New Year, New Beginnings

Morning all.  Time for a new challenge over at Cardz4guyz.  I was really chuffed to see how many snowmen entries we had and how good they all were.  Choosing the winners was a hard task. This time I can just relax and enjoy the entries in our 'New Year, New Beginnings' challenge.  

If I were to make any new year resolutions it would be to get more organised with my DT cards and schedule my posts instead of getting up at stupid 'o' clock on the day of the challenge.  Can't see it happening but the good intentions are there.

Here is my card.  I hope you like it.

Pop across and join the fun.  The DT ladies have some lovely inspiration for you.  Oh, and you can let me know if you've ever managed to keep your resolutions.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Resist...the Urge to Scream

So, you get up at 5am in the morning to do your blog commenting duties and get ready to go to work.  Then, you realise that - not only is it Tuesday and not Monday, but also that you haven't yet created your DT project for Wednesday.  Argh!!!

So what was I doing at that ridiculous time yesterday.  Resisting the urge to scream when my 'resist' project started to argue the toss.  Anyway, eventually I managed to wrangle a half decent effort together - strategically placing glitter stars and greetings over the splodgy bits and finger marks (shh, they'll never notice).

Never one to keep the fun stuff to myself - please pop over to the Back to Basics and Beyond Challenge and show me how to do it properly.  Seriously, I need your inspiration.

Here's the eventual card (my failed panels will be modified and turned into stunning Christmas cards for my family, lol).

See, this blogging lark can take you out of your comfort zone.  I am literally living and learning.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

CAS Cristmas

Morning all.  I'm very excited to announce that I have joined the fabulously talented ladies on the DT over at Make My Monday.  The plan was to start in the new year but I couldn't resist the CAS Challenge going live today.  Please pop over and join in the fun.  I'm looking forward to another excuse to stalk some more blogs.

For my card I've used a sweet little puppy image from Digistamp Boutique (sadly they are no longer trading).  I had intended to use a different image but I totally messed up the colouring so it went in the bin.  I've got tonnes of the Digistamp Boutique images and anyone of them would do but I am very into cute little dogs at the moment.  I glittered three strips of double sided tape for the background and added the greeting and the gems.  Job done.  I hope you like it.

Come on over and join us.  Think of it as an excuse to get some quick and simple last minute cards done.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Merry Kissmas Everyone

Morning all.  Rather than a DT post this morning I'm joining in at a challenge.  Get me!   Time to join a challenge.  What's going on!  To be fair the challenge is Season's Greetings over at The Alphabet Challenge so it's not taking me far from my priorities at the moment.  I've used the gorgeous Mistletoe stamp from Power Poppy.  It's one of those stamps that I saw coloured and had to buy, and I've been itching to colour it ever since.  I hope you like what I've done with it.  Now, who do I give it too, lol.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Snowmen for the Men

Morning all. It was fabulous to see so many entries on the 'Christmas Critters' challenge over at Cardz4guyz.  This time it is my turn to pick the criteria and I hope it will inspire as many entries, if not more (I live in hope).  I have chosen SnowMen.  It seemed appropriate for a Male Card Challenge.  There are tonnes of images out there that would fit the bill.  In fact, I have more than my fair share of snowmen stamps.  However, I fell in love with this fabulous image over at Sheepski Designs and just had to give it a go.  

I've recently moved my craft room into the larger front bedroom in the house.  Who needs all that space when you are just going to sleep in it anyway!  Having done so, I found loads of stuff I'd forgotten about.  I found two unopened packs of jewel coloured foil paper and decided to keep it simple by just using it to layer the image on.  I also found some fabric snowflakes and a tub of brads so I went for those too.  Here's the result.

It's a lot more vibrant than my usual fair but I'm quite chuffed with the result.

Please pop over to see the design team projects.  The girls do such a fabulous job.  I'd love to see your take on the theme too.  

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Coloured Vellum

Morning all.  Time for another new challenge at Back to Basics and Beyond.  This fortnight we are wanting you to include some colouring on vellum.  I was a bit intimidated by this one as my mum used to do Parchment Craft and some of the work she did was really awesome.  I inherited some of her stuff when she gave up, including some vellum flowers she had already coloured.  I was tempted but decided it wasn't in the spirit of the challenge if I didn't colour it myself.  I have some lovely vellum sheets already printed with roses, butterflies and hearts.  I tried embossing a rose and colouring it, liked I'd seen mum do, but it went in the bin fairly quickly.  In the end I chose to colour some of the white butterflies on a top panel and used the rest of the sheet for a bottom panel (you'll see what I mean in the picture).  I did use my deepest shades of turquoise and blue green - that's Dawn's tip of the day as the colours are muted when you turn the vellum over - but they still don't look very bright on the picture.  I cut one out and stuck it to the front, above my sentiment, and added a few gems along the spine.  I hope you like it.

