Hope you had a wonderful Xmas!

My blog has been a bit bereft of posts the 5/6 weeks. I honestly don't know where the time has gone, but I hope everyone had a wonderful day yesterday and received all the presents they were hoping for. I had some lovely gifts, although nothing crafty!!

I promise I will try to post more regularly through 2011, and also give some updates on the revamping of the cards on my website.

I would like to make a concerted effort to get more people aware of my card making, it seems to be a well kept secret that I make them, and really I'd like the whole town to know that they can get their cards  HERE!!

I am planning to have a stall at the International Womens Day event in March. It is being held at the South East Essex College. I had one there last year and it was a really fun day! Lots of other stalls and displays of dancing  etc. Also a wonderful Indian food stall that I loved.  I think I spent all my profits there!!

So, New Years Resolutions that I'd like to attempt: (fingers crossed)

1 Lose weight...........I know we all say that, but I have to knuckle down, as I was diagnosed as Diabetic last year. Also in  relation to this last.....

2. Stick to my allowed foods........... so I don't end up on Insulin instead of tablets to control my blood sugar

3. Blog more regularly............. At the minimum, once a week and hopefully more!

4 Advertise my cards on my face book page every time I make one.

5. Revamp the website.

That's more than enough, otherwise I'll never keep it up.

And finally............

The last Xmas card order of 2010 is shown here!..........and I got two orders for New Year's cards on Christmas Eve, that I must get done today or tomorrow.

Have a Wonderful 2011, and I hope you'll not only visit often, but tell other people I'm here!!


Love from Bets

A LOTV Blog Hop

I've not posted for a few days again, my life seems to get more and more hectic, despite my plans to de-stress my days. Ah well, at least I got a few cards made. I'll get back to those further down the page, but first off is the LOTV blog hop for some fantastic candy.

You need to go to the challenge blog where the rules will all be explained MUCH more clearly than I can do it here. It's well worth going to tho', I promise!!
Here's my entry. I found a blog the other day suggesting colouring images and making sepia cards, so I found a stamp I really haven't enjoyed colouring and tried it out!..................I love it now.
I finished it last night and although it's quite plain, when I found the challenge this morning, it seemed as though I had made it at just the right time.







I used a really yellowy cream card stock to print the image on, and although it wasn't very good quality card, it took the effect much better than I had thought it might.
Obviously I used nestabilities to cut out the image, then pearlised cardstock through the cuttlebug and background paper was from Papermania, 'the big one' 12" x12" pad "Temptations". The parcel ties and the stars on her shopping bag were highlighted with a Sakura stardust pen, and a thin matt gold coloured ribbon taken down the join of the two papers.
The image was coloured with promarkers, and I used blush, sandstone, cinnamon and cocoa. I would have preferred to stamp the image in a brown, but I don't own one.


This blog has taken a long time to get to this point. Blogger seems to have some issues this morning, or else my computer has some with blogger, but using the new posting settings it refuses to upload any pictures, so I've had to go back to the old system, which seems to have different settings font features.........or else its just me being daft as usual!


I've made a few more simple cards for the table sale  I'm doing next week, so to cut a long story short, (and get them on view before blogger goes completly doolally), I'll just upload without any more chat!

Thanks for looking!

So lazy lately!

Well I finally got back to write a bit more. I've been so lazy lately when it comes to blogging. Partly cos I share my computer with my daughter. The trouble is, by the end of the day when I have something to put on here, I've lost the desk to her!
I have been working on a few cards tho'. A few days back I came across some new digi images from Tickled Pink. So, although I've never been asked for a Halloween Card in my life..........I made THREE!
I googled an image of a haunted house, printed it onto photo paper, and cut out my coloured images and stuck them onto the background.  The last image was of a witch, so I googled  'moon' and found another background for her. The witch was an A6 card and the other two are A5 size. The 'too cute to spook' wording was pinched from a set of stamps, but couldn't afford to get those as well...........sorry.

I haven't added wording to the witch yet, I'm playing with a couple of ideas for that, and can't make up my mind.

Yesterday I finally got the Lili of the Valley stamps I've been dying for!.............not new ones but just a couple of the little fairy stamps they do. I have just fallen for these stamp ranges ...I want them all!

