White on White

I could'nt help myself I just had to make another white/ivory card, it's my favouite colour to work with.  Some might think there was a streak of laziness and you would be right, I hate sorting through DP papers trying to make that wonderful match which always eludes me.  So I've stayed in my comfort zone and made the card below which is firstly for Mo's challenge - Dancing and Singing

I just love this character and had great fun colouring her with a mix of Promarkers and colour pencil.  What can I say about the cardstock except that it's brilliant white :-))  I've used a sizzix die for the swirls and various embossing folders for the background areas.
Thank you for visiting
Kathleen x

Tilda With Flowers Tag

I had a few bits left over from the card in my previous post and decided to make this tag.

Tilda is coloured with Faber Castell pencils on Fabriano Classico 5 water colour paper.  The tag itself is cut from Ivory card which I embossed and then cut various shapes with the left over card, the flowers are from Wild Orchid and silk ribbon completes the tag.
I will enter this tag into The Magnolia Inspiration Challenge - Tag + Magnolia Flowers
Party Time Tuesday - Let's Get Punchy
As always thank you for stopping by :-)
Kathleen x

Magnolia Tilda Birthday Card

Hi peeps......I'm feeling quite cheerful, maybe it has something to do with the sun showing itself......Today I blew the dust of my Magnolia stamps, I only intended to sort through them as a tidying up exercise and ended up instead creating the card below. I've had this stamp quite a while and is one of my favourites to colour.

I coloured Tilda with Faber Castell Polychromo pencils on Fabriano Classico 5 watercolour paper, I used ivory card stock to make the card using Marianne die's, all edges have been distressed with Tim Holtz distress ink Old Paper.  I really enjoyed making this card, hope you like it too.

Thank you for stopping by I really appreciate the visit and your lovely comments..

Kathleen x

I've entered this card into the following challenges

Just Magnolia and Hanglar Stanglar Challenge - All the B's (blooms)
Midweek Magnolia's - Happy Birthday
Tilda Town - Favourite Tilda
Stamp with Fun - Favourite Stamp
Lets Ink It Up - All Girls
Lovely Hanglar or Sweet Magnolia - Anything Goes
That Craft Place - Anything Goes

Birthday Girl

Three cards in as many days, not bad for someone who had lost the desire to create cards.

I had a little shopping trip over at Mo's and just had to buy this image, my daughter just loves Giraffes and this image fit the bill perfectly for her birthday card.....I also had the idea to print a larger image onto velour paper and use pastel pencils to make a framed picture as part of her birthday box, I'll show this when I complete it.

The main backround was created by brushing on inks, I also used the same technique on the Giraffe section but this time masking out the Giraffe.  The image itself has been coloured with Promarkers, lastly I used LOTV sentiment stamps.....It's a very simple card and one I know my daughter will love for it's simplicity.......Hope you like and thank you for stopping by :-)  Kathleen x

I will enter this card into

Mo's Digital Challenge- Anything Goes

Guy Card

I'm back on form another card this time for my nephew....I'm still finding my way round the new blogger set up and hope I've switched off the word verification thingy, if not please let me know. 

I've used a Mo Manning image which I think my nephew will like as he spends most of his spare time playing any one of his numerous guitars, no idea why he has so many, maybe he's a collector-holic like his aunt.
I've used Promarkers to colour the image with LOTV sentiment stamps, the papers I've had a long time and were remnants from an earlier project,  I followed the sketch from 'Passion for Promarkers and as the card has a strong musical theme I thought I would also enter it into the ' I love Promakers' challenge.......Promarkers are my favourite medium for card making I find them really easy and quick to use and love the way I can build colour just where I need it, It's been a long since I last used them and it was a pleasant suprise to know I could still colour reasonably well with them.

 Hope you like and thank you for stopping by
Kathleen

I will enter this card into the following challenges....

