Oh, Woe Is Me.......

Okay, so here's the story:
I had a totally hideous couple of days the middle of this week, culminating in an incredibly horrific Thursday when everything went wrong, my emotions were bouncing like a super ball and it was all I could do to keep it together at work before coming home and having a complete meltdown.

As of Sunday I was on a fabulous high (which made the fall so very far down!). I had bought stamps, made a card, entered challenges, tweaked my blog and basically had a wonderful time. I was ecstatic. Then I had a couple of yukky days at work (not my fault - the only silver lining).

To console myself, I went online to see if anyone had found my blog because of my challenge entries.  Although there was a jump in the number of hits, there were no comments - just a very depressing "0 comments" sitting mocking me at the bottom of my post. 

Then I found out that my card had won me a first place with Moving Along With The Times! Wheeeeeeeee! Things were looking up again.  But I still thought it was odd that no-one was leaving comments (have you worked out how slow I was being, yet?!)

It has taken me until today to find that part of the tinkering I did to my blog design means that I have to approve every comment (amazing that the click of a little button could have me so low, and the remedy is to click another button, but there you go). So instead of being unloved and lonely here, I in fact had more comments than I ever have before, all sitting and waiting patiently for me to post them up. What a fabulous pick me up! I don't know about the rest of you, but I am discovering that comments are comfort food to me. There is nothing better than when someone tells you they think what you're doing is worthwhile :) So thank you to all my comfort food contributors.

I also had a huge pick me up in the form of my buddy Kasey, who has been wonderful again and given me an(other) award (the Leibster Blog Award also came from her). This new one is the A Thing of Beauty Award and there are some terms that go with it.

I have to tell you 5 things about myself and then award it to 5 other people. So, I guess I'd best get on with it.

5 Things About Me:

1 I'm an Army brat who spent the first 15 years moving
2 I am addicted to Twinnings Blackcurrant Tea, which I drink out of a 500ml mug
3 I read almost anything I can get my hands on, but love dark fantasy, historical and alternative universe genres (am reading Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth", Robert Jordan's "Knife of Dreams" and Charlaine Harris' "Dead Reckoning" at the moment).
4 I love a wide range of music, but can't listen to it while I'm trying to concentrate on something else
5 I have been spending "date night" with Will watching Eureka - we're up to the beginning of the fourth season and neither of us are sure we like the twist in the plot.

As for the five people I'd like to give this award to:
1 Carole at Apples & Pears
2 Heather at Rica's Haven
3 Chrissie at Simply One of a Kind
4 Cheryl at Cottage Creations
5 Kitty at Kitty's Krafty Blog

Thanks for all the inspiration, girls!!!

Okay - so now I'm going to quickly put up another of my stash cards, then go off and find out what other challenges are out there that I can enter!  This is one I did for a friend's birthday:

The card recipe is as follows:

Copics: R00 - skin; R27 and R37 - red of dress and N2, N6 and N9 for the hair.

Wings were done in Twinkling H2O "Iridescent Blue".  The flowers and the red ribbon were from my stash, the bug ribbon is by Cardmaking for Connoisseurs, item "Trim - FNRR88".

The image is a digistamp from A Day for Daisies called "Bitsy Bug Rosa", the sentiment is a Just Johanna which I went looking for and can't find - has Just Johanna shut down???

I would like to enter it into the following challenges (wheeeeeee!):

Crafts And Me: Ribbon

Totally Stampalicious: Anything Goes

The Crazy Challenge: Ribbons

And that's all I've got for now (it's a pretty long post - I figured I'd let you go and get on with your weekend!)

Until next time,

Happy crafting!

Playing with my blog design and entering my first challenge!

So many firsts for one tiny blog... I sat here on Sunday and trawled around all OVER the place, found lots and lots of digistamps which I bought and downloaded and then (kind of at the advice of a friend, Kasey, and kind of because I've been thinking about it for a while now), I went looking for a challenge I feel comfortable entering. 

So I look and I look and I look.  All I can find are these challenges which ask you do do steps 1 to 100 before entering your creative piece.  As soon as I kept reading the same kind of rules repeated in various challenge blogs, I figured I had better get my head around what the heck they were asking and how I go about achieving it.  Did you know that there are a lot of blogs out there about how to blog???!  Weird, but incredibly helpful, LOL.

So now I have a funky new signature block, have linked a blinky to my blog, rearranged my gadgets and feature elements, found out what a URL is and how I can use it and it's only taken me about four hours, 17 cups of tea and the invention of about three brand new swear words to do it!!!!  I am so proud :)

So, here is my very first ever card to be entered into some challenges!  Yes, people, I didn't just say one challenges, but multiple.  I don't ever try to walk - it's always full speed ahead... LOL!

The card recipe is as follows:
Stamp is a digistamp from Cuddly Buddly/Pachela Studios called "Shooting Star" and the sentiment is from Stamp It "Starry Dreams 1789C".  The Copics I used were E70, E74 and E99 for the mouse, YR04 and E42 for the present you can hardly see in front of the mouse, Y19 for the stars and BV01 for the purple sky.  I used Stampin Ups tag punches to mount the sentiment on and Creative Memories punch "Stardust Maker" for the yellow border stars.  The yellow layer and star paper is a scrap from my stash, I have no idea what it is, and the cardstock is Stampin Ups Lovely Lilac.  The charm is from my stash as well.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Moving Along With The Times - Cute and Cuddly with a Punch
Cuddly Buddly - Add A Charm
Paper Take Weekly - Getting Cute

Okay - that's all I've got for you.  I'm off to link my post page to these challenges and double (triple???) check that I've done it right.

