More Be Creative products

 Hi There! I am here with a few more cards using Be Creative papers and embellishments. When I opened the Nature themed papers from Be Creative and saw the fish, I knew the Inkylicious Create a scene: Boating stamps would go perfectly. I added a few highlights using a copper sharpie pen (not as carefully as I would have liked. Note to self - wear your reading glasses!) If one of the men in your life likes fishing, then you definitely need this paper pad! There are some gorgeous deer and birds in there too.

My second card uses another paper pad. this one has some lovely florals, polkadots and hearts in pinks greens and beiges with a vintage feel. I topped it with a diecut (Spellbinders) stamped with Inkylicious Lazy Daisy and coloured with Alcohol based markers. The pearls, tag and buttons are from Be Creative too.

My third card is an easel card. The papers from this pad are beautiful shades of purple blue and green. At 160gsm the papers are stiff enough to not have to pre-mount them on card for the top part of the easel card. The stamp is a very old Sugar Nellie one, coloured using distress inks and a water brush. Again the tag, buttons and pearls are from Be creative too.
Are you going to Happy Stampers at Port Sunlight? If so you will be able to lay your hands on some lovely goodies, as Once upon a Stamp will be stocking these wonderful products.
Thanks for looking!

Rudolf day for September or Santa Real Estate!

Hi there! It is Rudolf day for September over at Scrappy Mo's and I have 3 cards to share with you this month. I think I have now caught up on not entering in July! The first two cards are both using Inkylicious stamps. The cottage stamp is called Winter Lodge. I stamped it in Memento Espresso Truffle and coloured with promarkers. I added glitter and a sentiment stamped in Memento Nautical Blue.

The same goes for my second card, but I used some fluffy puffy stuff to make the snow - not very effectively, though! I added snow drifts and sky shading with my ink dusters and mountain valley stencil.
My third cottage is a Chocolate Baroque stamp. I stamped it in Adirondack Stream onto watercolour paper and used a water brush to add shading. Once it was dry I added lots of stickles. The stamp I used in the sky is an Inkylicious Christmas tree and the sentiment is a very old one from Stamporium, that I seem to use every year.

Meg was happily settled in her new home last weekend and has spent the week finding out about what is on offer at the university. She has joined a couple of martial arts clubs - Judo and jiu-jitsu, hoping to find something to complement her Karate. The house seemed very empty for a couple of days, but I am coping, lol! I am suffering with the first of the seasons colds, a sinus based thing that makes me look very seasonal - I could give Rudolf a run for his money with this glowing nose! Thanks for looking!

A Sneak Peek!

Hi There! I am popping in today with a card made using papers and embellishments from 'Be Creative', a new company who will be launching their range of craft products later next month.

The papers are 180gsm and double sided, so you get two different designs per sheet. There are 24 pages and 4 different double sided papers (that is 8 different designs) per 8"x8" book. They are made from recycled paper, but ooze quality and elegance! Can you tell I am impressed? At 180gsm they are stiff enough to make easel cards with, and I will be back with one of those soon! The flat backed pearls and buttons are self adhesive and each pack contains a range of sizes. I used inkylicious stamps and distress markers for the main image.
This weekend we are busy helping Meg to move into her student flat. The house has been full of boxes for the last few weeks and it will suddenly seem very empty once she has gone! I am looking forward to exploring new craft shops in Sheffield when I visit her! I have had one or two slightly tearful moments as she had her last karate classes in Notts for a while, and both Sensei spoke of their pride in her achievements and wished her luck - More proud mum moments!
I will share some more of the gorgeous products from 'Be Creative' very soon, and let you know a bit more about them.
Thanks for looking!

Male Birthdays

 Lots of people struggle when it comes to ideas for male birthdays, especially teenagers. In times of need I will often opt for digi images, and Mo Manning has quite a few, especially if you are looking for a computer or gaming theme. With this one I began by stamping a panel of white stamping card with a twinchie stamp from Inkylicious in Kaleidacolor Creole Spice. I dusted over using the same ink pad and my ink dusters. I trimmed this and attached it to the base card, popping a turquoise stick on nail head at each corner.
I sprayed a snippet of card using blue and purple dylusions. When it was dry, I ran it through the cuttlebug inside a birthday themed embossing folder, before rubbing over some treasure brass to highlight the embossing. The sentiment is from Little Claire and was also stamped on a snippet. I made both of these cards a while ago. This first one was made for Meg's godmother's godson (Meg's godbrother?), who is also off to University in Sheffield.

