.. to the Moon and back.

Happy Friday guys! :)

I'm stopping by with a post today to share a very special project I made back last month! 

This was a commission for a lovely lady who was after something a little different for a shadow box to hang in her little girls room!!

LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND BACK

I used the adorable Wryn Cloud 9 from Tiddly Inks.

This is my first attempt at a Distress Ink background, and I'm not gonna lie - I was impressed with how well I actually managed to make it look! LOL! I was totally winging the whole thing, but hey, hey. :) It didn't make me wanna rush out and buy more Tim Holtz goodies though, which is probably a good thing. 

I coloured Wryn up with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers - I was told that the little girl was a tom boy, NO PINKS OR PURPLES ALLOWED - I was cool with that. ;) I went with orange and mint green instead.

I created the sentiments with a Lawn Fawn alpha stamp set, then added a bunch of Wild Orchid Craft goodness. Loads of Liquid Pearls and Stickles. Some embossed silver stars, a 3d vellum star and some distressed edges! 

I hope this does the job on the little girls bedroom wall. Just a little reminder of the love she has around her. So sweet! :) 

Enjoy your weekend. Thanks for stopping by. xo

Buttons and Ribbons at MMCS

Howdy, troops! Happy Hump Day! :)

I'm back again today with some My Mum's Craft Shop inspiration! 

I created this card using a bunch of Paper Smooches and Lawn Fawn goodness that I went crazy with and ordered loads of last month! Bad crafter. Why is this such a damn expensive hobby?! Hah! 

It's a pretty simple card from me. No patterned paper in sight. I know.

I used a bunch of stamp sets:

Lawn Fawn - Sophie's Sentiments

Paper Smooches - Streamers

Paper Smooches - Botanicals 2

Not forgetting the theme this week, which is buttons and ribbons.

I used some delicious polka dot grosgrain ribbon in a coffee colour and a little blue button flower from the Medium Button Embellishment Pack.

Super simple. It's so nice to just sit. Sit and stamp. No markers involved.

It makes it kinda mindless.. and I like that. A nice way to destress!

Thank you for stopping by today! :) xo

Happy Thoughts

You know what makes me happy?

Little. Ginger. Cats!!

We've a new challenge over at Passion for ProMarkers today.

I treated myself to a few new (to me) Some Odd Girl digis a couple weeks ago and I NEEDED to find time to colour up Tia and Fluffy, this week's theme was perfect.

GO DIGITAL

You can use a digi image, digi papers, a digi sentiment or even a combination of the three!!

One of my favourite things about digis is the ability to resize them at the click of a button and to create a scene without the fuss of masking (although that can be very fun!)..

I used Fluffy and Tia from Some Odd Girl and 

Pebblestone Patch from Make it Crafty.

I coloured the little scene using a bunch of ProMarkers. Here are some of the combos I used off the top of my head.

T-shirt and shoes - Wild Cranberry, Carmine, Salmon Pink, Cocktail Pink

Skirt - Indigo Blue, Navy Blue, French Navy, Aegean

Ginger Kitty - Spice, Honeycomb, Apricot, Oatmeal

I used some delicious new papers from My Minds Eye - Here is Happy which I masked with a home made stencil (diagonal stripes) and misted with some new Tsukineko Fireworks - Pear Tart. These mists are just. Woah! I've tried a couple different brands before, but these blow every other kind out of the water. They're so vibrant. So SHIMMERY! Gaaahh!! I'll definitely be collecting a couple more colours. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

So for the rest of the card.. I added some strips of heart washi tape, a length of pink grosgrain ribbon and a double bow, some paint splotches with my new Kaisercraft stamps and some Memento Luxe Rose Bud ink (another new favourite), a La La Land Crafts die cut banner and a cute little sentiment from Amy R.

Obviously it wouldn't be a card by me without some sprinklings of Liquid Pearls and Stickles. I just can't not do it. I need to find a better way of organising my bottles, so if you have any suggestions.. hit me! :)

I'd like to enter this card into these challenges:

- Come and Get Us - Domestic Animals

- Emerald Faeries - Let's see a Banner

A lorra, lorra links in this post - you can tell my laptop was playing nice and running smooth when I typed this post! ;) Be sure to call in at the challenge blog and share your DIGITAL card with us. Thank you for stopping by today. xo

Thank You Scraps

You guys remember last week when I mentioned I had been close to finishing up a few MME packs? Well here's and idea for ya when you're down to those last few remaining strips.

