Hottest Day ... Part 2

This is another of Lily Boo's Christmas baubles, again, coloured with Promarkers (and a little Sakura Stardust clear pen). I embossed some silver mirri board with a Cuttlebug folder in my Wizard, and used a Craft Tonic border system and punches for the edging.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges: Allsorts which requires embossing, Crafty Catz where they're 'going digital', Daring Cardmakers who are looking for 'ice and snow', and Digital Tuesday whose theme this week is 'Christmas in June'.

What Do You do on the Hottest Day of the Year (so far)?

In my case, the answer is 'make Christmas cards'. Just two, but it's been so hot my brain really hasn't been up to the exercise.

This card uses a fabulous image from Lilyboo. Until recently, it and a number of others were on sale on her site, but she's recently joined the crew at Cuddly Buddly and a lot of her images are currently available free!

I've downloaded several of these Christmas bauble images - I do like them. I coloured this one with my Promarkers. I made the backing paper with some bauble stamps and dragged out my fiskars textured brayer that I bought years ago and didn't get on with. Well, now I have some Distress ink, I decided to give it another go. It definitely worked better than I remember from before.

I Wizarded some gold mirri-board with a Cuttlebug folder and used nesties to cut the image and layers. The small snowflake is from a Cuttlebug die - one I regret buying because it's too thick for the Wizard. Every time I use it I regret trying it. Since no one else I know seems to have problems with Cuttlebug dies in the Wizard, I assume it's out of spec in some way, but I bought it when I hadn't had the Wizard for long and assumed it was me. I finished the card with a spray of pearls.

I followed the sketch at I Love Promarkers.

I'd also like to enter the following challenges: Allsorts which requires embossing and Digital Tuesday which requires 'Christmas in June'

A Retirement Card

A colleague at school is retiring at the end of term, and given the number of tantrums and sullen children she's dealt with over the years, one of Mo's Terrible Twos seemed like the perfect image.

I coloured her with Promarkers, and used paper from Papermania and used a new (to me) Martha Stewart border punch and my nesties. I finished the card with a flower and some sticky gems from the local pound shop. 

I'm entering it for the following challenges:  Sketch and Stash, and Mo's challenge No. 37, which is an 'anything goes' this week.

This Month's Swap Cards

I belong to a Yahoo group, and I sent of a couple of swaps for that earlier this month. Now I've heard that they've been received, I can show them here!

This first one was for a swap called 'Flaming June'. I used another image from Trees A Ward in Digistamps.  I was keen to try blending several colours in this, shading between red and gold with a couple of stops along the way. I used Promarkers, of course.

The 'splotchy' paper is from my collection and the butterfly one is one I made for another card, but the colours were perfect to use here. I also used a Martha Stewart punch, some ribbon and a sticky gem.

This second card was for the new alphabet swap, and the letter was 'A'. I struggled a bit with that - I couldn't think of any 'A' images I had, until I remembered my Dover flowers CD. In there, I found an outline image of some Avens. I coloured them, again with Promarkers, and cut and layered the centre circle, adding a sentiment I found online. The backing paper is from a magazine.