Rudolph Days

 

Hello Peeps, the March Rudolph Days challenge is underway so I have a card to share which I actually manage to complete, stamping as well (using the platform mind you). Taken me all morning but happy to eventually get one decent card under my belt.

Not too much to say about it really other than Lavinia stamps, versafine inks to create the snowflake circle and Pan Pastels for the moon and grounding and of course glitter.

Believe in tomorrow

Morning everyone, we have a two week challenge at Allsorts to accommodate the Easter break. Our theme as chosen by Sarah is 'Keep it Simple. Prized come from Highlight Crafts and Stamp Addicts, as this challenge straddles two months prizes will fall into our draw on April 26th. 

A clean and simple card with a stencilled background, vase is a really old stamp and no idea of the make, stamped cut out and over stamped with AALL and Create Quill Ends (908) and the focal flowers from Woodland (661) again as usual recently stamped then cut out on the Scan and Cut. The sentiment is from my own Believe set. And an envie to match.

Another made quite a time ago but never used, a Gelli Plate circle, the flower Clocks and Flowers (558) and birdies from Blackbird (530). Will admit I'm not sure which set the wording is form other than it's in one of the A&C drawers.

Secret Fairy village

Morning everyone, it's mid month time at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where our themes are Feminine and Spring, along with the option of AG with your stamped element. Fabulous prizes, from Lavinia Stamps and AALL and Create.

Above an inky background and stencilling with crackle paste, a vase from AALL and Create Containers (401) and Daffodils from Elegant Spring Florals (623) all stamped on the platform and cut out on the Scan and Cut - since my left arm/hand went AWAL I've found the machine invaluable. A few fill in flowers and Squirrel from Highlight/TRR and some washi tape.

My SS share as with my one earlier in the month uses lots of Lavinia stamps to create the secret Fairy village which you can find at the end of my garden, like all of us I imagine? The Fairies are busy going about their daily routines including doing the washing and a bit of weeding along the path as the animals watch on.

A few shares of my recent Highlight Crafts makes for last weeks Create and Craft One Day special of MCS Floral Extravaganza. There's so much on this USB and if you love flowers and vibrancy as much I do, then an absolute delight.

I've not really been able to manage any new DT makes for weeks, however bored to tears (aka utterly frustrated) I decided to try and diversify. DT's are required to use Premium Pure Print card (which they supply I might add), its an amazing product and you have to compare print colour against that on a normal card to appreciate the difference

So I always keep part sheets with no printing and scale images in MCS to fit the left over pieces (see below) print and send to the Scan and Cut which cuts them out ready to go. Surprisingly it's then relatively easy with 1.5 hands to design the base cards in Canvas Workspace right down to apertures, again using left over half sheets and let the S&C do most of the work. I was able to arrange the elements and came up with a few presentable cards. I am hoping my part sheets will count as snippets and will pop the above card over to the the Snippets Playground (the word was also cut from oddments of Bazzil)

And my homework complete....

Have a good week everyone.

Fur, Feathers and a Butterfly

Morning Peeps, our new challenge at Allsorts starts today with the theme of Fur and/or Feathers as selected by Ellie. Prizes this month come from Craftstash and AALL and Create and will be drawn on Friday 22nd March.

Two shares, above my favourite Fox from AALL and Creates A4 stamp set In the Wild (529), stamped and just the flowers coloured, stencilling using Digits Checked (110), only a small stencil but so useful which I use over and again. Words from Power of the Word (754) stamped onto black card and embossed with white EP.

This was a Stamp Addicts TV sample using one of the new Terri Sherman stamps, this one Sparrows, as you can see a bit of artistic licence with the colours as my Sparrows turned into Greenfinches! Card base made with Tattered Lace dies and for the background crackle texture paste and a leaf stencil. The birds all cut on the Scan and Cut which I'm finding really useful for cutting stamped images since my left hand and arm went AWAL. The sentiment was one of several released with the birds.

Now for my Butterfly Challenge card, the letter this time is 'D for Decoupage' and I was immediately inspired by that and the colours. So I have incorporated Daffodil, Dairy Cream, Delft Blue and Dark Green from the colour options, die cuts and of course my Butterfly.

I have a huge bag of ready decoupaged Daffodils from my January Flower of the Month Highlight Crafts samples, in hindsight I've no idea why I prepared so many, I literally cut out every printed Reflection they sent so had excess to requirements.

