Feb 26

Magnolia candy winner & TY

Evening everyone..

Oh.. it’s super nice to have my Sis over,
shopping, catching up.. shopping.. eating.. shopping.. laughing.. you get the idea ;-)

The only draw back is that we didn’t get to do any crafting,
just running out of time!

But as promised I’m back with the winner of the Mini Magnolia candy,
so without further delay the winner is:

Liza from Liza Crafty Spot

Congratulations hunnie,
if you could send your details to me by email,
I will get the stamps off to you when I get back from Holland next week :)

.oOo.

I have another fabulous card to show you that I received from Sinikka,
She won the copic marker set from my candy in January
and promised to send me her first creation using the pens

Isn’t it just gorgeous?

Fabulous colouring sweetie,
can’t believe it is one of your first tries with these pens,
the shading is awesome!

Your card is proudly displayed in my studio.. I love it.. Thank you!!

.oOo.

Well.. We’ll be flying off first thing in the morning,
I’ll make no promises of any posts until I’m back because just frankly..
I’m gonna enjoy myself chatting, catching up and relaxing..

See you all by next weekend,

Big hugs,

Marlena x

Marlena

6
comments

Posted in Blog Candy

Feb 24

Sugar Bowl ~54~ Lilian’s Sketch

Good Morning!

Thanks so much for your visit today,
and I’ve got my card for the new SUGAR BOWL challenge to show you.

The sketch this time has been provided by Lilian
and the optional theme is ‘Clean and Simple’

Now.. for all those that know my style,
making a CAS card is very, very hard for me but I hope I managed it.

The adorable Sassy girl is called ‘Windswept‘
She must be one of my favorites from the last release :)

This Saturday there will be a blog hop of the new Sassy Girls,
just you wait and see what they look like..
Gorgeous beyond words!!

.oOo.

Back to the challenge in hand and once again
Sugar Nellie
have a fabulous prize for you instore

2 winners will get their pick of 6 stamps from the new releases..
so they can have the sassy’s or the country cousins or the mary halls..
You’d be spoiled for choice!

Hope you will be able to join in the fun,
by following the sketch, use a Sugar Nellie image
and optional theme of making your card CAS.
Check out all the details and more inspiration from the DT at the Sugar Bowl blog.

.oOo.

As I’ve got my Sister over to stay and
I’ll be going back with her for a few days in Holland,
my post will be sparse over the next week or so..
But will be back asap with lots of new goodies to show :)

Hugs, Marlena x

19
comments

Posted in Sugar Bowl DT

Feb 23

Lili of the Valley ~ Spring Swing ~

Yay.. from today we get to show you some sneeky peeks of the new
Lili of the Valley release
that is due out on the 9th of March.
No little kiddies or fairies this time..
just super cute little animals.

For my card I have used Spring Swing,
a versatile little image that I think is useful for a whole range of occasions.

I’ve coloured the bunny with E50, 51, 52,53, 55 and R20,
Greens G21, 24,YG63,
R35 for flowers and B60 for background

Papers are MME Totally Girl,
Sentiment by SU!,
Swirls from Marianne Design and everything else from stash.

The sketch I used is the latest challenge over at Papertake Weekly

There are 17 new stamps in this new release..
so please check out the other DT girlies blogs for more sneeky peeks.

.oOo.

Don’t forget to enter my Mini Magnolia candy,
get all the details by clicking on the picture in my side bar.

Have a wonderful day,

Marlene x

12
comments

Posted in Lili of the Valley DT

Feb 22

Magnolia mini Candy..

I was rummaging through some of my stamps the other week
and found some duplicates that I would like to give away
to one of my blog readers.

They are all Mini’s that I got from the NEC show last year,
don’t think they are available for sale anywhere ;-)

In the photo I have included a regular Tilda to give you an idea of the size,

The winner will receive:

* Wedding Cake,
* Cup Cake,
* Girl with bow,
* Girl Elf

If you would like to be in with a chance of winning these little ‘uns,
please leave me a message on this post.

The draw will close mid-day on Saturday 26th
and the winner will be announced that evening.

.oOo.

I wanted to show you these two gorgeous cards I received as a ‘thank you’ following my last candies

Thanks Erika & Karine, they are soo gorgeous!!!!

.oOo.

Have a lovely day and good luck!!

Marlene x

42
comments

Posted in Blog Candy

Feb 21

NEC

========================================================

Finally found some time to tell you about the NEC experience over the weekend.

