Macmillan coffee mornings...

...such a good cause.

My Dad was lucky enough to have a Macmillan nurse and I really believe that it was with this support, Dad survived much longer than the Doctors had predicted.

Tomorrow - 26 September - one of my staff has organised a cake sale for the whole of our office. Unfortunately, I will not be there but I made some wrist bands as a bit of fun.

We couldn't find wristbands anywhere so I dug out the Loom bands and made a variety of styles in the two-tone green design that Macmillan use. The box contains Single Fishtails, Triple Fishtails and Criss-Cross Quadtails. As this was a bit of fun to raise a few more 'pennies' I also did some other colours because not everyone likes green - everything has been selling well.

I'm currently making pink bands for Breast Cancer Awareness October.

If you are holding an event for Macmillan, I wish you all the very best..................................................

A birthday card...

...for an 80th Birthday.

I was asked by a colleague to make an 80th birthday card for her Dad - the remit was very sketchy..."He does a bit of gardening"...

I struggled to come up with something but in the end went with an easel card made to look like a garden shed...

...the shed was made from a sheet of Carta Bella PP from their "Sew Lovely" range - Woodgrain. This PP was the perfect weight and had a lovely texture to it that made the woodgrain seem very real.
Most of the other items on the card come from the Craftwork Cards "Potting Shed" range...

 ...the dotty PP with the thistles in the corners was used on the base. Card Candi added colour & texture in the corners and was added to a cluster of mini rosettes to create a hanging basket...

 ...the greenery was added by hand using a Distress Marker. The wheelbarrow...

was die cut decoupage and was luckily the right size.

All the sentiment panels came from the Potting Shed paper pack and the '80' was actually silver peel-offs coloured with a copper coloured Sharpie pen (why is it you never have the right colour for things like this?).

To be honest, I wasn't sure about the finished card - after all, 80 is a pretty big deal for a birthday. However, my colleague loved it and so did her family and as the party was yesterday there is no problem sharing it now.

Do you have problems coming up with ideas when the remit is vague?.........................................

Ignacio has worked his magic...

...just look at what he did.

With a bit of techy whizziness...

...the photo of the journal looks much better (one day I will learn how to do stuff like this).

 

However, take a look at these...





 ...one bright image on white CS...

 ...and one muted image on kraft CS. Ignatio has cleverly used my coloured images on the vintage library card digi set. He has also very kindly offered this one as a Freebie for a limited period...

...so if you haven't already had a hop over there to take a look at all the super work done by the DT, you really should go and take a look and you can pick up a Freebie whilst you are there. You can hop over to the Nicecrane blog here..............................................................................

Most of the schools are back...

...and Autumn term is underway.

For some kids it takes them a while to get back into the swing of school and homework after the six week Summer break. So why not give them a hand with a journal that they can note down their homework assignments or their reading lists.

Over at Nicecrane Designs, Ignacio has some fabulous new images and amongst them are these...

...aren't they adorable. You can find "Reading Kids" here.

So with 'back to school' in mind, I had a play with some of these images to see what they looked like.

Colouring onto smooth white CS with alcohol pens gives quite a vibrant effect...

 ...the colours just pop off the page. However, just look at the difference on kraft card...

...I used exactly the same range of colours but see how different the image looks. Much softer and the colours seem more muted.
Here again, change of image but this little chap is coloured on kraft card...

 ...quite a soft, worn look. Whereas, this next little chap...

 ...looks so much brighter on a white CS background. Both images were coloured with exactly the same pen shades but you would be forgiven if you thought otherwise.

This is something that you should keep in mind when colouring. The colour of your background will have a big effect on how your colouring turns out and this is one of the reasons that I print a blank colour chart onto the CS that I normally use so that it gives me a good idea how a shade will look.

For the journal, I used an A5 hardback note book and covered it with a sheet of PP from the DoCrafts Sew Lovely paper stack...

...I thought the paper covered with ruler images was just right. Rather than cut into two sheets of 12x12, I cut one sheet down the middle and covered from the open edge of each cover.
This left the spine of the book bare so I used some abstract washi tape (made by Scotch)...

 ...the washi tape gives a more flexible spine than paper. The image was die-cut using the largest of my Spellbinder scalloped ovals and I 'scruffy' inked around the edge - don't be afraid of lines and patches when inking, sometimes they can be just the effect that works.
A couple of 'fishtail' banners down the front...

...and some black adhesive lettering - one journal good to go.

If you tend to stick with white CS for your colouring, do try different coloured backgrounds. You will be able to create a lot of different looks.

There are lots of super new images available over on the Nicecrane Design website and if you want some inspiration, do hop over to the blog and see what the DT have been up to.................................

Slight glitch...

...in proceedings.

Broadband is not playing nice at the moment and everything is running sooooooooooo slow (took me 25 mins to open the internet this morning - grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr).

I'll catch up with everyone (and hopefully get some posts sorted) when things start playing nice again........................................................

It must be...

...Autumn.

I don't care what anyone says...

It has to be Autumn - the Spiced Pumpkin Latte has arrived.

Starbucks do two flavours that I adore, one is the Gingerbread latte that normally  arrives with the introduction of the 'Red' cups and starts the countdown to Christmas. The other is the Spiced Pumpkin latte that makes me think of falling leaves, butternut squash soup and Halloween.

So just for a bit of fun, I coloured this digi image last night...

 ...and attached her to a cup 'sleeve'...

 ...ready for my favourite coffee...

...as I said, just a bit of fun.

The mornings are so much darker and the temps are tumbling (at least over night) and although it warms up during the day, there is a heaviness to the heat.

Misty, chilly mornings and overcast days - who cares as long as it stays dry.

Anyhoo...I'm off to nab my Spiced Pumpkin latte - catch you all later...........................................

September arrived...

...but it seems more like October/November.

As September rolled in, so did the chilly mornings and train problems. Two out of three homeward journeys have been seriously disrupted this week resulting in the dreaded 'cattle truck' mode of transport.

The rail operators are particularly bad at keeping passengers 'informed' on our route so folk become frustrated and short tempered...not the best atmosphere for the journey home. All I could think of was ***and the bad weather hasn't even arrived yet***

On a cheerier note, chilly mornings mean toast or better still - CRUMPETS!!!

There really is nothing nicer than hot buttered crumpets...yummy.

As the evenings are starting to draw in, I'm looking forward to the seasonal flavours at Starbucks but it seems they are trying to hold onto Summer for a bit longer as they have just introduced two new fraps for September.

The folk at the Met-office have promised some warmer weather to come but I don't think I'll be tempted to buy any more icy drinks - bring on the Spiced Pumpkin Lattes......................................