You're awesome fur real

I had so, so much fun creating this little fold out card for my adorable Nephew Rory who was 2 recently. I can't resist using Lions for my creations for him but I felt like I wanted to mix it up so used a few different stamp set from the brilliant Create a Smile range. The lions are from the "Fur real" set, the Lemur is from "Little Lemur" and the armadillo is from the "On a roll" set. 

For the base of this card I used some craft card from Crafters Companion and first cut it at 4 inches before then scoring it at every 4 inches so it was a little concertina of 4' x 4' squares. I stuck the two strips I got from the one piece of A4 card together and then cut one more 4' x 4' square of the craft card to cover where I stuck the two pieces together. I knew I wanted to have a square for each leter of his name and a further one for the number 2 but you could just use more or less card to fit for any name.

The card that I used for the matting and layering are all craft perfect card in various colours. I really like this card as it is not only a good thickness but also has a bit of texture to it and a great colour. I have to say that I have only just discovered this card properly and I am going to be getting it and stocking it in my store for sure so watch this space if you want to get your hands on it. For the layers I cut a range of 3 and 3/4 inch squares, 3 and 1/2 inch squares and the smallest squares are 3 and 1/4 inch. I then layered them all on angles for the inside panels and stacked for the front one.
The letters are just die cut out of the same tonic carft perfect card so the colours all matched perfectly. The happy sentiment die is from Heffy Doodle as is the little birthday stamped sentiment (from the "super dudes" set). The "you're amazing fur real" sentiment is from the "Fur real" set.

The critters are all coloured using the following Spectrum Noir tri-blends:

Lions:
Fur - Gold Brown Blend
Mane - Gold Yellow Blend
Nose - Gold Brown Shade
Ears -  Pale Pink Blend

Lemur:
Fur - Grey Brown Shade, Grey Brown Blend
Ears - Pale Pink Blend
Eyes - Ice Blue Blend
Balloon - Light Green Blend

Armadillo:
Grey Brown Shade, Grey Brown Blend and Ice Blue Blend on his eyes


I am entering this card for the following challenges:
Crafty Rocket - Happy Birthday
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes
Colour crazy challenge - Anything goes with colouring
2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything goes
A bit more time to craft - Anything goes
A perfect time to craft - Anything goes
Crafty Animals - Anything goes with a critter

To brighten up your day

I had so much fun making this card. I die cut the circles with Heffy Doodle stitched circle dies and then inked the center circle with Salty ocean, Blueprint Sketch and Black soot distress inks. I cut a circle frame out of some brilliantly shiny gold card from Tonic. We were lucky enough to be sponsored by Tonic at my last Crafty Purple Frog Getaway and I have to say I really like their range of card stock. I will be getting a lot more of it so expect to see much more of it cropping up on my blog :D

For my main image I have used another of the brilliant Create a Smile stamp sets, Glowing seaside . It is safe to say I am addicted to these stamps. I stamped this squid in Tuxedo Black Momento ink and then coloured it with the following tri-blend markers:

Squid body: Pale Pink Shade, Pale Pink Blend

Eye ball: Ice Blue Blend

Stars: Citrus Blend

I used some Spectrum Noir gold midas ink and one of the small stamps in the set to add the dotty circles all over the black card blank Then I attached the squid and the gold circle frame on some foam pads so they give some depth to the card. I wanted the Squid to stand out even more so I covered his head in glossy accents. 

The sentiment I stamped in Wow! embossing pad and then used super fine gold embossing powder. For the final touch of texture and sparkle I used a mix of Blue Lagooon and Yellow bird nuvo glitter drops leading away from the squid off of the card.

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Creative Fingers - Anything Goes

Patties Creations - Anything Goes 

Aud Sentiments - Anything Goes with a sentiment

Cardz 4 Gals - Something beginning with S 

Create a smile Challenge and DT call

I quite recently stumbled upon these super cute stamps from a company called Create a smile. I knew right away that I needed quite a few of these stamps in my life. They really did what they said on the pack and made me smile. So of course I ordered some to stock at Crafty Purple Frog. 

Now I see they also have a DT call! How exciting is that?? I have to try out for it, so as well as my entry for the current sketch challenge I wanted to tell you all about the DT call as well so if you fall in love with them, as I have, you can try out for a spot on the team :)

Onto my card. I created this based on the great fun sketch over on the Create a Smile blog. I used  Heffy Doodles stitched circle dies to create the frame and circle that I put this little guy on. I used ink brushes and mowed lawn along with broken china distress inks to create a back ground. The grass stamp is also in the Fur Real stamp set.

The lion I stamped in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and then coloured with the following tri-blend markers:

Mane: Gold Yellow Blend

Nose: Gold Brown Shade

Face and body: Gold Brown Blend and pale pink blend in his ears.

The sentiment is in the Fur Real stamp set and I finished the card by hand drawing the border, dots around the circle frame and then adding the sparkle with some nuvo blue lagoon glitter drops. 

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Create a smile - Sketch challenge

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything goes 

2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything goes

A Bit More Time To Craft - Anything Goes

A Perfect Time To Craft - Anything Goes

Wonderlust

 Hello I hope you are all well and enjoying this beautiful autumn weather. I don't know about you but when I can I would love to do more traveling and see some more of the world. I have been lucky to see quite a few place already but there is so much to see!

