LIM - red and orange

I had to make a couple of quick birthday cards and so what better than to go for CAS cards, however, there was a fair bit of time and inkiness to get carried away with before I managed to get them finished!
Here is the first:

I used cut and dry to cover a piece of watercolour paper in Distress inks (Fired Brick, spiced marmalade, Dried marigold and Wild Honey), spraying it with iridescent gold glimmer mist. Once it was dry, I used the Hobby art Stamp set 'Anna's collection - Just for You' in the same colours. I added a couple of gold embossed flower heads before cutting the panel into three equal parts. The sentiment is a very old one from Stamporium (no longer available). I am entering this one into the LIM challenge where the colour theme is red and orange this week, and Clean and Simple Sunday where the theme is Flowers.
I enjoyed this one so much I decided to do a very similar one with different colours and different stamps.

For this one I used Adirondack inks in Bottle, stream and purple twilight with the Wild Meadow stamps from Elusive images/ Chocolate Baroque. I will do my best to visit some of the lovely LIMettes during the week. Thanks for looking and for leaving lovely comments x

Blues and Greens at Sir Stampalot

Well, it's the first Sunday of the month and time for a new challenge at Sir Stampalot. The theme this month is a colour challenge and we chose Blue and Green.

I began by creating a background using a Woodware holly swirl and versamark ink, then sponged broken china, shabby shutters and pine needles distress ink over the top. I used the same inks, plus forest moss to create a background on watercolour paper which I spayed with iridescent gold glimmer mist. When it was dry I stamped the Poinsettia (Penny black slapstick cling - Christmas pride) and embossed it in gold. The ribbon was recycled from a box of chocolates and the greeting is very old from Stamporium (no longer available). the beads used for the centre of the poinsettia were from my stash. I cut the shaped card using an XL frame Go Kreate die called frilly #1.
I'm entering my card into Allsorts Challenge this week where the theme is 'Anything but a square'.
There's lots more fabulous inspiration over on the Stampalot Challenge Blog, so do pop over and check it out!

What is the prize this month? Well, we are keeping that a secret for a little while, but I am sure I don't have to tell you how fabulous the prizes are from Sir Stampalot, and it will be just as AWESOME as it always is!

I will make a mid week card!

I have been doing little bits of this card since Tuesday and I was determined to finish it today.

It is an easel Christmas card. I brayered a background with Eggplant and Peach Bellini Adirondack inks before stamping in Memento Paris dusk. The lovely cottage is Art impressions (T-1221), The fence is from a set by Lindsay Mason called 'Build a snowy scene' and the Fir trees are from Inkylicious. I added a few highlights and shadows with promarkers, white gel pen and glitter.
Here is a close up of the scene...

and here is the poinsettia 

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:
Allsorts - Christmas easel cards
Ladybugs crafts ink challenge - Non-traditional Christmas colours

Thanks for looking! Don't forget there is still time to pop a comment on my candy post here

Last minute creativeness!

In a bid to enjoy my last day of holiday till 23rd December, I've done quite a bit today. I watched a couple of hours of Sheena whilst marking some books, (Love the new lakes stamps), finished some planning, tidied my desk a little, made a Carrot cake to take to work tomorrow and made a couple of cards for work mates birthdays next week, oh and did a roast dinner too.

Sheena did a sky using these colours of distress inks this morning, so I thought I'd have a go and used some Lavinia seed heads instead of trees. There is quite a bit of glitter on this one, but you can't really see it in the photo.
My second card is very different, with a Bugaboo digital image coloured with promarkers and used some scraps of papers that have been hanging around on my desk for ages. As it used scraps I'm entering this into Jules's crafty snippet challenge.

The flowers and leaves were also punched from snippets. Well, I'd better go. Thanks for looking! 

A bit of fresh air and more craft shopping!

Yesterday, Steve, Meg and I went for a walk in the woods.

It had started off a bit misty, but the sun came out and the colours were amazing. It seems to be a good year for berries...

and the sun made them look as if they were glowing. 

The woods seemed alive with bird song and we saw this little chap. (If you can help me identify him I'd be grateful. I thought he might be a black cap, but when he turned he had a little dark patch beneath his beak, which makes me think he is a marsh tit or willow tit, maybe)

There were also some majestic hogweed seedheads, often covered in spider's webs.

I love Autumn! 

Today Meg and I went to Sir stampalot for the demo day. It was great to watch all the ladies demonstrating brayering, stamping, paper piecing and a wide variety of ink techniques. It was particularly lovely to see Brenda and Chris, and also to meet a few more faces from Blog land like Penni - very nice to meet you and hope you didn't have to stop for any trains on the way home! I even managed to exchange a bag of our Bramley's for a box of splendid plum tomatoes from Eddy,  Brenda's Hubby.

It was a fabulous day, and the cherry on the cake at the end of it was to see a red kite as we were driving home! I stopped to let an ambulance out of a side street on the outskirts of Helpston and there it was flying in front of us, with that magnificent forked tail! I am sure our facial expressions were not particularly appropriate to the ambulance driver as we whooped and cried 'Red Kite'! Unfortunately my camera was in the boot of the car, so here is a photo of one I took on holiday (in captivity).

Well, thanks for reading my ramblings. I'll be back with a card or two very soon!

Purple mood

Well, as well as tidying my workspace a little today, I've been ink dusting with egg plant (not something you say every day!). I decided to only use one colour after seeing Deby from Inkylicious demoing yesterday. Meg and I had a fabulous time at Doncaster with Lynn from Crafty Linby. There was lots of  inspiration, some of which I will hopefully get around to soon, but here are today's purple creations.
Firstly a tag showing the Inkylicious Santa's sleigh that is available in my Blog candy. The trees are also from an Inkylicious plate called a winter's tale.The night before Christmas text is also from Inkylicious.

Next I made another tag using the Silhouette Town stamp - another one I'm giving away as part of my blog candy. A tiny bit of purple twilight Adirondack crept in on this one to give the impression of approaching dawn.

I added a bit of fine glitter to both. After that I went on to try the same technique with a stamp I treated myself to from Stampalot when I was last there - Penny Black 'berry red, snow white'.

I added a few trees to the hills in the background and glitter to the berries. Well, I'd better be off to bed. Thanks for looking!

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!