An eventful Christmas and Favourite Christmas cards

Stamps from Penny Black, Sutter and Andy Skinner and Pan Pastels

Seasons Greetings to you all, I hope you had a good Christmas and Santa was generous with the crafty goodies.

Ours went well, albeit eventful. The day before Christmas Eve the main junction for the cooking equipment burnt out, was re-wired but the induction hob was rendered useless so cooking was done between our house and our daughters......the benefit of living just across the courtyard from each other.

Plus I have been poorly, first of all having emergency dental treatment to drain two tooth abscesses followed by root canal work coupled with a return of my Cervical Spondylosis so Alex, Zoe and Joy took over much of the cooking, in fact they have been absolute gems. 

All of this meant I've not been near my blog but I did want to join Debby and share my five favourite Christmas cards of 2014, so here they are in no particular order.

My all time favourite Christmas sentiment from Penny Black

More Pan Pastels, gilding wax and stamps from Lavinia, Stampscapes, Penny Black and Art Impressions

Pan Pastels yet again and Penny Black stamps

No stamping here but I just adore this little girl from Nicecrane which I cut out and decouupaged into the arch frame

I hope you all enjoy the remainder of the festive season and New Year, I won't promise to come visiting just yet as it's always very painful to type when I have Cervical Spondylosis so I just have to bide my time until the pain eases.

Last minute gifts and Spring flowers

Today sees our last Allsorts challenge of the year, it will run for two weeks to give the DT a bit of a break over the holiday season and will probably be my last post of the year as we have family arriving Monday for the holiday period...............unless I get mega bored or find unexpected time on my hands.

So I would like to take the opportunity to thanks all of my blogland friends for their friendship and support in 2015 and.......................

Now back to Allsorts where Helen has chosen the theme of Last Minute Gifts and our sponsors are A Passion for Stamps and Marianne Designs.

I will confess I didn't know quite what I could make for this theme, I was thinking along the lines of homemade sweets and chocolates but they are usually a last minute make in my kitchen and as I like to have my DT work done and scheduled well in advance knew that idea was a no no. Then a clear out in a drawer uncovered a stash of Church candles which I had left over from a demo ages ago so I decided to decorate one of those.

I used a new Penny Black stamp set called Festive Florals, stamped the Poinsettia onto some tissue and coloured in with my Chameleon pens and heated it onto the candle. I made a matching card and also decorated a box to match. I was a little disappointed that the leaves look a slightly different colour on the card and candle although it was the same pen, but when I checked with Tracy Mouse who is the Queen of candles she said it happens and recommends going a shade darker on the candle, so something to remember in future.

And I have a second piece using Chocolate Baroque stamps, this set with the Willow called Spring Foilage has been one I've had my eyes on for ages and when I saw it on offer that was the prefect opportunity for me to but it. I used Dylusions for the background with a spritz of Glimmer mist to bleed the colours, stamped the flowers and willow and bleached out a bit of the colour so I could paint them with the same colour Dylusions. I sponged in some clouds and added a computer generated quote. I would like to enter this into the current Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge which is shades of green, aqua and pinky/purple.

Happy weekend all.

All about Fairies at Butterfly Challenge

Morning Peeps, a really quick post with a couple of fairy cards for this months Butterfly Challenge which for this one month only is all about Fairies.

Like so many of us I love fairies and especially those from Lavinia Stamps so along with my Pan Pastels I created a couple of fairy scenes...........taking inspiration from the bottom of the garden of course !! 

I am pleased to say Blogger seems to have got his act together a bit now and I am seeing more photos on your blogs, so fingers crossed things continue to improve.

White Christmas

Morning to you all, what a ridiculous week it's been with Blogger, apart from the silly word verification which luckily is an easy one to resolve, the others issues I've been having are not. I am unable to see photos on the vast majority of blogs I visit and then there is the infuriating issue of typing comments when the cursor moves but no typing appears. So what on earth is it all about, is Blogger just totally overwhelmed by the sheer volume of blogland activity and unable to handle it all ? Really makes you wonder.

Moan over and let me tell you about our Allsorts theme this week which is White Christmas as chosen by the lovely Jo and our sponsors are FlonzCraft and Scrappers Delight.

My card at the top is a recent DT creation I made for Stamp Addicts using the lovely White Christmas sentiment which you can find under New Products, the font is very elegant and it's a decent sizes stamp so needs little more than matting and layering, although I couldn't resist a poinsettia so may have gone a little outside the challenge brief.

