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

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.

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.

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

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