Happy Christmas

(In answer to lots of questions, yes this is a view across the paddocks taken when last we has snow. The hedgerows were planted with Whitethorn by my Dad many years ago and in the Spring are covered in blossom which looks and smells wonderful)

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and wonderful 2016

Grungy canvas

Good morning to you all it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and I also have my mid month card for Penny Black and More, fortunately I had schedules my Allsorts post but didn't quite get round to doing my Penny Black one for yesterday

By way of explanation of missing that post and also my lapse in visiting your blogs this week, I am knee deep in Tattered Lace samples for CHA in Anaheim early next month and my time seems to be evaporating. Scarily Christmas is just days away and then health permitting I will need to get myself organised to take off to the show as I am very lucky to be able to attend this year.

I am the host at Allsorts this week and would like to see 'Anything but Christmas'....................sorry if that's a bit Bah Humbug but I thought as we have all been making Christmas cards for what seems like forever, we were perhaps ready to move on to something different.

This challenge will run for two weeks to allow everyone to have a bit of a break and for those that celebrate Christmas to enjoy the festive season. As it's a two week challenge we have four lovely sponsors to help us celebrate.........Stamp Addicts, Deedee's Digis, Whimsy Stamps and DigiStamp Boutique.

So I have a canvas to share which is one I made recently for Stamp Addicts for one of their Hochanda TV shows. I started by giving the canvas a coat of gesso, although it was already primed I like to give them a bit more for the pains to bite into. I made a mask from Tattered Lace Byzantine Lattice die, fixed it to the right hand side of the canvas and spread pearl texture paste through the mask. Once dry I did some stamping using Stamp Addicts Grunge Flowers using acrylic paint instead of ink and also some small harlequins using another mask and gold texture paste.

While it all dried I stamped and embossed with gold detail powder Stamp Addicts Roman Clock and cut out the centre and outer edges. I then cut Tattered Lace Charisma Ivy several times and covered with gold acrylic pain, pouncing the top to give a textured finish. 

Finally I assembled the whole piece, added some flowers and two dragonflies and rubbed gold gilding wax round the edges of the canvas.

And above my Penny Black and More creation using Penny Black Awakening, inked with distress markers and stamped onto an inky background on which I used a variety of stamps and second and third generation stamping to achieve a faded effect.

Happy weekend all and I really hope you can find time to join in our challenge this time round and promise I will be round visiting as soon as my last box of samples is on it's way to TL Towers.

Snippets, Fairies and the naughty corner for me yet again

Good morning Peeps, how's your weather, we have had dully dreary days and nothing but rain for days now and I am well and truly fed up with it, although I guess I am not alone here. How nice it would be to see some frosty nights because that does tend to lead to some sunnier and brighter days.

I have a couple of shares today, those who know me are aware that I don't often enter challenges, mainly because my eyes won't let me spend ages doing all the linking up so I tend to save my screen time to dealing with the challenges I run. I know that sounds a bit churlish but sometimes you just have to prioritise. But there are one or two challenges that I do try and make an exception for and enter when time allows so here we go........................

Snippets Playground, we've been having rehearsals for the Nativity Play and are all hoping for a part, but Miss Di has not been in touch so I am guessing sneaking in the mulled wine and bottles of white (that was Kath's fault, not mine, honest) means I've not got a part and will have to spend time in the naughty corner...............again, either that or I will have to wear that awful donkey outfit yet again. And for those of you reading this who don't have a clue what I am rabbiting on about and just might...........quite understandably..........think I have totally lost the plot, why not head over to the playground and join in the fun.

Butterfly Challenge where for this one Christmas challenge would like to see Fairies instead of Butterflies so was an easy ask.

Fashionable Stamping Challenges where the theme is to create your own backgrounds, I've never joined in this one before but my teami Shirl from Vintage Stamping Challenges left me a message on my Allsorts post saying why not join in with that card. Unfortunately that was posted a day before FSC's challenge was posted so I thought it only right as I love inkiness to find another card to enter.

And I had better add a bit of an explanation about which is for which and how I made them. The top card has a background cared using an acrylic block, inked with distress inks, spritzed with water and stamped directly onto a piece of 600gsm Fabriano card. There really is no right or wrong way to do this, simply repeat stamp with the black until you have a pattern that you are happy with.

I then stamped the Penny Black stamp over the background and again twice onto some offcuts of Be Creative Vintage Collage papers and paper, cut out and pieced adding two layers to decoupage. The sentiment is also Penny Black and I would like to enter this into FSC and Snippets Playground.

