Spring blooms

Well it's still raining here in the Fens and construction of the Ark is well under way. According to my in house weather man who records the rainfall religiously, we've had 7.6" so far this month and it's rained 20 days out of the last 28. Do you get the impression I'm getting paranoid about the weather ? Well probably I am and April will certainly be a memorable month if only for the volume of water that's fallen.

I've been scooter shopping again this week, the mobility kind that is and not getting on too well so far. As we live well out of the village we need to drive to get anywhere, so what they call a boot scooter which break down into 4/5 pieces for transportation is required. All fit into hubby's car OK, but my boot is another matter, the new style MX5 has a more contoured boot and although the inside is just about big enough, the actual aperture is smaller. But I've not given up on the idea and have a man coming out next week to show me a US made one which folds rather than dissembles which may fit my boot, I did say may, I don't want to get my hopes up too much. I'll keep you posted.

Now about my card which is for this weeks  Allsorts challenge, I don't remember the last time I made a shaker card, so it was a nice surprise when Nicole chose that as here theme this week.

Our sponsor this week is A Passion for Stamps so this is a double DT piece really using one of Ruth's new pieces of artwork the beautiful Alstromeria which I have coloured with watercolours in soft lemons on watercolour card. The DP is from one of the pretty new Teresa Collins pads onto which I stamped the Penny Black sentiment.............think it's still my all time favourite sentiment stamp. I cut an aperture in the card blank and placed acetate behind, punched some tiny butterflies from the same DP for the 'shakers' and used double sided foam tape to create the space between the acetate and sentiment. Thumbnail pictures and links to all products below.

Some die cut swirls and border cut from the same DP and finally I threaded some coordinating beads onto a couple of pins.

Hope you all have a good weekend and thanks for visiting, I always appreciate your comments.

Molly Blooms goes to the fair

Good Morning, time for another challenge at Allsorts, it's my turn to host the theme and I have come up with a game of Bingo, here's the grid which  you  will  also  find  over at  the  challenge blog and I hope you will find time to join in.

I am still testing out a new way of listing the products used on my work with the little thumbnails located down the bottom of my posts, you can click on each one to get full product details or even copy and print the individual thumbnails to take on you next crafty shop. It's amazing how it opens your eyes to the amount of products you use in just one card................bit like baking really, lots of ingredients..............which I recon totally justifies the need to keep buying crafty stash.

The fairground carousel at the top following the 'yellow, pink and blue' line is one of the pieces I made for the recent NEC Trade Show using the new Molly Blooms stamps. As soon as I saw the carousel stamp land on my door mat I saw a carousel in my mind so set about making it. I used Nesties to create the base and roof, stamped the image onto a long piece of cardstock which I then scored at intervals about 2cm deep top and bottom to fold inwards to create a lip to fixed to the base and roof to create the central element. I stamped the horses a second time to decoupage after colouring all with Cosmic Shimmers to achieve a bit of fairground glitz. The instructions sound pretty basic and I guess they are, although it took me the best part of a day to assemble it all.

My second piece is a nice messy inky creation. I dabbed the distress inks onto a silicone craft sheet, spritzed with Glimmer Mist and dragged a piece of watercolour card through before randomly stamping the background. The flower stamp has been cut out and the centre decoupaged, some pearls and seam binding and finito.

Whatever you have planned, have a lovely Easter weekend everyone.

Bright and sunny card despite the weather

Hello Peeps, it looks like the weather men got it right for once, it's pouring here and black as Newgate's Knocker.............it's phrase I've used since a child after hearing my Granny often refer to the phrase yet never actually knew the origin. So I just Googled it, logical really the knocker on Newgate prison !

I wanted to enter this months Pretty Little Ribbons challenge so am sharing the Easter card I made for my Cousin who lives on the Norfolk coast, the nearest to a brother I ever got and we've always been close. I included the card in a package I sent to him and his partner yesterday with some pretty pots to grow herbs in their conservatory and a fruit cake.............why fruit cake, well like me he is diabetic and the occasional piece of cake is a real treat and a bit of a standard joke every time we talk on the phone.

