Say goodbye, say hallo ...

I can't believe that not only has another year all but gone, but that another decade has, too! Was it really 10 years ago there was so much angst about the so-called Millennium Bug, with much doom and disaster foretold?

I'm not really one for big NYE celebrations, but I would like to wish all my blog-hopping visitors a very happy new year. May 2010 bring us all good things ...

Meanwhile, enjoy this quick page courtesy of Jessica Sprague!

Just two more to show you!

I couldn't resist these quick pages from Pickleberry Pop's free 12 Days of Christmas downloads. They're just gorgeous! I think the cats are pretty cute, too. Willow is the solo grey girl in the one-photo LO, while Scampy and Neels are the tabby and ginger pusscats in t'other one. Hope you enjoy them!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE

Season's greetings from Oscar

I couldn't resist playing with this lovely quick page made by Lorie M at Pickleberry Pop. The page was one of several goodies given away as a free download at the site over the 12 days of Christmas.

The star of the page (aside from the lovely graphics, of course) is Oscar, number one hairy cat! I will try and find some time to upload some of the other gorgeous PP page goodies tomorrow!

It's chrissssssstmas ... well, ok, not quite!

Yes - I have finished making all but one of my Christmas cards.

No, I don't have any photos of what I've made, I'm afraid they all got posted off in a rush!

Yes, I do wish I'd taken some pix.

No, I don't think I'll ever remember to shoot before posting!

I have got a pic of the Photoshopped card I originally made last year - but have made some changes and added some embellishments to the 2009 version. Mr Mole wanted me to reproduce the card to send to the lovely new vets are dogs are now registered with, hence the 'repeat' version.

Hope you like the results!

Is it Friday again?

The older you get, the faster the days seem to fly past, my mum told me when I was younger. How right she was! I can't believe that not only is it Friday again, but it's also December, and before I know it, it's going to be Christmas! Heeeeeeelp!

I'm hoping to get some time this weekend to make some Christmas cards. Last Sunday, I managed to spend some time exploring how my new Promarkers work, using some Christmas-themed rubber stamps and the ink that doesn't bleed (forgotten what it's called, someone remind me please!). So I now have a number of penguin, nativity crib and festive animal images coloured in and ready for use. Not entirely sure how I'm going to work with them - will report back next week some-time.

Meanwhile, my photo for today show a LO I made some time ago, featuring Kalika, called 'Can we play stick?' She so loves to chase and fetch, and these photos show her eagerly awaiting the next throw! We're trying to use more ball / rope / rubber toy these days as her incessant sticking is wearing her teeth down! Trying to stop her playing with the wretched things is like trying to stop the rain from falling ..... pretty impossible LOL!

Have a good week, everyone!

PS Just found this http://toomanystamps.blogspot.com/ with some lovely stamps and great ideas on how to use them! There's some blog candy on offer too .... go check it out, and if you win, share your prize with me LOL! Yummy Ippity stamps ......

Wot no crafting?

That is correct. I still have nothing crafty to show you. With a major choral concert, rehearsals, Slimming Word, huge announcements at work, Slimming World club and a family member's house move to contend with, I've not had a spare hour in the day (or night LOL!).

So you'll have to put up with another photo of non-craftiness again! I thought you might enjoy this glimpse of Tallis, one of our three dogs, enjoying himself on the beach. The photo was taken during our holiday on the Isle of Wight last month. Tally really did enjoy himself!

Failing successfully!

I think that's what I'm doing right now - failing successfully to keep a regular flow of posts on my blog. It is supposed to be a crafty-themed blog, and the truth is, I've got no new pix to show you that fir the category. I forgot to take pics of the 90th birthday word book I made. I haven't got round to taking a snap of my my most recent LO (it was from a class taught at PaperArts but was also going to be used for the UKS cyber crop, and I didn't want to post anything up before the crop ....).

So a photo from my happy snaps album it will have to be. I love stained glass windows and can't resist taking photos of them. I am always amazed at how well they turn out. No idea where this one is from, except that it's in a church on the Isle of Wight! (That's helpful, isn't it LOL!!)

About time!

I admit it. I have not posted for ages. I've not created for ages- well, nothing I've taken photos of, anyway! I have spent money on stash (went to the Hobbycrafts show at the NEC and came home with a Cricut cart, embossing folders, an MDF house book, book rings, blooms, magazines, some Promarkers and a few other bits and pieces). I have pretty much finished a word book for a rellie's 90th birthday - no pix yet, sorry. I have made some 'with sympathy' type cards for my mum to use, and for a friend whose lovely mum sadly died of cancer a few weeks ago. But no pix of anything crafty.

