New baby, New Year

It's Saturday peeps, which must mean it's time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week the lovely Emma is hosting the theme which is "New Beginnings", what better theme to start off the New Year.

So I figured a baby card would fit the bill along with a recent order I needed to fulfil and as is so often the case nowadays they knew it was a little girl well in advance.................I really do have mixed feeling on that, call me old fashioned, but to me waiting for the birth to know the sex was always part of the excitement.

I used the pretty little bootee image from A Passion for Stamps  printing it first onto the base card and again onto some DP from stash, but pretty sure it's Daisy Bucket. After cutting out the bootees, I ran a ball tool over the back of them to give a bit of dimension and added some lace. The background is embossed with a Sizzix folder, a bow using seam binding and the sentiment is Darkroom Door.

Happy New Year to you all and I hope you enjoy whatever you have planned this evening.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hello again peeps, two posts in one day, quite rare for me these days.

But I wanted to take the opportunity to wish everyone a Very Happy Christmas and Wonderful New Year.

I've had another fabulous crafty year with oodles of cards, some on TV, demos, classes and even had my work in a few magazines, but most importantly it's been made all the better by all the lovely people out there in blogland whose friendship I really appreciate and cherish. Lots of you will know I don't enjoy the best of health at times and am not able to get round blogland as much as I would like thanks to my light sensitive eyes, but despite that, my blogland friends are still there and have given me wonderful support and I thank you all most humbly.

So I think I had better share a couple of cards, both of which use the same Floral Bouquet stamp which you will find under the 'new' section at Stamp Addicts. I have been having a whale of a time the last couple of weeks working on samples for them using some really yummy stamps which will be released in the New Year and on Create and craft, so not able to share those yet, but when I saw Sarah and Vicky yesterday they said I can let you have a peek at these two. 

I'm not big on colouring in, I'm more of a get down and get messy girl, but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed colouring this image............could be the fact it's floral has something to do with it ?

For both of these cards I used Aquamarkers, the top one I coloured the stamp direct with the pens, then spritzed with water before stamping onto Farbiano watercolour card. I dragged a little coloured out with a damp brush and matted onto Bo Bunny DP. The second card has been stamped with versafine black and heat embossed with detail clear powder, then simply watercoloured with the same pens and cardstock and the DP is Nitwits.

Whatever you have planned, have a super holiday season.

DP giveaway as a bit of a celebration

Good Afternoon peeps, are you all ready for Christmas?

I think things are sorted at this end, although I would really love this lingering flu and cold to take a hike, it's on my chest now, all the benefits of that missing immune system, never mind, hopefully it will be on it's way shortly.

That all means not a lot of crafting has been happening these last few days, so a share of another one I made a couple of weeks ago for Stampalot using the Andy Skinner stamp set, along with some Glimmer Mists and stickles.

And I have another rather special share, this is what's on the shoulders of our eldest son following his promotion earlier this month to Chief Superintendent. It's a tad scary really as he seems so young to have reached these dizzy heights in just a few short years since he joined as a regular bobby on the beat. And it seems he's set to go further as they are sending him off to Cambridge to do his Masters in Criminology..........are we proud, you bet we are ! We are so blessed as all the children have done so well for themselves, been through Uni and into great jobs and every one makes us mega proud in their own way.

So a little blogland celebration, I have a collection of 12x12 DP's to give away, they include October Afternoon, Kaiser, Bo Bunny and a few pretty ribbons. All you need do to be in with a chance of winning them is leave a comment on this post and I will ask Mr Random Org., to draw a winner in a couple of days time.

Have a good day and thank you for popping by.

Hero 2012 debut stamps hit town

Hello peeps, time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Fleur is our host and it will be a two week challenge to tide us over the Christmas holiday period. The theme is 'Blue and Brown' a really lovely colour combo which I love working with, so afraid this post is a bit picture heavy.

I had my DT cards all done ages ago, but then the Hero Art 2012 Debut stamps hit Sir Stampalot a couple of days ago so of course I was straight into demo samples and had to share a couple of the gorgeous new images...........doesn't take a lot to get me excited. They are already shipping from the shop so you can go here and be amongst the first in the UK to get your hands on them.

