Monday, 15 August 2022

Candy Canes


Over at The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up it is the midway point of our challenge. That means it is the turn of the Merry Maidens to share some more fabulous Christmas cards.


The challenge theme is any Any Christmas Card or other December holiday with an optional twist of Candy Canes. The lucky winner's prize is any 2 Winter or Christmas paper packs from Decosse's Dynamite Doodles

If you link up 2 or more cards to our challenge you will get the free Candy Cane Duo digital paper sent to you that our intrepid leader Lisa of Decosse's Dynamite Doodles has designed. 




My card is as sweet as can be with so many candy canes. I have used this old freebie sentiment from Platypus Creek Digitals many times and thought it would be quite fun to try and make a heart shape from 2 Candy Canes. I had a play in my digital program and made a motif from the Candy Cane from Festive Fare Sweet Treats by Kate Hadfield Designs. 


So that being my starting point I used the candy cane paper from the Holiday Hoopla Patterned Papers set 2 by Decosse's Dynamite Doodles as my background paper. This was then matted onto red card to frame it against the white card blank.


I followed a sketch for the layout from Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers. 


I added a striped paper from a magazine freebie again matting on red card as it made it stand out better. The candy canes have been coloured with a Promarker and then fussy cut. The crossover striped section did not look right underneath so I found a scrap of pink and white heart card which I think is a happy accident as it follows through with the love/heart theme. This heart was then raised up with thin foam pads.


 Finally the sentiment was matted onto red card and also mounted with foam pads.

I do hope you will take part in our challenge and look forward to seeing your creations.

Card Details -


Size - A5

Digital Image - Fest Fare Sweet Treats Stamps (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Digital Paper - Holiday Hoopla Patterned Papers 2 (Decosse’s Dynamite Doodles)

Striped Paper - Magazine Freebie

Digital Sentiment - Old Freebie (Platypus Creek Digitals) RETIRED

Colouring Medium - Promarkers


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)















 

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Ride Em Cowboy Prickly Cactus

 


One of the very first set of images that Kate Hadfield designed was Ride 'Em Cowboy. Kate has revamped them and brought them back and they have been re-launched today available in pre-coloured Doodles, outline digital stamps and a specially priced bundle of both sets together.


As a special Back to School treat there is a 25% discount from 12th to 15th August so the perfect opportunity to grab any that have been on your wish list...


I loved the cacti images and thought it would a great card for a tongue in cheek 'I'm Sorry' card. My hubby and I are going through a difficult patch with hubby being over-sensitive and for the last few months we just seem to know which buttons to press to annoy one another so the prickly sentiment seemed quite appropriate......

I used the 2 images from the Ride 'Em Cowboy Stamps set and placed them together using a digital program. The stamps in each set come as a bold outline and digital stamps which are both White filled making them perfect to place over one another and then line a line art version which is transparent. They give you so many options of how you can use them in your creative projects. You can also get this set as pre-coloured Doodles which are perfect for digital scrapbook pages and printing out in colour.


The cacti have been coloured primarily with Promarkers and shading added with Arteza Expert pencils. I like the texture that the pencils give especially with flowers and foliage. The waxy texture is perfect for adding a bit of shine to the prickles on the large cactus too.

I chose some green marbled paper for the background and matted the image and sentiment with some textured green cardstock. Hubby said it made him laugh when he read the sentiment which is just s few words I put together to go with the image.

Over at Kate Hadfield Designs there is lots going on. Kate is really generous with her freebies which are readily available. If you sign up to the newsletter you get access to an extra subscriber area the Doodle Den where there are loads more freebies. There is a gallery full of projects by the Creative Team and customers and so much inspiration for crafters and teachers. I would highly recommend you pop over there and join in the fun.



