Color Me Creative Challenge – Fluff your Feathers!

Hi there

This is a long post, I’m in a chatty mood lol



Today over at Color Me Creative we are having a new challenge which is all about fluffing your feathers! Each month  EVERY CMC Challenge Entry for that month gets the chance to win a prize and we also pick a random winner!  That winner will win a Gift Certificate to Oozak.com!

So we will have 1 Challenge Winner for EACH Challenge (prize listed below each challenge) AND 1 winner from all that month's challenges to win the Oozak Gift Certificate! Two ways to win, but you gotta play!!



This new challenge, #19, will run until June 10th!

‘Use the Inspiration Photos below to inspire your project if you'd like but your image should have feathers on it or something needs to be colored feather-like!!  If you don't have an image with feathers, than color feathers on a skirt, a flower, be CREATIVE!!!’



This challenge could be the technique feathering or just colouring feathers on angels, birds, fairies, it’s up to you.  When I heard what the challenge was I have to be honest I was worried!  I remember doing my Copic certification class where everyone was really good at feathering, and well to be honest I was amateurish!  I decided this was a technique I was going to crack!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to sign up to all of Suzanne’s online Copic classes, you can find more about them here. There were things I wanted to colour but wasn’t sure about. Now I can just pop in and out watching video lessons as and when I want to try out a new technique or learn about how to colour something.  For this card I watched a video in Class 2 which showed you how to feather.  My images started off absolutely appalling, but after several attempts I finally feel like I managed to learn how to do it properly.  I truly believe this is what Copic learning is all about, practice, practice, practice.  I don’t tend to get frustrated with it at all, I just think ‘ok, this/that didn’t work, I’ll try it a different way next time’.  Eventually, it finally comes together.

The advantage of being on Suzanne’s team, or even just joining in all of these challenges, is that you have to learn how to do it, you move outside of your comfort zone and it ‘makes’ you learn which often is the best way!

I’ve learnt so many things since doing the courses, one of which is that it’s ok to darken shadowed areas. When I first started I was a bit wary of adding too much shading, now I’m slowly starting to get a bit more adventurous .  More importantly though as you use your Copics you start to feel less intimidated by them, or by how well other people colour.  You just get on with it lol.

I’m not sure if you cantell from my photo but I ran out of black printer ink when I was printing off this cute little Hula Girl digi image from Make It Crafty, so I used navy instead!  That then triggered off the fact that I wanted to use some blues so I pulled out the fab new Echo Park ‘A Walk in the Park’ which worked really well with it.

With this card I’m not sure which was more exciting, the fact that I now ‘get’ feathering, or the fact that I managed to colour the whole image in using Sketches which I’ve been collecting for a while now.  I am so excited to share this little pot of colours with you. I know that’s sad, but it’s just so fun being able to show them all off in their glory.  A pot of total yumminess!  Yes, I’m an addict lol.



All of the DT girls have made their feather projects pop on by and let them know how lovely they are.

Charlene Randall
Brook Guinn
Anary Baumgarth
Melanie LaBelle
Tracy Valure
Marie Gamber

So even if you’re terrified of colouring feathers please join in with our challenge, you really will surprise yourself what you can do with just a little practice!  I have!

Sweet as Chocolate

Hiya

I made this card for the latest Card Positioning Systems challenge, hmmmm, the more I see it the more I NEED chocolate. Still, at least this is the non-calorific kind lol

The image and sentiment are from the Wax Fruit Company, by Arielle. I love her images, they are so much different.

Supplies

Stamps: 'Sweets for the Sweet' & 'Big Little Words' (digi)
Dies: Go Kreate Concentric Tag
Papers: Cosmo Cricket 'DeLovely', Crate Paper, 'Snow Day', Bazzill Atlantic
Copics: E47, E35, E33, BG15, BG13, BG11, B24, B23, B21, Y06, Y02, R29, R27, V06
Accessories: Craftwork Cards 'Legless Brads'

Ciao for now!

Etsy Inspired Challenge #132 - Fresh Metal Jewelry

Hello everyone!

It's time for this week's Etsy Inspired Challenge.  I thought I'd bring a bit of colour into your life!  They say carrots are good for your eyesight, well if you look very closely at the strip of digi paper running down the centre of the card you may well be able to make out little carrots!

