Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Hello one and all,

Are you ready for Christmas?  I won't mention how many sleeps are left, because frankly I am in denial.  I still have so much to do and I even started early!

A quick post today to share a Christmas Stocking I made using Angel Tilda.

The photos do not do it justice - it really looks much nicer in real life.  Here is a close up of the lovely Tilda, stitched in counted cross stitch.

My Top Tip Tuesday tip is for turning your rubber stamps into counted cross stitch.  First, decide what fabric count to use and then download the appropriate graph paper from CyberStitchers here.  Their charts might not work in all browsers, so if it doesn't work try a different browser.  This is a fantastic free resource.  Next, stamp your image onto the graph paper.  Use a positioner for this step and try to line up as many outer edges with gridlines as possible.  This will simplify things when drawing the backstitching lines.  Colour your image in softly (so you can still see the lines), focusing on shading.  Draw in the lines for backstitching following as closely to the stamped lines as possible.  Decide on colours - using dark and light shades of the same family, select three to five colours to allow for blending.  I found it was best to use colours that are adjacent to each other on the manufacturer's colour charts as this allowed for smoother blending.  Assign symbols to your colours and draw them in following your shading as a guideline.  This part might require a little trial and error.  You are now ready to start stitching!

There are also online programs that allow you to upload a photo, such as a coloured stamped image and they will convert it into a chart for you.  Having looked at some of the charts on a few of those sites, I was not pleased with the end result, but it might be worth a try and could possibly be used as a starting point.  With some editing and fine tuning, it might look really nice.

As I have done all of the trial and error already for my version of Angel Tilda, I thought I would share my pattern with you!  I entered my chicken scratches into a program to make them more legible and took a photo of the screen.  You are free to take this pattern, but please do not publish it in any publication or post it anywhere on the internet.  This is for your personal use, and if you would like to share it with your readers, please direct them here.

symbol    DMC

 ª            930

l               931

µ            932

¼            3752

 ä            3753

!              945

"             951

J             3770

r              754

p             948

=             838

d              839

m             840

P             841

v              842

›            712

2             E3747

1                   E520

I do apologize, I will have to come back and add the backstitching colours later.  This chart is sized for 18 count fabric = same size as stamp.

Enjoy!

I would like to enter my stocking into the following challenges:

Magnolia Down Under - Christmas
Simon Says Stamp - Merry Christmas
Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Christmas

Thanks so much for popping in and for taking the time to leave a comment - I will do my best to visit everyone over the holidays, but it might take me a little while.  A big thank you and welcome to my newest followers!

Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday season!  All the best to you in the new year!

Hugs, 

Dawn

A Sweet Christmas at Creatalicious

Hello everyone,

How are your Christmas preparations coming along?  I just realized that there is only one more full week before the big day!  Yikes!!  We have a lot of things checked off the list, but still just as many left to do.  Oh well, I guess there is no use stressing - it is supposed to be fun after all.

Today starts a new challenge at Creatalicious Challenges and an opportunity to get another Christmas project done.  This month we want to see your Christmas crafts using pink and turquoise (no red or green) and including something sweet if you can.  We are sponsored by the lovely Cedar Chest Designs who kindly provided us with images to work with.  For my project I made a little treat bag using Christmas Dew Drop Ornament.

I have a ridiculous amount of Christmas paper in my stash, so it was not surprising that I actually had a sheet that was pink and turquoise.  However,  I could not believe my luck when I stumbled on these 'chicken bones' - at least that is what we called them when I was a kid.  I used to love these candies, but I hadn't seen them in ages.  Now they are called 'Choco-cinnamon hard Candy.'  That's just about as imaginative as my blog post titles :o).  Turns out I still love them, but managed to keep enough to fill the treat bag.

Supplies:

Paper - white card, American Crafts DP
Image - Cedar Chest Designs - Christmas Dew Drop Ornament.  I printed the image on plain white card, covered it with Be Creative double sided adhesive sheet and covered that in Glitter Ritz microfine transparent glitter before colouring with Distress inks.  I got the idea for this on Donna's blog here - her cards made with a very similar technique are truly stunning!
Other - McGill pine branch (though I kind of wish I would have left this off - not really happy with how it looks), TH banner die, Stampendous sentiment, ribbon from my stash and shapes are from the elegant edges cricut cartridge.

If you are still preparing for Christmas, I hope you will join in with us this month.  It was really fun to create a Christmas project using this unusual colour combination, and I would love to see what you come up with.  If you are looking for more inspiration, make sure to check out the beautiful work of my team mates.  We also have a great prize up for grabs from our sponsor, Cedar Chest Designs.

I would like to enter my treat bag in the following challenges:

Anything but a card - Celebrating the light or seasonal holiday

Cupcake Craft Challenges - Merry Christmas
Simon Says Stamp - What's your favourite - I actually had to think about this - but my favourite embellishment has to be ribbon - I have sooooo much of it in all different colours, but that doesn't stop me from buying more :)

Thanks so much for popping in and for taking the time to leave a comment.  And last, but definitely not least, a big thank you to my newest followers - I very much appreciate each one of you!

