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Thank you for stopping by...

Thank you for visiting me today, I hope you see something here that you like. I love colouring digital images and I am on a few Design Teams.I am taking art classes with Kit and Clowder, and Make it Crafty. I hope maybe you will get some new ideas here or you can leave comments and links so I will be picking up new ideas from you. Anyway I will put on the kettle and have some cupcakes at the ready...

Friday 30 December 2011

Christmas cards and thoughts...

This Christmas was a bit of a jumble of feelings. My estranged daughter Sarah had a baby and my sadness at not seeing her or my grandchild hit me quite hard. The things family members do to each other at this time of year seems at odds to the idea of the family togetherness portrayed in Christmas films etc. anyway...I think these are the last of my Christmas cards to show here...
I printed the image onto matt photo paper, sprayed with crafters companion Spray and Sparkle "iridescent". The snowglobe is from mcs christmas bunny snuggles over an image of Jasmine and the flowers are from w.o.c.
I think the fireplace and the snowglobe are from bunny snuggles again, the florishes made with my cuttlebug, the wooden reindeer from a pack of Tesco tree ornaments.
And finally, for my stepdaughter Lisa and her husband Manwai.. the moon was from one of the christmas cd's from mcs, in fact, all the printed embellishments are mcs. The flourish from my cuttlebug, the image in the bauble is from their wedding day this year.
Our Christmas spent with Lisa and her family was lovely. Colin and I played with the children and their toys and it was just so peaceful and at times so funny...we were shattered and I could have slept for a week!
I hope you all had a very Happy Christmas.

Saturday 24 December 2011

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas

I do hope you have a very happy and peaceful Christmas, spending the day however you wish. To be warm and light hearted, well fed and loved. 

Thursday 22 December 2011

Yet more mincepies.

I have been baking mincepies again today. Actually, this is a photo of last time's efforts but today's look the same. I think we all have our own recipe but this is how I make them.
7ozs plain flour
1 3/4oz icing sugar
4 1/2oz unsalted butter cut into small cubes (must be very cold)
pinch of salt
2 duck egg yolks

First I put the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and added the icing sugar and the butter. Then I sat and watched some of a Christmas film while I rubbed the butter into the flour with my fingertips. I then added the egg yolks and started to mix them into the flour/butter mix with a wooden spoon. I do it this way as my hands just get covered with the stuff. After a few moments the stuff comes together and I can get my hands in to form the pastry into a flat round. I lay a piece of clingfilm (large enough to wrap round the pastry) onto my worksurface and place the pastry into the middle of it and wrap the clingfilm round it. The pastry then goes into the fridge for two hours. Near the end of that time I get out my bun tray and grease it well with the wrapper from the butter, it has just enough butter to do the job. I turn on the oven to 170 (I have a fan oven). I get out a couple of little pots, one has some cold water in it and one has a beaten egg. I get my mincemeat and some sugar ready and my rolling pin and two pastry cutters. Then I get the cold pastry out of the fridge and roll it out (not too thinly) on a lightly floured worksurface. I use the larger of the two cutters and cut 12 'rounds'...these are place into the greased bun tray. I then cut 12 of the smaller 'rounds' and put these to one side. I use a teaspoon to place the mincemeat into the little pastry cases and dip my finger into the water and moisten the edges of the pastry cases, this helps the lids to stick. The I place the little lids onto the waiting pastry cases and press lightly to seal. I put an eggwash onto the lids and sprinkle a little sugar over them. Then they go into the oven for 15 minutes. When they are ready I take them out of the oven and leave them in the bun tray for a while before getting them out using a teaspoon and placing them onto a rack to cool. They are so yummy eaten warm but they do freeze really well.
There are so many ways to make these but this works for us....and I think I can hear Colin doing a spot of quality control in the kitchen! Hummmm....

Wednesday 21 December 2011

Who's a lucky girl then?

