Distressed Cute!

I stamped a couple more cute images onto watercolour paper and then painted with distress inks. The first stamp was from Pink Gem designs. I didn't need it, but it was in the sale and I was ordering other stuff... I must stop doing that. However, if I sell two of these I will have got the money back, so it isn't the end of the world.
The second is Willow with Cookies from Whiff of Joy. The colours reminded me of a dress I had in the late 70s, as does the backing paper! Least said the better really! Having said I don't do much cute, I have been doing rather a lot recently. Cute is definitely growing on me.

Cake!

We had an invite to a barbecue at Julie's house this evening, so I decided to provide sweet and got creative in a different way. I made a victoria sponge in two tins. I didn't think it would rise quite this much! Meg and I filled it with strawberries and cream and topped it in the same way. It was a very, very big cake. The evening was lovely - thanks, Julie!

Guzziesue came to play...

This was the craft table an hour ago as Guzziesue had come round to chat, drink tea, eat some yummy ginger cake and flapjack made by Meg, and stamp some fabric. We have been going to get together for some time, but other commitments got in the way. Anyway we finally managed it and I am sure we will see some stitched seedheads on fabric before long on Travel, fibre and thread. Whilst Sue was playing with blues I had the distress inks out - Mustard seed, Spiced marmalade, fired brick, antique linen, shabby shutters and peeled paint. As usual, I couldn't resist a quick spray of Creative Colour sprays (Crafty Notions) in gold and rain beetle before I put it all together.
The Stamps are Ruby Tuesday from Graphicus, and I took two photos, one catching the light and one not, so you could see the effect of the sprays. I stamped with versafine inks, as these are waterproof and don't run when sprayed. It was a very enjoyable evening!

Passion for Promarkers challenge #1

Here is my entry for the Passion for Promarkers first challenge. I used lime green, meadow green, pastel yellow, gold and a little bit of pastel blue around the edges. I looove them! they are so lovely to colour with. I am off to buy a few more tomorrow so I can take part again over the next few weeks (Hopefully!) The stamp is a stamporium one.

Flowers

My God-daughter is eighteen this week. That really makes me feel old! Getting the Ruby Tuesday stamps out again seemed like a good idea for her card. Please forgive the photo, as I had to use flash - it has been so dark today. The rain did stay away till teatime though, and we enjoyed a few hours out to a local farm and garden centre.

Below are a few pictures taken in our garden yesterday. The Clematis is a Nelly Moser, and the flowers can be the size of dinner plates. The sun fades the colours quite quickly on our back wall. The fern is one of many in our garden, and there are at least 3 different varieties, but more than that I can't tell you. They were there when we moved in, and I do like them.

Half term, Yes!

Yesterday we went to see my Dad, and went a little walk with him to 'the Carrs', a large green with a river passing through and mill dam. The resident swans have had eight cygnets, which we watched as the parents chased off any ducks that got too close. The male also took on a child's bike that he had abandoned on the path!
I am sure Megan will blog her photos of them very soon. When we got home Megan went out for the night for a sleepover at a friends house, so after tea I made a couple of cards. The first uses some Heart stamps from Blonde Moments and a greeting from the front of a Creativity magazine. The background is done with creative colour sprays (Crafty Notions) and the hearts are painted with Blonde Moments Pearl pigments mixed with water. Not my usual style, but I'm being a bit more diverse at the moment!
The second card is one I have been going to make since my birthday! The Ruby Tuesday plate from Graphicus was one of my birthday presents, but I have to say it came as a bit of a shock when I saw just how big the flowers were! Still, They will fit onto a 5"x7" card, so here it is.
I coloured it in the same way as the previous card after heat embossing the image using clear EP on black card. I'm now off to rediscover the surface of my craft table before I go and help Steve with hedge cutting in the garden.

Sketch Saturday - # 52

Here is my entry for this weeks Sketch Saturday challenge. The stamp is a Daisy & Dandelion clear stamp, coloured with Distress inks. The papers are from an artylicious cd (Butterflies) Canon creative Park (Flowers) and a freebie from the Daisy and Dandelion blog (polkadot).

Still More Babies!

A good friend and workmate is on maternity leave and was due at the weekend. I prepared four images ready for putting on cards (2 boys and 2 girls), not knowing what she was going to have. Last night I stayed up too late, knowing her waters had broken and she had gone in to the hospital. This was the card I was going to circulate at work if she had a boy. However, contrary to what she thought, she had a beautiful little girl, 7lb 5oz late last night. They have called her Anna, and this is the card we are sending to her. I'll probably make another just from me, but not tonight. I need to get to bed earlier!

