Sunday 27 August 2017

Silvery Forest!

Hello there Everyone,  I hope you are well and enjoying your weekend.
A quiet one for Puss and me,Alistair is away and will be back this evening, but I've got loads done, not to mention in charge of the TV

Thanks to everyone who left lovely comments on my last post, I do appreciate each and every one of them.

It's been a week since I was last here,  I had nothing to post, lots to finish though, so will get around to sharing them later, but today I managed to make a Christmas card with one of Sheena Douglass's new embossing folders, and it was quick to do too;
Isn't this just such a pretty EF,I do love deers.
I embossed platinum card and lightly sanded it back, which gave a hint of white. Next I mounted it on to Black Graphite card, then on to someone lovely Dovecraft paper.
Die cut some trees and added a sentiment stamped on to velum, finished off with a few gems and stickies for the trees.
Hope you like it.

I would like to enter my card into the  https://scrapsoflifebyscrappymo.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/august-rudolph-days-challenge.html

Well that's all from me for now, take care and see you soon.

Sunday 20 August 2017

True Meaning of Christmas for CCC!

Hello Everyone, I do hope you are all well and having a good weekend.
A quiet one at home again for us, but I've been busy pottering around and helping Alistair with some computer stuff and the apple crumble, so we will have that after the Chilli tonight.
Well it's rained off and on all day here and heavy showers at that. hope it's better where you are.

Can hardly believe that it's time for another CCC challenge, where do the weeks go???
This time it's been Christine's choice and theme is the True Meaning of Christmas.  Now as I'm not a follower of any religion, my cards reflect what I believe should be strived for every day of the week throughout the year and not just Christmas Day, here they are;
A bit difficult to photograph because of the white, SW dove die and Crafters Companion 3D EF, sparkle and a few gems,
Imagination Crafts Stencil and Gold Sparkle Medium and a couple of little embellishments to finish. 
This card was made from little bits and pieces I had lying around. The background is painted with Imagination Crafts Starlight Paints, SE Peace on Earth die cut out with card coloured with Pixie Powders and some gems. The card was an after thought, but looking at it I perhaps should have dismissed the thought LOL.
So there you are another three for the box.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if our world leaders followed  these principles instead of wealth, greed, racism etc. I would include religious leaders in this too, regardless of creed. You can only do your own little bit though.

Thank you all so much for the lovely comments on my last card, I do appreciate your visits.

Scheduling this post for tomorrow when the challenge goes live, and if you can please visit the other CCC ladies as they always show fabulous cards.  Take care and see you soon





Monday 14 August 2017

All about inking!

Hello to you All, I would like to say on this bright and sunny morning, but I can't as it's perssssisting  down with rain, and so dull. I hope it's better where you are. The weekend too wasn't all that great weather wise either.

Hoping you are well and enjoyed your weekend, we were quiet, but that's OK, sometimes it needs to be slow and easy, I caught up with a few things around the house and got a wee bit of crafting done, which included finishing a sock.

Alistair made two apple pies with our own apples, it was his first time of pie making and as usual having no patience he wanted to get stuck right in. He went off to buy pastry, and thankfully he bought the ready rolled out stuff, meantime I was looking for my pie dish, and trying to remember how to make an apple pie and blind bake the bottom pastry.  Anyway we muddled through, even although it was a bit of the blind leading the blind. and although they wouldn't have won any prizes at the WI they tasted okay.  They pastry was a bit over done and a little more sugar could have been added. He wanted to give our neighbour one of the pies and they enjoyed it and have put in an order for one a week lol.  So next pie will be better thought out with a recipe to follow, although he's mentioned that he wants to make his own pastry......puff this time. I pointed out that even the celebrity chefs buy the ready made stuff, and no way I'm getting involved in puff pastry making.

Here  is my card share today. I've stamped the fabulous Leafy Background stamp form Chocolate Baroque and embossed it in WOW Copper Powder, used DI in various colours with my Ink Dusters. This was matted on to CE Midnight Blue card.  The floral stamp is one from the Seasons range by John Next Door, and it's from the Spring Flower set. Lovely little stamp. For it's background I used Oxides, I just love them. I used Lesley's technique of putting three colours on to a stamping block and pressed my card into the ink after having given them a little spray with water. I loved the effect as the grids on the stamping block made their impression and I thought it added a little something totally unintentional. Cut it out with a SP die and mounted it up, some Just Pearls in Copper and that's that.

I'm pleased enough of it to enter it in to a couple of challenges, which I will add at the end of the post.

Thank you all so much for the lovely comments on my last card, I do appreciate each and everyone of them.

Well, the rain's gotten heavier, I'm not stirring out until I give Alistair a lift to his fiddle lesson this evening before I go off to choral practise. I'm going to take a leaf out of Teallach's book and curl up on the sofa, with my latest book.......not that Teallach has a book of course lol.
I really like Alex Grey who is a Scottish Author and writes crime fiction based in Glasgow and whose Detective is DCI Lorrimar of Strathclyde Police. He's a bit of a maverick like his contempory Inspector Rebus from Edinburgh... from the Ian Rankin novels.  Anyway, that's my afternoon.

