Weddings...again

I don't have much to show you, didn't get into the craft room at all over the weekend.

This card is the second one of the wedding cards I made last week. I used the fold tutorial I found on StampArtic again. It's a bit different and looks suitably fancy :)

The colouring is done with Copics, E40-ies only. I'm pretty sure the image is from Whiff of joy. I was in rush taking the photos, thus they are quite dark and forgot to take picture of the inside too, although I decorated that as well. :(

Thanks for looking and happy crafting!
Hugs

Whimsy Blog hop winner and - yes - a card, finally

Sorry I am so late drawing the winner for Whimsy blog hop - I am still settling in to work and kinda lost track of days, lol

Without further ado - Random.org has spoken:

Congratulations, Sandra, I will contact you shortly for mailing details!!

And here is the first of two commissioned wedding cards I've been working on. The image is by Whiff Of Joy.  Don't look at colouring, I was TOTALLY uninspired. TOLD you I don't like making wedding cards.

What I DO like is Make It Crafty Chipboard and Echo Park Victoria Gardens papers. Lush stuff! Me approves!

Oh, and I'm discovering Flower Soft that has been just sitting in my drawer. There's potential there - I think you might see more of it on my cards soon.

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting!!

Hugs

Whimsy August Rubber Stamp Release Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the Whimsy Stamps August new rubber and die release BLOG HOP!

On August 10th, Whimsy Stamps released our August rubber designs and new dies. Today we are hosting a blog hop to celebrate this release and to share creations made using these 15 fabulous new Rubber Stamps and 3 wonderful new Shapeology Dies. These new goodies are available to buy right now from the Whimsy Stamps store along with all your Whimsy favourites. We also have our wonderful special guests joining us for this hop - Elaine Hughes, Zoe McGrath, Alberto Gava and Iwona "Chupa" Palamountain.

The Whimsy Stamps DT have been showcasing these fabulous stamps for the past 6 days, so if you missed them be sure to hop on over to the Whimsy Inspirations Blog for some more inspiration!

Here is a full list of the wonderful new August release rubber stamps and dies:

3 stamps from Crissy Armstrong
Bart Goes Golfing ~ Butterfly Sympathy ~ Hang In There

4 stamps from Meljen's Designs
Cupcake Treat Trio ~ Monkey Toes ~ Pen Pal Mouse ~ Topsy Turvy Cake

4 stamps from Kenny K
Bathing Beauty ~ Buggin Drummer ~ Wanda Wicked ~ Wedding Garter

4 stamp sets from Raindrop Echo Designs
Bottle Cap Sentiments ~ Film Markers ~ Schoolyard Fun ~ Vintage Seed Packets

3 dies/sets from Raindrop Echo Designs
Elegant Butterflies Die Set ~ Bottle Cap Die (coordinates with Bottle Cap Sentiments stamp set) ~ Film Marker Die (coordinates with Film Markers stamp set)

Today is also the release of the second edition of the Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Magazine! The magazine features never before seen samples and tutorials from our DT members as well as some creations from our customers and fans too! This issue is crammed full of crafty goodness and best of all it's FREE! Just click the link below and you will be taken to the magazine where you can read it online or download it and save to your computer.

CLICK HERE to view the Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Magazine Issue 2

If you would like to hop along with us today and you didn’t arrive from Elaine's Blog, please CLICK HERE to return to the beginning of the hop at Zoe’s blog.

The hop starts today (Wednesday August 17th at noon EST) and ends on Wednesday August 24th at noon EST.

For this hop we have 7 different prize draws! We have not one but TWO grand prize draws, so two lucky hoppers will win a large selection of new release stamps. Grand Prize 1 will be for those who help us advertise the hop, and Grand Prize 2 will be for those who hop along with us. We also have 5 mini candy stops throughout the hop where you can enter to win a new release stamp! I'm not going to tell you where they are, so if you haven't found them you'll just have go back to the beginning and start hopping! *wink*

I am using a beautiful set by Crissy Armstrong called Butterfly Sympathy. It is one the most amazing sympathy stamp sets I have ever set my eyes on and I did not really do it justice. :(

I decided to try stamping a bit differently - I embossed the image in white and used vibrant shades of watercolour. When I was finished I realized it wasn't really suitable for a sympathy card like that so I used  postage stamp sentiment set instead.

