 | There are four digi stamps in this composition.
I extended the pier from the edge of the “Tied up in Knots” digi stamp, you can see another card I did using the same image here, and positioned the images using Pain.Net. I then coloured the lot in, with watercolour paints. For my Pictorial you can follow this link here, or if you are more of a video person, Holly has done an excellent video here. |
 | This is a very quick card that I promised I would show today. I had this in mind to do when I was sorting through my RAK images but I couldn’t work out how to do it. I love these dresses but the coloured card they were stamped on didn’t seem to go with anything at all for my background papers that I had. I threw them on the table and went to have a cup of tea. When I came back, the card elves had arranged them so that the dark image looked like a shadow. Eureka! Thanks to the little elflings I could finish up my card idea. I think it worked out beautifully in the end, just like I had imagined it would. |
| Sorry about the grainy image, it is late at night and with the miri-board matting a flash will look even more peculiar than it is at the moment. I’ll try to do better next time. |
Yesterday was a lovely day at the Fiestas del Milagro de la Purisima. Sun, Sea, Sand and Sardines, what more can a girl want? Here are some photos of the day. I’m cat sitting again, my neighbour seems to be more away then here these days, but she lets me use her broad band so I can catch up on the chit chat while I am with the fur ball. What I’m trying to say is that after my siesta I am going to try to do a card, but for now this is just a post about my great week-end.
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 |  After the religious procession and the blessing and pomp ceremony everyone makes their way to the beach and finds their family group and BBQ area. People show off a bit with their boys toys and the children enjoy sandcastles and fun fare rides. |
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 |  This is a lovely spectacle, and people stay all night long enjoying each others company and having fun and meeting up in large family groups. I really am blessed to live in such a lovely place. |
 | This is a card that I did today that was a bit of a struggle for me. I have been sorting through my images that I coloured up and threw in a box and decided that it is about time to get some of them made up into cards. I fiddled about with this one for ages. It originally had boys toys all over it, then I made a mistake and cut straight through one of the images which ruined the composition without it, so in the end you got a seascape instead. {Waiving hello to you}. Just a little reminder of all the current candy that I have on my Candyland blog. Lisa celebrates 5,000 hits until 4th December and Carlyanne celebrates 71,000 hits until 31st December. Good luck if you play along. |
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 | This is a card that I made up using the digi stamp that I show you how to make in my tutorial on my tutorial blog. This was quite a fun project to do as you can see it from conception to “berth”, get it? you berth a boat? Arh well. … I love the lean lines on this boat and it was a dream to colour in. I also learned my lesson from my previous card, and mat and layered the design papers to make them stand out more. I put some stickles on the DP to accent the diagonal line of the boat. Quite subtle I thought. I’m entering this into the http://cupcakecraftchallenges.blogspot.com/ challenge which is use a digi stamp. I think you will agree that it is definitely a digi stamp. Hope you like the tutorial. |
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| This is something that I haven't done in a long time that is a sketch. I did this sketch from www.stampchallenges.blogspot.com after seeing it somewhere while I was hopping about. I made up the card and then I looked at all the Design Team's inspiration offerings. Still getting the hang of these things. | I think it would have been better if I layered up the design papers with some contrasting colours like I did with the image, they would have stood out more because they are quite busy papers. The image is a digi stamp I drew called “Tied up in Knots” and is for sale at www.squigglefly.com. |
 | It has been a while since I have actually bloged a card that I made. I have been enjoying learning loads from the web, visiting all your wonderful blogs and making tutorials. I did have time off from the laptop though, to do a bit of watercolouring, and I dusted off my student watercolour paints to do this image of Water Lilly a digi stamp from www.squigglefly.com. I was pleased to see that the paints are much brighter than I remember, and I have got more depth in the shadow then I would have got using my watercolour pencils. I’m not quite sure that I chose the right DP to go with it, which just shows how out of practice I am at making up cards. |
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Now I have to tell you 7 things about me and pass this award on to 7 others. Thanks very much Jeanette | This is the “Kreativ Blogger” award that was given to me by Jeanette of Soartful Challenges. I don’t know if you know of this challenge blog but it is so kou’el! It is a challenge blog that is posted every Saturday to inspire your creative self, and we all need a bit of that! These challenges are based on an image, background, sentiment or maybe just a word. This week it is about man's Best Friend, the dog, and there is a free image to get your thinking cap on. It is not hard, you can use the image or just the thought of a dog in your art work. Then you leave a comment linking the challenge and your art and stand back to wait for all the adoration. |
Seven things about me
| I pass this lovely award to: |
This is a bit of a long post and not much to do about craft, so if you are not interested that’s fine. I just thought you would like to know a little of what goes on in my area of Spain. They say that if you are clever, you can travel through Spain from one Fiesta to another and have one long party enjoying the Spanish hospitality.
