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

25 November 2010

Christmas cards 3

Oh guys and gals I'm on a roll this week, so here's yet another creation out of the box:

Card - Dustin Pike Mistle Toad




Now these little toads just make me giggle - they get up to all sorts of festive mischief!  This particular one got a tad too curious about the inner workings of a snowglobe & sort of got stuck (don't worry I'll let him out - when I stop laughing)

Joking aside I guess you'll want to know the techy (haha) side........

Image is from the amazing Dustin Pike & as usual coloured with Copics & glazed the globe with Inkssentials Glossy Accents.

The scrumptious background papers are "Plum Pudding" from Crafts House, ribbon is American Crafts & the tag is Quickutz.






Finally, faux stitching (black marker) and peel offs to finish - not quite a "speedy" card like yesterday, but guaranteed to make its recipient smile!

Whilst I remember, may I wish all my American friends a
 Pilgrim 
Love, hugs & happy crafting!

24 November 2010

Christmas cards 2...............

Day 2:  I'm trying to get myself organised when it comes to blogging - so here's my second blog post of the week!!!



Todays card is pretty simple to make - an embossing folder (Cuttlebug me thinks) always makes a quick, yet effective background.  Great for showcasing one of Dustin Pike's cool images - if you like this and other DP images I've used go check out his website - he's having an amazing Black Friday Sale!


As always it's been coloured using Copics, then cut out and attached with thin foam pads - 3D cards are great, but make sure you don't go too mad with the depth or the Post Office will want lots of pennies to post it!!!!


Image: Dustin Pike digi image
Paper: Plain white cardstock
Colouring: Copics
Additional: Cuttlebug embossing folder



OK peeps, that's it for now but keep your eyes peeled for another card shortly - thanks as always for popping by the box.

Happy Crafting

23 November 2010

Christmas cards..............

Oh the chill winds are beginning to blow here in England, my husband's gritting teams are going on their second call out of the season tonight, so wrap up warm & if you have to venture out tonight, take care as the roads will be icy!
Shiver   

Some of you know I have been pretty busy over the last couple of months creating Christmas cards & I've just finished taking piccies of some of my favourites.  Here's the first........

Card - Christmas Santa Hat


This is one of the simple designs I came up with using JustRite stamps - have you tried these? This image is from the 1 5/8 Merry Little Christmas set, one of the great thing about these stamps is that they are made specifically to fit your Nestabilities!!!

I stamped the image onto my usual cardstock using Memento ink then coloured it with my Copic Sketch. The background was created using Prismacolor pencils blended with Zest-it. I can't recommend this pencil blending solution highly enough. I am asthmatic & struggle with strong smelling solutions, Zest-it has a lovely citrus smell & blends the Prismacolor beautifully (and its made in the UK woo hoo!)

A little plain stitching and a strip of ribbon all mounted onto some Papermania Christmas paper finished it off...................





Image: JustRite - A Merry Little Christmas (1 5/8)
Paper: Papermania Christmas
Colouring: Copic Sketch, Prismacolor pencils
Additional: Nestabilities, ribbon from stash, sewing machine

Well, that's me done for now, off to get a cup of coffee - wrap up warm & get those crafty juices flowing!!

18 November 2010

Feeling lucky?

My mojo is returning slowly, and I'm hoping in future my son is a little less generous and keeps his germs to himself!!

So here is one of my latest projects using Magnolia's Tilda with Clover - as soon as I saw her I knew she'd be joining my ever expanding collection,  I remember as a child searching for the elusive 4 leafed kind - never did find one!


Card - Magnolia with charm

As you can see I had fun "playing" with shrink plastic.  Just in case you've not tried it yourself yet - I merely stamped the image onto the plastic with Stazon, then coloured it with Prismacolor pencils, remembering to include a hanging loop when cutting out the image so I could easily attach the little charm to the card.  All I had to do then was blast it with my heat gun & watch the image shrink before my eyes (remember to protect your work surface - those guns get very hot!!) - I always have an acrylic stamp block on hand to flatten the shrunken shape whilst still warm (not sure if you're supposed to do it, but it works for me)

As always, I've coloured the image with Copic Sketch on Personal Impressions Premier Quality Smooth White card and added small highlights with a Gelly Roll white pen.  The image, with assistance from Rachel's tutorial (see below) was mounted on Spellbinders Nestabilities, cut on my trusty Pink Cuttlebug.

I'd like to thank Rachel Jakes for a great tutorial on how to create an "out of the frame nestie" - her work is amazing & her website is well worth a visit. 

Image: Magnolia - Tilda with Clover
Paper: BasicGrey Olivia
Colouring: Copics, Chalk ink
Additional: Caption (Word Art World), ribbon from stash, sewing machine, shrink plastic, brad.

Thanks for dropping by and until next time............

Happy Crafting

15 November 2010

Ooh did someone say cake!!

Well girls and boys I clocked up another year yesterday, but hey its a good excuse for something sweet and scrummy!!

I don't know about you but I am all for tradition, and a birthday just wouldn't be complete without a cake - yesterday was no exception.  Its not quite up to the standard of Duff Goldman at Charm City Cakes (love that show - totally hooked) but even though I say so myself, it tasted pretty good. 

