Spring Flowers

A very Good Morning to you all, I hope you are having a good weekend.

As it's the first Sunday in the month it means it's time for new challenges at Sir Stampalot and Penny Black and More, the card at the top is one of my DT pieces for the latter.

At Stampalot it's a challenging month for the DT as I set then all a task of creating two cards with two kits. I sent them all two kits of products much the same and today we are revealing what they came up with using the pearls and swirls kit...................their other makes will be shared later in the month. Of course I didn't expect to escape the challenge myself and here is what I came up with, but you really do need to go over the the challenge blog to see everyone else's wonderful work and to see what the theme is.

The DP's which form the basis of my card...........yep another easel...............are Alla Prima and I used one sheet to make the rosette onto which I added the focal image which is Hero Arts K5576 Newspaper Tulips which I inked with TH Mustard Seed, embossed with detail clear them sponged with TH tumbled glass.

Springtime is the theme at Penny Black and More this month, my favourite time of year so the theme was inevitable. I have ended up with three DT cards as the new release stamps from the Full of Surprises collection literally just landed here in the UK so I had to get inking and you will see two of the stamps on my card at the top of this post. The flowers are a Penny Black slapstick stamp 40-104 Spring Beauty so that had to be used for this months theme and the sentiment is PB 4263F Garden of Life. Both were stamped onto Fabriano watercolour card and embossed with detail clear, then coloured with Derwent watercolour pencils from the beautiful wooden box collection of 48 hubby bought me this last week.

The borders are cut with some of the new TH border dies using My Minds Eye DP which I also used for the mat behind the image cut with Go Create dies. The little embellies are some new metal ones called Floral Spacers from Stampalot which have holes through the middle for brads, although I just stuck mine on and added swarovsky crystals to the centres.

For my second card, I stamped Penny Black 3381K Aspire with Adirondack citrus and meadow, then stamped over this with Penny Black 3157H Growing Free using versafine black, cut out with Nesties 20 and layered onto a black panel cut with Nesties Fleur de Lis rectangle. That back panel is embossed with a Sizzix folder and I added some ribbon, leaves and flowers made from organza ribbon.

And finally just one more that was already in the mix before the new stamps landed, the technique is a bit involved so I will try and explain best I can. Please do mail me and ask if any part is not as clear as it might be.

For this second Penny Black DT piece I started by stamping the two images Penny Black 4039K Candid and 1483E Cherish Yesteday................as you can tell by the code this is a real oldie..............with archival black ink onto a piece of double sided adhesive. To do this I peeled away one side to do the stamping then placed the covering back on top but leaving about 1cm of the sticky showing at one end. Onto this exposed area I placed a piece of acetate cut ready to the size of the sticky piece and gradually peeled away the backing to allow me to lay the acetate directly onto the stamping.

Next I took a piece of tissue, scrunched it up and lightly inked using direct to paper with TH mustard seed, shabby shutters, sage used sparingly and Versamark champagne to add a bit of sparkle. I scrunched the tissue a bit more between each inking to expose more creases to pick up the ink. When I was happy with the tissue, I removed the reverse side of the double sided sticky paper and placed the tissue onto it.

Working from the tissue side I gently coloured the flowers with Copics..................doing this over a light source or against a window helps. You need to be a bit gentle so as not to tear the tissue, but it's amazing how much colour you can add at this stage. Finally I matted and layered onto the base card which I randomly stamped down one side with Hero Arts H2365 Old French Writing, a punched border, some pearls and cord. Finito !

I really hope you will be able to join in our challenges this month and look forward to popping over to your blogs to see what you created.

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.

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.

Birthday Bingo

Good Morning all, it's the first Sunday of the month so that means new challenges at Stampalot and Penny Black and More. 


In case you missed it, I have a little weekend candy giveaway details here, just leave a comment to be in with a chance.

At Stampalot we invite you to play Bingo with us and at Penny Black and More we are celebrating "Birthdays".

The card at the top is my Penny Black DT card using Penny Black 4164K A Rose stamped simply in black versafine, embossed with detail clear and coloured with Copics.Matted onto bazzil, a punched border with some added pearls and a sentiment from Darkroom Door.  A really quick and simple card.

On both of my cards I had a play with the new tabs from Scotch which are so effective and as the name suggests they really are re-stickable, how cool is that. They are double sided, easy to use, will stick to any surface, remove cleanly and because they are clear you don't see them when they are used for such things as hanging Christmas decorations. Best of all, when you are finished with them you can simply wash them in soapy water and they are as good as new.

For my Stampalot DT card I selected the Bingo row "Pearls, Flowers and Punch". The base card is some really nice ribbed Kraft cardstock, swirls cut with a Marianne die and accented with pearl drops, a flower cut with TH tattered floral die from the same DP as I used along the bottom of the card.............it was scraps from stash and I am note sure of the make, but could be Doodlebug. I stamped two butterflies with versafine sepia and embossed with detail clear.........they are Hero Arts ones but unmounted which typical me means I have no idea of the code as the packing has long since been lost.

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

Penny Black candy and another DT challenge

I'm back again with the second of the challenges I set the Design Team at Penny Black and More.

