Still no computer!

Apparently my old PC is not giving up without a fight so the date for my new PC to be up and running is now Saturday morning. I am getting real withdrawal symptoms now! I keep going and opening the cupboard and staring into it and sighing!
Saturday is going to be very busy, as Meg has a rehearsal in the afternoon and a concert in the evening for 'Science on Stage'. The best way to describe it is a mixture of songs, dance and scientific experiments following a theme. Meg and her friend Samantha are singing the opening number, then joining the choir for the rest of the concert. It is at the concert hall in Nottingham. I don't know who is more nervous - me or her!
I will try to announce the blog candy winners on Saturday when we get back, but it might be Sunday morning! Keep your fingers crossed for Meg and the computer!

Blog awards - drum roll please!

As you know from my last post I got this lovely award from Lisa at the Craft Garden. The people that I want to pass it on to are:

• Guzziesue (thanks for the blogging lessons and for being so inspiring in the face of adversity/ broken wrists)
• Biker Ted (what charisma!)
• Lynne (stunning cards, photos and fellow addict)
• Lisa (lovely cards, photos and cakes!)
• Sue (great cards and fellow stamp and chocolate addict!)
• Phree (inspiring cards and great techniques)
• Papoosue (I love your wide range of posts and adore your sock monkeys!)
• D.K. Fisher (great photos)
• Megan (a budding photographer and my gorgeous daughter)
• Lesley (inspiring cards and photos)

Thanks all of you for your friendship and support.

My First Blog award!

I have recieved my first Blog award from Lisa. Thank you so much! I now have to think of ten people to award it to. Am I allowed to award it to people who already have one? Once I know the answer to this I will post who I intend to award it to!
Thanks again, Lisa! Glad to know my blog is a hit with you!

Computer update - it will be with me on thursday at the latest...I'm getting excited now!

Being quietly frustrated!

As I said in my previous post I am currently very quiet as I am having a super new computer. I have put it all in the hands of the guy who sorts out our computers at school, who knows what he is doing (unlike me) and is really lovely (not a geek) . Unfortunately, as it didn't happen during the Easter Holidays, he is working on transfering everything for me in the evenings. I am therefore going to be without it for a few more days. I am posting this from my work laptop, which is ok, but I always feel guilty when I use it for personal stuff.

Anyway, I have made a couple of cards this week - not for my ten lots of ten, but for birthdays of mates. I have loaned my cake stamp to a friend and needed some cakes for a card. Funky Fairies came to the rescue! The papers and digi stamps on the first card can be found as free downloads on their inspirations blog. The second card uses papers from Creative park with the same digistamps from Funky fairies. Two virtually free cake cards! Thanks Funky Fairies!

Ten lots of ten - part four

Two more Cards for my ten lots of ten project. I believe that takes me to eighty! Only two lots of ten to go. The first card uses Core'dinations card put through the cuttlebug and sanded. The ten circles of card candy (Craftwork Cards) are my ten for this one. It was very quick and simple. The best wishes stamp is a freebie from Malcolm and Jean at Crafty Individuals. There is one in the blog candy waiting for a lucky person. I'm aiming to announce the winner on 2nd May, by the way.
My second card uses all Crafty Individuals stamps. This is ten stamped images on the card - 1 tag, 3 pansies and 6 flourishes. The Background was coloured with Distress inks, mostly in weathered wood with a little bit of broken china. I stamped over that with brushed corduroy. The tag and flowers were sprayed with Fireburst blue creative colour spray (Crafty Notions). I discovered with the flowers that the spray made the ink run, so I waited to stamp the tag until after I had sprayed it and it was dry. I added a few spots of gold tulip paint to the flourishes and the flowers.




If I go quiet for a few days it's because I am having a new computer! It should have arrived during the easter break, but it's arriving tomorrow instead - best laid plans and all that... anyway, it is replacing my PC which is nine years old! It had a problem back in 2003 but that was fixed with some additional memory and a new motherboard. Other than that it has served me well. Unfortunately it is getting noisier by the day and it is very slow, so rather than lose what is on it I have taken the plunge.