 Here is another male card for you.This time I found some snippets of black card, and paper pieced the Woodware clear singles Sneakers stamp, using a white gelly roll pen on the laces and eyelets. I used ice grey 1 and pastel blue promarkers to shade around the stamp and a little ivory to add some shape to the sneakers. This stamp is great for paper piecing and for girls or boys from about 12 upwards - So versatile!
As I used snippets on both, I am off to Miss Di's snippet playground with them. I will be behind the bike sheds where the chocklit is, hoping the tag game is finished and no one else gets a tail pinned on them. Poor Mrs A! Hope Miss Di is feeling a bit better and her back is behaving itself.  Thanks for looking!

Snippet makes

I have been having a little play with some snippets, Card-io stamps and memento inks (tuxedo black, cantaloupe, dandelion and elderberry). The stamped and inked panels are offcuts when you cut a square from an A5 piece. The matting and layering is also snippets, as is the ribbon.

I am off to Miss Di's Snippet playground with these, and absolutely no chocolate whatsoever...nod, nod, wink, wink. Better be careful as Sarn is prefect and she knows what I am like, lol!
Before I go, if there is anyone out there who would be able to gather some seeds from the flowers in their garden and post them for us to grow in the school grounds or allotment, please email me: sallyholmes66@virginmedia.com
Thank you, and thanks for looking!

Stamping Sensations for September

Good Morning! It is the first Sunday of the month and time for a new Challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month our theme is Sew Special.It can be sewing real or faux, sewing related images or embellishments or how about a 'Sew Special' sentiment, the choice is yours to interpret as you wish.

Usual rules apply, you can enter up to three times, combine with other challenges, use any make of stamp......but can I please remind you.........we are a stamping challenge so must see a stamped image, sentiment or quote as the focal element of your artwork. It so upsets us to see names come out in the draw who are not eligible for the prize because they have not read the rules.  
 I dug deep into my stash for my card this month! The buttons and daisy lace are probably older than Megan, and the DP and kraft card are also quite old. I used stamps from the Inkylicious set Corsetiere (Tape measure and Dressmakers dummy) and Inky Doodles (sentiment, bee and stitching). All stamped images were embossed with detail white embossing powder. I then added a little faux stitching with a white gel pen and a walnut stain distress marker.
Our Sponsors for this month are Stamp Addicts who are offering  a £35 store voucher as first prize. We also have a second prize of a pair of tickets to the November Hobbycraft show at the NEC. Stamp Addicts is a family run business based in Bedfordshire and have been in business since 1992. They have watched the popularity of rubber stamping and all papercrafts steadily increase over time and now manufacture their own branded rubber stamps which frequently feature at craft shows across the UK. 
Do pop over to the challenge blog to see the gorgeous creations from my lovely teamies, and I hope to see lots of lovely entries.
Thanks for looking!

Follower Candy

I have been very generously donated two fast pass one day tickets to Ally Pally on 19th and 20th September by Deby at Inkylicious. Unfortunately it is that weekend that Meg will be moving into her accommodation at University, so I am unable to use them.
I am offering the tickets as blog candy to my followers, so if you would like the opportunity to go both days yourself or one day with a friend, pop your name in the linky below and I will draw a winner on Thursday 3rd September.

A few more photos from Scotland

 I can't believe that this is my 900th post! I am planning blog candy fairly soon as it is my 7th bloggerversary, and I really appreciate the support I have had from my lovely followers. I will let you know more when I have got it organised!
I know I have already shown you lots of bird pictures, sky pictures and my '3 reds' day, but I have a few more photos to show you, I hope you don't mind! Today is the turn of the mammals and garden flowers! First of all I have some more red squirrels, this time at Threave gardens. We sat in the woodland hide, and first to arrive at the bird feeders was this beautiful creature...

 He was then joined by another squirrel with a very blonde tail, who found it quite hard to get at the peanuts...

 Our first friend had a totally different technique!!!!

You've got to congratulate him on his enthusiasm, lol!
Next up is a Bank Vole (I think) who also liked peanut bird feeders...

That little face is just so cute!
Now onto some flowers (and insects) at Threave.

 Butterflies and bees loved the pot Marjoram

 and the Scabious was very popular with the bees too.

 One side of the walled garden was planted as a wild flower meadow, although one or two Californian poppies had found their way into the party!

 When it rained we sought shelter in the greenhouses, where this magnificent Lily greeted us...

 Back outside the rain stopped and the bees continued their busyness.

 This last one was a type of primula, which came in the most beautiful sunset colours!
Hope you enjoyed the photos and thanks for looking!