 ( N.B, Xmas is coming, family type people!!)

Then browsing through the website ( as you do) I found the colouring tutorial video's for promarkers. As the demonstration stamp is one of the ones I just bought, and as I'm learning about colouring  VERY slowly, I decided to colour the stamps as per the instructions.  I ended up with 3 images I'm  extremely pleased with. Thank you, LOTV, for an excellent tutorial. May you do many more of them for clutz's like me!!

Heres the three little cards I made out of the coloured images,

So, I hope you enjoy looking at these. Personally, I'm over the moon with them. I finally feel as thought I might be getting the hang of using markers to colour.

Going to play some more now, before I have to start with housework!! Have a great day wherever you are.

KennyK images

Today, I just want to show off my latest KennyK gothic Angelz cards. I still can't get too into Xmas at the moment, and I love doing these, if only because I need to practice colouring them in.
 I'm not very good at skin tones yet, and light and shade toning seems to come and go with me. Every time I think I've cracked the technique, it seems to go wrong again.
I have done some small Christmas cards and I may put them up later, but today I'm trying to catch up on adding missing inserts to the cards I've already done, ready for this table sale that's pending. Also, bagging and labelling needs time spent on it.

Enough waffling.........here's the cards!

At last .............I produced a card!!

Well................half a card anyway!!  I sent off for some the La Pashe Flippin' Men/Women stamp sets and they arrived this morning. As usual when I get a new stamp I can't wait for an idea I just want to stamp it up! So now I have a half finished card that I don't know how to salvage into something useable. I'll just have to put it away and come back to it at a later date. With luck some blinding flash of creativity will strike in a few weeks time.

The weather is dark and dank here, so the lighting on these pictures is abysmal. Please excuse the picture quality, my camera is bad on a GOOD day!!


The polar bears I coloured I have now made into 3 very simple cards. I do like them though.
I didn't want to do anything too fancy, as I have been invited to have a card table at my local Housing Association this month. Theres some sort of Christmas fair come table sale being held there. However from last years experience I know that people don't want to pay a lot for a card, so I'm doing some less involved ones.

 Hopefully I'm not going to end up using more cardstock and embellishment value than the prices will cover. I think also I may try some memo pad covers, and some candles again. As the sale is a little earlier this year, someone may want a small token present or tree gift, so fingers crossed!
Running late again tonight with cooking so I'll have to go now, but I'll try to keep up to date with posting this month.

Polar Bears

Still not getting a buzz from this crafting lark at the moment, but I have spent this afternoon colouring these three images, hoping inspiration to use them will suddenly strike me.............but nothing yet, and I have to go start preparing a meal now. Perhaps tomorrow will be better!!

Lost my mojo!

This is just a short post mainly to confirm that  I AM still about,......... I've just lost my mojo!! (Not really sure what a mojo is - but I'm sure when it reappears I'll recognise it!!)

The only thing I've made lately is a bottle top tag that I was going to enter for the Whiff Of Joy DT  application. However, once it was made I didn't like it, and so never entered it. Perhaps in a couple of months I'll try again.

This was it........I used paper piecing for her coat and hat, promarkers for the rest of her outfit, and white glitter for the coat and hat trim. I've never made a bottle tag before, it was interesting - and useful for Xmas/birthday presents!

I have made a card for a Forum swap, but unfortunately I've posted it off without taking a picture of it. ARRGH!............ I HATE it when I do that!! 
If by some chance we post pictures of the cards we received on the forum, I'll try to "pinch" the image back and post it here. It won't be til after October 2nd though, 'cos that's the date we all have to open them.
It was decided to swap one card with a partner for National Cardmakers Day, and the rules were that it had to be made using Autumn colours, and no one could open their card until 2nd October. We also had to include 5 stamped images as a swop, and some candy.
Can't wait to open mine!

I've ordered some of La Pashe flippin' men and flippin' women clear stamps which were on sale at imagenation. Only £1 each and there's still some available as I write this.

 My daughter has been offerred some temporary work at a local company, just for a couple of weeks while they clear a massive backlog of orders. So its quiet here today, (much as I love her, it's wonderful to have time to myself) and I can just chill out all on my own. She is obviously over the moon to be offered  ANY work at all. It's the first time I've seen her that excited in a long time!! 

