Molly Blooms in the pink

Morning peeps, hope your week is going well.

It's been an off mixture of weather here in the Fens this week, we've had rain, sun, fog and still the overnight frosts............my in house weather man reports it was minus four again in the garden last night, but at least that does usually lead to a nice day so fingers crossed.

It's no secret that I just don't do cute and always struggle when it involves anything other than flowers, fairies and trees, but I'm always ready to rise to the challenge which was what was called for when a bundle of the new Molly Blooms stamps landed on my doormat a few weeks ago. The samples were for the launch of the new Circus and Fairground stamps at the NEC Trade Show last month, which I can now share and you can buy them from Sir Stampalot.

The card at the top using the big top and ringmaster Molly were paper pieced using DP's from stash. The little tickets are also amongst the new release stamps. The card base was cut using Nesties labels 23, the rose is made from punched five petal flowers.

My second card uses the lovely carousel stamp which really is my favourite from the new releases which I coloured with Derwent watercolours, decoupaged and added a frame cut with a Go Create die. Then added a bow and stick pin to embellish.

Whatever you have planned, hope you have a good day.

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.

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.

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.

DP giveaway as a bit of a celebration

Good Afternoon peeps, are you all ready for Christmas?

I think things are sorted at this end, although I would really love this lingering flu and cold to take a hike, it's on my chest now, all the benefits of that missing immune system, never mind, hopefully it will be on it's way shortly.

That all means not a lot of crafting has been happening these last few days, so a share of another one I made a couple of weeks ago for Stampalot using the Andy Skinner stamp set, along with some Glimmer Mists and stickles.

And I have another rather special share, this is what's on the shoulders of our eldest son following his promotion earlier this month to Chief Superintendent. It's a tad scary really as he seems so young to have reached these dizzy heights in just a few short years since he joined as a regular bobby on the beat. And it seems he's set to go further as they are sending him off to Cambridge to do his Masters in Criminology..........are we proud, you bet we are ! We are so blessed as all the children have done so well for themselves, been through Uni and into great jobs and every one makes us mega proud in their own way.

So a little blogland celebration, I have a collection of 12x12 DP's to give away, they include October Afternoon, Kaiser, Bo Bunny and a few pretty ribbons. All you need do to be in with a chance of winning them is leave a comment on this post and I will ask Mr Random Org., to draw a winner in a couple of days time.

Have a good day and thank you for popping 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.

Off to climb Everest

Well I'm not, but one of our Son's and his girlfriend are, so I thought I would make them a card to wish them good luck on their journey.

They are flying out to Delhi this week via Dubai, then moving on to Agra to see the wonderful Taj Mahal...........that's one still on my wish list and I have told them I want a text picture from that famous seat synonymous with the picture of Princess Diana. Then they fly up to Kathmandu and the trek to Everest Base Camp.

One of my friends asked why my kids don't do normal things like visiting the Lake District.........good question !

The  card above follows a very similar design to the Everest one and is one of my samples from the Demo day at Stampalot on Saturday which was a really fun day and as I suspected I met lots of new and familiar faces.......a big thank you to everyone who came and helped make it such a great day.

The stamp.....only the one repeat stamped, on the Everest card is Stampscapes and very simple brayering and sponging with Adirondack dye inks. The sentiment which is computer generated is a quote from Sir Edmund Hilary and I thought so apt as our son and his girlfriend are professional photographers..........they met at Uni doing the same course.

My second card uses Art Impression stamps, a hand drawn fence and again simple brayering. The sentiment is Penny Black 3227K Hope.

Thanks for stopping by, I really do appreciate all your visits and kind words.

By the light of the silvery moon

Hello Peeps, hope your week is going well, it seems to be flying past here, almost the weekend again before I know it. So as tomorrow if Friday it means there's the opportunity to pick us some free stash from Sir Stampalot !!

Because it's Freebie Friday again.......

Which means you can choose either of these Art Impression sets value £18.95 absolutely FREE when you place an order on line for £35 between midnight tonight and midnight tomorrow 7th October. Either one will be fabulous for all those Crimbo cards still waiting to be made.

I had a bit of inky fun this week making some more sample cards ready for the 'Fourth Ultimate Rubber Stamping Day' at Sir Stampalot on 29th October, grief that means it's only three weeks away now, so I need to get my skates on.

For the background I brayered Adirondack dye ink denim on gloss cardstock, masking a moon........there has to be a moon, then spritzed water and immediately blotted with a piece of kitchen towel to create the snow effect. I then stamped the main image Hero Arts K5524 Winter Scene and sponged the same inkpad to create snow drifts. Finally I sponged more ink using the edge of a piece of copy paper to give the impression of light coming from the moon. As always plenty of fantasy going on.

