PaperPlay Challenges - For a mum/mom

This week over on PaperPlay Challenges, we're kindly sponsored by Inky Impressions who are offering 1 stamp of the winner's choice and an Inky Goodie Bag

Our theme is to create something for  a Mum - this can be new mother, mother's birthday, etc... as Mother's Day is Apr 3rd in UK/Ireland


I made a clipboard for Mum to make her notes on.  It's made from an A4 opaque plastic clipboard (which was liberated from my friend, Kirsty Wiseman's craft room a couple of weeks ago).  I coloured the background using Alcohol Inks in red, yellow, blue and green, which when mixed together has given a lovely tortoiseshell effect. It's then decorated with BasicGrey Indian Summer paper, a paper lunch bag which I've cut to reveal a pocket for secret notes, some ribbon, lace and lots of flowers for that girlie touch.

You can see the range of flowers that I've used here.  Some ready made and the two white ones in the centre of the larger flowers are handmade and VERY 3D!

Creative Materials
A4 Clipboard - BasicGrey Indian Summer paper - Tim Holtz alcohol inks - Paper lunch bag; Poundshop - Flowers: Prima - Leaves; X-Cut punch - Butterfly; Prima - Lettering; Tim Holtz Vintage Market Sizzix die - Ticket; Tim Holtz - White pen: Inkssentials - Brads, ribbon, lace & gems from stash.

Promarker Creations Part Duex!

So I shared some of my Promarker creations with you on the last post and want to share some more now.  These are all printed from Kirsty Wiseman's Buglets - gorgeous aren't they?

Click on the images for a larger version.

Geek Bug...

(Promarkers - Memento & QuickQuotes inkpads - Ribbon - Tim Holtz tag - Jenni Bowlin paper - Inkssentials white pen)

 (Promarkers - Memento & QuickQuotes inkpads - Parcel tag - Ribbon - Gems - Inkssentials white pen)

Space Bug...

(Promarkers - Memento inkpad - Inkssentials white pen - WRMK paper - Ribbon - Glossy Accents)

You can see on this close up image that I've used Glossy Accents to give Space Bug a 'visor' in her space helmet too.

(Promarkers - Memento & QuickQuotes inkpads - Inkssentials white pen - Gloss Accents - gems - WRMK spaceship)

Promarker creations

Seeing as I forgot to take my photos away with me to scrap last weekend I enjoyed a VERY chilled session or two just colouring in, using big girl colouring pens of course AKA Letraset Promarkers.

I adore my Promarker pens and believe these have brought to life some lovely stamps that I would not normally have used (thanks Kirsty for letting me use your stamps, perhaps you can confirm who the manufacturers are so that I can afford them due credit!)  I love how different the same image can look depending on the colours you choose to colour her in.

These are my creations (you can click on them for a larger picture to see the detail of the colouring/blending if you like)...

(Promarkers - BasicGrey paper & ribbon - Making Memories tag - Hero Arts greeting stamp - Memento inkpad - Sarah Kay (I think) girl image)

(Promarkers - BasicGrey paper - Twill - Making Memories tag - Hero Arts greeting stamp - Memento inkpad - Sarah Kay (I think) girl image - Ticket stamp)

(Promarkers - BasicGrey paper - Martha Stewart butterfly & flower punch - Stampin'Up leaf punch - Memento inkpad - Sarah Kay (I think) girl image -Inkssentials white pen)

(Promarkers - BasicGrey paper & ribbon - Prima flowers - Kirsty Wiseman greeting circle - Memento & QuickQuotes inkpads - unknown stamp manufacturer)

(Promarkers - BasicGrey paper - Kirsty Wiseman greeting circle - Memento & QuickQuotes inkpads - Unknown stamp manufacturer - Inkssentials white pen - Button)

This skater boy has 'distressed/grungy' clothing.  I achieved this look by roughly colouring my finished image with the blender pen.
(Promarkers - BasicGrey paper - Memento & QuickQuotes inkpads - Unknown stamp manufacturer - Tim Holtz ticket - Ribbon - Cuttlebug Herringbone embossing folder)

(Promarkers - Memento & QuickQuotes inkpads - Unknown stamp manufacturer - Ribbon - Cuttlebug embossing folder)

Weekend in the Yorkshire Dales

I had a wonderful and long planned weekend away dressed in my pj's in the Yorkshire Dales last weekend with Kirsty Wiseman

Janet Bower

and Roz Carter.

