From grunge to new Tattered Lace

We have a new challenge starting over at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges, the them is Tic Tac Toe and I will admit I had to check what exactly that was, seems it's just another name for bingo, so I went with the Blue/Brown, Cord and Flowers line. As always there is a very generous $20 voucher to be won from FlonzCraft.

My starting pint was to spray Dylusions and pearl Glimmer Mist onto the reverse of a piece of Centura Pearl and then add some diamonds with a mask and DI. Next I used several Flonz stamps around the top and at the bottom Flonz Thistles which I coloured in with the same Dyslusions. I added some Frantage around the edges, tied some cord, added a blue and cream rose and mounted onto a piece of corrugated card from my ever growing stash of it.

Using Moonlight Dance and  Dance like Nobody is Watching  

As I indicated the other day, there is a new Tattered Lace Pick of the Day starting at 9pm tonight on Ideal World TV and Create and Craft tomorrow. These new dies were waiting for me when we arrived home from holiday so I was thrust straight back into creativity.

Using Horse and Rider - one of the granddaughters loves this one so think it will get well used

Using over the edge Treeline and Houses

Many thanks for popping in today and hope you all have a good week.

Dance, Sing, Love

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are Feature a Creature and Add a Sentiment. 

The card at the top uses my all time favourite stamp Penny Black Dance, Sing , Love, I use it time and again and make no excuses that it pops so often on my blog as I think it is such a happy and uplifting quote.

A year on and I am still exploring my sewing machine that hubby bought for my Birthday last year and just discovered this pretty embroidery style stitch, it's not an expensive or fancy machine but does have a few nice features. So after stitching around the edges of a piece of cream cardstock I stamped the sentiment and embossed with detail clear powder. The flowers and leaves are Tattered Lace Trio sets which I cut from card spritzed with Dylusions and Glimmer Mist and then stamped the centre's with the matching Trio stamp set. A pretty organza bow made on the Embellishment Attic bow maker and ribbon slide to finish.

My stamping Sensations piece is a Fathers Day card I made for our daughter to give her Dad back in June. I masked the central oval and stamped a variety of stamps from Inkylicious, Lavinia, Art Impressions and Clarity and with the mask still in place used Pan Pastles to create the background of the scene. The poppies were inked with distress markers, the sentiment with archival black and the finished piece matted an layered on to a large landscape base cut from a sheet of A3 cardstock.

I do hope you will join in our challenges this month, as always we have some fabulous prizes to be won.

Blue as the Ocean

Good morning, time for another challenge at Allsorts and this week Helene has chosen the them of 'Blue as the Ocean' which can be interpreted through the colours, water and I am sure you will think of lots of other ways of using the theme. Our sponsors are Stamp Addicts. 

One of our son's is a keen surfer, in fact when I wrote this up and scheduled a few weeks ago...............nothing like getting ahead.......... he was surfing the waves in Costa Rica, so when I saw these new stamps from Sheena I had to buy them as I am fast running our of idea for his Birthday cards with the only other 'grown up' surf board stamp I have. 

I inked the stamps with archival sepia and heat embossed with details clear then coloured in with Spectrum Noir pencils. I cut out the larger surf board and placed it at the front of the card along with some shells and netting. Then matter the whole piece onto an embossed panel.

My second card is using some of the new 2015 Christmas stamps from this weeks sponsor Stamp Addicts and is one of several DT pieces I have made for them using this and some of the other new stamps. As the stamps are all Christmas ones I have gone with the colour of this weeks theme and started with stamping several of the snowflakes and stars from the Stars of Wonder set using versamak and heat embossing with detail clear powder. Next I spritzed with two shades of blue Dylusions and pearl mica spray which gives a resist finish over the embossing. The Poinsettia is stamped six times on a piece of card sprayed with the same inks, cut out and decopaged, and fixed into the card with some ribbons and a Stamp Addicts sentiment cut in half to make two pieces.

It's my Birthday today and although I am a bit past wanting to celebrate them and would be quite happy with a quiet glass or two of something with bubbles, that's not an option as later today we have a Birthday party for our Grandson with whom I share this special day. About 40 family are coming and a 'grown up' bouncy castle is booked so I will sneak on there at some point...................and I can assure you..............are you listening Zoe................this time there will be no repeats of last years party when unbeknown to me some photos of my bouncy castle adventure somehow made their way to Facebook.

 Happy weekend all.

New Trio sets from Tattered Lace

Hello Peeps, I hope your week is going well.

Tomorrow sees the launch of lots of new Tattered Lace goodies and lucky me has been playing with them for the last couple of weeks and today I can share a few with you.

