I'm here ...... just.....

I've no energy for brain power I'm afraid so I'll just go straight into the pics if you don't mind. I'd only be waffling on anyway lol.

This a card in this months Making Card Magazine using the fabulous Polkadoodles Stamp Soup stamp sets.

 A Creative Expressions sample for Emerald Crafts. 

Claritystamp Groovi sample

 Claritystamp stamps and lots of line work.

 Claritystamp stamps and stencils.

Time for bed now I think. Dee x

Well hello everyone. What beautiful weather we've been having. Its so nice to have bright sunny days and be nice and warm. Its such a shame I cant sit out in it though but between medication and the Lupus I'm very very sun sensitive so I have to cover up or suffer the consequences. I'm not complaining though, yes it's a pain in the bum sometimes but things could be far far worse.

Its not so good for the poor people and animals of Alberta though. I have a friend In Alberta, a very lovely lady called Susan Weckessa, an artist and craft designer. While shes not right in the thick of it her husband is, as hes a firefighter and has been drafted up to help fight the blaze. My heart goes out to her as she's so worried, its not something you'd ever get used to, your loved one putting himself in danger all the time. What a hero he and all his colleagues are.

I had a fantastic holiday in Canada, the best ever. I went with my friend Jo and my Auntie and Uncle. We flew to Calgary picked up a 30 foot motor home and drove up to Vancouver through the Rockies stopping when we fancied it. Then back down to Calgary via a different route to fly home. As it turned out I did most of the driving as Uncle used to get in a bit of a stew about driving and Jo was scared of the drops on the mountains. It was the most amazing experience ever though. The countryside is unbelievably beautiful and breathtaking, to think of so much of it being ravaged by the fire is almost unthinkable, and the poor wildlife, what a horrible way to go. Praying isn't really my thing, I do it occasionally when friends are having a hard time, but I am praying for Alberta and all its inhabitants. I don't know if it does any good or not, I suppose it depends what you believe in but its worth a try.

Onto samples and a little selection for you again. I hope you like them.

 Polkadoodles Stamp Soup CD and stamps combined.

 Polkadoodles Stamp Soup stamps. Distress reinkers made into sprays for the background and watercoloured for the stamps. 

 Claritystamp Stamps for this one

 A Claritystamp Groovi card. White parchment, some whitework and coloured with Zig Brushables.

For Emerald Crafts and Creative Expressions. Sue Wilson embossing folder and Phill Martin stamps. Very simple to do, just layer up the stamps using different colours.

For Emerald Crafts and Creative Expressions. Sue Wilson paper pad, Creative Expressions Singles stamp, That Special Touch masks, Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Polish, Colour Clouds and Pearl PVA.

That's it for now. Stay well till next time. Dee x

Hi there, it seems I'm having a bit of an issue with stupid finger syndrome. I had this post almost done and then bam, one press of a button and its all gone, disappeared never to be retrieved! well not that I can find anyway. I am  bit miffed it has to be said, but what can you do once its done? not a lot.

Anyway, thank you to everyone that came to my demo day at Emerald Crafts, it really was a lovely day talking to like minded people. I am really grateful to everyone that came along and supported the day. And what better could you get than being in the New Forrest? Such a beautiful place.

The first card is from Saturdays Demo and was probably the most popular sample. White on white is always popular though, but a pig to photograph. Especially when you don't have much skill in that department.

 

Sue Wilson Dies and Embossing Folder. John Lockwood sentiment stamps. Creative Expressions embellishments, ribbon and lace.  All available from Emerald Crafts.

 Sue Wilson Dies and paper pad. Creative Expressions Singles stamp. Cosmic Shimmer pastel watercolour palette, Creative Expressions Ribbon and Embellie.  All available form Emerald Crafts. 

 Sorry its a winter card, but I love this card I really do, so you'll have to let me indulge.

