Well, today have realised that I am really not tech savvy!

It wasn't until I decided to share my blog with some facebook friends and groups that I realised that there was no way of anyone being able to follow me. Thank you for pointing this out to me :-).
I thought that all I needed to do was to design the page, add my pictures and some text and that would be that.
Oh no!
I needed to add buttons and widgets, set up a google+ profile and do a fair bit of tweaking. I got there in the end, so if you are reading this, then I guess the tweaking has worked!!!

I've not had the best of weeks with having to struggle through snow and ice on the school run which causes a great deal of pain, partly due to the sheer cold, and the effort of having to walk differently. I've also not been sleeping well, which is a little known problem that us ME sufferers have to cope with. Many people think that because you suffer from chronic fatigue then you sleep well all the time. Sadly that isn't the case! A large number of ME sufferers experience insomnia for various reasons. Me, I have restless legs, nerve pain, joint pain and sensitivity to sound. Add to that anxiety and an inability to switch my brain off, then we have a disastrous cocktail.

Ah well, enough of the moaning. Here are 2 of my latest creations.

This is not my most complicated card of late, nor is it stepping out of my comfort zone. It was made using a file from the silhouette store with simple pink card , patterned paper, and glitter. Nothing that taxed my poor fatigued brain too much.

This took a little more work and thought. My brief was simply vintage valentines. I wanted to stay away from the cupid style pictures and found this lovely dove with flowers. The green and pink compliment the colours on the dove, as do the pearls (which are made using my craft studio dimensional PVA). Stickles glue highlights areas on the roses and dove, and a glittered sentiment finishes it off.

Hopefully I'll have a better creative week, but to be honest, I'm not convinced as it's a busy week at the kids school. If I manage to get into the creative zone, I'll continue to share my journey with you xx

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Moving Forward - One step at a time!

Ok. So its been a few days since I last posted on here, and to be honest, I've been in a slight creative dip. Partly due to a poorly 4 year old and several sleepless/restless nights as a result.
I have been doing research into mixed media techniques, and art journalling, both of which I want to get stuck into but haven't as yet had the time or energy.
I did manage to create this little beauty though. I used my Silhouette Cameo to make this one, using a file I bought from the Silhouette store.

I love this cardstock. It's called J'Adore by First Edition Paper. I'm usually averse to using patterned cardstock but I have so much of it that I have decided that I must start to use it.
So, that's all for now, but hopefully I will have more time this week to get messy and creative xx

The Journey begins!

I thought I would share with you some of the things I normally do within my comfort zone. I have gone back to one of my first loves when doing these though, and used stamping and colouring with a mix of alcohol and watercolour pens.

This first one is a typical style of mine, Made using the Cricut Forever Young cartridge. A 'comfortable' style with a few diamanté embellishments. I could have done more with this by using embossing folders,

Simple stamped image with a small amount of added colour. The stamp came with Creative Stamping magazine. I get lots of stamps free with magazines and  rarely use them so there's another challenge - to use what I get with the magazines I subscribe to!

This little guy also came with the same Creative Stamping magazine as the previous image, Coloured with alcohol markers and layered using DCWV Floral papers. I hardly ever use peel offs, but found them on my desk when creating these so used them as Faux layering borders.

This is one of my favourite little creations I've done in the last few months. The image is from Scrapberry and I used my new spectrum aquas to colour it. The pens are so easy to use, so hope I get plenty more opportunities to use them. Just a little greeting to be added now.

This cutie is a Lili of the Valley stamp, again coloured with spectrum aquas. I decided to make this a tag card so that the recipient could use this as a bookmark if she wanted to. The backing paper is a magazine freebie. I have glittered the dandelion seeds with some iridescent glitter and added a little glitter on the double sided tape used to stick the lace.

The final one for now. This is one of the new CHA release Candibean stamps. She is a little darling to colour. I used the Spectrum aquas yet again and added some bling with glitter and diamanté. Faux stitching added to the patchwork look.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at the projects that have started my creative journey off. Now to find an alternative path to take me away from the straight and narrow, and onto a long and winding road to creative fulfilment. 

Onto the next stage of my journey x

A Fresh Start For A Fresh Year

I've been in a creative rut over the last few years. Since Sophie started school last September, I have had a lot of life adjustments to make. The biggest one being an increase in the time I have to create. My creativity has stagnated somewhat and I seem to churn out the same style of cards that I have always been comfortable with. I decided to make one big change this year and that is, to step out of my comfort zone and try something new. I hope you will be able to come on this journey with me and see the changes I make as I develop new styles and try new techniques. Of course there will be trials along the way. I cannot guarantee my ability to craft each day, as my health changes on a daily basis, as do the challenges of being a mum. I only have a small window of opportunity to get into my craft room before the fatigue hits and I need to rest. I also intend to use what I already have in my stash, which will be music to my husband, Neil's, ears! So welcome! I hope you enjoy sharing this journey with me x