Rows of Three

A very Good Morning to you all, it's Saturday which means time for a new challenge at Allsorts which my lovely teamie Jo would like to see 'Three in a Row'.

Our sponsors this week are Stitchy Stamps and Pretty Little Ribbons, so two cards from me using products from both.

The one at the top has been stamped with Penny Black 3381K Aspire and Hero Arts K5313 Silhouette Ivy onto Bo Bunny DP using second generation stamping with Adirondack black and butterscotch. The focal sentiment is Penny Black 3157H Growing Free.............I just love the wording on this one..........matted and layered on to Nesite circles and picot edging. The side border is Spellbinders Fleur de Lis, three roses (my row of three on this one, hope that fits OK Jo) cut with Marianne dies and yellow seam binding from Sarah at Pretty Little Ribbons (link to her store on my sidebar)

My second share uses a floral wreath from Stitchy Stamps which I printed onto Fabriano watercolour card and coloured with Aquamarkers. I printed one of the flowers a second time and decoupaged at the bottom. of the circle of flowers. My 'three in a row' on this one are the three butterflies and punched flowers on the bottom section of my easel card which has been covered with American Crafts DP.

Am entering the top card into Pretty Little Ribbons Spring Colours challenge.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Moonlight across the lake

Good Morning Peeps. Still no sign of the sun here is the Fens, but this morning it's really misty so I am hoping that might clear away into a nice day, we can but hope.

You seemed to like my inkyness yesterday and thank you so much for your very kind comment, so thought I would share another, this time a moonlight scene across the lake. As usual a mixture of stamps from Art Impressions, Stampscapes and the little boat is from a Stamp Addicts sheet which we used  a few months back for one of the Create and Craft TV shows. I tried to create some reflection in the water by sponging and reverse stamping.

I used the trusty Speedball brayer onto gloss cardstock and Adirondack inks cloud blue, denim and black. I usually leave these type of cards fairly simple, but I decided to add a little lace and ribbon to this one to give a softer feel.

I am entering this into this months Create a Scene challenge who want to see 'Moonlight'

Have a good Thursday everyone.

A landscape

So how is everyone this morning and do you have any sunshine ? Despite the weekend showing all the signs of Spring having arrived, the last three days have been dull and dark, but at least it's fairly mild.

Looking at the growing pile of files on my desk I am going to be busy this morning, so thought I had better do a quick post now before I get stuck in. My share is a simple bit of brayering with a touch of ink dusting........still loving these.  I stamped the large tree first using archival back ink and the tree from an Andy Skinner set. Then masked a sun and added the sky with Adirondack dye inks hazelnut and butterscotch, created the landscape with layers of torn paper and stamped on some more trees which are Art Impressions, Hobby Art sheep which I coloured with a white fine tip marker, hand drawn fence and some foreground foliage with Inkylicious stamps.

Thanks for popping by and have a good Wednesday.

Onwards and Upwards

A Passion for Stamps roses image

Good Morning peeps, I am starting off on a rather different note and sharing a quote from Mother Theresa ................................

"Your honesty and frankness will expose you to problems but your work should not stop for it means the world to so many people"

I will not elaborate why I am sharing this quote as many of you will know and understand why I find it's content so inspirational and apt. Suffice to say it summarises recent events which I have overcome because of the support and friendship of you dear friends.

During the last few months, the inability to get out has endorsed my view.............. which I know is shared by many of you............that craft goes much further than just providing us with the ability to express ourselves artistically................it provides the far more important role of offering a distraction from the pain, both physically and mentally of the everyday rigours live throws at us.

So onwards and upwards as they say and I hope you all had a good weekend and enjoyed some of that lovely sunshine which was kind to lots of us here in the UK the last couple of days. I'm still not able to go far due to my legs unwillingness to play the game, so yesterday was a real treat to be taken for a drive in the sunshine. We went in my car so had the top down and it was really nice and warm, but it did mean not enough room for my wheelie, so apart from a few gingerly steps at the woodland where dad is buried, I took in the air from the car which was lovely.

And to prove I am still crafting and enjoying it, a few shares of cards I've made recently for Ruth at A Passion for Stamps. To create the one at the top of this post I printed Ruth's two roses image onto Fabriano watercolour card and coloured with Derwent watercours, then masked a sun and did some gentle sponging with Adirondack denim and meadow. The card base was cut using Go Create dies and the sentiment an old unmounted Hero Arts one.........sorry long since lost the code.

The second card  using Ruth's hawthorn blossom image was printed onto the same Fabriano watercolour card and coloured as above. The card bases is cut using Picot Edge and Grand Nesties, the Kasier DP is one of the brand new designs and the sentiment Penny Black 3419D.