This one however is totally white with the exception of the sentiment shadow and unusually for me no stamping. The Deer die is a new one from Penny Black and the stars are a Marianne die, an embossed background and an All Occasion Dies sentiment and card cut on the Cricut.

Today we are off out early for an pre Christmas family celebration so will try catching up with you all soon - dependent of course of the mood of Blogger.

Reindeer and Roses

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are Winter Wonderland and Special Occasions which can include Christmas.

The card at the top is my Stamping Sensations piece, although it would equally with Penny Black as well as it uses the new Natures Friends 30-271 stamp set.......same as yesterday, just a different scene.....it was a set I had to have the moment I saw it. The trees have two layers and on and this one I stamped the base image black and then the second embossed with detail silver to give a frost feel. As usual it's Pan Pastels for the landscape and sky, a hand drawn fence and some silver glitter onto the overhanging trees.

Not one to join in challenges as you all know, but I couldn't resist entering the one at the top into this months Craft a Scene Challenge which is 'Winter Scenes', I used to be part of the DT and used to love the opportunity to create scenic artwork but had to give it up when my health went on one of it's downward spirals a year or more ago.

My Penny Black DT piece uses a recently acquired stamp 3073K Brush Rose, it's quite an oldie which for some reason I never bought before, I inked it with distress markers and spritzed with water before stamping several times. Some random script stamping into background, two butterflies from Penny Black 30-117 Free Flight and the sentiment is Penny Black 3851 Blessings.

And I have one more Stamping Sensations piece, this time using Chocolate Baroque stamps Decorative Edges and Let Your Heart Sing. The background was crated by masking a moon and brushing over Glimmer Mists and Dylusions, then stamping the bird and bush stamp once, then cleaning it and masking out the bird before inking again to stamp a second time to extend the design. Quite a lot of glitter to get the impression of icicles, plus some snow and  finally white Frantage around the edges. The sentiment is Penny Black.

As always we have some fabulous prizes to be won at both challenges so I really hope you will join in.

All about animals

Morning Peeps, a new challenge at Allsorts today and Tracy would like to see Animals on our work this week. Our sponsor is DigiStamp Boutique.

I have used TH Alterations cabinet die to create a tri fold card, Pan Pastels to create the sky and landscape and most of the stamps are from Penny Black's new Natures Friends clear stamp set, this was a must have as soon as I saw it and I couldn't wait for Paula at Crafts U Love to get her stock from across the pond. I added a few red stickles to create berries on the branches in the foreground and in hindsight should probably have brought the rabbits a bit closer to the front as they look a tad big against the Deer, but hey ho artistic licence and all that !

Happy weekend to you all and hope you will join us at Allsorts this week.

In the bleak midwinter

Morning Peeps, hope you had a good weekend.

The first of December also happens to be the first Monday this month so today is the start of  a new challenge at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges  where our December theme is to base our work on a Christmas Carol or Song. I also have this weeks Nicecrane shares where I am sticking with Christmas again this week.

This Winters scene from FlonzCraft called Birch Tree in Winter reminds me of cold and frosty days so 'In the bleak Midwinter' seemed appropriate and I have computer generated the first verse to add to my card. I used a mask to create a moon shining from behind the trees and coloured with Pan Pastels then added some fine crystal glitter. 

As always there is a fabulous $20 voucher to spend in the store for the winner so I really hope you will join us this month, if you have never taken part before we would love to welcome you over at the challenge blog.

I have gone with a traditional feel to both of my Nicecrane cards, the one at the top uses an image from the Vintage Merry Christmas design set which has six different images, prefect to help you get those last minute cards made. The DP is Graphic 45, a spellbinder Poinsettia, ivy and some lace.

The image on this one is from the Antique Christmas collection, he's such a sweet little lad feeding the birds which I have decided are Great Tit's of which we have an abundance in the gardens. More G45 DP, a Spellbinder border die and some wooden numbers and a computer generated 'December'.

Have a good week everyone.

Milestone Birthdays

Morning Peeps, a new challenge at Allsorts today and Sarah is inviting us to create something to celebrate 'Milestone Birthdays'. We have Stix2 as our sponsor.

My card is one I made for an order from a friend for her Mum's 90th Birthday, the brief was butterflies, flowers and the word 'Mummy' in the sentiment. So I used Timmy's one the edge butterfly border for the edge of the card and then cut the butterflies again on vellum, which I then over stamped with a script stamp and heat embossed with pink WOW embossing powder. The lilies are Penny Black 4383K First Dance and some more script into the background and a little shading with Pan Pastels.

