Look at the stars...

Hello! This fortnight over at Aud Sentiments we have a very fun challenge - use any sentiment other than a birthday! We are sponsored by the gorgeous Stamp Art by Kathryn! Now this is a nice easy and open challenge so the sentiments on offer are a little bit more unusual.

Here is last week's sentiment:

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And here is this week's sentiment:

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Please feel free to save these in your stash and enjoy them, but most of all, if you use them in your challenge card you might be spotlighted on our blog! Woohoo!

Here is my creation using the second sentiment and a beautiful image from our sponsor, Kathryn.

Let it Go!

Hiya everyone!

Well, what a popular wee card idea we have here. At Aud Sentiments this fortnight we have a "Let It Go" challenge where we make a card celebrating our favourite season! And the design team have been asked to work with "Winter". We received two beautiful images which are very similar to a certain snowy movie from Disney...check them out over at our sponsor, Sassy Studio Designs.

Here is my creation using "Snow Queen" 

I hand drew the sentiment (which is available on our challenge blog along with another freebie this week), then scanned it in to Serif and recoloured. The background is also Serif. The image is coloured using ProMarkers (my first time using extra fine nibs) and then the sheer part of her dress is glittered using a Sakura Satrdust pen.

I hope you like it! Please do steal the sentiments hehe!

Thinking of You

Over at www.audsentimentschallengeblog.blogspot.com this fortnight our challenge is to make a card with a 'thinking of you' type sentiment.

It's never nice to make cards like this, but a friend of mine is having a rough time so I wanted to make something girly and cute while keeping the thinking of you sentiment.

We are sponsored by one of my favourites - A Day For Daisies - and I had the beautiful Bewildered C to play with.

It is coloured using Promarkers and mounted on purple card with a simple bow.

I hope you like it!

Christmas in July!

Hi folks! Well once again at Aud Sentiments we have a fab challenge - this time it's Christmas in July!

Now, I must admit that I'm not particularly happy with this card. It was my first attempt at a full image with the no line technique, and while I like parts of it, I don't think it is particularly great. Still, crafting is all about experimenting and pushing yourself to try new things, so here it is!

We are sponsored by the lovely QKR Stampede, who gave me this image to use! Thanks guys!

Please do pop over to the challenge blog to see the two free sentiments that are available this challenge!

MC x

Alice in Wonderland and another challenge!

Many of you will know that my favourite theme of all time is Alice in Wonderland! I love it all - cute Alice, kawaii Alice, horror Alice, Malice, even spin off Alice! My hen night was an Alice theme too!

So when Aud Sentiments was sponsored by the brilliant Rick St Dennis I had to choose his Crazy Alice image to work with this challenge.

Here is my creation:

I used the rose background paper and distressed it with spattered inks in Serif, then printed my digi, cut all round it closely, coloured it using promarkers, and positioned it. Alice and the cat are raised on foam pads.

I created the sentiment using a font called Dead Secretary, printed it, then distressed it with Tim Holtz (mahogany and soot I think), then placed that down flat.

The roses are clusters of embellishments printed out and then raised on a double layer of foam pads to make them "frame" above and around Alice. I hope that makes sense!

BY THE WAY...I have my most favourite sentiment set available over at the challenge blog right now. It's a circle set with interchangeable words! PLEASE do check it out and leave me some comment love if you like it or save it for later. I feel as though I put lots of time in to the sentiments and adore when I get a wee comment to say that it has been useful! Especially this set which took me a long time to make!

Two Word Sentiment

Hello! How is everyone?

It's my wedding anniversary today! My lovely husbandshape has put up with me for 4 years, all my little quirks and the backing from double sided tape and an air that seems permanently glittery floating through the house, and I am very appreciative! We also made an incredibly cute baby, who has just turned 9 months old!

Anyway, it is time for another challenge at Aud Sentiments!

This one is eeeeeasy, too - just use a two word sentiment on your card. Break out those happy birthdays, roll out those Merry Christmasses, and make us a card!

We are sponsored by the lovely Delicious Doodles, who provided me with A Scottish Castle (the image, not the building, dang) to play with.

Here is my card:

Here's how it was made.

