Lace and more lace

Good Morning Peeps. time for some more new monthly challenges and great themes, at Pretty Little Ribbons we would like to see 'Lace' and at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges it's 'Lace, Pearls and a touch of Elegance', I can see some perfect opportunities to double up here.

My FlonzCraft piece uses a new stamp from their Vintage Fashions Girls range - apparently that's now the 50's and 60's so a bit scary to think that I hail from a Vintage era......C'est la vie! Ayhow, I paper pieced the image using the same DP's as the background which are Teresa Collins and I absolutely love this colour combo. I grounded the image using an Art Impression cobblestone stamp and added a few blossoms at the top with another FlonzCraft stamp. Some lace, pearls swirls and die cut flowers and leaves and finito.

I would like to enter this card into:

Fashionista - Shabby or vintage
Bloggers challenge - A feminine touch

And this one is my DT piece for Pretty Little Ribbons using some of Sarah's lovely 16mm Guipure Lace, Pearl Hearts and White Satin Leaf Trim, The image is the gorgeous violet stamp from Stampendous and some new Spellbinders which I just had to have.

I made the three violets in the corners using the small leaf punch from the Tonic Punch and Stamp Rose set and the leaves are from Ruth's Pick of the Bunch Lily stamp set which I stamped onto bazzil cardstock which match the leaves on the stamp rather well.


I would like to enter this card into:

Gingerloft - Lilac and lace
Crafty Calender - Blooms and Blossoms
Kraftyhands - Flower Frenzy

I have just one more to share as I had a small piece of the Guipure Lace left so couldn't resist a second card, this one used a Chocolate Baroque bird image and a Stampendous sentiment.



The background is distressed with Squeezed Lemons and Shabby Shutters and over stamped using a Penny Black background stamp before stamping the main images with archival coffee. The flowers are also from PLR and I coloured the Satin leaf Trim with green distress ink.

I would like to enter this into:

No Matter Which - Things with wings
BTCG - Flowers

Have a good Monday Peeps and hope you will get your lace out and join in our challenges.

Spring blossoms and butterflies

Happy April everyone, we have new themes for you at Pretty Little Ribbons and FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping challenges.

At Pretty Little Ribbons it's my turn to choose the theme and being just a tad transparent when it comes to  choosing themes and the fact it's also the first of April it had to be 'Spring is in the Air'...................not that you would ever know looking out of the window in most parts of the UK. And over at FlonzCraft the emphasis is on 'Thank You'.

There is a great sale going on at Pretty Little Ribbons this month so do go check out the bargains.

My card at the top if my first DT piece for Pretty Little Ribbons and may well get you grabbing your sunnies as it's a tad bright, but when I saw the lovely fresh green gingham ribbon and fuchsia pink lace from Sarah I knew exactly where I would go. So I created a background using green and yellow Dylusuions and stamped the gorgeous Elizabeth Bennett stamp which is a new one from Indigo and stamped with archival black.

I love all things Brontë and Pride and Prejudice is probably one of my favourites so I've also read the sequels written by Linda Berdoll, if you are a fan and have not read them yet then you really should.........mind you I think Miss Elizabeth Bennett would have had a fit of the vapours if she had foreseen what a racy young woman she turned into at the mercy of Mr Darcy. But the books are great escapism.

I bleached out the colour from the face and flowers, coloured with watercolour pencils and decoupaged some of the flowers, the butterfly and the bird. The charm and flowers are also from PLR, I coloured the white daisies with the same watercolour and green ones are as they came and match nicely.

My FlonzCraft card is fairly simple, an embossed background, some FlonzCraft butterflies inked with distress markers and some Aged Gold Frantage added randomly and the good old TH caged bird, although I let this one of of his cage. I created the sentiment on the computer as I wanted it in Italian which translated reads 'thank you for your kindness'.

My final piece is another one for Pretty Little Ribbons, simple matting and layering using Spellbinders, some bazzil and Magnolia DP, silky crushed ribbon and satin leaf trim from PLR. The two lilies are made with Tonic's stamp and punch lily set.

I hope you can join in our challenges this month and look forward to seeing all your creations.

Deco Delights and this weeks candy

Saturday morning can mean only one things, yep a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Tracy is our host and has the inspiring theme of 'Deco Delights' and our sponsors are The Craft Barn and DigiDarla.

