Glass Half Full?

Inspired by the Sea and Two Colour Harmony - Graphicus July Challenge

I am usually a glass half full sort of person but for a number of reasons I am having a glass half empty period! LOL........Yes I can still laugh!!!!

So this sentiment from the Loving Sentiments set at Elusive Images that Glenda kindly gave away and I was mighty lucky to win suited my mood.....I am grateful to have come up with any idea at all for this months challenge at the Graphicus blog and it sort of evolved from the Distress Inks that I plonked on the mat and swirled around a bit!

The Faded Jeans and Shabby Shutters mixed together in one spot and formed the yellowish colour up in the corner that in the end I decided to keep as it looked like the sun was breaking through the clouds after a storm whilst the sea was still trying to calm down..........that's my interpretation of the torn bits of inked paper and I'm sticking to it! LOL

I have found there is also two ways of photographing your work.....one that shows the card in it's (more or less!) true colours.....and one that will show up any glimmer effect! I have as yet not managed to be able to do both at the same time.....any tips? So I am including a close up area of both!!!

The backing paper is one of Glenda's and is available as a freebie from her Artylicious blog here I just altered the colour to match the inked sentiment better.....the wide gro grain ribbon was a gift from a friend (she thought of me before she chucked it out!) and the metal tag is from All My Memories that QVC provided some time ago now.

Thanks for looking........keep stamping.........I am trying to.

xoxo

Edit: Today my boss gave me a rise.....Yeah!!!! It's back to glass half full for me then!!!

Desperate Romantics!

I am looking forward to Tuesday evening 9.00 p.m. on BBC 2........."Desperate Romantics"......it's all about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of painters..........Rossetti, Millais and Holman Hunt.
I am imagining the colours, style and evocative feel of the programme already.....have always loved these paintings.
xoxo

Ready Steady Stamp

Get ready........get steady.........lets stamp!....Tomorrow sees the start of a new challenge blog......Ready Steady Stamp don't all groan!!!....This is a bit of refreshment from the norm.........no prizes! Who cares........if you are anything like me Mr Random never liked me anyway and......dare I say this?.........I think Mr Random degrades the quality of the entries at times......that goes for me as well because there are a couple of items on this blog that I am not proud of and I would never have posted if it wasn't for the desparate need to catch a deadline!!!! LOL

Also no cuteness allowed.........again there are plenty of other challenges to satisfy that when you want them.

Cant wait myself......see you there tomorrow.

xoxo

Light up my Life!

It's Sugar Bowl challenge time again for me and I have been tinkering with the Gorjuss one! The sketch this time is by Judy which was really for a square card but I needed to make a different size format so this turned into an A5 card.
The lighting here today is bad...the weather is bad.....I feel bad!!!! Lingering cough plaguing me from my summer cold still.
I decided she needed to be sat on a string of Christmas lights.......still pondering my Xmas cards you see..............this is the first time I have included the little birdie....it's not that I don't like him/her but the other times it sort of didn't fit in!

The die cut swirls were just some plain card that I added glue and glitter to and I put 3D glaze to the bulbs which shows up a bit better in the close up...............added little blobs of glue to her dress and sprinkled on the glitter.....made up the flower........hope you think it is poinsettia like!!! The dotty and green papers are my own digital design again.........the striped bit is K&Co and the music paper is the web freebie from CS this month.....gave it the same treatment as my last card...........I like to think this would be equally suitable for a man to give a woman or for a woman to give a man.
Thanks for looking........happy stamping!
xoxo

Edit: Bl*&$£y H#!**l!!!! I've put the music on upside down.....unforgivable

Singing Ringing Tree

There is a sketch to follow over at Katherina's blog......if you make a card using a Whiff of Joy stamp you might get to join in the blog hop coming up on 25th July as a guest designer......how cool is that!!....and you get one of the new release stamps to showcase too.
Thought I'd give it a go.....can't win it if your not in it!



