CAS Koala

OK, for anyone reading my post of yesterday I couldn't resist colouring another Koala.  It's from the same set from My Grafico and, as I had my spectrum noirs out anyway, it's coloured in the same colours (mainly BGRs and CRs).  Anyway, once I had it coloured I wasn't sure what to do with it.  There is a Sketch Challenge this week at Less is More  so I thought I'd have a go and see how it came out.  Here's my take on it:

and here's the sketch:

I left my panel white on white because I wanted  to keep it simple.  I think I should have put a coloured edge around it.  I coloured my hearts in the same set of colours as the ears and heart on the image.  I did try to ombre the colours but the edge wouldn't soften but I quite like the pattern it made. I wasn't sure how far my sentiment would stretch and I should have started it a little further over but it was hard enough to stick down in the first place so that's where it's staying.  The little flowers are the off cuts from a corner punch I have but they seemed to fit the bill.  I hope you like my interpretation.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Yes, I am that soft in the head

This morning's card has been made for the current challenge at As you like it.  I need to make a card with my favourite animal on and explain why it's my favourite.  Heaven knows what you are going to think when I've finished my explaination!

My favourite animal is a Koala - but don't tell Christopher he'll get big headed over it.  I've used a digital image I've had forever from My Grafico and here's what I've done with it.

It needs a sentiment and it will probably be a father's day card but I want Patrick to choose what to put on it.  I'm fairly sure my other half doesn't read my blog so we should be OK.

When Patrick, my son, was little he had two very special bears from the Build a Bear Workshop.  Francis was a normal bear and Christopher was a Koala and they sort of became Patrick's alter egos.  Francis was a good boy who did his homework and was very clever and nice to everyone.  Christopher...well Christopher wasn't.  He was a bit of a one, was fond of the ladies and the odd 'Tinny' and referred to me as 'mummy Sheila bird'! That kind of makes it sound like Patrick was a terrible child.  He wasn't, and still isn't, but it was Christopher's personality.  I have my own bear - at Patrick's insistence - and so does his dad (Edward and Monty).  Even though Patrick is now grown up we still persist in projecting these personalities on the bears.  Maybe this will help you understand.

The 'boys' were watching the Superbowl   Francis is wearing a Patriots top, Christopher - well I suppose he's easy to spot.  Edward is next in his Saints kit and Monty is a Sea hawks fan like his dad.

Yes, we are all that daft in this family and I would never admit to Christopher that Koalas are my favourite but, well they are.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

ConGRADulations

Just a quicky post tonight for a card I'm entering into The Paper Players Challenge.  This week it's a sketch and this is what I've done with it.

The image is from Digistamp Boutique.  I cut a panel and embossed a stripe across it with an embossing folder.  All I had to do after that was add my image (coloured with spectrum noirs) and my die cut sentiment.  Here is the original sketch:

I do hope you like him.  He looks to me as if he has very tired eyes.  To many late nights out whilst at University me thinks.  Not unlike my very own son who will be coming home for the summer in a few weeks.  I think he will need to reset his body clock when he gets home.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Say Cheesy

I did mention on my Flamingo card that I had coloured up another of Dustin Pike's fun images on Sunday. It's from the same set as before (I don't think it is available any more).  I have to say that Dustin's fun images really do lift the spirits.  As I didn't have a challenge in mind with this one I am entering it into the 'anything goes' challenge over at Crafting from the Heart.  I have no idea why I don't enter there more often as it is always so full of fabulous inspiration. Go and have a look.

Here's my daft and very cheesy creation.

The background colours look a bit washed out on the picture.  It's so vibrant in real life.  I couldn't be more pleased with how it came out.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Books for Guyz - DT card

This week's challenge over at Cardz4guyz is World Book Day.  Apparently, in England we celebrate it wrong.  UNESCO have designated it as 23rd April so we should be ok this week.  The challenge is to use books or book titles as the inspiration for your project.  So, not up my street at all - she lied!  Oh my goodness where do I start?  So many books and I only need to make one card. Argh, the frustration!  In the end I glanced over at my very neglected wood mounted stamps and the book title just screamed at me.  I love this stamp.  I've had it for ages and rarely get an excuse to use it.  I also love the books that inspired me.  I have to admit to binge reading all three at once.  My card is inspired by 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' by Stieg Larsson.  I hope you like it.

