Isis Imaginings

I Finally Did It!

2009-10-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

Bought a Cuttlebug that is, what did you think I meant?! Yep, I went to the Stamping & Scrapbooking Exhibition at Ally Pally a few weeks ago. It was the first time I'd been to a craft exhibition & I was like a child in a sweet shop; so much to see & so little time, so much to buy & so little money, lol! I had a wonderful time wandering around all the exhibits, watching the demos, (excellent demos at PaperArtsy), chatting with other crafters & creating a wish-list in my head. I could have spent an absolute fortune, but I managed to restrain myself & bought a few clear stamps, the Cuttlebug & some Nestabilities. I've been having a look at prices on various sites since & I feel I got a bargain.

A friend who's getting married in January asked me to make the invitations & I got them finished on Saturday, so Ive had time since to upload the pcs of the cards I've made in the last few weeks. They're mostly birthday & Halloween cards & they've all - except one - gone to the USA. I'll save the Halloween cards until nearer the big day, but here's two of the birthday cards.

I think this is my first proper attempt at distressing. And it's definitely the first time I've used Tim Holtz products - inks & the stamped images.

This card is for a cat-lover & unfortunately, I can't remember which online craft store I got the little cat stamp from. This is also the first time I used my Cuttlebug & everything else is from my stash.Thank you for looking & I hope you like them. I won't be around now until next week, so have a great week & thanks for stopping by.

Love & light.

Please sir, I want some more.

2009-10-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

I don't have a card to show you - I haven't uploaded the pics yet - but I want to thank Rica, Joy, Ruth & Gina G for welcoming me back to the blogging fold, I really appreciate it.

Jen's comments made me laugh, so I thought I'd show you a pic related to them. BTW, it is true that she had to drag me out of Jo-ann's & Michaels; never before has one woman been faced with so much temptation!! :) Here's the pic.................

Jen mentioned the coconut shrimp & this is it. It is found at a fab fish restaurant called 'Steamers', on Titlow Beach. But oh, the coconut shrimp! Jen had been telling me for ages how delicious it was, but I couldn't get my head around the combination of shrimp & coconut. Until I tasted it. It is utterly DELICIOUS!! The sauce is sweet chili & the flavours work so well together. We went to Steamers twice more before I left. :) It's a terrific place, the staff are wonderful & on a summer's day you can sit outside & enjoy the sea breeze & the beautiful view of the Puget Sound & the Narrows Bridge. And they have very nice ice cream too. :)

I won't be here for the next few days, got things to do, so I'll be back over the weekend. Hope everyone is having a great week so far.

Love & light.

Own up, whodunnit??!!

2009-10-04T06:48:00.000-07:00

Who stole the last six months??!! Honestly, I have never known time to go by so fast. I won't bore you with all the gory details; it's suffice to say I'm back, I'm feeling LOADS better & I hope to be here for a LONG time to come.

What I will tell you is that, thanks to a very kind invitation from Jen, I have been to the USA!!! It was BRILLIANT & I loved every second of it. The weather was perfect from start to finish; I actually got a TAN!! Yes, I wore a hat, as my hair is still in its horrible, post-chemo state, & used factor 15 sunscreen, but because we spent so much time outdoors my usual snowwhite skin turned a gorgeous golden brown colour & it's true, a tan makes you feel so much better. Jen lives in Washington State & it is beautiful. We went to so many places, including Mount Rainier & Seattle, and it was just fantastic. I met lots of Jen's friends & her colleagues at The Grand Cinema, Tacoma & her gorgeous daughter, Jessica; they're all wonderful & made me feel very welcome. I visited museums & art galleries - I was particularly impressed by the art of Preston Singletary & Nancy Wolden's jewelry. I saw a stunning exhibiton of Andrew Wyeth's paintings at the Seattle Art Museum, which is a museum I definitely recommend if you're ever in Seattle.

If I were to tell you everything I did, this post would go on for days & you'd be bored rigid, so I'll move to the two most important places I visited: 'Jo-ann's' & 'Michael's' - the craft stores! I won't tell you all I bought, (stamps, papers, ribbons, TH distress inks, etc.), but you'll get the picture if I say that I spent $50 in my first 10 mins in Jo-ann's & I had to pay excess baggage at the airport when I was leaving!! Enough said, right??!! :)

I took lots of photos while I was there & I might post one or two here from time to time.

