Crafty Goings On

Let it Shine Cards and some Candy

2011-12-19T20:32:00.015Z

One of the most recent digital collection from Charmed Cards & Crafts is "Let it Shine", and I think it has to be one of my favourites. It is one I find myself wanting to use again and again.

On this card I used one of the images from the "Let it Shine" bundle, which I coloured with Copic markers:

I used Prima papers, and Nestabilities dies. The border was made with Liquid Pearls. Prima flowers and Pearls for the corner.

Here is another card using another image from the same bundle:

...and the same girl on another card:

Here is another image from the same bundle:

Prima flowers and swirl. Prima Resin Bird. Sentiment from the "Let it Shine bundle. Prima Flowers. Paper is Basic Grey.

There are also Christmas images in the "Let it Shine bundle, and I used one of them on quite a few of my Christmas cards (used same girl and coloured her exactly the same LOL Time was short), they are all on the main Charmed Blog, here are just two of them:

I'll come back and link product used tomorrow.

There are some more cards using other images from the "Let it Shine bundle in an earlier post from me here. Isn't this just the most wonderful collection? SO versatile!

Pop over to the Charmed blog and pop your name down for a chance to win our latest candy :-)

MEGA MEGA CANDY!!

2011-09-29T22:40:00.003+01:00

Oh yes!!!!! You have got to get over to the main Charmed blog and check this one out!!

Candy

2011-09-14T23:17:00.003+01:00

Christmas Candy no less. Pop over on the main Charmed Blog and enter :-)

GOOD LUCK!

Free Downloads...

2011-08-21T13:58:00.004+01:00

We have another free set of downloads for you to grab - only available as a free for all until tomorrow so be quick.

If you are not already following the new blog then I would recommend that you do, just in case I forget to post on here about any freebies :)

Let it Shine Candy

2011-08-10T14:45:00.002+01:00

Pop over for a little more sweet candy at the main Charmed blog.

Let it Shine

2011-08-07T15:18:00.007+01:00

I had a little play with the new Let it Shine downloads (love love love this collection). I used one of my favourite images on both my cards here. I decided it would have been good if we had included a celebrate and a plain birthday sentiment in the bundle, and created a couple around this image. If you have purchased the Let it Shine bundle you can get the image with the sentiments as shown (including the circle behind the ladies, but of course without my friend, Tee's, name on there. LOL Just send us an email with your order number and I shall give you the extra bits.

I used Copics to colour in both of the images here (did I tell you the next Candy on the new main Charmed shop blog includes lots of Copics?? I'll let you know when it's on there ). This image is so versatile, and can be used for so many occasions.

Everything here is of course available from Charmed Cards & Crafts:
Image from Let it Shine Digi Collection. The sentiments were created for these cards, but you can get the image with these two sentiments if you have purchased the Let it Shine bundle. Just drop us an email with the order number.
Papers: Prima Sweet Fairy Pad
Pink Pearls
The Lilac pearls were created with Liquid Pearls
Prima Butterfly Pebble
White sparkling Lace
Metal Corner (will get this on site as soon as poss)
Pink Roses

This one uses:
Same image from Let is Shine, and again you can get the sentiment behind it (minus my friend Tee's name on it of course).
Papers are Basic Grey Hello Luscious
Trim is Bo Bunny Olivia
Flower is Petaloo with a Prima centre.
Pearls

Remember that our digis are available to everyone, anywhere, IMMEDIATELY. We also have a big collection of FREE downloads, so don't forget to get those.

Just in case you hadn't noticed we have added some badges for your blog in the right-hand column on the Charmed blog. If you love our products (and we have 16,000+ product lines so there must be something you like LOL), then PLEASE let the world know. Thank you ♥

Candy

2011-07-30T14:42:00.002+01:00

Pop over for a little Gorjuss candy on the main Charmed blog :)

FREE Downloads, NEW Digi-Stamps - NEW BLOG!!

2011-07-27T18:49:00.005+01:00

Charmed Cards & Crafts have a brand new blog. Pop over and check it out. There are FREE downloads for you to get immidiately, PLUS we have a SUPERB collection of new Digi stamps. Why not follow the blog to keep abreast of news, give-aways, competitions and challenges.

Button Candy Winner

2011-06-08T09:43:00.005+01:00

Just a flying post to announce the winner of our recent button candy. The winner was chosen at random.org

Number 13 is HELENE. Congratulations to you Helene. Please email us your address and your big bag of buttons will be on its way to you.

Button Candy

2011-06-07T21:09:00.003+01:00

This post will stay on top. Please scroll down for more recent posts.

Hi folks, how are you all doing? Hope the week is progressing nicely for you :-)

Do you ever use buttons on your projects? They really are incredibly versatile, and suitable for so many different things. I am offering you a HUGE bag of buttons as this weeks candy. Really some of these are not really buttons but flatbacks masquerading under the button umbrella. Many are shanked backed, but you can easily snip them off for a flat back.

You have metal buttons, crystal buttons, patterned buttons, pearl buttons, designer buttons, fun buttons - in other words, you get a whole load of buttons!!

To enter the candy just link to the candy on your blog, and enter the link to your blog in Mr Linky below (one entry per person only).

A winner will be chosen at random.org in two weeks time. Good luck!

THIS IS NOW CLOSED. WINNER ANNOUNCED HERE.

Squares

2011-05-27T09:06:00.005+01:00

Crikey! Where did the lovely warm weather go? We had torrential rain, thunder and even hail yesterday! This morning we have woken to more grey skies and a definite chill in the air. Mind you, the plants could do with more rain! We went on a picnic in the Kent countryside a few weeks ago and the ground resembling the surface on some far away planet! Cracked and incredibly dry! So, mustn't grumble over the weather too much (little grumble grumble grumble).

Away from the weather and on to crafty things. My card today was from a sketch challenge on our forums a little while ago. Very very quick card to make. I used Bo Bunny papers (Olivia) - K&Co Roses Grand Adhesions (Cut 'n Paste) - Prima Lace - Pearls and Crystals - Metal Flower Eyelet - and a white inkssential pen around the edges of the squares. Thank you sentiment is a Basic Grey Rub-On.

Very simply decorated inside with the Olivia paper. The edge was cut with a Martha Stewart Deep Edge Punch.

Thanks for visiting :-)

Blog Candy: Fimo/Card Set

2011-05-26T20:35:00.003+01:00

Take a look at this wonderful set:

Our wonderful Maddy Hill, valued DT member at Charmed Cards & Crafts, is generously giving it away as a blog candy. All you have to do is follow her blog, and believe me you will want to make sure you catch each and every one of her amazing creations, and link to the candy. Ends 11th June.

Just look at this amazing Fimo creation Maddy made. She's so creative and never fail to come up with something amazing. You can see more of Maddy's lovely work on her blog and in the Charmed DT project galleries.

Pop over to Maddy's blog and get following :0)

Masculine Lauderdale

2011-05-20T21:09:00.007+01:00

Men are notoriously difficult to create for, but these days there are so many great papers you can use. Don't just look for golf/fishing and the likes; bold, striking colours and designs are fabulously suited for masculine themed project. I used the new Basic Grey Lauderdale 6x6 pad for my card here.

Don't be afraid to use sewing on your project. A random overlapping stitch around the edge for example is fun and quirky. I bought a little sewing machine from John Lewis a while ago and leave it set up just for paper crafting, here's the link for their mini sewing machine. It's a little gem really, so easy to use. Just remember not to glue edges together before sewing as it may gung up your machine. If you don't want to use a machine you could try the Sew Easy range from We R Memory Keepers. A variety of heads are available enabling great designs.

The inside has been decorated too. The shape is cut from a Spellbinders Nestabilities die.

Buttons and brads are Basic Grey. That large Birthday metal sentiment is available HERE. Tim Holtz "play" ticket.

I'll have a candy for you over the weekend so pop back then :-)

Pretty in Pink

2011-05-19T17:00:00.012+01:00

Most of us have gotten so used to using a coloured image as the main focal point for our cards, that we forget they can exist quite happily without one. A Prima flower makes for a beautiful centerpiece; this one is from the Trinket collection.

Products used on this card:
Prima Madeline Trinket Flower
All paper is from the Prima Sweet Fairy 6x6 Paper Pad
Tim Holtz Ticket (love)
White lace.
Heart Pearls.
K&Co Blossomwood die-cuts and transparency. I love the metallic transparent bird; the colour changes as the light catches it.
I punched the two mats (inside and out) using a Martha Stewart Double Loop Punch Around the Page set.
The white heart on the front is 4" Doily Heart.
The rose inside is a K&Co Cut & Paste Grand Adhesion.

As you can see I decorated the inside too. I really think it makes the difference between a good card and a quality card. If you are making the effort to create a handmade card, then why not go that extra mile to make it special.

Thanks for visiting the Charmed corner of the Web :-)

Basic Grey Pre-orders

2011-05-19T16:51:00.006+01:00

The latest two collections by Basic Grey are available to pre-order. We also have the latest Bo Bunny collections available to pre-order.

Speaking of Basic Grey:

SweetThread and Lauderdale arrived early last week as did this lot:

Loving it all :-)

Candy Winner

2011-05-02T12:05:00.003+01:00

I hope you have had a lovely weekend. Personally I feel as though I've been on a long holiday with all these long Bank Holidays! A girl could get used to not working!

Thank you for entering the Easter Candy. The winner was chosen at random.org:

No 43 is lalkygirl (sorry, can't find your name on your blog). Congratulations to you, please email your address details through to us so we can get your stamps sent out.

Another candy will be on the blog soon :-)

Easter Candy

2011-05-01T10:48:00.002+01:00

Happy Easter :-) As promised here is a little candy for you. You will get a set of Kaisercraft Circle Clear stamps; these are in varying sizes, from 1" in diameter,, to 2.5". You will also get a Magnolia stamp. Just link to the candy on your blog, and enter the link to your blog in Mr Linky below.

A winner will be chosen at random.org in a week.

Good luck :-)

THIS CANDY IS NOW CLOSED. WINNER DETAILS CAN BE FOUND HERE

FREE Easter & Spring Cards & Tags Downloads

2011-04-22T14:40:00.004+01:00

Happy Easter to you all. I have been busy making you some FREE cards and tags you can use over Easter, there are also some more generic designs to use anytime. These are downloads, so you can get them right now. They are only available as a grab-for-all until after Easter so get there quick. After this time you will still be able to get them for free, but only with a purchase.

Hope you like them :-)

~Easter Egg Hunt~

2011-04-20T23:13:00.002+01:00

Come join our Easter Egg hunt, and perhaps the Easter bunny will bring you something nice :-)

Win a Spend...

2011-04-20T20:03:00.012+01:00

Just popped on to tell you about our latest competition. Please join us and be in with a chance to win a £30 spend in the shop. Click the picture to find out more.

