Hope Santa was good to you.

Happy Christmas everyone. I've missed you here and missed visiting your blogs too, I haven't been on the computer much lately.

I'm sorry I've been away so long.

My dad is doing a bit better now, for those who wished him well, "Thank you".

Lots going on here since I last posted. Our black Labrador, Piper's sight had been getting steadily worse over the last couple of years and more recently she was bumping into things regularly including us. She missed steps when she was out and walked into poles, walls and branches if we didn't divert her in time.
At the end of November she went through eye surgery in both eyes. She had cataracts removed and now also has new artificial lenses in both eyes.
Her eye sight is definitely improved now, though her night time vision still isn't great we have a good strong lighted torch with a wide beam which helps a lot.
Piper had the dreaded cone on for about a week after her surgery, and has been getting regular eye drops and pills since her op. They are gradually getting less often now only 1 tablet and 6 lots of drops in each eye per day now, instead of the 4 dozes of tablets and 12 lots of drops when she first came home.


Anyway I didn't get much time for card making this year due to these things, but I had been asked a few months ago if I could do another dog portrait for a lady I know for her daughter's Christmas.
I finished this just in time for Christmas eve.

Here is her wee dog Cooper:

Also here is another flower digi stamp for you to use. This one is a Wallflower. 

I hope you like it too, if you use it please let me know, and if you want to share it, please send other's here for this. I'd love to see any projects you make with it too.

Thanks for visiting my wee blog,  I love knowing you dropped by, so if you can, please let me know by leaving me a comment.

Happy Christmas hugs,

from Alexandra

xx

Happy Halloween

Hi everyone,
Thanks for visiting me here again, I do appreciate you all popping by and love reading any comments you leave me. Thanks so much for these.

Sorry I've not been around much this month, I've hardly been on the computer since my dad ended up in hospital 3 weeks ago after a fall at home, between hospital visits, then checking in on him after work each day since he got home I've not had much time to be creative.
I did buy a couple of pumpkins the day before dad's fall, and had planned to carve them both for the visiting ghosts, super heros, princesses and zombies etc. that like to knock on my door on the 31st.

I hate waste so had to do something with them when I got home from work tonight. My brother was with my dad tonight so had a bit of time to do this...

 

I don't have special pumpkin carving tools and so I lost the wee bat from the left hand side when I was carving it with my small kitchen knife, you can see the wee notch where it was supposed to be. This haunted house was inspired by an image from the rubber stamp sheet "Boo"  from Chocolate Baroque.

 

The middle of the pumkin was scooped out and made a lovely big pot of "Cream of Pumpkin Soup".

 

It was delicious!
I checked on google and found out Pumpkins are chock full of nutrition and good stuff too, I forgot to keep the pumpkin seeds to roast them too, these are full of minerals and goodness too.
I do still have the other pumpkin to use though, so I'll have a go at this to see how they turn out.

Of course, I will have to do another carving to decorate the garden with this one too. Hee hee!

hugs

Alexandra x

 

 

MAC #52

The Everything Wendy Vecchi yahoo group "Make Art Challenge" #52 was to use Wendy Vecchi stamps and CFA and sticky back canvas. Wendy used these to make a gorgeous tag here.

Here's my entry, using "Tools for Art" stamps;

 

I didn't have sticky backed canvas but did have a pad of primed canvas for painting, so I used this with glue to stick it to the CFA. My 3D ink bottle was stamped on this. It turned out not too bad but
I wasn't happy the label on the bottle didn't "pop" I think the texture of the canvas stole the detail of the wording so I stamped it a second time on CFA and cut and heat molded and glued the label over the 3D canvas bottle, then I thought the cap needed a boost too to balance it, so did the same with the bottle top, leaving the canvas for the rubber dropper bit.
I did the CFA/canvas technique again with the paintbrush as the one I stamped directly on the tag was too flat, the 3D brush handle was shaped over a paintbrush handle and fringed the bristles with scissors curled the CFA slightly to make it a bit more "brushy" then added acrylic paint dauber to the ends.
I found a small wire heart shape from my stash wrapped around the ink bottle neck, and some 3D silver stars which I darkened with pitch black and denim alcohol inks in a wee bag then added to tag.
Thanks for looking
hugs
Alexandra x

MAC #51

I just got this done in the nick of time. The Everything Wendy Vecchi yahoo group "Make Art Challenge"  #51 was to use Wendy Vecchi stamps and the technique Wendy showed in her video here using Rangers Snow Cap pigment ink and distress markers.