Claritystamp stamps, ink and Stickles, quite simple really.  All available for Claritystamp LTD

 A Groovi card from the weekends TV shows. Quite a funky one and bright and cheerful.  Claritystamp Groovi plates, coloured parchment and pens to colour the flowers and butterfly.

  And the last one today A Polkadoodles Stamp Soup Sample. I think this is a Lavender Tea one but I might be wrong, and if I'm honest I'm too tired to go and look, sorry. Yes I know, I'm a lazy mare. There I said it for you lol. 

Black card, clear embossing powder with Versamark inkpad and Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paints.

See you soon, thank you for visiting my blog, its very much appreciated. Take care.

p.s. it seems the spellcheck has decided to stop working so please forgive any bad spelling, its really not my thing. good job I can craft!

So much for good intentions! Ah well I'm here now, but I'm on my tablet so no card pics I'm afraid. I have been very busy, firstly with Clarity Samples for this weekends shows on Hocanda, then another job for Barbara, and now samples and prep for my demonstration this Saturday.  This is the first demo I've done since last October and I'm quite looking forward to it. I do like going to Emerald Crafts at Lyndhurst. It's a fabby shop and stuffed full of crafting goodies. If you have some spare time and you live near enough please do come and say hi.

I was going to add a few pics but I don't know how to get the pictures loaded onto here. It's not giving me any options to actually find them. Any help much appreciated.

Bed time now so I'm off.
Take care all, xxx

Cor Blimey what happened to the last few days? Oh well I'm here now and what a gorgeous day we've had again. I even got a little bit of gardening done. Its not often I really feel up to doing it although I do really love gardening, even if I can only do it in small bite sized snapets. I should really have been doing some work for Barbara but unfortunately nothing arrived in the post so it will be all hands to the pumps when it does arrive.

I have a few more cards for you, the first one I had totally forgotten about.  It is a couple of years old now so I think I can be forgiven.

 Claritystamp xmas stamps and stencils. White embossing powder on velum and it could be white pen to colour the holly and ivy but the layer behind I did some gentle white work after running the mask and vellum through the Grand Calibur.

 Claritystamp Wee stamps and the new Alphabet.  I love these cute rabbits. When I do a painting project I will often slap any unused paint onto a piece of card or tag rather than waste it.  This was such a piece from my bits box.

 Polkadoodles Lavender Tea Stamp Soup for this one and good old watercolour paints with a few bits from the accompanying CD.  You can't really see it from the photo but all the flowers and leaves are decoupaged.

Arhh, Bertie Pug. This stamp is from a dog set from Oysterstamps that Ive had for years. You can't get them now but its such a handy set for dog lovers. I coloured him in with pencils.

Take care everyone, I'm off to bed now. Dee xxx

 

What a beautiful day it is today. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the bees are buzzing about and I've got washing on the line.  That last bit is a sure fire way of making the weather change, but I had to take the chance.  Washing smells so much nicer for being out in the fresh air, and its less creased.  Not that I iron either way, such a waste of time when it goes straight back in the wash after a day or so.  In fact the only time I do pick up an iron is when I need it for a crafty technique, it's definitely a handy tool then.

I have a few offerings for you again today, both old and new.

 A nice bright and cheerful one to start with seeing as its such a lovely day. I used mowed lawn, spiced marmalade, squeezed lemonade and picked raspberries distress inkpads and blending tools to colour the background piece. I dripped some water over and blotted with kitchen roll to take the colour out a bit.  The flower and dragonfly is stamped with Archival ink and Polkadoodles Lemonade Fizz Stamp Soup stamp set which I coloured with pencils to match the background.

 I made this card for an Emerald Crafts demonstration for Creative Expressions. Just Right stamps and dies, Spellbinders embossing folder (I think)! and a floral and dotty mask. 

I have to tell you I love this bricks and mortar shop. It is stacked full of crafty goodies, and if you like die cutting it has a really comprehensive range to choose from. I spend a fortune every time I go there. Sush, don't tell Colin!