I used a lot of heat embossing on that card. I stamped one of the background papers with butterflies from the same sympathy set and embossed them in sparkly powder. All the edges of the papers were embossed with a mix of UTEE and pearly powders. The metal butterfly charms and resin flowers were dyed with white Stazon ink.

Congratulations! You have arrived to the end of our fab hop and boy do I have a treat for you - a whopping grand prize! 
ALL those stamps could be yours:
Film Markers, School Yard Fun, Butterfly Sympathy, Hang in There, Penpal Mouse,  Monkey Toes, Wanda Wicked and Buggin'Drummer
Pop your name to the linky collection at the end of the post and keep your fingers crossed!

Finally, here is a complete blog hop list in hopping

Thank you so much for hopping with us today and I hope you enjoy the new release!

Don't forget to sign up for the candy!

To enter for a chance to win the Whimsy August Release grand prize, please leave your name and link below. Good luck!

1.	Sharron / Sharrahug	25.	MALLIKA	49.	Glo
2.	Lynn's Designer Creations	26.	dhruv	50.	Aartje
3.	annyvials	27.	bandariya	51.	lydia
4.	Gabbi	28.	Uta	52.	Anita A.
5.	Debi	29.	nayana	53.	Janette G.
6.	Penni	30.	Starla B	54.	Shime
7.	Rhonda Miller	31.	Jamie Larsen	55.	Krassimira Ivanova
8.	Shazza	32.	*Alison*	56.	Ilona
9.	lena nunn	33.	Tami B	57.	Embossing Queen
10.	Sara I.	34.	Jenn S	58.	Carol (Granny)
11.	Kathy	35.	littlehamsterz	59.	Mary M
12.	Heidi Brawley	36.	MaryKay	60.	Dawn Frost
13.	Tanya Phillips	37.	Deonna B	61.	Tessa
14.	Jacki	38.	Carly W	62.	Calypso
15.	Leanne	39.	Lee-Anne	63.	Mimi
16.	Astrid G	40.	Indy	64.	Leanne
17.	Sandra H	41.	Robin (scrappintlc)	65.	Xushenka
18.	Babette	42.	Naomi	66.	Sammibug
19.	Glennis F	43.	Sandra	67.	Kathi
20.	Glynis	44.	corry	68.	Tine
21.	Maria	45.	Minna	69.	Charlene
22.	Frea	46.	Astrid	70.	Ann D.
23.	Leah Ann Gast	47.	"Queen" Britt	71.	Jann Gray
24.	Sandy G	48.	Caroline D	72.	kbrandy4

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

Trying something new

I have been meaning to try and colour with pencils on black cardstock before and finally got around to it! The result is ... interesting. The jury is still out if I like it or not.

 I stamped Whimsy Star by Kenny K in white ink on black cardstock and coloured her is mixture of different pencils, basically just testing various brands: Faber-castell Polychromos, Derwent Inktense and Prismacolor. If I were to do it again, I'd use Prismacolour only, mainly because they gave the most opaque result.

 I used papers From Echo Park For The Record pad and Crate Portrait pad. That lush butterfly swirl is a chipboard from Make It Crafty. I did a lot of random dotting with Viva gloss gel in Sunny Yellow and Walnut Brown.

Film marker sentiment is from a brand new Whimsy set and I cut it out with a matching die.

I hope I might have given you an idea for something new to try out!

Don't forget to check out Quixotic Paperie shop for a summer sale and lots of new goodies! :)

Challenges: 
Stampin' Sisters in Christ - Music (Sheet music, music notes, instruments or singing)
Crafty Calendar - M, 1E -  August: Hot Colours!
Marks Finest Papers -#68 Distressed Card
Craft Us Crazy - 2W, 3E - Anything goes in August
Little Miss Muffet Challenges - 2W, 1E, SIO - Outside the diecut
Meljens Designs - SIO - Use Black
Crazy Amigo Challenge - Anything goes
The Burtonesque Dolls - 2W, JFF - 2nd week - The Lighter side of Burton


    

Thanks for popping by!

Here's an old biddy trying to be cool!!! :)

I have two bits of news for you. First - I hit a respectable 40 years today! I am officially old enough to forget about diets and pronounce my ample padding a normal order of things and just get on with it.

