Tim Holtz Distress Markers have Distressed me

Evening everyone,
I watched Tim's video on Distress Markers and thought hey they look cool, so on an impulse I bought the whole set, I think I did well on finding them online as they seem to be sold out everywhere.  Anyway they turned up on Saturday morning, excellent service from Art from the Heart.  I could not wait to try them, so watched his video again and started.  This was where I became distressed.  They did not blend, I tried all sorts of paper (he says on his video you can use any paper), coated paper, water colour paper, card, thin paper, thick paper, maybe I am thick...
I put them away and tried again the next day still no luck - I guess they only work on his speciality paper.  The problem seems to be is the colours are very intense and when you try to blend them with a water brush some colour moves with the brush but the initial colour you laid down does not fade or blend in any way shape or form. 
So I packaged them up tonight and they are on their way back to Art from the Heart tomorrow. 
I don't know if I was doing it wrong but I thought you should all know to try them in a craft shop if possible before spending money on them.  They did not work for me. 

Hugs from a sad Suzie

P.S.  Because of what I have been reading on other blogs people are not happy with the DI Markers, if you are in the UK and have bought over the internet from a UK site then you are allowed to return them within 7 days for a full refund, even if you have opened the packet and tried one or two of them.  I know this as a director of a large ecommerce business it is my job to know the law.  In fact if the company does not give or send you written (not email or on their web) terms and conditions of their refund policy you actually have 3 months and 7 days from receipt of goods, but I would not leave it more than 7 days - contact the seller and ask for a returns number, send the parcel recorded delivery too. 



Digital Tuesday Challenge - DT Post

Hiya Everyone
It's Tuesday so that must mean another Digital Tuesday Challenge.  This week it is the lovely Michelle's turn and she has chosen the theme of 'Leap Year - Things that Leap' and we are sponsor by the fantastic Robyn's Fetish. 

When I saw the DT images I just knew what I was going to do, as the song just kept going around in my head.

I thought this would make a great 'thinking of you' card for when someone has troubles or is feeling down, great card to have in your stash.  It is a nice bright happy card so hope will bring a smile to someones face one day. 

I didn't have an oval die when I made this card a couple of weeks ago so I made myself a template for the oval and the oval scalloped border and cut them freehand.  I have since treated myself to a plain oval and scalloped oval so will not have to go through the same laborious process again.  I also added extra raindrops and used glossy accents to highlight. There are also pale blue clouds, not that easy to see but there are there.

Ingredients

Paper - First Edition Spring Drop

Image - Robyn's Fetish

Tree Die - Marianne

Sentiment - Pink Petticoat

Song Sentiment - Rhianna 

Hope my card brings a smile to your face. 

Hugs

Saturated Canary - Circus Trixie

Evening,
I had a lovely weekend, managed to get two cards made, a lovely walk and did some gardening too :). How was your weekend - I would love to hear.
This is the second Saturated Canary digi I did over the weekend.  I just love these images they are all so gorgeous and fantastic to colour.   This is Circus Trixie and I made this card especially to enter the Saturated Canary Challenge, anything but a square or rectangle card. 

This is a circle rocker card, which I designed on my CraftRobo, it is a large flower circle and then a smaller circle with hearts cut out. 

I loved colouring her in, especially her hair. 

Hope you like. 

Ingredients

Image - Saturated Canary - Circus Trixie

Markers - Copics

Flower - DooHickey

Sentiment - Spellbinder Heart Die & Computer Generated Sentiment

Paper - Pink Petticoat

I would like to enter this into

http://saturatedcanarychallenge.blogspot.com/ - Challenge 11 - Anything but Square or Rectangle
http://clearlyistamp.typepad.com/my_weblog/ - Let's get Shapely
http://craftsandmechallenges.blogspot.com - Shades of Spring

Hugs

Saturated Canary - Murray - Easter Card

Good Evening,
I am having a nice relaxing Saturday evening, glass of wine and blogging :) after a long walk earlier today, still had time to do a card though. Hope you have all had a wonderful day too. 

I have a lovely Saturated Canary image call Murray just perfect for an Easter card. 

Using my new Memory Box dies from the lovely Teresa at MCH. 

The paper is a First Edition, Spring Drop - I just love this pad and know I am going to end buying it again, this is a close up of one of the glitter pages.

Close up of Murray, she is so pretty I just want to hug her... LOL. 

