2021 Cat Hop Day 6

 

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED!  THANKS FOR ENTERING!

Hello Lovelies!

Today is another make for Janis using a digital image by Ike's Art who has been sponsoring the Cat Hop for all 7 years!  Thank You Ike!

This year Janis will feature one of six images each day and today it's this adorable little guy peeking over a table or something.

I am much happier with my colouring on this card!  I wasn't putting myself down with the previous one.  It's just that part of my usual process is to conduct what I call a "post mortem" afterwards and assess what I liked and what I might do differently.  

I keep it real and find it helpful when so much online is sanitized.  

Working on shading and a realistic light source is something I'm really trying to improve on.  I can easily tell when it isn't "right", but not quite so easy to tell how to get it right!

This little ginger cutie isn't totally perfect in that regard either, but at least the colour blends I was pleased with.  I have ALWAYS wanted a ginger cat!

I pulled out a cat themed 6x6 pad I got last year and used some papers to make an easel fold card.  The notebook punched border was an afterthought and has more contrast IRL.

I performed some stamp surgery to remove the word "favorite" from the phrase since I prefer to avoid American spelling if possible (MFT Cat-Astrophe) and that was basically it!

Rather simple for me actually!

Please don't forget to register with Janis and all the info and links you need can be found on Janis's MAIN HOP PAGE

Giveaway Info

Giveaway Rules

📌I Have TWO electronic gift cards to the crafty store of your choice (Value $20USD or approx equivalent in your currency)

 📌One prize will be a random draw and the second prize will go to someone who has entered the main blog hop (please let me know your project numbers if you would like to be considered.  You can wait til the blog hop is over (but before the close of the giveaway) to do this since the order changes sometimes.)

The second prize is traditionally TallCraftyDude's favourite project!

📌 This Giveaway is NOT SPONSORED, but costs lovingly covered by yours truly as a way to support the hard work Janis puts in every.single.year!

What Do You Have to Do?

You will receive an entry (or entries) for each of the following.  You absolutely don't have to do everything - just how ever many you like.

If  you have previously followed my socials then these are already counted for you!  (unfollowers will not be counted)
📌 The giveaway will remain open until 11:59PM AEDT on Sunday 7 November.   Please visit THIS SITE to calculate in your own timezone
📌 The winner will be drawn on Wednesday 10 November so PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE
❗If the winner and I can't make contact by Wednesday 17 November, I will have to draw a new winner since I need to get these prizes out all together.
❗Please try to email me at alex@pinkcraftymama.com This really is the easiest way for me to get in touch with you since not all blogger profiles have an email attached and if you JUST leave comments, I have no other place to search for you.

So...what do you have to do to get entries?

🐈 Follow this blog - 2 entries (in the left sidebar)

🐈 Subscribe to my YouTube Channel - 3 entries

🐈 Follow me on Facebook - 2 entries

🐈 Follow me on Instagram - 1 entry

🐈 Comment (once per day per person) on a project post between now and the close of the giveaway - 1 entry per post. 

Day 1 Post

Day 2 Post

Day 3 Post

Day 5 Post

Day 6 Post  

Day 4 RW Post

Bonus Project 1 

 

Please don't hesitate to  email me with any questions at alex@pinkcraftymama.com

If you're entering the giveaway, comment below and tell me...is there a PART of a cat you love most?  For me it's that little snout which might be why I was so drawn to the image!

 

* ⬅⬅⬅ Acronyms and strange terms in left sidebar!  

 

Love and stay safe,

2021 Cat Hop Day 5

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED!  THANKS FOR ENTERING!

Hi Lovelies

I honestly meant to do a Day 4 post.  It's a long story which I will explain soon.  Which brings me to my next point - you may have noticed my giveaway is open a full week after the hop ends.  I do try to keep adding extra posts and projects during this time so to give yourself the most chances to enter please keep checking back here.