Because you can see both the inside of the card and the outside at the same time it was difficult to get the whole card in focus standing up............so I laid it down flat to get a better picture and took a separate one of the inside.
The papers are my own digital designs.......I am still messing around with Christmas themes hence the red and green!.........The piece of music paper was the free download from CS this month which I distressed even more...scrunched up...unscrunched...... bit of DI FB and WS added and sprayed with some Glimmer....the buttons were coloured with Alcohol inks....The fruits on the tree had gilding flakes added to follow the "Singing Ringing Tree" title.........loved that fairy tale from way back when.....thought the tree suited it.....you can read about it here.
Thanks for looking.

Fly With Me? - Papertake Weekly

Once again the sketch by Dawny at Papertake Weekly has come up trumps just when I needed it....I'm beginning to wonder if she is psychic!!!.......fab sketch and suited what I had made as the topper/ATC itself had the sentiment already so no need for additions.....although I did decide to add a trio of gems top and bottom.

I stamped the Artistic Stamper birdie (free with CS) and the Paperartsy heart thingy and swirls onto some patterned paper for a change instead of making my own background as I did with this one...sometimes time is of the essence! LOL.......all the papers are K&Co Roam.

The yellow fibre stuff was from a stall at the Exeter craft show a few years back......it is coming again in September but I am thinking of giving it a miss as it just seems to be the same old stuff.....afraid it is one of the hazards of living down here on the way to nowhere else because it is a long way for a lot of companies to travel to......

Wondering whether to save up the pennies and have a look see at the NEC one coming up anyone any recommendations on that? Is it worth the trek up there and the extra cost for me considering I would most likely stay overnight to make the most of a full day there....any comments gratefully received.

Thanks for looking...........and thanks again for another super sketch.........loved it.

xoxo

Give it some Distress!

At Tuesday Taggers this week the theme is to distress using Tim Holtz techniques....can't refuse that one! There is a sponsor this week with a prize from The Craft Barn.

My tag has turned into a bit of a deep thought exercise......with making Christmas cards on my mind I started out with one thought but it turned into this thought..........that for everyone who celebrates Christmas and the Joy that surrounds the season............there will always be people in the world who will not be living in peace & harmony.....I did say it was a bit deep!!!
The wording and numbers are both Paperartsy, the head is from one of my computer fonts....DI's SS,FB,WS,PN,WL........Adirondack acrylics cranberry and butterscotch.

Thanks for looking........and as dear Dave Allen used to say "May your God go with you"
xoxo

It's So Exciting!....but I'm stumped!

I couldn't be more excited if I had won some candy..............and believe me if I ever do I will be so shocked I will no doubt keel over in a dead faint!!! LOL.........anyway.......I am so excited to see one of my cards in Craft Stamper this month in the "Inspired By" section.........hope you have your copy by now....I made a masculine version of the card first which you can see here and because I liked the free ticket stamp so much went on to make this card and decided to send it in....here is the blurb I sent with it that appears in the mag......

"Just wanted to say thanks for the great stamp this month………and thought I would send you one of the projects I did with it. I love collage stamps and drool over quite a few but on a limited budget it is hard to quantify the cost….so I decided to try and work out what it was that I liked so much and then have a go at creating my own with the stamps I already have…….so here is my collage homage to Crafty Individuals. Thanks again……………I can see me using this stamp quite a lot."

Actually I should be doubly thrilled because I also got a mention in the "Design a cover stamp" article..........well I am really.....but also a bit mortified that it was the stitches design that got a mention....It was my least favourite by a mile and it contained no drawing skills whatsoever!!!!.....it was all done digitally.......whilst my other two were hand drawn........I'm not sure if I can show them here though as CS now hold the copyright to all the designs sent in.......it was part of the conditions of entry..........with which I had a bit of bee in my bonnet about.......hey ho......I'm a bit stumped as I really wanted to use my drawing of a fancy bow and a tiger myself.....perhaps if I change them a bit that will get round it?

Love the dragonfly stamp this month by Kay and The Stamp Man and perhaps I'll send in something else soon.....it is very special to see something of your own in print. :)

xoxo

It's Christmas! - Ismaki 22/06

The sketch this week at Ismaki was just what I needed to kick start my idea's for my Christmas cards this year....I had already had a thought to do a design based on moo sizes and this sketch fitted that perfectly.........

