Digi Galore Challenge - Christmas

It's that time of the month again - the new challenge at Digi Galore. The last challenge was Anything Goes so I hope some of you joined in. This time it's a nice easy theme too - Christmas! I'm sure you can come up with some lovely creations. Have a peek at the rules but they're nice and easy.

For this challenge our sponsor is Sassy Studio and I had the wonderful Ellie the Elf digi to play with. She was great fun to play with.

I decided to try combining a couple of techniques which stretched my brain a little. I wanted to use my Foilmaster to create a shiny Christmas tree but didn't want to hand cut around the coloured digi to layer it on top. It took a bit of thinking to work out how to do it but I got there in the end.

I used Craft Artist and sized the digi and Christmas tree vector to the size I wanted. I used Cut out Studio to remove the background from the Digi & then used the punch tool to make a punch in the shape of the digi so I could punch and remove the portion of the tree that's behind Ellie.

Once I had done that I lined Ellie up with the Ellie sized gap in the tree. Then I temporarily deleted her and printed the tree on my laser printer. I transferred the paper to my inkjet printer reinstated Ellie & deleted the tree then printed. After a bit of tweaking of printer settings I had it so Ellie printed exactly into the Ellie Sized gap on the tree.

The reason for this tooing and froing is that the foil sticks to the laser toner but not to the inkjet ink so when I put it through the Foilmaster the green foil stuck to the tree but left the ink on the digi black as I wanted it.

I then coloured Ellie using my Promarkers and finished her off with some glossy accents. I decided to leave the card fairly plain other than the main decoration as I didn't want to complicate it too much.

This shows the high shine on the foil a little better.

I really hope you like it. We'd love you to join in over at the Digi Galore Challenge.

Digi Galore Challenge - Altered Item

Wow! It's that time of the month again! I can't believe how quickly it's come round but it's time for the newest Digi Galore Challenge. This fortnight the challenge is to make an 'altered item' and we've been sponsored by the amazingly talented Torico from Birdie Brown. I first discovered her digis a few months ago & love them so I'm really excited that she's sponsoring this challenge. I love the clean style of her digis & use them regularly on cards. 

I chose one of my favourite images for my altered item - Cupcake Star. I've owned this image for a while & have made many birthday cards. I've seen several tutorials on making plates using digis and decided to give it a go.

I printed the digi on my normal Ryman smooth white cardstock & coloured it in with my Promarkers and cut it out.  I used 3m Quick Dry Adhesive to coat the back of the image then stuck it to my plate. I then covered  the front of the image to waterproof it. The tutorials I've seen use Mod Podge but I didn't have any, but will get some when I make another plate as I think this would be safer for food use.

I designed the lettering in Inkscape & cut it out of vinyl using my Cougar cutting machine from Thyme Graphics. I used transfer tape to transfer the lettering to the plate & smoothed it down.

All in all I'm really pleased with the way it works out. I think for it to be used in anger I'd need to investigate a different finishing product - maybe Mod Podge or similar, but I'm pleased with it for myself.

Why don't you pop along and join the challenge. You can use any digi and alter any item in any way you want. We'd love to see what you create.

The prize is 3 digi stamps from Birdie Brown 

Simpy Betty's 13 Days Of Halloween - Day 13

Well here we are at the end of the 13 Days of Halloween Challenges. I've had a great time doing the ones I've join in with this year & hope to do even more next year. I'm looking forward to it already.

This time the Challenge was Trick or Treat - we had to show a favourite trick or give a treat. 

I thought I'd show you how to make a self standing pop up card. Be warned there are lots of pictures!

Here's what the finished card looks like

Firstly colour & cut out your image. I used the brilliant Jack Skellington from Simply Betty

Take a piece of card 28 cm long by 15cm wide. Score it at:

2.5cm,   6.5cm,   9.5cm,   14cm,   18.5cm,   21.5cm,  & 25.5cm

I used my faithful Hougie Board for this - I bought it when it was first released in 2010 & it's become indispensable

for those on the other side of the pond you need the card to be 11" long & score at:
1",   2.75",   3.75",   5.5",   7.25",   8.25"   & 10"

Fold all the score lines then fold the card in half. Cut a small slit along the centre fold just wide enough to fit your picture in.