My second card uses Lavinia stamps, stamped with archival black onto a background of Pan Pastels and a rather over sized masked sun. Some glitter here and there and of course on the Fairy wings and some organza ribbon to finish. I would like to enter this one into the Butterfly Challenge.

I am bust working away on Tattered Lace samples ready for CHA early in the New Year and there are some scrumy new products but not able to share them until closer to the time, but I do have some using the new hexagon box are dies which launched last week I will try and post as soon as.

Have a good week all.

Winter Trees

We have a new challenge starting today over at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges, the them this month is Winter Trees. As always there is a very generous $20 voucher to be won from FlonzCraft.

This started out as a bit of an experiment and I wasn't sure at first but I think it's actually grown on me. I was playing around with Brushos.......as you do.......using up bits of card to try different effects and had a new set of TL diamond dies sitting on my desk so decided to make a sort of mosaic pattern as the base of my card. I also added some circles using embossing powder and paint lids tapped into inkpads.

From there on it was simply a matter of stamping FlonzCraft Birch Tree in Winter in black archival ink and cut with an TL oval die which followed the shape of the stamp quite well. Then a scallop layer from a piece of silver linen mirri........it's got a hole in the middle so another snippet leftover from an earlier card.........this frugal style of mine is becoming quite a worry. I carried the silver to the trees and coloured the trunks with a fineline silver leaf pen and some colour to the scene using a small circle mask and Pan Pastels and the burlap strip is one of several in a pack I picked up in one of those £1 stores.

I so want to join in the Christmas party at the Playground this week so am going to link up there in a moment........somebody said to bring mince pies but I was thinking something more like mulled wine (or stronger as need to keep the cold out of these creaky bones) if that's OK with Mistress Di and 'that other one' who always encourages me to do naughty things ?

Bunnies and birdies in the sun

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More and our themes are Anything Goes with a stamp and a Ribbon and Anything Goes with a stamp, so pretty much it's Anything Goes as we know how busy you all are so have tried to keep things simple.

My Stamping Sensations piece started with a background of Pan Pastles and sponged sun rays using DI Dusky Concorde. All stamps are Chocolate Baroque and stamped with black archival. I cut the finished piece into two, matted and layered with coordinating card and added some organza ribbon and a bow.

My Penny Black piece uses a new stamp set called Happy Notes 30-300, I have gone with a wintery look but I think with different colours it could easily be used for any season of the year...............it was my intention to make another with Spring colours but time got the better of me. I stamped both of the main stamps and leaves across the top with black archival ink, then used masks for the sun and hills and again used my colouring medium of choice, Pan Pastels for the background and shading plus glitter to highlight the hills and branches. As well as the three stamps I have used here, the set also has two useful sentiments.

I know it's a mega busy time of year for so many of you but I do hope you find time to join in our challenges as we have some fabulous prizes to be won.

Happy weekend all.

CAS at Allsorts

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week I am the host and would like to see CAS style cards. Our sponsor is Scrapper Delight. 

I don't think I am alone when it comes to making CAS style cards and I hope I've not overdone it on these two, but to me they are fairly minimalistic.  The card at the top uses an image from our sponsor called Fairy Wishes and have to confess it was a really quick and easy card to make. I printed the image onto white linen cardstock, used Wink of Stella pens to add some colour and sparkle to the fairies wings and bubbles and gently shaded the edges with distress ink. The sentiment is a stamp from Lavinia and one I do rather like and seem to use quite a lot.

The starting point for my second card was to mask a section on the card and apply Pan Pastels, then remove the masks before stamping the Penny Black bloom and sentiment. I matter the piece onto some coordinating card and black base card. I have to say these cards were both really quick and easy to make and ideal if you need lots in a hurry.

Happy weekend all and I hope you will join in our challenge this week.

Anyone for snow angels ?

The Charisma Peony Bloom decoupaged and placed on a background created with an acrylic block and distress inks

Morning Peeps, seems the first of December has crept up on us, where on earth did this year go ? My Gran always said the older we get the faster time flies, I am fast realising just how right she was !!

There is a new Tattered Lace Pick of the Day launching on Create and Craft so I thought I had better share a few of my recent makes, some are a tad overdue as time seems to have got the better of me lately. Looking at this collection it is apparent that I have a fixation with ribbons and bows, I never really thought about it before but one seems to pop up on most things I make, but somehow they just seem to finish a card off nicely.