I just could not stop when I started.............in the end I will not be making 65 of these for Christmas!!!!!!!!...LOL.............far too labour intensive....so will have to think again......I used Paperartsy stamps for the moo sized images and the background is an Anna Griffin stamp....made the flower up...the poinsettia that is........not the little burgundy ones near the swirls.........added a bit of stickles to the edges........distressed all layers a bit with DI FB.

It is a super gorgeous day here again....hope you are having good weather too wherever you may be.....It did seem a little odd making a Christmas card!

Thanks for looking.

xoxo

Enjoy Today - Sugar Bowl #13

The Sugar Bowl Challenge sketch this time is by Lilian and it was a pleasure to work with...although I like the look of lots of layers I don't always feel like making them all! LOL......
the please include is to use "Kraft" in your piece.....I loved how this turned out if I do say so myself.

I stamped the bunch of flowers all over a piece of Kraft card with DI TR for the background and wrapped some raffia round the middle.........the piece of DP in the top corner is my own design digital paper (the one I used for my blog background)......the bottom piece of DP is by Deja Views which I also used to make the flower....it is double sided so coordinates well.....

I distressed a couple of petal layers with DI to tie in with the colouring on the image......Yep my stamp arrived day after I ordered it how great is that!!!....masked off the flowers,butterfly and bees and stamped upside down one the right way up.....if you get my drift!........masked the girl and added a stamped background of script by Paperartsy (sub freebie from CS again) in DI TR.....coloured her with pencils and computer generated the word sentiment.

Thanks for looking.......I'm a happy stamper......I wanted that stamp........I needed that stamp!

xoxo

Upside Down & Round and Round - Yippee!

The title says it all really............that is how I felt when my new upside down stamp from Funky Kits arrived today.........YES! today........I only ordered it yesterday just before I went on the blog hop that launched the new range and here it is and here is the card I made almost straight away.........yes, Yes, YES!!...........I'm easily pleased LOL. ;)

As soon as I saw this design by Diane Duda I just had to have it............I was going to buy a new bra this week but I decided that could wait and went for the rubber instead!!!.........I have a multitude of ideas brewing for this one but for now I stamped her as is and coloured in with the pencils & baby oil technique........oooh dear bra's.........rubber.............baby oil..........hope a search engine doesn't come to the wrong conclusion! HOL. :)))
Thanks for looking....Happy Stamping.

xoxo
P.S. At the time of writing the stamp is still in stock.......I'd be inclined to go there quick and order though because I am sure there will be lots of great cards made with this one.

P.P.S. It must be my lucky day..........I was looking for some challenge inspiration and this card fits the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge to use pink & green....I love pink & green........

spooky!!!.........off to buy a lottery ticket. LOL

Dotty Nellie with a Masking Technique

Yesterday I had a play with masking those flower pots I used the other week with Fitz........but it was just not working out as I wanted it to........so I had to draw a flower pot outline myself and then add the flower spray........here is how I managed it........ran out of time to post this yesterday on my Dotty Nellie for the challenge.....................learn from my mistakes LOL...........feel free to laugh when you get to the end of it!!!!!!!!!

I stamped the main image of
Nellie with Flower then stamped the sunflower with pot on scrap card and cut out the stamped flower pot only.........as you can see in the top corner...... BTW the pen is a "Pilot" drawing pen....they come in different nib widths, this one is 01.

I placed the cut out of the pot where I wanted it just a little higher on the page than the main stamp and drew a line around it but left the top of the pot open as you can see on the left hand side.

Now.....please make sure you now mask your main Nellie image........I forgot to the first time round arrrrrrrrg!!! LOL...........I couldn't just use the flower pot mask to stamp the bunch of flowers as the stems were too big and would have shown.....also the rim of the pot had to be cut away or I would have masked out more of the flowers............so I had to first cut a smaller pot mask then cut a larger piece of card and attach underneath the pot mask and then stamp the flowers!!!................This still meant that part of the flower image was lost because of the mask as you can see on the other side.
So I had to draw in the missing bits with the pen!.....added a bit of shading with the pen to edges of pot and at last a finished stamped piece ready to colour in and here is a reminder of the card I made with it.

