Happy Hallowe'en

I generally don't make Hallowe'en cards, but just before we moved house, this super cute set came out from Sugar Pea Designs and I couldn't resist. I've made 5 cards with it, but I'm showing you these three.

I Copic coloured all the images and fussy cut them out. I just had to have this set when I saw that cheery looking Dracula - I mean, he's not that cheery in the films unless he's just eaten. What a guy!

The backgrounds for Frankenstein and the Mummy are made with a new stamp set (I'll have a haul and craft room tour in one coming up on my YouTube channel soon!) from Uniko. I have ordered from them before, but I met them at the last stamp show I went to in Doncaster a couple of weeks ago and they are so lovely and had some new things I couldn't resist. With Frank I used some LilyPad Ranger ink and I heat embossed Mummy with WOW! White Bright EP.

With Count (remember Count Duckula? I loved that show!) I masked off a rectangle on the front of a red card base and splattered on white gouache, red and clear sparkle pen. I adhered all of them with foam tape and just added a simple sentiment at the bottom.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit me today. Hope you have a very Spooky Hallowe'en and happy crafting!

*** Apologies for those of you who subscribe and saw I'd linked this up to a challenge. I hadn't realised it had closed on Sunday, so I've reedited it and am sharing the cards anyway! So out of the loop!!***

European Copic Colouring Programme Class 3

What do Copics and moving house have in common? They have a great deal for me. Back in February I took the first two classes in the European Copic Colouring Programme with Faye Wynn-Jones. You can read all about it in my post for Copic classes One and Two. The following day, I decided to broach the subject of moving house with my husband. Fast forward 8 months and the week after we moved house, my friend Dawn and I travelled to a venue outside Leeds for Copic 3! Thankfully for my husband, nothing dramatic has happened.... so far...

Dawn is wonderfully kind and takes me in her car. I truly HATE driving round the outskirts of Leeds and Bradford. Junction and roundabout Hell.

Having found the venue and after a quick catch up with our old colouring buddies and a quick whizz round the Dies to Die For Pop Up shop. That was a welcome addition - new goodies.

Copic 3 is all about folds and pleats and practicing feathering and blending quite different colour combinations. 

Since getting hooked on Stamping Bella, this has been the most useful one by far. I was prepared to feel horribly overwhelmed as I had convinced myself that folds are really hard, but, like everything, it just takes practice. Do not be put off! In three hours I had begun to understand the basics and am itching to get my SB stamps out and do some more dedicated folds and pleats.

It makes such a difference to me to have someone there to encourage and also put me back on track. Faye is a superb teacher and I find I learn a lot and it makes me want to practice more. She is wonderfully encouraging and has given me some tips on colour combinations for the future. 

Next April Faye returns to do Copic 4 and I will be there with bells on. It's in my planner so no one, but no one, can stop me. Quite possibly my husband will then breathe a sigh of relief that they are all over...

If you've any questions, please drop me a comment. I am a zealot for this course and think it's worth every penny I've spent on it and the markers!

As always, happy crafting!

Flower Challenge #13 - Reminder - Use Your Favourite Flower

Hi Everyone! We are half way through this challenge, where we would love you to use your favourite flower. I've been loving seeing all your cards so far. 

Don't forget that this is part of a fabulous prize giveaway, with some amazing prizes from some fabulous companies, so read the instructions and join in! 

I used my favourite stamp again from Clearly Besotted, and this time I coloured it with my Polychromos pencils, which was nice as they don't often get an outing.

I then took a piece of white card stock and drew outlines of these arrows from a stencil in different coloured pencils and coloured a few.

I took a white A2 card blank and distressed the edges with some wilted violet and cut the stencilled panel down so there was a small border. I popped the die cut iris out using the matching die and atached it with foam tape on top. A simple sentiment from the Clearly Besoted Many Mini Messages set and a few sequins is all that was needed to finish it off. 
 

Hope you will feel inspired to join us. There are some amazing prizes up for grabs and I would hate for you to miss out!

Thanks for popping by and Happy Crafting :)

The Colo[u]ring Challenge Road Trip - Edinburgh and craft room news

Back in August, after some deliberation I booked a rail ticket and some cheap accommodation in Edinburgh for the first ever Coloring Challenge Road Trip with Kathy Racoosin and Debby Hughes. I decided it was too good an opportunity to miss out on seeing some superb colourists and crafters so close to home.

The day itself was beautiful and we sat in a room upstairs in the Botanic Gardens colouring in chatting. 7 of us plus Kathy, her sister and Debby, it was a small affair, but I liked the intimate atmosphere.

We all got given a little zip up bag full of goodies, including a Lawn Fawn Stamp Shammy and a cute little clipboard and some images to colour.

Kathy and Debby are inspirational people and really really lovely. They even agreed to pose for some crazy photos with me (and Morag too)

 I even got to use Kathy's favourite pencils....

 and the famous rag....

A lot of time and effort went into this event, I could tell, and I appreciate all that both did for us.

If you are thinking about it, I can tell you it was definitely very very very worth it! Meeting Kathy and Debby in person, as well as the other ladies who had travelled to it (one from Minnesota!!!!!), was wonderful. I'm the kind of person who needs a kick every now and again with my crafting and colouring and I find these kinds of events help. I get the chance to get away from the house and small people to spend time to myself - it's the headspace I need to give me a boost. Doing it with some amazing crafters was the icing on the cake.

I had to leave early just after Debby's demonstration of watercolouring a galaxy background (I want Daniel Smith now!), so unfortunately I didn't get in the final photo, but I didn't mind. I got to Waverley station to find my train was late but this lovely Black 5 came in on platform 20, so that was the perfect end to my day.

And in other news, my craft room currently looks like this....

I can get to my desk and know where a lot of my stash is! I hope to actually get making again within the next week, with luck. I need to start getting on with Christmas cards.

I've also received some more wonderful happy mail this week from Tina and Niki
B. Thank you ladies. It's so lovely to be reminded of why we make cards - they have made me smile!

 
That's all for me for now. Thank you so much for reading. Happy Crafting everyone!! xx

Flower Challenge #13 - Use Your Favourite Flower - VIDEO

Hi Everyone! Welcome to the Flower Challenge #13 - this is our One Year Anniversary. Can you believe it? A year! And so we have a fantastic challenge this month where you can win some amazing PRIZES - yep PRIZES, and you will want to go to the blog and read what they are - I would want to win these! 
 

 
Before I go any further...

*** PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY!***

I really don't want you to miss out!

 So, my favourite stamp is one from Clearly Besotted that is sadly discontinued. It's called Just Darling and it is my favourite flower in real life too - an Iris.

 

I've had this idea in my head for ages using the ink swiping technique that I was introduced to by Tracey. I didn't of course have the die, and I could no longer buy it, but having lovely crafty friends I managed to borrow it - thank you Lisa!

 

I have a video to go along with this process, so I won't go into much detail here, but it's a fairly simple technique of swiping inks onto a piece of paper. I have lots of little cubes of ink and these were the perfect size for this. Also I hope you'll forgive the messy enamel dots in the top left hand corner - it was all going too well with those until the inevitable splodge!

Thank you all for stopping by today, I hope this gives you some inspiration to enter and don't forget to follow the instructions or you won't be eligible for the prizes.

You have until 25th to enter and I'll be back on 15th with some more inspiration. Happy crafting!