I'm a bus!

Good morning blogworld,

Yes I'm going to use that old chestnut! It's like buses you wait for ages and then three turn up at once! Sorry I'm still a bit absent from the blog - still got a lot going on, but as normality and routine reappear so will I.

This is my first of the three of my 'buses' and, hopefully, a start of return to routine.

It's my Team's turn for the new challenge over at Colour Crazy Craft Challenge and our sponsor this week is Ching-Chou Kuik Digital Stamps, who very kindly gave the Design Team some images to use.  I love these wonderfully detailed stamps and the images provided for the Design Team this time are no exception, I'm using Purple Dragonfly and have coloured her with my Copics. I think the images are so detailed that they can work be the centre of attention and so I kept the rest of my card fairly simple - just some patterned paper, a bit of die-cutting, some rhinestones and sentiment.

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

Ching-Chou Kuik Digital Stamps - Purple Dragonfly

coloured with my Copics

Sentiment:

Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips: Birthday

Dies:

Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips: Well rounded

Pretty Pink Posh - Eyelet Borders

Anything else:

Patterned Paper - Prima: Fairy Flower

Gem flourish and flatback rhinestones - from my stash

And that's it folks - I hope you get a chance to pop over and join in the challenge - you'll be amazed by the gorgeous creations my talented Teamies have made!

See's ya soon,

Sarah

A bit Gothic!

 Good morning blogland,

This is a bit of a belated blogland anniversary - it was 13 months ago tomorrow that I re-started crafting and blogging, hasn't time flown by! I'm properly back into the swing of things now and realising that it's the colouring side of card making that I really enjoy.  I'm happy to sit for hours and just colour, but still struggle to do something 'interesting' with the finished coloured image on a card.  Maybe I'll just say that a coloured image and a die or two and not much else is my 'style'!

Properly 'back into carding' includes Stamparama at Harrogate - had fun there!  I'm sure, though, it's waaaay smaller than I remember when we used to go there with TTT (who was then SWMbO) in her buggy - would've been around the early 2010's - but it's still very nice to be able to see crafty stuff in real-life as it were.  One thing that I do like about it now is the wider aisles - I never appreciated being barged into, pushed around and having toes trod on in the old shows! I must've done my passive aggressive 'Don't mind me, I'm just invisible' mutter a million times in those days.

On the recent additions list are the nice little stack of new goodies from Stamparama, enough Copics from Cult Pens (on-line) to almost finish the 'collection' (only some greys to go now) and then a small parcel arrived from CraftStash (I do like the their stamp and die sets).  That'll be me now for some months - probably until my birthday!

Of course, I buy all this and then don't use it! The card I'm sharing today only used some new BV Copic colours - everything else has got to be over 8 years old! Oh, other than the digi and the font for the computer generated sentiment.

But it does illustrate my points above about how I love colouring but fail on interesting card layouts!

May I present the evidence, M'Lud!

Supplies used:

Digital Stamp:

Ching-Chou Kuik - Black Rose

coloured with Copics

Sentiment generated in Word

Dies:

Un-branded stitched rectangle

Anything else:

Home made cloud stencil

Distress Ink and a blending brush

paper 'dots'

There I think that's probably enough waffling on to put anyone off! So I'll say,

Signing off for now,

See you later,

Sarah

Challenges:

Passion for Markers: Week 639 - Flowers (a paltry amount of flowers I know, but then I'm not really a flowery person!)

Fab 'n' Funky Challenges: Challenge #550 - Punk or Goth - See now, I was never into Punk (it was a little early for me!) and I realise this image isn't pure Goth (more Gothic) but I made it for a friend of my daughter's so it needed to be this hair colour, otherwise there would've been a lot more black. If it doesn't meet the rules, don't worry - I know I'm taking a bit of a punt here!

As You Like It Challenge: Favourite Layout and Why - See waffle above! Condensed version - I used to use sketches, a lot, now I favour a lot of colouring and that takes over the style of card.  Hence Favourite Layout - a hand-coloured image, a die to cut the image out, a large sentiment and a little bit of embellishment. And job's a good 'un!

We Love Stamping: May challenge - For a Lady (or Girl)

Happy Little Stampers: May Stencil Challenge

The Fairy and the Unicorn: May Challenge

Digi Doodle Studio Challenge Blog: Challenge #49 - Fantasy / Light and Sprite / Believe in Magic

Misty this morning!

Not in the real world, you understand, but here in my blog!

Good morning blogland,

I'm here today to let you know about the new challenge over at Colour Crazy Craft Challenge as always it's an Anything Goes theme but, as we are a colouring challenge, there must be some hand colouring on your project.

Our Sponsor this week is Ching-Chou Kuik Digital Stamps and the DT were kindly allowed an image, or two, to choose from.  I chose to use the simply gorgeous image Misty Allure, which I coloured with my Copics. I couldn't decide what the card for, so I just added a bit of bling and left off a sentiment.