Ten lots of Ten - part 3

Here is my latest addition to the 10 lots of 10 project. This little owl and his branch (sizzix sizzlet) consists of 10 separate pieces of card. I used it with my cuttlebug. I wanted to make him a background (nestabilities), so used a brayer over a circle of paper. I sponged ink over the moon and stamped the trees (Artful Stamper). This too will be amongst my give aways, so feel free to leave a comment!

Look what came in the post!

Jean and Malcolm, those lovely people at Crafty Individuals have donated some blog candy in honour of my 100th post. If you haven't checked out their website recently, pay them a visit. They have some absolutely beautiful stamps, and their gallery and projects pages contain some inspiring work. There are over 30 beautiful stamps here, so I'm going to divide them up into three lots. If you want to win some, along with some other bits and bobs leave a comment. If you want to find out more about what I'm doing read the post here.

Thanks to my statcounter I know I have had 189 returning visitors since January, so please leave a comment and become a public follower, so you can be in with a chance to win these goodies too! You know who you are! If you put an entry on your blog about my blog candy I will put your name in my draw twice!

Ten lots of Ten - part two

Here are my next two additions for my 10 lots of 10. The first features 10 punched flowers. I stuck them on to a panel stamped with a couple of lavinia stamps and applied stickles for the centres. The card had been cuttlebugged and lightly brayered with shell pink Adirondack. My second card has 10 flat backed pearls along the left hand punched border panel. The stamp is a Lavinia stamp, stamped in Kaleidacolor Blue Breeze. I added a bit of diamond stickles to the stamped images. The card had been cuttlebugged with the Swiss Dots folder, and the papers on both cards were from the Butterfly bliss Artylicious cd. I also used my petite oval nesties - scalloped and plain.

These are very gentle on the eye compared to my first three offerings, but I'm aiming to meet all tastes! As I said before, all you need to do is leave a comment or become a follower and I will put your name into a draw to win the artwork featured and some blog candy (Rubber stamps, rainbow drops and whatever else I can lay my hands on!) Read more about my project here. Well, that makes 50 so far - 50 more to go!

My 100th post! (Ten lots of Ten part one)

Happy Easter! Well, here I am at my hundredth post and I'm finding it dificult to believe! This blogging business has been rather addictive and I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far. I set my mind to thinking of what I could do to make it a bit special and came up with a theme that will run for the next few weeks, finishing up with some blog candy... watch this space! I wanted my theme to relate to the 100th post, but didn't want to do one project with 100 parts, so I decided to go with 10 lots of 10. I'm going to complete 10 projects with 10 things on them, so it might be 10 stamped images on one or 10 embelishments on another. If I get stuck it might even be 10cm of ribbon or 10 words! Anyway, here are my first 3 items. Each one features 10 rainbow drops. That is 30/100 - 70 more to go! The art work is A7 in size before mounting. The background was made using creative colour sprays and the swirls were added freehand using rainbow colour glaze. I used gel pens to add a few highlights.

The sheen on them is lovely, but you can't really tell in the photos. The question is, would any of you like them? They could be stuck to the front of a card, or framed. If you would like one leave me a comment. Better still, become a follower if you are not already.

Once I have completed all ten I will put the names of everyone who has commented and all my followers into a hat and pull out a name or two to recieve a few goodies (artwork and blog candy). I'm aiming to get a few regular visitors to be a bit less shy!

