30-Day Colouring Challenge Day #4 - Rusty Katzelkraft German Shepherd

This is my entry for day 4 of the 30-day colouring challenge of March 2017, as organized by the fabulous Kathy Racoosin.

I needed to make a birthday card for my dad, and so, having discovered where I had hidden the Katzelkraft dog images I stamped before Christmas thanks to my friend Kelly, I chose the one I thought resembled a German Shepherd dog the closest.

The image was coloured using Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink and coloured with Copic markers:

Dog: E13, E15, E39, C3, C5, C7, C9, R02

Eyes: C0, C1

Collar: G21, C3, C7

Shadow: W1, W3, W5

I coloured the image so that it looked just like the dog that we had when I was growing up. Rusty, aptly named because of her colouring, was the softest dog you'd ever know and was often a pillow to my little cousins. I thought my dad would appreciate a card like this.

Having coloured the image, the panel was distressed on the edges with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink, as were the panels of patterned paper from the Basic Grey Archaic paper pad (Relic, Timeworn and Rusty).

The strip of Timeworn paper was added across the Relic paper and wrapped with lengths of natural twine.

Using the round Cuttlebug tag die, a tag was die cut from white card and stamped with the solid 'Birthday Wishes' stamp from the Personal Impressions Paula Pascual Mixed Sentiments stamp set with Versafine Vintage Sepia archival pigment ink. A jump ring was added to the tag and threaded onto one of the lengths of twine.

The image panel was matted onto the panel of Rusty paper, the bottom edge having been punched with the Diamond XCut border punch first. This was mounted over the twine with 3d foam tape, as was the sentiment tag.

Three WRMK square copper studs were added to the top right corner and then the panel was mounted to the 5'75" square cardbase.

To finish off the card, Ranger Glossy Accents was added to the dog's eyes and nose, the collar studs and the sentiment.

30 Day Colour Challenge - Day #4

Well, it's still technically Day #4 as Day #5 hasn't been announced yet!!!
Anyway, here is today's colouring.

I decided to go with some WHSmith's pencils today on Kraft cardstock. It's a nice and simple New Home card for a friend of mine.

I decided to use my set of Jofy #15 stamps that I've had for well over a month now, if not a few months. They have been used, just not by me!!!

I started by stamping the smaller of the two birdhouses on the front of the card where I wanted it positioned, using Versafine Vintage Sepia archival pigment ink, and then stamped the branch image from the same stamp set and the same ink above it. I joined the two images with a brown Whispers brushstroke marker.

I then coloured the images with the WHSmith pencils that I managed to get when they were reduced down to £3.99 some months ago. I firstly laid down a layer of white pencil all over the image and then coloured it in with the colours. Hopefully the white makes the colours ping off the card a bit more. I decided not to blend the pencil with baby oil this time as I wanted a more rustic look to the image.

Finally I added the 'New Home' sentiment. I used an old Elzybells stamp for this and the Vintage Sepia ink. This is a stamp that I've owned for many years, from back when Elzybells were having a closing down sale, and I'm not entirely sure it's ever been inked up other than when I recently mounted it and created a laminated storage sheet for it. It's so nice to give these old stamps a new lease of life having been living in a 'to be mounted' box for a couple of years now.

30-Day Colouring Challenge - Day #3

Here is my entry for Day #3 of the 30-Day Colouring Challenge
I was out all day yesterday so didn't get a chance to do any colouring, but I did today. Yippee!

The image I coloured was from a stamp set that I bought at the Newbury Show on Saturday. I think it was a set of stamps that came free in Creative Stamping magazine but not sure.

Anyway, I began by creating a 'bridge' card. I covered the card front with a beautiful piece of foiled cardstock from the Kaisercraft Up Up and Away paper pad. Then I chopped the right had side of the card front off and a section to the right of that panel the width of the gap I wished to create.

As I was using the Sizzix Mini Filmstrip and Mini Tickets Decorative Strip die, this meant the gap was only 1.5cm.

