When is a free blog not a free blog?

Answer: when you've been a busy little blogger and filled it with too many photos - more on that in a second.

Hi all, well I think I gave you the wrong impression when I said I 'had the builders in' on my blog, I didn't have major changes planned - I did that a few weeks ago with my blog makeover. No, I was getting to grips with how photos on our blogs are stored in cyberspace and from there set about reorganising my albums. I deleted a lot of stuff in error so there were big black squares all over my blog while I tracked down the correct photos to replace the voids - didn't look very nice! I did move a few things round and tidied up a bit though, so maybe i should have said I had the de-clutterers and Feng Shui peeps in. I was intending to make this blog post before now but got ill again so it's taken a while to let you know the builders have left now.

Anyway, after reading Mel's panicked post about messages she was getting saying that she'd used up all her storage space for a free blog and was being asked to pay for more storage (what the???) I had a look at the way it works when we put photos on our blogs, our free blogs. Turns out, they are only free up to a point. Photos we put on our blogs are stored at Picasa Web Albums and there is a limit to how much we can store - 1GB - and after that we have to pay, yes pay!! a couple of quid a month. 1GB is probably plenty for many bloggers but for us crafters the photos are pretty essential to our posts and a gigabyte won't go so far. 

Sounds worrying, but I did a bit of looking around and found out some useful bits which I've put here in case this is new to anyone else. It's a bit long, so I've broken it up into segments.

Please excuse my appearance....

Royalty-free image from freedigitalimages.net

Please excuse the appearance of parts of my blog -

I have the builders in!

In other words.....I'm tinkering LOL.

"Error 503 - Service Unavailable"

So I'm trying to visit blogs and keep getting an almost blank white screen with the same old message:

Service Unavailable

Error 503

Does anyone else get this when you try to visit a blog? It's been happening a lot to me for the last couple of months, and I assume it's to do with the code for the new Blogger interface (don't you love it when they "improve" things?) 

Anyway, I've found that if you simply refresh the page, the blog will load fine. Bit annoying to have to keep doing this but at least there is a way round the problem.

Hope you like the little clip art piccie, it's how the computer makes me feel sometimes, lol. Feel free to save it and use it if you like it, it's free from clker.com

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Edit: I've been getting this error message as I've been leaving comments too but the comment still gets published. Just click your 'Back' button to get the blog to display again, and then refresh.....your comment should now be displaying.

What a palaver! I suppose they'll never fix it grrrrrrrrr. Have a good weekend all.

Things With Wings at Sundays With Crissy

Hi everyone, I hope all those in the UK are enjoying their Bank Holiday Monday - I notice we have typical Bank Holiday weather, lol. Don't worry, there's another Holiday at the end of the month to look forward to.

Today I have a card that I made for our challenge this month at Sundays With Crissy. The theme is Things With Wings, so that could mean birds, butterflies, airplanes, or anything else you can think of, as long as it has some wings it will be perfect.

I chose to use this gorgeous digi image by Crissy called Rose Butterfly, which I coloured with copic markers. I went for an overall colour scheme of purple and white, which are 2 colours I just love together, so I searched through my stash of papers and found 2 very old packs by Paper Cellar and Papermania with some nice papers in the right shades. A square doily and some leafy diecuts provide the white to go with my purples.  No extra embellishments on this card, so just a little stitching around the inner mat finishes it off.

I'd like to enter this is these challenges:
2 Sisters - Anything Goes
A & T/Emerald Faeries - Anything Goes
Anything Goes Challenge - Things With Wings
Aud Sentiments - Anything Goes
Crafts & Me - Favourite Colour Combo
Crafty Calender - Things With Wings
Great Impressions - Anything Goes
Just Traceys - Anything Goes
Oldie But A Goodie - Diecuts & punches (leaf die cuts plus papers which are way over 6 months old)
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes


Hope you like my card today.....if you want to join in the challenge you have till the end of the month to upload your entry. Happy crafting!

Sepia-effect colouring --- A Man's Card

Hi everyone! Is there anywhere where it isn't raining? Here it's been wet every day for the last week or so, and it's been constantly raining all day and all last night! Not that I mind, I actually like the sound of rain falling, but I'm wondering whether to start building an ark, he hee.

Sorry I haven't been visiting many blogs recently - I've been feeling really wrecked and I log in with good intentions of dropping in on lots of buddy's blogs, but run out of energy too quickly and have needed a lot of rest again. I'm hoping to get round over the next week.

