A card and TWO tutorials - I know, I'm MAD :D

Just as I had accepted that autumn is here to stay the weather man has promised hottest weather for whole of this year for next week! Great. Just after I had put all the summer clothes away, never mind that kids have grown out of their light clothes and therefore don't have any.

All that aside, here's a very autumnal-looking card for you!! That little (breathtakingly CUTE) fairy by Crissy Armstrong is called Pum Kinnie Fairy and she is available from Whimsy Stamps. The sentiment is from Steampunk Travels set.

 The image was coloured with Prismas on kraft card and I recorded two tutorials - how to colour a pumpkin and leaves. You can watch them if you scroll down.

The papers are from Prima Romantique pad (freakin' LUSH), all edged with different flourishes from Lavish Flourishes stamp set. I made the pins myself using various spacers and pearls. The bling fourishes I just eyeballed, only tools being a bottle of glue and pile of loose flat-back gems. The flowers were also stamped with flourishes, then layered and I created centers with some link charms, flat back gems, big flat back pearls and generous blobs of Viva Pearl pens used as an adhesive.

Now, and here's the promised videos:

How to colour a pumpkin with Prismacolor pencils on kraft card

How to colour leaves (especially the lighter veins, really easy trick)

Hope you found something useful!

The challenges:
Crafts 4 Eternity Recipe Challenge - 3E - Autumn Days
Crafty Catz - 1E - Autumn
Lily Pad - 2W - bling
Our Craft Lounge - SIO - patterned papers
Raise The Bar - things with wings
Stampin For The Weekend - 2W, 1E - what a cutie
Paperworks - photo inspire*
4 Crafty Chicks -Fall/Autumn
Art Impressions Stamps Challenge - 1E, SIO - For the Girls
Delightful Challenges - 1E, SIO - Happy Fall Y'all!
Little Miss Muffet Challenges - 2W, 1E, SIO - Second week; Things With Wings
Paper Play - 2E – Autumn Leaves
Play Date Cafe - Color Challenge: Picture Inspiration
Crafting for all Seasons - 2W - #10 fall colors
Crafty Creations - #136 fairies
I Brake For Challenges -2W, SIO - Fall
Paper Pretties - SIO -PPC172 fall
Scrapbook Sisters - #53 autumn colors
Tuesday Throwdown -#67 Fall
Make it Monday with Kraft Outlet - must include Kraft cardstock - Fall/Autumn
My Craft Spot - 1E - Fall Leaves 
Pile It On - Colours of Fall/Autumn


 
Thanks for popping by!
Hugs

Stamp Something - Bugs

The challenge theme is actually BUGS or BUTTERFLIES at Stamp Something. Since I had to make an engagement card my friend asked for I kinda went with butterflies...

I used cute papers from Lily Bee and a lot of Sakura white gel pen.

The image is by Karens Doodles - I raked the web looking for the kind of "grown-up lovey picture" suitable for the The sentiments are made using  Oval Scallops - Stripes  and  Ways of Love Sentiments.

 Colouring is a combination of Copics and Prismacolor pencils with mineral spirit.

Thank you for visiting and big hugs!

Tutorial - colouring blonde hair with Prismacolor pencils on kraft card

I don't have a card for you today since I haven't got to the crafts room much last week. Hubby has been overseas working for a while and that single mother business is quite a challenge. Those of you who manage to do it on permanent basis - I am SERIOUSLY in awe of you!

Here is my next video for colouring with Prismacolor pencils on kraft card. This is for coloring blonde hair.

Colours I have used: Cream, Jasmine, Goldenrod, Mineral Orange, Brown Sienna, Dark Umber, White.

Hope it's of any use to you.
Thanks for watching!

Whimsycal day at Quixotic Paperie

The Quixotic Paperie design team and friends hope you have been enjoying the Quixotic Paperie 2nd Anniversary celebrations. We have been throwing the spotlight onto some of the fantastic stamp companies available from Quixotic Paperie and our last celebratory spotlight for you is:

Whimsy Stamps 

Whimsy Stamps is owned by Denise and Kevin Lynn, with Denise as the papercrafter and Kevin illustrating their Kids Collection based on their two children. As the company has developed they have built up their collection of contributing artists, stamp collections, dies and papers.

The ranges include the Crissy Armstrong Collection; Melissa Jenkins Meljen's Design Collection; KennyK Collection; Whimsy Sentiment and dies by Raindrop Echo Designs; Whimsy Animals Collection and Whimsy Kids Collection. 

Whimsy Stamps are available in the UK/Europe at Quixotic Paperie. 

