Time to spook and graduation photos

Morning Peeps, it's Saturday so that means it's time for our new challenge at Allsorts and this week Susan is going all spooky on us with the theme of  'Halloween'. Our sponsor is Little Claire. Below you will also find a few photos from Azaria's Graduation in Cambridge this week, not the best as taken on my phone and as it literally poured all day photo opportunities were limited.

It was a bit like a day out with the Boswells.................some of you will remember the TV sitcom where the family did everything en bloc..........in our experience there is usually a limit of three tickets to Graduation ceremonies and they are like gold dust, but there was a surplus of them up for grabs so we managed to get ten (at £25 each I might add) and those able to attend had a lovely family day with a meal afterwards.

I don't really do Halloween but have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed making this one. Starting with a piece of Bristol Vellum cardstock I placed a large circle mask in the centre and used black distress ink to build up the outside colour, once I was happy with that I removed the mask and used the negative that I had cut from to cover the black area and inked the circle. The images were all stamped with black versafine using Chocolate Baroque and Lavinia stamps, a piece of ribbon and matted onto coordinating cardstock. The sentiment is computer generated.

She seemed to have a perpetual smile and thoroughly enjoyed the whole day despite the fact that it never stopped raining. She told me afterwards that she had "so" been looking forward to the day but it went far too quickly.

With brother Zachary who graduated last year and sister Anysia, as you can see she's a tiny little thing and it's scary to think she is now in her first year of teaching English at secondary school and I might add not in the least phased by the whole experience.

I totally missed the hat throw, well at least all I ended up with was one hat in the air and rain all over the lens. But we do have the official photos to come but seems like the end of an era, we have had so many Graduations in recent years with both the 'second batch' of children and then grandchildren and Azaria is the last of the 'bunch' although we do have a couple of Masters underway. 

And such a diversity of subjects from them all, Art and Photography, Pure Maths, Cybernetics and Virtual Worlds, History, Criminology, Applied Criminology, Geology, Equine Husbandry, and English. Don't know where they get it from, I was 40 before I got as far as taking my degree, bet there again I did make a very early start in my teens on marriage and motherhood so something had to wait!!

Happy weekend all.

Simple Pleasures

Morning Peeps, a really quick post with my mid month Penny Black and More shares, we are off to Cambridge today for Azarias Graduation....................it's throwing it down so really hope it soon eases off as all those youngsters as well as us guests are going to get drenched hanging around for the couple of hours between robing and the ceremony. Will share some photos later in the week.

I had a delivery from Crafts U Love this week with stamps from the new Peaceful Winter collection by Penny Black, Paula had them available for immediate shipping. So I made a quick card using a couple of them 40-567 Restful and 40-558 Snowy Village along with a sentiment from 30-429 Happy Wishes. Stamped simply with Versafine black and coloured with Pan Pastels.

My second card uses 3819D Polka Wings, 4184K Rosa, 30-419 Happy Wishes and 40-546 Dancing Daisies, inked direct to stamp with Distress Markers and spritzed with water before stamping.

As I said a really quick post...................and it's still pouring !

More Autumn, a snippet and vertical harlequins !

Hello Peeps, my turn to post over at the Chocolate Baroque DT blog today sharing some more of my samples from Lesley's recent Autumn shows on Hochanda as well as some of my makes from yesterday's CAS post. 

So more indulgence in inky Autumn colours and Poppies and my starting point for the top card was a background of Mica powders spritzed with pearl mica spray to bleed the colours and add some sparkle. I then stamped the Poppy heads from the Poppy Meadow set along with some smaller ones from Natures Table and some grasses from the same set. Next I used a stencil and Distress Inks to add some sun rays, then stamped some more poppy heads across the top. The sentiment is from Natures Peace which is one one of the sets in the multi buy. I added colour to the Poppy heads using the same mica powders and highlighted with a white pen.

Scenes are something I really enjoy creating and for the above card I started with creating a cloudy sky using distress inks and bleaching out some clouds. I then stamped trees from the Autumn Edges and Tall Trees using Gathered Twigs DI and added leaves with DI's using just the top of one of the larger stamps in the same set. Using watered down DI I painted in some hills and stamped leaves along the top using another same stamp from the same set. The fauna in the foreground is stamped with an image from Silhouette Grasses and sentiment from Birthday Words.

