Pastels and Poppies

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and Tracy Mouse would like us to 'Add a touch of sparkle', oh what fun as most of us love a bit of glitter. Our sponsor is Scrappers Delight. I also have some Chocolate Baroque shares following our fortnightly theme of 15 minute card to prove that their beautiful stamps can be used for simple as well as more details cards.

A scheduled post again, by now we should have visited Katakolon for the short trip to Olympia, the historical home of the Olympic Games, also Athens and today be in Thessaloniki. Then it's onward to, Bodrum and Sicily and of course Venice.

My card for this weeks challenge has been made with a Sweet Poppy stencil, white stencil paste and glitter onto a lightly inked background with a little sponging through a harlequin stencil. A stamped sentiment and organza bow. Being a bit of a colour freak it's unusual for me to make something in soft pastel colours but I have to say this one has quite grown on me.

As we started our cruise in Italy, my all time favourite Country the above card is quite fitting. I started with a masked sum and background of distress and dye inks, then removed the mask and dragged a damp baby wipe through the colours to move the colours about. I stamped one of the images from CB Echoes of Italy along with a sentiment from the same set and then bleached out some of the colour to lift the image from the background.

This one has a Pan Pastel background which I added after masking the sun and use a piece of ripper paper to create the ground. The fairy from CB Summer Fairy, sentiment and vine from the same set are all stamped with black archival and shock horror................OMG, I just realised writing this scheduled post in June and looking at the above photo that I forgot to add glitter to the fairies wings. And it's too late now as it was in the latest box of 100 cards to go off to the Animal Health Trust where I donate cards to be sold in their Visitor Centre. I send about 400 a year to them to help raise much needed funds for their research.

My final card is very CAS with just a simple but beautiful Poppy from CB Pretty Poppies stamp set, stamped with black archival and heat embossed with detail clear and colored in with Spectrum glitter pens. Some gems and ribbon to finish.

Hope you all have a good week.

A right old inky session

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and Helene would like to see 'Anything but a card'. Our sponsor is Lets Create. 

This is another scheduled post as we should now be cruising and visiting the first few posts of call including Crete and Dubrovnik then onto Ephesus and Santorini..............I will update on the following ports of call next week.

I made this chipboard heart for Tattered Lace a while back but as with the box below neither have been blogged. The heart is chipboard and was coated with gesso then acrylic paint and texture paste pushed through one of the TL Tuck in dies, this one is called scribble. I cut the TL sentiment out several times and layered up to give dimension and painted it along with the various TL flowers with the same acrylic paint. I fixed a piece of torn corrugated in the centre of the heart, fixed the flowers in place, two chipboard love birds and some lace and again painted all with the same colour. To break up the blue I smeared some pink Dylusions here and there with a baby wipe and finally some gilding wax.

My little box started life as a plain brown one which I covered with gesso before painting with a burgundy acrylic pain followed by crackle glaze and a very pale pink paint and was really pleased with the crackles on this one as often it disappoints. I added a band of roses cut from a Tattered Lace border die, more flowers on the top, lace around the side of the lid and sentiment on TL tags.

Hope you all have a good week.

Frame it and more Chocolate Baroque shares

Good morning to you all, it's a scheduled post as I am now away ahead of our holiday starting later this week. And just a note which I forgot to mention earlier is while we are away I have no..........or that's actually forbidden to have..........access to the internet so won't see any mails or other messages until I am home in August. I would hate for anyone to think I've not replied to them.

It's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and Annie is hosting her first theme since joining the team and has chosen the them of 'Frame it'. Our sponsor is A Day for Daisies.

My first card at the top used an arch shaped stencil..................if you look below you will see where the stencil came from. I then used a Parisian stencil and Pan Pastels to create the scene through the arch aperture. The pretty lady is one of the new dies from Tattered Lace which was launched last week at the Doncaster show which I coloured with the same Pan Pastels, added a bow and coordinating matting and layering.

My above card is a new home one using a mixture of dies and cardstock to create the little village scene which I placed behind a die cut aperture and sponged in the sun and sky using Pan Pastels. I don't often use charms but I thought this little key tied with some cord would work well for purpose. I do hope you will join in your challenge this week and please do pop over to the challenge blog to see what my teamies have made.

I also have a few shares for this fortnights Chocolate Baroque 15 minute cards. The one above has a Brusho background, a quote from CB Words of Inspiration set and the Butterflies are from the main image in CG Butterfly Flourish set, both coloured in with the same colour Brusho's.

This one uses stamped from one of my favourite CB stamp sets Glorious Spring and willow from the Spring Foliage set, all stamped onto a background created with Adirondack due inks and ink dusters.

My set of little notelets was inspired by a pack of tiny square cards sent as a freebie with a recent cardstock order from PDA and uses one of the corner stamps from CB Butterfly Flourish stamp set and sentiments from CB Words of Inspiration and Pretty Poppies sets, all stamped in black archival and pan pastels sponged around the edges.

