Birds on a wire

Another scheduled post as today we are having a 'sea day' on route to Athens and I imagine it will be a formal evening as they tend to have them on sea days. So assuming I am right we will be donning our glad rags this evening for a formal dinner. I know some of the cruise ships have phased out this formality but as someone who hates dressing up normally, it is a lovely opportunity to do something a bit different.

As it's the first Sunday of the month we have new themes at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More with 'Things with Wings with a Touch of Vintage' and 'In the Garden'.

My Penny Black DT piece at the top may not look particularly garden inspired to some, but where we live it's very rural and looking across the paddocks from the garden this is the view I see............although the hills are a bit of artistic licence as the Fens are as flat as a pancake. After masking the reverse side of a sheet of centura pearl I created the background using Pan Pastels, then stamped the Penny Black flowers cross the bottom and the birds over the sun........I extended the wire using a ruler and fine black pen and stamped a single bird from the same stamp to the right.........hubby named this one "Billy no mates" !

I delved into my stash of reclaimed corrugated to make my Stamping Sensations DT piece and used a nice chunk of it for the backing of my card after giving it a good sprinkling of Frantage aged gold and aged spice. I stamped Hero Arts Dogwood onto a page of an old book and sprayed a second page with Dylusions post box red and squeezed orange and once dried stamped the same image and cut out the flower heads to decoupage. I follow the same principle with the Penny Black butterfly.

I think this month's themes are really lovely ones to play along with and hope you will join in with us.

Kraft It

Morning all, this is the first of my holiday schedule posts and hopefully Mr Blogger is doing his job and this will appear on time as by now we should be close to Barcelona where we are spending a couple of days before we join the ship for twelve days sailing the Greek Islands, Turkey, France and Italy.

It's our lovely temie Sarah's turn to host the theme at Allsorts this week and she would like us to 'Kraft It' and use Kraft card stock somewhere on our artwork. Our sponsors this week are Digi Darla and The Craft Barn.

I really wasn't sure about the first card I made so ended up doing a second but thought I might as well share them both. So for the one above, my second make I created a background with Dylusions melted chocolate and sweetened orange.........don't they have yummy names, I could almost taste the combo. I distressed the edges with a Sheena stamp, such a clever little corner stamps this one and ever stamped with a Visible Image harlequin and script stamp, added some swirls cut with a Memory Box die and lilies made from Kraft cardstock using Tonic Peruvian Lily Punch and Stamp set. The sentiment is Penny Black and sadly long since discontinued.

For this second card I used Kraft as the focal section using one of the pretty Marianne Anja dies coordinated with Kaiser Craft DP's and a Penny Black sentiment. I added some roses also made using a die and the prettly little swirls that come with the Anja dies.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Lilies and lace

Good Morning to you all, hope everyone had a good weekend. The weather was a bit iffy here, but at least the wind has dropped and it's not raining at the moment.

Just a couple of shares of card using more Tonic Pick of the Bunch punch and stamp sets which I am still loving.........in case you hadn't guessed. The one at the top has an Artistic Outpost sentiment and flowers from the Peruvian Lily set shaded round the edge with Pan Pastels and the DP is Kaiser I think..........it was a paper pad and I've not got the outside cover any more. The little butterfly is from the Pick of the Bunch Fuchsia stamp set, stamped and glittered and the leaves Memory Box.

I would like to enter this into:

Flutterby Wedesdays - Open theme

This one uses stamps from several of the stamp sets.............thumbnail links below.......for the background, TH fence and dress form which I decorated with lace and ribbons and the roses are made from vellum using the Punch and Stamp Rose set and again shaded with Pan Pastels. I cut the top of the card with an oval die by taping it in position the laying it with only the part I wanted cut onto the cutting place with the rest sticking out............hope that makes some sort of sense.

I would like to enter this one into:

Pan Pastels - In the pink (hope these's enough pink)

Have a great week all of you and thanks for popping in and your kind comments.