 | Fiestas del Milagro de la Purisima, or what is known in this area as the Sardine festival, is a popular event that happens round about this time of the year. It is the only festival that I tend to remember as it has it’s climax on my Sisters Birthday. I keep trying to get her over to enjoy it. For a long week-end trip, it would be packed with fun, and I would get the bonus of having her company. Maybe next year. … The roots of this celebration go back to the year of 1585, at a time when Mazarron was a village living in fear, constantly at risk from attack by Berber Pirates, known more commonly today as The Moors. Thankfully now we don’t have that fear, but it is interesting that in all that time we still manage to fight one another. One day there will be peace. There is always good will and merriment at this fiesta so we are doing our bit in this area to spread the word. |
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| With hills rich in valuable minerals surrounding the village, mined since the times of Roman occupation nearly 1500 years before, Mazarron had a chequered history with a series of Arab, Visigoth, Roman and Christian occupations, and in the 1500's was a fiercely Catholic town, with Arab captives working in the mines. A bit like these days but with the Moroccans working the farmers fields instead. |
| One such man was the Moor, Mami, who stood on the deck of a Pirate ship, the servant of Morato Arraez. Mami had spent time in Mazarron before being exchanged in a prisoner swap as was common in those days, one Moor for one Christian. Legend says that the first step of the miracle of the Virgin of the Purisima was Mami’s intervention, his act of persuading the Captain to hold back from a full attack, and to send out a scouting party instead. Mami did this because of the good treatment he had received in the town of Mazarron. Stage 2 occurred when the scouting party approached the village, creeping up as men sat outside playing cards. As the men played, the evening bells rang out, announcing the sunset and fall of night, but for some reason no-one has ever | managed to explain why; that night the wrong bell rope was pulled and the alarm signal rang, alerting the town to the approach of Pirates. The card players leapt to their feet, stopping the game. Frustrated, one man shouted out that he had 14 horses, a term that apparently was significant to the card game the players were playing. However hearing this, the Muslim invaders assumed that a mounted force of 14 horsemen awaited them intending to slaughter them. They thought their raid had been anticipated and so they lost their surprise attack and the scouting party rushed back to the beach. |
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| At this point, a woman appeared on the beach, radiating light. Arms raised to the heavens. A spectacle which terrorized the already terrified scouts to such an extent that they fled from the beach, throwing their weapons into the sea, and the boat sailed away from the waters of Mazarron, saving the village from certain pillage and probable destruction. The villagers went to the hermitage of the Concepcion to give thanks for their delivery and realized to their amazement that the lamp shining out next to the statue of the Virgin shone without oil, that the head of the Virgin was turned towards the sea, and her robe was wet with seawater and peppered with sand. Many testified to having seen this miraculous event, and this was borne out a year later when white flowers mysteriously bloomed on the beach, announcing to all that there had indeed been a miracle in Bolnuevo. |
  | Celebration of this event takes part in two stages. This coming weekend , the Virgin is brought down from the hermitage at Bolnuevo and taken to Mazarron. The following weekend she is carried back up to the hermitage at Bolnuevo. This act of moving her from one sanctuary to another is known as a Romeria, and for the catholic population it is an act of great solemnity and devotion, but as this is Spain, their contagious sense of making every act a celebration spills over into inevitable eating, drinking and merrymaking. |
 | Both stages of the Romeria are celebrated by the participants with encampments on the beach, and the sharing of food. It is normal for families to arrive en-masse the night before, marking out their "pitches" before a cavalcade bearing chairs, barbecues, cool boxes, sleeping bags and enough beer to sail a boat on. Arrival is usually followed by several carloads of relatives pitching up for the get together. Many youngsters will camp on the beach all night and we have had notices from town halls in other areas who are running coach trips to take part in the Romeria of the second weekend. Many thousands will take part in the procession, which is a spectacle on its own, even without the sardines that follow it. |
