Embossing

Morning everyone, a new challenge at Allsorts and Dena would like to see embossing, either dry and heat. This months fabulous bundle of prizes come from Stampendous, Oakwood Direct and WOWVOW.

We were all coming to terms with losing Lab Lily last week, then yesterday Ben had to be put to sleep. We bought him for Anysia when she was ten and he seven, he was her best friend so it goes without saying she is totally devastated, as are we all. Big Ben as we called him was 28 and I'll share the photo again of him and Anysia just a few weeks ago when they had a haul of rosettes eventing.

At the top a card made some time ago but never blogged, heat embossed the AALL and Create border stamp Create Sunshine using detail gold EP. Coloured in (afraid don't remember what with!!) and added a colour wash of blue around the image and just matted onto coordinating cardstock, a pretty simple make.

This is another of those I made and explained in my post a couple of weeks ago here, for this one I used mainly Dylusions and without the mica elements the black is more intense. 

Have a good weekend all.

Botanical Bottles

Good afternoon, first can I say a big thank you for your kind messages following my last post where I mentioned we had lost Lily. I'm pleased to say that sister Daisy seems to be settling and no longer goes searching for her which is a relief.

Onto my cards, I was recently asked if I would do some designing for Create and Craft who now have their own branded products, so here is a little share of those being released tomorrow at 6pm as their Pick of the Day.

The collection is called Botanical Bottles, a soft pastel colourway with a distinctly feminine feel, there are flowers, foliage and bottles along with a USB so everything coordinates perfectly.

Have a good week and my thanks for your visits.

Colours of Autumn

Morning everyone, Saturday morning so time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Lynn is in tune with the season and the theme of Autumn Colours, along with the A/G option. This months fabulous bundle of prizes come from Stamp Addicts, Oakwood, Highlight Crafts, Ruth Hamilton Dedsign, AALL and Create and Craft Stash.

I've not been the best of bloggers, it's not been a bit of a horrid week, we lost lovely Lily, my daughters Lab. When a Lab doesn't eat you know things are not good and in the end that horrid decision had to be made, Joy and I were both with her at the end. Those who have been through it as we have, too many times, will know. Daisy, our senior girl is 13 from the same litter and they have always done things together so we are hoping she won't pine too much. At the moment she still expects her to appear and stands looking a tad confused.

Onto my card which thankfully was made a few weeks ago as I've done little crafting this week. I absolutely love these wellies from A&C's The Great Outdoors, several pairs very like these are never far away. I masked the centre panel, inked with Oxides and used a stencil and texture paste to add the 'rays'. The flowers from Woodland and Flower Journey and words from good old Power of the Word. I stamped an envie with the Cone Flowers and stencilled some leaves.

Have a good weekend.

Live, laugh, dream

Morning everyone, it's mid way inspiration time at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations challenges where our themes are as always Anything Stamped with options of A mood board and Autumn colours. And a little note to say we will be announcing some changes to both challenges, so please make you check our new challenge posts on 5th November.

My card above following the colours of the mood board using A&C Daisy Elegance which along with lots of other A4 stamp sets is currently on offer for £11.60 (usually £28.99). Oxide background, some stencilling using Twisting and Turning and words from my own Believe, one of my own inspirational sentiment sets available from Create and Craft and Stamp Addicts. I would like to enter this into the current challenge at Path of Positivity who have a lovely photo for inspiration full of rich colours and also the new challenge at the Snippets Playground, bottles, flowers and sentiment all stamped onto inky offcuts.

This one is not dissimilar to one a few weeks ago, some simple matting and layering, ink blending using Autumnal coloured Oxides, the three A&C A7 sets, Windy Willow, Leaf is Better and Garden Times all stamped with Versafine Clare Acorn and some colour added to bring the laves to life.

Here it is folded and tied with some ribbon.

Textures Florals

Morning everyone, it's Saturday and time for a new challenge at Allsorts where this week Lorraine is our host with the theme of Add some Texture along with the usual the A/G option. This months fabulous bundle of prizes come from Stamp Addicts, Oakwood, Highlight Crafts, Ruth Hamilton Dedsign, AALL and Create and Craft Stash.

It's a rather long post so a cuppa or glass dependent on time of day might be called for!!

A heads up for the AALL and Create fans out there, lots of new goodies coming next week to celebrate their 7th Birthday with a preview show on C&C at 12 noon Monday 16th where you can see all the new stamps from Antour, Tracy, Bipasha and Janet.

