Another tropical shore

Good morning to you all, how's the weather your way ? I've seen snow in March before, but never in the volume we seem to have had the last few days and it's not in any hurry to shift. And there was me thinking it's almost Easter so it must be Spring.

I have my mid month inspiration for Craft a Scene challenge where the March them is 'Tropical Shores', I am not actually on the DT any longer as I decided to step down, but I already had this months work prepared so would like to share it and remind people about the challenge.

I would also like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has joined in my Blog Celebration so far, I am totally overwhelmed by the beautiful and varied creations and humbled by the great efforts to which you have all gone to create such special pieces of artwork. I know there are still some of you planning to join in and as I said in my initial post I am going to let it run for another week or two yet.

My card uses in the main stamps from Stampscapes, although the sentiment is from Printworks and the surfer image one I had specially made to make cards for for our second eldest son who is a keen surfer. I first stamped the images and reflection in the water then masked a sun before adding colour with Pan Pastels and a bit of shading with watercolour pencils.

As always thanks for popping in with your kind comments and hope you have a good week.

Serengeti sunset

Good Morning all my crafty friends, it's the first Sunday of the month so time for some new challenges and at Stamping Sensations our theme is 'The Great Outdoors', at Penny Black and More it's 'One for the Boys' and at Craft a Scene it's all about 'Tropical Shores.

For my Penny Black DT piece at the top of this post I have used one of the new Spring release stamps  40-194 Go Wild because as soon as I saw this set I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it and thought it would be ideal for this months theme. I started by stamping the background using a Judikins cube using two of the images and repeat stamping one of them. Next I masked a sun and coloured the Serengeti sky with Pan Pastels, stamped the focal animals and  coloured the remainder again with Pan Pastels and added a bit of shading with watercolour pencils. Finally I stamped some random branches and grasses to frame the scene. The sentiment is from the same PB stamp set.

For my Stamping Sensations DT piece I have used an image from our sponsor Crafty Individuals CI-367 Flowers and Butterflies repeat stamped simply in black archival ink onto a background created with Pan Pastels. After stamping the images I sponged some sun rays with Adirondack dye ink, then added the bird tucked among the founa which is from Chocolate Baroque and some birds in flight.

My final share is my Craft a Scene DT piece. I stamped the scene using a mixture of Sutter, Inkadinkadoo and Stampscape images and as per usual masked the sun and coloured all with Pan Pastels and watercolour pencils plus some white gel pen to accentuate the rolling waves and grasses in the foreground.

I really hope you will join in our challenges this month, we have loads of fabulous prizes on offer.

Shining light

Afternoon all, I'm here with my mid month inspirational share for Craft a Scene challenge where it's all about Lighthouses this month and the theme 'Let your light shine'.

When I did my DT pieces I really did think I only had one lighthouse so both my pieces this month feature that one, however I have since discovered a sadly neglected Stamps Happen one........in fact a whole draw full of lovely wood mounted stamps from that company so I think it's a sign that I might have a few more stamps than I really need. ?

Anyhow, to create this one I used a Stampscapes cumulus stamp for the sky along with an Art Impression boat, lighthouse, rocks and gulls and a Lavinia tree using just the edges across the top corner. All colouring has again been done with Pan Pastles.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Foxes, fur and feathers

Morning everyone, time for our new monthly challenges............would you believe I had my post all ready to go for a good couple of weeks ago, then for reasons known only to Blogger it totally disappeared so this is a bit of a hasty one.

At Stamping Sensations our new theme is Fur and Feathers, at Penny Black and More we are going Pink, Pearly and Swirly and at Craft a Scene we want to see lighthouses in Let Your Light Shine.

The card at the top is my fur offering using a gorgeous new stamp from Sutter Stamps..............my plan to refrain from any new stamps for a few months lasted zilch seconds and I have to say I love this one. It is coloured with Pan Pastels with a little shading with watercolour pencils.

And a rarity for me as I am entering some challenges:

Pan Pastels - Animals
Raise the bar - Animal Attraction

The pink card above is really quite a simple one using dies, ribbons and lace and a Penny Black stamp for the focal sentiment.

Next my feather offering using a Crafty Individuals stamp and the same colouring system as the top card. I kept the colours and embellies rustic to compliment the image.

My lighthouse scene uses an Art Impression lighthouse, Sutter Stamps waves and rocks and cloud cumulus from Stampscapes and you got it.......Pan Pastels.

