Stitches at the NEC

I had a lovely but quick visit to the trade show at the NEC. My first stop was the Polkadoodles stand, where a rather weary Mr. Doodles was holding the fort on his own - no sign of Mrs Doodles. Still, it gave me time to look at the gorgeous samples........

I loved this canvas, made by fellow DT member Dee Paramour......

 Next I wandered over to the Fiskars stand, and there was Mrs Doodles (Nikky Hall) chatting away and watching a demo of the Fiskars fuse by my old pal Kath Stewart. Two birds with one stone! 

I played 'spot the Kath' cards on the Fiskars stand, her style is very distinctive, love it....

Next I had to get a photo of Crafty Bob (Crafts U Love) for my pals back in Florida who are great fans of that website. Is Bob a person? No idea, but I was told that the large stuffed object in the corner was Bob, so I gave him a kiss from Bev in Florida, the nice sales director thought it was very funny and is putting a photo on the Crafts U love newsletter.........

Then over to the La Pashe booth, where my Letraset team mate Jak Heath was working.....

We have never actually met face to face before - this photo shows us catching up with the gossip!

and a sneaky peek at some of the new releases which will be available in a couple of months, I loved this trio of card players on a swing card.....

the flip side shows that the guys are losing!

Loads more photos of lovely samples and products to share with you tomorrow..

A Flutterby of Butterflies

 The problem with cardmaking at this time of year is that by the time you have finished, the light has gone, so this card has a strange blue hue, in reality it is very white. I punched some butterflies from white cardstock, then punched the card into scallop circles, and added some pattern paper behind the butterflies. I used my favourite get well sentiment stamp and drew a couple of lines with a fine tip black liner pen. It called for more butterflies so I cut a little flock (what IS the collective noun for butterflies? Is it a flight of butterflies? Too lazy to check....) with a Memory Box die,  and dotted some gems around. 

Edited to say my pal Anne tells me it's a swarm or a rabble of butterflies. A rabble? Who thought of that, peaceful little butterflies fluttering about and they get called a rabble?

There hasn't been much of a chance to play with paper for the past few days, I'm afraid that Mike is still suffering greatly from nerve pain in his back, and it seems to have been a round of surgery visits, pharmacy visits and hospital visits. He went for a blood test today, the hospital is only 50 yards from our house, but of course he can't walk much at the moment. So I dropped him off at the entrance, the room where they take blood is just by the door,  and promised to be close by to pick him up. Hollow laughter, there wasn't a parking space in the place, so I drove around the block seventeen times (yes, I counted), to see him staggering out almost on his knees - the haematology lab had been moved to the other side of the hospital, quite a walk from the original place. It took a couple of cups of restorative tea before we could have a laugh about it.......

Today though, I am sneaking away for an hour or two to make a quick visit to the Stitches show at the NEC, this is the big trade fair for the UK, the equivalent of CHA or Frankfurt. Quite a few of my pals will be there, and I promise to take my camera to let you see all the latest goodies on offer

The winners are......

Finally I can announce the winners, all picked by random.org. I actually took photos of the screens with the numbers on, but with seven names to announce it was getting horrible messy on here, and I am tired and want to go to bed! (It's 
1 AM as I write this....)

So here we go......

DAY 1 - SKIN TONE PROMARKERS  WON BY SANDRA COLLIS

DAY 2 - PASTEL FLEXMARKERS WON BY DARLA HAVERSTOCK

DAY 3 - VIBRANT FLEXMARKERS WON BY DENISE BRYANT

DAY FOUR - MID TONE FLEXMARKERS WON BY T K WATSON

DAY FIVE - NEUTRAL TONES WON BY IS FROM SPAIN

DAY 6 - RICH TONES FLEXMARKERS WON BY LOOPY LOU

DAY SEVEN - ASSORTED FLEXMARKERS WON BY PAMELA ROMERO

Congratulations to you all, can you all email me with your full address please
and I will get your sets in the mail to you, enjoy....

I hope everyone has a wonderfully romantic Valentines day, showered with roses and gorgeous gifts - if that's what floats your boat. Everyone else, have a great day and relax in some comfy slippers with some chocolates and a good book. 

See you tomorrow when it's business as usual with a project or two...

Last Chance....

Last giveaway day today, not a set this time, but five flexmarkers, all brand new - they are duplicates of ones in my collection. So the winner will get:
Sunflower
Soft Green
Marsh Green
Storm Blue
Dusky Pink

Just leave your names under this post.......you know the drill.... I will leave this open until midnight UK time tonight, that's 7 P.M EST, so don't be late. I'll put the winners names here on Wednesday

No card from me today, but I am sharing something that has been keeping me very busy, my newly revamped bedroom with my much loved furniture that I couldn't bear to leave behind in the Florida house....For some reason the headboard looks a bit white in the photo, the wood is all cream

I did all the decorating, so you can see why there hasn't been a lot of time for cardmaking in the past couple of weeks! Painty fingers instead of inky fingers for a change.  I do love the way the furniture has fitted in so well, and love the colours I chose, its very restful, still some finishing bits to do but overall, it's done ....what do you think?

