Just Flowers

Morning everyone, a new challenge at Allsorts where Lynn is looking for Flowers on our creations. Prizes come from Highlight Crafts,  AALL and Create and Stampendous. There's a change to publication of July winners, due to me being out of action for a while (explanation in post below) it will now be (hopefully) early August.

I have two shares, above uses one of Abs new AALL and Create releases called This Much is True (1175), stamped, coloured and cut onto an oval aperture and placed inside an ornate die frame which I think is Carnation Crafts. Sentiment from Power of the Word.

Above a rather bright one with lots of Summer Flowers, first step was to stamp Twilight Lily and Shadow Bloom and cover the blooms with masking fluid, when dry I saturated the card (using 600gsm Fabriano which won't warp), sprinkled four colours of Brushos at the top and added more water to encourage the colour to run down the page. When dry Shadow Bloom was stamped again a couple more times in grey so it blended into the background. Rubbed off all the masking fluid and coloured the flowers with Ecoline pens and stamped Lumus Fairy (small) and some Bumble Bees from Bumblehums and coloured those and the Fairy winds with Posca sparkle and Wink of Stella pens.

And as we are talking Flowers, a few of the Sunflowers in the garden, some are not that tall this year which seems odd given all the rain we've had, the little Miss is our Poppy who likes to be involved in everything, in fact we're certain she believes she runs the whole household and definitely controls the three Labs.

Icy Cool and blog break

Before I go onto my shares, apologies in advance I won't be active in blogland/commenting for a while as I'm having to take an enforced break. I'm going into hospital next week for kidney surgery, some follow up treatment and they tell me a six week recovery period. Luckily I do work ahead so have most of my work ready and busily scheduling challenge and DT posts for the next few weeks. But blog visiting will be if and when I feel up to it, will have to play it by ear.

It's mid month inspirational time at We Love Stamping where our theme is Sun, Sand and Sea with the usual A/G option and at Stamping Sensations Anything Goes with an option of Christmas in July. Prizes come from AALL and Create and CraftStash.

Above I used AALL and Create Penguin (604) and Frosty (603), some crackle paste snowflakes using Snow Crystals (221). I added a stamped heart to the larger Penguin but not sure which A&C set that comes from. Penguin and Frosty are in the prizes this month and such useful fun sets which I use a lot.

This was another of the recent Penny Black stamps I purchased a month or two back, it's called Shaded View (40-895), I'm not really sure if it's the Ocean or a lake, very much puts me in mind of the beautiful Italian Lakes where we have visited so many times......that said if it is I should have added a bit if snow to the mountain. Pan Pastels for the colouring and just simple stamping using brush markers direct to stamp.

Going round in circles

Morning everyone, a new challenge at Allsorts, Lorraine is our host and would love to see some Circles on our work. Prizes come from Highlight Crafts, AALL and Create and Stampendous.

I was a lucky girl to receive a surprise early package with the new release of Lavinia stamps so spent several days at play and thought this one represented a circle to fit with this weeks theme. This release has three silhouette Fairies and some quite large stamps a bit different to their usual sizing, Lilies and Hummingbirds which require colouring to bring them to life.......there started my challenge!

Above I used Flower Divine 1 and stamped six times round a softly inked circle to help me keep the shape, stamped the smaller of the two Hummingbirds in the centre along with three bees from Bumblehums and coloured all with a Ecoline plus Posca pens to bring in some sparkle. The Hummingbird is also covered in part with stickles so has a lovely sparkle although not that evident in the photo. 

This one features the larger Lumus Fairy (she also comes in a smaller version facing the other way) another Bee from Humblebum (link above) resting in her hand, lots of Lilies across the bottom using Twilight Lily which I absolutely love and across the top elements of Shadow Bloom. I used three graduated size masks to create the circles, colouring using the same mediums as above and a sentiment from Bumble Words. Linking this across to the Summer Moon theme at Lavinia.

Thought some of you would like this photo of our Green Woodpecker family, they have two young and this was one of them being fed out in the orchard. As is the norm the female is not as pretty as the male and I am guessing by the coloured head of the juvenile it's a male. We also have a family of Great Spotted Woodpeckers which are beautiful with the bright red markings, but they move pretty swiftly compared with the green and I'm never quick enough to get a photo.

