Just Magnolia Challenge

Good evening, peeps and happy Tuesday evening to you!

Yay! I finally managed to get a card made for a challenge and I'm just about in time to enter it because I know this challenge closes tomorrow. This week it's a sketch from the lovely Bev and I must say that I really enjoyed working with it. I decided to use Bubbling Tilda as the image since she hadn't even seen ink since I bought her and I've coloured her with Copics (I'll list the numbers below). The DPs are from Magnolia, Papermania Henbury Lane and Crafty Individuals Springtime pad. The pearls and dewdrops are from The Hobby House and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. The leaves have been punched with my McGill Pine punch and the ribbon and lace are from my stash.

Copics used:
Skin - E50, E00, E21, E11, R20
Hair - E51, E53, E33, E57
Bubble pipe - YR20, YR21, YR23
Tilda's dress - B000, B00, B02
Tilda's wings - Blues as above + V01, V12, V15
Bubbles - C1, C3
Shadow - W1, W3, W5

I added Stickles Stardust to the bubbles and Tilda's wings and Glossy Accents to the bubble pipe. The circle (cut with my Nesties, of course), is distressed with Milled Lavender distress ink, as is the sentiment, which is from Hero Arts.

I hope you like it. I'm sorry for the gloomy photograph but it's a bit like the skies over Yorkshire at the moment! I can see the purchase of a light tent looming evre closer! It's unusual for me to be posting so much - wouldn't it be great if I could keep it up?!!

Diane x

Look out, there's candy about!

Hello and happy Tuesday to you all!

The lovely Jodi is giving away no less than TWO sets of the Magnolia Summer kit on her blog. Please hop over there now by clicking on the title of this post to leave her a comment and give yourself a chance of winning this awesome candy!

See you all soon.

Diane x

Disaster Recovery

Disaster??? Well, there were two of them! Firstly, I looked at my blog (now you know I'm a bad blogger and I don't look at it every day!) and lo and behold, no background! Then there was this little square telling me that the picture or video had been removed from Photobucket and the pesky little thing wouldn't go away! Well, thank goodness for Google, which gave me the answer to the problem. If any of you other lovely peeps have the same problem, it's apparently because The Cutest Blog on the Block have removed some of their backgrounds from Photobucket but not all of them. The secret to getting rid of the pesky little square is to remove everything associated with TCBOTB from your blog - that took a little hunting down.

Anyhoo, I hope you like the new look blog....I think I prefer the slightly 'cleaner' lines.

The second disaster was the card. The little scene was originally going to be mounted in some photo corners that I'd cut and distressed, but then I forgot to clean my craft mat before I turned over the background to put DS tape on the back. I found that the sky didn't look so good with Walnut Stain splodges in it! How did I do that?? I couldn't believe it!! The solution was to cut off the original sky and create a new one by sponging some clouds and then adding the original background on foam pads to give some dimension.

All in all, I'm not too disappointed with the result but, although I absolutely love these Kioshi papers from Basic Grey, I think that the addition of these has created a card that looks too busy. Lesson learned - when using a scene on the card, remember to keep the area behind it to plain colours. What do you think?

Everything is coloured with Copics:

Tilda's hair: E29,E31,E25
Wings: C!, C3
Skin: E50, E00, E11,E21, R20
Dress & butterflies: V91, V93, V95
Petticoat: RV000, RV00, RV02
Fence: E42, E43, E44
Grass: G20, G21, G24
Flowers: R81, R85, YR21, YR24, B63

I stamped the images with Adirondack Slate and I deepened the shadows on Tilda's clothing with Dusty Concord and Victorian Velvet Distress ink applied with a small, dry stencil brush. The wings and the butterfly have Stardust Stickles on them for a bit of bling. The leaves are cut with my McGill 'Leaves' punch, the ribbon is from Fantastic Ribbons and the wonderful flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts which is where I also obtained the Crafters Pick glue I used following a tip off from the lovely Bev, so thanks for that hun! Using it was like a revelation when it came to arranging and fixing the flowers.

I'm entering this card in the Flutterby Wednesday Challenge.

If you've managed to read this far, well done! I don't know how this managed to turn into such a dissertation but thanks for visiting today and I hope you pause to leave me a comment so that I know that you've been around. I really do appreciate them so much.

Have a peaceful Sunday!

Diane x

They did go to the ball

OK - this is a boring Granny post but I couldn't resist showing you this picture of number one grandson, Matt and his gorgeous girlfriend Ally before their school prom. I have to say that it makes me feel seriously old when my grandson looks down at me from his 6' 2" height - I just can't believe where that (nearly) 17 years has gone! Hey, ho!