This was a perfect opportunity for me to use one of the lovely Art Deco stamps from FlonzCraft, this one is is called 20's Fashion Girls 6 which I stamped and coloured with watercolour pencils and stamped Art Impression cobbled path to ground them and a few leaves across the top. I was a bit stumped for backing DP as I had nothing that really fitted the geometric style prints of the eara, but I managed to find a free download of a Art Deco inspired William Morris wallpaper. A few feathers and a beaded pin following some jewellery images I found from the 20's.

Now for this weeks candy giveaway, a pack of ten elegant tent cards and envelopes.

And the winner of last weeks candy is Aud - her Thursday comment came out of the hat, please mail me with your full postal addy Aud so I can get your stamps posted off to you.

And for those of you who missed last weeks post, I am giving away a craft item every week with the winner selected at random from all comments left during the week, more than one comment, extra chances to win. here's all you need to do:

1) Pop the logo above to your blog sidebar and leave a comment this week
2) And I would love it you were a follower (but no candy only blogs - I do check)

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and will find time to join in this weeks challenge.

Spring is in the Air

Good Morning Peeps, before I move on to today's card I must thank you all for your lovely comments and mails about the little celebratory competition (details in the post above) I have on the go and am so happy to know that you like the idea. And the entries so far have been wonderful and I am really enjoying looking at them all, so again I say thank you for your friendship.

Now on to our new March challenges at Pretty Little Ribbons and FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges where we have the themes of Happy Birthday and Spring is in the Air............and guess who chose that one, am I transparent or what ?

So my card at the top is my DT piece for the Spring theme at FlonCraft using this really sweet little image called Girl on Windy Hill. I know I don't often do cute but I thought she was just perfect for a Springtime card so I paper pieced her dress from the same DP as the background, distressed a strip of coredinations, added some lace and cut the edge of the card with TH butterfly border. Nearly forgot the rose, I made it that with Tonic punches and then dipped into UTEE to glaze.

I would like to enter this card into:

Joanna Sheen challenge - Layer it Up

Sunday Stamper - Something Pretty

When I received my DT kit from Sarah for this month Pretty Little Ribbons theme it contained some gorgeous silk green ribbon and instantly I visualised a lovely flower made with it. For a change it turned out just as I intended and I have made it the focal element of my card above, adding a little tea dye distress ink over the edges to add a little definition and mounting it onto the die cut frame and a butterfly to finish.

I would like to enter this card into:

Gingerloft challenge - Ribbons and Bows
One Stitch at a Time - Green
Hiding in My Craft Rooms - Greens

My final card is another for Pretty Little Ribbons, quite simple really using some dies and embossing and two pansies again made from one of Ruth's Tonic Punch and Stamp sets. The swirly leaves are in the same set as the main dies and I think make a nice change from the Spellbinder leaves I tend to use over and again.

And I would like to enter this one into:

My time to Craft - Embossing

Both themes are nice and easy, but allow you to stretch the boundaries if you wish so I do hope you will find time to join us this month.

Roses all the way

My friend Tracy Mouse is hosting her very first theme with us at Allsorts this week and would like to see 'Something for a Lady' which is perfect with Mothering Sunday coming along next week, but of course your card can be something for a lady's birthday or any other occasion.

Still in love with Ruth's lovely stamp and punch sets by Tonic I had to use them for my card and made two roses, complete with droplets of water fresh from the garden ! The DP is from stash and I have absolutely no idea of the make but have used for the background and then the reverse to cut the layers using a Marainne die set. Some seem binding from Pretty Little Ribbons and beaded pain and swirls to embellish.

And one more using this pretty stamp from the Rose stamp sheet from DigiStamp Boutique printed onto Fabriano watercolour card and coloured with watercolours. An embossed background and some matching ribbon and pearls to embellish. That's another one knocked of the Mothering Sunday list.

I really hope you can join us this week and look forward to seeing all your entries.

All rather Vintage

Today sees the start of our new challenges at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping and Pretty Little Ribbons and at the first we would like to see ' Blues, Aquas and Browns' and at Pretty Little Ribbons it's 'Anything Goes'.

And it does look rather like I've got a vintage thing going on with the same colourways for both, although that wasn't my intention but I do admit that I love working with the blue and brown colour palette.

