Another Easter basket

Happy Saturday peeps, time for a new challenge at Allsorts where the lovely Debs is this weeks host and has some photo inspiration for us.

I have taken the fresh Spring colours and Easter eggs for my DT piece which is another of the Easter baskets which I shared in a tutorial here a few weeks ago, as you will see it was this one I was making in the tutorial in readiness for this weeks challenge, so I'll not bore you with all the details again. You might just see some Cadbury caramel bunnies peeking out...............that was when I took the picture, but now long since gone, I have a real fetish for them and of course they are calorie and sugar free !

Whatever you are up to, I hope you have a good weekend.

The scene behind my house

Hello all, hope your week is going well. I confess to being a bit tardy this week and not getting a lot done, it's been one of those weeks where the pain has kicked in a bit more than usual and I've not been able to get a proper crafty head on, not least because I've not been able to sit comfy for very long. 

I had a long chat to my physio this morning and she suggested a few things to try until I see her next, but I think we both know it's a bit of a lost cause and I have to accept my mobility is not going back to where it was before this latest relapse. I'm seriously considering a small mobility scooter, it would be much lighter than my wheelchair and might go in the boot of my little MX5 so I can get out and about a bit more without having to rely on others all the time, that's the main problem living in the sticks, you need a car to get anywhere.

Just the one share of a card I created a couple of weeks ago for Sir Stampalot using a new La Blanch tree stamp that came my way after an appeal for more trees when they visited CHA in January. As my mate Sally will tell you, a girl can never have too many trees, a bit like shoes really. I used Adirondack inks watermelon, peach bellini, butterscotch and meadow and archival sepia to stamp the tree and deer's which are Art Impression. The fence, wire and birdies are all hand drawn with a fine line marker.

The scene could be looking up behind our house, although when we see a Monkjack deer, it's usually a solitary one, they are such pretty but shy characters. And that means the birdies are pigeons happily perched cooing away on the wires above the paddocks, it's a sound I love to hear as I sit crafting. It doesn't take a lot to make me happy you see. Although the hills are artistic licence, it's as flat as a pancake here in the Fens.

Enjoy your day, it's looking like sunshine again today.

Sunny and Bright

Good Afternoon all you crafty Peeps.

The weather here today is absolutely glorious again, the overnight minus four frost and fog gave way to beautiful sunshine and I have had the french windows of my office open since lunchtime. The dogs are laid about everywhere as thought they had a hard morning..............I must have missed something because as far as I know the most energetic thing they've done is eat breakfast.

I thought I would share a couple of the cards I made for Ruth using her new Fritillary image which you will find at A Passion for Stamps here. The card at the top was made using the scrunched tissue technique, rather than go into it again you will find what I did here. I used some scraps of DP for the background and alternated them with some embossed squares. The roses were cut with a Memory Box die from plain copy paper, then lightly coloured with distress inks, the swirls are the same make of die and the leaves Spellbinders.

The second card is paper pieced with Bo Bunny DP. The harlequin background was created by inking a stencil with versamark, placing on a piece of white cardstock, running through the Big Shot Express then brushing Mica Powder after removing the stencil. I did exactly the same with the shaped mat, but kept the Nestie frame in place until I has added the mica. The little picket fence is a new Memory Box die, I am amazed with how very fine and detailed it is yet how perfectly it cuts.

Enjoy the rest of your day and thanks for visiting.

Meet Pixie and a bit more Penny Black

Happy Monday Peeps, hope you all had a good weekend and those of you in the UK enjoying this lovely weather.

The little lady above is Pixie, a ten week old Jack Russell who joined the family gang this weekend. She's such a tiny little thing but seems quite capable of giving the large dogs a run for their money and has already sussed that if big guys play gets a bit too rough for her she can slide into spaces they can't. I will do my best to get a picture of the whole gang one day soon, but it's easier said than done keeping them all still for long enough.

I am still loving the new Penny Black 4237K Awakening so here's another share of another card I made with it. Again I inked the stamp direct, this time with Aquamarkers, spritzed with water and stamped onto Fabriano watercour card, inked the edges with TH tumbled glass and sponged through some sequin waster to give a bit of background interest.  The DP is Bo Bunny, some embossed and sanded Coredinations and a piece of cheescloth in the background and ribbon.

Have a good day everyone and as always thanks so much for popping in.