See you tomorrow with the winners names x

Rich Tones Flexmarkers

Todays prize is a set of six rich tone Flexmarkers. The winner will get:

Cardinal red

Moss

Surf Blue

Navy Blue

Red violet

Vermillion

leave your name under this post, all the winners will be picked on Wednesday morning and posted here on Wednesday

Carol asked a good question yesterday. She said:

Now, I have a question about the markers ... I have never tried them before (I failed miserably with the gamsal and colored pencils, so I have been hesitant to try the markers) ... anyway, would one of these 6 pack of markers be enough to play with to tell if you would really like them or not? Even if there is no "blendy" pen to help blend the colours together? Is there anough color variation in a six pack to honestly give you a nice example of how the pens can give an image a pop of color and enhance the overall look?

As you can see, I do want to try them, but don't want to invest a huge amount if it ends up being something that doesn't appeal to me. I admit being a bit skeptical and wonder if a 6-pack of neutrals (like these grays) would leave me feeling a bit flat. Is this a good investment for a first time user that wants to "try" them?

You raise some good points Carol. Firstly, with alcohol inks, you don't need a blender to blend the colours together, unlike pencils and gamsol. You blend by using similar tones of the same colour, adding darker shades for shadow and depth, then blending with a lighter shade. There are loads of you tube tutorials out there, and a few in the tutorials section at the top of this page, which will help you understand what I mean. The flexmarkers I have been giving away this week are really sets to help fill your colour range, rather than blending sets, (apart from the neutral set that was yesterday's prize). I would urge anyone hesitant, to go to the Letraset site and look at some of the sets available at rock bottom prices, some of the sets of six Flexmarkers work out at about £1 a pen - that's only $1.55, and you get free shipping if your order is over $33 or £20.(try and get together with a friend to do a combined order if you don't want to spend $33.   If you are not from the UK, click on the flag at the top right hand corner of the page to get prices in your currency. There are some great sets to get your collection started - as a quick guide, I would say go with the pastel colours to grow your skills until you are more confident about using the darker colours . You can mix and match ProMarkers and Flexmarkers - the only difference is the nib. Click on the image below to see what's available 

On to todays card, which I half made back in Florida, intending to leave it for the buyers of our house. I lost it in the rush, so gave them a general sort of best wishes card (along with a bottle of champagne) to wish them well. Of course the half finished card has appeared like magic out of one of the boxes. All I had to do was add the sentiment - someone, somewhere among our friends will be moving house at some stage!

Papers and images were printed out from the Double Sprinkles of Kraft CD by Polkadoodles - now there's another bargain for you. All the truly gorgeous CD roms, with hundreds of images and papers on each one, are on sale at the moment for £9.99 AND you get free shipping worldwide for orders over £10 

I'll be back tomorrow with the last six Flexmarkers. Don't forget, leave your name under every post offering the markers, good luck again x

Neutral tones.....

Today's giveaway is a pack of six neutral flexmarkers. With alcohol markers, it's amazing how versatile these neutrals can be - they can be used for hair, to add depth to coloured clothing, to add shadows around an image. The winner will get:

Cool Grey 1

Cool Grey 2

Cool Grey 3

Cool Grey 4

Cool Grey 5

Black

Want to colour black clothes or hair? This set will fit the bill. All you have to do is leave your name under this post, and a winner will be drawn and announced on Wednesday. If you haven't already done so, scroll down and leave your name on all the posts this week and then you will be entered in all the draws  

Here's my last Valentine, a quickie that I will send to one of the littlest boys. 

I am always glad to finish an 'event' and move on to the next thing. In the UK, it will be Mothering Sunday, which falls in March, totally different to the US Mothers Day....I wonder why that is, Fathers Day is the same in both countries. 

Thanks for all your good wishes, Mike is getting better, much more slowly than he would like, but at least there is a light at the end of this particular tunnel now

I told you that I had a marathon unpacking frenzy on Tuesday, getting rid of most of the boxes. I was left with three - they have taken me four days, and I am still wandering about helplessly looking for somewhere to put yet another pile of stuff - yes, the difficult boxes are the ones that I hurled all the last minute crafting stuff into - too good/useful to throw away, not important enough to warrant a prime position in the crafty cupboard (think of grungepaper and you will understand instantly what I mean). My problem is that I see something online that someone very clever has done amazing things with, and it instantly becomes something I cannot live without. I scour Ebay and Amazon for the best price, wait excitedly for the parcel to arrive, then mess with it for an hour or so. The result is never as good as the inspirational project I saw, so into a drawer it goes, never to be seen again (until I move from one continent to another!) Things that fall into this category are those glimmer mist spray things, perfect pearls powders, embossing paste (boy, did I regret buying that - it took a week to get it off my hands....), and my personal nemesis, the aforementioned grungepaper. Please don't tell me how wonderful the stuff it - I know the theory, I could probably get a PhD on the subject, I have watched the saintly Tim Holtz ad infinitum - nothing helps, in my hands it still looks like an old cardboard box that a puppy chewed......

