Ring a Ring O' Roses

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday which means it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and I have chosen the theme is 'Ring a Ring O' Roses, a Pocket Full of Posies'. We have two lovely prizes this week, a Heartfelt Creations garden stamp and a pretty floral paper pad.

The Roses are Chocolate Baroque all stamped with black versafine and heat embossed with detail clear, cut out and coloured with Spectrum pencils. I drew a pencil circle around the computer generated sentiment and used Rare Earth (Tattered Lace) stamps to add foliage around the circle the arranged the Roses using Pinflaire to give height and then tucked in the leaves and a coordinating bow. My Allsorts team mates have some lovely inspiration to share so please do pop over to the challenge blog.

And as it's May and we had sunshine on Wednesday and blue skies................so welcome after day's on end of cloud and temperatures of 10/11 deg.....................I had to wander up to the top paddock and take some photos of the Hawthorn - aka May. Some of the bushes are not fully in bloom yet but had to grab the photos just in case we get rain as inevitably it will ruin the blossoms.................and much as I hate to say it, we do desperately need some as everywhere is so dry and at the moment the hay crop is not looking promising.

Isn't it just so beautiful and how wonderful is Nature when it gives us such stunning blossoms and we have to do no more than just open our eyes, take in the sight and breath in the perfume.

Happy weekend all.

A bit of embossing and some happy faces

Morning Peeps, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Annie is challenging us to use either wet or dry embossing on our work. Our sponsor is the Sizzix.

I tend to heat emboss an awful lot of my stamping, not only do I like the sheen from it gives but if I am going to colour in it gives me a good edge to stop me going over the edges.......a regular occurrence as something of an unnatural colourist.

Both of my shares are Chocolate Baroque samples, the top tag was cut twice from heavy cardstock using a TL die and stuck together to create a firm base for the inks. My starting point was to pain the whole tag with a light brown acrylic paint, the a coat of crackle graze followed by a coat of cream acrylic paint. I then randomly stamped a Rose and script image and heat embossed with detail copper and also added some stencilling. The UTEE piece is just a random blend of UTEE crystals which I melted on a craft sheet and then stamped into with the Rose image. The three little hearts were stamped with the same script and embossed with detail clear to give them a bit of a sheen.

This set of cards and matching box are all TL dies, one of my favourite die sets from 2016. The Spring flowers formed part of a recent CB show on Hochanda and are all stamped with versafine and heat embossed with detail white powder , then coloured in with Spectrum pencils and matted and layered in coordinating cardstock.

Last week the girls 'Sussex Cousins' came to stay with their Mum and Dad - aka one of our son's and DIL. Pictured above are from left Cousins Prince and Luka along with Daisy, Holly and Poppy to the rear. Luka is a rescue from Cyprus, apparently they have a large number of Hungarian Viszlas abandoned over there, they are bought for hunting and then just abandoned when the season ends and an English lady Vicar living there tracks them down and re-homes them, mostly in the UK.

My team mates have all come up with different embossing takes on the theme and you will find them all over at the challenge blog.

Russian floral egg, Fairies and Rudolph Day's

I'm here with another GDT make for the Chocolate Baroque DT blog and showcasing another of the fabulous Russian influenced stamps launched on Hochanda, these were exclusive to them initially but I believe you will now find them on the Chocolate Baroque web site as well. Further down are a few of the samples I made for Chocolate Baroque's Hochanda shows on Monday.

I decided to make an easel drawer card and fill it with some mini chocolate eggs, it's ages since I made one of these and was more than a little shocked to see how long ago it was when I did the tutorial for it here (should you fancy making one)..............where on earth did those seven years go ?

I digress, as usual you will find all the details form making this one over at the CB DT blog along with the link to the gorgeous Russian Floral Egg which I used.

The April Rudolph Day's kicked off yesterday over at Mo's blog and again I am all prepared. Mind you I may not be quite as keen on making Christmas cards in another month or so as the time has come to start preparing samples for the Christmas TV shows, every year they seem to start selling Christmas products a bit earlier than the previous year.

It's a pretty quick and simple card using an Inkylicios image stamped in black archival, some Pan Pastels for a little colour and snow glitter, then an aperture cut into a top panel which I embossed with a holly folder, a stamped sentiment and some cord and finished.

And a few of my Fairy samples as promised above.....................

My thanks as always for popping by today.

I spy with my little eye............

Morning Peeps, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week it my turn to host the theme and I have come up with 'I spy with my little eye something beginning with B'..........how many of us played this in the car when we were children or with our own children to keep them occupied ? 

Lots of choices here, Butterflies, Bees, Bears, Buttons, Blossom, Brushos........the choice is endless and I am sure you will come up with lots of ideas. There are two super prizes this week and of course they both begin  with 'B'.

And my first card above is 'B' for Beautiful which I think is fitting for the lovely lady in her ball gown. She is from the Tattered Lace Rare Earth 'Strike a Pose' stamp collection and another of the samples I made for a recent Create and Craft TV show. I tended to keep all my samples simple as the image say's it all, so she was coloured with Spectrum pencils, matted and layered onto coordinating cardstock and then some ribbon and flowers added.

