Crafty Boots DT card - Fantasy

Good Morning -  well in theory it is, but I've already been to docs with my son this morning! His neck has gone into spasm, ouch, lots of pain.

Anyway the new challenge launches over at Crafty Boots and the theme is fantasy.  This is a huge subject so get your thinking caps on and I look forward to seeing your entries when I look!

My DT card is a simple decoupaged card I've made for Christmas to give to my brother and sister in law. The image is from the Joanna Sheen collection 'Enchanted Dreams' by Josephine Wall.  I love this image so printed it off a few times to create my own decoupage. There are a number of winter/Christmas like images  and I thought it fits the Fantasy theme perfectly.

The card is matted and layered with silver and black Kanban card, and is also Spray & Sparkled with the Iridescent glitter spray from Crafter's Companion. Anyway thanks for looking and I hope you can join us over at Crafty Boots.

I'd just like to say that I have been looking at your wonderful creations but haven't been commenting as much as I'd like. I'm finding things a bit of a struggle at the mo, my Paris trip while wonderful has really hit me for six so am in lots of pain and very tired presently. Will be sharing my next Paris post soon though!

Take care Zo x

Paris - Part one!

I'm back!

As some of you know I recently fulfilled a dream and visited Paris for a few days. To embark on such a trip for me was a massive thing as I didn't know how I'd cope with the travelling and getting around in what turned out to be the busiest, maddest city I've ever been to!

Thankfully my fab friend Debs was on hand to help and support me every second of the journey.  And while I am now is so much pain and am so tired I feel it was all worth it to fulfil that very dream. Over the next few posts I'd like to share with you my experience, observations and pictures.

So to start; we flew out of Bristol last Saturday 05/11/11 with Easy jet (Speedy Boarding meant we didn't queue at all) arriving at Paris Charles De Gaulle airport around lunch.  Straight away I was hit by how busy it was, people every where & no one showing the same manners as us British do! But we coped and navigated the airport to find the Roissybus to take us into the heart of Paris. For €10 it was the cheapest and most direct way of getting from airport to City centre.  Thankfully our hotel was only minutes from the Paris Opera house where the bus stopped.

We stayed at the pleasant Pavillon Saint-Augustin Hotel 3 stars so it was comfortable, central and suited us perfectly.

Our room was spacious & comfortable, though I soon realised that the French don't seem to acknowledge small people (I'm 4ft 10"). Everything seemed a good few inches higher than over here!

We went out for food on that first day but other than that we rested, as the travelling meant I was in pain & tired. We found we were in the heart of the retail area and had everything we could want on our doorstep. My French is reasonable so we felt comfortable using the local shops and supermarkets to buy food etc for our room. We only booked the hotel as room only so that we weren't restricted by meal times, especially with not knowing how I was going to be each day so we didn't want to have to rush to get up if I wasn't up to it. In the end that suited us perfectly as we could come and go as we pleased and never felt pressured. It was lovely to take our time and also the thrill of having croissants and coffee/tea while out felt a 'very French' thing to do!

When we went out on Sunday the views of architecture that met us as we found our bearings were stunning. Here's some of the pics we took round and about.

 Yes they still have C & A in Paris!

 This is of the Paris Opera house.

Couple of the grand looking hotels!

On the whole we were thrilled with our location, so near to everything, however we did find that the French weren't that good at allowing space for wheelchairs or someone using sticks.  And crossing the road was an art form. Pedestrian crossings were everywhere but even if the man was green you had to be careful because cars frequently went through red lights, would drive around you as you crossed on a green man, and basically pedestrians and cars alike were every man/woman for themselves!  We took our time and got where we wanted to go eventually.

Right that's it for me, I'm off to bed now but next time I'll be sharing my experience of The Louvre and the Tulleries Gardens with you all.

Take care Zo x

Young At Heart

Good morning everyone!

Well I hope you all have found the benefit of the 'extra' hour? Not sure I have yet, the time change does affect my medication and it takes a while for everything to settle down again.

Today there's a new challenge launched over at Crafty Boots - the theme this time is Young At Heart.

My DT card is an easel card that I've made for my friend's son, Ioan, who'll be 2 on Nov 5th.

The images are taken from the MCS Young at heart CD-ROM, I used the fab scissors tool to create my own decoupage of this fun toy shelf. I used the text feature to add the words in the banner. All set on the beautiful blue centura pearl card-stock. And as per usual (well for me) I added some card candi (Card candi is available to buy from The Crafty Boots online shop).  You can't see it on the picture but I also used Wink of Stella pens to add some sparkle to the toys as well as some glossy accents to bring out different features.

Hope you like my efforts for this challenge & I look forward to seeing your entries!