Have a great weekend!  Hugs,

Dawn

Christmas Countdown

Hello Peeps!

Are you all ready for Christmas???  Only 19 days left!!!  I haven't done an ounce of shopping (or, more accurately, purchasing) yet, but on the bright side, I can say that all of my cards are done.  Hooray!  It is so nice to not have to worry about finishing cards in December.  Speaking of, I am super excited that Sweet Stampin' has started up a monthly Christmas challenge and even more excited, though still somewhat in disbelief, that I was offered a spot with all the super talented gals on the design team!!

Although the challenge does not officially start until January, we are starting the fun early by having a pre-challenge in December while everyone is in the full swing of Christmas.  So, to kick things off it is nice and easy - anything Christmas goes!  I hope you'll join us and I'm looking forward to seeing your Christmas creations!

For my inspiration piece, I made an advent calender for my son.  Though I love how this turned out, it took a ridiculous amount of time to complete.  Luckily, when I found out about the first challenge, I had already glued all the little boxes together and painted and sealed all of the pieces.  I will not tell you how many hours that took, but in the end it was well worth the effort.

The DP is all from Bo Bunny's Midnight Frost line and I painted the calender dark blue to match.  (My first tip for Top Tip Tuesday - if you are making one of these calenders, it is much easier to paint the pieces prior to assembling.  However, do NOT paint the tabs because they will no longer fit in the slots.  I found out the hard way :(  )  The kit came with chipboard numbers, but I felt they covered too much of the box front, so I cut my own using the TH typeset die.  The numbers were cut from dark blue card and then embossed twice - first with Stampin' Up Iridescent  ice to make them really glittery and sparkly and then with Lindy's Stamp Gang Twilight Blue Slate which gives a beautiful two tone colour and looks really cool and shimmery when it reflects the light. ( My second tip for Top Tip Tuesday - embossing powders are a great way to change the colour or look of paper or chipboard shapes, numbers and letters.  However, most colours are only available in a matte finish or occasionally a metallic finish.  To add a beautiful glittery finish to your colour, emboss it twice - once in the colour and once with a translucent glitter embossing powder such as Stampin' Up Iridescent ice or Stampendous Star Dust.  The look will also change slightly, being more or less glittery depending on which one you use first, so have fun experimenting with it.)

For the background, I used shimmery white card to create the hills and snowflakes (which are a retired Stampin' Up die).  The trees are a TH die and were cut from dark blue card to create silhouettes.

I found the Christmas tree in the Christmas decor section of a local store - it was originally designed to go with those Victorian Christmas villages.  It was a bit too tall, so I cut it down a bit.  I decorated it with TH tinsel twine, beads, little bows and a string of lights, which was also a Victorian village find.  I made the star on top using wire and a jig.

I love that it actually lights up!  Here is a shot in dim lighting to give you an idea, though it looks much brighter irl.  This shot also shows the snowflakes in the background.

The birch trees were made using those long wire stems with berries that you can get from most all purpose craft stores (I got mine from Michaels).  I had purchased them with the intent of just using the berries, but then it occurred to me that the stems themselves actually looked like trees.  So, I cut it in pieces, shaped them and drew little lines using a grey Copic multiliner.

The image is by Penny Johnson for Stampavie and I coloured it with Prismas (the carrot and holly) and Copics (everything else).  I added some glitter to the turquoise hat.

If you haven't already, be sure to pop by the Christmas at Sweet Stampin' blog.  My teamies have made some gorgeous cards and projects to inspire you.  There is also an awesome prize up for grabs!  The winner will get surprise stamps from the Personal Impressions range at Funky Kits

and a set of Promarkers from Letraset!!!

And, as if that wasn't awesome enough, there is also a follower's candy up for grabs.  All you have to do is be or become a follower of Christmas at Sweet Stampin', post the candy on your blog and enter our anything goes challenge to be in for the chance to win this fantastic prize:

I would also like to enter my calendar in the following fun challenges:

Playing in Paradise - Mr. Masculine (I made this for my son)
Allsorts - advent
Crazy 4 Challenges - snowmen
Cute Card Thursday - snowflakes
Deep Ocean Challenge - so this is Christmas
Jingle Belles - anything holiday goes
No Matter Which Challenge - Christmas
Make it Monday - always anything goes
One Stop Craft Challenge - Christmas for the boys
Papertake Weekly - anything goes
Sparkles Christmas Challenge - button or bow
Stampin' for the Weekend - use some texture
Top Tip Tuesday - Christmas
Totally Gorjuss - anything goes with glitter on it (glitter on the hat, the numbers and the snowy base also has loads of glitter)
Totally Papercrafts - Anything Christmasy but a card

Ok, that is probably enough, heh?

