Lot's going on..............

Good morning peeps, I'm not sure where to start here, so much going on today, three new challenges to tell you about................Stampalot and Penny Black at Allsorts monthly challenges as well as the weekly one at Allsorts..................and it's my wedding anniversary so there just might be a meal out tonight, but that rather depends on how hubby is feeling as he's still not 100% plus my MS seems to having a bit of a hissy fit again.

So it's going to be a bit of a heavy post, but at least it's Saturday so some of you might be able to grab a coffee and have a leisurely read.

I will start with the little gift set above which is my make for Stampalot Challenge theme is 'Food Glorious Food', basically your project can be anything with an association to food. The poinsettia is a pretty old image from Penny Black 1289J Grand Poinsettia, which I stamped onto Nitwits DP twice and decoupaged. The sentiment which I really love is Stampendous CRQ146 here here and the band around the jar is stamped with Prickly Pear HH0065 here. And is anyone wondered what's in the jar, preserved Victoria plums from the orchard - well that''s what we call it.....about 30 trees in total, so not a proper orchard in the run of things here in the Fens.

Next up is my DT piece for Penny Black at Allsorts where we have some Autumnal photo inspiration on offer, I could happily make cards with this colour way all year so I was totally at home with this one. The main image in Penny Black 3231K Snowy Park......yes it is a Crimbo stamp but I figure there was no reason why it can't not double up for other times of the year with the right colours. I masked a piece of gloss cardstock round the edges so I left a piece in the centre about the size of the stamp, added a sun and brayered Adirondack butterscotch, sunset orange and meadow and added a bit more depth by sponging ginger through the trees.

And last but by no means least at Allsorts Helene would like us to 'Use at least five flowers' on our work. So out came this gorgeous stamp from the new releases from La Blanch called Wandering Amongst Daisies here. I fell in love with this image the moment I saw it and knew exactly what I wanted to do with it, in fact I made quite a few using her. For this one I stamped onto Fabriano watercolour card, coloured with Aquamarkers and added background colour and a little fence, some swirls and five punched daisies and finito !

Enjoy your weekend whatever you have planned.

A little bit Autumn

Good Morning peeps, a mega quick post before that thing called work takes hold of my day.

This week seems to be rolling by all too quickly and it does not seem possible that tomorrow is Freebie Friday again at Sir Stampalot. If you sign up to Smudges their newsletter, you will get advance notification what you can grab for free this week.

We have had a couple of days of beautiful weather and the colours of Autumn are appearing day by day and looking absolutely stunning against a backdrop of sunshine, so I thought a couple of shares taking on those rich colours.

The top one is using Penny Black 3817K Tigress, stamped onto a background created with acrylic paints and vaseline, if you've not used this technique it's brill. Paint on a darker colour first (you can dry with a heat gun), then dab the vaseline where you want to reveal that colour after painting on your lighter colours, when that's dry (don't use a heat gun here as it will melt the vaseline) then rub away the vaseline and it reveals the under colour paint. The DP is appropriately October Afternoon and the roses were made using a Marianne die.

My second share is this beautiful Stampendous stamp SSC1123 Fairy Queen, stamped onto a brayered background and coloured with Copics. The DP is as above.

Recycling candy

Hello again peeps, I'm back as promised.

Now this is not strictly candy, more of a redistribution of an excess of crafty goodies. The benefits of working for different craft outlets/companies over many years is that you get an awful lot of products to work with, but when those companies cease trading or change direction and don't want the items back, you are left with more goodies than you could ever use. Then there are those items you just 'had' to buy but never use...........we are all guilty of that one I know.

So last weekend I had a long overdue clear out of my craft room and the spare bedrooms I was spilling into and decided I had be be firm with myself and put to one side all those items I knew I would not use and those of which I had duplicates.

The above picture represents just some of those items and I would love to give them away to anyone who does not mind receiving stamps that have been inked one or twice or part sets of stamps, part used reels of ribbon along with other items some of which may not be brand new. I realise some peeps won't like the idea of receiving 'second hand' goodies and I quite understand, but if you know of someone who would benefit, then please let them know.

I figure the fairest way to deal with this is to pick one recipient from each 100 entries as they come in and share the goodies between those names and announce all on 23rd October.......but please do not enter more than once just to up the numbers, only your first entry will count. Here's what you need to do.....................

