Phiindy's Hamsters Meet Mojo Monday for a Spoonful of Sugar........!!

It's our 37th Wedding Anniversary in about five weeks and as soon as I saw Phindy O'Neil's cute hamsters I knew what image I was going to use on my Hubby's card! There is the macho male hamster presenting a tasty morsel to his love - what better image? LOL! I know there's only one candle on the cake, but thirty-seven candles would be a bit of a fire hazard, doncha think?!



Again, I was entering this card for three challenges - Phindy's own and Mojo Monday as I love the sketches from Mojo and this week's sketch totally suits Phindy's fab image - but I'm too late for Monday Mojo - I took too long to get a photo! So, it's Phindy's plus A Spoonful of Sugar who are looking for Celebrations! I think 37 years is a celebration of something....not sure what...!



My papers are from different sources. The background green paper is, I think, a Brenda Pinnock design, the two papers on the mat are from stash but the floral one is a Cath Kidston drawer-liner! LOL!

The little red flowers are Prima and, most importantly, I actually printed Phindy's image onto semi-gloss photo-paper and coloured it with my Copics. I've found the Copics behave on photo paper totally different than on ordinary paper!
Hope you ( and more importantly - Nic...!) like it!
Hugs,
Ei
x

Dangling Tilda in Hot Colours with Stitching

I haven't used my Magnolias for a little while and thought I'd dust them off as I've quite missed Tilda!
I've done an unusual (for me) thing here and combined three challenges in the one card!
I hope it works.......! LOL!



Just Magnolia
has asked that we use 'hot and spicy' colours (...well, I presume they don't mean Tilda in a basque and fishnets anyway...!). So, I'm already out of my comfort zone!



Next, Colour Throwdown have given us a pallete of Tangerine, Olive, Mocha, Saffron and Sky blue so I've used that pallette to the best of my ability!



Finally, but certainly not least, Polkadoodles wants us to use some kind of sewing so I've included cross-stitch in my design.



I enjoyed using my K&Co papers and my Wild Orchid flowers as well as my lovely Dangling Tilda and I think my fishing 'spinner' worked well I actually had another image of Tilda on the back of the main one so when it turns, you still get Tilda!

I am, however, totally in love with Tim Holtz's new Sizzix dies! They are wonderful! They're not only a good size and deep but the 'mat' style ones ( the one behind Tilda is called Baroque) are also magnetic and so I've found you can use the small magnetic aperture dies within them, so altering your mats at the same time! I've also cut all kinds of materials with them including CDs! Marvellous! I can see loads of possibilities with them!


I have another post to make so see you in a minute..........

C.R.A.F.T 52 - Blue & Green

After the mayhem of our blogaversary, this week at C.R.A.F.T we're having a serene challenge, a lovely, peaceful blue and green theme!

I've gone for a very understated look this week - a nice change from my excesses of the last few weeks...! LOL!

Just look at the designers I've used. Anna Griffin and Martha Stewart! You might as well just call the card 'Elegance' and be done with (...with no reference to me at all...)!

I've not actually done much with it except adhere the Anna Griffin paper to a piece of square card and add a couple of MS punched hearts. The lickle topper was easy enough - just layers of shaped card & paper and a bit of satin ribbon.

Hope you like it, 'cos it's all that's happening tonight! LOL!
Hugs,
Ei
x

Blogaversary Winners!

Helloooo everyone! It's that time of the week again.......! It's Thursday......oh! Oh no it's not, it's Wednesday night.....! That's me confused for the forseeable future.....

Well, you know me - it doesn't take much and what with the C.R.A.F.T Blogaversary Celebrations ....well, it's been a confusing week! That's why I'm posting on a Wednesday evening! It is the winner's draw.......!

It's been SO exciting this week! We've had great fun with the sentence puzzle and the card challenge and the personal blog draws and.....well, everything really!

I have no less than three personal prizes to award! And that's on top of the C.R.A.F.T ones!

I'm sure you now want me to stop prattling and get on with it - prattling stopped!

Right! The first of my followers to post a comment and to receive my exclusive Eiglas Kaleidoscope Digital Paper Kit is....Rozzy B!

Congratulations Rozzy - I really hope you'll enjoy working with my papers & elements and will let us all see what you do with them!

My second Prize is to the LAST follower to post on my blogaversary thread.
So stand up JODI! Jodi wasn't the last post but she was the last FOLLOWER to post!
Congratulations Jodi! E-mail me with your address at eiglas@eiglas.co.uk and I'll get your cd in the post to you asap!

My third prize is the Sakura Souffle pens that Donna's Den have kindly donated for my prize this week.

