Hiding under the blackberries

Morning everyone, it's Saturday which means a new challenge at Allsort , I am the host this week and my chosen theme is Autumn Trees, Leaves and Berries. This weeks challenge will fall into the October prizes to be drawn on 27th of the month and come from a whole host of Partons, Stamp Addicts, Oakwood, Highlight Crafts, Ruth Hamilton Dedsign, AALL and Create and Craft Stash.

The adorable Spaniels called Stormy and Gail from Highlights recent Create and Craft Two Red Robins release Dancing in the Rain make another appearance on a freestanding acetate card, along with Strooms and Blackberries from the same collection. 

A second card using Penny Black Lush and Lavish stamp set using direct to stamp inking with brush markers, some splats of ink, twine and sentiment.

Can now share a few of my samples using the Ponies and other new images which are this weeks Pick of the Week at Create and Craft, they are called Whisky Way Inn and as you can see have a distinct feel of Scotland. Several are freestanding acetate pieces, as with the first one which is totally 3D with the help of acetate hinges to hold the images in place.

My thanks as always for your visits which are always much appreciated.

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Four legged friends

Morning everyone, Saturday and time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Sarah has chosen the theme of Four Legged Friends. This months fabulous bundle of prizes come from Craft Stash, Anna Marie Designs, AALL and Create, Oakwood and WOWVOW.

Two shares today, both created in My Craft Studio using the new Best of Volume 11/12. The same horse appears in both, above he's having a quick graze before being tacked up (saddle and bridle at the ready) to go on a hack, imagination and a stretch of reality helps no end!!

Below he pulls a traditional Gypsy Vardo which takes me right back to childhood. A lovely man called Jim and his family used to visit the farm every summer for seasonal work, his daughter was a similar age to me so we used to play together and their home looked much like this.

What I love about the MCS scene building USB's is that you can create whatever type of scene takes your fancy as every single element is a separate component allowing you to build as you go. Above I've used at least ten elements, the programme offers the ability to add shadow, change colour, change size and orientation, bring elements to the fore and so on, so versatile. 

These gorgeous Poppies are the September Flower of the Month and launched this week, a few of my DT makes.

Finally a heads up that there's a new release from Highlight/Two Red Robins at 10am Monday on Create and Craft TV which has some adorable ponies and a Lassie type dog, but afraid I can't share for another day or so. 

 

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For Joy and some snippets

Morning everyone, it's mid way reminder and inspiration time at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where our themes are as always Anything Stamped with Trees and Leaves and Garden Delights.

My Garden Delights come in the form of eldest daughters Birthday card, her name is Joy so it was nice to personalise it using a recent release from AALL and Create Garden she Wrote along with one of the three blooms on Flower Trio which launched on Create and Craft at the same time. A masked and stencilled panel, the flower stamped and paper pieced and the name added and coloured with the same pens.

A Gelli Plate background created with Oxides and a stamp from AALL and Creates A4 set called Pinecone, by no means a new set but so popular and useful. Stamped, some colour and white highlight added, the word Pinecone from the same set and months stamped in contrasting colour from Seasons. The two little Cockerels come from  a newish set called Bright Dawn.

A new challenge launched over at the Snippets Playground yesterday and this is my share, snippets were used for all but the stencilled oxide background. The Digitalis from A&C's Woodland, the sentiment strips, doggie and flower pot are all offcuts. A hint with the Dog who is called Clara from Highlight, if you you don't want to print a whole sheet of Reflections you can use the snipping tool on your computer to grab just one or two images to die cut, then you don't need to waste a whole A4 sheet of card.

Still plenty of time to join us at the monthly challenges, they run until Wednesday 27th September.

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Woody Woodpecker

Morning everyone, Saturday morning so time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Lorraine has chosen the theme of Masculine. This months fabulous bundle of prizes come from Craft Stash, Anna Marie Designs, AALL and Create, Oakwood.

Not been a great deal of craft this week, been busy continuing with jam and pickle making, my aim is to have sufficient to give all the children and grandchildren with their own homes a hamper of homemade preserves, that means I need at least nine of everything! So far off the productions line are bramble jelly, mixed berry jam, plum jam (Vicks - my favs), rhubarb and ginger jam, a take on Branston pickle (recipe sourced on line), cucumber relish and mustard pickle. I'm on track with a few left over and might do some green tomato chutney.

Onto my DT make for Allsorts, the background of this one is a piece of rice paper spritzed with Oxide sprays, I always find it strange that doing this actually makes the paper stronger and easier to work with. I stamped the reeds and foliage which are both A&C stamps and then added the Woodpecker from Follow your own Path after colouring and cutting out. 

A note for all A&C fans, there's still a day or so left to grab some bargains of up to 80% discount here.

A share of a few of my cards for this weeks Highlight releases on Create and Craft, 

Above and below using A Mothers Glory USB

Below using A Season of Fall

Another freestanding acetate card using last weeks release of The Old School House

Happy weekend all and of course my thanks for your visits and words of encouragement.

 

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Dancing in the Rain and baby Pigeons

Morning everyone, Saturday morning so time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Lynn would like us to use dies on our creations. This months fabulous bundle of prizes come from Craft Stash, Anna Marie Designs, AALL and Create, WOWVOW and Oakwood.

