Christmas in August

I've had a busy couple of days, not made any cards since Thursday, thought I had better put that right today! When I eventually got up, I ventured into my craft room and have only left it to eat! Been busy catching up on commissions and challenges and trying to avoid football which is on almost every telly in the house - its gonna be a long winter!



I am entering this card for 5 challenges
Winter Wonderland - Twinkle Sparkle
Sunday Sketch and Stamp - sketch challenge
My Time To Craft - Christmas
Dutch Dare - Christmas in August
Passion for Promarkers - Cocoa & Rose Pink

I'm doing quite well making Christmas cards so far this year, think this one takes it into double figures! It will be so nice not to have to burn the midnight oil in December making cards, I'll probably find something else to keep my busy tho!
I love this Edwin & Tilda image, one of my favourites, it reminds me of when I was a keen ice skater - a long time ago, too much of a wuss now!

Recipe
Stamps - Magnolia, Edwin & Tilda skating, Cuddly Buddly, Xmas sentiment
Paper/Card - Paper Mill, DCWV Xmas paper stack, Snow White pearlescent card from the Range
Inks - Memento, Rich Cocoa, Promarkers, various shades including Rose Pink & Cocoa
Embellies - Card candy from Craftwork cards, Glamour dust
Tools - MS snowflake punch, SU! circle, scalloped circle and corner rounder punches

Back tomorrow, lets hope for a bit warmer weather.....

Just Magnolia at the beach

Had to ink up a couple of the Lazy Summer Days stamps for the challenge at Just Magnolia this week which is a sketch with the option of a tag.



Another attempt with the distress inks on this one, think I'm getting there with these lil babies but not finding them as easy to use as markers, I have a tendency to overwet the paper or it bleeds onto a different area :-(.

Stamps - Lazy Summer Days from Magnolia
Papers - DCWV Citrus stack, purple cs is like Bazzil Bling
Inks - Distress inks, Memento - Rich Cocoa
Tools - Punches from SU!, EK Success, X-Cut
Embellies - Bead caps - Bead Cafe, Brads - Papermania

Manga Girl at The Sugar Bowl

Here's my entry for The Sugar Bowl sketch challenge this week.



I've been working at this all evening, with various images and distress inks, it just wasn't happening, so out came the copics and here we have it. I wanted to use papers from the Hopscotch pad by Kay & Co, so the colours for the image were dictated by that.

Stamps - Manga Girl 1 from Funky Kits, sentiment from SU!
Papers - DSP - Hopscotch, Kay & Co, blue card from stash
Colouring - copics and Memento ink pad Paris Dusk
Tools - MS border punch, SU! large oval & scalloped oval punches
Embellies - Gems from Papermania

Jackie, if you are reading this, yes I did get it finished, just in time!!

Manga Girl 2 does Copic Colour challenge

I am having great problems with Blogger tonight, every time I go to upload photos it freezes my laptop - anyone else having the same problem?

I am writing this post in the hope that Mr Blogger will start behaving and let me post this card before the deadline of midnight, I've been trying for the past couple of hours .....

The colours this week at Copic Colour challenge are Y06 Yellow, B12 Icy Blue, & RV02 Sugar Almond Pink and I've got all 3 of those woo hoo!!

I had to ink up my new Manga Girl 2 stamp for these vivid colours, then I had great problems trying to find papers to go with the pink :-s
I settled on these from a DCWV Spring paper stack and some pearlescent card from stash. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts clear set, stamped onto tags made with SU punches. Flowers cut with an X-Cut punch from off cuts.

Best Friends from Wild Rose Studio

I was lucky enough to win the challenge at Sunday Sketch and Stamp last weekend and the prize was 'Best Friends' stamp from Wild Rose Studio. This little lovely plopped onto my door mat towards the end of last week and has been waiting to be inked up.



I am going to enter this card for 3 challenges, not sure if I am too late for one of them....
Spoonful of Sugar - floral fantasy.
Colour Create - use pink, orange and green.
Sketch Saturday - sketch.

The papers are freebies from Cardmaking & Papercraft a while ago, image coloured with copics. The flowers are cut using an X Cut punch, ribbon, brads and gems from stash.

That's me for today, back with some more tomorrow, nite nite.

