April showers

Good morning and before I move on I would like to thank you for your kind messages this week. All went well although my neck does look like someone's tried to strangle me! Before I went to theatre the consultant asked if I minded one of her juniors assisting, in the interest of education I agreed, in hindsight not sure that was a wise move! Im hoping to feel like a bit of crafting over the weekend, sitting in the garden would be nice but doesn't look as though the weather will oblige.

Now for this weeks challenge at Allsorts where Dena is expecting some Spring showers, her theme is 'A/G with the option of Rain'. Prizes this month come from Oakwood, Highlight Crafts, AALL and Create and Craft Stash.

I've gone a tad off piste with a Butterfly image but there's a hint of showers in the sentiment and raindrops beneath it. The Butterfly is one of three large stamps on an A4 AALL and Create set, Through the Meadows onto a masked and inked panel on Kraft. Stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with detail white EP, the Butterfly stamped a second time onto Vellum, cut out and coloured on the reverse with Distress pencils and fixed over some twine. The words from Power of the Word yet again, I'm sure you'r all getting fed up with me mentioning this set but it really is soooooo useful.

There are a few snippets here, the sentiment strips and a piece of vellum for the Butterfly, I should do that more often with Butterflies as have so many vellum offcuts, so I am off the the Snippets Playground with this one.

I just had to share this with you, I has some beautiful flowers on Mothering Sunday, a meal plus this very special bouquet of cupcakes from eldest Granddaughter, she made three of these for her own Mum, MIL and lucky me. Messy me managed to get icing on the wrapping when taking the photo though.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

 

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Perfect Pastels

Morning Peeps, Saturday so a new challenge at Allsorts where I am your host with the theme of 'A/G with the option of Perfect Pastels', it's a subtle take on Spring without being too obvious! Prizes this month come from Oakwood, Highlight Crafts, AALL and Create and Craft Stash.

It's also mid month time at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where our themes of Anything stamped have the options of Spring is in the Air and Wings and Tails, lovely prizes as always so do pop over to the challenge blogs to check them out.

Above my first Allsorts share, the Daffodil from AALL and Creates Elegant Spring Florals A4 stamp set. A frame created by masking the edges to apply the ink and stencilling. Stamped the focal image, coloured and the bloom stamped a second time and decoupaged. The Word Spring from Seasons, the two little Hares from Miniatures and a ripped piece of Washi Tape to ground the Daffodils.

Those little Hares make a second appearance, this time along with the new releases which did eventually arrive....fourteen days late. I have used Flower Journey and Elemental Notes stamped onto a background created with a 6x4 piece of acetate inked and spritzed, but instead of dabbing onto the card in the usual way, I laid the whole piece onto the card and left a few minutes to allow the wet inks to seep into the card, quite like the random finish. A couple of words from Power of the Word, numbers from Grunge Alphabet and the word Spring form the set listed above.

I'm well behind on samples with these new stamps due to a combination of Evri losing them  for a fortnight and crafty time a bit restricted of late. I'm going into hospital again this coming week so been on a few NHS jollies in preparation, MRI, bloods, health review and so forth ahead of a further spine procedure, this time the upper spine/cervical area. I don't plan being out of action too long but you never can tell, so if I'm slow visiting you'll know why!!

Now my mid month shares, above a simple card using Penny Black Tulip 4384K and 51-200 coordinating die, the stamp inked in my usual way with Distress Markers and spritzed with water before stamping, some inky splatters and simply framed with a mixture of dies.

Finally, a part wreath with a Mouse ....my SS tail.....using AALL and Create Fallen Leaves and Cute Mouse, various colours of Versafine Clair, some stencilling and washi tape.

 

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A trio of.....

Good morning and welcome to my post for this weeks new challenge at Allsorts where Lorraine would like to see 'A Trio', so basically three of something on your entries. Prizes this month come from Oakwood, Highlight Crafts, AALL and Create and Craft Stash.

In an ideal World I would be showcasing some samples of this weeks AALL and Create new releases on Create and Craft. My plan was to use a couple for my Allsorts shares, but Evri had other ideas, as of this morning the stamps are still "in the dispatch hub" but that's were they've been for ages so I'm rather thinking that means lost. So instead I've used some previous releases. 

