Strike a Pose

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Mervi has chosen the theme of Ladies and Girls to tie in with International Women's Week which was on Wednesday, we have a super prize of the lovely Indigo Blue Miss Austen stamp.

Both of my cards are samples made for Create and Craft TV shows, the top one for the latest release from Rare Earth called 'Strike a Pose'. Rare Earth are Tattered Lace's new range of stamps and the latest release will be aired live on Tuesday and I am told my samples have been used for the promotional video for this range of stamps which rather chuffed me. The one below uses some of the Art Deco releases.........and if you like that era there are more coming along on 21st March's Pick of the Day.

I stamped the lovely lady agove from the 'Strike a Pose' collection and coloured her with Spectrum Pencils......now I never thought I would hear myself say this but I actually thoroughly enjoyed colouring in these samples, I've got a long way to go with my colouring but it's a start. The sentiment is computer generated and I kept it all simple with just some ribbon and flowers. I hope this will fit the current Snippets Playground challenge, I was unusually frugal with this one and gutted the bottom white mat to create the top one with the stamping on.

The card below features one of the ladies and circle dies which were part of the TL Art Deco releases and I teamed them up with Graphic 45 DP's which I though had a bit of an Art Deco feel to them.

My teamies have loads of inspiration to share again this week so I do hope you will pop over and take a peek.

Happy weekend all.

One for the girls and one for the boys

Afternoon Peeps, I'm not even going to mention the bank holiday weather, suffice to say I was more than a little pleased that I had a Tattered Lace delivery Saturday to get stuck into ready for next Tuesdays shows on Create and Craft.

I can't share yet, but as always there are some yummy new products and not just dies either, so in the meantime I have a couple of cards to share for the Snippets Playground..............I know Di, twice into the playgound in less than a week, can it last I wonder or will I fall off the swing, time will tell.

The card at the top uses a Nicecrane image, I so love these art deco ladies with their stylish dogs. The DP's are all scraps of G45 DP, I don't remember the name of the design set but I can never bring myself to part with the bits and pieces of any G45 and have an increasing mound of them. I made some roses using a TL spiral rose die along with some die cut leaves which I lightly inked whilst still in the die and looped ribbon - the inside loops from a summer top...........the ribbons been used but the top is still waiting for Summer !

My second card uses scraps which I think might be Kaiser DP's, I cut lots of hexagons using a Sizzix die and arranged them into a pattern across the card, I saw something along these lines on Pinterest once and thought it made a great card for the guys. Next I stamped a Penny Black sentiment and cut the banner shape with dies, tied some twine and fixed to the top. A really quick card to make, in fact cutting the hexagons is the most time consuming part but it's a great way to use up scraps.

Have a good week all.

Flowers, dies and punches

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are  Flower Power and Dies and Punches.

My card at the top is my Stamping Sensations make using an Indigo Blue stamps which was well overdue for it's first inking. I started by creating a background with Dylusions and Glimmer Mist, then stenciling with pearl paste medium for the honeycomb pattern and distress ink for the Gothic arch. I then stamped the image into the arch with black archival ink and stamped a second time, cut out the flowers, colured with Dylusions and decoupaged. I am not sure about the origins of the sentiment but I have a feeling it's a Sheena one.

My Penny Black and More piece is one of my recent Tattered Lace makes for Create and Craft. I had a vague idea in my head of what I wanted to achieve and from there on it turned into a bit of a labour of love and took the best part of a day. I also posted it over at the Tattered Lace blog today.

I started by cutting the five squares which are 140cm each and fixing them together with little scored spines cut from offcuts of the same card. I then created the little box again using the score board and made it slightly larger than the size of the squares and deep enough to hold them when folded up.

I distressed all of the edges before adding G45 DP and a coordinating ribbon and bazzil punched with TL delicate flower border to decorate the box and concertina of cards, using the scrip design on the reverse of the cards so the spines were all neatly covered. I then cut six TL essential ovals and decorated with a mixture of Penny Black stamps, TL dies and ribbons.

And I have one more for Stamping Sensations using a Crafty Individual image which I stamped and embossed with details clear powder and coloured with Spectrum pencils and matted onto some Trimcraft DP plus a floucy bow of seam binding, lace and string.

Hope you all have a good Bank Holiday weekend.

Lets' play Bingo

It's Saturday morning again which means a new challenge at Allsorts and Tracy is inviting us to play Bingo. Our sponsor this week is Baker Ross.

I have gone with the flowers, ribbons and die cuts line. It is one of my recent makes for Tattered Lace's Create and Craft programmes using the new Shutter dies set, it's a really wonderful set and amazing how you can create a perfectly accurate kinetic card in minutes as all the guess work has been done for you.

