Blue as the Ocean

Good morning, time for another challenge at Allsorts and this week Helene has chosen the them of 'Blue as the Ocean' which can be interpreted through the colours, water and I am sure you will think of lots of other ways of using the theme. Our sponsors are Stamp Addicts. 

One of our son's is a keen surfer, in fact when I wrote this up and scheduled a few weeks ago...............nothing like getting ahead.......... he was surfing the waves in Costa Rica, so when I saw these new stamps from Sheena I had to buy them as I am fast running our of idea for his Birthday cards with the only other 'grown up' surf board stamp I have. 

I inked the stamps with archival sepia and heat embossed with details clear then coloured in with Spectrum Noir pencils. I cut out the larger surf board and placed it at the front of the card along with some shells and netting. Then matter the whole piece onto an embossed panel.

My second card is using some of the new 2015 Christmas stamps from this weeks sponsor Stamp Addicts and is one of several DT pieces I have made for them using this and some of the other new stamps. As the stamps are all Christmas ones I have gone with the colour of this weeks theme and started with stamping several of the snowflakes and stars from the Stars of Wonder set using versamak and heat embossing with detail clear powder. Next I spritzed with two shades of blue Dylusions and pearl mica spray which gives a resist finish over the embossing. The Poinsettia is stamped six times on a piece of card sprayed with the same inks, cut out and decopaged, and fixed into the card with some ribbons and a Stamp Addicts sentiment cut in half to make two pieces.

It's my Birthday today and although I am a bit past wanting to celebrate them and would be quite happy with a quiet glass or two of something with bubbles, that's not an option as later today we have a Birthday party for our Grandson with whom I share this special day. About 40 family are coming and a 'grown up' bouncy castle is booked so I will sneak on there at some point...................and I can assure you..............are you listening Zoe................this time there will be no repeats of last years party when unbeknown to me some photos of my bouncy castle adventure somehow made their way to Facebook.

 Happy weekend all.

More Tattered Lace DT cards using Charisma Poppies and more

Using Tattered Lace Charisma Poppy, obviously my favourite from the releases !

Good afternoon, before I move on to my cards, can I extend a big thank you for all your kind message for my friend mentioned in Sunday's post, she is very touched by them all.

Apols I have been a bit quiet but it's a rather busy time at  Tattered Lace, my samples for tomorrows shows have left the building but now I am heads down again into those for next week, so my blogland time has been rather restricted I'm afraid.

But I can share a few of the samples I created with some of the yummy new Charisma products coming up on Create and Craft TV tomorrow at 12 noon, 3pm and 5pm. The shows are actually labelled Christmas but there are floral options as well and boy have I enjoyed myself as they are totally up my street and the biggest bonus of all for me is there is a Poppy.

Using the oh so delicate Sweet Pea and coordinating backing paper

There are a number of different flowers available, each has a CD Rom with various colour options for the flowers and coordinating backing papers along with a matching die. Despite the very intricate and typical TL detail they match up perfectly with none of the horrid white outer lines you get with some decoupage. As with the previous Charisma spring collection each print and cut all the decoupage elements in one go removing all the guesswork.

Using the lovely Pansy and coordinating backing paper

And last but by no means least my entry for Mo's June Rudolph challenge, for once I was ready and can now say I have three cards made for Christmas ! Just a shame all those I have been making for weeks on end all go off for demo purposes otherwise I wold be sailing. This is one of those recent Tattered Lace TV samples using the Christmas Rose and Holly Trio set, I cut both the flowers and leaves from felt which has a bit of a sparkle in it and I thought the Trimcraft DP matched rather well.

Thanks for popping in today and hope you have a good Thursday.

A special race with a very special friend in mind

A rather different post to my usual ones and no cards, instead a message to a very special person who has been a crafting and personal friend for some years.

It am not going to mention her name, that would not be right, but she is going through a very difficult time having very recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. She was there for me as I went through my health problems last year and she is the most kind and caring person you could wish for.

This morning three of my girls ran the Race for Life Mud Run in Peterborough, they were just three of the many thousand who were taking part, they were in the first batch of 300 starting phases which were going on every fifteen minutes until late afternoon, estimates were at least 7,000 taking part and many more onlookers offering moral support.

My girls at the finishing line

And the feet to prove it

What struck me as extremely humbling was the feeling of camaraderie between entrants and spectators alike, not to mention the many messages of support on the backs of entrants tee shirts for those close to them affected by the awful disease.

I would love to have taken part but I doubt I would have made it over the starting line, but I was with the runners in spirit every step of the way and my dear friend was also close in heart. They were selling these pretty flowers to help raise funds and hubby bought these two for my friend and we hope the love that comes with them is a little help in offering you strength to fight what is ahead towards a positive outcome.

Stamping at Allsorts

Good morning, it's Saturday which means time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Jo wold like us to use a stamp on our work. Our sponsor is Whimsy Stamps. 

There was a time when every card I made featured stamping and nobody was more surprised than me when I was invited to join the Tattered Lace team and discovered just how much fun it was working with only dies and how very versatile they are. 

Anyhow, I digress, today's card most definitely does have stamping, in fact quite a few of them, Sheena, Clarity and Penny Black. I stamped the scene with black archival and coloured in with Specrtum pencils and created the sky with Pan Pastels. And to finish a nice flourishy bow. This was a birthday card for a friend who like me has a bit of a thing for trees, scenes and birds, but it has reached it's destination so I know I am safe to blog it.