First above a double trio, one of Flowers and the other Hares in form form of AALL and Create Blousey Blooms and Long Eared Mammal which recently featured and quickly sold out at Create and Craft TV. Starting with a brayered Oxide background followed by stencilling using the negative elements (inking the stencil, spritzing with water and laying onto the background.....you need to give it a good rub with a piece of kitchen roll to achieve a decent transfer. The protractor shape image stamped with Versafine Acorn and a little more ink sponged to add definition, two Hares stamped and cut out to tuck behind the three flowers and the silhouette Hare stamped in the same ink down the bottom, Finally words and numbers from Power of the Word.

A second share that was sitting in my folder and seemed to fit the theme rather well so thought I would share. Have to admit I love the contrasts of colour on this one using Peacock Feathers and Ripe Persimmon oxides. A masked and inked central panel with a soft stencilled pattern, then three flowers from AALL and Create Textures Florals stamped onto an inked offcut inked with Ripe Persimmon. The circle element is from the same set, again stamped onto an offcut and cut out, but this time coloured with a matching Distress Pencil. The little birdies are from Friendship Florals and another quote from the Power of the Word.

Finally a couple of recent TRR samples, above using the new In Spirit and Spring Awakening dies which I would like to enter into the current Flower Challenge which would like to see dies or stencils along with flowers.

This one again uses elements from Spring Awakening along with Small World from the Wherever the Wind Blows collection released this week and Touched by the Rain. The base card is construction acetate with an aperture cut in the centre.

Have a good weekend.

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Live each moment and dance in the rain

Morning everyone, the first Sunday of March means it's time for our new challenges at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where our themes are 'Spring is in the Air' and 'Wings and Tails'.  Prizes this month come from AALL and Create and Penny Black.

I have two shares for both challenges and first at the top for WLS, vibrant purple Crocus's using AALL and Create Crocus, this set also has the Viola in it so perfect for Spring cards. A soft brayered Oxide background, some stencilling using my fav A&C stencil Digits Chequered, the words Spring from Seasons stamped a few times, the little birdie from Blackbird and of course words from Power of the Word, what else! 

I am popping over to the Snippets Playground with this one as the flowers, birdie and words are all stamped onto inky snippets. Adding another as Gail just suggested I pop over to the Spring has Sprung theme at Lost Coast.

Above my first SS share following the Wings part of the theme using the wonderful Eagle from AALL and Create Fully Fledged stamped, coloured and cut out to place over an inky Oxide background which I stamped with another of the images from the same set along with Shattering, it's a small A7 stamp but so useful. And an envie to match. I thought I would enter this for the new Country View Crafts challenge where the theme is a Birthday card for a Man.

My second SS share, this times using the 'tails' element and the gorgeous faithful Lab from A&C Canine Dream, available from Create and Craft but will be on AALL and Create website very soon. I masked a circle and splattered some watered down Oxides, then  stamped elements from Fully Fledged. The dog was stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with details copper EP, this just might be a crafty friends Lab called Marvin? I finished with a couple of appropriate words from Power of the Word. Asa I think this would work for a masculine card it's also going over to Country View Crafts.

My final share for WLS was made ages ago but un-blogged hiding in my photo folders so I thought it would work using the Penny Black Magnolia blossoms....artistic licence with colours. Repeat stamped using watercolour pens direct to stamp and spritzed with water and a sentiment from Inkylicious and hexagonal dies to create the layers and base!

 

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Four legged (domestic) friends

Morning Peeps, our new theme at Allsorts has been chosen by Mervi and is ''Four legged friends'.....of the domestic variety. Our March prizes come from Oakwood, Highlight Crafts, AALL and Create and Craft Stash, there's a photo of all those up for grabs on the challenge blog.

The Dachshund is making another appearance this week, she's one of the images from the new AALL and Create Mans Best Fried stamp set  recently released on Create and Craft TV, stamped with Versafine Clair Nocturne and heat embossed with detail clear EP. A bit of colouring and stencilled hearts, it needs little more.

A second one using another new A&C release called Canine Dreams, I decided this one is a Vizsla or at least will be for the purpose of a card for one of our sons and wife who have two of them, Prince who was joined by Luka, he was a rescue from Cyprus. A simple masked sun and Pan Pastels, the focal image stamped, two little Butterflies from the same set and some colour on the lamps.

