A "BOO-kmark" for Halloween

We don't celebrate Halloween in a big way in Australia, having said that I just had the cutest bunch of kids rock up for their treats - and I did carve a pumpkin... alright, I didn't have a pumpkin so I used a sweet potato - but it looked the goods :-)  My hubby took a photo with his phone, so I'll upload it later.  Even though we don't "do" Halloween, I love all the cute images that are out there for it, and there are so many Spooky themed challenges at the moment, I thought why not?  

I made a bookmark, which I did offer as an alternative to the sweet treats in my basket, but only the mums thought it was a good idea, lol, so I still have it - my sister loves all things witchy so she'll probably end up with it.  Cupcake Craft Challenges has Witches and/or Pumpkins for their challenge, I'm in.
I love these little magnetic bookmarks, I get to colour up nice images... this is Alison the Witch from Tiddly Inks... and use nice papers (these are from my stash,  I do remember the one was called Oogie Boogie - can't think why I remember that, lol) and even add some embellies. They take a fraction of the time a card takes to make, which with my current level of activity means I at least get something finished :-)  Gem of a Challenge has Polka Dots or Spots as their challenge so I'm entering there.
I've coloured the image with Copics, cut it out, stuck it on.   Totally Gorjuss and Addicted to Stamps have Things With Wings as their challenge theme, I hope Alisons medium counts :-)  The 2 Sisters Challenge this time around is Halloween Colours, so I'm entering there and Colour Me Copic has Anything Goes with a Twist of Orange, so I'm entering there too.
The magnets are covered with more paper (on the inside of the bookmark)  The rest is pretty obvious, the bling is from my stash.  Paper Pretties has a Bling theme, so I'm in there too.
Usually I don't present the challenges I enter as a list, but there are so many with a Halloween theme that I will be listing them this time....

My Time to Craft Halloween
One Stop Craft Challenge Halloween
Di's Digi Designs Halloween
Creatalicious Challenges Halloween
Totally Papercrafts Spooky Halloween
Crafty Calendar All Things Spooky
Crafts 4 Eternity Ghouls Ghosts and Goblins
Moving Along With The Times Too Cute To Spook
Cute Card Thursday Something Scary
Fashionista Challenge Anything Goes
The Paper Shelter Anything Goes
Stampin' for the Weekend Anything Goes

Phew, that's the end of my list!!  I'm off now to link up... I may be in bed before midnight, lol.

Hope you all have a Happy Halloween, and on a more serious note I hope that those of you affected by Hurricane Sandy fared well.

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

A Couple More Bookmarks!