Have a good day everyone and thanks so much for popping by, your visits are always much appreciated.

Moonlight

Good Morning Peeps, how you all doing ? The  weather  here  looks  promising  today  and after  yet another overnight frost I'm hopeful we might see some sunshine, after all it's meant to be Spring.

I thought I would share a bit of my favourite crafty pastime, brayering of course and as lots of you know I love my suns and moons so this months Craft a Scene theme of 'Moonlight' was totally up my street. The stamp from The Unmounted Stamp Company is one a lovely crafty friend sent me for my Birthday last year..............she said she saw it at a show and thought of me, anyone would think I was a closet treeaholic.

I made several very similar to this one as I think they are perfect for Winter Birthdays, her's included. A very simple brayered background using the Speedball with Adirondack denim and black, stamped the image with archival black then sponged the hills and snow drifts. I added a rose, leaves and some lace to add a feminine touch, but I think without those it would be fine for a guy as well.  I also decorated the envibox to match, don't know if you have discovered these but they are so useful for cards with a little bit more height and protect the embellies. Nearly forgot, I added some snow with a white fine tip marker.

This is my entry for......................

Craft a Scene whose theme is Moonlight

Whatever you have planned, have a good day and hope the sunshine reaches you.

Spread your Wings

Sending a wholehearted thank you for all the wonderful messages of support I received this week can be the only way to start this post................I received literally hundreds of e.mails when my blog comments had to be disabled.........thank you seems inadequate for the warmth and kindness so many have shown towards me during a difficult week.

Now back to business and it's yours truly's turn to host the challenge at Allsorts this week and my theme is 'Spread your Wings'.........use anything with wings as your focal image.

In fact I've a little confession to make, I had intended using a butterfly for my DT piece, but when I saw this new stamp Harietta on the Lavinia stand at Stamperama a few weeks ago it was love at first sight and I had to have her as well as the smaller silhouette version.

To create the sky I used a plate to tear some copy paper to create a rainbow shape, then used that as my mask to ink round using Adirondack butterscotch, watermelon and red pepper, along with citrus for the hills. I stamped Harietta with versafine black, heat embossed with detail clear and coloured her with Copics and glittered her wings and skirt. The trailing flowers and toadstools are also from Lavinia. The swirl is a TH die and the rose made from a five petal punch.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, they threatened more of the white stuff so it might be a perfect excuse to stay in, keep warm and craft, sound good to me.

Easter basket tutorial and Cup Winners

Good Morning, hope everyone had a good weekend and saw a bit of the lovely sunshine we had here in the Fens, it was really beautiful and Sunday quite warm as there was little or no wind.

Before I can talk craft I have to share a picture of the boys after our win at Wembley yesterday, it was something of a nail biter going to extra time and then penalties, but we got there in the end and are assured of  European footie next season, not to mention another trophy in the cabinet at Anfield. For those of you totally lost and not as mad and fanatical about footie as I am, I mean Liverpool FC !!

Silliness over, on to some craft and I thought I would share one of the little Easter baskets I have been making, the inspiration actually came from a demo I saw on TV for a rather expensive score board and it got me thinking I could probably come up with something similar using my cheapie MDF board which I've had for yonks and hey presto it worked a treat, so here is my take on the basket.

It's a really basic design and I am sure most of you can suss it out for yourself, but just in case I've done a few photos with sizes to help. Above is what I used for mine, one sheet of A4 linen cardstock, I 12x12 sheet DP, some ribbons, Copics, Aquamarkers, scoring tool four eyelets, Nesie and stamp for the image which is Penny Black 2665K Blush and I also used Adirondack raspberry for the main part of the flower.

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, the score the four corner squares diagonally as above. 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 17 - 6.5x6.5cm squares from the sheet of DP, leave 9 whole and cut the other eight in half diagonally, then stick all into place as below. Both sides will look the same with just one centre square blank, that will be your base.

Note: the basket in the picture at the top was my prototype and I didn't cover the folded in flaps, so if you prefer to do it that way to get some contrast you will only need nine of the 6.5cm squares and they won't need cutting in half as you will only be covering the whole squares, five inside and four on the outside.

Stamp your image four times and cut out with a Nestie, I then ran a Copic round the edge rather than matting and layering so as not to add too much weight. Stick on the four outer squares.......make sure you get them the right way up and not upside down as I did on my first attempt !!

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 goodies. I will share this pink and green version another day.

And of course you can change the size to larger or smaller, all you need to remember is that your chosen size will divide evenly by three so you get nine equal squares.