Thanks so much for popping by, and for taking the time to leave me a much appreciated comment.  I love having the chance to visit you too.  And a big thank you and welcome to my newest followers - I really appreciate you and am so happy to have you along!

Hugs,

Dawn

The Night Before Christmas

Hello everyone,

Just a quick post for me today, but first I want to welcome my blog's newest follower.  Thanks for joining me; I'm so glad to have you along!

I was inspired to play along with the challenge at Scrapbooker's Paradise, and there is still a few hours to play along :)  This week, the challenge is to CASE yourself (and try to improve on your design).  I made this card last year  (post here) and I knew at the time that I wanted to revisit it.  Well, let me tell you, my current card has cured me of that!

 Here is what I came up with this time:

Not too sure it is an improvement!  I wanted to try making it into a shaker card, but unfortunately, the snow glitter I used had a bad case of static and clung to the acetate and to the image.  A little bit of a mess and it really dulls the colouring :(  I do like the new colour, the new ornaments are pretty and I like that I used white + glitter for the stamp on the frame, so that detail pops now.  I stamped all my background papers and used tonnes of glitter.  Here is a shot showing some of the shimmer from the glitter and in the papers.  However, with the light reflecting, the colours no longer show true.

Recipe

Image - House Mouse coloured with Distress inks
Baubles - I created the frame in SCAL2, all others are Stampin' Up
Stamps - Impression Obsession & Tim Holtz (backgrounds stamped with embossing ink), Stampin' Up (baubles stamped with Stormy Sky DI), Close to my Heart (flourish border on frame stamped with embossing ink)  Everything has been embossed with either opaque white or iridescent ice (or both) embossing powders
Paper - pearlescent white and shimmery Bazzill card
Other- ribbon from stash, pearls, MS border punch

This card is for the following challenges:

Scrapbooker's Paradise (Playing in Paradise) - CASE yourself
Fashionista Challenge - Blue Christmas
Hanna and Friends - Animals
One Stop Craft Challenge - monochrome
Papertake Weekly - Ribbons and pearls
Sparkles Christmas Challenge - Contemporary Colours
Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - Recipe (I've got ribbon, pearls and a MS edge punch)
Winter Wonderland - Oh baubles

Thanks for popping by and for taking the time to leave a comment.  I love reading them and having the chance to visit you too.

Have a great weekend!

Hugs,

Dawn

Hanging the Christmas Carrots

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a great week and have wonderful things planned for the weekend.  This weekend is supposed to be 'warm' (somewhere around zero degrees) so I will have to get out and enjoy it before it gets cold next week.  Guess it's just that time of the year.... and only 37 days left before Christmas if I can still count!  Yikes!!  So, I have made another Christmas card, this time using a cute Happy Hoppers stamp.  I just love this image to bits.

Recipe:

Image - Happy Hoppers Carrot Tree stamped with black Stazon and coloured with Distress inks (antique linen, frayed burlap, tattered rose, peeled paint, forest moss, walnut stain, rusty hinge)
Sentiment - Stampin' Up from the Bells and Boughs set
Papers - Stampin' Up and My Mind's eye - all the edges were inked with DI frayed burlap
Other - TH tattered pine cone inked with walnut stain, dabbed with white acrylic paint and then dabbed with rock candy stickles; crinkly ribbon; McGill pine branch punch inked with frayed burlap; brown wire dipped in gold embossable ink and embossed with gold tinsel (glittery) powder; creamy coloured berries (from Michael's floral department); light green rhinestones.

This card is for the following challenges:

House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge - getting ready for Christmas
Hanna and Friends - a fantastic sketch
Jingle Bells - Christmas feast (a holiday card which has some sort of food on it).  Ok, so carrots are not standard holiday treats, but if you're a rabbit, then they are a must!  :o)
Sparkles Monthly Challenge - Christmas is coming

Thanks for popping in and for taking the time to leave a comment!  I love reading them and it gives me the chance to pop in to see your wonderful creations too.  Last, but not least, a big thank you and welcome to my blog's newest follower, Sandra.

Have a great weekend!

Hugs,

Dawn

A Creatalicious Winter

Hello everyone,

and welcome to my blog's newest followers!  I am so very happy that you've decided to join me on my crafting journey!!

In my neck of the woods, it has been frosty and white for a couple of weeks now, which is just perfect for exercising those shovelling muscles :( and, more importantly, staying inside and crafting :).  I find a fresh snowfall is such a great source of inspiration for creating winter projects, which is also just perfect because that's the theme for this month's challenge over at Creatalicious Challenges.

Our sponsor this month is Stamp Fairy, who have generously provided the team with a choice of digital images.  For my card, I chose Barry Winter 2.  He's super cute and was really fun to colour.

