Diary dates for C&C and Big demo Day

Good morning to you all, hope everyone's week is going well and welcome to my new followers.

I've been an extremely bad blogger this week and realised this morning it's several days since I posted anything. The last couple of weeks has been one of those periods when life gets in the way and on the crafty front I've had my head down preparing samples for several upcoming Create and Craft Stamp Addicts programs which I can't share just yet, although I can tell you the first of the new programs will be at 2pm on 23rd October, followed by Paper Clinic on 12th November and 29th November. 

And on top of that I'm trying to prepare myself for the 5th Ultimate Rubber Stamping Demo Day at Sir Stampalot on 27th of October, if you've never been to this event before you really should try to come along. This year we have no less than eight different demonstrators all under one roof offering a huge variety of different crafting techniques. I will be doing what I enjoy most, creating scenes using Penny Black and Art Impression stamps and my latest favourite colouring medium Pan Pastels. 

As always there will be refreshments available throughout the day and special offers in store, so I really hope to see some of you, it's always nice to catch up with old friends and meet new new ones as well.

I had better give a quick explanation of my card which is one I made the other day for a friends birthday. I masked the edges of a piece of coated card stock, masked a moon and brayered black Adirondack ink, then stamped Penny Black 3381K Aspire. The crane is from Animal Spirit stamps which I stamped in black and embossed with detailed clear, Sue's wonderful art work is so detailed in needs nothing more.

As always many thanks for popping in, have a good Wednesday.

A crane takes flight

Good Morning everyone, well I hope it will be when this pops up as I am scheduling it as by now I should be checked into hospital and become robotic linked up to machines and a "probe".....don't much like the sound of that bit.........monitoring my hearts activity for a couple of days. To say I am petrified is an understatement, not so much by the tests, more by what they may find, although they have already told me it will be a few days before I get all the results as they need to be "analysed". And being removed from my craft desk and computer will be a huge wrench, so I guess I will have to be a virtual crafter and dream cards for a while.

My share for today is one of the samples I have just finished for Sue of Animal Spirit stamps, this one uses the lovely Crane stamp and I have combined it with a bit of inking and brayering. I stuck with two colours of Adirondack dye ink, butterscotch and hazelnut. The trees are Inkylicious as is the sentiment. I stamped the crane onto Copic cardstock and coloured with Copics.

Hope you all have a good day and as always, thank you so much for dropping by.

Animal Spirits share

Good Morning peeps, this weeks theme at Allsorts has been chosen by my teamie Jill and she would like us to make 'Anything but a Square'.

So I thought I would share one of the samples I recently did for Sue, the talented artist behind Animal Spirits Stamps. You can buy the stamps direct from Sue's US website or in the UK from Sir Stampalot.

Out came the Grand Nesties Labels 23, I just love the shape of these ones and now I have my Bog Shot Pro cutting the large ones is a doddle.............I probably didn't mention.............dare not really as I recently killed off my second Big Shop Express, so I decided to go the whole hog and go for the Big Boy.

My image is stamped with versafine black and embossed with detail clear, then coloured with Copics. The DP is October Afternoon, the roses cut from the same DP using a Marianne die and the leaves cut from hessian and coloured with TH inks. The sentiment is computer generated.

If you are having a fireworks party, enjoy and take care.

Inspiration from the most unlikely places

Good Morning peeps, hope you are all having a good week.

'Puter' problems seem sorted I am pleased to say and I've got so much added virus protection now I should withstand all comers, I can but hope. So a couple of shares, both much of a muchness using a stamped image and a digi image just to try and prove to myself that I can be versatile if I really try.

Before I launch into my cards, a heads up that it will be Freebie Friday again tomorrow at Sir Stampalot, so if you have not already signed up for Smudges newsletter, click here to be sure of getting advance details of this weeks freebie offer.........remember, whatever it is will only be available for that one day.

Now I'll tell you the same as I told Ruth of A Passion for Stamps about how the idea behind both these cards came into being...........last Friday evening as it was getting dusk I was collecting acorns in one of the paddocks.........as you do............ a big full moon was just rising and a pair of pheasants strutted out from the headland of the adjoining field in front of me............and there was my card !!

In both I have used simple masking and brayering to create a background using the good old Speedball brayer and Adirondack dye inks slate and pitch black. I used the slate first to create a misty look, then went over the top section with the black to create more shadow.

The sentiment on the top card is Penny Black 2905H and on the second from a Sheena Douglass set. The grasses are Penny Black 3381K and the the bird at the top is one of Sue's newer Animal Spirit images which you can purchase here, stamped very simply with versafine back and embossed with detail clear.

