Cooking up at Allsorts

A very Good Morning to you all, Saturday morning can mean only one thing, a new challenge at Allsorts and this week my lovely teamie Helene wants us to 'Use a Cooking Recipe'.

But first I want to tell you all about our second Birthday celebrations at Stampalot Challenge which kick off on 1st April. I've come me up with a little sidebar logo and hope you will help us spread the word. If you have any problems with this one.....it worked for some of the DT fine, but Blogger didn't want me to use it despite re-sizing it so in the end I did a low resolution one as well which is on by sidebar.

Now my DT piece and confessions here, I was really stumped at first, after spending hours trawling through my stamps I drew a blank with anything cookery orientated, not surprising I guess when most of my stamps are floral, botanical or fantasy. But then I had a flash of inspiration and came up with a recipe holder which I thought might even be useful for one of the girls.

I made the folder using a scoring tool and covered with some Kaiser DP's, decorated it with borders cut from Spellbinders and the letters are cut on the Cricut. I sourced the recipes on line, mounted them on to cardstock and did a bit of stamping using one of my tiny collection of just seven Clarity stamps......I really do 'need' more of them.

Have a good weekend.

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.

Say it with Flowers

At Allsorts this week Nicola is asking us to 'Say it with Flowers', now there's an easy one for me !

The inspiration for the background came from Sue Wilson who I caught on C&C the other week making a lovely array of cards as she always does and I thought the idea of using strips of border dies was a great one.  I cut six borders using Spellbinders Parisian Accents.............I think........I always get that one and Fleur de Lis muddled, so if it's not one it's the other, which I stuck to a piece of linen cardstock. The sentiment is computer generated and matted onto circle and picot edge Nesties. The photo makes the Spellbinder leaves cut on coredinations look a bit mismatched colourwise, but they blend quite nicely in the flesh. The roses are Spellbinder and Marianne dies, some seam binding, a stick pin and finito.

I do hope you can join in at Allsorts this week, I am thinking it might be a rather bust week with Mothers Day on the horizon.

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.

Spring Dance

This month seems to have flown by and already it's the fourth and last week of our Free and Easy February at Allsorts and my teamie Emma's turn to host the challenge.

Things remain slow going here and am having still to rely on my wheelchair so not been far at all, if you've ever tried packing one into the boot of an MX5 you will understand why. Hubby' really good and happy to take me out in his car weekends when he's not at work, but somehow the will to shop has evaded me lately. And no way am I going anywhere Sunday, my boys in red are playing Cardiff at Wembley in the Carling Cup final so it would take wild horses to shift me from the TV that day. 

Now for my DT card this week, one I did a few weeks ago when I was playing with new release Hero stamps and one of the samples I did for Sir Stampalot using Hero Arts K5540 Spring Dance. I love working with silhouette stamps and this ones lends it's self to the simplicity of a brayered background using Adirondack raspberry and lettuce, then matting and layering using Scribble Scrabble DP and Nesties labels 23. The roses are a Marianne die, the swirl Memory Box and the little birdie inked and covered in Glossy Accents, was in a bag of chipboard ones given to me by a crafty friend at Christmas.

Whatever you have planned, have a good weekend and my thanks for your visit.

Crocuses in bloom

Hello all, it's Free and Easy week three at Allsorts and my lovely teamie Fleur is in charge this week.

Our sponsor is Ruth from A Passion for Stamps so it gives me the perfect opportunity to use her lovely new crocus image.

Crocuses along with snowdrops always herald the promise of Spring, although there's not a sight of them coming through here in the Fens yet, the snow probably sent them back underground, but hopefully soon they will soon be showing their pretty faces.

For the top card I printed on to Fabriano watercolour card and coloured in with my new Derwent watercolours. I masked a sun and lightly dusted Adirondack butterscotch using a Inkylicious ink duster...........I'm a newbie to these but think I am going to get a real liking for them and have more makes to share shortly............then sponged some rays of sun coming down onto the crocuses. The shapes were all created using the new Go Create die set that seemed to fall into my basket at Stamperama last week, I just love the shape and have been on the lookout for an arch for ages, so was one really happy bunny when I spied them on the rack.

For my second card using the same image I printed onto Copic cardstock and coloured with Copics. The background DP is Magnolia, some lace, a seam binding bow a button and bakers twine.................does anyone know why it's called that ?

Before I go I need to let you know who Mr Randon Org., picked our of the hat to win my little giveaway earlier this week and I am pleased to say it's Caroline.........................I'm not sure if we know each other Caroline and no idea where you are in the world, but it's always lovely to meet someone new, so please mail me brenda@ibas.co.uk with your full postal addy.