Contrasts of Nature

Nature never fails to amaze me, here we are into October, leaves are changing colour by the day, yet my roses continue to flourish as though it were June. In fact the floribunda in the picture below...........and that's only part of the bush.......was a present on my birthday last year, so has has only been in a year, yet has flowered constantly like a mature bush since May.

Note a lab lurking in the background

My Autumn card up top is using Ruth's new pumpkin image at A Passion for Stamps which I have coloured with Aquamarkers and covered with Glossy Accents, although that's not to clear in my picture. The corn on the nestie mat is Hero Arts S5316 Silhouette Grass. And the embossed panel is coredinations and new Sizzix folder, sanded down to reveal the core colour.

I also had a little play to see if it was possible to print digi images onto shrink plastic and it seems it is. I had been wondering about it for ages, but despite reading through the packaging on every make in the shop at Stampalot, none suggest it's an option. So I decided the worse case scenario was I wasted a sheet of shrinky. It would not feed through my printer at first as it was too slippery, so I sanded the leading edge both sides and it went through a treat. I blotted the images a couple of times to get rid of the excess ink, then coloured with Aquamarkers and shrunk it down to gets some tiny pumpkins.

And this one a bit more playing with the Speedball brayer, Adirondack dye inks and as assortment of Art Impression stamps. The fence against the cows is a a bit out of context size wise, but hey ho, it's all fantasy.

A little bit Autumn

Good Morning peeps, a mega quick post before that thing called work takes hold of my day.

This week seems to be rolling by all too quickly and it does not seem possible that tomorrow is Freebie Friday again at Sir Stampalot. If you sign up to Smudges their newsletter, you will get advance notification what you can grab for free this week.

We have had a couple of days of beautiful weather and the colours of Autumn are appearing day by day and looking absolutely stunning against a backdrop of sunshine, so I thought a couple of shares taking on those rich colours.

The top one is using Penny Black 3817K Tigress, stamped onto a background created with acrylic paints and vaseline, if you've not used this technique it's brill. Paint on a darker colour first (you can dry with a heat gun), then dab the vaseline where you want to reveal that colour after painting on your lighter colours, when that's dry (don't use a heat gun here as it will melt the vaseline) then rub away the vaseline and it reveals the under colour paint. The DP is appropriately October Afternoon and the roses were made using a Marianne die.

My second share is this beautiful Stampendous stamp SSC1123 Fairy Queen, stamped onto a brayered background and coloured with Copics. The DP is as above.

Keeping it clean and simple

Happy Saturday everyone, are you ready for a new challenge at Allsorts ?

Amanda is hosting this weeks theme and she would like us to be 'Clean and Simple' so I thought this one would fit the bill, it a sample I recently created for Stampalot using one of the new stamps from La Blanch called Wild Flowers here.

I masked a piece of Fabriano watercolour card and sponged three squares using TH wild honey and broken china, then stamped sections of the floral stamp with the masks still in place. The sentiment is a section of Penny Black 2695J.........to use a portion of a stamp I lay a post it note over the sections I don't want to use whilst inking.

Have a good weekend everyone and thanks for popping by.

Freebie Friday looms again

Good Morning peeps, hope everyone is OK.

The days seem to be flying by as tomorrow is Freebie Friday again at Sir Stampalot. Not sure what this weeks free give away will be, but it's been pretty awesome the last couple of weeks, so why not sign up to their newsletter Smudges here.

Did any of you see the new POW Spellbinder egeabilities on C&C this week ? I'm sure they said they were were the first to get them in the UK, but not quite true because they are all here and have been for the last weeks or so, all ready for dispatch including the gorgeous Spring Blossom dies..........that one with the cut out edge is already on my wish list.

I got so carried away I almost forgot to tell you about my two cards here. The top one has been brayered through a circle mask with Adirondack Sunset Orange and simply stamped with Art Impression U3095.................which I only just noticed says DEMO in the side which means it must of snuck home in my bag by accident.......sorry Janice.

My second share has been brayered with Big and Juicy Spice and the scene created with various Stampscape stamps.

So who runs this show ?

Clearly Buffy and George think they do, but I've got news for them..............but I feel a bit to jaded to argue after my busy weekend................so perhaps they know better than me right now............which means just a couple of doggy pictures and a brayered share with apols for not going into details on this occasion.

But it was a really great weekend, a fabulous workshop on Saturday and I met lots on new faces, some of who travelled a good few miles to get to Stampalot.......a big thank you to each and every one of you all for coming and helping make it such a fun day.

