Beside the sea

Morning Peeps, another scheduled post as today I should be in Florence, so hopefully Mr Blogger is playing fair and I can tell you all about this weeks challenge at Allsorts where my teamie Fluer is thinking about Summer days by the beach with the theme 'Oh I do love to be beside the seaside'.

So it's an easel card for me and a stamp from Joanna Sheen. I have kept the colours all very soft. the DP's are from stash, the flowers made with TH distress floral die and the little labels use stamps from the same stamp set as the main image. I added some glossy accents and glitter for waves in the background and few little sea shells which I collected on the beach in Majorca a couple of years ago............was amazed I got the bag full through Customer, I was sure they would relieve me of them.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Just a few more peeks

As promised, just a few more scheduled sneak peeks of some of the samples I made for Stamp Addicts Create and Craft programme today which is going out live at 12 noon.

All going to plan we are in Barcelona and will set sail tea time today for twelve days sailing round the Med and Black Sea, fingers crossed warm weather and calm seas, although I'm not adverse to a bit of choppy weather, it usually means the shops and dining rooms are quieter...............could be I just have a cast iron stomach, or as has been suggested by those who shall remain nameless, the volume of bubbles I consume balances out my normally unstable gait......could be a remedy there ?

I was running rather short of time when I schedules this one, so hope you will forgive if my descriptions are brief and I direct you to the thumbnails before for the products used.

The yellow and black card at the top is some of my normal masking and inking and the obligatory sun, I rather like the quirky row of buildings which remind me of the Baroque style of so many squares in Venice. 

The blow and brown one uses the same swirly flourish in one my samples a couple of days ago, but used to create a frame, then some little flowers from the background stamp sheet stamped and decoupaged.

The above card uses the lovely Victoriana lady again, this time stamped in black dye ink and coloured with Copics. The side flourish is another from the background set.

And finally, the corner stamp used to created a circle......don't even ask how many trial runs I did to get the spacing right and the patterns to join up. I stamped in black and embossed in detail clear and used some Spellbinders for the background and yet another organza bow.

Sneak Peeks

By the magic of Blogger........................well I am certainly hoping so as we should be on the way to Paris for a couple of days before we get the sleeper train tomorrow evening to Barcelona to board the boat Thursday lunchtime. And I am secretly hoping, as our train arrives in Barca at breakfast time, we will be able to fit in a quick trip to the Nou Camp, it's the largest football stadium in Europe and each trip before nobody has been interested enough to visit............... or perhaps I am just a real saddo ?

I would like to share some of the samples I made for Stamp Addicts next programme on Create and Craft TV which has been moved forward to Thursday 31st May at noon. I thoroughly enjoyed working with these new stamp sheets, there are some lovely Vintage images along with a sheet of lovely background stamps which also fit the same era really well. I only had a few days to make my samples, had I had longer I could have happily kept going.

The grey and yellow one at the top uses one of the beautiful swirly stamps from the background sheet, which I inked with TH distress markers.......I love how they allow you to colour even the finest detail on stamps without the colours bleeding when you spritz with water, as I did here before stamping. As usual all 'ingredients' can be found on the thumbnails below. I am really into this colour combo at the moment and the card was the perfect opportunity to make another of my organza roses............I know quite a lot of peeps have asked for a tutorial and I will get one done as soon as possible as I realise although they make them on C&C sometimes, not everyone has access to the shows.

My second share used this gorgeous Victoriana lady, she is so lovely makes a card on her own. I stamped the upper section of the base card with one of the background stamps using distress ink and the bottom half some DP and an die cut overlay and some die cut roses and leaves. I stamped the main image with archival sepia and coloured lightly with watercolours.

This card is really quite simple, but the chandelier image makes a statement on it's own.  So some simple matted and layered panels and liquid pearls.

My final card.......................you know there had to be some brayering and inking somewhere, used the house image from another of the stamp sheets, it's quite a large stamp which I stamped with archival sepia again, then added a little scene and a masked sun and path using dye inks and sponged rays of sun.

Thanks so much for calling by and I hope you have a good Tuesday.

Happy Birthday Allsorts

Today is our third Birthday at Allsorts, so of course we are Going to have a little celebration. It's hard to believe it's three years, Allsorts was my very first DT spot when I was really new to the world of bloGland and here we are three years on with one of the most popular challenges around and this has only been achieved because of the continued support of our lovely fellow crafters and wonderful sponsors.

