Long time no post

No post for over a week! Can't you tell I'm back at work?! Well, I have managed a Less is more card, and I am putting the finishing touches to a couple of card commissions, so I may manage two posts this week! Anyway, enough of my chatter. Here is my Less is More card where they have a sketch this week

I used a waltzing mouse stamp for the circular frame, an inkylicious stamp for the foliage and a Hero arts digi stamp for the butterfly, coloured with promarkers and a bit of glitter too. Yes, I have the butterfly in the wood mounted and the clear version, but wanted to be able to resize it so HAD to buy the digi too. I admit it. I have nearly as many butterflies as tree stamps!!!
I've just realised I haven't added a sentiment, but it is one layer except for the butterfly, so please let me know if it doesn't fit the criteria, Chrissie and Mandi and I will put one on. Thanks for another brilliant sketch - I normally don't like them, but this is just my style! Thanks also for the lovely comments from the lovely LIMettes. I will hopefully get round to visiting you over the week. Thanks for looking!

Stampalot Birthday Blog Hop

If you have come to hop along for the Stampalot Blog Hop then click here to take you to the blog hop post.

No card, but a plea

Hi There
I've been a bit busy at work this week, but was determined to visit a few blogs this evening. There seem to be lots of people out there who are not happy with the new Blogger interface. I tried it as soon as the message appeared on my blog, and like lots of people I wasn't impressed. The fact that the blog roll is not a separate feature to the latest posts annoyed me and also I struggled with the bright white and orange colour scheme. After a few minutes I found it hurt my eyes. I clicked on the cog symbol (top right) and found I could change back easily, but before I did I left feedback telling them that I didn't like it and why. I have done this twice now, but I urge you to do the same if you are unhappy. Surely if enough of us let Blogger know they might take notice. There seems to be an impression that we want it to all be faster, but speed to be honest doesn't bother me. I just want to be able to blog without squinting at the brightness of the colour scheme. I've read comments from people who have said they are thinking of giving up blogging because of it, and others who I know will struggle due to sight problems, as I will. Please please please leave feedback, post about it and spread the word. Blogger would never have been successful without all of us, so surely our opinion should hold some sway.
Thanks for listening

          Sally

Primrose Day

Today is Primrose Day. The official reason for it being primrose day is that Primrose Day is the anniversary of the death of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli on 19 April 1881.The primrose was his favourite flower and Queen Victoria would often send him bunches of them from Windsor and Osborne House. She sent a wreath of primroses to his funeral.

For my Father in Law it holds special memories, as it was on Primrose day that he proposed to my Mother in Law. They had been out walking in the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire and came across  lots of wild primroses. Every Primrose Day since that day in 1953, he has presented her with a small bunch of primroses. This card is my gift to him in remembrance of  her and that beautiful spring day. 

 The scenes are all created using Hobby Art Scene-it stamps, and the primroses are a Digi stamp from my lovely friend Teri at Delicious Doodles. The scene is coloured with Distress inks and a water brush, and the primroses are coloured with promarkers. The dies are Go Kreate windows #1, of which I cut two of each of the three sections, sticking the ribbon hinge in between the two layers. Thanks for looking.

Several snippet makes

It is going to be a very quick one today as it is Meg's Birthday. She is 15. I can't believe how quickly time has flown! All of my cards on this post are destined for Di's Crafty snippet challenge. Whilst tidying my craft space last weekend I found all sorts of things. I was in the middle of making a birthday card for a colleague, and went in search of scraps. I found several coordinating pieces and ended up making this.

 My workmate loves her caravan, her dog and is very musical, so hopefully she will love this. I also found a scrap of Stella and Rose paper from My Mind's eye. It was a perfect backdrop for this pair of Penny Black ducks that have also been lurking for a while on my desk.

I used some scraps of green shimmery parchment to make the border and mat the image. The flowers were  made from punched scraps of coloured parchment. I am also entering this into Penny Black and More @Allsorts where the theme is 'Oh so cute!' . Here is a close up of the flowers...

and you can see my faux stitching.  I don't do real stitching on cards, it is all done with a pen, and sometimes a poky tool too. I have a Distress ink marker in picket fence and it does look quite realistic from a distance. If I did get my sewing machine out more, I guess I wouldn't still have three pairs of trousers waiting to be turned up, lol!
My last snippet make is another using pink petticoat papers (yes, again!). You will be pleased to know there are no more snippets of these left in my drawer now, so I will be using something different for the next few weeks!

The border is a tonic punch, the frame is a Waltzing mouse stamp and the butterfly is a hero arts digi. I do have this stamp both in rubber and clear versions, but the idea of making it resizeable was irresistible! Here is a close up of the butterfly too.

I coloured it with promarkers and added a tiny bit of glitter. So, I'm off to the snippet playground with three makes and a bag of pear drops - maybe I'll see you there.Thanks for looking!

Doodling at Less is More

The theme at Less is More this week is doodling on a one layer card. Now although I do doodle a bit sometimes, it is never in an arty way (more scribble than doodle to be honest!), so this was a bit out of my comfort zone. I thought of what stamps I have that have very little detail and opted for my Waltzing Mouse Tea time sets. I got out my set of fine tipped markers and set to. Here is my first attempt.

I thought this looked okay, but decided I should try a bit of Zentangle. A Zentangle teacup...

Please excuse the wonky photo. Now there is probably some rule that Zentangle should be just black and white, but I added a little bit of pastel blue promarker and cool grey promarker to give it some depth. Then the tea in the cup needed colouring too.

At this point I should've stopped, but no, I wanted to try something else, so I chose three colours and tried to decorate another kettle. Disaster! I think the problem was I tried to do stripes rather than random shapes. I will show you, but please don't consider it for the challenge!

It reminds me of a poem by Paul Cookson called 'I'm not going out like that in the jumper Grandma knitted!'. I bet this kettle is thinking the same!!! I think I'll stick to black and white in the future!

Well, thanks for looking and I'll hopefully pay a visit to my fellow LIMettes later in the week.

Silhouettes at Craft-a-Scene

The theme this month at Craft a Scene is Silhouettes. Now I was thrilled that they liked my card so much last month, and wasn't at all sure what to do this month, but after a fair bit of mulling, opted for an interpretation of one of the photos taken last week. Here is the card...

and here is the photo...

Well, it had to have a moon/sun on it and a bird too! I brayered the background with Adirondacks in Peach bellini, Sunshine yellow, Sunset orange and Pitch Black. The tree is an Andy Skinner stamp by Personal Impressions and all other stamps are from Inkylicious. I added a few lines and spots of white gel pen to highlight the twigs in the corner. The black panel was embossed and then rubbed over with rub and buff.
The die-cut leaves are a Marianne die and the roses were hand cut and rolled from gold paper. Here is a close up so you can see them better.

I think this is going to be Meg's Birthday card, as she took the photo and she also loves her birds of prey.
Before I go I want to mention the wonderful lady from whom I learned how to use a brayer. She doesn't know me from Adam, but I have spent many a happy hour looking at her work and following her tutorials. I first discovered her work back in 2008 and have learned so much from her. If you have never visited Michelle Zindorf's blog 'Freedom in Creating' make sure you pay her a visit. She is truly inspirational, and does it all for love, giving freely of her talent. She isn't the only one either. There are many other amazingly talented and inspirational crafters out there too, and I am so delighted to have found this great challenge, along with the fabulous DT for even more inspiration.  Isn't the internet an amazing thing? Well, thanks for looking and I hope you have a great day.

A couple of challenges

Can you tell it's the school holidays? This will make 3 challenges this week, lol!
My first card was going to be for Less is More last week, but I messed it up! When I saw the Allsorts bingo theme this week I realised I could cover up my mess with ribbon and a bit of bling! So the bingo line I chose was pink, green and ribbon.

The plant stamps are from Inkylicious and the sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse.
My next offering is made from ancient snippets that were donated to me and a scene I stamped (using Hobby Art stamps) and watercoloured whilst I was on holiday last summer.

Here is a better view of the dragonfly made with fantasy film.

Again, this was made a couple of years ago using an old Anita's stamp, and has been in my bits and bobs box  ever since. It has a lovely gold and green shimmer IRL.
This is my offering for Di's Crafty Snippets this week. Looking forward to having a good play in the playground. Well, I'd better get off to bed. Got a long list of jobs to get through tomorrow. Thanks for looking!

Less is More - 3 Shades of Green

Here is my card for this week's Less is More, where the theme is three shades of green. I used Adirondack inks in Citrus, Lettuce and Meadow, with the freebie from last months Craft stamper (the Hares designed by Indigo Blu) and some Inkylicious Grass stamps. I added a few blobs of diamond stickles to the scene. My ability to do anything straight today seems a little impaired, as you can see by the photo, and my first stamping of the sentiment was not straight, so I stamped it again, cut it out and placed it over the wonky one - good job it isn't a one layer week, Chrissie and Mandi! The Stamp is from Hobby Art and I edged the sentiment panel with a bit more stickles. I'm also entering this into the Samuel Taylors Challenge where the theme is green. This months fabulous prize is a pot of Indigo Blu "Yorkshire Dales" mega flakes, a tub of Flitter Glu and a sponge which allows you to apply your flakes effectively.

