Colour Pencil Cat

Ok you can see by the date I did this 2 years ago! I'm having internet and phone issues at the moment so I couldn't upload any photos from my phone. Hopefully I will be able to sort something out soon.

I drew this cat from a picture that was on a diary I had. I love colour pencil, so much easier than using water colours. I was pleased I managed to make the fur on this cat look furry :)

I might be taking a few days off blogging while I sort out my phone. And I need to rejuvenate my creativity. Sometimes taking a break from card making does the trick. Also I really need to practice my drawing so I have something more recent to show rather than my old art work.

Thanks for stopping by and I'll be back soon xx

It is a beagle!

This is a watercolour painting I did of my friend's beagle, Ruby. I'm really proud of this painting as I managed to capture Ruby just how she looks. Here is a comment by the same person from flickr who commented on the card I showed on Friday ...

Love the painting! Not really a beagle face...(little too wide) but very nice!!
(i used to train dogs for a few years)

Ahh, Ruby you do have a beagle face :)

Here is a picture of Ruby babysitting some kittens. The photo is a bit small as it was sent from my friend's phone

Well we had a beautiful HOT weekend here in the UK. It was gorgeous, and there is no denying this summer has definitely felt like a summer. Would be so nice if it continues through July as well, let's hope so. Anyway all this gorgeous weather has put a stop to my card making as I have just not been in the mood for staying in and my creativity has dried up for now. I'm sure it will return once the rain returns (forecast Thursday I think).

Really enjoyed watching Glastonbury this weekend. Muse were brilliant. Loved their opening with 'Uprising'. Wished I'd been there to see it. Was a bit gutted I missed Gorillaz. I taped them only to find that I had the wrong channel set - grrrr! But for a limited time the BBC are showing them here.

England are out of the World Cup - what's new pussycat? Only another 2 years to go before they are out of the European Cup and only another 4 years to go before they are out of the World Cup again. Ahh, at least they are consistent!

Have a lovely day and thanks for stopping by ...

Asian Hare

I made this card awhile ago and kept it because I love it a lot. And I keep meaning to re-make it so I kept it to remind me. The rabbit kanji is from Onyx Expressions and the hare/rabbit and good luck kanji are from Stamp Magick

The origami is easy. Take a square piece of paper, fold in each corner to meet in the middle. Then fold back half of each corner. And that's it. It makes a cute little frame.

I have this card on flickr and I was amused by a comment someone left. Here it is complete with spelling mistake and grammatical error (not that I'm always grammatically correct or spell perfectly!) ...

these are long ears for sure!! I like the part with the rabbit.
Unfortunately is the folding of the upperside card (the red part) a little crooked. And i woudn't used the whool...

But i still do like it!!

:)

The same person left a comment on a painting I did of my friend's beagle and told me it's eyes weren't right and it didn't look like a beagle. I might have to show that painting next week.

This weekend is set to be a scorcher - woo hoo. I'm going to be watching Glastonbury highlights on tv in the evenings. Looking forward to seeing Gorillaz, Muse, Dizzee Rascall, Groove Armada and Snoop Dogg, another great line up this year.

Hope you have a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by and I'll be back on Monday xx

Baby Bunny

Here is another watercolor painting of mine (with pen work). I did this about 4 years ago and it is one of my favourites, even though the fur isn't done as nicely as I'd like. It's my favourite because I love baby bunnies. I know, I love just about every animal going apart from, maybe, camels or goats (had to think about that!). I keep saying it, but I must get back to doing more drawings before I lose the ability altogether.

Yesterday I was pretty busy but I was intending to make a card for today. It wasn't until the evening when I suddenly remembered I hadn't made one! Too late, by then I was engrossed with watching 'The Good Wife' on tv. I like that series, it's an American legal drama and Chris North is in it, though that's not the main reason why I like it :)

Hopefully I will have something crafty to show for tomorrow, I'm thinking maybe some origami might be involved ...

Thanks for stopping by xx

Peacock Power

This Peacock is from this Hero Arts set. And the paper and card is from Stampin Up. Love SU products. Their papers and cards all co-ordinate beautifully with their inks and markers. I used the beautiful Taken with Teal colour on the peacock which is the same colour as the Nesties scalloped card. SU are discontinuing Taken with Teal so I'm going to have to stock up before it goes.

