Less (energy needed) is more (cards made)... :D

Hello again!! :)

Yup, I’m back so soon!! ;) Didn’t expect to be myself but, as my post title suggests, I had a productive day yesterday making a very simple card... I’ve decided recently that I need to try to make some of my cards a little simpler as, although I really love making the more involved ones, they can take an awful lot of time and energy for me and, especially as I’ve been struggling even more health-wise, I’m finding it hard to keep up with the cards I need to make to give myself and not getting around to replenishing my charity box for others to choose from at all!! :S So, when  I came across a new challenge blog called Less Is More earlier this week, I was very interested- didn’t expect to manage to make anything for this week’s challenge but the colour-scheme was percolating around in my head and the idea suddenly came to me so I just had to give it a go!! :) Not often that spontaneously deciding to make a card that’s not on my list is an option for me, which is why I hardly ever manage to make a card as a direct response to a challenge that only runs for a week, but that’s another reason to embrace CAS!! ;)

 

I simply stamped another of my fab new Gorjuss Girls- Up, Up and Away- onto an 8” x 3” card blank and coloured her with Prismas and a bit of dark pink Sakura Stardust before adding a greeting along the side of the image and ‘Hey Presto!!’!!  Wasn’t sure if I should add anything like gems or pearls but, well I couldn’t decide and ended up thinking I’d leave it all completely flat for a change and really embrace the ‘Less Is More’ idea!! Was I right, do you think?! :) 

I tried adding a little grey and black to the inside edges of the images as I like the way the artist who created the Gorjuss Girls, Suzanne Walcott, colours them in quite dark, dusky tones and I’m not sure I’m entirely happy with the result but, again, I’ll keep trying!! ;) And I’ll maybe have a look for some Prisma tutorials, too, so if anyone knows of any I’d be grateful!! :)

The greeting is from Woodware’s Jane’s Script clear set again- I just love this set!! :)- and I bent it slightly to curve around the image :)

I’d like to enter this in these challenges: Less Is More – Black, White and Pink :) ; Totally Papercrafts – Clean and simple :)

Thank you for all the really lovely comments on my last card- each and every one is very much appreciated!! :) I hope you’re all well and looking forward to a lovely weekend making the most of the ‘better’ weather while it lasts... apparently it’s going to be much colder and wet again next week!! :S Ah, well, at least you can tell the days are already staying lighter for longer which is definitely a good thing in my book!! :) 

Ooops- think I'm going to go have a rest when I've linked this up... I just nearly hit the 'Publish' button without even uploading my photos first... which would've been an odd (and extremely dull!!) kind of post indeed!!lol The photos actually look a bit dull for some reason, too, so sorry about that!! :S

hugs,  

Gorjuss In Green...

Hey!! :)

I’m back with the card I mentioned in my last post which will be my first ever entry into the Sugar Bowl Challenge :) You wouldn’t know it from a look through my blog but, until last year I’d hardly ever made any ‘character cards’- it was mostly butterflies and flowers ‘til then- and I’m not sure I’d even heard of Sugar Nellie before I started blogging last year but I am sooo happy that’s been put right now!! :) This is actually my first Gorjuss Girl card, too- I’ve coloured a couple of the images before from a stamp of my own and some sent to me by a kind and very lovely crafting friend but, what with the madness of Xmas etc., none have made it onto cards ‘til now!! :S This is one of the new ones I treated myself to with the very last of my pressie money when Funky Kits had them reduced the weekend before last and I love it!! :)

I water-coloured the image with Distress Inks and was really only messing about as, after a pretty disastrous attempt before Xmas, I thought I’d need to get myself some proper water-colour paper to be able to produce anything even halfway decent... but, while far from perfect, it happily turned out usable even on the 160gsm Staples card I use most of the time for my PMs :) I'll still get some proper paper at some stage but I’m happy to play with what I’ve got for now- it’s been so long since I used a brush and water rather than a waterbrush (college art class almost 10 years ago kind of long, I’m ashamed to say!! ;) ) that I’d almost forgotten how but I read a great tutorial on Rachel’s blog as well as the one on Hanna’s, which Rachel links to, and they got me back on the right track!! :) My effort is nowhere near as good as either of their's but I'll keep practicing ...shame no tutorial can help with the M.E.-induced clumsiness that is the reason I’ve avoided open pots of water for so long, but no disasters so far- touch wood!! :S lol

