Framed tangerine lake

I made this today with a couple of challenges in mind.
So Artful has a wonderful frame for you to use, and June's new Ning group, Show and Share Art, has a challenge called "Tangerine Lake"
I took a vintage postcard, recoloured it, recoloured the frame and added a flower and a butterfly, both from DezinaWorld.
Thanks for looking!

Digital Art Quirks

One of the current challenges at Digital Art Quirks is to be inspired by this piece, painted by Jake Baddeley. Here's what I came up with:

Off the wall!

Off the Wall Craftiness - make a piece inspired by this photo:


There's a new challenge blog in town, and when I saw the inspiration photo, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. It's a digital postcard, the fairy and the flowers came from DezinaWorld and I did the frame and bg myself. And don't forget, any time you make anything with a DezinaWorld image, you can enter it into the ongoing Spot Prize challenge.
Thanks for stopping by.

Eggstraordinary!

There's an egg huny going on at OSAAT this week, visit the blogs, find the eggs and you're on your way to winning some great prizes!
We're looking forward to Easter and all that chocolatey goodness this week, so of course the theme for the challenge is Easter. But wait, there's more! (I stole the Voice-Over man from Lyn's blog for this bit and he just had to go into his "special TV offer" voice :P)
If you follow the bunny at the bottom of this post, he'll lead you to all the blogs in our hop (had to be a bunny, it's an Easter hop!) At each blog, there will be an egg "hidden" (in the sidebar or an old post) somewhere. Find the egg, and click on it to find a card ingredient. Do this at each blog on the hop and you should end up with a nice list of ingredients to make a card recipe. Don't worry, you don't need to use them all :D
AND there are lots of other ways to earn points on this challenge too:
Become a follower of the OSAAT challenge blog.
Leave a comment on the EGG hunt post. (And please let us know in your comment that you're a follower too)
Use one of the new stamps for a whopping 4 points! (This isn't mandatory, but it will get you eggstra (sorry) points. You can see all the new stamps on the DT blogs this week, and you can buy them over at Stitchy Bear Stamps.
My card uses the wonderful "Easter Bunny" stamp by Lil Diva Stamps. He's one of the brand new releases available from today, isn't he cute?
So, is that all as clear as molten chocolate? Lol, just go have fun, find the eggs and play ;) Click on the bunny to get to the next blog in our eggstra special Easter blog hop.

CLICK HERE

And, because we at OSAAT don't mind you combining challenges at all, here are some more that you should have a look at to enter alongside ours.
I'm entering my card into these challenges:
C.R.A.F.T. - Easter
Daring Cardmakers - Eggciting
Fussy and Fancy - Easter
Stampin' for the Weekend - Easter
Papertake Weekly - sketch
I love Digi - Easter
Dare U2 Digi Stamp - Easter
Paperplay - Easter
Incy Wincy Designs - Easter or Spring
Practical Scrappers - use something you've had for over a year. I can't even remember when I got my daisy flower punches, but it's definitely over a year, I think the smallest one was one of my very first tools ever :)
Lexi's Creations - Easter
Stamp with fun - Easter
Crazy challenges - Easter
No Time to Stamp - Easter
Totally Stampalicious - ribbons and polka dots
The Diedrich Dare - sketch
Creative Card Crew - Going dotty

Perilous Princess

Ok, I have lots of other things I should have been doing today, but I couldn't tear myself away from this until I was happy, and I really am now :D I'm relatively new to digi art and to collage, and to darker work, but I love how this one has turned out.
I made it for the Perilous Princess challenge over at Haunted Design House
I started with a vintage postcard, got rid of the elegant background, zombified her a bit, gave her a crown, a pendant and an eye where her heart should be. Then I did the background and the text, added in a peacock, a goblet and a starburst and this is how it turned out :D Actually, lol, it wasn't that simple, nearly everything has been altered/modified by me in some way, I've more or less been pressing random buttons to see what effects I liked the look of. The original peacock, goblet and crown are from Itkupilli and the letters and text are from Scrapbook Graphics.
LOL, so now I've got my jollies creating this very un-jolly piece, it's back to all the things I should have done earlier ;)