Card Details -


Size - 6” Square

Digital Image - Ride Em Cowboy Stamps (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Colouring Medium - Promarkers & Arteza Expert Pencils



I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)


Allsorts - #688/689 Anything Goes

CD Sunday Plus - #91 - Anything Goes with a Digital Item

Colour Crazy Challenge - #31 Anything Goes with Colouring

Creative Fingers - #236 Anything Goes

Digi Choosday - #32 Anything Goes

Gem of A Challenge - #17 Anything Goes

International Art & Soul - #140 The Colours of Fruit

I Love Promarkers - #515 Anything Goes

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - #187 Anything Goes

Paper Shelter - #527 Anything Goes

Penny’s Challenge - #527 Anything Goes

Polkadoodles - #32 Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday - #555-556 Anything Goes

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Friday, 12 August 2022

Ride 'Em Cowboy Digital Page

 


One of the very first set of images that Kate Hadfield designed was Ride 'Em Cowboy. Kate has revamped them and brought them back and they have been re-launched today available in pre-coloured Doodles, outline digital stamps and a specially priced bundle of both sets together.


As a special Back to School treat there is a 25% discount from 12th to 15th August so the perfect opportunity to grab any that have been on your wish list...


As soon as I saw the lovely horse in this set I thought it would be perfect to create a scrapbook page with a photo I took of a beautiful horse whilst on holiday in Anglesey a few months ago.


As I am a novice scrapbooker I am not confident with creating layouts so the free digital templates on Kate Hadfield's Blog are an absolute boon for me. I used the Scrap Like Kristina page and rotated it to suit the orientation of my photo.



I chose the blue and green paper from Painted Pretties for my background with a plain brown for the base. This kit is so versatile for backgrounds, a bit like a base canvas.


I placed all my elements using the template as my guide. The grass is from Signs of Spring, I cropped this, created a second copy and flipped one to make it symmetrical for the horsey to feed from. 




Creating this page was a great way to celebrate something I am really proud of. I love animals and have had a terrible fear of horses for over 40 years. Feeding this horse and not being scared was a huge achievement for me and as such deserved to be scrapped about.

Over at Kate Hadfield Designs there is lots going on. Kate is really generous with her freebies which are readily available. If you sign up to the newsletter you get access to an extra subscriber area the Doodle Den where there are loads more freebies. There is a gallery full of projects by the Creative Team and customers and so much inspiration for crafters and teachers. I would highly recommend you pop over there and join in the fun.


Digital Page Details -


Size - 12” x 12”

Digital Images - Ride ‘Em Cowboy Doodles & Signs of Spring Doodles (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Digital Paper - Painted Pretties (Kate Hadfield Designs)


I would like to enter this project into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)


Allsorts - #688/689 Anything Goes

Critter Crazy Challenges - #65 Anything Goes With a Critter

Digi Choosday - #32 Anything Goes

Polkadoodles - #32 Anything Goes

QKR Stampede - #449 Anything Goes

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Monday, 8 August 2022

4600 Gifts for the Commonwealth Games

 


I live in a suburb of Birmingham and today is the last day and closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games that have been hosted by our city. It is fair to say it has been a divisive event with many people being unhappy it was held here for many reasons. However I have seen it as a positive event and a boost for our city both economic and hopefully people will have a different perspective about our city.

I had the opportunity to take part in a craft event 4600 Gifts. Basically members of the public living in and around Birmingham attended craft sessions and the purpose was to make a gift that would be given to each competitor in the Commonwealth Games. It seemed as a crafty person too good an event to miss out on so I booked my place and headed off to a shopping centre in Birmingham City centre.


The basic premise was to use one big washer and then join it to a smaller washer. There were strips of fabric and coloured wool, all in the colours of the commonwealth flags. All supplies had been donated by local companies and chosen by the designers for the project. You could choose whichever you wanted and all instructions were given with people on hand to show you if needed so crafters of any abilities could take part.

As you may see on my blog I like bright bold colours and the fabric strip for the larger washer instantly spoke to me. You fed it around the washer looping it tightly and then I sewed the loose flap to make it really secure.

I would have loved to use a bright green wool for the top section but there was none available to me so I opted for the blue instead. Finally you join both sections together to complete the gift by looping the wool through both sections. 

We then had a tag to fill in to be given with our gift where you could put a few words for your intended recipient. They were then boxing them up and adding a key ring so the competitor could use it on their bag etc.



It was a great opportunity to meet new people and a couple of the designers who were blown away by the response. It was great to be a part of a once in a lifetime event for our city. It is surreal to think that something I have made has been given to one of the athletes that have taken part. I did add my blog details so if the lucky person ever visits the may even see this post.

