Return of the Prodigal Blogger!!

Yes, it's me, I have returned. Many apologies for not being here for the last five weeks & for not visiting the blogs I follow, I have a lot of catching up to do. I got bogged down in various issues & couldn't decide what to do, (I still haven't solved the problems, but I'm a little less stressed about them now). Then I spent a week in London with my friend, Jen. We had a terrific time & did so much, I will post about it day by day & show you some photos - that I took! Yes, I bought a new camera & took LOTS of pics! Hopefully, some of them will be half decent. :) It seems to be quite a good camera, but the test will be when I photograph my cards, which I haven't done yet.

Since I got back from London I've tried to spend a few hours each day working in the garden. It needs a LOT of work after the winter, but it is so nice to be out there & see lots of green shoots appearing. I have hundreds of daffodils, the tulips are almost open, for the first time my Hellebores have flowered & they are GORGEOUS & there are lots of new Hosta shoots peeping through the soil - now, if I can just protect them from the snails!

For today's card I have to journey back to the distant past - well, early March! I promised to make cards for the daughters of some of the people on the DC forum & this is one of them. It's the first time I used a House Mouse image - they are SO cute! I used watercolour pencils & Whispers pens to colour the image & when the cupcake was dry I rubbed glitter glue over the 'icing' to make it shiny. It doesn't show here, but it looked quite good in RL.

That's it for this post - short, but sweet, lol! The next ones will probably be longer, because tomorrow I will download my London photos & start to tell you about our week. I promise I won't go into too much detail, otherwise you'll all be bored to tears! :)

Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog since I've been gone, I truly appreciate it. Until tomorrow, love & light.

Friday Sketchers # 42

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday, sorry I didn't post yesterday; it was another one of those days & I didn't get a card made. Can I start by saying that I dislike this font intensely? I know, I know it's stupid, but I do. I always use Trebuchet to write my posts, but today my font options have disappeared. It's very irritating. :)

A huge thanks to everyone who commented on my 'Tilda in the Garden' card, it is much appreciated. Now that a little time has passed since I made it, I'm actually quite pleased with it. So thanks again for all your encouragement.

On to today's card. For the first time, I have attempted the Friday Sketchers challenge. This is the sketch that Mumur designed. There are a lot of elements, but I really like the layout.

I chose black & pink, because it's been a while since I used those colours. Initially, I was going to use a 6x6 square card, but as I put the card together it started to look very crowded, so I switched to a C5 card instead.

Materials used:

• C5 white cardstock
• Patterned paper - Tesco
• Black circular Nestie & pink frame Nestie - RAKs
• Black swirls - gift from Eisbaerin
• Corner swirl stamp - Inkadinkadoo
• Long floral swirl stamp - Marie Curie for Cancer Care by Papermania
• Whispers pens
• Bright pink & clear embossing powders
• Versafine ink pad - Onyx Black
• WOJ sentiment
• Prima & Papermania flowers, adhesive gems & pearls, pink brad, black & pink ribbons - from my stash.

Unfortunately, the scan has bled the colour from the long, floral swirl; in RL it's a bright, zingy pink. And the black corner swirls aren't placed exactly where they should be. Apart from that, I think it's turned out pretty well. Hopefully, the recipient of this card will like it.

That's it from me for tonight. I'm going to have a read through the Sunday papers & watch some TV - LA Ink is on at 10. :)

Love & light.

Me & My Bright Ideas!

Happy Friday folks! I hope everyone has had a good day. Did anyone who has the BBC see the weather forecast yesterday where they said it would be -99C in Kent this morning?! It WAS a little chilly when I got up, but I wouldn't have thought it was that cold, lol!! :)

On to today's card. Surprise, surprise, it's another Tilda! The Tilda challenge at DC this week was hosted by Jennie & she chose 'In The Garden'. So, flowers, grass, trees, etc., it should be easy to come up with an idea, right? Wrong. Jennie posted the challenge on Friday morning & it took me 'til Wednesday night to come up with something, which went completely out the window when I started making the card yesterday!

My first bright idea was to use my cherry blossom stamp & turn it in to a tree by hand drawing a trunk & I coloured it with my Whispers pens, then I tried to find a garden-type paper in my stash; something green & grass-like. Nothing. Instead I found this HOTP 'Ladybugs' A4 sheet that Jen had given me & the swirls made me think of the wind. That gave me my second bright idea - I would stamp the cherry blossom twice more, cut out the tree & then cut out the flowers from the other images & use Tilda with a broom, so that she's tidying the garden. Brilliant, no?! :) :) Yep, I thought so. Until I started the cutting & the trimming.......Oh. My. Goodness. :) It took HOURS! Then I had to place 1mm foam pads on to the back of the tree & the flowers - my fingers were sore afterwards! Thankfully, the rest of the card was very simple, especially as I decided not to strain my brain further by trying to come up a sentiment! I'll probably just put something in the inside at some stage. So, that's it, hope you like it.

Here is some astonishing blog candy! Sassy is offering this on her blog until midnight, March 21. Visit her blog for all the info & follow her instructions.

Before I say goodbye, I must tell you I have been given another award. Kay is a crafting buddy at DC & she very kindly gave me this. Thank you so much Kay!

Isn't it pretty? I have to pass this on to my Top Ten favourite blogs, so I will make a list & post it tomorrow.

