Thursday 27 October 2016

Rudolf days for October

 Good morning! Happy Rudolf day! As it is half term I have been a busy bee and made four cards for this month to take over to Scrappy Mo's for the challenge. I started off by stamping the woodware holly stamp all over an A5 sheet of cartridge paper using versafine. I then used my Zig Clean Color markers to colour it. I dusted tea dye distress ink over the finished sheet and added glossy accents to the berries and spots of glitter glue in between.
 I sliced it up into two long panels and two square panels, matted and layered and popped onto cream card blanks. There are one or two smudges covered by carefully placed ribbon, and a dodgy stamping of a sentiment,but on the whole they worked out fine. I do like the zig pens (one of my purchases from Doncaster), they blend so well!
 Unfortnately I don't think the stamps are available any more. They came out about the same time as the tipsy trees, and I have used them most years since. I do love how Rudolf days challenge helps me to use lots of my old stamps too!
Right, I'd better go as Steve and I are off out for a walk. I have been quite inactive since we got back from Wales other than my Karate classes and a walk round Chatsworth. Will try and post some photos soon.
Thanks for looking!

Sunday 23 October 2016

Sparkle and Shine

 Good morning! Hope you are having a lovely weekend so far! When I saw the challenge at Allsorts this week I knew I had a card that fit the bill! I made this for my lovely colleague Sarah, who keeps me sane every day! I used Visible image and Inkylicious stamps, along with Distress inks in mermaid lagoon, picked raspberries and seedless preserves. I dusted the inks onto silk art card and used a stencil and a baby wipe to remove some colour in places. When it was dry I stamped the rain drops (Inkylicious) in memento black, adding a bit of sparkle with a gelly roll clear stardust pen. When it was dry I stamped the girl and the sentiment (visible Image) in Versamark and embossed with Be creative black sparkle embossing powder. It really was very sparkly, but unfortunately the camera hasn't really picked it up. It didn't help that there wasn't enough natural light either. Here is a close up where you can see a little bit of twinkle, but not half as much as there was in real life!
 I stamped the base card with Visible image stamps in the same inks and dusted with the same inks. The matting and layering was done with snippets so I am nipping off to Miss Di's snippet playground with this too.
We have just returned from a few days away in mid Wales. The rain certainly didn't dull Nature's sparkle. Here is the view from our cottage... Sheep rather than gold at the end of that rainbow!
 We spent a day at Lake Vyrnwy and saw more rainbows...
 There is some beautiful scenery around the lake and there are several waymarked RSPB walks giving stunning views of the lake.
 Here is a close-up of the tower on the lake. It may house various instruments to do with the reservoir's water, but whoever designed it make it look like something from a fairytale!
 The waterfall looked so beautiful surrounded by the Autumn colours and the sun provided beautiful spotlights as we walked.

Thanks for looking!

Monday 17 October 2016

Clean and Simple and Doncaster

Lynne and I had a lovely time at Doncaster Dome on Sunday. It was lovely to chat with Deby from Inkylicious, Gordon from Be Creative, The lovely flower making ladies at Pink Frog and Jenny Mayes at Hobby Art. We spent a while watching Jenny demo the new Zig pens and had a go ourselves too before they fell into our baskets. We also met the lovely Zoe Sanderson on the Inkylicious stall. Zoe and I met a few years back at a workshop in Peterborough and we have been in touch in blog land ever since. Do pop over to Zoe's blog and take a look at her stunning creations. I am particularly in awe of her jewellery making skills and regularly drool over her necklaces and other creations. 
I haven't had chance to do much crafting in the run up to half term but hopefully will get round to doing a bit more in the next couple of weeks.
Here are a couple of very quick cards I made with the Woodware stamps called small fennel a few weeks back. I used memento and distress inks to dust and stamp with, along with an inkylicious text stamp for the background of the second. These are very simple five minute cards that were inspired by some samples I saw when visiting PDA Cards and Craft at Langley Mill.
As I used some snippets of brown card to mat the images I am taking these to the snippet playground to see Miss Di. I am so sorry I missed your 250th playground, Miss Di, but I am here for 251st!
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments x

Wednesday 12 October 2016

Another Digi from Dora

Here is my latest DT offering for Dora's Digis which are here on her blog. I coloured it with Be Creative Alcohol markers and created the background in the panel with ink dusters.I added some stamped birds (Inkylicious) The background paper is from Craftwork Cards and the ribbon was in my stash. This reminded me so much of my visit to Rwanda where I walked with the Giraffes in the Akegera National Park.
 We got out of the minibus and walked towards the giraffes, and they walked towards us...
 Here is a photo I took.
Such beautiful creatures! Thanks for looking!

Sunday 2 October 2016

Stamping Sensations October Challenge

Good Morning! It is the first Sunday of the Month and time for a new Challenge over at Stamping Sensations! This month our theme is

*****Autumn*****


  For those of you that know me you will know of my addiction to tree stamps, and the latest trees from Inkylicious were a must buy as soon as I saw them! They are called Midnight trees, and I used them with a range of Memento inks onto smooth stamping card.  The background tones were created with memento inks and ink dusters. The usual rules apply, you can enter up to three times, combine with other challenges, use any make of stamp......but can I please remind you we are a stamping challenge and stamping must be the focal/predominant element of your work. Conventional rubber/acrylic stamps and digital images are acceptable, but pre-coloured digital images and toppers are not.
Our sponsors this month are  Penny Black who have supplied a wonderful prize for us to offer to you - take a look.
                          

Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the fantastic creations by my lovely teamies. There are some absolute stunners again this month! Hope you get the chance to join in and I'll look forward to seeing all your lovely creations!