I really had the best time & while I have thanked Jen privately for her generosity I'm thanking her again now publicly, so she knows how much her invitation meant to me. (I hope I get invited back again!)

On to the purpose of this blog: I am proud to say that I have made cards this week! Astonishingly, I got requests for cards from Jen's colleagues, so I've been working on them. I've also been asked to make the invitations for a friend who's getting married in January. And of course, people are beginning to ask about Christmas cards, so I will have to start them soon.....I seem to remember making a new year's resolution that I would make one or two Christmas cards a week, starting in January. Needless to say, that didn't happen.

This card was for someone who's become an Eagle Scout in America. I printed off the motto & the eagle from Google, mounted them onto stiff card & covered them with Anita's 3D Glaze to give them a metallic appearance.

The next two cards are self-explanatory, but can you name the two Beatles referred to on the first card??!! Yes, it's not difficult is it?! :) My initial idea was to make a B&W card for the second card, but when I saw the Andy Warhol image, I knew what I wanted to do & Jen had given me the strawberry paper, so it was easy to come up with the rest.

When I post my newer cards you'll see they're completely different from these. I'm doing a lot more stamping, embossing & distressing & I'm loving it. But that's for another day.

I hope everyone who visits my blog has had a good summer. Apologies again for not being here & for not visiting your blogs. I am no going to promise that I will blog every day, or visit your blogs every day, because there just aren't enough hours in the day. But I will do my best to blog a few times a week & I would love it if you popped in from time to time. Thank you.

Love & light

Return of the Prodigal Blogger!!

2009-04-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-06T10:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-03-05T09:47:00.000-08:00

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

2009-03-03T12:12:00.000-08:00

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'

2009-03-02T11:02:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2009-02-28T11:55:00.001-08:00

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.

February Friendship

2009-02-28T09:54:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know this is the last day of February, but I forgot to post this earlier in the month & I didn't get today's card finished. Apologies for the terrible photo. This card went to a DC'er in this month's friendship swap. Again, I wanted to use colours that make me think of Spring. I'm really enjoying these colours at the moment & I think it's because this time last year I was going through chemotherapy & I didn't make a single card for months. Anyhoo.

This morning a DC'er asked how we start a card; image first or paper? I usually start with colouring the image & then choose the papers, but this time it was the other way round. Jen had given me this sheet of HOTP Yellow Daisies 12x12 paper & I built all the other elements around it. I coloured the image with Whispers & everything else is from my stash. I couldn't decide what sentiment to put on the card, but then I found these chipboard letters, which came in an oriental kit from QVC. I think they fit with the rest of the card.

That's all from me today, it's a very short post, but I'm off to the Stamping Chic launch party. You can join in the fun here. Hope everyone is having a good Saturday.
Love & light.

Magnolia vs Stampavie 15 - Feel The Sketch!

2009-02-27T10:40:00.000-08:00

Evening! Hope everyone has had, or is having, a good Friday. Today was a beautiful Spring day here, the daffodils will soon be in flower - that's if the cold weather predicted for next week doesn't kill them first!

I managed to fulfil yesterday's challenge to myself - to complete this week's
Magnolia vs Stampavie challenge, which is a sketch.

After last week's dark colours I decided to make this card as Spring-like as possible & i changed the size to a 6x6 square card, so that reduced the proportions a little. No matter how I tried, I could not get a good pic of this card. I used both the scanner & the camera but every picture is dull, possibly because the colours are pale. This pic is from the scanner; I changed the setting to 'Magazine colour', which scans the image very slowly & it's the best of a bad lot. I wish you could see all the different tones of green on the striped paper, it's very pretty.

Materials used:

Tilda with cupcake - a RAK from a friend, coloured with Whispers pens
Pale blue & gold backing papers - Papermill
Swirly patterned paper - Seven Gypsies Touquet
Striped patterned paper - SEI Chick-a-doo
Flowers - Prima & Papermania
Charms - from Jen
Flowers & swirls (bottom right corner of image) - from a set of Inkadinkadoo clear stamps, also a gift from Jen
Birthday sentiment - Papermania clear stamp
Sunflower Yellow & Rocket Red Gold Brilliance inks
Orange adhesive gems - Kanban
Green adhesive pearls - Papermania
Gold ribbon - Crafty Ribbon

Tilda looks a little flushed because she's been busy baking lots of delicious cupcakes, lol! :) I think I'll give this to a work colleague whose birthday is two days after mine. Hope she likes it.

