Inky fingers again

Good Morning all, a rather early post before work as I wanted to share this and I think I should be safe now as the card should have reached it's destination.

My good friend Sally very kindly presented me with a set of Inkilicious stamps when we met up at Stampalot last week for the blog girl classes. Sally explained the reason behind the gift was that she knew I was in need of more trees and an excuse to get inky.........as if, but thanks so much for the kind gesture. So of course I set to work and created a few cards.

This one uses just two coloures of Adirondack dye ink, sunset orange and hazelnut. A brayered sun of course, trees from the Inkilicious set, a little fence and some Art Impression sheep. I sponged some rays of sun coming down the hill, although they don't show up too well on the photograph.

And one more share of one I did a while back, again brayering and stamping poppies from Hero Arts CL449. The small piece with the Penny Black 2905H sentiment was created by laying over the main piece to line up the masks, then brayering using the same masks to carry the flow of the hill and sun.

Thanks for visiting and hope you all have a good week.

A Passion for Stamps

Hello peeps, how's everyone doing ?

The weather this weekend has certainly been pretty typical for British Bank Holiday hasn't it, but it's provided the perfect opportunity for some crafting without the pull of the garden. We had a bit of a bash yesterday for the girls birthday which is actually today and tonight we are going to Jamie Olivers Italian restaurant in Cambridge as an extension to the birthday celebrations, so really looking forward to that.

Ruth at A Passion for Stamps has created some lovely new floral images so I have been having a little play. The one above is a Nasturtium and I have coloured it with Aquamarkers in the traditional orange colours that we used to have in the garden, some DP from stash that matched rather well and a border cut with Spellbinder Fleur de Lis.

My second share is using the new Thistle and I just love this one and of course I had to colours do it in purples, again with Aquamarkers, although I know you can get hybrid varieties in other colours nowadays. I embossed the two panels with a cuttlebug die adn some corners using Spellbinders Parisien accents.

First day at school

We have a new challenge for you at Allsorts where Fleur has chosen the them 'Starting School/back to school'. Now I know there are loads of lovely stamps out there that fit this theme perfectly, but none are here in fantasy land, so I was a little bit stumped.

After much head scratching I decided to use one of my Sarah Kay images, she is a bit of a Country girl and has no school uniform and unsure what to expect on her first day at school, so is taking a rather large picnic basket to share with her new friends and some flowers for the teacher.........................I know, fantasy kicking in big time.

I coloured her with Copics , used Doodlebug DP from which I made the pom pom flower, added some swirls cut with a Sizzix die and added a computer generated sentiment.

Enjoy the weekend whatever you have planned.

La Blanch in the meadow

Hello peeps, scheduling this one as I wont be about for a day or so due to a hastily arranged 'secret mission'............can't share details for a bit yet I'm afraid............. but it's very crafty.........so a really brief post with a share I made for this weekends Christmas launch at Sir Stampalot.

Now I realise this one's not actually Christmas, but when the new Le Blanch stamps arrived at the shop I couldn't resist a couple more of that fabulous floral stamps, this one is called simply 'Meadow Flowers' and is available here.

I distressed a piece of Fabriano watercolour card with TH sage and rusty hinge then stamped Hero Arts silhouette grass using TH tea dye. Next I inked the main stamp with Aquamarkers and spritzed with water before stamping, then added a little more colour here and there with a paintbrush. I was really pleased with how the colours worked on this one and felt it needed little more than simply matting up onto the base card.

Catch you again soon.

Brayers certainly rolled.............

Well, what can I say !!

A really fabulous weekend in the company of seventeen lovely crafty girls at Sir Stampalot and wow, what fabulous work they all created. Lunch was pretty good as well and two of the girls played right into my hands with cheese scones.................as Dorcas would say "cheese scones are my one weakness" (I'm in Lark Rise to Candleford mode there).

Several had their own brayers and would you believe five were still in the box and had never seen the light of day, but I managed to change all that. There were one or two horrified faces when I went through the projects they would be making and especially the little scene with a brayered background and lots of Art Impression stamps.

But each and every one of them created the most beautiful scene................. and of course masked suns and moon as well.............. and already I have spied some popping up in blogland. In fact they all made three cards using different techniques with the good old Speedball plus several other less challenging pieces.

So a huge thank you to all of those who joined me, it was great fun and a pleasure to work with each and every one of you. And thanks to Andy and Janice for putting up with the giggles and girly chatter.

