Fancy some Promarkers?

Well, long time no blog! First it was New Year, then it was painting the garage and getting rid of a battalion of spiders who were lurking in the murky corners, then it was a particularly vicious virus/cold/flu that has knocked me totally off my feet for a few days, so feeling very sorry for myself at the moment...but to cheer us all up, how would you like to win two sets of ProMarkers to start the new year off with a bang....one set of skin tones 1 - soft peach, ivory, satin, almond, putty and coral, and one set of skin tones 2 - cinnamon, tan, burnt sienna, spice, blush and dusky pink. All you have to do is leave your name under this post, and I will pick a random winner on Sunday. Your comment won't show up straightaway, I am being driven mad by spam comments, google scoops them up, but I get an email every time, so I am switching comment moderation on. You won't have to do that silly word verification though, just a delay on your comment being published... Good luck!

These skin tones aren't just for skin of course, I used them on this Saturated Canary image for skin, hair, top and boots. The balloons are covered in glossy accents, so they pop in real life....

Go over and see the great bargains on Flexmarkers at the Letraset site at the moment, they are 50% off, which means you get 6 pens for only $9.58 which works out at $1.60 per pen, makes Copics look a bit expensive..... I much prefer the brush tip of the Flexmarkers to the Copic nib, it is easier to control for fine detail, but if you have some Copics, you can use Flexmarkers alongside them, they will blend with any other alcohol ink system. No tax to pay, and free worldwide shipping...must be the bargain of the week (I'm putting the $ amount here, because all you promarker fans in the UK know what a good deal they are :)


Hopefully, spiders and other bugs permitting I will be back to my craft desk tomorrow, I have a couple of tight deadlines to meet and need to get back into the swing of things.

Cough, splutter, sneeze.....see you tomorrow x

Happy New Year!

 Well I hope you are all not too hungover or tired today! A very happy new year to you all.

To finish off my year in cards....

July - I just like the popped up layers on this one...

August - and I am always a big fan of white on white and embossing....

September - the sentiment fits the image perfectly!

October - I had already been working on some magazine Christmas cards since July! 

October - getting into the Christmas swing now, with more Memory Box dies....

November - and my favourite Christmas card of this year, using Craftwork Cards chipboard cards and punched snowflakes.....

December - and when I was tired of all that red and green and ho ho ho-ing, I enjoyed the delicate colours on this little Lili of the Valley image...... 

 Any new year resolutions? I have a few, most of which will have been broken by the time you read this. I have decided that the easiest way to feel virtuous is to resolve to do something that you really love and call it a resolution. So the one I will keep is eating at least three dark chocolates every day for a whole year. Will I be strong minded enough to carry this out? Who knows, but I'll have a jolly good bash at it. Oh the hardship.....

My Favourite Cards from 2012.......

Here are my favourite cards for 2012 - I chose these either because they incorporated a new technique, new product that I had fallen in love with, or just because......

January - Penny Black dog, I was pleased with the layout on this one.....

February - One made with my favourite Craftwork Cards collection for 2012, Moorish.....

March - Easter............

April - One for Papercraft Inspirations magazine, I was happy with the placing of the items against the black background.....

May - I was happy with this one, for Kanban

June - this was the year I discovered memory Box dies, this was one of the first cards I produced with them.......

I will put the rest of the year favourites on tomorrow, then I think, to kick the new year off with a bang, there will be a ProMarker giveaway (or two...) on Wednesday if I am back in time. Yes, I am off on a jaunt, visiting friends in Yorkshire for a new year jolly. Whatever you are doing tonight, be it putting on the bling, or sitting all cozy at home watching the TV, have a great time, and don't forget Old Lang Syne...

How was it for you?

Well, it's all over for another year. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, I certainly did. On the crafting side, my biggie present from my favourite Santa was a Silhouette Cameo - I couldn't resist having a sneaky play on Christmas Eve. I just did this one cut..................... the coin is a UK coin, the size of a quarter to give you an idea of scale. There is no way that my Cricut could cope with a cut as delicate or intricate as this on such a small scale. So, yes, looking forward to exploring this machine......

Sharing with you a Birthday Diary envelope book that I made for this months Papercraft Inspirations. Check the magazine out for my ideas for sliding cards as well........

Some Christmas photos. Getting the table ready was a bit of a marathon, we didn't have enough chairs and had to beg and borrow some......

and the table soon got pretty full once the food was out.....

the children couldn't wait once lunch was over to rip open their presents.....

Max has always loved dressing up, so this cowboy outfit was a big hit......

This was meant to be a 'girlie' shot - me with Kiki, Alex, Annabel and Annabels mum - but a sleepy little Monty wanted to get in on the shot.....