I used a cream linen card for the card base and Graphic 45 DP's, using one of the sections with the birds as the focal element. The daisies are all cut from the Tattered Lace Blossoms set, they cut so easily allowing you to double up your paper and cut two or three at a time, making easy work of cutting several. When I have half an hour spare............and believe me that doesn't happen often these days........I cut out a batch of flowers in cream and white so they are all ready to colour with Pan Pastels or distress inks.

The four corner elements have been cut from the reverse side of one of the DP's and a little pearl added to the centers and bows tied on two more of the section.

For those of you who have not found it yet, we have a Tattered Lace blog where you can find daily inspiration and product news as well as giveaways now and then.

Blossoms, sunrays and a hard day at the office

Good Morning to you all, I hope you week is going OK.

I am just popping in with a few more of my Tattered Lace cards which were made using the new Royal Lace collection. 

Since I joined the Tattered Lace team I have been itching to see if and how I could combine the use of dies together with the background I so enjoy creating and the lovely Blossom Branch which is part of the new Royal Lace collection which launched.............and sold out..........Friday to celebrate TL's second Anniversary is perfect.

I created the background in my usual way with a sun mask, Pan Pastels and then some sponged sunrays. I then cut the blossom die twice, fixed to the card and added some little blossoms made using a craft punch and tiny pearls stamens. And you can't begin to imagine how thrilled I was to discover my all time favourite Penny Black quote Sing, Dance, Love is also available as a Tattered Lace die and fitted in with my card perfectly. I am still amazed how delicate and fine the sentiments from TL are, yet cut out like a dream.

My second share is my first card using the amazing Panorana dies and was on the Tattered Lace blog yesterday so I won't bore you will all the details and products used as they are all listed there.

And I will leave you with this photo, Daisy, Poppy and Holly having a hard day at the office last week, or should I say the end of my craft room..............

Thanks for taking a peek, have a good Tuesday.

Walking the dog

Is it me or is Blogger playing up today ? I posted this one earlier and it just wouldn't show up on my blog or dashboard so having another try, think Blogger might have his usual Monday blues.

It's the first Monday of the month and time for a new challenge at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges where our October theme is a colour  option 'Orange, Red, Black, Green or Purple' it's your choice one, two or all of them. As always there is a great prize from FlonzCraft.

I have used another of the Girl with Dog silhouette images, Graphic 45 DP's, lace, Heartfelt flowers and pearls going with the Orange and Black option, that wasn't actually where I intended going but sometimes it doesn't turn out as planned.

Hope you will join in with us this month.

Sugar and Spice

Morning Peeps, Saturday morning and time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Tracy has selected the theme of 'Sugar and Spice', sweet and pretty girly creations or perhaps something for the sweet toothed. Our sponsors this week are Crafty Devils and Scrappers Delight.

Afraid I have been a dreadful blogger this week, we are decorating a couple of the bedrooms and it seems to be taking forever, I am sure when I was younger I could get a room painted in a day, so what changed, a few more years on the clock I guess. So huge apologies I have been so absent in my visits, planning putting hings to rights over the weekend.

For my card.................which has been beautifully enhanced by Ignacio, thank you...............I have gone with the girly element and used one of the pretty new Colourful Flower Fairies from Nicecrane, Graphic 45 DP's, lace and ribbons. I really like the floral dress on this fairy and made three Peruvian Lilies to match using Ruth's Tonic Punch and Stamp set, shading the flowers with a little Pan Pastel and some ribbon which I curled to echo those in the fairies hands.

Have a lovely weekend.

Summer meadows and a sort of blog hop

GG0082 Delphinium,  FF0104 Wheat Stalks, GG0175 Birds on wire and FF0018 Live Dance Laugh

Yet another scheduled post, today we are due to be in Genoa, another lovely Italian city with lots of heritage and once the home of Christopher Columbus, a highlight is wandering the Caruggi area of the City with it's famous alleys and take in the atmosphere of this ancient city.

So here are this weeks Prickly Pear and Nicecrane Designs DT creations. The above card is my PPRS piece crated with a masked a piece of Fabriano watercolour card, distress markers direct to stamp for the corn and flowers and Pan Pastles for the shading. Stamp details and links above.

Now on to the Hop, it's not quite the norm as this one is about sharing the work of ourselves and our blogging buddies and a little bit about ourselves and crafty habits as well. I was asked to join in by the lovely Julie from Rainbow Days who I have know for some years and who always has lots of inspiration to offer on her blog.

There are some question to answer so here goes:

Question 1 - What I am working on right now ?

This is a really difficult one to start off with as we are on holiday so the only thing I am probably working on right now is a tan and a glass of bubbles in my favorite Country Italy. This sounds like a real cop out but can only tell the truth !

Question 2 - How does my work differ from others of it's genre ?