 Claritystamp wordchain and funky leaves stamps with black sparkle embossing powder on an alcohol ink marbled background using the shaving foam technique. All the products can be bought form Clarity apart from the shaving foam lol.

A Claritystamp stencil and stamped card. I used both the internal and external parts of the stencil brushing ink through and around with Clarity blending brushes. Then I stamped the animals and lineart sentiment with black Archival ink.

I hope you like today's offerings, my tummy is rumbling so I'm off to forage in the kitchen for some lunch. Take care, Dee xxx

Hello there. Sorry for the delay but I've had a little blip, but that's life is it not?

Anyway here are a few more samples for you.

 Claritystamp wee stamps and the new alphabet set.  The background was done on the Gelly Plate with green and blue inks and torn paper.

 A sample from the newest Groovi plate release. Coloured with pencils.

 A Polkadoodles sample from Lemonade Fizz CD and Stamp combo. The umbrella is a template on the CD. Flower and leaves were coloured in with Copic markers.

Catch you all again soon, Dee xxx

A few more samples again today. I would have done this at lunch time, but I fell asleep and then that was the afternoon gone, in a flash of forgotten dreams and adventures.

 Claritystamp Moorhen stamps. I stamped and die cut wood effect papers for this and coloured in the birds with pens. The die is a Spellbinder die

 Claritystamp Groovi card.  These blue Tits are rather cute don't you think? I made up the scene with elements from all the Blue Tit baby plates.  The frame is made with a netting plate that I've embossed twice which makes smaller squares/diamonds.  I used pencils to colour the piece.

A Polkadoodles Stamp Soup canvas. A couple of  elements off the CD and stamped onto rainbow parchment which I added a touch of whitework to. 

So there you are a few more of my makes. Take care everyone and I'll see you soon.

Now don't faint everyone, I've made it back. I'll be needing to mop my brow at this rate! I hope you all had a good weekend.

Here's another few makes for you. A mixture of new and old and all very different.

 Polkadoodles Stamp Soup Lemonade Fizz.

I started by stamping the elements with black ink. Then I used black cerne relief on the parts I wanted to keep.  I then used gold cerne relief to make sections on the background.  Once it was dry I painted with Pebeo Fantasy paints.  The background paper is a Gelly plate piece.

 

Claritystamp Groovi Magpies. I love magpies, they can be so funny to watch.  I have one of a pair that's quite bold and he'll sit on the fence or  and chat to me, with me chatting back of course.

Claritystamp Nuthatch stamps.  You'll have to forgive me but I cant remember if I stamped with plain black ink or if I used embossing powder. The birds were coloured with Copic markers. The Dies are by Sue Wilson.

Claritystamp stencil and line art sentiment stamp. A nice simple design for this one. I used coloured Grunge paste through the stencil on black card.  To colour the grunge paste I just added a little red acrylic paint and mixed well.  I used white embossing powder with the stamp.  Then added a few details with a white pen. 

I'm off to bed now so I'll say goodnight.  Scheduled posts are a wonderful addition, but I suppose I should also say, good morning and good afternoon and let you choose which one is appropriate.

Hip Hip....... Ive made it to another post, that's a 50% improvement on last time lol.

 Clarity stamps, stencils and blending brushes with die based inks. Sue Wilson dies. 

To make this one I placed the house stencil down first and brushed blue and yellow ink through the design. 

I removed the stencil then placed the inner stencil in place and lightly brushed black ink around it. 

Removed that stencil then placed the inner stencil from the countryside landscape in place and brushed more black ink round it. 

Lastly I stamped the animals in place.