I Love Promarkers - Music theme
Sir Stampalot - What's Your Crafty Passion
Top Tip Tuesday - One For The Men

Get well note card

Blimey!!! Blogger have changed everything since my last post, not sure where anything is any more .....Duh!  That'll teach me to keep up with things.

Anyway down to the nitty gritty I made this card for my aunt who at 91 has had wonderful health until eighteen months ago when she had a stroke and last week she was in hospital fighting Septis, I'm not sure where she found the strength to fight the infection but she did and is now thankfully back at home making a full recovery......Hope this card helps to cheer her up, I know I enjoyed making it for her.

I've used a Penny Black stamp that I've had quite a while, can't remember if it was raining the last time I used it but it certainly was tonight as I coloured the image.   I chose Fabriano Classcio 5 water colour paper to stamp the image and used Faber Castell Polychromo pencils to colour the image.

I will enter this card into the following challenges.

Bunny Zoes's Crafts - Girls, Girls, Girls
Crafty Bloggers network - Anything Goes


Thank you for visiting
Kathleen

Gift bag

Hi All,  Sorry this is a short post,  I'd forgotten I had these blank Kraft bags and as I've never decorated one before I though this was the ideal opportunity to bring out my Maganolia Tilda stamp and create the birthday gift bag shown below.

I've used the sketch featured on Tomic and coloured Tilda with Aqua Markers

I will enter this into the following challenges.
Tomic #39 - Tilda's Birthday Sketch

A Clean and Simple Card

Hi all, sorry for the long absence from blogging I just could not find the interest to craft I seem to have been in a craftless void ( not a nice place to be in)  Still I came across a couple of stamps that inspired me to pull out the paints and inks and it's playtime again :-) 

I came across this stamp which is taken from one of Michael Powell's paintings.  I've always liked his work and it was a joy to see his designs for stamping.  I  just love detail and these stamps have plenty of it. 

I have to be honest and say that as much as I love these stamps they give a pretty poor print out when stamped, in the end I resorted to placing the card stock over the inked stamp to get a clearer impression, there is a little too much detail and I found it best to leave white area's and to omit painting some details otherwise you can end up with the image looking a complete mess.  Yeah this was my second attempt.

To colour the image I used a selection of soft muted Aqua Markers on watercolour paper.  I deliberately kept my brush strokes loose dropping different colours into each other.  I cut around the image and adhered to plain white card stock. the text is from a Lily of the Valley set of stamps.  A clean, simple card which I quite like.

I've also included a quick tutorial at the end of this post to show how I make my ticket strips.

I will be entering this card into the following challenges

Passion for Promarkers - 138 Colour Challenge

Crafters Companion - Anything Goes

Sir Stampalot - In The Garden

Stamps and Fun Creativity - #88 - Non Cute

Stampman - Colours of Spring

2 Sisters Challenge - anything Goes

Party Time Tuesdays - Anything Goes

TICKET STRIP TUTORIAL

I keep holding back from buying a die for ticket strips, mainly because I'm too lazy to figure out how to cut the strip without the extra long cutting platforms, I'd rather put my money into pens and ink with this in mind I came up with this method of creating tickets which I think look pretty good. 

First you will need cardstock the tickets can be any size but for this demonstration I cut a strip of cardstock 1" x  10"  I then marked the strip into 2" lengths  on both sides of the strip as shown below.

 I used a standard single hole punch to make the notches by placing the card halfway into the punch. 

Score along the dotted lines and Voila easy handmade blank ticket strip ready to decorate.

Hope you like and thank you for stopping by

Kathleen x

Cup Cake's galore

Hi everyone, last week I came across a great magazine dedicated to cup cakes as I always create a mess when baking I decided to take the magazine apart, laminate and bind the recipe's.  I've used a sweet image from  Mo Manning which I've coloured with Promarkers, sorry  I can't remember where I bought the wood letters or the papers used. Anyways I'm really happy with the end result except the picture which could have been better, still that's the way it goes.

