I AM still here!!!!!!!!

I have not stowed away in the hotel -  HONEST!! Although the way the weather has been  since we came back from Cyprus has prompted me to wish I was had found a broom cupboard or something where I could have hidden myself! Have had very little free time at all the last 10 days and I have had several e mails asking if I was OK as there has been nothing updated onto the blog. So thank you all for asking, but I'm just fine and wishing there were more than 24 hours in a day at the moment!

I also apologise for not getting round all your blogs just recently but promise to do some catching up now things are a (tiny) bit calmer. I have only made this card since the holiday. It is a commission for a lady whose Great Niece is getting married next week. She liked a previous one done with this stamp and sentiment which someone bought before she had a chance to grab it and asked if I could do another! As I really like this LOTV stamp it was no hardship to use it again!

Instead of a pale blue theme as on the previous similar card I used pink accents for this one and lots of textured cardstock. The embossed piece  behind the layered cuttlebug grand nestie shapes was done using a lovely folder called ' Budding Vine' by Craft Concepts and I dusted it with Spun Sugar Distress Ink - although it can't be seen very well on the pic (my awful photography AGAIN!), it has highlighted the embossed piece beautifully. Please click on the pic to enlarge!
The stamp was coloured as always with Distress inks and promarkers and the dress highlighted with Stickles. I edged the shaped pieces with Spun Sugar ink and then added a wee bit of 'Cotton Candy' Stickles for some glitter. The flowers and pearls were from my stash, the heart was cut out for me some time ago by Maureen and I put some inked textured cardstock behind it. Inside the easel I tried to come up with a greeting that matched the Inkadinkadoo sentiment - it reads - Wishing you a Lifetime of Sharing- and the card stands up by means of another 'Maureen sent' heart punched strip.
Challenges - Paper Cupcakes - Easel Card
Paper Paytime Ch #46 - Wedding/Love
Dream Valley - Stamp Something
Crafty Emmas - Embossing
Crafty Cardmakers - Love the lasting Kind
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
AI Factory - Pretty In Pink 

See you in a couple of weeks!

Tomorrow night I shall be here! Not HERE - but THERE - where the pic is!

I aplogise for the lack of blogging this week but have been doing terribly boring things like shopping for new dresses and shoes and having my hair done!!! LOL

This hotel has to be my favouritist (is that a word????) in the entire world! (And yes they really do put candles out onto the decked area of the room in front of the private plunge pool).

From the minute we came back last September I have been counting the days till we go back - and even after THIS one is over we're going back again in 4 months time - so I can start the countdown all over again when we get back to the UK.
A massage in the Spa, being waited on hand and foot, having towels put on sunbeds for you by a 'pool boy' (actually he's about 26 and comes from Oldham!! LOL) , yummy food, amzingly huge strawberry shakes with lots of real strawbs in thick ice creamy stuff which I absolutely HAVE to have during the afternoon (have to watch this - mightn't get into the dresses if I indulge too much ), long lazy days in the sun - I cannot WAIT!!!!!

Whatever you're doing over the next two weeks, enjoy it!

Here Come The Boys!

A brand new challenge blog devoted entirely to men/boy cards started today called Here Come the Boys.

My bloggin buddy Teresa is on the DT (her cards are amazing!) - so I thought I would show a bit of support and enter their first week - (as I'm away on holiday at the weekend this may be the ONLY entry for a while!).

The first challenge is Anything Goes so there's plenty of scope!

I coloured my Mo Manning image with Promarkers (which incidentally is the prize for this week at Here Come the Boys) and used this cute sentiment from TLC which I really like!
Poor doggie is having the breath hugged out of him isn't he????LOL And I bet he knows lots of little boy secrets........

Poppy!

Had a busy week but have managed to squeeze in some crafting time!
I've a couple of things yet to finish before the packing needs to be done and this was one of those not quite finished so have sat this morning and completed it. Am going to sit out in the garden for a while this afternoon - the weather has been so good - makes me almost sorry we're off to even sunnier climes next weekend!!

