Tag it and a Butterfly

Morning Peeps, wow has it been warm again this week, apparently here in East Anglia we are having some of the highest temperatures and the few days it's been 32/34 deg. Not that I'm complaining as far rather that than cold and wet, but I've decided there is a fundamental flaw with craft TV when they want us crafters making Christmas cards in this weather.

It's time for our new Allsorts challenge and it's a two week challenge again to cover the holiday period, we will be back to normal again at the end of August. Susan has chosen the theme of  'Tags', it can be an actual tag or tags on a card. We have a super prize on offer from a new sponsor Lost Coast Designs who make some fabulous stamps. And........anyone entering this fortnights challenge at Allsorts can use the following code to receive a 15% discount: Allsorts15. I would also like to enter this into their current challenge of  Nobody There here.

I also managed to find time to create a card specifically for the current Butterfly Challenge, I usually find myself rummaging through my image folders to see what might fit, so it was nice to take the elements from the Butterfly Wheel and just create.

The base of my tag is Greyboard which I coated with gesso, acrylic pain, crackle glaze and the a final coat of acrylic paint. Next I built up the colour with DI's and Dylusions, stamped the Penny Black blooms and coloured with the same Dylusions, stamped some script randomly holding the stamp rather than using it on a block and finally some stenciled dots, black sequins and seam binding.

And here is my Butterfly Challenge creation and I think I have got all of the elements which this time round are: Old Rose, Orange, Oval, Olive, Over the edge, One Layer and of course a Butterfly but as I'm writing this feeling rather pleased I've managed all the elments it's ocurred to me that my over the edge shrink plastic Butterly (which has the olive element) just might mean I messed up on the one layer element as it's not really flat. Anyhow, using an oval mask I used DI in orange and a dusky pink to ink the oval, I then removed the mask and stamped the sentiment which is from Stamp Addicts and used that as a base to ground my Lavinina Fairy. Next I replaced the mask and added more Lavinia stamps around the edges of the oval and finally add a shrink plastic Butterfly, wire antenna and fixed it slightly over the edge of the card.

Happy weekend all and please do pop over to the challenge blog to see what my teamies have made to inspire you.

 

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In the secret garden

Hello everyone, just sharing my post today over at the Chocolate Baroque blog. 

The top card was inspired by our own Secret Garden within our grounds, we created it many years ago and although it has seen changes over the years still hosts an abundance of Cottage Garden flowers and shrubs and recently moved into the twenty first century with the addition of a hot tub. The beautiful flowers on the new Blossom and Grow stamp set are to my mind Hollyhocks which I stamped onto a soft Distress Ink background after first stamping a window from Echoes of Italy Using a stencil I added some brickwork with texture paste which I coloured with acylic paint to soften the whiteness and added a sentiment from the same stamp set.

As most know I don't enter challenges other than the Snippets and Butterfly ones, mainly because my eyes struggle with all the linking, but as I've been invited by blogging buggy Gail I am going to enter the above piece into the current theme of 'Nodoby There' at Lost Coast Designs.

For this one I used black gloss cardstock for the base panels and stamped the images from Captivating Cacti and Scrumptious Succulents using Versamark and brushing over with gold mic powders, leaving to settle for a few moments before brushing off, the assembling the panels along with a bow.

And one from a few months ago that I found lurking unused in my folder. The stamped sets used are Medici Flower in the centre and to the sides Floral Delight and Wish Flower, all were stamped onto Distress Oxide backgrounds, the images bleached out and the glittered.......unfortunately this doesn't show up very well at all in the photo.

There's a new challenge today over at the Snippets Playground so I tought I would get ahead of the game and enter now as chances are I will forget as the week takes over, we still have one of our son's and DIL staying ahead of leaving for their year travelling so crafting time is limited.

This is one of several cards I made for John and Rosie of Limetree Crafts, they are regulars at many of the craft shows selling good quality and value cardstock, card blanks and so on, all the basics we need. Recetly Rosie has launched her own range of stamps and I made some samples for her show boards and new web site. The web site is very new and sells many of the products available at the shows, so do pop over and take a look.

Have a good Sunday all.

