A Christmas Scene

Here's my first effort with some of my new Memory Box dies, I cut the oval with a Nestability, the birch trees were cut from light grey cardstock, and the whole thing is glittered which doesn't show in the photo........

Dies used:
Birch trees, deer, star, large oval

I had a scary moment the other evening, late, when I was sitting on the lanai reading. I heard a sibilant SSSssssssss sound coming from the kitchen. SNAKE
was my immediate reaction, and as I headed to the kitchen I heard it again
SSSSSssssss. Yes, definitely a snake. Help! Mike was sleeping, so I armed myself with a weapon, a useful potato masher, no, not a knife, a black plastic thing for making mashed potatoes, don't ask me why I grabbed that particular ridiculous object, I have no idea..........
 Ssssss - there it was again, somewhere behind me, so I crept up and opened the oven door. Now quite what I would have done if there was a snake curled up on a baking tray I have no idea, but I would have been fine, I had my potato masher to protect me ......SSSSSssssss-  this time I opened the dishwasher. Ssssssss - at last I realised that it was the coffee machine that usually turns off automatically hissing in protest at being left on all day. 
The moral of this story on reflection is, if you think you have a snake in the house, run, but don't forget your potato masher just in case there is a large and dangerous Florida animal like a black bear lurking outside, it would be just the thing to make him turn and run

Ride em Cowboy..., and win a colouring DVD

Here's another chance to win a Colour Therapy DVD by Nikky Hall of Polkadoodles. A great tutorial DVD with over 100 minutes of tuition by Nikky showing you how to take your alcohol marker colouring to the next level. All you have to do is leave a comment under this post giving your name, I will draw the winner next Sunday. Nikky is giving me four of these DVD's to give away, one a week until we draw the winner for the ProMarker set. Scroll down to see the winner of last week's DVD prize

On to today's card. This sweet little cowboy image is a stamp by Nellie Snellen - I love him! 

The gingham cardstock is by Kanban, Card Candi by Craftwork Cards and the birthday sentiment is a really old one by Stampin  Up

Hoping that all of you up in the New York area stay safe over the next couple of days, this storm is a monster. It is certainly cool here in Florida, I have dug out the sweaters, hot soup on the stove. Stay warm, dry and safe everyone x

See you tomorrow

Winner of the Colouring DVD........

Good morning everyone. The winner of the first colouring DVD from Polkadoodles, drawn by Random.Org is.....................

DARLA HAVERSTOCK

Congratulations Darla. Email me with your address and your prize will be on it's way

See todays post for another chance to win one of these wonderful aids to crafting

Halloween for the Making Spot

This weekend is a spooky weekend over at The Making Spot blog - the blog of Papercraft Inspirations magazine and it's sister magazine Mollie Makes. They asked me to do something spooky, go HERE to see what I came up with. You could do worse than click to sign up for the newsletter over there as well, they do free downloads and patterns every month, lots and lots of freebies to print.

I used Polly from the Sundae of Seasons CD for my project

and here is a little video showing how I coloured her hat..............excuse my inky fingers!






and to celebrate Halloween, I am giving away a Christmas CD - I know it doesn't make sense! All the comments under this post will be entered into a draw for a copy of Gingerbread Twist, the lovely new Christmas CD from Polkadoodles. I will draw a winner next Sunday

Blue Iris......

I made this card back in July, and for some reason hesitated about putting it on the blog, I wasn't totally happy with the colouring and thought it looked a bit plain. But after letting it sleep in a folder for months, I pulled it out and really like it on second viewing. Maybe I should have wrapped a ribbon around the dark blue strip. Never mind. What do you think?

