Lovely Katya, Russian Palaces, Flowers and Flamingo's

A selection of the Russian Palaces stamped onto a Brusho background

Afternoon peeps, I have only been posting weekends recently with my DT makes, but I thought I really should share some of my DT creations made for the recent Hochanda and Create and Craft TV shows.

First up here are a few of the 20 or so I made for the weekends Chocolate Baroque One Day Special using the lovely Russian stamps which included the beautiful Katya. Mindful that this is going to be a rather lengthy post I will just add a few details below each picture, if you want to know more then always happy for you to mail me.

Katya stamped and embossed in gold and highlighted with gold and blue pens onto a dry brushed acrylic and gilding polish background

Russian Palaces stamped onto a distress ink background then bleached out and sections of the Russian Floral Egg stamped and embossed with detail white powder

A selection of the the Russian Dolls and Palaces

The Russian Floral Egg with Gilding Flakes onto a DI background overstamped with the new Crackle background stamp and stenciled sunrays

Next are a few of my Stamp Addict shows which also aired over the weekend, I forgot to record them so hoping they will soon be uploaded to rewind.

The largest Flamingo stamped onto a DI background stamped with some of the distress elements and a sentiment from the same release of stamps

I love this Dad stamp (so wish mine was still here to send him this one) along with the new stars and background elements onto a DI background

Using the new Daisy Frame onto a Brusho background

DI simply brushed and the large Flamingo and Flamingo border along with one of the new sentiment stamps

And finally, some Tattered Lace and Rare Earth (TLs' new stamp range) samples.

One of those I made for the Finding Dory show (and yes I had to Google the name to find out what it was......how sad is that !) using both the dies and coordinating stamps

One of the samples for for recent release of the Spring Flower dies

This one was for the latest Art Deco release

Using some of the dies from the Spring Flowers release and sentiment from the Rare Earth Scribbles release

Using a selection of the floral and background stamps and new inkpads being released by Rare Earth this week

The new Rare Earth letters, background element stamps onto a DI background - I also stamped the harlequin stamp using gold texture paste to get a nice grungy feel

More stamps from the floral release along with inks and brayer which will also be on the show

Finally, when there are flowers there has to be a floral wreath and on this one I used more of the pretty new pastel inks

Many thanks for taking a peek and hope I haven't sent you to sleep with so many cards in once post, but as you will guess I am well overdue posting some of them.

Sweet treats, Rudolph and a Snippet

I don't make many celebratory cakes nowadays as my fingers are not really nimble enough for the sugar work, but this was a rather special one for our daughters Anniversary, it did take me some time to make the Lily sprays compared with previously, but having given me the brief of Lilies and Ivy to reflect her bouquet she was thrilled with the result which is all that matters

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Tracy Mouse has come up with the theme of  'Cakes, Cupcakes and Sweet Treats'. Our prize this week is a super Tonic Pick of the Bunch die set.

Well it's no surprise this theme sent me way outside my comfort zone and this week sees me colouring up a cute image, totally unread of but that's that challenge right ?

I had absolutely nothing cake related in my stamp stash and was going to share an anniversary cake I made and decorated and that was already loaded onto my post, but then I found a Penny Black image a friend had stamped up for for me so I am sharing a card as well.

The image is from Penny Black called Tall Cake which I coloured with Spectrum pencils, created an easel card with Tattered Lace dies and added a few flowers as well. And being frugal again I gutted the mats to layer up so I reckon it counts as a Snippet for Miss Di over at the Playground.

It's also the start of this months Rudolph Day's challenge and one again I am all prepared..........how many months can this last one wonders. It's a fairly simple stamped card, I inked and stamped the trees which I think are Memory Box..........do they make stamps, well I don't have the packing but that name sticks in my mind. The I masked a moon, used Pan Pastels to create a sky, stamped the Hobby Art Santa and Inkylicious sentiment and sprinkled some glitter here and there.

Happy weekend all.

Baroque hearts and roses and ooooops - running late

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Susan would like to see 'Anything but a card'. This week we have a super set of stamps to be won from John Next Door. 

