Getting sentimental

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week Helene has chosen the theme of 'Sentiment in Focus'. Our sponsors are Marianne Designs and Baker Ross.

I have a sneaky suspicion that Blogger is still messing with our blogs because I realised a few days ago that at least two blogs I visit were missing from my reading list and I rather suspect there are more I have not yet noticed, so if you think you might be one of them I apologise, just give me a gentle nudge so I can check. I just wish he would leave us in peace and not keep trying to manipulate us in other directions.

This wasn't the card I started with for my Allsorts share, but having received a delivery of new goodies from Baker Ross which included quilling products and pretty Spring coloured papers I was itching to give it a go. I have never done quilling before so took a quick YouTube tutorial and this is what I came up with, no doubt to the experience quiller the shapes are far from perfection but I was quite happy with this for my first attempt.

I made the flowers and leaves first them created a card to go with them using my all time favourite Penny Black inspirational quote, a circle easel card which I always find pleasing on the eye using using Tattered Lace dies and some bright satin ribbons.

I also have a Rudolph Day share, it's a pretty quick and simple make as my mojo and I are not working in tandem at the moment, using a piece of Fabriano I masked the top and bottom and a moon......or is it a sun I wonder............ some Pan Pastels and stamping with a collection of Penny Black stamps. Oh yes and a bit of glitter across the hills.

Do I sound a tad lackadaisical, probably I do, I just can't shift this flu and my appetite and enthusiasm are zero. Plus having worked myself up ready for my procedure at hospital Thursday, I was all ready to leave with my dressing gown and slippers when the phone rang to cancel and have now rescheduled for Monday, so that's not the start of the week I was planning.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

Flowers and fantasy

One of the cards Nancy had on the launch show of the fabulous new Floral Layers products. There is a clever spray called Terial Magic which changes the composition of fabric so it can be run through the printer, the beautiful flowers printed onto it which in turn can be cut with the coordinating dies. If you have not watched one of the shows then you really need to as this is something very different.

Good evening Peeps, it's a rather rushed post as I am a tad late with some of these samples and by the same token might be a bit early with others, truth is it's been a rather hectic week or two with the Tattered Lace 3rd Anniversary celebrations.

So it's going to be a few photos........and I've had to pinch a couple of those from TL as I didn't get as far as taking photos of some before they had to go off for the shows. Do you get the impression I'm losing the plot......you may well be right as I am still struggling with flu and it's knocked me for six as per usual and my head is anywhere but on my shoulders.

This one is for tonight's show when the new foiling system is being launched, aptly named ' The Midas Touch', the silver foil was laid onto one of the adhesive sheets and then cut with one of the pearl dot frames. The rest of the card is pretty straightforward.

The Unicorns which are also making an appearance this week and of course a background of Pan Pastels.

The silver foiling again on both the little die cut tress and the ornate pin dot heart, I did remember to photograph this one but it was a real pain getting a decent shot with the shine from the silver.

Many thanks for popping by and enjoy the rest of the week, I will be missing from blogland for a couple of days as I have a hot date with the NHS !

Butterfly wishes

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week Kevin would like to see 'Birthday Wishes'. Our sponsor is Sizzix. Poor Kevin had a nasty fall last week so we all wish him well.

I am totally convinced I have several Birthday Wishes stamps, but could I find one when making this card, of course I couldn't, so I hope this sentiment will be OK Kevin.

I started with a piece of Fabriano 600 gsm watercolour card..................I know it sounds really heavy weight but it really is the very best if you are adding lots of water and the card does not lose shape as some lighter weight ones tend to. Keeping the Brusho powder to one side I used a new colour called Gamboge. I have never heard of that colour before and it was shown as yellow but it looks more of an orange to me but I do like the rich intense colour and it's one of the few that retains the single colour pigment regardless of the volume of water added.

I then used Gamboge, Ost Blue and Sea Green to colour some offcuts of a lighter weight Fabriano and stamped an assortment of Penny Black Butterflies and heat embossed them with detail gold powder. Cut them out and arranged onto the base card along with some string and a Penny Black sentiment.

Happy Weekend all.

