A couple of Birthdays

I'm nipping on here very quickly to show you a couple of Birthday cards which have now reached their destinations. The first is for my lovely friend and colleague, Jenny. We have been working together in the same class since September, but have known each other for years, and she certainly doesn't look fifty! The image is from Bugaboo and has been coloured with promarkers.

My next card is for my dear friend Lynne, and I know she has received it and her Birthday was yesterday.

It is a stepper card featuring a Sheena stamp with sentiments from Hobby Art (The landscape..) and Waltzing Mouse (With love). The main image was watercoloured with distress inks. I used 3 different nesties label dies and a Martha Stewart punch. I rather like this colour combo. Reminded me of heather moorland so perfect for this scene.
Thanks for looking!
Before I go I need to let you know I'll be offering some blog candy very soon as today is also my third bloggerversary. I will put a post up at the weekend although you might have to wait until I've been to Doncaster to see goodies!

Stamptacular snippets!

Hi There! I am getting to be such an infrequent blogger these days. However, half term, Doncaster stamp magic (23/10) and the 4th Stampalot Ultimate rubber stamping Demo day (29/10) are all coming up, so I'm looking forward to finding lots and lots of inspiration!
Anyway, here is my first offering for today...

I managed to use up all the scraps of paper left over from my boxes I made for cookies and cupcakes (post before last) and came up with this. The cake stand stamp was a freebie from the front of the magazine 'Quick cards made easy' and the sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse. The roses are cut with a Marianne design die and here is one in close up.

The papers are the 6 x 6 pad from Kaiser Craft called the Devonshire collection.

I'm entering this into Jules's craft snippets and Stamptacular Sunday, where the theme is  'You choose!' It would also be very suitable for the Food glorious food theme at Sir Stampalot this month - there are still a couple of weeks left to enter and a great prize on offer!

My second and third offerings are cards requested by colleagues. A baby girl card...

The paper is from Bearly Mine designs and the baby digi is from Squigglefly, coloured with promarkers. I love the fact that this image could be a boy or a girl.

Finally a digi hydrangea from my friend Teri at Delicious Doodles.

again coloured with promarkers. The paper is from an Artylicious CD - Seasons Greetings, but I'm sure you will agree not particularly wintry!

Thanks for looking and I will hopefully get round to visiting you all soon!

I think my Mojo is back!

I've had a funny old week so far. It has been very busy and I haven't really sat down at my Craft table until this evening. This afternoon I went to a funeral and got there rather early, thinking it would take a good half an hour from work, when it was about fifteen minutes. I drove past some beautiful woodland and parked by some silver birches. Just sitting in the car and enjoying the colours gave me a real sense of peace. Glad I stayed in the car though as it was freezing when I got out - definitely Autumnal! This evening I have given myself time to craft and come up with this.

Stamps - Inkylicious
Inks - Adirondack dye
Technique - ink dusters
plus white gel pen

I wasn't sure if it needed anything else, like a sentiment top left. I even tried some punched leaves down the right hand edge, but in the end I left it just as it was.
There seem to be lots of Autumn themed challenges at the moment. I'm entering this card into:
Moving along with the times - Autumn leaves
Stamptacular Sunday - Photo inspiration
Thanks for looking!

Food glorious food at Sir Stampalot

Hi There! It's the first of the month again and time for a new Stampalot challenge. Our theme for October is 'Food, glorious food!'. Well, you know me and baking, so I set to and made...

A cupcake box! How do you know a cup cake will fit in it?...

Look carefully...

And there it is!
Now, I'm afraid I got a bit carried away, cos I went on to make...

A cookie bag as well! The gorgeous papers that I used for both of these projects was a 6 x 6 pad from Kaiser Craft called the Devonshire collection. I also distressed all the edges with walnut stain distress ink. I used a variety of nesties and the Hero Arts leaf flourish, along with waltzing mouse stamps on the cookie bag. My rose was made using Brenda's tutorial and the leaves are a woodware punch.
After that I still didn't stop, but made just a couple of tiny additions...

The stamp is a Paula Pascual one from the filled with flowers set (£4.99 - an absolute bargain!) and the nestie is Blossom 3, stuck onto a cocktail stick.
And finally the prize...

What a lot of yummy goodies, eh?

Do pop over to the Challenge blog to see my fellow teamies fabulous creations for lots of lovely inspiration!
Thanks for looking!

A few cards

Well, I've had several requests for cards and had to just get on with them - mojo or no-mojo. I can't say I'm particularly thrilled with any of them, but I'm posting them any way, as I've nothing else at the moment.
The first one is a silver wedding card using Inkylicious stamps and silver embossing.

 

The second card is a Mo Manning Digi called 'I love it!'. I coloured it with promarkers and Used some MME papers behind it.

 

Not sure what happened to his hair - not the colour I wanted it to be!

Next we have a Penny black image, stamped for me by my good friend Jules and coloured with promarkers. I teamed it up with some Pink petticoat papers.

Finally we have some owls (one of my two magnolia stamps). I coloured the owls with promarkers, and did a bit of research on owl eye colour. Did you know that an owl with very dark eyes is normally active at night, an owl with yellow eyes is active during the day, and an owl with orange eyes is active at dawn and dusk? Unfortunately this lot look positively evil now! The papers here are MME also.
Thanks to those of you that wished me well on my course. I have to say I wasn't looking forward to it, but it was surprisingly very good, in that it was focused on the real world and will be useful too!
Well, thanks for looking, and if you see my mojo, please send it back to me pronto!