On this one I tried to create warmth using DI's for the background and then added some stenciling. The focal images is from Fantasy Woodland. After cleaning the larger stamp I masked off a section so I could ink and stamp just the tiny trees alongside the small tree to the right. Inking just the tip of the flower stamp in the set I added a border around the piece and finally stamped a sentiment from Birthday Words.

Another Oxide background here with some stenciling, followed by some background stamping using the scrip stamps from Butterfly Poppy Collage and then the lovely harlequin and Poppy head stamp using Versafine Black. After stamping I cleaned the stamp, masked the Poppy heads and inked just the harlequins to extend the pattern. The two Butterflies are from the same set and coloured in with the same inks used for the background. 

The background colours have a damson hue to them and the vertical rows of harlequins will hopefully fit into the current Butterfly Challenge which is D for Damson and/or V for vertical along with the requisite Butterfly.

Thought I would also share a few of my CAS cards that were on the DT blog Sunday................

I am popping over to the Playground to see Miss Di and Parsnip with this one as I used a small offcut of Fabriano to stamp the trees, I buy A 3 sheets and it's pretty expensive stuff so I always hang on to small pieces that always seem to be left after I have cut larger sections.

I hope you all have a lovely day with some crafty time as well.

Think Pink in October

Morning Peeps, we are back from our travels after a lovely holiday and many thanks for your kind visits whilst I have been missing, I really appreciate them all.

Today it's my turn to host our new challenge at Allsorts and as October is Breast Awareness month my theme is 'Think Pink', I know it's something that's close to many of our hearts and I hope we can join together to spread awareness across the Globe. Our sponsor is Swedish House Crafts.

It's a while ago I created this piece and it's been sitting in my folder waiting for the opportunity to use it and this weeks theme seems appropriate. My starting place was a piece of 600gsm Fabriano given a coat of gesso followed by adding the Roses and flourishes with stencils and texture paste. When dry I spritzed with a watery ink mixture, followed by more stenciling with a harlequin stencil and distress ink and finally gold gilding wax here and there to bring out the patterns. The Butterfly and sentiment are both Tattered Lace dies painted with the same inks and gilding wax. I mounted the piece onto a square of hessian.

I do hope you will join in with this weeks challenge, I think the theme is something close to the hearts of many of us.

Greek culture and salami from Naples

Morning Peeps, we are still on our travels and so another scheduled post, since my last post we will have visited Santorini which is one on the Cyclades Islands, no matter how many times you go there you are taken aback by it's sheer beauty and the beautiful whitewashed houses that rise up from the blue waters of the Aegean Sea.

And today our itinerary has us in the port of Piraeus, the gateway to Athens which is about half an hour away. We have been there several times before, explored the Acropolis a couple of times and also the City of Athens and it's modern shopping centre so will probably just have a wander in the local town. Then it's off to Italy with stops in Naples and some of their wonderful local salami and of course wine, then onwards to Rome.

So still scheduled posts and our new challenge at Allsorts where this week Mervi is going all Autumnal with the theme of  'Trees and Leaves'. Our sponsor is Marianne Designs.

It's another theme that plays right into my hands which means two cards, one an Autumnal scene and another with lots on inkiness. The one at the top is a sample from last weeks Chocolate Baroque Hochanda shows with DI background then stamping using images from Autumn Poppy, Natures Table and Natures Peace and colouring with DI's, some white highlighting and stenciling using the laves mask.

A bit more inkiness along with  Pan Pastels to create the background, a masked sun and
then stamping with a mixture of Sutter, Stampscapes and Creative Expressions stamps.

Short and sweet I'm afraid as I'm rushing to schedule this ahead of our holiday.

New sandals in Rhodes plus a glass or two in Mykonos

Good morning Peeps, still on scheduled posts and today we are in Rhodes in the Greek Isles before sailing overnight to Mykonos, we have fond memories of Rhodes and will be visiting Yan for new sandals...................he made some for us last visit and they have lasted forever.  So we are looking forward to another visit there and it's always nice to wander the streets in Mykanos with a coffee or two.........or even something stronger along the way as they produce some really decent wines.

It's my turn to share some more inspiration on the Chocolate Baroque DT blog using stamps which Lesley showcased on Hochanda recently. The shows were all about Autumn, Trees and Poppies so ticked all the right boxes for me as I love working with Autumnal colours and as those who know me can confirm Poppies are my favourite flower plus I am a self confessed 'Treeaholic'.