And in my efforts to try and be more active in blogland and add a challenge entry to my posts, here is one for the current Simon Say's Wednesday challenge where they would like to see slimline cards. An Oxide background, stencilled leaves, the blooms from AALL and Create Blooming Poppies, the sentiment is from the same set embossed with detail white EP and cut into three. This is not a new set but has so many beautiful images.

Again I am running late with my swap for the the February Card Chain reveal, below is the card I sent to Carol following the Brick/Aqua/Sand colour options. The background is Rice Paper sprayed with Oxides sprays, the Rose is from AALL and Create Sent with Love, stamped and paper pieced, the words are from Power of the Word.

Have a good weekend and thank you so much for your visits and words of encouragement.

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Matching pairs

Morning, time for a new theme at Allsorts where I am your host and the theme I have chosen is ''Matching Pairs'. When I have time I love to make a coordinating envelope for my cards and that was the thinking, but it could equally be a matching gift tag, bag or even box.

Prizes for March come from Oakwood, Highlight Crafts, AALL and Create and Craft Stash, there's a photo of them all on the challenge blog and winners will be drawn on Friday 31st March.

This was made last year as the date confirms and very similar to the one I made for Zachary and Faith's wedding just in a different colour way. This was for Sam and Anysia who had the heartbreak of having their May 2020 wedding cancelled in the early days of Covid lockdowns. 

The re-scheduled wedding took a totally different route to the original plans and was a civil ceremony at a Country House wedding venue, she even had a new wedding dress and different colours for the Bridesmaids as she wanted everything to be different, something I could totally understand. What happened to the original dresses? Someone got a very good deal on a designer gown from an on line wedding re-sale site!!

I uses a Lisa Horton embossing folder, die and stencil set, cut focal hearts and embossed to match the base layer,  place the flowers centrally and made a matching insert and envelope.

I have a second share, this was a condolence card for a neighbouring farmer who recently lost his wife. I used AALL and Create Sent with Love stamped very simply onto a stencilled background a paper pieced bloom, some little dewdrops and a matching envie.

In my current efforts to enter a challenge now and then I would like to use the above Rose card to join in the Flower Challenge which ask for new stamps and dies, this is a recent release from A&C. I'm rather at the eleventh hour but was alerted to the challenge by Crafting Vicky and as a floral girl thought I should try and link up.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

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Down the garden path

Morning everyone, Saturday and time for a new challenge at Allsorts where the theme this weeks is ''Anything Goes with the option of Wings'. You can find a photo of all the February prizes from WOWVOW, Craft Stash, AALL and Create and Ruth Hamilton Design, more details on the challenge blog.

It's also mid month time at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where our themes are of course Anything Stamped at both with options of 'Add a stencil' and 'A sketch'. Prizes are from Oakwood who will be sending the winner a bundle of stamps and/or dies and Highlight Crafts with two prizes of a set of Vintage Inc stamps and a die set. A heads up that Oakwood are on Create and Craft today at 7am and 11am. 

I am also entering the current Lavinia Challenge 'From me to You", I rarely enter challenges due to visual impairment which makes it difficult adding links so I just stick with those for my own challenges. But I've come up with a plan to keep a list with html links for a few challenges so I can copy and paste, will see how it goes!! 

Oh how I remember that Beatles song, I queued with a friend for hours to get tickets to see them in concert in Cambridge, we were eleven, sadly we dare not let our children do that these days. But we got front row tickets and it was awesome.

At Allsorts we're down the end of the garden checking on what the Fairies are up to, the Badger has gone to take a peek as well. I used Pan Pastels to build up the background colour, then stamped the distant trees with second/third generation stamping, then the foreground trees and then the Fairies and Badger. More Pan Pastels and torn paper to ground the, all, some white highlight and colouring to the trees and finally the obligatory glitter.

A second card using AALL and Create Through the Meadows, it's an A4 set with three really good sized images. The background is a mop up from my spray box.....an Amazon delivery box which has a corrugated bottom, hence to pattern. The image stamped with Versafine Clair Nocturne, a couple of the smaller circles stamped again along with the Butterfly onto vellum and heat embossed with detail gold EP, a pen nib for the Butterfly's thorax and the word Butterfly stamped twice and fixed with a metal clip.