If anyone has a tip for me on how I could have achieved this in an easier way I'd really like to know!!! LOL .............I suppose I should have just used the original stamp but I wanted a change.......I hope you find this useful.

Thanks for looking...........Happy Stamping.

xoxo

Dotty Nellie

At Stamp with Fun the challenge is to use dots.........I'm feeling in a dotty mood myself at the moment so I'd better join in!
I've used those digi freebie papers again from The Shabby Princess........my friend loved the thanks card I did the other day BTW.

I wanted to have a play with masking those flower pots I used the other week with Fitz........but it was just not working out as I wanted it to........so I had to draw a flower pot outline myself and then add the flower spray...........hope you think it works........I'll be posting a Tips & Tricks on this tomorrow if you want to take a look.
Thanks for looking...........must dash.......Happy Stamping.

xoxo

Perfect Pie

It has been a beautiful day here weather wise.....hope you have been as lucky where you are........Yesterday I was dreaming of Mojacar in Spain........today Greece.........ate a beef Stifado outside in the garden.......had a cool beer to wash it down.......dreamed of the day my olive tree (bush!) will be big enough to sit beneath it's boughs in the dappled shade...........

DH did the cooking as per usual and he also made an apple and raspberry pie......it was scrummy!

Digital photo mounts framing the pie were a freebie from Digital Scrapbook Place.

Getting back to Spain............I have been looking for that view from the terrace in Mojacar Pueblo that I mentioned yesterday.........but can I find it!............Can I heck! LOL....whoops I think I am repeating myself again.....I can only point you to a You Tube site I found that has a slide show of the area ......the view is stunning but I don't think photo's do it justice at all.........It also got me thinking about how long it was since I was there.......I was a bit shocked at all the buildings around the beach area!.........Time flies because it was around about 1990.........no wonder it has changed. LOL

TTFN

xoxo

edit.....found another little vid of Mojacar on you tube that is spectacular.....makes me want to go again.

Parfum d'Orange - WOJ # 34

Woooh!!!! Here I am for the first time at the WOJ challenge........I have saved up my precious pennies and chosen just two stamps so that I can enter the challenges here........you know me I like to dip into different ones depending on which theme/colour/sketch/style grabs me at the time.......

I chose this citrus tree as........a) It could so easily be a number of different fruits depending on how you colour it........b) because it reminded me of a beautiful plaza in Mojacar Pueblo, Spain where there are Orange trees all around and the view from the terrace is to die for........stunning views to the coast and inland........I'll try and find a picture if I have one and post it.......dreams over for the day!.............here is my card.

I coloured the image with pencils using the baby oil technique and added a bit of Adirondack Pesto to distress the edges and the mat layers......made up the flower and used my circular sentiment thingy again for the "THANKS".....I love this and find it so useful.

By the way the tree comes with the "Love grows happiness" sentiment stamp so that was an added bonus! The papers are digital ones again that were a freebie from "The Shabby Princess" I love the free desktops she does each month via her blog........cheers up my computer work space.

Thanks for looking..........Happy Stamping.

xoxo

Queen for a Day - Sugar Bowl #12 sketch

Over at The Sugar Bowl the sketch looked inviting so I gave it a go and used the "must include" to have the colours blue & green on your card.
I have gone back to the Gorjuss one and decided to play around a bit.......added a crown and sat her on the fairy kingdom ticket that was the free stamp with CS last month....love that stamp.

