Down your street

Morning Peeps, huge apologies I've not been round visiting, not been at all well this last week, so much so I even asked my teamies at the challenges to help me out with commenting, not something I do readily or very often, but their help has been much appreciated. I am doing my best to get back into things but it seems slow going so please bear with me.

As promised I have some more shares using Baker Ross products along with my mid month creation for Penny Black and More where our Christmas theme is in full swing.

Last Christmas the lady at one of the blogs I visit had made cards for her neighbours with their street name and I thought what a great idea to try and remember. I have a feeling it was Jacee but confess I am not certain so thought it best not to link to her in case I got it wrong (just adding Jacee confirms it was her so many thanks Jacee), but amazingly enough for me I actually did remember and decided to make some for friends and family.

Looking through my stamps I had no problem coming up with a rural scene but nothing for town folk, so have restricted them to a dozen or so who live in rural locations. To create the scenes which are all much the same I used two Penny Black stamps along with the Santa which I think is Hobby Art and sponged the sky and background with Pan Pastles. I added liberal helpings of snow glitter, computer generated the street names, punched them out and painted wooden kebab skewers for the posts. The Ivy is a Tattered Lace Charisma die and finally I printed and cut some little Nicecrane Robins to sit on the sign posts.

And as promised here are the little trees I made using Baker Ross's Polystyrene Cones. I made one into a Santa by priming the cone with gesso and then red acrylic paint and when dry decorating with some furry fabric, a buckle and black card for is belt. On another I used the Gingerbread Foam Stickers and some Christmas glittery garland and for the third I simply used ribbons, doubling them up and fixing in place starting from the bottom and working upwards. The tree in the middle seems to look a tad lopsided although in the flesh looks perfectly straight so can only assume it's my naff photography.

Hope your week is going well and many thanks for your visit today.

Yes Virginia...............

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are Festive Floral's and Anything Christmas. And as always there are some fab prizes to be won, at Stamping Sensations there is a great hamper of crafty goodies from 'be Creative!' and at Penny Black prizes from Penny Black, Crafts U Love and Crafty Ribbons.

My top creation is for Stamping Sensations and uses some of the new papers from this month sponsor Be Creative, they are actually the offcuts from another card I made for a magazine article so will fit into this weeks Snippets Playground. I decided on a chipboard frame which I covered in gesso and then some of the sponsors papers. I then used a Penny Black stencil to ink some leaves on both the outer frame and inner section. I added gold Frantage to the edges, stamped a Penny Black Poinsettia twice onto more of the paper, heat embossed with detail gold before cutting out, layering up and adding pearl stamens to the centre. I decided it needed a little something in the corner so printed and cut out a TL Holly corner and cut the top layer of flower heads from the same paper as the Poinsettia and finally added some pearl flourishes.

The sentiment on this months Penny Black piece is a stamp I happened to see on a blog a few weeks back and had to have it, I found the wording just enchanting. It's quite an oldie and wood mounted of course but Google searches drew a blank, so I mailed John at PB Stamps in the States.......I knew if anyone could source it, he could. And sure enough he did and would you believe it only took four days to arrive across the pond......with I might add a few other essentials.

Then I just needed my Virginia and in the back of my mind when I saw the stamp I thought I knew the perfect image in the form of this sweet little Victorian Nicecrane design. I stamped Penny Black Festive Florals in detail gold onto a piece of neutral coloured design paper and did the same with the sentiment which I placed within an oval aperture.

I cut Virginia out twice so that I could shape and decoupage her dress, placed her to the side of the aperture and added some liquid pearls and bow. It's one of those rare cards that I envisaged from the moment I saw the sentiment and it turned out just as I imagined.

My final share today is another for Stamping Sensations using another sheet of paper from this months sponsor, a paper pieced Penny Black stamp, a bit of background stamping, some lace and ribbon and a tiny TL Noel.

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.

