Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Hi everyone, 

I hope you are all well?

Today I'm sharing another card I made a while ago, I made a few Christmas cards before my eyes got bad and decided to save them to blog after all of my Halloween cards!

6 weeks today to Christmas so I really need my eye to pick up so I can make more or I will be buying them again!

So for this card I used a beautiful Mo Manning image:

 

I coloured her in with my pencils, I used som sansador to blend this time for a softer look.

 

I used papers from an old LOTV pad..... wow talk about over exposure on that picture! My eyes must be bad lol

 

The sentiment is a Whimsy stamp and I added embellishments from the Hobby House.

Hope you like it!

Have a fab Sunday.

Hugs xx Cara xx

Boo!! Winnie trick or Treat Witch by Polkadoodles

Hello again,

It's been half term this week and a very busy one!

I've just managed to sneak in another Halloween card using this fab new image by Nikky at Polkadoodles!

You can find her here.

 

Isn't she so sweet with the little cat perched on her head???

 

I coloured her up with my pencils onto Kraft card, it seemed to take ages with the background too.

 

I added flowers, gems and a bow (all picked out by Lacey) 

I used more old papers and there is a black doily hiding under there somewhere!

I hope you like it!

Have a fab Halloween if you celebrate it (I certainly do!)

Hugs

Cara xx

Papernest Dolls Halloween card

Hello again,

I'm off work today for a hospital appointment but thanks to my new app I can quickly post another card for you before I leave, I so love this app and along with the pic monkey app I can do everything on the go and on my phone!

So here is another card I made a while ago, I used a fabulous Papernest Dolls image and coloiurednher up with my pencils on mixed media paper:

 

Isn't she so cute with her little cat sat there too! She reminds me of our Lacey so much!

I used papers from an old pad I had, I really must invest I some new Halloween papers!

 

I used loads of embellishments from Wild orchid crafts to finish of.

Hope you like it!

Hugs xx Cara xx

LOTV Spooky Kitties

Hello all,

I haven't posted for a while again due to my eyes but today I'm trying a new app I've found that allows me to post direct from my phone to save me having to get the laptop out, hopefully that way when my eyes are ok I can quickly upload a post!

I have a card to share I made a while ago but never blogged ... again due to my eyes.

I used this adorable digi from LOTV, isn't it adorable!

 

I coloured it on Kraft card with my pencils and added white accents with my gel pen.

I also had a go at drawing in a back ground, yes the moon is a little large lol

 

I used papers from Michelle R designs which I also downloaded, the tags are from the same collection.

I finished off with flowers, ribbon and a block doily.

I hope you like it!

Hugs xx Cara xx

Christmas Kitties

Hi everyone,

I'm pleased to report my eyes are finally feeling a little better.  I'm off to see the eye hospital again this next week and also to see my pancreas specialist, hopefully I should get some answers as to why my flare's a becoming so much more regular :(

Any hoo the nights are drawing in so I've been making some Christmas cards!!!

Here is my first one for 2016:

This is the stunning "Christmas Kitties" image by Saturated Canary and I coloured her up with my pencils.

I used a card template from Dutch Doobadoo for my card base and the papers and sentiments are from LOTV.

I finished off with a tonne of flowers from WOC and a tiny star which I painted with gesso from Dutch Doobadoo.

I hope you like it.

Hugs xx Cara xx

A Card and a clean slate

Hi all,

Today is my girls last day of the summer holidays, its been a looooong 7 weeks and I wish I'd have gotten to spend it all off with them but sadly I've had to work most of it.

The new Uniforms and shoes, bags, stationery are all ready to go for the morning so we'll be enjoying a relaxing last day together probably watching DVD's.

I do have a card to share which I made last night but first I want to explain a little something...

I have a chronic health condition which has sadly become worse of the past 6 months and it is now affecting my eyes amongst many other things.  I have therefore taken the very very tough decision to step down from my DT's.  I felt I was more of a burden than an asset to them and couldn't give the commitment I wanted/they needed.

