I'm hot, but not in a good way!

Phew!  It has been quite 'warm' here in Colorado - temps in the 90's and 100's.  I think I mentioned before that I have friends visiting from the UK so we have been out and about having fun - so I haven't been doing much crafting. I have however been doing a lot of shopping and every time I go into the store, the shop assistants always ask "How are you today?"  My standard answer (much to the embarrassment of the teenage daughters with me) is "Hot, and not in a good way."

I wish I could be 'hot' like this cute chick from Saturated Canary.  This image is called 'I'm sweating you'.

She is coloured with Pro Markers (skin: Blush/Soft Peach, hair: Vanilla/Sandstone/Mustard, clothes Salmon Pink and Cool Aqua.)  The paper is from Heidi Grace Designs (sorry I can't remember the name), ribbon and lace from my stash.  The flowers on the bottom are made with card candi (which I have raved about before) by Craftworks.  Here is a closer look at the flowers.

I bought a load of card candi a while back and shared it with my friend DeAnna from Paper Grandma. One of the packs she bought and shared with me was called 'Icing' - these are plain white pearlised.  I wasn't sure how much I was going to use these until she suggested that I could colour them with my markers to make perfectly co-ordinating embellishments (genius!)

Here is another look at a little detail that does not show up so well in the top picture - a little bead of Diamond Glaze for the sweat on her forehead.

Well, a short and sweet post today - hopefully it won't be too long before I am back again.  Stay cool.

Michelle

A Bunch of 'Bad Apples'

So yesterday I volunteered (last minute) to make a 'Get Well' card that my daughter needed.  As I have mentioned before she is a Denver Roller Doll - recently roster-ed on to the 'Bad Apples" roller derby team.  Many people who I have told about this have greet the news with some disdain, that I would let my daughter join these ranks of women who are generally regarded as somewhat 'trashy'??

Well, let me tell you about these so-called 'trashy' women.  One of them learned that a very young fan was in hospital diagnosed with a very serious condition - that skater immediately contacted the rest of her team and arranged to go and visit this little girl in hospital, take her a card and a load of roller derby goodies.

I volunteered to make the card for them all to sign.  Here is how it turned out.

All of this was cut using my Silhouette Cameo and files from the Silhouette online store.  The tree apples are stamped with Peachy Keen faces and mounted on action-wobble springs (sorry no video as I was cutting this one close to the wire.)  The sentiment on the sign was made using a single line font and a gel pen in my Chomas Pen Holder - I'm really happy with how it turned out.

The sentiment inside reads 'Get Better Soon!' - with plenty of space left for the team to sign and write messages (the card is actually 12" x 12".)

So at the end of the day I am proud of my daughter for being involved in Roller Derby, and no matter what others may think, I think she has an awesome bunch of teammates.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michelle

Shine Card with a FREE digi stamp

Wow - long time, no hear from me :(  I would love to tell you that I had been whisked away on some exotic island for a vacation, but no such luck - I've been busy with chores, broken cars with flat batteries (not my forte - but the good news is I now know how to jump-start a car!), insurance companies (yuck!) and I guess just busy with life in general.

But today I am back :)  I spent yesterday evening in my craft room, looking at my poor neglected blog and some of the blogs I follow.  Everyone has been so busy making such beautiful projects (except me), so I decided it was about time I did something.  Obviously I needed to 'buy' a new digi  stamp, (isn't it amazing how a little craft shopping can get your creative juices flowing?)  My first port of call was The Saturated Canary Challenge Blog.  To my pleasant surprise (and relief to my credit card) I found that Krista (the very talented artist/owner of The Saturated Canary) had a free digi stamp called 'Fancy'.  She fits perfectly with this month's challenge over at Saturated Canary, so here is what I did with her.

She is coloured using ProMarkers (Blush, Soft Peach for skin, Vanilla, Sandstone, Mustard for hair, Cool Grey 5, Pink Lobster, Blender for dress and hair ribbon)  The paper is The Blackcurrant Stack (DCWV) and of course just a little touch of Diamond stickles for the hair.  The ribbon and gems are from my stash, the 'Shine' sentiment is computer generated, and the flower cut using my Cameo.

Thanks for stopping by - hope to see you next time.

Michelle

Fascinated with Fascinators

Hi Everyone,

Today I am guest designer over at The Bugbytes - thanks Pam for letting me play.

