Baby animals, Rudolph Days and Choclate Baroque

Morning Peeps, this weeks Allsorts theme is hosted by Helene and she would like to see 'Baby Animals'. We have a lovely Rare Earth stamp as our prize. I also have some shares from my post over at the Choclate Baroque DT blog yesterday and one for this month Rudolph Days........ right on the deadline!

It had to be dogs or horses for me so I decided on a foal as my baby animal, it's the time of year where several have been born recently in our area and the are adorable with their fluffy little tails.

There is a real mixture of stamps here, Crafty Individuals, Stamp Addicts, Sutter and Art Impressions. With the exception of the birds I stamped everything into place using a mixture of Archival ink and Distress pens, then built up the background using Distress Inks and Pan Pastels, adding colour to the horses and house using DI's again.

Myself and the team are looking forward to seeing lots of baby animals of all types this week.

My Rudolph Days card used Chocolate Baroque stamps, starting with a masked panel in the centre and then inking the stamps with Distress Markers and spritzing with water before stamping top and bottom on the mask. After removing the mask I stamped a sentiment in the blank panel.

Your will find all details of stamps and products used over at the DT blog here.

And I thought I would share these couple of photos of  Eliot and the medals he won this week. This was last evening on day five with two laps to go.

Lots of you know several of our children (and now our eldest granddaugter as well) are athletic and run marathons and ulta marathons all over the world and we are always so proud of their achievements. Well this week Eliot took part in a contest to run five marathons in five days, all took place in the evening when at least it was a little cooler................I know it sounds crazy, but he succeeded so well done to him, another achievement under his belt.

Just thinking about it exhausts me!! Have a happy and sunny weekend all.

Those leaving a comment on any post on this blog do so in the knowledge that their name and blog link are visible to all who visit this blog and in so doing have published their own personal details.

Chinese Lanterns and a Winter walk

It's time for our challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Winter Trees and Flora' and 'CAC - Clean and Simple'. As always there are wonderful prizes to be won at both. 

I had a surprise call from the hospital................not the normal sort of surprise but I am happy it's much sooner than anticipated.........to say I had been "fast tracked" and my kidney procedure is this coming week so I will be missing for a few days, but have done another scheduled post for later in the week with some Chocolate Baroque shares as it's my day to post over there.

My top make is my Penny Black piece, the gorgeous Chinese Lanterns image was inked with Distress Markers and spritzed with water before stamping, some watery inks splatted around by flicking them with a paintbrush and the sentiment stamped in Versafine black.

And my Stamping Sensations piece started out as a piece of Kraft card, then the cottage, trees and fence were stamped with Versafine Toffee and a little dark green added with distress pens before stamping. Next using a piece of torn paper I used a white inkpad to add the hills followed by stamping the foreground trees again...............they are a Penny Black two part stamp.......with Versamark and heat embossing with detail white powder. Then all the other elements were stamped into place, some liquid pearls and glitter added to build up the Wintery feel.

As always we have lots of awesome prizes to be won so I do hope you will join in.

Greek culture and salami from Naples

Morning Peeps, we are still on our travels and so another scheduled post, since my last post we will have visited Santorini which is one on the Cyclades Islands, no matter how many times you go there you are taken aback by it's sheer beauty and the beautiful whitewashed houses that rise up from the blue waters of the Aegean Sea.

And today our itinerary has us in the port of Piraeus, the gateway to Athens which is about half an hour away. We have been there several times before, explored the Acropolis a couple of times and also the City of Athens and it's modern shopping centre so will probably just have a wander in the local town. Then it's off to Italy with stops in Naples and some of their wonderful local salami and of course wine, then onwards to Rome.

So still scheduled posts and our new challenge at Allsorts where this week Mervi is going all Autumnal with the theme of  'Trees and Leaves'. Our sponsor is Marianne Designs.

It's another theme that plays right into my hands which means two cards, one an Autumnal scene and another with lots on inkiness. The one at the top is a sample from last weeks Chocolate Baroque Hochanda shows with DI background then stamping using images from Autumn Poppy, Natures Table and Natures Peace and colouring with DI's, some white highlighting and stenciling using the laves mask.

A bit more inkiness along with  Pan Pastels to create the background, a masked sun and
then stamping with a mixture of Sutter, Stampscapes and Creative Expressions stamps.

Short and sweet I'm afraid as I'm rushing to schedule this ahead of our holiday.

