It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

Long time no blog! Things have either been busy or i've been too ill to even move off the sofa. This relapse lark is not much fun. 
I have been doing a bit of manic crafting for a craft fair, but it was a waste of time as hardly anyone turned up, it was in an awful venue and on a freezing cold midweek night, so i sold nothing :-( 
I'm trying again on the 7th at a pub that has much more passing traffic and regulars etc... and near to lots of homes, so so hoping i sell a few bits as i need some more money for prezzies! 

Here are a few of the things i made:

 

 

Inside pages: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another album:

 

 

 

A fold out album:

 

 

Inside pages: 

 

 

 

 

 

Chipboard tree decorations:

 

 

 

 

Little gift box:

 

 

That lot exhausted me so i've not made anything more for a few days. BUT as i've been snowed in and i adore Christmas, i have got my tree up and am working on making this a festive little haven. 

I'm sure some of you have had snow worse than i have but it's been weird as two days ago we had hardly anything then now we have this:

This was the view from my front door this morning! 

 

 

 

walking in a winter wonderland! 

 

 

The village pond: 

 

 

Seagulls on the pond, and i'm not even that close to the sea! lol 

 

Millie moo moos running in the snow. 

Right, well i've probably bored the hell out of you all now with hundreds of photos!

I hope you are all as well as possible x  

 

We will remember them.

Hello everyone. The evil monster that is ME is still having a huge control over me and my crafting is in very small amounts :-(  I have been making a box for the baby boy album, but thats about it so far, apart from a bit of colouring and still trying to get used to promarkers. 

But today, more important things need to be remembered and on this day i am very thankful to all servicemen and women, past and present, who risk, or sadly, give their lives for us and our country. 

‎"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them"

 

 

 

baby boy album

Hello everyone. Nice to have something to blog! I've managed to do bits of crafting inbetween sleeping and resting, and i've finished a baby boy album for an order. I just need to make a box for it now. 
Hope you like it:

 

I love this baby embossing folder. It's so cute and makes a great front cover. 

 I found these cute little charms on ebay and thought they'd add that extra little detail to the album. I've used teddy bears, dummies and rocking horses. 

 

 

I made a little pouch for little tags for the birth details. 

 

 

It's been lovely getting some crafting done but think today needs to be a rest day after being out for a few hours with my sister, niece and friend for halloween. 

 We dressed up and went to a local farm where they do allsorts of halloween things. No pics of me as i'm normally always behind the camera and the only one taken of me yesterday was horrible!! lol so here's my gorgeous little niece instead:

Here are a few other pics for you to see. This is the pumpkin that Emily and i carved. She called him nightmare, as he looks like "nightmare before Christmas"

 

Arn't pumpkins such great looking veggies! I love those organic shapes and love how varied they can be. Emily loved how big this one was! :

I'll end with my precious little furry friend, who was snuggled down on the settee like this whilst we were doing the pumpkin. How cute does she look! 

 

I hope you've all had a good halloween weekend and are all as well as possible x xx

The passion to craft V the power of illness.

Hello everyone. 

I've really been over powered by the M.E these past few weeks, well months actually, and i'm not able to get crafting anywhere near as much as i'd like. 

I am working on embellishing a wedding album still, but am doing a page or two every few days, and just having to give into exhaustion and rest on the settee all day. 
There are times when i can push myself a little and suffer the consequences and there are times when i just have to give in as i don't have enough energy to fight it. 

So i'm sorry for a boring blog lately, and no new creations to show you. 
I've been given another order for some xmas cards and another album, so i'll have plenty to get my teeth into as and when i can. 

I'm off to have a little nose round some of your blogs and see what lovely bits you've made! 

Wishing you all a happy sunday and a good week x x x

promarker help and advice needed please!

Hey everyone. I've not got any cards to show at the minute as been working on embellishing someones wedding album, but have got the bleedproof pad for the promarkers so am still practising. 

Few questions i need answering. 

I start with the palest colour, and then add a slightly darker where the shadows would fall, i then use small circular movements with the lighter colour again, to blend, but then when i'm blending into the lighter colour, it then goes darker, as i am putting a second layer of that first shade on. 