Take care Zo x

While I listen....

to the radio I thought I'd better post something!

It's Saturday so you know what that means in my house...football. My beloved Bristol Rovers are away at Burton Albion today, I would've loved to have visited the Pirelli Stadium, but it just isn't always possible to do what we want, is it? So I've got Radio Bristol on ready to listen to the match commentary.  Keith Brookman, editor of the Rovers programme, and therefore my editor when I write my articles, commentates alongside someone from the radio so it's always fun to listen in and I often tell Keith what I think of his commentary!

While I enjoy going to matches I do love these type of Saturdays at home, radio on, crafting away.  Today I need to plan a few cards I've been asked to make.  I enjoy the whole preparation side of card making, it doesn't just happen sometimes and I spend ages going through images and styles trying to decide what to use. Other times I just know straight away what to use.

This week I've been planning and preparing my own 'special' Christmas cards.  These are the 2 I've made for my nieces.

I've used the new SWALK winter stamps combined with papers I already had. I bought the buttons from my local shop, I saw them and just had to have them!

This year I opted for traditional colours for the girls, but I hope I've managed to create a fresh young feel to them with my paper choices and design.

Thanks for looking, enjoy the weekend.
Take care Zo x

Autumn Crafty Boots challenge

Morning! (Well there's a little bit of it left as I type)

Today I want to share with you my DT card for the new Crafty Boots challenge which can be found here;

craftybootschallenges.blogspot.com/2011/10/autumn-or-halloween.html

As you can see the theme is Autumn, and everything that goes with it.  My card is a celebration of these wonderful months.

The toppers are from Debbi Moore, and the leaves are from Sheena Douglas's paint fusion, which I coloured with Promarkers. I used Henna, Terracotta, Spice, Ruby, Poppy, Moss, Olive Green, Marsh Green and Pear Green to achieve the blends of colour on the leaves.  They took a while but am so pleased with the effect I created. I also used Core-dinations card which I embossed and spilt into the three panels. This ruby ribbon was a bargain from my local craft shop as it was sold for a £1 a roll, I think there is about 20 metres on it!  The card base is 8 x 8 and is made from snow white Centura Pearl card.

Hope you like my card and would love to see your creations entered into our challenge. Take care Zo x

Digital Drawing!

Morning!

The sun is shining here in Somerset, but it's feeling a bit chilly.  This week I thought I'd share with you a couple of things.

I've always been interested in art (my dad's an artist) and have always been able to pick up a pencil when in the right frame of mind and create.  Recently, as my CD collection for crafting has grown, and having watched such talented crafter's, like Nikky Hall etc, on tv, I decided to get myself a graphic's tablet. I want to have a go at designing for myself (and maybe one day for you all!).  Not having a vast amount of money to spend and not being sure if I'd get on with said tool, I opted for a cheap version. But have to say the £25 Trust version I've bought is fab, easy to use and does the job for now. So here's my first attempt at drawing digitally.

Don't ask why I drew this character or why I drew him with such big spiky hair, he just happened! I really enjoyed messing about with the technology & software. Discovering how to do everything for the first time was great fun, spent the evening oohhhing and aaahhing, and clapping hands as I worked it out!

Let me know what you think of my character/drawing, am interested to see what people make of him!

I will be working on more drawings that's for sure, and I have an idea for a potential CD/stamps! Watch this space.

Right I also want to share with you two cards that I was asked to make by a family friend.

First is a feminine Mum card,

The second is a golfing card.

Hope you all have a fab day and a lovely weekend. Will be back at the beginning of the week to share my next DT card.

Take care and thanks for popping by.
Zo x

Happy 13th Birthday

Well today is my son's 13th birthday. How time flies!

So my card to share with you today had to be his birthday card.  I'm scheduling this post as I know I'll have lots to do today what with family visiting etc, so fingers crossed it worked properly!

Right, my card is A4 in size, special birthday, large card expected I know, and is made using Tim Holtz products, apart from the pigeon, which is an image from Men-y happy returns MCS cd-rom.

The reason I chose a pigeon is that Keagan and my dad race pigeons, and they race them from all over England as well as France and Belgium which is why I chose the world paper, and positioned it to show Europe. They use clocks to record times, but of course, this clock had to show the 1 & 3 for 13! I chose the hope & soar tickets because they always hope their pigeons come home after soaring across the skies. lol
Lastly you may ask why I put Boo on there, it's not Halloween yet I hear you say, well it's Keagan's nickname. Family & friends have called him Boo since he was little and it's stuck. So I had to include it.

Thanks for popping by, am looking forward to reading what you think of this special card. Take care Zo x