Take care everyone and see you all soon,
I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;

Friday 11 August 2017

Floral Harmony!

Hello To Everyone, hoping you are all well, but sending out kind thoughts to those of you who are not so well or having difficult times.

Thank you too for all the lovely comments on my last card, I really do appreciate each and every one of them.

Friday has come around once again, always so fast for my liking, but there you go can's stop time.
We have no plans as such for the weekend, but I'm sure we will find something nice to do.
I'm back to rehearsals on Monday at the Choral Society learning new pieces for our concert in November. Alistair has found and signed up of fiddle lessons, something that he has been wanting to do for ages, so I'm pleased that he has found this for himself, the cat however wont be as he hates when Alistair gets the fiddle out... he doesn't mind the guitar, but the sound of the fiddle sends him under the table, and the sound isn't even in the same room. Poor Teallach.

So I have another Chocolate Baroque card for sharing;


One of CB's latest stamps Floral Harmony and I've coloured the flowers with SN Aqua pens and the background has been also coloured with the Aqua Pens and the  glycerin technique, sentiment is from CB Words of Comfort.
As I was aiming for a yellow and grey colour theme, I found an old Papermania paper pad with greyish flowers to use as a background. The image was matted on to yellow card.  SN Sparkle Pen used on the flowers.

I made this for a lovely friend who is not too well just now and I'm am pleased to say that she loved it, and that's all that matters isn't it......

Now what a pain this photo was to upload on to this page, I've spent a good couple of hours trying to do it.  I even asked Blogger for help, without success. I then got in contact with Blog Friend Marianne to see if she could help, and although the problem has never happened to her she offered something to try.  Meanwhile I thought I would try and do the whole post from my tablet, so I took a photo and would you believe it blogger uploaded it on to my post but,... wait for it, it was the wrong photo. I'm really in numpty mode today. I couldn't take another photo of the card I wanted as it had been posted off. Grrrr!!
Back to the drawing board, I went back to the PC and tried to upload again, it worked!. It was as if using my tablet somehow unlocked the problem, totally puzzled by the whole thing, but pleased I managed to get the photo up.
Sometimes Blogger can be such a pain in the proverbial.

Alistair is on the dinner tonight, so it's great to get a break from the cooking, and he's making home made oven chips and they are always delicious and crispy.
I'll say cheerio for now and see you soon, enjoy your weekend,

Monday 7 August 2017

Fantasy Fuchsias and Candy Winner!


Hello Everyone, beginning of another week, where do they all go to. I hope you are all well but sending kind thoughts to those who are not so well, and hoping you will feel better soon.

We had a quiet weekend, the weather wasn't wonderful, Alistair managed to get the grass cut and I got washing out, but had to keep my eyes open for rain, today, the sun is very hot when out, but there are lots of dark clouds too.  The Scottish weather is never boring, it keeps you on your toes.


Thank you all so much for the lovely comments on my CCC cards, you are very kind and I do appreciate every comment you make.

As you see from the title we have a Candy winner, but I will tell you about that later in the post.

My card today is using one of Chocolate Baroque's new stamps; Hanging Flowers, which I have named Fantasy Fuchsias, as to me they look like those wonderful blooms.
Stamped on to black Derwent card and heat embossed with WOW powder, coloured with Gansai Tambi Pearl watercolours. Three dazzlers.
The background has been stamped with another CB stamps and once again heat embossed with WOW powder in  Icicle Blue, it looks faint in the photo, but it is quite clear in real life. The black card is matted on to platinum card.

One of the wonderful CB DT members, Veronica gave me the inspiration for this card . Veronica has a fabulous blog and you can visit her Here.
 I'm very pleased by how it's turned out, and I think the pearlised paints just work in perfectly.

Now, who has won my Candy?? Thank you all for entering into the fun and for choosing to follow my blog, I've been doing this since 2011 and I'm always amazed that folks take an interest in my work and my stories, but I'm awfully glad you do.  I've been privileged to have met a few of you in person, and some have become great friends, but, I always feel a friendship with you in reality or virtually.  So with out further ado, here is the Random machine;
You see we really did have a hat LOL, and the winner is;
It's you Annie over in in Australia, so if you send me your address I will get it posted off to you, and hope you will enjoy using it.

Well my Random Machine did well, and to think I offered him to an antique dealer who was at the door this morning looking of amything that was old and Scottish, I did say my husband, but the man wasn't sure if he would go down well with the American tourisits who visit his shop.

That's me for today, have a lovely day whatever you are doing and see you soon,
I Would like to enter my card into http://theflowerchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/


  and http://sirstampalotchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/august-anything-goes.html
http://craftstamper.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/take-it-make-it-challenge-august.html

Sunday 6 August 2017

Carol Singers for Christmas Card Club!

Hello Everyone, would you believe it.... it's time for another Christmas Card Club challenge, and this time Margaret would like to see Carol Singers.  Another enjoyable theme Margaret so thank you.
Here we have a trio of Celestial carol singers. This lovely image is from a digital image from Nicrane, and I've just mattered it up and added loads of sparkle.




