Pop-up Pumpkin Journal Page

 

Hi There! I've managed to do a bit more craft wise this week and it was great to get my journal out for a good play. Here's what I did.

I began by blending some distress oxide inks over the innie of the 4" oak easy frame inkable around a double page.

Next I stamped several different mixed leaves using a variety of autumn colours.

Using the script background stamp without a block I added some stamping in vintage photo distress ink. I also added some dots and lines from the pumpkin stamp set. 

I cut the sentiment from the transparency sheet and stuck it to the page using matte medium. 

On  a separate piece of watercolour card I stamped the pumpkins in versafine Clair ink and coloured them using ecoline pens. I cut them out and left to dry.

I folded the biggest pumpkin roughly in half, then equally distant each side of the centre fold, I added two more folds. I used a bone folder to burnish these and made sure the centre fold was a mountain and the two side folds were valley folds. Next I added a little matte medium to the outer edges beyond the outer folds. Making sure the journal page is completely flat, I lined up the centre fold with the centre fold of the journal and stuck that down flat to the page (just with the matte medium already applied) 

Once this was dry, I made sure the pumpkin centre fold popped out as the pages were closed.

Here's the finished page again. 

I used:

4" Oak easy frame inkable

Mixed leaves Art stamps

Doodle Art Pumpkin stamp set

Script Background stamp

Bee Crafty Transparencies - Autumn/Winter words

Distress oxide inks in Mustard Seed, Vintage Photo and Aged Mahogany

Distress inks in Fired Brick, Crushed Olive and Vintage Photo

Ecoline pens 

Versafine Clair Nocturne ink

12x12cm notebook

Watercolour paper

Matte medium

The wrist is progressing nicely and my lovely friend Jane has helped me by finishing the design on my cast, using sharpies and one of the mandala inkables. I'm able to do a lot more than I could as you can see from my pages above. All being well it will be cast free before the end of the month. 

Thanks for looking! 

Stamping Sensations mid month Autumn inspiration

I can't believe it has been almost two weeks since my last post. Last weekend was Stamp Magic so Lynne and her friend Morag came to stay. We had a fabulous time at the show meeting up and chatting with Sandma, Kath from Allsorts, Bev from Bee Crafty, Jenny Mayes and the Inkylicious family. Lynne and I also had a lovely day shopping and crafting on the Monday. I've had 3 governors meetings this week too, so I'm definitely going to be back at my craft table today. 
Anyway, here is my mid month inspiration for Stamping Sensations where the theme is 'Trees, Leaves and Autumn'. The leaf stamps are from Uniko and the sentiment is an Inkylicious stamp. I masked it off using 2 widths of masking tape across the base card and dusted with distress ink in tea dye and wild honey. I used memento inks to stamp the leaves, using 2nd generation ink for some. Finally I added the berries using liquid pearls. I really enjoy making single layer cards like this!
 You still have plenty of time to enter the challenge, so do pop over to the challenge blog for more inspiration. Don't forget to check your entry against the challenge rules and take a look at the fabulous inspiration!
Thanks for looking!

October at Stamping Sensations

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

 ****Trees, Leaves or Autumn****

 As the title suggest we would love to see your hand-stamped creations that include trees, leaves and autumn. I am sure you will come up with lots of fabulous and seasonal designs. 
My card's focal image is a gorgeous leaf bouquet from Lesia Zgharda stamps and was coloured with zig clean color brush markers. Our wonderful sponsors this month are  Stamp Addicts. They have a show on Hochanda on Thursday (10th October) at 4pm. Do tune in and take a look at their fabulous goodies!

Even though it is an easy theme, we need you to play by the rules:

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

Stamping must be the central point of attention and interest

  There is a fabulous £25 store voucher for our lucky winner. There are some wonderful stamps and stamping products on the Stamp Addict's website, not forgetting their new releases on Hochanda on Thursday.
 Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous creations from my talented team mates!
Thanks for looking! 