So first off with the card at the top of this post which uses Hero Arts K5576 Newspaper Tulips. I inked the stamp with Aquamarkers, spritzed with water and stamped onto a piece of Fabriano watercolour card and lightly distressed the edges with TH broken china and tea dye. The DP is Kaiser.

My second card used another of the newbies, Hero Arts K5540 Spring Dream this time inked with hero Hues Latte. The frame cut with Nesties and the background DP are all Bo Bunny. The border are corners are Spellbinders Parisien Accents, plus some flowers and leaves cut from a Marianne die and a piece of cheesecloth which I inked with TH broken china to tone down the colour.

Next up my original DT cards, the one above uses the beautiful Hero Arts S5362 Dogwood stamp which I stamped onto a base piece using versafine sepia and embossed with detail clear, then stamped a second time onto some DP from stash to cut out and decoupage. The sentiment is a section on Penny Black 2695J  and lots of pearls to embellish.

And finally, my fourth card uses a quite old stamp from Penny Black which I always think makes a perfect male card. I masked a piece of Fabrinao watercolour card round the edges and two central section to create three panels. With the masking in place I sponged the panels with TH broken china, then stamped stamped Hero Arts S5364 Antique flower background using Hero chalk ink latte. I then removed the two centre piece of masking tape and stamped  Penny Black 2827K  using versafine sepia and embossed with detail clear before removing the remainder of the masking tape. I embossed a piece of Coredinations with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and sanded lightly to use as a background piece.

Have a good weekend peeps and hope you all get you final Christmas preparations done and dusted in time to enjoy a wonderful Christmas.

Giveaway winner

Hello all, just a quick post as promised with the winner of the little giveaway I posted a couple of days ago. Mr Random org., has picked out number 103 who is.........................

Claudia

Ciao e complimenti Claudia, si prega di mail con il tuo addes postale, brenda@ibas.co.uk.

I will be back tomorrow with the new Allsorts challenge.

A little giveaway and a bit more brayering

Hello peeps, afraid I have been a bit neglectful of my blog the last few days, the new pill regime is making me feel a bit queasy and I've also got a cold, so not been doing a lot.

So just a quick post with a card to share and a little giveaway of some ribbons, beaded pins, flowers and gems. All you need do to be in with a chance of winning is leave a comment on this post and I will ask Random Org., to select a winner on Friday. Now closed

I made the card for our very horsey girl using brayering, Adirondack inks and a host of stamps from Art Impression, Inkyicious, Stamp Addicts and Andy Skinner. The fence is hand drawn with a fine nib permanent pen.

Have a good day everyone and thanks for dropping by.

It Takes Two

Good Monring peeps, how are your Christmas preparations going ? I think I am just about there and tomorrow we have a big family day with about twenty coming, so quite a bit of preparation to be done although I confess M&S are taking a good bit of the effort out of it.

It's my turn to host the theme at Allsorts this week and I would like to see creations on the theme "It Takes Two".................basically use just two colours on your work, but you can use white as well as your base colour.

Two DT cards for me, the one at the top of my post............yellow and black...............uses Ruth's A Passion for Stamps Narcissus image which you will find here, coloured with Aquamarkers and decoupaged onto a mat cut with Nestabilities, stamped with Hero Arts H2635 Old French writing and inked round the edges with TH mustard. The DP is Kasier and the sentiment is Penny Black 3096F.

For the second card I have used one of the Christmas stamps from Stampendous JGS157 which I fell in love with as soon as I saw it and ended up making quite a few with it as it lends itself to all occasions apart from Christmas, in fact I'm not sure I actually made a Christmas card with it.

For this one I stamped the image onto vellum using versafine black and embossed with detail clear. I coloured the image from behind with Copics and decoupaged some of the flowers. I machined round the edge of the Bo Bunny DP and tied a simple seam binding bow at the side. I love the fresh colours of this one, make me think of Spring...................

Our sponsors this week are A Passion for Stamps and Scotch Tapes whose restickable tabs I used on my both my cards....................you will find a bit more about them on the challenge blog and also here on a post I did last week where I also used them.

