A cup of tea and a shady tree........

I found this stamp when I was having a tidy up, I think it's by Inky Antics, but I have never used it. So I embossed with wow platinum embossing powder and coloured quickly with Promarkers......

and believe me, I wish you could have been here to have a cup of tea, keeping me company whilst I was making this. My post yesterday about 'exciting news' was meant to be followed up an hour later by my announcement, otherwise, I would have kept quiet. But as is the way with technical stuff, something went wrong, so the big launch is tomorrow. I have a real issue with drama type posts, both on blogs or Facebook, and through no fault of my own, my blog post yesterday fell neatly into that category - sorry folks. I slipped unknowingly into the role of drama queen for a day 

So whilst I still can't spill the beans until later today (fingers and toes crossed), I think I can sneakily whisper that I have a new job. I am going to be the social media representative for a craft manufacturer that you all know - in fact I would bet that every single one of you has at least one of their products. So I will be heading up a new Facebook page/community and I will be counting on those of you who go on Facebook  to pop over to see me there. I will post here as soon as it goes live, I promise

This won't make any difference to this blog - this is my 'baby' and I have made so many friends here that I will be posting as usual and rambling on as always 

See you later.................................................x

Arrows for Daring Cardmakers

Here's a card made for the arrows challenge for my guest design spot over on the Daring Cardmakers blog - luckily I had made all my cards for the month before having my enforced blog break......

I used a Heidi Swapp stencil to sponge different distress inks for the rows of arrows - the black chevron strip is another stencil that was sponged with Versafine black onyx ink. The birthday die cut is by Clearly Besotted. I punched a heart and some circles out of black cardstock and covered them with glossy accents to make my own 'enamel dots'

There may be a second post on here from me today, I have some exciting news and I am going to need your help! Well, it's exciting for me anyway, I don't think it will set anyone else's pulses racing but I will have to share it with you. Catch you later x

Under the Weather for Daring Cardmakers

 Here's the last card for my guest design team spot over on Daring Cardmakers, this week the theme is Under the Weather, be sure to check out the samples, there are some particularly brilliant ideas there this week. The challenge runs until Friday, so you still have time to take part....I have really enjoyed joining in with the challenges for this month, thanks for having me Daring Cardmakers!

I decided to make a shaker card

Using a cut from a Cricut cartridge, I'm really sorry but I forgot to take a note of which cartridge I used. The sentiment is from a really old set from MFT, papers are Making Memories.....

and I used the cut out umbrella to decorate the inside of the card

And talking about the weather...we thought Spring had arrived here in the UK, glorious warm sunshine, trees laden with blossom and birds going crazy with happiness.....but mother nature, as she so often does on these shores, has been capricious and now cold arctic blasts have hit us again, so it's back to the boots and winter woolies for the time being. I'm so glad I didn't have time to get excited about summer and pack away all the cold weather gear in favour of tee shirts and flip flops - I have lived long enough to know that that would be a very risky strategy here in the UK. So I am off to make a nice warming cup of hot chocolate now...........

See you tomorrow x

I'm Back! and some winners.......

 Firstly, let's chat about today's card, I used the Friends Forever stamp set from Clearly Besotted - great stamp, and so easy to colour. The border is by Papertrey Ink, and embossed with Wow metallic silver embossing powder. It goes without saying that I used my MISTI stamp tool to make quick work of the stamping........

Now on to the winners of the giveaways posted two weeks ago (I have never been away from the blog for this long!)

Promarker winner is ELLAS DESIGN

Aquamarker winner is RHIANPENNANT

Congrats to you both, email me with your address and they will be on their way to you. If I don't hear within one week, I will draw another winner from those who commented on the original post

Next, huge thanks to all of you for your kind comments, emails and cards during our recent family crisis. I can't tell you how much both Mike and I appreciated them. My stepson James stumbled and fell, sustaining a very serious fracture of his skull. Obviously, as with all head injuries, there was a lot of concern about the outcome, but he has been discharged from hospital with no apparent after effects, and is doing well - the whole family are grateful for his recovery and to the skilled staff on the Neurosurgery ward at St Georges Hospital, Tooting, London

So now I am back home, and back at the desk in the crafty cupboard, trying to make up for lost time...see you tomorrow x 

News

Hi, I will be missing from blogland for a little while, my stepson had a fall last weekend and suffered a serious head injury so we are down in London taking care of the children. He is now out of ICU and on a high dependency ward, so how long we are needed is like a piece of string really. But I will be back soon, happy crafting until then x

Quilters Templates

 I had never heard of these plastic template sheets, marked with a grid pattern until I saw a discussion on a Facebook page about using them with the MISTI. So I ordered some from Amazon, and cut them up to fit the new flavour of the month tool, the MISTI. But I had some left over........

