Blogiversary Blog Candy

As it's coming up to the anniversary of my first crafting blog post on 5th March, I thought I'd share the love with my friends in blog land by handing out a bit of candy :-)

Once I reach 50 followers, I will do a random draw of all my followers and give away the following candy:

3 meters each of 8 lovely ribbons in various widths
12 gorgeous dusky blue paper roses 
A craftilicious necklace kit (my own design) - which will make the necklace you can see on my blog here and includes semi-precious gems, freshwater pearls and all the findings you need to complete the design.

Here's the finished necklace - its very easy to make, even for beginners, you just need pliers.

So, you know what to do, click the little link on the right and follow me and leave a comment on this post.  Only followers will be eiligble.   That's all there is to it!   I am happy to post world-wide so you don't have to be in the UK to be eligible for the candy.  Don't forget to tell your friends there is candy up for grabs....

Thanks :-)

Outside the Frame

Today I decided to play with one of my new Tildas - as soon as I saw that great big fluffy bow on her head I knew I had to have her - I'm loving the bloomers too!

She is coloured with copics, cut out with a nestability and set off centre on another.  The background papers are from the Basic Grey Wisteria pad.  Some co-ordinating paper roses and a bow finish her off.

 

This is another one of the images I used to practice hair colouring - the tops work, but I need more practice on the long and flowing bits.

Over at top tip Tuesday last week, they showed you the technique for having bits of your image outside of the frame when using nestabilities.  I've done it a couple of times before but forgot how much I liked the effect, so I had another go at it so I am entering the card in their challenge this week.  http://toptiptuesday.blogspot.com/2011/02/top-tip-21-outside-frame-tutorial-frame.html

Over at Just Magnolia they had a sketch, which was rather a complicated one, and this is my interpretation of it.  http://justmagnolia.blogspot.com/2011/02/week-93-minas-sketch.html 

Thanks for visiting....

    Craftilicious x

Kraftin Kimmie Challenge

This is week two of my efforts to gain the April GDT spot on the Kraftin Kimmie Design Team.  To play along check out this blogpost

The challenge this week was a recipe - 3 main colours, 2 designer papers, one ribbon, one button.  I decided to pick my papers first and take the colours from them.  I selected a lovely floral from the My Minds Eye Pretty Please pad and selected 3 matching copics to colour my image with.

I ordered a load of new stamps in Kimmie's Birthday sale last week, and unbelievably, they made it all the way from Canada and arrived this morning :-)   It was hard choosing which to colour first but I plumped for Nadine.  I flat coloured her dress in the copics, then overshaded with matching tones of pencils for added depth.

I used the teal colour to match the second paper, also from the same paper pad, and also for the ribbon and button.  I tied a double bow on the wonderful bow easy, and tied a polka dot button into its centre.  Some colour co-ordinated sizzix corners and a few gems tied it all together.

I've been practicing hair colouring this week - think I'm finally getting where to put the highlights!

The challenge post for this week can be found here http://kraftinkimmiestamps.blogspot.com/2011/02/challenge-65-recipe.html  and the DT's have used the AMAZING new stamps from Annie - don't you just luuuurve that Grease theme???   I know what I'll be doing tomorrow...........

Thanks for visiting....

    Craftilicious x

Valentines are Red

Whilst I was still in a romantic mood in the run up to V-day next Monday, I decided to ink up a new magnolia stamp - tilda with lots of hearts - isn't she a cutie??? 

I used a mix of copics and pencils to colour her in, with some glitter on the hearts.  I double mounted her with a lables nestie, and did the same for the matching sentiment which came from an Elzybels set.  The card background doesn't show too clearly but its a DCWV hearts embossed 6x6 card.

Here's a close up which shows the colouring in a bit more detail.

