Just Flowers

Morning everyone, a new challenge at Allsorts where Lynn is looking for Flowers on our creations. Prizes come from Highlight Crafts,  AALL and Create and Stampendous. There's a change to publication of July winners, due to me being out of action for a while (explanation in post below) it will now be (hopefully) early August.

I have two shares, above uses one of Abs new AALL and Create releases called This Much is True (1175), stamped, coloured and cut onto an oval aperture and placed inside an ornate die frame which I think is Carnation Crafts. Sentiment from Power of the Word.

Above a rather bright one with lots of Summer Flowers, first step was to stamp Twilight Lily and Shadow Bloom and cover the blooms with masking fluid, when dry I saturated the card (using 600gsm Fabriano which won't warp), sprinkled four colours of Brushos at the top and added more water to encourage the colour to run down the page. When dry Shadow Bloom was stamped again a couple more times in grey so it blended into the background. Rubbed off all the masking fluid and coloured the flowers with Ecoline pens and stamped Lumus Fairy (small) and some Bumble Bees from Bumblehums and coloured those and the Fairy winds with Posca sparkle and Wink of Stella pens.

And as we are talking Flowers, a few of the Sunflowers in the garden, some are not that tall this year which seems odd given all the rain we've had, the little Miss is our Poppy who likes to be involved in everything, in fact we're certain she believes she runs the whole household and definitely controls the three Labs.

Icy Cool and blog break

Before I go onto my shares, apologies in advance I won't be active in blogland/commenting for a while as I'm having to take an enforced break. I'm going into hospital next week for kidney surgery, some follow up treatment and they tell me a six week recovery period. Luckily I do work ahead so have most of my work ready and busily scheduling challenge and DT posts for the next few weeks. But blog visiting will be if and when I feel up to it, will have to play it by ear.

It's mid month inspirational time at We Love Stamping where our theme is Sun, Sand and Sea with the usual A/G option and at Stamping Sensations Anything Goes with an option of Christmas in July. Prizes come from AALL and Create and CraftStash.

Above I used AALL and Create Penguin (604) and Frosty (603), some crackle paste snowflakes using Snow Crystals (221). I added a stamped heart to the larger Penguin but not sure which A&C set that comes from. Penguin and Frosty are in the prizes this month and such useful fun sets which I use a lot.

This was another of the recent Penny Black stamps I purchased a month or two back, it's called Shaded View (40-895), I'm not really sure if it's the Ocean or a lake, very much puts me in mind of the beautiful Italian Lakes where we have visited so many times......that said if it is I should have added a bit if snow to the mountain. Pan Pastels for the colouring and just simple stamping using brush markers direct to stamp.

Going round in circles

Morning everyone, a new challenge at Allsorts, Lorraine is our host and would love to see some Circles on our work. Prizes come from Highlight Crafts, AALL and Create and Stampendous.

I was a lucky girl to receive a surprise early package with the new release of Lavinia stamps so spent several days at play and thought this one represented a circle to fit with this weeks theme. This release has three silhouette Fairies and some quite large stamps a bit different to their usual sizing, Lilies and Hummingbirds which require colouring to bring them to life.......there started my challenge!

Above I used Flower Divine 1 and stamped six times round a softly inked circle to help me keep the shape, stamped the smaller of the two Hummingbirds in the centre along with three bees from Bumblehums and coloured all with a Ecoline plus Posca pens to bring in some sparkle. The Hummingbird is also covered in part with stickles so has a lovely sparkle although not that evident in the photo. 

This one features the larger Lumus Fairy (she also comes in a smaller version facing the other way) another Bee from Humblebum (link above) resting in her hand, lots of Lilies across the bottom using Twilight Lily which I absolutely love and across the top elements of Shadow Bloom. I used three graduated size masks to create the circles, colouring using the same mediums as above and a sentiment from Bumble Words. Linking this across to the Summer Moon theme at Lavinia.

Thought some of you would like this photo of our Green Woodpecker family, they have two young and this was one of them being fed out in the orchard. As is the norm the female is not as pretty as the male and I am guessing by the coloured head of the juvenile it's a male. We also have a family of Great Spotted Woodpeckers which are beautiful with the bright red markings, but they move pretty swiftly compared with the green and I'm never quick enough to get a photo.

