Under the Sea

That's the new challenge over at Crafts and Me.
Now if I think of under the sea, I think of mermaids; my fave image of the moment is this gorgeous flippered gal from ching-chou kuik. Speaking of favourite stamps, that just so happens to be the theme for Sweet Pea Stampers!


And what colours say 'underwater'? Blue and green of course. Guess what? Yup another challenge, this time Crafty Creations are asking for a feminine birthday card in just those colours (and the perfect way to move on from all that pink yesterday).

And to finish off, Simon Says Stamp Challenge has a recipe of 1 image (the mermaid -check), 2 papers (the dotty one and the stamped/inked one -check), and 3 types of embellishments (shaped beads, gems and string -check!)


Image stamped in black StazOn and coloured with DI's using the watercolour technique (Faded Jeans, Weathered Wood, Forest Moss, Tea Dye and Walnut Stain); plus fleshtone watercolour pencil; cut out and layered onto foampads.
Strip of torn white paper inked with Weathered Wood and scalloped border stamped in Faded Jeans to look like scales.
Torn strip of green dotty paper, edged in Forest Moss.
Torn piece of white card stamped with sentiment, coloured WW and edged in FJ; wrapped with strand of string and adhered with foampads.
Beads threaded onto knotted string double strand.


Take care and happy crafting,
Charli x

Another Great Sketch

The challenge over at Sweet Pea Stampers is a beautiful sketch by DT member Vanessa.

This paper is absolutely lovely, fab colours, and is a sheet from a book of free paper from an old craft mag (wish I knew where I could get more). I cut a square down into the blocks on the sketch and adhered them to a square of silver mirror card.

The image is yet another gorgeous ching-chou kuik meraid, stamped with black Staz-On and coloured with Distress Inks (Weathered Wood, Victorian Velvet, Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Walnut Stain and Forest Moss) using a waterbrush. I cut around it using a pair of decorative edged scissors, layered onto more silver mirror card and mounted onto foam pads.

The flowers were punched and ribbled until the layers peeled apart and were coloured with Weathered Wood and Victorian Velvet DI (which match the paper superbly).

The finishing touch is the text, a quote from Hans Christian Andersen that was included on the ching-chou kuik stamp plate.

Charli x

New and Neglected Stash

The best thing about the challenges over at Sketch n Stash is not just the fabulous sketches to inspire you, but the nudge in the right direction to use new and/or neglected stash. And this week I've used both.

For this weeks sketch click HERE

The 'new' element from my stash is another beautiful ching-chou kuik image, stamped in black Staz-On and coloured with watercolour pencils.
The paper is from the Dovecraft Fantasy pack, which I've had for nearly a year and have used only twice (and never this actual paper either),and the border punch (from Woodware) has been sat collecting dust for goodness knows how long.

A lovely simple sketch design that results in a beautifully simple elegant card, may have to use this sketch again in the future!

Charli x

A Winged One

I made this card using one of my gorgeous new Ching-Chou Kuik stamps, and as luck would have it it's suitable for entry into a couple of challenges.

Firstly over at Crafts and Me the theme is Time To Spread Your Wings, meaning anything with wings, which this gorge mermaid-fairy definitely has.

Also the requirement over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges is to make your own embellishment/s, which I have done with my distressed paper flowers.

The flowers were punched from ordinary white cardstock, and run through my paper ribbler/crimper/thingamajig in all directions until the layers peeled apart, then coloured with Distress Inks (Dusty Concorde and Milled Lavender). The centres were doodled on with a gel pen.

As for the rest of the card, it was a white square base card and I cut the front off then folded it in half so that the image could stand above it and it would still fit in the same envelope. I used some temporary adhesive to attach some star-shaped sequins to the bottom corner to act as masks, and inked the whole card with Milled Lavender DI and edged it in Dusty Concorde. I stamped the script background in black Staz-On.

The image was stamped in Staz-On and coloured with watercolour pencils. I trimmed her down and rounded the top corners before layering onto purple holigraphic card. It's attached to the base with foam pads and the flowers were added with mini glue-dots to allow the petals to maintain dimention. The finishing touch is the 'Do you believe' stamp that came on the same plate as the image.

Feelin' Blue

For this card I followed the lovely sketch set by Sweet Pea Stampers, and as I used my witch for my last beermat, I decided to use my fairy (ching-chou kuik) this time.

I swear they won't always appear as blue-eyed brunettes(can't think why I do that lol), in fact I have stamped out a few of each image ready to be coloured - making each one different.

Anyway, back to the card. Over at the Crafter's Companion blog the challenge for this fortnight is monotone, hence all the blue; and I think this stamp looks even more gorgeous in mixed shades of blue.


Again, I coloured her with watercolour pencils, masked her off and covered the background in Weathered Wood DI and edged it with Faded Jeans DI.


The paper in the very background is from the Kate Knight stack; the bright cyan paper is from some candy I won from Tuesday Taggers a fortnight ago; and as always there is a bit of book page (think I'm getting slightly obsessed with using it!), coloured with Weathered Wood.


The blue heart is ready for a greeting, when I find a use for this card; and it was a bit of a personal challenge to myself to make a girlie blue card.

As a finishing touch, as the challenge that started over at Crafty Creations today is 'magical' I added silver glitter glue over her wings for a bit of fairy magic.

Charmed, Enchanted, Bewitched

After going for a couple of drinks at our local for a friend's birthday, I came home to find that a handful of their uniquely shaped beermats had ended up in my pocket! A very odd occurance but hey, now they're here I may as well alter them.

So here is my project for the Darkness Inspiration challenge- Bewitched.

First I spent the better part of an hour trying to get the top layer off of the darned beermat (the others I have peel off easily; not so with this one - in fact there is still a little bit left under where the image is!)

I coloured the background Forest Moss DI (see! a new colour at last!) and then edged it in Faded Jeans. Then I took another torn out book page, coloured it with Weathered Wood (my other new DI) and stuck it down, trimming around the beermat and edging again with Faded Jeans.

Next I stamped out the Tim Holtz ticket block stamp, this time leaving it in tact rather than cutting them apart, to use as another background - tinting it with Weathered Wood (my new fave!) and then using a cottonbud to add Forest Moss around the edges of the tickets; again sticking it down then trimming it down.

The image is one of the gorgeous ching-chou kuik images, made by Sweet Pea stamps and bought from Crafts and Me. I coloured her with watercolour pencils then painstakingly cut out a mask from sticky notes and coloured the background with Weathered Wood, Faded Jeans and Forest Moss.

I used my brass stencils to do the wording with my brown Indian ink marker, using the same ink colours; added an eyelet and a strip of lace(ish) ribbon, some silver gems and finally a bit of silver glitter.

This piece is also being entered into the following challenges:
Crafts and Me - sparkle (the gems and glitter)
Crafty Pad - ribbon (the strip bowed at the top)
Fab'n'Funky - no designer paper
Crafty Creations - make your own backing paper (I did mine with a stamp, book page and planty of Distress Ink!)
and finally, Lexi's Creations - animals (her two adorable kittens)

Take care and happy crafting

Charli xx