In the Garden

Just a quick reminder that there is still a little time to enter the In the Garden challenge at Stamping Sensations this month. I made this card for one of our Site managers at work. We have an allotment with a shed, and I really wish it looked as well organised as this one! .
The stamp set is from Hobby Art and will definitely come in useful for cards for my Dad too.
I am slowly but surely tidying my craft table and discovering all sorts of bits and pieces. Thanks for looking!

Dad's Birthday

It is my Dad's birthday in early February, so as I had the inspiration I made him this.

The main image is Winter Scene from Simply stamps, coloured with promarkers and a little glitter. The boots stamp is from an Aspects of design sheet from the Stampman. I stamped it on to water colour paper and coloured it with distress inks. The swirl background on the brown bazzil is from Art impressions, and was stamped in versafine and then embossed in clear. Finally the sentiment is a See-D's stamp. As it is a theme of Male cards this week at Allsorts I'm entering it into their challenge. Now I need to get on with Steve's card, as his birthday is tomorrow! Thanks for looking!

Music for a man

Here is my entry for the Stamp Man's 4th challenge, where the theme is musical. I am also entering it into the last ever Rosie D's challenge where the theme is 'for a man'.
I started off with a sheet of white card, colouring it with Broken china and Dusty Concord distress inks applied with a shaving brush. I stamped music (Stampourium), notes (Aspects of design) and swirl (Paper artsy) in Weathered wood over the background then sprayed it with hydrangea blue and lucky shamrock green starburst stains. I stamped the notes again in Chipped sapphire DI, before stamping the Guitar (Aspects of Design) in Versamark and embossing with detail white EP. The background card was staped with versafine and brayered with big and juicy Waterfall (blue end) and soothing sunset (Purple end). I added a couple of ribbons and mounted onto a white square card. Here is a close-up where I tried to capture the sparkle from the Starburst Stains.

I also get to display this for using Aspects of design stamps!
Thanks for looking, and I hope you get some sunshine today!

Make a scene at Tuesday Taggers!

Here is my Card for this week's Tuesday Taggers where my lovely Teamie Michelle has chosen the theme 'make a scene!' I used my Hobby Art harbour set again (It's a bit addictive!), coloured it with promarkers and popped it onto a card. the mini anchor stamp is from the set too.
The theme at Allsorts this week is 'Create a scene', so I'm entering it in their challenge too.
I'm afraid I'm not being a particularly good blogger at the moment. the end of term is approaching at a rate of knots and I have heaps to do before it happens.  My boss is retiring and I have a bit of a 'project' for her card. I'll post it as soon as it is finished. I'm also moving classroom and after four years it is a bit like moving house! Anyway, thanks for putting up with me, thanks for looking and don't forget to pop your name in to Mr Linky for my followers candy (see post at top).

It's a man's world at Tuesday Taggers

 Our theme this week at Tuesday Taggers is 'It's a Man's World' chosen by our lovely teamie, Bee. We are being sponsored by The Craft Barn. I thought it would be the ideal time to start on my Father's day Cards. This one is for my Dad, who loves Bird Watching. The owls are a digistamp from our very talented teamie, Teri, available from her Digi Shop Delicious Doodles. I coloured it with promarkers (Ivory, tan, sandstone, Satin, Spice, cool grey 1, pastel blue and Cocoa). The background is card stamped with two lovely feather stamps from the A4 Birds Elusive Images plate. As the theme on Dare U 2 Digi Stamp is 'One for the Boys' I'm going to enter it there too. Thanks for looking!
Oh yes, before I go I'll just let you know that Meg arrived home safe and sound yesterday. No sunburn, the sore throat has gone and she is just left with a bunged up nose, so the sunshine and fresh air was good medicine! She had a fantastic time, but was very glad to have a 'proper' shower and climb into her own bed last night!

A couple of Cards

My friend asked me to make a couple of cards for her dad's birthday. Apparently 75th cards are very few and far between in the shops. This lovely chap likes his gardening and golf. The first card uses a set of AI watercolour stamps (Sir Stampalot) coloured in with my coloursoft pencils and blending solution. If you look very closely you will see my favourite stamp again! I stamped the letters (Inkadinkado I think) in versafine olympia green and just traced around the letter with a gold stardust pen.

My second card was inspired by one that my friend Jules made a little while ago. When I saw hers I thought of my friends dad, who is a very keen golfer. The image is from Digistamp Boutique coloured with promarkers.

Don't forget you have two weeks left to get your entry in for this months Sir Stampalot challenge. The prize is a Cricut machine - how cool is that? Go check it out now, and thanks for looking!

Allsorts Challenge - Just for Men

Here is my card for Allsorts this week where the challenge is to make something for Men. It was very simple and quick! Most of the men in our family love walking, so I cut part of an old road atlas with the Lake District on it and used it as my backing paper. The boots stamp is an Aspects of design one from The Stamp man and the greeting is a Stamporium one. Thanks for looking!

Steve's Birthday

Steve reaches the big 50 at the end of the month and I was racking my brains as to what I could put on his card. He loves ducks but I couldn't get hold of the penny black stamps I'd had in mind and with all the snow delivery might be tricky, so I asked Teri if she was prepared to draw me a duck. She is such a lovely lady she drew two! This is the mandarin duck, which is available at Delicious Doodles. I coloured it with promarkers, adding a few highlights with a white gel pen.
I made an easel card using some papers I inherited from my Auntie Margaret when she cut down on her crafting stash. the sentiments are all from Graphicus except the 50th which was computer generated. The border was punched with an EK success punch (dotted scallop), bought from Sir Stampalot.
On Friday night  Meg and I went to Karate. We hadn't been for 4 weeks (Two weeks christmas break, weather and a problem with the hall). We really enjoyed it and took part with enthusiasm, but boy do I ache! The backs of my thighs and my shoulders are the worst, and I'm struggling to dress myself!!! I'm hoping it will have worn off by tomorrow. In the meantime I am able to sit at my desk and craft without any pain!!!