Heartfelt fruit 2x4

Hello everyone :)
This one was vexing me rather at first, as I just couldn't get it to look quite the way I wanted it to, but after much fiddling, I'm really pleased with the way it's turned out :)
I'm entering it into the following challenges:
Collage Obsession - Fruitful inspiration pic. The inspiration this week is a painting of a lady plucking fruit from a tree. I used the women from the painting, and the columns, which I grunged out in places.
Theme Thursday - 2x4. For this one you had to make a piece that's 2 inches by 4 inches, this was a new one for me, I'm much more used to using squares or fatter rectangles ;) But, the good news about it is that it meant I added that border along the bottom to fill in a relatively blank area, and I think that's what started bringing the whole piece together for me. :)
And I'm also entering it into Raise the Bar's "Fruits of labour" challenge. Although I took the fruit trees out of the original image, I replaced them with some branches and one of the gorgeous new Heart Hangers by DezinaWorld It's amused mme greatly that there's a pun on "fruits of labour" - as well as being a symbolic fruit, babies could also count as the fruits of pregnancy. Silly, I know, but it doesn't take much to keep me giggling :P

Thanks very much for looking :D

Steampunk 1

I kept seeing pieces that were described as "steampunk" on my travels, and I really liked the look but hadn't quite got around to finding out what it meant. And then the Sunday Postcard challenge blog put up a steampunk challenge, so I figured it was time to do some investigating. In case any of you don't know, steampunk is a style of art that blends Vintage/Victorian stuff with technological/robotic bits and pieces. I'm sure there aare other definitions out there, but this is what I started with.
So, I knew I would be making a steampunk postcard, but what would be the next step? I found a sketch and a colour scheme and a few other challenges that I thought I could work with, and this is the end result:


I'm really quite pleased with it, and I had such fun putting it all together :)
The above pic shows the colours much better, and some of the 3D detail, but it looks too thin to be a postcard, so, just for verification, here's a another pic. The colours aren't as good but the perspective is better.

All the metal bits and pieces came from James' junk drawer; they include a circuit board, a washer, some nails and an LED. The ephemera came from Itkupilli's Steampunk and Skellies sheet, the bride is from DezinaWorld's Weddings sheet, the map and the damask pattern I did in PSP. And I tried to find a Victorian quote to fit as well, so I used one by Edith Wharton. In case it isn't clear on the pics, the quote is "If only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time."
So, the challenges:
Sunday Postcard - Steampunk
PolkaDoodles - sketch and the colour theme blue and brown. Because of all the other bits I've added in, the sketch might not be immediately obvious but the bride the balloon and the ribbon are the sketch pattern, the rest of the bits were added on later.
Totally Gorjuss - ribbon, and isn't the bride gorgeous?
The ABC challenge is Q for quotation
HFOS - Remove the Dust. Well, maybe not actual dust but I did have to rummage through some filthy and un-identifiable bits and bobs to get all my metal/techno bits ;)
Daisy Doodles - free choice (but use digi)
Your Next Stamp - distressing. The damask background is digitally distressed, and I also roughed up the edge of the bride image with scissors and then rubbed Antique Linen distress ink around the edges.

I think that was it, thanks for stopping by, and have a great day! :D

Dark Woman

Despite it finally being sunny, and all the luscious spring challenges out there, my mojo is refusing to think about anything cute or colourful :P
So, I realised it would be a great time to work on the current Art on the Darkside challenge, which is "Dark Women"
The original background is from Itkupilli's Castle Party sheet, the woman comes from a vintage postcard that was on a CD that I got as a birthday gift (500 vintage women, I still haven't done more than skim through them all), the raven comes from the DezinaWorld Halloween 1 sheet, and I did the frame in PSP.
Thanks for stopping by :)