Woohoo...Colin has bought me a cricut create! I must be on Santa's 'nice' list! He ordered it yesterday and I was told it will be here before Christmas. Now then, is it a ploy to get me to do as much housework as I can so that I can play when it arrives? Well...it worked! I am going to clear a pathway through my craft room and get everything ready for its arrival-I knew I would find a use for those bits and pieces of pretty papers, I am all excited and keen to get my hands on this fantastic piece of kit and I will be visiting loads of your blogs to get some ideas. Colin has been busy taking photos of my cards and stuff so I will get up to date with that as well. And maybe, just maybe I will get some more mincepies baked later today. Anyway, I am going to be scooting round so if I am passing by the computer I will stop by and say hello.

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Do you think I like purple?

Another image from dulemba.com they really are amazing digi's and so easy to colour.
pearlescent card from the Range, flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts, coloured with promarkers, papers, ribbon and buckle from stash. I have made this for my hairdresser...I am off there in a few moments to be re-purpled! Yes, I have purple hair, not bright purple but still an obvious purple. I will be taking a tub of hot chocolate drink with me and I would have taken some mincepies but they won't be ready in time. I think Colin took some photos of the last batch so I'll put them on here when I come back. Hoping you all have a very nice Tuesday, keep warm.

Saturday 10 December 2011

So pretty....

This is another image from Elizabeth at dulemba.com  I am amazed she allows us to practise colouring with her amazing images. This is printed onto the Daler Rowney Bristol Board, coloured with promarkers and embellished with Wild Orchid flowers. The background is card from my stash and the star is from a large set of christmas decorations which Tesco has on sale at the moment...I think they are just tree decorations. The greeting from Kanban.
November, for me, has been really difficult but this month is going to be much better. Colin bought me a halogen oven and today I cooked a chicken in it. Took hardly any time at all and all I had for dinner was half a little chicken. Cooo....I think I could live on roast chicken!

Sunday 13 November 2011

My first....

I have wanted to be able to colour and shade images for so long. I have visited other blogs and been amazed at their talents. I have tried unsuccessfully to learn about shading etc but now I am ready to show my efforts... There is an amazing artist who has her own site where she provides the most beautiful digital images for free to enable us to practice colour techniques. You can find this amazing artist Elizabeth O. Dulemba dulemba.com  it was there that I found this little fairy who was so easy to colour. I downloaded a few digital images and printed them on the most amazing paper called Daler Rowney Bristol Board-Airbrush this was only £5.95 from Jarrolds in Norwich...they are a family business but I expect you can get this anywhere. So, this was coloured using promarkers and I went a bit mad with my first order at Wild Orchid Crafts, haven't they got the most amazing stuff!!! so the flowers were from w.o.c. and the sentiment a little something using my craft studio. I hope you like it.

Monday 7 November 2011

One way to use images from Polkadoodle

This is the way I use images from Polkadoodle discs in My Craft Studio. I am sure there are much easier ways but this works for me. It is a bit long winded and you may find you can cut corners but this has been quite successful.
Make sure you have the 'Paint' option available from the start menu. Insert Polkadoodle disc. Choose and click on the image you want to work with. Go to the drop down 'Edit' menu. Copy file to clipboard. Go to the start menu and select 'Paint'. Go to the drop down 'Edit' menu. Select 'Paste'. Your selected image will then be in front of you. Again go to the drop down 'Edit' menu. Choose 'Save as' and you can save and name  the image where you can easily find it. Close down 'Paint' and you are back to the Polkadoodle disc. You can then open mcs and use the image as you would any other saved image. There are ways to trim the image and only save the part you want to work with but I am quite happy to have the whole image in mcs and I can crop, lassoo or scissor the image there. Like I said...there will be much easier ways to do this but this works for me so, if like me, you have spent days wondering how on earth can you use these lovely images then maybe give this way a try..

Sunday 6 November 2011






I hope this works ok...please let me know if the image comes out huge again. Those gremlins just don't know when they're not wanted! I have really missed blogging and seeing what you are all up to. This card is made with the image from polkadoodle's Pretty Sweet, flowers from mcs, angel from Kanban and sundry items from stash.

