Rather green and blue

Using the Sometimes quote stamp and flowers from Congratulations Heart around the edges onto a background of Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise, Cut Grass and Fresh Lime

Scheduled ahead as today we should be in Cannes on the French Riviera and sharing a few samples which I made ready for the Stamp Addicts programme........it's been a bit delayed and will now be screened on 16th August, so there will be time to share a few more when I get back from my hols.

Using the Congratulations Heart, paper pieced onto a sheet of an old book which I sprayed with Dylusions London Blue and Cut Grass. Lily made with Tonic Punch and Stamp set.

You will find all stamps under the what's New section here.

See you all soon.

Kraft It

Morning all, this is the first of my holiday schedule posts and hopefully Mr Blogger is doing his job and this will appear on time as by now we should be close to Barcelona where we are spending a couple of days before we join the ship for twelve days sailing the Greek Islands, Turkey, France and Italy.

It's our lovely temie Sarah's turn to host the theme at Allsorts this week and she would like us to 'Kraft It' and use Kraft card stock somewhere on our artwork. Our sponsors this week are Digi Darla and The Craft Barn.

I really wasn't sure about the first card I made so ended up doing a second but thought I might as well share them both. So for the one above, my second make I created a background with Dylusions melted chocolate and sweetened orange.........don't they have yummy names, I could almost taste the combo. I distressed the edges with a Sheena stamp, such a clever little corner stamps this one and ever stamped with a Visible Image harlequin and script stamp, added some swirls cut with a Memory Box die and lilies made from Kraft cardstock using Tonic Peruvian Lily Punch and Stamp set. The sentiment is Penny Black and sadly long since discontinued.

For this second card I used Kraft as the focal section using one of the pretty Marianne Anja dies coordinated with Kaiser Craft DP's and a Penny Black sentiment. I added some roses also made using a die and the prettly little swirls that come with the Anja dies.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Vintage transport

A post at last but no blogging I'm afraid !

Never gone so long without posting, but it's been a rotten week, first the eye which is hopefully now fixed and just needs rest and avoiding computer glare. But things can't be simple with me and at hospital Tuesday they were concerned about an infection in my eye as well as the other problem so did a scan and discovered the source of infection on the right side of my face were abscesses beneath two crowns......can't be normal and have one.......so I had to have both teeth out yesterday. Not feeling great and being immune compromised am up against the normal problems I always face, but hopefully headed the right direction now.

On to Allsorts's where it's Wendy's turn to host the theme and she would like to see some form of 'Vintage Transport' on our work. Our sponsors this week are The Ribbon Girl and FlonzCraft.

My top card uses an image from FlonzCraft called Etched Sailship which I stamped and embossed with copper embossing powder and added some sky and a sun with Pan Pastels. A porthole effect using nesties, some gilding wax spread randomly over that and the embossed frame and finally some calico dyed in tea to age it and some shells..................fresh from the shores of Majorca.

My second card uses a Visible Image vintage car stamped onto a background of Glimmer Mists and then sections beached out to highlight it. For the base of the card I embossed a piece of card with a cog embossing folder and spritzed with the same Glimmer Mists, added some hessian and twine and some little cog embellishments.

Hope you all have a great weekend and I remain hopeful that I will feel up to getting a bit of blogging in soon.

Fur and Feathers

Little note added: Not a happy bunny as I have been put of a computer ban of anything more than a few minutes at a time. I've had a sore eye for a few days and yesterday went to the GP thinking I would get a quick fix, only to be given a hefty course of antibiotics and referral to hospital for a small op....and before our holiday. I know I have dodgy eyes and they need to be cautious but I was not prepared for that, especially as I feel fine. So if I do get blogging it's going to be really short and sweet I'm afraid.

Now for crafting and as it's Saturday morning it means it's time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week the lovely Tracy Mouse is our host and would like to see 'Fur and Feathers. Crimson Cloud are our sponsors this week.

My card is one of those I made for Stamp Addicts Create and Craft TV programme a few weeks ago using the 'Hunting Gentleman' image. I apologise in advance should this offend anybody as I understand this stamp raised quite a few eyebrows as to its suitability, but it was the most popular stamp in the programme and one which appealed to me as soon as I saw it as the gentlemen could be my Dad and a scene so familiar to me. To anybody who was born and brought up in the countryside I think they too can relate to it.

I stamp the image with sepia archive ink onto a background of distress inks rusty hinge, vintage photo and peeled paint and spitzed with Glimmer Mist, then bleached out the colour from the image. I created the frame with a Go Create die and randomly stamped with Stamp Addicts wrought iron background and added some feathers and twine to finish.

Happy weekend everyone.

Elegant Christmas dove

A masked oval coloured with Pan Pastels, the dove from the Snowflake Christmas stamp sheet and sentiment from the Holly Christmas set

Morning to you all, just popping in with a little heads up that there is another Stamp Addicts Christmas show on C&C tomorrow at 4pm, so thought I would share a few more of the samples I made for the programme.

Dove from the Snowflake Christmas set embossed in gold and sentiment from Holly Christmas set

You will find all the stamps that will feature on the show under the what's new section here.

Reindeer from the Snowflake Christmas stamp set embossed in silver 

onto Spellbinders Elegant Labels 4

Hope you all have a good Wednesday and if you are in the UK enjoying this glorious weather.