So I used a Spellbinders die to cut out a circle.......

and taped this over my cardstock - it makes a perfect stencil for sponging circles (or squares/ovals etc), and when you have finished, you just wipe it clean.....

and here is the finished card. I used a Clearly Besotted stamp from a set called Friends Forever and just coloured in the bottom half of the stamp, letting the sponged circle be the star of the show. 

I have a little notebook that I carry around with me, and while I am sitting with a coffee I whip it out and jot down anything that strikes me as funny/strange/bizarre to share with you later. Can I find it? Nowhere to be seen,
vanished, pouff, gone..... I probably left it on the table at the coffee shop, so somewhere, someone is sitting and scratching their heads over my very random notes and jottings - they probably think it belongs to some crazy demented person with a vivid imagination. They could be right

See you tomorrow x

Sunday Giveaway

Here's another giveaway - this set of Aquamarkers from Letraset.......

The winner will get five Aquamarkers, a fine liner black pen, some watercolour paper and a instruction sheet. I have taken it out of the original packaging to save on postage costs. I will mail worldwide

The colours of the markers look strong - don't be afraid of this, when diluted with water to blend, they are the most gorgeous shades. The set is called Floral, so you have everything you need to paint some pretty florals - either your own creations, or stamps. The colours are Raspberry, Mahogany, Sunburst Yellow, Fern Green, Peacock Blue, Cranberry. These are watercolours, so are incompatible with ProMarkers

All you have to do is leave your name under this post and I will draw a winner on Friday. Good luck x 

Weekend Giveaway

No card from me today, but I thought I would have a couple of weekend giveaways to brighten someone's day

Saturday's giveaway  is this set of six ProMarker pens - five shades of yellow and a blender

Perfect Spring colours! To be in with a chance, all you need to do is leave your name under this post and I will pick a winner on Friday. If you get my emails, click on the grey Going Buggy header on your email and it will bring you over here so that you can comment

I'll be back with another givaway tomorrow. Have a great start to the weekend x

Daring Cardmakers - Maths!

So today is the second of my guest design team spots over on Daring Cardmakers, and as always, I have been challenged! The dare today is using Math symbols - pie chart, Venn diagram, etc etc

Now Maths was always my weakest subject at school, and that was a long time ago now. On a daily basis for the whole of my life I have been very grateful that I have five digits on each hand, always handy when you are trying to look and act intelligent when doing something really complicated like working out a bill and tip in a restaurant (I told you I was rubbish, and I am!)

So, as this is, as far as I know the first time in my life that I have heard of a Venn diagram, let alone use one. here is my card for the dare, and yes, Google did come in handy......

  
So go HERE to see the rest of the team's take on the dare - and be sure to take a peek at Kathy's interpretation, which I think is totally genius, and play along with us

See you tomorrow x

MISTI video

Here's another MISTI video for quite a simple little card - although I went  wrong with the camera angle on this one, but after all the hassle of setting it up and editing etc, I thought 'what the heck, they can click away........'

Go HERE to watch it on YouTube or watch below

I'll be back tomorrow with my Daring Cardmakers card for this week - this week seems to have flown by!

Using a Background.....

So I wanted to use this lovely background stamp by Scrapberrys - I just love those overlapping circles......and these stamps are superb quality, they stamp beautifully, and you should take a peek at their site, the prices are amazingly low and you can get everything over there - gems, washi, papers etc at a fraction of the usual cost

My first inclination was to use a riot of bright colours with this stamp, but after I heat embossed the stamp in white onto white cardstock, and started sponging distress inks over the whole panels - I stamped it three times - the end result was quite a pleasing pastel palette...... I used a MFT die to cut up the panels.....

and then mounted the whole lot onto a black card, and prettied it up with some gemstones. Sentiment is by Clearly Besotted Stamps

I like the clean and graphic look of the finished card.