Shame the sentiment isn't straight - aaargh! I need gridlines on my acrylic block so I can line it up better.

I used teal coloured gems to accent that sweet peacock's tail feathers and headdress. Wished the scalloped rectangle was larger though. I like using Nestabilities dies but they need to have slightly bigger sizes I think.

Well today will be another day in the sun, yay! A new Italian cafe has opened up down by the river in Taunton. It's called Olio & Farino, it's really cool has lovely food and coffee there. Think I might pay another visit this afternoon and pretend I'm Italian for half an hour :)

Thanks for stopping by ...

Cheng Yan's Chinese Cat

Here is another cat by Cheng Yan. This stamp is available from Onyx Expressions and the red kanji for 'Cat' is also by them too. The beautiful red paper is called 'Asia' and I got it from The Fruit Pixie.

Talking of Chinese cats, here is another one ...

Nuff said :)

Have a lovely day today and thanks for visiting my blog ...

Kimono Kitty

My favourite stamp of all time is this gorgeous cat in a kimono by Art Neko. I have a larger version too. I haven't used these for absolutely ages and I feel sorry for neglecting them. The kanji is 'Cat' and I stamped it with Brilliance gold but because the card is a bit thick it absorbed much of the gold shininess. I used a small piece of beautiful Japanese paper as a kind of picture for the cat to look at, it was too nice to be used as a background paper.

Do you think a cat in a kimono is unlikely? Well Hana PetWear would disagree. Check out their beautiful kimonos for cats and dogs.


I've ordered 3 for Miaowski!!!! No, I haven't actually but I'd like to :)

Well it has been absolutely gorgeous here in the UK. The sun has been shining all weekend and we are due for a whole week of it - how nice is that? Well, I will have to be out as much as possible which will probably mean I won't be doing so much card making this week. Unless, of course, I get inspired. I'm lacking inspiration at the moment, think the sun has zapped it out of my head!

Have a happy Monday. Thanks for stopping by ...

Chubby Zebra

Another zebra card. This time with the chubby Judikins zebra stamp. I love stripes and I love black and white so I guess that's why I love the look of zebras. I mean, you can never have an old fashioned zebra, they will always look contemporary with their cool colours.

I used glossy card for this and masked out the zebra while I brayered over the top. It's just a simple card because I was a bit rushed yesterday and didn't have enough time to do much more.

If you ever wondered why zebras are black and white striped I will tell you. Its so their predators can't see them very well if they are all grouped together. All those black and white stripes are confusing to spot a single zebra in so a lion would find it hard to target. Zebra is a word in Old Portuguese that means 'Wild Ass'

Ok, that's enough zebra facts :)

Have a lovely weekend and see you on Monday ...

Sweet Thing

This sweet little girl image is a stamp by Penny Black called 'Sweet Thing'. The spotty card is by K and Co and the embossed dots is a new Cuttlebug Folder called 'Seeing Spots'. The flowers and pink pearls are by Hero Arts. I love this little girl image and shall be using her again with different coloured hair and clothes, so versatile.

Of course I had to add some glossy accents to the cherry and glitter to the wings. Love the raised glossiness of that cherry, just shame you can't really see it in the picture.

Some time today I'm planning on replacing my printer's ink cartridges - I put it off because I find it quite time consuming. My old printer used to be easy, just replace the cartridge, end of story. This printer (Epson DX7450) is a real pain. You change the inks and then it tells you you have to clean the nozzles. So you do a maintenance nozzle clean - which uses up half a cartridge so it's not long before you have to replace the cartridges again. If anyone has a decent printer I'd be happy to hear about it.

OMG I just found out that Penelope Cruz is dating the gorgeous Javier Bardem - I'm crushed. How can anyone ever compete with the lovely Penelope Cruz? Oh well, there is one consolation Javier Bardem has grown a beard so he's not quite as gorgeous before "sigh" :)

Thanks for stopping by ...

Dolls my Mum made

My Mum is in her 80's and is still very talented and creative. Here are some dolls she made recently that are going to be sold for a good cause at a fete this weekend.

Here are some more. My favourite one is the little blonde one, so cute.