I also find it amazing what a major occasion the school prom has become now - it makes me slip into 'Grumpy Old Woman' mode and say 'It wasn't like that in my day!!' Anyhoo, I think they had a marvellous time.

I promise to try and post a card next time!

Diane x

Memories

Well, last Sunday was my baby's birthday (my baby is now 38!!) so I made him this card. The image is from the Digi Doodle Shop and is called 'Boy and Dog'. The reason it brings memories is that when Neil was a small boy, my parents had a Retriever called Sadie and she was inseparable from my children when they were around. They could do anything with her so this image reminded me of her and how patient she was with the kids.

Anyhoo, I cut out the panel for the image with my Nesties (of course!) and distressd the edge with Faded Jeans Distress Ink. The image is coloured with Copics and I very carefully kept a list of them, which is below for you. I wasn't too delighted with the colouring of the boy's hair. My son's hair was virtually white he was so fair (he also had hair then!! LOL) but conveying that in coluring an image is not easy! The papers and button are from my stash, as is the rafia. I drew the star by hand on the reverse of the Bazill card and then cut it out. I made up the sentiment from a group of clear word stamps I bought eons ago from Sir Stampalot - sorry don't know who makes them.

Copics used:
Book - Y17, Y38, Y28
Jeans - B93, B95, B97
Hair - Y00, Y21, E41, E43
Socks/Shadow - W1, W3, W5 then Colourless Blender to fade out the shadow
Dog - E53, E31, E33, E35
Skin - E50, E00, E11, E21, R20
T shirt - R22, R24, R27

I hope you like it.

Bye for now

Diane x

All Dressed Up

As soon as I saw this image on someone's blog (I'm sorry but I can't remember whose) I knew I had to buy her. She's from Digi Doodle Shop and I just thought that she was so cute. It makes me think of a saying I've heard many times here in the UK - 'Big hat, no knickers' (or is it 'red hat, no knickers' - never sure!!).

What I did know is that the shoes would be red and the rest of it just fitted in with that. The only problem is....and not a new one for me....it's a while since I made the card but it took me some time to find the right sentiment for it and I don't know which Copic colours I used to do the colouring. I've taken a pretty good guess though and listed them for you below.

The hearts were punched from a Sizzix die I've had for years. The image was cut out with my faithful Nesties and the distressing was done with Fired Brick Distress Ink. The leaves were punched from DP that was lying around in my stash and I used my McGill Pine punch for that. The flowers are from the amazing Wild Orchid Crafts (link in my sidebar) and the ribbon is from Fantastic Ribbons who have a wonderful selection of ribbons at really bargain prices. Buttons are from my stash and scured with some crochet thread.

The DPs are from MME Be Loved Dearest Dots and K & Co Sera Sera. Now here goes for the Copics:

Skin: E50, E00, E11, E21, R20
Shoes and flower: R20, R22, R24
Hat: E40, E41, E43
Hat ribbon: G20,G21, G24

I hope you like her.

Diane x

Wow! I've won an award!

The lovely Neet has very kindly given me this Creative Writer Award - in fact, she gave it to me last Sunday but it's been such a busy week that I haven't had a chance to tell you about it. These are the 'rules of the game' that I have to follow:

Proudly display the award - above

Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth, or switch it around and tell six outrageous truths and one outrageous lie.


1. I married my teenage sweetheart
2. I go to the gym regularly
3. I once appeared at the Royal Albert Hall
4. I climbed Mount Snowdon the hard way
5. My latest novel will be published at the end of the year
6. I love to go to the movies
7. My goal in life is to walk the beaches of the world


OK so these sound boring - but ... which is the lie and which are the truths?


Nominate seven creative writers who might be into doing this. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate and let the owners of those blogs know.


Now to seven creative writers who I admire and who I hope enjoy a bit of fun. Most of these people I only 'know' through the wonderful world of blogging, which is an amazing medium for bringing people together.


Debbie whose blog I visit regularly and always enjoy reading. If you haven't seen her work yet hop over and leave her a comment
Kim a very talented lady whose blog is also another regular stop when I'm able to go blogging around
Dyan also known as Dylan, a mega talented lady whose workshops I enjoy enormously
Mina who produces some fabulous work with amazing regularity
Bev whose blog is another regular stop for me on the blogging round and who never fails to share her techniques with us all
Vix who produces some lovely work
Sandra Hammer a wonderful artist and if you haven't seen her work, do visit her blog

Sorry if I have missed anyone off but the rules made me stop

I do hope the talented ladies I have selected play along with the fun but, of course, there's no obligation - we're all such busy people these days and it's hard to fit everything in.