Candles

I've made these cute candles by printing papers from Funky Daze - Son Day collection and then rolling them up.  The papers were printed as A6 size (4 on a sheet of A4 thin card) and then I rolled them around a skewer.  The 'flames' are jute string that I've glued just inside the top of the candle.

Sentiment is a stamp from the Our Betty collection.  Don't forget that the cd is only £1 and the stamp set is also just £1!!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Melonheadz:  Two or More Designer Papers
CD Sunday:  Layer It Up

Forgotten Funkies - Rainbow Polkadots

Its the last Friday of the month so its time for a Forgotten Funky!! And this month its the turn of the Rainbow Polkadots download. I've been going through all the old crafting magazines that were piled up and I've saved all the inspriation I could find and I came across making tee-pee cards, so here is one!

Really easy to make - 3 squares the same size, score diagnally tip to tip then fold in half and then glue all together!

I've used a Spellbinders die and stamped Our Betty - Your Special Day acrylic stamp in the centre and then coloured with Promarkers. I've also added liquid pearls around the edge of the card and image plus some half pearls too. I've secured the layers at the back of the card with a slider and a brad so it will stand up!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Crafty Catz: Anything Goes
Sister Act Card Challenge: Anything Goes
Wags n Whiskers: Polkadots
I Love Promarkers: Monochrome
Penny's Paper Crafty: Anything Goes

Forgotten Funkies - Summer Wedding

The last Friday of a month sees the Funky Hand Design Team showcase a Funky Hand product and this month it is the seasonal Summer Wedding download. It's full of lovely papers in muted citrus colours - just perfect for Summer Weddings! You can buy the alphas on their own or if you prefer, just the papers, or if you want both, you can buy them both in one combined download for just £2.99!

I've made a simple template for the bunting - one slightly larger than the other and used three of the papers, printed onto linen effect white card. I've added a faux stitch with a fineliner black pen and then layered up the bunting with foam pads - the larger ones underneath.

The bakers twine (you get loads for £2.49 - 20 metres!) and the sentiment is from the Our Betty - Your Special Day clear stamp set.

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Creative Moments: Anything Goes and Use Twine
Digi Stamps 4 Joy: Girly
Rhedd and Rosie's Challenge: Nothing Floral
City Crafter: Birthday With Banners
Loves Rubber Stamps: Doodling

Fetch A Sketch Challenge 15

It's time for another Fetch A Sketch challenge and I am playing hostess this fortnight and here is the sketch I whipped up:

We also have a fab sponsor - Crafty Sentiments Designs who are generously offering 4 digis to the winner! To have a look at their digi stamps, click on the banner below:
And here is my take on the sketch. Since tidying up my rather huge box of ribbons into co-ordinated colours I found ribbons I forgot I had and this one is from Fantastic Ribbons. The image is from Crafty Sentiments, our sponsor and she has been coloured with Promarkers.

The papers are all from Funky Hand - Craft The Year Away and I've made the scalloped edge by using a heart punch and layering them up so that only the top bits are showing. The sentiment is from Our Betty stamp set. I am trying desperately to use up the scraps in my big shoe box as it is seriously overflowing - so I've delved into the box for the papers on this card!

Good luck with the challenge and for more details click here.

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Birthday Sundaes: Birthday Card
Crafters Circle: Make It Colourful
Crafty Ann's: Let's Think Hot (hot colours)
Aud Sentiments: Sentiment and Use Up Scraps

• Image: Crafty Sentiments, coloured with Promarkers
• Papers: Funky Hand - Craft The Year Away
• Sentiment: Funky Hand - Our Betty stamp set
• Ribbon: Fantastic Ribbons
  

Get Funky Challenge - Thank You!

It's my turn to provide an installment on Get Funky for the current challenge and the theme is:

Thank You!

You MUST use a Funky Hand product in your creation and as always, Anice has designed a paper to use especially for the challenge - click here to go and snag it!

I've gone for a small and simple theme and managed to make 6 cards all with Betty on! The cards measure approx 90cm square so 3 can be made from a sheet of A4 card. I've stamped Betty and then coloured her with Promarkers and a touch of glitter glue to her dress.

The image has been layered onto the card blank after the corners have been rounded and inked and I've added a tiny Sizzix scallop tag die with 'thank you' written on in my bestest writing! The tag has been tied to the ribbon with embroidery thread. I actually found the green ribbon when tidying up the mess that was my ribbon box - I didn't even know I had it!

All nice and simple and pretty easy to make!

