Abano Terme

Hello my dear friends!

I looked when I last posted and it is almost a month has passed! I honestly don't know how that has happened! I have been on holiday in Italy that was 1 week gone but the rest is just me not being as active as I should be! This waiting for things in my life to be sorted has certainly taken a tole on my blogging! I just have no proper will to do much - well I am still passionate about making cards and I will show them in the next few days! 
I had a very nice holiday with my DBF  in Abano Terme - it is a lovely place in Italy not far from Venice and Padova - with lots of hotels and Spas - very calm atmosphere! Italians certainly know how to enjoy life!
Here is the hotel lounge - it is quite an old hotel....

This is looking out to the pool where we went swimming every day...

We visited the home village of the famous Italian renaissance poet, scholar and humanist Francesco Petrarca...

Lovely place - huh hard to get to though if you have dogy knees but with the help of my stick I managed to climber up there...

Everywhere you go in Italy  there are old buildings with balconies and flowers on them - so pretty!
And now ladies a bit of fashion for you! Braccialini is a famous make of bags with aplique - they make so many interesting designs - I photographed them in the shop window...

Here are 2 with Madonna and Audrey Hepburn and I think Marilyn Monroe!

 It was just before the Scottish referendum so this one was apt...

And here is one with New York... also on all of the photos you can see the new autumn shoe collection!

So there a little bit of Italy for you!
Have a lovely day....I will be back later!
Hugs to all of you,
Cardarian

WOYWW, 2 cards and happy mail!

My dear friends!

How are all of you doing? Having a nice summer??? Well ....we aren't! We have rain almost every day and the temperatures are more autumn-ish then summer-ish! Does that inspire me to sit at my crafty desk??? NO! I do odd cards but I must admit I am not doing much! It is just that once you come back from a full day of work and then cook dinner you are not very inspired! I don't know maybe you ladies are!? Anyway not to be moaning all the time lets get up to show time....
First up my messy desk....

The photo on top shows a very handy thing called Quickstik - soooo handy for sticking sequins and other embellishments on cards! I really recommend that one! Here in Slovenia I bought it from Mavelu!
The second photo shows the mess on my right. There is just stuff piling up - some things I don't even use but somewhere in the back there there are 2 boxes of dabbers - really practical for using with distress inks and I think a box of about 20 was just 2 Euros!
And the third photo shows the mess on my left! Lots of pens, pencils markers, gel pens, and other rubbish! Huh!
Ok next up are my 2 cards...one was made with some designer paper which I don't use but recently I saw it and I made a card with it....I also die cut a strip with little dots and a word ( Hvala - means thank you) and added pearls and ribbon.....Dies are both from Najlepši par!

Here is the next one I made for a friend at work for her birthday!
On this one I did a lot of stamping, multi-inking then die cut the flowers, stacked them added pearls and sequins..I also die cut  the corner.....quite like the result! The dies for the corner and sentiment are from Najlepši par, the flowers are from Wplus9!

I made a really nice collage card for my daughters boyfriend but I haven't given it to him yet so I can't show it - you will see that next week!
Now long overdue are a few things that came in the mail - ATCs from the WOYWW crop that came to my DBFs place (sent by Julia - thank you!) and because he was with me here in Slovenia I didn't get them till last week! Thank you ladies they are lovely and will be put into my ATC album!

Also not to be forgotten! A while ago I got a big surprise letter with a wonderful card and ATC from Australia from Eliza!! Thank you so much Eliza!

And last but not least - recently I got another surprise letter from England from Neet, who sent me a lovely card and ATC! Thank you Neet I was so happy to recieve it!

So there that is all from me folks today!
Have a lovely week - hook up to the Stamping ground with our queen Julia and enjoy life and crafting!
Lots of hugs to all,
CARDARIAN

A floral card!

Hello friends!

I am back with a card! I didn't do WOYWW because I simply don't have much time these days - still working and waiting for better times!
Now I have been doing  online card classes - Jennifer McGuire, Kristina Werner and Debby Hughs are the teachers but also others - it is about streching your stamps! 
I am not as active as other ladies are, making cards after every day of class but I did make a card that suits the bill of 2 days of classes called Floral and floral builder stamps! I ordered the stamp set they used in the class but it hasn't arrived so I had to use what I had! And I had a lovely stamp set called Wild Roses from our Slovene Stamp and Die Website called Najlepši Par...
I used 2 techniques for this card- one is building a floral image with a stamp set and multi inking, the other is sketched outlines....the photos will hopefully reveal what I am talking about!
I will link this both to the card class gallery and the August Najlepši par gallery!
I hope you like my card!

Here you can see the multi inking on the leaves and the black sketchy outlines! It was a bit scary doing those outlines on my already stamped images but I braved it and love the result! In the end it just gives the whole card a bit more of your own personal touch!

