By The Cute And Girly - February

It looks like it's going to be a cold start to February here after we escaped with a very mild winter, but what ever the weather February is always the month for love!  Over at By The Cute And Girly our new theme for the month has been set by Uta and is 'Love is in the air!'  Our digi sponsor this month is Bugaboo Stamps and I've used the Deacon Swing image.

I've used Copics for colouring and gone for a pink and cool grey theme.

All of the papers and tabs are a combination of various MME paper sets.  The flowers have been made by fringing and quilling off-cuts from the papers I used.  Made very quickly with the help of this marvellous instrument of torture.

I found it in my mum's kitchen drawer, she'd bought them to cut up herbs with, but she won't being seeing them again, mwahaha!

I've just treated myself to this lovely Doodlebug Valentine twine so I couldn't resist using it and just beneath there is a glimpse of some Smirk ribbon too.

As usual, we have lovely sponsors offering prizes for 3 lucky winners chosen at random from this month's 'Love is in the air!' entries.

Simon Says Stamp

Joanna Sheen

Bugaboo Stamps

Full prize details are on the challenge blog where you can also find all of the other design team projects for inspiration and share your entries with us.

** Kate **

Wishi Washi

The Daring Cardmakers are having a washi tape theme this week and, as I have more washi tape than one person can use in a lifetime, I thought I would play along.

I've been jump starting my creativity again, sadly the January Jump Start is at an end, but there have been some marvellous ideas and some introductions to new creative souls to stalk.  So my tag started out as playing with acrylic paint and then seeing where it would take me.  I've added to Claudine Hellmuth gesso to soften the colours and then blown Lettuce Adirondack Color Wash over the top.  The little lace doily is a Pink Paislee stamp, I think these are my most used stamp set from 2011, looking forward to what Pink Paislee will be launching for 2012, like these:

Of course there has to be some washi tape on there too.  I've used some greens from PaperMash, there's lots of new colours in stock now if your collection doesn't have enough!

The little word 'home' is from a MLS letter set and I've covered it with spotty tape from Cath Kidston that I got for Christmas, I think it came from here. The little key and heart stickers are Amy Tangerine, I'm almost through my first set of those.  I finished the whole thing off with a dodgy bit of sewing with a battery operated machine that I am trying out.  It works well on fabric, not so well on card, haven't tried thinner layers of paper yet.

** Kate **

More Bubbles

Yesterday I blogged my bubbly creations for Sunday Stamper #190 and I said I would be back today with a very simple step-by-step guide for making these type of bubbles...........

..........and here I am!

It's quite simple and made even easier by the use of one of these little tools.

You could draw around coins, punched shapes or die-cuts, but using a circles ruler is the quickest.  With a pencil draw circles all over the area you want to decorate using different sized circles with some overlapping.

Select a pen and on scrap paper check that it doesn't smudge or fade when rubbed with an eraser.  I've used a Whisper pen for this example.  Then on your project start adding dots all around the pencil outlines.  You don't need to be accurate or follow the lines exactly.  Make the dots more frequent and closer together when near the lines and less as you move further away.

Make sure the ink is dry and then rub out the pencil lines and you're done.

I made my card with a combination of Prima and Stampendous stamps coloured with Distress Inks.  It makes a great background for Tilda or Simply Sassy using Copics/Promarkers too.

** Kate ** 

Sunday Stamper #190

In a rash moment of celebration over at Hels blog, she asked for suggested themes for the Sunday Stamper challenge.  In an even rasher moment, I suggested bubbles and Hels said something along the lines of "Great let me have your entry by Saturday night then", eh, what?  I jest, really I was thrilled that she asked me to put forward a sample project, so thrilled in fact, I made 2, a Holtzy one and a Cutesy one.

This is the Holtzy one.  It started life as a manila tag and was then inked to within an inch of its life with Wild Honey and Ripe Persimmon Distress Inks, some of which was inked on through sequin waste.  I was quite pleased to find some tiny sequin waste recently, so I was able to vary the size of my bubbles.  In homage to Hels, I got out the Claudine Hellmuth Trad Tan paint and slapped it on some bubble wrap which I used to print some more bubbles.  As if that wasn't enough, I felt some genuinely BIG bubbles were needed, so I printed some with an old cookie cutter dipped in Claudine Hellmuth's Modern Red paint.

The stamping was all done using PaperArtsy stamps from the Bricks & Mortar sets 1 and 3.

