Super Duper Candy Time

**Candy Now Closed**
Winners will be announced soon 
This is a sticky - please scroll down for more recent posts 

I have just hit 20,000 hits here so I thought I'd celebrate with a wee bit of candy, and I thought I'd tie it in with my other exciting news - the release of the Craft Gift Set from Letraset that some of you already know about.


For those of you who don't... I was asked by Letraset to select the 12 colours for the kit and I chose a broad selection of markers that would be ideal for someone starting out with promarkers. They also asked me to put together a simple craft tutorial to include in the kit. So my creation and name is on the packaging - woohooo. I am absolutely thrilled to bits that they asked me and I really enjoyed doing it.Even if the deadline was mighty tight.

So this is what I'd like you to do to be in with a chance of winning the candy - I'll keep it simple.
1. Leave your name and blog address in Mr Linky below (please only enter ONCE!)
2. Also leave a comment on this post
3. Spread the word on your blog linking back to this post- I'm not fussed if you want to post just a link on your sidebar or in a post, and you can also use the pic - but only if you want to.


Ok so you've read the rules, you know what you're doing - I guess you'll want to know what's up for grabs? ok here goes...there will be a 1st prize and 2 runners up prizes
Update - there will be another  main prize: Letraset have very generously given me one of the brand new craft gift sets (as pictured) to give away. 


Main Prize 1

2x Diane Duda Xmas stamps from Sugar Nellie - Making Friends and Waiting for Santa
25 Promarkers: Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Sandstone, Spice, Coral, Rose Pink, Ruby, Berry Red, Red, Shale, Pastel Yellow, Canary, Meadow Green, Apple Green, Lime Green, Grass, Forest Green, Pine, Cool Aqua, Cornflower, Royal Blue, Indigo Blue, Amethyst, Blush & Satin.
4 Fineliners: 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7
Total worth £57.55

Main Prize 2**Update**
Letraset Craft Gift Pack which contains: Blush, Pink Carnation, Fuchsia Pink, Denim Blue, China Blue, Grass, Lush Green, Caramel, Cocoa, Umber, Sunflower & Poppy promarkers, plus 1 fineliner pen, 1 blender pen, 1 storage wallet, 1 marker pad and MY instruction sheet.
RRP £34.99 


Runner Up 1

5 Greys - CG1, 3, 4 & 5, WG3
7 Promarkers: Pastel Yellow, Satin, Sandstone, Lime Green, Cornflower, Amethyst, Ruby
 Total worth £20.28
Runner Up 2

4 Greys - WG2 & 3, IG3, CG4
8 Promarkers: Pastel Yellow, Satin, Sandstone, Burnt Sienna, Black, Lime Green, Berry Red, Royal Blue

Total worth £20.28


The candy closes at 12 noon on Monday 30th November and the winner will be announced the day after.

Pepsi Day - 17 and a half weeks

Its that time again folks, where I waffle on about our puppy - Princess Pepsi. I think she's actually doubled in size this last week - must be a growth spurt - or it could be connected to all the scraps the kids keep surreptitiously dropping on the floor.


I'm still taking her out in the evenings (less distractions) into the garden without the lead and getting her used to coming back to me when I call her - and she's doing really well, rewards are helping immensely.

 Relaxing with Scott.

 

More Exciting News

I was so excited to be asked by Sally-Ann Hancock this week to be a Guest DT for her for a couple of months. I'm a huge fan of Sally-Ann's digi images, they are ideal for colouring with my beloved ProMarkers, and she has helped me out once or twice in the past when I've asked for something specific. So I'm absolutely delighted to be part of her team for a wee while.

If you pop over to the DigiStamp Boutique you will get 20% off all Sally-Ann's xmas images - they are a bargain anyway, so treat yourself. 


I mentioned to Sally-Ann that I needed to make a get well card for a friends little boy who had swine flu, and she came up with Poorly Sam, quick as a flash. So I thought I'd use him for my very first GDT card...

Image: Poorly Sam from Digistamp Boutique, coloured with promarkers: Blush for his skin, Caramel, Cocoa & Umber for his hair, Leaf Green and Grass for his jammies, Powder Blue, Arctic Blue, Pastel Blue, Denim Blue, Blue pearl and China Blue for his bedding, Oatmeal and Cinnamon for his book.


Card base is core'dinations card, as is the image mat which was cut with Labels 9 nesties in the cuttlebug, blue tartan paper is Kanban, eyelets are WRMK set with the Cropadile and the greeting is Hero Arts.


Here's poor wee Sam's close-up...

Loads to tell you

I have loads to share with you today - and for all you promarker junkies, newbies or even if you've never tried ProMarkers in your life you have another chance to win.

