Squigglefly's Latest Releases

Squigglefly's latest releases are here and there are some fabulous ones to choose from.
I have chosen to showcase an image by artist Cheryl Alger aka Sassy Cheryl. I have made several cards previously with Cheryl's designs because I think they are just gorgeous.
This one is called Birthday Cupcake

 I have printed the image on SU confetti white cardstock (those 'dirty' little spots are actually in the cardstock unfortunately it doesn't look so good in the photo).
Today for something different I opted to watercolour. My watercolour medium of choice is Lyra watercolour crayons, they are nice and vibrant plus they are easy to blend.

The designer speciality paper is from Basic Grey and  I coloured my image to match these papers.
What do you think? I think I matched pretty well. Colour matching does take a little practice but I have been colouring for a long time now, so my advice to you is practice practice practice.

Until Next Time
Inking of you All
Michelle

Sketch and Bling

Here is this weeks Annabelle's Sketch and Bling Challenge (ABSC003)

It is a nice easy sketch to work with this.

I made a slight variation with mine, here it is

I have chosen the Holly Brach set (my fave) and used 4 stamps to create my stamped centrepiece. It is stamped and embossed with fine gold embossing powder. I have watercoloured today using Lyra watercolour crayons.

The green base card is from a 12 x 12" cardstock I had in my stash, the designer paper is a new release from WebstersPages, called Home for the Holidays. It has a very vintage feel to it.

What's a sketch and bling challenge with out the Bling. I have used 6mm Sprinkles in Lime

All Stamps and sprinkles can be found here at Annabelle Stamps.

Don't forget to look at the other DTs blogs to see what they came up with.

Until Next Time

Inking of you All

Michelle

Spooky Swirl Tree

Hello to you all.

Today I am showcasing another set from Annabelle Stamps. This is the Swirl Tree .

 I love this set as it has some very practical sentiments that can be used with all the other sets plus whatever other stamps you have at home. There are a  couple of co-ordinating swirls/ flourishes, as well as the Tree itself . What a great image this one is.  there is also some ornamental 'accesories' to go to with the tree. As you can see there are some hearts, Christmas ornaments, presents and a few more different things. I'll be showing some more ways to use this tree over the coming weeks.

Now for my card

I thought I would try something a little different for our lovely tree. I decided to go for the Spooky Halloween look.

I know we don't celebrate Halloween here in Australia but I know many of my readers do. So Girls, this one is for you.

For this card, I stamped and embossed in Black Colorbox ink and black powder.  I then made a template for my moon out of a bit of scrap cardstock, I punched a hole in the middle, removed the circle and sponged the inside where the circle used to be. Simple. The moon colour was Colorbox Parchment ink

Next I coloured the tree in grey and black Lyra watercolour crayons. I added a little bit of brown around the base. With the black inkpad I sponged the outside of the stamped rectangle. You can see it better in the close up. You can also see the bat brad I chose to embellish the card.Next I layer it on to purple cardstock.

The last part was putting it all together. The base card is an orange square, then the allover Halloween Text Designer Paper.. I added some Halloween ribbon I bought in Wal-Mart (while I was visiting Las Vegas). Last but not least the Swirl tree layer.

Don't forget to check out what the other Design Team members are up to. You will find links to their blogs on the right side bar.

All Stamps used today are from Annabelle Stamps

Until Next Time

Inking of you All

Michelle

Baby Elephant

Today I have made a baby card made using one of Magnolia Stamps's relatively new animal stamps. As you can see this is the Elephant, my other favourite is the Lion.
The elephant was stamped and embossed using Brilliance black ink and polysparkle (clear powder with glitter) embossing powder. Today I chose to watercolour using my Lyra crayons.
I then proceeded to cut him out and layer onto the purple oval then the green scalloped oval (both card colours from Stampin Up). I then layered using designer papers from a DCVW (boy) Nursery 12"x12" Paper Pad.
To finish off I added a few kaisercraft and prima flowers with rhinestones in the centre.
The Magnolia stamps are available in Australia at Heavenscent Crafts.
Don't forget to all my local Canberra stamping girls, Heavenscent Crafts is coming to town and it's now only 3 weeks away.
Everyone is welcome to the sale on

Sunday 25th October

12 noon until 4.oopm

Senior citizens centre

10 Watson Street Turner.

I will be there helping out Deb so come along and say Hello.