I also put a list of links to any of my blog posts at the bottom (just scroll down all the way) which give you entries so you can check you've seen them all.

Today is another make for Janis again using a digital image by Ike's Art who has been sponsoring the Cat Hop for all 7 years!  Thank You Ike!

This year Janis will feature one of six images each day and today it's this sleepy looking kitty on his comfy cushion.

Ike had put some shading onto the cat and a bit on the cushion, so I didn't have to think too hard about where to put shadows.  I just rolled with it!  I went with grey since it would lend itself to such shading and of course my Fitzy is (mostly) grey!

My friend Sara Scraps has a Facebook group called Rediscover Your Stash.  Each month there is a product focus and for October is washi tape.  I knew I was going to use washi on this card.  And what better time to use all my cat washi!

The day I finished this I couldn't seem to find a decent spot for photography - too dark or too light, but you get the idea!

 Please don't forget to register with Janis and all the info and links you need can be found on Janis's MAIN HOP PAGE

Giveaway Info

Giveaway Rules

📌I Have TWO electronic gift cards to the crafty store of your choice (Value $20USD or approx equivalent in your currency)

 📌One prize will be a random draw and the second prize will go to someone who has entered the main blog hop (please let me know your project numbers if you would like to be considered.  You can wait til the blog hop is over (but before the close of the giveaway) to do this since the order changes sometimes.)

The second prize is traditionally TallCraftyDude's favourite project!

📌 This Giveaway is NOT SPONSORED, but costs lovingly covered by yours truly as a way to support the hard work Janis puts in every.single.year!

What Do You Have to Do?

You will receive an entry (or entries) for each of the following.  You absolutely don't have to do everything - just how ever many you like.

If  you have previously followed my socials then these are already counted for you!  (unfollowers will not be counted)
📌 The giveaway will remain open until 11:59PM AEDT on Sunday 7 November.   Please visit THIS SITE to calculate in your own timezone
📌 The winner will be drawn on Wednesday 10 November so PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE
❗If the winner and I can't make contact by Wednesday 17 November, I will have to draw a new winner since I need to get these prizes out all together.
❗Please try to email me at alex@pinkcraftymama.com This really is the easiest way for me to get in touch with you since not all blogger profiles have an email attached and if you JUST leave comments, I have no other place to search for you.

So...what do you have to do to get entries?

🐈 Follow this blog - 2 entries (in the left sidebar)

🐈 Subscribe to my YouTube Channel - 3 entries

🐈 Follow me on Facebook - 2 entries

🐈 Follow me on Instagram - 1 entry

🐈 Comment (once per day per person) on a project post between now and the close of the giveaway - 1 entry per post. 

Day 1 Post

Day 2 Post

Day 3 Post

Day 5 Post

Day 6 Post  

Day 4 RW Post

Bonus Project 1 

 

If you're entering the giveaway, comment below and tell me...What's the most unusual cat's name you've come across?

Please don't hesitate to  email me with any questions at alex@pinkcraftymama.com

 

* ⬅⬅⬅ Acronyms and strange terms in left sidebar!  

 

Love and stay safe,

2021 Cat Hop Day 3

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED!  THANKS FOR ENTERING!

Hi Lovelies

So it's probably time I shared a project with you created specifically for the hop, right? 

This one uses a digital image by Ike's Art who has been sponsoring the Cat Hop for all 7 years!  Thank You Ike!

This year Janis will feature one of six images each day and today it's the Cheshire Cat.  I LOVE Alice in Wonderland so I was excited to work with it, although having not picked up a marker in probably a year I was very much out of practice.

I felt I couldn't get the colour blends I really wanted and that does come down to having more colours in my collection, but what really bothered me was my light source an shading.  Colouring stripes and getting that right is way harder than it looks!  In hindsight I would have used a greylead pencil and shaded an image as a guide as to where I wanted the shadows and highlights.

