The Daily Marker: 30 Days of Colouring Nov 2018

Hey,

Happy Monday to you!

Hope you had a nice weekend.

I am currently playing along with the current The Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge. Kathy Rac has mad skillz when it comes to colouring and I love playing along to see more of her wonderful work. But I also love seeing all the other talented colourers (a word?) out there. And I have made some friends along the way, as I believe this is my 5th time joining in.

Because of the shoulder issue I had at the start of the current 30 days, I decided it would be fun to use my semi-neglected stash of digital stamps as stamping with the shoulder was an issue.

So all my days look something like this -

The awesome weightlifting Monster is by Hambo - I love their digi's they are always humorous.

But yesterday I wanted to finish off a piece I have been working on (main photo) so used that as my Day 11 colouring.

I loved the sentiment, it was in a new colouring book I bought in London, so I recreated it using my lightbox, so that I could watercolour it.

I am super pleased with how it came out, I used Zigs, Aquamarkers by Windsor & Newton and a paintbrush to colour them.

I'll show you the full 30 days at the end of the month.

Cx

MFT Space Balloons....

Hey,

I have been using the current 30 days of colouring to ink up and colour NBUS.

Thanks to a serious Black Friday haul, $20 challenge and Christmas gifts I have a LOT of NBUS, right now. It's actually nice to have the time off so I can play with it all.

I love this set by MFT 'Space Explorer' and I needed to make a card for a little boy, so it seemed like a good time to colour the space boy with balloons.

The sentiment is a big win, I can see me using this a lot.

I'm now waiting for the dies to come, because I really want to play with this set more, but fussy cutting - ugh.

Cx

Get your happy on...

Hey,

At the moment I am playing along with the 30 day colouring challenge. Hosted by Kathy Rac.

She is SO skillful and seems super sweet too. Every time I do the challenge I am reminded how nice and soothing it is to sit and colour something larger. So with this challenge I have deliberately chosen a few larger stamps to colour.

The one on my card today is by Mama Elephant and actually belongs to Ava and she lent it to me - very sweet of her.

I love these cats, so much fun to colour, you can go crazy. I stamped a bunch of these when I had the stamp for future use.

For this card I loved the sentiment by CAS-ual Friday's, it seemed to suit the group of cats.

I am also loving these 4-bar card blanks right now, not too small, not too big.

Cx

I Love Ikea..

Hey,

Happy Sunday.

Today I am loafing around mostly watching NFL games with Hubby.

When I was in London recently I went to Ikea with my Ma. They had a sale on their stationery (drool..) and so it seemed rude not to buy a few things...

I bought a couple of blank card and envelope sets. Imagine my delight when I got home to find the notecard is watercolour paper - yay!

I wanted to make a nice card for a friend's Mum who is not very well, but I wanted it to be less 'get well soon' and more 'you got this'. So this saying is actually a bible version out of my accident bible version colouring book purchase!

I traced the verse onto the card using my amazing lightbox and I added some flowers and hearts and watercoloured it. Super pleased with the end result and it also meant I had x2 days colouring for the 30 day challenge. Win win.

The envelopes are super fun, this one has random leopards on it! I added a blank panel for the address.

I love Ikea!

Cx

Christmas Card 2017: Neat & Tangled Ornaments..

Hey,

So as part of this week's colouring for the 30 day challenge, I decided to incorporate my Christmas card making, which has been a bit lax with the various trips!

I decided it was time to break out Christmas 2016 NBUS - Neat & Tangled 'Merry & Bright Ornament' set, I played with it at Cheiron's Holiday card extravaganza last year and bought it, but I had finished my cards by then.

I stamped the ornament, and then die-cut it. Sadly you lose the shoulder text when you die-cut it. I chose super bright colours (Promarkers), as I wanted to use more of the Michael's coloured paper squares.

The centres are coloured with a yellow Spectrum Noir sparkle pen. I am loving these right now. I tried the Nuvo glitter pens on a few, but they are so thick they over the black sentiment.

I popped up the ornaments for a bit of dimension and to separate from the bright backgrounds.

They really pop and I love them and I ended up with 7 cards - sweet.

Cx

Week 1: The Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge...

Hey,

Happy Sunday!

