White Christmas

Morning to you all, what a ridiculous week it's been with Blogger, apart from the silly word verification which luckily is an easy one to resolve, the others issues I've been having are not. I am unable to see photos on the vast majority of blogs I visit and then there is the infuriating issue of typing comments when the cursor moves but no typing appears. So what on earth is it all about, is Blogger just totally overwhelmed by the sheer volume of blogland activity and unable to handle it all ? Really makes you wonder.

Moan over and let me tell you about our Allsorts theme this week which is White Christmas as chosen by the lovely Jo and our sponsors are FlonzCraft and Scrappers Delight.

My card at the top is a recent DT creation I made for Stamp Addicts using the lovely White Christmas sentiment which you can find under New Products, the font is very elegant and it's a decent sizes stamp so needs little more than matting and layering, although I couldn't resist a poinsettia so may have gone a little outside the challenge brief.

This one however is totally white with the exception of the sentiment shadow and unusually for me no stamping. The Deer die is a new one from Penny Black and the stars are a Marianne die, an embossed background and an All Occasion Dies sentiment and card cut on the Cricut.

Today we are off out early for an pre Christmas family celebration so will try catching up with you all soon - dependent of course of the mood of Blogger.

Reindeer and Roses

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are Winter Wonderland and Special Occasions which can include Christmas.

The card at the top is my Stamping Sensations piece, although it would equally with Penny Black as well as it uses the new Natures Friends 30-271 stamp set.......same as yesterday, just a different scene.....it was a set I had to have the moment I saw it. The trees have two layers and on and this one I stamped the base image black and then the second embossed with detail silver to give a frost feel. As usual it's Pan Pastels for the landscape and sky, a hand drawn fence and some silver glitter onto the overhanging trees.

Not one to join in challenges as you all know, but I couldn't resist entering the one at the top into this months Craft a Scene Challenge which is 'Winter Scenes', I used to be part of the DT and used to love the opportunity to create scenic artwork but had to give it up when my health went on one of it's downward spirals a year or more ago.

My Penny Black DT piece uses a recently acquired stamp 3073K Brush Rose, it's quite an oldie which for some reason I never bought before, I inked it with distress markers and spritzed with water before stamping several times. Some random script stamping into background, two butterflies from Penny Black 30-117 Free Flight and the sentiment is Penny Black 3851 Blessings.

And I have one more Stamping Sensations piece, this time using Chocolate Baroque stamps Decorative Edges and Let Your Heart Sing. The background was crated by masking a moon and brushing over Glimmer Mists and Dylusions, then stamping the bird and bush stamp once, then cleaning it and masking out the bird before inking again to stamp a second time to extend the design. Quite a lot of glitter to get the impression of icicles, plus some snow and  finally white Frantage around the edges. The sentiment is Penny Black.

As always we have some fabulous prizes to be won at both challenges so I really hope you will join in.

All about animals

Morning Peeps, a new challenge at Allsorts today and Tracy would like to see Animals on our work this week. Our sponsor is DigiStamp Boutique.

I have used TH Alterations cabinet die to create a tri fold card, Pan Pastels to create the sky and landscape and most of the stamps are from Penny Black's new Natures Friends clear stamp set, this was a must have as soon as I saw it and I couldn't wait for Paula at Crafts U Love to get her stock from across the pond. I added a few red stickles to create berries on the branches in the foreground and in hindsight should probably have brought the rabbits a bit closer to the front as they look a tad big against the Deer, but hey ho artistic licence and all that !

Happy weekend to you all and hope you will join us at Allsorts this week.

In the bleak midwinter

Morning Peeps, hope you had a good weekend.

The first of December also happens to be the first Monday this month so today is the start of  a new challenge at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges  where our December theme is to base our work on a Christmas Carol or Song. I also have this weeks Nicecrane shares where I am sticking with Christmas again this week.

This Winters scene from FlonzCraft called Birch Tree in Winter reminds me of cold and frosty days so 'In the bleak Midwinter' seemed appropriate and I have computer generated the first verse to add to my card. I used a mask to create a moon shining from behind the trees and coloured with Pan Pastels then added some fine crystal glitter. 

As always there is a fabulous $20 voucher to spend in the store for the winner so I really hope you will join us this month, if you have never taken part before we would love to welcome you over at the challenge blog.

