News of me being kidnapped and taken to outer space have been greatly exaggerated!

Oh Wow! I can't believe it's been 6 months since I last posted. I have been having problems with my health and other family issues and not had the extra energy to spend on making many cards etc. (I have made some though...which I will show you over the next while.) When Chronic Fatigue Syndrome flares up, along with my other ailments, it makes it hard to do anything much at all (mostly only the essentials). Hopefully I'll be able to keep posting in a timely manner for you to share in my journey.

I made the card above for a lovely lady my mum and I were friends with at her retirement centre who died earlier this year. I wasn't sure what to do for it, but went with some paper etc that I had been working with for something else, and added what flowers I thought were pretty. I also made a co=ordinating card box for it. As it turned out, the flowers and feathers matched perfectly the theme of the memorial luncheon we attended for her. Joan is sorely missed and we always think fondly of her.

Anyway, it's time I got going on what I NEED to do, so all of my love and I'll see you soon.

Bye for now,

Thank you and Challenge #60

First up I'd like to thank all of the people who sent me birthday wishes yesterday for my birthday. It's heartwarming to know that there are people all around the world who care about me. I had made this card for Challenge #60 for Get Creative Challenge blog, but it's perfect to show what I'm feeling today.

After seeing a similar technique used by Therese Calvird and Jennifer McGuire, I knew I just had to try it out, and then when I saw this digistamp by Drawn By Krista Mommy & Baby Elephant, decided now was the time. I was lucky to have scored the Altenew Bold Alphabet Dies (they'd sold like hot cakes) and they worked perfectly for this technique. I coloured the elephants with my Copics and couldn't have been happier with the results. I coloured the rest of the letters with a bright green so at first glance it looks like they're sitting on grass. Next time, though, I will colour around the sides of the letter stacks with the same colour. (I attached the die cut letters from the coloured panel onto a stack of three letters the same, cut from white cardstock.) In a couple of days I'm hoping to have posted a video tutorial I videoed showing how I made this card.

Now back to Challenge #60 for Get Creative Challenge blog. This month it's sponsored by Angie's Digital Stamps, Drawn By Krista and All Dressed Up.

Head on over for an opportunity to win digistamps from our sponsors.  The theme for this challenge is CAS (Clean and Simple). I think mine still qualifies, doesn't it???)

Anyway, bye for now.

Love,

My house reno

This year I'd been badgering my husband to get an addition to the house so we could have a larger bedroom and a playroom. Unfortunately it would have been too expensive. Instead he agreed to a reno (considering we've been in the house for 17 years without anything done to it inside - it was well and truly due!)

Those following my blog will know that earlier this year I got my wall oven and stove-top replaced; now (at this exact moment) I'm getting the interior repainted and then on the weekend, new carpet laid - Woohoo!

Here is an action shot of Mark and Sean (from Darren Slater Painter and Decorator) painting my WIR and ensuite. It's going to be a pretty blue walls with white doors/architraves/skirting boards/ceilings) instead of the Beige I've had to put up with since we moved in. You can see hints of the blue on the wall in the ensuite.

In the dining room/loungeroom, the walls will be a mid green; and the entry/kitchen and family room will be a mixture of the green and a dark cream.

Consequently for the past two weeks (or for me 4 weeks 'cause I was packing books into boxes for a long time) we've had to pack up everything in the carpeted rooms, so they're ready for the laying of the carpet once the rooms have been painted. And if you read my previous post, all sorts of things have been packed when they shouldn't have been.

This is my crafting area at the moment. It's also our sleeping area and relaxation zone. Hahaha!. You can see my craft basket, Copic Marker satchels and laptop on our bed and our son's bed tucked in under the kitchen bench.

Luckily, once the carpeted areas have been completed, the tiled areas will be done and we don't have as much to pack up (only the stuff on top of the furniture).

I'll post more photos soon.

Bye for now.

Love,

Janelle

Get Creative Challenges #42

Welcome back. I'm here again with another challenge from Get Creative Challenges #42.

