Left of Center....New Challenge

Today's card is a design team make for the wonderful team over at Left of Center Creative Challenges. A new challenge is just about to begin and will run for the next week. The theme for this challenge is Butterflies. We are so lucky to have two sponsors for this challenge..Star Stampz and All Dressed Up. As always, rather than go with the current challenge theme..you have the option of going LOC. For all details about that, please check out the LOC blog.

  My first design is from the wonderful Star Stampz. I just adored this image of the Japanese lady. In the original image (below) she is surrounded by a cherry blossom and I just coloured it as it came...adding some butterflies in the blossom and in her hair. I then had the idea of making my own blossom tree..but using small punched butterflies in shades of pink to form the blossom.

Our second sponsor is the fabulous team over at All Dressed Up.I just loved this delicate image and thought that she would be perfect to be surrounded by butterflies. I coloured her with my promarkers and added her to a card with floral and butterfly borders.

I do hope that you will pop over to the LOC blog and take a look at all the fabulous creations made by the rest of the team.
I must apologise for not blogging this week but I have had a horrible week. One of the boys...young Nosey was killed by a dog in the village by a dog that was not on the lead. The incident was seen by a neighbour who waded in and took poor Nosey to the vets, where sadly nothing could be done. The incident has shaken me to the core. For the past couple of years I have blogged about the number of people who come to the village and think that it is fine to not have their dogs on a lead. I have said about it so many times..last year I had 5 of my cats injured by loose dogs and now poor Nosey has been killed. I did lose my temper and the man said not to worry that he would cover all expenses. But since then he has changed his mind. He is only going to pay part of the bill..so I'm left with the rest. After I had lost my temper he left the village within about 5 minutes. I am so angry I don't know what to do. I had the feeling that he would be funny and he's just lived up to all expectation of everyone. I even told him to pay the vet directly and then he couldn't say that I was just after money..which I wasn't..but I still expect him to pay the entire bill. If it wasn't for his stupidity then my Nosey would be looking forward to a long life. I can only hope that Karma will be visiting in the future.

Here is the picture of Nosey and Simon when they were babies. The only consolation that I have is that Nosey was loved from the day he was born. He was called Nosey because that's what he was. He would run and see who it was at the door and was the first of the kittens to do anything. I can remember him now, curled up with Reg..the pair of them all loved up in the dog basket. Gannie in particular is having a hard time wondering where he is. My friend the PA used to call them Tweedledum and Tweedledee because they would go everywhere together and would often be seen wandering down the lane together.
Well the coffee is calling and then I've got some work to do. I'm so behind because of last week..I just couldn't bring myself to do anything. I have lots to do in the coming week..I'm hoping that keeping busy will help me through everything. So until next time..take care and happy crafting.

A Snowflakes Promise......A new challenge

Today's card is a design team make for the wonderful team over at A Snowflakes Promise. A new challenge has just begun and will run for the next 2 weeks. The theme for this week is Summer but as always you have the option of entering a Christmas card. I think that I will be concentrating on Christmas cards from September. I so enjoy seeing all the entries and try to comment on quite a few. I hope that you will pop over to the blog and take a look at the wonderful creations made by the rest of the team.
We are lucky that for this challenge to have been sponsored by the fabulous team over at Star Stampz.

I chose to work with this fabulous image called the book elf. It reminded me of myself when I was younger..lots of times you would find me under the shade of a tree with my dog and I would be reading to her..lol. I don't know what she thought of my stories but she was always with me. I used my Lyra watercolours to colour this image and loved working with all the detail that is contained in the image.
I had every intention of blogging earlier but as always BT were not playing and I couldn't access the internet at all. There were lots of open reach vans in the area but as always they didn't have the decency to let us know that we would be without service..I mean why would they..after all we're only paying for it.But I have to look on the bright side..I'm on now.
It's been raining on and off all day and the cats have been in and out like yoyos again. At the moment I have Rave, Tankie , Jeffrey and Nosey sat to my right...all watching for the weather to change. Everyone has been fed..so they're quiet and happy. Sprout has been in the dog house for taking down all my pen and brush pots in one bad jump. There were pens and brushes flying in all directions.
Well the coffee is calling and then it will be dinner time. My favourite again...fish, new potatoes and salad..I could quite happily have it every night but I think Sparkle may get a bit fed up with it..lol So until next time...take care and happy crafting..

Left of Center...New Challenge

Todays creations are design team makes for the wonderful team over at Left of Center Creative Challenges. A new challenge has just begun using the theme of 'Real or Faux Stitching.The challenge will run for the next week. The card above is from one of our sponsors...Star Stapz..it reminds me so much of the artwork that Henry loved. The plaque below is from our other sponsor All Dressed Up.I do hope that you will pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the fabulous creations made by the other members of the design team.

As I've said we were lucky to have two sponsors this week. They are both very different in style..so between the two, you would have any crafting need covered.

The sun is shining again here in the mountains but goodness me it's chilly. All is quiet at the moment..everyone is asleep.Yesterday I decided to brush the stairs and Storming Norman helped the whole time. He was one step above me the whole time and managed to cause chaos..lol. Everytime I brushed a pile together, he pawed a pile into the air. He had a great time, chasing the brush, rolling around on the step and generally just getting in the way. I'm sure it took twice as long as it should have. The postman was laughing this morning..I was trying to speak to him through the window and Simon thought he would exit the window to the studio roof..my language was so bad, the postman laughed all the way to his van. Simon is now lay with his big uncle Jeffrey..just looking as if butter wouldn't melt. I wonder what you make of the fact that there is now 3 craft channels on the tv. Create and Craft, The Craft Channel and Hochanda. I seem to spend my day flicking between them all. The prices on some never cease to amaze me. And they all say..it's a must have..lol. It might be but I know a lot of us have only a little money to spend...so what we do actually buy has to seem good value for money or something we really need. With my die cuts I think about it for a while..I need to know that it is something that either fits in with what I already have or something that will bring a new look to what I already have. So far this year the only thing I have purchased has been glue..lol and I'm forever running out of that. Well the coffee is calling and then I have to sort a problem out. My camera is having a moment. For some reason it is just not reading my card. It's all very well but I've got to photograph some more work..please keep your fingers crossed for me. I could do without that going wrong. So until later...take care and happy crafting.