And finally, a really simply stamped card using a Penny Black sentiment and a baroque corner from Flonz Craft, some pearls and ribbon.

Have a good Sunday everyone, I am slowly getting round to everyone, only short comments so far but I'm building on it.

It's that Labrador again

Good afternoon to you all, an extra post from me this week as I made a bit of a boo-boo last Sunday and posted my Craft a Scene challenge mid month 'Snowy Cottages' inspiration a week early, so I thought I had better come up with another piece for today.

To create my winter cottage scene I use quite a few stamps, the trees and path to the right of the card are part of a Sutter Stamps image but as I thought the Stampscape cottage would nestle nicely into it I masked sections of the image I didn't want to use before inking........... does that sound double Dutch ? In case it does I'll try and explain a little clearer, I stuck pieces a post-it notes over the sections I didn't want to stamp them inked the remainder of stamp but remove the post it notes before stamping otherwise the ink on those would transfer onto my card.

The fence to the fore of the scene is also from Sutter stamps and the doggy is the Labrador from Andover Stamps................those that may missed it the last time I used it, this company make nothing but dog stamps and just about every breed you could imagine and they were even kind enough to custom make this one with out the oval surround whioch should have been on it. I coloured sky and landscape with Pan Pastels and highlighted here and there with watercolour pencils.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Pan Pastels snowy cottages

Time for me to share my mid month inspirational post for Craft a Scene challenge where our theme is 'Snowy Cottages' and I think I must have had foresight when I made this one as the weather here in the UK is indeed snowy and frosty just like the scene in my card.

The village scene has been created with a Penny Black stamp which I stamped a second time to extend the scene, the little deer are part of a Hobby Art stamp which I masked before inking so I only got the two animals and the man and his dog are Art Impressions. I lightly water coloured the cottages and added snow to the roofs and added a little shading here and there to the sky and foreground using Pan Pastels.

I know the idea of creating a scene is a bit scary if it's not something you do as a norm, but really it's such fun and I think if you select a few of your favourite images and experiment on a piece of copier paper and try brining several together you will be surprised how they can take on a whole new perspective for you. And it would be really lovely to see some new faces at our challenge so go on give it a try !

Keep warm and safe everyone and enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Friendship

It's the first Sunday of the New Year so that means new challenges to tell you about at Stamping Sensations, where are theme selected by our very own Tracy is 'Friendship', at Penny Black and More we we are thinking ahead to Valentines and Spring weddings with the theme 'Love is in the Air' and at Craft a Scene we would like to see 'Snowy Cottages'. 

At all three challenges we have some fabulous prizes on offer from a host of wonderful sponsors so please do pop over to the challenge blogs to check them out.

My card at the top is my DT piece for Stamping Sensations which I kept fairly simple as the Marianne die is so very pretty. The roses and leaves are also made Marianne dies. I would like to enter this card for:

Sweet Stampin - White plus one
Stamping for the Weekend - Anything Goes

The middle card is again fairly simple, I cut three heart shapes into a piece of copy paper and use them as a mask to shade the shapes with Panel Pastels, then stamped Penny Black image through the apertures. The sentiment is from the same slapstick stamp set........details in the thumbnails below.

As I have used Pan Pastels on the above card I thought I would enter it for their challenge:

Pan Pastels - Anything Goes

Hotshot Crafts - Clean and Simple

My final piece is using one of Teri's lovely Delicious Doodles wintertime images, which I printed out and coloured very lightly with Pan Pastels. I distress the edges a little to give it an aged feel and simply matted it onto some red card stock and added a red satin ribbon.

Thanks so much for taking a look and I really hope you'll be able to join in with our challenges this month.

Happy Christmas

Good afternoon Peeps.

My share today is my mid month DT piece for Craft a Scene challenge and as our theme is 'Winter Scenes'  I thought it was a rather fitting card for my Christmas post to wish all my blog land friends...............

A Very Happy Christmas

and a

Healthy, Happy and Crafty New Year

I know lots of you will have activities planned over the seasonal period and wish you a wonderful time, but I am acutely aware that there are those not fortunate enough to either have or be near family and friends at Christmas and I hope your holiday period will be peaceful and contented.

Wild horses

Good morning Peeps, hope you had a good weekend and got a few things ticked off the Christmas 'to do' list. Welcome to my new followers, it's lovely to have you join in. 