Thanks for popping by and enjoy your weekend.

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.    

Down on the farm

A very Good Morning to you all, I hope everyone is OK and ready for the weekend.

At Allsorts today we are kicking off our Free and Easy February, a whole month of creating whatever takes your fancy and this week the lovely Debs is our host and our sponsor is In2Stamps.

My share today is something I made some months back for a Stamp Addicts Create and Craft TV show, but I never got round to blogging it so here it it today at long last. I think this is a sort of shadow box which I created using a scoring board and cut the window with a Go Create die. To make the scenes within the frame I used stamps from a number of the Countryside stamp sheets as well as the Gypsy Caravan sheet and you will find them all on their web site. All colouring with done with Aquamarkers.

Whatever you have planned for the weekend, have fun.

Love is in the air

Helene is our host at Allsorts this week and preparing us for Valentines day as she would like us to use one or more hears on our work. I do hope you will be able to join in, just pop over the the challenge blog to find out more and see what's on offer for this weeks prize.

My first DT make is using one of the new stamps from Hero Arts S5601 Newspaper Background, it's quite a biggie but stamps out beautifully.......I used Versafine black to pick up all the fine detail. I stamped it twice, once for the background piece which I tore down one side and mounted onto a piece of heat embossed red satin cardstock and from the second piece and more of the red, I cut out four hearts with Nestabilites and matted them up. I tied some red cord and bakers twice down the side and added a heart button.

My second make is an engagement card I made for some friends earlier this month using the prospective brides favourite colours. Unusually for me there is no stamping involved and the card was quite a quick and easy one to make. I cut the hears from bazzil and Kasier DP, tied some ribbon across the centre and added three rosebuds. I embossed the background cardstock with a Sizzix harlequin folder and added tiny pearls. The sentiment is computer generated. 

Have a good weekend everyone and thanks for popping by.

Needles and Pins

This week at Allsorts the lovely Jo is hosting her very first challenge with the theme "Needles and Pins".

I thought this card which I made for Ruth a while ago but never blogged was ideal for this theme, using her mannequin image which you will find here at A Passion for Stamps. I printed the image onto Fabriano card and coloured lightly with Copics, used some Cosmo Cricket DP and added some lace ribbons and pins to embellish.

A bit of a quick post I'm afraid as struggling with the dysfunctional body a bit, but will hopefully be back with some more work again in the next few days.

Have a lovely weekend and my appreciation for your visits, they always mean so much.

Gotta get this one off my chest..............................

I am absolutely seething with the latest reply received from Royal Mail.................a good number of you saw my post last weekend here and kindly left me your thoughts which were very helpful.

On Monday I wrote a concise letter to Royal Mail outlining my areas of complaint, provided copies of the receipts from the PO and also gave them the link to my post so they could read the various comments. They replied on Wednesday stating their system could not gain access to my blog so could I mail them the comments and also provide them with full details of the packages and recipients addresses which had been subjected to surcharges.

This I did the same day and yesterday received this answer.......................

I'm sorry to hear that you feel you've been incorrectly surcharged for a number of items - and for the further distress this caused you. I would therefore like to inspect the items to determine whether or not they have been correctly surcharged, and to identify why you may be experiencing repeat problems. Please could you send the surcharged items, together with a copy of this email, to the FreepostT address below, and I'll be in touch again once my enquiries are concluded.

Clearly the conduct their business on a Parallel Universe....................how on earth do they think I can obtain and return the packages some of which were sent several weeks ago to various recipients in the UK. I'm absolutely sure they realise that and their crazy suggestion gives them the perfect cop out.

They also suggest that a certain degree of "customer education is necessary"..................the steam just turned to thick smoke at this point. Not a mention of the Post Office making any mistakes in their weighing at either end of the postal process, or of course the package of cards they lost in October.

I'm not bothering with any more minions, my next letter goes to the top and by luck a good friend just happens to be the Consumer Editor for on the the National newspapers. So you can guess what activity my weekend holds.

OK, got that out of my system a bit so onto some craft and a Celebration of Nations which is the theme Nicola has chosen for us at Allsorts this week and what a perfect one with the Olympics on the horizon.

My card is pretty simple, but I had visualised it in my head weeks ago and I wanted to make the Olympic symbol the focal point along with the Tennyson verse which has been selected as the London motto for the event.

I cut the five circles in the appropriate colours on the Cricut and interlinked them, mounting them onto a piece of white card embossed with a cuttlebug folder. I printed the verse on the computer and cut with a Nestie. As I said a very simple card but which I hope makes a statement. 

Enjoy the weekend.

Floral delight to kick start the New Year

Happy New Year everyone.