Here's my entry;

 

The Distress colours I used were; Barn door, Wild honey and Forest moss.

I also used a boring white shirt button coloured with alcohol ink pens (Sharpie pens this time as they were nearby & handy to save me running upstairs again, lol

...I used a couple of different greens and the black, dotted over the white pearly button, then I stitched it on with black thread.) 

hugs

Alexandra

Hi, just a quick hello to let you see the card I made for my sister.

 

 I started with Mustard seed, Rusty hinge and Black soot Distress Inks for the background with a spritz of  Radiant Rain - Shimmering Mist in copper.

 

 Indigo Blu "Wild Meadow" stamps were used, and I stamped the butterfly on Clearly for art, coloured it with alcohol inks from Spectrum Noir pens and Adirondack blending solution to blend and soften the colours.

 

 

 

 I hope your weather hasn't caused you too much worry lately.

We've had terrible strong winds and heavy rainy weather for a good few days in UK.

It's been much better here today, I even enjoyed a bit of warmth from the sun.

 

Thanks for visiting.

hugs

Alexandra x

Rusty's portrait... work in progress

Hi, I just thought I'd share a portrait I'm doing for Celeste. She asked me if I would do a portrait of her DH's dog Rusty when she commented on Kath's lovely boy, Buddy's portrait I did in July.
I asked her if she wanted me to do a colour portrait instead of the graphite ones I've been doing here so far. The last coloured pencil work I'd done was around 10 years ago or maybe more so I'd forgotten it is a much longer process to complete (around 16 hrs so far), but I'm getting there.

So for you Celeste, this is a peak of how your lovely wee dog's portrait is coming along .

 

I shouldn't be long finishing it now. I've worked on it more since this photo.

Hugs
Alexandra x

Make Art Challenge #50 tag and a big THANKS!

Hi everyone, Thanks for popping by, and welcome to my wee blog.

I got a wonderful package in the post yesterday. I'm still smiling yet.

Lori, our most wonderful and talented list mom on the Everything Wendy Vecchi group recently posted me a prize for taking part in, and winning a game of Bingo in the group last month.
.... I still can't believe I won!! lol.

Below is the content of the box that arrived yesterday, all the wonderful goodies she so generously sent to me.

 I couldn't believe there was so much in the box. The spagetti mix of grey in the bottom was a huge pack of chipboard letters, so I couldn't help myself spelling out what I was thinking at the time! lol

Here's a close up of the beautiful tag she sent me too. It's gorgeous! The rose was glazed too but this doesn't show up in the photo. The pretty clear crystal next to the pearl doesn't show much at the top either, but it's there, if you look for it.

THANK YOU so much Lori. I'm sure I'll have lots of fun playing with this lot.

If you've not checked out Lori's blog yet, I recommend you do, her artwork is gorgeous.

This is the 50th Make Art Challenge in the yahoo EWV group, this time we've to use the techniques Tim Holtz shared in the Stamptember video on Simon Says Stamp's Blog here, and use at least one Wendy stamp or the stamps from one set, as Tim did on his video.
I made time this morning, to make a tag.


This is my entry for the MAC #50.

I really enjoyed creating this one. I used Distress Stains in "Faded jeans" and "Peeled paint", as I didn't have metalic DS, so I used "Egyptian gold" Radiant Rain Colour Concentrate dauber. I stamped using Black Archival and also with the same two DI colours I used in stains, and of course, Wendy Vecchi's beautiful "Botanical Art" stamp set (I used all but 2 stamps from this set)

Thanks for visiting and checking what I've been up to.
Please let me know you've been here by leaving me a comment. I love hearing from you.

hugs
Alexandra x

Hidden Fairies

I've been having a play with some of my new silhouette stamps. I treated myself to a few new sets, I've made this card using  A Little Bit Scenic stamp set from Sheena Douglass called Hidden Fairies it's great to work with, I don't usually go for fairies but these were lovely and the leafy swirl and ivy leaves are gorgeous. The background is created using Luminarte Radient Rain daubers and spray with a touch of DI's too. I stamped the swirls and leaves with a pigment black ink, this actually took on the green of the background or maybe it has a green tinge that I just hadn't noticed before or maybe is because just a old pad? nuff rambling, I liked how it stamped anyway. I stamped the wee fairy with IndigoBlu Flitter glue and used guilding flakes on her, I thought this would make her shine as I imagine fairies should. Well she's no longer hidden, she's shiny and metallic, lol.

