All you need in life is a Friend who has chocolate

Hello everyone,

I'm back again... three days in a row... we're cooking with gas .. well almost! (Let's see if this can be kept up) .. There's plenty of challenge blogs out there to keep the inspiration coming :D 

Today I'm sharing a card I made for the AUD Sentiments Challenge .. which is to create a card "for a friend" ... I love this sentiment stamp which I've cut up to fit on the card.. and It would make a great card for a friend.. although would probably need to be accompanied by a block or box of choccies :D

The image is Creeper Tuesday from The Greeting Farm and has been coloured with the following Copic markers:

Skin: E50, E31, E42

Dress: R81, R83

Hair: V000:V12, V15, 0

Crown: Y26, Y32, 0

Boots: C5, C8

Thanks for Stopping By,

Sammi

xoxo

You had me at Hello

Good afternoon,

Hope you are having a great weekend so far... ours has been pretty quiet so far which is kind of nice.

Today I'm sharing a card I made for the Cute Card Thursday Challenge .... this is one of my all time favourite stamps from the Greeting Farm - Miss Anya Treats ... the one word sentiment "Hello" is from a Kaisercraft stamp set :)

The image has been coloured with Copic markers :)

Have a great rest of the weekend! 

Thanks for stopping by,

Sammi

xoxo

Southern Girl's pattern trio

I have missed blogging and hope to get back into it a bit more this year, I've looked up some challenges to get me started  ... There are tons out there and great to help get inspired, so I have a few cards lined up to share over the next couple of days :D It's awfully hot here still downunder and so making cards is a great thing to do sitting under the airconditioning!

Today I am entering the Southern Girls Challenge which is to have three or more patterned papers on the project... I have used three :D I've been trying to use up all the bits and pieces of paper I have here :D

The image is Love It from The Greeting Farm and has been coloured with the following Copic markers:

Skin: E000, E21, E43, R81, RV63

Blues: B21, B23, B24, B26, B99

Hair: E43, E44, E47, E25, E71

thanks for stopping by,

Sammi

xoxo

Happy Birthday Gran Margaret

Good morning!! Today is Margaret's Birthday! Margaret was one of our first customers at our shop in Rockdale and has is the brains behind our Progressive Freebie challenge on the Mad for Markers Creations Facebook group so I thought it was necessary to create a DIGI of Gran Margaret for her Birthday!!

Here is the card that I made ...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARGARET!!!

Rebekah with Coffee

Good afternoon,

Today I'm sharing a card that I made with Rebekah ... one of my latest digis :) she is happy with her Travel cup of coffee :)

I am loving the BlueGreen colour family at the moment and it goes perfectly with the Ubud Dreams Paper which is what I have used for the papers and added I some diecuts from the same range.

I'm going to enter this card into...

the Aussie Digital Artists Challenge blog - Have you seen this blog that started this year? It's a great way to support  Aussie Artists :) This month the sponsor is Sasayaki Digital Stamps and there are some absolute cuties there.. why not check them out :)

I'm also going to enter into...

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper challenge for April :D
and
Love to Craft Challenge Blog for April :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Sammi

New Release - April girls

Good afternoon,

Today is a happy day at Mad for Markers... we have just activated the new website ... www.madformarkers.com.au and are hopeful this will be much more user friendly than our old website... and it's a NEW digital release day!!

Today there are 4 new images released .. you might have seen one already if you are on our Mad for Markers Creations group ... Rebekah with Coffee ... and then three other girls all dressed up for winter, Chloe, Bridget and Emily .... I have used them on a project life - esque card which I will use in an album or planner :D

You can find all the new girls as Digital stamps in the NEW store HERE :)

Margaret and Rose have both created some lovely cards with these girls also.. make sure you go check out their blogs to see their work and leave them some words of love and encouragement :)

Ubud Dreams canvas

Good morning,

Today I'm sharing a canvas that I created using the Kaisercraft Ubud Dreams paper :)
I love the blues and bluegreens in this paper!!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

Sammi
xoxo

and the winner is....

I'm a little late drawing the winner of the blog candy as I was rather caught up in planning and running our Mad for Markers Arty Farty Crafty Party on this weekend just gone!

We had a wonderful weekend of colour and cake :D Here is a photo that I uploaded to Instagram... showing Emma's Art journaling and Prismacolor class and Gin's Project class :) There were more photos if you want to see them, just search #artyfartycraftyparty on Instagram.

 Ok... Now to announce the winner.. thanks to those who entered - I loved reading your answers to the questions posed :) In order to draw a winner I wrote out all the names and added the additional entry slots and then used Random.org to pick a number... Drumroll.........

 

and the winner is Terriavidreader :D Congratulations! 

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Good morning, Im sitting at the shop ... and it's quiet.. so far only one customer has come in.. although she didn't end up being a customer just an enquirer as I didn't have what she was after .. sad day.

