In the Garden

Morning Peeps, Saturday again and this weeks Allsorts theme as selected by Lorraine is 'In the Garden'. Our winners will receive some Card-io stamps from First Stop Stationers.

I've not been the best blogger this week, have a few new health issues going on and spent much of the week at hospital and not felt much like sitting at the computer (most know I can't see well enough for commenting on phone or tablet). I will get to you all just as soon as I feel up to it again. Luckily the bulk of this post was scheduled in advance.

Above a sample using one the new Vintage Inc., stamp sets by Stephanie Weightman, this is the very first release which has four floral sets and four lace ones, they are all really good sized images with several in each set which coordinate beautifully. The Daisy is called Bellis (Bellisima - Beautiful) onto an inky Oxide background, another piece of hubbys mesh from the greenhouse, one of my own sentiment stamps and Sidney the Squirrel (see further down for my own garden variety).

For my second DT share I'm in the vegetable garden (probably with a bunny or two) using AALL and Create Seeds of Hope. Each time I get this stamp set out I think of my Dad and what a perfect image it would have been for a Birthday card for him. He farmed all his life and was an avid gardener growing sufficient vegetables to feed the village.......in fact up until only a few years ago when he was too poorly to garden anymore it was quite normal to see carrier bags lined along our front hedge full of produce for neighbours to help themselves.  I rather suspect the honesty of that process would be abused in many places but it worked in our small village.

I digress, an Oxide splodgy background using acetate, the focal image stamped and a little colour added, some random stamping with worker stamps to carry the colour of the carrots  and a little spotlight tied with raffia, something my Dad always had in abundance.

As we are in the garden it seems appropriate to share a few photos, the beautiful Clematis Amandii which is absolutely glorious this year growing right over a fence and across one of the seats and the scent is divine. And popping through the top a Magnolia flower which is planted the other side.

And a couple of 'Sam the Squibble' (so named by youngest Granddaughter) tucking into his feed, he goes in fits and spurts, some days he is fanatical and completely empties it burying in numerous places, I often wonder if he remembers where. Other days he comes for his fill and goes to sleep it off.

Enjoy the weekend.

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Dance, sing love

Morning Peeps, Saturday again and this weeks Allsorts theme as selected by Mervi is 'Feminine'. Our prizes of Gemini dies and digital images come from Craft Stash and Ruth Hamilton Design. And further down a few of this weeks Two Red Robin creations.

Above I have used AALL and Create Blooming Field and coordinating die, stamped, coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils and cut then placed onto a background with a few splatters and my all time favourite Penny Black sentiment Dance, Sing, Love.

My second share used Ruth's  Primula printed, coloured, cut out and Glossy Accents added to the flowers placed onto a background with watery Twisted Citron Oxide and some randon scrip stamping.

Above Phoenix the Fox in a scene built up with various images/dies from Cottonwood Clearing (all also available individually). This is totally different crafting to what I normally do, I've always been a stamper and love it and with a penchant for scene building and dimension, often stamping flowers and elements a second time to decoupage. So the Two Red Robin range plays right into my hands.

Moving onto these two, we all know I don't do cute, but when these little chaps from the Just in Case range landed on my desk I had to have a play. 

A note regarding the discount code BRENDA10, one or two told me they had issues using it on the website, seems there was a glitch in the system but it's sorted and working OK now.

Have a good weekend, thanks for your visits and hope to see you at Allsorts this week.

  

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Essence of Nature

Morning Peeps, it's mid month inspiration time at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations challenges where we've seen a lovely array of Spring creations. As always there are some great prizes on offer which you will can when you pop over the the challenge blogs.

Above AALL and Create Violet in a hexagonal frame, as I mentioned to a fellow DT the other day, these are TL ones from my days as a DT there are probably ten years old, but remain a well used favourite. A matching envie and the little Blackbird tucked it the top, what I particularly love is that there are two in the set looking in opposite directions.

The Violet makes another appearance along with the Dandelion on the triptych created with Sizzix Bigz Cabinet card die, a soft stencilled background and another appearance for the little Blackbird. I've also added extra elements using various A&C worker stamps.

Thought I would also share a few of my samples for tomorrows Oakwood Create and Craft show at 11am lots of new stamp sets and dies along with other goodies with a definite Spring feel.  Above Daisies in blues and yellows in support of Ukraine. 

Here a scene using the new Sunshine and Flower stamp set and below using one of the new layering stencils with sparkle glitter paste.

Hope you all have a good Friday, if you are in the UK and getting some of the much awaited sunshine then enjoy.

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No access, Spring Bunnies at play

Morning Peeps, Saturday again and this weeks Allsorts theme as selected by yours truly and transparent as always my theme had to be associated with Nature so it's Spring, simple as that. Our winner will receive an A5 AALL and Create stamp set courtesy of Stamper Grove.

As well as all the new growth and beautiful Spring flowers, there are two other things in particular which say Spring to me going right back to childhood, the first is Violets which grew in abundance under the hedges around the farm and second baby bunnies. When I moved to our current house many years ago, I transplanted some of those Violets and they still thrive in the garden today. As for the Bunnies, well we have an abundance of them in the paddocks and quite often, much to hubby's annoyance in the vegetable garden as well.

So today's post has some of both. Above a lolly stick plaque (made with jumbo lolly sticks) painted with Dylusions, some clouds with Pan Pastels then the scene built up using dies from Two Red Robins, A Fluffle, Crookedy Fence, gate from Summer Breeze and Ivy from End of the Lane (all available as individual dies as well as part of collections) along with the coordinatind reflection sheets. These are such a clever system. The sign is also a free reflection download.

