Home plaque for Leonie's Launch

Hello lovely peeps

Exciting news - the very lovely Leonie Pujol is launching her own range of crafty goodies on Hochanda.
Right now
Yes, right this minute :D

AND

I'm on her first design team. Woo hoo!

Since Hochanda stands for 'Home of Crafts, Hobbies and Arts' I thought it was appropriate to show you my 'Home' plaque first.

I started off with a thick chipboard square which I painted with white gesso.

 Next I dragged/dabbed on some Dusty Concord and Shaded Lilac Distress Inks using a sponge.

I stamped the zentangle circles several times down the right hand side in black Memento ink

I forgot to keep taking photos at this point so I'll just talk you through what I did. 

The circles were coloured in with alcohol markers and I stamped and embossed some dangly hearts along the top with white embossing powder.

I stamped some script in black using second generation ink (i.e. I stamped the first time onto scrap paper to take off the intensity)

For the paint circles I put small puddles of black and white gesso on my craft mat and dipped some old plastic caps in it and used them as 'stamps'

Overdid it all a bit and gessoed over the top of half of it again....  :D

[and here the camera makes a very brief reappearance]

I laid the 'home' stencil over the top and masked off the sizes I didn't want. I also made post-it masks for the centres for the o and e.

I spread white texture paste through the stencil then lifted it off and removed the o and e masks with my pokey tool.

I made some bird houses by inking up rectangles/squares/triangles with co-ordinating colours* and overstamping with some of the zentangle stamps.  The roofs are covered with glossy accents.

* same colours as above plus Evergreen Bough and Weathered Wood

The birds were cut from black shrink plastic with a Marianne die set and shrunk with a heat gun before sitting them on top of the letters with silicone glue.
 

The handle is just 3 strands of ribbon twisted together and knotted at the back.

If you've missed the show don't forget you can watch it on Hochanda's catch up service for up to 7 days afterwards. Leonie will also have shows at 9, 12, 4 and 7pm (stock permitting).
You can also 'meet' the other members of the Design Team over on Leonie's blog.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
 We Love 2 Create #8 Anything Mixed Media Goes
Happy Little Stampers (Mixed Media)  Wings
 Really Reasonable Ribbon #139 - Things with Wings and Ribbon or Trim
Come and Get It  #114 Things with Wings
Kitty Bee Designs #69 - Living Things with Wings
Love to Scrap  #76 Anything Goes
Creative Fingers #107 Anything Goes
Crafting By Designs (monthly) Anything Goes
 The Crafty Addicts Anything Goes/Girly
Classic Design Team Challenge #1 Anything Goes
As You Like It Challenge Favourite Anything but a Card (I love these square plaques -they're very similar to decorating a card so not too daunting)
SSS Work it wednesday Pastels


Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Magical Woodland

Hello lovely peeps

It's challenge reminder time at Crafty Calendar and this time I've done a card with a lovely image from All Dressed Up called Magical Woodland.

First I printed the image off onto stamping card and then 'coloured' it in with Pebeo drawing gum
 

I then painted over the top with a wet paintbrush and 'twisted citron' distress ink. Rub the gum off to reveal the white image ready to colour in.

Top tip: make sure you do this step first before you spend an hour colouring your image in. The first time round I coloured the image before doing the background and then had to chuck it because she ended up with a green splodge on her face where I hadn't covered it with gum properly. Oops.

I coloured the image in with a selection of alcohol markers (Promarkers, Graph'Its and Marvy).

Hair: 1210, 1230, 1270
Skin: dusky pink, sunkissed
Dress: V750, rose pink, 5255
Toadstools: 5255, 5270, almond, putty,tawny owl
Ground: apple cider

The next step was to make the background. I ran some white card through my ebosser with an A4 script folder and then on the debossed side I sponged/dragged over some paint. It just so happens that the leftover 'Malt Chocolate' tester paint from when I decorated my craft room was a pretty good match to the underside of the toadstool :D

For the layer underneath the main image (i.e. the frame) I'd coloured around the edges of some white card with rose pink promarker. This looked a bit bright so I turned the card over with the intention of putting another colour on - but the bleedthrough pink from the other side looked so pretty I decided just to use that.

