cutest lil puddy cat

Found a virtual cat on the MTSCAL blog.  He's so cute I just had to add him to my side bar - hover your cursor around and about and he will miaow, purr, and other adorable stuff.

homework

Another quick post with a picture
This the card I made as "homework" for "In the classroom with Barbara" on Create and Craft.  The Barbara in question is Barbara Gray

That's it

Bedtime now

oh such wickedness

I have only gone and ordered 27 promarkers and a wallet to store them in.   But in my defence I had £22 in my paypal account, and ordered the first 15 from Joanna Sheen.  At £1.69 per pen that's £25.35.   So £3.35 for 15 pens.   So  not so wicked after all.

But then I found this in my list of blogs, so of course had to go and have a look.   And that's when I ordered another 12 pens which had a free fine tip with each one.   And seeing that I have official Letraset wallets for all my promarkers so far, I had to get another one to contain my new selection.   So spent another £25.73. 

If you look at the RRP of £2.20 per pen that's £59.40 plus 4 packs of fine tips (3 per pack) at £1.99 per pack which is an additional £7.96, and the wallet at £10.71 gives a total price of £78.07.   And I paid, in total, £29.08.

Which is a bargain in anybody's book.  

Later folks

x

today

After I gave my colleague the butterfly car card, her friend asked me if I could make a card for her parent's 60th wedding anniversary.  She wants the card for tomorrow so i didn't have a great deal of time to think about it.  

When I came home from work tonight I discovered a parcel containing goodies I almost forgot I had ordered.  These were Joanna Sheen silhouette stamps which were mispriced on Create and Craft about a fortnight ago.   So I ordered all 6 packs which were supposed to be £9.99 each, but were, in fact £4.49 each.   And included in this little collection were a couple of stamps which could be suitable for the card I needed to make.   Including the Happy Anniversary text stamp.

And here 'tis

It would have been portrait, but I misinked so had to cover it up.

Bedtime now

xxx

Good morning world

I should really be in the shower, or eating breakfast and getting ready for work, but I'm not.  Instead I'm sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea and easing into the working week.

So whilst I'm sat sitting, I will show you the card I made yesterday.  A colleague asked me to make a card for her husband's 65th birthday.  She is taking him away for his birthday and hiring a Morgan sports car for the day.  So she wanted a card with a car on it.   But she's also dotty about butterflies so said he would expect any card from her to have butterflies on.

So my commision was - a male 65th birthday card with a butterfly and car on .

And this is the result

hopefully it will be acceptable.    The car is drawn by Sylvie Ashton and I got it from Stitchy Bear Designs.   I will put the links in later.    Sylvie has a blog called Creative Mind of Sylvie and she is generous enough to give many of her designs away, sometimes for a limited time before they go on sale.   - The car was coloured with the wonderful new letraset flexmarkers and the butterfly is form an old Kanban kit.

I would like to enter this card in the MSE Moving Challenge.

Later folks
x

Sheena Douglass Candy

just a quickie to let you bloggerliscous folks know that the extremely talented Sheena Douglass is launching her Christmas range paint fusion stamps along with another DVD as Pick of the Week on Create and craft on Friday 12 August    And to celebrate she's giving stuff away.  Go look.   Where should I look you may ask.   Here - that's where.   Have you been to look.  No?   Why not?    Yes?  Well done.  If you follow her instructions you will be in with a chance to win the goodies.  I would wish you good luck but I am not that nice xxxxxxx


Later folks

xxx

colouring

I should be fast asleep, but I'm not.  I'm a bit stressed of late, and feel that I would be so much better if I had a fella to hold me and tell me everything's gonna be ok.  But I don't, so what's a girl to do, but buy herself new crayons.   And the crayons of choice in this particular instance are the new letraset flexmarkers.   I have to admit, I wanted them more for the 24 extra colours I got, rather than the brush tip, but oh my golly gosh, how fabulous is that brush tip.  Very fabulous, that's what.  At an RRP of approx £3.00/pen they are not the cheapest pens in the world, but I think they are worth every penny.

And here they are

I decided that I would try and colour my new Humphrey stamps (of which I have the complete range) only using flexmarkers - I do have about 60 promarker pens but did not use them for this.    I would have been more happy with the results I think if I'd used a wider range of colours, but I accomplished the task I set out to complete.

I only used normal copier paper for this first "play" and the photos could be clearer but on the whole I'm pleased with the results. 

Maybe I'll colour in the first set of 6 as well soon

Later folks

xxx

New goodies

Just a very quick post to say my new flexmarkers have arrived, along with some new Humphrey stamps and a Polkadoodles CD.   There is a website names on the flexmarker leaflet so for those who are still wondering about them you might find some info here

Be back later with some piccies x

crayons - an overview of alcohol pens

There are so many crafty crayons on the market that it's hard to know what to go for.  Some people are very fortunate and get to use or sample all them all, but the majority of us are not that fortunate.  

In terms of alcohol based pens, up until relatively recently they were within the domain of graphic designers and the like, but they were discovered by the crafting community and the world fell into 2 broad camps - copics and promarkers.   As promarkers (manufactured by Letraset) were slightly cheaper, and more widely available when I stumbled across them this is the camp I joined.

And now there are some more.   
Last week Crafter's Companion launched Spectrum Noir - designed by crafters, specifically for crafters.   They look good, and to be perfectly honest, are probably more than adequate for most crafters' needs.  They are much more reasonably priced at £6.99 for 6 and no duplication between packs.   What's more they are refillable, which I have not seen in any pen other than the top of the range Tria pens from Letraset. (but having just done a bit more searching have discovered that copics are refillable too)

And Letraset have now introduced Flexmarkers   This is a range of 72 pens, using the same ink as in Promarkers but with a brush delivery system on the non-chisel end.   51 of the 72 colours are not available in the promarker range.   Ideal World/Create and Craft has the world exclusive launch on Tuesday 2 August 2011 at 2100 GMT.

Many crafters will want them all, and there is nothing at all wrong with that, unless of course you budget will not allow it.  Which mine doesn't - so as I have approximately 60 promarkers I have decided to continue with the letraset route.

I cannot compare the various pens in use, because I have only ever used Promarkers.   I would imagine, for the average crafter they are all much of a muchness, it's just a case of getting used to them, and practising with techniques until they do what you want them to do.

I was inspired over the past week by a lot of useage of the Spectrum Noir pens, particularly on the Facebook group "I'm a crafter's companion" so have been having a bit of a play with the PMs I have, and will post some pics soon.  

And when I get the FMs - then I'll post some more.

For now

later folks
xxx