Fuchsias

Hello folks,

Thank you for visiting today.  Firstly, let me say thank you for all the comments about Misty, I know many of you have lost pets of your own and it know how tough it is.

Back to cards now though.... I made this card as a sample for Paul's shows on TV last weekend. Featuring the wonderful floral stamp sets by Jayne Nestorenko, this one is the Fuchsia set
 (this link is to the new website, the stamp is on the Gray Friday deal until midnight 27/11/16)

I started by stamping the image in archival ink onto watercolour cardstock.
Mix up some brusho (or other ink crystals) with some water
Wet the card around the image with a wet brush, then add some of the ink onto the card, you can add paint and dab it off again with paper towel until you like what you have.
While the paper is still wet, sprinkle a small amount of the crystals around and spritz, again, you can move the ink aroud with a brush and blot until you like the result.  I then sprinkled a tiny amount of the crystals and left them to spread on the wet card.
When everything was dry, I used Artisrty Inks to colour the image and added some sparkle to the flowers.
Cut the card to size and stamp the word 'Fuchsias' on to an offcut then mat it all on complimentary card.

Hope you all have a lovely day!
Janet x

Little Misty Blue

Hello everyone,
A bit of a sad post today..
Yesterday evening Misty, one of the cats, started to cry in pain and lost the use of her back legs, which were ice cold.  I called the vet and she was pretty sure it was a blood clot, she explained over the phone that there was little chance of a happy resolution, so we made the decision to euthanase.
I know many of you have four-legged family members and you know how that feels, it was a shock that it all happened so quickly!  Misty came and had her tea when I got home from work and less than an hour later, she was forever sleeping!
This is what Misty looked like when we first got her, 12 and a half years ago, she was only 4 weeks old and had only just started to lap.  She had been found at a day or two old, next to her dead mother.  She was looked after by a lady Simon knew, while she needed to be intensively cared for and then came to us.  She was a scruffy little bundle!

She was the prettiest of colours, a sort of grey, peach and cream mixture.  We had two 6 month old cats at the time and once they got used to the idea she was around, Megs took Misty under her wing and became her 'Auntie'.  Misty followed her everywhere and they remained friends, in fact only the previous evening, they were snuggled up together on my lap.
Misty was a funny little thing, she used to come running in, all proud of herself because she had 'caught' one of the neighbour's Fuchsia flowers!  She disappeared one day and turned up in one of the neighbour's bedroom windows - they had been packing the car to go out for the day and had the house door open and Misty had sneaked in!  Luckily, they had left the window slightly open and we managed to get her to jump on the porch roof, where Simon could reach her.

We will lay her to rest under her favourite shrub in the front garden later this morning, Good bye Misty Blue, we will miss your quirky little ways RIP.

Poinsettia Frame

Good Morning everyone,

I hope you had a lovely weekend.  Did you manage to watch the lovely Paul on the TV?  The stamp sets by Jayne Nestorenko are lovely aren't they?  Especially good if you like colouring.  This is a card I made last time the stamps were on, but they were on yesterday's show too, so ~I thought I would blog about it.  The other florals will come later....

Really, this is a simple card. pretty much stamping and colouring, I used waxy pencils for this.
I did mask the poinsettia and the edge of the frame and stamp the word 'Poinsettia' in the background.
I like Paul's idea of cutting out the frame and mounting up the layers, I will try that another time, it looked good!
Thank you for visiting,
Hope you enjoy your day!
Janet xx

Poinsettia

Hello again,

I'm back with another blog - don't get used to it though!  I am a bit inconsistent with my blog posting!
Monday is my new day off work, so I am having a nice, relaxed day today, just me, the cats and Jules Holland and his band.  I have done my housework for the day and am catching up on card samples, but I have to keep stopping to do a bit of rock n' roll dancing.  Just as well no-one is watching!!

