With a cherry on the top

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week Helene has come up with the theme of 'A Cherry on Top' and would like to see cherries or fruit on our work. Our sponsors are Digistamp Boutique and Sizzix.

I can tell you this one caused me no end of problems, do I have any stamps with fruit, well of course I don't, I did think I had one with pears on it years ago but it's nowhere to be found so I moved on to plan B to make some cupcakes with cherries on the top. Having made them I wasn't very happy with the outcome of the icing as my hands were having a dodgy day, so it was back to plan A and I bought a cute critter Penny Black stamp which has a strawberry on it..................which has now moved on to a crafty friend who I know for sure will get far more use out of it than I ever will.

But then the panic set in as it meant colouring in, I have made hundreds of Penny Black cards over the years but I believe apart from the odd hedgie baby card this is the first one with critters. So I set about colouring the image with distress inks using a Dove blender pen and made it into a circle easel using TL dies. And after ages searching I found a little strawberry stamp, I have no idea how I came by it but stamped it out three times and cut out and used them as the stopper along with the sentiment which is in the same stamp set as the main image.

And here are the cupcakes, they might not look too good but they disappeared pretty quickly so must have tasted OK.

My teamies have made some awesome creations so please do pop over at the challenge blog to take a look.

Happy weekend all.

Spring bunnies and birdies

It's time for another share of  one of my GDT cards over at the Chocolate Baroque blog. I also have a a couple of shares of Tattered Lace cards that will be coming up over the nest few days at the live C&C programmes from the Crafting Live Belfast show.

It's a Spring inspired creation using Pan Pastels, toadstools from the Autumn Poppy stamp set and one of the rabbit images and pussy willow from the Glorious Spring stamp set.

I started with the reverse side of a piece of centura pearl, masked a sun and created the background with Pan Pastels. Next I stamped the images, rubbed out the Pan Pastels from the toadstools and coloured them in with Spectrum pencils. The sunrays were then sponged in with Distress Inks and some extra shading added beneath rabbit and toadstools to ground them.

These gorgeous birds are part of a new Charisma release, as with all the Charisma range there is a CD with the images in several colurways along with matching backing papers and dies to cut out the image, a close look at the birds beaks shows just how clever and precise the artwork and dies are.

For this one I created a simple background with distress inks.

Have a good Wednesday all and many thanks for popping in today.

Flowers and a birdie in her hair

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week Kath is our host with the theme of 'Red, White and Blue'. Our sponsor is Hobby House.

As some of you will have seen from the dodgy comments I have left the last week or so, I am struggling with my dexterity again and fingers and keyboard are not working as a team so my apologies in advance if my comments are spasmodic, short and sweet or even C&P until it sorts itself out.

This is one of the TL samples I made for one of the USA shows where this particular colour palette was required, red, white and blue is not a colour palette I gravitate to, probably the blue thing again. I started with a piece of Fabriano and sprinkled on ost blue, brilliant red and and just a little black, then spritzed very sparing with water and I wanted to keep the colours isolated rather than merging together as I usually do.

I cut the TL lady die in white, I think she is rather pretty with the flowers and birdie in her hair, then placed over red and cut out around the edge and placed over the oval mats. Some twine, pearls  and rather flouncy bow, I think this one has six of not seven loops both sides, but so easy to make with the TL bow maker.

There is lots of inspiration from my teamies over at the challenge blog so please do pop over to take a look.

Happy weekend all.

More Poppies

Morning Peeps, it's time for my second share as this month’s Guest Designer over at Chocolate Baroque and today I have a canvas. I also have a couple of shares of cards I made for their new regular posts showcasing cards made in less that fifteen minutes.

My starting point was an 8”x8” canvas which I pained with white gesso and when dry dabbed DI’s Tumbled Glass, Fossilised Amber, Twisted Citron and Cracked Pistachio onto a large craft mat and spritzed liberally with water before dragging the canvas through the wet liquid. I dabbed here and there with a piece of kitchen towel to soften the colours as I wanted a fairly soft and muted background.