The new Trio Autumn Leaves and coordinating stamps, distress inks and a piece of corrugated from my secret stash - have to keep it hidden from hubby otherwise it disappears into his recycling bin. I am hoping my ripped piece of corrugated will count as a snippet and I can join the boys and girls in the Snippet Playground - we are hoping for snow before Christmas so we can have and a mammoth snowball fight and play snow angels - please Di, promise not to get too wet?

The new Floral Stag normal size for the focal element then a smaller one using black shrink plastic, it's amazing how clearly the intricate design still comes out when reduced in size

Using letters from the new 2016 alphabet as a stencil and Dylusions to create a background and just the antlers from the same die used above

Have a good week all and as always my thanks for your visits and kind words.

Late Autumn

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week Tracy would like to see 'Colours of Autumn'. Our sponsors are Jiggery Makery and Sizzix.

I so love making Autumnal cards and have two to shares today, the one at the top is a Tattered Lace creation for a Create and Craft TV show a couple of weeks ago using another new set of leaf dies along with one of the new embossing folders.

Whilst on the subject of TL and C&C, have any of you ordered the new Compendium of Crafting which was launched yesterday ? It's not just about die cutting, it's a bumper packed book of crafting ideas and techniques with step by step guides from cards to home decor, mixed media to scrapbooking. I am very honoured to be one of the 20 invited designers included and have several projects in the book. I would share some of them but guess who forgot to take photos before sending off their pieces of artwork !!

So for my first share I used the largest 8x8 folder from the Best Wishes set of four embossing folders and embossed a sheet of cream card and then added liberal helping of gold gilding wax to the edges. The leaves are all cut from a sheet of paper which I coloured with Dylusions before cutting the leaves and acorns. After arranging the on the card I added some berries and bows made on the TL now maker.

My second card is a recent Chocolate Baroque make using stamps from the Autumn Poppy stamp set. I used distress markers to ink the stamps, spritzed with water, stamped randomly and then dragged out a bit of colour using an almost dry brush. 

The sentiment is also from Chocolate Baroque, stamped randomly onto the the central strip which I edges with lace and onto an oval for the focal element. Using the same stamp set I stamped and cut out several leaves from a piece of card sprayed with Dylusions and arranged down the card and a raffia bow.

Have a good weekend.

Lilies and leaves

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where Wendy would like us to use 'At least three dies' on our work. Our prize is from Sizzix. I also have some of the cards I made for today's Tattered Lace Trio's one time only shows on Create and Craft TV.

The card at the top and the one below are two of a set of six I was asked to make specifically for a promotional video using the beautiful new Lily Trio die's and matching stamps set. The Lily die set has three dies graduated in size for perfect decopaging and I have stamped them with the coordinating stamp and then embossed with the matching embossing folder, the Trio's are such clever sets and great to work with. I also used one of the smaller stamps from the set on the blue matting layer. As well as the Lily dies, I have used the Essential Lattice and Meadow Grass and all are cut from the new A4 Ombre cardstock which has been specifically designed for use with embossing folders and dies and is a delight to work with.

This card also fits in with our Allsorts theme, using the Essential Large Hears, Trio Lily, Essential Hearts and Ornate Leaves

And here are a couple more using some of the other Trio sets.............

Using the Autumn Leaves Trio dies which has leaves in three sizes and coordinating stamps plus embossing folder......and Brusho background

Using Love Bird Berries Trio's and matching stamps and embossing folder

Using Woodland Glade Trio's with matching stamps and embossing folder

Happy weekend.

Down your street

Morning Peeps, huge apologies I've not been round visiting, not been at all well this last week, so much so I even asked my teamies at the challenges to help me out with commenting, not something I do readily or very often, but their help has been much appreciated. I am doing my best to get back into things but it seems slow going so please bear with me.

As promised I have some more shares using Baker Ross products along with my mid month creation for Penny Black and More where our Christmas theme is in full swing.

Last Christmas the lady at one of the blogs I visit had made cards for her neighbours with their street name and I thought what a great idea to try and remember. I have a feeling it was Jacee but confess I am not certain so thought it best not to link to her in case I got it wrong (just adding Jacee confirms it was her so many thanks Jacee), but amazingly enough for me I actually did remember and decided to make some for friends and family.