We live very close to Alexander Stadium and the Red Arrows flew over our house on the way to the opening ceremony. We love going to air shows and that was a huge highlight for us. Seeing them going over our back garden and then just seconds later seeing it on the BBC coverage flying over the stadium was just epic.


This photo was taken by neighbour over the road. You can see my green car in the driveway of our house. It was tremendously exciting ☺


I would like to enter this project into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)


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Sunday, 7 August 2022

RAF Cosford Airshow Digital Page

 



Over at Kate Hadfield Designs blog every month there is a digital scrapbook page template you can download completely free. I am very new to this but these templates make it so easy to create and I am having so much fun with them.



This month the template is Bannerific and it comes in different formats depending on which program you use to put them together.



I have recently been to the RAF Cosford Air Show. It has been cancelled for the last couple of years due to stupid Covid so really excited we could go this year.  As soon as I saw the 3 circles on the template it inspired me to have a play. I knew I wanted to include the RAF roundel and my favourite planes.

The background is a photo of the Red Arrows. Normally there are 9 planes that fly in various formations and create the most amazing acrobatic display. This year there are only 7 so they have adapted many of their formations. As soon as you see the colours of the planes it makes me feel so very patriotic and super proud to be British so I wanted to used the same colours throughout my page.


The papers in the Red, White 'N Blue kit were the obvious choice so I used those to create the various layers. The 3 circles have my favourite planes. My first love as a child was the Spitfire. I used to build the little Airfix kits, paint the detail on them with the tiny little tins of Humbrol paint and then hand from my bedroom ceiling with invisible cotton. 

The super fast plane is the Eurofighter Typhoon. This is the most amazing fighter jet, it is so fast and REALLY loud. When you go to an air show the acrobatics it can do, knowing it is such a big heavy plane, well it just takes your breath away. When the jets are burning as in this picture the noise is just epic. I get very squeaky and excited. 

It was such a fantastic sight to see the Spitfire and Typhoon flying together. I got quite emotional when you consider it is the perfect marriage of past & present. The Typhoon is having to fly so slow in comparison to the Spitfire and in some of the formations the perfect synchronicity was amazing.



For 2021/2022 they have given the Typhoon used for air shows a patriotic paint job so instead of being black it has a Union Jack theme to it. It really looks amazing seeing it flying so of course I had to include this into my page. I used the Great British Alpha for the numbers and the RAF banner (shame it isn't in capital letters though 😦)



We live in a suburb of Birmingham where the Commonwealth Games are currently being held. The Red Arrows flew over Alexander Stadium for the opening ceremony and as we are very close on the way they flew over our house. My neighbour over the road took this photo, you can see my house with the green car in the drive. We saw it from our back window going over the garden and then just after they put the colours on..... it was just EPIC. Then saw it on the TV a couple of minutes later flying over the stadium! Just a totally amazing moment we are so lucky to have seen.

We are going to Blackpool on 13th and 14th as there is an airshow that flies out at se along the promenade. I am working on Saturday until lunchtime so we will head up about 1pm, 2.5 - 3 hours drive so will get there quite late in the program but the red arrows are on at 5pm so we will see them. Stopping overnight so we get to see the full show on Sunday. Really looking forward to it as it is an amazing place to see them, thousands of people go and it is free! Weather is supposed to be very hot an sunny so plenty of suncream required and a hat.



If you fancy having a go with this template you can find it at the link. I am finding making digital pages a great way of saving memories and doing something creative with them instead of them just languishing in folders on the computer....

At Kate Hadfield Designs there are so many fabulous sets it is really easy to get inspired to use them. There are digital stamps which you can colour, coloured versions you can scrapbook or make into digital layouts. Papers, patterned overlays and doodles galore. No matter what your skill level there are so many goodies to play with.


Kate is really generous with her freebies which are readily available. If you sign up to the newsletter you get access to an extra subscriber area the Doodle Den where there are loads more freebies. There is a gallery full of projects by the Creative Team and customers and so much inspiration for crafters and teachers. I would highly recommend you pop over there and join in the fun.