Banners at Allsorts

Good morning, it's a scheduled post here, but it should be Saturday when it pops up which means time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Susan would like to see Banner or Flags on our work. Our sponsor is Nicecrane Designs.

My card at the top uses the new Wizard of Oz designs from Nicecrane which you will find here. I used the pre colured sheet and used three of the images, Dorothy in the middle in her lovely flowing dress and the Tin Woodman either side of my center stepper card which is of course Tattered Lace. The sentiment across the bottom is computer generated and I added some ribbons, a button and some banners cut from a Penny Black die. I think these new images are absolutely perfect for children's cards and even those of us a little older !

My second card is fairly simple one with an embossed sentiment using Tattered Lace Butterfly Interchangeable folder, the folders have three different sentiments which fit into the folder itself, on this occasion I embossed the base panel without any sentiment, then embossed a second small piece of the same card with the sentiment to use as the focal element. The banner is cut from G45 DP, some roses lightly inked with DI and ivy cut from TL Large Ivy.

And here is my mid month Penny Black and More share, still plenty of time to join in our 'Anything Goes With A Sentiment' theme to be in with a chance of winning one of the great prizes on offer. An inked, glittered and stenciled background and a Penny Black focal sentiment.

Hope your weekend is a good one.

Pan Pastel skies with Nicecrane

Good morning from the very chilly Fens, I hope you are all keeping warm. Another hard frost last night but it does look beautiful and prompted me to change my blog header to a photo taken last Winter looking across the Fen from the paddocks when you get those wonderful early morning pink skies.

Before I tell you about my pieces of artwork, I would like to thank everyone for their kind words and recent comments, I believe the new meds are working, still nasty side effects but I can learn to live with that if the pain eases.

On to some artwork and this week I have been playing.........oooops I meant working............with Ignacio's latest Nicecrane Designs which are Japanese themed and can be found here. As we all know I am not great at colouring in, although it is coming along with my new Chameleon pens, so I decided to use those on the Oriental lady below and turn the rest into some of  my favourite scenic cards.

The top card is probably my favourite of the scenic ones, I love strong and vivid skies which are so easy to achieve with Pan Pastels and of course suns and moon, a sun on this one plus a few leaves across the top and some white highlighting here and there.

I used one of the designs from the Vintage Butterflies set as the background in the aperture, what I so like about all of Ignacio's Vintage designs is that you can always find something to coordinate or compliment other designs. My Oriental lady was coloured with Chameleon pens and does look rather yellow, but in real life is a tad more subtle. The sentiment is another from All Occasion Dies, cut twice to achieve a shadow effect.

Pan Pastels again for this one and a few Lavinia flowers stamped across the top using distress markers and garden twine down the side to carry the rustic feel of the card.

I rather liked the splatter background on my Penny Black card last week so stuck with the same colour Dylusions for this one and painted the butterfly and flowers with them as well with a final brush over with Glimmer Mist pearl, it works wonders to soften the fibers so you can mould them into shape. The sentiment is Penny Black.

This is the full set of designs which you can get here for $4.50

Have a good Tuesday Peeps.

No DP's allowed

A very good morning to you all, today at Allsorts it's my turn to host the theme and I would like to see creations that feature no design papers. Our sponsors are my friend Ruth from A Passion for Stamps and another friend Ignacio from Nicecrane designs.

So as I am on the DT for both it means two cards from me. My Nicecrane piece above uses one of the lovely Birds and Blossoms images.............can you tell I am already thinking ahead to Spring............a background of Dylusions, then script and grids randomly stamped, a Timmy clock onto which I scattered some Frantage, dies cut leaves, some twine, hessian and corner embellies.

My Passions for Stamps card uses the pretty Christmas Rose to which I added just a little colour using my Chameleon pens, inked the edge of the card along with some white Frantage, a Penny Black sentiment and some simple matting and layers. Much as I like Design Papers and have some beautiful ones, I think sometimes they detract from the focal image and to me this card demonstrates exactly what I mean.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

What a little angel

Good Morning Peeps, I am here with some more Nicecrane Design creations and also my mid month Penny Black and More card.

