Two posts....

....in one day. What a day it's been. The weather is atrocious...wet, windy, cold and dark. I didn't go to son and DIL's as usual on a Sunday. They are just recovering from the bug that seems to be going round at the moment...and I think I'm starting with it....so I didn't really want to venture out. I did have to nip to the shops though...we had almost run out of bread and Theo ran out of cat biscuits. I got absolutely soaked and now my head is starting to quietly pound. Hopefully the pain killers will keep it at bay. Finally managed to post a comment on Daring Cardmakers..after the third attempt! ...and I've finally cracked how to leave a clickable link as well. I'm getting very clever with the computer...but I still get lost with editing and saving pictures from the camera phone. Have to keep asking John (my youngest) what to do next.

As for Theo..he's been a little horror today....charging round like something possessed, climbing in my wet shopping bag (why do cats have to climb into every bag and box they come across?) and climbing the chimney breast. It does need decorating so I'm not too fussed about it at the moment...but the decorating is going to wait 'til the house has been modernized. That should be sometime next year, but the way things are going it could be a lot longer than that. I'm tempted to paint it, but that would in my mind would be a complete waste of money.

Theo is now sleeping on the computer chair while I'm typing this...butter wouldn't melt!...and 'm perched on the edge of the seat. He is now 17 weeks old and massive! Here are a few pics. They are all of him sleeping 'cos when he's awake he wont stay still long enough.

Had a brainwave.

Yes..me..having a brainwave. Remember the not a funky fairy card I made? Yes you do...it's in the post below this one. Well I added a bit more sparkle and bling to it, and now I can enter it for the Daring Cardmakers challenge which is sparkle and bling! Who's a happy bunny now....and here it is....revamped. Although it doesn't show very well I have added Sakura stardust to the swirls in the background, the glass and the brad in the flower. Have also added a few pink gems.
The ribbon down the left hand side is actually hiding a paw print. Theo decided he wanted to help me make it.

The black and white spotted paper is from Funky Fairy (free download)

Background swirl....Paperartsy

Image and sentiment.....See D's

Gems and ribbon from stash

Funky fairy....

.....it is not. I came across another challenge site...Funky Fairy. I liked the look of the challenge so I made a card. All went well until I realised I'd made a boo-boo. The challenge is black and white with the option of one colour. Then it hit me....in my desire to use a pretty pink flower..it meant that I'd used 2 extra colours, the other one being silver. Here is the offending card. You can't see the silver very well in the picture ..but it is there..I've used it in the matting and layering.





Anyway, undeterred I started again and came up with this one.

Again I have used silver in the matting and layering, and for the eyelets...although they look white in the picture. The challenge calls for a Funky Fairy product..and that is the spotted paper.

Think this would be OK for a male card.

I'm still practising with the camera on the phone....as you probably can tell!

Here it is....

..the card I made and then photographed with my camera phone. The quality isn't as good as it would be with a digital camera...but hey....it's not blurry as the pics I take with my digital camera usually are. It's for the PWC....and the inspiration for it came from Jak's brilliant tutorial which can be found here. I don't have the punches or die cutting machine so I had to improvise a little, and I'm quite pleased with the way it has turned out.
The background stamp I used is a clear polymer one and the only single snowflake I have...or had. When I finished the card and was tidying away I couldn't find it anywhere. It's either stuck to something that I've cleared away..and hopefully will find...or Theo's had it.

The card stock is pale blue with white glitter card for the piece going across the bottom and the snowflakes on either side of the spinner. I've added a little self adhesive gem to the centre of the snowflakes. I stamped a snowflake with veramark as a background and added some Sakura glitter glaze to the centres and points...then finished off with a sentiment and sparkly organza ribbon.

P.S. for any of you techies out there....the pics taken with a camera phone don't enlarge when you click on them like the scanned pics do. Anybody know why and is there a way to remedy this? Any help would be very much appreciated

I've been playing...

....with my new phone. I've figured out how to work the camera, (easy when you know how) and have even took some photos of a card I made today. Will have to have another go tomorrow though..the card has some glitter card on it and artificial light is not the best way to photograph it. I need to get it on here in the next couple of days..it's for the PWC and I don't want to miss out on another one.
The weather has really brightened up today..not half as gloomy or cold..and the weather forecast is for the mild temperatures to continue over the weekend. I should be going swimming tomorrow..son and DIL are not too well at the moment so we will postpone 'til next week. That gives me more time for crafting.

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I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who take time to visit my blog. It is very much appreciated and make my days a little less isolated.
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Blog candy

Desiree is celebrating 15,000 hits with some scrummy candy.

Amy has the High Hopes candy to give away this week.

Julie is celebrating her promotion with Stampin' Up and 25,000 hits with some amazing candy.

Remember..remember....

