Christmas Wishes

As we draw close to Christmas I want to take the opportunity to thank you all for your friendship and support during 2021. It's been another difficult year for the whole World but I like to think our crafting community helps provide a bond of normality amid all the uncertainty.

Here in the Fens we had a very hard hoar frost overnight and everywhere looks beautiful so rather than share a card with you I went out early and took some photos, many of the shrubs and flowers are nearing the end of their current growing cycle, but Spring will offer renewed growth thanks to the wonders of Nature.

Finally I thought I would share a photo of the Christmas wreath I made a few weeks ago for the front door, using a collection of plants and shrubs gleaned from the garden, some  of which I had dried in the Autumn in readiness. It did turn out rather larger than I planned but I am pretty happy with the result.

Sending Christmas Blessings and the hope that 2022 brings a brighter future for everyone right across the World.

 

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Icy cool together

Morning Peeps, this weeks Allsorts challenge with run for two weeks to take us over the Christmas holiday period, Lorraine is our host with the theme of 'Anything Winter'. Ruth Hamilton Design is offering one winner three images from her store and there is also a rather pretty Tonic wreath builder die set.

Today is also mid month inspiration day at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations as well as some shares for this weeks Craft Store TV shows for Oakwood Archer so it's a bit of a photo heavy post. I would normally day grab a coffee, but as it's almost Christmas maybe something a bit stronger 🍾

My top card is for eldest Grandson and partner, he's loved Penguin's since he was little so when I saw this new release from AALL and Create it was a must have. All the Penguins were stamped and cut out, a little colouring to bring them to life then arranged onto a background with liberal helpings of snow glitter.

Moving onto my Stamping Sensations share which uses several Fairy Hugs stamps, for those of you new to the company they are available from Julia here in the UK and in the States here. An Oxide background, Olivia sitting on a toadstool keeping an eye on her Fairy House......maybe she is expecting visitors? And I love the Fairy sentiment, after all, don't we all have Fairies at the end of the garden, I know I do!

Also a couple of my shares for the Oakwood Archer two day special on Hochanda/The Craft Store on Sunday 19th and Monday 20th, there's also a further 'Saver' show on 21st. It's fair to say I've been kept pretty busy the last week or so as packages land on the doorstep with increasing regularity and always contain a wonderful collection of goodies.

Another for Allsorts using Ruth's Snowdrops which I coated with masking fluid after printing to enable me to add the wash of green watercolour around it. The snowdrops left uncoloured apart from the leaves and some crystal glitter added to the flowers. Some subtle background stamping and stencilling, washi tape and a little birdie a la Tracy Evans.

Last but by no means least my WLS share which is semi CAS I think, using an old wood mounted Penny Black Poppy stamp masked out to add ink and then the blooms left uncoloured.

Have a lovely weekend and wonderful Christmas, my thanks for your support during 2021 which has been a difficult year Worldwide and most importantly stay safe.

 

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Wings and Tails and the promised Fairies

Morning Peeps, another challenge starting today at  Allsorts  where Ellie has the theme of 'Wings and/or Tails and we have two prizes of Woodware stamps, a fun Owl and a sweet Fairy. 

I did promise more Fairies in my last post and today they have flown in 🧚‍♀️ On the card above I have managed to include both wings and tails using a collection of Lavinia stamps onto an Oxide background, some stencilled hills and liberal helpings of glitter to give a frosty feel. Also an envelope to match.

A collection of tags, this time using Fairy Hugs stamps, on the left Solara and Viola on the right along with various worker stamps, some if which featured at Hochanda/The Craft store yesterday in Julia's shows. All stamps are available in the UK from Julia here and in the States direct from the company here. And below I have used Zelena, Fairy Branches, Cherry Blossoms and again some worker stamps.

Happy weekend all and as always my thanks for you visits and kind words of encouragement.

 

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Blooms a Bunny and trip to Venizia

Morning Peeps, it's the first Sunday of the month which means the start of our new challenges at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where our themes are 'Anything Goes with a CAS option' and 'Choose the theme and stamp it'. Stix2 have kindly donated prizes to both.  And as it's 5th I also have my share for this months River of Creativity challenge where our theme is 'Celebrate'.