Saturday I met up with Karen and Erika
after not having seen them since the CHA trip it was totally fab catching up again
and it was just like ‘old’ times straight away!

Then it was time for the Tim Holtz class.. boy was that fun!
We made 3 canvasses using lots of different techniques using the Ranger products..
and as you can imagine, we got quite messy in the process!

Here are a few of the snapshots..

The next day the show opened and joined a couple of demo’s.
One of which I made this necklace, such fun picking up the pliers again :)

There were great stands on the show,
fab looking at the new paper lines etc..
Not too sure if there were many new ‘must haves’
but then again it wasn’t as if I went there to buy.

The weekend has just flown by in a flash & I loved every ittybitty second!

============================================

I did promise to come back with a little mini candy..
but I just couldn’t fit it in,
promise to get my bum into gear soon ;-)

Marlene x

6
comments

Posted in Distressing, Other

Feb 18

Sweet Pea

Good evening all,

This week I received my first batch of Sweet Pea stamps from Crafts & Me
I’ve seen them about and loved them to pieces,
but am ashamed to think how long it took me to finally get some to play with!!

Today I’ve been playing with ‘Flowing in Blue‘,
a mythical figure and I think she is oh so pretty!
Papers I’ve used are MME All Girl,
sentiment is by Lily of the Valley and
everything else from stash.

When I was colouring her,
I just felt the need to add doodling all over her hair,
face, body, dress and ofcourse the butterfly..
I think it really suits her and it’s all fantasy right?

.oOo.

My card fits in with the following challenges:

* Friday Sketchers: gorgeous sketch by Bea
* Cute Card Thursday: Happy Shiney cards
* Stamp Something: something Funky

.oOo.

I’m getting overly excited about tomorrow now..
First and foremost catching up with Karen [Sugar Nellie] and my gorgeous friend Erika,
then a class with mr Tim Holtz himself..
Wow, can’t wait to see what we will be making..
I’ll be sure to take my camera and will give you a full report on my blog as soon as I can.

Thanks so much for your visit today,
please come back tomorrow when I have a little mini candy give-away for you all :)

Hugs,

Marlene x

16
comments

Posted in Challenges, Copic Sketch Markers

Feb 16

Bunches..

I’ve had such fun colouring this sweet little Mo Manning girl,
called Bunches.

It took me absolute ages though..
as there is so much detail in the image.

Again, the image was coloured before I chose the papers
but they matched the MME ‘Ooh La La’ set perfectly!
Used MS border punch and MD swirl die,
made the green inner flower from EK Succes retro flower punch
and sentiment is by SU!

My card fits the following challenges:

* Copic Creations: Warm Colours
* Truly Scrumptious: Swirls & Pearls
* Fab n Funky: Make your own..

.oOo.

Thanks so much for looking and have a great day,

Hugs,

Marlena x

27
comments

Posted in Challenges

Feb 15

Bella Bunting

The challenge at the FaceBook Sugar Nellie group this week is
to make any easel card shape you fancy.

I have used the cute Bella Bunting from the Simply Sassy collections,
she’s such fun!

I don’t usually colour any of my images before I know what papers I want to use,
just had a little colouring session, experimenting..
Boy.. did I struggle to find papers afterwards,
but am really pleased how this card came together!

The sketch I used is a great one from Friday Sketchers

I have used the NS doily die for the circle element of the sketch and
machine stitched some Tulle and Ribbon together to make the ruffled border.

Pierced some of the border on the image
and added some heart pins for detail.

PTW would like to see you putting on the glitz,
so I’ll pop it along over there too

.oOo.

Getting overly excited about this coming weekend now,
can’t wait to catch up with the Sugar Nellie CHA girlies Karen & Erika again.
And to top it off having a class with mr Tim Holtz himself!!
Whoohoo!

Next week my sister is coming over for a catch up
and I have just booked my trip to go back with her and spend
some time in Holland with my family!

Have  a lovely evening all,

Marlene x

11
comments

Posted in Shaped Cards, Sugar Nellie

Feb 13

An Award

Received this lovely award from my gorgeous surrogate Mummy today.
Thanks so much Jacqui.. I looove you!

In return for receiving this award I am asked to:

Thank the person who gave this award to me and link it back to their blog

Pass this award to 8 other people who write blogs I love to visit
and leave a comment so that they can pass along the recognition!