I've not entered any challenges for ages and as the theme over at Sir Stampalot has a foody theme I though I would enter for the fun.

Sir Stampalot October Challenge

Thank you for stopping by

Kathleen x

Molly Blooms

Wow....... Another card in matter of days, the elusive card making mojo has returned, not sure how long it will last so I'd better make the most of it :-)  So in keeping with the celebration what is more appropriate than Molly with her banners.

For the this card I've used a Molly Blooms stamp using the sketch from this weeks challenge over at Passion For Pro markers, sorry the papers are mix of scraps so not sure who's they are.  The image was coloured with Pro markers, I've used seam binding for the bow and a Prima butterfly completes the card.

Hope you like
Kathleen xx

I will be entering this card into the following challenges
Passion For Promarkers - Sketch 
Charizma Cardz  - Sunshine Colours
Colour Create - Cream,Aqua, pale pink.
Craft Us Crazy - Anything Goes
Dutch Dare - Colour Combo
Divas By Design - Pastels
Flutterby Wednesday - #163 butterfly,Fairy or Angel

Molly Blooms Farm Yard Birthday Card

It's been weeks since my last post and for this I apologise, for whatever reason I lost that thing called Mojo having said this I had a pleasant afternoon painting this Molly Bloom stamp which I've decoupaged onto watercolour paper, once this was done I decided to take the opportunity to create a birthday card, it's a simple enough card no frills or surprises but I have to admit I really like the simplicity of it.

I do have an issue the larger Molly Bloom stamps, the one above just fit my 6" x 4" acrylic block and with my Christmas scenic Molly Bloom I had to resort to using a DVD case which I found really difficult to centre and stamp evenly probably due to me having small hands!!   If anyone has found a better alternative to using the larger stamps I would love to know.  There was also a problem with the above stamp despite stamping the image a few times for the decoupage there was an area of the tree which did not make contact with the paper fortunately I managed to fill the gap with paint so that it was not noticeable.  Anyways it's nice to be back and I hope you like my latest effort.

Oops nearly forgot I coloured the image with inks on watercolour paper keeping a watercolour effect as I painted.

Kathleen x

I will enter this card into the following challenges.

Sir Stampalot - Anything Goes
Creative Craft Challenges - Let's 3D It

A Simple Birthday Card

This is the first card I've made since February and it's for my hubby who's birthday is on the 3rd May.  He did however tell me that he wanted a card without ribbons, flowers, or any rubbish sticking on it ( his words not mine).  The card actually became a challenge in itself firstly because I don't have many if any stamps suitable for men, I did find this LOTV stamp which I've not used before the second challenge was colour hubby's favourite colour is black, he wears nothing else but that colour.  With this in mind I decided use the Promarker cool grey's to colour the image, I had to make two attemps at the colouring as I wanted to leave a lot of white contrast for clarity.  The card stock is a textured Ivory, I've also stamped the image on the card insert.

I'm disappointed with the photographs as I had to take the pictures early this morning so the light was not great.  In reality the card looks  really crisp and neat. 

Hope you like
Kathleen x

I'm going to enter the card into the following challenges.

I Love Promarkers - No designer Papers
Crafty Creations - White Space
Moving along with the Times - Anything Goes
Creative Card Crew - Childs Play

Gift Box - Hat Box

I had the idea to make this gift box after chatting with Kaz at Crafty Bunch where she mentioned a challenge with a hat theme.  I already had this circular box and an old template for a hat and completed the project last night.  To be honest when I started to decorate the box I had in mind a more shabby look but like so many crafting projects they end up nothing like the original idea.

I've used a plain striped paper which I've stamped with tiny flowers and leaves along the base of the box and round the edges of the lid.  The hat was made from the template below and decorated with ribbon, flowers and trim.

Hat Template

I'm not sure who created the original template to give credit too except to say I've had it quite a few years.  I've writen the sizes I've worked to but any size can be worked from the diagram.

