Anyone for Anya Challenge!

I am still a bit of a beginner when it comes to blogging. I don't do a lot of blog-hopping or entering competitions, but I do subscribe by email to some. One of the blogs I get updates from is Marceas blog http://marceascraftingcorner.blogspot.com/ as I really love her work. Yesterday I followed Marceas link to the Anyone for Anya challenge blog (here: http://anyoneforanya.blogspot.com/) and this week the challenge is a sketch so I decided to make sure I got round to doing it for a change! I have had this intention before so to save me forgetting, I made it yesterday afternoon. This is the card sketch:

This is my card:

I started with the image and decided I wanted to go with an orange colour scheme so coloured in Anya with my Copics. I thought it would be quicker than with my pencils, but I'm sure it wasn't! The papers are My Minds Eye 'Bloom & Grow', I love them, they are such good value for money and the assortment is great! The orange cardstock is Bazzill, which I also used for the Quickutz Photo Corners. The ribbon was from Hobbycraft (I was so relieved to find orange in my collection!) and the flowers are Prima (I think I should have gone for bigger flowers). The tag is also a Quickutz Die and the sentiment is from an Elzybells clear tag set.

Using up images..

I have lots of stamped images that have been coloured in and are just waiting to be made into a card. Most are in a box but some are still on my desk. Last week I had a can of diet coke on my desk and a box fell off the shelves above it and diet coke spilled over some of my things! I was devastated but luckily not too much got ruined. I was worried about some CC Designs images I'd recently coloured, but luckily only the white card got wet so I was able to save them by cutting out the image. So, three days ago I thought I should just start using some of the images that I have laying around and made these two:

This one is very simple, when I put the image onto the card, I felt that I should leave it rather than clutter it with anything extra as it would hide the cupcakes! The image is Whiff of Joy and the background paper is Doodlebug.

This one is a CC Designs fairy called Gretal. She is coloured with Copics and put onto Nestabilities circles. I used the Doily Lace Martha Stewart punch for the strip behind the circles and then my new Quickutz Photo Corner die for the corners. The flowers are Prima (of course!).

Janes Birthday!

It was Janes birthday last week. Jane (along with Petra) runs the Addicted to ATC's swap and has a wonderful blog called Milliesmarvels. Both links should be on my blog somewhere, but I'm not quite expert enough with my blog to put the link in here!

This is the card I made for Jane:

The stamped image is Magnolia "Tilda with Bicycle". I coloured it with Lyra Polycolour Pencils and blended with Sansodor low odour spirit. The image and mat underneath were cut with Nestabilities "Labels Eight" dies. I used the Doily Lace Martha Stewart Punch to break up the background paper and Prima Flowers at the bottom. The pearls are from the new Prima E-line range and are really good, but you do only get two of each size in each colour!

Cupcake ATC's

This months ATC swap theme on the Addicted to ATC's blog is Cupcakes! I love one Cupcake in particular from the Hero Arts clear set so I used it on these ATC's.

I did pull out some cupcake papers to use on the ATC's too, but I think they would have looked a bit busy as they are so small so I stuck to a plain background card but stamped swirls on it. I don't really like the wording, I think the card should be smaller as it takes the focus away from the cupcakes. I was going to say I'll try better next time but the theme is Harvest and I haven't got a clue what I'm going to do!

I had to make a thank you card a few days ago so I decided to use my Elzybells Sunflower Girl stamp for the first time. I also used the sunflower for the background. I really enjoyed colouring this in, it was so nice!

The image was coloured in with Lyra Rembrandt Polycolour Pencils and blended with Sansodor. The girl and sunflower images are Elzybells stamps and the "thanks a bunch!" wording is a Penny Black stamp. The green card in the background is from a DCWV pad and it was cut with a Nestabilities Scallop Rectangle Die.

Another Whiff Of Joy Card!

When I used my new Whiff Of Joy stamp two days ago, I coloured in two images (because I loved it), they are very similar but have different colour aprons.

After I made the lilac card yesterday, I started to make this one then finished it off this afternoon.