Everyone.........please order LOTS of craft stuff from the company that runs the aforementioned forum, so that way she'll be offered a longer work placement!!....LOL

Ok.............going to search for that missing mojo!............I know I left it around here somewhere......

Oh What a Night!..........and day!

I was supposed to upload some cards yesterday evening, but had a major disaster and everything else was put on hold!.

I walked into the kitchen last night to behold a river of blood across the floor. My first thought?............what's the dog done???  PANIC!!!!
( From this you can gather that my dog is as clumsy as anything, injures himself without even trying, and was appropriately named BUMBLE.)

Anyway,  a moments reflection made me realise that, despite my pounding heart rate, it wasn't blood. 

Closer investigation revealed........Raspberry Juice..........leaking out of the bottom of the freezer,............ which had the plug switched OFF.

Obviously, this was unintentional, (ya think?) and had apparently happened when we had to move the freezer from under the kitchen window on Tuesday night for the window repair man to come on Wednesday morning.

Screams for help to my daughter ensued to come and get the dog, who by this time had discovered that raspberry juice was "nice"..........and "didn't it make pretty patterns all over the kitchen floor when you walked in it?"
So,  mop in hand, I set about clearing up the river..........and then had to brave the worst bit.............seeing how much of the freezer full of food was salvageable.

It was heartbreaking actually. A freezer full of food has vanished, and in it's place are about 10 day's worth of meals. Most of the stuff had defrosted completely, fish was thrown, other bits had been sitting in a lake of raspberry juice and were ruined. Packs of peas, sweetcorn, broccolli, runner beans.............all no longer useable. I also had some Ready Meals in there too - all ruined. plus a load of bread and rolls.

 I  did manage to salvage a plastic tub with portions of Beef mince, another with Lamb mince, a pack of Rhubarb, some sausages, and a pack of chicken breasts. All of which had not  QUITE defrosted. They went into the fridge overnight, and today I had to go into cooking mode.

I spent most of the day making all the defrosted stuff into 2 chicken casseroles, 2 sausage casseroles, 2 Beef Passanda, 2 Spaghetti bolognaise sauce, and 4 Shepherds pies, which all have gone back into the freezer now, and the aforementioned  freezer has had  it's socket switch taped into the  ON postion!!!

Roll on payday. .........that's all I can say!



Soooooooooooo! on to the cards that should have been uploaded last night.

 The first is the monthly card kit from Little Claire. I changed it slightly  by decoupaging the flower, and raising the circles up on pads. It looked a little flat to me.......now I like it better!!

            The image was coloured with Promarkers, and I used Berry Red for the main colour on the flowers and Burgundy for the shading, then for the decoupaged petals I used Poppy for the main colour and Berry Red for the shading. It worked out quite well, considering I'm a bit short of red shades!

After that I set about making a couple of cards for an Appeal for Ovarian Cancer that  Sue Upson has on her blog.

They are just small cards, and not very fancy cos they have to go through the post, I didn't want things to get spoilt. The stipulation was that they should be in Teal colours, that being the Charity's colour. This  IS Teal.........even if it doesn't look it!! 

 I did two using the same image. One I watercoloured, and used a holographic backgound paper.Very simply done, but with all that holographic effect I didn't want to overload it.

 The other one,  I've paper pieced using the same holographic paper. I cut our her top, skirt and shoes in the teal, and then used a silver holographic paper to print and paper piece the bouquet wrapping.
I added some flowers from Wild Orchid, a little silver heart from my stash, and some diamantes in the centre of the flowers. Lace is also from Wild Orchid Crafts.

I just have to get them sent off now, so need to email to ask for the address. I'll come clean and admit that the papers are Xmas wrapping sheets on a roll from the pound shop last year. I'm going to find some more this year that I can use. I LIKE them!

My daughter is dying to get onto the internet now, so I must close. Hope your weekend is going  better than mine has so far!!

I probably won't post tomorrow as I'm spending the day at my fathers........

Busy, busy coupla days.