For my first DT piece I have Gone all inky.................just for a change I hear you say.............with a backGround created using lemonade and peacock from the Spring TH distress ink set, some Glimmer mist sprayed over to bleed the colours a little, TH stamp set and bird in a cage die. I stamped the text randomly using the third Generation ink to achieve a more faded effect and butterflies from the same stamp set. The birdcage has some Frantage embossing powder added here and there to Get it a bit of an aged feel and I did the same to the butterflies which have been decoupaged. The three labels are taken from the stamp set as well.

My second DT piece is using Ruth at A Passion for Stamps lovely Iris imaGe which I have paper pieced using Bo Bunny DP, along with the pretty lattice, some die cut flowers and a computer generated sentiment. If you would like to buy this or any of Ruth's other lovely imaGes, just click on the picture below.

Now for the bloG hop and you should have arrived here from Debs bloG and now move on to Nicola, but if you Get lost you can always Go back to the challenge blog and start afresh. Once you have collected all the letters include the one 'hidden' in this post you need to sort them into the secret word and mail your answer to Emma (not me this time because I am going on my holibobs) metalicbutterfly@hotmail.co.uk so you are in the draw for another prize. Here is what the winner from my bloG will received.....................

As I am off on holiday in a few days time I won't be able to do the draw for my winner until I get home, so I will post it as soon as possible after 12th June.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and thanks so much for calling by.

Running oh so late

Good Morning Peeps, I thought I had better get a quick post done to show I really am still here, I am so all behind where I wanted to be by now and could do with an eight day week. I've had my head down working on samples for Stamp Addicts new Create and Craft show on...........just amended, now a couple of days earlier the 31st May.......can't share just yet, but will schedule some shares for when we are on holiday, so for now just a mega quick post with a couple of shares using Timmy's Papillion stamps set.

The top one very simple using some masking and inking, the second one a bit more messy and grungy again using distress inks and the same stamp set.

Have a lovely Tuesday everyone, hubby assures me the suns going to make an appearance today, time will tell as they say.

Buttons and Bows

Before I tell you about this weeks new challenge at Allsorts I need to apologise I've been so tardy in my blogging this week, but I hope to get to you all over the weekend. Booking late holidays is great but I overlooked how much I would need to pack in, I've spent extra time in the office getting all my client files up to speed along with some late night crafting to get DT work sorted, but I think I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This week my teami Deb's would like to see Buttons and Bows on our work, how lovely is that. My DT card is one of the samples I made for Stamp Addicts latest programme on Create and Craft using the lovely floral stamp sheets along with Timmy's fab distress markers.........well they are mine really but his great idea.

Yes another of my organza bows, I so love making these, some simple matting and layering and finito. All the 'ingredients' I used can be found below.

Whatever you have planned, I hope you have a super weekend and promise I will get to you all shortly.

The sweet smell of May blossom

Well I don't know what to say really because the sun looks to be shining at the moment, but we had rain the last couple of days again and really heavy at times. What a contract to this time last year when it was so dry that the grass just didn't grow and the price of hay went sky high, this year it's growing like a triffid but at this rate it will be wet to cut and turn. Do you get the impression I'm getting paranoid and fed up with the weather ?

So much so that I had a morning of total insanity when the travel agent rang up to say they had a "not to be missed deal" which of course I dismissed until I took a proper look. The upshot is we are off on holiday in two weeks time, never ever have we booked so close to departure, but the travel agent was right and it was a phenomenal deal. There was no choice about cabins, just the one going cheap, but it's a suite in a great deck location and like last year all bubbles included.....yep the ones out of popping bottles. So we head off to Barcelona first, a couple of French ports, Florence, Roma, Athens a couple of Greek Islands and home via Venice. I can never get enough of Roma and Venice and can't wait, not to mention giving my scooter a bit of a challenge.

All of my shares today are DT cards made for Ruth at A Passions for Stamps and there are links to all the images in the thumbnails below.

The one at the top uses the Rhododendron image, printed out quite a few times and cut down to decoupage, an embossed background and a bow and beaded stick pin to embellish. I've only just realised I've used the same PB sentiment on two of these cards, could be I rather like it !

My second card is very simple, the beautiful Hawthorn.........which I just adore when it comes into boom this month around the paddocks with it's heady perfume............printed into linen cardstock, coloured with watercolours pencils and a punched border top and bottom.

And my third share............which I notice has a wonky leaf in the picture but promise it's put right now on the card...............using the honeysuckle image, again coloured with watercolour pencils, a border die and some die cut roses and another PB sentiment.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your Thursday and as always I really appreciate your visits.