Mindless Paper Cutting

Well this is the result! I have to say, it is a bit naughty really, in that if I am not putting too much effort into the image, I try to put it into the card.


Usually if I am using pre done images. I take my time and do some dry embossing or something similar to heighten the effect.


But, this evening I was lazy cat and just wanted to do some mindless paper cutting with very litle effort....so I used Joanna Sheen Victorian birthday CD...Now I should have been painting my dragon...but if I start it, I will want to keep doing it and I have no time tomorrow :-(

Cat in the bath

Hehehe, my posting sounds like a Dr Zeuss book doesn't it, can you remember those books "The cat in the Hat". Oh, he was a bad kitty!
This one is another Penny Black image, I do love Penny Black cats, of all my stamping exploits, this one amuses me the most...

It is raining so hard here at the minute, I think I am gonna just go and sleep.....

Word Verification

Just a quick post....
I don't know about any of you but word verification is driving me crazy since the weekend, I cannot make out half of the letters and I am having submit my comments at least three times......so I have turned mine off.

My first Lola

Well, it is a very stormy evening here in the UK..........I just keep thinking how much my sweetpeas are being watered in....
I did buy myself a few seeds today as well, I read ickle pickles blog and thought yeah, some mixed lettuce leaves CAN go in one of my vacant pots since I have been turfing things out in the garden....
Anyway yesterday I made a variety of cards, one of which was my first Lola....

I got some images from the very talented Karen (Crafty Kizzy) in a PIF blog candy...:-)The paper is from a Tim Coffey stack and the sentiment is a Lakeland One
I do rather like the result, its a sort of girlie girls card. It reminds me of a friend I haven't seen a while :-)

Splodge the cat - the first card

Well, this is the last one for today, I do enjoy rainy days nowadays. I just get to do some crafting and its lovely....
Anyway, I just thought I would share the card I did using a photograph of my watercolour..........I did a long and low card because I don't very often make them. The sparkly ribbon across the middle is Mic, I can't remember what the papers were, I'm sorry............

and now, well we are off down the Blue Ginger in a bit :-)
I do love the buffet on a Sunday....
In the meantime, I am going to have a play at drawing dragons...LOL

Tilda & Co Challenge - Eyelets & Natural

Well this weeks challenge is:

EYE EYE ITS A NATURAL FEELING....

For this week's challenge it's abit of a double up,
I Would like to see you use Eyelets if possible ( if you do not own them, then you can leave that part out or use brads)
Along with anything Natural, Could be fibres, Leaves, Straw, Twigs, Papers etc as long as it is Natural with Eyelets ( if you have them )

So here is mine, its been a long time since I have done this one, I have been a bit busy with my painting....but it was good fun, I encompassed last weeks challenge too :-)

I am a bit out of practice with Tilda.....

Cute Card Thursday - Girlie card

Well as the Ice Princess is newly completed, I thought she would make a good subject for a girlie card.............and as the theme for this weeks Cute Card Thursday is for female theme, I thought I would make it ultra girlie with a bit of bling too:

Happy Sunday everyone :-)

Splodge the cat - almost complete

Well just thought I would upload this from a tired one now.........

Splodge the cat, watercolour in progress

Hi there,
Well today has been quite nice considering the forecast up until yesterday was awful...but a little windy for RC flying. So we went along to collect a plane that Andy had bought today from Leicestershire....
But just as we were about to go, Andy got a call and as he was on callout duty, we took a detour. I was prepared and took along my work in progress, so painted a little grass. I recently bought a Koi brush in order that I could be a bit more mobile. You fill the barrel with water a bit like a fountain pen and then it has a sort of long brush type nib. It is proving very useful....but for mobility without water, I would need at least two extra sizes...The only thing that is bugging me is it screws and unscrews backwards...the wrong way!!!!
But, hey I did a little painting while Andy got the job sorted, picked up plane, went and said hello down at our flying field and got home early afternoon...
So then I planted lots of sweetpeas and nastursiums, amongst other things. I have a blanket to cover them up with now if it gets frosty...(I just hope Andy doesn't know the password to my blog - otherwise I think we could see video evidence of my flowers being tucked in for the evening coming to light, Hahahaha).
Anyway, after all that effort, I sat down and did a little more painting, so this is a Splodge update:

Its looking more like a cat, LOL............hope ur having a good w/e :-)