Sunday Stamper Challenge

The theme on Sunday Stamper Challenge this week is Silver, so here is my entry. I stamped and embossed the butterfly(Stamporium) in Silver. I painted it with Crafty Notions creative colour sprays and Blonde Moments Pearl pigments in silver. The background was stamped (not very well) using Brilliance Platinum planet. The circular spots on the butterflies wings are spots of rainbow colour glaze (Crafty Notions). Thanks for looking x

More Distress Inks

Inspired by Hels at Ink on my Fingers, I got out my distress inks to try to do justice to some of my favourite Crafty Individuals stamps, and I'm quite pleased with the result! I used Scattered Straw, Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick and Tea Dye. The text is stamped with Vintage photo. All stamps are Crafty Individuals. The tag and the flowers were spritzed with gold Creative colour sprays from Crafty Notions (link in side bar). The only problem now is I look like a heavy smoker with such stained fingers! I'm trying to decide what to do now for my 100th post, coming up very soon. Any ideas or donations of blog candy would be greatly appreciated!

Shoes...

I've made a card for a 'shoe queen', but that got me thinking. I own more than my fair share of shoes, but that isn't because I particularly like them. I'm forever in search of something comfortable. I spend a good part of the working day on my feet, walking around. If a pair of shoes stays on my feet beyond my front door that is unusual. I'm much better in the summer when I can wear sandals and flip flops. These shoes I would have worn when I was in my late teens and early twenties, but not any more! Give me a pair of flat, sensible, comfortable shoes any day! If only my Mum could hear me say that. She would be saying "I told you so!"
The stamp I have had for years and was from Stamporium. I stamped and heat embossed with silver.The background is another inspired by Phree, using Kaleidacolor Blue Breeze. I finished it off with blue rainbow drops from Crafty Notions.

A lovely day

We had a lovely day out yesterday. Steve has Mondays off, as he works on Saturdays, so we decided to visit the Chestnut Centre at Chapel-en-le-Frith. It is an otter and owl sanctuary and this was one of many otters we watched playing. Photos of the owls were a little more difficult, as were photos of the elusive scottish wild cat. On the way back we popped in to Brierlow Bar bookstore, coming out with three or four books each - whoops! Anyway, when we got home I put this together.

The background paper was made using creative colour sprays and a Twiddlybitz flourish as a mask (Crafty Notions). The stamps are from Crafty Individuals - from a sheet of their crafty elements range. The small leaves are punched. I finished it off with a few rainbow drops - also from Crafty Notions.

A couple of birds and an owl

I spent yesterday evening assembling more pieces I found on my table. The brayered ink is Kaleidacolor Fresh greens, applied to the cuttlebug birds and swirls embossing folder. The bird stamps are from Graphicus, stamped in the same ink and brayered with only a hint of ink.

Both cards used my Nesties - labels one and circles for the first card and petite ovals for the second. This middle one is my entry for the Sunday Stampers Challenge 54 - Chirpy, chirpy cheep cheep!

The final card uses Kaleidacolor Calypso ink and the Owl stamp from the Graphicus triple birds plate. I used the paisley cuttlebug folder and brayered over with black ink. The greeting is Little Claire Designs using my petite oval nesties and a couple of flat backed pearls to finish it off. Thanks for looking!

Zindorf - inspired

It is the school holidays, so I allowed myself some time to play last night. These are the results. Michelle Zindorf had made several cards using the ISC friendship plate, so I had a look and came up with these. The swirl on the first card is from Crafty Individuals, and the background was done with Distress inks in Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Tea Dye and Worn Lipstick.

This card uses Antique Linen and Tea Dye on the face and the embossed card (Cuttlebug Swirls folder). A touch of tattered rose on the lips and Broken china on the eyes finished it off.

And now for something completely different...

The past two evenings I've been having a play with the creative colour sprays and some Crafter's Workshop stencils (both available from Crafty Notions) This first card uses the Bliss stencil. The sheen on these are so beautiful, but it is a bit difficult to capture it on the photo. Even so I had a go...

I used flat backed gems to embellish the blue one. On the yellow and green card I used copper tulip paint and rainbow drops. I also did a bit of doodling with gel pens.

The stencil on this card is called paisley swirl. I am still surrounded by pieces of paper that have been sprayed, so I think there may be some more cards like this in the pipeline!