Come back tomorrow to see which Flexmarker set I am giving away (I suppose I could include a pack of grunge, that would solve one problem.......)

Six Mid Tone Flexmarkers for you

Today's offering is a set of six mid tone Flexmarkers. The winner will get:
Berry Red
Sunflower
Forest Green
Cadet Blue
Wild Orchid
Rose Pink

As always, just leave your name under this post, all the comments for today will be thrown into a random virtual hat to pick a winner - to be announced with all the others next Wednesday. Good luck

Here is a link to the brand new, printable colour charts that Letraset have put together, you can print them blank, to fill in with the colours you own, or already coloured for you to add to your wish list. There are charts for ProMarkers and Flexmarkers

Here is something you don't see very often from me - a scrapbook page. This was made for a magazine commission I did on sliding cards - the 'finale' was to use all three sliding techniques on one scrapbook page, quite a challenge. All the photos are of Max, when he was much younger than his present advanced age of five!

The pocket on the top left of the photo pulls out with a pop up photo. the little boat pocket has a sentiment tag to lift out

the next little element used the sliding principle I showed on the blue flower card earlier this week, I like the way the train underneath seems to move when the top panel is moved across......

the VROOM VROOM sentiment was cut with the Cricut, using the George cartridge.... 

I'll be back tomorrow with another set of Flexmarkers. Have a great weekend

Win - Vibrant Flexmarkers

Todays giveaway is a set of six vibrant Flexmarkers - the colours in this set are:
Sunset
Mandarin
Yellow
Chartreuse
Cyan
Shocking Pink

All you have to do is leave your name under this post, all the comments from this post will be entered into the draw and the winner announced next Wednesday. If you want to see all the Flexmarker colours go HERE to download the new colour chart. To see all the special offers (some markers are 50% off, and you get free worldwide shipping) go HERE

So I thought that the vibrant set deserved a vibrant card. This little image is by Nellie Snellen

isn't she cute! The flowers and leaves are punches, also by Nellie Snellen, coloured with Flexmarkers

Thanks to all of you who have sent good wishes to Mike. Unfortunately he is no better, still in a lot of pain and on very strong meds which have been changed three times, none of them are really working. We see an osteopath tomorrow, keep your fingers and toes crossed that she can do something

If you remember, I had to turn comment moderation on because of the loads of spam that was coming through. Well, I now get to see the spam close up and it is hilarious. About thirty people a day seem to think I am in desperate need of viagra. Then there are the spammers who send out what looks like a genuine comment - 'what an interesting post, I would like to read more, visit my blog pharmacysuppliesforidiots.com'. Last week, for some reason (which left me totally perplexed), I had a stream of spam messages from people all offering me help with blocked drains. What?......Where did that come from? I am offered cheap handbags, designer trainers, stuff to stop me going bald.......it is endless. So if I am late posting any day, you will know that I have been diverted by someone offering me large discounts on bulk dog food, probably sent by courier from China.......(no I haven't got a dog, but a bargain is a bargain)

Win Pastel Flexmarkers

Today's prize is a set of six pastel Flexmarkers - the same excellent quality alcohol ink pens, but with a brush nib instead of the bullet tip. Lots of the Flexmarker colours aren't available in Promarker pens, and as you can use them together, it's a great way to add more colours to your collection. This set has:

Vanilla

Pale Citrus

Aquamarine

Powder Blue

Heather

Sorbet

I'm going to make you take a detour for your entry today. Go HERE to the Letraset blog and leave a comment under my post, then pop back here and just leave your name, those who have visited both posts will have their name thrown in the hat to win the markers, so go on............see what I have been doing with my Cameo and Flexmarkers

All the winners will be announced at the same time, next Wednesday, and I will mail to anywhere in the world

A quick Max and Milo tale - we haven't had one of those for a while

Max (aged 5) - Daddy, do they have prisons for children?

Yes they do, but you have to do something very very naughty, like hurting  someone very badly to go to one, and you are a very good boy

Milo (aged 3)  I'm a bit naughty......