 

I really love those ivy leaves though, they're so realistic when stamped. I stamped a few extras and cut these out to add dimension.

 

Thanks for visiting and please let me know you've been here and what you think.

I love to hear from you.

 

hugs

Alexandra x

I've not forgotten about you

Sorry I've not been around for a while but the past month seems to have zipped by.
First of all welcome and thanks to all you lovely people who visit and have choose to follow my wee blog.
I've been doing a bit of drawing not a lot else art or craftywise, unless purchasing new stamps and putting them on EZmount counts, since my last post nearly a full month ago.
I can hardly believe the time that's gone by. My garden, dogs, family and work stuff is pretty much taking my clock each day and spinning the hands to ultra quick time, before I know it, it's bedtime then it all starts again.
Yikes! I need more hours in the day.

Anyway, I thought I'd share another couple of pretty flowers sketches I completed a few weeks ago, just to say thanks for returning here to check out my blog.

The first digi is a Calendula....

....and this one is Pinks.

 

Enjoy these and please let me know what you think. I love reading your comments. If you want to share these please point folks back to my blog and if you use these to create something I'd love for you to let me know. I'd love to see it.

I'm hoping to get a chance to play with my new stamps soon. I hope to be back soon with more art and creations soon.

Thanks for visiting

 

Alexandra xx

Zentangle doodle book and another digi for you.

Hi every one, thanks for all your lovely comments and welcome new followers, thanks for joining me here.
Today I wanted to share a wee book I've just decorated. I've had this kicking about for a while I can't remember where I picked it up but always thought it was a bit small for sketching in, but I reckon it's just a nice size for my tangles and it fits neatly in my bag along with a pen and pencil, handy for doodling in waiting rooms etc.

It started off life as a boring Kraft covered board book with an aperture the shape of a butterfly in it.

I used gold paint dabber randomly on it to brighten it up in places and some copper foil scraps stuck on the right side of the aperture with Anitas tacky glue then when dry I darkened this a bit with a black alcohol pen to catch the texture. I doodled the word "Zentangle" in black pen
The first page is kraft paper behind the butterfly, so I decorated inside the aperture with some zentangling, though around this shape I can still doodle some more, as it's still kraft paper around it under the front cover.
I finished it off the front cover with some zentangling then decided to add a splash of colour with alcohol pens too,  the word "Zentangle" in black  was too dark and I didn't like it, so I resued it with Sakura gold shadow pens then highlighted a bit of the tangle patterns with various colours of the same too, though in this photo it looks silver.

I hope you're not fed up with flowers yet. As promised here is another digi sketch. This one is "Sweet peas"

I hope you enjoy this one, I'd love to see what you do with my sketches so please let me know if you use this and if you want to share this with others please point them to my blog and leave me a comment to say you've visited.
Let me know what you think.

Happy Birthday David

Today my gorgeous wee grandson David, turned 1 year old.

This was David and myself earlier today.

This week has been a trial though, and things didn't work out as planned.
My daughter became unwell on Friday night and was admitted into hospital on Saturday morning. She only got discharged this pm, and though she's tired and sore, she's doing okay, and is glad to be home.
I had planned to bake David a special "Nok-Tok" cake, but I've been back and forth to the hospital and only managed to start making his cake yesterday afternoon.
I usually bake one day, let the cake cool and rest, then shape, form, and decorate it the following day.

Nok-Tok (character from Cbeebies-WayBuloo), is his favourite and I had planned to make a fully shaped character cake.

This is a quicker version of the cake I had in mind, with NokTok with a birthday balloon on top. I completed this last night around midnight.

I think he still liked it though.

Happy Birthday to our best boy David with lots of xxx's and cuddles, we love you loads!

I hope to post another digi sketch for you soon, now that things are a bit more back to normal.

Thanks again for visiting,

hugs Alexandra

My second Zentangle doodle

Hi all,

Thanks for visiting me here again today.

