A New PC and a New Start

Greeting Peeps, yes its me back from the blogging wilderness with a new look, a new PC and a new set of stamps in fact everything I need to start crafting again, all I hope is that after such a long absence I can remember how to blog!!!!!!

After suffering my own (to borrow a saying from the Queen) "Annus Horribilis" I had decided never to craft again, so my Craft room had been turned back into a bedroom again and my very large stash had been relegated to the loft.  Then I went on a 2 week break to California to attend my Nephews Johns wedding and spent lots of time with my Brother and Sister in Law I enjoyed myself so much and came home revitalized and realized how much I missed crafting and all my blogging friends so here I am.  I have bought a New PC and although I lost everything on my old one and am starting from scratch I am gradually finding my way around it and uploading photo editing software as and when I can afford it.  

As you can see I have had the blog revamped, now I don't want you to think that I have also had a brain transplant and have suddenly become a computer wiz, the lovely Sharon and D from Plumrose Lane actually did all the hard work, they were so helpful nothing was too much trouble for them, so if you are thinking about a new look blog please visit their website.

As most of my stamps are still in the loft under piles of  Paper, Dies etc, I just HAD TO pop over to my favorite stamp store which is of course Lili of the Valley and buy some new ones, plus a few paper pads (well I think the total is now 6 so not sure if that can be considered a few).  I was so pleased to see that my favorite bear had made an appearance in the new 2013 Christmas Release, I just love James and as a bonus he is so easy to colour, but somehow all the rest of the release slipped into my basket, see I haven't changed that much.  I have Chosen to use "James-Snowman"  as my image and the backing papers are from Krafty Christmas and Frosty Christmas Pads the image has been coloured with a mixture of Copic Ciaos, Copic Markers and Polychromos pencils (colours used below).

I managed to unearth some of my old Magnolia Dies so I have used Sprawling Fern, Vintage Label and Peony Petals for my embellies.

Before I started making my cards I trawled the blogs to see if there were any new trends I needed to catch up on and one idea I really liked was the use of Fran-tage embossing enamels, so I decided to give it a try, after using Embossing Pad, Glue, Embossing Pen and even paint I was ready to give up, finally I e-mailed Becky from the LOTV Design Team and asked her advice she was really helpful and I think I am on the way to grasping the technique, by the way I noticed this morning that Becky has uploaded a video tutorial to U-Tube on the self same subject so here is the link.

Phew!! forgot how long this blogging lark takes so thats it for me today, I will be back not sure if I will blog everyday, just take it easy for a little while, but I must admit that I have made lots of new cards with my new stamps over the last week so shouldn't be too long before I am back full time.

Before I go here are the Copic Colours for you:

James: E37, E33, E53, E50, E59

Blue Hat and Scarf: B28, B24, B32, B41

Snowman: C3, C1, C0, R20

Snowmans Hat & ScarfE49, E74, E43, E40

Snowmans Nose: YR09, Y17 

Thanks for looking

Hugs