Anyway on a brighter note I am sharing a card that I made using some of my favourite things... some stamps from The Greeting Farm and  one of them includes a quote from one of my most favourite Bible passages - Psalm 139

To help me MAKE more cards and DO MORE blogging again I have been looking for some challenges to enter and I found some fun ones :D

Colour Crazy Challenge is Anything Goes :)

Crafty Girls Creations also have an Anything goes challenge on :)

Country View Challenges have an Anything Goes challenge as well :)

Thanks for stopping by my blog... SCROLL DOWN for my 9 year Blogaversary candy.... there's still a couple of days left to enter :D and T ... thanks for inspiring me to actually post a blogpost today :D

Blog candy 2017

Good afternoon, a day later than I said but HERE is my blog candy post to celebrate 9 years of this blog... and to kickstart my new year of blogging more regularly (we'll see how it goes ;)

I've found 9 different things to include .. that are related to my blogging/ crafting journey :)
1. Copics
2. Prismacolors
3. Spica pen
4. 0.3mm Multiliner
5. kneaded eraser
6. a rubber stamp
7. 6 x 6 paper pack
8. Marker bleedproof paper
9. copics of Copicendium

To go in the draw 

1. please leave a comment here and your email so I can contact you if you WIN :D
 if you don't want to add your email in the comments you can send it to me via email

2. for another entry follow my Instagram page :) and comment on the blogcandy pic

3. for an additional entry join my business Mad for Markers facebook group (a place to share colouring/ artworks)

ok... now I think I need to have 9 options for entries .... so for 6 more chances tell me in your comment your answers to these questions (yup my blog over the years morphed into  a space to share life as well as Art/ Craft):

1. your favourite colour
2. your favourite Social Media outlet
3. your preferred colouring medium
4. do you blog - if so please leave your address so I can come say "Hi"
5. where you were 9 years ago
6. where you would like to be in 9 years time

Thanks I think that's probably enough... I'll leave this open till the end of January :)

Sammi
xoxo

9 years later - blogaversary

If anyone is still reading this TODAY is my blogaversary.... I think I will have to get some blog candy together as a celebration... 9 years ago I started this blog... as a bit of a record of my crafty creations... a bit of an online VAPD .... I have many diaries on the go .... and this is just one of them I guess.. I come and go ... Much change has occurred ... the blog (unlike a paper diary) is where I have made many great friends.. and  though its been a while since talking to many EVERY one I've come into contact with through this blog has a special place in my heart! 

I miss the days of blogging, entering challenges, hopping around everyone else's blogs... Once again I may try and do this more often again.. although time is a bit more strained these days... with the shop and creating, preparing, advertising classes etc etc etc...

Tomorrow I plan to post a candy piccy ....

Today I am posting this Girl that I drew and coloured for the Mad for Markers Copic Colour Conference that I am holding in February at the shop :) Isn't she pretty (even if I do say so myself) :D

The main focus of this class will be her HAIR ... I used my fav brunette Copic combo ... E33, E35, E37, E77 and E79.

Thanks for stopping by,

Sammi

xoxo

Introducing Eliza ...

Good afternoon,

I have decided that I would like to draw a character each week... to practise and thus hopefully improve my drawing skills... and I thought why not make it an open/ fun challenge.. So here is my first character and the intro to the challenge:

 I have started a brand new Sketchbook for this purpose... each week I will draw/ create a new character... either a face or whole figure, there may even be some animals/ monsters too... and will upload them to my own blog, Mad for Markers and various Social media sites. I would love for you to join in and I look forward to seeing who you create :D

Please use the hashtags so that we know that you are playing along and we can come and look at your creations! :D

Donna the Christmas Wood elf

Good afternoon, well It's AMAZING - I am blogging  a coloured image again finally! This is one of my Christmas girl images that I drew for the store.

I called her Donna ... which is because she has the reindeer ears of course ... on the weekend just passed we went to my Mum's school fete and I had a bunch of my Christmas images there for people to colour in .. one of the parents coloured this image up as a woodland elf ..with Green skin and I really liked the effect so I thought I'd try colouring her green.. it's pretty different but I think I like it :D maybe she's a bit too bright but it was fun!

Copics used:

Skin: YG01, YG03, YG06, G24, G21, G20, YG63, YG67, R81, RV55, RV000
Eyes: BG05, B24
Hair: C6, C8, V28, BV18, V09
Ears: E23, E25, E11, E13, E15, E18, W5
Headband - Pink: RV55, RV34, RV69
Headband - flowers: G85, G29, B34, B37, B39 + Molotow white pen + 100
Pink baubles : R81, R83, R85, RV55
other bauble: B21, B000, BG02, BG05, BG09 + c4, C6
Background: E53, E42, W5, W7, W3, E81, E84, E87, E89, B34, 110


I NEED to get organised with my Christmas cards and presents.. how are you going? I can't believe it's about 1 month to go :o

