A few more...

Despite the fact I'm in Christmas card overdrive I still managed to come up with a card for my good freind Kate's bithday. These beautiful stamps are by Lavinia stamps and I have been waiting for them to arrive so I could have a play with them. I stamped and embossed them over some paper sprayed with creative colour sprays. Then I produced a few more Christmas cards. First a very simple peel off on fantasy film, with a woodware stamp used along the bottom. The second card uses the same stamp, but in a window, surrounded by paper sprayed with creative colour sprays.

And next a few baubles coloured with adirondak sprays and a gold gel pen.
The last card uses a crafty individuals stamp that I adore. The background paper is also from crafty individuals.

A couple of teddies and some Wise Men

Here are a few more christmas cards. The teddy bears are a Hero Arts stamp and the verse and Wise Men are both from Lavinia stamps. The wise men are stamped on shiny card using Stazon then sponged with Adirondak inks. It's very quick and easy, and I love the intense colours. Different colour schemes for Christmas too, unlike the Teddies.
This weekend I am determined to start my preparations for Christmas. I have made lists, but I still am not sure what to get everyone. I have four friends I need to make birthday cards for too, so it is going to be busy. Next week is School Panto week, so I won't have much time to do anything in the evenings. My class are singing a song and preparation has been smoother than usual... hope it goes alright on the night(s)!

Snowmen

Today we had snow - not more than a sprinkling and it didn't last long. With snow in mind, here are two snowmen cards I have been working on over the weekend. I love the snowman image (Nellie Snellen - Kars and Co.) which seems to come to life with the watercolour pencils and the embossing. I'm not sure about the stickers round the first one or the ribbon on the second though. Ah well, I can always have another go!

I've been a busy bee!

Five more christmas cards made and a birthday card too. I'm also working on a cute snowman, but he isn't quite finished yet. Meg and I popped into 'A bit more than...' yesterday on the way to visit Dad, and found some lovely 'cute' Nellie Snellen (Kars & Co.) stamps. I'd been looking for a snowman and one on the sheet of five fit the bill perfectly. Very reasonably priced too. However the stamps featured in the cards above are Hero Arts (Teddy), Magenta (ornamental christmas trees) Anita's (Night snow scene) and Dovecraft (flowers).

It wasn't going to be a christmas card...

A few weeks ago I was having a bit of a play with some stampboard, which I hadn't made into a card. Scraping away the ink from the surface made a really good snow effect, and it turned into a christmas scene. A bit of glitter glue round the edge and a few scratched stars finished it off. So this is the finished article - an unintentional christmas card! The stamp is another from Lavinia stamps and the background paper is a left over from last year - Dovecraft I think. I am trying to use up some of the vast amounts of background papers I have and not buy any for a while. Some are so lovely I don't want to spoil them by using them (like all of those produced by Crafty individuals)! Some are a bit garish and retro, and most magazines seems to be using something similar. I'm not even sure why I bought them! Maybe we ought to have a challenge - find the piece of backing paper you own that you dislike the most and turn it into a card.

If you are up for the challenge, email me your pics and I will put them on my blog - might even find some blog candy for a winner!

Inspiration...

OK so I fibbed. Just one more tree card before I started on the flowery ones. The stamps are the 'Fall Season' set from inkadinkado. Another inspired by Michelle Zindorf. After that I spent ages looking at some papers I bought a while ago. Lovely colours, but as always the design on the papers is so much larger than on the design sheet in the front of the packet and I just didn't know what to do with them. All I could come up with was a bit of 'licky, sticky crafting' to borrow a phrase of Glenda Waterworth's. Glitter glue, peel-offs and sticky pads for decoupage. Not art, and not really my cup of tea. They will go in my box at a low price. I couldn't send them to anyone.

I started digging around in my flower stamp draw looking for something to be a bit more creative with and found a stamp with a very similar design to one of the other papers. This next attempt left me feeling a little better. After lunch we went for a walk in the woods near to Portland Training College, just off the A60 near Mansfield. The Sun came out and we had a lovely walk. We took a few photos and then headed back to the little Cafe and gift shop for a cuppa before heading home.

Once home I cooked Roast Beef for dinner, and then sat down with some stamps and tried again with a couple of birthday cards and another Christmas card. The first features a Penny Black stamp, the second a Hero Arts stamp and the Angel is a Toybox stamp. I feel better now!