It has been like losing my family so i am feeling very emotional right now.  I cannot thank my fellow teamies for putting up with me for so long, i am so pleased to have spent the past 3-4 years working with you all and I will never forget the support you have given me.

 After a sleepless night I have decided I must wipe the slate clean and start again ... and to craft for the reason I intended to in the beginning..... to make myself happy.  I have cleared my blog so it is nice and fresh and I will now craft when and how I like ... to please me ... otherwise what is the point?

I may or may not blog everything I make, as to be honest this is the part I struggle to keep up with, the social media, the sharing, keeping up with the challenges and the commenting, it all takes far to much of my very precious time, time I need to spend with my family as and when I feel well.

So if you've stuck with me for this long i will share my card ...phew...

I have used another Papernest doll ..this is Witch Ellie ......she is so cute!

I have used my Distress Markers to colour her ... more practice needed I know.

I had to dig through my paper stash and only found 2 half pads of Halloween papers ... guess I need to go shopping!!

I added a sentiment from Stampin up and loads flowers from WOC.

Have a great day!

Hugs xx Cara xx

My first Paper Nest Doll - Watermelon Ellie

Hello again,

Twice in one week ... can you tell i'm off work??

So yesterday I created my very first card using an adorable Paper Nest doll! I've been admiring these cuties these for a while but never gotten round to playing until now.

I filled my basket so it was a tough choice which to use first ... they all remind me of my girlies :)

So I went for Watermelon Ellie I used the digital version but for some reason I couldn't link to it so i've linked to the rubber one instead.

I coloured her with my markers and added a touch of sparkle with my Clear Wink of Stella pen.

I've coloured in lovely fresh summery colours so just had to team her up with the bright papers from Lawn Fawn.

The die is from Whimsy and the sentiments are from LOTV, I love these little tags.

Finally I added a bunch of flowers from WOC and a handmade bow.

Hope you like it!

Hugs xx Cara xx

I would like to enter the following challenges:

PND challenge 8 - anything goes
craft-Dee Bowz - ATG with hand made bow
Crafty Hazelnuts patterned paper - ATG

Beauty of the Sea - Meribelle Friends

Morning campers!!

I'm back in the land of living, well near enough anyway!

Many of you know but for those who don't i'll just explain the "derelict-ness" of my poor old blog, I suffer with a long standing health condition and its been giving me some right old problems of late, thankfully i'm feeling a lot better now and even managed to do some crafting - yaaaaaay!

Now just to explain the title of my post, my little daughter Lacey (age 6) wanted to help write my post so I asked her for a name for my card ...and that's what she came up with "Beauty of the Sea"

I used the fabulous Meribelle Friends image, isn't she beautiful:

I teamed her with my new Paradise Crush papers to make a super bright card.

The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn and I finished off with loads of flowers from WOC.

I hope you like it!

Hugs xx Cara xx

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Fantasy Crafters Challenge - Anything Fantasy
Gem of a challenge - Summer fun
Alphabet challenge - M for Mythical
Deep ocean challenge - Seaside/Beach

The Pencil Cases Challenge - W = Whatever

This week at the Pencil Case Challenge we are sponsored by the fabulous Polkadoodles

The theme this week is "Whatever" so do whatever you like  .... easy peasy! I loved this challenge... the only thing challenging about it was which image to use!

Don't forget there are amazing prizes to be won too!

I decided to use one of my old favourites "Sleepy Head" and she can be found here.

Isn't she just fabulous!!??

I teamed her with some bold bright papers and kept the card pretty simple ... she is so sassy she doesn't need much else does she!

I hope you like it!

Huge hugs

xx Cara xx

Glitter it Teal at the Colour Crazy Craft Challenge

This week at the Colour Crazy Craft Challenge we are sponsored by the fabulous Oddball Art  and they are offering 3 images to the lucky winner!

The theme we are working with is "Glitter it Teal" and we have two colour palettes to chose from. 

I went with the one of the right, I love these colours, teal is right up there with my favourites right now and with sparkly glitter it's a winning combo!