Just a short post tonight, because I only managed to visit a few of the blogs I follow last night. The computer was being extremely contrary & kept shutting down, I gave up in the end. It hasn't been as bad today, so I'm hoping to see all the blogs on my list. If you hear screaming followed by a crash later on, it will be me having a temper tantrum & throwing the laptop out the window!! :) :)

See you tomorrow, hopefully. Love & light.

You Shall Go To The Ball!

2009-02-26T11:56:00.001-08:00

After my last post on Sunday, my mojo went walkabout! I had no ideas, no inspiration, nothing, even the various blog challenges couldn't get the creative juices flowing. But I HAD to make a card for a friend who will be 40 next week, so today I forced myself to sit down at my craft table & I didn't leave it for most of the day. I spent what felt like hours moving pieces of paper & flowers & bits of ribbon around, until finally I came up with this card. It's very simple, but at least it got me started & in future, I am going to try very hard to make a card at least every other day.

Materials used:

White C5 card

Image - Madison Goes To The Ball download from Charmed Cards & Crafts

Papers - Imaginisce & Tesco

Flowers - Prima & Papermania

Adhesive gems & spotted brad - Papermania

Adhesive pearls - Papermania Gun Metal

Ribbon - Crafty Ribbon

Silver peel-offs

When you buy the Holly & Madison images from CCC you get the B&W AND the coloured images. I chose to use the coloured image because not only do I think it looks like Emma, but it was so much easier for me, especially today! There is a terrific selection of images in this download, so if you like this one check out the CCC website.

I watched Craft Day on QVC while making the card; disappointingly, there was nothing that I just had to have - not even ribbon! Well, disappointing for me, relief for my credit card. :) The TSV in particular, was disappointing. It was yet another Kanban kit & they have so many of those. I think it shows how far I've come in my card making, that they don't interest me anymore. I still have some that I bought way back when & I will use them, but in a different way.

Before I go, I have to thank Lisa L for this lovely award. She gave it to me last week & I kept forgetting to put it on my blog. Lisa's blog is one of the first I started watching - my friend Sarita told me about her - and I love her work. So, thank you again Lisa, I really appreciate it & I would like to pass this award on to everyone who visits my blog this week! I love looking at the counter on my blog, I find it fascinating that there are people in so many different countries who have visited me. I want you all to know that I am very grateful to you all & I hope you like what you see here.

That's it from me for today. I have challenged myself to make a card for the current Magnolia vs Stampavie challenge tomorrow, so hopefully, I'll be back tomorrow night.

Take care, love & light.

'And The Oscar Goes To.....'

2009-02-22T08:56:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone is having a nice Sunday. I've spent most of the day searching for a piece of paper. Not a nice piece of patterned paper, but an important, legal piece of paper. I've decided to stop looking for it, in the hope that I'll remember what I did with it in the first place. I have no idea why it isn't with the other papers. Grrrrrr.

On Friday I was asked to host the new Tilda challenge at DC. After panicking for a few minutes I was ready to say no when I remembered that tonight the Academy Awards are happening in Hollywood, so I decided the challenge would be to use Tilda to illustrate a film & you could be as obvious or as obscure as you wanted. My attempt ended up a little more obscure than I originally intended, but I'm happy to say, quite a few people guessed the film correctly.

Materials used:

C5 white card
Backing paper - Imaginisce Swweeet Spots
Patterned paper - Seven Gypsies St Martin
Navy cardstock & white tissue paper - from my stash
Ribbons - Crafty Ribbons
Whispers pens
WH Smith watercolour pencils
White gel pen
Anita's 3D Gloss
Papermania flowers, star brad, adhesive gems
Rose - from my stash
Brilliance ink - Starlite Silver
Silver embossing powder
Sentiment - Studio g clear stamps

So, have you guessed the film?! ;) Here are the clues..............