I wish.

Secondly - Whimsy Stamps & Make it Crafty have come together to create a fun Urban Themed digi collection!

Ann Vento has whipped up her magic and designed an incredible collection of
funky wall sayings, city landscapes and of course a range of super cool street signs.

Check out the Sentiments collection HERE

Make it Crafty is trying something new offering all the different elements for you to build your own urban backdrop.

Check out the Urban Street Collection HERE

Then of course, what better characters to incorporate into such a scene than the fabulous KennyK rubber stamps available from Whimsy Stamps!

Our incredibly talented Design Teams have had a blast playing with all the different elements to bring you LOTS of inspiration!

We have broken it in to TWO HOPS
HOP A Starts Here & HOP B Starts HERE at my blog!

There will be a winner for EACH HOP and if you hop your way through BOTH, you’ll go in the draw for the GRAND PRIZE TOO!

HOP A & B Winners will each receive a $15 voucher from both Whimsy Stamps and Make it Crafty

GRAND WINNER will win our full Urban Digital Collection
4 Digi Sentiment sets by Ann Vento & the Urban Elements Collection from Make it Crafty

You are currently on HOP B and should have arrived to the very beginning, you lucky duck - just keep hopping along to enjoy wonderful masterpieces of amazingly talented crafters.

I combined Hot Weave Kenny K stamp with different urban background elements from Make It Crafty. I also used a sentiment from City Talk digital sentiment set by Raindrop Echo Designs. Then I printed barbed wire from the same set in full scale on pearlescent paper and heat embossed in silver. Afterwards I went at it with different ink pads and silver leafing pen.

I have also used a new Bottle Cap sentiments rubber stamp set by Whimsy with a matching bottle cap die. It looks cooler irl - because of the shine the sentiment doesn't show very well on photo :(

The image is mainly coloured with Copics - there are some little shading areas addes with Caran D'Ache Swisscolour pencils.

Once I had decided on silver colour theme I just started piling on all the silvery stuff I got my hands on, lol. Those corners are actually silver foily stickers, I splodged them with BG72/75/79 and added some silver brads. Noth half bad!

Your next stop on HOP B is CAROLE, but before you go make sure you leave a comment below!

You have until August 21^st 8PM Australian QLD time to make your way through the hops!

Be there... or be square!

Challenges:
Challenge Up Your Life - 2W, 1E -  #50 No patterned paper
Colour Me Creative Copic's Challenge -3E, 2W - must use copic's - #24 Colour your embellishments and must be Friendship themed
Charisma Cardz - 3E, C10 – Distressing
Crafty Sentiments - 1E, SIO - Punches and Die Cuts 
Do You Stack Up? - 3E - Emboss it
Ruby's Rainbow - 2W, JFF - #9 Gems
A Spoonful Of Sugar - 1E - #162 Happy Birthday
Paper Take Weekly - Grow Your Own- use hand made or altered flowers  (my flowers are made from jewellery findings, brads and glass effect gel)
Sweet Stamps - 1E, C10, SIO - Bling It Up 
The Burtonesque Dolls - 2W, JFF - 2nd week - The Lighter side of Burton



Thanks for popping by!

Keeping it simple. Really.

This week threw quite a few things at me - the biggest one being that I'm starting back at working on Monday. As you can imagine I've been mad busy trying to sort things out and amongst other things I have needed to make a sad decision to step down from quite a few design teams. Sundays With Crissy is amongst them so that is my last card for them. :(

The theme for August is KISS - Keep It Simple, Sweetie.
You see, I made an honest, no embellies-involved, one layer card!!

The image is called Forget Me Not and I just printed it on kraft base along with a sentiment by Raindrop Echo Designs. All I really did then was to colour the image with Faber-Castell Polychromos and Caran D'Ache Swisscolor pencils.:)

Thanks a million for popping by and happy crafting!!
Hugs

A wee rodent problem here...

I am not sure how I would react if a mouse popped up from my birthday cake but it sure looks cute on the card!

This stamp is called Birthday Cake Mouse and it's by Whimsy Stamps. I used my plain old watercolours and loads of glitter to perk it up.  The banners are from Whimsy Celebration Pennants set, stamped on patterned paper and heat embossed.