Well I have been busy busy busy here... not much of it in a good way; my folks are in their eighties now and needing more attention health-wise at the same time as becoming less independent, which means more time input from my sister and I, though as my sister is in the throes of moving 350km into the country it essentially means more time input from ME! My MIL is 84 too, and brought her own bit of drama to our lives this week; but at least it didn't involve three trips to hospital like my folks!  
There's plenty else going on in the family too, which I'll explain soon.  On top of that my husbands work ute, the only vehicle we've ever bought new (at twice the cost of any other we've had) has developed a major fault - with a $5000 repair bill - 7 weeks out of warranty (still inside the 100,000km cutoff) so we've been faffing about at mechanics then "in negotiations" with Nissan... who have decided to come to the party and repair it, Yay!  They can't get it done until next Monday though and we can't drive it so we've had to organize a loaner (can't hire cars with brake controllers for the trailer!)  All in all, busy busy blegh!
What I'm trying to say is I haven't done a lot of crafting, I did manage a couple more magnetic bookmarks, which I love because they don't take long and they use scraps - of which I have A LOT! Here is a link to the basic bookmark, I've just adjusted dimensions to suit my scraps!
The first one uses an image I bought a couple of years ago from DZ Doodles, which I can't find a link too, so perhaps they're "gone"; anyway he's Toby Turtle. I coloured him with coloured pencils... not Prismacolors just regular pencils - I coloured this before I had any Prismacolors, they're not as good, but okay for an early effort. I added some stickles and gloss to his flower (and gloss to his eye)  The Corrosive Challenge theme is Animal Companions so I'm entering there.
The paper is from Kaisercrafts Chapter One pad (and another scrap from my stash), the dew drops are from Pebbles and the ribbon is from my stash. That's it!  The Pink Elephant has Monochromatic as it's challenge theme, I hope there's not too much "orange" on this "green" card to disqualify it.  The Cupcake Craftroom has Pretty Pastels, so I'm entering there too.
For the second bookmark, I recycled an image from a card sent to me by Danni, who won one of my Candies earlier this year.  It's Wryn from Tiddly Inks, I think she was originally coloured with Copics, I added Prismacolor shading and highlights and Gold Stickles to her wand and crown. 
The paper for this one is from Kaisercrafts Hippy Girl collection, the floral background has some nice glittery accents, so I added some Diamond Stickles around her wand to match.
The sentiment is from a set I got in BigW... I can't remember the brand, I stamped it with Versamark ink and embossed with Irridescent Sparkle EP.  There's loads of sparkle on the stripy paper panel too, the edge of which I punched with Fiskars Apron Lace punch.
The inside uses more of the Hippy Girl paper, and that's all :-)  Colour Me Copic has Fall Colours and The Crafty Pad has Autumn Colours as their challenge themes, so I'm entering there Creative Craft Challenges has Anything Goes so I'm entering there too.
I'll be back in a day or so... barring disaster... with something other than a bookmark - though I am starting on my Sticky-Note-cover-stocking-filler-thingys so you may be glad to see a bookmark soon, lol.
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna 

Another Day Another Bookmark!

Well, before I go any further, I'd just like to say a huge hello and welcome to my Followers, new and not so new (no, I didn't say old, lol)
I have a quick post today; with the little magentic bookmark I made for my hubby, so he didn't get jealous of mine, lol.  Here's a tutorial for the basics.

Hubby really does live by the KISS rule, so that's what I used here - that's Keep It SWEET and SIMPLE, thank you! 

The image is Teacher's Pet from Inktegrity... and he's a Freebie!!  I've coloured with Prismacolor pencils and added some gloss to the apple, nose and dog tag. The paper is from Kaisercfrafts Up Up and Away pad, and the brown pattern is flocked, which adds a bit of interest.  More paper from the same pad for the inside and a strip of grosgrain ribbon to finish off.

The Stamptacular Sunday Challenge theme is Anything but a card, so I'm entering there and Papertake Weekly's is Things that make you go Aaw - which this does, so I'm entering there too.

One Stop Craft Challenge has No Floral Embellishments and the Cutie Pie Challenge is to use No flowers at all, so I'm entering there too.  Finally Gem of a Challenge has A Boy Thing as their theme - and the Bearly Mine Challenges theme is an Anything Goes, I'm in!

That's it for today... I know, I said it was a quick post, and for a change it actually is :-)

I've got a lot going on at the moment, not a lot of it craft!  I do have another couple of bookmarks which I've made for my son's upcoming art show.  I am trying to finish some art work to donate (the proceeds are for charity) but as always time is my enemy.

I'll definitely be back on Sunday with a card... the post is scheduled, lol.  Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Not a Card....

Just for a change, and because I still want to "create" but have a  burgeoning stash of cards, I've made a couple of bookmarks... one for me and one for  hubby; today I'll show you "mine"!!

This is a magnetic bookmark, I found a tutorial on YouTube, Here, and jigged it around to suit what I wanted... it's very easily "jigged", lol. I made the back longer than the front to show off some of the paper from the inside.

One of the best hints is to not use too strong a magnet, I've used pieces of magnetic tape, and that's enough to still clip "closed" over a couple of pages. it works a treat.  

