Man's Best Friend

Morning Peeps, our new theme at Allsorts is 'Boys and Men' hosted by Ellie.  Following our new regime of publishing winners monthly instead of every week, the prizes for February come from Sizzix, Oakwood, Craft Stash and AALL and Create, there's a photo of all those up for grabs on the challenge blog here.

And eventually the promised A&C shares using the new Dominic Phillips fabulous Dog stamps that several of you have been waiting to see. Those who know me will see why I instantly fell in love with this new release from AALL and Create, each of the new images is adorable. Being a family of dog lovers, in our immediate circle we have several Labs, Terriers, two Vizsla's, an Akbash, a Dachshud and even a Dalmation so I can see lots of Birthday cards in the offing.

As always they stamp beautifully, so detailed and a joy to work with, above I have used one of the images from Canine Dreams and have decided this one is a Lab. The links go to C&C, being new they are not on the A&C website just yet but should be very soon. A masked circle, Oxides onto a piece of acetate, plenty of water and 'splodged' around the edge of the circle. Once dry and with the mask still in pace I stamped the clock from Wildflower, removed the mask and stamped the Dog and added a bit of colour using Distress Pencils.

I wasn't sure about the second for a man as there's flowers but hubby seems to think it's fine so happy to go with that. This doggie is one of the smaller images from Man's Best Friend, but still a good size, my card is an A5 so gives you an idea. The background stamp is Endless Circles inked with three different Oxides, spritzed with water and stamped. The Dog stamped with Versafine Clair, same with Roses from Sent with Love stamped onto offcuts inked with Oxide, cut out and fixed into place and the single Rose placed through the lead. Some Washi Tape, sentiment is part of a larger stamp which has a small dog across the top so masked before inking as I only wanted the words, cut into a circle and fixed over two little hearts which come from Toucan stamp set.

As mentioned lots of offcuts for the Roses and sentiment but I don't have a photo for them so not sure if I'll get sent to the naughty corner by Miss Di and Sarn, but going to try my luck and like up to the Snippets Playground.

My final A&C share for today uses the largest image from Man's Best Friend, we decided this might be a Spaniel......the tail led to this decision. Again an Oxide 'splodged' background, stencilling, a bit of background stamping using Grunge Alphabet and Patches and the Dog simply stamped focally and a sentiment from the same set, he really doesn't need to much more. The added smaller words are from my favourite Power of the Word.

Also a couple of recent makes for Highlight/Two Red Robins, theres always a 10% discount code on my sidebar for anyone buying from them. For this one I used dies from Hedgerows and Touched by the Rain collections (but all elements available individually) plus Milly and Merlin and Broken Boundaries.

And a little bit of Spring using A Drop of Light, Botanical Beauty, A Drop of Snow, A Dwarfs Pin Cushion, the birdie is from Hedgerows and the sentiment from my Moments stamp set available following the link or Create and Craft.

As always thanks so much for your visits and words of encouragement.

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Spots and stripes

Morning Peeps, Saturday morning so a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Dena has chosen our theme of 'Spots and/or Stripes. Prizes for this week and the last couple of challenges will be announced on 27th January and there are goodies from Oakwood, Stamp Addicts, Sizzix and AALL and Create.

For the above card I used a Gelli Plate and Acrylic background stamping AALL and Create Delight in Flora onto the base, placed a strip of the lovely mesh I source from one of hubby's greenhouses, then stamping again onto snippets/offcuts and paper piecing. The word is from the same set onto a snippet of white card as is the circle with the letter 'F' from Textured Florals. 

The sentiment is from my Moments stamp set available from Stamp Addicts following the link or from Create and Craft.

Have a good weekend everyone and thanks for your kind visits.

 

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A splash of colour

Note added: Blogger seems to be on one today, this post showed on my reading list at the scheduled time of 8am but the link went to an error message. Seem to have it part sorted but not able to upload the missing photos which I had added last night.

Morning Peeps, time for our mind month inspiration posts at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where our themes are 'Favourite Colours' and 'Add some Sparkle'. Prizes this moth come from AALL and Create and Highlight Crafts. 