I cannot believe that it is two months since I lasted posted on the blog! No excuse, but with the website, Facebook and the blog it becomes a little overwhelming at times. Nevertheless lots of things have happened, and new goodies are finding their way into the Charmed store on a regular basis. Here are the latest products to arrive:

Check out those Spellbinders and the new Fancy Pants collections - all totally fab! There's LOADS more new stuff, so why not pop over and check it all out :-)

The next two Basic Grey collections are available to pre-order, and due soon:

EASTER EGG HUNT

There's an Easter Hunt abrewing. I'll pop the link on as soon as it's all ready. Oh and stand by for a little yummy candy over the weekend.

Thanks for visiting the Charmed corner of the web ♥

Sketches - and new products

2011-02-18T11:56:00.012Z

Using sketches is a great way to stretch yourself, and perhaps create something outside your comfort zone. On the Charmed Craft Talk forum we have a monthy sketch challenge, we would love for you to join us so please pop by :-)

This was a card I made for one of the recent sketches. I used white lace, Fancy Pants paper and chipboard, Prima flowers and K&Co grand adhesions. The border was cut with a Martha Stewart border punch. I think the Thank you rub-on was Basic Grey:

That gorgeous rose cluster is K&Co from the Cut 'n Paste range.

I decorated the inside with Fancy Pants paper and another Cut 'n Paste Grand Adhesion:

______________________________________________

NEW PRODUCTS

I always forget to post about new products at Charmed. Here are some new goodies. We have lots of CHA 2011 releases coming soon (including Bo Bunny, Basic Grey, Spellbinders, Tim Holtz and lots more Prima) so stand by for those:

Prima pads - now in A4 as well as 6x6:

Lots of new cute stamps from artists such as Sarah Kay, Penny Johnson, Laurence Design, Mo Manning and more:

Card Candi. New to Charmed Cards & Crafts we love these fab embellishments - available in 23 different packs:

Thanks for popping by. Have a great weekend ♥

Never give up!

2011-02-06T10:35:00.010Z

I hope you have been enjoying our daily card front give-aways. Remember they are only free-for-all for 24 hours so if you want them you have to go get them.

Now then; we have all heard stories about Royal Mail taking an absolute age to deliver something. At Charmed Cards & Crafts we have a collection service which means that Royal Mail pick up from us each day. We get sacks to put the parcels in and on a couple of occasions through the years we have found the odd stray letter in them. You can see how a letter could go amiss as it nestles into the creases at the bottom of a white sack. Parcels going astray is a different matter, they are not so easily overlooked. I sent a card in a 7" x 7" box to a friend on the 30th December - First Class post - and it arrived LAST WEEK! It was not damaged in the slightest, and there was nothing on the box to say where it had been all that time - but perhaps it had been nestling in a corner in one of their darker stiff bags. I can just image them throwing the empty bags onto a great big pile and then only returning to them when more sacks are needed. Only when they pack the bags into another will they discover that they weren't quite empty. I think that scenario accounts for quite a lot of smaller lost mail. So the moral of this story is "NEVER GIVE UP" :-)

Here is the card that took over a month to get from London to Scarborough.

This is such a cute image. I've used it on a couple of occasions now. I coloured it in with Copic makers then added a little glitz here and there with Stickles.

Products used:
Scallops were cut with a Grand Nestabilites die - Basic Grey alpha's - K&Co heart crystals - Bo Bunny white rose trim - Pearls - Lace. Basic Grey paper -Mo Manning digi stamp - Prima centre - Dress-it-Up Party button - Lace and ribbon.

Thanks for popping by ♥

Second Free Download

2011-01-23T20:38:00.002Z

The second free download is now available - but only for 24 hours so get it quick :)

CLICK HERE TO GET IT

Free Valentine Topper Downloads

2011-01-22T21:00:00.003Z

Every day until Valentines Day we are giving away a FREE Valentines Card download. Use it as it is or re-size for tags etc. They are only available to grab without purchase for 24 hours so make sure you visit every day and get them all. Many are suitable for other occasions too, not just Valentine.

POP OVER AND GET THE FIRST ONE

Enjoy! I hope you all like them and they make life a little easier :-)

Random Followers Candy

2011-01-17T08:38:00.003Z

Quick shuffle through the followers of the Crafty Goings On blog, it's time for a little thank you for following. We are giving away one of our Delectable stamps and the winner is...

........... HEIDY

Please email your address through to us within the next seven days. If I haven't heard from you by then I will draw another follower.

Bye for now :-)

New Magnolia - You're so Special Collection....

2011-01-11T23:14:00.004Z

Woohoo, we have the first collection of 2011 from Magnolia landing on our doorstep on Friday. The "You're so Special" collection comprises a myriad of characters, sentiments and accessories. Click the picture below to see all the available designs.

They are available for pre-order right now for immediate delivery when they arrive:

Thanks for popping by ♥

MORE FREEBIES!!

2010-12-23T14:10:00.003Z

Yep, we just keep on giving ha ha ha. Well it is Christmas after all. If you need a quick card then here are seven templates/card fronts for you. Just PRINT-CUT-STICK! Couldn't be easier! Just click the picture below to go straight there.

The Great Christmas Give-Away

2010-12-12T15:55:00.005Z

You must know by now that we love to give away goodies at Charmed Cards & Crafts. We like to reward lyality and what better way than some free goodies! Every year we have our Great Christmas Give-Away and this years is starting NOW! Check this out (click on images to find out more):

Available Worldwide

PLUS

How about that then boys and girls? Sound good? :-)

Moving Moving Moving...

2010-12-10T09:15:00.004Z

Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat! Are ya ready for the big day? You may think you have plenty of time but you don't want it to come up behind you and grabbed you unawares now do ya? It'll be here in only two weeks! Still time to make some cards so if you haven't got your supplies pop over the Charmed Cards & Crafts and get shopping ;-)

Some of our neighbours very sadly left London for Hartlepool last week, I wish them a happy life there but they will be missed.

I decorated the inside too but can't show you that as I wrote in it before taking the pictures ha ha.

I used Prima Fairy Flora papers inside and out. The branch border on the front is punched with a Martha Stewart Woodland Branch edger. I used my Grand Nestabilites for the scalloped circles. Now the smaller sizes from the large pack can be used in the normal Wizard machine, so you can use them without the need for a Grand Calibur. I love these larger shapes.

The corner has been turned down and secured with a Basic Grey glazed brad. That's a Tim Holtz Ticket (if you don't buy anything else get these!) and I used some pearls to finish. I coloured the cute Mo Manning image with Copic Marker pens.

Again I have sewn a border inside and out. I'm really getting the most of my John Lewis sewing machine, what a find!

There's a new challenge on our digi blog so please join in, there's a prize again so don't miss out.

Thanks for popping by ♥

It's Wicked!

2010-12-01T16:57:00.015Z

My daughter is 14 - SOB!! Can't believe she is getting so big! Thankfully she is still innocent and sweet and I'm doing my very best to keep her that way!!

Part of her present was a theatre visit at Victoria Apollo to see Wicked. The girls have seen it already and raved about it so I was looking forward to it. What a show! I was enthralled by the voices of the main singers, particularily the "not so" wicked witch.; WOW!! We had seats in the dress circle above and this is the main stage as seen from the top:

It was a bitterly cold night last Thursday with more than a promise of the snow that lay ahead (we are totally snowed in now here in London) but this show sure warmed the heart. This was one of my favourites - no comparison to the real thing though:

It's the Broadway version but you get the drift. Here's another fab song. This one is actually performed by two of the main performers we saw, Rachel Tucker and Lee Mead:

Rachel Tucker is a truly amazing singer!

Here is my 14 year old enjoying a birthday dinner at Zizzi's at Victoria prior to the performance:

Shocking how time fly by!! Seems only yesterday I held her as a tiny baby in my arms!

I made this card for her:

The image is a bratz colouring page freebie, I've included it below in case you want to use it. I coloured her in with Copic markers and mounted her on two large ovals cut with my Grand Scalloped Oval Nestabilities. These larger shapes are terrific when you want to use a bigger image. My card here is an A5 size.
You can't see it but her eyelids, top, belt and shoes are glittery, as are the scallops.

Products used:
Main patterned papers is Basic Grey Eva and I sewed a border all around it on the front - I sewed decorative borders around the skewed panel too and dotted with pink fabric stars - HOTP Musical brads - Bo Bunny Olivia trims, this pack contains that green imitation leather trim and gorgeous brown ruffled ribbon - I made the sentiment and have included that below for you too, minus the name of course :-)

Click on the images below and save the larger versions to your hard disk:

Thanks for popping by. Keep warm!!! :-)

COPIC CANDY WINNER

2010-11-21T12:35:00.005Z

Sorry I'm late with this. Thank you to all who entered. We have had some entries by email which have been linked to the blog in Mr Linky.

Here is the winner of the Copic Markers:

That is RACHEL. Congratulations Rachel, please email me your address HERE.

Thank you very much GRAPHICS DIRECT for sponsoring us again.

COPIC Blog Candy!

2010-11-14T18:00:00.006Z

What a blog candy!! Fancy getting your hands on 72 Copic markers?? Yep, once again we are giving you the chance to get your crafty mitts on a set of 72 super duper marker pens FOR FREE!

Charmed Cards & Crafts have once again teamed up with Graphics Direct Ltd to bring you this fantastic prize. Graphics Direct Ltd are without doubt the cheapest place to get your Copics', and with outstanding customer service to boot. Although we sell several markers, such as Le Plume, Graphics Direct is THE best place to get your Copics.
Pssttt.... Graphics Direct are giving away Ipod Shuffles EVERY WEEK on their Facebook page! All you have to do to be in their draw there is to "like" their page - so go like it! LOL - but make sure you come back to enter the Copic draw :-)

To get the Copic set we want you to link to a project on your blog (in Mr Linky that either uses a download or a stamped image that you have coloured in.

Link to a card you made with a download or a stamped image (does NOT have to be one of ours)
If you are using one of the Charmed Cards & Crafts downloads then you get two chances (please enter two comments, in the second just write "my second chance). All entries will be checked.
Please mention the candy on your blog.

Here's a picture for your blog:

This will run until 14 November. This post will stay on top until then. As always the winner will be drawn at random.org.

GOOD LUCK GUYS!!!! x

THIS IS NOW CLOSED - WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON...

New Challenge and lots of ideas...

2010-11-12T08:27:00.004Z

Pop over to our digi blog to enter our latest challenge. No need to use our downloads, it's anything goes again. You can win a sweet Magnolia stamp this time.

There are lots of new Christmas ideas on the main site, including a couple of classes - all free of course. Pop over and take a look :-)

Thanks for visiting the Charmed corner of the web :-)

Mummy Kissing Santa

2010-10-24T13:15:00.003+01:00

I have been drawing a little lately and this is one of mine, as well as the two sentiments. I made an easel card and wrapped the image in gorgeous Bo Bunny Noel Ribbon. Borders have been machine sewn. The paper is all from Bo Bunny Noel.

The green ribbon is from the same Bo Bunny Noel pack. Pearls and Roses are Prima, heart crystals are K&Co. I added polar white flower soft to the image as snow, it's not in the first picture (I forgot to add it!) but you can see it in the picture below.