Forest Friends and Penny Black mid month inspiration

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday so that means it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Tracy Mouse has chosen the theme of 'Forest Friends'. Our sponsor is Tattered Lace and the prizes are sooooooo sweet.

I also have my Penny Black and More mid month inspiration, a day late I'm afraid as I forgot to schedule and yesterday I was 'negotiating' with the consultant about these two ops. I thought we had an agreement on the way forward until he rang me again..............what's all this new hands on business with consultants ringing patients in the evening ? So at the moment not much further forward, he wants to plough on although admitted it could wait until after our holiday. And having re-scheduled from July because of all this faff I really don't want to cancel a second booking and lose our money because of course the insurance won't cover us as it's a pre existing condition.

OK moan over and onto my creations and my card at the top was a fun one to make using a mixture of Sutter, Inkylicious, Crafty Individuals, Creative Expressions and Art Impressions, eleven stamps in total to make a countryside scene. I started by stamping the trees and fence into position, bleaching out some clouds then adding the background with distress inks, then adding the Fox's which I coloured with DI's, Sheep highlighted with white gel pen and finally the greenery and birds.

My second card uses Chocolate Baroque stamps onto a background of Pan Pastels, using an oval stencil to create the focal element and then stamping the scene with the mask still in place.

My first Penny Black share has a Distress Oxide background then a stencil and DI's the add the window. The PB Soft Wings Butterfly was stamped with the same wilted violet oxide ink and heat embossed with detail clear powder then colour added with twisted citron oxide ink. I used PB Twirls to stamp around the edge and PB Iris die to add the flowers. The sentiment is from a new PB set called Happy Wishes................and I am pretty convinced that somewhere in my stash there is an old sentiment set from them with the same name.

Finally another little scene using Pan Pastels and stamps from PB Natures Friends set and Birds on a wire, an oldish wood mounted stamp that I find so useful in scene making.

Feature a creature

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Tracy has chosen the theme of' Feature a Creature'. Our sponsor is Digistamp Boutique and Sizzix and as always my teamies have come up with lots of inspiration to set you on your way.

I do apologise that I've not been out and about in blogland for a few days, the NHS are the culprits and now I am taking a little time to rest.

It's another one that I really enjoyed making, well you know me and scenes. Although we are well onto November now I still couldn't resist a hint of Autumn in my scene which I created with a good number of different stamps........in fact I counted them and seems I used fifteen in total. Once I has stamped everything in place using black archival ink I added the background colouring with Pan Pastels and finally hand drew a fence, something about fences and I always feel a need to add one to a landscape scene.......well how else do you keep the livestock in ?

I have a second make, this is one of my samples for next Saturday's Stamp Addicts Hochanda shows at 8am and 2pm, the Moose I have used on this card is one of the featured stamps along with a smaller version of the same image, some beautiful leaves and if your love Roses then you must not miss the shows...................I will share some more including the Rose closer to the day.

I stamped the Moose twice, coloured with Spectrum Sparkle pens and cut out one of the images to decoupage so he peeps over the Tattered Lace frame. The papers are I believe Trimcraft.

Happy weekend all.

Smile, it's a beautiful day

Today sees the start of a new challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this month our theme is 'Trees'. As always there is a generous prize of a $20 shopping voucher from FlonzCraft.

As a confirmed 'treeaholic' this theme was right up my street and this is a card I made for one of our son's Birthday's back in September. The main image is from Inkylicoous, stamped twice to extend the scene n to Fabriano 300gsm cardstock. The fences across the front are from Sutter, I also have a bit of a thing for fences............. Once the main stamping was done I masked a sun and used Pan Pastels to create the background and DI's and mask to create the sunrays. I added a little watercolour to the trees and finally stamped the birds, leaves across the top using an Art Impression stamp and the sentiment is from the same set as the trees.

And since I'm on a quest to use up all those pieces of Fabriano.......I buy it in A3 sheets, cut down to squares as I seem to use that shape the most, but am always left with long end pieces which fit perfectly for landscape cards..........I am hopping over to Di's Playground playground with this one.

I do hope you will come and join us this month, it's the perfect opportunity to let those Autumnal colours loose.

More Autumn

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week it's my turn to choose the theme and I would like to see Autumn inspired work..............probably no surprises there as I always love working with Autumnal colours. Our sponsor is Digistamp Boutique.

I also have a share for the new Butterfly Challenge which I thought I would also pop the above card into the Playground where I've been missing for a week or two. The new Butterfly theme is Checkered and/or Cyan along with your Butterflies.