The stamps are from Pink Gem Designs coloured with promarkers and mounted on a variety of 'cuttlebugged', 'nestied' shapes. The sentiment is a See-Dees stamp and the 'baby girl' is a sizzix sizzlet. The peachy paper is from canon creative park (free download).

A warm feeling!

Last week and this week we have been completing key stage 1 SATs at school. As I'm the Year 2 teacher and key stage 1 coordinator, it is a rather busy time for me. Last week we ran a breakfast club for them from 8am each morning, and sneaked in the odd pack of biscuits and minstrels for the tests (Shhh! Don't tell anyone!) One little boy said 'This is the best day of my life!' I asked him why and he replied 'I come to school, you give me breakfast with toast and jam and fruit, then I do maths and get to eat chocolate and then you give me a biscuit! I don't think I have ever been so lucky!' To know that he was finding SATs week such a joy made my day! Some people say it is a stressful time for children, but I think it is what you make it. My class seem to think it is some sort of festival, where they try their best and then have a feast!!! They have really made me very proud of them and have worked exceptionally hard.
Because I have been doing alot for school my mid week crafting has had to take a bit of a back seat, and my mojo is very much here - so frustrating! Anyway, this card was started last Thursday, and I have finally finished it. I like to think of it as cute with a bit of class! The stamp is Willow with Flowers (Whiff of joy) and the papers I have no idea as they were scraps in my drawer. Prima flowers, green ribbon and gold tulip paint finished it off. I used watercolour paper to stamp on and coloured it with distress inks. The sentiment is from Crafty Individuals.

More babies!

One of my workmates has lots of twins in her family, and another set are due very soon. She knows they are girls, so asked me to make a card. I used my new Pink Gem stamp, Girl Bundle on shrink plastic, colouring after shrinking with Pro markers. I used clear shrink plastic so I could reverse the image on one side. I stuck some plain white card that had been through the Xyron to the back and attached to the card with double sided tape. I normally use clear glaze to attach shrink plastic, but it makes the colour from pro markers run. Pro marker ink also makes stazon run, so colouring the images on the reverse is a good plan, and this is easy on clear shrink plastic.

This second card uses the Pink Gem boy bundle. I decided I would go for something different to the traditional pink and blue and opted for this lovely pale green. My stamped image was coloured with Pro markers. I think this could be quickly adapted into a girl card with a few flowers.

More and less

Knowing that several people at work have said they will be needing baby cards soon I decided to buy some stamps (I know, any excuse!) The stamp is from Pink Gem designs, and I bought four baby stamps - a boy and a girl bundle, and a boy and a girl in prams. They are very reasonably priced and stamp beautifully. I know this is a bit fussy for me, but I had someone in mind who likes bright colours and retro flowers.

After my last post I was thinking what to do with this Dahlia (Crafty Individuals), when Lynne of Creative Lynks popped over with some blog candy goodies for me. Among the papers was this - Tan Floral tapestry from Paper Pazazz. It went beautifully, so I added a horizontal and vertical ribbon, a skeleton leaf and a sentiment (Innovative Stamp Creations). Less is definitely more!

Not sure...

I love this dahlia stamp from Crafty individuals (one of the crafty elements range), and a few weeks ago stamped two onto semi-shiny card with stazon. They had been just sitting there on my table, and I wasn't sure what to do with them. Last night I spent a few minutes colouring them with distress inks. I decided to mount one onto a card covered with CI paper , stamping a few leaves from another Crafty Elements plate to put behind. I'm not sure the ribbon works, or the green of the leaves. Now I am really not sure what to do with the other one!

Flowers and weddings

I love the simplicity of this Penny Black stamp. I coloured it using my promarkers, shading round the edge with faded jeans Distress ink. The papers were from my stash and the corners were embellished with a few rainbow drops (Crafty Notions).

A workmate asked me for a wedding card. She said it needed to be elegant and classy. I hope this is the sort of thing she had in mind! the Stamp was a freebie from the craft stamper many moons ago. I stuck a few flat backed pearls onto the cuttlebugged pearlised card.

Experimenting...

My brother bought me some digital scrapbooking software for my birthday. I have never tried anything like this before, but here is my first attempt. Is it cheating? I certainly won't use any stash doing it, but I guess it is a nice way to show off my photos, and I havent spent a bean!

