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.

Little giveaway and new wild flower stamps

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

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

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

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

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

Have a good day everyone and thanks for popping in.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Brayering.............again !

Good Monring peeps, a really quick share of some brayering I did the other day.

No sooner had I mentioned toadstools to my friend Ruth of A Passion for Stamps, than the image was making it's way to my computer. I did a couple with them last week, but wanted to try one with a fairy........the two sort of go together in my fantasy world.

So I brayered a background with Adirondack dye inks........the colours do look a bit intense in the picture, but are not that bad in the flesh. I stamped and heat embossed a fairy, cut her out and glittered her wings then mounted her in the sky. I printed out the toadstools three times, coloured with Aquamrkers and placed behind a fence cut out with a TH die and embossed with some yummy new Frantage embossing powder from Stampandous............it's a sort of a cross between normal powder and UTEE.

My second share is using the same toadstools, but printed out larger, again coloured with Aquamarkers, some Bo Bunny DP, a TH hinge and a Marianne die rose. The leaves are also Ruth's images, coloured with the same medium and covered with Glossy Accents.

Thanks for dropping by and hope you have a good day.

Lot's going on..............

Good morning peeps, I'm not sure where to start here, so much going on today, three new challenges to tell you about................Stampalot and Penny Black at Allsorts monthly challenges as well as the weekly one at Allsorts..................and it's my wedding anniversary so there just might be a meal out tonight, but that rather depends on how hubby is feeling as he's still not 100% plus my MS seems to having a bit of a hissy fit again.

So it's going to be a bit of a heavy post, but at least it's Saturday so some of you might be able to grab a coffee and have a leisurely read.

I will start with the little gift set above which is my make for Stampalot Challenge theme is 'Food Glorious Food', basically your project can be anything with an association to food. The poinsettia is a pretty old image from Penny Black 1289J Grand Poinsettia, which I stamped onto Nitwits DP twice and decoupaged. The sentiment which I really love is Stampendous CRQ146 here here and the band around the jar is stamped with Prickly Pear HH0065 here. And is anyone wondered what's in the jar, preserved Victoria plums from the orchard - well that''s what we call it.....about 30 trees in total, so not a proper orchard in the run of things here in the Fens.

Next up is my DT piece for Penny Black at Allsorts where we have some Autumnal photo inspiration on offer, I could happily make cards with this colour way all year so I was totally at home with this one. The main image in Penny Black 3231K Snowy Park......yes it is a Crimbo stamp but I figure there was no reason why it can't not double up for other times of the year with the right colours. I masked a piece of gloss cardstock round the edges so I left a piece in the centre about the size of the stamp, added a sun and brayered Adirondack butterscotch, sunset orange and meadow and added a bit more depth by sponging ginger through the trees.

And last but by no means least at Allsorts Helene would like us to 'Use at least five flowers' on our work. So out came this gorgeous stamp from the new releases from La Blanch called Wandering Amongst Daisies here. I fell in love with this image the moment I saw it and knew exactly what I wanted to do with it, in fact I made quite a few using her. For this one I stamped onto Fabriano watercolour card, coloured with Aquamarkers and added background colour and a little fence, some swirls and five punched daisies and finito !

Enjoy your weekend whatever you have planned.

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.

Say it with flowers and a woof

This post was scheduled a few weeks back and this is just a very quick message........I have been let loose from my chains for five minutes.......to say I am overwhelmed by all you wonderful and kind messages and thank you all so much, you have no idea how much they all mean to me. I have not been on the computer at all, but was 'allowed' to read your messages. The rest period continues..................

The first of the month means I am brimming with new challenges and have shares for Stampalot Challenge where the theme is "Noah's Ark" and Penny Black at Allsorts where the theme is "Say it with Flowers".

My card for Penny Black at Allsorts is very pink and girly, not normal me but I do love the image and the colours are growing on me. The image is Penny Black 4076K Gift of Flowers.......which I thought was most appropriate for the theme..........stamped several times with versafine black, embossed with detail clear and coloured with Aquamarkers then decoupaged. The DP is from my stash, flowers, some lace and a border using Martha Stewart Floral Vine.

My Stampalot card has Stampendous CRR123 stamped onto a background lightly brayered with Big and Juicy Spice, coloured with Aqumarkers and set into a Nesite frame. I borrowed the pooch stamp from the Stampalot classroom so don't have the code, but I think it's an Art Impression stamp which I stamped and embossed onto white cardstock and added a little shading with Copics. The DP is Nitwits and I used a paw print stamp onto some jute ribbon to tie across the middle and added some buttons.................dare I admit that this is the card I made for George's second birthday..............yes I do mean George the Labrador !!