So this Kraftin' Kimmie stamp set called "life is a journey" it really spoke to me when I saw it. I have coloured this lovely lady up with the following Spectrum noir tri-blends:

Skin: Fair Skin Blend

Hair: Earth Brown Shade, Earth Brown Blend

Sunglasses: Ice Grey Shade

Top: Ice Blue Blend

Trousers: Lavender Blend

Backpack: Green Turquoise Blend

Suitcase: Muted Brown Blend

Ground: Grey Brown Blend

Outline/ background: Light Yellow Blend, Gold Yellow Blend, Gold Brown Blend.

For the background I used one of the Krafin' Kimmie stencils called "leaves and vines". I used cracked pistachio distress oxide ink and the whole stencil to cover a piece of white paper and then twisted the stencil around to a different angle before using lucky clover distress oxide to ink through the stencil again. I love the effect this has given me. 

I made this card while on the Crafty Purple Frog getaway and the design paper was from a first edition paper pack called "Wonderlust" that was kindly donated for us to all be able to use by Trimcraft. To finish it off I used some Nuvo drops just to add a bit of sparkle and texture.

If you like my creations I would LOVE it if you would follow me so I can follow you back :)

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Kraftin' Kimmie - Anything Goes

Crafty Creations - Anything Goes

Creative Moments - Anything Goes (optional extra of for the girls)

Water Cooler Wednesday - Anything Goes 

Heffy Doodles first challenge!!

I am so excited that over on the Heffy Doodlers Facebook page they are having their first ever challenge! The prize for one lucky winner is a £50 voucher to spend  in their store!! I had to have a go at that seeing as I LOVE all things Heffy Doodle. There is still time to enter and all you need to do is create something using Heffy Doodle goodies that has a "fall theme".

For my entry I combined the super cute "Elephant Of Surprise" stamps with the leaves from the "Blooming Marvelous" stamp set. 

I started by inking the background with some scattered straw distress ink, Fossilised Amber and then added a touch on gathered twigs distress ink at the bottom and round some of the edges to give it a bit of depth. Next I stamped out the leaves in a mix of gold and bronze midas ink. This is my first real play with the Spectrum Noir Midas ink and I have to say I LOVE it. You need to make sure you get a lot of ink on your stamp to get a good impression but the result is worth it. It is hard to see in these pictures but it looks almost as if I have heat embossed them, they are that shiny. 

The sentiment I did heat emboss using some Wow! gold superfine embossing powder. Then I coloured up the adorable little Ellie using a tri-blends ice grey blend pen and a nuvo blender pen. I added the layers of brown and gold card just to make it look that bit more detailed and hand drew some brown faux stitching. 

As well as the Heffy Doodle challenge I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Cutie pie challenge - Anything goes

Dream Valley Challenge - Add a sentiment

Incy Wincy Design - Add something metallic (I used metallic embossing powder and Midas metallic ink)

Cupcake inspiration challenge - Fall theme

Love you to the moon and back

I am loving making backgrounds using the ink smushing technique. For this one I covered a whole back ground for the card to make it look like outer space. I used Squeezed Lemonade, tumbled glass, salty ocean, blue print sketch and Black soot distress oxides

I also added a lot of sparkle to the entire background by flicking wink of stella all over it and then putting some yellow bird glitter gem drops and for that extra special touch I also added some Banana split glow in the dark gem drops, so when the lights go out this card still stands out.

I have combined two of the new Heffy Doodle stamp sets for this card. The cute little spaceman and space ship are from the "Spaced out" stamp set. The sentiment and Moon are from the "You're weird" stamp set. 

They have been coloured with the following spectrum noir tri-blends:

Moon: Ice grey

Space ship: Orange, Citrus green and Ice grey

Spaceman: Orange, Earth brown, fair skin and Ice grey

I put the space man on a action wobble so he looks like he is really moving in space.  

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

A bit more time to craft - Anything goes

Happy craft challenge - Anything goes

Love to craft - Anything goes

Lil' patch of crafty friends - Anything goes

The corrosive challenge - Anything goes

Whatever the weather

The weather here is definitely changing. The wind is picking up and it is raining on and off. The up side to that is that it will be perfect crafting weather :D 

For my card today I have used the adorable "Quack me up" stamp set from Heffy Doodles. I stamped the duck and coloured it with the following Spectrum noir tri-blend markers:

Beak and feet: Orange, Citrus

Body: Gold brown

Umbrella:Pale pink, Earth brown

I used the Heffy Doodle "rain on my parade" stencil with tumbled glass distress oxide and a blending tool to give the rain effect back ground to the card base. I also used the same tumbled glass distress oxide to ink around the edges of the card blank. For the panel behind the duck I did some ink smushing on my glass mat and used 3 distress oxides (tumbled glass, salty ocean and blue print sketch) I wanted to add a bit more sparkle and dimension to the panel so I added some blue lagoon nuvo glitter gem drops in the shape of rain drops. 

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Brown sugar - Anything goes
Colour crazy challenge - Anything goes
Creative fingers - Anything goes
Pattie's Creations - Things that fly