I was messing about with this gorgeous image from Saturated Canary the other day purely and simply because I wanted to make a 'fascinator' for her to wear.  You could say I've been fascinated with fascinators since last years Royal Wedding. Take a look at some of the lovely fascinators worn by Kate Middleton here.

So armed with these images, my ProMarkers and a little (well, a tiny) piece of tulle I set about creating.  Here is what I came up with.

My first image I really only coloured the skin, then then put a little pink on the dress and some grey shadowing

I literally just scrunched up the tulle and stuck it in place with a glue dot and added a few beads.  Here is a close-up.

Then I thought it would be fun to play with a little piece of black tulle and mix things up.

The dress is coloured with the darkest greys and highlighted with a blender pen (here I change to a Copic blender as I prefer this to the ProMarker blender.)  And a close-up of her 'fascinator'.

I love the way both these images turned out, when you look at the side by side they almost don't look like the same image do they?

Thanks for joining me today - hope to see you next time.

Michelle

Moving In, Moving On - Digital Layouts (and something extra)

I thought that it was about time that I dabbled with digital layouts again, and Kelleigh Ratzlaff over at The Digi Chick gave me a great excuse by releasing some fun new digital paper packs called Summer Lovin'.  Just take a peek at the cute Patterned Papers and the adorable Mini Polka Dot Papers.  Also check out Kelleigh's Facebook Page, become a fan and get the Solids Paper Pack for free, (she is also giving away a free printable Father's Day Card and a layered psd card template.)

I decided to make LO's of my youngest daughter going off to university.  I can't believe she has already finished her freshman year and I have only just scrapped the photos of the day she moved into her dorm!

Here is the second one.

These are both pretty simple LO's using papers from the Summer Lovin' pack and a couple of free templates designed by Jen Martakis available over at Two peas In A Bucket.

I love all the papers in this set, so decided to have a go at using the print and cut feature on my Cameo to make 'something else'.  Just got this stamp from Archivers, and with Father's Day so close, I knew my husband would be the perfect recipient of this card.

Love the way this turned out.  The image is from Art Impressions 'Lazy Boy', coloured with ProMarkers - and I just had to mount him on an Action Wobble Spring.  The sentiment inside the card reads "Recliner, remote,TV tray...there's a "nap" for that."

Thanks for stopping by.

Michelle

18th Birthday Card

Hi Everyone

I have a quick card today that I made for a friends 18th birthday, which I also decided to post in the challenge over at the Saturated Canary Challenge Blog.  Here is my card.

The image is called 'Double Take' and is one of the new images released in June at the Saturated Canary Shop.  I coloured her with ProMarkers - here are the colours I used:

Skin - Blush and Soft Peach
Hair - Vanilla, Sandstone and Mustard
Dress - Orchid, Amethyst and the Blender pen. (I also used an artists paintbrush to brush Lavender Stickles over the dress to give it a bit of sparkle.)

Here is a closer view of the dress - unfortunately the photo doesn't do the sparkle justice.

I added a flower, some ribbon, ric-rac trim, a gem 'earring' and a computer generated sentiment to finish it off.

Thanks for taking a peek.

Michelle

Get Your Wobble On (and get some blog candy)

Hi everyone, Today I am guest designer over at Papercraft Weekend Challenge.   I thought that I would have a little fun with some Action Wobble Springs.  I love these little 'do-dads', and am always looking for ways to use them.  Don't worry if you haven't got any, here is a great tutorial for making your own Make your own wobble springs.

I have this wonderful image from Mo Manning, and I think she is just 'crying out' for an Action Wobble spring.  This is what I did with her.

I colored her with ProMarkers, and cut her out - separating her body from her legs.  I then stuck the legs to the card base, put an Action Wobble Spring on her body and positioned her so that her body slightly overlapped her legs.  The sentiment is from stamp set called 'Life is Short' (The Angel Company.)  Click on the image below to see her in action, sorry the video is awful quality.

So there you have it, I hope I have inspired you to 'get your wobble on'.  I have some blog candy to give away - a box of Action Wobble Springs, and few more surprise goodies.  All you have to do is leave a comment on my post at Papercraft Weekend Challenge and post your 'wobble' project.  I will randomly select a winner and post on the blog Monday 18th June.

Until next time.

Michelle