Magical World's

Morning Peeps, it's a bit of a sad day in our household today, it should have been Anysia and Sam's wedding day and the sun is shining!! Over a year of planning and suddenly COVID-19 reared it's ugly head and everything went out of the window.

As yet no new date has been set as most of the service providers, venue, caterer, florist etc., who had already been paid and not about to refund are already booked for next year by those arranging weddings before all this kicked off. There were one or two winter dates when everyone was available at the same time, but the whole wedding theme, dresses etc., was arranged around Anysia's favourite flowers Peonies which have a short season right now. So at the moment we are looking towards 2022 and that seems such a long, long way off and I pray my failing eyesight will hang in there long enough for me to see it all.

Onto our new challenge at Allsorts, our host this week is Tracy Mouse and would like us to create some 'Magical World's'. This weeks winner will receive a Lavinia stamp which was another of those I repeat ordered without checking what I already had but will have to go to the winner at some later point, not that I've been out but told that not only has our local Post Office been closed since March, the village post box has now been taped up with a message nearest one is........basically miles away.

Both of my cards feature Lavinia stamps, oxides and acrylic pains in the backgrounds, generally an inky messy playtime! The above Fairy is the one our Allsorts winner will receive.

I also have a post over on the Chocolate Baroque blog today and sharing those as well.

Have a sunny weekend everyone.

 

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Bold and bright

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday and time for a new challenge at Allsorts, our host this week is Mervi who is asking us to create something with 'Spots, Stripes and Plaids'.

I decided it was time to give this new A4 Aall and Create stencil called 'Totally Dotty' an outing as it's been floating around my desk for weeks and it inspired me to have a little play. I inked the stencil with Distress Oxides, spritzed with water and placed over a piece of card and rubbed gently to release the colour. Once dried I placed the stencil back in place and sprayed yellow Dylusions, then stamped with Penny Black stamps using Versafine Clair.

Stay safe and well everyone and if you have sunshine, then enjoy.

 

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Running late with DT posts

Morning Peeps, a quick post as I should have posted my mind month shares for Penny Black and More and Stamping Sensations yesterday. I had scheduled the posts for the challenge blogs but was sure in my head the 18th was Tuesday so I could do it early this morning, it's this permanent Groundhog Day scenario and I just don't know what day of the week it is.

Likewise I had a post over on the Chocolate Baroque DT blog so had better share those cards as well.

My thanks for your visit and words of encouragement, they are always appreciated.

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I got inky at long last!!

Good morning, I hope everyone is safe and well. We are mid way through our current challenge at Allsorts with out Anything Goes theme so I thought I would share another creation with you as............yeah.........I got inky this week!! So for the first time in absolute weeks I have a brand new make, not to everyones taste but it made me happy.

All the stamps are Chocolate Baroque which have featured on recent Hochanda shows, I love the ability to just stamp them randomly and still come out with something that is pleasing to the eye - well my eye anyhow. The Butterfly was stamped onto acetate and as you can see I just used half of it raising it with some gel. Background Distress Oxides, Versafine Clair for the sentiment and circles and Stayzon for the Butterfly.

And a few more photos from my garden wanderings.............

An early self set Digitalis growing in totally the wrong place as they do

Viburnum Opulus Roseum and two yellow posers

Red Hawthorn Pauls Scarlet tree

Ceanothus Concha standard tree

Jasmin Fragrant Evergreen Viburnum

Have a sunny and safe weekend everyone.

 

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The Lady of Shalott and afternoon tea

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday and time for a new challenge at Allsorts.

We had been planning a special fortnight with lots of prizes to celebrate our 11th Birthday. However, given the current Global situation we really feel that isn't appropriate plus posting several prizes off at the moment is not practically possible. So we are saving the prizes for now and hope to do something special later in the year when the World situation improves. It will still be a two week challenge as that was planned into our schedule and the theme will be simply 'Anything Goes'.

I love poetry and Tennyson has been a favourite since school days and especially The Lady of Shallot which was one of my O Level pieces........yes I go back that far!! I have a couple of old poetry books sourced from a charity shop so I often used pages to stamp onto as I have done here. I used some DI's to tone down the page then stamped the Penny Black Poppies using Distress Markers direct to stamp and framed onto the base card.