At the top a bit of inky indulgence, not any one specific colour but I do like bold and bright so the blend here works for me. First I stamped AALL and Create Blooming Poppies, well part of it as it's a huuuuuuge A4 stamp, added masking fluid to the entire image an then used several colours of Distress Oxide ink and sprays to create a bold background. A little bit of script stamped and embossed with detail white EP along with a sentiment from my Moments stamp set, some shire flicks of marker pen, then rubbed away the masking fluid and left the image uncoloured.

Bold purples for this one which was a sample for yesterdays Oakwood Create and Craft shows. An MDF tag, Cadence acrylic pains and crackle glaze and some of the new stamps in the show along with the stamps and dies from the Rose Garden collection. There's a new video on my own and the Oakwood YouTube channels making this one.

My SS piece uses Highlight Crafts Vintage Inc Tulips and Cadence gold Gilt, I simply stamped the image onto black cardstock with Versamark, added details gold EP, then spritzed the Gilt around the edges. The sentiment is from my Beleive stamp set.

 

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Winter blues

Morning everyone! At Allsorts, this weeks host is Lorraine with the theme of 'Anything Goes with the option of Winter Blues'. Prizes for this week and the next two will be announced on 27th January and a host of goodies from Oakwood, Stamp Addicts, Sizzix and AALL and Create.

A heads up that Oakwood and AALL and Create both have new releases this week on Create and Craft TV, for former Tuesday and A&C a Pick of the Day at 6pm Thursday. Below a few of my Oakwood shares, A&C ones later in the week, I just fell in love with them.......you'll understand why when I share. 

Update on Daisy as so many have kindly asked, she's doing OK, toxicology came back and confirmed as expected the tumour was malignant and spread into tissue but they feel confident they removed all affected areas at this point. The Vet will monitor her going forward to see if any further surgery is required. She wasn't keen on eating earlier in the week but a roast chicken M&S no less, did the trick!

I have two Allsorts cards to share plus one for the Snippets Playground, the first above using a collection of Lavinia stamps to create a blue tone on tone card using Versafine Clair Twilight for the stamping and Oxide Faded Jeans for all the shading. And of course the obligatory glitter here and there.

A second card using the same Stampendous Peony Pair stamp I used last week available from Oakwood, this time stamped into some inky cardstock which I have a feeling was a Gelli Plate mop up, I keep a draw of ready inked backings and at times don't remember exactly how they came about. The image was stamped with Versamark and embossed with a Stampendous sparkle EP, the flowers bleached out, left to dry and colour added. A die cut sentiment to finish.

A few of my Oakwood shares for Tuesday and the first is going over to the Playground to help celebrate Miss Di's (and partner in crime Sarn) eleventh anniversary of running the Playground, it takes time and commitment to stick with it so huuuuuge congratulations.

And a photo of my inky bit and pieces used, the torn piece in the background is what became the scroll.

I do hope you will find time to join us at Allsorts this week.

 

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Something New at Allsorts

Morning Peeps, a New Year and Mervi has chosen a theme to match at Allsorts, it's 'Something New'.  

This months prizes come from Oakwood, Stamp Addicts, Sizzix and AALL and Create and  there is a change to how we will be announcing prizes and in future. We will now be announcing them on the last Friday of each month covering the preceding months challenges. This makes the admin side of things much easier for us, especially given the changes we are experiencing with postal services here in the UK. There is a list on the challenge blog sidebar so you can check dates of prize winners posts.

I'll confess it's not a new stamp but I have done a new YouTube tutorial making this one so I am part way there, you can find it on the Oakwood channel here and my own here.

I have used this beautiful Stampendous Peony Pair which really lends itself to paper piecing. In the background I have used Stampendous Signature Script tall DL stamp, inked with three shades of Oxides, spritzed with water and stamped. I then stamped the focal image, bleached out the leaves and then added a little colour, stamped again using Oxides onto snippets of card, cut out and paper pieced the blooms. Words from one of the Oakwood sentiment sets, little Hare from Woodland Animals and washi tape to finish. 