Challenges and Choices

Well, I am trying to get my act together and make an ok card for my sister in law. She is younger than me, more into girly things than me, ya know like handbags and shoes and stuff......
Anyway I need to make her a card for her birthday, now one part of me says fairies (she likes fairies) and it would be nice to send her one of my fairy cards because it is meaningful. But, the other part of me says, make a nice Lola "in the bath". Now I have some Lola images as part of a PIF...............
So come on you 30 somethings, advice please?
Then before that it is my nephews 6th birthday, what do 6 year olds like now? I am a little out of touch, I think you tend to concentate effort where it is required and my parents have been my focus this past year.
Anyway, I made this one today using the papermania blue stack:


And I have started on Splodge.............but I think I have bitten off more than I can chew. In fact so does Andy and Mike tells me cats are REALLY difficult...and it is looking that way :-(


On a positive note, I reckon ya tell tell it is a cat, LOL.
Have a good w/e all X

Voila - The Ice Princess

Well, I think I have done enough for now, I may improve the jewellery a bit, maybe. But, you can see that I gave her some light in her eyes and added eyelashes!. I upturned her mouth a little because she was looking a little bit mizzy. The fur, well that accounted for 3 hours or so.............but I am quite pleased with the way she has turned out, now theres a first ;-)
The next project, well I have some cards to make because there are a few birthdays next month. I quite fancy the idea of having a go at Splodge for a change, although I think it may be difficult...and after that, well I have seen this book on dragons, hahahahaha

Mikes Drawing

Well I am off out again tonight, this will be the second time this week...I went to the Opera with my friend Michelle on Monday night to see Don Giovanni, what a thoroughly bad lot he was, hahaha. I did enjoy the opera though, it was the English Touring Opera and was excellent. I have to say, I do like shows but haven't been for years and have never managed the opera. It was a lovely evening and I had forgotten the "magic of the theatre".
So tonight we are off again with two freinds of Andy's. It is actually "chums night" and as the only female, I am an honourary "chum". Frank and Ken are both retired now and both have a very lively sense of humour.....some time I will show you a picture of our bird table. It has pride of place in the garden because when Frank started his woodworking, we kept winding him up in fun, wheres our bird table then?
However, one day we asked and he went to the car and fetched one. Not only had he made us a beautiful one but because Andy is a crane engineer, he had put a gantry crane within the table.......as we were only ribbing him anyway, it almost choked us both at the time, so thats why it is irreplaceable :-)
So not much progress being made on the Ice Princess this week, although I did manage an hour yesterday....
But before I disappear, today my friend Mike also came across to see me, he had drawn me a picture following a conversation a couple of weeks ago. So I thought I would share it with you:


Isn't it wonderful? previously I have scanned in some of Mikes drawings and added colour but I am not sure I could do this one justice....
I agree with the comments made by some of you on Splodge, he/she(I haven't checked) is a lovely looking cat. I have an idea at the back of my mind that its time I did something a bit different from the fairies......... ;-)
However, at the rate I am socialising, it could be a while before I get to start another project. I do hope you have all had a good day...it is so nice to see the sun :-D

The Ice Princess

I loved that from Joyful, the fact that she has made my snow queen the ice princess, sometimes its good to see what "you" make of an image, does that make sense?
I have to say, I was thinking of leaving SBS 10 but only because I don't want people coming here because they feel obligated....doing things because you think you should tends to be a pain in the ass.
And sometimes, I feel a bit bad, I don't really do stamping as such like some of you!
But, for now I am doing nothing, I love to check up on you all - and if you like to check in here, well its lovely to see you :-)....
In the meantime, I now am gonna go back to painting fur...on my Ice Princess, Snow queen or anything else you would like to call her...hehehe I love it :-)
But, I have a couple of pictures to share from earlier today...........
I have been out pottering in the garden so thought I would show you my little haven....it was such a lovely evening. As you can see I have my pots of little bits and pieces ready for planting but we are still getting an occasional frost at the minute. I have been weeding and feeding the back lawn this evening too - how can you feel guilty over the daisys? sadly they will die, well they will if the stuff works...hey thats debateable ;-) The chances are the grass will also take on jungle qualities?
I haven't done any gardening for some time (you know as in a few years, properly).....a bit like painting but I am beginning to enjoy it again:

But, while I was looking through my photographs, I realised that Andy has been busy and has taken a few of Splodge. Splodge lives next door but has adopted us as only cats can, LOL..
I do think this one just captures the character!