 I used the ever popular Clarity Groovi system for this one. Such a clever system and so easy. It's opened up parchment craft to so many people who previously didn't think they could do it, didn't have time or had no interest because it always seemed old fashioned and not for them. Clarity have made the designs modern and funky and so interchangeable. And its speeded up tracing your design no end.  There's a growing number of children grooving away now too, it cant be a bad thing can it? I have discovered that Kuretake Zig Brushable pens work pretty well on the parchment. Alcohol pens tend to go streaky, and water-based pens take ages to dry so you smudge them if your not really careful, but the brushables are permanent and fast drying even though they are water-based ink. A great discovery for me and that's what I used on this sample because I wanted strong colours to show through the parchment. It works well I think.

This was a card I made with Polkadoodles stamp soup sets. Its a bit of a mixture of Lavender Tea and Lemonade Fizz. If you haven't seen these yet and you are a stamper its well worth checking them out. its all elements, such as leaves and petals etc and you make up your own designs as you like.  I stamped these with versamark ink and clear embossing ink onto black card.  Then I used Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paints over the top.  I love this technique, you can get such fantastic and bold results. The background mounted layer is a Cosmic Shimmer spritzer on white card. 

That's it for this post, thank you for popping by xxx

Back from the dead (figuratively speaking)

Well hello anyone passing by. I'ts been a tad long since I was here, I am sorry but I've had a good excuse honestly. Just ask my mum, she'll write me a sick note to explain lol.

Seriously though I have been quite poorly. I've had so many different medications and treatments I've lost count. None have really helped except regular infusions of a type of Chemo. Some have made me so ill I honestly felt like I was dying. That sounds a little dramatic maybe but if you've never been there just pray you never do.

Now I promise you this isn't a post to get pity and people feeling sorry for me and leaving sympathetic messages, believe me after two and a half years of feeling utterly crap I'm so over it.  Sometimes you just need to get things out of your head and write them down. I don't feel sorry for myself, well not often anyway. I don't deny I have my moments, but on the whole I get on with what I can with a happy heart.  Between the Lupus and medications I started losing my hair and in March last year I had to accept that it had gone too far and I shaved my head of what was left. I have the biggest collection of hats and scarves you've ever seen lol. I will tell you though that I hate it, but it is what it is and no amount of worrying or wishing is going to change it.

I know there will be those among you readers that have illnesses that you cope with like me, there are so many different diseases out there with no cure, little understanding and woefully underfunded for research. Many fall prey to depression and I know only too well how that feels, but I'm lucky, I made a conscious decision back in 1999/2000 when I was diagnosed that I would do everything in my power to not go there, not get that bad and so far I've managed to resist the pull of the dark nightmare.  Yes, I have days when I feel down and sorry for myself, I wouldn't be human if I didn't, but I've always been strong enough to pull myself out of it and get back to enjoying what I can. For me life is way to short to waste it pitying myself. It doesn't do any good, and it eventually turns you into a miserable bitter person and that's not for me, no way no how.  My family have been very good, my close friends and of course Colin my long suffering partner. I don't think any of them will ever know just how much help they are to me, especially in the bad times. I'm so thankful to them for their love and support, and a couple of them that continuously go way above the norm. These people are angels pure and simple, and my debt and gratitude to them could never be paid in this lifetime.

So there you have it. The reason for me being quiet and abandoning my blog. Some people find blogging helps them, but for me it was just something else to try and fit in, something to concentrate on when I had no concentration or focus. When you are struggling to just get through the day doing the bare basics then blogging really isn't high on your priority list.  I am going to try blogging regularly again though. I cant promise that I will stick to it but I can promise to try. After all, I have a couple of years worth of crafty makes to catch up on. If you are among my friends on Facebook then you will likely have seen most of what I post for quite a while, I will be filtering in any new makes though so it may be worth checking now and again.

Talking of crafty things here are a couple of projects for you. They are all Claritystamp samples using Clarity stencils and stamps. I hope you like them.

 Spritzers, stencils and stamps.

 Stencils and ink

Stencils, stamps and glitter embossing paste.

That's it for now, hopefully I will be back soon and not in two years time!!!