My Favourite Five From 2010

Yikes, Debby over at the a Scrapjourney, has asked us to show her our top five cards for 2010.  Picking some just for Christmas was hard enough but here goes for my top five:

I wish all my fellow bloggers a Happy New Year and all the very best for 2011.

Crafty Ann's Challenge No 31

Well I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and got to spend time with your loved ones and friends.

Another fortnight has come around and it's time for another challenge over at Crafty Ann's.  The challenge this fortnight is a little different.  Ann is giving away a free image which must be used in your card.  Click here to go and have a look.

As soon as I saw the image an idea sprung to mind so I had to have a play.  I have done the spotlighting of an image with a stamp and wasn't sure I could do it with the two digital images but after a lot of to'ing and fro'ing I got there in the end by using My Craft Studio.  The main image I have simply dusted with my ink dusters and Tim Holtz's Faded Jeans, Tumbling Glass, Antique Linen and Mustard Seed distress ink pads.  The Faberge style egg image has been coloured with Promarkers and edged with a Pen-touch gold pen.  I've used four different polished stone papers and the top one I used was the lemon so that I could continue the image across onto the backing - I know what I mean but I might not be explaining very well.  I've again used the ink dusters to add just a little colour.  The frame I have cut out with my Cricut and edged again with the Pen-touch pen.  The card is then finished off  with a Crafty Ann's ticket sentiment and a triple bow.

Well, this is certainly a different challenge to end 2010/start 2011 with.  The Design Team will look forward to seeing your creations and thank you for your continued support of Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog.  Here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year and all the very best for 2011.

This card fits the following challenges:

Mark's Finest Papers - Mustard, blue and green
One Stitch at a Time - Surprise us
Incy Wincy - Distressing
I Love Promarkers - Anything goes

Digi Doodle - Anything goes

Digital Tuesday - Anything goes

Top Tip Tuesday - Get embellishing

Passion for Promarkers - Anything goes

Party Time Tuesday - Anything goes birthday.

A New Year Card that gave me some grey hairs for Karen's Doodles Challenge!!!!

Well, I saw the topic on Karen's Doodles Challenge Blog this week of celebration and thought it would give me chance to get one of my favourite images of Bigsby out to colour in/have a play with.  I duly coloured the image in with Promarkers and decided to do a pyromage of the image so stuck my masking tape to my clothes and then put on the front of the image as I needed to hold my Nesties in the right place.  When cut I went to remove the masking tape and it pulled my image to pieces so I wasn't a happy bunny.  Thankfully with digital images you just go and print another one off but this time I cut before colouring, then placed some masking tape on the back to keep in place when colouring and hey presto it worked.  I thought it hadn't when I came to make it into a card as I couldn't see why the pieces wouldn't come apart as I'd removed the masking tape - the problem was I'd used glossy accents to make the balloons stand out more so I had to prize the pieces apart carefully as I wasn't going to lose the.  I have used a scalloped circle with a circular mat that is from Susie Sugar's shop which I won in a challenge recently.  They are such fab quality.  I have cut a circle with my Cricut as another mat and then cut some smaller ones which I cut in half to adorn the matting.  The card is finished off with some brads, dotty ribbon, flower and a Crafty Ann's ticket sentiment.

This card also fits the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments - Anything goes

Digi Doodle - Anything goes

Sew Many Cards - Anything goes

Craft Your Days Away - Punch it out

One Stitch at a Time - Surprise us

Digital Tuesday - Anything goes

Top Tip Tuesday - Get embellishing

Passion for Promarkers - Anything goes

Anything Goes - The Letter C - circles and celebration of the New Year for me

Fun With Shapes and More - New Year

Paper Playtime - New Year

For Fun - New Year

Paper Pretties - Ring in the New Year - Lots of cirlcles on this card ie matting/layering, circle brads and circles on the ribbon

4 Crafty Chicks - A New Year

Pixie Dust - Happy New Year

Stamp-n-Doodle - New

Rainbow Lady's - Happy New Year

Dutch Dare - New beginnings
I Love Promarkers - Anything goes.

