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!!!

Hello there, sorry its been so long again but I'll keep the wordy bit short because I'm really tired tonight.

I have made a little card for you using Studio 12 and the Wonderland stamps from the Polka Doodles shop. I've kept it simple in as much as I've just used inked card and the stamps and a white pen to highlight areas. I did use a Dutch Doobadoo mask on my background. I just couldn't resist, they really are fantastic and the designs are all must haves.

A Simple project that's just several inked pieces of card using red and blue inkpads, then the images are stamped over them and cut out. Then its just a case of arranging them all on the card and fixing them down.

I really love the checker board stamp from the wonderland set, I used it to frame the card and I stamped it very faintly over the background to add a little extra interest without it being in your face.

 I used a white pen to colour in some key areas like the spots on the toadstools.

 And the finished card, a bit quirky but I have to admit I really do like it.

Don't forget to check out the Polka Doodles blog for some amazing inspiration by the DT. Also Nikky is releasing Work and Play 3 so if you like character crafting and you want some different images then these CDs are the ones for you.


And now here are the Clarity TV samples from the beginning of the month.  I have to say I'm loving all the Clarity stencils, and there are so many to choose from, check out the Clarity shop to see them all.

 The following 2 are Barbara and Dee collaborations.

Well look at me, two tutorials in a row. This time its pen storage, so all you penholics this is for you. It's another make for Studio 12 so you'll have to hop over to the Studio12 Blog for the instructions on how to make it. Its a great little box, you can fix several together this way up or lay it on it's side and stack more on top, perfect for your desk and making it easy to select and use your pens.

I used papers from the Polkadoodles Studio12 Picnix collection 1 CD and Studio12 Stamps

Have you visited the Polkadoodles shop recently, there is a fab new collection of cute characters, Work and Play collection 1.  There will be more to follow too so eventually there will be something for everyone and every occasion.  What more could you ask for?

If you like entering challenges don't forget the Polkadoodles Challenge Blog with a new challenge every Friday, and the Digi Choosday blog with a new challenge every Tuesday. 

Here are a couple of Cards I've made recently using papers from Heartfelt Creations. The pads are so beautiful you really don't want to use them unless you have a duplicate you can keep and stroke. It brought tears to eyes just pulling the sheets out the pad, and when I started cutting them .......... well you can imagine how I felt if you like me are a paper hoarder. Still it's done now, there really isn't any point in buying them if I'm never going to use them, right?

That's it for now. I shall return at some point in the not too distant with more papercraft makes for you to see.

Ta Dah, fanfare please, I'm here and do I have a project for you.  Three words 'Ink Pad Storage', oh yes indeedy, we all need it and I've done a tutorial for them on the Studio 12 Blog.  So if you want to have a go at making one get on over there.  Its not hard to make I promise. I used the Studio 12 picknix collections 1 and 2 CD's for this project and I have to admit I'm pretty chuffed with it. I've made several since this one and I now have my most used ink pads at hand on my desk instead of in the drawers (which drove me crazy).

The challenges over on the Polkadoodle blog are now open for two weeks, plenty of time for entries now.  Give it a try if you've never entered before, fabby prizes and loads of inspiration from the uber talented Design Team.

Thats it for today. I do have other stuff for you to see but it's late and my eyes are about to jump out and scurry off to bed without the rest of me!  I will be back soon but in the mean time have fun crafting.

Oops sorry folks. I'll be posting soon I promise