Living in Scotland is pretty awesome. I live in Glasgow, a big city which has loads to do, but if you drive for a mere ten fifteen minutes any direction out of the city you come across the most amazing landscapes. One of my early favourite dates with the hubs was a walk through a place called Clachan of Campsie, with a little waterfall, gorgeous plants and a tiny church retreat centre next door called Schoenstatt. You should google it - it's gorgeous!

So I printed my image and used prismacolour pencils and cheapy pencils to try to capture the gorgeous scottish skies. I hope I managed.

Then it was matted and layered on my card just kept really plain. The only other thing was to put some navy blue gems around the sentiment.

I hope you like it!

P.s. for anyone who has been collecting my free sentiments over at the blog, WAIT til you see next week's! I think you will like!

A sentiment for a guy

It's nearly Father's Day so my lovely hubby will be receiving his first card from Chael! I remember buying him a picture frame that said Daddy and Me a whole year ago while we were pregnant - where does the time go?!

Over at Aud Sentiments we have a great challenge sponsored by the brilliant Bugaboo Stamps, and we also have two free sentiments from meeeeeee. Go ahead, sneak over and steal them.

Here is my creation:

I hope you like it!

I decided not to colour the image but to crop it in my circle instead. The details include paper flags, stitching and some stars! I hope rock star daddy likes it.

BINGO!

This fortnight over at Aud Sentiments we are playing BINGO! Woohoo! I love these challenges! They really make me think but they aren't too difficult.

This challenge runs May 22 - June 3, 2014, so you have another whole week to get your projects in!  If you haven't hit your limit of 5 projects yet... take a look at the very easy Bingo board below and pick a line either horizontal or vertical.  [No Diagonal in this game] - and don't forget, you must have a sentiment!  When you are ready, click HERE to enter Challenge #107.



And here is my wee creation:

I made the easel shape with background papers in Serif Craft Artist Professional, and then made my mat for my image in the same program. The papers are from Floral Lane (I think) digikit. The image is coloured with ProMarkers and the sentiment was my own using a free font, 'Learning Curve'. The lace was from my stash!

This image is "Tulip Umbrella" from Stamp Art by Kathryne, and she has generously sponsored our challenge. Enter for the chance to win!

Stamp Art Design by Kathryne

Oh dear goodness...new love alert!

Oh dear. Something terrible has happened. Sorry, 7 month old baby who probably needs fed and changed. Sorry, husband of 4 years who would perhaps like to talk to me once in a while. Sorry, any friends who want to see me ever again.

Copic Markers have entered my world.

WHO KNEW that a girl with about 60 Promarkers could want to try another alcohol marker??

More on my new love shortly!

It's time for another challenge at Aud Sentiments! And we are sponsored by the absolutely incredible Paper Shelter, who have the most adorable images. I love them. And here is my creation, using my Promarkers for the helmet, top and skateboard, and my lovely Copics for everything else. There's been a revolution in my colouring!

 

The sentiment is my very own freebie, also available on the challenge blog, which is a favourite Dr Suess quote of mine. I thought it worked well with the skateboarder. Please do feel free to steal these for your stash! I have also done another, with a famous Winnie the Pooh quote! But if you do, leave a wee comment so that I feel loved!

I had seen the amazing fabulous fantastic Kristina Werner (starofmay on YouTube - go look her up, go go go) colouring her "Coloring Wednesday" videos and decided that I might get nicer hair effects with some Copics. After looking out which colours might be best to buy, I settled on a range of five, all in the E50s, ranging from very pale to dark brown. I figured I could try some skin tones and hair colours that way.

And oh...they are just amazing. I love them.

I immediately raided ebay for all the used Copics in the UK. And bought them. All of them.

So by the end of this week I'll have 8 lovely pinks and violets, another 5 (not duplicate) hair and skin colours, and three grey tones. I'm addicted.

Clean and Simple BIRTHDAY!

Well it's our 4th Birthday Bash over at Aud Sentiments! Woohoo! We love all of our challenges, and we love everyone taking part, so we're offering a little treat. Stop by at Aud Sentiments and take part!

I've made some free sentiments for this fortnight's challenge - please feel free to use these or put them in your stash for future projects!