                                    
Please pop over to join us as we love to see your work.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Cool Dude for Christmas

Good morning all.  Time for another challenge over at Cardz4guyz.  This fortnight we are asking for Christmas Critters so there should be plenty of scope for inspiration.  

I've been a huge fan of digital stamps for years and you will probably have noticed that I use them a lot.  I find them so versatile.  I love the idea that you can re-size an image and that's what I've done with this one.  Not only have I re-sized it, I've just printed part of the image as I only wanted to use one character.  The image that I've used is from the Papershelter and you can find the complete image here.  I love the whole thing but I always saw the fun in Rudolph and knew I would use him this way as well.

Here's what I've done with him.

What a cool dude.  He just makes me smile so much.

Please pop over to the blog and join in the fun.  There is some awesome inspiration from the ladies on the Design Team.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Easy Easel Card

Morning all. Time for another challenge over at Back to Basics and Beyond.  This week we are looking for an easel card.  There are loads of tutorials on You Tube (I've linked a quick and simple one for you).  If you have never made one before they are a lot simpler than they look and can be really fun to create.

I didn't really have a plan in mind when I started my card.  I originally thought contemporary Christmas and cut a fancy star circle in black glitter card using my cricut.  Then my husband walked in and said it didn't look Christmasy so I had a quick change of heart and made it a 25th card. I used silver glitter card to make the numbers so you could have it as a silver wedding card or a 25th birthday card.

Here's the result.

There is loads of inspiration over on the blog from the fabulous design team and we would love to see what you make.  Please pop over and join us.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Winter Blues

Morning all. Time for a new challenge over at Cardz4guyz.  How many of you are feeling the change in the seasons?  Our challenge is Winter Blues and it's an ideal opportunity to do a little crafting to chase them away.  I used another cute image from 2 Cute Ink (it must have been a club exclusive but there are loads of fun images in Heidi's shop).  I kept it fairly simple and cut a snowflake wreath on my cricut machine.  Mind you, if you'd have seen me sticking it together, you may not have thought it simple.  That day I was mostly wearing spray mount, glue dots and glitter!

Here's what I ended up with.

Please pop along and join the fun.  The DT have come up with some stunning inspiration and we love to see how you all interpret the theme.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Using a Sketch

Morning all.  Time for another challenge at Back to Basics and Beyond.  I feel right at home with this week's challenge as it's something I do a lot.  The challenge is to use a sketch.  We found this sketch on Pinterest.

If you don't use pinterest - personally I'm addict to the place and I have a massive board of sketches - then there are various sketch challenge blogs where you can find inspiration.  I used to keep a folder on my computer with sketches from sites and they are a fabulous resource when you are struggling to come up with an idea.  The design team and I would love to see how you interpret the above sketch so please join in the fun.

My card uses two cute gingerbread men from Digistamp Boutique.  I'm gutted that Sally Ann has stopped trading as she was one of my regular go to places for an image.  There are so many digital stamp sites closing and I do miss them.  Here is what I did with the sketch.

I recently bought a distressing tool and this is it's first outing and I'm very pleased with the results.  I hope you like my card and will be inspired to join us.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

One for Emma T

Morning all.  I seem to be very prolific this week.  It'll never last.  You can blame this one on Emma T from Trenouths Crafty Creations.  She's a fantastic talent and one of my Design Team Colleagues and she's always ready to comment on other people's work.  Bless her, she left a lovely comment on my penguin card yesterday and mentioned that P is for Penguin is the current Alphabet Challenge.  I was too late with yesterday's card but I have about a dozen penguin images printed out and ready to colour so I didn't really have an excuse.  The image I used is from 2 Cut Ink.  Heidi has tonnes of Christmas penguin images.  Here's what I did with him.  He's got his fairy lights in a tangle.

As the image had fairy lights on it I cut some extra with a cricut file and kept to the blue and purple theme with a few snow flakes and sentiment.

