Happy Birthday Lisa!

Today I'm posting a card to wish Lovely Lisa from My Card Trip a very very very Happy Birthday indeed!

Lisa is celebrating a big birthday... you can kinda tell that from the card..... 

Lisa has been such a lovely crafty friend over the past year or so. She's listened to me be sad and happy, been understanding when I've tried to give up buying crafty supplies and failed (and also sighed, quite rightly so!), and just generally been great.

I wanted to make a card with a flower image because that's what she's amazing at, and add in a bit of me too - the sewing!

I heat embossed this Clearly Besotted flower that Laurie very kindly sent me (now retired) - one of several she no longer wanted to use - in white embossing powder onto water colour card and then set about colouring it in with my Gansai Tambi paints. I added some blue shading for depth and also some of the Starry Water Colours for some light bling.

Once it was dry, I die cut the edge of the panel into an offset V shape with my Reverse Confetti edge dies. I then sewed some grey embroidery thread (you Americans call it floss, which to me is something you clean in between your teeth with!) in the holes. I popped it up with foam tape onto a pink A2 (US sized) card base and added the little '50' which I found in my stash. I covered it in Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen and lots of glossy accents - I'm hoping she will forgive the little splodge!

Here is a list of the supplies used on this card. I have signed up to affiliate links on some products (currently only Simon Says Stamp). If you purchase any item after clicking on an affiliate link, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps in a small way to support the running of my blog and is very much appreciated, thank you! 

Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens - Clear	Ranger Glossy Accents	Versamark Watermark Ink	WOW! Bright White Embossing Powder	Docrafts Papermania Pink Heat Tool	Reverse Confetti - Edge Essentials Confetti Cuts	Kuretake Gansai Tambi 24 pan set	Gansai Tambi Starry Watercolours
Hahnemuhle Watercolour Paper 300gsm 25 x 32.5cm 40 Sheets	MFT Die-namics LLD Little Numbers	Simon Says Stamp Card Stock 100# SET OF 26 COLORS 26Cdsk	Martha Stewart Mini Scoreboard	Tonic Studios Maxi Guillotine

InLinkz.com

So, Happy Happy Birthday Lisa, here's to more chats, more crafting and an altogether fabulous year! Thanks for stopping by :)

European Copic Colouring Programme with Faye Wynn-Jones

Today, after many months of build up, my friend Dawn and I travelled to a Holiday Inn outside Leeds to take Classes One and Two of the European Copic Colouring Programme with Faye Wynn-Jones. If you don't already know Faye and her work with Dies to Die For, please look her up, because you will be astounded by her work. 

Faye came up to Leeds after I asked her if she ever came North and she said if she got enough interest, she would look at running a class. I found a couple of people and it rather grew from there. Something to bear in mind if you are quite far from some of the classes.

So, what did I think? I loved it, absolutely loved it. I was hyper excited about taking it - possibly because I also got a day off from looking after my two little ones! - and sometimes I can get a bit disappointed with things I've got overly excited about (yes I am 40, but everyone gets to act like a 10 year old sometimes!). I was not disappointed at all. It was everything I hoped and more.

Not only do you get access to a European Copic Colouring Master who instructs, encourages and even says 'I like it', which is a massive boost to your confidence :), but you also get six hours of Copic colouring and sit with a group of people who also love colouring and card making. We had a really nice group and shared storied and laughs. Oh, and I also forgot a couple of markers but Faye had spares - obviously she's met people like me before ;)

We covered the Copic markers themselves and cleaning them (something I need to do more!), focussed on smooth blending, hair, skin and backgrounds. The time just flew by!

There is a lot of information on Faye's blog about what is involved in the classes, and the six hours flies by and certainly gave me a bit of a boost to my colouring.

I have a whole booklet, some goodies and a reinvigorated sense of colouring and creating, and a desire now to do Classes 3 and 4 later in the year when I've had a chance to do some more practice. With the 30 Day Colouring Challenge coming up on March 1st, I'll be practising with Copics a lot. 

And best of all, I get a certificate all signed to say I've done it. Makes me feel like I've accomplished something! 

Thanks for indulging me in my excitement about this class and if there's anything else you'd like to know, please drop me a line. Thanks for popping by today!

Flower Challenge #5 - Reminder

Hello there! It's not often I get to make a reminder card for this challenge, in fact getting any time to make cards at the moment is hard going with planning various refits and refurbs and room moves in the house, to catching up with friends I haven't seen in ages, and the kiddies demanding quite a lot of attention (being kiddies, that's what they do and it's a joy most of the time).

BUT! Let us not be downhearted, let us carry on as best we can, making the most of the little scraps of time I have, which brings me back to my card.... As you remember from my challenge post, we are CASEing Therese's gorgeous card:

And here is my CASE on it....

Looks familiar? Yes indeedy, for it is what Darnell would call a Two-Fer and I made a card with the left overs from my die cutting of the previous card.

 

I simply cut down the panel to cover a slightly smaller than A2 (US size) card base and stamped the sentiment from CB Brushed Greetings in VersaFine Onyx Black. I then popped it up on lots of foam tape onto a white card base and then added some enamel accents into the middle of the flowers, along with some of the same sequins I used before. Quick and simple works for me right now!

Here is a list of the supplies used on this card. I have signed up to affiliate links on some products (currently only Simon Says Stamp). If you purchase any item after clicking on an affiliate link, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps in a small way to support the running of my blog and is very much appreciated, thank you!

Arches Not Sheet 185gsm 56 x 76cm Multipack

Spectrum Aqua Markers - Floral

Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens - Shades of Spring

Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens - Clear

Clearly Besotted Many Mini Messages

Versa Fine Onyx Black

InLinkz.com

I hope this gives you some more ideas! Don't forget you have until 25th to enter over at the Flower Challenge blog. Thank you so muich for visiting me today :)

Flower Challenge #5

Hello there! Are you ready for another Flower Challenge? I really enjoyed seeing all your cards for the blue and yellow challenge last month, and this month the challenge is to CASE this beautiful card by Therese from Lost in Paper.

 

Now, between you and me, I always struggle with CASEing other people's cards.When cards are so beautiful, copying it, but not exactly, and making it your own is hard going, but I hope that my effort will give you some idea of what you might try.

I started out by giving a piece of water colour card a background wash in pink with my Spectrum Aqua markers. I then added some splatters with some concentrated water colours and Spectrum Sparkle. This is the pink element from Therese's card.

Once dry, I die cut the daisy scroll from one side of the piece. I'm really sorry, but this die appears to be discontinued. I took inspiration from Therese's beautiful die cut flower. I then attached it to a white A2 card base with some little foam pads. 

I added some pearls to the centre of the flowers and some sequins from Lucy's cards for a bit of bling - this one has been discontinued - because Therese had added some drops to hers. The sentiment is from my Many Mini Messages set and is in the vein of Therese's.
 

Here is a list of the supplies used on this card. I have signed up to affiliate links on some products (currently only Simon Says Stamp). If you purchase any item after clicking on an affiliate link, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps in a small way to support the running of my blog and is very much appreciated, thank you! 

Arches Not Sheet 185gsm 56 x 76cm Multipack

Spectrum Aqua Markers - Floral

Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens - Shades of Spring

Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens - Clear

Clearly Besotted Many Mini Messages

Versa Fine Onyx Black

InLinkz.com

 
I hope you will take the opportunity to play along this month. You have until 25th and all the details of the challenge can be found on the Flower Challenge Blog. Happy playing and thank you for visiting today!