This challenge was challenging for me because it was "Black and White Only", but the image I had was too pretty to only colour in black and white (and besides I've never coloured skin in black and white - too much effort!) Therefore I added a little pale blue and lemon to add just a little more interest.

Our sponsor this challenge was The East Wind. Check out the lovely digistamps here.

I even had to go to Craft Giraffe to buy some extra Copics because I didn't have enough of the right markers to colour it properly. (Life's hard, isn't it, but I'm not complaining. :) ) But I am saying goodbye to the "bricks and mortar" store of Craft Giraffe (my favorite all-time craft shop). As from 1st July, 2016 they will only have an on-line presence. They have been my inspiration and enablers to my craft addiction on more occasions than I can count. It also didn't help that they were sited just a little way from my son's school and I had to pass them every afternoon for the past 18 months. I think my husband will be joyously happy! (You all know what I mean.) Anyway, thanks for the laughs, work for Alex* and many wonderful memories, Craft Giraffe. I'll see you on your Facebook page.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Love,

Janelle

* Every time I took Alex (my 13 yo son) into the store (since he was about 10), he'd always ask, "Have you got any jobs for me?" and Teena or Stevie would find a job for him to do, whether it was sorting out and tidying their trinkets, restocking their ink pads or Copic markers, etc and he LOVED it. He even wanted to do his first work experience with them when he was in Year 10 (2 years time). He will especially miss them as they made him feel grown-up and valued. Thanks so much for that.  XXX

I'm now on two more Design Teams!

I hope I don't get into trouble for telling you this yet, but, I've been asked to be on the design team for two internet card challenges. I'm so excited!!!

They are both the brainchildren of Angie Addison. from Florida, USA. The first one is Get Creative Challenges and the other is Simply Create Too Challenges.  I'll be submitting cards for them real soon - can hardly wait!!!

I have also started a Facebook page. I'm a bit of a techno-dino, when it comes to things like that, but I need it for my crafting, so needs must....... (I think that's how it goes.) I will be using it mostly for cards etc. I hope those who have asked to be my friend don't get too disappointed with what I post on it. :)

Speaking of dinosaurs, I've ordered a ring with a Dinogem in it. In case you don't know, Dinogems are agatized dinosaur bones and sometimes called "gembone". The stone for my ring is said to be from a T Rex. How cool is that???! I'll post a photo when it comes.

Lastly I'm posting some cards I made for Practical Publishing a while back and hope you like them. They used foiling techniques from heat foiling, using glues, stamping, double-sided tape, gilding flakes and gold leaf.

The "Hello" card uses what I've called a faux velvet technique. IRL the texture on the card looks like jacquard velvet (the red/brown bits). This is because I applied gilding flakes through a stencil (onto a panel of double-sided adhesive sheet, then rubbed in some Distress Glitter once the stencil was removed. Because the glitter flakes are rather large, they don't lie flat and you see a nap, like in real velvet. 

I'd seen it with microbeads added but not the Distress Glitter, and I really love the effect that produced. Another good thing also, the glitter doesn't continue to brush off with this type. No more fairyland funhouse here.  :)

Anyway, bye for now.

Love,

Janelle

RIP My eCraft

No, I didn't fall off the edge of the world. I've just been caught up in the mechanisms of life (esp. Christmas and summer holidays.)

This post is to commemorate the role my eCraft has had in my crafting life, but which is now sorely reduced. 

Over the holidays, my computer died again and I had to give it the jolt of life, thus the need to reload all programs. Welcome a new version of Windows 10 (that caused it to die in the first place). Goodbye to the eCraft program that allowed me to create designs (on my computer) and cut them out using the electronic cutter. This was the feature that most attracted me to the eCraft in the first place, four long years ago. This was before any other electronic cutter gave you this option. (I think?) Now I will only be able to use it with the image cartridges (which are great and varied), but all of my SVG files (self-created and those bought) are useless, unless I splash out and buy a ScanNCut2, that can do all of that and more. Any excuse!!!  :o)

I'm including the email I received from Craftwell concerning this issue. I personally don't think it's good enough, as since they are still selling accessories etc for the eCraft, they should still be supporting it technically. There's too much redundancy of products in industry these days.

