Bling Mermaid

Did I tell you I love these stamps? I have sooooo many colour combos going through my head that I want to try as they look different each time :D

This is my 2nd Bind it All book this week. Didnt do my usual ribbon on the coils bit this time as I didnt want to overload it. The image took about 2 hours to colour as you need to add some bits whilst its wet and some whilst dry. I used a technique called feather blending which involves blending two colours together. I've done this on the tail fin and around the moon (It could be a sun I guess!) Promarkers are not really designed for this technique, wrong kind of nib so the blended bits I switched to copics.

The book is covered with starburst stains which I thought went well with the blue/green of the image and adds more sparkle. I painted on shimmerz pixie dust on the green strands of hair, eyes, tail and clothes. The frames are a nestie, its the only nestie I own and hate it but crafty catz wanted fancy frames and I dont have anything else lol!
The additional butterflies are a magenta stamp which is almost brand new *blush* Must have had it 3 years lol! I coloured with promarkers and copics and painted over with shimmerz. This is very very sparkly with the starburst stains, shimmerz and sparkle ribbon.

Really enjoyed colouring this one :D

Crafts and Me should be getting a delivery of some more Sweet Pea stamps this week so keep checking and grab while you can as they go very very quickly! Can't wait to get my mitts on some more as they're so much fun to colour :D

I'm entering this into...

Fussy & Fancy Friday - Movies (Mermaidia)

Crafty Catz - Fancy edges & Ribbon

My Time to Craft - In the frame

Sweet Pea meets Starburst Stains

Here's the first of two Bind It All books I've made this week. Finished this one off today, originally she had a yellowy blonde hair but it just did not go with the lilac and teal so I changed her hair to brown and felt a lot happier with it! Dreadful pics I'm afraid, I shall try and do them when we actually get some daylight lol!
Went for a pale dusky lilac with this one, used blossom and the lilac. For the wings I saturated them with the blender and pushed colour in from the outer edges and went over with a copic spica clear pen. The background is painted with starburst stains in fern green and bluebells, their sparkly effects can be seen on bottom pic.
The ribbon at the bottom is also dyed with starburst stains. The book covering is yes you've guessed it starburst stains lol! As I ofetn mix and scrunch and make up batches I often forget what colours I used but I suspect its Mermaid seashells.

Quite like the softer look with this stamp. Got another sweet pea BIA book coming up which I'm just finishing off. Next time I'm going to switch and do the mermaids in softer tones and do this one in much bolder, I like all the different looks, bit like changing the wardrobe :D

Sweet Pea stamps are available in the UK exclusively to Crafts and Me or check out the main Sweet Pea site if you live elsewhere.

Entering this into....


Flutterby Wednesday - Open week
C.R.A.F.T - Ribbons & Sparkle

Nice and Simples

OH requested a card for his friends wife who likes dancing. Showed him several of my fairy type stamps but he doesnt think she's really into them (humph!) so had a rummage through my digis and he found this one by Mo Manning. Mo has a very simple sketch this week as her challenge, as with sketches you can dress them up or down, I chose to leave it simple, added some word art around and coloured with promarkers (Cool aqua, duck egg and sky blue are the dominant)

As I was keeping things simple I decided to decorate the inside just to jazz it up a bit, I'm still getting to grips with the sewing machine but getting there, plus there are always strategic flowers you can place ;)

Entering for

Bronte & Bella's Challenge (sketch)

Eeeeek card for a bloke & Fankoo fankoo!

My friend Donna has a great challenge blog dedicated to cards for men which is something I run away from screaming usually! However times do call for me to make a bloke card (can you see me squirming!) Time to face the fears as its my OH's birthday today - Happy Birthday Boo!

Cards for Men want to see GREEN for their challenge which is one of my favourites to work with as I have a few shades to choose from. Flicking through my stash of digi stamps I settled on this one which is super dragon by Dustin Pike. OH likes flying things so made sense. Ummed and ahhhed over which shades of green to use, I didnt want it too kiddyish so steered away from the brighter green family and settled on one of my favourite combos of Lime zest, pear green, marsh green and moss. Used the brighter green on the spikes.

Background DP is a printout from designer extremes volume 3.