This is a totally random selection - my daughter's Bichon Frise, Izzy, picked it out of the hat

Izzy

and you don't get much more random than a Bichon Frise!

Step forward SUSAN(Saramar) !!
Congratulations Susan! E-mail your address to me and I'll have your pens winging their way to you in a jiffy (...bag...!) LOL!!


Well that's it for this post kids! I'll be on in a few hours with my demo for C.R.A.F.T's next challenge (52)!

Hugs
Ei
x

For Hope 3

My C.R.A.F.T fellow-team member Claire, has a cute lickle girl called Hope and she will be three very soon, so I made her this card.
'Hope' you all like it!
Hugs
Ei
x

My Michael's birthday.......

.....is on 13th June and he will be thirty-three! How can that be possible when I'm only 36 myself....!What happened there...? Call the police! Someone's stolen my years....someone's stolen my FACE and given me an old one...! aaaaarrrgh.........

Colour Create 45 - Soft green & Aqua

I had a lovely day out last week at a fellow Trimmie's place so I made her and her family this card as a thank you. I loved the colours up as inspiration at Colour Create this week, and so decided to use those for it.
I really like those caolours and think the piccies Colour Create offer for inspriation are.....well, inspirational! LOL!
Hope you like it Aly!
Hugs,
Ei
x

Copic Creations 28 - Colour Monochrome

Copic Creations have an interesting (again!) challenge this fortnight - colour monochrome. I've been trying to use this stamp for ages but it's not fit in with anything until now - and I think it's fab for this project!

The basic card is from stash, the paper from LLB Venaissance, I made the belt from a scrap of shiny black card packaging and the butterfly is one of those with the holographic trim which I have divested of said holographic trim!

Can't remember where the roses are from but I set fire to them! and the screws are, i think, from a pair of old glasses! The motto mat is a Nestie and the image mat is Bling.

The actual motto, is from a selection suggested by my Trimmie pals! This one was from the lovely Ceej, although there were loads of good ones!

Hope ya like it!
Hugs,
Ei
x


Forgot to mention - the image stamp is one of my own Eiglas digis!

Sad news about Copics Colour Challenge.........

I really hate to potentially pour water on my own blog-hop but it has become apparent that one of my very favourite challenges has closed, at least for the present.

Copics Colour Challenge has been a wonderful forum for those of us who love Copics and the little three-colour pallette will be missed dreadfully - especially by me as it was one of my regular challenges and I truly hope they manage to come back soon.

I also feel very, very bad because after entering the last challenge, I noticed the comment I'd left (...a nice one! LOL!...) on the blog had disappeared and then, after nearly the full week I'd not had a single comment on the card, which I'd made exclusively for them, so I e-mailed the contact to enquire, thinking there may be a problem they don't know about. Euuwww....! Bad timing or what....? I just feel bad thinking I might have made things worse by chasing them up....if so I'm truly sorry girls and if there's anything I can do to help - just say!

Hugs,
Ei
x

C.R.A.F.T 51 - It's our Blogaversary....! Celebrate/Birthday!

It's Thursday folks, and that means C.R.A.F.T time! Yayyyyy!

It's a very special week this week! C.R.A.F.T is one year old...!

(Happy Birthday to C.R.A.F.T, Happy Birthday to C.R.A.F.T......
da da da da de de de........Happy Birthday to Yoooooooo.....!)

Oh eh! That top note was a bit cracked...!! (...it isn't the only thing on here that's cracked....)

Well on that effervescent note (...cracked or otherwise...) I'll just have to tell you what's happening on here today.

Because it's C.R.A.F.T's Birthday, we're having a celebratory blog-hop as well as the normal challenge!

Our theme this week for the challenge is - appropriately - Celebrations or Birthday and our prize is an amazing selection of Papermania 'Henbury Lane' Designer Papers! So, you know you REALLY need those, don't you?


....I want them myself...! Guess I'll have to re-visit Crabapple Crafts and see if they have them! LOL!
They have everything else so they must have this too.


Here's my creation for this week - it's an 'Exploding Box'! I had fun with this and used DCWV 'Pocketful of Posies' for the cardstock because not only is it beautiful, it's substantial and will take paper mechanics in its stride. I also used the DCWV Glitter Stack and Dawn Bibby vellum panels, so it was a very straightforward and easy make too.





The little daisy trims are from Papermania 'Capsule Collection'.



In the centre, to help the spring 'explode' on opening, I used the inner spindle from a cd container! I just colied the spring over it.

