Colouring balloons - and a giveaway

It's my turn to post over on the Letraset blog today, I've done a little tutorial on colouring balloons, the end result was this little card

Now how would you like to win these........ 



Leave your name under this post, then pop over HERE to read my burblings post, and leave a quick comment,  As always, the lovely people at Letraset love to see your comments on their site so the winner of this brand new blending set in the blue colours will be picked from those who have commented on Letraset's site and here. Here's what you will win - I'll pick a winner on Monday 4th August

On a bright note, would you believe that only one of the winners of the blending sets offered last week has claimed her prize, so, as promised unless the missing three suddenly materialize I will be drawing more winners on Saturday morning. I have had a couple of people asking if I could trace the winners by clicking on their profiles etc. Quite honestly I can't be bothered. don't have time They won, they claim, if not it's someone else's good fortune. As you know I write a lot of giveaway posts - taking the photos, writing posts with links etc is quite time consuming, so I am not about to put my Miss Marple hat on - oh dear, does that make me sound mean? So if you enter, get your phone to ping, mark your diary, mark your hand with a sharpie marker - whatever aide memoire you use, don't forget to come back here, it might be you!

See you tomorrow - the video thing is getting a bit ridiculous now, I'll tell you about it, so put the kettle on before you come over x

Resist Embossing...

I've been on the hunt for some white embossing powder - when you emboss onto coloured card, a lot of them seem quite creamy, but I tried a little pot of Wow bright white, and I love it, and am pretty addicted to it at the moment. So I played around with an old favourite, resist embossing. I first saw this done at CHA at the Hero Arts Boot Camp with the wonderful Shari Carroll, and I reprise it every so often. 

I white embossed some Heartfelt Creations posy stamps in different sizes onto white card...

Dug out the distress inks and started dabbing away - the colour was quite vibrant, when you are finished, wipe the flowers with a baby wipe to take off the ink from the white embossing. 

Then I remembered another old favourite......and made myself some pearlized water - just a little scoop of Perfect Pearls added to a mini mister full of water....

and here is the end result. I stamped the sentiment with Memento London Fog grey ink to match the grey of the paper. I rounded the left hand corners of the card which looks a bit different........

and I must admit, it was turned into a sympathy card simply because the sentiment was a perfect fit for the space! I love the way the flowers look almost like satin, and unlike glitter, the sheen really shows up in the photos

So if you've never tried this, do give it a go - you can use any inks or markers to colour the flowers and the white raised edges look so pretty. You could use black embossing for a more dramatic effect, but personally I love the white.  I'll show you another, quite different card made with the same flowers in a different colourway on Friday, but tomorrow is Letraset day, and I still haven't finished my project, so cheerio for now x

Last Candi Cards and a giveaway

Here's the last of the samples I made for Craftwork Cards TV show, these papers are just lovely - look at that feather!

and this next card was one of my favourites, but it's one of those that doesn't photograph well..........

the whole of the bit with the Just to Say sentiment lifts up......

to reveal a hidden message on the outside of the card......

On one of my facebook groups, one woman has put a tremendous amount of effort into writing an e-book about ProMarker colouring. It really is very very good, if you are unsure about what colours will go together, what is a good combination for chestnut hair and pale skin, look no further. She has put together about 76 pages with loads of useful information. Loads of different hair and skin combos, all with photos, and step by step colouring tutorials showing you how to blend and add shade, and great easy to follow tips on colouring pleats. So if you are a novice, or just feel that your colouring could do with help, this could be very useful. The cost is £12 ($20) and all the proceeds are going to a homeless charity. Email Donna at donna_marie1@hotmail.com
to purchase a copy

I have a copy to give away to one of you, just leave a comment under this post and I will pick a random winner on Friday - and of course, you will get instant gratification as the book will plop right into your inbox ready for you to get started - thanks Donna