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 | This is not quite a card yet, but well on the way to being one. I bought this digi stamp from the wonderful Stef Hughes from her Etsy shop. (Author’s update… Sadly Stef has closed her Etsy Shop and is now trading her images from The Stamping Boutique – good luck hun) I have spent the afternoon colouring it in with, …. wait for it, …. NOT watercolour pencils! Yay! Finally I have broken away for a change and used my Twinkling H2O’s for a bit of sparkle. These paints really lend themselves to an Egyptian demy-god like Tutankhamen, and I have just the right images to go along side this when I finally make it up into a card. I’m sorry that I work so slowly that it is just like watching the H2O paint dry, but I don’t like to rush anything. Part of the fun is the journey. Talking of journeys, there was a Tutankhamen frenzy when I was a nipper, everything seemed to relate to dear old Tut. We went on a camping holiday down to Wales, one of the best holidays I remember of my youth. When we arrived, tired and hungry at the farmers gate, it was very late in the evening and we were all getting a little tetchy with each other. First we saw that the gate was closed – we were too late in the evening! Grrrr! Then one by one we all started to giggle. Until there was a raw of laughter in the car that was moments earlier thence with fatigue. On the fence was a sign, and it said …. “Toot and Come in”!No word of a lie!Honest!! |
There I was, without a care in the world enjoying myself blog hopping and then I got a phone call to say that my second cousins wife just died in a car crash. How that made me realise how short our life is, and how you really must make the most of every waking moment I just can’t tell you. Her eldest daughter managed to escape with bruises and minor scratches, but her friend in the passenger seat and the two elderly people in the other car are all in critical states in the hospital. Please spare a thought for my family and those of the injured, when you go to your designated place of worship today, the power of prayer is very strong and has worked miracles in the past.
My cousins are German and I am English, and as I am too young to remember the first and second world wars I always thought that it was sad to continually bring up bad feeling toward both nations so I wanted to abolish Remembrance Sunday when I was younger, in my naiivaty to try to fix the world. Now I know better. Remembrance Sunday is to remember those that make huge sacrifices for what they believe in, all across the world not just in the UK. Who am I to want to take that away from them. Remember those people and spare a thought for my family too, your prayers will be heard, I promise.
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| On a lighter note, I was lucky enough to get an award from my dear bloggie friend Shirley of Nanniflash. There are heaps of thing that I need to do to pass this award on, which is quite fun, but I can’t get my head round it this morning, for some reason. I promise that I will pass on the award in good spirit when I find my mojo again. If you are looking for some Candy love and kisses, Shirley also has some blogaversary Candy up for grabs. You can find all the details in my Candyland blog. Go check it out and pass on a little love in the world. We all need it today. |
 | This is a freebie digi stamp that I was too late to use for Halloween, but I have already shown you how I used it in my Cauldron of Flowers post here, so you can see a Cauldron is not just for Halloween. I am using this image for my tutorial Print and cut with Inkscape and Craft Robo over at my tutorial blog. Leave me a message here or email me for the download link and password if you would like a copy of my freebie. As always, please don’t forget to read my Copyright wishes that are hyperlinked at the bottom of this blog’s front page. Also let me know what you think of my freebie and or my tutorial, it is always nice to have feedback, just in case I have forgotten a step or have assumed you know more than you do, then you get stuck. |
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| www.Squigglefly.com have published their new stock of digi stamps. I have been lucky enough to finally make the cut with this image of my Toasted Soldiers. With all the wonderful new artists that they now have on their books it is becoming increasingly more difficult to make the cut. Sad for me, but good for you, as the images within the shop are the envy of the digi stamp world. I am very pleased to be part of the group. I’m not quite sure how the tradition of cutting up a slice of bread into strips to dunk into the runny of the egg started. Maybe it was to help babies to learn to feed themselves, or maybe it comes from the Humpty Dumpty rhyme, but it is something that I grew up doing on a lazy Sunday morning, reading the paper and listening to Radio 4. Terribly British old thing! |
 If you would like this image for free, then please send me an email and I will email you back an attachment by return. Clicking on the image should take you to my email address. | I was surprised to find that this image missed the new release of images at www.squigglefly.com. I know it is a little different, but it is very easy to colour in as you can see from my sneaky peek of it here. A blogging buddy of mine lost her father very suddenly over a week-end due to an accident and as the same thing happened to me it got me thinking. I came up with this image with her in mind and felt that she would get a kick out of seeing it blogged, as a sort of secret celebration of her father’s life. The image is so versatile, I was surprised it got sidelined. In my card, I changed the ribbon to pink to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness, in a very subtle way. I thought the image would be good for Condolence as well as Wedding, Get Well or even a Birthday cards to the older generation where cute or riskay are not so appropriate. |