Hubby and I are happy to be home as we have the start of the NFL season to console us, but we REALLY had a great time in Mexico and were sad to leave yesterday.

I thought I would show you a mini collage of my week 1 colouring for the current The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge.

As I was going to be away for the first week, I wanted to keep it simple and compact for traveling. So I decided to use my new Zoophabet by Penny Black and combine it with Jenny Bowlin outline stamps to create the words that matched the images in the Zoophabet.

See the top left image in my collage for what they look like before I colour them in.

Fun right?! My only complaint is that it turns out it's not really a Zoophabet and I don't understand why..why not use Giraffe for G and Hippo for H?!

Anyway, it's all been fun to colour and as you can see I added some background elements to all of the days to make them a bit more fun.

If you have never played along, you really should, its so much fun to colour everyday and see what the rest of the community are colouring, totally inspiring.

Also just wanted to say, thinking of Floridians right now, be safe wherever you are and remember your life is more important than stuff, stay safe.

Cx

Art Crush....

Hey,

Today is my last day working in the London office and this weekend is Easter, so I will be hanging with Hubby and his family, before we head back to London to party with the Wife.

I LOVE Helen Dardik's work, her Instagram feed makes me so happy and I was overjoyed when I saw that she was collaborating with Waffle Flower to make a range of stamps.

I immediately bought two of the sets on the day of release.

Today's card was coloured as part of the 30 days of colouring and I combined stamps from the two sets I have.

I added a sentiment by Simon Says Stamp, as I thought it was the perfect card for a friend who I miss every single day..

I love the MFT rounded stitched dies, they always make everything look so finished..if you know what I mean.

The spotty background paper is by Lawn Fawn, I love their Polka paper series..I have it all and it is rationed.

Have a great Easter. I'll tell you all about mine when I get back to NYC.

Cx

Cat treats...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

As this posts I am landing in London, I have today off and will be hanging out with my folks.

I love Lil' Inkers and recently they had a great sale, so I bought a couple of new releases and an older Christmas stamp..

I stamped and coloured all of the stamps as part of last month's 30 days of colouring.

Today's cards were made using the Cat Treats stamps and dies. I love this set, so fun and has a lot of potential.

The main card was super simple. I have a pad of We R Memory Keepers gold and kraft papers and chose a striped one as the background and die-cut it using a stitched MFT rectangle die. I stamped one of the sentiments from the set onto a kraft stripe and added the cats.

The card below was a bit of an experiment -

I used a background that I stamped when I was at a craftgang playdate - I love Jamey's background stamp collection, I always make a beeline for it when we are at her place.

I die-cut the stamped panel twice, once with a stitched rectangle die for the edge and then I used my new MFT peek-a-boo circle die for the aperture.

The experiment part is the 'faux' shaker. I stuck the sequins to the card blank and added a piece of acetate to create the shaker illusion, but the sequin's don't 'shake'.

I added the cute kitty and a sentiment from the set.

I really like it, Hubby thinks it's too busy LOL...meh. What does he know.

Cx

30 Days of Colouring March 2017...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

Sadly it is the end of the latest 30 Days of Colouring..hosted by Kathy Rac and her blog - The Daily Marker. Kathy is awesome, she has mad colouring skills and I love that she unites a whole community with the simple art of colouring.

I LOVE these 30 day bursts of colouring, it helps my mojo a lot!

Today I am showing you some of my fave things that I have made with the colouring from the last 30 days. This is not all of it, some of it warranted individual posts, coming next month.

I find colouring a small image sparks a lot of creativity.

Newton's Nook Snow Day stamps, coloured on an actual snowday, background made using distress inks and water

Newton's Nook Cake stamps and Reverse Confetti dies

Avery Elle stamps, Oxide Ink background

Avery Elle Band Camp Kangaroo stamp, background by Neat & Tangled

I love the fact that the ideas for all of these cards came out of a simple piece of colouring.

The main photo is a digital stamp by Tiddly Inks and she is a Catshark - I LOVE these images, you get x3 in the set and I have been overusing them.

Most of these cards have already left for their new homes, I love it when a big batch of making gets used immediately.

Have a great weekend, I am off to Atlantic City with Hubby - YAY!!

Cx

Marker Pop...Adventure is calling..

Hey,

Despite being a frequent shopper at Marker Pop, I have only played along with their bi-weekly challenge once.

