February Rudolf Day and a Digi from Dora

 It's the 27th of February and time is ticking fast for Rudolf Day this time! I am here with my offering. First is a Christmas card using Inky Doodles stamps. The background is stamped and embossed too.

My second card has stamps and papers from Crafty Individuals as well as some rather nice sticky letters that have been in my stash for ever. I'm popping these over to Maureen's blog, for Rudolf Days challenge, where there is some gorgeous inspiration for Christmas cards.

This last card is a wonderful spring digi from Dora's blog that you can find here. I love magnolia and this is so beautifully drawn by Dora - a pleasure to colour with alcohol based markers.

A couple of cards for Campers

 First of all I would like to say a huge welcome to my new followers, Tex, Debby L, Pat and Valerija. Great to have you here and thanks so much for following! Next onto my cards...

When it was my friend, Lesley's birthday, I knew straight away which stamps I would use to make her card. She regularly goes camping and is also Forest Schools trained. I love taking her on school trips as she has so many wonderful ideas. Most of the stamps are from 'the Great Outdoors' set by Inky Doodles. The grasses are from Inkylicious. I used a combination of ink dusters, memento inks and be creative marker for the colouring. She loved it so much she asked me to make another for a friend she goes camping with. This one needed a deckchair, a dog and a camper van too...

The dog is a twinchie from Little Claire, but it was too big and so I stamped it onto shrink plastic coloured and shrank. I was well pleased that it was the perfect size for the deckchair at that! Additional leaf stamps are by Inkylicious on this one too.
 I have returned to work after the summer hols and Megan has taken her stuff to her new flat in Sheffield. She starts her second year as a student doctor next week. The house is feeling a little empty again, but we will be able to visit and have somewhere to sit down this year! Her flat last year was tiny! Hopefully I will be back soon with a few other projects that I have been working on.
Thanks for looking!

Stamping Sensations for September

Good Morning! It is the first Sunday of the month and time for a new Challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month our theme is Sew Special.It can be sewing real or faux, sewing related images or embellishments or how about a 'Sew Special' sentiment, the choice is yours to interpret as you wish.

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.  
 I dug deep into my stash for my card this month! The buttons and daisy lace are probably older than Megan, and the DP and kraft card are also quite old. I used stamps from the Inkylicious set Corsetiere (Tape measure and Dressmakers dummy) and Inky Doodles (sentiment, bee and stitching). All stamped images were embossed with detail white embossing powder. I then added a little faux stitching with a white gel pen and a walnut stain distress marker.
Our Sponsors for this month are Stamp Addicts who are offering  a £35 store voucher as first prize. We also have a second prize of a pair of tickets to the November Hobbycraft show at the NEC. Stamp Addicts is a family run business based in Bedfordshire and have been in business since 1992. They have watched the popularity of rubber stamping and all papercrafts steadily increase over time and now manufacture their own branded rubber stamps which frequently feature at craft shows across the UK. 
Do pop over to the challenge blog to see the gorgeous creations from my lovely teamies, and I hope to see lots of lovely entries.
Thanks for looking!

A baby card

Before we broke up for the summer holiday, I needed to make a New baby card for a colleague. I had used the ten fingers and toes for her maternity leave card, so this time I put some Inky Doodles stamps to use.

The background was stamped with Little Patchwork and the sentiment was stamped with Stitched Alphabet (Upper and Lower case) I used memento inks for the stamping and then dusted around the edges with tea dye Distress ink. The Spellbinders timeless rectangle die cut was a snippet of paper that has been in my stash for about ten years I think!
Thanks for looking!

Father's Day cards

I am sorry I haven't been around blog land much this week. It is report writing season and I need to get them done by next weekend, so I will be back soon. I have two cards to share with you today. One is for my dad and one is for Steve from Meg. Meg normally makes her own, but she has had three A level exams this week, so that is what she has been concentrating on.
First up is Steve's card...

For this one I used stamps from Inky Doodles . I made a little scene with my ink dusters then stamped the ducks ( On the Riverbank set), rushes, leaves (woodland walk set) and the boardwalk (Great outdoors set). Two of thses sets were purchases from Stamp Magic earlier in the month. I coloured the foreground detail with promarkers. The base card was stamped with fern leaves from Inkylicious in cracked pistachio.
My second card is a little watercoloured scene for my Dad

For this one I used Hobby Art stamps - the Harbour Scene-it set and coloured it with Aquamarkers - I haven't used mine in ages, but always tend to reach for them when I use Hobby Art stamps.
As I have used stamps I am entering my cards into the Allsorts challenge this week, and also My ducks have wings so I am entering them into the Penny Black and More Challenge where the theme is wings. I have made a third Father's day card for Steve's Dad (His 95th father's day) but I have made a very similar one for a magazine article that won't be out until August, so I will share it then!
Thanks for looking!