Back to the card - please meet 'Poppy' !
Poppy is another image from Sugar Nellie - she's not a new image but I think she is so pretty!
I decided not to colour her in the traditional poppy red and opted for a softer pinkie/peachy colour to co ordinate with the papers.Poppy was coloured with promarkers and I dotted a bit of white ink here and there on her petals then added some 'Cotton Candy' stickles for a bit of sparkly!
I was tempted to sew the Nitwits papers but I'd packed the tiny machine away in an attempt to tidy up so didn't want to make the room untidy again - opted just instead for distressing the edges.

The circles cut with my new nesties and the sentiment is from TLC - I altered the font colour to tone in with the card - (pat on the back to self for getting clever with Serif program....lol). Just looking at Poppy gives me 'happy thoughts' so it seemed to fit!

I used the same Stickles on the fabric flowers and then stuck them onto white petals coloured randomly with the same colour promarkers used on the image.

A couple of pale green pearls, some ribbon and a glass leaf spray finished the front.

As has become the norm for me just lately, this is another easel card - and left blank inside for an appropriate greeting.
Challenges -
Totally Gorjuss - 1, 2, 3
Just Add Ink - Add a Flower
Sew Many Challenges - Easel Card
Fairy Fun Fridays - Showers or Flowers
Fussy and Fancy - Springtime
Charisma Cards - Showers/Flowers

Melissa

The latest Sugar Nellie 'Adorables' range of stamps is called Melissa. I think this is possibly my favourite from this series so far.

I printed her out onto linen watercolour paper and coloured her with a mix of distress inks and promarkers.

I tried to tone in the colours with the papers which are from the My Mind's Eye Hattie pad. It is very rare that I like every single paper in a pad stack but this is one of those rare paper stacks pads where every single sheet is gorgeous.

I have got a bit of an 'easel' or different fold' thing going on at the moment. So Melissa is another in the easel category! I matted all the papers onto DCVW cardstock in cordinating colours and distressed some of the edges a bit.

The main image was dusted with Scattered Straw Distress ink and the flowers were a present from Maureen (think she made them whilst she was sitting with her sore ankle up!) and I popped a wee bit of stickles on them for a bit of sparkle! The pearls and ribbon are from my stash and the computer generated sentiment on the front ('I saw this flower') was cut out with a couple of nesties. I then printed out the 'and thought of you' onto the same linen paper and matted and layered it with the rest of the paper stack!
Challenges -
Craft Your Passion - Layers
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
Paper Playtime - Friends (and I think this would be nice to send to a friend)
Creative Inspirations - Use a Digi
Paper Sundaes - use any two from Pearls, Die Cuts, Yellow and Sparkle (and I used them all!)  
Our Creative Corner - Easel Card

Postcard from Asia

The Three Muses challenge this week is 'Mail Art'. It also by chance fitted in with the current April/May challenge at the Art N Soul Flickr group which was to create a postcard and incorporate metal.

This piece measures 6" x 4" and is based onto mountboard. It was a change for me to leave the 'cute/girly/CAS cardmaking behind for a while and get back to creating purely for creating sake rather than for selling for charity!

I really like the rich vibrant colours in washi papers and this is what I used for the background. The geisha images are from Somerset Studio and the chinese writing paper and letter from the College of Japan were from my stash. 

I tied the metal coin on the card using some metallic gold thread  and added a chipboard embellishment, a couple of tiny fabric butterflies and a large orange gem which is supposed to represent the 'rising sun'!

I gold embossed the outer edges of the card and chipboard piece and dabbed a few bits of gold powder randomly across the card. 

The back resembles a postcard complete with chinese stamp.

Job done!

Less is More 11

Cannot believe another week has gone by! 
We have had a beautiful few days here in the North of England and once again today the sun has beamed down some lovely warm rays!
Derpsite my outdoor season now being underway and the usual chaos that late April/May/June brings trying to fit in all the competitions I promised myself when I first took part in the LIM challenges that I would try and do the challenge every week - I am shortly going on holiday so will miss a couple of weeks but I am still going to try and keep to my resolution regarding the rest!

Not wishing to shy away from setting us hard projects, the two Chief LIMettes (lol) decided to task my poor little grey cells to the limit this week - and chose the theme - Acetate.