I hope you like him.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Christmas is Coming

Morning all.  I should be getting ready for work but I'm procraftinating this morning.  I decided to join in the Christmas challenge over at Fab n Funky instead.  It's a good job I work flexi time.  I'd already coloured my cute penguin image - available from Bugaboo Stamps.  All I needed was some inspiration to put it together.  I used some ancient freebie papers that I had from a magazine donkey's years ago and just added some glittery snowflakes.  Another simples card.  All I needed was the inspiration to create it.  I won't mention just how long that image has been staring at me from my craft desk.  I hope you like what I've done with it.

Thanks for reading.  Love Dawn x

Can't see the Wood for the Trees

Morning all. Time for another challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz.  Emma has chosen the theme of 'Into the Woods' - anything that can be found in the woods.  There is plenty of scope with this one and I had so many ideas for woodland critters it all started to get blurry in my head.  In the end I decided to keep it much more simple.  My blog title is something my family used to say when things got confusing and you couldn't see the obvious.  So I went with the obvious...trees!

I used a Cricut cutting file on some leafy background paper and added two leaf charms on some embroidery thread. Simples - well eventually it was.

I hope you like what I've done with it.

Pop over to the blog and have a look at the other DT cards.  We've got a fabulously talented bunch of ladies to provide inspiration and we'd love to see your take on the theme.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Happy Bird day!

Morning all.  I'm really excited to share the news that I have been accepted onto another design team.  The Back to Basics and Beyond Challenge hopes to inspire readers, especially new crafters, to use techniques that we all had to learn once. The fabulous design team offer inspiration and there is often a link to a tutorial for those who have never tried something before.

The new challenge today is to use a Mask or a Stencil.  I have to admit that I have only recently started using stencils myself.  So, if you are new to the technique, I know how you feel.  Dawn's tip of the day - tape your card and your mask down.  My leaf stencil is by far my most useful one so far and, having inked it in a couple of green inks, I then die cut a circle out of it.  I used another circle behind and mounted my bird on the front.  The stamp is an ancient digi from Doodlepantry (I don't know if they still trade in the States but EU changes to VAT regulations meant that they stopped selling in Europe so I can't link to the site - sorry).  I added my sentiment and some sequins and gems and that was it.  Job done.

I hope you like what I did with my stencil.  Die cutting the circle allowed me to use one but still fit my 'style' of card making.

Please pop over and see what the DT ladies have created.  There cards are very diverse and will give you loads of inspiration.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Triangle Tangle

Morning all.  It's that time again.  We have a new challenge over at Cardz4guyz.  This time we have to use Triangles.  I have to admit to being a little bit stumped for this one.  Triangles aren't a shape that usually inspires me.  However, I did find a card on the Cricut Design Space that had numerous triangle apertures so I thought I'd give it a go.  Me, being me, cut the card shape then chopped it up so that I just had a panel for my card.  I inked a background in peacock feathers distress ink and placed it behind my panel.  I think, if I did this again, I'd use a contrasting colour.  I'm amazed at how similar it is to my patterned card base.  Anyway, after that I added the happy birthday and thought I was done.  I kept looking at it and I wasn't sure about it.  I felt it just needed something.  I'd been using a new stamp set from Gerda Steiner Designs (I've linked it on the Dies to Die for site because that's where I had mine from) and I couldn't help adding the cute little mouse so I stamped him a few more times and popped him into my triangle apertures to add a little interest.  I'm much happier with it now.  I hope you like it too.

Pop over to the challenge blog and have a look at the fabulous creations from the talented design team ladies.  I'm sure they will inspire you to join in the fun.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Autumn Leaves

Morning all.  It's time, once again, for a new challenge over at Cardz4guyz.  We're very seasonal at the moment and the challenge is 'Autumn/Fall Leaves'.  

I walked into work yesterday and the trees were looking stunning in their autumn finery.  There are acorns and conkers all over the place and some colourful berries on the bushes.  

Anyway, back to the business in hand.  My mum used to do parchment craft and she would create lots of flowers and leaves and paint them in lovely shimmery colours. She kept them in a little box to use on future projects.  When she stopped creating with parchment (she's turned to crochet nowadays) she gave the little box to me.  I was at a loss as to what to do with them but, it turns out, they are perfect in a shaker card.  The image is from 2 Cute Ink but it must have been a club exclusive as I can't find it in the shop.  I think it goes really well with the leaves - although I know they are maple leaves, not oak leaves.  You can't have it all.

I hope you like what I've created.