Stamp Magic Time!

So who is going to Doncaster to Stamp Magic tomorrow? I will be there, but on my own as Lynne is not able to visit this time, and Meg is deep in revision as her A levels start on Monday. I have already made my shopping list and am very excited to see some different exhibitors this time. I will of course be visiting the stalls of all my favourites like Inkylicious,  Inky Doodles and Little Claire.
No doubt I will bump into some lovely friends. Drop me an email if you fancy saying hello.
My card is made using Inky Doodles stamps, promarkers and ink dusters.
Thanks for looking!

Some snippet makes

Here are a couple of cards that I made from snippets. The first is a small card, using a snippet of cotton braid and leaves (Inky Doodles) stamped on snippets of white card and coloured with promarkers. I picked up the embossing folder in the Range sale for £3.00 I think - a bargain!

My second card used all snippets apart from the base card. The dylusions sprayed paper was left over from a crafty individuals card I made last year, and the snippets of black may well have been there for decades, lol! I added stickles to the top of the chloe stem die cut (Memory box). Unusually for me there is no stamping on this one, although a sentiment could be added as needed.
I am off to see Miss Di in the snippets playground for a huddle round the stove with the girls. It is way too cold and slippy to skip, and I am not chancing the slide in case of frostbite in the derrière!
Hope you are all keeping warm and dry. Thanks for looking!

My Top 5 of 2014

Good morning! Still plenty of the crisp and even stuff here. Hope you are managing to stay warm. I am joining in again with Debby's Top 5  for the year. I had to go back through very carefully and had completely forgotten some! It was so hard! I think my choices are based on the reaction of the people who received them more than anything. Here goes then. My first card was inspired by a photo and stamped with Inkylicious stamps- the post about it (and the photo) is here.

 My second card was for a dear friend and colleague. Softy that I am, the sentiment on this card was so pertinent that I it made me cry. All stamps on this one are from Inkylicious and the original post is here

 My third card, using Inky Doodles stamps, was for another dear friend who loves foxes.

 My fourth card was the one I gave Steve for our Silver wedding Anniversary

 My fifth card was Steve's Birthday card

I couldn't just choose 5 though, so I have three runners up!

 First is Meg's birthday card using a mixture of Inkylicious and Crafty Individuals stamps. Find out more here. I was pretty pleased with the realistic shadows and waves breaking on the shore!

Next is one of the cards that I produced as a part of my third video tutorial

and finally a play with my dylusions, treasure gold, distress markers and Crafty individuals stamps which was a DT card for Stamping Sensations. More details here. Do pop over to Debby's blog and take a look at her lovely top 5 (+)!
Welcome to my latest followers Joey, Desire, Rita,Barbara and Viv. Sorry it has taken a while to welcome you! It is great to have you here. Thanks for looking and I will see you on Sunday for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations!

A bit of an adventure and my favourite 5 Christmas cards

Well, Boxing Day didn't finish the way we expected it to! It is the day we host family and cook our proper Christmas Dinner. We had a lovely day and were just enjoying our tea when Steve decided to check on the weather, only to discover that it was starting to snow. We quickly got both Dads organised and then set off to take them home. Steve's dad (now 94) was safely delivered home, but after a 3 hour 11 mile round trip we arrived back home with my dad still with us. Steve was a hero, pushing six cars up a hill with two other complete strangers so we could all get back home. It was a much improved picture this morning as you can see from the photo above and we did get Dad home safely and in time for his next medication. After a bit of slipping and sliding on our road we finally got home too. I think I will stay at home tomorrow!
I wanted to join in with Debby and share my favourite five Christmas cards with you for 2014. Several of these are getting their first airing today as I didn't get round to posting them before Christmas.
First is the card I made for Meg using all Inkylicious stamps.

My second was the card I made for Steve, using Inky Doodles stamps (including the background).

My third was my Dad's Christmas card, using Card-io stamps. When I saw this set I just had to buy it - love the bird feeders, tables and boxes.

 

My next card was made with Inkylicious stamps and a Chocolate Baroque sentiment

I am struggling to decide on my fifth card. It is another scene using the Inkylicious stamps, but I can't choose between these two:
The card I made for Lynne, using the thistle stamp to make a wreath...

 or Deer in the snow

some of these are quite similar and use the same colour inks and stickles etc, but I loved the variety I managed with just a few stamps.
Do pop over to Debby's blog and take a look at her favourites too.
Thanks for looking and stay warm xxx

Snippet Birthday Card

I made this card for a friend using lots of snippets. The leaves and framed parts were stamped onto snippets of white card before colouring with promarkers and cutting out. The pale green snippet at the bottom was run through my cuttlebug with a stencil and my no shims mat before dusting with crushed olive Distress ink and stamping with the tiny acorn in the same ink. the faux stitching was drawn with a distress marker. All stamps are from Inky Doodles using the Woodland Walk set. 
I am popping over to Miss Di's snippet playground with it, and hope Parsnip has something warming stashed in the tree house ;). I think I have finished the Christmas shopping apart from food, so I'm ready for a hot toddy x
Thanks for looking!

