A brand new year @ Digital Whisper

Got a few days off for the New Year so thought I'd grab an hour or two today sorting and saving all  my Gecko Galz images... I have a USB specifically for them, but I don't back it up often enough. Must try better! So then I decided to finish loading all the digi kits into Craft Artist 2, which have been sat waiting forlornly in their file for about one year. Anyway, jobs done, I thought I'd have a little play and do something for new year. 

I keep seeing my favourite vintage shops on FB with photos wishing its the roaring twenties we are about to revisit not the 2020's, so I put this with a Gecko Galz image and this is the result. 

Any spelling mistakes are down to a glass of red, well I was raising a glass like it said.

couples image from 'Shall We Dance' Gecko Galz (discontinued)

clock image from 'Time Flies'  Gecko Galz

fireworks from pixabay

entering into Digital Whisper - A brand new year

Feature Day @ Gecko Galz

Today is my day to feature my Design Team project for the month of December over at Gecko Galz.

I was inspired by a lovely lady and fellow crafter whose blog Its Oddly Appealing showcases her awesome talent.

A book folded Christmas Tree with Gecko Galz Christmas Dreams Craft Kit paper and draped sequins on cotton strands (you have no idea how much I suffered doing these).
Its an easy pattern to do, just gets a bit fiddly holding the folded pages down. There are plenty of videos and different style of trees on the old t'internet if you want to have a go.

I hope you'll join our In Dreams challenge where the winner will receive a $25 shopping spree at the Gecko Galz shop. The only rule is that you must use at least one Gecko Galz product, which can be something you purchased from the shop or a freebie.
If you sign up for the Gecko Galz newsletter, you'll be able to claim a free collage sheet each month and get first claim on the weekly Super Sunday Deals!
Why don't you pop over to the Gecko Galz blog to see all the fabulous designs by the very talented Design Team, don't forget to grab the free digi stamp on each post!
We also have a Facebook Group where there are more monthly challenges for you to play in, each with a Design Sheet to win.

Amanda xx

24 Tags of Christmas from Gecko Galz

It is the most wonderful time of the year with Gecko Galz our 24 days of Christmas tags and giveaways. Each day on the Gecko Galz blog we will share a fun tag using our products and one of our amazing followers will win a Christmas gift from Gecko Galz. All you have to do is leave a comment on our blog or make a purchase and you are in the drawing to win. 

And on Christmas Eve we will pick one lucky winner who will win our 2020 products lines!

Have fun!

Both images were from page fillers when I've made other projects - I don't like wasting printing card so I tend to have a quick browse and pick random images and make them different sizes to fill the A4 card up. Still have a few to use, eventually.

I used brown tags from The Range -the top one used backing paper from stash, a doily and a wooden snowflake embellished with Tonic Nuvo Drops in vintage green.
The bottom one I used a sample of wallpaper with an embossed pattern on it, DIY stores come in handy, and then a little blue to match the ladies coat. Another wooden snowflake - I absolutely adore these! - embellished this time with a sparkly peel off snowflake, last but not least I found a sentiment to bring it all together.

Don't forget to keep checking out the Gecko Galz to see all the amazing tags and for a chance to win!!

 Amanda xx

In dreams with Gecko Galz

A new month means a new Customer Challenge at the Gecko Galz and the theme for the month of December is 'In Dreams'.
So why not play along - join the challenge with the chance to win $25 at the Gecko Galz shop!

Eek! Can't believe its nearly Christmas, soon be time to put our tree up. Last week we did our annual pilgrimage to Chatsworth House Christmas Market, where I actually bought one Christmas present!  And as usual we bought our green wreath for the yard gate. I had a plastic one which we used for years but it was slowly dropping to bits and finally it had to be thrown, so to be more environmentally friendly I decided to use a real wreath each year, and like last year we bought one for the garden birds to feast on, filled with different berries and the like, BUT on getting it home I was annoyed to find a little sticker on the underneath declaring it to be made in Holland! So much for shopping local, reducing pollution and air miles! I think next year I will  try and make mine own, we have a holly bush in the garden and a small wood I can forage in for bits and pieces.

 Anyway onto my make for this month, I have to say that the Dreamland design sheet is simply stunning. I decided to make four open cards, which I can add sentiments to when required.

Each image was resized and then a frame from the Been Framed Craft Kit was added around it, along with a depth shadow to make it look like it had been layered onto the card, instead of being digitally produced.
Printed all four straight onto card stock, after I'd finally figured out how to do it! Sometimes I worry myself.
Once printed all I needed to do was add some peel offs/Tonic Nuvo Drops/gems.

I hope you'll join in the 'In Dreams' Challenge, where the Winner gets a $25 shopping spree to spend at the Gecko Galz shop. (The only rule is that you must use at least one Gecko Galz product... this can be one of the freebies, or, of course, you can buy at the Etsy shop).
 If you sign up for the Gecko Galz monthly newsletter, you'll be kept up to date with new releases, Super Sunday weekly deals and be able to claim a free digital collage sheet.
If you pop over to the Gecko Galz blog, you will see all the fabulous designs by the Design Team - and maybe grab a freebie or two.
If you haven't a blog/and or/ on Facebook, head over to the Gecko Galz Papercrafting Group where there are more monthly challenges, with the chance to win a digital collage sheet.

Amanda xx

Feature Day @ Gecko Galz

Today is my day to feature my Design Team project for the month of November over at Gecko Galz.

Tis' the Season is fast approaching (eek!), so I thought I'd best get round to doing some Christmas cards, I've already bought one present but unfortunately decided I liked it too much to give it away and its now hanging with my other bits and bobs on my little display branch in the other room. Oops.

image from Gecko Galz 'Winters Garden'

paper from HunkyDory

I hope you'll join our Peace on Earth challenge where the winner will receive a $25 shopping spree at the Gecko Galz shop. The only rule is that you must use at least one Gecko Galz product, which can be something you purchased from the shop or a freebie.
If you sign up for the Gecko Galz newsletter, you'll be able to claim a free collage sheet each month and get first claim on the Super Monthly Deals!
Why don't you pop over to the Gecko Galz blog to see all the fabulous designs by the very talented Design Team, don't forget to grab the free digi stamp on each post!
We also have a Facebook Group where there are more monthly challenges for you to play in, each with a Design Sheet to win.

 Amanda xx

Fall Colours @ Digital Whisper

Its such a freezing cold day today! Its that cold and wet even my George the Beagle didn't want to go chase our chickens around when he was let out for his toilet break, he stood waiting patiently with Quinn the Collie to be let back in and that NEVER happens.

Been up since 6.30am, had to take Andrew to work, then sit in an empty freezing house (not mine!) for one and a half hours waiting for Log burner fitters to arrive, supposedly 8 / 830am but in actuality 9.30. There's only so many times you can walk round a house and up/down stairs to keep warm!
Then it was off to the hospital with my step mum for her appointment whilst dad house sat the fitters.

My feet are still blocks of ice even though our heating is on, and the laptop fan is making my hands & knees cold.

But there's lots of people who are in worse situations than me, so I shall thank myself lucky I can switch the heating on when I want and stop with the petty grumblings.

Over at Digital Whisper, this weeks theme is Fall Colours, so decided to do a matching piece to last weeks entry, which is the previous post on here.

image from Gecko Galz 'Autumn Days'

words from alfawrites on Facebook

This time I used an original photo taken by me at Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire, a National Trust estate and a favourite of ours along with Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, under layered by the image from the Gecko Galz design sheet and played around with various transparency and effects.
She's representative of Mother Nature looking over her seasonal changes.

entering in: Digital Whisper = Fall Colours

                                                                    Amanda xx

Falling Leaves @ Digital Whisper

Early finish at work today, so after having lunch, felt inspired to craft and decided to do something digital. I found an image I could play around with, which would fit the weeks challenge over at Digital Whisper.

image from Gecko Galz 'Autumn Bliss' design sheet 

The quote comes from my favourite EVER film, 'Serenity' by Joss Wheddon.

I used the Transparency Editor on the CAP2 program, and set it to conical, then had a play to see which  'see through' bits looked best. I then used a spray paint tool and filled in bits with matching colours from the leaves, brown/orange and a blue.

entering in: Digital Whisper = Falling Leaves
                   Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge Facebook Group

 Amanda xx