Boys to Men

Morning Peeps, time for our new Allsorts challenge and it's the last of our fortnightly ones covering the holiday period, we will be back to normal again next time round. Apologies I've not been round to visit much this week, we have a very poorply doggie who has taken most of our time this week.

Tracy chose the theme of 'Boys to Men' but I am doing the post for her as she is understandably still not up to crafting following the loss of her son Scott. We have a super prize on offer again from Marianne Designs so do pop over to the challenge blog to take a peek. 

So I have two male orientated cards and both have a touch of the Ocean about them. The top one was a recent Chocolate Baroque TV sample featuring stamps from Seaside Scenes and Seaside Dreams.......try sayig that one quickly! I stamped the shell border onto some Kraft card, highlighted with a white pen, cut out the top edge and then fixed an oblong TL die in place behing the border to create an aperture with the shells still in place. Next I stamped the scene and added just a little colour with Pan Pastls, fixed behind the frame with foam pads and finally coiled some string.

I made this one some time ago and found it lurking in my picture file so Tracy's theme seems the ideal time to use it. I used Pan Pastels and a stencil to create the rope border, then stampd the focal image and coloured in with pencils. Next I stamped the quote and used a piece of a wooden  kebab skewer and string to make it into a sail shape.

And here is Poppy when she came home Thursday. The previous week we were back and forth to the vet who seemed to think we were overbearing 'parents' and said it was just a abscess on her anal glad and prescribed antibiotics. By last Sunday monring she was so poorly and our own vet refused to refer us to a specialist so I called a totally different practice about 40 minutes away who one of our son's uses, they said come immediately and diagnosed a Pyometra. 

They operated and it was touch and go for a few days and we were going there 2/3 times a day to see her but she is home now and eating (well chichen that is) and drinking but still needing carrying out to the loo sometimes. So the labradores are enjoying a bit of respite as she is normally in charge of them and suffice to say all three are now registered with the new vets practice. Hope you like her pink buster collar, so much nicer than those rigid things.

As it's a two week challenge again I hope it will give you plenty of time to join in with something for the guys who for many of us present a problem when it comes to making cards for them.

 

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Live every moment

"B" is for Blooms, Butterfly and Bricks

Morning Peeps, editing this post I realised the title is rather approrpiate for our youngest son and partner who left on their year long travels a few days ago. We waved them and their two dogs off in their custom built motorhome van and first reposts from France as they head for Flornece were positive. Mind you they told me yesterday that they have yet to test out the wet room and instead been using the facilities at the overnight French Aire's. 

They will be combining their photographic profession along with althletic races which they regularly partcate in across the world. We so hope we can fly out to see them at some point but as they are the ones who horse and dog sit for us when we go away it might be a tad tricky to arrange.

So onto craft and it's time for our  new challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Anything Goes with current Favourite Stamp' and 'I Spy'. As always there are wonderful prizes to be won at both. I also have a few Chocolate Baroque pieces to share from last months shows on Hochands TV as well as my my Snippets Playground, Butterfly Challenge and Rudolph Days shares, the only three challenges I enter usually and here they are like buses all in one go. 

My first PB&M card at the top used quite an oldie 2666K Blush along with the matching die which is more recent called Bashful as the focal elements. I started with a Distress Oxide background followed by some stenciled bricks using texture pased coloured with a little acrylic pain to take off the harshness of the white. I then inked just the script sections of  another oldish wood mounted stamp called Rosa and rangomly stamped, then spamped with flowers inking the stamp with Distress Markers and cut out with the die. The sentiment is from Happy Wishes, masked and each section stamped individually to creat three pieces.

My Stamping Sensations shares feature some new stamps from this months sponsor Rubber Dance, their stamps were new to me and I have to say I rather enjoyed working with them. My first piece is a grayboard tag which has been treated to lots of gesso, ancylic pain, ink and crackleglaze then Cornflowers stamped along the bottom and side and painted with white gesso, some randon stenciling then the Butterfly Trio stamped, cut out and layered up to add deimension. Finally a sentiment which is CB.  The Butterflies are all made from snippets so is my entry to the Snippets Playground. I would also like to enter this into Lost Coast Designs new Anything Goes challenge, I was invited to link up to their last challenge with my black and blue tag in my previous post and just discovered Random Or., selected my entry so it seems only right to join in again.

