Rocking Your World Friday...



...okay, yes I know it's Sunday - I lost track of the time LOL

 

For anyone who doesn't know what "Rocking your World" is all about, just hop over to Virginia's blog here and she will explain all about it.

 

 

I can't believe that it was only a week ago that I was on holiday from work - one week back at work and it seems as if I was never off. Things have been soooooooooooo busy. This week I have been to Stratford, Southend, Chelmsford and Harrow-on-the-Hill (boy, how the other half live **rollseyes**). Days start to blur into each other and I'm losing track of which day of the week it is so it was fabulous to know I had Friday booked off...why?...I'll tell you later in the post.

So how did my week start apart from 'work'...

Well, I received a lovely invitation from Ignacio of Nicecrane Designs asking if I would join his DT. I've never been on a DT before (although I have done a couple of guest spots) and the thought filled my stomach with butterflies. When I mentioned it to Suzie (Weasel) she said I would be daft not to do it. So before I could change my mind, I said yes...

...I am now a member of Ignacio's DT and I am so having fun with the wonderful digital designs that he has available. The 'butterflies' seem to have trebled in size and are still trying to fight their way out but I've completed a couple of projects and things are going well.

Now it is not 'red cup' season just yet but we are starting to see the Autumn/Winter flavours appearing at my usual coffee haunt...

 

 ...and I have to say - Spiced Pumpkin latte is scrummy. The staff at Southend Starbucks reliably inform me that this flavour has been on offer for the last few 'Autumns'...so why have I never seen it at the Stratford branch? I can really recommend it if you haven't already given it a try.

I happened to mention above that I had booked Friday off work...why?...it is 'members' weekend at Pinnacle crafts and it is also their 10th birthday. So in addition to the 30% off that members get on the majority of their purchases over the weekend (there are a few exceptions) they also go into the Birthday drawer for the chance to win one of a whole host of super prizes.

I had hoped that my pre-order of Tim Holts 12 seasonal colour Distress Markers would have arrived but Joanne said she was chasing the supplier again as they still weren't there. So I had to make do with purchasing a few other bits & pieces to play with - as you do.

I already have the "Stamping Gear" deluxe round/oval set but there have been a lot of new stamps come out, so I treated myself to a set...

...I also managed to get my Winter village (Crafter's Companion die). A few other bits also managed to throw themselves into my basket (how does that happen???) and then I went for coffee and a chat with a friend that I usually manage to see at members weekend.

Would you believe it...when I checked my emails Friday evening, there was one from Andy saying they had a delivery arrive during the afternoon...containing the Tim pens and the Promarker Autumn/Winter limited edition set. So Saturday I was back over at Barleylands (I was going anyway because it was the Farmer's market - honest) and am now the proud owner of both...and a few other bits - I met Suzie and her friend Debbie over there...that Suzie is a very bad influence **giggle**

The lovely muffin stall was there at the farmers market and I came away with some fabulous new flavour ones...Hazelnut latte...White choc & Raspberry...mmmmmmmmmmm

So over all, although things are still a bit 'mad' at work there have been some great 'rocks' this week - unfortunately most will be adding inches to the waist & hips.....................................................

Time for a little bit of...

...Vintage Christmas.

Ignacio has some lovely new Vintage Christmas designs available over on his Nicecrane Designs site and his Design Team always have lots of super ideas to see over on the Nicecrane Design Blog.

There are lots of lovely pre-coloured images for those of you who want something fairly quick & easy or are not overly confident with colouring an image yourself.

With my 800+ pens to choose from I'm sure that you can gather that colouring is something I enjoy and this is one of the B&W digital images from this collection...

 ...sitting on my work table along with my favourite pens - my Copic Ciaos.
Most of the colouring has been done on the three cute little moppets getting ready to hang their stockings up for Santa...

...and most of the background has been given just a hint of colour to create a 'washed' effect.

I cut two 8.25inch squares of smooth white CS - scored 1inch in from the 'spine' edge on both pieces and then joined the two pieces together by placing DST down the spine edge...

 ...the front of the card was covered with a sheet of 8x8inch PP from the Craftwork Cards collection "Christmas Post" and I also punched out some of the die-cut poinsettias from the same collection. The spine had two eyelets added and some satin ribbon threaded through. The image was mounted on red textured metallic paper.
I love pearls and doilies and there are always some to be found in my stash...

 ...which I used along with the flowers to add some decoration to the card.

This is the finished card...

 ...which has stuck to fairly traditional colours...

...and as you can see, the embellishments give texture and depth to the card.
Aren't these images just adorable...

...coloured or B&W.

If you fancy having a play with images from this collection you can find the pre-coloured ones here or the B&W ones ready for you to colour yourself here in the Nicecrane Design store. I fell in love with the images in this collection because to me they are of a good old-fashioned Christmas with traditional Santas and excited children celebrating the Festive Season. The image that I used on the card above made me think of how excited my sister and I used to get on Christmas Eve and how we would get into our new night clothes and place our stockings at the end of our beds. Christmas is a time for family and children and I think the images in this collection are just perfect to evoke that Holiday 'feeling'.