The new Trio sets are so clever, each set has three dies, a small embossing folder and there are stamps as well. Needless to say I have been in my element with so many flowers to play with and quite a few have been given the inky treatment, plus I have also done some colouring in.........I know shock horror..............using the new Nursery Rhyme stamps along with the matching dies.

I used the Sophie (leaves) and Kirsty Trio sets on the top card, as soon as I saw the latter set it yelled out Poppies to me, but to be fair it makes so many flowers including lovely Pansies. Both the background, Poppies and leaves have been given the Dylusion and Mica spray treatment along with some masking and grunge paste.

I have used several of the Trio sets on this one, Emma, Kirsty, Sophie, Rebecca and Nicola and a Pan Pastel background. The sentiment is also Tattered Lace which I cut down into two parts

Little Bo Peeps from one of the Nursery Rhyme stamp sets, I masked the sheep to create a flock............might make it easier for her to find them as well !! The flowers are made from the Rebecca Trio set

A fairly simple matted and layered card using the Tractor die and With Love from the Get Started set which was POTW recently

I cut these flowers from felt and the dies cut through it perfectly with just one run through the e.bosser. It doesn't show up too well on my photo, but I was really surprised to find the felt picked up the pattern from the embossing folder really well

I used the Rebecca Trio set to make the roses, Sophie the leaves and dipped them along with Butterfly Wondrous into UTEE, shading all with Pan Pastels

Thanks so much for taking a look today and I hope you get time to see some of the programmes.

April showers bring May flowers

It's Saturday morning and today it's my turn to choose the theme at Allsorts which is 'April showers bring May flower'. Our sponsors are DigiStamp Boutique and Stix2.

The first of my two cards is the 'showers' using some Inkylicious stamps which are fairly new to me and were the inspiration behind this weeks theme. I created the background with Dylusions and Glimmer Mist and stamped the girl with her unbrella, raindrops and sentiment with black archival ink. The Penny Black bird and bushes across the bottom were also stamped in black archival and some liquid pearls added here and there.

I used a white highlighter pen to add some reflection to the raindrops and matted the piece onto coordinating bazzil cardstock with a punched border down the leading edge.

My second card is a bit of a fun using several new Tattered Lace dies to create a flowerpot full of blooms which you will also find over at the Tattered Lace blog today. It's also a great way to use up your snippets of DP making the flowers.

I made the flowerpot base card from Kraft card, it's simple to make just cutting the pot shape to the size of card you want to achieve and then adding another piece of the same card to create the top section. I decorated the bottom section with Embellishment Attic ribbon and TL Anne border.

Next I cut loads of flowers using TL Charisma Primrose and Sping Blooms which recently premiered on Create and Craft using snippets of DP in various colours and layered them up and used buttons and tiny bows to the middles. Then I arrange the flowers in the pot and popped in leaves cut from TL Leaf Branches.I think this would make a lovely Birthday card or get well card as the blossoms are sure to cheer.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

Things with wings

When is a baby shoe not a baby shoe, when it's a Butterfly of course !!

Morning Peeps, a mega quick post from hubby's work computer, seems my computer issues are ongoing, had no access to mails, blogger or internet since midday Friday and fast losing the will to live as it seems to be a never ending sage. 

Seems the only way is going to be to totally dump my computer, lappy and tablet as they were all linked so shared the hacking problem. Meantime here are a few of my recent Tattered Lace cards which you may have seen here including the butterfly (made from the new Baby Shoe die) which Nancy apparently rather liked, thank you for your kind words Nancy.

I have been busily working away on new creations for the Tattered Pace Pick of the Day which launches on Create and Craft on Friday 13th March. A heads up you will definitely want to made a note in your diaries not to miss this one as there are some awesome must have's in the show, ake it from me !

Hope you all have a good week and I will see you when I can get sorted.

Brusho playtime

First I saturated the cardstock (see below for type) with water before sprinkling colbalt blue, violet and leaf green and just letting them merge together. Hero Arts scroll stamp, Rubbernecker sentiment and Hearflet Creations flowers using the same method to colour after stamping and cutting.

Good Morning Peeps, hope you are OK, I know lots of you have nasty flu bugs so to those of you who do I do hope you are soon feeling much better.

Our internet was down all weekend and is still off more than on at the moment so blogging and commenting has been very much if an when until they get it sorted. So what do you do when you can't while away the time in blogland..............you play..................and on this occasion it was with the Brusho's Santa delivered. I am demoing with them in a couple of weeks so need to get my head round them so it was the prefect opportunity to get messy.

