Ribbon Girl Give Away.

The Ribbon Girl blog has got a give away at the moment to coincide with the new release of the Lili Of The Valley stamp range. These are some wonderful boy themed images. Pop over and take a look.

Sue

MCS - A Short Lesson.

After posting my card for the CD Sunday blog challenge yesterday, I had a comments from both Val and Christine about tips for importing images into MCS and using the picker tool. This is for you ladies, and anyone else who would like a bit of help.

For the purposes of this I will explain how to take a snapshot of a PDF, and how I take it into MCS.
Open the PDF document that you wish to use, and with the snapshot tool highlight the image you wish to use.
Once this is highlighted, open it in a Graphics program, (I use Paint Shop Pro for mine, but any Graphics program you have on your PC will do) in PSP you have to go to the tool bar along the top, go to edit and when it drops down it says paste as new image. Once you have done this, save this image to a folder, this can be where you like, maybe on the desktop or in my pictures. The important thing is to save it as a jpg, I find that this is the format that works best. Now open MCS and rather than open my artwork look for the file that you saved your image into. When you open the folder you will be able to move the saved image on to the work space as you would normally. You can now resize and do all the things that you would do with an MCS image, with your saved one. When printing the images remember that in the new MCS pro you will need to go to the tool bar at the very top, and select print. Here you will be able to change the print quality from normal to best and even professional. I always use the professional setting and change the preferences on my printer to the paper I'm using which is normally Matt photo or Glossy photo for images.

To make a coloured sheet using the picker tool which is in the brushes section of MCS, you need to click onto the picker tool and it will change the cursor into a pen, point this onto the colour that you wish to use, click, and it will change the box on the bottom left of you screen to the colour that you have picked. If you are happy with this colour then click on set and it will turn the background to that colour. If you do not like it click clear,and start again, untill you have a background that you are happy with. You can also use this tool to colour the text that you create with MCS. This tool is great for coloring Centrua Pearl card to a colour that matches your project. You will never have to worry about having a piece of card in the right colour because you  can now create your own.

I hope that you find that this helps you. If you have anymore questions my email is in the normal place, I will try and help if I can. Please let me know how you get on.

Sue

CD Sunday - Oriental

Where are the weeks going to? I can't believe that it's Sunday once again. This week the challenge over on the CD Sunday blog is Oriental. I have used an old favorite for this week's card, Joanna Sheen's Oriental Dreams. I cropped a single image, rather than print a whole sheet of the same, and took it into MCS. I created a sentiment to go on the card in MCS as well. I then made a sheet to match, for matting and layering by using the picker tool and making a sheet from a colour within the flowers. I just needed to add a bit of ribbon and a flower to finish.

Thank you for looking, your kind comments are appreciated.

Sue

Forgotten Friday 15 - Not Christmas

It's Friday once again, and I can't believe how quickly the week's seem to be flying past this year. Of course it's that time of the week where I have a rummage to see what I have, that's not been used either at all' or for a long time. A few weeks ago I was looking in my box of Christmas stamps, and I came across this one. It is from a collection of stamps that were released by Graphicus (now Chocolate Baroque) . These were sold a Christmas stamps and all the sentiments with them are Christmas, however they are so beautiful and the images are all designs in the style of different artist's. This one is in the style of De Morgan , the others are Mackintosh, Kelmscott, Morris, Beardsley and Klimt. As you can see from this image while they would make lovely Christmas baubles to put on a card or other projects, they can also be used as  an everyday image. I have chosen not to put a sentiment on this yet, but will put it in my box of ready made cards until it is needed.

This card was made using  the De Morgan  Bauble stamp sheet, stamped with a black momento ink pad, and then coloured using promarkers. I then mounted it onto a couple of scalloped nesties, one in a matchingblue colour and the other is a very pale pink centura pearl card (it dosen't show very well I'm afraid). I then used a backing paper printed from the Artylicious Blissful Butterflies CD mounted onto the same pale pink card. The corners are cut using a Marianne die, and I added a pearl to the corner of these in a matching colour.

If you would like to join in with the Forgotten Friday challenge, pop over to Judith's blog to find out all about it.

Thanks for looking.

Sue.

CD Sunday - Stamping

It seems like only yesterday when I was posting for last week's CD Sunday challenge, but then I was a little late last week. This week the challenge is stamping, and I have chosen to use this wonderful image from La Pashe. I coloured him using promarkers, and then added some distress inks around the outside. The backing paper is from Carol Ann's Studio, Handyman CD, they go so well with this image. I have added some brad's that are shaped like men's tool's just to finish it off.