Image and sentiments by me.

Thanks for visiting. Don't forget to enter the Copic Candy (72 pens!!) and the Bo Bunny Noel Collection pack give-away.

Oohhh SPOOKY!

2010-10-21T00:05:00.003+01:00

Totally forgot to write here about the latest FREE Charmed Perfectly Defined FREEBIE - did I mention it is FREE? This time it's a SPOOKTACULAR assortment of Spookiness.

To get this spooky bundle FOR FREE just email through a request HERE and we shall email through a download link to the bundle.

The bundle comprises five different versions and I think this one is super for all your projects. It is superb for scrapping all your Halloween pictures and as you can see it is super for cards to. I used Dreamer from the Pixie collection with the main Spooky definition- and this little beauty is also available in a Delectable clear stamp. She is coloured in with Copic marker (get them FREE in our current candy).

Very difficult card to photograph, these pictures do not do it justice. It's difficult to see but the card is sparkly in places. The cobwebs at the top are punched with a Martha Stewart deep edge punch and I used subtly glittery card stock. It looks just like morning due on a spiders web. I used Glossy accents on the roses, you can see this better in this picture:

Prima swirl, pebble and pearls - although I coloured the pearls a deeper red with my Copics. That lovely black glittery vine is a discontinued Prima product. Stickles on the wings.

Lots of people have had the free Perfectly Defined downloads but I have not had any feedback, so let me know what you think please if you get any of them :-)

Get a Bo Bunny Noel Collection Pack for FREE

2010-10-20T09:25:00.004+01:00

Check out the card challenge on our digi blog, we are offering a Bo Bunny Noel Collection Pack as a prize this time - and you don't need to use one of our downloads, anything goes. You can't lose, all you have to do is link :-) Pop over and take a look - GOOD LUCK xx

Basic Grey Marjolaine and Curio

2010-10-11T20:43:00.005+01:00

Two fabulous ranges from Basic Grey available for pre-order right NOW :-)

ATC's

2010-10-08T18:55:00.010+01:00

New ATC round on the Charmed forum and the theme this time was "textured background". Here are my three swaps:

I made them all different but the format is the same: Claudia Helmut Canvas (tried to link and realised that it's not on site, will rectify that as soon as) painted with a variety of Perfect Pearls - Green Paint Dabber painted torn Prima Paintables paper - inked swirls (using a Crafter's Workshop template) - then embellishments and glamour dust. Embellishments used are from K&Co Ephemera packs: Life's Journey and Cut 'n Paste plus a few paper flowers, a Tim Holtz ticket and some Prima pearls and crystals. All edges are inked with brown distress ink.

Quite hard to let them go once you've created them, but them's de rules... ;-)

Thanks for visiting the Charmed corner of the Web....x

Circle Journal

2010-10-07T09:01:00.012+01:00

I love circle journals. not only is it fun to create in them but I love seeing the creations from the other members. We normally have one going on the Charmed forum and here's one of my recent efforts. The theme was "Grandma's Recipe's". It's a desktop calendar type journal so the pages flip over.

My first page shows grandma cooking. I used Basic Grey papers and embellishments (June Bug) - Prima lace - borders cut with two Martha Stewart punches.

This fab image is Mo Manning. I was searching for a granny stamp and found this digi which was just perfect for the job. She is coloured in with Copic markers (must start writing colurs down for you).

Here is a huge cooking pot on the second page, that I again coloured in with my Copics. Behind the pot panel is a recipe that pulls out. I gave my grandma's soup recipe, which was out of this world. My mum made it even better but I can't quite master it.

You can see how I cut out grandma and mounted her on foam for a 3D effect. I cut table legs for the table and glittered edges distreetly with a little Stickles.

That's it for me today. Thanks for popping by xx

FREE Download - Perfectly Defined # 2...

2010-10-06T00:30:00.000+01:00

It's Wednesday again and that of course now means a new FREE download for you. This week on our digi blog you can grab this festive definition:

As before it comes in several formats: white on red, red on white, black and white, simple and fancy; so you should be able to use it whatever you are making.

I used the fancy white on red Definition with the gorgeous sleeping Pixie from our Charming Christmas collection. No light at all today so it's a tad dull - must get that light tent!

My paper is from the Bo Bunny Noel collection, as is that gorgeous gold braid.
I used Flower Soft Polar White on the brackets and the hat, and the new Gold Flower Soft on the card.
The word "Christmas" is defined by Glossy Accents but I used an old one and it went a bit funny...!
Gold and Blue Stickles on the wings. Gold, green and red Stickles on the definition swirl.

Let me know if you download this please. ENJOY! :-)

Charming Christmas

2010-10-05T19:02:00.010+01:00

We are going to be releasing a new digi Christmas collection soon, but that doesn't mean we will forget about the others in our shop. I love this sleeping Pixie from the Charming Christmas bundle, waiting for Santa with mince pies, milk and carrots.

The presents were just made from scraps of paper and Christmas ribbon. The loop ribbon is cut from a Martha Stewart edge punch, as was the looped border on the main card. A few K&Co Poinsettias are on there too.

White doily (from supermarket) is behind the Pixie. I glittered it with ultra fine crystal glamour dust. The lace is white sparkle - Stickles on the wings - Polar White on the pom pom on the hat -

I decorated the inside too. That paper is K&Co - Again a folded supermarket doily - Crystals - Nestabilities used for the circles - K&Co Rub-On.

Thanks for visiting :-)

OH - ITV2 tonight at 9pm - new series of Vampire Diaries! Yay!

FREE Download - Perfectly Defined...

2010-09-29T00:30:00.001+01:00

As we no longer have our weekly challenges on our digi blog we do "other things" during the week. Wednesday is my day and I have decided to create a series of FREE word definitions for our visitors. Today the word is "cherish". A word that has so many meanings and is appropriate for a multitude of occasions. Click on the Perfectly Defined pack below to be taken to our digi world and find out how you can get it (and yes, it is FREE).

You get it in pink, in white, a simple version and the full version.

I used the pink version in my card below:

My Charmed image is one of our gorgeous Deletable stamps: Annie Sitting Pretty. I coloured her using Copic markers.

I was also test driving the new Flower Soft Gold and it's GORGEOUS!! I totally recommend it! It's unlike anything you have used, it has the texture of the Polar White and an amazing luxurious sparkle to it. Unfortunately it is not showing up on my pictures but take my word for it, it is LUSH!!

The paper is Prima Fairy Flora - I am so in love with this range, it's totally me! I stitched around the edges and roughened the edges with a Tim Holtz paper distresser.

I also used one of our new Nestabilites sets, it's just fab!

Pearls are Prima. Velvet ribbo n is Dovecraft value ribbon and the scalloped ribbon is from an Imaginisce set.

I do hope you enjoy the new Perfectly Defined range xx

Annie Candy Winner

2010-09-28T23:37:00.005+01:00

Thanks to all who entered ♥ I used random org to choose a winner and here is the result:

That is RENKATA.

Congratulations to you Renkata! Please email me your postal address and Annie will be flying over to live with you :-)

Annie Candy

2010-09-19T09:19:00.006+01:00

I used one of our Delectable Annie clear stamps for my DW world card this week; if you would like one for yourself please enter your blog link in Mr Linky below. It would be great if you could mention the candy on your blog too. I will draw at random.org next Sunday.

GOOD LUCK!! :-)

Charming!

2010-09-19T07:00:00.003+01:00

It's the last regular Dottie's World challenge for a while. Our lovely Gunn set this challenge and she wanted to see two charms and one brad on our cards, along with a Charmed Downloads. I didn't use a download but one of our Delectable Annie stamps instead.

I am entering this into a couple of other challenges:
Copic Creations - Shading
Christmas Cards

I used the new Basic Grey Jovial papers for the main patterned paper and the circles. I also used one of the new Nestabilities.

I used two Christmas tree charms and a Basic Grey Jovial Glazed Brad as the required elements. The flowers is a heavily glittered Prima rose...

Annie was coloured using my Copic markers. You can see better on the next picture where I glittered Annie's socks, cardigan and hairbands, as well as Teddy's bow...

I decorated the inside too....

The circle border was added here also...

You can see better how the circles align when the card is closed on the next picture...

Please pop over to DW and check out our loyal and wonderful DT members cards...

Thanks for visiting ♥

Conditional Christmas

2010-09-12T07:00:00.002+01:00

It's Sunday again! Can you believe it? Where on earth did that week go? Been a mixed bag weather wise but summer is definitely drawing to a close, seems it was here for a precious short time. I noticed my herb garden is starting to look yellow, that's a sure sign of autumn approaching. So, many months of cold weather awaits us. One thing to look forward to of course is Christmas, right bang in the middle of it all and just when we are starting to get fed up with the cold - it really couldn't come at a better time :-) I've been quite bad at making cards in good time so this year I decided to start early, which is why I took the chance to make another for this weeks Dottie's World challenge.

It was my turn to set our weekly challenge and I decided that it might be quite challenging to make a Christmas card without a hint of red or green. Apart from the colour restriction the only stipulation was that I wanted to see at least one of the fabulous Charmed Downloads on there somewhere. Here is my card - I didn't finish until late afternoon and the light was terrible, but I guess I have to start getting used to that:

I had fun with this one, creating two different sides on the front with colours and main paper uniting the two.

I cut a paper doily in half and coloured each half in different shapes of lilac/purple. A Lilac Prima Poinsettia adorn the centre, along with K&Co sentiment and 3D snowflake. I used Martha Stewart chunky shards of glitter to decorate the snowflake on the paper. The blue die-cut paper is a sheet from the K&Co Swell Noel Mat pad inked with blue distress ink. There's a Metal Evergreen snowflake brad in the corner and three metal Christmas tree charms. Finally I added a little white lace and some pearls.

OK, I hear you say, didn't you forget something? Didn't you neglect to include THE MOST IMPORTANT THING? Well no; I didn't say it had to be on the front of the card, did I? :-) Take a look inside my card:

Yep, I decided that I wold adorn the inside of my card too. K&Co paper again - Nestabilities cut circle - chunky purple shards for the corners - and...

...two gorgeous creatures from our Charming Christmas bundle. I merged the two images and coloured them with Copic markers. The silver is Stickles and I used Polar White Flowersoft for the white trim. Aren't they adorable? And you just know that Scruff is quite willing to share that turkey ♥

Have a great Sunday. I hope you will join us on Dottie's World x

Going outside...

2010-09-05T10:51:00.020+01:00

... in a manner of speaking... Our lovely Adele gave us a great challenge on Dottie's World today "The Great Outdoors", these were the specs:

Please make a card, project with an outdoor theme. That's the only requirement apart from obviously using one or more of the fabby Charmed Downloads

I went to town on this one, it's quite an extravagant card in terms of expense so it would be for someone very special. It's an easel card so get ready for lots of pictures as that's not too easy to photograph.