Entering this for

Cards for Men - Green

Quixotic - One for the boys

And also a HUGE HUGE FANKOO MUCHLY to Passion for Promarkers who have again awarded me their Top 3 blinkie for my Spring Challenge Card! Thats 3 times now and I'm really chuffed!

Crafty Cardmakers #15 - Tricolor

Hehe I thought I'd throw a nice curve ball in for this challenge designed to get people thinking about colour and understanding the theory behind it, what works and why. Most folk just select what looks good together without thinking about it but come that one time when you're scratching your head as something doesnt look quite right then turn to the colour wheel for help and just a touch of another colour can balance a card beautifully.

The challenge is to select a tricolour combination from either triatic, split complimentary or analogous colour schemes. It sounds complicated but its actually not. Most people will be following them naturally but not realising it. Crafty cardmakers is primarily a learning resource challenge blog aimed at newer cardmakers and bloggers but also welcomes more experienced designers who hopefully like to challenge themselves from time to time :)

You can find us here - Crafty Cardmakers

For this challenge I used the triatic scheme of purple (violet) Orange and green.
The image is a sweet pea stamp called September Rhythm coloured with promarkers. The tail I've also coloured over with a copic spica glitter pen so its all shimmery.
The background I used a blue ink for the water and pushed in a purple adirondack so its all streaky. The seaweed is starburst stains cut into rough strips and swiped with brilliance black. The flower was punched and coloured with promarkers.

See not so hard to stick to a colour scheme! Hope you can join us for the challenge!

Spring challenge card

I decided to have a little change of technique just to see! My skin tones and hair are usually blended very closely but I wanted to try a less blended look with more definition between colours as Ive seen this style around which kinda reminds me of an oil painted technique so here's the result! Might try it a few more times on different images, I think it would work better maybe on cute stamps like magnolia or vintage people, I will have to tinker!

Image is Autumn Fairy (Digi) by The Greetings Farm. DP's are DCWV and not sure what the white one with the tiny flowers is, bought it locally and down to my last sheet.
Again I'm a tad short on yellow stuff in general so the ribbon is my trusty old white satin colored with the canary promarker.
Background I've coloured with adirondack lemonade and distress ink in peeled paint and stamped the flowers from Tracey Coates' butterfly beauties plate in the corner. I think this is my most favouritest corner stamp ever! Sentiment is also from the same plate.

Promarker Recipe:

Skin - Ivory, Almond, Blush, Vanilla, Oatmeal
Hair - Ivory, Vanilla, Sandstone, Cinnamon, Chestnut
Wings - Primrose, Canary, Gold, Copic spica clear
Dress - Meadow, Leaf, Grass, Emerald

I'm entering this into....

I love Promarkers - Sketch & Spring

Passion for Promarkers - Buttons n Bows

A Spoonful of Sugar - Springtime

My Time to Craft - Green & 1 (Green & Yellow)

The Pink Elephant - Ribbon

Stamp Something - Touch of Spring

Corrosive Challenge #52 - Wings

Pile it On - Flowers (DP's are flowery)

Thanks for looking and for any feedback particularly on the skin tone change of style :)

Fancy swapping some tags?

We have a nice little group running over on Facebook for swapping tags. Approx every 6 weeks there will be a new swap with numbers of around 10 per swap. The 1st one is well underway and we're taking sign ups for swap 2 which is ENCHANTING.

Pop on over and check us out here

We are a mixed media group so its a nice way to express art and eceive some fab designs in return :)

I (love) promarkers new challenge

I (love) promarkers is back with a WEEKLY challenge yay! They've started with a sketch and to use pink and brown on your design.

The image I went for was the new Sweet Pea stamp - Black rose fairy. I wanted to see how she looked in softer colours. I coloured with promarkers using several shades of pink from pale pink, rose pink & dusky rose through to antique pink. The browns I used vanilla, cocoa, chestnut and henna. Went over the wings & eyebrows with copic spica clear.

For the background I swiped with the edge of cut n dry foam using adirondack lemonade and pink sherbet then dabbed the edges with brilliance coffee bean. Added some iridescent sticky gems for dimension.

Background papers are courtesy of my stampin up rep Helen (I think 2 are DCWV Once upon a time but she'd know more than me!) and the sentiment is from