I also made a acetate topped box and tied some matching ribbon and a rose. I am told 'Mummy' loved the card and she explained that it's many, many years since she called her Mummy but as a child always called her that rather than Mum when she had been told off, so she knew it would make her Mum smile.

As most know I rarely enter challenges but I do try to make an exception for the Butterfly Challenge, although I have not not entered for a while. So am going to enter this into the current Butterfly Challenge which is Paper Pieced Butterflies. Now I am not a 100% certain the way I have used the vellum on the butterflies is strictly paper piecing as it's only stuck in the middle, so apologies if it doesn't quite fit the brief and I will understand if I am not eligible.

Happy weekend all.

Pan Pastel skies with Nicecrane

Good morning from the very chilly Fens, I hope you are all keeping warm. Another hard frost last night but it does look beautiful and prompted me to change my blog header to a photo taken last Winter looking across the Fen from the paddocks when you get those wonderful early morning pink skies.

Before I tell you about my pieces of artwork, I would like to thank everyone for their kind words and recent comments, I believe the new meds are working, still nasty side effects but I can learn to live with that if the pain eases.

On to some artwork and this week I have been playing.........oooops I meant working............with Ignacio's latest Nicecrane Designs which are Japanese themed and can be found here. As we all know I am not great at colouring in, although it is coming along with my new Chameleon pens, so I decided to use those on the Oriental lady below and turn the rest into some of  my favourite scenic cards.

The top card is probably my favourite of the scenic ones, I love strong and vivid skies which are so easy to achieve with Pan Pastels and of course suns and moon, a sun on this one plus a few leaves across the top and some white highlighting here and there.

I used one of the designs from the Vintage Butterflies set as the background in the aperture, what I so like about all of Ignacio's Vintage designs is that you can always find something to coordinate or compliment other designs. My Oriental lady was coloured with Chameleon pens and does look rather yellow, but in real life is a tad more subtle. The sentiment is another from All Occasion Dies, cut twice to achieve a shadow effect.

Pan Pastels again for this one and a few Lavinia flowers stamped across the top using distress markers and garden twine down the side to carry the rustic feel of the card.

I rather liked the splatter background on my Penny Black card last week so stuck with the same colour Dylusions for this one and painted the butterfly and flowers with them as well with a final brush over with Glimmer Mist pearl, it works wonders to soften the fibers so you can mould them into shape. The sentiment is Penny Black.

This is the full set of designs which you can get here for $4.50

Have a good Tuesday Peeps.

No DP's allowed

A very good morning to you all, today at Allsorts it's my turn to host the theme and I would like to see creations that feature no design papers. Our sponsors are my friend Ruth from A Passion for Stamps and another friend Ignacio from Nicecrane designs.

So as I am on the DT for both it means two cards from me. My Nicecrane piece above uses one of the lovely Birds and Blossoms images.............can you tell I am already thinking ahead to Spring............a background of Dylusions, then script and grids randomly stamped, a Timmy clock onto which I scattered some Frantage, dies cut leaves, some twine, hessian and corner embellies.

My Passions for Stamps card uses the pretty Christmas Rose to which I added just a little colour using my Chameleon pens, inked the edge of the card along with some white Frantage, a Penny Black sentiment and some simple matting and layers. Much as I like Design Papers and have some beautiful ones, I think sometimes they detract from the focal image and to me this card demonstrates exactly what I mean.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

What a little angel

Good Morning Peeps, I am here with some more Nicecrane Design creations and also my mid month Penny Black and More card.

Thank you for your kind comments and messages. I am in a bit of a MS relapse at the moment and walking and standing is painful but now have some new meds although they are making me like a zombie....... but not too much new there I guess......... and nights are like a war zone with the hallucinatory affects of them. But there is of course a positive side, I am having to sit most of the time which means I can craft for England !

On to my work and I think lots of you will know what I mean when I say you see a stamp or image and can immediately visulise the card you are going to make, well the beautiful image on the top card was one of those, she is such a little angel. I could see her decoupaged and standing in an aperture with little added colour other than some gold glitter on the Christmas tree and some die cut stars, she is far too pretty to fuss with. She is one of the images from the Vintage Christmas saver pack, great value at $4.50 for about eighteen images.

I have used a new stamp for my Penny Black mid month card called Jubilant 40-286 stamped onto a 'splatter' background.....very technical term here aka messing about with Dylusions. I stamped it twice to decouapge the main flowers which are pained with Dylusions, the leaves have been coloured with Chamelion pens. The sentiment is from the Special Wishes set 30-229.