Before I tell you about that, I need to tell you that we are having a little mid month giveaway. A name will be selected from all the new followers to Penny Black and More who sign up between today and 4th December. I have popped a picture of the lovely Penny Black giveaway on the challenge blog.

I called this kit "Merry Christmas" and thought it would be an ideal theme as we roll along................rather quickly it seems...............towards December.

Again the DT came up with a wonderful array of inspiration and so many different takes on the the me and I think it's fair to say they all really enjoyed the challenges and it's definitely something we will do again.

Kit included 3 sheets Echo Park DP (various patterns but all from the same colour family), Bazzil Basic, 1M red organza ribbon, 2 decorative pins, MS punched holly, 1 vellum roses cut with a Marianne die, Card base cut with Grand Nesties Labels 23, Red nailheads.

In addition to the kit items, I used Penny Black 4208K Christmas Narrative as my image which I stamped onto a piece of my DP and stamped the flower again onto another piece and decoupaged. I ran the piece of Bazzil through the Big Shot Pro using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and distressed it with a sanding block.

New challenges and mega prizes

Good Morning Peeps, it's the first Sunday of the month and for those of you who missed the announcements last month, it's the day we are launching challenges at Stampalot and Penny Black and More in future.

Plus it's also the first month of the new style challenge at Penny Black and More where we have opened up the entry criteria to enable more of you to join in the fun. Do pop over to the challenge blog and check it all out. And of course, there are super prizes on offer at both challenges.

The them at Stampalot this month is Blue and Green................despite my Granny always telling me "blue and green should never be seen", I have to disagree as I think the two colours coordinate beautifully. So much so that I made two cards for my DT pieces this month. The one at the top used the lovely Fairy Queen Stampandous SSC1123, stamped onto a brayered gloss card background and coloured with Copics. The roses are made from hand cut spirals and the DP is from stash.

How's this for service.........I saw the Fairy Queen stamp pop up on Sir Stampalots What's New section, so immediately rang Janice to say please keep me one and the answer I got was "already reserved, ordered it because I knew you would want it". I came up with a good few samples using this one, it's right up my street.

My second blue and green card used more old DP from stash, a poinsettia cut using the new Spellbinders dies, the holly Spellbinders Christmas accents and the sentiment Penny Black 3227K Hope is Born ...........I did warn you this one would be popping up time and again.

Two DT pieces for Penny Black and More as well, the one above using this so cure little lad and his dog Penny Black 40-020 , coloured with Aquamarkers, some Kraft card and DP also from stash.

And finally, another image I love, mine is, as you will realise from the code, a really old PB stamp 1380K although this year they re-introduced it as a cling stamp. Coloured with Aquamarkers, Nitwits DP and MS garden trellis punch along with a Sizzix corner die.

Enjoy your Sunday and thanks for popping my, I really do appreciate all your comments.

A little bit Vintage DT challenge

A very Good Morning to you all.

Now this is a tad different but has been real fun and we want to share it with you all. To celebrate the changes we are making at Penny Black and More Challenge, I decided to set the Design Team a challenge of their own. A couple of weeks ago I sent them all two kits with separate themes and asked them to come up with a project for each.

Today we are sharing the 'A Little Bit Vintage' challenge, you can see them all over at the challenge blog here. Above you can see my take on it along with the kit I sent to the DT. I was thrilled to see all the variations they came up with and next month we will share the second challenge.

Each kit contained 3 sheets Basic Grey DP (all slightly different but from the same family), 3m white seam binding, TH clock and hinges cut on Coredinations, 2 white flowers.

In additional to the items from the kit, I used the following stamps..............Penny Black 4040K Sparklers, 3860 Pointella, 4857 Footnote and Hero Arts 3316 Harlequin Background, plus brads and a chain embellishment.

Penny Black and More

A very Good Morning to everyone, a scheduled one here so fingers crossed Mr Bloggers not having a day off as I need to tell you that there are exciting changes afoot over at Penny Black at Allsorts. I will tell you the basics, but you will need to pop over there and get the full low down.

• We are opening up the challenge entry criteria.

• There will still be lots of prizes, but also an extra special prize section.

• A monthly “Who’s in the Spotlight” feature every month, a chance for those peeps to write their own crafting bio to go on the challenge blog.

• A change of start date of challenges to the first Sunday of each month.

Please grab our new sidebar button and add to your blog to help spread the word

The current Autumn themed challenge is being extended to accommodate the new start date and will run until 31st October. So there is still plenty of time to join in the fun.

And of course there has to be a little share of a PB card, this one using one of the 2011 Christmas stamps Penny Black 4205L Village Christmas and looks like a little bit of brayering crept in too, funny how that keeps happening.

Note added: For those who read my post yesterday and came up with various suggestions.........it was Arsenic and Old Lace - it was still bugging me so in the end I did a Google search........should really have done that before yesterdays post............it was apparently a 1944 movie with Cary Grant. How I remember that I have no idea as it years before I was born, but my Mum and Granny loved him so I guess I must have heard them talk about it and it stuck.

Whatever you have planned, have a good Sunday everyone.