There are still several valentines challenges around this week so I am entering the following:

http://cupcakecraftchallenges.blogspot.com/2011/02/cupcake-128-seeing-red.html - Red
 
http://thesecretcraftersaturdaychallenge.blogspot.com/2011/02/challenge-120.html  - Valentines

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.com/2011/02/wk89-it-must-be-love-love-love.html - Love Love Love

http://cutie-sunday.blogspot.com/2011/02/cutie-sunday-130-06022011.html - Hearts

http://magnoliadownunderchallenges.blogspot.com/2011/02/magnolia-down-under-challenge-82.html - Love

http://pileitonchallenge.blogspot.com/  - Bright and Breezy

Thanks for visiting....

    Craftilicious x

A Chance to Be A Krafty Girl

As well as having a fabulous Birthday sale last week, Kimmie over at Kraftin Kimmie announced a competition to become a Krafty Girl and join the design team as a guest designer for the month of April.  This is a chance I just can't pass up.......

To be entered, you have to participate in each of the weekly challenges throughout February, and the first challenge posted yesterday was "Seeing Red" - you had to use red on your card somewhere.  I decided to use Monique and she just scream "red" to me - she's a sassy little gal!

I decided to make a step card, in black to go with the red for added drama, and I used an Alota background stamp to make a theatrical backdrop which was coloured with copics, then I masked off the curtains, painted a spotlight with shimmer paints, and over blended with distress inks.

I coloured Monique herself with copics and mounted her onto thick white card to provide some extra strength before cutting her out.  I added some stickles for sparkle to her bodice and a gem necklace and another on her hat.  She comes with a cute sentiment which says "when in doubt, dance", but I wanted a larger sentiment to fill the side of my step card, so I decided to use a Stempleglede stamp which I thought matched the confident stance of Monique.

I'm not sure how clear the image is to read, but the sentiment says "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you have imagined"   So I am confidently going to imagine myself winning the guest designer spot......   ;-)

http://kraftinkimmiestamps.blogspot.com/2011/02/challenge-64-seeing-red.html

Thanks for visiting....

    Craftilicious x

Under the Sea...

I wanted to colour my mermaid stamp from Kraftin Kimmie so thought I'd use her to enter their weekly challenge.  This week it was "reduce, reuse and recycle" and it caused me a few headaches as I couldn't think of anything to reuse or recycle, UNTIL I cleared the craft room out this week that is.  I had the topper I made for my cupcake tower for our wedding anniversary/reception which is a couple of years old now and the feathers had gone a bit tatty, so I pulled it to pieces, and re-used and recycled one of the ribbon diamante flowers from it and used that under the bow - the very first successful bow I've tied on a card, thanks to my new magic bow-easy tool :-)  Here's a picture of the tower with the topper intact so you can see where my recycled item came from.

On Nerissa, I've done the colouring with copics, but then I wanted her scales to shimmer, so I dug deep in the back of my drawer and dug out my LuminArte paints.  I liked the effect on the tail so much I overpainted her hair with a yellow shimmer too - the photo doesn't do it justice but the effect in real life is very cool I think!  The craftwork cards sentiment got the same painting treatment and a few pearls finished it off.

If you like the image, and get on over to the Kraftin Kimmie website today, she's having a special birthday sale with 40% off...........  but hurry the sale ends today!!!!

Check out their weekly challenge every Saturday here

Thanks for visiting....

    Craftilicious x

Love is in the Air

Being just a couple of weeks to Valentines day, there are lots of challenges that have a love theme this week.  I don't normal go a bundle on Valentines day, but I love this little Hanglar girl with her pot of hearts - isn't she cute?  My hubby may even get a card this year....

She was coloured with pencils again, no copics, with a bit of glamour dust.  The fancy corners and "Love" are both old sizzix dies.

I am entering this into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Love is in the Air

Creative Craft Challenges - Hearts and Flowers

Creative Iinspirations - Valentines/Love

Wild Orchid Crafts Challenge - Love is...