It’s quite a different card from my usual, I think- the colours for a start but also the amount of pattern in the paper. I really like the cards I see others make with patterned papers and want to make them myself which is why I got myself some Pads of paper so at least the colours all co-ordinated but I’m a bit of a scardey-cat when it comes to pattern (in clothes as well as craft!) and especially multi-coloured patterns, so I feel a bit out of my depth here-  I like it (I think?! :S lol) but I just hope I haven’t got it horribly wrong and that others will like it too?! :S

So, for this card I used:

•         Lovely image from Sugar Nellie, Gorjuss Girls – A Little Birdie Told Me stamped in VersaFine Onyx black  :) 
•          DIs: Bundled Sage and Milled Lavender - clothes; Antique Linen and Tattered Rose - skin; Antique Linen, Vintage Photo and Black Soot – hair; Pumice Stone and Stormy Sky – bird and background; little bit of Milled Lavender on bird 
•        Cut and Dry Nibs with DIs to add finishing touches to the colouring 
•          Papers from the Basic Grey Kioshi pad with scraps from Kioshi and Memory Box’s Gossamer padfor the flowers 
•          White paper with Henna and Cool Grey 3 Promarkers for matting and frame (I used the grey over the henna to tone it down as the brown just looked too warm for the papers but it actually produced a grainy kind of look that seemed like wood to me... happy accidents!! :) ) 
•          Brown Fineliner to draw on the woodgrain effect on the frame 
•          Greeting ('hello!'on bottom right of frame) from Woodware Clear Magic ‘Jane’s Script’ set 
•          Memento Rich Cocoa ink pad for greeting and to edge papers and flowers 
•          Baby Pink flat-backed pearls

 

I really love these lollipop flowers- it’s the first time I’ve tried them and they were so easy to make, too!! :) Plus, they’re almost flat which is one reason I don’t use the gorgeous 3d flowers much as most of my cards have to survive the post and I can’t afford to send everything in boxes!! ;)

This last one's mainly me playing with the focus on my camera again but I think you can kind of see the woodgrain-effect I was talking about getting with the PMs on a couple of these- it's honestly better irl, though!! :)

I’d like to enter this card in the following challenges: The Sugar Bowl – Maria Therese’s fab sketch :) ;  Totally Papercrafts – Friendship (I think the girl and bird look like friends and the card will be given to one of my friends, too) :) ; Sweet Stampin’ – Spring Flowers :) ; Sir Stampalot – All Creatures Great and Small (my bird) :) ; Paperplay – Stamp It Out :) ; Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight – Water :)

Right, I’ll pop off and get those linked up before I’m out of time then!! :) So, I hope you like and thank you so much for reading and for all the lovely comments on my last card!! :) Hope you’re having a good week!! :)

 

hugs,  

Award time!!!:D

Hey there!! :)

Well, today I have something very lovely to share as i have been given an award not once but twice by two of my lovely blogging/crafty/Ayme friends Elaine and Rachel!! :) Thank you to both of you lovely girlies for this very nice surprise- an award always makes you smile!! :) :) :)

This is a special award, which is aimed at bringing unknown good blogs to light and in accepting the award I have had to agree to the following conditions:

1) You have been tagged, do you want to accept? 'Yes, please!' then create a post on your blog and post the love blog photo.

2) Link back to the person who gave you the award and say if you accept.

3) Choose 3-5 of your favourite blogs to tag, link these in your post too and tell the lucky people they have been tagged. As the aim of this award is to bring unknown good blogs to light, please don't tag somebody with 3000 followers.

