Fishes!

Good Morning Everyone and how are you all today?, I do hope you are well and have had a lovely weekend. Quiet one here again, but that's fine as I get lots done when I don't have to be going anywhere.

Monday.... I can hardly believe that another week has started and almost at the end of February, scary or what! We have a brilliantly sunny day here but oh so cold, a thick frost during the night and my velux window in the bedroom looked as if there was a lace curtain covering it when I opened the blinds, beautiful.  As I'm typing this a gritter is going down our road, so conditions must be bad as we are on a side road and not usually gritted.

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my last post, I appreciate everyone of them and the time you take to visit.

I'm sharing my card for the Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge this morning;

I've used one of the AYOS images called Fishes and used  DI and Starlight Paints to colour them up. The background of shells is stencil from Imagination Crafts and Starlight Paints. On the card base I've stamped the little bubbles from one of CB latest stamp sets Sticks and Stones. The sentiment is from the McIntosh set of sentiments. Just Pearls used  in and around the fishes.

Just before I sign off I thought I would share this photo of Milo and Rowan in the snow;

Damian sent this photo of them when on their walk in the woods, Rowan kept jumping into the snow and disappearing, they had great fun, although I think the look on Milo's face is one of hurry up my paws are freezing.

That's all from me today, I hope you have a good one whatever you're doing, so take care and see you soon,

I wouls like to enter my card into;http://chocolatebaroquechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/challenge-thirty-two.html

April Showers!

Hello Everyone, I hope all is well with you today and you've not been hit with the snow as we have. Seems like some areas are really bad. Where we are in Inverness, the rain has washed it all away, but I'm not sure if there is more to follow.

Thank you so much for your lovely comments on my previous card, your kind comments mean a lot and are very much appreciated.

I've been looking through my Little Claire stamps once again and have chosen another Club Set to colour up;

I think these images are just lovely and I've coloured them with Faber-Castell pastel Pencils, and papers are from LOTV, a few gems some glitter and that was me done. They are just for my box for when I need to send a wee note.

I'm appalled at how many of the LC stamp sets I have that have never been used, I really must try and use more of them and they are all so lovely.

I was delighted to be picked in the top 3 in the Chocolate Baroque colour challenge for last month with my tulips card. It's the only challenge I really do regularly, and it's great to be picked by the DT.

I'm counting the days till I go down to Glasgow for the Craft Show  and will meet up with two for my CCC team mates Rita and Carol. I've met Rita a couple of times and had a great blether and found that we shared more in common than just making card. Carol, I've never met so I'm so looking forward to that. I've still to make a list of what I'm looking to buy and of what I already have, but I will be heading for the Imagination Crafts stall for sure. The superb Mr. John Lockwood will also be demonstrating and will pop along and see him too. This is all happening next Thursday and I will be up at silly o'clock in the morning to get the first bus out of Inverness, a long day and I'm doing the trip in the one day, so I'll be whacked on the Friday, but worth it.

Just before I go I thought that I'd show my latest socks,

Knitted up with  Opal Little Prince yarn, they are gorgeous and bright, and the pattern knitted up looking like Fair Isle, and believe me cosy socks are still needed up here.

Have a lovely evening and see you soon,

Starlight Kingfisher!

Hello Everyone, another week has begun.. don't they go by so quickly.
 I hope you are all well and had a good weekend. We were very quiet here, just the food shopping which is anything but exciting, and I hate having to do it.

I did get a wee bit of crafting done, and some of my latest socks inched up a bit.

Thank you to everyone for your lovely comments, I do appreciate each and everyone of them.

Now, I have a confession to make to my team mates on the Christmas Card Club, and I'm sure they will have noticed it but been too polite to mention my mistake.  I can't spell !!, I used to be able to, I blame all this IT stuff and never writing letters, anyway, the word I got wrong was the plural of ski, I spelt it skies, which of course is the plural of sky. What a numpty eh! It was when I noticed that no one had added any, well OK something not many folk would have including me, or so I thought, but there were plenty of wonderful skies. However, everyone had produced wonderful cards, and some even had sleighs which I added as I reckoned that the ski part might have been a struggle, so thank you one and all ladies.

For today's card I'm back to a CB image;

The Kingfisher from the Kingfisher Song set which I've coloured with Starlight Paints and used DI for the background. I've kept it very simple without embellishments or sentiment, I just wanted the beautiful bird to be the focus.  Do you know I've never seen a Kingfisher, and would count myself luck if I had.

No puppies today, Damian working from home, so I've not got a rush to fix dinner and get out to choral rehearsal, so I'll have a lovely afternoon reading, I'm in the middle ot the Wars of the Roses just now, Ravenspur by Conn Iggulden, I love these historical novels.