This is also going over to the Snippets Playground, lots of snippets on display in the YouTube for this one.

Next the winner of the die set on my end of year post below, I gave each comment a number and Random Dog (aka Holly the Lab) selected no 25 who is Helen, no photo of them all doing the draw this time as had to be done on the quiet as Daisy is poorly after an op this week for a mammary tumour. 

She had one two years ago, that was 'low grade' and she got over it OK, but this one was much larger and came up very quickly, I was worried if they would operate as she is twelve and a half, but our vet is brilliant, saw us right away and operated the same day. Now waiting for path results and praying. Helen, please let me have your details so I can send the die to you.

As you will realise from above it's been a hectic week with vet visits and again I am late sharing my card to Tina in Slovenia as part of the December Card Chain Challenge and also the one I received from Hilary below.

Have a good weekend and my thanks as always for your visits and kind words.

 

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Favourite colours

Morning Peeps, it's the first Sunday of the month and the first challenges of the New Year at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where our themes are 'Favourite Colours' and 'Add some Sparkle'. And a little reminder that there is a small giveaway on the post below which contains my shares for Ellies Year in Review, I will announce the winner on my Allsorts post Saturday..

Thanks to our supportive Patron's we feel privileged to be able to continue offering wonderful prizes at both challenges, this month they come from AALL and Create and Highlight Crafts, both are UK based companies whose products are so popular.

I am lucky to be able to use stamps and products from sponsors and above I have incorporated a real favourite of so many A&C fans, Textured Florals along with words from Power of Word and Long Eared Mammal. I find the Power of Word set so useful, I stamp the whole sheet in various colours/card, cut up and have a bag of sentiments all ready to go.

Choosing a favourite colour is always a toughie so I went with colours I love to combine and orange and aqua are one of those combos. I brayered Cadence (available in the UK exclusively from Highlight and Create and Craft) acrylic paint onto 350gsm cardstock, I like this heavier card for inky backgrounds as you can throw water and sprays at it to shift the colour without any warping, then some texture paste stencil work. The bloom was stamped, then paper pieced laying some white cord beneath, the little Hare stamped and cut out, sentiments added and some white pen flicked onto the finished piece.

My SS piece uses Highlight Crafts Vintage Inc Paeonia which featured on Crate and Craft TV recently and along with others in the collection sold out rather quickly. Stamped, coloured with sparkle pens and then rectangles cut out with dies, I used alternate sizes to achieve a wider border to each layer and each raised slightly higher than the previous using foam pads matching the design as I went. Some sequins and an envie to match.

I really hope you creative juices have got off to a good start in the New Year and that you will join us and look forward to visiting all your entries.

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Year in Review with a little giveaway

Good morning, I hope everyone has had a good Christmas and been able to relax a little in the lull until New Year.

I decided to take part in Ellie's Year in Review which also gives me the opportunity to thank everyone for their continued support of my blog. It's been a tough year health wise and your visits and encouragement have meant so much and helped me through some difficult times.

However choosing which cards to share proved even more difficult than I anticipated. So in the end I tried to include something using favourite products and/or companies I am privileged to design for/represent which include Highlight Crafts/Two Red Robins, AALL and Create, Stamp Addicts, Oakwood and Stampendous.

I have also been fortunate to have a number of stamps sets released on Create and Craft this year which was exciting and several of those inspirational quotes are included on my shares today. 

In keeping with Ellie's plans, I have a small prize to give away, a Spellbinders A Lotta Hearts die set....just in time for Valentines maybe! A winner will be randomly selected from the comments on this post.....

Here's my final selection from my 2022 posts and Create and Craft TV work for this year, I've not listed details of products used in each but please do mail me from the link on the sidebar if you would like any specific details....

There are twelve taking part and here's Ellie's full list with links to their blogs so you can check out everyone, 

Bonnie, Brenda, Debbie, Diane, Ellie, Helene, Hilary, Joanne, Melissa. Rachel, Sara, Sue 

Thank you for popping in to take a peek and I wish you all a Happy and Crafty 2023.

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