Snippet makes

I made these cards before I went back to work, but am only just getting round to blogging them.

 This first one is a cute Mo Manning image coloured in promarkers and mounted on a piece of paper from my snippet drawer. I think the paper was a download from Pink Petticoat. The card candy and greeting are both from Craftwork Cards many moons ago

 My next offering is a Michael Powell Stamp, again coloured with promarkers. The two scraps were home made, the vertical one was done with paint dabbers and the horizontal one with iridescent colour sprays. I can't even remember how I used the rest of the sheet I made these for, but was loathed to throw them away as they were such lovely colours. I coloured my image to blend in and was quite pleased with the result.

Finally, another cute one (I may need to lie down with all the cuteness!). I stamped direct onto the base card to make the floral pattern (Waltzing Mouse stamp). I coloured it with distress ink markers. The image (wild rose studios, coloured with distress inks) and the panel beneath it were both snippets I have had in my drawer for a long time.
I am off to the Snippet playground with them and a big bag of cola cubes to share with all the construction crew, and my lovely playmates. Miss Di seems to be having a great time on her jollies "course". I'm not really jealous cos I am off on my own Educational visit on 22nd, and I might see what I could bring back for the playground... Thanks for looking and I will try and repay your visit this week.

A bit sporadic

Well, where did the last week go? I did intend blogging, and had a couple of cards ready, but starting back to work was so hectic, there were two nights I didn't even switch this computer on! I had a meeting and a meal one evening with the folks I will be going to Rwanda with. Two weeks yesterday I will be boarding a plane to Nairobi and then transferring to Kigali. I am a little more organised than I was on Thursday now, but still lots to do!
I did manage a little bit of time at the craft table yesterday, making a card for Craft a Scene. With a theme like trees I had to have a go this month. I might even have a second go as I have another tree idea inspired by my drive through Sherwood Forest yesterday on the way to my Dad's house.
So, here is my tree card.

I used a mixture of stamps from Lavinia and Inkylicious, Adirondack inks (five different shades - I'll let you guess!) a white distress marker and a black fine liner. I created the background with my ink dusters.
The other things I wanted to share with you were photos of my Dad's dahlias. He lost all of his dahlias in the very snowy winter we had back in 2010, so I bought him some new tubers for his birthday. Here are a few photos of the massive blooms they have produced.

The third one is about 7 inches across! That reminds me. I bought a large Dahlia stamp a little while ago that I really ought to ink up and use!
Thanks for looking!

September Challenge at Stampalot

Good Morning! It's the first Sunday of September and time for a new challenge at Stampalot. Here is my card:

 This month we want you to take inspiration from this picture, and also to include some lace.

I used the colours and the roses, and a cameo stamp seemed to fit with the design. 

I created the background by stamping the flower (Hero Arts) with Versamark and then sponging distress inks in Victorian Velvet, Dried Marigold and Bundled Sage. I made 3 roses using my retro flower punch and coloured those with Victorian Velvet, Dried Marigold and Antique Linen. 

The central panel was stamped (Waltzing Mouse) and embossed in green pearl embossing powder, and I added a few flat backed pearls as well. The cameo(waltzing mouse) was stamped in Versamagic tea leaves and attached with pinflair glue gel.

The lace was originally white but I added a bit of diluted tea dye distress stain and it began to look a bit more antique.
Now I hear you ask, what is the prize? Feast your eyes on this!

Such a lot of goodies!
Pop over to the challenge blog to see the fabulous inspiration from my lovely teamies and then lets see your fantastic creations. Sorry, I went a bit mad there with the photos didn't I?!
I'm entering my card into the Heck of a Challenge first challenge where the theme is Anything Goes.
Thanks for looking!

Last Minute Less is More

A quick dash to pop a card on my blog for Less is More this week, where the theme is 3-2-1.

What, no stamping?! For once it was a very quick card! I used three gems, two sparkly pearls and one cuttlebug embossing folder. I added just a touch of colour using tumbled glass Distress ink and distress marker, to tone in with the mat beneath it.
Thanks for looking and leaving comments. I'll hopefully be back to visit you this evening.

More of Ruth's stamps

Why is it I have so much inspiration now when I'm about to go back to school? I managed another play using Ruth Hamilton's Pick of the Bunch stamps from Tonic studios. These stamps are from the chrysanthemum set and the Rudbeckia set. I used resist technique to make the background and watercoloured the flower with the summer set of distress inks. The swirly die is from Marianne designs. It isn't the best watercolouring. I thought I would try the back of some pearlised card, but it obviously wasn't the right sort of pearlised card!
Thanks for looking!