To add a bit of texture I arranged some die-cuts around the edges - the white one is Catalina Wreath from Memory Box and the green ones were cut with one of the 'Florist Friends' dies by Sheena Douglass.
I sanded down the foliage for a shabby chic look

As a finishing touch I added some crystal glamour dust to the fairy's wings.

The wording is a stamp from a Dylusions set 'Clearly the Right Words', stamped with black memento ink and cut up. They already have the boxes around them.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
 Fab 'n' Funky #300 Girly and Pretty
Our Crafty Corner #8 Anything Goes
All Dressed Up #53 Anything Goes
Passion For Promarkers Challenge #341 Bingo - embossing, image, die-cuts
 The Ribbon Girls Card challenge
  Cardz 4 Galz #20 Use An Embossing Folder
Kitty Bee Designs #69 - Living Things with Wings
Creative Craft Cottages Challenges #61 Add some sparkle 
Brown Sugar #194 Anything Goes
 Julia Spiri Challenge #16 Anything Goes w/option of make a bag with digi
 Simply Papercraft  #27 Anything Goes

Inspiration Destination  #81 Always Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Playing with Paper Tubes

Hello lovely peeps, and a very warm welcome to my new followers.

I just wanted to share with you the cards I made before/during our club session last night.

I got the idea for the heart card from the February issue of Making Cards magazine, you basically cut a heart shape out of card, roll 5cm strips of thin decorative paper around a pencil and attach the rolls to the shape before trimming to fit the shape.

I used some of the gorgeous papers from the Winnie Sugar Sprinkles CD , and the sentiment is from the Sensational Sentiments stamp sheet by Polkadoodles. They're printed onto 120gsm Super Smooth paper.

For my second card I wanted to use a different shape. I was going to use a star but came across some nautical themed digi papers on my computer which gave me the idea to use part of a circle as the bottom half of a boat.

The papers on this one are called 'Land Ho' from Nitwit Collections

I used more paper rolls for the mast and an offcut for the flag (I also used some offcuts in place of foam pads/silicone glue to raise up the sails as I would have had to use loads!!!).

The sentiment was stamped with my old stand-by alphabet Multi Retro from My Sentiments Exactly.

I would like to enter my boat card in the following challenges:-
Southern Girls Patterned Paper Free For All 
The Ribbon Girls April Card challenge
613 Avenue Create  #171 Anything goes with optional twist:  Create A Masculine Card
Through The Craft Room Door - Always Anything Goes
Inspiration Destination  #81 Always Anything Goes
 Simply Papercraft  #27 Anything Goes
Creative Fingers #107 Anything Goes
 Our Crafty Corner #8 Anything Goes 

I'll be back tomorrow with a mid-post reminder for the Crafty Calendar Challenge.

See you then,

Katrina x

Floral Frenzy for Polkadoodles

Hello lovely peeps

It's time for a new Polkadoodles challenge and the theme this time is 'Floral Frenzy'. 

I have used the Winnie Sugar Sprinkles CD to make my card, starting with the pre-coloured version of the 'Just for You' digistamp and one of the fab papers. 

 I've gone around the edges of the topper with a pricking tool (bought from my local craft/sewing shop)

The flowers and the sentiment were cut out with my Craft Robo and I attached them with silicone glue and white wire for the stems.

Is it weird that they remind me of lollipops? :D

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Dream Valley Challenges #128 Girlie
Melonheadz Friends Challenge THROW ON FLOWERS
Star Stampz Challenge  FLOWERS, FLOWERS, FLOWERS!
Through the Purple Haze #99 Layers
 Whimsy Inspiration - #92 Spring Colours or Easter
Sassy Studio Designs  #328 Anything Goes
Paper Shelter Challenge #243 - Spring Delights
Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog #272 Anything Goes
Crafting from the Heart #106 Anything Goes (Always)
Our Crafty Corner #8 Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Lili of the Valley APRIL challenge

Hello lovely peeps

We have another Facebook challenge running this month at Lili of the Valley.
It's a colour theme this time - use at least 3 of the following colours - Aqua, Pink, Red, Ivory, Lilac

 

There are some fab prizes on offer for 5 winners that we will pick at random. The first 4 will have the choice of any of the following; Any 2 sentiment sheets / any 5 rubber stamps /
any Cross Stitch Kit / £20 to spend in our Ebay Store

 The lovely Ribbon Girls have also offered a fab £10 voucher (postage will be extra)

You've got until 6pm on the 17th of April to enter (one entry per person).