 

Thanks for visiting today

        Craftilicious x

Auntie's Easel

I made this card for my Aunt's Birthday yesterday.  I wanted to do something different for her, so I decided to make an easel card as I'm not sure she's ever seen one.

I used a lovely Hanglar girl with a fab floral headband and mounted her onto some DP which I punched with a PATP from Martha and mounted onto some colour-matched card to make the pop up element for the easel.  I added some flowers and hid the wires between the layers and finished with a metal butterfly brad that dangles and flutters.  There is a close up shot below.  The Happy Birthday is from a Stempelglede set, and the just for you is a new "mini cling" but I forget the brand name - sorry - currently in Hobbycraft for a £1 each.

 

It fits a couple of themes for challenges so is entered as follows:

Papertake Weekly  - Anything Goes + Flowers

Res-Q Challenge - Get in Line - your project must have a straight line on it - and my line of punching is on lined paper so I think that counts twice ;-)

Top Tip Tuesday - Girlie - can be anything girlie this week and this certainly is :-)  Loving their top tip this week to create a banner from ribbons - lovely idea.

Thanks for visiting

        Craftilicious x

Lace and Dots

I've had a busy week at home making cards and sorting out my craft room so I've not managed to blog for a week.  Here's the first of the creations to show you.

I made this card for a colleagues birthday on some new 7" x 7" cards so a little larger than I have worked with before which gives you scope to put a little more on the cards I found.  I started with two layers of complementary papers (sorry not sure what stacks they are from) and used my Martha Steward "Scroll Lace" punch-around-the-page set on both layers to give a doily effect.  Some complimentary double mounting popped the image off the background, and I used the "waste" from the corner punch to add decorative corners to the image.  Some fabric flowers with pearl centre and a craftwork cards sentiment colour matched with distress inks finishes it off.

The image is a gorgeous pair from Hanglar (sorry no link as website only works in Sweden), which was coloured completely with Faber-Castell pencils and blending stumps - no copics even as a base.  I was trying to emulate one of my colouring heroines - Paulabella - but I need a lot more practice - just wish I was stateside so I could do one of her classes :(  I do love the effect on the boys hair though, that came out better than I get it with copics and I think the blending makes his waistcoat look like leather.  I've done a close up shot so you can see the detail a bit more.

This card fits the following challenges this week:

Going Dotty - over at the Just Magnolia challenge blog

Punch It - is the challenge this week at the Pile It On Challenge  where you have to enter at least one other challenge to enter their challenge (they also helpfully list a lot of other challenges so good if you're browsing for something to do)   There is definitely a lot of punching going on on this card!

Layer it up - is the name of game at Paper Play Challenges and this card has 5 layers so fits that challenge perfectly.

Flowers - are the requirement at Fun at Fairy Knoll so I'm entering their challenge for the first time too.

Scallops - are the in vogue at Some Odd Girl and there are lots of scallops with my punched layers.

You're Special To Me - Double Challenge

I found another new blog challenge this week over at Annabelle Stamps - and discovered that as well as their weekly challenges, they do a monthly sketch challenge, and its possible to combine the two.  I liked the idea of this weeks challenge, as it was to "say it with emboss resist" and I haven't used my embossing powders in an age.  I used one of the gorgeous sentiments from Stempelglede and embossed it with clear matt powder.  As I was also going to use the monthly sketch from the same blog as the basis for the card, I stamped it into the centre of a nestie circle, leaving the nestie in place, and then used two shades of distress inks (bundled sage and crushed olive) to blend a background whilst maintaining a white border.  I mounted onto another nestie, some gorgeous glittered paper from the laundry line stack from My Minds Eye and added a flower and a few gems to match the shape of the sketch. 

 
Its turned out to be my favourite card of the year so far.......

