Response Received

Well I eventually had a response from Docraft to my message about the CD problems and it appears that quite a few of the images over the two CDs are wrongly sized and will not print out correctly (do they not test new software thoroughly before they launch it I wonder??). I can imagine they were probably inundated with complaints once these CDs started landing on doormats via C & C. They are apparently working on solving this problem and will be issuing an update in due course. In the meantime they have offered a couple of temporary solutions which seem a bit of a faff but I will try them out later.
I'm hoping to get into the craft room today to catch up on some challenges so watch this space for a picture.

A Very quick card and a Disappointment

I was excited this week when my copy of the Docrafts Country companion CD set arrived (it doesn't take much!!) as there are lots of cute and popular characters on there for many occasions.  The disappointment came when I installed the programme on my computer and used the software to make a page of images, embellishments and so on to make a card.  All went well and it was looking good on the screen but when I went to print it was a disaster with the small embellishments (flowers, a heart and so on) coming out absolutely huge and overpowering the rest of the items on the page.  Fortunately these were on a layer  behind the backing paper which I'd included on the A4 page so I was just about able to rescue enough to make this really simple card. Well they'd said on TV what a wonderful piece of software this was so I assumed I'd done something silly so I immediately did another layout on the screen - this time making up a complete square card design with backing paper, image (layered) text and  embellishments - again hearts and some different flowers and leaves all tastefully arranged!!.  Lo and behold the same sort of thing happened with some items being the right size and others being huge again and all over the page instead of where I'd placed them.
I'm wondering if anyone else has been having the same sort of problems or maybe I have a faulty set of discs? Another disappointment is the response from Docrafts - not even an acknowledgement of my first message earlier in the week so yesterday I contacted them again - on both occasions using the 'form' which is on the software .  At least yesterday I did get an automated response email but so far nothing more.
Sorry - rant over and here is the very simple card I made and I will be making a heart and some flowers to add in due course.

Baby Dragon

This cute baby dragon is a stamp from Sweet Pea and he's been coloured with Inktense and Polychromos pencils with glitter added to the wings.  Background paper is from my stash (K and Co) and a Martha Stewart punch was used on the embossed card.  Some ribbon and a computer greeting and there he is to wish someone a Happy Birthday.

Make My Monday Week 15

The theme at Make My Monday is still steampunk and this week they are asking for monochromatic designs. I just had to use one of the' fashionista'  images from the steampunk set by Kanban which arrived on my doormat very recently!! I'm not totally happy with the result here because I think a large image like this should be on a larger card but at the moment I don't have any without going out shopping and visits to craft shops always end up costing me more than I think they will so I used what I had.  Background stamps are mostly from the 7 gypsies set I used last week apart from the cogs (they actually don't show much) which are from the Chocolate Baroque steampunk Christmas set. The background was sponged with Peeled Paint distress ink with the addition of a little Adirondack pesto. I also used some Tim Holtz tissue tape and a little piece of lace which I coloured with the distress ink  - not really happy with this either but it was far too white without colouring.  I might have another go later on when I've caught up with myself after last weekend - being out of the house for three days takes me ages to get back to normal (whatever that is).

Bah Humbug Challenge 36

The challenge over at Humbug Hall this week is paper weaving - they seem to have a spider problem too but I'm glad we didn't have spiders as the challenge as I'm not sure how I would have tied them into Christmas.  I embossed some red and green card using Cuttlebug folders, cut into strips and did the weaving and while my brain was ticking over wondering what to do next I remembered this beautiful stamp from Papermania but what I'd not remembered was the sheer size of it so ended up making an A5 card.  Backing paper was from a vintage pad by Cart-Us (Kars).

Altered Beer Mats

Hello folks - a very quick post this morning before I dash off for another day of demonstrating beadwork.  A while ago there was a challenge on the Chocolate Baroque group to produce altered beer mats and here are a couple which I came up with. Hopefully after this weekend I will be back in the craft room catching up with challenges and so on (I may need to tidy up first though!!).

LOTV Cutie

Apologies for not blogging much this week but I've been busy preparing for some beadwork demonstrations this weekend so there may not be much blogging then either!!  For this card I used one of the free Lili of the Valley images which were given away with a magazine a while ago.  Colouring was done with Copic pens and various backing papers were used from my stash but I can't recall the source because I often take pieces from various pads to match up for a project and then change my mind and don't use them all. The flowers are from a pot of mixed coloured ones with a Marianne die cut leaf and the greeting was a free download.