How is it going?

I hope you are well and coping in these strange times. Three weeks into social isolation here and this week I haven't had a whole lot of mojo. I've sat in front of my craft table and not done anything constructive, card-wise several times. It just didn't feel right to be having fun creating with everything that is going on. On Thursday I knew I had to get myself motivated to make a birthday card for Meg, which needed posting and I will share with you in due course, and finally found a bit of inspiration. After that I decided I should create a scene I'd like to walk through, even though the countryside is a little too far to walk to at the moment.

So here is my riverside scene with stamps mostly from Crafty Individuals except the one at the top, which is from Inkylicious. The background scene is on satin finish art card, brushed with very old adirondack inks. the background stamping was done with memento ink. I stamped the kingfisher in versafine clair onto watercolour card and coloured with zig clean color markers and a bit of white gel pen. Finally I cut her out, shaped her a little with an embossing tool and stuck her on with 3d glue. Did you know the female kingfisher has a black upper bill and a red lower bill?
I'm entering this at Allsorts, where the challenge is something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. The old is my adirondack inks in mountain rose, pool and peach bellini, and the blue is my kingfisher.
I'm also entering it at Penny Black and more, where the theme is Anything Goes.
I hope my card gives you the same feeling of peace that I got from making it. Maybe we could have a virtual stroll along the river and spot kingfishers together.
Thanks for looking!

Get the telly on!

Here is a journal page I made using the new papers that are being released by Crafty Individuals on Hochanda today (Tuesday 7th April). The first show is 7.00am and the second show is 1.00pm. There are some fabulous stamps, papers and images, as well as lots of stunning samples from our lovely Jean and other super-talented teamies. Hope you can join us or if not, watch on catch-up. You won't be disapointed!
Thanks for looking!

Stamping Sensations challenge for April

Good morning, It's time for our April challenge at Stamping Sensations and this month we are looking for

****Somewhere over the Rainbow****

Rainbows seem particularly apt at the moment as they are seen as symbols of hope, and many children across the uk are drawing rainbows and putting them in their windows to cheer passers by. As the title suggest we would love to see your hand stamped creations that reflect that song or the colours of a rainbow. I am sure you will come up with lots of fabulous designs.

My card this month was made with a woodware stamp and matching stencil. The stencil was sponged over with distress oxide inks and the stamp was coloured with zig clean colour brush markers.  
Our sponsors this month are Be Creative.

Please can I remind you we are a stamping challenge so must see a stamped image which reflects the theme as the focal element of your artwork , this means:

Stamping must be the central point of attention and interest

 Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous creations from my talented team mates and more details of that prize from Justin and Gordon!
Before I go, Jean Hardy and Crafty Individuals are on Hochanda on Tuesday 7th April at 7am and 1pm. There should be some lovely demos and a chance to see the new stamps and papers as well as oodles of great samples from my teamies.  
Thanks for looking! 

Men and Boys (and anyone who likes insects)

The challenge over at Allsorts this week is to create something for Men and Boys. I picked up some 'Tool' stamps from PDA a few weeks ago (never heard of them before) and thought I would try them out. Here are the results...

 As a continuation of my stamping on fabric and adding embroidery, I decorated a small notebook cover. The paint I used is irridescent so it shines nicely when you tilt it.

 I also made a card using a cosmic shimmer paint palette and distress oxides on the base card, then made a second note book

I hope you like them. Thanks for looking!

Rudolf Days for March

Hi there! How is everyone doing? I have sent off all my samples for the next Crafty individuals show and now I am just catching up with a few bits and bobs here in blog land. We are observing social distance rules, exercising regularly and only braving the supermarket once a week. Crafting, gardening and crochet with local walks and a bit of karate practice is seeing me through. The only thing that is being curtailed at the moment is baking, due to panic-buying, stock-piling nicompoops (Don't get me started!) Hope you are coping okay.
Anyway, now is the perfect time for preparing for a handmade Christmas, lol. Many friends will be receiving a crocheted gift, and of course we can get on with Christmas cards. Without further ado, here are my two cards for the Rudolf Days challenge this month, both using a woodware wreath stamp that I had for Christmas.

They were both coloured using watercolour pens (a mixture of Zig and Arteza) with added dots of glitter glue and liquid pearls. The design papers were from a pack I bought from the works, as were the stitched dies.
Do pop over to Maureen's blog to take a look at the inspiration there.
Thanks for looking!

A digi from Dora

It is time to showcase another Digi from Dora. Our DT theme this month is farms and horses. I used this lovely horse image, printed on to kraft paper and coloured with my arteza professional colouring pencils. A bit of Mulberry paper and some old designer paper from my stash, with a spellbinders die cut to finish it off.
You can find Dora's digis on her blog here.
I'm entering this in the current challenge at Allsorts where the theme is creatures from the animal kingdom
Thanks for looking!

