Win a TILDA of your choice!!

Actually not my Blog Candy at all, but I just thought this post needed a bit of extra oomph so I copied it from Lorraine's Blog - hope you don't mind Lorraine!!!

It's easy to win, just enter the Simon Says Stamp Challenge this week (ends this wednesday so there's still time!) & advertise this in your blog not on your side-bar.

The only problem is which Tilda to choose?!

My New Tilda!

I managed to get my hands on this adorable Tilda from Stampeezee at the beginning of the week & I've used her twice already! I've seen so much of her on other Blogs I'm afraid just fell in love & it turns out she's an absolute dream to colour too, happy days! I suspect the poor thing may already be overused to the point of saturation but I don't care, I think she's gorgeous!!

So, which challenges have I selected this week? A Spoonful of Sugar for the sketch & both Roses on Paper& Simon says Stamp asked for stitching on their weekly challenge so a triple whammy for this little cutie, lol!! Considering the card was made over three nights I think that the Karmic balance is satisfied, at least on this occasion! (I should, at this point, mention that I know nothing whatsoever about Karma...)

Other materials: Wild asaparagus papers, Fiskars Effervesence border punch & other stashy bits including some rather cool raffia covered wire for my curly bits. I picked this up in my local discount mega store which intermittently stocks some pretty good craft stuff - but mostly stocks absolute ba-ba....

C4E challenge - my interpretation!!

So, the Crafts for Eternity Sketch Challenge for this week also requests that the colours orange & brown are used, erm... well Tilda's hair is brown!

This is what comes of being far too impatient!! You see, the only thing I had to work on at the time was Michelle's entry to the challenge so my card has ended up an interpretation of her design.

Which in itself is fairly cool ( I think there's a chinese-whispers round-robin type thing you can do on the same principle) but not really in keeping with the brief for C4E!!

But there you go, 'tis done now & I'm much happier with this effort than I was with the last one :)

A moment of self-doubt...

Gosh, It doesn't seem like I've been away for long but the last time I posted was over a week ago!

I must confess my mojo went walkabout for a while & I'm not sure is fully in gear yet but I've been working on a card for the Truly Scrumptious & Spoonful of Sugar nonetheless...

To be honest I'm not happy with the card, Tilda went a bit Skew-whiff & yet again I used a card blank all wrong for the sketch so I've had to play about with it to make it fit. I used distress inks to colour the image & it looks okay but not brilliant. The stamped flowers are too big & don't really work ...Lol... I could go on!!!

I see some of the amazing, talented bloggers out there and the truly fabulous work they do I just can't help comparing my own stuff & feeling something's not quite clicking yet...

So what do I need to do? Well I feel like I haven't really identified my own style & I could improve my colourizing technique & also how I size & place embellishments needs work. How am I going to do this? PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE and hey if I need a few more products along the way who am I to argue?!

I put a load of old, unloved stash on ebay this week specifically with the view of buying lots of lovely new stuff with the proceeds, I've made about £40 so far... I feel a spree coming on!

So should you come across this frankly altogether too wordy & self-pitying post please don't feel you need to comment just to make me feel better I'm honestly not looking for that, however any hints on the issues I've identified of myself (& any that I haven't!!) would be genuinely appreciated.

Thanks for reading xxx

A Spoon full of Sugar

The challenge sketch on A Spoon Full of Sugar this week is lovely, too bad I didn't really think about the layout of my card before I put knife to paper, hence a rather loose interpretation of the sketch but I think it still qualifies...just!!

The image is funstamps & the papers are from stash. The stitching is done by hand using rather lovely embroidery floss made of pure linen, you can't really tell in the picture, but the effect is quite matt & textured, completely different from the normal kind.

I am lucky enough to have a bona-fide cross-stitch designer as a close friend & she sorted me the entire range of threads from DMC because I helped her with some stuff for a Craft show at Olympia earlier in the year :)

Truly Scrumptious Challenge

On the theme of Indian Summer & following a sketch, this is my submission for the Truly Scrumptious bi-weekly challenge (bi-weekly is that a word?! - Lol!). I used K&Co Wild Saffron papers & the adorable deer is... *runs downstairs to look* ...We R Memory Keepers. The buttons are actually clear with some stamped PP glued on the back with dimensional glaze.

Fun Challenge, especially loved the theme, I dug out my gold-leafing pen especially!

Friday Sketchers Challenge

I really enjoyed making a challenge card yesterday afternoon. So much so that I made another one in the evening!! This is one for the Friday Sketchers challenge. It's only the second time I've used this magnolia stamp, my first attempt was rubbish and I'd pretty much decided to give it up as a bad job, mostly because I had nothing to sit her on! But after spotting Jacqueline's gorgeous DT card from the previous week I was inspired to have another go.

I've made lollipop flowers with diecut leaves and used D'vine Swirls coloured with distress inks on Tilda's background. The papers are BG Porcelain & the ticket is a freebie from Craft Stamper Magazine.

Card Challenge

Ooh it's all about the cards at the moment!! I'm loving the promarkers, infact you might say I have a passion for them, Lol!! Trouble is I seem to be going through a 'girly & cute' phase at the moment, but who am I pass these cards on to?!

I should have had girls....

I've decided to enter a card challenge this week, well two actually as this doubles up using the sketch from Sketch Saturday and the theme from Passion for Promarkers (geddit now?!) Glittery & Girly.

It's certainly taken my mind off this rotten cold I've contracted from the kids!

I'm speechless!

OMG I can't believe it! I won the Studio's August Challenge! Lol! and now I just can't stop smiling....

Mouthwatering Blog Candy! Check it out!

OMG you have to check out the gorgeous candy on offer at the Squiggle Stamp Blog it closes on the 26th September & you gotta be in it to win it! I'm so hoping it could be me!!