Hero Arts samples to share

Good Morning one and all, hope your week is going well.

A few crafty shares of some of the samples I am working on for Sir Stampalot using some of the lovely botanical Hero Clear Sets. To make life easy for you I will add the links so you can see what's in each set....just click on the codes.

The one up top is I think my favourite so far, but things change quickly with the mood. This uses the stems and leaves from Hero Arts CL374 and my lovely new Fleur de Lis Nesties (out of stock again but you can reserve). I stamped two sizes of the flower onto DP (from stash), cut out and inked with Versamark champagne and spritzed with Glimmer Mist iridescent gold so I could mound them onto the stamped stems. I used TH tea dye to distress the Nestie. The pretty bottom border is also a Nestie from the Fleur da Lis accents.

This one is also a favourite...............see what I mean I'm so fickle................using one of the other flowers from the same Hero set as above. I wanted to try a theory to see if it would work using it to make a rose and am pretty happy with the result. I stamped the image on to Bo Bunny DP four times, cut out and made into a rose in exactly the same way on my rose tutorial.

The frame is also a Nestie and I stamped the background with Hero Arts cling CG241 using TH Victorian Velvet (I used the second stamping to achieve a softer look) and then stamped a sentiment from Hero Arts CL151 which has some lovely sentiments, butterflies and flowers and is a really useful set.

Here's a close up of the rose which has a liberal helping of glitter, think I rather like the way the lines of the stamp give real interest and definition.

My final share of the day is a bit of inking and sponging. I masked a piece of Fabriano watercolour card and sponged Adirondack meadow and sunshine yellow, created some soft hills and overstamped with the tiny flower from Hero Arts CL151 and Penny Black 3381K aspire using Adirondack slate. The sentiment and butterfly is from the same Hero set and I added a few gold gems to some of the flowers.

I'm utterly overwhelmed................

..............by the kindness and generosity of my blogland friends.

I have never received so many Birthday cards and greetings and I was lost for words as I opened my post and e.mails today...............and it's not often that I am left speechless and close to tears realising just how kind people are.

So this is a huge thank you to everyone and I have tried to show some of the cards received and please do not be offended if you can't see yours, I have done my best to squeeze as many as possible into these two pictures but know some are missing, but that doesn't mean that they are not all equally special to me.

We had a barbie in the beautiful weather yesterday for hubby's Birthday and then a special Birthday tea tonight as it is also our Grandsons Birthday today.....what a wonderful present he was..............then Wednesday one of our Granddaughters celebrates her Birthday so we are packing them in this week.

Every single card I have received is beautiful in it's own special way and I love each and every one of them...................and I even got a few of my own cards...........I have to leave a basket of 'available' cards for the family to select to send me...........no point in them buying from the High Street. Plus I have some new crafty stash so itching to get my mitts inky and creating.

Have a good day everyone and again my thanks to you all.

Lemon and Lime and more !

Helene is our host at Allsorts this week and I admit I totally lost the plot here hence several cards. I had prepared my post, thought I had the weeks wrong so changed it all yesterday only to find I was right in the first place.......are you still with me or as confused as I was ?

So the theme definitely is Lemon and Lime, but thought I might as well share all the cards. The one up top uses the gorgeous new lily stamp Ruth created at A Passion for Stamps. I used Hero Arts F2365 to stamp the background with TH pumice stone and mounted onto a mat punched with MS around the page 3 dot scallop and lightly shaded the edges with the same inkpad. The image is coloured with Copics and decoupaged.

My second card is one of the samples I made for a Stamp Addicts programme using the Courting Couples silhouette stamp sheet. The background is stamped with Hero Arts K5056 friendship writing then the image stamped over using Brilliance orchid. The DP is Bo Bunny and I punched a border using MS garden trellis.

And the one above is the original one I did for Helene's Lemon and Lime theme. I stamped a piece of lemon bazzil with Hero Arts S5264 Antique flower background using Hero chalk ink soft green, The ovals are cut with Nesties and the butterfly is from Hero CL383 set and coloured with Aquamarkers. The sentiment is from Darkroom Door.

Animal Spirit's and really clever storage

Hello everyone, hope you are all having a good Tuesday. I've got some really special shares today.

I had a delivery from Sue of Animal Spirit stamps today with some of her new artwork which is just beautiful. I have only managed one make so far using the Crane stamp and as I told Sue, the moment I set eyes on the bird in flight I knew there had to be a brayered sun. I coloured it exactly the same way as previous samples using Copics and took my colour inspiration from the orange sky. You can buy the stamps direct from Animal Spirits here or in the UK from Sir Stampalot.

And this lovely storage carousel is also from Sir Stampalot, the first delivery last week sold out.........lucky me got one of those...........but more are expected in the next couple of days, so if you like the look of it get your name down quickly because I am sure they will walk again.

It sits on an integral swivel base so spins round so you can easily grab whatever you need next. It measures just under a foot wide...............I use proper measurements..................and has various sized storage sections which go up in tiers. And...............the six little drawers come filled with goodies including ribbon, flowers, gems and so on, so a steal at £24, 95. I am already wondering how I managed without mine.