And here we have 'B' for Brusho's, Butterflies and Birds. The background is Brushos, then some stencilling using black DI's, two Butterflies which are TL dies and coloured with the same Brusho's and a sentiment which is also TL from the rare Earth Scribbles collection which were released on C&C TV back in February.

Please do pop over to the challenge blog to see what my teamies have come up with and lot's of different 'B's to inspire you.

An Easter bunny

Today I have a card which you will also find over at the Chocolate Baroque DT blog using a selection of the new stamps Lesley has been demonstrating on Hochanda in recent weeks, all of which should now be available on the Chocolate Baroque web site as well as Hochanda.

It's no secret that I love Spring so I thoroughly enjoyed working on samples for the show where all of the stamps in the above creation featured and it was no hardship making yet another card for this post using them. I guess you could call this one a signature Brenda make as it encompasses several of my favourite things, Spring, flowers, animals, an inspirational quote, a masked sun and Pan Pastels, what more could a girl ask for when creating a card ! I have written up details over on the CB DT blog so do pop over there if you want to read more about how I made this one.

My thanks as always for your visit.

A Russian influence and Spring flowers

It's time for our challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Anything Goes' and 'All things Spring'. As always there are wonderful prizes to be won at both.

Spring is a season I love and there is no shortage of stamps in my stash that fit the theme, so for this months share I have used both the lovely PB Daffodil Dance and Cherry Blossoms, a love chunky wood mounted stamp. I create a base card using the waste from another card using Timmy's Vintage Cabinet die, I made a small spine to join the two together and then used DI's to distress the edges and a stencil to add some interest to the corners.

Next two pieces of Fabriano, very softly inked with DI's, stamped both the images inking with distress markers direct to stamp and spritzed with water before stamping. I added some honeycomb stenciling and fixed in place behind the apertures with foam pads. Some twine and a Butterfly from PB Love Art clear set.

Two Stamping Sensations creations, the one above is one of the samples I made for last weeks Chocolate Baroque shows on Hochanda when a collection of wonderful Russian inspired stamps were released. I adore this image with the beautiful Katya and traditional Russian costume and wanted to keep this simple to let the face do all the talking. So I stamped with black versafine, embossed with clear powder and coloured sparingly with just red and gold, placing the image inside another waste frame after cutting a TH Cabinet Card die..................it was never my intention but I realise only now that two of my cards have the same frames and both are using the waste..............I think I actually prefer the waste element. The two buildings/temples are another of the new releases and again minimal colouring, finally matted onto red card and some gold beading across the top. I would like to enter this into Miss Di's current Snippets Playground Challenge.

The card at the top started out as a Parisian scene created with masks and Pan pastels but I wasn't sure where I was going next, then decided on Roses to the fore using the new Penny Black Red Blush....but yellow......repeat stamping the image several times and embossing with detail clear. I coloured the Roses with Spectrum pencils and stamped a few leaves with a Chocolate Baroque stamp, coloured to match the Roses and stamped a few birds in the sky.

As always we have some super prizes to be won at both challenges and my team mates have lots of inspiration to share so I hop you will pop over the the challenge blogs to take a look.

Vintage at Allsorts

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week Mervi is our host with the theme of 'Vintage'. Our sponsor is Marianne Designs.

It's a bit of a lengthy post because I also have some rather overdue Chocolate Baroque and Tattered Lace shares, the CB was one for the 15 minute card posts over on the DT blog yesterday and the TL ones a selection of the many made for Create and Craft TV shows over the last couple of weeks.

Back to my Allsorts card at the top, the image is Indigo Blue which I stamped in sepia archival ink and added a little colour to the Poppies with spectrum pencils and then inked and distressed the edges. The DP's are from stash and I have no idea of the make. Again I distressed the edges and did some machine stitching around the pink piece, matter them up at an angle and placed a piece of net fabric behind the focal image although it doesn't really show up very well on my photo. Some lace, pearls twin and flowers to embellish. 

I do hope you will pop over to the challenge blog and see what my teamies have made this week and of course join in with the theme.

I used CB Song Thrush which I randomly stamped using just sections of the image...........when I do this I don't mount the stamp onto a block, I hold it so I can bend the stamp to concentrate on specific areas of the card.............then heat embossed with detail clear powder, added distress inks, a CB sentiment and a few sequins. 

The cards above and below use the new Pin Bot Butterflies from TL, they are beautifully details stamps and for both cards I kept the design simple. The one above is similar to one I blogged a while back, the background was created with Brusho's Orange and Lemon.............sounds like a nursery rhyme coming on here.........sprinkling the dry powder onto Fabriano cardstock, spritzing with water and then tilting the card to disperse the colours. The Butterflies are cut from card coloured with the same Brusho colours. A TL sentiment and some sequins.

Again I kept the design simple, some stenciling on the background, ribbons and a Visible Image sentiment and Butterflies cut from glitter card..................despite the intricate design they popped out of the die with one run through the e.bosser.

This is one of a number of cards I made using the TL Spring into Summer papercraft and stamp set, they are such pretty colours and I really enjoyed making the cards for this show.

