The Stamp Man Challenge- Butterflies and Dragonflies

Ready for another challenge from The Stamp Man? This fortnight we want to see projects with dragonflies and butterflies on. I used the gorgeous Aspects of Design framies butterfly flutters to make a tag.

The framies sit perfectly inside a nesties frame. Clever, eh? The background is alcohol inks on photo paper, overstamped in Archival black. The stitches are drawn on.

Righto, over to you guys, show us some fluttery butterflies and dragonflies!

I'm also entering this tag into the Try it on Tuesday challenge- a tag with a butterfly.

New Stamp Man Challenge- Poppies

Hurray, it's time for a new challenge over at The Stamp Man. It's quite a special one this fortnight, our hostess for this challenge, Janet, is asking for Poppy creations for a special reason. Check out The Stamp Man Challenge blog for more info.

My card was made with the glorious Hero Arts Clings Stamp-Engraved Flower and part of a sentiment from the Aspects of design sheet 621 Butterfly beauties. The poppy is coloured using watercolour pencils, with a few spots of black Stickles for stamen. A stamp this gorgeous doesn't need much more, so I layered it up quite simply, with a few swirls and some raffia that I've had since I first started crafting.

Well after having a glorious week of sunshine here, it's now threatening rain, so my plans for the day are severely curtailed..... ah well, better go back to crafting........

I'm entering this into the following challenges-

Crafts and Me Swirls challenge

Papertake Anything goes

Try it on Tuesday Something old, something new (new stamp image, old raffia)

Wooooah, flower alert!

Well you can't say I didn't warn you.......

I think I've overdosed on petals now. It's a set of 4 ATCs, made in a connect 4 style, so that they work together as a whole, and hopefully individually. Most, if not all of the stamps are Stampin' Up, on a background that's sprayed with diluted inks. I've added definitions from an old encyclopaedia, and some cute little insects. 

The leaves are hand drawn with black fineliner and coloured green. Final touches were yellow stickles and white gel pen. I quite like the slightly faded, old look of these ATCs, which comes from the pale colours in the background.

Anniversary sweeties

When my brother asked me to make a wedding anniversary card for his wife and gave me a sweets theme, I thought straight away of the IBFD jars digi. I have used these images so many times. This time I just used the hearts and orange/lemon segments, I couldn't think how to colour the peppers so that they looked like sweets!

The sweetie jars are coloured with Promarkers and Stickled for sparkle. Here's a close up.

I'm entering this into the By the cute and girly challenge- Anything goes.

Ingredients

Digi stamp- IBFD jars

Rubber stamp- Swirl from Basic Grey

Papers- DCWV

Punches- Martha Stewart

Dies- Nestabilities

Stash- Stickles, gems, ribbon

Easter Sundae

This is my IBFD DT post for this week. I went for a sweet looking Sundae, yum.

As ever, it's Promarkered, with added Stickles for bling! The border punch is Martha Stewart.

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Crafts and Me- Pink and sweet
I <3 Promarkers- Anything goes

Pretty, pretty pink and Bob.

OK, so first the pretty, pretty pink. A birthday card for a 5 year old, so pink is pretty much the only rule!

I picked up some recycled brown cards, so had to use one.......and the image is one of half a dozen Rachelle Anne Millar and Sugar Nellie stamps I picked up for £1 each at my local craft shop. I may just stamp a pile of images out and then put them on ebay, I've got loads on cutie stamps, and TBH I think I'd rather have my horrible Stampotiques...... Still, this made a very cute card. She's promarkered and most of the paper is Kay and Co. The roses I made myself, they all turned out a little bit small and squashed, but put together they're fab.

I'm entering this for the following challenges:

Papertake- Truly dimensional (with those flowers I couldn't get this in the envelope and had to make another one!
Passion for Promarkers- Make your own embellishments
I <3 Promarkers- Sketch
By the cute and girly- Cute and girly
My time to craft- On the dot (spotty ribbon)
Crafts and Me- Ribbon
Fussy and Fancy Friday- A card for a child


.........................and now onto Bob!