I've a busy week ahead next week, where creativity will be in the kitchen again.
I'm making my grandson David, a cake for his first birthday next week. I asked his daddy who his favourite character was for cake ideas and apparently, his favourite character is cbeebies "Nok Tok" from Waybuloo UK kiddies program.
I'll need find him to remind myself what he looks like, I'm out of touch with all these new kids programs but when I find him, I plan to turn him into a cake for David this coming week.

I've been doodling again so here is my lastest tangle. I found it a bit more difficult to start this. I used Sherry's thread that she posted a week past on Tuesday. I didn't get it finished until today, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Confession time: I had to make a few changes due to doodleing late at night, when I was tired, it ended up with dots and squiggles I hadn't planned ..... but as they say there are no mistakes, just happy accidents. I made each of these pen wanderings into part of my design, lol.

Note to self: nodding off with the pen in your hand is not a good idea, :o{

Let me know what you think.

hugs
Alexandra x

Time for my altered art clock!

Thanks for the lovely comments again, you are all so kind, and  hello and welcome to my new followers too.

I wanted to join in with the Sunday stampers challenge set by Hels. I'm getting it posted just in the nick of time.
For this project I had spotted a fairly boring wee clock in a shop here that everythings £1.

I wondered if I could take it apart, alter and rebuild it.  I found out I could!

Yaay!


I covered the black plastic frame with white paper then applied ripped and crinkled tissue over this with thinned PVA glue. Left this to dry while I measured and cut a replacement clock face.

Then the fun began, I went to town with inks and stamps!

I used various Wendy Vecchi stamps from these sets:
In love with art, Well worn art, Make mine mini art, Rose art part 2, Tools for art
Be happy... make art and Botanical art
I also used a couple of Chocolate Baroque word stamps from a great set called Artistic Affirmations.

This was how it turned out.

This one was taken in my conservatory, so lots of natural light with all the windows but it cast a reflection of me taking it's photo in the glass. I tried to get close to block the reflection out but it's ended up a bit darker than it is in reality, the wild honey colour has gone reddish, (I was wearing a red top, I wonder if this would affect the colour?) but at least it's in focus!

Here's another photo...

This was taken earlier no reflection here but as its indoors with light coming through the window but not directly, the colours are cooled but nearer the true colours though. It's not quite in focus though.

I can't seem to get it just right.

I used Archival Black to stamp mostly and Archival Coffee for the wild flowers

I masked off with a post it, to create the sun and used Distress inks; wild honey, spiced marmalade, rusty hinge, tea dye, walnut stain, also for a bit of contrast tumbled glass, salty ocean.

The flower is made of Glassine paper cut with Spellbinders blossom four.

I've picked up a few more to do a class at the sheltered housing I work at. The ladies are not quite as messy with their crafting, so they're in for a treat, lol.

I'll maybe share the outcome of these later too.

Enjoy your weekend and please let me know what you think. I love hearing from you.

A VERY handsome guy!

Hi all,

I thought this title might get your attention. Hee hee!

Thanks so much for all your lovely comments, and welcome to every one who has decided to become a follower of my arty blog. You all make me smile. :o)

I'm back today with another piece of art. Another graphite pencil portrait I completed over the past couple of weeks.

I'm a sucker for handsome good looks, and this guy would melt the heart of Cruella De'Vil.
Don't get scared now Buddy, if your reading this, it's okay, she's nowhere around.

Some of you may recognise him already. Let me introduce the co-star and sweeper-upper of Kath's blog.
The gorgeous (and his mum says naughty!... Why? I can't imagine!)

happy boy, Buddy.

He's so good looking, I had done another before this one.
(p.s. Buddy, your head is perfect it's normal size, so no up-sizing with these compliments. Having a big tail is trouble enough!)

This was my first portrait of him.

Here, he's got that typical wee sad look Labradors are good at, as if to say
"A cuddle or a treat will make it all better"..... and it works every time, lol

Thanks again for stopping by.
Let me know you were here, I love hearing from you.

Have a great day

hugs Alexandra x

I've been in a bit of a tangle.

It's Tangle Time Tuesday on Sherry's blog. I've never done anthing with Zentangle before but I thought I'd give it a go.
I don't know if it's okay to base the Zentangle within and around another image or if the rules are, sticking to a line scribble shape and making this into a design.

My basic shape was inspired by an oriental exotic bird image, then I added a "planned scribble" shape so it grew a big flower tail, then a leaf and a fan shape appeared as I  doodled away.

