Retail Therapy Worked

Hi again.

Just to let you all know I had a fun time on my shopping trip, even though it was only in my home town, I still found plenty to buy. I bought two new lenses for my Canon camera, a macro lens so I can take fantastically close shots, and a zoom lens to get shots that are further away. These came in at the princely sum of just over £700, so I'd better look after them. Anyway I'm hoping these additions will give me more scope.

I bought some magazines to help me a bit more with Photoshop. although I can do simple things and create digital scrapbooking layouts too, I don't use it to it's full potential. So with the money spent on my new camera and accessories, I thought it was time to learn a bit more. I want to be more artistic and contemporary with my photography, so lets hope it works.

I also bought a silver bracelet, and a couple of beads, as above. I have heard them called Mango Beads, not sure if this is correct, but I love the idea of having something different. I'm going to add to them as and when I see something I like. I fancy making it all green and pink, with silver, so I guess I'll be looking for something pink now. You could have ton of beads, and make your bracelet up to match your outfit differently every day.

I saw a lovely lime green handbag, I'm really into that colour at the moment, I didn't buy it, but wish I had now. Might have to go back to get it though.

Incidently the photo of the beads was taken with my new macro lens. I think it works perfectly.

Take care, and happy crafting.

Stamp Something Challenge

Hi all and happy Friday.

Well it's now a week since I was made redundant, and I'm feeling a little better now. That's because of the therapy I've been receiving....Retail Therapy!! and let me tell you, it's just what I needed. I've treated Sophie & Jordan, and bought a 'few' crafty bits for me. I'm off to town today to buy a new lens for my camera, and maybe a few more treats for myself. I have to be mindful though, I know this money won't last forever, AND I need to get a new job too. But for now I'm happy.

Now then, I made a card for the Stamp Something challenge, but misunderstood and got the wrong date. The bugs, butterflies and winged somethings was from last week..sigh...I really should pay more attention.

That said, I have decided to show my card anyway, since I have not posted any cards for over a week now. So here goes:

The papers are by My Minds Eye and fitted in with the jungle theme. The image is from Magnolia and coloured with Copic Markers. (By the way I've bought some new colours, so you'll be seeing them soon). I stitched around the image. I like this look at the moment, it just adds another dimension. I put a piece of acetate through an embossing folder, and rubbed black Stazon over the relief to highlight it, and stuck it behind the matted image. I added a squiggly line with a marker, around the circle too.

I added Glossy Accents to the rear lights of the vehicle, and cut out the windows, placing more acetate behind them to look like glass. You can't actually see it on this photo, but believe me it's there. The image was matted using silicone to give depth as you can tell by the shadow in the windows.

I chopped up the Magnolia Palm Tree to use the leaves on the ground rather like ferns, to give a bit of jungle undergrowth, and made some tiny flowers using shrink plastic, (a technique I borrowed from Louise, thanks sweetie) and I do love them. The bees were from another Magnolia stamp, but I cut them from Tilda's hand, coloured them using copics. I glittered the wings, then stamped again onto Fantasy film with Stazon, and cut the wings out only. It was a bit fiddly, I attached them with silicone to give that sheer irridescent look as though they're flying. Quite cute I thought.

So there you have it. Oh and the sentiment was computer generated. Hope you like it. I'm off to town now, more therapy....See ya later.

Take care.

Special Gift

Hi

I'm back again to tell you that one of my members of staff (Thank you Maxine) bought me a stunning orchid as a leaving present. It is beautiful, I love plants and anything to do with gardening, I was training to be a garden designer at one time, but that kind of fell by the wayside. However, with my new found love of photography, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to have a little play.

I've read lots about photography techniques since I've had my camera, and one little tip is when photographing flowers, put a piece of coloured card behind the flower so the background is uncluttered and the flower stands out more.

What a top tip, I think it works beautifully. I have edited the photo in Photoshop to get it just how I want it, and I'm really pleased with the outcome.

Now as I am going to re-decorate my lounge and dining room, I thought I would use blue Bazzill for the background, to tone in with the blue and cream colour scheme I'm using, so I can use the photo as part of the decoration. I'm thinking of making it into a large canvas to hang on the wall. What do you think? Maybe I've got a new career in the making here!!!