The pheasants on the second card were drawn by Ruth and were printed out in two sizes onto Neenah cardstock, I was really quick the the old detail clear and was able to emboss them then added a bit of grey here and there with a Copic pen.

Animal Spirit's and really clever storage

Hello everyone, hope you are all having a good Tuesday. I've got some really special shares today.

I had a delivery from Sue of Animal Spirit stamps today with some of her new artwork which is just beautiful. I have only managed one make so far using the Crane stamp and as I told Sue, the moment I set eyes on the bird in flight I knew there had to be a brayered sun. I coloured it exactly the same way as previous samples using Copics and took my colour inspiration from the orange sky. You can buy the stamps direct from Animal Spirits here or in the UK from Sir Stampalot.

And this lovely storage carousel is also from Sir Stampalot, the first delivery last week sold out.........lucky me got one of those...........but more are expected in the next couple of days, so if you like the look of it get your name down quickly because I am sure they will walk again.

It sits on an integral swivel base so spins round so you can easily grab whatever you need next. It measures just under a foot wide...............I use proper measurements..................and has various sized storage sections which go up in tiers. And...............the six little drawers come filled with goodies including ribbon, flowers, gems and so on, so a steal at £24, 95. I am already wondering how I managed without mine.

A Passion for Stamps and a recipe

It's Amanda's turn to host the theme at Allsorts this week and she has another recipe for us.

I have used one of the new stamps from Animal Spirit, by artist Sue Coccia. After stamping and embossing the butterfly I coloured with Copics then simply mounted onto a piece of Bo Bunny DP which I stamped round the edges with Hero Arts 5042K, adding some ribbons and a flower which I made from two coordinating pieces of DT........honest there are three different ones to fit the theme.

Also a share of another sample I did for Ruth at Passion for Stamps, if you've not checked out her lovely stamps yet, you really should, I am loving all the florals. As lots of your know, I love paper piecing and am finding the Nitwits DPs's run through my printer beautifully, so that's what I have used here, along with a bit of inking and sponging on the background. The butterfly is also one of Ruth's images which I reduced in size and printed on the same DP.

Animal Spirit stamps

As promised in my post yesterday and assuming Mr Blogger is happy with me today as this is scheduled, here are a couple more of the samples I made using Sue's wonderful artwork at Animal Spirit, which being all Nature orientated are right up my street.

A trip to Sue's website is well advised and as well as being able to view all her products she explains how she formulates her designs, where her inspiration is drawn from, how long each design takes and so on. If you would like to try out these new stamps you can buy them here or if you are in the States direct from Animal Spirits by following the link above. The images take a while to colour in, but every second is worthwhile as they really are amazing and to my mind fill a gap in stamp market.

The same Swan stamp in both of these cards, but two totally different looks. As I said last time I posted work using these stamps, I am still very much in the experimental stage and with the one above tried a different approach working through the image section by section.

With the first few including the one below, I picked out what were to me the predominant elements within the image and coloured those first and worked from there.

I am reasonably happy with both techniques, but still have more ideas to bring Sue's wonderful artwotk to life. She is currently working on some new designs and I am really looking forward to seeing what she comes up with. Finally I must thank Sue for her kind comments about my work and thank her for the opportunity to work with her beautiful images.

Animal Spirit amazing stamps

Hiyya Peeps, I've got some Stampalot samples again but something a bit different card wise using some stamps with absolutely amazing artwork. They are called Animal Spirit designed by Sue Coccia for Earth Art International and you can find them here.

I also need to let you know that the long awaited re-stocks of TH tattered floral have landed and you will find them here and also the new Tilda Sweet Rainbow range are presently being uploaded.

This picture is a close up of just one element within the swan stamp so you can appreciate the incredible detail within each one. I stamped with versfaine black and embossed with detail clear and then coloured with Copics. The DP is from the new Bo Bunny range. I am still very much at the experimental stage trying to decided which elements need picking out to give best effect.

Also a reminder to you all that Saturday is Allsorts second Birthday and we have some special celebrations and prizes to share. Now I know this is totally bad timing on my part as it's my turn to host the challenge and I am in Edinburgh for a long weekend as three of the children are running the marathon.....well should be lurking injuries allowing.
So I have scheduled all the posts and am keeping everything crossed that Blogger's in a good mood and does not throw a hissy fit like last weekend.

The butterfly stamps from the same Animal Spirit range, stamped and coloured in exactly the same way as my top card, but this time I added two coats of UTEE after colouring and it worked beautifully.