American film
Won Best Picture Oscar in the '90's
Stars my favourite actor - he won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in this film
Name of the rose is also the name of the film
Torn tissue paper symbolises a plastic bag
Sentiment - what the main character did

Got it? It's 'American Beauty'. I have seen it countless times & I still love it, although I wish the ending was different ;) (no spoilers in case someone who reads this hasn't seen the film!) . Kevin Spacey was perfect as Lester Burnham, IMO & Alan Ball wrote a great screenplay. She doesn't know it yet - well, she will when she reads this! - but I'm sending this card to Jen. She's a Spacey fan too, so I think she'll like it.

Right, I'm off to visit the blogs on my list & also to think about the Magnolia vs Stampavie challenge. It's a sketch this week - thank goodness! No 'difficult' colours to worry about. :) A big thank you to everyone who left comments on my card yesterday.

See you all tomorrow hopefully. Love & light.

Magnolia v Stampavie 14

2009-02-21T03:59:00.001-08:00

Greetings to everyone who reads this. Apologies for not posting a card & for not visiting the blogs I follow in the last few days. I've been having a pretty stressful time & I wasn't in the right frame of mind. Anyway, on to today's card. I made it earlier in the week for the Magnolia v Stampavie challenge. You had to use the colours below, or as close as possible & I was definitely out of my comfort zone with them!

I wish the image was clearer, but after photographing it dozens of times I ended up scanning it. I am definitely going to do some research & buy a new camera. As usual, I spent ages playing around with papers & layouts before settling on this. I decided on this Tilda because the card is going to my mum, who is itching to start work on her garden after the winter. Tilda's gardening clothes ended up a little scruffier than I intended, but they will make my mum laugh - both of us get VERY scruffy when we garden!! :) I hope you can see that the edges of the paper are torn & edged with pigment inks. Unfortunately, the green circular Nestie shape is a little too green, but I didn't have anything else suitable. I dusted the white embossed circle with chalk.

Materials used:

C5 White card
Navy backing paper
Patterned papers - Seven Gypsies Boulogne & St Martin
Whispers pens
Pale blue chalk
Ink - Brilliance Mediterranean Blue & Coffee Bean
Flowers - Prima & Papermania
Heart charm - Mad About Cards
Sparkling & pearl brads, ribbons - from my stash
Sentiment - Inkadinkadoo - I *think*.

There you go, hope you like it. I'm off to have a wander around your blogs to see what you've created in the last few days. Thanks to everyone for their comments on my Colour Create 3 card, it's going to a new home in the USA soon. Hopefully, I'll be be back tomorrow. Have a great Saturday.

Love & light.

Colour Create 3

2009-02-17T10:40:00.001-08:00

So it's week three at Colour Create & I've actually managed to complete the challenge before the end of the week. The challenge is red, white & blue, with the optional extra of travel/holidays.

Until yesterday I couldn't find anything in my stash that would fulfil this challenge, but then a very nice DC'er sent me this piece of paper & searching through my stamped images I found this Edwin. I coloured him with Whispers pens - the centre of his sweatshirt looks pink in this pic, but it's definitely red. I stuck the image onto the paper with 3mm foam pads, but left the balloon free-standing. The flower is probably out of place on a male card, but it's so dark I think I can get away with it. :)

A very brief post tonight, I was too tired last night to visit my favourite blogs, so I'm off to do that now. Hope you've had a good day.

Love & light.

Tilda on Safari

2009-02-16T11:11:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone is having a nice Monday. Just a quick post tonight; I was at the hospital again today & I always come home tired & with a headache. So without further ado, here is today's card. Over at DC, the Tilda challenge this week is 'safari'.

At first, I had no ideas AT ALL! I had a look at Google images & found the pic of the baby elephant at www.lucytravels.com , then I did a search for African trees & up came images of acacia trees & an idea began to form. The idea is that Tilda hasn't seen the baby elephant sheltering from the hot sun under the acacia tree.
I chose this Tilda because her clothes are similar to a safari suit & I gave her a girly sunhat, because I've decided Tilda is a girly girl! :) (Don't look too closely at her 'camera' - it's a perfect example of my atrocious drawing skills!) The flowers are meant to represent the African sky & sun & because there is no bling on this card, there just had to be a ribbon, so I chose a brown one to represent the dry African soil. I haven't chosen a sentiment yet, but when I do, I will put it opposite the little bow.

Materials used:

Backing paper - BG Sugared collection
Flowers - Prima & Papermania
Whispers pens
QVC ribbon
Papermania brads

So, a very simple card, but I think it's cute.