The challenges are - Annabelle Stamps January Sketch Challenge and Annabelle Stamps Say It With Emboss Resist

Happily Ever After

Over on Kraftin Kimmie's blog this week - the challenge is to create an image with a fairytale theme.  As my husband recently won me the Prince Charming stamp in the Dudes challenge and it arrived in the post yesterday (thanks Kimmie!), I thought it would be churlish of me not to use it to enter the challenge.  I also have the Rapunzel stamp, so I decided to team them up, along with a Magnolia background castle window stamp, which I repeated to create a tower for Rapunzel to let her hair down from.

 

I'm not overly pleased with the colouring, it came out a bit muddy with the trees I think, but I do love the concept so am blogging it anyhow.  I stamped Rapunzel twice, and cut her out so I could get just her arms out of the window, and used two lengths of her hair to get it to the bottom of the tower.  The vines around the tower were created with the wisteria set of tapestry stamps.

Over at the Saturday Challenge, they want you to use two people on your card, so I am entering their "its a couples thing" challenge as well.

Home is where the heart is

My friend got the keys to her new house last week, so decided to have a housewarming party this weekend while it was still empty and before any work is done on it.  I made her a housewarming card, naturally, but also make her a little welcome banner and altered a photo frame as a gift.

The card is a kraft base, with small rectangles of paper in two patterns layered in patchwork quilt effect - I distressed the edges with distress inks in weathered wood and brushed corduroy.  The stamp is a hero arts wooden stamp, coloured with copics.  I wanted to show some brickwork, so I used a pale background and then chose a similar colour one shade darker and simply used the chisel end of the marker to make brick like shapes (you can see on the larger version if you click the image)

The sentiment is one I printed off on the computer.  I added some ribbon to the left and used my fabulous new favourite tool - Bazzil Jewel Template - to add the lovely swirls of gems to the right.

I am entering the card into the following challenges:

Wild Orchid Challenge - let's get sentimental

That's Krafty Thursday over at The Spotted Chick

I also made her some housewarming gifts - a welcome banner - very simply made with pages from a K&Company 6x6 stack cut into a banner shape, leaving the salvage on to fold over behind to secure the ribbon.  The letters were cut on my cricut, from the Cindy Loo cartridge, with a tree and a flower from the From The Nest cartridge.  I used a decorative border punch on the first and last flags to add a decorative edge, but left the others plain.

I found this photo frame at The Range and thought it would be great to decorate as a gift.  It was just plain white, but I forgot to do a before shot and can't find it online to link to (I bought it from a store).  I dabbed over a couple of layers of paint with a Ranger paint dabber in off white to soften the background, and provide a key for the ink to stick to.   I then used a Crafty Individuals stamp in a random pattern allover with 3 shades of Ranger Distress Inks (Bundled Sage, Crushed Olive and Forrest Moss).   I used a smaller flower stamp also to fill in any areas which looked a bit sparse in the same colours.

I added a couple of the butterfly elements from the stamp after with a momento pearlescent ivy ink for a little more definition.  I layered up some flowers in matching colours and added a Martha punched leaf behind.  I finished it off by dabbing the edges with a pebble coloured paint dabber to give it a shabby distressed finish.

Birthday Fairy

I knew I had to colour this image as soon as I first saw it on Mo's Digital Pencil.  I made this card for a friend, who as we were best mates as teenagers, and she is very much taller and thinner than me (not hard on either score lol!) always affectionately called me, 'her little fat friend'.  So I thought I'd send her a big fat fairy to wish on for her birthday!

The image is by Mo Manning and she's a delight to colour with all her voluptuous curves!  I coloured her with copics, distressed the edges of the card I printed her onto with Ranger distress inks in weathered wood, and added the swirly details to her dress and wings with sakura glitter pens.

The DP is from Ella Blue by GCD Studios again - I just love this stack.  I distressed the edges after cropping the corners again with weathered wood.  I mounted her onto some blue card stock (with a mirri layer inbetween) and added a couple of rows of ribbons and some blue gems for added sparkle. 

 

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

ABC Challenge - M is for Magic well fairies are definately magical!

