Something Old, Something New at Incy Wincy

Good morning sorry I wasn't about last week just couldn't get myself into gear but I'm back with a card for the new challenge which starts today at Incy Wincy where this week our theme is Something Old Something New. Our sponsor this week is Polka Doodles who kindly allowed the DT to pick some images to work with. I choose Ralph with hat. I coloured him with my pro markers adding fluffy stuff to his hat and paper piecing his scarf. I stamped the background with my snowflake stamp with versa mark ink and the heat embossed it with clear powder. I added a die cut sentiment and a piece of red ribbon. My something old was my snowflake stamp and the ribbon which came off an old jumper and my something new is the image and the card blank.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

The Creative Blog Hop

The lovely Nikki tagged me last week in The Creative Blog Hop. I've know Nikki through the Incy Wincy design team I love Nikki's often quirky cards she loves to bring humour into her crafty makes and there's also often a darker side to her creations which I love. 
Ok onto the four questions

1.     What am I working on now?

Here's my little crafting area it's tucked into the corner of our bedroom as you can see I'm not a very tidy crafter ( this is tidy for me lol). The photo above shows the desk to my right where my cuttlebug lives along with all my ribbons and embellishments. The grey drawers hold odds and ends of patterned paper, mirror card and all my card blanks.

Here's my main bit of desk with all my coloured card and my promarkers right there in front of me.

So what am I working on at the moment? The answer is not a lot I have lots of trouble with my right hand and this weekend it has played up big time so I didn't do any crafting all though if you look carefully you can see the starts of my DT card for next week as well as a scrapbook I've been sent to try out and review.

2.     How does my work differ from others in my genre?

I'm not sure that it does, do I fit into a particular genre? I like to try different styles out but mainly I guess I stick to cute character cards and your usually find some fussy cutting on my cards. I do love to colour so your usually find that I have coloured the images on my cards with my promarkers.

3.     Why do I create what I do?

I create because I can quite simply it makes me me. It's my way to relax after a stressful day at work it's the best way I know to relax and wind down. I also like giving my crafts to other people and seeing the joy that it brings to them.

4.     How does my creative process work?

I usually pick an image for my card first and then pick the papers so I can colour the image to match them. I like to use sketches as a base for my cards although often in the end my card doesn't look anything like the sketch. 

Now to carry on the blog hop I'm tagging two of my favourite crafters, I love to look at their blogs and am often left in awe at the fantastic creations. I meet both of these ladies when I first started card making on a fantastic forum where we all quickly became good friends.

First up is the lovely Claire from What Shall I Make Today - Claire produces some of the most stunning intricate pieces I have ever seen you won't be sorry if you visit her blog.

Hi. I’m Claire Boelema and I’ve been playing with inks, paints and pieces of paper for approximately four and a half years now and as a result I’m enjoying a second childhood! I don’t have a set “style” – I simply get up in the mornings and go wherever my mood takes me or whatever inspires me, so my work can vary hugely from day to day or even hour by hour! The only common theme that runs through my projects is that I love to use assorted techniques and add lots of detail, so be warned there’s normally a fair bit of “faffing” and fancy cutting.

At the moment I’m really into “junk” art where I take an item that would normally end up in the trash and re-purpose it into something beautiful that people would want to keep - well that’s the plan whether it works out that way or not only you can decide! I currently design for Graph’It Markers, Polka Doodles and Studio 12 and do the odd sample for Tattered Lace’s Tatty Twinkle. I’m also very lucky to have had my work published in magazines and shown on TV. In addition I teach the odd class and run an after school kids craft club.

My blog http://whatshallimaketoday.blogspot.co.uk/ is somewhere for me to show case all of my creations, even the dodgy toe curlers that go wrong! I’m a firm believer that if you make a mistake you should show others to avoid them making the same one!

Jenny was one of the first people I met through papercrafting and I have always admired her work. I recently had a year out of crafting due to a huge building project on my home that went disastrously wrong and one of the first people to welcome me back to “blogland” was Jenny. So I’d like to take this post as an opportunity to thank her for her help and encouragement over the past few years, for sticking with me when I didn’t craft and finally for thinking of me to join the hop. I’m both amazed and flattered that you thought of me!

