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 !!

Where have all my pictures gone???

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They were all there yesterday morning and now they've disappeared.... anyone any ideas please?

Butterfly

This week we were given a sketch to follow over at the Less is More challenge blog.

It is such a long time since I made a DL card - talk about out of the comfort zone! Having spent ages doing squares (and the odd rectangle), I had to have a good think about this one!
The challenge blog has become very popular - obviously there's lots of us 'closet simple people' out there! (In the nicest possible interpretation of course! LOL). One of the things that sets the Less Is More blog apart from the others is that each person who takes part tries to visit as many of the other entries as possible and offers an honest view of what they think about the card. The more experienced 'Lessers' offer all kinds of advice and the blog has become a great supportive community.


So my card this week is made solely with Coredinations Whitewash paper. I am definitely not an 'orange' person - I usually lean towards pastels, but as it was a change to do the shape of this card I decided I might as well have a change with the colour too!


I used 'Stylised Flowers' embossing folder on the top and embossed the Happy Birthday sentiment on the bottom. The border punch is the reverse of the paper and I added some orange ribbed ribbon. The circles were cut out with nesties.
The butterfly started out its life as white - it emerged onto my card having been distressed with Dried Marigold ink! An off cut from the punch and two flat back pearls finished the card.

I have had MEGA problems trying to upload this - blogger has been playing up something ruthless and decided it isn't friends with Windows XP - so have hopped over to the OH's PC - (he's on Vista) and uploaded. Hope the techies at Blogger get it sorted soon....

Where's David Bailey when you need him?

                                              Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! I have had numerous attempts today to take a pic of this card. Each time the lovely pale blue truned out either a yukky turquoisey washed out colour or even worse a vivid 'need to wear your sunglasses to look at it' bright blue. My normally reliable little digi camera decided today to throw a hissy fit and not reproduce my pics - don't know whether it was the light, the reflection of my (blue) jumper, or me (probably the latter............).

So I resorted to scanning - and consequently the white silk art card the image is on is now glaringly white and the girl and duck (goose?) outlines are not as defined as they are in real life - but hey ho, at least I tried to share today's make with you. You will just have to believe me when I tell you this DOES look better in real life... it must do cos for once I quite like something I've made!

So - image is called 'Sunday Afternoon', coloured with promarkers, cut out with a nestie then dusted with Weathered Wood distress ink and matted onto blue card. The papers are Craftwork Cards and the Forever Friends Springtime pad and oh I stitched again! Pale blue gingham ribbon from my stash as was the button and the tiny blue pearls. I have not yet placed a sentiment on the card - I may well have saved this for my much loved Mum for Mothers Day if she had still been here -  so -  am undecided as to what I shall use it for and will wait until a suitable occasion arises.

Challenges -

Clear it Out - Buttons

Digital Tuesday - Button Up

Papertake Weekly - Mothers Day or something girly

OLLCB - Mothers Day or Special Friend
My Time to Craft - Ladies Day 

The fan hides it!

Those who know me know how I feel about this range of stamps! Without wanting to cause any offence, cos I know there are thousands of you out there who adore Tilda, I'm afraid she really doesn't do it for me at all - I just keep having irresistible urges to get a pencil and draw a mouth!
In an attempt to convert me to the joys of Tilda & Co, a crafting friend (who is completely obsessed with all things Magnolia - LOL)  insisted that I make something - so this is the second of my attempts to do the 'worshipped one' justice!
The papers are from Summer Driggs. I used a Martha Stewart punch for the 'fan' corners and the oval was cut out with a nestie I chose this image because the hand held fan (thankfully) disguises the absence of the facial feature! Red and black always reminds me of flamenco hence the colour scheme. The flourish was a bit of an experiment - I coloured one side of it with a black promarker then turned it over and coloured the other side with a red one. Some of the black had seeped through onto the reverse side and I quite like the two tone result which I think blends in OK with the chosen colours.
I used a thinner piece of satin edged ribbon behind the image than I did for the bow. The bow looked better in the broader one! All the embellishments are from my stash. 
Challenges -
Totally Papercrafts - Use Buttons
Let's Ink It Up - Die Cuts/Punches
Corrosive Challenges - 3 papers, two ribbons, 1 image

Thoughts of a Man

I cannot believe how quickly this week has gone by - I seem to have blinked and missed it. I promised myself that I would do every challenge at Less is More - (one) - beacuse I need to keep making this type of card as practicve makes perfect - (two) - I'm enjoying the varied challenges being set by Chrissie and Mandi!
But................. I wasn't happy with last weeks effort and as time has been so tight this week I didn't have any time to re-do..... and................nor am I happy with this one either!

I used cream linen textured card and printed out the sentiment using an English Script type font.