In this post I also have my mid month shares for Penny Black and More and Stamping Sensations..................and, knuckles suitably rapped and apologies to my teamies, some of my fifteen minute Chocolate Baroque shares which I should have blogged yesterday, they are on the DT blog here. So all in all it's a rather picture heavy post. Talking about CB, Lesley will be back on Hochanda on 24th and 24 March with a new One Day Special and believe me when I say it is indeed special with some amazing stamps.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this creation which was for one of the Chocolate Baroque programmes on Hochande back in January which was all about beautiful Rose stamps and I used several here. The frame is one I picked up on the reduced counter at Tesco for £5.00 which I treated to coatings of gesso, gilding wax, gilding polishes and actylic paints, no real plan to what I did, really I was just trying to highlight the lovely detail around the frame.

I stamped all of the images onto Fabriano cardstock and coloured with the same Spectrum pencils to carry the lilacs and greens and then liberally flicked cordinating DI's onto the backgrounds before mounting all into the frame. On the show Lesley suggested it would make a nice wedding gift and I guess it would and might try another in different colourways.

At Stamping Sensations the Design Team are currently taking it in turns to share 'my go to stamp', well there was never going to be any surprises what mine would be and I think most who know me could have predicted this one, it is of course Stampendous P107 Agapanthus Cluster. It was one of the very first stamps I bough many years ago and I even have a second one as back up - just in case it was ever discontinued. The photo below shows just how much the first has been used, but in my defence I did need a second one as I have been known to use it in class.

I probably cheated a bit here as I needed a sentiment to balance the stamping so my all time favourite Penny Black 2695J Dance Sing Love also got an airing. The background is Pan Pastels and these two are one of my favourite colour palettes.

Now onto my Penny Black make and I have used the new tree stamp Stately 40-520 which I inked with distress markers and spritzed with water before stamping onto Fabriano card. I then stamped the Deer and Bunnies and used ink dusters to add the background, finally stamping the birds, grasses and leaves, all of which are from different PB sets.

And now last but by no means least, those Chocolate Baroque shares, I won't go into detail as it's all on the DT blog along with links to the stamps I used.

If you are all still with me and not fallen asleep, then I wish you all a lovely weekend.

Modes of Transport

Today sees the start of a new challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this month the theme is 'Modes of Transport', as always there is a generous prize of a $20 shopping voucher from FlonzCraft.

I don't have a lot in the way of transport stamps so a ship it is. It's a really quick and easy card from me, starting with an oval mask I stamped the Flonz Ship and then used Pan Pastels to create the background and water, stamped some birds and a Penny Black sentiment and finito, not a lot more to say really !!

Do pop over to the challenge blog to see what my team mates have created and of course join in with our challenge.

Strike a Pose

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Mervi has chosen the theme of Ladies and Girls to tie in with International Women's Week which was on Wednesday, we have a super prize of the lovely Indigo Blue Miss Austen stamp.

Both of my cards are samples made for Create and Craft TV shows, the top one for the latest release from Rare Earth called 'Strike a Pose'. Rare Earth are Tattered Lace's new range of stamps and the latest release will be aired live on Tuesday and I am told my samples have been used for the promotional video for this range of stamps which rather chuffed me. The one below uses some of the Art Deco releases.........and if you like that era there are more coming along on 21st March's Pick of the Day.

I stamped the lovely lady agove from the 'Strike a Pose' collection and coloured her with Spectrum Pencils......now I never thought I would hear myself say this but I actually thoroughly enjoyed colouring in these samples, I've got a long way to go with my colouring but it's a start. The sentiment is computer generated and I kept it all simple with just some ribbon and flowers. I hope this will fit the current Snippets Playground challenge, I was unusually frugal with this one and gutted the bottom white mat to create the top one with the stamping on.

The card below features one of the ladies and circle dies which were part of the TL Art Deco releases and I teamed them up with Graphic 45 DP's which I though had a bit of an Art Deco feel to them.

My teamies have loads of inspiration to share again this week so I do hope you will pop over and take a peek.

Happy weekend all.

Roses, bunnies and Chalkola pens

It's time for our challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Close to Nature' and 'Anything Goes'. As always there are wonderful prizes to be won at both.

It's a bit of a photo heavy post as one of my Penny Black shares was created using Chalkola pens, I was fortunate to be sent some recently and asked to try them out, so further down you can see what I created with them and my thoughts on the product.