You know the thin slithers of paper you've cut off.. when creating layers for your different size cards, that aren't 6x6? NEVER THROW THEM!! *chuckles* Get yourself a sheet of scrap cardstock, or even copier paper would work, cover it with adhesive and go to town laying down those thin strips in a pattern that's pleasing to the eye.

Remember to think about both colours and patterns, don't have two next to each other that are gonna clash.

Here's what I came up with using that idea.. and I still have loads left over. I'm thinking a set of cards *pulls at beard*

These are papers from My Minds Eye Collectable Memorable pack.

The flower stamps are from My Favourite Things Sweet Roses and matching dies.

The sentiment is from Avery Elle - Oh Happy Days. 

All of which can be picked up over at My Mum's Craft Shop.

I have wanted to try that cascading flower thing for ages now, and when I sat and thought about it, the shape of these flowers makes them perfect for it. Why have I taken so long to get creative with this stamp set?! Well, I'm definitely making up for it now! :)

Thank you for taking the time to stop by today! :) xo

Fabulous, Beautiful YOU!

Happy Hump Day!!

My week got off to a shaky start, I don't think I was fully recovered from the previous weeks debacles, never the less.. onwards!!

Today I have a little My Mum's Craft Shop inspiration to share with you all. 

I'ma try and keep this post short and sweet, there isn't really much to say. 

I started by masking my card base with a Chevron stencil from Studio Calico and I spritzed it with Water Cooler mist. I then added a strip of delicious patterned paper from My Mind's Eye - Here is Happy. LOVE this paper pack. My Mind's Eye NEVER fail to disappoint. 

I then coloured up the gorgeous Dare to be Gwen to match the papers using ProMarkers and FlexMarkers. I then masked her off and stamped the sentiments which come in the set around her in different ink colours to act as a background. I've had this idea in my head since I first spied this set, and the lovely Faye or Fluff as she's known around these parts was a beaut and sent me her over, so I just HAD to try it out!

*keep it shhh, but I'm tryna sweet talk Kitty into stocking SOG again* 

I finished up with a fabric flower and paper flower from Prima, a resin daisy and a bunch of Hobbycraft Rhinestones.

Job. Done.

I'd like to enter this card into these challenges:

- Some Odd Girl - Misting and Masking

- Crafting When We Can - Lots of Bling

- ABC Challenge - F is for Flowers

I'm lead to believe the lucky Kitty headed over to the NEC in Birmingham this weekend and picked up a bunch of goodies which should be appearing in the shop VERY soon, so keep your eyes peeled for those. You will NOT be disappointed! :)

Thank you for stopping by today. xo

No Line DIGI Tutorial

Morning everyone. Thank you for stopping by today.

You're in for a treat, of sorts. In the form of a tutorial post from me today. *hey, hey*

Some of you may remember THIS card I posted last week.. well when I added it to the Tiddly Inks FB page, I had a few comments asking how to achieve this 'no lines' look with a digi stamp.

It took me about 2 days of fiddling with various settings on Microsoft Word, only to discover that this can be achieved at the touch of a button, or two, in FOUR easy steps. Lemme show you how.

*Please click on each picture to enlarge it*

STEP ONE:

Start by opening your digi image like normal. Selecting PNG or JPEG will make no difference.

STEP TWO: 

Resize your digi image, like you normally would. This time around I went with 4.5".

STEP THREE:

With your digi image still selected click 'COLOUR' in the top left of the toolbar.

All of the options displayed below will appear. You want to select 'WASHOUT'.

STEP FOUR:

You're DONE!! Can you even believe how easy that is?!

Now you're ready to create no line digis to your heart's content! :)

I hope this has helped someone, even if it's just one person! If you have any questions, or something you're struggling with, please leave me a comment and I'll get back to you pronto!

You can pick up your very own Ellie says Hi HERE at this Tiddly Inks Store!

Lots of love. xo

It's a Guy Thing

Afternoon guys. Sorry I'm a little late with this post today. For anyone who follows me on FB - you'll know I've been a little bit ill these past few days. I'm still not 100% but I'm trying. I won't go into details but it has been nasty!!

So just over a week ago I discovered I'd won a Guest Designer spot over at My Sheri Crafts! I was over the moon and jumped at the chance to participate. 

The theme this time round is 

VINTAGE GUY CARDS

Vintage means different things to different people. To me, it's all about splattered ink, torn edges and muted colours. I went all out.