Recipe:

Image - Barry Winter 2 from Stamp Fairy, coloured with Prisma pencils blended with Sansodor.  I added Stampin' Up dazzling diamonds for the snow, rock candy stickles to the hat and the snow on the birdhouse was made with liquid applique which was also covered with dazzling diamonds before puffing it up with a heat tool.  I love the dimensional sparkly look this gives.

Paper - Stampin' Up card base and Bo Bunny from the Snowfall collection.  The edges were distressed, torn  and inked with DI before applying bits of picket fence crackle paint.

Sentiment - Amy R Snowman Sayings

Other - lace for framing the image; Stampin' Up snowflake die cut out from card layered with a sheet of adhesive and then glittered with transparent glitter; TH banner die inked with DI before applying picket fence crackle paint along the top for a snowy look; large glittery snowflake was from Michael's in the Christmas section.

The talented team has created some amazing projects, so for more inspiration, be sure to pop over to Creatalicious Challenges and follow the links to their personal blogs for their project details.  I hope you will join in with us - you have a month to link up your creations.  One lucky winner will receive a $10 gift voucher to StampFairy.com.  I can't wait to see what you make!!  

I would like to enter my card in these fun challenges:

Fab 'n' Funky - let's see those bears

One Stop Craft Challenge - anything goes

My Mums Craft Shop - winter wonderland

Crazy 4 Challenges - inspired by one of your fave Christmas songs (Let it Snow)

Divas by Design - anything goes

Thanks for popping in and for taking the time to leave a comment.  I love reading them and it gives me the chance to catch up with you too!

Big hugs,

Dawn

Karate boy

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a great weekend with lots of time for creativity and crafting.  Before I get to my latest card, I want to send out a big hello and welcome to all of my blog's newest followers.  I'm so glad to have you along and really appreciate your support!!

Today's card is one that I made very quickly in a race against the clock (though it did take longer than 10 minutes :) ).  Luckily, there was lots of white in the image :).  I made this one on request for a young man's 7th birthday.  He is taking karate, so hopefully he will like it.

I coloured the little Karate Boy with Prismas as quickly as I possibly could, so there isn't as much depth and shading as I would have liked, but I think he still looks cute.

I also decorated the inside to match:

The Japanese writing says 'happy birthday' - I hope!  I found it on the internet so I am trusting that is what it actually says.  If it isn't, it is too late to do anything about it, so I don't want to know :)  Or maybe I do so I don't use it again...

Recipe:

Image - Mo Manning Karate Boy coloured with Prisma pencils
Paper - card from Stampin' Up and Bazzill, DP is My Mind's Eye - Meadowlark
Other - brads and ribbon from my stash, the numeral 7 is an Amy Tangerine Thicker which I embossed to make it black

And I think that is all.  I wanted to make it a little fancier, but ran out of time :(

With this card, I would like to enter the following challenges:

Mo's DP2 Challenge - anything goes
Allsorts - for men only
Anything goes Challenge - anything goes

Thanks for taking a peek and for taking the time to leave a comment.  I love reading them and visiting you to see what you have been up to too!

Have a great week!

Hugs,

Dawn

House Mouse and Friends Spooky, Sweet and Colourful Blog Hop!

Hello Peeps!

I hope your weekend was wonderful!  Welcome to my blog's newest followers - so glad to have you!!

Today is a fun day for me as I get to take part in my first blog hop ever!  I was over the moon when I was invited to guest design for the month of October at House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge, but never imagined that I would be invited to be on the roster for one of their fantastic blog hops!  So a huge thank you to all of the gals at HM&FMC and an extra thank you to Christine for taking the time to coordinate everything!!

Onto the challenge - this fortnight we are looking for your Spooky, Sweet and Colourful creations.  Include the colours purple, black, orange and lime green.  Your creation does not have to be for Halloween.  I hope you'll have time to join in and I am looking forward to seeing all of your creations!

For this challenge I decided to create a little Halloween decoration:

So, evidently, I am not big on orange and lime green though technically that little pumpkin stem does count :) I also don't usually make Halloween stuff - I thought I only had one Halloween stamp but the deeper I dug into my stash the more stuff I found.

Supplies:

Stamps - House Mouse Scaredy Cat (I masked the little mouse out of this one, just keeping the cat) and Hay Day (from which I cut out the little mouse wearing the pumpkin)

Paper - Assorted black card, retired Stampin' Up (blue) and gcd studios from the Sweet Surrender collection (purple), 300g hot pressed watercolour paper, white card for the banner (coloured with DI weathered wood and milled lavender, edges inked with black soot)

Punches and dies - Stampin' Up bat punch, TH tattered banners, TH Alphabetical, Cricut - Elegant Edges for the two base shapes, Ribbons & Rosettes for the fence, spider and web, and the tree is an SVG file from My Scrap Chick (Bella and Baxter Trick or Treating)

Ink/colouring - Cat stamped with jet black Archival ink and coloured with DI black soot and faded jeans, background scene painted with DI squeezed lemonade, scattered straw, black soot, weathered wood and milled lavender.  Mouse stamped with rich cocoa Momento ink and coloured with Prismas blended with Sansador because the watercolour paper is quite thick, so this made the fussy cutting less challenging.