Your card should now look like this

Fold the two ends in and put strong sticking tape on both 

Thread your picture through the hole ...

line it up on the bottom of the folded section & stick firmly. 

Fix the other taped section, carefully making sure the bottom edges line up so it will sit straight.

Your Picture will then pop out of the top of the hole when you push the top down.

Add any decoration you like. I made these Tombstones in Inkscape, printed them & coloured them with Promarkers. I dotted the surface with the blender to give a slightly mottled effect & added moss to the top & side with the olive pen. 

Remember that as you look at it flat the bottom section (by my fingers) will be underneath, the middle section will be the front & the top section will be horizontal on the top surface, so bear this in mind when choosing how to decorate it.

When you let it go or push the top fold down it will create a box & stand on it's own. 

This is the sideways view.

And here's how it looks stood on it's own. Jack looks great in him own graveyard. 

This trick works well for all sorts of images - here's the anniversary card I made my Husband this year using Birthday Cake Surprise Girl from Redonkulus Designs - fun eh?

Happy Birthday Betty!!! Surprise!!!!

Happy Birthday Betty!!! Surprise!!!!!

Now this is part of a VERY long Blog Hop as the members of the Simply Betty Fan Club have conspired to wish Betty a Very Happy Birthday. Now Betty's birthday isn't for a few days yet but we thought we'd celebrate early to she got a complete surprise.

Betty is an amazingly talented lady & I'm really enjoying being a member of her fan club. I don't own many of her digis yet but plan to increase them as soon as I can.

I used one of her very own brilliant Digis - Chef Ariel  & used Halloweeny colours as Betty is the Queen of Halloween. A relatively clean & simple card but I hope she likes what I've made.

The base is a white pearlescent card base that I've coloured black using my black Promarker.

I cut the mats with the Labels 9 Spellbinders Nestibilities. I coloured the mats using my Promarkers.

Happy Birthday Betty - Hope you're enjoying the Birthday Hop & have a great Birthday.

Now this is a fairly massive Blog Hop but there are some incredibly talented people so well worth hopping along. Here's the list. Your next stop is Marie

Corinne http://wishuponascrap.blogspot.com/

Irene http://irenescardcreations.blogspot.com/

Jessica http://www.canyoupixelthis.com/

Beth http://bethscraftycorner.blogspot.co.uk/

Tanya http://little-scrapper.blogspot.com/

Samantha http://www.stuffbysammi.blogspot.com/

Celina http://www.scrapvamp.blogspot.com/

Michelle K. http://www.maybecreative.blogspot.com/

Kathy http://kathyand3kids.blogspot.com/

Michelle S. http://www.craftyshell.blogspot.com/

Robin http://www.rcz28.blogspot.com/

Louise http://louisescraftycards.blogspot.co.uk/

Sharon http://www.mrslumpys.blogspot.com/

Trish http://scrappintillthecowscomehome.blogspot.ca/

Rachel http://rachelspaperwishes.blogspot.com/

Emily http://remmyspixiewishes.blogspot.com/

Berenice http://karbersweetescape.blogspot.com/

Trudie http://trudiescakesandcards.blogspot.co.uk/

Jill http://cuddlyscraftycreations.blogspot.co.uk/

Anita http://Kardmakingheaven.blogspot.co.uk/

Sharette http://scrappernthemaking.blogspot.com/

Tammy O. http://www.tammyscrapincorner.com/

Veronica http://www.artbyveronica.blogspot.com/

Anda http://craftyfresian.blogspot.com/

Sharman http://sharman33.blogspot.com/

Carrie http://carriescreativecards.blogspot.com/

Kelly http://kamscraftyplace.blogspot.co.uk/

Lisa http://distinctivelmnts.blogspot.com/

Erin http://elfiessparkleanddust.blogspot.co.uk/

Lucy http://loopylass2010.blogspot.co.uk/

Marie http://marie97-lotlot.blogspot.com/

Katrina http://flutterbytrina.blogspot.co.uk/

13 Days of Halloween Day 12

Wow! I can;t believe Simply Betty's 13 days of Halloween is almost over! I've not participated in all the challenges but I've really enjoyed the ones I have done.

