A simple ladybird card

 

Hi There! Thought I would show you how I made this card today. 

I began by smooshing memento ink (anything water based can be smooshed) onto a piece of mixed media card. 

I used the same ink to stamp the background using Journaling essentials 1. 

I stamped some of the freehand borders 1 around the edge and across parts of the background. I also sponged some of the ink around the edges of the card

Next I stamped the Doodle Art Ladybird in black ink in the centre of the card and onto a scrap of white card. I coloured the wings of the ladybird using ecoline pens and attached to the one on the card using 3d glue. 

Finally I added a wordy sticker sentiment along with some gelly roll moonlight neon pink highlights.  

Here's the finished card. 

I used:

Blank white 15x15cm card

14x14cm of Mixed media card

Memento ink in Bahama Blue and Lilac Posies  (Distress ink or Distress oxides would also work)

Journal art Elements #1 stamp set

Freehand Borders#1 stamp set

Doodle Art Ladybird stamp set

Wordy stickers 1b

Black versafine Clair ink

Gelly Roll Moonlight pens

Last Sunday I took part in a Northern Zone Karate tournament. I was an official for some events, judging kata and kumite and also helped to keep the paperwork in order on one of the rings. I entered Team Kata, individual kata and individual kumite (The latter two for over 50s) I was delighted to come away with 3 silver medals and our Nottingham team achieved amazing results! Here are a few photos from the day.

 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!

Anything goes at Allsorts

The theme this week at Allsorts is 'Anything Goes' so not too much thinking required, lol. I thought I would share a card a neighbour asked me to make. When she said she liked horses, I remembered I had some by Lavina, so a 'scene' card was the result. The stamps are all Lavinia or Inkylicious, except the sentiment (Little Claire) and the scrabble tiles. I coloured the card with ink dusters and a variety of inks. A fine black pen was used to add grass under the horses and a distant fence.
As this is another card featuring animals, I'm also taking to Penny Black and More for my second entry there.
Thanks for looking!

Rudolf Day for March

Here I am last minute with two cards for March Rudolf day, so just in time for another Rudolf day over at Scrappy Mo's.

 Both were made using Inkylicious stamps, ink dusters and distress and memento inks - DI weathered wood and Memento London fog on the first, and Memento Nautical blue on the second.

I also used a gelly roll sparkle pen and a spectrum noir clear sparkle pen on the snow and moon, but you can't really see it here.
Lets hope we don't see lots of the white stuff this weekend! Things to do and people to see!
Do pop over to Mo's blog to see the beautiful inspiration and join in the Rudolf fun if you can!
They were both made using snippets as well, so I'm off to Miss Di's snippet playground with them too! 

February at Stamping Sensations

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

********Anything with Flowers********

As the title suggest we would love to see your floral creations. I am sure you will come up with lots of beautiful floral designs.

My Card this month is a beautiful Iris from our lovely sponsor, Bev at Bee Crafty. I coloured the stamp with memento inks in Paris Dusk and Cottage ivy. I then dragged colour and added a little extra with a water brush. I also added a little yellow and orange zig cleancolor marker. The background was stamped (Hobby Art stamps) and dusted with distress inks in bundled sage and tea dye.

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

As I mentioned above our sponsor is Bev from Bee Crafty. She is offering the lucky winner £25 worth of gorgeous goodies from the Bee Crafty store! There are gorgeous stamps, stencils, inks and all sorts of other goodies just waiting to fall into your basket! Rather a lot fell into mine, I can tell you! If you didn't see it before here is a card made with more Bee Crafty Stamps that fit the theme. I LOVE that sentiment!

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 outstanding cards this month! 

Thanks for looking!

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! 

November at Stamping Sensations

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

********One Layer Christmas Cards********

By one layer we mean your artwork must be stamped directly onto the base card, definitely no matting and layering. 
I've gone for a CAS design on both my cards. I started by laying a strip of masking tape across the card. I then stamped and dusted a little ink either side of it. On the first card I used Inkylicious Berry Branches and added 4 colours of liquid pearls and glitter glue. Once the tape was removed I stamped the Inkylicious sentiment along the space.
My second card is a very similar design using stamps from the Inkylicious winter spruce set. These cards take about 5 minutes to stamp and about 20 to dry, lol!

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 Tote Bag collection from Tattered Lace 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! 

Rudolf Day for May

 It's time for Rudolf day (25th of every month) where lots of us make a couple of Christmas cards in readiness for the festive season. I love the fact that it gets me organised, although the last two months have been a bit of a disaster organisationally! Anyway, to make up for short falls I am posting three cards this month.

 

I don't know about you but I received quite a lot of monotone cards with a hint of red both last year and the year before. There were some M&S ones with the same colour tones and lots of glitter too.  I used memento grey flannel (London fog would probably have been better, but I only have a dewdrop pad that needs replacing) on my ink duster and a mountain valley stencil to create the background. I hadn't put away the Inkylicious birch trees stamps and thought they would make a great snowy woodland scene.The trees in the background are just second generation ink.I finished them with more inkylicious stamps and stickles in frosted lace and star dust. The red berries are garnet liquid pearls.

Do pop over to Mo's blog and take a look at the fabulous DT cards. I love the Rudolf Community - everyone is always so friendly!