Other - black hemp twine, black mini eyelets, skewer stick (painted black with acrylic paint), shiny black fibers glued on the spider.

Blog Hop Details:

If you are taking part in the blog hop, you should have arrived here from the talented Christine's blog.  If this happens to be your first stop, pop over to House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge for the complete blog hop order and to start at the beginning.  

The next stop along the hop is the talented Dorte's blog.

To be in for a chance to win one of the awesome prizes, make sure to follow the blog hop and challenge rules:

- Enter the current challenge by linking up a new project following the theme and using a House Mouse, Happy Hoppers or Gruffies stamp

- Leave a comment at every stop of the blog hop and on the HM&FMC blog

- Be or become a follower of the HM&FMC blog

I would like to enter my decoration into the following fun challenges:

Alphabet Challenge - S for skeletons, spiders and anything spooky

Anything but a Card - fall or Halloween or fall colours

Crafty Catz - Halloween 

Crazy 4 Challenges - orange, black & purple

Divas by Design - something spooky

No Matter Which Challenges - Halloween creations or Halloween colours

Papertake Weekly - fright night!

Simon Says Stamp - Joy's Eerie Inspiration (photo)

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Halloween

Thanks for taking a peek and have a great week!

Hugs, 

Dawn

Halloween at Creatalicious

Hello crafters,

I hope everyone is doing fantastic and enjoyed a great weekend.  A big hello and welcome to my new followers!

I have some exciting news to share today!  I recently applied for a design team position at Creatalicious Challenges and was invited to join the team!  I am thrilled to be working along with all the talented gals over there and hope that you will be able to come play with us!

This month's challenge is Halloween!  Easy!!??  This one was actually a bit of a struggle for me - I don't really make Halloween cards or crafts, so my supplies for this theme are limited.  However, I tore my stash apart and recycled some elements from another project I made ages ago and came up with a little treat box:

I used a template that I found on the web, and unfortunately I cannot remember where it came from and there is no logo or copyright anywhere on the file, so I cannot give proper credit.  If you recognize this box, please leave a comment so I can let everyone know where to get it.

Supplies:

Purple and black card from my stash

Spellbinders Decorative Labels 8

Tim Holtz fence embossing folder, I embossed the black card and cut it out to make the rickety fence

Tim Holtz Typeset die for the letters

Glittery black cat was a gift from a friend and has been sitting patiently in my stash for a really long time

Transparency, toxic was just printed from Word

Stampin' Up Spooky stamp and Stampin' Up bat (punch) recycled from an old card I made in a workshop

Stampin' Up "treats for boo" stamp is from the Mixed Medley set

The bat and letters were embossed with black and then embossed again with Stampin' Up iridescent ice embossing powder.  I love the effect this created.

Black hemp twine to hold the box closed.

We have a fantastic sponsor this month:  Sassy Studio Designs is offering the winner their choice of 4 digi images!  

If you are looking for some inspiration and great Halloween ideas, pop on over to the Creatalicious Challenge blog and check out the amazing projects the team have created.  I hope you'll be able to join in and am looking forward to visiting and seeing what you make!

I would like to enter this project in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp - dies and or punches

Anything but a card - fall or Halloween or fall colours

Crazy 4 Challenges - Sweet Treat

One Stop Craft Challenge - heat embossing (the bat and letters were heat embossed)
Papertake Weekly - all creatures great and small

Thanks for stopping by and for taking the time to leave a comment!  I love having the chance to visit you back!

Have a great week!  Hugs,

Dawn

ATC Turn About at House Mouse & Friends

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a great weekend and had a chance to get creative and make a card or two to celebrate World Card Making Day!

I am very excited about today's post as I get to play guest designer over at House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge!!!  Thank you so much to all the gals at HM&FMC for inviting me to guest design!  The challenge this fortnight is 'ATC turn about' - include an ATC on your card.  Just in case you are not familiar, ATC stands for artist's trading card and is basically just a little piece of art that measures 2.5 by 3.5 inches.

I can honestly say that I had never even considered making an ATC before - I find the name quite scary.  But that is the great thing about a challenge, so I put on my artsy hat and started playing.  Here is what I came up with:

I used Feeder Friends, which is a gigantic stamp, and masked out all of the branches and flowers so that only the mouse and birds at the feeder were left.  I coloured the image with distress inks using almost every shade of brown available along with black soot, scattered straw and wild honey.  I then used the masking technique again to stamp the background with a wood grain pattern.  I wanted to give the glass a shiny glassy look, but remembered (after bleeding it a little - oops!) that Timber brown Stazon does not hold up to anything except water.  So, I cut out a transparency film in the shape of the glass and covered it with Goosebumps spray, which has a beautiful shimmer and dries nice and shiny.  Once it was completely dry, I peeled it off of the film and pressed it down on the image.  It has just enough stick to stay put, but will peel off if you try to lift it.  This photo captures a little of that shimmer and shine.