And I am pleased to say my eyes behaved themselves and didn't play up once all weekend, I'm feeling a bit jaded today and know I need to take it easy for a day or so, but so pleased I was able to do the full weekend with my crafty friends.

Two card shares, the top using Stampscape stamps and the one above using Hero Arts dogwood, but forgive me not going into detail on them, have a bit of a manic Monday ahead of me.

Have a good week everyone and thanks for dropping by.

In the frame

By the power of Blogger, at least I really hope so because I scheduled this well ahead as I will be teaching all weekend at Stampalot. More of the special Blog Girl days and lots of new faces from as far afield as Australia via Newcastle, as well as some familiar ones as well, all of whom I am so looking forward to seeing.

Lots of laughs, lots of chatter a lovely buffet lunch.....did I forget anything ? Oh yes and a bit of inky crafting.......and brayers will roll, although they don't all know that yet !

On to our new challenge at Allsorts where I have chosen the theme "You've been Framed", basically I would like to see you incorporate a frame somewhere on your work.

I did have two DT shares but now it's three as I thought I really should have one with Molly as our sponsors are Sir Stampalot who are giving away two Molly stamps to the winner of this weeks challenge. And it does have a little frame as Molly is painting a picture on her easel. I have paper pieced this one using some of the super Scribble Scrabble DP's. You can find all the Molly Blooms stamps here.

My second card is using Ruth of A Passion for Stamps Cosmic flower which you can buy here. I love to paper piece this image and have used Bo Bunny DP for both the flower and the frame which is cut with a Nestie. The little row of butterflies is the border/bar code edge of the sheet which I thought was too pretty to throw away. The sentiment is computer generated and I tied some of the lace and made up a pin with coordinating beads.

And finally my third share uses Penny Black 4039K Candid, stamped twice and decoupaged and framed with a nestie. The DP is Bo Bunny and the scalloped border EK Success.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Hairy bikers meet the secret garden

Morning folks, hope your week is going well.

Play here was interrupted by bad light yesterday when my vision went AWAL for a couple of hours, happened before but still scary stuff, but seems to be back to normal this morning, so will share what I intended to yesterday.

I was totally certain after seeing a lovely card Janice made last week that I definitely needed the TH fence and chains, although I am yet to be convinced that heavy grunge fits with my floral style.................so lets pretend the chain open the door to the Secret Garden.................well there has to be a bit of fantasy in there !!

The image is one of the gorgeous new La Blanch stamps called Wild Flowers which I stamped onto Fabriano watecolour card and coloured with Aquamarkers. I cut the fence and lock from Coredinations purple cardstock, inked with versamark and embossed with TH distress powder milled lavender..................after recovering the contents of the pot from my trouser legs and desk........no idea how that happened.

My second share is another Stampalot sample using one of the new Christmas stamps from Hero K5524 Winter Scene. I brayered through an oval aperture using the Speedball and Adirondack denim dye ink, then stamped the scene in black archival ink and added corners and border punched with Spellbinders Parisian Accents.

All of the new Christmas stamps and goodies will be on sale for the Christmas launch over the Bank Holiday weekend, lots of demos lined up including Lindsay Mason on Sunday 28th August.

Anything but a card

Good morning one and all, it's time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Debs would like us to create 'Anything but a card', but before my DT work a few bits and pieces of news.

First off, a huge thank you to everyone who has joined in at Stampalot Challenge this month despite the little 'problem' earlier this week. And a little heads up that that there is a very special weekend coming up at Stampalot shortly, more details further down this post.

And lots of you have been so kind and asked about the post holiday saga so just to update you, no joy with my jewellery I'm sad to say. The concierge from the ship got back to me to say they had done a thorough search of our cabin just to make sure the box hadn't got pushed under the bed or something like that, but nothing turned up. Our cabin steward was a lovely lad from Mauritius and was so thrilled to have just been promoted to being a suit steward and their jobs are so precious to them that honesty is second nature and I have no doubt if found he would have handed it in. So I can only conclude it was stolen from my case in Paris at some point.

Fridges and freezers still empty but sparkling clean...........at least it forced a well needed job to be done............. as I've just not had time to shop since we got back as work and files up to the ceiling sort of took over, but it's high on my agenda for the weekend. And after all the indulgence on holiday a lean diet won't hurt us for a few days.