I know piccie four is on its side but some quirk of blogger won't display it the right way! I've re-uploaded it four times and it rotates it every time!

I won't put a 'materials & method' section on here this week as there's enough going on with the blog-hop but if anyone wants instructions, just e-mail me and I'll let you have them.

My own personal sponsor is the absolutely fabulous Donna's Den of Craft! Donna has an amazing array of products from Joanna Sheen, DCWV, Dovecraft and the wonderful Sakura, and it is a set of the lovely Sakura Souffle pens which Donna has very kindly given me for one of my prizes! Don't tell me you don't want them.....even I want them...!



Our blog-hop order is this:-
1) You start on the C.R.A.F.T Challenge blog and you visit each Design Team Member’s personal blog and leave a comment.( Each DT member will have their own draw to find a winner for their own blog.)

2) At each stop there will be a RED word associated with crafting for you to collect

3) We’re staying with our customary alphabetical list for the team so Andrea is the next stop after the C.R.A.F.T Challenge blog.
Andrea will give you the link to the nest DTM and so on.

4) At the end, we want you to get back to C.R.A.F.T and leave a comment with the nine words you pick up! If you can make a sentence so much the better!

Just to make it clear for you to follow - here is our DT in alphabetical order.

Andrea
Claire
Eileen
Enola
Jo
Rose
Suzi

We're SO Looking forward to seeing who comes up with the correct sentence as we have a really fabulous new sponsor for that - QVC's Scrapbooking Expert, Rosemary Merry!



She is kindly having a good look through her stock at Crabapple Crafts top find something lovely for that clever crafter (who will be chosen from the corrrect answers by random generator) who gets the sentence right! Now how cool is THAT!

But don't just leave it to their online store - go visit! The shop is SOoooo fabulous! It's a good sized shop and stuffed to the hilt with every goodie a crafter could want. Apart from all the other stash, I can get my Copics from Crabapple Crafts too! Not only that, but there's a really fab lickle tea-shop onthe same site too......yummm! I heartily recommend the Lasagne!

This fab mystery prize, is in addition to all the prizes available at our Design Team Members' own blogs!

So ultimately, someone COULD, arguably, come away with no less than TEN prizes! Oh my goodness! Is that, or is it not, very very nice.........?!

....what? You want it even nicer....? Oh okay then....you are such hard work...!
(This could prove very embarrassing for me.......!) What I'm going to do is.......

Here are two of my brand new digi-kits.

Kaleidoscope

and

DitzyDaisies.

and I'm going to give one of each of these exclusive kits (I don't sell my kits at the present and have no immediate plans to do so) to two of my followers. The first follower to comment gets Kaleidoscope and the last follower to comment gets DitzyDaisies! (I just hope I don't get just two comments from followers - how embarrassing would THAT be..? ......LOL! )

My Eiglas kits are full of stuff - they're on cd because the files are just too big to e-mail, even zipped! There are backing papers and elements, bows & ribbons and tags and eyelets - all kinds of things! And I will be bringing out more later on.

But you don't need to be a pc tech to use the cd's as they are just jpg's and png's and really easy to use either digitally in a graphics program or you can just print them off and use them in a 'real' way!

I do ask that you do not distribute, alter give away or sell any of the files on either of these cd's as the copyright belongs to me in perpetuity. I also ask that if you do use them in a project and that project is published anywhere, you give a small credit to Eiglas. Not much to ask, is it? LOL!

If someone shows an interest in my kits, please just point them in my direction either here or on Trimcraft and I'll sort them out! (If anyone nicks my stuff, I'll sort them out too....!)


Enuff sed! So off you go to your decoupage, digistamps, stamping and embossing! Enjoy - and have yourselves some crafty fun - it's gonna be GREAT!
Hugs,
Ei
x

....and yet another digi card....LOL! (...but it's my last, for a while!)

Am I getting a bit boring now with my digi cards...LOL! I'm sorry, it will change with the next post, I promise!

This is another card made with my Eiglas DitzyDaisies Digital Paper Kit. I cheated a bit by just 'sticking' the tag on (virtual 3D square of course...LOL!) rather than with a ribbon but I was very short on time so that was my cut corner!
Hope you like it - I'm not expecting many comments as it's not being entered for any challenges!
Hugs,
Ei
x

Graphic-style Anniversary card

My poor Mother-in-Law, Bette, had a really nasty fall last week - broke three ribs and concussed herself, landing herself in hospital for a couple of days. The, arguably, worst part of this event is that it was her and Dad -in-Law Alan's 60th Wedding Anniversary and he'd booked a very special (not to mention expensive!) holiday for them both at a five star hotel in Majorca! Well, needless to say, they've had to cancel as Bette is still in bed recovering. Perhaps changing your kitchen curtains is something to ask other peeps to do when you're 83 Bette! Bless!