Below my SS card made with stamps gifted to me by a crafty friend at Christmas, it's a card I will probably keep for one I keep for one of our Son's Birthday as he walks miles with his two dogs. I flipped the sketch to add the sentiment at the top which is from A&C's A4 Pinecone set. The central circle is a Gelli Plate acrylic background, the tree stamped with Versafine Acorn and the man and dog with Nocturne.

And finally my WLS shares, the first using one of the images from the Create and Craft recent release which proved so popular, this one is called Mans Best Friend (no link as new and not on the web site yet but available from C&C) and has three really large images plus smaller worker stamps and sentiments. The Dachshund stamped with Versafine black and embossed with details clear EP, our youngest Granddaughter has a Dachshund called Bramble so this one will get well used. The bow was stamped again, coloured and paper pieced plus some stencilling in the background.

One final share using the Tulip from Using Highlight Vintage Inc Petals and Lace collection, stamped around the border of the cardstock, coloured in, stencilling in the centre and a sentiment from my Moments stamp set.

Happy weekend one and all.

 

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A touch of romance

Morning Peeps, our new theme at Allsorts has been chosen by Lolo and is ''All about Hearts' just in time for Valentines Day. February come from WOWVOW, Craft Stash, AALL and Create and Ruth Hamilton Design, you can find a photo of all those up for grabs on the challenge blog.

I pretty simple card at the top using AALL and Create Fragile Fragments stamped in black Clair and some of the hearts stamped a second time, coloured and decoupaged and words added from Power of the Word, a set I use over and again so much so I keep a bag of the words stamped and cut out ready in different colours. All the 'add on's' were offcuts so I figure I should pop over to the Snippets Playground with this one.

I've made a second one using Ruth's Tulips on a die cut heart, a background using A&C Patches stamped with Versafine Clair Tulip and a sentiment from my Moments stamp set.

Thought I would share the view which I always intend catching on my phone camera but am usually too slow, yesterday I was quick enough. There are four steps up from the conservatory which provides a perfect viewing platform every time they hear us come through the gates. Once they know we are safely into the grounds they rush to the front door to greet us. Right to left, baby Rosa, Holly and Daisy, Poppy the Terrier invariably gets lost in the rush although first through the door when we open it.

Happy weekend all and my thanks as always for your kind visits.

 

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Pearlescent Poppies

Morning Peeps, as we move into February and hints of Spring as the bulbs emerge, it's time for our new challenges at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where our themes are of course Anything Stamped at both with options of 'Add a stencil' and 'A sketch'.

Thanks again to two of our wonderful Patron's who this month are Oakwood who will be sending the winner a bundle of stamps and/or dies and Highlight Crafts with two prizes of a set of Vintage Inc stamps and a Robin die set.

My top card uses stamps from Highlight Crafts Vintage Inc range which sold out withing hours of launch on Create and Craft. The Poppies were stamped onto an Oxide background, stencilling added along with some stamped script from Botanical Bliss around the edged. The blooms stamped again onto inked card which was given a good burst of pearl mica so a lovely sheen. Washi tape, a birdie and an A&C sentiment.

So the story here is she was out on her bike, saw her fella', so decided to stop for an impromptu dance with him under the street lamp...........humour me please, you all know I live in a fantasy world! I have used Oakwood Quintessentially British  Scene Creator and Woodland Stencil starting with a masked and inked circle, then the stencil for the rays and all images stamped with Versafine Clair Nocturne. The sentiment is one of the grungy ones from A&C's Power of the Word which I thought worked very well.

This is a very loose take on the sketch but as I've done a YouTube video for it wanted to share. Stamped are all from Oakwood and Stampendous and available to watch on Oakwood channel here and my own here. No secret I love a floral or leafy wreath so this is very much comfort zone crafting.

Hope to see lots of you joining us this month.

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Garden visitors

Morning Peeps, our new theme at Allsorts is ''I love.....' as selected by this weeks host Lynn and our prizes for February come from WOWVOW, Craft Stash, AALL and Create and Ruth Hamilton Design, there's a photo of all those up for grabs on the challenge blog.

