Southern Girls Challenge - Sticky Business

This week we want to see things stuck on your project, i.e. things like washi tape, sequins & enamel dots. I decided to do the latter as I often stick sequins on cards & I personally have never really liked sticking washi tape on cards. This also meant I could use some of those enamel dots sitting in my craft drawers feeling unloved.

 I knew I had the perfect stamp set or in this case purr-fect stamp set I had bought a while ago from  Krafters Cart who once again are sponsoring this week's challenge with ppinky dolls. The stamp set is called Purr-fect friends (My Favorite Things).

I coloured the very cool cat image up with my Copics which made the whole thing really easy. I matched the letters to hopefully match my colouring.

Recipe
Stamp set: Purr-fect friend (MFT)
Ink: Memento Black, Versamark
Card stock: XpressIt blending card stock, white, black, Melon Mambo, Tangerine Tango, Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight
Copics used: BG10, BG13, BG15, RV25, Y06, YG06, YG25, YR15
Dies: Double stitched rectangle (SSS), Purr-fect friends (MFT), Big Hugs (MFT)
Other: Brights enamel dots (SU! to match the cardstock), dimensionals, white embossing powder

Well I hope you can join us with getting "sticky" and once again thank you to our 2 fabulous sponsors who are offering you the chance to win some free goodies.

Do check out the Southern Girls Challenge site to see what the rest of the fab design team came up with this week.

The fab Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge site has a cool & also easy theme this week to emboss it so I'll enter my card there as well as I've used white EP to make my sentiment pop, though I seriously need to buy some more as my pots are all looking cream!

Wow there's a few sites with crazy colours this week so I'll enter my card with them too
Colour Crazy Challenge - anything goes
Glitter & Sparkle blog - use bright colours - purrfect even if I say myself - incoming pyschaedelic kitty kat coming!

Good luck everyone if you have a go too.
✿ Karen ✿

Mermazing mermaids!!

Not sure what is happening but the crafting world seems to be mermaid crazy at the moment. I ordered from My Favorite Things & Hero Arts their mermaid stamps etc from the May releases & it took nearly 3 weeks to get my package down under & then we headed across the seas ourselves for a wee winter break in Australia so it was nice to have a play today with my goodies.

I ended up combining stuff from both releases. I also learnt that white Signo gel pens don't dry that fast! I had originally drawn scales on my mermaid's tail with my white gel pen but 10 mins later when I went to add some clear Wink of Stella I washed out my scales & made an opaque wash. I actually liked how it all looked, I actually felt it matched the beautiful glimmer paper better as I had toned down the colours a wee bit. But I went over the black lines on the tail with a black sharpie pen as they didn't look good with a white wash!

The mermaid, fish & saying are BB Mermazing from My Favorite Things (MFT). The die cut frame is Hero Art's (HA) Reef Border which was an add-on for their May 2017 My Monthly Hero, the beautiful glimmer paper is from the kit & is just sensational in real life, it was such a shame to only get a 6x6" piece in the monthly kit as it doesn't go very far!! To the best of my knowledge we can't buy it from Hero Arts at this stage.

I've used Copics to colour up the wee mermaid.
Mermaid tail: BG10/13/15, B00/02/05
Pink Hair/Top: RV21/23/25
Green Hair: YG21/25/17
Skin: E50/00 R30
Fish: YR21/15 and YR20/02

I've tried doing the hair dip-dyed which is a technique from my Kit & Clowder hair class & it's also a technique we're using in this month's colouring class, which believe it or not were more mermaids, this time a digi stamp from Conie Fong.

Well expect to see more mermaids from MFT & HA & also my monthly colouring class when it's finished until then have a "flipping" good time crafting!

My favourite shopping place Simon Says Stamp & challenge site has Anything Goes for their Wednesday challenge so I'll enter my wee mermaid card in the challenge as it truly was anything goes!

✿ Karen ✿

Just adorable

Just sharing a card I shared/taught to some gal pals last weekend as I was kind of shocked to find out so many of them have bought MISTIs & didn't know how to use them.  I think it's a really invaluable tool & my number one must have in my craft room.

Well the get together with 2 others became 5 others in the end so I had to think of something we could do simply & easily so I turned to my Adorable Elephant set from My Favorite Things & my trusty ZIG real colour brush markers which make colouring wee images like this so easy.

