Meet Pixie and a bit more Penny Black

Happy Monday Peeps, hope you all had a good weekend and those of you in the UK enjoying this lovely weather.

The little lady above is Pixie, a ten week old Jack Russell who joined the family gang this weekend. She's such a tiny little thing but seems quite capable of giving the large dogs a run for their money and has already sussed that if big guys play gets a bit too rough for her she can slide into spaces they can't. I will do my best to get a picture of the whole gang one day soon, but it's easier said than done keeping them all still for long enough.

I am still loving the new Penny Black 4237K Awakening so here's another share of another card I made with it. Again I inked the stamp direct, this time with Aquamarkers, spritzed with water and stamped onto Fabriano watercour card, inked the edges with TH tumbled glass and sponged through some sequin waster to give a bit of background interest.  The DP is Bo Bunny, some embossed and sanded Coredinations and a piece of cheescloth in the background and ribbon.

Have a good day everyone and as always thanks so much for popping in.

All rather floral

 

Good Morning, I hope everyone is OK.

I had a bit of a crafty play at the weekend as lucky me had some of Ruth's latest artwork to play with which you will find at A Passion for Stamps as well as some still un-inked Penny Black stamps.

To create the top card I masked the edges of a piece of Fabriano watercolour card and gently inked with TH broken china, I then tore a piece of copy paper to mask the top right section of the piece and stamped the the section with Hero Arts S5264 Antique Flower Background using TH tea dye. Next I sponged both colours of ink randomly over the stamping and finally stamped Penny Black 4237K Awakening using TH stormy sky and Aquamarkers and spritzed with water before stamping................every time there's a new release of stamps you tend to have a favourite and this one is definitely one of those. After removing the masking I mounted the piece onto coordinating cardstock and added a button.

My second card using Ruth's Fratillary image which I printed onto Fabriano watercolour card and did my usual mad rush to get some clear embossing powder on as it came through the printer, then coloured with Derwent watercolur pencils. The sentiment is Penny Black 4261L Time. The background was created using a Touch of Mica mask which I inked with versamark, rand through the Big Shot then dusted a lilac cosmic shimmer powder over the inked sections...................I am quite pleased with the effect and especially how well the colours match which was more buy luck than judgement as I only have a few mica powders.

Thanks for popping in, catch you later in the week.

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.

Star and Engraved flowers

Good morning Peeps, I hope everyone is OK.

I thought I would share a few more of the samples I made for Stamp Addicts new TV show which is scheduled on Create and Craft this Friday, 9th March at 1pm.

This is the front cover of the tri fold card at the top

The Star and Engraved Flower stamp sheets which you will find here are right up my street and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them along with the new sentiment sheet which is really useful to have in your stash.

To create the above card I inked the stamps with Aquamarkers and spritzed with water before stamping on to Fabriano watercolour card, cur with Go Create dies and mounted onto some October Afternoon DP.

For the above card I simply stamped the flower image onto a piece of DP which I think was Kaiser, cut out and placed on a circle of sanded and embossed coredinations. The background DP is the reverse side of the sheet.

The stamp sheets are great value at £12.99 as both have several large flower stamps on them as well as some greetings on one of them.

I am entering the top card into this months Pretty Little Ribbons challenge who have the theme Spring colours and blossoms.

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.

In the garden

A very Good Morning to you all, did you get any of the white stuff ? We certainly did, it started last evening and by this morning it was a foot deep against the front door where it had drifted, that's one of the benefits of living in the Fens, when it blows it really does blow. But it looks absolutely beautiful, the dogs have already had a good play in it and later the horses will get a little play or rather roll...........yes Keryn...........like me she loves animals and loves to hear about the horses activities................... it's another of their little treats. Believe it or not horses love snowy and frosty ground to roll in, but only ten or fifteen minutes mind you before it's back into their stables for the daily carrot hunt.

It's the first Sunday of the month so that means new challenges at Penny Black and More and Stampalot. The theme at Penny Black and More is 'Lets Play Bingo', but no ordinary Bingo, I decided to try out something different and have created a colour bingo grid. And at Stampalot the theme is 'In the Garden', no prizes for guessing who came up with that theme !! And of course I could have gone in making them forever for the garden theme, but I think two are enough this time round.

For my first Stampalot piece I stamped Hero Arts CG153 on acetate using Archival black ink.........I wanted a larger aperture for my frame than the actual stamp so inked and stamped the left side first, cleaned the stamp and inked just the centre elements and stamped them and finally inked and stamped the right hand side. It actually lined up quite nicely, but the frame covers the edges anyway. Next I then mounted it inside a frame created with Nesties and edged the aperture with another little frame punched from Nitwits DP. I then  stamped the inside element onto a piece of rainbow cardstock using Adirondack dye inks watermelon and meadow, stamps used are Penny Black 3381 Aspire, PB 3948K Fireworks and all time favourite Stampendous P107 Agapanthus Cluster.