My card at the top which is my WLS share using an AALL and Create stamp which like lots of theirs are biggies, this set is an A4 one with just two beautiful images. An Oxide background, the image stamped, the colour bleached out from the bottles, the three flowers stamped a second time onto some card coloured with Oxide spray Kitsch Flamingo and paper pieced. The number is from another set stamped onto an offcut  to carry the colour and a sentiment from yet another set and some stencilled spots and dots.

I don't really know if this qualifies for CAS but it is by my usual inky standards. It's another from AALL and Create, I just loved this Bunny and had to have it, there is also a Fox in the set similarly surrounded by flowers. I stamped the image, coloured in with pencils and added a few splats with watered down DI around it.

I also have a little pillow box which is one of my samples for Friday's Stampendous shows for Oakwood Archer on Hochanda/The Craft Store. Stamped with Stampendous stamps in Versafine Clair,  coloured with sparkle pens, some ribbon and a tag using one of the birdies and sentiment in the set.

Moving on to our Celebrations theme at River of Creativity, I decided to buck the current seasonal trend and head off to Venice to the annual Carnival which takes place in February, it really is a wonderful spectacular. The challenge is taking a break but keep your eyes open for our return.

A Carnival mask from Hobbycraft, painted with metallic paint then really just lots of playing with beads and gems, ribbon and feathers.

Below is another of my samples for the Craft Store shows which I am thinking just might fit into the CAS category. The image from Stampendous Daisy Bee set stamped onto acetate coloured with Alcohol Inks including some metallics which are also in the shows.

I do hope you will find time in the busy December schedule to join us this month and look forward to visiting all your entries.

 

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A Merry Christmas wreath

Morning Peeps another week on and another Allsorts challenge where Lynn would like us to include a die on our work. The prize very fittingly is a die from Tattered Lace and also a second prize of three images from Ruth Hamilton Design. 

My share at the top uses Fairy Hugs stamps, I must thank Julia Watts for the invitation to design for the American company and these are my first shares, some Christmas tags which will be tucked into challenge prizes this weekend and also a Christmas wreath. Fairy Hugs stamps are available from Julia in the UK here and in the States direct from the company here.

Although Fairy Hugs makes lots of Fairy and Fantasy stamps my first two are seasonal makes, the Fairies will be along in due course 🧚‍♀️ The wreath was stamped with a mixture of Versafine Clair inks, a matching envie and a Tattered Lace die cut sentiment.

I have used Ruth Sunflowers again, this time placing them focally in an arrangement of die cut square frames, a little stencilling and some more of the blooms coloured, cut out and added to the corner of the frame. 

And below the tags I referred to earlier, they were stamped on die cut tags sprayed with Oxides and some stencilled stars.

I do hope you will join us this week. Many thanks for your visits today and keep warm, it's perishing here in the Fens.

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A frosty Winters day

Morning Peeps at Allsorts I am your host yet again and it's a simple theme of 'Use a hand stamped or digital image', it's the final theme Kath had chosen before she died in August. Our prize this week is two pretty Bee Crafty border stamps and a second prize from Ruth Hamilton Design of three images of the winners choice. I also have a few of of my samples for todays Oakwood Archer shows at 11am on The Craft Store.

Two cards, the first using Lavinia stamps creating a Winter scene with the Hares, Toadstools with Tree of Hope and Tree of Courage plus some branches and berries. Looking at that moon it looks like a chilly Winters day for those little fellows, not dissimilar to what can be seen from the kitchen window in the the top paddock the last few days. And a matching evenie, I must thank Hilary for getting me into doing this, the cards I have received from her always have the insert and envelope to match and it's encouraged me to do the same.

This one using Ruth's beautiful Sunflowers which I reduced in size and duplicated to crate a border, coloured with pencils and arranged on a die cue panel and coordinating ribbon. Finished with a sentiment from my own set Believe in your Dreams.

