Easter Honey Pip

Hi, how are you this afternoon?

It has turned cold and miserable here so I thought I would watch an old film on TV and make an Easter card or two.

This little sweetheart is Honey Pip from the Sugar Nellies, Sherbet Pips Range of rubber stamps.

I have coloured her with Promarker Pens and mounted the image onto gold card.  The backing paper is from a Polka Doodle CD and the fab little daffodils are from WOC, the ribbon is from my stash.

If you are looking for my other Easter cards for the Crafty Boots Easter Challenge, they can be found at ........

Chicky Pip (click here)
Easter Challenge (click here)
Eggs Will Roll! (click here)

You just have time to pop over the the Crafty Boots Challenges blog and enter your Easter cards into this challenge.

Good luck.


Dionne


I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Anything Goes Challenge - #63 Get Ready for Easter 

Aud Sentiments Challenge - #51 Easter 

Crafty Sentiments - Easter 

Delightful Challenges - Easter

Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - Easter
Penny's Paper-Crafty - #76 Easter
Ruby's Rainbow - #25 Easter
Scrapbook Sisters - #77 Easter
The Squirrel & the Fox - #14 Easter
4 Crafty Chicks - #83 Easter and Crazy Egg!

Apple Pip

As any regular reader of my blog will tell you, I just love the Sherbet Pips rubber stamps from Sugar Nellies Home Grown range.

This is Apple Pip, isn't she adorable?

I coloured her with Promarkers.  The 'apple blossoms' are No 5 Forever Flowers, to these I added a small pearl in the centre.  Finally I added the butterfly, which is a Marianne Creatable die, and some Kanban Craft gems.

The polka dot paper is by Dovecraft.

I have entered this card in the following challenges:

Inky Impressions Challenge #52 - Flower Power!
Make it Monday - Anything Goes
One Stitch at a Time - Anything Goes
Party Time Tuesday #61 - Anything Goes
Passionately Artistic - Anything Goes
Riley and Company - Spring/Easter theme card or project that included polka dots!
Simon Says Stamps - Anything Goes

Dionne

Chicky Pip

Hi

Another lovely day here, you can certainly feel spring all around at the moment.

I seem to be easily distracted this week and have not done as well as I would have liked with my Easter cards. However, I have finished another one, which I wanted to show you.

Sugar Nellie's Home Grown range have issued several new digital Sherbet Pip stamps, this one is called Chicky Pip.

As you can see, I decided to make this image into a circle easel card.  After colouring the stamp with my Promarkers, I mounted it onto Craftwork Cards Ice Cream Parlour Scallop Doillies and added flat backed gems from Kanban Crafts and Card Candi, also from Craftwork Cards.  The additional paper is by DoveCraft.

The Deluxe Crafter Card that I printed the digi stamp onto, and all of the Craftwork Card supplies, came from the Crafty Boots on-line store.

I hope to have some more Easter cards posted by the end of the week.


Dionne

Jelly Pip

Hi

Where has this week gone? It only seems like yesterday that I sat posting my cards for the Crafty Boots Easter Challenge.  (If you are looking for my Easter cards post, please click here.)

I think this Sugar Nellie Home Grown stamp is sooooo cute, she is called Jelly Pip from the Sherbet Pip range.

The backing paper is from DoveCraft and the card blank and sentiment are from Craftwork Cards - I bought these from Crafty Boots.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.


Dionne

Eggs Will Roll!

I know it's a bit of a groan but my mind is a blank and I just cannot come up with neat post titles this morning.

I was thinking of making a card like this using glitter to make a mosaic design on the egg but I always end up with some of the glitter in the wrong area and spoiling the overall effect of the design.  Then I remembered that many years ago I tried my hand at making my own Easter Eggs.  I have no idea what happened to the egg shaped moulds but I knew exactly where to lay my hands on the foil wraps that came in the kit.

I cut four egg shapes from card and covered one of them with a foil wrap.  I then added the ribbon and bow and the sentiment.

I mounted the egg onto some folded acetate then covered it with one of the other egg shapes to hide the back of the first egg.  I then did the same to the other half of the acetate so that I will have somewhere to write my message.

There are a couple of things you have to keep in mind when you make this type of card.  The first is that you need to be very careful when cutting the egg shapes to ensure that all four are exactly the same size and shape so that they sit neatly over one another on the acetate and do not peek out from under the top one.  The other is to ensure that the acetate is thick enough to stand under the weight of all of the 'eggs' but not too thick, you do not want it to crack when you score it.   

