17 December 2010

Last Christmas cards

Here's a montage of the remaining Christmas cards - 
Christmas card - Dustin Pike



Christmas card - Dustin Pike


Christmas card - Dustin Pike






These as you can see are all by Dustin Pike and as usual I've coloured them using Copic Sketch.  Prismacolor pencils blended with Zest-it were used for the backgrounds.

I tried to vary the way I made my Christmas cards as repeating the same design over and over would have driven me nuts, whilst remembering to keep it simple - so bold images were the key! 




Well peeps, I think that's all the Christmas cards!  Are you ready for next weekend?  Don't want to speak too soon but I think I am, apart from food shopping & a postal delivery I'm done - woo hoo. 

Bye for now & happy crafting

12 December 2010

Karen's Doodles Challenge entry

My oh my, I bought this little chap a while ago, so I thought I'd use him to enter the current Karen's Doodles Challenge!

Christmas card - Karen's Doodles Challenge
Bigsby has such a cheeky little face, you'd have to forgive him if you caught him impersonating Tarzan swinging on your tree lights!!!

Image: "Bigsby Swinging" - Karen's Doodles
Paper: Daisy & Dandelion Christmas Collection
Colouring: Copics, Atyou Spica & Chalk Ink
Addtional: Marianne D die, Martha Stewart punch, liquid applique, white gel pen, sewing machine & ribbon.




Copic/Atyou Spica










Good luck to everyone that has entered the competition & thank you Karen for creating such a fun little character.

Happy Crafting

9 December 2010

Tic Toc time to rock!!

Ooh this one was fun to make!  A little bit of embossing, blingy cardstock and a charm - not to mention a seriously awesome Dustin Pike Dragon.

 



Unfortunately, illness & family commitments have led to me missing the last two challenges, but lets hope I can do better from now on.


The border stitching was created using my sewing machine, and the gold chain was made using metallic thread finished off with a gold watch face charm.


The silver border was created with the aid of a Martha Stewart punch and the dry embossed background was made using tracing paper and a Cuttlebug embossing folder.





Now I have been pretty organised this time and remembered to take a photograph of the Copics that I used to colour the dragon - I warn you there are alot.






And not only a Copic list but a detailed piccie of the dragon too - heck I've impressed myself with my organisation this time!!!


Good luck to everyone that enters the competition, I hope you've had as much fun on this one as I did.


Happy Crafting

8 December 2010

Christmas Cards 7

My goodness it's Wednesday already, so I guess I should post another card.

Christmas card - High Hopes Stamps
As you all know by now I'm a fan of Dustin Pike designs & some of his images have been turned into rubber stamps by High Hopes Stamps and although this isn't one of Dustin's I just had to add this cheeky little chap to my ever growing collection of stamps.

I had a blast "playing" with Liquid Applique and my heat gun.  It gives a really life-like effect to the fluffy parts of Santa's hat, not to mention being great fun watching the paint suddenly puff up (I'm such a big kid)  The edges of the background paper have been "softened" using chalk ink with ribbon adding another dimension as well as a dash of colour.  Santa himself was mounted on ovals courtesy of my Nestabilities (love these dies) and thin sticky pads add depth.

Image: High Hopes Stamp
Paper: DCWV Christmas printed paper pack
Colouring: Copics, Chalk ink
Additional: Ribbon from stash, Oval nesties

Now I've got to get my bum in gear & get an entry for Doodle Dragon Studio Challenge finished, I've missed the last couple of challenges (slap on wrist) so I'm off to play with embossing folders, bling & metal!!!!!

Happy Crafting

6 December 2010

Christmas Card 6

New week, so lets see, which card shall I post today, hmmmmm???

How about a new Dustin Pike - would you like that?

Ever wondered what Santa does with himself once Christmas is over, apart from going to the gym to wear off all the mince pies he eats on Christmas Eve.

  Well he decided to learn how to fly..............
Christmas card - Flying Santa

This is the card I actually gave to my son, who is an RAF cadet at school!!  It was a real challenge to colour this one in, trying to get depth & shape to the plane - I think I just about got there. 

