Black Cream and Kraft of JUGS55

I was so drawn to the colours of the Just Us Girls challenge No 55 here. I had bought some Fantastix but couldn't remember why I did that - or how to use them! Luckily Jennifer McGuire covered that in this week's Holiday Thinking Inking video at Two Peas in a Bucket here

And the detail of the iridescent embossing powder on the big stars, and the gold pearl on the inside of the small ones

Challenges - too late and just in time

I was making these for the Holiday Thinking Inking Challenge by Jennifer McGuire at 2 Peas (here), but I was too late for last week. Just so happens that I used my favourite colours of the moment which are blue, green & brown which fit perfectly for the Play Date Cafe Challenge (here). Just made the deadline! This first one was stamped with distress inks then spritzed to let the inks bleed. Works well on this hydrangea as it then doesn't need colouring.

On this second card, I inked up the flower once (broken china), and stamped it 3 times without re-inking but spritzing in between impressions. Did the same with the leaf (bundled sage). Added 3 shades of bling to match the fading colours.

In with a chance

Go to Kathy's Blog for a chance to win this blog candy :

Grateful

I'm so grateful for  . . .

• the incredible grace of God

• friends who encourage

• being able to read and have access to lots of books

• new tyres on my car

My entries into the Stampin Sisters in Christ challenge (here) for their week's challenge on having a heart of thanksgiving.

Tweaked Cards . . . Before and After

I entered my first SCRAMBLE Here which gives you 90 minutes to get your card made and posted! So off I went thinking easy peasy. But my first card had a mind of it's own and it wasn't what I had in mind at all. So wanting my OWN way, I got greedy and made a second  . . . and then missed the deadline. That will teach me!

But looking at the cards in the light of day, I needed to tweek a bit.

CARD ONE before was this,                                         and just needed 3 gold pearl dots to become after

CARD TWO before was this,                          and need more JOY in the shape of a bird to be this after

 If you want to play along, then join the next Hero Arts flickr group on October 23. See here for details.

A Winner and THE Answer

Apologies for the late posting - couple of technical problems. The card has gone AWOL and I spent ages trying to find it - to no avail. I then made a video of the technique and have been battling to get it uploaded.

First  . . . the winner of the random draw is number 30 which makes it Froggietalks! Congratulations. Please contact me with your details.
True Random Number

Generator
Min: 1
Max: 33
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Result:
30
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And Judy1223 guessed the answer correctly. I inked up my embossing folder, spritzed it with water and then put the watercolour paper in and put it through the machine. The video has step by step instructions with added tips and suggestions and I will get it posted as soon as I've sorted out the technical gremlins!

Guessing the new Technique!

A little light bulb went off tonight as I was struggling with getting what I wanted using what I had. And then the fun began  . . .  I could hardly contain my excitement . . . and this was the result of the first try . . .

Can you guess what I did? Leave a comment and you'll have a chance to win the random draw. The deadline will be Monday 4 October, 2:00pm Mauritian time. 
The prize will be . . .

plus an additional mystery item!
You can see the other cards on my flickr photostream.

Thank You

I love the Week of Gratitude and card inspirations that Susan (starting here) and Mary (starting here) are doing. (You will need to remove the date section of the address to see the more recent pages.) We all need to acknowledge those in our life who have helped us in the myriad of ways that enrich our lives . . . help, support, laughter, gifts, comfort, advice, inspiration, friendship, encouragement . . . to name a few.

I want to thank Nancy (here) for her lovely Sept CCC card and generous gift of goodies. I loved her rich colour combinations on her card and on the extra distressed, inked card that she sent along. Look at that lovely perfect pearl Starburst Lace stamped shimmer! I added a collage of black stamped images and mounted it on kraft card, adding the message and butterfly.

And so thanks for the colour inspiration for my entry to Susan's Simplicity OLW (One Layer Wednesday) challenge (here)

PS. And thank you Nancy for your snazzy flickr button that you designed, and let me use!



Passed the nth Hour

Well as I expected, I dithered and found a lot of other things to do today instead of cleaning my studio . . . important things like getting some sun, doing some suduko, learning what zumba is (the new latino dance aerobic craze), getting caught in watching extraordinary people . . . and it was only the fact that I said I would post a photo that got me in there . . . close to dinner time. Which is why I am still up at 1:47 am! And of course I just had to make a card after all that effort . . . inspired by the colours of Jillian Foster's card on day 3 of her challenge this past week. (See here)

At least you can see the desk top now! (Of course there is artful photography just getting the clean bits!)

Even cleaned up the other tables!

The question now remains "How long will it stay like that?"!!!

The MESS!

I've off to tidy my studio today - yuck! but I've been avoiding going in there since getting back from UK and I can't create until it's done! (Well I CAN if I just start making mess somewhere else but I think I've spread over such a large area - 3 tables - that I'd better nip this rampant disorder in the bud . . . oh no, it's actually way passed bud phase - it's blooming!)

Maybe I need a little sun first . . . . . it's such a beautiful day here!

Here are photos taken in Dec (but it's pretty much the same again) to show the "damage" and I challenge myself to send you photos of the state this evening!

My place (my mess shouldn't extend past this space!)

But I've overflowed to TWO tables like this  . . .