More than just a bow plus more Chocolate Baroque

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday so that means it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Wendy would like us to get inventive with our ribbons following the theme of 'More than just a bow' Our sponsor is Fantastic Ribbons and the prize is four seasons of ribbons which amounts to an awful lot of them.

I also have some more Chocolate Baroque shares, it's not intentional posting a day late (as I did with my PB cards last week), I did remember to schedule the post over at the CB DT blog but not on my own blog................I really do need to get my act together don't I !

So the card above is a samples made for a recent Tattered Lace Rare Earth stamps show on Create and Craft TV, this one using the Sweet Pea stamped onto a Oxide ink background, over stamped with just the outline stamp and then the both parts of the stamp focally. I cut one side of the piece using my Zutter and added ribbons then stamped the sentiment which is also Rare Earth.

This one uses a Stamp Addicts sentiment, it's a large one and makes a card on it's own and I just used various ribbons to loop beneath the sentiment panel. And I would like to enter this into the current Rudolph Days challenge, I have not entered for a couple of months. I started with all good intentions but then health issues kicked in and I didn't get any further than doing the essentials craft wise.

Now my CB shares using the lovely new stamps Lesley launched on Hochanda a few weeks ago.

I won't go into detail and you will find everything over at the DT blog, link above. The background is what I mopped up from my craft sheet after making another card and the stamps are Take It Or Leaf It, Chequered Flowers and Words to Dazzle and Sparkle.

My canvas is a mixture of senciling using Useful Leaves and Seasonal Elements and elements cut from one of the pages from the Colouring Collection and sentiment onto scraps of card using Amazing Mackintosh Words. Lots of bits and pieces so an hopping over to see Miss Di and Parsnip at the Snippets Playground, been missing from there for a few weeks as well.

My thanks for popping in today and I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Forest Friends and Penny Black mid month inspiration

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday so that means it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Tracy Mouse has chosen the theme of 'Forest Friends'. Our sponsor is Tattered Lace and the prizes are sooooooo sweet.

I also have my Penny Black and More mid month inspiration, a day late I'm afraid as I forgot to schedule and yesterday I was 'negotiating' with the consultant about these two ops. I thought we had an agreement on the way forward until he rang me again..............what's all this new hands on business with consultants ringing patients in the evening ? So at the moment not much further forward, he wants to plough on although admitted it could wait until after our holiday. And having re-scheduled from July because of all this faff I really don't want to cancel a second booking and lose our money because of course the insurance won't cover us as it's a pre existing condition.

OK moan over and onto my creations and my card at the top was a fun one to make using a mixture of Sutter, Inkylicious, Crafty Individuals, Creative Expressions and Art Impressions, eleven stamps in total to make a countryside scene. I started by stamping the trees and fence into position, bleaching out some clouds then adding the background with distress inks, then adding the Fox's which I coloured with DI's, Sheep highlighted with white gel pen and finally the greenery and birds.

My second card uses Chocolate Baroque stamps onto a background of Pan Pastels, using an oval stencil to create the focal element and then stamping the scene with the mask still in place.

My first Penny Black share has a Distress Oxide background then a stencil and DI's the add the window. The PB Soft Wings Butterfly was stamped with the same wilted violet oxide ink and heat embossed with detail clear powder then colour added with twisted citron oxide ink. I used PB Twirls to stamp around the edge and PB Iris die to add the flowers. The sentiment is from a new PB set called Happy Wishes................and I am pretty convinced that somewhere in my stash there is an old sentiment set from them with the same name.

Finally another little scene using Pan Pastels and stamps from PB Natures Friends set and Birds on a wire, an oldish wood mounted stamp that I find so useful in scene making.

CAS cards with Chocolate Baroque

Good morning Poops, today we have a post over at the Chocolate Baroque Team blog here sharing more of our CAS creations showcasing ways to use the beautiful range of Chocolate Baroque stamps to make quick and easy cards in just 15 minutes.

The one at the top has a simple background using Distress inks applied direct to an acrylic block which has grid line, spritzed with water and used just like a stamp onto the base card and then stamped in black versafine using the lovely Chequered Flowers and a sentiment is also CB.

Stamped onto Kraft card using Floral Harmony and leaves from Take it of Leaf it ..................isn't that such a fun name...........all stamped using versamark an d detail white embossing powder.

There was a set of two beautiful corner stamps in the release called Baroque Corner, here I used the larger one and stamped four times using versafine red and a simple gem in the centre.

This is the smaller of the corners, stamped back to back four times using two colours of adirondack ink.

Thanks for popping in today and have a god Tuesday.

Butterfly blossoms

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday so that means it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Susan would like us to add a name or number to our work. Our sponsor is Marianne Designs.

