Awesome, creative. amazing

Afternoon Peeps, just popping in with a few more Chocolate Baroque shares made with the stamps Lesley showcased on Hochanda recently. These should have popped up yesterday to tie in with my post over at the DT blog here, it's no excuse I know but I'm not firing on all cylinders as you will know from my post Saturday.

If I had to choose a favourite from the lovely Seasonal Ladies I think it would be Autumn Medley  featured on the card above, mainly because I just love working with Autumnal colours. My starting point was to stamp the image with Versamark and emboss with detail copper before colouring in with Distress Inks. Using a mask and texture paste I added some branches across the top and when dry replaced the mask and rubbed over some Distress Inks and glue here and there and some Gilding Flakes although that doesn't really show up in my photo I'm afraid. Finally I stamped three words from the Amazing Mackintosh Words stamp set, cut them out and added to the finished piece.

Here I stamped the image from Mackintosh Beauty stamp set three times and coloured in with Distress Ink, matted and layered with coordinating card and stamped a sentiment from Mackintosh Sentiments set.

The background of my next card is Distress Inks with a spritz of mica spray which helps the colours blend into each other. The lovely Spring Awakening image is stamped with Versafine black and heat embossed with detail clear and pencils used to colour the flowers in her hair. Using the new masks which compliment the Seasonal Ladies I inked some leaves, the sun and word.    

My final share used an image from Mackintosh Beauty, stamped with Versafine black and heat embossed with detail clear onto a piece of card created with the shaving foam technique.........I tend to have a session with different colours so I have a stock of them ready to stamp onto. I coloured the image with pencils, matted her into the base card, tied some ribbon and stamped and cut out a rose from the same set to place in the centre.

As always my thanks for you visit today.

Poppy inspiration

Morning Peeps and welcome to La La land, or maybe that should be Groundhog Day at least that's how it's been feeling these last few weeks as I am back and forth to hospital like a yo yo, this week a kidney infection yet again and yesterday another CT scan which I pray shows some positivity.

I know MS means little or no immune system to fight off infection but it's getting beyond a joke and seriously messing my my crafting time, all I can say is thank goodness that when I am OK I craft for England and have a stock pile to fall back on.

Anyhow as it's Saturday it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week I am your host and have some photo inspiration for you. Our sponsor is Swedish House Crafts. So as it's Poppies and a sun there was bound to be more than one card from me, after all it's the perfect pairing.

The card at the top is one such card from that stock pile and has a Dylusion and mica spray background......I used masking fluid to block out the colour from the sun before spraying, then stamped the focal Penny Black sentiment, Clarity Poppies and some leafy swirls across the top which are a really old Inkadinkado stamp. I bleached the colour from the Poppies and then coloured in with pencils.

For my second card I have used the lovely Poppy Meadow from Crafty Individuals.

I stamped the image with black versafine and heat embossing with detail clear and then colouring in with Spectrum pencils. The sky has been created with Pan Pastels, then simply matted and layered onto a red card base.

Happy weekend all.

On the catwalk

Morning Peeps, so very sorry I have not been round to visit anyone the last couple of weeks, I had a second procedure at hospital this week and it's really taking it's toll on me on top of the op the previous week. Fingers crossed I will soon get my act together and back to normal............whatever normal might be !!

It's Saturday which means it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Helene is our host and would like to see some 'Fancy Folds. Our sponsor is Crafty Ribbons.

My card is one I made a while back for Create and Craft  and uses Tattered Lace's shutter card die which makes it so easy to cut the base and mats. The two images are from TL's Rare Earth's Fashion Ladies collection, paper pieced in the same papers as the mat's on the card and coloured with Spectrum pencils.

I really hope you can find time to join us this week and also pop over to the challenge blog and check out the inspiration from my temies.

Poppies in her hair and a PB Song Bird

Good morning Peeps, Today I am posting over at the Chocolate Baroque blog again and here are my shares, all of which were samples for the recent Hochanda show featuring the Mackintosh and Seasonal Lady stamps.

Many thanks for your kind wishes on my last post, I am home now and resting as ordered........I know it makes a change to do what I am told but the body does feel the need to rest and recover this time.

Kraft card is something I am always buying but rarely use so I though I would try and remedy that and quite like how well it works with white and red, a combo that I will be trying again. Using the new masks which match the Seasonal Ladies I used the leaves from one of them and white Dylusions, masking section of the cardstock as I went along so the spray could be directed through the mask. Then using red Distress Ink I sponged the word repeatedly at different angles.

The lovely Summer Fayre image was stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with detail white powder and coloured in the flowers and Butterfly with the same red Distress Ink. I stamped the Butterfly again and cut out and also one of the flowers, coloured both with the same ink, cut out and decoupaged.

Taking the stem Rose from Machintosh Beauty stamp set I repeat stamped with Black Archival to create a circle and coloured in with sparkle pens. The sentiment is from Amazing Mackintosh Words, stamped with the same black ink and cut out using dies and matted into the centre of the Roses.

The background of this card is Distress Inks and repeat stamped with flowers from Mackintosh Windows and Mackintosh Beauty. A strip of vellum placed across the middle and an image from Mackintosh Windows stamped with Versafine Black and heat embossed with detail clear powder, cut out, coloured with Distress Inks and placed over the vellum.

My final card has the lovely Winter Dawn which I stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with detail silver, cut out with an oval die and went round the edges with a thick silver pen before mounting onto a base stamped with the same ink and powder and Large Crackle Background stamp. A silver bow to finish.

And a very quick 'afterthought' added today 18th..............I know, I'm all over the place after the latest surgery...........as it's time for our mid month inspiration post at Penny Black and More challenge and here is the card I made for that using DI's and an acrylic block to create the background and PB Song Bird and sentiments from PB Special Wishes stamped in black versafine.