Cute Card Thursday - 1, 2, 3 Recipe - I have one image, 2 ribbons and 3 layers of paper.

Flutterby Wednesday Challenge - Open Week - just has to contain a butterfly, fairy or angel.  :-)

Creative Craft Challenges - Monochromatic Madness - it is all shades of blue except for the flesh tones so I think it counts ;-)

The Big One

I made this card for my husband to give to a friend who turned 60 this week - he's really into fishing so I hit upon the idea of having him catch a "60" on his hook as a different way of getting the number on the card.  I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

The character stamp is a Magnolia and I made the scene using the Alota stamps winter pond scene but I only inked up the pond part and then added grass using my faber castell pencils to cover the gaps under his little jetty.  The DP is from Papermania - their new Birdsong pack - this particular one has a basket weave look to it, so I thought it went with the theme of an old fashioned fishing tackle box.  I used my EKSuccess "swiss cheese" border punch to create a decorative strip of "bubbles" down the side.

As he is mostly green, very cute and the "gone fishing" sign is a brad, then he fits the theme over at Cooking It Up With Katie so I'm entering their challenge again this week.

I'm entering Let's Ink It Up - Anything Goes as well

The Creative Card Crew want mens card this week so it fits their theme also.

Forget the Prince....

.....It's all about the shoes!

I made this card for my friends birthday today - like most of my girlfriends (well like almost every girl everywhere really!) she has a thing for shoes so I thought this image was just perfect for her.  Cinderella comes with the matching sentiment and the obligatory shoe.

The paper is from Ella Blue by GCD Studios a gorgeous double sided paper stack in shades of blues and browns.  She is coloured with copics and stickles for added sparkle, and mounted onto grey card and silver glitter paper.  The large blue flower is an old making memories pack, not sure its still available - it had a pink centre which didn't match so I covered it with a Craftwork Cards birthday circle sentiment.

As this has a flower on it, it qualifies for this weeks challenge at Kraftin Kimmie's blog - Kraftin Kimmie Flowers Challenge

The teal blues and browns also qualify it to enter in the  Allsorts Challenge Blog

I'm also entering it into the Stamp Something challenge which is "anything goes"

A Card For Katie

Katie Renz, an American crafter and blogger, is unfortunately, quite ill with stomach cancer at the moment, and this week over on the the color throwdown blog  they are asking not only to make a card using pink, brown and blue, but also, to send the card you made to Katie to cheer her up after her chemo.

I used Elzybels (shop now closed so no link, sorry) fairy stamp and coloured with copics in the colours for the challenge.  I struggled to find patterned papers in my stash that fit the colour theme and weren't too fussy when used together, so I opted for mostly plain or mottled papers in the colour themes, and I embossed the pink with an embossing folder.  Some glitter, paper lace and ribbon with a brad finish it off along with a handwritten sentiment.

My card is in the mail, winging its way across the Atlantic - hope it brings a short smile in a very hard time for Katie.

Some digi-stamp artists have grouped together to put a wonderful kit of stamps together and the proceeds from the sale are going to help Katie - you get great stamps and a great price - Katie gets some much needed help - it's a win-win if you ask me so head on over to Jak Heath's website to take a look at what's on offer!

I'm also going to enter this into the Cooking it up with Katie - Pink Embossing Challenge 

Sprinkle Stardust

This card is for a friends birthday which is today - so Happy Birthday Linda!  It's the first time I've tried the masking technique to get a background image behind a character - I've used backgrounds before, but I've cut the character out and stuck them on.  My alignment was slightly out, so she's not quite sitting on the wall properly, but it's close enough for it not to have ended up in the scrap bin.

I love this image, with all the glitter, and the sprinkle stardust sentiment is just right. (sorry not sure where I got this stamp again - I must try harder to note down when I buy stuff!)  I coloured the image with copics and added definition, particularly to the grass which is a bit thin for copics, with my Faber & Castell Polychromos Artists Pencils (unfortunately I don't have this great big beautiful box, just a handful of individual ones)  These are great pencils which blend really well with sansoder.