To create the shape of the three way card which is my DT piece for Pretty Little Ribbons I used a spellbinder die sideways cutting only halfway through each panel by placing the main part of the card outside of the embossing plates. I randomly stamped each panel with the Tim Holtz pillion stamp set and an Inkylicious wire stamp using TH distress inks tea dye, vintage photo and peacock feathers and round the edge with a Hero Arts swirls stamp. I stamped the butterflies a second time to decoupage and made two roses using a five petal punch (added: I had already made this one when I received my new punch and stamp sets from Ruth or I would have used them again). I have used a selction of ribbons, braids and beads which are all available on the PLR website.

By second card is my DT piece for FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping using the two birds image, inking the stamp with distressed markers and spritzing with water before stamping onto a piece of Fabriano watercolour card. The flower, hinge and bird on branch are all Tim Holt dies to which I added liberal amounts of Frantage gold and aqua and the DT is Bo Bunny.

My third card uses more pretty laces and ribbons from PLR, a Penny Black stamp and some little dots added with liquid pearls.

I do hope you will find time to join in with our challenges this month look forward to seeing all your entries.

Way out of the comfort zone

Before I tell you about my card and our new Allsorts challenge, I must say a huge thank you to everyone for you kind comments and thoughts with my little problems this last week. Also to my lovely challenge team mates for picking up my commenting for me this week, you are all stars ********* 

Holly is home from hospital.....I don't know how many of you are familiar with the Animal health Trust at Newmarket, but they really are a wonderful organisation with some of the best vets from around the world and way out there with their research, specialist knowledge and care. And we are so lucky to have it within an hours drive so can easily be referred there.

The bottom line with Holly is that she is incontinent and at the moment not a great deal more they can do until her female anatomy develops enough for them to operate to try and rectify several issues. Bless her she constantly asks to go outside.....like every ten minutes......but of course it's often too late and very distressing for her as labs are by nature such clean dogs. So we are ploughing through kitchen roll and puppy pads like there's no tomorrow and the washing machine is working overtime with dog beds. In some ways it's worse than a baby because you can at least put a nappy on them and put them in their pram ! Here's a picture of her in the little 'recovery' coat they sent her home in yesterday, not something you get with your average vet's practice.

My speech is slow, I had another drain put in Thursday but at least the pain seems to be easing today, so some light on the horizon hopefully and perhaps something more than soup for a change. 

Now for some craft and it's Jo's turn to host the theme at Allsorts this week and she is challenging us to 'Get Cute' which certainly is a challenge and way outside my comfort zone, but I have been very good and didn't even get my distress inks or Pan Pastels out of the draw.

I've used what to me is cute, or at least as cute as my stamp drawers get, a Penny Black image and some Magnolia DP, lace and lots of die cuts. I used just a little watercolour to lift the image and decoupaged the tiny elements.

Hope you have a good weekend and as always thank you for popping in and I know I've said this several times this week, but I really am trying to get round to you all, even if it's only a few words.

Beleive

Good morning Peeps from an extremely cold Cambridgeshire Fen but the welcome to my new followers and visitors is a very warm one.

It's still -9 outside with freezing fog but the most beautiful hoar frost making everywhere look magical and dreamy which is rather fitting as my card above uses the new Dream stamp from Stamp Addicts, one of the stamp sets which will be featured in the new programmes on Create and Craft TV next Tuesday 22nd January.

And typically because it's been the coldest two days so far this winter our combi boiler decided to stop working on Tuesday night, but Calor Gas were absolutely brilliant and were out here 9am yesterday morning......... apparently the disabled get priority call outs !  All was working okay yesterday then last evening exactly the same happened again and it seems it's to do with the gas pipes coming across the garden to the house from the underground tank (as we live in the sticks we have no mains services) reacting to extreme changes in temperature which cuts off the gas supply.

The card above is fairly simple with a Go Create frame cut from some scraps of DP, a lattice using a Cheery Lynn die over a background stamped with music script. I used just one of the words from the stamp set and added some roses made from Pretty Little Ribbons sheer organza ribbon, a seam binding bow from the same source and spellbinder leaves.