I have used lots of Spellbinders in true Sue Wilson fashion, the border ones are Fleur de Lis and the circle ones picot edges Nestablilites. The flowers are a mixture of Spellbinders and Marianne and the leaves are also Spelbinders and the DP Bo Bunny. The ribbon and seam binding is from Pretty Little Ribbons and a stick pin to finish it all off. Oh and there had to be a bit of stamping, that't the Hero Arts sentiment.

I hope all those dies make this suitable for this months challenge at Pretty Little Ribbons whose theme is 'To die For'.

Whatever you have planned I hope you have a good Tuesday evening, mine involves one of our sons and his wife coming for dinner.

Sunny and Bright

Good Afternoon all you crafty Peeps.

The weather here today is absolutely glorious again, the overnight minus four frost and fog gave way to beautiful sunshine and I have had the french windows of my office open since lunchtime. The dogs are laid about everywhere as thought they had a hard morning..............I must have missed something because as far as I know the most energetic thing they've done is eat breakfast.

I thought I would share a couple of the cards I made for Ruth using her new Fritillary image which you will find at A Passion for Stamps here. The card at the top was made using the scrunched tissue technique, rather than go into it again you will find what I did here. I used some scraps of DP for the background and alternated them with some embossed squares. The roses were cut with a Memory Box die from plain copy paper, then lightly coloured with distress inks, the swirls are the same make of die and the leaves Spellbinders.

The second card is paper pieced with Bo Bunny DP. The harlequin background was created by inking a stencil with versamark, placing on a piece of white cardstock, running through the Big Shot Express then brushing Mica Powder after removing the stencil. I did exactly the same with the shaped mat, but kept the Nestie frame in place until I has added the mica. The little picket fence is a new Memory Box die, I am amazed with how very fine and detailed it is yet how perfectly it cuts.

Enjoy the rest of your day and thanks for visiting.

Molly Blooms in the pink

Morning peeps, hope your week is going well.

It's been an off mixture of weather here in the Fens this week, we've had rain, sun, fog and still the overnight frosts............my in house weather man reports it was minus four again in the garden last night, but at least that does usually lead to a nice day so fingers crossed.

It's no secret that I just don't do cute and always struggle when it involves anything other than flowers, fairies and trees, but I'm always ready to rise to the challenge which was what was called for when a bundle of the new Molly Blooms stamps landed on my doormat a few weeks ago. The samples were for the launch of the new Circus and Fairground stamps at the NEC Trade Show last month, which I can now share and you can buy them from Sir Stampalot.

The card at the top using the big top and ringmaster Molly were paper pieced using DP's from stash. The little tickets are also amongst the new release stamps. The card base was cut using Nesties labels 23, the rose is made from punched five petal flowers.

My second card uses the lovely carousel stamp which really is my favourite from the new releases which I coloured with Derwent watercolours, decoupaged and added a frame cut with a Go Create die. Then added a bow and stick pin to embellish.

Whatever you have planned, hope you have a good day.

Onwards and Upwards

A Passion for Stamps roses image

Good Morning peeps, I am starting off on a rather different note and sharing a quote from Mother Theresa ................................

"Your honesty and frankness will expose you to problems but your work should not stop for it means the world to so many people"

I will not elaborate why I am sharing this quote as many of you will know and understand why I find it's content so inspirational and apt. Suffice to say it summarises recent events which I have overcome because of the support and friendship of you dear friends.

During the last few months, the inability to get out has endorsed my view.............. which I know is shared by many of you............that craft goes much further than just providing us with the ability to express ourselves artistically................it provides the far more important role of offering a distraction from the pain, both physically and mentally of the everyday rigours live throws at us.

So onwards and upwards as they say and I hope you all had a good weekend and enjoyed some of that lovely sunshine which was kind to lots of us here in the UK the last couple of days. I'm still not able to go far due to my legs unwillingness to play the game, so yesterday was a real treat to be taken for a drive in the sunshine. We went in my car so had the top down and it was really nice and warm, but it did mean not enough room for my wheelie, so apart from a few gingerly steps at the woodland where dad is buried, I took in the air from the car which was lovely.

