I've been inspired by Allsorts!

Here is my entry for this week's Allsorts Challenge where I've take my inspiration from a beautiful bracelet belonging to Emma. The circle of the bracelet and the variety of the butterflies really drew my eye, so hopefully I've done a decent job in interpreting it. The background is stamped with a mixture of Crafty Individuals and graphicus stamps, and the butterfly is from Innovative Stamp Creations. I used bundled sage, tumbled glass and peeled paint distress inks, then embossed with silver over the top. The butterflies I coloured with watercolours and then sprayed with creative colour sprays, attaching to my easel card with 3d glue. I managed to find a few minutes this morning to take a photo of it out in the garden in my skimmia japonica.

I took another inside to try and capture a bit of sheen from the creative colour sprays on the butterflies. Thanks for popping by!
Edit: I've just found out that Emma has chosen this card as one of her top five. Thanks Emma!

Tuesday Taggers - Memories

Our theme at Tuesday Taggers this week, chosen by our lovely teamie Michelle is Memories.We are being sponsored by The Craft Barn this week, and they are offering a fabby prize of a £15 voucher to spend with them.. As my memory isn't very good most of the time, I've made myself this little post it holder/ notebook.

The butterfly stamp is from Innovative Stamp Creations and the flourish is from Crafty Individuals. I used Antique Linen, Tea dye and rusty hinge distress inks. The sentiment on the tag is computer generated.

The leaves are punched and I coloured the prima flower with DI too. I sprayed the flower and the butterfly with Gold creative Colour Spray (Craft Notions). Thanks for looking and I do hope you can join us this week!

By the Cute and Girly - Fairy Tales

Here is my entry for this months By the cute and Girly Challenge where the theme is Fairy tales, so my Fairy tale is the little Mermaid, although this one is not very Disney - like, and much more like those in Harry Potter. All stamps are from Lavinia stamps on an inky background made by swirling distress ink pads on a craft mat and spritzing with water. I've added a few 'bubbles' with diamond stickles too. Thanks for looking. This card also fits the theme of the first Sir Stampalot Challenge of fantasy, where there are just four more days to enter, and the prize is awesome!

Meg's concert

Here are a couple of photos from the performance on Sunday that Meg and her friend Sam took part in. They were amazing! There were about 700 people in the concert hall, so just a little nerve racking! I managed with just one tissue and I'm a very proud Mum!
I only have a bit of video at this stage from a rehearsal during last week. The performance on Sunday was even better than this.  The acoustics in the church have made it sound a little strange, but hopefully you will get the idea. The song was the story of a worker bee, and on Sunday the young lady at the front was dressed as a bee for her dance. Meg sings the first verse and chorus and Sam the second.


Workers farewell from Sally Holmes on Vimeo.

Tuesday Taggers -There be Dragons!

The theme at Tuesday Taggers this week is Dragons, chosen by my lovely teamie Teri, in honour of St Georges day on Friday. Our lovely DT (who are definitely not dragons!!!) have created some fab Dragon themed projects. We are very lucky to be sponsored by Tanda stamps this week and they are offering some fabulous stamps as a prize (more details on the TT blog). To be in with a chance of winning remember you need to include a link to Tanda in your post. Here's mine! While you are at it you could enter some your creations in the Sir Stampalot Challenge, as Dragons are fantasy creatures too!
I will try and post the few blurred photos I managed on Sunday of Meg very soon. I might even manage to post a 'sound-bite' if I can work out how to do it! Needless to say I'm a VERY proud mum!

Holiday? What holiday?

I've been back at work a week, and it feels like about 4! I won't bore you with the details, but it has been ridiculously busy. Tomorrow (actually, later on today!) Meg is singing a solo in this years Science on stage production at the Royal concert Hall in Nottingham, so there have been a couple of rehearsals for that this week too. I'll need the tissues again no doubt - thank goodness it's dark in there! Today was her birthday, so it's safe to post her birthday card now, not that I'd finished it in time to post it on an earlier day!

I was so indecisive and didn't know which image to use, so I used this on the front...

this in the middle...

and this is what it looks like from above. I was going to do step cards and gate folds and all sorts, but it all went wrong.  I was quickly running out of sheets of purple card, so opted for this. The Guitarist image is from Sassy Studios. The young writer is from Digital Pencil Too (Mo Manning) and both are coloured with promarkers.
With the pressure of tomorrow Meg has sensibly opted to wait until next week to celebrate with friends, bless her. Where did the last 13 years go?!