The Happy Birthday sentiment and the bird on a branch are both Elzybels stamps, which are no longer available so no link - sorry.  It was quite refreshing to go straight onto a card without any background papers for a change.

As this is my favourite Magnolia image, in no small part due to the fact that it requires you to add lots of my favourite embellishment in the form of glitter for the stardust, I am entering this card into the My favourite things challenge on the Just Magnolia & Hanglar and Stanglar Challenge Blog

Surprise Package

I made this card for my nieces birthday - it's actually a Christmas Magnolia image, but I think she works well as a birthday surprise too.  The little banner is a Magnolia stamp too.  The sentiment is an Elzybells stamp, but unfortunately Elzybells has closed its doors so this is no longer available to buy I'm afraid.

As usual, she is stamped on smooth white card and coloured with Copics.  I'm not sure what the DP's are - they were in my "pile".  Martha's loop border punch and a bit of velvet ribbon add some extra detail.  (sorry about the dodgy photo - this was taken before I learnt how to clean the lense!)

I've just found a challenge blog which is new to me, which used only to do the ever-so-hard-to-obtain Hanglar and Stanglar stamps, but now they've added Magnolia's into the mix, so I'm going to do a last minute entry into their Anything Goes challenge

Classy & Fabulous!

One thing I am determined to do this year, is to actually use some of the craft stash that is currently overflowing out of my very large craft room (I am such a lucky lady to have SUCH an understanding and uncomplaining husband - mwah to you Mr C!).  So in the spirit of this, I'm starting the year as I mean to go on, by not only making cards for the special peeps in my life, but also just for the hell of it!  And what better way to achieve this than by entering the many challenges that exist out there in blog-land.

So this gorgeous little lady - Samantha from my favourite Moonlight and Whispers range at Kraftin Kimmie is being entered into two challenges this week:

• As I finally managed to get my hands on some kraft card stock, she qualifies for That's Krafty Thursday #45

•  And as she's a Kraftin Kimmie image and as I used no ribbon, she also qualifies for the Time to Unwind challenge too.

The image is stamped on smooth white card stock (I use A4 sheets from Rymans - its economical but great for copics and pencils with sansoder) and coloured with copics - she just had to be a red head ;-)  I mounted her onto a scrap of sparkly blue paper, embossed with tiny stars, and added a bit of spotty red foil (which was actually the bottom of a Christmas card I trimmed off before recycling).  I added a paper punched strip of pearly white paper with one of my Martha Stewart punches and a suitable sentiment - I'm really sorry though I can't remember where I bought this sentiment set from.

Happy Birthday SugarBowl!

To celebrate their second birthday over on the Sugar Bowl they are having a special challenge with two great prizes.

There was a sketch to follow, plus the additional theme of  "embossing" so I made this card to play along.

I used "A Little Hug" by Leanne Ellis, and coloured with pencils blended with sansoder and blending stumps.  The embossing is the Damask embossing folder from Crafts Too.  I used my Martha Stewart branch punch on some white vellum and also added some flower brads to match the sketch.

Happy Birthday Sugar Bowl!

Strut Your Stuff!

New Year, new stamp.  I got this gorgeous Kraftin Kimmie "Vivienne" stamp for my birthday back in November, but I haven't had chance to colour it in until now.  I thought she would be just perfect for my friend whose birthday it is in January, so I coloured her in with copics, and made her blonde to match the lady in question.

I added a little sparkle to the feathers and necklace with stickles, and popped her onto a background paper from my My Minds Eye Laundry Line which is one of my faves.  Unfortunately the image is unclear as apparently "I don't know how to clean my camera lense..."  Other half does though so hopefully photos from now on will be a bit better (Unfortunately I'd already given the card away before he pointed out the error of my ways!)

As this is a new stamp, it fits the theme this week over on Cupcake Craft Challenge - Something New so I am entering my card into their challenge for the first time.