Stray leaf on some of the pictures, ignore that LOL

The paper used here are from the new Prima Fairy Floral pad - both the main paper plus the blue paper. Flowers are Prima Flutter Vine Pacific Blue plus a Prima Medicci Citrus flower (both sadly no longer available). I roughed the edges of my main Prima paper with a Tim Holtz paper distresser.

These show the side of the card. For an easy to follow tutorial on how to make these go HERE:

I used a pixie from our Pixie collection, available both in digi form and as a clear stamp. I coloured her in with Copics, cut her out and sat her on the branch:

The blue panel is likewise from the Prima Fairy Floral pad. I cut it with a Martha Stewart Deep Edge punch. For the middle I folded a little remnant of the paper concertina style. Small pearls were added, as well as a Girls Paperie charm (I LOVE these). Finally a little Prima lace adorns the bottom of the punched panel:

Blue flowers from the Prima vine plus a Prima Medicci Citrus flower (both no longer available). The sentiment is a Basic Grey rub-on rubbed onto shaped cut with a Nestabilities (virtually blow that stray leaf away please). Pearls are Prima.

The very base of my card is just plain cardstock. I have inked all edges with brown Tim Holtz
distress ink.
Thanks for visiting.

Life's a Beach!

2010-08-29T12:00:00.011+01:00

It can be that's for sure. Love this little phrase, it can be taken as life is tough so play and have fun, but it can of course also be taken as life is a beach, all summery and fun :-) Anyhow this is the phrase I used as the basis for my card for this weeks challenge on the Charmed digi blog. Lou set the challenge before she flew off to sunny Turkey and this is what she asked for:

"As this challenge goes live I will actually be sunning myself in Turkey! So I think it would be a fitting plan to make a beach/vacation themed card - make it sunny please! Don't forget your Charmed download!"

I must confess that originally I had remembered the challenge incorrectly and though it was merely "summery" so my first attempt was not suited! Here is my second attempt:

I used an image from the Boy oh Boy collection and coloured him with Copics. First time I have used this one, he just EXUDE all the joys of life, don't you think? You can't help but smile when you look at him.

My base card was Aqua coloured cardstock. I created a little beach scene and added my image onto it using 3D foam pads for a 3D effect.
Tickets are Tim Holtz and edges are inked with distress inks
Beach clip holding the tickets is Lil' Davis.
Wave in left-hand corner, Star fish top right-hand corner and the wording "Beach" and "Splash" are all from K&Co Sea Glass Beach Chipboard.
I punched the edges of the frame using Martha Stewart punches and sprayed it with glimmer mist for a discreet sparkle.
Prima pearls were added to the bottom.

Pop over and join the challenge, we sure would love to see you!

Have a great Bank Holiday. Thanks for visiting the Charmed corner of the web ♥

Inspirational...

2010-08-22T12:12:00.010+01:00

Our weekly challenge on the Charmed digi blog this week is Inspiration. Lou posted a beautiful picture from which to draw inspiration, be that the feel of it, the colours, or whatever other inspiration you may get from it. The only stipulation is that you must use one of our hundreds of downloads - and that's not difficult as there are so many utterly gorgeous ones to choose from :-)

I love the colours on the photo and regretfully I didn't quite capture the richness. But I went for the dark reds, whites and blue colours as my inspiration. I added a little green to mine also. This is the first Christmas card of the year for me but I'm determined to get many done before December so expect to see more...

My Holly Pixie from the Pixie Downloads (also available as a clear stamp) has blue/green holly and wings. Each holly leaf is green but tipped with blue. I used a variety of K&Co and Basic Grey papers, the base of my card is Doodlebug Ladybug Sugar Coated Cardstock, which means the back of the card is nice and glittery too. I also used gold lace - K&Co Evergreen snowflake stickers - Warm wishes greeting is from an Imaginice Polar Expressions paper - K&Co Layered Poinsettia flowers - Clear pebbles forms a frame around the card. I used a Martha Stewart Border punch for the border running across the middle. The red has been highlighted with red Stickles.

After printing out my Pixie I drew a large bauble around her then coloured everything in with Copic markers. I used Polar White Flowersoft for the trim on her dress and a little Stickles to highlight here and there on the holly as well, as the gold dots on the bauble..

I started doing the inside but didn't have enough time to complete. It's ready for when I have the time..

Just the blue paper atm, but will add everything else when I need it...

I do hope you can join us on DW this week, it's a fab challenge.

Thanks for visiting x

Favourites...

2010-08-15T08:41:00.015+01:00

This week on our digi blog our lovely Gunn set a fab challenge: to showcase your favourite Charmed download. Tough one this one as I love so many of them. One of my favourite collections are the "Girls about town" and I love the Pixie collections for their sheer versatility, I also love the new Once Upon a Time collection and and and... the list goes on. The image I used on my card this week has to be one of my favourites from the Pixie collection but not THE favourite as I love them all!! I am giving one of these collections to one lucky person so pop back tomorrow.

I used papers from the Fancy Pants Daily Grind paper pad for both my background and two corners.

I drew a circle with large dots on the background with a marker then swirled in each with a white Inkssentials pen. With the same pen a whimsical doodled border was created The two flowers are one K&Co Blossomwood die-cut cardstock flower cut in half. They are actually delicately glittered , although that doesn't show well here.

I created a frame using Flower Soft. I mixed the colours myself and glued them onto a green frame. After inserting my image, which I coloured with Copics, I stuck it onto brown cardstock distressed with a paper distresser to roughen edges, then onto my card.

The floral swirl below uses a K&Co Blossomwood die-cut as the base, then a Prima crystal swirl and blue Prima pearls.

The corners were Prima The Goods cardboard shapes onto which I stuck the Fancy Pants paper and inked with brown distress ink.

The "dream" ticket is Tim Holtz.

When my daughter (aged 13) saw this card she said that I always use muted earthy colours, and it's true. I get out all my pads of papers and always end up choosing the same type of colours. I love the vintage look and most of my cards unintentionally seem to veer towards that these days.

Thanks for visiting. Have a lovely day ♥

Frame it!

2010-08-08T11:09:00.007+01:00

It's my turn to set the challenge on Dottie's World this week and I chose "Frame it" plus a few dots. I framed my card inside and out with hydrangea petals, plus I created a frame made from gold liquid beadz.

I cut a frame out of cardboard and adhered the liquid beadz to it. Once it had dried I stuck it onto my card and added another frame with the petals. This is quite a large card, measuring 18cm x 18cm from petal to petal.

The sentiment is from our new Once Upon a Time collection. I printed it out, cut it with Nestabilities and stuck it onto a larger scalloped circle cut from Tim Holtz Shabby Vintage paper. I then enamelled this centrepiece with clear enamel.

You can see the enamel better in this picture. The girl is from our Holly & Madison collection. I wanted her to hide surprise flowers so drew a bouquet behind her after printing her out. I then coloured the image with Copic markers.
The Blue Prima Mini Roses are mounted onto wooden buttons. Lace is Prima and the pearls and crystals are K&Co Sweet Talk.

I decorated the inside too. I used Tim Holtz Vintage Shabby papers - Prima Fairytale roses (Pink) and a Blue Prima Mini Rose, plus three blue Prima pearls. The edges were inked with brown distress ink and a dotted border drawn with a Copic marker.

Please pop over and join the challenge - we are giving away a voucher to one lucky participant this week :-)

CJ Time!

2010-08-04T20:57:00.019+01:00

I can't believe it is CJ5 on the Charmed forum - five circles, five years - where did that time go? I love doing these circles with my lovely Charmed friends, they are a fantastic bunch of people.

So last weekend I created my journal, and yesterday I tearfully waved it bon voyage. In almost one years time it will be returned to me filled with wonderful pages; I can't wait!

Can't show you my journal in case the girls are watching, but here are some sneaky peeks. My theme this time was "Self Portrait":

Crikey it's bucketing it down out there! We haven't had much rain later, and God knows the lawn needs a little moisture, but it looks like the big guy upstairs has decided to give us the whole lot in one go! Are you seeing any lasting sunshine where you are? I don't just mean a little teaser now and again, I mean golden rays all day, no interruptions! If you live in the UK I bet your answer will be a resounding no! It's been warm yes, but most days have been overcast and grey with no wind, quite opressive really, especially here in London where I live. Oh well, perhaps it'll get better :-)

Bye for now. Thanks for visiting the Charmed corner of the WWW :-)

Manly with a twist

2010-08-01T07:00:00.004+01:00

Tis sunday again, where did that week go?? Adele has provided us with a fun challenge on Dottie's World, this is what she wants:

Whilst looking through my stock box I noticed I am incredibly short of cards for men so I thought it would be a good idea to get a few in there rather than keep putting myself under the pressure of having to make them at the last minute - cards for men can be tricky enough as it is! You have loads of images to choose from the Charmed Download collections so lets see what you can come up with........Now for a little twist, I want to see some ribbon on your manly cards!!

So, a manly card with ribbon, and here is mine:

I decorated the inside too, as the saying I created has a second part inside. I used Gramps from Meet the Martians, I adore him, he's so funny and fab for so many occasions. He is perfect for the sentiment I think and I'm going to include this sentiment within the bundle for you.

Paper used is mainly from the Tim Holtz Shabby Vintage pad. Presents inside and candle on the front are K&Co Happy Birthday 2 U chipboard. Tickets inside are Tim Holtz. Swirls and Crystals inside and out are Prima. Blue glazed brads on the front are Basic Grey Sultry. I used distress ink for edges and a paper distresser to roughen them. Middle bands on front and inside are cut with a Martha Stewart punch, all other paper shapes are cut with Nestabilities. That ribbon is perfect for the card as it matches Gramps "buzzin'" antenna's, it's K&Co's Life's Journey but has now been discontinued so no longer available.

..and finally I used some silver Stickles for this silver fox :-) Gramps were coloured in Copics and I used distress inks for the background. Again I only used part of the image and it shows how versatile they are. Don't be afraid to use a little bling for manly cards, the guys are not adverse to a little sparkle - don't put them in the corner with the boring cards :-)

Pop over to DW to see what the other DT members have created for your inspiration. If you have any of our downloads (and we have HEAPS) then please join in :-)

Thanks for visiting. Have a great Sunday ♥

Candy Winner

2010-07-28T09:12:00.003+01:00

Sorry I'm a little late with this. Here is the winner of the last candy:

That is PAT. Congratulations Pat. Please email your address to me HERE.

Thanks to all who entered. There'll be another candy very soon :-)

Have a super day ♥

Lets Go to the Movies

2010-07-25T07:00:00.005+01:00

Well, not literally you understand, although I really want to go and watch the new one with Leonardo DiCaprio "Inception". I noticed it's on at the local cinema so might take the girls to watch it in the week. If you've seen it and found it to be a pile of poo then please let me know asap!

Our challenge this week was set by Sheila, please pop over and join us and check out the other design team members fabby work. This is what Sheila wanted:

I love going to the cinema with my grandsons.. gives me the perfect excuse for seeing all the latest kids Disney/Cartoon movies so with this in mind my theme for the challenge this weeks is....

