New Beginnings

Morning Peeps, this weeks Allsorts theme is hosted by Tracy and is 'New Beginnings'. Our sponsor is Sally-Anne from Digistamp Boutique and we have an extra prize of a Bride stamp to go with the theme.

My new beginning is 'Spring', I always think of it as a new beginning with the re-birth of all the wonderful things Nature has to offer and it never fails to amaze me how everything bursts into life as if by magic, Nature is truly wonderful and surrounds all who take the time to look and appreciate.

Both of my cards use Chocolate Baroque stamps, stamped with Versafine black and coloured in with Spectrum pencils and sparkle pens. Backgrounds on both have been created with Pan Pastels.

And here are a few shares of recent Chocolate Baroque sample made for shows which aired on Hochanda last month. They feature Village Life, Town Houses and English Cottages stamp sets. You will find details of how I made them all over at the Design Team blog here.

Many thanks as always for your visits.

Monochromatic

Morning Peeps, this weeks Allsorts theme is hosted by Wendy and she would like to see 'Black and White only. We have two stamps from Rare Earth, the stamping arm of Tattered Lace as a prize for one lucky winner.

Such kind messages from so many of you regarding my health after last weeks post, you are all soooooo kind. Nothing new to report at the moment, several appointments this week and all sorts of tests and will hopefully have some results Monday giving a clearer idea if the declining kidney impairment is permanent or due to some sort of blockage. The latter would be the better of the two options as it may be treatable. 

The top card was a pretty simple one to create stamping my all time favourite stamp Stampendous P107 Agapanthus Cluster with Versafine black and the Penny Black sentiment. Using a score board I added a frame around the stamping and finally some pearls to the flower heads and corners.

And here's a second one which I found lurking in my Chocolate Baroque folder un-blogged and it fits in rather well with this weeks theme so I thought I would use it. Very simply done, the image stamped onto back card stock with Versamark and heat embossed with detail white, the panel mounted onto the base card and a CB sentiment stamped in black.

                                                               

Daydream Fairy

Morning Peeps, this week I've been totally missing from blogland, mad ambulance rush last weekend, yet more antibiotics, more bloods and was summoned back within hours and seems I have stage 3/4 kidney impairment/failure. Apparently there are five stages, they say it can't be reversed but meds may be able to prevent it progressing further, but it's early days and need lots more tests and so on.

I've not crafted for a couple of weeks now, save the one card below which is unheard of but just not been well enough. Those who know me are aware that I am always a forward planner and have work ready and scheduled weeks ahead so I am hoping that will stand me in good stead for a time. Hopefully I can ease back into some crafting but I honestly don't think I can carry on with regular blogging over any beyond my remaining DT committements so will play it by ear.

Lucky all was scheduled from here on and this week's Allsorts theme is hosted by Tracy Mouse and is 'Bring on the Bling. We have two stamps from Little Claire as a prize for one lucky winner. It's also my turn to post over at the Chocolate Baroque blog today, my pieces of artwork are below and you will find how I made them and links to all the products used in the post over there.

As I said, very little activity on the craft front, but I did try and managed just one card..........which took a couple of days...........for the new Butterfly Challenge. The new format actually helped in that it supplies the basic requirements so only had to come up with my design, have to say I am not overly happy with it, but it's made so sharing.

I used DI's the create the background, then built it up using stencils, stamped CB Butterfly off the page, stamped it a second time and cut out, coloured and decoupaged and added a PB sentiment. I believe I have covered the following elements of the Butterfly Wheel: Light Blue, Lavender and Lemon (script stenciling), Letters, Layers and Lace (Butterfly's thorax) and of course the Butterfly.

Back to my Allsorts card and my starting place as is normally the case with a scenic card was to create the background with Pan Pastels and masks, in this case I used three varying sized circle masks. I then stamped the Fairy and other elements which are all Lavinia Stamps using archival black ink, glittered the Fairies wings although it doesn't show up too well on my photo and dotted some liquid pearls among the Fairy starts, or is that Fairy Magic ? 

The incredible details on the face of this Fairy never ceases to amaze me, it goes a long way to prove the quality of Lavinia stamps as many would just squish and lose that detail.

And here are my Chocolate Baroque shares for today using stamps which featured on Lesley's recent Hochanda shows which was all about cottages and houses. Hochand presenter Dave Bradford named this "the house in the middle of nowhere" which I think sum's it up pretty well and could well be where we live down a single track farm road which does indeed go nowhere...............although we don't have any hills, just flat beautiful Countryside which stretches as far as the eye can see. I'm sure I've written this before, but from an upstairs window on a clear day you can see Ely Cathedral.

And before I sign off for today, here's what I did today to cheer myself up, I am lucky to have long strong nails and have them manicured every two weeks, no secret I love bright colours but this time is probably brighter than usuall. The girl who does my nails had the same using two new coloures so she did a copy cat on mine, the phrase "old enough to know better, too old to care' comes to mind.

Many thanks for popping in to take a peek today.

"Cinderella shall go to the ball"

Morning Peeps, this weeks Allsorts theme is hosted by Ellie and her lovely theme is 'Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes'. Our prizes this week comes from Be Crafty and is two lovely Wizard of Oz stamps. 

Also sharing my Chocolate Baroque post from the other day, I had scheduled the DT blog post ready but I've been under the weather again since last weekend, hence not much blog visiting this week and never quite got round it blogging it here.