Stamps to order

Good afternoon peeps. hope everyone is OK and had a good weekend. Bit of a mixed bunch weather wise here, thunder storms and rain Saturday, cloud yesterday but today is much brighter and quite warm........even got the french doors to my craft room open which is lovely as I can her the birds, including the cuckoo and the pigeons doing their billing and cooing mating rituals.

Two shares today and what a lucky girl I am because Ruth at A Passion for Stamps said to let her know if there were any flowers I especially liked. Well that was Friday when I said I am very fond of Stargazer Lilies and by teatime Saturday this lovely stamp arrived.

So of course I set to work and made a couple yesterday (one above), although was was not too happy with either, but managed a couple more today which I am reasonably pleased with (top of post).

I printed the images onto Farbiano watercolour card and used Aquamarkers to colour both and DP from stash. The pretty embellishment on the second card is a new Marianne ribbon border die and I made a little matching rose from the same organza ribbon.

I am also helping Jules to rid our craft rooms of odds and sods of DP's, both of these used scraps, hence I don't know the make any more, although I think the stripy one up top is October Afternoon. And I always end up with so many little pieces of bazzil that I never part with, so some of that went into the mix as well.

A Passion for Stamps and a recipe

It's Amanda's turn to host the theme at Allsorts this week and she has another recipe for us.

I have used one of the new stamps from Animal Spirit, by artist Sue Coccia. After stamping and embossing the butterfly I coloured with Copics then simply mounted onto a piece of Bo Bunny DP which I stamped round the edges with Hero Arts 5042K, adding some ribbons and a flower which I made from two coordinating pieces of DT........honest there are three different ones to fit the theme.

Also a share of another sample I did for Ruth at Passion for Stamps, if you've not checked out her lovely stamps yet, you really should, I am loving all the florals. As lots of your know, I love paper piecing and am finding the Nitwits DPs's run through my printer beautifully, so that's what I have used here, along with a bit of inking and sponging on the background. The butterfly is also one of Ruth's images which I reduced in size and printed on the same DP.

It's that ellie again

Good Morning, an early and really quick post as I am off to Stampalot today (will share some of the new samples with you shortly), but wanted to post a couple more of those I made for Stamp Addicts (below) next C&C programme on Sunday 19th June and another made using Ruth's latest Cosmos stamp (above).

The Cosmos was coloured with Aquamarkers and decoupaged, an easel card using Go Create dies and October Afternoon DP.

You will find all the stamps under the 'new' section on Stamp Addicts web site....................yes, I do love this Ellie.

New images, new stamps, new TV

Good Morning peeps, it's a lovely morning here in the Fens and hope it's the same wherever you are.

Before I tell you about my artwork, I must say thank you to all the lovely people who visit me so regularly, despite me not being able to do much in the way of blogging still outside my DT commitments. I live in hopes that the screen and my eyes will eventually achieve a better understanding of one another.

I have a few shares for you using Ruth's latest A Passion for Stamps artwork and Stamp Addicts latest stamps due to be showcased on the next Create and Craft programme on Sunday 19th June, but they are available on their website now.

Ruth's latest floral stamp is a lovely sketch of the beautiful Cosmos flower. We used to have no end of these in the garden, in beautiful pinks, purples and yellows, sadly they all seem to have died out and we really should plant some more.

For the one above which is the Cosmos, I did some paper piecing, stamped the diamonds using a really old Hero stamp to add a bit of definition. The frame is cut from a Nestie, the flower TH tattered floral and the DP is Basic Grey

The card above is the largest elephant stamp from the Jumbo stamp sheet and the sentiment from one of the two new Sentiment Circles sheets.The image is coloured with Aquamarkers, some leaves using a Nestie die and I think the DP is Kasier, but not 100% certain.

My final share is another of Ruth's lovely stamps, this one the Rhododendron which I printed twice, coloured with Aquamarkers and decoupaged. The card itself is cut with a Marianne die and the DP is Doodlebug.

All of these card use odds and ends of DP so I am joining in Jules snippets weekly fun.

One for the Boys

Emma has given us a recipe at Allsorts this week along with the theme 'One for the Boys'.

I have tucked another make in above as although it's not my official DT piece for this week, it fits the male theme although without the recipe, it's one of my first samples for Ruth over at A Passion for Stamps, so thought I would share. I managed to get a bit of brayering in for the background and the image was printed out twice, coloured with Aquamarkers and decoupaged.

This one is my DT piece which you will find over on the challenge blog. It wasn't my intention to go monochromatic, but that's sort of how it worked out. I masked a piece of cardstock, did a bit of distressing with TH tea dye and with the masks still in place stamped Hero Arts CG222 Music Background with the same ink. I then stamped Penny Black 3932K also with the same ink and embossed with detail clear. After removing the masks I matted the piece, added some corners and a piece of DT from stash and three buttons threaded on cord.

There are still a few days left to join our DT call at Allsorts, so if you fancy having a go please do pop over and see what you need to do.

Famous china and surprising news

Good morning everyone, hope you are all having a good week.