And................walk of shame............here is my Penny Black mid month card which I should have posted on Thursday, truth is I have been so busy with TL samples for next weeks TV shows that I totally forgot, in fact this is my first post since last Saturday. A heads up that if you love your flowers as I do, then you defo need to put a note in your diary for Friday 26th, can't say more but the new goodies are fabulous.

I would like to enter this into the current Butterfly Challenge 'F for Flowers' and a butterfly of course. It's only a small butterfly but fingers crossed it fits the bill.

Our theme at Penny Black and More this month is Wings and as always we have lots of lovely prizes so I do hope you will join in.

Happy weekend all.

Flower Power

Good morning, it's Saturday which means time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Tracy would like to see flowers for her 'Flower Power' theme. Our sponsor this week is our very own Jo and her store Lets Create.

My card is made using the new Triplets from Tattered Lace which featured on C&C earlier this month. My card is also over at the Tattered Lace blog where I have written up all the details so please do pop over there is you would like to know more about my card and products used.

The Christmas Trio's was launched by Nancy on Create and Craft last evening and there are more live shows today. Added to that I am also working with new Christmas Stamp Addict stamps due for release in a couple of weeks so one way and another rather up to my ears in Christmas and what has been keeping me rather quiet recently.

 Happy weekend all.

Tattered Lace DT cards for Christmas in June

Hello Peeps, just popping in with a very quick share of a few of my samples for tomorrows 7pm Tattered Lace Christmas launch on Create and Craft, there are more samples on the web site and Pinterest.

The top card uses the new Book Card die set along with the Christmas Rose Trio set. The Book Card set has dies to cut six different sized pages, along with bookmarks, ribbons and my fav of all the sentiment ribbon which I know I will use on all sorts of projects..............little things and all that. I have a feeling this will be one of those rather quick sell outs.

This one has more flowers made with the Christmas Rose Trio set along with the Mistletoe and Christmas Leaves Trio sets. The trio sets have three different sized does as well as a small embossing folder to match.

The Snowglobe die set has a nack and front die, circle to cut the front aperture plus Christmas sentiments and snowflakes, the latter are very detailed but still cut like butter in one run through the e.bosser even on a 300gsm pearl cardstock.

And finally for today, the Twinkle frame, sentiment and Christmas Rose, Holly and Christmas Leavef Trio sets.

Have a good Thursday all and hope you have some sunshine.

Soft Wings and Orchids

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are Dies and Punches and Wings.

My Penny Black creation uses the lovely Penny Black Soft Wings Butterfly, it's quite a large stamp and needs little more with it on a card. I used distress markers to ink the stamp and spritzed with water before stamping and cutting out. The border is Tattered Lace Victoria and I added all to a background stenciled with the same colour DI's.

On to my Stamping Sensations DT work and two cards from me, the first using Ruth's Tonic Pick of the Bunch Lilies Window die and some Theresa Collinds DP's. The sentiment is Stamp Addicts.

I have just realised that I have used the same TL border die for the above card, it wasn't intended that way but figure means I rather like it, on this occasion I used just the inner portion of the die to create a pattern within the base layer which I also embossed with TL foliage and butterflies. The beautiful Orchid is a Sheena stamp coloured in with Spectrum pencils and a little stenciling added to the background.

And here are a few of my Orchids in flower at the moment, hubby nurses them all winter long in the conservatory which seems to be just the right temperature for them and waters them with filtered water and each Summer they bounce back with the most beautiful blooms.

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

Satin and Lace

Good morning, time for another challenge at Allsorts and this week Wendy would like us to use 'Satin and Lace' on our work. Our sponsors are Marianne Designs and DigiStamp Boutique.

I've been a bit short of blogging time this week, deep into Christmas for Tattered Lace ready for Christmas this coming week.................oh yeah, Christmas starts in June. The shows start on Thursday and you really do need to make a note in your diary as there are some absolutely scrummy goodies coming up. Can't share yet, but may give a sneak peek in a day or two.

My card is the one I made for our ex DIL's birthday recently, her name is Rose so this image seems appropriate. I used versafine black ink and detail clear powder to emboss the image and coloured in with Spectrum Noir pencils............I'm still enjoying them. I added some stenciling to the background and matted the image onto a background embossed with Tattered Lace Rose Bunch embossing folder which I inked lightly with DI. Some lace, satin ribbon and Embellishment Attic organza ribbon bows made on the EA bow maker.

I hope you all have a good weekend.

Hot Sunny Colours

Morning Peeps, time for our June  challenge at  FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges  and this month our theme has been chosen by yours truly and it's 'Hot Sunny Colours'. 

Please don't be put of joining in by the word 'Vintage' as your entry need not be vintage, the most important part is that there is stamping. As always there if a fabulous $20 on line store voucher to be won from FlonzCraft so I really hope you will join in this month.

My DT piece started by spraying red, orange and yellow Dylusions which always say hot and sunny to me, the usual spritz of pearl mica spray to blend the colours and add some sheen and then I used a mask to add the sunrays with pearl dimensional paste.

The 50's lady has been paper pieced and some blossoms stamped at the top, punched flowers sprayed with the same Dylusions, a sentiment cut down into three and a Flonz butterfly.

Thanks for taking a peek and hope you all have a good week.