So I will have to show you a pic of something else, instead, I thought. Which is why you have a slightly arty-farty photo of some teasels posing against a background of The Needles, Isle of Wight. I've got to say, that holiday seems like sooooooooooooooo long ago now!

And yes, I have realised this is the unedited version - complete with wonky sea horizon! But you get the drift .....

Well, now, I had a bit of fun with this one. A True Friend had a new challenge (no 57, I think) all linked to pets and super-heroes. I thought this might squeeze in under the wire as James Bond used to be billed as an all-action hero kind of guy. So I've chosen a photo of Tallis enjoying his first visit to the seaside, rising from the waters ... ok, not quite in the style of a Bond Babe, but close enough, don't you think?!

Digi supplies from A Teets, A Cox (Frenchcafe), C Renee, East West Scraps, Lesley St Clair and House of 3.

A dog's eye view

I thought I'd share this LO featuring Tok (yes, him again, sorry!!!!). He's seen here contemplating the Needles during our holiday on the Isle of Wight. We were lucky to have a couple of days of decent weather during our break and this was one of them .... We walked across an area called Headon Warren and the views were great.

The page is made using Amagination's Esther kit, available from Scrap it Sassy (you can see the link to the right). It's one of two pages I've made from the kit as part of my CT 'responsibilities'.

Oops, I'm back!

Trouble with going on holiday is all the work you have to catch up with when you get back! That's my feeble excuse for not blogging recently. I will try and make amends for my absence, not that anyone cares whether I've blogged or not, I suspect LOL!

I'm not that happy with this particular LO, which is one for my Scrap it Sassy.com design team efforts, but I think I'd better stop agonising over it and move on to the next one I need to make with the lovely Esther kit by Amagination. I want to do the kit justice, so maybe if I move on and work with something completely different I'll achieve a more satisfying result!

http://crafterskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/09/amazing-blog-candy.html

I have to share this link to some most amazing blog candy - this has to be one of the most generous offers I've come across! So if you don't own a Silhouette, this might just be your chance ... of course, if you win it, you'll have to give it to me ha ha!!!!!!!

Two more pages before I go!

Before I go where, I hear you ask!!!! Off on a week's holiday - the first proper break we've had for years! I'm looking forward to so R&R, some treats and some nice long walks with the woofs. Oh yes, they're coming too!

So I've two pages for you today, both created with a kit I was sent as part of my creative team role at Scrap it Sassy. They have soooooooooooooo many designers on their books, that their CT peeps don't always get to use all of them. If there are any that miss out, you can volunteer to make two extra pages with one of their kits (that's over and above the two pages per kit, two kits per month rule).

The kit I used is called My Hero by Mis Foxys Designz, and it would be great for those of you with family or friends in the services.

Hope you enjoy! See you when I get back ......

A new challenge

The latest challenge on the A True Friend blog is this:

The theme for this challenge is movement, or lack of! Whether you have a big and bouncy dog that likes to charge about, a kitty cat that prowls around or maybe a lizard that just likes to lounge about in the sun,we want to see your pets in action! Running, swimming, shaking, rolling or just lazing- show us your pages of your pets on the move.

And the photo you can see shows you my own response. Thanks to Shabby Princess and her lovely Harvest kit, and Chistina Renee for the other lush stash!

A rather different take

This just shows how one kit can be used in a very different way. It's still the lovely Oscar kit, made by Scrappin' Page Designs and available from www.scrapitsassy.com but as you can see, it's a completely different kettle of fish (or should that be duck!) from my post from last week.

The duck is courtesy of the excellent Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Gloucestershire. Go there if you have the chance, and make sure you take your camera.

Playing with paintbrushes

Aha! today I appear to have discovered another way of playing with the paintbrush setting in my ancient copy of Adobe Photoshop. I'm seriously considering buying myself Elements 7 (think that's the latest version) to play with at home, but for now, I'm still learning how to use this version. The more I discover, the more I find there is to discover, if you so what I mean!

Anyway, I digress. Today's page is one I'm quite pleased with. It features our lovely cat, Willow, again, for which I make no apology. The kit is called Oscar (I had to have this kit as it's got the same name as one of our other cats LOL) and is by a very talented lady called Scrappin' Page Designs. Sorry, but I don't know her 'real' name.

You can get the kit from www.scrapitsassy.com complete with papers, elements and a fab alpha.