Today's challenge is to include a Haunted House. Now you know me I never do things the normal way so rather than colouring a digi Haunted House I used a file created by the very talented Liz Allison of Phlumpets Creative Cuts & cut the Haunted House out on my trusty Cougar. I altered the file slightly as I wanted to expend the picket fence to either side of the house to give myself enough room for Jack Skellington (well you can't have a Haunted House without Jack!).

I cut an extra strip of picket fence, scored & folded it with my Hougie board & glued it to the house to create a stand so the whole scene stands up.

(I love the completely accidental effect of the 'lighted windows' reflecting on the wet pavement 

(AKA my mantelpiece))

What do you think?

I would like to enter this scene into the following challenges:

Simply Challenged 13 Days of Halloween Day 12

The Paper Shelter: Halloween

My Mum's Craft Shop: So Spooky

Totally Papercrafts:

Papercraft Junkies: Halloween

Delicious Doodles: Fright Night


Edit - I'm very proud to have been chosen as the Winner of the Papercraft Junkies Halloween Challenge!!!!! I can't believe it - thanks so much for choosing me :D


My card was also chosen in the Top Three at My Mum's Craft Shop Challenges!!! Thanks so much - I'm really glad you like it :D I'm now wearing my blinky with pride.

13 Days of Halloween - Day 11 @ Simply Betty's Challenges

I didn't think I was going to get an entry into today's challenge but have had a spurt of energy (the 3min Microwave Cake in a Mug may have had something to do with it!)

Today's challenge was to use the Candy Corn colours (Orange, Yellow & White) or Caramel Apple colours (lime green & Caramel). I went for the Candy Corn option. I don't often use Oranges so it was something different for me. I'm actually really pleased with the result - especially the hair colours which were Pumpkin, Orange & Burnt Orange.

I used the Baking Betty digi from Simply Betty (recognise her from the last challenge?) & Samantha Walker's Harvest Moon Mega Digi Kit which I bought from Jessica Sprague. I've used it loads since I bought it - who knew it would be so useful! The black background paper actually had halloweeny words which didn't show up when printed but I'm actually pleased with it a bit plainer.

Hope you like it.

Day 10 Of Simply Betty's 13 Days of Halloween

After a while of not crafting for a variety of reasons I'm back at it. This Day of Simply Betty's 13 Days of Halloween challenges was quite a challenge.

The Challenge is to use any non 'persona' image & make it resemble your favourite movie ghoul, ghost, witch or scary persona. I'm ashamed to admit that I only own 6 of Betty's lovely digis (something I hope to remedy soon) & two of them are character images (Jack Skellington & Christian the Dark Hero who I used for the last challenge) so some lateral thinking was needed!!! :S

Luckily inspiration struck & Baking Betty from the Teen Scene Kitchen Fun release became Hermione Granger brewing the Polyjuice Potion in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

I visited the Warner Bros Studio Tour in Watford in March so the background of the card is a photo I took of the Potions Dungeon! It was an amazing tour & I took sooooo many photos - but I never thought they'd come in useful for a challenge like this!

I used an image of old paper as the background & added the description of Polyjuice Potion & part of the ingredient list to create the frame.

I coloured Hermione/ Baking Betty with my Promarkers sticking to the Gryffindor House colours of burgundy & gold. It made me laugh thinking of them having house coloured potions aprons. Mine even seems to have taken on a linen or knitted texture.

Hope you like it. It's horrible weather here so difficult to get a decent picture.

Devilish Divas Halloween blog hop

Welcome to the Devilish Divas Halloween blog hop!  You should have arrived here from Erin‘s blog.  If you are just joining the hop and want to start from the beginning, please visit Dena’s blog and begin there so you don’t miss out on any of the cool projects! 

This is a Halloween-themed hop sponsored by Kenny K Downloads.  One lucky winner will win their choice of FIVE digi’s from the Kenny K Downloads store along with a fun Halloween goodie bag sponsored by our hostess, Dena Jones.  Details on how to enter are at the bottom of this post. It's very easy to do so please join in.

Here is a brief bio on our sponsor:

Digi and rubber stamps from KennyK are a fun and edgy way to add the perfect dose of attitude and style to all your creations! 

