Quirky Christmas Cards

Yes, really........I've made some Christmas cards, but decided to mix it up a bit and use images that aren't normally aimed at Christmas, alongside some images that obviously are!

So quirky first - 

I love this Mo Manning image and this girl really makes me smile as she looks so excited and happy, perfect for Christmas then I reckon! So as you see I coloured her with my Copics in different combos and put her on different sized cards. Am sure I'll make plenty more like this.

The other image is the gorgeous butterfly baby which is a Saturated Canary image. Again I thought it would be sweet to use for a Christmas card, may try it in different colours too.

Now for the images that are meant for Christmas - 

This is a Saturated Canary image that is cute!

This fab fairy is a Make It Crafty image.

These 3 use the same Humphrey's Corner image from Crafter's Companion, couldn't resist colouring it in different colours. I embossed the card base with this fab snowflake folder and then just added the image, sentiment and some card candi. So simple!

I don't usually have time to sit and colour images for Christmas cards, I tend to use kits and toppers that make it quick and easy but I've wanted to colour some of my images to use so while it's been freezing outside and I've been resting in the warm I went ahead and coloured away!

Take care Zo xx

WOYWW 199

Hello lovely desk hoppers and crafty people everywhere!

Today's desk hopping exploits are overseen as always by the Queen of all desks, the lovely Julia, so pop over and check in, link up and show off!

Okay my desk -

Piles of old photo wallets taken from Keagan's photo box all ready to be photographed.  Those of you who attended the WOYWW crop last year will remember my baby smash book I was starting to create for Keagan. Well I've already made the pages in the book for pregnancy up to 1st wk home so now I need to take pics for the next few months. I'm literally taking photos of the photos so that I have a digital copy. I tried scanning but the quality wasn't as good. 

Such a precious photo of my mum's mum (my Nan), she passed away in 2000 when Keagan was 18 mths old, she adored him and loved to chase him around to grab a cuddle whenever she could. 

This is the photo of the photo, pretty darned good. Now I can crop it and focus on the 2 important people and of course with the digital age I can tweak it so I have a fab photo. But all the originals will stay in the photo box for Keagan when he's older.

The other side of the desk. Usual things present and that huge photo box!  The light is fairly bright despite it being cloudy.

Right so that's me. I'm off to make a coffee. I confess I've not long got up so I'm just starting to get sorted for the day!

Will be back to visit as many of you as I can later.  I've got photos to take and an article to write today! 

Take care Zo xx

1st Christmas cards & some Smash!

Good afternoon everyone!

I'm sat here with no Bristol Rovers to listen to due to the snow in Bradford so I thought I'd start my Christmas cards!

Every year I say I want to try and make such and such cards, that I want to make certain styles etc and like normal I never do. I spend October & November rushing to make cards. But last year I let myself off, I only  made cards for family, close friends and crafty friends, the rest I bought. I'll probably do the same this year. Harsh, but to be honest it's too much for me now. I give nearly a 100 cards after all!

So my 1st cards - 

This is a Mo Manning image that just makes me smile, I love her! I thought why not colour her and make it a Christmas card so I did. Reckon I'll do some more like this but in different colours.

This is a Saturated Canary image that is perfect for winter card. The sentiment is an old one I have in my stash.

So one quirky and one more normal. But both fab I think!

I've kept up with my Project 2013 well, last week I had a lot to journal, things I wanted to include so a whole page was writing!

As you can see I've added photos from our match sponsorship game at Rovers, plus the tickets and passes we had. The sheet in the pocket is the team sheet we were given on the day.

Right I best stop otherwise this post will be so long. I've just taken lots of photos of pages in Keagan's baby book but I'll share them another day!

Take care Zo xx

WOYWW 198 - a gatecrasher!

Good morning everyone!

Well it's Wednesday so that means we should all be checking in with our Queen of All desks, Julia to share our desk/floor/space.

As many of you know by now I tidy, always have, once I finish I tidy things away except the few tools that stay on my desk which means most mornings my desk is bare, boring and well who wants that, so last night I took pictures to share with you as I thought you'd enjoy seeing them far more than the plain boring desk this morning! - 

So I start by showing the gatecrasher! Yep Keagan needed to use the laptop for homework so I moved over to my desk and he got to work he even made the cups of tea! 

