Sketch Challenge

Lovely Carmen from the Charmed forum has organised a sketch challenge rota on the forum, each month one of us post a sketch and we all try to make something from it. Here is my interpretation of Carmen's sketch. Wish I had done it differently with big dragon and little castle, but oh well, it's too late now LOL

Images and sentiment are OF COURSE from our newest collection Once Upon a Time. I heat embossed the sentiment with clear embossing enamel and really liked the effect, will certainly use that on more of my sentiments now. That gorgeous Rose is Prima Belle Arte, Butterfly the lace is Prima too. Papers are appropriately DCWV Once Upon a Time. The outer circles on each of the images have been Perfect Pearled and enamelled.

The images are the ones contained within the bundle - you get coloured versions as well as black and white. Originally I had coloured these in with Copic markers.

Thanks for visiting the Charmed corner of the web xx

Once Upon A Time...

...there were 13 gorgeous images and over 40 super sentiments - and now you can get your crafty mitts on them!! Yes, we have a FABULOUS new collection ready for you and we are very excited about it - and believe it or not this ENTIRE FANTASTIC collection is the mere prize of a normal little stamp!!.

The beautiful images have all been expertly drawn by our wonderful Lou, and the sentiments created by me. We hope you enjoy this amazing collection, there really is something there for every occasion. ENJOY!!

ATC Cards

If you have never tried making ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) then why not have a go and join a swap? I bet there is one going on most craft forums, and I also bet you're going to enjoy creating them. The size of a playing card they are great fun to make. We have our July swap on the Charmed forum and I set the theme, choosing Country/Primitive. Unfortunately due to a complete absence of working memory I had left mine till the last minute, they should arrive at the host today, instead mine will be sent today - oops.

But there is a silver lining, I had forgotten to watch Vampire Diaries so could watch that on the iplayer whilst creating, yay!!! End of the series now, can't wait for it to start again. That's another programme that I wish I had watched from the beginning. Iplayer is fandabbydosy don't ya think? Fanbloodytastic for people like me who never seem to have the time/forget to watch it first time around! Which reminds me, must check out to see what's available from Come Dine with me - I am totally hooked on that programme, although Mr Narrator is becoming a tad too patronising and sarcastic. Still, he still manages to crack me up at times despite his now total lack of diplomacy :-)

I digress, back to my ATC cards. The swap called for three cards and I just made them all virtually identical. Too much effort to think about making them different. I drew a typical primitive border, added a funky chicken and sentiment, stamped a few hearts on the background, and added a little gingham ribbon and a country button tied with twine. I used Copic markers to colour everything in.

Mustn't forget to tell you about Eclipse that I watched yesterday - IT'S FAB!!!!! Go see it girls, you'll love it! Best of the three that's for sure. Plenty of action, plenty of bated breaths, plenty of lurve. Definitely one I want to see again and shall buy when the DVD is released. Big thumbs up from me and my girls.

Thanks for visiting, have a g-r-e-a-t week! x

HOT IT UP!!

Helloooo, here I am with my weekly post. Every good intention of blogging more often soon flies out of the window as life takes control.

I'm pretty excited because we have a wonderful new collection coming VERY SOON! The collection comprises 13 gorgeous images drawn by the wonderful Louise and 40 sentiments created by me. I used one of the images as a preview in my card for the Dottie's World challenge this week, Lou used another for her DT card so pop over and check it out.

I set the challenge and as it's getting mighty hot out there I want to see fiery colours, red/oranges/gold that sort of thing. PLUS your project must of course include a Charmed download!

This beautiful image is Princess from our new collection, NOT OUT YET, but when it is you'll find it HERE. I coloured her in with Copic markers. The sentiment is one I created for the bundle.



I created a little corner ensemble with lush Prima gold leaves and gem centre (both unfortunately discontinued now), and lovely red roses. I just couldn't get good pictures today and had to take the card into the garden to captured some of the richness of these heavy totally fab leaves.

I added a beady border around the sentiment and in one corner (not pictured, but see main piccie).

I hope you like it. You can get this coloured image within the bundle too, to use either when you need a quick card, or perhaps for inspiration - so you get each main image in both black & white and coloured.

I'm off to the pictures later today with my girls. We are watching the new Twilight movie, Eclipse, and I don't mind telling you that I am sooo looking forward to seeing it. According to reviews it's the best one yet, I'll give you my critique later, he he.