I absolutely adore this image, not only the colours but the little girls angelic face. She is from the Children in Victorian Age 111 design set. The frame is from Tonic which I randomly stamped with distress inks before making up and then rubbed over with a couple of colours of gilding wax. 

This card has one of the eight designs in the Adorable Christmas design set teamed up with Penny Black Reindeer dies and an embossed frame with I coloured with gilding waxes. The sentiment on this card and the one at the top is from All Occasion Dies, clever sets as the Happy comes in a set in two sizes and the Christmas in another sets again in two sizes and then there are also Birthday, Anniversary and so on and they all mix and match and at between £4.40 and £5.50 a set great value for money.

Hope you all have a good week.

Anything but a card

Saturday morning and a new challenge at Allsorts and this week our lovely Tracy Mouse is challenging us to create 'Anything but a Card'. Our sponsor this week is Yours and Mine Papercrafts.

Before I tell you about my makes I need to extend an apology for being such a bad blogger this week, my body seems to be going through one of it's painful periods and energy levels and appetite almost zero. Fingers crossed things pick up in the coming days, but meantime thank you for your kind visits despite me being so inactive.

When Tracy knew I had been to the NEC last week.......I would hasten to add it was a rather impromptu and quick visit and I was in and out in about three hours..........and knew I had bought some goodies from the MDF man and a marbling starter kit she said she expected to see both MDF and marbling for her theme, so of course I had to oblige.

The hanging above is actually something I made a few weeks ago as a DT piece for Stamp Addicts so I was part way there. I used a mixture of their stamps including grunge flowers, grunge background, script background and swirly tree. The hearts were painted with acrylic paints first then covered with crackle glaze followed by various inks and gilding waxes.

The second piece is a test run using my new marbling starter kit, the first attempt was OK'ish but the box was made of Kraft and looked rather dark with the ink colours I chose which were black, blues and red, so I decided to give lilacs and black a go with a white box and am much happier with the outcome. I've not got as far as trying out flowers and more defined patterns, that will be some inky fun another day.

I am still playing Photoshop and trying to get properly to grips with it and have created a little collage with close up's of the above box and tag.

Happy weekend everyone.

Poppy Promenade

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday so that means a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Susan has chosen a very appropriate theme of Poppies and/or Remembrance. Our sponsors are Cuddly Buddly and Marianne Designs.

It's no secret that I adore Poppies and probably have far more Poppy stamps and dies than is healthy. The Poppy image I have used today is a newish release from Penny Black 40-311 Poppy Trio, stamped onto a background of Dylusions and stenciling using Penny Black 25-001 Promenade. The sentiment is Penny Black 1483E Cherish Yesterday which I masked and stamped to break down into three.......the writing is too close to just stamp and cut into sections but it's easy enough to do this way with trusty post it notes as masks.

Happy weekend everyone.

Christmas with Nicecrane

I love these Robins from the Victorian Birds design set, they really lend themselves to decoupage

Good afternoon Peeps, popping in to share some Nicecrane Designs Christmas cards which I meant to add to my post on Monday but forgot........nothing new there then I hear you say.

I should also answer a question quite a few have asked me which is how to vote for me in the card design section of the British Craft Awards, I understand it's all done alphabetically so means some nominees don't make it into the listings so have to be voted for as an 'other, being a 'W' surname I am one of those ! But imagine Brenda at Floral Fantasies will work.

I think this is probably one of my favorite Christmas Nicecrane Designs from the Vintage Merry Christmas set

Most of Ignacio's sets are priced from $2.44 to $4.50 and when you consider most have five or six different designs in each they are great value for money and if you have a lot of Christmas cards to make and want to make them all a little bit different they are the perfect solution to your Christmas crafting.

This pretty Christmas Robin is from the Antique Christmas set

Although I am a stamper first and foremost, what I particularly like about Nicecrane Designs sets is that you can make your cards as simple or as elaborate as you wish and also incorporate stamping as I have done in the top card. The card at the bottom of the post which was a recent Penny Black DT piece is another example of combining them with stamping.

This house from the Adorable Christmas set just radiates winter warmth

There are links to all the design sets I have used under each photo so you can pop over to the store and have a browse and there are lots more designs in the Christmas section.

And finally a little collage of close up's.......I created it in Photoshop which I have been playing with this last week, it's slow going but I am determined to master it

Have a good Wednesday everyone and thank you for popping in.