17 May 2019

A little bit of tropical - Polkadoodles Wk 20

Happy Friday lovely crafty peeps I hope you've all had a good week.  It's been a busy one here but good so can't complain at that. 

Well as it's Friday it's new challenge day over at Polkadoodles so I'm popping in to share my DT make.  This week the DT were challenged to make a friends themed creation incorporating two images and a pocket, but as always for all you crafty folk it's an 'anything goes' theme so no reason not to enter.

I opted to go for a criss cross card as they're one of my favourite designs to make.  You may need your sunglasses for this one as I chose to use some beautifully vibrant papers from the 'Tropical Sorbet' collection.  I used two images 'Maddie Shy' and 'Piper with Bunches' and layered them together before printing them off and colouring them with my copics.

Image:  Polkadoodles 'Maddie Shy' and 'Piper with bunches'
Medium:  copics
Papers:  Polkadoodles 'Topical Sorbet' collection printed onto


A close up of the images next.  I chose the colour scheme around the papers and love the bold vibrant colours together.

copic list

Skin:  E000, E11, E13
Hair:  E43, E44, E47, E49/E50, E53, E55, E57, E59
Clothes:  RV10, RV13, RV14, RV17, RV19/YR000, YR00, YR02, YR04, E08

Okay so that's all from me today.  Don't forget hop across to the challenge blog and enter we'd love the chance to come visit you and take a peek at your beautiful makes.  There's always great prizes to be had too, even the top 3 get one.  

I hope you all have a fabby weekend. We're off in search of wallpaper and paint for our lounge much to my hubby's dismay lol.

Take care and happy crafting.

Ann-Marie
xxx


Challenges:

Colour Crazy Challenge  -  anything goes

A bit more time to craft  -  anything goes

The Creative Crafters  -  anything goes

Classic Design Team Challenge  -  anything goes

Addicted to Stamps and more  -  anything goes




















9 May 2019

A review !!

Hello lovely crafty peeps.  I have something a little different to share with you today … a product review.  It's quite a long one, so grab a cuppa!!

A little while ago I was approached by the lovely people at Hunkydory to ask if I would kindly review a few of their products.  As you can imagine I was a tad excited to have a go.

So what did I choose to review?  Well here is a little piccie of the items when they arrived.  I chose their 'Colour Me' professional stamping card, Adorable Scorable A4 cardstock - Pinks, one of their fabulous craft stacks 'Tons of Fun' and finally some of their double sided tape.

Hunkdory goodies with links


So, what hit me first when I opened my parcel?

Well to be honest it was the excellent quality of everything.  My eager little hands went straight to the craft stack to flick through and I was not disappointed.  It is beautiful.  The colours are gorgeous, so pretty and I can't fault the foiling.  I was amazed actually at the amount they have managed to get into this 8 x 8 stack.  Lots of toppers and sentiments to choose from in fact you know when you have so many pretty things to play with you can never actually make up your mind what to use first.  Well that was me lol!  You even get matching papers in there too.  I love the fact that everything you need to make a card (apart from your obvious card base and glue etc.) is all in one pad and it is all co-ordinated so all the hard work of trying to match colours and papers is done for you.  Perfect for quick cards too.

The die cutting is fab.  Everything pops out with ease there is no tearing or spoiling of your toppers and the little pips which you inevitably get which can't be helped you can just go around and tidy up with a little pair of scissors.  Also, I don't know about you, but I get quite frustrated when you try and tear papers out of a pad and you end up ripping the top of the sheet.  Well this didn't happen here.  They came out so easily and not so all the other pages fell out either.

I've never used Adorable Scorable and was really impressed.  I chose the 'pink' pack and it had a selection of such pretty shades of pink and no word of a lie each shade in this pack complimented any of the toppers in the stack how cool is that.  What I desperately wanted to do though was to try embossing with it and yep it does that too and beautifully. The card has a great weight to it not this flimsy stuff you can sometimes get and the finish is amazing.

So I've had a little play with my goodies and I just wanted to show you the card I've made.  All I did was add a few gems, a little twine and a rose from my own stash and I had one completed card.


Okay, the next couple of items I chose were, in my opinion, the most important.  They may seem boring but good quality basic materials are a must and I'm always on the look out for a really decent double sided tape and I think I've found it.  If I'm completely honest Hunkydory is not the first place I would have even looked for a tape it just never occurred to me.  Well now I know and I've been using it for a few weeks and its brilliant.  I've used a fair few over the years but I've got to say I'm really impressed with it's staying power.  There is no lifting of your layers at all which some tapes can do after a while.  I also found that it was super easy to lift off the backing sheet there was no fighting for ages with my pokey tool trying to lift the damn back off!!

Lastly, being predominantly a stamper and colourer with my alcohol pens, I was really eager to try out their 'Colour Me' professional stamping card.  Anyone who stamps and colours will know just how important the card you stamp onto is to your end result.  Now I've been stamping and colouring for a number of years and I've pretty much stuck to the same couple of brands for this, so as you can imagine I was pretty intrigued to see how it faired.  

My initial thoughts when I took it out of the pack was it's a really good weight coming in at 250 gsm, it's beautifully smooth and a lovely bright white. I have used it a number of times now and I am pleased to say it faired extremely well I am really impressed.  It is lovely to work with I had no problem whatsoever colouring with my markers.  I was able to lay down a few layers of colour and blend with ease and I encountered no bleeding.  As I've mentioned above it is a lovely bright white so there is no distortion to the colours you lay down either.  I would definitely recommend giving this a try.

Okay folks you've reached the end of my first ever review and I hope you've enjoyed reading a little of what I thought about these products.  You should pop across to the Hunkdory store to have a good old ganders, but grab another cuppa as I can assure you you will be there for a while lol but you most certainly won't be disappointed!!

Take care and happy crafting.

Ann-Marie
xxx 


     

8 May 2019

Love is in the air!!

Hello my lovelies I hope you are all well.  I'm here sharing my Polkadoodles DT make today albeit a tad late.  I'm not quite sure what I was thinking it was meant to be up on Friday but in my head I was sure it was next Friday lol.  In my defence it's been one hell of a week/weekend with work and then a family wedding on Friday so my head was all over the place.  Don't you hate it when you have weeks like that complete and utter madness.  But hey the wedding went really well and she looked stunning. 

So there's a new challenge up on the Polkadoodles Crafting challenge blog.  This week the DT have been given the theme of love and romance to work to, but as always for all you lovely crafty folk it's an 'Anything Goes' theme so come on pop across and join in with us we'd love to see your beautiful makes.

I chose to colour up this little beauty 'cupid' from the Work & Play 9 Love & Kisses download, but you can also get her on her own too.  The fab papers are also from the same collection.

Medium:  copics
Papers:  Work & Play 9 Love & Kisses download collection printed on to Ultimate Graphic paper
Ribbon from stash

A closer look at the image.  I've coloured her up with my copics and I let the fab papers determine my colour choices.  I love the sentiment made up of little scrabble tiles which are also in the download collection.


Copic List

Face/Body:  E000, E11, E13, R20
Hair:  C1, C3, C5, C7, 100
Dress:  RV000, RV52, RV55/C5, C7, 100

Okay, so that's all from me today folks.  Why not pop across to the challenge blog and enter there's always fab prizes up for grabs, even the Top 3 get a prize. 

Take care and happy crafting.

Ann-Marie
xxx

Challenges:-

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge  -  anything goes

Crafting with an Attitude  -  anything goes

Cute Card Thursday  -  anything goes