For this card I added lilac and turquoise Broshos to a piece of 600gsm Fabriano and saturated with water...........the great thing about this heavy watercolor card is it never warps however much water you add.  When dry I used CB Decorative Edges to add some random harlequins, I did this by holding the stamp in my hand rather using a block, that way you can make the pattern random and only stamp sections. I then stamped one of the images from CB Pretty Poppies, heat embossed with clear embossing powder and then bleached out the colour and tied some lace.

Happy weekend.

One for the Boys

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and Kevin has chosen the theme of  'One for the Boys'. Our sponsor is Crafty Ribbons.

My card is one of a collection made a few weeks back for Tattered Lace promotional material using the lovely sailing ship and compass from the Men's Collection. I created a background by inking an acrylic block with grid lines and distress inks fossilised amber, cracked pistachio and faded jeans........I know this is my no means a new technique but for those of you new to it, ink the block with one colour at a time, spritz with water and stamp, cleaning the block between each colour and over stamping to achieve the pattern size that fits with your card.

I used the same process to colour a scrap of card using just the fossilised amber and used that to cut the anchor and sails a second time to decoupage. The sentiment is computer generated.

Happy weekend all.

Y for a yellow Butterfly

Morning Peeps, hope you are all having a good week.

A really short post as typing is so difficult still as is crafting and my mojo seems to have already left for the Mediterranean. I have been trying so hard but the bin seems to be the only winner, so I dug out good old Stampendous P107 which rarely lets me down and wood so easier to hold, along with a PB Butterfly and sentiment and Brusho's thinking not too much could go wrong..........or could it as I'm non to happy with the outcome.

Anyhow am sharing it as I made it especially for the current Butterfly Challenge which is Butterflies of course plus Y for Yellow or Years.

Happy Tuesday all.

More blooms and a snippet

It's time for our challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are nice and easy ones 'Anything Goes with a Stamp and Ribbon' and simply 'Anything Goes with a stamp' and as usual wonderful prizes to be won at both.

For my Stamping Sensations creation it's another outing for my Altenew stamps, the flowers are from the Peony Bouquet and leaves from the Beautiful Day stamp set. I used four colours of distress inks for the flowers and three for the leaves which I stamped on once I had masked the blooms. The tiny flowers scattered around are also from the Beautiful Day set. 

I stamped a Penny Black sentiment onto a piece of torn vellum, tied across some ribbon and fixed it across the stamping, then matted all onto coordinating cardstock.

For my Penny Black card I started with a pieced of 600gms Fabriano and sprinkled Bruso's Scarlet and Turquoise and sprayed liberal amounts if water and moved the card about to allow the colours to blend and dabbed off the excess with kitchen roll to soften the colours.

I then used Distress Markers to ink PB Bejeweled, spritzing with water before stamping and then with a sponge, DI's and a stencil added some background pattern here and there.  The sentiment is also Penny Black which I stamped with Archival black onto vellum. I added two strips of washi tape the then the focal piece which I matted onto coordinating card stock.

I am going to pop over to the Playground with this one as I used a snippet of vellum for the sentiment. Sports day promises to be a real fun event and I am so pleased Miss Di has decided to bring the wheelbarrow race back in, it was banned last year after a bit of an issue with loose knicker elastic, I say no more and leave it to your imaginations !!

Happy Sunday all and please do pop over to the challenge blogs and see the inspiration from my teamies as well as the great prizes on offer.

Gingham Style

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where Kath has chosen the theme of 'Gingham Style'...............yeee haaaaaaaaaaaw........sorry !! Our sponsor is Digistamp Boutique and we also have a second prize of a Bo Bunny paper pad. There is lots of inspiration to be had over at the challenge blog so please do check out what my talented teamies have been up to.

Thanks for all your kind words the last week or two, not seeing too much improvement still but as they tell me I am impatient and these relapses can last for weeks, which of course I know, but doesn't help ease the frustration of everything taking so long. I am just hoping the pain eases before our holiday otherwise might have to resort to a totally liquid diet once we get on that ship...............who said so what's different ? So now on the my pre prepared post.

For my top card I have used one of the images from our sponsors Birthday Word Art as the focal point of my top card along with Tattered Lace Pin Dot Frames and Trimcraft DP's, not a lot more to say about it really as it's mainly matting and layering of the pretty elements and super greeting.

The base card of my second card is Tattered Lace Fancy Centre Stepper cut from a mustard colour card to coordinate with the gingham DP's which are Bo Bunny. The focal image is Penny Black Hello Sunshine which I inked direct to stamp with Distress Markers and spritzed with water before stamping. Gingham ribbon and some gems to embellish.

Hope you have a good weekend.