Garden Inspiration

I'm really running late this weekend, I had this all prepared to go yesterday and Mr B's obviously got the hump with me big time because I only just realised the post was sitting there and not gone live as scheduled. So I have started from scratch so I can also add some challenges.

This week at Allsort's it's Helene's turn to host the challenge and she would like to to seek "Inspiration from a Garden or Park". For my card above, I used this lovely stamp Hero Arts K5366 Tall Birdhouse stamped with versafine back and embossed with detail clear and coloured with Copics. I inked some clouds and added stickles to the branches. The mat is punched with Martha Stewart double loop around the page using Doodlebug DP.

And at Polkadoodles the boss Nikky has given us a great sketch to work with. I used it literally as drawn using papers and poinsettias from the new Christmas Paper Boutique CD, decoupaged and layered onto mats cut with Nesties. A Martha Stewart snowflake border punch and ribbon to finish. Greeting on the tag is from the Jingle Jangle Christmas stamp set.

This card is also for the following challenge:

Secret Crafter: Make a Start on Christmas

And my third card (top of post) uses hero Arts K5363 Flower Trio stamped with versafine sepia and embossed with detail clear and coloured with Copics. I stamped round the edges if the main piece with Magenta 32090M crackle background and distressed with Tim Holtz antique linen. I stamped the three flowers a second time onto some DP from stash and cut out to decoupage. The leaves are punched from Basic Grey DP and some hessian and string tied across the middle.

This card is for the following challenges:

Sweet Stamping: Distressed Birthdays

Moving Along with the Times: Recipe

Fairies and flowers

How is everyone ? Have you all got this rain as well ? If they talk about droughts now, I think I'll throw something at the TV, to have such green lush paddocks in August is unheard of and utterly bizarre.

I have two shares today, the first is one of the very special birthday cards I have been making for Anysia's 18th on Sunday..............45 peeps coming for a barbie, well that's the plan anyway. Thankfully my mate Mark Spencer.......for those of you not familiar with him he also goes under the guise of M&S......... is doing most of the catering so it just needs collecting and the boys love cooking barbies, so I figure all that leaves for me is to do is make a bowl or two of my famous punch. Why is it famous you ask......nobody can ever remember drinking it !

So the card, another of the gorgeous Sweet Pea Stamps called Black Rose, stamped with versafine black and embossed with detail clear, coloured with Copis and generously glittered and embellished. The DP is Kaiser and the border punched with my new Martha Stewart floral vine punch.

I added lace and vellum butterflies cut with Martha Stewart small monarch. The flowers are a mixture of Magnolia and from stash, plus liberal helpings of pearls.

This card is for the following challenges:

Sweet Pea Stamps: Lace and Pearls

Stamp with Fun: Card for a Girl

Flutterby Wednesdays: Open theme

Charisma Cardz: Hot Hot Hot

C.R.A.F.T: Milestone Birthdays

My second card above is a really quick plain and simple one but I quite like the clean lines. I cut squares on my guillotine and stamped a variety of stamps using Tim Holtz olive and stormy sky and embossed with iridescent powder. I distressed the edges slightly and matted onto blue and green co0ordinating cardstock.

This card is for the following challenges:

Cupcake: Blue and Green

Cut Card Thursday: Dieing for a Punch

Dogs and puppies galore

Sorry Folks !!!!

Seems like a constant whinge from me and I'm forever saying this, but so sorry for being a real bad blogger yet again, I must seem like a real pain in the butt, but I am still feeling so rough and taking ages to shift this infection. I really can't believe I've got this so quickly on top on the last one in June. I 'think' I'm going in the right direction, but since the weekend have have a total lack of energy which they say is the concoction of medication taking it's toll. So not a lot of craft the last few days and this is the best I have come up with.

I stamped the main card with Hobby Art GR1341F Shakespeare Sonnet - 'Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day ?' using Tim Holtz broken china, which I also used to create the background for my main image which is Penny Black 4042K daisy fields which I inked with the same TH ink plus tea dye and spritzed with water before stamping. The DP is Doodlebug, the border punch Martha Stewart eyelet lace, then lace, ribbon, gems and pearls to embellish plus three punched butterflies.

This card is for the following challenges:

Tuesday Taggers - Inspired by a Poem

Midnight Madness - Sketch

And a share of a few pictures of the boys and girls, much as I'd love one of all six of them together it night impossible to keep the pups still for long enough to do that.

George, Bernie, Daisy and a non too elegant pose from Buffy (far left)

Buffy and Daisy - night picture and the light makes them look much darker that they really are

George, Bernie and Lily - she's a slightly lighter colour than Daisy

Cute and elegant

Good morning everyone, hope you all had a good weekend.A quick couple of shares today, just to prove I am still doing a bit of crafting.