Firstly, over at Passion for Promarkers, there is a special prize weekend workshop. We have published the original tutorial I submitted to Letraset for the Craft Gift Pack, PLUS we are giving away 1 Craft Gift Pack to one lucky commenter. So get yourself over to PfP and have a go - you have until the 15th of December to enter, so with a bit of luck the lucky winner will receive the pack before xmas. 
Passion for Promarkers are also doing something special for the whole of December - I can't tell you any more than that at the moment, but we're all so excited about it. So keep your eyes peeled on Tuesday 1st December for all the details.

Next up is a Happy Birthday to one of my PfP teamies - Maria - happy birthday chum, hope you have a super day. I'm hoping she got the birthday card I posted to her, because I'm away to share it with you all :)

Image: Daisy from Sugar Nellie, coloured with Promarkers: (you'll find the tutorial for this image here.) Cool Grey 1-5, Black, Amethyst, Aubergine.
Daisy paper is from the Papermania Spring Burst collection, Purple card is from my scrap box, deep purple mat is cut using Labels 9 nesties in the cuttlebug from core'dinations card. The lilac glitter card is DCWV, punched with the scallop 3 dot Martha Stewart Punch around the Page set. Flowers are punched from scraps of card, the branches are punched from coredinations card.
The pearls are kaisercraft and the greeting is Daisy & Dandelion

Here's her close-up...

ok, next on today's agenda is... Craftwork Cards. Have you seen their new website? Its fabulous, so easy to navigate and they have loads of fabulous new goodies. They are also celebrating their 10th birthday - here's to another successful 10 years. To celebrate their birthday and the launch of their new site they were offering some blog candy - and I was one of the lucky winners. I was flabbergasted this morning when my wee parcel arrived - a Card Candy Store, complete with 13 different flavours of card candy - WOW!! now I'm completely spoilt for choice and have this super cute wee storage box for keeping them handy. I love card candy - so much more versatile than brads, and I think I now have just about every colour of the rainbow and more.

I have more news to share tomorrow - am so excited!!, but I'll just have to keep you in suspenders

Image Tutorial - Letraset commission

Just thought I would share the tutorial that I submitted to Letraset for the Craft Gift Pack

Fig. 1 Start by colouring the areas of skin with Blush, lay down more layers to increase the depth in areas that would be in shadow e.g. just under the hat brim

Fig. 2 Colour the clothing, using small circular movements, in Denim Blue

Fig. 3 Concentrating on one area at a time, add a darker shade—China Blue, in areas where there are creases and where there would be shadow

Fig. 4 Blend the hard edges of the darker shade by going over the darker areas, in a circular motion again, with the lighter shade and working outwards

Fig. 5 Shows the same technique applied over the whole image

Fig. 6 Colour the accent/trim areas with Fuchsia, laying down more layers of colour over areas that would be in shadow.

Finish the image by colouring the hair with Caramel, Cocoa and Umber.

Trim the image to the required size, and layer it onto a contrasting cardstock, trimming the edges to leave a narrow border around the image. Add glitter and/or adhesive gems to the image.

Cover a card blank with patterned paper, then take a co-ordinating scrap piece of patterned paper and layer it onto the same contrasting cardstock as before.

Take a piece of white satin ribbon, and using the broad nib, colour the ribbon with Fuchsia. Then wrap the ribbon around the matted paper panel.

Adhere the matted paper panel at an angle to the covered card blank, then, using 3D foam tape adhere the image to the card front.

Add embellishments, the card below has 3 snowflakes punched from the co-ordinating cardstock which have been embellished with snowflake sequins and glitter dots.

Finally add a greeting. (Fig. 7)

Supply List:
Image is Snowflake from Sugar Nellie
Promarkers: Blush, Cocoa, Caramel, Umber, Fuchsia, Denim Blue & China Blue
Papers: Daisy & Dandelion Xmas Pad (also the greeting)
Cardstock: Core'dinations
Papermania Glimmer Dots
Snowflake sequins from Kars 
Anita's white satin ribbon
Martha Stewart snowflake punch
Glamour Dust 

The Craft Gift Pack contains 12 specially selected ProMarkers, 1 ProMarker Blender pen, 1 Fineliner pen, 1 Storage Wallet and 1 Bleedproof Marker Pad.

To download this tutorial, click this icon 

Anniversary

Saturday is my mum and dad's 39th wedding anniversary, so I thought I'd share with you the simple anniversary card I made for them - am already thinking about how I'm going to make the one for next year - their 40th - special.

 

Image: Wedding Cake from Whiff of Joy, coloured with promarkers: Vanilla, IG3, Oatmeal, Putty, Pink Carnation, Fuchsia, Umber, Caramel, IG 4 & 5, Leaf Green and Grass.

the oval scallop nestie mat and pink horizontal panel were cut from core'dinations card. the panel was punched with the deco shell Martha Stewart punch. Paper lace ribbon coloured with Pink Carnation promarker, paper is Papermania Truly Scrumptious and the greeting is from a Forever Friends pack of greetings.