And to prove I am still crafting and enjoying it, a few shares of cards I've made recently for Ruth at A Passion for Stamps. To create the one at the top of this post I printed Ruth's two roses image onto Fabriano watercolour card and coloured with Derwent watercours, then masked a sun and did some gentle sponging with Adirondack denim and meadow. The card base was cut using Go Create dies and the sentiment an old unmounted Hero Arts one.........sorry long since lost the code.

The second card  using Ruth's hawthorn blossom image was printed onto the same Fabriano watercolour card and coloured as above. The card bases is cut using Picot Edge and Grand Nesties, the Kasier DP is one of the brand new designs and the sentiment Penny Black 3419D.

Have a good day everyone and thanks so much for popping by, your visits are always much appreciated.

Spring Dance

This month seems to have flown by and already it's the fourth and last week of our Free and Easy February at Allsorts and my teamie Emma's turn to host the challenge.

Things remain slow going here and am having still to rely on my wheelchair so not been far at all, if you've ever tried packing one into the boot of an MX5 you will understand why. Hubby' really good and happy to take me out in his car weekends when he's not at work, but somehow the will to shop has evaded me lately. And no way am I going anywhere Sunday, my boys in red are playing Cardiff at Wembley in the Carling Cup final so it would take wild horses to shift me from the TV that day. 

Now for my DT card this week, one I did a few weeks ago when I was playing with new release Hero stamps and one of the samples I did for Sir Stampalot using Hero Arts K5540 Spring Dance. I love working with silhouette stamps and this ones lends it's self to the simplicity of a brayered background using Adirondack raspberry and lettuce, then matting and layering using Scribble Scrabble DP and Nesties labels 23. The roses are a Marianne die, the swirl Memory Box and the little birdie inked and covered in Glossy Accents, was in a bag of chipboard ones given to me by a crafty friend at Christmas.

Whatever you have planned, have a good weekend and my thanks for your visit.

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.

Gotta get this one off my chest..............................

I am absolutely seething with the latest reply received from Royal Mail.................a good number of you saw my post last weekend here and kindly left me your thoughts which were very helpful.

On Monday I wrote a concise letter to Royal Mail outlining my areas of complaint, provided copies of the receipts from the PO and also gave them the link to my post so they could read the various comments. They replied on Wednesday stating their system could not gain access to my blog so could I mail them the comments and also provide them with full details of the packages and recipients addresses which had been subjected to surcharges.

This I did the same day and yesterday received this answer.......................

I'm sorry to hear that you feel you've been incorrectly surcharged for a number of items - and for the further distress this caused you. I would therefore like to inspect the items to determine whether or not they have been correctly surcharged, and to identify why you may be experiencing repeat problems. Please could you send the surcharged items, together with a copy of this email, to the FreepostT address below, and I'll be in touch again once my enquiries are concluded.

Clearly the conduct their business on a Parallel Universe....................how on earth do they think I can obtain and return the packages some of which were sent several weeks ago to various recipients in the UK. I'm absolutely sure they realise that and their crazy suggestion gives them the perfect cop out.

They also suggest that a certain degree of "customer education is necessary"..................the steam just turned to thick smoke at this point. Not a mention of the Post Office making any mistakes in their weighing at either end of the postal process, or of course the package of cards they lost in October.

I'm not bothering with any more minions, my next letter goes to the top and by luck a good friend just happens to be the Consumer Editor for on the the National newspapers. So you can guess what activity my weekend holds.

OK, got that out of my system a bit so onto some craft and a Celebration of Nations which is the theme Nicola has chosen for us at Allsorts this week and what a perfect one with the Olympics on the horizon.

My card is pretty simple, but I had visualised it in my head weeks ago and I wanted to make the Olympic symbol the focal point along with the Tennyson verse which has been selected as the London motto for the event.

I cut the five circles in the appropriate colours on the Cricut and interlinked them, mounting them onto a piece of white card embossed with a cuttlebug folder. I printed the verse on the computer and cut with a Nestie. As I said a very simple card but which I hope makes a statement. 

Enjoy the weekend.

Beautiful new digi image printed on vellum

Hello all, another scheduled post as I don't anticipate being allowed to cut and run from hospital for a couple of days, but I really wanted to make sure I shared this beautiful Christmas Rose from the pen of my friend Ruth. You will find it here at a Passion for Stamps.

