All about Pets

Morning Peeps, it's my turn to be your host at Allsorts this week and I would like you to join me in celebrating National Pet Awareness Month and RSPCA week, a charity very close to my heart. It's also National Veterinary day this coming week as well. So my theme is 'All about Pets'.......any animal you would find in peoples homes.

Animal have always played a huge part of my life.........you will find some of ours on the 'family friends' page at the top of my blog, we have dogs, cats, horses, chickens and ducks........and I have to admit some days when it's tough going I prefer spending time with them rather than people. Their love is unconditional and they always seem to sense when we need that extra bit of love, that might sound crazy to those who don't have pets, but I am sure those of you who do will be able to identify with exactly what I am saying.

For some years I have donated cards to our local RSPCA charity shop as well as my other charity of choice the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket and naturally I have found some Animal related prizes which you can find over at the challenge blog.

Obviously I had to incorporate both horses and dogs in my DT pieces this week and the top card is one I made for the lovely Bev at Bee Crafty using some of their recent stamps, the tree, horses and birds. I started with a Distress Ink background and then added the images after which I used a piece of torn paper to ground the horses and tree. I used Distress Markers and a spritz of water on the tree and pulled out the colour with a damp brush and stamped the horses and birds with Versafine Toffee. And of course I had to sponge in a few sunrays.

There is a right mixture of stamps on this one, Stampscapes, Art Impressions, Sutter and I think the girl and dog are Clarity. I stamped all the images first and then built up the colour with Pan Pastels and Distress Inks, plus a sun mask, bleached out some colour from the cows - well they are Fresian's  so they had to be black and white and dragged out some colour on the cottage.

And a card for the current Rudolph Days challenge over at Mo's, not entered for a couple of months due to all the kidney faff and my enforced absent from blogland so didn't want to miss it again. I had this one already made and as it has the black Lab on it I figure it fits in with my Pets post rather well. Penny Black stamps repeat stamped to extend the scene, also a PB sentiment, Pan Pastels, some glitter and of course a masked sun.

My team mates have lots of pet inspiration to share and I really hope you will pop over to the challenge blog and take a look and of course join in this weeks challenge.

Serenity

Morning Peeps, today it's my turn again over at the Chocolate Baroque blog, I won't go into all the details as you can find everything over there about the stamps used and how I created each one.

As always, my thanks for popping in today.

Pretty Pearls

Morning Peeps, this weeks Allsorts theme is hosted by Helene who would like us to use 'Pearls' on our work. Our sponsor is Marianne Designs.

Pleased to report that my CT scan date has come thought, it's not for three weeks but at least before our holiday which was in doubt after the events of the last few weeks, but two doctors said they saw no reason why not and would send me off with extra meds 'just in case'..........excess baggage coming on I fear.

Mrs A suggested this will fit the current Butterfly Challenge, I think I've only got the Butterfly and colours but as I've not entered for some time am linking up.

A very simple card from me this week using one of my favourite Penny Black Brushstroke stamps which I inked with Distress Markers, spritzed with water and stamped onto a piece of Bristol Vellum Cardstock. A little bit of blue shading around the image, some ribbon and pearls and finito, these cards really are so quick and easy to create as the wonderful artwork of the stamp does all the work.

Happy weekend all and please do pop over to the challenge blog and see all the inspiration my teame mates have to offer.

Himalayan Poppies

Morning Peeps, a really quick post with my mid month shares for Penny Black and More challenge, still rather slow going on the recovery and energy levels zilch, so please forgive for the lack of detail.

The above card uses 'Spontaneous Joy' which I can say with total assurance is my new favourite PB stamp, I absolutely love it and the fact it is Poppies is a sheer coincidence!

This one used a real oldie called 'Twirls', love the classic black and white with yellow.

I also have rather belatedly a few of my CAS cards which featured on the Chocolate Baroque blog a couple of days ago.

Have a good Wednesday all, if you are in the UK then maybe we will see the promised sunshine, oh what a change that will make from all this rain and cloud. It's so wet here still that the horses have not been able to go out for over a week as the paddocks are saturated.

Spring Flowers and Showers

Morning Peeps, this weeks Allsorts theme is hosted by Ellie and she is totally in Spring mode with the theme 'Spring Flowers or Showers'. We have two lovely Woodware stamps as prizes this week, a pretty Spring Lilac and some sentiments.

