Sneak peeks

Good morning Peeps, I have a few  shares of  the samples I have made for this weeks new releases from Tattered Lace which will be in this weeks Create and Crafts shows on Friday 1st April (and Thursday for the shows going out in the States).

The card at the top showcases the new Peacock Feather die which I cut out twice and heat embossed with different coloured embossing powders and placed over a background created with a mask made from TL Byzantine Lattice and distress inks to match the feather colours. A stamped sentiment and an organza bow.

The above card has the new Charisma Periwinkle Fairy, I think she is just adorable and the colours in this release are all beautifully fresh and perfect for Spring. As with all the Charisma range there is printable artwork in several different colourways with matching papers and die to cut out the image which it does with such precision. I would like to enter this one into the current Butterfly Challenge which is Butterflies and mint green.

  

The Peacock feather again, it's quite a large die and needs little more with it, I cut the feathers from black cardstock and used gilding wax on the them and also around the edges of the background which I randomly stamped with an Inkylicious stamp. Stamped a sentiment and added some hessian and twine.

This card has the Climbing Rose which is another new one from the Charisma range and again has about ten colour options for the flowers and coordinating backing papers.

I kept this one very simple creating the card base and mats using TL Pin Dot dies, another Periwinkle Fairy and coordinating backing paper, some gems and organza bow.

Many thanks for your visit today, I always appreciate them.

More fairy magic and Rudolph time

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week Tracy Mouse would like to see 'Wings'. Our sponsor is Penny Black and there are two prizes to be won.

It's always a pleasure to work with Lavinia fairies and I really enjoyed making this one. I started with a piece of Fabriano and stamped the tree and fairy in black archival, next I masked a sun and used Pan Pastles to create a background. Next I stamped the toadstools, Agapanthus, leaves and stars, added some stickles and stamped the sentiment which is also Lavinia.

My second card uses one of my many Penny Black Poppy stamps, embossed with detail clear and coloured with Spectrum pencils. The DP's are Nitwits, I'm now down to remaining few sheets in the pad which were a Birthday gift from a crafty friend a couple of years and a organza bow to finish.

And a final share for this months Rudolph Day over at Mo's, No stamping on this one just Christmas Roses and Holly using tattered Lace Trio dies and matching embossing folder cut on pearlescent card and Bazzil, some TL crinkly ribbons and I added little yellow pearl stamens to the the middle of the roses.

Whatever you are up to I hope you have a lovely Easter weekend.

Toasties and bubbles up in the treehouse

Morning Peeps, a quick post with a couple of cards for the current Butterfly Challenge where the theme is a Butterfly and the option of margins or the colour mint and the Snippets Playground where Easter celebrations are in full swing. 

I heard that Parsnip is toasting hot cross buns in the tree house and I have my usual supply fresh from M&S to smuggle in, bring our own glasses though as I reckon it's going to be popular and I can't abide those plastic glasses they dish lukewarm water out in at lunchtime.

So my top card is my Butterfly share, I created the background with acrylic paint and a harlequin stencil and used the same colours to pain some card which I stamped and cut out with a Heartfelt set, added a black border across the middle using a TL border die, some ribbon and a TL Butterfly also painted with the same paints.

I am still on a mission to use up my snippets of Fabriano, I am getting really low on it and need to order some more but have told myself I first need to use up all the odds and ends. I used Brushos to create the background and a Sweet Poppy stencil and black paste for the thistles. The sentiment is also from Sweet Poppy.

Have a good Wednesday all, it's pretty dull and chilly here and the forecast for Easter is not promising, but I have a load of TL samples to finish for next week so along with catering for visitors am likely to be busy.

Easter Bunnie, a Butterfly and a Snippet

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week Wendy would like to see some Easter creations. Our sponsor is Scrapper Delight and Stamp Addicts.

I have used a frame from Scrappers Delight, stamped a really old Stamps Happen image in the centre and coloured with Spectrum Pencils and added some background with Pan Pastels.

