A touch Vintage

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday so that means it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week  Mervi would like to see some Vintage, our sponsor is Swedish House Crafts.

A scheduled post as I'm having a couple of ops this week and may or may not be home by the time this posts, so missing for blogland much of  the week, not ideal timing with our Birthday celebrations at Allsorts, but not a lot I can do about that.

Two creation from me this week, the one at the top was a play with Oxide inks, they certainly are a bit different just as Tim promised. After inking the top layer I used Timmy's Vintage egdes dies to cut the corners then randomly stamped the Butterflies which are from this weeks sponsor. I inked the base piece with just the vintage photo oxide ink and splattered with water to take out some of the colour. After mounting one piece onto the other I added a PB large Butterfly, sentiment which is also from our sponsor and seam binding and twin bows.

The card base for my second share was one ready made using two TH cabinet frames which I had fixed together with a central spine ready for stamping. The collage stamp is Penny Black inked with DI markers, stamped onto the base and a little of the colour dragged out with an almost  dry brush and the butterflies stamped a second time and decoupaged. The lovely Blake poem is from Clarity and I used a mask to add the butterflies and finally inked the edges.

There is plenty of inspiration from my teamies so do pop over the the challenge blog and take a peek.

Happy 8th Birthday Allsorts challenge

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday so that means it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week we are celebrating our 8th Birthday and really doing it in style as every single entrant will be a winner...........how I hear you ask, well Tattered Lace are not only offering a main prize of a £50 voucher to spent at their Crafting store as every entrant will be eligible to claim a £5 voucher to spend there as well.

And to celebrate I will also be drawing a name from the comments on this post and sending a little surprise to them. I will announce the name on my Allsorts post next Saturday.

You will need a code to claim your voucher, it's a really simple one and you can collect it by visiting each of the DT's blogs where there will be a letter/number and once re-assembled which will give you your code. I am sure you will instantly know which letter I am offering.

We have kept the theme nice and simple, it's Happy Birthday and I have created a little house of butterflies and blooms. I painted the chipboard house with acrylic pain and then made little panels to go into each section using some DP's and a mixture of Chocolate Baroque stamps. I used TL Anne border to go along the eaves, a TL Happy Birthday which I cut from grunge board three times and stuck together to give more depth and the three blooms are some of the newly released TL Fleurs Flower Forming kits which I believe at the moment are only available from Create and Craft TV.

Finally I stamped more Butterflies, cut them out and added to the house along with wire antenna and pearls down their thorax.

Rather belatedly here's my mid month Penny Black inspirational card, I started by stamping the PB Poppies, then brushed on masking fluid before adding the Brusho's for the background, rubbed out the masking fluid and coloured in the Poppies with Brushos and added a PB sentiment.

And carrying the Tattered Lace theme, today seems the appropriate time to share one or two of my samples from the release yesterday on Create and Crafts TV of the Beauty and the Beast range of dies and products. Rare Earth also had a release of beautiful watercolour stamps this week but I will save those for another day.

I really hope you will join in the fun this week.

Lets go wild

Today sees the start of a new challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this month our theme as chosen by Sandra is 'Lets go Wild'. 

We are very excited that we have a new sponsor Art Ink Designs, our very own Dot's new store, do pop over and take a peek as she has some fabulous stamps. And can we please remind you that we are a stamping challenge and must see hand stamping as the focal element of your artwork.

I also have a few Chocolate Baroque shares which are for today's One Day Special on Hochanda and further down more fifteen minute cards which feature over on the DT blog. And one just happens to fit in very nicely with the current Butterfly Challenge with the theme of Gold and Decoupage along with the requisite Butterfly.

I started with a piece of gloss cardstock and created a background with DI's, next I stamped the elephant scene which is from Little Claire followed by just the Giraffe from a Penny Black stamp (masking the other two animals when inking the stamp). Next I stenciled some circles using a Timmy stencil and a PB background stamp to add the dots. Added some white gel pen here and theme and the sentiment which is made up of two PB stamps.

