Wishing you a frightfully wicked Halloween!

Visitors to my old blog may remember that I am notorious for forgetting to send cards to people.  I love making them, but actually remembering to go and pop it in the post is an entirely different matter. Well nothing ever changes.  A friend of mine sent me some handcrafted jewellery in May for me to wear to a Mayoral Ball which I was attending, all the way from the States and I had promised her a birthday card in return. Well, her birthday was in July... and I didn't send her one.  Not that I didn't want to but I didn't have my crafting station set up then and I wanted to make a really nice one for her once I had rediscovered all my stash.  Well I have no excuses now, so she was rather confused when I contacted her in October to ask for her address to send her card. 'But my birthday was 3 months ago!'  Ah yes, but a promise is a promise and it will be with you soon, albeit a little later than was planned... and here it is!

The team over at Fantasy Crafters are so in the mood for Halloween!

We've been working hard on a selection of new digital stamps available from Crafts and Me and for my challenge I chose Hannah Lynn's Catherine Midnight. Not only does it include a witch and a pumpkin, it also includes a cat and as anyone who knows me will tell you. I love cats!  Well I do have six of the furry little devils sharing my house so it's just as well really.  I'm still addicted to my Prismacolor pencils so I have coloured the main image with those. An advantage I have discovered in using these over markers is the effects you can create, such as the spooky sky I have made in the background. I had a good rummage through my stash and found this wonderful sparkly paper which adds a little shimmer to the card and then used another piece of black and silver card from stash. I have added 3 rows of 6 AB gems plus a few strands of Angelina fibres to give a cobwebby effect plus a cute little hand-tied bow. Thanks for reading! xx

Autumn is here!

I must confess my favourite season is autumn. I'm not a great lover of heat and sun and even when it is warm outside I prefer to hole myself up somewhere and keep out of the heat, so by the time autumn comes around I am more than ready for it. Saying that, living in the UK with our changeable weather, I can probably say I prefer any type of weather as long as it's not hot. Autumn is the best though, not particularly because of the weather, although I do prefer the cooler days, it's the colours which get me every time.  The reds, the oranges, the yellows, the golden hues and the fading greens.  The trees start to change their colours and the leaves begin to fall and cover the ground with a glorious blanket of colour. Magic!

As I mentioned in my first post on this new blog, I am starting afresh here and challenging myself to try new things. I felt I had got a little set in my ways with using the same media and decided to treat myself to some new pencils. I had never used Prismacolor before and Amazon offered a very good deal on a whole set and the offer landed at just the right time for me to be able to treat myself.  I have to say I am loving them at the moment.  It has taken a little getting used to with them as the colours are so rich. and they work in a similar but completely different way.  I realise that probably makes no sense at all!  The way they blend together and create a whole new shade is truly amazing to me.  I am impressed!

Having been quiet on the crafting front for a number of years now I have shocked myself with just how much stuff I have accumulated over the years.  I have a cupboard bursting at the seams with boxes and bags and crates and more boxes and ohhhh I really should have a good clearout and get sorted but let's face it, what crafter can be ruthless with their stash?  I am guessing not many hands are being raised here... Luckily for me, I had and managed to find all the stuff I needed for putting this card together without having to leave my house or order anything online.  Go me!

I suppose I have waffled on enough now and need to get onto actually talking about what I have produced... oh if I must lol

Old habits die hard with my choice of artist for this digi stamp as I have always been a great fan of Hannah Lynn and have chosen the very aptly named 'Autumn' stamp for this card. I am a great fan of colouring hair and this stamp certainly ticked that box for me.  I chose autumnal colours of yellows, oranges and brown for her hair as I felt they would perfectly complement her butterfly wings and a rich magenta for her clothes.  Pink is so underrated when people are raving about autumnal colours. Hidden away in my stash I knew I had some pink skeletal leaves and you know what? I went straight to them. Present me is congratulating past me on putting an embellishment in the box where it should go.  The leaves are quite subtle so I hope you can see them on there.  Backed onto some background paper I made with red shimmery things and embossed, amazing what I find that I have kept. Red and orange papers are from stash.  I also found all my gems in the same box so chose a couple of amber coloured gems to add that touch of sparkle.  Whilst rummaging around, I found the perfect lace ribbon to adorn the side of the card too.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Autumn/Halloween/Thanksgiving.

Fab 'n' Funky Challenges - Ribbon and or lace

Stampavie and More - Autumn colours

Crafty Cardmakers - Autumn

And so to new beginnings

Welcome to my shiny new blog!

I am hoping to get started with blogging regularly very soon and have decided to start afresh with this blog and seriously do more crafty stuff.  I started this new regime off well with the purchase of a box of 132 Prismacolor pencils.  I have been toying with the idea of investing in a set for while now and took the plunge on Monday morning.  I was so excited when the arrived yesterday and opened the tin with great glee... only to find that they didn't appear to be in any particular order and the OCD in me started to quiver... Not in colour chart order nor colour number order... I broke out into a sweat!  Honestly, the joy of a new box of pencils became a nightmare for me.  I sorted them into the colour chart order, as shown on the bottom of the tin and felt a little happier.  Then, I tried using them and suddenly felt panicked... how would I know where to put them back when I used them?  The colour chart is on the bottom of the tin!!!!

A quick google today found a chart, in the correct order with blank circles to fill in with the colours and that solved two problems for me, not only was I going to know where to put the pencils back in their correct tray, I also had to use every single one of them, twice (as I decided to make two copies of the chart so I can't lose it. Ha!

Sheesh! I haven't had this much of a panicked reaction to new craft supplies since I discovered Promarkers and had to organise them all in a box, complete with a colour stickers I stuck to the end with their colour names written so, so small.

Annnnnd breathe....

Well it was all worth while in the end as you can see from this photo.

What's more, I have actually been colouring an image with them tonight, and I love them!