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When you make a conscious choice to be happy, no one can take it away from you because no one gave it to you: you gave it to yourself.

A quote from April Green's - Bloom For Yourself Journal

Wednesday, 30 May 2012

WOYWW 156 - Happy anniversary!

Happy WOYWW anniversary everyone!

As I've only been joining in since the start of the year this is my first anniversary with you all - I'm really looking forward to sending/receiving an ATC with whoever is after/before me on the list (my email is on my sidebar!) and will get mine posted off asap.

Right so my desk today, it's the same this morning as it was last evening, you see, I was in the middle of making an envelope when the door went yesterday mid-afternoon, Mr Postman with his van was there with a crafty parcel, and well, the envelope is no further towards being made as it was then because, oh yes you're eyes don't deceive you, I took delivery of both Tim Holtz books, Candi stamps and my very own scrumptious Smash Journal! <much hand clapping & squealing> All of which I purchased with Birthday money, well spent I think!  So, of course, the rest of the day was dedicated to reading said books from cover to cover and much page stroking was done of said journal!


Though I really do need to make that envelope at some point!

Last week many of you kindly commented on the coloured image and wanted to see what I would make with it, so I thought I'd show you today - 


Just a simple card where I mounted the image onto a tag before layering onto the card that was covered in matching papers. Add a spot of lace, ink and buttons and it's done!

I must say I'm thrilled to have found you all and to join in with this weekly snoop around the world, I'll be forever grateful to Julia for inventing such an amazing concept that has introduced me to some wonderful people.  And thank you too, to everyone who takes the time to read and leave a comment. Some days you really don't know how much they mean to me and how it keeps me going. 

Now pop over to Julia's - The Stamping Ground to see what everyone else is up to on this special WOYWW!

Take care Zo xx




Monday, 28 May 2012

Crafty Boots does Bowtastic!

Good morning to you all, it feels so lovely having had a rather super spell of warm & sunny weather that even Monday morning can't dampen my mood!

Anyway this post is all about the latest challenge over at Crafty Boots where the theme of Bowtastic was set by the boss and lovely lady that is Stephanie-Emma.

So basically we want to see your bows!

Here's my DT card - 


My card is roughly an 8 x 8 elegant edged base card, covered with free paper I received with a magazine. The main image is, of course, Crafty Boots digital stamp which is available to buy from the on-line Crafty Boots shop.  I coloured her with my alcohol markers.
I added an accent stamped image and then I went crazy with bows, all colour matching and very topical for this fortnight coming up. I decided that I would give this card to my niece who's birthday is during the Jubilee celebrations. I love the look of Crafty Boots as she looks like she is cutting up ribbon ready to make the bows for the celebrations!

Here's a closer look - 






So there you go a Bowtastic card, that's patriotic and crafty too!

Can't wait to see your bows - big, small, dotty or plain, longs you've got one (or lots, even better!)  you can join in the fun!

Take care Zo xx





Wednesday, 23 May 2012

WOYWW 155 - not a lot!

Good morning my fellow desk hoppers! 

It's beautiful here already, but you're not here for a weather update, are you? 

So the desk - 


Pretty boring really, some papers and a finished Saturated Canary image ready to make a card, some other images only part coloured, peeking out under the papers are 2 ATC's I've made ready for next week and the lovely Happiness is Homemade sign my boy bought me for my birthday which I haven't decided where to put it yet.

So why is my desk always so tidy I hear you cry - well I don't keep my stuff, like inks, tools etc on it, it's just not big enough and I worry that the sun will dry out my stash so I keep everything on this bookcase, just to my left and behind me slightly!


Wow look at the sun streaming in this morning - it will be lovely working till the sun goes round and then, well I shall go outside and sit and read, it's too nice to stay indoors me thinks!

Right for those of you who are confused by my ramblings, go and have a look at Julia's place you'll soon work it out.

Thanks once again for all of you who visit and for the wonderful comments, they really do keep me going, I failed in my attempt to get round you all last week, brain & body just weren't up to it. So apologies in advance if I don't make it, but I will try!

Take care & enjoy the sunshine
Zo xx

Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Finally....

I made a card!

Ha nothing new there then, Zoe, you may say, but to be honest I've struggled over the last few days to actually finish a project. Oh I've done lots of colouring, mainly hair and skin, but haven't produced a single thing. Until yesterday.  I realised my problem - I've always coloured with no plan, no colour scheme so I've ended up with a miss-mash of random images without anything suitable. So I stopped, I mean my colouring was getting better but I wasn't creating projects!

Okay, so I chose my papers first - a simple idea really - then I coloured my image to match, and hey presto, an image to use that worked!