Oh what fun they are as well, no secret that I love lots of colour and anything inky and messy so I was in my element and though I would share a few. I still have lots to learn with them but am fairly happy with how it's going so far. I have experimented with various cardstock to see what gives the best results and to my mind it's Fabriano HP 300lb as it's such a sturdy weight, I find lighter weight card warps and does not give such a nice finish when matted onto the cards which is probably not surprising given the amount of water used to get the full benefit of the powders. I have tried out various methods in my playtime and listed under each photo what I did with the Brushos.

I created the moodly sky by first masking a sun with Pebeo masking fluid and laying a piece of paper over the bottom section before sprinkling cobalt blue (it has to be one of my favs as it gives out such gorgeous hues of blue and purple as it dissipates in the water), purple and orange onto the dry cardstock. Next I spritzed with water and dappled with my finger until I was relatively happy with the spread of powder. The stamps are a mixture of Stampscapes, Inkylicious, Clarity and Art Impression. The ground section of the card was added using Pan Pastels once the sky was dry.

To achieve the graduated look I started by spritzing water liberally over the top section of the card and added violet, then repeated the spritzing twice more coming down the page adding ultramarine and then lime green. All stamps are Inkylicious. I was really pleased to discover that the Brushos bleach out beautifully which is what I did to the raindrops before adding a little white gel pen.

Here I spritzed the top section of the card first and sprinkled on turquoise, then more water and tilted the card around to allow the colour to run downwards to give a sort of rain effect. As you are totally in control you can make the drips go whichever way you want. Then I added a little orange Brosho to the bottom section before stamping with stamps from Indigo Blue, Art Impression and a Penny Black bird in the foreground.

The background on the this one was created by sprinkling scarlet and blue and then instead of water I used iridescent gold Glimmer Mist to activate the powders and scrunched a piece of cling film over the top, left for a few moments on the radiator then removed to reveal a lovely gold faceted effect. It doesn't really show on the full photo so there is a close up below. The stamp is Penny Black.

My final one is a very random background, I sprinkled blue, sea green, white, leaf green and emerald onto the cardstock then liberally spritzed with water and just left the colours to activate. The teasels and sentiment are Sweet Poppy Stencils using glossy black paste.

What I particularly like about working with Brushos is that the colours achieved on each piece are totally unpredictable as each one has other colours within them and vary dependent on the volume of liquid added. For example I used no yellow, orange or pink on the card above yet all of those colours are within the finished piece.

And they are not that expensive compared with some colouring mediums, the individual colours are about £1.40 each (Ken Bromley Art Supplies which is where I also but my Fabriano) and if you buy a box set of either twelve or twenty four it works out even cheaper.

Have a good Tuesday all and as always any questions please do mail me and ask away.

Purple Passion

At Allsorts this week Tracy is indulging us in her favorite colour with the theme of Purple Passion, our sponsors are A Passion for Stamps and Craft Fairy.

I decided to go inky and give my brayer an airing and created a background with a masked moon and Adirondack inks, then stamped and heat embossed an Indigo Blue tree stamp, added some Passion for Stamps leaves which I spritzed with Dylusions and Glimmer mist and the lovely Blake poem.

Happy weekend everyone.

Explore, dream, travel

Our lovely Jo is challenging us to use our new crafty goodies on our work at Allsorts this week, I don't think that will be too hard for most of us somehow. Our sponsors this week are Yours and Mine Papercrafts and Whimsy.

I have actually been quite restrained recently and resisted buying too much new stash and I think the last stamps I bought were some sets from Chocolate Barqoue which I have used on this project. It was for a commission for one of my daughters for a TA who was leaving to travel the Far East so the brief was to reflect that part of the world in some way as well as being large enough for all the teachers and staff to sign - about 80 in total so a good volume of space required. As the stamps didn't lend themselves to a really large card I incorporated some internal pages to allow space for everyone to have room to sign.

The background is Dylusions pure sunshine, squeezed orange, lemon zest and postbox red around the edges to add intensity and of course my customary spritz of glimmer mist to blend the colours. Next I stamped images from the Indian Elephant and Indian textiles and across the top the bubbles from the Decorative Edges set, such a lovely set and so useful. The harlequins from the same set were dabbed with gold pearl acrylic paint and stamped randomly holding and bending the stamp rather than using a block. I then bleached out the colours here and there.

I used the same Dylusions as ink to stamp the insterts in order to carry he colours and then made it all into a little booklet with a ribbon tied spine. The sentiments were computer generated.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing all your entries this week.

Vintage transport

A post at last but no blogging I'm afraid !