Have a good weekend everyone and as always, thank you so much for popping by.

A challenge for the Terminator

I thought I would share a little challenge that I was set by my friend Sally over at Crafty Salutations. You see we discovered a long while ago that we share a fetish for sky's and trees along with Adirondack dye inks and tree stamps, both of which neither of us have enough...............yeh, right ! Details of the ingredients and where to buy are further down.

Sally knew I was stressing waiting for my hospital results (I'll tell you about them in a mo) so Sunday evening rang me to say she was mailing me a picture she had taken at the weekend and we then went on to identify the Adirondack inks in that sky........................I know we are just a tad sad.............and she challenged me to re-create that picture, so what more could I do than obey. Above is my take on the picture which is below.

A very quick and simple make really, I used archival black ink to stamp the trees which are from the Andy Skinner A Winters Tale set................it's a fab set with trees, a farm barn, a fence and gate and some birds, you can find it here, Art Impressions and Inkilicious and the inks which I sponged on with cut and dry are: eggplant, denim, mushroom, pitch black, pink sherbet, watermelon, sunset orange and mountain rose. I couldn't get the lower clouds quite how I wanted and they are a bit out of sync with the photo, but call that a bit of artistic licence.

The hospital visit for results of my 'Terminator' day.............that's the nickname Mandy has given me since the hospital stay with me all wired up to machines........... went better than could have been the case. The main concern is my heart rate at resting is about 109, considerably higher than it should be, although it did a sudden dip to 55 at one point during the two days of tests.

The ideal regulator would be a pacemaker, but because of my other medical issues, one they prefer not to use as a first option. So loads more pills and oxygen at times, as if I don't take enough already. And of course I have to go through all the same again in a month to see if things have improved. But as I say, it could have been far worse.

The most important bit is my crafting addiction can resume normal service and I want to say a HUGE thank you to every one of your for your messages and wonderful support over recent weeks which really has helped keep me going.

Have a good day everyone.

Birthday Bingo

Good Morning all, it's the first Sunday of the month so that means new challenges at Stampalot and Penny Black and More. 


In case you missed it, I have a little weekend candy giveaway details here, just leave a comment to be in with a chance.

At Stampalot we invite you to play Bingo with us and at Penny Black and More we are celebrating "Birthdays".

The card at the top is my Penny Black DT card using Penny Black 4164K A Rose stamped simply in black versafine, embossed with detail clear and coloured with Copics.Matted onto bazzil, a punched border with some added pearls and a sentiment from Darkroom Door.  A really quick and simple card.

On both of my cards I had a play with the new tabs from Scotch which are so effective and as the name suggests they really are re-stickable, how cool is that. They are double sided, easy to use, will stick to any surface, remove cleanly and because they are clear you don't see them when they are used for such things as hanging Christmas decorations. Best of all, when you are finished with them you can simply wash them in soapy water and they are as good as new.

For my Stampalot DT card I selected the Bingo row "Pearls, Flowers and Punch". The base card is some really nice ribbed Kraft cardstock, swirls cut with a Marianne die and accented with pearl drops, a flower cut with TH tattered floral die from the same DP as I used along the bottom of the card.............it was scraps from stash and I am note sure of the make, but could be Doodlebug. I stamped two butterflies with versafine sepia and embossed with detail clear.........they are Hero Arts ones but unmounted which typical me means I have no idea of the code as the packing has long since been lost.

Have a good Sunday everyone and thank you so much for dropping by.

Going round in circles and candy

Before I tell you about our new theme at  Allsorts  a little reminder that I have a weekend candy on the go, all you need to do is leave a comment over the weekend either here, on tomorrows post or yesterdays which also has a picture, to be in with a chance of winning.

At Allsorts Debs has us all going round in circles this week so I thought I would share another of my Christmas wreaths (instructions here) which I created for the demo day at Sir Stampalot a few weeks ago.

The Christmas rose in the centre was stamped with Woodware JGS256 onto Studio 490 Modelling Film, coloured with Aquamarkers and then heated and moulded into shape. D0n't know if you have tried this film out, but it really is something a little bit different and real fun to work with and unlike shrink plastic stays the same size but allows you to mould it when warm. And if you don't like the finish, you just warm it up again.

