Another Easter basket

Happy Saturday peeps, time for a new challenge at Allsorts where the lovely Debs is this weeks host and has some photo inspiration for us.

I have taken the fresh Spring colours and Easter eggs for my DT piece which is another of the Easter baskets which I shared in a tutorial here a few weeks ago, as you will see it was this one I was making in the tutorial in readiness for this weeks challenge, so I'll not bore you with all the details again. You might just see some Cadbury caramel bunnies peeking out...............that was when I took the picture, but now long since gone, I have a real fetish for them and of course they are calorie and sugar free !

Whatever you are up to, I hope you have a good weekend.

The scene behind my house

Hello all, hope your week is going well. I confess to being a bit tardy this week and not getting a lot done, it's been one of those weeks where the pain has kicked in a bit more than usual and I've not been able to get a proper crafty head on, not least because I've not been able to sit comfy for very long. 

I had a long chat to my physio this morning and she suggested a few things to try until I see her next, but I think we both know it's a bit of a lost cause and I have to accept my mobility is not going back to where it was before this latest relapse. I'm seriously considering a small mobility scooter, it would be much lighter than my wheelchair and might go in the boot of my little MX5 so I can get out and about a bit more without having to rely on others all the time, that's the main problem living in the sticks, you need a car to get anywhere.

Just the one share of a card I created a couple of weeks ago for Sir Stampalot using a new La Blanch tree stamp that came my way after an appeal for more trees when they visited CHA in January. As my mate Sally will tell you, a girl can never have too many trees, a bit like shoes really. I used Adirondack inks watermelon, peach bellini, butterscotch and meadow and archival sepia to stamp the tree and deer's which are Art Impression. The fence, wire and birdies are all hand drawn with a fine line marker.

The scene could be looking up behind our house, although when we see a Monkjack deer, it's usually a solitary one, they are such pretty but shy characters. And that means the birdies are pigeons happily perched cooing away on the wires above the paddocks, it's a sound I love to hear as I sit crafting. It doesn't take a lot to make me happy you see. Although the hills are artistic licence, it's as flat as a pancake here in the Fens.

Enjoy your day, it's looking like sunshine again today.

Sunny and Bright

Good Afternoon all you crafty Peeps.

The weather here today is absolutely glorious again, the overnight minus four frost and fog gave way to beautiful sunshine and I have had the french windows of my office open since lunchtime. The dogs are laid about everywhere as thought they had a hard morning..............I must have missed something because as far as I know the most energetic thing they've done is eat breakfast.

I thought I would share a couple of the cards I made for Ruth using her new Fritillary image which you will find at A Passion for Stamps here. The card at the top was made using the scrunched tissue technique, rather than go into it again you will find what I did here. I used some scraps of DP for the background and alternated them with some embossed squares. The roses were cut with a Memory Box die from plain copy paper, then lightly coloured with distress inks, the swirls are the same make of die and the leaves Spellbinders.

The second card is paper pieced with Bo Bunny DP. The harlequin background was created by inking a stencil with versamark, placing on a piece of white cardstock, running through the Big Shot Express then brushing Mica Powder after removing the stencil. I did exactly the same with the shaped mat, but kept the Nestie frame in place until I has added the mica. The little picket fence is a new Memory Box die, I am amazed with how very fine and detailed it is yet how perfectly it cuts.

Enjoy the rest of your day and thanks for visiting.

Meet Pixie and a bit more Penny Black

Happy Monday Peeps, hope you all had a good weekend and those of you in the UK enjoying this lovely weather.

The little lady above is Pixie, a ten week old Jack Russell who joined the family gang this weekend. She's such a tiny little thing but seems quite capable of giving the large dogs a run for their money and has already sussed that if big guys play gets a bit too rough for her she can slide into spaces they can't. I will do my best to get a picture of the whole gang one day soon, but it's easier said than done keeping them all still for long enough.