LETS GO TO THE MOVIES!!

So find your favourite Charmed Crafts download and turn it into a movie/movie character or relate it to a movie/character - simples no? :-).

DD1 is going to a party next week; her friend is really into pretty princess type of things, and she really really wanted me to make her a special card. So I decided that my "Movie character" would be Belle from Beauty and the Beast. The Beast had a beautiful rose garden and Belle here is scattering rose petals as she wanders through :-) A sentiment similar to the one I used is contained within the Once Upon a Time bundle and as that was my creation I quickly personalised it with the recipients name - I used the princess from our Once Upon a Time bundle and coloured her in to look like the recipient of the card, with brown hair and brown eyes, which of course also related to Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

That big corner is really sparkling and gorgeous. You can see that much better in this picture:

It's a Prima The Goods chipboard corner that I coloured pink first then smothered in large Martha Stewart glitter shards (from the Vintage Leaf Chunky Glitter pack) and topped with three pink heart crystals.

Image: Princess from Once Upon a Time coloured with Copic markers.
Sentiment: From Once Upon a Time but I modified the original to personalise.
Papers: Fancy Pants Daily Grind Paper Pad (Blue) and Basic Grey (Brown Dotted)
Swirls and FairyTale Rose: Prima
Crystals: K&Co Sweet Talk Adhesive Gems
Nestabilities die for the circle on the front.
Distress ink and paper distressing tool for some of the edges.

There's a little hand sewing on there too, using pink metallic thread. It's in stock but not on site.

I only used part of the princess image but cut around the bouquet to hang out of the circle. I actually wrote down the Copic colours I used to colour in the image (wayhey!!!):
E00, E02, R20, RV21, G07, G14, B00, B01, B12, E21, E35, E37, E29, V12, V15, V17, R8, R30, R81, R83, R85, W3, W5

Thanks for visiting; have a great Sunday.

Psst...Candy is drawn tomorrow so you have until midnight if you want to enter.

Pixie Blog Candy

2010-07-25T06:55:00.004+01:00

This post will stay on top, please scroll down for new posts.

A little blog candy for you, this time one of our own in-house stamps, namely the hugely popular and totally lovely Dreaming Pixie clear stamp.

Just enter your name and blog in Mr Linky below to be included in the draw.

It would be great if you could mention it on your blog too :-)

Candy closes 25th July. Good luck ♥

A Day out ...

2010-07-24T15:20:00.019+01:00

Funny how we never really visit the places close to us; tourists travel hundreds of miles to see them but we forget they are there really - or we put off going there as "we can always go there". Years ago when I first arrived in London I visited the tourist attractions, such as Madam Tussuad's, but I have never taken my girls there, despite living in London all these years. We decided on a day out visiting some London landmarks and our first stop was the famous waxworks. We arrived about 10am and the queues had started to form outside. They didn't look too bad though so we merrily joined them - 12:35pm we were finally in!! it took 2.5 hours to get in, the longest and most tiresome queue I have ever accounted, I pity the people who joined after us as the queue grew enormous by the minute, and no doubt queuing time for some were 8 hours+!! If you go then I would strongly suggest either getting there when they open at 9am, or purchasing the priority ticket, which means you beat the queues, a little like the express passes in other attractions. You can see Aimee didn't look to happy in the queue here:

So AT LAST we managed to get in. Mostly it hadn't changed from when I first visited at the age of 17, there were new models of course, and for the first time also a few attractions. "Scream" had taken the place of The Chamber of Horror, live actors clamber around trying to scare the public walking through - very effectively too. Then Marvel 4D had taken the place of the London Planetarium that used to be housed within Madam Tussuad's. Good show and great effects. Lastly a new taxi ride attraction took you through the history of London, enjoyed that too - mainly because it was so bloody nice to park your bum somewhere!

An hours and half later we were out, longer in the queue than inside. Next we decided to visit the Tower of London, a historic landmark I again hadn't visited with the girls. Thoroughly enjoyed our visit there, you don't realise how much there is to look at and how big it all is. Must say that it is worth the trip just to gander at the Crown Jewels alone, one of the diamonds was over 530 carats!! A girls best friend or what!!!! Wowsa! It's apparently one of the worlds top quality diamonds and is located at the top of the Sceptre. There was a long queue by the entrance but I'd had enough of queues so popped in through the backway and straight into the Crown jewel section - nobody noticed, he he.

One of the Yeoman's who guard the Tower. They actually live within the Tower with their families and you can tell they really care for it. This jolly fellow was our tour guide, he had us in stitches as well as being hugely informative.

We stayed in The Tower until it closed and walked across Tower Bridge and along the embankment. A few things went on there so we watched as we strolled along. Finally tummies were rumbling so we went for a meal at Zizzi's by the Thames. Lovely meal, lovely service, great surroundings.

A good day was had by all, and the best thing was that as we live in London it didn't take us long to get home :-)

That summer feeling

2010-07-18T07:00:00.002+01:00

Time for another challenge on Dottie's World and this time Louise set the theme:

I would like you to use a CHARMED DOWNLOAD to make a summery card - or something else if you prefer! OK so that doesn't sound very challenging.......I would like you to make your summer item DIFFERENT to what you would normally make. Maybe you always make tent fold cards so try a side fold card or something completely different! Maybe you always make big cards so make a teenie weenie one, do you get my drift?

OK so I didn't see the "make something different to what you usually make" when I created this one:

Very summary I think with about a million flowers and bright summer colours. Quite unlike my usual colours but I enjoyed playing with stronger hues this week.

I used one of our Meet The Martian images and merged it with a Meet The Martians sentiment so they stand in front of it. I decorated the inside too. Paper is plain cardstock and Bo Bunny striped Flower Child paper. Flowers are all Prima, I also used a couple of Prima Pebbles and various crystals and pearls. Eyelets are We r Memory Makers inserted with my Crop-a-dile (and from the Crop-a-dile pack).

So as I didn't quite get all the requirements I quickly made this side-stepper card, I have never made one of those. Again it is one of the images from the Meet The Martians bundle. Paper is Karen Foster "Rippling Waves", sentiment is K&Co Cut 'n Paste chipboard.

I am linking to:
Allsorts - Summer Days
Sukkersott - Summer
Daring Cardmakers - We are Sailing (my second card)

Pop over to DW and see what wonderful creations the other DT members came up with. Why not join in whilst you're there, there's a prize up for grabs this week :-)

Thanks for popping by ♥

Gorjuss

2010-07-17T11:13:00.006+01:00

I had to make a birthday card for DD2's friend so decided to try out one of our new(ish) Gorjuss decoupage sheets. This follows the card sketch I made for the Charmed forum, I posted it a few days ago so scroll down to see it :-)

I'm linking to a few challenges:
My Time to Craft (Butterflies)
One Stop Craft Challenge (Colour challenge)
Totally Gorjuss (thinking of you)
caardvarks (Birthday)
Creative Cardcrew (Die cuts)

Products used here are: K&Co paper (from Lotus Tea Rose pad (glitter flower paper) and Cut 'n Paste paper pad (pink spotted)) - the striped paper somes with the Gorjuss die-cuts - "Millie" uses Fairytale alphabets - "Giggle" is a Tim Holtz ticket - Prima Love Story flowers - Ribbon is from American Crafts, I was giving hundreds of these away for free with orders for a while, all out of stock now.

Initially I had another Prima flower instead of the K&Co butterfly - oh we do like to faff don't we LOL

Thanks for popping by ♥

Sketch Challenge

2010-07-13T20:31:00.004+01:00

So it was my turn to set the sketch challenge on the Charmed forum for July. The challenge runs for one month and we can of course make as many examples as we like. Here is my first card:

Sarah Kay stamp Best Friends Forever coloured with Copic markers - Prima lace corner - Tim Holtz ticket - Prima roses - Tim Holtz Shabby Vintage papers - Prima Pearls. I glittered with Stickles and glamour dust.

Martha Stewart Loop corner punch on pink panel. The brown border was created with a MS edge loop punch.

Here is my sketch:

Thanks for popping by x

Vintage

2010-07-11T07:00:00.002+01:00

Cor! What happened to you lot last week!! No-one seemed to want to play in our last challenge! Bet you were all out enjoying that summer sun! My goodness it's been a hot week and it's continuing into the weekend. I am writing this Saturday evening and it's been sweltering all day - hottest day this year. We went out last night, Shrek 4 and then eating out, and it was hot as we walked back at 9:30pm! Hope it doesn't get any warmer cos that's not what I'm built for LOL

Anyways, the challenge this week has been set by our lovely Gunn, and this is what she wants:

"This time I would love to see Vintage style on your cards, and be inspired by summer. It could be the colors, flowers, time of year and so on. Make the card or project in Vintage style and you are good if you - REMEMBER TO INCLUDE A CHARMED DOWNLOAD, that`s the most important thing with these challenges."

I used one of my favourite images from our newest collection "Once upon a Time", along with one of the new sentiments in the bundle - isn't this mother & child image just fantastic?? Enveloping her baby in her love and protection she gazes with pride at her newborn:

I used one of the FABULOUS charms from The Girls Paperie collection, I LOVE THESE! Also on there are some hydrangea petals I had from years ago, they are mulberry but with a special coating on them, just fab. Pearls and crystals are Prima - that BEAUTIFUL rose is Prima Belle Arte Aquarius - papers are DCWV - and Prima lace. I coloured the image with Copic markers.

I decorated the inside too and used one of our sentiments from the same bundle. I used stickles frosted lace and very fine glitter dust around the edges of the sentiment here and drew a few doodle flourishes in one corner. I also used a Martha Stewart corner punch here.

I roughly concertinaed the top of one of the edges, not sure if you can see that too well, perhaps better on this picture:

All edges inside and out have been roughened with a Tim Holtz Paper Distresser.

I can see myself using this image for all my new baby cards in future, it's totally adorable!!

Please join our challenge this week, we would love to see your work. Pop over and check out the fabulous work created by the other team members...

Thanks for stopping on your way around the World Wide Web :-)

Sketch Challenge

2010-07-07T15:17:00.004+01:00

Lovely Carmen from the Charmed forum has organised a sketch challenge rota on the forum, each month one of us post a sketch and we all try to make something from it. Here is my interpretation of Carmen's sketch. Wish I had done it differently with big dragon and little castle, but oh well, it's too late now LOL

Images and sentiment are OF COURSE from our newest collection Once Upon a Time. I heat embossed the sentiment with clear embossing enamel and really liked the effect, will certainly use that on more of my sentiments now. That gorgeous Rose is Prima Belle Arte, Butterfly the lace is Prima too. Papers are appropriately DCWV Once Upon a Time. The outer circles on each of the images have been Perfect Pearled and enamelled.

The images are the ones contained within the bundle - you get coloured versions as well as black and white. Originally I had coloured these in with Copic markers.

Thanks for visiting the Charmed corner of the web xx

Once Upon A Time...

