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