Ingredients

Digi Stamp - Saturated Canary - Murray

Paper - First Edition - Spring Drop

Dies - All Memory Box from MCH

Butterflies - Martha Stewart

Coloured in copics

I would like to enter this into the following challenges

http://craftsandmechallenges.blogspot.com/ spring
http://www.sarahhurleychallenges.blogspot.com/  die cuts
http://foryourinspirationchallenges.blogspot.com/ spring
http://sassycherylschallenge.blogspot.com/ no embossing
http://fairytale-challengeblog.blogspot.com/ spring

I've won an award!!!

I am very grateful to Betsy Clark who has nominated me for the Liebster Blog award - how cool is that, thank you so much Betsy :).

The LIEBSTER BLOG AWARD is used to show appreciation of smaller blogs (under 200 followers)  and to help spread readership and joy.
As part of the tradition the award is to be passed along to five other blogs that have motivated and inspired me. 
The name comes from the German meaning Dearest or  Beloved, but can also mean Favourite.
To accept the Award you must:
1. Link back to the person's blog who gave it to  you, and thank them.
2. Post on your blog.
3. Give to five other Bloggers who you appreciate and value.
4. Leave a comment on the five blogs you choose and  let them know.

This was a really easy decision for me as these blogs I have been following for ages and everyone of them deserves this award.

http://chrisscardcraft.blogspot.com/   Chris was one of the first people I encountered in blogland, her cards are amazing and she is full of encouragement. 

http://vicky-pawprince.blogspot.com/ - Vicky is fairly new and is an artist - her cards are so beautiful

http://scrappermaya.blogspot.com/ - Maya is a teamie of mine from Digital Tuesday, who makes the most amazing scrapbook pages - beautiful family - you need to check out her blog

http://emzycards.blogspot.com/ - Emma is extremely talented and should have hundreds of followers

http://purplestormsblog.blogspot.com/ - Bev makes amazing cards and really does deserve a lot more followers.

I hope you will all accept this award.

Hugs

LOTV - Gift Wrapped

Good Morning Everyone

Wow what a hot day yesterday, we had a temperature in the afternoon of 19 degrees, how hot is that and it is only end of February and there are frogs mating in my pond - global warming???

Anyway I am definately in the Spring mood now, so onto my card, this is my favourite colour of the moment, such a beautiful happy green.   

The image is a LOTV stamp - Gift Wrapped, coloured in copics, with Stardust Stickles on the ribbon and the butterflies.

The flower is Tim Holz Tattered Florals, which has been spritzed with plenty of Micra Powders diluted with water and a WOC brad in the middle. 

Close up of the image, the grass was done using a tutorial from the super talented Pops, thank you for sharing :). 

Ingredients

Stamp - LOTV - Gift Wrapped

Die - Spellbinders

Papers - First Edition Spring Drop

Main Flower - Tattered Florals

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges.

Crazy Challenge - Use a die or punch

Cutie Pie Challenge - Flower Power

Craft Us Crazy - Favourite Colour

Digital Tuesday Challenge - Make it Sparkle

Hello Everyone,
I would especially like to thank all my followers old and new and thank you to everyone who takes the time to leave me a comment, they mean so much to me :). 
Second post of the day and this is Digital Tuesday Challenge and this week we are sponsored by My Grafico and our theme is Make It Sparkle.  We were given a lovely set of owl digis called What a Hoot and I decided to add two owls (plus a branch) together as I thought they would make a lovely Anniversay card.

Coloured in Copics with plenty of Stardust Stickles for glitter, plus pearls for the girlie eyes and black Swarovski crystal gems, no less, for the male's eyes.  These stones are amazing and really glitter but unfortunatley the camera did not pick it up, bought about £50 worth of these and used them to decorate some shoes and a clutch bag for my step-daughters wedding last year after seeing Swarovski crystal shoes at a wedding fair. The shoes turned out fanastic and no stones dropped off - I have a few stones left over so they have gone into my stash.

The papers on the card from the very lush Spring Drop - First Edition, they are too gorgeous to use, I found it very difficult. The sentiment is from Pink Petticoat.

Ingredients

Papers - First Edition Spring Drop

Digi - What a Hoot - My Grafico

Sentiment - Pink Petticoat

If you have arrived here from Digital Tuesday Challenge Blog then  a very warm hello, if not then please drop over there and see the fantastic creations me teamies have made this week.

Hope you like :).

Anything Goes Challenge Blog - Altered Box, Bag or Tag

Hello everyone,
Can I just say hello to my new followers and thank you to the old one.  I do cherish all the comments you leave me :). 