Well this one might be a bit easier, I always think no two crafters are alike and this has been confirmed to me so many times in class over the years when I give all present the same 'ingredients' but no two finished pieces of artwork are ever the same. Equally I don't think any of us can call ourselves an expert in any given area of craft as it's a constant learning curve. I am not sure this really answers the question so perhaps the only thing I can add is that I tend to work with what to many are very off the wall colour palettes, usually Pan Pastels but also Distress Inks as well, but my theory is if you don't try them out how will you ever know.

Question 3 - Why do I create what I do ?

In the main my pieces or artwork reflect my love of nature, animals and the countryside, you could call it comfort crafting but is that not the catagorie a good many of us fall into ? That said I am always up for a challenge and will give anything a go, with the exception of lots of colouring in as I fail dismally every time.

Question 4 - How does your creating process work ?

Good question and made me smile as I thought about how to answer. I could say I have a piece of artwork all planned out in my mind and go for it but nothing could be further from the truth as invariably very few pieces end up as I anticipated. For me that's what makes crafting such fun as we are in charge and can change direction on a whim and end up with a very satisfying piece that bears no resemblance to the initial idea. For example many of my pieces have trees and flowers and not forgetting the sun or moon of course, but it's not until they are stamped into place and you start to build the scene that you really know what else needs adding or colours to enhance a piece.

Well that's it and if you have not already fallen asleep thank you so much for reading this post. I would like to nominate Tracy to carry on the fun. I first met Tracy some years ago when she came to one of my classes and although she doesn't live close traveled some miles to attend. Over the years I have seen Tracy's crafting develop so much as her confidence grew and she has a versatile approach to her crafting. She is one of my fellow Allsorts DT's and I hope you will pop along to her blog and say hello, she will be taking the hop to the next stage on Monday 18th August.

The little girl perched in the tree is another image from the Brisley Playing Children design sheet I used last week and yet again teams up perfectly with Graphic 45 DP's, some lace, a Penny Black sentiment and little die cut dragonflies.

Thanks as always for popping in, your visits are always much appreciated.

The Kiss of the Sun

CLR014 Four Seasons and HH0044 Flower Silhouette

Morning Peeps, hope you all had a good weekend, as explained in my post Saturday it's scheduled posts for the next three weeks.

It's time for this weeks Prickly Pear and Nicecrane Desings DT shares and it will be a quick post as I am back at hospital this week and then.............fingers very firmly crossed.............our holiday right afterwards.

For my PPRS card above I masked a piece of Fabriano watercolour card and created a background with Pan Pastels and then stamped this lovely silhouette floral image and added a sentiment form one of the clear sets, as always details and links below the photo.

It's more flowers for my Nicecrane piece along with Graphic 45 DP's, I printed the image out twice and decoupaged the birdie, added some lace, twine and a cameo.

Thanks so much for popping in.

A day at the beach

GG0195 Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

Happy Monday morning to you all, time to share my Prickly Pear and Nicecrane DT creations.

As most know I am not one for cute images and cards, comes of not being a natural when it comes to colouring in I think, but this sweet little girl does rather appeal and teamed up nicely with some shells I bought back from Majorca, Graphic 45 DP, sky and sun using Pan Pastels and bunting cut on the Cricut.

Another criss cross card........I feel there is probably a proper name for this style but not sure what it actually is, so criss cross for now.

The image is from the Brisley Playing Children design sheet, this little girls reminds me of a photo of me as a child complete with plaited hair.

As with so many Nicecrane designs this one matches perfectly with Graphic 45 DP, this one is from the Botanical Tea collection.

Have a good Monday everyone.

Fairy time

Morning Peeps, a scheduled post as I am not about for a few days, we are away visiting one of our boys and his wife who have just moved the the 'seaside' so am hoping the weather is nice, although at the time of writing this post it doesn't look too promising.

Our Susan has chosen the them of Fairies at Allsorts this week which was the perfect opportunity to showcase some fairies form this weeks sponsor Nicecrane Designs. Our second sponsor is Digistamp Boutique. I have made another accordian card using the Sizzix die and three different Nicecrane Flower Children Fairies plus a Penny Black sentiment and Graphic 45 Botanical Tea DP's.

And I thought I would share a photo from the garden, one of the Clematis which I think is Jackmanii........we have quite a few and I really don't remember the names of all so someone might have to put me right..............has really got a mind of it's own this year and wound itself right along one of the pergolas and intertwined itself into a white Iveyi Escallonia and it lookes so pretty I just had to take a photo. This particular Escallonia is only just starting to flower and as there are so many buds on the Clematis I think the best is yet to come.

And a late entry as Ignacio has just released some new designs, I shared the Jeremy Fisher ones earlier in the week and this one is from the Adorable Fairies designs. By sheer coincidence the colours in the designs match really well with the LOTV Timeless Victorian 8x8 pad Tracy sent me for my Birthday so they got some early use before the stroking kicked in.

