The Daily Marker 30 Day Challenge - and some more Chloe

Hi there :)  Today I've got the final 10 days of colouring from The Daily Marker 30 Day Challenge.  I totally enjoyed this challenge and I know I'll do it again!

Day 21 

 This one is a card that I made for one of my friends who organised the scrap retreat and features a chef from my colouring on Day 15.

Day 22

I used one of those unicorns from Gerda Steiner designs to make Michael a birthday card.  He totally loves unicorns so it was an easy choice to buy this stamp and die set.

Day 23

I stamped and cut a few hedgehogs on watercolour paper.  They are from MFT's Happy Hedgehog stamp and die set.

Day 24

Lots of brown colouring today using Distress Inks.  I love the richness of colours you get when you layer the inks.

Day 25

Time to break out the colour!  I added some red, orange, greens and blue to the little hedgehogs... thank goodness for having Google on my phone when I was looking for the acorn colouring!

Day 26

Time to make a background for my hedgehog card.  I blended Distress Inks onto Bristol Smooth cardstock... love how easy the ink blends together!  

While I had my inks out I inked and blended another piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock so that I could cut some Autumn/Fall leaves.

Day 27

I inked up some more Bristol Smooth cardstock using Distress Oxide Ink - mostly using browns - to make the frame for my card.  I used Lawn Fawn's Leafy Tree Backdrop for this card.  As you can see I also added some water spritzing to my background from Day 26.

Day 28

Yay a finished card!  I added a couple of hedgehogs (which I backed with foam for extra dimension) along with some Autumn/Fall leaves.  This card was for a friend of mine who has been unwell (read that as 'sick as a dog!') she also loves hedgehogs so I was pretty sure she was going to like this one.

Just lately I've been decorating the inside of my cards as well and I haven't really shown them but I'll share this one with you as I'm super pleased with how it turned out:

Day 29

Since I had all the things out for my previous hedgehog card I thought I'd make one more.  This one was scraplifted from Tricia Barber:

Day 30

For the last day of the challenge I really didn't know what I wanted to make/colour so I stamped some polar bears, heat embossed and then die cut them... and to be honest they're sitting in a little container waiting to be coloured because I had some other projects that needed my attention.

And now for some Chloe time... being a Nana is awesome!!  I love this little girl so much already.  Mikayla and Chloe flew into Rotorua last Monday and the snuggles and cuddles commenced immediately!  Auntie Krystal came with me to the airport and it's been an awesome week of family time since then.  Here's a few little snippets from this week:

Shopping in Farmers with Nana.  She slept like this for about half an hour and it's was lovely :)

Uncle Toby has totally fallen under Chloe's spell.  He absolutely adores her! 

 Chloe was having some tummy time so Uncle Toby joined in :)

Miss Chloe was helping me in the kitchen... and sporting a new little onesie that Nana bought for her!

Thanks for visiting today... time for some more Chloe cuddles now xx

It's a Recipe for Happiness :)

Hi there... it's been a while!  Today I've got a birthday card to share with you.  My niece is going to be the ripe old age of seven on Tuesday so I thought I'd better make her a card... and of course I've got a gift card for her so I had to make a gift card envelope :)

For this card I used My Favorite Things - Recipe for Happiness stamp set.  I love all the little chefs in the set and the utensils are super cute as well!  Here's her card:

I kept the card pretty simple and I love the clean lines.  I stamped the images with black ink and then coloured them all with my Zig Markers before die cutting each piece.  The patterned paper is also from My Favorite Things - Graphic Grid.   I finished off by adding some Pretty Pink Posh - Clear Droplets.

I made the gift card holder using Lawn Fawns - Small Stitched Envelope die.  This is probably one of my most used dies along with my Stitched Rectangle dies.  I die cut a piece of red cardstock along with a heart from the envelope die set and then added another of the chef images.  Super easy but super cute!

So there you have it... hopefully I'll have one very happy niece on Tuesday morning :)

Thanks for visiting my blog xx

Polynesian Paradise card

Hi there :)  I've been playing around in my craft room again... mostly because I got a new parcel of goodies that were just crying out to be used immediately!  It also helped that Nina came for a crafting visit :)

Here's the card I made using My Favorite Things - Polynesian Paradise stamps and dies:

I totally love how it turned out... and you'll definitely be seeing more cards made with this fabulous set of stamps and dies!  I took a few 'in the process' photos to share with you as well.

The stamps and dies from the Polynesian Paradise set actually arrived before Easter so I already had lots of pre-coloured (with my Zig Clean Colour Markers) and cut images ready to be used for this card but my new package of goodies had the leaf dies in them so I started with that.

First of all I grabbed some watercolour paper and inked it up with Bundled Sage, Twisted Citron and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks.  I did a bit of watercolouring first but then I realised I wanted something a bit more intense so I dropped the Bundled Sage out of the equation and did some ink blending with the other two colours... so much better!

