Sunday 17 April 2016

Bonjour!

I'm in a very French mood at the moment.  I've been learning French on the Duolingo site in my lunch break (in a bid to keep me off silly games on my phone).  Then I saw a seriously pretty paper stack in the Range which kinda jumped into my basket.  All I needed now was an excuse to use it. This week's Sketch Challenge at From the Heart Stamps was an ideal opportunity.  I had a code left over from entering the challenge before so I popped onto the site and purchased the most perfect image to complete my French themed card.

Here's what I did with it, Voila!


here's the original sketch


I really wish I'd dressed him in pink or grey now, instead of the green, but I've got plenty of opportunity to try that.  I've hardly touched that paper stack yet.

Thanks for reading

Love Dawn x


Saturday 16 April 2016

Feeling Colourful

I have to admit being a little bit daunted by bright and cheerful colours.  Don't know why but orange, yellow, anything sunny like that just isn't me.  As this is the case I'm a bit surprised by this card.  I don't know where it came from but when I started to colour it the whole thing just seemed to work.  I must have just had those colours handy as it's not a combo I use at all.  Anyway, I mounted it onto some glittery card stock with a bit of floral ribbon and I'm really pleased with it.  I've decided to enter it into the 2 Cute Ink Challenge Blog as the theme this time is 'anything goes'.  Heidi's images are all so cheerful and can be found in her Etsy Shop.

I hope you like what I did with this one.  I surprised myself but I love how it turned out.


Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Friday 15 April 2016

Wrong Colour

This week I decided to join the Sketch Challenge at Bugaboo as I had several of their images coloured up and ready to go.  I had a really cute baby image in my box all dressed up in a blue baby grow so I made a lovely card.  Then on Monday my niece had a baby girl!  To be fair, I did know that she was expecting a girl but I've had that image coloured for ages.  Oh well, I'm just going to have to create a girlie version for the brand new Phoebe Rose (she's a stunner, just like my other two great nieces).  Our family have been truely blessed by all three of them.

Here's my baby boy card


and here's the sketch


I did flip it as the baby was pointing the other way.  I also used die cut clouds to cut across instead of ribbon or a border.  I'm really pleased with how that turned out.  I hope you like my card.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x


Tuesday 12 April 2016

Floral Frenzy

My life seems to be a bit of a floral frenzy at the moment.  We are busy revamping (and by that I mean blindly adventuring into the unknown) our garden.  My husband has a new job and he's very close to our local market where there is a brilliant plant man.  We've been buying and planting all sorts of things that have taken our fancy.  Heaven knows what it will look like when it all starts to bloom.  A frenzy it will probably be.

It was also our Church flower festival this weekend and I was awestruck by the amazing displays - and very jealous of the talented ladies who can make plants tell a story like they did.  My flower arranging skills are second only to my gardening skills.  Vase, Flowers, Plonk!  That's me.

Anyway, what I can do is create floral cards so the current challenge at Polkadoodles Crafting Challenge Blog seemed appropriate for me to join in.  Here's my effort, you know - Paper, Ink, Plonk!

The image is from Bugaboo Stamps and it has to be one of my absolute favourites.  I hope you like what I've done with it.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Sunday 10 April 2016

Four Legged Friend

This week's challenge at Passion for Promarkers is four legged friends.  Funnily enough I'd been asked to make a fortieth birthday card for a work colleague's husband.  She mentioned he was into Westies and Lorries.  Well, men's cards are hard enough and I couldn't remember seeing any lorry stamps about so I opted for the Westie theme with half a mind to enter this Challenge.  You could tell it was half a mind as I took it to work on Friday, forgetting to take a photo of it first - duh!  Never mind, I'd printed a couple of spare images out anyway (not being very successful at colouring animals and thinking I may need a couple of attempts).  In the end I was really pleased how both cards turned out.  Here's the one I made for the Challenge.


The image is from digistamp boutique, which may have something to do with why I'm pleased with it.  I find their images so easy to work with.

I hope you like it.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Saturday 9 April 2016

Bling it on!

Well, this week's sketch at from the heart stamps gave me a bit of a nightmare.  When I saw the sketch I had it in my head to attempt a drape fold panel - something I've seen a lot of lately on Pinterest.  That meant I needed a double sided paper.  Not a problem, I have more paper than I will ever need (but never enough to stop buying more). I had decided to use a new stamp bought last week, Pigwit Icing on it.  It was a bit big for my card so I just coloured the cake and cut around it - well you know what I'm like for fussy cutting.  I put it all together and...I hated it!  It was way too overdone.  Anyway, I've ripped it all to bits and decided on a straightforward card following the sketch.  Well, almost.  I've put the cake on the opposite side and used an oval sentiment instead of a fishtail banner.  What I did do was throw some bling at it.  What do you think (sorry about the dodgy photo - I used my son's camera phone and didn't want him sulking as I pinched it again to take another).


Here's the original sketch.


Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x


Saturday 2 April 2016

Forgotten Fun

I've been making cards for years and years and my style and techniques have changed considerably. My current passion is for Digital Stamps - you may have noticed - but I have a room full of dis-guarded tools and paraphernalia.  I've been so obsessed by my pro-markers that I'd forgotten what fun it was to get inky.  This week's sketch at From the Heart Stamps gave me an opportunity to remember.  It wasn't so much the sketch (I could easily have used a panel of backing paper) but the idea of sponging got hold of me.  It's been a while!  Here's my card for this week's challenge.

 
and here's the original sketch


I masked off a panel and used two colours from Adirondack - watermelon and mountain rose - and I'm genuinely surprised they'd not dried up over the years.  I even sponged the flower stamp and used a tiny paintbrush to ink in the dots and strips.  The 'happiness' stamp is from an ancient set from Hero Arts that I've had longer than the ink.  

Maybe my plan to move to a larger craft room would not be necessary if I de-stashed a little.  Then again, I couldn't go back to my past and re-live the fun if I'd got rid of my inks and stamps could I?

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x