Day 14 - the final. Sob. And more blog candy than you can poke a stick at.

So everyone...here it is, my final day in this little mini tour of our Belles & Whistles stamp range with designs from Elisabeth Bell. Don't you just love it??

I do. 

Wholeheartedly, I just adore these images they are right up my street and I was like a whirling dervish when we got these in all the way from the States. There will be more from this range on this blog, I can guarantee it, but for now, it must end as I really must show some other things instead of just obliging my own fanciful cardmaking LOL!

This, my lovely bloggie readers is my favourite image I've done so far. I ADORE her. And I have to admit I totally adore this card, it is soooo vintage shabby chic for me. I coloured the image with Prisma pencils, apologies the close-up isn't better but my camera was playing up and I couldn't get it on the right setting for love nor money but hopefully you can see the shading and tones etc.I really like the colour palette I used here with those olive greeny trousers, just delish.

So, Belles and Whistles fans, that is it for this round.
I have enjoyed my blog marathon although it's been quite hard making sure I update every day or schedule a few days in a row! It's fine when I'm home but when I've been away twice this week I soon lose my routine! I am away a few days this coming week but I promise to try harder from now on and hopefully this little exercise has given me the mojo to keep going more regularly with my posts and got me into the routine of posting regularly.  As a special finale thankyou for all those of you who've read and commented this week, if you leave me a comment and I get 40 comments on this post I will issue blog candy worth at least £25 to 3 different people!
You have until 4th December to leave your comment to be in with a chance of winning and don't forget to leave comments on the other posts over the last 2 weeks to win the other candy too!

I will draw all the winners from the different posts and this one, on 4th December at noon! Thankyou and goodnight. For now at least!xx

Day 13

I think I miscounted my 15 days of Belles n Whistles...I'm only on Day 13 and it's the penultimate day LOL!!

I love this card. This particular paper which I shall call *strawberry pink* is just totally delicious, every time I see it and print one off the Pretty Sweet CD I just smile and hold it to my bosom cos I love it so much! Sad I know, but I have always been a big paper geek and I will go to the grave a paper geek. I love paper. 20 years ago I worked for an advertising agency and we used to get sent lots of different fancy schmancy paper samples from different manufacturers...my boss used to go mad cos he used to go back to the archives and would always find pages missing out of the sample books and swatch files...yep, you guessed it, he would have found them all hanging in clipframes on my flat walls LOL! People used to think I was well weirdo, they'd come round and go "err WHAT is that???" and point to a piece of paper 4 x 4" in a 20 x 20" frame on my wall. They just didnt get it. People still don't! And to this day you will find two large A1 clipframes on my living room wall which house sheets of those pretty handmade papers with flowers encapsulated between the layers. I just love it and I love what you can do with it. Have you ever made your own paper? It's awesome, I really must do another batch again I havent done it in years and I love it, you never quite know what you'll end up with!

So this lovely girl is called Braids & Patches - isn't she adorable?? I wanted to capture a certain light direction with this and I think I got it perfick. She's coloured with Prisma's mainly but also a hint of Promarker and Flexmarker in there too if I remember rightl. Love all the texture on her clothing and just the general colours I used here (I did this a few weeks ago so I'm now seeing it with fresh eyes again).

Talking of which - little tip for those of you who are always hard on yourselves...if you don't like something you made, walk away, come back later... 9 times out of 10 you will see it differently and if you still don't like it you can  usually see what the problem is if you've had a break from it. Try it, it works!
So that's it today - see you tomorrow for the final Belles n Whistles day! sob!
xx

Day 12

I am SO tired my eyelids are going doing this post - and it's only 7pm! Had the usual long busy and tiring day at Create and Craft but oh my, I do love it! It's the only opportunity you really get to catch up with fellow professionals in the green room and the only chance I ever get to see Nancy Watt. Now let me tell you...I love this woman. She absolutely cracks me up, she's so laid back she's horizontal, a position she's very familiar with in her usual gin-fuelled state LOL. She's such a sweetheart and although I don't know her that well I do know I would still count her as a friend cos she's so lovely. So it was a stayover last night in the hotel from hell...well not quite, but it was certainly a bit Fawlty Towers to say the least and it was the first time and last that I will be staying at Ramada Peterborough! No wonder it was cheap! So it was up at 5am today - half an hour early! The bed was SO uncomfortable I couldnt wait to get up, so I jumped out of bed and was ready super-early for a change. 

I know lots of you watched the 9am show because we sold out of the Letraset metallic markers in 15 minutes - woohooo!! I know you're all going to love them and try the little spellbinders trickypoo I showed you, I am addicted to that!

So, onto Day 12 of my Belles n Whistles showcase and I've saved my favourite cards till last, natch...

Here is the very lovely Wishing Well, which I just adoooore!!....

This one I've coloured with my Prisma's. I do love trying all the different colouring mediums I must admit, I'm a colouring magpie I think but you really do get what you pay for when you buy pens, paints and markers and from bitter experiences I never buy cheap as you will almost always regret it...you have to look on pens as an investment in your toolkit and if you buy right they will last you a long time...

So again, yawn yawn, Pretty Sweet papers and the scallop die is a Marianne's I think, distressed and the little scallopy bits have a translucenty glitter on them. Again, ribbon roses and that lush velvet lace from the website. I love the colours on this card, it's so pretty and delicate even with the heavy distressing. Hope you like it! x

Day 11 - Belles n Whistles

Funny how your life goes in peaks and troughs and left and right and sometimes backwards too, isn't it. I've said it many times before, but I strongly believe that different people come into your life for different reasons and some come and say hello for a short while and then off they pop again, never to be seen again. I find this a lot with work - you leave a job and then NEVER ever again see any of those people you spent 10 hours a day 5 or 6 days a week with - it's completely weird! Sometimes though YOU have to make the decision to remove yourself from some of these people for whatever reason. I see people getting in such a twist over how they've been treated by others, whether it be friends or family (family, groan!). We all have ups and downs in all our relationships, sometimes you just have to know when it's time to walk away (for your own mental health usually LOL). The world would be a much happier place if everyone learned to do this without guilt I think. Just learn to let go and move on because until you do, all those nice things and nice people that are waiting for you round the corner can't happen yet.
I must admit I'm in a bit of a cleansing phase right now, sometimes you just wake up and see things for what they are I guess...temporary. Much of life is temporary if you think about it, not much lasts forever. Yes, your ego may be a little bruised along the way but if you take off those rose-tinted specs and see life for what it is, it's much easier to cope with and you'll be ultimately happier along the way. Life is way too short to fit in all the good things so let's leave all the rubbish out of it!
Anyway, enough of the waffling, here is today's offering...

 Watering Flowers is the name of this delightful image...

And I coloured her with Flexmarkers. Papers and sentiment are yet again Pretty Sweet (what else) and the roses and die-cuts are from the website too. Cute.
If you're reading this and haven't realised - I'm on Create and Craft right now showcasing letraset products - tune in and send me your questions on an email to the studio, it really IS live TV you know! :D