Be happy.... and a winner

a Hero Arts birdcage and Basic grey paper - love making scenes!



My winner of the goodies box is Andi Sexton - I already have your address Andi - I sure hope you like the contents.
I just want to thank Andi for her contribution to the craft blogging world - she has such a warm generous personality, is so uplifting and enthousiastic and also has a great sense of humour!

Ending the week with 'inchies' too!

I haven't had time to upload and fill up another entry for my blog so I'm happy to be able to give some time to it today. I received my prize from the Hero Arts challenge.... oh my, I was so excited when the box arrived and the stamps are even better and bigger IRL!! I was amazed and felt so blessed to have won them.



This is another inchie card, and as I mentioned I'm venturing out with new colours. A couple of weeks ago I would never have thought of using light blue in my artwork - but love it now!



This card was inspired by Louise who gave a tutorial on how to make a Masterboard. She did an amazing job with hers! This is not part of a masterboard, this is all of it, because I only made a small one... lol. This card is going in the box of goodies as I thought it would be great to give a themed card from the country I am sending it from.



This is a card I made with the owl stamp and using up scraps from my basket - just stamp on anything and it seems effective with these outline flowers from Hero Arts!



OK, so here are the stamps I chose - can't wait to ink them up!!
Have a great weekend!!

And a card I made with the birdcage.

Weekly Hero Arts Challenge - Inchies!

Well this week it is inchies on the Hero Arts Website. Shari Carrol is such an inspiring artist! I love her colour choices, backgrounds and layouts. She uses lots of flower images too.



For my inspiration I used the layout of this first card and transferred it more or less onto six inch squares. I have never thought to use inch squares in this fashion before but it was fun to do.



I am looking for different colour combo's in magazines and find this is now a new challenge for me, which I welcome as I was getting fed up with pink.

Last sunday I went for a little dip in the pool just to cool down and thought I would go have a look in the baskets at the back that hold back large items that would otherwise disappear in the pump - actually I was wondering whether a snake was in there because that has happened before. Well if you look for them you will find them - actually this was what I saw - hope I haven't shocked anybody. These snakes are quite small and harmless, they fall in the swimming pool at night and can't get out.

I haven't forgotten that box of goodies - I am keeping it open just in case I can put something else in there - so keep watching for that moment when 'your' name just might be on it!

Trying different colours - very refreshing!

This is a little stamp set that only cost six euros and it is such a fun set!
I got the idea of the stamped background strip from Lisa who made this gorgeous card. You position the stamps you want to use on your mounting block and stamp along the strip.

Another tip for small unmounted stamps is to use the top of a small square ink pad as your mount.

I made the scalloped circle by punching out circles and adhering them to the back of a smaller circle. Used alot of scraps for this card. I found this tip on the Internet but can't relocate the link unfortunately.



Just HAVE to share that this card got first place in the recent Hero Arts 'Inspiration' challenge - I had not expected it at all because I was 'dry' on inspiration at that time! So I feel so honoured and very lucky to have won 50 dollars to spend on their on-line shop which I did straight away!!


I had another little fortunate thing happen to me, a little craft boutique, somewhere here in France couldn't send me a little stamp set because they were out of stock - so they sent me a little RAK until they get them in stock again! Wow, I will order there again!



(This is our front garden - click to enlarge)

Well the heat is upon us in the South of France and it's not like 'lets get outside and enjoy it' - it's more like 'run to the nearest shady tree, stay in the swimming pool or under the parasols or STAY INSIDE AND SHUT ALL THE SHUTTERS TO KEEP THE HEAT OUT! High in the 30°'s at the moment and it takes a little getting used too! But it's not humid, it's a dry heat which I'm very thankful for!
Well we all complained about the bad weather but this gorgeous heat will get it's complaints too! But the lavender is not complaining, it thrives in this sort of climate! (See picture above)

Hero Arts challenge to use one stamp in two ways

I used the stitched square stamp to make these cards. I have gone off the colour pink all of a sudden and tend towards more earthern colours, although I love dark shades of pink.



I cut our a stamped square to make a flower pot on this card.



In the next couple of weeks I will announce a name - that person will be getting a surprise box full of all sorts of things, some new, some not new (like used stamps). I have had a sort out and filled a box up.

What inspires you?

Hallo craft blogging friends! I hope you are well! Thanks so much for your kind comments on this blog too.


SHARE LAUGHTER clear design set from Hero Arts

I have been in a bit of a creative slump the last two weeks and only yesterday did I get a bit of it back. I made these cards for the Hero Arts challenge 'What inspires you'? The first card was my own inspiration and the second I get from the surroundings here, as it's the time for flowers and butterflies!! I got the Hero Arts clear design stamp set (see above) as I thought it would be much cheaper to buy like this than wood mounted stamps.






Back from my weekend in Belgium. The weather was bad! The flight was delayed 40 minutes and just before landing the pilot said that we might have to go to another airport because of the low hanging thick clouds. A little later he said - we are going to land - I'm going to give it my best shot!! I started praying immediately!! Actually, it was a perfect landing!
We only had time to visit Gent which is a very old interesting city. I hope to post a couple of photos we took soon.


(Click to enlarge)

This is the state of the vineyards at the moment. I took this photo this afternoon next to our house. The scenery is completely green at the moment.

Look who I got a visit from today!

Well wouldn't you like to get a visit like this one day??

To put it all into perspective, look at our cat and you will see the true size of this lizard! Actually the cat had carried it to the veranda as it was planning to eat it - but I decided I didn't want that to happen and managed to scare it away. The poor thing was so scared, he didn't blink an eyelid, but when it saw it's chance to escape, those little legs ran like crazy!!



I also want to share a lovely little package I got this morning, which I had won on the Just Johanna Earth Blog day. I love that little tag: 'Greetings Earthling'!!



I made this card with the little owls stamps that were inside the package - just experimenting really.



I will be in Belgium this weekend with DH who has to speak at a service where missionaries are going to be sent out to our region.
Tania - we will be in GENT;
I hope to be back next week. Have a great weekend!

Jacqueline

Using up the scraps again!

I found my stitched square Hero Arts stamp again! So glad about that - it gave me the chance to go through the scrap basket again!



Here is the second one which I finally got to photograph today.

My scrap cards and tags!