Have a good weekend and my appreciation for your visits.

Tropical paradise v Wintertime

Morning everyone, time for new challenges at We Love Stamping where our theme is Sand and Sea as selected by Faith. At Stamping Sensations a change to how we do things and it's Anything Goes with an option for those who like a challenge, this month the option is Christmas in July. Prizes come from and Craft Stash and AALL and Create.

Above a Penny Black stamp I've had for a very long while called Paradise (40-691), I created the sky with pans pastels before stamping the image using Distress Markers direct to stamp, added sand and sea again with Pan Pastels and a fence using a really old stamp of which I have no idea of name or make other than it was purchased in America. The sentiment is from Inkylicious.

Here I've used AALL and Create Robin and Nuthatch (690) and Jolly Elements (560), an inked and stencilled (Evergreen 159) background, Robin and Poisettias stamped again, cut out and decoupaged. A moonlight gelly roll pen to add dots to create a circle, a few garden twigs, twine and finito. 

I am popping over to the Snippets Playground with this one, the Robin, Poinsettias and woeds are all stamped onto snippets.

Congratulations

Morning everyone, a new challenge at Allsorts where Liz would like to see makes for Romantic Occassions, or of course the A/G option. Prizes come from Highlight Crafts,  AALL and Create and Stampendous.

Annabel our second eldest Granddaughter became engaged recently, Sam her new Fiancee proposed whilst they were on holiday in Canada, he went all prepared with the ring and took her by surprise on a boat trip.

This is the card I made for them, a similar design to a couple of others I have made as I find the design pleasing on the eye and can be easily adapted to different colourways. The heart is from AALL and Create Forget Me Not (896) and stencil Rosey Posey (138), when I was first sent the heart stamp set I was doubtful I would use it much, how wrong I was! I used new Versafine Clair colours to lightly stencil the background and stamp the heart, stamped just the flower twice more to cut out to decoupage and a computer generated sentiment.

Rather belatedly my share for the Card Chain Challenge which featured the colour option of Navy, Turquoise, Gold and Summer, it went to Imke in Germany. I used a Lisa Horton layering stencil and die and placed over an aperture of a TL lattice insert. 

Way to Grow

Morning everyone and first I must thank you for all your Birthday wishes and cards this week, if I've not done so I will get round to thanking you all but a tad déjà vu, nasty meds, kidney pain, migraines etc. But at least the sun has been shining which is wonderful.

At Allsorts Gail is hosting her first challenge since joining the team and has the fun theme of 'Way to Grow'. Prizes come from Highlight Crafts,  AALL and Create and Stampendous.

Lots of different AALL and Create stamps The Great Outdoors (370), Flower Journey (904) and Elemental Notes (905), stencilled background using Digits Checked (110). I masked border stamped with Elemental Note, coloured ad cut out the wellies and sentiments form same set as the wellies with a pen nib to reflect the border. Popping to Path of Positivity with this one......and the Snippets Playground as the wellies, flowers, birdie and sentiments strips are all offcuts.

A card for the new Rudolph Days challenge, the bauble stencil which so many of us have is from Sweet Poppy, DI's to add the colour, Lavinia Rabbit and Hare and sentiment from my Christmas Magic stamp set (£16.99 here mounted, £14.99 unmounted, or from Create and Craft TV). 

Butterflies, Bees and blooms

Morning everyone, a new challenge at Allsorts and Mervi had chosen the theme of 'Bees, Blooms and Butterflies', although I'm actually hosting this week as Mervi has left the team after more than ten years, we really will miss her. Prizes come from Craft Stash, Highlight Crafts and AALL and Create and winners will be drawn on Friday.

The focal image is is called Insectual Healing (1093), one of Abs (AALL and Create) own designs as is the Frayed Frames (26) die. Image coloured with Ecoline pens, always a challenge for me, especially shading so as my youngest Son always say's "it is what it is".

Thanks for all your kind messages earlier in the week, partly sorted but a little way to go still, felt OK after the procedure, it's the meds now making me feel ropey and hoping some can stop after next CT scan.

Happy weekend all.