I pulled out what little I could find of the two Alice themed collections by Echo Park and did the best I could.  Of course I found the rest later after I was done. 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

Please don't forget to register with Janis and all the info and links you need can be found on Janis's MAIN HOP PAGE

Giveaway Info

Giveaway Rules

📌I Have TWO electronic gift cards to the crafty store of your choice (Value $20USD or approx equivalent in your currency)

 📌One prize will be a random draw and the second prize will go to someone who has entered the main blog hop (please let me know your project numbers if you would like to be considered.  You can wait til the blog hop is over (but before the close of the giveaway) to do this since the order changes sometimes.)

The second prize is traditionally TallCraftyDude's favourite project!

📌 This Giveaway is NOT SPONSORED, but costs lovingly covered by yours truly as a way to support the hard work Janis puts in every.single.year!

What Do You Have to Do?

You will receive an entry (or entries) for each of the following.  You absolutely don't have to do everything - just how ever many you like.

If you have previously followed my socials then these are already counted for you!  (unfollowers will not be counted)
📌 The giveaway will remain open until 11:59PM AEDT on Sunday 7 November.   Please visit THIS SITE to calculate in your own timezone
📌 The winner will be drawn on Wednesday 10 November so PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE
❗If the winner and I can't make contact by Wednesday 17 November, I will have to draw a new winner since I need to get these prizes out all together.
❗Please try to email me at alex@pinkcraftymama.com This really is the easiest way for me to get in touch with you since not all blogger profiles have an email attached and if you JUST leave comments, I have no other place to search for you.

So...what do you have to do to get entries?

🐈 Follow this blog - 2 entries (in the left sidebar)

🐈 Subscribe to my YouTube Channel - 3 entries

🐈 Follow me on Facebook - 2 entries

🐈 Follow me on Instagram - 1 entry

🐈 Comment (once per day per person) on a project post between now and the close of the giveaway - 1 entry per post. 

Day 1 Post

Day 2 Post

Day 3 Post

Day 5 Post

Day 6 Post  

Day 4 RW Post

Bonus Project 1 

Please don't hesitate to  email me with any questions at alex@pinkcraftymama.com

If you're entering the giveaway, comment below and tell me...Have you ever had a black cat?  What's the best thing about black cats?

 

* ⬅⬅⬅ Acronyms and strange terms in left sidebar!  

 

Love and stay safe,

Crazy Circles Gnome Card

Hi Lovelies!

This challenge is doing double duty for The Paper Girls Challenge 

and 

Arty Divas challenge.

The theme for TPG is circles and the image from sponsor Laurie Furnell was a cute gnome digi.

All I knew was that I wanted to stretch my Copic colouriing muscles again since I was feeling rusty and I felt the vibrancy would be perfect for a child.  Im not sure I like how pale the blue is on the gnome.  It bothers me a bit.  🤷 And let's not even discuss the beard! 🤦

What to do for the background, though?  If I used this project for TPG circles challenge I could pull out THIS bag of cats circles.  Recognize it?

It's from last year's Wonder Woman layout!  This one:

Since I printed the image out bigger than I expected, I went with a 5x7 card base.  The front ended up being 4.5 x 6.5 to allow for a contrasting mat.

I layered up some of the smaller circles and ran them through the sewing machine.  Using Permanent Glue Dots I adhered the back with all the thread to the stripey mat and I love using the same dots when using "fun foam".  I stick the adhesive side to the piece i'm popping up then it's easier to run Glue Dots all over the plain foam side.  They're far more reliable on foam than my dot roller I've discovered.

Lastly I die cut a fairly general sentiment which can be used for several occasions.

And I barely even made a dent in the baggie of circles!  I'm going to be reaching for them a lot, I think!

Hooray

Lastly I do encourage you to enter a paper project at one or both Arty Divas and The Paper Girls!

Love and crazy circles!

Arty Divas DT - 3 December

Hello, Lovelies!

Today is Challenge 10 at Arty Divas.  This is a FORTNIGHTLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme) challenge with a design team who makes projects showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!