I love to see the children in their PJ's, at the end of a long day - Milo had already asked to go to bed, he was so tired

My girls - Daughters in law Annabel and Lidia, and daughter Alex on the right

and a lovely shot of Lidia with Max

Hope you enjoyed this peek into our festivities. See you tomorrow x

Merry Christmas Everyone

No blogging for me this past week, I have been so busy unpacking cases and getting ready for Christmas... but here's a card I made for Papercraft Inspirations magazine - all done with punches. I love these little mice!

So since I got home, the tree has been decorated - we have an artificial one, gave up on the real thing years ago when I was still picking up pine needles in July!

 with some new Dunkin Donuts ornaments to add to my collection......

I love putting glittery twigs into tall vases and hanging baubles off the twigs.....

 I found these gorgeous little cable knit stockings in Jo-Anns, so the children all have one, stuffed with chocolate coins and candy canes for after lunch......

I keep the fireplace decorations quite simple......

Then it was on to present wrapping, this lot are all for the little ones. Doting grandma? Me?

and their parents presents look rather more sophisticated.......

and lastly, it was a mad dash to the supermarket for a huge shop, well, after three months away the cupboard was well and truly bare. Grateful thanks must go to M & S for the wonderful range of 'ready mades', there hasn't been time for a lot of cooking......

So all in all, I don't know about you, but I am very glad that the world didn't come to an abrupt halt on Friday - I have things to do, places to go, people to see, and this year Christmas is going to be really special with all my chicks under my roof. So I will be back, with photos, and some crafty stuff once the fat man in the red suit has been and gone. In the meantime, I hope you all have a really lovely Christmas, wherever you are, and however you are spending it.

Peace, Joy and Love to you all x

Forgive me - unashamedly sentimental.....

Sorry about the lack of posts this week, as you read on, you will see why......

But first, the randomly drawn winners of the Polkadoodles Picknix CD are

Susan - Sue Brailey

and

Beth Anne in PA

Congrats to you both, email me with your address and I will get them in the mail to you

So back to the lack of posts - here's why..........................and this was just the first few boxes......

and.................all the boxes in the second photo are filled with craft stuff!......

So the shipping company was due Wednesday afternoon, they called at 5 PM to say they were still in Gainseville, a two hour + drive away. We cancelled dinner with friends and waited, and waited....and waited. They turned up at 9.30 and were merrily loading boxes until midnight. I made them a pot of very strong coffee, well, after all that careful packing, I didn't want to see my stuff going off the road as the driver fell asleep...

Friday,  the cleaning service was booked. A 7 AM call from the cleaner. 'I'm sick' she said 'I'll come on Saturday instead, you don't want me there when I'm sick'

Well frankly I would have welcomed her in if she had bubonic plague, but did wonder how, if she was so sick today, she could confidently say she would be there the next day, so I cancelled, rolled up my sleeves and set to work ....

I would have some cards to show you, but I lost them in the chaos. Now they are found, and my camera has disappeared. Sigh. This was going to be so organised

We leave tomorrow morning, documents all signed for the house, and the sale should complete next week. So I have a few people to thank, certainly in no order of priority, they are all equally important:

Firstly to 'the girls' from my Thursday craft group, which has been a huge and enjoyable part of my life here in Florida. Everyone knew that Thursdays were sacrosanct and off I would go, with the car loaded with everything but the kitchen sink, and there I would stay, all day, and often until late into the evening as well. We made cards, shared ideas, learnt from each other, shared supplies, laughed and talked. Frequent visits to Dunkin Donuts were always on the agenda. I always looked forward to Thursdays, and I will miss you all terribly. Thank you all for everything

Then there are all the dear friends we have made here in Heritage Pines, too numerous to mention, but you know who you are - dear friends who faithfully picked us up at the airport every single time we came over, and drove us back down when we left - even if it was at some ungodly hour, friends who were always at home when I fancied a chat, friends who are rather nifty Canasta partners - leading to some very competitive evenings of men V. women, friends who invited us into their homes for delicious meals, whole crowds of friends at Wednesday Happy Hours. Thank you all for your hospitality and friendship

At risk of sounding ridiculously sentimental, lastly, I want to say thank you America. Thank you to all you warm and welcoming people, for making our time here such an enriching experience and so much fun. We will be back, of course we will, but this is the end of this particular chapter in our lives, we can't say 'see you in a couple of months', but thank heavens for the web, skype, and stuff like Words with Friends! So there have been a few tears shed over the past few days, sniff.....

But then there is Blogging - I'll be back next week, no doubt moaning like mad about how cold I am............

