Glorious Hibiscus, a Snippet and a Birthday party

Morning Peeps, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Helene would like to see something relating to 'Music' on our artwork. Our sponsor is Digistamp Boutique and we also have a second prize of a collection of lovely Tattered Lace musical instrument dies.

And here's a little heads up to what's coming up on 20th May, please feel free to grab the logo and share on your own blogs to help us spread the word.

Well, this is not what I had in mind but the Sheena Hibiscus flowers were sitting on my desk all coloured up ready with Spectrum Sparkle pens after I took apart another card which just didn't go as planned. So I inked up some watercolour card using DI's, used a music score and randomly stamped the base layer, some honeycomb stenciling to the top layer along with a Visible Image sentiment, layered it all up and placed the ready arranged flower spray and finito, a pretty quick and easy card. And as the Hibiscus blooms were all stamped onto offcuts I think this fits nicely into the current 279/280 Snippets Playground challenge.

Happy weekend all and I do hope you will join in our challenge this week and of course pop over to see the inspiration my teamies have on offer.

An Orchid or Hibiscus ?

Morning all and hoping this scheduled post knows it's Saturday and time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Jo would like us to share our favourite colour and we have a lovely prize from Sizzix.

The flowers are from Sheena's Orchid set. I stamped it out some time ago and forgot which set it came from and as it doesn't really look like a conventional orchid to me have to confess when I did the coloring in with Spectrum Pencils I actually thought it was a Hibiscus and coloured it accordingly, so will put this one down to artistic licence.

It's a corner stamp which I stamped four times to create a frame/wreath...........over at TL they think I have a bit of a fettish for floral wreaths as I seem to make one with every new set of dies I am sent to work with.............and they could well be right as I get great comfort from using flowers in this way. I have yet again used Penny Black Sing, Dance, Love in the centre and added an organza bow and ribbon slide...........I found a supplier on the internet that is aimed at the wedding market but sells some lovely ribbon adornments at reasonable prices.

My second share uses lots of Tattered Lace dies, I have written the details up on another scheduled post over at the Tattered Lace bog so please do pop over there if you would like to know what products I have used.

Happy weekend all and as always many thanks for your visit.

By the sea

This is going to be a really quick post because my craft room is in uproar and most of my goodies packed away. Why I hear you ask, well hubby decided my craft room was ready for an overhaul and on Sunday morning without warning ripped the carpet up, so yesterday was a mad rush to finish DT work and schedule posts for the next week or two. I will still be able to comment/blog on my lappy but I store all my images and prepare posts on my desktop as it's visually much easier for me to work with.

My card is one I created playing with my new Pan Pastels, I won some in their challenge and needless to say one thing led to another and I 'needed' more. I am totally blown away by how easy they are to work withm they blend beautifully and using the small sponge tools you can even colouring with them, my whole card was coloured with them alone. So I thought it only right I entered my card into their challenge this week. The stamps are Sheena Douglass.

Hopefully it won't be too long before I get back to normality craft wise, but I'm a realist and know these things don't happen overnight, especially as hubby will be trying to fit everything that needs doing around work.

Pan Pastel - By the Sea

Winter sunset in the Fens

A very Good Morning to you all, it's time for me to share my DT card for our new challenge at Allsorts where the theme is 'A One Layer' Project.

The theme was chosen by Amanda who recently left the team, so I have picked it up and although I didn't choose the theme it's one I really like as it gives me the perfect opportunity to do a bit of masking an inking and create one of the little scene I so enjoy creating. In fact I made two, hubby preferred the one with the vivid orange sky which is typical of a winter sunset here in the Fens when the sky looks almost on fire at times, in fact it could be the scene right outside my kitchen window many evenings right down to the gate and barn. I was split between the two so am sharing both.

For both cards I masked the edges of a piece of Fabriano watercolour card before stamping and colouring to give the effect of matting but maintaining the one layer requirement.

The one at the top uses the Andy Skinner A Winters Tale set, plus some Art Impression grasses which I stamped with Archival Sepia ink, then added the colour using cut and dry and Adirondack dye inks sunset orange, eggplant, pebble and pesto. Finally a bit of glitter here and there...................it's a very frosty evening you see.

My second card uses one of Sheena Douglass's new waterside stamps, plus some Art Impression worker stamps all stamped with Archival sepia, the sponged over with Adirondack dye inks butterscotch, denim and pesto. The little man and his dog are a Stampscpaes stamp.