I am going to share a couple more photos from Scotland, just to show how green the fields looked in the sunshine.

Thanks for looking!

Fresh Air and Wildlife!

I'm back! Meg and I have spent the last three days in Scotland with Lynne. The Scenery is breathtaking and although it was a little bracing at times we got out for a walk every day. Here are a few photos.

Lichen encrusted tree trunks,

 

A male bullfinch,

 

A red squirrel (his ear tufts are being blown flat in the wind!)

 

Another red squirrel, who loves to pose for the cameras,

 

A lovely sunset over the river,

and a tree (well, I have to include trees somehow!). Now I think I have an Andy Skinner stamp that looks a bit like that...

Well, thanks for looking. Hope you have a great Easter weekend!

Happy Birthday Sir Stampalot!

Good Morning ,crafters! Let me tell you all about a rather special month at Stampalot Challenge. It might be April Fools day,  the surprises are all good ones and you are going to be spoilt rotten this month. There are a total of fourteen prizes to be won because it's our Second Birthday, so the theme this month is:

Happy Birthday

You can make anything you want as long as it's to celebrate a Birthday and this is the prize from Sir Stampalot for this months challenge winner:

But it does not stop there, as we are having a Blog Hop and what great prizes Sir Stampalot are offering in addition the the challenge prize above, one at each of the DT's blogs and another for the winner of the correct blog hop answer. I know lots of you are familiar with what you need to do, but as we are seeing so many new crafters joining our challenge, I had better briefly explain:

 Visit eAch of the DT's blogs listed below And collect the letter - mine should be fAirly obvious!

LeAve eAch one A comment to be sure you Are in the drAw for the prizes on eAch of the DT's blogs

Assemble those letters into two words - both hAve four letters and send your Answers to brenda@ibas.co.uk by noon GMT on 30th April

All correct answers will go into the draw for this super prize of HERO ARTS goodies

Here's the list of names you need to follow, each one will tell you where you should have arrived from and where you need to go next, and don't forget you need to leave a comment at each blog, otherwise you won't be in the draw for all those prizes.

Sally - That's me!
Pinky

Clare

Brenda
Ruth

Tracy
Lynne

Francesca

To get here you should have come from the challenge blog, and your next port of call will be Pinky.

This is the prize you can win on my blog:

And there are yet more prizes, because as this is a special month for us, this month Top 3 challenge entrants will also receive a little prize rather like this which Brenda has put together...........

Now there was something else I had to remember...

Oh yes, my card!

The background paper is from Pink Petticoat, and the Honeysuckle stamp is from Lavinia, coloured with promarkers. The frame is a Waltzing Mouse stamp cut out with a Nestie and the pink border is a tonic studios punch. The sentiment is also a Waltzing Mouse stamp.

Anyway, I don't want you snoozing off so I'd better shut up. Don't forget to go and have a look at the DT's gorgeous samples on the Challenge Blog, where you will also find all the details of the challenge and blog hop, and I look forward to visiting you soon.

Christening card

Last week I had a request for a Christening card, so yesterday I got busy and had a go at putting one together. I have only ever made 5 Christening cards, and two of those were for members of this same family, so I had to come up with something different! I had a little visit to Once Upon a Stamp last weekend and bought a Marianne Designables cut and embossing folder, and wanted to try it out, so that was my starting point.

After running the folder and linen look card through the cuttlebug I used Spun sugar distress ink to go around the edge. I then stamped some plain white card with one of the Waltzing Mouse gingham stamps and Memento angel pink. I added some flat backed pearls,some faux stitching and an organza bow...

and then thought about the image!
I went to my usual place for lovely baby and children images - Mo Manning and found this beauty.

I coloured her with promarkers using fine tips (What a wonderful invention those are!) because this circle is less than 2 inches across. The sentiment and name (Irish apparently and pronounced ee-ma) were computer generated and coloured with more spun sugar DI. The tags are spellbinders dies - fancy tags 1 and Grommet tags. It is rather pink for me, but I think it works.
Well, I'm going to take a break for a few days. Meg and I are off to visit a lovely friend, and hopefully get some fresh air and see some Scottish wildlife. Thanks for looking!