Lets celebrate at Allsorts

Morning Peeps, at Allsorts our theme is 'Let's Celebrate' our 700th challenge. As it's quite a landmark we though we should make it a bit of a special week and there are four lovely prizes to be won.

At the top a quick make this week using my current favourite Oxide Saltwater Taffy which goes so well with Cracked Pistachio. I used AALL and Create Patches background stamp repeat stamped with those two colours and spritzed with water to create the background, the flower is from a new'ish set called Elegant Stems stamped into an inked offcut and paper pieced, the circles stamped with elements from Fully Fledged and the sentiment from Textured Florals. The pot is a Two Red Robins die inked up to make it look a bit more weathered.

My card above with a matching insert and envie was for Zachary and Faiths wedding in August using the lovely Lisa Horton die, embossing folder and stencils set. The photo below shows the wedding stationery I made for their special day following their chosen rustic theme. The theme was carried to the tables in the marquee with foliage from the gardens arranged on wood slices from a fallen tree in the top paddock along with flowers in the same colour way.

I also have a recent make which was the release of Highlight Crafts Vintage Botanical Bliss on Create and Craft TV recently. The scrolls, sentiment and feathers are from the same set. The Emily Dickinson poem is a very old wood mounted stamp I bought at the NEC many years ago, I believe from The English Stamp Company but nothing on the wood to confirm. The Sunflowers are also Highlight, Two Red Robins Turning Heads.

We hope to see you all joining us for our special week.

 

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Colours of Autumn

Morning to you all, at Allsorts this week I am your host and in true transparent mode my theme is of course Nature related and is simply 'Colours of Autumn'. There's a gorgeous Acorn Collage stamp from AALL and Create for this weeks lucky winner.

Next Saturday will be our 700th challenge and we are having a bit of of a celebration, please feel free to share our logo to help us spread the word.

For my first DT card I have used AALL and Create Pinecone, Poppy Seedheads, Seasons and Thistle. Oxide added to acetate and 'splodged' onto a piece of card, I find one has far more control over where the ink goes this way. Then some stencilling to bring in more Autumnal shades, the focal elements stamped with Versafine Clair Acorn and soft colouring.

I was at Crafting Live yesterday and it was lovely to chat with Abs from AALL and Create and those on his stand, this weekend is their 6th Birthday and there are shows on Create and Craft all weekend and into Monday with fabulous new products.

A second card and matching envie, again AALL and Create but this time Woodland and Key Botanicals using my favourite triptych die, fairly simple with just oxides and stencilling in the background to let  the images and card shape do the talking.

I do hope you will come and join us this week.

 

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Sam and friends enjoying the Autumn harvest

Morning Peeps, it's time for our mid month inspirational posts at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where we have Autumnal themes and prizes of goodies from AALL and Create and Highlight Crafts.

AALL and Create stamps on the above card with a harvest from the orchard and goodness it's been a bumper crop this year. With the intense heat and lack of rain we didn't anticipate much of a crop but even now in mid October we are still collecting various varieties of apples and pears and the freezers are near to bursting.

Ten days ago we also harvested the Quince, only the one tree but a bumper crop of 56, may not sound many but if you are familiar with the fruit you will know how big they are. The best of them have been laid up for a few weeks to mellow for Quince Jelly, others poached with apples and pears and frozen for winter pies and also a few tagine's, they work well with lamb, not that I eat meat often but there are those in the family who do.

A bit of artistic licence here with Peonies in October but in Autumnal colours. For this one I have used elements from Highlight Crafts Vintage Inc stamp collections Botanical Bliss, Petals and Lace and the brand new Love Letters USB now available on the web. The links go to the collections but all stamp sets are available individually. After lots of inking and distressing I stamped the focal image and heat embossed with details gold EP, stamped again onto some inked card and paper pieced.

I am popping over for hot chocolate (or maybe something stronger) at the Playground with the first card as the sentiment, circles and Sam the Squirrel are all stamped onto snippets.

For the above and card at the top of my post I have used AALL and Create Pheasant, Pinecone and Basic Fruits. Whilst AALL and Create showcase all their new releases on Create and Craft TV and products are available from various retailers, many are unaware that A&C also have their own on line store and the links in my posts where I used their products will take you to there. They offer a quick and efficient delivery service.

I use the little Squirrel from Key Botanicals quite often. They are such clever little creatures and I love watching them, we have lots in the garden and paddocks and they have reared several families of young, all of whom seem to stay around, so I get plenty of photo opportunities....

I was almost nose to nose with this one outside the open kitchen window last week, she (a very recent Mum) seemed totally un-phased with me being so close. And yesterday we spotted the first black baby, we knew we had at least one in our top paddock hedgerow, so are thrilled there were a pair who have bred.  It's estimated there are only about 25,000 in the UK centred in our region of Cambs/Beds/Herts where they have breeding schemes in operation, but they are much shyer and photo opportunities rare.

Here is a rare photo, isn't he Beautiful?

