A fabulous day

Megan and I did make it to Sir Stampalot yesterday, despite the snow. It had snowed quite a lot more the previous night and I was beginning to doubt our chances, but slightly higher temperatures and a bit of rain soon gave me hope. The journey was fine, thanks to Meg's navigating and directions to bring us along more major roads from Janice. The inspiration from the ladies demonstrating was great, and it was wonderful to see my lovely friends Chris and Brenda once more.
Here is a card inspired by both Brenda and Chris.

I covered a piece of card in Fired brick, wild honey and shabby shutters distress inks then over stamped with a Woodware Clear Magic holly stamp. I added a pleated flower in black metallic card and a punched border. I finished it off with a bit of stickles on the berries, which you can see better in this picture.

Simple and quick, but I'm very pleased with the result! I'm entering this in the Keep it Simple Challenge where the theme is 'Deck the Halls...' and the sponsor is Whimsey stamps'
I've also made a couple more...

 Couldn't resist that PB stamp- sooo cute! It reminded me of Robert's dog, Harry that you can see here (look at that snow just ten miles north of us!)

Check this out. The set of stamps that I used for this card cost only £4.99 for 14 stamps! What a bargain! The Paula Pascual range are available here. Thanks, Janice, Andy, Chris and Brenda for a lovely day.  Well, better go and mark a few more books and stop enjoying myself quite so much!

Snow day 2 - well, Ice day really

Another day of school not being open, as the snow from yesterday had formed sheet ice. Several staff had fallen over, so it definitely wasn't safe for the children. So, what to do with my time? Finally I got inspiration and time at the same time! I finished Steve's Dad's Birthday card:

I used papers from my funky hand dreams come true cd, an image from the internet recoloured to match the papers and some scrabble letter stamps (Stamporium).

Next I made another Kokopelli card for a friend's birthday. I used stamp and bond and gilding flakes - this time I used the variegated red flakes (Crafty Notions).

Then I made a birthday card for a workmate who loves Tigers. This used a digi drawn by my talented friend Teri and is available from her blog shop Delicious Doodles. The base card was stamped in Wild honey Distress inks with the Hero arts leaf swirl.

My final two cards feature a Hero Stamp called Starry Night. I brayered the ink onto the stamp to get even coverage, using big and juicy waterfall and hydrangea  The base card was cuttlebugged and then punched down the edge. The edge of the inside of the card was then sponged to match the stamped image.
I also braved taking the car out to see if my route out of Nottingham to the A52 is clear of snow. It was, so Yes, I'm going to try to get to Sir Stampalot's Demo day at Peterborough tomorrow! Thanks for looking!

Snow day!

Well, I made it in to work this morning, but it was coming down so heavily by eight o'clock that our school had to close, so I had an unexpected day at home with Meg (her school has been shut every day except Tuesday this week). We did a bit of baking, I made a few cards and we went out in the snow and took some photos.The first card is very simple using a penny black stamp, promarkers, a ready made sentiment and a cuttlebug folder. For the second I used a creative expressions stamp(Tree), my favourite leaf swirl (Hero Arts), creative colour sprays, rainbow drops (Crafty Notions) and a cuttlebug folder. The third was a free stamp from the Craft Stamper Magazine and lots of distress inks.  So now you have seen my cards, I will show you the snow.

It's fascinating, this white stuff, but I'd really like it to go away now, as my trip to Sir Stampalot's ultimate rubber stamping Demo day is seeming more unlikely.

Around the world with Sir Stampalot

 Good Morning! It's the first of December and that can only mean one thing...time for another Sir Stampalot Challenge! This month we are looking for your creations that reflect travelling around the world. Here is my creation. I have gone for a Central American theme with a Kokopelli figure (KK Originals) stamped in stamp 'n' bond and rubbed over with gilding flakes (Crafty Notions). The background was made by stamping a leaf (Hero Arts) in versamark and brushing over with Blonde Moments pearl pigments in gold, copper and green. Now I've told you what I did, I'd better tell you what the prize is. Feast your eyes on this...

Impressive, eh? Wish I could enter myself!
So, If you want to be in with a chance of winning this fabulous prize, Make us something  that will take us off on a journey around the world (what a lovely thought!) Before you do though, pop over to the Sir Stampalot Challenge blog and get some inspiration from my mega talented teamies. Thanks for stopping by!
P.S. You will have to forgive me if I am absent from Blog land this week. It is Panto week at school. By the time you read this we will have done one Dress rehearsal and one evening performance with 4 more performances to go (one morning, two matinees and another evening). I may be face down asleep in my dinner on Friday, but I will have earned some serious retail therapy at Sir Stampalot's Ultimate Rubber stamping Demo day on Saturday, weather permitting! I need to shop, so come on snow, give us a break!
Update: No performances of our panto today, as although school was open there were lots of children off, including some of the main characters. We had a snowman building competition just before home time!

Another christmas card and snow

Here is another Christmas card using the same technique as the last two, but this time using Broken China, Chipped Sapphire and Dusty Concord distress inks.
Papers are from my Artylicious  Seasons Greetings cds. The Christmas tree stamp is from Crafty Individuals and the snowflakes are Docraft stamps.
Finally I thought I would share a photo of yesterday's snow on my Dad's greenhouse. They had about six inches of snow in Warsop. It was like that all day and could well still be like it with today's temperatures! 