Cheerio for now and see you soon,

Snowy Mountains, Skies, Sleighs!

Hello Everyone, I hope you are well and enjoying your weekend.
It's time once again for the Christmas Card Club ladies to share their fortnightly creations.
We are a group of Let's Get  Ahead For Christmas Cards Gals and believe me it makes all the difference when it comes time to be getting the cards all prepared.

We all get a turn of choosing the theme  and this time around it's mine, and what a muddle I got into with my choice.  Originally I chose skies and snowy mountains, but a while after I thought what a daft theme as I didn't have anything with skies , so I added sleighs and anything else that you'd use in the snow.  So ladies I'm sorry if you struggled with this challenge, but knowing how creative you all are I'm sure you will have found a way around it.

I went searching for a ski die and this is what I came up with;

Found this Signature die, coloured it up, made some snowy mountains, and added some branches and embossed with Wow Powder and added lots of Star Dust. For some reason I have not added a sentiment yet, perhaps because I can't think who on earth I'd send this one to.

Now you know that old adage of Sod's Law?  well I happened to open a Nicrane file that I've had for ages and here is what I found;

Skies!!! and a rather sweet image of children , I love the old fashioned look, I just glittered it all up and added a greeting and some gems.  I could have saved myself £7 if only I'd known I had this.

But I also found this in the same file and thought it would also do for a sweet  card

More little cuties glittered up, ribbon and some pearls.
Once again the photography is not brilliant, they are all awfully white/bright, so I hope you can pick the images up OK.

Do check out what the other ladies make as they are always fabulous.

Thank you for your visits and for the lovely comments on my previous cards.

See you soon,

Trio of Cards!

Hello Everyone, Friday again and I hope you are well and having a good day.

We have had some lovely Spring like weather over the last few days, just lovely although a little cool.  Really, can't complain about the weather, we have hardly had any snow this year, and on the whole the temps have been unseasonably mild.

Day off from Puppy minding so getting on with finishing off some cards. I used to not do this and then decided just finish the whole thing off and then it's done, Such a pain to find no insert or greeting when it's need quickly to go in the post.

I've also been using some of my older stash, inspired by watching Little Claire on Hochanda the other week. It was lovely to see them on here as they were some of the first stamps I bought and joined their club where new stamps arrived through my letter box each month. I have such a collection, and a great many not yet used. So. I corrected that and have three to show today;

All these images are from the stamp set March Flowers, and this one is such a lovely dandelion head image, It's a tiny card, , but amazing what you get on it. All card and papers are from LC too and sentiment is part of the stamp set.

The card base is from LC, it's such a lovely flower shape and the image is coloured with a mixture of Faber-Castell and Derwent Coloursoft pencils. SN Sparkle pen and some Just Pearls.

My apologies for having the image in the photo around the wrong way, I've tried to rotate it but now luck, Anyway, coloured with Faber-Castell pencils and SN Sparkle pen and Just Pearls, sentiment is from Stamp set, again it's a tiny card.

These little cards are just for my box, and can be sent for most occasions.  I've looked out another stamp set that's unused, I'm determined to use older stuff.

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments on my last project and also for the feed back on my Kingfisher card, I am always open to hearing what you think, and constructive criticism is so helpful.

I'm a wee bit behind with visiting and commenting, I've been awfully tired just lately, and come evening I'm sometimes just too wabbit to get on the computer. So please forgive if I've not made it to you.

Time to get to the kitchen and see what's for dinner, thinking what to have is more difficult than the actual cooking.

Have a lovely evening and I hope you have a super weekend planned, what ever it is. Take care and see you soon,

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello To You All, I hope you are well, but if not, sending out healing and positive thoughts for a speedy recovery.
Happy Valentine's Day, did you get a card landing on the mat this morning? Do you remember when as a youngster the excitement or dread around the 14th of February?  Excitement when you knew you were popular and that you'd receive some cards....at least one, and dread that it would be some kind of miracle if you did receive one, but more than likely not and that you'd have to decide whether you lied or owned up to not getting a single one.  Oh life could be cruel in those days.  I was always in the dread group, but I did own up, dismissing it all as nonsense and don't believe in it at all......yeah right!
Of course now I never need to worry as Alistair always remembers, and he has bought some beautiful ones over the years we have been together.  Anyway today I'm showing what I made for him;

I decided to make a canvas instead of a card this year, I painted on black gesso and then stamped CB hearts from the Swirly Pets set and heat embossed with red WOW powder. The large Love sentiment is also from CB. I had the wooden heart in my stash so painted that up with Imagination Crafts Red Starlight paint and stamped a lovely little sentiment from Creative Stamping magazine and embossed in black powder. added a few little sequins and a bit of black ribbon. I'm pleased to say he loved it.