For this one I used the gorgeous December 25th DP's from Kaiser, I really do think these are one my favourite Christmas DP's for years, there is something about the rich traditional colours that never fail to please.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Weekend candy

As promised I have a little giveaway for you over the weekend, all you need to do is leave a comment on either this or one of my other two scheduled posts over the weekend and I will select a winner from those on Monday morning.......well Mr Random Org., will.

A huge thank you to all of those who have been so kind and sent messages and comments the last couple of weeks during my wait for test results. I received the dreaded call from the hospital yesterday and been summoned to see them Tuesday morning, I am trying hard to convince myself that if it had been mega urgent they would have hauled me in today. I will report back later in the week !!

Jelly belly and a stormy sky

Good Morning, it's a wee bit blustery here and a coat colder, we had a minus 4 frost again which goes against the grain of what the weather men forecast.

I am still waiting for my test results, but we are close to the ten days they said and my tummy turns to jelly every time there is a phone call for me. I just hope they don't keep me waiting much longer because I just can't concentrate and everything I try and create ends up in the bin at the moment, so this is a share of a sample card I did for Stampalot a couple of weeks ago using the Andy Skinner A Winters Tale set.

I stamped the tree with black archival ink and brayered another in reverse for the reflection in the water................this tree is really a bit big for that technique I think as the water looks to be a bit excessive to me. Next I sponged Adirondack eggplant and sunset orange and TH tumbled glass and finally stamped Art Impression worker stamps along the shoreline.

Have a good day everyone and thank's for dropping by.

Molly Blooms ready for Christmas

Saturday morning can only mean one thing, a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Helen would like us to use Pennants on our work.

Now this did create confusion with one or two of us as it seems Pennants in Sweden where Helen lives are what we call bunting, which in Sweden are larger flags. But I think we got there in the end.

I have used some of the lovely Kaiser December 25th DP to create a frame using my Nesties Fleur de Lis squares and a sentiment in the centre Stampendous CRQ146. I have coloured Molly with Aquamarkers and stamped the Molly Blooms bunting onto the same DP and cut out. The back panel is Coredinations embossed with a Sizzix folder and sanded down.

Fishing in the moonlight

Good Morning peeps tis I, released from captivity and so nice to sleep in my own bed, how you are meant to do so in hospital I shall ever know, the place never rests. They have told me it will be ten days until I get my results as it takes that long for the recordings to be analysed and the cardiologist to asses, so a little bit of a fretful wait.

Just the one share today of something I made a few weeks ago, using Stampscape stamps a the little boat from Stamp Addicts on the water set and Adirondack dye inks which I sponger rather than brayered this time. I also added a little white with a pen here and there to highlight the trees and grasses.

Hope you all have a good day, I need to get my head together at work and clear my desk of a few files, then hopefully later some crafting.

December Candy

Hello again everyone, some candy for you, a full set of Walnut Holly materials and tools plus some Promarkers which colour the soft metal beautifully. It's something that's really great for making cards that are a little bit different and sooooooo good for male cards where you want something a little less 'frilly'.

Here are the simple rules and as you will know from the winners post below, I DO check that the names pulled out have followed them.........................

1) Be a follower...............one that stays, not just a candy hunter.

2) Post the above picture on your sidebar with a link back here to help spread the word.

3) Leave your name with Mr Linky below.

Closing time is midnight on 21st December. Please note, although I will post anywhere, delivery to some parts of the world are subject to Customs regulations and local postal services over which I have no control.

Good luck everyone......................and keep a look out as I will be having a few 'spot' candy prizes in normal posts here and there over the next week or two.

Beautiful new digi image printed on vellum

Hello all, another scheduled post as I don't anticipate being allowed to cut and run from hospital for a couple of days, but I really wanted to make sure I shared this beautiful Christmas Rose from the pen of my friend Ruth. You will find it here at a Passion for Stamps.

It is such a delicate flower and as they are usually white, sometimes with a ting of pink and with a yellow centre, vellum immediately came to mind. So with detail clear embossing powder at the ready, I printed the images off onto Pergamano and tossed the powder on as it came through the printed and hey presto, it worked a treat.

