No longer so distressed!

Well, 10.30pm has just passed, so it is time to declare the winner of my little competition. Not many entries - obviously nearly everyone but me had already got a Victorian Velvet Distress Inkpad! I loved Jules's suggestion that I had sneaked into her front room and taken a pic of her dusty coffee table, (which sounds a lot like mine!) but I'm afraid that was not the case! In fact there was just one correct answer, so my superfluous pad will be finding a new home with

CRAFTIMAMMA (LESLEY)

Well done, Lesley! I'll be posting it off to you tomorrow, and hope it cheers you up after your cold.

Thanks very much to everyone who did enter. The mysterious object was indeed a Tim Holtz/Ranger Blending Tool!

I'm just too distressed!

Somehow (long story - don't ask!) I have found myself the proud owner of TWO brand new Victorian Velvet Distress Ink pads. Now, I don't need two, so I have decided to give away the spare. For a change, instead of blog candy, I thought I'd have a little competition.

To enter, identify the object in the picture below, and leave a comment to say what it is. Closing date will be this Sunday evening, May 16th, at 10pm. I will put all correct answers into a draw and Mr. Random Dot Org will select the winner. The prize may also include a little extra surprise!

You may enter as many times as you like, but one answer per comment, please. In the event that no-one correctly identifies the object, all entries by followers of my blog (which will include anyone who becomes a follower between now and the closing date) will go into the draw to choose the winner . Good luck!

Back to work

Creative Lynks has a nice new look to begin the New Year! Thanks very much to Lesley, aka The Messy Crafter for pointing me in the direction of The Cutest Blog on the Block.com, who supply free backgrounds. Unfortunately their site is experiencing problems at the moment, but hopefully they'll soon be resolved.

It was a bit of a shock to the system, going back to work after the Christmas break, but at last my cold has gone, & I'm coping! I've even managed to make some ATCs for the Crafty Individuals ATC competition. There are so many talented artists who send samples to the Crafty Individuals gallery that I'm not expecting to win anything, but in true ATC tradition, all entries will be swapped, & I'm looking forward to getting some back in return for mine. The card class restarts this Wednesday, & I'm going to do ATCs for that. I'm quite addicted to making ATCs. I think it's their small size that appeals to me. Also they're quick to make and can become the focal point of a card if you need one in a hurry. I'm not going to post my competition entries here until after the closing date! But here are some I made earlier.

All of the people depicted in this first set are members of my family, grandparents and great grandparents.



The second set uses facsimile cigarette cards with stamped backgrounds. I tried to go for an aged look with these.



The "stamp" stamps in the next two are by Cherry Pie. Their website has some wonderful samples in their galleries.



The final two use mostly Crafty Individuals stamps.