The filmstrip was diecut using copper pearl cardstock and adhered to the card front. The loose section of cardstock was temporarily taped down using masking tape so it was level with the edge of the card stock and the other side of the filmstrip die was adhered to this piece to complete the card front once again.

A second diecut was added to the inside of the card front to strengthen it.

Now to the colouring part. The hot air balloon image from the stamp set was stamped using Memento Rich Cocoa dye ink and coloured using Copic markers:

Hot Air Balloon

E11, E15, BG11, G12, W3, B34

Unfortunately, I didn't have quite the right colour to match the papers so I had to experiment with the colours I have.

I also stamped the 'Always Explore' ticket stamp from the Autumn Leaves Ticketed stamp set onto a ticket die cut from Memory Box's Double Ticket die using the Rich Cocoa ink and coloured it with Copics:

Ticket
W3, BG10, BG11, G12, E15

The hot air balloon image was fussy-cut and adhered to the card front, along with the ticket.

A strip of the duck-egg blue script paper from the same paper pad was then added to the inside right of the card so that it shows through the 'bridge', along with the narrow strip cut from the card front.

Using the aperture sections of the filmstrip die cut from cream card, the sentiment was stamped using parts of stamps from a selection of the Personal Impressions Paula Pascual sentiment stamp sets (Double Sayings, Mixed Sentiments, All Year Round and Mix and Match Sentiments). One of the panels was adhered through one of the apertures on the inside of the card and two further panels were adhered alongside.

To replicate the copper foiling on the patterned paper, four copper card candi were taken and Zig 2-way glue pen was added to the front of them all. When this had gone clear, a sheet of copper foil was applied to the card candi to create foiled card candi. These were added through the remaining apertures on the front of the card. The glue was then also added to a star die from the Penny Black Sweet Wishes stamp set and stamped over the 'TO' word on the inside of the card. Once again, the foiling was added to this.

30-Day Colouring Challenge - Day #1

I know as I type this that I won't be able to participate in the 30-Day Colouring Challenge set by Kathy Racoosin over on her blog every day as I have my in-laws arriving on the 15th for 2 weeks, but I will try my hardest to participate when I can.

This image, Dreamer from Leanne Ellis/Sugar Nellie, began life as part of my indexing system, but it didn't stamp very well, but the girl part of the image was salvageable. Unfortunately, that meant that she was stamped with Versafine, which isn't very Copic friendly, and on Ryman's cardstock which I find is more inclined to bleed with too much pen ink. Ho-hum!

I coloured her to match the starburst background that I made last week at the craft group that I go to.

Copics:

Skin: E000 E00 E11 E13 (Cheeks: E04 R20)

Eyes: B00

Hair: Y15 E07 E09 E15

Coat: B00 B01 B02

Wings: BG02 BG10 BG11

I fussy-cut her out and matted her onto a double-stitched circle die from Crealies XXL #33 die set cut from ivory hammer card. This was then matted onto a Nestabilities scalloped circle. The circle was cropped to fit into the corner of the card.

The 'Birthday Wishes' sentiment, from the Personal Impressions Paula Pascual Mixed Sentiments stamp set, was stamped using Tim Holtz Mermaid Lagoon ink, to match the sponging around each of the cream panels.

The starburst background was created using a bunch of papers from my stash - some of which haven't been used in a very long time!!!

The paper pads used were:

Papermania Venetian Skies Creative Tones

Papermania Birdsong

Papermania Henbury Lane

K&Co Life's Journey Script

K&Co Life's Journey Map

Daisy & Dandelion Picnic Patch

To finish the card, I added some dots of the Cosmic Shimmer Teal PVA.

Red, Teal and Green Katy Sue Hat and Stand

My apologies for the lateness of this post but I have been having issues with Internet Explorer all day. I can't upload pictures of my cards using Microsoft Edge and today IE has just not wanted to play ball. Anyway, it seems to be working at the moment, so I'll get on with uploading this as quickly as possible.

