Handbags and Haribo's

Still reliant of the help of Mr Blogger, so hopefully today will be Saturday and time for our new challenge at Allsorts where Amanda is our hostess with the mostest for our final Free and Easy July theme.

Today we are scheduled to be in Kusadasi in Turkey, home of all things designer........fake 'labels' that is, so there will be some serious shopping going on here and that little Prada number I bought for £15 last visit needs replacing. And what are the children looking forward to here.........the Haribo shop, last week we had a whole evening re-living their previous visit...........it is a rather large shop dedicated purely to those chewy sweets, but I ask you Haribo's when you have travelled half way round Europe to get there.

So my cards, the one above so so simple that all I can tell you is I used some scraps of DP to create a border punched with Martha Stewart doily lace, made a flower out of organza ribbon and some leaves punched with another MS punch. The sentiment is Penny Black 4071F.

And the one at the top of my post uses several Hero Art stamps, TH inks dusky concorde, peeled paint and marigold. The card itself was created using Grand Nesties labels four.

A little bit shabby.......

......... and rather distressed, but I rather enjoyed making this one using Penny Black 4161K Pin Striped which I stamped onto a background created with an acrylic block inked with TH ink worn lipstick and spritzed with water before stamping. The DP is My Minds Eye.....just for a change.

This post is of course sheduled as we are due to be in Kotor, Montenegro today. Never been there before and ashamed to admit know very little about the Country, other than they have a reasonable footie team who are ranked 16th by FIFA and held the UK to a drawn in the Euro qulifiers.......how sad am I knowing trivia like that.

Fun with inks

Assuming Mr Blogger is playing fair, this post should pop up when I am in Venice and all going to plan, tonight attending the Arena di Verona to see my all time favourite opera Verdi's Aida, under the stars...........I've not dare ask what happens if it rains !

And Monday we sail up the Adriatic Sea stopping at Croatia and Montenegro, then into the upper Med bound for Egypt, Turkey, Athens and the Greek Islands.

Emma is our lovely hostess this week at Allsorts where we continue our "Free and Easy July" theme and our sponsor this week is Sir Stampalot. I have a bit of masking to share using two different techniques. The one above have been brayered, sponged and stamped thought an oval aperture using a further mask to create the moon. Inks used are all Adirondack dye based, the good old speedball brayer and stamps are a mixture of Art Impression and Creative Expressions.

To create my second card I masked the edges and two centre sections of a piece of Farbiano watercolour card, then with the masks in place lightly sponged the edges of the three central sections with TH Victorian velvet before stamping Hero Arts CG222 music background with the same ink. I then stamped Judikins Poppies (sorry no code) with versafine black, embossed with detail clear and added pink seed beads to the poppy centres. After removing the masks, I mounted onto coordinating card.

Don't forget............

...............Stamp Addicts latest programme live on Create and Craft today at 10am when Sarah and Vicky will be full swing in Christmas mode.

And as I am on my hols, I am relying on Mr Blogger to get this post up and running and share two of the cards I made in readiness for today's show. The one at the top of my post was inspired by Louise and the design of the lovely Birthday card she sent me. I used the Stamp Addicts Playful Penguins set, Bo Bunny DP and my still favorite new toy, TH hinge die, plus Copics for the bit of colouring.

My second share uses the Stamp Addicts Polar Bear stamp set, this is the larger of the two bears and my second favorite toy on the moment, Fleur de Lis Nesties. I'm not altogether sure of the make of DP, possibly My Minds Eye, it's the reverse of one from last Christmas.

Christmas in July

Morning peeps, this is where I get reliant on Mr Blogger as we head off on our holidays, so from now until 9th August it's going to be all hit and miss what appears here and when, so lets hope he's feeling in a good mood.

My shares today are samples I created for the next Stamp Addicts programme on Create and Craft on Friday 22nd July at 10am and no prizes for guessing it's all about Christmas.