Please pop over and join the challenge. Thanks for popping by x

Candy Winner

Sorry I'm late with this. I did try to draw a winner on the 30th but each time I tried the winner was not a follower of the blog - and this was candy for followers only as a thank you. In the end I ran out of time and so had to return to it today. FINALLY I have a winner, who is a follower LOL:

That is KAZ

Congrats Kaz, please email me your address :-)

Thanks to all who entered x

Yet another Candy

This will stay on top. Please scroll down for new posts.

Another candy for you, this time for the followers of the blog as a thank you for following.

Buttons are fab on all projects but they can be expensive, I am giving you a huge bag of assorted buttons to cover your every need, you will be getting plain, fancy and shaped buttons -NOT only that but you will get a large beautiful Prima Butterfly, a K&CO pad of designer papers, PLUS a gorgeous Flutter Vine Prima embellishment.

This candy will run for two weeks and will be randomly drawn at random.org. To enter please mention the candy on your own blog and add your blog link to Mr Linky (Followers only please).

Good luck! xx

Paper Piecing

Paper piecing is a great little technique and oh so easy with our downloads. Simply print transparent images onto patterned paper to "dress them up". This was the challenge Adele set on Dottie's World today: to use a Charmed download along with the paper piecing technique.

I love pregnant mummy Martian from our newest collection and used her here, along with the Baby on Board sentiment also in the bundle. There are three in the bundle, pink, blue and white, I used the white one here and coloured it green with my Copics.

I used Basic Grey and Tim Holtz Papers (from the Shabby Vintage pad), and the Martha Stewart Heart deep edge punch. That gorgeous bouquet is Prima.

I pleated the paper behind the main image, you can see that better at the very top in this close-up, you can also see that I used gold dust on a few areas of Mummy Martian:

I coloured in Mummy Martian with my Copic markers. I decided to add a black faux stitching border in case you notice something different in this one LOL

Please pop over and check out the work from the other girls. We really have a great team on Dottie's World :-) Thanks for visiting x

No Designer Papers

Another week whizzed by and here we are back at Sunday again, and another Sunday challenge. I had LOADS of email asking for the free father's day bundle last week, and of course it was ONLY for those who wanted to enter our DW challenge - so where are all your entries? LOL Hurry over and pop them in.

This week on Dottie's World the lovely Sheila wanted us NOT to use use designer papers. I used my favourite image from our fundabbydosy new "Meet The Martians" bundle, Gramps, and a sentiment I created for the bundle, I am still working on the sentiments so if you purchase the bundle before I can get them in you will be sent them later.

I created a planet behind gramps, and liked it so much that I decided to include that in the bundle too (coloured only though).

I liberally coated the corners with Crackle Glaze but it hasn't crackled a bit yet, I'll leave it and see if it will in time. I wrapped a chipboard tag around gramp's leg.

Don't think that this bundle is out of your comfort zone and only for kids, these characters make super and fun cards for all the family, gramps here for example lends himself to so many themes, including "well done" "you're fab" and so on. Pop over and see what the team created.

Thanks for visiting x

Father's Day

Is it Sunday already? Blimey, where did that week go? I'll have Saturday again please as that passed me by in a blur, before you know it it'll be Monday again and back to work we go. It's Father's Day next Sunday here in the UK, are you ready for that? You can make a start by creating a card for our Father's Day challenge, and to help you create we have a freebie bundle you can use in conjunction with your Charmed digi's, you can find details of that over at Dottie's World. Please note that the free bundle is ONLY for people who want to enter our challenge.

I haven't got my wonderful dad with me anymore so I created a card from my two girls to give to their dad.

I merged three images from our George collections, created a frame and tags (which I am giving away for free) and layered on various papers and cardstock. I wanted this card to "shine" so added acrylic dewdrops all around and fine glitter on glossy accent on my corners. The loop PATP border is from Martha Stewart punches. The green paper is Bo Bunny, it's the reverse side of Calypso Bloom .

My sentiment inside the card is also in the free bundle, plus I added one for a single child (as in "my dad" and not "our dad").

I used Glossy accent to make the tags pop, you can see that better here:

My three George images were coloured with Copic markers. Unfortunately I didn't let the printer ink dry long enough and it got a little smudged around runner George's eye, where the ink is most intensive. I like to leave it at least an hour, or overnight if possible; that's why I try to have a stack of images already printed that I can use. As I was creating the merged image yesterday especially for the challenge I didn't have time for that.

I hope you are able to join our Father's day challenge this week, please pop over and see what the team has created for your inspiration. Have a great Sunday and thanks for stopping by :-)

Candy Draw

Crikey, almost forgot! Here is the winner of my last candy:

That is Mariabj

Please email though your address so I can get your prize off to you.

Worry not if you didn't win, there'll be another one along soon :-)