That's it for tonight, take care.

PS I've just a thought - I hope this elephant is an African elephant, not an Asian one!!

Charisma Muse!

2009-02-15T09:17:00.000-08:00

Evening all, hope every one's having a lovely Sunday. Before I continue I want to thank everyone who left comments on yesterday's card. We all know that leaving comments can take quite a while, so I really appreciate those who take the time to do so. And of course, it gives me encouragement to continue. THANK YOU to everyone.

Today's card covers two challenges & after the subtlety of yesterday, it is completely OTT! The first challenge I made this for is 'Cupcakes' at Charisma Cardz & secondly, at Crafty Muse, choose your favourite colour. My favourite colours are all shades of purple & pink, so initially I was going to choose purple. Then I decided that combining the challenges & using pink would make a perfect birthday card for Goddaughter No. 2, Lily, who will be five in March & she LOVES anything pink & blingy.

The image is a download from Sammi at Crafty Muse, as a thank you for taking part in her last challenge. I printed it onto watercolour paper & sprayed it with hairspray to seal the ink, (thanks to Tara for that handy hint), it worked very well & I noticed it gave the paper a very nice texture, that was great to colour.

Materials used:

C5 White card

Image - Angelique Sitting Sweet

Papers - Papermania sweet Nothings & Papermill

Ribbons - Crafty Ribbons

Whispers Pens

Flowers - Papermania & Prima

Cuddly Buddly Circular Sentiment stamp

Brilliance ink - Pearlescent Orchid

Crystal Lacquer pens

Jewelled brad, adhesive pearls, adhesive floral gems & gold peel-off - from my stash

I've tried to be a little more organised this week & I've made a list of the challenges I want to attempt. I made a card today for the Tilda challenge at DC - I'll post it tomorrow - so I'm quite chuffed that I've managed to complete three challenges already. The new Magnolia v Stampavie challenge was posted earlier today & this is it......

They have chosen specific colours, but they say you can use others, as long as they come close to matching these. Full details are available on the blog. By the way, my fellow DC'er, Mina, won their challenge 12 with a stunning card. If you haven't seen her blog before, pay it a visit, she is so talented.

That's it from me for today. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, thanks for visiting.

Love & light.

Magnolia v Stampavie 13

2009-02-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

Evening all, happy Saturday to you & to those of you who are loved up, Happy Valentine's Day. That will be my final mention of this Hallmark-created excuse for massively inflating the price of roses!! Cynic, moi??!! :)

Today I have been mostly talking on the 'phone, (big shout out to Kelly & Jen), watching tv, (has anyone seen 'Miami Ink' on DMAX? It's about a tattoo shop in Miami. The guy who owns the shop is called Ami James - VERY sexy is all I will say! Apart from the hot guys & the beautiful women the tattoos are incredible. They really are works of art.), & I made one card. I'll show it to you tomorrow.

For today's card I used this sketch from the current Magnolia v Stampavie challenge.

I decided to keep it very simple & stick firmly to the sketch, this is what I came up with. I haven't made up my mind about a sentiment yet, but I think it will be an Easter card. I'm enjoying using pastel colours at the moment, I think it's a reaction to the horrible winter weather! I coloured Tilda with Whispers pens first, then chose the other elements to suit the image - which I think they do. The flowers Tilda is holding remind me of daffodils, so I used layers of yellow to try to make them as bright as possible. I doodled the little swirls around the edge of the image with a gold pen.

Papers - Papermania Sweet Nothings, DCWV, Basic Grey Sugared collection, gold paper from my stash.
Ribbon - Crafty Ribbons
Yellow paper lace - from my stash
Whispers pens
Pink butterfly gem - from my stash

So, what do you think? Was I right to keep it simple or should I add something? I'm thinking of placing the sentiment on the left side of the spotted paper & perhaps that's enough.

That's all from me for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend & thank you to everyone who has visited my blog & left comments in the last twenty-four hours.

Love & light.

Penny Black Friday

2009-02-13T09:02:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone is having a great Friday - almost the start of the weekend, hooray! We had lots of snow last night, but it was almost completely gone by lunchtime today. It was cold this morning, I was out with Kelly for a few hours & we were frozen. The days are getting longer, so Spring is definitely on its way, it just needs to get warmer.