This is a card that I made, finally using the beautiful set of stamps by Katy Sue Designs that I bought at the Newbury Artstamps Show. Yet another of those 'must have' purchases that have been sitting in my stash unused.

I decided to use the Prima Madeline paper pad as I really love the colours and they matched the guide illustration on the packaging.

 

The hat and stand image, from the Katy Sue Designs Gerbera stamp set, was stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink and coloured using Copic markers:

Copics:

Hat: R27, R37, R39, BG10, BG11, BG32;

Flowers: BG10, BG11, BG32;

Leaves/Stems: G00, YG91, YG95;

Fronds: YG91;

Butterfly: BG11, BG32;

Hatstand: E43, E44, E57;

 

The image was diecut using a Classic Oval Nestabilities die and matted on to a Scalloped Classic oval diecut from red cardstock.

The cardblank was covered using the border paper and the cream script papers from the Prima Madeline paper pad, and the join was covered with a strip of card diecut using the Solid Bracket die from MFT Die-Namics.

 

The image panel was then added in the centre of the cardblank.

The 'Happy Birthday' sentiment, from the Personal Impressions Paula Pascual Mix & Match stamp set, was stamped using Emboss clear embossing ink and white heat embossed using Stampendous Detail White Opaque embossing powder. This was then diecut using a tag die from the Sizzix Tags, Sentiments Framelits die set. The tag was threaded with aqua embroidery thread and added over the image panel.

 

Details of the hat image were then highlighted using the clear Wink of Stella brush pen, and three teal pearls from Hobby House Sea Charm pearls.

 

I'm back!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Just to let you know that I have now returned and am trying to get myself organized. I still haven't properly unpacked and need to get some sort of semblance of normality back in my life.

But, hopefully, I will return with my blogging as of Monday 18th January. Hopefully!!!

Hope to see you then.

Last Post Before Sabbatical

So, here it is!

My last post before I take a sabbatical over Christmas and New Year - but I promise I will be back with more posts. Both of new cards and some of the older, throwback cards from 2011 onwards.

Hopefully I will be reinvigorated following my Christmas break and have lots of new ideas for cards. Especially after my mammoth Christmas card making of 108 cards in just over a month!!! That really took it out of me!

So, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the very best for 2016. I hope Santa brings you all what you wanted - only if you were good though!

And I'll see you in the New Year!

Orange Glittered Prim Poppies

This was one of those CAS cards that was by no means 'simple' in its execution. It was based on  card I saw on Pinterest here.

 

The first step was to die-cut the Contempo Circle Border die by Memory Box from Kraft card. Getting adhesive on the back was then the first hurdle. I should have added wide double-sided tape to the back of the Kraft card first, but only thought of that afterwards, so I used tacky glue and that was fun!!!

 

 

The next step was to diecut a couple of the Memory Box Prim Poppy shapes using dark-green card stock, as well as the flower heads in orange card stock which were then adhered in place.

Then came hurdle number two - adding the glitter. I used the LP Creative Crafts Corn Yellow and Apple Green glitters with the Zig glue pen. Of course, there was glitter everywhere and then I realized I'd added the glitter too early. I should have added it after I had stuck everything down!

 

Once the glue had dried and the glitter in place, the two poppy die cuts were tied together (not as easy as it sounds) using gold metallic embroidery thread.

 

The poppy diecuts were then adhered in place over the Contempo Circle Border diecut.

 

The sentiment, from the Fiskars Friends Forever Quotes stamp set, was stamped directly onto the card front using Memento Morocco dye ink.

Duck Egg Blue and Brown Butterfly Aperture CAS

This is a card that I made a part of a session of CAS cards at the craft group that I go to with a few friends. It is heavily influenced by Michelle Short's cards, and you can see the card that specifically influenced this one here.

 

Firstly, the butterfly aperture was cut from a panel of white card using the largest butterfly die from the Spellbinders Shapeabilities Butterflies 2 die set.

