Inspirational...

Our weekly challenge on the Charmed digi blog this week is Inspiration. Lou posted a beautiful picture from which to draw inspiration, be that the feel of it, the colours, or whatever other inspiration you may get from it. The only stipulation is that you must use one of our hundreds of downloads - and that's not difficult as there are so many utterly gorgeous ones to choose from :-)

I love the colours on the photo and regretfully I didn't quite capture the richness. But I went for the dark reds, whites and blue colours as my inspiration. I added a little green to mine also. This is the first Christmas card of the year for me but I'm determined to get many done before December so expect to see more...

My Holly Pixie from the Pixie Downloads (also available as a clear stamp) has blue/green holly and wings. Each holly leaf is green but tipped with blue. I used a variety of K&Co and Basic Grey papers, the base of my card is Doodlebug Ladybug Sugar Coated Cardstock, which means the back of the card is nice and glittery too. I also used gold lace - K&Co Evergreen snowflake stickers - Warm wishes greeting is from an Imaginice Polar Expressions paper - K&Co Layered Poinsettia flowers - Clear pebbles forms a frame around the card. I used a Martha Stewart Border punch for the border running across the middle. The red has been highlighted with red Stickles.

After printing out my Pixie I drew a large bauble around her then coloured everything in with Copic markers. I used Polar White Flowersoft for the trim on her dress and a little Stickles to highlight here and there on the holly as well, as the gold dots on the bauble..

I started doing the inside but didn't have enough time to complete. It's ready for when I have the time..



Just the blue paper atm, but will add everything else when I need it...


I do hope you can join us on DW this week, it's a fab challenge.

Thanks for visiting x

Favourites...

This week on our digi blog our lovely Gunn set a fab challenge: to showcase your favourite Charmed download. Tough one this one as I love so many of them. One of my favourite collections are the "Girls about town" and I love the Pixie collections for their sheer versatility, I also love the new Once Upon a Time collection and and and... the list goes on. The image I used on my card this week has to be one of my favourites from the Pixie collection but not THE favourite as I love them all!! I am giving one of these collections to one lucky person so pop back tomorrow.

I used papers from the Fancy Pants Daily Grind paper pad for both my background and two corners.

I drew a circle with large dots on the background with a marker then swirled in each with a white Inkssentials pen. With the same pen a whimsical doodled border was created The two flowers are one K&Co Blossomwood die-cut cardstock flower cut in half. They are actually delicately glittered , although that doesn't show well here.

I created a frame using Flower Soft. I mixed the colours myself and glued them onto a green frame. After inserting my image, which I coloured with Copics, I stuck it onto brown cardstock distressed with a paper distresser to roughen edges, then onto my card.

The floral swirl below uses a K&Co Blossomwood die-cut as the base, then a Prima crystal swirl and blue Prima pearls.

The corners were Prima The Goods cardboard shapes onto which I stuck the Fancy Pants paper and inked with brown distress ink.

The "dream" ticket is Tim Holtz.

When my daughter (aged 13) saw this card she said that I always use muted earthy colours, and it's true. I get out all my pads of papers and always end up choosing the same type of colours. I love the vintage look and most of my cards unintentionally seem to veer towards that these days.

Thanks for visiting. Have a lovely day ♥

Frame it!

It's my turn to set the challenge on Dottie's World this week and I chose "Frame it" plus a few dots. I framed my card inside and out with hydrangea petals, plus I created a frame made from gold liquid beadz.

I cut a frame out of cardboard and adhered the liquid beadz to it. Once it had dried I stuck it onto my card and added another frame with the petals. This is quite a large card, measuring 18cm x 18cm from petal to petal.

The sentiment is from our new Once Upon a Time collection. I printed it out, cut it with Nestabilities and stuck it onto a larger scalloped circle cut from Tim Holtz Shabby Vintage paper. I then enamelled this centrepiece with clear enamel.

You can see the enamel better in this picture. The girl is from our Holly & Madison collection. I wanted her to hide surprise flowers so drew a bouquet behind her after printing her out. I then coloured the image with Copic markers.
The Blue Prima Mini Roses are mounted onto wooden buttons. Lace is Prima and the pearls and crystals are K&Co Sweet Talk.

I decorated the inside too. I used Tim Holtz Vintage Shabby papers - Prima Fairytale roses (Pink) and a Blue Prima Mini Rose, plus three blue Prima pearls. The edges were inked with brown distress ink and a dotted border drawn with a Copic marker.


Please pop over and join the challenge - we are giving away a voucher to one lucky participant this week :-)

CJ Time!

I can't believe it is CJ5 on the Charmed forum - five circles, five years - where did that time go? I love doing these circles with my lovely Charmed friends, they are a fantastic bunch of people.

So last weekend I created my journal, and yesterday I tearfully waved it bon voyage. In almost one years time it will be returned to me filled with wonderful pages; I can't wait!

