Happy Days!

Ah now that's was a fab programme I grew up watching! But, it's not what I mean, I mean it literally, I had a happy day, one full of colouring and relaxing.

This next week isn't going to be easy - hospital trip and a minor op to contend with so I know I won't be around much, which means I'm having to have really quiet restful days so that I can cope with it all and what better a thing to do than colouring!

Like all us crafter's, I have stash that I don't want to part with, images I've coloured and don't want to let go, so I've dedicated an entire Smash* Book (black one) to my crafting so that I can play with the yummy papers, colour those images and then keep them all to myself, safely tucked away in my Smash Book ready to look at and keep admiring!

You all know I'm a huge Saturated Canary fan, well recently my friend Stephanie-Emma (she of Crafty Boots fame!) introduced me to Some Odd Girls (Crafty Boots sell the clear stamps if you're interested) images - I bought Photo Kaylee and Gifty Gwen from Crafty Boots in the form of a clear stamp then I went on-line and purchased some of the digital stamps too! 

Oh my what fun I had - I spent virtually the whole day yesterday putting these pages together, colouring and arranging other images I'd already coloured. I went a bit mad with the hair, but then those of you who know me, will know I'm partial to a spot of mad hair colour myself! 

So the radio was on, tennis commentary, the Copics were out and images were coloured. 

I can honestly say I love them all, my favourite if I had to choose would be the girl on the left page, bottom middle, with blue hair wearing orangey socks and top with blue shoes. Why? Because while I colour using blue.......a lot.....I don't use orange tones very often and it was hard to do but I'm really pleased with the effect.  Since buying my Copics, my colouring has come on leaps and bounds - to the point where I know I'll not go back to using anything else. Watch this space as they say cos I will at some point be selling my other pens.....I have too many to keep them all!

Right time to try and get some more jobs done.

I will be popping on here to look and see what you're all up to but I'm not putting any pressure on myself to be actively blogging because I just don't know how things will go so if I'm not around, you'll know why.

Take care Zo xx

My boy!

I don't often share pictures that are not craft related but wanted to share these beauties with you all straight away. No doubt they will be Smash*ed, digitally scrapped etc but just had to share them now!

It's my boy, Keagan, jumping the highest jump he's ever attempted - a huge 2ft 9"! Wow - nearly hurdle height (horse racing). He wants to be a Jockey and has been riding since he was 7, having weekly lessons with an instructor and now he's nearly 14, he often volunteers to go over the yard and help, working with the younger children, assisting with parties and lessons and carrying out the mucky yard work too. 

The pony is called Poppy - he's only been riding her for a few weeks but boy do they make a good team already.

Keagan's instructor took these photos as she was obviously much nearer than I could get!

Hope you enjoy seeing something a little different from me - enjoy the weekend.

Take care Zo xx

WOYWW 160 - just a spot of colouring!

Hello fellow snoopers & anyone else who pops by that isn't actually snooping through the desks of the WOYWW world.

Confused? Not sure what I'm on about? Well pop over to Julia's - Queen of desk snooping to found out for yourself.

Right desk - 

Sideways view

Looking straight on.

As you can see .......more colouring! As you know I'm a huge colourer-inner and love the challenge of bringing these fab images to life. I often print out my digital stamps quite large, makes it easy to blend etc but now I'm into my Smash Books I wanted some smaller images so I got myself a Some Odd Girls stamp (bought from Crafty Boots - Photo Kaylee) and a couple of others.  But I couldn't resist colouring this fab Saturated Canary image in either! 

What do you think? Am getting more confident with the shading and hair I reckon, but as they say 'Practice makes perfect' so good excuse to keep colouring! 

Thank you all for all the wonderful well wishes, I had a really bad weekend but am feeling a bit better again today. Just one of those things with my conditions - I've got a hospital appointment on Monday to see the Consultant again. Who knows what he'll come up with - hopefully something to help me cope a little better than I seem to be at present.

I may not be around next week, though I'll try my best, I'm having a small minor op on Tuesday (nothing major just some skin problem that needs to be cut out) but I'm expecting stitches and a reaction with my conditions. Fingers crossed it'll be smooth going and I'll be back snooping, but if I'm not, well I'm not and I'll see you the following week! 

Take care everyone - be seeing you soon.

Zo xx

Crafty Boots does Sport!

Happy Monday to you all!

Today sees the launch of a new challenge over at Crafty Boots and this time the challenge is SPORT, set by .........Me!

I nearly set it as Bristol Rovers, but thought no one would be able to do that so I changed it to Sport, it certainly pushed the DT girls to their crafty limits and I was often told how far out of their comfort zones they were pushed. I love it! Lol

So in order to celebrate my challenge I designed a new digital stamp available from Here she's called 'Sporty Boots' (there is also a special offer running for the duration of this challenge, Sporty Boots digital stamp is half price!).  The idea for her is that I always find male orientated sport images but not so many female versions, plus I wanted a character that wasn't a specific sport, but one that could be used for any depending on how you colour her and what you put with her - a bat, a ball, a hockey stick, a golf club, a set of hurdles or a high jump...........you get the idea!