We also got to play with Cracked Pistachio & Broken China distress oxide ink for the background using MFTs new cloud stencil. Its all pretty self explanatory but so cute. We used aquapainters or clear Wink of Stella for our colouring or another brush marker. The sponged background & the wee images were all coloured on Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper.

Recipe:
Stamp set: Adorable Elephants (My Favorite Things)
Ink: Memento Blcak, Cracked Pistaschio DO, Broken China DO, Aig real color brush markers
Paper: Whisper White thick (base card), Bristol Smooth (Strathmore)
Dies: Adorable elephants (MFT), Stitched rectangle (SSS)
Other: Cloud stencil (MFT), aquapainter, clear Wink of Stella, MISTI, dimensionals

I see Simon Says Stamp's Monday challenge is "Little critters" so I'll enter my wee elephant card in the challenge too.

Thanks for popping by.
✿ Karen ✿

It's Time to SPARKLE

It's challenge day at Southern Girls Challenge & we have a fab & fabulous fun challenge this week to add some sparkle to our projects . For those of us living in NZ this is  a great idea as winter gloom is setting in but personally I always like a bit of sparkle on my projects all year!

I used an adorable digi-stamp by one of our sponsors Polkadoodles called Horace & Boo Party Friends which I just adore!!! If you wanted to buy your own digi-stamp - wait for it it's only a couple of pounds to buy & download is instant (click HERE if you do), but if you're like me & you can't decide which Horace & Boo you want to colour, you can look in their shop & buy the whole collection i.e. the Big Kahuna for a fraction more which contains more cute images to colour, digital papers, embellishments & so much more.

Now trying to photo the card to show the sparkle at this time of the year was harder than colouring it up with my Copics was but hopefully my 2 best-est snaps can show the sparkle from the glimmer paper (CTMH Green pack) & the Wink of Stella on the balloons & present ribbon. I really enjoyed colouring these 2 rascals up & can't wait to use another digi-stamp from the collection.

Copic markers I used.
Boo (the cat) : W1, W3, W5, R20
Horace (the dog) : E53, E55, E57, E59, R20, N1, N7, N9, 100
Green balloon/ribbon : YG21, YG25, YG17
Blue balloon/present : B02, B04, B06
Scarf/Cat collar : R32, R35, R46
Envelope : YR20, YR21, YR 31
I also used my colourless blender (0), Copic black multiliner 03 & a Sakura black gel pen for their eyes.

I printed my image out at 25% gray-scale with the help of  a fab resource on working with digital stamps by Some Odd Girl which is free to download, they also have some other cool tutorials on their blog. Their free e-book can be located HERE.

As always anything goes  as long as it has sparkle this week. Our fab sponsors this week are Polkadoodles & Krafters Cart so two players will be chosen by a RNG to win. So what have you got to lose!

Thanks for popping in & hope you can make the time to play along with us this week.
✿ Karen ✿

Lesley's Polaroid Card for Mother's Day

Hi everyone Mother's day is looming fast & I decided this year for Pete's mum we'd give her this fabulous "Polaroid" card that Lesley Stewart designed & taught to me at an Extravaganza with Sally Williams. It's one of those cards that is so fabulous that it can can only go to a special person.

I'm guessing Lesley called it a Polaroid card as we're looking through a window. As Lesley & Sally are both SU! demonstrators all products used on the card are Stampin' Up!

Recipe:
Stamp sets: Flower Ship, Petite Petals, Dictionary, Gorgeous Grunge, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Ink: Calypso Coral, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso
Paper: Naturals White, Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso, Gold Foil
Punches: Pansy, Petite Petals, Itty Bitty Butterfly, Bird Builder
Other: Square framelits, gold metallic baker's twine, dimensional, basic pearls, acetate

The Polaroid frame was made with a piece of Natural White card stock measuring 10 x 8 cm & the 2" square framelit was cut from the top of this mat to leave approx. a 1.5 cm border on the "top" 3 sides. The gold foil was 6.5 x 6.5 cm square and again the 2" square framelit cut out the middle of the gold foil. The Dictionary stamp was stamped on a square 6.5 cm of Naturals White with Crumb Cake ink.

A lot of the products used in this card are retired from SU! now but I'm sure we all have something similar in our craft rooms. I certainly think having the flowers on the lovely Polaroid window really adds a touch of WOW so thanks Lesley for such a fab design I'm sure Pete's mum will love it!

So a Happy Mother's day to all our mums - I know I'll be thinking about my mum, this will be the 5th Mother's Day without her.

✿ Karen ✿