I had a day off from Milo and Rowan, so we went for a drive to Beauly on the Black Isle and had a lovely lunch at the Priory Hotel, and even had entertainment as there were some folks from two rest homes booked in for lunch and they had engaged a singer/player  who sang Country and Western songs. It just all added to a lovely day.

That's me for now Folks, have a lovely evening, and see you soon,

 

Water Irises!

Hello Everyone and I hope you are having a good weekend. We have snow, started through the wee small hours, I know cos I was awake... not much sleep going on these days, and then to crown it all I heard Teallach being sick, funny Alistair hears not a thing!!!  Poor Puss is a bit quiet this morning, a horrid huge furball, but he should be fine as the day goes on.

I'm being really lazy as I'm still in my PJ's, but you know what I don't care, not planning to go out until much later, I'll make an effort then.

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments and feedback about my Kingfisher card, and especially to Marianne and Karen who gave specific thoughts on it, duly noted and tucked into my remember "this " folder. I will never feel offended by constructive comments, It's how I learn. Having said that I was a bit miffed at my hubby's comment, as it wasn't the one expected and I hate the word "nice", a word I try not to use.  He'll now be frightened to make any comment at all, lol.

So, I've another CB image for today's card;

It's the Water Iris, and I wanted to keep it very simple and just show colour, but once again it looks washed out in the photo.
I used DI for the background after having stamped and masked the image, and then coloured it with SN Colour pencils, a little white pen along the leaves to give a bit of definition. Sentiment is one of Lesley's own from the new stamps, it's a small script but reads"Today is your day to Dazzle and Sparkle". Imagination Crafts Just Pearls and framed with  Derwent Blue Charcoal Pencil and mounted onto CE dark blue card.
Just a card for my box, and talking about cards, Moreen loved the box of cards I gave her for her birthday, so pleased by that.

Before I sign off here is a photo of my lovely Teallach being all comfy on MY Chair, and especially for you Mrs. Duck;

 

Oooh it's getting dark again, more snow I fear, have a lovely day and take care of yourselves and see you soon,

Kingfisher!

Hello Everyone, I do hope all is well with you and yours and that you're not feeling the cold too much with this yet again change in the weather.

Thank you all for your visits and comments, I love reading them and appreciate the time you take to pop in. For anyone who does visit, please leave a comments as I can then pop in to your blog and see what you make.

My goodness the daylight is stretching, I've just closed the curtains at 5.30, and just a smidgen of light left, yep Spring is around the corner.

There has been loads of excitement at Chocolate Baroque as they have launched new stamps, some of you may have watched Hochanda and seen Lesley crating gorgeous pieces with them. I treated myself to the whole set, not something I do normally, but I could see such possibilities for all of them and there was the flexi buy on, so it would have been silly not to have taken advantage. Anyhow here is my first card made with the Star of the Show.... The Kingfisher;

I've incorporated stamps from two CB sets, Kingfishers Song, which includes the birdie himself and the bridge, the cottage comes from The Gift of Christmas and instead of a snowy cottage I've made it an anytime one. The birds are from Inkylicious and I felt just gave the scene a finishing touch.
I've coloured with Kuritaki Gansi Watercolours and put a little Star Dust on the water. Mounted on to Royal Blue Centura Pearl card.

I wondered if the perspective of the cottage wasn't quite right, but I've gone for it anyway, what do you thinks. Alistair thought it was very "nice"...... never has he used that word before, he went on to explain that it was rather "flat", it wasn't popping out. I'm open to constructive criticism, as I'm very new to creating scenes and I am conscious of having difficulty in making my colours more vivid.

Well it's mince and tattie tonight, done in the slow cooker as I've been over to puppy mind, I can hardly believe that Rowan had only been with us a month, 7th January she arrived, It seems like sh has been here of yonks.  

I'll say cheerio for now, have a lovely evening and see you soon,

Big Leafy Background!

Hello to You All, I hope you are well and having a lovely restful evening.  Has your week started well? Mine started with the dentist and a rather large filling. Now I am terrified of the members of this profession and consider them as medievil torturers. Many bad experiences from an earlier age has left this legacy. Hygenist in a couple of weeks.... they're just as bad.

Thank you all so much for your visits and lovely comments you are so kind to take the time, and I do appreciate it all.

