'Valentine/Romantic'

Hello February!!! It's the month of Love and for us crafters it means Valentine cards!!

Over at Crafting with Dragonflies our new challenge theme is of course 'Valentine/Romantic ' cards only. We had some fabulous entries for 'Anything Goes' and Hilde we have a difficult task choosing her winners. Here is my inspiration for you this time.

I started with A4 card stock and embossed it with my large A4 dotty folder. The Love heart is diecut from a die I got from Joanne Sheen online shop. I added white ribbon down the side and added the heart on top. The sentiment 'Happy Valentines Day' is computer generated. I mounted it with red mirri card.

Don't forget this challenge is cards only and is a fun challenge!!

For more inspiration for your loved ones cards pop over to Crafting with Dragonflies (link in sidebar) and see what the rest of the team have created. You won't be disappointed.

I hope you're having a great weekend and enjoy whatever you have planned!!

Coptic Storms

For those of you who have asked me about Coptic storms that we have annually here in Cyprus.

 

The Ancient Weather Lore of Arabia listed a series of gales, which occur regularly in the Eastern Mediterranean area. They generally set in from the South West & veer to the West * North West. The average duration is three days & their occurrence rarely deviates more than forty-eight hours from the dates shown below.

 Coptic table:

 

Date	Arabic Name	Translation
27 September	El Saleeb Winds	Cross Wind
21 October	El Saleebish	Crusade
26 November*	El Mickness	Broom Gale
6 December	Kassim	Gale
20 December	El Fedra El Saggira	Small Feeder Gale
11 January *	Unnamed	Gale
19 January	El Fedra El Kebira	Large Feeder Gale
28 January	Unnamed	Gale
18 February *	El Shams El Seghira	Small Sun Gale
10 March	El Hossoom	Equinox Gale
20 March *	El Shams El Kebira	Big Sun Gale
25 March	Hawa	Wind Gale
29 April	Khamseen Winds	Sand-Laden-Wind

  * These gales are supposed to be exceptionally strong!   The above states that, for a gale to be "Coptic", it should start on the given date ±2 days, it should last three days, it should start in the SW quarter and it should be "gale", at least for all the winter ones (November to March). By definition, a near gale or a gale should blow with average wind speeds in the range 14 to 24 m/s.  

 

Table above will be good for those planning holidays here between September and April. It's usually pretty accurate. A lot of the storms carry red or yellow dust which is difficult to clean off cars and outdoor furniture!! The rain is also monsoon like and if you're out driving it's best to stop as windscreen wipers have little or no effect. Many of the scary thunder and lightening storms seem to happen overnight for some reason.

 

 

Hope this helps.

'Winter in the Mountains'

Good Morning crafters. I hope you are settling back to crafting now that the festivities are well and truly over.
We've had an exciting few days here!! There has been a very bad Coptic storm this week which resulted in losing power to the house for 24 hours....not good! An electric sub station very near the house was struck by lightening. It was very scary when it happened and left me a wee bit shook up. But all is good now and no damage down to life or limb!!

Enough waffle and on to the new challenge at CD Sunday. Thank you to those brave souls who entered my 'J is for....' challenge last time. The few entries we had were very imaginative and I'm going to have fun choosing my winner which will be announced in two weeks. Meanwhile the challenge winner for 'Christmas Flower and Foliage' is up on the main challenge blog. Don't forget if you don't have a blog you can still enter via our facebook page. Link on main CD Sunday challenge blog.

Here is my inspiration for you this time.

I started with white card stock and using two sheets of A4 card made a large square card for the base. I found this great layout on an Ooh La La CD Paula Oakley art work. I simply printed it off and added it to the front of the card Et Voila!! A simple but perfect card for the challenge me thinks.

I hope you have fun crafting and I look forward to visiting your blogs soon. Any comments you add are greatly appreciated and always read.

Anything Goes with the Dragonflies!!.....

.....as long as it's a card!!

This is our first challenge of 2018 for Crafting with Dragonflies. We hope our followers old and new had a lovely Christmas and our hope for 2018 is for a peaceful healthy one for you all.

I must apologise for the lateness of this post. We lost power to the house for 24 hours and I hadn't scheduled this post as I usually do!! We had bad storms here and lightening hit a sub station near by. Scary times!!! All good now tho.