Willow with Lantern #3 of 3

So here's the 3rd Willow with lantern card, and this time I've gone with the same pink paper as the first card - but have used blues to colour the image.

Image: Willow with Lantern from Whiff of Joy, coloured with Promarkers: Blush & Baby Pink for her skin, Pastel Yellow, Mustard and Raw Sienna for her hair, Arctic Blue, Sky Blue and Azure for her dress, Cerise, Magenta and Maroon for her sash and shoe, Pine and Berry Red for the holly leaves and berries, Primrose and Mango for the candle. I covered the lantern again with Sakura clear glaze pen.

I used Rach's out of bounds technique to cut the image using a circle nestie and matted it onto core'dinations card cut using the scallop circle nestie in the cuttlebug. I matted the snowflake paper from the DCWV pink xmas stack onto the same core'dinations card, and also punched MS snowflakes from the same card and added iridescent blue plastic flowers to the centres.

And here's her close-up...

Passion for Promarkers #27 - Maria's Theme - Vintage

Its week #27 over at Passion for Promarkers and our penultimate challenge for 2009. Maria has chosen "Vintage" as her theme this week and you can use ANY COLOURS of promarkers.


Now this challenge has had me worried for weeks because its so far out of my comfort zone, I have never even attempted anything vintage before. BUT, I think I like it! 


So if you fancy having a go at this challenge, remember all you need to do to qualify for the prize draw is use ANY COLOUR of promarkers AND create something "Vintage".
And this week's fabulous prize is a £10 voucher to spend at

They have a fantastic range of kids and adults crafts - some fabulous ideas to keep the kids busy and some super stocking fillers and gifts. If you do place an order with them, can I be cheeky and ask you to enter the source code: SSH10729. If you do this then our charity Extra Special Parents will receive the commission at NO EXTRA COST TO YOU. So not only will you get some super crafty bits, but you will also be supporting parents and carers of children with additional needs.

Image: Poise from Sugar Nellie, coloured with promarkers: Blush for her skin, Baby Pink for her lips, Apricot, Raw Sienna, Chestnut & Walnut for her hair, Mulberry and Plum for her dress and the flowers. I then covered the entire image with Ranger Sepia Accents for a "vintage" look.

The card base is core'dinations card which was sanded, Paper is K&Co and the edges were distressed and inked, the lace is from my stash and coloured with Caramel Promarker. The image is matted onto core'dinations card. The large flower is made from core'dinations card and the K&Co paper, retro flower punch and the petals are then punched with the Martha Stewart Deco Shell punch. The wee flowers are Prima, all the gems were coloured with Plum promarker

And here's a close-up of the lady...

Willow with Lantern #2 of 3

Back again with the 2nd of my 3 Willow with Lantern cards, this time I've gone darker and more traditional with my colour scheme, and have also gone dark honey blonde with her hair - something I don't do very often.

 Image: Willow with Lantern from Whiff of Joy, coloured with promarkers: Ivory, Blush and Baby Pink for her skin, Pastel Yellow, Buttercup, Raw Sienna & Chestnut for her hair, Marsh Green, Olive Green and Forest Green for her gown, Ruby and Burgundy for her sash and the holly berries, Forest Green for the holly leaves, Lemon and Mango for the candlelight. I also covered the lanter with sakura clear glaze pen.

The papers are all Daisy & Dandelion xmas pad, I have distressed the edges with my Tim Holtz distress tool and inked with Papermania inkpads.

The image was cut using Rach's out of bounds technique again, this time I used circle and scallop nesties for the image and mat. The greeting is Kanban. 

Here's her close-up...

Pepsi Day - 16 and a half weeks

My goodness, little Princess Pepsi is 16 weeks old already. 
I'm sure you'll all be glad to hear that her tail has healed very nicely - she was very good and didn't lick it.
I haven't made it to puppy classes yet, as things have been a bit hectic, and now that Graham's away, I won't be able to go until he's back. But in the meantime I've been teaching her to sit which she manages quite well, I'm trying to get her to give me a paw, but that'll take a bit of time. She knows what "stay" means, and I'm also taking her into the garden without a lead - armed of course with a bag of treats - which is also going quite well.
Pepsi's biggest distraction is hearing other people - she's such a friendly little thing and just loves humans, so as soon as she hears another person she wants to go say hello.


I tried to get a bit of video of her this week while she was sleeping - she's so funny with her little barks, but I didn't manage to capture it this week.


Faith decided she wanted to take Pepsi for a walk in the garden the other day, so I'll share those pics with you instead.