Sponsor: Hetty Clare Art
Hetty's Etsy Store:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/HettyClare
Prize:

The image the Design Team worked with was absolutely adorable!  That is until I started to meddle with them!! 🙈🙈🙈

See, the thing is that I decided to try using coloured pencils.  Most of the image I'm not entirely unhappy with (for a first attempt anyway), but I really don't like the "sky". 

Fortunately I can probably still work on it a little more especially if I try to blend it out a bit with Gamsol or odourless spirits.

Placing the sentiment formed a slight issue.  In the end I had to cover part of the image I really didn't mind too much!  I went with vellum to keep it light and so some still shows though.  I adhered with just a few stitched and stamped an older stamp set from Simon Says Stamp (in Kristina Werner's lovely whimsical script!)

I decided to use Glue Dots to adhere the coloured panel since the type of paper and use of a blending pen made me think it might start to pull away from the card base.

Well here's the finished card!

Thank You For Your Kindness Card

Love and practise those pencils!

TTCRD DT 22 Oct and Cat Lovers Hop Project 2

Hi Lovelies!

Today is challenge day for Design Team B for the Through The Craft Room Door Challenge.  This is a WEEKLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme) challenge with 2 design teams who alternate weeks to make projects showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!

This week's sponsor is Hetty Clare.

Prize: 

This image reminded me of mornings here  - I even get up at 6:00 too (although I'm usually greeted by a cat butt).

The cartoon like image suited the theme, but did make colouring more challenging especially when trying to add realistic shading...and even more so when the whole circle was reduced to a size where the individual elements are pretty small!

Speaking of circles, the design of the image reminded me of the current Mojo Monday sketch which is something I really enjoy playing along with.

I threaded twine through the flower (as a nod to the ones on the doona and pillow) and stuck the button down with a Glue Dot.

It didn't look the same in my head as on the paper, but I like the yellow enamel dots at least! 🤦

I'll be honest I don't love the end result.  I do love the bright colours in the coloured image, but I can't quite put my finger on what bothers me.  Maybe the odd shade of purple of the sentiment?  🤷 I pulled it from my drawer of scrap cardstock and there wasn't much purple to choose from so I ran with it rather than cutting into a fresh sheet.

OK now to the giveaway part:

Giveaway CLOSED!

📌 I have three items (and a bonus fourth prize) to give away (pictured below) and I'll pull three names for the first three prizes.
📌For the  fourth "bonus" prize: it will go to someone who has entered the main blog hop (please let me know your project numbers if you would like to be considered.  You can wait til the blog hop is over to do this since they change sometimes.)
📌 The first name drawn gets first choice, second name gets second choice and so on.  Bonus prize will be TallCraftyDude's favourite project!
📌 This Giveaway is NOT SPONSORED.  I purchased the prizes especially for this giveaway.  This year I picked stuff other than just stamp sets to mix it up a bit!  In the even the items I purchased are on back order, I'll purchase something similar in their place and update the list below. Thanks for understanding!

The prizes you get to pick from are:
This hysterical Art Impressions stamp set called "Catastrophy".  Perfect for the Spoonie stamper (or if you know one!)

There is a Dyan Reaveley stencil called "It's Raining Cats" (this one is mine, but yours will be brand new, obvs! 😉)

An American Crafts "Coloring Notebook"

Lastly, the bonus prize will be an electronic gift card to the online crafty store of your choice to the value of $20 AUD (approx $13 USD, £10 GBP, €12 Eur etc.  May vary depending on exchange rate)

You will receive an entry (or entries) for each of the following.  You absolutely don't have to do everything - just how ever many you like.