Never gone so long without posting, but it's been a rotten week, first the eye which is hopefully now fixed and just needs rest and avoiding computer glare. But things can't be simple with me and at hospital Tuesday they were concerned about an infection in my eye as well as the other problem so did a scan and discovered the source of infection on the right side of my face were abscesses beneath two crowns......can't be normal and have one.......so I had to have both teeth out yesterday. Not feeling great and being immune compromised am up against the normal problems I always face, but hopefully headed the right direction now.

On to Allsorts's where it's Wendy's turn to host the theme and she would like to see some form of 'Vintage Transport' on our work. Our sponsors this week are The Ribbon Girl and FlonzCraft.

My top card uses an image from FlonzCraft called Etched Sailship which I stamped and embossed with copper embossing powder and added some sky and a sun with Pan Pastels. A porthole effect using nesties, some gilding wax spread randomly over that and the embossed frame and finally some calico dyed in tea to age it and some shells..................fresh from the shores of Majorca.

My second card uses a Visible Image vintage car stamped onto a background of Glimmer Mists and then sections beached out to highlight it. For the base of the card I embossed a piece of card with a cog embossing folder and spritzed with the same Glimmer Mists, added some hessian and twine and some little cog embellishments.

Hope you all have a great weekend and I remain hopeful that I will feel up to getting a bit of blogging in soon.

Fur and Feathers

Little note added: Not a happy bunny as I have been put of a computer ban of anything more than a few minutes at a time. I've had a sore eye for a few days and yesterday went to the GP thinking I would get a quick fix, only to be given a hefty course of antibiotics and referral to hospital for a small op....and before our holiday. I know I have dodgy eyes and they need to be cautious but I was not prepared for that, especially as I feel fine. So if I do get blogging it's going to be really short and sweet I'm afraid.

Now for crafting and as it's Saturday morning it means it's time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week the lovely Tracy Mouse is our host and would like to see 'Fur and Feathers. Crimson Cloud are our sponsors this week.

My card is one of those I made for Stamp Addicts Create and Craft TV programme a few weeks ago using the 'Hunting Gentleman' image. I apologise in advance should this offend anybody as I understand this stamp raised quite a few eyebrows as to its suitability, but it was the most popular stamp in the programme and one which appealed to me as soon as I saw it as the gentlemen could be my Dad and a scene so familiar to me. To anybody who was born and brought up in the countryside I think they too can relate to it.

I stamp the image with sepia archive ink onto a background of distress inks rusty hinge, vintage photo and peeled paint and spitzed with Glimmer Mist, then bleached out the colour from the image. I created the frame with a Go Create die and randomly stamped with Stamp Addicts wrought iron background and added some feathers and twine to finish.

Happy weekend everyone.

Down in the meadow

Good Morning, hope everyone had a good weekend. Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last post and welcome to my new followers, it's lovely to meet you.

I thought I would share a little bit of inkiness today, these are ones I made a few weeks back when I was having a play as you do. There's definitely a bit of a cow thing going on here, when I made these I had just received some new stamps from Sutter Stamps and the cows were amongst those so itching to get inked up.

Both of the backgrounds were created with Glimmer Mists, it's not something I do that often for my scenic cards but I quite like the mottled sky effects and then I added distress inks to obtain some depth to the meadows. The stamps in both are a mixture of Sutter and Stampscapes with a few Art Impression thrown in for good measure. The fence in the top card is Sutter and the one on the bottom card drawn in by hand.

OK, off to do some proper work now, have a good Monday.

Playing with Dylusions

A very Good Morning all you crafty Peeps, thought I would share my first offerings from my playtime with my Dylusions.........oh what  fun and lovely messy mitts as well..............you are right Shirley, they  are  still messy a day and two showers on.

I have been so inspired what some of my blog friends do with theirs and the wonderful vibrant colours which really appeal, that I have been promising myself some for a while now, so on Sunday when I went to Stamperama  a few bottles feel into my basket..........along with quite a few other bits and pieces, although I was very good as I set myself a budget and came home with money still in my purse, that has to be a first for me.

So far I have only used the autumnal colours although I have a pink and purple one as well, so another inky session planned. On the one at the top I used turquoise, squeezed orange and fresh lime and...........a spritz of pearl glimmer mist, couldn't resist. The harlequin and script stamp are also from my haul from Visible Image and the flower an unmounted one whose origin is uncertain because as usual I lost the packing. The butterfly is Penny Black and I added a little white highlighter pen.

The background of the second card is fresh lime and a little squeezed orange and melted chocolate......don't you just love the names they give these, then turquoise sprayed through a flower mask. I sprayed the corrugated with the chocolate as well and the card for the flowers with the orange, then made the flowers using Ruth Tonic punch and stamp rose set. The sentiments are from Stamp Addicts Dream set.

Enjoy the rest of your week everyone.

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.