If you're in the US then you can find the stamps at Whimsy Stamps direct!

As part of the celebrations and the spotlight today, we have a PRIZE GIVEAWAY!  

Pop on over to the Quixotic Inspirations blog to get all the details and enter the draw to win some fantastic Whimsy Stamps and more!

So now for the inspiration! Hop on over to each of the blogs below to see some fantastic Whimsy Stamps makes!

- Elaine - Judy - Kim Dellow - Mary  -
- Ann - Iris - Minna - Patricia - Vicki -

I have a very simple and (hopefully) masculine card to show - I am using a stamp called Sick Little Bear - don't you just feel sooooo sorry for him! For the sentiment I layered three of the same stamp from Whimsy Circle Postmarks set.

The image is coloured using Prismacolor pencils and OMS. I should REALLY practice more with that technique.

Thanks for joining us and we hope you are enjoying all the Whimsy Stamps fun.

Tutorials - Prismacolor pencils on kraft. Introduction and skin tones.

Here I am finally with the promised tutorials for Prismacolor pencils on kraft.

The first two ones are a very long-winded introduction about supplies, different suitable cardstocks and also basic techniques for colouring. The lighting is quite bad but I hope you'll find something useful there.

It is probably NOT essential to watch introduction videos, especially if you have some experience with Prismas already.

I had to split the video because Youtube rejected the full length so here's Part 2.


Next ones are THE ones you've been most asking for - colouring skin with Prismas on kraft.

I am no expert - this is just the way I happen to colour. I want to thank wonderful Dorcas who's amazing talent and skill inspired me to start playing with pencils again!

Part 1


Part 2


The colours I've used are: Cream, Sand, Peach Beige, Blush Pink, Light Peach, Peach, Goldenrod, Mineral Orange, Henna, Burnt Ochre, Burnt Umber, White.

Hope you found something useful!

Hugs

Double celebrations AND the promised video tutorials for prismas on kraft - introduction and skin tones

Today is a joint celebration! As you may be aware, this is the month that Quixotic Paperie turned TWO! What you may not know is that it is also the month in which Australian company Make it Crafty is turning ONE!

Quixotic Paperie have been stocking the fantastic Make it Crafty range of products (Rubber Stamps - Lasercut Chipboard - Make it Colour Blending Card) since April 2011, and are one of the first places you can find them outside of Australia! We are thrilled to be celebrating with Make it Crafty today.

To celebrate we thought that rather than a blog hop we would set a CHALLENGE using Make it Crafty products!!

To get inspired, hop on over to the Make it Colourful challenge blog where you will see the amazing creations our fabulous DT’s have created for this event! PLUS find out all the details on how you can play along!

OF COURSE THERE ARE PRIZES!!

There are FIVE challenge categories and there will be FIVE GRAND WINNERS!

PLUS, PLUS, PLUS

There will be random winners throughout the whole month. The numbers have been pre-selected and as soon as an entry is added that matches that number they WIN! Winners will be announced soon after entry on the sidebar of Make it Colourful.

PLUS there’s MORE!!

Quixotic Paperie have a little something for you too!! Make sure you pop on over to HERE to enter your name for a chance at MORE Make it Crafty Goodies!!

PLUS THERE’S MORE!!!

Zoe, the owner of Make it Crafty has a super duper HUGE Candy give away – choc-a-block FULL of Make it Crafty goodies!! AND I have heard a whisper that she is planning on having random giveaways on her blog throughout the month of
July! All you need to do is leave her some love as she’ll randomly be choosing people who have commented on her posts throughout the last year!!

PLUS THERE’S EVEN MORE!!!

You’ll also receive a set of steak knives when you... hahaa ONLY Joking BUT... for THREE DAYS ONLY you’ll be able to get 40% off Make it Crafty Digi Stamps when you enter the coupon code: CELEBRATE (Ends June 28^th)

So I do hope you will celebrate with us this month and get into the Make it Crafty spirit of FUN!!

My stamp is called Summer Dreams and I coloured it with Prismacolour pencils. There are tutorials at the end of this post which you might check out if you are interested in how I colour with Prismas.

There is also loads of laser cut chipboard on this card - I just dabbed it with white ink pad.

The papers I used are from new Basic Grey Out Of Print pad. I made the flowers myself from the gauze fabric and glue-gunned pear string onto those.

I distressed all the papers and lightly edged them with Stickles. Also used loads of flat-backed pearls.