As with many of us my crafty 'I love's....' are varied but one things that remains a constant is a love of colour, a bit of grunge and anything Nature related which come in abundance from AALL and Create and I feel privileged to be able to promote their amazing and often quirky designs.

For this one I used Kraft, something I don't use as often as I should, masking the edges I used Oxide to create the focal panel, a mask and the same ink to create two circles, stamped one of the images from Patches with Clair Acorn to add background interest and carry the circle theme and a white pen to add dots around the edges. The blooms from Elegant Stems were stamped twice and cut out and placed over the circles, words from Power of Word and the two small birds from Pheasants. Finally a matching envie.

We've seen an unusual amount of Deer activity across the paddocks the last few weeks, we get Muntjack and Rose Deer passing through most days but usually just the one, occasionally in the Summer a Doe and her Fawn. So what we've seen lately is unusual, one day there were six but the camera wasn't to hand.  We put the activity down to the cold weather and shortage of food so with horses inevitably the paddocks hold interest.

Photos aren't brilliant, I get too much camera shake with my dodgy hands but you get the idea. The following three were caught at night on the wildlife camera which is sited in the orchard. it's always exciting going through the footage to see what we captured, sometimes not a lot, other nights more activity and on this occasion a rare Badger visit.

This last one was across the Fen as we came back from the Vet's on Tuesday.

Hope you have a good weekend and my thanks for your always appreciated visits.

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Man's Best Friend

Morning Peeps, our new theme at Allsorts is 'Boys and Men' hosted by Ellie.  Following our new regime of publishing winners monthly instead of every week, the prizes for February come from WOWVOW, Craft Stash, AALL and Create and Ruth Hamilton Design, there's a photo of all those up for grabs on the challenge blog here.

And eventually the promised A&C shares using the new Dominic Phillips fabulous Dog stamps that several of you have been waiting to see. Those who know me will see why I instantly fell in love with this new release from AALL and Create, each of the new images is adorable. Being a family of dog lovers, in our immediate circle we have several Labs, Terriers, two Vizsla's, an Akbash, a Dachshud and even a Dalmation so I can see lots of Birthday cards in the offing.

As always they stamp beautifully, so detailed and a joy to work with, above I have used one of the images from Canine Dreams and have decided this one is a Lab. The links go to C&C, being new they are not on the A&C website just yet but should be very soon. A masked circle, Oxides onto a piece of acetate, plenty of water and 'splodged' around the edge of the circle. Once dry and with the mask still in pace I stamped the clock from Wildflower, removed the mask and stamped the Dog and added a bit of colour using Distress Pencils.

I wasn't sure about the second for a man as there's flowers but hubby seems to think it's fine so happy to go with that. This doggie is one of the smaller images from Man's Best Friend, but still a good size, my card is an A5 so gives you an idea. The background stamp is Endless Circles inked with three different Oxides, spritzed with water and stamped. The Dog stamped with Versafine Clair, same with Roses from Sent with Love stamped onto offcuts inked with Oxide, cut out and fixed into place and the single Rose placed through the lead. Some Washi Tape, sentiment is part of a larger stamp which has a small dog across the top so masked before inking as I only wanted the words, cut into a circle and fixed over two little hearts which come from Toucan stamp set.

As mentioned lots of offcuts for the Roses and sentiment but I don't have a photo for them so not sure if I'll get sent to the naughty corner by Miss Di and Sarn, but going to try my luck and like up to the Snippets Playground.

My final A&C share for today uses the largest image from Man's Best Friend, we decided this might be a Spaniel......the tail led to this decision. Again an Oxide 'splodged' background, stencilling, a bit of background stamping using Grunge Alphabet and Patches and the Dog simply stamped focally and a sentiment from the same set, he really doesn't need to much more. The added smaller words are from my favourite Power of the Word.

Also a couple of recent makes for Highlight/Two Red Robins, theres always a 10% discount code on my sidebar for anyone buying from them. For this one I used dies from Hedgerows and Touched by the Rain collections (but all elements available individually) plus Milly and Merlin and Broken Boundaries.

And a little bit of Spring using A Drop of Light, Botanical Beauty, A Drop of Snow, A Dwarfs Pin Cushion, the birdie is from Hedgerows and the sentiment from my Moments stamp set available following the link or Create and Craft.

As always thanks so much for your visits and words of encouragement.

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