Back to the Snippet Playground

 Well, I've made it back to the snippet playground again. I've suddenly realised that I have only this week left of my holidays and then I will be struggling to find the time to craft again, so I have made quite a few this weekend. Here are a couple of snippet makes.

Yes, the green snippets have been out! The top one is a digi from Digistamp Boutique, coloured in with promarkers. The second is a Little Clare stamp coloured in with Coloursoft crayons.
Finally I am sharing a card I made a few weeks ago...
'Can you make a card for Ray?' they said. 'What is he into?' I asked. 'Beer' they said. 'What else?' I asked. 'Just Beer' they replied. This was what I came up with.

Everything on it was from my pile of snippets. The only thing I did especially was to stamp the name and cut it out. The digi stamp was a freebie from Digistamp Boutique, many moons ago, and it was coloured in about 2 years ago.
So I'm entering these into Pixies Crafty Snippet Challenge, although the beer had better go into the safe hands of Miss Di, I think!
Thanks for looking!

Ruth's beautiful stamps

At our recent get together I had a stamp of Ruth Hamilton's Pick of the bunch stamps by Tonic Studios, and had to get some of my own! Here is my first card with them.

These stamps are from the Chrysanthemum set, with the main image coloured with promarkers and the base card stamped in Dried marigold distress ink. The emboss and cut folder is from Marianne designs, and I added a bit of diamond stickles and a few gems.

Now I know it has reached it's destination I can share it with you.

Thanks for looking!

A Birthday Card

My FIL asked me to make a special birthday card for the Warden of their housing complex. She visits France quite regularly and enjoys a glass or two, so this is what I came up with.

The stamp at the top has no make on it, but I think it was from Stampers Supermarket, which I can't seem to find online any more. The two smaller panels were stamped with Hobby Art Scene it stamps from the Tuscany set, as was the base card. All were coloured with distress markers and distress ink. The sentiment was computer generated and I added roses from my stash.
Thanks for looking!

Playing with highlighter pens

I've finally got round to having a play with highlighter pens as featured by Paula Whittaker in Craft Stamper last month and also on her own blog here. I used an orange highlighter, walnut stain distress ink and Inkylicious stamps on the first.

The second was done with a yellow highlighter, walnut stain distress ink and stamps from Hero Arts and Chocolate Baroque. I sprayed the second with a water mist to get the speckled effect. I will definitely be doing some more of these. Now what did I do with the blue and pink highlighters?!
Thanks, Paula, for sharing such a fab idea with us.
Thanks for looking!

A mid-month Stampalot reminder

Hi folks!
Lynne and I are the featured DT members this month at Stampalot Challenge. If you want to read more about us then pop over to the Stampalot Challenge blog. We have both made some more cards for the Take flight theme. Here is mine:

As usual I used a range of Distress and Adirondack inks and my ink dusters to create the background. The butterflies were coloured in with promarkers before triple embossing and decoupaging onto the background.  Stamps by Inkylicious on this one.
I also made a tag

For this one I used Hero Arts stamps and some fabulous two tone glitter that looks green one way and bronze the other.

 This was made in much the same way as the card, but I didn't triple emboss the butterflies this time.

Lynne and I have spent many happy hours finding craft shops to visit. We started off locally and then would look for places a bit further afield  -  That's how we met Brenda at Sir Stampalot.

 Thanks for looking and I hope you have the chance to join in with this months theme. Remember you can enter up to 6 challenges including ours and you can enter more than once as long as they are different projects eg a card and a gift box.

A visit to see Lynne

Meg and I had a little trip to Scotland to see Lynne this week. Despite the forecast we had a good couple of days and managed a walk or two as well as a trip to Sweetheart Abbey and the National Costume Museum.
Thought I would share a few photos.

 The grass really was that green!

We loved the fifties dresses. So beautiful! Reminded me of my Mum. Come back tomorrow to find out what else I've been up to. Thanks for looking!

A couple of snippet makes

 Here are a couple of snippet makes I made about 3 weeks ago, but haven't got round to blogging yet. The first was a maternity leave card for my boss. Those of you who are regular visitors will know this is the fourth maternity card I have made recently. I don't know which chair it is Di, so I am playing safe and not sitting down at all! The digi image is from Mo's Digital Pencil coloured with promarkers.

My second card was for a TA who was leaving. Please forgive the simplicity of it and the dodgy stamping on the left, but it was made after a meal out and a few glasses at about midnight! The music stamp is an Inkylicious stamp and the guitar was from Dimension Fourth a while ago. The snippet in this one is the copper mirriboard. I'm entering them both into Di's crafty snippets challenge, where I haven't been for so long I bet she thought I'd been expelled!
Thanks for looking x