Cooking up at Allsorts

A very Good Morning to you all, Saturday morning can mean only one thing, a new challenge at Allsorts and this week my lovely teamie Helene wants us to 'Use a Cooking Recipe'.

But first I want to tell you all about our second Birthday celebrations at Stampalot Challenge which kick off on 1st April. I've come me up with a little sidebar logo and hope you will help us spread the word. If you have any problems with this one.....it worked for some of the DT fine, but Blogger didn't want me to use it despite re-sizing it so in the end I did a low resolution one as well which is on by sidebar.

Now my DT piece and confessions here, I was really stumped at first, after spending hours trawling through my stamps I drew a blank with anything cookery orientated, not surprising I guess when most of my stamps are floral, botanical or fantasy. But then I had a flash of inspiration and came up with a recipe holder which I thought might even be useful for one of the girls.

I made the folder using a scoring tool and covered with some Kaiser DP's, decorated it with borders cut from Spellbinders and the letters are cut on the Cricut. I sourced the recipes on line, mounted them on to cardstock and did a bit of stamping using one of my tiny collection of just seven Clarity stamps......I really do 'need' more of them.

Have a good weekend.

Molly Blooms in the pink

Morning peeps, hope your week is going well.

It's been an off mixture of weather here in the Fens this week, we've had rain, sun, fog and still the overnight frosts............my in house weather man reports it was minus four again in the garden last night, but at least that does usually lead to a nice day so fingers crossed.

It's no secret that I just don't do cute and always struggle when it involves anything other than flowers, fairies and trees, but I'm always ready to rise to the challenge which was what was called for when a bundle of the new Molly Blooms stamps landed on my doormat a few weeks ago. The samples were for the launch of the new Circus and Fairground stamps at the NEC Trade Show last month, which I can now share and you can buy them from Sir Stampalot.

The card at the top using the big top and ringmaster Molly were paper pieced using DP's from stash. The little tickets are also amongst the new release stamps. The card base was cut using Nesties labels 23, the rose is made from punched five petal flowers.

My second card uses the lovely carousel stamp which really is my favourite from the new releases which I coloured with Derwent watercolours, decoupaged and added a frame cut with a Go Create die. Then added a bow and stick pin to embellish.

Whatever you have planned, hope you have a good day.

All rather floral

 

Good Morning, I hope everyone is OK.

I had a bit of a crafty play at the weekend as lucky me had some of Ruth's latest artwork to play with which you will find at A Passion for Stamps as well as some still un-inked Penny Black stamps.

To create the top card I masked the edges of a piece of Fabriano watercolour card and gently inked with TH broken china, I then tore a piece of copy paper to mask the top right section of the piece and stamped the the section with Hero Arts S5264 Antique Flower Background using TH tea dye. Next I sponged both colours of ink randomly over the stamping and finally stamped Penny Black 4237K Awakening using TH stormy sky and Aquamarkers and spritzed with water before stamping................every time there's a new release of stamps you tend to have a favourite and this one is definitely one of those. After removing the masking I mounted the piece onto coordinating cardstock and added a button.

My second card using Ruth's Fratillary image which I printed onto Fabriano watercolour card and did my usual mad rush to get some clear embossing powder on as it came through the printer, then coloured with Derwent watercolur pencils. The sentiment is Penny Black 4261L Time. The background was created using a Touch of Mica mask which I inked with versamark, rand through the Big Shot then dusted a lilac cosmic shimmer powder over the inked sections...................I am quite pleased with the effect and especially how well the colours match which was more buy luck than judgement as I only have a few mica powders.

Thanks for popping in, catch you later in the week.

A Krafty Affair

Hello peeps, Happy Mothering Sunday to all you crafty Mums out there.

A quick question, has anyone else lost their little editing tools from their blogs over the weekend ? I can still edit from the settings but the little pencil and spanners have disappeared on all the blogs I manager which is a real pain as they make editing so much quicker.

Today it's time to share the second of my Stampalot creations for the DT's March challenges. I hope you can fine a few moments to pop over the the challenge blog and go and visit all the DT's pieces of work, they are all fab and so different.

The kit's I sent to the DT were again much the same, just slightly different double sided DP's from the same pack of  My Minds Eye Kraft Funday Happy Days. Most the the designs were quite bright with primary colours so I opted for the reverse side of my three sheets.