Bye for now x   

The right pair of shoes....

Here's one I made for the Craftwork Cards USA blog - I used the lovely Bohemia collection which is quite sparkly, as you know I can never capture sparkly on photos, I need to go to a sparkly editing camera  class!

The shoes were cut using Gypsy wanderings on my Cricut. I was inspired by the lovely candi, which looked a bit like snakeskin to me......

and I have had this stamp for ages, one of those anonymous ones with no makers name on it........

A couple of you asked how the packing was going. The short answer to that is OH DEAR. My problem is that because of the expense of shipping overseas, the boxes need to be big, now fill a big box to the brim and it would take a fork lift truck to lift it. Maybe they have forklift trucks? Who knows. I do know that I will have plenty of coffee and cookies on hand next Wednesday to sweeten the removal guys, I am probably not going to be their favourite person on that day. Heck, I may get some beer in for them, they may forget the pain with a couple of pints.... 

Two Polkadoodles CD's to win......

As promised, I found my Polkadoodles card, but can't for the life of me find the details that I always make a note of when I finish a card - I think this is Polly from the Sundae of Seasons CD, and my favourite falling snow paper. I added glitter to all the 'snowflakes' and the snow falling on Polly as well, so nice and glittery in real life

Today I am giving away a Picknix CD one each for two lucky persons. All you have to do is leave a comment under this post, and I will draw the winners on Monday - there are three fabulous collections on these CD's, you get over three hundred elements, backing papers, digital stamps, frames and borders, sentiments, and they all coordinate perfectly. So come on, leave your name to be in with a chance..... Go to the store to see all the fabulous things the design team have made with this CD, loads of inspiration over there

Back to Christmas, and a winner.....

I promised to post the winner of the winter Limited Edition Promarkers on Monday, oops

The number that came up means that Carmen Lucero is the lucky winner. Email me Carmen and I will get your prize in the mail to you

I also promised a Polkadoodles giveaway yesterday, I have made a card and just havent had a chance to photograph it - tomorrow, I promise.....

A simple little card today made with a LaLa Land stamp sent to me by my good buddy the lovely Mandy Hall of Scrappy go Lucky in Australia, coloured with promarkers, and then cut out.....

What lessons did I learn yesterday? That the 20 x 20 x 20 shipping boxes that i bought and looked so small in the store are in fact huge when assembled and I probably need an elephant to shift them now that they are packed......
That a great big huge roll of bubble wrap isn't a great big roll at all, it's all a lot of air......
That it's very irritating to run out of washing powder and bleach when I only have a few more washloads to do......
That too much coffee doesn't help the feeling of panic, it just makes me even more manic......

Back tomorrow with some Polkadoodles x

Filling your Shoes.....

Isn't this a sweet little image from Inky Antics? Coloured with ProMarkers, I used

Saffron and vanilla for her hat, blush and soft peach for the skin, pastel pink, orchid and sunkissed pink for her dress.... 

I won't bore you with the saga of the sorting and packing, lets just say it involves lists of lists....so a short post today, I will be back tomorrow with the winner of the winter limited edition ProMarkers, and another chance to win Polkadoodles CD's
Hope this week is a good one for you all x

Tulips for Letraset

Today I made a simple tulip card for the Letraset blog. Go HERE to see it, leave a comment and on Sunday I will pick a random name from the comments left to win a set of the Winter Limited Edition Promarkers. The winner will be announced on Monday next week, so a nice early Christmas present for someone

There are some great sales on at the Letraset site this week as well, go HERE to see - if you are from the US, change the currency to US $ before you start, then click on special offers - they are selling a lot of sets at 50% off, and it's a good way to start if you don't have the $$ with Christmas coming up to buy loads of markers. Free shipping too if you spend over $30 

So here are my tulips, the card is over on the blog......

and I promised to share with you why I am more hectic, frazzled and tired than usual in my busy life. We decided earlier this year that we would put our Florida house on the market, not an easy decision, but a lot of valid reasons for making that decision. So with a bit of sadness, we put it on the market, expecting it to take months in a sluggish market. 

It was sold in less than a week!

So although it has been sold furnished, obviously there are a lot of belongings that need to be taken back to the UK - clothes and crafts being two of them. So life is a whirlwind of sorting, clearing, packing, filling out customs forms......HELP!

Huge hampers of clothes have gone to a charity supporting homeless people, I have been 'Ebaying' like crazy - where did it all come from?!

Yes, we will come back to Florida, we have many good friends here, although I am going to start nagging them to get their passports in order so that they can come over to see us for a change. End of an era. Sigh. Expect some melancholy from me over the next few days - we leave here in 2 1/2 weeks