The Snow Queen - Take 2

Well, as I can do this this, being back online :-), I thought I would show you things at some different stages. You can see here that indeed the salt has given me Ice! I'm laughing because it reminds me of the Disney film, Cool Runnings, ice, ice there's ice!
I painted in her skin tones and gave the cloak some more definition in the folds. I am up to several layers in the eyes, so far I did the pupil in black and used whisper pens to do the iris in the first instance in green and a weird blue colour. Then I added flecks of different yellow, then gold, then white and thats about where I am now. I'm afraid she does look a little spooky with no eyelashes but I need to give her some white light in her eye first This is using white gouache which is usually in the final stages and then the eyelashes are last.
I have done an initial paint of her hair with brown but will add more defination and gloss to that too a little bit later.
I have left her brooch because, it is something I will work on towards the end, gold leaf is impervious to water so I leave that till quite late on too.
You can see that I have now started painting in the white brushstrokes of the fur round her bonnet.......I have a lot more of them to do ;-)
But its quite theraputic...

The Snow Queen in Progress

Well after struggling with my last fairy, I analysed why? I think it was because I like painting faces better than figures, in particular by focusing on eyes and somehow because it was full form, I didn't enjoy doing it so much. So whilst I don't always want to paint the same things, next time I shall ensure that I do that sort of painting in one sitting.....
Now the next one isn't like that at all because I have had her in my head for nearly a week......and will be quite happy to work at her. In fact I will need to because eyes need to be built up to give them the depth required. She is also going to have fur round her hood and it takes ages with individual strokes over and over. Anyway, for for now I have drawn her and blocked in the colour. I am having to let her dry because I am trying a new technique. So, yes look close and that is salt all over the page ;-)
It supposedly creates an icy effect, I do hope so :-)

A little overdone

Well this card is a little bit too much...I did add one too many flowers but thought I would share it anyway as there are a couple of the things that may provide a little inspiration to others. Firstly as I am aware I have some fairy followers, the image came from the Joanna Sheen cd, fairies and angels. I do like the images on the cd and find the angels make rather nice sympathy cards too....
The next thing is that I have some of the new Laura Ashley papers, the paisly bit on this card is from the stack. Now I did think that the co-ordinating sticky ribbon was a little steep at £1.99....but I bought it anyway. The good thing is when I opened it I realised that they all have glitter in them which is not immediately evident through the packaging.

Have a good Sunday everyone :-)

You have been framed

Well after last weekend, I took my sketch book along for my friends to give some honest feedback. They told me it was time I did something with the contents to do them justice..........so today I did buy a few frames and mounts and have been putting a couple of my paintings behind glass.
So the moon fairy was the first, probably because I like the subject better than some:

Sorry about the glare off the glass.....but to let you know I have hung her in my hallway. I decided she will do until I can paint something better.....she does look a bit more pleasing in a proper frame and setting - in fact I was a bit shocked at the result - I have had much worse things on my walls, LOL :-)

Update on Cartoon Festival

Well.............I was soooo lazy this morning and didn't get up till after 10! This was very unusual for me and I could have felt a bit under the weather for it - but I was sooooooooo tired. In actual fact, it was great, for the first time in a few days, I felt human. The headache miraculously disappeared and I hadn't even realised how much I had one.....
So we had a nice leisurely breakfast and took ourselves off to the cartoon festival in Shrewsbury...
I am just going to post up a couple of photographs that Andy took to give you flavour. I may add some more tomorrow as I sort them out....

It was pretty good seeing the colour and artists at work, especially the caricaturists...
Anyway, here is one of the cartoonists boards, like I say more to follow.

OK as promised, here are a few more - all photographs are courtesy of Andy :-)

Cute Man Friday

Well actually it was cute card Thursday that gave me the inspiration....check it out here
I have missed loads of my favourite challenges through being offline. Don't get me wrong, I never stick to them all, I am not one for going with the crowd but for somebody who likes painting fairies, I am gutted that I missed last weeks cute card Thursday...something with wings....in fact I made this one but just couldn't upload it in time....

But, I have managed to do this weeks............I looked at the challenge and was pleased. It was just about time I made Andy a card just because I appreciate him SO much...
So here is the card:

The end of the week...

Well, I have had one of those weeks where I have felt tired almost incessantly and I really don't like it, I question myself all the time, I give myself a hard time and I can begin to feel very isolated....I sometime wonder if everyone feels like that. Anyway its a relief now to just breathe out and relax....
I am going to sit down and work on a new fairy in a minute and this is her:

fag packet or what......lol..... I am so glad it is the weekend :-)

My jeans and jumper girl

This one started out as a lady after my own heart.....last week when we dragged down the cases for going away, I found my entire bag of make-up in one of them! I hadn't missed it one bit since Feb 18th! Someone once told me that I was a bit of a tom boy and I can remember saying, who me, nah..............I was the biggest wuss at school of all time, I got picked on silly, tomboy me?
But, strangely over the years I realise I am not quite the person I was back then....
Anyway, as a very informal person, for this one I decided that I would do a less pretty clothed fairy and this is the result.