This card was shown on the last TV show Barbara did on Hochanda.  I am enjoying using the Jayne Nestorenko floral designs, they are so nice to colour in.
This card did not end up at all like I intended...but I am quite pleased with the result anyway.
I had wanted to do something with brushos but it didn't work out, so I found an old background I had done previously and stamped the Poinsettia (I may have embossed, I can't remember now!) then coloured in by using the Artistry Inks with a damp paintbrush, they work really well like that.
I used reds and oranges, but it looked a bit flat, so I added a touch of Golden Turmeric (my new favourite colour!!) which lifted and brightened it all.
I used the Pine branch round the edge in black, but it looked a bit dark, so I added other bits in lighter colours to soften it a bit.
I hope you are getting on with your Christmas cards, my lovely friend in Kenya has sent me 100 of his little paintings, so I am gong to spend an evening getting them all mounted up.  I will show them on here when I've got some done, they are fab little pictures!
Thanks for stopping by,
have a good day!
Janet xx

Tropical

Hello everyone,
Thanks very much for stopping by.  I hope you are having a good weekend.  I am showing a page from the Clarity colouring book today.  I did do this a while ago, but have just realised that I haven't blogged it yet.
It is coloured with waxy pencils.  I am not the best colourer-inner, but I am having great fun wiht this book, you can do each page bit by bit, you don't have to sit and do it all in one go.  I think it is good to take your time and get a result you can be pleased with.
The picture has come out a bit faded, but it was actually quite bright for me!
A few things I have learnt: Nothing in nature is a solid colour, so I always use several colours and blend.
Add shade!!  I don't think I am brave enough with this yet, but I am getting there!
Add highlights, I am also not very brave with this either.
Keep practising!  Practice makes perfect, as they say....
Enjoy it!  You are supposed to be relaxing, remember!
Janet xx

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A little bit serious

Hello all,
I hope you are enjoying the weekend.  It is a bit of a rare one for me - no workshops and not too much prep to do!
I am going to share a card, but first I just want to mention the plight of a Dr I worked with.  His name is Dino and he has a young nephew in Myanmar who has developed leukaemia and is seriously ill.  His only hope is to have a bone marrow transplant and this will cost £200,000 which the family can't afford.  There is a fundraising page here, if you feel you could help, that would be wonderful.  The sad irony is that Dino is a haematology Dr and has helped many patients in the UK through similar sorts of treatment.
I work for the NHS and am one of the first to moan on about its many failings, but this has made me realise how lucky we are in the UK to have the NHS; worrying about being able to afford treatment rarely happens here and if Dino's little nephew was in the UK, he would get this treatment free of charge!
I can't promise to not moan in the future, but I will also remember to appreciate what we have!

So onto my card, this one is one I did for the last TV show, using the Holly and Ivy set again..

I often do a central image with a frame by masking, but for this one, it is a separate piece of card.
I used watercolour card and stamped the image, then coloured in by painting with artistry inks, these work really well for paining, just squish a bit of ink on a mat and pick up with your brush.
Once I had done the painting, I stamped the words, then it all looked a bit bare, so I got out my speckling brush covered up the image and went to town!!  There are speckles of all colours

I mounted this piece onto a dark green background.
For the background piece, I stamped the ivy all round the edge of the card, then painted them too.

Thank you for visiting, and please spare a thought for Dino's little nephew, if you can.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend
Janet xxx

Holly, Ivy and Brusho

Good evening,

This card is one I made for the TV show on Hochanda last weekend.  I started by stamping the holly and ivy image onto some watercolour card.  I used a brush to add water to the left side of the image, then added some diluted brusho as a paint.  I used two colours.  then I did the same on the right of the image, but used a paler colour.  I then masked the image and added powder brusho over the top and spritzed it.  You get a bit more control doing it this way.  You can always use a brush to blend in any bits you think are too dark.

I let it dry, then added the holly and ivy words in versa fine ink, before removing the mask.
Once I'd removed the mask, I used artistry inks to paint in the image.
I obviously had to use my fab new speckling brush to add some speckles, then added a bit of shadow round the image with pencils.

I had great fun doing this one!

Thanks for visiting!
Janet xx