I scanned the picture so it looks a bit cut off.  Sorry, I'm trying to improve the quality of my images.  I used a bokeh technique for the background and added some sequins to finish it off.  The stamp is from Creative Expressions but it's so old I doubt it's still available.  I hope you will join us for this fun challenge.  I really love checking out what everyone else comes up with.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Pink Goes with Everything

Have you ever spent an entire evening trying to make one card work?  Well that was me yesterday.  I spent ages going over it with layers of colours.  I cut it out.  I ruined three card blanks trying to get it to work and finally... I threw it in the bin.  So today, I decided to chill out and make something silly that I couldn't get stressed over.  Dustin Pike's images over at Doodle Dragon Studios are always good for a grin.  I bought a set ages ago - I think it was for a fund raiser he was doing - and I've never coloured them up.  Today I coloured two.  I may blog the other one at a later date but this one I decided to enter into this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge.  After yesterdays fiasco I was grateful to feel happy with the result.  What do you think.

Daft isn't he.  Here's the sketch I was following. I admit to making it a square card rather than a rectangle.  What can I say - I'm a rebel.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Raining Cats and Frogs

OK, I lied about the cats but I do have a frog for you.  In fact we have a pond full but none of them are as cute as the one on my card.  I used an image from 2 Cute Ink (I can't link it as Heidi is taking a break at the moment and her Etsy shop is empty) so I could enter the Weather Challenge at Sparkles Monthly Challenge.  The green paper is a Lawn Fawn one that I won a while ago and someone gave me a few of the frames and I was unsure what to do with them.  I think they turned out OK once I'd added Mr Froggy.  He looks way too cheerful to be under the weather but I decided the sentiment would be suitable.  I finished it off with a couple of die cut clouds and a streak of lightening and added the pearls to cheer it up a little.  I hope you like it.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

It's so sparkly

I know you are going to be disappointed with the picture of this card 'cause, in real life, it's so sparkly!  A friend asked me to make a unicorn card for her granddaughter and the new Simply Sweet Unicorns over at LOTV are so perfect I had to have them.  On top of that the challenge this week at The Paper Players is magical creatures.  Look at their banner, 

it's like it was calling to me.  Anyway, I coloured my unicorn with my spectrum noirs and used a white gel pen to add some sparkle to the mane and tail (blame Alyce at Kit and Clowder - it was in one of her monthly classes and I seem to be using it a lot lately). Even then I wasn't satisfied and covered the mane, tail and stars with a tonne of spectrum noir sparkle pen.  Believe me, it's very blingy.

I was a bit daunted to start with but I'm so happy with the result.  Maybe you should all come round to my house and see it in person.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

One of those 'Argh' Cards

I admit to being in two minds about blogging this morning's card.  I know how I wanted it to look but it has been difficult to say the least.  

I've been following Cardz4guyz for all this while and never realised that there is a Cardz4galz too.  This week's challenge is Black and White with one other colour.  I'd seen an image at Sheepski Designs which had been coloured like this.  When I saw the image originally I had decided to look for an excuse to buy it.  This seemed the perfect opportunity.  I even took the Monochrome colouring class at Kit and Clowder (I've been doing Alyce's monthly classes and this is one I hadn't had time for).  Well, after all that preparation I thought I'd better give it a go.  The obvious colour to go with Black and White was red...so I opted for orange (not one of my favourites but I thought it would be striking enough).  I coloured it up.  I kept touching it up.  I coloured the background.  I hated it and cut it out.  Finally, I added some spectrum noir sparkle to the dress and stuck it together.  The one thing I am happy with is the snake skin textured orange paper, which has been hanging about in a drawer forever.  I figured it needed a sentiment but couldn't think of one so I glued (I'd already put the card together so I couldn't use them as normal) some brads to the card.  What do you think to the result?

I should really have known.  I live just over the border from Yorkshire and have been shopping there many a time.  Considering I refer to Sheffield's out of town shopping centre as ' Meadowhell' not Meadowhall, an image called 'Shopping in Yorkshire' was never going to be straightforward.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Sad Puppy

I am, at the moment, a little under the weather and the image I've used on this card pretty much says how I feel.  I was itching to colour him in but then stuck as to what to do with him. Anyway, whilst I was blog stalking I came across this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches

I love the sketch and I've got a couple of other cards in mind to make with it.  I have taken a liberty by using the sketch as a panel and mounting it on a card base.  It's just not my style to go directly onto a base. I hope they don't mind.  Here's my card.

The image is called Sad Puppy and is from Bloobel Stamps.  I added the little yellow dot things cause I can't help myself.  I think he's a sweetie, what do you think?