Monday 24 October 2011

Right....I hope this image isn't swamping the blog. I am chasing gremlins at the moment as I can't see images on the blog. If anyone is hopping by my blog...is this image normal size? would be grateful if you could leave a comment.

another trial image

Sunday 23 October 2011

Test image

I am still trying to upload a picture to my blog....can anyone see this clearly and normal size?

Saturday 22 October 2011

Craft Fair in Bunwell

Well, I had a lovely day at the local craft fair. The crafters had some really fine work on show . I had quite a successful day selling all of my lanterns, treasure boxes and also a few cards. I would have liked to have shown a photo here but there are gremlins at work in my blog and for some reason I cannot post any pictures. Goodness knows what I have done so any suggestions would be gratefully received. I will keep trying with pictures so please let me know if they turn out huge again.

Saturday 15 October 2011

A polkadoodle christmas

At last...this is my first christmas card using the polkadoodle disc. I did change the image in mcs as the face on the image wasn't very pretty-I just lassoo'd it out and added a face from pretty sweet disc also by polka' then it was just a case of dipping into my stash for the gems and ribbons.

Thursday 13 October 2011

Polkadoodle woohoo

Yesterday was not a good day for crafting...as you can read in my last posting I just couldn't get to grips with the polkadoodle discs. Well.......after exchanging many emails with Dot at polkadoodle, a phone call with Tracey also at polka' and then an early evening phone call from Dot I can finally use the discs with mcs!!! I adore the images and for a cack handed colourist like me it is nothing short of a miricle. I will of course show the finished, long awaited autumnal card as soon as.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Polkadoodle disaster

Because I am in love with the cards made by Mina and Teresa and the craft savvy blog owners and because I cannot colour in a fraction as well as them I decided to give polkadoodle discs a try. I adore the images, they are stunning and I couldn't wait to try them out. I must be the only person ever to be totally unable to use the discs. Any tutorials I have been able to find show how to paint them. I don't want to paint them I just want to either use the images in mcs or at least put several of the images on one page and print them off. I have spent two days now trying to get some sense out of these discs. I have tried the snapshot option which sometimes works then on the next image decides not to work. I have tried copy and paste again it works on some of the images but then the others copy over the same size as a postage stamp. I have tried watching the create and craft demos but got so exasperated at all the wittering about how wonderful they are and how christmas is coming, and the weather and ailments that I just cannot put myself through another minute. For the sake of my diet please would someone tell me what to do? If not, chocolate awaits. 

Saturday 8 October 2011

More hot chocolate needed






Once I had started dipping into my stash I found it wasn't too bad after all but I still needed more hot chocolate to keep me going. The papers are from my stash as are the flowers and gems. The topper and sentiment are Kanban, the flourishes are a die and my cuttlebug. When I was visiting other blogs and saw beautiful cards in pastel shades I decided this was for me...I think I am hooked on girly.

Finally using my stash

Since joining in with the docrafts bloghop I have been inspired by the beautiful work on several of the other blogs. So at last I am actually using my stash! It has been a long hard road convincing myself that my preciousssss stuff isn't just for me to secretly gaze at, thank you Mina and Teresa and those other crafty folk, who, I think have shown that it is a good thing to do. Anyway, here is my first effort.
papers from Signature Christmas
card, angel and sentiment from Kanban
flowers from my stash
I used my cuttlebug for the shapes.

I have had to have a sit down with a hot chocolate as I came over all funny after having dipped into my 'stuff' but I have started so I will carry on. Hope you like it.

Friday 30 September 2011

A Christmas Treasure Box



This was made the same way as the spring treasure box. I think this stamp is the prettiest of the treasure box stamps and goes quite well with the christmas medallion on the top. It took ages to complete with the different colour glitters and the decoupage, you can make it a flat medallion but I think I prefer it this way.

More Christmas plastic canvas


These have also been made over the years and usually stand in my cabinet surrounded with that plastic snow stuff. I quite like these figures although the house was a ..... to make. I don't think I will be making anything else as big but I could do with some more Santa's helpers.  I did make a smaller version of the sleigh and the two reindeer to go with these images but I haven't seen anything in the last few years that would interest me enough to make me add to the collection, but I keep looking.