I'm not sure if this is okay, I have seen tangle done within a stamped image so I thought I might get away with this. If you know there are rules, please let me know what they are.

I liked my exotic tangled bird anyway, so here he is.

Why don't you join Sherry too and give it a go.

I had great fun creating this.

Let me know what you're thinking.

hugs

Alexandra x 

Carnation Digi sketch

If you've enjoyed seeing the detailed pencil art I've posted, like the portrait of baby David here, I thought you may be interested in this.
I came across this video a while ago, but watched it again recently.
So I thought I'd point you to this cool pencil art You Tube video "Pencil Illusion by Adam Johnston", it's very cleverly done. It lets you see the build up process of using graphite pencils but speeded up. I would love to be able to go so quickly, I'd get tonnes done.

Anyway I've another digi sketch for you today. This time a carnation, sketched by myself at a normal human speed too. I hope you enjoy using this one too. I'd love to see any projects you use my sketches in. Enjoy.

If you want to let me what you think, I love reading your comments.

Thanks

Have a good day.

hugs Alexandra x.

Caught in Crystal technique card

Hi all,
I thought I'd share a card today that I made using the Caught in Crystal technique.
Using acetate, Luminarte twinkling H2O's, Radiant Rain Shimmering mists, tissue paper and floor polish! ( I knew this was made for more fun things than housework, lol)
I used more twinkling H2O's, to paint more colour into detailed areas once it had dried.

This was great fun, getting messy and the finished effect is amazing.

I also used the "Peaceful Lakeside" stamps I got at the end of last year by the brilliant, UK artist, stamp designer and generally fun, messy crafter Sheena Douglass. I love this stamp set so good for those guy cards.
Though the colour is better in this photo, the flash reflected off the acetate in this, so....

 I tried moving it to a different place, and no flash this time

The colour isn't as clear in this photo, the sky was very heavy with rain clouds, -we've had terrible rain all this week, yuk!....so natural light wasn't so good, but here you can see a bit more of the image.

Here's another one of the many others I made that day, I had these spread over every surface in my craft room in various stages of drying, during which my craft room smelled quite nice too.

Well, if I'm getting messy for one I may as well be messy for many, lol.
In this one I used various blues with a spritz of copper, though the photo doesn't show the copper very well.  I've still to finish doing something with this one too. The stamp on this is another one of Sheenas designs, "The Happiness stamp".

Sheena uses twinkling H2O's in a caught in crystal video tutorial. She explains all you'll need and how to do this technique here.
If you've not watched her other videos yet, she also has other clever video tutorials on Youtube you should check out.

Have fun if you try this out too.

Thanks for stopping by.

"Say cheese" and celebrations

What a whirlwind of a week I've had. Shopping, preparing for visitors coming and arranging a family party yesterday with lots of food for my DD's 18th birthday. I baked her a cake on Monday and put finishing touches to it on Tuesday.

She is a fantastic upcoming photographer and is starting an HND course in Photography this year, she loves photography and so I thought this camera cake I created for her was apt. The camera badge has her initials and 18.2day on it, in case you were wondering what kind of camera it is.

I had intended the camera strap to be made from a Catherine wheel liquorice strip, but after unsuccessfully looking for this in a few shops, weary feet and time constraints pushed me to compromise by using the strawberry laces instead.

It didn't give the finished effect I was looking for though, but tasted yum anyway.

Our other celebration yesterday, was that we also proudly attended our future DIL's Graduation yesterday morning before the birthday party.

Well done Clare!

Here is the card I made a card for her using the Geranium digi sketch I posted recently.

I coloured it using oil pastles blended with odourless mineral spirit on a compressed paper stump.

The photograph was taken at night with the flash on, so the colours are a bit paler than in real life.

Thankfully I've had a few days off work this week. I wouldn't have managed to fit all this in otherwise.

I've been very busy, and am feeling a bit tired after all this now, but it's been a very happy start to the week.

Unfortunately, I  had to attend a work related meeting in Glasgow today, but....

It's Friday tomorrow, I don't have to go to work. I've just a bit of tidying up, and some laundry to catch up on, then all going well, I plan to get my feet up, pencils out and relax with my sketch book.

I hope you have a good day tomorrow too.

