Dottie's World - You'd Better Shape Up!

It was my turn to set the challenge over at Dottie's World this week and as I'm a shaped card addict I decided to go with a shaped card theme. The thing I love about making shaped cards is that they look like they took ages but I find them quicker to make than regular shaped cards. I think the reason is that with regular cards I spend ages faffing with the layout, embellishments and papers but with shaped cards the detail is the shape! There isn't much else to think about.

Here's what I came up with .....

I don't mind saying that I think it looks really good And it was so easy!! he inspiration from the double edge around the image came from Juliet's Holly in Spain card, the rest just happened by accident really! Don't you just love it when that happens?

I used acrylic dew drops in the centre of the flowers and the image is Holly in the Garden from the original Holly & Madison digital collection. The Mulberry flowers are available here.

There's a prize up for grabs this week and you could be chosen as guest designer (if you would like to be) so pop on over for a look.

Recycle!

I know I'm a bit late in the year to be making a calender but I've been having a sort out and I came across a freebie calender that my dad was given at work and then passed on to me, this is the calender....
I thought it was crying out to be altered.

Now, are you a fan of recycling? Do you see rubbish and think Oooh I know just what I could do with that! Well, I bought a fantastic Tim Holtz ruler from Charmed Cards and Crafts recently and I kept the packaging because I saw the plastic casing and thought it would make brilliant pockets - I know- I'm mad! LOL
Here's the packaging....

Put it together and what do you get? Bippity-Boppity-Boo!

The idea of the flowers along the top was inspired by a fabulous card that Karen made the other day. The papers are Basic Grey-Boxer and the digi image is Holly at Work from the original Holly & Madison collection.

Have a lovely day,

♥♥♥Louise ♥♥♥

Copics Colour Challenge

Good morning, it's Wednesday again! My blogging once again has become less frequent but I'm going to stop apologising, life just gets in the way sometimes and we just need to prioritise don't we? Well I think we do anyway.

This week we have a colour challenge again, those are my favourite kind.

These are the Copic colours we have to use (or the nearest we have)

R20

E31

RV04

Here's what I came up with...

The scrummy yummy papers are Basic Grey Ambrosia and the swirls were cut on my Silhouette.

I really like the effect of enlarging the digi stamp and just using part of it, this one is Holly in London from the Holly & Madison World Tour set. Apart from the fact that digi images have the versatility of being re sizable they are also instantly accessible (no postie to wait for!) they are never out of stock, printer ink doesn't bleed when you use Copics AND they are cheaper than stamps!

If you'd like to play along with this week's Copics Challenge pop over to the CCC blog for more details.

Thank you for looking and have a lovely day.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Dottie's World Challenge

Hi Mother's day! Have you all been spoiled? I hope you have.

There's a fab challenge over on Dottie's World this week. Adele wants us to use more than one of the Charmed Downloads.

I've used the back and front image of butterfly Dottie, I wasn't sure if that would count so I used it a few times just to make sure!

Here we have Dottie conducting her choir of singing butterflies.This shows you how versatile digital images are, you can make a ready made scene before you've even printed them out!

I have to say, this was a real labour of love but I think it was worth it in the end.

If you'd like to play along or just see what the rest of the DT have come up with pop over to Dottie's World.

Copic Colour Challenge

We have an inspiration challenge for you all this week, here's the inspiration...Hmmm I'm afraid I'm not at all happy with this one - the ribbons were all wrong but I was in a hurry so that's my excuse...
Pop over for a look on the Copics Colour Challenge blog to see the fabulous creations from the rest of the DT and to get more details for this fab challenge.

Sketch Saturday - Madison on Safari

Since doing the sketch challenge card for Sunday I seem to have got the sketch bug! Bring em on!!!

I found this fab little sketch on the Sketch Saturday Blog.....

Now, if you're a regular on my blog you'll know that i like to take inspiration from sketches rather than follow them by the letter. This time I've twisted it and substituted the dark purple rectangle for leafy swirls and the circles for a flower and two lady birds, see if you can see the sketch in there.....

Everything you see on this card is from Charmed Cards and Crafts, from the download image of Madison to the K&Co Wild Saffron papers to the little wooden ladybirds.I'm attempting to use up a lot of my scraps of paper, it's going to take some time but I have to start somewhere right?

Have a lovely day.

Louise ♥♥♥

Dottie's World - Sketch

It's that time again! How come the older you get the quicker time goes by? And how come the weekends go faster than weekdays? And how come, the older we get the more we grumble...........Eek!.......ROFL.

Grumble over, look at the fab sketch Karen has come up with this week for the Dottie's World Challenge....

Here's what I came up with....

I have to say it nearly went in the bin a couple of times and it still might but I guess we all have days like that. Here's the arty shot....

Those shells are all the way from the beaches of Australia. I knew I'd kept them for a reason.

Have a lovely Sunday

Louise xx

More Blog Candy!

Cor there is a lot of candy on offer right now, the world seems to be full of generous people. It's a good job it isn't edible candy though, I've just had two fillings and a wisdom tooth removed so as I type I have a numb mouth and the thought of food is a no no!

Luckily it's candy of the crafting kind, take a look

This beautiful stash is being kindly given by Barb at Made For Keeps. Pop over for a look.