So here are 2 projects I've done using 'Sporty Boots' - 

The first is a normal DL birthday card, coloured in suitable England colours, inspired by the Euro Football finals on at present (I was hoping that when you read this, England would still be in the finals, but it wasn't to be!) She's coloured with Copics and I used Portobello Road flag paper. I added ribbon and candi too. Perfect for any female footy fan! 

The second project is different - I wanted to show how digital stamps can be used to do more than just print and colour. It's basically an 8 x 8 scrapbook page created in Craft Artist Pro, using frames, materials, backgrounds and embellishments.  I dropped 'Sporty Boots' into the frame to create a picture. Then after printing I added a ribbon hook, some glossy accents and some gems and then mounted it onto card to create a hanging that could be put into any sport mad girl's bedroom, and here's the thing, I didn't colour the digital stamp on purpose, I've left it so that the recipient can colour it themselves to match their favourite sporting colours - if it had been me, she would've been in blue & white quarters! 

With clever shadowing the images look to have layers when actually it's mainly flat!  Of course, this could be any colour, but I went with the lime green, pink and turquoise combination, just because that's what I felt like!

She could be coloured to just be a Tom-Boy, a rambler, or even non-sport related, imagine her coloured in just normal colours because girls wear shorts and t-shirts every day too, not just for sport!

I really hope you like her, I'd love to see some creations using her for our challenge, why not join in, you never know you could be our next winner or one of our top three earning Crafty Boots recognition.

Take care Zo xx

The Card that was meant to be!

Well I thought I'd pop on here and post before settling down to watch/listen to the football (I do both - radio for commentary, tv for pictures!)

I recently found the fab site called Copic Marker Europe, it's their first birthday and are hosting a super challenge which can be found HERE - they kindly offered up a free digital stamp to use but you must take part in the challenge. Well who am I to turn down that opportunity!

I didn't read it right and made a Smash* book page to begin with, but then saw it was a card that was needed so this afternoon I sat down and got on with making my card using my original page as an idea or a pre-card plan as I called it in my post (scroll down to see it!).

Ok so here's the card - 

I used the Teresa Collins 'Spring Fling' papers and embellishments and the free Saturated Canary image coloured with Copics to match. The papers are so lovely and double sided so I couldn't resist folding back the corner and using one of the yummy brads that came with the kit. I cut the red flowers out of one of the papers to go round the edge.

So there you go, my challenge entry in the right format but the same style!

I'm off to hide behind my hands, shout at the TV, cheer or cry depending on the result and basically go through so many emotions as I watch the Football.

Take care Zo xx

Pre-card plan!

Ha ha sounds daft doesn't it? A Pre plan for a card, but you see I've recently bought some rather yummy papers and embellishments for my Smash* books, one of the books is going to be totally dedicated to craft, so all my favs will go in there, designs I love, ideas etc. Anyway I've recently found a new blog that's celebrating it's first anniversary copicmarkereurope.blogspot.co.uk and they are running a challenge to make a card using one of the free digital stamps they are giving away, but by receiving the digi you are consenting to join the challenge so me, in my normal organised and random way decided to create a pre-card plan, to play with the papers and colour the digi to practise before I make my challenge card.

Okay, I confess I messed up really!

I didn't read it right and thought you could make any project  for the challenge as long as it used the digi but when I went to get ready to link I saw you have to make a card, so I thought 'It's OK Zoe, your page is your pre-card plan!'

So I thought I'd share it with you anyway before I go off to make the proper actual card for the challenge!

I love this Teresa Collins 'Spring Fling' kit, with the yummy papers and embellishments there was no way I was going to leave this out of my crafty book. I love these colours together so pretty but not in a over floral sense if you know what I mean? No you probably don't but that's okay, I just hope you enjoy looking at my page and like what I've done anyway!

Take care Zo xx

Wax seal & digital!

Ha ha not something you'd normally find, a wax seal and digital imagery, but in my normal random-ness I am sharing exactly that!

Firstly my brand new super duper wax seal, all the way from Vienna - my equally super duper amazing friend Debs (pop over to Deb's blog to see actual pics from Vienna!), bought me my very own 'Z' seal and a stick of wax for me to try. You see we'd talked about these traditional tools a while ago, I mentioned I rather fancied having a go and having my own, so during Deb's visit to a super palace she saw exactly the right seal for me -

This is my first attempt, well after the attempt I made on paper which actually saw me manage to catch the paper on fire..........hmmmm not exactly what was supposed to happen, BUT never fear I managed to save the house and put the fire out!

How fab is this wax seal?

I love it and look forward to using it on my projects, Smash* Books and whatever else I can that won't catch fire! 

Secondly I want to share with you a digital page I've just created, it's custom sized to fit a page in my Smash book. I love these pictures that I found but felt I didn't have anything to go with them, so I got to work on my Craft Artist Pro and made this up -

There are areas that I've left ready for actual embellishments when I get some and also the journal block as I like to add my own writing as well.  I was able to change the colours of embellishments that I liked, like the glasses to match what I was hoping to achieve. I am rather pleased with it.  

Anyway time is away from me again so I'm going to get myself off to bed!

Take care Zo xx