I have.. had.. another My Minds Eye paper pack that was coming to the end of it's life. I took one look at the colours of the papers left and knew it's the stuff I wanted to use for this card. 

I chose the dark grey, almost black paper as my base and went crazy with my edge distressing tool. I created some tears in either side and layed some little scraps of blue paper underneath. I sliced the mini doily paper at a diagonal to create more interest and adhered that down the left hand side of the design.

I die cut a bunch of vellum stars, added a blue SMASH* tag, a wooden button and a sentiment from the The Greeting Farm Roll Call Wild Sprouts Collection in Nautical Blue Memento ink onto another scrap of mustard coloured paper.

Luckily I had an early finish from work last Monday and came home to colour this little guy up. This is Saturday from The Greeting Farm's Creeper Crew. I've really taken a liking to colouring up larger areas of hair in this blocked way. I never did get the separate strand look quite right! His little shirt was already stripey (I'm a huuuuge fan of anything stripey) so chose to keep that included in the colouring. As for his jeans - I wish I'd made them a little darker, more navy.. but we learn. All the more reason to keep on top of my ProMarker journal!!

Anywho, that's all from me today. I'm off to attempt to make some Mother's Day cards! 

I'd like to enter this card into these challenges:

- Really Reasonable Ribbon - One for the Boys

- Paula Holifield Crafts - Man Up

Happy Sunday. xo

Love You

ANOTHER blog post with the title 'Love You' - can you guys feel the love?! 

Today is the day. That time of the year when society forces soft touches into loving their partners. Goodness knows what couples do for the other 354 days of the year. Baffling!!

Here is another card I designed for my Valentine's Auction Album earlier in the month! This one didn't prove very popular - but I had a blast making it, and that's what counts! It's still sitting all alone in my card stand. Maybe next year. Or for an anniversary? :)

I broke out some older Waltzingmouse stamps for this card. I LOVE their stamps, but boy - I struggle to keep up with the releases of all these stamp companies I'm in love with. It's either that or I'm subconsciously not looking because I think I am *soon* about to outgrow the drawers where my stamps live - and then what am I going to do?!

GET RID OF MY BED AND SLEEP ON THE FLOOR?!

Trust me - that thought has crossed my mind one too many times more than I care for! LOL.

*I wonder how much money I would get for my bed!* Hahaha!!

Thanks for stopping by today, guys. If you're one of those softies who bows to societal pressure, then I hope you and your loved one have a BLAST! ;) xo 

We Belong Together

Told ya I'd be back today with some more lovey dovey stuff.

This time it's time for more Clearly Besotted loving!! This is the same set I used in the card I showed HERE last week. Except this time I switched it up by using different birds and different colours! :)

Sooo clean and simple. *whispers* I never thought I'd say it, but I think I'm beginning to like CAS cards. I know!! LOL!! It's so refreshing to just break out some stamps, some ink, and a few sheets of decent cardstock and just go for it! No pressure. Just quality crafting time.

Clearly Besotted make that easy, too. I've promised myself that I won't buy any more until I've used the sets I bought the first time round at least twice. I've only one more set to use. ;) Hah!!

Happy Thursday guys. xo

Love You

.. so my brain kinda works like this.

If at first something isn't really inspiring me - I leave it out on my desk, so it doesn't get lost at the bottom of a drawer. Then there is a gradual progression towards.. LOVING that product. I find.. if I leave it out for long enough.. one day.. BOOM some inspiration will hit me and I won't wanna stop.

Until I need the toilet. Or get thirsty.

That's kinda what happened with me and some older MFT sets over the weekend.

This is one of the more simple cards I created with

MFT Blooming Roses stamp set and matching

MFT Rose Bouquet die set.

I used four things to create this card (apart from the essential tools, of course!):

cardstock, stamps, ink and an acrylic block. Couldn't get more stripped back than that! 

You could easily get a bunch of these going on a production line and have a tonne made up in no time!

To finish off this card, I used a sentiment from Avery Elle - Oh Happy Day. LOVE that font. Like. LOVE! When I grow up, I wanna be able to write like that! LOL!

That's it for today! Thank you for stopping by. I'll be back tomorrow with.. who knows? Something.. another card at least! :) xo

Have a Heart at PFP

Good morning guys. I usually start off my Passion for ProMarkers post with some boring weather craic, but knowing that the south of the country is in an absolute state due to flooding, I think I'm gonna hold my tongue on this one. I seriously couldn't believe the scenes I was witnessing on the TV last night. I knew things were bad.. but HELL! I wanna wish all of those poor families and animals my best. You're all in my thoughts.