Keeping my post short tonight, so here is my card for today;

Another Chocolate Baroque image, Big Leavy Background Stamp, embossed in WOW Copper powder and coloured with SN Aqua Pens, Sentiment from CB Macintosh stamp set  a few sequins and some lovely ribbon , I've used Just Pearls on the sentiment.
I love these fabulous large stamps, so much you cand do with them.  Unfortunately, photo is a bit bleached out, the shades of green are more vivid.

That's me for tonight, I've to go and wrap up Moreen's birthday present for tomorrow, this is one of the cards I've included in her box of  greetings cards, I hope she likes them all.

Take care and see you soon,

Festive Foliage for the CCC!

Hi there Folks, here we are again sharing our cards for the Christmas Card Club, these fortnightly challenges come around so quickly.

We are a group of Get Ahead of Christmas Card Crafters, and we all take a turn of choosing a theme and this time it's Rachel who wants to see some Festive Foliage on our cards, here is what I've come up with;

Using a selection of Card-io stamps and Versacolours inks to create a winter wreath, finishing off with a few sequins.

This card is made with a lovely Chocolate Baroque sentiment stamp as the main focus from the Christmas Cheer stamp set, along with a beautiful holly flourish. My background is made with swooshing DIs and adding Pixi Powders, which is not showing up too well.

Rachel, I loved making these, so thank you so much for the theme.

I am scheduling this post for tomorrow as if the weather is good we will go for a drive.

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my previous card, you are all so kind.

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend, and the weather is better than here, dull and dreich, but it's a good day for some crafting and at the same time as I'm typing this I'm watching "The Big Country", wonderful movie and two of my mostest favourite actors, Charlton Heston and Gregory Peck, what handsome men they were, can't think of anyone nowadays who even comes close to them.  I also love the fabulous music score, Bernstein knew how to put a tune together.

See you soon, 

Daisy Dress!

Hello Everyone, I hope you are all having a good day, and maybe like here the weather is lovely. We have had lovely sunshine and a good wind for getting washing dry... oh my exciting life.
Sending good wishes for anyone who is not so well for a speedy recovery.

Friday already, feels like someone stole the week, anyhow I've a wee break from the pups as Damian is home today so, I've been catching up on a few things around the house.  I find when the sun is shining it encourages me to do house work, daft or what, most folk would be outside.

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last card, you are very kind.

I've got another CB image and yet again a favourite of mine;

Awfully difficult to photograph as it was too sunny, I can never win!
I stamped the image  on to black card and heat embossed in white, coloured with Derwent Metallic Pencils. Cut out and mounted on to purple card, Papers are from First Editon, Dream Catcher.
Signature butterfly flourish die and a few sequins.

On the inside I used paper from the same pad, and a Die'sire corner die. Sentiment is from CB Macintosh set.  I have to say the card looks better in reality...honest.

Well, that's all from me just now, I'm off to hunt for Fairies....really I am.
Until next time, take care and see you soon,

Yellow and Blue!

Hello Everyone I do hope you are all well, but if not I'm sending out positive kind thoughts that you will feel better soon.

Well, I'm so enjoying the Chocolate Baroque shows on Hochanda, Lesley from CB is showing such fabulous colouring techniques, so I'm learning so much, just hope I can put them in to practise. They are bringing some absolutely gorgeous stamps too.

The card samples made by the DT are absolutely stunning, and brilliant inspiration.


Now talking about Chocolate Baroque, my card today is using the beautiful large background stamp of the Belle Flowers and this time coloured in shades of Yellow and Blue. SN Aqua Pens are the medium used this time, with a little of their Sparkle Pen , sequins dotted around and then matted on to Royal Blue  Centura Pearl card.



Thank you so much on taking the time to visit and comment on my cards, I do appreciate each and every comment.

I've made great headway with the big clear out, hopefully I they will find a good home at the little graft group that I go to.  I'm afraid I don't really know how to sell things on eBay, and it seems a bit of a phaff, but this way for me is easier, and as one of our group is a teacher, some bits might find their way to giving some children an opportunity to craft.

So it's almost lunch time, and then over to see the pups, little Rowan is really growing, and they just love my company, mind you I love theirs. Here is a quiet moment from the other day;

A bit of down time for the pups,  this lasted for about an hour, bliss! I managed to clear up the chaos left in the spare bedroom where Milo had yet another go at the pine bedside cabinet.  Rowan seems to like ripping up paper, and the soft toys, it's keeping me fit mind you. 
Damian, has lost a lot of weight since Milo arrived, as he takes him for long walks, he bought a fitbit thing, which measures steps and he has walked the equivalent of the length of Italy. He's looking good and did need to loose weight, I always worry as there is now diabetes in the family, and he is now at the age he could fall prey to that.

That's me for today, I hope you have a good one, the sun is shining here, if a little cold, so I'll love you and leave you till next time,