Oh Deer! No backing papers - Charisma Cardz

I've got a fairly simple card to show you today, made using the Woodware deer set again, which I'm really keen on using for Christmas cards. This week's Charisma Cardz Challenge calls for no patterned papers which I decided was ideal to show off this stepped card. I learnt how to make the stepped card in a class at Made by You, which also used the deer stamps. I've used Distress Inks in different shades of brown to make up the scenes for my card and the sentiment is also a Woodware one. Matted onto bronze pearlised card, a couple of pieces of card candy added in brown and finished!

Twisted Thursday #31 - Friendship

It's time for Twisted Thursday where Shirleys2Girls challenge you to follow a sketch - with a twist! Here's what you have to do: Create a card, following this week’s sketch and “Twist” which is to use Flowersoft, Flocking or Felt - something soft. You are not required to use Shirley’s 2 Girls stamps, but if you've got them, we'd love to see you use them! Upload your card to your favorite online gallery and/or your blog. If you upload to SCS or PCP, please use the keywords S2GSC31 AND shirleys2girls. Post a direct link to your card using Mr. Linky on the Challenge Blog, here. The deadline for uploading your card is Wednesday, 4 November, 2009 at midnight PDT.The winning card will be chosen by Random.org, the lucky winner will get to choose a stamp from the Shirley’s 2 Girls product list, and their winning card or other project will be showcased on the Shirley's 2 Girls Challenge Blog Please do visit the other Ladies with Attitude, check out their amazing creations and leave them some love:
Karolyn
Debbie
Joy
Justine
Pat
Erin


Now onto my card: I used the adorable Friendship stamp, available here from Shirleys2Girls.

I was truly challenged by the Twist here, I do NOT like Flowersoft or Flocking and I was not prepared to use them around the image :). So I coloured my image with Copics and added a smidgeon of Flowersoft to the centre of my sunflower, which wasn't too bad. Then I added more Flowersoft to a line of double sided tape on my card and decided that enough was enough LOL! I'll be interested to see how the rest of the Ladies With Attitude use it, hopefully they will be a little more adventurous than I am :). The papers I've used are Basic Grey Indian Summer, but I have added my own Twist by overstamping with the Peace Page stamp from Shirleys2Girls onto the square and the circle. I do love this stamp for backgrounds, it's beautiful, isn't it? The jewel brads are from stash and work with the Autumn colours.

I can't wait to see all the entries to this week's Twisted Thursday, be sure to enter and then you're in with a chance to win!

Close up:

My Grafico Challenge #22 - sketch

This week at the My Grafico Challenge we have a great sketch from Mary to work with. This week we are showcasing the pretty Mix and Match Flower Stems set by Mujka, available here. To win this set you need to enter the Challenge, which is either to make a Thank You card, or follow Mary's sketch, or even do both! You have until midnight Sunday to enter.

My card follows the sketch. I've printed the stem out onto pink pearlised card matted onto bronze pearlised card. The image is stamped onto the same card and added to it. The two papers behind the image are Basic Grey Indian Summer and some ribbon from my stash completes a very simple Get Well card.

Whiff of Joy Challenge #52

Here's a card I made for this week's Whiff of Joy challenge, which uses a sketch by Heather. I found the sketch quite a challenge, and I also made things tricky by using some very pretty, but non-traditional coloured DP from My Mind's Eye. I like the image, like the DP, but I'm not sure they are a match made in heaven!

This is a bit of a blog candy card: I was lucky enough to win the Father Christmas stamp from a Patchwork Planet celebration of a new stamp launch and the charm on the card was one I won from Lorraine's Simon Says candy :).

Father Christmas is coloured with copics, edged with Broken China Distress Ink and with Fluffy Stuff added to his hat and coat. The papers is My Mind's Eye with some plain cardstock to contrast, stitching added and the charm.

The First Shirleys2Girls Blog Hop - with Blog Candy!

Hello and welcome to the 1st S2G Members Blog Hop sponsored by Shirley's2Girls! If you've just happened upon my blog, you can CLICK HERE to start from the beginning at the S2G Challenge Blog.

The first card I've got to show you is a clean and simple card for a change (ahem the truth is I made a humdinger of a Halloween project, photographed it, posted it off and lost the photos from my hard drive, so this is a late substitute). I've used the fabulous Bee-lieve stamp from Shirleys2Girls stamped direct to a Kraft card. Don't forget, because these are clear stamps you can shape and curve the sentiment. Shape behind the dog is paper pieced and there are co-ordinating punched borders either side of him. My second card is a pop-up, I learnt an easy way to make these just a week ago and I think they're fun! This uses Ghoul Friends, I saw a wonderful project by Karolyn (check it out here) of a light that uses this stamp for a silhouette and thought it would work well for a pop-up. The paper is Basic Grey Eerie, I just have a little of my 12" sheet left now...

Now you've checked out my cards, how about a prize? In addition to the fabulous eye candy, we have decided to hide a prize somewhere along the hop! One pre-selected blogger will draw a random winner from the comments on her post, and the winner will receive a free stamp from Shirley’s2Girls. The fun part is...we're not telling you who it is! So as you hop, make sure you leave comments on every post so you have a chance to win!! We will announce the winner on Monday in the SNR S2G Forum.Thanks so much for stopping by! Now it's time to hop on over to Deanne's blog , hope you've enjoyed your visit :).

A Winter's Tale

I've put aside computer woes for a little while and spent some time getting inky, so here is my House Mouse Challenge card. This week's challenge is movies. I checked and yes, Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale has been made into a film, so I can get away with that for the title of my card. I've followed Claudia's sketch from Friday Sketchers Challenge, just adding in a round sentiment. Great sketch Claudia, thanks.

House Mouse stamp coloured with watercolour pencils, sentiment from Creative Expressions (trimmed down), Fancy Pants papers from Stamp Attic, ribbon from stash.

Back up your designs & photos!

Thanks to several blog entries that were scheduled ahead of time you have hopefully not noticed my absence from my seat at the computer! The hard drive on my shiny new computer, less than a year old, has totally failed and I have lost all my data since I last backed it up. And when did I last back up? Umm... months ago. So that's all my digi designs, family photos, music downloads, emails, you don't realise how much stuff until it's disappeared. We've checked and no, it's not recoverable. I've got the old pc set up now and I have one thing to say to everyone:

Always back up your hard disk - just because it's not your work pc doesn't mean it's not important!

I'd like to give a shout for Mo Manning's Digital Pencil, Bearly Mine Designs and for Makinghandmadecards.com; I've bought from allrecently and all have been quick to replace the data I've lost - so a big THANK YOU!

Twisted Thursday #30

It's time for Twisted Thursday where Shirleys2Girls challenge you to follow a sketch - with a twist! Here's what you have to do: Create a card, following this week’s sketch and “Twist” which is to use a pumpkin somewhere on your card. You are not required to use Shirley’s 2 Girls stamps, but if you've got them, we'd love to see you use them! Upload your card to your favorite online gallery and/or your blog. If you upload to SCS or PCP, please use the keywords S2GSC30 AND shirleys2girls. Post a direct link to your card using Mr. Linky on the Challenge Blog, here. The deadline for uploading your card is Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at midnight PDT.
The winning card will be chosen by Random.org, the lucky winner will get to choose a stamp from the Shirley’s 2 Girls product list, and their winning card or other project will be showcased on the Shirley's 2 Girls Challenge Blog Please do visit the other Ladies with Attitude, check out their amazing creations and leave them some love:

Karolyn

Debbie

Joy

Justine

Pat

Erin
My card uses the fab digi image It's Hallow-scream! available from Shirleys2Girls, coloured with Copics and a white pen. The cat is printed and coloured twice and popped up on foam pads to give him dimension, not sure how well it shows in the photo... I've cropped the background away from it and put it on a circle of DP. Couldn't resist buying a sheet of Basic Grey Eerie for the background, added in ribbon from stash, flowers cut with a punch.

Copic Colour Challenge #36 - Join me for a spell

I was lucky enough to be invited to be a Guest Designer for Copic Colour Challenges for this week. This week the colours to use, if you have them, are Adele's choices: G99 Olive, V17 Amethyst and YR68 Orange. If you don't have them, use the closest you've got, as long as you use Copics :).

The colours just shouted out Halloween to me, so I reached for a Jinx stamp from Shirleys2Girls, you can buy them here and, even better, they are on special offer, 25% off until 31 October. Jinx is, of course, coloured with my Copics, there is some Glossy Accents on her hatband and the bubbles. The background to the image is painted with watercolor paint in a blotchy olive.The cobweb DP is a free download from the generous Summer Driggs, purple and green are from a Bearly Mine Designs CD. The ribbon is white organza that I coloured with my Amethyst Copic, it's stiched down with a decorative machine stitch, as are the other papers.

Hope you like my card and that it's inspired you to join in this week's Copic Colour Challenge.

Feeling Crumby?

It's challenge time at My Grafico and this week we've gone retro with a fun digi set of vintage appliances which you can buy here. If you'd like to win this set there are two challenges on the blog, one a colour challenge, the other a sketch and you can enter either or both.

The theme at the Simon Says Challenge this week is Get Well Soon and was published just as I was getting ready to post this. Couldn't resist entering, I think this is a really fun Get Well card. I'm trying to decide whether or not to send it to my Post Pal, usually we're asked not to put things like "get well soon" on their cards because their illness is likely to be so serious, but I thought this might make her smile... What do you think? I'd like to interrupt my blog post with a quick commercial for Post Pals here :) If you're a cardmaker please think about looking at their site and sending off a few cards to brighten the day for an ill child who may be undergoing treatment for cancer, leukaemia, any of the life threatening illnesses.

I've taken a slight liberty with the sketch and made it into a pop-up card, after all what could be more appropriate for an image of a toaster? :0). Image is coloured with Copics in that vintage appliance blue and the words use a free font download, they are also coloured with Copics. The images are edged with China Blue Distress Ink and matted onto navy. The papers on the pop-up part of the card were free ones that came with a magazine and I've stamped swirls from a Personal Impressions stamp set around the edge of the main card in the same China Blue.

Autumn elf

This week Mo Manning's digital challenge is to use colours that remind you of Autumn. I love this image which is one of the first Mo images I bought and he works really well in Autumn colours. Truly Scrumptious also has an Autumn theme to use with its sketch. The slight complication to combining these challenges is that Mo's challenge can only use two embellishments and the Truly Scrumptious sketch could use lots! I've limited myself to two embellishments: flowers and card candy (faux brads). There's one Prima flower and the others are cut with a punch but hopefully the different species still count as one :)

Mo Manning image coloured with Copics and Promarkers, edged with Distress Ink in Scattered Straw and Tea Dye. Papers are a mixture of Basic Grey and Summertime Designs.

Jinx is haunting a magical ten challenges!

There are an astonishing number of Halloween Challenges to play along with this week and I thought it was time to use another of the fab-boo-lous Jinx stamps from Shirleys2Girls. You can buy Jinx here, all the Halloween stamps are currently on sale at 25% off.

• I started with Domi's sketch from this week's Simon Says Challenge
• Corrosive Challenges has the theme Spooky Times
• Papertake's Challenge is The Dark Side
• Cute Card Thursday has a Spook Fest challenge
• Cupcake Craft Challenge this week is Things That Go Bump In The Night
• One Stop Craft Challenge this week is Boo!
• ABC's Challenge is F for flying
• StampArtic is another Boo! Challenge
• Creative Friday is a Halloween Challenge
  
• Pile It On has a Ready for Halloween Challenge which makes it a magical TEN challenges. Now I know lots of people manage to fit many more challenges than that into one card, but it's a lot for me :).

Jinx is coloured with Copics, the moon and sky are painted with Distress Inks. Image and scalloped mat cut out with Nestabilities, purple lace, brads and flowers are from my stash, the flowers are coloured with Copics. The background paper is from Summer Drigg's free downloads.

BOO! - Heads up for a Halloween Sale

Shirleys2Girls have a scary 25% off all their Halloween stamps until 31 October, be sure to pick up what you need while the sale is on :)

Let it Snow

Here's another card made with that Woodware deer stamps set, this time looking very different for Stamp Something's Bling It Up Challenge and also for If The Shoe Fit's Bling It On Challenge. I've also discovered a new-to-me blog called Saturday Spotlight Challenge, their challenge this week is to make a scene. This is a variation of a card I saw in Made By You when I went there for a class. This card looks much better in real life than in the photo, I find mirror card and sparkly embossing very hard to photograph, sorry.

The idea of the card is to experiment with some quick and easy cards for Christmas. The hills are made by sponging Versamark onto navy cardstock, over torn photocopying paper hills and embossing with Silver Tinsel embossing powder. Then I've added trees, moon and deer and embossed again. The snow is made with Liquid Pearls, that have Glamour Dust scattered across while they're still wet, there's also some on top of the hills, though it's hard to see in the photo. Matted onto silver card and then more navy, sentiment added and also a couple of rhinestones in case it needed more bling :).

It's quite a quick card to make, what do you think? I think it needs something more, but then it may not be a quick and easy card any more...

Yes, Deer, it's a Pop-up Card!

A month or so back I bought a beautiful Woodware stamp set of reindeer and backgrounds, fell in love with it but couldn't think how or what to make. I was in the shop where I bought them earlier this week, Made By You, and the owner showed me a series of three gorgeous and different cards that she made with them, for a class. I never seem to be available for a class on the days they are being taught, but Pat very kindly let me tag onto another stamping class today and play with the reindeer!

This is all stamped and sponged with Distress Ink in Soot and Weathered Wood, so I'm entering it for Charisma Card's Challenge this week, It's so Distressing

Torn paper was used to shape the hills which were added using ink on Cut & Dry foam. The moon, trees, fence, grass and deer silhouettes are all from the same set, as are the reindeer embossed in white on black card. The reindeer are cut out and attached with foam pads. A Christmas sentiment is stamped and matted onto the pop-up and I've stamped black scrolls around the main card. Here's a detail of the pop-up:

Now I've made this card I can see how simple pop-up cards can be, but this was something I've put off doing - until now. The pop-up was easy, the most time consuming part was cutting out round those antlers! Please forgive the pun but I can see this card style popping up a lot on my blog in the near future :).

Twisted Thursday Challenge #29

It's time for Twisted Thursday where Shirleys2Girls challenge you to follow a sketch - with a twist!

Here's what you have to do::
*Create a card, following this week’s sketch and “Twist” which is to use chipboard.
*You are not required to use Shirley’s 2 Girls stamps, but if you've got them, we'd love to see you use them! Upload your card to your favorite online gallery and/or your blog.
*If you upload to SCS or PCP, please use the keywords S2GSC29 AND shirleys2girls. Post a direct link to your card using Mr. Linky on the Challenge Blog, here.
*The deadline for uploading your card is Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at midnight PDT. The winner will be chosen by Deidre and Kristine, aka Shirleys2Girls.
*The winner will get to choose a stamp from the Shirley’s 2 Girls product list, and the winning card will be showcased on the Shirley's 2 Girls Challenge Blog

Please do visit the other Ladies with Attitude, check out their amazing creations and leave them some love:
Karolyn
Debbie
Joy
Justine
Shelly
Pat
Erin

The DT is having a great time playing with the new release of cat stamps at Shirleys2Girls and I couldn't resist Like A Book (sg617). From preference I'm a dog person, but I have many friends who adore the cats they are owned by. This stamp is very, very like my dear friend Shona who has two cats, I have seen her many a time with a cat who was quite happy not to sit on her lap - until she picks up her book :).

Image is coloured with Copics, the background is watercoloured and the specs have Glossy Accents on them. The papers are Blossoms & Butterflies from DCMV. I've stuck some of the paper onto a Grungeboard scroll and put it on the card (well you wouldn't know it wasn't chipboard if I hadn't told you, would you?) and used the paper cut into circles, crumpled and cut into segments for flowers. Ribbon is from stash and the sentiment is part of the stamp.

I had fun with this sketch, Can't wait to see everyone's entries!

It's a Boy!

This is a just-in-time (I hope!) entry to Friday Sketchers, I loved Beatrix's sketch but have kept running out of time to finish the card I began. The card is for Alison Acton, the designer for Whiff of Joy who creates all their beautiful animal stamps. Alison is expecting a baby boy, who is due tomorrow! I don't know if it's a planned birth or if he could keep her waiting... Whichever, Alison was a big part in the blog hop party that Whiff of Joy held in July to celebrate her new stamp release. She chatted online with everyone for hours and was so friendly and fun to "talk" with. Katharina from Whiff of Joy came up with the lovely idea of getting as many crafters as possible to send cards to Alison and her husband Jim, check out her blog here for the details.

The very cute Dexter Bear is from Sugar Nellie, he's coloured with watercolours, he and his frame are cut out with Nestabilities. The paper is a freebie from a magazine, overlaid with torn vellum. The paper strip with "It's a boy" is also from a magzine freebie and I've cut strips of ribbon for the bow and the flower in the sketch. The photo is not great but it's dark and I've only just finished the card, hope to replace it with a better one tomorrow...

Best wishes to Alison and Jim!

My Grafico Challenge 20 - tags

It's Challenge Time again on MyGrafico. This week we are using a fun tag set, available here. You can win the set if you enter the Challenge. You can play along by making something with and include buttons, or you can follow a sketch as I've done.

My card follows the sketch to make a CAS Halloween card. I printed the rectangle tag, in two sizes onto DP downloaded from Summer Driggs' site. The larger tag has paper pieced pumpkins and a witch from a stamp set by Creative Expressions, the smaller tag uses a mini alphabet to stamp out "Boo!". The other DP comes from Artylicious.

Don't forget, you've got to be in to win :)

Meet the Fab-boo-lous Jinx the Minx

Here's my first card using the new Shirleys2Girls stamps for Hallowe'en. Hallowe'en is not something I'm into in a big way, but Jinx the witch is simply irresistible, love her bat necklace:). I've also used one of their "Spookies", a small stamp with a pumpkin on.
I've used Jinx for several challenges:

• The sketch is from Sketch & Stash Challenge. Old stash is the purple buttons and new stash the new stamps which you can buy here.
• This week, Simon Says Boo! Make a Halloween Card
  
• A Spoonful of Sugar's Challenge this week is also to make a Halloween card
• Just discovered a new-to-me challenge blog, 2RedBananas has a Halloween theme as well
• Cupcake Craft Challenge is to use stitching and buttons.

Jinx was stamped onto white card and onto DP. The white card was coloured with Copics and paper pieced onto the DP. Image was mounted onto pearlescent card and layered. Ribbon and buttons were from stash, I've stitched around Jinx and around the outside of the card. Spookie was coloured with Copics and cut out. Papers are free downloads from the generous Summer Driggs, apart from the spotty purple paper which is from Crate Paper. I've used Glossy Accents on the Spookie and on Jinx's hatband.

Exciting News!

A few days ago I was asked by Deidre and Kristine, aka Shirleys2Girls, if I would like to join their Design Team as a guest for the next 4-6 weeks. I've admired their stamps since I got my first one in an order that a friend brought back from the US last Christmas for me and I certainly didn't need to think twice about this request :). Since then they have branched out and offer digi images as well as clear stamps, so there is always that instant gratification on offer :).

I was so thrilled to be able to accept and I hope you'll enjoy seeing some of the wonderful new creations from the "Ladies with Attitude". The regular challenge is Twisted Thursday, with a sketch to follow as well as a twist. You don't need Shirleys2Girls images to join the challenge, but if you join their group over on SNR Card Universe there are freebie digi images to download. Hope you'll join us on Twisted Thursday!

A Day Without Coffee... Well You Don't Want To Know!

There's still time to join in the Digi-Day Challenge run by Shirleys2Girls over on SNR Card Universe. There is a free digi-image and set of sentiments to use with it. Create something with it and post it on SNR Card Universe before tonight and you could win an Shirleys2Girls stamp. If you join the group there (easy, no strings attached) even better. At present there are over 130 members of the group. If we get to 150 or more members then the Girls will post another free image to use!

I've based my card on the simple, effective sketch at Card Positioning Systems for their challenge this week and I've followed Stamp Something's Challenge of using of mainly using the colour brown.

The digi image was coloured using copics; the edges were inked with Distress Ink and Adirondack Mushroom, the steam and marshmallows were added with "Fluffy Stuff" snow. Papers are Basic Grey mounted onto metallic brown card, ribbon from stash. I've more ideas for this digi; watch this space :). Oh and don't forget to join in the fun over at SNR Card Universe.

Falling for Autumn

Stampin' for the Weekend has made a welcome return to the list of challenge blogs; this week there is a colour challenge to use orange, brown and leafy green, which also fits the challenge at the Secret Crafter to use autumn colours. I think this Whiff of Joy image epitomises Autumn, it was sent to me by my generous blogging friend Vanja.

Image was coloured with Copics and edged with Distress Ink in Peeled Paint. Image was cut out with Nestabilities, the border in the striped DP uses a Woodware punch. Apart from the plain orange cardstock, all papers come from Summer Drigg's generous free download sets. The sentiment is the centre of a Hero Arts stamp with the border trimmed off, the ribbon and brad are from stash.

A Day at the Races

Today we were lucky enough to be guests of friends who belong to the Royal Ascot Racing Club. When you leave the club room with it's squashy sofas and unending streams of canapes, lunch, afternoon tea and constant champagne and go across to view the racecourse, this is the balcony view, right above the finish line:
These bronze statues are in the old paddock, now the pre-parade ring:

We went into the paddock with their runner, which finished a close second in a very hot race. It holds an entry in the Derby, which it's sire won for the Racing Club and everyone went home with plenty to dream about over the winter...

Happy Bark-Day

It's Twisted Thursday Challenge time again, this week the twist is to add something metal or a metal tag to the card. I've not totally followed the sketch, this is a very uncluttered card for my FIL, I tried adding different shapes and embellies but they just didn't look right.

Happy Bark-Day, from Shirleys2Girls, is a lovely image to paper piece, it comes with four different sentiments and I've used two here. Because they're clear stamps they can be shaped to the stamp and that's what I've done with the "dog years" words. Paper pieced onto Basic Grey papers, with the cake coloured with Copics. Metal brads at the corners. The two other DPs are free downloads from the talented and generous Summer Driggs. The photo isn't great, I hope to get a better one in the morning...

Bella & Bronte's Purple Challenge

There is another new Challenge blog on the block - this time it is from the wonderful Mo Manning who creates digital art. Mo is very generous with her freebies if you check out her online groups, so there's no excuse not to enter :).

The Challenge this week is to use purple and I've combined this with Papertake's sketch challenge, which has another of Dawny P's very usable sketches.

I've coloured Bella & Bronte go ice skating with my Copics and added Dusty Concord Distress Ink around the edges. The sentiment is an old standby from Imagepac and ribbons and gems are from stash. The papers are all from Artylicious CDs. I do love this image, poor Bronte looks very unimpressed with his new sport :).

My Grafico Sketch Challenge #19 - breast cancer awareness month

This week there are two Challenges at the My Grafico Challenge Blog and you can enter for either or both. On Monday the challenge was to make anything pink, today there is a fun sketch from Melissa to follow. To mark breast cancer awareness month the prize for this week's challenge you can win a set of designs highlighting it from Kelly Medina.

I've used the clip art version of Kelly's stamps to make my card. The flowers and butterfly are printed on paper that has been sprayed with Glimmer Mists in pastel shades. The flowers are mounted onto green Bazzill basics card and have a brad and Card Candy faux brads added, as well as Glamour Dust to give them a bit of sparkle. The butterfly is cut out into a circle and a larger circle of double-sided card glued over the top. The circle had a smaller circle drawn lightly onto it and I cut it into six pie segements, folding it back to expose the butterfly and show off the double sided card. The same card, from My Mind's Eye, was used on the main card, with the corners folded back and secured by more brads, with more card candy to finish it off, making a very pink, girlie card :)

Twisted Thursday - or spot the Shirleys2Girls stamp

I've made a fairly simple card for the Shirleys2Girls' Twisted Thursday Challenge this week, which is to follow the sketch and to use raffia or twine. I always like to use a S2G stamp for their challenge if I can, so where is it?

Yes, it's the large background stamp called Peace Page, isn't it stunning? I'm quite sad that quite a bit of it is hidden by the layout. I've stamped it onto plain white card with Cocoa Brown Memento ink and I've used Distress Inks on cut and dry foam in Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed and Worn Lipstick to colour it. It goes with the Artylicious DP with butterflies on it. All the papers were matted onto a bronze metallic paper, the butterfly is punched from it too; the sentiment is from Elusive Images and I've used twine around one of the pieces of DP. Well ok it's a thick thread, a posh twine if you like:).

I'm also entering the One Stop Craft Challenge this week, which has the theme Autumn Inspiration. The lovely Indian Summer that we've been enjoying has broken over the weekend and today was grey, cold and drizzly. We need the rain and all good things come to an end, the colours in the card remind me of the autumn sun we've enjoyed until now.