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.

Welcome to the Stampalot Garden Party

Hopefully Blogger is still playing the game with me and this will pop us as scheduled on the 1st August for the new challenges at Sir Stampalot and Penny Black at Allsorts.

Today we should be in the beautiful Greek isle of Santorini, but there is one element that spoils my trips here and that is those poor little donkeys making repeated treks up and down the steep hillside to ferry visitors to the village above. The family all tell me I am sad and I am in total agreement, the only difference is my sadness is that these poor creatures are exploited in the burning heat day after day.

OK, off my high horse now, I know that's one animal rescue I cant deal with so I will tell you about the challenges, at Stampalot we have the theme of "Whatever you Fancy" and Penny Black at Allsorts "Free and Easy", so basically both totally open to create what you like.

My Stampalot creation is a sort of concertina box card, I'm sure there is a proper name for it but not really sure what this is. I stamped and coloured several Molly Blooms stamps and created a little scene, took me the best part of a day to do this one but really enjoyed it even if it is outside my comfort zone.

My Penny Black make above uses the lovely image Penny Black 4076K Gift of Flowers and I did some paper piecing for her dress and hat and coloured the other parts with Copics. The DP is Scribble Scrabble and the ribbon threaded through a Marianne die.

Thanks for visiting and have a lovely weekend.

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.

Molly Blooms chillin' at the beach

New challenges at Penny Black at Allsorts where the them is 'Flower Power' and it's our first Birthday so we have a bit of fun adn some etra prizes planned. And at Stampalot tje theme is 'Anything Goes', a nice easy one.

So as you can see I've been having a play with some on the new Seaside Molly range of stamps which you will find here. All fairly simple, images coloured with Aquamarkers, some clouds and sand, a little boat in the background and a computer generated sentiment.

The card above has some of the lovely new Scribble Scrabble DP from Stampalot and Penny Black 4035K letters and flowers which I just love using this way, simply inked with distress inks and spritzed with water before stamping. The flower is made from the same DP using Tim Holz tattered floral die and the swirl is also TH, tattered flourish.

The card above has a background created by dabbing blocks of distress ink onto a piece of linen cardstock, the over stamping with Hero Arts S5316 silhouette grass and Penny Black 2666K blush. The sentiment is Penny Black 3940F life.

April Showers

Happy Easter Everyone

I so hope the weather is still holding out for you all the same as it is here in the Fens. I had a wonderful day demoing at Stampalot yesterday......even if I did think it was Saturday and go into panic mode last night because the Allsorts post had not appeared as scheduled.

It was fabulous to see so many friendly faces yesterday and thank you all for coming along............I was really thrilled to meet some blogland peeps for the first time......Linby who travelled from Nottingham, Sue who came from Norfolk, the two ladies from Suffolk (please forgive me but names evade me at the moment, but I know you said you are visitors to my blog) plus of course all the 'regular' faces who are always a pleasure to see. An awful lot of chatter took place and as Janice mentioned, a lot of giggles came from the demo room, but I did get a bit of crafting done as well I promise you.

So now I've got my days straight and today definitely is Saturday there is a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Kirsten has chosen the theme April Showers. And there is a lovely set of Hero Arts stamps for this weeks winner donated by Sir Stamplaot.

A perfect opportunity to use one of my favourite slapstick stamps from Penny Black called Rain or Shine. The image is coloured with Aquamarkers and decoupaged. The DP is one of the new designs from Scribble Scrabble and I embossed a panel of matching bazzil with my Cuttlebug birds and swirls folder as it matches the pattern on the DP so well. I distressed the panel by sanding and embossing the edges with gold and added some perfect pearls to add a bit of sheen.

Some more nice and inky work

I thought I would share the projects I prepared for the class at Stampalot last weekend. I know most of the girls have shared their makes on their own blogs, so thought I had better enter into the spirit of things and show mine. And of course all the stamps and papers etc., can be purchased from Sir Stampalot.

The top card and close up above uses the lovely technique that was in the March edition of Craft Stamper...........as soon as I saw this I just knew it had to be a class project. It's a bit of a lengthy process as it takes time to dry in between each process so the girls on Saturday made it over the course of the day between other work.

You use watercolour card and spritz three times with diluted TH distress refill ink......we used worn lipstick, peeled pain and brushed corduroy, allowing each layer to dry before adding more. Next a smearing here and there of Bead Gel, not a lot otherwise it won't take the stamping........this is the part that takes longest to dry. Finally you rub gold acrylic pain over the dried bead gel and as soon as that is dry you are ready to stamp with stayzon........silhoutte stamps give the best result for the main images......here I have used Hero Arts wild flowers and some Penny Black ones ramdomly stamped in the background.

A long procedure, but a very satisfying result. The strip of finished card is cut into three, some score lines, pearls, a button and twine added to finish the card.

For this one we used Memento inks and Glimmer Mist dazzling diamonds to create a background, then stamped Penny Black 4182K Butterfly Suite and coloured with Aquamarkers. The base card is stamped with Hero Arts Music using TH wild honey. The DP is one of the new Scribble Scrabble designs. The flower was made using TH tattered floral die, scrunched up and dipped into UTEE.

My final card used another stamp from Penny Black 4183K Sparkle and Hero Arts S5264 Antique Flower Background stamped onto the side of the base card. The flower was stamped and coloured with Aquamarkers three times to cut out and decoupage and the cut out petals inked with versamark frost, spritzed with Glimmer Mist pearl and moulded into shape before layering up. The DP is Kaiser.

Easter Lilies

Saturday morning and Fleur is hosting this weeks theme at Allsorts and would like to see "Anything but Square".

So a chance to make yet another easel card............I know yawn, yawn.........using my Grand Nesties, yummy new DP from Scribble Scrabble and some demo stamps from Hero Arts so afraid I don't have any codes for them as yet.

I created the three panels by masking and inking with Memento pear tart, cantaloupe and tangelino.....I use this combo no end as the three work together beautifully. I spritzed with Glimmer Mist pearl to bleed to colours a bit before removing the masks and then stamping the lily with versafine back and embossing with detail clear.

And I figure I can share these little gift bags with you which I made for the girls as by the time this post pops up they will all be on their way to Sir Stampalot at Peterborough.......or should be..........if they are not and arrive late then it will be detention for them........humm, I wonder what that would entail ?

I am so looking forward to the class which is another of those all day ones Chris and I have done for blog friends who come from far and wide. It's as much a social gathering as anything else, lunch, lots of yatter and a bit of crafting as well. I'm not sure what use I am going to be with my lousy eyes and balance, but I figure everything is prepped ready so if need be I can just sit and observe activity and of course talk for England.

Blooming Blossoms

Hello peeps, it's my turn to host the challenge at Allsorts this week so no surprise that there are some flowers about and the theme I have come up with is "Blooming Blossoms" and gain I could have made a few dozen for this theme, buy here are just a couple.

I am trying to get round to you all one by one, only a few words here and there and if I've not got to you yet apols, this could take time !

The one above uses some of the gorgeous new Scribble Scrabble DP which happened to make it's way to me from Sir Stampalot and Hero Arts CL449 Delicate Blossoms which I stamped onto a background created with TH olive and stormy sky inked onto my silicone mat, spritzed with water, swishing a piece of watercolours card through it then a spray of Glimmer Mist graphite. I stamped again onto the reverse of the PG to paper piece and decoupage.

And I thought it only right that I did a card with Penny Black 3064K Cherry Blossoms. A very simple and clean cut card, stamping directly onto the base card, a little colouring with Copics, some pounced flowers and flutterby, pearls and a Stamping Up sentiment.