Friday 23 September 2011

I thought I would like to share this idea with you. It is something I always hang up at Christmas and I am adding to the theme every year. In World of Cross Stitch or any good cross stitch magazine they often have Christmas patterns over a couple of issues. The patterns asked for 14 count aida but I wanted them to be larger so I used 10 count plastic canvas.  Here I have cross stitched Santa's sleigh onto plastic canvas leaving a stitch wide border around the edges and cut it out. Then I cross stitched Rudolf and friend also onto plastic canvas, left a border and cut out. I have three nails on my wall and I wrapped a long length of ribbon between the three nails. I then attatch the sleigh to one then the two reindeer to the other two nails covering the ends of the ribbon. Then it is just a case of using tiny pegs to clip Christmas cards to the ribbon.

Holiday in the Peak District


We have just returned from a weeks caravanning holiday in Bakewell in the Peak District. Amazing scenery, mountains and wonderful old buildings and dry stone walls. I was shattered after climbing down 105 tiny steps into the Speedwell Cavern wearing a hard hat, then folding myself up into a subterranean boat, bending under the cave roof on the way to another huge cavern with a bottomless pit. Then it was back into the boat, bending down under the rocks and back to those dratted 105 steps upwards again. My legs were shaking so much that I had to stop for a brief rest several times on the way up. We had Sunday dinner in a really ancient pub...there were so many bits and pieces around us it was like altered art on a pub!

Friday 16 September 2011

Found template

I am so excited....I have found the template for this curious insert. It does take a while to get the hang of it but when completed does have a wow factor. If anyone wants to make this then the template is in the download store on craft rabbit. I have simply called it Stairs. I would really be interested to see what some of you very talented folk could do with it.

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Lost template

Do you remember this design from years ago? I had printed it onto cardstock and cut along solid lines, folded along the dotted lines, then it took forever folding hills and valleys. I know it was a .....to make, somewhat fiddly and time consuming but I thought it did look good when finished. I just can't find my copy anywhere and I wouldn't know where to start looking on the net. Apart from using it on an insert like in this photo I'm not sure what else it can be used for. Any ideas please?

Thursday 8 September 2011

Treasure Box

I love these treasure boxes. I have had this stamp for some years now, it is one of my favourites.
I used
Creative expressions stamp HH1218L
versamark inkpad
Ivory pearlised cardstock
embossing powder
colouring pencils
crystal glitter
satin ribbon
flower from stash
posh tissue paper

First of all I stamped the image onto the card, used embossing powder and heated it. I made 7 of these panels and cut round each one.. Then I cut away the left hand tab from each panel and stuck them all together in a row. I coloured them in pastal shades and used a clear glue and crystal glitter. I stuck the final panels together and  I  cut a base and a top. I folded in the bottom panels, interweaving them and stuck the base inside the box. I found some posh tissue paper in Tesco's and 'artistically' crumpled it into the box. I laid the top onto the tissue paper and folded the tops of the panels interweaving them. Then I stamped, embossed, coloured, cut out and glittered a medallion and attached a long length of ribbon to it. When I closed the box and laid the medallion on the top I was able to wrap the ribbon round the box and tie it into a bow. Then a flower from my stash finished it off quite nicely.

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Altered art for the kitchen


I hope everyone who visits this blog had a good Bank Holiday break, we had a lovely few days off and had a brilliant meal out with the family on the Monday. I have been painting the kitchen for months now...it's not that its a big kitchen but it's actually quite nice to go slowly with the radio on (like proper decorators and builders) so I have been tarting up my cross stitched picture frames to make a sort of european cafe effect. I used to live in Munich and my favourite cafe used to have allsorts of knic nacs on the walls...I think I quite like the finished frames, I don't think Colin is quite sure if he likes them. Anyway, I have a new rug to go under the table which I am quite excited about (I really must get out more...I used to get excited about new shoes, bags etc) and tonight I will post some photos of the finished frames.Once again, any hints and tips would be gratefully received.

Saturday 27 August 2011

Health and Safety rules? ...