Bob is an ATC fish, made with an IBFD Digi. He is Promarkered, stickled and chalked- I'd forgotten about my chalks- and he's fab.

I'm halfway through carving a niche in an old book. No idea what it's gonna turn into, but it could be an interesting Sunday finding out.......

Mmmmmmm cookies for Easter!

Another food centred IBFD DT post, choccies again!

I've copied this box from one I won in a raffle, made by the wonderful and talented Carol V. It's a very simple design, but quite effective. I've filled it with a little bag of chocolate chips and a chocolate chip cookie recipe, hence the cookie digi on the front! The cookie has a bite out of it, so I just layered up a couple to cover up the bite marks so that it looks like a cookie stack. 

The cookies are Promarkered with a touch of brown stickles (loving my new brown stickles!) for sparkle, and the flower is another of my homemade ones, I've got a huge box of them to use up, so expect to see lots more.

I thought this might be a more grown up take on giving chocolate for Easter. For Christmas I made notebooks for my children's teachers, this year they may all be getting cookie ingredients!!!! 

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

I <3 Promarkers- Easter

Papertake- Anything goes

OLLCB- Happy Easter

One Stitch at a Time- Something 3D

Teatime

I'm a fan of the brighter than bright colour scheme, but occasionally something more subtle strikes me.

This is actually mounted onto a scalloped white card, but the sun was so bright when I took the picture, it's all but disappeared. Wait a flippin' minute- did I just type "the sun was so bright"???? In the UK? I may have to have a lie down to recover......

Image is from Lili of the Valley and is Promarkered. The bottom half of the brown background is embossed with cute little spots, and I made all the flowers myself, yippee!

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Lili of the Valley Challenge blog- sketch
Papertake- trio-tastic (3 flowers)
Stamp something- sweet (cupcake)

Two girls

I wasn't in the mood yesterday, I had a migraine and then a fuzzy head and although I wanted to create something, I wasn't up to lots of colouring or Promarkering. Sitting at my desk I came across these IBFD images that I'd started to cut out...... lightbulb moment!

No colouring! Well, just a little, ickle bit of Cool Grey 1 to shade the dresses. The girlies are cut out and decoupaged up twice- once for the dresses and once for the parasol and hat.

I added lots of clear stickles on to the dresses for a bit, well, a lot of added sparkle, and red for the flower.

The poppies are made using the technique in the post below this one, and they inspired the red polka dot ribbon. All in all, I'm rather chuffed with my no colouring card!

Tea and buns anyone?

I've been making a fair few ATCs lately. Some for the upcoming DC meet where there will be oodles of lovely swapping going on, and some for my mate Kay's teatime swap (again on Docrafts). This one uses an I Brake for Digis image, and as yet I'm not sure if it's a teatime swap.

The quote is from Wind in the Willows, and I've added it to the Cherry cupcake digi, coloured with Promarkers and accented with Stickles glitter glue and a red glaze gel pen. Still can't decide where it'll end up,  I think it depends what else I come up with tea and cake-wise......

I'm entering this into the Stamp something March Digi challenge.

Kitty

I can't believe how long this card took to make! I've been making it for days and days........

.... that's not all I've done, but it has been on my desk in various formats for about 4 days now. The little girl is an Elisabeth Bell image, stamped and Promarkered. The flowers are mostly handmade out of the same paper I've used on the background. I've die cut, punched, Stickled, pearled, beribboned and glued. It's 6x6 inches square and very pretty.

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Allsorts- make your own flowers
Stamp Something..... with flowers
My time to craft- Hats
Crazy for challenges- flowers

Ingredients


Stamp- Kitty by Elisabeth Bell (Sugar Nellie), sentiment Stampin' Up
Paper- Pampered pets by Andrea Jayne
Dies- Nesties Labels 1, Marianne flower swirl
Stash- pearl pin, pearls, Star dust Stickles, ribbon, Martha Stewart border punches

The Stamp Man challenge- Curls and Swirls

OK, so this fortnight's Stamp Man challenge is right up my street. We want you to use Curls and Swirls.