And the Chocolate Baroque samples, the shows feature a host of different Butterfly stamps along with some new stencils. I am hoping the first one below will fit in OK at the Butterfly Challenge, I know it looks more yellow than gold in my photo but the roll of ribbon definitely say's gold and I matched the colouring of the Butterfly to that.

And a few of my fifteen minute cards, most are done with Pan Pastels and they are so easy to use and build up quickly for a pretty background.

I do hope you will come and join us at FSC this month and please do pop over to see the super inspiration from my team mates.

Ring a Ring O' Roses

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday which means it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and I have chosen the theme is 'Ring a Ring O' Roses, a Pocket Full of Posies'. We have two lovely prizes this week, a Heartfelt Creations garden stamp and a pretty floral paper pad.

The Roses are Chocolate Baroque all stamped with black versafine and heat embossed with detail clear, cut out and coloured with Spectrum pencils. I drew a pencil circle around the computer generated sentiment and used Rare Earth (Tattered Lace) stamps to add foliage around the circle the arranged the Roses using Pinflaire to give height and then tucked in the leaves and a coordinating bow. My Allsorts team mates have some lovely inspiration to share so please do pop over to the challenge blog.

And as it's May and we had sunshine on Wednesday and blue skies................so welcome after day's on end of cloud and temperatures of 10/11 deg.....................I had to wander up to the top paddock and take some photos of the Hawthorn - aka May. Some of the bushes are not fully in bloom yet but had to grab the photos just in case we get rain as inevitably it will ruin the blossoms.................and much as I hate to say it, we do desperately need some as everywhere is so dry and at the moment the hay crop is not looking promising.

Isn't it just so beautiful and how wonderful is Nature when it gives us such stunning blossoms and we have to do no more than just open our eyes, take in the sight and breath in the perfume.

Happy weekend all.

Dream until your dreams come true

It's time for our challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Butterflies, Fairies and Wings' and 'Photo Inspiration' which has a strong hint of Poppies about it. As always there are wonderful prizes to be won at both.

My top creation is my Stamping Sensations piece which has a background of Distress Inks and pearl mica spray. To achieve the coloured sky I masked the water line across a piece of Fabriano and added the inks followed by the mica spray as this helps blend the colours. Next I removed the mask and used DI's to add he water, I then stamped the images with back archival. All stamps are from Lavinia with the exception of the sentiment which is Inkylicious and finally some glitter to the fairies wings and a pretty bow.

For my Penny Black piece I again started with a piece of Fabriano and repeat stamped the PB Poppies and then painted on masking fluid to all stamped areas. Next I saturated the piece with water and sprinkled on Brusho's..............I like to use 600gsm Fabriano when using Brusho's as it does not warp when using a lot of water.

When dry I stamped all time PB favourite Dance, Sing, Love, then rubbed away the masking fluid and coloured the Poppies with Spectrum pencils.

I hope you will join us at both challenges this month.

Glorious Hibiscus, a Snippet and a Birthday party

Morning Peeps, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Helene would like to see something relating to 'Music' on our artwork. Our sponsor is Digistamp Boutique and we also have a second prize of a collection of lovely Tattered Lace musical instrument dies.

And here's a little heads up to what's coming up on 20th May, please feel free to grab the logo and share on your own blogs to help us spread the word.

Well, this is not what I had in mind but the Sheena Hibiscus flowers were sitting on my desk all coloured up ready with Spectrum Sparkle pens after I took apart another card which just didn't go as planned. So I inked up some watercolour card using DI's, used a music score and randomly stamped the base layer, some honeycomb stenciling to the top layer along with a Visible Image sentiment, layered it all up and placed the ready arranged flower spray and finito, a pretty quick and easy card. And as the Hibiscus blooms were all stamped onto offcuts I think this fits nicely into the current 279/280 Snippets Playground challenge.

Happy weekend all and I do hope you will join in our challenge this week and of course pop over to see the inspiration my teamies have on offer.