My second card is a bit outside my comfort zone, but it's good to stretch yourself sometimes and uses the Home for Gnomes stamp. I stamped, coloured and cut out the two gnomes, stamped the toadstool house onto the front of the card and cut round the top so that I could create a background scene on the inner part of the card. Then just mounted the two gnomes onto the front.

I kept my third card very simple and stamped the Golfer image in black archival ink and coloured just the jersey of  the golfer to match the ribbon.

Keep warm everybody and if you're like me your craft room is the perfect haven from the cold weather.

Floral overload

Good morning to all, I've got more new challenges to tell you about at Pretty Little Ribbons where we have a lovely theme of  'Flowers and Ribbons' and at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping where it's simply 'Vintage' and we thought the chance for you to share some of your new stash with us.

I got a little bit carried away with my goodie package from Sarah and coupled with the floral theme ended up with several DT pieces. The top one uses the lovely Amaryllis stamp from Penny Black which I stamped onto the Marianne frame after masking the edge to keep the script central and coloured the flower head with watercolours. The DP is Kaiser Kraft and the ribbons, lace, flowers and charm are of course all from Pretty Little Ribbons...............the thumbnail pictures below all link to their shop so you can grab some for yourself.

The above card is my FlonzCraft DT piece using one of their lovely Vitage images, this one is called   which I paper pieced to match the Bo Bunny background papers. The Ivy is a Marianne die and the flower made with punched shapes.

The inspiration for this altered box comes from my FlonzCraft teamie Claire who use one these boxes for a creation a few weeks ago. Needless to say when she said it was a Graze box the penny didn't drop and I went searching the Internet thinking it was a pre-scored template, it was far too simple to realise it was one of the boxes the health food nibbles arrive in which my daughter leaves laying all round the kitchen.

I used two 12x12 sheets of DP to cover the box, lots of lace, ribbon and liquid pearls and I paper pieced the four flowers which are all stamps from the designs of my friend Ruth whose images and dies are distributed by Tonic Studios. The flowers and butterflies I have used come from the following stamp sheets....... fuchsia, lilies, peony and chrysanthemum.

My final card is another for Pretty Little Ribbons, the image is Penny Black which I inked with Distress Markers, spiritzed with water and stamped onto watercolour card. I did a little stamping on the base card using versamark and a Hero Arts stamp and sponged with Pan Pastels. The bow is using some of the gorgeous silk crushed ribbon from PLR.

Goodness me, that was a bit of a long post, but there seemed so much I needed to share.

I really hope you will join in both challenges and look forward to seeing your creations.

Oh Christmas Tree

Good morning Peeps and thank you for all your lovely messages about Alex's achievement yesterday.

At Allsorts Debs is right into the season with the theme of 'Oh Christmas Tree' and our sponsor this week is my good friend Ruth of A Passion for Stamps so of course I wanted to use one of her images and although her Topiary Tree is not the traditional Christmas tree, it is all dressed ready for Christmas complete with bow...............in fact it's not unlike the one by my front door although mine hasn't got any flowers on it. I coloured the image with watercolours, cut it out and mounted onto a Marianne die oval which I stamped randomly with a Stamp Addicts Christmas background stamp. The DP's are Kaiser Craft and I had to use the Marianne holly die............yet again.

And here's just one more using some of Ruth's beautiful new dies distributed by Tonic Studios, here I have used the Domed Window and Window Box sets, stamped a Penny Black image inside the window and embossed with Frantage aged hunter. The little flowers and leaves all come in the window box set and there are also some matching stamps available which work beautifully with the dies. I can't give you a link to them as yet as C & C had exclusivity on the products for the first month after their November launch, but I know the shops had them on order and I think should be generally available this week.

I hope you all have a good weekend and I imagine there's lots of Christmas preparations going on, but I hope you still find a little time to join in with this weeks challenge.

Ribbons and lace

Good morning Peeps, hope everyone had a good weekend and those of you brave enough to attack Christmas shopping had a fruitful trip and didn't get too jostled around by the crowds.

I got a little news to share and you could call it another of my moments of madness, I know it does seem to happen quite often with me, but when Sarah from The Pretty Little Ribbons Shop asked me if I would join her design team it took me a nano second to say "oh yes please". I've always loved her products and buy far more ribbons than I ever need, but that's half the fun isn't it ? 