This was a card I made for the Mother of one of our DIL's, she had a bad fall back in May and broke her hip, recovery has been slow and has been in hospital for some time so I thought this might cheer her a little.  I started by computer generating her name and sentiments onto a sheet of linen cardstock, first measuring the spacing to allow me to cut a square aperture in the centre using a TL die.

The focal image is PB Magnolia Rhapsody, it's one of the new releases from earlier this year and I absolutely adore it and have used it many times. I used Distress Markers to ink the stamps and spritzed with water before repeat stamping. Some soft stenciling in the background and a Chocolate Baroque Butterfly.

Happy weekend all.

Just Happy Birthday

Good morning, today I am over at the Chocolate Baroque blog sharing a couple of creations from my makes for the recent Hochanda release of the lovely new floral stamps and colouring kit.

For this card I used a diluted mix of Distress Ink to wash a piece of white cardstockock and then used the beautiful Floral Harmony stamp which I repeat stamped using Versamark and detail white embossing powder. After coloring the flowers with sparkle pens I used Distress Ink and a stencil to add some flourishes to the top corner, next I took three square dies but before cutting I used them as a guide to place the stamped sentiment which is from Words to Dazzle and Sparkle. I then cut the piece into three and layered up onto a piece of black card using foam pads and made each layer slightly higher as I worked towards the centre.

And here is a colouring page from me from the Colouring Collection which has the most adorable designs. It's a well known fact to those who know me that I am not a colourist but I have to say I really did enjoy doing this one for which I used colouring pencils and blending solution. When finished I added a some tiny dots using Liquid Pearls.

My thanks to you all for taking a peek today and if you were lucky enough to grab yourself some of the new stamps and pages I know you will be having fun creating with them.

From Paris to the Countryside

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

My starting point for my Stamping Sensations piece above was to create a Parisian background with Pan Pastels and stencils followed by stamping around the frame with Penny Black Magnolia Rhapsody, inking the stamp with Distress Markers and leaves from PB Natures Gifts. I stamped the lady image twice and paper pieced her coat and hat and placed her onto the scene, I did ground her with some darker PP but that doesn't seem to show up too well on my photo and she appears to be floating !

For this card I used the lovely new tree stamp from Penny Black called Stately, stamping once using second generation and then again to the fore using the first inking. Next I stamped the Deer and Rabbits from PB Natures Friends using black archival and added the background using DI's. A few leaves and foliage and finito.

And one final really quick and simple card, ideal if you have forgetten a Birthday, I repeat stamps the Butterflies stamp using two colours of DI's, stamped the sentiment onto a panel and added some flowers around the edge, matted and layered and done ! All three stamps are from Swedish House Crafts. I am popping over to the Snippets Playground with this one........if I dare show my face that is as I've been a truant for a few weeks so ready for detention from Miss Di.

I hope you can find time to join in our challenges this month and also pop over to the challenge blogs to see the inspiration on offer from my team mates, you won't be disappointed.

Fly your flag

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday which means it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Mervi would like to see the 'Colour of your Flag'. Our sponsor is Digistamp Boutique.

Before telling you about my cards I want to extend a big thank you for all your kind comments and mails about my health, the latest is that I've had another CT scan followed by the dreaded phone call on Tuesday and an appointment the next day when I was told I need another kidney surgery, well in fact it will be two three weeks apart. 

They were keen to do it later this month but I think that is mainly motivated by the fact the consultant is leaving the hospital shortly. So I asked to be referred back to my original Urologist who had said he feels we can take our re-scheduled holiday late September (the July one had to be cancelled because of my last surgery) and the surgeries will take place when we return. Such a long drawn out process and it's seriously messing with my craft and blogging, but at least you can understand my absence of late.

I was totally stumped as to what I could make for this weeks theme as red, white and blue is not a colour palette I am very fond of, then I had a light bulb moment which said stick with what you know and of course flowers is what came to mind. So I inked the lovely Penny Black Lustrous image with Distress Markers and spritzed with water before stamping onto a piece of Fabriano. I lightly inked around the image with a pale blue DI and added some pattern with a stencil. Cut a frame with a TL die, stamped a PB sentiment and raised it over the image with foam pads and matted onto some dark blue paper and there the colours of the Union Jack.

And as red comes into the equation on our British flag there had to be Poppies as well so I have another pretty simple card colouring the Poppies from DigistampBoutique Sketchy Flowers with sparkle pens and decoupaging the flowers. I added some laves using a stencil and DI's, a bow and matted and layered using TL pin dot dies.

My teams mates have some lovely inspiration to share so please do pop over to the challenge blog.