Looking through my stamps I had no problem coming up with a rural scene but nothing for town folk, so have restricted them to a dozen or so who live in rural locations. To create the scenes which are all much the same I used two Penny Black stamps along with the Santa which I think is Hobby Art and sponged the sky and background with Pan Pastles. I added liberal helpings of snow glitter, computer generated the street names, punched them out and painted wooden kebab skewers for the posts. The Ivy is a Tattered Lace Charisma die and finally I printed and cut some little Nicecrane Robins to sit on the sign posts.

And as promised here are the little trees I made using Baker Ross's Polystyrene Cones. I made one into a Santa by priming the cone with gesso and then red acrylic paint and when dry decorating with some furry fabric, a buckle and black card for is belt. On another I used the Gingerbread Foam Stickers and some Christmas glittery garland and for the third I simply used ribbons, doubling them up and fixing in place starting from the bottom and working upwards. The tree in the middle seems to look a tad lopsided although in the flesh looks perfectly straight so can only assume it's my naff photography.

Hope your week is going well and many thanks for your visit today.

Poinsettias

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week Tracy Mouse would like us to 'Anything but a Card'. Our sponsors are PPR Papercrafts and Deedes Digis.

Sorry I have not been on my blog rounds for a couple of days, Iv'e been into hospital for the scheduled treatment on my spine, but hope to catch up with you all again over the weekend.

I love making floral wreaths both on cards and as a stand alone piece like this one, the base of which is a rattan circle from Hobbycraft. The Poinsettia's are made with a stamp from Stamp Addicts Christmas range, each one is stamped onto red and heat embossed in gold and layered up to give more depth to each bloom, quite time consuming but worth the effort I think.

After fixing to the rattan wreath I tucked in holly and mistletoe leaves made with Tattered Lace Trio sets which have dies in three sizes and a small embossing folder to add texture to the leaves. Finally a red and white gingham ribbon.

Next I have two little Star Kraft Boxes which were in the box of goodies in my recent delivery from Baker Ross. The size of them would make them perfect for dinner table gifts at Christmas, perhaps with a chocolate or two inside...........or even a ring for those in romantic mode............well you never know !

If you don't know the company you should check them out. I found them many years ago when we used to purchase products for Brownies and school, so when they asked me to do some promotional work for them a couple of years ago I was surprised to see how much their range of products had evolved to now include many items suitable for adult crafters and at very reasonable prices.

I covered both with Artimo Artepatch  papers from the same source, ripping into small pieces and using a wide paint brush fixing into place with Slap it On and it doesn't matter if the pieces overlap as it dried clear, in fact it gives a more interesting finish if pieces do overlap. I then decorated both with ribbon, pearls and a TL Poinsettia. I also have some miniature Christmas Trees which I will share during the week.

My final make uses some pre coloured Poinsettias from Deedee's Digis, one of our sponsors this week and is a drawer box to hold some tea lights, I try and keep one or two of these ready scored so they make up quickly covered in DP's. The stopper is a Penny Black sentiment stamped onto TL ovals. I printed the Poinsettia out several times so that I could cut into some of the blooms to decoupage and arranged with a bow and some TL Charisma Ivy.

Hope your weekend is a good one.

Spring and Summer blooms and a snippet

Hello Peeps, hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was a tad busy craft wise and below is part of the reason why, yep it's another new Tattered Lace release on Create and Craft tomorrow.

All of the cards in this post showcase new Charisma flowers which are part of the new Craftinator, there are other new dies and embossing folders as well, some I will share later in the week for Friday's C & C Pick of the Week. The others have to stay secret for a little longer I'm afraid.

The Charisma flowers are so versatile, each set consists of a CD Rom which has each spray of flowers in a variety of colours along with coordinating backing papers and a matching die.

The card above will I hope fit in at the Playground this week, so long as I am not still in disgrace for smuggling in the Hooch last Thursday.......if I am I shall blame Sarn, it was all her idea and she 'made' me do it, honest she did ! Anyhow the papers on the card above are snippets from my stash, in fact the bottom one is two offcuts and the top piece covers the gap very nicely.

There is now quite a collection of Charisma sets from Spring and Summer flowers to Christmas foliage and flowers and whenever I am working with them my minds goes back to the days when decoupaging was a painstaking and time consuming craft with ever piece requiring cutting by hand. With the Charisma sets all that hard work is removed and it takes just minutes to print out the images and cut all the layers in one easy go.

The pillow box above is also a Tattered Lace CD Rom and has been printed onto card stock with one of the Charisma designs and it folds together in just a minute or two.

And there had to be an easel card and floral wreath, again using coordinating Charisma papers and flowers.

