A beautiful story

Morning everyone, it's another short post, been no blog activity, eye surgery was brought forward!

At Allsorts Lorraine selected 'Use a Stencil' along with the A/G option. Prizes can be seen on the challenge blog from Sizzix, AALL and Create, Aldridge Crafts, Lavinia and Ruth Hamilton Design.

A Lisa Horton set comprising die, EF and layering stencils, Oxides and Clair's and sentiment from my Moments stamp set available from Create and Craft and Stamp Addicts.

Miss Margo on Penelope this week, at 21 months she's loving being in the saddle, never too young to start.

 

Those leaving a comment on any post on this blog do so in the knowledge that their name and blog link are visible to all who visit this blog.

Happy 14th Birthday Allsorts

Morning everyone, an exciting week at Allsort as it's our fourteenth Birthday! 

Although I had lots I wanted to say to reflect on those fourteen years as part of the DT, as mentioned in my post Thursday, circumstances have clipped my wings. So it's a rather short post and the word Memories above sums it up in one.

We are going with the simple theme of Anything Goes and have a fabulous collection of stamps, dies and stencil to give away from the wonderful AALL and Create.

My top card uses AALL and Create Forget Me Not onto one of my Oxide backgrounds that can be found on a TRR USB and below Daisy Elegance and linking up at the May Path of Positivity inspired by Nature.

I really hope you will join in with our special Birthday celebration and look forward to seeing what you create although can't promise to do my usual and visit all entries, but will at least try a short C&P thank you, eyes permitting.

 

Those leaving a comment on any post on this blog do so in the knowledge that their name and blog link are visible to all who visit this blog.

Just Flowers

Morning everyone,  time for month shares for We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations.

Short and sweet, same as comments this week, to explain so you don't think I've been rude, eye problems at the weekend, emergency trip to the eye clinic, diagnosis of Macular Degeneration. Complicated by my existing eye condition, so eye injections then surgery in ten days time, meaning limited screen time 🙁

All stamps and stencils AALL and Create along with Oxides. And adding the Roses of Positive sentiment with Nature in mind at Path of Positivity.

Those leaving a comment on any post on this blog do so in the knowledge that their name and blog link are visible to all who visit this blog.

Embellish it at Allsorts

Morning everyone, time for a new challenge at Allsort where Mervi is asking us to 'Embellish It' or you could use the alternative A/G option. 

Before I tell you about my makes another subtle hint about our special Birthday celebration coming up, well we are nearly there and it's next Saturday, here's a logo to share to help us spread the word, the prizes are so special you won't want to miss out.

 

Prizes this week as with the last couple of weeks come from WOWVOW, Oakwood Direct and Craft Stash, photos of the all on the challenge blog.

I had to dig deep for today's shares as I don't tend to use many embellishments beyond a few grungy bits and bobs so my embellies on the one above are the cord and Blackbird. A brayered Oxide background, a mask to add some colour to create the sun, a harlequin stencil randomly inked before adding the flowers which were stamped twice, coloured and cut out and placed over the sun with the cord behind. 

The blooms are the beautiful Heleniums from AALL and Create Flower Journey, one of the March releases, three lovely images on this A5 stamp set and I did my best to get them close to the most popular colour of that flower. Know I promised some shares using this months AALL and Create release but I had today's cards ready made so saving those for our Birthday week.

The theme for the current Simon Say's Wednesday Challenge is 'Stencil It' so this one hopefully fits the brief.

A single embellishment on the one above in the form of an Ideaology index clip on the word label, focal image is from A&C's Poppy Seed Heads and the word from the same stamp masked to get stamp just the word. I added a bit more background stamping in red to carry the colour of the seed heads.

Happy Saturday all.

Those leaving a comment on any post on this blog do so in the knowledge that their name and blog link are visible to all who visit this blog.

Chase your Dreams

Morning everyone, the first Sunday of May means it's time for our new challenges at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where our themes are In the Garden and Add a stencil, as always stamping must be the focal element. Prizes this month come from Craft Stash and Oakwood Direct.

A heads up for the AALL and Create fans out there, Tracy has a new release showcasing on Create and Craft tomorrow, fabulous images as always and I will be showcasing some of my samples very shortly. Meanwhile there's a 25% discount (use SCRAPBOOKDAY2023) on all products purchased from the store until 23.59pm tomorrow.

Above a circular canvas, I bough a pack of six years ago so thought it time I used one or two. They already have a gesso coating so I went straight in with Oxide sprays, then added some sunray's with a stencil and texture paste. I bit of random stamping using AALL and Create Elemental Notes, stamped the flowers from Flower Journey and Elegant Stems and onto inked offcuts and cut out, then  'planted' into a TRR flower pot with some Sisal Fibre, words from Power of the Word and a little Mouse in the smaller pot.