 | Anyone who visits my Tutorial Blog will recognise this card. I did a pictorial for the background which is (Part 1) and now I will show you how I did the decoupage of the Flower Girl by Victoria Case that was cut out with Craft Robo. |
| What you want to do is either purchase a digi stamp or use a freebie that you find on the web and save this to your computer. The idea is that you then use a Vector Graphics Editor Programme, such as Inkscape that is free to download and open the image in the graphics programme to work on it to make the decoupage cutting file. | To do this, I want to draw a cutting line round the outside of the image and send the file with the graphics digi stamp and cutting line, to my Craft Robo to print and cut the image. This tutorial will hopefully tell you how to do that. |
How to prepare the Inkscape to cut out a digi stamp with Craft Robo | |
 | You will need to set the page size within Inkscape so that the digi stamp that you import into the programme will be scaled to the correct size to be cut with the Craft Robo. Follow the settings given by CardsuLike in this excellent Pictorial here in my version I have made the cutting margin red and put it on the bottom layer. Make sure that you lock the padlock so this layer is not altered by accident. |
Preparing the Layers to work on within Inkscape | |
 | I have created several layers that I will either work on or lock as I work through the process of creating the cutting line. The bottom most layer you can see, like I mentioned above, I created a guideline for the Cutting Margin for Craft Robo. I closed the padlock so that the layer is protected. The layer above, I have named “Image Layer” this is where I will import the JPEG of the Digi Stamp that I want to work on. I can resize it and place it anywhere within the red cutting margin guidelines and know that it will print and cut accurately. Again, I will lock this layer, because I do not want to change the image I just want to use it as a guide so that I can vectorise the cutting line. The topmost layer I will use for the cutting line. |
 | I have imported the digi stamp that I want to use. Ctrl+I > find the image you would like to use > Open. When it came into inkscape, it was much larger than I wanted, so I reduced it to the size of an ATC and placed it in the lower left corner of the red guidelines. There are various ways of reducing the size of the image but I just selected the image, which showed up the grab handles, and reduced the size of the image by 50% to get the size I was after. |
 | I then reduced the Opacity to 50% this will help to make the cutting line stand out as the digi stamp will dim slightly (remember to reset the opacity to 100% before you print the image), and then I protected the digi stamp layer by putting on the padlock. The next step is quite a basic technique and there are lots of tutorials on the web to show you how to do this if you don’t already know. I make sure that I am on the layer that I previously named “Cutting Line”. It should be highlighted in the Layers pallet. If you are not on the layer but on a locked layer, you will wonder why nothing is happening. Which should give you a clue. |
 | Choose the Bezier tool and start to draw the outline around the image keeping fairly close to the outer edge, by clicking with the tool. It will be like stretching an elastic band round the image to produce the cutting line. This is your cutting line which I have highlighted in red to make it easier to see for this pictorial. The more accurate you are here, the less you have to trim up with the scissors later. This is the bit that takes the time, but it is worth it because each image you purchase will only need to be vectorised for cutting once. |
| When you need to cut your file you follow this excellent Pictorial from CardsuLike that tells you how to cut your vector file directly from Inkscape instead of having to go through Craft Robo’s DesignMaster programme. I’m all for streamlining, the process, less room for errors that way. | When you reach the last page in CardsuLike’s tutorial it is then that you select whether to print the image with the printer, in order to get the cutting registrations marks or it you choose the cutting option. |
| Initially you will want to print the digi stamp onto your preferred paper and have the registration marks printed around the image. You have already decided on the size of the image when you brought it into inkscape and placed it within the cutting margin. I then take the page off the printer and place it on the cutting mat that came with Craft Robo. I then watercolour the image on the cutting mat which stops the paper from curling when you watercolour the image as the mat is sticky. I use laser paper instead of watercolour paper so every trick helps. | If I don’t flood the image the paper will not buckle too much, and when it dries it will dry flat against the sticky cutting mat. After the image has been coloured and is thoroughly dry then I follow the Cardsulike tutorial again, but this time I ask the Craft Robo to cut the image. Since the cutting registration marks were printed out prior to watercolouring the image, the Craft Robo locates the cutting lines round the image and cuts accurately to the red lines that you drew round the digi stamp with the Bezier Tool within Inkscape. Then you can layer up the image onto your background (see Part 1) with decoupage squares in the normal way. |