The starting place for my first card at the top was to mask a central circle and a sun on a piece of Fabriano 300gms cardstock and apply distress inks before removing the masks and then stamping the focal image and the little girl on the swing and sentiment, all of which are Inkylicious. Finally matted and layered onto the base card, a really quick and simple card to create. You will see a few acorns at the front of my photo, this year one of our Oaks has produced literally thousands of them and there is a carpet under the branches which crunch as you pass by to the hens.

My second card has a Pan Pastel background and the scene made with a mixtures of Sutter, Art Impression and Inkylicious stamps and a few hills added again with PP's after the images were stamped.

Now for my Butterfly and Playground share, I started out with an offcut of Fabriano and used distress crayons and water to create the background, next I stamped the Inkylicious sentiment and Fairy and was all set to use a new stencil for the checks but having done so not sure about it, it's called 'houndstooth check'  but doesn't look too much like it to me. I added some glitter to the Fairies wings and around the three little butterflies.

My Allsorts team mates have some lovely cards to inspire you again this week so I do hope you will pop over and take a peek and also join us this week.

Just for fun stamping

Happy Monday Peeps, I hope your weekend was a good one, the weather was a mixed bunch here in the Fens and a hard frost this morning, but it's led to some nice sunshine.

A warm welcome to my new followers and a big thank you for all the lovely comments on my recent posts. Quite a few of those have been my Tattered Lace makes, die crafting is a whole new ball game to me but one I am thoroughly enjoying so it is very encouraging to know that you are liking what I am doing with them.

I have not had a lot of time for scenic stamping recently so over the weekend I had a little playand my just for fun session made a lovely change.

I used Pan Pastels for the colour on both cards and a mixture of Sutter, Art Impressions and Stampscape stamps.

Thanks for taking a peek and hope you all have a good week.

Brosho's with a few Pan Pastels thrown in for good measure

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes at both are 'Anything Goes'.........that wasn't actually planned, it's just how it seems to have turned out !

For my Penny Black card it is my all time favourite inspirational quote 2696J Dance, Sing, Love along with Penny Black 2636K Scroll background around the edges, both are pretty old wood mounted stamps. I started with a Brusho background using Leaf Green, Violet and Cobalt Blue which gives out lovely hues of purple as the water shifts the powder and I also used the latter two to colour the flowers which I made using a Heartfelt die and stamp. Some grunge paste harlequins, a couple of die cut swirls cut on the cricut, seam binding and pearls to embellish.

The first of my Stamping Sensations pieces used Silhouette Elephants from our sponsor Little Claire in the foreground and in the background I repeat stamped a really old Judikins cube with the trees and Zebra, the word Serengeti is also part of the same cube. All colouring is Pan Pastels and of course a masked sun on the horizon.

Another Brusho background for my second Stamping Sensation piece, this time I used masking fluid to create a sun and a paper mask to separate the land area before spraying on yellow, orange and brilliant red. Next I rubbed away the sun mask.........I am presently using Pebeo masking fluid and I think it's the best yet. I used Pan Pastels for the land elements of the scene and a mixture of Stampscapes, Sutter, Art Impression and Chocolate Baroque stamps.

Hope you all have a good Sunday and keep warm in this cold and frosty weather.

Cabin by the lake

Morning Peeps, it's a lovely sunny Autumn day here and hope it's the same your way.

A very quick post and not much writing as just had my annual retinal screening which means all blurry for a few hours so just a short explanation for these two cards. Alex and Zoe dropped the boys off before they flew off to Frankfurt for the marathon at the weekend and she left a little note in my craft room saying she loved the scene below and how she would love to have a log cabin there. So that led to the top card as a well done on their race achievements.

Stamps are a mixture of Stampscapes and Sutter and mountains created with a torn paper mask and Pan Pastels.

Pan Pastels and Inks all the way

Today we are off on our holiday and the taxi will be collecting us at 7am for the trip to Southampton to embark the ship, so this is a bit of a heavy post with not only my usual Saturday Allsorts share, but also those for Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More. I decided it might make sense if I posted the Sunday challenges a day early so I could check them out whilst on dry land as I refuse to pay the exorbitant on board wifi charges.

Tracy has chosen this weeks Allsorts theme of Favourite Things and at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More it's 'Anything Goes'.......ooooops how did that happen I wonder, clearly I wasn't thinking when these were decided but at least it offers you all the opportunity to double up.