And shame on me as it's a day late my Penny Black mid month card. My starting point was a piece of Fabriano, saturated with water and sprinkled Brushos here and there making sure I retained some lighter areas. Next I used distress inks and a honeycomb stencil to add some interest and then another mask across the top over which I spread grunge paste, removed the stencil and sprinkled with gold mica powder and blasted with a heat gun which intensifies and fixes the gold.

The Butterfly is Penny Black Soft Wings, stamped and embossed with detail gold powder onto an offcut of Fabriano..............it's a tad expensive so I always keep those little pieces.........  and painted with the same Brusho's.  Finally A Penny Black sentiment, again embossed with detail gold and a few pearls here and there.

I am popping over to the Butterfly Challenge where the theme is a Butterfly and Bronze, also the Playground to see if there is any hooch left up in the tree house, although as I am a tad late this week chances are I will need to smuggle in a bottle of my own.

Happy weekend all.

Spring Daffodils, Violets and Lilies

Good morning, it's Saturday and that means a new challenge at Allsorts and this week I am the host and there could be only one theme at this time of year which is 'Spring is in the air'. Our sponsor is Crafty Ribbons.

It's another of my favourite panel style cards for the first, masking the top and bottom of a piece of Fabriano and also a mask for the sun then Pan Pastels to create the background. The stamps are all Penny Black and inked with Distress markers and spritzed with water before repeat stamping across the panel. I also added a few blades of grass along the bottom using a Stampscape stamp.

And it wouldn't be Spring if I didn't use my Stampendous Violet stamp. Violets always have a special meaning for me at this time of year, I went to the small village school.....less than 20 pupils aged between 5 and 11.....a C of E school which meant the Rector had a strong presence in our education. The school was.........in fact still is although with a few more pupils nowadays.........in a little lane with just a farm at the end of the lane, the school, Church opposite and Rectory next door..................and to paint the scene properly the Hoops public house next to the schoolhouse !!

Early every Mothering Sunday morning the Rector used to take the pupils to the hedgerows along the fields behind the farm where I lived and we would pick Violets and tie them into little bunches and each of us would give our Mothers a bunch at the Sunday morning service.

When I moved to our current house thirty five years ago I dug up several of those violet roots and they continue to flourish in my garden, they have self set all over the place and really need thinning out, but they look so pretty under the shrubs.

Another fond memory is that as pupils of a C of E school so close to Cambridge we were offered a very special privilege, every December we were all taken to the Kings College Chapel Carol Service, I often watch it on TV now and have fond memories of those days.

OK, enough nostalgia and some shares of some of the new Tattered Lace dies that are coming up on Monday on Create and Craft TV.

This one uses another of the new melded dies, I cut one side of the aperture and then reversed the die to create the aperture, coloured the butterflies with Wink of Stella pens, mounted over a piece of textured card and added a TL sentiment.

I used the matching border die on the insert of the card to carry the Butterfly theme and colours.

For this one I used the same melded Butterfly die along with the coordinating oval die to create the aperture. The rose embossing down the side and in the centre are both folders from one of the new TL embossing sets called Love Birds Berries. The Lily and Ivy come from the new TL Floral Layers, they are part of the Charisma range with a CD Rom to print out the blooms which consist of Lilies, Roses, Daisies, Sunflowers as well as leaves and Ivy and all are absolutely beautiful. The matching dies fit the printed out blooms perfectly and there is never and horrid white lines around the edge. I can't believe how realistic the Ivy is. 

Have a lovely weekend.

Butterflies, buttons and bronze as well as a snippet

Hello Peeps, hope your week is going well and welcome to me new followers, thank you so much for joining my inky journey.

It's going to be a really short post as doing it from hospital on my tablet and I find the keyboard a real challenge. It's the first time I've tried to do a whole post on it, but scrolling around blogland as you do while waiting for the men in green to collect you and seeing the new Butterfly Challenge knew I had a card that would fit the bill. And I am also popping over to the Playground with it as the Butterfly is a snippet of Fabriano, I'm in dire need of some hooch or even something stronger if there is any still hidden away up in the treehouse. 