Digital Scrapbook Page Details -


Template - Bannerific Freebie (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Digital Papers - Red, White N Blue (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Digital Alphabet - Great British Alpha (Kate Hadfield Designs)



I would like to enter this project into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)


at 8 comments:
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Wednesday, 3 August 2022

Hattori Guest DT

 


I was very lucky to be the random winner of challenge 51 at LeAnns World 101 Challenge



My prize was 2 images from the store and the opportunity to be a Guest Designer on the new challenge which starts today



I chose to work with Hattori which is a really cool image that I thought would be perfect for a birthday card for one of my twin great nieces. They will be 9 years old towards the end of this month and they have such different personalities. Liara is definitely a tomboy and this will appeal to her.

I wanted to make it quite a bold card so decided to stick to a monotone theme using mostly n
black and different shaded and tones of grey. I started by putting my papers together. The wonky striped background is from a VERY old Papermania pad. The central strip is an offcut from a Ki Memories 12" x 12" sheet of paper I bought years ago. I still have a bit left :)

Having selected the papers I used many of the colours from my vast collection of greys in the Promarkers range. Not quite 50 shades of grey but not far off to be honest.....

I used markers for the background and then pencils for the character. I experimented with the hair, she is a cool character and she obviously would not have a boring hairdo, she needed something a bit edgier.

The digital image is a tag shape so I matted this onto some silver card and then added onto black. The central strip was also layered with black as was the sentiment which was simply created in my computer. 

This is a very different image for me to work with and I am super pleased with how the card came out.

Please pop on over to the challenge at LeAnns World 101 Challenge and you could also a lucky winner like me.

Card Details -


Size - 6” Square

Digital Image - Hattori (LeAnn’s World 101)

Colouring Medium - Promarkers & Arteza Expert Pencils

Designer Papers - Black & White Mini Bangles (Ki Memories), Black & White Inspirations (Papermania)



I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)



613 Avenue Create - #202207 Anything Goes / Black & White

Cardz 4 Galz - #178 Black & White plus 1 other colour

CD Sunday Plus - #90 - Anything Goes with a Digital Item

Colour Crazy Challenge - #29 Anything Goes with Colouring

Creative Fingers - #236 Anything Goes

Digi Choosday - #31 Anything Goes

Gem of A Challenge - #16 Anything Goes

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - #186 Anything Goes

Penny’s Challenge - #527 Anything Goes

Polkadoodles - #30 Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday - Happy Birthday

Stamps & Fun = Creativity - #415 Monochrome

Star Stampz Challenge Blog #36 - Anything Goes

Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

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K.I.S.S.I.N.G. in a tree for my Anniversary

 


It's time for another challenge over at The Paper Funday.
Our challenges are alway Anything Goes with an optional twist.
The twist this time is 'Friendship'


We are very fortunate to have 2 sponsors for each challenge this year which means we get to choose which artist we would like to work with. This is really great as it gives us double the choice. We are very lucky with the amazing sponsors that are lined up this year, many of which are old favourites and some that are new to me.

We are sponsored this month by Star Stampz and Fred She Said both of which I have created with before.


For this challenge I chose to work with this sweet image K-I-S-S-I-N-G. as I thought it would be lovely for an anniversary card for my hubby. We have been together for 33 years and although we didn't get married until nearly 13 years later we still celebrate the anniversary of us becoming a couple. Unfortunately things have been a little strained between us recently as my hubby is going through a difficult patch but we will work through it and I am sure it is only a temporary blip. Ultimately he is my best friend which also fits in with the challenge theme.

I coloured this image with Promarkers and a very fine brown liner pen to add bark detail onto the tree. As I am a sorry so and so I have lots of heart papers and shapes so pulled together my paper and ribbon and used black cardstock to add layers underneath the image. 

The sentiment is an old blog freebie from Sentiments 4 You which has unfortunately retired. I added some colour to the hearts and used a circle die to cut a black mat. This has then been added to the card with foam pads for dimension.

As a final touch I dragged out some peel off stickers (remember those?) which have a red heart outline and gold in the centre.

I hope you will join myself and our fabulous Team over at
The Paper Funday Challenge.

Card Details -


Size - 6”x6”

Digital Image - K-I-S-S-I-N-G (Star Stampz)

Digital Sentiment - Retired Freebie (Sentiments 4 You)

Dies - Framelits Circles (Sizzix)

Colouring Medium - Promarkers

Designer Paper - J’adore 8x8 (First Edition)

Embellishments - Ribbon, peel off stickers



I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

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