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 

Peace on Earth

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

The Trick or Treat blog hop was a huge success. lots of visitors, freebies and gorgeous design team makes! So thanks to everyone who took part.

Two cards for my samples for Peace On Earth, I love nature at anytime of the year, currently I can be found wandering round woods looking for fungi to photo.... one hour, 132 photos later. So I decided to base my cards around nature/animals/scenes.

top two images from Christmas Filigree

bottom one from Snow Much Fun Jewel It

image cut out from Christmas Cuties

embossing folder from Crafters Companion

 I hope you'll join in 'Peace on Earth' 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

Gecko Galz Trick or Treats Blog Hop

Hello Everyone!

We want to welcome everyone to the

Gecko Galz 9th Annual Blog Hop

This is your ninth stop on our Tricks and Treats Blog Hop! 

We have 12 AMAZING blogs for you to visit this weekend, each with some gorgeous projects created using the Gecko Galz collage sheets that we are giving you for FREE! Each blog you visit will have another free Gecko Galz Collage sheet for you to download, the one here is

"BUTTERFLY GIRLS".

(Click Right the image below to save)

Also make sure you leave a message on each blog site you visit and on the last blog there will be a phrase that you will email to us to be entered in our drawing for a wonderful treat pack.  So sit back, relax, take your time and enjoy the hop!

We have FOUR amazing prizes up for grabs:

·        First is a Gecko Galz shopping spree for $100!

·        Second prize is a $75 Shopping spree with Gecko Galz.

·        Third prize is a $50 shopping spree!

·        And our Grand Prize ONE FULL YEAR of Gecko Galz PRODUCTS!!! This includes the 6 new collage sheets each quarter, a new stamp set each quarter, 2 new paper packs each quarter, a ATC collection each quarter, and one jewel it collection!

 This is a $150 value!

First of all, you will need to visit all 12 blogs and leave a comment on each blog :) **This is important so we know you have been to all the blogs **. Collect the phrase at the end of the hop on the Fripperies and Butterflies site there will be a link to email the phrase to Gecko Galz at geckogalz2019@gmail.com.

This enters you in the contest. On October 28th we will randomly draw the 4 winners and email each of you, then we will post the winning names on the Gecko Galz blog site.

For an extra chance to win make a purchase from the GECKO GALZ ETSY STORE between the 24th of October and the 27^th of October and your name goes in again for a better chance of winning (each purchase you make that weekend gives you another chance to win) 

Now have fun visiting each Blog

Gecko Galz

Katie Lamb

Patti Fisher

Vicki Romaine

Mia

Rene Van Wyk

Betsy Davis

Laurie Davis

Carole Jones

ME 

Gerri Herbst

Cathy Norton

 Leanne Seed

 Amanda xx

Feature Day @ Gecko Galz

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

I have a collection of glass jars & bottles, supposedly to use in projects... well, they'd only go in the recycle bin.… and finally, with this project I used three. (you don't need to know how many is left!)

I found a lovely simple tutorial on how to alter the bottles with paint, I even wrote down the web address, but I cannot find it anywhere.

Sand paper
clean jars
acrylic paint on white, brown and black
kitchen towel
paint brush

1 -  Sand down the glass jar/bottle, this will give the paint something to hold to, keep changing direction as this will make it look more distressed.
2 -  Mix brown and white with a little bit of water and brush onto the jar, then lightly dab off with a piece of kitchen towel. Should be left with a mottled effect. (I had about three attempts till I got the right shade I wanted)
3 - mix black with a little bit of water and then flick it at the bottle, (this is very messy and I ended up doing it in my craft room bin) so it leaves little splodges. Then lightly dab off again. I used the tiniest amount of water as I preferred the blacker look.

Left them to dry and went to sort out my labels from Spooky Tickets.

The tall bottle is Brain Juice. middle size Dried Warts and the little one Broomstick Fleas, this one I had to slightly alter as the original label was to long for my bottle so in CAP2 I turned it into a landscape ticket, copied and pasted so I had two the same - a main one to use and the other to digitally cut up to turn the wording portrait as well, then 'joined' them back together to make a label which fit.
I used mod podge to adhere the labels to the bottles, I found it easier to mod podge both the bottle and the label.

