Winter Wonderland

I was really inspired by the latest Heffy Doodle challenge. They threw down a challenge to create a winter wonderland. I wanted to think outside of the box and had the idea to make their adorable elephants into a snow elephant. It has taken a while for me to be able to find the time to get creating again, I am so glad that I got the chance to play and make this one today :) It was just so much fun to change this elephant up.

So the sets I have used are.....Santa's Village for the trees, Elephant of surprise for the elephants and finally wanna build a snowman for the sentiments and the adorable penguins. I used the Heffy Doodle first snow stencil to create the snowy ground. The whole scene is matted on some gorgeous sparkly silver card.

I stamped the elephant in memento Summer sky to make it look more like snow and used the same ink with my ink bushes to add the colour to the sky. I then stamped out all the other images and coloured them with the following tri-blend markers:

Snow elephant - Ice Blue Blend

Trees - Alpine Green Blend

Penguins hats and scarves - Dark Red Blend, Coral Shades, Gold Brown Blend

Penguins - Ice Grey Shade, Gold Yellow Blend and Ice Grey Blend

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Heffy Doodle (On their FB Heffy Doodlers page) - Winter Wonderland

Addicted to stamps - Anything Goes

Lil patch of crafty friends - Anything Goes

Patties Creations - Animals or Bears

Jingle Belles - Christmas / Winter

Creative Fingers - Anything Goes

Colour Crazy Challenge - Anything Goes

Brown Sugar - Anything Goes

Bookworm

Other than crafting I don't think there is anything else I would rather get lost in than a book. I love the way you can be transported to another place. What are your favorite books? I always like recommendations so hit me with them :) 

I think my favorites are  Philip Pullmans "Dark Materials" trilogy. I can not tell you how excited I am that the BBC is doing an adaption of them on at the moment. It is so much better than the film.

Anyway onto my card. I made this one at the Crafty Purple Frog getaway and we were lucky enough to have Kraftin'  Kimmie and Trimcraft donate our little group some very yummy goodies to use over the week. 

This stamp set is called "Girl Power" you get two great characters in the set as well as some fitting sentiments. I have made something with the other girl as well so watch this space :) 

I coloured my bookworm with the following tri-blend markers:

Skin: Fair Skin Blend

Hair: Ice Blue Blend

Jumper, glasses and trousers: Ice Grey Shades

Shoes and top: Bright Pink Shades

Bag: Dull Green Blend and Light Green Blend

Book: Red Brown Blend

Ground: Red Brown Blend

The paper is from First Edition and was part of some samples that Trimcraft kindly sent us. The paper are called wonderlust and this one is foiled and stunning. As normal for me to finish the card I added some nuvo drops to add a bit of dimension and texture.  

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Kraftin' Kimme - Anything Goes

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