New stamps, new TV show

Good Morning peeps, hope everyone is OK.

I have a quick share of a couple of the cards I made using the new Stamp Addicts Floral stamp sheets which will be previewed on Create and Craft on 9th March at 1pm, so don't forget to pop the date in your dairy.

The top one is fairly simple, I masked a panel across the card and repeat stamped the agapanthus flower using Hero chalk ink soft apricot, then the main flower twice using Adirondack eggplant and the same Hero ink, cut out and decoupaged, some cord and leaves cut from a Sellbinder die and finito.

For the second card I inked a piece of Fabriano watercolour card with TH distress inks worn lipstick, shabby shutters and broken china and spritzed with Glimmer Mist iridescent gold. I then stamped several of floral stamps with Archival black and gold embossed one or two along with a moon using  from Dottiness stamp sheet, cut the piece into six and mounted onto gold linen cardstock.

Thanks for popping in and whatever you have planned, have a good day.

A fairy called Henrietta

Would you believe it's taken me all day to get this post up, or to be more precise to get the picture loaded, Blogger was having non of it and seems to have fallen into his old ways of having Monday hissy fits.

I had another play with my ink dusters and created the background for this one with Adirondack butterscotch, purple and hazelnut. The fairy which I have totally fallen in love with is a new one called Henrietta from Lavinia stamps..........she also comes in a smaller silhouette stamp and before you ask, yes I got that one as well. The poppies and branches round the edge are also Lavinia and I also stamped the poppies with the same purple ink onto the lilac base paper. I stamped Henrietta with versafine black and embossed with detail clear before colouring with Copics and adding the obligatory glitter.

The easel card was made using the new Go Create arch dies and the borders are cut from Spellbinder Fleur de Lis dies. To finish I made a rose made with a five petal punch, white paper and inked with the same purple round the edges.

Thanks for dropping by and have a good Monday evening.

Paradise Isle

Hello Peeps, first off I must send a little message to those blog peeps I am hoping to meet at Stamperama tomorrow, hopefully our plans will fall into place, but we are very white here again and the roads decidedly dodgy, plus my legs are still MIA and I've had to pocket my pride and resort to to my wheelchair this past week so taking it all into account, will have to play it totally by ear come tomorrow.

Things have a habit of taking twice as long when my mobility goes out of the window and my mind is always half an hour ahead of my body, so I have been a bad, bad blogger this week and not helped by the fact my keyboard and mouse seem to have all but died on me and typing just a few words is taking forever...........would you believe I started typing this at 6am and now it's nearly eight, I've tried new batteries and all sorts and last night resorted to ordering a new one from Amazon.

So, better move on to tell you about Allsorts  where it's my turn to host the challenge where we are continuing with our Free and Easy February. And for my DT piece I thought an inky session was in order and have created a tropical scene using a collection of  Stampscapes images, Adirondack dye inks watermelon, cloudy blue and hazelnut, a little colouring with Copics and of course a masked moon with sponged sky and sea brayered with the Speedball.

I know lots of peeps think brayering is a bit of a scary pastime, but believe me it really is not and is the perfect way to make a fairly swift card. So if you've got a brayer collecting dust, get it out and have some fun..............and as I say at the top of my blog, just mail me if you need some help.

Have a good weekend and thank you so much for dropping by.    

Momories of hunting with my Dad

Good Morning peeps. hope you are all well this bright Tuesday morning, well at least it's bright here in the Fens, we still have several inches of snow and although it rained last night, the temperature plummeted to well below freezing again so the snow is hanging about.

You all now how much I love making scenes so could not miss the pull to create one for this months Create a Scene challenge where they would like to see 'Winter Scenes'. And this ones is my take on the scene I saw from my bedroom window so many times as a child, with my Dad, his gun and dog wandering off across the fields, when he would return at lunchtime with a brace or more of pheasants across his shoulder. Often I would go with Dad and we would sit for hours in a hide or in the spinney at the bottom of the back meadow waiting for the game birds to put up, with a flask of soup to keep us warm and not a care in the world, or at least it always seemed that way to me.

Stamps are a mixture of Art Impression, Stampscapes, Hobby Art and Inkylicious. I brayered the background with Adirondack dye inks cloud blue, denim and black and used Archival black for all the stamping. The fence is hand drawn.........every Country scene needs a fence in my world. The poem is computer generated and printed onto gloss cardstock........as the ink does not dry very quickly on the coated stock, I brayer the background before printing.

A little note about the blogger who has been compromising artwork which I posted about two weeks ago here. Please be assured that I am not ignoring the individuals and companies who have mailed me asking that I disclose the name of this person, but at the moment I am waiting for input from the company we both design for and this has been delayed due to CHA. 

