Candy win

Just thought I'd brag a little and thank the cuddly buddly for sending me these adorable stamps. Aren't they the cutest bunnies you've ever seen? You can get them at the cuddly buddly shop and they are also available as decoupage sheets and digistamps I believe. Here are the three sets I won. Can't wait to start colouring them.

Whiff of joy guest DT call

Some of you know that I'm a huge fan of the Whiff of joy stamps (especially the ones drawn by Alison Acton - have you seen her latest ones? WOW!) So it's only natural that I want to apply for Katharina's bi-monthly guest design team call. I think I missed the last one, but not this time. I marked my calendar so I wouldn't miss  it :)

The challenge this time is to choose your fav WOJ project. I have a bunch of cards that I'm proud of, but the thing that stands out the most is this inspirational frame. I'm also very proud of my bookmark cart, but Katharina has already seen it and I actually got invited to the inspirational blog to show my tutorial of it there. It was such an honour.

So here is why this is my fav WOJ project of all times (at least so far). Click the pictures for a bigger view.

I used fall Willow catching leaves because I just LOVE the dynamic and feeling this stamp conveys. Her clothes and ribbons are flowing in the wind like the birds had just flewn by. When I came across the birdstamp from hero arts I just new I had to use it with Willow. The birds were the perfect size and I love how it looks like they are bursting to freedom out of her hands. I coloured them seperately and clearembossed to give extra texture. I also think Willow is coloured beautifully with my promarkers. I think I've evolved a lot since then, but it still looks great.

The decorated bird sitting in the right hand corner was one of my inventions. I was so proud when I made it because I hadn't seen anything like it anywhere else. I used a bird die that I embossed with a cuttlebug embossing folder. If you look closely you can see a part of a bird on the embossing. I also made sure that the swirl was around the eye area to make it look like an eye. I cut away petals from a big primaflower and used them as tailfeathers.

I used a lot of tiny details like dimensional glaze on dewdrops, charms and beads and I even made a tiny butterfly from shrink plastic

Finally the inspirational sentiment that binds this whole piece together:
"Hold fast to dreams
for if dreams die
life is like a broken winged bird
that cannot fly"

This was one of my first, if not my first altered project and definately my first try at distressing. So although it's been almost a year since I made it it's still one of my best pieces that I'm very proud of. Now all I can do is keep my fingers crossed and hope you'll do the same for me.

Heartfelt wishes

Already time for another project for the I love promarkers challenge blog. This is my second to last week and the theme we have for you is "sweet and simple". I started out with a very simple idea; just plain squares and a monochromatic look. It was a bit too plain though so I distressed the edges and added a punched out border. I also coloured the polkadot ribbon with my promarkers to exactly match the colourscheme.

The stamp I used is from sweetpea stamps and is called one and only heart from plate 68. I used burgundy distress ink for the image's background. The girl is coloured in several red hues as there are no good that matched.  The colours I used were: ivory and blush for skin, dusky rose, ruby, burnt orange, burgundy, burnt umber, coral for dress and hair.

Challenges for this card:

Alice in wonderland - mostly white or red
Creative craft challenges - monochromatic madness
I love promarkers - sweet and simple
My time to craft - spots and dots
Paper sundaes - your fav challenge (I chose #41 - a natural woman)
Papertake weekly - ribbons and pearls
Pear tree - free for all
Promarker challenge - all you need is love
Simon says stamp - sketch
Simon says stamp and show - polka dots

I love you -deeply

This is my second post for today and this week's sweetpea card.
What a fabulous image and colours for this card, don't you agree? It makes me happy just looking at it. I love the slightly different colourcombo with pale turquoise, green and vibrant red. And who said you can't have flowers under the sea?

The image I have chosen for today is one of Samantha Rawling's little sweethearts called lil' mermaid from sweetpea stamps. I love her first stamps and this one has been hiding from me. Being a scubadiver this image is very close to my heart. Imagine seeing one of these creatures brushing her hair during a dive!

I have coloured the little mermaid with my promarkers. The papers (from daisybucket) are so vibrant and beautiful that I wanted to keep the card simple. The only thing I did was to doodle a bit on it. I wrote "I love you" around the little heart on top right and doodled scallops around the image and bottom panel with a silver pen. Other than that I let the image speak for itself - so to speak :)

Challenges for this card:

Everybody art - sketch
Fuzzy wuzzy - anything goes
Oldie but a goodie - bright and cheerful
Stamp something - anything goes
The secret crafter - with love

sweetpea

So glad I found a friend like you

It's been quite a while since I played with any house mouse images. Since the house mouse challenge blog are having a hop I decided to join in. I don't really have the time as school starts tomorrow, but you need to be able to relax too, right? Housework can wait. I just thought my hobbycorner would be shining from cleaning. Instead it's just sparkling (from glitter unfortunately :D)

The theme for the house mouse challenge was "new beginnings". I wanted to do something clever and thought of this image I've never used before. It's called "finding friendship" and I wanted to play with that theme.

The image is coloured mostly with oilpencils and rubbed with a kind of alcohol. I think it's called gamsol in the US. I only coloured the shade and looking glass with tea green promarker and inked the edges with weathered wood distress ink.. The rest of the card is made with scraps of two different patterned papers (although they look almost the same), an embossed cardstock strip and some trims. I also added two sizes of pale blue pearls in the corners. The text is handwritten as I'm practicing to be happy with my own handwriting for scrapbook layouts.

Challeges for this card:

Cute card thursday - monochromatic
Friday sketchers - sketch
House mouse - new beginnings
Stampin for the weekend - new and blue
Totally gorjuss - cuddly
Winter wonderland - paws (not sure if it needs to ba a X-mas card though because the DT has made others)