All I did the was colour with Aquamarkers on the reverse and run a ball tool over the back and quite like the soft feel of it. I printed out a second image for the top card and cut out just the flowers, used a Spellbiner frame, the border is also from Spellbinders, the holly motifs set, the DP Nitwits and I added some Liquid Pearls to the flower centres. 

The second card is also on vellum and coloured the same way, I used an old JudiKins stamp on the base card and cut out the image with Nesties Fleur de Lis square.................yep, the vellum did tear, hence the seam binding bow and pin.......what do they call it, a 'happy accident'.

Do pop over to Ruth's store as she has several new Christmas images.

A crane takes flight

Good Morning everyone, well I hope it will be when this pops up as I am scheduling it as by now I should be checked into hospital and become robotic linked up to machines and a "probe".....don't much like the sound of that bit.........monitoring my hearts activity for a couple of days. To say I am petrified is an understatement, not so much by the tests, more by what they may find, although they have already told me it will be a few days before I get all the results as they need to be "analysed". And being removed from my craft desk and computer will be a huge wrench, so I guess I will have to be a virtual crafter and dream cards for a while.

My share for today is one of the samples I have just finished for Sue of Animal Spirit stamps, this one uses the lovely Crane stamp and I have combined it with a bit of inking and brayering. I stuck with two colours of Adirondack dye ink, butterscotch and hazelnut. The trees are Inkylicious as is the sentiment. I stamped the crane onto Copic cardstock and coloured with Copics.

Hope you all have a good day and as always, thank you so much for dropping by.

Winter sunset in the Fens

A very Good Morning to you all, it's time for me to share my DT card for our new challenge at Allsorts where the theme is 'A One Layer' Project.

The theme was chosen by Amanda who recently left the team, so I have picked it up and although I didn't choose the theme it's one I really like as it gives me the perfect opportunity to do a bit of masking an inking and create one of the little scene I so enjoy creating. In fact I made two, hubby preferred the one with the vivid orange sky which is typical of a winter sunset here in the Fens when the sky looks almost on fire at times, in fact it could be the scene right outside my kitchen window many evenings right down to the gate and barn. I was split between the two so am sharing both.

For both cards I masked the edges of a piece of Fabriano watercolour card before stamping and colouring to give the effect of matting but maintaining the one layer requirement.

The one at the top uses the Andy Skinner A Winters Tale set, plus some Art Impression grasses which I stamped with Archival Sepia ink, then added the colour using cut and dry and Adirondack dye inks sunset orange, eggplant, pebble and pesto. Finally a bit of glitter here and there...................it's a very frosty evening you see.

My second card uses one of Sheena Douglass's new waterside stamps, plus some Art Impression worker stamps all stamped with Archival sepia, the sponged over with Adirondack dye inks butterscotch, denim and pesto. The little man and his dog are a Stampscpaes stamp.

I hope you all have a good weekend and thank you so much for popping by.

Penny Black candy and another DT challenge

I'm back again with the second of the challenges I set the Design Team at Penny Black and More.

Before I tell you about that, I need to tell you that we are having a little mid month giveaway. A name will be selected from all the new followers to Penny Black and More who sign up between today and 4th December. I have popped a picture of the lovely Penny Black giveaway on the challenge blog.

I called this kit "Merry Christmas" and thought it would be an ideal theme as we roll along................rather quickly it seems...............towards December.

Again the DT came up with a wonderful array of inspiration and so many different takes on the the me and I think it's fair to say they all really enjoyed the challenges and it's definitely something we will do again.

Kit included 3 sheets Echo Park DP (various patterns but all from the same colour family), Bazzil Basic, 1M red organza ribbon, 2 decorative pins, MS punched holly, 1 vellum roses cut with a Marianne die, Card base cut with Grand Nesties Labels 23, Red nailheads.

In addition to the kit items, I used Penny Black 4208K Christmas Narrative as my image which I stamped onto a piece of my DP and stamped the flower again onto another piece and decoupaged. I ran the piece of Bazzil through the Big Shot Pro using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and distressed it with a sanding block.