Baby cards

 I needed a new baby card and a first birthday card recently, and, after seeing this baby card by Debby, using a new Mo Manning Baby Digi called Hush, I had to have it! I printed it and coloured it with promarkers. I stamped the base card (not very well - I need to practice with these stamps!) with Inky Doodles Little Patchwork stamps in various shades of pink, before giving a general dusting of Tea dye distress ink to make it look a little bit shabby chic. I added a sentiment and a ribbon to finish it off.

My second card is for my great Nephew's first birthday. This Mo Manning Digi (called 'I Love it!') was particularly apt in that he loves his train, but the little boy in the picture has quite a lot of hair compared to Elliot! The base card was stamped with another inky Doodles stamp from the Country checks set, in two shades of distress ink (tumbled glass and tea dye). The stitched alphabets are from Inky Doodles and the sentiment is from Little Claire.
Thanks for looking and for all the lovely comments. I hope I will manage to visit you soon!

Autumn Owls

I am rushing in last minute for Allsorts this week! I made this card with Inkydoodles (owls, mushrooms, branch and butterflies) and Inkylicious (delicate vine) stamps, ink dusters, Adirondack inks and promarkers. I also added a bit of sparkle with a gellyroll clear sparkle pen, which hopefully you can see here...

The theme at Allsorts this week is Autumn, and the weather is definitely getting more Autumnal by the hour!
Thanks for looking!

Anything goes at Stamping Sensations for August

Good Morning! It is the first Saturday of the month and time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations. For one month only we are launching on Saturday rather than Sunday. This month we are giving you free reign and saying anything goes for our theme. I am sharing with you a couple of cards I have made recently.

First up I have a birthday card for my brother- in- law. He loves the outdoors and so I had a good excuse to use the old beech tree set from Inkylicious again! For those of you that missed previous posts about it, this stamp has been made in the image of a tree that my dear teamie Lynne can see from her front garden - how exciting! The background was dusted with memento inks in Grape Jelly, Bahama blue and dandelion. I used Adirondack Peach bellini around the sun.
My second card is another birthday card for a lovely friend who loves foxes. For this I used all products from Inkydoodles.

The leaves and fox were coloured in with promakers. The background was created by putting an Inkydoodles stencil through the cuttlebug and then dusting it with rusty hinge DI. The blackberries and acorns are also inkydoodles stamps.
Our prize this month is donated by Tonic studios. It is a fabulous die set...
and matching punch! Pop over to the challenge blog and see the fabulous inspiration from my lovely teamies. I look forward to seeing your entries!

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!

Happy Burn's Night and Rudolf Day!

Hi there! Well, the 25th January came round very quickly didn't it? I have been busy doing the Big Garden Birdwatch and making a Hot Marmalade Pudding for our Burn's Night celebrations tonight at a friend's house. It is my turn to provide pudding. I have spent ages trying to get hold of a Drambuie miniature to make the custard with, but haven't found one. Should have tried at Christmas or in Scotland!
Whilst it is in the steamer I have been having a play and made two cards for Rudolf Day over on Sarn's Blog, so here they are.

and here are some 'closer-ups'.

The image on this one is a digi from Doodle Dragon Studios, the base card is stamped with Inky Doodles backgrounds 2 and the poinsettia is a Marianne designs die. The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.

My second card is a one layer card stamped with Inkylicious stamps and a sentiment from woodware. I added various glitter glues, although you can only really see the red here. All inks used on both were by memento.
If you haven't done the Big Garden Birdwatch there is still time, as tomorrow is eligible too. Not as many unusual visitors this year for us as last, but that could be down to the snow we had last year. About half an hour after I finished we got a pair of black caps, coal tits and blue tits, which were noticeable by their absence earlier! The seasons certainly are out of kilter this year, as we saw hundreds of Catkins on the way home from shopping this morning - at least 4 weeks early. Our daffodils are a few inches tall too.
Hope you have had a productive day and you have managed to avoid the hail storm we had earlier. Half past two looked more like half past six here, it was so dark, and the hailstones were marble size rather than pea size!
Thanks for looking!

Butterflies

Thanks for all your lovely comments on Sunday's posts. I will try and catch up with you over the weekend. Thought I'd pop on with another card I made with some of my Christmas presents, 'Backgrounds 2', 'Happiness is' and Butterfly Script' backgrounds from Inky Doodles. I used antique Linen, tea dye and tumbled glass distress inks for all the backgrounds, then coloured the butterfly with a mixture of Sakura gellyroll pens - some glaze and some star.
Here is a closer picture of the butterfly where you can see some of the sparkle

I also made an easel calendar for my friend who I went to Rwanda with.