Well there was no thinking to do for my Allsorts piece really, it had to be Penny Black stamps, Dylusions and distress inks, my perfect idea of crafty fun. After spraying the reverse of a piece of Centura Pearl with Dylusions and Glimmer Mist pearl I stenciled the sun rays and then the Penny Black stamps, Red Tango......not sure I have actually done these Poppies in red yet but Himalayan ones work fine for me.......and Daisy Fields, a pretty old stamp but a real fav and the best part about both are they are wood mounted.........call me old fashioned but I far prefer them to the modern unmounted ones.

My Stamping Sensations piece is a little Country scene created with some masking and Pan Pastels, a mixture of Sutter, Inkylicious and Stamp Addcits stamps and a bit of highlighting with watercolour pencils.

And finally my Penny Black piece using the Bashful die.................I know yet again but I really am loving these new Penny Black dies and so many are an identical match to some of my old wood mounted stamps as with this one. The background is Pan Pastels, the sun rays sponged with Adirondack ink and the daisies stamped with the same and distress markers for the stems, the die cut daisies are coloured with PP's and a PB sentiment.

Happy weekend to you all.

Anything goes all the way

Another scheduled post so I hope it's Sunday morning as it's time for our new challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are Anything Goes and well yes........Anything Goes..........oh my goodness I am not sure how that happened but at least it gives everyone plenty of opportunity to combine them together.

My Penny Black piece used the lovely Gossamer image which lends itself beautifully to paper piecing which is some of the lush new Graphic 45 Botanical Tea collection..............I've had it since February and it's taken me thins long to cut into it which is crazy really as the 12x12 pad has two of each design.

And it's comfort zone stuff for my Stamping Sensations DT piece which is a Birthday Card for blogging friend as today it her Birthday so I am safe to share it. It may seem an odd one for a lady but she like me has a thing for trees, nature and birds so I hope she likes it. I used an oval mask to create a little scene using a mixture of Sutter, Art Impression, Clarity and Inkylicious stamps and Pan Pastels.

Have a good Sunday everyone.

Autumn colours and Saturday candy

Catherine has come up with one of my very favourite themes at Allsorts this week 'Autumn Colours' and played right into my hands. Our lovely sponsors are DigiStamp Boutique and Crafty Ribbons.

I created the base card for the top card using the Cricut Mini by welding the leaves to an oblong...............it's so easy to do on the virtual screen mat and cut it out on some rich bronze pearl cardstock and rubbed some gilding wax to the leaves to create a bit more colour. A mixture of Sutter and Stampscape images which I inked with Distress Markers and spritzed before stamping, then added Pan Pastels to create a warm Autumnal sky. Finally some raffia down the side.

My second make was a bit of an experiment as I was unsure if the printer ink would smudge if I added Pan Pastels but I can confirm it stays fast and works fine...................just proving what I always say in that crafting is a constant learning curve.

I printed out each of the images from the DigiStamp Boutique Black 3 flower set, trimmed to the same size, placed the three pieces alongside one another to mask a small top and bottom border then used Pan Pastels to create sky and base colour. Then simply matted them onto a contrasting colour, some raffia down the side and the sentiment is from the same set.

Now for the winner of last weeks candy who is Andreja from Thursday post, well done please mail me with your full name and postal addy. Should I not heard from you by 10th I will reluctantly re-draw and notify the new winner buy mail or blog comment. And this week I thought some ribbons and embellishments in Autumnal colours to match this weeks theme, same rules as usual....................

• Add the Saturday Candy logo from my sidebar to your sidebar (not this picture)
• Be a follower of my blog
• A random winner will be selected from all comments left on my blog between now and Friday, so two comments during the week two chances of winning and so on.
• The winner will be announced next Saturday

Happy weekend to you all.

Coastal scenes

Morning everyone, hope your week is going well. Afraid I've been a really tardy blogger this week, no post for several days mainly because I've had my head down getting DT work done that needs to head off over to the States so what with work as well time has been in short supply, so apologies for the lack of visits.

I know in advance that this is going to sound a tad deja vous as it's another really quick pre work post with a couple of shares.

Both were created a few months ago when I was in a bit of a coastal mood..........it must come from living so far from the sea and not seeing it very often.

The top one was done with Pan Pastels and a mixture of Stampscape and Sutter stamps and the second one is brayered and sponged using Adirondack dye inks.

Have a good Thursday all and thanks so much for your much appreciated visits and lovely comments.