I've been having serious internet issues this morning. Thought I was going to be without the internet - aaargh! Have spent most of this morning waiting for BT to phone me back after checking my line but in the end I couldn't wait so phoned them back. In the end all I had to do was stick a pen through a hole in the BT hub and wait for 30 seconds. It worked for about a couple of minutes then went again. So I repeated it and thank goodness it worked.

So I better be quick before it all goes again and get this posted quickly. If I disappear altogether you will know it's because I have no internet.

Thanks for stopping by ...

Chinese Cat

There is a beautiful painting called Chinese cat by an artist called Cheng Yan. I've always loved it and wished I had a painting on my wall. So I was very happy to see Onyx Expressions has a rubber stamp of it. Onyx Expressions do beautiful stamps and have a large selection of Oriental rubber stamps. And a large selection of cat stamps too. And they have both of Cheng Yan's cat images. I will show his other one another time.

But for now I did this one embossed in gold. That beautiful background is actually vellum and I got it from my friend's craft shop (it isn't in existence anymore I'm afraid). I'm sure it could be found again somewhere on the internet.

I'm not sure what's happened to the summer temperatures but they have dipped too low again and I spent all day yesterday feeling very cold. Especially as my flat gets no sun so feels I'm living in a cave. I had salad for lunch and was so cold I had to make soup to warm me up! I went to bed wearing gloves!! Honest, I did. Trouble is, I woke up in the middle of the night burning up with heat and wondering why I was wearing gloves. Miaowski was sleeping on my feet sending pulses of heat up my legs - I thought I was on fire!

Hope it's warm where you are today. Thanks for stopping by ...

Cheetah Card Tutorial

Here is the lovely cheetah by Clarity Stamps and the cheetah (or possibly leopard) spot background stamp by Judikins. I'm going to show you how I did the background. I thought my method would be a good way to use with roller stamps too.

Some of my photos look a bit dark but that's because I only have a camera phone to take photos with, but as long as you can see, that's the main thing.

First I smooched Tim Holtz distress ink 'Wild Honey' around the edge of the card.

Then I lightly pencilled in diagonal lines across the corners of the card.

This next photo is meant to show the pencilled in lines but I'm not sure if you can see them too well.
Next, I put two post it notes against two corner pencilled lines and stamped my cheetah spots along the edge.
Okay, nearly finished, here is the last edge.

And here is the almost finished card which looks a bit messy but no probs because the middle bit is going to be covered up.
Next up, I stamp my cheetah image with Versa fine black ink.

And colour it in using a water pen with the Wild Honey distress ink. It's nice to have the cheetah the exact same colour as the background colour.

After it's coloured, I draw in the spots with a black Stampin Up marker.

As you can see in the next photo I have two cheetah stamps. One is an outline stamp which is what I used to begin with. The second stamp is a block stamp of the image and that's really cool because I inked it with Versamark clear ink and stamped it over the outline image. I did this so I could sprinkle embossing powder over it and emboss it. Thereby giving it that lovely glossy look.
Before covering the background card with the foreground image - don't forget to erase those pencil lines - with the Hallo Kitty eraser - hee hee :)

So there you have it. My first tutorial. I don't know if you found it helpful but I hope you did.

Have a happy Monday and thanks for stopping by ...

Z E B R A and new Poppy Stamps

Yes Zebra spells Zebra :). This zebra is a new stamp by Clarity Stamps and I LOVE it! Just love it's contempory look and that it's made of alphabets letters that spells it's name, so cool.

And it made me think how to use my Judikins zebra print texture cube stamp. I had a brainwave yesterday. I know, it doesn't happen a lot but when it does I have to act on it immediately. See, normally I would stamp it around the edge of the card and then get annoyed that it doesn't fit exactly. And I know I can mask it to make it fit but it wouldn't look right. So what I did was draw diagonal lines on the card with a pencil from corner to corner. Then mask across the corners with a post it note. I might not have explained that very well so next week I will make another version with a different animal and take photos as I go.

Yes I have a different animal by Clarity Stamps and it's a cheetah, my favourite animal in the whole world (besides Miaowski of course :)). Can't wait to try it out with this technique

Well Miaowski is not behaving well enough to be my favourite at the moment. Her favourite pasttime while I'm asleep is to stab me in the face with a sharp claw to wake me up. I keep telling her it's not funny and I'm not amused in the slightest.