The card at the top of the post is using the Stamp Addicts Snowy Village and Christmas Sentiments 1 sets and gave me the prefect opportunity to squeeze in just a little bit of brayering. As usual the Speedball brayer, Adirondack dye inks, Copics to colour the houses and liberal helpings of Judikins snow glitter.

Looks like my second card somehow managed to get a blast from the Speedball as well...........how did that happen I wonder........... and a reflected image created by running the brayer carefully over the inked image and rolling onto the gloss cardstock to achieve a faded effect......remember you need to think in reverse here so it's upside down as you look at the card. The images gliding across the frozen ice are from the Stamp Addicts Playful Penguins set and have been stamped again in the normal way above the shadow ones.

All of the stamp sheets in the show have several images on them and represent really good value for money and are perfect for all those Christmas cards I know you will be starting on any time now.

Molly Blooms having yet more fun at the beach

Molly is definitely still in holiday mode this week as we continue our Free and Easy July theme at Allsorts where this week Fleur is our hostess.

And please don't forget that over at our sister challenge Penny Black at Allsorts this months theme is Flower Power, which means so long as there is a flower somewhere on your work and of course a Penny Black stamp, you can create whatever you like. Here is another one I made following the theme using Penny Black 4161K Pin Striped which I paper pieced onto a background created using PB 3860J Pointelle and Hero Arts H3265 stamped and embossed in white and sepia.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Oana for kindly passing an award to me, it seems a very appropriate one as I do have a very sweet and especially Cadbury tooth, shameful for a diabetic I know, but what's a girl to do when she needs crafty inspiration. Lots of you know how bad I am at passing awards on or selecting peeps to share it with, so I offer it to all my blogland friends with grateful thanks for their continued support and encouragement.

My Allsorts card shows Molly (Molly Blooms stamps available at Sir Stampalot) and her friends having fun at the beach. The background was created by inking various colours of TH distress inks onto a craft sheet, spritzing with water then dragging a piece of watercolour card through it.

The images were then masked and stamped onto it and coloured with a mixture of Aquamarkers and paper piecing. I also added some teeny tiny shells to the sand here and there and the picture Molly has just painted was created by stamping onto shrink plastic and layering over the easel which actually has a Country scene which was not really right for the beach was it ?

Animal Spirit artwork showcased....I'm so chuffed....

This morning I was a bit taken back to discover that Animal Spirit's have used some of my creations using their fabulous stamps to promote their products for the forthcoming CHA trade show in America later this month.

I had been meaning to share this latest creation above using one of Sue's new releases, for a few days. So after receiving the news this morning thought it was the perfect way to thank Sue Coccia for her kind words of encouragement and showcasing my work. As someone who can't draw for toffee, I feel very humbled that an artist as talented as Sue, has displayed my work.

Animal Spirits stamps can be purchased in the UK from Sir Stampalot and direct from Earth Art International in the States. They may look a bit daunting at first as they are so intricate, but believe me they are a joy to work with and so rewarding as they lend themselves to wonderful colour combinations as you work your way through the fine details within each stamp. I find Copics the best medium to colour them in.

Just a bit of brayering and inking

Good Monring peeps, I'm a bit overdue doing this post, the neck and shoulder are playing up again and crafting is so slow going as I have this silly collar which stops me looking down for long......but I guess that was their aim......are they spoilers or what, but I suppose it makes sense and hopefully it will help ease the pain.

So my shares are some I did last week for Sir Stampalot when I had a nice inky session. To achive the background colour of the one above I masked the fairy, dragonfly and moon......you all know there has to be a moon........and distressed with TH dusky concorde and broken china. Then overstamped with Penny Black 3381K Aspire and Hero Arts G4917 Dandelion using the same inks. The fair and and dragonfly were stamped again and decoupaged and splattering of glitter and liquid pearls. The little fleur de lis shapes are the end pieces of the hing in a TH die set........this is my latest 'favorite'.

My second share is simple brayering with the speedball using Adirondack dye inks watermelon and denim. The trees are Creative Expression and the fence and birds Art Impression.