I really liked the colour theme they have for the current challenge.

You have to use a minimum of 3 of the shades and one neutral of choice. You also have to use a colouring medium that they sell at the Marker Pop store.

I decided to use the awesome new Topography stamp by Neat & Tangled. I heat embossed it in white onto watercolour paper.

Then I used 3 Zig brush markers (Dark Grey, Grey Brown, Light Grey) and an aquabrush to achieve the 3 shades of grey I wanted.

I LOVE how it came out, I am super pleased. I love background stamps and this one feels like it is going to be a firm fave.

I stamped 3 of the sentiments from the sent onto vellum and attached them to the background using mini staples, then I mounted the panel onto a card blank (when I am covering the entire card blank, I used a patterned card I don't like).

Big bonus is this was my day 7 colouring for The Daily Marker 30 days of colouring challenge - yay!

30 days of colouring and a new toy...

Hey,

So March already?!

That means today is the start of the latest 30 days of Colouring - whoo hoo. I love Kathy Rac, she seems like the sweetest person and her colouring skills are off the hook.

If you haven't joined in before it is pretty simple, you just colour every day for 30 days, it can be a 5 min or 5 hr session, totally up to you. We share on Kathy's blog or on Instagram.

Today I thought I would show you what I have been up to with my new lightbox and some of the things that I have prepared for colouring this month.

I have wanted a lightbox for as long as I can remember, but cost and size prevented me from buying one. Now there is this new wave of ultra thin lightboxes that are easy to use and store, but also not cheap. I got mine with a Amazon lightening deal and I am SO pleased with it.

Lightbox with 'Friends' page mid-trace

I love adult colouring books, but I find that I don't love all the pages and I also can't watercolour them. So I have been using my lightbox to create my 'own' colouring pages in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

Essentially because I cannot draw to save my life, I trace bits and pieces from colouring books, old calendar pages, etc. I add my own flourishes too. 

As you can see, the lightbox is thin enough to fit between the pages of my sketchbook and bright enough for me to trace through the watercolour stock. I use a 0.3mm Letraset Sketch pen - waterproof and superfine.

The main photo today shows the Friends page that is on the lightbox all coloured in - using distress inks and an aquabrush. Pretty right?

Here are some more pages that I created, some are already coloured, but there are a couple waiting to be done.

They look so great and they are very therapeutic to do.

Happy Colouring.

Cx

p.s March started right, I won the February Reverse Confetti Sketch challenge - Yay!

The Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge..end of the current challenge..

Hey,

So as it is sadly the last day of wonderful Kathy Rac's The Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge, I thought I would show you some of the things I have made with my colouring over the last couple of weeks.

I love the colouring challenge, it makes me dig out either NBUS or older stuff that I haven't coloured in a while.

The main card is a Hambo digital stamp, that I cut out on my Silhouette. I coloured the monster with Promarkers. The background stamp is by Echo Park. The sentiment is a mix by Simon Says Stamp and The Alley Way Stamps.

I really love the next card, I recently started tracking down stamps by The Alley Way Stamps, they are no longer in business. This set is called Gotta Bug? I loved those weird germ / bug stamps. All coloured with distress inks. In a way, I wish I had left the monster off...

The card below is another digital stamp, by Dearie Dolls, also cut on the Silhouette. I coloured the cute bunny using Promarkers and added some Stickles for sparkle. The card blank is by Lawn Fawn and the sentiment is by SSS and was already to go and on my desk - love desk scraps.

Here is a NBUS stamp, I have had this birthday monster stamp by Unity for over a year and just never found an appropriate place to use him! The background was already made and in my 'ready made background' folder. The sentiment came with the stamp.

Finally another piece of NBUS, but a new one..I bought this stamp from Joann's on super discount bargain sale and it is by  WhipperSnapper Designs. I love the birdies on the line. The stamp is called The Flock. I kept it simple and coloured it using distress inks and an aquabrush and added a die-cut hello by Simon Says Stamp.

Fun to see a lot of my colouring from the 30 days all together, I really should make a 30 day collage...

And in other news, I have been having a great craft related few weeks, I got an Honorable Mention again over at CASology and I won first place in the Bugaboo Bingo Challenge - AWESOME.. 