In reality I have struggled with this one which is unusual....but half way through I lost interest and I am still not entirely happy, yeah I know, I never am....But, I normally still like the subject even if I am being picky on bits of the painting.
I put together a card to see if if there was anything that needed a bit of improvement, photographing pictures and mounting them draws attention to flaws! But, I can't say anything stands out....
One thing is when I do woodland type fairies, I always resort to basic grey because it is so nice...but it has failed to highlight anything I can improve upon, the only observation is that the photo has less depth than the watercolour because of taking it in the dark....

However, writing all this I have realised that, I am in a very odd mood this week. This is rare for me and usually means I am about to come down with something nasty or am lacking sunshine! Anyway, I do have more to post but for now, I think I will go and grab a cuddle.... puts everything right :-)XXXX

Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival - this weekend

I am definately having a rather busy week this week and in fact realised that in some ways it is all the commitments that are getting to me.....so I think its time to ditch a couple of them.
But, my Equality and Diversity course is done. I did wonder at one point why you need a day to teach people to "treat others as you would wish to be treated". But, hey I guess you have to cater for everyone....
I do work for quite a large organisation so I suppose its aimed across the board really. One moment that was quite funny was as I was sitting there this afternoon, I was sitting next to the No2 of the organisation......he leaned across and said Christine "Thats a rather good quality doodle there!"....oooops, LOL!
Anyway this brings me on to something that I would like to do at the weekend. Shrewsbury is holding an annual "International Cartoonists Festival"....
Do you know I work in Shrewsbury and never knew that this was held?..until a cartoonist Royston Robertson popped onto my blog the other day and left a comment...
Anyway I have decided that I really do want to go along and have a little look so hopefully I shall manage to fit it into my weekend.
In the meantime as a taster for anyone else who wants to go along and take a look, I did go and spend some time on Roystons blog which raised a few chuckles.

This one in particular made me laugh because art critiques quite frequently make me howl with laughter at some of the things they say....
Andy also had a smile at the "Outdoor Pursuits" one...if anyone wants to check out a few more, Roystons blog can be found here

Charmouth fly - in

Well as you have gathered it was a lovely weekend spent in good company....
We go on a regular basis so there are a few of us who know each other quite well, in fact to be truthful I am the newcomer! However, when I first joined in everyone treated me as though I had been part of the furniture for ever.........and thats nice because its rare in life that it is so easy to slot in......and to find a group of people that you get on with.
So a few pictures, this one was taken by Andy last year but I had to include it because it West Bay and the shot is just so full of life.



Because I have done such a lot of painting lately for the first time in a lot of years, I wanted to gather some good shots of water and clouds for reference, so this was one of mine for water reflection.

And finally a great shot of a Hughes helicopter, full size..........that just happens to include a freind Paul sitting cuddled up with his pup, Max.

Sadly now its back to work and all the other hassles of life. My son has been a bit of an idiot lately so I am being a bit hard on him and it doesn't come easily to me. I have been creating a card tonight using eyelets which I never could work out how they were supposed to be done, so I have had a go, the result isn't too brilliant though and am not sure Andy appreciated the hammering, LOL. I am in the middle of painting a jeans and jumper fairy but for the moment I don't like her so it has ground to a halt......I have loads of ideas in my head for more (the lack of inspiration was very short lived) but feel faintly aggravated....I don't think I better start much and it doesn't bode well for my diversity course scheduled for tomorrow...have a good one all...

A great weekend and back online :-)

Well, we have just had a lovely weekend away down on the South coast. There is a RC heli flyin which is held twice a year at Charmouth near Lyme Regis. We don't actually do any flying but we do go and meet up with some lovely friends and generally have a good time. So not much time to craft although I did get some stamping done for Jo this afternoon and a little painting here and there :-)
Anyway, I have some pictures to share but yet to unpack but thought I would let you know, we are finally back online. BIG CHEERS, no more having to blog in my lunch break! So to celebrate, I finally uploaded my banner that I have been working on....