Until next Time

Inking of you All

Michelle

Somebirdy Special

Hi everyone,

Here is a sweet little card made using 2 of Magnolia's new stamps, This is 'Tilda with birdcage' and the sentiment ' For somebirdy special'.

The images have been stamped and embossed using black pigment ink and sparkly black embossing powder. I have chosen today to colour with my Lyra watercolour crayons.

I love these crayons as they can give you a great combination of muted or stronger more vibrant colours. They are very easy to use and due to their blending capabilities you can easily turn your set of 48 colours into 100's of different shades.

I find watercolour best with an embossed image so I can keep my colours defined. With a non embossed edge the colours will tend to run together. (Sometimes with simple designs eg. brush flowers, this is ideal, but not for today's style of image.)

Heavenscent Crafts is the place in Australia to buy these gorgeous stamps They also stock many other great stamp companies not available anywhere else in Australia. click HERE for their website. If you want a particular stamp not shown on the website give them a call and they will be only to happy to help.

Until Next Time

Inking of you all

Michelle

High Hopes challenge #24

Here is my card for this weeks High Hopes Challenge.... Creative Borders.
I decided to use a paper lace doily. I was really happy how it all came together.
The image was stamped and then embossed onto watercolour paper. I then coloured using Lyra watercolour crayons. I cut out the circle using my nestabilities (I just love them I don't know what I ever did before they came out).
The purple card stock is Bazzill criss cross. I embellished the finished card with some stickles and paper flowers.

Until Next Time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Fun with Flock

I can't believe Fun Flock is back in vogue and big time!! I had flock years ago (I am talking about 8 to 10 years here). I think I must of used it half a dozen times. About 2 years back I gave it all away to a school as I thought it was out of date and style. This week I had to go and buy some more.
Moral of this story: DON'T throw anything away.
Here is a close up photo showing you how great the flock looks on the right image.
The reason I had to go buy more Fun Flock was because of this week's High Hopes Challenge. I knew I had the perfect image on which to use flock.
So here is the card I created.

I am very pleased with how the card came out. The image is stamped in Black Colorbox Ink and embossed with clear powder, I used watercolour paper.

She was then coloured in using watercolour crayons from Lyra.

The patterned grey panel was stamped with Stampin Up's "sanded" background in versamark and embossed with clear powder.

It was all layered together as shown and embellished with hot pink pearls.

Until Next Time

Inking of you all

Michelle

Sponging & Stretch the Giraffe

Here is my card for this weeks High Hopes challenge. We had to use sponging on our card. I sponged the clouds. Now I admit it has been a while since I used this type of sponging on a card. First things first.I stamped and embossed the giraffe on watercolour paper. I then watercoloured him using the Lyra watercolour crayons.
My next thought to use my cloud/ grass sponging template that I have had forever. Well it was NOWHERE to be found!! So I had to improvise real fast and this is what I did. I cut out a medium scalloped circle from my nestabilites 'classic circles' and used that to create my clouds I moved it around to give a slightly uneven appearance, and the results were pretty good.
To finish off the card I embellished it with gold brads and scrappers floss, I then added the Prima flowers for the final touch.
In Australia the Lyra crayons and High Hopes Stamps can be purchased from Heavenscent Crafts
Until Next Time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Timeless Tuesday Challenge

Flourishes has just had their new release party and I'm all inspired. Although this is not one of their new sets, it is truly one of my faves. This set is Poppies and is a mix and match set of stamps. I have just created this card for Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #3. This week we simply had to use flowers. This card has been created using Coral cardstock and designer paper by Adornit. The image has been stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured using Lyra watercolour crayons. The ovals were cut from Nestabilities petite ovals.

Just to whet your appetite a little further here is another card I have made with this set. (See what I mean about mix and match.) This time the poppies are gold embossed and coloured with Twinkling H2Os

Until Next Time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Poise, style, grace, this girl's got it all

Here is my card for this weeks High Hopes Challenge #17. This week was a sketch challenge. I did make this card several days ago but dear Hubby took the camera away with him and I had to wait for his return, before I could get the photo taken.
I just love this stamp in Australia it is available from Heavenscent Crafts in Melbourne.
I have coloured my image using 2 different mediums this time. I like to colour as most of you know and I have lots of different mediums to choose from. This time I combined my Prismacolor pencils for the elephant and watercolour crayons for the background. I am very pleased with the end result. I combined several different watercolour crayon colours to get the final colour needed to match the designer paper (bittersweet by Basic Grey)
This was such a fun card to make. I hope you all enjoy it.