I need to tell you about some amazing blog candy. It's from Stampavie & one lucky winner will get the ENTIRE Oooh La La Collection from Leere Aldrich, courtesy of Stampavie. That is TEN stamps in all!! How brilliant would it be to win them??!! To be in with a chance, go to Jessica's gorgeous blog, The Whimsical Butterfly & leave a comment on her 'Want Some Candy?' post, then link her blog on yours, or as Jessica says, SPREAD THE LOVE! That's it, she will pick a winner via Random.org on February 19 at 8a.m CST. The winner will be announced on her blog & also on the Stampavie DT blog .

As with yesterday, today's card fulfils two challenges: Clare's sketch on her DC blog & the Charisma Cardz Challenge 5 - 3 papers, 2 flowers & 1 ribbon. Naturally, I'm too late for that one, it ended yesterday. You know, I used to be very organised, but since the chemotherapy last year my memory is terrible. Apparently, it's called 'chemo brain'! I found it amusing initially, but not any more. Now I have to remember to write everything down in triplicate! Before I forget, the new challenge at Charisma Cardz is 'cupcakes', check out the blog for more info. Back to the card.

C5 white card

Penny Black image, coloured with Whispers pens

Anita's Patterned Vellum

Papermill blue cardstock

Basic Grey Sugared paper

Papermania flowers & jewelled brad

Cuddly Buddly circular sentiment stamp

Brilliance Pearlescent Pink inkpad

Personal Impressions Hot Pink embossing powder
QVC ribbon & butterfly gems

Because this picture is a scan, the pink on the sentiment is not showing, but it is lovely. This is another of those cards that I sat over for hours. :) I'm sending it to a DC'er, hopefully she will like it.

In last Friday's post I said I would be watching a film called 'The Lives of Others'. Well, I did & it was excellent. It's set in 1984, in the former East Germany & I couldn't find fault with any of it, which is a rare occurrence for me, lol!

Bye for now, love & light.

Purple, Lilac, Mauve.......

2009-02-12T11:04:00.000-08:00

Greetings from a rainy, snowy, sleety Kent! I hope everyone reading this is warm & well. Sorry I didn't post the last two days. On Tuesday, I was uploading my photos & they got deleted somehow - I was NOT a happy bunny! - & yesterday I spent almost five hours at the hospital & was too tired when I got home to do anything except collapse on the couch.

Today's card covers two challenges at DC. The LO is forum member Loretta's weekly sketch challenge, hopefully you can see the LO, & the colour is for the weekly ABC challenge, which this week is 'P' for purple & anything else we could think of related to card making. This card marks my first attempt at paper-piecing, which was not altogether successful.

Papers - Papermania & Papermill matted & layered on to
Anita's Patterned Vellum
Flowers - Papermania & Prima
Circular sentiment stamp - Cuddly Buddly
Pearlescent Orchid - Brilliance ink
Purple embossing powder - Debbie Moore
Purple brads & adhesive gems - Papermania
Striped brad - K & Co.
Ribbons & butterfly - from my stash
Whispers pens
Purple crystal lacquer - on the flower petals only.

After photographing this week's cards approximately 20 times I gave up & scanned them. No matter what I do I cannot get a clear image. I'm beginning to wonder if the camera is the problem. It wasn't very expensive & as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. It's also costing me a small fortune in batteries, so I'm thinking about getting a new one. Will do some research next week.

There was a thread on the DC forum this week, which made me laugh. Someone had overheard a customer in her local craft shop say that it only took her ten minutes to make a card & the DC'er was wondering if this was the same for the rest of us? The general consensus was - 'ten minutes?? You must be joking!!' Today, for example, was the 'normal' situation for me. I spent about fifteen minutes deciding on which Tilda I was going to use. Then another fifteen - twenty minutes thinking about colours. Probably about thirty minutes doing the colouring, then I spent about forty minutes choosing the papers & moving them around in various combinations & LOs. Then I had to decide; to bling or not to bling? One ribbon? A bow? Okay, no bows. Flowers? Ummm, no. Right, the sentiment - circular? No, it doesn't suit the LO. Look at the LO again, (had decided on a challenge LO), there's no obvious place for a sentiment. Okay, leave it for now, I can add one later. Only then, did I start to put the various pieces together - THAT took about ten minutes! So, adding all that together, it probably took about three hours on one card, which for me is actually pretty good. :) On a rare occasion, if the creative juices (!) flow & I don't let myself be distracted by t'internet I can be faster & I might even get two cards made in one day. But that's my limit, I'm afraid.

