All sorts!

I'm just having a little break from the Doo Lally room. Even though it's one the coolest side of the house, it's been so bakingly hot today that Ive been flagging a bit! So, it was time for a cold, really cold (!) shower, a long cool drink and a break from the inks and stamps. Tara's been hiding under the long leaves of the Crocosmia and Thomas even let me drape a soaked towel over him when he plonked down looking a bit frazzled!

Tara found a rather shady spot yesterday after the UPS delivery man had called with a very large box.....

 ...she's such a comic and every new box has to be investigated and claimed as her own! However, I was more interested by what was in the box, which was the second of two parcels that were delivered. The first was somewhat smaller, but here's what arrived.....

 .....the small package contained the three tubs of DecoArt Metallic Lustre which I'll be making good use of in my Christmas samples. Behind them is a new wheelie bag for my travels....my faithful, twice "re-wheeled" Tardis of a suitcase has been really struggling of late. Well, it's me who's been struggling really, with the worn out wheels, pull out handle that gets stuck and the holes that are getting bigger with every trip! I'm so attached to that case, and it holds so many memories for me that I can't bring myself to throw it out, so it will find a place in the garage where I can still look at it from time to time and remember happy times - I know that sounds weird, but inanimate objects do evoke feelings don't they.

Anyway, my new bag is very posh, a Marie Osmond one from Advantus, very lightweight and spacious. The only problem now is that I've got so used to packing my old case in a particular way that I'll have to learn from scratch again now!

Last night I picked some cherries...they are being snaffled quite quickly by the Blackbirds now, so I won't get too many more....

 ....I strategically placed them on the plate so you can't see all the dinks made by the ants which I have to nip out before eating them! (the cherries, not the ants!) They're delicious but between the birds and the bugs I don't get a lot. I'm happy for the birds to have a good feast though.

Yesterday was one of those days where I got very little done. The phone never stopped ringing and I couldn't get into a flow of work. Today I've got quite a bit done though, and I'm working my way through my new Christmas stamp sets. Here's one for a different occasion though.......

 .....mind you, the art journal fans amongst us will know that characters like this can be used at any time! This is Mr Pumpkinhead from my "Fright Night" Doo Lally Pip set. I know the photo is a little busy, but I couldn't resist positioning the card amongst some of my orange flowers! 

I used Graphic 45 "Magic of Oz" paper for the backing and the characters on the left which were cut from another sheet from the range, except for the bottles which are from the stamp set. I've used Glue n Seal to draw the webs on the stamped panel before Distress inking it. The "Fright Night" words were stamped onto white card and then cut into a suitably drippy edged panel before inking.

Here's a wintry card with no snow for once!

The colours look a little different than in "real life" unfortunately, and it's quite hard to see the orange glow in the windows. Anyway, this one's made using my "Winter Silhouettes" stamp set which I used over a background made with Dylusions ink sprays. No surprises in my colour choices I'm afraid! I cut hilly shapes from black Bazill card stock and overlayed them using silicone glue - hard to see the dimension here. I added a touch of white gel pen along each card layer just to define them more. It's a really simple card but I love using silhouette stamps for that very reason.

Well, I have made more than two cards today, but that's all my pictures for this post. I'm now getting too warm sitting at the computer, so I think I'll drain my glass and get back into the work room for a few more hours. Keep cool everyone!