Field of Dreams

Thanks you for all your lovely comments and words of encouragement on my last few posts, you are so kind. I know I am a bit slow on my visits this week but flu and another tooth infection is slowing me down somewhat but fingers crossed the antibiotics will kick in quickly. 

It's time for our mid month inspiration post at Penny Black and More following this months theme of 'Anything goes with a stamp and a die'. 

It's another Poppy one for me using the lovely Penny Black Field of Dreams die. I started with the reverse side of a square of Centura Pearl cardstock, used masking fluid to blank out the sun area and then dragged it thought distress inks watered down on a craft sheet...............swooshing appears to be the new name for this really old technique. Then left for a few minutes to dry before rubbing away the masking fluid, used a stencil to create the sun rays and inked the edges with a darker shade of DI.

I repeat stamped Penny Black Aspire and then overlaid the die cut Poppies, cutting the flowers out several times to decoupage and then dotted some stickles down the petals. The sentiment is also Penny Black, sadly now discontinued as is the little butterfly which I stamped onto vellum.

I also have another entry for the current Butterfly Challenge which is a Butterfly and S for Stamping and/or Sapphire. I started with a background of Dylusions and pearl Glimmer Mist, I'm not entirely certain it's sapphire but there is definitely stamping and Butterflies. I stamped the little flowers and swirls around the edge and bleached out some of the colour, stamped the sentiment and then the Butterflies onto shrink plastic which I coloured with Pan Pastels before shrinking down. A little stenciling with coloured grunge paste and some liquid pearls.

Happy Thursday all.

All is calm in the treehouse - or is it ?

Morning Peeps, just popping in with a few Tattered Lace shares using some of the new dies and embossing folders coming up on Create and Craft TV this week.

Also got my Snippets Playground make for this week, last week was a bit riotous over there and Pancake Day was something else. But seems I didn't totally blot my copy book as Sarn has placed Viv and I in charge of the Treehouse for the week as Miss Di is have a break........clearly the events of last Tuesday gave her a bad fit of the vapours and Parsnip has not been sighted since eating his fifth brandy infused cherry pancake.

I am under strict orders not to go dishing out any hooch this week.............as if................for fear of any of the gang ending up legless.................whatever you heard about last Tuesday is nothing but vicious rumors and I promise you that Kath did make it home unaided. Mind you, nobody said a word about the odd bottle of Prosecco so I reckon it's fair game to keep some stashed under the bench.

A short explanation on the cards, the one at the top has several Tattered Lace stamps used on the Dylusion background, the honeycomb pieces are ripped from a larger sheet cut with TH hexagon panel die, the dress is another new TL die being released this week and I placed it over a scrap of glitter card to give it some depth.

The pink and green card has a focal element using the new silver foil and adhesive sheets and TL diamond trellis die, you can see how intricate it is but it cut perfectly in one run through the e.bosser.

More dylusions on the above card, the spotty lines are one of the new border dies, I inked the folder with Versamark and embossed with detail clear before spraying the dylusions so I got a resist finish. The lovely Butterfly is another newish release from TL and some satin ribbon and a prearl embellie to finish.

More of the border dies and lots of gilding wax, a Visible Image sentiment, ribbons and a cameo to which I also added gilding wax to carry the gold colours.

Have a good week all and as always many thanks for your kind visits and comments.

Going round in circles

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week Kath is hosting her first challenge with us and would like to see 'Circles'. Our sponsor is Crafty Ribbons and we also have some tickets to the NEC March Hobbycarft show to give away.

I love circle easel cards as well as Penny Black stamp which still remain my firm favourites and this beautiful Lily which is wood mounted and called First Dance is one I use often. After cutting the layers using Tattered Lace dies I stamped the Lily onto Fabriane watercolour card using Distress Markers and lightly inked the edges with the same colour which is Picked Raspberry. Using the same colours I stamped around the bottom section with Penny Black Twirls border set. After assembling I added a double bow, a Tattered Lace sentiment and a few pearls.

I also have a card for the current Butterfly Challenge where the theme is 'S for Stamping and /or Sapphire' and of course a butterfly or two.