Catch the Bug Challenge - 25/12/10

The topic for the challenge this week at the Catch the Bug Challenge is "Let's Ring in the New Year".  I have used this Bugaboo image of a lady having a good time at a party - so much so she's having a rest on the floor!!!  She certainly is a character.  I have coloured her in with Promarkers and added some bling all around her with dots of Sakura Stardust clear pen.  I have then used three different sizes of my Nestabilities die and cut her out so that I could pyromage the image up (this is an idea I picked up from a recent Spellbinders show on Create and Craft that Sue did - hope you don't mind me pinching the idea Sue!!!).  I've layered the image on some silver mirri card so you can get some extra glimmer at different angles.  All the pieces of paper are from the scraps box in various shades of purple and pearl effect papers.  The piece just below the image is my own handiwork with alcohol inks as I have grown to liking playing with these as I normally don't do messy things.  The card is then finished off with some flowers with glittery flower and brad centres, some ribbon and a sentiment off the computer.

This card also fits the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments - Anything goes

Digi Doodle - Anything goes

Sew Many Cards - Anything goes

Craft Your Days Away - Punch it out

One Stitch at a Time - Surprise us

Digital Tuesday - Anything goes

Top Tip Tuesday - Get embellishing

Passion for Promarkers - Anything goes

CRAFT - New Year

Anything Goes - The Letter C - champagne for me

Fun With Shapes and More - New Year

Paper Playtime - New Year

For Fun - New Year

Delicious Doodles - Purple Reigns

Totally Papercrafts - Time to party

Corrosive Challenge - Bring on the bling - sparkly flowers and sparkled image courtesy of Sakura Stardust clear pen

Little Red Wagon - Leftovers - the wide ribbon is a leftover from a long eaten box of chocolates but I didn't have enough to tie a knot so I've used a narrower piece I had in my stash to do a faux knot!!

Paper Pretties - Ring in the New Year - Lots of silver on this card, circles over the largest backing paper and a circle ring clip.

Commissioned New Year Card

I was asked to make a New Year card for a lady to give to her partner.  The request was manly but he liked champagne and flowers.  If my memory serves me right I've never had a commissioned New Year card before.  I have used the champagne bucket and glasses image from Digi Drawn and coloured in with Promarkers.  This time I coloured the contents of the glasses with Sakura Stardust clear pen before adding glossy accents and got a wonderful shine.  I must remember this for future reference.  I cut the image out with an oval die but then thought it too neat so I hacked it with my Tim Holtz's distress tool and then inked the edged.  I have used two pieces of paper I was sent by a friend recently and edged each piece with my Pentouch silver pen.  The card is finished off with some silver wired ribbon which I have had for years and years, some flowers (including one cut with a Marianne die-cut) and a black spring clip.

This card also fits the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments - Anything goes

Digi Doodle - Anything goes

Sew Many Cards - Anything goes

Craft Your Days Away - Punch it out

One Stitch at a Time - Surprise us

Digital Tuesday - Anything goes

Top Tip Tuesday - Get embellishing

Passion for Promarkers - Anything goes

CRAFT - New Year
Anything Goes - The Letter C - champagne for me

Fun With Shapes and More - New Year

Paper Playtime - New Year
For Fun - New Year
Paper Pretties - Ring in the New Year - Lots of silver on this card and a circle ring clip.

Another New Year Card

For this card I have used a cute image from Mo's Digital Pencil Too Store.  This little character seems to be very pleased at the thought of the arrival of a New Year!!!  I have coloured the image in with Promarkers and then the image has then been cut out with a die-cut and inked around the edges with a Versamagic chalk ink pad.  The backing paper is "new" and from a Basic Grey pad I won in a Blog Hop some months back.  I have used my Swirls embossing folder and then cut it to size and inked around the edges with the same ink pad.  The card is finished of with some flowers, sentiment off the computer and a piece of lace.

This card also fits the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments - Anything goes

Digi Doodle - Anything goes

Sew Many Cards - Anything goes

Craft Your Days Away - Punch it out

One Stitch at a Time - Surprise us

Digital Tuesday - Anything goes

Top Tip Tuesday - Get embellishing

Passion for Promarkers - Anything goes

CRAFT - New Year

Fun With Shapes and More - New Year

Paper Playtime - New Year.

