Perfect Pairs and some family photos

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday and time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week I am your host and my theme is 'Perfect Pairs'. As it was my Birthday a couple of days ago I am giving a prize of a Heartfelt die and matching stamp set - a perfect Pair!!

This lovely Penny Black stamp has become a favourite already and this time I went for the intensity of deep blue and purple. I first masked the edges of the focal card and added Distress Inks to just the top corner and did the same on the envelope using a post it note to mask off the section to add the name and address. On the card I removed the masking tape before stamping the blooms, but left it in place on the envelope when stamping. I also added some scrip onto the card using a really old Hero Arts stamp called Old French Writing, I've had it for years.

And a quick make using an old White and Co., box which was just too nice to throw away, the base was black so I left that as it was then covered the top which was white with some DP and stamped with a Penny Black Poppy, added some ribbon and made a matching tag.

And I thought I would share a few recent photos......................

I love this picture of Anysia taken last week, her baby Clover who's just had her first Birthday seems to be grinning at the camera and Ben's just had a haircut, rather a drastic one for a Section D if you ask me

Poppy sporting her new pink collar after having a trim up, isn't she a pretty girl

 Treat time - at the back left Daisy and her sister Lily and in the front from left Holly, Pixie and Poppy - looks like some weeding's required after all this rain

Alex with Leia doing a spot of bouldering in Fontainebleau on the way back to Chamonix and the Italian Alps where he and Zoe both have races coming up 

And George just chilling on his favourite cushion, at ten he's allowed to do that just as often as he wants

I do hope you will pop over to the challenge blog and see the inspiration on offer from my team mates and also join in this week.

 

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Soft Pastels at Allsorts

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday and time for a new challenge at Allsorts where our host is Helene who would like to see 'Soft Pastels' on our artwork. This weeks lucky winner will receive a lovely Tonic Butterfly die from Craft Stash.

It was the first inking for the above Penny Black Poppy stamp along with a new PB sentiment set. I used a mixture of sparkle pens and Distress Markers to build up the soft colours and stamped the sentiment in grey so that it was less harsh. Matted and layered in coordinating colours onto a black  landscape base card.

This was a Hochanda TV sample for Artisan Designs. I stamped and coloured the image and then cut into four using TL dies and added an extra layer of foam tape to each section to graduate the layers.

Have a good weekend everyone.

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Blooms and Strooms

Morning Peeps, advance warning it's a rather photo heavy post, not only do I have my mid month shares from today's posts over at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More challenges, there is also my artwork from my Chocolate Baroque post here.

So starting with the top card which features the lovely Penny Black Summer Dream along with a Visible Image sentiment, very simply made by masking the edges of a die cut frame and using Distress Markers to ink the blossom branch, spritzing with water for the first stamping and gradually building up with colour with repeat stamping.......all using my invaluable Tonic stamping platform.

Brenda
Using Penny Black 40-330 Pop Pop Poppy, 40-470 Script and 30-229 Special Wishes

The above one was made much the same way but first creating a background with Distress Inks and some script stamping and then layering on Penny Black Pop Pop Poppy and also a PB sentiment.

Here I utilised one of many background pieces...............I tend to have a day making background and masterboard's with various mediums and colours ready for making up into creations. I find doing this is invaluable when there is a rush show on TV as half the work has already been done, plus very often if I am struggling for mojo leafing through the pieces in the draw provide the missing inspiration, either with their colours or the stencilling I may have added.

On this occasion I have used a piece that was randomly brayered with acrylic paints and stamped Penny Blacks Pop Pop Poppy using sparkle pens direct to stamp and again layering up the colour using my stamp platform. A PB sentiment, OB Swirls stamped around the edge in gray and PB Tiny Dragons and a few sequins.

This is a sample again for Hochanda, this time for one of Pete Simpson's Artisan Designs shows. I thought the vivid colours I used on this one were perfect for this month Stamping Sensations theme, I stamped each of the blooms onto pieces of card which I had first sprayed with Pixie Powders, cut them out and arranged over some stamped and coloured leaves from the same stamp release. Finally a sentiment from one of the sets in the show and a few sequins.

Now for my chocolate Baroque shares, I won't go into detail here as I have written up all the information and stamp names over at the Chocolate Baroque blog.

Many thanks for your visit today, it's always much appreciated.

 

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Punky Balloons

Morning Peeps, Saturday morning and our new challenge at Allsorts where our host is Lynne and the theme of 'Travel', time to think of holiday's maybe? Our sponsor is Swedish House Crafts who will be giving a £10 store voucher plus a surprise gift to this weeks lucky winner.