If you have previously followed my socials then these are already counted for you!  (unfollowers will not be counted)
📌 The giveaway will remain open until 11:59PM AEDT on Monday 28 Oct (a whole week from today).  Please visit THIS SITE to calculate in your own timezone
📌 The winner will be drawn on Weds 30 Oct so PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE
❗If the winner and I can't make contact by Weds 6 Nov, I will have to draw a new winner since I need to get these prizes out all together.
❗Please try to email me at alex@pinkcraftymama.com This really is the easiest way for me to get in touch with you since not all blogger profiles have an email attached and if you JUST leave comments, I have no other place to search for you.

So...what do you have to do to get entries?
🐈 Follow this blog - 3 entries (in the left sidebar)
🐈 Follow me on Facebook - 2 entries
🐈 Follow me on Instagram - 1 entry
🐈 Comment (once per day per person) on a post between now and the close of the giveaway - 1 entry per post

I don't yet know how many makes I'll have done between now and then, but it will be at least three.  The more love from you guys the better the chances of me getting crafty which gives you more chances to enter.

Click here for Project 1
Click here for Project 3
Click here for Project 4

So today...if you want to leave a comment, tell me how many cats you've had in your life... (or anything else if this doesn't grab you) and please don't hesitate to  email me with any questions at alex@pinkcraftymama.com


* ⬅⬅⬅ Acronyms and strange terms in left sidebar! 

Love and cuddle your kitty!

Arty Divas DT 22 Oct and Cat Lovers Hop Project 1

Hi Lovelies!

Today is Challenge 7 at Arty Divas.  This is a FORTNIGHTLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme) challenge with a design team who makes projects showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!

This week we are using images by Rick St Dennis.
The prize is a stamp and die set so head on over to the Arty Divas challenge post to win!
(This is unrelated to the Cat Lovers Hop!  Scroll down for the deets on that)

I'm still practising with better blending, shading and general colouring of animals.  I didn't do a stellar job on the body, but the face is a bit better than I've done before.  Black is particularly challenging, but I really need to purchase refills for my lighter markers!  🤷

After colouring as best I could, I fussy cut her and and attached foam dots to the back.  I picked the
paper for the background from an older Crate Paper 6x6 pad and machine stitched some strips to the top.

After this I attached the card front to the base, attached our fine feline and (with some surgery to make it fit) attached this perfect Dyan Reaveley sentiment.

Just a few pearl cabochons attached with Micro and Mini Glue dots to finish and done! 

OK now to the giveaway part:

 

Giveaway CLOSED!

📌 I have three items (and a bonus fourth prize) to give away (pictured below) and I'll pull three names for the first three prizes.
📌For the  fourth "bonus" prize: it will go to someone who has entered the main blog hop (please let me know your project numbers if you would like to be considered.  You can wait til the blog hop is over to do this since they change sometimes.)
📌 The first name drawn gets first choice, second name gets second choice and so on.  Bonus prize will be TallCraftyDude's favourite project!
📌 This Giveaway is NOT SPONSORED.  I purchased the prizes especially for this giveaway.  This year I picked stuff other than just stamp sets to mix it up a bit!  In the even the items I purchased are on back order, I'll purchase something similar in their place and update the list below. Thanks for understanding!

The prizes you get to pick from are:
This hysterical Art Impressions stamp set called "Catastrophy".  Perfect for the Spoonie stamper (or if you know one!)

There is a Dyan Reaveley stencil called "It's Raining Cats" (this one is mine, but yours will be brand new, obvs! 😉)

An American Crafts "Coloring Notebook"

Lastly, the bonus prize will be an electronic gift card to the online crafty store of your choice to the value of $20 AUD (approx $13 USD, £10 GBP, €12 Eur etc.  May vary depending on exchange rate)

You will receive an entry (or entries) for each of the following.  You absolutely don't have to do everything - just how ever many you like.