The base sheet was a neutral colour with spots which I spritzed with Glimmer Mist iridescent gold and red velvet. When dry I randomly stamped with Hero Arts S5601 Newspaper Background and S5449 Fabulous Flourish and embossed the latter with detail copper. I then stamped Hero Arts K5586 Starbursts and again embossed with detail copper. The sentiment is Penny Black 3195H stamped onto a piece of the DP and embossed with the same powder. I made the flower using TH tattered floral die and the leaves are Spellbinders and I found the DP sanded down nicely to fit in with my overall theme.

Have a good Sunday.

Rows of Three

A very Good Morning to you all, it's Saturday which means time for a new challenge at Allsorts which my lovely teamie Jo would like to see 'Three in a Row'.

Our sponsors this week are Stitchy Stamps and Pretty Little Ribbons, so two cards from me using products from both.

The one at the top has been stamped with Penny Black 3381K Aspire and Hero Arts K5313 Silhouette Ivy onto Bo Bunny DP using second generation stamping with Adirondack black and butterscotch. The focal sentiment is Penny Black 3157H Growing Free.............I just love the wording on this one..........matted and layered on to Nesite circles and picot edging. The side border is Spellbinders Fleur de Lis, three roses (my row of three on this one, hope that fits OK Jo) cut with Marianne dies and yellow seam binding from Sarah at Pretty Little Ribbons (link to her store on my sidebar)

My second share uses a floral wreath from Stitchy Stamps which I printed onto Fabriano watercolour card and coloured with Aquamarkers. I printed one of the flowers a second time and decoupaged at the bottom. of the circle of flowers. My 'three in a row' on this one are the three butterflies and punched flowers on the bottom section of my easel card which has been covered with American Crafts DP.

Am entering the top card into Pretty Little Ribbons Spring Colours challenge.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Moonlight across the lake

Good Morning Peeps. Still no sign of the sun here is the Fens, but this morning it's really misty so I am hoping that might clear away into a nice day, we can but hope.

You seemed to like my inkyness yesterday and thank you so much for your very kind comment, so thought I would share another, this time a moonlight scene across the lake. As usual a mixture of stamps from Art Impressions, Stampscapes and the little boat is from a Stamp Addicts sheet which we used  a few months back for one of the Create and Craft TV shows. I tried to create some reflection in the water by sponging and reverse stamping.

I used the trusty Speedball brayer onto gloss cardstock and Adirondack inks cloud blue, denim and black. I usually leave these type of cards fairly simple, but I decided to add a little lace and ribbon to this one to give a softer feel.

I am entering this into this months Create a Scene challenge who want to see 'Moonlight'

Have a good Thursday everyone.

A landscape

So how is everyone this morning and do you have any sunshine ? Despite the weekend showing all the signs of Spring having arrived, the last three days have been dull and dark, but at least it's fairly mild.

Looking at the growing pile of files on my desk I am going to be busy this morning, so thought I had better do a quick post now before I get stuck in. My share is a simple bit of brayering with a touch of ink dusting........still loving these.  I stamped the large tree first using archival back ink and the tree from an Andy Skinner set. Then masked a sun and added the sky with Adirondack dye inks hazelnut and butterscotch, created the landscape with layers of torn paper and stamped on some more trees which are Art Impressions, Hobby Art sheep which I coloured with a white fine tip marker, hand drawn fence and some foreground foliage with Inkylicious stamps.

Thanks for popping by and have a good Wednesday.

Onwards and Upwards

A Passion for Stamps roses image

Good Morning peeps, I am starting off on a rather different note and sharing a quote from Mother Theresa ................................

"Your honesty and frankness will expose you to problems but your work should not stop for it means the world to so many people"

I will not elaborate why I am sharing this quote as many of you will know and understand why I find it's content so inspirational and apt. Suffice to say it summarises recent events which I have overcome because of the support and friendship of you dear friends.

During the last few months, the inability to get out has endorsed my view.............. which I know is shared by many of you............that craft goes much further than just providing us with the ability to express ourselves artistically................it provides the far more important role of offering a distraction from the pain, both physically and mentally of the everyday rigours live throws at us.

So onwards and upwards as they say and I hope you all had a good weekend and enjoyed some of that lovely sunshine which was kind to lots of us here in the UK the last couple of days. I'm still not able to go far due to my legs unwillingness to play the game, so yesterday was a real treat to be taken for a drive in the sunshine. We went in my car so had the top down and it was really nice and warm, but it did mean not enough room for my wheelie, so apart from a few gingerly steps at the woodland where dad is buried, I took in the air from the car which was lovely.