I've had this fabulous Saturated Canary image What The Librarian Reads in my stash since Krista released it, waiting to be used on a project... I figured that a bookmark was appropriate :-)   Bearly Mine Challenges and Stamptacular Sunday Challenge have Anything But A Card as their themes, so I'm entering there.   I've coloured with Copics and a touch of pencil, with lashings of gloss on her glasses and her mug.  I fussy cut the image then glued it directly (no foam pads, you don't need dimension when you're fitting a bookmark between the pages of a book, lol) on to a panel of cream backed patterned vellum (the pattern doesn't show in the pic) cut using an impress Curved Rectangles die.                     The paper is from Basic Grey's Indian Summer collection... autumn is my absolute favourite time of the year, we're heading towards summer here in Australia, so it was kind of poignant using autumn-y paper :-) 

I'm not the only one that likes autumn, Cute Card Thursday, Without Words, Paper Play Challenges and 2 Sisters Challenge all have autumn themes, so I'm entering there.  The Pink Elephant has Use Patterned Paper... easy peasy, I'm in there too!

The only embellishment on this card is the gros grain ribbon, I ran it around to the "inside" of the bookmark and then glued a piece of the patterned paper over it to cover it and the magnet, I covered the very back simply because I wrecked the card by inadvertently gluing it to my work table! I thought the dots on the ribbon  tied in with the so-much-more-subtle dots on the paper, the Joanna Sheen challenge is Going Dotty, so I'll be entering there.  The One Stop Craft Challenge is No Floral Embellishments, no floral embellishments here, I'm in - and The Cutie Pie Challenge is no flowers AT ALL, I've checked and there's no flowers here, only leaves, so I'm in there too!

Even though this bookmark is for me, I think it fits the Back to School theme that is running at Di's Digi Designs, The Secret Crafter and Crafty Creations so I'm entering there and I know it fits the Anything Goes challenges at Papertake Weekly and My Mums Craft Shop so definitely entering there!

Well, that's it for MY bookmark, my hubby's is super simple but as I haven't taken a photo of it I'll be back with it another day.

My son Chris is involved in a fund raising activity at the moment, actually, he's always involved in some fund raiser or another - last month it was the City to Surf "fun" run, which involved running 12 kms and didn't float my boat at all, lol - this one is art based, I'm donating a couple of my paintings and thought I'd make a couple of these bookmarks to go be sold for a gold coin donation; last year Chris sold a couple of his paintings for $600 each! I'm sure not everyone is in the position to donate that, but everyone can afford some loose change.

I'm off to bed, though I'm in no rush as the dreaded night sweats (menopause is so much harder than I was expecting!) keep me uncomfortable all night and worried about disturbing hubby... though he's not working tomorrow so it's not such a concern as usual!

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

I'll mark your place

This cute idea is from All That Scraps Wednesday challenge "make a corner bookmark" http://atsblog.typepad.com/wednesdayschallenge/. There is a link to a tutorial there (from Splitcoast Stampers) and some great design team ideas. I've done mine in autumn colours to fit in with the Allsorts Challenge theme "autumn colours"  (http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.com/) .  

I used a pumpkin coloured cardstock, the edge of the mat is punched with an EK Success Scroll & Hearts border punch.  The beautiful paper is from Basic Grey's Indian Summer 6" paper pack and the gold ribbon is from my stash - well it was in my friend s stash until she gave me it, along with a whole load more the other day, thanks Jenny!

The image is yet another CC Designs stamp (from All That Scraps), this is Larkspur, one of the "Twisted Sisters" in the Sweet November range. I saw these images first at Tickled Pink Stamps and was lucky that they have been re-released as digistamps - my preferred medium. I coloured her with Copics (skin and hair) and pigment inks from Kaisercraft for the rest.
Don't you think these little bookmarks are a great idea? - and if you use simple embellishments they are pretty quick to do.  I'm going to make a bunch of them as "stocking fillers", my dad reads a lot so I can probably make him more than one!
Go and have a look at some of the ideas and get bookmarkmaking!!  

Thanks for looking, Donna