If you have previously followed my socials then these are already counted for you!  (unfollowers will not be counted)
📌 The giveaway will remain open until 11:59PM AEDT on Monday 28 Oct (a whole week from today).  Please visit THIS SITE to calculate in your own timezone
📌 The winner will be drawn on Weds 30 Oct so PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE
❗If the winner and I can't make contact by Weds 6 Nov, I will have to draw a new winner since I need to get these prizes out all together.
❗Please try to email me at alex@pinkcraftymama.com This really is the easiest way for me to get in touch with you since not all blogger profiles have an email attached and if you JUST leave comments, I have no other place to search for you.

So...what do you have to do to get entries?
🐈 Follow this blog - 3 entries (in the left sidebar)
🐈 Follow me on Facebook - 2 entries
🐈 Follow me on Instagram - 1 entry
🐈 Comment (once per day per person) on a post between now and the close of the giveaway - 1 entry per post

I don't yet know how many makes I'll have done between now and then, but it will be at least three.  The more love from you guys the better the chances of me getting crafty which gives you more chances to enter.

Click here for Project 2
Click here for Project 3  
Click here for Project 4

So today...if you want to leave a comment, tell me whether you have a favourite breed/colour of cat  (or anything else if this doesn't grab you) and please don't hesitate to  email me with any questions at alex@pinkcraftymama.com


* ⬅⬅⬅ Acronyms and strange terms in left sidebar! 

Love and cuddle your kitty!

TTCRD 8 October DT Project

Hi Lovelies!

Today is challenge day for Design Team B for the Through The Craft Room Door Challenge.  This is a WEEKLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme) challenge with 2 design teams who alternate weeks to make projects showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!

This week's sponsor is Sherry West Art.  You can read a bit more about her below.

Prize:  One Digi

Sherry West is the owner-designer of Sherry West Art, she’s a digital and rubber stamp artist for Stamp Addicts, a U.K. stamp company, a coloring book artist and the author-illustrator of a very silly new children’s book titled “It’s Raining Cats! It’s Raining Dogs! It’s Raining Bats! And Pollywogs!” (Morgan James Publishing) which is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and more. She’s also a member of the Society of the Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, former ESL teacher, published educational curriculum writer, award-winning poet, and semi-pro photographer whose work has been accepted by Getty Images. Married for 20 years to a very patient guy, 3 really funny kids, 2 fluffy dust-bunny chinchillas, 1 huge hairy dog and 13 random cats. Her art is being sold as rubber stamps by Stamp Addicts in the U.K., and has appeared on Hochanda tv twice.

While I was in sketch-challenge mode I thought I'd try one for this project too.  I went with the one offered by CAS(E) This Sketch.  Now I really don't do a great job of CAS style cards.  They're pretty popular though.  I would also like to point out that there is a huge gulf of difference in CAS cards and just simple/plain etc ones.  It's a point of contention with me, which I'll leave for another day, but I absolutely loved what the design team made for this sketch.

I know the pattern papers make it a little less CAS and a little more busy, but all patterns come from the Cashmere Dame collection which went really well with the image.

My poor Copics really need to be refilled and I'm limited to the ones with enough juice to get the job done.  The ladybird elements didn't turn out as well highlighted as I hoped.

I made the sketch horizontal and due to the direction of the image, had to mirror it as well.

 Thinking Of You Card

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Hopefully my colouring and CAS-ability is better next time!

Love, and CAS conundrums!

TTCRD 10 Sept DT Project

Hi Lovelies!

Today is challenge day for Design Team B for the Through The Craft Room Door Challenge.  This is a WEEKLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme) challenge with 2 design teams who alternate weeks to make projects showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!

This week's sponsor is The Project Bin.  You can read a bit more about them below.

Prize: $15 Gift Certificate

The Project Bin was started because its founder, Denise Storck (a long-time stamper and paper-crafter), couldn't find a stamp that said "You are awesome sauce", so she decided to make her own! One thing led to another, and now her small business fills a niche in the card making industry for unique word art sentiments in the highest quality photopolymer clear stamps, made in the U.S.A.

I'll be honest that I was quite our of my comfort zone when the whole design team was sent a christmas stamp and die set that we were asked to use, because I DON'T celebrate holidays.