Hubby asked me for a nice card for them but they have quite traditional taste in such things so I returned to a graphics-based idea as the overblown, lacy, flowery, detailed cards we generally make for challenges would have totally non-plussed them!
Here it is!

I apologise for the piccie - it was a nightmare to photograph - the foil just reflected the sun from every angle!
We filled it with Euros for their spends too, but they have another holiday in November already booked so the Euros won't be wasted I think!

Hope you like it fellow bloggers!LOL!
Hugs,
Ei
x

Another digi card

Here's my other digi card from today. I'm quite getting back into them!
I suppose it's like riding a bike - you don't forget! LOL!

This one, like the previous one, is made entirely from my own papers and elements (except for the little coloured flowers (which are clip art) which I made up this week. I've since made some flowers to go with the kit!

Just shows what you can do when you don't have an ankle-biter in the house! LOL!

Hugs,
Ei
x

Digital Papercrafting

I used to do digital scrapbooking but have been tending to concentrate on cardmaking for the last few years.

With Ada being away the past couple of days, I've had a bit of time to myself and I've been playing with my graphics program, the end result being a couple of new paperkits which I shall unveil next week , so you're going to have to wait....! LOL!




I couldn't, however, resist making a card with one of them! So here it is!
This is from my Kaleidoscope Kit which contains no less than eleven backing papers, four glass buttons and loads more elements in both jpg & png format.

I'll be back later with a card from the other kit, Ditzy Daisies.
Hope you like it!
Hugs,
Ei
x

C.R.A.F.T 50 - Eisketch 4

I'm afraid it's another Eiglas sketch over at C.R.A.F.T this week.....you peeps must be very brave, but we like to keep you on your toes....! LOL!

I'm really into the relationships between shapes and have created this sketch for you to have fun with and hope you will do just that! The wilder and wackier the better!




I've used colours I don't normally use and an 'ad hoc' method of filling space I don't usually employ and y'ynow what? I had a lot of fun doing it! No worries about 'will this go here?' or 'is this colour okay?' I just went for it .......and forgot to stop! LOL!




Hope you like it! I didn't think I would but, actually, I do!
Hugs,
Ei
x

Copic Colour Challenge 63 - BG11, BG02, R20

Copics Colour Challenge is one of my favourite challenges. I love the colour combos they give us to follow and I love ANY excuse to use my Copics!

This week, we have Moon White (BG 11), New Blue (BG02) and Blush (R20). Sadly, out of the three, I only have Blush, but it isn't a problem with CCC because as long as we use Copics, the nearest colour will suffice! So I have substituted a blend of BG10 (Cool Shadow) and BG0000 (Snow Green) for BG 11 and for BG02, a combination of Robins' Egg Blue (B02) , Spectrum Green (G02) and the BG0000. There's a little green Spica and gold metallic pen in there too!



I do apologize for the picture - I'll try to take another one later on. The sun decided to come out to play this afternoon, with a blazing display! Wonderful for the mood and the garden but useless for taking photos! LOL!
The colours are meant to be pastel and ethereal but the sun has removed even more colour and left it a bit 'flat' looking!


The image I've used is the wonderful Chrissy Armstrong's 'Wings of Hope'. I've always loved horses and always wanted one of my own but, sadly, I've never been in a position to own one so I've consoled myself over the years by going to riding stables and doing a bit of riding (....not for many years though - I'd need a Destrier now...!) and drawing them.

So when I saw this image of Chrissy's - I just had to have it ! Sooooo beautiful!

The papers are Laura Ashley drawer-liners! Fresh Linen & Jasmine! So they smell gorgeous as well as being a delightful colour! (I wouldn't use photos with them though - don't suppose they're acid free!)
Hope you like it!
Hugs,
Ei
xl

My Lickle Honeycream Jar

Copic Creations has an interesting challenge this week - colouring with Copics on surfaces other than card & paper! Immediately my cogs started whirring! What can I colour which I haven't already.....?

After a good few minutes, my eye fell on another project I'm doing. I've been having a go at making my own skin-creams and toiletries and as a part of this, I've been hanging on to any interesting containers (...like we crafters need an excuse for that...!) and I'd saved and cleaned up a frosted glass jar my lovely SIL had given me with some tiny chocolate eggs in for last Easter (2009) and I think she'd had it from her sister with a scented candle in it!
So here it is!