 | This is huge! I had to take all the goodies out of the enormous box and put them on the floor, stand on a chair to get extra height and take the photo to get all the wonderful candy in the shot. I won Janet’s candy! Thank you so muchJanet, you are a star! |
  | I am just so pleased with winning so much candy that I would like to share, by giving away one of my digi stamps that I created and blogged about when I did Mo Manings’ first challenge. Please feel free to take the image with my complements. I would love to see what you do with it, so please drop me a note to let me see, it gives me such a buzz when I see my work liked enough to be used. The usual stuff applies, see my copyright hyperlink at the bottom of this page, or click here to see my terms. Enjoy! |
 | Here is the tutorial of my card that I blogged earlier. Just in case anyone was waiting for it here and didn’t realise that I had already put it on my Tutorial Blog a few days earlier. It uses a grand total of 4 different digi stamps from 4 different suppliers and a sunset photo that I took from my window. Supplies:
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How to prepare the Digistamps to make a Composition. | |
 | First purchase a digi stamp or use a freebie that you find on the web and save this to your computer. I then use a Photo Editing Programme, Paint.Net that is free to download and I open the image in the editing programme. Layers > Import from File > locate the image you want to use highlight it and then > Open. This will have the effect of opening the digi image in a layer in the programme so that you can start to manipulate it. |
 This is one of the windows that you will find open in the standard screen view when you open the package. You can turn these on and off to get more space for drawing if you want to, but for now we need to see the different “Layers”. I am assuming that you know how to use layers in a manipulation package. The concept is quite simple. The image on the topmost layer is the image that you see on the top of the composition. What | comes below, is hidden by the topmost layer. A but like decoupage or real life. You can’t see through objects unless they are transparent. The layer that is titled “Background” starts off white, but in this picture you can see that I have made it sky blue. We need a layer that is not white to help us see where we need to delete the background of the image making areas transparent. Once the background to the image is transparent we need another colour other than white or black to shine through to show us where we have been and where we need still to go. |
 I used the colour pallet in the “Colour” window and chose the blue square from the bottom pick list of colours. You can use any colour you like as long as it is not white or black. |  Choose the Paint Bucket tool (the one with a square around it in this picture). Click onto the “Background” layer with this Paint Bucket tool and the whole page will be filled with the blue colour (or whatever colour you chose). In the end, this layer will be deleted as we only need it as a visual aid for the next process. |
| This is the effect you are looking for. |
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 |  Now chose the Magic Wand tool (the one that has a square box round it in this photo) and click on the white area of the image that you want to make transparent. You will see some running ants round the selected area and you want to remove that selected area to make it transparent by hitting the delete button. |
 | Once you remove the white background of the image by hitting delete, it becomes transparent, and the blue layer that you made earlier shines through the transparent layer and becomes your visual aid to show which areas you have done and which are still to be done. If the background layer was white – well, yes, you’ve got it, it will be the same colour as the colour you have just removed and you would not be able to tell easily where to go next. I find it helpful this way, but there are other methods which you will learn or fall across as you continue to learn for yourself. |
 | Continue deleting areas until you are happy and then do the same for the other elements that you would like to use for your composition. |
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How to Compose the Scene using the Layers Option within the Photo Editing Programme | |
| Now it is time to compose your scene, since you have all your elements with transparent backgrounds, anything in the resulting background will shine through the gaps as if you are looking through the object for example the wooden fence or the prongs of the rake. Keeping each element on its own layer gives you the flexibility to move it about if you change your mind and place the element in a different place on your composition without affecting the rest of the scene and without the need to rub out or re-draw the digi stamp. | Layer 2 (This contains two copies of the Daisy Crazy digi stamp) |