A couple of Cards

My friend asked me to make a couple of cards for her dad's birthday. Apparently 75th cards are very few and far between in the shops. This lovely chap likes his gardening and golf. The first card uses a set of AI watercolour stamps (Sir Stampalot) coloured in with my coloursoft pencils and blending solution. If you look very closely you will see my favourite stamp again! I stamped the letters (Inkadinkado I think) in versafine olympia green and just traced around the letter with a gold stardust pen.

My second card was inspired by one that my friend Jules made a little while ago. When I saw hers I thought of my friends dad, who is a very keen golfer. The image is from Digistamp Boutique coloured with promarkers.

Don't forget you have two weeks left to get your entry in for this months Sir Stampalot challenge. The prize is a Cricut machine - how cool is that? Go check it out now, and thanks for looking!

Cakes and Balloons at Tuesday Taggers

In honour of our teamie, Emma's birthday we are celebrating in style with cakes and Balloons at Tuesday Taggers this week. Emma is kindly offering a fabulous Stampin' up!selection of goodies as a prize (wish I could enter!). I've prepared a chocolate orange cupcake coloured with promarkers. The backing papers came from a Funky Fairies kit and the cupcake free digi download can be found here, a creation of the very talented Shaz. Thanks for looking and Happy Birthday Emma!

Allsorts Challenge - Petals and Pearls

Here is my entry for this week's Allsorts challenge where the theme, chosen by Brenda, is Petals and Pearls. I used Penny Black 'Candid' for the main image, coloured with promarkers then coloured over with a versamarker and then embossed with clear EP. The background was made with a Hero Arts script stamp and a Crafty Individuals flourish, using Distress inks in antique linen and tea dye.
I've done quite a bit of embossing over the past couple of weeks, and my embossing gun (about 13 years old) decided to pack up in a rather dramatic way, pothering clouds of  acrid smoke and coming on when the switch was definitely off! Luckily I didn't set fire to the house! I rushed off to Once Upon a Stamp for a new one at the first opportunity. Thanks  for looking!

Another fantasy for Sir Stampalot!

I thought I'd take the opportunity to remind you about the Sir Stampalot Challenge. Our theme for April is Fantasy. That may be mermaids, dragons, fairies, unicorns, robots, aliens even me with a tidy craft table (well, that's more like science fiction!!!)
Here is a quick reminder of the rules
1) Entries may be combined with a maximum of five other challenge - i.e: six in total

2) 'Stampalot Challenge' must be mentioned in your post with a link back to this blog.

3) A direct link to your entry (not your blog) must be added to Mr Linky.

4) Only link new projects, it's not fair on others to backlink to older posts or already published challenge entries.

5) Second entries are allowed, but must be a different type of project - e.g: one card and one scrapbook l/o.

6) Closing time for entries is midday GMT on the 29th day of the month .

And just look at the prize on offer! Isn't it wonderful? so go on - have a go (or two!)

And while you are at it, please help us to spread the word with this little blinkie.

Thanks for visiting and I hope I'll be visiting you soon!

Tag you're it is back!

The challenge blog Tag you're it! is back. Their DT have produced some stunningly beautiful tags too. It is ages since I entered a challenge with a tag - not since I joined the DT on Tuesday Taggers in fact!
So here it is. Made with distress inks sponged on to a satin finish tag. I used faded jeans, tumbled glass, spun sugar and worn lipstick. The willow leaves are a lavinia stamp and the rest are from an Innovative stamp creations plate called tranquil . I wasn't sure about whether to put flowers or a bird 'on the bough' which is the theme this week. My decision was made for me when I dropped the flower stamp, all inked up on the bottom of the tag! Don't look too closely, lol! Thanks for visiting!

Give us a tag at Tuesday Taggers!

For this week's Tuesday Taggers we are asking you to make a Tag! It can be on any theme you like. We have a Guest DT member this week - Georgina who has donated a lovely prize. Check out some of the wonderful projects on Georgina's blog. I probably told you already that my dear friend Lynne donated me some American magazines and I found some lovely ideas in them, one of which was this. It's a tag...

 and it opens out into...

a little card with pockets!    