I will add the tutorial videos here later today once they have finished uploading to Youtube. I actually did that yesterday but they got rejected so I had to re-edit them! :(

Hugs

Whimsy Stamps May Rubber Release Blog Hop

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

We have 18 fabulous new Whimsy Stamps plus 2 new wonderful dies to show you today! 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 - Beate Johns, Deb Routledge, Jacque Beddingfield, Deb Mitchell and Elaine Hughes.

The Whimsy Stamps DT have been sneak peeking these fabulous stamps for the past 5 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 rubber stamps and dies being released today:

5 stamps from Crissy Armstrong
Baby of Mine ~ Mystic ~ Thunder Lizzy ~ Wee Snippet ~ Wee Snippet & Mystic

4 stamps from Meljen's Designs
Birthday Cake Mouse ~ Birthday Cup Mouse ~ Gruffy Little Gnome ~ Happy Little Gnome

4 stamps from Kenny K
Devastatia ~ Hockey Girl ~ Queens Cutie ~ Super Mom

5 stamps/sets from Raindrop Echo Designs
Celebration Pennants ~ Film Strip Sentiments ~ Magical Mini Letter Seals ~ Street Art BG ~ Welcome Baby Sentiments

2 dies/sets from Raindrop Echo Designs
Film Strip Die ~ Welcome Baby Die Set

If you would like to participate in the hop and you didn't arrive here from Elaine Hughes's blog, please CLICK HERE to return to the beginning of the hop at Lori’s blog.

The hop starts today (Wednesday May 18th at noon EST) and ends on Wednesday May 25th at noon EST.

For this hop we have 6 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 4 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*

For my blog hop creation I used Wee Snippet by Crissy Armstrong.

The image is coloured with Prismacolor pencils on kraft card.

The papers are from Crate Paper Portrait pad. The filigree  corners and swirls are all laser cut chipboard painted with off-white acrylic paint

So now it's time for you to continue the hop by hopping on over to Erin Bailey's blog.

Finally, here is a complete blog hop list in hopping order:

Lori Pachkowsky
Patricia Garcia
Donna Smith
Simonne Clay
Vicki Parson
Iris Wiechmann
Deb Routledge
Crystal Irwin
Minna Paajanen
Stephanne Maraver
Chris Olsen
Ann Vento
Deb Mitchell
Denise Lynn
Beate Johns
Marley van der Heijden
Debbie Eastman
Elaine Hughes
Annika Ryan
Erin Bailey

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

Challenges:
Anita Be Stampin' - SIO - #21 Pearls & Lace
A Spoonful Of Sugar - 1E - #152 Anything Goes
Claudia & Co - 2W, 1E - #82 Girls Birthday Card
Clear It Out! - 2W - Projects using Colouring Mediums
Creative Craft Challenges - 2W, 3E - 2nd W - Distressed/Vintage
Paper Take Weekly - Something Floral or Use Molly Bloom image
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Challenges - SIO - #43 May Flowers
Stamping Vacation - M - Start With Any Yellow Flower
Crafts and Me - #35 Anything goes, Optional Kraft
Paper Pretties - SIO -PPC154 Flowers
Stampavie and More - JFF - #142 Summer
Truly Scrumptious - 2W - #57 Anything Goes 

Hugs,

Stamp Something is 3 years old - and we're HOPPING!

And not only are we hopping this week at Stamp Something - every single designer has a candy on their blog, so woo-hooo!

If you came here from Alex's blog you're right on track, if not - you might want to go to Stamp Something and start from the beginning not to miss all the sweet stuff and lovely creations on offer!

My candy is from Make It Crafty - Zoe is generously offering TWO rubber stamps of your choice and 10 sheets of my favorite colouring card Make It Colour! If you've been curious about all my rambling about that stuff, you better enter your name to mr Linky at the end of my post! :)

My card features Pippy Bug Catcher whom I cheerfully coloured up with Prismacolor pencils.

 The sentiments I mucked together myself in Gimp.

 The papers are from Echo Park For The Record 6x6 pad and those cool wings are from laser cut chipboard set.

Thank you so much for hopping with us - it's time now to move on to Ellie's blog and feat your eyes on her fab work!