The Path of Positivity theme this month is Inspired by Nature, as Nature is what inspires most of my crafting activity it's one I had to join in with. Whilst the card below carries the word Nature I felt the canvas above offers more Positivity, so thats the one I would like to enter.

This one has an Acrylic paint Gelli Plate background, then stamping using A&C Wire Birds and three flowers from Blousey Blooms, again stamped onto inked snippets, cut out and arranged around the birdie which I stamped again to decoupage.

 

Those leaving a comment on any post on this blog do so in the knowledge that their name and blog link are visible to all who visit this blog.

April showers bring May flowers

Morning everyone, time for a new challenge at Allsort and this week I am your host with the theme of 'April showers bring May flowers' and of course there's always the A/G option for those who really don't have any flowers in their stash. 

Prizes for three weeks this month (726/7/8) come from WOWVOW, Oakwood Direct and Craft Stash. The fourth week on 20th May will be to celebrate our 14th Birthday so prizes for that week will be announced closer to the time and my what a fabulous bundle it is from a company who seem to offer the stamp of the moment!!

A brayered background using Oxides, stencil work using the negative elements by inking and spritzing the stencil to use as a stamp, some raindrops with another stencil and texture paste and a few of the circles coloured in with Distress Pencils. 

Lots of different AALL and Create stamp sets used, the Wellie boots from The Great Outdoors, flower from Flower Journey (new so not on the web site yet but available from C&C), circle Textured Florals, March and numbers Seasons, a bit of stamping down the edges using Round Digits and finally words from Power of the Word. And of course a matching envie, people tell me they love these when they land on the doormat and in reality it doesn't take much longer to create once the card is made. 

My teamie Ellie also has this theme for her I Spy challenge so it seems only fitting that I link up there. And Simon Say's Wednesday challenge is No Patterned Papers, so a perfect one for me as I invariably create my own. 

A rather bright background brayers with Oxides, purposely left a bit random to give more interest. All focal stamping in Versafine Nocturn using an AALL and Create A4 set and the  silhouette flower from Clocks and Flowers, Hare from Long Eared Mammal, months and sentiment from Seasons and Power of the Word (links above) and to carry the colour of the suns I stamped Shattering around the edges. Finally some stencilled raindrops using white texture paste.

One last share, it's for Highlight/Two Red Robins where the DT have been re-branded, we are now going to be known as 'Brand Creatives'.

I've used some of this weeks new colourways for Touched by the Rain. It's a big bundle so a considered purchase, but the majority of dies are available individually so you can pick your favourites. There are six different sized dies in the set and Reflections are free. Gary the birdie was a greenfinch when the set was first launched, now he's also a Goldfinch!! We have a family of them in the garden and the two babies have just left the nest, but they dart about so quickly getting a photo is proving difficult.

I am trying hard to get back into the crafty groove and actually made some DT cards for C&C shows next week (to be shared in due course), the new meds are helping with the pain and arm/neck mobility but leave me a bit wooly headed so it's frustratingly slow. I make cards in my head when sleep evades me, it's actually making them that's proving a problem.

But I have some new goodies which is always an incentive to get inky so a crafty day planned and hoping to get a few more off the production line.....know craft will be the last things on the minds of many today, but I'll be in my craft room! 

I hope you can join us this week at Allsorts, do pop over to the challenge to see what my teamies have created to inspire you. 

Those leaving a comment on any post on this blog do so in the knowledge that their name and blog link are visible to all who visit this blog.

Baby Squirrels and a Daffodil or two

A real rarity these days, a mid week post which is to share my card which went to Gundi in Germany as part of the March Card Chain Challenge. 

It's another AALL and Create showcase sample and I went with the months colour options of Charcoal, Lime and Bumblebee along with the two of the options Spring and Paper Piecing. 

The background was created with the Gelli Plate and acrylic paint and some second generation stamping using Elemental Notes and some raindrops using a stencil. The Daffodil from Elegant Spring Florals, masked and the top section of the flower stamped a second time to extend the image. I then stamped both flowers twice more onto some inky offcuts as well as a piece for the word Daffodil from the same set and another snippet for the Birdie. The words March and Spring come from Seasons and finally an envie to match.

As there are several snippets on this one I am popping over to the Snippets Playround. I want to check out if there are any baby squirrels up near the treehouse, as there certainly are here. I eventually grabbed a photo of one of the rare black babies, there are some that are pure black, but this one clearly comes from a mixed pairing judging by the hints of ginger on it's front.

Isn't she/he sweet, I could spend hours watching them play, the other day one on the black babies played catch in the orchard with a grey baby, it was such fun to watch but they move far to quickly for me to get decent photos.

 

Those leaving a comment on any post on this blog do so in the knowledge that their name and blog link are visible to all who visit this blog.