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.

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!

Kraftin Kimmie Stamps

Kraftin Kimmie is a relatively new range of stamps from Canada - Kimmie recently celebrating her first anniversary - boy what a great range they've produced in just a year!   I love their Moonlight Whispers range - the characters are just gorgeous and colour up amazingly!  I bought a couple to try and had such fun with both of them.   I get mine in the UK from Quixotic Paperie and if you hurry on over to her store, Elaine has 10% off all rubber stamps until 13th October.

My first purchase is Suzette the Can Can girl - isn't she fab?  I stamped and coloured her with a mix of copics and pencils blended with sansoder and blending stumps.  I cut her out and mounted her onto color-core black magic card which I embossed using a "twinkle" crafts too embossing folder in my big kick, and sanded the embossed areas to reveal the color-core card to look like lights twinkling behind her on stage.  I added a co-ordinating strip of paper embossed again with a crafts too folder - this time damask which I adore.  A little card candy and copic colour-co-ordinated sentiment from craft works and a glitter strip finish off the card.

Most of the stamps come with a matching sentiment - I went for Rapunzel here because I could see lots of cards I could make with the sentiment of "let your hair down"  I coloured her with copics and pencils as before, but slightly over blended the hair so it looks a bit flat unfortunately (good excuse to have another go later!)  This time I used a Marianne D Creatables die to cut out the star border, and threaded some silver ribbon through it and mounted it onto black card.  I like the black background with these stamps - it really makes them pop, so I cut her out and half mounted her onto the black borders strip.  I stamped the sentiment in silver to match the ribbon and added another Craft Works sentiment, again, colour matched to the dress with the same copic (they colour so well with copics - the pearly card still shines through)

 

I've just ordered Cinderella from the same range - for her the sentiment is "its all about the shoes" which is very apt for me and many of my girl friends so can't wait to get her!