New Year Card

For this card I have used a champagne bucket and glasses image with Digi Drawn.  I have coloured the image in with Promarkers and then put on some glossy accents over where the champagne would be.  The image has then been cut out with a die-cut.  I have used scraps of backing paper from my scraps box which is certainly getting lower and lower.  I have used my Swiss Dots embossing folder and then used my ink dusters with Tim Holtz's Shabby Shutters distress ink to colour the card to accentuate the dots.  The card is finished of with some flowers, cord brad and some pearls.

This card also fits the following challenges:

I Love Promarkers - Anything goes

For Fun - Anything goes

Aud Sentiments - Anything goes

Digi Doodle - Anything goes

Sew Many Cards - Anything goes

Craft Your Days Away - Punch it out

One Stitch at a Time - Surprise us

Digital Tuesday - Anything goes

Top Tip Tuesday - Get embellishing

Passion for Promarkers - Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

CRAFT - New Year

Fun With Shapes and More - New Year

Paper Playtime - New Year.

Commissioned Birthday Card

I was asked to make a card for a lady whose birthday was Boxing Day.  She's in her 20's so I am hoping I've got the image OK.  All the remit was to keep away from traditional Christmas colours as the person gets fed up of receiving no actual birthday cards and just a birthday message inside her Christmas card - how mean is that?

I have used this beautiful image of Big Sisters Babs from Di's Digi Downloads.  Look at those killer heels!!!  I have coloured the image in with Promarkers and highlighted areas with my Sakura Stardust clear pen.  I have done some basic matting and layering and used my Martha Stewart lattice punch down one side.  I have finished the card off with peel-off sentiment and paper flowers with a sequin flower centre.

This card will fit the following challenges:

I Love Promarkers - Anything goes
For Fun - Anything goes

Aud Sentiments - Anything goes

Digi Doodle - Anything goes

Sew Many Cards - Anything goes

Craft Your Days Away - Punch it out

One Stitch at a Time - Surprise us

The Crazy Challenge - Punch it

Digital Tuesday - Anything goes

Passion for Promarkers - Anything goes

Paper Pretties - Birthday card 
Party Time Tuesday - Anything goes birthday
Top Tip Tuesday - Get embellishing
Creative Card Crew - Birthdays at Christmas
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes.

Hodge Podge Challenge - 16/12/10

Over at the Hodge Podge Challenge the topic is blue and silver.  This challenge runs until 5/1/11.  I have used this beautiful flower image from Hodge Podge and coloured in with my Promarkers and highlighted the centre with some glossy accents.  The image I have then cut with my Nestabilities die.  The card is then finished off with scraps of paper from my stash, a punched edge out of silver mirri card, lace, sentiment off the computer, two die-cut butterflies and Papermania Glitterations on the butterflies and edges of the card.

This card also fits the following challenges:

I Love promarkers - Anything goes
For Fun - Anything goes
Crafts and Me - Anything goes
Aud Sentiments - Anything goes
Digi Doodle - Anything goes
Sew many Cards - Anything goes
Craft Your Days Away - Punch it out
One Stitch at a Time - Surprise us
The Crazy Challenge - Punch it
Papertake Weekly - Be thankful
Digital Tuesday - Anything goes
Top Tip Tuesday - Get embellishing

Passion for Promarkers - Anything goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes
Phindy's Place - Give thanks with scraps
Winter Wonderland - Not Christmas but thank you.

My Top 10 Cards of 2010

Suzi over at The Manic World of Mrs Weyremaster has asked us to show her our top 10 cards for 2010 - not an easy task to pick but here goes:

If you fancy playing along go and visit Suzi's blog to have a look at the rules.

2010 in Cards

Kath has challenged us to show the year 2010 in the cards we've made.  This sounds very simple but to just pick 1 or 2 for for each month has been difficult but here goes for me:

January 2010

February 2010

March 2010

April 2010

May 2010

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

If you fancy playing along go and visit Kath's blog to have a look and her wonderful creations for the year and to find out how to play along.