Mid month post for Stamping Sensations

It is mid-way through March (Where did that go?) so time for our mid month inspiration for Stamping Sensations where the theme is Spring Flowers. For my card I used stamps and dies from Thirsty Brush, our lovely sponsors this month. I gold-embossed the stamped images and painted the flower with cosmic shimmer pixie powders made into a wash. The sparkle is gorgeous! I do hope you get chance to enter the challenge.
Thanks so much for visiting my blog and leaving comments. It all feels a little bit surreal at the moment with everything that is going on. I hope you can find a little bit of calm in your crafting, and that if you are having to self-isolate that you have plenty of supplies to keep you going and are well enough to craft. Stay safe and lets hope it doesn't last too long.
Take care friends  xxx

Very different for me!

A few weeks ago I did a workshop at PDA, Langley Mill with Suzanna from Belle and Olive. Suzanna is a textile artist who specialises in all things vintage. We tea-dyed, stamped on fabric, sewed and embroidered. I didn't finish mine in the 2 hours we were there, but brought home my pieces thinking I'd like to add some more colour. After playing around for several days with distress ink and other scraps of paper and fabric, here is my finished piece.

I have to admit that I hadn't done french knots for about 25 years, but it didn't take me long to get back into embroidery. I cross-stitched lots around the time Meg was born, but used to find I'd wake up with painful hands the morning after an evening of cross stitch. I'm happy to say I have been able to do this with no problems.
I decided to try something similar with my own stamps and opted to use one of the small fennel stamps from Woodware.

 I found an off-cut from some shorts I made and used tea to dye it. I then stamped in versafine clair and used a mixture of normal embroidery silk, metallic embroidery thread and seed beads to add to it, which you can see here.

 A bit of mulberry paper, old music, lace and a kraft notebook finished it off.
Thanks for looking!

March Challenge at Stamping Sensations

Good morning, It's time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations and this month we are looking for

****Spring Florals****

As the title suggest we would love to see your stamped creations that reflect the theme. I am sure you will come up with lots of fabulous designs. My card this month features stamps from our spensors this month, Thirsty Brush. The sets are called Calm Circle (flowers) and Modern Floral (words) I stamped in Versafine Clair and coloured with Arteza watercolour brush markers. 

Please can I remind you we are a stamping challenge so must see a stamped image which reflects the theme as the focal element of your artwork , this means:

Stamping must be the central point of attention and interest

Our prize this month is from  our new sponsors, Thirsty Brush.  Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous creations from my talented team mates and more details of that prize! Thanks for looking! 

February Rudolf Day and a Digi from Dora

 It's the 27th of February and time is ticking fast for Rudolf Day this time! I am here with my offering. First is a Christmas card using Inky Doodles stamps. The background is stamped and embossed too.

My second card has stamps and papers from Crafty Individuals as well as some rather nice sticky letters that have been in my stash for ever. I'm popping these over to Maureen's blog, for Rudolf Days challenge, where there is some gorgeous inspiration for Christmas cards.

This last card is a wonderful spring digi from Dora's blog that you can find here. I love magnolia and this is so beautifully drawn by Dora - a pleasure to colour with alcohol based markers.

Mid Month inspiration for Stamping Sensations

It is mid-way through February so time for our mid month inspiration for Stamping Sensations. My card this month features a gorgeous stamp from our lovely sponsors,  Bee Crafty. It is that flower again from the XL Ladybird set, this time in a different colour combo and on a background of recycled biscuit packaging and crafty individuals papers. I painted it with distress inks and then fussy cut it. The biscuit packaging was sprayed with mica sprays and has a gorgeous sheen.

I also have a second card this month. If you are a regular visitor to my blog you know I love the Bee Crafty sunflowers from the doodle Art range. Well, now I have the large and the smaller one, thanks to their Wednesday Wow promotion. Here is a card using both.

I teamed them up with a snippet of inky stencilled background and layered with more snippets of silver and black. the sunflwers were added with 3d glue.
You still have plenty of time to enter the challenge, so do pop over to the challenge blog for more inspiration. Don't forget to check your entry against the challenge rules and take a look at the fabulous inspiration!
Thanks for looking!

Crafty Individuals Balloons

Hi there! Although it is wet and gusty outside, I'm thinking of better weather and I'm sharing some more of my Crafty Individuals samples that were on Hochanda a couple of weeks ago. Most of these were made with the new Ellie Mulligan balloon set which you can find here on the Crafty Individuals website

Finally here is a card made with the older Balloon stamp on a shaving foam marbled background.

I loved playing with these and revisiting some techniques I hadn't done for ages! There is a discount on the website at the moment, so pop them in your basket soon. If you join the Crafty Individuals Facebook group you can join in the monthly challenges and benefit from other offers too. (Link in side bar)
Thanks for looking!