The next 2 pics show my work in action, colouring, using my Ottlite for, well, light and you'll see I do not tidy as I go when colouring all the pens are on the desk that I'm using.

You'll see some photos on the orange card these are drying and are photos for Keagan's baby Smash book, yep nearly 15 yrs later I start it!! Ha ha.

Those beady eyed of you will notice 2 additions to my Smash book collection - another lighter blue Retro book I had for Christmas and the darker blue 1 which is one of the new CHA 2012 collection, more to follow soon!

The right hand side radio still there, some more photos waiting to be placed and matted and an empty Mango packet!

That's it for me, thought you'd enjoy a wider view this week considering I've missed a few Weds over the last few weeks!

Take care Zo xx

PS Do you like the new photo of me and Keagan in my blog header? It was taken at footy the other day!!

Crafty Boots - Flowers

Good morning!

Well today our new challenge launches over at the Crafty Boots Challenge blog and the theme this time is FLOWERS as chosen by the lovely Kerry.

For my DT project I chose to make a card using the very gorgeous Some Odd Girl stamp available to buy from Crafty Boots shop Fairy Wishes - 

As you can see I kept the background plain using some lovely Kraft graph type paper.

I coloured Fairy Wishes using bold strong colours in blues and pinks using Copics. I felt that she was perfect for the theme with her flowers in her hair but to be fair I would probably make her fit for any theme as she is just so fab to colour!

The flowers are from my ever growing stamp collection and they were coloured to match and stuck on slightly raised. 

Finally I added a dash of sparkle to the centres and also to the fairies wings and hair.

Well I'd love it if you would pop over and join in with our challenge, follow along and see what my fellow DT ladies have been making!

Take care Zo xx

Cards, Smash and Football!

I'm a little shocked to see that it's nearly a week since I last posted, how did that happen?

Well to be fair to myself this week has been so busy, maybe not busy in the sense of what people normally do, but for me, it was busy. Football games attended - 2 in fact, one Tues and one yesterday, and Drs appointments too. Normal things like shopping for food and banking seemed to take its toll on me but I battled on. 

Yesterday me and Keagan enjoyed a rather enjoyable experience of being part of the match sponsorship party at Bristol Rovers (where else!!), full on hospitality for us - 3 course meal, posh seats and all that goes with such an honour, but more importantly perhaps was the fact that Rovers won 2 - 1!

Me and Keagan before our meal. There were 20 of us in our group.

Love this fab pic of us taken before the match.

Here's Keagan with Tom Parkes - our captain and the chosen Man of the Match.

We had a super time and really enjoyed it.

Over the last week I've been trying to make some Easter cards, am inundated with birthdays as everyone friend and family seems to have one this month and next so I'm just ticking along doing what I can.

Here's an Easter card I've made colouring a Saturated Canary image.

Last week's page in my Project 2013 Smash book - yes that is Keagan hoovering! His friend was visiting for the afternoon so housework took priority! The other pic is him with one of his friend's puppies, we spent an hour just playing with the 2 puppies and watching them play. So cute.

This is a background I made using the old shaving foam technique with Dylusions ink. I just decided to have a go so bought cheap foam, some paper plates to make clear-up easier. Keagan just threw them away once I'd finished.

And finally a birthday card I made for our Uncle.

So you see a right random mix of stuff going on here. I'm hoping this next week is much quieter as I'm really struggling today. I'm hurting so much that I shall be going to bed soon, it's only 6.30pm but I don't think I can sit up much longer!

Anyway take care Zo xx

Magic on Monday!

Hello Monday and hello everyone!

Back today to share a peek at my latest DT creation for the Crafty Boots shop which sees us share inspiration using products available from Crafty Boots on-line store. You can see the whole post here - 

Fairy Magic!

But I thought I'd share a peek on here for my followers to see, I'd love it if you'd pop over and have a look, perhaps leave a comment to let me know what you think, and I'd absolutely love it if you would follow, okay enough pleading from me! Here's the peek -

Enjoy your day.

Take care Zo xx

Candle & cards

Well I hope all you mum's out there have a lovely day tomorrow. I'm sure Keagan will surprise me with a little something. But to be fair, he's a good lad who helps around the house so much anyway!

I'm sharing my cards that I've made for my mum from me and Keagan, and also the candle I've decorated for her.