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Happy, happy wishes

Morning Peeps, this is going to be a really quick post with my mid month inspirations cards for Stamping Sensantions and Penny Black and More and also my 15 minute Chcocolate Baroque shares from the post over on the DT blog a couple of days ago. Sorry I am so late with them but have quite a lot going on at home right now plus a rendezvous with the NHS later today and time is rather getting the better of me.

And here are my Chocolate Baroque shares.

Have a good Wednesday all.

 

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Flowers all over

Morning Peeps, time for our new Allsorts challenge and this one is a bit different as it's a two week challenge. It's always a few busy weeks during the holiday season so we decided it it would make sense to have two week challenges until the end of August to give both the DT and all you lovely entrants a bit more time to enjoy the holidays.

Mervi has chosen the theme which is 'Flowers all Over' and our sponsor is Swedish House Crafts. My teame mates have made some lovelt floral inspiration so do pop over to the challenge blog and take a peek. I have also had a rummage thriugh my unused work folder and come up with one that I think will fit into the current Butterfly Challenge.

I used one my my current favourite Penny Black Poppy stamps called Spontaneous Joy. I used Distress Markers to inky the stamp and repear stamped it around a piece of Fabriano. I then cut the piece into four using TL pin dot dies and before assembling stamped a PB sentiment into the midde section. To get depth I increased the layers of foam tape with each layer, added a few sequins and matter onto coordinationg card.

Here is my entry for the Butterfly challenge and I think it incorporates five of the elemements, Wisteria, Wine (naturally), Wheat, Wire and of course the Butterflies, I don't own any washi tape so that one is missing as is the window. The stamps are all Chocolate Baroque stamped onto a panel which I first masked, added some DI's then used Distres Markers direct to stamp to add the flowers and removed the side masks so that the flowers extended slightly out of the frame. Two CB Butterflies stamped and cut out, wire antenna and a Penny Black sentiment.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you over at Allsorts.

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Many of you will already have heard the extremely sad news that Tracy my friend and challenge team mate, lost her eldest son Scott on Friday. I am writing this post with Tracy's permission as I do not do Facebook and therefore using my blog to pass on the information in the paragraph below.

Those who do use Facebook may already know that one of Scott's friend Liam, has started a Just Giving page here to help his family meet some of the funeral costs. They are costs no parent expects to be faced with and something few would be prepared for so if you can give even £5 it would be greatly appreciated in helping Liam reach and hopefully exceed the target to help his friends family.

When I spoke with Tracy last evening she asked me to extend her thanks to those who have sent sympathy cards which are of great comfort to her John, Jodie and Bobby.

 

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Glorious Poppies

Good morning Peeps, just sharing my post from over at Chocolate Baroque featuring a few of my samples from Lesley's June shows on Hochanda which featured some beautiful floral and succulent stamps. It occurred to me as I was scheduling the post that today would have been my maternal Grandmothers Birthday, she loved her cottage garden so my cards seem a very fitting tribute to her.

For my top card I repeat stamped what I have decided is a Poppy from Scrumptious Succulents around the borders of my my base layer and coloured in with pens. Next an oval aperture at an angle which I edged with a pearl string and stamped a sentiment from Loving Sentiments to fit in the frame on an offcut of Fabriano, always keep the tiny bits as they are useful behind apetures. I'm popping over to the Snippets Playground with this one, only two weeks till schools out for the summer holidays.

Here I have a bookmark, the base piece is 600gsm Fabriano which takes water really well without warping so perfect for purpose. After adding Distress Oxides, I stamped the lovely flower which I think looks rather like a Hollyhock from Blossom and Grow.............although there's a bit of atistic licence with the colours..........and coloured in with pens, then stamped part of one of the Cacti from Scrumptious Succulents around the edge using Versamark and heat embossed with details gold.

I have always liked the shape of the boxes and cards using this die set so I decided on another offering using the new stamps, the flowers on the top are from Captivating Cacti, stamped several time, coloured and cut out to build. I then used a mixture of stamps from the three sets mentioned above, colouring all with sparkle pens adding some stenciling and sentiments from the same sets.

My final card today has a background using Distress Inks blended with a little glycerine which seems to give a lovely soft finish, a sponged sun and the blooms from  Blossom and Grow stamped in versfaine black and left un-coloured as I felt there was enough drama in the strong background colours.