Have a good weekend and my appreciation for your visits.

Tropical paradise v Wintertime

Morning everyone, time for new challenges at We Love Stamping where our theme is Sand and Sea as selected by Faith. At Stamping Sensations a change to how we do things and it's Anything Goes with an option for those who like a challenge, this month the option is Christmas in July. Prizes come from and Craft Stash and AALL and Create.

Above a Penny Black stamp I've had for a very long while called Paradise (40-691), I created the sky with pans pastels before stamping the image using Distress Markers direct to stamp, added sand and sea again with Pan Pastels and a fence using a really old stamp of which I have no idea of name or make other than it was purchased in America. The sentiment is from Inkylicious.

Here I've used AALL and Create Robin and Nuthatch (690) and Jolly Elements (560), an inked and stencilled (Evergreen 159) background, Robin and Poisettias stamped again, cut out and decoupaged. A moonlight gelly roll pen to add dots to create a circle, a few garden twigs, twine and finito. 

I am popping over to the Snippets Playground with this one, the Robin, Poinsettias and woeds are all stamped onto snippets.

Congratulations

Morning everyone, a new challenge at Allsorts where Liz would like to see makes for Romantic Occassions, or of course the A/G option. Prizes come from Highlight Crafts,  AALL and Create and Stampendous.

Annabel our second eldest Granddaughter became engaged recently, Sam her new Fiancee proposed whilst they were on holiday in Canada, he went all prepared with the ring and took her by surprise on a boat trip.

This is the card I made for them, a similar design to a couple of others I have made as I find the design pleasing on the eye and can be easily adapted to different colourways. The heart is from AALL and Create Forget Me Not (896) and stencil Rosey Posey (138), when I was first sent the heart stamp set I was doubtful I would use it much, how wrong I was! I used new Versafine Clair colours to lightly stencil the background and stamp the heart, stamped just the flower twice more to cut out to decoupage and a computer generated sentiment.

Rather belatedly my share for the Card Chain Challenge which featured the colour option of Navy, Turquoise, Gold and Summer, it went to Imke in Germany. I used a Lisa Horton layering stencil and die and placed over an aperture of a TL lattice insert. 

Way to Grow

Morning everyone and first I must thank you for all your Birthday wishes and cards this week, if I've not done so I will get round to thanking you all but a tad déjà vu, nasty meds, kidney pain, migraines etc. But at least the sun has been shining which is wonderful.

At Allsorts Gail is hosting her first challenge since joining the team and has the fun theme of 'Way to Grow'. Prizes come from Highlight Crafts,  AALL and Create and Stampendous.

Lots of different AALL and Create stamps The Great Outdoors (370), Flower Journey (904) and Elemental Notes (905), stencilled background using Digits Checked (110). I masked border stamped with Elemental Note, coloured ad cut out the wellies and sentiments form same set as the wellies with a pen nib to reflect the border. Popping to Path of Positivity with this one......and the Snippets Playground as the wellies, flowers, birdie and sentiments strips are all offcuts.

A card for the new Rudolph Days challenge, the bauble stencil which so many of us have is from Sweet Poppy, DI's to add the colour, Lavinia Rabbit and Hare and sentiment from my Christmas Magic stamp set (£16.99 here mounted, £14.99 unmounted, or from Create and Craft TV). 

Butterflies, Bees and blooms

Morning everyone, a new challenge at Allsorts and Mervi had chosen the theme of 'Bees, Blooms and Butterflies', although I'm actually hosting this week as Mervi has left the team after more than ten years, we really will miss her. Prizes come from Craft Stash, Highlight Crafts and AALL and Create and winners will be drawn on Friday.

The focal image is is called Insectual Healing (1093), one of Abs (AALL and Create) own designs as is the Frayed Frames (26) die. Image coloured with Ecoline pens, always a challenge for me, especially shading so as my youngest Son always say's "it is what it is".

Thanks for all your kind messages earlier in the week, partly sorted but a little way to go still, felt OK after the procedure, it's the meds now making me feel ropey and hoping some can stop after next CT scan.

Happy weekend all.