Have a good day everyone and thank you so much for dropping by.

A walk in the Country

So how's everyone doing today ?

I'm a happy camper this morning, last night my boys in red made it through to the Wembley final and now I can't want for February 26th when Stevie lead the lads out onto the pitch. They all did a great job and played with real belief and conviction and Craig Bellamy, the best 'free' ever, got a well deserved Man of the Match award. Well done boys.

I know, how sad am I that I love footie almost as much as crafting, but I think the brayer's still got the edge. Although I sponged all the colour onto this one which I made recently for Sir Stampalot using a mixture of Art Impression stamps, Stampscapes plus a few others thrown in for good measure, a masked sun and Adirondack dye inks. The fences are part stamped and part hard drawn.

Thought I would enter another one into Create a Scene challenge as it's so my kind of thing.

Have a god Thursday and thank for visiting.

Country paths

Morning Peeps...........take note I missed out the good because the weather here today is atrocious, it started raining in the night and it's been throwing it down ever since.

So lots of muddy paw marks this morning and no airing in the paddock for the horses whilst they are mucked out, something they love if it's frosty. Ben is a good boy and stands so quietly outside their stables watching and munching hay, but Heskey is a real fidget and dances constantly and can't want to get back in his stable as he knows there will be some carrots hidden amongst the fresh straw...............just like children really. 

It been a long time since I could muck out, so thank heavens for hubby and Anysia. My day holds another acupuncture session which I have been trying as an alternative to osteopathy to try and get my legs a bit more mobile and pain free after their latest hissy fit. I am open to giving anything a try which might work.................within reason that is !!

A share of a card and also the winner of the little offering on my Monday post who is................

Marja from the Netherlands

Congratulations Marjo, please mail me with your full postal addy.

Now onto my shares for today, for the one at the top I stamped the Inkylicious trees using Archival sepia ink, then brayered the sky with Adirondack dye ink watermelon masking a sun where I wanted the horizon. To create the paths across the fields I removed the roller from the brayer and twisted a rubber band round the roller, just twice, pushed the roller back into the brayer handle and  ran it across the area where I wanted the fields using Adirondack lettuce and meadow. Finally I used a piece of town copier paper to act as a mask and added the hedges using the edge of the tree stamp.

Have a good day everyone and as always, thank you so much for popping in, I really do appreciate your visits.

Edited: I have been encouraged by a good friend in Oz to enter this for a brand new challenge Create a Scene and as I love doing just that it seems to make scene, even if I don't really do challenges due to the eyes, much as I enjoy taking part.

A little brayering and a lucky win

Good Afternoon peeps, it's gone all quite in the office the last half hour so though I would do a quick post, but I bet as soon as I start to type the phones will warm up and e.mails will start pinging in, so it might be dinner time this evening before this posts.

Just the one share of a card I came up with for Stampalot. I masked the edges of a piece of gloss cardstock then stamped with black archival ink using Art Impression stamps masked the images and brayered and sponged with Adirondack due inks eggplant, black and butterscotch. After removing the masks I added the little robin and coloured his breast with Aquamarkers.

And a little bit of exciting news, I was one of the three winners of Stix 2's........the glue and essential craft accessories people.......... Christmas competition and this morning received a fabulous package of goodies from them as my prize. But afraid I can't share a picture of my work as I don't have a picture of it, I tend to take these things rather in my stride and didn't think for a mo I would be a winner and in any event my entry was more of a sample for one of their demo days than an intended competition entry.

No more news on the Royal Mail front apart from an automated response to my complain yesterday morning, I guess they work at pedestrian pace and it might be a while yet, but I will be sure to let you know the outcome.

Thanks for popping in and enjoy the rest of your Tuesday.

More samples, CHA & TV on the horizon

Good Morning peeps, I hope you had a good weekend. Nothing too exciting to report from this end, it was mainly crafting and cooking and all the usual mundane things we have to deal with. Hubby spent hours outside trying to mend the tractor that we use to pull the mucking out trailer, but so far not a single spark of life, so looks like a new one might be on the cards and they don't some cheap.

I know some of you have been asking and itching to know what I decided about the big CHA trade show. Well, much as I would love to go and it would be a real honour to demo there and I was of course thrilled to be invited, I figure a ten hour flight for someone who is terrified of flying and is supposed to be taking life calmly means it's not really an option. 

But there are still my local demos and workshops to keep my hand in, plus I have been asked if I would do some TV work, I'm still thinking on that one but will be sure to get back to you when I have made up my mind and let you know when and where !! I guess I sound a bit of a fussy mare, but none of these things come without some degree of stress and if I overdo things, it's my family who are left picking up the pieces......and me !

