Pretty Flowers :)

Hello!! :)

Thanks so much for the lovely comments on my last card!! It really is one of the best things about Blogland to be able to get feedback on new things that you’re not sure of like the colour combo for that card- gives you the confidence to try something different!! :) And thanks for all the get better wishes for my wrist, too- more on that in a mo…

I’ve got a couple of very simple cards to show you today-I so enjoyed colouring the gorgeous floral image from my last card that I decided to colour up a couple more :)

I needed a pretty card for a friend’s birthday but I also needed it to be pretty simple as I’m still struggling with my hands (the pain in my wrist is less sharp now but seems to be migrating all around my wrist and hand and my left hand’s not great now either- lovely M.E.!! :S ) and I decided one of those already coloured images would be perfect…

I used another of the large stamps from the Aspects Of Design Funky Flowers stamp sheet, this time stamped in Memento London Fog and coloured with Amethyst, Lilac and Lavender Promarkers. I punched the corners and edged it with Versamark and chalk as on the orange card and then used Crystal Stickles and Sakura Clear Stardust to highlight the image :) I cut a strip of gorgeous blue and white flowery paper from the Forever Friends Pink Parfait pad and (my mum again, to save my hands!!) punched it with my new MS Traditional Scallop border punch- hooray, I ordered this weeks ago and have finally got to use it on a card after a whole lot of faff trying to get a replacement for the original dodgy one!!- and then added a piece of white organza ribbon :) Simples!!

I added a tiny punched butterfly in the same FF paper and then stamped the greeting, which is a tiny Whispers stamp and one of the first I bought years ago, by inking the stamp first with Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue and then Pearlescent Ice Blue to get a better colour match:)

…and I liked it so much that I made up the second spare image in the same design…

I remembered this time that I had intended to use the Pearlescent Ice Blue to edge the patterned paper…but forgot to try to line up the holes in the punching!! Lol- can’t have it all I guess- especially with my brain!! ;)

I’ve put off getting these stamps for ages as I wasn’t sure I’d manage cutting the rubber etc. to get them ready to use (I’ve never bought this sheet type of stamp before) and it took me a couple of weeks and plenty of effort…but I just love them and it was definitely worth it!!:)

I’d like to enter these cards in the following challenges: Papertake Weekly – Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue (I think it was okay to only use one thing but I’ve used a new stamp, an old stamp, plenty of blue...and at a stretch, you could say the cotton balls I used to apply the chalk are ‘borrowed’ from my cosmetics drawer- although in truth, they’ve not been used for anything beauty-related since I’ve not been able to cope with the stink of nail varnish and therefore no longer need to remove it!! ;) :) ; Craft Your Days Away – Favourite Things (I’ve used stamps and inked edges again and Purple is also one of my favourite colours) :) ; Wild Orchid - One for the Girls :) ; Ohh La La – Spots and Dots (in the image and the punched strip) :) ; Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight – Punches :) ; and Crafty Cardmakers – It’s Our Birthday (just the first card as the second's not technically a b'day card!! ;) ) :)

I can’t believe how well behaved my Speech Recognition Software has been!! I only set it up on my netbook this afternoon- in a desperate attempt to still be able to write messages/post these cards- as I really think my hands have had enough of my typing after I seemingly did a little too much yesterday and I’d dictated almost all of this (with a few tweaks by hand when it was being stubborn!! ;) ) by early evening, with hardly any of the messing I had when I first set it up on my laptop last year!! :) Happily surprised for once!! :) Now I just need to figure out how to get it navigate around web pages by voice so I can still keep up with everyone else’s blogs without hurting myself...hmmm!! ;) Apologies for any rogue spellings or wierd grammatical anomolies I may have missed, though!!lol

Right, I’m off to link these up now and then to bed!! I’m really hoping to be able to pay a visit to some of the people who’ve left lovely comments for me recently to check out their creations but shall have to take it slowly I think...and as for actual crafting...if my hands don’t get better soon I may go mad!!lol Hope you’re all looking forward to a good weekend :)

Ooh, am loving that blogger now lets you upload all your pics at once- so much easier!! :)

hugs,