The chocolate basket

I would like to wish all my followers (and anyone else who reads my posts) a Blessed Easter, and I am so thankful that my Lord and Saviour rose from the dead and defeated Satan in one fell swoop!

My 5 grandchildren are still young - some not even talking yet (3 months - 10 years), yet the 3 eldest (5, 7, 10) fully understand the significance of Easter and how our Lord paid a price yet came out victorious. However, they are still kids - and so many kids love eating chocolate at Easter time - often the only time they are ever allowed to gorge on the yummy stuff! I bought the 3 eldest one chocolate bunny each (I could not find decent egg shaped chocolates that weren't coated in sugar!), and put them into this little basket that I made from a folded piece of 12"x12" cardstock, and then decorated it. The bunnies are 10cm in height, and I'm amazed this little bag held all 3 without breaking!

Don't berate me for buying chocolate bunnies for the kids - as I said, my grandkids know the significance of Easter. I am a gran after all, and love spoiling them. I too was a kid many moons ago, and can remember how excited my sister and I were, that eventhough my parents were battling financially, they still treated us to some chocolate at Easter time.

New digistamps at DS4J - Ooh-la-la

Not sure what was going through my head when I drew this digi, but it probably had something to do with most of the new digistamps being released this Sunday at Digistamps4Joy, being wedding related! Either way, this is what evolved, including the spotty border! I have called this digi 'Ooh-la-la", and after I coloured in her shoes and the spotty border in a vibrant red, the rest of the card sort of just 'evolved'.

No embossing or glitter, but I did use two MS punches to create the lacy border and the lace strip. The red ribbon at the bottom of the card was in my stash - funny I never saw it before! Digistamp is coloured with SN and Copic pens.

New items used - digistamp
Old items used - paper from stash, ribbon.

Challenges entered
Hiding in my craftroom - freestyle
Sweet stampin challenge - oh so girly
Clearly inspired - anything goes

New digistamps at DS4J - Wedding Bouquet

The majority of the images for the 31st March 2013 release ended up being wedding images! This is the one I drew called 'Wedding bouquet". The digistamp was inspired by my Sister-in-law's own wedding bouquet, and my colouring is in line with the same colours of flowers she had in her bouquet.

The embossed paper behind the image is made with a new embossing folder from Couture Creations called "Washed away". I found the shiny pearls in my local craft shop, and the daisy ribbon and blue bow are both from my stash. Image is coloured with SN and Copic pens, and tiny dots of glitter added to the gyps flowers.

New items used - digistamp, embossing folder, shiny pearls
Old items used - glitter glue, ribbon, paper from stash.

Challenges entered
Di's digistamps - flowers
My Sheri Crafts - spring has sprung
Totally gorjuss - something blue

New digistamp at Digistamps4Joy - Angel Angie

I believe in angels and so this little drawing is in line with that thinking. The new image is one I drew for Digistamps4Joy and is called "Angel Angie". 

I used a LOOOOT of bling on this card! The punched border behind the image is made with a new MS punch I bought, and the diecut leaf and swirl are both from new dies. The pearl and pearly leaf are both from Blueberry Bear, and the flowers from the stash. Image is coloured with SN and Copic pens, and lots of glitter glue added.

New items used - MS punch, leaf and swirl dies, pearls and pearly leaves
Old items used - glitter glue, flowers, paper from stash.
Challenges entered
Brown sugar - anything goes
Clearly inspired - anything goes
Dilly beans - glitter
Jelly park - pretty pastels

New digistamp at Digistamps4Joy - Gretel's house

This is one of those 'nice-to-look-at-but-can't-eat' drawings! I have always loved sweets, but have recently had to cut all sugar out of my diet, so this is a bitter-sweet card LOL! The new image is one I drew for Digistamps4Joy and is called "Gretel's house", and I merged it with another DS4J image called "Let's go".

The punched border behind the image is made with a new MS punch I bought, and the red ribbon is threaded through a ribbon punched border. Not much else except for a bit of card candi and some glitter on the sweets. Images are coloured with SN and Copic pens. I hope this card is 'sweet' enough!

