Oh Pooh!

Just a quick note to say I will be AWOL until the end of next week due to OFSTED (Sorry for swearing). Feeling a bit like a headless chicken at the moment. Somebody pour me a big glass of wine for next Thursday night!!!

An animal and a song

 My Card for Tuesday Taggers needed to feature something wiith more than two legs this week. It was a very quick one, using papers from an Artylicious CD and the stamp is a Pink Gem one, coloured with promarkers. Please do pop over to the TT blog and take a look at the fabulous DT work.

My next card is for the Allsorts challenge this week where the theme is inspired by a song...can you guess?

Fields of Gold - a bit obvious I think! I used distress inks in Mustard Seed and Wild Honey and that fabulous Hero arts stamp - Sooo glad I bought it from Sir Stampalot, along with that ribbon too. I also sprayed it with gold creative colour spray. The sponsors at Allsorts this week are Sir stampalot and this card would also fit beautifully into the Sir Stampalot challenge where the theme is Autumn colours with bow(s) and button(s). I've now started singing Forever Autumn. I feel another card coming on!

Autumnal wandering

Finally I made it back to blog land! I have had a very successful if tiring week, so today I've had a little bit of fresh air and some craft time. First of all my card.

I used distress inks and a range of Elusive images stamps, oh and hero arts old French writing. I also embossed the tree with mirror gold embossing powder. The challenge this fortnight at the Stampman is Autumn, so I thought I'd enter it.
We had a lovely walk on the Robin Hood Way  (a great footpath through Sherwood Forest) this afternoon, with my Dad.There were some fabulous fungi specimens.

 Lots of Fly Agaric from tiny ones like this to some the size of dinner plates.

 Not sure what this one is but there were lots.

This one was quite big - you could pull up a chair and rest your cup on it!

We walked through an area where the only dry land was the footpath. Both sides of the path were waterlogged and swampy. Looking at the trees it has been like this for a while. A little eerie at first, but we saw woodpeckers, ducks, a pair of Buzzards and some warblers too. Further along the rivers Meden and Maun meet and part again, and the view down the Maun from a little footbridge was very tranquil.

I'm sure if we had had a little more time to stand and watch we would've seen a kingfisher or a water vole. Thanks for looking and I hope you get some tranquil moments this weekend. If you manage an Autumnal creation you could add buttons and a bow and enter it into the sir stampalot challenge too!

A very quick thank you

I was asked for a few thank you cards a few days ago and hadn't got round to blogging them. I saw the theme on Keep it Simple this morning and realised they would be perfect!

As you can see, simple is an understatement, and although I like the design I felt very strange leaving it so stark! The leaf stems were from the Hero Arts Clear design scattered leaves set. Stamped in black versafine and the sentiment was from a personal impressions set. I thought the design would suit a sympathy card too. Keep it Simple are being sponsored this week by Whimsy Stamps
We have had a bit of a family get together today and I've just driven my Dad and my brother home. It is the tenth anniversary of my Mum dying, so we thought it would be a good idea to get my Dad out of the house and with company. He thoroughly enjoyed his roast beef dinner and apple crumble.  Over the next week I might be around blog land a bit less than normal as I have parents evenings on two nights and a governors meeting on another. I'm guessing we will be eating a few takeaways! I have made a few cards recently though, for family birthdays, so I'll blog those when I get the chance.
Thanks for looking and I hope you have had a wonderful weekend!

Autumn Breezes at Sir Stampalot

Good Morning and welcome to October! This month at Sir Stampalot we have a theme of  Autumn breezes with buttons and a bow. Prepare yourself for lots of photos as I wanted to show you all the different parts of my criss-cross card!

Here it is sat on my window ledge. I started off with some pieces of glossy card stock and stamped some leaves (Hero Arts Clear design: scattered leaves) using Big and Juicy Spice. I then inked up my brayer, took a bit of the colour off and brayered diagonally across each panel.

The small leaf stamps on the central panel are from the same set and the corrugated card band around the card was coloured with creative colour sprays(Crafty Notions). The little leaves were cut with a newish die from Joy crafts using pearlescent paper.

On the reverse side of the central panel I cut an oval from some Artylicious Essence of Nature paper and placed more leaves around it, giving an area for a sentiment. The orange buttons were from very old stash (My Mum's button box, inherited about ten years ago, but the buttons are probably circa 1960!)

So there you go. Hope you like it. I certainly had fun with my Brayer! You can probably see I got a bit carried away! Now, drum roll please, as I'm sure you will want to see the amazing stash you can win this time round...

Isn't it wonderful? So, if you would like to be in with a chance of winning this lovely stash, take a look at the fabulous inspiration from my fabulous teamies over on the Sir Stampalot challenge blog and get creating!

Autumn at Tuesday Taggers

Good Morning and yes, it's Tuesday again!

Here is my card for this week's Tuesday Taggers where the theme is Autumn, chosen by my lovely teamie, Teri. A while ago I made some chipboard tiles with Brilliance mineral, clear UTEE and some chalk inks. after stamping into the UTEE I put another layer of clear powder over and heated again. The leaf stamp is a Judikins cube. The miniature tags on the left were from Stampourium (no longer available) and the leaf shapes on the brown panel were made using punches and pearlescent powders. Do pop over to Tuesday Taggers and have a look at some of the amazing projects our DT have created.Also we have aprize of a £15 voucher from the wonderful Craft Barn up for grabs, so I hope you can join us!