Summer Rose and Buck House

Morning everyone, it's mid way reminder time at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where our themes are Fabulous Florals as selected my me (transparent as ever) and a Mood Board along with the usual option of AG with your stamped element. 

Note added: MIA and apols for lack of visits. Nearly eleven weeks, several GP telecom consults and A&E visits fobbing me off with a Crohn's flare up, Thursday an A&E registrar listened, sent me for a CT scan, stones in both kidneys (again) and one lodged in the urethra so today a 'day trip' to have the lodged one dealt with.

Back to my shares and I wasn't terribly happy with the colours of my WLS make above as the pocket looks way off colour from the Rose, in reality the colours were pretty close. Made the pocket from a 12x12 sheet of Bazzil, score board and border dies, AALL and Create Rosy Posey stencil (138) and Sent with Love stamp set (831), stitching stamped from Time Heals All (1110). I would like to share this at the Path of Positivity challenge. 

More Lavinia using again the Digitalis, Felicity sitting in the fore contemplating her day and a kaleidoscope of Butterflies appropriately called Flutterbies. The sentiment is a really old one from Stamp Addicts.

And a couple of the first official photos from our day at Buckingham Palace for the Investiture. I was waiting for more before I shared but the system is rather archaic and they are sent hard copy proofs, a few at a time, these scanned so not as clear as I would like. Owen is not one for fuss and bother but said he throughly enjoyed the day. 

As you can see he's grey, myself and his siblings we all went that way at school (Clairol is my best friend!). When he was first in the Police Force he was nicknamed badger as at the time he still a a hint of black down the sides, as he climbed the ranks and moved to the Home Office the name seemed to disappear, wonder why!

Masculine

Morning everyone, a new challenge at Allsorts and this week I am your host and given tomorrow is Fathers Day a theme of 'Masculine' seemed appropriate, plus I know it's one that pushes some of us (me included) outside our comfort zone so really is a challenge. Prizes come from Craft Stash, Highlight Crafts and AALL and Create.

It's been a long whilst since I bought any new Penny Black stamps as the cost of them in the UK now is pretty prohibitive. But I had seen a couple that really appealed for landscape scenes so decided to treat myself and here's the result of my first play. Above alcohol inks using a puffer and heat gun to move the colours about to create a (sort of) scenic feel then stamping with black archival ink. The sets used are Panoramic and just the trees from Snowy Village.

The same sets used here onto a Pan Pastel background and Fox and grasses from Lavinia. I felt the fence and bushes needed some Birds so managed to mask the wire on the larger stamp to add a few.

Just dream

Morning everyone, a new challenge at Allsorts where Lolo would love to see 'Flowers galore'. Prizes come from Craft Stash, Highlight Crafts and AALL and Create. Also got a couple of photos to share further down, a fun one of the Horses and the Poppies are out!

AALL and Create released a beautiful new collection this week designed by Abs, I'll be honest and say I've declined some of the recent releases as I'm not a colourist and felt I couldn't do them justice. But as this release is floral I was persuaded to give it a go and above one of those samples. I used Best You Ever Had (1176), Bound to Return (1179), Explosive Bombosive (6) and Power of the Word (754).

I would like to enter this into the new Path of Positivity challenge where theres an optional theme of Goals/Dreams. 

In other news, migraines so, so, still there with the odd clear day, but don't think as violent as the last few months so maybe the treatment is doing something to help. I had an interesting 'educational' day yesterday, the consultant I see for Pernicious Anaemia asked me to be the patient in a video for NHS distribution aimed at encouraging GP practices to promote self injection of B12. I'm lucky as the district nurse does mine every six weeks, but many struggle to get one every twelve weeks, my Daughter and eldest Granddaughter included who both have PA, so I'm hopeful the video will help many like them, it affects far more women than men.

I was hesitant as unlike insulin and migraine injections which come in pre loaded pens and pretty easy to administer, this is a standard needle and injection, but first one done and wasn't that bad actually which is just as well as I need to do them every other day for a good few months to try and get on top of all that's going wrong with my body. 

A second one using flowers from a number of MCS collections, all cut on the Scan and Cut and my favourite Penny Black sentiment, the card was for the Birthday of one of our Granddaughter in laws who celebrated her Birthday this week, she loves Autumnal colours.