Onwards, to happier things!! 

New challenge today over at Passion for ProMarkers. This time the theme was chosen by our lovely Shelly, and she wants to see those creations with hearts!

HAVE A HEART

This is the adorable Wryn from Tiddly Inks - Close to my Heart. I have printed her out using the 'no lines' technique. This is the first no lines digi I have attempted, and I gotta say I was impressed with how it turned out. The lines were faint, but not so faint that you got blurred vision! LOL!

I decided to stick to a pastel colour palette, really test those faint lines out. I was going for a shabby chic/vintage theme. To me that means pastel colours, lots of texture and cute little embellishments like that teal heart I picked up at a button stall in Durham last year! 

I wanted to add more hearts to the card, to really bring home the sentiment (from an Amy R set) so I die cut a bunch from scrap paper using some X-Cut dies. I'm starting to come to the end of a bunch of my MME paper packs - I ain't gonna lie, it feels good and it feels sad at the same time - so I'm tryna use up all the ickle pieces before cutting into my last few full sheets. Stay tuned for a couple projects using up scraps in the near future. ;)

So that's all I got for ya today. Enough of my waffling on about stuff you can clearly see for yourself from the photos! I just like to type! LOL.

I'd like to enter this card into these challenges:

- Catered Crop - Heart of the matter

- Challenges for Everybody - Anything Goes

- That Craft Place - Valentine/Love

- The Squirrel and the Fox - Love

- Crafty Calendar - Love is all around

- A Gem of a Challenge - All you need is love

- Digi Galore - Valentine

Thanks for stopping by! xo

Footy Daddy

HAPPY MONDAY!! Only FIVE days til Valentine's! Hah! Are you all ready, set, GO?! I sure hope so.

.. but until then, let's get down to some real stuff..

Some real men's stuff!!

I know a lot of card makers are absolutely horrified at the thought of creating male cards. I won't lie, I was too - but that was long ago. Now I embrace the challenge!! 

This was a football themed male card - standard, right?

I started by finding out the recipeitnys favourite team and built my card around that.

I laid down some white woodgrain patterned paper from a Teresa Collins pack.. and then went hunting in my stash for something a little different.. and come across some Hamly? Hambly? transparencies I bought a while a go.. that (I won't lie) had forgotten I even owned!! That had to be sliced up and used on the card. The perfect black brick pattern.

I then kept the rest of the card pretty simple with navy blue and vellum accents and silver embossing.

DONE!

Never be afraid to work outside of your comfy little box. I love flowers, buttons, pearls and ribbon as much as the next card maker - but sometimes males aren't always into that stuff. Bear that in mind when trying to create something special.

That's all from me today. I think most of the posts the rest of the week are gonna be all lovey dovey - so please stay tuned for the run up the Valentine's Day here at Cartolinas. xo

Together Forever

Some of you may remember my excitment a while back, when I placed my first ever order with Clearly Besotted stamps? I was over. the. moon. when they arrived in the post - but I couldn't find any proper time to sit down and play with them.. until last month!!

Here is a Valentine's card I created using Paired Up and the matching dies.

Dead easy to achieve with these fab stamps! This has to be one of my favourite cards this year, so far. It's totally out of my comfort zone but it felt lovely to just sit and stamp. 

I can highly recommend Clearly Besotted to anyone. Do not hesitate! BUY YOURS NOW! LOL!!

Thanks for stopping by again. Happy Friday.

I hope you have a fun filled weekend planned. I hope to lock myself away at my desk for pretty much every passing hour tomorrow! ;) xo

Dina the Dino

A late one from me tonight, but I'm still aiming for a post a day this week!!

I thought I'd share another commission card from last month. This is Dina the Dino. 

Adorable!! She even has a glittery neck! Hah!!

This cutie is from.. I wanna say.. My Grafico? It's saved as zenware designs in my digi folder though, so I'm not 100%! :/ I've coloured her, or it could be a him, with my ProMarkers to match papers from Carta Bella.

I added a huge '2' using my Thickers and a smaller sentiment, 'daughter' created using my Lawn Fawn alpha stamps. I wanted to add a few more elements to this packed card, so added lime green and orange roses from WOC. a lime green polka dot ribbon and a ton of liquid pearls.