Please pop over and join us.  The very talented ladies on the Design Team have created some wonderful inspiration.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Pooh Bear

I've been itching to make a card for the Library Challenge since it went live but I've been a little bit busy lately.  Anyway, today gave me a chance to have a go.  I love Winnie the Pooh and I've had a clear stamp set for ages (heaven knows who made them) so I dug around and showed them the light of day.  When I first got pregnant with Patrick - all those many years ago - Pooh Bear was the first teddy we bought him.  Come to think of it, his bedroom was decked out in Pooh Bear too.  Anyway, back to the present.  I cut a honeycomb background with my cricut and mounted it on the same colour card blank.  Then I added the rest.  To be fair, I think I should have made the whole card smaller as I added the bling to fill the space.  I'm not sure I'm convinced by it but it needed something.  What do you think?

When I've got time I may do a smaller version.  That's the trouble with clear stamps instead of digistamps, you're stuck with the size.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

All at Sea

Morning all.  Time for a new challenge over at Cardz4guyz and this time we are 'All at Sea'.  It's funny how this one stumped me.  I think because there are so many possibilities, I couldn't settle on one idea.  In the end I just went through my digi stamps and found the first thing that fit the bill.  I bought the Sea Life Set from Digistamp Boutique ages ago.  For those of you who don't know, Digistamp Boutique images are now available through the LOTV site.  I love Sally Ann's cute designs and use them a lot.  I have way too many (is that even possible) and she's one of the places I look first when I need something.  Anyway, I chose a cute whale from the set and coloured him with my Spectrum Noir pens.  For the sea I sponged Salty Ocean distress oxide onto some card and splattered it with a couple of different H2O's - and I haven't used those in forever!  I'm really chuffed with how they turned out.  I hope you like it too.

My original plan was to make this a 'Get Whale Soon' card but he's far to happy to be ill so I used one of the sentiments from the set.

Pop over and join us.  It's really not hard to create male cards and there is so much fun inspiration from the DT ladies.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Say Hi Dragonfly

Morning all.  It's time for a new challenge over at Cardz4guyz.  They do seem to come around quickly.  The challenge this time is Bugs (the insect variety, not the VW variety).  I have to admit to being stumped for a while.  I knew that some of the DT ladies had already chosen bees so I wanted to do something else.  Anyway, after a lot of searching, I found the cutest dragonflies over on Etsy by SLS Lines.  I've matched it with a sentiment from a set I have from Polkadoodles and just popped it on a panel of washi paper.  I paper quilted the background panel to give it a bit of a lift and finished it off with the obligatory bling.  You can't see it very well but I used a spectrum noir sparkle pen on the wings and they really shine,  I've only used one dragonfly on this card so I have two more that I can use for other cards.  I hope you like it.

We'd love to see your interpretation of the theme so please pop over and join us.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Crafts and Books...My Idea of Heaven

As my regular readers know, I'm a bit of a one for blog stalking.  I especially love the odd challenge blog.  Can you imagine how I felt when I found The Library Challenge .  Oh my goodness, I'm in heaven.  If I'm not crafting, I'm reading - and this covers both bases.  I've been stalking it for a few weeks now but this week's I just had to join.

Several years ago (over twenty but who's counting) I did a home study course in A level English Language and Literature.  I know I have an odd idea of what's fun but learning to me just is.  One of the books we studied was Maya Angelou's 'I know why the caged bird sings'.  I'd not come across her before this but I've read all her biographical books since.  I also had the chance to see her on stage in Manchester.  Unfortunately, and to my eternal regret, myself and my friend chose to go by train.  We got on the train but it didn't move.  We couldn't afford a taxi and we'd left it too late for a bus so I never got to see this amazing women.  Anyway, as this is the subject of this current challenge I chose to pay tribute to her in my own way.

The card is made using an old Sheena Douglas Stamp from the Kimono set (I don't think it's available any more).  I decided not to use the cage in the set but to keep it simple with this gorgeous bird.  I hope you like it. 

I added the simple sentiment and a few obsidian dots over the inked background.  I must have been psychic as I bought the Spiced Marmalade distress ink on the way home from work this evening and it was just what I needed for this challenge.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn 

Feeling Off Colour

Morning all.  It's time for a new challenge over at Cardz4guyz.  I can't believe how quickly these challenges come around.  This time we have a Get Well Soon theme and the design team have come up with a wide variety of options that fit the bill.  Please pop over and have a look.  I was really impress by how different they were.