Layer 3 (this contains two more copies of the Daisy Crazy digi stamp but they are positioned so that they overlap the daises that are on Layer 2) | This is only a digital way of doing what you would be doing with rubber stamping and masking, but with the added advantage that you can resize your image to fit the perspective of the scene you are trying to make. And you can move things about without having to re-do everything you have done before. These layers show that I am adding the flowers on the left hand side of the composition. |
 | You can see that the composition is building up nicely with the daisies in front of the fence, superimposed on each other intertwining with each other as if they would in real life. This is all achievable because you have made the transparent background to the daises in the first place. The daises consist of about 3 layers with one or two copies of the Daises Crazy digi stamp on each layer. However, you can also see that the stalks are showing in the bushes which we do not want. This will be rectified when we use the “bushes” layer that we made up earlier. |
 | Remember the bushes layer? This is now going to come into its own, you must put this layer at the top of the stack of layers of your project, so that it covers the stalks from the daisies’ layers below it. This is a better way of masking them, then rubbing out the stalk which you could do, but if you decide to alter the placement of daisies to make them taller for instance, you move the selected daisy digi stamp on the selected layer and do not need to redraw any stalks that you may have rubbed out with the rubber tool earlier. |
 | Almost there. I now have a composition that I am happy with. The rake is leaning up against the fence there are two boarders of daisies growing either side of the fence. I used 7 copies of the original image of daisies. Because the background is transparent, they all intermingle with each other nicely giving a natural look. However, I don’t like the sky. I could print out the composition and paint in the sky, but all those fiddly bits behind the fence posts and daises will probably drive me mad. Now here is where I use a photograph of a sunset to give the feel of a good day’s work done. A bit of gardening and a bit of clearing up. … |
How to use a Photograph for your Background. | |
 | When you are happy with your composition you will need to make all the separate elements into one. To do this, you need to merge all the layers that you have just created effectively making a new digi stamp but of a composition you have constructed using different digi stamps. To do this in Pain.net, find the top most layer in the “Layers” window and click your mouse to make sure it is activated. Then press Ctrl+M so that you merge the layer you are on with the layer below it to make it one. If you make a mistake press Ctrl+Z to undo the last command and backtrack. |
 |   You now have your composition on one layer and the photograph on the other. Select the layer with your composition on it and select the composition so with the rectangle select tool and choose the Move selected pixels tool to grab your composition to be able to move it about on the photograph. |
 | I looked at the different colours of the sky and how it affected the background through the fence. When I was happy with the placement I cropped the whole project to remove the waste and to be able to print the image without the need for using ink that was not needed. |
 | This is the final effect that I was after. I can now print this out, and colour in the white spaces using my preferred method, and have a beautiful sky that is how nature intended it. I then decoupaged the image of the Flower Girl by Victoria Case to show who did all the work in the garden. |
I decided to do a bit of stitching on my card today, it was a perfect sunny Sunday afternoon and this is what I ended up with.
I stitched the pink running stitch round the edge of the pink card with metallic thread, then the green swirls also with metallic thread then did a bit of dry embossing to make a weaved pattern and finally I inked the edge of the card in blue with chalk. The image was watercoloured with my now infamous watercolour pencils and I coloured the ribbon deliberately in pink to resemble the breast cancer ribbon. I read somewhere that it is breast cancer month.
The flowers are Lilly of the Valley, and in the language of flowers that resembles Perfect Purity.
Wear an item of pink on 30 October (tie, socks, pyjamas, tutu - the choice is yours!) and donate 2 pounds to help beat breast cancer. Get your friends, family and colleagues involved - it's fun and so easy. www.wearitpink.co.uk
Just a quick post today. I wanted to alert you to my Candyland blog, you could become a follower of it if you like (but you know that already). It is worth keeping an eye on my Candyland blog, as I don’t always mention updates to it here as a separate serving, however today is different, because I don’t have a card as yet, and I wanted to give you a little something to read.