I hope you all have a good weekend and thank you so much for popping by.

More TV samples and brayering

Hi all, apologies for the lack of activity this week, I still seem to be struggling and inordinately slow at everything, so apart from DT commitments that's about it on the blogland front.

Although I am crating fine now and making cards for England, work on the keyboard remains a real effort as my dexterity seems all awry still............luckily messing about with ink and paint does not show the 'oh dear I didn't mean to do that' bits.......and there is a good bit of that going on. At least doing a post gives the opportunity of time to properly review what's written and amend all the typos, but a quick chase round blogland leaves me utterly embarrassed when I see my comments on display. So peeps, I hope you will understand why I am not about in blogland too much still.

But at least I have some shares today.......top card and another down the bottom of this post.......are sneak peeks at some of my samples for Stamp Addicts new programme which is live on Create and Craft on 21st March at 11am. The scenic, transport and Gypsy caravan stamps have been a joy to work with, all are available to buy on their website....check the what's new section. I will share some more with you over the next few days.

We have a new challenge at Allsorts.........and I confess that when I saw the theme Amanda had chosen........'Luck of the Irish' I went totally blank and all I could come up with were leprechauns and four leaf clovers, none of which I have in stamps. Then I though green, so that's the route I have gone down with my card above.

My image is one of the new Sara Burrier stamps from Crafts and Me called Mourning, isn't she Divine ? The name suggests she is intended for sympathy cards, but I think her uses are far wider. She is coloured with Copics and the border around the image is stamped with Hero Arts F5042 Leaf Flourish. The DP is Magnolia and flowers and a swirl to embellish. The easel card was made with a new die from Go Create, they come in sets of three and are ideal for making base cards and matching mats as they are all larger than most of the nesties, but not quite as huge as the grand nesties.

Shabby Tearooms - Luck of the Iish
Crazy Challenges - Lovely ladies
Southern Girls - Use flowers

Charisma Cards - Easel card

Wags 'n Whiskers - More than one fold

Delicious Doodles - Use green

The card above is my DT piece for this weeks Stamptacular Sunday challenge........I got it a bit wrong last week, I really did think that was my last week but forgot I had already uploaded a couple more ready for the remainder of March........I tell you the lifts still not going to the top floor some days.

So a bit of simple brayering here with Adirondack dye inks, the good old Speedball brayer and Stampscape stamps. The sentiment is from a Sheena Douglass set which I thought went well with the little scene which was created using a circle mask.........sort of in reverse........I cut a large circle in a sheet of A4 on the Cricut then brayered and stamped through the aperture using several different stamps.

Oh la la - It's a mans thing

Moving Along with the Times - Card for a Male

Creative Card Crew - No flowers

Crazy for challenges - A tree on your card

And another of the cards I created for Stamp Addicts new show which I told you about above. I thought this was perfect for:

Res Q Challenge - A touch of pink

TREEmendous

'TREEmendous' is the theme for this weeks new challenge at Stamptacular Sunday, do pop over and join in the fun.

For my DT piece I created a background using Tim Holtz peeled paint, stormy sky, broken china and fired brick which I dabbed onto my craft sheet and spritzing with water and then placed a piece of watercolour card into the wet inks....I find it helps to agitate the card just a little to get a soft blend of colours.

I stamped Art Impression U3095....don't know the name of the image but it's the park bench and trees all in one......using versafine black and embossed with detail clear. The sentiment is from a Sheena Douglas set as is the flower which I stamped twice to decoupage, colouring with Aquamarkers before inking with Versamark frost and spritzing with Glimmer Mist pearl and shaping whilst still wet. The border is Martha Stewart double loop punch around the page.

This card is for the following challenge:

CES Challenge - Anything goes

Crafty Sentiments - Anything goes

Patties Creations - Punches

My second share again has a background created with TH distress inks, this time with a masked sun, then stamped with Hero Arts S5316 Silhouette Grass using versafine sepia and embossed with detail clear. The sentiment is an unmounted one which needless to say I have no idea of the origin........that's why I prefer wood mounted as I always lose the packaging. My friend Tracy Mouse told me she stamps all her images, labels them and keeps them in a folder for reference.......what a great idea.........so when are you coming to catalogue my stamps Tracy ?

This card is for the following challenges:

Gingerloft - Distressing

Paper Pretties - Male card

Crafty Catz - Your choice

I Did It - Anything goes