Hello and welcome to my blog

Retirement is wonderful - I now get the chance to mess around with paper a lot! Until recently my craft room was my office but my DH converted it for me a few months ago and I am now a happy crafter, stamping, inking, cutting, embossing, etc., to my hearts content in this lovely crafting space.

I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to use this space but I think it will primarily be a place to record the cards, scrapbook pages, tags, ATCs and any other project that I've been working on and find interesting - hopefully you will find them interesting too!

Here is the card I've just finished - I had intended to enter it into Clare's Challenge over on Docrafts but I ran out of time. It took me a lot longer than I thought to put this card together - so much choice and so little time.

The stamp is the oh so cute Magnolia's Tilda Christmas Morning. I used Promarkers to colour her in - I'm still new at colouring in but I'm learning. I added a little drop of glitter to the candle flame and I then distressed the edges of the white card and tinted with purple ink - I did the same with the tag. The checked paper is from Papercraft's Penelope and Percy collection. It is matted to some purple pearlescent cardstock and matted to that is some white card I sprayed with Cosmic Glimmer Mist in red and purple and using the crushed cling film method of drying - this gives an interesting patterned finish which doesn't show up well in this photograph. I then added white lace, purple ribbon and a label stamped with the sentiment and then embossed in gold and finished off with a purple glittery brad. I finished the card off with roses and cherry blossom from Wild Orchid Crafts - I used a pink Promarker to edge the petals - and tiny rosebuds.

The card is based on the template supplied by Dawny P for this week's challenge on Just Magnolia - I thought I would test myself by taking part in a few challenges. Challenging it certainly was and I've a way to go before I feel confident enough to just sit down and dream up a winner!!

I'm at my reading group tomorrow evening and then we are off to a wedding in Manchester this weekend so it's going to be a busy few days. I have completed a Wedding Tag for the bride but as it is a surprise I won't post the photographs until after the event.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and hope you will come back. Please feel free to comment - hints and tips always welcome. Best wishes, Elizabeth