Not bad thought I when I saw it 'cos I know I've got some.... two hours later the craft room looks like the proverbial bomb site and I've found paper that hasn't seen the light of day for years, two sets of stamps still with the price on and unopened, a piece of old lace that I had been looking for last week, a bag of buttons would you believe a strap from a bra (Lord knows how that got in here) and a couple of bent paperclips......  but no acetate. By this time I am now having murderous thoughts about our 'Head Girls' and am trying to think up some acetate inclined torture for them both... but as I can't find the damn acetate I have to give up on that too............  

I sat looking at the mess then the little light bulb went on over my head and I remembered the set of place mats bought at the beginning of the week - off I duly trotted to the recycle bin (situated outside the office door) and after rummaging about in there for 10 minutes, got to the bottom and found the acetate packaging. Saved!!!!!!!

So after all that exhausting thinking and ferreting about in dusty drawers (so to speak) I then sat and thought - 'what the hell am I going to do'????????????

I was on my third cup of coffee when I just decided to stamp onto it and then think about making it up later!

Brown Stazon and Viva Decor stamps (which I'm not particularly fond of but they look OK), the butterfly from Inkadinkadoo and some Coredinations whitewash paper in a teal blue colour on the back were all laying about on the desk (once I could see underneath the bra strap, pile of dusty paper etc etc) and I just decided to use it up in an attempt to put some order back into the desk!

I used MS punches for the scallops and the blue piece is the reverse of the Whitewash paper. The main background of the card I sanded to allow some of the blue to show through. A couple of eyelets and some spotty ribbon and voila - recycled placemat container!

So making it was the easy bit.... (lol) - I then spent two hours trying to photograph/scan it so I could blog it!!!!

Please Mandi and Chrissie - can we have something a bit less taxing next week - I am exhausted and now I've got to find the bra that belongs to the strap......................... 

Well! I thought the easel card was hard to photograph..... this was even worse!!
However, I am sitting here feeling rather smug with myself cos this is the very first time I have attempted a stepper card!! I know, I know, everyone else has been making these for ages and as usual I am twelve years behind everyone else... but I did it!!!

So less of the patting on the back and onto the card - the image is a delish one from the lovely Mo Manning. And the best bit about these scrummylicious cupcakes is they are calorie free!

I coloured it with distress inks and some promarkers and dusted a wee bit of stickles and glitter for a bit of sparkle. The K and Co paper that frames it was cut out with one of my newer nestie buys!
The stripey paper was a free gift in a magazine and is from Craftwork Cards.
The cupcakes on the 'steps' and the paper strips were cut from the Basic Grey 'Nook and Pantry' paper stack.
The card candy as usual was coloured with a promarker to match the paper and I finished with a huge spotty bow from my stash!

Challenges -
Crafts and Me - Ribbons
Cardmadfairy - 1 digi, 2 papers and 3 embellies (and I hope my cut out cupcakes qualify!)
ABC - Sugar and Spice
DP2 - Something new - (and my try at one of these cards is deffo new!!)  

Can someone tell me.....

how to take better pics of easel cards?????????!!!!! LOL

I have fiddled about with this and took zillions and am still not happy with the pic of the one that shows off the easel bit!

Never mind, am sure you'll get the general idea and as always this will end up in the 'pink stash' I think!

So here is the delectable 'Tatty Button'. For those of you who don't know Tatty is the creation of my blogger buddy Ange. How delicious to have your work made into stamps and CD's etc - (I knew her when she had nothing.....LOL). Seriously, she must have got a huge buzz when she first saw all her lovely drawings made into stamps, so Congrats again Ange!

This stamp is called 'Lazy Day' and is one of a few I now posess - all of them are fab and I love her to bits! (Tatty that is not Ange.... although she's an OK sort of person too...lol)  

I coloured her with promarkers and added a bit of Cosmic Shimmer Violet Frost over her dress. I like lilac and green together and thought these Dovecraft 'Back to Basics' papers went well. I cut out the circle freehand so had to distress the edges a bit! I dusted the 'block' paper and the edges of the circle with some Shabby Shutters Distress Ink, and layered it onto the background paper using 3d pads. The spotty semi circle was also layered with 3d dots and Tatty was placed 'lazing about' on the top.
The green spotty ribbon matched the paper perfectly and I had the lilac ribbon and brads that co ordinated with the papers and I added some lilac flowers with card candy centres (which I coloured with a Meadow Green Promarker).