I mounted the acetate framework over the flower piece arching it to create a window effect, then mounted the whole piece onto a base card. The two large butterflies and the tiny one on the inner piece are from Hero Arts CL383 and coloured with the same dye inks.

I have been really good with my second piece and dug out some pretty old Stamps Happen stamps as I thought they were ideal for the theme. When I was making this one I came to the conclusion that a non crafting male designed the stamps because who else would come up with four stamps for the four season and make three vertical and one horizontal ?

So I had to come up with a design where I could incorporate all four together and made the base shape using a score board and two pieces of A3 cardstock - it is a bit of a heavyweight card. I coloured all four imaged with Aqumarkers, matted onto bazzil and used two coordinating sheets of Kaiser DP for the background. The sentiment on the central panel is Penny Black 2905H The Best, the swirls a making memories die and the flowers and leaves a Marianne die.

This seems to have become a bit of a lengthy post so I hope you can bear with me until I have finished my Penny Black and More share. I opted for the yellow, white and black row as it's a colour combo I love............and this card is very similar to one a few weeks ago, just different stamps................always so fresh and crisp. My main image is Penny Black 4039K Candid................I don't think they are mean to be daffodils, but I always think with a bit of imagination and the right colours you can get away with it..........and Penny Black 3096F Host of Daffodils. I inked the floral stamps with TH mustard seed and Aquamarkers and spritzed with water before stamping onto as piece of Fabriano watercolour card. The frame is made with Nesties and the flowers Spellbinders and Marianne dies and some feather to finish.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone and I really hope you can join in our challenges this month.

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.

Spring Bluebells

Good Morning from the dull, misty, cold and basically pretty miserable Fens, but I am keeping positive and hoping for a glimmer of sunshine if for no other reason so I can take some photos of my latest makes. And I keep reminding myself Spring is not so far away, judging by the garden the bulbs certainly think so.

So just a quick couple of shares before I head off for my routine bloods, I'm still pretty immobile and the pain is as fierce as ever at times, in fact I reckon I could move backwards quicker then forwards, so needless to say I can't even contemplate driving and hubby is taking me.

But all is positive on the crafty front.......a girl has to do something to pass the time and I do find like so many of you that it helps absorb the mind and the pain seem less evident. Both my cards are made with Ruth's wonderful artwork which you can grab for yourself at A Passion for Stamps. Ruth has drawn some lovely new Spring crocuses which I will be sharing with you shortly and also some very sweet love birds which I need to put to use this week.

My card up top uses the beautiful bluebells, printed onto Fabriano watercolour card, heat embossed with detail clear.....you know my method of throwing the powder on as it comes through the printer and coloured with Aquamarkers. The DP is Nitwits, the roses cut with a Marianne die and the swirl is a Memory Box die, aren't they just so delicate.

My second card is Ruth's columbine printed onto acetate, then placed on one side of a piece of double sided sticky sheet. The reverse is a piece of white tissue paper scrunched up and inked with TH broken china, old paper and stormy sky, then stuck to the reverse side of the sticky sheet. The flower is then coloured with Copics from the reverse through the tissue, this technique never fails to fascinate me. The sentiment is a really old PB wood mounted stamp. I picked a couple of laurel leaves to place in front of my card when I did the photo, but they do look like they have measles in the picture don't they ?

Have a good Tuesday everyone, thanks for popping in and I hope you see a bit of sunshine today.

My Lion King and some goodies to win

Good Afternoon peeps, are you getting a bit of this sunshine ? It's been really lovely here today after a -8 frost last night, but that's fine if it means we get some nice daytime weather.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback on the Royal Mail saga, my letter is underway and will let you all know what they have to say, although I am not expecting any quick response judging by their usual activity.

I thought I would share one of the samples I did for Stamp Addicits with their new lion image which went on sale today, I like to call him the Lion King, although I know that's not his official name he really does remind me of that character. He's quite a large fellow and I simply stamped him and coloured with Aquamarkers, added some sky and background grasses and some palm trees cut on the Cricut. I know you don't really associate palm trees with a lions habitat, but this lion is a bit of a dandy and on his holidays............you all know I live in fantasy land.

And here's a little giveaway of some Nitwits DP's and embellishments from Sir Stampalot who's sale is still on and bargains to be had here.

Just leave a comment on this post and I will draw a winner before my next post later this week.

                                               

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.

Happy New Year to you all !!

And what better way to kick start 2012 than with two new challenge themes and perhaps an opportunity to use some of your new crafty stash that Santa delivered ?