Next I made a mask with a piece of acetate and Tattered Lace dies, laid it to one side of the dry canvas and applied Grunge Paste through the apertures and some ‘blobs’ of paste to represent clouds...............in hindsight not sure that part works. When dry I rubbed Gilding Wax around the edges of the canvas and over the Grunge Paste.

Using Archival Watering Can ink I stamped a Poppy from Chocolate Baroque Pretty Poppies stamp sheet, sentiment from the Words of Inspiration set and berry leaves from Autumn Poppies set. Next I coloured the Poppies, leaves and berries with the same colour DI’s and added some gold beads to the Poppy centres. Finally a strip of lace under the Poppies.

And rather belatedly here are my shares from Friday's CB inspirational post, it's a new regular feature showcasing cards that can be made in fifteen minutes of less. My spotlight Poppy card above uses one of the images from CB Pretty Poppies stamp set, simply stamped in back, then one of the flower blooms stamped again, colours with Spectrum pencils cut out with a Tattered Lace circle die and mounted in place. I also added a little background interest with a stencil and DI's.

The set of three cards really were extremely quick to make, for each I dabbed three colours of DI onto a craft sheet, spritzed with water and pained very randomly onto Fabriano, then stamped with quotes from CB Words of Inspiration and Pretty Poppies stamp sets.

Many thanks for popping in today, your comments are always much appreciated.

More florals

Good morning Peeps, a really quick post with my mid month Penny Black card.

Again I have used the beautiful Passionate image coloured inked with Distress Markers and spritzed with water before stamping onto a piece of card which I machine stitched around the edge. A Penny Black sentiment and finito, as I said a really quick post.

The challenge runs until 27th April so still plenty of time to join in to be in with a chance of winning one of the fab prizes.

Hope you have a good week.

A bit of an assortment

Good morning Peeps, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week I am hosting the theme of Ribbons and Roses, most appropriate as our sponsor is Crafty Ribbons. 

I love this beautifully bold Stampendous Rose and even thought I am not a colourist I do enjoy coluring up this one which I did with Spectrum pencils. I lightly inked the edges and added some background stencilling using the same color DI's. The background has been embossed with TL Rose Bunch folder and lightly inked and the focal piece matted and layered with coordinating DP's, some pearls and organza bow.

My Butterfly card is from a set commissioned by Create and Craft TV for one of their magazines so I am only now able to blog it, it's also my entry for the current Butterfly Challenge where the theme is of a course Butterflies plus the option of fancy folds and/or the colour fuchsia,

It uses dies from the Couture Creations Mariposa range, my all time favourite Penny Black inspirational quote stamp Dance, Sing, Love on the inside and the very pretty Trimcraft papers I was sent to use along with the dies. I added a row of stitching down both leading edges and some organza ribbon behind the sentiment.

This card features the new Essential Teardrop dies which launched on Tuesday, I used one of the smaller dies in the set of six to make three contemporary trees using scraps of DP, some freehand cutting to create hills and a fancy bow across the bottom

And I had better share a few of me recent Tattered Lace creations as I have been rather remiss this week, there have been several new shows during the week on Create and Craft TV and there is another today so here goes with a few. The one above is made purely from offcuts of DP so I am hopping over last minute to the Snippets Playground, getting there so late means at least that I can't be to blame for any indecorous goings on in the tree house this week............say's she sitting here at 4.45pm on a Friday afternoon scheduling this post, glass of Prosecco at the ready........well it is nearly the weekend and I would never dream of doing that on a normal weekday, ahmmmm.

One of the new Monumental Moment dies being launched Monday, I used the French wedding of one of our son's as the basis of the card..........the rather sour looking face behind some of the bridesmaids was actually very happy, just had more than her fair share of bubbles and standing was proving a bit of a challenge by that time of night.......French weddings as we discovered are very long, this one started on Wednesday and finished Sunday, the day itself was equally long with the wedding breakfast of six courses lasting well into the midnight hours

The picot edging is another new die from Tuesday which I cut in contrasting shades of green, overlapped and mounted over a Brusho background and a TL sentiment

Using some of the tuck in dies launching today, I cut the flowers several times from a large sheet of card then fixed them back into the apertures to make a mask then used acrylic paint and DI's to create the background. The new Congratulations sentiment and more of the flowers and another of the tuck in embellishments along with a tonal bow.