And to prove I am still crafting and enjoying it, a few shares of cards I've made recently for Ruth at A Passion for Stamps. To create the one at the top of this post I printed Ruth's two roses image onto Fabriano watercolour card and coloured with Derwent watercours, then masked a sun and did some gentle sponging with Adirondack denim and meadow. The card base was cut using Go Create dies and the sentiment an old unmounted Hero Arts one.........sorry long since lost the code.

The second card  using Ruth's hawthorn blossom image was printed onto the same Fabriano watercolour card and coloured as above. The card bases is cut using Picot Edge and Grand Nesties, the Kasier DP is one of the brand new designs and the sentiment Penny Black 3419D.

Have a good day everyone and thanks so much for popping by, your visits are always much appreciated.

Say it with Flowers

At Allsorts this week Nicola is asking us to 'Say it with Flowers', now there's an easy one for me !

The inspiration for the background came from Sue Wilson who I caught on C&C the other week making a lovely array of cards as she always does and I thought the idea of using strips of border dies was a great one.  I cut six borders using Spellbinders Parisian Accents.............I think........I always get that one and Fleur de Lis muddled, so if it's not one it's the other, which I stuck to a piece of linen cardstock. The sentiment is computer generated and matted onto circle and picot edge Nesties. The photo makes the Spellbinder leaves cut on coredinations look a bit mismatched colourwise, but they blend quite nicely in the flesh. The roses are Spellbinder and Marianne dies, some seam binding, a stick pin and finito.

I do hope you can join in at Allsorts this week, I am thinking it might be a rather bust week with Mothers Day on the horizon.

Moonlight

Good Morning Peeps, how you all doing ? The  weather  here  looks  promising  today  and after  yet another overnight frost I'm hopeful we might see some sunshine, after all it's meant to be Spring.

I thought I would share a bit of my favourite crafty pastime, brayering of course and as lots of you know I love my suns and moons so this months Craft a Scene theme of 'Moonlight' was totally up my street. The stamp from The Unmounted Stamp Company is one a lovely crafty friend sent me for my Birthday last year..............she said she saw it at a show and thought of me, anyone would think I was a closet treeaholic.

I made several very similar to this one as I think they are perfect for Winter Birthdays, her's included. A very simple brayered background using the Speedball with Adirondack denim and black, stamped the image with archival black then sponged the hills and snow drifts. I added a rose, leaves and some lace to add a feminine touch, but I think without those it would be fine for a guy as well.  I also decorated the envibox to match, don't know if you have discovered these but they are so useful for cards with a little bit more height and protect the embellies. Nearly forgot, I added some snow with a white fine tip marker.

This is my entry for......................

Craft a Scene whose theme is Moonlight

Whatever you have planned, have a good day and hope the sunshine reaches you.

Star and Engraved flowers

Good morning Peeps, I hope everyone is OK.

I thought I would share a few more of the samples I made for Stamp Addicts new TV show which is scheduled on Create and Craft this Friday, 9th March at 1pm.

This is the front cover of the tri fold card at the top

The Star and Engraved Flower stamp sheets which you will find here are right up my street and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them along with the new sentiment sheet which is really useful to have in your stash.

To create the above card I inked the stamps with Aquamarkers and spritzed with water before stamping on to Fabriano watercolour card, cur with Go Create dies and mounted onto some October Afternoon DP.

For the above card I simply stamped the flower image onto a piece of DP which I think was Kaiser, cut out and placed on a circle of sanded and embossed coredinations. The background DP is the reverse side of the sheet.

The stamp sheets are great value at £12.99 as both have several large flower stamps on them as well as some greetings on one of them.

I am entering the top card into this months Pretty Little Ribbons challenge who have the theme Spring colours and blossoms.

Spring Flowers

A very Good Morning to you all, I hope you are having a good weekend.

As it's the first Sunday in the month it means it's time for new challenges at Sir Stampalot and Penny Black and More, the card at the top is one of my DT pieces for the latter.

