Get yourself a cuppa - it might be a long one!

What a busy few days we have had! First of all I must share the 'creation' that I mentioned in my last post that Meg and I had been working on...

 

This was Meg's outfit for a fancy dress party on Friday.

Next I want to tell you about the fabulous Blog Girls Day at Sir Stampalot. We had a wonderful day. Lynne, Megan and myself went to Peterborough for another fabulous workshop with the very talented ladies Chris and Brenda. We made some wonderful cards...

We chatted, got messy and had a really lovely time! We met some great ladies and so enjoyed getting to know them. It was wonderful to meet Zoe for the first time in person, although I feel like we have known each other for ages! I can't choose a favourite from all the lovely cards we made, as I love them all. A huge thank you to Chris and Brenda who make the day so special every time. A huge thanks from Meg too, ladies, as you helped her to achieve such fabulous results too.
I was going to share a couple of cards with you that I made during last week, but I will save those until another day.
Thanks again to everyone, including Janice and Andy who provided the perfect retail therapy I have been looking forward to since the dreaded 'O'!

Lovely walks

As it's half term we have enjoyed a couple of walks whilst the weather has been better. Yesterday we returned to the Robin Hood's way near Walesby for a lovely stroll in the afternoon sunshine.

 This photo was taken by Robin Hood's Cave by the river Meden. I was hoping to see the buzzards and a woodpecker again, but it wasn't to be, although there were still lots of Fungi.

We ventured a little further this time and on this lovely stretch of river we saw the unmistakeable blue flash of Kingfishers. I'm no where near a good enough photographer to capture a kingfisher in flight, so you will just have to believe me!
On the way back we spotted this little fella, sunning himself...

I think it's a Common Darter. He was so obliging, photographically and nearly landed on my head a couple of times!

We enjoyed a few more moments and then set off back for the car. As we entered the woodland we heard the unmistakeable soft hooting of a  tawny owl. So no Buzzards or woodpeckers, but owls and kingfishers instead - wonderful!

Today we had a lovely stroll around Shipley Country Park near Heanor, where we fed the ducks and swans,

admired the autumn colours, and marvelled at how laden the yew trees were with berries this year...

No cards to show you until tomorrow I'm afraid as it was too dark to take a photo once we got home. There is another 'creation' Meg and I have been working on, which I will show you tomorrow too. Thanks for looking x

Halloween!

Good Morning! It's Tuesday and here is my DT offering for Tuesday Taggers where the theme is Halloween with some deep purple. there is also a lovely prize on offer from the Craft Barn.

Last year I picked up a set of Inkadinkado clear stamps principally for the spider and spider's web in the set (I'm unusual in that I love spiders). The witch is another from the same set. The trees are a Lavinia stamp and the background was brayered with B&J Hydrangea.
If you pop over to Tuesday Taggers you will see some amazing inspiration by my amazingly talented teamies.
Thanks for stopping by and I do hope you can join in this week.

Colours of Autumn

Here is my card for this month's Penny black at Allsorts challenge. I stamped leaves in versamark onto glossy card then coloured with a variety of distress inks. I then stamped the Penny Black fantasy tree over the top in black stazon. The leaf is a spellbinders die again coloured with distress inks.
We took Steve's parents out for lunch yesterday and the trees were beautiful in the sunshine. At eighty-five and eighty-nine they really enjoy going out for a bit. We thought a good place to go would be The Bay Tree café at Thorsby Gallery, but we were sadly mistaken. They refused to open the double doors to let mum enter with her rollator (zimmer with wheels) instead sending us round the long way, through another door. When we arrived in the cafe we were told that they were unable to seat five of us due to health and safety. We could take a seat outside if we wanted. We left in disgust and headed for Edwinstowe. On the way we spotted the Dukeries Antiques centre which has a tea room. Steve enquired to see if they could accommodate us and they couldn't have been more helpful, letting us enter through the back door (no steps) and reserving a table for us. On top of that the food was excellent and the portions were generous. We were a little disappointed we had no room for cakes! We did get a couple of rhubarb and ginger scones with fresh cream filling for Steve's parents to have for supper. They had a lovely time in the end, and we insisted on treating them as it is their wedding anniversary soon - fifty-eight years!

And breathe...

Good evening, and may I say how good it is to be back in blog land. Ofsted is over, my sleep pattern is getting back to normal and it's half term (phew!)! I managed a little while at my craft table today working on DT cards, but then I thought I would show you this card I made for a friend at work a couple of weeks ago, as I haven't blogged it yet. The wheat (Hero Arts) and Grasses (Elusive images)  were stamped onto glossy card that had been brayered using B&J soothing sunset.
Very simple, but she loved it.
Thanks for all of your lovely comments regarding the inspection. What can I say? - it went okay. It could've been better. They could've been a little more pleasant. I really don't know why anyone would want to be an Ofsted inspector, and am fed up with them changing the goal posts so often.  Now I want to forget about it and enjoy a week off. Hope you all have a very relaxing weekend and the weather cheers up very soon!