If you are tempted by any of the products available on the web site you can get a 10% discount by using Brenda10 as your code.

My favourite tri fold die base yet again with AALL and Create Violet stamp set, stamped and coloured in three different colours onto an oxide and stencilled background. Wordage from various A&C sets.

Thought I would also share a couple more TRR makes which were showcased during the week, the floral flower box proved very popular. Funny story here, I saw something along these lines on Pinterest so spend ages creating the flower box with my score board, only to be told by my friend Pinky that she recently bought a die set which creates something very similar.

The array of Spring Flowers come from New Beginnings but as with almost all dies, available individually and sentiment from my own Believe n your Dreams.

Poppies called Scarlet Petal, Ditsy, Toadstool, Summer Spokes, and Penny and Gus, not really sure which of the two this one is, I like to think it's Gus as the other is shy so probably Penny!!

I do hope you will join in at Allsorts this week and look forward to seeing what you create. Meanwhile have a good weekend and thanks for popping in today.

 

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Glorious Spring

Morning Peeps, it's the first Sunday of the month which means the start of our new challenges at Stamping Sensations and We Love Stamping where our themes are both about 'Spring'. The main prize at SS is a mixed media bundle from Oakwood Archer and at the other stamp sets from Rare Earth. 

A couple more AALL and Create makes, I will be sharing some using the new releases in the next week or so, yesterday I was using them along with the Gelli Plate in demos at The Craft Warehouse, my first in over two years, in fact my first real venture into the outside world since the start of the Pandemic. Apart from essential medical visits and the odd dive into a shop, I've relied totally on home deliveries and Amazon Prime.

Above uses In The Wild and this Bunny has to be one of my favourite A&C images. Using acetate I added just a small amount of Oxide Twisted Citron and Squeezed Lemonade to give soft colour without overpowering. The main image with the Bunny was stamped and coloured in and the flowers stamped again and decoupaged to add extra interest and dimension. Some background stamping and wordage using a variety of A&C images.

The A&C Violets have been combined with a mixture of Penny Black flowers and Wordsworth sentiment all old wood mounted's, Bunnies are Lavinia, all stamped onto oxide backgrounds and my favourite tri fold die which I extended to five panels.

Before I go, a heads up that there are new Stampendous stamps and other goodies on Create and Craft on Tuesday 8th, I can't confirm exact times of shows as it still seems to be a moving target following the merger. Above I used Stampendous Floral Flutter stamped onto  black card and again onto acetate using one of their new Sunflower Sparkle EP's.

A simple stencilled Poppy using DI's, the stencil placed over again and inked with Versamark and detail clear EP. It's doesn't really show in the photo but it creates a nice sheen over the inks.

And will confess it only just occurred to me that I should have posted the card I sent to Marianne in Crete as my exchange in the last Card Chain Challenge. It's been a few weeks where because if health issues and a hospital stay I've not really got my head round craft timelines, c'est la vie.

I do hope you will find time to join in the challenges this month.

 

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Solidarity

Morning Peeps, Saturday again and this weeks Allsorts theme as selected by Pauline, it's 'Anything Goes with the option to Distress It'. This weeks lucky winner will receive a £15 store voucher kindle donated by Stamp Addicts and a second prize of a pretty die. 

It's also the start of our new look challenge at River of Creativity where our theme is 'Anything Goes with a Square option'. There are also a couple more Two Red Robins shares further down.

So I have several shares today, the above a last minute make I felt compelled to create in support of all Ukrainian's. Their symbolic colours representing blue sky, golden wheat and Freedom, such irony against all that is happening. I have used a Daffodil as I don't have a Sunflower suitable for what I had in mind and with a bit of artistic licence the little birdie is a Nightingale, their National Bird. Words cannot express what the majority of the World are united in feeling.

 

For my River of Creativity DT share I went square with a set of coasters, treated to gesso, acrylic paint, crackle glaze and then stamped with images from A&C Pinecone and Just Grow. Coloured in and sealed over the top. March sees the launch of the challenge in it's new format where the focus is on layouts, mixed media pages, tags, altered art, needlework, jewellery, recycling, cookery, basically anything but a card.

Having been a SA DT's for more years thank I care to remember my share below is one I created for a Create and Craft show. I used their '3 Poppies' onto an inky Oxide background created, a number of SA worker stamps including Distressed Numbers and Bubble Grunge and some washi tape , the words are computer generated, part of a poem by English Poet Mary Spain called Poppy Fields.

Below a Two Red Robin matching card and envie using a medium sized pot from Chipped, a Frosty reflection as opposed to the full coloured Reflection sheet, inside Reminisc (Clover) and Soft Sprigs from Cottonwood Clearing along with  Penny and Gus the Mice. The sentiment is from my own Believe in your Dream stamp set, I have 'tweaked' this particular set for re-release shortly. I distressed the edges of the base paper and sprinkled aged gold Frantage.

Here's another inspired by the Robins in the garden busying themselves with nest building, I used Far from the Tree for the wreath, rather than use the reflections I cut from white cardstock and sprayed with a mixture of Oxide inks, tucked in a few flower heads from Hedgerow Blossom along with nest and Robins First Sight of Spring. For the background......because it's obviously a sunny Spring morning, I used Lemon Zest Oxide and added sun rays using sparkle stencil paste. Don't forget if I've tempted you to buy any Two Red Robins products can get a 10% discount using the code Brenda10 at checkout on the website here.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

 

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