Bless him! I'll be back tomorrow with another set of markers for you

and the winner is .... and a chance to win some ProMarkers

 Apologies for being a day late announcing the winner of the Cherryblossom Lane CD - our shipment of goods arrived from the USA yesterday and I was drowning in a sea of large boxes

I drew the winner using random.org, and the name that came up was

BEV V FROM USA

Congratulations Bev, please email me with your address and I will get the CD in the mail to you

For the next few days I will be giving away some ProMarker and Flexmarker sets - one a day, so a few chances to win. Up for grabs today is a set of five ProMarker skin tones, and somewhere along the line I have lost the image to put here, so you will just have to pop HERE to see all the lovely colours in the set. All you have to do is leave a comment under this post. I will draw all the winners next Wednesday so be sure to come back every day for a new prize. As always, I will mail worldwide. Good luck

Sharing a card I made for a Papercraft Inspirations commission - an article about sliding cards. This pretty little card looks like this when closed........

but pull the ribbon and the left hand panel slides across over the right hand panel to reveal a sentiment....

The main sentiment is by Stampin Up, but I rather like the font on the thank you sentiment stamp which was just a dollar find by Studio G...

Forty three boxes arrived yesterday, forty boxes are unpacked and the contents stowed away. Not bad going. I'll see you tomorrow for the next marker giveaway - enfys@exhausted.com

More Cherryblossom

Here's a couple more cherryblossom lane cards. For this first one, I printed out two of the inserts by mistake, and couldn't waste all that loveliness so I used it for the front of the card - all ready coloured, Nikky usually uses ProMarkers but for this collection she used watercolours, which gives them a lovely soft handpainted look......... 

and here's the inside of the card with the insert in place, I used one of the printed sentiments from the CD.....'what a beautiful way for love to bloom'

 and these two little rabbits giving each other a hug will be a favourite for a lot of people, I printed out the background and cut them out before popping them on with  foam pads - I printed them twice, so I decoupaged the heads and the frills on their dresses for a bit of dimension......

another insert to finish the inside.....sorry about the shadows from the window, winter photos are so difficult to get right

and I turned it into a sister card with this sentiment....

Don't forget, you have until Sunday to enter your name for the draw for this CD - scroll down to the post and leave a comment there

Jessica asked a question about USA and UK card sizes yesterday, these are in inches, converted from the metric to give you a rough idea
8" x 11" - A4
5" x 7" - A5
4" x 6" - A6 (this is pretty much the same as USA invitation size)
3" x 4" - A7

I have a poorly chap here, my husband has hurt his back and is in a lot of pain. At times like this I really wish we lived in a bungalow instead of a three storey town house - especially as the long awaited shipment of stuff from the Florida house is being delivered on Monday. Some serious leg toning is about to take place I think. I may apply for a summer job as a lifeguard on a beach somewhere - oh rats, I forgot you don't just need toned legs, you have to be able to swim more than five yards. Never mind.....

What will you see?

For those who have never used crafting CD's, I thought it would be useful to do a post showing just how easy it is. You slot the CD into your computer (it will work on Windows and a Mac). On Windows, this screen pops up.......

and voila, up pops the home page..........click on enter

 then you can browse away to your hearts content. This is how the ready coloured images show, just click on one to print......(the photos are a bit blurry I'm afraid)

or you can print uncoloured, all ready for you to do............

 you get all sorts of extras - butterflies, fences, flowers, cute houses.....an impressive list of stuff to add that little extra to your cards...

there are 'scenes' all ready for you to print out and make a quick card, or, see the mushroom house on the right? Print out one of the digi stamps, and add that with foam pads to the background scene.....

you also get the images ready placed onto toppers, just print, cut out and add to your card. The files are png. which means that if you have a Cameo, you can cut them out with your machine......

just one screen of sentiments - these are the tickets I used on yesterday's card. You also get individual sentiments, and sheets of sentiments which are done so that you can use a nestability to cut around the wording.....

then there are the papers. Here is just one of the cute little bookcases full of different patterns..

click on one that takes your fancy, and it goes to another screen showing all the colours available, all carefully chosen to coordinate with all the other elements....

here's the flower paper I used on yesterday's card....

 I just clicked on the pale blue background paper, and it comes up on another screen already to print. I tend to print onto cardstock rather than paper. Georgia Pacific from Walmart is perfect, or in the UK, Hobbycraft and Osbornes stationers do a basic range....

there is a direct link to the inspiration gallery on the CD, which will give you a lot of ideas.....

something for everyone.....cute little tags (spot the grandad rabbit I used yesterday?)

you even get coordinating envelopes and pretty inserts that you can print out....

just run a tape runner close to the center fold of your card inside, place the insert on, and close the card to adhere, a really lovely finishing touch...

I have got a couple of cards to show you, but they will have to wait until tomorrow, the light just wasn't good enough today for a decent photo. Don't forget, to be in with a chance of winning this CD, just leave a comment under yesterdays post, I will draw the winner on Sunday