Both are using the stamps from the new Penny Black Christmas 2010 releases.......the whole range is on the Penny Black website and also under the whats new section at Sir Stampalot......I am told they have now shipped from the States and should be arriving at 'Stampalot Central' any day now.

This one is Penny Black 40-027 Warmest Wishes which I have stamped three times with versafine sepia and embossed with detail clear, coloured with Copics and decoupaged, then added some snow using JudiKins snow white glitter. The DP is Nitwits and I added some borders punched with Fiskars threading water with lace overlaid. The large flowers is punched from the same DP, scrunched up and spritzed with Glimmer Mist dazzling diamonds, a couple of pre made flowers and swirls cut with a Sizzix die through the Big Shot, buttons, cord and pins to embellish.

This card is for the following challenges:

Penny Black Saturday - Sketch
Lets Ink it Up - Use yellow somewhere

My second card used Penny Black 4112K To follow the star........I absolutely adore this one and have already used it ore that any of the other newbies and I think the trend will continue as it is so versatile.

I created a background using Big and Juicy hydrangea by placing the ink pad onto a craft mat, spritzing liberally with water then squidging a piece of cardstock into it. When dry I stamped the image with versafine back and embossed with detail clear, 'roughed up' the edges with scissors and embossed with detail gold. I also added a touch of gold embossing to the Kings using the same powder and an ink pen.

The edge of the card is stamped with Penny Black 3857H Footnote and again embossed with detail gold. Cord is tied across the card and a small disk made using several layers of UTEE and stamping into it with the script part of the main image stamp. Finally I laid a piece of beaded cord across the top of the image.

This card is for the following challenges:

Stamptacular Sunday - Two's better than one
Daring Cardmakers - Material Girl....take inspiration from a piece of clothing - the little cocktail number below courtesy of Monsoon - awful picture but it really is purple with gold and the jacket is gold as well beleive it or not, you would never know from the picture.

All the little things

Good Morning everyone, hope you are all well and ready for the weekend.

Before I move on to the new Allsorts challenge, a couple of quick reminders if you are a Penny Black addict:

The new Penny Black Christmas releases, some of which I shared in my last post are now on line at Sir Stampalot........check out the 'what's new' section. And there is lots of inspiration using the new releases (and some of my work which mega excited me) on their blog and their web site.

We are still looking for new DT members at Penny Black at Allsorts so pop over if you are interested in joining us.

Now the challenge where the lovely Amanda has set us a real challenge this week which is to create a project less than 3 inches square. I'll be honest and say I pondered over this one for ages until I was sorting one of craft cupboards and came across a pack of tiny canvasses my hubby bought for me ages ago.

They are tiny as well and actually slightly less than three inches in size, but it was a challenge I really enjoyed. Hubby had already covered them with gessoe for me, so I loaded one with Tim Holtz distress inks scattered straw, worn lipstick and shabby shutters, the splodges on alcohol ink in raspberry and meadow, then spritzed it all with Glimmer Mist iridescent gold to make the colours bleed.

I then stamped with a mixture of Lavinia and Art Impression stamps including the teeny tiny fairy using versafine black, liberal helpings of glitter and pearls, punched butterflies and a computer generated sentiment.

I am entering my canvas in the following challenges:

Stamping for the Weekend - Anything goes

Glitterbabes - sparkle, glitter and two flowers

Crafty Creations - Butterflies

Moving Along with the Times - Glitter

Nest my card for this weeks Polkadoodles where my teamie Fliss has chosen the them Vintage. I don't know why, but Christmas door wreaths always make me think Victorian, so this was an obvious choice for me using one of the the new Christmas Doodle stamps along with Paper from Christmas Paper Boutique CD. The easel card was made using a Marianne circle stencil cut through the Big Shot.

There is still time to enter our colouring competition, so if you love your colouring and want to win a fantastic set of the new AquaMarkers from Letraset worth £79.99, then check it out over at the Polkadoodles challenge blog where you can find out how to enter. Closing date for entries is 31st August 2010.

Penny Black Christmas 2010

Hello folks, bet you have been wondering where I have been with no post for three days.

Firstly there are puppydogs who takes a fair amount of time and are growing like triffids. I'll try and get some more piccies shortly to share. Then there is me sounding like a long playing record, I got flue the second day of our holiday, in fairness several of us did, but as usual despite antibiotics I can't shake it off so it turned into bronchitis and now a "hint of pneumonia" - GP terminology whatever that really means. So lots more pills.