Sunday 21st March

Weyhey, it's time for s new OSAAT challenge, and this week we're being sponsored by the lovely June who runs DezinaWorld. The DT got some fab images to play with, and the theme is "Vintage" See what you can come up with.
I made this frame for one of the images. It's chipboard, painted in acrylics and daubed with Distressing Inks (still haven't quite got the hang of getting a distressed look out of it though) Anyway, then I made a flower using my new Spellbinders die, popped a resin butterfly from Papermania onto the corner and added pearls and the text, which I did in PSP.
As well as the OSAAT vintage theme, I made it with the following challenges in mind:
Flutterby Wednesday - Use green and a fairy or butterfly
Fussy and Fancy - green
Pixie Dust Studio - Power of 3 - I used three layers and three pearls for my flower, and the corner pearls have three on each edge (although it's five in total, because it just looked better when I used a single corner pearl rather than two completely seperate lots of three.
Fab n Funky challenges - Use something new. My new items are the butterfly and the flower die, both of which were birthday presents.
Oh Alice! - Use a caterpillar or butterfly
Stamp Something - Distress something

Thanks for stopping by, and we'd love it if you joined us for the current OSAAT challenge :)

Gothic green girl with masque

Here's my latest piece, made for a few challenges. The image is a digi stamp by Delicious Doodles, called Girl with Masque, and I did the papers in PSP.
The challenges I made it for are:
Midnight Madness Sketch 45
Stamp It Crazy - Gothic green. It actually looked much more green when I was picturing it in my mind, but the red seems to have taken over slightly in the finished piece. I don't think it helps that all the gems look black, when the pendant around her neck and the swirl in the top right are both actually a very dark green, and much more sparkly than I can capture in a photo.
The Tuesday Taggers challenge is "Masquerades, jesters and Clowns"
And the Three Muses challenge is Incognito, so I thought the masque fitted there as well :)

Ms Patty postcard

I'm really enjoying making postcards at the moment, here's my latest. The image is a freebie from Cowgirl Up Stamps because she's reached 100 followers. Congrats on all the followers CJ, and thanks so much for this stamp :D
This one is for the following challenges:
Simon Says - Splash of green
Stamp It Crazy Green challenge 2 - Use green, bling and a leprechaun
I followed the sketch over at Sketch Saturday
The Incy Wincy challenge is to make your piece at least one third green, and they're currently being sponsored by the fabulous Lexi's Creations.
And the Secret Crafter blog is having an Anything Goes week.
Thanks for popping by, and I hope you all have a great day :D

A postcard on Tuesday

Woohoo, the printer is working again, so I've made a postcard this evening, to enter a few challenges.
I followed the sketch over at the OCC Sketch blog
The Fashionista Friday challenge on the If The Shoe Fits blog is to use the colours green black and white. I went for off-white instead :P
The Stampin' Royalty challenge is to use only greens and neutrals.
The current Darkness Inspiration challenge is Dark Ladies, and this serious-looking beauty in black seemed to fit.
And the Charisma Cardz challenge is Beautiful Butterflies, so I thought it was a good excuse to use this metal one :D

Sunday 14th March

Well I've been working like crazy trying to get a digital scrapbook for my Mum finished, but I did manage to make two cards as well.
The first is my DT piece for One Stitch At A Time (OSAAT). The new challenge for this week is a recipe, and you have to use:
2 pieces of backing paper
2 brads or eyelets
and some ribbon.
I chose Holly's New Bed by Stampin' Dragon Designs to work with this week, isn't she a beautiful kitty? You can buy here at Stitchy Bear stamps, along with any other fab digi stamps. I have no idea aboutthe colours, but the stamp itself is based on Janette's own cat, Holly.
The papers are also by Stampin'Dragon Design, and were given away free by Janette earlier this year. Check Janette's blog for details. Or check the Stitchy Bear store to see some of her other fab paper packs.
This one also fits the current sketch over at the Oh, Alice blog, hurrah for sketches, I always find them inspiring :)