We hired a beautiful converted barn with the most amazing light coming through 3 sets of Velux windows in to the upstairs living quarters.

Which gave us the most incredible views from the windows:

We all took turns cooking meals and ate some wonderful dishes including Roz's Tarte Tatin inspired by Saturday morning TV cooking programmes.

After which we had to go for a little walk still in our pj's to here

to burn of some indulged calories.

Where we climbed to the top

and enjoyed the most incredible views across the Yorkshire Moors

Janet wants that big farmhouse over there to live in...

Were there 3 or 4 Charlie's Angels?  Well in our re-take there were 4 of us on the top of our rock.

I don't remember the steps being that steep on the way up

We posed for the camera...

Before walking back to the barn, taking piccies on the way

Look I'm a bird!

This is one of the bedrooms - I want that room at home!

Smile for the camera Kirsty, put your tongue away!

Then Kirsty & Janet had a competition to see who could fit the most pieces of popcorn into their mouths.  Dirty mares! LOL.

Congratulations!

I made this recently to congratulate two lovely people on their engagement.

I am in love with everything BasicGrey and couldn't resist the vintage / shabby chic look of this Capella, distressed around the edges and then inked and torn, matched with ivory lace, ribbon, pins and flowers.  The sentiment, which I printed out onto Letraset SAFMAT, is kept simple.

For those who've never used SAFMAT before, you simply run it through your printer (I use an Epson inkjet but have previously used it on a Hewlett Packard).  Allow it to dry thoroughly then cut it out and rub it on to your project.  It leaves a gentle matt effect, but looks great as it allows the background image to show through.  You can click on the photo above for a better view of the applied SAFMAT .

Creative Materials:
Cream cardstock - BasicGrey Capella paper - Lace - Ribbon - Pins - Flowers; Prima - Leaves; Stampin' Up punch - Sentiment printed onto Letraset Safmat - Inkpad; QuickQuotes

PaperPlay Challenges - Embossing

If it's Thursday then it's challenge time again over at the PaperPlay Challenge Blog  This time we'd like to see your creations made using EMBOSSING.  You can choose to either dry emboss or heat emboss, it's entirely up to you!

We're kindly sponsored this week by MELJENSDESIGNS who gave us some really cute images to work with.  They're offering up 4 images to one lucky winner who joins us this week.

My cats image was printed out and is coloured using Promarkers.  I chose to dry emboss a heart cut on my Big Shot using a Sizzix Heart die and the Cuttlebug Heart Blocks embossing folder.  The card is backed by a lovely, vintage looking piece of BasicGrey Capella paper which I inked the edges of using a QuickQuotes inkpad.  Flowers are from Prima. and it's finished with a couple of journalling spots cut from cardstock, lettered with alphas from Making Memories and tied with some gorgeous pale green/blue lace.

The perfect card for my parent's 53rd wedding anniversary at the end of this month.

Kirsty Wiseman's Buglet girls

I'm very fortunate to do some design work for Kirsty Wiseman who has produced some lovely new characters called Buglets.  So far there are 4 digi stamps available from her shop HERE with more to follow shortly.

They come as digital uncoloured images which you can import into your digital imaging software program to colour in or, as I've done, print them out onto card using my Epson inkjet printer and colour them in using LETRASET PROMARKERS (or big girl's colouring pens!)

So, without further ado, here are my 4 buglets lovingly created into 12 birthday cards.

Lila Bug:

Mima Bug:

Petit Bug:

Nina Bug:

So now you've seen just how gorgeous these girls are when brought to life and how totally different they look depening on your colour choice, what's stopping you popping over to KIRSTY'S SHOP and treating yourself to some too?  Remember, you only need to pay once and the image will be forwarded straight back to you.  You then have that image for life and can print out as many copies as you like.  How's that for the bargain price of £1.50 each