So today I'm sharing my first DT piece for this months Pretty Little Ribbons challenge where we have the totally seasonal theme of 'Christmas', along with my DT piece for this months FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping challenge where my lovely teamie Claire have chosen the theme of 'A Pocket Full of Poses', right up my street.

Despite working away at Christmas cards for what seemes like an eternity................ would you believe I started making them for Create and Craft for Stamp Addicts programmes in May.................... I still need one the two more, especially those special ones so the card at the top for Pretty Little Ribbons gave me the perfect opportunity to get another one made.

The main image is Penny Black but it's a quite small stamp so I stamped it once to the right and then lined it up and stamped half of it a second time to extend the scene if that makes sense. Simple colouring with Pans Pastels, a Stamp Addicts star and Lavinia stag and a couple more tiny trees. I'm not sure of the make of DP as it's a left over from last year, but I think it's BoBunny. The rich blue seam binding is of course from Pretty Little Ribbons as are the two pearl pins which I coloured with Copics. The pinecones and leaves are a TH alterations die.

My second card above is my Vintage offering using the gorgeous etched rose stamp from Flonz Craft which I coloured with distress markers and spitzed with water before stamping onto a piece of Fabriano watercolour card. The DP's are BoBunny, a piece of embossed coredinations for the base and Marianne die cut roses. The butterfly die is Magnolia and as I said last week as close as I get to a Tilda.

I really hope you'll be joining in with our challenges, there are some fabulous prizes to be won at both.

Purple Passion

Note added: Apols I've not got to many of you this week, all good intentions to blog on my lappy did't really work out as I forgot I don't have the voice recognition programme installed on that and I find the keyboard all but impossible to work with.

Hopefully Blogger is playing fair and it's Saturday morning when this pops up as it's one of the scheduled posts I prepared before I had to 'close the doors' on my craft room for redecoration and so on.

This week at  Allsorts one of our lovely new design team members Tracy has come up with a great theme of 'Purple Passion'. Now I know my card looks distinctly blue in the photograph, but despite taking numerous pictures in different locations it still looked the same colour, but I can assure you it most definitely is lilac and purple, in fact I used distress markers dusky concord and shaded lilac from the spring collection.

I stamped the background using the second generation inking from Tim Holts Papillion stamp sheet and then stamped the main image by inking direct to stamp and spritzing with water for stamping. The main background piece was stamped all over with a penny black lace background stamp using versamak and clear embossing powder and then inking the whole piece with dusky concord and shaded lilac. Some ruffled ribbon and diecut roses and leaves.

As always, many thanks for popping in and hope you have a lovely weekend.

More Pick of the Bunch

Using the Fuchsia and Peony stamp sets 

Good evening Peeps, well what did you all think to the Olympic closing ceremony ?

We thought it was absolutely fabulous, very typically British and a great way to not only close the Games but to showcase some of our wonderful musical talents. The highlight for me had to be Freddie on the big screen and Brian and Roger strutting their stuff and then the finale with the surprise appearance of the Who, then of course there was Take That, I could go on. And to see the athletes so enjoying themselves and getting into the swing of it all made it the perfect finale.

Using the Peony and rose stamp sets (the lattice die on this one is a new ish one from Memory Box, but I'm unable to add the link below as it's not on the stores web site)

As promised a few more shares of some of the cards I've made for Ruth using her beautiful new Pick of the Bunch clear stamp sets. They are a delight to work with and they stamp out so crisply and with at least  ten stamps on each set represent excellent value for money.

Using the Fuchsia and Peony stamp sets

And finally, I know most of the other girls who were at our blog girl get together at Sally's on Saturday..............thanks Sal, it was great.............have posted pictures of us all so I'm not going there again, for somebody who just doesn't 'do' photos there are more than enough of them out there already, but there's one that only I have !! 

Using the Chrysanthemum stamp set

Sorry about this Lisa Jane but it's too good to keep to myself and in case you wonder what she's up to, she's just delving into the little goodie bag I gave them all, as one of them said when it was time to leave with us all holding a piece of cake "it's just like a real party". And no, the goody bag wasn't filled with chocolates, just one little packet of buttons and crafty bits and bobs.

You have to agree though, she does look pretty happy doesn't she ? If you're still speaking to me after this Lisa, look forward to seeing you and the others on our next get-together.