1st Advent Candle

You will notice my candles are not red!

Could I find red pillar candles that did not have a scent?

No I could not! So cream it is then!

Seasons Greetings!

Overlays held in computer stash for ages....have not got them labelled! They are possibly Designer Digitals (ssbfl) but not sure.....sorry!

Thanks for looking :)

xoxo Sioux

Winter Wishes Freebie!

If you liked the papers I used on my Christmas Day digital layout please feel free to download them!

They are sized at 20cm by 20cm (approx. 8"x8") @ 300dpi.

You may use them in you personal art but not for monetary gain......click on photo for download link.

xoxo Sioux
P.S. If you do make something with the images please let me know I'd love to come and take a look see!

Merry Christmas To You!

It's Christmas!

Wishing everyone a Wonderful Christmas....wherever you are.

"Let your heart be light"

xoxo Sioux

Face Off

Back to challenge myself again and explore the world of digital inchies!!!

Over at SCD they are still asking for inchies with the weeks theme being "Faces".

I thought I'd have a digi play for a change seeing as tactile inchies don't do a lot for me! LOL and came up with this. Now it is so easy to make anything you like fit on a one inch square.......... digitally speaking..............as you can reduce any image you have.......... however, I like the idea that on a tactile inchie it is very difficult to get full size images on there and inevitably they become chopped off at the edges....so tried to do something similar with this.

Have to keep going with Hallowe'en as a theme at the minute as I am in that sort of mood and have things ongoing stamping wise that I might share soon!

The skull is a Wikipedia file of a Da Vinci skull, Orange background my own, the doodling image by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals and the red letters that I think give it a bit of a Mexican Dia des los Muertos feel are something I got free years ago from I don't know where 'cos I did not keep track of stuff like that then!! So sorry.......if anyone knows please let me know then I can credit.

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux

Birthday - Stamp with Fun

The challenge theme this week at Stamp with Fun is birthday! So it's a birthday project on show today for me!
This was for a friends birthday and I can now post it as she has received it :)

I made the card using my own design digital papers and my Fitz digi stamp.....I made up a template for the box to fit 3 "Thorntons Chocolate Blocks".......it should have been for 4 blocks but afraid DH lost the plot in the shop and only came out with 3! LOL......The edge was punched with a Fiskars border punch......it's the only one I have but they are easy to use and I'd definitely have more if the old piggy bank would let me!!.....The papers were stamped on the edge with that little dotty border again too.The inside was decorated with more of the same papers and I stamped one of the Elusive Images sentiments from my lucky lucky win that is available at Graphicus on the pink heart paper.....I think you may have to enlarge the picture to read what it says..........The sunflower on the front uses the same template I designed for a poinsettia on this card........can't believe how different it looks inked with DI SM! LOL

Thanks for looking......happy stamping!
xoxo

Three Musketeers

I am not playing with anything at the moment........but thought I had better post something just to keep those who do visit interested!!!
This is a digital scrapbook page I did a while ago.....it features my Dad - John Whittaker (he is the one with a cigarette in his hand) and two of his friends that were so inseparable they were nick named the Three Musketeers......the one in the middle I knew as Uncle Sam (Sam Price) - even though he was not really my Uncle!........and I am afraid I do not know the name of the other chap on the end..........They were from Accrington in Lancashire so someone might recognise him perhaps......my dad would have been about 94 if he was still alive.......just as an after thought.....NO I am not that old please don't knock 20 years off and say that was when I was born!!!!!! LOL.........my mum & dad had me late in life. My Dad has been dead for 40 years but there is not a day goes by when I don't still think about him........just looking at the flowers or trees or grass or weeds brings him back as he was a gardener you see.

I am only guessing that this was taken in 1933 when they were about 18.....it could be a couple of years later......don't they look much older with the 3 piece suits? Everytime I look at this I can't help wondering if there isn't a bit of Greek somewhere in my Dad's distant gene pool.......he just seems to look a bit Greek to me!!!!!!!! LOL

Digi Elements Used; http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/ Antiquing Pack Created by Lauren Bavin: Victorian Edge Overlay Created by Suzanne C. Walker: Fall Date and Detail Chips Created by Jamie Rousselle: http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/ World Traveller by Sande Krieger

Postcard back and wording my own design.

Thanks for looking.

Doodle Peek

Another quickie today........need to finish lots of other things!!!.....part planted front flower bed but too hot at moment so will finish later..............here is a little peek of the inspiration doodle that "My Cutie Pie" provided.

Be back tomorrow with a little something else.
xoxo

My Cutie Pie

Just a quick post to show a bit of digital work for a change..........a layout featuring "My Cutie Pie" Fitzgerald!