 

I think taking these classes is definitely a good idea as you learn a lot of new techniques - I couldn't afford doing all of them but every now and then it is fun and gives you a new way of looking at your "art"
Have a lovely week and enjoy doing whatever you do!
Lots of hugs to all of you,
CARDARIAN

WOYWW, cards and stuff!

My dear friends!

I am not sure if I will be able to link up to WOYWW because it is actually Thursday when I am writing this! I had a busy day yesterday and it was late when I realised I won't be able to make it it till midnight but anyway here I am with a few things to show you.....
My forever messy desk.....

I know it will never ever be tidy.....
Then I have a few cards....I am just loving that there are so many possibilities these days to make something nice....here is a card I made with a big Hello die cut from Avery Elle and Marianne Design die cut! Also used a lot of Glossy accents on the Hello....the small sentiment is from Winnie and Walter...

Then I have made 2 cards - one for my daughters name day and one for her birthday - I am really proud of these cards - I think sometimes they just really come together...
This is the name day one....

I used a stencil in the background and also on the tag and I used a sparkly paste which is not my forte -getting too messy is not exactly my thing but I went out of my comfort zone and I really like the result! I am very happy to say there is a lot of Slovene crafty ladies who design their own dies and it is really lovely to be able to put a sentiment in Slovene on a card that goes to someone in my country!
Here is a close up....

This next card is my absolute favourite - I don't remember having so much fun with a card .....

Here is a close up.... this was a lot of stamping. first I stamped the background with 3 different colors and used an MFT large stamp...then I stamped the little girl - it is a Unity stamp - love how she is stretching her hands and is right at the forground of the card, I also stamped on the bunting, I die cut the sentiment  (Najlepši par)and the cityscape (Clearly besotted stamps) - lots of work but if it is for your daughter time doesn't matter....

And as last I will show you another lovely rainbow....it was a double one actually ....

So there that is all from Cardarian's happy place!

Have a lovely week!
Hugs to all of you,
Cardarian

WOYWW, Rainbows, a messy desk, more watercoloring and a card!

Hello my dear friends! 

I will not say the Arnold Schwarzenegger famous words today ha, ha....but I am happy to be with you again! We are having a very mixed summer - rain and sun all the time! And lots of lovely rainbows....I have photographed them but to be honest the photos never show the beauty of them in nature....

My desk is in a right mess - I am making a card - I will show it when I finish it - and the mess I have managed to build up is just unbelievable - I realized how bad it was when I looked at the photos... huh...

Here are 2 more of my attemps to do water coloring....roses are popular with me at the moment as I see them everywhere.....

And here is a card I made......

So there you see I am trying to do things although my concentration is not on crafting at the moment - I am waiting for other things to get sorted in my life and it is a very loooooong wait! 
Have a lovely week and keep up the lovely crafting!
Lots of hugs to all
CARDARIAN

WOYWW 266, I am back !

Hello my dear bloggy friends!

It seems a lot of my posts have " I am back" in the title lately! I know I am a very bad blogger - I just can't help but so many things are going on I just can't get up to blogging! I am going to work, at weekends going to my mom, in between cooking jam and making pies and trying really hard to get my pension sorted but unfortunately the mills of bureaucracy work very slow and it takes ages to get things sorted - so that is getting my spirits down a bit. On top of everything we had a heatwave last week and when you come home from work dripping in sweat you don't feel like doing much! I apologise my dear friends, bare with me,  things will get better eventually!
 Here are a few photos of my late activities - first the crafty stuff.... I have been into watercoloring lately, I took an online course called " Watercolors for cardmaking" and really liked the various techniques but initially only had the courage to do backgrounds but lately I have uped my game and started doing my own little watercolor paintings.....No they are not of very high standard but I am trying and I am getting some advice from an old friend who is an amazing water color artist! 
Here are some of my humble begginings....flowers....

a blue tit....

more abstract flowers....

 a dragon fly which I actually saw on my Sunday outing and then I drew it and colored it with Twinkling H2Os

and a little beach scene which is far from good but I will learn eventually.....

 

 and here is my latest atemp at another flower spray....

and here are some Clearly Besotted Stamps I colored with watercolors....

 

 I also made a card......The colors are Derwent Inktense and the butterflies were stamped and die cut with Clearly besotted stamps and dies!

So that is the crafty stuff....and here is other stuff I have been doing....

pitting cherries.....huh what a job....

making pies,,,,

and cooking jam....

Thats all folks for today, I hope I will get up to more blogging in the future I do have more stuff to show...

I better rush up to say hello to our lovely host Julia who has this week celebrated a special birthday! Best wishes to you my dear friend!

Lots of hugs to all of you,one very special big hug for Julia

CARDARIAN