I must admit I'm thrilled with this - I wanted to use this Smashy Curls image from Saturated Canary but wanted to choose more muted tones. So I raided my new Bo Bunny Gabrielle paper pad and chose these papers. I created a card that was just a little bit bigger than 6x6 so that the paper could be layered straight on, after some inking of edge. Then I covered a tag with matching paper, and inked again with Frayed Burlap and Peacock Feathers Distress inks. A while ago I created some backgrounds using H2O's on Centura pearl card, I found I had a small piece that was perfect size and colour to mount my image onto. I also added tissue tape to the corners and inked. The image was coloured using a mix of Copics, Promarkers and Flexmarkers. I used the same colours of Distress inks to catch the edge of the image so that she blended with it all. All of my embellishments - tickets and flowers were inked the same too.

I've been playing with different colour combos for hair and skin, many ended up in the bin - far too orange or yellow for my liking - but this look I like. I used Antique white & light fawn Flexmarkers, with sun kissed pink Promarker, I took my time to really work with these to blend them. I added a touch of Tea Rose Flexmarker to the cheeks and lips too. I'm particularly proud of the hair - my best effort yet I think - I wanted a blonde-brown colouring with different tones through it. So I worked with Ivory & Cocoa Promarkers & Brick Beige and Champagne Copics. Again taking my time to work them softly blending each area at a time.

So there - my first make in a few days - and do you know I'm pretty darned pleased with it!

Take care Zo xx

Thursday, 17 May 2012

Ink & salt & lots of fun!

Just a quick post to share with you......well.....random playing, I suppose! I recently bought my first few bottles of spray inks/misters/whatever you call them! And I had some new stamps, well I when I get new stuff I just want to play, so I got a few pieces of scrap card, bits that had been chopped off bigger pieces etc and started to squirt and blast and spray, getting used to the mix of colours and how they worked. Then I added salt to the wet areas, on some I dried it with my heat tool while the biggest piece I left overnight. Then I stamped! 

This is with the salt left on.

On this one I put salt on first and sprayed over the top to leave white bits!


This is my fav, I used Distressed inks around the edge after the inks had dried to blend away the bits I'd missed.


You can see the texture and the pitted look the salt leaves.

This is the large sheet once the salt was removed. Really interesting effect, this was a thinner piece of card than the others.




Hard to see in the photos but the sheen of the mica really makes such a pretty effect.


I also spent some time sorting my Distress inks, I bought a roll of the hook part of Velcro and stuck it to the lids on each ink pad, then attached a foam blending square, so that now every colour I own has it's own pad! Oh yeah and I labelled them all too.

Anyway thanks for popping by as always, I'm going to have an early lunch then I'm going to get crafting and actually try and make something!

Take care Zo xx

Wednesday, 16 May 2012

WOYWW 154 - excited & proud

Hello! This week you find a very excited and rather proud Zoe, but more about that in a mo!

Of course, you want to see the desk - that's why you're here, but have a look for something special ...........


Did you see?  No, it's not all the new goodies, though they are rather exciting and I'm desperate to find the time to play, it's the digi stamp that's the best bit, here's a closer look -



Her name is 'Crafty Boots', and I'm so excited and so very proud of her because I drew her! EEEEEK! My first ever digi design and she's available from Crafty Boots on-line shop! (I know, shameless boasting and over-zealous artist here!) Yes, she was designed specifically for the shop and its owner was very much in my mind when I designed her! So what do you think? Hope you like her! 

Also thought I'd share the shelf with you again as there are some new additions - 


The 2 bigger jars of black and white/blue and white beads have been added, these are for making my wired coil embellishments - bit like this one....


Right I'm off to make a coffee, grab a biscuit, or 2 and start my weekly snoop/nose of your desks! Don't forget to pop over to Julia's at The Stamping Ground to link up for yourselves or just to be plain nosey, go on it's allowed, it's Wednesday!

Big Thank You to everyone who left me comments, kinds wishes and birthday messages over the last week, really appreciated each and every one! Take care Zo xx


Monday, 14 May 2012

Good Luck - Crafty Boots

Happy Monday everyone -  and it's a particularly happy day for me as it's my birthday! I'm the grand old age of ...........37! Birthdays don't bother me, I'm like a big kid really.

Anyway today sees the launch of another Crafty Boots Challenge and this time the theme is 'Good Luck' as chosen by the lovely Sara.

I decided to use my Craft Artist Pro to create the base card, using backgrounds and embellishments from Digi-kits that I have, I added the text in the programme as well as creating the inside greeting.  Despite the 3D look, the only thing that isn't printed flat is the Saturated Canary image which I coloured to match the base card and then stuck onto the printed card.  I wanted to show how it's possible to put digital crafting with colouring of your own hand.