One extreme to the other

It's my turn to host the theme at Allsorts this week where we are continuing our Free and Easy July theme, so the two cards I have to share go from one extreme to the other, one nice and simple and the other nice and inky.

For the card above which is a Stampalot sample I took a piece of Farbiano 300gsm watercolour card, masked a moon and the two stamped butterflies and inked with TH rusty hinge and olive. I then stamped Penny Black 3737H birds on a wire, 3381K aspire and Hero Arts CL333 using the same inks, stamping a second time without re-inking to achieve a shadow effect. I stamped the butterflies a second time onto the same cardstock and decoupaged and mounted onto a piece or Core-dinations.

And now the simple little number, as lots of you know, I love my poppies so another chance to use Hero Arts CL449 which I stamped by inking the stamp with Aquamarkers and embossed with detail clear, added a Hero sentiment, gems and some lace. How simple is that.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Morning peeps, hope everyone is OK.

A quick couple of shares which I made earlier this week, both using the same image from A Passion for Stamps, but different techniques.

The one at the top has been paper pieced onto a Nestie Fleur de Lis frame and Scribble Scrabble DP. The border is also a Nestie from the Fleur de Lis accents.

The image on the second card had been coloured with Aquamarkers and decoupaged on to frames cut from Nesties Labels 20. I ran the top piece through the cuttlebug and inked the edges with TH marigold. The DP is Daisy Bucket.

Who can smell a barbie ?

My DIL snapped this yesterday, you would never guess I was holding a tray of chicken fresh off the barbie would you ? True Labradores every one of them - George and Bernie are up in London so missed out on this one.

Hope everyone had a good weekend and the weather was kind to you as well, it's been ideal garden weather here so we made the most of it and not a lot of crafting got done.

So just a couple of shares of Stampalot samples I came up with last week.

I love the fresh colours of the Kaiser DP and used that as the basis of my card. The flower is from Hero Arts CL374 which I stamped twice on to the DP, then inked with versamark and spritzed with Glimmer Mist pearl, shaped whilst wet then decoupaged. The diamond pattern is Hero Arts G3316 inked with Adirondack pebble using the second stamping to get a softer colour. Borders are Spellbinders Parisian accents and the frame Nesties Fleur de Lis and Labels 17. The little bird was cut from the DP.

And a bit of brayering with my Speedball friend, Adirondak dye inks, a masked sun and a mixture of Art Impression and Hobby Art stamps.

Pretty in Pink

Debs is hosting the challenge at Allsorts this week where the theme is 'Anything Goes' - in fact that's the theme for the whole month of July, we thought we would go nice and simple to ease us all into the holiday season.

I am sharing a card I made using this cute little image from Penny Black 40-041 called Good Friends. She is coloured with Aquamerkers and decoupaged and I have used one of the pretty new Kaiser DP's which is so bright and Summery.

Have a good weekend everyone, lets hope the weather is as nice as last week.

Molly Blooms chillin' at the beach

New challenges at Penny Black at Allsorts where the them is 'Flower Power' and it's our first Birthday so we have a bit of fun adn some etra prizes planned. And at Stampalot tje theme is 'Anything Goes', a nice easy one.

So as you can see I've been having a play with some on the new Seaside Molly range of stamps which you will find here. All fairly simple, images coloured with Aquamarkers, some clouds and sand, a little boat in the background and a computer generated sentiment.

The card above has some of the lovely new Scribble Scrabble DP from Stampalot and Penny Black 4035K letters and flowers which I just love using this way, simply inked with distress inks and spritzed with water before stamping. The flower is made from the same DP using Tim Holz tattered floral die and the swirl is also TH, tattered flourish.

The card above has a background created by dabbing blocks of distress ink onto a piece of linen cardstock, the over stamping with Hero Arts S5316 silhouette grass and Penny Black 2666K blush. The sentiment is Penny Black 3940F life.