So I would like to give this award to the following lovely bloggers:

Rachael - Ladybird Dreams
Vicky - Vixx Handmade Cards
Coops -Coops Cluttered Corner
Rachel - Critchley Creations (was planning to give this to Rachel before she gave it to me- she beat me to it cos I've been being slow again, but I still want to!! ;D )
Trish - My Time To Share


So, do please go and have a look at their fab blogs!! I've found a few lovely new blogs myself by following the links on other peoples' award posts!! :) Also, do pop and have a look at Elaine's and Rachel's lovely blogs if you haven't already!! :) I love that these awards are about finding new blogs to enjoy  :)

I hope you're all well and had a good weekend- preferably snuggled up cosily with your craft stash rather than having to brave the rather extreme winds and rain we've been having!! The wind's worse than ever today here!! :S I hope I'll be back soon with a card I made over the weekend which- if I can blog it on time!!- will be my first entry into a Sugar Bowl Challenge :)

hugs,

Take it easy...

Hello again!! :)

Hope you all had a good weekend and enjoyed the sunshine? Makes such a difference doesn’t it, even when it is still freezing!! :) This is going to have to be a pretty quick post as I really want to enter this card in Digistamp Boutique’s January competition and I don’t have much time!! I usually have to put my posts together in several stages as and when I’m feeling up to the different bits of typing/photo editing etc and planned to start/get this one mostly done yesterday but we had an unexpected visitor... so I got to meet a lovely friend of mum’s for the first time and have a good chat, but not much got done!!lol :)

So on to the card, which is quite similar to my last one as I thougt it suited male cards so well, and I’ll save the rest for my waffle for my next post!! This one was for my Grandad when he went in to hospital this past Friday to have a hip replacement- he’s doing okay now (though not loving hospital life, but then who does!?!) and hopefully he’ll be a lot happier for it when he’s fully recovered!! :)

All my 'Straight-on' pics came out more than a tad squiffy looking... good job I took a purposely squiffy one just incase then!!lol
I used:

• Perfect image- Snoozing Spike from Digistamp Boutique :D
• Promarkers and Prismacolor pencils to colour (sorry, don’t have a list of PMs this time :S )
• Nestie and Grand Nestie Labels 1
• Gorgeous leafy patterned paper from Forever Friends Pink Parfait pad
• Forest Moss DI on edges and brown fineliner for faux-stitching as I just felt it needed a bit extra definition
• Kraft card punched with my new MS Cherish border punch (another longed-for treat with some b’day money- I love it sooo much!! :D :D )
• Cuttlebug Distressed Stripes embossing folder (which I forgot to mention on my last post... ooops!! :S ) with more Forest Moss DI
• Natural Rafia from my Aunty again (reclaimed from a gift or flowers she was given, I think- for the recycling challenge) and comes in so useful for men’s cards

I chose this fab image as my grandad falls asleep under his newspaper on an almost nightly basis- the crumpling noise of the paper in his hands is always a dead giveaway!! ;)- so i thought it’d give both him and my gran a chuckle when they saw this!! :D I didn’t want to say get well soon as he’s not exactly ill, so opted for ‘take it easy...’ which I added in in my graphics programme after blocking out the ‘Zzzzz...’ on the original digi file as there wasn’t a lot of room in my layout for a separate sentiment.

I’d like to enter this in the following challenges: Digistamp Boutique – January Competition :) ; Allsorts – Saving Nature (with my recycled raffia again) :)

Right, I’ll go and link that up- hopefully I’ll be in time!!- please forgive any typos that I’ve missed in my haste!! :S

Must just say though- Thank you all so much for the lovely comments on my last card, I really appreciate every one!! :) And it feels sooo good to be back in the Land of Blog properly and posting as opposed to just peering in through the window, so to speak, as I have been while checking out all of your blogs all month!! :D :D Will hopefully be able to get back to leaving some comments on all your fab creations soon, too!! :)

hugs,

Simple Sentiments... (oh, and yes, I am still alive!! ;) )

Hello to my fellow bloggers!! :)

How are you all? I hope 2011 has been treating you well so far!! :)

