No patterned papers

The theme at Allsorts this week is no patterned papers and I made this card last weekend using just stamping so I thought it fit the bill well. The stamps are all from inkylicious and I used the kaleidacolor blue breeze inkpad.
Sorry it is short and sweet! Hope you are having a good week!

December at Stamping Sensations

 

Good morning, It's time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations and this month we are looking for

********Winter Trees and Flowers********

There is plenty of scope here and I am sure many of you will find the theme fits in very nicely with your Christmas card making, so we look forward to seeing what you create. I have focused on Christmas cards using stamps from inkylicious and techniques that Deby and Emma have been demonstrating recently. I used silk art card and Tea Dye distress ink on the first card and the second was smooth stamping card and the Fruitcake Kaleidacolor ink pad. the base card was stamped with a Crafty Individuals snowflake.The snowflake is a lawn fawn die.

Please can I remind you we are a stamping challenge so must see a stamped image, sentiment or quote as the focal element of your artwork , this means:

Stamping must be the central point of attention and interest

On to our prize and this month. We have a super collection of crafting goodies from Stix 2 plus another small prize from them for a second winner.

Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the gorgeous creations from my multi talented teamies, and I look forward to visiting your great entries!

Thanks for looking! 

August at Stamping Sensations

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

***Anything Goes*** 

As the title suggests we want to see your projects featuring stamping. I have used Gummipan feather stamps (Available from our sponsor this month) and a sentiment  from Hobby Art. I used a kaleidacolor ink pad called Calypso.
I made a second card using the same design...

This time I used a sentiment from Inkylicious and the Cappuchino Kaleidacolor ink pad. 
Our Sponsors this month are a relatively new company called Swedish House Crafts. They are very friendly and reliable, run by crafters for crafters. I ordered several Gummipan stamps that arrived promptly and are unique designs and good quality red rubber. Several of their sentiments made me laugh out loud! 
 Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the gorgeous creations from my multi talented teamies, and I look forward to visiting your great entries but please note: if we do not comment on your entry it will be because it does not follow the theme, qualify under our rules, or because we are asked to sign in or provide additional data to comment. We do not want to be rude but we do want to be fair to those who do follow the rules.
Thanks for looking!

An Elephant Card

It's time for a card made with one of Dora's beautiful digis. This month her theme is elephants and she drew this gorgeous lifelike elephant! I coloured it with Be Creative Alcohol markers and created the background in the oval with ink dusters. I stamped the base card with a very old stamp by Katy Widger from Rubber  Poet(I don't think you can get them any more). I used Kaleidacolor creole spice ink. This reminds me so much of the colourful fabrics I saw in Rwanda, so is an ideal backdrop for an African Elephant. You can find Dora's Digis here on her blog.
Thanks for looking!

Last minute entry to the Butterfly Challenge

Here I am flying in to bring a last minute entry to Mrs A's Butterfly challenge where the theme is to use yellow. The butterfly is an Inky Doodles stamp and the flower and sentiment are from Inkylicious. I used distress and kaleidacolor ink both on the stamps and with my ink dusters. I also used versamark on the glossy panel before dusting it.
Thanks for all your fab comments. I promise I will be visiting around blog land very soon, as I break up for Easter Hols on Tuesday! Thanks for looking!

Maple leaves

Here is another of those beautiful Nicecrane images from the Incredible Jessie Willcox collection. I loved the blue dress contrasting with the autumn leaves and so layered the image on snippets of copper and blue papers and mounted on a card base. This had been dusted and stamped with the Inkylicious maple leaves in Kaleidacolor Autumn leaves ink. The sentiment is from Inky Doodles. I am off to Miss Di's snippet playground with this one. Hope it is a bit drier than it is here - might need a hot toddy to keep me going! Steve went out to fill the bird feeders in time for this weekend's big garden Birdwatch, and it was rain that hurt! Great big spots that were cold and blown at you with force!
I also needed another thank you card for a male, so I used the larger of the maple leaf stamps and Kaleidacolor Creole Spice.

The Sentiment is from Chocolate Baroque and fit perfectly in the stripe where I put the masking tape. This ended up less clean and simple than I'd intended - another 'save' where my fingertips had left their little smudges! I do love this ink pad!
Thanks for looking!

And the Winner is...plus new candy

This candy is now closed
In celebration of five years in blog land the winner of my first lot of candy is............

Tracy Harris

Congratulations! Hope you haven't made all your Christmas cards already! Please email me Tracy, with your snail mail address so I can post your goodies off to you. Thanks for all your fab comments. I wish I could send all of you something. Still there are more chances to come!
 Now on to the second lot of candy. Again this is follower candy for you lovely people who leave a comment on this post and are followers of my blog. If you want to be in with a chance make sure you leave a comment and follow this blog via google friends connect on the right there.

Onto the next card and candy then.

 A simple card using three stamps, two of which are up for grabs, the script  and the trees. I dusted and stamped with Kaleidacolor Cappuccino Delight. The two die cut panels are matte card and the base panel is silk art card. One of those 'any occasion' cards I think. Hope you like it.

Here are the stamps on offer this week.

I will draw the winner next Saturday, and with any luck there will be another lot of candy too! I am back at work on Monday though, so the card may be a bit later than today. Thanks for looking!

Some photos in my garden, a couple of cards and some follower candy

I hope you have managed to stay cool enough this weekend. I have spent a good part of yesterday and a bit of today at Gedling Book festival. It was brilliant! Meg was volunteering there, so I thought I would pop over and see what was happening. I sat in on four talks/ workshops. They were in Marquees with a through draught, so perfect for the weather! Anyway, this hot weather has brought the flowers out on my pot marjoram and shasta daisies, so I thought I would share a couple of photos.

