Monday 5 December 2011

At long last

Hello there,


I am sorry that I have been absent again for so long. Despite my best intentions I never seem to get round to do the blogging.
Last Saturday was my last class at the Glitterpot for this year (although if you want to attend one of my classes, the January and February ones are up on the website now and you can book now, some are already filling fast!) and I really enjoyed the day with some lovely ladies! I went a bit mad on the sample front but decided to just go with it and prepare the packs so everyone could do any (although not all) card out of the bits provided. It was quite interesting to see which ones people chose to do!
The class was a colouring with Copics one with a focus on nature and landscape. So without further palaver, here are my samples. For the "landscape" part of the session I made these cards:











For these ones I used a couple of Hobbyart sets (Scene it toppers and Flypast) and Echo Park paper "Sweet Stripes" as well as Personal Impressions Sentiment stamps.
Other materials used:  White and coloured/textured cardstock, Vellum, buttons from stash( I think they are Basic Grey) a Spellbinders Label die and of course Copics! I stamped onto Craftwork Cards Premium Digital Paper with Memento ink, Sentiments stamped in Versafine in black and sepia and I distressed the edges of the paper and labels with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.


For the "nature" part I used a lovely crocus stamp set by Imagination Crafts.

















As you can see, I went a bit overboard, just couldn't stop using these *lol*
Apart from the stamp set which includes the sentiments and single crocus image as well as the large tile image I used white and coloured, glittered and textured cardstock, Echo Park "Yellow Damask" paper, some ribbon & ricrac, vellum, clear gemstones and again ink, paper and Copic pens as above. The decorative edge on the first card was achieved by using a label punch repeatedly on the edge of the paper to create the border.


That's it for now, hope you like my cards and thanks if you decide to leave a comment!

Wednesday 26 October 2011

A great give-away!

Hello bloggers,


I have been soooo busy with my life in general and my crafting (for classes) in particular, that blogging has been on the back-burner for a while. Hope you haven't forgotten me and deserted?!





Anyway, I have a fab give-away to announce that the lovely and generous Ruth of A Passion for Stamps is doing. You have until the 5th November to enter to win 5 digis of your choice from Ruths great selection and the rules are very simple:


a) be a follower of A Passion for Stamps (EXISTING or NEW!!)
b) post the pic above in your sidebar with a link to the blog
c) leave a comment on the post (on A Passion for Stamps ) saying why you'd like to win the 5 digis


Go here to enter: Digi give-away

Good luck!


I also have tons of cards and a couple of other projects to share. As I said I have been very busy... But for now, I'll leave you to this give-away and share with you later!

Monday 22 August 2011

A quick birthday card

Yesterday we were invited to the 40th birthday picnic for a friend/co-worker of his. I didn't have time to do a card before so had to do it yesterday morning before heading out which left me about an hour. I basically created with what was on my desk and am quite pleased with the outcome. Thankfully she liked it, too. Phew!




Papers, cardstock, ink, stamps and the single pearl are all SU, die for the panel on the side and the single flower and the grass (upper, fussy-cut) are by PTI, seam binding from stash.


Thanks for dropping in again and hope you like tonights offering. I am off to prepare tonights class.





Holiday pics - tune out if you like!

Hello bloggers,


as I said before, you can now endure  enjoy some pics from my recent holiday to Portugal. We had a wonderful time and the kids were mostly good as gold. We spent the holiday together with my in-laws and my brother-in-law with his little family, everyone enjoyed it a lot!
Now without much further ado, some impressions:




My boys on the beach, aren't they sweet?

Vasco da Gama tower, Lisbon expo





Riding the hill train in Lisbon

The big and little kids...

my little family


Posing for mum

Go-carting in front of the Ozeanarium in Lisbon

one of the many beautiful flowers we saw
Obidos - beautiful old city where you can walk all around the city wall

Hubby playing for the camera, but he really is afraid of heights... *lol*

Streetview in Obidos
One of the many azulejos you find in Portugal - this is the entrance gate into Obidos
Magnificent old till in a shop in Obidos

My gorgeous boy :-)
little old me in the sunset...

Both my gorgeous ones again
Three generations of pool-jumpers in matching trunks

 *Lol * you're still here? Well done! Thanks for looking and I promise I'll post a card later today!



Saturday 20 August 2011

Hello again... have you missed me?

Hello there,
sorry I have been missing again and I feel terrible for letting the blogging slip again, but life has a funny way of getting in the way with children, husband, extended family and friends as well as mundane things like houshold chores and work demanding my attention. 
I am happy to say I have still been able to craft here and there but not much picture taking and therefore no blogging was possible. 
I am very lucky to be on the DT for Ruth of A Passion for Stamps because not only is she very talented but she is also very kind and understanding when I don't get to create with her lovely new images.
I had a little bit of time today to do some pleasure crafting and had a play with one of her new images - "Sweet Pea". It's gorgeous and I was itching to try it out. I also have seen some people playing with the "disappearing lines" technique and gave it a go with this image. I printed with the opacity of the lines down to 20% and coloured with Copics and coloured pencils.


I am quite happy with result and want to investigate this effect some more soon. I traced the shape of the PTI Mat Stack 3 die around the image and cut it out with scissors fussy cutting the buds to the side. The Sentiment is also by PTI and I created a faux mat around the panel by placing the die onto the lavender mat and tracing with a Versamark pen and brushing over with gold Perfect Pearls. The shimmer is glorious in real life but doesn't really show in the picture I am afraid. This was an addaptation of the current Make it Monday on Nichole Heady's blog, they do it with glitter instead of Perfect Pearls but I hope this qualifies as well.
I drew the lines on the side and top with the Versamark Pen as well, mounted the panel with foam pads for dimension and adhered to a card blank.
The card is actually only 10,5 x 10,5cm small as I was in the mood for a small notecard.


