Christmas with Baker Ross, Allsorts and Rudolph Day

Good morning Peeps, what on earth has Blogger gone and done with out dashboards, I am so sooooo fed up with all his shenanigans lately. As if the verification robotic's with commenting wasn't bad enough, now he's made seeing all our blogs in one quick look impossible, OK if you only have just the one, but when there are several you need to deal with it's a right rigmarole getting anywhere. I am almost at the point where I could give it all up and I don't say that lightly.

Right, moan over and it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Kevin has chosen the theme of  'Anything Christmas'. We have two sponsors this week, Marianne Designs and A Day for Daisies. 

Our Allsorts theme also coincides nicely with months Rudolph Day's Challenge, plus I also have some shares further down using products from my latest box of goodies from Baker Ross so it's a bit of a heavy post.

I have used an image from A Day for Daisies which I printed out twice for the focal image and also a strip of the same image as a border across the bottom of my Tattered Lace stepper card. I coloured the images with Spectrum Sparkle pens, decoupaged the main image and flicked some red DI around the blooms. And finally some pretty ribbon on the side panels.

I am guessing it will be the last Rudolph Day's Challenge this year, my how that time has flown by. But am rather chuffed with myself as I made a promise that I would enter every month this year and apart from when I was on holiday manged to do so. Thank you Mo for all your hard work keeping the challenge going.

The latest goodies are from Baker Ross's Christmas range, the fun thing is that it's always a surprise what is inside and it's a great way to get get the creative juices flowing outside the comfort zone.

I have used several of the goodies on the wall hanging above and I absolutely love the Bark Stars, they have such lovely textures which really lends itself to inking up, on this occasion I used gilding polish on them and it really brings out the natural patterns.

I started out with a large piece of 600gsm Fabriano, coated it with gesso and gilding polishes, then randomly stamped with text. Next I used texture paste and a stencil to add some Christmas baubles and when dry replaced the stencil and coated with BR metallic acrylic paint.

I mounted the piece onto BR Hessian.........do check this out as it's excellent value for money compared with that sold in many high street shops. I also added a strip across the middle of the piece before adding the stars, a computer generated sentiment, BR twine and two Roses made from cutting circles from BR Glitter Paper and a seam binding bow.

There was also a pack of BR Christmas baubles in my box which I coated first with BR Gesso, then painted with BR Acrylic Paint  and a coat of crackle glaze before stamping with a variety of small rubber stamps and adding a little colour and BR Glitter. And by sheer coincidence the new tree I ordered from M&S for the conservatory was delivered yesterday so I assembled it to check out the lights and was able to pop the baubles on to take my photo.

Have a good weekend one and all.

Blogger dashboard changes

Most of us have now got the new Blogger dashboard changes and from what I am hearing most share my thoughts and dislike it with a passion.

I started a post on Blogger forum here where people have been sharing their thoughts.......all negative so far. There is also one "expert" comment asking people to send feedback to them.......little orange tab that comes up bottom right when you are in the new so called dashboard.

If you only have the one blog it might not affect too much, but if you have nine to deal with as I do it's a total nightmare. Yesterday I intended scheduling posts on the various challenge blogs and I can't begin to tell you how time consuming and laborious it was and in the end I gave up.

I know Blogger is pretty intransigent but we can but hope strength in numbers just might get through for once, so please if you share my thoughts on the changes please do send feedback on one or even better both of the suggestions above.

Trees, leaves and flowers

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Kath has chosen the theme of 'O Christmas Tree'. Our sponsor is Crafty Ribbons.

It seems to be a recurring apology just lately and again I am saying sorry for not getting to your blogs for a few days, still lots of pain and typing remains difficult and to add insult to injury the vertigo has made a reappearance. I am wearing my pain machine much of the time and as it needs to be plugged into the power supply I am pretty restricted what I can do.

Further down you will also find a few more of the samples I made for today's Stamp Addict shows on Hochanda TV, Sarah and Vicky will be on at 8am and 2pm. Also and rather belatedly, my mid month Penny Black creation, sorry I'm all behind teamies.

I don't have an abundance of Christmas Tree stamps, but I do have more than my fair share of tree stamps so I decided on a slightly different approach to the theme starting with the lyrics from the lovely German carol 'Oh Christmas Tree' which I printed onto a sheet of plain white card.

I then used an oval mask and coloured the aperture with Pan Pastels before stamping the scene using Hero Arts stamps and finally matting and layering with coordinating card. Please do pop over to the challenge blog to see all the inspiration on offer from my team mates.

A fairly quick and simple on for my Penny Black make, I used Distress Markers to ink the stamp, spritzed with water before stamping and added a PB sentiment and framed using TL dies.

Now for the Stamp Addict shares and you might remember I promised you there was a lovely Rose stamp being launched today, here it is..................

The background is Burushos, the Rose bleached out and then coloured in with Brushos. The sentiment is a new one as well and I know it is about red Roses, but I am using artistic licence here.

And one of two with the beautiful leaf stamps, the background of the one above is Brusho's as are the leaves cut from card coloured with the same, background stamping and sentiment also Stamp Addicts............loving Autumnal colours and inkiness this one is my real favourite from my latest batch of samples for Stamp Addicts.

The background fur this one is Distress Crayons, then stamped over with black archival.

And a Red Rose, Broshos again for both the background and colouring after bleaching out the flower and then decoupaging the main bloom. The sentiment looks a bit crooked but seemed alright in real life, now I wonder, the screen will tell me.