A card for a young lady

I was requested to make a card for a young lady that loves fairies. Her Mum also said lilac and silver would be particularly fitting...now I don't very often get to make cards for youngsters and I decided someone who is eleven needs a little bling! So you may not be able to see but there are two ribbons threaded through, plenty of holographic background and of course some fairies (again I wish I knew who to give accolade to but I don't know the artist!). I have to say it was a card that I really enjoyed making! I hope she had a great birthday earlier this week :-)

And now for me follows a very different weekend, probably no time for crafting or painting but there will be a lot of socialising and liquid refreshment......
Have a good one everyone :-)

Penny Black - Bubbly

Hi all,
Well this is just a quick post cos a friend has just invited me out for lunch.....and he didn't have to twist my arm very far, good company and a glass of wine means that I thought about it for all of 30 seconds. Mike is one of those wonderful people with great views on life, shares very similar values to myself and is always up to something, he likes both art and music and is a very accomplished french horn player.
So ......
I ordered these clear images in advance and had forgotten all about them but they arrived on Friday so I had a lovely time stamping them up on Sunday evening....they make me smile, I know they are cutesy but they are just sooo nice. I bought a magazine last week (very rare for me) and it had free papers in it....so this is the result.

Hope you are all well and in good spirits. So many of my friends are suffering at the minute as a result of illness of their loved ones, if you are reading, I am thinking of you :-( X

Moon Fairy

Well, I managed to finish work on my moon fairy. Because she is quite a dark subject, she took a while because I need to build up the layers to provide the stronger colour. In fact I have since been out and bought some stronger watercolour paper as I seem to be working wetter and wetter as time goes on. I particular like splodging the paint on and letting it run, then just dabbing at it with a cloth….Anyway, I used watercolour in the main with some white gouache highlights, her pendant was done with a gold leaf pen….and I also used some glamour dust on the edges of her wings to provide some sparkle (you can't see it from the picture too well).

The background for the card was a "Once upon a time" scrapbook piece. I had just bought one piece from somewhere and thought it would be good for this project…….in fact that piece of card was mainly my inspiration for it, LOL. Unfortunately my inspiration seems to have now walked….whether it is because I have a very busy couple of weeks coming up and know that I may struggle to find time to do any painting? I don't know but this is rare for me, I have no ideas in my head for the next one :-( Perhaps I might buy myself the whole stack……

Snowy Sunday

Well, it snowed in the early hours of Sunday morning so here are a few pictures taken first thing. For those of you not in the UK, it is pretty unusual to get this much snow in April but for a little while it looked magical. This was a shot taken from the study at the front of the house looking up at the hermitage.



This one was taken by Andy (his was a better one than mine), from the back looking out over Bridgnorth.



Finally this is one I took when I half inched his camera for a bit (his is capable of more than my snapshot one) of some poor plants who must have been wondering what the heck was going on….

Crafty Kizzy Blog Candy - Thank You

On Saturday my blog candy came form Karen. It was filled with pink petticoat images and some Sugar Nellies and all kinds of lovely bits and pieces. Thanks very much Karen, its all lovely and don't ya love the little pocket she made for holding the images? And as I did all my blog candy last week, I can just sit back and enjoy it all...........big smile! Her site can be found at http://kraftykizzy.blogspot.com/

A rather elegant lady

This one is a rather lovely stamp but I hate stamping it if you know what I mean. I always end up throwing more images away than the one I end up keeping, its really hard to get a good impression...but nice when you do. I used my new shape cutter for this one :-D
I painted her in watercolour very lightly and then used a gold leaf pen which I got from happy stampers last week to edge the circle. I think the paper may have been some QVC but am not sure (sorry)..


The organza ribbon is just some cheapy from Wilko's but I do like it, it always ties nicely....and a couple of my favourite stampendous peeloffs. Anyway I hope you all have a good weekend, I am going to try and do something with my "Moon fairy" and hopefully spend some quality time with Andy...have a nice time whatever you are up to :-)
P.S. I do seem to have fairy lights on my mantelpiece, LOL

My little green Pixie

Well for those who have read before you will have seen this little fella cos he lives on a vase on the mantle....I had also seen a lovely/strange flower down in a local Indian Restaurant of all places (The Blue Ginger in Bridgnorth which is something else!).......so I did quite a quick watercolour. And it was quick for me, I can end up spending rather a lot of hours on some but this one was created over 2/3 hours in an evening

I knew exactly which paper I wanted to use...this is one of of my K&Co new stash which I thought went quite nicely with this, although to be honest I like the paper so much I could look at it just on its own...so I knew I would be happy with the finished article so to speak which is cheating a bit :-)