How do i blend the darker into the lighter so that there is still some of the lightest showing but it's blended gradually into the dark? As i either have lines showing where it isn't blending properly, or i've lost all the lightest colour, as i've gone over it a second time.

The problem maybe where i don't have enough tonal differences with the colours yet, so i might be using too dark a colour, against too light a colour so it won't blend easily??

Here is my latest attempt (excuse the skew wiff photo, but i scanned it and it loses some of the pic if i straighten it) 

The example of where i am going wrong is on the dress. I've also found that rather than using a different colour to add the darker areas, i just go over some bits with the same colour, as i have done on the shoes. 

Anyway, advice would be very welcome from anyone who uses the pens. Thank you in advance. If i need to answer anyone i will add the reply on the comments section. 

Hope you are all as well as possible and having a nice weekend! x x x

promarker virgin

Still feeling too poorly to craft but i had a few stamped images ready to colour, so when my PM's arrived yerterday i couldn't wait to give them a go. 

They will need some getting used to after using pencils and a waterbrush for years. They are "wetter" than i imagined and it's nice seeing them blend into the paper slightly so no pen marks are made, but i was a bit worried that using the lighter colours to blend, left a sort of "mucky" colour to the image. That clears as the ink dries though, thankfully, but i will need to practise some more before i get the blending bit right. I seem to blend too much into the lighter colours and end up darker than i wanted. 

I found a great colour chart ready to be coloured in with the colours i have, so will use that for when i get some more. 

here is a quick example of my first attempt on the left using PM's and on the right my usual pencils and waterbrush. 

 

The card i'm using is not great for the pens as it bleeds too much, so i've got a bleedproof pad coming from letraset and i've been told that glossier paper works better. 

I think i also need some brighter colours as some of them seem a bit muted to me, as i'm a colour fan, so i'll have to play around with colours to see if they can replicate the pencil colours i like. 

Anyway, i'm back off onto the settee as i've got a very swimmy head and it's making feel nauseous sitting up. :-(  Hopefully i'll be back crafting very soon! 

damn being poorly.

You'd think after 8 years of suffering with M.E i'd be used to it, but have had a bad couple of days after cutting my very small piece of grass outside, and have had to resort to laying on the settee barely moving again. It's so so hard to cope with eachtime it happens and my anxiety levels always seem to get worse when i'm not feeling well. 

I'm dreaming up cards and albums and waiting for the postman to deliver my promarkers. Hopefully today will be the day(my postman is never early), and i can at least have a play with them. I hope i can do the blending part as well as those i see on here. 


So while, i have no new card to share at the minute, i have been popping on and off to look at all the lovely creations i see on here, and remembering little bits i can use. The list of things i "need" is growing longer by the day, each time i see something lovely on a card. 


Right i'm off back onto the settee for a while. Wishing you all good a day x x 


What a lovely sight seeing those poor miners being rescued today!

sparkly, shiny, special.

Hi everyone! I've had such fun making this card today. Sparkly is a great theme for me as i love glitter! 

I've made this card with many challenges in mind:

Spoonful of sugar- "sparkle and shine"

Papertake weekly- to use any challenge from the last 3 yrs, so i chose "shiny, sparkly and special, from May 2010.

Flutterby Wednesdays-  open theme, but to use butterfly, fairy or angel, which i chose this magnolia image, as she has wings! lol 


creative inspirations- birthday theme. 


crafty creations- I followed the sketch, as well as their rules of using a rubber stamp and ribbon or lace. 

stamp something- to use punches. I used the corner punch and star punch. 


colour create- to use pink, green and cream. 

 

 

 

 

 

I think you can safely say thats a sparkly card! I used sparkly letter stickers, stickles glue, H2O's, sakura stardust pen for her shoes and hair ribbon, glitter card for the stars and even a little sparkle on the ribbon too. 

I'm also so excited as i've ordered my first 5 sets of promarkers!!! woohoo. I sold the baby album, so treated myself before the money got wasted on household stuff, so i look forward to trying them and seeing if i can use them well. 

Next on my must have list are some nestablilites now! Lets hope i sell another album soon!