For my inspiration card I've gone for Aqua, Red and Ivory, using one of the returning favourite stamps - Sailing Boat. He's coloured in with a combination of Promarkers and Graph'Its and then cut out.

I've layered him onto papers from the retired pads 'Beach Bliss' and 'Antebellum'

The sentiment is from one of  the new stamp sets 'Sketchy Wishes'

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Crafting from the Heart #106 Anything Goes
Our Crafty Corner #8 Anything Goes
Mod Squad Challenge - use water (rain, sea, sky etc
Paper Shelter Challenge # 242 - Buttons
Creative Knockouts #135 Outside Fun!
Incy Wincy Designs - Colour Me Wonderful (Favorite Colouring Medium is alchohol markers)
The Stamping Boutique #79 Masculine
Penny Black and More  Birthdays
My Besties UK Challenge  Anything Goes (A)
A Beautiful Mess #1 Anything Goes
Inky Impressions  'All About The Boys'
The Sisters of Craft Always Anything Goes 

 {Pin}spirational #162 - Inspiration Image

Thanks for stopping by,
Katrina x

Earth Fairy

Hello lovely peeps

It's time for a new challenge at Crafty Calendar. It's an easy one this time - 'Anything Goes'

There are two sponsors this month - All Dressed Up and Fabrika Fantasy

I have made a card with 'Earth Fairy' from Fabrika Fantasy. It's available pre-coloured or black and white - I've used the pre-coloured version and teamed it up with a sentiment from Personal Impressions/Marion Emberson. The papers from First Edition 8x8 pads 'The Promise' and 'Boho Chic'.
The foliage dies are from the 'Back to Nature' set by Emily Atherton for Sizzix.

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

Crafter's Cafe  #146 Use some lace 
Crafting for all Seasons  #123 Die Cuts/Punches
Craft Rocket Challenges #12 Mythical Creatures
Fussy and Fancy #160 - Pastel Colours
Craft Your Passion #305 Anything Goes
Brown Sugar #192 Anything goes
Artistic Inspirations  #153 Anything goes
Love to Scrap  #74 Anything goes
Crafting-With-Friends  #17 Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Have a magical day

Hello lovely peeps

 It's week 2 of the current Polkadoodles challenge 'Cream and Sugar'
(use cream/ivory, pink and coffee colours).

Here's my first inspiration card as a fully fledged member of the Design Team :D

Apart from a few buttons and a bit of mesh, everything on my card is from the Octavia Moonfly CD.
First I printed off the black & white version of the gorgeous 'Wistful' and coloured her in with alchohol markers (the pinks and greens are toned down with Graph'It marker 9400).
I also added some dots to her wings with a white pen.

There are some beautiful textured papers in this collection. I've gone with a brown linen paper for the first layer and a lovely pink check for the mats. There was no cream coloured paper so I changed the colour of a pink dotty paper using Craft Artist.  I used the colour picker to retrieve a pale brown colour from the butterfly paper and then applied it to the pink dotty paper. It came out a lovely cream colour - result!
 

The butterflies were all cut out from a butterfly patterned paper on the CD and I drew on the antennae with a black fineliner pen to tie in with all the lovely curly lines on the image.

My new teamies have some wonderful inspiration for you on the Polkadoodles blog so please pop over and have a look/leave some love if you get a chance. Why not have a go at the challenge this time with this lovely colour scheme -you could win a $10 voucher to the Polkadoodles shop. You don't need to use a Polkadoodles image to enter but if you do you're in with a chance of winning a Feather in your Cap.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Allsorts #356 - Wings
Paper Shelter Challenge # 242 - Buttons
Di's Digis Designs For the Girls 
Cutie Pie Challenge #97 SO FAIRY CUTE
Dream Valley Challenges #128 Girlie 28Mar 
Crafts and Me Fairies and Magic
 A Beautiful Mess #1 Anything Goes
Inspiration Destination  #79 Always Anything Goes
Creative Craft Cottages Challenges #60 Anything Goes 
Simon Says Stamp (Wed) Anything Goes

 Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x