Skaterboy!

This card was a custom design for a friend for her grandson who is currently mad on skateboarding.

I used The Greeting Farm's Skater Ian stamp and coloured with copics, then I made an urban background.  A sky blue paper, layered with grey and beige offcuts at the bottom to make the road, then I cut strips of pale grey and beige to make skyscrapers.  I made windows by just dabbing the chisel end of my black copic in rows.  I finished it with a ramp for him to jump over.

Kraftin Kimmie's Dudes Challenge

The challenge over at Kraftin Kimmie's blog over the holidays was all about the "Dudes" and it was an intriguing one, not only did the image have to feature one of Kimmie's dudes, but you had to get a dude in your life to make the card!  Yes, you had to share your stash with a boy!!!!!!

I thought it sounded like a fun way to spend New Year's Day so I decided we'd both use the same stamp and see what we came up with.  I decided we'd use Willard and get a head start on next years Christmas cards....  Can you tell whose is whose?  I was hoping it would be easier to spot mine, but it turns out my other half took to my copics like a duck to water - I may have to find a hiding space for them!

In case you were still wondering - mine was the blue version......

Happy New Year!

Now I'm feeling slightly less like the creature from the black lagoon and have stopped coughing long enough to colour inside the lines, I thought it was time I made a card again, so I made a couple of Happy New Year cards for my mum and auntie.  I used a Mo Manning image of a little child asleep on his dog and made my own sentiment.  It reminded me of when I was a child and used to fall asleep on the dogs in the pub when my parents took me to the parties on Christmas Day Night when the pub was shut.

This image fits with the theme over on Mo's Digital Challenge which is "Bless the Beasts and Children" so I am going to enter my card into the challenge.  The image is called "Buds" and comes in 4 versions - the one I used can be found here but search for buds if you want the girl or aa versions.

As there is a child in the card, it also fits the theme of "C" on the Anything Goes Challenge Blog, so I am playing along with that this week as well.

I printed the image onto glossy card stock and coloured with copics - I should have added some texture to the fur with pencils, but I was short on time as I need to deliver them today, but I think the copic shading gives a hint of fur.  I double mounted onto plain card stock, added ribbon and a couple of buttons, and mounted onto patterned paper from My Minds Eye - Laundry Line.

Hopefully we'll be able to keep our eyes open for long enough to see in the New Year tonight, but if past performances are anything to go by, we might be emulating the little boy and miss it all again!

Happy New Year everyone - and here's to a very crafty 2011!!!

Book Group Christmas Dinner 2010

I started this post much earlier in the month, but have been down for a couple of weeks with a chest infection (early unwanted christmas gift!)  It was our annual Christmas dinner for bookgroup in early December and all the ladies bought me this gorgeous Christmas table centre as a thank you for hosting book group and feeding them throughout the year.  Isn't it beautiful?  I just love the colour combination of the lime green orchids, the red roses and the gold leaves.  Thanks ladies :-)  (It even stayed fresh for Christmas day!)

I always make the ladies something crafty, either to put in a cracker or as a table decoration that they can take home with them.  This year I made paper ornaments using my delightful new stamps from Waltzing Mouse which fit perfectly in the traditional ornament nestability.  I love these vintage style ornament stamps and I stamped 5 to make each decoration into a sort of bag to hold some candy canes and the second hand-made gift of a badge. 

I saw this sentiment on something earlier in the year and thought it would make a great badge - appropriately worded for a group of busy readers....  I rolled out some sculpy, stamped the sentiment into using an Elzybels alphabet stamp.  I covered with glossy accents once baked and added christmas tinsel glitter to the edge.

Dinner itself is always the traditional turkey with all the trimmings, but one of our ladies turned veggie this year, so I had to come up with a vegetarian option for her and I have to say, I wanted to eat it myself so I thought I'd share it with you.

