My latest digistamp - Morgan Le Fay

I love the Arthurian legends and have read a good few books on the subject so when I was wanting a new genre to draw images for, this popped into my head! 


Morgan Le Fay, so the legend goes, was the daughter of Uther Pendragon and he was also the father of Arthur, although Arthur was unaware of their siblingship as Uther had come to his mother under a 'glamour', she believing him to be her husband Gorlois.


There are then differing views on what and how Morgan was by the time Arthur met her but I believe that as Christianity was still the 'new' religion and paganism of the time had festivals at which it was ritual for the reigning 'goddess' priestess to unite with the representative of the 'god' at a set time  in order to assure fertility in the land, that Morgan and Arthur were these in roles.


Arthur was Christian enough to have run a mile had he known it was his sister but to the Pagans and Druids, at this special time of the calendar, Arthur and Morgan were no longer their earthbound characters but assumed the guise of the god and goddess, so no harm was done in their eyes. Indeed any child of this union was considered a great gift and blessed and was usually given to the preistesses at their dwelling to raise as another Priestess or Druid.


Anyway, enough of the historical literature lesson! LOL!
Here she is!

If you like her, she's available on my showroom site Eiglassing or you can just e-mail me and I'll either send her on to you or give you a download code.


Hope you like her!
Hugs
Ei
x


Entered at :
CMC Copics Challenge Group - Folds    13

Crafty CardMakers #49 - Spots and Stripes

This week's theme from Crafty CardMakers is Spots & Stripes which was chosen by our Donna!

' 

I would never normally combine spots & stripes per se as I usually have quite a fussy style to begin with but I may just try this again!  I had a slight problem with my glue not setting - probably the heat - so I didn't quite do everything I wanted to do with this card. 

Papers are DCWV and a doily, flowers a mix of Prima, Wild orchid and poundshop.  

The image is my own Eiglas  'Un bon repas pour deux'  (which can be found at my showroom, 'Eiglassing' )  coloured with my Copics.
The lovely 'crossover' card shape was featured on Top Tip Tuesday last week but I didn't get my mojo to work in time and so missed it. Fussy & Fancy's Diane has also made a crossover card this week - it's clearly an 'en-trende' technique!

My number three son, Rob has pinched my camera so I've had to use his Dad's 'orrible little 'point and click'. You can't half tell the difference!  The digital artifacts are all over the place. Yukkk! 

is our lovely sponsor this week and they're offering £10.00 to spend in their super shop!

Please do pop over to CCM - the girls have worked really hard on their demo cards this week and you will be inspired by the beautiful results!

Hugs

Ei

x


Entered for:


Fussy & Fancy - Diane                    
KB Cute Monday - Flowers              3
Make It Monday - Anything Goes   29
Ooh La La  - Summer Flowers          7

Penny Black card, with doodles , for Copics Creations

I haven't entered very many challenges over the last 12 months or so - my DT work and family life has kept me so busy, I found I wasn't doing anything purely for me or doing any challenges.


I also want to concentrate a little more on my Digital Paper Kits and my Digital Stamps as I have loads of ideas for them but no time to put them into action! 


With this in mind, I have, sadly and after much deliberation, taken a leave of absence from Tip Top Tuesday, at least for a few months. They're a great bunch of girls and very talented - I am sure they will manage very ably without li'l ole me! Please do still pop over to see them every Tuesday!


My OH is on leave from work until October so he is also making more calls on my time and my daughter and the grandchildren are here at least three days a week now so by the time they go home I'm fit for nothing! LOL!


As well as all this, I want to explore my Copics obsession a bit more!  I've bought a couple of sets of Trias and bartered with a friend for some ProMarkers and I want to do a 'marker taste-test' with these and the Marvy-Le-Plume Permanent markers! That should be very interesting!  I am a self-confessed Copics girl, but only because these were the very first (...and only...!) 'proper' markers I have ever tried - I have an open mind!


I made this card purely because I love the subject (Penny Black stamps), I love doodling and Copics Creations is one of my very favourite challenge blogs.

I roughly inked up a plain white scalloped card with Tim Holt's Antique Linen Distress ink and also a random sand-coloured pigment inkpad from stash then I dredged it with TH's Distress Powder in Antique Linen again, blasting with the heatgun and rubbing off some of the release crystals (but not all!) after it was cool.


I then used my Copics in differing shades of brown and pink to doodle my flip-flops,  starfishes, shells and crabs.


I have quite a few PB's - had them for years - and this stamp is my Penny Black wood-mounted 'How becoming!' stamped in Memento and I've decoupaged him after colouring both the background and the cat with my Copics.


Apart from the addition of the blue cord at the spine, that's it!  I just didn't want to add anything else!


I hope you all like it!
Hugs
Ei
x


Entered for:
Paper Creations Ink - Beach Themed    17

Crafty CardMakers Spot 48 - Sentimental

This week at Crafty CardMakers, the spotlight is on the real focus-point of any greeting card...the sentiment.

For my sentiment this week, I wanted to use something that really is a true-ism for me and I'd come across this quote by 'Dilbert' creator Scott Adams a few months ago so had it in my mind before the theme was even chosen. 

I made the quote myself and mounted it with a Nestie and a Tim Holtz die. 

The backing paper is from stash and I would be very grateful if anyone could identify it for me as I love it but only have a little piece left. 

The strange ribbon I picked up in North Wales a couple of years ago - I can't even guess what it's meant to be for but I liked it so bought a few yards.

This theme has brought out the philosophical side to my team-mates and it really would be worth your while popping over to Crafty CardMakers Spotlight for a look at their wonderful work! Some great quotes for you to steal...! LOL!

Hugs

Ei

x

Top Tip Tuesday - Open Challenge/ Welcome the New DT Members

It's a special week over at Tip Top Tuesday this week - we have new DT members!