Thank you for your kind comments and messages. I am in a bit of a MS relapse at the moment and walking and standing is painful but now have some new meds although they are making me like a zombie....... but not too much new there I guess......... and nights are like a war zone with the hallucinatory affects of them. But there is of course a positive side, I am having to sit most of the time which means I can craft for England !

On to my work and I think lots of you will know what I mean when I say you see a stamp or image and can immediately visulise the card you are going to make, well the beautiful image on the top card was one of those, she is such a little angel. I could see her decoupaged and standing in an aperture with little added colour other than some gold glitter on the Christmas tree and some die cut stars, she is far too pretty to fuss with. She is one of the images from the Vintage Christmas saver pack, great value at $4.50 for about eighteen images.

I have used a new stamp for my Penny Black mid month card called Jubilant 40-286 stamped onto a 'splatter' background.....very technical term here aka messing about with Dylusions. I stamped it twice to decouapge the main flowers which are pained with Dylusions, the leaves have been coloured with Chamelion pens. The sentiment is from the Special Wishes set 30-229.

I absolutely adore this image, not only the colours but the little girls angelic face. She is from the Children in Victorian Age 111 design set. The frame is from Tonic which I randomly stamped with distress inks before making up and then rubbed over with a couple of colours of gilding wax. 

This card has one of the eight designs in the Adorable Christmas design set teamed up with Penny Black Reindeer dies and an embossed frame with I coloured with gilding waxes. The sentiment on this card and the one at the top is from All Occasion Dies, clever sets as the Happy comes in a set in two sizes and the Christmas in another sets again in two sizes and then there are also Birthday, Anniversary and so on and they all mix and match and at between £4.40 and £5.50 a set great value for money.

Hope you all have a good week.

Christmas with Nicecrane

I love these Robins from the Victorian Birds design set, they really lend themselves to decoupage

Good afternoon Peeps, popping in to share some Nicecrane Designs Christmas cards which I meant to add to my post on Monday but forgot........nothing new there then I hear you say.

I should also answer a question quite a few have asked me which is how to vote for me in the card design section of the British Craft Awards, I understand it's all done alphabetically so means some nominees don't make it into the listings so have to be voted for as an 'other, being a 'W' surname I am one of those ! But imagine Brenda at Floral Fantasies will work.

I think this is probably one of my favorite Christmas Nicecrane Designs from the Vintage Merry Christmas set

Most of Ignacio's sets are priced from $2.44 to $4.50 and when you consider most have five or six different designs in each they are great value for money and if you have a lot of Christmas cards to make and want to make them all a little bit different they are the perfect solution to your Christmas crafting.

This pretty Christmas Robin is from the Antique Christmas set

Although I am a stamper first and foremost, what I particularly like about Nicecrane Designs sets is that you can make your cards as simple or as elaborate as you wish and also incorporate stamping as I have done in the top card. The card at the bottom of the post which was a recent Penny Black DT piece is another example of combining them with stamping.

This house from the Adorable Christmas set just radiates winter warmth

There are links to all the design sets I have used under each photo so you can pop over to the store and have a browse and there are lots more designs in the Christmas section.

And finally a little collage of close up's.......I created it in Photoshop which I have been playing with this last week, it's slow going but I am determined to master it

Have a good Wednesday everyone and thank you for popping in.

Flowers all the way

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Warm Autumn Colours' and 'Get Ahead for Christmas'. Plus don't miss the news further down about a great Penny Black candy giveaway next week.