Well, enough gabble, time to share a few more samples I made for Stamp Addicts using their lovely new floral stamps, along with the new sentiments. Click on the link and then follow the button to the New section.

The top card has been made very simply with nesties, dies DP and one of the Birthday sentiments as the main image.

The second card has a background created by blobbing...............I did say the other day this was a very special technical term............Pearl Acrylic Dabber onto a piece of cardstock and when dry rubbing TH distress ink over, in this case I used tea dye and vintage photo. I then stamped the main flower image with archival black ink. The little disk is the same flower stamped onto a circle of shrink plastic.

Before I go, thank you to everyone who left their thoughts on my post yesterday, I will be contacting Royal Mail again this week and share any feedback I receive.

Little giveaway and new wild flower stamps

Sarah and Vicky at Stamp Addicts have just released two of their new stamp sets, the Wildflowers and Special Wishes, you can find them both here in the 'new' section.

Above is one of the samples I created for them using both sets. The base background was created by distressing a piece of cardstock with Tim Holtz broken china and stormy sky, then stamping with bleach using Judikins 3345F to list the colour and reveal the swirls.The main piece has a background onto which I 'blobbed'................a very technical term.................Adirondack pearl dabber, dried and then rubbed over the same two TH inks. 

Next I used Adirondack gold dabber and inked through a piece of mesh just here and there and also round the edges (although I did that bit after stamping) and randomly stamped the wild flowers with TH stormy sky and Versamak and embossed with detail gold. The fence is TH which has been inked with versamark and embossed with Stampendous aged gold enamel. To finish a tag and a TH chain/bolt.....no idea the proper name for it, I just thought they looked fun when I bought them.

And a little giveaway of a collection of Nitwits DP's and some ribbons. To be in with a chance of winning them just leave a comment on this post and I will ask Random Org., to select a winner before my next post goes live later in the week.

If anyone is reading this who won my last candy or prizes at Penny Black at Allsorts, the packages all went off in the post today. Sorry it was all a bit delayed, I thought our PO was open between Christmas and New Year, but apparently not !!

Have a good day everyone and thanks for popping in.

I 'need' to make Spring cards (and candy winners)

Good Morning everyone.

Only three days to go until 'the' day and today's "Turkey" day................and gammon and several other things. My daughter and I will be popping off to collect it this morning, seemed a bit early to me but today is the day the farm shop allocated for collections, so I figure it might be heaving there.

My share above is just a little bit of inking and brayering using Stampscapes stamps inking and Adirondack inks and a Summer scene to help ward off these bleak winter days. Funny how all I have wanted to do craft wise this last week or two is make bright Spring and Summer cards, did I say how much I dislike Winter ?

And of course I need to tell you the names of my candy winners, so here they are.

Winner of my December Walnut Hollow goodies is...................

Julie

And winner of the mini  DP candy from Tuesday is.....................

Spyder

Congratulations to you both, please mail me with your full postal addys by 27th Decmeber (will re-draw any not claimed by that date).

A little giveaway and a bit more brayering

Hello peeps, afraid I have been a bit neglectful of my blog the last few days, the new pill regime is making me feel a bit queasy and I've also got a cold, so not been doing a lot.

So just a quick post with a card to share and a little giveaway of some ribbons, beaded pins, flowers and gems. All you need do to be in with a chance of winning is leave a comment on this post and I will ask Random Org., to select a winner on Friday. Now closed

I made the card for our very horsey girl using brayering, Adirondack inks and a host of stamps from Art Impression, Inkyicious, Stamp Addicts and Andy Skinner. The fence is hand drawn with a fine nib permanent pen.

Have a good day everyone and thanks for dropping by.

Jelly belly and a stormy sky

Good Morning, it's a wee bit blustery here and a coat colder, we had a minus 4 frost again which goes against the grain of what the weather men forecast.

I am still waiting for my test results, but we are close to the ten days they said and my tummy turns to jelly every time there is a phone call for me. I just hope they don't keep me waiting much longer because I just can't concentrate and everything I try and create ends up in the bin at the moment, so this is a share of a sample card I did for Stampalot a couple of weeks ago using the Andy Skinner A Winters Tale set.

I stamped the tree with black archival ink and brayered another in reverse for the reflection in the water................this tree is really a bit big for that technique I think as the water looks to be a bit excessive to me. Next I sponged Adirondack eggplant and sunset orange and TH tumbled glass and finally stamped Art Impression worker stamps along the shoreline.

Have a good day everyone and thank's for dropping by.