Hello Janelle,

Thank you for contacting Craftwell Customer Support

We are sorry to inform you that the eCraft program only works on Windows 7 and previous versions. Updating your windows to Windows 10 prevents you from using the program.  If you have any older computers we suggest you use one in order for it to work.  Ever since we stop manufacturing the eCraft the program ceased updates.  

Craftwell Customer Support

On Sun, Jan 17, 2016 at 4:05 AM, Janelle Graham <adashofflash@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

Recently my computer crashed and now I have to reload all of my programs. The thing is that I can't download the operating program for my eCraft. It keeps coming up with an error message. I have upgraded my computer to Windows 10 and am wondering if this is preventing it from proceeding. How can I get around this problem, as this is an important feature that I regularly use and I have a whole heap of designs that I've created or bought, and I don't want them to be wasted. 

If I can only use the cards from now on, that will greatly diminish my satisfaction with this machine. Even though you no longer manufacture the eCraft (don't know why as it's a wonderful operating system) I can see this problem occurring more often, as people upgrade their computers.

Please help me.

Cheers,

Janelle Graham

To show you that my life has been quite good since my last post, I'm including some photos. One is a birthday card I made for my sister (maybe I shouldn't have used the flowers - a bit OTT), a few are from our holiday at Rainbow Beach (on the Sunshine Coast, QLD), and one is my son, Alex and my MIL, from when he performed in his school drama club's performance of "The Fantastic Mr(s) Fox" where he played Mr Weasel (I made his ears and we bought his costume for $6 at the Red Cross Charity shop.)

Bye for now.

Love,

Janelle

Update on J****

I just wanted to let you know that J**** (the boy I hit with my car) is fine and went to school on Monday, full of the story of how he was hit by a car and survived. He only has some minor cuts and scrapes.

My windscreen has been replaced and I take my car in for a quote tomorrow. I'm back driving, but still a little jittery; especially when I drive through the section of road where the accident happened.

As I thought, the story of how a boy from school was hit by a car while jaywalking is all over the school, but only a few actually know I was the "culprit".  :)

Anyway, bye for now. I'll be back soon with some more cards.

Love,
Janelle   :)

OMG! I thought I killed a kid yesterday!

Yesterday was both the worst day of my life as well as the luckiest! 

I was driving to pick up my son, Alex, from school, when a Grade 12 student ran out from between a line of stalled traffic - right in front of me! I slammed on my brakes, but wasn't able to stop in time before I hit him with my car. He hit the front passenger side of the car before being bounced up into the windscreen. He then bounced off onto the road in front of me. By this time the car was stopped, so I put it into Park and got out and ran to the boy. He was up on his feet and standing there, holding his head, and said to me, "Am I hurt?"

I remember thinking to myself "Thank God he's not dead", but at the same time I'm thinking, "Of course you're hurt, you bloody idiot, you've just been hit by my car!" But I told him he was hurt and he had to stay still while I phoned the ambulance. He then tried to move away, saying, "No I'm alright. I've got to go." Talk about a "hit and run" incident. (Please don't think I'm being flippant - it's just a reaction to the fact that he didn't appear to be seriously injured and, even now, more than 12 hours later, I feel like crying and still have the shakes.)

Next I know people have come from everywhere to take the boy to safety in one of the shops across from where he was hit, another man came and phoned the police and ambulance for me, another helped me move my car to a safer park, someone else gave me a cup of lovely cold water and found a seat for me to sit in, some girls from the school phoned the school to tell them what had happened, someone else had phoned the boy's mother, one of the girls from the barber shop came out with a wad of toilet paper for me to wipe my tears (because she didn't have any tissues) and then the ambos came and started looking after the boy. I'm blown away by the selfless actions of so many. They were all wonderful.

