A Christmas Card and some Christmas gifts

The Challenge at Penny Black and more this month is Christmas, and with plenty of time on my hands, I am making quite a lot of Christmas things! I got my 4" round gelli plate out and had a little play to make a few backgrounds with distress inks in tea dye and bundled sage. I also used a Bee Crafty Inkables texture disk. I stamped and embossed the Holly (Hobby Art) in gold then coloured with zig real brush pens. The sentiment is a woodware stamp. My card is my entry to the challenge.
I have taken the plunge and booked a table at a local craft fair. If you are interested and near Nottingham, I will be at Woodthorpe Park Plant shop on 1st December (more details here) As well as lots of cards, I have been decorating candles (Crafty Individuals stamps) and mdf baubles (Hobby Art and Inkylicious stamps).

Thanks for looking!

November at Stamping Sensations

It is the first Sunday of the month and time for our November challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month we have a lovely theme....

****Traditional Christmas Colours****

My card this month features a fabulous stamp from Crafty Individuals and the base card was stamped with a woodware stamp. The Candle was decorated using a stamp from Hobby Art. I used Zig cleancolor markers to colour them all, with some transleucent nuvo drops on the berries.

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 two beautiful stamp plates from  our wonderful sponsors, Chocolate Baroque.  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 great prize! Thanks for looking! 

October friuits

Hi there! I m here with my DT card for Dora Knutselhoekje. 
The  theme the DT are following this month is October fruits. I used the Apples and Pears image, printed onto Kraft and coloured with my Arteza professional colouring pencils. I stencilled onto the base card using a Bee Crafty Mandala stencil and oxide inks. All card in this project is recycled. There are lots beautiful samples on Dora's blog from the rest of the DT. Do pop over there and take a look at Dora's fabulous images.
Thanks for looking!

Rudolf day for October

 I've been thinking about the environment a bit more this year, so this month for the Rudolf Days challenge I am showing a couple of cards made with recycled products. The first was made for a competition at PDA, and is made with 'cup-cycled' card. Judging by the colours I think it may be Costa coffee cups! It only comes in this shade of pink. I stamped with Woodware stamps using brilliance ink, fussy cutting the main image and sticking on to a circle cut from some amazon packaging and sprayed with gold glimmer mist. The buttons were from grandma's button box, and I added a few drops of stickles and nuvo drops. I am entering this one into the Penny Black and More challenge where the theme is 'Pretty in Pink'.

My second card was made using the 'Crush' range of card stock from PDA which is also recycled. I used a woodware stamp and a hobby art sentiment. I coloured with Zig clean colour markers and added liquid pearls for the berries.
Do pop over to Scrappy Mo's blog and take a look at the fabulous christmas inspiration.
Thanks for looking!

A bit of Silver

The challenge at Allsorts this week is to add something gold or silver. I embossed this lovely Woodware stamp in silver and coloured the background with zig pens. I matted and layered using silver mirri paper and stuck it on the front of a silver grey card. I managed to leave a versamark fingerprint on the base card, so I stamped round it with my inkylicious twinchie stamp in versamark then dusted with silver mica powder. It covered it up nicely 😁 In the past I would probably have cut away the base card or even binned it and started again. These days I try and find ways to cover up mistakes. Well placed sequins, splatter stamps, doodle stamps, liquid pearls and embellishments are all very useful, lol. Do you have a prefered method for covering fingerprints or smudges?
Thanks for looking xxx

Stamping Sensations mid month Autumn inspiration

I can't believe it has been almost two weeks since my last post. Last weekend was Stamp Magic so Lynne and her friend Morag came to stay. We had a fabulous time at the show meeting up and chatting with Sandma, Kath from Allsorts, Bev from Bee Crafty, Jenny Mayes and the Inkylicious family. Lynne and I also had a lovely day shopping and crafting on the Monday. I've had 3 governors meetings this week too, so I'm definitely going to be back at my craft table today. 
Anyway, here is my mid month inspiration for Stamping Sensations where the theme is 'Trees, Leaves and Autumn'. The leaf stamps are from Uniko and the sentiment is an Inkylicious stamp. I masked it off using 2 widths of masking tape across the base card and dusted with distress ink in tea dye and wild honey. I used memento inks to stamp the leaves, using 2nd generation ink for some. Finally I added the berries using liquid pearls. I really enjoy making single layer cards like this!
 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!

October at Stamping Sensations

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

 ****Trees, Leaves or Autumn****

 As the title suggest we would love to see your hand-stamped creations that include trees, leaves and autumn. I am sure you will come up with lots of fabulous and seasonal designs. 
My card's focal image is a gorgeous leaf bouquet from Lesia Zgharda stamps and was coloured with zig clean color brush markers. Our wonderful sponsors this month are  Stamp Addicts. They have a show on Hochanda on Thursday (10th October) at 4pm. Do tune in and take a look at their fabulous goodies!

Even though it is an easy theme, we need you to play by the rules:

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

  There is a fabulous £25 store voucher for our lucky winner. There are some wonderful stamps and stamping products on the Stamp Addict's website, not forgetting their new releases on Hochanda on Thursday.
 Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous creations from my talented team mates!
Thanks for looking! 

Boys to Men and a digi from Dora

 The Challenge over at Allsorts this week is to share a card for boys or men. I was asked by one of my karate buddies to make a thank you card for our Sensei. I don't have any Karate themed stamps (even finding digis for adults is dificult) so I googled clip art and found these free images. I then used inks and stencils to create the background. The scrabble tiles looked much straighter in real life, lol. Here is a picture of me with him. If you know of any martial Arts themed stamps please let me know. I have digis from Mo Manning and Kenny K which are great for kids but not really suitable for adults.

My second card should have been on my blog on 24th September, but with one thing and another I am afraid I forgot. Sorry Dora! Better late than never! This was my DT card for Dora's digis that you can find here.  The papers were some I made ages ago using the shaving foam marbling technique and Distress reinkers made into sprays. I've been doing quite a bit of pencil colouring on grey and kraft card as it makes the paler colours pop.
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments x

September Rudolf Days

It is 25th September (where did that go?!) and time for another Rudolf Day over at Scrappy Mo's. I have a bit of a poinsettia themed month this month. First is a Single layer card, stamped with a Uniko stamp and coloured with my Arteza coloured pencils. I have been experimenting with adding shadows and feel like I got it right this time!

Next up is oxide inks through a Sweet Poppy Stencil, splattered with some gold ink spray and a stamped sentiment.

Finally I used a woodware set, stamped and dusted in Memento Bahama Blue, and finished off with some diamond stickles and liquid pearls. This was super quick and took longer to dry than to make!
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments. Do pop over to Mo's blog and take a look at the wonderful Christmas card inspiration.

Trees and Leaves at Allsorts

 

The theme at Allsorts this week is Trees and Leaves, so of course I had to enter, lol. I am here with two one layer cards using Uniko stamps, Stamped in memento and dusted with distress inks. I used masking tape to cover the area where I later stamped the sentiments. Both were finished with a 'few' drops of liquid pearls. This lovely simple stamp set is so versatile, and I have used it lots since I bought it, and for all 4 seasons, not just Autumn. 

The sentiment on this second one is from a Woodware set.
I've just discovered that the latest challenge at Uniko Studio is Anything goes with a twist of Autumn, so I am entering my card there too.
 
Do pop over to Allsorts and Uniko and check out some of the amazing inspiration on show.
Thanks for looking!