So it begins............whilst doing a bit of food shopping yesterday, feeling very comfortable and a bit Springlike in jeans and a sweater but without a coat, I saw an assortment of people who clearly think that miraculously the sea has made some huge surge towards the geographical center of England where I live, and were happily doing a spot of shopping before heading for the beach - I was tempted to ask a couple of them in strapless maxi dresses and flip flops if they charge for deck chairs at this new beach that has appeared somewhere in the area, overnight, like a mushroom.

 Probably best not to ask, but it was very tempting when I shared a lift with a girl in a bikini top and shorts. Since the nearest beach is a two and a half hour drive away, they need to get a move on before the sun goes behind those clouds. I blame the EU (mind you, I blame the EU for most things), putting all these nonsensical ideas about long hot days and carefree cafe cultures into the minds of sensible UK citizens, who a few years ago would never leave home without a brolly........

See you tomorrow x

Silhouette Meadow........

 I found a little silhouette of a child  (A Childs Year Cricut cartridge) on my desk, and had to turn it into a card.....

The sentiment is by Simon Says Stamp, the cloudy sky was hand sponged - I used a Clarity template, I just dabbed away until it looked right. The stitched hill dies are by Lawn Fawn, and the black grasses and flowers are by Inkadinkadoo

I hope you all had a wonderfully relaxing and peaceful Easter break, I have been enjoying the first warm sunshine of the year today - bliss to feel that warm sun after the chill of winter. I am almost, but not quite tempted to dig out a few lightweight clothes, but I'll resist, as soon as I do that it starts snowing - happens every year, so I will wait a while, maybe June will be safe!

See you tomorrow x

Daring Cardmakers

This month I am guest designer over on my favourite challenge blog, Daring Cardmakers, this week the dare was to make a card using this photo as inspiration........

Here's a peek at what I came up with, to see all the cards go HERE, cheer me on if you have time, and if you have a spare crafting hour or two why not join in the fun and make a card for the challenge

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend xx

Dabbling with Watercolours

So I told you yesterday that I had some new watercolour paints........

and that instead of doing one of the dozens of things I have lined up for them, I started messing around with little scenes, no, I am definitely not Monet, but I figured they were good enough to pop onto a card for a truly handmade greeting........or maybe not, what do you think?

Don't ask me what these flowers are meant to be - roses? peonies? I haven't a clue, but I had such an absorbing afternoon painting them, I found it totally relaxing and will be dabbling again when I have time........

We were supposed to be going down to London tomorrow, but plans have changed and now daughter Alex and her boyfriend are arriving here later today, so it's off to the shops to stock up with some food, then a bit of cooking is the only thing that will be on the cards today - but I'll see you tomorrow x

Another new addition!

Even though I am totally enthralled with the MISTI, I thought I better move away from it for a day, so I'm showing you yet another new arrival on my craft desk, these fabulous Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolours that were a mothers day gift (a not very subtle hint having been dropped by me well in advance of the day!).........

I love watercolour as a medium, and these  colours are so concentrated and vibrant. I have wanted some decent watercolour paints to do various techniques for a while, and here they are........

Number 10 on the bottom row is white, and 95 next to it is the most gorgeous pearly white, I can see that being used up quickly. The little pans all lift out when you are using them, just gorgeous design.....

I really wanted them to use with various stamping techniques, so what did I do? I started to do some tiny watercolour paintings, freehand. Now I haven't done that since I was doing my Art exam in school, and in those days I had a boyfriend who was an art student so he used to do all my homework for me. I used to get some very quizzical looks from my art teacher when I handed in 'my' homework. But I did get a very good mark in the exam, so I must have picked up a few tips from him along the way!

The winners of the pens and CD have come forward, thank goodness, so that is the end of that saga...

And to make you smile this morning, Max aged 7 and Milo aged 5 are on holiday in Dubai. Their verdict after 36 hours in the country?
Max: The WiFi isn't very good, but the watermelon juice and the bread are the best in the world
Milo: Dubai isn't for me. It's too hot. I like it better in The England

See you tomorrow x