Lots to do this week. Got my daughter's birthday on the 9th, and I haven't made her card yet.........EEK! The worst bit is, I have no idea what to do. Inspiration has vacated my brain at the worst possible point in time.
I have my Godmother visiting me tomorrow, along with my father. She is visiting him for a fortnight. Then in the afternoon, I am waiting for a man to come and fit new window latches. Since the winter I've had 3 break off. I assume it's metal fatigue, cos they were only cheap ones. Unfortunately that means I have to move my chest freezer from under the kitchen window, so he can get to it.
Thursday, as I said,  is Jo's birthday. I also have HER godmother visiting for the day, plus I have to go out with the estate surveyor to do an inspection.  This is part of my duties as an ESB (estate, Street, and block) representative. It all happens at once!
I have made one very simple card this week, (idea courtesy of Ikki's Cuttlebug Cupboard). Only made it cos I wanted to use my new die cut. Here it is

Might try to get back later today, if I get the freezer moved safely! I wish moving one thing didn't mean a whole room has to be reorganised!

Blog candy from Bev!

I found a blog candy offer right here.  I'd go and have a look if I were you........it's a great offer!
I found I was sitting there reading and I suddenly could hear myself going.....ooh!............ooh!........ ha ha! 
Good Luck with it!

Whiff of Joy Challenge # 86 - Janes sketch

I thought I would enter the Whiff of Joy Challenge blog this time. It's based on a sketch by Jane, and you need to use a Whiff of Joy stamp of course. Whiff of Joy are about to launch their new Christmas stamps, so I thought I would use an older one for my card, just because I love Henry Mouse, really! I hope you can see the picture ok, by the time I finished it this evening, I had to take a picture in artificial light. It seems ok, so I hope it still is by the time it reaches your monitor. All the details can be found at the link above, if you'd like to enter. In the meantime, here's my entry

Lots of glitter on this card..............but then it is for Xmas!

Here's a close up of the flowers. I glittered the edges of the petals with silver stickles. You might just be able to see that the mistletoe berries were done with platinum liquid pearls.

Thank You Andria!

My first award EVER!! Thanks to you, Andria, at Iona-Rose . especially as her card making designs leave me  in awe of her talent which makes this doubly appreciated! If you haven't seen her blog you should really pay a visit............and soon!
There are some rules to go with this award so I'll get that done now, before I forget!
1) THANK THE PERSON WHO GAVE ME THIS AWARD - Thank you once more, you can't imagine how pleased I am to get this
2) PLACE THE AWARD ON YOUR BLOG - Well, I did that first, ( just couldn't wait, y'see?)
3) LIST 3 THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF - Ohhhhhh difficult!  I'm pretty tolerant of others opinions, "live and let live" is my motto.  I like my eyes. I like to help others if I possibly can.
4) POST A PICTURE YOU LOVE - this took me a while to find, but was taken in April 2004. It features myself, my father and my very dear friends from Holland, and shows one of the happiest moments of my life. 

I have been unable to go and see them for about 3 years now, and miss them terribly. This was taken on a boat in the Ijsselmeer somwhere between Medemblik and Enkhuizen. This is also the only picture with all of us together.

5) PASS THE AWARD TO 5 OTHER PEOPLE - Gosh! How do you chooose just 5? If I miss someone, please don't take it personally!!   So in no specific order

1 - Squirrels World -  just cos I love her cards.

2 - Ikki's Cuttlebug Cupboard - This is an amazing site and has opened my eyes to so many possibilities of using the bug I would never have thought of myself. I don't suppose she needs  an award like this, her site is already so succesful and amazing, but she surely deserves it in my book.

3 - Jeanette  at Happy Thoughts and Inkspots  She's on several design teams and never fails to inspire me.

4 - Spyders Corner - because on my worst days, she still makes me smile when I read her blog. I would love mine to be half as much fun and as informative as this.

5 - And last but not least, ( and I hope this is within the rules ) I nominate  NB Mr David.

 Brenda and her husband are live aboard narrow boat owners, and she also makes cards, many of which feature wonderful scenes of the canals in all seasons of the year. She also sells her cards here, and was the person who first made me think about running my own blog. I follow her blog religiously, and its interesting to read about their travels as well as see her cards.