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Symmetry

Well I seem to be on a roll with the bloke cards at the moment.  Probably a good job as this particular card will be ideal for my brother in law.  This week's challenge at The Male Room is to use symmetry.  I have just the perfect stamp for that.  It was one of those that I saw and had to have and I was lucky enough that Santa Claus saw my wish list this year.  The stamp (although you can't see all of it) is from Neat and Tangled and is available here.  You can get it from other places too it's just that I tend to look at Tara's shop first cause I know they are reliable.

Once I had decided on the stamp I was at a loss as to where to go from there - then I remembered that I would need a card for my brother in law.  I'd already bought the camera stamp from Dr Digi's House of Stamps with Gray in mind (he's a photographer).  I sponged my background with memento ink and coloured the camera in yellow and grey to match.  Here's what I ended up with.

OK, now I've made it I had better go and post it.  I hope you like how it turned out.  Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Cardz4Guyz - My first Design Team Card!

You have no idea how excited I am this week!  I have been invited to join the very talented girls on the design team at Cardz4guyz.  I only hope that I can live up to their expectations.  

This week's challenge is 'Travel or Transport' chosen by Helen.  My husband thinks I'm playing it safe and I should have thought a bit more 'outside the box' but I am easing my way in gently.  Besides, I bought this image from LOTV a while ago and I've been itching for an excuse to colour it up.  I would love to be driving that car along the coast.  It just had to be coloured British Racing Green - or as near as my markers could get it .

I hope you like it and I am looking forward to what everyone else comes up with.  Challenge blogs are a great way of 'meeting' other talented people and now I have an excuse to go blog stalking.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Girl Power

Morning all.  Today's card is one of those that I envisioned as soon as I decided to join the challenge at The Paper Shelter.  The theme this week is Girl Power and I have a number of their images that would fit the bill.  The one that I chose I bought a while ago.  I made a card for a friend's daughter.  I only used it the once so it's about time it got another airing.

As with most of my visionary ideas it was a lot more fiddly to make the card than I had thought it would be.  The image I used can be found here.  Sticking all those bits back together was a nightmare.  I hope you like how it turned out.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Horsing Around

You know sometimes, when you see a stamp, you just have to have it.  That's what happened to me when I saw the image for this card.  I have a friend with a horse and made her a birthday card using it.  Luckily, she found it amusing (I knew she would, her horse and my son are very much alike).  Anyway, I've found an excuse to dust it off again as this week's challenge at Passion for Pro Markers is Animals.  I've coloured him up with the same set of browns that I used on Morag for my previous card (a mixture of promarkers and trias).  I'm going to be lost when they run out of ink.  I use them all the time.They look so different but I swear they are the same colours.  I've kept it very simple as the image says it all really.  I hope you like it.

The image is from LOTV and reminds me a lot of an old Thelwell jigsaw I had when I was a girl.  His images probably put me off horse riding for life.  It never looked very comfortable the way he depicted it.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Naughty and Nice

Bloglovin is a fantastic tool for following loads of blogs.  I use it daily and follow tonnes of Challenge blogs.  It's always sad to see a blog end and sometimes I feel a little responsible.  I follow so many challenges that I don't have time to enter each one but I do love to see the inspiration from the design teams and I've often found other blogs to follow by checking out entries.  I was sad to see, this morning, that it will be the final competition over at the Naughty or Nice Blog.  It's always been a fun one to follow as the cards are meant to be a little Naughty or Very Nice.  As it's there last challenge I have decided I have to make the effort if only to say thank you for being entertaining for all this time.

My post will explain both the naughty and the nice so you can choose which category my card comes in.  I chose to be inspired by Challenge 30 #Feature a Creature.  Here is the creature I chose.

This is Bertie from next door and, do not be fooled, sometimes he's a bit naughty.  When Peter and Anna decided to have a dog they were worried about him nipping over the wall.  It didn't matter to us as we love him loads and look after him regularly.  We popped a fence on top of the wall just to reassure them but, to be honest, we may as well have not bothered. Bertie has his own treat cupboard in the kitchen and when he's feeling like it he just nips over to see if we are in.  Many is the time we've been sat watching TV when the cat flap goes and we have to answer the door.  He's too big to get through so he just head butts it until we answer.  Crafty little so and so.

This is the card that he has inspired.  I saw the image at Sassy Cheryl's and immediately thought of Bertie.  I wonder if I can get my mum to knit him a hat, lol.

I am going to miss the Naughty and Nice Challenge and, even if this wasn't there last hurrah, I think I would have entered if only because of the Challenge title.  I love Douglas Adam's work.

So long guys, and don't forget your towel!

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x