Now I know I have a lot of stamps. And I have a lot of the same kind of stamps, for example I must have at least 10 different seahorse stamps (plus just got another one from Hero Arts). And I have loads of Asian ones. But I am so excited because Poppy Stamps is bringing out a new range of stamps and they are going to be Asian ones - yay! I love Poppy stamps, their images are so cute so I can't wait to see their new ones. Here is a sneak peak on their blog.

Well, I hope you all have a lovely weekend. See you Monday and thanks for visiting ...

Bird on a Branch

These stamps are from a set by Stampin Up, called 'Bird on a Branch'. I like this set because it looks Oriental to me.

Do you think the bird got a little hot in the scorching sun so turned a bright shade of pink? :)

I wish I could turn a bright shade of pink under the scorching sun. Might be a bit difficult as there's thick grey clouds blocking it.

I'm hoping to have a good tidy up today, honestly all this card making creates huge untidy piles of stuff everywhere. Hey I might find that box of stamps I lost - it must be here somewhere, can't just disappear can it?

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by ...

Dragonfly Screen

This large dragonfly is from Stamp Addicts but I have a feeling they only have the smaller size now as I looked for this big one and couldn't find it. Anyhow, I stamped it onto fusible film which has a nice irridescent sheen. I'm not entirely sure how to use fusible film properly as it didn't do too much when I ironed it, maybe I didn't have the iron hot enough, I don't know. It's something I need to experiment with more.

I wanted the dragonfly to look like it was against a Japanese screen so drew lines with a pastel pencil to get a soft look. The base card was done with a rollagraph marble patterned roller stamp and smooched with colorbox brown pigment ink. I love the bronze spiral clips but I can't remember where I got them from.

I like always to think about things to be grateful for, for which there are many, many things in my life. I love this quote

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.
Buddha

Quite so :)

Have a lovely day and thanks for stopping by ...

Madame Poodle

My eyesight isn't too hot these days. Okay a bad workman mustn't blame his tools :). This is just an explanation for why that black card isn't straight - don't know how I didn't notice it until I'd put it up on my computer. Then I think to myself how on earth could I have not noticed???

So that's why there are so many pearls on the card - they are there to distract from the lack of straightness :). This poodle is from Judikins - I've always liked this stamp and l love the way it shines when it's embossed, not that you can see that from this picture unfortunately. Did you know, the best way to emboss an image like is is from underneath the card? You get a glass like sheen whereas if you do it from above you get more of a texture thing going on. You probably already knew this. I've been embossing things for years but only realised this lately!

More polka dots from Stampin Up Night and Day papers and the gorgeous Melon Mambo polka dot ribbon. I think I'm better off sticking to flat ribbons than tying bows, they are so much easier.

I love unusual pictures and my sister emailed me this link so check it out check it outters http://www.slideshare.net/ngwk/impossible-pictures.

Have a good day and thanks for stopping by ...

Love, polka dots, hearts and spotty dogs

So I think this card covers all my loves including the colour combo red, white and black.

I used my favourite spotty dog stamp from the Cosmo pups set and the Night and Day papers from Stampin Up. The tag and heart punch are also from Stampin Up and the sheer red polka dot ribbon is from Fantastic Ribbons. You may have noticed that tying ribbons into beautiful bows is not my strong point! I've seen some beautiful bows on cards but I can never seem to make mine as good.

Yesterday I went into town with my friend and we saw the most gorgeous little puppy. A boy was holding it while waiting for his dad. I couldn't resist asking if I could take a photo. Luckily for the boy his father soon arrived and rescued him before I ended up taking a 100 photos. Anyway the little puppy was called Lilly and had one tiny dear little spot on her nose. Think she was the inspiration for my card today and look, it's the red, white and black colour combo again, how appropriate (apart from the lead!) :)

Have a Happy Monday and thanks for stopping by ...

Miaowski Watercolour

As I have been slack again on the card making front I thought I would show another one of my paintings. And this time it is a watercolour of Miaowski, my little dear heart.

As you can see I'm not great at doing fur or her tortoishell patterning, or her legs :). But I'm happy I got her expression right. Miaowski looks at me like that quite a lot, kinda domineering, haughty 'whatdya think you're doing' look. Ha!

