Time's Just Flying By!

Well my life is still flat out hectic... can you believe my beloved Twinnies turned ONE yesterday - pics to follow (but you knew that, lol)  Hard to believe a whole year's gone by already.  They had a big party today, for which I made a cake; even though I say so myself it was pretty super - I'll post pics when my son sends me them.  All of this Twin-based activity has cut into my crafting time (well along with the building of rock walls in the pool area and the making of my hubby's birthday invites - he turns 60 in two weeks OMG! talk about time flying... and yet another cake to come up with for yet another party) 
This doesn't change the fact that a new challenge starts today over at Di's Digi Challenge.   It has the nice and easy theme of Welcome Spring, I managed to make time to alter a little notebook for it, here it is

It started life pretty plain, just like this one (only green!)  I love the nifty little pens that came with these notebooks.  So clever. 

I covered the front and back with this pretty floral paper from Prima (Faerie Florals, I think) then coloured up the lovely Daisy's Delight image with Copics, adding some (hard to see) Liquid Pearl highlights to the centre of the flower and some Stickles to the butterfly and bows on Daisy's shoes.  Then I fussy cut the image out and stuck it on the book.  Instead of trying to do impossibly intricate cuts (such as the one between Daisy's face and the leaf and her leg and the stalk) I leave the white background in and colour it to match the background paper... it works particularly well on a mottled background such as this one.  I also add some Copic shadows around the image to help ground it and make it look more 3D - especially when you are trying to keep the whole thing physically flat, as you would with something like a notebook going in and out of your handbag all the time.

 Here's a link to another one of these altered notebooks, completely different but just as simple.

Anyway that's it for this little project, I'm entering in the following challenges

Through the Craftroom Door	Anything Goes
Paper Crafting Journey	Anything Goes
The Crazy Challenge	#167 Flower Frenzy
Cupcake Inspirations	#253 Garden
The Paper Shelter	#251 Spring Delights
Kaboodle Doodles	#216 Dreaming of Spring
My Mums Craft Shop	Spring and Easter
Paper Creator Crafts	21 Spring is in the Air
Clear It Out	Theme: Greens Stash: Anything Green

I hope you get a chance to enter the challenge, great prize (from Really Reasonable Ribbon) on offer as always, and if you use one of Di's fab images you get entered into an extra draw... what are you waiting for?!

I'm trying hard to get some Blogging time in to post some of the projects in my drafts - not having that much success tho', lol.  With any luck I'll be back in the swing soon, Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

New Challenge at Di's Digis

And a good evening to you all :-)   I just haven't had five minutes to "blog" recently, but this evening I've managed to get on here and remind you that there's a new challenge starting today at Di's Digis.  This time we want you to include a Person and an Animal;  Di has so many images that fit the bill, the hardest part for me was choosing one!

 I thought I'd do something a little different (well, different than a card, lol) this time... I've altered a little box I bought in a discount store.  
The cuter than cute image I've used is Daisy with Basset, and it's available here.  I've coloured with Copics and Prismacolor pencils, which gave a nice texture to the dog's coat, and added some Viva Decor Pearl dots randomly around the image - it gives a sort of dreamy effect I feel, not sure WHY I feel that, but I do :-)  There's also some Pink Stickles on Daisy's petticoat and some Glossy accents on the Basset's nose.
The silver corners started as chipboard (from Make It Crafty, sadly no longer available), I heat embossed them with silver EP and run some silver cord between them to better frame the image.  The dragonfly (again, from Make It Crafty) got the embossing treatment and a bit of Pink Stickles just to jazz it up a bit more.
I covered the outside of the box with some lovely lavendar handmade paper, which has silver threads in it, then added some gros grain ribbon around the lower edge of the lid.  I added some silver cord above that as it just didn't look "finished" then embossed a chipboard slider (from, you guessed it, Make It Crafty) with silver EP and added that as detail on the "front" of the lid - it covered the join in the ribbon.
I added some lovely textured pearl card to the inside of the box, it is so much nicer IRL, finishing the top edge with more of the grosgrain ribbon and the inner corners with silver cord. And that's it!!
I'm really happy with the end result, I'm going to make a couple more with some of my horde of printed images - great to have on hand and they get those images coloured (the part I enjoy the most) and out there where they should be!
I hope you get a chance to check out the rest of the team's work , awesome as always, and a chance to join in the challenge too; there's a fabulous prize on offer from SVG cuts, and as always if you use one of Di's gorgeous images you go in an extra draw with a prize of two digis.
I'd like to enter the following challenges with my "altered" box