And my second card for today was made for lots of challenges, it's amazing how many colour challenges can be combined this week.
The image is one the Lilybean fairy series by Pollycraft, and everything else was done by me in PSP.
So, the challenges:
I followed the sketch over at Our Creative Corner, but I'm too late for that one now, oops! However, I have also used the colours in their latest challenge, so yay!
Paper Sundaes #8 - colour combo
Order of the Opus Gluei - being green
Theme Thursday - Spring
Diva Coffee Break Designs - colour challenge
For Fun challenges - green
Flutterby Wednesday - open week
Raise the Bar - Go green
Paper Cutz - anything goes
Dare You To Digi Stamp - no patterned paper
Pixie Cottage - green. There's also a free image over there this week, pop along and have a look.
Pollycraft challenge - Distressing. Now you can hardly see my distressing on the second card, but if you look in the top right corner I think you can make it out. The main backing paper is faintly distressed all over and I tried to distress the edges of the image as well. LOL, if that one doesn't count, then the first one has distressing that you can definitely see :P
Creative Friday - spring
Crafty Creations - make your own flowers. I used my Woodware daisy punches to layer up the flowers and put a small pearl in the centre


Ok, that's it for now, thanks for looking and enjoy all the challenges :D

Silent all these years

I'm quite pleased with the way this has turned out :D
The first challenge it was made for was Stamp It Crazy's "Favourite Song". Well, after running through many many many songs in my head, because I don't think I have a single favourite, I settled on "Silent All These Years" by Tori Amos. In case you're not familiar with the song, I guess I better explain how it all ties in. "What if I'm a mermaid" is a refrain in the chorus, and the whole song is about how the singer's voice has been there all the time, just silent (hence I sewed the mermaid's mouth shut). Another two lines that I picked up on are "my scream got lost in a paper cup" (all the smoke pouring out of the cup is meant to be a trapped scream) and "the orange clouds raining in my head".
And the second challenge was set by Paper Jewels, who are having a jewellery-inspired challenge, sponsored by Gotta Have Bling. I used these beads as inspiration for my background piece, I love the uneven strips of colour all swirled into each other. AND there are two chances to win with this particular challenge, because Nicole at the Gotta Have Bling blog is also offering one lucky contestant a prize, just for entering the challenge and leaving a comment. Hurrah for pretty bling things, I'd LOVE to make my own jewellery but sadly my eyesight just won't let me thread those smaller beads :(

Have a SPLASHING day!

Ah, silly pun I know, but it's kept me amused :P This stamp is called Splash, it's by Stitchy and you can buy it at Stitchy Bear Stamps. This one really makes me smile, lol, remember when puddles were fun and not a nuisance?
I made this card for the following challenges:
Moving Along with the Times - Sketch and One for the girls
Delightful Sketches and Challenges - Kids
Susie's Sassy Designs - lilac and aqua
Frosted Designs - Favourite Technique. One of the things I love most about crafting at the moment is designing my own papers, and I did that with this card, all papers were made by me in PSP.
Quirky Crafts - Buttons One of mine is the other way up from the other two, lol, may have to try and fix that or I may leave it well alone, haven't decided yet :P

Thanks for looking!

Mad March tag

I made this today for a couple of challenges. I've been feeling a bit out of it, as yesterday I thought it was Tuesday, so now, however often I've thought "It's Tuesday today", it still feels like Wednesday. Rather disconcerting :P
Anyway, I made this tag, and, lol, I coloured in the image in PSP but it still looks black and white. LOL, it's a bit different when you're zoomed right in in Paintshop :P His jacket is actually Harris tweed, lol, I found an image of it and then used it as his jacket, but, lol, it doesn't show :P The tag is chipboard, which I sprayed with silver and then sponged a muted pale green over the top, and the ribbon is from my stash.
I made it for these two challenges:
Dragons Dream Tag It On - Mad March
Ooh La La Creations - anything goes

Thanks for looking :)

Tuesday's postcard

I've been working on a couple of pieces today, but I can't find the flowers I want to use for the other one, so hopefully I'll be able to post that one tomorrow.
This is a postcard that I made for a few challenges. And, lol, I think this is the first time I've done non-digital distressing and it's not very obvious, so check out the close-up at the end. I rubbed along the edges of the text with scissors, then inked the edges with an inkpad then plonked some more ink on top as well. I don't have any distress inks, but I do have quite a few semi-dried up old inkpads, so I used one of those.