And don't forget to leave a comment and enter your name into my candy draw! :)


Challenges
Crafty Creations - #118 Anything Goes
Creative Belli - 2W -  #117 Anything starting with S - stamens
Creative Card Crew - May Flowers
Divas by Design - 2W, 2E - 2nd W - Anything goes
Penny's Paper-Crafty - 2W - #53 Anything Goes
Daring Cardmakers - C5 - Bugs
Digi's With Attitude! - SIO - 2nd week - make us laugh with your sentiment.
Craft Us Crazy - 2W, 3E – Use your favourite embellishments and/or something new (laser cut chipboard and new flowers)
Cute Card Thursday - C5 - Distressing
Dutch Dare Card Challenge - 2E – Winged things
Paper Play - 2E – Celebrating summer 
Rainbow Lady's - 2E – Let’s feel it (use texture).
Creative Craft Challenges - 2W, 3E - Distressed/Vintage
Crazy Challenge - 2E - Anything Goes
Card Cupids - Flowers
Dream Valley Challenges - 2W, 3E - Flowers
Pile It On - Funny sentiment or image
Cupcake Inspirations - Inspiration Photo

    

Hugs

Stamp Something has a digi day

This is a pre-scheduled post - I am away traveling for most of the May attending to family issues.

Yay - I love me digis and it's always a delight when Stamp Something has a Stamp Something With Digi week.

I was given this cool tiger image from Digi Doodles - doesn't he look realistic!?

The colouring is done with Prismacolor pencils and OMS. The sentiment stamp is from Whimsy Stamps Mini Letter Seals set.

And of course there's some Divine Twine and cute ribbon involved! lol

Thank you so much for visiting and happy crafting!
Hugs

Oooops...now that is something that WOULD happen to me!

If you are looking for WHIMSY STAMPS new release blog hop and prize draw then you can find my post HERE.

Now this is a card I made in the end of March for Crissy Armstrong's DT - and, can you believe it, forgot to post it! This is just borderline embarrassing! lol Well, it IS embarrassing.. Anyways, the challenge is up for the reminder of April and it's Spring or Babies.

This cute baby dragon (awww) is a digital stamp called Hello World and isn't he just ADORABLE! I combined hims with Meadow Background to create a cute little setting. As to colouring - well, I was trying to be Dorcas with Prismacolor pencils and mineral spirit and pretty much failed miserably, lol. She does the most delicious subtle Prismacolor sky and I had this idea of replicating it and of course got too carried away and yeah, you can see the result...

But the papers are from my treasured (and thus used pretty sparingly) Echo Park Little Boy collection. Love the clear patterns and delicious colours, who says boy papers need to be muted or muddy!!!

I might sneak back tomorrow and enter some challenges but now I'm going to post this card before I forget about it, lol

Challenges

Digital Tuesday -  Pretty Punches

Going Grey With Scrap-Creations -  Digital Image

Karen's Doodles Netherlands -   Punches

Craft Your Passion - You've been spotted

Drunken Stampers - Project without using tools that need electricity

Secret Crafter - Stitching - real or faux

Card Makin' Mamas - Spring colours.

Fabulous Friday - Homemade/handmade embellishment - flowers

Fussy and Fancy -  Card for a child

 
Luvs ya all!
Hugs

A Little Sneak peek...

It is a time for Whimsy April rubber stamp release previews and today we are showing the new sentiment sets. It's also a new challenge at Stamp Something - Circles!

This card is showcasing THREE new sentiment sets by Ann Vento (Raindrop Echo Designs):
Postcard
Party Mini Letter Seals
Everyday Sayings Mini Postage Stamps
The postage stamps are cut out with a matching mini postage stamp die.
These sets will be availble at Whimsy Stamps on Wednesday, April 13th!

I was in distressing mood, so I coloured that cute girl from Mo with prismas on kraft and roughed everything up with my scissors and distress inks.

The paper is from Pink Paislee - I had couple of 12x12 sheets I adored and after making that card I decided to bite the bullet and buy a 6x6 pad, lol

Challenges I'm entering:

Do You Stack Up? -  Follow the yellow brick road (use lots of yellow)

Dutch Dare Card Challenge - Spring has sprung

Samuel Taylor's Challenge -  Distressing

Flutterby Wednesdays  - open challenge

A Spoonful Of Sugar - Tons Of Texture

Die Cut Dreams -  Use a food themed Digi image

My Partner in Crafting Crime - Layer it up

Paper Playtime - Anything Goes 

Crafty Emma - Children 

Little Claire's  -  Any Celebration with Spring Theme or Colours

Come back tomorrow for a new sneak peek, challenge at Make It Colourful and another Copic tutorial!!
Hugs

Help For Japan Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to a very special blog hop today!  The illustrators of Whimsy Stamps have come together to draw a special set of digi images for the purpose of raising money for the relief effort in Japan.  All proceeds from the sale of these images will be donated to that cause.   Kenny K, Raindrop Echo Designs, Meljens Designs, and Crissy Armstrong all contributed art work. 