.....the 5th of November. Yes I know.....cheesy...because I am cheesed off. I couldn't enter my challenge card because the site wouldn't let me..but it let me comment after the deadline... and I haven't had a reply to the email I sent before the deadline, hoping for a little help or explanation of why my posting in the comments wouldn't go through. OK......I've had my rant.
Eldest son brought my "new" phone today. I'm going to have to have a play to figure it out.....but I know how to send and receive phone calls and texts. Will have to have a good read of the destructions to really get a grip of the camera and the music bit. Not managed to get any cards made today, though I did order some silicone glue.....and guess what?.....something else dropped into my basket so I had to buy it. Skint now. Never mind....I have a little bit of crafty post to look forward to....much better than the junk or bills which usually land on the doormat.

Blog candy.....lots of it!!

Bev has lots of gorgeous WOJ and Christmas candy.

Lou at Funky Fairy has 3 lots of candy.

Diane at pink sunflower has candy....very belated 10,000 hits.

Katy at the new Craft Stamper magazine blog has a launch giveaway of Penny Black 12 days of Christmas stamps.

Just a quickpost

http://thisthursday.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/challenge-20-mojo-surfing/

This was an interesting challenge. I found lots of inspiration...and got a bit side tracked....but finally settled on this one.

I've got a couple of medallion stamps but don't use them often enough. I'm still in Christmas mode but don't have any christmassy ones. So what I did here was stamp on to acetate with stazon and then coloured it using some glass paints that I have never used. Painted with the traditional red and green it gives a bit of a Christmas stained glass window look.

Update


Well I got this made in time but I couldn't get a posting on the challenge site, so it looks as though I will miss out this week as the deadline has now passed. A bit disappointed about it now.

Gloomy...

...that's the only way I can describe the weather today....and I'm glad that I didn't have to go out in it. I've spent a big part of the day putting together the decoupage that I cut out a couple of weeks ago...and I've run out of silicone. Now do I nip to a little local craft shop tomorrow and pay an extortionate price for a very small tube....or order online and wait a couple of days for it to arrive? If I order online I just know that I will find that other things will have inexplicably jumped into my shopping basket. It must be some sort of phenomena that happens to all crafters. I've finished yet another challenge card and son has taken a photo of it....I'm now waiting impatiently for him to upload it as it has to be in by tomorrow at 5.00 pm. After all this crafting I'm tird but my head is spinning with ideas for cards..so much so that I can't really think straight.
Eldest son is coming over tomorrow with my "new" camera phone....Woohoo!!! Hopefully I will be able to take pictures with it better than I would a camera....so... me thinks it will be big hints for crafty stuff for Christmas instead of a camera. Hmm.. what should I hint at? A cuttlebug or bigshot sounds a good idea to me. Won't hold my breath though...best laid plans of mice and men and all that.

Saturday challenge

I've got another challenge card here for the Saturday Challenge#5. It was a sketch plus you had to use white pink and brown. The white and pink wasn't too much of a problem..but the brown was. I managed to unearth some brown backing paper and then thought I would add some flowers. Got pink and white, but I wanted a brown one as well. Don't have any brown ones, so I ended up colouring an orange one with a brown ink pad. Quite pleased with the result. Photo taken by by my youngest with his camera.

Both the backing papers and the image were free downloads from Crafts Beautiful

Flowers and ribbon from stash.

Kids!!!

Just as I was looking to a fairly quiet day of crafting, along comes something to hinder me. One of my boys (the 24 year old) accidentally left the freezer door open overnight. This has meant that I have spent most of the day defrosting and cleaning. While I had to do the freezer I thought that I might as well do the fridge as well...as you do. OK...sorted....so now I can look forward to the rest of the week crafting. Yes.......and no. My eldest has phoned to say that can I make a dozen or so Christmas and birthday cards for Sunday. Now I know that there are many crafters among us that would not find that a problem.....but I have M.E. and there might be days when I don't even know what day it is, never mind concentrating on making cards. I've told him that I will do my best though. Well I've already got a few made with the challenges so I might be able to manage it. If not tough....it's not all down to me though.....he's making some as well.

On a brighter note....my eldest is giving me his mobile phone. He's getting a new one so that means I can have his. I might be able to take some decent photos with it. I have some of the pictures he has taken with it and they are really good quality. It has an anti shake facility which is the main problem for me when using a camera...again something else that the M.E. is responsible for...when I'm having a really bad day some people think I am drunk. Wouldn't mind so much but I don't even drink!

Blog candy!!

It's Michelle's turn to for the High Hopes blog candy Hop....and she's adding some extra goodies to celebrate passing 10,000 hits.

Kadoodle Stamps are giving away another lovely stamp.

2 challenge cards

Here are 2 more challenge cards that I have managed to get done this week.....aren't I good, 4 cards in one week!

Papertake weekly challenge..Dawny's sketch #1

The quality of the picture is awful.....I ended up having to scan it in the end. It looks black but it is gold mirri card.

Poinsettia by Tracey Miller and the sentiment, I think, is from Woodware.

Ooh la-la-creations challenge sketch #22...Paper patchwork.

Papers and sentiment by Paperartsy.