And now for my creation:

We have two lovely sponsors: Sassy Studio and Lacey Sunshine, and I used Sassy Studio's "Showgirl" Stamp to make a birthday card! This is very clean and simple - I think it was also the fastest colouring I've ever done in my life, as I had a hungry baby! - but I hope you like it.

The image is coloured using Promarkers, the sentiment is the one above, and I used Candi and a nice red ribbon to add a pop of colour!

Marie-Clare xx

A Sentiment for a Friend

This fortnight's challenge at Aud Sentiments is "A Sentiment for a Friend"! We are sponsored by Doodle Pantry, who have absolutely gorgeous designs.

My school friends have just joined the new parent club, so it seemed ideal that since we are meeting their little one in the next few days, my card for a friend should be for her!

So here it is: a classic kids design in the Noah's Ark image.

 

Here's how I put this together:

Background and waves, sunshine, rainbow are designed and placed in Craft Artist (using "Pirate Boy" embellishments and some "Penguin Aviator" - I'll link the store where I got these when I remember!)

The sentiment was added and the name printed on a separate sheet to make 3d.

 

I coloured the Doodle Pantry image using Spectracolour coloured pencils for the ark, Noah's hair and the lion's fur etc. The rest is coloured using Promarkers.

 

Then it was just the bows, buttons and pearls to continue the nautical/baby theme.

 

I hope you like it!

Easter or Spring Sentiment

Hello! My goodness it's been a while since I blogged. Let me explain...I had an internet disaster and my browser went a little haywire. I'm not the most clued up on troubleshooting and I lost all access to Blogger, which kept kicking me out for having "suspicious requests" from my browser!

However I have now installed three different browsers and an antivirus, and found one combination that works! Phew!

So I'm back with another design team creation for Aud Sentiments, where this fortnight our theme is an "Easter or Spring Sentiment".

A Day for Daisies has graciously agreed to sponsor this challenge and provided me with a stunning image to use!

It was beautiful, as you can see below.

As soon as I saw it I thought of a card I had seen on Pinterest which paper pieced an old book for the girl's hair. I decided to recreate it.

Here's my creation:

I made this in Serif Craft Artist 2 Professional, and made use of my newest purchases. I used a kraft paper background, then paper pieced old book pages into the image. There is a slight shadow on the book page sections to add some depth.

Then I used the Digiboss Border Dies to add some embossed detail, and used the embroidery stitches to add some decorative edges to my layers!

I hope that you like my creation. I'm slowly getting used to crafting with a baby in one hand and my laptop in the other.

I'm also entering this into A Day for Daisies - Pastels challenge, Bearly Mine Spring Challenge, Kaboodle Doodles Spring is Coming Challenge, Scrap Creations Spring Challenge, City Crafter Challenge Spring and A Song in Your He{art} Everything Grows Challenge.

Marie-Clare

BINGO!

This fortnight over at Aud Sentiments we have a fantastic challenge! It's BINGO time! The idea is that you pick a row or column (but not a diagonal) and make a card which meets the criteria in that row. I chose the first column (monochrome colours, one word sentiment, no patter paper):

Monochrome Colors	“ Two Word Sentiment”	Use texture of some type
“One Word Sentiment”	3D Items	Die Cuts
No Pattern Paper	Use something Shiny	“Three Word Sentiment”

Here's what I came up with!

 Our sponsor is www.addalittledazzle.com who specialise in gorgeous metal craft sheets to incorporate into your cards. I think a golden or copper colour would work on my card this week!

Here's how I did my card for this challenge.

I started with a Kraft card, and printed my image from Mo's Digital Pencil in brown and used a free font called Jane Austen to write "wish" in brown underneath. I tried to position the sentiment to fit into her shoes.
Then I broke out the Promarkers and mini pearls!

I tried to find all of my browns, beiges and dusty colours to meet the monochrome theme. I coloured my image which ended up looking very vintage and faded, which I actually quite like!

I added mini pearls to the dandelion seed for a little glitz.