My card above is a little sneak peek of Dancing in the Rain from Highlight Crafts/Two Red Robins launching on Create and Craft at 6pm tomorrow. It's a gorgeous collection especially for your Autumnal makes, but of course works year round and coordinates with all previous collections. A couple more below, the second uses the new Web Exclusives which launched yesterday to compliment the full set. On the top one I've used several of the dies in the collection onto a free standing acetate base, added a die cut circle to create the wreath shape cutting the acetate to the same size.

This one was a really quick and easy one, an image from a MCS USB printed twice, three dies used to cut the apertures in one sheet which I then lined up over the second sheet to create a pretty CAS (for me) card with a few red paint splats to carry the Poppy colour.

I have one more to share, it's another for this month new Path of Positivity challenge where as well as a positive element on your entry, they currently have a Tic/Tac/Toe option and I've gone for the top row of Feminine/Buttons/Bling/Florals. Of course florals come easy, bling not always but this one does have some gems, I made it some time back before my eye ops as one of my AALL and Create samples but not yet blogged. The stamps used are Blousy Blooms and Power of the Word, the leaves are from Foliage (set 496), now discontinued but several retailers still have in stock.

The Pigeon population had a busy Summer around us but most nests are out of sight so we don't see their fledglings until they take their early flying lessons at about four weeks. However, this nest was built head height in a shrub just outside the dining room window so provided a front row seat and I managed to get this photo the other day of the two babies, their eyes are just open so are probably 4/5 days old. One is partly obscured behind a branch, the other watching cautiously. 

I think like the Pheasants and Partridges, they see our land as a safe haven from other farmers and their guns. On a sad note, some of the rabbit population seem to have contracted Mixi, nothing you can do to help them but it's very distressing to see.

Have a good weekend everyone.

 

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Flowers and Leaves and a haul of rosettes

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 as always Anything Stamped with Trees and Leaves and Garden Delights.

My Garden delights come in the form of the gorgeous Cone Flowers from AALL and Create Textures Florals which I know is a firm favourite with many A&C fans. I went with bold oranges and fresh greens onto an Oxide background, paper piecing the focal flower along with some extra circles and the word onto a plant label. 

Now my eyes are on the mend I'm trying to enter one of two challenges again, for the above card I did my usual and paper pieced the flower I used snippets for that, the flower label and extra circles so hopping over to the Snippets Playground. The Path of Positivity have a Tic Tac Toe option and the little booklet above has flowers, my own background and die cuts so would love to enter there. Also Simon Say's Wednesday where the theme is Anything Goes.

My trees and Leaves come in the form of a little book card and matching envie using three recent A&C releases, all are A6 stamp sets Windy Willows, Leaf is Better and Garden Times. All stamped with Clair Acorn, some colour added and stencil work to the background. The little Cockerels come from Bright Dawn.

Thought I would also share this photo. Anysia and Ben (he's now 25) have had a very busy Summer attending shows and have received a great haul of honours, as a Mum of a toddler not an easy ask (GG helped with some of the babysitting!). 

Whilst I'm no longer able to ride I gain great pleasure watching her achievements and she makes me so proud, history repeating itself you could say and Margo who was two last week shows signs of following the trend. Anysia also showed Margo's pony Penelope in hand a couple of times but no piccies of that or the rosette she picked up. Heskey my horse just stays home and happily munches his way through yet more fodder.

We look forward to seeing all your creations at the challenges this month.

 

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Sunflowers at Allsorts

Morning everyone, at Allsorts this week Ellie has chosen the theme of Sunflowers. Prizes this month come from Craft Stash, Anna Marie Designs, AALL and Create, WOWVOW and Oakwood and will be drawn on Friday 29th September.

WOWVOW sell much more than just wedding related goods and currently have beautiful ribbons at discounted prices here, most sections on this page have reduced products and there are such things as washi tape, gifts and other goodies on offer here.

Nothing beats a Sunflower to bring a smile and I love this one with the little birdie from AALL and Create's A4 set called Friendship Florals which has several good sized stamps. The background is an acrylic paint gelli plate pull, the flower pot a Highlight die and the Swallows A&C washi tape.  I would like to enter this into the current Simon Say's Wednesday challenge where the theme is Anything Goes.

Something a little different and I'm still on a learning curse using David Wait/Highlight's mixed media products, so this is far from perfect. I printed two sheets of rice paper from an In the Studio USB and covered the bottle along with two coasters using Cadence napkin glue. When dry added two step spider crackle on the bottle and some vintage wax to bright out the cracks, I'm still in awe of this product as the second step is a clear coat and allows you to see through to the base unlike most crackle glazes where the top coat needs to be acrylic paint to make it crack. I coated the coasters with two coats of Cadence glaze and they really are waterproof.

Disclaimer...........the glass looks huge but it really isn't, it's poor photographic perspective, we use normal size ones, honest!!

And a few of my samples for Highlight Crafts/Two Red Robin releases on Create and Craft this week.

Above and below using MCS Scene Building Vols 11/12. I am loving working with the scene building USB's, last weekend I created about 100 Christmas cards for the RSPCA, made up into packs of four same design with an animal theme. All USB's are interchangeable so you can combine elements from different ones, it made light work of the process and will help raise much needed funds.

Below using The Old School House

The two below using the Old School House Web Exclusive

I'm convinced Poppy our Parsons Jack Russel has been moonlighting posing as Teddy for the new Terrier dies, what do you think?

Have a good weekend all and as always my appreciation for your visits.

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