For the card at the top I used three panels of cardstock and stamped two with images from the Autumn Edges set colouring with DI's and on the the third panel used the same inks to add the words using the Seasonal Journey stencil.

The lovely Poppy from Pretty Poppies is the focal image on this card, stamped with Versafine Black onto a watery Burosho background, I mopped quite a lot of the colour away as I wanted a subtle finish and then coloured the flowers with sparkly pens, stamping the Butterfly a second time to decoupage. The corners are from Baroque Corners stamped in the same black and then I added a few leaves using Useful Leaves stencil and ties some red ribbon and added a Poppy button.

The same stencil as the top card has been used along with DI's to create the background for this card and the for the focal panel I created a Brusho background and stamped one of the tree from Fantasy Woodland adding a few stenciled leaves using the Seasonal Elements stencil.......I can't begin to tell you how useful these stencils are for building up interest and colour on your artwork.

This is another sample from last weeks shows on Hochanda, this time using one of the images from Butterfly Poppy Collage stamp set, it's an A4 stamp sheet and you get absolutely loads of beautiful images. The background is Distress Oxides, stamped with Versafine black and the colour added to the Poppy heads using the same Wilted Violet ink and Glossy Accents added, plus a little stamping down the left edge, again using the same ink and stamps from Nature's Peace and the same set as the main image.

I am tentatively adding this one as Lesley asked if she could use it as the basis of one of her demos, however I will be away on holiday when the shows are aired and this post goes live so it may or may not have featured. Using a circle as a mask I stamped a selection of flora and fauna from Nature's Table, Nature's Peace and Poppy Meadow, inking with Distress Markers direct to stamp and a spritz of water before each stamping. The horse chestnuts in the corners were stamped with DI and are also from Natures Table. After stamping I removed the mask and used the negative to stamp the focal sentiment, again from Poppy Meadow and added some shading around the circle.

And as I seem to have quite a number of pieces in my gallery which have not been blogged as yet I thought I would share a few of them in this and my following few posts.

A triptych design which was for the August shows featuring the beautiful Harlequin Bouquet stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with detail copper powder on to a Oxide ink background and some stenciling to carry the harlequin design.

This one features the lovely Summer Fayre stamped onto black cardstock using Versamark and detail white embossing powder, then coloured into metallic pencils, the colour is quite subtle but I rather like the soft finish.

Have a lovely day, I am hoping mine will be warm and sunny.

We plough the fields and scatter

Yet another scheduled post as we are still on our travels and our itinerary for today, which is our Wedding Anniversary, takes us to Valletta in Malta, we have never been there before so are looking forward to exploring what it has to offer. Our daughter who spent her honeymoon there wasn't over impressed with it, but we shall see.

It's time for our challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Autumn Glory and 'Close to Nature'. As always there are wonderful prizes to be won at both. 

Confronted with some of my favourite themes it was a real dilemma and in the end I had four cards and unable to choose I am sharing them all.

The top one uses the lovely plouging image from Stamp Addicts which always reminds me of the lovely Harvest Hymn 'We Plough the Fields and Scatter'. My paternal great grandfather and grandfather as with my Dad were all farmers and there are a few sepia photos of my Grandfather as a very young man if only thirteen or fourteen ploughing the fields with heavy horses and I have often wished I could have witnessed the scene. Although my Dad died at Christmas we sung this hymn at his funeral as he always loved harvest time and some of my fondest childhood memories are of days spent with him in the dusty harvest fields.

As well as the focal image I have used a collection of other stamps to build up the scene onto a backgrond created with DI's.

My second Stamping Sensations piece using that lovely Stampers Anonymous face stamped onto an Oxide ink background, an Inkylicious sentiment and a really old Judikins wheat stamp across the bottom and more wheat across the top using a Sweet Poppy stencil and copper paste.

For my Penny Black piece I have used the lovely Stately tree stamp inking with Distress Markers and spritzed with water before stamping twice. As per usual I created the sky first using distress inks, lots of water and bleach, then the stamping followed by creating the grass and hills with a brush and watered down DI's. Finally the PB Birds on a Wire stamp, extended through the trees with a fine line pen and then inking just one birdie to add the the other side of the trees................nicknamed Billy (no mates) by hubby and some flora to the front using PB Aspire stamp.

One more Stamping Sensations share using the lovely leaves from Stamp Addicts, a DI background, some stencilling and stamping around the edges, then the leaves stamped onto offcuts of card and coloured with the same DI's, seam binding dipped into watery DI's and SA words.