Computer Guy ...

Good evening bloggers...

Well isn't the weather just fabulous. Hope it holds out for the weekend so we can make the most of it :-)

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments. I do look forward to reading them when I log on.

My card for today is a male card so no flowers again. I think I might be getting withdrawal symptoms.

I've used a digital stamp from Mo Manning for my brother-in-law's card. If you knew him you'd think he'd posed for it :-)  He's a bit of a computer whizz so this is right up his street.

My sister will have a good chuckle when she sees this.

I've used First Edition Up, Up & Away papers. The blues and greens in this pad are perfect for masculine cards. The edges have been distressed in Walnut Stain ink.

The Birthday sentiment is from the new LOTV Vintage Labels - Occasions and is mounted on a sign cut with the Marianne Creatable sign and lamp die.

The tag is shrink plastic with a phrase from an old stamp I had from Clarity Stamps. Just love this saying for men. Mind you who are we to talk with all our craft goodies :-)

I tried twice to get the text clearer but to no avail - oh well.

The card has been finished with matching papers inside.

Card Ingredients.

Image : Mo Manning - Computer Guy

Sentiments : LOTV - Vintage Labels, Occasions & Clarity Stamp

Dies : Marianne Creatables - Lamp and Sign & Go Kreate - Concentric Tags #1

Copics :

Skin : E0000, E000, E00

Greys : C9, C7, C5, C3, C1, C0, C00, W7, W5, W3

Yellow : Y11

Jeans : B21, B97, B95

Browns : E44, E43, E42, E40, E79, E74, E70

T shirt : YG63, YG61, G20

Blue Screen : BG70, B00, BG000

Paper Tray : YG61,YG93, YG95, YG97

I am entering my card into the following challenges :

Mojo Monday - Sketch #242

SJ Crafts - Monthly Challenge #5 'All about the Boy'

Simon Says Stamp - Father's Days / Special Male (Thanks Mandy)

Ok. I'm off to bed now so that I can take my son Swimming training at 4.45am tomorrow. It's a tough sport - 4 early mornings (5 - 7.30am) and 3 nights (5 - 7.30pm). The things you do as a Mum :-)

I haven't been able to get around all your blogs recently, but I shall be paying a visit after work tomorrow.

Until next time. Enjoy the sun.

Hugs,

Janine xx

Chequered Flag Tilda

Good evening bloggers...

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend.

I want to say a warm welcome to all my new followers and a big thanks for all the lovely comments that have been left. I really do appreciate it :)

I've been making a card for my Niece's 21st Birthday which is in June. She's not a girly girl so I didn't want to have lots of pink and flowers. She's a big fan of Formula 1 car racing and is off to see the British Grand Prix later this summer as her birthday treat.  I've chosen Chequered flag Tilda because I thought she would be perfect for the F1 theme.

I've coloured her with copics and edged around the oval with fired brick using an old Clartity stamp.

I've been seeing lots of lovely cards using the new distress markers. Love the soft effect they create. So tempted to get them for my Birthday later this month :) Not sure how much longer the will power can hold out.

I found the '1991' brad at a local craft shop - just right for a 21st card. The little keys are from The Hobby House.

The papers are Portobello Road from Papermania and have been distressed with walnut stain.

I hope I've got the right balance - it does seem odd not putting flowers on.

Copics 

Skin : E0000, E000, E00, R20

Hair : E57, E53, E51, E50

Reds : R39, R37, R35, R32

Blues : B95, B93, B41

Dies : Nesties, Tim Holtz - Vintage Market, Memory Box - Catalina, Doo Hickey - Flags

I'm entering this card into the following challenges :

CLP Challenge - Sketch #47 (really fun to do)

Tilda's Town - 1st challenge 'Anything Goes'

That's all from me for now. Hope you have a lovely week.

Hugs,

Janine xx

Liebster Blog Award

Good evening bloggers...

I just wanted to tell you some lovely news...I've been nominated by the lovely Andrea for the Leibster Blog award. At first I have to confess I thought it was the blog equivalent of a chain letter - Shame on me.

It was only when I started seeing it on other blogs that I realised this was a hugh compliment and I feel honoured - Thank You Andrea.

The idea of the Leibster Blog Award is to spread the love from one small blog (under 200 followers) to other small blogs. This helps to spread knowledge and readership.