Thank you for looking, your kind comments are appreciated.

Sue

Forgotten Friday 14 - Fairy

Well Friday has come around once again. And I must admit to attending (via the magic of TV) the wedding of the year this morning. I know that these days it might seem like a lot of pomp and circumstance, but it makes me proud to be British. I'll get off of my soap box now.

Here is my contribution to Forgotten Friday this week. I found this stamp lurking in the back of the cupboard, it is part of a set of three that were to go with the MCS Walk in Wonderland CDs
a couple of years ago. The Image is coloured with promarkers, and then the wings over sprayed with gold shimmer spray from Crafters Companion . I then coloured the background of the image with some distress ink pads, Milled Lavender, Scattered Straw and Dried Marigold. I mounted it onto a piece of purple centura pearl card. The backing paper was an insert from Artylicious Essence of Nature, I used the faded part and the normal part. The swirls are Marianne dies and the flowers and pearls are from my stash.

Why not pop over to Judiths blog and join in with the Forgotten Friday challenge.

Thanks for looking.

Sue

CD Sunday - Butterflies

For this weeks challenge over at the CD Sunday blog it's butterflies. I have chosen to use Carol Ann's Studio, Butterfly Blue for this. I have not used this CD for some time and had forgotten how beautiful the butterflies are.I have mounted my backing paper straight onto the card, and then with another matching backing paper I have torn across the corner and put on top. I have cut the butterfly out three times and decoupaged it, using black mini gems for the feelers. The sentiment is from the same CD. I made the border by taking an image into MCS and tiling it.

Thanks for looking.

Sue

A Blog Award

The lovely Val has given me a Blog Award and I need to do the following things:

1. Make a post linking back to the person who gave you the Award
2. Share 7 random things about yourself

3. Award 7 recently discovered blogs this award.

4. Contact these blogs and tell them they have won the award.

Here goes with the seven random things about myself.

I'm quite a shy person, but try not to show it.

I'm a member of the Chocolate Baroque Guild.
I collect crafting CDs (or so hubby tells me) I have hundreds.

I love stamping but consider myself a novice.

I'm on the sample makers team for My Craft Studio.

I love going to the Theatre.

I machine knit and machine embroider.

These are the blogs that I would like to pass the Award onto:

Suzy http://craftysusy.blogspot.com/
Linda http://lindasrainbowcraftingcabin.blogspot.com/
Wendy http://craftblog.craftybutterfly.co.uk/
Misty's Mum http://inkonmyfingers25.blogspot.com/
Lynne http://creativelynks.blogspot.com/
Claire http://clairescraftycreations.blogspot.com/
Fabrizio http://craftingmad.blogspot.com/

That took a little longer than I thought. I'm off now to contact the seven people I've chosen.

Sue

Forgotten Friday 13 - People That Care

Happy Easter. It's that time of week again for Forgotten Friday, it has come around very quickly this week. For my project this week I have decided to use a sentiment stamp. I have a lot of lovely sentiments from Elusive Images (now Chocolate Baroque) most of them are unused which is a shame as the are beautiful words. I stamped the sentiment with a black versafine ink pad. I then cut it out using an oval nestie, I then made a frame using a slightly smaller oval and scalloped oval. I used distress ink pads to add some colour to the sentiment. The backing paper is from the Artylicious Blissful Butterflies CD. I finished by adding some ribbon and some flowers from my stash. The brads that were used in the middle of the flowers were some that had been floating around the cupboard, but the colours were quite dull, so I got the promarkers out and added a bright colour to match the flowers.

If you have some old or forgotten craft stuff in you cupboards, why not make something, post it on your blog. Then pop along to Judith's blog here leave her a comment and then she will come and visit your blog.

Thanks for looking.

Sue

CD Sunday - Birthday

This week see the First birthday of the CD Sunday Blog, HAPPY BIRTHDAY. The challenge this week is Birthday, not surprising really. I have chosen to use Joanna Sheen's Enchanted Dreams CD to make my entry this week. I made an 8 X 8 card, using pale lilac centura pearl card. I matted the backing paper onto some silver mirri card and also the topper. I then cut some corners from a Marianne die also in silver mirri card. Popped a purple ribbon and bow across the middle. Added some flowers and made some centres to go onto these. The leaves are a Martha Stewart punch and the swirls a Marianne die. I then finished off with a sentiment that has been foiled and added some pearls.

Thanks for looking.

Sue