06 March, 2016

March Madness!

Argh!  So much stuff happening this month!

Firstly, Calvinball is running during all of March.  It sounds really fun!  Visit the link to go to the forums or listen to a Podcast to learn more.

Check out the cute graphic Tori Bissell made for Calvinballers!


I'm yet to make a layout but I'll get there.

The other super exciting thing is a virtual crop happening at www.shimelle.com


 I happened to mention to Shimelle that I'd have to excavate my desk (at a minimum) in order to take part and she helpfully provided with this inspirational video.  It's very funny and clever.


 Note Danny's face when he finds a bone.  That was totally me when I found a second piece of Love, Elsie paper!!

The timeszone being GMT combined with a very busy weekend/Monday means I wont be able to do any challenges until later, but Shimelle will keep them open for a week! 

I'm planning to count any layouts I make towards Calvinball.  I'm also hoping to catch up on my GG challenges and Shimelle's Monday challenges as my Calvinball goal.


03 March, 2016

February 30 Day Colouring Challenge



Click on the image to visit Kathy's FAQ page about the challenge

I was soooo excited for this again!  I tried last time it was on (October 2015) and that was a bit of a fail.  I had high hopes this time would be better.

It really wasn't.

I was off to a flying start when I woke up at 3am on 1 Feb and couldn't get back to sleep.  It was the first day back at school after the summer holidays and SCD was understandably a little nervous with the change in routine.


I made him this little 3x3 inch card to make him feel better.  It wasn't my best work given the hour and copious coffee consumption but he didn't mind and it did what it was supposed to do.

After that I didn't really do any colour related stuff for another week and that was merely stamping a bunch of images to colour during my infusion.  I think doing all the back-to-school mum stuff was a bigger shock to MY system!


Some were stamped on watercolour paper since I wanted to use my Inktense pencils.  They're probably the least mess and most portable method of watercolouring.


The rest I stamped on X-Press Blending Card which I use with Copic markers.  I love the cat stamps by Newton's Nook and I wanted to figure out how I could colour CC.  She is a Torbie so there are both stripes and random patches.  It's also really hard to capture her colouring.

I managed to colour quite a lot at the hospital and some images I'm happy enough with to cut out and use!

Both life and post-infusion malaise kept me not only from colouring, but crafting anything really.  I think I hit rock bottom when I was too tired to even contemplate pulling papers for Shimelle's monochromatic challenge.  Since the only colour option for a monochromatic challenge is PINK, you can see how bad it really got! Lol

Around this time, poor NPCH had a rough week and I made him a tiny card (about 2.5 x 4 inches maybe?).  The sentiment on the front is custom stamped to the situation in question (nothing rude, I promise) so I can only show you a snippet.


You have to admire any company that makes a stamp of a cat in a litterbox, right? ;-p

I realised I need to work on my shading and blending of side profiles of my critters.  I'm happy enough with the face. The box needed more work too, but I was racing against the clock to have I ready before NPCH came home.

Eventually I decided to have another go at my Copic kitties.  I wasn't feeling it, but it was bugging me that I still hadn't got to the point of being happy with stripes and some angles of shading.


It's just for practice I tell myself and each time I do it, I will hopefully improve.

Now I just hope to feel better.  3 weeks out from my infusion I should be, but not enough.  Well...to quote Dory from Finding Nemo: "Just keep swimming".

Did you take part in the challenge?