The image I was given to work with is Evie n Bunni and can be found here.

I found the perfect DP's to go with the theme too and added loads of stickles to make it all sparkly!

I hope you like it!

Hugs xx Cara xx

The Pencil Cases Challenge - V= Varicoloured

Happy Saturday lovelies!

Today is the start of a new challenge over at the Pencil Cases blog and this week we would like to see you use ANY colouring medium and follow the theme of Varicoloured .... so just used lots of colours ... Simple!

This week we are sponsored by the fabulous Nikky Hall and Polkadoodles so you could be winning some fabby Polkadoodles prizes in addition to the awesome Lyra prizes up for grabs too!

 I used the super cute and brand new Winnie in Wonderland digital image, she is available on her own here or as part of a full stunning collection here.  Now in my mind this was going to come out a lot more colourful .. I used pink, purple, green and blue but blue and purple seem to overwhelm everything :)

I like to outline all of my images with a fine liner when I have coloured with pencils as I am a little heavy handed and tend to cover up the original lines with pencil, I also added loads of shabby white embossing powder and distress ink for a distressed look.

As you can tell I had a lot more time to spend on this card than usual so my embellishing is totally over the top ha ha!  I used loads of flowers from WOC, Die cut leaves and stickles!!

The sentiment is also from the collection, don't you just love it .... I think it is perfect for a totally over embellished card!

I hope you like my creation!  Don't forget to head over to the blog for some more fabulous inspiration!

Have a great weekend!

Hugs xx Cara xx

Polkadoodles New TV launch - Stamp Me Samples

Hi everyone I hope you are enjoying your weekend, the weather is not too good here, its very rainy but still sweaty ..not good for getting the washing dry at all!

Today  i'm sharing the samples I made for Nikky's latest release on Create and Craft ... the fabulous concept that is "Stamp Me".

If you haven't seen them there are two sets, Daisy Days and Summer time and the sets comprise of a stamp sheet and a CDrom.

I didn't get very much time at all to make samples due to having so much on at home so I kept the ones I did very simple ... in fact I only used the stamps and one sheet of backing paper from the CD to make 3 cards!!

The first on is my favourite, using the Daisy Days stamps.  I used my MISTI to create a floral burst on my card and then coloured it in with my Zig Clean colour markers, I finished of with my Wink of Stella pen and did some simple matting and layering.

I used the Daisy days again for the next card and stamped onto vellum and embossed with white detail powder.  I used distress ink to colour the background and then used my Zig clean colour markers again for the flowers, finishing of with some wink of stella and stickles.

For my final card I again stamped onto vellum (I used the Summer time stamps) and embossed with White powder, I then used this to create a shaker card.  I used paper from the CD to go inside the shaker and then filled it with pretty sequins, I also added a few onto the front of the card for some sparkle!

I hope you like them, I had great fun making them.

Hugs xx Cara xx

Sweet As Candy at the Colour Crazy Craft Challenge

Hello again my lovelies, i'm finally back in the land of blog again and trying to recoup my DT commitments!

Today I am sharing my card for the Colour Crazy Challenge Blog and this week we want to see your Sweet as Candy makes, we the DT were given 2 colour palettes to chose from but you can use whatever matches the theme ... remember you can also use whatever colour medium you choose!

This week we are sponsored by the fabulous Molly Harrison and one lovely winner could walk away with some stunning images to play with.

I used the stunning image Worry, I love her.  I  but used a bit of artistic licence with the colour theme and chose to darken the candy colours  and teamed them with black to darken the overall look of the card.

Such an amazing image to colour, I used my Graph'it Markers of course and added some white gel pen for the details in her hair and facial features.

I layered everything up on black card and added flowers from WOC and a sentiment die from Simon Says Stamp.

I hope you like it.

Huge hugs xx Cara xx

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge - Hand Coloured image

crafty girls creations - ATG

Crafting for all seasons - Make it girly

Crafting from the heart - ATG

craft your passion challenges - ATG

Polkadoodles 7th Birthday Mash up!