Alexandra x

"I'm a lucky lass"

Well, I don't know about the "lass" bit, (how old young do you have to be to qualify as a lass?) but I am very lucky. I WON the summer give-away on Kath's blog.
What did I win you may wonder, well none other than a lovely set of Tim's brand spanking new gorgeous Summer Seasonal Distress Inks.
I love visiting Kath's blog she always makes me smile and her creativity and her golden handsome hooligan "Buddy" are always worth a visit.
So thanks very much Kath, and thanks to Charlotte at The Papeterie for her generosity too, making the give-away possible. I can't wait to get these and play.

Have a good day, this surprise has definately made mine.

Alexandra x

Thanks everyone

First, let me thank everyone who left such lovely comments. I'm overwhelmed with the response this week.  It’s wonderful to know there are so many lovely people out there in blogland and I hope to inspire you  with my art work.
It has reasured me that I made a good and right decision starting my blog, it has been worthwhile and very rewarding for me too!
I'm starting to fall in love with art all over again, as my enjoyment for this had been gathering cobwebs for  many years. I've made excuses not to pick up my pencils or paint. Making cards being one of them, but who says I can't do both?
Having this blog will be the proverbial kick I've been waiting for and will keep me motivated.
Thank you all so much. 

I've been spending a bit of time in my garden tidying and weeding again today, easier to do when the ground has had a good soaking. We've had really heavy rain here in the UK.
It has flattened the big poppy plant I was talking about a few posts ago. There are only a couple of flowers survived on it now. I'd hoped to use it to sketch and photograph it to let you see how pretty it is in flower, but as they say, "No point in crying over spilt milk"

After seeing Leslies pretty card here I thought I'd re-do or edit the Daisy sketch so here's the variation (for those who just want pretty flowers without the fly )

As a BIG thank you for all the lovely comments and for everyone now following my blog, here is another digi sketch. This time a Genarium.

Have a great weekend.

I hope the sun shines and you have a happy 4th of July to all those in the US.

Alexandra x

Snowdrops in Summer!

Sorry I don't post as often as I'd like, work and family life make my week zip by so fast.
Another Monday tomorrow already, yikes!!! I'm gonna be old soon at this rate, lol.

I have been drawing some of my favourite flowers recently. Snow drops being one of them.
I love to see the first signs of life in the garden after weeks of cold, dark days of winter. Frost and snow can be very severe, yet these beautiful, delicate looking flowers push their way through, sometimes through ground frost and snow, to cheer us up and let us know better days are ahead. These flowers are tougher and stronger than they look.

I sketched and coloured these Snowdrops earlier this week, and made this card today.

I coloured the image with Spectrum Noir pens, but I still think I prefer water colouring or pencils, I'm just not used to the spread of alcohol pens and when I corrected it, it sometimes bled back into the "blender wetted" area. I used smooth card stock of unknown origins, so I'm guessing this may be the problem. I used Shabby Shutters distress ink blended around the edge of the die cut lables shape.
I used backing paper from a pad of yellow Papermania paper I got ages ago in a goody bag from my local art and craft shop. Yellow is a colour I rarely use, so I'm happy to find a purpose for having it. I thought it went quite well with this image. For the flowers I used the flowers from Marianne Design Creatables Frame- SKU:LR0111, cut using paper from the same paperpad, I inked the flowers with Shabby Shutters distress ink too, one on the white side of the paper to change it slightly.

I think this would be a nice card to cheer someone up...
maybe a "Get Well" or "Thinking of you" card to let them know things may look bleak, but better days are to come.
I haven't attached a sentiment to my card yet, but a stamped sentiment or computer generated words, can be added later when needed.

Here's a copy of the sketched Snowdrops if you'd like to use them too, just right click on the image and save it to your computer.

I hope you enjoy using this image too.

If you're new here, please check back older posts for other artwork you are free to use for personal use. I promise, it'll not take you long as my blog is still a baby, only just over a month old now, lol.

If you do use any of the images I've posted, please let me know in the comments box. I'd really LOVE to see what you make using them.
I don't mind if you want to share these images too, but please link people back to my blog to get these, thanks.
Click on the right if you'd like to follow my blog , this will let me know I'm posting my art images for people out there. I don't think many people know I'm here yet, lol.

I hope to be back with another image soon as I plan to share regular images here with you, especially if I know people are following my blog.

Thanks for stopping by.

Alexandra x

Our wee ray of sunshine.