Then yesterday we spent the day in London with one of our son's and DIL and had a great trip to the new Westfield shopping centre....is it big or what !! And they have a champagne bar right in the middle of the complex............before you ask, yes of course we tried it out......it would have been rude not to ! I can recommend the Kiri Royal.

The terrible twins, Daisy the Duracell dog in front and Lily..........they do have their own baskets of course, but why use them when you can steal Georges ?

Thanks for visiting and I will catch you all again in a day or so when I am feeling a bit more human.

Inspiration from the most unlikely places

Good Morning peeps, hope you are all having a good week.

'Puter' problems seem sorted I am pleased to say and I've got so much added virus protection now I should withstand all comers, I can but hope. So a couple of shares, both much of a muchness using a stamped image and a digi image just to try and prove to myself that I can be versatile if I really try.

Before I launch into my cards, a heads up that it will be Freebie Friday again tomorrow at Sir Stampalot, so if you have not already signed up for Smudges newsletter, click here to be sure of getting advance details of this weeks freebie offer.........remember, whatever it is will only be available for that one day.

Now I'll tell you the same as I told Ruth of A Passion for Stamps about how the idea behind both these cards came into being...........last Friday evening as it was getting dusk I was collecting acorns in one of the paddocks.........as you do............ a big full moon was just rising and a pair of pheasants strutted out from the headland of the adjoining field in front of me............and there was my card !!

In both I have used simple masking and brayering to create a background using the good old Speedball brayer and Adirondack dye inks slate and pitch black. I used the slate first to create a misty look, then went over the top section with the black to create more shadow.

The sentiment on the top card is Penny Black 2905H and on the second from a Sheena Douglass set. The grasses are Penny Black 3381K and the the bird at the top is one of Sue's newer Animal Spirit images which you can purchase here, stamped very simply with versafine back and embossed with detail clear.

The pheasants on the second card were drawn by Ruth and were printed out in two sizes onto Neenah cardstock, I was really quick the the old detail clear and was able to emboss them then added a bit of grey here and there with a Copic pen.

'Freebie Friday again'

An early post ahead of work with a couple of shares and a reminder about 'Freebie Friday' at Sir Stampalot.

To be 'in the know' and ahead of the rush you need to sign up to Smudges newsletter here or by clicking on the icon on the left hand side of the home page sidebar here and you will receive their newsletter telling you what freebie you can receive each week.

My card at the top was created through a bauble shaped mask which I cut on the Cricut, brayered with Adirondack denim, butterscotch and ginger and stamped with Hobby Art XM3/05 E Three Kings and QT801A Star. The sentiment is Penny Black 3995F.

This one is a sample I made using one of the new releases from Prickly Pear HH0082 Winters Glow. I cut out the image, coloured with Aquamarkers and mounted it onto a Marianne holly circle die and Magnolia circle die.

American seam binding.......you just have to try it......

Good Morning peeps, hope everyone had a good weekend.

I had planned on posting this one last evening until I discovered Sky Arts had a whole evening dedicated to Queen..............today would have been Freddies 65th birthday........so of course I ended up glued. Seen lots of it before, but you can never have too much Queen !!

Apart from that my weekend was a bit crafty and I even managed to fit in a trip to Sir Stampalot as there were a few bits and pieces I was in urgent need of'................as if, but any excuse goes.

And I also received a package from Sarah at Pretty Little Ribbons with some American seam binding and bakers twine. I've been wondering for ages what the seam binding was like and boy, is it gorgeous. It's soft and flowy and comes in several pretty colours, but I also tried colouring the white with distress inks and it works brilliantly and still retains the lovely soft feel.

The card above has some of the green and the one below using A Passion for Stamps new thistle has the white coloured with TH dusky concord - dab some direct from the inkpad onto a silicone sheet, spritz with water and scrunch the ribbon about in it, then dry with your heat gun.

So my shares, well it's another with Penny Black 4210K Floral Story. To begin with I painted a frame cut with Nestability Fleur de Lis with copper acrylic paint and also a piece of mountboard. When dry (I used a heat gun) I smeared vaseline round the edge of the mountboard and painted white acrylic all over, dried then wiped away the white paint from the edges...............the vaseline acts as a resist. I then masked the edges and stamped the image into the centre and coloured with Copics.

On to my second share using the thistle. I re-sized it and printed out a border to compliment the main image, did some zig zag stitching along the edges and colours this and the main image with Aquamarkers.

Thanks for visiting peeps, have a good Monday.