Latest cards

Well after a disasterous day on Monday I managed to make a couple of cards yesterday. The rather elegant lady is from the Creative Expressions Party Ladies set which I bought on Saturday when my two crafting friends and I went to a Craft Show. The show wasn't really very good but I did manage to get a few new stamps and we had a fun morning so all was not lost.

The little boy and his Westie (well I had to have that stamp didn't I?) is a Sugar Nellie stamp by Mary Hall called Westie, I thought it would make a great Christmas card.

The rather funky looking bird is the card I have made for last week's challenge (my two crafting buddies and myself). We were playing with alcohol inks and acetate and stamping with the "petal" stamps belonging to one of the Sues'.

The colouring is done with my Promarkers and the boy's scarf and Westie's coat are alcohol inks on vellum.

Bad day!

Have you ever felt really, really, really stupid??!! ... Read on ....

Yesterday was not a good day, it began at around 1.50am (yes that is AM!) when the smoke alarm outside our bedroom door went off. I lept out of bed and bent to grab my dressing gown, not the best idea when you have a bad back (I put it out last Wednesday and it WAS improving thanks to my Osteopath). Thankfully it turned out to be a false alarm, the battery was running low! (in the smoke alarm not my back)but I couldn't get back to sleep so of course I felt shattered from the moment I got up. Anyway after taking Bonnie for her walk along the beach I got home and put the breadmaker on (or tried to) I put in the ingredients, set the programme, switched on, and off it went ... for all of one rotation of the blades then nothing ... no sign of life at all. I changed the fuse (pretty impressive eh?) flipped on the switch and ..... nothing it was completely dead. I spent the next half hour searching for the receipt, eventually found it then realized the machine was two and a half years old, now I know that is not considered that old but as it is used almost every day I thought it wasn't too bad going so the next step was to get on the old internet and ordered another one.

Nothing too stupid so far ... I cleaned the oven, I did crispy roast duck for dinner on Saturday and it was delicious BUT ... well I bet Delia doesn't have to clean her own oven! and all that twisting and stretching did my back no good at all either.

Then the Plumber arrived to fit a new tap on the kitchen sink, our old one sprang a leak at the weekend, Rob took it apart thinking it would be just a washer to replace, but no, something had broken inside so he had to go out to buy a new one, hence the Plumber to fit it (you don't really think I would let Rob loose fitting a tap do you?! ... DO BE SERIOUS!!!)

Where was I? Oh yes after dinner Rob replaced the fuse AGAIN, he said to check that I hadn't used a dud one ... Mmmmm! .... NOTHING, then he turned the machine around to check that the wire leading from the machine ...... and there on the back was an on/off switch!!!!! I have had that blessed machine for two and a half years and didn't even know the switch was there Aaarrrrrrh! I still don't know why it switched itself off though but stupid or what???

Oooops!

Oooops ... my computer is playing up again so only one card appeared, here is the second tipsy frog plus a really cute pup.

Tipsy Frog

I just love this little chap, he makes a great man's card. I've made these two for my Son and my Nephew (typical of both!). The frog himself is coloured using just one Promarker and a blender, neat eh? I got the technique from a brilliant website I have just found called Passionate about Promarkers, they post a new technique every Friday, I have only just discovered it so I am still going through loads of past workshops and learning lots in the process.

Favourite stamp

This very elegant lady has to be one on my favourite stamps, it's a Clarity Stamp. The deep pink and purple ladies were stamped three times, once onto white card then twice onto two coloured papers, I then cut out the dress from one colour and the jacket, gloves and hat from the other colour (slightly different combination in the case of the deep pink lady) then it's just a case of reverting to your childhood and dressing the "doll". The background swirly stamp is from Stampin' Up.

The lady in blue is coloured using my Promarkers, the background stamp is an Elusive Images which I love, this is just tinted with chalks.

CM&P freebies

I love the Bentley Bear stamps given away free with this months Card Making and Papercraft Mag. I've made a card using one of the stamps and two cards using the free papers.

Promarkers

I've been led astray by my Daughter in Law! It doesn't take much and it is usually my friend Sue who tempts me with crafting goodies but Sue is on a Baltic cruise so I thought I was safe for a couple of weeks ..... not so ... we went over to Adrian and Debs last weekend and she introduced me to Promarkers and that was it ... I'm now hooked! Here is my first attempt with my (at the moment)very limited number of pens, I'd love to know what you think of it, any hints and tips?