This is what I've been working on for the past couple of weeks. I created it using "Derwent Graphic" pencils. I completed this portrait only yesterday.

This is our gorgeous boy, my grandson David.
He's only 10 months old now. He's a good baby and I love him to pieces.

I did this as a gift for my son as this was his first father's day on June 17th.

I was pleased with the finished result.

I hope your day is full of rays of sunshine too.

I love hearing from you, please let me know what you think.

Alexandra x

Father's day card using my sketch.

You may know already I follow Leslie's blog, well, I sketched one of Leslie's furry visitors from her garden a few weeks ago from her photos.

This wasn't the cute four legged ones you'd expect in her garden either. But this appealed to me.

I had this image coloured up for over a week now, but I never got around to making it into a card until today.

Although it has flowers on it, I think it's more "garden" and not so much "girly", so I decided it would make a good card for father's day, after all I've always thought.....
"My Dad's the bee's knees" since I was a wee girl, (and that wasn't yesterday) lol.

I coloured the image with watercolour, but felt I struggled colouring the wings, something didn't click, I had used a pale blue wash on them to reflect the sky, it just didn't look right though.
Then I remembered, wings are semi transparent, so I added a touch of the body colour through the vein pattern, and suddenly they came alive.
Though I don't think it shows up in the photo, I also burnished the wings with a colourless blender pencil this polished and added a sheen to them too, and made them more like the real thing.
I was going to "bee" clever and think of a saying for the front, but in the end, I decided " too cheesy" and just stamped "No 1 Dad" instead.

I've been busy with another project now for a couple of weeks.....

Sorry if I'm teasing, but my lips are sealed just for a wee while more, but I promise to let you see it soon.

If you liked this card and would like the bumble bee sketch to use for your own cards, feel free to use the sketch below.
Let me know what you think.

Enjoy the remainder of the weekend, and thanks for visiting.

Alexandra

Thank You card, and a sketch for you

I've just returned to sketching and drawing recently, only really since I've been off work. I've been unwell since May.
While I was off the lovely residents and staff of the sheltered housing complex where I'm manager surprised me with this gorgeous arrangement of flowers.

They certainly cheered me up. The bamboo which the butterfly is attached to started to root in the water so I'm going to plant it to see if it'll grow.
I've never had a bamboo plant before, so if it survives, I will.

I made this card for them to say thanks.

The flower image is from a sketch I did, inspired by an older photo of some pretty Chrysanthimum daisies from Leslie's blog  Goldens and Garden . Leslie is so good with her camera and the photos from her garden are lovely.
This is one of the sketches I sent to Leslie. I checked with her first that it okay for me to share the resulting sketches from her photos, she agreed, and is happy for me to do this.
When she posted this photo on her blog, I don't think she liked the cheeky fly much but I thought it looked natural and added a bit of extra interest to the composition.

Feel free to use this image here too, if you want to.

I return to work on Monday so I won't have as much time then for this then, but I hope to keep on being creative and sharing here when I can.

I'd love to hear from you, let me know what you think.

Have a great day and thanks for popping by.

Alexandra x

Baby Bonny

I've been out working in the garden for a wee while today, weeding and tidying up again.
The weeds seem to grow so fast at this time of year. Milder weather and plenty watering from Mother nature seams to help them along.

I thought today I'd share this portrait I did of my, then 15 year old son, playing with a bit of string with his gran's new wee kitten "Bonny".

Kittens and cats are very entertaining with this natural hunting instinct when the prey is made of wool or cotton. Not so much when they get older and they bring home "presents" of the live variety.

Thanks for visiting.

Have a lovely Saturday. 

Alexandra x

Poppy Meadow

Poppies are one of my favourite flowers, I love seeing them growing wild at the side of the road when I driving home from my work, so I couldn't resist  this stamp set called "Poppy Meadow" from a relatively new company "Indigo Blu" from UK. I also got some Flitterglu (Indigo Blu's own new stamping glue) and some pretty guilding flakes.

This was the first time I've used Flitter glue. It comes in a wee tub, you load a tiny scoop of this onto a small bit of stamping foam, work it into the foam, then "ink up your stamp" with it. The glue dries but remains tacky indefinitely when you stamp with it, (with the stamped image, stored away carefully, you could still add your guilding flakes to it next month or even later they said, though it may stick to unwanted stuff if you're not careful).
The detail is amazing when you use foil leaf guiling flakes on the stamped image. I was really impressed.
You can also use other things on it like mica powder pigments, pan pastels, chalks or flock though I've not tried these myself.