Hope you all have a good week and my thanks for your visit today...............and please keep an eye open as I have some candy to give away which I will get posted in the next day or so.

New products from 'be Creative!'

Using the 'Vintage Collage' paper pad and a button from the coordinating embellishment pack, the butterflies are Tattered Lace Trio's

Morning Peeps, what's your weather like ? It's been pouring most of the night here and showing no signs of letting up, typical November weather really, give me a frosty morning any time as that usually leads to some sunshine.

I received a lovely bundle of goodies from 'be Creative!' at the beginning of the week and was very keen to get stuck in. Their products only launched last month and whilst their website is being completed their Facebook has lots of information. They will be at the NEC on stand F15 and I am hoping I will be able to go on Friday as there have been no cancellations for a hospital bed this week so I am on scheduled for my treatment on 12th November.

Using the 'Summer Hues' paper pad and a Penny Black sentiment

Just one more today and I will share some more very soon.

The 'Summer Hues' papers again along with one of the new sticker borders.......the fence, butterflies and tulips and all ready assembled to fix to your card, along with a stamped sentiment on a Tattered Lace double side stepper

Thanks for popping in today and hope you have a good Wednesday...............if you have the same weather as us it seems like the prefect opportunity for some crafting.

Not added Thursday 5th: I know today is the day to announce the winner of the Tattered Lace goodies, but I have a lengthy two hour dental appointment today and hopefully going to the NEC tomorrow so will announce the winner in my Saturday Allsorts post. Thank's for bearing with me.

Traditional Christmas

An update: For those that saw my earlier post regarding issues with Blogger and loads of silly questions including photo verification ones, it seems that unlike the previous robotic question which you could bypass that won't work with what is happening now. It means I just can't comment on my desktop as it takes forever to get past all the verification questions on each blog I visit, so until I can find an answer I am reliant on my tablet, but that's not user friendly to less than nimble fingers, so please bear with me until I can get sorted.

We have a new challenge starting today over at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges, this month I selected theme of Traditional Christmas Colours. As always there is a very generous $20 voucher to be won from FlonzCraft.

I stamped FlonzCraft Baroque Corners with detail gold embossing powder around a sheet of cream cardstock and matted on to red. Next I cut out Tattered Lace Diamond Trellis Frame, stamped FlonzCraft Christmas Greetings centrally again in gold and matted onto a red oval.

The Poinsettia spray is from the TL Charisma range and to finish I added an organza bow and sparkly ribbon slide.

Yes Virginia...............

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are Festive Floral's and Anything Christmas. And as always there are some fab prizes to be won, at Stamping Sensations there is a great hamper of crafty goodies from 'be Creative!' and at Penny Black prizes from Penny Black, Crafts U Love and Crafty Ribbons.

My top creation is for Stamping Sensations and uses some of the new papers from this month sponsor Be Creative, they are actually the offcuts from another card I made for a magazine article so will fit into this weeks Snippets Playground. I decided on a chipboard frame which I covered in gesso and then some of the sponsors papers. I then used a Penny Black stencil to ink some leaves on both the outer frame and inner section. I added gold Frantage to the edges, stamped a Penny Black Poinsettia twice onto more of the paper, heat embossed with detail gold before cutting out, layering up and adding pearl stamens to the centre. I decided it needed a little something in the corner so printed and cut out a TL Holly corner and cut the top layer of flower heads from the same paper as the Poinsettia and finally added some pearl flourishes.

The sentiment on this months Penny Black piece is a stamp I happened to see on a blog a few weeks back and had to have it, I found the wording just enchanting. It's quite an oldie and wood mounted of course but Google searches drew a blank, so I mailed John at PB Stamps in the States.......I knew if anyone could source it, he could. And sure enough he did and would you believe it only took four days to arrive across the pond......with I might add a few other essentials.

Then I just needed my Virginia and in the back of my mind when I saw the stamp I thought I knew the perfect image in the form of this sweet little Victorian Nicecrane design. I stamped Penny Black Festive Florals in detail gold onto a piece of neutral coloured design paper and did the same with the sentiment which I placed within an oval aperture.

I cut Virginia out twice so that I could shape and decoupage her dress, placed her to the side of the aperture and added some liquid pearls and bow. It's one of those rare cards that I envisaged from the moment I saw the sentiment and it turned out just as I imagined.

My final share today is another for Stamping Sensations using another sheet of paper from this months sponsor, a paper pieced Penny Black stamp, a bit of background stamping, some lace and ribbon and a tiny TL Noel.