Truly Scrumptious

Hi everyone

Hope you're all ok. I've been a little neglectful with my blog this week. I think it may have something to do with being made redundant yesterday, I've had no enthusiasm to craft or blog. I'm unsure what the future will hold...I'd love to get in to crafting more, but don't know if the opportunity will present itself. I'm still thinking which way to go. In any case I'm having the school holidays off to do things with the children, (whether they like it or not), then I'll re-evaluate. I'm hoping that when my redundancy payout comes in a bit of retail therapy will cheer me up, and get me moving again.

Now on to my card for Truly Scrumptious. Although I posted it in time for the challenge on Wednesday, it seemed to disappear, as it did on the Truly Scrumptious blog too. Naughty Mr Blogger was playing up. }}: (

It's now back where it should be on the Truly Scrumptious blog, and here on my blog again.

The theme for this time is to use beads, so I have a charm, and beads hanging from the flower. this is quite a fun card with bold colours. Hope you like it.

Why not pop along to Truly Scrumptious and take a look at the rest of the Design Teams cards, and maybe join in the challenge too.

Take care and happy crafting.

Photo's

Hi everyone, and happy Tuesday

Well the weather seems to have turned horrid, here on the eastern side of the UK. It's been raining, and it's much, much cooler than it has been over the past couple of weeks. I'm so glad we managed to have beautiful weather for the wedding just over a week ago.

Anyway, whilst the weather was nice I was experimenting with my new camera. I sill want to go on a course to be able to get the best from it, and learn to use it to it's full capacity, but I have taken a few shots that I'm quite proud of. So here they are:

Now the professionals amongst you will probably have a thing of two to say about these, but I myself are really quite proud of them. I am now interested in buying a macro lens (for detailed close-ups) and a zoom lens so I can take things a bit further. Whilst I don't intend to turn this in to a photography blog, I may grace you with a few shots from time to time, to let you see how I'm progressing.

The other thing is, that as I own the copyright to these photo's I'm thinking of ways I can develop them to fit in with the craft market. Maybe as backgrounds, toppers or fabrics...or maybe as canvases for home decor, who knows. If you have any ideas I would be interested to hear them.

Thanks for looking and happy crafting

Sketch Saturday #60

Hi everyone and Happy Sunday

I've been relaxing this week, not done too much crafting, but I'm going to get back into it now. One more week at work to go then redundancy. We all went out for a meal yesterday evening at a local restuarant, and it was very nice too.

My card today is for the Sketch Saturday challenge. I just love sketch challenges, and with this one I used my brand new stamp.

You may have noticed that I have been searching for a Sarah Kay stamp (shown right) for quite some time, months in fact. It's been posted on my side bar for ages and I've pleaded for your help in finding it. Well I can reveal that several people have contacted me in the last wee telling me of various retailers taking stock. I am pleased to say that I am now the proud owner of this stamp, and would like to say a huge THANK YOU to all those people that took the time to contact me. I am extremely grateful to you all. I can now show you what I've done with it.

The image is coloured with copic markers as usual. I went with a sunny yellow colour scheme. The papers are a download from Kay Miller Designs.

The inside is decorated with more of the papers and the same image.


Thanks for looking and happy crafting.

The Next Level

Hi all and Happy Monday.

This weeks challenge involves a super sketch, coupled with using decoupage. Now you can make this yourself, of choose any one of the ready printed decoupage images that are readily available. the choice is yours. I used a fab Morehead image. I love these images. They are great for something a little different. I used mine with Basic Grey Archaic 6x6 papers. Perfect for this theme. I cut my circles using nesties, embossing the brown ove with my cuttlebug embossing folder. I used real twigs from the carden to make a sort os pathway for my image to 'run' along, and poached some clack grass from one of my silk flower arrangements...shhhh...they'll never notice. Just goes to show the lengths I go to sometimes in persuit of my 'hobby'.

You can see the twigs, and decoupage a little better in this photo.

Fantastic Day

Hi all and Happy Sunday.

I had a fantastic day yesterday at my son's wedding yesterday, although the final preparations were hectic.

Paul and Jess looked stunning, and I wish them many congratulations. I am so proud of them, and the rest of my children. Here's a few photo's of the day.

Confetti time.

Don't they all look gorgeous.

Jess with our youngest daughter Sophie, who was chief bridesmaid.

Dear Husband and I - Proud Mum and Dad (I loved the outfit, and adore the hat)

Younger son Adam and girlfriend Zoe all dressed up.