My top Penny Black card uses some of the new stamp releases, the beautiful Rose called Red Blush and one of the sentiments from the Fairytale set. I repeat stamped the Rose onto a piece of Fabriano using Versamark black and clear emossing powder, then coloured in with Spectrum pencils and added some blue Pan Pastel shading around the blooms. After using the same ink to stamp the sentiment I matted and layered onto the base card, tied an organza bow down the side and a few pearls.

My stamping Sensation creation is one of those made for the Chocolate Baroque Spring shows on Hochanda a couple of weeks ago, no surprises that I adored working on samples for this show. For this one I created a background with Dylusions and mica spray and then stamped the Rabbit image from the Glorious Spring set and used just the top of the stamp to carry the foliage along the bottom. Next I stamped the willows from the Spring Foliage set followed by some stenciling using black paste medium. Finally I stamped the sentiment and cut into pieces and added randomly.

Now for something a little different. As mentioned above I was asked by Chalkola to try our their new chalk based pens and was sent two different sets to put through their paces. They were dispatched and speedily delivered to me via Amazon who are the companies major distributors and you will find several of the sets on their web site here.

They come in a wonderful range of bright and vibrant colours and although the advertising suggests use on non porous surfaces such as wood, glass, chalkboards etc., I was keen to know if I could apply them to my own style of crafting and use on cardstock. So I set about trying them on basic heavy cardstock coated in black gesso and also pages from the new Dylusions journals.

The card above has been made with a Dylusions 8 x 8 sheet.................yes I admit I have torn pages from the journal so my knuckles have been suitably rapped. It takes the mediums like a dream and there seemed to be no loss of vibrancy.

I started by stamping the PB image with versamark and white embossing powder. Next I set about adding some stenciling and I dabbed the liquid from the pens onto a craft sheet and used a make up sponge to lift the colour and work through the stencils. I was unsure if it would dry too quickly but it worked well and the pool of colour lasted several minutes on the craft mat before drying out.

Using the same technique I sponged some colour into the centres of the stamped image which really brought it to life. Next I applied the colour, again using the same sponge method to the sentiment stamp and again it worked well. To bring the stenciled flowers to life I used a fine paint brush and some on the white chalk pen, again dispensed onto a craft mat to outline the flowers and finally as I had some chalk liquid left I used the top of an embossing powder pot to add some circles.

Here's one of the samples I recently made for this weeks Create and Craft TV show using TL's Rare Earth stamps, not at all what I would normally select but they were fun and it's good be be dragged outside your comfort zone now and again.

I used the larger white chalk pen and applied directly to the stamps onto standard cardstock painted with black gesso, the image is not as clear as stamping with ink but works reasonably for this tryle of image I think. I then used a couple of stencils and applied the pens directly through the stencil to create the brick wall and green 'goo' for the purpose of the alien like images.

So would I recommend the pens, yes I would as they offer something very different to the crafter and I have only touched the surface of what is possible and will be playing and sharing more in due course. I particularly like the ease of use for stenciling and as something of a colour fan their vibrancy really appeals, that said there are some more subtle colours in the sets and I need to have a play with those as well. Thank you Chalkola for allowing me to play with your new products.

Below is one stamped and coloured in the conventional way and I realise now their have been aired on TV they are Ants not aliens !!

Happy weekend all and many thanks for popping in today.

Springtime

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week I have chosen a Spring theme and have designed an inspirational photo. Our sponsor this week is Digistamp Boutique and there is a second prize of a Spring inspired stamp set.

My card at the top is one I made for the recent TV shows on Hochanda featuring a lovely collection of Spring stamps from Chocolate Baroque. Their stamps are superb quality and a joy to work with and I can't tell you how much I love being on their team. I used the negative from Tim's cabinet card to create the frame stamping the Daffodil and Tulip both of which I used distress markers to ink the stamp then dragged out some colour. I added some soft stenciling, inked the edges, added a bow and stamped one of the worker stamps in the top corners.

As I love the Penny Black Wordsworth quote I had to make a second card with Daffodils which are also PB. A really simple card inking the flower stamp with DI's and spritzing with water before repeat stamping, adding the sentiment and some twine.

My team mates have some lovely takes on the inspirational photo so please do pop over the challenge blog and see their creations.

Happy weekend all.