Horsechestnut leaf

Things are more than a little upside down here at the moment with my mother being in hospital ....so, not surprisingly, this card took a while to make!
It has been sitting in bits and pieces in a box for days and I've finally got it together.

Actually the first thing I did was make the bottom layer as I wanted to use my new Tonic Studios Celtic border punch. It's so easy to use and cuts through card up to 400gsm because of the gears so I used it here on canvas texture  pearlescent "Gemstones" card. I haven't added lots of clutter round the card because the punch pattern is too striking to take away from.

The image is Horsechestnut and Leaf - one of my Autumn drawings - and you can find it at A Passion for Stamps. As usual I've coloured it with Promarkers and have also added a 3D foam pad to raise the Chestnut after using Glossy Accents on it.

The little butterfly at the top is from another Tonic Studios punch - Butterfly Folder

Challenges
Pals Paper Art  ...Fall
Fab n Funky ...Autumn colours
I love Promarkers ...Autumn colours
ForFun Challenge ...Autumn has arrived
Kaboodles Doodles ...Autumn leaves

Promarker winner.........

It's getting a bit late.....I've been at hospital all day with my mother as she was very unsettled. Thankfully she's more settled this evening - we could do with a good sleep!
Anyhow the winner of the Promarkers is Roma !! Please email me at hamiltonarch@btinternet.com with your full name and address and I 'll post them as soon as possible. Congratulations!!!

Lavender and Lace

I'm sponsoring the Allsorts challenge with a prize of 4 of my digi images this week and this is my Guest DT card. The theme is "Lavender and Lace"
I've just got some of the new Tonic Studios Simplicity Geared punches and couldn't wait to try them out. This one is Daisy Border. The digi I've used is Pincushion and Thread from A Passion for Stamps and I coloured it with Promarkers. I added some gems to the pin heads.I used the Argyle Cuttlebug embossing folder because I thought it matched well with the stitching effect.
For an extra little lacy effect I cut a little "corner" from the same border punch and added some glitter glue.

As usual, when I get new punches, I have punched out lots of each shape tp play around with and I have a folder for keeping the ideas in. I'll be using some of these in my next cards.

Today is the final day for entering my Promarker giveaway as I'm picking a winner tonight.
Also, as this is a scheduled post I can only hope that I manage to get to the Craft Fair in the King's Hall in Belfast today. My mother has been ill again and is in hospital (in Belfast) so I have other priorities but I still hope I can fit a short visit in as I have already bought my ticket.

Challenges

 Craft your Passion ...card for any occasion

Autumn leaves

With the arrival of Autumn here in Country Antrim the colours all around are amazing!

I've been gathering leaves,berries,acorns,beech nut,chestnuts etc and enjoying drawing them as and when I get time.

I've also been having a look at my Tonic Studios tools and punches to make an Autumn card.

The image I chose to work with this time is Maple Leaf which I drew a few days ago and you can find it with lots of others on my digi site A Passion for Stamps.

This is a little tutorial of how I made the card using the Tonic Studios Mini Trimmer  and Furled Leaf Punch

1.   Print out digi image, colour and then cut out with Tonic Studios scissors

2. Mark the paper you have chosen to use for the basket weave at 1cm intervals

3. Cut into strips with the Tonic Studios Mini Trimmer

4. Put double-sided sticky tape along one edge.

5. Stick down the strips vertically as close to each other as possible leaving an overlap at the top

6. Now create the basketweave effect by inserting the horizontal strips as shown in the photo above.

7. When all the strips have been added, turn it over and add DST to all edges of the back. Then fold all the edges over and stick down to create a neat square on the right side.

8. Finished basket weave panel.

9. Adhere some raffia to the panel (sticking down in one point only) and then add the coloured digi image on 3D foam pads for dimension.

10. Using the Furled Leaf Simplicity Geared Punch punch out several shapes

11. Draw veins with a fineliner and colour the leaves with the same colours of pens as used for the main image

12. Tuck these little leaves randomly into the basket weave to give the effect of falling leaves .Then stick this panel down onto a base card which has had a square of matching paper added.

Aqua, lime and white

I suppose it's no secret that aqua and turquoise are my favourite colours...they do make regular appearances on my cards!
When I saw the theme on the current Colour Create  challenge I just had to make a card.
The image is 2 Roses from A Passion for Stamps and is one that I use a lot for all sorts of cards. Actually I ususllay keep several of them coloured in various hues at the ready.
Again I've used Promarkers, the paper is Papermania, the ovan is by Nellie Snellen and the border punch is Martha Stewart string lace.
I've added the texture with the ribbon.

