October Rudolf Days and an Autumn card for Dora

 

Hello! I really must try and get a bit more organised! I have quite a few draft blog posts but keep forgetting to do something with them! Anyway, I am here with a couple of cards for October Rudolf Days. Both of these use the new gorgeous Dawn Serenity stamp, designed by Sandma Cards for Crafty Individuals, along with the snowflake D'inkable from Bee Crafty. For the first I used shaded lilac distress ink and for the second I used tumbled glass, but unfortunately I hadn't cleaned my blending brush enough from using it to blend stormy sky! These are quick and easy Christmas cards to make, so I think there will be several more similar ones. Do pop over to Mo's Blog and see some more lovely Christmas card inspiration.

 

 I am also sharing my DT card for Dora over at Dora-knutselhoekje

Don't you just love this wonderful mushroom image? I printed it onto some Mustard coloured pastels paper and coloured it with coloured pencils. The base card was stamped and stencilled with Bee Crafty stamps, inkables and distress oxide inks. 

Thanks so much for looking. I do intend having a bit of time visiting some blog land friends during the next couple of days and organising my blog posts a little more!

June at Stamping Sensations

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

 ****Show your true colours****

 As the title suggest we would love to see your hand stamped creations showing us your favourite colours. I am sure you will come up with lots of fabulous and colourful designs. 
My card features my favourite colours of blue, green and purple (oxide inks), along with stamps and a stencil from our wonderful sponsors this month, Visible Image.
Our prize this month is a £25 voucher for the Visible Image online store. There are so many gorgeous stamps and stencils to choose from too!

Please ensure you check our challenge rules before entering, it may save you embarrassment and make sure your entry receives comments from the team and is entered into the prize draw. We run our challenge for fun in our spare time. It is your responsibility if entering to make sure you check our challenge rules.

Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the gorgeous designs from all my talented teamies! They really have made some wonderful cards again this month! 
As this goes live Lynne and I will be making our way to Doncaster Dome for Stamp Magic for a lovely crafty day. My shopping list isn't huge but we will wait and see what we find there! 

Thanks for looking!

Rudolf Days for April

Hi there! It is time for another Rudolf Day over at Scrappy Mo's. This month, as I often do, I have two offerings for you, both using the same inkylicious stamp. the first is stamped in Chipped Sapphire and the second in Mermaid Lagoon. The stamp is quite a bit larger than the image you see here. I had already cut some squares of watercolour paper, so it was sensible to use them. I used a water brush to spread the colour a little.

For my second card I dry embossed the base card using a Sheena embossing folder and dusted more Mermaid Lagoon ink over it. I also added a punched border to cover the area not embossed.
Sorry it is so short and sweet.
Thanks for looking!

September at Stamping Sensations

It is the first Sunday of the month and time for our September challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month we have a lovely theme....

********I Spy something beginning with B********

My project this month features stamps and stencils from our sponsor, Bee Crafty, and my 'B's are Bird (the beautiful large swallow stamp), blue and brown (oxide inks). I used Bee Crafty Inkables Mandala 4, Ticker tape 1 and Swallow

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

 We are pleased to welcome back Bee Crafty  as our sponsor this month, with a fabulous £25 store voucher for our lucky winner. There are some wonderful stamps and stencils on their website
Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous creations from my talented team mates, many featuring Bee Crafty stamps!
Before I go I will just share a few more photos from our holiday in Wales. First up is Fairy Glen, near Betws-y-coed. I did a fair bit of scrambling over rocks to take that one!

 Next is a view along the River Conwy, near Beddgelert.

 and this is Moel Ty Uchaf stone circle, near Llandrillo.

Finally here is the view from the near the top of Pistyll Rhaeadr.

Thanks for looking, and I look forward to seeing your entries.

June at Stamping Sensations

It is the first Sunday of the month and time for our June challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month we have a lovely easy theme....

********Anything Goes********

My Card this month features stamps from our sponsor, and the backgrounds are a mixture of brushos behind the sax player, and distress inks on the background through a stencil.

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

 We are pleased to welcome back Visble Image as our sponsor this month, with a fabulous £25 store voucher for our lucky winner. There are some wonderful new stamps and stencils on their website that are on my shopping list...😉
Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous creations from my talented team mates, may featuring Visible Image stamps!
Thanks for looking, and I look forward to seeing your entries.

January Challenge at Stamping Sensations

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

********Cold and Frosty Colours********

As the title suggest we would love to see all those colours we associate with this time of year, blues, purples, silver, white, and I am sure you will come up with lots of ideas to showcase those colours.

Please can We remind you we are a stamping challenge so must see a stamped image as the focal element of your artwork, not just a stamped sentiment or stamping in the background, this means:

Stamping must be the central point of attention and interest
 , .