I have gone with a traditional feel to both of my Nicecrane cards, the one at the top uses an image from the Vintage Merry Christmas design set which has six different images, prefect to help you get those last minute cards made. The DP is Graphic 45, a spellbinder Poinsettia, ivy and some lace.

The image on this one is from the Antique Christmas collection, he's such a sweet little lad feeding the birds which I have decided are Great Tit's of which we have an abundance in the gardens. More G45 DP, a Spellbinder border die and some wooden numbers and a computer generated 'December'.

Have a good week everyone.

Milestone Birthdays

Morning Peeps, a new challenge at Allsorts today and Sarah is inviting us to create something to celebrate 'Milestone Birthdays'. We have Stix2 as our sponsor.

My card is one I made for an order from a friend for her Mum's 90th Birthday, the brief was butterflies, flowers and the word 'Mummy' in the sentiment. So I used Timmy's one the edge butterfly border for the edge of the card and then cut the butterflies again on vellum, which I then over stamped with a script stamp and heat embossed with pink WOW embossing powder. The lilies are Penny Black 4383K First Dance and some more script into the background and a little shading with Pan Pastels.

I also made a acetate topped box and tied some matching ribbon and a rose. I am told 'Mummy' loved the card and she explained that it's many, many years since she called her Mummy but as a child always called her that rather than Mum when she had been told off, so she knew it would make her Mum smile.

As most know I rarely enter challenges but I do try to make an exception for the Butterfly Challenge, although I have not not entered for a while. So am going to enter this into the current Butterfly Challenge which is Paper Pieced Butterflies. Now I am not a 100% certain the way I have used the vellum on the butterflies is strictly paper piecing as it's only stuck in the middle, so apologies if it doesn't quite fit the brief and I will understand if I am not eligible.

Happy weekend all.

Pan Pastel skies with Nicecrane

Good morning from the very chilly Fens, I hope you are all keeping warm. Another hard frost last night but it does look beautiful and prompted me to change my blog header to a photo taken last Winter looking across the Fen from the paddocks when you get those wonderful early morning pink skies.

Before I tell you about my pieces of artwork, I would like to thank everyone for their kind words and recent comments, I believe the new meds are working, still nasty side effects but I can learn to live with that if the pain eases.

On to some artwork and this week I have been playing.........oooops I meant working............with Ignacio's latest Nicecrane Designs which are Japanese themed and can be found here. As we all know I am not great at colouring in, although it is coming along with my new Chameleon pens, so I decided to use those on the Oriental lady below and turn the rest into some of  my favourite scenic cards.

The top card is probably my favourite of the scenic ones, I love strong and vivid skies which are so easy to achieve with Pan Pastels and of course suns and moon, a sun on this one plus a few leaves across the top and some white highlighting here and there.

I used one of the designs from the Vintage Butterflies set as the background in the aperture, what I so like about all of Ignacio's Vintage designs is that you can always find something to coordinate or compliment other designs. My Oriental lady was coloured with Chameleon pens and does look rather yellow, but in real life is a tad more subtle. The sentiment is another from All Occasion Dies, cut twice to achieve a shadow effect.

Pan Pastels again for this one and a few Lavinia flowers stamped across the top using distress markers and garden twine down the side to carry the rustic feel of the card.

I rather liked the splatter background on my Penny Black card last week so stuck with the same colour Dylusions for this one and painted the butterfly and flowers with them as well with a final brush over with Glimmer Mist pearl, it works wonders to soften the fibers so you can mould them into shape. The sentiment is Penny Black.

This is the full set of designs which you can get here for $4.50

Have a good Tuesday Peeps.

No DP's allowed

A very good morning to you all, today at Allsorts it's my turn to host the theme and I would like to see creations that feature no design papers. Our sponsors are my friend Ruth from A Passion for Stamps and another friend Ignacio from Nicecrane designs.

So as I am on the DT for both it means two cards from me. My Nicecrane piece above uses one of the lovely Birds and Blossoms images.............can you tell I am already thinking ahead to Spring............a background of Dylusions, then script and grids randomly stamped, a Timmy clock onto which I scattered some Frantage, dies cut leaves, some twine, hessian and corner embellies.

My Passions for Stamps card uses the pretty Christmas Rose to which I added just a little colour using my Chameleon pens, inked the edge of the card along with some white Frantage, a Penny Black sentiment and some simple matting and layers. Much as I like Design Papers and have some beautiful ones, I think sometimes they detract from the focal image and to me this card demonstrates exactly what I mean.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.