Manga boy rocks 3 challenges

Must have tempted fate with my earlier comment about the beautiful sunshine as no sooner had I posted that then the sun went in and its been quite dull and chilly ever since! What an excuse to shut myself away in my craft room.

I had a look through the current challenges and with some of these in mind this is what I came up with.....



I used some new rubba, Manga Boy from Funky Kits, which arrived last week, but I haven't managed to ink up, until today. I coloured the image with Promarkers as shown in the picture below and used Basic Grey Archaic papers and offcuts in varying shades to match.



I am going to enter this into the challenges listed below:-
Passion for Promarkers - sketch challenge this week, no specific colours
MTTC - neglected or forgotten stash, the papers and Super Stars stamps from Banana Frog which I found lurking in the back of my cupboard - never inked up I think!
Creative Inspirations - doodling.

Barry's birthday

Morning blogging buddies....
Hope you have had a fab weekend, I can't believe it's Monday already, at least I don't have to go to work tho!

Haven't managed any crafting or blogging this weekend as it was Barry's 50th birthday on Saturday, so we spent the day celebrating and yesterday recovering!
We took his parents out for lunch at the Osborne View and had some friends round for a BBQ in the evening, we had a wonderful time, it was early hours before the first people left and time we should have been getting up, not going to bed, by the time the last people left so think it was a success!

Here is the card I planned to make Barry, unfortunately I ran out of time, I got the basics made, as you can see but wanted to add photographs of special occasions we have celebrated together to the inner pages. Never mind I can add some photos of the day now, so not such a bad thing.
the papers are from Basic Grey Archaic paper pad and letters cut using Cricut, George & Basic Shapes. Finally got round to using the Bind It All I was given for Christmas, a craft item I just had to have otherwise my life wouldn't be the same without it - obviously!!



As his proper card wasn't finished, I had to make another one, but as time was in short supply it had to be a quick one, again using the good old Cricut, cartridge as before, and papers are Basic Grey Boxer paper pad.



I'm off now to catch up on some blogging and challenges, have a lovely day whatever you are doing, the sun is shining brightly as I type this, lets hope its here for the day!

Bizzy Becs DT call card

Look what dropped through my letter box yesterday morning..... so I set about making my card for the DT call for the Bizzy Becs Creatalicious challenge, (detailed on the previous post below)well a girl's got to try- I might get picked one day!

I treated myself to 3 of these lil babies the other day, this one is Manga Girl #1, from Funky Kits. I coloured her with copics, am loving these, especially since watching a tut the other day and discovering how to do the shading and blending.
Papers are from DCWV, Nana's Kids and Citrus stack. Blooms are an X Cut punch and SU! 5 petal flower punch. Brads & gems from stash.

Had better run and get my shower, looking forward to having my hair done this morning.

Hope to be back later, if not have a wonderful weekend.

New challenge launches 15 August

There is a great new challenge launching on 15th August and to celebrate there is some wonderful blog candy on offer and there is also a call out for 2 DT members. Why not visit Bizzy Becs Creatalicious Challenges for details.

What a challenge!!

You know when you're making a card and the finishing touches just won't happen? Had that problem with this card. I stamped and coloured the image with copics, thanks Rach, for the tip off, really enjoyed this bit but it just wouldn't come together with the flower in the top left and I couldn't decide on a sentiment so at 1.15am I decided perhaps I should go to bed and revisit it in the morning.



I'm really pleased with how it turned out, love the summery colours which reflect the weather here today, not like 4.00am this morning when I was woken by torrential rain and a thunderstorm!
I am going to enter this card for 4 challenges
Friday Sketchers - sketch
Cupcake Craft Challenges - beach theme
Creative Card Crew - under the sea
Papertake Weekly - 4 seasons, colour scheme reflecting the season



These are the copics I used to colour in this image, love using these pens but need more practice and more pens!

Recipe
Images - Lazy Summer Days Magnolia summer kit
Sentiment - Hero Arts set
Papers - DCWV Citrus stack, mirri card from stash
Colouring - Copic ciao as above photo, Tempting Turquoise SU! ink
Tools - MS border punch, SU! scalloped circle and large oval punches, 1/2" circle punch, Cricut George & Basic shapes cartridge
Am off to get some breakfast now, see you later.