Challenges

Colour Create   lime, aqua and white (with texture..ribbon)
Allsorts  ..flowers

Crafty Cardmakers..anything goes

I'm now a member of the Sir Stampalot Design Team!!

Great news today! I've been invited to become a member of the Sir Stampalot  Design Team!! Thank you so much, Brenda!
The rest of the team have made me feel very welcome and I feel privileged to have asked to join this very talented bunch of crafters.
The theme for this month's challenge is Food, Glorious Food and there is,of course, a great prize on offer!

I paid a visit to the store in July when I was on holiday visiting family nearby and treated myself to some lovely goodies...though I have to say there was so much to choose from I really didn't know how to decide.
My first DT card uses some of the items I bought on  my visit... the Sunray embossing folder which I used as a background and also as a "wafer" behind my Banana Split  digi image from A Passion for Stamps.
The beautiful punched corners were made by another of my purchases..they are part of a Martha Stewart String Lace punch set; and I also bought the pink cardstock there too.
Looking forward to seeing your creations for the challenge

4 new Autumn digi images

Tonight I've added 4 new Autumn digis to my collection...you can see them with all the others at A Passion for Stamps

Maple Leaf; £1.50

Toadstools; £1.50

Beech Nut; £1.50

Acorns; £1.50

Autumn

Good evening! I think Autumn must be my favourite season of the year with all the beautiful, rich, warm colours. I just love the oranges, rusts and browns all around us at the moment.
I drew these Pumpkins a couple of days ago and have been enjoying taking my time to colour them with my Promarkers and add some dimension and texture to the card.
The paper is MY Minds Eye and the corners were made using the same paper inserted halfway into a heart punch. I'm still chopping paper at a great rate with my new Tonic Studios Mini Trimmer and  I used it again with the quilling tool but this time  I snipped the lengths of paper and made "sunflower" type flowers.
I used some raffia behind the image to add a little dimension.
You can find the  Pumpkin image with some other new ones at A Passion for Stamps.

 

Challenges

Crafty Catz ...Autumn

Crazy4Challenges ...Halloween or Fall

Fussy and Fancy ..Try a new technique (quilling sunflowers)

My Time to Craft .. L is for "leaves"

Paper Playtime ..Halloween

Paper Sundaes ...anything goes

Paperplay ..Autumn leaves

Tuesday Throwdown ..Fall

PROMARKER GIVEAWAY

EDITED 31.03.26

THIS IS AN OLD POST! I CAN SEE FROM MY BLOG ANALYTICS THAT LOTS OF PEOPLE ARE CURRENTLY LOOKING AT THIS POST AND SEVERAL OTHER  OLDER POSTS. 

I'D LOVE YOU TO GO TO MY HOME PAGE  https://apassionforcards.blogspot.com/ AND KEEP UP TO DATE WITH ALL MY NEWER BLOG POSTS AND VIDEOS. 

THANKS SO MUCH!

The Promarkers have arrived so  now I can have my giveaway!
The prize is 2 sets of 5 Promarkers.
It's open to followers old and new and all you have to do is leave a comment here and post it in your blog/sidebar. I will choose a random winner on 15th October  and post them to the winner as soon as possible after that.
I have another set of 5 Promarkers to give away as well but I will do that in a couple of weeks to a random commenter! I'll let you know in advance about it.

Tonic Studios Mini Trimmer in action!

 

Ever since I got my Tonic Sudios Mini Trimmer a couple of weeks ago I've been chopping strips of paper and card at a great rate! I've always used a blade trimmer until now so I've been fascinated by the neat cutting and how narrow I can make the strips now......Then, when I had lots of little strips of paper in a pile in the kitchen, I thought.....I could make little quilled flowers with these!!

I'll show you how I made the card at the top of the post .

 

1. I printed out several of my Bedside Table digi images and coloured one of them with Promarkers.

I coloured and extra drawer front to decoupage. I added little details such as Glossy Accents on the vase and lamp, a gem for a drawer knob, glitter on the tissue box and beads hanging from the drawer

2. Using my super sharp Tonic Studios scissors I cut out the image.

3. I used the trimmer again to cut the mats for the card, choosing pale pink for behind the table to look like wallpaper. 