And an inky one, another of the tuck in accessory dies (the lattice) cut from thick card, some background stamping, DI's, Grunge Paste and gilding wax

I hope you all have a good weekend and that we will see you over at Allsorts this week.

Chocolate Baroque GDT shares

Good morning, I am having another Guest Designer spot over at the Chocolate Baroque blog which is always fun as it's a perfect opportunity to get inky with some of their lovely stamps.

As those who know me are aware I am a big fan of Brosho’s and love any Nature inspired images so had a lovely play with these lovely image from the Chocolate Baroque Autumn Poppy set  and Words of Inspiration set, both of which have become firm favourites with me.

I started with a piece of Fabriano 600gsm cold press watercolour card, saturated it with water and sprinkled on Brusho’s Terracotta, Orange and Sea Green to the top half of the card, then twisted it around to get the colours to run down the card. Once dry I stamped the Physalis Franchetii (Chinese Lantern) image along with one of the sentiments from Words of Inspiration set.

The floral husks have been painted with the same colour Brushos and then covered with Glossy Accents. When completely dry the piece has been matted and layered with coordinating cardstock.

My second share uses one of the fairies from Chocolate Baroque June Fairy set as well as the crocus's and trailing vine from the same set.

I started with the reverse side of a piece of centura pearl, masked the sun and created the background with Pan Pastels and used a piece of ripped paper to create the sunrays with distress inks. Next I stamped all of the images with archival black and coloured the flowers in with Wink of Stella pens. I added some liquid pearls and glitter around the vines, matted and layered and added a bow down the side.

Many thanks for taking a peek today.

To see the word in a grain of sand

Good morning Peeps, I hope your weekend is going well.

I've been keeping a secret for a week or two but now I can share and tell you I have been invited to become one of the teamies at Fashionable Stamping Challenges. When Shirley first asked me common sense said no, when I mentioned it to hubby he said why, so of course all reason went out of the window and I said yes !

And here I am with my first DT piece following this months theme of Blue, Yellow and White, how good is that as it's one of my favourite colour combos...........I know I have lots of favs, but this is one near the top of my list. Blue is a colour I rarely gravitate towards as a solo colour, but I do love it combined with either yellow or brown. There is a generous prize of a $20 shopping voucher from our good friend Leo over at FlonzCraft.

My starting place was a square of Fabriano 600gsm card, liberally spritzed with water and Ost Blue and Yellow Brushos sprinkled on and with a bit of tilting side to side allowed the Brushos to run with the water. The Poppy image is from the Autumn Poppy set by Chocolate Baroque and the sentiment Clarity. I heat embossed the floral image with detail clear powder to give a raised border so that I could bleach out the flowers and butterflies which I then coloured in with the same Brusho's and when dry added a coat of Glossy Accents.

I mounted the piece onto some corrugated card and some ribbon to make it into a wall hanging, however I have since changed my mind and it's now mounted onto a card as I have a recipient in mind with a Birthday next month and she loves anything blue.

Have a good Sunday and I do hope you will pop over to the challenge blog and join us this month.

Purple Passion

Good morning to you all, before I tell you about our new theme at Allsorts my apologies for my lack of visits for a few days and over the weekend but we are away, all rather last minute and I find commenting on my tablet all but impossible as my dodgy fingers just can't navigate the keyboard. 

So this post is scheduled and will hopefully pop up Saturday morning to tell you all about our new theme which Tracy has chosen, it's 'Purple Passion', no prizes for guessing it's her favourite colour.

I have used the lovely Violet stamp from Stampendous which I stamped with versafine black and heat embossed with detail clear before colouring in with Spectrum pencils. The matting and layering has been done with TL Shades cardstock using TL Pin Dot frames, Pearl Dot frames and Pearl Border dies. A stamped sentiment and some ribbons which I left longer than usual so they draped down the sides of my card.

Happy weekend all.