I am half way through completing my Tutorial Gone Wild for Digi Stamps demonstrating how to manipulate digi stamps to make a scene a bit like ones you can do with rubber stamps from Stampscapes Rubber Stamps that Sandy at “Scenes by Sandy”; is tremendous at demonstrating to us, however she does it with rubber and I am doing it with digi stamps. Thanks Sandy for the idea. I knew that tutorials took a long time to make but I never knew how useful they would be for an aide-mémoire, worryingly which I am finding that I need more, and more these days. The benefit of digi stamps over rubber stamps for making compositions, is that you can resize the digi stamp to make it work for you. Other than that, they are pretty much the same. Good isn’t it?
Here is a list of all the candy that I have found whereby the prize draw will be in this month of October. Have fun joining in on the competition to win.
Another thing why I do not have a card to post today is that I have been neglecting my rounds of visiting you all while I have been working on the tutorial, so no time to do a card, but plenty of time to spread the love by visiting you all today, that will cheer me up. Don’t forget to keep saying hello to me, it gives me a real buzz, especially as my hip has been playing up rather a lot this week. It must be the change in the weather. I do hope it doesn’t continue with this backward slide into daily pain, as I had such a good and promising start to recovery. Hey ho. I see the Dr. again next week, and maybe he can give me some more advice. It’s not a complaint, it’s an observation, I’ve had quite a bit going on this month, so I’m not surprised a bit that I feel a little jaded. Still enough about me, I’m coming over to see you! Ta tar!
This is a card that has so much going on in it that I have decided to do a tutorial for it. You will need to come back later to check out my tutorial blog though as I have to re-do the card and take photos for the pictorial as I have only just decided that I would like to do one. However I was so pleased at how the card turned out that I wanted to brag about the card first.
The digi stamp images that I have used are:
The Flower Girl is decoupaged, cut out with a Craft Robo and the rest of the image (the background) is printed out as one complete digi stamp after manipulation with a photo alteration package and then watercoloured with pencils.
There are two ways of finding my tutorial blog again. I don’t really need to tell you this, you know it already. Either become a follower of my tutorial blog or when you visit me here; look at the top of the page and click the tutorial button under my heading.
Hope you like what I have done, and watch this space for a pictorial.
I have been so wrapped up with our new addition to our little family that I have neglected to phone my Mum in the meantime. Well, while I was catching up on the week’s activities, I decided to multi-task, here is a card that I was doing while on the phone.
I usually take so long putting a card together, carefully thinking “does this work” or “does that work better” as I fiddle about for ages, but this card seemed to come together just like that, with hardly a thought that went into it. Maybe that is the trick. Get on the phone to Mum and end up with a card to brag about at the end of the conversation, Mum feels good that I phoned and so do I and I get a double whammy with a card in the bargain. Yay, I have found the magic formula.
Have a great day, and treat every day as a Champagne Charlie day!
These are my boys having a siesta. Why do boys always seem to starfish when they sleep how can they be so adorable even when they are asleep?
Well, I am very impressed. Night two and no cat scraps, a very tranquil night. The only thing is, that Emily is a bit of a grazer, but with Oscar eating as if it is his last ever meal we have to take Emilie’s food up, or she will have nothing at all to eat. I am teaching Oscar, that the food that is there is for Emily, and his is round the corner, and to my great surprise he is leaving Emilie’s food alone. Who said Dogs are more intelligent? Maybe in time I can leave her food down all day, and Oscar will not touch it. But for now, I was woken up at 4am by a very hungry Emily looking for her usual night raid. She persisted just like “Cat Man Do” in Simon’s Cat and his sort cartoon film.
Here are a few more photos to prove that the family has now grown by one. We will be going down to the Vet while we are out shopping today, to enquire about booking in Oscar to have his back teeth out (he is listening, shhhh, of course you know I mean the snip)! There is a bank holiday here on Monday, so I dare say Oscar will be booked in next week. With any luck he can have a make-over with his tail as well, but for this week-end at least, I recon I will be working on the house manners and building up a routine. All’s well, and I will have a card for you later today as I’m sure you must have heard enough about Oscar, Emily and me. I leave you with a parting few photos as confirmation, Oscar is getting away with everything. Emilie’s bed in my craft room? I never would have believed she would give THAT up, but Oscar is sooo, cute, butter wouldn’t melt!
May I introduce you to Emily and Oscar?
Emily is they Lady in the foreground and Oscar is the Tramp that made himself at home right away.