It is such a delicate flower and as they are usually white, sometimes with a ting of pink and with a yellow centre, vellum immediately came to mind. So with detail clear embossing powder at the ready, I printed the images off onto Pergamano and tossed the powder on as it came through the printed and hey presto, it worked a treat.

All I did the was colour with Aquamarkers on the reverse and run a ball tool over the back and quite like the soft feel of it. I printed out a second image for the top card and cut out just the flowers, used a Spellbiner frame, the border is also from Spellbinders, the holly motifs set, the DP Nitwits and I added some Liquid Pearls to the flower centres. 

The second card is also on vellum and coloured the same way, I used an old JudiKins stamp on the base card and cut out the image with Nesties Fleur de Lis square.................yep, the vellum did tear, hence the seam binding bow and pin.......what do they call it, a 'happy accident'.

Do pop over to Ruth's store as she has several new Christmas images.

In the frame

By the power of Blogger, at least I really hope so because I scheduled this well ahead as I will be teaching all weekend at Stampalot. More of the special Blog Girl days and lots of new faces from as far afield as Australia via Newcastle, as well as some familiar ones as well, all of whom I am so looking forward to seeing.

Lots of laughs, lots of chatter a lovely buffet lunch.....did I forget anything ? Oh yes and a bit of inky crafting.......and brayers will roll, although they don't all know that yet !

On to our new challenge at Allsorts where I have chosen the theme "You've been Framed", basically I would like to see you incorporate a frame somewhere on your work.

I did have two DT shares but now it's three as I thought I really should have one with Molly as our sponsors are Sir Stampalot who are giving away two Molly stamps to the winner of this weeks challenge. And it does have a little frame as Molly is painting a picture on her easel. I have paper pieced this one using some of the super Scribble Scrabble DP's. You can find all the Molly Blooms stamps here.

My second card is using Ruth of A Passion for Stamps Cosmic flower which you can buy here. I love to paper piece this image and have used Bo Bunny DP for both the flower and the frame which is cut with a Nestie. The little row of butterflies is the border/bar code edge of the sheet which I thought was too pretty to throw away. The sentiment is computer generated and I tied some of the lace and made up a pin with coordinating beads.

And finally my third share uses Penny Black 4039K Candid, stamped twice and decoupaged and framed with a nestie. The DP is Bo Bunny and the scalloped border EK Success.

Have a good weekend everyone.

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.

Morning peeps, hope everyone is OK.

A quick couple of shares which I made earlier this week, both using the same image from A Passion for Stamps, but different techniques.

The one at the top has been paper pieced onto a Nestie Fleur de Lis frame and Scribble Scrabble DP. The border is also a Nestie from the Fleur de Lis accents.

The image on the second card had been coloured with Aquamarkers and decoupaged on to frames cut from Nesties Labels 20. I ran the top piece through the cuttlebug and inked the edges with TH marigold. The DP is Daisy Bucket.

Hero Arts samples to share

Good Morning one and all, hope your week is going well.

A few crafty shares of some of the samples I am working on for Sir Stampalot using some of the lovely botanical Hero Clear Sets. To make life easy for you I will add the links so you can see what's in each set....just click on the codes.

The one up top is I think my favourite so far, but things change quickly with the mood. This uses the stems and leaves from Hero Arts CL374 and my lovely new Fleur de Lis Nesties (out of stock again but you can reserve). I stamped two sizes of the flower onto DP (from stash), cut out and inked with Versamark champagne and spritzed with Glimmer Mist iridescent gold so I could mound them onto the stamped stems. I used TH tea dye to distress the Nestie. The pretty bottom border is also a Nestie from the Fleur da Lis accents.

This one is also a favourite...............see what I mean I'm so fickle................using one of the other flowers from the same Hero set as above. I wanted to try a theory to see if it would work using it to make a rose and am pretty happy with the result. I stamped the image on to Bo Bunny DP four times, cut out and made into a rose in exactly the same way on my rose tutorial.

