Papertake Weekly

Happy Saturday everyone.

My son Adam (23) had his operation yesterday, to remove all of the metal work they put in his arm, after his motorbike accident eleven months ago. Luckily the operation was a success, and he was in and out of hospital the same day. So now he's all bandaged up, and has his stitches come out in ten days time. I'm one relieved mother.

ooOoo

I had an email from Jill at The Hobby House, after I posted a link to her website last week. I had bought some punches from her that I'd been searching for, for ages, and was so please with the service from her. This is the email she sent me, (hope you don't mind me showing this Jill):

"Hello Debbie

I have had some hits from your blog
on my website and I would like to thank you for putting a link there, I really
appreciate it. I have just had a quick look at your blog and your cards are
wonderful, I’m pleased you received all the punches OK.

Kind
regards
Jill
The Hobby House"

It's good to know that the links we spend time doing are appreciated by the retailers, so thank you Jill it was lovely of you to spend the time to acknowledge my comments.

I think it's good to share information, there are so many crafters out there who are only to happy to pass on information on techniques, great places to shop, and other snippets. It's great we all support one another. I have never met such a generous, kind group of people as those that craft. So a BIG HAND to all those who have helped somebody else in their quest to craft.

ooOoo

Now onto the good stuff. Hope you're enjoying you weekend so far, I know I am, and that's because I've time to craft. I've been looking at the challenges for this week, and the one at Papertake is a colour challenge - 'Hot Chocolate' ( that's pink and orange - they're the hot colours, and of course brown is the chocolate).

This really was a challenge for me, as I wouldn't put those colours together normally, well not all of them anyway. But never say never, I'm up for anything, well almost, so thought I'd give it a go. And here's the result:

I chose a Magnolia image for a change, I only just got this one, and I adore it so much I've been colouring it in all different colour combinations, so you might see it pop up quite soon again.

The pink paper is by Doodlebug, the brown from HOTP, and the orange polka dot was a download, but I don't know where from. I think it was a freebie. The image is coloured with good old Copic's. These are so easy to colour with, I thoroughly recommend them. They are expensive, but in this case you get what you pay for, and they are well worth the investment. I kept the colours quite subtle, I think I would have struggled if I made them any brighter.

I distressed one edge of the brown paper with a pair of scissors, and inked it with black for definition. I added a couple of zigzag lines of stitching for interest, and to bring in the pink again. I actually bought this thread yesterday from John Lewis. It's for machine embroidery, and has a lovely sheen to it. I'm going to buy some more, at £1.30 it's a bargain. The flowers are from Prima, and the brads from Papermania.

I've been dying to try a technique with acetate, which you can see on the right hand edge of this picture. I cut a circle of acetate with my Nesties, and cut a piece off, less than half so I got a big arc. I stuck it under the brown paper so the adhesive was hidden, and dotted around the edge with pearly paint. I love this look as you can see the papers through the acetate, and the dots kind of hang in the 'air'. I'm going to try it again, maybe on a bigger scale, I'll have to experiment.

These are the Copic's I used to colour the image. I hope you like it. I'd be happy to hear your comments, if you have the time to leave them, they give me such a boost.