HOWEVER, thinking outside the box (or perhaps "bin" in this case 😉), is something I've had plenty of practice in with all the curveballs I've been dodging so I was going to find a way to make it work.  Without masking, the only thing I was comfortable using was the tree.  There was both a stamp and die for it and it was pretty small, so it was better suited to a card.

There was an idea I had for a critter card "scene" with several rolling hills (Lawn Fawn Dies), sky patterned paper (cut from the top portion of Shimelle's Sparkle City writing pad) and stamped and punched trees.

The stamped trees are kind of subtle, but they needed to be kept in proportion to the other elements.  More distant objects should be smaller than the one in the foreground.

I guessed the die would cut the trees with a halo, so I recruited the SmallCraftyDude (TallCraftyDude?) to stamp the trees in various shades of green ink by Altenew onto different green  scraps of cardstock so the halo would also be green.

I didn't quite plan out the positioning of the tree stump and critters (My Favorite Things) and that's the best that I could do.  I added the sentiment, tiny acorn and even tinier heart from a Neat and Tangled stamp set.

 

Here's the entire card:

I Go Nuts For You Card

Well that's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you visit the TTCRD blog and submit a project of your own!


Love and crafty critters,

TTCRD 27 August DT Project

Hi Lovelies!

Today is challenge day for Design Team B for the Through The Craft Room Door Challenge.  This is a WEEKLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme) challenge with 2 design teams who alternate weeks to make projects showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!

This week's sponsor is The Paper Shelter.  You can read a bit more about them below.

Prize: 3 images

"If you are looking for fun, cute and lovely digi stamps for your paper-crafting or web design projects, The Paper Shelter is your one-stop boutique!
This growing catalog of high-quality digi stamps with many different kinds of options offers a multitude of themes such as everyday items, holidays, special occasions, children, adorable characters and creatures. Stamps are available in standard black and white line art, as well as in pre-colored format."

The image we were given to work with was this yummy looking ice cream sundae!

I knew my light Copic markers were not juicy enough to be up to the challenge, although they would have been one one of my first choices considering how small I printed the images.  I printed 4 or 5 to allow for mistakes and also to make more than one card at a time.  It's not twice the amount of work to make two if you make them at the same time sort of "production line" style.

Water colour was the logical next choice and would give a lovely soft effect to the ice cream, but to get into those tiny areas? I busted out the Inktense again and they worked reasonably well until tried to colour the sprinkles since I didn't think my hands were steady enough to use wet glue and tiny beads. 😒

I did manage to carefully spread some Glossy Accents over the sundae glass to make it look more like...well glass!  I should have stopped there, but no, I went straight for the Wink if Stella and succeeded in smearing the "sprinkles" even more!  Oops! 🤷.

And I didn't even mind that the Glossy Accents cracked a bit after it dried.  In larger areas, it's not uncommon for it to do that, but kinds looks a bit more realistic!























While the Glossy Accents was drying, I pulled out some of the many patterned papers which featured sweets or ice creams.  These can be a challenge since there are only so many layouts featuring this rather specific motif that one can make!

There are, however, many great puns and sentiments for cards which would work and I found I even had some relevant stamps.

I knew using the coloured sundae on a patterned background (even if I did pick fairly soft ones) would mean I had to keep the rest simple and that's just not something I do particularly well.  I wanted SOMEthing to jazz it up.

Rather than stamping the sentiments (which were not worded exactly how I wanted them anyway), I used some of the many many fonts I have and played around on the computer until the size and combination of fonts was more or less OK.

Since our printer is a laser printer, it's idea for the MINC.  Foil on black looks really striking and just what the cards needed.  It's pretty cool printing black on black before running it through the MINC!

The silver is actually holographic foil and looks very "cool" (see what I did there?) 🤣

Here are a couple more photos of my two cards.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you take part in the TTCRD challenge!

Love and "cool" cardmaking!