Allosorts literally

Good Morning everyone, well the snow arrived here last night, how about you ?

Not a lot, but it looks really pretty. It was the puppies first encounter with the white stuff, neither Daisy or Lily were took keen and both wanted to get back to their respective baskets.

I thought I would share the easel box card I made last week for Azaria, it used the really cute slapstick from Penny Black 40-038 Kindness, which I stamped and embossed three times, coloured with Copics and decoupaged. The DP is My Minds Eye, the swirls a sizzix die and the border Martha Stewart trellis fence. The flower is made using Tim Holtz tattered floral die, soaked in water to shape then spritzed with Glimmer Mist pearl. This is for the following challenges:

Crafty Catz - Christmas

Something Completely Different - Let it Snow (it is with glitter)

Over at Allsorts we have a brand new challenge this morning were my teami Amanda would like to see Monochromatic projects.

For my DT work I have created a shaped card using Nesties.........it's not huge but I do love the shape of these new labels 17........ which I spritzed the card itself with Glimmer Mist gold. I used Stamps by Judith (Stamp Addicts) 0-90 which I stamped with versamark and embossed with detail clear, then distressed with Tim Holtz scattered straw and tea dye. I then overstamped Stampendous long agapanthus in versafine sepia. The bottom section was run thorough the Big Shot using Cuttlebug bark folder, some ribbon, Swarovski crystals and a small sentiment to finish. This card is also for the following challenges:

Our Creative Corner - Tag it

Alphabet Challenge- E is for embossing
Lots to Do - Embosing (used dry and heat)

Molly Blooms again

Morning folks, it's Saturday which can mean only one thing, time for a new challenges at Allsorts where Kirsten has given us a recipe to work with "Lace, ribbon and a charm".

I usually struggle with recipes because I usually create my card only to discover when I've finished that I have missed something off, but I think I've got it all this time....fingers crossed.

I used a couple of new stamps here, the lovely scene is from Stampendous CRR123 Forest Cottage, which I stamped and very lightly coloured with Aquamarkers and added some JudiKins snow glitter. I created a frame using Nestie and My Minds Eye DP, then decoupaged this lovely little girl which is one of the new stamps designed by our Claire - Molly Blooms MB00341, again coloured with Aquamrakers and decoupaged. Martha Stewart doily lace punched, lace ribbon and a charm............yes it is there.......if you look closely you will see a little Christmas tree in the scene. This cards is also for the following challenges:

My Time to Craft - Window fun

Simon Says - Sparkle

Stamping for the Weekend - Winter

CES - Lovely lace

Our Creative Corner - Holiday 3D

Ladybug - Christmas sparkle

My second share is yet another Christmas creation back in the distressed floral comfort zone using Penny Black 3758K Christmas Montage which I inked with various Tim Holtz inks and spritzed with water before stamping, then added some glitter here and there. The DP is My Minds Eye, all edges distressed with the same inks, a border punched with Martha Stewart cornice edge, buttons and gold cord to embellish. This card is for the following challenges:

Midnight Madness - Sketch

A Spoonful of Sugar - Distressing

An Oldie but a Goodie - Glitter

Stampman - Anything 'Tim'

Creative Inspirations - Christmas/winter

All about Autumn and puppy picture

Hello Peeps, just a quick post to let you know I'm still about and a picture of Buffy and Daisy who is now twelve weeks old and the most hyperactive puppy I have even come across, but absolutely adorable of course. One day I might even get all six of them in one place at one time for a canine family portrait.

Due to this enforced crafting lay off, a share of a card I did a month or two back for Stampalot samples, but not yet blogged so I thought I would use it for a few challenges.

The card above is using good old favourite.......are you ready for it......Stampendous P107 Agapanthus cluster along with Hero Arts S5316 silhouette grass, F5042 leaf flourish and G3316 harlequin. All stamped with versafine sepia onto a background created with Tim Holtz mustard seed and wild honey. I distressed the edges and embossed with detail gold. The sentiment is Hero CG189 which I cut into pieces after stamping. I made the rose from grunge paper stamping with the same swirl stamp and colouring with the TH inks. This is for the following challenges:

The Stampman - Distressed

Creative Card Crew - Autumn/Fall Colours

Spoonful of Sugar - Fall into Autumn Colours

My second card is a really quick and simple one following the Midnight Madness sketch this week. The DP is Crate Paper which I also used to make a rather full flower using my Tattered Floral Die. A border using Martha Stewart floral vine and Sizzix swirls. The sentiment is Penny Black 4075F which I think is a lovely verse with so many applications and to finish a generous helping of gems or should I say diamonds ? This card is for the following challenges:

Midnight Madness - Sketch

By the Cute and Girly - Indian Summer

Tuesday Taggers - Diamonds are Forever (memo to Tagger girls, have to say this is an awesome theme, very imaginative indeed)

A couple of challenges and Candy news

Well it's still snowing on and off and by the look of the news it's pretty bad in some parts. Here in the Fens we had a heavy fall this morning which compounded by the hard frosts we've had almost every day on top of the Christmas snow which is still laying around, it's pretty treacherous out there. Whatever your weather, keep warm and safe.

A mixed bunch here and might be a long post so grab a coffee first. Two cards, candy news, some challenges, another tutorial and the first of some very overdue samples for Sir Stampalot using one of the new releases from Hero Arts. And for those of you on the look out for a bargain, their mega sale starts on Saturday 9th January, but if you cant wait there are already some sale goodies to be grabbed right here.

Just had a quick nose myself and there are some real bargains to be had - Alphametal Stamp Kit - £29.95 down to £9.95, Tim Holt stamp sets half price, Rubber Soul stamp sets £12.50 down to £5, Ladybug and friends £10.99 down to £6. Me thinks I need to do some serious shopping......................

Now the candy news. I have said many times that I have been overwhelmed by the friendship I have received here in blogland and the wonderful friends I have met. I realised this week that my followers are close to reaching 200.......this just astounds me it really does, so as a thank you I am offering some candy. It is a bit of a mixed bag, stamps, ribbons, cardstock, flowers, DP's and lots more, I am just waiting for a decent bit of daylight to take some photos, then I will get it posted up over the next few days.

A few people have asked me how I do the messy aceate, glue and foil technique like the one above, so working on a tutorial for that, but again need better weather before I can bag some decent photographs.

On to some challenges. My first card is for this weeks Creative Card Crew which had a theme just made for me "Distressing" and Everybody Art Challenges wants us to use our favourite colour combo. Well I love all colours so it's a hard call to decide on my favourite, but as I repeatedly drift back to autumnal colours and getting all stressed out.......some days that's not just my cards either I can tell you.........so I guess these colours must be some of my favourites.

For this card I started with Glimmer Mists pineapple, copper, gold terracotta, vanilla breeze and iridescent gold to create a background piece. I then stamped onto this with Hero Arts G3316 Harlequin, F5042 Leaf Flourish and H2365 Old French Writing using a mixture of versafine sepia, versamark and detail gold embossing powder. To add a bit more interest I sponged some brilliance gold through a piece of mesh and distressed the edges with Tim Holtz brushed corduroy. Next I stamped good old favourite Stampendous P107 Agapanthus Cluster onto a piece of acetate using versafine black and heat embossed with detail clear and the same Hero swirl down the side and embossed with gold.

After joining the acetate the the base piece with some brads, wrapped some gold cord round and mounted it onto a piece of Crate Paper DP, again distressed around the edges. Finally I added a flower, some gold gems and a journaling tag.

Tuesday Taggers (and a Stampalot sample) has the lovely theme of Black and White, always a pleasure to work with and I love the crispness of the combination. I stamped some swirls onto the card itself with Inkadinkado 97632 then stamped one of my new Hero stamps CG165 Silhouette Bells onto white linen cardstock using versafine black and embossed with detail clear. I cut nested mounts on Cricut Storybook and cut a central oval with nesties through the Big Shot Express. More roses I'm afraid, this time with black vellum, white pearls for stamens and some punched leaves.

My rose tutorial can be found here for anyone who fancies a go at making them, believe me they are very simple and much cheaper than the commercially produced ones.........plus you can make them from your DP's so you get an exact colour match.

Rosie D's challenge 60

This one is just for all of you who still have those last minute Christmas cards to make........that probably means all of us if I am anything to go by. It's Rosie D's new challenge with the theme "Rudolph has a bright new bell" - interpret it as you will, I can see some great fun projects coming our way.

I have made a card using a real old favourite from Stampedous 4611 - Rudolph which really is simplicity itself to make up a quick card. Stamped with versafine black, embossed with detail clear, oodles of glamour dust and stickles for his bells and nose. Some ribbon down the side and a 'bright new bell' dangling from it. The sentiment is Art Impression H2775