He has inspired me to really challenge myself artistically this past week.........I'll be posting more about that tomorrow............but only after some plants from the back garden find a new home in a new bed created today in the front garden.
xoxo

Gecko Harlequin Freebie

If you liked my "Leaving Napoli" artwork perhaps you might like the gecko background used in it. It is sized at 12x12 inch or 30cmx30cm @ 300 d.p.i. as a JPEG in a zipped file. Just click on the image and it will take you to the download area. Just remember to read the terms before doing so. Hope you enjoy using it and if you do please leave a comment or link to anything you create.

Leaving Napoli - Artarazzi Challenge 8

The image to use this week at Artarazzi is a pre-raphalite painting by John Waterhouse. I love these types of image and just had to have a go. I decided she looked like she was deep in thought about a decision she had made and "Leaving Napoli" popped in my head and the rest all followed. Why the winning numbers for the lottery can't pop into my head just as easily is beyond me!!

I extracted her from the background and layed her down on a digital bed (well I think it looks like she is in bed anyway) using a free image paper from this set at Two Peas in a Pod by Rhonna Farrer that I cut up a bit. The Sunburst picture on the wall behind her was a freebie but I don't have a clue exactly where you might find it, acquired back in the days when blogging did not exist and also did not think anyone would ever be looking at this stuff either! Everything else is my own.

Artarazzi Challenge 4 - Marilyn Monroe

Another Door?

Here is my effort for the digital challenge at Artarazzi this week. Why can you look at something one week and it conveys something to you and yet another time it says something totally different? Anyway, this thought popped in my head when I looked at Marilyn this time "If she had opened a different door where would it have led her?" and that thought led to this. The image of MM was chopped in half as was the door and joined together with a bit of a transparency overlay. I then cut out half of her lips and added them to the door side of the image. The white scroll at the top and the quote were a freebie from Digital Scrapbook Place, it says "Each child is like a butterfly in the wind. Some can fly higher than the others, but each one flies the best it can. Why compare one against the other? Each one is different, each one is special, each one is beautiful." Author unknown. I added the words "Another DOOR?" to the side of her face in Argor Brush Script font.

At least doing this has taken my mind off my sinus pain this afternoon, that or the sudafed has kicked in LOL:)

Art Creations Friday

When I saw the image that is the starting point for this new challenge web site one word leapt into my brain, "Beautiful", pretty much says it all! I just had to make something with it so here is my all digital card. Can't wait to see what else happens on Art Creations Friday in the future.

It uses designs by Anne Langpap which were in a free package for Two Peas in a Pod in June 2007. You can still download it here. The only part not by Anne is the distressed antique paper used as a layer behind the image and for the main card layer which was a digital freebie by "Daisy D" on a CD from Scrapbook Magazine a while ago.

To paraphrase good old Brucie on Strictly Come Dancing "Keeeeep Crafting!" and I hope your week is inspirationally arty.

By the way I don't think John should have left the programme. I can understand why he felt he aught to but if the public had voted for him that is all part of the show, isn't it? And now only two people get the chance to dance in the final!!!

Drink Wine Card

Just a quick post that I thought might be interesting. If you saw my earlier post for the Arty Girlz challenge #52 this is the same only as a totally digital image. You can see I swapped the music part around (I now remember it was a bit of 7 Gypsies paper I had left over). Sometimes it is quite easy to make a digital and a hybrid project look alike sometimes not. This was one of the easier ones.

Have an Arty day. :)

Arty Girlz Challenge # 55 Clip Art

This weeks challenge at Arty Girlz is to use clip art in your work and amazingly I found nearly all the parts in my project on the Microsoft website. As soon as I saw the ship bow an idea started to form. Please, please tell me it is a Viking ship and not something else!!

The background was left as is with its lovely scrolls in the corners. I extracted the Viking ship from its blue sky background (cutting paper digitally) and made the quotation follow its outline. I digitally cut the compass image with a knife tool to serrate the edges and knocked back the transparency to about 50% to try to replicate vellum and attached it with a couple of staples. The image of the rope was only altered by adding a slight transparency.

I added a bevel & emboss filter effect to some circles for the brads, brushed a pastel effect in blue to grunge the background a bit and added a couple of tattoo type images from my Serif programme to add a salty seafaring touch! Simple I hear you cry, well yes I suppose except that it has taken me two and a half hours to complete. However, during this time, I have been learning as I went. I think it is essential to "Learn something new every day". It is a motto that I like to live to. Have and Arty week and I hope you learn something new today!

