Hanging The Star

Well, what a week it has been! The weather has been dreadful - around 9 inches of snow in my garden - and temperatures are very low and getting lower!  And this means, of course, that Rentokill couldn't guarantee to make it to carry out the treatment today so (big sigh of relief) we've rescheduled and I haven't had to pack everything away! Yaaaay! Thankfully, I got to find out just before I started the final push towards packing boxes of books, DVDs, etc., and moving furniture so, other than having had a good opportunity for a clear out, I've not had to live in chaos for the past two days.  I can't tell you what a relief it is.  We still have it to do again mid-January but there will at least be two of us to go at it then!

There's more good news from Australia too - my darling MiL will be discharged from hospital on Wednesday next week and although she will not be as mobile or independent as she was before all this started, she is happy and feels well and we are so grateful to have her still with us.  She is so determined and strong, I'm sure that's what has got her through an horrendous four weeks.  Bless her!  And thank you to all of you who expressed such warm wishes - they have been passed on.

Finally, I came home to some exciting news yesterday but .... I can't tell you about it for another week and it's going to kill me keeping the secret!  Watch out for the announcement.

Anyway, on to today's post, which I hope I am just managing to sneak in before one of the challenges ends tomorrow! 

This will be my entry for:

One Stop Craft Challenge: 'Christmas Cuties'
Scrap Creations Challenge: 'Anything Goes'
City Crafter:  'Blue Christmas'
Cute Card Thursday: 'The Blues'
DP2 Challenge: 'Glitz and glimmer'
Friday Sketchers: 'Sketch challenge' - see below

Cool sketch, eh?

Image: Mo's Digital Pencil, 'Hanging the Star'

Papers: October Afternoon, 'Very Merry' collection (background); recycled brochure cover (triangle)

Isn't this the sweetest little image?  Absolutely adorable in a way that only Mo knows how.  I just want to cuddle her and kiss her plump little cheeks.  

This was a little bit of a challenge to colour, in that it seemed obvious that the light source should come from the almost overhead, slightly to the right, not my usual choice.  There were interesting shadows to capture on the face too, which I hope I've mostly managed.  This little one was coloured with my Copics, with background added with Prismas. 

(I threw a strop today with my Prismas - the more I have to sharpen them, the more I realise that the leads are badly broken inside the pencils, obviously done when shipping.  I'm really cross because on the colours I use most I'm getting maybe half a pencil's worth of good lead.  Not a happy bunny!)

Anyway, back to the card.  Using MS Publisher's preset drawing shapes, I 'drew' and printed several stars in various sizes and coloured them with my Copics so that there was a hint of light source on these too.  Then I covered them in some very fine lemon/iridescent glitter before popping them on the card.  I added just a tiny touch of the glitter to the star in the image, too.

I thought I was being tremendously clever using the old brochure cover for the triangle and, in fact, there's nothing wrong with it at all - it's lovely heavyweight paper.  But looking at the card through the lens often gives a different perspective and perhaps I should have used a different colour/pattern.  But, hey, 'tis done now and I'm not going to beat myself up about it!

So, off to link up then back to a bit more crafting in front of the television.  Need to decide whether chocolate counts as a meal or whether I should actually cook something for myself tonight! 

Take care if you're affected by any of this (or any other) bad weather - keep warm and safe.

Happy crafting.
xx