At Stampalot Challenge our theme in Monochromatic which gives you plenty of scope to create whatever you fancy and at Penny Black at Allsorts it's 'Love and Hearts' so you can make a head start n all those Valentine cards.

My card at the top is my DT piece for Stampalot and uses the lovely Penny Black 4035K Letter and Flowers which I inked up with a combination of TH Vintage Photo distress ink and Aquamarker sepia, before spritzing with water and stamping onto a piece of Fabriano watercolour card which I pre-stamped and distressed with Hero Arts G3316 Harlequin and F5042 Leaf Flourish. The DP is Cosmo Cricket and I inked a piece of cheesecloth with the same TH ink and made a little pendant from Shrink Plastic.

My second piece for Penny Black and More was more of a challenge as I struggle a bit with the whole love theme....................I freak every time I am asked to do a wedding as I'm not a fan of the repetitiveness of multiple cards....................having just finished the stationery for one rather large and high profile wedding this Spring with close to 400 guests, up pops another.........I don't actually seek out wedding work, it sort of finds me via friends, then I hate to say no.

So I opted for the same technique of inking the stamp and spritzing with water, this time with Penny Black 3796K Words Sweet and just Aquamarkers. I mounted it onto a mat created with MS round the page three dot scallop, added some ribbons and gems and a sentiment Penny Black 3322D I Love You.

Enjoy the rest of the New Year break and I hope you can join in our challenges.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hello again peeps, two posts in one day, quite rare for me these days.

But I wanted to take the opportunity to wish everyone a Very Happy Christmas and Wonderful New Year.

I've had another fabulous crafty year with oodles of cards, some on TV, demos, classes and even had my work in a few magazines, but most importantly it's been made all the better by all the lovely people out there in blogland whose friendship I really appreciate and cherish. Lots of you will know I don't enjoy the best of health at times and am not able to get round blogland as much as I would like thanks to my light sensitive eyes, but despite that, my blogland friends are still there and have given me wonderful support and I thank you all most humbly.

So I think I had better share a couple of cards, both of which use the same Floral Bouquet stamp which you will find under the 'new' section at Stamp Addicts. I have been having a whale of a time the last couple of weeks working on samples for them using some really yummy stamps which will be released in the New Year and on Create and craft, so not able to share those yet, but when I saw Sarah and Vicky yesterday they said I can let you have a peek at these two. 

I'm not big on colouring in, I'm more of a get down and get messy girl, but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed colouring this image............could be the fact it's floral has something to do with it ?

For both of these cards I used Aquamarkers, the top one I coloured the stamp direct with the pens, then spritzed with water before stamping onto Farbiano watercolour card. I dragged a little coloured out with a damp brush and matted onto Bo Bunny DP. The second card has been stamped with versafine black and heat embossed with detail clear powder, then simply watercoloured with the same pens and cardstock and the DP is Nitwits.

Whatever you have planned, have a super holiday season.

Candy winner and a new lantern image

Good Morning Peeps, I hope you all had a good weekend.

As promise the winner of my weekend candy is..........................

Ciacchina

Please mail me with your full postal addy brenda@ibas.co.uk.

And I thought I would share a couple of my recent makes for Ruth, you will find all the images at A Passion for Stamps.

The top card uses Ruth's new Christmas lantern image which I printed onto inkjet acetate and glittered on the reverse, cut a bracket from Cricket Christmas Solutions and mounted them over some branches stamped with  a Stampendous stamp. The sentiment is Penny Black.

The circle card uses the Christmas rose image, printed out twice, coloured with Aquamarkers and the flowers decoupaged.

Have a good day everyone and thanks for dropping 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.

Beautiful new digi image printed on vellum

Hello all, another scheduled post as I don't anticipate being allowed to cut and run from hospital for a couple of days, but I really wanted to make sure I shared this beautiful Christmas Rose from the pen of my friend Ruth. You will find it here at a Passion for Stamps.

It is such a delicate flower and as they are usually white, sometimes with a ting of pink and with a yellow centre, vellum immediately came to mind. So with detail clear embossing powder at the ready, I printed the images off onto Pergamano and tossed the powder on as it came through the printed and hey presto, it worked a treat.

All I did the was colour with Aquamarkers on the reverse and run a ball tool over the back and quite like the soft feel of it. I printed out a second image for the top card and cut out just the flowers, used a Spellbiner frame, the border is also from Spellbinders, the holly motifs set, the DP Nitwits and I added some Liquid Pearls to the flower centres. 

The second card is also on vellum and coloured the same way, I used an old JudiKins stamp on the base card and cut out the image with Nesties Fleur de Lis square.................yep, the vellum did tear, hence the seam binding bow and pin.......what do they call it, a 'happy accident'.

Do pop over to Ruth's store as she has several new Christmas images.