Penny Black candy and another DT challenge

I'm back again with the second of the challenges I set the Design Team at Penny Black and More.

Before I tell you about that, I need to tell you that we are having a little mid month giveaway. A name will be selected from all the new followers to Penny Black and More who sign up between today and 4th December. I have popped a picture of the lovely Penny Black giveaway on the challenge blog.

I called this kit "Merry Christmas" and thought it would be an ideal theme as we roll along................rather quickly it seems...............towards December.

Again the DT came up with a wonderful array of inspiration and so many different takes on the the me and I think it's fair to say they all really enjoyed the challenges and it's definitely something we will do again.

Kit included 3 sheets Echo Park DP (various patterns but all from the same colour family), Bazzil Basic, 1M red organza ribbon, 2 decorative pins, MS punched holly, 1 vellum roses cut with a Marianne die, Card base cut with Grand Nesties Labels 23, Red nailheads.

In addition to the kit items, I used Penny Black 4208K Christmas Narrative as my image which I stamped onto a piece of my DP and stamped the flower again onto another piece and decoupaged. I ran the piece of Bazzil through the Big Shot Pro using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and distressed it with a sanding block.

Hope was Born

Good afternoon peeps, I hope everyone is OK and had a good weekend.

I am trying to play catchup here, get all my office files up to date and schedule some posts for next week as Monday is the re-scheduled date for me to go into hospital for them to check out my heart. Not looking forward to it one bit and needless to say more than a little terrified, but I can't stay in my comfort bubble forever and need to get it done.

Both of these shares are using Ruth's new Poinsettia image which you will find at A Passion for Stamps. They really are one of my favourite Winter flowers so the ideas just came rolling when Ruth sent me this one and I've made quite a few with it so far and more to come.

The black and white on is one of those you make and ticks all the right boxes, so I ended up making about of dozen for special people at Christmas. I printed the image out twice and covered with Stamp 'n Bond, heated then added crystal glitter, cutting some petals away from the  second image to decoupage. The panel are embossed with a Sizzix trellis folder and black gems added here and there. The fancy mat under the flower is from the Spellbinders Holly set and the card itself and mats cut with Nesties labels 23.

For the flower on the second card I printed the poinsettia twice onto the reverse side of the Echo Park DP and threw detail gold embossing powder onto it literally as it came through the printer before the ink could dry properly.................bit of a dodgy manoeuvre and I am certain one day I will miss the paper and it will all disappear into the printer mechanism. But until then I quite like the technique.

The sentiment is my favourite this Christmas, Penny Black 3227K Hope ...............I did give advance warning weeks ago that this one would keep popping up, embossed in gold and the sponged with TH broken china to carry the colour of the reverse of the DP. The holly border is from the same Spellbinder set as the card above and the leaves also Spellbinders. The frame is Nestie Fleur de Lis.

Not another easel card..............

..........I hear you say............I really wonder if I will ever tire of them.

Anyhow, I had better tell you about our new challenge at Allsorts and this week my teamie Nicola would like to see Black and White plus One.

I love using pink with black and white, you need so little to really make your card pop. I have used all Hero Arts stamps and stamped the main image twice, one onto black cardstock and embossed with detail while and again onto white cardstock using verafine black and detail clear embossing powder....I find that option gives a much cleaner look than using a clear ink and black embossing powder which invariably shifts to places you don't want it. Next I cut both in half and used one of each and butted them together to get the two tone piece. I stamped the flowers a second time and decoupaged. The DP is from stash and no idea whatsoever the make.

Enjoy your weekend and thank you so much for popping by.

Yet more inky fingers

Good Morning Peeps, just having a coffee break so thought I would do a quick post with a couple of shares and some inky fun.

It's pretty miserable weather here in the Fens still, typical November and getting decent photos is almost impossible as that glimmer of sunshine never arrives so these piccies are not as I would like, but I know we are all having the same problems.

For the one above I sponged Adirondack dye inks sunshine yellow and watermelon and TH distress ink broken china and spritzed with Glimmer Mist pearl, then lifted some of the ink to create a watery sun and stamped over that with a Clarity stamp using Adrondack pebble to give a soft feel. Next I stamped some grasses in black from the Andy Skinner Winter Tale sheet and then Penny Black 3381K Aspire using versamark and detail gold embossing powder. I cut the finished piece into six and mounted onto gold mirri card.