 Now, as my crafting buddies will tell you, I'm a swirl-a-holic. I can't resist buying swirly stamps and use them on far too many projects...... 

This time around I've made a little ATC box. Regular readers will know that I love making and swapping ATCs- can anyone guess what I made this little box out of? I've made it to take to a crafting meet I'm attending soon, where we always do lots of ATC swapping.

The background was made with lots of ink splodging and swooshing, sponging through flower and swirl stencils (actually left over negatives from punching out swirls and flowers), and through sequin waste. Then I stamped over in a lovely dark green in with the swirl from the Aspects of Design 40 Dragonfly Dreams stamp plate. I stamped and cut out the butterflies from the same set. They're really cute, especially as the outline is separate from the solid butterfly, a little bit of versatile 2 step stamping.

I added orange flowers; ribbons and brads to hold the lid together and lots of Stickles of course!!!

Now there's a fantabulous prize to be had from The Stamp Man- as ever- so why don't you get swirling and curling and have a go!

Ingredients
Stamps- Aspects of Design 40 Dragonfly Dreams
Inks- Distress ink in Spiced Marmalade and Peeled Paint, Impress ink Emerald green
Stash- Ribbon, Brads, Stickles in Orange Peel, Flowers, White card

Sweet little cupcakes!

Hello, today I want to share a sweet card made with two of the cupcakes range of digis stamps available at I Brake For Digis.

There are several different cupcakes in the collection, here I've used the Star cupcake and the Banner cupcake. As I didn't make this card with anyone particular in mind- it's for my little stock of cards- I've left the banner blank so that I can add a name later on.

The cupcakes are Promarkered and then Stickled and the background paper is from a gorgeous DCWV stack called Nana's Nursery. The scalloped circle and oval waere cut with nesties. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set.

As ever if you buy anything from I Brake for Digis, use my SAVE10LISA code to save yourself 10%!

Sweetie sweet pea....and a frog.

OK, I think I'm getting the hang of these cuter than cute cards now. The trick is that when you think you've finished, you carry on and it all works out in the end!!!!

I enjoyed colouring this one- the ubiquitous Promarkers- I quite enjoy an area where I can get my shading going, so her dress was spot on!

The odd highlight with a white gel pen really makes a difference as well.

 

I admit I did go slightly mad with the pearls, but as I said....worked out nicely in the end!!!! 

I'm entering this into:

Sweet Pea Stampers- Sketch challenge

In a Sweet pea Dream- Anything goes

I love Promakers- Birthday

One Stitch at a Time- Pretty 

Oriental inspiration at The Stamp Man

This fortnight over at The Stamp Man we want to see your Oriental creations.

The image is from Non Sequitur and is coloured with Promarkers. I went for a soft colour palette, for a pretty look.

I had originally made a traditional fold card, but wasn't 100% happy with it, until Jill from the Stamp Man sent me some fabulous backgrounds coloured with Starburst stains. One of them went perfectly with my image colours so I took my card apart and remade it as an easel card.

The background is overstamped with grasses and herons and the little flat button/beads were stamped with a floral stamp from the same Non Sequitur stamp set. The beads and the metal oriental embellishments are from The Stamp Man's oriental card making kit.

So..... what are you waiting for? Dig out those oriental stamps and papers and show us your projects! Click on the link in my sidebar for more details.

Pop pop popcorn!

It's I Brake for Digis DT day, so here's this week's digi offering!

Couldn't you just reach in for a handful? I printed the Popcorn digi off in two different sizes and cut out the smaller size then layered them up, popping (excuse the pun!) the top layer up with 3D foam. The popcorn is coloured lightly with Promarkers and glittered with yellow Stickles.