Well, yes, I am still alive, just haven’t been very with it for most of this month, hence the complete lack of posts... (oooh, it did feel good hitting the 'New Post' button on my Dashboard after so long!! :) ) There’s always a ‘post-Xmas dip’ for me with my M.E. but this year it didn’t even wait ‘til after Xmas as I felt pretty awful from Xmas day onwards :S Things eased up a bit physically after a while but I’ve really not been able to think straight enough to write or do much else but mooch around other people’s fab blogs getting hugely inspired only to find when I try to actually craft that I can’t remember what it was I meant to do!!! :S!!! But I’ve reached the end of January determined that I will have at least one card posted before the month is over!! I’ve only managed to make two since Xmas and luckily they’ve both been male ones so simple was not only acceptable but a good thing!! ;)

This one was for my dad’s birthday a week or so ago and achieved its twin objectives of 1) being fairly quick and very simple to make and 2) allowing me to finally have a bit of a play with a couple of the new toys I treated myself to with my Xmas and B’day money, which had been calling out to me from my desk since they arrived!! :D So, here it is:

I used:

• Nestie Labels 1 and Grand Nesties 1 (the first of my new bits- I love this shape and so decided that, even though I don’t have a big die-cutter, I would get a lot of use from from the first three dies that fit through my bug...for now, as I’m sure I’ll cave and get myself a big one sometime!!lol I’m just hoping that Provocraft will come to the rescue and make a bigger version of the fab bug that’ll take thicker dies, too!! :)
• Some of my digi papers left over from Christmas cards in the non-christmassy Diagonal Dots and Argyle designs
• Tim Holtz Paper Distresser with Antique Linen and Vintage Photo DIs on all edges
• Craft card punched with my MS Zig-Zag border punch (also new- been wanting this for ages and love it now I have it!! :D )
• Distress Crackle paint in Clear Rock Candy- also been wanting this for ages!! :) – all over the craft card with Vintage Photo DI over the top
• Natural Rafia that my Aunty gave me (reclaimed from a gift or flowers she was given, I think) and comes in so useful for men’s cards
• Greeting from a Dawn Bibby set stamped in Vintage Sepia Versafine over an ornate ‘flourish’ from a set I got from Lakeland years ago, which was stamped in the Antique Linen. The cream paper is rescued and recycled from a Christmas card envelope (fittingly, from my Dad’s card to me :) )... I don’t know about you but I always save any with interesting textures or colours :)

Hmm, used more different products than I thought there!! Lol

And a couple of close-ups :) Think I was a bit cautious with the Crackle Paint as it was the first time I’d used it- the cracks came out very fine (they show ore in the photo than irl!) so I’ll try a thicker layer next time!! :) I really wanted to get the shadow effect on the greeting panel and decided the 'flourish' was okay for a man's card in the end, especially as I'd been reading the Matthew Shardlake books by C.J. Sansom, which my dad and step-mum gave me for Xmas and are set in Tudor England!! :)

I’d like to enter this in the following challenges: Wild Orchid Crafts – Let’s Get Sentimental :) ; Allsorts – Saving Nature (my recycled items are: Rafia, envelope from greeting panel and left-over papers printed for Xmas) :) ; Paper Sundaes #53 – Distressing :) ; Crafts and ME – Monochrome :) ; Do you stack up? – Pattern (my papers) :) ; Cards For Men – Let’s Party (I hope my card’s okay anyway- it may not look very party-like but it was to celebrate my Dad’s birthday) :)

Well, I’m off to link up now and then I think I should change my blog background back to the non-Xmassy version!! :) Thanks for reading my ramblings and for any much valued comments :) And thanks to the people who’ve left comments over the last month and even become new followers... I will hopefully be here with something to share with you a little more regularly from now on- just as long as my body/brain will let me craft and write!!- and even when it looks like I’m not around I’ve still been enjoying all your fab blogs so thanks for sharing and for the inspiration and help to get through the days when I’ve not been well enough to craft myself :)

hugs,