For the Melody Ross butterfly I started with Classic Teal paint, then more of the tan printed bubble wrap and then some dark blue cookie cutter bubbles.  To finish off I coated the whole butterfly with Rock Candy Distress Stickles and whilst it was still wet sprinkled on the tiniest amount of DoodleBug Sugar Coating for extra shimmer.

The bottom of the tag was inspired by a Fat Face clothes label, I was going to machine stitch it but I had my sewing basket out to sew some Cub Scout badges on Small-N-Grubby's uniform and thought it would be good to give it a messy rustic hand sewn look.

Almost forgot to mention the cute little charm attached at the top of the tag.  It's a mini Christmas decoration from Paperchase, couldn't resist them.

Here's a look at my Cutesy project.

I'll post the details tomorrow, as this post's getting long enough, along with a mini tutorial on the bubbly effect. Also I'll be checking in over at the Sunday Stamper challenge to go and visit all the bubbly makes.

** Kate **

A Twilight Card

I saw this cute Tilda in the sales and straight away thought of the baseball game in the first Twilight film and before I knew it she was in my basket at the checkout.

Tilda has been coloured with Copics, I hope she looks OK, I don't know much about baseball.

Of course I had to team her up with DCWV Immortal Love paper and the book paper is torn from Breaking Dawn.

To decorate the Melody Ross chipboard heart I first sponged Barn Door Distress Ink all over it and stamped it with a PaperArtsy text stamp.  Then coated the whole thing with Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  Finally, once everything was dry, I rubbed a little Gathered Twigs Distress Ink over the top.

The little charm is from a 'Team Edward' bracelet I bought in a £1 shop.  The photo also shows really well the beautiful embossing and glittering that comes on the Immortal Love papers.

I thought I would pull together the baseball and 'Team Edward' themes with the little question spelt out in BoBunny Et Cetera Combo stickers (these have gone such a long way, I think I've used on them on at least 4 projects now and there's still plenty left.)

Challenges:
Magnolia Stamp Lovers - Sport
Magnolia-licious Highlites - Valentines
Craft Us Crazy - Valentines/Love
Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

** Kate ** 

And Now For Something Completely Different

This is a year long project Shimelle is leading for UKScrappers involving a monthly step by step scrapbook page which involves new design ideas to try.

Here is my version of the January project.

I was ordering from Sarah's Cards and saw that the actual paper Shimelle had used was in stock, so I ordered it and that was the start of my page.  I chose some photos of Small-N-Grubby playing catch and they helped form the basis for my colour scheme.

I've followed the instructions pretty much as they came with a little bit of product substitution here and there.

Supply list:
Letters - Sassafras Red Script, BoBunny Et Cetera Combo stickers and Girls Paperie Tinsel and Twig.
Papers - October Afternoon Rocket Age - Return Voyage, American Crafts Peachy Keen - Neato and You're A Peach
Embellishments - American Crafts Mementos - Just Dandy, Papermash Bakers Twine, AquaMarker - Twilight Blue, Stickles - Candy Cane, Acrylic Dabber - Peach Bellini.

** Kate **

A challenge just for fun

Scrapbook Magazine has a regular budget feature where the challenge is to make 3 pages with £10 of supplies with only the addition of scissors, cutter and adhesive.  I thought I would challenge myself and here are the results, one page for each of the children.

To be extra thrifty with my supplies I bought them all in the Craft Obsessions sale.

They are:
Bo Bunny Welcome Home double sided papers in Dot, Stripe and Porch Swing.
Bazzill Basics in Kraft, Sea Salt and Fawn.
Bo Bunny Et Cetera combo stickers
3" Bazzill Gerberas in Creamsicle.
Distress Stain in Stormy Sky.
Fibres free with purchase.

It was fun and 3 pages with limited supplies are quick, no hesitating over whether your should use this cardstock or that as you just have no choice.

The stain was really good for splatting and, once scribbled on a craft mat, can be picked up with a paint brush for painting or splattering.

I had hoped to paint the flowers with it or use them as a mask, but it soaked into them far too much and just didn't work for me.  I didn't try splattering it over them though, I will have to try that another time.

I completed the tab layout last and had enough paper left to make extra tabs with more photos on to slip behind the main photo.

I cheated a little and used a black pen for a bit of journalling (is that cheating?  Everyone has a black pen in their standard kit, don't they?)  It was only after I finished that I realised I don't have a title on there and then I couldn't figure out what to have or where to put it.  I have some of the bigger letters left, but no 'E's', any suggestions?

I think I might challenge myself to do this again sometime soon and see if I can manage to get a bit of sparkle into the supplies somewhere.  

** Kate **