I am entering my card in the following challenges:
Make it Monday no.50 - Anything goes
Addicted to Stamps challenge no. 10 - Anything goes

Hope you like this card and I shall be back with some (more like loads!) of pictures of my recent holiday to Portugal. I got some fab pictures of my boys and some rather unfortunate ones of myself which helped me make my mind up about joining a slimming group next week! I will deliberate over wether to show you these or not *lol*

Monday 13 June 2011

Workshop cards

Hello bloggers,

many thanks for your kind comments on my accident(s)! I am due to go to the doctors today to have a check-up on my head. Hope all is ok.
And my evening out with hubby was wonderful. We ate at a really nice restaurant that's not too far away called "The ginger fox". Their food is outstanding. We shared two starters of Tempura cuttlefish with cucumber and a soy/chili/coriander dressing and beefsteak carpaccio with marinated beetroot and horseradish sauce. I think I could just work my way through their starters and would always be happy. Mains were duck breast on crushed new potatoes, peas, samphire and black pudding for hubby and rib eye steak with garlic and paprika butter served with dripping chips and chargrilled strips of courgette. Yum! Hubby finished with a cheeseboard but I refrained from a pudding as I was feeling quite satisfied with what I had. A lovely chilean Pinot Noir washed everything down nicely.

Enough of this mouthwatering description, on to some cards.
One of my first workshops in the Glitterpot was an all-day Copic Introduction for Beginners. I chose to work on some Hero Arts flowers from a cling stamp set and a Penny Black wooden stamp. It gives people more options colour-wise, is quicker than more complex images and results can easily be made into quick cards.
Saying that, only one person in the class actually made a card during the workshop, everyone else was perfectly content on just colouring all day. I really enjoyed this class and hope my attendees had fun, too.
Here are the samples I had made up, showcasing how o create matching backgrounds as well as the colouring with Copics. The first one is clear embossed, the next two were stamped and outlined with markers. On the last card I used some masking to create a focal frame.








I'd love to know what you think!

P.S. Sorry for the picture quality recently, I took the pics next to a window for some daylight and got rather more of it than I bargained for *lol* Hope you can still see everything well enough!

Saturday 11 June 2011

Do things really come in threes?

Hello bloggers!
I really hope things come in threes, because that should mean I am through with some bad stuff for now!
About 3 weeks ago I fell down the stairs and got a rather large bruise on my behind as well as two smaller ones on my back and arm to show for it. The a few days ago I accidently bit very hard onto a fork and one of my front teeth crumbled a bit. Thankfully it only felt weird for a couple of days and now it's only a little chip that's come off (although I suspect the tooth is more fragile now...).
Well and now, on Thursday afternoon I had an accident in the bathroom. I hit the top of my head with the door handle while coming up from crouching and our door handles are kind of square with sharp corners. Ouch! I cursed a bit but thought not that much of it until I felt blood pouring out. As I couldn't see anything on top of my head I asked a friend from round the corner to look at it and she nearly gagged (but she is not good with blood and wounds to be honest *lol*). She pursuaded a very reluctant me to go to hospital where I was told it was good I had come in because it needed to be glued. So there, here I am now hoping, that's it for a while. Hate the thought of not being able to properly wash my hair for 4-5 days, only water, no shampoo. And brushing is hard, too as I have to avoid that area.

But enough now with the self-pity. I have some more stuff to show you later today from my classes and maybe I'll show you my husbands birthday card and gift wrapping as well. He turned 39 yesterday and we had a nice but uneventful day. And since he doesn't read my blog I can tell you, he's going to be taken out for a nice meal tonight. I told him, I am going on a Girls Night Out, but my girlfriend is coming to babysit, not pick me up ;-)

Thursday 9 June 2011

Glitterpot demo day cards - part 2

Hello bloggers,


today I am sharing the rest of the cards I made for the May demo days. These were all done with floral Penny Black stamps and Copics. I even snuck in a crochet flower I did out of some Basic Grey (I think) fibres I had lying around and made a couple of Easel cards, including my first circular one. Not much else to say about them, any questions, just ask :-)
And here we are:







Again, click on any image to see a larger version.

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Glitterpot demo day cards

Hello bloggers! 


I know I have been rather quiet for a long while but that doesn't mean I haven't been making anything. Quite to the contrary actually. I have been making lots of samples for the Glitterpot demo days and for classes and thought I really ought to share a few of them with you all.
As there are so many I'll group them and share them bit by bit. Today I'm gonna show you a few Tilda cards I have made for the Spring Spectacular Demo Days in the Glitterpot on the last May weekend. I really enjoyed demonstrating and have just confirmed I'll be doing it again in September!
And here are my cards:





Click on any image to enlarge them.
I haven't done Tilda cards for ages before this as I had gone off them for a while, but doing these reminded me again of how great they are to colour. I have been using Happy Spring Tilda, Running Tilda, King Tilda and Castle Window. I used a masking technique to get Tilda to look out of the window. All imagesa re coloured with Copics and on the purpley one I used Copics (and DST plus glitter) to make the backing paper. On the last one I used a Copic refill to dye the seam binding ribbon to match the card.
The castle shape was cut by hand from grey cardstock and I sponged on Pumice Stone Distress Ink over a Post-it note mask to get the stone effect, enhanced by a bit of fine black pen. I think the rest is pretty self-explanatory but if you have any questions, as always, feel free to ask!


Bye for now, need to cook the kids dinner...