The sentiments are computer generated and cut out with nesties and finally of course, I had to add a couple of little lilac buttons with some tatty cotton!

Challenges -

Fab N Funky - Spotty and Dotty

Digital Tuesday - Little Women

Papertake Weekly - Truly Dimensional

My Time to Craft - On the Spot
Pixie Cottage - Special Lady

Freshly Brewed - Cute and Sweet

Less is More 10

This week's challenge was a clean and simple card with the focus on the sentiment.
My sentiment is from TLC Creations and I think it is quite evocative and thought provoking.

So often after we lose someone close we feel pressured to 'pull ourselves together' and 'get back to normal' when this is sadly so very difficult to do - you feel OK then simple things like a song, a special day or just maybe like me when I was in a changing room at a store and someone in another cubicle shouted 'Mum, come and look and see if this dress looks OK', the bereft and lonely feeling comes back to you.
I think this quote reminds us that we are all different and we will cope in different ways and definitely 'in our own time'.

I coloured the butterflies with Cosmic Shimmers - Golden Pear, Pink Ultra,Tropic Blue, Violet Frost and used wax pastels on the two flowers.
I added a co ordinating coloured pearl to each of the butterflies and remebered this really pretty rainbow shoestring organza ribbon in my stash. I was cosidering just doing two simle lines of embossing but decided the ribbon was the better option.

Please go visit the fabby Less is More blog set up by Chrissie and Mandi  - there are some gorgeous entries this week as always - and if you're not normally a CAS person why not give it a go?

I only realised a short time ago that I haven't posted anything since Sunday. Bad Blogger!!!
I made this card earlier this week using a digi from Phindy O'Neill.

The papers are from The Creative Cottage and I matched them with some plain pinky/red papers from my stash for layering. I used one of my MS punches on the right hand side and the image and surround was cut out with my nesties.
I coloured the image with promarkers and used some Liquid Pearls on the 'frosting' of the cake.
The sentiment was a freebie from TLC and after I'd cut it out I thought there was too much white space (hope those at Less Is More don't read that I said 'too much white space!! lol) - so I cut out a couple of strawberries and a flower from the paper and stuck them on the sentiment.
The flower was coloured with a matching promarker and a centre of card candy coloured the same to finish. 
Challenges -
C.R.A.F.T - Animals/Pets
Stamp Something - Circles
Paper Play - Critters Galore
Crafty Ann's - Raise a Smile

Day out!

So here's a couple of pics from our recent day out with Maureen and Roy.

We drove South, they drove North, we met in the middle and had a lovely day in glorious sunshine at Trentham Gardens. The spring tulips and daffs were in full bloom and we've promised another visit in mid Summer when I'm sure the gardens will be just as beautiful. The other half too the bottom pic which shows Maureen roy and I having a discussion about which way to go next!

Oh and I made another friend - Jemima Puddleduck was extremely disappointed when after waddling up to me she and her friends realised I didn't have any food for them!

April Showers

No rain here! Actually it's another beautiful day - am getting a bit bothered cos that's a few we've had just lately - and traditionally we have a few nice days then a few weeks of terrible ones!

Made a fairly quick card yesterday - not a lot of flowers or frills just a card with a basic sentiment for the 'Pink' stash.

The image was a digi freebie from NanaVic - I think the two little ducklings are real sweeties sheltering from the rain under the brolly!

Coloured with promarkers and then cut out and layered with nesties. The papers are from Papermania, and I used the largest two scallopped circles and simply cut them across the middle!
The sentiment(s) were PC generated.
I added a wee bit of glitter onto the raindrops to give sparkly water effect!
Challenges -
Sentimental Sunday - Lets Get Wet
Crafty Catz - April Showers
Raise the Bar- April Showers
Corrosive Creations - Use Pastel Colours
2 Sisters - Get Well

Less is More 7 (again!)

I had laready posted my entry for this weeks Less is More challenge when I remembered this card that I had made for a friends wedding anniversary recently.

Although this card is not 'one layer' like my previous submission I think this also fits the 'Touch of Red' challenge.
I used white pearlised card and the cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder. 
I cut the white card and a piece of red cardstock on the Grand Calibur using  a large labels nestie.
The two little red metallic hearts I have had for years and I just stuck them onto a small layered red and white square.
The sentiment was printed on the PC - I actually managed to position it in the right place first time! 

