Off to climb Everest

Well I'm not, but one of our Son's and his girlfriend are, so I thought I would make them a card to wish them good luck on their journey.

They are flying out to Delhi this week via Dubai, then moving on to Agra to see the wonderful Taj Mahal...........that's one still on my wish list and I have told them I want a text picture from that famous seat synonymous with the picture of Princess Diana. Then they fly up to Kathmandu and the trek to Everest Base Camp.

One of my friends asked why my kids don't do normal things like visiting the Lake District.........good question !

The  card above follows a very similar design to the Everest one and is one of my samples from the Demo day at Stampalot on Saturday which was a really fun day and as I suspected I met lots of new and familiar faces.......a big thank you to everyone who came and helped make it such a great day.

The stamp.....only the one repeat stamped, on the Everest card is Stampscapes and very simple brayering and sponging with Adirondack dye inks. The sentiment which is computer generated is a quote from Sir Edmund Hilary and I thought so apt as our son and his girlfriend are professional photographers..........they met at Uni doing the same course.

My second card uses Art Impression stamps, a hand drawn fence and again simple brayering. The sentiment is Penny Black 3227K Hope.

Thanks for stopping by, I really do appreciate all your visits and kind words.

Christmas easel and a little bit sad

I am preparing this post Friday evening after a really rotten day, we lost Abbey the eldest family lab, so the whole household is pretty miserable as you can imagine. She's been poorly for a while with a tumour at the fore of her head, but jogging along with medications. But this morning she was very poorly and we knew the time had come. The vet was really lovely and came out within half an hour so she died in her own sitting room in familiar surroundings, but it's still so so hard to accept.

So I will tell you very quickly about this weeks theme at Allsorts, where my lovely teami Emma wants us to make a Christmas Easel card...............did she play into my hand or what. I thought the easel novelty might have worn off by now, but oh no, I am still totally addicted........does it show just a tad most weeks ?

I have used some of this scrummy 25th December DP from Kaiser and made the card shape using Grand Nesties 23. The image is Magenta 43032L which I stamped with versafine sepia, embossed with detail clear and coloured with Aquamarkers. The poinsettia is another appearance of my new Spellbinders Christmas die set.

Hope you have a good weekend and thanks for dropping by.

An awesome FREE prize draw, demo day and turorial

Good Morning Peeps, I really really quick post to remind you that tomorrow is the Fourth Ultimate Rubber Stamping Day at Sir Stampalot in Peterborough. There will be seven of us us demoing throughout the day from 10am through 4pm.......................we will be in a large unit right opposite Stampalot's shop, so all nice and convenient.

At the risk of becoming really boring, I am soooooooooooo looking forward to it, there's always lots of fun and laughter, free refreshments............it's the one day of the year my hubby gets crafty and seems to really enjoy overseeing the eats and drinks whilst chatting to (I did say to not up) the ladies and putting the world to rights with their other halves. And this year there is a really fabulous FREE PRIZE DRAW........you can check out the photo of it here............believe me it's an awesome prize.

Above are a couple of the Christmas decorations I have made for tomorrow. The idea came from one of my workshops recently when two crafty sisters brought along a beautiful Christmas wreath they had made. I think they said the original idea came from a magazine, but as I don’t know which one I set about creating one .......or several as it turned out.

So here we go with my version with thanks to the girls for giving me the idea.

Ingredients:

3 x 12x12 sheets double sided co-ordinating DP
1 x 12x12 sheet coordinating bazzil
1 x sheet coordinating glitter paper (or could use a second sheet bazzil)
6 x bells or embellishments
1 x length sturdy ribbon
Decoration for centre

Cut the three sheets of DP and one sheet Bazzil into 11” scalloped circles (I used the Cricut). Smaller wreaths can be made in exactly the same way, using smaller circles (for mine I used Nesites/Grand Nesties cut through the Big Shot)

Cut the three DP circles into halves, then quarters so you end up with twelve pieces. Don’t cut up the Bazzil circle as this is the base of your wreath.