 The papers I used are from Basic Grey Life Of The Party pad. Flowers are made with Marianne's Floral die set. I also used Whimsy Double Scallop Border die.

And now a bit of enabling - have you noticed that Quixotic is now carrying new Authentique 6x6 paper pads? Boy they are lovely - I think I absolutely NEED that blue one - it's so hard to find papers in those hues for some reason!

Now isn't that just lush!

My another awwwww-moment are  Rick St Dennis bears and clowns - so quirky and fun and fabquality of artwork!!

Thanks a million for popping by and happy crafting!
Annika

Just a reminder

There is a new challenge up at Kenny K Krafty Girlz. Its another simple one for you.

Fun in the Sun! 

Anything goes which is summery, bright, cheerful and makes you happy!

So dust off your glitters, pearls, bling, flowers, ribbons and your favourite summery papers and get creating to be in with the chance to win a $15 shopping voucher to spend at Whimsy Stamps.

Cheers!

Pink glow - or at least attempt at it

I haven't played with Make It Colourful team for a while and FINALLY got my act together. Of course it had to be a week for COLOUR SOMETHING IN PINK.

Well. If you have been here before you already know that I don't really DO pink. At least not well. But since it is all about challenging myself - out came the Copics and I started experimenting.

I combined Annabelle and Clockwork House in MS word toning the background image down quite a bit.

Objective was to try and get a luminous soft glow of colours using the white of the paper for highlights. There was a LOT of layering and blending involved and if I didn't use Make It Colour marker blending card, it would have been a terrible bleeding mess. I am usually pretty heavy-handed with colour so it was very tricky for me to colour like this.

I was trying to achieve that cool pinkish manga skin colour with some warmth in shadow areas so I came up (after a lot of scrapping) with V0000, RV11, E11/53 and colurless blender combo. The hair is done with BV0000/000/12/15, C5/3, blue tones B21/60/0000/23, C4 and pink RV0000/10/21/23/25. All the combos rely heavily on use of colourless blender. Clockwork house uses BV20-ties only, also with a lot of colourless blender.

I made pins with pearls and findings mainly from Quixotic Paperie, some bits were just floating in my stash. Ornate corners are a lasercut chipboard by Make It Crafty.

The flourishes are a die form Whimsy Stamps. The flowers are a result of some fabric, Nestie scalloped circles and a glue gun. :)

Challenges:

Amber's Crafts and Stuff - 1E - Sparkle & shine

Crafts and Me - #46 anything goes

Paper Shelter Challenge - 3E, SIO - #25 flowers

Digital Tuesday - include a digital element - Doilies

Paper Take Weekly - Anything goes with optional metal 

Crafters Companion -  Glitter and Glitz 

Cupcake Craftroom - 3E, posted on the 1st - Soft and Sweet 

Emerald Faerie Garden - 2W, 3E, SIO, posted on the 1st & 15th - Challenge #2: Lace

iCopic Challenge - 2E, must use Copics - Skin Tones

Victorine Originals - 2W, SIO - Bling

Bird is the Word - 1E, every 2W (lasts 1 month) -  dream

Opus Gluei - JFF, 2W -  no sentiment allowed 

Sparkles Forum - 2W - one for the girls



Thanks a million for popping by!
Hugs

Grumpy card

It's Digi Day at Stamp Something and I am using an image and sentiment from Bugaboo Stamps! I think their stuff is such a hoot and so great for more humorous/whimsical cards!

The image is coloured with Copics and the papers are from Basic Grey Pyrus pad. I made the pleated flower thingi with Martha Stewart scoring board.

Thanks for popping by!
Hugs

Form an orderly queue!!

Great news! Quixotic Paperie is having a DT call - here's what Elaine has got to say:
"We are looking for designers who would like to commit to an initial six month term with Quixotic Paperie’s existing team, to help promote products available at the Quixotic Paperie online store.  If you're not familiar with the products we stock, take a look and check out the stamp companies and other products you could be working with!

The six month term will start on 1st September 2011. This call will close on 19th August 2011 and successful applicants will be notified as soon as we have made our decision."

Find all the requirements and details HERE!
Good luck!
Hugs