Oh Pooh!

Just a quick note to say I will be AWOL until the end of next week due to OFSTED (Sorry for swearing). Feeling a bit like a headless chicken at the moment. Somebody pour me a big glass of wine for next Thursday night!!!

An animal and a song

 My Card for Tuesday Taggers needed to feature something wiith more than two legs this week. It was a very quick one, using papers from an Artylicious CD and the stamp is a Pink Gem one, coloured with promarkers. Please do pop over to the TT blog and take a look at the fabulous DT work.

My next card is for the Allsorts challenge this week where the theme is inspired by a song...can you guess?

Fields of Gold - a bit obvious I think! I used distress inks in Mustard Seed and Wild Honey and that fabulous Hero arts stamp - Sooo glad I bought it from Sir Stampalot, along with that ribbon too. I also sprayed it with gold creative colour spray. The sponsors at Allsorts this week are Sir stampalot and this card would also fit beautifully into the Sir Stampalot challenge where the theme is Autumn colours with bow(s) and button(s). I've now started singing Forever Autumn. I feel another card coming on!

Autumnal wandering

Finally I made it back to blog land! I have had a very successful if tiring week, so today I've had a little bit of fresh air and some craft time. First of all my card.

I used distress inks and a range of Elusive images stamps, oh and hero arts old French writing. I also embossed the tree with mirror gold embossing powder. The challenge this fortnight at the Stampman is Autumn, so I thought I'd enter it.
We had a lovely walk on the Robin Hood Way  (a great footpath through Sherwood Forest) this afternoon, with my Dad.There were some fabulous fungi specimens.

 Lots of Fly Agaric from tiny ones like this to some the size of dinner plates.

 Not sure what this one is but there were lots.

This one was quite big - you could pull up a chair and rest your cup on it!

We walked through an area where the only dry land was the footpath. Both sides of the path were waterlogged and swampy. Looking at the trees it has been like this for a while. A little eerie at first, but we saw woodpeckers, ducks, a pair of Buzzards and some warblers too. Further along the rivers Meden and Maun meet and part again, and the view down the Maun from a little footbridge was very tranquil.

I'm sure if we had had a little more time to stand and watch we would've seen a kingfisher or a water vole. Thanks for looking and I hope you get some tranquil moments this weekend. If you manage an Autumnal creation you could add buttons and a bow and enter it into the sir stampalot challenge too!

A very quick thank you

I was asked for a few thank you cards a few days ago and hadn't got round to blogging them. I saw the theme on Keep it Simple this morning and realised they would be perfect!

As you can see, simple is an understatement, and although I like the design I felt very strange leaving it so stark! The leaf stems were from the Hero Arts Clear design scattered leaves set. Stamped in black versafine and the sentiment was from a personal impressions set. I thought the design would suit a sympathy card too. Keep it Simple are being sponsored this week by Whimsy Stamps
We have had a bit of a family get together today and I've just driven my Dad and my brother home. It is the tenth anniversary of my Mum dying, so we thought it would be a good idea to get my Dad out of the house and with company. He thoroughly enjoyed his roast beef dinner and apple crumble.  Over the next week I might be around blog land a bit less than normal as I have parents evenings on two nights and a governors meeting on another. I'm guessing we will be eating a few takeaways! I have made a few cards recently though, for family birthdays, so I'll blog those when I get the chance.
Thanks for looking and I hope you have had a wonderful weekend!

Autumn Breezes at Sir Stampalot

Good Morning and welcome to October! This month at Sir Stampalot we have a theme of  Autumn breezes with buttons and a bow. Prepare yourself for lots of photos as I wanted to show you all the different parts of my criss-cross card!

Here it is sat on my window ledge. I started off with some pieces of glossy card stock and stamped some leaves (Hero Arts Clear design: scattered leaves) using Big and Juicy Spice. I then inked up my brayer, took a bit of the colour off and brayered diagonally across each panel.

The small leaf stamps on the central panel are from the same set and the corrugated card band around the card was coloured with creative colour sprays(Crafty Notions). The little leaves were cut with a newish die from Joy crafts using pearlescent paper.

On the reverse side of the central panel I cut an oval from some Artylicious Essence of Nature paper and placed more leaves around it, giving an area for a sentiment. The orange buttons were from very old stash (My Mum's button box, inherited about ten years ago, but the buttons are probably circa 1960!)

So there you go. Hope you like it. I certainly had fun with my Brayer! You can probably see I got a bit carried away! Now, drum roll please, as I'm sure you will want to see the amazing stash you can win this time round...

Isn't it wonderful? So, if you would like to be in with a chance of winning this lovely stash, take a look at the fabulous inspiration from my fabulous teamies over on the Sir Stampalot challenge blog and get creating!