Until next time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Princess Anya

This is Princess Anya, isn't she just gorgeous. She is from a company called

The Greeting Farm (formerly known as Pink Poison) I bought this stamp a while ago as I fell in love with her on sight, She was bought with a special card in mind for a very special girl's birthday. That birthday has almost arrived and here is the finished card.

Anya is embossed and then coloured with watercolour crayons, the coloured cardstock is all Stampin Up and the beautiful designer paper is from We R Memory Keepers.

The circles were all cut out using the nestabilities classic circles and the card was finished off with matching ribbon, rhinestones and a bit of glitter on the wand. I had so much fun making this card, I can't wait to get some more of this company's images.


Until Next Time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Peg Leg Pete

Hi everyone. Here is my card for this weeks High Hopes Challenge. I made this card before I started reading 'Eclipse' the 3rd book in the Twilight series. I knew if I started reading, this card would not get made for a couple more days. Hope you like it.
This weeks challenge is to 'create a card for a dude', no flowers allowed.
I chose High Hopes 'Peg Leg Pete' (isn't he just adorable) and Polly .
The images were stamped in Black colorbox ink and embossed with black powder. They are coloured with Lyra watercolor crayons and highlighted with Twinkling H2O's.
The designer paper ( by Sandylion) sets off the whole Pirate image making it a very much a boys card, I embellished the card with eyelets and some
I-Kan-Dee twine.
Lyra watercolour crayons and High Hopes Rubber Stamps can be found in Australia at Heavenscent Crafts.

Just One Layer

When was the last time you made a card that was a single layer? That long ago huh! You probably don't remember when it was. Am I right?
Well let me tell you that I am no different. But a couple of days ago I made this little beauty.
My Favorite Things guest designer challenge was to create a single layer card. You could use as many embellishments that you like etc, BUT no extra paper.
I stamped all images in Black Colorbox ink and embossed all of them with clear powder.
I then coloured them in using those fabulous Lyra watercolour crayons from Heavenscent Crafts and then I added some stickles glitter too add a little BLING to the card.
Last but not least I pulled out my Black Millennium pen and hand drew the lines and dots around the edge. The frame gave the card a more finished off feel to it.
Do a little experiment yourself: stamp and colour an image and then do it again this time adding your own frame. Compare the difference, it's huge. It's only scary the first time you do it, besides it is only paper. If you mess it up it's not the end of the world.

Until Next Time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Sunset Iris

Happy New Year Everyone. I hope this post finds you all well. It has been such a hectic time of year and now things are starting to slow down a little, this is good because it gives me time to stamp and create, it also gives me time to blog and catch up with friends all over the world. I am back on the forums and have decided to kick the year off with a very bright and cheery card. I was lacking a little bit of design inspiration so I went back through the cards sketch challenges and came up with this beauty.
This card was made for the Flourishes Tuesday Chat Challenge over on SCS. The challenge was to make a square card with a flower on it. Yes pretty simple but exactly what I needed to get back into the swing of things.
First I embossed the Flourishes Siberian Iris in Silver metallic EP on watercolour paper.
I then watercoloured the Iris using my brand NEW Lyra watercolour Crayons (my Christmas gift to myself). They are fabulous, stunning, gorgeous and easy to use.
In this close up you can see how easily the colours have blended together.
I matched the watercolours to the designer paper I had chosen. (DP is by Cosmo Cricket, cardstock is Core-dinations). I then cut everything to size, cut circles with the classic nestabilities and layered it all together.

Whilst I was on holidays over Christmas I spent the day stamping with Deb at Heavenscent Crafts, She showed me these wonderful Lyra Crayons and as they say the rest is history.
Heavenscent Crafts sell these wonderful Lyra Crayons. The shop is also the Australian distributor for Flourishes stamps. For more information contact Debbie on the link above. Tell her Michelle sent you.

Wishing you all a safe and happy 2009
Inking of you all
Until Next Time
Michelle