The above card used the Ship die from the Men's Collection, these samples were not actually for TV but for promotional purposes but I think I will find these dies very useful for masculine cards. It's a pretty simple card with a big masked sun and sea done with Pan Pastels and the ship decoupaged. I also added a stamped sentiment and birds.

And finally one of my makes for this weekends shows, I confess I struggled with balls of wool and needlecraft dies but have a feeling with those crafts being so popular there are those that will love working with them.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, not sure what the weather has in store for us but a repeat of last weeks sunshine would be most welcome.

A bit of an assortment

Good morning Peeps, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week I am hosting the theme of Ribbons and Roses, most appropriate as our sponsor is Crafty Ribbons. 

I love this beautifully bold Stampendous Rose and even thought I am not a colourist I do enjoy coluring up this one which I did with Spectrum pencils. I lightly inked the edges and added some background stencilling using the same color DI's. The background has been embossed with TL Rose Bunch folder and lightly inked and the focal piece matted and layered with coordinating DP's, some pearls and organza bow.

My Butterfly card is from a set commissioned by Create and Craft TV for one of their magazines so I am only now able to blog it, it's also my entry for the current Butterfly Challenge where the theme is of a course Butterflies plus the option of fancy folds and/or the colour fuchsia,

It uses dies from the Couture Creations Mariposa range, my all time favourite Penny Black inspirational quote stamp Dance, Sing, Love on the inside and the very pretty Trimcraft papers I was sent to use along with the dies. I added a row of stitching down both leading edges and some organza ribbon behind the sentiment.

This card features the new Essential Teardrop dies which launched on Tuesday, I used one of the smaller dies in the set of six to make three contemporary trees using scraps of DP, some freehand cutting to create hills and a fancy bow across the bottom

And I had better share a few of me recent Tattered Lace creations as I have been rather remiss this week, there have been several new shows during the week on Create and Craft TV and there is another today so here goes with a few. The one above is made purely from offcuts of DP so I am hopping over last minute to the Snippets Playground, getting there so late means at least that I can't be to blame for any indecorous goings on in the tree house this week............say's she sitting here at 4.45pm on a Friday afternoon scheduling this post, glass of Prosecco at the ready........well it is nearly the weekend and I would never dream of doing that on a normal weekday, ahmmmm.

One of the new Monumental Moment dies being launched Monday, I used the French wedding of one of our son's as the basis of the card..........the rather sour looking face behind some of the bridesmaids was actually very happy, just had more than her fair share of bubbles and standing was proving a bit of a challenge by that time of night.......French weddings as we discovered are very long, this one started on Wednesday and finished Sunday, the day itself was equally long with the wedding breakfast of six courses lasting well into the midnight hours

The picot edging is another new die from Tuesday which I cut in contrasting shades of green, overlapped and mounted over a Brusho background and a TL sentiment

Using some of the tuck in dies launching today, I cut the flowers several times from a large sheet of card then fixed them back into the apertures to make a mask then used acrylic paint and DI's to create the background. The new Congratulations sentiment and more of the flowers and another of the tuck in embellishments along with a tonal bow.

And an inky one, another of the tuck in accessory dies (the lattice) cut from thick card, some background stamping, DI's, Grunge Paste and gilding wax

I hope you all have a good weekend and that we will see you over at Allsorts this week.

Purple Passion

Good morning to you all, before I tell you about our new theme at Allsorts my apologies for my lack of visits for a few days and over the weekend but we are away, all rather last minute and I find commenting on my tablet all but impossible as my dodgy fingers just can't navigate the keyboard. 

So this post is scheduled and will hopefully pop up Saturday morning to tell you all about our new theme which Tracy has chosen, it's 'Purple Passion', no prizes for guessing it's her favourite colour.

I have used the lovely Violet stamp from Stampendous which I stamped with versafine black and heat embossed with detail clear before colouring in with Spectrum pencils. The matting and layering has been done with TL Shades cardstock using TL Pin Dot frames, Pearl Dot frames and Pearl Border dies. A stamped sentiment and some ribbons which I left longer than usual so they draped down the sides of my card.

Happy weekend all.

Lace, Ribbons and more CHA

Good morning, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where this week Susan would like to see 'Ribbons and Lace' which ties is nicely with this weeks sponsor Crafty Ribbons.

My focal image is a real oldie from Stamps Happen with just a little shading using spectrum pencils and some black and white DP's from stash.

And as promised a few more of my CHA and Create and Craft samples, the decorative centre stepper is the gorgeous new set which launched yesterday and sold out within hours again, but it will be back.

I think this is such a pretty shaped die set

And a blue one as well

Using Melded Roses frame, cut several times and Love Swag 

The Floral Scull is not the usual for me but I quite like it with the 'blown inks' all around, I saw something Mark from Visible Image had done with inks and it's fun !

The new Lattice Corner along with Byzentine Lattice

A lovely new Butterfly aptly named Beautiful Butterfly and Melded Roses frame 

The lovely lady is another new die............it's official I am totally addicted to the hexagon range of dies

I hope to be round all your blogs sooner rather than later, but I'm finding it hard going as it's been a bit of a touch week health wise and not looking any better this coming week with two days at hospital for different tests.