This weekend there is a spooky happening going on over at the Making Spot, the blog for Papercraft Inspirations magazine and it's sister publications. Go over and take a look, lots of ideas. I will be joining the party tomorrow, so be sure to come back to see what I have done

I do know that it's only October, but I keep buying Christmas magazines, full of stuff about decorating your house and baking cookies for your neighbours. Now I like my neighbours, but really can't imagine that I will be baking sugar crusted pecan cookies for them and presenting them in a cute jar with a handcrafted label. One decorated house looked lovely, with handmade frosted glass candle holders glowing on each step of the stairs, but the reason for my pre-season excitement is that this year, for the first time in years I have all my chicks together under my roof for Christmas day - which means that I will have the little chickadees  as well - I can imagine the mayhem if I put delicately crafted candles on the stairs............maybe I better plan to cook some of those sugar crusted cookies for the fire brigade......

Come by and see my new video tomorrow, oh and a giveaway too  x 

Christening Cards

I don't know if you remember, way back in May, I was having a nervous breakdown because a set of Christening cards I had been asked to make for Papercraft Inspirations magazine had got lost in the mail. There was a tight deadline before they were due in the photography studio of the magazine, so I had to redo them in a midnight oil burning session. Well, they got there, they were published and I can share them with you now after all this time. They were for the Quick cards section of the magazine, so quite simple.........

For this first one, I coloured white chipboard letters in pastel colours. The baby is from the Sundae of Seasons CD by Polkadoodles

This next one uses a Lili of the Valley image, and is a simple easel card - the front of the card was folded in half, and the image just popped on so that it stood clear of the fold line

This next one was my favourite, probably because I drew the template for the church myself, and I thought I was being clever using a cut down letter T sticker for the Cross. the sentiment was stamped onto card candi from Craftwork Cards

I have been having a trawl through my picture folders, and have found all sorts of stuff I haven't shared with you so there will be a respite from Christmas cards for a few days

We are in for a cold (well, cool) spell here in Florida, year-round residents are delighted and looking forward to it. Me? I would be happy for it to stay just as it is until Christmas, but I will just have to be gracious and allow them all a day or two of chill, but after that there will be a stern chat with the head weather man about sunshine and iced coffee.....

See you tomorrow x

Just for USA/Canada. DT calls

Two fabulous opportunities for those of you in the USA and Canada, or anywhere outside the UK. Polkadoodles are looking for talent to join their international design team. If you love digital products and rubber stamping, then this is a must for you. Email Nikky at

sales@polkadoodles with your blog details and some examples of your work, and a bit about yourself and why she should pick you. Nikky is always looking for a variety of styles, and likes all levels of crafting promoting her products, so don't be shy, apply! You will of course receive Polkadoodles CD's and products to use once you are on the team. 

 Closing date 5th November

Secondly, Craftwork Cards are looking for designers to join a brand new USA/Canada design team. Here are the details for that one........

• 
  
• Craftwork Cards is looking for 4-6 designers who can do both cards, layout & home Decor
• Design team members must have a active blog !
• You will be responsible for creating a minimum of 2 projects a month. We will coordinate one day each week that you can post your project - it will be the same day for the DT term (I am flexible with this if for some reason your day conflicts with another DT or posting obligation)
• The term will be 6 months starting November 1 and ending April 30
• the design team member will be sent Craftwork Cards products to work with for designing
• design team members will be asked to visit the blogs of those who enter the monthly sketch challenge and leave a comment.

The DT call will end October 31st - and the new DT will

 be announced the first week of November

email: Theresa @ thescrapbookingqueen1@gmail.com 

with Craftwork Cards Design Team USA in the subject

 line, and including your blog link please

Good luck with your applications

WOYWW

Time for another jaunt around the workdesks of the crafty via Julia Dunnit, the host (and very amusing) originator of the idea that we can all spend Wednesdays hopping around blogs, marvelling at the tidiness of some people, fighting pangs of envy when we see spacious well set out craftrooms, and best of all, feeling a bit (well, very actually) smug when we see that some people make even more of a mess than we do. All very satisfying. If you haven't joined in yet, do go over HERE and see what it's all about......

