Spring colours Mothers day

I have used one of my old favourite stamps, the lovely Isabella from visible image for the focal point of my mothers day card.

I coloured her using gorgeous spring colours of distress markers, then matted her on a papermania doily. The background paper is Prima and I diecut a tag using a joy die which i accented with bakers twine and a bit of colouring with distress markers Im ashamed to say it is my own shabby handwriting for the sentiment as I was too lazy to print or stamp anything! I finished with a couple of velvet flowers from my dusty old stash and a few dots of pearly cosmic shimmer for a bit of dimension

I would like to enter my wee card in the following competitions-

Visible Image Spring http://visibleimage.blogspot.ie/2013/03/visible-image-march-challenge-spring.html
Fashionista pink challenge http://fashionistachallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/fashionista-challenge-13-pink.html
Dream valley challenges Mothers day http://dreamvalleychallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/challenge-52-mothers-day.html
Glitter n sparkle Spring colours http://glitternsparklechallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/
Panpasteluk Touch of green http://panpasteluk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/challenge-11-touch-of-green.html

I will end my post this week on a sad note. This mothers day was a sad one for me as my old gent of a cat Jake passed away. He just slipped away in his sleep with no suffering but it all happened so quickly. He was not the most attractive or agile cat there ever was and his hygiene was questionable (who needs a litter tray when a pair of slippers will do!) and I miss him every day. I hope theres lots of sunny spots and overflowing bowls in cat heaven Jakey, you deserve them, RIP old man x

Edgars Ruined City Notepad

Something a wee bit different this week, I spotted a pack of little pads in my local pound shop and thought they might be fun to decorate.
My first attempt is using my favourite stamp at the moment Edgar from Visible Image.

I must admit I am quite obsessed with Edgar!  I find my imagination runs wild when  stamp him.  I imagine he lives in a city once opulent and decadent but now ruined and rusted yet still sadly beautiful.  This is what I was hoping to convey in my decoration of my notebook. Sigh, Im getting carried away again....
I coloured Edgar with distress markers, using them on watercolour paper is wonderful, you can dilute them, layer them and blend them with ease.  My backing paper is K and co, I cut strips out and used them to make "patches" tying in hopefully with my ruined city theme.

I coloured a Tim Holtz bird cage diecut using my markers to try to create a rusted, mossy feel. I used some vintage buttons to three corners. I inherited my great aunt Margarets button box when she passed away a few years ago. I have decided to start using them but only in projects I am keeping, I hope she would approve.

You will notice here the chubby fingers of my "craft assistant" my one year old who decided to assist me here by nicking and flinging across the room my notebook just as I was taking a photo of the buttons! I finished off with an uneven border of cosmic shimmer black pearl hopefully looking like rivets.

I should probably use my notebook for something glamorous or arty as I spent so long making it but I will most likely use it for shopping lists at least I will look arty as I go round Lidl!

I will enter my wee book in the following challenges

Cards by Lady anything goes using a stamphttp://www.ladyanneschallenges.com/stamp-challenge.html
Natalie and Amy challenge diecuts http://natalieandamy.blogspot.co.uk/
One crazy stamper anything goes http://onecrazystampercom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/march-anything-goes-challenge.html
Crafty embelies wings challengehttp://crafty-emblies.blogspot.co.uk/p/cardatcscrapbooking-challenge.html
Stampin with the dragon anything goes challenge http://stampingwithdragon.blogspot.co.uk
Rhedd and rosie anything goes challenge
http://rheddandrosies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/welcome-to-our-very-first-challenge.html

Beautiful Burlesque

Digital crafting is a bit of a new phenomenon to me but I am a member of a digital stamping group on facebook and am amazed daily at the wonderful work posted there.

Inspired by this I am dipping my cardmaking toe into this new area of crafting for my card this week!

The main image is Lorraine from the fab new stamping company Glamoureyes heres  the link for them http://glamoureyes.myshopify.com/  some truly gorgeous stamps available.  Lorraine was given away free to enter a competition on their blog.  I have to say she was so much fun to colour!

I started with a black card and backing papers which were free with Crafts Beautiful magazine, the colours were ideal for the vintage burlesque feel of Lorraine.  I coloured her with promarkers and added a touch of bling with glitter glue on her headpiece and buttons.  I did a bit of matting and layering and just to tie it all together I used the same colour promarker as her basque to colour a piece of photocopy paper and used it behind my choice of patterned paper.