I really enjoyed playing with this one and am looking forward to trying to come up with something completely different with the same kit. The thinking cap is already on ....

It's tree time!

No, not a typo (it isn't even lunchtime yet as I type!). It is tree time, or silver birch time to be precise. I love these elegant trees in my mum's front garden. She's going to miss them when she moves!

The layout is made using digital supplies from Scrap it Sassy - the kit in question is Colour Fun, created by the clever Little Miss Foxy.

I've treated myself to some closing-down-sale goodies from http://www.christinareneedesigns.com/shoppe/index.php?main_page=index so stand by for some pages using her lovely stuff.

Another one from Scrap it Sassy

I don't know how well you can see this, but here's my latest offering created as part of my CT work for Scrap it Sassy. The kit is fab and is by Miss Foxy's Designs and is called Colour Fun. And so it is - fun, that is! The papers are vibrant and striking but surprisingly versatile, and I'm looking forward to creating the next page from the kit (we are asked to produce two pages per kit).

As usual, one of our dogs is playing a starring role on the page (step forward, Kalika). Have you noticed that my pictures of her almost always show her with her tongue hanging out!

Going round in circles

This is a LO I made for Scrap it Sassy, using Scrappy Redhead's Vintage Dreams kit. You can see that it's quite different to the one I made a few days ago using the same kit. It shows how versatile these collections can be. As they say, the only limit is your imagination!

The flower photo was taken on a visit to my mum a few weeks back. She wanted some photos of the garden as she's hoping to move soon, and wanted some pictures to remind her of what she used to have!

Can cats frown?

I think Willow can. At least, she seems to whenever I catch her in what I think is a photogenic pose, and I start pointing my camera at her. She just looks so cross! I used some nice MM rub-ons and Basic Grey alphas to help me create this page, which is one of the several I made at a recent 12 hour crop at Paper Arts. The flower was from The Range. I can't recall the maker of the paper, but it's a scrummy piece of card stock for sure!

This and that ....

Bit of a Mole's Mix, this post. Something and nothing, really! Here's the something .... a lovely opportunity to win some blog candy from http://squigglestamps.blogspot.com/ Be sure to pay the blog a visit and bookmark it for future reference.

The LO is the first ever created by my for Scrap it Sassy, using Scrappy Redhead's Vintage Dreams kit. I have another one in the sausage machine using the same kit, but quite, quite different. I'm using some of the techniques I learned from Jessica Sprague's free course to put it together.

I've got some other LOs to post up, too ('real' ones, not digi) but I think I might save those for another day.

Hope you're having a good week. Thanks for stopping by!

Yikes! What have I done?!!!!

I can't make my blinkin' blinkie blink ..... but scarily, I have been lucky enough to be 'allowed' to join the creative team for Scrap it Sassy (http://www.scrapitsassy.com/). I'm terrified and delighted in equal measures. However, the chance to play with some lovely digi stash was too much to resist, so I shall do my best to come up with the goods!

Please come and visit me to check up on my progress, and nag me if I'm lagging behind in my design team duties. I've already downloaded my first kit so shall be getting to work on that as quickly as I can (before Deborah at SIS changes her mind LOL).

My photo, just in case you're wondering, features a curious swan I encountered in Malmesbury at the weekend, having a good peck at its reflection in the car's bodywork. He (or maybe she!) spent ages beating its beak against the panelling. Hope there wasn't too much damage!

Time for another?

For some reason, I was particularly pleased with this layout, which was another product of my 12-hour crop. I liked the way the papers drew on the blue glazed flower pot, and also reflected the browns and golds in Tok's coat.

And it proves boy dogs can have flowers, too LOL! These were cut out of some papers I had with me, and have jewels as centrepieces (although you can't see them on this photo).

The lettering comes from a variety of odd alpha bits and pieces. I'm always trying to use them up and begrudge wasting a single letter!

The paper edging, by the way, was hand cut. I made myself a cardboard template from a scrap and it seemed to work pretty well.

The 'on the case' title is chosen because Mr Mole is fond of using it when talking about Tok ... "It's ok,"he says. "He's on the case!" The case in point usually refers to a one or biscuit or some other tasty tidbit. The dogs in our house get fed a better diet than we do, I sometimes think!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend full of craftiness!

More from my 12 hour crop

I thought you might like to see a little more evidence of my creativity from the recent 12 hour crop I attended. This time, the focus is on Kalika, our collie lab cross. The photo I've used was taken not that long after we got her (she seems soooo small in the pic .....)