Me and bling don't usually go together but if you are going to be "Queen for a Day" then you've got to have it daaaaahlink......also embossed the swirly curls with disco black powder......actually I might put a few more on...not sure........made and inked the flower layers to match in..............and the sentiment was computer generated as I so often do.
Thanks for looking.....enjoyed the sketch by Lia........Oh! Nearly forgot to mention......there is a chance.........and in my case a very slim one!........of winning the upcoming new release stamps from Duda Daze. at the Sweet Shop..........have not seen any peeks yet but she does have some great art work in her Etsy shop (love the frogs)......Happy stamping.

xoxo

Fitz amongst the Sunflowers - Papertake Weekly Sketch #16

I am warning you now this is a bit bright!!!
I had just finished colouring this for a thank you to a friend when I saw the sketch from Dawn at Papertake Weekly and spookily it was just the right layout for the image......had to use it then :)
I don't usually do this colour way and this is the first time I have used the K&Co Hopscotch Boy papers.....thankfully I think it works ok as I had coloured the image whilst watching the tele and there was not a lot of light and I put too much colour on.......obviously the eyesight is not what it used to be and it turned out a bit too intense!!! LOL

Sorry for using Fitz again so soon......but he is mine and I love him!.....The sunflowers in a pot I have had for years (QVC) and this is the first time I have used it.......shame on me.
Thanks for the sketch Dawn it was just what I was looking for....and thanks for looking........you can take your sunglasses off now!!! LOL

xoxo

Something Completely Different - #3

Something Completely Different has, for me, turned into something pretty much the same.........I have got a genuine reason though........honest!.........I am going to combine all three twinchies I have made into one larger piece so they have to have some sort of cohesion....don't they? LOL




The birdies were a free image from The Vintage Moth.....SSBFL...printed off and coloured with pencils......same stamped background used and the wording stamped with my little letter stamps.....I was really pleased to find this image as I thought the birds looked as if they were wearing masks......so they fitted in with the word disguise........it will all be crystal clear when you see the finished piece!!! LOL
xoxo

Tilda meets Fitz! Just Magnolia Week #7

I have been busy with life and other things but I am back at Just Magnolia for the challenge this week to use animals or insects.......I have used one of the much prized stamped images of Tilda that a very special person sent me :) and added a little twist with my own digital stamp of a cat......I used K&Co Classic K McKenna papers........made up my own flower, inking plain white card to match the papers.......ditto the swirls and a computer generated sentiment finished off with a corner punch/embosser that was a bargain on C&C many moons ago....the silver heart charm was in a bargain card making kit (£1.39!!) from my local Sue Ryder shop on Saturday.......images coloured with pencils using the baby oil technique.



I believe they say necessity is the mother of invention?.............I love stamping only problem is the monetary challenged position I find myself in which prevents me indulging very much in new stamps.........I have been hoping to buy some sort of cat stamp recently but.....well......I just could not seem to find the right one at just the right price!!!....the only solution..........draw your own!!!..........somehow I was inspired and came up with a design based on my gorgeous cat Fitzgerald......as he is a digital stamp I have re sized him so he can be a new friend for Tilda.......that is the best reason for doing him or any other stamp digitally IMO......being able to resize.......although nothing is perfect and there are limitations in using a digital stamp for certain techniques......Hope you have enjoyed looking at my card.......and if you have why not pop along and join in the challenge.........you might be lucky and the man of your dreams aka Mr Random might be knocking at your door!!
xoxo

Purrr...fect

I have been revisiting my art sketch book.....bit of a posh name for a doodling book!.....I tend to roughly jot down ideas in it.....which can be anything from a phrase that springs in my mind to a pattern I see.......or a doodle of something......not that much in it has ever turned into a bigger project or a full blown drawing...............I mentioned in an earlier post about wishing I had had some proper training when it comes to art........anyway I have been in "the mood" and have been refining (playing) with a doodle of my cat Fitzgerald.....finally transferring him to the computer in a digital format via my Wacom tablet...........I am by no means an expert at using this but it is an invaluable tool if you are interested in that sort of thing.......I then printed him off (what they call a digital stamp) and coloured him with the pencils my mum bought me all those years ago.


And the inside got a bit of decoration too....I used the Magnolia week 4 sketch....loved it but did not get the time to join in that week!!.........Papers are the same as I used on the digital post here only printed out this time for a bit of tactile crafting..........you can find them here under Mindy at Designer Digitals


That is my first post showing my very own design art...........Hope you like Fitz as much as I do........but then I am biased he is based on "My Cutie Pie"...Fitzgerald the purr...fect cat....IMO.

xoxo