I thought I would share one of the samples I did for Stamp Addicts last TV programme using some of their lovely new silhouette stamps which were a joy to work with. You will find them under the 'all new products' section.

I also have a bit of surprising news to share. Almost everyone who knows me, knows that I just don't do digi's, until this week that is when Ruth from A Passion for Stamps mailed me asking if I would join her Design Team.

Now I have turned down a couple of invites to join Challenge DT's in recent weeks as I still have to moderate my screen activity, however this is not a challenge, but designing for Ruth's own gallery which means the pressure of DT commitments is removed. And once I looked through Ruth's wonderful floral and Nature images which are all drawn by her, I couldn't resist and said yes. So I will be sharing some of my creations using her images very shortly.

Back to the artwork in this post and as you will probably guess, my inspiration was taken from Wedgwood. It was actually quite a simple piece to make using blue cardstock which I cut with Go Create dies and Nesties and embossed the images with detail white embossing powder.

I made some roses from matching blue paper, added a liberal helping of glitter and used them to decorate the front along with some pearls, the obligatory butterfly and ribbon to hold it closed.

Animal Spirit stamps

As promised in my post yesterday and assuming Mr Blogger is happy with me today as this is scheduled, here are a couple more of the samples I made using Sue's wonderful artwork at Animal Spirit, which being all Nature orientated are right up my street.

A trip to Sue's website is well advised and as well as being able to view all her products she explains how she formulates her designs, where her inspiration is drawn from, how long each design takes and so on. If you would like to try out these new stamps you can buy them here or if you are in the States direct from Animal Spirits by following the link above. The images take a while to colour in, but every second is worthwhile as they really are amazing and to my mind fill a gap in stamp market.

The same Swan stamp in both of these cards, but two totally different looks. As I said last time I posted work using these stamps, I am still very much in the experimental stage and with the one above tried a different approach working through the image section by section.

With the first few including the one below, I picked out what were to me the predominant elements within the image and coloured those first and worked from there.

I am reasonably happy with both techniques, but still have more ideas to bring Sue's wonderful artwotk to life. She is currently working on some new designs and I am really looking forward to seeing what she comes up with. Finally I must thank Sue for her kind comments about my work and thank her for the opportunity to work with her beautiful images.

All white on the night

I've come to the conclusion it's a conspiracy at Allsorts and my fellow DT's are setting me as well as all you peeps a challenge just lately ...............only joking Emma, it's a great theme really, I just freaked at first.

White and more white sent me into total panic, but I actually quite like my card now it's finished and it has a purpose as one of our sons and his wife celebrated their first anniversary last week.................hard to believe it's a whole year ago since we were having a ball in France for their wedding.

The sentiment is computer generated, the base run through the Cuttlebug using Swiss dots, a Marianne die swirly leaf, mat punched with MS round the page vintage lace and a light brush of TH tea dye round the edges to give definition. Oh yes, and a dusting of Stickes frosted lace. How simple was that when I eventually got my head round the idea.

I always keep my odds and ends of linen and pearl card after I have scored and cut a batch of card blanks.........too nice to throw away.............. and several came in useful here for the punched mat, little flowers, leaves and swirl which were all made from those odds and ends. So I think it might just about qualify for Jules weekly event. Hope you realise just how honoured you are matie, I've not entered a challenge since about March.

Don't forget we have a DT call going over at Allsorts Challenge blog, we are looking for two new teamies, so if you fancy joining the team, pop over and see what you need to do.

Thanks for popping in and Mr Blogger obliging, there should be a post appearing tomorrow with some more samples using the beautiful Animal Spirit stamps.

How do you choose a favorite ?

A bit of a heavy post here as there is so much I need to share.

A new month means new challenges at Stampalot and Penny Black at Allsorts and some new about something going on over at Allsorts challenge, so read on.

The June theme at Stampalot is 'Photo Inspiration' - a lovely field of poppies and daisies and at Penny Black at Allsorts 'Your my Favourite'...........I have only myself to blame here, I ask you......... how is it possible to pick a favourite Penny Black stamps ? I can't as there are so many, so in the end decided I would opt for a finished card that I particularly like.

The top card is my DT piece for Stampalot challenge. I masked a piece of Frabico watercolour card, stamped Sheen Douglas daisies in white, then inked the whole piece with TH sage, masked the daisies, stamped Hero Arts S5316 Silhouette Grass in the background using TH tea dye, then overstamped with Hero CL449 and coloured the poppies with Copics.

For my Penny Black piece, a lovely slapstick stamp Penny Black 20-025 Thinking of You, coloured with Copics and decoupaged. The DP is October Afternoon and the flower created using a Cuttlebug quilling die set.

The piece above is not a card at all as it ended up rather too large, so in the end I just mounted it onto a piece of heavy card which probably works better as it is a Stampalot sample. The little girl on the left with her easel are both stamps from the new Molly Blloms range here along with others from previous releases. I drew the hills in by hand and the fence and tree are Magnolia everything is coloured with Aquamarkers.

And last nut not least I need to let everyone know that we have a DT call going on over at Allsorts. It will run for two weeks from today and if you pop over the the challenge blog you will fin all the details there. Please grab the logo above and help spread the word.