You can purchase this DIGI Here

and the markers (if you are in Aus or NZ) from here :D

Christmas Girl face

Good afternooon,

Hope your week has started well.. Today I'm just popping on to share a colouring that I did on the weekend.. during the demos I was doing on our stand - we had a great time at the Papercrafts Festival in Penrith :)

This girl has just been released at Mad for Markers today along with some other Christmas themed images... she is also the Progressive freebie image on our facebook group :)

Inktober sketches

Inspired by Inktober - I've been sketching a lot lately... here are some of the images (they were all posted on my Instagram account). I'm hoping to colour a few up soon!! :D 

Thanks for stopping by :)
Sammi

a Happy Birthday card

Last night I did a bit of blog hopping and commenting on some old favs ... gee I've missed that! Hoping to do it more regularly again... Oh if anyone knows how to get more time in a day that would be a great thing hehe!


THIS card uses paper from Echo Park - Birthday Wishes Girl paper pad - that I have in the store here and some planner flowers from Prima - here

Copics used:
Skin: E000, E53
Hair: RV63, RV66
Hat: C8, 110
Shirt: V22, BV00, BV000
Jeans: B91, B93, B95
Belt & Shoes: N4, N7, V17
Eyes: BG02
Ground: E31, E41

Ribbon: BV11



I'm going to enter her into a couple of challenges :D

Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes - This challenge was one of the first challenges I ever entered so it's great to be playing again!!

and a new challenge for me... Artistic Inspirations which is also Anything Goes this fortnight :)

Thanks for stopping by,
Sammi
xoxo

My dreams TERRIFY me

Good afternoon.

Hope you have had a great week!  Today I'm sharing with you a card I made with my Lily Rose Fairy digi. I did a  lesson on colouring this image (focusing on shadows) at Copic Club last night  .. and this was the demo ...

I added the butterfly stamp/ sentiment today. It's a Prima stamp and Aussie friends, you can get it from my online shop HERE. I love this sentiment and it rings true at the moment.. this dream of having my own shop and teaching classes is currently terrifying my socks off - so I guess it's big enough then :D  

We have started (thanks for the idea and help GranMargaret) a progressive freebie challenge at the Mad for Markers Digi Creations facebook group HERE if you pop over you can read all about it but for the first month you are able to get this image - Lily Rose for free :D

The dream become reality does mean that I will be BLOGGING a lot more regularly so that I can use the products and show people the results :D And so I'm back to listing colours .... 

The Copics I used are:

Grass: YG91, YG95, YG25, YG17, YG41

Sky: 0, B00, B12

Mushroom: C-3, C-5, C-7, YR20, YR12, E34, R24, R46, R59

Skin: E00, YR20, E31

Hair: YR65, YR68, R24

Dress: V20, V25, 0

Wings: RV00. RV52, 0

Thanks for stopping by :)

Sammi

xoxo

World Cardmaking Day

Good morning,

Today is world Cardmaking Day and as that's what started off the posting on this blog (cardmaking) all those years ago, so it's an apt day to blog again :)

I'm celebrating at Mad for Markers ... you can check out the fun HERE :)

Here's the cutie I created for the occasion... Kelly Koala in Spring crown!

Thanks for stopping by :)
Sammi

a time to blog ...

Today the words of Ecclesiastes 3:2-11 do ring true...

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. (ESV)

Facebook memories can be fun but can also be painful as they make you re-live tough times. My "masked" posts about our IVF journey 6 years ago come back to taunt me. Today is the anniversary of the conception of our twins (using ICSI). Sadly they both died in the womb and we never got to meet them, to hold them, to see them grow. All we have is this blurry photo of two little embryos and a world of "what ifs". I can't really imagine being mum to five year olds :0

I knew what today was already as I have ALL the dates written down and just happened to read them yesterday so it was not a surprise when Facebook memories showed one of my posts, but it is something else to re-read your own words of hope and others comments.

I still grieve the loss of these little ones and still strongly desire to be a mum. As the years go on this possibility grows dimmer. I do not know what God's plan is for me apart from knowing and loving him and sharing my life with others. I will continue to trust him through all the seasons :)

Birthdays

I'm breaking my hiatus... from blogging and cardmaking etc although I am not sure for how long.. I guess we will see. My track record has not been so great in the past has it :o Well Birthday week is totally over but it was fun! We went to Orange for the weekend.. Two of my sisters made and decorated a most delicious cake .. Here's a picture of it in my sisters lovely cafe/ bookstore - The Dragonfly Lounge - If you are ever in Orange you should definitely check it out :D

My friend from work's birthday is the day after mine and I made her a card ...  I drew a little portrait of her and coloured it in with copics, here it is ...

Well seeing as though it's Spring now... It's time to do some Spring cleaning... hoping that once I get my craft stuff tidied up then I can get more creative again! So much has been going on in life that there really hasn't been time or headspace for much but here end the excuses... Hopefully I'll be back here soon... however in the meantime I'll still be on Instagram :D