New sandals in Rhodes plus a glass or two in Mykonos

Good morning Peeps, still on scheduled posts and today we are in Rhodes in the Greek Isles before sailing overnight to Mykonos, we have fond memories of Rhodes and will be visiting Yan for new sandals...................he made some for us last visit and they have lasted forever.  So we are looking forward to another visit there and it's always nice to wander the streets in Mykanos with a coffee or two.........or even something stronger along the way as they produce some really decent wines.

It's my turn to share some more inspiration on the Chocolate Baroque DT blog using stamps which Lesley showcased on Hochanda recently. The shows were all about Autumn, Trees and Poppies so ticked all the right boxes for me as I love working with Autumnal colours and as those who know me can confirm Poppies are my favourite flower plus I am a self confessed 'Treeaholic'.

For the card at the top I used three panels of cardstock and stamped two with images from the Autumn Edges set colouring with DI's and on the the third panel used the same inks to add the words using the Seasonal Journey stencil.

The lovely Poppy from Pretty Poppies is the focal image on this card, stamped with Versafine Black onto a watery Burosho background, I mopped quite a lot of the colour away as I wanted a subtle finish and then coloured the flowers with sparkly pens, stamping the Butterfly a second time to decoupage. The corners are from Baroque Corners stamped in the same black and then I added a few leaves using Useful Leaves stencil and ties some red ribbon and added a Poppy button.

The same stencil as the top card has been used along with DI's to create the background for this card and the for the focal panel I created a Brusho background and stamped one of the tree from Fantasy Woodland adding a few stenciled leaves using the Seasonal Elements stencil.......I can't begin to tell you how useful these stencils are for building up interest and colour on your artwork.

This is another sample from last weeks shows on Hochanda, this time using one of the images from Butterfly Poppy Collage stamp set, it's an A4 stamp sheet and you get absolutely loads of beautiful images. The background is Distress Oxides, stamped with Versafine black and the colour added to the Poppy heads using the same Wilted Violet ink and Glossy Accents added, plus a little stamping down the left edge, again using the same ink and stamps from Nature's Peace and the same set as the main image.

I am tentatively adding this one as Lesley asked if she could use it as the basis of one of her demos, however I will be away on holiday when the shows are aired and this post goes live so it may or may not have featured. Using a circle as a mask I stamped a selection of flora and fauna from Nature's Table, Nature's Peace and Poppy Meadow, inking with Distress Markers direct to stamp and a spritz of water before each stamping. The horse chestnuts in the corners were stamped with DI and are also from Natures Table. After stamping I removed the mask and used the negative to stamp the focal sentiment, again from Poppy Meadow and added some shading around the circle.

And as I seem to have quite a number of pieces in my gallery which have not been blogged as yet I thought I would share a few of them in this and my following few posts.

A triptych design which was for the August shows featuring the beautiful Harlequin Bouquet stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with detail copper powder on to a Oxide ink background and some stenciling to carry the harlequin design.

This one features the lovely Summer Fayre stamped onto black cardstock using Versamark and detail white embossing powder, then coloured into metallic pencils, the colour is quite subtle but I rather like the soft finish.

Have a lovely day, I am hoping mine will be warm and sunny.