This is a recent Chocolate Baroque sample made for Hochanda TV, Steampunk always rather alarms me as I feel out of my depth with it, but was reasonable happy how this one turned out. The background is Distress Oxides and Gesso, then a mixture of stamps used to build up the card and the Punky Balloons paper pieced.

And today it's a the 15 minute cards post over at the Chocolate Baroque blog and here are my offering............

Have a good weekend all and please do pop over the the challenge blog to see what my team mates have created to inspire you.

 

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Flowers from the garden and Artisan Design

Morning Peeps, well it's rained solidly for what seems like forever and my in house weather man, aka Hubby tells me we've had over 4.75 inches in the last few days. So I thought I would lighten the mood with some photos when I had a wander around the gardens when last it was dry. Also to keep the floral theme going some of my samples using the stamps from Keeley's Garden 1 which Pete of Artisan Design will be showcasing on Hochanda on 21st June.

As with all Pete's previous releases, there are lots of inspirational sentiments

Holly posing.....she does it so well

A Bee collecting it's nectar right inside one of the Digitalis trumpets

Jemima (her mate Puddleduck was sadly 'Foxed' a few weeks ago) and Donald, one of the brood of abandoned baby Mallards we took in from the RSPCA last year

My finished samples

Have a good Tuesday everyone and do remember to make a note of the date Pete will be abck on our screens.

 

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Fairyland

Morning Peeps, Saturday morning and our new challenge at Allsorts where our host is Ellie with the always popular theme of  'Fantasy', time to get out all those Fairy stamps. There is a fun Fairy stamp set from Crafty Devils for this weeks lucky winner.

Above I have used Lavinia stamps, three dancing in the moonlight beside the magical lake with a fourth watching on and casting out her fairy dust.........I know I live in a total fantasy world but I'm happy there so leave me be! Versafine Clair and Oxide inks, trailing ferns and buttercups which have been heat embossed with detail gold EP and some white highlighter added down the stems.

As many know, due to my dodgy eyes and dexterity I rarely enter challenges in order to minimise keyboard/screen time, but I just happened upon the current Lavinia Challenge whilst on my commenting rounds and as I adore their stamps and the current theme is Anything Goes decided to link up the above creation.

I found a little time to have another play with my Groovi system and used the fairy sitting on a toadstool in the centre and two other boards for the frame, flowers and Butterflies around the edges. It's slow going getting used to this style of crafting, mainly because I spend so much time stamping for DT work and the parchment craft gets overlooked. 

Thanks for popping in today, I always appreciate your visits and king words.

 

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Red, Red, Red..............

Before I move on to sharing my various DT makes, I have to include a photo of the boys in Red after our win against Spurs to lift the Champions League Cup last night. It wasn't a particularly pretty game in Madrid but the outcome was what millions of us Liverpool fans have been dreaming of. Well done boys and especially Mr K for his inspiration and belief that his "boys" could reign supreme in Europe.

So back to craft and it's time for our  new challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Show your True Colours' and 'Blossoms, Butterflies and Bugs'. As well as my DT makes, I have created a card for the current Butterfly Challenge, what with one thing and another I have not joined in for ages so thought it was about time I put that right,

My PB&M share at the top uses Penny Black Poppies stamped in a pale coloured Distress Ink so that the outline is not visible and I then coloured in with Koh-I-Noor paint, added a pale wash around the image and a Penny Black sentiment.

More Penny Black for Stamping Sensations along with a Visible Image sentiment, I coloured the flowers with watercolour pencils and stamped the image with Versafine black, I love the aged feel to this stamp.

Another for Stamping Sensations, this time using Visible Image Stay Wild set stamped in Versafine black on a bright Oxide ink background plus some stencilled circles using gesso, the black elements down the side are stamps from Honey Doo.

And to complete my post another Penny Black one, this time using another of the new release flowers and Butterflies with matching dies, an Oxide background, texture paste and stencilling and a PB sentiment.

So, now for my Butterfly Challenge share, the requirements this time are Gatefold, Gingham, Gold, Gun Metal, Granny Smith, Gems and of course a Butterfly. I must admit Valery-Anne has set us quite a task this time but once I got my head round all those elements I think I have managed to incorporate them all.

I used a piece of grey card (aka Gun Metal) to create the Gatefold base, some Granny Smith Gingham on the two front sections onto which I stamped various Lavinia stamps and added some Gold glitter. For the inside I used Oxides for a background and stamped a large Butterfly and heat embossed with detail Gold  EP. I added a couple more punched Butterflies cut from the gingham and popped a Gem in the thorax of both, just realised they are not visible on the photo but promise they are there.

I hope you will pop over to the challenge blogs and check out the creation from my team mates.

 

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