Stephen Speilberg I salute you! Yes, the video saga goes on........and on.......and on. I managed to film a project, but editing it is quite another matter. I managed to lose huge tracts of it, heaven knows where it has gone, if any of you see a cute little bear carrying balloons floating around in cyberspace, can you send him back to me sharpish please. I need him for my Letraset post on Thursday. So sometime in the future, when I am browsing through my recipes, or documents, a little bear is going to pop up - I know this as surely as the sun is going to rise tomorrow. I also salute all those people who do craft videos and manage to do it without their heads getting in the way - at one stage in mine, the whole screen went black as I loomed up to reach for something just out of reach. I need to organize myself so that everything is close at hand, or at least not on the back of the top shelf. Sigh. Why do I get these barmy ideas? But I won't be beaten, I have just learnt of iMovie for the iPad, tutorials show folk merrily swiping their screens and producing movies to rival Casablanca. I too will swipe..........I have found a gizmo on Amazon which means I can attach my iPad to my as yet unused tripod, and even as I type it is leaving the warehouse. So I'm off now to practice a bit of swiping....
See you tomorrow x

More Candi Cards - and London......

I'm sharing a couple more of the card samples I made for Craftwork Cards TV show last week - I was pleased with this first one, I used a hydrangea stamp 

by Heartfelt Creations, but instead of colouring the blossom, I shaped pieces of card candi and stuck them in place, adding a tiny drop of liquid pearls to the centers....

I really liked this kraft and pink spotty paper, and came across this 'dotty about you' stamp in my stash which I though would make a fun card. I cut out the hearts with my Cricut. The narrow kraft strip on the left has a few stencilled dots done with white embossing paste, and I coated all the card candi with Wink of Stella clear glitter....

On to London - we had a fabulous couple of days. We stayed at the Hilton on Park Lane - up on the 20th floor, this was the view from our window, overlooking Hyde Park and the Serpentine - you would never think that this was in the heart of the city would you?

We were going to the theatre, but first we had a detour to meet up with son James, who is Sales Director at this place, which we had never visited....

Yes, M & M world in Leicester Square, four floors devoted to little chocolates, and it was heaving with tourists. I could get quite a lot of colour inspiration for crafting from the glass walls filled with sweets.....

and the London theme was clever - here's a take on the famous Beatles Abbey Road iconic photo......

Leicester Square must be one of the most crowded and hectic areas of London town..... 

the motionless statue people that were there last time I visited have been replaced by floating people - Here's Yoda, and yes, he appears to be floating a couple of feet off the ground, just holding on to the stick. Clever, I was awestruck until Mike worked out how it was done and spoilt the magic......

Then on to a rather civilized dinner at the Criterion restaurant, fabulous building, just look at all those gold mosaic tiles on the ceiling.....

and yummy food...

Followed by this show, it was great, very funny, very witty and very British, heaven knows if all of the many overseas visitors in the audience understood what was going on.......but we did, and loved it

 I hope I haven't bored you all with this photo heavy post, but I know a lot of you from overseas tell me how much you would love to visit the UK, so I thought it may be of interest.

Only one winner has come forward for the blending pens, let's see what tomorrow brings.....see you then x

Winners of ProMarker Blending Sets

Sorry this post is a bit later than promised - I got caught up with the thrill of our London visit, and our daughter has come home for the weekend, so just a quick post today with the winners. Congrats to all of you - email me at 
enfysc@yahoo.co.uk with your details and I will get them in the mail

I will give the winners until Friday to claim their prize - if I haven't heard by midnight on Friday (GMT) I will draw more winners from the original commentors on Saturday morning - I am doing this because I have had a couple of occasions recently when people haven't come forward to claim their pens, and frankly, it's a hassle for me to try and chase people, and to keep posting reminders, so I'm going to toughen up........

All those of you who tried and weren't lucky, keep trying, I have very regular Letraset giveaways on here, so click on the follow button to make sure you don't miss a post. It's my turn to post on the Letraet blog on Thursday, and you all know what that means.....

I'll share some photos of London tomorrow, but for today, fanfare for the winners who are................................................................


Green Set:  Kathleen from Arizona who said:

 Anonymous said...

I have been following you for about 5 yrs now after I found you as a fav blog of Jiminy Japes. I have always wanted to try markers to blend. Thank you for the opportunity to win these.