I knew immediately what I was going to make for my Allsorts creation and made it weeks ago as I had Lavina's Cinderella coach and horses in my mind, it's a stamp I've had ages and not used enough................it's actually called Coach and Horses but to me it just say's Cinderella.

To start with I stamped the carriage and tree onto acetate and placed onto the base piece to create the reflection. I then stamped both images onto the card above the reflection and built up the water, background and sky with Pan Pastels. I masked the hills to add the Fairy castle, then masked the castle to add a few trees before stamping the Ivy and foreground flowers.

I found this card lurking in my unused work file where it had been sitting for a year or more, it's one I made when Sheena launched the stamp and I fell in love with Little Red Riding Hood. I stamped the little girl then covered her with masking fluid to allow me to build up the background with Pan Pastels. The branches across the top are from the same stamp set as is the Wolf who is stamped with second generation ink to make him blend menacingly into the background. A tree in the foreground which is a stencil and finally I rubbed away the masking fluid and coloured the image.

This is my CB post, my inspiration for this folded book card came from a small village just a few miles away called Abbots Ripton where the majority of houses and even the pub have thatched roofs and the limited number of new properties built in recent years have been kept to the same style.

I started by cutting from a good quality A3 card, two strips 6" deep x 18" long, scoring each to give three 6"x6" sections and then joining the two together in the middle.  To create the shy I gave a wash of blue Distress Ink and then bleached out some clouds, making sure I extended some of the clouds across the score lines.

Next I stamped the houses and church from Village Life, Town Houses and English Cottages sets and masked the buildings before stamping various trees from both sets and then building up colour using Distress Markers. I added some 'paving' using Large Crackle Background, hand drew some birds and finally drew a skyline linking each section and a few random stamped flowers.

This was a fun creation to make, not a quick make but really enjoyable and I hope I have offered a little inspiration for you to try something similar.

Happy weekend all, I do hope you will come and join us this week.

All about creatures and animals

It's time for our  new challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Forest Friends and 'Feature a Creature'..........believe it or not I hadn't notice the similarity until I wrote up the scheduled posts..........as teams we toss ideas around well in advance so put it down to sheer coincidence. As always there are wonderful prizes to be won at both. 

The card at the top is my first creation for Stamping Sensations using some stamps I was given by a blogging pal for Christmas, the cottage stamp and one with the pond go together perfectly to create a scene. After stamping both with Versafine black and coloured with pencils, added sky with Pan Pastels and stamped the two Penny Black bunnies on the path, my thinking is that this pretty cottage is deep in the Country and as with our garden and paddocks, bunnies are regular visitors (much to hubby's annoyance as they dig up the grass).

The fence on this one is actually called Snowy fence, but I figure it works just as well for any time of year and yes, those PB bunnies feature again.  I inked the fence and PB tree with Distress Markers and spritzed with water before stamping onto Bristol Vellum card. I painted in some hills with watery DI's and the sky with Pan Pastels, some PB birds and a sentiment.

This one, my second Stamping Sensations creation used all Lavinia stamps. My starting point was to stamp the moon then build up the background with Pan Pastels then stamp all the images into place with Versafine Black, a little colour to the Willow and some liquid pearls.

Finally, another Penny Black share, this time a masked circle and colour added with DI's, then more colour with a stencil to create the background. The animals are stamped with Versafine black with the mask still in place and the sentiment stamped once it was removed.

Ladies day

Morning Peeps, this weeks Allsorts theme is all about 'Ladies' to tie in with International Women's week and is hosted by Mervi. We have two prizes this week, a voucher from Digistamp Boutique and and extra prize of a stamp set to tie in with the theme.

It's another canvas from me grunge, ink and serviettes, I've blogged one or two of these in recent weeks and you will find my explanation of how I did it here. The sentiment is from Inkylicious. I do enjoy this technique and have just ordered some rice paper designs which I am told work well as an alternative to serviettes, so watch this space.

When I bought the serviettes for doing the technique I just loved this lady and of course she fits this weeks theme very well. There is also a beautiful Ballerina in the pack and it's on my to do list to create something with her very soon.

I would like to enter the above piece into Ellie's Link Party and to thank her so much for her very kind works about my artwork and selecting one of my Penny Black creations as her selection from last weeks entries.

And one quick make using Digistamp Boutique Closed Rose coloured in with Spectrum Sparkle pens, the corner cut with a Timmy die and mounted onto some coordinating DP and a Chocolate Baroque sentiment tied with a bow.

Happy weekend all.

Rudolph and Butterflies

I am running right to the wire with my Rudolph Days entry, it's not that I didn't have it all made ready, more time running away with me, but at least I can also share the card I made this morning for the new Butterfly Wheel.

So as you can tell the top card is my Rudolph entry using a mixture of stamps from Card-io, Chocolate Baroque and Inkylicious. I started  by stamping the CH branch into a crescent shape using versafine black, then the other images, using Pan Pastels I added some shading, liquid pearls into the branches and white Frantage snow.

The new Butterfly wheel offers options of Green, Navy, Yellow, Not Square, Numbers, No stamping and of course the Butterfly. Well I managed to include all except no stamping, afraid that was a step to far, I did try but was left lost as to what to use for the focal element. Using DI's and glycerine, have to say I am not a big fan of this technique as I find it all a bit greasy, but as Sheena keeps demoing it had to give it a try.

After building up the background I used stencils and DI to add the window, number and honeycomb, then stamped, cut our and coloured the two CB Butterflies and added the sentiment which is also CB.

Hope those of you with snow are keeping warm, just when we thought Spring was almost here we get a cold snap, pretty typical here in the UK