Here is a close up of my shrinky butterfly.

I really enjoyed making this. The butterfly, script, real dill and sentiment are all Hero Arts stamps and the nettle leaf is MME. I'm not sure about the bumble bee, but Lavinia stamps do one very similar. The background was coloured with Mustard seed, antique linen and shabby shutters distress ink.  Thanks for looking and I hope you can join us this week!

Mmmmmm...Distress inks

I've spent a bit of time playing with distress inks, because there were two things I wanted to do this holiday. I wanted to make a shaped easel card, like Debbie's and I wanted to make some backgrounds like Paula's. I've been admiring  Debbie Dolphin's shaped easel cards for some time, and in honour of her getting on the front cover of craft stamper I thought I'd better pull my finger out! If you don't know of Paula's blog get yourself over there as she is one mega talented lady. I regularly drool over her wonderful creations. Anyway, earlier in the week she posted this and this. I loved the blue, gold and yellow combination, and was inspired! I'm not sure if mine has worked, as my background is rather busy, so I kept my focal points to a minimum. I stamped the script and daisies (graphicus) in black versafine, then embossed the flashy floral (inkadinkado) in gold, along with the butterfly (I.S.C.). The base card was coloured with distress inks in Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire, Mustard seed, scattered straw and rusty hinge. As I've used no patterned papers I'm entering it into this weeks Allsorts challenge. It also has a ditressed feel, so I'm entering it into the Simon Says Stamp Challenge.  Thanks for looking!

Thank yous

I've just realised I've had two awards which I accepted gracefully and haven't posted them or passed them on - how rude is that? So, I'm here to make amends. Firstly a big thank you to Fliss who gave me this:

Please pop over and have a look at her blog, as she is an amazingly talented lady, and I feel very honoured.
I'm passing it on to:       Paula
                                    Rachel
                                   Clare
                                    Lisa
                                    Michelle
                                    and also Fliss


Secondly I received this from the amazingly talented Rachel.

Please check out her blog too as she is one extremely talented teenager! Now, I'm supposed to pass it on to 12 people, but I'm afraid I'm going to cheat and say please take it if you visit me. I appreciate each and every one of you!

Finally, I'd like to say a huge thank you to Helene aka Mummylade, who picked my altered tin to be in her top 5 at Allsorts this week.I am honoured there too, being chosen alongside some stunning makes.
I know I've been a bit quiet since Thursday, but I've been donated some copies of  Somerset studio and stamper's sampler by my good friend Lynne. I've been reading those and getting very inky! I've also been visiting lots of blogs belonging to lovely peeps who have entered the Stampalot Challenge and Tuesday taggers. If you haven't had a go yet, get your thinking caps on!

Sir Stampalot challenges you !

Good Morning to you all! Hopefully you have ventured here from the Sir Stampalot Challenge - if not make sure you are signed up to follow and pop over there for the low down on how to win an AMAZING prize! Over the coming months we have some fantastic themes lined up for you, along with some fabulous prizes from Sir Stampalot. There are more details on the Challenge blog in the sidebar and on the post. Our first theme is:

"Fantasy"

Sir Stampalot have been so generous with the winners prize .......pinch yourself first because it's:

A Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter

PLUS a Pooh Font Cartridge

Good stuff, eh? Guaranteed to get you motivated! We will also select our Top 3 who will be able to display our special logo.
So here are two cards that will hopefully help to motivate you too.

My first card is an easel card. I made the background with acrylic dabbers and stamped over the top with some lavinia stamps. The bubbles are 3d paint and the starfish was made with air drying clay and painted with metallic paint. The corner flourish is a sizzix die.

 

My second card features the Fantasy tree by Penny Black and the Wizard by Non Sequitur. The Celtic border was embossed with kaleidoscope embossing powder. I made the background with Adirondack colour washes.  The highlights are made with a white gel pen and some icicle stickles.
For some fabulous ideas to help you on your way, please visit the Design Team's blogs - they are truly inspirational! Thanks for popping over. Now go and make a fantastic creation and join in the fun!
Edit: A quick reminder to check the rules in the sidebar
1) Entries may be combined with a maximum of five other challenge - i.e: six in total