At long last, I'm back in blog land

After a very frustrating three weeks with a sickly computer I'm back in blogland.  Huge thank you's go out to my fab SIL who has fixed it for me and I've learnt a hard lesson in not backing up files.  Anyway with the help of a trusty external hard drive I'm saving everything now.

 I still haven't reloaded my camera editing software so this was done in Google's Picasa Picnik software.  I seemed to have lost some of the colour from the photo as it is a very pretty duck egg blue paper from Pink Petticoat that I've printed onto Centura Pearl cardstock, I've added a Spellbinders Lotus Pendant die cut and the side one is also a Spellbinders die.  This is for a Red Hat friend whose birthday we are celebrating with lunch on the River Crouch today.   We'll be Ladies Wot Lunch!

I would like to enter the following:

Digistamps4joy challenge #5 you spin me right round

Something different for another granddaughter

It's my second eldest grand-daughter's birthday and I thought I'd try something different again.  It's with a Sweet Pea image as before but I've cut some acetate as a wrap over a piece of beautiful and very pretty pink pearlised card I bought a couple of years ago. Coloured with a mix of Copics and Promarkers and I cut the the white pearlised card with a Spellbinders Lacey Squares die.  Ellie will be as beautiful as this when she grows up, she has the blond hair and blue eyes already.

Pearls and ribbon from my stash

Creepy Crawly - Halloween

Our theme for the month of October for my monthly card swap with other Red Hatters in the US was either Autumn Harvest or Halloween.  I've made harvest cards for the last couple of years so I decided to have a crack at producing the 19 cards as simply as possible.  The postage is horrendous so they have to be as light as possible. I used a Halloween paper from Pink Petticoat and cut the extra spiders out with a new Nestie set called Lacey Squares.  The best bit about this card run was getting inky fingers using the Tim Holtz Distress Inks, I really love these little ink pads.

The various ribbons are from my overstuffed ribbon stash box.  Its never fails to amuse me how I start out with an idea and change it when I get bored with the same thing.

A Grown-up Grand-daughter

Our eldest grand-daughter celebrated her birthday this month and it's amazing how quickly time has just flown by.  She is such a young lady now (ears pierced and beautiful highlights in her hair) that a more grown up card seemed fitting. 

This is my very first attempt at using a Sweet Pea stamp and sadly the light during the evening is not very good and casts shadows.

The lace was given to me and the flowers I've coloured with a Copic pen. The flourish was cut on the Cricut and I used a Martha Stewart punch on the purple edge.  The glitter on the moons and her wings and dress are looking a little subdued with the light that was available

A big THANKS! to Melissa for updating her challenge lists, it's so helpful.

I would like to enter this card into the following:

Incy Wincy Designs  Challenge 62 - Sparkly Glitter

Autumn Challenge

Over on the Creative Card World blog Lou has set us the challenge of 'Autumn'.  I love this time of the year as summer fades away and we get the gold and oranges and browns  appearing on the trees.  There's a really good crop of brambles growing and I'm off to pick plenty for the autumn and winter. I might even have a go at making apple and bramble jam if the mood takes me.  There are huge haystacks appearing close to where I live and the birds are stocking up on seeds and corn that has dropped to the floor.

This photo of my eldest grand-daughter, Romani, was taken in a park in Boston when she and her parents were over in the States visiting friends, she was just about a year old then. I love it and look at it every day as it sits on my window sill.  The colours are perfect for her skin colouring.

I've used a sheet of Bazzill Basic card stock, sprayed it with a few squirts of the Krylon Gold Webbing I bought from the Glitter Girls at the last Ally Pally Show. I cut a strip of DP from a sheet of Basic Grey Scarlet's Letter and I've also cut the scrolls, leaves and pumpkins from Cricut's Cindy Loo cartridge.

I would like to enter this into the following:

Creative Card World  Lou's Autumn Challenge
Paper Playtime Challenge #17 - Autumn
A Crafty Little Place Challenge #57 - Color ( brown, green and orange)
Pile It On Challenge #37  Red, Yellow Green and Brown.

Something a bit different.

I wanted something a little different for my son-inlaw's birthday and I found this image on Google and checked its background and found that it relates to proportion, very interesting when you delve right into it.