Good luck with the challenge - for more details click here but be quick - the challenge ends on the 14th with a new theme set on the 15th!I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Paper Pretties: Clean and Simple
I Brake For Challenges: Clean and Simple
Clear It Out: Thank You Card and bonus to use old ribbon / twine
Passion for Promarkers: Thank You

• Stamp: Our Betty, coloured with Promarkers
• Dies: Sizzix Scallop tag combo die
• Everything else: My stash
  

Get Funky Challenge - Double Whammy!

Welcome to my portion of this months Get Funky challenge! The theme, set by Jackie is:

Make A Christmas Item and A Non Christmas Item Using Christmas Papers

Easy eh? But only when you have the fab new cd from Funky Hand - Twelve Crafters Crafting! I've used two different paper collections from the cd plus the star template. The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Happy Happy Birthday and Betty has simply changed her sparkly dress! She's been coloured with Promarkers. And the stars behind her are actually very glittery gift tags!

And see how many I've made!!

I'm well over my target of 150 Christmas cards this year!!

Don't forget - you MUST use at least one Funky Hand product in your creation and you can always snag the freebie if you've not got anything. Good luck - the challenge ends on 14 December and a new challenge will be set the day after!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Little Claire's Challenge: Shaped Cards
Clearly Inspired: Christmas
Crafty Ann's: Tic Tac Toe (Red, Green and Silver/Gold)
Winter Wonderland: Christmas / Winter Birthday

• Papers, template and Christmas sentiment: Twelve Crafters Crafting
• Birthday Sentiment: Happy Happy Birthday
• Image: Our Betty, coloured with Promarkers
• Everything else: My stash
  

Fetch A Sketch Challenge 5 - Midway Extra

It's time for another Fetch A Sketch Challenge! And we are upto challenge 5 already - where does the time go?

We have a returning sponsor - Funky Hand and Anice once again has been generous with the prize for the winner of challenge 5 and is providing an Our Betty acrylic stamp set and a set of ribbons.


The Our Betty stamps are wonderful to use, and I'm not the best at using stamps (too impatient and for some reason I can never hold it still long enough!) but I've never had a bad stamping session with Our Betty! I've used Your Special Day Our Betty stamp set and coloured her with Promarkers. All the papers are from the Blue Christmas word book download - there are A4 sized papers too which I have used.

I've added some very glittery (I am still wearing it!) ribbon that I bought a few years ago plus Sizzix snowflake die cuts and silver snowflake confetti. Although the photo doesn't show it too well (probably because it wasn't dry!) Betty's dress has also been glittered!

Good luck with the challenge and don't forget the very few rules that we have (see the challenge blog for more details!) of which the most important one is to HAVE FUN! Deadline for entries is Sunday 4 September at 12noon GMT.

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Samuel Taylors Crafts: Christmas Card with Any Stamp
4 Crafty Chicks: Photo Inspiration
Fab N Funky: Mono Madness

• Papers: Blue Christmas download from Funky Hand
• Image: Our Betty stamp set from Funky Hand
• Dies: Sizzix Snowflake
• Everything else: My stash
  

Gift Cards - Christmas Of Course!

I've got a couple of Craft Fairs in the run up to Christmas and I am trying to have things other than just cards, so here are a few gift cards. All have been made with papers from Funky Hand - Craft The Year Away cd (Remember December collection) plus the stamped image is from an Our Betty stamp set.

I've coloured them with Promarkers and added glitter glue to the lid of the gift. Ribbon is from my stash. I used two Nesties sets to layer the images and I've added a little extra card to write a message to the recipient inside.


Quite quick and easy to make once I'd made a template and worked out all my sizes! And I think I'm going to increase my Christmas Card goal to 150.....

I'd like to enter them into the following challenges:

Cupcake Craft: Gift Card
Divas by Design: Christmas in August
Creative Craft: Anything But A Card
Incy Wincy: Anything But A Card
My Craft Spot: Gift Bags and Boxes (almost?!)

• Papers: Craft The Year Away from Funky Hand
• Stamped image: Our Betty stamp set from Funky Hand
• Dies: Spellbinder Nestabilities
• Everything else: My stash
  

I Forgot....

Is it typical that a card maker forgets Birthdays, or is it just me?! I coloured this stamp - from the Our Betty Birthday set from Funky Hand - a while ago so it was just sitting around waiting to be used. I had a sneaky feeling that I'd missed one of my friends Birthdays so this one will be sent to her on Monday seeing as she remembered mine!

My fellow Funkette Jenny has taken the brave step of offering a little candy in return for creating a card to her layout (below). Not one to miss out on a sketch, here is my card!


The stamp and sentiment are from the Our Betty collection and I've coloured it with Promarkers. The spotty paper is from All I Want for Xmas download, again from Funky Hand and I've used my Nesties to do the shaping.