I made an acetate stencil using different sized circle dies and sponged mustard seed and chipped sapphire distress inks through the mask and then using the same inks stamped a selection of Stamp Addict stamps, these sets came out some time ago and the tiny ones were ideal for purpose here. I finished the card off with some grosgrain ribbon and a few sequins.

Happy weekend all.

Create with your Soul

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Anything Goes with a stamp and a die' and oooooops 'Anything Goes'.

To create my top card for Penny Black I used the reverse side of a piece of Centrua Pearl, a mask for the sun and Pan Pastels to create the background. Next I repeat stamped Penny Black Aspire, then used two Penny Black dies called Perched and Berry Branches cutting them from offcuts of black card and mounted them over the base stamping. I am popping over to the Snippets Playground with this on, won't have time for much of a play but better show my face as I don't want detention again.

My Stamping Sensations piece is one of the promo video samples I did for Tattered Lace using some stamps and matching Lily die bloom, all the decoupage layers are included in the set so it's really easy to cut in one go. The stamp set includes the background stamps plus one to add detail to the cut blooms and as with all Trio's an embossing folder to add more texture. All the stamping was done with distress inks and the colour dragged in and the larger Lily blooms added on top. The sentiment is a new one from Visible Image and I just love the font on this one.

I do hope you will join in our challenges this month as we have some awesome prizes as always.

Allsorts Clean and Simple

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week Julie would like to see 'Clean and Simple'. Our sponsor is Digistamp Boutique plus one extra prize.

I have used a new Penny Black stamp called 'Pop Pop Poppy'................well how could I not buy that one ? I inked the stamp with Distress Markers and spritzed with water before stamping onto the the reverse of a sheet of Centura Pearl. Added a Penny Black sentiment and drew a black border around the image. Simples as the Meerkat's say.

Needless to say I had a long play session with this stamp, a red one, a pink one, a blue one...........get the drift.

Happy weekend all.

A rainbow of colour

We have a new challenge starting today over at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges, this month our theme is 'Splatters and Drips'. As always there is a very generous $20 voucher to be won from FlonzCraft.

Brushos came immediately to mind for this theme so I started with using Crimson and Lime Green and lots of water to create a background, I still find it such fun how many other colours creep out the more water you add. I let the wet colours drain down the card as I held it an an angle and quite like the softer hues that I ended up with.

Next I stamped Flonz Blossom across the top and heat embossed with detail cloear powder, bleached out the colour and then painted with the same Brusho's, then stamped and embossed Flonz Grasses along the bottom. Then I stamped the Flonz Butterflies onto he offcuts of card and painted, again with the same two Brusho's and loved the extra colours that came through without even trying.

The sentiment and raindrops are Inkylicious, I also beached out the latter before highlighting with a white pen .

I would also like to enter this into the current Butterfly Challenge (and the Playground if I'm allowed -see below) which is 'U' for undulating along with the butterflie's, now I will confess I checked this out in the thesaurus to see if  my interpretation of the word correlated and this is what it told me 'move with a smooth wave like motion'. Well I figure that sums up Butterflies quite well, so hopefully this will fit the theme.

Just amending my post and adding this as I totally forgot when posting earlier. But I just can't miss popping over the the Snippets Playground today because when I was lurking about behind the bike shed earlier............as you do.......... I heard a rumor that there is going to be plenty of hooch to be had up in the tree house after dark and no way am I missing out on that one, so see the rest of you obstreperous gang there.

The wall hanging is another of my Tattered Lace creations, I picked up the chipboard heart and base at the NEC last November and decided to have a play with the pretty bits and pieces of paper which came from a 12x12 pad ages ago. No idea of the make as what you see what literally all that was left but just proves never throw them away as they come is useful at some point.

I painted the chipboard with gesso and then stuck down the paper and lightly inked the edges. The flowers are cut and embossed with one of the Trio sets and along with the butterfly are made from the offcuts. Leaves are also Trios, cut from oddments of coredinations and sanded down.

I just had another thought.......two in one afternoon is a bit scary, but it just occurred to me that the butterflies on the card at the top were made from offcuts of the lightweight Fabriano, at the cost of it I never throw a bit away.  So assuming I am allowed two entries entering this one as well.

Happy Monday all and hope you have a good week.