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! 

No card today but a good tidy up!

I've not had time to make a card to day as boring chores and grass cutting needed to be done. BUT i did decide that my workspace really needed some tidying as it was ridiculously messy. I can't seem to craft in a tidy way! 

So here it was to start with:

 

 

After a good tidy up and the creation of an "offcuts" tub, it now looks like this:

 

 

 

 

I just adore these cute little buckets i found in one of my favourite shops. 

It's much nicer to work with some space now and to have places for things. I hope to get my dad to make me a bespoke desk so i can use the very small space i have much better and put lots of shelving up. I have a list of Ikea stuff i want, but the funds never seem to be there! lol 

I hope everyone has had a lovely sunny weekend and is as well as possible. Extra special hugs again to Fiona who has been very poorly lately. xx 

 

baby album box

I finally made a box to put the album in which finishes it off nicely, but i've learnt that bazzill blitz doesn't like bending and can tear a little. I also need to work out how the make the inside corners neater!! 
But it looks pretty and i hope they like it. 

 

The letters are glittery but don't show up on the photos. 

I also made these christmas easel cards:

 

 

I love this Tilda stamp and the bench. It's just adorable and i can see them getting a lot of use this Christmas! 

 

 

 I love these blonde moments papers. I've had them for a while but kept putting off using them! lol

 

 

 

 

 

easel birthday card

It's my godson's 5th birthday in a few days so i made him this easel card:

 

 

 

 

Now i know how to make these easel cards i'm loving them! They give that extra special touch to cards. 

I'm entering this card into the ABC challenge, which is E is for Easel.  

 

spoonful of sugar challenge card.

I've made this card for the spoonful of sugar challenge, which this week, is spots and stripes. 

I just adore this little dragon. I need to play around with some colour variations but i just love "her" in this pink, yellow and green. 
The sentiment stamp is a mixture of an Elzybells sentiment with a penny black swirlie circle. 

challenge cards...

I also made a few cards recently:

 

I don't send Halloween cards, and in the UK we don't really celebrate halloween like the USA do, but i still love all the bits of it, including the outfits, pumpkins, the colours etc... I got this stamp from the Elzybells closing down sale, and just adore it so wanted to make a card, that i can maybe sell on. 

I'm entering this card into the following challenges: 

cute and girly- Spooky challenge

The town scrapper- Halloween challenge

Stamp something- something to celebrate

This next card i made with a stamp i had bought but not used yet:

Its very cute but i have no idea what those animals are meant to be! lol 

I've just realised that i've made a boo boo so this card doesn't fit into any challenges i enter at the moment! lol Oh well, it's another one for the collection to sell. 

Have a nice day everyone! Lets hope this rain eases off soon and we can have some lovely sunny and autumnal days!