The popcorn container is just stripey paper concertina folded and fanned out. The sentiment is wrapped around the bottom of the container to cover up the raw edge. This card is for a man, so I didn't want to be too girly with the papers or sentiment, but it did need a little something round the edges, so I stamped red and black flourishes.

Don't forget to pop over to the I Brake for Digis store to check out the fabulous digis available! Use the code SAVE10LISA for 10% off!

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Passion for Promarkers- Let it shine

Allsorts- Male/boy
Totally Gorjuss- Hot, hot, hot (colours and hot popcorn, yum!)
By the cute and girly- Bling it on

The Stamp Man challenge- distress it!

This fortnight's challenge over at The Stamp Man is Distress. I had a little something different in mind, mainly because I'd been to the Hobbycraft sale and picked up some lovely bits in the wedding section! This little paperweight was just 29p!!!

It's very clever cos the top and bottom bits are held together by little magnets- can you see the two silver coloured circles? Then you just slot your card in between the two layers. Very swish.

I distressed it by calling it names and making it cry, lol. No, really I dotted alcohol inks on the underside of the glass top layer to give it a vintage feel. The butterfly was stamped onto card and surrounded by flowers and looks like this outside of the paperweight....

Lots of stickles as usual!

When I first sandwiched the two layers together I realised that you couldn't see the butterfly very well, so I swished some of the alcohol inks off with the blending solution to give a clear central section.

All in all I'm really, really pleased with it. Not bad for 29p anyway!

For more information on the challenge click here!

Olives and hearts?

Now  know this will seem like a weird combination, especially when I tell you that this tag I made was for a 5 year old girl......

...however, I hope that when I tell you that she's my little girl's best friend in the whole wide world, you'll understand the hearts. Plus, when I tell you that she has olives in her lunch at school most days, you'll understand the olives.

I love this digi, it's really of 4 jars, but this time I only needed 2- very versatile! It's called Jars and is available from the I Brake for Digis shop , and as usual if you use my discount code- SAVE10LISA - you'll save 10%!

I used Promarkers, Stickles and my new Nesties. The back layer was put through my Cuttlebug for a bit of texture.

I'm entering this into the Digi day challenge over at Stamp Something.

Pressies!

It's a beautiful day here, clear skies, fresh air and no snow, woohoo! I'm tidying up some files, and came across these presents I made for Christmas. Thought I'd share!

These mirrors were made for my friend's two boys.

Both are Ikea mirrors, sprayed with Cosmic Shimmers, then stencilled and embellished with lots of bits and pieces and stickles for extra glitter and shine.

This is a Tissue box cover I made for my sister in law.

 Again, sprayed with gorgeous green Cosmic Shimmers and then stamped with a green Stazon ink pad. I found that using unmounted stamps without an acrylic block enabled me to be a little bit more flexible where the box wasn't precisely flat. The more precise images I stamped onto tissue paper and then adhered to the box with a good coating of modge podge. The modge podge went all over the box to seal it and then dry I put some Stickles on to make it sparkle.

They all went down well! This year I'm starting my present making much earlier, so that it's not quite so rushed.

Flamingo-a-go-go

This is my latest DT card for I Brake for Digis, well OK, not a card really, an ATC, but still.......

Isn't he fab? Goodness only knows why "Flamingo-a go-go" but there you are, that's what was in my head! He's coloured with Promarkers, and swished with Stickles, but then so is everything I make, lol!

The digi is from I Brake for Digis and if you use my discount code- SAVE10LISA - you'll save yourself 10%!


Ingredients
Stamps- I Brake for Digis Flamingo, Stampin Up Baroque motifs, Studio G alphabet
Inks- Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Ink Spun sugar, Impress Lemon yellow
Promarkers- Cool grey1, yellow, gold, pastel pink, cocktail pink, antique pink, cool aqua
Stash- Ice Stickles in Crystal Ice