Ribbon, button, thread and eyelet all from my stash. If you fancy entering, click here to go to her blog and have a look at her lovely cards too they always make me smile!

I'm feeling rather relaxed and chilled - I've got the house to myself as the boys are at Karate and not due back for almost an hour - the patio door is open, the sun is shining and has been all day and I've got the new Elbow cd playing on the computer. Rather loud too. But who cares?! And the cd is rather fab!

• Image, sentiment and backing paper: All Funky Hand
• Everything else: My stash
  

Get Funky Challenge - Zing Into Spring!

Welcome to my little zing into spring for Lou's Get Funky challenge! The monthly challenges start on the 15th of each month and run to the 14th of the following month, hence the Funky Fifteenth!!

To be in with a chance of winning a Funky Hand download, you need to follow the theme and to use a Funky Hand product - each month Anice will provide a download for you to use (if you don't already have any Funky Hand products) and it will also fit with the theme for that month's challenge.

I've used the flower freebie for this month - you can just see it layered behind Our Betty and I've cut out some of the flowers too.

Our Betty and the gift can be found here, along with the sentiment. All the dotty papers are from the new download Rainbow Polkadots.

For more details on how to enter - click here - and you can also see the papercrafting delights from the other Design Team members! Good luck!

• Images and sentiment: Our Betty stamps
• Papers: Rainbow Polkadots and Funky Freebie
• Everything else: My stash

Betty Doing The Tango

A nice straightforward sketch this week from Friday Sketchers and I've used an Our Betty stamp from Funky Hand and sentiment, along with papers from Craft The Year away to make this card.

I also found an ink pad that was a bit keen to colour the edges of the card and image, hence the slightly splodged look! I've coloured Betty with Promarkers and added a few dots of liquid pearls to her dress and the corners of the papers. The green organza ribbon is from my stash.

• Image: Our Betty clear stamp set from Funky Hand, coloured with Promarkers
• Sentiment: Our Betty stamp set
• Papers: Craft The Year Away from Funky Hand
• Ribbon: My stash
  

Poundshop Pretties

The Daring Cardmakers Challenge this week is a theme close to my heart! It is:

Poundshop Pretties

I regularly search the one in Preston after I've got the train back from Manchester and also the one in Blackburn and I've snagged some fantastic bargains in the past and have probably over-bought to compensate too as you just never know how long they will be there for!

So for the challenge, I've used some stick on gems which I think are the smallest size in the pack, and also some foam pads which I've used behind Our Betty's head.

The reason why she has a decoupaged head is because I wrongly coloured her mouth in black and it looked like she'd never visited the dentist. And not wanting to waste an image, I stamped her again and cut her head off. Very painless. Honest! All the stamps - Our Betty, the balloons and sentiment are from Your Special Day stamp set from Funky Hand. The pink printed papers are also Funky Hand and everything else is from my stash. Oh, and I've used Promarkers for colouring.

• All stamped elements: Our Betty stamps from Funky Hand
• Gems: Poundshop
• Everything else: My stash
  

Black, White and Red

A quick and easy card theme from the Charisma Card challenge this week:

Black, White + 1 other Colour

I've gone with red (is it obvious?!) as my one other colour. I've used the Our Betty stamps (Your Special Day set) and coloured them with Promarkers and a little liquid pearls. The balloons I stamped twice with the second image I cut out and layered using foam pads. The sentiment is from the same set too.

The black card is from my stash and has been cut from the same huge sheet as this card, the red is printed from Craft The Year Away also from Funky Hand. And the black sequins were sent to me in a RAK from Teresa all the way from South Africa and I've added red seed beads to the top.

• Stamps: Your Special Day - Our Betty stamps from Funky Hand
• Papers: Craft The Year Away from Funky Hand
• Sequins: RAK from Teresa
• Everything else: My stash
  

Promarkers and Blending

I do like my Promarkers. A lot. And when I saw the little competition on Enfys' blog, well, I just had to indulge! I started off using felt tips (and that was not so long ago) to colour my images when I wanted more zing and intensity, so armed with a set of 48 felt tips from Tesco (a bargain at £2.50!) I learnt how to blend and build up colour. The hard way. Felt tips don't, won't and can't blend. But Promarkers do!

Even when the image has been left for a while, you can still go back and layer more colour over the top or add a complementary colour and build it up that way.

Personally, I always start with the lightest colour I want on my image and then add darker and darker where I need shadow or to add form. I also use opposite colours - if I'm using reds I add a green too as it gives more intensity. And you know, black is never black - always a mix of primary and secondary colours! Think of kids and paint - by the time they have finished, all the paint is a muddy blackish colour! That way your black looks real black and not flat black.