I've just read three wonderful books by Peter Gethers about his EXTRAordinary cat, Norton. Norton was a Scottish Fold cat (his ears are folded over as opposed to pointed upwards). What made him extra special was his intelligence and his interesting life. He travelled everywhere with Mr Gethers, on cards, aeroplanes and ferries. He also went to very posh restuarants around the world where he would be waited on and given delicious dishes. He met famous people like Anthony Hopkins and Roman Polanski and even Lauren Bacall. The New York Times wrote an obituary on him when he died, how special is that!

I loved these books because they were so funny. Mr Gethers was a confirmed cat hater but his girlfriend bought him a kitten that bewitched him with one bright stare and a miaow.

Anyway I was reading and struggling to contain my laughter while reading these books outside and the next day I was struggling very hard not to cry as the last book was so very moving. And even today I'm feeling a bit sad as I'm going to miss reading about such a wonderful cat.

I recommend those books to every cat lover. And even cat hater cos I really don't think you'd stay that way after getting to know Norton through those books.

Ah, well, enough of my book review :)

Hope you have a lovely weekend and I'll be back on Monday. Thanks for stopping by ...

Cats

I fell in love with these Party Cats stamp set from Clear Art Stamps. I love vintage cat images, there is something so cute about cats dressed as little humans. And I like the little pun sentiments that come with them, too cute :)

This was just a simple card I made, with the addition of my favourite red brads and Stampin Up scallop and oval punched shapes for the sentiment. Normally I would have gone for just a red, black and white card and not coloured in the image. But for some reason I forgot and coloured in the last cat's jacket in blue. So I carried on and coloured in the other cats.

Yesterday I was watching the local news about the Royal Bath and West Agricultural show. All the animals are beautiful, what with being primped and cosseted to look their very best. There was a farmer spraying a cow with what he called a 'setting agent' to make it's hair stand up. Made me giggle, cos he meant 'hair spray' I think. And then there was another farmer with a huge pig that he was trying to make shiny by rubbing oil all over it. I could just imagine the pig escaping and him not being able to catch it cos of it being slippery with the oil. Then there were the horses with their manes beautifully plaited and hanging down on one side with pretty pink ribbons. I don't know, I found it quite fascinating because it was these big burly farmers that were doing all this beauty stuff on their animals.

Think I might take Miaowski and maybe they could give her a make-over and pretty ribbon :)

Yay, the weather is nice and warm today, it's going to be beautiful for the next few days. Thanks for stopping by ...

My little lion heart :)

No cards to show for today as yesterday I was just too cold - I'm useless when I'm cold, can't do anything properly. I'm cold again today, can't wait till we get some sun back. So thought I'd show another painting I did in art class awhile back.

A lion cub from the book 'An Artist's Safari' by Ralph Thompson. I love his style of painting and can't take any credit from the style apart from the fact I did manage to copy it quite well. One of things I would love to do is paint fur realistically and it's something I do have a problem with, so copying from someone like Ralph Thompson helps me practice.

Not that I have been practicing any painting or drawing for awhile. I keep saying I will get back into doing it but somehow haven't made the time for it. It's another one for my list of 'must dos'. That list is quite long, lol!

If I don't come up with a decent card for tomorrow I still have other paintings I can show. Think there is a little leopard or maybe even a little Miaowski :)

Thanks for visiting ...

The Dragons of Doom :)

I'll be honest, I'm not keen. It's just one of those cards I made hoping for the best but it just didn't do it for me. And right at the end I decided to add distress stickles arounds the edges and ended up smoodging it over the edge! Yes, 'smoodging' is my new word of the day :)

Not sure what 'Hope' has to do with dragons but I liked the font so I used it.

The dragons are from here and the leaves are an old Posh Impressions stamp I've had for ages. I used tumbled glass distress ink and Adirondack Twilight lavender for the ink. And the punched out ovals are from Stampin Up.

Hopefully tomorrow I will come up with a better creation.

It is very damp, wet, rainy, dark, gloomy AND cold today. No sunbathing today then. Tomorrow it's meant to be lovely again, hurray!

Wishing you a day of sunshine, thanks for stopping by ...