2010-07-06T08:08:00.003+01:00

...there were 13 gorgeous images and over 40 super sentiments - and now you can get your crafty mitts on them!! Yes, we have a FABULOUS new collection ready for you and we are very excited about it - and believe it or not this ENTIRE FANTASTIC collection is the mere prize of a normal little stamp!!.

The beautiful images have all been expertly drawn by our wonderful Lou, and the sentiments created by me. We hope you enjoy this amazing collection, there really is something there for every occasion. ENJOY!!

ATC Cards

2010-07-05T07:00:00.006+01:00

If you have never tried making ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) then why not have a go and join a swap? I bet there is one going on most craft forums, and I also bet you're going to enjoy creating them. The size of a playing card they are great fun to make. We have our July swap on the Charmed forum and I set the theme, choosing Country/Primitive. Unfortunately due to a complete absence of working memory I had left mine till the last minute, they should arrive at the host today, instead mine will be sent today - oops.

But there is a silver lining, I had forgotten to watch Vampire Diaries so could watch that on the iplayer whilst creating, yay!!! End of the series now, can't wait for it to start again. That's another programme that I wish I had watched from the beginning. Iplayer is fandabbydosy don't ya think? Fanbloodytastic for people like me who never seem to have the time/forget to watch it first time around! Which reminds me, must check out to see what's available from Come Dine with me - I am totally hooked on that programme, although Mr Narrator is becoming a tad too patronising and sarcastic. Still, he still manages to crack me up at times despite his now total lack of diplomacy :-)

I digress, back to my ATC cards. The swap called for three cards and I just made them all virtually identical. Too much effort to think about making them different. I drew a typical primitive border, added a funky chicken and sentiment, stamped a few hearts on the background, and added a little gingham ribbon and a country button tied with twine. I used Copic markers to colour everything in.

Mustn't forget to tell you about Eclipse that I watched yesterday - IT'S FAB!!!!! Go see it girls, you'll love it! Best of the three that's for sure. Plenty of action, plenty of bated breaths, plenty of lurve. Definitely one I want to see again and shall buy when the DVD is released. Big thumbs up from me and my girls.

Thanks for visiting, have a g-r-e-a-t week! x

HOT IT UP!!

2010-07-04T07:00:00.003+01:00

Helloooo, here I am with my weekly post. Every good intention of blogging more often soon flies out of the window as life takes control.

I'm pretty excited because we have a wonderful new collection coming VERY SOON! The collection comprises 13 gorgeous images drawn by the wonderful Louise and 40 sentiments created by me. I used one of the images as a preview in my card for the Dottie's World challenge this week, Lou used another for her DT card so pop over and check it out.

I set the challenge and as it's getting mighty hot out there I want to see fiery colours, red/oranges/gold that sort of thing. PLUS your project must of course include a Charmed download!

This beautiful image is Princess from our new collection, NOT OUT YET, but when it is you'll find it HERE. I coloured her in with Copic markers. The sentiment is one I created for the bundle.

I created a little corner ensemble with lush Prima gold leaves and gem centre (both unfortunately discontinued now), and lovely red roses. I just couldn't get good pictures today and had to take the card into the garden to captured some of the richness of these heavy totally fab leaves.

I added a beady border around the sentiment and in one corner (not pictured, but see main piccie).

I hope you like it. You can get this coloured image within the bundle too, to use either when you need a quick card, or perhaps for inspiration - so you get each main image in both black & white and coloured.

I'm off to the pictures later today with my girls. We are watching the new Twilight movie, Eclipse, and I don't mind telling you that I am sooo looking forward to seeing it. According to reviews it's the best one yet, I'll give you my critique later, he he.

Please pop over and join the challenge. Thanks for popping by x

Candy Winner

2010-07-03T21:54:00.003+01:00

Sorry I'm late with this. I did try to draw a winner on the 30th but each time I tried the winner was not a follower of the blog - and this was candy for followers only as a thank you. In the end I ran out of time and so had to return to it today. FINALLY I have a winner, who is a follower LOL:

That is KAZ

Congrats Kaz, please email me your address :-)

Thanks to all who entered x

Yet another Candy

2010-06-30T22:19:00.001+01:00

This will stay on top. Please scroll down for new posts.

Another candy for you, this time for the followers of the blog as a thank you for following.

Buttons are fab on all projects but they can be expensive, I am giving you a huge bag of assorted buttons to cover your every need, you will be getting plain, fancy and shaped buttons -NOT only that but you will get a large beautiful Prima Butterfly, a K&CO pad of designer papers, PLUS a gorgeous Flutter Vine Prima embellishment.

This candy will run for two weeks and will be randomly drawn at random.org. To enter please mention the candy on your own blog and add your blog link to Mr Linky (Followers only please).

Good luck! xx

Paper Piecing

2010-06-27T07:00:00.000+01:00

Paper piecing is a great little technique and oh so easy with our downloads. Simply print transparent images onto patterned paper to "dress them up". This was the challenge Adele set on Dottie's World today: to use a Charmed download along with the paper piecing technique.

I love pregnant mummy Martian from our newest collection and used her here, along with the Baby on Board sentiment also in the bundle. There are three in the bundle, pink, blue and white, I used the white one here and coloured it green with my Copics.

I used Basic Grey and Tim Holtz Papers (from the Shabby Vintage pad), and the Martha Stewart Heart deep edge punch. That gorgeous bouquet is Prima.

I pleated the paper behind the main image, you can see that better at the very top in this close-up, you can also see that I used gold dust on a few areas of Mummy Martian:

I coloured in Mummy Martian with my Copic markers. I decided to add a black faux stitching border in case you notice something different in this one LOL

Please pop over and check out the work from the other girls. We really have a great team on Dottie's World :-) Thanks for visiting x

No Designer Papers

2010-06-20T10:14:00.006+01:00

Another week whizzed by and here we are back at Sunday again, and another Sunday challenge. I had LOADS of email asking for the free father's day bundle last week, and of course it was ONLY for those who wanted to enter our DW challenge - so where are all your entries? LOL Hurry over and pop them in.

This week on Dottie's World the lovely Sheila wanted us NOT to use use designer papers. I used my favourite image from our fundabbydosy new "Meet The Martians" bundle, Gramps, and a sentiment I created for the bundle, I am still working on the sentiments so if you purchase the bundle before I can get them in you will be sent them later.

I created a planet behind gramps, and liked it so much that I decided to include that in the bundle too (coloured only though).

I liberally coated the corners with Crackle Glaze but it hasn't crackled a bit yet, I'll leave it and see if it will in time. I wrapped a chipboard tag around gramp's leg.

Don't think that this bundle is out of your comfort zone and only for kids, these characters make super and fun cards for all the family, gramps here for example lends himself to so many themes, including "well done" "you're fab" and so on. Pop over and see what the team created.

Thanks for visiting x

Father's Day

2010-06-13T10:18:00.011+01:00

Is it Sunday already? Blimey, where did that week go? I'll have Saturday again please as that passed me by in a blur, before you know it it'll be Monday again and back to work we go. It's Father's Day next Sunday here in the UK, are you ready for that? You can make a start by creating a card for our Father's Day challenge, and to help you create we have a freebie bundle you can use in conjunction with your Charmed digi's, you can find details of that over at Dottie's World. Please note that the free bundle is ONLY for people who want to enter our challenge.

I haven't got my wonderful dad with me anymore so I created a card from my two girls to give to their dad.

I merged three images from our George collections, created a frame and tags (which I am giving away for free) and layered on various papers and cardstock. I wanted this card to "shine" so added acrylic dewdrops all around and fine glitter on glossy accent on my corners. The loop PATP border is from Martha Stewart punches. The green paper is Bo Bunny, it's the reverse side of Calypso Bloom .

My sentiment inside the card is also in the free bundle, plus I added one for a single child (as in "my dad" and not "our dad").

I used Glossy accent to make the tags pop, you can see that better here:

My three George images were coloured with Copic markers. Unfortunately I didn't let the printer ink dry long enough and it got a little smudged around runner George's eye, where the ink is most intensive. I like to leave it at least an hour, or overnight if possible; that's why I try to have a stack of images already printed that I can use. As I was creating the merged image yesterday especially for the challenge I didn't have time for that.

I hope you are able to join our Father's day challenge this week, please pop over and see what the team has created for your inspiration. Have a great Sunday and thanks for stopping by :-)

Candy Draw

2010-06-06T21:24:00.003+01:00

Crikey, almost forgot! Here is the winner of my last candy:

That is Mariabj

Please email though your address so I can get your prize off to you.

Worry not if you didn't win, there'll be another one along soon :-)

Go Green!

2010-06-06T07:00:00.006+01:00

Time for another challenge on Dottie's World. If you join in then please remember the digi image, it's the most important aspect of the challenge but you'll be surprised by how many enter without one.

Our lovely Gunn set the challenge and this is what she wants: "on this one I want you to have green as the main color on your card. And the rest is up to you, but you have to use a Charmed download for this one, that is in fact the most important thing. I also would like you to include a metal charm."

Well I love green on my cards so that part was a pleasure, I'm a very earthy kinda gal.

My Charmed download is another image from the Sugar & Spice bundle. I coloured her in with Copic markers, here are my colours:

R20, R24, R39, R59, R81, R83, R85
Y15, Y17
V12, V15, V17
RV19
G05, G07, G12, G14, G17
B21
E00, E02, E35, E37, E39

Forgot to write down my hair colours but they were all C's

I cut the Charmed image partially out at the bottom so that she sat on my large Fancy Pants Chipboard swirl. The required charm here is a beautiful large heart charm adornment by Tim Holtz.

I layered several borders I had cut with a Martha Stewart Border punch.

The blue rose is Prima Mini Roses. The chipboard jounalling piece is again Fancy Pants , and the "Hugs" rub-on is Basic Grey Basics. Paper is Basic Grey, plus plain cardstock.

Scalloped circle is cut with a Nestabilities die.

I hope you like it :-)

Pop back later when I will draw my little candy :-)

Thanks for visiting the Charmed corner of the Web ♥ Have a great Sunday x

A little Sweet Candy and Result from May candy

2010-06-06T07:00:00.002+01:00

Well here I am as promised with the result of our May candy, plus I'm offering you one of our Delectable Annie stamps as a little new candy. This one will run until Sunday.

Here is what you can win, Annie Sitting Pretty Delectable Clear stamp:

To be in the draw just leave a link to your blog in Mr Linky and mention the candy on your blog.

OK, on the winner of the May Candy. I used Random.org for this, we had 437 entries here and another 174 from our mailing list, so 611 altogether - here is the winner:

That is JANETTE

Congratulations Janette , please email me your address HERE and I'll get your prize sent :-) Thanks to everyone who entered ♥♥♥

Sweet May Candy

2010-05-30T20:56:00.003+01:00

This post will stay on top. Please scroll down for new posts.

Time to put the spotlight on some sweet candy; there is no better candy than this as it's entirely sugar free and you can indulge without feeling guilty :-) At Charmed Cards & Crafts we love to give you something back, and what better way than with a bundle of tempting candy!?!