Well I'm sure you will all recognise this fabulous LOTV image, coloured with SN Aqua pens. I've added Glossy Accents to the windows and Sakura Clear Star pen around for a little sparkle, than added more glitter. The sentiment is LOTV too. Papermainia for the papers from a few years ago and finished off with some gems. I rolled up a piece of the music score paper as an embellishment.


 Imagination Crafts stencil for this card and who's to say that these cute birdies aren't singing carols.
The sentiment and the birds are coloured with Sparkle Medium and the music notes are Starlight paints. Matted up in reg and gold.


Another great challenge, and three more cards to add to my Christmas box, it's fairly packed. It's the Family cards that I really need to be giving some thought to, I'm always at the cow's tail with those.


Thank you all so much for the lovely comments and commiserations regarding the rant I had the other day about the pharmacy.  It would seem that many of you have had similar experiences. I have often wondered if we live in an age where doing a good job and being efficient has gone by the way.  If that is indeed the case, I'm sure there are lots of contributing factors for it.

We took ourselves to the cinema yesterday to see Dunkirk, and I can highly recommend it. I found it a well made film, exciting, especially the scenes where the Spitfires were flying over trying to protect the ships and boats rescuing the soldiers, it felt as if you inside the cockpit, totally gripping, great music too, well it's Hans Zimmer from Gladiator fame, so it was bound to be good. 

Well, that's me for now, please do visit the other CCC ladies as they always have fabulous cards to show.

Keep well everyone and see you soon,

Thursday 3 August 2017

Winter Wonderland!

Hello Everyone, hoping you are all well and having a good week so far.  
Lovely rainy weather here but, thankfully the temps are alright for me, I couldn't manage with the heat that the Continental countries are having just now.

Thank you all so much for your kind comments on my last card, and remember if you haven't done so comment and you will be entered into the Candy draw, if you want that is.

I've had a rather frustrating day of it, not helped by not feeling tickity boo this morning... could find no reason for this, but just one of those days, I'm sure you know what I mean.

I had to pick up medication at the pharmacy, and one of the items was one of my insulin, I take two kinds, well they hadn't got any of the sort I'd ordered. However it would be in tomorrow, feeling really irked by this, I asked why is there not enough of it kept , oh there's  a high demand was the response. Okay well I guess there are more and more people  being diagnosed with diabetes, but obviously there are all coming to Inverness. Then the assistant said something about, she hadn't realised that there was no stock at the time of my order, well this confused me and so I remarked that it was a fault to poor stock keeping and not the high demand story, well yes I suppose so was the reply, but she was awfully sorry, but could I come back tomorrow, I doubt it was my answer. 
However, nothing much I could do about the situation, but I left the shop annoyed and thinking that I'm fed up with the mistakes that are being made. Anyway, with all of this I failed to check what I had been given, big mistake because when I got home I found I had been given along with my own meds, someone else's.  Well can you imagine my.... well I suppose it was anger by this time.  So I phoned the pharmacy, and explained, and as luck would have it it was the same assistant, who said could I bring them back.... aye right, was my reply. Oh well our driver finishes his run soon and won't be able to collect them. Again she apologised. I went on to point out that this wasn't by far the first time this sort of thing has happened, and that it wasn't really good enough. Steam coming out of one ear by now..... then her response tipped me over.... well well just redo the other lady's prescription and when you bring these ones back well just BIN them.. Bin them, do you know the state of the NHS now? and your wasting drugs. By this time Alistair had arrived downstairs and was wanting to know who was on the other end of my tongue, saying I need to calm down. 

I was then told that things were difficult in the pharmacy as they had no management, apparently the pharmacist had left that week. So of course that would make all the difference to giving out someone else's drugs. I gave up, as I could feel that I was going to explode at the girls attitude. However, as this pharmacy has made all sort of mistakes over the last few years with my meds, and it's the important ones, wrong insulin type, insulin phials instead of pens, oh the list goes on, that I've decided to try another pharmacy.
What concerns me is that this might be happening to people who may have a problem with getting to the shop, if there are mistakes, or perhaps not notice that they have been given the wrong stuff. I at least can sort it out. Although, Alistair has stopped me from going away back into town today, as it's their fault.    My god what a rant, but this sort of carelessness really gets my goat. Sorry!!!!

Here is my card;
Another stamped that I found whilst I was away for my few days the other week, not sure of it's make, but another image that I thought would do for a man. All I've really added was some colour to the sky and the water, and added Fluffy Stuff (love it) and some glitter. Snowflake embossed card and a few gems. The sentiment is from Creative Stamping magazine.

So, that's me for now, I'm going back to have a go at sorting out my printer, yes another frustration as it's gone wonky since there was a further update on Windows 10. When windows 10  first installed I had to redo the whole printer thing, but there was a new update the other week and I'm going to have to do it all again, and just to top it all, Alistair seems to have lost the search ability on Goggle on his PC as there is a voice  that keeps telling him to talk to it and he's been telling it what he wants to search for.... The North Buttress of Ben Nevis was the last thing I heard, oh we are a mad household, only Teallach is sane!!