This time I decoupaged the butterflies wings too, and dusted clouds onto the background.
I've been doing data analysis every evening all week, and I can't tell you how much my craft table is calling me! I'd written most of this post last weekend, so it didn't need much time to post it.
Thanks again for all the lovely comments. I'd better go - One more year group to analyse and then I'm done until February!
Thanks for looking!

Flowers

 Two posts in one day!!! Can you tell I go back to work tomorrow?! Here is another card I made using the Inky Doodles backgrounds 2 and Happiness is stamp sets. I used memento and impress inks for the flowers and the background, then coloured the flower centres with promarkers. I used a ball tool and some 3d glue to make the centres of the flowers stand out a bit too.

The die is from Marianne Designs and the ribbon and buttons were in my stash.I am entering this into the Allsorts challenge this week where the theme is 'free and easy', and Heck of a challenge this month where the theme is 'new' (I used my new stamps that I had for Christmas)
Thanks for looking!

Ribbons Buttons and Bows at Stamping Sensations

Hi There! It is the first Sunday of the month and time for a new Challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month our theme is Ribbons, buttons and/ or bows. We are sponsored by the wonderful Ignacio from Nicecrane Designs, and he very kindly gave us some images to use. The gorgeous set of Jessie Wilcox images appealed to me instantly as it seems so rare to see images of children reading these days! It took me back to the days of Janet and John reading books! I added some snippets of paper from some magazines and stamped the main background papers with Vintage flowers (Inkylicious) in Tea Dye DI.

My second card used stamps from Inky Doodles 'Happiness is...' set, stamped in memento inks.This gorgeous set of stamps was a Christmas present from my lovely hubby.  I used the Victoria Cuttlebug embossing folder and some buttons and ribbon from my stash.
Now onto the prize - Thirty-Five Pounds worth of goodies from the Nicecrane website!!! How marvellous is that? There are so many fabulous images to choose from too. Thanks, Ignacio! Don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog to see the fabulous inspiration from my lovely teamies. They have done themselves proud once again!
Both of my cards have gone a little way (not that you can tell!) to using up my snippets, so I am off to the snippet playground with them, where there has been a bit of wild weather. Think I will take my bucket and wellies too!
Thanks for looking!

Brown and turquoise snippets with my new die!

Well, I hope you have all had a wonderful couple of days. Today (Boxing Day) was our family day and I did Turkey with all the trimmings and then a rather large buffet with home made bread for tea. Now they are all returned home, I can have a play with my new goodies that Santa brought!
I'm here with a card for a couple of challenges,
Allsorts - Brown with turquoise/blue/aqua
Pixies Crafty snippet playground
I have used my lovely new Chloe's stem (Thank you, Lynne!) with turquoise snippets from my drawer. They are all shades of turquoise as this angle shows

I stamped the frame with the butterfly script background stamp from Inky Doodles, in vintage photo distress ink and dusted with tea dye distress ink. They are all assembled (not very carefully with some slapdash gluing!) on a Kraft card.
I am off to the playground with some wood, nails and a hammer, to see if Mr Len and Miss Di need some help securing a few things. I hope they manage to not have anything else blow away over the next few days. Hope they both stay dry too. I have to say my heart went out to all those people who didn't have power on Christmas day. I am sure we could all cope with games of cards by candle light, but the cooking side of things I would have struggled with.Gammon cheese and crackers would have been our Christmas dinner.
Thanks for looking and I hope you have managed to have a wonderful Christmas despite the weather.

New stamps!

When I was at Doncaster I was handed a voucher for 10% discount from Inky Doodles. I ordered from them and received my stamps very quickly. Excellent service, thank you! Two lots have gone away for Christmas, but I couldn't resist breaking out 'Backgrounds two' and having a play! After randomly filling 3 sheets of scrap paper with a multitude of different patterns I decided I'd better get on with the card I needed to make!

That patterned panel was easy to stamp and although it isn't perfect, I don't think I will ever need to buy papers again! The owl stamp is from Chocolate Baroque. I used a mixture of adirondack (pool, peri) and memento inks(teal zeal, grape jelly). The border and nestie (timeless rectangles) are both from Spellbinders.
Please forgive me if I don't visit and comment very much for a couple of weeks. I am busy at work and bringing lots home too. A few makes here and there plus DT comments are all I am managing at the moment. Don't forget to pop your name on my blog candy above if you are a follower. I am only counting followers on Google friends connect (the default one on my blogger dashboard) as that has been around since I first came to blogland five years ago, and so have some of my followers on here! If you join now, I might even break the 250 mark, and if you leave a comment you will be eligible for the draw, however long you have been following. 
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments