Oriental Poppies

Good Morning one and all, it's time for another Allsorts challenge and this week Amanda would like to see Oriental themed projects.

Before I move on to my card, a heads up that it's or second birthday in three weeks time and we are having a blog hop......please feel free to grab the logo above and help us spread the word.

I was really quite pleased when I was this theme because like lots of you I am sure, I have so many lovely Orients style stamps from a few years ago when they were so popular and it's nice to dust them down and create.

My main image is Hampton Arts 4523 Asian Poppy stamped onto a background spritzed with GM clover, tea rose and pearl. The frame was cut on a Nestie and I coloured the flowers with Copics and stamped the large poppy a second time and decoupaged. The base card is stamped with JudiKins 221J, a huge stamp but idea for backgrounds, the sentiment a Kanji cube from the Stamp Barn and the poppy made with TH tattered floral die.

Brayering demo work

Hello peeps, I thought I would share some of the work I did at my Stampalot demo on Good Friday.

So many people tell me they have a brayer, but never or rarely use it because things never turn out right. As with all things it's practice, but having the right products are so important. Time and again I find it's not the persons ability to brayer that's a problem, but what they are using and cardstock is the biggest culprit and with only the odd exception you need a coated cardstock, silk or gloss finish like this or this. And I can't recommend the good old Speedball brayer enough, along with Adirondack dye inkpads and Big and Juicy.

Fairly straightforward masking, brayering and stamping with a whole host of Art Impression stamps. I won't bore you and list them all out, but if you want to know the codes of any specifics please do drop me a mail.

In case nobody realised........as if, I'm so obvious.........I have a thing for creating little scenes and masking and stamping into apertures.........I know it might be a bit monotonous but I kind of think it sets the scene off so well.

So those of you who are 'closet brayerers', dust them down and have a go, it's such a rewarding form of crafting.

Rural scenes

A combination of Rural Scenery, Gypsy Caravan 2 and scenic sets.

Just a quick reminder about tomorrows new Stamp Addicts programme on Create and Craft at 11am....................all sets are available to buy now here and with free P&P.

Both cards are colured with Aquamarkers and the one below has a bit of brayering as well.

Same stamp sets as above

Blossoms and a candy winner

One of the gorgeous May hedgerows round the home paddock or to give them their official name Crataegus (hawthorn)

Good Morning peeps, hope you all had a good Easter and your weather was as beautiful as it was here. It was almost too good to believe, but in typical UK style, this morning it's dull and quite chilly.

The sun really gave the garden a push and lots more shrubs and plants are showing flower along with the beautiful hedgerows which my Dad planted about twenty years ago........they were just single shoots then.........and look at them now allowed to follow Nature with only trimming ever year or two. I adore the blossoms tinged with pink which look almost magical at dusk, like a veil of white in the distance and when the scent is at it's strongest.

I guess you would all like to know who has won my April candy, so here are the are the names:

Winner of the Stampalot voucher - Lorraine
Plus a little crafty suprise for Banshee and Adriana

Congratulations to you all, please all mail me brenda@ibas.co.uk with your postal addys and names before 1st May, when I will re-draw any unclaimed candy

Rhododendron (no idea of variety)

Hesky always takes a keen interest in photography - could just be he's an out and out poser

Ben as usual more interested in his stomach than the camera

Note the haircut's not finished, only his front feathers are trimmed so far

Bluebells peeping out from under the hedges round the top paddock

More Rhododendron

And the bottom paddock

I will be back with my May candy very soon...........................

April Showers

Happy Easter Everyone

I so hope the weather is still holding out for you all the same as it is here in the Fens. I had a wonderful day demoing at Stampalot yesterday......even if I did think it was Saturday and go into panic mode last night because the Allsorts post had not appeared as scheduled.

It was fabulous to see so many friendly faces yesterday and thank you all for coming along............I was really thrilled to meet some blogland peeps for the first time......Linby who travelled from Nottingham, Sue who came from Norfolk, the two ladies from Suffolk (please forgive me but names evade me at the moment, but I know you said you are visitors to my blog) plus of course all the 'regular' faces who are always a pleasure to see. An awful lot of chatter took place and as Janice mentioned, a lot of giggles came from the demo room, but I did get a bit of crafting done as well I promise you.

So now I've got my days straight and today definitely is Saturday there is a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Kirsten has chosen the theme April Showers. And there is a lovely set of Hero Arts stamps for this weeks winner donated by Sir Stamplaot.

A perfect opportunity to use one of my favourite slapstick stamps from Penny Black called Rain or Shine. The image is coloured with Aquamarkers and decoupaged. The DP is one of the new designs from Scribble Scrabble and I embossed a panel of matching bazzil with my Cuttlebug birds and swirls folder as it matches the pattern on the DP so well. I distressed the panel by sanding and embossing the edges with gold and added some perfect pearls to add a bit of sheen.