Happy crafting.

Dionne

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Lexi's Creations - # 61 Easter

Easter Challenge

Hi

Spring is in the air and over at Crafty Boots Challenges there is a brand new challenge.  For the next two weeks the theme is Easter.

Unfortunately, I am not having a very good day.  Halfway through loading my photographs for this challenge my laptop crashed and I have not been able to get it going again.  All of the photographs for my design team post were locked inside the laptop and I could not extract them.  So I have had to start again from scratch and power up my ancient, and excruciatingly slow, PC to load them onto my blog.

So, apologies to everyone for the lateness of this post.  I should also warn you that it is a rather long post with quite a few photographs.

I have a number of nieces and nephews and I thought that I would make each of them a card and matching basket of eggs for Easter.

The fabulous dress-up bunny is a Teddy Bo and Co image called Easter Bunny Bea.  I used a combination of Flexmarkers, Promarkers and WOS to colour the images and I downloaded the egg basket template art4crafts.com.

The paper is by Dove Craft and the eggs, which I printed on photo paper, are from Spring Chic, a Docrafts CD. 

I printed the template for the egg basket onto the reverse of some glittered card twice, cutting the second copy slightly smaller than the first to make the lining of the basket.  I created the handle with a Martha Stewart punch and threaded polka dot ribbon through it. I attached the handle with white brads - to match the dots on the ribbon. 

I used another Teddy Bo and Co image for this easel card, it is called Easter Bunny Bo.  I added some more eggs to keep the card open and distressed a piece of white card to give me somewhere to write my message.

This cute bunny and chick image is by Sylvia Zet and, as with the other cards, the papers are by Dove Craft.

Instead of using glitter card for this basket I used Crafty Boots Deluxe Crafter's Card and coloured it with Promarkers.

Oww, it's so hard not to eat the little chocolate eggs!

I have a few more cards and baskets to make, so I need to get back to it, but I hope this may have given you some ideas.

Why not pop over to Crafty Boots Challenges and see the fantastic projects the other Design Team Members have come up with.

And once again, my apologies for the lateness of this post and my poor photographic skills.


Dionne

Muffins Anyone?

I have a final Mother's Day card to post today.

This is another of my bargain Digi Web Studio images, I coloured this cute little cook with my Promarkers, the papers are from a Docraft CD but I cannot remember which.  The lace is from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Dionne

Happy Mother's Day

In the UK it is Mother's Day today.

In memory of my mother, her mother and her mother's mother, and all the way back through my  family, I have made a card and a matching tag to celebrate the lives of all these strong, caring, wonderful women who each shaped the next generation.

This lovely Teddy Bo and Co stamp is called "Dressmaker Bea", isn't she delightful?

I coloured the image with my Flexmarkers and Promarkers and mouted it on gold mirri board.  I then distress some white card with Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Stormy Sky and used a Promarker to colour the doily.

The roses and diamante buckle charm are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the die is a Marianne Creatable Die called Branch Forest.  The pink ribbon is from my stash.

I made the tag in much the same way only on a slightly smaller scale.

And before I go, to all of you who are mothers, no matter where you are, happy Mother's Day and thank you for doing everything you do.

I am entering this card and tag in the following challenges:

Teddy Bo Challenge - Menu

Dionne

I Couldn't Eat Another Mouthful

Good morning

I had planned to go to a craft fair at Olympia this weekend but instead I am stuck at home with a nasty cough and cold - so I thought I would catch up on my posting.  I hope that you are able to make good use of your weekend.

I bought this House-Mouse stamp three or four weeks ago intending to use it for the Crafty Boots Challenge "Food, Glorious Food", but I didn't finish my card in time.  However, all is not lost, I am able to use it for the current challenge "All That Glitters ...." because I used my Wink of Stella pens on the frosting and the little marzipan balls in the corner and made it all sparkly.

I also used my Flexmarkers and Promarkers to colour the stamp and I added some Glossy Accents to the candle.  The matching papers and sentiment came from the House-Mouse Inserts CD.

The large butterfly die is a Marianne Creatable and the small butterflies are by Spellbinder.  The gorgeous flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the ribbon and gems are from my stash.