Trees and Leaves at Allsorts

 

The theme at Allsorts this week is Trees and Leaves, so of course I had to enter, lol. I am here with two one layer cards using Uniko stamps, Stamped in memento and dusted with distress inks. I used masking tape to cover the area where I later stamped the sentiments. Both were finished with a 'few' drops of liquid pearls. This lovely simple stamp set is so versatile, and I have used it lots since I bought it, and for all 4 seasons, not just Autumn. 

The sentiment on this second one is from a Woodware set.
I've just discovered that the latest challenge at Uniko Studio is Anything goes with a twist of Autumn, so I am entering my card there too.
 
Do pop over to Allsorts and Uniko and check out some of the amazing inspiration on show.
Thanks for looking!

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! 

Autumn colours at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning! Is it all Autumnal where you are today? It is the first Sunday of the month and tuime for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations. Our theme this month is Autumn Colours.For my card this month I have used Inkylicious stamps, inked up with memento inks in olive grove, pear tart, espresso truffle, Rhubarb stalk and potters clay. The hills and sky were created with ink dusters, a mountain valley stencil, a sun stencil and more memento inks in dandelion and rosebud.

Our 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 so must see a stamped image, sentiment or quote as the focal element of your artwork. It so upsets us to see names come out in the draw who are not eligible for the prize because they have not read the rules. 

As always we have a super prize on offer, this month one lucky winner will receive a £35 store voucher to spend on line with................

Foil Play specialises in rub on foils and ultra fine glitter, along with card toppers and 3D decoupage (die cut and traditional) and a great selection of greetings and embellishments too. New products are added often and the site offers an array of over 11,000 different paper craft products from classic and well known brands, including Kanban, Hunkydory, Dufex, Craftwork Cards, La Pashe, The Hobby House, Debbi Moore Designs and many more.

Foil Play has no minimum order and you can pick just the individual products that you want, without needing to buy a huge kit. There are plenty of crafty bargains, including big discounts for bulk packs of selected products. UK P&P is free when you spend over £10, orders are packed carefully and sent speedily by First Class mail.
Please pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the amazing creations from my lovely teamies.
I've had a couple of lovely skype calls with Meg. She has shown us all the freebies she got during freshers week including a rather amusing Gray's Anatomy pen, and told us all about the first week of lectures she has had. She has also purchased her lab coat and dissection kit! She will be shadowing a GP later this month for a few days. Thanks for looking!

Not finished with Autumn yet!

Just to prove I haven't gone all cute and fluffy, here are some cards more in my style, lol!

After driving through Sherwood Forest a couple of times recently, I wanted to have another inky play with some Autumnal shades, and also to try and recreate the mistiness that we saw between the trees yesterday.
Although it was dull and damp, the sun had to make an appearance on my card!
I created the background with my ink dusters and memento inks. I then used some Inkylicious stamps to create the scene. Please note the hare/ rabbit, bottom right - this is a new twinchies set with three rabbits for £1 - what a bargain! They aren't on the website yet, but I am sure if you ring, Deby will pop some in with your order. There are also some Deer which will be making an appearance on my blog soon!

 Next I made another Stampboard pendant for a dear friend's birthday. I dusted the stampboard with citrus and peach bellini adirondack inks, then stamped the fern leaf (inkylicious) in bamboo stalk and potters clay memento ink which stayed damp on the surface long enough to emboss it. I am entering this into Allsorts this week where the theme is anything but a card.  We worked out that I first met my friend 23 years ago - very scary! Here is the card I made for her...

The Hydrangea is an Inkylicious stamp, coloured with distress markers on silk art card. The scraps of white card were embossed using cuttlebug embossing folders and then dusted with shaded lilac distress ink. the front panel lower edge was die cut with a small lattice edge from Britannia dies and the lilac border was cut using a martha stewart punch. The sentiment is from Little Claire.
As my last card was made using lots of snippets, I am taking it to Miss Di's snippet playground, where it is a while since I last showed my face. Sorry Miss!
I have a huge pile of work to get thorough at the moment, so I am not managing to visit blogland as much as I would like. Hopefully I will catch up very soon. Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments!