New items used - MS punch, digistamp
Old items used - glitter glue, ribbon, paper from stash, card candi.
Challenges entered
Creative inspirations - anything goes
Avenue 613 - anything goes
One crazy stamper - anything goes
Nana Vics 4th challenge - anything goes
Robyns fetish - food or drink

Get Together event

Digistamps4Joy and Shelly's images have been celebrating a 'shared' challenge on Paper Craft Planet. The two group owners (myself and Shelly) each provided one free image, and the requirement is that BOTH images must be used and made up on one card. This is the side-step card I made with the two images viz:
"Egg basket" from Digistamps4Joy and "Peter" from Shelly's Images.

All the images were coloured with my SN and Copic pens, edges chalked to create depth, and a white gel pen used to create highlights. The sentiment and background papers all come from a free scrapbooking kit at Scrappy Nats.
If you have not downloaded these 2 Group images yet, head on over to Paper Craft Planet to the Digistamps4Joy group and get the voucher code and instructions! All entries are to be posted in both group discussions.
New items used: free easter egg images from online colouring pages, Scrappynat kit
Old items used: digistamps from DS4J and Shelly's Images, glitter

Challenges entered with this card.
Chalk-ah-lot - easter with chalk
Creative inspirations paint - anything goes
Glitter n sparkle - animals
Kenny Ks krafty krew - anything goes
Hobby cutz - Easter

New DS4J digistamp - "3D Flower set"

I drew this 'set' of 3 flowers based on the same principle as using a nested die in the Cuttlebug or a cutting file on a cutting machine viz. 3 flowers sized from medium to small, plus a leaf and a stem. The idea is that this digistamp set can be printed directly onto patterned card, OR can be printed on white card and coloured in. I chose to the former, but added another 'twist' to the use of this digi. One of my DT members (Pam) kindly converted my digi set into a SVG cutting file for me! So I basically completed two tasks in one! I re-sized the flowers to a larger size, cut them out with MTC on my cutting machine, chalked, curved, and glittered the edges of the flowers, and glued one on top of the other to create a 3D effect.

The punched border is made with a new MS punch I bought, and the embossed background is also a new embossing plate. I very lightly chalked the embossed page with a light pink chalk. I think the flower turned out quite nicely, don't you?

New items used - embossing plate, punch, digistamp
Old items used - glitter glue, ribbon, paper from stash.
Challenges entered
Lady Annes - anything goes with a stamp
Reasonable ribbon - flowers and ribbon
Sparkle 'n sprinkle - anything goes with glitter
Tando creative - flowers
2 sisters - flowers for spring
CDAC - anything goes
One crazy stamper - anything goes
Nana Vics 4th challenge - anything goes
One stop craft challenge - anything goes

New Digistamps4Joy digistamp - "Weskus fishermans cottage"

This is one of those "out-of-the-box" cards for me. I drew the image (Weskus fisherman's cottage), then got this weird idea that perhaps I should try watercolour paints and paper. After searching and searching for my watercolour paper, and then battling to get the printer to print on it, I eventually succeeded! Now bear in mind that I have not done any watercolour painting since 2009, so am a bit rusty on the technique, and had to first practice on a scrap of paper.  

The card is VERY simply made up - just the image pasted onto one piece of dark brown cardstock to create a frame, and then this pasted onto beige cardstock. No embellishments, no sentiment, NO glitter (yep a record for me!), no ribbon, no flowers - got the drift?
New items used - new digistamp
Old items used - paper from stash.
Challenges entered
Lady Annes - anything goes with a stamp
CDAC - anything goes
One crazy stamper - anything goes
Nana Vics 4th challenge - anything goes
Simply less is more - frame it
One stop craft challenge - anything goes
So artful - shades of brown + cream

Abigail's birthday card

My eldest grandchild - Abigail (Abby) turned 10 today, and she chose the theme of Under the Sea for her party. I asked My Scrap Chick to design a set of cutting files that I could use to make decorations with, and this is what Kristi sent me .... a stunning set of cutting files AND digis AND pre-coloured images! Real value for money.