Ahh! :)

I'm now off to print me some Tiddly Inks and Some Odd Girl goodies! This is my prep for an incredibly crafty Saturday! 

Catch you all tomorrow with post FIVE of the week! Thanks for stopping by today. xo

Oh, Happy Day

Morning friends. Happy day today, it's a FREE WEEK for us girlies over at My Mum's Craft Shop! We get to create something just because we want to with no set theme.

This week I thought I'd share Mother Goose's birthday card with you all!! It was her birthday earlier in the month. I was so tempted to include her age on this card, just to serve as a little reminder, but I knew I'd be posting it here at some point, so I wanted to save her a little embarrassment. Bless her.

So for this card I used:

Wild Rose Studio Stamps - Elsie and Butterflies

Avery Elle Clear Stamps - Oh Happy Day

and some delicious Echo Park papers

I coloured the adorable Elsie up using my ProMarkers and added a little cloudy sky in behind her. I was really pleased with how those clouds turned out - see, practice does pay off.

To create my clouds I simply sketch in a faint cloud outline then fill in my blue sky around it. I then go in with BG1, BG2 and BG3 to create some depth to the outlines of the clouds. 

The next step in my learning curve is to create clouds with poofy bits inside them, so I have shading in there too, instead of just around the outside. Watch this space! LOL!!

Thank you for stopping by today! Happy Monday. xo

From Me to You

Good morning, friends! Today over at my blog, it's a kinda grey day.

A happy grey day.

Grey bears!!

ME TO YOU BEARS!!

I made up a few of these cards for my Valentine's Auction over on my FB page. They went down a storm!! Who doesn't love these characters?!

I bought these decoupage sheets waaay back last year, and I was surprised that I even remembered where I had put them! Hah!!

These were my two favourite designs, so I thought I'd share them over here too.

That's all from me today. Tryna keep things short and sweet this time round. I understand that you don't wanna be wading through my waffle each time you visit my blog! ;) xo

50th Birthday Wishes

I'm starting off the week, with the aim of posting a little something each day! The photos of my creations are starting to stack back up in my projects album on my already rammed laptop, so I'm hoping to share them all with you guys so I can begin to free up a little more memory. That's the plan anyway. Sounds good in theory, right?

So I thought I'd begin with a card I made at the end of December for a lovely lady who has her birthday at two minutes past midnight on New Years Day. I know!! Beautiful timing on her Mothers part! LOL.

Everyone from work chipped in to give her some money towards her holiday - which was a birthday present from her husband.. how lovely?! So I decided to make a matching card and money wallet. This was the perfect opportunity to try out my new WRMK Envelope Board. It worked a charm.

You can create matching envelopes til your heart's content! It's super fun, and super quick.

As for the main card, this was the first time I got to try out my Cameo. I created the large numbers using a font I already had on my computer. I enlarged the letters to about 3.5" and cut them from some pretty, matching, paper. Voila.

I kept the colours pretty neutral with pops of yellow and aqua. I added a huge gold bow (using up the last of that ribbon - go me - and created a spray of flowers in the opposite corner! I had loads of fun creating this set, and everyone at work loved it too - especially the recipient. That's what it's all about, right?

Thank you for stopping by today. I'll be back tomorrow with another installment of papercrafting goodness! Until then, enjoy the rest of your Monday! :) xo

Spotty and Stripey

Afternoon guys! Sorry this post is going up a little late, as usual time has gotten the better of me this week! That seems to be the story of my life lately! 

Anywho, I'm here now. In amongst planning my Saturday I thought I'd quickly get this post typed up! 

*nip and a punch for the first of the month*

With it being the first of Feburary today, I still can't quite believe it - where did January go?! It's time for a new challenge over at My Mum's Craft Shop.

SPOTS AND STRIPES

This is my take on the theme. I used a new image from the latest Time for Tea Designs release, this is Daydream Believer, but all of Jo's images can be found HERE in her Etsy shop.

I teamed the image up with blue, red and white papers from a Teresa Collins pack that I've had sitting around for a while now and I've only used it a couple times. Crazy, because it's gorgeous - and so easy to team up with ProMarker colours.

I'd like to enter this card into these challenges:

- Bloggers Challenge - Embossing

- Delicious Doodles - Die Cuts and/or Punches

- Sister Act Card - Anything Goes

Thank you for stopping by today, and please be sure to stop by the MMCS blog and join in with our challenge this month. We all love spots and stripes, right? xo