Next I unpackaged by brand new Wild Greenery die set and die cut some leaves... this die cut so smoothly and the leaves looked awesome.

I added a bit more Distress Ink to the leaves once they were cut to give them a bit of a lift.

Then I started on the background.  I die cut a piece of kraft cardstock using my Lawn Fawn small stitched rectangles die... I use this die set ALL the time when I'm making cards.  Then I decided to use my brand new Diagonal Design Background stamp from My Favorite Things.  I stamped it with my new Kraft dye ink (also from My Favorite Things) and I really, really like the kraft on kraft effect... it's subtle but adds so much interest.

Now for the fun part... actually 'building' the card!  I die cut a circle from Itsy Bitsy Polka Dots paper pad using my new Inside and Out stitched Circle dies... I'll be using these ones again for sure!  Then I curved a couple of the palm leaves around the circle and adhered them in place.

Luckily at this point I realised that I wanted to stamp and emboss a sentiment on my card so I quickly did it before I added even more layers!

Then I literally started adding all my stamped elements until I was happy with the arrangement.  Some are stuck down with Multi Medium Matte and some have been adhered using thin foam dots.  I also added a 'googly' eye to the turtle before backing the whole thing with some purple cardstock.

Then I popped the entire card front onto a side fold card... but something was missing and I just couldn't figure out what it was...

.... oh yes, a 'googly' eye for the chameleon as well!  Here's another look at my finished card (with both 'googly' eyes in place).

So pleased with how it all turned out... and I even went on to make another card but by the time I'd finished it the lighting was terrible for taking a photo so I'll have to share that with you next time.

Here's a wee photo from my new craft room yesterday... thanks Nina for coming to visit :)

Thanks for stopping by my blog today xx

Happy Batty Birthday

I've got a bit of creativity to share with you today... this time in the form of a 'Batty' Birthday card.  I made this card for one of my nieces who really likes things that are a little bit different... and since it was for her birthday, I made a matching gift card holder which she was absolutely delighted with!

Here's the finished project:

I used some super cute bat stamps from Gerda Steiner designs - Bats:

Luckily for me I took photos while I was making this card because I've had a couple of requests to make more for other people... definitely helps when you can't quite remember what you did.  For those of you crafters out there that like to gather ideas from others... and don't we all???... I've got a little tutorial for you about how I made my card.

I started off with my MISTI and stamping my chosen bat image straight onto some watercolour paper.  After stamping my image I heat embossed it which is totally my favourite thing to do when I'm watercolouring.

Next I chose another one of the bats and stamped and heat embossed him onto the label for the gift card envelope which I made using Lawn Fawns small stitched envelope die.

Then is was time to make a mask for each of my bats using masking paper.   I love how easy masks are to use to get awesome results.

I fussy cut the bats out and then stuck them over my embossed images.

I wasn't quite done with the masking yet though... I decided to cut a moon for each bat since bats only come out at night.

With both masks firmly in place I started adding some colour using Spun Sugar Distress Ink.  I went in fairly close to the moon and the bats since this was going to be the lightest colour in my background.

Next came Shaded Lilac Distress Ink:

Followed by Picked Raspberry Distress Ink:

Then some Wilted Violet Distress Ink:

And finally, Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink.  As you do each layer you need to stop a little before the last colour so that there is a graduation of colour.

Now that all the inking was finished, I went ahead and added some water to a little bit of Pearl paint and then 'artistically' flicked it over the background.

Now comes the hard part... for me at least... let the paint dry!  I'll admit that I always want to get my heat gun out at this point, but I've found that with the pearl paint the heat gun seems to make it blend in with the background rather than stay pearly on the top of the ink.

I have a sneaky suspicion that Cookie Monster would have just gotten out the heat gun LOL

Once the paint is completely dry it's time to take the masks off the moons... leave the bat masks on for now!

I decided to try to add a bit on interest to the moons using Distress Ink and my water pen.  You can see the difference here between the altered moon on the card and the untouched moon on the gift card holder.

After a bit of experimenting I found the colours that worked best for me were Pumice Stone and Weathered Wood Distress Inks. 

Once the moons were both done I removed the masks from the little bats.  They looked super white!

I coloured the bats using Zig Clean Color Markers in the following colours: 090 Gray, 097 Pale Gray, 080 Violet, 082 Purple and 200 Sugared Almond Pink.

Next I stamped a sentiment on the front of my card and heat embossed it:

Since I had my embossing supplies out I also embossed some little bats onto the back of the gift card holder:

I backed the card front with black cardstock to match it in with the gift card holder and it certainly made the colours pop.

The sentiment on the card front reads: I bat you don't know... so of course I had to put something cute on the inside as well:

I took a quick photo with my camera when I'd finished and I love how it looks like the moon is really glowing!

Here's my finished card:

And here's another look at the set:

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today xx