Helloooooo......

Hello everyone, remember me lol. Yes I know I've been missing in action for quite some time & I will explain why.

Well I decided to take a whole break from crafting & the internet in general to be honest, I wanted to spend more time with my family.........time I desperately wanted as well. We also brought a camper to get away in at weekends...........we just brought a cheap one as we didnt know what Natalie would be like........she loved it, absolutely loved it. We have an awning with & we brought a bedroom extension so it meant we could all go away, the whole family together. There was me, Craig (hubster), my eldest son with his fiance Megan & my 2 gorgeous grandchildren, my daughter Natalie & my youngest son Jake. We went away quite a few times & we had brill times so much so we are doing it a lot more this year. 

We are also going through something important as a family at the moment, I cant tell you what yet but it's not bad.......if it goes through & goes well it will be exciting.......... it will also be life-changing as well. Only the close family know as I dont want to jinx anything but I will tell you when it all goes through & we are successful.

Ok so the other reason you havnt seen me on here is because I was going to give up crafting..........everything!! However a few weeks ago after much, MUCH nagging off Craig I decided to take it back up but its gonna be a different kind of crafting.....

Gone are my foofy style cards & instead I will be doing more CAS style & concentrating more on the colouring of my image. The images will also be done more in copics now & not distress inks......though I will use the inks sometimes lol.

I am moving out of my craft room, yes again but I'm giving it up for a very good reason which I will tell you about another time. We now have a spare room in the bungalow which I was gonna move into but......well that will become something else.

So I'm streamlining everything down & moving into a bureau......yep that black bureau that was once in my large craft room when I was in the conservatory.........yep that!!! I know scary to think I'm fitting everything into that..............so I will after christmas put a 'For Sale' page on my blog as LOTS of stuff will be getting sold. 

I will still make 3D projects & I still want to make things other than cards.....I have a lot of plans lol.

Well a week ago I finally did my first colouring with copics, I've tried a few times over the months but I've normally done the face & then thought....no I dont want to do this.

However a week ago I decided I needed a kick up the bum & it was time to either use those copics or give up completely. So off I went to Crafts & Me & brought an image...........no it's not Hannah Lynn (though that's what I went for lol).

No it was this one...........please excuse the quality it was just taken with my phone camera & not my usual camera...........here is my first colouring with copics in over 6 months.

This is 'The Great Bow' by Jeremiah Ketner & as soon as I saw it I fell in love with it. Another one also fell in my basket...ooops.

My granddaughter says I need to add sparkly glitter to her as because she's pretty lol. She is not on a card yet but I have actually made my first card the other night ready for Natalie's class at daycare. Will show you them once they are all done.

I'm feeling quite rusty at the whole colouring & crafting at the moment but I thoroughly enjoyed colouring this little lady, she does look better IRL.

When she is on a card I will take proper piccies lol.

Ok so if you made it to the end of my long post.............by now you are probably thinking........OMG you can tell Vixster is back.....blah blah blah. I know I know, its the fingers they just run away with themselves when on the lappy lol.

I want to thank you though for not leaving me & sticking with me you are all awesome. I promise my next post will be a lot smaller lol.

Well I'm off to craft.........wow I havnt said that for soooooo long. Well after I've fed my washer ;-)

Tatty bye lovelies, take care & hope you all have a good day.

mmwah

Lotsa hugs Vicky xxx

The More You Read & CANDY!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello everyone I'm here with my DT Project for the Noor Design UK blog using the uber fabulous Shape Art Book by Dutch Doobadoo.

First though we have just reached over 40,000 visitors on the Noor Design UK blog, so why not pop on over there & check out the candy you can win. It will run for a week.

Ok I have to say I love, no I mean I LURVE this Book Art template, its fabulous & something that will be used a lot.........

I have used black card as my base as I thought it added a bit more pop especially against the gorgeous colours that are in this Botanical Paper pad I've used.

I've inked & distressed all the edges & on one side I curled the tops over, just to make it look oldish & well read ;-) This is I'm keeping for myself so I did a test, I used 2 different methods to add a bend to the page & a gap between each page. This side I used 3D glue & the other side I used large Foam Pads & I have to say the foam pads are so much easier but use larger ones, that's only my opinion of course.

The 3D glue was good but you have to hold it in place until it sets..........ok if you are a telly watcher whilst crafting but I'm impatient & not a tv watcher lol.

Ok so my quote is a Dr Seuss quote & this one came with a Sylvia Zet image a long long time ago but I love this quote & thought it perfect. I used the Cutting & Embossing Parchment die to layer the quote on which I also inked & curled the corners.

I've used my favourite Swirld die under the flowers & one of the many gorgeous leaf dies.......eventually I would love them all........its hard to choose a favourite. I added flowers from my stash & calmed the colours down a bit with gesso.

I added seam binding & a fine pearl string to the centre, also made a bow with the seam binding to tie it all in.

I just added an image to this side, its a digi image so was able to make her larger & then fussy cut her out.

The image I found a long time ago & its from Jess College Fund but cannnot find the link ot it, sorry.

I've coloured her with copics......colours used are......

E11, E21, E00, E000, RV21 - Skin

B95, B91, B00 - Eyes & R39, R37, R35 - Lips

E59, E55, E53, E50 - Hair

YR27, YR24, YR21, YR00, - Top & YG97 Trim on sleeve.