This card is based on this week's Card Patterns sketch here.  I've moved the bow and I just did an extra wide panel instead of the embossed strips.

So onto our challenge....

 We have a fun shop for you this week - Fresh Metal Jewellery who are giving away this gorgeous Pretty Posey Vintage Lace Necklace.  Lots of the items for sale are reused or upcycled vintage items.

Look at this gorgeous colour combo..

and these were what inspired the flowers on my card.  They reminded me of little lettuces for my bunnies lol

Our sponsor this week is Amber Ink. 

AmberInk was started by a mother and daughter team. Amber lives in the East, Pam lives in the West. Amber is an Emmy nominated children's animator and illustrator, who creates from her Brooklyn, New York studio. Although they do carry some clear stamps, the company runs by the premise that their customers are more brilliant than patient. If you've been a diehard clear or rubberstamper, they can even help you with the transition to digital. And don't worry about asking a silly question, because as a retired public high school teacher, Pam has already seen it all. Check out the ever-increasing tutorial links, which you can find on the homepage. Hailing from the Hawaiian Islands, the Aloha Spirit is alive and well at AmberInk.com.

We were really kindly given the opportunity to play with some iPapers and Digi images, look at this adorable carrot paper, isn't it the sweetest!!  (this is what I used behind my centre panel) and then I used my gorgeous little digi bunnies too!  There are so many gorgeous images to choose from, you can even get some iPaper that has the same images coloured in on patterned paper, so cute!

Thank you Amber Ink, these were really fun to play around with!

Amber Ink are offering up a prize of a $15 Gift Certificate to use in the store!

So pop on over to check out what the rest of the DT made and then check our main blog for all of the prize information.   (sorry about the size of the links for the DT, it's either that size or enormous, despite playing the font size is misbehaving!!)

Angi Barrs

Carole Chesser

De Swanick
Emily Branch
Jackie Bowman 

Joy Stagg
Kerry Angeles  
Libby Hickson {March Guest DT}

Ruby McGuire (that's me!)

Savannah O'Gwynn
Sherry Campbell

Virginia Lu

Deadline for entries is Friday 1st April (already?!!!) at noon PST. If posting to an online gallery please use EIC#132.

Have fun and don't forget there are some fab prizes to be won!!

A bit of Fun - No need to adjust your screens!

Hi there

Today I have a fun card to share with you using a digi image that Kristen Powers gave Sav (over at Savannahland2) and I to play with. We decided to challenge ourselves to make a card up and thought it would be fun to make this cute little French girl for Valentine's Day.  Sorry about the background paper, it does look funny on my pc, all those little grids make my eyes go wonky lol

Sav got to post her card early because I've been having a nightmare with my computer.  We had a power out yesterday morning and it threw out our wireless connection.  For my Denami blog hop I had to talk my Mum through how to load a picture in Blogger.  Fortunately, I'd already written the post, just not added the piccie.  Phew, thanks for your help Mum.  I couldn't have done it without you!

It's really fun seeing how differently people interpret things.  I thought the girl's hat was the two separate sections, but I see Sav has done the top part as her hat and the rest as her hair.  Sav's is right, it's blatantly obvious to me now, but it just never occurred to me when I was colouring that it was her hair, I thought her hair was under her hat!!  Sorry Kristen for getting it wrong!!!  Now, I would have remade it, but if you knew just how loooooong it takes me to work with digi you would know that just wasn't an option so I hope I'm forgiven!  The little heart has the words 'je t'aime' on it.

The papers are Cosmo Cricket, the sentiment is this free digi one by Arielle, isn't it fun!

Go and see what Sav made, she did a much better job of it than me, but it was fun seeing what we both came up with.  She's just found out she won over at Papercrafts Connection too, so go on over and congratulate her!  Sav and I just 'clicked' when we first started chatting, we've been friends ever since.  Thanks for the challenge sweetie! x

So, I'm off to check up on my poor little princess who got sent home from school today, she's in bed but very restless.  I will be around to comment over the next few days, but with my pc being down and her being poorly I'm very behind.  Thank you for all your wonderful comments on my Denami blog hop card yesterday, I had fun reading them on my Blackberry.  It kept me sane when I couldn't get on line properly!  I've tried to do comments from it but it takes too long to load and times out. 