For the whole month of April, you can purchase the images as a set or individually (your choice)  by visiting this page on the Whimsy store site.  Please consider helping this special cause by purchasing one or all of the digital images we are offering.

 

You have come to a last stop of our hop. If you have landed here from TINA's blog, you are right on track.  If you have come here randomly and would like to start hopping from the beginning, please go to Crissy's blog.   She has the blog rotation order posted if you need to refer to it. 

The amazing ladies of two design teams have come together to host this blog hop for you!  Crissy's Crew from Sundays With Crissy and Denise's DT from Whimsy Stamps have joined forces to design some amazing jaw dropping creations for you.  You have seven days to hop through all the blogs and enjoy all the lovely creations from these talented people. 

The hop runs from now through til Sunday April 10 at noon.  There will be several opportunities to win blog candy!  Four random commenters will get a chance to receive one of the three individual images or Ann's sentiment set.  So be sure to leave comments all along the way for your chance at a free digi!  


Also, if you post the "Help for Japan" button on your blog's sidebar, you can enter into the draw for the grand prize!  The grand prize will consist of the entire digital set made just for this cause as well as a gift certificate donated by Ann of Raindrop Echo Designs worth 10$ to use at the Whimsy Stamps store! To enter, you must help us advertise for this cause by posting the "Help Japan" button on your blog's side bar (just grab it from my side bar or from the top of this post) and then get your name on the Inlinkz option on Crissy's post so we can be sure to find the winner.  

Now on to my project: 

I have used Heartfelt Angel in my project today.

She is coloured with Prismacolor pencils and the background is done with soft pastels and dry blending stump.

The flowers are from Prima, covered with Cosmic Shimmer paint. I mixed together several colours of Flower Soft for the centers. The laser cut chipboard is from Make It Crafty. I covered the ribbon (which was originally coldish pink) with the shimmer paint also.

I distressed all the edges with Distress Paint in Tea Dye.

This is a last stop of our hop. I hope you have enjoyed yourself and are considering contributing to that very worthy cause!

Challenges I'm entering:
Crafty Pad -  Flowers
Dream Valley Challenges -  Things with wings
I Did It Creations - Anything Goes
Pile It On - Romantic and Fancy
Scrappy Frogs -  Flowers and Lace
Allsorts -  Blooming Blossoms
Crafty Emma - Children
Wee memories -  Favourite Colour or Colour Pallet (yellow)
By the Cute & Girly - Cute and Girly
Card Makin' Mamas - embellish it
Fabulous Friday - Use Bling
Pals Paper Arts - Punches

Thank you so much for stopping by!
Hugs 

OK, here comes the rare moment - I actually LOVE this card

This card is smaller than my usual 6x6, it's actually 5.25x5.25. Mainly because I wanted to use kraft base and that was the only pre-scored size I was able to find in Kraft.

It was made for Tickled Pink Challenge and next weeks theme is BLING. So I sprinkled flat-backed gems quite generously all over the card. The challenge requires a use of  Tickled Pink image.

I used Mollie Mittens with Flower and coloured her with Prismas on kraft card. The sentiments are a cool postage stamp rubber stamp set and die combo from Whimsy Stamps.

The flowers and leaves are from Wild Orchid Crafts and Prima. Papers are from my latest Basic Grey favorite line - Curio, all sponged with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain.

Challenges I'm entering:
Fab 'n' Funky - 1E, C10 - shabby chic
Clear It Out! - 2W - Flowers, Flowers & more Flowers
Tuesday Throwdown - Florals
Cupcake Craft - Flowers for Mum
Lexi's Creations - 2W - ribbons but no bows or knots
Make it Monday with Kraft Outlet - must include Kraft cardstock - Flowers
Creative Inspirations Paint - 1E - Flowers
Gingerloft - 2W - Die Cuts or Punches
Scrappy Frogs - 3W - Flowers and Lace

Thank you so much for visiting and happy crafting!!
Hugs

Whimsy sneak peek - Tippy By The Tail

Whimsy Stamps March release previews are in full swing!!

Today we are showcasing all the release stamps and I chose to colour up Tippy By The Tail from Crissy Armstrong and combined it with Treasured Tickets sentiments - both are going to be available from Whimsy from next Wednesday.

I did the colouring with Prismacolor pencils on kraft card and cut the tickets out with a ticket die from Whimsy Shapeology dies.

My boy has been utterly obsessed with tigers lately and a lot of his friends have fifth birthdays coming up so I made a standby "boy" card, lol.

Thank you so much for visiting and hope you'll be back tomorrow for a blog hop- it's going to be full of gorgeous card art and fab prizes!

Hugs