ATC's and circle journals..

I have been quite busy over the last few weeks with magazine commisions, so thought I would take a bit of time out and do something for myself.

I decided it was time I had a play with ATC's, so these are a few of what I made I must admit, I quite enjoyed making them too.

I am also signed up for a circle journal, with some fellow docrafters. I called mine "Guess who's coming for dinner". here are my first pages.......

Feathers and flora

I thought as I was being creative earlier on the computer, I would share a few of my photographs.. they are quite varied, so I hope you enjoy them..

This one was taken yesterday. It's a starling which sat waiting to go onto the feeder. I was really taken with the irridescent colouring on the feathers.







Keeping with the 'furry' theme, here's my son's tarantula in close up.. This was taken last year, she died a few months ago. Suprisingly, she sat still whilst I pointed the camera at her, which is most unlike the children..






This was a close up photo of a lily. My eldest daughter bought them for me when we lost Asti the other week. They were in bloom for two weeks, and looked lovely.






This is a bit of an oldie picture now, but thought I would share it to brighten up my blog haha..
I took this one for a commision for the Amateur Photographer magazine a few years ago. I did a set of close up flower portraits, which were spread over a two page feature in the magazine.
How chuffed was I??? My first bit of fame

More birthday cards...

I thought Iwould just come and share two more birthday cards I recieved from my friends at Docrafts

These are from Jill and Becky, fellow designers with me at docrafts. The yellow one from Jill, has satin flowers and lovely gem brads. The border is one of our new punches. The greeting was made using an ornate stamp and wording. The red one is from Becky, who has used the ornate stamps to create a fan, the effect is lovely.. well done to both, and thank you.

Oh how Tweet!

After a busy couple of days in the garden over the weekend, from general weeding to cleaning out and reorganising my craft shed, we decided to treat our feathered friends to some meal worms. Urgh! Wriggly awful little critters, but by 'eck the birds loved them. They were fluttering around for hours after them.. So I thought I'd grab my camera and take a couple of piccies. Mmmmm... how yummy do they look?????

Oooooh new ideas!

My friend Katy invited us over to her blog, and this weeks challenge was to scrap lift some ideas.
This is my attempt.. I decided to do a Janson-esque type layout, inspired by Carole Janson. Must admit.. I think it's quite pretty.. Here it is.. and thank you Katy!

Totally different!

I was asked a few days ago to make a wedding card. The lady who asked me is going to their wedding up in a castle in Scotland on Friday. The colour scheme was a golden-tan colour and cream, so this is what I came up with.. it also gave me chance to have a play with my sakura glitter pens I got from Jo Sheen aaaaages ago, and not really used, and also some new stamps I have acquired recently. I know you can't see it too well on the card, but the design was stamped onto the card itself, and the writing and verse were printed onto acetate and attached using a gold organza ribbon.

My very first Inchies!

well, actually my second lot.. but first ones that turned out really well. It was for a challenge over on Bex's forum, and my swap partner was Hazel. The rules were to use a certain number of inch square bits of card, make them into inchies and mount them to give as a present for your partner. I thought they turned out pretty well. The papers were Sarah Papers, and I used 3D gloss to give a raised shiny effect on the letters.

What a day!

As some of you may or may not know, last Sunday was my birthday. I had had a demo in Chesterfield the day before, and I reckon I must've swallowed too much glitter, because I came home feeling not too brilliant. Anyway, to cut a long story short, on the Sunday I wasn't feeling too well, so spent a few hours in bed, and now have a terrible cold, and chesty cough.. Oh well..

Anyway, I thought I would just share a few of the cards I have recieved from my fellow designers over at docrafts. We have just started a belated birthday club... we have a list of who's birthday is when, but then came up with the idea of exchanging addresses so we could send cards. ... only thing is, when talking together, we discovered that most of us are terrible remembering to send things (me?? never!!!) and always just miss birthdays..These are the ones I have recieved on Saturday. They are lovely.. Thank you so much to everyone who has sent in cards to me. I really appreciate it.

This one was from Janna. I must say I love the stamp.. very different.

This was from Mandy. The die cut flower is so pretty..

This cutey little mouse card is from Tina. The mouse is decoupaged, and looks really nice.

more upset!

Well, for the girls mainly. Our Daisy Bunny passed away yesterday morning.. well, I think it was overnight really..

We don't really know how old she was, as Asti 'uncovered' her from some undergrowth down on the industrial estate a couple of years ago. She was very tame, friendly and very cuddly, so we knew she had been dumped... but even though we advertised to say she had been found, noone came forward.

Anyway, she had been with us around 2 years and was probably the most spoilt bunny there could have been.

Oh well.. rest in peace little Daisy, with Asti.

Oh what a lovely morning!

I was up bright and early this morning, 5.30 actually, and what a glorious start to the day!
So.. I donned my camera and off I went to take some misty photos, and these are the result.. This one was taken alongside the canal.

I just missed taking a photo of a heron that was flying above my head.. story of my life really.. wonder it didn't poop on me too!

This was taken at the local park. Because it was so early, I didn't go too far away from my car, as I had no dog to take for walkies...







Awww I like this photo.. not the sheeps bum however, wish it would have faced the other way !!!! But the little lamby was feeding and it's little tail was going ten to the dozen.. ahhh








This photo I really like. It is just a quick shot of the wood's where we used to walk Asti. It is a lovely walk around there, and we haven't been up for a couple of weeks now.. we must really go and have a look round again to see what's growing.






Well that's it for today me thinks.. see ya's. x