Simply Christmas for the penultimate Rudolf day and lots of Autumn!

Here are my two cards for Rudolf day this month. I used two stamps from Inkylicious. The tree scene (treescape 1) is a new stamp (Isn't it fab?) and 'walking in a winter wonderland' can be found on the website.

 This first one was stamped in memento Teal Zeal and then masked whilst I dusted the sky in the same ink. Then I dotted lots of quicky glue pen and glitter across the foreground.

The second one was done in exactly the same way but with Danube blue memento ink. Might try a purple version next!
I am entering them in Sarn's Rudolf Day challenge and Allsorts, where the theme is 'Just Christmas'.
Before Christmas takes over completely, I wanted to show you some photos from a lovely walk I took with Lynne when I went to stay for a few days. We visited Eskrigg Nature reserve near Lockerbie. The sun came out and we enjoyed the colours and the wildlife...

 red squirrels,

 glorious beech trees

 a king boletus mushroom,

 more beech trees,

 tiny toadstools (Possibly changeable agarics)

 a nuthatch

and more beech leaves!
Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed the autumn colours as much as we did!

Autumn in the garden and a walk

Our beech hedge in the garden was at it's best last weekend, and on Sunday I was tempted out with my camera to try and capture the colours, even though it was a dull day. It is also at this time of year that the Castor oil plant flowers with these beautiful cream lacy pompoms.

I spent a while trying to capture the flowers (in focus) with the colour of the beech hedge behind it.

My Sally Holmes rose has a last bloom too. It always amazes me that it can flower for so long (5-6 months).

 

As the weather stayed fine we decided to take a stroll in Thieves Wood, near Mansfield in the afternoon. Put on a scarf and come with us.

It was great to get some fresh air and enjoy the colours of the leaves, but there weren't many fungi this time.

Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for looking!

Autumn Colours

When I saw the themes at Allsorts and heck of a challenge I just had to join in. I love this time of year for the richness of colour and quality of light, so the theme called for a scene, and here it is...

The photo isn't the best as I took it after dark, under my daylight lamp on my craft table. All stamps used are from Inkylicious, and I used a combination of Adirondack and Distress inks for stamping and ink dusting. I had plans to make it an 8x8 card and stamp the background, but ran out of time, so it is a simple scene. As I said above, I am entering it into Allsorts and Heck of a Challenge where the theme is Autumn Colours. I've also spotted the challenge at Sweet Stampin' is also Autumn, so I'm entering it there too
I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to half term and having time to not only get inky, but to wander through blog land too! Thanks for your patience and I will visit you soon. Thanks for looking!

A little experiment

After a couple of frosty mornings recently, I thought I would have a go at trying to recreate some frosty seed heads like this.

I got out my Inkylicious stamps (Create a Collage Meadow and Wild Meadow), Ink Dusters and inks and came up with this.

I used a range of Adirondack and Distress inks, kaleidoscope embossing powder, white gel pen and some post it masks. I am not sure if it looks frosty at all, but just to show you the effect of the embossing powder, here is a close-up.

We had a lovely walk in Wollaton Park this morning, and the Autumn colours are still at their best. I love the quality of the light at this time of year, when the sun is shining. I feel a few more tree cards coming on! Thanks for looking!

Autumn landscape

It has been a glorious day here, admittedly a bit cold (about 5 degrees) and there was a dusting of snow this morning, but we have had the most wonderful walk at Linacre Reservoirs near Chesterfield. Here are quite a lot of photos!

This Mandarin Duck was so camouflaged in the branches of a fallen tree!

I love to go there at this time of year. The colours of the trees and the reflections are so very beautiful. You needed to be wrapped up, but it lifted the spirits to be out in the sunshine. I might have to try and recreate one or two of those landscapes...
Thanks for looking!