The creator, the artist, the man:  KennyK is a NYC-born professional illustrator who has brought his funky-but-slick, urban-influenced look to the cardmaking and papercrafts world.  His signature style can be seen throughout his various collection of pinup babes, sweet ‘n sassy girls, cool rockin’ dudes, kid’s stuff, retro characters and more at KennyDownloads.com

I love KennyK digis for their cheekiness! Definitely some sassy ladies in there!

I had the amazing Wanda Wicked & Haunted House to work with and wow what wonderful images they are!

I used the PNG version of Wanda Wicked so I could layer her on top of the Haunted House. I coloured the image with my trusty Promarker pens.

The Digi Paper background & Trick or Treat sentiment are from Samantha Walker's Harvest Moon Kit which I bought from Jessica Sprague

Here's a close up of Wicked Wanda

The Promarkers I used are:

Dress & Boots - Burnt Orange, Orange

Sky & tights - Ice Grey 1, 2 & 5

Skin - Coral, Sunkissed Pink, Blush with Pastel Pink Cheeks

Lips - Antique Pink

Hair - Raw Sienna, Mustard, Pastel Yellow, Buttercup

Hope you enjoyed your visit! If you'd like a chance to win our blog hop candy, here's what you need to do (it's not too tricky so do give it a go):

1) Visit each blog in the hop and leave a comment that includes your email address on each one to be eligible. You must comment no later than midnight EST of Sunday, Oct. 21st.

2) Winner will be emailed no later than Monday morning and must respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be selected.

3) Digi prize package from KennyK is open to anyone, regardless of location. However, the goody bag prize sponsored by the hostess is open to US residents only. If the digi prize winner is not located within the US, a second winner will be chosen for just the goody bag.

Please be sure to hop on over to Sher's blog next to see what she's created using one of Kenny K's awesome digi's! Below is the complete lineup in case you get lost along the way. Thanks again and have a fun and safe Halloween!

Blog Hope Lineup:

1. Dena: http://missdjones.blogspot.com/

2. Erin : http://elfiessparkleanddust.blogspot.co.uk/

3. Lucy: http://loopylass2010.blogspot.co.uk/

4. Sher: http://www.patternsbysher.blogspot.com

5. Cely: http://hawaiipaperparty.blogspot.com/

6. Donna: http://donnasdenofcrafts.blogspot.com

7. Haidee:http://created2bunique.blogspot.com/

8. Amber: http://pixiperfectcreations.blogspot.com/

9. Lynne: http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/

10. Jill: http://craftwithanangel.blogspot.com/

11. Zenita: http://www.scrappinwithz.blogspot.com

Day 6 of Simply Betty's 13 Days of Halloween

Day 6 of Simply Betty's 13 Days of Halloween is a challenge to use Lime green & distressing. Quite a challenge for me as I don't tend to use either but I thought I'd give it a go.

I used Betty's lovely Christian the Dark Hero from the Teen Scene Kids Go to Hollywood set.

I coloured him with my trusty Promarkers & mounted him on 3D dots.

Colours: 

Lime Green, Bright Green, Forest Green

Ice Grey 2, Ice Grey 5, Black

Blush, Sunkissed Pink, Coral,   Pastel Pink

I used some distressed papers from Sassy Designs & added some extra ink around the base paper to increase the distressed look.

The Sentiment sticker was in a digi set from Harvest Moon Mega Kit by Samantha Walker which I bought on Jessica Sprague. I used my Lime Green Promarker to alter the colour of the words to better match the theme.

The extra distressing element was carefully cutting Christian the Dark Hero out (which I hate doing) ..... then realising he needed a white border around him to make him look right!

Digi Galore Challenge - Halloween

It's time for a new challenge over at Digi Galore and as it's October and this fortnight the theme is ......

Halloween

We are sponsored by the brilliant 

Bugaboo 

the winner will get  7 Digi Image pack 

wow .. 

So pop over & join in. All you need to do is create a project using a digi from any company. The entries for the challenges so far have been brilliant - it's great seeing what everyone makes.

I saw Halloween Mummy - Coffin from Bugaboo & realised it suited a different approach to a card as to me the image looked like the inside rather than the front of a card.