Can't show you my journal in case the girls are watching, but here are some sneaky peeks. My theme this time was "Self Portrait":

Crikey it's bucketing it down out there! We haven't had much rain later, and God knows the lawn needs a little moisture, but it looks like the big guy upstairs has decided to give us the whole lot in one go! Are you seeing any lasting sunshine where you are? I don't just mean a little teaser now and again, I mean golden rays all day, no interruptions! If you live in the UK I bet your answer will be a resounding no! It's been warm yes, but most days have been overcast and grey with no wind, quite opressive really, especially here in London where I live. Oh well, perhaps it'll get better :-)

Bye for now. Thanks for visiting the Charmed corner of the WWW :-)

Manly with a twist

Tis sunday again, where did that week go?? Adele has provided us with a fun challenge on Dottie's World, this is what she wants:

Whilst looking through my stock box I noticed I am incredibly short of cards for men so I thought it would be a good idea to get a few in there rather than keep putting myself under the pressure of having to make them at the last minute - cards for men can be tricky enough as it is! You have loads of images to choose from the Charmed Download collections so lets see what you can come up with........Now for a little twist, I want to see some ribbon on your manly cards!!

So, a manly card with ribbon, and here is mine:

I decorated the inside too, as the saying I created has a second part inside. I used Gramps from Meet the Martians, I adore him, he's so funny and fab for so many occasions. He is perfect for the sentiment I think and I'm going to include this sentiment within the bundle for you.

Paper used is mainly from the Tim Holtz Shabby Vintage pad. Presents inside and candle on the front are K&Co Happy Birthday 2 U chipboard. Tickets inside are Tim Holtz. Swirls and Crystals inside and out are Prima. Blue glazed brads on the front are Basic Grey Sultry. I used distress ink for edges and a paper distresser to roughen them. Middle bands on front and inside are cut with a Martha Stewart punch, all other paper shapes are cut with Nestabilities. That ribbon is perfect for the card as it matches Gramps "buzzin'" antenna's, it's K&Co's Life's Journey but has now been discontinued so no longer available.

..and finally I used some silver Stickles for this silver fox :-) Gramps were coloured in Copics and I used distress inks for the background. Again I only used part of the image and it shows how versatile they are. Don't be afraid to use a little bling for manly cards, the guys are not adverse to a little sparkle - don't put them in the corner with the boring cards :-)

Pop over to DW to see what the other DT members have created for your inspiration. If you have any of our downloads (and we have HEAPS) then please join in :-)

Thanks for visiting. Have a great Sunday ♥

Candy Winner

Sorry I'm a little late with this. Here is the winner of the last candy:

That is PAT. Congratulations Pat. Please email your address to me HERE.

Thanks to all who entered. There'll be another candy very soon :-)


Have a super day ♥

Lets Go to the Movies

Well, not literally you understand, although I really want to go and watch the new one with Leonardo DiCaprio "Inception". I noticed it's on at the local cinema so might take the girls to watch it in the week. If you've seen it and found it to be a pile of poo then please let me know asap!

Our challenge this week was set by Sheila, please pop over and join us and check out the other design team members fabby work. This is what Sheila wanted:

I love going to the cinema with my grandsons.. gives me the perfect excuse for seeing all the latest kids Disney/Cartoon movies so with this in mind my theme for the challenge this weeks is....

LETS GO TO THE MOVIES!!

So find your favourite Charmed Crafts download and turn it into a movie/movie character or relate it to a movie/character - simples no? :-).

DD1 is going to a party next week; her friend is really into pretty princess type of things, and she really really wanted me to make her a special card. So I decided that my "Movie character" would be Belle from Beauty and the Beast. The Beast had a beautiful rose garden and Belle here is scattering rose petals as she wanders through :-) A sentiment similar to the one I used is contained within the Once Upon a Time bundle and as that was my creation I quickly personalised it with the recipients name - I used the princess from our Once Upon a Time bundle and coloured her in to look like the recipient of the card, with brown hair and brown eyes, which of course also related to Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

That big corner is really sparkling and gorgeous. You can see that much better in this picture:

It's a Prima The Goods chipboard corner that I coloured pink first then smothered in large Martha Stewart glitter shards (from the Vintage Leaf Chunky Glitter pack) and topped with three pink heart crystals.

Image: Princess from Once Upon a Time coloured with Copic markers.
Sentiment: From Once Upon a Time but I modified the original to personalise.
Papers: Fancy Pants Daily Grind Paper Pad (Blue) and Basic Grey (Brown Dotted)
Swirls and FairyTale Rose: Prima
Crystals: K&Co Sweet Talk Adhesive Gems
Nestabilities die for the circle on the front.
Distress ink and paper distressing tool for some of the edges.

There's a little hand sewing on there too, using pink metallic thread. It's in stock but not on site.