Next came along the principal and one of the deputies from the boy's school. (Did I mention it is also the school where Alex goes to school and where I taught for many years before I left to have Alex?) The principal asked the deputy if he knew who belonged to the car, and I told him it was mine. His eyes just about popped out of his head. I wonder why he didn't guess just from looking at me, from my red face, swollen eyes and tears streaming down my face?

Anyway, the police came next and were also the most lovely men possible. After getting my statement and talking to the witnesses, they told me that there's nothing that I could have done to prevent the accident and they wouldn't be charging me with anything. The paramedic in charge then came to tell me that they were taking the boy to hospital to be checked out, but as far as they could see he only had minor abrasions and bruising. (I hope they didn't find anything more serious once they did the xrays etc.)

After everyone left and I was left waiting for my husband to come and get me (Mind you, Alex was still at the school waiting for me to pick him up) and I finally went to have a look at the damage to the car (I hadn't paid any attention to it before - I had been more concerned with the damage to the boy), the enormity of the situation finally hit me and I really started crying. Once again some ladies from the hairdressing salon came to my rescue and took me inside, gave me some more water and made me wait with them until Darryl arrived.

I won't go into all of the rigmarole that followed concerning moving the car to a safer place, phoning the insurance company and the windscreen repairer etc. Suffice to say, we went to pick up Alex who had been cared for by the deputy (even to the extent that when we arrived they were on the hunt for something for Alex to snack on!) and then went home.

As I said it was the worst day (I can't stop feeling guilty for hurting someone, even though it was an accident) as well as the luckiest day. Lucky that he wasn't hurt too seriously (he so easily could have died), but also lucky to realise that there are so many lovely people in the world ready and willing to help in times of difficulty, and that they work and live in my area. How lucky is that???

Anyway, bye for now.

All of my love.

Janelle  :)

P.S. I thought about showing you a photo of my damaged car, but thought it was just a little gratuitous, but also luckily for me, there's really not that much damage to see. Just the smashed windscreen and some damage to the bonnet.

PPS. This is gratuitous, but I totally freaked out when I found tufts of hair stuck in the smashed windscreen. It still makes me feel sick to think of it.

Daydream Dreams

Just a quick post to show you some of the photos I took recently when my family went up to Daydream Island (on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia) for a wedding. It was only a long weekend (Thursday to Sunday), but we had so much fun, especially my son when he got to feed and play with stringrays and other marine creatures as part of a program they run. You should have seen him while he was helping present the Living Reef Show. He was a real ham!

 

 My husband, Darryl, my son, Alex and me

This is a Proserpine Wallaby - a native marsupial to the island. It's not white in colour (though a light brown) just in full sunlight.

This is Daydream Island taken from the ferry going back to Hamilton Island from where we were flying home.

What's so amazing about this region is that there are hundreds of very small islands all scattered throughout this one passage of water. In fact, if you didn't know better, you could easily think you were on an island in the middle of a huge lake, as from all viewpoints around the island, you can see land in the distance across the water, but it's just a lot of islands that sort of line up together so it looks like one huge landmass. If you wanted to, you could paddle from one island to the next quite easily. The landmass you see in the background of this last photo, though, is the mainland.

Loved the colours of the water and the coral (the water was so clear, in parts, I could see it under the water). On the way back home, I was envisaging a series of cards using the marine colours I saw (esp, that blue!) unfortunately life got in the way and I haven't done them yet.

Hope you enjoyed my snapshots of Australia.

Bye for now.

Love,

Janelle

My Box of Inspiration

As part of my rehabilitation of my creative juices, I watched a video from Sandy Allnock where she talks about the creative process. I especially liked a quote by Picasso  (originally heard from Kristina Werner), that she spoke about, 

At the time it really resonated with me, so I made a tool box and festooned it with that quote. 

I used a Kaisercraft chipboard BTP Scrapping Organiser that I covered with patterned papers from the Base Coat Collection. I painted the edges and drawer front with some Airondack Copper paint. After applying the quote using some old basic grey micro mono stickers, I painted over the quote with some multi-medium matt gel to seal the letters in place. To complete it, I added some strips of Papermania's Madame Payaud's patterned craft tape across the drawer.

Not only have I now got something to contain all of my craft stuff that I can carry around the house with me; but I have something to keep me going when I'm not feeling so inspired. This is really so great as I've been trying to contain all of the stuff I regularly use. There's a section for my embossing and stamping stuff, a section for glues, etc; a section for tools, pens, etc; and at the back there's a deeper section for scissors, ruler, heat gun and rolls of adhesive strip. The drawer is going to be for the ink pads that I regularly use as well as blending sponges etc. You should see my craft bench now!  :)

Thanks to Sandy Allnock for your inspiring words. I can't fully express what they really meant to me at the time.

Anyway, bye for now.

Love,
Janelle

Back at last!

So many times over the past months, I've made up blog entries in my head, only to have something come up before I was able to get it typed up. From sickness, family issues, computer failure, magazine commissions, lack of inspiration - you name it - I've had it!

I have so much to tell you about, but to start off, I'll tell my Aussie readers about a little shop in Brisbane where you can get your sequins at an amazing price. The shop is called Bead Trimming and Craft Company and is found at Stones Corner. They have a wide range of colours, sizes and shapes of sequins.

About a month ago they had a fire in their upstairs section that housed the Doll and Teddy Bear Hospital, but apparently all is fine and they are back in business.

The selection of sequins you can see in the photo show a few that I picked up when I was there. I bought 2g of each colour and that's probably heaps to last a long time. Check them out.

I also took advantage of the Scrapbook Expo that was in Brisbane (June 6-8). This year I went the entire three days and did heaps of classes (concentrating on cardmaking techniques (of course) but also doing a couple of scrapbooking classes with a girlfriend on the Monday.) Next year, can someone please remind me not to go the whole three days - it almost killed me! I could hardly move on the Tuesday and it took over a week to fully recover from it. My CFS just isn't up to such abuse!  :)

It was worth it with some fantastic classes and heaps of ideas. I'll be including some photos of projects I did over the next couple of days, but I'm going to show you this card I made during the Expo. As soon as I saw the stamp used on this card, I just knew I had to give it to my husband for our anniversary this year. It was part of a set I made with Rachel Greig from Darkroom Door and used some of Dina Wakley Media Paints. These are great for multi-layering with stencils, brayering and stamps.

(The colours aren't quite right - they are much more vibrant IRL.)

Bye for now,
Love 
Janelle

Welcome from the city of the G20

Hi to all!

Just wanted to say "Hi," and to let you know that all is reasonably fine in the crafting world of A Dash of Flash.

I've been trying, lately, to create my first video tutorial. It's slowly coming along, but I am hoping to get it to you by the end of this week. What it's about - you'll have to wait and see. It's quite difficult to get everything working together to get the various bits filmed and then edited, but I'm liking the results so far. What I could have done with is an enormous cage with a camera spot right over the table, so I could just climb in and everything would be in place (No shadows from the tripod legs) - unfortunately, no-one's going to be building me a cage any time soon. :)

Things are really different in my city at the moment with the G20 conference taking place. Too bad we're having a heat wave this weekend with the expected temperature to reach 40 degrees Celsius tomorrow. It's so hot! You know that song that goes "you'll always find me in the kitchen at parties", well I'm making my theme song "you'll always find me in my bedroom on hot days". Ha! 

My husband went into the city the other night and took photos of some of the buildings that had been lit up for the G20. I'm also hoping to get a photo to share, once he gets around to downloading it from his phone.

It's also pretty busy with end of year school activities, as my son gets ready to finish his primary schooling. There's the end of year school concert, puberty talks, the high school induction program, as well as his graduation night dance. Over the past fortnight we went shopping for an outfit for him to wear and he is going to look so cool ! We got him a dark grey pair of trousers, long sleeved white shirt with a light blue striped tie and a grey vest to go with it. He'll be wearing black shoes, belt and a grey hat (I think it's called a trilby) with it.

Anyway, that's all from me for now.

Love,

Janelle