I also had a couple of cards to make, one for a colleague going on maternity leave...

 I coloured the Mo manning image with promarkers, cut out with a nestie and mounted on some polkadot paper from Pink Petticoat. The sentiment is from Inkylicious.

My second card was one that I really didn't know what to put on it. I eventually settled on this for a chap who has been covering my class each Wednesday whilst I do management stuff (Technical term, that!). I used Kaleidacolor fresh greens and stamps from Inkylicious. It took me all of 10 minutes, tops!
Finally I promised Candy. This is the first of several I think. I am having a clear out and getting rid of things I don't use. First up is a bunch of 7 Molly Blooms stamps that have been used once or never. They are not to my taste at all, but I was asked to make a couple of cards to promote them some time ago.

It seems sensible to let them go to a good home. Leave a message below if you are interested and a follower. There will be some more follower candy soon.
Thanks for looking!

Some quick masculine cards

I needed a couple of cards for male birthdays and there were none left in my box, so I settled down with some Inkylicious stamps and Kaleidacolor Creole spice and came up with this:

The cogs stamp on the background is one of the twinchie stamps that Inkylicious have just started selling and I can see it is going to get loads of use! It goes so well with the vintage car, too.
Next I needed a birthday card for my nephew, who really loves his football. My Hubby supports Mansfield Town, and as they have just been promoted, it seemed only fitting that the card should have a bit of a Mansfield theme to it!

The footballer was a freebie stamp from a magazine (Creative Stamping) and the footballs used for the background are from a Daisy and Dandelion set. I am entering this into the challenge at Allsorts this week where the theme is any sport.
Finally here is another card using Inkylicious stamps and Kaleidacolor ink pad, this time 'Fresh Greens'

Skeleton Leaves and Simply Said were the stamps sets used here. There is another Inkylicious show on create and craft coming up on Sunday May 26th, so make sure you tune in!
Thanks for looking!

A couple of cards and another sneaky peek

I'm here with a couple of cards that won't be on the Inkylicious show on Sunday. First there is a card that was inspired by one that I saw at Inkylicious last Saturday. The 'skeleton leaves' are such beautiful stamps and I am really enjoying playing with them. I had forgotten how much I love my Kaleidacolor ink pads, especially creole spice which I used here. The sentiment is from another recent stamp set called 'Say it with Flowers'.

My second card is made using the 'Say it with flowers' stamp set for the main image and one of the new twinchie stamps from Inkylicious, for the background. So far the twinchies have only been available at shows like Ally Pally, so look out for them at the next show you go to. I stamped the main image onto silk art card and coloured it with Distress markers. The punched flowers were made with an e-k success punch. As this fits perfectly with Brenda's theme of 'A passion for flowers' at Allsorts this week, I am entering it there.
I am going to show you another sneaky peek of one of my cards that will be on TV on Sunday at 5pm (hope you will be watching/ recording it!)

I used distress markers to colour this on inkylicious silk art card again, and they work a treat! No streaking like you get with promarkers sometimes. Not sure if you can tell from this, but if you like vintage and floral I think you will love the stamps Deby will be demoing. Go on, set the recorder now - Create and Craft, Sunday at 5pm!
Well, thanks for looking, and I will be back soon with more tantalising sneaky peeks!

Brayer or dusters?

I know there are lots of  people who prefer either dusters or brayers, but I have to say I love both and have no particular preference. I love the way I can create shafts of light in woodland using a brayer, like these two examples a la Barbara Gray, but inspired by Crafty Linby's cards here.

For the first I used the Clarity silver birch and 2 sizes of Birch leaves with big and juicy waterfall. The sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse.

For the second, I used the same stamps as above, but also added two Lavinia ferns. The ink was Adirondack Butterscotch, Lettuce, Meadow and Bottle. Both examples were done on Silk Art card.

However, I also love the versatility of Ink Dusters with which I find I can create softer landscapes and add patches of colour and shading. I've had another play with my ink dusters and 'flight of dreams' stamps from Inkylicious, using my Creole Spice Kaleidacolor ink pad.

I am entering this card into this week's Allsorts challenge where the theme is 'You've been Framed'.  

I've also had another go at a beach scene, this time trying for a more sunset/ evening feel - I don't know how successfully though!

 I used a mixture of Big and Juicy soothing sunset, Memento desert sand and rich cocoa, and a touch or two of walnut stain and dusty concord distress inks. I used the Seascape memories and essential grasses stamps (Inkylicious). I used white gel pen to add a few little highlights where the sun is catching the water. The lovely little shells on the base card are also from the seascape memories set, stamped in chalk ink and brilliance inks. I'm entering this card into the latest challenge at Stamping for the Weekend where the theme is holidays.

So, there is definitely room in my crafting world for both brayers and dusters. Thanks for looking!

Father's Day

Happy Father's day to all you Dads out there. This is the card I made for my Dad. I thought it was particularly suitable as last time we went out for a walk with him we saw 4 buzzards! The stamps on the main picture are Hobby Art, watercoloured with my aqua markers and distress inks. The Fern (Rubber Stampede) on the base card was stamped in Kaleidacolor Autumn leaves.

Jesters, Clowns and Masquerades Tuesday Taggers

Our Theme at Tuesday Taggers this week is Jesters and Masquerade Balls. This was one of those themes that I wasn't sure what I was going to do as I didn't have any stamps for my main image. I made a background with my Diamond stamp from Crafty Individuals, a Kaleidacolor Calypso ink pad and a brayer. After that I started looking on the internet and found this fabulous sketch of a jester on Deviant Art. You can see the original sketch by Sutinen here. I felt that if I coloured him it would be a bit OTT, so just outlined him in pastel blue promarker and left him black and white. Thanks for looking and do hope you'll join in this week!