My card uses a stamp from 2 Cute Ink but I think it must have been a club exclusive as I can't find it in the shop.  Heidi has a tonne of cute images but I've been through the shop twice and it's not there.  I hope you like what I've done with it.

It's the first time I've used a stencil for the background and I'm really pleased with how that came out.  

I hope I've inspired you to join us at the challenge as I love looking through all the entries.  It never ceases to amaze me how much talent is out there and how one theme can throw up so many interpretations.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Yay, It's a Fab Friday!

Morning all.  It's been one of those nice serendipitous mornings for me.  I was browsing through some of my most recent pins on Pinterest and found this sketch.

It was perfect for a project I had in mind and I clicked on it and found the page.  I was chuffed to bits that the challenge was still live so I've started following Fab Friday on Bloglovin and I thought I'd enter my effort into the challenge.

I've had the stamp coloured up and hanging around for ages.  It was beginning to get on my nerves as I kept moving it around my desk so I thought I'd do something with it.  It's an old one from Dustin Pike and I don't think it's available anymore.  Here's what I did with it.

I'm so pleased with it.  I think it was meant to be.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

My Kryptonite

Afternoon all.  I'm feeling a little sorry for myself at the moment.  Age seems to be sapping my energy levels, my balance and my confidence.  I think I must have been near some Kryptonite.  Having sprained my ankle recently in one of those un-balanced moments (and you never fall over without an audience, do you)? I found myself with a little extra time to colour.  I found today's sketch challenge over at Sketch Saturday and decided to have a go. I used another fun image from Dr Digi's House of Stamps - they seem to be my favourite site at the moment - and I created this.

I found some fabulous papers that came free with a magazine about a million years ago and I'm quite pleased with the result.

Here's the original sketch.

I hope you like what I did with it.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Chillax

Morning all.  Time for a new challenge over at Cardz4guyz and you don't need to work yourselves up over this one.  The theme for this challenge is 'Relax'.  So chill out and join us, you have a fortnight to enter.

I did have an image in mind for this one but when I went to look for it I saw this image and had a complete change of heart.  I love Dr Digi's images and, as I find a little Mindfulness Meditation does help me to 'let go' of the day's stresses and chill out, it seemed perfect for the challenge.

I kept it all very simple as I think the image says it all.  I hope you like what I've done with it.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Fashion Victim

Morning all.  I'm a bit excited this morning because I get to choose the new challenge over at Cardz4guyz.  It's the first time I've done this since being on the design team and I'm hoping I've chosen something that will inspire you all to create and join in.  Men's Fashion is my choice so there should be plenty of scope for subject matter.  My card is a little tongue in cheek as my guy is a bit of a fashion victim.  The image is one I've had for ages and it was by Just Inklined.  I did try to see if it was still available but their site has disappeared.  I did a bit of digging and they appear to have re-branded as Splash Craft but the image is not on this new site.  Sorry.  I hope you like him anyway.

You know what fashion is like.  If he wears those flares long enough they'll be trendy again soon enough.  

I do hope you will choose to join us in the new challenge.  I'm looking forward to checking out the entries and I get to choose the winners (eek, the pressure!)

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Gotta Love a Unicorn

Morning all.  Just a quick card today for the challenge over at Cardz4galz.  The theme for this challenge is something 'for a little girl'.  I am blessed to have three gorgeous little girls in my life - my great nieces Phoebe, Sofia and Keavie.  I don't think any of them would be upset to receive a card with a Unicorn on.  To be fair, I know a few big girls who love unicorn's too.  

I'm happy to see that Heidi has returned from her break over at 2 Cute Ink as she has so many adorable images for little girls.  The link above will take you to this really sweet unicorn.  I hope you like what I did with her.

I decided to go for purple as pink was too obvious for me.  Besides, I like purple and I am a little girl...with lots of experience!

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Blue and Brown

Morning all.  Life is slowly getting back to normal so I'm hoping to be more active on the blog front soon.  As it is, I only seem to be posting for my Design Team duties.  This week over at Cardz4guyz we have a colour challenge for you.  Blue and Brown are very manly colours so you shouldn't have any trouble turning out a bloke card with this one.  