More floral play

Morning Peeps and what a chilly one it is as well, we had -6 this morning but it looks absolutely beautiful with a slight hoar frost on the trees and bushes.

I've not been overly active on the craft front this week, somehow I managed to pick up flu yet again and as usual  it's knocked me for six so I have stuck with comfort crafting and more flowers using Ruth's punch and stamp sets.............. links to stockists in the post below.

The card at the top is a little scene created through an overall mask with Stamp Addict stamps and a Clarity Poppy one, coloured with Pan Pastels and a Poppy made from the Tonic Rose set. This could be our own village church as it's set down a lane on the edge of the village surrounded by fields amidst our scenic flat Fenland landscape.

My second card it is a very quick and easy one to make using some coordinating Kaiser DP's, some ribbon and a Rose made from the same set.

Have a good Thursday everybody and as always my grateful thanks for your kind comments and visits.

Flower Power

It's all about flowers at Allsorts challenge this week as my teamie Tracy wants to see some 'Flower Power' and we have two prizes on offer this weeks from The Ribbon Girl and My Heart Pieces.

Although it doesn't show up to well on my photograph, the Kaiser DP is a lovely shade of sage green and cream and works really well with the pretty Marianne dies. It's really quite a simple card as the intricacy of the dies needs little more, so I just added some flowers and swirls which are also a Marianne die and to lift the background some dots of liquid pearls.

Whatever your plans this weekend, I hope it's a good one and thank you as always for your kind visits and comments.

Cooking up at Allsorts

A very Good Morning to you all, Saturday morning can mean only one thing, a new challenge at Allsorts and this week my lovely teamie Helene wants us to 'Use a Cooking Recipe'.

But first I want to tell you all about our second Birthday celebrations at Stampalot Challenge which kick off on 1st April. I've come me up with a little sidebar logo and hope you will help us spread the word. If you have any problems with this one.....it worked for some of the DT fine, but Blogger didn't want me to use it despite re-sizing it so in the end I did a low resolution one as well which is on by sidebar.

Now my DT piece and confessions here, I was really stumped at first, after spending hours trawling through my stamps I drew a blank with anything cookery orientated, not surprising I guess when most of my stamps are floral, botanical or fantasy. But then I had a flash of inspiration and came up with a recipe holder which I thought might even be useful for one of the girls.

I made the folder using a scoring tool and covered with some Kaiser DP's, decorated it with borders cut from Spellbinders and the letters are cut on the Cricut. I sourced the recipes on line, mounted them on to cardstock and did a bit of stamping using one of my tiny collection of just seven Clarity stamps......I really do 'need' more of them.

Have a good weekend.

In the garden

A very Good Morning to you all, did you get any of the white stuff ? We certainly did, it started last evening and by this morning it was a foot deep against the front door where it had drifted, that's one of the benefits of living in the Fens, when it blows it really does blow. But it looks absolutely beautiful, the dogs have already had a good play in it and later the horses will get a little play or rather roll...........yes Keryn...........like me she loves animals and loves to hear about the horses activities................... it's another of their little treats. Believe it or not horses love snowy and frosty ground to roll in, but only ten or fifteen minutes mind you before it's back into their stables for the daily carrot hunt.

It's the first Sunday of the month so that means new challenges at Penny Black and More and Stampalot. The theme at Penny Black and More is 'Lets Play Bingo', but no ordinary Bingo, I decided to try out something different and have created a colour bingo grid. And at Stampalot the theme is 'In the Garden', no prizes for guessing who came up with that theme !! And of course I could have gone in making them forever for the garden theme, but I think two are enough this time round.

For my first Stampalot piece I stamped Hero Arts CG153 on acetate using Archival black ink.........I wanted a larger aperture for my frame than the actual stamp so inked and stamped the left side first, cleaned the stamp and inked just the centre elements and stamped them and finally inked and stamped the right hand side. It actually lined up quite nicely, but the frame covers the edges anyway. Next I then mounted it inside a frame created with Nesties and edged the aperture with another little frame punched from Nitwits DP. I then  stamped the inside element onto a piece of rainbow cardstock using Adirondack dye inks watermelon and meadow, stamps used are Penny Black 3381 Aspire, PB 3948K Fireworks and all time favourite Stampendous P107 Agapanthus Cluster.