I wanted a stand for the witchy collection, looking round I found an old video tape box, one of those plastic ones which snaps shut, which was a perfect height and shape, next step was to find something to cover it in - I found the perfect book cover in Haunted Ephemera, resized it big enough to cover the top and spine of the tape box, and made a spine title which matched the original title of the book.

Added a bit of spider web & two spiders from a bargain Halloween pack from last years sale. Knew they would come in handy.

I'm keeping a look out for more Halloween stuff I can add to this, at the time of writing not much Halloween merchandise is out in the shops.

I hope you'll join our Gypsy Fortune 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

Using a card blank I had already papered for something else, which I ended up not using, I chose a gorgeous butterfly image from Butterfly Kisses, this is why I love Gecko Galz so much, every image could be used with no embellishments or anything and still make a lovely project.

I resized the image to fit the 6x6 card, used vintage blue Nuvo drops on the centre of the flowers, a gold swirl to look like its part of the flower stem and pale gold gems. To finish, I decided to highlight the butterfly by drawing round it with a gold pen.

entering in: Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge Group = Text challenge

Amanda xx

M @ Butterfly Challenge

Been a busy bee today, 2 cards and a matching set of three framed atcs done, more on these on later posts.

Today's card is for Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge, and its the letter M for Magic Window, didn't enter a card for L has I have had the dreaded lurgy (not sure if it was L for Lurgy) for the last three weeks, cannot believe how ill this cold has made me! A few other people in the store where I work have had it and they've been exactly the same, so I know its not me being mardy!

Anyway, M for Magic Window, I found this template a challenge, at one point I nearly threw it in the bin but I persevered and did manage to finish it, all be it a bit wonky and creased. Hopefully I've hidden those bits.

Template + Butterfly

backing paper from a Greeting Card Backing PApers book

pale peach paper

coppery orange paper

thank you stamp

black stazon ink

black card

plain circle die

heart circle die

large butterfly embellishment

entering in: Butterfly blog = M is for Magic Window

 Amanda xx

Gypsy Fortune

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

The last few weeks here in the UK has seen us slowly slipping and sliding into Autumn, sunny days are a thing of the past and we're already into rainy days, many places torrential at the moment. Soon it'll be time to turn back the clocks and draw the curtains at night, to counteract the drearier weather, Mother Nature gives the flowers & fauna one last chance to wow us with all their hues of gold, brown and reds, plus as if by magic, mushrooms and other fungi start appearing, all be it for a short while and then them to are gone.

Decided to do a tag this month, I've got a feeling that this might turn into another project in the future, I felt like I wanted to do some more with it, but couldn't quite get there.

gypsy lady from Gypsy Beauties

backing paper from Gypsy Market Papers

fortune wheel from google search

lace effect cream card die cut.

blue stars

  I hope you'll join in 'Gypsy Fortune' 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 or/ you are 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.
This months challenges are:

Amanda xx 

Feature Day @ Gecko Galz

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

Still buzzing from my altered canvas, I stayed nice and simple for this project!

I've used this design before, I must have printed off different sizes at the same time to fill the A4 card.

Gecko Galz - image from Blue Bird Of Happiness

oval dies 

stamp from Christina Griffiths box issue 2

Royal Blue pigment ink

gems

I hope you'll join our Autumn Steampunk 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

K @ Butterfly Challenge

Today's card is for Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge, and its the letter K for Kinetic, I'm really enjoying learning how to do these card shapes. Full details are on the butterfly blog.

So again, I chose to do the card shape plus butterflies, I was going to do this black & white but then decided to do it red & white, although the ink looks more burgundy to me, so I stuck to that shade.

Swirls & card verse Honeypot Crafts

Main topper from magazine freebie

Stazon Blazing Red ink

Tattered Lace mini dies

Pink & White pearls

entering in: Butterfly Blog = K is for Kinetic

Amanda xx