A lovely evening

This evening I went to Watnall women's institute to do the cards for Men class. We had a lovely time, and I'm hoping several of them will become followers of my blog! The cute cat cards were a hit, and I promised them I would put a link from here to the site of Little Claire Designs. Here are a few of the cards I have made with their stamps.

I also said I would upload a picture of another very simple christmas card - gatefold, using a fir tree stamp. The ink used for this one is the graduated adirondak pad called 'mountain lake'. It works equally well using the 'winter sky' ink pad.It isn't very obvious on here, but there is quite a lot of glitter on it too!

Autumn leaves...

This morning Steve and I were out in the garden doing some tidying and planting that that we didn't want to do before the tree people came. It was very cold and I'm afraid I only managed an hour and a half before I went back inside for a cup of tea. This afternoon I did a bit of planning and then had a go at a Zindorf inspired autumn leaf card. I used a hero arts stamp, and was quite pleased with the results. Megan managed to trip and twist her ankle yesterday, so the walk in the woods isn't looking so certain now. Hopefully she will feel a bit better tomorrow after resting it for most of today.

More guitars!

I wanted to see what the guitar card looked like in other colours, and whether there was any difference using glossy accents or embossing with a versamarker and clear powder. I also wanted to see what it looked like without the swirls. Here are the results, and I think there is little difference between the two finishes. The purple was done with glossy accents and the red with heat embossing.

It has been a long day. We had several trees made shorter and one tree felled (a Eucalyptus) today.Putting it through the shredder cleared noses for miles! Meg took several photos, which I will try and upload during the week.

It's nearly that time of year again!

Every year I promise myself that I will do something about Christmas over half term, and very rarely does anything happen! With that in mind I got my Christmas stamps out and started to look at them. I also promise myself that I won't spend any more money on christmas stamps - I don't manage that either! I know I am going to buy at least one Christmas stamp at Doncaster (Stamp Magic show) next Sunday. It will be the Holly stamp from Lavinia stamps. By far my most popular christmas card last year was this one (above) using a mistletoe stamp from Lavinia. Very simple, quick and easy. The holly stamp is a very similar design. I decided to have a little play with one or two stamps that I haven't used much yet and came up with this. It features the words to ' In the bleak midwinter' and is a Graphicus stamp. I'm not convinced it works on that background paper. I might have to try again with something a bit more subtle!

I was also drawn back to the Michelle Zindorf blog and decided to try her Moody Tree card. My brayer technique needs some serious work, but I think I'm getting better. This looked pretty dire until I layered it on black and silver and then it suddenly looked loads better. The Stamp is also a Lavinia stamp. They do a range of beautiful trees.

It's half term!

I have had a very busy few days work wise. As ICT coordinator and English Coordinator there were various jobs I needed to catch up with. I spent 3 hours typing up notes from 2 observations on Wednesday evening and 2 hours installing software and running updates on my new work laptop last night, after 1 1/2 hours Karate Class. I have had a great week though - my class have been absolute stars. I am so happy we have a week off, as I am really tired. I still have loads of planning to do, but at least I can do it at home and I will be able to have some time to stamp too! Here are the other sample cards for Wednesday's class.

Busy, busy, busy!

My friend Lynne (her blog is Creative Lynks) runs a card making class. Every so often she asks me to do the class for her whilst she visits her family in Scotland. I'm busy preparing some 'Cards for Men' for a class at half term. Here are a few of the samples. Stamps featured are from Lavinia stamps (all on Pheasant card), Dimension fourth (Guitar) and Wendy House (Vegetables). I took my inspiration from Michelle Zindorf - her blog is truly amazing.

Autumn is very definitely here!

When I got home from work today I couldn't help but notice that I was knee-deep in leaves when I got out of the car. I love Autumn - so many beautiful colours and such inspiration! I've tried to replicate them in lots of cards over the years. Here are just a few.



Hopefully we will get some fine days over half term so that Steve, Megan and I can go for a walk in the woods. This time last year we went to Linacre Reservoirs in Derbyshire. Breathtaking!

Been playing!

I bought some clear stamps from Stamp Tapestry and hadn't done much with them until yesterday. Here are a couple of very simple cards just using dye inks and the stamps. One of them is going to be my Sister-in-law's birthday card. I like the fact that these stamps are a bit less traditional and a bit more wild looking - remind me of our summer holiday in Scotland, in particular Galloway Forest Park, where these photos were taken.

Hello World!

I'm not sure I should be doing this, as I am not sure how often I will find the time to post things, but I've decided to start a blog. I've been stamping in my spare time for about 11 years now, and as well as being a full time teacher, wife, and a mum of one beautiful daughter, I love to spend a bit of time messing around with inks, stamps and pens each day. Here is a little taster of things to come.

These ATCs are a gift for the wonderful people at Crafty Individuals - Jean and Malcolm. They feature all crafty individuals stamps and images. I used the Creative Colour Sprays from Crafty Notions to colour them.