Footy and Fairies

It's my nephew's birthday next week, so I have really been puzzling over what to put on his card. He is a big football fan, so this was what I came up with. I believe this character is called Onion and comes from the Daisy and Dandelion range.

I was just putting him away when I spotted some Stamptivity stamps I bought a while ago and haven't used much. That is probably because they didn't stamp as well as I anticipated. I can't remember what ink I used with them before, but this time I decided to use Versafine, and it worked much better. I stamped both the images over a lightly brayered piece of card using Kaleidacolor Fresh Greens ink. For the background I brayered a piece of the same card
after running it through the cuttlebug.

A few more cute ones

Here are a few more cute cards for my box and a few of Megan's friends. Hettie the Hippo is a Pink petticoat Digi-stamp, and the blue paper is from Funky Fairies Doodlementals range. I used watercolour pencils to colour her.

I coloured both images of Willow (Whiff of Joy stamps) with my Promarkers. I didn't realise I would love them quite as much as I do! Strangely they keep disappearing from my craft table and I find them on Meg's desk...I can see more going on my shopping list!

Finally, Meg bought me Daisy and Dandelion for my birthday. I coloured this with my promarkers too.

Hidden Garden Gems

I thought I would share with you a few of the flowers in my garden at the moment. I took these photos at the weekend.
I really like to find
something to look at when you get closer to the borders that you can't necessarily see from the house. I also like scented flowers - the lily of the valley is really gorgeous. I think my favourite little gem is the violet though. I remember finding them in the wild on spring walks with my Dad when I was about six. I tried in vain to press one keeping the shape. Thank goodness for photography!

Shhhh! Don't tell anyone!

I don't like to make too much of it these days, but today is my birthday. I'm only telling you because I want to show you a couple of things I've got!!! I had a set of ProMarkers, which are lovely - I coloured the 'Willow with cookies' stamp with those. The 'Henry Celebrating Mouse' was coloured with Tombow pens (not a present), but I forgot to include it in my last post (Must be my age!!!). Both of these stamps are Whiff of Joy stamps.

Finally, here is a picture of the stunning card given to me by Lynne. She has such a gift for choosing colour combinations, and I need those stamps too! For my birthday I had lots of stamps, a few extras for the computer, books and a cd. It has been a very relaxing day! Thanks everyone! xxx

A Few Cuties.

Whilst my computer was away I went through a few sheets that I printed a while ago. These hippos are digistamps from Pink Petticoat and I knew they would go down well at work! The background papers were from Funky Fairies Doodlementals range. I thought they went quite well together! The other thing I did just before my old computer went was order three stamps from Whiff of Joy. I know I said I didn't do cute, but it was so nice to see a little girl depicted with a mouth, cos they do have them - very definitely!!! The mouse with a cake nearly as big as him made me think of one or two people, so I got him too, along with the girl baking cookies - a regular pastime with Meg these days! No card using the last one yet, but watch this space...

The background papers on these last two are from Canon Creative Park (mouse card) and my Artilicious Filligree Fusion cd.

I'm back! (10 lots of 10 part 5)

First of all I would like to thank everyone who has left me comments over the past few weeks wishing me luck with the new computer and saying they have missed me. It is good to know I have such good friends out there in blogger land! I may well do a few posts this weekend, as I've just downloaded about 30 photos of cards! There were also some photos of Meg and her friend who sang at the concert last night. It was a wonderful evening and I was immensely proud, shedding several tears, as were a few hundred other parents, I am sure! The dancing, singing and instrumental sections were of an incredibly high standard, considering they were all still of school age.
Anyway, here are my last two lots of ten. For these I focused again on ten stamped images over a background made with distress inks and creative colour sprays. All stamps used in both were from Crafty Individuals.

This project has been fun, but I can't imagine doing it for a greater number, so when I reach 200 posts I might do something a bit easier and less time consuming!!! Thanks again for all your lovely comments.

We have winners!

I went through each post of my 10 x 10 projects, the blog candy post, links to my blog and my followers and religiously put names in the bag for all of these. Then Megan picked three out for me and here they are!

Congratulations Lynne K, Lisa and Papoosue. You have won stamps, cards and a few other bits and bobs.


My last two cards from the 10 x 10 project I will post tomorrow. In the meantime, Lisa, Lynne and Papoosue, please could you email me with your snail mail address and I will post your goodies to you. Look on my profile for my email. Thanks to everyone for all your great comments. I only wish I had got enough stuff to send you all something!
BTW, my computer is here and I love it already! I feel like I have gone deaf though as it is so quiet! Lots of updates to run, so I'd better get on!