To accept the award, you must:

1. Link back to the person who gave it and thank them for thinking of you.
2. Post the award on your blog.
3. Give the award to 5 bloggers (with less than 200 followers) that you appreciate and value.
4. Leave a comment on the blogs of the 5 people you have chosen to let them know.

"Liebster" in German means "dearest", so to carry on the liebster tradition, I am going to pass the award on to 5 people who's blogs have been an inspiration to me and my crafting.

There are so many wonderful blogs that it is hard to chose just 5. I'm nominating people who haven't already received the award, so this has helped me in my choice.

My nominations are :

Jenny from Jenny's Craft Corner

Andie from Andie's Space

Mae from Ink'd Paper

Sarah from Created by Sarah

Eileen from Star's Cards

Please go and check out their blogs. There are some fantastic creations.

Thanks for dropping by.

Hugs,

Janine xx

Tilda with 3 Flowers

Good evening bloggers....

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. The weather was kinder to us here in Yorkshire. Well a least it wasn't raining all weekend.

Bought some lovely digi papers from Raspberry Road last week and spent ages trying to get them resized and printed to the correct scale. Have been using GIMP (it's free) for cropping and watermarks but this just wouldn't print out the same size as I had resized it.  After some long conversations over the phone with my Dad we finally got it to work in Scribus (that's free too) - thanks Dad.

I've used some of those lovely papers on today's card and another Tilda stamp.

The flowers are made from Magnolia dies rather than my usual WOC ones and I've also used the lovely heart tag too. I can see this becoming a firm favourite :)

The image is coloured as usual with copics and I've edged the flowers with vintage photo.

Here's a close up of the image.

I'm really pleased how the image has turned out. I saw this Tilda sat on the fence on a card that Kim had made ages ago and loved it. I've been wanting to colour this since then.

Here's a close up. I've followed the sketch over at Sketch n Stash. I really enjoyed following this although it did take me a while to choose the papers. I'm a bit slow, but hopefully I'll get faster.

Sorry the photos aren't as clear as I'd like them. I'll keep trying. There's just so much to learn. At least it keeps me out of mischief and from doing the housework too :)

Card Ingredients.

Images : Magnolia Tilda with 3 flowers & Spring Fence

Papers : Raspberry Road Nantucket

Medium : Copics

Face : E0000, E000, E00, R20

Dress and head scarf : R85, R83, R81 + E40, E41, E42

Daffs : Y11, YR21, YR23

Grass : G20, YG67, YG63, YG61

Leaves : YG67, YG63, YG61

Hair : E50, E23, E25, E29

Shoes : E40, E41, E42, E43

Fence : E44, E43, E42, E41

Socks : W0

Dies:

Doo-Hickey - Hellebores, Dragonfly, Vintage Daisies, SO Wrapped Lovely Heart

Marianne Creatables - LR0156, LR0205

Ribbon and 'Hand Made' Heart from stash.

I am entering my card into the following challenges :

Sketch n Stash - Sketch #87

Magnolia-licious - Pink, Green & Light Yellow

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - #24 Anything Goes

Thank you so much for dropping by and any comments you may leave.

Hugs, Janine xx

Chinese Tilda

Good afternoon bloggers....

Hope the weather is better where you are. It's not stopped raining here since 2pm yesterday!!

I had a great day out last Saturday at the LOTV Open Weekend. I had only intended to buy 4 stamps and possibly some of the new sentiments. Well their cuteness along with the fabulous inspiration from the Design Team's cards got the better of me!! I bought 12 (or was it 13?) stamps and 3 of the new A5 sentiment sheets. Oops! :)

Was also lucky enough to have got a place on Bev's fantastic advanced colouring workshop. Really enjoyed this and hope to put the techniques into practice over the coming weeks.

Enough of my waffle and onto the card.

Today I have a card made using a couple of Magnolia stamps that I've had for a while, but have never seen ink.

I've masked them together to create a mini scene. In doing this the overall image came out quite large so I've kept the layering quite simple.

The image is coloured with copics as usual. Here's a close up.

I've embellished it with some dies, punches,  WOC flowers and a little fan charm I got from Mei Flower

 Card Ingredients

Image : Magnolia - Chinese Tilda and Magnolia Tree

Papers : Dovecraft 'Eastern Promise'

Colouring Medium : Copics

Skin : E0000, E000, E00, R20

Tree : E44, E43, E42, E41, R32, R30

Dress : C00, C0, C1 & blender pen

Outer Robe : R59, R85, R83, R81, RV000

Grass : G20, YG67, YG63, YG61

Dies & Punches : Doo Hickey 'Heart Swirl Branch' & Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly

Fan Charm - Mei Flower

Flowers - WOC.