Lavender and Lace and Chocolate Baroque CAS

Morning Peeps, a scheduled post as I am back in hospital for another kidney surgery.................or might be out when this pops up on my blog, it was all very last minute hence I have been a tad quiet this week. But it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week I am hosting the theme and have come up with 'Lavender and Lace'. Again we have two prizes on offer, some stamps and Sizzix dies so double the reason to join in.

My starting point for this one was a square of Fabriano dragged through a watery mix of distress inks (smooching seems to be the new 'in' word for this really old technique). When dry I stamped the entire piece with a Penny Black lacy background stamp called Floral Thread using dusky concord DI. A strip of lace, flowers made with Tattered Lace Fleurs system and some Ivy which is also from TL and finally a PB sentiment.

And added rather hastily I'm afraid so no details (always mail me if you want any details), my Chocolate Baroque shares which you will also find over at the DT blog today along with lots of shares from my team mates. All use stamps from the Mackintosh and Seasonal Ladies sets which Lesley showcased on Hochanda last month.

Please do pop over to the challenge blogs to see what my tea mates have made to inspire you and of course I hope you will also enter this weeks Allsorts challenge.

Magical and Mythical

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday so that means it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Ellie is hosting her first challenge since joining the team and has a super theme for us of 'Magical and Mythical'. We have two lovely prizes on offer this week so double the reason to join in.

My card at the top uses all Chocolate Baroque stamps, a sample for the recent Hochanda  TVshows where the focus was Fairies. The background was a bit of an experiment as I wanted to try mixing Oxide inks with gilding polish so I mixed a pale blue polish with vintage photo and broken china oxide inks on a craft sheet, spritzed with water and mica spray, laid a piece of 600gsm Fabriano onto the wet mixture and rather like the muted result.

I then stamped the castle in the background, the fairy to the fore and a few flowers around the edge. Next I bleached the colour from the Fairy and coloured with watered down pale blue gilding polish and also dragged out some colour in the castle. Then randomly stamped some harlequins here and there.........I usually hold background stamps rather than mounting on a block, that way you can bend the stamp to get the pattern more or less where you want it. Finally, a CB sentiment which I cut into pieces to arrange on my card.

My second card uses an assortment of Lavinia stamps, I started by using masking fluid to create a sun and then added Brushos and not too much water as I wanted to keep the colour areas separate. Once dry which only takes moments I rubbed away the masking fluid and stamped the scene, coloured the little houses with pencils and glitter here and there.

Happy weekend all and I hope you will join us over at Allsorts this week.

A touch of Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Good morning, I hope you are all enjoying the Summer weather which seems to be slowly returning to us here in the UK. And as it's 4th July a Happy Independence Day to all our American friends.

Today I am posting over on the Chocolate Baroque Design Team blog, sharing some of my creations made for the June shows on Hochanda when Lesley shared the most beautiful Machintosh inspired stamp sets during the first batch of shows and on the second the lovely Seasonal Ladies, all of which were a joy to work with. You will find all of the stamps I used on the Chocolate Baroque web site.

I won't go into detail how I made my shares as all the instructions are on the DT blog but I am always happy  for you to mail me if you have any questions. The card at the top uses images from Mackintosh Window stamp set. And as I used three offcuts of Fabriano to stamp the images I am popping over to see Miss Di and Parsnip in the Playground, I'm thinking the end of term party must be any day now and wouldn't want to miss out on that one.

For this card I used stamped from the new Amazing Mackintosh Words, Large Crackle Background and Mackintosh Windows again.

Here I used Brushos, the individual roses from Mackintosh Windows, a sentiment from Amazing Mackintosh Words and then the beautiful Spring Awakening.

And for my final share I used the lovely Winter Dawn and the new stencils that coordinate with the Seasonal Ladies.

Many thanks for popping in to have a peek at my makes today.

Summer Poppy Meadow

It's time for our challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Anything with Flowers' and 'One for the Boys'. As always there are wonderful prizes to be won at both.

For my Stamping Sensation creation I have used an image from our sponsor Crafty Individuals CI276 Summer Poppy Meadow. The image is quite small so I repeat stamped it three times and also stamped some of the flowers again so I could decoupage a few. I coloured with Spectrum pencils and used Pan Pastels and a mask for the sky and finally added an Inkylicious sentiment and some birds.

My Penny Black share used a lovely image from them called Hidden Lane, I always think this image lends itself to becoming a coastal scene with the lane going down to the beach. I used distress markers direct to stamp spritzing with water before stamping, then added the background with Pan Pastels and also a little shading in front of the fence again using PP's. Finally I stamped some birds.

My final share is another one for Stamping Sensations using Crafty Inidivudals Spring Summer Garden stamp. I colored a piece of linen with Oxide Inks.............still loving them..........and then stamped the image with versafine and heat embossed with purple powder and coloured some of the flowers and leaves with the same inks. The Dragonflies are also from CI and heat embossed with the same powder. Some sparkly twine and mounted onto a purple base card.

As always we have some super prizes to be won and I do hope you will pop over to the challenge blogs to see the inspiration from my team mates.

A Question of Sport

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday so that means it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week our Kath has chosen the them of 'A Question of Sport'........and I do love that programme. Our sponsor this week is Digistamp Boutique and we also have a second prize of a paper pad.

My card is a tad tenuous to the theme but the Inkylicious set the man in the boat comes from is all about fishing so I recon he is still rowing to the spot where the fish are before he get's out his rod and line !! A pretty quick one to make, a masked sun, Pan Pastels for the shy and water, the bullrushes, focal image, birds and branches all stamped with black archival.

Have a good weekend all and as always my thanks for your visits and kind comments.