Rudolf days for August

I can't believe the end of August is approaching already! Five weeks of summer holiday has flown by and I am getting everything ready to start back at work next week. As usual, I am finding lots to do that aren't school related - Procraftinating is an excellent word for it!
As it is the 25th August it is Rudolf Day, and the perfect time to get distracted by Christmas cards! I was away for July Rudolf day and had intended sharing 4 card with you today, to make up for it. Unfortunately, one of my creations became bin fodder, So here are 3 cards
First is a card made with dylusions, a poinsettia stencil and some silkies from Imagination crafts, and a sentiment from Inkylicious.

 I heat embossed the sentiment using kaleidoscope embossing powder. You can see a bit of the sheen and sparkle on the photo below.

I added a bit of extra sparkle using a clear stardust gelly roll pen.
There was some of the silkies paint left over, so I used it up on a scrap of white card and added a touch of sparkle medium to made my next card.

 I added a Craftwork Cards sentiment and some gold liquid pearls.

 If you add the sparkle medium on a baby wipe in circular movements through the stencil, it just goes round the edges and gives quite a subtle effect.

 Finally I made a very traditional card using some new papers from Dovecraft, some added snippets and a very old stamp from Stamporium (No longer available) I coloured the image with Promarkers and added quite a lot of  stickles. here is a glimpse of the sparkle.

The circle and the border were two different snippets of red card that weren't quite the same colour, but I used a promarker to try and make it more uniform.
I am of course entering Scrappy Mo's Rudolf Day challenge, but I am also entering the second and third into Di's snippet playground.
Thanks for looking!

Inky playtime

A few weeks ago I had a play with dylusions and shaving foam to make some backgrounds. I had asked about some of the wonderful samples on the Visible Image stall at Doncaster Stamp Magic, and Helen and Mark told me that this was the technique used. I couldn't wait to try it! Thank you for the inspiration, Theresa Morgan! You can check out her blog here. Both of my pieces were done using the shaving foam and dylusions onto copier card. I stamped the wonderful Visible image stamps in memento luxe ink and embossed with clear  powder. This technique bleached very easily, and I added a little pastel blue promarker to shape the eye. I also added a little white gel pen to help the sentiment stand out from the background. I gave this card to Meg.
I was a little more pleased with the second attempt, as I managed to make the marbling streak free. I asked a few people what they thought I should do with it, and the majority said 'Frame it!', so I did. Whilst shopping for Meg at Ikea yesterday, two square frames 'fell' into the trolley!

Not sure where to put it now!
Thanks for looking, and I hope to be round to visit you all soon.

Creative Stamping Magazine or more birds!

Hi There
Thank you for all of your lovely messages for Megan in the last post. You are all so kind. Thanks also for your lovely comments about my bird photos. Truly appreciated x
Talking of birds, have you seen the latest copy of Creative Stamping Magazine that came out on Thursday?
There are some wonderful bird stamps with it this time. I have some cards on pages 10, 11 and 12. Here is a little taster...

If you would like to know how I made them then you will need to buy the magazine, which will of course get you the stamps as well!

Bird photos from Scotland and News!

 Before I show you my photos, I want to share a bit of wonderful news we had yesterday. Our Daughter, Megan got the A level grades she needed to get in to the University of Sheffield to study Medicine. She won't be too far away (just over an hour to get there) and she gets the chance to follow her dream! We are over the moon and so proud! The past eighteen years has gone so fast. Now we will need to get busy shopping for all those extras she will need - Ikea here we come!

Now on to some more photos. Here are a few of some of the birds we saw on holiday.

 Our first walk down to the beach on holiday revealed this little fellow, a male reed bunting with a beak full of insects.

 This pheasant was right outside the kitchen window when we got up. I guess he was there all night as you can see how saturated he was in the rain!

 Later in the week I was pleased with this shot of a swallow I took at Caerlaverock castle... until I took this one below the following day at Threave - Don't you think he just epitomises joy?

 This nuthatch below was also taken at Threave.

 I ummed and ahhed as to whether I should include the next one as it is such a dreadful photo, but I decided to anyway - a Barn owl taking a rest from his hunting, from the living room at the first cottage

 There were lots of chaffinches at the second cottage and I took this rather handsome male from the dining room window.

 Outside the House Martins (and swallows) fed their fledglings on the flies and midges...

 We visited the Red Kite feeding station at Ballymack Hill Farm and saw some breathtaking red kite action!

 But photography-wise I seem to have had most success with the more common garden birds like this Blue tit at Ken Dee Marshes.

Thanks for looking!