I embellished with a Memory box swirl die cut of gold mirri and a 250 year old sentiment from my dusty stash coloured again with promarker. Finally I used my cosmic shimmer black pearl to make a border.

She is a lovely stamp and I hope I have done her justice, she was an absolute joy to work with.

Valentine Box

I decided to make something a bit different for Valentines this year.  I got a box of turkish delight sweets at Christmas that came in an unusual hexagon box.  I kept a hold of it and used it to decorate instead of a card.

The main image is Isabella by Visible Image, she is coloured with Marvy le Plume markers.  I highlighted her eyes and the heart she is holding with Glossy Accents.  The box is covered with papers I got with Making cards magazine.  The background heart  is Kanban and is stamped with Visible Image Grunge dots background in white pigment ink.

The Love and heart diecuts are both Cheery Lynn and the swirl is Magnolia Doo Hickey. I added some co-ordinating Papermania buttons and some dots of pearly Cosmic Shimmer.

I  felt I needed another embellishment but I wasnt sure what when what popped through my door but my Papercraft Inspirations magazine subscription with free resin flowers, problem solved!

Overall Im pleased with how my box turned out, I could use it to keep crafty stash in but there is the option to keep it as it was intended, ie full of sweets hmmm, wonder what Ill go for!

I would like to enter her in the following contests

Visible Image Love challenge http://visibleimage.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/love-visible-image.html

Glitter n Sparkle anything but a card challenge  http://glitternsparklechallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Sincerely yours love, valentine challenge http://sincerely-yours-creations.blogspot.co.uk/

2 sisters love, valentine challenge 131 http://2sisterschallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Creative craft challenges2 hugs and kisses http://creativecraftchallenges2.blogspot.co.uk/

New eyes tag

Another day another tag!  I am loving making gift tags at the moment, here's my latest.

The eye Image is an old freebie from Craft Stamper magazine stamped in black and coloured with promarker and mounted on silver mirri.  Background paper is from My Craft Stash and my old faithful Memory box die.  Sentiment is K and Co accents are some Kanban gems and a raffia ribbon.  I used promarkers to make a random dotty pattern on the tag because I feel the need to fill every blank bit!

Its very simple but I love the sentiment, Ive based it on a tag I made for a swap but forgot to take a picture of.

I dont think Im over my tag obsession yet as Im working on a couple more!

Love tag

This week I been enjoying making gift tags.  They are a quick make which means it is easy to get one done in one sitting which suits me at the moment as I get used to working life again!

This is the first tag I made

The main image is Visible Image, the background paper is papermania and the sentiment is K and Co.  Directly behind the image is gold mirri  I embossed using a sizzix embossing folder and sanded.  I embellished with a Memory Box diecut and some pearls and a wee gem. A lovely green velvet ribbon from my stash to finish.

I am still using my rotten phone to take pictures so I apologise for the blur!

I am entering  tag in the Visible Image "Love" competition link as follows 

http://visibleimage.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/love-visible-image.html

A fantastic company who's stamps I adore using - I couldnt find my acrylic block so in desperation used a cracked old cd case instead and still got a perfect image!  Thats a quality stamp!

I  also entering this in  Pan Pastel Uk love challenge heres the link http://panpasteluk.blogspot.co.uk/

Im also entering my tag in the fashionista Valentine challenge link below

http://fashionistachallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

Also 2 Sisters heart challenge http://2sisterschallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/

And Stamping with dragon love is in the air challenge http://stampingwithdragon.blogspot.ie/

ATC using Visible Image

My poor neglected blog, I havent posted for over a month.

I have been crafting just not blogging and I have also gone back to work after my maternity leave :( so it feels like there t arent enough hours in the day at the moment!

I am hoping to try to blog at least every second Friday from now on.

Just a quick make this time, a wee ATC using some fab Visible Image stamps.

The background is Kanban with Polka dot grunge stamped over it in black.  I stamped and coloured with promarkers the image of Edgar and cut his hat, cane and boots out and arranged them on top of a Memory box die on a Kanban plain black matt.  A black  on the end of the cane just for a bit of bling to finish off!

I am loving the Visible Image stamps to work with and hope to use them in future projects.