1) Be a follower...............one that stays, not just a candy hunter.

2) Post the above picture on your sidebar with a link back here to help spread the word.

3) Leave your name with Mr Linky below.

Closing time is midnight on 22nd October. Please note, although I will post anywhere, delivery to some parts of the world are subject to Customs regulations and local postal services over which I have no control.

A real Passion for Stamps

Hello peeps, did you all have a good weekend ?

Mine sort of passed by in a flash, hubby's has been poorly for the last week and somehow all those things I planned to do never quite got accomplished. Never mind, I can at least share a couple of my sample cards I made using more of Ruth's lovely artwork which you can buy here at A Passion for Stamps.

The top card..................yet another easel I know, is Ruth's Acidanthera flower. I have made one or two cards with it, but each time it said to me "try making me into a Poinsettia" so I had to give it a try and I think it's quite effective. I printed the image out several times, cut the flower heads out in decreasing sizes so I could decoupage them, after colouring with Aquamrkers, inking with versafine frost the spraying with Glimmer Mist pearl to make them flexible to shape and of course give a lovely sheen to them.

The sentiment is Penny Black 3227K Hope is Born, I really have fallen in love with this sentiment and it's popping up on quite a few Christmas cards this year. A bit of distressing with TH fired brick and the easel was cut with Go Create dies.

My second card a leap from my comfort zone but when Ruth sent it to me and said she understood if I didn't use it, there was my challenge.............so I lightly coloured the Mannequin image with Copics, used some Cosmic Cricket DP, pins, bits of ribbon and lace and there was my card. The measuring take is also from the DP stack.

Thanks for visiting and hope you have a good week................and get some of the sunshine they forecast in the UK...............I'm a bit of a sceptic when it come to the weather forecast so shall wait and see.

Keeping it clean and simple

Happy Saturday everyone, are you ready for a new challenge at Allsorts ?

Amanda is hosting this weeks theme and she would like us to be 'Clean and Simple' so I thought this one would fit the bill, it a sample I recently created for Stampalot using one of the new stamps from La Blanch called Wild Flowers here.

I masked a piece of Fabriano watercolour card and sponged three squares using TH wild honey and broken china, then stamped sections of the floral stamp with the masks still in place. The sentiment is a section of Penny Black 2695J.........to use a portion of a stamp I lay a post it note over the sections I don't want to use whilst inking.

Have a good weekend everyone and thanks for popping by.

Freebie Friday looms again

Good Morning peeps, hope everyone is OK.

The days seem to be flying by as tomorrow is Freebie Friday again at Sir Stampalot. Not sure what this weeks free give away will be, but it's been pretty awesome the last couple of weeks, so why not sign up to their newsletter Smudges here.

Did any of you see the new POW Spellbinder egeabilities on C&C this week ? I'm sure they said they were were the first to get them in the UK, but not quite true because they are all here and have been for the last weeks or so, all ready for dispatch including the gorgeous Spring Blossom dies..........that one with the cut out edge is already on my wish list.

I got so carried away I almost forgot to tell you about my two cards here. The top one has been brayered through a circle mask with Adirondack Sunset Orange and simply stamped with Art Impression U3095.................which I only just noticed says DEMO in the side which means it must of snuck home in my bag by accident.......sorry Janice.

My second share has been brayered with Big and Juicy Spice and the scene created with various Stampscape stamps.

So who runs this show ?

Clearly Buffy and George think they do, but I've got news for them..............but I feel a bit to jaded to argue after my busy weekend................so perhaps they know better than me right now............which means just a couple of doggy pictures and a brayered share with apols for not going into details on this occasion.

But it was a really great weekend, a fabulous workshop on Saturday and I met lots on new faces, some of who travelled a good few miles to get to Stampalot.......a big thank you to each and every one of you all for coming and helping make it such a fun day.

Then yesterday we spent the day in London with one of our son's and DIL and had a great trip to the new Westfield shopping centre....is it big or what !! And they have a champagne bar right in the middle of the complex............before you ask, yes of course we tried it out......it would have been rude not to ! I can recommend the Kiri Royal.

The terrible twins, Daisy the Duracell dog in front and Lily..........they do have their own baskets of course, but why use them when you can steal Georges ?

Thanks for visiting and I will catch you all again in a day or so when I am feeling a bit more human.