Here's what's on my desk, a satisfying jumble of brand new memory box dies that just happened to jump into my shopping cart, well I couldn't abandon them, that would have been cruel....   

and my desk in the garage looks quite civilized for once (I had a little tidy up before you came)

Scroll down to enter your name to win the Colouring DVD from Polkadoodles, and scroll a bit more to enter your name to win a complete set of 148 ProMarkers.

See you tomorrow x

A colouring sort of day.......

I found this clear stamp sitting around that I had totally forgotten about, so spent a happy hour colouring it with ProMarkers. It's a huge stamp, so no room to do anything other than mat the image with red, glitter the snow,  and add a sentiment by Craftwork Cards. I have learnt that in the US, the Cardinal is the bird associated with Christmas and the Robin heralds Spring. For USA friends, we don't have Cardinals in the UK, but a lot of little Robins hopping around, so you will see them on UK Christmas cards 

Don't forget, scroll down to leave a comment to win the colouring tutorial CD, and of course the Promarkers

I am busy working on Easter cards! Magazine work is a funny old world, Christmas in July, tick, New Year cards, tick...........now on to the bunnies and Easter eggs. I am often asked how I go about doing commissions. The magazines are quite specific about what they want, obviously  the cards have to fit in with the rest of the articles in the magazine that month, it wouldn't do to have three features all on the same subject. So when the commissions come in, I spend a couple of days just thinking about it, I carry a notebook around with me and jot down ideas as they surface. Then I get to work. Sometimes the ideas work out perfectly straight away, sometimes (quite often!) it just doesn't work in practice, so it's back to the drawing board. I am usually given at least a month before the deadline, but I put other stuff to one side and crack on with the commission, otherwise I lose sleep over it, and that will never do. So cards made, I write the text and supplies list, pack them up and mail. Done and dusted until the next lot of instructions arrive.  I always enjoy a challenge......

See you tomorrow x

Win a colouring tutorial DVD

Those of you not living in the UK will not have seen Nikky Hall of Polkadoodles demonstrate the use of ProMarkers on TV, so you will just have to take it from me that she is pretty fantastic. She has added to her store a brand new tutorial DVD to help you with your colouring skills. The principles would apply to any alcohol marker brand you may be using of course

She is giving away a DVD each week on this blog while the Promarker contest is on, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the next ones. All you have to do is pop over to Nikkys blog HERE and sign up to become a follower, then pop back here to leave your name under this post. I will draw a winner next Sunday. You can enter from anywhere in the world. You will find some great inspiration over there as well

For those of you who enjoy hopping around, go and see my latest post HERE on the Letraset blog on the new Winter limited edition markers, it's a bit lonely over there, I think you have all been to busy downloading the colour chart to stop by and see me! Here's one of the cards I made with the new markers, details on Letraset's blog 

Finally, here is a post my son put on Facebook, it raised quite a few laughs in this house - another Maxism!




Max was on a school trip today in Portsmouth to visit HMS Victory. This historic boat is where the Battle of Trafalgar was planned and where Nelson died. It was a productive trip: 

Ed: what did you learn today!?
Max: nothing. It was a day off learning
Ed: you must have learnt something
Max: Nelson had a hammock
Ed: you see, you learnt something
Max: Nelson stinks. I could smell his hammock. He was a stinky man.

WIN a complete set of PROMARKERS

Letraset have given a fantastic prize to one lucky follower of Going Buggy - a complete set of ProMarkers - that's 148 lovely alcohol markers for you. Go HERE to download a copy of the colour chart and start dreaming....

To enter, all you have to do is go HERE to sign up for the Letraset newsletter, then come back here and leave your name under this post. If you have a blog you must mention the prize with a link back to Going Buggy

The contest is open to crafters from all over the world. A winner will be drawn by random.org on November 18th, and the winner announced on November 19th.

If you follow by email, click on the link at the top of your email, this will take you here where you can click on comments to leave your name. If you don't have a google account, tick the anonymous box, but be sure to leave your name and some way for me to identify you should you win - there may be lots of Janes entering, so Jane from  ****** Texas USA would be a lot easier to identify!