Happy 7th birthday Polka Doodles!!!!

As this anniversary is normally called the "7 year itch", the Polka Doodles team have embraced the prickly feeling by scratching that itch and mixing/scratching up some new images ... get the pun? Corny we know but the team have had great fun. So to embrace the “itchy scratch” the Polka Doodles team have thrown caution to the wind and “scratched up” a different kind of birthday celebration.

The birthday celebrations will be running for 2 weeks and each day someone from the Polka Doodles team will be sharing their “mixed/scratched up” image. It’s been all hush hush and secret squirrel too as no one knows who has been busy creating what and when they will be revealing their image... so the Polka Doodles team get to join in the fun too. To add an extra layer of itchy fun, everyone has also been colouring up the new “scratched/mixed up” images, (still not knowing who designed them) and they will be sharing via their blogs and on FaceBook.
We really have scratched things up ... new merged images, no one knows who created what and no one knows when they’ll be sharing them ...!

Please do take the opportunity to visit the Polka Doodles team and see their new digi images because you will find a discount code (or two) along your way that you can use in the Polka Doodles shop

So today its my turn to share my mixed up image, I used the Arctic Unicorn from the Frosted winter collection and the sweet wedding carriage from the Work and Play Love and Kisses, you can find my merged image at a special price here!

So I coloured my image with my Lyra Rembrandt Polycolours, now I haven't been too well lately and seem to have lost my ability to colour so i have to admit this was like my 6th attempt!

I added lashings of sparkle with my Wink of Stella Pens, and the image was so large in the end it completely filled and A5 card!

I hope you like it ... and for those of you who stuck around till the the end here is a special discount code to use in the store on any single image download! "BIRTHDAY20"

REMEMBER TO USE IT BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT (23/05/2016 GMT)

Now if you would like some more inspiration and to continue the celebrations, why not head over to visit us at the Facebook group we would love to see you over there!

Hugs xx Cara xx

Polkadoodles 7th Birthday Celebrations!!!

Happy 7th birthday Polka Doodles!

As this anniversary is normally called the "7 year itch", the Polka Doodles team have embraced the prickly feeling by scratching that itch and mixing/scratching up some new images ... get the pun? Corny we know but the team have had great fun. So to embrace the “itchy scratch” the Polka Doodles team have thrown caution to the wind and “scratched up” a different kind of birthday celebration.

The birthday celebrations will be running for 2 weeks and each day someone from the Polka Doodles team will be sharing their “mixed/scratched up” image. It’s been all hush hush and secret squirrel too as no one knows who has been busy creating what and when they will be revealing their image... so the Polka Doodles team get to join in the fun too. To add an extra layer of itchy fun, everyone has also been colouring up the new “scratched/mixed up” images, (still not knowing who designed them) and they will be sharing via their blogs and on FaceBook.
We really have scratched things up ... new merged images, no one knows who created what and no one knows when they’ll be sharing them ...!

Please do take the opportunity to visit the Polka Doodles team and see their new digi images because you will find a discount code (or two) along your way that you can use in the Polka Doodles shop.

So make sure you stick around till the end because there is a little gift for you my lovely visitors..

So today it's my turn to share my secret teamies Mixed up image ..... I believe the lovely Jackie created this little masterpiece  ...its was so much fun to colour! 

So the images are from the Winnie Fruit Punch and Work and Play 12 Collections ... don't you just love that sentiment too!

I coloured it up with my Graph'it Markers and simply matted and layered it onto black and glittered card stock.

I hope you like it, don't forget you will be able to buy the full merged image at a super special price as soon as it goes live in the shop so keep checking in at the facebook group ... until then here is a 20% discount code for you all and you can use it on ALL digis in the shop (no full collections guys) the code is BIRTHDAY20 NOW USE IT QUICKLY MY LOVELIES AS IT WILL EXPIRE 17TH MAY AT MIDNIGHT GMT.

Have fun creating guys and enjoy the party!!!

Hugs Cara xx