Ohhhh... I am so out of my comfort zone with this challenge but hey I would never have tried it if not for the DT post this fortnight. 
Our theme this week is Challenge 61 - Box it, Bag it, Tag it! - Altered Paper Bags / Boxes / Tags. 
I ended up altering two boxes, the first is a little chest I bought from Craft Den these are really lovely chests which I guess if you were into altering would make a fantastic project.  Please be gentle with me this is my first attempt at anything like this.

The first thing I did was cover the little chest in bright pink paint then when dry I painted it again with Tim Holz Crackle Paint  in White Picket Fence, used Tattered Rose and Tea Dye Distressed Ink Pads to colour it.
The little label I made myself by using a nesties die to make a frame, I printed 'Memories' on the computer and then covered it with Glossy Accents.

I covered the sides with lace, brown organza ribbon, more lace and pearls.  The top has paper from a labels pad with more organza ribbon and roses. 

So onto my second effort, this is a little box from Thorntons which held 3 chocolates which we used as place settings at Christmas (I kept the boxes I knew they would come in handy). 

I made two little heart shapes for the top, plus the nestie labels die again. 

Again I used the lace and pearls, with flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts. 

Hope you like them and if you have arrived here from Anything Goes Challenge Blog hope they have given you some inspiration and if you have not been there yet please go over and see the other fanastic creations my teamies have made you will be blowed away. 

Ingredients

Chests for Altering - Craft Den

Distress Crackle Paint, Picket Fence - Craft Den

Distressed Ink Tea Dye and Tattered Rose - Craft Den

Lace & Pearls - Stash

Flowers - WOC

Heart shaped box - Thorntons

Saturated Canary - Whispy a Fairy

Hello everyone,
This week has been very hard, with major problems at work, which I will not bore you with, but because of that I have not felt like blogging although I do have many cards prepared.
Anyway I woke up more positive this morning and I would like to share with you all a card I made a few weeks ago, in fact I think it was the first card I used my new copics on.

Saturated Canary digi with Bearly Mine digi paper.

I really do enjoy colouring in Kirsta's image and could sit all day doing them :).

Close up of Flowers and charm.

Ingredients

Image - Saturated Canary

Paper - Bearly Mine Designs - Christmas Wishes

Flowers, Hat Pin - Wild Orchid Crafts

Charm - Ebay

I would like to enter this in

Creative Inspirations - Challenge 150

Cute Card Thursday - Flower Power

The Crafty Pad - Letter B (Blue & Brown)

Digital Tuesday - Use Your Stash

Hiya Everyone
Today I have my second ever post for Digital Tuesday and this week our theme is Use Your Stash - how easy is that, this week we have been sponsor by the brilliant Spesch Stamps. The image I have chosen to use is Kei with Net, so without further ado here is my card.

I was not sure quite what to do with this lovely image but decided to try and make a butterfly card -this is a tri-fold concertina card. really easy to do, if anyone is interested in how to do, please let me know.  Coloured in copic and glitter with stickles, the tree die a Marianne Designs. 

A slightly different view which I hope shows up the format of the card. 

Hope you like the card and drop over the Digital Tuesday Challenge and see the designs from the other DT members - there are some fantastic ones this week. 

Ingredients

Paper - Nitwits

Tree - Marianne Designs

Pearls - Stash

Paper for flowers and butterflies - Scraps from Stash.

Hope you enjoy this.





Saturated Canary - Hippy Love

Hello Everyone,
I have had a lovely weekend, the Creative Craft Show came to town and I visited on Friday and spent mmm... too much and then I ended up going back again on Saturday and spent even more.  I have discovered that Craft Fairs are the best way to lose weight as I now cannot afford to feed us for the rest of the month... LOL. 
So to the card, I made this specially to enter the latest Saturated Canary Challenge Blog, I just love Krista's images - they are always a pleasrue to colour in.  So without further ado here it is.

Hippy Love, coloured in copics, the flower is a hand-made tissue flower.  The kraft card I used was part of my Craft Fair purchases as is the Spellbinders heart circle die.  The stamped border around the image and sentiment was again Craft Fair purchases. 

Close up of the flower, I used white tissue paper which I coloured with Lipstick Distress Ink with a Moonstone Brad in the middle and a butterfly dangle underneath.

I would like to enter this in

Saturated Canary Challenge 10 - Pink, Red & White.

Hugs



Digital Tuesday - Stamp Fairy - Molly Fairy

Hi everyone

I am so excited today to share my first DT post for Digital Tuesday Challenge.  This week we are sponsored by Stamp Fairy and our theme is Pink or Red, bet you cannot guess which colour I chose... LOL.