On to my DT piece for this week and I have come up with a Christmas tag book which I cut on the Big Shot Pro (thanks for the loan Stampalot), distressed each page with TH fired brick and sage, then spritzed with Glimmer Mist pearl. I stamped round the edges of the pages with Inkadinkado 98396 and the birds on two of the page are from the same Christmas set. The sentiment on the middle page is Art Impression J1674.

Finally, I added red Stickles, some punched poinsettias and tied the spine with ribbons.

I am off to Stampalot tomorrow, new Hero Arts and Le Blanch stamps beckon, so all going to plan I should have a few shares shortly as I need to get cracking with samples for the big Christmas launch weekend starting on Saturday 27th August. Some of the goodies are already available and can be found here.

Thanks for visiting and hope you have a good weekend.

It never rains when it pours does it ?

Hello peeps, I'm back from my hols, but not into the groove yet.......that might take a day or two.

A fabulous holiday, but we came home to defrosted fridges and freezers..............the smell met us at the door. Looks like we had a power cut which was long enough to allow the ice machine to leak it's contents which then seeped through the floorboards onto a power cable and threw the trip switch.

It was late before we got everything cleaned up there, so last night before we unpacked and the icing on the cake was finding I had lost all the jewellery I took on holiday. I have a horrid feeling that when we cleared the safe the morning we got off the boat that I left in laying on the bed in our cabin, so have mailed the concierge on the ship in the slim hope it was found................keeping everything crossed.

Then there is the little Mr Linky/Blogger problem that looks like remaining a total mystery but which I need to explain. Somehow despite me adding separate html widget codes to one of my own posts and the August Stampalot challenge, the two seem to have merged. Nobody can offer me any explanation how it happened, so the only answer was to re-launch Stampalot August challenge this morning. So all those who had already entered will need to entered their work a second time onto the new Linky widget. Sorry folks, it had to happen when I was away didn't it ?

So just a couple of really quick shares made a while back using the Speedball brayer, Adirondack dye inks and Stampscape stamps.

Seeing Red

Still reliant on the good nature of Mr Blogger and hoping this pops up as scheduled, but (boo hoo) we are now on the last leg of our holiday on route to Paris where we are spending a few days before arriving home this coming week.

Helene would like us to Make a Red Card at Allsorts this week, so it's poppies from me again in the form of Hero Arts CL449. I masked the top and bottom of my card, then stamped Hero Arts S5316 silhouette grass with TH sage, then stamped the poppies with Adirondack dye ink red pepper. With the masks still in place, I lightly sponged the top and bottom edges with the same ink.

On a piece of plain smooth cardstock I stamped the poppies several times with versamark and embossed with detail clear and then brayered over the whole piece from which I cut out several poppies to decoupaged and also the panel. The sentiment is Darkroom Door.

One form afar

By the magic of Blogger, this ones comes to you via Split in Croatia and is one of the samples I created for my friend Ruth at A Passion for Stamps using her beautiful rose stem image.

I stamped a background using Hero Arts S5264 Antique Flower Background with Hero chalk ink soft sand and coloured and decoupaged the rose with Copics. The DP is Kaiser and the two panels of Core dinations embossed and sanded. I made the two flowers from plain cream paper and added some glitter to the edges. The frame is cut from Grand Nesties four.

Welcome to the Stampalot Garden Party

Hopefully Blogger is still playing the game with me and this will pop us as scheduled on the 1st August for the new challenges at Sir Stampalot and Penny Black at Allsorts.

Today we should be in the beautiful Greek isle of Santorini, but there is one element that spoils my trips here and that is those poor little donkeys making repeated treks up and down the steep hillside to ferry visitors to the village above. The family all tell me I am sad and I am in total agreement, the only difference is my sadness is that these poor creatures are exploited in the burning heat day after day.

OK, off my high horse now, I know that's one animal rescue I cant deal with so I will tell you about the challenges, at Stampalot we have the theme of "Whatever you Fancy" and Penny Black at Allsorts "Free and Easy", so basically both totally open to create what you like.

My Stampalot creation is a sort of concertina box card, I'm sure there is a proper name for it but not really sure what this is. I stamped and coloured several Molly Blooms stamps and created a little scene, took me the best part of a day to do this one but really enjoyed it even if it is outside my comfort zone.

My Penny Black make above uses the lovely image Penny Black 4076K Gift of Flowers and I did some paper piecing for her dress and hat and coloured the other parts with Copics. The DP is Scribble Scrabble and the ribbon threaded through a Marianne die.

Thanks for visiting and have a lovely weekend.