To finish off my card, I framed the ATC with twigs.  Picking twigs was a great fun to do with my two year old - he loved it!  I printed a computer generated sentiment onto a TH banner, added some twine, a wood grain button, and some feathers.  The top corner felt empty so I grunged it up with a couple of stamps and added some pearls.

Be sure to pop on over to the House Mouse and Friends Challenge to be inspired by their talented design team.  I hope you will be able to play along and am looking forward to seeing all of your creations!

I would also like to enter my card in the following fun challenges:

Charisma Cardz Challenge - Badda Bing (bling/shiny)
Divas by Design - use some texture
Totally Gorjuss - anything goes
Anything Goes Challenge - Animals

Thanks for visiting and for taking the time to leave a comment!  I love having the chance to visit you back.

Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating today!   Have a great week!

Hugs,

Dawn

September

Hello everyone,

I hope you have all been well!  I have fallen a just a little wee bit behind on my mother's House Mouse calendar, but I'm not throwing in the towel just yet.   The current challenge at House Mouse and Friends is autumn and/or harvest, which was just the little nudge I needed to get another page completed.

How cute is this image!  Really fun to colour too.  As with all the other months, this calender is reusable - the calendar part just slides out of the little pocket and the new year is inserted.

Supplies:

Paper - Want 2 Scrap chipboard base, Imaginisce Apple Cider DP and Bazzill card.  The little apples and leaves were cut out from the DP

Image - HM Big Apple-tite coloured with Prismas and blended with Sansodor

Other - edges were all inked with DI walnut stain, calendar was computer generated.

I would like to enter my project in the following challenges:

House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge - Autumn and/or harvest

Papertake Weekly - Anything goes and a blog hop in celebration of turning 5!  Congratulations!!

Crazy 4 Challenges - leaves

Thanks for stopping in and for taking the time to leave a comment!  I love reading them and visiting you too!

Hugs,

Dawn

Playing in Paradise

Hi everyone,

First off, a warm welcome to my blog's newest follower.  I'm so glad to have you along!  I truly appreciate each and everyone of my followers and I enjoy taking a peak at all your creations too.  You are all such a great source of inspiration and I hope I can provide a little bit of inspiration for you as well.

I hope you are all having a wonderful week so far.  I just have a really quick  and simple card to share today for the challenge over at Scrapbooker's Paradise.  You still have a little over 24 hours to enter this one and they have a beautiful colour inspiration for you using sand, sage and pool, so be sure to check it out!

For this card, I used a scrap from the sei chick-a-doo pack, some ribbon from my stash and a cute little Penny Black image from the eat cake set which I coloured really quickly with prismas and blended with Sansador.  The sentiment is from the SU Look who's turning set.  Apologies for the photo - it is a bit washed out, the colours are a little more saturated in real life.

Thanks for popping in and for taking the time to leave a comment.  I love reading them and seeing your creations as well!

Enjoy the rest of your week and happy crafting!

Hugs,

Dawn

A Teddy Bear and Two Birds

Hello peeps!

Hope you are all having a great week!

As threatened, I am back with my second post for the day.  My son will be turning three this year and when I asked him what he would like on his birthday card, he thought about it for about 0.2 seconds and responded "a teddy bear and two birds."  My first thought was - uh oh, I shouldn't have asked.  But then I remembered a cute little Penny Black stamp that I have from the Eat Cake set.  I pulled it out and found that it was actually a teddy bear with three birds.  Easily fixed with a piece of tape, so we were in business.

I coloured the image with Prismas blended with Sansodor, and then lucked out when I found some 3 Bugs in a Rug papers in my stash :).  I kept the embellishments very simple - added a button with a twine bow, some rhinestones (kids love stuff that shines and sparkles) and a chipboard three.  The three actually started out white and ended up sparkly by accident.  I tried to colour it orange to match, but it did not take the ink evenly and looked really awful.  So, I doused it in Paprika Stickles and I really like how it turned out.  The sentiment is from a Popcorn the Bear set (Crafter's Comp).  A MS edge punch and stitching finish it off.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Here Come the Boys - teddy bears
Ready-Teddy-Go - how many fingers?
Penny Black Saturday - buttons and bows
The ABC Challenge - w for wishes
Cupcake Craft Challenges - in stitches
Allsorts - layers

Thanks for stopping in and for taking the time to leave a comment!  I love reading them and visiting you too! Enjoy the rest of your week and have a great weekend!