The candy this time comprises the fabulous new Tim Holtz "Compendium of Curiosities" book, carrying on with Tim Holtz we have one of the new 12" x 12" idea-ology Paper Pads, plus I decided that a set of the super duper stamp sets by The Girls Paperie would fit right in with the "altered/vintage" theme.

If you would like a chance to win this superb bundle of goodies then please post about the candy on your blog with a link back to here, then enter your blog link to the candy in Mr Linky below (once only please). It's as simple as that. The candy will be chosen via random.org at the end of the month.

GOOD LUCK XXX

Easel Card Challenge

2010-05-30T07:00:00.001+01:00

Enjoying the Bank Holiday yet? So far it's been a total wash-out here in London with rain all day Saturday and blimming cold. Had to put the heating back on; oh the joys of an English summer! Hopefully today and Monday will be better, fingers crossed.

BUT because of the dire weather it was a perfect day for a spot of crafting, so I spent some time creating my challenge card for Dottie's World. I set the challenge this week and I want to see EASEL CARDS! If you don't know how to make one then I created a little tutorial ages ago on the main Charmed site HERE. So an easel card, with a Charmed download of course. Here is my effort:

I used a Mikey image from the Mikey Bundle which I coloured with my Copics - must start writing the colours down again, I will do I promise. Wroom sticker is a Imaginisce Let's Roll Vinyl sticker.

On the bottom I used another Let's Roll sticker (the arrow), some ribbon from the same range and the road paper is likewise from that range. I painted some wooden buttons in black and popped an extra large green pearl on top of each one to make it look a little like the buttons are tyres.

Why is it is so darn difficult to get a good picture on a dark day? If you see any good card picture taking tutorials anywhere let me know please.

Please pop over and join in, we would love to see your creations. The design team has created some fabby examples for you.

Have a great Bank Holiday. I'll be drawing my candy tomorrow so see you then - GOOD LUCK to all who entered xx

Thanks a Bunch!

2010-05-23T07:00:00.001+01:00

A new Sunday, a new challenge on Dottie's World - and today we are giving a way a FREE image to everyone who joins in!!

Our lovely Adele set the challenge this week and she wanted a thank you greeting on it plus of course a Charmed download. I used the free image we are giving away this week and here is my card.

Hmm, looks a little wonky on the picture but it really isn't at all wonky irl.

OK you ask, where's that thank you greeting - well yes, confession time. I hadn't read Adele's description thoroughly, focused on the "bunch" and missed out the "thanks" - but I rectified quickly and added it inside instead.

Here is the lovely image we are giving away this week, created by our Lou:

Prima lace adorn the inside of the card, along with a couple of flowers cut with Nestabilties. I used Tim Holtz papers inside and out.

Remember you have got to be in it to get it, so if you want to get your mitts on this beauty all you have to do is enter the challenge.

Here is largely what I used:
Free Pixie image coloured with Copic marker pens.
Plain cardstock
Tim Holtz paper from the Shabby Vintage pad
Brown Prima Lace
Large Imaginisce Brads (Glass Pebble)
Prima flowers
Blue flower outside and flowers inside were cut with Nestabilties
Alpha's are K&Co
Prima Pastiche Pebble
Martha Stewart Punches Bird Branch - edge and corner punches.

Thanks for popping by. Have a great Sunday ♥

Strawberry Fairy

2010-05-19T19:07:00.003+01:00

I must show you a very special gift I received a few weeks ago from my lovely friend Maddy, isn't it amazing? Check out the level of detail!! And it's even better in real life!!!

Maddy is without doubt the Queen of Fimo, as well as a damn fine card maker; if you haven't seen her work you have truly missed out, pop over to her blog and take a look :-)

Triple Image Card

2010-05-18T20:40:00.022+01:00

I fancied having a go at other digital images other than the Charmed downloads and purchased three lovely ones from Mo Manning. I merged the images to create a little scene and coloured it in with my Copic markers. This is one of my all-time favourite cards I think, it's very heavy as it's layered with plain and patterned cardstock and a size A5 so quite big; a really substantial card.

I wrapped a plain cardstock card in patterned double-sided paper inside and out - Basic Grey June Bug - that is why it became quite heavy, and I must say I love that.

I have no fancy set-up for taking pictures, so it's pot luck really how they turn out and I sometimes need to take loads to get a decent one. I couldn't get a good one for this card, and it wasn't for the lack of trying! So it's better IRL than it looks here ;-)

I'll enter this into a couple of challenges:
Allsorts: Birthdays
One Stop: Summer Breeze

OK, so you are going to get quite a few pictures as I don't know which one to choose, as per usual. None of the photos show the true richness of the colours.

I drew stitching around the edges inside and out with a black Sakura Gelly Roll Glaze pen.

The inside of my card:

The words on the tree branch and bag are rub-ons -The gorgeous metal corners and black & white ribbon is K&Co Life's Journey - red crystals are also K&Co, Citronella I think - Paper is Basic Grey June Bug - Hip Hip Hooray wording on the front, Happy Birthday wording inside the card, the two balloons on the front and the cupcake inside are all from the new K&Co Happy Birthday 2U collection .

Thanks for not shouting at me for showing a million and one pictures of the same thing ha ha ha.

Bye for now xx

Sketch it!

2010-05-16T07:00:00.003+01:00

Another glorious Sunday (I hope so anyway, as I'm writing this Saturday evening I have no idea what the weather will be like tomorrow - one can always dream!). I am planning to get plants for the garden this weekend, surely there is no chance of frost now? It's almost June for goodness sake!

It's the Sunday challenge at Dottie's World and I set the challenge this week. I used a sketch that I created for our forum members a while ago. So the challenge is to use the sketch and one of our downloads. You can see the sketch HERE.

I am also entering my card into the following challenges:
Basic Grey Challenges: Punch it
Sukkersött: 3D Effect

Dare you to digi stamp challenge: Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday: Someone Special

Please excuse the copious amount of pictures.

I decorated the inside too, I really like doing that these days, seems bare without it now! I used a K&Co Wild Saffron Rub-on there and decorated with pearls and dotted coloured spots with my markers.

Other products used:
Image from the Holly & Madison bundle coloured with Copic markers.
Papers: Basic Grey Scarlets Letter and plain cardstock. The cream cardstock is pearlised.
Embellies are Pearls (I coloured the red ones with my markers) and Prima roses
Tools: Nestabilities for the circles
The sentiment is Fancy Pants die-cuts

If you have purchased any of the Charmed Downloads then please pop over and join the challenge.

Have a great Sunday and thanks for stopping by ♥

Scene 6

2010-05-10T07:00:00.001+01:00

Another Pixie scene example card, plus this one is a second example card also for our Sunday challenge on Dottie's World. Again this image is part of the FREE (uppercase!!) bundle comprising eight Pixie Scenes. Remember you can get this only if you have already purchased our two Pixie Download collections

The challenge is FLOWERS, lots of them and in different colours. As you can see there are plenty of flowers on my card. The Pixie scene comes exactly as you see it here, complete with frame and sentiment. After printing I deepened the colours here and there and glossed flowers with Glossy Accent.

Easier to see the edging against a black background. I punched a border using Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page punches.

The two big flowers are Fancy Pants die-cuts. I sanded down the edges of all the paper with a Basic Grey Precision File.

A simple inside. Again all edges of the paper has been sanded down with a Precision File.

Nestabilities dies to cut the shapes here. Rub-on for sentiment.

Thanks for visiting ♥

Flowers Challenge & Scene 5

2010-05-09T10:52:00.010+01:00

Time for another challenge on our digi-stamp blog - if you have any of the Charmed challenges then please pop over and join in, we would love to see your work. Our lovely Gunn set the challenge this week and she wanted to see lots of flowers in different colours on our projects. I created two cards for this one but will post my second card tomorrow as I need to finish the inside. Both of the cards use scenes I created from our Pixie Download collections, remember you can get them for free (see earlier posts for details).

So here is my first card:

I decorate the inside too. The two flowers were cut with Nestabilities dies and the edges treated to a little Perfect Pearls.

Here is Holly Pixie on a toadstool. I used Glossy Accents and a little gold Stickles for a 3 dimensional effect.

The branches around the rim of the card were cut with a Martha Stewart Branch punch with a little Gold Stickles on them. The main picture is simply one of our FREE new Pixie Scenes, it comes complete with background and sentiment. I glossed and glittered it a little then matted on plain cardstock. All the roses are Prima. The red ball trim is Fancy Pants.

I folded a strip of the main paper in a concertina style and used it as a decoration, very simple but effective:

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday, and you have better weather than we're having here in London. We had that promise of a lovely summer just a week or two ago, and I thought the heating was going to stay off until Autumn, but since then it's been flippin' freezing and the heating has well and truly been resurrected. Grey skies also means that pictures are more difficult to take, I know many set up these little cool light tents and I really want one of those, at the moment it's in the conservatory on a couple of pieces of white bazzill LOL

Thanks to all of you who have entered our May Candy. I hope you get a chance to also have a little gander around the blog whilst you are here :-)

Thanks for visiting the Charmed corner of the Web ♥

Wednesday Inspiration

2010-05-05T07:00:00.000+01:00

I have created yet another example card with one of the images from our free Pixie Scenes bundle (see Monday's post how to get it).

I love the image of the old gnarled tree with the Pixie tree house and here I have merged it with no less than seven of our Pixies. After printing I have added Glossy Accent and Stickles here and there for depth. I inked the edges and layered on distressed plain cardstock. The border are Martha Stewart edge and corner punches (Woodland Branch) and I added a little Prima lace and a few pearls (again white pearls that I coloured exactly the green I wanted). That's it! Mega economical card.

Pixie Scenes #3

2010-05-04T07:00:00.001+01:00

Another Pixie scene example card, we are of course giving a bundled of eight scenes away for free if you have purchased our two Pixie bundles.

After printing the scene I coloured in the grassy area at the front and deepened some of the other colours, plus added a little shade. I added touches of very fine glitter dust to the grass, mushrooms and flower. I inked around the edges with Tim Holtz Dried Marigold.

The scene was layered on brown and orange cardstock (I distressed the edges first with a Tim Holtz paper distresser). The patterned paper is from the Basic Grey Origin 6x6 pad. Again I coloured white pearls with a green marker to get the colour I needed. Prima Roses and Lace.

See yesterday's post for instructions on how to get the free downloads.

-xxx-

Scene 2

2010-05-03T14:26:00.005+01:00

I spoke yesterday of the bundle of scenes I created to give to those of you who have purchased out popular Pixie bundles - if you haven't already bought them then why the heck not? They are gorgeous and available world-wide! :-) I gave one example card yesterday and here's another, using another scene from the free bundle:

I inked the background with blue distress ink after printing and added a little Glossy Accent here and there. The image is layered on pink and black cardstock. The card is size approx A5.

Butterflies galore here as I created a border using Martha Stewart edge and corner punches: Monarch Butterfly and a K&Co butterfly. The pearls were white pearls that I coloured pink.

