First may I wish anyone who is reading this A very Happy Healthy 2017.

The weather, since the shortest day has passed,  quite wintry, but as the saying goes,the days get longer, the cold gets stronger, Certainly true in this country.

As I have mentioned before I used to work with my dogs in Competition Obedience, almost fifty years of regular training and travelling up and down the country judging and competing, and I loved it. I did my last judging just over four years ago just before I lost Tango, plus travelling was getting to be a chore. I also stopped work too, so have quite a bit of time on my hands, I did quite a bit of painting, dog commissions mostly but landscapes and anything else that took my fancy. I started doing small paintings of flowers and started making them into cards for birthdays etc, gradually I discovered a whole new world of card crafting, after a chance meeting with a lady in a craft shop. since then I find it takes most of my time , plus a bit of money :-)

It is a very absorbing hobby and I can spend many hours tucked in my little room fiddling around with paper. ! My dogs are very good and are quite happy sleeping the time away , and as they are getting on a bit [ both almost 15]  I don't feel too guilty . |I shall post up some of my stuff from time to time. I have posted it but it's gone to the top of the blog instead of the bottom. . Oh well i'll sort it out one day, I don't find WP as easy as Blogger .

Having a break

I'm having a break of at least a week from card making. It is such an addictive hobby well I think so, my poor garden has been sadly neglected.
It hasn't helped that it was such a wet chilly spring, nothing got done, but now the weather has improved it has shown up the sad neglect.
I will be strong and look forward to coming back. Here was my last little effort I took i, and some cards , to our Art club annual exhibition and it sold ! plus a few more, YAY very pleased.

Catching up

Hello folks  [if anyone is out there ] LOL  I'm going to show off a couple of my Explosive box cards, I love doing these,  Likeee ??

How I started

Last year  I started making cards for friends, firstly I had painted a small picture in a card aperture and wrote a sentiment, then I started purchasing or downloading pictures that I thought would look nice, I hadn't the foggiest notion about card making,  By chance a new Craft shop advertised it's opening and it was not far from me, I went along and was quite amazed by the amount and variety of stuff for card making, However, the best part was meeting a lady and as we got chatting she told me she had been making cards for years and very kindly invited me to her house. Well I just could not get over the commercial interest in this hobby. She helped me out with many ideas and pointed me in the direction of how, what and where to shop, I , at her urging, went to Emerald Crafts at Lyndhurst, It is an Aladdin's cave and I must admit I  lightened my purse of a few pennies.

I've mad a few silly purchases, but you [hopefully] learn by your mistakes. Here are some of my first cards, they are hand painted

    

Since starting this blog I have made a good few dozen cards, and changed the format getting into dies, stamping embossing etc, I'll post a few just to let you judge if you think they are an improvement