This one again has an Distress Oxide base, a sponged sun, Cornflowers stamped randomly using the same colour Oxide, then flowers and stems from Crazy Flower, coloured with the same inks, cut out and decoupages, a Butterfly from Butterfly Trio and sentiment again CB.

'B' for Birds, Branches and Buds

My final PB&M piece uses the tree scene together with some branches and buds from, some colouring added with Pan Pastels and a sun, then finally the Birds on a Wire stamped to the left, the lines extended with a black fine liner then just one of the birds stamped.......Billy no mates maybe!!

The Butterfly Challenge this time round is all about things beginning with 'F' and I have managed all seven elements, Fuchsia, French Blue and Ferrari Red (flowers and Butterfly) Flowers (the stamp itself) Frame it (image framed by masking and using DI's) More than on Fold (easel has two) and of course the Butterfly. All stamps are Penny Black and stamped using DI's direct to stamp.

And here are my CB shares, all the details of stamps and how I made them can be found on my post over at the CB blog. And I figure any one of these will fit in nicely with the current Rudolph Days challenge over at Mo's, it's a little later than usual as she has been on holiday here in the UK.

Have a good Sunday all and I hop you will join our challenges this month.

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Tag it and a Butterfly

Morning Peeps, wow has it been warm again this week, apparently here in East Anglia we are having some of the highest temperatures and the few days it's been 32/34 deg. Not that I'm complaining as far rather that than cold and wet, but I've decided there is a fundamental flaw with craft TV when they want us crafters making Christmas cards in this weather.

It's time for our new Allsorts challenge and it's a two week challenge again to cover the holiday period, we will be back to normal again at the end of August. Susan has chosen the theme of  'Tags', it can be an actual tag or tags on a card. We have a super prize on offer from a new sponsor Lost Coast Designs who make some fabulous stamps. And........anyone entering this fortnights challenge at Allsorts can use the following code to receive a 15% discount: Allsorts15. I would also like to enter this into their current challenge of  Nobody There here.

I also managed to find time to create a card specifically for the current Butterfly Challenge, I usually find myself rummaging through my image folders to see what might fit, so it was nice to take the elements from the Butterfly Wheel and just create.

The base of my tag is Greyboard which I coated with gesso, acrylic pain, crackle glaze and the a final coat of acrylic paint. Next I built up the colour with DI's and Dylusions, stamped the Penny Black blooms and coloured with the same Dylusions, stamped some script randomly holding the stamp rather than using it on a block and finally some stenciled dots, black sequins and seam binding.

And here is my Butterfly Challenge creation and I think I have got all of the elements which this time round are: Old Rose, Orange, Oval, Olive, Over the edge, One Layer and of course a Butterfly but as I'm writing this feeling rather pleased I've managed all the elments it's ocurred to me that my over the edge shrink plastic Butterly (which has the olive element) just might mean I messed up on the one layer element as it's not really flat. Anyhow, using an oval mask I used DI in orange and a dusky pink to ink the oval, I then removed the mask and stamped the sentiment which is from Stamp Addicts and used that as a base to ground my Lavinina Fairy. Next I replaced the mask and added more Lavinia stamps around the edges of the oval and finally add a shrink plastic Butterfly, wire antenna and fixed it slightly over the edge of the card.

Happy weekend all and please do pop over to the challenge blog to see what my teamies have made to inspire you.

 

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In the secret garden

Hello everyone, just sharing my post today over at the Chocolate Baroque blog. 

The top card was inspired by our own Secret Garden within our grounds, we created it many years ago and although it has seen changes over the years still hosts an abundance of Cottage Garden flowers and shrubs and recently moved into the twenty first century with the addition of a hot tub. The beautiful flowers on the new Blossom and Grow stamp set are to my mind Hollyhocks which I stamped onto a soft Distress Ink background after first stamping a window from Echoes of Italy Using a stencil I added some brickwork with texture paste which I coloured with acylic paint to soften the whiteness and added a sentiment from the same stamp set.