Cx

Concord & 9th Flower Wreath...

Hey,

Hope you are having a good weekend so far.

I'm sharing a card I made with the colouring I did on Day #3 of the current The Daily Marker 30 days of colouring challenge.

I love to colour and I love the 30 day challenges, makes me dig through my stash and colour all the fun things that I haven't seen for a while. It's also really good to hook up via Instagram with my colouring buddies! I've made some good 'virtual' friends through these challenges.

This stamp has actually never been inked..I haven't had it that long, but everything else in the set has been used!

It took me a long time to colour this bad boy..I used my Zig Clean Color brush pens and an aquabrush. I love how the colours blend so well together.

I love Concord & 9th stamps, they are beautiful, especially their flower stamps.

I used Simon Says Stamp dies for this card - a stitched square one and a stitched scallop stand alone die, that I had to move around all four edges of the purple paper - worth it as I am super pleased with the end result.

I added a little banner with a teeny tiny Hero Arts thank you stamp, affixed with a coordinating pink staple!

Cx

Thanks..

Hey,

I am back at my desk in NYC now.

I've felt quite tired since I got back, so no playtime at my desk yet.

The Daily Marker 30 days of colouring is over, always sad when it ends, but I love joining in and seeing what everyone else is colouring. There are some seriously talented people out there.

Today I am showing you one of the cards I made using the colouring from one of the days.

The vase and flower stamps are by Newton's Nook (Versatile Vases) and I love them, they are very versatile and I use them for all occasions.

This time I watercoloured the vase and flowers using Distress Inks and an aquabrush, this is a go to technique for me. The sentiment is by Stampin' Up and I love the scripty handwritten feel of it. I splattered some blue ink over the piece before die-cutting it out, just to add a little bit more interest.

I love the simplicity of this card, it feels pretty CAS.

Cx

Feeling Summery...

Happy Friday everyone!

Well the sun is FINALLY shining in London.

So it felt like a good day to share the fun card I made last week for The Daily Marker 30 days of colouring..which is sadly over now - boo!!

The stencil is by Echo Park and is a new purchase from The Inkpad. I used 3 different distress inks to get the ombre effect.

The sentiment is by Winnie & Walter and the Flamingo is the one that I bought from Michaels in Feb, where the die was made incorrectly :)

Love this card, it is so summery and fresh.

Today is the start of the Olympics and we are having an Olympic party at work...

I'm heading back to NYC tomorrow, so I'll be back at my desk for a play on Sunday - yay!

Cx

Queen of the entire freakin' universe..

Hey,

Happy Sunday.

I wanted to show you a card I made as part of The Daily Marker 30 days of colouring.

It did double duty and got entered into the UnityStampCo 'Show&Tell' Challenge on Facebook, this week we had to use a stamp from their itty bitty collection..

I love this stamp, I bought it because the sentiment makes me laugh and the actual image reminds me of a work colleague, so the card is actually with me in London, because I am giving it to her tomorrow;)

I stamped the lady onto a piece of white mixed media card and then created a mask for her, so I could stencil over the top, I wanted the stenciling to show through the gaps between her arms and body.

I used Distress Inks and mini daubers - Mustard Seed is the darker colour and Squeezed Lemonade is is the lighter colour.

The lady I coloured with Promarkers and I am super pleased with her shirt, I opted for highlights and not fully coloured in.

I die-cut the whole image using a MFT stitched rounded rectangle die (love these).

So simple, I really need to highlight a single image with a sunburst more often!

Cx

30 Days of Colouring...a little glimpse

Hey,

So I am now in London for the next week, which will be nice as it's Momma's birthday on Sunday, so I get to celebrate with her this weekend.

I thought as I am travelling I would give you another peek at what I have been colouring / making for the latest The Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge..they are not in any particular order :)

The main photo today is Day 16, I love the digi stamp by Dearie Dolls..how cute is the bunny and her Carrot dress (I totally need a Carrot dress), it was so much fun to colour this image and turn it into a card.

The next card is Day 21..I was very tired post yoga and so opted for the bare minimum colouring..I love these new Avery Elle fish, they are so ugly and fun.