More trees and christmas cards

I've not posted any cards this week until tonight, because I have had one of those weeks. I did lots of work for school and only managed a short time crafting each night. I had lots of bits partly done but not put onto a card, so I've had a finishing off night. I think I'd better leave the trees alone for a couple of days and do a few feminine birthday cards now, as I have several friends with birthdays in the next three weeks.
This card uses a Clarity Stamp and the one below a cuttlebug embossing folder.

The Pointsettia is a Graphicus stamp and the Holly is from Lavinia Stamps.

We have a relatively quiet weekend so I'm hoping to have more time to 'play'!

A walk in the Park

I wanted to take class 5 on a walk around Wollaton Park, to 'observe seasonal changes' and collect materials for a natural collage we are creating. I studied the weather forcasts and the only decent day was going to be Wednesday, so yesterday we did our walk. It was glorious! The colours of the trees were beautiful and the weather was too!

We saw this rather splendid Stag (my Camera has a very good zoom on it - we didn't get that close in the rutting season!) Not sure if he had been kicked out by another stag or if he was protecting his girls from a distance. This was the first time many of the children had seen Deer, despite living only half a mile from the park. I got asked some amazing questions, like "Do they have sharp teeth?" and "Do they eat people?". It was a wonderful morning. I think we all slept well last night!

Remembrance day

As it is Remembrance Day there are a few things I would like to share. This is a picture of my great grandad who fought in the First World War. Unlike many, he did make it home, only to die in an Influenza epidemic. The boy standing at the back was my grandfather, who lied about his age and also fought in the First World War. He survived and went on to fight in the Second World War, not being around for much of the childhood of his four children. I guess I'm lucky as I watched my grandad grow old and cherish the years he had with his grandchildren. Today I remember him.
The other thing I want to share is the beautiful poem Megan wrote this time last year (aged 10)

Death in a Trench by Megan Holmes

The howling winds from the East knive us,

Gusts tug on the death trap that is barbed wire,

Misery is written across our faces,

Explosions set the trenches behind us on fire.

Mud sucks at our boots as we trudge along,

Rain cuts and pierces our cheeks,

Flights of bullets streak the silence,

As we dream of the home that we seek.

We hear distant booms and bangs of canons firing,

Thunder crashes like cymbals next to our ears.

We hear quiet curses from men behind us,

And some start shedding tears.

This racket drowns out the hoots of gas shells,

Which descend briskly down behind us in the trench.

A green sea starts flowing from the bomb,

My friend splutters, breathing the terrible stench.

He cries out as the gas enters his lungs,

He fumbles around in his bag for a gas mask.

He falls to his knees screaming,

He staggers to his feet, a difficult task.

Later...

I lift the stretcher with my friend sprawled across it,

I regret leaving for battle in the first place,

His eyes are empty of life and happiness,

I can never again look into his face.

She says that much of it was 'borrowed' from a variety of war poets, but I was impressed.

I've got a thing about trees...

I seem to have bought some more tree stamps! Of all the stamps in my collection the trees outnumber anything else. I bought the Stampendous 'winter trees' and the clarity fir tree group at Doncaster. I also found the inkadinkado fall season stamps online. The lower 2 pictures are virtually direct copies of Michelle Zindorf's, but I loved the originals so much I had to try to recreate them. What I should have been doing this evening was marking books, but the pull of unused stamps was too great!

New stamp

I love this new Crafty individuals stamp. It was the first one to be removed from the packet and pressed into use straight away for a colleague at work. It stamps really well and is a joy to colour with tombow pens and disress inks. Loads to do for school at the moment, hence the short entry on my blog today!

Lots of goodies!

Now where am I going to put it all? I'm afraid I spent a little more than I intended, but about half of it is being put away for Christmas, so I'm not feeling too guilty. There were some really good exhibitors at Doncaster, my favourites being Crafty Individuals, Lavinia Stamps and Clarity Stamps, from which I bought the stamp below. Barbara Gray did a super demo that involved using a brayer to create a reflected image, so I had to come home and have a go myself. Not identical to hers, but very much in the style. I'm itching to get some of the others out of their packets, but I really don't have time right now. I need to get my things ready for tomorrow and get to bed at a decent hour.

All set for a trip to Doncaster!

Tomorrow Lynne and I are off to Doncaster to the Stamp Magic show. I'm really looking forward to it. I have made a few cards for Crafty Individuals, which I will be handing over tomorrow. They use all crafty individuals stamps. I have been trying to vary techniques and styles with these.

My shopping list isn't huge as I'm trying to be good, but some of the things I buy will be distributed amongst relatives for my christmas pressies - I feel less guilty that way!