To begin with I peeled and cubed a small butternut squash and pan roasted the cubes along with diced onion, and diced courgette.  I added cumin and a little alfez lemon stir fry paste for warmth and flavour.  I dry roasted some cashew nuts and then blitzed half of them with half a pack of pistachios - I wanted to leave some for texture and crunch but wanted the ground up nuts to form a mortar to hold the dish together.  Finally I stirred through the remaining nuts, a pack of cubed feta, lemon zest and lots of fresh parsley. I would have added a few diced apricots ideally but my vegetarian friend doesn't like dried fruit.  The resulting mixture can be seen below.

I arranged 6 feuille de brique sheets so that they overlapped to form a rectangle, brushing each with butter to make them stick together.  If you can't find feuille de brique, filo would be a prefectly good substitute, but I would make sure I used more so that it was double thickness everywhere as the brique sheets are stronger and less likely to tear than filo.  I put the filling in the middle, rolled and put seam side down on a baking sheet.  I brushed the top again with butter and sprinkled with sesame seeds and baked in a hot oven for 15 minutes until warm throughout and crispy on the outside.  It went down a treat with the vegetarian guest and was also pretty decent cold for lunch the next day. 

Mo's Design Team

 
My all time favourite rubber/digital stamp designer is having a DT call.  I'm not sure my work is worthy, but it really would be a dream to join Mo's Dream Team.  If you haven't heard of Mo, then go along to her blog where you can see her new designs and buy them in digital download format.

For the DT call, the rules are simple - just choose you're favourite Mo image, make a card, and link it back to her site.  I say simple, but it wasn't easy - my first problem was choosing my favourite image - it took me 5 days to make a choice - they're all so darn good!  I narrowed it down to a handful - Diva, Young Love, My Friend, Bossy or Fairy Dee.  In the end, the cupcakes in the Fairy image won out (well cupcakes are becoming part of my identity...)  One of the things I love most about Mo's images are their humour, and I love that this little birthday fairy has pigged out on the cakes - so much so that she can't even finish the one she started - you can even see the little plum shaped belly she's developing that's full of delicious cake!

I also found this image a challenge to colour as I've only ever done caucasian faces before so figuring out the colouring took a few practices.  For anyone else in the same predicament, I ended up using the following copic colours:

E31, E11, E35, E57 and E50.  I substituted a stronger peach tone in R32 for the cheeks.

For the cupcake cases, I switched to pencils and used the following colours from Faber Castell:

9201-133 - Magenta
9201-125 - Middle Purple Pink
9201-151 - Medium Flesh.

For the cupcake top I used one of my new copic sketch pen in the really pale colour range - RV0000 and added some shading with another Faber Castell in 9201-189 - Cinnamon.  A bit of glitter for the hundreds and thousands finishes it off nicely.

I went for a green dress on Dee as I love pink and green as a colour combination.  So to make the image into a card I picked two pink papers - one pale with glitter from the DCVW Sweet Treats stack, and a simple darker pink polka dot beneath.  More cupcakes, with my favourite EK Success punch and some nontraditional "green" cherry's on top with some iron on clothes sequins simply stuck on with a little silicon.

You can check out all the entries here - there are a lot there already - I just hope Mo likes mine :-)

It's Snowing!

Snow is definitely the theme for today, so I've decided to enter one of my favourite Mo winter images which is now also available in rubber from Stamping Bella into the weekly Bellarific Friday Challenge which is "snow" this week.

The door is coloured in pencils and blended with sansoder and blending stumps.  I used Linda's towel technique using lots of dots in various shades of green copic markers to colour the actual wreath.  Red stickles for berries, and white stickles for the all important snow finish the look, along with a little bow from my stash of ribbon.  The background papers are both from the DCWV Christmas Stack.

We've already got the worst snow Sheffield has seen in 30 years, and its still falling.  The cat has cabin fever and much more of this and we'll not be far behind her!  Keep warm everyone and get the soup on!