I really must try and get back into blogging!!

I must try and get back into blogging, it is a seriously long time since I did any.  I read all my favourite blogs every day, but never get round to updating mine!

So here goes.... Just to break me in gently, here are a couple of cards I made recently.  I have made these using my new Spectrum Noir pencils to colour the images.

The bird one is the Large Blue Tit from Clarity Stamps, and the Poppy is a digi stamp.

The apertures were cut on my Brother ScanNCut, and the photographs were taken by me - the bird picture at Burton Mere Wetlands, and the poppy at Chester Zoo.

You might recognise the Poppy picture from my previous post, I love this picture!

Winter Friends

Wow, it is a seriously long time since I posted anything on here!!  Where does the time go???

I just spotted a challenge over on Crafters Companion Monthly Challenge Blog, and for once I actually had just done a card that kind of fits!

The decoupage image is from Paintbox Poppets, and the card itself is Centura Pearl.  I embossed the card using my brilliant new eBosser!  I just love it, almost all my Christmas cards this year were made using it.

All I need to do now is try and remember how to enter the challenge, it has been a very long time!!

I love Poppies!!

I just love poppies, so when I saw the challenge over on the Stampalot blog, I couldn't resist! The challenge is to use the picture of a poppy field for inspiration.
I was lucky enough to have been in the right place at the right time to take this photo of a beautiful Poppy, and just had to use it. It was taken at Chester Zoo. My family laugh at me because, while everyone else is looking at the animals, I am usually looking the opposite way at the flowers. I think it must be a throw-back to my childhood, because when we went to the Zoo my Dad only ever looked at the flowers, and my grandmother never went there without a pair of scissors in her bag for cuttings!
The background paper I used is from Joanna Sheen's Jane Netley Mayhew 2, and was just perfect. I used my beloved Nesties for the layers, and added a red silk flower. I had a bit of a problem as to the centre of the poppy, but then hit on the idea to use black stick-on gems!
Trouble is, I love this card so much I don't want to part with it! Maybe I could send it to myself in November for my birthday!!

A Winter's Tale

I came across a challenge over on Sir Stampalot, which, surprisingly, I am still just in time to do! It is called "A Winter's Tale", and inspiration is to be taken from either Queen's 1995 song, or Shakespear.
Now, I am a big Queen fan, and thought I knew most of their songs, but this one had escaped me. I Googled it (where would we be without Google?), and loved it. To me it cried out to be used with this image from Joanna Sheen's Enchanted Dreams. Everything seemed to fit!
I used the background that went with the image, and which just happened to have swans on it. I Googled (again) the lyrics for the song and used the first verse. Then I layered the image onto silver holographic card. Trouble is I love this so much that I can't bear to send it to anyone, so I will just have to keep it!

Another challenge....am I actually getting my act together?

Over at Anyone for Anya, the challenge this week is to make a calendar page for February. This caught my imagination, even though I hadn't done a page for January.

I love the poem "January brings the snow....etc.", so had to use it. I found the rainy background and the mountain scene on the internet (how can we live without Google?), and I stamped and scanned my Anya so I could use it like a digi stamp. Of course she was coloured with my beloved ProMarkers, can't function without them!

Here's to 2011 and getting my mojo back!!

For pretty much all of 2010 I seem to have been completely without my "mojo" as far as blog challenges are concerned, so my resolution this year is to get said "mojo" back and get into challenges again!

So, for my first entry for this year I have decided to have a go at the Passion for ProMarkers Mega Challenge, after all I won it last year, so you never know..................

I am also entering it into the I Love ProMarkers challenge for this week.

The theme for both of these challenges is "Anything Goes", and I am afraid that when I hear those words I always think of the song "In olden days a glimpse of stocking..........etc.), so I just had to do an Art Deco-ish lady. I am a bit limited in "stash" here at home, most of my good stuff being in the shop. I close between Christmas and New Year, so can only play with what I have here. For that reason I made up my image in Photoshop, then coloured my lady in with ProMarkers. I think she is gorgeous. I have the stamp in the shop, but, because I don't have stamping stuff here, I usually stamp my stamps, then scan them so I have digital images to play with at home.

Well, enough of the waffle, I had better get this posted, then go join my husband who is patiently waiting for me to watch a film with him! Can't seem to convince him that crafting should take precedence!! Still, back to normal tomorrow, back to work and normality!!

A blog challenge - after all this time!

This year has been a bit of a dead loss as far as me entering blog challenges is concerned. I can't remember the last time I entered one! I see them, think "I'll do that one" and before I know it the time has gone and it is too late!

So, when I saw this one, which is Cupcake Craft Challenges, Non-traditional Christmas card, I decided to enter one of the Christmas cards that I am (still!) in the process of making. I have done all my posty ones and posted them, the ones I am still doing are for hand delivery. For once I haven't used my beloved ProMarkers, I have fallen in love with the new Joanna Sheen Enchanted Dreams CD, and a couple of the images lend themselves to Christmas. This is one of them. It doesn't show very well, but I have added gold and clear glitter to make it sparkle.