Kathleen
Arizona

Yellow Set: Marilyn who said

 Marilyn said...

Another amazing card created by the "Amazing Enfys"! Love the whole look, thank you for sharing all your creativity!

Red Set:  Johanna Ellegaard who said

 johanna ellegaard said...

I really would love to win this sooo much. You inspire me so much

Blue set: Kerri Hibberd who said:

 Kerri Hibberd said...

My favourite colour! All your cards are so beautifully coloured x

a bag of candi.....

 Here's a couple of the samples I made for the Craftwork Cards TV shows, on today throughout the day. They have the prettiest papers as usual, and some really gorgeous candi - those little domed discs of patterned cardstock that are like legless brads, and it's amazing what you can do with them. For these flowers, I folded them in half, then stuck them onto a little punched circle, there's a drop of liquid pearls in the center......

the paper cried out for a kraft card base.....

For this next one, I stuck two of the embossed edge 6 x 6 cards together, then folded back the front edges......you'll get more of an idea in the last photo. I made a wrap band and die cut a butterfly from one of the folied papers to decorate it. So pretty! I added a tiny drop of gold liquid pearls to the center of each of the embossed flowers

I have scheduled this post, so I can't tell you all about my London trip until tomorrow, when I will also be giving the names of the winners of the blending sets. See you then x

Texture, texture and a bit more texture....

 A simple little card today, but it's loaded with texture......

I found my DCWV burlap stack - the relief was overwhelming! I just cut a wide strip then snipped the end into a banner. The leaves were cut from the gauze pad, also DCWV, and the flower is one of the lovely ones that my pal Carol gave me when we met up in Orlando in March. The background was done with a embossabilities embossing folder, and the sentiment..........

well, the sentiment is my long awaited shadowpress embossing folder by Tim Holtz. The shadowpress shows up quite well on some coloured card (I haven't had much time to play around with them yet), but for this white card I wanted a bit more definition and just inked the debossed bit with a distress marker (antique linen)

and I fitted in a quick trip to Hobbycraft to stock up on some stuff that I need to make Christmas projects for design teams, just the thing you want to be doing on the hottest day of the year!

and some chipboard boxes and letters, already with a coat of gesso....

Later this morning we are heading to the station to catch a train down to London for a rather fabulous treat - a Father's day surprise for Mike, so we have been looking forward to it for a few weeks. We are staying on Park Lane in a very swanky hotel, and going to a show tonight. Expect photos! I'll be back tomorrow with a peek at some of the samples I made for the Create and Craft Craftwork Cards shows, on tomorrow, I think the first show is at 8 a m, be sure to check your schedules, there's some very gorgeous stuff on there....

Delft Tiles....

 I bought this stamp set from Katy Sue Designs in their recent sale. I was intrigued by the subject - Delft tiles

We once lived in a lovely Georgian house in a Yorkshire village, one of the rooms had a fireplace with original delft tiles. How I loved that fireplace - if I could have taken it with me when we moved, I would have done. So for this card, I wanted to just simply recreate the look of the tiles - you get the central image, which I just stamped in Stormy Sky distress ink, no shading, the lovely little corner stamps and a crackle stamp..... 

I stamped the crackles with antique linen distress ink

and here is a photo of an original tile......I think the stamp set does a pretty good job, don't you?



I continue with my quest to become the next Stephen Spielberg....I have now learnt how to download a video clip to my computer, that is where I am stuck. I am 'test driving' various free video editing software, and frankly, I'm not getting anywhere very fast. I would quite like to be able to clip out unusable bits, and do a voice over rather than having to work and talk at the same time, that way I could just concentrate on what I am doing then talk through it afterwards. There must be a video editing programme for dummies out there somewhere. Any suggestions anyone?