I'm going on my blog tour now, to see what you've all been up to today.

Until tomorrow, love & light.

Tilda In The City

Sorry there was no post yesterday, it was one of those days. Many thanks to those who've visited my blog & left comments in the last two days, I am very grateful.
Today's card is one I made a few months ago for the Tilda Challenge at DC. I couldn't show it before now, because I made it for Jen's birthday & I didn't want her to see it. Well, her birthday was on Tuesday - she spent it at Disneyland in California! ( She said it was nice being ten again!) - so here's her card.

It won't surprise anyone who follows this blog that I chose London for the city & I chose the London Eye because Jen & I love walking along the Southbank when she visits & the Eye is always the start & the end of our walk. This is a gorgeous photo of the Eye at night, so I used colours that fit with the image. The papers are Core'dinations Hocus Pocus & Papermania Blue Tones. I coloured Tilda with my Whispers pens & everything else is from my stash.

I've got a blog candy alert for you. Janet is offering these gorgeous to celebrate 50,000 hits on her blog. She estimates that her counter should reach that number around March 17. So visit her blog, follow the instructions & good luck.

I have nothing else to report, except that it's ****** cold today! So I'll end here, see you tomorrow.

Love & light.

Colour Create #5 - Blue & Brown

Hi, the wind is howling & the the rain is pouring down, so I hope everyone is cozy at home today. I had to go to the hospital this morning for a bone scan, but I got home before the weather got too bad. I had to have a bone scan because the meds I'm on cause osteoporosis, so I'll have to have my bone density levels checked regularly. I was a little concerned about the scan, but it was fine & only took ten minutes. I'll get the results in April, so I'll forget about it until then.
I thought I would get a card made this afternoon, but by the time I'd got some bits & pieces together it was almost dark, so today's card is the other card I made yesterday - I know, two cards in one day!! Amazing!! :)

This week is the fifth week of the Colour Create challenges & the colours are blue & brown, with optional extras of pearls & lace, which was great, as I had the pearl string & lace left over from the Magnolia vs Stampavie challenge. I've just realised that ALL my recent cards are Tilda cards, I do love them, but maybe I need to use a different image once in a while. :) I coloured this Tilda before I had decided what I was going to do with her & then I couldn't decide what she was to sit on. After faffing about for ages I remembered seeing a card somewhere where she was sitting on a flower, so I went with that. I'm sorry I can't tell you whose card I thought of, but I hope they won't mind me using their idea.


Materials used:

• 6x6 white card
• Patterned papers - HOTP 'Swirly Tan' & Deja Views 'Blue Raspberry Paisley'
• Papermania flowers
• Sentiment - WOJ
• Whispers pens
• Everything else from my stash

So that's it for today, hope you like the card, thanks for visiting.

Love & light.

Magnolia vs Stampavie Challenge 15 - 'Lace & Pearls'

Happy Monday to one & all, hope everyone had a great weekend. Today's card is for the new Magnolia vs Stampavie challenge - lace & pearls. I wasn't sure about this at first; I knew I had a piece of lace - bought for a card that never got made - but as far as I knew I had no pearls, other than adhesive ones & a few pearl brads. So I did what all good cardmakers should do - I searched my stash & BINGO! I found a string of tiny pearls, I have no idea where I got them from, but they must be from when I first started crafting.

I am trying very hard at the moment to use colours that work together, so I spent quite a while putting papers together, before I coloured the image - which I've decided I've messed up. I should have used the paler blue on Tilda's tights & vice versa, the more I look at it, the worse it looks. I think tomorrow I'll take this image off the card & replace it with one that I've coloured better. I used a cotton bud to smudge Versafine 'Vintage Sepia' ink around a piece of watercolour paper, then matted & layered it onto cardstock from my stash, before threading the lace through it & attaching the image with 3D foam pads.



Materials used:

• Backing paper - BG Sugared collection
• Patterned paper - Seven Gypsies 'Karachi'
• Sentiment stamp - WOJ
• Lace - C&H Fabrics
• Everything else from my stash

I'm very honoured to say that Lisa L has given me another award. It's a nice feeling when you get an award, to know that someone thinks of you. As Lisa did, I'm going to pass this award on to the followers of my blog, with thanks. Apologies for not listing you all individually, but you know who you are!

Until tomorrow, take care of yourselves. Love & light.

New Blog Candy!!!

Try not to drool too much over this picture of deliciousness! Michelle is offering these gorgeous goodies to celebrate the first anniversary of her blog. Michelle's blog is one of my favourites. Not only does she make the most beautiful cards, but she & her hubby raise miniature donkeys & they are beautiful too. AND they have a new puppy called Libbie who is a complete & utter cutie, with the bluest eyes I've ever seen!! So, don't walk, RUN to Michelle's blog, lol! :) Check out her cards, her donkeys & her puppy and I better not forget Gato the lovely kitty. Follow the instructions on her blog candy post, you have until March 14. I'd like to wish everyone luck, but as I want to win I won't!! HAHAHAHA!! :)

Here is more gorgeous blog candy. This time it's on SemSee's blog, she's offering it to celebrate her birthday next week. The 'rules' on her blog, so check it out & have a look at her cards, she creates beautiful works of art.

Love & light.