The image is Molly Fairy, just a beautiful image for a little girl's card, coloured in Copics with plenty of Stardust stickles on the wings and wand.  The paper is digi from Nitwits - Tippy Toes 2 and Perfect Pairs 2.  I used my nestie die for the circles and the butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch.

Ingredients

Digi Image - Molly Fairy - Stamp Fairy

Paper - Tippy Toes2 & Perfect Pairs2 - Nitwits

Butterflies - Martha Stewart punch

Charm - Ebay

Brad - Wild Orchid Crafts

Ribbon - stash

Pearls - stash

You must drop by Digital Challenge Tuesday and see what the other extremely talented DT members have done. 

Hugs

 

Fizzy Moon - Thanks a Bunch

Good Afternoon,
It is cold, wet and slushy here in Manchester today, not good dog walking weather so my idea of a treadmill for Rosie whilst I craft is looking better and better... LOL.
Talking of walking the dog, I meet a lady most mornings who always gives Rosie a treat, she is a lovely lady in her 70's who always looks beautifully turned out even at 7:30 in the morning, hair styled and full make up on, she always seems so happy but the other morning she looked really sad, so I asked her why she looked so down, apparently she had just finished a course of radiotherpy for cancer, it is fourth time she has had cancer over the last few years and it always in a different place, what a shame, she is starting chemo next month. 
So I thought I would make her a card to tell her that Rosie and I are thinking of her. 

Coloured in a selection of Promarkers and Copics.  I did try and colour the bear using Copics but could just not get the right colours so had to go back to using the Promarker colours I have used in the past.

Hugs and keep warm everyone

Freezing...

Good Evening... - just how cold is it?  I have just got back in from my Great Niece's birthday party, 38 little 4-5 year old sweethearts... LOL.  Anyone who has kids will know I do not really mean that - what were they thinking you ask, well it was my idea, I said why don't you have it in the church hall, then no mess at home and I will help.  Anyway it went well although my nephew on numerous occasions said never again. 

I posted the card I made for Becky a few days ago, I also made 40 little sweetie bags for the kids. 

We are out this evening for my step-son's birthday, would rather stay in next to the fire with a glass of wine, but I will enjoy it once I am there, just not looking forward to leaving the house and the snow best not ruin my Karen Millen shoes... LOL.  This was going to be a full family get together, all the 7 children with their partners and their children, but because of the weather Jess, her husband and two children cannot make it as they live in Cumbria and the weather is really bad there. 

Not looking forward to walking the dog tomorrow morning, I am thinking of buying a treadmill for her - what do you think?  I could sit and craft and she could run - sounds like a win, win situation. 

Anyway I will be back tomorrow with another card and then on Tuesday I have my first DT posts for

Anything Goes Challenge and Digital Tuesday Challenge , cannot beleive they both fall on the same day talk about pressure. 

Stay warm

Hugs

 

What a week

Good Evening, my lovely followers.  What a week it has been for me, I started off with 12 followers and now have more than double that number, maybe small to most of you but to me it means so much, thank you for taking the time to follow me.  This has been partly due to two DT wins this week, first was Digital Tuesday and then last night Anything Goes - I hope I do you both proud.  Watch this space for my first DT posts which will both go live on Tuesday morning.  Gulp... such a busy weekend ahead and tonight has been taken up with a girly night in with a bottle or two or wine... hick, hick, up :), so not much time to get them ready, I have things in mind so hope they go ok with the short space of time I have.

This weekend I have three birthdays and guests for the weekend, one of the birthdays is for my great neice who will be 5, what do 5 year old girls like.... pink and bling, so here is the card I made for her, not fit for any challenges but I hope something she will like. 

Cut out with my CraftRobo, trying so hard to come to terms with the software and I think I just about get the hang of designing, at least something as easy as this name and mat background - I have added loads of Stickles, punched flower, gems and glitter freebies from magazines.  Inside has the same letters cut outs but in a paler pink, sorry didn't take a picture as I found it hard enough to take the outside.  It looks so nice in real life as it sparkles - the camera just does not do it justice. 
Hoping to use the CraftRobo for one of the challenges, we will see if it works out. 

Hugs

 

Second Great News of the Week

Well I cannot believe it I was emailed late last night by Tamara from Anything Goes Challenge and have been invited to be a DT member.  I am OVER THE MOON, I cannot believe that I have been chosen, when there are so many fantastic people who tried for one of the spots.
I would also like to say well done to Doreen & Christine who are also joining with me and who I know as we follow each other and also to all the other ladies who I am hoping to get to know very soon.