Have a lovely weekend.

Blossoms

It's time for a new challenge at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges where our them is Summer Blossoms, what a lovely easy one as we all love our flowers. And as it's Monday I also have my Prickly Pear and Nicecrane DT shares.

For my top card I have used a number of FlonzCraft stamps, Etched Rose and leaves, Buttertfly trio, small butterflies sheet and Floral Butterfly corner and sprayed them all with Dylusions before cutting out and decoupaging. Graphic 45 DP and TH weathered clock cut from Coredinations.

I am again entrering the Butterfly Bingo Challenge (after totally messing up yesterday's one - need more practice) and following the line of Butterflies, Dies and DP.

This one is probably the most difficult card I have ever had to make, when my latest DT package arrived from Prickly Pear I looked at this sentiment and lovely as it is wondered what on earth I could manage to do with it.

Using: GG1096 Loyal Companion

After thinking about it for a few days I decided I would make a card in memory of my lovely Buffy. The design and colours of the card, little UTEE fob and glazed flowers were inspired by Pere Lachaise in Paris, for those not familiar with it, it's the largest cemetery in Paris set on a hill with views of the City where many famous people are buried .......Sarah Bernhardt, Chopin, Colette, Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf to name a few........although it is a cemetery it is unlike most and more of a tourist attraction with beautiful marbles, many flowers and ornate glazed photos to commemorate those buried there.

Finally my Nicecrane share is another using the elegant A Dream of Fair Women design sheet........can you tell I really like these, along with Graphic 45 DP's, a bit of paper folding, ribbon and flower.

Happy Monday all.

Early morning Cockerel and some inkiness

It's a scheduled post today so fingers crossed it pops up on time with my Monday Prickly Pear DT card and mid month cards for Penny Black and More and Stamping Sensations.

My Stamping Sensations card is some inky indulgence with Dylusions and Glimmer Mist and Timmy's Papillon stamp set, still my favorite of all his stamp sheets which I used along with a mixture of background stamps and a little Frantage around the edges.

For my Prickly Pear piece I have used the lovely Cockerel or as they call them in the States Rooster GG0197. As you all know I don't do much colouring but managed to coordinate with the Graphic 45 DP's which go perfectly with the image.

Stamped coaster tiles, lantern and bottles all from Baker Ross

My latest package from Baker Ross had some Pebeo paints, tiles, bottles and lanterns and above is what I came up with. I found stamping onto the lanterns a bit tricky due to the shape so I stamped onto some fine tissue paper and then glued that onto the sections and it worked perfectly. The tile on the left has been painted with acrylic pain and then rubbed with gilding wax before stamping with archival ink and the one on the right stamped directly onto the tile using distress markers which I sealed with Slap it On. If you are not familiar with the company do check out their web site, their prices really are very competitive and they offer something for both the card maker and those who like a bit of altered art.

And finally my PB&M piece using the gorgeous Poppy from the Spring 2014 release called Red Tango, some Kaiser DP's which compliment the image perfectly, liquid pearls and some ribbon.

Thanks for popping in, your visits and kind comments are always much appreciated.

Monday DT shares

Mr Blogger will hopefully share my scheduled post for my Monday DT shares for Prickly Pear and Nicecrane and FlonzCraft where our May challenge theme is Ribbons and Bows.

The top card uses one of the new Nicecrane Children at the Seaside designs, I kept it fairly simple as the image is so sweet and didn't want to detract from it. The one below uses one of my favorite sets from the new Prickly Pear releases, inked the stamped with distress markers to coordinate with the pretty colours of the DP and I masksed the sentiment to use just the word love onto the little tag.

CLR046 Vases set and EE0189 Gather Love

And it's another Criss Cross card for my FlonzCraft piece, I am rather liking this shape card and here I have teamed the Flonz image with more Graphic 45 DP's.

Have a good Monday Peeps.

Anything goes all the way

Another scheduled post so I hope it's Sunday morning as it's time for our new challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are Anything Goes and well yes........Anything Goes..........oh my goodness I am not sure how that happened but at least it gives everyone plenty of opportunity to combine them together.

My Penny Black piece used the lovely Gossamer image which lends itself beautifully to paper piecing which is some of the lush new Graphic 45 Botanical Tea collection..............I've had it since February and it's taken me thins long to cut into it which is crazy really as the 12x12 pad has two of each design.

And it's comfort zone stuff for my Stamping Sensations DT piece which is a Birthday Card for blogging friend as today it her Birthday so I am safe to share it. It may seem an odd one for a lady but she like me has a thing for trees, nature and birds so I hope she likes it. I used an oval mask to create a little scene using a mixture of Sutter, Art Impression, Clarity and Inkylicious stamps and Pan Pastels.

Have a good Sunday everyone.