Here's my card:

Supplies used:

Digital image:

Ching-Chou Kuik - Misty Allure

coloured with Copics

Dies used:

Un-branded rectangle die set

Whimsy Stamps - Slimline Zig Zag Edger die set

Anything else?

DCWV - Garden Party pad

rhinestone flourish

dotted paper

I hope those of you who enjoy colouring, can find some time to pop over to the challenge - both to see the fabulous things my Teamies have made and also to enter the challenge yourselves as well.

Signing off now,

See you soon,

Sarah

Challenge/s:

Fab 'n' Funky Challenges: #547 - Hand Coloured Image

Crafty Catz: Challenge 587 - Anything Goes - option: sparkle or glitter (bit of sparkle on my card!)

little red wagon: Challenge #645 - Die cuts

World Wide Open Design Team Challenge: Challenge #03 - Anything Goes

Unicorn Challenge: Challenge #74 - Dots and/or stripes

Who would receive this one?

Good morning blogland,

I'm sure you will all be relieved to hear that TTT had a lovely weekend at her friends, and I have a huge pile of her washing to do! I do not understand how two nights at a friends' house generated a pile of washing, but there you go it did. If she was a bit older I would've guessed they'd snuck out to a club, but she's not older - her friend lives in an only slightly less isolated place than us and the friends parents kept an eye on them all weekend! Ho hum!

So onto this card, I made this in the quiet time I had while TTT was off enjoying herself - I showed herself when she came home and asked, so I'm told, a very silly question.  Said silly question was - "Would you like this card to give to your boyfriend for Valentines?" It would appear I'm the daftest person in the world - this is not a girl to boy card, as far as TTT is concerned it's a boy to girl, or girl to girl, or a birthday card - not a Valentine card for her.

If I'd like to make her a card - I was told - she'll let me know before the 14th if they are exchanging cards and what sort of card she'd like, but this one can go in my 'pile of them'.

Oh the critics! So I thought I'd share this card with my bloggy / crafting friends and ask the self same silly question - Valentines card or birthday card?

All opinions gratefully received!

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

Ching-chou Kuik Digital Stamps - Love Balloon

coloured with my Copics

Rubber stamp:

Taylored Expression - Simple Strips : Background

Dies:

Taylored Expression - Simple Strips : Asymmetrical

un-branded heart die

Anything else?

My Mind's Eye - Lucky in Love papers

What I did:

Re-sized and printed the digi onto Copic friendly paper, coloured it in and fussy cut out.

Die-cut the heart from white card and then again from a sheet of patterned paper.

Attached the white heart die-cut to the card blank with 3d foam, then glued the discarded inner heart from the die-cut patterned paper to the card blank in the middle of the white card die.

Attached a pre-stamped and die-cut sentiment to the top of the card with 3d foam.

Attached the digi stamp to the card blank also with 3d foam.

et voila, job done!

I don't know now what this card is! Teenagers are very confusing and I'm quite glad I've only the one (and occasional visiting one) to deal with.

Hope everyone else is getting better results with their Valentines' makes - if, of course, you are bothering. Not sure I will this year!!! :-)

Signing off now,

See you soon,

Sarah

Challenge /s:

Crafty Catz: Challenge #581 - Anything but square

CASology: Week 400: Affection

Addicted to CAS: Challenge #213 - Hearts

Cupcake Inspirations: Challenge #537 - Valentine Hearts

May all your wishes

 Good morning blogworld,

I'm here with purpose today - not just waffle!

It's time for a new challenge over at Colour Crazy Craft Challenge as always it's Anything Goes, but as it is a colouring challenge whatever you make has to have some element of colouring included.

This time were are sponsored by Ching-Chou Kuik Digital Stamps.  This is a new company to me - I've seen the digis about but not got any myself, so I was very pleased that the DT were provided with a digi or two to use!  This is my card:

Supplies used:

Digital stamp:

Ching-Chou Kuik - Green Clover

coloured with Copics

Rubber stamp:

Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips: Birthday

Dies:

Time for Tea - Standalone Dies : Layering Dies

Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips: Well Rounded

Elizabeth Craft Designs - Leafy Branch

Anything else:

Patterned Paper: Prima Inc - Fairy Flora

What I did:

Re-sized and printed out the image on Copic friendly paper, then coloured her in. 

After colouring in I cut out the image with the Time for Tea die and the cut out a matt from blue card with the next size up die.

I used a piece of the patterned paper to cover the 5x5" card blank, then added 3d foam to the image and attached it to the card.

I then glued the leafy branch over the image and added the sentiment on top with 3d foam pads.

et voila, job done!

Why not colour something up, wander by the blog and link up - you could win a great prize! Even better, you never know I could pass your way and waffle on at you! Personally I know which I'd rather happen (and it's not the waffle!!).

Signing off now,

See you soon,

Sarah

Challenge /s:

Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog: #290 - Anything Goes + sentiment

The Paper Shelter: Challenge #494 - Colour it

Digi Choosday Craft Challenge: Wk 2 - Anything Goes

Dream Valley Challenges: Challenge #261 - Anything New (the image and Company are new to me and the branch die is new as well).