Made a start on Christmas

Well, I have finally managed a card that I'm happy with. It isn't brayered and it isn't CAS, and I gave up trying to think of something to fit a challenge this week and started the Christmas cards - a little early for me this year!

I used the Woodware Tipsy Tree set that I was introduced to by Chris at the Sir Stampalot  blog girl day last year, and fell in love with! Paper piecing works brilliantly with this set and I'm rather pleased with the colour combo - a new one for me on Christmas cards.  I got a bit carried away with my Faux stitching because I have just treated myself to a new very fine pen. I also used liberal amounts of Distress inks in tea dye and walnut stain.

Now, the good thing about paper piecing like this is that you get two for the price of one, so here is the other one.

More stitching on this one too, along with some old and rather temperamental stickles that needs replacing, hence the blobby blobs! I was rather pleased that I could use up some scraps of paper in such an economical way.
Life at work is very busy already, so I'm going to be a bit hit and miss leaving comments, apart from on the stampalot challenge blog for a bit. I am attending a course tomorrow on 'Middle Leadership' that I think will require me to do some extra activities over and above my regular teaching. I'm just hoping I can get my head around it all - especially after lunch on Friday afternoon!
Thanks for looking!

Creative in the Kitchen

Well, the mojo is still a bit lacking, so I've stopped looking at the craft table and made a few cakes. This first lot I made last week, and they are Peach and Basil Muffins. I know it sounds a bit odd, but the flavours work brilliantly together. It is a great way to use up those peaches and nectarines that go from solid to overripe in a few hours, too!

This weekend they look a bit less healthy. First up we have the Mocha Cupcake...

That is a mini chocolate finger on the top. Now I'm normally not thrilled by chocolate cake, but with the light coffee frosting I found them very tasty! I need to have another go at the frosting, as although it tasted great it looked a bit dodgy! Finally we have the apple and cinnamon cupcake...

This one has a lovely light golden sponge made with light brown sugar, cinnamon, and grated apples from our Bramley apple tree in the garden. It is topped with honey and cinnamon flavoured frosting.
I've finished off the afternoon by watching Barbara Gray, and I feel a few ideas coming on now! Hopefully I'll be back with a card or two before too long. Thanks for looking (Wish you could smell them too!)

Flowers and swirls at Allsorts

Well, I was wondering if I would make it this week! I am a bit lacking in the mojo department and didn't know what to do for this week's Allsorts, where the theme is flowers and swirls. Then I remembered a card that I made in the summer and didn't blog. Here it is:

I'm just hoping that embossed background is swirly enough! The sweet Pea stamp is an old one from Stampourium (no longer available, I'm afraid - about 14 years old!) I used distress inks to colour the sweet peas. The background is stamped with Hero Arts Antique flower background and the gold embossed leafy swirl is from Inkylicious. The flowers are a mini poinsettia die from Marrianne designs. They make a rather good clematis I think! Here is a close up of my crackle background.

Thanks for stopping by and your comments are much appreciated!  Hopefully I will find my mojo soon!

Green and Blue

Just a very quick post this evening. Thanks so much for all your well wishes for the new term! I have a lovely new class (if a little lively) who are very excited to be back at school. I am working with a wonderful TA too, who is very skilled and an asset to our classroom. Some sunshine at playtime wouldn't go amiss, but apart from that it's great!
The card is my entry for this week's Allsorts challenge where the theme is Green and Blue. Stamps are from Hero Arts, Paper Artsy and Crafty individuals, and all inks are distress inks - bundled sage, pine needles and broken china. I used a spellbinders label die cut in half for the hinges. Have a great rest of the week, and I'll hopefully manage another post at the weekend.
Thanks for looking!

Quiet Reflection

This week seems to have raced by, with several trips into school and planning and prep very much in hand. We did manage a day out on Tuesday though, to Old Moor, an RSPB reserve in South Yorkshire. It was a mostly dry day, but the sun didn't show itself much. The dull day didn't lend itself to detailed photos of birds, but I enjoyed trying to capture a few reflections.

This young heron posed perfectly for us.

A tufted duck...

 clouds reflected in water...

and a great kingfisher perch with no kingfisher, but a couple of ducks in the background!

Finally there was a great crested grebe that was looking at us looking at him.
It was a very peaceful, restful and calming day. I hope to capture a little of this atmosphere in a card soon. Thanks for looking!

Freebie Fridays at Sir Stampalot!

Sir Stampalot are promoting a new weekly feature, starting tomorrow. It’ll be called ‘Freebie Friday’ and will be sent via their email newsletter, so if you want to join in, you’ll need to sign up for the newsletter before end of day, today !

Follow  this link

Alternatively, you can go to the Sir Stampalot web site and sign up at the "Stay in Touch"  "Sign up to Smudges" link on the left hand side of the home page.

It's a frame up at Sir Stampalot!

Hi there! This morning sees the launch of the latest challenge at Sir Stampalot. Our lovely sponsors at Sir Stampalot have provided us with a wonderful prize this month, and here it is.

Gorgeous stash isn't it? 

Our theme this month is 'It's a frame up!' and we want to see a frame on your project - not just a border, but a frame 'feature'. Here is mine.

The papers are from My mind's eye - the Stella and Rose collection. The scalloped base card was stamped with Hero Arts old french writing and antique linen distress ink. The frame around the flower was cut using labels 18 , classic square and standard circle nesties. The flower is a magnolia stamp, coloured with promarkers and layered up to create a 3d image. 

I do hope you will join in this month. Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous makes from the DT. Thanks for looking!