Hugs,

Dawn

The Chill of Winter

Hello everyone,

Hope you are all well.  I have a super quick post - I am racing the clock on a deadline.  I was inspired by several challenges to make a Christmas card.  At CSAYL the challenge (which closes in one hour) is to CASE your 1st Christmas card posted on your blog.  This sounded like loads of fun, so I had a go at it.  My first Christmas card can be found here, and this is the new card I came up with:

There is a little glimpse at my sense of humour - this card makes me giggle.  I kept the original layout and the same types of paper (snowflakes and stripes).  I also kept the embellishments very similar and changed up the image, sentiment and colour scheme.

Supplies:

Paper - Bazzill card, shimmery white card and the DP started out as just the green background from MME.  I stamped the patterns and embossed them in white
Stamps - House Mouse, Impression Obsession (snowflake background), sentiment from AmyR stamps (snowman sayings) and I think the stripes is a Hero Arts stamp.
Other - Ribbon was recycled from a gift bag, snowflakes are a Stampin' Up retired die, rhinestones and a Stampin' Up button, Picket fence crackle paint, and Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals in Silent Night Silver (gives a little shimmer to the snow).

This card was inspired by the following challenges:

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - CASE your 1st Christmas Card
House Mouse and Friends - Friendship
Stampin' for the Weekend - Starting Christmas Early
One Stop Craft Challenge - no floral embellishments
ABC Christmas Challenge - R is for Recycling (the ribbon is recycled)
Crafty Catz - Christmas

Thanks for stopping in and for taking the time to leave a comment.  I really appreciate them and it gives me the chance to pop on over to visit you too.  Be back shortly with another card I just finished.

Hugs,

Dawn

Come Play in Paradise!

Hello everyone,

I hope you had a great week and that you are all looking forward to some creative time on the weekend!

I am very excited to guest design again this week for Scrapbooker's Paradise Playing in Paradise challenge.  In addition to a wonderful prize and a chance to play along as a guest designer, this week's challenge also offers the opportunity to learn and try out an artistic design principle that pretty much guarantees a beautiful project will result.  So, if you have time to do some crafting this week, I hope you will check out the challenge and join in!

The challenge this week is to design a card or other project using the 'rule of thirds.'  Huh???  What is that, right?  It is a trick that photographers use to capture stunning photos and it applies equally well to any artistic design.  Essentially, you simply divide your blank 'canvas' into thirds both horizontally and vertically.  Major deign elements and focal elements are then placed along one of the lines or at a point where the lines intercept.  Of course, you do not have to place something on every line or at every intersection.  Here is what I came up with for my inspiration piece:

The image is from Close to My Heart from the Enjoy Every Moment set.  I stamped it on 300g hot pressed watercolour paper with black Stazon and coloured it with Distress inks (victorian velvet and forest moss).  

I created my own designer paper for this card using an impression obsession flourish background stamp.  I stamped the background on shimmery white card using embossing ink and embossed it with Magic Moon Pearls embossing powder by Lindy's Stamp Gang.  This stuff is gorgeous irl!  I then inked the paper with victorian velvet and tattered rose Distress inks.  As I am an artistic design amateur, I physically divided my paper in thirds.  This made it so much easier to follow the rule of thirds, plus I like how it looks - hmmmm, there might really be something to this rule :o).  I swiped the edges with picket fence crackle paint.

I crocheted a little doily to frame my image.  I first saw this idea here where C2 did a beautiful two toned version, and fully explains how to recreate it.  That is what started my adventures (madness) in crochet.  Jessi also does beautiful crochet frames and you can see many examples on her blog here.  I created my own version with little glass pearls using their work as inspiration.

The sentiment is from Inkadinkado and the butterflies are a Cheery Lynn Designs die.

To see some beautiful inspiration, be sure to check out what the team has created for this challenge over at Scrapbooker's Paradise, where you can follow the links to their blogs for more details on their projects.  I hope you will be able to join in the fun!  Odds of winning are extremely good!

Thanks for stopping in and taking the time to leave a comment.  I truly appreciate them and love having the chance to visit you back.

Enjoy your weekend!  Hugs,

Dawn

Two hour and ten minute craft dash

Hello everyone,

The new 10 minute craft dash challenge started today and I was very excited to get creating.  So, I gathered my supplies, pulled out the sketch from the Scrapbooker's Paradise challenge and set my timer.  A couple of hours later, I finally finished my card.  Things were just not working for this one, so I'm just happy that it finally pulled together (I almost tossed it at one point) and another Christmas card is complete!  Hooray for that!!

I stamped the Inkadinkado snowman with embossing ink and embossed it with Lindy's Stamp gang two toned embossing powder in Desert Moon Turquoise, so irl it has a really nice shimmer to it.  The papers are from the s-e-i chick-a-doo line, the sparkly glittery buttons are from American Crafts and the sentiment is from the same stamp set as the snowman.  I outlined the circle in stardust Stickles (which are still wet) for extra sparkle.  Ribbon and silver cord are from my stash.