I was a bit stuck about how to vintage the corners and give the card a little more depth, and I don't have many Distress Inks, so I took a chance and layered some Promarker colours in the corners. I ended up being so happy with how it blended that I attacked the whole left side with the chunky ends of the pens. Thank goodness for the Satin pen to blend it all! This is actually more pleasing than I thought!

Finally I added some pearls and a string bow to embellish.

I hope you like this card, I'm really pleased with how it turned out especially considering that I was lacking inspiration!

I'm entering this into a few other challenges too:

Open Minded Crafting Fun #4 - Monochrome
Lexi's Creations #110 - Monochrome
Sweet Stamps Blog #157 - Anything Goes
Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
Bearly Mine Challenges - Vintage Romance

Valentine theme!

This fortnight it's Challenge 100 0ver at Aud Sentiments and we have a valentine theme!

I love all things lovely, but my husband is more of a bright colours person, so I decided to mash the two.

Our fab sponsor is QKR Stampede and I used this fabulous raggedy style doll holding a heart. She is so cute!

The little one took a cold earlier and I couldn't put him down to craft, so I did this card pretty much one-handed and entirely in Serif CraftArtist Professional 2. So it's an entirely digital project for me this fortnight - I like this kind of thing because if the wee one needs held or cuddled or decides to cry or get hungry, I can just close over the laptop, and design a little more later, then print the finished project. I just try to use lots of shadows and faux layering to make it look as dimensional as a real card would.

Here's the list of ingredients:

Serif CAP2
Digikit: Floral Lane
Colouring done using freeform brush tool and various layer effects for shoes, buttons etc.
Sentiment: my own using two fonts, Stamping Nico and Primer Apples

Come on over and join us at Aud Sentiments!

It's all Downhill from Here!

Well, this is exciting! It's my first ever post as a Design Team member. The challenge over at Aud Sentiments is to use any sentiment you like! We are sponsored this fortnight by Inky Impressions Rubber Stamps and we were provided with a very cute downhill skier to showcase the store.

So, here is my creation!

I used my ProMarkers to colour the skier, and my Sakura Jellyroll Stargazer pen to add little glints of glitter to the metal clips etc. The sentiment was made up in Inkscape - check below for a cheeky wee steal, if you like!

The border of blue paper is just a Martha Stewart Doily Edge punch done on two sides of a strip of paper with some gems added.

I added a couple of wee flower punches, some faux stitching and extra glitz.

I really hope you like my first Design Team creation - I've been so nervous that I won't live up!

Love, MC xx

My most amazing home decor project ever...

I've never been much of a home decorator. I always fancied having my own place and doing it up exactly how I wanted, but life gets in the way. To start with, I only actually got my own house about a month before I got married, and it was in walk-in condition. We had no real reason to decorate, tear out carpets and fittings, and put ourselves through that hassle. And there was no need. We were too busy saving up to buy bits of furniture that we needed let alone making the place look the way we wanted.

And then our little bundle of joy was conceived.

And for some completely MENTAL reason we decided to decorate just about the entire house.

Yeah, I know.

But there was reason behind the madness. We had a two bedroomed house, one being ours, and the other being lovingly named the LibraMusiCraft Room. It was party central - sofa bed, coffee table, huuuuge craft desk, bookcases, window seat, the works. It was always a riot, mind you, but a brilliant room. It had to become a nursery, but it would be FAR too big for a baby, by miles.

Plus, we would have a ton of furniture to move out of it and find new homes for. We worked out that we could get the desk and sofa bed stored, but we could put bookcases and coffee tables into the living room. Which meant reshuffling the living room...and decorating. And we could put some of the furniture into our bedroom...which meant reshuffling that too...and decorating.

Oh dear.

And so began our lovely redecoration (in about three months) of the three major rooms of our home.

My pride and joy is what we did with the LibraMusiCraft Room. We built a large walk in cupboard for storage but when I saw how handy it was it was adopted as "The Nook", or my craft room, where I create all of my things now. The little guy's nursery isn't even babyish - it's very much a room that will grow with him. Finished off after he was born, and we knew what we had, it's the ultimate in stars and guitars and zig zags.

So if you'll indulge me, I'm going to post a wee craft room tour and then a wee series of handcrafted items in the little man's nursery. Hope that's ok!