The above card is one I did at my Stampalot demo last week and very similar to one I shared a couple of weeks ago, but this time using Art Impression trees and Hobby Art cows. The background is brayered with Adirondack shy blue, denim, lettuce and meadow. The poem is computer generated an the fence hand drawn with a fine nib black pen.

New challenges and mega prizes

Good Morning Peeps, it's the first Sunday of the month and for those of you who missed the announcements last month, it's the day we are launching challenges at Stampalot and Penny Black and More in future.

Plus it's also the first month of the new style challenge at Penny Black and More where we have opened up the entry criteria to enable more of you to join in the fun. Do pop over to the challenge blog and check it all out. And of course, there are super prizes on offer at both challenges.

The them at Stampalot this month is Blue and Green................despite my Granny always telling me "blue and green should never be seen", I have to disagree as I think the two colours coordinate beautifully. So much so that I made two cards for my DT pieces this month. The one at the top used the lovely Fairy Queen Stampandous SSC1123, stamped onto a brayered gloss card background and coloured with Copics. The roses are made from hand cut spirals and the DP is from stash.

How's this for service.........I saw the Fairy Queen stamp pop up on Sir Stampalots What's New section, so immediately rang Janice to say please keep me one and the answer I got was "already reserved, ordered it because I knew you would want it". I came up with a good few samples using this one, it's right up my street.

My second blue and green card used more old DP from stash, a poinsettia cut using the new Spellbinders dies, the holly Spellbinders Christmas accents and the sentiment Penny Black 3227K Hope is Born ...........I did warn you this one would be popping up time and again.

Two DT pieces for Penny Black and More as well, the one above using this so cure little lad and his dog Penny Black 40-020 , coloured with Aquamarkers, some Kraft card and DP also from stash.

And finally, another image I love, mine is, as you will realise from the code, a really old PB stamp 1380K although this year they re-introduced it as a cling stamp. Coloured with Aquamarkers, Nitwits DP and MS garden trellis punch along with a Sizzix corner die.

Enjoy your Sunday and thanks for popping my, I really do appreciate all your comments.

Animal Spirits share

Good Morning peeps, this weeks theme at Allsorts has been chosen by my teamie Jill and she would like us to make 'Anything but a Square'.

So I thought I would share one of the samples I recently did for Sue, the talented artist behind Animal Spirits Stamps. You can buy the stamps direct from Sue's US website or in the UK from Sir Stampalot.

Out came the Grand Nesties Labels 23, I just love the shape of these ones and now I have my Bog Shot Pro cutting the large ones is a doddle.............I probably didn't mention.............dare not really as I recently killed off my second Big Shop Express, so I decided to go the whole hog and go for the Big Boy.

My image is stamped with versafine black and embossed with detail clear, then coloured with Copics. The DP is October Afternoon, the roses cut from the same DP using a Marianne die and the leaves cut from hessian and coloured with TH inks. The sentiment is computer generated.

If you are having a fireworks party, enjoy and take care.

A Passion for Stamps new Christmas images

Good Morning, it's a tad chilly here and I can see white tips on the grass so another frost by the look of things which is sure to bring more leaves tumbling off the trees, but the Autumnal colours are still so beautiful and I could make cards on that theme all year, but I need to get a grip on Christmas.

So it's just as well that my good friend Ruth at A Passion for Stamps has been busy with her pencil again and  created some lovely new images, here are a couple I came up with using her new Poinsettia and Holly images.

The red and green one uses the holly and poinsettia images printed twice onto Farbiano watercolour card, coloured with Aquamarkers and decoupaged. The sentiment is Stampandous CRQ146 and the DP Kaiser 25th December collection.

For the blue card I printed the poinsettia image onto pearlescent cardstock and pored detail gold embossing powder over it quickly so I could heat emboss and was really pleased with how well it showed up the lovely detail of the image. The DP is Magnolia and the sentiment Penny Black 3995F.