I have to admit to being a little bit of a die addict.  I have a cricut but I still can't resist the call of the little pieces of metal magic.  I was recently tempted by a set of mosaic squares from xcut and I'm very pleased with the result I got from using them on this card.  The stamp on the panel is a very old freebie from a magazine that I inked for the first time.  Am I the only one that gets sucked into buying the magazine for the freebie and then not using them?
I've had a set of male themed brads for ages but found them difficult to use as they are all different.  Anyway, I've managed to use one on this card.  Heaven knows when the others will see the light of day.  I hope you like my card.

Thanks for reading.  

Love Dawn x

The things you have to do

Morning all.  I've been a little busy of late so my blog posts have been scarce but today is a new challenge day at Cardz4guyz so I have no excuse.  This fortnight's theme is 'Metallic Madness'.  I had to think a little outside the box for this one as I couldn't really just colour an image I had to add some metal.  Mmmm, what could I do?  I know, I'll make the ultimate sacrifice and cut out a panel from a can of Jack Daniels and Coke.  To be fair, it wasn't much of a sacrifice and I had a couple of cans just in case I messed it up, as you do.  I may have been thinking outside the box but I wasn't going out of my comfort zone!  I hope you like what I've done with it.

I hope you will join us for the challenge.  It's a lot of fun.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

My Dad's a Sweetie

Time for a new challenge over at Cardz4guyz and we are giving you the chance to get ahead for father's day here in the UK.  Now I know that I'm OK posting my father's day card 'cause I'm pretty sure that my dad wouldn't know a blog if it jumped up and gave him a hair cut!  He's not great with the technology stuff.  He's got a mobile phone but I can't text him 'cause he wouldn't know what to do with a text.  Technology may not be his thing but he's pretty awesome in other ways.  I won't be indiscreet and tell you his actual age but you ask the grand kids or great grand kids and I reckon they will say he's about 5.  He's constantly crawling around the floor with them or playing silly games.  He sneaks around behind the furniture and jumps out at them and they all adore him (me and my sister's think he's a sweetie too).  And talking of sweeties that's the other thing he can be relied on.  He's a constant source of sweets for the kids. He also has his own particular favourites and, as his birthday and father's day are in the same week, I can guarantee he will be inundated with Liquorice Allsorts and Chocolate Limes.  So that's what I've put on his card.  It's my first attempt at colouring on craft.  I'm not sure if alcohol markers really do the trick but I think it made it look a little vintage...just like my dad.

The stamp is a freebie from Dr Digi's House of Stamps.  I think it's perfect for my dad and he can keep these sweets to himself and not have to share.

I hope you'll join us for the challenge.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Away with the Fairies

Morning all.  I have a very busy bank holiday ahead of me but I couldn't resist having a play before the chaos starts.  This week's challenge at Cardz4galz is Mythical or Fantasy.  I have to admit I don't really have many images that would fit the bill.  I've got a couple of unicorns and a dragon or two but I had a desire to colour a Fairy.  Strangely, I don't have many but the ones I do have are awesome.  My particular favourite is this image from Mo's Digital Pencil.  I have a bit of a soft spot for her and a desire to look that good in a skimpy frock.  I've glittered her wings and the star but, unfortunately, it doesn't really show up on the scan.  I keep looking at it and thinking it needs something else adding but I'm at a loss as to what.  Anyway, here she is.  I hope you like her.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Science Fiction

It's time for a new challenge over at Cards4Guyz and for this one you have a choice - either Science Fiction or Steam Punk.  I'm afraid I'm not very good with the Steam Punk thing so I've gone with Science Fiction.  I've been doing some colouring classes recently and one of them was for sky so I decided to have a go at a night sky.  I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.  All I needed was a suitable image to put on it.  I did think about a flying saucer but couldn't find one I liked so I've gone for this cute little robot from  Tiddlyinks.  I think he fits the bill.  I know there are robots being developed but in my little corner of the planet everything still has to be done by me.

I hope you like him.  Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Decisions Decisions

The current As You Like It Challenge is Pink or Blue and why.  Pink or Blue?  Let me think.  You may as well ask me which is my favourite child.  Don't worry, I've only got the one so I'll never have to choose.  I would have preferred if they'd asked which is my most hated colour.  Dead easy - yellow every time (or maybe orange).  Anyway, I did eventually choose an image to make a card with and then chose a colour to colour it with.  So possibly I'm getting the best of both worlds here.  It's blue because I'm the only girl in the house but I am still a girl.

Here's my card.

The image is an old one that is no longer available.  It's From the Heart Stamps but, tragically, Faith passed away last year so her shop no longer exists.  I still think about her and what a generous soul she was and I still love her images.