My texture above comes in the form of acrylic and gesso on the Gelli Plate background which does have lots of texture but not really evident on the photo. Then a bit of a play on words with Textured Florals from AALL and Create which were stamped onto inked offcuts and cut out. Two white circles with some stamping and a little Birdie along with a couple of sentiments and splats of white Posca.

Electronic die cutting machines (yes a sort of review): In my experience most have a down side, with my Switch it's the plates which warp quickly, expensive to replace (a year in and on my third set) and intricate dies usually need two runs through. The Big Shot is great and replaced it last year after ten years, but the size can be restrictive.  

But, the new Pro Cut A4 electronic machine which landed in my craft room recently thanks to Highlight Crafts seems to be the exception and so far I'm really impressed. I've only ever said that once before and that was my e.bosser which expired least year after more than ten years of good service, sadly no longer available.

I left it a while to see how the Pro Cut performed before I gave it the thumbs up (or down) but so far would recommend and the price is competitive as well, plus it's shape is far more compact than the Switch which is a bulky piece of kit. I don't know the secret with the plates on the Pro Cut but they are still as flat as new after some really heavy work. And a big bonus everything cuts perfectly, detailed dies as well with just one run through.

So now I'm able to cut collections so much quicker with two on the go at once......well that's the plan, so long as I'm quick enough to keep up with them. All I have to remember is to put the dies the right way up and not cut through the magnetic shim......yes done that already, I used to do the same with the e.bosser, the Switch doesn't have one and that just might be the difference in performance.

I've been pretty under pressure with TV samples the last few weeks and not much time to play, so this was a nice diversion. I saw a link on a blog which in turn sent me to YouTube and then another and typically I can no longer find it, but think I got the gist of the technique.

Basically you 'splodge'.... technical term......colour onto watercolour card which is first spritzed with water as this helps the ink distribute and beak down the fibres. The videos I watched used distress re-inkers, I only have two colours, a green and pink so added some yellow Dylusions, but probably not enough contrast of colour. Once dry you ink the debossed side (indents, I always get this one confused) of an embossing folder with Versafine Clair nocturne, place the coloured side facing the black ink and run through a die cutter. I did a re-ink of black and ran through a second time. I then made a second one using the same folder, will share next week. 

Then remembered I had several colours of Oxide mica sprays and the one below was used for that, however it was much harder to get a solid back finish as the mica spreads, but still quite effective.

Have a good weekend all.

 

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Vintage at Allsorts

Morning everyone, Saturday morning so time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Mervi would like to see Vintage creations and of course there's always the A/G option. This months fabulous bundle of prizes come from Stamp Addicts, Oakwood, Highlight Crafts, Ruth Hamilton Dedsign, AALL and Create and Craft Stash.

My card and matching envie was created in Highlights new MCS USB released on Create and Craft called A Mothers Glory. I used one of the distressed rice papers for the background and arranged the flowers and leaves adding the shadow details to give dimension plus a sentiment. The beauty of creating in the programme is that the card is totally flat for posting. This particular USB is also available as a direct download to your computer from Highlight.

Here's a few more from this weeks release of MCS Vol 13, had fun creating these and drawing in images and elements from the four collections within the USB.

Many thanks as always for your visits and words of encouragement, Have a good weekend.

 

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Poppy Seedheads

Morning everyone, it's time for our new challenges at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where our themes are a Mood Board (below) and Autumn Colours and as always the A/G option. Prizes come from AALL and Create, two lovely Autumnal themed DL stamps and the other a collection of Stamperia Alice products from Craft Stash. A subtle reminder that both challenges are strictly stamping challenges, as their names indicate.

Here's the Mood Board for WLS, I love creating these and where I can use some of my own photos, only a couple in this one though including my nails last October, I'm lucky to have long strong nails and the girl who does them every fortnight loves doing artwork.

My SS share above uses an AALL and Create DL border stamp Poppy Seedheads, these are lovely sized stamps to work with and from the same range as the two offered as prizes this month. The background was masked inked and stencilled with some leaves, the seedheads stamped, the seedheads stamped a second time onto inked offcuts and paper pieced. The letting was created using Garden She Wrote and the word October from the same set. Finally a piece of raffia dies across.

I'm making no excuses that Textured Florals from A&C are making another appearance as I love this set and I know from looking round blogland I'm not alone. The background is a mop up of my spray box when making another card, then snippets used for an extra circle stamped and cut out, the same with the focal flower paper pieced and coloured with Ecoline pens along with the word stamped into the plant label from the same set. I would like to pop to The Snippets Playground with this one.

Happy Sunday all, today is our Wedding Anniversary, more years that I care to count, his parents said it would never last as I was only 17 and about to go to collage! Nothing special planned, maybe just a takeout this evening.

 

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