Oscar first then Emily, they seem happy enough together. Oscar is very young, probably not even a year old, by the looks of his teeth, and he has a deformed tail that the vet said he could look at if (or shall I say when) we have his bits done.
Oscar has had his breakfast, after a reasonably uneventful night, can you see that he is sporting a brand new collar? I hope his fellow Tramp cats don’t make fun of him for becoming a house cat.
Emily, isn’t she regal sitting there guarding the bedroom door? Yes, I know she is quite fat. We had her on special food to slim he down a bit but she looked dreadful. Unfortunately, she is disabled, with a fused spine at the base, something she has had at birth. When she walks she arches her back in a semi circle and when she is thin she gets this awful underbelly that flops from side to side as she walks. Poor thing. She’s 12 now, she doesn’t exercise and she is deaf from the flight over here when we left the UK, so I don’t mind her being a bit podgy, ‘cos I love her anyway.
Photos in this row are all Oscar. It is nice to have a nimble cat that hears everything and has a nose in everything, but he must have started off in a house as he is very polite and doesn’t jump up where he is not supposed to, and he knew just what to do with a litter tray. He is such a character, and doesn’t seem to mind Emily snapping at him a bit. We leave the door open so he can come and go (or in reality, has an escape route) so they seem to be both very happy. He is after all an outdoor cat, but now with his shiny new bell, people will know he is not such a stray. It is good for Emily. She seems to have a new zest for life, she does spit a bit, but that is because she gets surprised, however, she stalks Oscar and chases after him and is a little more alert, which can’t be bad. It is early days, but I think it is going very well.
Don’t you agree that getting your nose in a good book is the best thing since sliced bread? I loved this image that came from Mo Manning as a freebie, thanks Mo. I couldn’t think of how to use it until the cat came along, then it was easy peasy.
I kept the background simple with some orange for the painted wall effect. I was going to use the purple hand made paper that I have with gold detailing on it that you have seen before, but my cat just got lost in it. Being a cat lover, that can’t happen.
Well, I went to the Dr for a review after my op. and he was very pleased with the progress. 2nd review in 2 weeks time.
When we got back home there was a stray cat outside our door. Oh what a conundrum. We have our Emily and she is a house cat, never allowed out, unless she escapes, but she fell in love with this stray. Every other cat she sees there is war. Well I named that cat Oscar. That was the first mistake. Then my DH gave him some milk. That was the second mistake, and today, we let the love birds meet each other. That was the third mistake. My DH keeps saying, we can’t have another cat. And when he says it, he is very adamant about it, but then I catch him stroking the cat, or feeding the cat. But Oh, no, he says we can’t have another cat. Yeh, right!! Any bets on how long it will take for Oscar to be sleeping inside when it gets cold? I can feel a trip to the Vets coming to have his back teeth taken out (that’s what my auntie calls it when they have the snip so as not to let the cat know what is coming), thank goodness Emily is fully inoculated against everything cattie.
This is my attempt at a sketch and challenge. You be the judge to see if I qualify for the challenges.
I found this and thought that it looked quite easy to do. You are supposed to use a bit of bling. My stickers are all velvety to the touch and expensive looking so I thought that could be the bit of bling, you be the judge. The sketch is the sophisticats challenge blog and for good measure I thought that I would try to combine the card with another challenge. I don’t usually do challenges but today I am in for a penny in for a pound. LOL
Squigglefly’s Challenge Blog is on its 22nd challenge which is blue and pink, now everyone has a bit of blue and a bit of pink in their stash box don’t they? I have been seeing such lovely cards that are blue and pink lately so it sort of suck in my head and I went with the colour theme. The only thing was, that I forgot that I needed to use a Squigglefly image to make it all work, what a plumb! So in the end this card doesn’t count. Silly me. Or does it? You be the judge. Teeee Heeee.
Well, in any case, it gives me a chance to let you know that on the 17th of October is the next new release date, and not only that, they will be introducing yet another new artist! So make sure to check out the www.Squigglefly.com site on the 17th of October and check out the new artist, and loads of new images that will be released!
By the way, the background paper and the frame came from the lovely Laura. Thanks a million, chicken!
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Go to the “Layers Window”, and select the layer with your image on it because we are now going to be working on this layer. You can tell that you are in the correct layer because it is highlighted with dark blue in the Layers Window.
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