I was looking at  Sir Stampalot Challenge which is Ladies and Fashion and I think this project fits their theme.

Hope you like and thanks for stopping by
Kathleen x

I'm entering this project into the following challenge

Sir Stampalot - Ladies and Fashion
The Shabby Tea Room - #56 Spring Color

Paper Topiary

Hi everyone sorry I've not blogged for quite a while, the saying 'It never rains but it pours' comes to mind which put crafting and my blog on the back burner for a few weeks, it's only been this last week where I've felt like doing any crafting at all and I have to thank Sue of Crafty Bunch for getting me back on the crafting track with paper topiary tree's.

Sue had created a wonderful paper topiary tree and I just had to have a go myself, typical I'm a glutton for punishment and had to make three using my scrap leftover papers. 

• The tree on the left I made using the Nestabilites Scallop dies, wetting and scruching the circles into flowers shapes.  I left the flowers to dry and sprayed with starch and fixed to a round polystyrene ball with crafting glue ( I found after that a glue gun works so much better).  The base is a recycled tin which I've covered with paper and finished with a lace edge. (approx 50 flowers used)

• The flowers on the tree back right were made with a MS punch and another flower shaped punch, pinned together with brads and glued to the ball. the stems were made by holding a few wooden kebab sticks together and bound with Tim Holtz paper tissue or you could use Japanese washi tape the exact same thing with lots of colours and patterns to choose from. (approx 100 flowers used)

• The flowers on the front tree were made from using the two smallest flower shapes from the Tim Holtz 'Tattered Florals die. (approx 60 flowers used).

I hope you like this project as much as I did creating it.

Kathleen x

I will enter this project into the following challenge

Sir Stampalot - Spring is in the Air

Spring Is In The Air

I love Spring and to me it's the best time of year, I've noticed Crocus are starting to bloom giving a beautiful splash of colour, which makes me feel all warm and happy inside.  Having said this I've been  off colour all week so I've not had the energy to do very much this week and that includes crafting. 

I made the card above for the I ♥ Promarkers challenge, and theme is Stitching real or faux and of course the use of Promarkers, our sponsor is Digi Doodle Shops Best and for my card I chose this sweet  image as it had a lovely Spring/Summer feel to it.  I actually blew the dust off my sewing machine and stitched the background strip with pink cotton choosing a leaf type stitching to compliment the die cut leaves, flowers and a mix of designer papers to complete the card.

Before I forget I have a small blog candy giveaway just scroll down to my previous post and leave a comment I'll draw a winner on Friday.

Thank you for stopping by I really appreciate your comments
Kathleen x

Saturdays Child

Saturday's here and what better way to celebrate than using this fabulous image from Mo Manning  appropriately named Saturdays Child,  I've used Promarkers to colour the image and added a little bit of organic raffia seemed to suit the image.

I've also had a little sort out and came across two Crafters Companion Ink Pads as I only need one I'm putting the extra one on this post as a giveaway.  If you would like the chance to win just leave a comment on this post.  No need to become a follower I will draw a winner next Friday. I'll post world wide so everyone is welcome.

Kathleen x

I will enter this card into the following challenge

Sir Stampalot - All Creatures Great and Small

Mo's Savannah on Easter

Just a quick post I was browsing the challenges this morning and decided to have a go at Mo's Challenge which is a sketch by Cathy, I was just in the right frame of mind to have a couple hours of colouring and chose this image called Savannah on Easter, not that I had any thoughts of creating an Easter card, I just loved the image and had the urge to colour her with Promarkers, I've also added glitter to the edge of the petticoat but as always happens the camera has not picked this up.  The backing papers are a mixed bunch of off cuts from other projects the daisies on the bottom edge of the image are paper punched and the heart is a Mariannes die, a few flowers completed the card.