Dance, sing, love, live

Morning to you all and welcome to my new followers and huge apologies to both old and new that I have been a really bad blogger this last few days and not visited as I would like. I have been so busy working away at more samples for C&C TV and coupled with trying to get ahead at the office before our holidays, I'm afraid I've had little time for blogging.

But it is time to share my DT work for Stamping Sensations where we have a sketch designed by our Tracy which comes with the twist of a Summer colour option and at Penny Black and More it's all about Dies and Punches.

My Penny Black DT piece above is quite a simple make using my all time favourite Penny Black inspirational quote as the focal point of my card, Spellbinders and some lovely Graphic 45 DP's. And to embellish two lillies made using Tonic's punch and stamp Peruvian lily set.

My second share is my Stamping Sensations DT piece following Tracy's lovely sketch and she also added the option of summer colours, so it had to be poppies for me as they are in abundance everywhere around here at the moment.

The stamp is another from Penny Black coloured with Pan Pastles and the background DP's are some of the lush new Remember Me ones from Kaisercraft. A border, some ribbon, Spellbinder leaves and a poppy made from Tonic's Rose punch and stamp set...............I think it's no secret by now that I adore Ruth's wonderful Tonic products.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend and those of you in the UK enjoying this burst of Summer weather.

Parisian sunset

Saturday morning and time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week we would like you to share your 'Favourite Things' with us. Our sponsors this week are DigiStamp Boutique and My Mums Craft Shop.

Dilemmas or what, Distress Inks or Pan Pastels, flowers or a scene, well in the end the Pan Pastels won the day along with a Parisian scene and it's another take on the card I blogged last week as I am still in Parisian mode. Again I used the Clarity Parisian mask to create the background along with PP's then paper pieced a lady and grounded her with some darker PP's and a Stampscapes cobble stamp. The Oak branches are also Stampscapes and the grasses in the front are Indigo Blue.

When I showed this one to number one critique his comment was "will she or won't she" when I said will she what he replied "jump", I actually thought it gave the impression she was looking down over the City from a park somewhere on the outskirts, clearly he saw something different to me !

Happy weekend to you all and time allowing will be popping round over the weekend.

Very special candy

I did say I had some rather special candy coming, well here it is.

Some of you may remember I had two Cricut machines, once for my craft room and one for occasional demos. I sold one a few months ago and since that time I have not used the other and it remains boxed and as I was recently invited to 'test drive' a new machine for Cricut and create sample work to promote it for them, I figure this one may get far more use in someone else's craft room than mine. It's not brand new but very little used and everything is boxed as new. Please note though that it does not come with any warranty because as far as I can tell it's not transferable and obviously I am unable to offer one.

Here's what's included:

Cricut Express Machine with universal connections

Cricut Jukebox

Cricut Design Studio (programme to allow you to design and operate machine from your computer)

Pack 12x12 cutting mats

Pack spare cutting blades

A selection of Cricut Cartridges

As it's a rather special giveaway I am going to run this for a few weeks and whilst I am on holiday to late August, here's what you need to do to enter:

1) Add the above picture to your sidebar with a link back here.
2) Be a follower of my blog.
3) Add your name to Inlinkz below.
4) In fairness to genuine followers any candy only blogs will be discounted from the draw........I shall be checking the lucky winner is not one of those and that they have the above photo on their sidebar with the link back here.

I am happy to ship worldwide, but due to the greatly increased UK postal costs recently, if the winner should be outside Europe it will be sent by surface mail which looks to take about a month, but I figure that's no great hardship should this little lot be making it's way to you.

This will replace my Saturday candy for a few weeks, but that will return once the winner of this candy is announced.

Good luck to you all.

A fenland meadow

Morning to you all, hope your week is going well. Thanks you for all you kind comments on my Parisian scene on Monday and also welcome to my new followers.

I thought I would share the birthday card I made for hubby, I did think it had already been blogged but seems not so here it is. I started by stamping the trees with black archival ink, the large one is Creative Expressions and the small one Stampscapes, then created the background with Pan Pastels and finished by stamping the Sutter Stamps fence, Hobbyart sheep, birds and branches adding a little watercolour here and there to highlight. The sheep stamp is a long one with six on it but they are all in a bit of a row so I ink the stamp in sections to give a more random look. I then rub out the Pan Pastels..............that's the great thing about them....... and add a little white micron pen to lift them.

Hope you all have a good Wednesday.

A winner

Morning Peeps, just popping in with the winner of my little candy giveaway and I am pleased to announce the lucky person is:

******Frea******

Congratulations Frea, please mail me with your full name and postal addy so I can get your goodies in the post to you.

I will be posting the 'special' candy I promised later this week so keep your eyes peeled !!

Parisian Romance

Good Morning, time for your new challenge at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges where this month it's 'Pretty In Pink'.

I know I could have done lots of things with my lovely FlonzCraft stamps but I've been itching to have a play with this Clarity mask, so created the background with it using Pan Pastels and this lovely romantic couple and think it will make a perfect anniversary card for one of your sons and his wife on their fourth anniversary later this month.

I paper pieced the image, grounded the couple with some sponged steps and framed the scene with Flonzcraft blossoms and grasses.

I hope you all have a good week and as always thank you so much for all your visits and kind words.