The LO has more of a 3-D feel in real life - the photo seems to have flattened it. All the circles are mounted on 3d sticky fixers. And the title is made using alpha rub ons by, I think, Memory Makers.

A True Friend Challenge

The challenge on this site this time round was all to do with pets and movies! Here's my take, using lovely stash from Amy Teet, House of 3, Katie Hadfield, Java Joe and Summer Driggs.

Hope you enjoy it .....

Meanwhile, I have discovered a new blog, and if you like Basic Grey, then you need to pay the site a visit!

http://basicgreychallenges.blogspot.com/

I warned you!!!!

Did you listen? No, clearly not, or you wouldn't be reading this. So now you will have to put up with another layout I completed .... at the 12-hour crop at PaperArts last weekend.

Another cat's the star of this one, our lovely ginger boy, Neilsen. Or squealy nealy as we fondly refer to him. (He does make a bit of a racket.)

Papers are Blonde Moments (from a Crafty Pastimes sale a while back!) and some others which I have forgotten the name of (may be Scenic Route???). The orange flower came from The Range. Gems are the sticky-back ones. Lettering is Basic Grey and another odds-and-sods leftover from my alpha stash. I made the bracket myself. Journaling is my own handwriting (I've rubbed out the pencil guidelines I drew to make sure I kept myself in a straight line!)

Here I am again

Here is my offering for today - a page I made before going on a stay-cation .... otherwise known as a few days not at work, spent at home!
The star of the show is lovely Oscar, and he's residing here on DCWV All Dressed Up glitter papers which I love.
The tags are cut with a punch and letters - thanks to Basic Grey stickers. The flower was somewhere in my stash, and the butterfly is a hologram-style peel-off stuck on vellum and cut out.
The Fiskars threading water punch came out again as you can see .....
The 'cat' part of the title was printed on acetate and after a disaster with non-show glue failing to live up to expectations, it was restuck on more DCWV paper, Stickles added , and then stuck on.
The photo makes the page look quite flat but there's more texture and 3D-ness to be seen when you view the real life page.
I went to a 12 hour crop at the weekend so have lots more to show you in the coming days. You have been warned .....

A challenge from Hodge Podge

I thought I'd try my hand at the word / phrase prompt challenge raised by the Hodge Podge girls.

This week's challenge was journalling-related, and we were asked to start with the words: "Today you..." and list 10 things that your subject did today. I cheated slightly and based my page on yesterday - but that is when I started working on the digi layout so it isn't really breaking the rules!

I used supplies from Jessica Sprague, House of Three, Moulin Rouge, Shabby Princess, Raspberry Road and Java Joe - thanks guys!

The photo features (oh, what a surprise!) one of our lovely menagerie - Tok, our Hungarian Vizsla.

I might not be around much after today for a few days as I'm taking some time off, and don't plan to be on line that often. But you never know, I might just drop in to say hallo!

A purr-fect purchase!

Ha! I have been shopping! At the weekend I went to a new shop in town which my husband had spotted last time he was shopping there. He told me a 'needed' to visit it, as it had some nice crafty things in it. Ever the obedient wife, I dutifully called in.

I came out with some Inkadinkado cat stamps that I've been lusting after ever since someone posted a link to them on UK Scrappers. They were a great price, too.

You can see above what I've done with the very first stamp I used. I had on my desk a fab kit from Sarah's Cards, so I rummaged through this for supplies.

In case you're interested, here's how I made this:

1) Cut one rectangle of pink, and a larger one of the patterned paper.

2) Run the patterned piece through the Fiskars Threading Water punch.

3) Adhere the pink strip to the right hand side of the folded card base. Add the patterned piece on the left hand side, making sure you overlap the two papers to hid the joins!

4) Stamp the cat in black on white card, and emboss with clear embossing powder. Colour in the flowers with pink, and then cut out the cat, leaving a white border.

5) Stick green ribbon near foot of card.

6) Mount cat using 3D style sticky fixers, overlapping the ribbon.

7) Create Happy Birthday sentiment in cerise using Word and Word Art to curve the text. Cut out and mount with 3D sticky fixers. Add two small flowers at each end of the banner and place gem in flower centres.

8) Add larger bloom as shown, adding a gem for the centre.

9) A girl can never have too many gems - so I added one to the cat's nose as a final touch!

Stop press! Mole actually does some crafting!

I realise this will come as a shock to some of you, but I've actually done some crafting this weekend! Not only have I made some cards (a couple are shown above) but I've also finished (I think ....) a scrapbook page layout. No photo of that, I'm afraid, but there will be one soon, I'm sure.