 

The sentiment, from the Woodware Happy Anniversary stamp set, was stamped below the aperture using Versafine Vintage Sepia archival pigment ink. The panel was then 3D'd over a small panel of the duck egg blue swirl paper from the Papermania Bellisima paper pack onto a square cardblank.

 

As a finishing touch, Ranger Crystal Stickles were applied around the aperture and a few blue gems were added to the body of the butterfly.

Lilac and Brown Chapel Road Bramble

Firstly, I have to announce that this is my 500th blog post - wow!!!

 

More impressive is that I have managed to maintain this blogging schedule for well over a month now!!! I'm hoping to keep it up over the Christmas period but it's more likely that it will have to go on sabbatical for a few weeks over the holiday period.

 

Anyway, here is another 'throwback' card from 2011.

This card uses one of those 'must-have' stamp sets that in actual fact has only been used the once - here!!!

 

I saw some beautiful samples using this stamp set at the Newbury Stamp Show back in 2011 by the Snazzy's team, and of course had to buy it. Of course, once I got home, all that inspiration had disappeared from my head. I really should get this stamp set out again in the New Year - somebody remind me!!!

 

Anyway, back to this card.

 

 

Firstly, the Bramble Collage image from the Chapel Road Artstamps Bramble stamp set was stamped onto white card using Memento Rich Cocoa dye ink and then distressed using Tim Holtz Milled Lavender and Dusty Concord inks. The image panel was then matted onto lilac cardstock.

 

A strip of the Violet paper from the Basic Grey Wisteria paper pad was matted onto a strip of the lilac card that was punched using the EK Success Scalloped Scallop border punch, and then a length of Dovecraft lilac grosgrain ribbon was wrapped around.

 

Next, the Bramble image from the same stamp set, was stamped in the corners of the card blank using the Rich Cocoa ink. The patterned paper strip was then added across the centre of the card and the image panel matted over the top.

 

 

Once the image panel was in place, lavender pearls from Kort & Godt were added either side of the panel, and the sentiment, from the Personal Impressions Paula Pascual Mix and Match stamp set was stamped below the image using the Rich Cocoa ink.

 

Blue Baby Edwin with Bunting

Here is a card a made for a little boy celebrating his first birthday.

I started by stamping the Baby Edwin stamp by Magnolia using Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink and coloured it using Copic markers.

 

 

Copics:

Hair: E41, E43, E44

Skin: E000, E00, E13

Dummy/Bootees: BG11, N3

Romper Suit: B41, B93

Star: BG11

Wings:BG10, N1

 

Edwin's cheeks were then highlighted using a Papermania Snow White gen pen, and the wings and star were highlighted with Ranger Baby Blue Stickles. The image was then fussy cut.

 

A panel for Edwin was then die cut using the Classic Oval and Classic Scalloped Oval Nestabilities dies, using white and blue cardstocks.

 

A strip of white card was then embossed using the Basket Weave border embossing folder by Cuttlebug and then coloured using Tim Holtz Stormy Sky distress ink. A length of crochet lace was added to the lower edge of this and then matted onto a strip of blue card punched using the Martha Stewart Doilly Lace border punch. This was added across a panel of bird patterned paper from the First Edition Up Up and Away paper pad, matted onto the blue cardstock.

 

The Edwin image panel was then matted over the border strip.

 

A bunting die cut using the La La Land Heart Banner die was added across the top right corner of the card.

 

 

As this was a first birthday card, I wanted to reflect that so I die cut a '1' using the Sizzix Sizzlits Bounce Alphabet die set, and matted this onto a couple of Classic Oval dies and a Classic Scalloped Oval die. The '1' was then highlighted with the Baby Blue Stickles.

 

 

This inside of the card was also decorated.

 

 

The sentiment panel was created by stamping a banner from the Clearly Besotted Basic Banners stamp set using the Stormy Sky distress ink and diecutting it with its co-ordinating die. The sentiment, from the Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler stamp set, was stamped in the centre of the banner, also using the Stormy Sky ink.

