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!

Get yourself a cuppa - it might be a long one!

What a busy few days we have had! First of all I must share the 'creation' that I mentioned in my last post that Meg and I had been working on...

 

This was Meg's outfit for a fancy dress party on Friday.

Next I want to tell you about the fabulous Blog Girls Day at Sir Stampalot. We had a wonderful day. Lynne, Megan and myself went to Peterborough for another fabulous workshop with the very talented ladies Chris and Brenda. We made some wonderful cards...

We chatted, got messy and had a really lovely time! We met some great ladies and so enjoyed getting to know them. It was wonderful to meet Zoe for the first time in person, although I feel like we have known each other for ages! I can't choose a favourite from all the lovely cards we made, as I love them all. A huge thank you to Chris and Brenda who make the day so special every time. A huge thanks from Meg too, ladies, as you helped her to achieve such fabulous results too.
I was going to share a couple of cards with you that I made during last week, but I will save those until another day.
Thanks again to everyone, including Janice and Andy who provided the perfect retail therapy I have been looking forward to since the dreaded 'O'!

Lovely walks

As it's half term we have enjoyed a couple of walks whilst the weather has been better. Yesterday we returned to the Robin Hood's way near Walesby for a lovely stroll in the afternoon sunshine.

 This photo was taken by Robin Hood's Cave by the river Meden. I was hoping to see the buzzards and a woodpecker again, but it wasn't to be, although there were still lots of Fungi.

We ventured a little further this time and on this lovely stretch of river we saw the unmistakeable blue flash of Kingfishers. I'm no where near a good enough photographer to capture a kingfisher in flight, so you will just have to believe me!
On the way back we spotted this little fella, sunning himself...

I think it's a Common Darter. He was so obliging, photographically and nearly landed on my head a couple of times!

We enjoyed a few more moments and then set off back for the car. As we entered the woodland we heard the unmistakeable soft hooting of a  tawny owl. So no Buzzards or woodpeckers, but owls and kingfishers instead - wonderful!

Today we had a lovely stroll around Shipley Country Park near Heanor, where we fed the ducks and swans,

admired the autumn colours, and marvelled at how laden the yew trees were with berries this year...

No cards to show you until tomorrow I'm afraid as it was too dark to take a photo once we got home. There is another 'creation' Meg and I have been working on, which I will show you tomorrow too. Thanks for looking x

Halloween!

Good Morning! It's Tuesday and here is my DT offering for Tuesday Taggers where the theme is Halloween with some deep purple. there is also a lovely prize on offer from the Craft Barn.

Last year I picked up a set of Inkadinkado clear stamps principally for the spider and spider's web in the set (I'm unusual in that I love spiders). The witch is another from the same set. The trees are a Lavinia stamp and the background was brayered with B&J Hydrangea.
If you pop over to Tuesday Taggers you will see some amazing inspiration by my amazingly talented teamies.
Thanks for stopping by and I do hope you can join in this week.

Colours of Autumn

Here is my card for this month's Penny black at Allsorts challenge. I stamped leaves in versamark onto glossy card then coloured with a variety of distress inks. I then stamped the Penny Black fantasy tree over the top in black stazon. The leaf is a spellbinders die again coloured with distress inks.
We took Steve's parents out for lunch yesterday and the trees were beautiful in the sunshine. At eighty-five and eighty-nine they really enjoy going out for a bit. We thought a good place to go would be The Bay Tree café at Thorsby Gallery, but we were sadly mistaken. They refused to open the double doors to let mum enter with her rollator (zimmer with wheels) instead sending us round the long way, through another door. When we arrived in the cafe we were told that they were unable to seat five of us due to health and safety. We could take a seat outside if we wanted. We left in disgust and headed for Edwinstowe. On the way we spotted the Dukeries Antiques centre which has a tea room. Steve enquired to see if they could accommodate us and they couldn't have been more helpful, letting us enter through the back door (no steps) and reserving a table for us. On top of that the food was excellent and the portions were generous. We were a little disappointed we had no room for cakes! We did get a couple of rhubarb and ginger scones with fresh cream filling for Steve's parents to have for supper. They had a lovely time in the end, and we insisted on treating them as it is their wedding anniversary soon - fifty-eight years!