What do you think?  Marks out of 10?
 Giant Cupcake
OK, I confess, I didn't carve it by hand, I used a really cool cake pan from Lakeland then covered it in fondant icing.  What you can't see is that the base of the cake is chocolate marble cake whilst the top is made of strawberry cake. I was really nervous making it as it was the first time I'd used this pan - but with the addition of a little Cake Release my worries were unfounded & once cooked the cakes popped out of the pan without a hitch woo hoo!

Before I use it next time I'm going to invest in some brown colouring so I can make the cupcake base look a little more like cake and less like an icecream (but that's just me being picky)

I had a really great day yesterday & am now the proud owner of an airbrush kit & compressor for my Copic Sketch - so watch this space for the results over the next few weeks............ once I stop playing with shrink plastic that is.  I never tire of watching that stuff curl up and shrink, producing a minature version of a stamped image - its so cool!!

Happy crafting folks and I'll be back with some of my latest projects very soon.

5 November 2010

Remember remember the 5th of November........

Hope everyone planning a Bonfire Night celebration this weekend has a fun (and safe) time!

..............and please make sure you've checked that one of these prickly little friends hasn't made a home in the bonfire before you light it!!

Card : Hedgehog

Image: Dustin Pike Marshmallow Toasting Hedgehog
Paper: From stash
Colouring: Copics
Additional: Quickutz dies & ribbon


Sadly I've not posted as much as I'd planned, unfortunately our son was feeling generous this week and shared his cold with the rest of the family! So the only paper product I've been playing with has been a box of tissues!!!

Thanks for looking & happy crafting




28 October 2010

Halloween Challenge

Pumpkins, Ghosties, Witches and things that go Boo!!  What does Halloween mean to you?

Well over at Doodle Dragon Studio Challenge Blog they're into all things Halloween this week, so I'm sending Dustin's Dragon over to do a bit of Trick or Treating.
Card - Doodle Dragon Studio Challenge
Image: Dustin Pike Halloween Dragon
Paper: From stash
Colouring: Copics, Chalk ink
Additional: Quickutz die
Good luck to everyone entering the competition & Happy Halloween Bat .

 Trick O' Treater Costume  Frankensmiley  Witch Cauldron     Mummy Skeleton

21 October 2010

Hanglar Stanglar stamps

Hanglar stamps - have you discovered them yet?  Ooh, for months I've drooled over them, but sadly unless you were from Sweden, Norway or Finland you just couldn't get your sticky little paws on them - until now.  If you stalk Ebay you may be lucky enough to snag a set, but you'll have to be lightening fast as they sell out in a flash.
 

Card - Hanglar from Kit 13

         Image: Hanglar 
         Paper: Paper Cellar - Checks & from stash
         Colouring: Copics & Liquid applique
         Ribbon: from stash
         Additional: Nesties & sewing machine

I did amend this stamp a little by removing the wings and puffy cloud - merely covered the areas I didn't want to use with low tack tape, inked up the stamp as usual then peeled off the tape & stamped image on to my cardstock.   I had great fun with the liquid applique which makes pretty realistic "faux" sheepskin!! 

What do you think to the wonky stitching.......hum, me thinks I need more practice!

Well, no rest for the wicked, I'm currently beavering away making Christmas cards - 49 and counting...........

Be warned, these stamps, like Magnolia are addictive but unlike chocolate they don't make your clothes shrink (just your bank balance!)

Happy crafting


15 October 2010

1st competition entry

Well as Dustin Pike became my first follower it seemed fitting that my first competition entry should be a Doodle Dragon Studio Challenge.

The theme is "masculine" - so hopefully my blue bug fits the bill.  I've made it with my brother in law in mind (he's a pest control officer) hence the "born to catch bugs" caption!!!

Card - Doodle Dragon Studio Challenge

Image:  Bug by Dustin Pike
Paper: Debbie Mumm Baby Boy
Colouring: Copics with background glow in Prismacolor pencils
Ribbon: from stash
Wordart: freebie from Create with TLC

Good luck to everyone that has entered.



4 October 2010

Well here we go.......



Oh boy, I've lurked for long enough, admiring all the stunning work that the inhabitants of Bloggyland are producing and finally decided to take the plunge and have a go.

Where do I begin, well I guess with my paintings - several years ago I was inspired whilst watching Watercolour Challenge on TV to have a go at painting, something I hadn't really done since I left school.  The medium suited me well, although unforgiving if you make a mistake, it dries quickly and there's little smell - ideal for me as my son was small at the time and inquisitive little fingers would appear from nowhere - can you imagine the mess if I'd been using oil paints!!!!

Here's one of my first paintings - some of you might recognise him:

Portrait - Ronan Keating

I was fortunate enough to be asked to undertake numerous commissions, these are definitely my favourite ones:
Portrait - Girl in pink
Portrait - Couple outdoors

When we moved house I packed up my brushes and tried my hand at something new - die cutting.  It took me a while to get the hang of it, but I soon realised the possibilities and unbelieveably I even got the opportunity to design some dies, these are examples of three of them!


I found that chalk ink worked really well to shade the dies and give them depth, the only drawback being that I constantly had inky fingers!!
 
And right now..............................Copics, stamps and more......................but that will have to wait until the next post!
 
Thanks for looking and I hope you'll come visit my Box of Colours again.