Another blog giveaway…

…but this time it isn’t mine! However, I am going to enter. Cheryl had a link in her blog which I followed to find another crafty blog which I haven’t seen before, by a lady called Sandy. Sandy is hosting a giveaway, and the prizes for the two winners will be a stash of decorated paper, and a stash of cardstock. Always a temptation! If you would like to enter the giveaway, you must leave Sandy a comment and put a link to her blog site on your blog. Easy as that! This is the link to Sandy’s blog and this is to the page about the giveaway. I have had a peep at Sandy’s art and I’m very impressed. I am going back for a peep when I finish this post.

Talking about paper, I am meeting up with my friend tomorrow morning for coffee and she is bringing me a stash of paper. She has had a clearout and as they need the space for an impending arrival in September, she decided to dispose of the paper. Remembering my card-making, she very kindly offered it to me. Wow! I’m very excited! Thank you kell

Now, I’m off to read Sandy’s blog! 

A wonderful software programme

 

I am going to make a quilt. Something I have been interested in for a long time, but the time has come and I am deciding on a design. It will only be a lap quilt, and I will probably do a cushion or two first for practice. I got the graph paper out and started designing. Of course it was a laborious process and at the back of my mind, I thought there must be a programme out there for the computer which would speed things up. I was too wrapped up in what I was doing so just continued with my crayons, colouring squares and counting, until my OH said he thought there must surely be a programe. I did see if I could use Corel Painter for it, but it didn’t seem to do what I wanted, so I went to CNET and did a search and I found the perfect programme in the hobbies section. Its called Creative Designs Chartmaker and you can use it for embroiderie, cross stitch, quilting, beading etc. I have had great fun playing with it, designing all sorts of cross stitch motifs, and quilt patterns. It is available as a free trial for a month, and then you have to buy it, (if you wish). Its about £15 I think, but it is so easy to use, and perfect for the job, so I will be buying it. Check it out if you need something to help design patterns. I have cross stitch design CDs, but this is much easier to use, for designing from scratch. You don’t have the features like downloading your own pictures etc. That’s not what its for, but for saving time with the old graph paper. you can’t beat it!

 

 

 

Don’t forget…

Those of us who participated in One World - One Heart now have our own Flickr group. This is where we can share pictures of the giveaway prizes we received and feel inspired by each others work. Those who did not join in this year may like to pop along and view the photos, and perhaps get ready to join in next year. It was great fun! You can find the group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/owoh/

Meanwhile, keep crafting!

A little snow…

The other afternoon, between falling asleep with my narcolepsy and replying to lovely emails from One World One Heart folk, I felt like painting. As you know I paint digitally at the moment, although once my confidence is better, I will attempt the real thing. So I tootled off to my Artrage page and decided a snow scene was what I wanted. Why? I have no idea, but we haven’t really had any snow to speak of here this winter, so maybe I was feeling let down. I don’t know. There is plenty of time left for snow though. It’s mild at the moment and we’ve had some gloriously sunny days, but I never feel completely safe from snow until the end of April. My daughter was born on 22nd April and I went into hospital as it started to snow and came out a week later (you stayed in a week in those days) and it was very bad, and very slippery. So…it could still snow!

This is the first snowscape I have done and one of only a few landscapes so far. I am reasonably pleased, but I wish the fence wasn’t bending so far backwards! I was pleased with the thicket and the blurring of land and sky.

Gooseberries

Well I felt like getting pen to tablet last night so spent a happy hour drawing these earrings, which are a copy of the ones I sent out as a freebie. Only, I promise…the ones I sent away did not look like gooseberries, unlike these! Ah well…practice makes perfect!

Cherry on the top…

As is all the excitement of the last week wasn’t enough, I was busy on Flickr, looking at photos from my contact when I came across an entry from one of my favourites…Janey, at Janey’s Journey. Janey had been busy with her second ‘Zine thing’, a little booklet of illustrations called 15 Woofs and 1 Meow. Now I love Janey’s cats and dogs illustrations, so I hurried across to Etsy to see if there were any copies left. I had to join Etsy to be able to buy, so very hurriedly I registered and now I will soon be the proud owner of some original art by one of my favourite artists. I can’t wait for the booklet to arrive, or for the March ‘zine thing’. I think Janey is going to be very busy if she is intending to do one every month. This last booklet meant she had to paint 240 little cats and dogs (16 per booklet). I am sure demand will rise and she will have difficulty keeping up. Good luck Janey! Did I also say that Janey does this for charity too…in aid of an organisation which helps Haitian children. Please read Janey’s blog, and then follow her links to Flickr and her Etsy store. They are well worth a visit.

Go Janey!

So…Etsy! Shall I shan’t I? I have now joined Etsy as  member, but not yet as a seller. Still debating. Several questions to wrestle with first…the main one being is my work good enough, and closely followed with will I have time? I think I will give it a go. Silly not to really, but …I am still weighing it up. Any suggestions anyone?

The Tapestry of Life

A couple of months ago, I wrote a poem in celebration of the artistic endeavours of the many wonderful crafters and artists across the globe. I thought, after the last few days of wonderful activity, that it was particularly relevant, so I am posting it here, and dedicate it to all those who participated in the One World - One Heart event, and especially to Lisa who initiated it and worked so hard to organise it.