   I've created a couple of scenes for my DT cards this month using stamps from Inkylicious.  The sky and snowdrifts were ink dusted with Distress inks on the first and the sky was created with spectrum Noir sparkle pens on the second. here's a close-up of the sparkle!

 We have a great prize consisting of a collection of Sizzix products.................
                                        

Do pop over to the challenge blog for more details on the prize and take a look at all the gorgeous creations from my multi talented teamies. I look forward to visiting your great entries!

Thanks for looking! 

At the end of the rainbow

I've been wanting to play with the Inkylicious birch trees 2 stamp set for some time, but had been struggling for time and mojo. Then this week I got shingles. I have been very lucky as it was a very mild dose and I got treatment very quickly. As shingles is contagious in the form of chicken pox to those who haven't had it yet (especially children), I was told I had to stay off work. I have rested, crafted, surfed the net and generally enjoyed myself whilst taking some huge tablets (5 a day, 4 hours apart)
Anyway, on to my card. I used distress inks in stormy sky, dusty concord, picked raspberry, fired brick, spiced marmalade, twisted citron, mermaid lagoon and chipped sapphire with my ink dusters for the background. The panel is mounted on black and silver paper and I added a few dots of white gel pen.
I am entering this into the current challenge at Penny Black and More where the theme is Anything goes and Cards in envy where the theme is 'keep it simple'
Hoping life gets back to normal this week. Oh yes, Before I go a big welcome to my new followers. Sorry if you have been here a while and I hadn't noticed - what a bad blogger! Hope to get over to visit you soon.
Thanks for looking!

March Challenge at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning! It is the first Sunday of the month, so time for our March challenge at Stamping Sensations, where this month we have a great theme of........

********Flower Power********

Perfect for Mother's day, and spring! For my first card I used a stamp by Honey Doo Crafts, coloured with Be Creative markers and decoupaged  over an ink dusted oval. I used the same pens to make a coordinating layer before mounting on a base card covered in paper from the pastel inspirations pad. I added a stamped sentiment framed using a Be Creative  bottle cap. 

 For my second card I used a digi (girl) from Digistamp boutique and a flower woodware singles stamp. All images were coloured with Be Creative alcohol markers. The paper on this card is from the Vintage Collage pad, and I also used be creative glitter glue.
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. 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. 
Now onto the sponsor and prize this month 
We are being sponsored by Be Creative who have put together a great prize! Feast your eyes on these goodies!  

 Paper pads, pearls and gems galore! You can see loads of ideas of how to use Be Creative products on the design team blog. Do pop over and become a follower!
Also don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the fabulous inspiration from my multi-talented teamies too! 
It will be a very strange Mother's day for me as Meg is not able to come home this weekend and I'm the only Mum left in the immediate family. We are postponing Mother's day here until 20th March, when Meg will be home for her Easter holidays.
Thanks for looking, and if you are celebrating Mother's day today, I hope you have a great day!

Rudolf day for February

Hi there! Firstly can I say how sorry I am that I haven't made it in to blog land half as much as I would've liked recently. Thanks for all your lovely comments. I am hoping I will get round to leaving a few more comments soon, as soon as I finish the commission I am working on.
February has sped by and Rudolf day has taken me completely by surpirse! I did manage to knock up two cards, but one of them was a complete disaster when I put my reading (crafting) glasses on, lol, so it got confined to the bin!
Here is my sole offering this month then

I spotted the idea on Pinterest of using a piece of Vellum as an overlay and making a scene underneath and having a tree on top. It really does look like mist. All stamps are from inkylicious and the scene underneath was done with my ink dusters and memento inks.
Do pop over to Scrappy Mo's and take a look at the DT's gorgeous cards!
Thanks for looking! 

Animal antics at Stamping Sensations

It is the first Sunday of the month and time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month our theme is Animal Antics and we are being sponsored by Crafty Individuals.
For my card I used my Elephants stamp (CI - 390) on silk art card. I masked the elephants and dusted the background in lemon yellow and cherry pink impress ink, and persimmon Distress ink. I then removed the mask and coloured the elephants with distress markers in pumice stone and weathered wood. The panel beneath was sprayed with dylusions and glimmer mist before stamping with CI- 170 background stamp in Adirondack eggplant.

So, onto this months prize. We have a voucher for £35 worth of Crafty Individuals goodies of your choice! How wonderful is that? Especially when they have a whole load of lovely new stamps out! You can read all about them on Jean's Blog.
Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the projects that my talented teamies have created. I look forward to seeing the wonderful creations that I know will be entered in this challenge. Just remember  that we are a stamping challenge. If you wish your entry to be considered for the prize it must include hand stamped elements, not just digis!
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!