I used my Cricut Create to make both cards. For the 50th birthday card I used Basic Grey card for the base and added ribbons, threads, Stickles, gems and flowers for adornment. I now need someone to have a 50th birthday so I can actually send it LOL!

The 90th card used a combination of Wild Card and Storybook carts, with ribbon, gems and Stickles to decorate it. The photo's very poor and doesn't do it justice - it did look better in real life, honest!

Gone to the dogs

I finally got round to doing the last-but-one class challenge on Jessica Sprague's website this afternoon. It took some doing, I can tell you! First challenge was discovering that the keystrokes in the tutorial had a completely different result in my version of Photoshop. Instead of enabling me to copy three boxes, it insisted on moving all three. I dare say there's a different command I ought to have used, but I am blowed if I know what it is.

I used a slightly more labour-intensive method of creating nine masks, and then had memory failure when it came to recalling how to clip the photos onto the masks. Much to me relief, I eventually twigged what I was doing wrong, and completed my collage effect.

The class then suggested adding brushes to 'frame' the collage but I couldn't find any brushes large enough to suit. And finding compatible brushes for my version of Photoshop is nigh on impossible. It doesn't help when the Adobe guide tells you to use the size slider .... and I can't find this anywhere. I must be very thick LOL.

Anyway, I am still quite pleased with the result and am off to attempt the final class, which is a variation on the theme......

And you can see, below, the final class which turned out to be straightfoarward .. once I'd turned to my fellow dabblers at UK Scrappers for help!

Have a great weekend!

Nothing to report!

I fear I have nothing of much note to report. I have done zero crafting this week, although I did succeed in taking out the contents of my newly-arrived Sarah's Cards kit and lovingly stroking the fab papers and pink card. I'd really like to sit down and see how many cards I can make from the pack - which contains ribbons, gems and some lovely blooms as well as double-sided patterned papers and cardstock (and mathcing envelopes, too). But I fear that it's just not going to happen tonight .... if only I got home from work earlier! Never mind, maybe tomorrow ...

Meanwhile, here's a photo I took of a lovely lily in a small pond just by the entrance to a Nottinghamshire sewage treatment works!

No crafting photos

I did make some cards this weekend and even (shock horror!) spent some time working on a scrapbook layout, but I'm afraid I didn't take any photos as by the time I'd finished at was cold, wet and dark! I usually snap my creations outside to make use of natural light and avoid problems with the built-in flash on my camera.

So instead, the photo I've used today is of Willow, our lovely British Blue-Cream cat, who featured in one of my Jessica Sprague class photos from last week. You can now see the impact using all those special effects had on the pic!

Just for comparison's sake ....

For those of you who haven't seen the Jessica Sprague gallery, here are my edge burn 'before' and 'after' photos for comparison! There's quite a difference, I think ....

Success at last

I've been wrestling with technology to try and open Jessica Sprague's instructional videos so I can properly follow her excellent frames and photo editing course. And desperately battling to translate her instructions into ancient PhotoShop speak so I can actual come up with the same effects in my program.

To my delight, I've succeeded on both fronts, which is why my blog entry for today is stuffed full of photos!

First pic shows Willow in the back garden, and uses clipping masks, photo overlays, textures and layer blending styles.

Next up is playing with text and textures. Don't you think my duck is very cute?!!!

What about this chap? He (or maybe she!!!) is demonstrating the arty of edge burn and using masks to lighten areas where you want the eye to be drawn.

And in case you're wondering, that's definitely another pic at the top of the page, featuring the one and only Tok!

Stash shopping!

How did that happen? I found myself in the lovely BeeCrafty near Badsey, Evesham yesterday afternoon, and a small stash of crafty goodies fell into my hands!

I've posted a WOYWW to show what I came home with - some lovely papers, ribbon, another pot of Stickles to add to my growing collection, and some rolls of excellent value double-side sticky tape. Oh, and some fab black and white blossoms, too.

Now I know I didn't NEED any more paper, but I couldn't resist these zingy colours and patterns!

You can check out Bee Crafty at http://www.beecrafty.net/

Now this I like .....

My photographic voyage of discovery is continuing as I work my way through Jessica Sprague's excellent course. I actually found some time at the weekend to investigate my old, but serviceable copy of Photoshop Elements, and came up with this photo, thanks to lesson 6. I think I might make a similar version, but use the words 'With sympathy' or 'Thinking of you' instead. I will then print some off and make them into cards.

Speaking of cards, I actually made a couple at the weekend. Here's one of them!