Christmas Angels and seasonal grung

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts where Susan is getting us into Christmas mode and would like to see Christmas inspired creations. Our sponsor is Scrapper's Delight.

My card at the top has been created with stamps from Stamp Addicts and is one of my samples for their upcoming shows on Hochanda this coming Thursday 5th November. If you are one of the many yet to discover this new craft channel you will find it on Sky 663, Freeview 39 and Freesat 817. The stamp Addict Shows will be live on air at 1pm and 6pm.

I love this collection of Grunge Stamps and after doing quite a few ready for the shows wondered how it would look in traditional Christmas colours and have to say I rather liked the outcome, in fact even hubby like it which is rare for him when it comes to inky crafting.

I inked the stamp with Adirondack dye inks, spritzed with water and stamped onto white cardstock and added some glitter around the edges. The Poinsettia is also Stamp Addicts which I stamped with the same inks, dragged some colour out and stamped the focal flower twice more and decoupaged adding more glitter. An organza bow and coordinating mat and layering.

I also have a second share which is another Tattered Lace creation, a good deal of my time is now taken up with work for them so it seems only sensible to make the most of all the hard work and share them.......when I remember that is. I would add though that as a confirmed stamper I still have to regularly indulge in inky stamping fun as with the Stamp Addicts card above, but equally would never have believed how much I would come to enjoy creating with dies.

The base has been made from Kraft cardstock and Tattered Lace Essential Book die set and Kaisercraft papers. Once you have cut out the the layers it's so quick to assemble, I usually roll each page round a rolling pin to give a bit more shape.................I should add that I don't use the one from the kitchen and keep one in my craft room dedicated to crafting. Then it's a matter of decorating however you fancy, I chose to use TL Angel of Peace, Trio Christmas Roses and Leaves and a good amount of gold gilding wax and ribbons to embellish.

When it comes to gilding wax I have tried a good number in recent years, some are OK'ish and some pretty disappointing as they seem to go hard once they have been opened a while. But back in the summer I purchased some Pebeo and my goodness what a difference, it's not the cheapest by any means but it's lovely and creamy, no signs of drying out and buffs up a treat so to my mind confirms you get what you pay for. If I get to the NEC...........which is in the balance at the moment as I am on the cancellation list to have my dorsal ganglion block injections brought forward a week and need to stay in hospital........ I shall be hunting down some more Pebeo in one or two different colours.

Happy weekend all and my thanks for your kind visits and comments.

It's Poppies again

Morning Peeps, I have another Chocolate Baroque piece of artwork to share which you today which you will also find on the Design Team Blog.

I make no excuses that's it Poppies again, but it's no secret how much I adore them and Chocolate Baroque have several sets of them which are just Divine. The Poppies I have used on this card are from the Autumn Poppy stamp set which is a huge A4 size packed with leaves, Poppies and toadstools.

My starting point was to create the background with a harlequin mask sponging Distress Inkpads Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Barn Door, graduating the colours to create a random look. I then stamped the Poppy image with Versamark Black and Detail Clear embossing powder.

Next I bleached the colour from the Poppies and Butterflies and coloured in with Spectrum Pencils. The sentiment is from Words of Inspiration and stamped and embossed as with the Poppies.

I have been rather remiss with blogging my recent creations for the most recent Tattered Lace shows on Create and Craft, so here are a few from last weekends show which featured the Dinosaur's which sold out rather quickly but will be back in stock and yesterdays Craftinator featuring lots of storage along with a few new dies.

It's no secret that cute and I just don't go together, but I have to admit that I found these little fellows rather sweet.

More in my comfort zone, flowers and pretty pinks

Thanks for popping in today.

Halloween colours

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this I have chosen a colour theme which will work for those of you who celebrate Halloween but can equally be used in a totally different way as I have done with my card above. Our sponsors are Let Create and Jessica Lynne Originals.

I have two shares today and the second apparently confirms.........if there was ever any doubt........that I am "some sort of mad woman", I will explain why further down.

The one at the top is a bit of a wild take on the colour theme, I had the idea so had to test it out, I have to admit it's a tad bright but I kinda like the finished piece. I used Tattered Lace Essential Lattice and some pattered paper to cut the top layer which I placed over some purple card. The flower is Penny Black Jubilant and coloured with Dylusions.....I decided on them over Spectrum pencils to get the intensity of colour.......and has been stamped onto a Brusho background. A Penny Black sentiment cut out with a TL label die and some ribbons to finish.

OK now for the "mad woman" creation, I don't usually 'do' Halloween but I needed to make some for the Tattered Lace Halloween show a couple of weeks ago. The card above featured on that show and when Andy Love took it from Rozella he took one look and asked "what king of mad woman came up with this". I thought it was a bit of fun but seems Andy was a bit unsure about the spiders bouncing up and down.

The thing is I knew exactly what I wanted to make and even made a special trip to source the spiders. The background has been created with Pan Pastels and the spooky line of houses is a Tattered Lace mask. The witch is also a TL mask but to get the intensity of color I used black stencil paste and was really pleased with how it came out.