Here is my inspiration for you this time.

I started with white card stock and covered half with pale pink designer paper and half with raspberry mirri card. The image was in my stash and not sure where it is from....sorry. If anyone knows please let me know so I can give credit.
I added a spray of flowers and die cut ivy leaves in the raspberry mirri card. The die and flowers are from Joanne Sheen. The flowers are called Downton Abbey I think.
I die cut a circular Happy Birthday in the raspberry mirri too.

Sorry for the shortness of the post but I'm aware it's late so hence the rush to get it up!!

Hope you'll be raring to craft again and join us for this fun challenge. Link to Crafting with Dragons in sidebar.

'J is for.....'

Good Morning crafters and a Happy New Year to you all. I hope 2018 will be a happy and healthy one for you and your family.

We start off the 2018 at CD Sunday with a new challenge chosen by myself. It's 'J IS FOR'.........The design team have been very busy and have some great inspiration for you on CD Sunday (link in sidebar) I think the team have excelled themselves when finding 'J' images. Lots of ideas for you including  jam , jelly, jumper, jewellery etc etc.

Here is my inspiration for you.

 

'J is for .....Jazz!'

 

I found the image on an Ooh La La  CD 'The Paula Oakley Collection' There are so wonderful pieces of artwork on this CD and it's fast becoming a go to CD for me.

 

The card shape is also new....to me. One of my crafters here in Cyprus showed it to us a wee while ago. (Thank you Christine) A simple but effective shape for showcasing a central image. It uses one piece of A4 card scored and folded at intervals...... as you can see in pic.

I added light green embossed card to the white panels. Each panel was then matted with matching designer paper from the CD. The image is mounted on blue card stock with a music notes designer paper from my stash. The greeting is high lighted in the same way. To add interest to the side panels I also matted a layered some of the music notes paper in the same way.

 

I hope you'll be inspired to join us. The main rule for entering is to use a CD and tell us which oone you've used. It doesn't have to be a card. It could be a scrap book layout, a box, a calendar,gift tags, ATCs.........anything really as long as you have used a CD for some element.

 

Have fun and don't forget there's always a yummy prize offered from the design team.



Christmas Flowers/Foliage

Good Morning . Well I don't know about you but I can't believe it'll Christmas very, very soon!! Where does the time go!! We've a new challenge for you at CD Sunday. It will the final one of the year so I hope we get lots of entries. This time it's been chosen by Meg....'Christmas Flowers/Foliage'. We had some yummy entries last time for ' Christmas presents' and Pamela will have a fun time choosing her Top Three!! The Top Three is up on the blog now for Jane's challenge.....'Christmas Things with Wings'. Don't forget to pop over to see if you're a winner. There's always a lovely prize on offer donated by the Design Team.

Here is my inspiration for you this time.




As always a CD has been used in the making. This time it's Victorian Christmas Cards CD 1 by Joanne Sheen. There are some wonderful images on this CD and it's a go to must for Christmas cards if you're wanting something more traditional.

I hope you'll be tempted to join us and for those who don't have a blog you can always enter via our facebook page. Don't forget the main rule, to be in with a chance of winning a great prize, is that you must use something from a CD and tell us which one you've used. We love to see other entries too but these won't be considered for a prize. Also it doesn't have to be a card it could be an ATC, gift box, altered item etc. etc. As long as you us a CD and follow the theme.

Finally I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas and a peaceful, healthy 2018.

Catch up with you soon. Happy Crafting!!

Zentangle Christmas

It's a new month and time for a new challenge at Unstampabelles, This time Susan would like to see some Zentangle on your Christmas cards using non traditional colours.

Here is my inspiration for you.

Using an outline of a Christmas pudding I then used my own Zentangle designs to fill in the 'pudding' area. Orange. blue and pink was my chosen colour palette. A strange combo I know!! I went on to Zentangle the holly leaves using the same colour palettes. The berries were Zentangled in pink. The heart on the 'icing' is from Hunky Dory. Finally I added a diecut Holly bough in blue. The Merry Christmas greeting along the bottom is also from Hunky Dory.

I hope you've been inspired to join us. There's a great prize on offer as usual.

                                           Wow! Who wouldn't want to win these goodies?

Have fun!!