One entry per person please, multiple comments will be deleted to be fair to everyone. Well, it's such a big prize I have to have a few rules...

Go  HERE to win the colouring tutorial DVD by Nikky Hall of Polkadoodles

Good luck! 

Photos - oh my!

No card from me today, and here's why.........................

I had the bright idea of printing out the photos that my sons had put on Facebook over the past year, and making them a diary book of the past twelve months,  with photos of the children throughout the year. Good idea? I thought so, until I started importing the photos that I had captured on my iPad. 
Well, what a palaver. I needed them on my laptop, so managed to do that. Long boring story, let's just say that four hours later I realised that the reason I couldn't send them to Walmart for printing was because they were png files and I needed jpeg. 
Eventually, after  a whole day of struggling, I got to Walmart to pick them up, and they had lost them! It could only happen to me. 
Before I send everyone to sleep, all is well now!
I'll be back tomorrow with a mega huge fantastic giveaway. Be sure to drop by x

Christmas Wreath

No apologies for another Christmas card today, I know it's early, but I need to get organized - I am hoping to avoid the headless chicken dance this year. For this one, I used a scallop card base, and the Grapevine wreath from Memory box. This was cut three times from kraft paper, and stacked so that the wreath was nice and full.....

The holly leaves were punched with a Martha Stewart punch, and the tiny red berries are the 'waste' from a cropodile. I coated the leaves and berries with glossy accents

When I am over here in the States I seem to watch a lot of rubbish TV - we don't subscribe to cable at home so it's a bit of a novelty. One programme I am addicted to is 'Say Yes to the Dress'. Hours and hours of watching women trying on wedding dresses. Quite why I find it so fascinating I don't know - I am a couch potato fashion expert - 'nooooo' I wail at the TV 'don't buy that one, not with those hips'. One thing I have discovered, they keep saying every bride is beautiful. I am an expert because of my addiction to this programme, and take it from me, some are far from beautiful, they may not even make it to the passable mark, especially since they ignore my advice and buy the frilly dress.....and why do middle aged (I am being charitable here, certainly mature would be apt) women renewing their vows, or getting married for the second/third or fourth time insist on getting decked out in a gown of virginal white that would look better on a sixteen year old cheerleader? It's all a mystery to me

See you tomorrow

Polkadoodles Winners.....

Thanks to everyone who left a comment last week, I wish I could send you all a CD, but I have drawn the winners using a random number generator and they are.......

Monday: Here Comes Christmas - Beverley Jane

Tuesday - Picknix - Ribena Ruby

Wednesday - Gingerbread Twist - Patty (Hap Scrappy)

Thursday - Picknix - Debbie from Sugarland

Friday - Gingerbread Twist - Glennis (Creating Cards)

Congrats to you all. Email me at enfysc@yahoo.co.uk and I will get them in the mail

On to todays card. I used a Hero Arts striped background, the swirls and flowers are by Heartfelt Creations - the flowers were stamped onto an old book page and then cut out and the edges inked............  

I just ordered a bunch of Memory Box dies, so I will be stalking the postman this week, as if I didn't have enough stuff. New stamps as well, Christmas is coming early to this house

More Gingerbread

Todays giveaway is another chance to win the lovely new CD Gingerbread Twist - perfect for crafters who want to point, click and print, or for crafters who love hybrid digi cardmaking or scrapbooking. All you have to do is leave a comment under this post, and your name will be drawn with the other winners this week on Sunday

I love this next card. The scallop aperture card base is by Kanban, and the sentiment is by Craftwork Cards, everything else is from Polkadoodles Christmas is Coming CD. I added glitter to the cut out trees........

the sentiment says 'Santa is coming', so this is definitely going to go to one of my grandchildren, one more tick off the list...... 

and quick as a flash, I made a second card, the image is a ready coloured topper printed out, I cut out the hat and sack from another image and popped it up for dimension, added some sparkle to Santa's outfit and the berries, and voila, done. Another tick......