My Oakwood shares,

Scarily no stamping other than the sentiment which is from my own Believe in your Dream stamp set. The flowers were made up from Full Bloom dies set cut from a Gelli Plate sheet from which I also drew and cut out a vase, then used jewellery wire twisted to make the stems. And the one below a Christmas wreath built up with the Star stamp set using various blue Versafine Clair colours, Star Edger dies and some chunky glitter accents.

Have a good weekend and as always, thanks so much for your visits.

 

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A dogs tale.......

Morning Peeps, over at River of Creativity it's inspiration time again and I have some shares which I hope might offer some encouragement for you to join in. Zoe has been working hard to get the new challenge out there and we would love to see you this month, the theme is 'The Gift', so please do pop over and take a look.

I have a candle and some bookmarks which have a little story behind them, as it's so dark these days I usually take my work into the conservatory to photograph. Having laid them on a sofa to take the photos I left them whilst I went to my office to download and make sure they were OK. Returned to collect them only to find two ripped to shreds and one very guilty looking eight month Lab old puppy named Rosa. We had a chat and I think she got the message 🦮 !!

As always, my appreciation for your visits and words of encouragement.

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One for the Girls at Allsorts

Morning Peeps, time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week I am your host with the theme of 'One for the Girls'. We have two prizes on offer, a Woodware stamp and a Tattered Lace die, both with a feminine feel.

A quick question, has anyone else found on the Blogger dashboard that the 'load more' option is not working to allow you to look back at any posts you may have missed? For example, this morning I can't see back beyond my Allsorts teamies posts at 8am, yet I know there will be more before which I can't access.

First up a tall DL card, starting place a Gelli Plate panel from the 'background drawer'.......like lots of us I have a splurge of total messiness every now and then, I find it good to have the starting place that I can 'tart up' when I get to stamping. This one was aqua shades of acrylics and gold metallic pain.

The lovely Hellebore is from AALL and Create called Gem of a Plant, stamped with Versfaine Black and heat embossed with detail clear EP which I usually do on acrylic backgrounds as inks can take some time to dry on acrylic and I'm not a huge fan of Stayzon other than for acetate, although the smell is addictive. A couple of die cut hexagons, a Penny Black sentiment and an index clip to finish which I 'splodged' with the same gold paint and a matching envie.

Another with a stamped enive and another Gelli Plate background this time using some corrugated to create the patterns. The Daisy image is huge but so pretty, I stamped the whole stamp onto the background then the Daisy a second time on to card sprayed with Distress Mica Stains, unfortunately you will have be believe me that the shimmer is beautiful. The sentiment is a line from within the main image stamped a second time onto white card and cut into pieces as is my habit. Finally a little Blackbird down the bottom because I thought he was cute, but that's as close to cute as I get.

Happy weekend everyone and thanks as always for your kind support and words of encouragement. 

 

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Robin in the ring

Morning Peeps, it's mid way inspiration time at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where both challenges are super busy with Christmas creations and why not as there are some super prizes to be won at both.

Two cards from me on a similar theme of seasonal wreaths as I slowly work my way into the style of AALL and Create stamps. Change, even when we we don't look for it can be good and much to my surprise it's opened up some exciting new avenues. Thankfully some can look beyond visual impairment and the associated inability to do Facebook.

This second one is all Lavinia stamps, a Gelli Plate background and stamping using Versafine Clair Chianti, you can't beat a good bodied Italian!!

 

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Foxy on the prowl and a Winter Butterfly

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday so a new challenge at Allsorts where Wendy is thinking all about Christmas. Our prize is a collection of seasonal ribbons and glitter and three images from Ruth Hamilton Design.  

To create this one I used several Lavinia worker stamps to create a partial wreath, stamped Lavinia Trees and Fox into the wreath, a masked sun, trees and shading and a Christmas sentiment which I think just might be from Inkylicious. I also made an envelope to match.

My second card is very much hot off the press as Ruth only finished this image yesterday so my card is a bit of a rushed one but I wanted to be able to show you her beautiful Winter Butterfly. On the Allsorts challenge blog I have also added the photos of Ruth's creation which inspired the image.

Have a good weekend and may thanks as always for popping in to take a peek.

 

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