Autumnal Leaves

Morning Peeps, I've been missing in blogland this week and again I must thank you for your kind words about my latest kidney procedure, I have to wait a two or three weeks for another CT scan but the consultant said he was "quietly optimistic" which sounds positive.

Now onto our new challenge at Allsorts where our host is Mervi, she has chosen the theme of 'Trees and Leaves', this weeks lucky winner will receive a die set from Tattered Lace's brand new cut and emboss range.

As a self confessed 'treeaholic' it's a theme I love working with and have used a new set (to me) from Penny Black, it's a clear stamp which I inked direct to stamp with Distress Markers using Autumnal colours, re-stamping and spritizing with water a few times using my stamp platform. Some stencilling in the background and a sentiment which I think is Inkylicious.

Have a good weekend all and many thanks for your kind visits.

 

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Poppy parade

Good morning Peeps, a really quick post as I forgot to scheduled this ahead of my latest 'mid week break' courtesy of the NHS and am pretty useless typing on my tablet. It's mid month time at Penny Black and More and Stamping Sensations challenges and here are my shares.

Now, I know the top card is a rarity for me as I don't do cute and sweet, but I came across the stamp at the bottom of one of my Penny Black draws, unused for year and though it would fit into our 'Animals' theme perfectly.

And this one uses stamps from Bee Crafty who are sponsors of this months 'Anything with Flowers' theme. This was a Birthday card for our daughter Joy, so fitting!

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A little crooked house

Morning Peeps, time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week I am your host and I have a theme with an optional twist, it's 'Anything Goes' with the option to take inspiration from this weeks prize, a recent new release A4 stamp set from Rare Earth. 

My top piece is inspired by the prize and is an A5 canvas, lots of paint and ink, crackle glaze and a Kim Moody House stamp made for a Hochanda TV show a while back. The rhyme is computer generated and some inked chipboard leaves and toadstools.

My second piece has a Distress Ink background, Inkylicious Poppies, Penny Black floral stems and  sentiment all stamped with Verafine Clair.

I do hope you will join us this week and wish you all a lovely weekend.

 

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Fanciful bird, Butterflies and Faeries

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday and time for a new challenge at Allsorts and our host this week is Helene and the theme of 'Autumn'. This week winner will receive a store voucher from JMC Designs.

Before telling you about my creation, a quick thank you for all the kind wishes and enquiries about my kidney procedure, I'm pleased to report that all went to plan this time and I was home the same day, one more repeat of the same in two weeks then another CT scan to see the outcome.

Back to Allsorts, I've known Julia the artist behind JMC Designs as a blogging friend for many years, so when she approached me after the launch of her on line store and asked about being a sponsor I was keen to help. And in so doing have stepped well outside my comfort zone by not only using digital images but colouring them in as well!!

I've never made any secret that I'm no colourist but I've given it my best shot! The image at the top is called Sarah who I coloured with Inktense Pencils, added some stencilling with DI and a Penny Black sentiment.

Warmed Cardamom above is a brand new release from Julia this week and you will find along with all her other images here, Julia has also created a sentiment sheet to go with these Autumnal images and I used on on the above card. This time I coloured in with my new Arteza brush pens, not entirely happy with how they worked and the bodice is a bit blotchy but it's early days with them.

I also have a card which I created for the new Butterfly Challenge and it's been pointed out to me that it also fits over at the Lavinia World Challenges so I am linking up there as well.

I succumbed........yet again........to some new Lavinia stamps and used them along with a few older ones including the Lunar Flowers which I adore, to create my scene. When I saw Semira this new Fairy I could envisage her with a kaleidoscope of Butterflies drifting from her outstretched hand which is how I have stamped the two images. The Butterfly Wheel requirements this time are: |Lapis Lazuli, Laser Lemon, Languid Lavender, Layers, Lace, Lattices and of course a Butterfly. The Lemon and Lavender are the inks used on the background, the Fairy, Butterflies, tiny Bunny and Tree are heat embossed with Judikins Lapis Lazuli EP, my layers come in the form of the larger Butterfly which is made up of two different sized Chocolate Baroque stamps, lace along the top and I inked a lattice stencil onto the background........but I'm not totally sure if this is what Mrs A is looking for so that one might be a tad tenuous.

Just a reminder that at Allsorts we are back to normal weekly challenges now the holiday period is over so I do hope you will join us. Have a good weekend everyone.

 

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To hear the Angels Whisper

It's time for our  new challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Anything goes with Flowers' and 'Animals'. As always there are wonderful prizes to be won at both.

A simple card for my Penny Black share using Lets Go Wild, a fairly old PB set but as the image are silhouettes one I use quite often as with a nice bold background you need little more, or in this case the addition of a sun, a die cut frame and some bunting which is also in the stamp set.

I've used Bee Crafty's BEAUtanical Peony for this one as they are our sponsors this month, a Distress Ink background built up with some  random background script stamping and circles stamped with the same inks using a lid from an embossing powder pot. I used Distress Markers direct to stamp to build up the colour on the Peony and a sentiment which is also from our sponsors.