Despite all good intentions I didn't get very much blogging done this weekend and even struggled with my DT rounds, really don't feel much like anything still I'm afraid, but I will get there eventually I'm sure and thankfully this post was already scheduled from here on.

Time for me to share my second DT pieces for Craft a Scene challenge where this months theme is simply 'Winter Scenes' and FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping where our theme is 'A Pocket Full of Posies'.

For my card at the top I stamped the Hero Arts image twice with black archival, but masked out the little deers as I wanted to add the horses instead which are an old Inkadinkadoo set which I've wanted for ages and one of my sons managed to source for me on e.bay recently. I added the colour with Pan Pastels and a little bit of glitter on the snowdrifts. The star is Hobby Arts.

My second piece uses several stamps from FlonzCraft stamped and embossed with detail copper onto a background created with distress ink......picked raspberry, tea dye and Victorian velvet which I spritzed with pearl glimmer mist. The bird and branch is a TH alterations die and the flowers are the same Flonzcraft image which I used around the edge and coloured with the same distress inks and glimmer mist then cut out and decoupaged.

I hope you all have a good Monday.

More trees

Good morning to all my crafty friends, it doesn't seem possible that these are our last monthly challenges of 2012, so where did the year go ?

It appears that all of my DT pieces are rather scenic........... yet again I hear you say, but unless I've got a clear directive I always seem to revert to my comfort zone of creating little scenes with a good few trees thrown in for good measure.

The good thing is I think some of this months themes can be quite easily combined so hopefully I'll see you popping up at several of the challenges this time around.

The top card is my DT creation for Penny Black and More challenge where we have the theme 'It's Your Choice' and it's really quite a simple make, a piece of card stock masked top and bottom, Pan Pastels blended with a masked sun and over stamping in black archival with Penny Black stamps........... all listed on the picture thumbnail links below.

My next piece is the first of my Stamping Sensations DT piece where our theme is 'TreeMendous'........it's not as scary as it sounds as I think everyone has a Christmas tree stamp lurking somewhere..........using the Three Tree Trio from this months sponsors Visible Image who sell a fabulous range of good quality clear stamps. Some soft shading with Pan Pastels, a touch of snow glitter and a Lavinia stag stamp.

The card above is this month DT piece for Craft a Scene challenge, again soft sponging with Pan Pastels, some trees and the little cottage is from this month sponsor Robyns Fetish. 

Phew, nearly there this is my second piece for Stamping Sensations using a gorgeous large tree from Chocolate Baroque, smaller tree which is Stampscapes as is the fence and the little sheep are from Art Impressions which I gave a fluffy coat with liquid applique.

And finally just one more....................... yep, I could make tree cards all week and this is another one using the Three Tree stamp from Visible Image, this time embossed with Frantage plus some more around the edge of the base layer. The white trees were embossed with detail clear and then the whole piece distressed with TH mowed lawn, tea dye and a little over stamping round the edges with some music and holly stamps.

Enjoy your Sunday and thank you so much for dropping by.

Troubled skies

It is time for me to share my second piece for the month at Craft a Scene challenge were our theme is troubled skies. 

There are lots of ways you can depict a troubled sky, but for me it immediately said lightning, initially I found it difficult to get the lightning to show up but after the fourth type of white pen it eventually worked reasonably well.

Stamps used are a mixture of Art Impressions, Andy Skinner, Inkylicious, Chocolate Baroque and Memory Box and all colouring and shading has been done with Pan Pastels. 

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday everybody.

Storm clouds brewing

Good morning Peeps, hope everyone is having a good week.

I'm a bit behind showing you my mid month DT inspirational cards, so apologies to my team mates at Craft a Scene and FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping challenges. The delays all stem from my computer problems last week when several of my schedule posts were deleted along with some of the images in my gallery, so it's been back to basics as I've had to start again with a lot of my work. 

The card at the top follows this months theme at Craft a Scene where it's all about 'Troubled Skies'. I wanted to achieve a really brooding stormy sky and used the cumulus stamp from Stampscapes along with several others to create the scene and coloured with Pan Pastels. 

My second card following our 'Traditional Christmas' theme uses another of the lovely vintage style images from FlonzCraft which are paper pieced with Kaiser Craft DP and I use the coordinating ones for the background and poinsettia which is a spellbinder die.

As anyone who visits regularly will know I really enter challenges nowadays as my eyes can't cope with all linking up, but today I'm going to have a go as I've seen a couple on my DT rounds which I think these cards would work for. 