I have the mcs disc Christmas with Bunny Snuffles and Friends. Again the images can be brought together to tell a story. This was put together with mcs professional with the dropshadow selected. I like the way that several 'parcel' images can be used to provide a rather rickety 'ladder'. It was printed onto glossy photo paper which I will spray with crafters companion Spray and Sparkle.

Tuesday 23 August 2011

Well caught, that teddy

I really love these images. This one was from the docrafts every occasions disc. The two teddys were in such a position that I just knew they would work together and so, along with the embellishments and papers they just told a story. The drop shadow tool really adds something special and gives a look of decoupage to the design. The rest of the papers etc are the same as for the previous designs.

Sunday 21 August 2011

Eeek!

Is it me or are spiders getting bigger this year? I was just finishing my last post when out of the corner of my eye I saw Aragon! Yes I know he appeared in Harry Potter but I think he or an offspring was here in my craft room! I shrieked ( setting off next doors dog)  for my husband (who I must say did get here fairly quickly)  and, armed with an original native rainstick he dispatched said spider to that great web in the sky. He showed me the evidence from under the stick. I was suitably grateful and managed to settle down again....I then thought I heard the music from Jurassic Park and there it was again!!! Ok so it was limping but still bloomin' fast. Again I shrieked, again next doors dog barked, again my husband dashed upstairs-I was actually suitably impressed as he doesn't usually move that fast (my husband not the spider) again he went on the attack with the rain stick as the spider was going down the stairs to meet him. I think the danger is over, I don't think there is much left of the spider, but tonight is going to be a very long night. I am very proud of my husband. 

Santa with a couple of tattoos

I have finally started the Christmas cards for this year. I have had this image for years now, goodness knows where I bought it from but if you would like to make one for yourself then you could go over to Craft Rabbit and there you will find it in the Download Store under Christmas. Anyway, I opened a page in My Craft Studio professional and put together the wall and window with a window box with flowers. Then using the digital punch I cut away the section of wall behind the window. In one of the winter MCS discs I found the wallpaper which I slotted behind the window frame. I resized Santa and he went behind the frame but in front of the wallpaper. Then it was just a case of choosing the greeting and placing it on the front of the wall. It was then printed out onto super smooth paper using 'professional quality...3 stars'. I ran an A4 sheet of matching card through my printer with my 'made by' on the back and stuck the design onto the front with double sided tape. A quick spray of Crafters Companion Spray and Sparkle gave the whole thing a lovely glittery shine. Then it was just a case of putting another sheet of super smooth paper into the printer and printing off an insert which was fixed inside the card with a small amount of double sided tape.
I think this is an ideal alternative to cute Christmas cards..maybe for someone who themselves have a tatoo or three? 

Saturday 20 August 2011

I'm sorry..Tatty Teddy

I bought the Especially For You double disc from Docraft. The Christmas and All occasions discs full of beautiful images to play around with. Firstly I chose the character from the all occasions selection and didn't like what he was leaning on so I went into embellishments and found the little flowers which I dragged onto the character. Then I chose the 'greeting' label and dragged it to the card front. I changed the colour using the colouriser and again added some of the flowers to cover up the stars in the corner of the greeting. I chose the background and again dragged it onto the work area. I used super smooth paper when printing from these discs as the pastel shades show up really well with a slight sheen. I also use this paper when printing an insert. Then I placed an A4 card into the printer so I could print the 'made by'. I then trimmed the finished printed design and stuck it to the card with double sided tape.  You never know when you might have to say sorry...but I am ready when it happens.

Friday 19 August 2011

Tatty Teddy by Docraft

I have the Especially For You double disc featuring that lovable Tatty Teddy. I have been having a load of fun with the designs as I have been able to almost make a story on the front of my cards with the different elements (I will take some photos this weekend)  The designs are so sweet I have a problem limiting myself to making just a few before going out or another few before cooking tea. Luckily Coronation Street is on so I have been able to sneak away and craft upstairs.

Here we go...

So, this is the start of our first Applejack blog. Anything to do with craft or baking or gardening could find its way here. I can have fun with most aspects of crafting and baking but for the gardening hints and tips its over to Colin-owner of Applejack Garden Services.