Check Out This Candy!

I've just been to Susie Sugar's blog and look at what she has up for grabs!
Phwarrr!!!! To be in with a chance of winning it just pop over to Susie's blog.

Copics Colour Challenge

OK so this week at the Copics Colour Challenge blog we have another colour list (I love these!)

Here are the Copic colours we need to use - or the best match we have...

BG13 - Mint Green
Y08- Acid Yellow
V06- Lavender

I've been playing with my newly finished download collection this week so here we have Madison in Venice visiting a Venetian masked ball.....

My inspiration for this card came from the mask that Madison is holding so I decided to go with that as the theme. All the feathering detail is done with my Copics too, it just goes to show that you can use them for more than just colouring images. The closest colour match I could get was..

BG23 V04/09 Y08

If you're liking the sound of these challenges but don't have any Copics, don't despair because Karen of Charmed Cards and Crafts has teamed up with Graphics Direct and is giving away the most amazing blog candy,wait for it........72 Copic Ciao markers!!!!!

Check out Karen's blog to find out how you could be the lucky winner!

Papertake Weekly

Good Morning,
They've got a great sketch over on the Papertake Weekly blog, it's nice and simple and that's what I like because it means I can finish it off with my own little bits and bobs. Here's the sketch...

Typically I just HAD to twist it around......

I've been having fun with the brand new Holly and Madison World Tour download collection which only went online on Sunday. I got a bit carried away with the old inking here but at least I've managed to capture the foggy, dusty atmosphere of the streets of London on a grey day. Here's a close up of the hat pin arrangement which you can't see very well on the first picture..Basic Grey Boxer Papers and Holly in England download image from Charmed Cards and Crafts.

Cute Card Thursday- Food and Drink

Good morning everybody! I'm back! I wasn't around much last week because I was busy with the new download collection and a magazine commission but that's all finished now so I have given myself a little bit of me time before I start on my next job.

I had a look through the challenge blogs and saw this one over on Cute Card Thursday......."FOOD & DRINK"Create a card with an item of food or drink on it somewhere - as simple as that!

Well, having just finished the Holly & Madison Word Tour download set I had the perfect image waiting to be used. Here we have Holly in Germany, they know how to do beer over there I can tell you!


The image is actually mounted onto a tag case that I made, here's the tag...

The papers are BG Boxer, I bought them ages ago with these fabulous matching brads...Until now nothing had inspired me to use the papers, but I think they must have been waiting for me to come up with this image don't you think?

At the time of writing this post it's Sunday evening but I have a feeling that by the time you are reading this the new set of H&M downloads might be on site here.

Thanks for looking, and have a lovely day.xxxxx

Dottie's World Challenge

First of all let me apologise for being such a bad blogger this week, I've had so many lovely comments and emails but haven't yet had time to reply to them all. However, I do have a very good reason, I've been finishing the new Holly and Madison collection and a particularly awkward magazine commission. So, am I forgiven? well, I'll show you an image from the new collection and that might help you decide......

This is Holly in Spain from the very soon to be released Holly & Madison's World Tour, what do you think?

Back to the challenge, Nicola wants us to use fabric of some kind on our cards, I know mine isn't a main feature but it is there, I used two strips of frilly velvety ribbon behind the image and the flocked Doodlebug paper that I've used enhances the velvety appearance.

If you would like to play along or if you would just like to drool over what the rest of the design team have produced just pop over to Dottie's World.

Copics Colour Challenge #3 - Sketch

Well this is my first challenge as designer for the CCC Blog and I nearly forgot to Blog it! Not a good start eh? This may be quick because I have to rush out to work LOL.

Anyhow, this week we have a fabulous sketch to play with

Isn't it great to see how people interpret sketches differently. I normally twist them but this time I decided the twist would come in the form of the way I interpreted those three boxes, see if you can spot it....Yep it's the good old fringed ribbon. All products on this card are from the WRMK Nonsense range.

The image is one of the Holly and Madison downloads and I've coloured her in the following Copic colours.....

E00, E02, E37, R59, RV29, BG15, 09, B39

I wanted the brads to match the image so I coloured those too!

Thank you for inviting me to join the team ladies, I'm enjoying it already. xxx

A Charmed Life!

My regular readers will already know but I am lucky enough to be on the design team for (in my opinion) the very best craft store on the net, Charmed Cards and Crafts with the very best Craft store owner in the world - Karen.

I haven't been able to do much for her in a while because I've been too busy with other things, I still am really but when she gave me the chance to do some projects with my favourite range ever how could I refuse?

Take a look at what arrived in the post and try not to drool over your keyboards!.....

It's the Amy Butler - Lotus- Faded China Collection!

This Photograph isn't even all of it!! There are loads more papers, here are some snippets...

The next three are my faves, they're all embossed and glittery, I love a bit of glitter I do!

I can't wait until I've finished my to do list and get chance to play with thiese beautiful products.

Here are just a few of the embellishments! Phwarrrr!!!!!

I think one of the things I love most about this range - apart from the fabulous colour scheme and gorgeous patterns is the sheer quality of it all, it's all just so lush and strokable!

Thank you Karen for all these beautiful things, it's like Christmas in my house.