Share 8 things about myself with my lovely blog readers

Here goes:

1. I am married to my fab, handsome and understanding [craft related!!] hubby for nearly 19 yrs
and we have 3 gorgeous kids, Jake, Cherise & Laurelle

2. I’m from Holland originally,
I try to go back to see my Mum, my 4 sisters and brother as much as I can!

2. We live next door to our Garden Centre..
Which is great as we don’t have to commute to work.
But I am the most non-green fingered person I know ;-)

3. I hate excersize.. but love Zumba classes and my ‘wobble’ machine!

4. I am a tea-aholic! Can easily drink 10 mugs a day..
thank goodness for Decaf!

5. I’m forever changing my hair colour and style, just get bored with it so quickly.

6. I’m addicted to ALL reality shows on the telly..
only because I’m such a nosey person :)

7. I would love to do a parachute jump..
I’d be scared out of my wits but think the thrill would be amazing!!

8. I can’t touch my nose with my tongue.. unlike my little raggy Eddie..

.oOo.

Boy, it’s hard to pass it on to just 8 so I’m giving this award to the following lovely bloggers
who visit me so regular and always leave comments that brighten my day enormously!

* Erika,
* Sian,
* Sinikka,
* Hev,
* Marie-Anne,
* Judith,
* Sjak,
* Ali

.oOo.

Have a wonderful Sunday all,

Hugs,

Marlena

10
comments

Posted in Other

Feb 12

Colour with bleach.. how to!

hey everybody..

As promised I’m back with the step by step how I done the bleach colouring
of this adorable LotV image that I used in yesterday’s post.

Now..
This post is just to show you how I done my image,
and am in no way implying I’ve thought of this..
just thought I’d share!

Are you ready?.. let’s go!

What do I need?

* Piece of cardstock [I have used Kraft]
* Stamp of your choice
* 2-4 distress ink colours for background
[mine are Walnut Stain, Frayed Burlap, Barn Door]
* Ink + embossing powder
* Background stamp [optional]
* Household Bleach [any flavour!! lol]
* Brush and maybe some sandpaper
* white pencil [accents]

I started with mixing distress inks all over my piece of cardstock,
just randomly.
I then took a background stamp and added this with walnut stain onto the top.
Again added some more ink until I was pleased with the background..
Don’t worry about smudging the background image..
it’s not our main focus at all,
and being as prominent as in my pic will take alot away from the main image!

Once happy with your background,
stamp your chosen image and sprinkle with embossing powder.
Heat with your gun,
this raised effect will keep the bleach from running outside the lines.

Now for the fun part!! Take your brush and dip into the bleach and add to your image..
Simples..!

The bleach will slowly dissolve the distress inks where you apply it,
and even gets to your cardstock to take most of the colour out.
At first I didn’t expect my image to get so yellow..
and blamed the Lemon Domestos for it..
but Judith mentioned in her comment on my previous post
that it might have something to do with the cardstock colour you use in the first place..
go figure.. Thanks for the tip though hun! :)

Keep working the bleach to the whole image until you are pleased with how it looks.
It doesn’t really matter if you go outside some of the lines either..
just adds to the distress effect.

Now for the finishing touches I have used some prisma pencils.

White will give you highlights,
and I also used this to make a sketchy shadow like shown on the pic above.
I then took a sanding block and blended the lines into the paper,
you can also use sansodor.

I also used a gold pencil for some shadows
and skin colour to give some more definition to the face and arms.

I was pretty pleased with the result so far,
but when the card all game together
I did add some Shattered Straw distress stickles to the Boa & Bow for extra dimention

.oOo.

Cut your image and it is ready to be made into a card.. Yay!

I also got quite a few mails about the pleats on my card..

All I done was cut a piece of PP to the same width as my mat,
but left the length way longer.
I then started scoring about 2.5″ in from the top.
Score a horizontal line, another 1/4′ next to that and the next 1/2″ after that.
Mountain fold the first line,
Valley fold the next and repeat however many times you like
[I've done 5]

While flat and pleated together,
cut the length to size and stick onto your mat.
Once this panel is fixed to your card, play around with the pleats
as they look nice in lots of different ways.

Hope you enjoyed this little explanation..
Oh.. and Toni.. Good luck!!!!

Hugs,

Marlena

7
comments

Posted in Tim Holtz, Tutorials

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