So onto my cards and this post is very much reflective on my Dad who always grew the most amazing Chrysanthemums and won many prizes with them. Gardening was his escape from daily farming and a whole section of the garden was dedicated to Chrysanthemums, as the blooms developed he lovingly covered each in a white bag to protect them from both early frost and rain. As an onlooker it must have been a strange sight but to us all totally normal. The blooms were always at their best in September and October so I always think of them as the Autum months arrive.

Although this Penny Black stamp 4237K Awakening is not actually Chrysanthemums it always reminds me of them.......call it artistic licence, I have used distress inks sage, tea dye and barn door to sponge the background through a honeycomb mask and used the same colour distress markers to repeat stamp the flowers.

And now for the lovely Penny Black Poinsettia stamp Christmas Star 4104K which I stamped and embossed in gold onto a background of Dylusions which I then bleached out and painted with Twinkling H2'0's. The sentiment randomly stamped is from the clear PB set called Christmas Cheer 30-140 and also in the background is some stenciling although I am far from impressed by the stencil. It's a music script stencil from Tando but to my mind it's back to front...........what I mean is the negative and positive elements should have been reversed as the notes just don't show up clearly, I even tried it on a full page and sprayed through it but all you really see are lines, so not convinced of it's usefulness as music !

I also have a second Autumnal card, this one a Chrysanthemum stencil from Imagination Crafts. The background has been randomly stamped with script and corners distressed, then copper paste added through the mask and after removing the mask I flicked gold perfect pearls over the wet paste and heat embossed. The paste resists the heat and makes it bubble and if you dab it lightly with your finger whilst still wet it gives a lovely mottled effect, when totally dry brush off the excess mica and gently buff up.

And just the one more for Penny Black and More using two Penny Black Twirls 40-282 and A Wonderful Christmas 4116H and a Nicecrane Robin for the Victorian Birds collection to which I added some glossy accents to the wing and his red breast ad corners cut on the Cricut. I just wanted to show how these pre coloured images will work alongside favourite stamps for a really quick and easy card.

Finally and at the risk of you all getting bored to tears I would like to very quickly tell you that later this month we are having a great candy giveaway over at Penny Black and More with prizes from Penny Black as well as other goodies to be won. Here is the logo and I would be so happy if you would share it on your own blogs to help us spread the word. And of course join in our challenges this month !

Happy Sunday all.

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.

Pretty in Pink

Susan has chosen a theme that lots of us love Pretty in Pink for this weeks Allsorts theme were our sponsors are Craft Fairy and DigiStamp Boutique.

I made a card very similar to this for a magazine commission which I blogged a few weeks ago and as I rather liked the design made another using Ignacios' Flowers Bring Smiles design sheet, some lace and ribbon and a Rubbernecker Stamps sentiment.

Thank you for taking a peek and hope you all 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.

In the Pink

A scheduled post again as I am on my hols and about now leaving France and into the Bay of Biscay......will it be a good crossing I wonder, it's always unpredictable...........but should be on our way to some more nice warm Mediterranean sunshine and visits to Malaga, Villefranche, Florence, Pisa, Roma and Lisbon to name a few.

It's time for a new challenge at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges where our theme is 'Summer Days' and as always there is a chance to win $20 stamps of your choice from FlonzCraft. And as it's Monday I also have my Prickly Pear and Nicecrane DT shares.

As with my last FlonzCraft DT card I have used some of the newly released DP's which you will find here along with Girl on a Windy Hill, another of my favorites and at $2.99 exceptional value for money. I love the pretty pattern and pinks in this DP and kept everything fairly simple adding just a organza bow and little rose embellishment.

FF0174 Starburst Daisies, DD0204 Grown in Grace and PPRS D031 Poinsettia die

My PPRS piece is one I made for a magazine commission and now it's been published I am safe to share. The stamps and dies I used are listed above along with links to them in the store.

And finally and in keeping with the post tile here is my Nicecrane share for the week. I love this image and have again teamed it up with Graphic 45 DP's, some gingham ribbon and bunting using a Penny Black die.

Hope your week is a good one.