See you tomorrow x

Blending Set 4 - Blues

 Here's the last (for now) of the brand new Promarker blending sets up for grabs today we have the blue set, the colours are:

Powder Blue, Arctic Blue, Sky Blue, Azure, True Blue and a blender

Leave a comment under this post to be in with a chance - I have had a few anonymous comments from people who have made a comment but forgot to tell me who they are. So please, if you are checking the 'anonymous' box, leave your name or some means of identifying you if you win

I forgot to show you these earlier in the week, here's a couple of cards made with the green and yellow sets, made when I was helping the Letraset team decide on the colours for the new sets - I wanted to see how they looked on an image. The girls are from the Emma Canning CD at Polkadoodles

and here's a little suntanned beauty decked out in the yellow set....

 Look what I bought today - I have been meaning to make some more videos for a while now, but my little Flip camera has given up the ghost, so I am doing research, but in the meantime, I found this......

Isn't it great? Now I can have a camera pointing right down at my work surface (note to self: book a manicure) and you will all be astounded because it will look as if I have a camera clamped to my forehead while I work!

Now I want you to tell me what sort of videos you would like to see. I promise to get it sorted out soon, until then, I will practice talking without saying 'ermmm.........uhhhh..........mmmmmmm.......... in every sentence

See you tomorrow x

Day Three Promarker Blending set givaway...

 My turn to post over on the Letraset blog today, three cards from me, all made with my Promarker 'rainbow' paper. Pop over there to see, leave a comment, then pop back to leave your name below this post to be in with a chance of winning today's giveaway - the red blending set. As before, the winner will be drawn randomly from all the comments under this post, but this time, I would like you to leave a quick comment on Letraset's site as well - as you know, they are so very generous to Going Buggy readers, so it's only fair that we should return the compliment.....

The red blending set has:
Lipstick red, Red, Berry Red, Poppy, Burgundy and a blender pen

I had a lot of fun with this week's post, and was very happy with my 'rainbow' cards. Did I ever tell you that the literal meaning of my name, which is Welsh, is rainbow? I don't suppose I ever gave it much thought when I was a small child living in Wales, where everyone knew how to pronounce it, but by the teen years, we had moved to England,  I started to be embarrassed/irritated/shy about my name, which was always pronounced wrongly (you can call me Envis...................it doesn't rhyme with fizz or  envy!). This feeling persisted for most of my life, how I longed to be called Penny...... But then I had an epiphany. How lovely to have a name that means I can write Christmas cards saying just 'with love, Enfys and Mike'. None of the tortured little explanations that friends have to put..........'with love Sue and John (Brenda's sister, Yorkshire)' - (just in case we think it was from Sue and John (David's second cousin, Surrey). So now that I have reached my 'red hat' years (if you are too young to know what I am talking about, see below.....) for the first time in my life I really quite like my name. The only time I falter is in Starbucks, where they take your order and stand poised over your grande cup with a felt tip pen.....name please?............. pause. sigh. 'Penny' 

So in tribute to all those who have learned to live with the insecurities of their youth, and now don't care a fig, here is Jenny Josephs poem, which I love

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple

Day 2 Blending Sets Giveaway

Today's card first - here's a pretty little image from the Work and Play collection by Polkadoodles. Coloured with ProMarkers of course! Look at the pretty background paper, all those tiny ballet shoes. There are a lot of super digi images and papers on this CD, and if you are in a hurry, you can print out the images already coloured as well.....

I love the little sentiment tickets....the border was done with a Martha Stewart punch, I layered it onto pink card and punched a few tiny pink stars to pop along the top with some sequins. There's a bit of Wink of Stella glitter here and there as well, but of course that doesn't show up in the photo

Okay, here we go. All the comments under this post will go into the draw to win the yellow blending set. The colours are:
Primrose, Soft Lime, Lemon, Canary, Sunflower and a blender

Just a reminder, if you don't have a blog or google account, I accept anonymous comments. Email subscribers, you need to click on the grey Going Buggy header on your email to come over here. Scroll to comments at the end of this post, write your comment, tick anonymous if necessary, and click on publish. If you click on the anonymous option, be sure to leave your name or some way I can identify you if you win.  Only comments under each of the posts will be entered into that day's draw

Be sure to drop by tomorrow to be in with another chance - this time the red blending set, and it's my turn to post over on the Letraset blog as well, so you can see my efforts for this week - see you then x