-

WOYWW

I cleaned up my desk a bit today, but it never looks really tidy I'm afraid. Three pictures sorta scanning from left to right. One day I'd like a set of shelves above my desk for all my stack of stuff.............under the desk is full already! The only things on show this week are a couple of challenge cards I think. But if you can spot anything else, it's not a secret! :-) Why not head over to What's on your Workdesk wednesday and join in?

Scrappers Delight - Challenge #1 Sweet As Candy

I've done this card for the Scrappers Delight Challenge - Sweet as Candy. I couldn't find a stamp of ice cream of any kind in my box, so I Googled an image and then hand  copied it onto card with a black fineliner. Then I coloured the ice cream with promarkers and water colours for the cone. Then I added some glitter to the edges of the colours, I've done the same for the vanilla flavour too, but it doesn't show on here, unfortunately.

The idea is that the theme is either food related or the colours are candy tones.....also, (most unfairly), you have to own up to what your favourite snack is................Apple Donuts is mine, and even worse I have a Bakers about 5 doors away from me! 

 About midnight every night I get the most wonderful scent of baking bread through the windows..........yummy!.......but it does nothing for my will power! Back later for WOMWW!

A Complete Days's Crafting & Little to Show For it!..............

.................but I did have fun!

I spent the whole day playing with stamps and water colours, and ended up with one complete card. I also have 5 toppers ready to play with tomorrow, but I just had a great relaxing day!

I just love LOTV, I have a hard job choosing my favourite rubber stamp suppliers as Whiff of Joy is up there too. But lilly of the valley have more cuteness to their 'humans', and of course, money helps too & they are slightly less expensive.

Doodle Diva's Challenge

This card was made for the challenge over at  Doodle Diva's Netherlands. I found all the details on Spyder's Blog, and fell in love with the image. Unfortunately, when it came to making it up my imagination failed. I don't usually make Halloween cards, and my mind went blank.................well,.....blanker than usual!!

 I entered it anyway, and I'm hoping I'll get a bit more inspiration before the end of October!!

The sentiment was computer generated , and I used the font "halloween spiders" available free from Dafont.

The backing paper was another freebie that I  think was available from Mad About Cards, and, now I've slipped away to check, apparently still is! (I know the link takes you to Printable Heaven, but it's the same company really!)

By the way...........the bats are a string of Halloween decorations I found in ASDA about 3 years ago!! I knew they'd come in handy sometime!

My latest LOTV stamp

Just enough time to dash in and out to show off my latest LOTV stamp. She's such a perfect little angel!!
Got to go and put a couple of cards up elsewhere tonight, so no time to chat, really. It's been a lovely day, my son came to visit bearing gifts........a joint of meat and some veggies, so dinner tonight was on him! It was wonderful. He's just gone so I have to catch up on everything I haven't done earlier today! Please ignore the very bad faux stitching around the edge of the card. It's my first attempt and it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be..............I should have known, the easiest looking techniques are always the ones with the ability to go pear shaped at the slightest opportunity!!

Hope you like her, see you soon!

WOYWW

For a while now I've been following Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday and been blog hopping & being nosey! So I thought it was past time I should show off my mess. I do admit I tidy sometimes, but usually only when things start to fall off the edges of my desk as I sweep my arm across for more space in the centre.
I know it's bad.........but sometimes my imagination needs more space than I have desk, what can I say?
Anyway............here it is, in the corner of my living room. I just spend my days hoping I don't get visitors!!
I have this dream of my daughter leaving home and a spare room emerging............bliss! A room that is purely for crafting! On the other hand............I'd miss her like crazy!

I'm feeling at a bit at a loss today, as I've run out of card suitable for stamping and colouring with promarkers. My usual supplier (Mad About Cards) has been out of stock for days, so now I've run right out.

 I sourced a new supplier and sent off my order. I just hope it doesn't take too long to arrive. I ordered from PDA card & craft. I just hope Mac get some new stocks in soon cos there's a couple of other bits I need that they are out of stock of, too.

All Finished now, and a new image for me!

I finally got the wording through for the birth congratulations card I made, so I've added a couple of pictures to show the finished article here

I also received in the post my long awaited Lili of the Valley stamp "Angel Gabriel". I haven't made a card with it yet, but it was so cute, I had to colour it in straight away. It just makes me smile..........it's every nativity play in primary schools all over the country!