I hope you like my card.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Geisha Girl

There's an 'anything goes' challenge this week at the I love Promarkers Challenge blog so I cracked out my Promarkers and Trias.  I have a favourite combination for reds that I always tend to use but I'd never tried them on pearlised card before.  I like the effect but they were really hard to blend on pearl card.  I had to go over the colours several times before I was really happy with the result.  I didn't think it needed much faffing about with so I embossed the boarder with a folder and just added some obsidian gems.  The image is a rubber stamp from Crafter's Companion.  Get me...that's three in a week.  My digis will be feeling neglected.

I hope you like her.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Cherish Each Other

Morning all.  I'm off today as my son has returned from University and I wanted to spend a little time with him before he goes off on holiday with his mates.  However, as it is still way before midday, he's not up yet so I get to play in the craft room for a while.  I have a stack of images printed and ready to colour and I was just in the mood to mess about so I'm entering this one in the 'anything goes' challenge at Crafting from the Heart.  

The image is from 2 Cute Ink but I can't find it in the store.  Heidi has a tonne of cute and adorable type images and I really love this one.  The background is actually a scrap of pretty packaging that I save and I love how it goes with this image.  Anyway, I hope you like it.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

All Dressed Up - Or Not, As The Case May Be

There's a new challenge over at Cardz4Galz this week and the theme is 'All Dressed Up'.  So I created a card, but I'm in a bit of a rebellious mood.  My lady is dressed - just! I'm taking the stance that the focal point would be on the costume or clothing so this is what I did.

As with my last card, I've been digging about in my ancient stash of rubber stamps.  Unfortunately, I can't remember the stamp brand.  I've tried searching the Internet but, as I can't remember what she's called, it has eluded me.  Anyway, I hope you like what I've done with her.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

I've just found out that the stamp company is Rubbernecker Stamps.  And she's still available on the website along with some new ones.  I may need to update my collection.

VW

Morning all.  I spent yesterday afternoon making a card for this week's  'Cars' challenge over at The Male Room.  I loved colouring the central image and I had my card all done and perfect when I stuck an inky fingerprint right in the middle - Argh!  So I rescued my coloured image and started again.  I had a couple of mishaps with the background so I have several other images that I can now colour for future cards and finally had something that was similar to what I had planned.  Pity it's a bloke card.  I could have stuck a couple of sequins over the splodge for a girly card and it was just in the wrong place to deal with it with any blokey accessories.  Believe me, I tried.  Anyway, here's my card.

Of course, having spent so long on it yesterday, I have today realised that it is a camper van rather than a car but I'm hoping it still counts (pretty please).  In my defence, we have a Mazda Bongo camper van and it is my husband's daily driver.  

I can't remember who's stamp it is.  I think it may be a Docrafts brand.  My husband bought me a couple of sets donkey's years ago and they are far too under used.  So thanks to the Male Room Team for giving me an excuse to dig them out.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Men's Hobbies (and Mine Too)

Morning all.  My card this morning is my DT project for the new challenge over at Cardz4guyz.  The challenge runs for 2 weeks so there is plenty of time to get your thinking caps on and join in.  The new challenge is 'Men's Hobbies' so there is plenty of scope for subject matter.  

To be honest, anyone that knows me would probably have put money on what I would chose as a hobby as it's my hobby too.  I have been coaching cricket for about 12 years.  I've coached it, played it, scored for it and if all else fails turned up and done the cricket teas (an essential job if ever there was one).  The image I've used is from Just Inklined and I originally chose it because I needed a card for one of my female cricketers but it does make a fabulous male card too.

Here's what I've done with it.

I hope you like it and I hope you will join in with us.  I am loving my excuse to stalk more blogs.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Another Birthday Card...Oh Joy!

I was pretty gutted recently to learn that yet another digital image company was closing down.  I love the quirky images over at Bloobel Stamps they are so unique and always fun.  I had a wish list as long as my arm so I've bought some and will go back after payday for the rest (she's closing at the end of the month).  I love the image called Bureau of Complaints.  I think he's perfect for a male card - although I think the recipient would need to have a sense of humour.  He's what I've done with him.

I've contrasted him on some bright and fun papers to try and cheer him up a bit.  I'm not convinced he's happy to be another year older. I'm entering him into this weeks challenge at Crafting from the Heart which is always anything goes.

I hope you like how he turned out.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x