It's a kind of

 magic!

Good morning blogland

It's also a kind of Tuesday as well! It feels to me like this year is particularly flying by - early August already - TTTs' been home for nearly two months now and goes back to Uni end of Sept.  

But I digress, the proper reason for this post is that, as it is another Tuesday already, it's time for a new challenge over at Passion for Markers and this week it's my Teamie Marie's turn to pick the theme.  Her choice is 'Dies and/or Punches' - with the sponsor this week being Colour of Love Digis who are offering a prize for one lucky, randomly drawn, winner. As always the rules are simple - follow the theme; don't backlink and use your markers.  

I can't see there being any problems with this theme - who doesn't use dies or punches?  I have to admit I've long moved on from punches and now my die cutting machine - a good old Big Shot - is used every single time I make a card!

And this is the card I made with my trusty Big Shot and dies:

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

Colour of Love - The Sorcerer Mouse

coloured with my Copics

Rubber stamp:

Concord & 9th - Kristina Werner: Big Day Birthday stamps

Dies:

un-branded stitched rectangles

Concord & 9th - Kristina Werner: Big Day Birthday dies

Anything else:

gel pens

scrap of designer paper

This card is one of those ones where part of it I like and part of it I look at and think what did I do! The mouse didn't colour up very well, but I really do like the effect of the dies / stamp combo. There you go I'm digressing again! 

I am actually really looking forward to see what everyone makes this time - does anyone out there still use punches?  Or are we only going to see a mass of makes using dies?  

By the way, I do still have my punches - they are boxed up waiting for Him 'indoors to get round to putting them up for sale, personally I don't think anyone will buy them.  But he's determined to try!

See you soon,

Sarah 

So who's been on their jollies then?

 Good evening blogland

It's time for the August release for All Dressed Up Stamps and this time we have a mermaid and a young lady off on her jolly holidays.

I have to admit I wasn't entirely sure what to do with this image - whether to keep it all together, cut the extra clothes off;  cut the extra clothes up individually, so many options!  In the end, as I'm on a bit of a shaker streak - I decided another shaker card!

This, then, is what I made:

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

All Dressed Up - Holiday Girl

coloured with my Copics

Dies:

un-branded stitched rectangles

Creative Craft Products - Notched Edge Supersize Nestables

Anything else:

sequins and seeds for the shaker

an extremely old pre-printed / foiled sentiment from Craftwork Cards

That's it really - it is, in essence quite a simple card but it does look (even though I say so myself) quite an effective card.

Also if you get time, why not pop on over to the Facebook Group and have a look at the my Teamies lovely examples for this months' two new releases.  If you are more a blogger sort of person - my blogging Teamies have made some wonderful cards as well.

And completely off of cards - Chez Sarah has been off on our jolly hollies.  Thought to be fair not all of it was jolly - we went off to Inverness for a week, and it was a bit of an eventful week! Started off with a fault on the car, which meant that we were stuck in Dunfermline for nearly a whole day so missed a trip on a preserved railway on the way up to Inverness.  We were eventually on our way with the help of a wonderful AA man, after we had been let down by the AA on the phone.  So got to Inverness, found the block of flats, but had a tense time trying to find which flat was our one!  Rest of week went well saw lots of lovely places - Inverness itself with the Castle and Cathedral, Loch Ness, Dunrobin Castle by train, even the trip home was good - we got re-booked onto the missed train journey.  But right as we got home we hit traffic and roadworks, still got here eventually!

And on that cheerful note, I'm finishing my waffle and heading off to bed!

Be back soon,

Sarah

Challenge/s:

Allsorts Challenge: Colours of summer / AG - I think mine is probably (although a bit of a Summer theme) more AG

Polkadoodles Challenge: Anything Goes

All About Papercraft: Challenge #8 - Frames (there is a frame around the shaker window)

Just Us Girls: #835 - Die week

Like buses....

 things come in three's don't they?

Good morning blogland,

And the reason for this rambling? It's because it's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at Passion for Markers.  This week the theme has been set by our lovely Teamie Lorraine and now it's where the three thing comes from, she would like to see a project made where you use 'three of something'.  

As always our normal rules apply - you must use your markers (any brand); follow the theme and no backlinking. 

For this challenge we are sponsored by All Dressed Up stamps and there is a lovely prize for one lucky winner drawn at random.  Now ordinarily I would be saying that ADU also let the the Design Team use a digi - which did happen - but! I'm on the DT for ADU so I used one of the digis that I already own and, here's where the but comes in, it's no longer in the shop!!

There are, however, many other lovely images you can buy and then do a similar thing with that I've done.  Take a look at the card and I'll explain:

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

All Dressed Up: Pool Ready

(edited to add - the digi has been restored to the shop!)

coloured with my Copics

Rubber stamp:

Concord & 9TH : Fashion Shoppe stamp set

Dies:

Catherine Pooler : fabulous

un-branded stitched rectangle

Anything else:

another rectangular die to make the 3 line corner doodles

red self-adhesive gems

Copic fineliner

So, the digi, I took the whole image which is a full length stamp of a girl ready for the pool with tote bag and then zoomed in on the upper body.  I then cropped it when I was happy with the image I'd created and then spun it but then spun it back again once I decided on placement.  I then just printed, cut and coloured as normal. Oh and for added ingenuity - the stamp I used actually has the word 'fabulous' but I masked it and added 'fabulous' as a die-cut instead.

Now there are a few digis that you can do this with if you go have a wander around the etsy shop - Play Day; any one of the girls in Winter Walks; Love to Dance or Beret Girl, to name just a few.

I suppose you could say this is the perfect example of a 'Design Team' card - the actual stamp isn't currently for sale, but the idea is a spring board.

I really am very curious to see what you will all come up with!

See you soon,

Sarah

Challenge/s:

We Love Stamping: July 26 - Summertime or AG

Crafty Catz: #718 - AG

Just Add Ink: #790 - Dies and/or Stencils - as you can see no stencils but I have used 2 dies (or three if you count that I used a die to create the corner lines)

Tic Tac Toe: no:297 - Middle Row: Any colour / free / sentiment