And what better start than our first Allsorts challenge of 2011 and it's my turn to host the theme which  is "Paper Piecing".

Lots of you will know it's a technique I rather like and lends itself so well to Ruth's flower images over at A Passion for Stamps........................you MUST pop over to the blog as Ruth has a giveaway at the moment of some images and Promarkers.

The image I have used here is the Acidanthera printed onto Nitwits DP which is a fabulous weight for running through the printer, plus it's A4 in size so perfect. I created the square effect by placing a post it note on the centre of the main piece and inking the edges with TH Victorian Velvet. The background is a piece of Coredinations embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and sanded down a little. The sentiment is Penny Black 3419D.

Ooooops, nearly forgot, here is the lucky winner of the Nitwits DP giveaway I posted the other day..............

Kizzy 

Unfortunately the link to your blog seems to be blocked Kissy, so I can't add the link or mail you, so I hope you see this and mail me brenda@ibas.co.uk with your full postal so I can post them off it you. If I don't hear from you by 10th January I will re-draw the candy.

Have a good weekend everyone.

New baby, New Year

It's Saturday peeps, which must mean it's time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week the lovely Emma is hosting the theme which is "New Beginnings", what better theme to start off the New Year.

So I figured a baby card would fit the bill along with a recent order I needed to fulfil and as is so often the case nowadays they knew it was a little girl well in advance.................I really do have mixed feeling on that, call me old fashioned, but to me waiting for the birth to know the sex was always part of the excitement.

I used the pretty little bootee image from A Passion for Stamps  printing it first onto the base card and again onto some DP from stash, but pretty sure it's Daisy Bucket. After cutting out the bootees, I ran a ball tool over the back of them to give a bit of dimension and added some lace. The background is embossed with a Sizzix folder, a bow using seam binding and the sentiment is Darkroom Door.

Happy New Year to you all and I hope you enjoy whatever you have planned this evening.

Hero 2012 debut stamps hit town

Hello peeps, time for a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Fleur is our host and it will be a two week challenge to tide us over the Christmas holiday period. The theme is 'Blue and Brown' a really lovely colour combo which I love working with, so afraid this post is a bit picture heavy.

I had my DT cards all done ages ago, but then the Hero Art 2012 Debut stamps hit Sir Stampalot a couple of days ago so of course I was straight into demo samples and had to share a couple of the gorgeous new images...........doesn't take a lot to get me excited. They are already shipping from the shop so you can go here and be amongst the first in the UK to get your hands on them.

So first off with the card at the top of this post which uses Hero Arts K5576 Newspaper Tulips. I inked the stamp with Aquamarkers, spritzed with water and stamped onto a piece of Fabriano watercolour card and lightly distressed the edges with TH broken china and tea dye. The DP is Kaiser.

My second card used another of the newbies, Hero Arts K5540 Spring Dream this time inked with hero Hues Latte. The frame cut with Nesties and the background DP are all Bo Bunny. The border are corners are Spellbinders Parisien Accents, plus some flowers and leaves cut from a Marianne die and a piece of cheesecloth which I inked with TH broken china to tone down the colour.

Next up my original DT cards, the one above uses the beautiful Hero Arts S5362 Dogwood stamp which I stamped onto a base piece using versafine sepia and embossed with detail clear, then stamped a second time onto some DP from stash to cut out and decoupage. The sentiment is a section on Penny Black 2695J  and lots of pearls to embellish.

And finally, my fourth card uses a quite old stamp from Penny Black which I always think makes a perfect male card. I masked a piece of Fabrinao watercolour card round the edges and two central section to create three panels. With the masking in place I sponged the panels with TH broken china, then stamped stamped Hero Arts S5364 Antique flower background using Hero chalk ink latte. I then removed the two centre piece of masking tape and stamped  Penny Black 2827K  using versafine sepia and embossed with detail clear before removing the remainder of the masking tape. I embossed a piece of Coredinations with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and sanded lightly to use as a background piece.

Have a good weekend peeps and hope you all get you final Christmas preparations done and dusted in time to enjoy a wonderful Christmas.

It Takes Two

Good Monring peeps, how are your Christmas preparations going ? I think I am just about there and tomorrow we have a big family day with about twenty coming, so quite a bit of preparation to be done although I confess M&S are taking a good bit of the effort out of it.

It's my turn to host the theme at Allsorts this week and I would like to see creations on the theme "It Takes Two".................basically use just two colours on your work, but you can use white as well as your base colour.

Two DT cards for me, the one at the top of my post............yellow and black...............uses Ruth's A Passion for Stamps Narcissus image which you will find here, coloured with Aquamarkers and decoupaged onto a mat cut with Nestabilities, stamped with Hero Arts H2635 Old French writing and inked round the edges with TH mustard. The DP is Kasier and the sentiment is Penny Black 3096F.