I used MCS/Canvas Workspace/Scan and Cut to create the base layers including apertures and with the Daffodils ready cut and decoupaged so it was just a matter of adding a piece of acetate and arranging the flowers. A few TRR Lily of the Valley, again ready cut to bring in some blue, ribbon,  Butterfly which is AALL and Create ephemera and a die cut word.

The Clematis Armandii is just breaking into flower (looks a bit shadowed as took the photos at 6.30am before the sun rose) and looking and smelling glorious, it straddles a fence and garden seat and looks lovely both sides. On the left you can see a Magnolia which is now intermingled with it.

As always my appreciation for your kind visits and words of encouragement.

Butterfly Meadows

Morning everyone, time for a new challenge at Allsorts where Lynn has chosen the theme of 'Use Yellow'. Prizes come from Craftstash and AALL and Create.

Yellow is a colour I love incorporating into my work, perfect for Spring but equally throughout the year combined with different colours, black and purple in particular.

Above one of the newish dies from AALL and Create, Oxides brayered onto the background, some random text stamped, Butterflies and words from Through the Meadow (449) stamped onto offcuts and cut out. So as there's lots of snippets, Butterflies, words and even the tag itself I'm off over to the Snippets Playground with it. 

And I even remembered to take a photo of my snippets......maybe I'll avoid detention this time round.

This is another recent Highlight Crafts sample for Create and Craft using Flower of the Month Daffodil and one of the new stencils from Highlight.

Just For One Day was awesome and we all decided even better that We Will Rock You which we saw in July. And some very exciting news, we have received invitations to attend eldest Son's investiture at Buckingham Palace on 1st May....feel a new outfit coming on!

More Spring Flowers

Morning everyone, new challenges at We Love Stamping and Stamping Sensations where our themes are Feminine as selected by Cathy and Spring, as always theres the option of AG with your stamped element. We always have fabulous prizes, but just take a look on the challenge blogs what we have this month from Lavinia Stamps and AALL and Create.

Above was for Cathy's Birthday in January and uses the gorgeous new(ish) Hellebore from AALL and Create (1063), stamped, coloured and cut our several times to create a spray of blooms. The background is Snow Crystals (221) which I think works for a soft background any time of year. A birdie, word from the same stamp set and matching envie. Most of our Hellebore are dark pink but giving a lovely display this year and still blooming after several weeks.

My SS share uses a plethora of Lavinia stamps both old and new. My idea was as well as feminine I wanted a Spring feel, when I showed hubby and asked the question his answer "well I suppose it has a rabbit", no help whatsoever. A gently shaded oxide background in what to me are Spring colours, the branch stamped and masked to add further branches and blossoms added. In hindsight the sentiment was probably a step to far making it incredibly busy, but it's my first stamped card for weeks, took ages and the stamp platform did most of the work, but satisfying to actually get one finished.

And here is the card I sent to Tina in Slovenia for this month Card Chain Challenge, Lavinia all the way. I followed the three colour prompts plus Flowers and stencil.

A hint of Spring

Morning everyone, time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Lorraine has chosen one of my favourite themes Spring. Prizes which come from AALL and Create and Aldridge Crafts will be drawn on 29th March.

A delicate single Snowdrop using AALL and Creates Elegant Spring Florals (623), an A4 stamp set which has every flower you need to create beautiful Spring cards. I masked to created a soft central frame with Twisting and Turning (157) stencil and Oxides, stamped the Snowdrop, added a little shading, a sentiment stamped onto vellum, twine and a birdie.

Above Daffodils from Highlights on an acetate twisted easel card. They are another in the series of Flower of the Month, samples are usually required well in advance and these made in December, but were the last batch created for them. I did however venture into MCS this week and found I was able to do a bit of creating one handed with just a bit of nudged assistance from the left.

And, a freestanding acetate creation with Wordsworth's Daffodils poem focally and again Daffodils in various colourways.

In case you missed my last post there is a new discount code for Highlight Crafts, it's proved popular and on the sidebar (BLOG7582).

All going to plan will be in London this weekend to see Just for one Day with youngest son and wife so will stay with them. We went to Live Aid back in the day so really wanted to see this, it's only running for six weeks and I was nearly 5,000th in the queue the day tickets went on sale, four hours later felt lucky to get tickets front row of the dress circle with bubbles included as they are charity seats.