I hope you like what I have created. I will be entering this in the following challenges...

Beat the Christmas Rush (September) - Me and Mine
Challenge 144; Use three main colours (my choice - Red/Green/Cream) - CHNC
Anything Goes - CHN Christmas Challenge Extra

If you don't like spiders...

...look away now.

Remember these from a couple of days ago...

 ...the freebie images from Nicecrane Designs...and...the start of...

 ...a Halloween sweetie pot.

Well here it is finished...

 ...with a few Autumn leaves, some ribbons and...

 ...a few spiders...

 ...including this big'un - yuck!
The torn space on the front of the pot makes it look as if the witch and her cat have been caught doing something that they don't want folk to know about.

The image is from Nicecrane Designs and has been coloured using a mixture of Copic Ciao and Spectrum Noir pens. The torn paper is a double-sided paper that has an orange ledger page on one side...

 ...and spiders webs on the other. It is "Thrill" from the Authentique 'Glowing' Collection. The paper around the bottom of the pot is "Witching Hour" from the Graphics 45 'Steampunk Spells' collection.

I thought I'd have a bit of a play and took some photos with some...

 ...glowing pumpkins and an extra spider.

I think I'm all set for Halloween - just got to decide what kind of 'sweeties' to pop into the pot ready for the trick or treaters...

Ignacio gave this image away as a freebie over on the Nicecrane blog but if you'd like to see what other Spooky delights he has, do hop on over to the Nicecrane Design shop and take a look at all the super goodies there are to help you prepare for the Halloween festivities.........................................

Excited, Scared, Happy...

...TERRIFIED!!!

Oh my, I'm all of a doo-dah - I've just agreed to join Ignacio's Design Team at Nicecrane Designs - Oh my!

I have a selection of the most adorable images to play with and I can't wait to get colouring.

If you haven't paid a visit to the Nicecrane Design site; you really should. There is an amazing amount of choice for both folk who love to colour and for folk who prefer images to come ready coloured.

Animals, Flowers, Children, Storybook characters, Vintage images - the choice is fabulous - do go and take a look...

On a slightly different note - the "Campbell Kid's" image that I showed you in the previous post has been put to use...by Ignacio. Playing around with it digitally he came up with this...

...as I'm a complete numpty when it comes to digi stuff like this, I've no idea how he did it but it sure looks clever.

Anyway, now I've shared my news I'm off to do some colouring before I toddle off to bed.

Nite, nite.............................................................................

So what have I done...

...with my week off?

Not a great deal actually...weeeeeeeeell, that's not completely true - I got a fair bit of colouring done.

This is a 'work in progress' - a green version of the image on a card I made a few days ago. I have also coloured this image in mauve and another in aqua...

 ...I just need to have a think now about how I'm going to use them.
This is one of a trio of Saturated Canary images called 'Mistletoe'...

 ...I wanted to keep this to a brown colour scheme so have stuck to the 'E' shades and the 'warm greys' from my Copics.
Does anyone remember the Campbell Kids ? (Campbell's Soup)...

 ...this was a freebie image that Ignacio offered folks over on his Nicecrane Design site - I had fun colouring this and now have to decide what I'm going to make with it.
This little moppet was another of Ignacio's images...

...you can see from the image on the left that my ink was running low in the printer but I think this actually helped with the way I wanted to colour it and how it finally ended up.
We are well into September so Halloween isn't that far away. These were two more freebies that Ignacio gave on his site...

 ...I've had lots of fun colouring these images - and I actually know what I want to use one of them for...

...a Trick or Treat sweetie tin - which would have been nearer completion but I just couldn't find the sort of embellies I had in mind. I now have some Autumn leaves and a selection of spooky buttons so it should be 'all systems go' over the next couple of days.

So not a huge amount of crafting (which I had hoped to have a chance of doing) but I have spent a couple of days with family & friends and on the whole the weather has played nice during these times.

Today I even managed to repair one of my fence panels - some new batten pieces and some capping strips and a pack of screws - and there you have it, a repaired panel and a nicely blistered palm on my right hand...ouch!

Oh well, back to work on Monday................................................

The new office diaries have arrived...

...and they are as boring as ever **rollseyes**

Last week I picked up my new office diary and just like that urban legend about Ford Motors...they come in any colour you want - as long as it is black!

It wasn't always this way. We used to have a massive choice...black...or blue, but for some reason the 'powers-that-be' decided a couple of years ago that we only needed black. Now I can hear you saying "what's the problem with that?" - a diary is a diary is a diary after all.

Well yes, a diary will do its job whatever colour it is but when everyone has identical looking items it is easy to misplace...just because they all look the same.

I was sitting at my craft desk updating my 2013 diary...

...travelling between three different offices every week I need to keep my diary up to date and readily to hand...

...'2013' has been well used and is starting to look a little battered.