So, to get the free scene bundle just email through your order number and we will send you the download link. The scenes are easy to use, just insert into a Word document and resize. There's a re-sizing tutorial HERE.

I've got another example card tomorrow, using another scene, and hope you will pop by then.
Enjoy the rest of the Bank Holiday Monday xx

All Sewn Up!

2010-05-02T07:00:00.002+01:00

I hope you are enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend. True to form it has been bucketing it down, and as I type this Saturday evening the noise from the rain is overwhelming as it drums against the windows. Lets hope the rain lets up just a little so we can get out there and soak up a few rays.

It is the Sunday challenge on our digi stamp challenge blog, if you have any of the Charmed downloads then please pop over and join us, we would really love to see your work.The lovely Nicole set the challenge this week and she wants to see some stitching, any stitching, plus one of our downloads of course.

Now I was in a hurry and just didn't have the time to colour in an image, so I decided to use a compilation of images from our Pixie download bundles that I had made some time ago. This is already coloured in so all I did was print it out. I made a number of these "compilations" and will be giving them to anyone who has purchased both the Pixie bundles, all you have to do is email through your order numbers and I will email the scenes to you.

The stitching here is on the right-hand side where I used raffia ribbon to produce a stitch-like border. I also added a little faux stitching, some of which I glittered with gold dust.

This was an incredibly economical and quick card to make. Here are products used:
Images from our Pixie collections. I used images already coloured.
Plain cardstock for card and matting, and a bit of scrap brown patterned paper for the stitched border.
Gold dust
Raffia, Leaf gems and Pearls - TOP TIP: Colour white pearls with a brown marker pen for instant golden pearls. Use the appropriate hue for the depth of colour you require.

Leaves cut with a Martha Stewart border punch
Holes for my raffia stitching was done with a Martha Stewart Ribbon Threader Border Punch.

Please ignore the white pearls you see above the card in the top right-hand corner - that's another story and they are not part of the card LOL

Thank you for visiting the Charmed corner of the web. Remember that if you have purchased our Pixie bundles you can get the scene I used above by emailing me HERE (we will need your order numbers).

xxx

Charmed ATC Swap

2010-04-21T16:25:00.018+01:00

It's another ATC swap at the Charmed Craft Talk forum, hosted again by our lovely mod Petra. This time Petra had set the, very appropriate, theme of SPRING and I decided to join the gang. Inspired by the lovely weather I created three cards to swap with our forum members, each one different with one vintage and two more contemporary:

I used a mixture of Perfect Pearls, Embossing Enamel, and a little dimensional accent, along with various papers, beads, chipboard and ribbon - all from Charmed Cards & Crafts of course :-)

These small cards really are great fun both to make and to receive. They must be no larger than a playing card, in fact they have to be exactly that size, so it's quite challenging to make them interesting and worthy of a swap.

I hope you're managing to enjoy the sunshine a little, and none of you have been confined to dusty airports waiting for lift-off! It was quite funny to hear planes in the skies over London again and it made me realise how quiet it has been without them and how many really do fly above us. Just in time they got going again as I'm expecting another US delivery very soon ;-)

Thanks for coming to check out the Charmed corner of the web, it was G-R-E-A-T to see you here :-)
xxx

Random Followers Candy

2010-04-11T10:58:00.009+01:00

A little candy to one of the followers of the blog, as a little thank you. This is one of our Delectable Clear Annie Stamps:

One follower was chosen totally at random, and that person was:

Dorthe

Google seems to have changed the followers lists so I can't click on names anymore, hence Dorthe's picture was added too.

Congratulations Dorthe :-) You have two weeks to claim your prize. If unclaimed another random draw will take place.

Happy Easter!!

2010-04-04T07:00:00.002+01:00

Happy Easter to you all. I hope you are having lovely time munching away at all your Easter eggs :-)

Been a long time since I last blogged, sorry 'bout that. All good intentions and all that - once again.

Our digi challenge this week was set by the lovely Nicole who wanted to see two 3 dimensional butterflies in keeping with Spring.

I used an image from our Boy Oh Boy collection. Our downloads are available worldwide and are incredible value.

The main background paper is Bo Bunny Flower Child on which I layered various cardstock, all distressed with a Tim Holtz Paper Distresser. I used K&Co Poppy Field border stickers for both the middle borders, the wording and the required two butterflies, love that pack, so incredibly versatile! My card also features some K&Co gems, and a square I punched with a Martha Stewart PATP set. I coloured the rings on the square in a darker pen then covered them with Crackle glaze accent and a little glitter.

Pop over and join the challenge, I would really love to see what you do with our downloads :-)

Thanks for popping by. I'll have a little something for one of our followers within the next few days so stand by for that ♥

Hearts - and yep! I'm losing it!

2010-02-18T00:01:00.000Z

OK so Saturday I was going to make a card for our digi challenge on Sunday, and indeed I did just that. The challenge was set by our lovely Gunn and she wanted to see HEARTS! Of course being a Charmed digi challenge the most important part was one of our own download images! I had a stack printed and stamped images and was sifting through them looking for one to use. I duly coloured in the one I chose and created my card. Only when I had finished did I realised I had failed the challenge by using a Sarah Kay stamp instead of one of the Charmed digi images. DOH @ ME big time!!! I hid away in the corner until now LOL Please do pop over to Dottie's World and join the challenge (but remember that Charmed image please).

I used my Martha Stewart Hearts Deep Edging punch for this one; first time I've used it and it's FAB! Love it.
Also on the front is Prima Lace for the bow, you can't see it here but I lightly covered parts of the bow in clear adhesive and added some crystal glamour dust - BlackPrima Crystals - Fancy Pants rub-on - Large Crinkled Roses which I sprayed with Old Lace Glimmer Mist - K&Co Sweet Talk Pearls and Red heart crystal - "I heart you" is from the reverse side of the Bo Bunny paper. I glazed the hearts that was part of the design on the paper on the front with Glossy Accent.

The paper is Bo Bunny Persuasion and perfect for Valentine and other romantic occasions. It is double-sided and I used one side for the front and the textual side to cover the inside. I cut both the heart on the front and the two inside with Nestabilities dies. The large chipboard flower inside is a Basic Grey Sugar Rush chipboard around which I wrapped some red fibre.

And the image alas is a Sarah Kay stamp which I coloured in with Copic markers.

Thanks for visiting the Charmed corner of the Web :-)

GCD Studios

2010-02-17T20:08:00.003Z

We received a shipment from GCD Studios last week and I have to say that the products are just gorgeous! Super value for money the flat double-sided papers retail for just 50p per sheet, and the speciality papers for 99p, and even the flat papers are textured! The embellishments are superb, high quality, in larger than average packets. If you love vintage and shabby you will love these. Here are just a few of the products, pop over to the main site to see more....

Images copyright Charmed Cards & Crafts

Thanks for visiting ♥

New Competition PLUS new Prima

2010-02-06T15:32:00.005Z

Part of our Prima 2010 or has arrived and it's it G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S! The rest should be with us within a week or so.. Click on the picture to go take a peep...

We also have a brand new competition at Charmed, and what better theme than l-u-r-v-e (that's love for anyone who couldn't guess LOL). The competition is open until 28th so get creating!!

Thanks for visiting ♥

Random Followers Candy

2010-01-29T19:50:00.003Z

Just randomly picking someone from amongst the Crafty Going On followers, who will receive one of our stamps as a little thank you for following... and that is:

CRAFTY CHRIS

Please send me your address within the next week. You can contact me HERE. If I haven't heard anything after seven days I will pick another follower.

Bye for now x ♥

Leaf It

2010-01-24T07:00:00.000Z

A great challenge for this Sunday on our digital download blog "Dottie's World". Lou set the challenge for us this week and she wants to see leaves, whether paper, fabric, stamped or real, plus of course a Charmed download...

I used one of the images from the new Sugar & Spice bundle for my card, and coloured it in with Copic markers:

Lots of leaves on there. The paper on the front is a leaf paper and the paper inside the card is the same design but bigger. I used the Basic Grey Origin 6x6 paper pad, where the designs are smaller than the 12x12 paper, on the front, and the 12x12 inside. All other leaves on here are K&Co Wild Saffron grand adhesions.

The sun was cut on my Quickutz Silhoutte and coloured with Copics and that gorgeous lace is Prima. Pearls are Blue Awning pearls coloured with Copics to get the bronze colour to coordinate with the Wild Saffron Leaves.

Quite simple inside but the paper is quite busy so anymore would be cluttered I think. used Nestabilities for the round shape and a Tim Holtz Paper Distresser for the rough edges of the actual card.

Pop over and see what the other design team members have created for your inspiration, and then join in so we can see your work.

Thanks for popping by ♥

Pixie Winner

2010-01-24T06:30:00.001Z

Thank you to all who entered our recent little Pixie Stamp draw. The winner was chosen at random at random.org:

That's Leigh Jones . Congratulations Leigh!

I need your addy please. You can submit that here.

Watch out for more sweet candy soon.....

Crafty Goings On

Let it Shine Cards and some Candy

MEGA MEGA CANDY!!

Candy

Free Downloads...

Let it Shine Candy

Let it Shine

Candy

FREE Downloads, NEW Digi-Stamps - NEW BLOG!!

Button Candy Winner

Button Candy

Squares

Blog Candy: Fimo/Card Set

Masculine Lauderdale

Pretty in Pink

Basic Grey Pre-orders

Candy Winner

Easter Candy

FREE Easter & Spring Cards & Tags Downloads

~~~Easter Egg Hunt~~~

Win a Spend...

Sketches - and new products

Never give up!

Second Free Download

Free Valentine Topper Downloads

Random Followers Candy

New Magnolia - You're so Special Collection....

MORE FREEBIES!!

***The Great Christmas Give-Away ***

Moving Moving Moving...

It's Wicked!

COPIC CANDY WINNER

COPIC Blog Candy!

New Challenge and lots of ideas...

Mummy Kissing Santa

Oohhh SPOOKY!

Get a Bo Bunny Noel Collection Pack for FREE

Basic Grey Marjolaine and Curio

ATC's

Circle Journal

FREE Download - Perfectly Defined # 2...

Charming Christmas

FREE Download - Perfectly Defined...

Annie Candy Winner

Annie Candy

Charming!

Conditional Christmas

Going outside...

Life's a Beach!

Inspirational...

Favourites...

Frame it!

CJ Time!

Manly with a twist

Candy Winner

Lets Go to the Movies

Pixie Blog Candy

A Day out ...

That summer feeling

Gorjuss

Sketch Challenge

Vintage

Sketch Challenge

Once Upon A Time...

ATC Cards

HOT IT UP!!

Candy Winner

Yet another Candy

Paper Piecing

No Designer Papers

Father's Day

Candy Draw

Go Green!

A little Sweet Candy and Result from May candy

Sweet May Candy

Easel Card Challenge

Thanks a Bunch!

Strawberry Fairy

Triple Image Card

Sketch it!

~Easter Egg Hunt~

The Great Christmas Give-Away