For the second card I have used one of the Christmas stamps from Stampendous JGS157 which I fell in love with as soon as I saw it and ended up making quite a few with it as it lends itself to all occasions apart from Christmas, in fact I'm not sure I actually made a Christmas card with it.

For this one I stamped the image onto vellum using versafine black and embossed with detail clear. I coloured the image from behind with Copics and decoupaged some of the flowers. I machined round the edge of the Bo Bunny DP and tied a simple seam binding bow at the side. I love the fresh colours of this one, make me think of Spring...................

Our sponsors this week are A Passion for Stamps and Scotch Tapes whose restickable tabs I used on my both my cards....................you will find a bit more about them on the challenge blog and also here on a post I did last week where I also used them.

Have a good weekend everyone and as always, thank you so much for popping by.

Going round in circles and candy

Before I tell you about our new theme at  Allsorts  a little reminder that I have a weekend candy on the go, all you need to do is leave a comment over the weekend either here, on tomorrows post or yesterdays which also has a picture, to be in with a chance of winning.

At Allsorts Debs has us all going round in circles this week so I thought I would share another of my Christmas wreaths (instructions here) which I created for the demo day at Sir Stampalot a few weeks ago.

The Christmas rose in the centre was stamped with Woodware JGS256 onto Studio 490 Modelling Film, coloured with Aquamarkers and then heated and moulded into shape. D0n't know if you have tried this film out, but it really is something a little bit different and real fun to work with and unlike shrink plastic stays the same size but allows you to mould it when warm. And if you don't like the finish, you just warm it up again.

For this one I used the gorgeous December 25th DP's from Kaiser, I really do think these are one my favourite Christmas DP's for years, there is something about the rich traditional colours that never fail to please.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Molly Blooms ready for Christmas

Saturday morning can only mean one thing, a new challenge at Allsorts and this week Helen would like us to use Pennants on our work.

Now this did create confusion with one or two of us as it seems Pennants in Sweden where Helen lives are what we call bunting, which in Sweden are larger flags. But I think we got there in the end.

I have used some of the lovely Kaiser December 25th DP to create a frame using my Nesties Fleur de Lis squares and a sentiment in the centre Stampendous CRQ146. I have coloured Molly with Aquamarkers and stamped the Molly Blooms bunting onto the same DP and cut out. The back panel is Coredinations embossed with a Sizzix folder and sanded down.

Winter sunset in the Fens

A very Good Morning to you all, it's time for me to share my DT card for our new challenge at Allsorts where the theme is 'A One Layer' Project.

The theme was chosen by Amanda who recently left the team, so I have picked it up and although I didn't choose the theme it's one I really like as it gives me the perfect opportunity to do a bit of masking an inking and create one of the little scene I so enjoy creating. In fact I made two, hubby preferred the one with the vivid orange sky which is typical of a winter sunset here in the Fens when the sky looks almost on fire at times, in fact it could be the scene right outside my kitchen window many evenings right down to the gate and barn. I was split between the two so am sharing both.

For both cards I masked the edges of a piece of Fabriano watercolour card before stamping and colouring to give the effect of matting but maintaining the one layer requirement.

The one at the top uses the Andy Skinner A Winters Tale set, plus some Art Impression grasses which I stamped with Archival Sepia ink, then added the colour using cut and dry and Adirondack dye inks sunset orange, eggplant, pebble and pesto. Finally a bit of glitter here and there...................it's a very frosty evening you see.

My second card uses one of Sheena Douglass's new waterside stamps, plus some Art Impression worker stamps all stamped with Archival sepia, the sponged over with Adirondack dye inks butterscotch, denim and pesto. The little man and his dog are a Stampscpaes stamp.

I hope you all have a good weekend and thank you so much for popping by.

Not another easel card..............

..........I hear you say............I really wonder if I will ever tire of them.

Anyhow, I had better tell you about our new challenge at Allsorts and this week my teamie Nicola would like to see Black and White plus One.

I love using pink with black and white, you need so little to really make your card pop. I have used all Hero Arts stamps and stamped the main image twice, one onto black cardstock and embossed with detail while and again onto white cardstock using verafine black and detail clear embossing powder....I find that option gives a much cleaner look than using a clear ink and black embossing powder which invariably shifts to places you don't want it. Next I cut both in half and used one of each and butted them together to get the two tone piece. I stamped the flowers a second time and decoupaged. The DP is from stash and no idea whatsoever the make.

Enjoy your weekend and thank you so much for popping by.