So Artful - International Women's Week, with a map as inspiration. I didn't use the map, but the suitcases came from an earlier SoArtful challenge, and I made a map in PSP to put behind the image. I also looked for a quote by a woman to use, but I couldn't find one that said exactly what I wanted to say, so I made it up instead ;)
Corrosive Challenge - sketch
Lots To Do - distressing.
Raise the Bar - National Women's History Month (include a book) Books are important to me, so I wanted it to be something more than just an embellishment, hence the text.
Sunday POstcard Art - travel
Pile It On - one colour and one neutral. The only colour I've used is green, and the brown tones are the neutral.
Stamp Scrap and Doodle - open week
Pollycraft - distressing
Practical Scrappers - Chalks/inks. I used my ink for a distressed effect on the quote. I'm not entirely sure if I should have made a scrapbook page for this one, hope a postcard is ok.
Creatalicious Challenges - Create a little something.

Thanks very much for popping by :)

Dezina fairy card

Woohoo, I made another one with loads of different challenges in mind. The fairy is from the Fairies 2 sheet available at DezinaWorld, I did the papers in PSP and the ribbon and hearts and peel off were all stash items.
So *deep breath*, here are the challenges:
Polka Doodles - wings and stamping. I made the papers by randomly putting some digi stamp swirls all over the bg papers.
Magical Crafts - things with wings
Oh, Alice - colour inspiration, and I added the red hearts as a wink to the Queen ;)
Pixie Dust Studio - 3D. I added metal hearts and popped the central image on to some foam pads.
Gingersnap Creations - Birthday greeting
OCC Sketch - followed the sketch
Charisma Cardz - fairies
Doodle Palace - Birthday with ribbon

One Stitch At A Time challenge 3!

Hello hello hello, it's time for the third challenge over at OSAAT, and this week it's a colour combo - pink and purple. Lol, I love purple, so I ended up doing two for this one ;)
We're sponsored ny Angela over at Sew Many Cards, and the DT were allowed to play with her images as well, thanks very much Angela!


This first piece uses a digi stamp by Angela called Wheelbarrow of Hearts, and you can buy it here.



And this second one uses an image by Stitchy, available at Stitchy Bear Stamps called "Can I Go Too?" Lol, again, I know it's the wrong time of year but this little witch is so cute I couldn't stand the thought of her remaining uncoloured 'til Halloween :P

Bright flowers to celebrate spring, women, and art

Ok, I started this last night, but it was originally meant to be very different. When I woke up this morning I started creating dozens of bold bright flowers in PSP (using a script by Jules' Junk) and the rest just flowed from those.
The quote is by Georgia O' Keefe, and although I think I'm better at expressing myself through words rather than through images, I just love the idea that both are nothing more than ways of expressing ideas and feelings and beliefs.
I made this piece for the floowing challenges:
4x4 Friday - International Women's Day
S2G challenges - use green (after deciding that I didn't want any foliage, I made sure that several of the flowers used green shades)
Pals Paper Arts - Spring
Gingersnap Creations - Celebrate. Maybe mine isn't a typical celebration, it is meant to celebrate creativity and women and the coming of spring.
C.R.A.F.T. - Mother's Day or flowers.
Creative Card Crew - Celebrations
Theme Thursday - Art words
Thanks for stopping by, and I hope this image brings a little sunshine inspiration into your day.

Oh Man!