The frame is also a Nestie and I stamped the background with Hero Arts cling CG241 using TH Victorian Velvet (I used the second stamping to achieve a softer look) and then stamped a sentiment from Hero Arts CL151 which has some lovely sentiments, butterflies and flowers and is a really useful set.

Here's a close up of the rose which has a liberal helping of glitter, think I rather like the way the lines of the stamp give real interest and definition.

My final share of the day is a bit of inking and sponging. I masked a piece of Fabriano watercolour card and sponged Adirondack meadow and sunshine yellow, created some soft hills and overstamped with the tiny flower from Hero Arts CL151 and Penny Black 3381K aspire using Adirondack slate. The sentiment and butterfly is from the same Hero set and I added a few gold gems to some of the flowers.

New images, new stamps, new TV

Good Morning peeps, it's a lovely morning here in the Fens and hope it's the same wherever you are.

Before I tell you about my artwork, I must say thank you to all the lovely people who visit me so regularly, despite me not being able to do much in the way of blogging still outside my DT commitments. I live in hopes that the screen and my eyes will eventually achieve a better understanding of one another.

I have a few shares for you using Ruth's latest A Passion for Stamps artwork and Stamp Addicts latest stamps due to be showcased on the next Create and Craft programme on Sunday 19th June, but they are available on their website now.

Ruth's latest floral stamp is a lovely sketch of the beautiful Cosmos flower. We used to have no end of these in the garden, in beautiful pinks, purples and yellows, sadly they all seem to have died out and we really should plant some more.

For the one above which is the Cosmos, I did some paper piecing, stamped the diamonds using a really old Hero stamp to add a bit of definition. The frame is cut from a Nestie, the flower TH tattered floral and the DP is Basic Grey

The card above is the largest elephant stamp from the Jumbo stamp sheet and the sentiment from one of the two new Sentiment Circles sheets.The image is coloured with Aquamarkers, some leaves using a Nestie die and I think the DP is Kasier, but not 100% certain.

My final share is another of Ruth's lovely stamps, this one the Rhododendron which I printed twice, coloured with Aquamarkers and decoupaged. The card itself is cut with a Marianne die and the DP is Doodlebug.

All of these card use odds and ends of DP so I am joining in Jules snippets weekly fun.

Famous china and surprising news

Good morning everyone, hope you are all having a good week.

I thought I would share one of the samples I did for Stamp Addicts last TV programme using some of their lovely new silhouette stamps which were a joy to work with. You will find them under the 'all new products' section.

I also have a bit of surprising news to share. Almost everyone who knows me, knows that I just don't do digi's, until this week that is when Ruth from A Passion for Stamps mailed me asking if I would join her Design Team.

Now I have turned down a couple of invites to join Challenge DT's in recent weeks as I still have to moderate my screen activity, however this is not a challenge, but designing for Ruth's own gallery which means the pressure of DT commitments is removed. And once I looked through Ruth's wonderful floral and Nature images which are all drawn by her, I couldn't resist and said yes. So I will be sharing some of my creations using her images very shortly.

Back to the artwork in this post and as you will probably guess, my inspiration was taken from Wedgwood. It was actually quite a simple piece to make using blue cardstock which I cut with Go Create dies and Nesties and embossed the images with detail white embossing powder.

I made some roses from matching blue paper, added a liberal helping of glitter and used them to decorate the front along with some pearls, the obligatory butterfly and ribbon to hold it closed.

Oriental Poppies

Good Morning one and all, it's time for another Allsorts challenge and this week Amanda would like to see Oriental themed projects.

Before I move on to my card, a heads up that it's or second birthday in three weeks time and we are having a blog hop......please feel free to grab the logo above and help us spread the word.

I was really quite pleased when I was this theme because like lots of you I am sure, I have so many lovely Orients style stamps from a few years ago when they were so popular and it's nice to dust them down and create.

My main image is Hampton Arts 4523 Asian Poppy stamped onto a background spritzed with GM clover, tea rose and pearl. The frame was cut on a Nestie and I coloured the flowers with Copics and stamped the large poppy a second time and decoupaged. The base card is stamped with JudiKins 221J, a huge stamp but idea for backgrounds, the sentiment a Kanji cube from the Stamp Barn and the poppy made with TH tattered floral die.