At Stampalot it's a challenging month for the DT as I set then all a task of creating two cards with two kits. I sent them all two kits of products much the same and today we are revealing what they came up with using the pearls and swirls kit...................their other makes will be shared later in the month. Of course I didn't expect to escape the challenge myself and here is what I came up with, but you really do need to go over the the challenge blog to see everyone else's wonderful work and to see what the theme is.

The DP's which form the basis of my card...........yep another easel...............are Alla Prima and I used one sheet to make the rosette onto which I added the focal image which is Hero Arts K5576 Newspaper Tulips which I inked with TH Mustard Seed, embossed with detail clear them sponged with TH tumbled glass.

Springtime is the theme at Penny Black and More this month, my favourite time of year so the theme was inevitable. I have ended up with three DT cards as the new release stamps from the Full of Surprises collection literally just landed here in the UK so I had to get inking and you will see two of the stamps on my card at the top of this post. The flowers are a Penny Black slapstick stamp 40-104 Spring Beauty so that had to be used for this months theme and the sentiment is PB 4263F Garden of Life. Both were stamped onto Fabriano watercolour card and embossed with detail clear, then coloured with Derwent watercolour pencils from the beautiful wooden box collection of 48 hubby bought me this last week.

The borders are cut with some of the new TH border dies using My Minds Eye DP which I also used for the mat behind the image cut with Go Create dies. The little embellies are some new metal ones called Floral Spacers from Stampalot which have holes through the middle for brads, although I just stuck mine on and added swarovsky crystals to the centres.

For my second card, I stamped Penny Black 3381K Aspire with Adirondack citrus and meadow, then stamped over this with Penny Black 3157H Growing Free using versafine black, cut out with Nesties 20 and layered onto a black panel cut with Nesties Fleur de Lis rectangle. That back panel is embossed with a Sizzix folder and I added some ribbon, leaves and flowers made from organza ribbon.

And finally just one more that was already in the mix before the new stamps landed, the technique is a bit involved so I will try and explain best I can. Please do mail me and ask if any part is not as clear as it might be.

For this second Penny Black DT piece I started by stamping the two images Penny Black 4039K Candid and 1483E Cherish Yesteday................as you can tell by the code this is a real oldie..............with archival black ink onto a piece of double sided adhesive. To do this I peeled away one side to do the stamping then placed the covering back on top but leaving about 1cm of the sticky showing at one end. Onto this exposed area I placed a piece of acetate cut ready to the size of the sticky piece and gradually peeled away the backing to allow me to lay the acetate directly onto the stamping.

Next I took a piece of tissue, scrunched it up and lightly inked using direct to paper with TH mustard seed, shabby shutters, sage used sparingly and Versamark champagne to add a bit of sparkle. I scrunched the tissue a bit more between each inking to expose more creases to pick up the ink. When I was happy with the tissue, I removed the reverse side of the double sided sticky paper and placed the tissue onto it.

Working from the tissue side I gently coloured the flowers with Copics..................doing this over a light source or against a window helps. You need to be a bit gentle so as not to tear the tissue, but it's amazing how much colour you can add at this stage. Finally I matted and layered onto the base card which I randomly stamped down one side with Hero Arts H2365 Old French Writing, a punched border, some pearls and cord. Finito !

I really hope you will be able to join in our challenges this month and look forward to popping over to your blogs to see what you created.

Spread your Wings

Sending a wholehearted thank you for all the wonderful messages of support I received this week can be the only way to start this post................I received literally hundreds of e.mails when my blog comments had to be disabled.........thank you seems inadequate for the warmth and kindness so many have shown towards me during a difficult week.

Now back to business and it's yours truly's turn to host the challenge at Allsorts this week and my theme is 'Spread your Wings'.........use anything with wings as your focal image.

In fact I've a little confession to make, I had intended using a butterfly for my DT piece, but when I saw this new stamp Harietta on the Lavinia stand at Stamperama a few weeks ago it was love at first sight and I had to have her as well as the smaller silhouette version.

To create the sky I used a plate to tear some copy paper to create a rainbow shape, then used that as my mask to ink round using Adirondack butterscotch, watermelon and red pepper, along with citrus for the hills. I stamped Harietta with versafine black, heat embossed with detail clear and coloured her with Copics and glittered her wings and skirt. The trailing flowers and toadstools are also from Lavinia. The swirl is a TH die and the rose made from a five petal punch.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, they threatened more of the white stuff so it might be a perfect excuse to stay in, keep warm and craft, sound good to me.