Digi Sketch Challenge	Cute
Corrosive Challenge	#194 Animals
Crafty Calendar	Animal Antics
Little Red Wagon	#228 Truly Dimensional
Simon Says Challenge	Mother's Day, Special Girl
Gem of a Challenge	115 Mother's Day, Special Lady, Female Birthday
Colour Me Copic	89 Show some skin
Cute Card Thursday	312 Girls, Girls, Girls
Crafty Cardmakers	Mixed Media no cards
Stampin' for the Weekend	Anything Goes
Hiding in my Craft Room	Colour It
That Craft Place	Anything Goes
Through the Craftroom Door	Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments (F)	#102 Anything Goes

On a personal note, I'd like to thank those of you who left me comments re my recent accident (or as my husband refers to it, clumsiness!), your well wishes were much appreciated :-)  I received a letter from the hospital in the week giving me the results of my MRI; the osteoarthritis in my hip has reached end-stage, bone on bone (which I knew already) the fall caused Bone Marrow Oedema... let me tell you, it hurts!  The MRI and some blood tests are showing some markers for Rheumatoid Arthritis too, which I'm not happy about (Osteo is no fun, but I'm sure RA is worse)  After being treated for ten years for Osteoarthritis, you do wonder why they've only just looked at the possibility of RA.  I have to go to a Rheumatologist now, as well as the Orthopedic Surgeon to discuss the inevitable hip replacement - all of which is seriously cutting into the little crafting time I have left, with the continuing pool area renovation we're knee deep in soaking up huge chunks of time... and energy!  Oh well, at least I'm not bored, lol
I'm trying to get a cake made for the twins' birthday too - can you believe they turn ONE in two weeks time, now THAT year went fast!!
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Make It Green

eta: sorry about the tiny font... I clicked on something and I can't change it back!
Well after my dramas earlier this week, I didn't think I had a chance of getting a card made for the Challenge starting today over at Di's Digis... but I did and here it is :-) Actually it's quite a simple card; the background paper (from Kaisercraft's Sweet Nothings pad) is pretty busy in a soft pastel kind of way so I didn't want to add too much else.  The image is Sweet On You (from here), I'm lovin' these little meeces - too cute!  The Paper Shelter has Animals for their challenge, I'm in, Crafty Calendar has Animal Antics and Sweet  Stampin' has Cute as theirs so I'm in there too.  Gem of a Challenge has Happy Anniversary so I'm entering there and Allsorts Challenges has Spring is Coming so in there too.I used the sketch from Catch the Bug (flipped) and  coloured the image with Copics adding some detail with Prismacolor pencils.  I cut  the image panel with Nestabilities Floral Ovals die, I finally got around to adding ejection foam to this die... but not until after I'd picked out all the little bits, grrrr.I inked the edges of the card with a gold metallic ink, adding the same to the edges of the image panel and the lace, which is from my stash.  The green ribbon is from my stash too, and I have only just got the little rhinetone/pearl button thingys one of which is in the middle of the bow,I added some pearls from my stash (toned down a bit with a Y28 Copic, which gives them a better aged appearance) and some Shaved Ice Frantage (which is also new to me, very glittery indeed!!) and that was it!  Divas by Design want us to Make It Sparkle, the Frantage and the rhinestone edged pearl mean I'm in there with a vengeance, while Crafts 4 Eternity and Cuttlebug Mania are interested in Texture so I'm in there too. I finished the inside off with more paper from the Sweet Nothings pad and another Floral Oval mat to use as a jotting panel.  I didn't have enough of the green ribbon left so I cut it in half lengthwise and made a slightly skinnier bow out of it too. The pearl detail in the middle of this bow is a brad.  Well like I said, pretty straightforward card, I happen to love it... it just came together so well :-) Tuesday Throwdown and Digi Sketch Challenge both have Anything Goes challenges running, so I'm entering them Why don't you go and check out the rest of the team's inspiration, fab as always :-) I hope you get a chance to enter the challenge, you'll probably be just like me and think you have no green paper or embellies... until you check, lol.  We have a great prize from  My Craft Shop, and don't forget if you use one of Di's fab images you go in the draw for an EXTRA prize, gotta love that :-)The twins are coming over tomorrow... with their parents of course :-)  I haven't seen them for a whole week as I was in hospital on Tuesday when I normally go to their house and only came home Thursday evening when they would usually come to ours for dinner/bath/bed and I wasn't up to it.  They have colds at the moment, Emily's is hanging on but Nathan has improved a lot today (apparently... love those smart phones -just got a pic of Nathan being super cheeky - he pulls the childproof furniture bumpers off the edges of the TV cabinet and chews them while holding the remote control, I think the only "safe" thing about them is that they're non-toxic... or so we hope!)Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna