Moonlight across the lake

Good Morning Peeps. Still no sign of the sun here is the Fens, but this morning it's really misty so I am hoping that might clear away into a nice day, we can but hope.

You seemed to like my inkyness yesterday and thank you so much for your very kind comment, so thought I would share another, this time a moonlight scene across the lake. As usual a mixture of stamps from Art Impressions, Stampscapes and the little boat is from a Stamp Addicts sheet which we used  a few months back for one of the Create and Craft TV shows. I tried to create some reflection in the water by sponging and reverse stamping.

I used the trusty Speedball brayer onto gloss cardstock and Adirondack inks cloud blue, denim and black. I usually leave these type of cards fairly simple, but I decided to add a little lace and ribbon to this one to give a softer feel.

I am entering this into this months Create a Scene challenge who want to see 'Moonlight'

Have a good Thursday everyone.

Paradise Isle

Hello Peeps, first off I must send a little message to those blog peeps I am hoping to meet at Stamperama tomorrow, hopefully our plans will fall into place, but we are very white here again and the roads decidedly dodgy, plus my legs are still MIA and I've had to pocket my pride and resort to to my wheelchair this past week so taking it all into account, will have to play it totally by ear come tomorrow.

Things have a habit of taking twice as long when my mobility goes out of the window and my mind is always half an hour ahead of my body, so I have been a bad, bad blogger this week and not helped by the fact my keyboard and mouse seem to have all but died on me and typing just a few words is taking forever...........would you believe I started typing this at 6am and now it's nearly eight, I've tried new batteries and all sorts and last night resorted to ordering a new one from Amazon.

So, better move on to tell you about Allsorts  where it's my turn to host the challenge where we are continuing with our Free and Easy February. And for my DT piece I thought an inky session was in order and have created a tropical scene using a collection of  Stampscapes images, Adirondack dye inks watermelon, cloudy blue and hazelnut, a little colouring with Copics and of course a masked moon with sponged sky and sea brayered with the Speedball.

I know lots of peeps think brayering is a bit of a scary pastime, but believe me it really is not and is the perfect way to make a fairly swift card. So if you've got a brayer collecting dust, get it out and have some fun..............and as I say at the top of my blog, just mail me if you need some help.

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

Momories of hunting with my Dad

Good Morning peeps. hope you are all well this bright Tuesday morning, well at least it's bright here in the Fens, we still have several inches of snow and although it rained last night, the temperature plummeted to well below freezing again so the snow is hanging about.

You all now how much I love making scenes so could not miss the pull to create one for this months Create a Scene challenge where they would like to see 'Winter Scenes'. And this ones is my take on the scene I saw from my bedroom window so many times as a child, with my Dad, his gun and dog wandering off across the fields, when he would return at lunchtime with a brace or more of pheasants across his shoulder. Often I would go with Dad and we would sit for hours in a hide or in the spinney at the bottom of the back meadow waiting for the game birds to put up, with a flask of soup to keep us warm and not a care in the world, or at least it always seemed that way to me.

Stamps are a mixture of Art Impression, Stampscapes, Hobby Art and Inkylicious. I brayered the background with Adirondack dye inks cloud blue, denim and black and used Archival black for all the stamping. The fence is hand drawn.........every Country scene needs a fence in my world. The poem is computer generated and printed onto gloss cardstock........as the ink does not dry very quickly on the coated stock, I brayer the background before printing.

A little note about the blogger who has been compromising artwork which I posted about two weeks ago here. Please be assured that I am not ignoring the individuals and companies who have mailed me asking that I disclose the name of this person, but at the moment I am waiting for input from the company we both design for and this has been delayed due to CHA. 

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

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.

I 'need' to make Spring cards (and candy winners)

Good Morning everyone.

Only three days to go until 'the' day and today's "Turkey" day................and gammon and several other things. My daughter and I will be popping off to collect it this morning, seemed a bit early to me but today is the day the farm shop allocated for collections, so I figure it might be heaving there.

My share above is just a little bit of inking and brayering using Stampscapes stamps inking and Adirondack inks and a Summer scene to help ward off these bleak winter days. Funny how all I have wanted to do craft wise this last week or two is make bright Spring and Summer cards, did I say how much I dislike Winter ?

And of course I need to tell you the names of my candy winners, so here they are.

Winner of my December Walnut Hollow goodies is...................

Julie

And winner of the mini  DP candy from Tuesday is.....................

Spyder

Congratulations to you both, please mail me with your full postal addys by 27th Decmeber (will re-draw any not claimed by that date).

Fishing in the moonlight

Good Morning peeps tis I, released from captivity and so nice to sleep in my own bed, how you are meant to do so in hospital I shall ever know, the place never rests. They have told me it will be ten days until I get my results as it takes that long for the recordings to be analysed and the cardiologist to asses, so a little bit of a fretful wait.

Just the one share today of something I made a few weeks ago, using Stampscape stamps a the little boat from Stamp Addicts on the water set and Adirondack dye inks which I sponger rather than brayered this time. I also added a little white with a pen here and there to highlight the trees and grasses.

Hope you all have a good day, I need to get my head together at work and clear my desk of a few files, then hopefully later some crafting.

Winter sunset in the Fens

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bali, a surfers paradise

Good Morning peeps, is it cold or what here in the Fens today, the heating kicked in during the night again so a sure sign colder days have arrived.

I thought I would share the card I made for one of our son's Birthdays. I know I am safe to show it as he and his wife went off to Bali at the weekend and I have no doubt that by now his surf boards have been well and truly tested in the Bali Sea which sits within the Indian Ocean waters. He's been a keen surfer since he was a teenager and Bali has always been one of his dream destinations for surfing.

The stamps are a mixture of Stampscapes, art impression and I had the silhouette surfer with his board specially made for this card. Inks are of course Adirondack dye inks and I also used the Speedball brayer.

Have a good day everyone, I'm not likely to be about for a few days now due to the medical tests etc., I mentioned Saturday.

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.

Brayers certainly rolled.............

Well, what can I say !!

A really fabulous weekend in the company of seventeen lovely crafty girls at Sir Stampalot and wow, what fabulous work they all created. Lunch was pretty good as well and two of the girls played right into my hands with cheese scones.................as Dorcas would say "cheese scones are my one weakness" (I'm in Lark Rise to Candleford mode there).

Several had their own brayers and would you believe five were still in the box and had never seen the light of day, but I managed to change all that. There were one or two horrified faces when I went through the projects they would be making and especially the little scene with a brayered background and lots of Art Impression stamps.

But each and every one of them created the most beautiful scene................. and of course masked suns and moon as well.............. and already I have spied some popping up in blogland. In fact they all made three cards using different techniques with the good old Speedball plus several other less challenging pieces.

So a huge thank you to all of those who joined me, it was great fun and a pleasure to work with each and every one of you. And thanks to Andy and Janice for putting up with the giggles and girly chatter.

And I am pleased to say my eyes behaved themselves and didn't play up once all weekend, I'm feeling a bit jaded today and know I need to take it easy for a day or so, but so pleased I was able to do the full weekend with my crafty friends.

Two card shares, the top using Stampscape stamps and the one above using Hero Arts dogwood, but forgive me not going into detail on them, have a bit of a manic Monday ahead of me.

Have a good week everyone and thanks for dropping by.

It never rains when it pours does it ?

Hello peeps, I'm back from my hols, but not into the groove yet.......that might take a day or two.

A fabulous holiday, but we came home to defrosted fridges and freezers..............the smell met us at the door. Looks like we had a power cut which was long enough to allow the ice machine to leak it's contents which then seeped through the floorboards onto a power cable and threw the trip switch.

It was late before we got everything cleaned up there, so last night before we unpacked and the icing on the cake was finding I had lost all the jewellery I took on holiday. I have a horrid feeling that when we cleared the safe the morning we got off the boat that I left in laying on the bed in our cabin, so have mailed the concierge on the ship in the slim hope it was found................keeping everything crossed.

Then there is the little Mr Linky/Blogger problem that looks like remaining a total mystery but which I need to explain. Somehow despite me adding separate html widget codes to one of my own posts and the August Stampalot challenge, the two seem to have merged. Nobody can offer me any explanation how it happened, so the only answer was to re-launch Stampalot August challenge this morning. So all those who had already entered will need to entered their work a second time onto the new Linky widget. Sorry folks, it had to happen when I was away didn't it ?

So just a couple of really quick shares made a while back using the Speedball brayer, Adirondack dye inks and Stampscape stamps.

Stamp Addicts meets Art Impressions and Stampscapes

Good Morning peeps, I hope you all had a good long weekend. The weather stayed kind here in the Fens, although the wind was a tad cold and this morning it was minus 2 and quite white in the shade.

I fancied a bit of brayering........just for a change I hear you say and thought I would combine some of the Stamp Addicts scenic stamps with Stampscapes ones along with Art Impression just to prove their versatility. As usual Adirondack inks, speedball brayer and I kept them both quite simple just matting and layering to set off the scenes I created.

Things are still slow going on the computer front with the dodgy eyes and balance, but bit by bit I am getting a bit of blogging done and really appreciate your patience with my slow progress.

New stamps, TV & demo sneak peeks

Nose to Nose 40-057 One of the new Penny Black slapstick stamps

Good Morning peeps, hope you are all enjoying this nice weather, lets hope it continues for the Easter weekend.

Gypsy Caravan 2 and Cloud stamp sets

Good Friday I will be domoing at Sir Stampalot.........inky backgrounds, brayering and of course some Penny Black stamps along with Le Blanche. If you are in the area please do pop in for a chat and coffee.

The gorgeous Rosa 4184K Penny Black stamp

It decoupages beautifully coloured with Aquamarkers, inked with versamark frost and spritzed with Glimmer Mist pearls then moulded whilst wet. The DP is October Afternoon.

And another sneak peek at some of the stamps that will be included in Stamp Addicts next live TV programme at 11am on 27th April.........make a note in your dairy.

I'm still not able to spend long in front of the screen, so still shorts posts and not as many visits to you all as I would like, but when I do my DT commenting stints I try and stretch it a bit to visit a few peeps.

Tropical Paradise and another new TV show

A new Allsorts challenge and a heads up about another new Stamp Addicts TV programme on Create and Craft later this month.

My teamie Emma has come up with another of her fab sketches at Allsorts this week and I have done a bit of an unconventional take on it, but I thinks it follows the sketch and Emma won't rap my knuckles.

For the main central element I used a circle mask and stamped a tropical scene using an assortment of Stampscapes stamps, then brayered over with Adirondack due inks and added a bit of colour to the images with Copics. The DP was an oddment from stash and the sentiment is from Stamping Up.

Using Gypsy Caravan 2 and Scenic sets and Aquamarkers

Now on to the Stamp Addicts samples for the new programme scheduled for 11am on 27th April. Yet more yummy new scenic style stamp sheets, so as you can imagine I have been in my element again.

A real chocolate box cottage from the Rural set, along with the Scenic and Gypsy Caravan 2 sets.

A bit of masking and brayering - again

Good Morning peeps, hope you are all well.

I hope you have been sharing the lovely weather the last few days. It clouded over here yesterday with a bit of rain and we had a frost again last night, but the sky is looking promising this morning so fingers crossed to will be nice again.

I am still having to restrict my time in front of the computer screen and I am beginning to wonder if my eyes will ever go back to where they were before this relapse, or at least to a point where I can focus for any period of time........I know.......patience is a virtue as my Granny was always telling me !

So a few shares, the one above using masking, brayering and sponging with Adirondack dye inks and a scene created with a selection of Stampscape stamps and a larger than life moon........but this is fantasy land !

For this one I masked the edges of the cardstock and shaded with TH ditress ink to create a frame, stamped Hero Arts K5503 Bird Collage and coloured with Copics.

My final share is another with the lovely Penny Black 3949H Poppy and 3195H Kindness. I masked the edges of the silk art card and brayered the bottom corner with a pale Adirondack ink, stamped the sentiment and poppy, coloured with Copics and then masked over the whole centre piece and brayered two of the corners and overstamped in the same colour with a small Art Impression flower stamp.

More La Blanche and Stampscapes

Hello everyone, hope you all had a good weekend. I want to say a big thank you to all you kind people who still come to visit, desipte me being unable to visit you. I really do appreciate it.

So just a couple of quick shares........"quick" seems to be my word of the moment, but the evil screen still plays havod with my eyes and balance......or it could be the other way round ? I rather think so, such is the nature of this illness.

The card above uses a number of Stampscape stamps onto a brayered and masked background and the card below is another of my samples for Sir Stampalot using the gorgeous new La Blanche stamps which I coloured with Copics and covered with a couple of coats of TH crackle glaze. DP is My Minds Eye and the flower made with TH tattered floral die

Brayers in action again

Stamp Addicts Scenic Stamp Set

Hello folks, just a short post.....yes I am still being good so it will be limited to just some pictures...............some of the brayering I have been up to and another peek at some of the fabby stamps available from Stamp Addicts that will be showcased on their next live programme on 21st March. This is for the following challenge:

Crafts us Crazy - Be one with Nature

Stamps from Stampscapes and Art Impression

Driving is still a no no and the keyboard remains a struggle, but I am able to sit and craft reasonably well now, in fact I think I have been making cards for England this last week and have an abundance to share. This is for the following challenge:

Cards for Men - Water

Try it on Tuesdays - Song - Seven Seas of Rhye - Queen

Good old Penny Black

This one is for the following challenges:

Creative Inspirations - In the garden

Scrapbook Sisters - Spring

Cute Card Thursday - Signs of Spring

Everybody Art - Spring

Delightful Challenges - Welcome Spring

One Stitch at a Time - Card for mom