I used the pre-coloured images to create this side-stepper card for Abby - she loved it! The sentiment is a new peel-off I bought at the Hobby-X craft fair, and the tiny pearls are from Blueberry Bear. I added glitter to the mermaid's green fins and the seaweed.

I used the cutting files to make small versions of the mermaid, clam, and fish, and glued these onto toothpicks. These were then pushed into the delicious cupcakes my daughter made.

New items used - Under the Sea cutting files and pre-coloured images, peel-off
Old items used - googly eyes, glitter glue, pearls, paper from stash.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:
Robyns fetish challenge - birthday -cards
That craft place - anything goes
Challenges 4 everybody - anything goes
Eclectic Ellapu - birthdays
Hobby cutz challenges - anything goes

 

Creating a scene

When I typed the title of this post in, I had a good giggle as I suddenly realised that in the English language it could be taken up two ways - as in 'creating a public disturbance', or as in 'creating scenery!' Well I'm certainly NOT planning a public disturbance! I found this celebration challenge at Stampin' Fantasies (thanks for the invite Brenda!) where you can make a card based on anything that you like on that blog. Brenda creates the most wonderful 'scenes' (here's that wording again) with her rubber stamping, and I thought .... let me try and create a South African scene with some of the Digistamps4Joy digis! Well, I ended up using EIGHT different ones, and merged all of the .png file versions in Microsoft Word.

The "scene" was pasted onto a piece of black linen paper which I tore to created the frayed edges, then onto a printed zebra paper. The buttons are wooden buttons which I coloured with COPICS! Not much else in the line of embellishment except for the gold peel-offs.
The DS4J digis I used are:
Bluebell log
Fence
Bluegum bounty
Whirly wheat
Guineafowls
Kudu bull
Juvenile trio
Spotty Queen

Have you tried merging digistamps yet? All the Digistamps4Joy images come in 2 formats, one with a white background (.jpg), and one with a transparent background (.png) so you can merge images over one another.

New items used - printed zebra paper
Old items used - buttons, paper from stash, gold peel-offs.

I am entering this card into the following challenge:
Floral Fantasies - anything goes from the blog

 

New digistamp at Digistamps4Joy - "Bicycle"

I drew this stamp "Bicycle" for the shop, thinking what on earth am I going to make with this. Yet it was actually quite fun, and I can now see quite a few possibilities. At least 'real' bicycles now come in such a range of colours that this image could easily be adjusted for boy, girl, or vintage cards.

The bicycle was coloured in with alcohol pens and 'platinum' Stickles glitter glue added to the bicycle frame (yes, I used it again!).  The sentiment was created on the PC, and various die cuts and punches were used. Those funny little pink shapes in the corners are actually the bits that normally get thrown out when I diecut a specific shape (not used here), but I glittered them up and stuck 3 down in each corner. What do you think - does it work?
New items used - new digistamp
Old items used - gem flowers, paper from stash.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:
Allsorts - for a lady
Kraftin Kimmie stamps - springy pastel colours
Catch the bug - anything goes
Totally gorjuss - anything goes with pink
Picture and scrap - pastel colours
Lady Annes - anything goes sentiment

 

New digistamp at Digistamps4Joy - "Racing hare Harry"

This digistamp "Racing hare Harry" is one of the new ones I drew and is in my shop Digistamps4Joy.

 

Ever had those times when your mojo is just DOWN? Goodness, I just could not decide what to do with Harry after colouring him in, so instead went for an embossed background of gears on white paper, rubbed with some silver chalk. Notice - no embellishments either except a title, so hopefully the focus is on the title and Harry.

Harry was coloured in the alcohol pens and a 'platinum' Stickles glitter glue added to the bicycle frame. This particular stickles is my MOSTEST (is there such a word?) favourite glitter glue as it produces a fantastic metallic sparkle. The sentiment is one of those acrylic-coated sentiments that you buy on sticker sheets. Had this for absolutely aaaaaages, so I'm glad I could use it now.
New items used - new digistamp
Old items used - sentiment, paper from stash.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:
Emergency crafters - mad as a March hare
Sweet stampin - embossing
My time to craft - embossing

Catch the bug - anything goes