Flowers!

The weather has been amazing here for the last two days. It has been warm and sunny but with enough of a breeze to make it pleasant rather than boiling. The flowers in the picture are in my garden blooming their heads of like they haven't flowered before and have been doing this for a good few weeks.

I have been catching up with swaps recently. There have been a flurry of brilliant ideas for swap with more in the pipeline so I had to get moving. Here are some hand painted watercolour inchies.

And these are some Greek Mythology themed ATCs. The Pegasus and Minotaur head I drew myself as I couldn't find any images that I really liked. To make the background I scanned some of my 1884 ancient Greek text by Xenophon, printed and painted it then stamped using some of my own design rubber stamps (more about those later). I added some silver foil (which spread for a mile and stuck to everything) and used some Non Sequitur rubber stamp focal images with a little bling in the bottom right corners. I really enjoyed this swap theme (surprise, surprise!)

One more time

OK, final post for today. A coloured pencil drawing of a badger cub discovering a bee for the first time. I do believe I am badger obsessed.

Kiesha

This is my latest commissioned drawing. She is Kiesha, a rottweiler but no ordinary one. She was badly abused by her first two owners which is why there is so much white on her. A friend of my sister found her at a dog shelter and took her on, doing a wonderful job of rehabilitating her. Kiesha is a wonderful dog, calm and friendly and a joy to be around. She is also Stanley's mother so if her personality is anything to go by Stanley is from a grand bloodline. She is drawn in graphite pencil with coloured pencil collar.

A journaling we will go

I'm taking part in a journal page tip in swap- my first ever. It is entitled 'A Day in the Life' so I have been working hard at coming up with some ideas that actually make daily life in rural Scotland sound interesting. This is my first page but I noticed that I put my name too close to the spine where it will be bound - doh! I will try to unstick it but if all else fails I will have to reproduce it. I used some small drawings that I made, charms, bead, ribbon, acrylic paints, masks, die cuts, gems and my own photos on it and really went to town.

Corners!

How many times do you read your art/craft/any other book or magazine and want to mark multiple pages with bookmarks? Do you, like me, reach for some scrap paper and tear it into small pieces to act as markers? Well, Lisa Vollrath has a fantastic project on Go Make Something - recycled envelope bookmarks. If you take a look at the project all you have to do is cut the corners off used envelopes and decorate them. I had to give them a go. But what about all those little bits of paper you have leftover, the offcuts from bigger projects or even projects gone bad? Sure, you could collage the envelope corners but if you wanted something a little smarter? So I thought that I would make a template from one of the envelope corners. Then it could be used to form multiple corner bookmarks with a couple of simple folds. I've added the template here. Print the template onto some card and you're all set. All you do is draw round the template, cut it out, fold along the lines, glue the tab and stick down. Then decorate... or not. You just slip the bookmark over the corner of the page and it stays in place. Considering they only take minutes to make you can make hundreds of them for the many inspiring pages you need to mark and they are really handy for students too. Simple. I made mine to be 2 inches along the long edge but you can enlarge or make smaller if you like.

One more winner

The winner today is comment no. 3 - Barb: Oh, what a wonderful array of goodies. Please enter my name in your give-away. Thanks, Barb

Congratulations Barb and thank you to everyone who took part in my giveaways. I hope to host more in the future but for now I shall call it a day. Don't want to bore you all :o) I'll make it more random next time. I'll be in touch with the winner once I have posted this (or alternatively you can e-mail me, Barb, at gsmcmurray[at]ukonline.co.uk). As I said for the last two weeks, if the prize is not claimed I will do another drawing for a new winner. 'Til next time.

Spring clean pt 3

This week I have some goodies on the theme of Autumn/Fall and Winter. There are lots of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas stickers, rub-ons, 8x8 inch papers and die cuts. I have also included some spooky images that I photographed myself and made into collage sheets. The images are ATC sized with a few that are small enough to make into inchies. Once again, leave a comment along with your e-mail if you want to be in with a chance of winning this parcel. Or if you don't want to put your e-mail online, leave a comment then e-mail me at gsmcmurray[at]ukonline.co.uk and let me know which comment is yours. I will use a random number generator to pick a winner on Sunday 29th March. Good luck.

The Winner is:

Comment no. 29 from Daisy: Gillian I would love your stash ! Asian theme is so cool I hope i get it.By the way after looking in your blog the other day i was inspired to sketch my doxie dog which i haven't done in a long while. thanks daisy

As an extra surprise I made two runners up draws too as I had so many lovely comments. I will put together little packages of papers and things and pop them in the mail for them.

So the runners up are comment nos. 10 from Dee: Hi Gillian, I would love to be entered for this prize.You know it would be put to good use. Happy Spring!

and

11 from Trixie (AKA Sandra G): How sweet of you Gillian. . .you certainly have a wonderful collection and I would love to be included in your spring clean giveaway. . .thank you so much!!

I'll be in touch with the winners once I have posted this. As I said last week, if any of the prizes are not claimed I will do another drawing for a new winner. Thank you all so much for helping me out by taking part. I'll post another themed giveaway later so, please, if you were unlucky this time try again later.

Inspired by Spring

Just a few pictures to break the monotony until Sunday. I have been making lots of cards recently, a few of which are here. Lots of Spring colours - greens and pinks. There are a few inchies too similarly clothed in Spring inspiration.

Spring clean pt 2

This time I have some Asian themed goodies to give away. I have 9 sheets of 6x6 inch and 6 sheets of 4x4 inch origami paper, 4 papercuts, smaller pieces of pearlized papers and images (ideal for ATCs or cards), beads, charms and stickers. Just like last time, leave a comment along with your e-mail if you want to be in with a chance of winning this parcel of yummy Asian items. Or if you don't want to put your e-mail online, leave a comment then e-mail me at gsmcmurray[at]ukonline.co.uk and let me know which comment is yours. Once again I will use a random number generator to pick a winner on Sunday 22nd March (Mother's Day in the UK). Good luck!