If you haven't left a comment on all five posts this week, be sure to scroll down to do so, and to see more details about the lovely CD's I am giving away each day

A strange thing happened yesterday, I was at my Thursday craft group and went out with a friend to fetch lunch. When we got back we noticed that part of the car park had risen in a big bump. Did you ever see that ridiculous SciFi film where giant worms invaded the earth and sort of moved beneath roads before bursting out of the tarmac and eating everyone in sight? Well, this looked as if one of those worms was moving around under there. Spooky. Then a little later, we noticed a very distinct dip in the ground in front of this bump. Oooops, I think we may be witnessing a sinkhole about to open up. We moved our cars pretty quick I can tell you. It will be interesting to see if the car park is still intact next week - come to think of it, it will be interesting to see if we still have a building to craft in!

See you tomorrow

Christmas Candle....

No card today, instead I wanted to try making some Christmas candles. I used paper printed from the Here Comes Christmas CD by Polkadoodles - this lovely bauble paper was perfect, I chose the white background, but I could have printed any of the colour options, there would be one to suit every decor. I printed it onto Safmat, wonderful printable clear film from Letraset, and also printed a sheet of sentiments from the CD onto Safmat....... 

Then I just cut the patterned film to the height of the candle (4"), and wrapped it around. I cut out the Joy sentiment, and popped that over the patterned film - it is totally transparent so you can't see the join. I adore these papers, and plan to make smaller candles for each place setting for my Christmas day table, with some taller ones of varying heights placed on a gold charger for a centerpiece. My placecards are going to be made from the same CD papers as well..........I may go for the Poinsettia paper, that would look pretty dramatic 

On to todays giveaway, another copy of Picknix, for digital hybrid cardmaking or scrapbooking. See the photo on Tuesdays post - there is a gorgeous collection of sewing elements on this CD, plus thirty fabulous papers and more, much much more. To win, leave your name under this post, and I will draw all the winners next Sunday

I've had a lot of people asking where they can buy the CD in the USA/Canada. They are not carried in stores, but the good news is you can order from Polkadoodles, pay with credit, debit or Paypal, and shipping is FREE worldwide.
At today's exchange rate, Picknix1 and Gingerbread Twist cost $16 (300 unique images) and Here Comes Christmas costs $24 (800 unique images). When you think that you can spend 75c on a single sheet of paper, and $12 on a single stamp, well, you can see what good value they are! So if you don't win this week, there is still plenty of time to get the CD's in time to make your Christmas projects. Go HERE to browse

Yes, I went for a coffee today, can you believe it, nothing at all happened and I was in super sharp observation mode as well. Nope, everyone was friendly, well behaved and normal. Maybe it's me that's odd!

Gingerbread Twist

Today's card was so very easy to make, just one sheet of paper printed out, and the zig zag panel cut out then attached with foam pads. A couple of punched snowflakes and a little scattering of gems, and I was done.....

So todays giveaway CD is the fabulous Gingerbread Twist, a collection of Christmas images and papers, with the usual flair and design you always get with Polkadoodles. To win, just leave your name under this post, and you will be in with a chance......you need to leave a comment under every post this week, the random draws will be done separately for each day. Winners will be drawn on Sunday

So I was in Dunkin Donuts today, two very smart looking women wandered outside with their coffee. Obviously career types, dresses, killer heels, those lanyard name ID things around their necks. It was hot, and there wasn't a table with an umbrella free. So they moved their chairs to the shade, then went together to move a table. They tugged, they pushed, they tugged again..... they looked surprised when I pointed out that it was bolted to the ground. I do hope their problem solving skills are better when they are at work!

See you tomorrow

It's a Picknix!