And a few Highlight Crafts Two Red Robin Squirrels and other wildlife in Autumnal settings....

Have a lovely Tuesday and my thanks as always for your visits.

 

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Believe with your heart....

Morning Peeps, at Allsorts this week Pauline has chosen the theme of 'Add a sentiment' and we have a super prize from Oakwood of a set of sentiment stamps and coordinating paper pad.

Above I have incorporated one my new inspirational quotes (cut into strips using a piece of masking tape to stamp each line) from my Believe stamp set being launched along with another new set on Create and Craft TV on 19th. There are a few old favourites but I have re-arranged those into more usable formats and fonts.

The image is an older AALL and Create stamp set called Daisy Elegance onto a Gelli Plate mop up so fairly subtle, the image is pretty large, I guess A5 as it's one of just two on the the A4 set, added some colour with my newish Distress Pencils and also a pink birdie....artistic licence!

My second card uses the October stamp release on Create and Craft called In Safe Hands and Think Big, I just love these hands designed by Tina and made several with them, here's a few more.

Happy weekend all.

 

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Monochromatic

Morning to you all, at Allsorts this week Lolo is our host with the theme of 'A/G with a option of Monochromatic' and a prize of tickets to Crafting Live and also lovely dies, both from Highlight Crafts.

For this weekend only there's free Worldwide shipping at Highlight here, plus an additional  10% discount if you use code BRENDA10 at checkout.

I've gone all green for the one above using an AALL and Create border stamp called Poppy Seedheads, a brayered background using Versafine Clair and stamped the image with the same ink, some added stamped numbers, Birdie and sentiment, again all using the same ink.

I struggled a tad getting a decent photo of my Highlight Crafts sample as despite it all appearing to be shades of purple in real life the photos tells a different story and all sorts of shades seem to be coming through including green glitter which is honestly isn't, so your going to have to trust me on this one. The sentiment is from my Moments inspirational stamp set launching on Create and Craft TV next week.

And before I go, one of this weeks Two Red Robin samples.

Much as I love my stamping, I really do enjoy creating with these dies, I can lost myself as I build up the fantasy scenes.

Thanks so much for your continued visits and words of encouragement, they mean a lot.

 

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There's a real feel of Autumn about

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 would you believe, both following an Autumnal theme, well it is a beautiful season! Prizes are Highlight Crafts and AALL and Create goodies so every reason to join in.

My WLS creation at the top comes in the form of AALL and Create stamps to create an Autumnal Wreath. Sets used are Pinecone, Seasons, Foliage and Wire Birds. The wreath is stamped is various colours of Versafine Clair, the Pinecone stamped, cut out and coated with Glossy Accents, words stamped in the middle and the little birdie added.

My Stamping Sensations creation uses several stamps from Highlight Crafts Vintage Inc Botanical Bliss and Petals and Lace collections. An MDF plaque, acrylic paints and crackle glaze, then some script stamped and embossed with copper EP and sentiment cut into four from my Believe inspirational quote stamp set. And finally a little Birdie from AALL and Create Wire Birds. I am popping over the the Playground with this as I used snippets for the Birdie, sentiment strips and decoupaged Poppy blooms.

One more for WLS using AALL and Create Friendship Florals, I slightly re-arranged the flower to fit in my frame by cutting the top flower and adding it to the side....artistic licence! The flower was cut out and placed over a die cut window which I backed with a very pale green vellum to soften the background stamping and add to the window effect.

I also have a few shares that are a bit overdue using new Two Red Robin dies, most come from the new Hedgerows collection. I hope to have some shares using this weeks new release called Wherever the Wind Blows very soon, it includes the Horse which I have been hoping for so long that Stephanie will create. Don't forget the 10% discount for Highlight on my sidebar.

And a heads up that Stamp Addicts are having a mega in store sale for the whole of October ahead of their move to new premises, so lots of bargains to be had I am told.

Hope to see you all joining in this month.

 

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Garden delights

Saturday morning so that must mean time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Lynn had chosen the theme of 'Gardeners Delight' with the chance to win a lovely Stampendous stamp set from Oakwood Direct plus a stencil

Above we're down in the veg patch with a variety of carrots, think they call them Heritage, sure my Dad would have said what's wrong with the normal orange ones. Anyhows, an Oxide background, the carrot stamp is one of two really large ones on AALL and Create Seeds of Hope, some extra background stamping using Shattered and I just love these two little Rabbits from Miniature's as they seem to be permanent fixtures in most veg gardens.

A second using an image from Ruth Hamilton Design who is one of this weeks sponsors offering three images from her site, Sunflowers, stencilling in the background, washi tape and one of my own sentiments from my Moments set available at Create and Craft and here.

And as I'm an Oakwood DT I had better share a couple using Stampendous stamps for recent Create and Craft TV shows, this one called Treehouse Post onto a mottled Oxide background which was a mop up piece, the second one is House Mouse Painted Pansies and shock horror I had to do a bit of colouring.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

 

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