Anysia decided the Horses needed new facial fly protection, left it with her to choose and this is what we ended up with, not sure they are impressed? Left to right, my big boy Heskey, Merlin and Penelope.

The first Oriental Poppies came into bloom this week, heres one of them....

Have a good weekend everyone.

Luka on the lookout

Morning everyone, time for new challenges at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where our themes are Fabulous Florals as selected my me (transparent as ever) and a Mood Board along with the usual option of AG with your stamped element. 

At We Love Stamping we have a whole host of prizes to give away as we celebrate 15 years of the challenge blog, it's changed names along the way but still dedicated to stamping and even one or two original DT's. At Stamping Sensations there are some recent Lavinia releases to be won.

Above I've used stamps from this months Lavinia release along with several others and a first outing for some of the new Versafine Clair colours. It's the colours and Digitalis that I have take from the mood board at SS to build up my scene.

My WLS card using one of AALL and Creates DL border stamps, I really like the size of these and it's rather a shame they no longer produce this size and the one I have used here now sold out. An Oxide background, colour to the stamped image, some twine and words from Power of the Word (754).

And this has to be a first, I've actually got the right day to share my May exchange in the Card Chain Challeng following the colours of gold, raspberry and blueberry along with the added stencil option. I used Lavinia's new large Pixie Boot stamp along with lots of smaller worker stamps, my card went to Jo. By sheer coincidence the colours also fit rather nicely with our mood board at Stamping Sensations.

Really hope you will join us this month.

Lots of layers

Morning everyone, a new challenge at Allsorts where Sarah would like to see 'Lots of layers'. Our prize for this week is a bundle of Christmas items, stamps, DP's and stickers.

I did warn there were more AALL and Create washi tape cards in the pipeline, this one uses Sunflower and Hare (102). There are twelve (at the moment) in the layering collection which come in different widths, I'm not sure how many projects you could make with each roll, but I've made five with this roll as they sell well at the RSPCA shop and theres still plenty left for more.

My trusty Tattered Lace hexagonal dies were used on both of these, sentiments on the first form one of my upcoming sentiment sets and on the other is I believe, an old Penny Black.

I've also got one for the current Snippets Playground, not my norm at all but I've been crafting in a bedroom the last couple of weeks as my craft room is under renovation/redecoration so it's been a matter of what I can create where and stamping's defo not been an option. 

Was going to be a straightforward redecoration, until hubby decided to remove the false ceiling to reveal the original Victorian vaulted one, the room's 20' long so really open's it up and makes it much lighter, but also means lots more work ensued.

 

Lots of snippets, Personal Impressions dies along with an embossed panel using an 8x8 folder and guess what, I remembered to take a photo.

Hope everyone has a good weekend and thanks as always for your visits.

The Roaring 20's

Morning everyone, a new challenge at Allsorts and Ellie has selected the theme 'Blast from the Past', a real fun one. We have prizes from Stampendous.

I decided the MCS Art Deco ladies would be perfect for the theme and used three along with a border stencil from Sweet Poppy which has a distinct feel of that era. Looking back at fashions over the years, it's this period that I most admire and would love to have sported some of those outfits.

Each image printed out, die cut and mounted onto the base and an envelope to match each of the three cards.

Had a little interlude in hospital on an IV this week due to Crohn's/Diverticulitis issues, scans and tests ongoing.....I like to add variety to life, but no migraine on two days (yahhhhh)! Did manage a little crafting and tried out some of my new Versafine Clair colours, so far my favs have to be Hawthorn Rose which is just gorgeous, not pink, not lilac, somewhere in-between and Artic, I'm not a blue person but it's nice for Christmas cards

Rudolph Days challenge kicks off again today and I was prepared for a change and have this to share. A mixture of Penny Black and Lavinia stamps and I reverted right back to PB days, inked the fence and trees with DI's, cleaned the stamps whilst still in place on the platform, inked with Versafine and heat embossed with detail clear EP. This allowed me to add the Pan Pastels without muting the colours of the stamping. 

Happy weekend all, if your in the UK a nice long one.