To celebrate, we're having an 'Open' challenge - do what thou wilt!


We also have a selection of sponsors - Robyn's Fetish and StitchyBear Stamps, who have been so kind as to give the DT some of their lovely digital images to use.

I've used Kelly Kid's 'Dog & Boy'. I think it's a fab image and enjoyed colouring it with my Marvy-Le-Plume Permanent Markers.
The papers are DCWV from The Pets Stack.


Hope you like it!


Do pop over to Top Tip Tuesday as there's loads going on over there this week and you have no excuse not to enter, have you!
Hugs
Ei
x




I've entered this into :-


Papertake Weekly - Dads and Lads
Secret Crafter - Male
Alphabet Challenge - Father's Day or Male
Mami Doodles - Male
The Stampman - Boys & Men

Colour Create - Blue, Silver & Purple

I don't enter challenges very often but I do like  Colour Create Challenge and this week their challenge has one of my favourite colour combos of purple and blue with silver.


I've also entered a colouring competition at Letraset so I've used the same image of the Capri, on a card for my son Michael who has a birthday next week, in the required colours.

It's coloured, of course, with my trusty Copics!
Hope you like it!
Hugs
Ei
x

Letraset Colouring Competition

As you will know, I'm a Copics gal, but only because I found them first - I've never used Pro-Markers so I really don't know how they perform.


I'm hoping to correct this at some point by performing a 'taste test' with PM's but as I don't have any, this may take a while! LOL!  


However, in the meantime, Letraset have just posted a colouring competition with a set of ProMarkers as the prize - guess who just entered.....?! 


No doubt there will be hundreds or even thousands of entries of a very high standard, so don't hold yer breath....! 


But why not have a go yourselves!  I've given you a tutorial so try it out!


There are two images, a Classic Ford Capri sports car and a rollerboot,  and you can enter each image once, so that's two entries.


Here's my Capri.

I really enjoyed this as an exercise, if nothing else so do have a go!

Hugs

Ei

x

Top Tip Tuesday - More Than One Fold

This week over at Top Tip Tuesday, my lovely and talented fellow teamie Heike has created:-

Heike's Tutorial - Little Teabag Booklet
I was so impressed with Heike's tut, I just had to have a go despite it not being 'my' week!

What a great tut - straight forward and easy to understand.
I especially like this project because I am actually a tea-drinker but I don't drink ordinary tea, I drink either Earl Grey or Lady Grey and most places don't carry it so I do actually carry a few Earl Grey tea-bags around with me.

How much nicer to carry them around in such a pretty and stylish way!

Have a go at Heike's tutorial over at Top Tip Tuesday - it's such an easy project and a really clear tutorial in TWO languages and it doesn't have to be for tea-bags - could be for a gift-card or money.

My papers are K&Co 'Hannah' and the lickle bird is Tim Holtz.

Hugs

Ei

x

Crafty Cardmakers Spot 47 - Parchment

I've not done much parchmentcraft - I'm not the patient type! LOL! 
But I do admire it when it's done well and I know a few uber-talented crafters who perform this discipline the way it's meant to be performed - beautifully (...listen up Tina - I'm talkin' ta YOU!..)!


Unfortunately - I'm not one of those crafters so must apologize for my effort forthwith!


My Crafty Cardmakers teamie Jacki is to blame for this week's dog's breakfast...LOL! But you do need to pop over to base-camp and look at how this is meant to be done!

Materials
21 x 21 cm hammered white base-card
20 x 20 cm  backing paper from stash
A5 x heavy parchment (not vellum - too light)
A5 Rainbow card
Parchment pattern
Butterfly charm
Organza ribbon
Tim Holtz bookplate in cream
Handful of flowers to taste.
Gold-Touch pen
Embossing/pricking mat
Pricking tools
Embossing ball-tip tools
Good-quality white coloured pencil - (Bruynzeel Europa is mine)
Copics


Begin by placing your parchment over your pattern and tracing it with the white pencil. This will make life easier for you when you come to emboss and prick later on. It's a matter of taste as to whether the white pencil is on the 'right' or 'wrong' sides.




Greasing the 'wrong' side of your parchment with either a candle (tealight will do) or soap helps the embossing tool to glide over the parchment better.  (If you want to colour your parchment from behind then colour before you grease). For this project, I coloured from the front.


With your parchment on your embossing mat, take your embossing tool with the larger ball, gently trace over the white lines of the pencil.


What you are doing is 'stretching' the fibres of the parchment, so be really gentle with it as it's easy to push straight through the parchment if you go too hard.
You can always pass over again until you get the desired result.


On the leaves and petals use circular motions at the full and rounded parts then drag the ball in, in a 'feathering' motion for the shading like you would in colouring, although it's not exactly like colouring as it's not the darker parts you're shading this time, it's the 'highlit' parts! So it's kinda back-to-front!


Once you're happy with your embossing, do any pricking (if any) that's required.
I believed this is performed from the back, so as to create texture on the front, but have been corrected by better crafters than I and apparently it should be from the front!.


I then used my Copics (pale pink and green) to colour the floral pattern. This is not essential as many embossed parchment projects are just as lovely, if not more so, left white.


I then cut around the perimeter of the pattern with my scissors and edged it with my Gold-touch pen. This step isn't strictly necessary, but I've read about it so I thought I'd try it.  Think I prefer it plain actually. 


I also adhered it to a piece of rainbow card with sticky-dots round the edge and a fairly big couple of blobs of Pinflair Glue Gel right in the middle to give dimension.
You really can't see either of these through the embossed and coloured panel.


And that's my parchment done!  I think you can work out the rest yourselves! 
LOL!


Look forward to seeing your efforts on Crafty CardMakers next week!
Hugs
Ei
x