I have always liked this stamp from Personal Impressions and I usually team it with an image of a vintage car/pocket watch or something else that the man would be dreaming of buying! I decided to try and stick to the LESS theme and do away with the other images and use the man alone. I am not sure if it works.
I stamped him with Adirondack Espresso and then used the trusty shaving brush and dusted and distressed the image and the base card with Antique Linen. 
I used the Cuttlebug 'Diamonds in the Rough' embossing folder on the base card. I couldn't resist the addition of the pocket watch button - am hoping that it 'finishes' the card off without making the 'less' seem 'lesser'!!! 

Off the Edge?

And before any of you think the title of this post is a descriptive of me..... it's actually the title for this week's challenge at Less is More although I suppose there are SOME who may say it fits me perfectly!!!

So on to the challenge. I am late with this - usually I manage to get the challenge done over the weekend but have only just managed to do this today.

I am not quite sure if I have embraced the concept of stamping off the edge completely but am sure if I haven't someone will tell me!

Two attempts at this card - I had a brainstorm when stamping the sentiment on the first and it ended up askew to the left of the page........ so onwards and upwards and another try, this time with the sentiment where I had intended to place it.

The stamps are some I have had for a while and not used. I used the full image for the bottom right and then just turned it round and stamped 'off the edge' in the top left corner. I coloured it with watercolour pastels.

Have shown you both of the efforts - if I can grab a spare few minutes I may try to rescue the disaster one by more 'off the edge' stamping in the top right to try and give it some balance... it's worth a try I think cos I can't use it as it is!

Toy Share!

I have had no time the last couple of days to do any creating. Yesterday passed in a bit of a blur - was busy during the day and last evening we went to a friend's Ruby wedding. A couple came to view the house this morning so I had to spend a few hours doing the dreaded housework!
Tonight I have sat and made a few basic men's cards for my stash as it was running quite low.
The little creation pictured is one I did earlier in the week. I am not ashamed to admit that I really really love this LOTV stamp! 
I steered clear of any designer papers opting just to use white card and decided to just try using different textured cardstock and embossing folders to see if I could produce a layered effect. I'm getting quite brave and stamped direct onto bright white card. The stanped images were then cut out with the large die and I coloured the stamp with promarkers and distress inks. I used a white textured paper for the larger die then used the 'textile' embossing folder for the third layer. All of the layers are mounted onto 'snow white  fine grain' textured card.
The papers were all 'brushed' with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink  and the edges of the various layers were also inked as was the die cut flourish.  The addition of the blue organza bow, the flowers and the blue pearls finished the card - but I couldn't resist running some stickles round the edge of the main die or dabbing it onto the detail of the little girl's dress!
Challenges -
Let's Ink It Up - Embossing
Dream Valley - New Beginnings
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Yet another offering from the Sugar Nellie Adorables range! You fed up seeing them yet????
They've also introduced a boy image which, I have to confess, I am not very fond of... somehow the wistful face of the boy doesn't sit quite right with me - he looks a bit TOO angelic - little boys should have a mischievous look - it's a nice image but not for me!
So this is 'Connie'. Coloured with promarkers and distress inks and layered onto K and Co papers and a doily type die cut thingy (another from the Maureen stash!).
Please note - papers are stitched again (I am soooooooooooooooooo smug with myself!!)
The crochet fabric lacey butterfly was a (expensive) buy at the NEC last year and I added a pink pearl to give it a bit of bling.
Flowers etc all from my stash and I lightly glittered the flourish die cut and the distressed edge of the image with some pale pink stickles. The organza bow is from a favourite ribbon oll - it has flowers in varying shaeds of blue, pink,lilac and yellow running through it and is really delicate close up.  I might add some glossy accents to the flowers yet - if I'm continuing going OTT with the embellies on these type of cards then I may as well go REALLY OTT!!

Less is More Challenge 5

I spent a lovely afternoon yesterday with some friends in their directors box at a football ground in Manchester - and before anyone asks me if I have forsaken my beloved Liverpool FC the answer is categorically 'NO'!!!  But it was a fab day - wined and dined beforehand with a fab meal - watching Manchester City play Wigan in a huge comfy chair, coffee and delicious cake at half time, more coffee/wine at full time and so I had no time to do any card making at all!! 

So this morning I sat and thought very hard about this weeks challenge at Less is More. Before I went out yesterday my brain just would not grasp the concept of 'Pastels' - this morning I got some inspiration from somewhere (maybe the Manchester City football strip????? LOL) - and this is the result.

The image is printed directly onto the textured card as is the sentiment which was printed in blue using two different fonts.

I coloured the birdie with watercolour pastels (I am getting hooked on using these I think!) and then spent an age trying to match up the colour with some pale blue paper!  I used a Martha Stewart punch and punched 3 layers, overlapping them and then added some gingham ribbon. 

I quite like this card and hope the addition of the ribbon hasn't made it into 'More is More' instead of 'Less'!   