Anyway! For my card here, I've used a sheet of acetate and papers from Funky Daze from Funky Hand plus some mint green organza ribbon that I seem to have a never ending roll of!

I've used my Nesties to cut the shape and then stamped the sentiment directly onto it. The image has been added after I've coloured it with Promarkers with foam pads so it gives more depth. Both the sentiment and gift are from the Our Betty acrylic stamp range from Funky Hand.

The Promarker colours that I have used are:

Apple
Meadow Green
Pear Green
Pastel Blue
Powder Blue
Royal Blue

I use what I like and how I like it - everyone is different but its about finding your own style and developing that! I'd love to be able to colour hair with the fab highlights, but it's just not me yet, so I'll carry on doing my own thing.

• All papers: Funky Daze from Funky Hand
• Image and Sentiment: Our Betty acrylic stamps from Funky Hand
• Colours: Promarkers
• Everything else: My stash
  

Poppies

Sometimes I'm really organised and get cards made as they are ordered but when they give me loads of notice I leave it to the last minute. And this one is no exception! The request was for poppies, so poppies they got!

The image is from Delicious Doodles and I've coloured it with Promarkers plus some inking around the edges. The stamp is from the Our Betty Your Special Day set from Funky Hand and all the papers and ribbon are from my stash.


And I've used the Sweet Sketch Wednesday for inspiration:


And that's it!!

• Image: Delicious Doodles, coloured with Promarkers
• Sentiment: Our Betty Your Special Day Stamp set
• Everything else: My stash
  

Cider Monster

A quick card made in for an order and the recipient happens to be one of my cousins who likes his cider!! I've used the Sketch and Stash challenge for the layout inspiration:


And made this card using a freebie Pollycraft image that I have changed slightly - rubbed out the 'beer' word on the t-shirt and added cider instead. He's been coloured with Promarkers and I've used papers from Funky Hand - Funky Daze cd - Son Day collection. I just never tire of using these papers for male cards (thank you Anice!)

I decided to go with random pointy bits at the bottom of the card rather than scallops as its more manly! The sentiment stamp is from Our Betty - Your Special Day stamp set, again from Funky Hand. Brads are from my stash. A bit of inking and edge doodling and its all complete!

• Backing papers: Funky Daze from Funky Hand
• Image: Pollycraft freebie coloured with Promarkers
• Sentiment: Our Betty Your Special Day stamp set from Funky Hand
• Everything else: My stash
  

Green, Cute and Brads

This was one of those cards that came together rather quickly and has given me an idea for some more cards that I've been asked to make (at very short notice!) so that's what I'll be doing tonight!

The challenge on Cooking It Up With Katie is:

Cute, Green and Brads

So here we have it - and I hope its cute enough! The papers are from Funky Daze from Funky Hand and are all from my bits box. The brads are from my stash along with the string.

I've doodled a fine line and a running line around the edge of the card, plus a little inking and running line on the banners too. The sentiment is from the Our Betty - Special Day stamp set and I'm always a little nervous about stamping directly onto a card, but these stamps are perfect every time!

• Papers: Funky Daze from Funky Hand
• Sentiment: Our Betty Special Day stamp set from Funky Hand
• Everything else: My stash
  

Funky Fifteenth - Going Round In Circles

It's time for a new monthly challenge on Get Funky! But we've changed it around a little! Instead of the first of every month we will be setting a new challenge on the Funky Fifteenth of every month and the hostess of the challenge will launch it with a Funkette adding inspiration every third day to the challenge blog. You still get a whole month to enter and this month the challenge ends on 14 February at 7pm GMT.

You still need to use a Funky Hand product, but each month to tie in with the challenge Anice will generously be offering a little freebie to download and use. This way, you get a freebie AND you can still enter the challenge!


So head on over to Get Funky! and see what is on offer!

Allison has set the challenge for this month:

Going Round In Circles

My creation will be revealed on 2 February so I can't show it yet, but what I can show and that you really do need to get is a card made with the fantastic new Our Betty clear acrylic stamps! I've used the Your Special Day set to make this card and as luck would have it, there are circles on it! These stamps are launched on the Funky Hand website today so make sure you get your order in before stocks run out!

They stamp beautifully each time and are a dream to colour - I've used Promarkers plus liquid pearls on her dress. Papers are from Funky Daze (Son Day collection) and I've used two Nesties to cut the shapes. Ribbon is from my stash. The stamps in each set are interchangeable and can be used to either build up a scene or individually and all work well both ways.

Good luck with the challenge - see you over on the Challenge Blog!

• Papers: Son Day collection from Funky Daze
• Stamp: Our Betty - Your Special Day set, coloured with Promarkers
• Everything else: My stash