For those of you who visit the lovely Julia on her blog the Stamping Ground, you will have noticed a roll of moustache parcel tape. I also have a roll of this tape and a couple of weeks ago Suzie (Weasel) and I 'pimped' some carrier-bags and deeli-boppers so that we conformed to the dress code for the Sugar & Spice 10th birthday celebration...

 ...I just happened to have a couple of deeli-boppers hanging about...

 ...as you do (???)

Well all that 'pimping' didn't use much of the tape so I dug it out and this is what happened to diary 2014...

...a few rows of moustache tape and a bit of washi tape to finish off (the diary isn't tall enough for five rows of moustaches) and then the addition of some silver peel-offs - and there you have it...my personalised diary for the coming work year................................................

To ink or not to ink...

...that is the question.

I have been in love with this stamp for quite some time and finally treated myself to one.

It is the Stampendous Snowy Postcard and I have seen lots of wonderful creations made with it.

Well I wanted to make some vintage look Christmas cards that would be fairly simple and flat for posting purposes...

 ...but I can't make up my mind just how far to go with the Distress inks.
This is a straight forward card stamped in 'gathered twigs' Distress ink on a smooth cream card blank...

 ...the only added colour is at the windows and on the holly using Copic pens.
This one has the added distressing around the edges using 'antique linen' Distress ink...

 ...and a touch of stickles to give a bit of bling.
What I forgot was the fact that Distress inks react with water so the glue in the stickles caused some of the inked image to bleed...

 ...giving it a more 'aged' look but I'm not totally sure.
I'm quite happy with the limited colouring on the Holly...

...the Copics give just a bit of colour without it being 'full in your face'.

I really can't make up my mind which I prefer...the cleaner look or the well 'grunged' look - what do you think...............................................................

Getting ready for...

...the party season.

Last weekend when I visited Pinnacle Crafts, Andy was 'playing' with the "Fabulous Festive Footwear" stamp set...and yes, I had to have a set but more to the point - I had to have the other set of stamps..."Fabulous Festive Fashion".

I really haven't had a great deal of time to play this week so I was quite please to see the grotty wet weather today because it gave me an excuse to play.

Using the Memento Tuxedo black ink pad, I stamped up a few images ready to colour.

I then sat down at my craft table with my Copics and...

 ...coloured the image in traditional Christmas red.
The edges were inked with 'antique linen'...

 ...and mounted on some textured red metallic paper.
I recently came across a stack of 'First Edition Paper' called "Christmas Village"...

 ...and used these papers to matt & layer with the metallic paper. Then added some ribbon, glitter domes and an Angel charm.
This is the completed card...

...I really loved colouring this image. Now I need to give some thought to trying a few different colour-ways..........................................................

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges: -

CHNC Christmas Extra Challenge - September: Anything goes
The Glory of Christmas - Challenge 15: Anything goes
ABC Christmas Challenge - R is for Recipe (3 papers, 2 Ribbons, 1 image)

August's BtCR...

...is up and running.

For those of you who haven't a clue what I'm on about - 'BtCR' stands for "Beat the Christmas Rush". The lovely Sue (Miniowner on UKS) encourages folk to make 5 Christmas cards a month so that they don't end up in a last minute panic.

I was a bit late to the party (this is my 3rd month of taking part) but I have managed a few extra cards along the way, so I'm happy with my progress. Each BtCR month runs from the 25th of the month.

I've already posted one card this month (see previous post) but here I am with the balance...

...as you can see...

 ...I had a bit of a batch make.
The image is from the Papershelter. I have the digi stamp and this pre-coloured version that I printed out a total of eight times (I'm trying to think of something different for the other four).

 The printed images were matt and layered onto white & silver CS and I added a bit of sparkle to highlight the snow & icicles.

The ribbon down the spine of the card is silver-grey satin ribbon by American Crafts (a recent bargain find in TK Maxx. The flowers were punched from some of the silver CS, pearls added to the centres and applied using 3D foam tape.

 I also used some silver peel-offs that I came across during my 'tidying' - some stars, some snowflakes and the 'Merry Christmas'.

On Friday Suzie (Weasel) and I went to the 10th birthday party at "Sugar & Spice". Nina and Barb were merrily demoing away and 'Mummy Barb' was snapping pics of folk who adhered to the dress code of wearing a moustache - (both Suzie & I went armed with our cameras but we were having so much fun we forgot to take any pics LOL).

Marion was running make-&-take sessions giving folk the chance to play with her new creations - Vintage shades WOW embossing powers and silicone moulds.

The light isn't quite good enough to show off the pretty embossing...

...but the powders mixed beautifully with the 'melt-it' to enable me to make this little flower. So this month I have actually completed 6 Christmas cards - and it's only the 8th...LOL

I'd also like to enter the following challenges: -

CraftyHazelnut's - Layer it up (at least 3 layers)
CHNC Extra Christmas Challenge - September Anything Goes
The Glory of Christmas - Challenge 15; Anything Goes
Crafty Cardmakers - Snow & Ice
Sparkles Christmas Challenges - Non-traditional colours

I need to have a think about what I'm gonna come up with for Sue for next month...........................