It's been a week of blunders for me....firstly, I hit myself in the face hard by opening a wardrobe door too quickly whilst bending over to pick up my shoes (idiotic); then I forgot to cancel a grocery shopping delivery and ended up with 2 deliveries in one evening (expensive and idiotic); and thirdly, I was reading a book on a Kindle, got to the end of my page and.......picked up the Kindle and turned it over like a page!!!!!! (inexplicable, lol). I assure you, I'm a perfectly intelligent woman most of the time but this week I've turned into a part-time buffoon, lol.

Anyway, this is a card I made for a special man in my life whose birthday it was recently. The image is one that I purchased specifically for this card: it's called Dare and it's by Mo Manning - isn't she a very talented illustrator? The papers I bought specially to use with this image, so for a homemade card it was pretty expensive! 

As the chap in the image looked like a pilot or a driver from a bygone age, I thought I'd have a go at colouring him in a sepia monochrome theme. I chose the E40's family of Copics because there are 7 available shades in that group and I luckily had them all. First of all I did a rough colouring on printer paper with a 6B pencil to get an idea of the tonal values I'd use, then I printed out the image on colouring paper and got to work with the copics. This is the rough colouring next to the finished one:

The 2 papers are from Prima's Almanac pack, and I distressed the edges using a distressing tool. The quote by William Hazlitt comes with the Dare image, so I printed it out and aged the paper with some distress ink. The 'Expedition 1910' diecut is actually from a clothing label which was already deeply distressed. I simply used a nestie die to cut out a label shape and added some more distress ink around the edges. A chipboard cog from a set called Gears Galore by Make It Crafty, which I heat embossed with black powder, finishes it off.

The card has gone down very well - I even sang him Happy Birthday in Welsh, lol. Here's a couple of close ups of the sentiment and diecut:

I'd like to enter this in these challenges:
Anything Goes Challenge - Time or Steampunk (I went for a Steampunk look)
Aud Sentiments - Anything Goes
Bling It On - Monochrome
Copic Marker Europe - Monochromatic
Crafts & Me - Embossing (heat embossing on the black gear wheel)
Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
Crafty Mess Challenges - Distressing & Embossing
Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes
Here Comes The Boys - Hobbies (flying/driving)
Lollipop Crafts - Anything Goes
Kaboodle Doodles - Emboss It (heat embossing on the black gear wheel)
Poodles Parlour - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
That Craft Place - One For The Boys
Truly Scrumptious - Distress & DieCuts/Punches (my die cut is the Expedition tag)
Wags N Whiskers - Distressing
Whimsy Inspirations - Distressing

Thanks so much for dropping by today - I hope you like my card, and I look forward to seeing you on your own blogs in the next day or so. Happy Crafting!

I've had a bit of a makeover!

Hi everyone, I hope you noticed that I am sporting a new look. You didn't notice? Haven't you had your coffee today yet? LOL.

For ages I've wanted to make my own banner and apart from lacking the energy to get round to it I was also lacking the knowhow. Then I found Brenda's blog where she shared how to make one and.......ta da! It wasn't too hard at all, but I had to be quick as Picnik, the photo editting site she recommends, is closing down tomorrow. 

Anyway, let me know what you think - do the pics in the banner look bright enough? 

Favourite Colour Combo at Sundays With Crissy

Hi all, today I'm showing my card for the latest challenge at Sundays With Crissy, which this month is Your Favourite Colour Combo. Whatever colours you love combining, show us on your project and you could win your choice of some of Crissy's images.

One of my favourite colour combos is pink and green - I tried some different shades of these colours on my card. I chose a darker pink and a more muted green and I really liked the resulting combo.

I used Crissy's sweet Newborn Joon again, this time merging it with her Meadow Background.

Images: Newborn Joon and Meadow Background, both by Crissy Armstrong

Colouring: Copic markers

DPs and tag: Prima Annalee

Dies: Spellbinders Lacey Circles and Magnolia DooHickey Rose Leaves

Flowers and ribbon from my stash

I'm entering this in these challenges:
Cardmadfairy's Digi Days - Die cuts and/or punches (die cut leaves, circle and lacey circle)
Divas By Design - Anything Goes
Do You Stack Up Challenges - Friendly Critters
Little Darling Challenges - Outside
My Mum's Craft Shop Challenges - Easter or Animals
Partytime Tuesdays - Flowers
Top Tip Tuesday - Easter and/or Animals
Wags 'n Whiskers - Say It With Flowers
Whimsy Inspirations - use ribbon on your cards

I hope you like my card today and that you might join us this month with your fave colours.

Happy crafting!