Hearts for Valentines day

I've been busy working on my Valentine card for Steve. Inspiration for a valentine card for a man who doesn't do cute are few and far between, so I resorted to a scene in a heart shaped aperture. I used my ink dusters and distress ink to create the background, then stamped with memento ink. The one job Steve has done outside in the torrential rain this morning is feed the birds, so it seemed apt to add his feathered friends. All stamps are from Inkylicious. I added dots of stickles and liquid pearls for the buds and water droplets on the branches that make up the border.
The theme at Allsorts this week is hearts and/or flowers, so I am entering this one there.
This is my thousandth post - I can't quite believe it! 
I will leave you with a few photos of buster the squirrel who is enjoying our bird food so much, lol.

Steve's Birthday card

Two posts in two days?! I know, but don't get used to it. I'll be back to weekly posts soon enough.
I just wanted to share Steve's birthday card with you. I used all inkylicious stamps except the moon which is from Lavinia. The papers are from craftwork cards. I have a thing about tartan and when I saw their tartan goody bag after Christmas I had to have it!
So, Steve is another year older, but feeling very upbeat as he is now counting down to retirement! Hopefully once he is retired we will get the chance to go and enjoy scenes like this at October half term or during the Easter holidays. Right, I'd better go and finish my dad's card and Meg's boyfriend's which are both next week.
Thanks for looking!

Feature a Creature at Allsorts

The theme of Feature a Creature at Allsorts seemed like the perfect opportunity to share a card I made for my friend's son, who turned eighteen last month. I used Lavinia stamps, memento inks and inkylicious ink dusters. There is some fabulous inspiration from the Allsorts DT on their blog.
Short and sweet from me today as I have a mountain of things to do this weekend. I will try and visit blogland a bit more soon.
Thanks for looking!

Rudolf Day for September

Who stole September then?! Where did that go? I can't believe it will be October next week! Let me tell you about my cards for Rudolf day this month. I fell in love with the latest tree stamps from Inkylicious and had to have them before Stamp Magic. As soon as they arrived I whipped them out of the packets and set to work. My first card uses the set Midnight trees A7 with fence posts, A moon stencil and memento inks. I made the shadows of the trees by swishing a damp paint brush below the stamped image. The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards

My second card is a digi stamp (not sure if it is still online, but it was a freebie from Cuddly Buddly). I coloured it with Be Creative Alcohol markers and mounted using coordinating scraps. I used snippets on both cards so as well as Scrappy Mo's Rudolf days I will take these to Miss Di's snippet playground too.
I do want to apologise for not getting round to visiting your blogs as much as I would like. This term is very busy so far, but I am hoping it will calm down soon. I have a lovely class of 31 5 year olds, but it is very tiring. Thanks so much for your lovely comments. I hope to catch up soon!
Thanks for looking!

A couple of little scenes

My Brother-in-Law celebrated his birthday recently and it was the perfect opportunity to use my new inkylicious stamps, Reflections-Black Forest and Mini branches twigs. You can find them on the recently added pages of the Inkylicious website. All stamps are from Inkylicious. I dusted with memento tuxedo black, dandelion and canteloupe inks and Fossilised Amber Distress ink. Final touched were added with a white and a stardust clear sakura pen. 

 My second card is the one that I made Steve for our wedding anniversary, This lovely harbour scene is a hobby Art Rubber cling stamp I simply stamped using my big and juicy waterfall pad and then spread some colour using a waterbrush. I then added some fossilised amber DI for the beach and roof tops. The background is old wood floor from inkylicious, stamped in memento rich cocoa and dusted with tea dye DI. The sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse.
This does remind me of places along the Yorkshire coast, like Staithes and Robin Hood's Bay...Where does it remind you of? Well we finally broke up from School on Tuesday and I have been busy finishing a magazine commission since then. As this was christmas themed I have decided to not join in with Rudolf day this month and do extra for next month. My head is definitely not in Christmas mode, lol! I now intend having some serious R&R for a couple of weeks, which will definitely involve visiting some blogs and some crafting and colouring.
Thanks for looking!

One for the boys

The Challenge this week at Allsorts is 'One for the boys'. I made a card for a colleague who was doing a sponsored bike ride and whose birthday is next week, and it definitely fit the bill! I didn't have a cyclist stamp so I found a clip art silhouette and popped it in the middle of some smooth white printing card. I then used ink dusters, Inkylicious stamps and mountain valley stencils to create a little scene around him. I am quite pleased with the result!
A huge welcome to my 16 new followers! To all my followers, thanks for your support and kind comments.
Before I go I want to share some photos from a walk last weekend. We walked around the Teversal Trails. It is almost five miles and at this time of year there are plenty of orchids around, as well as other wild flowers... Take a look...

Hope you enjoyed that! Thanks for looking!

A New Design Team

I am delighted to tell you that I have joined my lovely friend Dora's DT for her digi blog, Doortje-digis shop. I used Dora's beautiful Rosebay Willowherb in the foreground, coloured with Be Creative alcohol Markers. Behind I created a little scene of hills and mountains behind using inks, ink dusters and stamps from Inkylicious. I used tartan papers from Craftwortk Cards and some ribbon from my stash.
Do take a look at the digi shop. There are lots of beautiful digis there.
Thanks for looking!

Rudolf day for April

Happy Rudolf day! I managed to make two cards this month! Both cards used stamps from Inkylicious. The first using a white tag and card, inked with Memento Paris Dusk. I covered the base card in panels embossed with a Sheena embossing folder.

My second card used the faux vellum technique, dusting white ink onto craft card. The edging thistle is a hobby art stamp from the Highland cattle set and I added a tartan ribbon to continue the Scottish theme.
Do pop over to Scrappy Mo's blog and take a look at the wonderful Christmas cards there! Thanks for looking and for all your wonderful comments. Hopefully I will manage some time in blogland this weekend. I am giving myself some me time :-D