But today I actually felt like crafting, helped enormously by a very nice man from Fex Ex who delivered a parcel from America..............Penny Black Christmas 2010.............it's a wonder you didn't hear the squeal, I was that excited. So I have a couple of creations to share with you and you can see all of the new range of Penny Black stamps here and you can get yours from Sir Stampalot just as soon as their delivery lands so keep an eagle eye on the 'whats new' section of their web site.

My first card........another easel I'm afraid, I'm still that addicted to them........... uses this gorgeous collage stamp Penny Black 4112K To Follow the Star. I made a mask for the moon and brayerd with Adirondack eggplant, stamped the image with versafine black and embossed with detail clear, then sponged Tim Holts marigold and sage to add definition. I tore the edges and embossed with iridescent powder to add some shine. The star is Hobby Art QT801A and DP's Kaiser which I also used to make three roses. The swirl is cut through the Big Shot using a Sizzix die then pearls and gems added to embellish.

This card is for the following challenges:

Crafts and Me - Petals and pearls

Creative Cottage - Christmas

Fab and Funky - Flowers - make your own

A Spoonful of Sugar - Christmas in August

My next card used an absolutely adorable slapstick stamp.....I am certain this is the same little girl as in one of the summer releases 40-021 For Goodness Sake. I stamped and embossed the image three times, colouring each with Copics then decoupaging. The DP is Cosmo Cricket which I also used to make the punched flower and sprayed with Glimmer Mist dazzling diamonds. I added some snow, glitter, lace and pearls to embellish and a a border punched with Martha Stewart embossed scallop.

This card is for the following challenges:

ABC - Blue

Cute Card Thursday - Sketch

Creative Card Crew - Sparkle and shine

And finally, one I forgot to add earlier - my head is obviously somewhere else. This is not a Christmas stamp but it is a new release and when I saw it I just loved it, reminds me of Harvest festival and all the beautiful displays in Church. The image is Penny Black 40-037 Autumnal Gifts, stamped with versfaine sepia and embossed with detail clear, coloured with Copics and some of the fruit decoupaged. I used Hero Arts S5316 Silhouette Grass to the main card using Tim Holtz rusty hinge and punched the October Afternoon DT with Martha Stewart arched lattice.

This card is for this weeks Penny Black Saturday, not entered for a few weeks what with holiday etc., and when I saw the theme of Get Fruity I was stumped , until Mr Fed Ex arrived with his goodies that is.

New Christmas Hero Arts has landed

Monday again and I seem to have missed the weekend somewhere.

All the best laid plans and all that...........very little crafting but an awful lots of pupsicle loo runs. Both girls had their first inoculations this morning and the big weigh in, Daisy is 4.75 kg and Lily 3.85 kg, pretty much as we expected as Daisy is a bit of a hefty unit...........sorry folks, that's a real Fen saying for those of us that are shall we say a little way off a size '0'............compared with delicate Lily.

So just the two cards, but at least one of them allowed me to break out the new Christmas Hero Arts delivery from Sir Stampalot that I need to get creating with for the BIG Christmas Demo Weekend at the end of the month.

The first easel card is using this absolutely gorgeous Hero Arts S5449 Fabulous Flourish. It's a bit of a biggie at 5.5" x 4.5" but just lovely and a joy to work with. Me thinks there will be a few samples going Peterborough way with this one.

I created a background with Tim Holtz broken china and tea dye, inking a non stick craft sheet, spritzing liberally with water and Glimmer Mist pearl and swishing the card about it in. When dry I stamped with Hero chalk ink soft pool using good old trusty Hero H2365 old French writing. Next I inked the flourish stamp with TH tea dye and spritzed with water before stamping. The DP is October Afternoon, the border Martha Steward double loop, some punched leaves, two ribbons, a beaded pin, pearls and Magnolia flowers.

This card is for the following challenges:

Friday Sketchers - I promised Claudia I would make an effort to enter as it's been far too long since I joined in.

The Stamp Man - Easel Card

Cupcake Challenge - A recipe for their second birthday - 2 DP's, 2 ribbons and 2 flowers (there are two different ribbons on the bottom but hard to see)

My second card uses a favourite stamp from Sweet Pea called dandelions. Stamped simply with Versafine black and embossed with detail clear twice, cutting a spotlight with a Nestie and colouring just that section with Copics. The DP is Kaiser, the border punch Martha Stewart embossed scallop, sizzix swirls and Magnolia flower and pearls to embellish.

This card is for the following challenges:

Stamp for Fun - Sketch

Sweet Pea Stamp Challenge - Swirls and flourishes

Crafty Cardmakers - Spotlight

By the Cute and Girly - Animal Antics - hope the moggy on here is having enough antics with the fairy to fit the theme, if not sorry girls