I finished another digital piece this morning for a few challenges.
The main bg is from the brand new set at DezinaWorld (and the frame and the playing card were taken from other bg sheets in the same set).
The image is Jack Black, Queen Victoria's ratcatcher.
This one is for the following challenges:
Three Muses - Oh Man!
For Fun - sketch challenge
Color Throwdown - use Old Olive, not quite navy, ruby red and vanilla. My red is quite a lot darker than the ruby shade, hope it's ok anyway :)
Pile It On - Lucky me! (use green)

Hello!

I made this card with the fab new background set available at DezinaWorld. The image is a line art freebie by Princess Elemmiriel, called dragon Rose Lady, available at DeviantArt.
The ribbon is actually a muted shade of green, lol, not at all the shiny turquoise that it looks in the photo.
I made it for the following challenges:
Sophisticats - Oriental
Corrosive Challenge - Asian themed
Paperplay challenge - Just Because
The Pixie Cottage - Sketch

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin . . .

This is going to be a long post, lots of stuff to tell you about and three craft pieces, each with their own challenges.

Remember when I told you about the amazing candy giveaway at Stamp It Crazy? I know a few of my buddies signed up to be followers, and if you were one of the first 50 sign-ups, you now have another chance to win! Yup, the lovely Barb is giving away another lot of 50 stamps. Get over there and check it out!

And Prima are having another giant giveaway! Still no word on what the news is going to be though :P

That's Right! Prima is giving away two more AMAZING prize packages in conjunction with our BIG SECRET!

We want EVERYONE to have a chance to win so we are changing the rules a bit.

* Please copy this write-up and link us on your blog, Facebook, or any other site that you frequent (please follow their TOU).
* Then post here with a link to your blog, Facebook or site post for your chance to win BIG with Prima!
* One US and one International winner will be chosen on Thursday, March 4th, 2010.

And, there's new store in town! Stitchy Bear Stamps is now open for business. I think you'll recognise some of the names in there, and several of my craft pieces use stamps from these lovely ladies, so pop along and see what loveliness is available. They're still stocking the shelves, but there's lots more to come :D

And now on to my makes.



This first piece is an ATC that uses an image from the DezinaWorld Accessories sheet and papers I did in PSP.
I'm entering it into the following challenges:
Midnight Madness Sketch 43
House Mouse - Anything but a card
Spoon Full of Sugar - beads
Papertake Weekly - Buttons bows brads and bling. You can use any combination of the ingredients, so I went for buttons bows beads and bling instead, just couldn't get any brads in there :P



This cute puppy tag was made for these challenges:
Tuesday Tagger - Curls and swirls
Cupcake Craft challenge - Round and round. As well as the spotty dog and the circle frame, two of the backing papers and the ribbon all have circles as well.
Paper Jewels challenge - Cute and girly
Quirky Crafts challenge - cute
And I followed the sketch over at Incy Wincy Designs.


And this last card uses the Gem digi stamp from Beary Dust and you can buy it here.
This one is for the following challenges:
Diva Coffee Break Desings #166. This one's a colour challenge, but I've just noticed they now have a new challenge up, so I guess this is too late. No rest for the blogging crafter :P
Lexi's Creations Challenge #8 - Anything goes
The Pink Elephant - Use green
Inky Impressions - use green
Our Creative Corner - sketch

Phew! Thanks for staying 'til the end :P

Teen angst on the stairs

Lol, this has taken me all day, and it looks so simple :P But it's also kept a wicked grin on my face, so all is good :D
While browsing the challenges this morning, I saw the the new Haunted Design House theme is Teen Angst, and the new Collage Obsessions theme is Stairs. They do have a beautiful free image to work with, which I've saved, but it didn't work with the little emo girl I wanted to use. So, I drew some stairs for her to stand on instead. The original girl stamp is from My Grafico (although she comes with a heart-shaped balloon in her hand rather than a dagger :P), and everything else I did in PSP. Oh, and the text is (almost) a quote from Heathers.