I only used part of the princess image but cut around the bouquet to hang out of the circle. I actually wrote down the Copic colours I used to colour in the image (wayhey!!!):
E00, E02, R20, RV21, G07, G14, B00, B01, B12, E21, E35, E37, E29, V12, V15, V17, R8, R30, R81, R83, R85, W3, W5

Thanks for visiting; have a great Sunday.

Psst...Candy is drawn tomorrow so you have until midnight if you want to enter.

Pixie Blog Candy

This post will stay on top, please scroll down for new posts.

A little blog candy for you, this time one of our own in-house stamps, namely the hugely popular and totally lovely Dreaming Pixie clear stamp.

Just enter your name and blog in Mr Linky below to be included in the draw.

It would be great if you could mention it on your blog too :-)

Candy closes 25th July. Good luck ♥

xx

A Day out ...

Funny how we never really visit the places close to us; tourists travel hundreds of miles to see them but we forget they are there really - or we put off going there as "we can always go there". Years ago when I first arrived in London I visited the tourist attractions, such as Madam Tussuad's, but I have never taken my girls there, despite living in London all these years. We decided on a day out visiting some London landmarks and our first stop was the famous waxworks. We arrived about 10am and the queues had started to form outside. They didn't look too bad though so we merrily joined them - 12:35pm we were finally in!! it took 2.5 hours to get in, the longest and most tiresome queue I have ever accounted, I pity the people who joined after us as the queue grew enormous by the minute, and no doubt queuing time for some were 8 hours+!! If you go then I would strongly suggest either getting there when they open at 9am, or purchasing the priority ticket, which means you beat the queues, a little like the express passes in other attractions. You can see Aimee didn't look to happy in the queue here:

So AT LAST we managed to get in. Mostly it hadn't changed from when I first visited at the age of 17, there were new models of course, and for the first time also a few attractions. "Scream" had taken the place of The Chamber of Horror, live actors clamber around trying to scare the public walking through - very effectively too. Then Marvel 4D had taken the place of the London Planetarium that used to be housed within Madam Tussuad's. Good show and great effects. Lastly a new taxi ride attraction took you through the history of London, enjoyed that too - mainly because it was so bloody nice to park your bum somewhere!









An hours and half later we were out, longer in the queue than inside. Next we decided to visit the Tower of London, a historic landmark I again hadn't visited with the girls. Thoroughly enjoyed our visit there, you don't realise how much there is to look at and how big it all is. Must say that it is worth the trip just to gander at the Crown Jewels alone, one of the diamonds was over 530 carats!! A girls best friend or what!!!! Wowsa! It's apparently one of the worlds top quality diamonds and is located at the top of the Sceptre. There was a long queue by the entrance but I'd had enough of queues so popped in through the backway and straight into the Crown jewel section - nobody noticed, he he.

One of the Yeoman's who guard the Tower. They actually live within the Tower with their families and you can tell they really care for it. This jolly fellow was our tour guide, he had us in stitches as well as being hugely informative.

We stayed in The Tower until it closed and walked across Tower Bridge and along the embankment. A few things went on there so we watched as we strolled along. Finally tummies were rumbling so we went for a meal at Zizzi's by the Thames. Lovely meal, lovely service, great surroundings.

A good day was had by all, and the best thing was that as we live in London it didn't take us long to get home :-)

That summer feeling

Time for another challenge on Dottie's World and this time Louise set the theme:

I would like you to use a CHARMED DOWNLOAD to make a summery card - or something else if you prefer! OK so that doesn't sound very challenging.......I would like you to make your summer item DIFFERENT to what you would normally make. Maybe you always make tent fold cards so try a side fold card or something completely different! Maybe you always make big cards so make a teenie weenie one, do you get my drift?

OK so I didn't see the "make something different to what you usually make" when I created this one:

Very summary I think with about a million flowers and bright summer colours. Quite unlike my usual colours but I enjoyed playing with stronger hues this week.

I used one of our Meet The Martian images and merged it with a Meet The Martians sentiment so they stand in front of it. I decorated the inside too. Paper is plain cardstock and Bo Bunny striped Flower Child paper. Flowers are all Prima, I also used a couple of Prima Pebbles and various crystals and pearls. Eyelets are We r Memory Makers inserted with my Crop-a-dile (and from the Crop-a-dile pack).

So as I didn't quite get all the requirements I quickly made this side-stepper card, I have never made one of those. Again it is one of the images from the Meet The Martians bundle. Paper is Karen Foster "Rippling Waves", sentiment is K&Co Cut 'n Paste chipboard.

I am linking to:
Allsorts - Summer Days
Sukkersott - Summer
Daring Cardmakers - We are Sailing (my second card)

Pop over to DW and see what wonderful creations the other DT members came up with. Why not join in whilst you're there, there's a prize up for grabs this week :-)

Thanks for popping by ♥