I've layered it up onto some dark gold and copper card and placed it onto a page from the g.c.d studios pad 'Ella Blue', the greek key strip is from another page.  I'm quite pleased with it.

I'd like to enter this card into:-

I Did It Creationsnchallenge #22 Clean and Simple

Happy Birthday Biker Bill!

It was OH's birthday on Thursday and I made him a card depicting him on his beloved Yammie.  The image is a digi download from Karen's Doodles and it is so brilliant and he loved it, especially the verse inside.  I coloured the bike with  Promarkers, the Poppy pen is such a vibrant red and I highlighted the chrome handle bars, head lights and exhaust pipes with a silver Sakura gellyroll pen and then popped layers of glaze all over the top to give it a perfect shine.  The head light glass and the goggles have lovely mound of neat glaze to make them stand out.  I mat and layered the image on to some gorgeous red card from Inspire Me papers and also some of their brilliant silver corrugated card.  The SU wide tape is from the fab Monica of My Many Many Passions and sadly, now the season is changing the light for photography isn't so good, I can just see myself in the little chrome card cardy taking this picture.

I'd like to enter this in the following

Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Move It,   Move It

Back to School - Fifty Years Ago!

Reading about all the school age children returning to school made me remember when I returned to school in September 1960, fifty years ago.  I was starting at a brand new technical school called Trinity Girls School in south London.  I was transferred from my previous school as I had a huge interest in Dressmaking, Tailoring and also a brand new subject of Millinery.  I have sewn from a very early age and the first thing we made that summer and through the winter was our school summer uniform of a shirtwaister in lilac gingham.  Our school colours were purple and grey. When I started the Millinery classes I found a craft that I have loved for 50 years.  Sadly, during the late sixties the wearing of hats went out of fashion even for weddings until Princess Diana came along and reversed the trend. Now I get to enjoy wearing hats all the time as I am a member of the Red Hat Society.  Besides wedding hats I have about six or seven red hats for different times of the year and a very special purple one worn only in February, my birthday month or by special dispensation from our chapter Queen, Mel.

The theme for my US card swap between fellow Red Hatters is 'School Memories'.  This tiny card shows a needle and thread image by Just-Rite Stampers that I've coloured with Promarkers and I've die cut them with Nesties. The tiny button has been defined with Glossy Accents. The postage to the US is horrendous so my cards are getting smaller hence the size of these and little in the way of embellishments to keep the weight down.

Black, White, Silver and Sparkly too.

It's my sis-in-law's birthday on Monday and I thought I create something in black and white for her as I did last year.

There wasn't enough light to capture the ribbon and the flowers so I might have better luck tomorrow.
The image is from Joanna Sheen's CD 'Dancing with Shadows', the paper is from Craftwork Cards, the black roses and blossom and the sparkly beads are all from Wild Orchid Crafts.  I cut the flourishes on the Cricut and they both have tiny black seed pearls attached too.

I think this card will fit our MSE challenge set by Fifi Folle and I would like to enter this card in the following:-

Craft Your Days Away Challenge #3 Girly and Glitter
The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #99 Clean & Simple
Alpabet Challenge Blog  S is for Scallops
Quixotic Challenges #39  Black White and One Other Colour  (I've used silver as the other colour)
2 Sister Challenge Blog Challenge 6 Monochromatic
OLLCB Challenge #61  Elegant Ladies
Cowgirls Sunday Challenge: Anything Goes
Stampin' for the Weekend  challenge #46 Shabby or Vintage
Meljens Designs Challenge #23  Stripes

MSE Card Swap - August

Our theme this month for our card swap was using a recipe of one image, two papers and three embellishments.  This is my card that is winging its way to Claire.

I love this house mouse image and I've coloured it with Promarkers and the papers I have had for a while and if anyone recognises them, please let me know. (The fab rainmac recognised them, she is our Basic Grey expert!) I've inked up the edge of the card and the paper with a Tim Holtz Dried Marigold Ink pad. The flowers are from my stash.  Sadly, it was too windy to take a picture outside as I do prefer natural light.

I would like to enter this card in the challenge over at

Lorraines Loft Unmounted House Mouse Candy sponsored by Simon Says Stamp

and also

Crafty Emma's Store Challenges  #1  Anything Goes