W5, W2, W1, W00 - Book & E43, E40 - Pages

Hope you like my make today, dont forget about the lovely candy on offer over on Noor Design UK Blog. Links to products used are below.

Also Tracy has some awesome new goodies in her store including items if you like mixed media.

Take care & enjoy your day.

The link to the Parchment Roll die used is here.

The products used can be ordered in the Noor! Design U.K. webshop:

Botanitcal Paper pad	Shape Art Book	Dutch Doobadoo Gesso White	Swirl Leaf Die
Vintage Flourishes Leaf 1

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Live & Love Crafts DT Creation - Happy Birthday Princess

Hello everyone its Saturday which means its my  turn to post something over at LLC using Sandy's theme of Pink + one. I have gone for PInk & Purple inspired totally by my daughters bedroom & the gorgeous Pion 'My Precious Daughter' collection.

Its my daughter's birthday today she's 23, I cant believe it. As some of you know she has severe Cerebral Palsy & whenshe was born she was extremely ill, she wasn't supposed to live much longer than 2 weeks..... All the odds were against her, however she has proved everyone wrong & she will carry on proving everyone wrong, I know she will <3

So here is a gift bag I've made her for one of her pressies. I have put some flasy bath lights in that we have brought her for her new bath ;-)

I lurve this paper collection & it was my favourite Pion collection until Paris Flea Market came out, so I'm gonna say this is one of my favourite's as they always seem to get better & better lol.

So this is the main sentiment which I cut form the 'My Princess 12x12 sheet' as she is our princess.

I also cut out butterflies form the collection, here I layered 2 butterflies up together, added pearl string to the centre & a bit of gesso.

Just tucked under the sentiment is a crown die-cut which is from the Marianne Circle & Crown die. I've inked it up with Milled Lavender distress ink. The circle part is under the spellbinder frame which was cut out using the other side to this same sheet.

Here I've added the crown again but this time I cut it out of the Pion paper, reverse side. I have rolled this top layer of paper which is the top part of 'My Princess 12x12' & added a doily underneath.

I made a small bow, added a metal rose & hung a 'Princess' charm from it.

The 'I Love You' sentiment at the top there is from a Maja Design sheet.

Again I've added another cut out butterfly from the collection.

At the bottom I ripped the paper & added lace to both sides, so it kinda looks like ripped lace as well ;-) Another butterfly, The leaf die is a Noor Design die.

The bottom paper is the reverse side of 'Angels 12x12' sheet. I've inked & slightly distressed all edges & then machine sewn around them.

In the top left corner I've made 2 bows with 2 colours of seam binding that Sandy shabbies up herself & is sooooooo gorgeous, I love this stuff. I also added a charm from it. NOw Natalie cannot do anything, basically a 3 month old mind in a 23 year old body but I know she would probably be like me & lurve & I mean LURVE shoes........or boots & we can never have too many. So that's why I added a Shoe Charm.....think she would probably steal mine from time to time too.

HUbster wonders why I need over 50 pairs when I only have 2 feet.........ah I may only have 2 feet but there are 365 days in a year.......you do the maths. In fact I need more darling ;-) lol

Ok so at the bottom I used my Spellbinder frame again & used the smaller frame to cut out a piece again from the 'Angels' sheet but this is from the front bottom right corner. I've then cut an image from the 'My Princess 6x6' sheet & placed it behind this gorgeous Prima Resin Oval Frame. I added a tiny rose to the top & a scrap of seam binding ot the bottom..........I cant throw any seam binding & keep every bit of scrap lol.

You can also see peeking out from behind the flowers a wooden heart covered in gesso.

Of course I added gorgeous laces, 4 in total including the one behind the ripped paper. I also added an array of gorgeous flowers & pomegranate apples from LLC of course & added a dashing of gesso here & there.

The dies under the flowers are all from Noor Design UK, 0331, 0332 & 0163 which I cut in half to make it wider spreader because its a larger array of flowers.

That is it form me, I'm out with my whole family this afternoon taking the birthday girl out. We've had a hell of a week, with things going from bad to damn right kick you in the teeth, so we are really looking forward to it. 

If you pop on over to Live & Love Crafts you can see the uber gorgeous new Pion Collection called 'Linnaeus Botanical Journal', so so pretty.

'To my darling Natalie, 'Happy birthday princess, we are so proud of you & love you from the bottom of our hearts. Hope you have a fabulous day sweetheart mmwah '

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, take care.

Tatty bye & big hugs Vicky xxx

Pion Design - My precious daughter 12x12 - My princess	Pion Design - My precious daughter 12x12 - Angels	Pion Design - My precious daughter 6x6 - My princess	Pomegranate Apples
WOC Semiopen Rosebuds	Lace Rosalind (30mm)	Lace Léa (42mm)	Lace "Samsara" (65mm)
Prima Shabby Chic Treasures - Oval Frames	Hemptique Natural Hemp Cord	DecoArt Media Gesso	Shabby Wooden Heart Buttons
WOC Wild Roses, 30mm	WOC Open Roses, 15mm	WOC Open Roses, 20mm	WOC Open Roses, 10mm
Round Doilies 4.5"	Metal Rose 11mm - Copper	Pearl String, 6mm pearls	Charm - Princess Crown
Charm - Rhinestone shoe	Lace "Vanille" (10mm)	Tim Holtz Paper Distresser Tool	Inkssentials Ink Blending Tool
Poppies	LLC Shabby Seam Binding	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads	Kort & Godt Rolled Paper Roses

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