The first is the top card which I would like to enter into:

An Oldie but a Goodie - Anything but Christmas (all stamps are oldies by a good few years)

Speedy and Friends - Add a fence

and he second card:

J&C Creations - Floral delights - I am hoping my poinsettia will fit the bill

Stamp and Create - Lace

Have a good Tuesday and is always thinking so much for visiting.

November themes

The first Sunday of the month again and time for new challenges at Craft a Scene with the theme 'Troubled Skies', at Penny Black and More it's all about dies 'Any Die Will Do' and  in case you haven't heard the news that change is afoot, we have a relaunched challenge called Stamping Sensations, same DT, same great themes and some fabulous new sponsors and this month the theme is 'Traditonal Christmas'.

It's a bit of a photo heavy post so I will try and keep the blurb to a minimum. The card above is the first of two DT pieces for Penny Black and More using Penny Black 4035K Letters and Flowers which I inked with distress markers and spritzed with water before stamping on to an oval cut from a new Marianne die which I inked whilst it was still in the die. Bo Bunny DP's, some lace and pearls to finish.

Initially I was a little bit uncertain about the troubled skies theme at Craft a Scene challenge but I knew I wanted to see some lightning, so I started by stamping some Stampscape images then added colour with Pan Pastels and drew in the lightning with a white marker pen.

My second Penny Black and More piece uses FlonzCraft Umbrella Girl which I paper pieced with Penny Black Madison DP's which are also used behind the Marianne dies. The sentiment is also Penny Black. 

Note added: I'll forget my own head one of these days, I need to tell you that both Flonz Craft and Indigo Blue are offering discounts to those who enter Penny Black and More and Stamping Sensations, full details on the respective challenge blogs.

My next piece is using a stamp from one of our new Stamping Sensations sponsors Indigo Blue called Lollipop Three. I heat embossed the image with detailed gold, then created a background using Pan Pastels and added a mixture of frantage colours to the bottom. I know this one is not particularly traditional Christmas, but I base my idea on a visit close to Christmas to the Garden of Gethsemane and the Basilica Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, when at dusk everything looked purple, so you couldn't get much closer to the true meaning of Christmas I figure.

My final piece use a mixture of dies including the new Marianne holly one which I just 'had to have'. Sentiment is another from Penny Black.

I hope you all enjoy your Sunday and that you will join in with our challenges this month.

Majestic mountains

Good afternoon all you crafty peeps, hope everyone is having a good weekend.

It's my turn to share a second piece for this month's theme of Majestic Mountains at Craft a Scene challenge. We've seen some lovely pieces of artwork this month and for those of you for haven't had time to join in yet there are still a few days left, so I really do hope to see you over at the challenge blog.

All my stamps on this one are from Stampscapes, stamped with black archive ink and then coloured with Pan Pastels and as I hadn't done a 'sunray sky' for a while I thought I would throw one of them in for good measure, this was done by sponging Adirondakc dye ink. Which reminds me quite a few people have asked for a tutorial on the sky so I'll do my best to get something sorted as soon as possible.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and thanks for popping in, your comments are always so appreciated.

Owl OK

Hello Peeps, the first Sunday the month so it's time for new challenges and we have quite a selection for you this month. At Craft a Scene we have the lovely theme of ' Majestic Mountains', at Stampalot it's 'Punch Away' and that Penny Black and More it's all about 'Animal Magic'.

As you might guess the one at the top of my post is my Craft the Scene DT piece where I have combined stamps from Stampscapes, Chocolate Baroque and Art Impressions. I stamped all with black archival ink using the third generation ink for the mountains to achieve softer look and did all the colouring with Pan Pastels. I thought the castle felt a little bit Halloween/Frankenstein'ish, so I filled in the wings of the birds to look like bats.

My second card above is my Stampalot DT piece, I paper pieced the dress and water coloured the smaller elements. A punched border and some ribbons, die cut flowers and swirl and DP from stash and I'm afraid I have absolutely no idea of the make, then finally a few pearls to embellish.

My third and final piece is for Penny Black and More is very simple and straightforward, paper piecing again, a punched border, lace and ribbon. I fretted about this one a bit as I felt the theme title indicated cute but needless to say I have very little that fits that bill so the owl it was. And I did Google it and birds and feathered creatures are all considered animals apparently.

My craft room is just about finished now so I'm hoping the weather will be kind today and I can get some photos done to share, watch this space !

As always my thanks for popping by and I hope you will join in with our challenges this month.