Vintage Garden

Whilst trawling through some blogs this week I can across a couple of beautiful cards made using Stempelgede Stamps. I have long been wanting to have some of these stamps and although I am NOT supposed to be buying, once again I couldn't resist! One of the joys about actual shopping is you see, you buy, then you just go home and play - over the net you are waiting impatiently for them to arrive!

I found that Quixotic Paperie stock Stempelglede here in the UK and duly placed an order at about 3pm -couldn't believe my eyes the next morning when the post arrived just after 9.30am... there was an envie with my stamps in! So a huge thank you to Quixotic for their prompt despatch and stemming my impatience! Cannot thank them enough for getting these beauties to me so quickly.

So on to the stamps - what can I say - they are just simply gorgeous - I need to don the stocking mask and go rob a bank so I can have them all!

This card was made using 'Vintage Garden' set. I stamped the image onto watercolour paper using Vintage Sepia Ink and then got out my new water soluble wax pastels. This is the first time I have used these and I am impressed with how easy they are to use. (Thanks Maureen!) Although there was a lot of small areas to colour on this stamp I found it really relaxing to do and am overall very pleased with the results. I used the flourishes from the set to stamp round the edge of the main image and also onto the backing paper. The backing paper was embossed with Copper embossing powder and I highlighted a few areas on the main image by embossing too.

Distressed, matted and layered, a bit of vintage pink lace, a patchwork heart button, two bronze flat backed pearls, a die cut sentiment mounted onto another embossed die cut and my card was finished.

I doubt if this will be the last time I use this set!

Challenges -

Paper Play - Shabby Chic/Vintage

Paper Crafting Journey - Things With Wings

Stamping for the Weekend - Spring

Another Girly One!

Here's one of the latest to be released from Sugar Nellie - she's called  'Hope'.

I coloured her dress using Apricot, Honeycomb and Oatmeal promakers - I have had the K and Co backing paper for some time and tried to match the colours to it!

The dies cuts are also coloured with a promarker - (Spice).

The lace was I confess, probably an extravagance to use on a card - but I liked it!. I found some peachy coloured heart shaped gems in my stash and popped them onto the card near to the die cut.

The flowers and ribbon are from my stash and I finished with a Tim Holtz metal embellishment which says 'Cherish'.

Challenges-

Passion for Promakers - Sugar Rush

Lexi's Creations - Flowers

Gem of a Challenge - Buttons, Brads

Beads and Bows (Use any or all)

Crazy 4 Challenges - Flowers

Dream Valley Challenges - Anything Goes

Faith

Another gorgeous Sugar Nellie image - this little lovely is called Faith and I adore her hat! This is a bit of a different colour combo for me - but I had the lovely lemon backing paper from Summer Driggs and wanted to use it, so thought I would couple it with a lilac colour cheme for a change.

The yellow cardstock is from DCWV and blended in well with Summer's 'Golden Sunshine' paper. I colured Faith with promarkers (and am a bit annoyed cos I was real proud of my shading and blending and it hasn't shown up very well on the photo!), cut her out with a nestie and then matted her on to some lilac paper. I used the same lilac paper for the trellis (Martha Stewart) and the organza ribbon was the last of my stash which was just about enough to make into the bow.  The flourishes were a present from Maureen (who has a new toy and is busy cutting out all sorts of things - lol) and I coloured them with a promarker to tone in with the colour scheme. The butterfly, flowers, pearls, heart and gems were all from my stash.

Oh and almost forgot.................. LOOK.............................. I stitched again!! LOL

Challenges -  
Southern Girls - Brads or Gems
Sweet Stampin - Oh So Girly
One Stop Challenge - Spring Flowers
Crazy for Challenges - Flowers
Crafty Emmas - Flowers and Flutterbys

Vamp!

I have been enjoying the challenges set by Chrissie and Mandi over at Less is More and when I saw today's I knew what I wanted to do....
this week we had to use 3 squares and I have had these 'vampy' stamps for a long time and I think have used them twice!
However, knowing what you want to do and actually doing it are two completely different things! 
I can honestly say this is the first card  where lots of 'white space' doesn't please me - I am desperate to add something else (have no idea what or where to put it) but I just feel that something is missing! Maybe it's because I just used plain white card instead of my usual textured linen? Think I should have been brave enough to have used a strong colour as the base for the card - but hey ho - I've done it now so I shall (reluctantly) submit it!
Have no idea who made the three stamps - they were a set I bought in a sale somewhere. I coloured them with promarkers, then simply matted them onto dark red then black chevron designed cardstock.
I shamelessly copied the sentiment from a stamp set (I don't own them - they were sent to me by Maureen!)- but the stamped image I had wasn't the right shape so I printed this out on the PC using the nearest 'roaring twenties' style font that I could find.
Am still thinking about an appropriate greeting for the inside - maybe something like - 'Go On - Get Yourself Remembered!'  