It's good to be back in the land of the living!

Take Time to Smell the Coffee

Hey there everyone!  Hope you're having a good week.

It's challenge day over at the Play Date Cafe challenge blog.  Another week's gone by, was I asleep?! I must be getting old, time is definately going by a lot quicker than it used to!

Ok, so enough chit chat from me. Here is my card for the week, plus details of the latest challenge.

The colours this week were created by Mona.  Gorgeous colours, we all need a bit of spring right now after the winter we've had, don't we?  Well that is if you're not in a part of the world that is in a different season!!

Hands up if you love coffee?!!  I do, and drink a little bit too much of it really.  This week we have a 'celebrity' guest designer and sponsor, Kristen Powers, from KPink.  As part of the challenge we could use one of her digi images. Now me being the caffeine addict and all that I decided I would definately give it a go with this cute little cup and saucer. Check out her blog for her designs, they are lovely!  I have got my eye on the little girl with the plaster, and those yummy owls.  Which ones do you like?

So then came the next challenge, from Sarah, one of the senior DT, to see what we could come up with, whether it was colouring with pencils, copics, paints etc. paper piecing, copics, prismacolour, inks (ink image and paper piece), coloured paper paper pieced, crayons, watercolour paint, acrylic paint, software program... I decided I would do some paper piecing. I'm always saying I will give it a go, but never do. That's what these challenges are all about, right?  To push us out of our comfort zone?  What fun! I had a great time playing with this over the weekend. This card definately didn't take me 10 minutes, more like 10 hours lol. No seriously though, I spent so much time playing around with different ideas that I couldn't tell you how long it took, but I had a lot of fun! It was nice just sitting playing with a pair of scissors and cutting out little bits of paper, very therapeutic, must be something to do with when I was a child lol.

Here are the card details

1. Get out lots of patterned paper, a pair of scissors and play.  Enjoy the creative process!
2. Print digi image onto white cardstock and paper piece with patterned paper/plain cardstock
3. Cover card base with lavender cardstock
4. Cut out two squares, one in cream, the other in plum
5. Adhere plum square directly onto card base
6. Attach ribbon to lavender square before pop dotting onto plum to add dimension
7. Die cut a circle and scallop in lavender and plum, as shown
8. Assemble and attach scallop circle, adding paper pieced digi image
9. Stamp sentiment, cut into a square label and attach to card
10. Using liquid applique add foam to the coffee to bring it to life, heating the foam until it looks frothy.  Add some to the side of the cup to look as if the foam is overflowing
11. Put the kettle on and make a cuppa, all that hard work deserves a coffee!

Dies: Sizzix 'Circles #1', 'Scallop'
Digi Image & Stamps: KPink coffee cup, Impression Obsession stamps 'Smell the Coffee'
Paper: Bazzill cardstock, plum 'velvet' paper from local craft shop 
Accessories:  Basic Grey pad, white liquid applique, ribbon and purple pearls from stash

You may not be able to tell from the photo but the plum 'paper' is actually velvet in texture, which gives it added dimension. 

Don't forget to check out the rest of the talented design team's projects ....

Julie Ranae (Senior DT)

Mona Pendleton (Senior DT)

Sarah Anderson (Senior DT)

Lisa Somerville

Savannah O'Gwynn

Stephanie Kraft

Suzanne Czosek

Ciao for now!

Silly cards :o)

Hi there

I thought I would share a couple of fun cards that Natasha and I made for our friends. I came across these digi downloads from Doodle Dragon Studios via Dahlhouse Designs.

My friend is mad about owls so when I saw the owl on Lisa's blog I just knew I had to have a go. I must like this particular friend a lot because although I do have rather a lot of copics they don't get used at the moment for fear of the colouring not being good enough!! Naughty, I know, but I just need to learn more about how to use them. I can't quite get the effect I'm looking for.

