Well going back to work did have a little benefit...as I was asked to do a get well card for another of my colleagues who is in hospital...btw..the card making bit is the benefit hehehe....Speedy recovery Ann!!!!

I am noticing a lot of friend requests from other crafters on facebook...at least 6 in the last week...I must be doing something right then!!! Its lovely to make new friends even tho they are only online...hopefully I will be able to learn new things from them and improve my skills.

After a few hours of working I am totally shattered...I hope that I can get myself sorted soon!!!

 As you can tell by the amount of posts on this blog recently, I have been off on sick leave for some time.
However, today was my first day back to work..allbeit on a phased in process. Today I did 3 hours and to be honest after a few hours I had had enough..Its surprising what stress and depresion can do to your body along side your mental health. I feel physically drained.

During the last week of my absence, I created 2 very different cards using the same Sherri Baldy image..

I really enjoy using Sherri's digis as they give scope to use plent of lovely bright and neon tones of colour.
I'm not a big fan of pale and wishywashy pastels..much prefer to see a card coming at 50 paces rather that it being lost amonst 20 others on the mantel piece.

Dee xx

First Saturated Canary card

I'm really starting to enjoy this blogging lark...only thing is that I start back to work next week and will probably not have time or energy to blog or make cards.
It seems that I have found my creative side again and am very reluctant to let it go..If only I could make a living from doing what I love instead of hating what I have to do to live.
Anyway..This is my very first Saturated Canary card..featuring a little Zentangle frame..which to me is just doodling but hey ho, they got a name for it now!

I really enjoyed making this card and its way out of my comfort zone..
I ripped some card to make a "wavy" edge and stippled Distress Inks in a wave like pattern to create a sea background.
Peel offs, hessian, tags and die cut leaves to form sea weed were used a my embellishments.
The image is from Sherri Baldy Stamps..see link...
I coloured her with a mixture of ProMarkers, FlexMarkers and Spectrum Noirs.

I hope you like her.

Thought I would try my hands at my first Lalaland digi..I went for bolder tones just to see how see turned out...Must say I'm quite pleased with her.

I would like to thank Kaz from Donemark for providing me with my new signature..
http://donemark.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-sing.html

I'd really recommend a look at her blog...tis gorgeous xx

I went to a craft club for the very first time last Tuesday..Must admitt I was very nervous as I've only ever crafted with my bessie mate Sarah. Although, we tend to eat more chocolate and drink more tea than craft..
The subject for this week was to make your own flowers..just a few die cuts and cloured with flexmarkers and scrunched to high heaven.. As I had made some flourishes last week I used one of these as well..just for my little fairy to sit upon.

The fairy is a digi from The Paper Shelter.. Have a look they have some lovely images and there is a link to their site from this blog.
I hope you like my loved up little fairy!

 I was intending to buy some pearl and diamante flourishes, as they look so lovely on some of the cards I have seen recently. However, on seeing how much some of them were, unless its a REALLY special card for someone you love, this was making the card very expensive if I was going to try and sell it!

As my printer is out of commission for a while, instead of colouring digis I thought I would have a go at making my own flourish embellishments.

These were the end results.

You will need:

Die Cutting machine.
A few of your favourite flourish dies.
Doublesided adhesive.
Flatbacked pearls and gems.
Tweezers or pokey tool.

Using the doublesided adhesive, cut a flourish.
Remove from die and take one side of the wax paper from the flourish...Add your gems and pearls as required. This is quite time consuming and can be a little "sticky" to say the least.. Infact I found that a wooden cocktail stick was the best tool as this did not seem to stick the the adhesive as much.
All that is required then is to carefully remove the other carrier paper from the reverse when you are ready to use...