The last couple of days I spent making cards from Pink Petticoat images, to offer as design team entries.  They asked for cards, tags or projects,......... but only 2. Now I have to decide if the ones I made are good enough, whether I need to try again, or, if they ARE good enough, which two to choose, and finally whether my nerve will hold long enough to actually send them anyway. I made a little Origami box and decorated it lightly as a "project". I actually like this and think they would be great with one of those oversized quality chocs you see about at Xmas put in them. What a great tree gift!!

Then I made this little A6 card. The image is matted onto silver card

and has been watercoloured and the tree decorations glittered using a quickie glue pen and fine blue glitter. I added some silver lace down the card, which I threaded some dark green ribbon through and added a bow at the top. Not sure about this one I have to admit!

The next card was done with three panels, using 3 Christmas trees from the same set of digital stamps. After I made it I realised that it looked a little like a set of traffic lights (ARGH!!) but when I made it, I was thinking, Christmas colours - red, gold & green. Which in itself was a little unfortunate, cos all the time I was making it I then had Culture Club-Karma Chameleon running through my brain, and have done ever since!!  You have no idea how annoying that song can get after two days solid!

Anyway, the images I put a small amount of colour onto, using  sakura stardust pens, and outlined the main images using the Quickie Glue Pen, and silver glitter. They were matted a layered onto silver and coloured card from my stash. I placed a scarlet satin ribbon across the card, and tied a small piece of matching ribbon in between each image. The outside images are stuck flat onto the card and the centre one was put onto an extra piece of silver card using 2mm sticky pads and then attached to the card using another set of 2 mm pads to raise it up and give the whole card more 'interest'.

Last but not least is this little penguin. I've covered the card with snowflake design paper, a strip of pearlised blue paper and  punched the edges, and the edge of the actual card with my Martha Stewart punch. The penguin's hat was coloured with Pro-markers, and the spots, trim and bobble highlighted with Stickles 'Frosted Lace'. I matted and layered the image using nestabilites dies, raised on 2 mm sticky pads, & then I decoupaged the actual penguin.

 The black colour was added by cutting out a shape from the new Anita's outline stickers adhesive sheets , they give a slightly frosted sheen to his feathers, which I liked a lot.

To finish off I added some white plastic confetti snowflakes which I dipped in Aleenes Tacky glue and frosted with holographic glitter, (they sparkle very prettily in the light), and very last of all I added a blue ribbon tied in a bow down the edge. Quite a longish post today, but I hoped you enjoyed it!! Whatever is left of your Sunday, I hope you are having a great day.

Wishcraft's Anniversary Blog Candy.

Just a quick post, Wishcraft have a blog candy on offer for followers of her blog. It ends on 31st August if anyone is interested in entering, the link is in my side bar. I have to admit, I read her blog regularly as it's in my favourites list, but I hadn't registered as a follower til now. ( Still learning this blogging lark you see!). However, with the benefits of finding the follower link having been pointed out to me, I duly registered! If you decide to join me, may I wish you good luck!!..............just not  TOO much as I'd really love that Glamour Dust! hee hee.

Baby Girl Birth Congratulations

I have almost finished making a card for a new baby, (just awaiting confirmation of the wording required on it), but I couldn't resist showing it off cos I so enjoyed making this one.
 Thanks to someone for the idea of shading the image parts in grey, I saw the idea somewhere and was going to post a link, but the name has vanished from my brain without a trace...........hang on..........wait a bit...........GOTTIT!! .........   it was Spyder in her tutorial about paper peicing. Thanks Spyder, a simple idea, but I wouldn't have thought of it on my own.
Anyway.............the front of this card is done in acetate. The Messy Rabbit image & the ribbon by Joanna Sheen, The Ribbon slider/buckle and flowers by Wild Orchid and the butterflies are holographic peeloffs stuck onto acetate and glued on with silicon so they 'fly' off the page. The gingham paper was a download I've had 'forever', and the box was a purchased one.
 The box started off plain white, but I stuck the window panel on the wrong side of the box,....(DUH!)... and as it was my last one I had to improvise. So I covered the box with matching gingham paper, and added a silver butterfly from the papermania Gemstone stickers range. Sneaky huh?
I hope the pictures show it up ok, one day I'll have a really decent camera!