My second card is another using the judikins cube and chalk inks. this time more simply with just a little clear embossing powder. I mounted the mini tags on some coloured wire and sticky pads this time. The cream base card has just a few leaves sponged on with brilliance ink using a punched stencil. As this is fairly clean and simple I decided I would enter it into this weeks Allsorts challenge where the theme is ...Plain and simple! They are being sponsored this week by 'One stop card crafts' and the DT have produced some amazing cards.
Thank you so much for dropping by. I really appreciate your comments. I only wish there were a few more hours in the day so I could blog more regularly and visit you all!

Tuesday Taggers - Anything goes!

Good morning! This week at Tuesday Taggers our theme is 'it takes all sorts', chosen by the lovely Emma. I made this a couple of weeks ago and didn't use it for it's intended purpose, so I thought I would blog it now.

The main image is one of our lovely Teri's delicious doodles, coloured in promarkers. I coloured around it with antique linen distress ink and stamped in the same ink with Hero arts old French writing. The edges of the papers were distressed and inked with walnut stain. The little butterfly was stamped on to shrink plastic and coloured with pencil crayons. The papers are MME and the pearls and lace are from my stash. Pop over to the TT blog to see some fabby inspirational work from our lovely DT. You can also find out about our new sponsor, Ribbon Oasis too!

Three Challenges - a bit of a record for me!

This is my entry for this week's Allsorts challenge, where the theme is 3 or more punches, this month's Penny Black at Allsorts, where the theme is punches and this fortnight's Stampman challenge, where the theme is 'distress'.
I used Penny Black letters and flowers for the main image and paisley swirls for the backgrounds. I stamped and distressed with stormy sky, antique linen and walnut ink distress inks. I am loving this colour combo at the moment. The punches I used (3 different leaves and the little flowers) were from woodware and x-cut. My big flower was made using shapeabilities flower creations 3 held together with three brads. I creased and sprayed the petals before I assembled them with a combination of starburst stains and creative colour sprays. Here is a close up of the flower...

 The Sponsor at Allsorts this week is Stamp Addicts, and of course the Stampman have a wonderful voucher on offer for their winner and Penny Black have some fabulous stamps available for their winners.
Thanks for looking!

Lovely trees

When I saw Glenda's new stamp sheet from Elusive Images I couldn't resist. I'm sure I've said before that I'm addicted to trees and the new essence of nature sheet has plenty! This is the first stamp I cut out and used. I brayered a background with Big and Juicy spice, masking the moon. I removed the mask and sponged Adirondack butterscotch lightly across the moon. matted on to black paper I mounted it on to a plain white card stamped with the sentiment (Personal impressions).

This is the blue version, brayered with big and juicy waterfall. They are very very simple, but I think in this case less is more. I've spent today doing lots of stuff for work and jobs at home, so hopefully I should manage some play time tomorrow. Thanks for looking and I hope you are having a great weekend!

Diamonds are forever at Tuesday Taggers

Good morning! This week at Tuesday Taggers our theme is Diamonds are forever, picked by the lovely Pat. After a brief mojo-less moment involving me thinking about lots of bling, I finally came up with this.
Not sure what this fold is called, and I bodged it a bit, but a bit of matting and layering covered up the problem!
The backing paper is from my Artylicious Essence of Nature cd, the stamp (Stamp to your Art's Content) is stamped in versamark and covered in blonde moment's pearl pigments. The gorgoeus little leaf die is by Joy Crafts. My desk looks like miniature Autumn, lol!

Here's a photo of it stood on the table - sorry it looks a bit wonky! Pop over to Tuesday Taggers and see the fab DT projects. We would love you to join us this week with your interpretation of diamonds.
The theme this week at Allsorts is Colours of Autumn, so I'm entering it there too.Thanks for looking!
P.S. I thought I would give you a quick update on why I've not been around in blog land so much. On Friday it was the funeral of my dear friend Julie, who passed away  two weeks ago. As well as 'being there' for her hubby and 13 year old daughter, I'm trying to do what I can to help out. Did you know that if your wife dies and the Child Benefit was in her name they stop it and you have to reapply on a seven page form? What idiotic bureaucracy is that? As if the poor guy isn't suffering enough. Sorry, but I needed a rant!

Books galore at Tuesday Taggers

When our lovely Teamie Michelle chose the theme of Books at Tuesday Taggers I knew exactly what I was going to do. For several years I've had the Garden Fantasy sheet of Non Sequitur stamps, and there is a girl on it that always reminds me of the ghost of Cathy from Wuthering Heights. I got out my stamps, my brayer, a big and juicy pad (Hydrangea) et Voila!

The tree stamp is one I picked up from Encaustic art plus at Elsecar heritage centre. With clear embossing the outline of the girl the brayered ink wouldn't go right to the edge, but I think it makes her look quite ghostly. I finished it off with a quote.
Thanks for looking and I do hope you can pop over to Tuesday Taggers and join in the fun. Whilst you are there check out the amazing examples for our fabby DT!

All Distressed at Sir Stampalot

Good morning. It is the first of September and that means it is time for another challenge at Sir Stampalot. The theme this month is All Distressed, and I did get rather inky and messy creating this one! My background papers are MME and Cappella, distressed around the edges with my Tim Holtz distressing tool and my scorebug, and of course lots of Walnut stain DI. The script (Hero arts old french writing) was stamped in Tumbled glass DI and the ornate corner (Elusive images) was stamped in Walnut stain DI. The border was made with a Martha Stewart Doily lace punch. My central flower was made using 3 layers of each of 3 shapabilities dies (Flower creations 3) the flourishes are a Marianne Designs die, and the roses and small flowers are woodware and x-cut punches with a few gems.Here is a close-up.

Now on to the prize. Take a look at these lovely goodies.

Fabulous prize, eh? So, if you want to be in with a chance to win this lovely lot, put your thinking caps on a pop over to the Sir Stampalot challenge. There are lots of fab projects this month by my wonderfully talented teamies.