As you can see here I glazed her glasses using a Sakura glaze pen -  a fun idea I think!

The inside - the 'Good Luck' sentiment and the greeting inside are done so that this card could be used for exams, starting a new job, going to uni, any occasion where you would want to wish someone well.

Anyway I look forward to seeing your creations!

I'm off to indulge in some birthday cake! Take care Zo xx

Thursday, 10 May 2012

So Pretty in Blue

Hello everyone - well it's taken me most of the day to make this card, but do you know what, I'm rather pleased with it!

It's another pretty card from me, well I think so anyway. I've chosen another Saturated Canary image for this card and then I realised it would be good for their latest challenge too, details HERE.

The card -



As you can see she's all blue! Now I'm not a pink kind of girl, well I do like pink, but wouldn't choose to wear it necessarily, but I'd definitely choose blue! I wanted to try this image to see if I could colour the dress with all the folds in the material, so hope I've done it justice. I coloured her with my Spectrum Noir pens.  Another thing I wanted to try was the light brown/blond hair, so again I'm hoping that's okay as well! Once all coloured I die cut the image with a Spellbinders die, leaving the image in the die to ink around, before removing it to reveal the fab white edge.


Those of you who visit me for WOYWW may remember the wire coiling Gizmo I shared the other week, well, I've made use of it to make this embellishment, I added the glass beads and made a hook to hang it onto the lace.


The challenge asks for flowers and as you can see I've used plenty! The card itself is on an A5 Centura Pearl card base, the embossed panel is also Centura Pearl inked with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.  The dark blue card-stock is Coredinations. I added the Craftwork Card sentiment choosing 'Have a Fabulous Day' so that it could be used for a birthday, a prom or another special occasion, the sentiment doesn't label it towards one specific thing. The last thing I added was the little blue button, well I had to use one somewhere!

Anyway enjoy the rest of the evening, I shall catch up with you tomorrow.
Take care Zo xx

Wednesday, 9 May 2012

WOYWW 153 - something random!

Morning all!

Am going to do this bit first this week as I nearly always forget until the end - this WOYWW is the baby of Julia - The Stamping Ground so pop over and see why I'm always flaunting my desk on a Wednesday!

Right the desk -


So there's the pile of printed digi stamps that seem to be permanently on my desk lately, at the top is the WIP Zentangle of a .......erm......mask/face, all very sci-fi/fantasy like I admit. The plan is to fill the page around the face so lots to do yet.


This is a card I made yesterday that was left on my desk to dry overnight. To be honest I was only practising with this image, it's a new one for me from Saturated Canary and I wanted to practice colouring with bold colours and trying to create a ink-effect around the edge, but in the end I loved the result so I put her on a card!



Other than that it's the usual array of tools and sticky stuff.  I haven't been that productive of late, haven't managed to make that many finished projects. I'm struggling with my conditions (see the All about me page), I don't mind to admit, I rested all week last week so that I could make the last football game of the season on Saturday.

Bristol Rovers were away to Dagenham & Redbridge and I was determined to go. Even though I knew I would be bad afterwards, boy was I right about that, I could barely walk on Sunday, and am still not recovered from making that trip.

I'm so weak at present that I can't really stamp or play with much more than colouring or drawing. I have ways and means of holding the pens if they aren't that chunky, I've even been known to tape wads of kitchen towel around the barrels to make them easier to hold, I manage! I'd go mad if I couldn't do something creative.

Right that's mine, so now I'm off to see yours, but please forgive me if I don't manage to leave a comment this week, I will pop by though, doing the rounds of WOYWW really helps me to feel like I'm getting 'out & about' even if the reality is far from that!

It's scary to think that when we're back here next week I'll be another year older, I'll be 37 on Monday, I don't mind birthdays really, those who know me will say I'm a big kid really!

Take care Zo xx

Sunday, 6 May 2012

My first - Some Odd Girl

Hope you're all well this Sunday afternoon?

I'm suffering after my little trip to Dagenham yesterday for football, but a good day out was had, even though we lost!

Just wanted to share my first Some Odd Girl card - I've recently discovered these fab digi's and couldn't resist this character. Any characters with glasses and books always grab me.

So here's the card -


It's an A5 Centura Pearl base covered with some Kraft Coredinations card, the paper is from Tim Holtz Vintage Shabby. The paper was used to make the rosette also which I topped off with a button from Tim's  Fanciful selection.


The image is Bookish Tia from Some Odd Girl which I coloured with Pro/Flexmarkers.



The sentiment is from Craftwork cards.



I drew glaze pen around her glasses and on her eyes to give a sheen. This is such a me character so I can see her appearing again! 

Thanks for popping by, hope you like this character as much as I do!
Take care Zo xx