Here's another card made with this very cute digi stamp from the Christmas is Here CD from Polkadoodles, I love this little boy. I coloured him with ProMarkers, and just added a couple of punched snowflakes and inking.....

Up for grabs today is another Polkadoodles CD, the very innovative Picknix, new out, this is perfect for crafters who enjoy hybrid digital crafting, or for those like me who just click and print.... Here's what the Polkadoodles team have to say about it:

This gorgeous collection of images includes over 300 UNIQUE (ie no repeat designs) elements including:

• Digital Stamps...print off and colour yourself
• Embellishments...pre-coloured for you to incorporate how you wish
• Sentiments...lovely themed text Digital
• Brushes...PNG and .ABR brushes which can be used in either Photoshop or alternative graphics programs
• 30 Papers...stunning backing papers which can be resized as you wish
• Journalling Cards...perfect for scrapbooking or use them as toppers!
• Frames and borders...
• Themed alphabet, numbers and punctuation...
• Word Art...Graphic text
• Cutting Files...SVG, PNG and DXF cutting files which can be used with most electronic die-cutting machines

As before, just leave a comment under this post, and your name will go into the hat for the draw next Sunday. I will mail to anywhere in the world. You need to comment every day, only comments for each day will be entered for that days draw

So I went out wearing a new pair of shoes. Oh boy, these were a mistake I thought as I limped around. When I stopped for coffee, I surreptitiously took the offending shoe off and felt around inside - it felt as if a tack or something was digging into my foot. Nothing, so onwards I limped. Before you all start making me get well soon cards, a miracle healing has taken place. It was fine when I got home and removed the googly eye that had stuck to the sole of my foot!

I'll be back tomorrow with another CD to give away

Here Comes Christmas! Giveaway

I'm going to be giving away a Polkadoodles CD every day this week! Thanks Nikky for being so generous. First up is the brand new Here Comes Christmas CDrom - I made this cute card using papers and images from the CD, coloured with ProMarkers

Here's a quick video showing some of the goodies on the CD.....a bit wobbly, I was clicking with one hand, and filming with the other

All you have to do is leave your name under this post, I will draw the five winners next Sunday, so pop back every day to be in with five chances. There will be a different CD up for grabs tomorrow

I have been asked six times in the past two days if I am registered to vote. The first five times I was charming and explained that I was from the UK. The last time was when I was sitting peacefully sipping my latte.....

Are you registered to vote?

No (well I was a bit bored)

OH MY! We can register you in five minutes

Even when they established that I wasn't an American citizen, she was saying

I'm sure you can vote. You own a house in Florida

Well I'm sure I can't! Whatever party this lady was affiliated to, she was a bit desperate - non political comments only please :)  

Drum Roll for the winner.....

Here's the snapshot of the random number generated, which means that

CHERYL W (PAPER PANACEA BLOG)

is the winner of the AquaMarkers. Congrats Cheryl, email me with your address and I will get them in the mail asap. Thanks to everyone who visited Letraset and left lovely comments, not only for me, but for my teamies as well. Come close and I'll whisper - the four of us on the design team have frequent Letraset product giveaways, you may like to follow everyone to make sure you are not out of the loop, as well as picking up some great tips along the way

Jak

Debbi

Jessica

I'm back to Christmas cards. My seasons seem to have got a bit mixed up this year, I have a couple of Halloween projects to do, but Christmas keeps creeping in. I made this one with a stamp I fell in love with at the Stamping Studio in Spring Hill Florida, if you are anywhere near Hernando county do pop in, Susan has such a lovely range of stamps, I can always find something I need there, and I am a great believer in supporting small scrapbook stores. This one is by Northwoods, which I had never heard of, but they had some delightful winter scenes, and as I was in a colouring sort of mood, I really enjoyed doing this. The snow is very glittery in real life, and a simple little embellishment of some punched MS leaves was all it needed........I can just imagine sitting on that bench to watch the birds on a Wintry walk in the forest   

Blue and Kraft....