I love poppies (I think I said that already!) and I can't wait for the giant poppies in my garden to flower. The plant has around 8 or 9 big flower buds on it just now, so it shouldn't be long.

Anyway back to my Poppy card.

I used Lancashire Rose guilding flakes, which are mainly a mix of golds, reds and copper tones with a tiny bit of warm green and silver flakes too, so very pretty. The background was coloured with alcohol inks, I used more red around the poppy head.

The word stamp is from the same set but it's harder to see in the photo.
Using the multi-coloured flakes wasn't the best idea with the wording, so I highlighted it with a fine black pen. In hindsight I should have used a plain coloured guiding flake so the words would read clearer, or just used black ink instead.
I totally believe in this sentiment though "We do not own the earth. Walk gently upon it, so that future generations may do the same."


Have a great day.

Alexandra

A card I made with my sketch of "Wally"

Today I've a card to share with you. This is a card I made using a drawing I created for a lovely lady from the states, Leslie, who's blog I've been following for a while. She has the most adorable Golden retrievers Wally and LuLu.

My card was helpfully held up by my glamorous assistant, my wooden art mannequin.
Though he's a bit shy and didn't want his photo taken, lol. (I really should give him a name, any suggestions?)

Anyway this is Leslie's beautiful boy Wally.

I coloured the image using Spectrum Noirs alcohol pens, then added a bit more detail with coloured pencils. (I can't get the detail I want from my pens).
I was quite pleased with my wee pine cones, I made these with the smaller rose Marianne D creatables rose die (the one with the wiggly edge, spiral shape you coil), cut from Kraft coloured paper,recycled from a brown paper bag from a clothes shop, I coloured the edges with Brushed Corduroy Distress ink then rolled them quite tight, I used the pine from the Festive greenery Sizzix Sizzlits Tim Holtz  die to add a splash of greenery.

The link to Leslie's blog is on the right "Goldens and Garden".
Leslie also made a beautiful card using this image of Wally.
You'll find it here:
http://lesliekmiller.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/wally-card-for-fathers-day.html

Also today she posted another beautiful card she made using another drawing I did for her of LuLu her gorgeous girl puppy.

Let me know what you think and any suggestions for my mannequin guys name would be welcome.

Thanks for visiting and have a lovely day.

Alexandra

First kiss

I thought I'd introduce my daughter, or a least an old pencil portrait I did of her with her much loved pony. I created it from a photograph, using artist coloured pencils many moons ago. She wasn't quite 2 years old at the time of this photo.

She was a very cute wee girl. On this particular day her daddy was taking a few photos of her tottering around playing, when out of the blue she planted a kiss on her pony's nose.
We couldn't have planned a sweeter memory.

Every time I see this image I'm transported to a simpler time in her life, and I smile.

I 'd love to hear from you, please let me know what you think.

Alexandra x

Hello and welcome to my new blog

Hi,

Let me introduce myself, my name is Alexandra, I'm Scottish & I've been married to Alan for 27 years. We have 2 grown up "kids" and 1 wee darling grandson. We also have two wonderful furry "kids", our lovely labradors.

Though familiar with visiting many lovely blogs, I've been a bit of a scaredy cat about starting my own. Have patience with me, as I'm sure I'll stumble about getting it wrong until I know what I'm doing (any tips will be gratefully received.)

I love creating when time allows me, I'm hoping to share my love of art and crafting through this blog, and in particular some of my cards and in time some of my art work.

For now, I just thought I'd introduce you to my beautiful girls, Amy and Piper.

Also, I created the card below a wee while ago, but it'll be new to you here, and I was pleased with how it turned out, so I thought I'd share it with you too.

The stamped image is from the Stem script Rose stamp from UK designer, Chocolate Baroque.

I stamped it onto a deep red card then used painting with bleach technique to highlight it, then added detail to the image with coloured pencils and a bit of distress ink around the edge.

The saying is by Albert Einstein and comes from the same stamp set.

I finished the card off by adding a few florishes and a pretty Wendy Vecchi stamped Grungepaper rose, coloured again with distress inks.

Please post a comment to let me know what you think.