Most of the cards I make tend to have something shiny, shimmering, sparkly or glittered on them but if you are looking for the cards I specifically made for the Crafty Boots "All that Glitters ....." challenge, they are as follows:

• Golden Dandelions (click here)
• Golden Heart (click here)
• Silver Wedding Anniversary (click here)
• Glittered Dandelion (click here)
• Spring Bringer (click here)
• Happy Birthday Leighanne (click here)
• Have a Fun Birthday (click here)

There is still time to enter this challenge, so happy crafting and good luck.


Dionne

Have a Fun Birthday

Hi

A little while ago I made a monochrome card using browns and sepia, I liked the effect so much I wanted to try it again and this lovely stamp from IndigoBlu seemed the perfect opportunity.

I used my Flexmarkers and Promarkers to colour the stamp and my Wink of Stella brown pen to colour the hearts on the White Rabbit's tabard.  The rich brown glitter card is by Dove Craft.

This White Rabbit is part of a large Alice in Wonderland set, they are all really lovely and I hope to use the rest of the set over the next few weeks.


Dionne

Lavender Candy Pip

Here is a very simple card featuring Sugar Nellie's Home Grown stamp, Candy Pip from the Sherbet Pip range.

The Background paper is from DoveCraft and I added a few Craftwork Candi to accent the design.

Happy Birthday Leighanne

This Teddy Bo & Co image is just perfect for a very special little girl's first birthday.  

Happy birthday Leighanne! 

This gorgeous image is called Friends.  I coloured it with my Promarkers and then I cut it out with my Nesties and mounted it on some purple glitter board and silver card.

The paper is from Dovecraft and the sentiment is from Kanban Crafts.  Finally, I added a couple of buttons.


Dionne

The Versatile Blogger Award

Wow, I could hardly believe it when I read the message in my in tray - I had been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by the fabulous Michaela. I am so thrilled to be nominated for this award.

Michaela is a very talented lady who has only been making cards since June of last year, I know I have said this before, but I find it amazing that she has been paper crafting for less than a year.  If you do not already know Michaela's work, please pop over to her blog and take a look at it.

It is such an honour to receive this award and I should like to say a massive thank you to Michaela for nominating me.

This award comes with its rules (click here to read the rules in full) ..........

• You should thank the person who gave you this award.
• Include a link to their blog,
• Select 15 blogs that you have either recently discovered or follow regularly,
• Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award,
• Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

"If you are nominated, you have been awarded the Versatile Blogger award". 

My nominations for the Versatile Blogger Award are all people who inspire me with their amazing work,  They are:

Amy @ Crafty Thinker

Clairebears @ Clairebears World

Debbie @ Little Gingham Bear

Denise @ Crafty Daffy

Elaine @ Wheelers Craftiness

Emma @ Emzycards

Emma @ Pink Sparkle Days

Faye @ Faye's Crafty Corner

Gabrielle @ Crafty Thoughts

Gro @ Gro Tjeltveit

Kerry @ Scrapbookerry

Michaela @ Michaela's Blog

Stephanie-Emma @ Crafty Boots

Tracie @ Crafters Block

Zoe @ Crafty Gashead Zo

I could have nominated many more people, including everyone in the Teddy Bo DT, who I think are just amazing.

Now the hard part, seven things about me ....

1. I have been crafting almost all of my life.
2. I am interested in lots of crafts, not just paper crafting, like cross stitch, crochet, cooking and other things that do not begin with C. 
3. I have been married for 33 years.
4. My husband and family are the most important things in the world to me and I am particularly blessed because I have two wonderful families.
5. I probably have the worlds messiest home because I cannot find places to keep all of my craft things, they seem to tumble out of every corner and it is no longer safe to go into some of the rooms in our house, LOL.
6. I watch far too much TV, mostly crime dramas and repeats of old family favourites.
7. I make cards and scrapbook for my own pleasure but I harbour a secret desire to be able to do it for a living, no stop laughing!

Dionne

Jolly the G ......... Jiraffe!

Another Teddy Bo & Co stamp today.  This one is called Jolly the G .......... Jiraffe!

The rosette die is from Memory Box.

Spring Bringer

All morning I have been posting the cards I have made for the new Craft Boots challenge - All that Glitters..............

This fabulous Sylvia Zet image is covered in glitter, but I am not sure you can see it from this photograph.

I coloured the image with my Promarkers and used my Nesties to create the frame.  I added a few flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and the paper is from a Forever Friends CD.