Blue and Yellow Aeroplane in Clouds

This is the card that I made for my 'little' brother this year. He's actually 31 but being 10 years younger than me he'll always be my 'little' brother.

 

I really liked this aeroplane stamp from the Kaisercraft Little Man stamp set, so decided to make a nice simple card with it.

 

 

I started by creating the front panel of the card. I stamped both the aeroplane and trail from the Little Man stamp set using Versafine Deep Lagoon archival pigment ink. I then die cut an aperture from the panel using a label die from the XCut Tags and Bookplates set of dies.

 

A couple of clouds were die cut from white card using the Memory Box Puffy Clouds dies and adhered to the card front using 3D foam to create dimension.

 

Lengths of yellow Baker's twine from the Dovecraft Riverbank Rivals twine pack was tied around the card front threaded through the aperture.

 

The sentiment, from the Amy R Be Happy set of stamps was then stamped onto a scrap of white card using the Deep Lagoon ink and matted behind the aperture using 3D foam.

 

The front panel was then matted over a panel of the blue and yellow striped paper from the DCWV Floral Prints paper stack.

 

 

 

The inside of the card was also decorated using the same patterned paper and cardstock as the front of the card.

A circle and big scalloped circle were die cut using Nestabilities dies and the sentiment, also from the Be Happy stamp set, was stamped onto the label cut out from the front panel using the Deep Lagoon ink.

Cream and Blue Tatty Teddy Panels

Another look back into the past here with a couple of old cards from 2011!!!

These are a couple of quick cards I made for a couple of 8-year old girls using the printed panels in the Me To You Especially For You paper pack.

The corners of the printed image were rounded using the large XCut corner rounder punch and matted onto light blue and cream card.

A strip of the blue polka dot paper from the same paper pack was matted onto the light blue card and a length of cream satin ribbon was wrapped around and matted onto a panel of the yellow stars and balloons paper. This was then matted onto the light blue card.

A tag was die cut from the light blue card using the Cuttlebug round tag die. A big scalloped circle was die cut from cream card using a Nestabilities die and stamped with the 'Birthday Wishes' circle sentiment from the Hero Arts Birthday Messages stamps set using ColorBox Aqua pigment ink. The scalloped circle was matted onto the tag and a blue Papermania flower gem was added in the centre. A short length of the cream satin ribbon was threaded through the tag and added in the top right corner of the image panel.

All the edges of the blue layers and the centre of the flower gem were highlighted with Craft Planet Ice Blue glitter glue.

A similar card was made with a different image panel from the same paper pack.

Taupe, Aqua and Sage Green Honeycomb Trevor and Emma

Today's card is actually two versions of the same card. Both cards use the Spring Couple stamp from CC Designs and are anniversary cards.

 

The images were stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink and coloured with Copic markers.

 

Here are the details for the first card:

 

 

Copics:

 

Trevor - Hair: E43, E44, E49

Trevor - Skin: E00, E11, E21

Trevor - Shirt: BG11

Trevor - Jacket: YG91, W3, W5, W7

Trevor - Trousers: W3, W5, W7

Trevor - Shoes: YG91, W9

 

Emma - Hair: E41, E43, E44

Emma - Skin: E000, E00, E11, E21, R02

Emma - Flower: BG18

Emma - Top: BG10

Emma - Shoes: YG91, W9

 

The other parts of the image were paper-pieced using papers from the First Edition Isabelle paper pad.

 

Using the Sizzix Framelits Hexagon die, a series of hexagons were cut from a variety of the papers from the Isabelle paper pad and arranged in a honeycomb pattern on the card blank. A larger couple of hexagons were die cut from white cardstock and a patterned paper and the image, having been fussy cut, was adhered onto them.

 

 

The sentiment was stamped onto a diecut hexagon using the Happy circle sentiment stamp and the Anniversary stamp from the Personal Impressions Paula Pascual All Year Round stamp set with Tim Holtz Pumice Stone distress ink. A frame was created from another patterned paper from the Isabelle paper pad and added over the top of the sentiment hexagon.