I shared the large Moose the other day, this is the identical smaller version.

Have a good weekend all.

A vibrant Butterfly and new Tattered Lace

Good morning Peeps, hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Today over at Chocolate Baroque we are sharing some more inspiration for quick and easy fifteen minute cards. Please do pop over to the DT blog here and see what my team mates have come up with to inspire you and also you can check out what stamps I used on my creations.

I also have some shares of cards I made for this evenings new Tattered Lace releases which include both dies and stamp sets on Create and Craft TV, I really had fun creating with these as it allowed me to make some lovely inky backgrounds.

The concept behind these dies is that the design stays within the cardstock, on some I created backgrounds with mica sprays and paints, on some such as the birds I lightly penciled the pattern through the apertures and then coloured with distress crayons and quite like how they turned out with the die cut cardstock laid over the top.

Many thanks for popping in today, hope you all have a good Tuesday.

T'is the Season

Today sees the start of a new challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this month our theme is 'T'is the Season' and as always there is a generous prize of a $20 shopping voucher from FlonzCraft.

I decided I would make a Christmas wreath, in fact I've made several in different colours, one for each of the children and their other halves as a change from Christmas cards this year. My staring point was a rattan base shape from Hobbycraft, I actually bought circle ones but this one seems rather elongated into an oval so I left it that way rather than faff with it.

I coloured some cardstock with various shades of blue and gold glimmer mists and dylusions then stamped Heartfelt Creations Poinsettias, heat embossed with detail gold before cutting out with the matching die. I also stamped the Penny Black sentiment onto a piece of the same sprayed card and fixed that in the centre before layering up the flowers. I added a string of TL mini LED lights, some blue and gold string pearls around the flowers, some gold gems in the flower centres and a large bow at the top.

And as I used up no end of Fabriano snippets with this one I am going to pop over to the Playground to see what havoc I can cause, there again might have to slip in quietly as I am still meant to be resting after my little op a few days ago.

Please do pop over to the challenge blog and see what my team mates have created.

Feature a creature

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Tracy has chosen the theme of' Feature a Creature'. Our sponsor is Digistamp Boutique and Sizzix and as always my teamies have come up with lots of inspiration to set you on your way.

I do apologise that I've not been out and about in blogland for a few days, the NHS are the culprits and now I am taking a little time to rest.

It's another one that I really enjoyed making, well you know me and scenes. Although we are well onto November now I still couldn't resist a hint of Autumn in my scene which I created with a good number of different stamps........in fact I counted them and seems I used fifteen in total. Once I has stamped everything in place using black archival ink I added the background colouring with Pan Pastels and finally hand drew a fence, something about fences and I always feel a need to add one to a landscape scene.......well how else do you keep the livestock in ?

I have a second make, this is one of my samples for next Saturday's Stamp Addicts Hochanda shows at 8am and 2pm, the Moose I have used on this card is one of the featured stamps along with a smaller version of the same image, some beautiful leaves and if your love Roses then you must not miss the shows...................I will share some more including the Rose closer to the day.

I stamped the Moose twice, coloured with Spectrum Sparkle pens and cut out one of the images to decoupage so he peeps over the Tattered Lace frame. The papers are I believe Trimcraft.

Happy weekend all.

Robins and Poinsettias

It's time for our challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Add a Christmas sentiment' and 'Anything Christmas', I know they are much the same but it's a perfect opportunity to double up. As always there are wonderful prizes to be won at both.

My frame at the top is one of a bundle I bought cheaply and are really good to work with as the canvas board insert comes out of the frame to work with. I gave everything a generous coat of gesso, then the frame was covered with blood orange acrylic pain, dried, a think coat of crackle glaze smeared on with an old credit card and when that was dry a coat of an off white acrylic paint...........always love that part watching the cracks appear.

I stamped some PB ferns with versamark and heat embossed with detail gold powder. I painted the canvas insert with the same off white paint, more stamping with the same fern, then gold background stenciling and then the PB Holly. The poinsettias were stamped using distress markers direct to stamp and the cut out with the coordination PB die. Finally a PB sentiment. The Poinsettias were cut from snippets of Fabriano so I am going to pop over to the Playground with his one.

My Stamping Sensations piece uses more PB stamps and distress markers, I just inked the fence and trees to the left of the image as I wanted to add some larger branches (using the same stamp as the frame above) to the top right of the scene. I then stamped two little PB birds and coloured them to look like Robins, a PB sentiment, Pan Pastels for shading and then a splattering of white frantage.

I do hope you will join us at the challenges this month.

Time and numbers

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Wendy would like like to see creation using the theme of 'Time and numbers'. Our sponsor is Hobby House.

This was a fun one to make starting with three pieces of Fabriano coated with gesso.........a great way to use the end pieces when I cut up an A3 sheet.............and created a background with Distress Crayons, then added some numbers with a stencil and dimensional paste, when that was dry I reapplied the mask and used DI's to colour the numbers. A stamped Penny Black sentiment which I thought fitted the theme rather well, some fine gauze, a piece of TL die cut honeycomb, flowers, a bow and TL Butterfly.

And a second card using the Timmy clock, some distressing and Stamp Addicts leaves, not a recent make by any means but never blogged and it fits the theme rather well.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and I do hope you will find a few moment to pop over to the challenge blog and see what my teamies have come up with to inspire you.