My thanks as always for popping in today and I hope I have offered some inspiration to those of you who already have the stamps and if you don't, then I hope you will want to pop over to the shop and treat yourself.

 

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In my Garden and thank you to my teamies

Morning Peeps, this week I am you host at Allsorts and I've chose a real comfort zone theme of  'In my Garden' and there is a lovely Chocolate Baroque stamp to be won.

And before anyone say's a word, yes we have the same theme over at Stamping Sensations, but believe me I only realised when I wrote this post. We plan themes months in advance, this works well as many of the girls like to work ahead and I count myself very fortunate that all the girls are so conscientious and I have never once needed to hunt down work at the last minute. I probably don't say this enough, but thank you all for making organising them a delight.

So of course I had to use a CB stamps and both cards are samples I made for recent Hochanda TV shows. The one at the top features my all time favourite CB sentiment from the Words if Inspiration stamp set along with Floral Harmony which is the same stamp as the prize on offer. 

My second creation is another aperture card........you will soon be fed up seeing these, I stamped Hanging Flowers and coloured in with sparkle pens, added a pale wash of DI's and added a little stencilling using Useful Leaves. 

I then measured out the size of aperture and stamped Baroque Corners on opposite sides, coloured and cut around one side and then used a die to cut the aperture placing it behind the two cut out sections so they remain part of the frame. Using Kaleidoscope of Butterflies I addd some soft stencilling about the frame before assembling and adding some flowers.

Happy weekend all.

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Dace, Sing Love and afternoon tea at The Dorchester

It's time for our  new challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'In my Garden' and 'Things with Wings'. As always there are wonderful prizes to be won at both. I am also popping over to the Snippets Playground with the one below, the sentiment and Dragonflies are stamped onto a offcuts of Fabriano.

So it's Poppies for my first PB&M share, stamped onto a piece of Fabriano then carefully cutting round some of the Poppies I placed a die behind the cut sections so that I could cut the aperture with the blooms popping in front. Coloured in with sparkle pens and my all time favourite sentiment Dance, Sing Love stamped in black, foam pads added to the back of the front section and mounted over the sentiment. PB Polka Wings stamped twice, cut out, coloured and added to the finished card.

Yes, I do like an aperture and this one has been made in the same way as the top card, but this time using Crafty Individual's stamps who are our Stamping Sensation sponsor this month. I coloured in with a mixture of DI's and sparkle pens and added a few Dragonflies.

I have to confess that I am not overly fond of this card, it's one of the new PB stamps I bought from the Spring releases which I loved on the picture but once it was stamped out the appeal disappeared........it's not often I say that about a PB stamp. I used a watery DI mix to colour the background, stamped the image and coloured in with DI's, stamped the sentiment, it all looked a bit bland so I added some stenciled leaves.

Now on to afternoon tea at The Dorchester, the famous London hotel, no I didn't get to go 😦😢, but Anysia (left) and Azaria (right) above did! Alex and Zoe took them for a rather splendid treat for their Birthdays which are on the same date as each other.

Naturally, in true family tradition there had to be bubbles along with a Birthday cake complete with candle for each of them. It's rather scary to think that Azaria who is 21 starts her teaching career in September when she will be teaching English to 11 - 18 year old's and tiny as she is doesn't seem in the least phased by the prospect.

And Anysia has just taken a big leap with her boyfriend, they moved into their very first house a couple of weeks ago, along with a hefty mortgage which seems par for the course nowadays if they are to jump onto the property ladder.

And as for Alex and Zoe, well at the end of this month they are off to Europe along with their two dogs for a year or so. They have a fabulous new purpose built motor home and will be following their dream partaking in races across the continent. Normally they fly out to venues specifically for races, but now they will be driving following the race calendar, Alex runs 10K's and marathons and Zoe does ultra marathons which they got into when they were at Uni, which is where they met. We will so miss them and it's going to seem very quiet at times but if you have a dream you have to follow it otherwise you may always regret it as you get older.

Back to our new challenges and I hope you will pop over to the challenge blogs and see all the inspiration on offer from my team mates.

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