crafty buys!!

Hello everyone!! What a horrible windy and rainy day it is here today! That just means I have to stay tucked up inside and craft and rest!

I had a right little treat on sunday. My dad had given me some money for some crafty spends (which was very very surprising!) and I popped along to the glitterpot with my niece. OOOOOOO i could spend hours in there and easily hundreds of pounds at a time (if i was rich! lol). I'm so so lucky to have it so close to me. I bought some lovely bits and bobs, along with some bits for my upcoming blog candy. (I'm too excited to do it, so I doubt i'll be able to wait until December, which is when I thought I might do it). 


I just went to take some pics to show you but my camera battery is flat, so it's charging now and i'll add some pics in a while.
I also saved enough to buy a few of the adorable new LOTV stamps. I was up at midnight when the new collection went on sale, so I thought i'd get in there quick. I ordered these beauties from the newest collection:

And these from the first collection fell into my basket to! Does that happen to you?? You go on to order 3 stamps and come away with 6 in your basket??!! lol 

Aren't they just adorable!!! I really love the designs and can't wait to start on my Christmas cards! 

I've not got any cards to show you just yet, but i'll be making some today as I've been colouring images on the settee feeling too worn out to walk and in a lot of pain with my legs. I get bored if I don't do something, so colouring images is great for when i'm physically wiped out.

Talking of colouring..... at the Glitterpot, they had demonstrators there and Emily and I had a chat with a women colouring beautifully with copics. I am so torn now as I went for promarkers as I was told they were cheaper, but the copics just look beautiful. There seem to be some nicer muted colours and I also didn't know they were refillable. She also told me about the way that the numbers work and that they are based on the colour wheel, which makes matching tones is much easier for blending.
I do love my promarkers, but when going round blogs, I keep being drawn to some amazing colouring by people using copics. I don't seem to be able to get this sort of effect that people such as the amazingly talented Claudia Rosa at pretty pressings. 

She has such lovely light areas in her colouring, to really create shape, but I can't seem to get anything like that without having quite harsh lines of colour. I try to leave much lighter areas, but to blend the darker colours in, you need to go over them with the lighter colour, which then darkens the lighter colour by putting a second layer over it. Maybe I just still can't quite get to grips with markers??
I thought with the broader range of tones with the copics, I could get that effect better?? What do you all think?? advice or tips are very welcome. 

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Phew it is windy out there. I've just been out to walk Millie moo and we both got bit soggy, but it was strangely nice too. Blew the cobwebs away!
I came back with big pockets full of conkers too! lol I just love them. They are so pretty and my house always has them on the windowsills from the autumn to keep the spiders away. Whether it works, I'm not sure, but I'm willing to try anything to keep those blighters away from me. 

Aren't they such a pretty part of nature! 

Right I also promised to show some of my new lush stash! I got some lovely papers:

and some other bits and pieces. I just could not resist this adorable penny black stamp. I do love the mice! 

Here are the images i've coloured so far, so i'll put them up when i've made them into cards! 

Ok, I think I have waffled on long enough!! I wish you all a good rest of the day and thank you as always for any comments left xxxx