As most know I don't enter challenges other than the Snippets and Butterfly ones, mainly because my eyes struggle with all the linking, but as I've been invited by blogging buggy Gail I am going to enter the above piece into the current theme of 'Nodoby There' at Lost Coast Designs.

For this one I used black gloss cardstock for the base panels and stamped the images from Captivating Cacti and Scrumptious Succulents using Versamark and brushing over with gold mic powders, leaving to settle for a few moments before brushing off, the assembling the panels along with a bow.

And one from a few months ago that I found lurking unused in my folder. The stamped sets used are Medici Flower in the centre and to the sides Floral Delight and Wish Flower, all were stamped onto Distress Oxide backgrounds, the images bleached out and the glittered.......unfortunately this doesn't show up very well at all in the photo.

There's a new challenge today over at the Snippets Playground so I tought I would get ahead of the game and enter now as chances are I will forget as the week takes over, we still have one of our son's and DIL staying ahead of leaving for their year travelling so crafting time is limited.

This is one of several cards I made for John and Rosie of Limetree Crafts, they are regulars at many of the craft shows selling good quality and value cardstock, card blanks and so on, all the basics we need. Recetly Rosie has launched her own range of stamps and I made some samples for her show boards and new web site. The web site is very new and sells many of the products available at the shows, so do pop over and take a look.

Have a good Sunday all.

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Happy, happy wishes

Morning Peeps, this is going to be a really quick post with my mid month inspirations cards for Stamping Sensantions and Penny Black and More and also my 15 minute Chcocolate Baroque shares from the post over on the DT blog a couple of days ago. Sorry I am so late with them but have quite a lot going on at home right now plus a rendezvous with the NHS later today and time is rather getting the better of me.

And here are my Chocolate Baroque shares.

Have a good Wednesday all.

 

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Flowers all over

Morning Peeps, time for our new Allsorts challenge and this one is a bit different as it's a two week challenge. It's always a few busy weeks during the holiday season so we decided it it would make sense to have two week challenges until the end of August to give both the DT and all you lovely entrants a bit more time to enjoy the holidays.

Mervi has chosen the theme which is 'Flowers all Over' and our sponsor is Swedish House Crafts. My teame mates have made some lovelt floral inspiration so do pop over to the challenge blog and take a peek. I have also had a rummage thriugh my unused work folder and come up with one that I think will fit into the current Butterfly Challenge.

I used one my my current favourite Penny Black Poppy stamps called Spontaneous Joy. I used Distress Markers to inky the stamp and repear stamped it around a piece of Fabriano. I then cut the piece into four using TL pin dot dies and before assembling stamped a PB sentiment into the midde section. To get depth I increased the layers of foam tape with each layer, added a few sequins and matter onto coordinationg card.

Here is my entry for the Butterfly challenge and I think it incorporates five of the elemements, Wisteria, Wine (naturally), Wheat, Wire and of course the Butterflies, I don't own any washi tape so that one is missing as is the window. The stamps are all Chocolate Baroque stamped onto a panel which I first masked, added some DI's then used Distres Markers direct to stamp to add the flowers and removed the side masks so that the flowers extended slightly out of the frame. Two CB Butterflies stamped and cut out, wire antenna and a Penny Black sentiment.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you over at Allsorts.

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Many of you will already have heard the extremely sad news that Tracy my friend and challenge team mate, lost her eldest son Scott on Friday. I am writing this post with Tracy's permission as I do not do Facebook and therefore using my blog to pass on the information in the paragraph below.

Those who do use Facebook may already know that one of Scott's friend Liam, has started a Just Giving page here to help his family meet some of the funeral costs. They are costs no parent expects to be faced with and something few would be prepared for so if you can give even £5 it would be greatly appreciated in helping Liam reach and hopefully exceed the target to help his friends family.

When I spoke with Tracy last evening she asked me to extend her thanks to those who have sent sympathy cards which are of great comfort to her John, Jodie and Bobby.

 

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