I used an A5 white card and cut the edge with a Martha Stewart punch. I then put the green paper on the front with a tiny strip of it inside the card so it would show up the punched detail. The Whiff Of Joy image was coloured with Lyra Polycolour pencils and mounted onto pink Creative Memories card which I used a corner punch on to create the photo slits. I used a ribbon tag cut with a Spellbinders die and stamped on the sentiment using the Elzybells Family Messages set and added the Prima flowers to cover up the end of the ribbon as I couldn't work out where to end it!!

Big card...

A couple of weeks ago, I made this card, but hadn't quite finished it off with a sentiment, so I finished it off today. I'm not 100% happy with this card as I now think the paper may look a bit strange how it is, and I don't really like how I finished the sentiment. I think I was a bit guilty of finishing this quickly.

The image is Whiff Of Joy, coloured in with Lyra Polycolour Pencils. The card is Co'redinations, which has been cut with a Martha Stewart Edger Punch. The flowers are Prima with a Craftwork Cards "Card Candy" dot in the middle.

Prize Candy at Squiggle Stamps!

I have recently just found my way to the Squiggle Stamps Blog (don't you love blog hopping?!) and they have an amazing prize to give away, check this out...

You can find their blog here:

http://squigglestamps.blogspot.com/2009/09/squiggle-candy.html

I need some of the items now, so I'm heading to their website next!

Whiff Of Joy Card

Yay.... I got round to making a card today!! I coloured in two Whiff Of Joy images last night and I made this card today. I put it on a 6x6" square card with some lilac card and spotted paper from a very old Provocraft paper pad. I made the photo corners from the lilac card, added punched flowers from the Spotty Paper then punched leaves from Bazzill Swiss Dotted Card. The image was coloured in with Lyra Rembrandt Polycolour Pencils that my lovely husband bought for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. They are so lovely to use as they are nice and soft, but are also very fine, unlike the Derwent Coloursoft pencils.

Our new cat!

Five weeks ago we adopted a cat from the Blue Cross. We have called him Charlie and he has fitted into the household really well. Here he is...

Second 'antiqued' card...

I was going to have another day of tidying yesterday, but was inspired to try another antiqued card!

This time, I picked a Sarah Kay image (already coloured!) called First Kiss and picked a paper to go with it. I was braver with the inks this time and went for Tea Dye then Walnut Stain. I under-estimated how much of the Walnut Stain was left on the foam when I went around the stamped image and had to try and even it out, so it is darker than I aimed for.

I like the colours on this card. The paper was a Basic Grey paper called Lemonade "Pretty Petals". I thought it looked old-fashioned, but then on closer inspection I realised it was flowers and ladybirds! The green card is a Bazzill dotted swiss cardstock and the flowers are Prima with a small adhesive pearl in the centre.

I then had a problem. Who could this card be for? It was of a boy and girl kissing, so I thought I'd better make it for a couple. I thought it's too girly to be to a man, so I thought I'd better make it an anniversary card for a woman. Hopefully I'll be able to sell my cards one day, and this will have to be one of them! In hindsight, I should have just made this an anniversary card for a couple... I could still change it...

My first 'antiqued' card...

I have seen some beautiful antiqued cards recently, especially when I went to Stamperama last month. I had wanted to try one myself, but didn't really have alot in the way of embellishments or papers.

I hunted through my paper stash (one of them!) and found a paper that I didn't really think much of as a whole, it was a cheap one from a set, but thought might age well! Therefore, I chopped it up and used Distress inks around the side. I started with pale colours as I wasn't feeling very brave so I used Scattered Straw and then a tiny bit of Tea Dye on the corners.

I then chose an image (from my box of images already coloured) that would go with it and used the Scattered Straw Distress Ink around the edge. I then used ink on the orange ribbon to tone down the colour and chose Prima flowers to match the colours. I also cheated with a Craftwork Cards Birthday Message on the front!

The Stamp was a Rachelle Anne Miller Stamp from the Lily & Milo clear stamp range called "Peek-a-boo". It was coloured with Derwent Coloursoft pencils.

I quite like it because it's different, but it could be better. I will keep trying!