Until next time,
Happy crafting!

Coming to the end of my stash of cards

... I think, LOL!
There have been a couple of new ones made in the last couple of weeks which I am adding to the list of cards I want to show off.  And there are at least a couple in the pipeline, along with some new stamps I mentioned last week from LOTV which I haven't had a chance to play with yet (I've run out of EZ Mount foam to put them on - I was sure I had a decent supply of it, but was much mistaken, when I went looking.  So my new stamps are still pristine and I need to restock before I can play *sigh*.)

These cards are ones I've made for birthdays recently (ish), and they're all fashion related, so I suppose I have a double theme going for this post:

This purse card uses the old Hero Arts set "Little Purses LL729" ((c) 2002 - can you believe it?!) but you can still find it here.  Stamped in Versafine black, mounted onto white and then black cardstock squares (punched out using the Creative Memories squares punch) and then finally mounted on a black card.  The thin silver ribbon I put on either side of the black flower ribbon are from my stash and I've embellished with Stickles "Silver" glitter glue and more stick on diamantes, also from my stash.

This one was for a friend who likes purple, travel and fashion, so I used the Stamps Happen stamp "Vogue Silhouette" because it combines the fashion and travel (France), stamped it on purple velvet paper and also on Stampin Up Whisper White cardstock.  Layer one on the other, then onto Perfect Plum cardstock, silver mirrorboard, a piece of white paper stamped with Stampin Up's "Fine Lace" background stamp in Perfect Plum and then back onto a Perfect Plum card.  Black grosgrain ribbon and diamantes come from the stash.

This card was for a birthday for one of the ladies at work - her favourite colour is yellow.  The hat, the shoe and the sentiment are all from Stamp It.  The hat is "Race Day 2820F Elizabeth" and the shoe is "Frilled Pump 3272D Elizabeth", while the sentiment is "Elegance Is... 3214C Unicorn".  The The ends of the flower spray on the hat and shoe has been accented with Stickles "Lemon", the tag punch I used is by EK Success and the pearl brads come from my stash.

And that brings me to the end of another post.  I'm off to dinner with my DH tonight - we are kid free and living it up!

So, until next time,
Happy crafting!
Bron

Miley concert update, Longevity and Seaside cards

I am so glad I went through a phase of making cards which I have slowly been posting, because the actual card making at the moment is non-existent.  I have been crazy busy at work and trying madly to keep on top of things at home, which means the creating has taken a bit of a nose dive!

The Miley Cyrus concert was much better than I expected.  The girls had a great time at their first stadium concert, although my youngest managed to fall asleep for two songs in the middle of the whole thing!!!   I have pictorial evidence, however, so I can make her wail "Muuuuuuuummmmmmm" at her 18th birthday when I have it made into a poster *heee heee heee*. 

We also managed to get out to Luna Park (where I managed to wail almost the entire ride on the roller coaster - my youngest couldn't go on it without me and I HATE roller coasters, so I figure we're even when I torture her with photos on her 18th - a long time to wait, but revenge will be sweet.)  Plus, there's photo evidence of me screaming on the stupid ride as we rounded a corner and some wiseass had set up a camera to go off just before the carriage took a drop that left my stomach about 4 meters above us, so there you go... all torture is totally justified.

So, with no more ado, have a look at yet more of the cards I made a little while ago.  This weeks' themes are Longevity and Seaside:

This image is from Mo Manning, and can be found here.  It is a beautiful one to colour.  I used Copics to colour, but given how long ago it was, I can't tell you which ones.  The cardstock is Coredinations, the flowers are from my stash and the background patterned paper is from the 6x6 paper pad "Reflections Collection" by Prima.

This image is one of Bugaboo's and you can find her here.  Again coloured with Copics so long ago that I haven't a clue which ones I used.  The background paper is from the Basic Grey 6x6 pad "Gypsy" and the flowers are from my stash.  The cardstock is Coredinations.

Image is an actual rubber stamp this time, rather than a digi.  It's from Impression Obsession and can be found here.  The background paper is from Creative Memories "Grunge" collection, the cardstock is Coredinations and the diamantes are from my stash.  The dragonfly wings are done in Copics and then gone over with Windsor & Newton's Iridescent Medium.

This image is from Tiddly Inks and can be found here.  Colouring using Copics (yeah - don't ask) layered onto paper scraps and onto very dark blue Coredination cardstock.  The red background paper is from Creative Memories "Grunge" range.

That's all I've got for the moment.  I'll have another couple to post next week and then we must be coming close to the end of my stash and I'll have to actually sit down and make some more cards.  There have been a couple of birthdays which need cards and I've had another wedding card commission, so that will give me some bits and pieces to show you.  Plus, I've just had a bunch of new Lili of the Valley stamps come in from the UK, and I need to ink them up.  Oh yeah - inspiration is not too far away, it's just finding the time.... *sigh*.

Until next time,

Happy crafting!

Bron