I am still loving the new Penny Black 4237K Awakening so here's another share of another card I made with it. Again I inked the stamp direct, this time with Aquamarkers, spritzed with water and stamped onto Fabriano watercour card, inked the edges with TH tumbled glass and sponged through some sequin waster to give a bit of background interest.  The DP is Bo Bunny, some embossed and sanded Coredinations and a piece of cheescloth in the background and ribbon.

Have a good day everyone and as always thanks so much for popping in.

Cooking up at Allsorts

A very Good Morning to you all, Saturday morning can mean only one thing, a new challenge at Allsorts and this week my lovely teamie Helene wants us to 'Use a Cooking Recipe'.

But first I want to tell you all about our second Birthday celebrations at Stampalot Challenge which kick off on 1st April. I've come me up with a little sidebar logo and hope you will help us spread the word. If you have any problems with this one.....it worked for some of the DT fine, but Blogger didn't want me to use it despite re-sizing it so in the end I did a low resolution one as well which is on by sidebar.

Now my DT piece and confessions here, I was really stumped at first, after spending hours trawling through my stamps I drew a blank with anything cookery orientated, not surprising I guess when most of my stamps are floral, botanical or fantasy. But then I had a flash of inspiration and came up with a recipe holder which I thought might even be useful for one of the girls.

I made the folder using a scoring tool and covered with some Kaiser DP's, decorated it with borders cut from Spellbinders and the letters are cut on the Cricut. I sourced the recipes on line, mounted them on to cardstock and did a bit of stamping using one of my tiny collection of just seven Clarity stamps......I really do 'need' more of them.

Have a good weekend.

Molly Blooms in the pink

Morning peeps, hope your week is going well.

It's been an off mixture of weather here in the Fens this week, we've had rain, sun, fog and still the overnight frosts............my in house weather man reports it was minus four again in the garden last night, but at least that does usually lead to a nice day so fingers crossed.

It's no secret that I just don't do cute and always struggle when it involves anything other than flowers, fairies and trees, but I'm always ready to rise to the challenge which was what was called for when a bundle of the new Molly Blooms stamps landed on my doormat a few weeks ago. The samples were for the launch of the new Circus and Fairground stamps at the NEC Trade Show last month, which I can now share and you can buy them from Sir Stampalot.

The card at the top using the big top and ringmaster Molly were paper pieced using DP's from stash. The little tickets are also amongst the new release stamps. The card base was cut using Nesties labels 23, the rose is made from punched five petal flowers.

My second card uses the lovely carousel stamp which really is my favourite from the new releases which I coloured with Derwent watercolours, decoupaged and added a frame cut with a Go Create die. Then added a bow and stick pin to embellish.

Whatever you have planned, hope you have a good day.

All rather floral

 

Good Morning, I hope everyone is OK.

I had a bit of a crafty play at the weekend as lucky me had some of Ruth's latest artwork to play with which you will find at A Passion for Stamps as well as some still un-inked Penny Black stamps.

To create the top card I masked the edges of a piece of Fabriano watercolour card and gently inked with TH broken china, I then tore a piece of copy paper to mask the top right section of the piece and stamped the the section with Hero Arts S5264 Antique Flower Background using TH tea dye. Next I sponged both colours of ink randomly over the stamping and finally stamped Penny Black 4237K Awakening using TH stormy sky and Aquamarkers and spritzed with water before stamping................every time there's a new release of stamps you tend to have a favourite and this one is definitely one of those. After removing the masking I mounted the piece onto coordinating cardstock and added a button.

My second card using Ruth's Fratillary image which I printed onto Fabriano watercolour card and did my usual mad rush to get some clear embossing powder on as it came through the printer, then coloured with Derwent watercolur pencils. The sentiment is Penny Black 4261L Time. The background was created using a Touch of Mica mask which I inked with versamark, rand through the Big Shot then dusted a lilac cosmic shimmer powder over the inked sections...................I am quite pleased with the effect and especially how well the colours match which was more buy luck than judgement as I only have a few mica powders.

Thanks for popping in, catch you later in the week.