The Tapestry of Life.

Creative vision stretched to the limit;
expanded, embroidered, tweaked or stitched.
Richness of content, skilfully manipulated
with loving expression in seamless candour.
 
Human vision showing strength and diversity
Painting the soul and etching the pain.
Drawing on experience to mould silent messages.
Sculpting innovation, unmasking the arcane.
 
Euphoric joy portrayed so effectively
with deliberate strokes and quill unrestrained.
A myriad of colours, washes and templates
artistically quilted into everyday life.
 
How difficult to express point of view, inner eye;
to convey the uncharted, or patterns intrinsic
to the gossamer existence, the fabric of life,
in a material web of silken deceit.
 
How skilful to communicate with the world in a flash.
Capture moments in time, leave an image of truth.
Render the imperfections, enhance and transform,
Yet draw the naïve and sublimate their vision.
 
A voice, quietly spoken, undemanding but firm,
creates freedom, releases the treasures from within.
Innate creativity, explores tangible palettes
to produce art from the darkness of a virgin soul.
 
Ingenuity, originality, tinted with love
embellishing  the prosaic, the rubber-stamped umber.
Enriching and cleansing, uplifting and inspiring.
Artistry, the window to a passionate muse.
 
Society’s values, pollacked and poetical;
concealed, yet apparent in a magical jigsaw
of colours, textures, materials and shapes
stippled with love, a lasting impression.
 
Artistic expression, whatever the form,
is a universal gift. It is ready to use.
Communicating, negotiating, peacefully painting
a safe world, a sanctuary.
Humanity wise up!

© DF 2007

FANTASTIC!

Well, now that I have finished my draw, I can take time out to revel in my own winnings. I won two giveaways. I am so excited about them.

The first is a georgeous pair of earrings from Angela at funkycatstudio.com I think Angela was worried because I was giving away earrings, but I live for earrings, and it’s always wonderful to have some made by someone else, just as it is great to buy them from a shop. These are the earrings. I love them, and can’t wait to wear them. they are exactly what I would have chosen for myself! (And I’m not just saying that!)

Then I was lucky to have a second win, this time  from Antonelli’s website…http://www.quilling.blogspot.com/. Now this was particuarly amazing because it is down to Antonelli’s site that I became aware of the One World - One Heart event. I was looking for some information about quilling, something I love to see, but have never tried. I Googled ‘quilling’ and found her wonderful site, which explains what quilling is and how to get started with some of the basic shapes. There are free patterns too. I am dying to have a go! Anyway, having been made aware of the contest, I decided to participate and whilst I was entering all the draws, I kept wishing I could remember where I had first seen the information about it. When I won my beautiful giveawy on Antonelli’s blog, I suddenly realised. This was where it had all started. This is the lady I have to blame for all the fun and excitement of the last few days. As a thank you to her, I am going to send her a reciprocal gift. This is my Santa giveaway, made by Antonelli, and yes…Quilled! I am very excited.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Angela and Antonelli. Both blogs will be added to my blogroll, as will quite a few of the blogs of other participants.

 

I still have some cards to finish making for the second prize winner, but I should have them done very soon. I am now looking forward to reading all these blogs and seeing all the creative things other people do. There is such a wealth of talent. Aren’t we so lucky to have a tool that enables us to contact people thousands of miles away and share our lives with them? Whatever the disadvantages of the internet, there are overwhelming advantages too. If only people would appreciate it and not abuse it!

I have enjoyed this experience so much that I am going to have a weekly giveaway, so watch this space for more info!

****Winners!!****

Ok…I gave up with the paper version…it took pages and pages of paper, (and I had only printed half at that point!!), and whilst I was cutting, I thought…’I've got to fold them all too! I’ll be here all afternoon!’. So I decided to use the Random Number Generator, a nifty little device which I found on http://www.violetsareblue.net/ The generator is here. Much quicker! So…da dum! Here are the winners.

Prize No1 - Three Gift Cards - goes to This Girl Remembers thisgirlremembers.wordpress.com

Prize No.2 - Three gift cards - goes to Sharon at   http://schutt.net/sharon/

Prize No.3 - A set of three birthday cards - goes to Becky at artofzinkibaru.blogspot.com

Prize No. 4 - Two pairs of Earrings - goes to Angie at quillysilly@yahoo.com

Prize No.5 - A set of Toppers - goes to Linda (Craftygallinda)

***Congratulations to you all***

If you read this before I get to email you, please send your address via a comment at the bottom of this post. Comments are moderated, so I will not publish any personal details, names addresses, email etc, and will only make the comment visible after editing, if there is anything else left!! I will, however try and contact you all by email.

This has been fantastic fun Lisa, thank you for organising it. It is such a good idea, and the fun continues now as we explore each others’ blogs and make new friends. I can’t wait until next year!!

Congratulations to all the winners across the event, commisserations to those who didn’t win prizes, but I suspect that most of us were in this for other reasons. Anyway, I will certainly be organising other giveaways on this blog, so keep in touch. I look forward to seeing you all again.

Hugs to everyone,

Susie.

Giveaway No 5

Right! here we go! Gosh…I’m getting giddy here.

On offer for giveaway no 5 are some card toppers. They can be used for A5 and A6 cards. I have also included a set of toppers which are small enough to be used on tags.