Anyway, I had bought some owl paper many months ago that was crying out to be used in one form or another, and thought that a twig would go really well on the card. We were out last Sunday walking the dog so I had a look around for a nice twig while we were out. I found exactly what I was looking for after a little bit of hunting, so was very pleased. On the way home we needed some stationery items so I popped into a shop to pick some up. While I was looking around I bumped into someone I knew. She looked at my hand and then I realised I was still clutching onto my little twig! I smiled and said she probably wondered why I had a twig, and explained that I make hand made cards so needed one for that. I was telling Ian the story afterwards and he said she must have thought I was very odd making cards with twigs, and can only begin to imagine what outdated style of cards she would think I had been making!!!! It seemed really funny when you looked at it like that lol. I guess there's a bit of a mad crafting person inside all of us cardmakers, isn't there? Isn't there?!!!!

Natasha's friend loves dragons, so she fell in love with this little image and set to work on making up a card. She wanted to do a circle scallop card, and this was the result.

I think she did a really good job, don't you?

I have a few cards to show you this week, so pop back soon :o)

Dotty Sisters!

Hi there

Well first of all I must share our good news...We FINALLY exchanged contracts on our house today. Woohoo, we are moving on 7th April, I can't believe we've actually resolved all of the little bits and pieces that were holding everything back! It's been going on for ages!!

I wanted to enter a challenge over at Dotties World. I've been buying things from Karen at Charmed Cards & Crafts probably for a couple of years now. (mostly Basic Grey papers!!) Her site is fab and her service is too! She's really lovely, she always sends a little token gift with my order, such as toppers for cards or some ribbon etc, and she goes out of her way to help. I don't know about you but it's that kind of thing that keeps me a loyal customer. Anyway, enough of me chatting, onto my card...! Can you tell I'm excited that we're moving?!



So, the details....I used cardboard pre-cut shapes, I don't normally buy them but I just couldn't resist when I saw these Amy Butler ones that match my pad. I used my Copics, gasp, horror! Yes, I'm using them :o) I've had to play around with them to get used to how they work and to be honest I didn't really have enough colours before to be able to use them properly. Also, I kept on getting blurring where the colour would run outside of the edges. I seem to have worked it out now that if I leave it to dry for a moment before trying to blend it seems to stop the problem.

The challenge was to use two downloads from Charmed Cards & Crafts on the card. Why is it that I choose to enter a challenge where I need to use not just one download, but two?!! I don't make it easy for myself, do I? I decided to use my Holly & Madison downloads. They are gorgeous designs. I also wanted to use my Amy Butler papers so chose a theme of lime, grey, blue and green. I thought that the card needed a bit more colour, hence the red accents that I used to colour the girls.

I split the card into two thirds lime and one third blue/grey DP and then added three tags at the bottom. The first wide one was pop dotted, the second circular one was just stuck on to the first, and the sentiment tag was pop dotted. The tag 'My Sister, My Friend' kind of sparked off the whole design. I thought I could go with the idea that Holly & Madison were sisters.

I printed the downloads and coloured them with Copics, colour details below. I adhered them to two rectangles and stuck them at angles. (They remind me of those little collector cards that people get framed!) Finally I added a few small die cuts from the set, and voila the Dotty Sisters were born! I was going to add pearls but it looked a bit too much. I'm still not sure if the card is too busy as it is.

Digi Downloads: Charmed Cards & Crafts, 'Holly & Madison'
Paper & Tags: Amy Butler Faded China
Pens: Copic B05, R00, E93, RV21, YG03, YG67, G21, B00, B23, Y11, R27, R59, E33, E35, E47, C-1, C-5, C-7, 100

I still need to sort out better skin colours with my Copics but that will come in time. This girl needs to set a craft budget. Do any of you do that? If so, how do you do it? Is it weekly, monthly? I am terrible though.. If I don't buy it you can guarantee it is discontinued or gone by the time I go back to get it. If I do buy it I find it cheaper somewhere else afterwards lol. What's a girl to do?!

Oh by the way, the chocolate cravings have subsided thank goodness. I kind of killed them with a big bar of chocolate on Mother's Day. Well, it has to be celebrated, doesn't it! ;o)

I hope you like my cards, I'd love some feedback, particularly on the Copic colouring in!

Have a good evening. I'm off to watch Holby City now! ♥