I mounted the acetate framework over the flower piece arching it to create a window effect, then mounted the whole piece onto a base card. The two large butterflies and the tiny one on the inner piece are from Hero Arts CL383 and coloured with the same dye inks.

I have been really good with my second piece and dug out some pretty old Stamps Happen stamps as I thought they were ideal for the theme. When I was making this one I came to the conclusion that a non crafting male designed the stamps because who else would come up with four stamps for the four season and make three vertical and one horizontal ?

So I had to come up with a design where I could incorporate all four together and made the base shape using a score board and two pieces of A3 cardstock - it is a bit of a heavyweight card. I coloured all four imaged with Aqumarkers, matted onto bazzil and used two coordinating sheets of Kaiser DP for the background. The sentiment on the central panel is Penny Black 2905H The Best, the swirls a making memories die and the flowers and leaves a Marianne die.

This seems to have become a bit of a lengthy post so I hope you can bear with me until I have finished my Penny Black and More share. I opted for the yellow, white and black row as it's a colour combo I love............and this card is very similar to one a few weeks ago, just different stamps................always so fresh and crisp. My main image is Penny Black 4039K Candid................I don't think they are mean to be daffodils, but I always think with a bit of imagination and the right colours you can get away with it..........and Penny Black 3096F Host of Daffodils. I inked the floral stamps with TH mustard seed and Aquamarkers and spritzed with water before stamping onto as piece of Fabriano watercolour card. The frame is made with Nesties and the flowers Spellbinders and Marianne dies and some feather to finish.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone and I really hope you can join in our challenges this month.

Love is in the air

Helene is our host at Allsorts this week and preparing us for Valentines day as she would like us to use one or more hears on our work. I do hope you will be able to join in, just pop over the the challenge blog to find out more and see what's on offer for this weeks prize.

My first DT make is using one of the new stamps from Hero Arts S5601 Newspaper Background, it's quite a biggie but stamps out beautifully.......I used Versafine black to pick up all the fine detail. I stamped it twice, once for the background piece which I tore down one side and mounted onto a piece of heat embossed red satin cardstock and from the second piece and more of the red, I cut out four hearts with Nestabilites and matted them up. I tied some red cord and bakers twice down the side and added a heart button.

My second make is an engagement card I made for some friends earlier this month using the prospective brides favourite colours. Unusually for me there is no stamping involved and the card was quite a quick and easy one to make. I cut the hears from bazzil and Kasier DP, tied some ribbon across the centre and added three rosebuds. I embossed the background cardstock with a Sizzix harlequin folder and added tiny pearls. The sentiment is computer generated. 

Have a good weekend everyone and thanks for popping by.

It Takes Two

Good Monring peeps, how are your Christmas preparations going ? I think I am just about there and tomorrow we have a big family day with about twenty coming, so quite a bit of preparation to be done although I confess M&S are taking a good bit of the effort out of it.

It's my turn to host the theme at Allsorts this week and I would like to see creations on the theme "It Takes Two".................basically use just two colours on your work, but you can use white as well as your base colour.

Two DT cards for me, the one at the top of my post............yellow and black...............uses Ruth's A Passion for Stamps Narcissus image which you will find here, coloured with Aquamarkers and decoupaged onto a mat cut with Nestabilities, stamped with Hero Arts H2635 Old French writing and inked round the edges with TH mustard. The DP is Kasier and the sentiment is Penny Black 3096F.

For the second card I have used one of the Christmas stamps from Stampendous JGS157 which I fell in love with as soon as I saw it and ended up making quite a few with it as it lends itself to all occasions apart from Christmas, in fact I'm not sure I actually made a Christmas card with it.

