Winter blues

Morning everyone! At Allsorts, this weeks host is Lorraine with the theme of 'Anything Goes with the option of Winter Blues'. Prizes for this week and the next two will be announced on 27th January and a host of goodies from Oakwood, Stamp Addicts, Sizzix and AALL and Create.

A heads up that Oakwood and AALL and Create both have new releases this week on Create and Craft TV, for former Tuesday and A&C a Pick of the Day at 6pm Thursday. Below a few of my Oakwood shares, A&C ones later in the week, I just fell in love with them.......you'll understand why when I share. 

Update on Daisy as so many have kindly asked, she's doing OK, toxicology came back and confirmed as expected the tumour was malignant and spread into tissue but they feel confident they removed all affected areas at this point. The Vet will monitor her going forward to see if any further surgery is required. She wasn't keen on eating earlier in the week but a roast chicken M&S no less, did the trick!

I have two Allsorts cards to share plus one for the Snippets Playground, the first above using a collection of Lavinia stamps to create a blue tone on tone card using Versafine Clair Twilight for the stamping and Oxide Faded Jeans for all the shading. And of course the obligatory glitter here and there.

A second card using the same Stampendous Peony Pair stamp I used last week available from Oakwood, this time stamped into some inky cardstock which I have a feeling was a Gelli Plate mop up, I keep a draw of ready inked backings and at times don't remember exactly how they came about. The image was stamped with Versamark and embossed with a Stampendous sparkle EP, the flowers bleached out, left to dry and colour added. A die cut sentiment to finish.

A few of my Oakwood shares for Tuesday and the first is going over to the Playground to help celebrate Miss Di's (and partner in crime Sarn) eleventh anniversary of running the Playground, it takes time and commitment to stick with it so huuuuuge congratulations.

And a photo of my inky bit and pieces used, the torn piece in the background is what became the scroll.

I do hope you will find time to join us at Allsorts this week.

 

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Something New at Allsorts

Morning Peeps, a New Year and Mervi has chosen a theme to match at Allsorts, it's 'Something New'.  

This months prizes come from Oakwood, Stamp Addicts, Sizzix and AALL and Create and  there is a change to how we will be announcing prizes and in future. We will now be announcing them on the last Friday of each month covering the preceding months challenges. This makes the admin side of things much easier for us, especially given the changes we are experiencing with postal services here in the UK. There is a list on the challenge blog sidebar so you can check dates of prize winners posts.

I'll confess it's not a new stamp but I have done a new YouTube tutorial making this one so I am part way there, you can find it on the Oakwood channel here and my own here.

I have used this beautiful Stampendous Peony Pair which really lends itself to paper piecing. In the background I have used Stampendous Signature Script tall DL stamp, inked with three shades of Oxides, spritzed with water and stamped. I then stamped the focal image, bleached out the leaves and then added a little colour, stamped again using Oxides onto snippets of card, cut out and paper pieced the blooms. Words from one of the Oakwood sentiment sets, little Hare from Woodland Animals and washi tape to finish. 

This is also going over to the Snippets Playground, lots of snippets on display in the YouTube for this one.

Next the winner of the die set on my end of year post below, I gave each comment a number and Random Dog (aka Holly the Lab) selected no 25 who is Helen, no photo of them all doing the draw this time as had to be done on the quiet as Daisy is poorly after an op this week for a mammary tumour. 

She had one two years ago, that was 'low grade' and she got over it OK, but this one was much larger and came up very quickly, I was worried if they would operate as she is twelve and a half, but our vet is brilliant, saw us right away and operated the same day. Now waiting for path results and praying. Helen, please let me have your details so I can send the die to you.

As you will realise from above it's been a hectic week with vet visits and again I am late sharing my card to Tina in Slovenia as part of the December Card Chain Challenge and also the one I received from Hilary below.

Have a good weekend and my thanks as always for your visits and kind words.

 

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Year in Review with a little giveaway

Good morning, I hope everyone has had a good Christmas and been able to relax a little in the lull until New Year.

I decided to take part in Ellie's Year in Review which also gives me the opportunity to thank everyone for their continued support of my blog. It's been a tough year health wise and your visits and encouragement have meant so much and helped me through some difficult times.

However choosing which cards to share proved even more difficult than I anticipated. So in the end I tried to include something using favourite products and/or companies I am privileged to design for/represent which include Highlight Crafts/Two Red Robins, AALL and Create, Stamp Addicts, Oakwood and Stampendous.

I have also been fortunate to have a number of stamps sets released on Create and Craft this year which was exciting and several of those inspirational quotes are included on my shares today. 

In keeping with Ellie's plans, I have a small prize to give away, a Spellbinders A Lotta Hearts die set....just in time for Valentines maybe! A winner will be randomly selected from the comments on this post.....

Here's my final selection from my 2022 posts and Create and Craft TV work for this year, I've not listed details of products used in each but please do mail me from the link on the sidebar if you would like any specific details....

There are twelve taking part and here's Ellie's full list with links to their blogs so you can check out everyone, 

Bonnie, Brenda, Debbie, Diane, Ellie, Helene, Hilary, Joanne, Melissa. Rachel, Sara, Sue 

Thank you for popping in to take a peek and I wish you all a Happy and Crafty 2023.

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Let it Snow

Morning Peeps, at Allsorts we are still preparing for Christmas with the theme of 'Let is Snow with an A/G option' as selected by Lolo. 