Joy

Here is yesterday's make - made using a Sugar Nellie favourite called 'Joy'. She has such a pretty face.  And..... big drum roll please......................... look at the STITCHING!!!! Can you believe it? Me?

(Note for Maureen.... LOOOKY HERE!!!!!)

Now then before I get too excited over conquering my fear of putting a needle through paper, I should point out that the stitching IS very basic and wasn't done using the big monster machine currently gathering dust under my desk, - instead I used a small battery operated tiny table top effort designed for quick small repairs purchased for the princely sum of £10 at my local Dunelm Mill about 3 years ago! (That too has been gathering dust under the table!)

So, onto the creation. Background papers are from K and Co (Madeline and McKenna stacks) stritched onto DCWV textured cardstock. 'Joy' was coloured using promarkers then cut out with nesties and layered onto the same cardstock. I put a cream skeleton leaf behind the image. The cream vintage lace is from my stash as are the flowers and pearl/gold embellishments. The two ribbons were coloured with promarkers to tone in with the papers. Finally I just popped on some paper pieces from a Kand Co embellie pack and put a small pearl in the middle of the one top right of the project.

Challenges -
I Love Promarkers - Stitching
The Creative Cottage - Flowers
Freshly Brewed - Ribbons and Bows
Cute Card Thursday - Sketch challenge 

Week 3

My internet speed is driving me to distraction! For three days we have had less download speed than 'dial up'. The air here is peppered with expletives and uploading is taking FOREVER!!

I am still working outside my comfort zone and taking part in the third week of the Less is More Challenge. I was overjoyed to find the card I submitted last week was selected for their showcase - it's a great feeling when someone who you consider to be so expert at a technique selects your effort as being worthy of recognition. This week, over on the blog Chrissie and Mandy have posted some tips on printing direct onto card and I for one welcomed their advice as this is something I have wanted to try and perfect.

It was a pity then that whilst reading the blog comments someone has seen fit to sumbit what can only be termed as 'less than flattering' comments about the technique used this week. Even more irritating as far as I'm concerned is this person did not have the courage of their own convictions and chose to post Anonymously. I have no problem with people posting their opinions about anything, but surely if you feel strongly enough about something then at the very least have the decency to use your name! Anyway enough of that.

Here's my card for this week's theme of Spring. I am just raising the bunting as I finally managed to position the text where I wanted to! I printed direct onto my favourite textured linen card and I am really happy how it turned out. The quote is attributed to Claudia 'Lady Bird' Johnson, First Lady of the USA and wife of Lyndon B. I think it is beautiful!
The image was a digi freebie which I printed out again on a separate piece of card and cut out with my nesties. I also cut out a slightly larger circle for mounting it onto. The background circle and the image were coloured with watercolours and I mounted the image using 3D pads. To finish I couldn't resist using a wee dusting of the usual 'Spun Sugar' distress ink around the card edges.
Thanks to Chrissie and Mandy for helping me overcome my reticence for printing direct onto card.
Am entering this into the challenge at Charisma Cardz which also has the theme of Spring and at Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday Challenge which has barred us from using any designer paper!

New Toy!

I have FINALLY taken the new toy from the box! And cut out lots of large labels! (Only because at the moment the labels are the only large nesties I have - but am sure that will be rectified soon.... lol)
So here's a wee bit of fluffiness made with a couple of the said labels.
I haven't mounted this onto a card yet and am not sure I will - might try and find a frame instead... will think about it.

I used white pearlised paper throughout. After cutting out,  I embossed the dots onto the smaller label and embossed round the larger label. I used Spun Sugar (which is quickly becoming one of my favourites) distress ink round the edges and then brushed over both labels randomly. The flourish is a Sissiz one which got the same distressed brush treatment! 

The LOTV stamp is one I have been promising myself for eons.... and I finally bought it when I had the recent mad spendie. I coloured it with promarkers and distress inks and added a teeny dabbing of stickles on the dress for a bit of sparklie girlyness...!

The flowers were from my stash - I like the pink pearl stamens especially and need to buy some flat backed pink pearls to match them (any excuse to spend some more). To finish off, I popped on some pearls, a couple of tiny fabric butterflies (these were real fiddly - don't think I'll be using them a lot despite having an entire string of them!) and finally added a small metal heart charm with a pearl top.

The love theme challenges are still ongoing so (takes a deep breath) here's a few challenges -

Craft Catz - Hearts

Craft Your Days Away - Photo Inspiration (and the photo made me think of weddings)

Cute Card Thursday - Hearts and Flowers

Paper Sundaes - Choose 3 toppings and I chose - Flowers, Distressing and Pink

Totally Gorjuss - Love

2 Sisters - Hearts    

Crazy 4 Challenges - Hearts
Paper Cupcakes - Shaped with embossing