And a couple of my Chocolate Baroque shares from my post yesterday on the DT blog using some of the new Christmas stamps released recently and the first is the lovely new Christmas Garden above and below the cute Gnome from the Tomte stamp set. All details can be found over on my post on the DT blog.

Have a good Sunday everyone.

 

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Feminine at Allsorts and Butterfly Challenge

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday and time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Lynn is our host and we are going all 'Feminine' for her chosen theme and Swedish House Crafts are our sponsors. I also have a card for the current Butterfly Challenge.

Again I'm apologising from being missing from blogland, a weekend away was closely followed by what should have been a routine kidney procedure, I say should have been as it all went a bit pear shaped so not had the best of weeks and I'm back in again at the beginning of September.

I'm not convinced I like the top card, I wanted to have a go letting the inks bleed which seem to be so popular to give a watercolour effect but to me the finished article is messy. Anyhow, using my stamp platform I used my normal Distress Markers and water to stamp the Penny Black image and then sloshed.......technical term......... a bit of water around the blooms to let the colours bleed out, as I said I think it's messy rather than attractive!! And my all time favourite PB sentiment.

What with non crafty things taking up my time lately I've not joined in the Butterfly Challenge for a few weeks but was determined to keep my promise and join in the current one where the Butterfly Wheel offers: Key Lime, Kraft, Kinetic, Knots, Kobi (Pink/Lavender), Kobe (Dark Burgundy) and of course a Butterfly or two. And I've got them all albeit the key lime is a tad tenuous just added to parts of the stamped images. The DP's take in the other colours, the base card is Kraft, a TL dies provide the Kinetics, ribbons tied with a knot and Butterflies on the stamps which are both Chocolate Baroque.

This is one of my recent Hochands samples for Stamp Addicts, the show was all about inchies and twinchies and have to say I thoroughly enjoyed working on these samples and I especially love the beautiful Muse image from Judikins. I covered six inchies with G45 papers and stamped onto three of them, mounted all onto the base card and stamped and cut out a Butterfly from the same stamp set.

Happy weekend all and I'm hoping lots of our will join in our theme this time round, remember you have two weeks to enter.

 

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Mid month shares and trying out Arteza brush pens

Morning Peeps, a scheduled post and done in a bit of a rush as I had totally forgotten we are away for a long weekend and the date of our mid month inspiration posts for Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More falls on Sunday.

These three cards were a test run with my new Arteza Brush Pens, I thanked the company for their prompt dispatch and delivery (less than 24 hours which was amazing) and they said they would be very happy if I wrote a review on my blog, so here it is. As is always the case when I do this I write as I find.

The purpose of purchasing was specifically for direct to stamp inking as it's the technique I use much of the time and from which I gain crafting satisfaction. For years I have used Distress Markers, but the price of them has been steadily increasing and when I came to order 16 replacement ones for the colours I use more frequently, the cheapest I could find was £2.50 and on some sites £3.75 and no one site had all the coloured I needed. So I decided to give the Arteza pens a try and bought the full set of 96 for £56.09 (after 15% discount) so amazing value compared with many other similar products on the market.

My thoughts here are based purely on using them as a medium to ink direct to stamp, friends tell me they are excellent for colouring in but this is not something I do often or even enjoy, but I might give it a try to see how they compare. With 96 pens to choose from the colour range is excellent and the set comes with a water brush as well so in terms of value for money can't be knocked.

Now onto using them for the purpose I purchased, early thoughts are that they are not as juicy as Distress Markers and it took quite a few re-stamping's to build up the colour using my Timmy stamp platform, I can usually achieve what I'm after with three or four repeat stamping's using DM's. I started as I always do with laying down the colours on the stamp and giving a good spritz of water for the first stamping, this usually gives a nice spread of colours merging into one another, however with the Arteza pens the colour stayed pretty much where I put it despite the water and was reluctant to move.

I built up the colour with more inking and stamping in the hope the colours would dispersed but they stayed pretty much set in place, the Butterflies below are a good example of what I mean, normally I would expect with the persuasion of water that the two colours will bleed into each so there are no set lines between colours. So in this regard I am rather disappointed but wanted to share the finished projects otherwise there is little point in me writing the review!

But I've not given up on them yet and want to experiment more, I haven't tried them on any of my Brushstroke floral's yet so that will be a job for next week and I will report back when I have played a bit more and hope I can be a bit more positive. I will also give them a whirl creating backgrounds to see where that takes me.

If anyone else has had success using them as I have done and perhaps followed a different process I would love to hear so please do share.

Back to my work, apart from the two smaller Butterflies which are Chocolate Baroque, all stamps are Penny Black as is the die on the Bird card, the sky on the top card was created with DI's and bleach, some decoupage papers and DI's on the tag, everything else was coloured direct to stamp with the Arteza pens.

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