I scored & folded 2 pieces of brown cardstock on my Hougie Board & glued them together so there were two stages of the card opening. I then trimmed it to the shape of a coffin using the digi as a guide. 

As usual I coloured the  digi with my Promarkers (have I mentioned recently how much I love those pens :P). I drew a cross on the front of the card & lines to echo the digi

Hope you like it, I'd love to know what you think x

Day 4 of Simply Betty's 13 Days of Halloween Challenge

I belong to a fun group on Facebook which is dedicated to fans of Simply Betty Stamps.  It's a total madhouse but full of lots of lovely people. I don't own many Simply B Stamps yet but will gradually build my collection as Betty creates some lovely images. On her challenge blog Betty is running 13 Days of Halloween with different challenges running through October. This last week has been a bit mad for me so I havn't entered the first 3 but I decided to enter something to this one. The challenge is 'All A Glow'.

I saw this idea on the Team KNK website a while ago & wanted to give it a go. My box was made by cutting the top layer of 6x6  Core'dinations Black Magic Cardstock on my Cougar Cutting Machine, then carefully peeling off the black layer to reveal the coloured card underneath.

I prepared the 5 sides, then cut small strips of black card, scored them down the middle on my Hougie board  and folded them so they were at a 90degree angle. I then attached these at each join & glued them with my ATG gun to make the cube.

The box looks good in daylight:

....... but even more impressive  in the dark when lit by a light or electric tealight.

I think that counts as a glow!

Blog Candy at Hazel's

The lovely Hazel has some lovely Blog Candy on offer over on her blog pop over & take a peek.

For various reasons she has decided to sell her 13" Cougar Cutting Machine. It's only 9 months old & she's asking a very good price for it so if anyone's interested get in contact with her. You know how much I adore my 18" Cougar - it's an absolutely amazing cutter.

Promarker Storage

I've been looking for the prefect storage for my growing collection of Promarker Pens for a while now. I initially had them in a set of small drawers from Poundland but my collection soon outgrew them and I wanted a more organised way of storing them. A friend showed me this solution for Copics & I decided to adapt it for my Promarkers. This is the result:

Several people have asked me for instructions so here goes.

You will need:

1 - Koi Carp Filter Grid.
       - this comes in 16" x 27" sheets & can be found on Ebay

       - one sheet is enough to make one storage box (2 sheets gives enough for 3 storage
         boxes)
       - You can get it in either square or diamond cut. There's very little difference in how
          many pens you can house. I used the diamond cut.

2 - 9l Really Useful Box - this will hold the Promarkers nicely. If you want to put the lid on 

      to transport your Promarkers buy the 9XL Really Useful Box as this has a taller lid.

3 - Marker Pen 

4 - Snips from the tool box

5 - Stanley Knife

• Line the koi filter grid on top of your RUB & with a marker pen mark where you need to cut.

• Use your snips to cut the grid where you've marked. Remember it's better to cut it slightly too big then trim it down later rather than cut it too small.

• Use your stanley knife to trim it exactly to size. Check it as you go. I cut mine as a snug fit so it holds itself in place in the box without the need for fixings. If yours doesn't fit snuggly you could always use silicone or similar to hold it in place.

• Repeat to make the second layer of the grid making sure the holes in the grid match up to the holes in the first piece so the Promarkers will sit straight.

• Put the first layer of grid into the Really Useful Box & push it down until it's about 1 inch from the bottom. Make sure it's level.

• Add the second layer pushing it in about an inch from the top of the box.

• Add your Promarkers & you're good to go

The exact number of pens you can fit in will depend on where you cut the grid. On the first one I made I left the black edging attached which was nice and easy but I realised it took up an extra row that I could be filling with pens so when I remade it I cut the edging off & was also careful where I made the cuts on the top & bottom too. It's only a small difference but might be important to you. 

With the Black Edging attached                                                    Trimmed on all sides

I've created blank grids for both versions and a layout guide for the version without the black edges. 

You can download them from the links below, print them & colour them in so you have a reference guide.

Promarker Storage Layout

Blank Promarker Storage Layout

Blank Promarker Storage Layout (for grids with the black edging left on)