishes Papers 2 collection printed on to Ultimate Graphic paper

Twine, gems and buttons from stash

When I started putting my card all together it felt like there was something lacking it felt a little plain so after a little thought and trying various things out came my fine liner pen and I doodled around the edge of the image.  I was always scared of doing this as I thought I'd muck if up but you know I've come to realise that it doesn't matter as the doodling doesn't have to be perfect at all and it just works.

My last piccie is the usual closer look at the image.  He's a sweetie isn't he and perfect for so many occasions.  In hindsight I would have coloured his face in grey also but I wasn't thinking and just reached for the skin tones and it wasn't until I was virtually finished I realised and by that time I wasn't going to start again, so hey he's mostly in grey!

Okay so that's all from me today folks.  I'm off to work in about an hour so I'm off to hang some washing out and do a couple of chores before I go, but I'm hoping to sneak back into my craft room for an hour or two when I get back.

Take care and happy crafting.

Ann-Marie

xxx

Challenges I'd like to enter:-

Colour Crazy challenge Wk 30  -  anything goes

A bit more time to craft #120  -  anything goes

The Cutie Pie challenge #149  -  delightful digis