Thursday, 13 February 2014

Stampendous P107 again and week one candy favourites


Floral Fantasies share using my favourite craft item - Stampendous P107 Agapanthus Cluster and along with Pan Pastels and a PB sentiment

Hello Peeps, I hope you are all OK and sending special love to those suffering in this dreadful weather.

It's the end of week one of my 5th Blogaversary candy fun and as promised I am here to share this weeks favourites. Now this seemed like a really good idea at the time but when it actually came to doing the selecting I realised immediately it was easier said than done because all your entries are awesome, so I asked the grandchildren to help me out and we had a little voting system going and between us these are the four ...............in no particular order..................

The fairy was a real hit with the girls and I have a bit of a thing for them as well

It was the birds and flowers here plus all the amazing textures, one said
"I think we could pick them Granny"

The mouse was a definite hit and as they pointed out to me it is Valentines Day tomorrow

They loved the butterflies and tag and the colours are very much up my street

So that's the offering of week one and to all of you thank you so much for joining in, as I said above every one of your entries is amazing and I really appreciate all your effort taking part. I am looking forward to seeing next weeks lovely entries and remember it's OK to join in a second time if you wish.

Wednesday, 12 February 2014

Easter Basket



Morning Peeps, it's my turn to do a tutorial over at Prickly Pear Rubber Stamps, so I thought now might be a good time to make one of my little Easter baskets using some of the new Spring stamps which you will find on the web site.

Start by cutting the A4 sheet of card down to a 21cm square  and score in both directions at 7cm intervals so your piece is divided into nine equal squares, then score the four corner squares diagonally as below. Crease all scored lines and you will see the shape of the basket coming together. The four diagonal corners scores need to be carefully folded inwards.

Next cut 13 - 6.5x6.5cm squares – five of one pattern and 8 of a contrasting one. 

Cut four of the five in half diagonally and stick to the inside of the folded corners and the fifth the inside base. 

Stick the eight matching ones to the four inside and four outside square sides.


I have used Graphic 45 Secret Garden DP's, but any double sided or coordianting sheets works well.

Cut four shapes with your chosen die, then stamp and colour each and stick onto the four outer squares.......make sure you get them the right way up and not upside down as I did on my first attempt !!

You could equally use toppers or a different shaped die to tie in with the stamps or images you decide to use for your basket. 

Finally pop an eyelet into each of the four corners, draw the basket up into shape and thread ribbon through the eyelets. 

And walla, you have a pretty little basket to fill with Easter goodies..............I made one of these for a sample for C&C filled with Cadbury min eggs ................yep you guessed right there wasn't one egg in sight when it appeared on the show.

Thanks for popping in to take a peek and hope your Wednesday is a good one.

Monday, 10 February 2014

Paris in Spring



Morning Peeps, I am totally chuffed to see so many lovely pieces of artwork creeping into my Spellbinder blog celebration, if you missed my post you can find it here, still plenty of time to join in for a change of winning some of the Spellbinder dies.

As it's Monday it means my weekly share of my Prickly Pear DT piece and with Valentines at the end of the week what better than something with the Tour Eiffel, surely one of the most romantic Cities in the World. I have stuck with the traditional colours, Pan Pastels, a rose embossed panel and the lovely Paris Heart stamp, the banner is empty for you to add your own sentiment and I have used the very fitting Paris in Spring one.

Have a good Monday all.

Saturday, 8 February 2014

Blue and brown right down to the finger tips




Our lovely Jo is our host this week and is challenging us to use colours beginning with the letter 'B' on our artwork. Our sponsors are Yours and Mine Papercrafts and A Passion for Stamps.

Also a little reminder about my 5th Blogaversary celebrations, if you don't know about it check out the post here, lots of Spellbinders to be won.


Naturally brown and blue came immediately to mind for my first card for Jo's theme, I love the colour combo that much that I had my nails that colour this time....................my fortnightly manicure is my little treat and I have indulged in quite a few colour combos recently, I rather liked the graduated pink and purple with a bit of sparkle of course, then there were the Christmas snowflakes.......hmmmmmm choices.

Anyhow, on to my card which is a mixture of Sheena, Stampscape and Lavinia stamps all stamped with archival ink and then of course Pan Pastels for the colouring.


And the nails...........pretend you didn't see those short stumpy fingers, like me they are vertically challenged but the nails are all my own !


And a second card using Ruth's Clarkia image coloured with watercolours pencils and matted onto some Spellbinder.................and this is B for Burgundy.

Whatever you are up to this weekend I hope it's a good one.

Monday, 3 February 2014

Passing ships




Morning Peeps, the first Monday of the month so time for our February challenge at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challengese where this month 'It's a Man Thing'.

I made this card before hospital 'just in case' and my Mojo was MIA at the time and it's not particularly Vintage but we always say on the challenge blog that entries need not be Vintage, so I hope this may encourage some of you who perhaps aren't into that style that you can still join in.

I used an oval mask and stamped through it with the FlonzCraft Etched Ship and created some sky with Pan Pastels. The sentiment is also from FlonzCraft..........their sentiment sheets have quite a few different ones on them so great value at just £3.60 per sheet. The individual stamps are equally good value and most £1.80 each......how many places can you buy good quality stamps for that price ?

So do pop over and take a look........their postage is also very reasonable despite them shipping from New Zealand.


I also have my weekly Prickly Pear share and this one is using both sizes of the gorgeous new Lily stamp, I love this one and you will be seeing a few more pop up with this stamp. I coloured this one with watercolour pencils.

Hope you all have a good week.

Sunday, 2 February 2014

A bit of bling and fantasy



Today sees the start of our new monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More and where our themes are Wings, Fantasy or Fiction and Make it Sparkle.

The top card is my offering for Penny Black and More but alas the sparkle element is non to clear on my photo, but she is a classy girl and her sparkles are her gemstones round her neck and wrist. I stamped the brickwork and flowers though an arch shaped mask then stamped an paper pieces just the lady from Penny Black's Venetian Summer stamp. I used another PB stamp down the spine and added ribbons and some pins to finish.


And for Stamping Sensations another arch it seems although that wasn't intentional. The dancing fairies are Lavinia as is the tree which I extended in height by masking the branches and the castle is a really old wood mounted stamp and afraid the name has word away. Colouring is all Pan Pastels and finally some Lavinia toadstools and flowers along the bottom. 


And just the one more and I got itchy fingers to use one of my new Tonic frames. After making up the frame I stamped round the edges........I know I should have done that first........did a bit of stamping and distressing in the aperture and added one of Ruth's Peruvian Lilies, a pair of little Tonic birdies, leaves and butterflies all of which I dipped in UTEE.

I do hope you will join in in our challenges this month and look forward to visiting your entries.

Saturday, 1 February 2014

Love is in the Air



Our theme this week at Allsorts is Love is in the Air, one I feel will be popular with Valentines Day just around the corner. We have two lovely sponsors, Nicecrane Designs and DigiStamp.

For the top piece I decorated a chipboard heart, starting by covering with acylic pain then over stamping with Penny Black Floral Thread, distressing the edges and adding some lace and flowers made with Tonic's Stamp and Punch Rose set to embellish round the Nicecrane image from the Sweet Valentine Design sheet.


The second one is fairly simple using an image from the same deign sheet,  a frame cut with a Spellbinders, computer generated letters and some roses.

Have a good weekend everyone.