For this one I stamped the image onto vellum using versafine black and embossed with detail clear. I coloured the image from behind with Copics and decoupaged some of the flowers. I machined round the edge of the Bo Bunny DP and tied a simple seam binding bow at the side. I love the fresh colours of this one, make me think of Spring...................

Our sponsors this week are A Passion for Stamps and Scotch Tapes whose restickable tabs I used on my both my cards....................you will find a bit more about them on the challenge blog and also here on a post I did last week where I also used them.

Have a good weekend everyone and as always, thank you so much for popping by.

Going round in circles and candy

Before I tell you about our new theme at  Allsorts  a little reminder that I have a weekend candy on the go, all you need to do is leave a comment over the weekend either here, on tomorrows post or yesterdays which also has a picture, to be in with a chance of winning.

At Allsorts Debs has us all going round in circles this week so I thought I would share another of my Christmas wreaths (instructions here) which I created for the demo day at Sir Stampalot a few weeks ago.

The Christmas rose in the centre was stamped with Woodware JGS256 onto Studio 490 Modelling Film, coloured with Aquamarkers and then heated and moulded into shape. D0n't know if you have tried this film out, but it really is something a little bit different and real fun to work with and unlike shrink plastic stays the same size but allows you to mould it when warm. And if you don't like the finish, you just warm it up again.

For this one I used the gorgeous December 25th DP's from Kaiser, I really do think these are one my favourite Christmas DP's for years, there is something about the rich traditional colours that never fail to please.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Molly Blooms ready for Christmas

Saturday morning can only mean one thing, a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Helen would like us to use Pennants on our work.

Now this did create confusion with one or two of us as it seems Pennants in Sweden where Helen lives are what we call bunting, which in Sweden are larger flags. But I think we got there in the end.

I have used some of the lovely Kaiser December 25th DP to create a frame using my Nesties Fleur de Lis squares and a sentiment in the centre Stampendous CRQ146. I have coloured Molly with Aquamarkers and stamped the Molly Blooms bunting onto the same DP and cut out. The back panel is Coredinations embossed with a Sizzix folder and sanded down.

A Passion for Stamps new Christmas images

Good Morning, it's a tad chilly here and I can see white tips on the grass so another frost by the look of things which is sure to bring more leaves tumbling off the trees, but the Autumnal colours are still so beautiful and I could make cards on that theme all year, but I need to get a grip on Christmas.

So it's just as well that my good friend Ruth at A Passion for Stamps has been busy with her pencil again and  created some lovely new images, here are a couple I came up with using her new Poinsettia and Holly images.

The red and green one uses the holly and poinsettia images printed twice onto Farbiano watercolour card, coloured with Aquamarkers and decoupaged. The sentiment is Stampandous CRQ146 and the DP Kaiser 25th December collection.

For the blue card I printed the poinsettia image onto pearlescent cardstock and pored detail gold embossing powder over it quickly so I could heat emboss and was really pleased with how well it showed up the lovely detail of the image. The DP is Magnolia and the sentiment Penny Black 3995F.

Christmas easel and a little bit sad

I am preparing this post Friday evening after a really rotten day, we lost Abbey the eldest family lab, so the whole household is pretty miserable as you can imagine. She's been poorly for a while with a tumour at the fore of her head, but jogging along with medications. But this morning she was very poorly and we knew the time had come. The vet was really lovely and came out within half an hour so she died in her own sitting room in familiar surroundings, but it's still so so hard to accept.

So I will tell you very quickly about this weeks theme at Allsorts, where my lovely teami Emma wants us to make a Christmas Easel card...............did she play into my hand or what. I thought the easel novelty might have worn off by now, but oh no, I am still totally addicted........does it show just a tad most weeks ?

I have used some of this scrummy 25th December DP from Kaiser and made the card shape using Grand Nesties 23. The image is Magenta 43032L which I stamped with versafine sepia, embossed with detail clear and coloured with Aquamarkers. The poinsettia is another appearance of my new Spellbinders Christmas die set.

Hope you have a good weekend and thanks for dropping by.

