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.

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..

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.

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

Test image

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

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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!

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.

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?

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.

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.