Serendipity

 Here is another topper from my sheet of watercolour paper started yesterday. I was looking through some of the pots of embossing powder and found one called pineapple that looked like a pale gold. I tried embossing the pine branch image (Elusive images) but it just disappeared into the background. I wish embossing powders all stated whether they are opaque or not, lol! Anyway, before deciding it was a disaster I gave it a quick rub over with my cut and dry that I'd used for the edges with a bit of walnut stain. I'm pretty pleased with the result!

I added some ribbon, lace and a charm so I could enter it into this week's Allsorts challenge, where the theme is a recipe(all of the above!) and mounted the lot onto a card distressed and stamped with Antique linen and Tea dye distress inks. The charm was originally silver until I coloured it with a pumpkin promarker to make it match!
This week's Allsorts is sponsored by Sir Stampalot and there are a couple of stamps as prizes. Thanks for looking!

It's been a while...

Don't you just hate it when everything happens at once? I've been walking past my craft table giving it a loving stroke and wishing I had more time most days this week! I've spent a bit of time in the kitchen making muffins...

Muesli ones...

 Rhubarb ones...

and apple and cinnamon ones.
Finally I realised I need to get myself into gear and hurry up and make some christmas cards! I have finished this one so far, but another two are well on the way.

The topper started off life as a piece of watercolour paper that I inked with Pine needles, Barn door and Aged Mahogany distress inks. It got spritzed with iridescent gold glimmer mist too I stamped over with HA old French writing in Brushed corduroy and then gold embossed the tree (Elusive images) over the top. The edges were gold acrylic paint that was heat dried to male it bubble (Thanks Brenda!) My base card was stamped with an All Night Media pine branch and more pine needles ink.
I made an A5 sheet of that watercolour background, so there are several more to come! I'm entering this card into the Lots to do challenge where the theme is favourite technique, which has got to be stamping (and distress inks a very close second!). Thanks for looking!

Very quick post

A very quick post to show you the Birthday card I made for Meg's godmother. The flower is from the touch of nature stampin' up! set, and the swirl and text are hero arts. I coloured the flower with promarkers, then versamarker, embossed in clear, then did the background in distress inks. The sentiment is personal impressions. Can't seem to stop doing autumnal colours!
Thanks for looking!

Tuesday Taggers with silver, gold and purple

Our lovely Ildiko has chosen the theme this week at Tueday Taggers, and she has chosen silver, gold and purple with some stamping. I am beginning to think about Christmas (I know, a bit later than most!) and came up with a tri fold tag card.

 The poinsettia stamp is a cling one from Magenta coloured with distress inks and has a bit of tulip paint, stickles and glossy accents added. I mounted on silver mirriboard. The corrugated card was sprayed with a variety of creative colour sprays (Crafty Notions) in shades of purple and gold. The base card is a pale gold pearlescent card that has been partially run through the cuttlebug with the divine swirls folder. The ribbon was a gorgeous find on our last trip to Sir Stampalot and the tinselly cord was a generous donation from Megan's stash.
This will be my last post for Tuesday Taggers for a while, as I'm taking a break whilst things are a bit hectic at work with post Ofsted and Christmas preparations.
A quick update on the home front. Steve is a dab hand with the crutches now and is able to get about the house reasonably well. He even ventured out to the postbox on Sunday, and on to the patio to help fill up the bird feeders.
Can't have the birds going hungry!

A bit more Autumn

It's the weekend and finally I've found the time to post. Here is a card featuring a 'Stampin' up!' set called Touch of Nature, that they have now discontinued.

All stamps are from the set except for 'Old French Writing' (Hero Arts) used on the base card. The bird and branches were stamped, coloured with promarkers and then embossed after colouring over with versamarker. The background stamping and shading was with a variety of distress inks, as was the leafy part of the base card. I'm entering this one into the Lot's to do challenge this week where the theme is autumn colours.
Next is a birthday card for one of Meg's friends who has the nickname 'Wolfie' so I thought the husky/ wolf image from Clarity Stamps would make an ideal card.

Both of these cards are very much in the style of Michelle Zindorf. If you have never visited her blog or looked at her tutorials please do. She is one extremely talented lady!

Tuesday Taggers on Wednesday

A Day late, but I made it in the end! The Theme at Tuesday Taggers this week is Oriental, chosen by my lovely teamie, Zoe. I made a couple of ATCs.

The panda stamp is from Inkadinkado and the background text is a stamp from Stamp to your Art's Content. The three bamboo pics were from a little book of oriental images (not sure who the publisher was, but I think it's Hot off the Press). Although I love this theme, I'm a bit lacking in the mojo department at the moment. Steve had an op on his knee today. He is home and seems reasonably comfortable. I'm sure he will be back on his feet (with the aid of his crutches) quite soon. Thanks for looking!

Sir stampalot's November Challenge

Good Morning and Welcome to November's Sir Stampalot Challenge where the theme is Christmas Traditions. I've made a double stepper card featuring two Penny Black stamps - Duck Noel and Lovin' and Huggin'. All images were coloured with Promarkers. The papers are made using peeled paint, forest moss and pine needles distress ink, Hero Arts old french writing and a small holly stamp from Lavinia. A great set of instructions for one of these cards can be found here.
So I hear you ask, what is the prize? Well, feast your eyes on this little lot!

What a great prize, eh? So Start thinking about what you can create on a Christmas theme and get making! Pop over to the Sir Stampalot Challenge Blog and have a look at the wonderful inspiration from my lovely teamies and anything else you need to know. Thanks for looking!