Brother's Birthday

We have several family members who have birthdays very close to Christmas and the New Year, and my brother is one of them. I saw this lovely image of a Golden Eagle when I took part in the Tuesday Taggers Blog Hop and thought it would be perfect for him. It is from Delicious Doodles by Teresa Sherman - isn't he stunning?  I coloured it with promarkers. I used shades of warm greys on the rocks and Mustard on his feet and beak. Then I used a mixture of sandstone, tan and caramel for the paler areas and cocoa, cinnamon, burnt sienna and walnut for the darker feathers. I used my blender pen to lighten the area at the edge of his wings too. the background papers have been in my stash for at least 5 years and I didn't have much left, but I think the one on the left is a PSX one. I used a martha stewart punch, my oval nesties and a sentiment stamp by Clarity stamps. Those Christmas presents are getting some good use! Thanks for looking!

Father's Day Cards

This first one is for Steve's Dad. It is very similar to one of the panels I did for my Dad's 80th card, which you can find the details of here.
The second card is for my Dad. I don't own this stamp, but Lynne K very kindly let me stamp a few using hers! It is from Innovative Stamp Creations and I think it is called 'a walk in the woods'. I coloured it with distress inks in shabby shutters, tea dye and peeled paint.

More Birthday Cards

This is what I eventually did with the panels of my Dads card. I made a cover with card and the inner pages with some 12x12 folded over on itself. I finished it off with a couple of eyelets and a ribbon, adding a greeting and a quote.

I was asked by a work mate to make a birthday card for her son, who is having a Saxophone for his present. I don't have a Sax stamp (I need one though!) so I resorted to a peel off. The mirri card was rubbed over with Timber brown stazon and the music stamp is by Stamp-It, an Australian company.

Four Seasons

Here are the four panels of my Dad's Birthday card. They each measure 13cm square. All stamps are Graphicus except for the distant trees on the winter panel - they are a Stampin' up! image. Outside it is snowing and yet again the gritting lorry has failed to find our road - getting to work tomorrow could prove tricky!

Friends and Family

Here is a quick card I put together for a friend. The text stamp is from Crafty Individuals and the seed heads are a cuttlebug embossing folder.
I've been working on my Dad's 80th birthday card, and I've completed two square panels. I've started a third, but it is still a work in progress. Dad spends many an hour walking out in the countryside around his home. I wanted his card to reflect many of the things he would see on his walks, so started off with birds and grasses (inspired by Deby at Just Add Love)

This had a Spring/ early summer feel about it, so I decided to give the next panel an autumnal feel. With yellows and browns, mushrooms and trees losing their leaves. All of the stamps on these panels are from Graphicus.

So, my quandary is this. What do I do with them now? Whatever I do I need to be able to post it, so it needs to be flat. Do I do 4 panels, one for each season? Do I make it into a book or a concertina card or something else? Any suggestions welcome! Notice I didn't do a big 80 for him? I think he would disown me if I did, lol!

Card for Mark

Here is the card I decided to make for Mark. I did a cake in the end. I used some chocolate scented embossing powder that I got from Craft Central at Derby Garden Centre, so the cake smells of chocolate! Now some of you might think that is a bit cruel, but he will no doubt be getting chocolate for his birthday! I got some red cinnamon scented and some white vanilla scented too..mmm...I feel some more christmas cards coming on! I also managed to cut my finger with a very sharp craft knife - silly me!

I've got a thing about trees...

I seem to have bought some more tree stamps! Of all the stamps in my collection the trees outnumber anything else. I bought the Stampendous 'winter trees' and the clarity fir tree group at Doncaster. I also found the inkadinkado fall season stamps online. The lower 2 pictures are virtually direct copies of Michelle Zindorf's, but I loved the originals so much I had to try to recreate them. What I should have been doing this evening was marking books, but the pull of unused stamps was too great!

Lots of goodies!

Now where am I going to put it all? I'm afraid I spent a little more than I intended, but about half of it is being put away for Christmas, so I'm not feeling too guilty. There were some really good exhibitors at Doncaster, my favourites being Crafty Individuals, Lavinia Stamps and Clarity Stamps, from which I bought the stamp below. Barbara Gray did a super demo that involved using a brayer to create a reflected image, so I had to come home and have a go myself. Not identical to hers, but very much in the style. I'm itching to get some of the others out of their packets, but I really don't have time right now. I need to get my things ready for tomorrow and get to bed at a decent hour.

More guitars!

I wanted to see what the guitar card looked like in other colours, and whether there was any difference using glossy accents or embossing with a versamarker and clear powder. I also wanted to see what it looked like without the swirls. Here are the results, and I think there is little difference between the two finishes. The purple was done with glossy accents and the red with heat embossing.

It has been a long day. We had several trees made shorter and one tree felled (a Eucalyptus) today.Putting it through the shredder cleared noses for miles! Meg took several photos, which I will try and upload during the week.

Busy, busy, busy!

My friend Lynne (her blog is Creative Lynks) runs a card making class. Every so often she asks me to do the class for her whilst she visits her family in Scotland. I'm busy preparing some 'Cards for Men' for a class at half term. Here are a few of the samples. Stamps featured are from Lavinia stamps (all on Pheasant card), Dimension fourth (Guitar) and Wendy House (Vegetables). I took my inspiration from Michelle Zindorf - her blog is truly amazing.