The base layer if Fabriano, distress inks and bronze gilding wax, the corner cut with a Timmy die and detail bronze for the sentiment and distressed edges. Some seam binding and Tattered Lace Butterfly covered in the same gilding wax. Oh yes, and a button for the Butterfly's thorax.

Happy Wednesday all and many thanks for your visit.

A Spring Day

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

It's another Brusho playtime from me, first I used masking fluid to mask the bottom of the skyline and sun, then when dry which only takes a few moments I used Brushos Ost Blue and Lemon with liberal sprays of water and let the colours drain down the page. Next I rubbed away the masking fluid and stamped Flonz 50's Fashion Girl onto the card base and again onto a scrap of paper, beached away the colour from her face arms and legs, coloured with pencils then paper pieced her dress. The sentiment is also from Flonz and finally I added a few grasses and leaves around the edges.

Hope you all have a good week.

Flowers and more flowers

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are Flower Power and Feature a Creature, I am thinking both will be popular choices.

All of my cards feature new stamps from the So Special 2016 Spring Release from Penny Black, I know I am biased when it comes to floral and Penny Black but I think this release has some of the most beautiful stamps I have seen recently. So I was super excited when my deliveries from Penny Black and John at PB stamps arrived a couple of weeks ago.

My top card is my Penny Black DT creation using the beautiful Geranium called Light Touch. It's a pretty large stamp and with the pretty Butterfly needs little more with it.................the Butterfly is my creature. I machine stiched the edges of a piece of Fabriano card, inked the stamp with distress markers, spritzed liberally with water and stamped to the left of the card.

Once dry I flicked some watery colour using the same ink around the image.........to do this I simply scribble a little ink from a distress marker onto an acrylic block, water it down and using a fine paint brush flick the watery colour onto the card..............if the colour is too intense for what you want just dab lightly with a piece of kitchen towel to tone it down. The sentiment is also Penny Black and I simply finished the card with some matting and layering and pearls.

I made a set of cards for my first Stamping Sensations offering using another of the new Penny Black stamps called Bejeweled, I think this looks rather like a Chrysanthemum. I used exactly the same inking process as the card at the top and just finished of each one slightly differently, one has flicks of colour added, one some soft stenciling and the third a border drawn in with a pencil.

My third piece is a tent card, I like this shape for a change and using an A3 piece of card and a score board you can makes two nice sized cards much cheaper than buying ready scored packs. I covered the front and inside with Be Creative Vintage Collage papers and gave the edges a bit if inky treatment. I then cut an aperture in the from and added a Tattered Lace pearl edge frame. The sentiment is from Inkylicious, heat embossed with detail copper powder and another Tattered Lace die used to cut the mat.

The pretty flower is made from some satin ribbon I picked up at the Thetford show the other week, you cut a length of seven petals, pull up the thread which is already running through the top of the ribbon and you end up with the flower which can then be coloured with inks, pens or whatever - I used distress ink and water. A bow in the centre and a tag which came with the papers onto which I stamped a Penny Black sentiment and embossed with copper to match the focal quote.

International Women's Day at Allsorts

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week Mervi has chosen International Women's Day as her theme. Our sponsor is Digistamp Boutique, we also have another pair of tickets to the Hobbycraft show at the NEC later this month.

I have to confess that I was not over familiar with this annual day so did a bit of research which suggested purple was the colour to follow so downloaded the logo and used as a tag on my card. 

The card base ad box are all made from the Tattered Lace hexagonal set and I stuck with the purple theme. The focal image is an Indigo Blue stamp which I stamped with versamark and heat embossed with purple embossing powder. A few flowers on the images hair to carry the colours of the Daisy centres in the corsage on the box lid, little pearls and some ribbon to finish the card. 

Happy weekend all.