Snippets, Butterflies and Stitching

Over at Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge the theme is stitching this fortnight. I am afraid I missed last time, but I was determined to have a go this time. I have been sorting out my snippets and found a pile of bits in citrus colours. I used my spellbinders nested pennants dies and cut out a whole load of triangles.

I used various gelly roll pens to put faux stitching around the  various shapes and topped it all off with a hero Arts butterfly, glittered and embossed. I had a bit of a rant about glitter containers whilst I was doing it - why put a sprinkle top onto a pot of fine glitter? it means you can't put excess glitter back into the same pot without trying to remove the lid and spilling even more!!! Okay, rant over!
You have probably noticed that I used lots of snippets for this, so I will also take it to Miss Di's snippet playground where I got showcased for my scene last week.
Thank you for all your lovely comments recenly. I am sorry that I only manage to get to visit at weekends at the moment. I seem to have so little time for anything other than school stuff. Feel free to skip to the bottom of the post now to avoid my second rant!

I hope you don't mind but I am going to share another rant. On Wednesday I will be on strike for the third time in my 24 years of teaching (I have another 20 to go before I can retire). I am not striking because of the money or pension I will eventually receive. I am striking because I care about children. I believe children have the right to be taught by someone who is fit enough to do it, including demonstrating forward rolls, skipping and kicking footballs (I won't be at the age of 68). I believe children need to be taught by someone who is enthusiastic about what they are teaching, not feeling constantly bogged down by the ever changing requirements. I believe children at 5 and 6 have a right to be able to play and have fun at school, and can learn important social skills that way, like tolerance, empathy, acceptance of diversity (Sadly lacking in the government). I want the opportunity to spend some time with my own child and share the same holidays. I believe every child should make progress at their own level and pace, and not have to learn things like times tables before they learn to tie their laces. I believe children have a right to an education that nurtures them into a fully rounded healthy individual who isn't considered to be a failure, and is able to enter adulthood without fear, anxiety, anger and intolerance.  Einstein was so right and Michael Gove is so wrong!


 Thanks for looking, and apologies if the teacher's strike affects you. I hope you understand why we are doing it.

Summer Blooms at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning, and lets hope June brings some lovely weather! We certainly need it to help the garden catch up! Our theme at Stamping Sensations is Summer Blooms, and when Brenda chose it I am sure she wasn't thinking about Daffodils and Magnolia in May! The first blooms that I thought of were Sweet Peas, a particular favourite of mine, but only scented ones! I won't bore you with a rant about silly people breeding the scent out of Lavender and Sweet Peas (what is the point!?) but I will share a picture of my card for this month.

I fell in love with this stamp from Inkylicious as soon as I saw it, and here I have coloured it with Distress Markers and Tombow pens. I used Delicate Vine and Tiny script (both from Inkylicious) around the image and then used the vine again on the base card, cut with a grand Nestie. I dusted both with tumbled glass and shaded lilac distress inks. The ribbon was a part of my secret Santa gift from work (they know me well!!!)
So, onto the prize. Feast your eyes on this lovely lot from Heartfelt Creations


Aren't they wonderful? Shame I can't enter too!
My lovely teamies have created some amazing floral delights over on the Challenge blog, so I hope you will pop over there for some inspiration before you rush off to make your entry. I will look forward to visiting you to see your entries.
Thanks for looking!

Feathers and Lighthouses DT projects

It is the first Sunday of the month and I am here to share my DT projects with you for February! First of all here is my Card for Stamping Sensations where the theme is Fur and Feathers. I opted for 'feathers' and came up with this:

I used a mixture of Adirondack inks and distress markers to colour the stamp from Indigo Blu. The sentiment is from the same set. The background was created with my Celtic rollagraph wheel.
Here is the prize from our generous sponsors for this month - Stixz 2.

Enough sticky stuff to keep you going for ages! My super talented teamies have made some gorgeous creations too, so do pop over to the challenge blog when you have finished here... oi! not yet though!
On to my second card...

Next up is my card for Craft a Scene this month where the theme is 'Let your Light shine' and needs to feature a lighthouse, of which I have several! This one is an Inkylicious stamp, positioned on a rocky ledge made with a Stampscapes stamp. The grasses are all from Inkylicious and the  sea is from Stampscapes. The quotation is from a lovely set by Hobby Art. I coloured the rocks with distress markers in pumice stone, weathered wood and frayed burlap, and I was rather pleased by the way they turned out. Again my teamies have done us proud with their gorgeous lighthouse creations on the challenge blog, so do pop over and take a look there too.
Thanks for popping by and thanks too for leaving your lovely comments. I hope you will be able to join in this month. 

And now for something completely different!