Springtime

We have a new challenge starting over at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges, this month I have chosen the theme which is not surprising to those who know me, it's 'All things Spring'. As always there is a very generous $20 voucher to be won from FlonzCraft.

I have also been busy preparing more Tattered Lace samples, these are for the One Day Wonder starting at 8am on Thursday 7th April on Create and Craft TV.

I have made a set of cards using a selection of Flonz images and all are matted and layered onto bases made from the Tattered Lace hexagon die set. The centre and right hand cards have both been coloured in with Spectrum pencils and the backgrounds on all have been done with Pan Pastels. I added ribbons and flowers to all three to carry the Spring time feel.

Using TL new Blossom embossing folder, scalloped and plain essential circles, Floral Layers Daisies (this one also makes a great Sunflower), Ivy, Pearl Dot rectangles and sentiment strip dies.

There are both new embossing folders and dies and some sentiment dies with the most beautiful script fonts and most of my samples have followed a Springtime theme.

For this one I embossed both the yellow DP and vellum and then cut into the vellum to create an overlay. The With All Our Love sentiment is a continuous strip will go the width of a C5 card, but I have cut into it to fit my tag.

I embossed a piece of TL Shades cardstock and sanded it for the background, overlaid a green strip and ribbons and Roses from the same Floral Layers set as the Daisies above. I used Glossy Accents to add some dew drops onto the Rose petals and cut the new Blessed sentient from the same green Shades cardstock. The Shades 250gsm card has been specially developed for use with dies and not only does it sand down well as it has a white core it cuts even the most intricate dies with ease.

The Hope sentiment is another new one in that lovely font which I placed over a heart cut from TL Essential Hearts and Pearl Border Hearts, I embossed the background and used both the positive and offcut from a Pearl Dot border either side of the panel. To finish some little punched flowers, pearls and organza bow.

Many thanks for your visit today.

Girly and floral

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'One for the Girls' and 'Birthday's'.

I don't work with blue a great deal as it's not a colour I gravitate to naturally, but I do like it combined with yellow so that was the inspiration for my Penny Black card. I have used another of the lovely new stamps called Passionate, it's a pretty large stamp at approx 5x5 so when matted up my card is 8x8. 

I inked direct to stamp with distress markers and gave a liberal spray of water before stamping onto Fabriano. I added a Penny Black sentiment and used a mask called Tie Dyed to sponge some background interest but kept to a soft lemon DI so as not to distract from the lovely blooms. Some ribbon and a bow to finish.

Graphic 45 DPs' form the base of my Stamping Sensations card and a quite old wood mounted stamp which I seems to have lost since I made the card so can't tell you the make.............no idea where it's gone so will have to go through all my stamp draws to find it as clearly it's miss filed ! Anyhow I papered pieced the main image and hat, added some flourishes and roses.

I do hope you will pop over the the challenge posts to see the super prizes on offer and be inspired to join in this month.

April Fool and Tattered Lace winners

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week the theme was chosen by Wendy who would like to see April Fools/Humorous' creations. Our sponsor is DigiStamp Boutique.

I confess I did struggle a bit with this one as I didn't really have any stamps which I consider humorous so I have gone with a rather tongue in cheek image and sentiment which I have had for literally years.

The image has been stamped and heat embossed with detail clear and coloured with Spectrum pencils and mounted onto a Tattered Lace centre stepper card. The sentiment added to the bottom, some flowers and ribbons to finish. It seems a pretty simple explanation but the TL die sets really make shaped cards a doddle.

Now for the my Tattered Lace Anniversary winners and first out is the winner of the Tote Bag and goodies.........................

Mrs A  - ValeryAnne claimed

And winners of the other Tattered Lace goodies...................

N-Eva claimed

Alessia unclaimed, new winner Nadia notified 8/04/16

Kath claimed

Well done to you all, please mail me with your full names and postal addresses so I can get your goodies posted off to you. Should I not heard from any of you by Thursday 7th April I will re-draw any unclaimed prizes.

And if your were not lucky this time, keep an eye open as I have some more Tattered Lace goodies to give away very shortly.

Happy weekend all.