Saturday 25 February 2012

Free and Easy February at Allsorts

Allsorts are having another free choice week this week, so it was the perfect opportunity to have a play with more trees, Adirondack inks and ink dusters. This first card uses the Lavinia trees in black, with a landscape sky created using eggplant, pool, denim and mountain rose. The stitching stamp is from Waltzing Mouse and the buttons were from Sir Stampalot.
My second card is an easel card. It features all Lavinia stamps and inks in Sunshine yellow, peach Bellini, Mountain rose and Slate. I used a tonic punch for the border.
I added a few shadows on the leaves in the foreground, some roots on the tree, a little trunk detail  and a few fronds of grass round the bottom of the fence. I could have done with using a pen that was slightly paler, but never mind. There was a rather spectacular sunset here this evening with orange and bright pink in abundance. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo in time.
Welcome to my new followers Mandy, Victoria, Ellie and Louise. Thanks for following and I hope you enjoy looking around my blog.
Hope everyone has a great evening. Thanks for looking!

Sunday 19 February 2012

For my dear friend, B

I have a lovely friend who is as addicted to trees as I am (you probably know exactly who I am talking about). I received a lovely little parcel from her last week containing some Lavinia trees and a pack of their fabulous card. Thank you so much my friend. Very much appreciated. This thank you card has reached it's destination now, so I am safe to post it here. I've sent her a bit of spring sunshine to compensate for that weather they have been having in the fens!
I used Adirondack inks in espresso, lettuce, meadow, sunset orange, sunshine yellow and peach bellini with stamps and ink dusters. The other plants in the foreground are a mixture of Lavinia and Inkylicious stamps. I used white gel pen to highlight the trees and gold to highlight the flowers.
Thanks for looking!

Friday 17 February 2012

Ninjabread!

This is me sporting my new red belt...
This is sensai...
Here is a bit of Kumite...

And here is Ninjabread grading!!!
I know, I'm a complete nutcase, but they went down very well at Karate class tonight! I saw the cutters on Amazon and decided to treat myself, lol!

Thursday 16 February 2012

crafty snippets

Here is my crafty snippet card for Miss Di this week. I used the remains of papers from a very similar card I made earlier in the week. The border was taken from some pieces that my friend Lynne punched with her new Tonic border punch, when she popped in on Saturday! There were two short strips lying there just begging to be used! The sponging round the edge of the image looks more pink than orange in real life. The main image is from Inkylicious with a Waltzing mouse frame around it.
Thanks for looking!

A hanky card!

Well, it is way past my bed time, but finally I came up with an idea for less is more this week, where the theme is stripes. I remembered this waltzing mouse stamp which was a Christmas present, but hadn't been inked yet. I stamped it a couple of times down the side of the card, but it needed more, so I went across the bottom of the card, and realised I had recreated a men's hanky! The sentiment (Waltzing Mouse) was pretty obvious after that. I was thinking about sticking a packet of  Lemsip to the corner, but then it might not be one layer, so I didn't! 
I can see this stamp being used to recreate all sorts of tartan and plaid designs now - Tablecloths, pyjamas, tea towels, hankies...
Thanks for looking!

Tuesday 14 February 2012

This and that

First of all Happy Valentine's Day everyone. I don't have a card to post because they are already on here, but I must show you what I found...
How cute is that? A heart shaped potato!
On Sunday, Meg and I had our Karate grading, and got our Red Belts. Sensai told us that sweat is fat crying - made me laugh!
Here we are sporting the new belts. I can't believe how tall Meg is getting - didn't realise she is that much taller than me!
Finally I made a card, inspired by the photos I took on Saturday (see post below). I used ink dusters and Inkylicious stamps with Adirondack inks.
Thanks for looking, and I hope you have had a great Valentine's day!

Saturday 11 February 2012

Lovely papers and some photos

I popped onto Pink Petticoat's website to look at their gallery, and found they had a sale on. This set of 'Perfect' papers, twenty four in all, were just £1.25! Bargain! I bought some more too, which no doubt you will see very soon. I teamed them up with a Waltzing Mouse frame cut with Nestie labels 18. The Butterfly is an old Elusive Images/ Chocolate Baroque one coloured with promarkers.
 At Allsorts this week they are having a Free and Easy February, so I've decided to enter it into their challenge.
Well, I've got a week off school, so I'm going to indulge myself with a bit of crafting this week. Best place to be in this weather! I drove up to see my Dad for a couple of hours this afternoon and couldn't resist stopping to take a few photos. There is something about  the light on days like today that I just love.



Thanks for looking!
P.S. I'm feeling very honoured that Chrissie and Mandi of  "Less is More" chose my card as one of the showCASe cards for week 52.

Wednesday 8 February 2012

A quick post

 I have managed to make a few simple valentine cards this week, so I thought I would share them with you.
I used a Crafty Individuals stamp for the heart and the writing stamp is from Inkylicious. I used antique linen and Victorian Velvet distress inks.
This uses the same writing stamp with an elusive images heart. Sorry about the strange angle of the photo!
 My final two are both very similar using Inkylicious stamps and an embossed heart. I used mainly wild honey distress ink on the central strip. The paper that the hearts are made from is some very old sugar paper that I used to line the inside of my 'spraying box'. It is mainly Crafty Notions creative colour sprays that I used on it in a vast range of colours and it saved my carpet from getting splattered! The sentiment on the second is from Elusive images/ chocolate baroque, stamped in versamark and brushed with cosmic shimmer.

I wanted to pop into blog land for a bit this evening to let you know that my visit are a little sporadic at the moment as Mum in law passed away on Monday. It is very sad, but now she is at peace, and we can start to remember her as she was before the dementia.
Thank you so much for all your lovely comments and for visiting me, even when I'm not able to visit you.

Sunday 5 February 2012

In the Garden with Sir Stampalot

Good morning! Hope this Sunday morning you are snuggled up warm and safe indoors! I think most of us got a fair amount of snow yesterday, and for once the forecasters got it right.  At Sir Stampalot, as it is the first Sunday of the month, it is time for a new challenge. To get you all thinking of Spring and Summer (and better weather!) we have chosen the theme  
In the Garden
Here is my offering.
 I made a tunnel card using mainly Art Impressions clear set for projects 1-3. This set is in the sale at stampalot at the moment so it is a bargain! I also used a few leaves from Lavinia, a butterfly from Chocolate Baroque, and a few tiny flowers from a See-D's set called springtime collection. The whole thing is stamped and coloured with a mixture of Distress, Adirondack and Memento inks. It is so hard to capture the 3d-ness of it in a photo. 
What is the prize I hear you say... feast your eyes on this lovely lot!
Isn't it a fabulous prize? Well, all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning it is to make something inspired by a garden and enter it into the challenge (with no more than 5 other challenge entries). Pop over to the challenge blog for some inspiration from my lovely teamies.
Thanks for looking!

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Less is more - sketch

The challenge at Less is More this week is a sketch and I have to tell you this is my third attempt. I tried a variety of strips of patterned paper, but it just didn't look right. In the end I got my trusty dusters out and came up with this.
 I used Adirondack inks in sunshine yellow, sunset orange and espresso, along with distress ink in Tea dye. The stamp is from Inkylicious and is called Willow twigs. The sentiment is also from Inkylicious. I was trying to recreate one of those yellow sunrises you sometimes get this time of year, but I think the colour is a bit strong for that. Thanks for looking and I hope I will find the time to pay you a return visit. Steve had another operation on his knee today, so I am working from home tomorrow to keep an eye on him, and make sure he stays sitting down with his leg elevated.