I decorated this candle using the tissue paper technique, with 2 photos, one of Keagan horse riding and one of my nieces - I added the doily & ribbon to pretty it up without obscuring the photos!

This is from me (obvious really!) I created the background using Distress inks which I put onto my craft mat sprayed with water then put the card on top. I filled in any gaps using the blending tool. I then went mad with stamps and bubble wrap to add texture. 

The white flourish and flower accent the bright colours perfectly I think.

I coloured the chipboard letters with my black Copic then sprayed them with iridescent Spray & Sparkle.

I repeated the whole process with different colours to make Keagan's card for my mum. 

Different flourish, colours and letter positioning means it looks similar but different! 

Hope she likes them, am sure she will!

Take care Zo xx

WOYWW 196

Well I was missing last week, everything was too much to cope with, and you won't believe this but I didn't even go to watch Bristol Rovers on Saturday as I wasn't up to it! I mean, me miss footy. Making up for it tonight though. Me and Keagan are going to watch the boys and there isn't anything that will stop me. I'm going to sleep and rest for the remainder of the day so I'm good to go!

Right, you know the drill, pop over to Julia's place, that is the Stamping Ground and join in, or not, you may just be of a nosy nature! We don't mind, leave a comment here and there and enjoy!

My desk is fairly clear, not much going on considering the amount of stuff I need to get done - 

Right hand side, usual display of pens, radio, my bug etc. The candles are waiting for me to do the print-on-tissue-paper-trick as gifts for the weekend. There's a receipt, ha ha forgot that was there, I need to add up mine and mum's shopping.

Window side is clearer, a few pens and an image I'm colouring, there's the new stamps from Crafter's Companion, Crisalis Classics. The 2 cards at the front are what I've made for my brother, it's his birthday on Saturday. Just need to envelope them once I've made the envelopes!

This one is for Keagan to give his uncle, me and my bro used to watch the A Team a lot when we were kids. I've bought DVD's for Keagan to watch so he can see what it's about.

 

This one is from me - my bro has always been a James Bond fan. Both of these cards were made using the Mimics cd from Card Creations.

Right that's me done, I shall visit desks tomorrow now, time is getting on and I need to get a few jobs done before I can sleep!

Hopefully I'll be a happy Rovers fan tomorrow.....or not, we shall see!

Take care one and all.

Zo xx

My first Art Journal pages!

Well, I'm back after a somewhat turbulent weekend, one that saw me not well enough to go to watch my beloved Bristol Rovers - I huffed and puffed and got in a bit of a strop with myself, but knew I couldn't go, knew I couldn't do the drive nor cope with it all so resigned myself to staying at home listening to the radio as my boys only went and won 3 - 0! Typical!

Anyway I've had time to have a crafty play and keep up with my Project 2013 Zoe-style so I'm now sharing it all with you - 

So this is the page for last week in my weekly journal that I call Project 2013 (Project Life spin off style!) - a bit different this time, I added a calendar pocket and I scribbled notes on to each day then I kept certain receipts and bits from that week - a petrol receipt, a receipt from Argos, some invoices for craft purchases plus I attached a photo of my boy, Keagan, who rode one of the smaller ponies for a change. He now usually rides horses, but every so often rides something smaller to give the pony a good ride out (many are only ridden by smaller children who can't yet canter or jump) as well as providing different challenges to the rider!

Keagan on Poppy.

Up until recently I didn't really do the whole art journal thing, I admired the pages others did, but didn't think about trying it myself (or I did try but it all ended in a mess with no direction or clue as to what I was doing!)  But the more I saw the more I thought I could do it.......properly - so I bought one of Dyan's Dylusions journals and had a go. All the usual suspects were used - Dyan's inks and new couture stencils. Plus I bought a signed copy of Dyan's journal book and I found it to be so inspiring and I love that it has little phrases in there so you can add them to your own work which I did with the 'shine' phrase. That's all I did - sprayed inks, splashed water, used paint in and through the stencils and stamped stuff! 

Bit of doodling and I love how Dyan shows how she uses the lid of the inks to make circles! Yep I did that too. 

I stamped out the phrase and then drew around it in black and white. Then I stopped.  Before I got carried away and ruined it. Because that's what I would usually do before, do too much which was why I hadn't really done this properly.

So no ruined page this go, and I'm pretty darned pleased with it!

Take care Zo xx