For now, this is my final post for the new Crafty Boots Challenge - All that Glitters, you can see my other posts below, but why not pop over to the Crafty Boots Challenges blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created, they really are very talented ladies.

Dionne

Glittered Dandelion

Earlier this morning I posted some cards I had made using a gilding technique.  This got me wondering whether the technique could be used with glitter.

I stamped one of the Personal Impressions dandelions stamps onto some dark brown pearlised card using Versamark, I then sprinkled it with Stamp n Bond and melted it with my heat gun.  Next, I covered it with glitter and pressed it well into the tacky impression.

I mounted it on some gold mirri board and placed it onto some dark red glitter card from Dovecraft.  I added some sparkly organza ribbon and some flat backed gems.

It was very hard to photograph, perhaps you can see the detail a little better in this close up.

Dionne

Silver Wedding Anniversary

I made this card for the Silver Wedding Anniversary of my best friend and her husband.

Congratulations on being married for 25 years guys.  By the way, I'm looking forward to dancing at your Golden Wedding anniversary party!

I used a sheet of Claritystamp double sided adhesive and stamped it with this old Stampendous bells and ribbons stamp, I must have had this stamp in my stash for about 15 years.

Stamping the image on one side of the sheet of double sided adhesive and left it to dry.  Once dry, I covered the image with a sheet of acetate.  Turning the sheet over, I carefully cut out the image with my craft knife.  I removed the ribbon and confetti sections from the backing sheet (taking care to leave the paper covering the bells and the background in place) and covered the exposed area with gold gilding flakes.  Once this was done I was able to remove the rest of the backing paper and cover the remaining area with silver leaf.

I think I should mention that the gilding flakes are a lot easier to use than the silver leaf, which is so light, it gets everywhere and I needed to vacuum all my furniture and myself after using it.  I shall stick to gilding flakes in future.

I used a Nestability die to cut an aperture into the silver card and added a peel off.

Dionne

Gilded heart

I have another card made using gilding flakes.  

I have had this IndigoBlu heart stamp for a few weeks but had not worked out how best to showcase it, then I saw this technique on a card entered in a recent Crafty Boots Challenge.  I was so impressed, I set about investigating how to achieve the effect.

As with the dandelion card I posted a little while ago, I stamped the heart stamp onto some dark brown pearlised card using Versamark, I then sprinkled it with Stamp n Bond and melted it with my heat gun.  Next, I covered it with gilding flakes and took off the excess with a brush.

I mounted it on some gold mirri board and placed it onto a Craftwork Cards scallop edge card.  The sentiment is also from Craftwork Cards.

Dionne

Golden Dandelions

Good morning

Can you believe that it is March already?  Spring is on it's way at last, although it is hard to believe that today!

It is time for another challenge at Crafty Boots Challenges and it is the turn of my favourite embellishment, glitter.  I love a bit of glitter on my cards and at Christmas everything in the house is covered in it, including our food and the cat.

This challenge gives us all a good excuse to get out all our favourite glittery things and use them.  You do not have to restrict yourself to your glitter station because the title of this challenge is All that Glitters...........

I have been experimenting with my gilding flakes for this card.

I stamped these Personal Impressions dandelions stamps onto some dark brown pearlised card using Versamark, I then sprinkled it with Stamp n Bond and melted it with my heat gun.  Next, I covered it with gilding flakes and took off the excess with a brush.

I mounted it on some gold mirri board and placed it onto some dark brown glitter card from Dovecraft.  I added some sparkly organza ribbon and the dragonfly charm.

As you can see from this close up you can get some very fine detail using this method.

This lovely dragonfly charm came from IndigoBlu.

Why not pop over to the Crafty Boots Challenges bog to see the fabulous creations made by the other Design Team members.


Dionne

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hi

I hope you have had a good week and are ready for the weekend.

I was up early this morning so I got out my Promarkers and spent a couple of happy hours making this card.

The little cook is from Digi Web Studio and was a real bargain because they currently have a sale on.  The Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe stamp I have had for about 15-20 years and I am pretty sure this is the first time I have used it!  The paper is from a Polka Doodle CD and the sentiment is a Craftwork Cards one.

By the way, there is still time to enter the Food, Glorious Food challenge over at Crafty Boots Challenges, you have until noon (GMT) Sunday to enter.  Good luck.


Dionne