I have been having a sort out of some bits of paper I had sprayed with Adirondack colour washes and Crafty Notions creative colour sprays. I sprayed them about two years ago at least, and thought I really ought to use them! I found one bit that I particularly liked and covered the front of a card with it. I stamped some text (Inkylicious) and added a ribbon that I spritzed a little too. Then I stamped the image and the sentiment (Indigo Blu) with archival ink onto some scraps of silk art card and ink dusted them with some Adirondack inks.
This is very much a card made from snippets so I'm off to share it with Miss Di and the girls in the playground.(Pixie's Crafty Snippets). The theme at Allsorts this week is masculine cards, so I thought I would share it there too, as I am hoping it will go down well with a teenage fan of Harry Potter and Merlin.
Thanks for looking.

September Challenge at Stampalot

Good Morning! It's the first Sunday of September and time for a new challenge at Stampalot. Here is my card:

 This month we want you to take inspiration from this picture, and also to include some lace.

I used the colours and the roses, and a cameo stamp seemed to fit with the design. 

I created the background by stamping the flower (Hero Arts) with Versamark and then sponging distress inks in Victorian Velvet, Dried Marigold and Bundled Sage. I made 3 roses using my retro flower punch and coloured those with Victorian Velvet, Dried Marigold and Antique Linen. 

The central panel was stamped (Waltzing Mouse) and embossed in green pearl embossing powder, and I added a few flat backed pearls as well. The cameo(waltzing mouse) was stamped in Versamagic tea leaves and attached with pinflair glue gel.

The lace was originally white but I added a bit of diluted tea dye distress stain and it began to look a bit more antique.
Now I hear you ask, what is the prize? Feast your eyes on this!

Such a lot of goodies!
Pop over to the challenge blog to see the fabulous inspiration from my lovely teamies and then lets see your fantastic creations. Sorry, I went a bit mad there with the photos didn't I?!
I'm entering my card into the Heck of a Challenge first challenge where the theme is Anything Goes.
Thanks for looking!

A couple of snippet makes

 Here are a couple of snippet makes I made about 3 weeks ago, but haven't got round to blogging yet. The first was a maternity leave card for my boss. Those of you who are regular visitors will know this is the fourth maternity card I have made recently. I don't know which chair it is Di, so I am playing safe and not sitting down at all! The digi image is from Mo's Digital Pencil coloured with promarkers.

My second card was for a TA who was leaving. Please forgive the simplicity of it and the dodgy stamping on the left, but it was made after a meal out and a few glasses at about midnight! The music stamp is an Inkylicious stamp and the guitar was from Dimension Fourth a while ago. The snippet in this one is the copper mirriboard. I'm entering them both into Di's crafty snippets challenge, where I haven't been for so long I bet she thought I'd been expelled!
Thanks for looking x

Take Flight with Sir Stampalot

It's the first Sunday in the month and time for a new Challenge at Stampalot. This Month our theme is

    Take Flight

In other words we want you to show us any creations that feature things that fly, be it butterflies, birds or dragonflies, or even planes and helicopters!
Here is my creation.

This was my Niece's 30th Birthday card. The stamps are from Indigo Blu, stamped in Memento Black and coloured with promarkers. The die cut leaves around the edge are a Joy Crafts die. The tiny Dragonfly brads were from Lakeland in the days when they sold craft stuff for a while, several moons ago!
The prize for this month looks like this:

- Lots of lovely goodies with a flying theme! I'm really looking forward to visiting everyone's entries this month, so go and get some more inspiration from my amazing teamies on the DT, over on the challenge blog. I do hope you will join in this month.

I didn't get round to visiting as many people as I intended last night as I got all distracted by the Olympics! Wow! Another major haul of medals - Well done, team GB! I'd also like to congratulate everyone who was in the athletics stadium on their superb rendition of the national anthem when Jessica Ennis was awarded her medal. You sang brilliantly!

Thanks for looking!

What's my Crafty Passion?

Good Morning and welcome to the first Sunday in the month, in other words, time for another Stampalot Challenge. For July we are asking 'What's your Crafty Passion?' Well, where do I start?!

Distress inks, tree stamps, Hero Arts leaf swirl and old French writing to name but a few. Here is a close up of that old French writing that I stamped in versamark and brushed with mica powders...

The tree(Indigo Blu) was stamped with flitterglu and then covered with gilding flakes.

Another crafty passion I have is floral stamps, so I made a second card featuring a Penny Black floral stamp called Dreamy, Hero Arts friend definition, and the gorgeous new summer set of distress inks. I used my ink dusters over the embossed image to blend the three inks together before stamping the friend definition with shaded lilac DI from the spring set. The prize this month is this rather lovely set of goodies.

 Pop over to the Challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous creations of our lovely Design team, and then create something to show us your crafty passion.

Thanks for looking!