This card is for the following challenges:

Scrapbooker's Paradise Playing in Paradise, which has a wonderful sketch.  I turned it on its side and moved the buttons.
Sparkles Christmas Challenge - Sparkle and bling

Thanks for stopping in!

Hugs,

Dawn

Happy Birthday

Hello peeps,

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  I had lots of time to craft, which is always nice :o)

One of my hubby's cousins has a little girl who will be two this week, so I made her a card.

For some reason, something came over me when I was colouring this image and I just had to colour it yellow and pink.  And not just any yellow or pink - I wanted them to be fairly bright, but soft yellow and pink.  I do like how it looks, which is really strange for me - I don't usually like yellow and I don't usually do bright.  Maybe all the white saves it.

I usually pick out paper first and colour to match, and there is a very good reason for that...  I thought I would have paper to match, but turned out the pink was all wrong, so I ended up stamping all the pink papers and used a stencil for the yellow one.  Luckily I had inks to match the coloured pencils.

Paper - Bazzill (pink), BoBunny (yellow) and Stampin' Up (white)
Image - Wild Rose Studio, stamped with Momento black.  The elephant was coloured with Copics and the rest with pencils.  I'm still practising at both of these, and looking for a paper that works well with both, if anyone has any recommendations.  I put Goosebumps on the balloon to make it look like a balloon.
Backgrounds - Stampin' Up distressed dots, I think the stripe is Hero Arts and the stencil is from pink paislee
Sentiment - is from the Hot off the Press stamp and punch set
Other - Spellbinders Parisian Accents and Fancy Tags 2

This card is for the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - A free for all (use any of their sketches) I used sketch #14
Charisma Cardz - No embellishments
No Matter Which Challenges - Die cuts/punches
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Animal Antics

Thanks for stopping by and taking time to leave a comment! I love reading them and visiting you back!

Have a great week & Hugs,

Dawn

Birthday Boy

Hello everyone,

Is it the weekend yet?  What about now?  now?  Oops, my son must be rubbing off on me.  (I watch Treehouse now?  Now I watch Treehouse?  I watch Treehouse in 5 minutes.  I watch Treehouse in 14 minutes.  I like Treehouse soooooo much!)

 I hope your week is going well and you are gearing up for a great weekend.  We have an extra day of weekend this time around, so I'm looking forward to getting some extra crafty time (hopefully) in between all the stuff we have planned.

Well, a post two days in a row!  What is going on?  My nephew just celebrated his first birthday, so I have a  boy's birthday card to share.  This is also my first real attempt at colouring a real image with markers.  Actually, when I started colouring the image, I was just having a play and fully expected it would end up in the garbage.  Although there is a lot of room for improvement, I thought it turned out alright, so I decided to use it.  While I enjoy colouring with distress inks, I found the markers are much quicker.

Supplies:

Stamps - image from Wild Rose Studio, sentiment from inkadinkado

markers - Copic C0, C2 & C4, B0000, B91, B93 & B95, flex marker R619 & M419.  As I'm new to the whole marker thing, this is almost every marker I own.  You might be seeing a few more blue and grey or black cards hee hee!  

Paper - Bazzill card and Bo Bunny DP.  The edges were inked with stormy sky DI

Other - Cricut cut frame for image, Copic atyou spica clear glittery pen (I outlined all of the stars), American crafts buttons, glossy accents on the bow, twine, brads from stash.

This card is for the following challenges:

Here Come the Boys - for the wonderful sketch

Simon Says Stamp - anything goes

Divas by Design - Celebrate

Top Tip Tuesday - Birthday gifts - Happy 4th birthday Top Tip Tuesday!  

I'll do a beginner marker tip, since I guess I've officially joined that dark side now.  Assuming a limited budget (sigh), one of the hardest questions when starting out with markers is what colours to purchase.  I did not want to invest a lot of funds on something that I was not sure I would like or be good at, but I wanted to get enough colours to actually be able to really try it out and colour full images.  So, if that describes you, here are some tips:

Decide what types of images you like to colour.  (I like colouring people and animals.)

What colours do you get most excited about. (blue and teal for me)

To be able to shade an image and give it depth, you will need to purchase (ideally) 3 markers in the same colour family, each one not more than 2-3 shades darker than the last.  That means it would take at least 3 markers for skin, 3 for hair, 3 for each clothing colour etc.  In the Copic system, colour families are indicated by a letter and the first numerical digit, while the last number represents the darkness of the colour.  So, for example, B91, B93 and B95 make a good colour blending group.  If you want a lot of contrast, then also pick up a really light shade - for example B followed by only zero's.

This is why I opted for cool grey (the colours that start with C), denim blues (the ones that start with B) and black.  I thought they would be most versatile for colouring a lot of animals and represented a minimal investment.  Hope this helps!

If you're still reading, thanks for popping in and for taking the time to leave a comment!  I really appreciate them and love visiting you back.  

Have a great weekend!

Hugs,

Dawn