And secondly I would like to tag the lovely Jennie from The Crafty Wife - Jennie produces beautiful elegant cards often using lots of lovely die cuts.

My first memory of crafting is cutting out paper dolls from a magazine and from there I've loved everything I've tried. I left school as a milliner and made clothes for my children when they were small. I met a scrapbooker who showed me the ropes and from I was hooked on paper crafting. I love card making now and I'm a real collector of stamps and dies.

Thanks reading my post and letting me join in with this blog hop.

Shaped Cards at Incy Wincy

Good morning today's post is for the new challenge at Incy Wincy where this week we want to see Shaped Cards. Our sponsor this week is Dilly Beans.

My card uses this cute Christmas owl from our sponsor coloured with promarkers and with a generous topping of stickles. I kept to two main colours today using a lovely festive red teamed with the classic white embossed card. The scarf, hat and heart are paper pieced with a scrap of polka dot paper. I printed two copies of the image so I could fussy cut the holly leaves out a pop them up on foam squares with some red gems added as the holly berries.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Dilly Beans- Anything Goes
The Pink Elephant - Embossing
Stamp & Create - Circles or Dots
Crafting When We Can - Christmas Come Early
Paper Creators Crafts - Early Christmas
Moving Along With The Times - Texture
CRAFT - Christmas

Another Girly Card For Incy Wincy

 Good morning here's my second card this week for the challenge at Incy Wincy which this week is All Things Girly. This week we have 2 sponsors Milk n Coffee & Stitchy Bear. My card on Monday featured an image from our first sponsor and today's card is using an image from our other sponsor Stitchy Bear. This pretty butterfly comes with the doodled flower frame which I have separated and printed on the yellowy green paper. I coloured the image with my pro markers and added lots of gold shimmer with a sakura pen as you can see in the photo below. The papers are from an old Basic Grey pad and have been layered onto dark brown card.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:
City Crafter - Butterflies
My Heart Pieces - Use A Digi
QKR Stampede - Things With Wings
That's Crafty - Girl Power
One Stitch At A Time - Anything goes + Diecuts

All Things Girly at Incy Wincy

Good morning Monday has come round again so time for a new challenge at Incy Wincy this week we have a nice easy one for you All Things Girly. This week we have 2 sponsors Milk n Coffee & Stitchy Bear.

My card today is using an image from Milk n Coffee and later in the week I will have another card to show you using an image from Stitchy Bear. I coloured the image using promarkers and added glossy accents and stickles to it. The papers are from Dovecraft Back To Basics 3 and matted onto pale grey card. I added a sentiment from Craftwork Cards and some self adhesive pearls.

I would like to enter my card into he following challenges:
Digi Sketch Challenge - It's A Girl Thing
The Crazy Challenge - Three Of A Kind ( groups of 3 pearls)
Creative Craft Cottage - Things With Wings
Glitter & Sparkle - Use A Digi
Allsorts - Pretty In Pink

Cute Critters at Incy Wincy

Good morning today's card is for the new challenge over at Incy Wincy where this week we want to see Cute Critters. We have two fantastic sponsors for you this week Digital Delights and Scrappiness Designs.

I decided to get on with my Christmas cards this week and picked this cute penguin from Digi Stamp Boutique  which I teamed with these gorgeous Christmas papers from our sponsor Scrappiness Designs. I couloured the penguin with my pro-markers adding some glossy accents to his beak and star dust stickles to the hat.

Here's a couple of close ups of the papers to show them off better. The sentiment is a die from Marianne Designs which I again covered with sticlkes.

Just to let you know we had a few problems with Inlinkz last week so we have decided to keep last weeks challenge open for another week so you can all enter the theme last week was Balloons & Banners and also our DT call is still open all the details can be found here.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Allsorts - Early Christmas Makes

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Extra - Anything Christmas

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge - Use Patterned Paper

Digi Stamp Boutique - September Challenge