And a second one, again made back in February when I had some new Lavinia stamps used here along with Distress Oxides. I think these along with some Two Jays stamps are the last crafty things I bought and the latter remain in their packing and long overdue for their first inking.

And as it was such a beautiful day yesterday and Sainsbury's delivered............and there was flour, two whole bags of it............I got baking and we had an impromptu afternoon tea across the courtyard and garden, Hubby, Alex and I one side, Joy, Azaria and Jordan the other side.

I do hope that despite us deciding it wasn't appropriate to offer all the Birthday prizes at the moment, that you will still join in just for fun..........there will be a Top 10 this time and there may even be a few 'special mentions' of entries that pop out at us.

 

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Out in the paddocks

It's time for for our new challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Say it with Flowers' and 'Boys and Men'. As always there are wonderful prizes to be won at both.

Again my shares are ones made some time ago and before my Mojo went into it's own self isolation, I don't think I have ever gone so long without creating a card, it must be seven weeks now and I am beginning to wonder if I ever will again. Even when I lost my parents so close together and struggled, I still found a way back to my craft desk, but this time it really is a no go area so I am more than a little grateful that I had DT work scheduled for a few months ahead.

When I made this one I think it was way back in January, I enjoyed creating the scene using a whole host of Penny Black stamps, some including Foxy go back to the very early days of PB. Not a great deal to add really, Distress inks and Versafine Clair for the stamping and DI's used to create the ground and sky.

As our prize from Chocolate Baroque includes one of the lovely 'Blueprint' Stamp sets I had to use one for my DT share, of all the recent releases and there have been some beauties, I think this release is my favourite. I spritzed Dylusions in pink and grey and dabbed a goos amount of the colour away to keep the finish soft. Used some of the worker stamps, stamped, coloured and cut out the Cala Lilies and placed in a twin circle. Three chipboard circles stamped with more of the worker stamps and some stencilling.

And a few more photo's, yesterday we are in the gardens in my Allsorts post, today we are out in the paddocks with Nature, beautiful Whitethorn flowers (aka May), Cowslips, Horse Chestnut and even Kexi (Cow Parsley). Many would say just hedges and weeds, but to me it's a source of beauty, peace and tranquility, has been as far back as I can remember when I wandered the farm with my Dad. During the last few weeks when I've been unable to settle at anything, this is invariably where I slope off to with my girls and camera.

    

Two of my companions, Poppy and Holly, you can see the full compliment a couple of posts down. 

           

I hope unlike me your crafting Mojo is in good form and you will join in with our challenges this month.

                                                    

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Butterflies

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday and time for a new challenge at Allsorts, our host this week is Helene with the theme of 'Butterflies'. This weeks winner will receive a £15 store voucher from WOWVOW.

I'm doing my proud Mum bit here, many of you know that one of our son's Alex is a semi professional athlete and travels Europe competing in races, mostly marathons. Well this week the British Athletics website lists him as being the No 1 UK marathon athlete for his category. As he said, it might not be a long term placement as competition is always high, but given there are currently no races taking place he is likely to hang on to that ranking for a while.

Both of my cards using the same stamp were samples for a Chocolate Baroque a Hochanda show earlier in the year.....yep, more oldies as still nothing new on the craft front. And both follow pretty much the same process, Oxide backgrounds, stencilling the top one using texture paste and the Butterfly Film Strip stamped in Versafine Clair. I also stamped the Butterflies a second time  to decoupage, on vellum for the top card and onto inked offcuts for the second.

I actually added this one as a second card yesterday as I wanted to support the Butterfly Challenge which I've not joined in for some time and looking through my folders thought this one would fit using some of the requisite colours which all begin with the letter 'X', Xanadu Grey/green, Xiketic Black, Xanthic Yellow, 'X'tra colours and of course the Butterflies.

And a few photos from the gardens, in my monthly challenges post tomorrow we will venture into the paddocks!!

Hope you are all keeping well and safe.

 

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