 

Here is a picture of the finished card.

 

 

To finish the front of the card, highlights were added to Emma's cheeks using a Papermania Snow White gel pen and small faux gems were added to the centres of the flowers on the patterned papers and the flower in Emma's hair.

 

The inside of the card was also decorated, using hexagon diecuts. The sentiment banner was created by stamping the Basic Banner by Clearly Besotted using the Pumice Stone ink and diecutting with the co-ordinating die. The sentiment was stamped within the banner shape using the Have a Beautiful Day stamp from the Personal Impressions Paula Pascual Mix & Match stamp set.

 

 

The second version of the card gave the characters different hair colours.

 

 

Copics:

 

Trevor - Hair: YR14, YR23, YR24

Trevor - Skin: E00, E11, E21

Trevor - Shirt: BG11

Trevor - Jacket: YG91, W3, W5, W7

Trevor - Trousers: W3, W5, W7

Trevor - Shoes: YG91, W9

 

Emma - Hair: E41, E43, E44, E49

Emma - Skin: E000, E00, E11, E21, R02

Emma - Flower: BG18

Emma - Top: BG10

Emma - Shoes: YG91, W9

 

 

Again, the inside of the card was also decorated.

 

 

Coral and Green Dressy Miss Anya

A pretty girlie card for today. This one features the cute Dirndl-wearing Dressy Miss Anya from The Greeting Farm.

The image was stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink and coloured using Copic markers.

 

 

Copics:

Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20

Hair/Apron: E11, E13, E15

Shoes/Dress: E11, R02, R08

Polka Dot Trim/Socks: YG03, YG11

Highlights were added to the cheeks using a Papermania Snow White gel pen.

 

 

The papers used to decorate the front of the card were from the My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus paper pack.  The card-edge die cut, created using the Sizzix Card Edges #2 Decorative Strip die was cut from the polka dot paper and added to a panel of ivory card. This was then diecut with a circle Nestabilities die to create an aperture, and a frame was created from the coral coloured polka dot paper from the paper pack using a scalloped circle and plain circle Nestabilities die and added around the aperture.

 

The corners of this panel were punched with the inverted corner rounder from Woodware, and then matted to the card front over a panel of a floral paper from the paper pack.

 

The Miss Anya image was then fussy cut and added over the aperture.

 

,

 

 A couple of flowers were created using the Sizzix Tattered Floral Garland Decorative Strip die and added to the card front with a small orange pearl in their centres.

 

Two tags were die cut from vellum and the polka dot patterned paper cut using a die from the Sizzix Framelits Tags, Sentiments die set. The sentiment, from the Kanban Moulin Divas Très Chic stamp set, was stamped onto the vellum tag using Versamark ink and heat embossed using Heat It Up! Seafoam White embossing powder.

 

The two tags were joined together using a small orange eyelet and threaded with cream hemp cord. The tags were added inside the aperture and decorated with the small flower dies from the Tattered Floral Garland die.

 

 

 The inside of the card was also decorated using matching papers and dies, and a sentiment stamp also from the Très Chic stamp set.

 

Burgundy and Aqua Anniversary Doodle Butterfly

Here are a couple of anniversary cards that I made back in 2011 using the Papermania Clare Curd Doodles stamp set.

For the first card, the butterfly image was stamped using Memento Rhubarb Stalk dye ink and highlighted with Craft Planet Iridescent Sparkle glitter glue.

The image was matted onto aqua cardstock.

The patterned papers, from the Papermania Clare Curd The Big One paper pad were matted onto a panel of aqua cardstock and added to the card front.

The sentiment, from the Elzybells Swirly Sentiments stamp set, was stamped using the Rhubarb Stalk ink and matted onto aqua and added over the image panel.

Silver shimmer dots from Papermania were added in the corners of all the panels.

 

The same card was made reversing the colours.