Hope you like

Kathleen x

I am entering this card into

Mo's Challenge #70 a sketch by Cathy
Totally Paper Crafts - Do It With Digi's
Cute Card Thursday - Shiny Happy Cards
Dutch Dare - Show some Sparkle

Pretty Sitting Tilda

First I would like to thank everyone who entered the first I ♥ Promarkes Birthday Blog Hop and for all your lovely comments.  I used the random generator thingy and the winner of my gift is....Drum roll............

Denise - The Crafty Den

Congratulations Denise if you could contact me with your details I'll get the goodies in the post, you can reach me at this email address  tcup@hotmail.co.uk

Now onto my card for the latest I ♥ promarker Challenge and the theme for this week is Paper Piecing and our sponsor  is Die Cut Dreams.  Remember we need to see Promarkers being used to be eligible for the prize draw.

It seems ages since I last did a Tilda card and to be honest I bought this little beauty at the NEC last November and had completely forgotten I had her  (how sad is that), I've coloured her with Promarkers and the potted plant is an Hanglar Stanglar stamp which I bought sometime ago and it too is having its debut with Tilda, I've paper pieced the plant pot with some scrap DP, the flowers again are coloured with Promarkers.  The lacy cloth is cut from a paper doily, the flowers are from Wild Orchid and the backing papers are from the V&A Hanoverian collection.  Lol just lately all my cards seem to tilt to oneside I must get an arm prop when I'm taking the photo's.  Oh yes nearly forgot I used the word processor for the text on the plant tag and cut this freehand.

Thank you for stopping by and for your lovely comments
Kathleen x

I will enter this card into the following challenge
Magnolia Stamp Lovers - Pastels
Moving Along With The Times - Photo Inspiration

                                                   

Promarker Blending Demonstration

I thought it was time to have a play with the camcorder and create a demonstration on how I coloured this little Hanglar Stanglar image.

I make no apologies for the times I say 'Ivory' or for my peculiar Yorkshire/Midlands accent, I do however apologise for the grainy video's which I had to compress loosing quite a lot of picture quality.  I've divided the demonstration into three parts.  The jacket and hat are featured first followed by the skirt scarf etc finishing with skin tones and hair.

Part #1

Part #2

Part #3

I hope you enjoyed my demonstration

Kathleen x

I ♥ Promarkers Birthday Blog Hop

This week over on I ♥ ProMarkers, we’re having a Blog Hop to celebrate our 1st Birthday which will also be our weekly challenge. I hope you will all join us in our first ever Blog Hop, with a Birthday themed card and don't forget we need to see Promarkers being used on your project
We’ve got prizes from Whiff of Joy and Letraset for the lucky winner and also, all the DT girls have a little prize to give to someone leaving a comment on their blogs. The Blog Hop will end at 6 pm on Tuesday 1st February and the winners will be placed on the challenge blog, along with our next challenge, on Wednesday 2nd February.

For the Birthday Blog Hop I decided to make this card with one of the very popular digital stamp from Sugar Nelli, I've coloured her with promarkers and completed the card with flowers and a simple birthday sentiment.  Now on to my prize for the Birthday Blog Hop which is:-


                                       15 Colour Box Ink Pads plus a small wad of square doilies

                                      Plus 3 packs of Japanese papers, mulberry leaves and roses

For a chance to win, just leave me a comment and complete the hop around the DT blogs.
Here’s the sequence of DT blog, you need to hop around them in this order and leave your comment on each one.

Karen

Kate

Julie

Lorraine

Wynneth

Ruth

Tine

                Then go back to I ♥ ProMarkers and leave a picture of your project with Mr Linky.

                                    Good Luck and thank you for stopping by Kathleen x

I've entered this card into the following challenges
Cupcake #128 - Seeing Red
Whoopsi Daisy - Give Us Your Heart
Polka Doodles #5 - With Hearts
My time To Craft - Hearts and Flowers
Papertake Weekly - Have a Heart