The sentiment stamps are by Snarky Stamps and they have some stamps in there very suitable for my potty mouth. I made the background for the card using a Tim Holtz mini stencil and texture paste. When it dried I laid the stencil back down and blended distress ink over the paste, to kind of get a sea effect for my ugly fish :)

Finally Day 10, I love these great watercolour panels by Suzy Plantamura for Simon Says Stamp.

I got a whole bunch of them in a cardkit and they are so easy to colour using distress inks and an aquabrush, they make super easy and impactful cards.

I will put all of the cards up onto Flickr when the 30 days are up.

Have a great weekend, my posts will be mainly scheduled this week, so I'll see you live a week on Monday :)

Cx

30 Days of Colouring...Day 6 Critters..

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I am off to Philly this afternoon, to join Ma at the family reunion and to see JT's parents :)

I thought it would be fun to show you another batch of cards I made using my colouring from The Daily Marker 30 Days of Colouring challenge.

Day 6 was fun, because I coloured all the critters from the Paper Smooches Chubby Chum Pals set and I made four fun and very different cards -

Crab is my main photo today..because I love Crabs, as does JT, we have a CrabbyMoose thing that is genuinely not funny to anyone but us! I decided that Mr Crab should have a bokeh background, it kind of feels like he is in water. The sentiment came from the same Paper Smooches set.

Moose is pretty simple, I used a Falling Flakes background stamp by Neat & Tangled, the sentiment from the same set as the Moose and added some googly eyes to him.

Chick came together because I saw the sentiment stamp (Stamping Bella) and I thought I'd use some creative licence and put him in a tree.. I liked the fact that the tree branch stamp I found (Freebie) had flowers, it adds a bit of interest to him. He is far up because I made an oopsie and had to turn the white panel around :)

Bear was tricky, I wasn't sure what would work with a Bear. So I stenciled the background (Crafters Workshop) to give me a forest type feel and then I went rooting through my sentiment stamps and saw the awesome 'Go Buck Wild' by Unity Stamp Co. I added the 'It's your birthday' sentiment (SSS) in part because I thought the bear needed to sit on something!

I had a lot of fun on Day 6 colouring and making these cards. It is so odd how the simple act of colouring four critters can spark my creativity..more of that please.

Have a great weekend.

Cx

30 Days of Colouring...

Hey,

Happy Monday.

I am off today and hanging out in the sunshine with Ma.

I thought I'd share some of the things I have coloured so far, as part of the awesome The Daily Marker, 30 Days of Colouring.

The main photo today is my Day 2 colouring. I used a KennyK clear stamp that I love, she's so sassy. The sentiment stamps are by Neat & Tangled and are a recent addition to my stash. The journaling card that I used for the background was actually sent to me by Kathy Rac, who is responsible for this awesome colouring challenge and is the sweetest person ever.

Day 3 is a little bit different, as it is a page from a new colouring book..I think it will end up incorporated into my art journal.

It took me two days (4 and 5) to colour the next image from my Day of the Cat colouring book that Lemon recently gave me..

He was quite detailed and because of the paper that the book is printed on, I had to go over it twice!!

I love him though and can't wait to colour more of the book.

I love to colour and this challenge reminds me that I can colour for 10 mins every day, there is space in my life for that.

I'll show you more later in the week.

Cx

Red, white and blue...

Hey,

Happy Friday and welcome to July..ALREADY!! Where is this year going?!

I have had a fun, fun week and with the 3 day weekend ahead, there can only be more fun in store.

June was a SUPER successful blogging month for me, despite having been in London for 10 days, I posted every single day..I actually don't think I have ever done that before.

I'm also excited about the start of the next 30 day colouring challenge, hosted by the awesome Kathy Rac - it starts on July 5th, so get involved!!

AND my Ma arrives next week - what an awesome month July is going to be..

Today I am showing you a quick card I made for the Unity Stamp Co, show and tell Facebook group. I love playing along with the challenge (you have to use a Unity stamp) and the theme for the last week was Red and Blue..

I chose to use Array of Bottles, love this stamp.

I decided that watercolouring the stamp would be fun, I used Distress Inks (Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire and Worn Lipstick) and an aquabrush, I love the variance in the blues and reminds me of all the lovely blue glass that I like.

The sentiment stamp is by Hero Arts.

Another super simple card..Distress Ink watercolouring makes me SO happy.

Have a great 4th of July weekend..

Cx