Take six of the small pieces and cut apertures in the front of each using a circle Nestie or punch (see picture for placement). Using the glitter paper or second sheet bazzil, cut a frame for each circle using the same circle and a larger one, then stick onto the six pieces so each aperture is framed.

Roll each of the twelve pieces into a cone and secure with strong glue (I find the red backed ultra strong tape is best). When you have made all twelve cones, arrange onto the base circle so they fit snugly against each other, when you are happy with the placement fix the ribbon to the base then stick down all twelve cones. Don’t worry if the centre looks uneven as that will be covered.

Thread cord through each bell and fix one into each circle aperture…..this is best done when assembled and hanging so the bells dangle at the right angle. Decorate the centre as desired.

Thanks for popping in and perhaps see some of you tomorrow.

Lost in translation...........

........or to be more specific in the Royal Mail postal system.................I can't believe that my package of 20 samples to Stamp Addicts for the new shows on C&C at 10am and 1pm tomorrow has not been delivered more than a week after it was sent by Special Delivery................and RM's records can't even tell me where it was last tracked in their system. And to add insult to injury, they can't................or should that be their intransigent system won't investigate until fifteen days after the "expected" delivery date.

And as I said the other day, I really loved making these ones and spend hours and hours on them and could have gone on forever with those gorgeous tree stamps. So the best I can do is share a few more pictures of some of those samples.

Another of the new stamp stamp is this one with arched windows and curtains which were fun to work with.



And the On the Water stamp set.

Another of the trees.

Have a good day everyone, the weathers non too bright here so it looks like some crafting will be in order after work.

Brayering into Autumn

When you check out the new Stamp Addicts stamp sheets here which will be featured on the new Create and Craft TV programme at 10am and 1pm on Friday 28th October, it will come as no surprise that I have totally enjoyed playing with them.

These two cards have been made using the Trees and On the Water sets, plus I have used a few elements such as the sheep from the Scenery sets feature earlier in the year but still available to buy on Stamp Addicts web site.

For both cards I used the good old Speedball Brayer and Adirondack dye inks onto glossy cardstock and the fence is just drawn in with a fine nib permanent pen. The poem on the top card was sourced on the Internet and is the first verse of 'Autumn' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning which sums up the season beautifully.

A little bit Vintage DT challenge

A very Good Morning to you all.

Now this is a tad different but has been real fun and we want to share it with you all. To celebrate the changes we are making at Penny Black and More Challenge, I decided to set the Design Team a challenge of their own. A couple of weeks ago I sent them all two kits with separate themes and asked them to come up with a project for each.

Today we are sharing the 'A Little Bit Vintage' challenge, you can see them all over at the challenge blog here. Above you can see my take on it along with the kit I sent to the DT. I was thrilled to see all the variations they came up with and next month we will share the second challenge.

Each kit contained 3 sheets Basic Grey DP (all slightly different but from the same family), 3m white seam binding, TH clock and hinges cut on Coredinations, 2 white flowers.

In additional to the items from the kit, I used the following stamps..............Penny Black 4040K Sparklers, 3860 Pointella, 4857 Footnote and Hero Arts 3316 Harlequin Background, plus brads and a chain embellishment.

More recycling candy

Hello again peeps, I'm back as promised.

As I said yesterday, my crafty clearout has continued which comes about mainly from buying things that jumped into my shopping basket but never got used......we are all guilty of this one.........or provided for demos by companies who I no longer work for who have since ceased trading or didn't want the items back and have just stock piled in my spare bedrooms.

The above picture is the same one I used last month, so many of the items will be different this time round, but it still gives you a good idea what's up for grabs.......such things as stamps which have been only been inked a few times, 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 will do the same as last time which seemed to work well and the fairest way to deal with things and pick one winner from each 100 entries as they come in..............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 November. 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.................I tell you this as recently I had a returned item from the Far East which had been months making the return journey although the address was correct and another to Russia has still not made it through their postal service after three months.