After giving you that insight into my card making day :) I will end here & go blog-visiting. To everyone who left comments on my Tilda Valentine's card - thank you so much, it means a great deal to me.

Take care, love & light.

With Love From Tilda

2009-02-09T10:45:00.000-08:00

Evening all, I hope everyone had a great weekend. Sorry there was no post. I finished today's card on Saturday, but too late to photograph it & I spent yesterday at my friend Kelly's, playing with her gorgeous girls & eating the delicious roast chicken dinner she cooked. The rain started while I was there & it has yet to stop. We've gone from blizzard warnings to flood warnings in a week! Anyway, on to today's card.

I had no intention of making a Valentine's card, but this week's Tilda challenge at DC is to make a red card with the word 'Love' on it. So I threw caution to the wind & came up with this.

I thought long & hard about using a patterned paper on this card, but decided against & I think it was the right decision. So, the ingredients are:

C5 white card
Red & silver cardstock
Tilda image coloured with Whispers pens, (sash coloured with silver pen)
Ribbons from Crafty Ribbons
Flower, brad, heart gems & adhesive gems from Papermania
Heart stamps from Papercraft Inspirations magazine
Swirl stamps from Marie Curie stamp set from Papermania
Circular sentiment stamp - Cuddly Buddly
Brilliance Inkpads - Rocket Red & Starlight Silver
Embossing powders - 'Heat It Up' Silver Pearl, Debbie Moore Red & 'Sparkle & Sprinkle' Silver
Anita's 3D Glaze

You can see where the silver heart crinkled a little when I used the heat gun on it, but I like the result & the silver embossing powder on the other heart & the swirls has a lovely sheen to it, which doesn't show in this image. All in all, I quite like the finished result. I have no idea who I'll give it to tho' - another one to the add to the ever-growing box of my cards! :)

I made one card today that fulfils two challenges on DC, I'll post it tomorrow. There are few other challenges that I really want to complete this week, so I'm going to be very focused tomorrow, Thursday & Friday, (have hospital appointment on Wednesday), & try to get them finished.

My friend Jen takes great photos & I've been trying for ages to persuade her to start a blog. Well, this afternoon I succeeded! It's called Shadows and Shade I think it's going to be fab. Welcome to the happy, (and slightly crazy), world of blogging Jen! :)

Have a nice evening, I hope you're warm & dry wherever you are. See you tomorrow.

Love & light.

Tilda at Easter

2009-02-06T11:06:00.000-08:00

I have no idea when Easter is, but this week's Tilda Challenge at DC was to make an Easter card, so it was a good opportunity to get started. Luckily, I don't have to make that many. This must be the 20th photo I took of this card & it's still not right, I gave up in the end. Anyway, this is Tilda on Easter Sunday on her way to deliver Easter eggs to her friends.

Tilda & fence - Magnolia

Eggs & rabbit stamps - Readicut

Papers & sentiment - Papermania Easter Themes

Versafine Black Onyx ink pad

Whispers Pens & WH Smith Watercolour Pencils

Flowers - Papermania & Prima

Green & yellow stripy ribbon - Crafty Ribbon

Adhesive gems - Papermania

This is the card I made for Clare Curd's sketch challenge at DC. Again, the pic is terrible & I'm not happy with the card. I like the LO, but the image is wrong. It's a stamp from Readicut & I'm not sure if it's meant to be a chicken or a duck! I don't think chickens have webbed feet, do they?! And as far as I know, ducks aren't normally associated with Easter! He is kind of cute, he's just not right for this card.

Papers - as above

Chicken/duck & eggs - Readicut

Whispers pens

Sentiment - Readicut

Brilliance Ink - Pearlescent Ivy

Embossing powder - Debbie Moore Dark Green

Ribbons, buttons & thread - from my stash

I've been given another award! This time from Alex. Her cards are sooooo gorgeous & I'm really honoured that she thought of me. Thank you Alex! Crafting bloggers are such nice people!Right, that's it from me. There's nothing on tv tonight, so I'm going to watch a movie called 'The Lives of Others'. Tomorrow will be spent cardmaking; there are new challenges at DC involving Valentine's Day & purple, so I'm planning to get those done. There's also 2 craft shows on QVC tomorrow, at 11a.m & 9p.m. I doubt I'll be buying anything, but I'll have a look anyway.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend, take care.