Proud dad with youngest son Jordan (typical boy)

Eldest daughter Jo, with husband Stewart grandchildren, & bridesmaid Ellie (Jess' daughter)

Me with my lovely little sister

These are not the official photos, just a few of the photo's we took. Hope you like them and get a sense of what the day was like for us.

Thanks for taking the time to look.

Truly Scrumptious

Hi There, and happy Wednesday.

Let's see now, it's only three more sleeps until my son's big wedding day on Saturday. I'm still doing wedding favours, and had to do a quick dash into town today to buy more ribbon...I'd run out and was at panic stations...but I managed to get what I needed, so crisis over.

Just a quick post, albeit a late one to show you my creation for this weeks challenge at Truly Scrumptious. We have another sketch, with the added challenge of using only black, white, and one other colour (excluding flesh and hair tones).

So as I like pink, I thought I would stick to that, and did several shades. I love how it turned out. I used papers from Doodlebug. The pink metallic word paper is a Disney one, but can't think who makes it...

I used my nesties to cut the mats, and the Adorable word was cut out from one of the Cuttlebug Embossing folders...Great if you're in a hurry and haven't got the time to look for a sentiment, as is the case with me at the moment.

I later replaced the 'adorable' word with circle containing '18' after Sophie came home yesterday and said she needed a card for Vanessa, the girl she's been working with this week, (she's on work experience at our local childrens nursery). So I did a quick alteration this morning to accomodate. Vanessa loved it by all accounts, and Sophie has spent the day eating birthday cake..lucky her.

Why not pop along and see what the rest of the design team have done, and be in with the chance to win yourself a prize.

I should have a bit more time once the wedding is over, so might be able to enjoy a few more challenges as well as my DT work again. Oh and I don't know if I've already mentioned this, my redundancy is happening on July 24th. It's so close now, don't know whether to be happy or sad after 21 years working for the same place. I know one thing though...life goes on, and I'll survive....just have to figure out how...lol

The Next Level

Hi all, and Happy Monday.

I'm a tad late posting for the challenge today, up to my neck in wedding favours & place names. Not long now....only FIVE more sleeps. Oh My Gosh.... We've had thunderstorms today, so I hope they pass by the weekend, and it turns sunny, and dry again for Saturday.

Here is my card for this weeks challenge over at The Next Level. It's all about buttons and bows this week. No sketch this time, so lets see what you come up with.

I used one of the new images from Whiff Of Joy... These are so delightful, I adore them. I made a card for a baby boy as you can see, but I didn't want to overpower it with embelishments. I wanted it to remain soft and babylike. I decided to use a sheer ribbon for the bow, then I could make a large bow, but it wouldn't look too heavy...aha method in my madness...On the other end of the scale, I used teeny tiny buttons for the flower centres which kept things delicately balanced. The background was kept simple with some shadow stamping, and a touch of blue paper from HOTP. The sentiment was computer generated.

Hope you like it, and while you're at it why not pop along and see what new look The Next Level is all about.

Happy crafting.

Birth Announcements

Hi everyone, and a happy HOT Thursday to you all.

I've been having a play with Photoshop, and making my own embellishments over the last couple of days. I'm trying a few money making ideas out in readiness for when I enter my jobless phase after redundancy later on this month. I'm thinking if I can attend a few local fayres this summer, or maybe start up some craft classes, I can make my own money. I don't think it will be much, but might as well use my talents if I can, eh??

Anyway I made the sentiments in Photoshop, and layered them on to card, added a punched out flower and some pearly doodles and one thing led to another I thought I would use some of the toppers on sample birth announcement cards.

I have only used Bazzill and a few scraps of patterned paper. These cards are really tiny, e.g. 3" x 3" for the square ones, and 4" by 2.5" for the tall one. I've made some baby boy ones too, so maybe I'll do a few samples with them too. I actually love them, there would be room to add a small photo inside, and baby's weight etc.

Because of the small size, I thought you could use them for scrapbooking, gift tags, on gift boxes, and many other things too. I'm thinking of doing a kind of pick & mix thing. Mainly because I've bought things before, for one item, and never used the rest of the pack. I thought as people are on a tight budget these days, this idea might appeal...you only pay for what you want. What do you think of the idea???

I'm thinking of Save The Date cards too. I'd love to hear what you think.

Just thought I'd share a photo with you before I go....

Daisy (our Shih Tzu) and Cleo (our cat) having a snooze on the sofa in the cool. Bless....

Take care

Hugs Debbie xx