I haven't yet made this batch of cream (...which happens to be honey-based...!) so I've just stuffed some cotton-wool balls in it for now, so you can see the coloured image on it better.

The Bee and Honeycomb stamps are my own Eiglas stamps (...although the species of bee is inappropriate as it's a Carpenter bee not a honeybee...) and I've coloured them with my Copics and Spicas and a little silver metallic gel-pen for effect.

I tied a sunny yellow ribbon around the rim to finish it off.


Hope you like it!
Hugs,
Ei
x

My Nicky's Birthday

Today, as in every other year, it is my OH's birthday! He's always a pain to buy for because he's so easily pleased! 'Oh, anything...' is the answer you get every year to the question 'What would you like for your birthday?' No help at all!

This year I got an answer. 'No toffees thank you.' Apparently he has a sensitive tooth. But no more helpful than usual really!

So I've bought him a tool-bag. He likes tools. He has loads of them and the bag he's had for over thirty years of working as an engineer is ......well, lets say it's seen better days! LOL

I took him shopping and he came up with this bag from Halfords and a pair of 'posh' (to him!) sunshades from T.K.Maxx!




In a minute, I'm off out, whilst he's in bed, to procure a few other items as I know the kids have clubbed together to buy him a very posh bird-feeding station - hence the subject of his card! He also picked up a jacket in T.K Maxx which he liked, but didn't buy so I might pop back, if I have time, and get that too.



He's been on nights last night, so I have until about 3.00 to get it all together and wrap it! Hope you all like the card! I know male cards are a bit of a pain so this one might give you a few ideas!

As it's a male card and peeps are always looking for male ideas, I'm entering this into two challenges this week -
Stampin' for the Week-end and Simon Says Challenge.

Simon Says have a blog-hop this week and I'll try to do it but because of Hubby's birthday not sure I'll have the time, plus - and it's a big plus! - I don't know how to do this 'blog-hop' thing! I'm easily confused you know! LOL!

Anyway - got to go now!

Hugs,

Ei x

C.R.A.F.T 49 - Wedding

Weddings are such happy times in our lives. The celebrations and the family-orientated good feelings are some of the nicest we experience.
C.R.A.F.T this week give us a choice of either Wedding or Birthday (with a optional extra of 'cakes') as our theme so I've chosen the 'Wedding' option (without cakes!).

Our sponsor this week is Toucan Scraps who have given us these lovely papers to play with!
Pop over to Angela's shop and take a look!


Materials
1 x 21cm square cream textured card.
1 x Yellow marbled paper from 'Deborah's Wedding' Collection from Toucan Scraps
1 x Yellow & Brown stripe paper from 'Deborah's Wedding' Collection from Toucan Scraps
1 x Brown 'Flourish' paper from 'Deborah's Wedding' Collection from Toucan Scraps
25 cm beige braid
25 cm brown satin Ribbon
Two scraps of copper satin mirri card for mats
Two copper or gold-coloured 'hangers'
Five butterflied
Five cream roses
Two cream punched hearts
One coloured image, in this case my own Eiglas 'Wedding Carriage' digistamp
Copper border peel-offs if liked.



Method

It's a very simple card despite the formal look.

1) Adhere the marbled and the striped paper across the cream square card at about just under halfway for the striped paper. (Punch the corners of the papers first should you like and also distress the edges at this stage too - I used Whispers 'Chestnut' inkpad for this.)

2) Adhere the beige braid across the join of the papers

3) Mat the coloured image onto the brown flourish paper(previously backed with a scrap of card for strength) and then this onto the copper satin mirri card. Trim with copper peel-off if liked.

4) Adhere the mat with 3D foam squares onto the paper-faced square card.

5) Attach the satin ribbon and the hangers.

6) Attach the roses in a row beneath the image mat. I used silicon glue for this

7) Make the sentiment mat with a scrap of copper satin mirri card, a small scrap of cream card and copper peel-off.

8) Punch the hearts and adhere them, overlapping, with 3D foam

9) Position and fix the butterflies.


Job done!

Hugs,
Ei
x

Mojo Monday 136

I always love the MojoMonday sketches and this week I've managed to do one. I'm really sad when I miss them but I keep the sketches and if I get time, I'll use them again (giving suitable credit of course!).

Materials
I used papers from the K&Co Mega Scrap-pad amd I made the flowers from mold music score paper, tinted with Tim Holtz inkpads and a spritz spray.
The middle section was trimmed with a Martha Stewart punch and the branches were made with a Leonie Em punch. The ribbon was from my stash but I think it was either DCWV or Brenda Pinnock.

Hope you like it!
Hugs,
Ei
x