One Card, Two Challenges

2009-02-05T10:31:00.000-08:00

Evening all, sorry I didn't post yesterday, I had a long day & was very tired. I also remembered that I had forgotten to photograph the card, so I had to wait until this morning. Here it is, again the photo is not perfect. The LO is courtesy of Loretta at DC, it's her current sketch. The elements are for the challenge at Charisma Cardz, which was black & white, with one other colour. Unfortunately, the challenge ended yesterday - trust me to be late.

White DL card
Black cardstock
Patterned paper - gift wrap from Tesco (!)
Lotus Blossom stamp - Ebay
Sentiment stamp - Hobbycraft
Brilliance ink - Pearlescent Purple & Moonlight White
Embossing powder - Heat It Up Pearl White & Debbie Moore Dark Purple
Adhesive gems - QVC
Flowers - Prima & Papermania

There is a new challenge at Charisma Cardz today. It's a 3-2-1 recipe - 3 papers, 2 flowers & 1 ribbon. More info on the blog.

Now it's time for another Blog of the Month & I've chosen Waltzingmouse, which is Claire Brennan's blog. She makes gorgeous cards, gift boxes & decorations, takes great photos & now & again she will share a recipe for something delicious! So if you haven't already done so, pay her blog a visit - look out for the amazingly zingy orange card!

Just a short post tonight, I'll be back tomorrow hopefully. Thank s to everyone who left comments on my Crafty Muse card & a special thanks to Sammi at Crafty Muse & Tara for their advice on colouring printer images. I hope everyone is having a good Thursday.

Love & light.

A Challenge Card!

2009-02-03T10:04:00.000-08:00

Hello, I hope everyone is having a good day. I'm happy to report that it didn't snow today, instead we had blue skies & glorious sunshine & much of the snow has melted.

Some of the visitors to this blog may remember that one of my crafting resolutions for 2009 was to attempt more challenge cards. It's only taken four weeks, but I've made two & here is the first one. I made it for the 'Something Sweet' challenge at Crafty Muse, (Jan 30 - Feb 12). For some reason, I thought of Neapolitan ice cream, which was chocolate, vanilla & raspberry - or was it strawberry? I haven't eaten it since my childhood, even then I never ate the chocolate bit - I hate chocolate ice cream! - but I like the colour combination. There is no sentiment on the card yet, because I couldn't decide what it should be.

Layout - courtesy of Elley. I changed it to landscape.

Image - Angelique from Crafty Muse, coloured with WH Smith watercolour pencils
Backing paper - Truffle from Rusty Pickle's Chocolate Kisses range

Other papers - Papermill

Flowers - Prima & Papermania

Ribbons & jewelled embellishment - QVC

Brads, (jewelled & brown) & metallic embellishment - Papermania

Silver heart charm - Mad About Cards.

I'm not entirely happy with this card, especially with the colouring of Angelique. I wanted her skirt to be pinker, but I discovered that printer ink & Whispers pens do not go together - the black ink runs into the colour. I printed out another image & used dry watercolour pencils, but once I added the gloss the colour became much paler than I intended. Perhaps someone reading this would tell me what pens I can use to colour printer images? Am I right in thinking that I need something like Copics?

Eagle-eyed observers will notice that this picture is an actual photograph, not a scan. Another of my resolutions was to learn to use my digital camera. This is about the tenth photo I took of this card! I spent ages wandering around my house, trying to find the place with the best light, finally settling on a window in the kitchen. It's not a perfect photo, I'd like it to be a little clearer, but it's a LOT better than my first effort. :) I've photographed some of my other cards & I've learnt that some need the flash & some don't, some need the light from the window, some don't. But I am determined to persevere, so please forgive the bad photos until I get them right.

Probably like most of us, I send off my cards & rarely get to see people's reactions when they receive them. Hmmm, maybe that's a good thing?! :) A few weeks ago I sent my friend Jen the card she asked me to make for her daughter Jessica & Jen took photos of Jessica with her card & here they are.

I think she liked it - thank goodness!That's all from me for today. I'll be back tomorrow with another challenge card. Thanks for visiting, take care.