Favourite Things

Hello everyone, I am hoping Mr Blogger is still my friend and this pops us as scheduled because I have no way of checking as my lappy is strictly banned from taking holidays and the internet lounge on board is out of bounds to me, plus mega expensive.....champagne is cheaper, so no contest really and you know which one I will choose.

It time for new challenges at Stampalot and Penny Black and More and two really great themes, at Stampalot we have a Bingo theme and at Penny Black and More we are inviting you to show us 'All my favourite things'. The latter one was a real toughie for me because all PB stamps are my favs, I love all thinks inky, easel cards, flowers, butterflies, suns and moons, the list is endless so how on earth is it possible to combine them all into one card ? Well I've had a good try and amazed myself I've got most in there, possibly it's a bit overkill though.

So my Stampalot DT piece is the one at the top following the lilac/turquoise/handmade flowers row. Oodles of inking and grudging here, I started by inking a piece of Fabriano card with the peacock and lilac colours from the new Spring Collection and adding a generous spritzing of pearl glimmer mist. The the real fun part when I randomly added some aged aqua Stampendous Frantage embossing enamel and Frantage mica flakes around the edges, these are really cool and you have to give them a go. I stamped the piece randomly with the TH Papillion set, the butterflies are from the same set, stamped in the same inks and some of the embossing enamel added here and there. The fairy inside the window is by PI, inked and embossed the same way as the butterflies and the window one of the Heartfelt dies..........thumbnail pictures and links to all below.

Mr second card is my DT piece for Penny Black and More, again I used Fabriano for the base and edges it with TH butterfly border die carefully lining up and cutting twice to extend the length. I masked a sun then brayered and dusted Adirondcak inks, created some hills with a piece of torn copier paper and sponged some rays of sun. A mixture of PB stamps, a few butterflies and some ruched ribbon.

I have to confess I really enjoyed making these two cards and could happily make this style all day long.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone, I hope you will join in our challenges this month and look forward to visiting you all when I am back from my holibobs.

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.