4. Back to the trimmer....I marked pale paper at 3mm intervals and cut several for my roses.

5. The quilling strips

 

 6. Using a small quilling tool I rolled up the strips and made the roses.

7. The quilling  paper is turned at 90 degrees to form the petals.

After I adhered the roses I added little branches from the birdy punch (minus the bird!). I think I'll be using this little punch a lot one way or another. Check out where I  first used it on my ROBIN card.

You might notice,too, that before I stuck the image to the pink paper, I made a slit in the top of the tissue box and popped in some tissue!

Challenges

Alphabet Challenge  ....Pretty Pastels

Craft Your Days Away ..make your own flowers

Craft your Passion ..something beginning with "F" (flowers)

The Pink Elephant ...vintage

Allsorts GDT card

It's another grey day here in Northern Ireland....you'd think I'd be used to it by now! Anyhow, I don't feel so guilty about not cutting the grass when it's drizzling again! Today I'm Guest Designer and joint sponsor on the Allsorts Challenge blog where the theme is "flowers and swirls". I've used Rosebud from my floral collection of digis on A Passion for Stamps and coloured it with Promarkers.

Just while I'm talking about Promarkers ...I  have just had the chance to try out a set of their new FLEXMARKERS.  I must say, they are very impressive!! I love the new brush type nib and, while they do take a little bit of getting used to, I'll definitely be having some more! I hope to upload a card soon showing them.

I have been assured that I'll be able to have another Promarker giveaway on my blog soon (ie as soon as they arrive!) which will be open to followers old and new, so please watch out for this!

Back to the card! I have glittered the swirls but it's not showing up too well in the photo. I find myself saying that  a lot lately - must be something to do with our weather! Maybe I should try a daylight lamp or a light box. Any suggestions are welcome.

The swirls are a mixture of Marianne Creatables and Cuttlebug designs and the paper is My Mind's Eye.
Thanks for looking,

Challenges

Crafty Catz ..ribbon 
Creative Card Crew  ..anything goes
Marianne Design Divas ...anything goes
Papertake Weekly ...anything goes

Mannequin

Good morning!
I've been having computer problems which mean my time on the internet has been short and sweet. On top of that work and family commitments seem to have overtaken again and this card has been "in the making" for days now..
The image is Mannequin -  one of my newest digis from A Passion for Stamps and when I drew it I was thinking of a black metal stand which wouldn't need coloured....however if you have a look at the slideshow you'll see a couple of lovely cards made by Nic and Brenda using colour and they look great!!
I have added some spots of glitter around the image to add highlights and some ribbon.
The papers are are real mixture - DCWV Nursery, Forever Friends Retro and Papermania Regency.
I have used a zig zag embossing strip and some doodled stitching.

I have it on good authority that I'll be having another Promarker giveaway soon which will be open to followers (old and new) of my blog, so keep a lookout for this!

The little spool was another little punch idea.

1. Woodware flower pot punch or similar

2. Punch out two shapes

3. Adhere these together as above

4. Wrap embroidery thread around the "spool"

Challenges

Alphabet Challenge ...P for Pretty Pastels
Crafty Catz  ... monochromatic
Stamp Something  ..digi day
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle  ...labour day
Tuesday Throwdown ...3papers,2 buttons and 1 ribbon
Try it on Teusday ..monochrome

Crafty Calendar Challenge DT card

"Let sleeping bears lie" is the theme for this month's challenge at Crafty Calendar Challenge and I had just the right digi image.."Baxter flat out". The prize is 4 digis from Crafty Sentiments.  Lately I've been making more cards which lean towards the "clean and simple" way of things but it's probably just a phase!! For this one anyhow I thought I'd show off the image with a bright backing paper and keep the rest quite plain. It was another one made for the birth of little Eva, my newest great neice.

I have it on good authority that I'll be having another Promarker giveaway soon which will be open to followers (old and new) of my blog, so keep a lookout for this!

I love using Promarkers and actually use them for ALL my colouring. Most of my digi images are flowers and for a while I struggled with using Promarkers on the finer parts and stems but now that they have released the new fine tips I'm really happy with the results and have just ordered more..

Challenges

Crafty Creations ...3 or more dies or punches
Creative Card Crew  ... anything goes
Cute Card Thursday  ...a pinch and a punch
I Love Promarkers  ...anything goes

Wild rose, Thistle and Scabious

 Good morning...Just showing you the new flower digis I've added to my Passion for Stamps collection. I'm finishing some more digis at the moment (not floral) and hope to add them later along with some cards.
Hope you like..

Wild Rose; £1.70

 

Thistle; £1.50

 

Scabious; £1.70