Arsenic or Lavender ?

Good morning one and all, afraid I've been rather quiet this week and not even been able to get round my DT commenting. Had a burst blood vessel in my left eye, that led to a few tests and now I need to go in for some heart checks, so that's really clipping my wings.

Anyhow, something more fun as it yours truly's turn to host the theme at Allsorts this week and I would like to see 'Lavender and Lace', sort of has a nice ring to it I thought. I kept thinking there was movie with that name, but I'm sure I am thinking of Arsenic and Old Lace.......similar I guess but less lethal !

Two cards for me because typical me, I went into crafty mode before I navigated my mind, made a card following the theme then remembered my friend Ruth the artist behind A Passion for Stamps is our sponsor this week, so I could hardly forget to make a card using one of her lovely images, especially as I am lucky enough to be on her design team !!

And as Ruth's Cosmos flower is one of my favorite images, that had to be the one I used. I ran off the image once onto normal cardstock, then twice onto some lilac DP from stash. I masked the first image and stamped over with Hero Arts H2365 using TH Pumice Stone. When cutting out the images on the coloured paper, I cut the second slightly smaller to give more dimension when decoupaged. The frame is from the Nestie Fleur de Lis set and the little rose a Marianne die.

My second share uses Penny Black 3227K Hope was Born as the main image, I think this is such a beautiful Christmas verse and a card on it's own. The DP is from stash, but I have an inkling it might be Kaiser. The poinsettia and leaves are cut from one of the new Spellbinders Christmas die sets and I confess it's been pretty overworked this last few weeks. I usually stamp by poinsettias and cut out several to decoupage, so this set was a real must have and oh so quick by comparison. The colours non too good in this picture, but promise you it is lavender in the flesh.

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Decoupage and distressed in the frame

Hello peeps, It doesn't seem possible that it's the 1st September does it, where did the summer go, oh that's right, it never actually arrived in the UK did it ?

I guess we did have some good weather, but the warm days were so few and far between it's difficult to remember exactly when they were. So Autumn is all but upon us and I noticed when I was out the other day that some of the leaves are already taking on an Autumnal hue. But I love crafting with the lovely rich Autumn colours so at least I will be seasonal for one.

Enough of my blathering, I know you want to know about the new challenges but first some HOT news .................... watch out for a new weekly feature that Sir Stampalot are promoting, starting tomorrow. It’ll be called ‘Freebie Friday’ and it’ll be sent to you via their email newsletter so if you haven’t already signed up, you’ll need to sign up before end of day today, here :

So the challenges and first up is Stampalot Challenge where we have the theme "It's a frame up', pretty simple and a chance for you to get creating lovely apertures and frames with your nesties and other die cuts.

My card at the top of the post is using one of the gorgeous new Christmas released from Penny Black 4210K Floral Story which I stamped and coloured with Aquamarkers and made a frame with Nesties using one of the new Kaiser DP's. A bit of distressing with TH vintage photo and borders punched with MS cornice edge.

Moving on to this months challenge at Penny Black at Allsorts we are inviting you to 'Get ahead for Christmas'.

I have used another new stamp from Penny Black 4208K Christmas Narrative , stamped onto a background of distress inks and Glimmer Mists. The flowers have again been coloured with Aquamarkers, they really are my favorite colouring medium.

On both of the above cards I stamped the flowers several times and after colouring inked with Versamark frost and spritzed with Glimmer Mist Pearl to allow me to mould the petals before decoupaging.

Thanks for visiting and hope you will join in this months challenges.

One form afar

By the magic of Blogger, this ones comes to you via Split in Croatia and is one of the samples I created for my friend Ruth at A Passion for Stamps using her beautiful rose stem image.

I stamped a background using Hero Arts S5264 Antique Flower Background with Hero chalk ink soft sand and coloured and decoupaged the rose with Copics. The DP is Kaiser and the two panels of Core dinations embossed and sanded. I made the two flowers from plain cream paper and added some glitter to the edges. The frame is cut from Grand Nesties four.