A rather hurried post, much to my horror this morning I realised all I had written for this post was the first couple of lines and not even uploaded my work. I always schedule well ahead with posts and just add extras closer to posting date if necessary, but for whatever reason this one got missed, yet the next few weeks are finished!

Both of these card are recent DT makes for Oakwood's Create and Craft shows a few weeks ago, above using Stampendous Snow People and Oakwood Snowflake stencil and of course liberal helpings of glitter. The cold snowy feel is quite fitting at the moment as it's been well below zero all week here in the Fens and stayed that way all day a couple of times and looks set to continue.

This one uses Oakwood Perry and Sammy stamp set, a very plain card for me using the large alphabet die set I treated myself to a while back, again glitter and Sammy the Snowman.

Have a good weekend and keep warm.

 

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Garden delights

Saturday morning so that must mean time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Lynn had chosen the theme of 'Gardeners Delight' with the chance to win a lovely Stampendous stamp set from Oakwood Direct plus a stencil

Above we're down in the veg patch with a variety of carrots, think they call them Heritage, sure my Dad would have said what's wrong with the normal orange ones. Anyhows, an Oxide background, the carrot stamp is one of two really large ones on AALL and Create Seeds of Hope, some extra background stamping using Shattered and I just love these two little Rabbits from Miniature's as they seem to be permanent fixtures in most veg gardens.

A second using an image from Ruth Hamilton Design who is one of this weeks sponsors offering three images from her site, Sunflowers, stencilling in the background, washi tape and one of my own sentiments from my Moments set available at Create and Craft and here.

And as I'm an Oakwood DT I had better share a couple using Stampendous stamps for recent Create and Craft TV shows, this one called Treehouse Post onto a mottled Oxide background which was a mop up piece, the second one is House Mouse Painted Pansies and shock horror I had to do a bit of colouring.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

 

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Painted Lady

Morning everyone, time for another challenge at Allsorts where Lolo has selected the theme of 'Favourite stamps and dies'. This weeks prizes comes from Oakwood Archer.

For the above card which was for a Stampendous Create and Craft TV show I have used Fran's Painted Lady available in the UK from Oakwood. I wanted to create a soft ethereal feel so for the background used a piece of patterned rice paper sprayed with Oxides, then stamped and heat embossed the image with detail white EP and added just a little colour with Distress markers.

A second share also for a recent TV show using Stampendous Geranium Pitcher, I kept it fairly simple, stamping with Versafine Clair and coloured with Oakwoods brand new sparkle pens. At the moment they are only available from Create and Craft here but for sixteen pens great value at £34.84 (or £31.36 if you are a club member, that's £1.96 per pen, almost half the price of some other brands). The frame and circles are all part of a set from Carnation Crafts, the main frame is a really good size, the card above is an 8x8.

Thanks so much your your visits and hope everyone has a good weekend.

 

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Elegant CAS at Allsorts and a few more Stampendous

Morning Peeps, time for our new challenge at Allsorts where Ellie has chosen the theme of 'CAS with the option of Elegance' and there is a chance to win a £15 store voucher kindly donated by WOWVOW as well as another prize of an AALL and Create stencil.

My first card was a recent make for Fairy Hugs and features Olivia sitting atop Ink Cap Mushrooms reading her book and doing a bit of daydreaming. The wordage dies are a new Gemini alphabet set I purchased a couple of weeks ago, I've had my eye on it for ages but at nearly £50 a considered buy, but Colemans Warehouse recently had them 20% off so I went for it.

Above another of the Stamps by Me images I received for Christmas, this is one of their lamination stamps which also has a matching die. I used Versafine Clair Morning Mist for the first layer stamping and then Glamorous for the second layer and carried that colour to the die cut mat. The sentiment is from the same set.

And a few shares of the upcoming Oakwood and Stampendous TV shows on Sunday at 3pm and 7pm and Tuesday the iCraft show is at 7pm, although things are liable to change during the merger so as well to double check.

Music Speaks stencil, stencil paste onto an iCraft alcohol ink acetate panel

Stampendous Lovely Flowers (available from Sunday) onto Oxide background

Stampendous Peony Pair (available fro Sunday) and Aged Aqua Enamel EP

Have a good weekend everyone and as always many thanks for your visits.

 

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All new at Allsorts

Morning Peeps, this week Pauline is our host at Allsorts challenge and her theme is 'Anything Goes with the option of Use something new'. Helping Hands Craft are kindly donating a £15 store voucher for this weeks lucky winner.

Initially it was a dilemma where to start with the 'New' element but in the end the decision was made for me as I have been working with new stamps for both Fairy Hugs and Stampendous this week. Been a bit of a mad rush as due to the holidays, products only arrived mid week and the The Craft Store shows are 9th and 10th January so an unusually quick turnaround. 

You can buy Fairy Hugs via the TV shows or from Julia here in the UK and Stampendous again direct from TV or here in the UK. Today I am sharing a couple of cards from both companies, at the top I have used a mixture of old and new releases from Fairy Hugs, I can't give you the links to the new ones yet as they won't be listed until Monday's One Day Special. 

Above I have used the beautiful Stampendous Painted Lady, the Butterfly really lends itself to decoupage which is what I have done here.

Below another for Fairy Hugs, again with old and new stamps, the Fairy Couple being a new one.

And a House Mouse card, an unusual sight from someone who by their own admission doesn't do cute or much colouring in, but relatively happy with the result. This little fellow is called Bumble Bee Fun.

And a couple more from Fairy Hugs.

That's probably enough for one post, hope you all have a good weekend, stay safe and well and my thanks as always for your kind visits.

 

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