New stamps, TV & demo sneak peeks

Nose to Nose 40-057 One of the new Penny Black slapstick stamps

Good Morning peeps, hope you are all enjoying this nice weather, lets hope it continues for the Easter weekend.

Gypsy Caravan 2 and Cloud stamp sets

Good Friday I will be domoing at Sir Stampalot.........inky backgrounds, brayering and of course some Penny Black stamps along with Le Blanche. If you are in the area please do pop in for a chat and coffee.

The gorgeous Rosa 4184K Penny Black stamp

It decoupages beautifully coloured with Aquamarkers, inked with versamark frost and spritzed with Glimmer Mist pearls then moulded whilst wet. The DP is October Afternoon.

And another sneak peek at some of the stamps that will be included in Stamp Addicts next live TV programme at 11am on 27th April.........make a note in your dairy.

I'm still not able to spend long in front of the screen, so still shorts posts and not as many visits to you all as I would like, but when I do my DT commenting stints I try and stretch it a bit to visit a few peeps.

Why I love Spring

Clematis Montana

I thought I would share a few of the pictures I took yesterday when it was a lovely Spring day and the air full of heady scent from the beautiful blossoms around the garden.

These pictures sum up why I love this time of year so much.

Apple Blossom

Sophora Sun King

Viburnum Eskimo

Syringa Vulgaris (Lilac)

Choisya Ternata

More Montana Clematis

Potontilla Yellow Gem

Spirea Bridal Wreath

Harvey tree

(actually a Prunus, but it's been called the Harvery tree for years as our Palamino had a real taste for it when it was a young tree - amaging it survised really as he eat it to the ground several times)

Harvey a big boy standing at 16.1 hh

Kerria Japonica

Have a good Sunday everyone and hope you get some sunshine.

Tropical Paradise and another new TV show

A new Allsorts challenge and a heads up about another new Stamp Addicts TV programme on Create and Craft later this month.

My teamie Emma has come up with another of her fab sketches at Allsorts this week and I have done a bit of an unconventional take on it, but I thinks it follows the sketch and Emma won't rap my knuckles.

For the main central element I used a circle mask and stamped a tropical scene using an assortment of Stampscapes stamps, then brayered over with Adirondack due inks and added a bit of colour to the images with Copics. The DP was an oddment from stash and the sentiment is from Stamping Up.

Using Gypsy Caravan 2 and Scenic sets and Aquamarkers

Now on to the Stamp Addicts samples for the new programme scheduled for 11am on 27th April. Yet more yummy new scenic style stamp sheets, so as you can imagine I have been in my element again.

A real chocolate box cottage from the Rural set, along with the Scenic and Gypsy Caravan 2 sets.

Some more nice and inky work

I thought I would share the projects I prepared for the class at Stampalot last weekend. I know most of the girls have shared their makes on their own blogs, so thought I had better enter into the spirit of things and show mine. And of course all the stamps and papers etc., can be purchased from Sir Stampalot.

The top card and close up above uses the lovely technique that was in the March edition of Craft Stamper...........as soon as I saw this I just knew it had to be a class project. It's a bit of a lengthy process as it takes time to dry in between each process so the girls on Saturday made it over the course of the day between other work.

You use watercolour card and spritz three times with diluted TH distress refill ink......we used worn lipstick, peeled pain and brushed corduroy, allowing each layer to dry before adding more. Next a smearing here and there of Bead Gel, not a lot otherwise it won't take the stamping........this is the part that takes longest to dry. Finally you rub gold acrylic pain over the dried bead gel and as soon as that is dry you are ready to stamp with stayzon........silhoutte stamps give the best result for the main images......here I have used Hero Arts wild flowers and some Penny Black ones ramdomly stamped in the background.

A long procedure, but a very satisfying result. The strip of finished card is cut into three, some score lines, pearls, a button and twine added to finish the card.

For this one we used Memento inks and Glimmer Mist dazzling diamonds to create a background, then stamped Penny Black 4182K Butterfly Suite and coloured with Aquamarkers. The base card is stamped with Hero Arts Music using TH wild honey. The DP is one of the new Scribble Scrabble designs. The flower was made using TH tattered floral die, scrunched up and dipped into UTEE.

My final card used another stamp from Penny Black 4183K Sparkle and Hero Arts S5264 Antique Flower Background stamped onto the side of the base card. The flower was stamped and coloured with Aquamarkers three times to cut out and decoupage and the cut out petals inked with versamark frost, spritzed with Glimmer Mist pearl and moulded into shape before layering up. The DP is Kaiser.