Santander

Here are the photo's of the girls trip to Santander. I could not decide which to use so I made a bit of a montage of my favourites using a template that was a freebie from Designer Digitals I think you might find it under ad or web challenge. I have added more segments to it to accommodate more pictures. Just click on them to enlarge.
We left Plymouth on one of the very few sunny days we had in July and the crossing was really smooth. Very impressed with the ship. There is a cinema on board, live entertainment bar and a piano bar, 2 self serve restaurants and a more formal (and less crowded) restaurant plus a great shop and duty free. It does feel a bit weird though that you are on your way to Spain geared up to speak a bit of Spanish and the ship is French so you have to rethink and speak a bit of that - like Merci, bonjour! All the crew do speak English though and are very nice. There is also a pool. It really is a mini cruise.We arrived in Santander to a bit of a dull day on the Monday but it steadily improved and it could not have been hotter in southern Spain I'm sure! The coach from the ferry to the Hotel Chique was in with the price and El Sardinero beach is a real stunner, although it does shrink a little at high tide. We had a relaxing time just wandering, soaking up the atmosphere, stopping for a drink at a cafe, & long lunches - hey - we had to sit down, it was too hot to walk around all day!! One of the best was in the park on the headland. There is a cafe there and we had the best chorizo concoction ever. Do try it out if you ever get there. However the best meal of the trip for me had to be the Italian (yes Italian in Spain!) it was the most fun night which was helped along by the attentive waiter, the meal itself was pretty good too. The crossing back on the Thursday night was a bit rougher and one of the girls felt ill and had to miss the evening meal. I felt fine but you could tell it must have been rough as during the night I kept being woken up as the rocking of the ship made you feel as if you were going to fall out of bed! Honestly, I did not get my land legs back for nearly a week after we got back!! So, I would go to Santander again it is a great beach resort. In many ways it reminded me of Torbay in Devon as it has the same backdrop of green hills behind the town. Next time it would be nice to have a car and see a bit of the country side around. Hope you enjoy the pictures. :)

Make a Moo or Two - Budapest

I seem to be doing a lot of firsts this week. Now I have found this site Make a Moo or Two through a link on another blog (don't have clue which one!). I do love a bit of grunge as you can probably tell from the moo's I have made here for this challenge on the theme of Steden van Europa/Cities of Europe which will only just be in time before the next one starts!!

All the images are my own. I was lucky enough to go to Budapest a couple of years ago, somewhere I have had a romantic notion about for years, and it did not disappoint. It was another trip with the girls and I would recommend it to anyone. I watch TW1 in the morning before I go to work to see the mountains of Austria, which I also love, and they show Budapest as well, it's nice to dream.
This is all done digitally, I am sorry if that does not count but I could not see anything that said it can't be and as soon as I saw this idea I couldn't wait to try it out. Anyway, I usually tweak my designs digitally and then get round to trying to replicate them in the real world! The horse statue is actually on the Buda side of the Danube and the Church is on the Pest side. The stamp is from my husbands collection he has had since he was little and I digitally extracted it for this layout.

Have an Arty day - wish it was in Budapest - ah well I will just have to dream.

New Baby Tag

Life just gets in the way of spending time crafting - Monday to Friday at work and before you know it Saturday & Sunday have vanished into thin air and it's Monday again. I still have not finished my little baby project but I have finally done the tag element that is to go on the front. This baby will be 2 yrs old before they get it if I'm not careful! I have been working on my Christmas card design for this year and that is finalised so that's a relief now all I have to do is make 80 of them. I could post a picture of that but it would spoil it for my friends so I will post a picture of the tag instead. I have used two of my own design digital papers on this. Hope you like. Have an Arty week!

Bebe Button Quilt

As I said the other day I have been working on a hybrid project for a new baby and the digital designs for it have been ongoing for a while. As the parents did not want anyone to know if their bump was a boy or a girl (not even my friend who is the Grandma was in on the secret!), I decided to go with the flow and try to design some papers that would be equally suitable for either. It has been a bit of a challenge!

Voila! Here is the first digital paper I am making available to you from this collection. It is a JPEG image and although you could grab the image by right clicking/save as etc you will find that as it is only 72 dpi it will be pixalated if you enlarge it and what’s more it has my copyright logo on it!

Soooooooo I have made it available in all it’s glory at 300 dpi, just click on the image to go to the download area. Please enjoy using it but don’t forget the copyright rules.

Guadi Girls Digital Layout

The girls are off to Santander this year via a mini cruise from Plymouth. Last year only five of us could make it to Barcelona but this year all six of us will be having fun in the sun! Here is the digital layout I created last year for everyone as a memento.


I use a programme called Serif which I find excellent to work with. I am a self taught digital artist and love to dabble, the time just flies by when I am immersed in design. I will be posting more designs in the weeks to come, work permitting!! It would also be nice to pass on some tips and maybe some digital freebies in future as well.
I am an eclectic artist and whilst I am totally into digital I can’t help but combine it with traditional paper for that hybrid look.