Here's one I made using a Kanban Urban Belles stamp, I paper pieced her dress, and added a spray of punched flowers - Martha Stewart Hydrangea punch, and leaves punch. Sentiment is Hero Arts. 

I do love kraft coloured cardstock, it seems to go with everything......

I have been debating whether to invest in a Silhouette Cameo die cutter. They have just bought out a smaller version as well. Do I want to be tied to a computer? No. I probably have enough images on Cricut cartridges to last me forever, but I still keep looking at the things, and reading the hype .....common sense sometimes flies out of the window where crafting is concerned

So Max announced that it was his Teddy Bears birthday - he is five apparently, the same age as Max. So the parents got a little iced mini cake and said it was for teddy
'Is it a real cake or a toy' asked Max
It's real
So he looked pityingly at them and said 'Daddy, he can't eat cake, he's only a toy'

See you tomorrow....

Winners of the September Challenge

I had the usual difficult time chosing a winner from all the gorgeous entries this month, but this one stood out for me.... so congratulations

Brigitte (Bricolage de Brigitte blog)

and the card that popped up in the random draw was this one......(sorry it's tiny, I couldn't copy it any bigger) from 

Kathy's Corner

If you can both email me with your address and telephone number and which fine tips set you would like, I will get them mailed out to you. Congratulations!

Thanks to all of you who entered, and as I said yesterday, the challenges will start again in the new year. In the meantime, keep checking in here as there will be random Letraset marker giveaways

I promised to tell you about the Domestic Goddess tips in the magazine I found lurking under the coffee table - it was all a bit of a letdown, and I am no more of a goddess than I was yesterday. They had dressed up various celebrities (Joanna Lumley amongst them) in white evening dresses then photographed them looking glamorous with a vacuum cleaner or a feather duster. Bizarre! Without fail, they all said they liked nothing better when they were not attending A list parties, than cleaning their bathrooms and scrubbing the floors. A likely story. I suppose the white dresses were ironic, I can imagine the delirium when someone thought of that twist. But if they really like cleaning, I have plenty they can do, I'll borrow their nice white dress and go to their parties in exchange....

One stamp - two ways

Here's a couple of cards, both made with the same Hero Arts stamp set, both looking quite different. For the first one, I stamped all four images onto white card, coloured them and cut out the squares. I stamped the flowers again, and popped them on with foam pads for a bit of dimension. I chose pastels - ProMarkers of course

Lavender, cool aqua and duck egg, blossom and carnation pink, pastel blue and denim blue. Leaves apple and bright green

For this next card I stamped the image directly onto a square of white cardstock, and backed that with green and stitched around it. The popped flowers were sprinkled with Frantage glitter, I love the coarse chunky look of these flakes

I will sort the winners of last months  challenge out today, and post them here tomorrow. This will be the last challenge for a while, it's quite a lot of work, and I am a bit overrun with magazine and design team work at the moment, so I thought with the busy Christmas/Holiday season coming up, this would be a good time to take a break and I can start it up again in the new year. Don't worry though, there will still be frequent prizes here from Letraset to get you all in the colouring mood.....There is a whole week of giveaways from Polkadoodles coming up as well, so look out for that

I was browsing an old magazine yesterday, a middle of the road mumsy sort of publication. Look Better Naked it said on the cover - better than what is the question we must ask ourselves here. Better than Angelina Jolie? Not in a million years. Better than you looked twenty years ago? Unlikely. Better naked than with a nice comfy pair of M & S knickers and a bra that's gone a funny colour because you put it in the wash with the tea towels? Possibly. These days, I personally subscribe to the 'look better with as few of your bits showing as possible' school of beauty, so I didn't bother to read how the miracle was going to happen (I have a feeling it would involve a lot of running about wearing jogging stuff, I didn't fancy that). So I skipped on to the article on How to be a Domestic Goddess. Maybe I'll chat about that tomorrow, I am exhausted at the very thought of it, so need to lie down and recover....