Image: Dustin Pike
Paper: Papermania Christmas Colossal paper pack
Colouring: Copics with Prismacolor background
Additional: American Crafts ribbon

That's all for today, but I've a feeling if you pop in again during the week you'll spy more of my crafty projects.

3 December 2010

Christmas Cards 5

As promised here's another creation...............

 
Christmas Card - hAnglar stAnglar








Thought we'd have a break from Dustin's work today (don't worry he'll be back later)

This is a beautiful Swedish stamp from a company called hAnglar StAnglar - really hard to get hold of if you don't live in Sweden, Norway or Finland!! (Or stalk Ebay like a woman possessed)

I was sort of organised when I created this as I had decided on the backing papers first & coloured the image to match, unfortunately I didn't remember to keep a record of the Copics I used (sorry)


Image: Hanglar Stanglar
Paper: Crafts House - Plum Pudding
Colouring: Copics,  Prismacolor
Additional: Quickutz die











Well its short and sweet today, more next week - have a great weekend & as always thanks for popping by

2 December 2010

Christmas cards 4


"Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, I'm fed up of feeling cold & needing a wooly hat!!!" 

I know snow & ice are very festive, but I do wish it would warm up a smidge, just for a few days - pretty please!


Ever wondered how they get the stripes on candy canes?

Card - Dustin Pike Christmas Elf

..... well now you know!!! 


I don't know about you, but I personally prefer chocolate decorations on my tree - and I chuckle to myself every year when I put them on, why you may ask, well,  it always brings back memories of my childhood & our cat Tibby.  She decided to investigate the chocolate decorations at the base of the tree one year - we found little teeth marks in them to prove it!!!! Thankfully, she didn't eat them as human chocolate is not meant for pets, and I guess the tin foil wrapper did to her teeth what it does to ours.

It wouldn't be Christmas without the cards, my first one arrived in the post yesterday so I guess I'd better get stamps on all mine & mail them in the next few days. 

Talking of cards, I've used Dustin Pike images on alot of mine this year, his characters are so much fun & I hope that they'll make people smile - its what Christmas is all about after all.  Here are the details for the one today: 

Image: Dustin Pike Christmas Elf
Paper: from stash (Papermania I think)
Colouring: Copics, Chalk Ink


Ooh, all this talk of chocolate reminds me, I've got to go open the door for day 2 on my Advent Calendar - yummy - great way to start the day - and a valid excuse to eat choccy hehehehe!!!

Aiming to be back tomorrow with yet another Christmas creation.

Happy Crafting

1 December 2010

Holey Moley it's 1st December!!!

Where is the time going - 1st of December already, yikes.  At least the Christmas cards are all made, written & simply needing stamps, phew! 

Talking of cards, would you like to see another one? 
Card - Quickutz Exclusive die

For anyone who's following this blog, I'd like to say hello there and thanks for taking the time to take a peek inside the box. Did you know that before I discovered the world of rubber & digital stamps & COPICS -  I used to make most of my cards using die cuts.  In fact I used to design Exclusive Quickutz dies (19 in all)

This particular design was released last Christmas and I regret to say is nolonger available but I wanted to do at least a couple of die cut cards this year for old times sake.

I cut all the pieces out in different coloured cardstock adding shading with chalk inks & a white gel pen.  If you're wanting to try this technique I'd strongly advise having baby wipes on hand - you will get very inky fingers, but the final effect is well worth it.  It will give your die cuts added depth and dimension & by mounting some pieces on foam pads as I've done here - they "pop" out at you!!!!




Image: Exclusive Quickutz Gingerbread House
Colouring: Chalk inks
Additional: cardstock - various colours, white gel pen

Have no fear fellow stampers, I will be back with more stamped images, hopefully tomorrow - anyone want to see another one?

To all who are in the grips of winter snow & ice - wrap up warm & don't forget to open the first door on your advent calendar today - I'm off to open mine!!

Happy Crafting