No-line colouring and Uncle Ivan's birthday card

My crafty New Year's resolution this year was to try some new techniques, so I thought I'd have a go at no-line colouring.  Hmmmm.  I don't think it's for me, I think I prefer the black lined version!  I kinda wish I'd picked an image to practice on that didn't take a couple of hours to actually colour in though!

• Crafty Catz #490 - flower power
• Word Art Wednesday #422-423 - anything goes

This one was a nice wee quickie for my Uncle in Canada, minimal colouring required! I've used one of my doggies from Tim Holtz (of course I chose the 'Ruby' one!) and the MFT porthole die.  Silver stars and line stickers from stash. Clear gloss added to the dog's nose and eyes, and sparkle to the collar.

• Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch #473
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - besotted with our pets
• Watercooler Wednesday #255 - masculine

Two old oldies!

Sunday evening already, how'd that happen so quickly!  Time definitely goes quicker at the weekend!

I've two real oldies this evening - the date on this Whipper Snapper kitty stamp was 2008 so it's lasting well!  Coloured with polychromos and popped up on foam pads. Clear gloss added to his nose and thermometer.

• Layout from MFT Sketch #472
• Papercraft challenge #54 - use 2 DPs

And this stamp from Anita's is even older with a date stamp on it of 2002!  I think it was maybe one of the first Christmas stamps I ever bought and I still ink it up now and then.  He comes with a load of stars round him but I masked them off and then inked up my sky.  I hadn't intended to add so many stars but I made a bit of a hash inking the sky and needed to take the focus off it!  

• AAA Cards #157 - one layer + polar animal
• ABC Christmas - A is for Any Christmas
• Christmas Cards All Year Round January - anything Christmas

Love bunny and a confused penguin

Such a bright beautiful winter's day we had today, the sun was splitting the trees, so it was nice to get all wrapped up and get to the local park for a dander.  I couldn't believe how much their daffodils are up already! It was Ruby's first outing after a surprise visit to the vets on Thursday to get 4 teeth out, poor wee thing. But she's back to her old self now, and woofing down her dinner :)

This first card uses some real old oldies - I'm not even entirely sure how ancient my Whipper Snapper bunny is!  I've also used a partial sentiment from an old Paper Smooches set and for some reason my MFT heart die rarely gets an outing!
Coloured with polychromos, sparkle added to the big heart and clear gloss to his nose.

• Layout based on CAS(e) This Sketch #355
• Crafty Cardmakers #248 - anything goes
• Creative Inspirations January - I've gone for the 'something old'

This card got a wee bit confused in the making!  It started off as a penguin based one for the Christmas Kickstart challenge, and this little penguin was the one I chose.  So then I thought my boozing buddy would be perfect for the 'cheers' challenge over at MFT Birthday and I thought I could make it that it could also double as a winter birthday card. But now I'm not sure it actually looks like either a Christmas card or a birthday card!!  Maybe it's more of a Thank You for after Christmas?

• Christmas Kickstart #27 - penguin parade
• MFT Birthday Project - cheers to the New Year
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - use a stencil

A flying Zebra and Get Well roses

We've had a lovely bright day today, but it's all change for tomorrow.  Storm Brendan is due to hit with 85mph gales, so it definitely won't be an umbrella type of day!  This little guy would be blown to Spain LOL

I had a little slice of this swirly DP in my pile that I knew would come in handy and it was just big enough to slide behind my hearts die :)
Zebra popped up on foam pads, sparkle added to the edge of the umbrella and shine added to his hooves.  Little blue stars from stash.

• Layout from AAA Cards #156
• Pixie's Snippets Playground #369
• Your Next Stamp #130 - shades of blue

I couldn't get a decent pic of this one, you'll have to trust me that it looks much better in real life LOL

I've discovered that I can colour in and watch TV at the same time, mostly thanks to my fab new sharpener that catches all the shavings, so I'm not up and down every 2 minutes to sharpen my pencils!

Floral image from Clearly Besotted, coloured with polychromos and then splattered with pink and green watercolours.

• Layout from Freshly Made Sketches #417
• Simon Says Stamp Monday - fun with florals
• Word Art Wednesday #420-421 - anything goes

Floral Double

I finally made it to my craft shop today and managed to get some white cardstock, hurrah.  But I was gutted to learn that they're closing soon, gone the way of the usual high street shops.  It's such a shame, they've been in Belfast for over 30 years!

I coloured up a couple of these MFT flowers the other night while there was rubbish on the TV ... namely Dr Who!  That would have been an hour lost from my life, so I was glad I actually had something to show for my time ;)

I've gone back to my beloved polychromos for these - I think of the pair I prefer the pink one

Pink card:

• Layout from Stick it Down January
• Penny Black and More #January - make it feminine
• Simply Create Too #156 - monochrome

Yellow card:

• Layout from Atlantic Hearts #350
• Word Art Wednesday #420/421 - anything goes

Flowers #2 and Chris's birthday card

Happy New Year folks!  I can hardly believe it's 20 years since the hooha at the turn of the millennium!  I spent mine dosed with the cold but squeezed in a wee Baileys just for the sake of it and managed to stay up long enough to see the fireworks on TV.

Here's the remake of the birthday card I made recently with my new Clearly Besotted stamp and used watercolours this time.  Not a medium I'm overly happy with, give me watercolour pencils any day. Though it's all part of my 'be more adventurous' crafty resolution and to try new or different techniques.

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - something new
• Allsorts #553 - soft pastels
• Word Art Wednesday #420-421 - anything goes

I should know by now not to leave cards to the last minute.  My mojo tends to go AWOL and I'd no clue what to make for my brother-in-law.  I'd seen one like this on Pinterest a while ago using a big balloon die and thought I'd have a go at making my own, though I'm not sure if it actually looks like a balloon or not ... at least Greg didn't manage to guess what it was!  Maybe I should have had more of a curve on the edge?  Ah well, time's up, it will have to do.

• Simon Says Stamp Monday - party time
• Cardz 4 Guys #235 - blue
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