It's not terribly clear from my photo but I created an acetate dome to allow me to hang some spider on acetate to dangle down the scene. I also added a TL pumpkin, grasses and fancy border down the sides. 

Hope you weekend is a good one and as always, my thanks for your kind visits and comments.

Vibrant florals

Morning all, today I have another Chocolate Baroque piece of artwork to share which you will also find on the Design Team Blog using the gorgeous Indian Textiles and June Fairy stamp sets.

I started by dabbing Distress Inkpads Mustard Seed and Broken China onto a craft sheet and spritzing liberally with water then dragging the reverse side of a piece of single sided cardstock through the wet inks.

When dry [I use a heat gun to speed the process] I took the lids from two different sized pots of embossing powder and ‘inked’ the edges with the same two distress inks and randomly ‘stamped’ circles onto the inked cardstock, it’s a good idea to give another quick blast of the heat gun before moving on as distress ink can take a little time to dry.

Using a Versafine Black Inkpad I stamped the large flower from the stamp set, added Detail Clear Embossing Powder and heat set. Next I bleached out the colour from the flowers using household bleach and a fine paint brush.

I coloured the bleached out flowers with Dylusions Lemon Zest, Pure Sunshine and Vibrant Turquoise. I then stamped the trailing Ivy from the June Fairy stamp set and also added a hint of Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise to the berries.

After matting and layering onto coordinating cardstock I added a matching organza bow.

As always, my thanks for your visit today.

Glowing Autumn and a Snippet

Morning Peeps, time for our mid month reminder at Penny Black and More challenge where our Autumnal Colours theme is in full swing, if you have not joined in yet there is still  plenty of time as it runs until 28th of this month, there are lots of great prizes to be won.

My card has a Dylusion background, what I always love about Dylusions is that you never know quite what you will end up with and I was very pleased with the lovely glow this one gives. When dry I stamped with the lovely Penny Black Autumn Dance, a piece of corrugates with some Frantage added, a bow and some more leaves using Penny Black Filigree Foliage.

Thought I had better also share one of two cards from this weeks Tattered Lace Create and Craft Pick of the Week, I am a bit late as it started on Friday and a good number of the stamps are already sold out.

Using Swirly Over the Edge Header, Rose Bunch Embossing Folder and Happy Birthday

Using Flourish Header

Using Lacy Floral Border and Essential Ovals

Using Flourish Header, Double side Stepper and sections of  Decorative Lattice

I would like to enter this one into this weeks Snippet Playground, the DP's are some really old Nitwits ones which were A4 sheets, not sure they even make them like that any more, but have been hanging around in the 'pink drawer' for what seems like forever. None of the pieces were large enough to cut the main layer in one piece so the TL flourish covers the join very nicely.

A very simple design, Over the Edge Header again and Essential Decorative Lattice - and this is the right way up, there seemed great confusion on the part of Andy the presenter as to which way was up.

My thanks for you visits and hope you have a good Sunday.

Getting all sentimental

Good morning to you all, it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and Helene would like us to get All Sentimental and use a sentiment as the focal element on our work. Our sponsor is A Day for Daisies and Marianne Designs.

I used white 350gsm linen cardstock for the base of this fancy fold which has become a bit of a favourite along with Trimcraft DP's. The left panel had been embossed with Tattered Lace Butterfly Garden folder, lightly inked with DI bundled sage and two Penny Black Butterflies stamped and heat embossed onto vellum. The right panel is stamped with my all time favourite Penny Black Sentiment Dance, Singe, Love.

And this just happens to fit in with the current Butterfly Challenge which is asking for embossing along with the Butterfly, luckily I have both dry and wet embossing on this one.

Whatever you have planned, I hope your weekend is a good one.

Oriental scene

Good morning Peeps, a few weeks ago I mentioned I had been invited to join the Chocolate Baroque  team and today I am so excited to share my first creation with you which you will also find on the Design Team Blog.

I confess to staying right in my comfort zone with my first creation for them opting for Pan Pastles and a nice big masked sun. The stamps are all from the Oriental Crane stamp set.

I started with a piece of single sided pearl cardstock and used the reverse matt side to stamp both the tree and temple stamp twice using an Adirondack Black inkpad, masking off the bottom ground line before stamping.

Next I created the hills using a piece of torn paper and Pan Pastels Phthalo Green, then placed a large circle mask centrally slightly overlapping the hills and created the sky, again using a piece of torn paper to represent clouds and Pan Pastels Magenta Shade. After removing the mask I used a little Pan Pastels Diarylide Yellow to shade the sun and clouds.

I then masked the crane and upper section of the crane stamp and inked just the bulrushes and stamped across the bottom of the scene. Using the smaller of the cherry blossom stamps I stamped several times across the top of the scene and added a little shading and colour to the trees and temples with pencils.

Using coordinating cardstock I matted and layered the scene onto a white base card and finally added some liquid pearls to the blossoms.

Thank you so much for popping in today, your visits are always much appreciated.