I'm home from my NHS trip, a bit battered an bruised and needing a few days rest then in a couple of weeks another CT scan..........but they warned they have a huuuuge backlog so I think they were bracing me for a longer wait........the consultant couldn't tell me for sure if the blockage is fully cleared as he said the ultrasound in theater isn't accurate enough hence the need for the scan.

My top card is my 'showers' and to create it I used Distress Inks to create the background, stamped the Inkylicious image and used a stencil and ink to ground her the stampes the raindrops which are also Inkylicious, bleached out the centres and added highlights with a white pen and glossy accents. The sentiment is from the same set.

And here are my Spring flowers in the form of Violets which are a quite old Stampendous stamp, stamped in back versafine and colored in with sparkle pens.............yes I do like a bit of sparkle and as a pretty hopeless colourist find these Spectrum ones really easy to use. The sentiment is Penny Black.

There is lots of inspiration to be had from my teamies over at the challenge blog.

Eastern promise

Today's it's my turn again to post over at the Chocolate Baroque blog with artwork featuring the Easter stamps featured on Lesleys recent Hochanda shows.

I have used several stamps including Serenity, Wisteria Lane, Artistic Affirmations, Indian Textiles  and you will find all the details and how I created each piece can be found over at the blog link above. 

I got real grief from eldest daughter about this one, she's a senior ethics tutor and told me in no uncertain terms that I got the colours all wrong, it has to be oranges or nothing, telling her it's artistic licence fell on deaf ears.

As always I appreciate all your visits and kind words and hope that after this weeks hospital procedures I will soon be feeling well enough to start visiting you all again.

Back to the 60's ?

Morning Peeps, this weeks Allsorts theme is hosted by Kath is 'Be there or be Square'. Our sponsor this week is Tattered Lace.

As always my thanks for all your kind messages and mails about my health, I can report that I am going into hospital this coming week where they hope to resolve the blockage which they feel confident is the culprit for my failing kidney function. Once that's done I need to wait two weeks to have another CT scan done, I have a feeling that two weeks is going to seem like an age but not a lot I can do about that.........the consultant told me that even if I was a private patient it would still be the same process! And they tell me that once they can get my kidneys functioning more efficiently I will start to feel a lot better, oh I do hope so!!

Now onto this weeks challenge and those of us bold enough to admit we were a 'child of the 60's' will know just what the tile of Kath's theme means.

This is not a new make, it's a sample I did for Create and Craft before I decided to leave the Rare Earth (TL) DT, the floral stamp is actually a border stamp but I used to to create a square by masking the central area and stamping around, then removed the square mask, used a black pen to draw in the lines and then coloured the flowers with sparkle pens, did a bit of inking and matted onto a black base card. Finally a TL die cut quote in the centre.

Happy weekend all. 

Lilacs and ladies

It's time for our  new challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'One for the Girls' and 'Black and White plus one'. As always there are wonderful prizes to be won at both. 

The inspiration for my first SS creation came from something I found on Pinterest. I created three panels using just the top section of an oval die to give the arched shape. Each panel has been stamped with a selection of stamps from Penny Black (Italy) New York (Art Impressions) and a stencil for Paris, I must be slipping as I don't seem to have a Parisian stamp. The middle lady is from a really old Hero Arts set and the other two equally old and wood mounted which give no indication of the make.

I coloured the outer two with pencils and paper pieced the middle one as she is a silhouette image, added some soft stenciling around the top of each section, computer generated the labels and ties all three sections together with seam binding.

Two Penny Black shares both using stamps from the new Sweet Spring collection which is available in the UK from Crafts U Love.  Penny Blacks brushstroke stamps have always been my favourite range so I was really torn when it came to selecting which ones to buy as there are some real beauties in the new releases, but decisions had to be made and here are two of those I went for.

The one above is called Blossom Branch. I started by masking the edges of a piece of Bristol Vellum card and used stencils with Wilted Violet and Black Soot DI's to build up the background, along with a really old polka dot PB stamp. Then stamped the focal image inking direct to stamp with the same colour Distress Markers and spritzed with water before stamping. Next I removed the masking tape and added the sentiment which is also from one of the new sets available and a few gems.

This one is called simply 'Lilacs' and there is a bit of artistic licence going on as I've not seen a lilac this colour, but having made it without really navigating my head I decided to use it as I rather liked the contrast of colours. It was created in exactly the same way as the above card although I didn't mask the edges. Finally I added a few black sequins.

And a late make as a second SS piece using Lavinia stamps to create a scene, the background is Distress inks and the sentiment Stamp Addicts.

I hope you all have a lovely Easter weekend.