Less is More 7

The Less is More challenge has become one of the things I look forward to - cos it does exactly that - challenge! I don't know if I'll be able to manage them all during the summer bowling season (which starts officially next week), but am determined to try! 

So here is todays offering for the challenge - 'A Touch of Red'.

Poppies are always associated with remembrance and I originally hadn't planned to make this into a sympathy card.... but.... once it was stamped the condolence sentiment jumped onto the page! (well not literally but you know what I mean!!)

I may add a single line of embossing down the left hand side as I'm not sure if the finished article is too 'flat'.
I still find it really scary stamping direct onto the card - the sentiment isn't as defined as it should be but I think it looks OK - at least the poppy stamp behaved itself and turned out reasonable!

The stamp is from Elusive Images and I coloured it with watercolour pastels.

My blogging buddy Clarky currently has an appeal for donating poppy themed cards which are to be sold at a Charity event later this year so this will (eventually) be heading over to her. All proceeds from the sale of the cards will be going to the Poppy Appeal 2011.
If you would like to help the details are here.  

Cheeky Cherry!

Meet Cherry! She's another lovely image from the uber talented Mo Manning. 
I finished this last night and took the pic in artificial light so maybe the image isn't the best.
The stripey background paper is from the Forever Friends Springtime pack. The Cherry paper was a digi freebie - from Bearly Mine.

Cherry is coloured with a mix of watercolour pastels and promarkers. The sentiment is from Sentiments 4 U and I added the cherry image using GCF. A sparing dab or two of glitter on Cherry's hair ribbon and the cherries, a bit of ric rac, couple of fabric flowers, a few pearls and a gathering of lemon organza finished it off.
Challenges --
Crafts and Me - Use Yellow
Wags and Whiskers - Ri bbons and Pearls
Stamp Something - April Digi Day
By the Cute and Girly - Cute and Girly

The agony!

Please bear with me - you will see that I do have some of my images back.... but
I am having to open each post individually, delete the space where the previous picture was then upload the picture again and save. As I have over 600 posts I could be here for a long long time trying to restore my blog.

It is painstaking and laborious work so I am intending on doing as many as I can each day before I get repetitve strain injury!

I had originally thought that I would just upload the more recent ones, but this blog has become so much a part of my life and is an actual extension of me - even if just recently I have been concentrating on card making, there are canvases, mixed media and other altered stuff  contained in here which mean a lot to me.

SO - I am going to try and put as much of it back as I can.

And just to prove that in between shouting at Blogger for losing my pictures (so much so that I had to indulge in some retail therapy this morning), I actually managed to create something that doesn't show my frustration!

 I do not take the credit for this card. It is a CASE of a fellow blogger who makes the most gorgeous cards. She posted a tutorial on changing the colours of digi images and I followed it (and her design) to make this.
Please go visit her beautiful blog.
http://aloadofoldpickle.blogspot.com/  and if you want to view her tutorial it is here
http://aloadofoldpickle.blogspot.com/2011/03/modern-flowers-in-page-plus.html

Ah well - back to the uploading...............

I HATE BLOGGER!!!!!!!!!

My poor OH has spent HOURS trying to sort out the mystery of the missing pics. He has done absolutely everything!
The strawberry card I uploaded no problem - but when we went back and checked the older uploads for some unknown reason all the picture codes have changed and they're giving out error messages when you try to view- blogger won't recognise them (sorry if this is all gobbledygook...it is to me too!! LOL).
He messed about for ages with the Less is More challenge card and managed to upload with a new code but he thinks if I want all my pictures back I am going to have to go through each one singly and alter the old codes - I could be here for ever!!!!!!!
Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions but nothing worked, so for now we have just given up. DH is convinced that the problem is with Blogger and nothing to do with my PC/opearting system/browser/firewall etc.
I may well have to start a complete new blog... will try again in the morning and take it from there. 
Night everyone!

a test

Just testing to see if this uploads correctly!

Still trying to resurrect my images

Been on the help forum, tried google chrome, tried everything (even the teckie known as my OH) can't fix it.
AM FED UP!!!!!!!!!! 

BLOGGER - GIVE ME BACK MY PICTURES !!