I am entering my card into the following challenges:

Joanna Sheen Challenge - Flower Power

Crafty Ribbons Challenge #19 - Flowers

Thanks for dropping by and any comments you may leave. 

Thanks also to those who have left comments on my previous posts. I really do appreciate it.

Hugs, Janine xx

Video Boy

Good evening bloggers...

First of all I would like to give a big warm welcome to my new followers and say  "Thank you" to everyone who has left me such lovely comments, I really do appreciate it.

I am coming to the conclusion that I am not going to be a blogger who is able to post a card every day. There just don't seem to be enough hours in my day to be able to make cards and meet all my other commitments. My long term aim is 2 per week, but I think 1 a week is a good goal for now :)

I seem to spend ages trying to decide on a layout, the design papers and then all the embellies. Perhaps I'll  get quicker and more confident the more I do.

Should you colour your image first and have a vague idea of colour combo or should you choose your papers first? I think I spend so much time trying to decide what to do and looking at all the lovely blogs out there for ideas that I never get started! 

Anyway here's a card I have actually managed to finish. It's a Mo Manning image called video boy. It's great for those boys cards, especially teenage boys (which are even harder to do)

I have used some Nitwit papers. I treated myself to some as they were on offer, but sadly I have just looked and the offer has finished.

The colours are much brighter once printed than they appear on my PC screen. Does anyone know if I need to do something special to get the muted shades I see on my screen?

I have distressed the edges of my papers using a Tim Holtz distress tool and  the clock face and ticket were distressed with Walnut Stain ink

I'm going to enter it into the following challenges :

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Truly Scrumptious - Distressing and Dies
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Birthday

Card Ingredients.

Copics:

Skin : E0000, E000, E00

Jeans : B95, B93, B91, B00

Top : E40, E42, E43, E44

Hair : E29, E25, E23

Reds : R39, R37, R35, R32

Tools:

Tim Holtz Weathered Clock, Vintage Market Alphabet & Ticket Strip

Die-namics : Stacking Stars

Doo-Hickey : Flag

EK Success Binding Edge Punch

Image : Mo Manning digi - Video Boy

Papers: Nitwits - Bear Boys too & Crab Apple too

Thank you so much for dropping by and for any comments you leave.

Janine xx

Whispy a Fairy

Good Evening Bloggers...

I hope that you've all had a lovely Easter break. I know that seems ages ago now but I'm only just getting back into a routine. My kids and I went back to school and work on Monday and normality seems to be setting in fast.

I had today off work to take my eldest son to have the wires taken out of his broken wrist. No....I was a big wimp and didn't dare look in case I fainted and embarrassed both myself and him. lol. 2 more weeks in a pot and then it's off for good.

Onto my card for this evening. 

It's another of Krista's amazing images. This time it's Whispy a Fairy, she's such a cutie.

I really enjoyed colouring her. I'm still relatively new to copics but was pleased with how she turned out, especially the hair. I really struggle to get hair to look right. I've added some shading with prisma colours but was a bit heavy handed so don't look too closely :)

Here's a close up.

I think she's going to be an image that I'll keep on coming back to.

I've added some stickles to the dragonflies for a bit of bling but it's not really come out well in the photos.

And finally a sideways view.

Card Ingredients

Image : Saturated Canary 'Whispy a Fairy'

Clarity Stamp around the image

Sentiment : Ladybug Crafts - Fairy Sentiments

Copics:

Skin : E000, E00, E11, R20

Hair : E49, E44, E43, E41

Dress: R83, R81, R000 and E43, E41, E40

Papers : First Edition - Sweet Owl

Punches : Martha Stewart Doily Edge

Dies : Nestie Classic Oval & Scallops

Die-namics - Mini tabs

Doo-Hickey : Dragonflies

Marianne Creatables : LR0156 Leaves

WOC : Flowers & Heart buckle

I'm entering it into the following challenges.

CLP Challenge Sketch #46

Paper Sundaes #116 - Anything Goes

Crafty Ribbons Challenge - Things with Wings

Thank you for dropping by. I really look forward to reading your lovely comments.

Have a good week,

Janine xx