A couple of quick Chrsitmas cards

 I caught a few minutes of Kay from Indigo Blu on C&C on Saturday, and was inspired to get my flitterglu and flakes out. I used a tree stamp from Chocolate Baroque with the flakes - Brighton Pier first...

Then with Morris dance, and both on navy paper. I used my rollergraph holly wheel with Night Sky Versamagic down the side and added a greeting from Craftwork cards.
I managed to take these in daylight, but the light wasn't great, so you can see the gilding but the colour of the paper is lost. I will definitely be using my gilding flakes for more Christmas cards, and trees of course!
Well, It is short and sweet tonight - got lots to do for work at the moment.
Thanks for looking!

Playing with Winter Bough

I've been having a little play with a stamp from Inkylicious. It is called winter bough, and was kindly donated to me by Deby at Doncaster. We had talked about whether it could be curled round to make a wreath and Deby suggested I try! After a bit of careful trimming I can happily tell you that it can! Here is the result.

 I added a mixture of silver tulip paint, pearls, red gems and diamond stickles.

 Here is a close-up. I stamped winter bough 4 times to create the wreath. the sentiment is another Inkylicious stamp.

I also had a go at using it to make a scene over an ink dusted background using Adirondack Aqua. The berries were made using red tulip paint and red glitter. The boughs got added sparkle too with kaleidoscope embossing powder.  I have taken photos of both of these under my daylight lamp, so the contrast is high and the colours are hard to see, but hope you get enough of an idea.
Thanks for looking!

More troubled skies at Craft a scene

I had a play with most of my Stampscapes stamps after watching Kevin's videos on Youtube. Here is my second DT offering of Troubled Sky for Craft a Scene. The colours of Adirondack ink are Peach Bellini, Denim and Eggplant. The base card is stamped with Hero Arts Silhouette Grasses and a sentiment from Inkylicious. I added a few highlights with white gel pen to lift the darkness a little.
You still have a bit of time left to enter the challenge, so get those stamps out and have a go!
Before I disappear I thought I would share a troubled sky or two from our summer holiday last year! I can't complain because it was only really two days in a fortnight that it really rained, but it was rain with attitude!

  Thanks for looking!

More Traditional Christmas at Stamping Sensations

Whenever I think of Christmas I think of robins... I think of robins all year round as well, but they feature very heavily on many of our Christmas cards. I thought I would make a CAS robin card for our Traditional Christmas card theme at Stamping Sensations.

The stamp is from Sheena Douglass and I can see I will use it lots! It may well feature on some gardeners birthday cards too, but with a different background! I used tumbled glass DI and my ink dusters to create the snowy background. The aperture was cut with labels 10 nesties and the sentiment was from Craftwork Cards. I used pinflair glue gel under the robin and the frame to add some depth. There is still time to get your entries in to the challenge blog, and I look forward to visiting you. Thanks for looking!

A Quick dash into blog land

Here I am dashing quickly in and back out of blogland with a card I made for a colleague's 40th Birthday. 

I have been trying to take a photo of it for a couple of days, but there just hasn't been enough light, and with the shiny surface of the card, lights and flash reflect. I took it to work with me and tried to take a photo there, but something still reflected  on the surface.
The background was stamped with the Morris background stamp from Inkylicious in grey and then brushed over with a mixture of iced spruce and bundled sage distress inks. The Cameo and frame were stamped in the same inks and embossed with green pearl embossing powder. Ribbon, roses (bought ones - I was in a hurry!), pearls and a computer generated sentiment finished it off.
Thanks for looking!

A little experiment

After a couple of frosty mornings recently, I thought I would have a go at trying to recreate some frosty seed heads like this.

I got out my Inkylicious stamps (Create a Collage Meadow and Wild Meadow), Ink Dusters and inks and came up with this.

I used a range of Adirondack and Distress inks, kaleidoscope embossing powder, white gel pen and some post it masks. I am not sure if it looks frosty at all, but just to show you the effect of the embossing powder, here is a close-up.

We had a lovely walk in Wollaton Park this morning, and the Autumn colours are still at their best. I love the quality of the light at this time of year, when the sun is shining. I feel a few more tree cards coming on! Thanks for looking!

Troubled Skies at Craft a Scene

It is the first Sunday in November and time for a new challenge at Craft a Scene. The theme this Month is Troubled Skies and I have been learning how to use my Cumulus stamp (Stampscapes) with a bit of help from Kevin on You Tube. The rest of the scene was created with my Inkylicious stamps - the Seascape Memories and Essential Grasses plates. I used a range of Adirondack inks and my ink dusters to create the background, then added a bit more detail with my distress markers, including the Picket fence one on the light house. I was feeling a bit worried about this theme, but I am quite pleased with my results.
Pop over to the challenge blog to check out the rest of the DT's creations and find details of the challenge.
Thanks for looking!

Stamping Sensations - Traditional Christmas

It is the first Sunday of the month and we are delighted to launch Stamping Sensations  - an independent Challenge blog. Many many thanks to all those of you who have stuck with us for almost three years since our challenge began. Everything grows and evolves and here we are with a brand new name, image and a wonderful range of sponsors, including  INDIGO BLU this month.
As Indigo Blu are our sponsors it seemed only right I should make a card with one of their luscious stamps, so here is my Traditional Christmas card.

 This Lollipop Tree is so versatile I have used it for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Christmas now! I embossed it with Green metallic embossing powder. I framed it with a holly stamp from Sheena Douglass, and made a background with the Inkylicious Music Background and Distress inks. A few pearls and gems finished off my tree.
I have made a second card using Woodware holly stamps.

I stamped the watercolour paper and coloured it with Distress markers. I then sprayed it with iridescent gold glimmer mist, before adding a topper using a personal impressions stamp and a die cut poinsettia(Marianne Designs). The card and the topper were cut with Nesties. A bit of faux stitching finished it off.
What is the prize this month? Well, Indigo Blu are offering a most wonderful prize with their Special issue Movember stamps, a wonderful tree called Tree-mendous and a fantastic Flitterglu kit.  Pop over to the challenge blog to see pictures of the prize and my teamies wonderful creations. You can also grab a discount code for Indigo Blu - how cool is that? After that all you need to do is to get your thinking caps on and make a Traditional Christmas card  for the challenge! I will look forward to visiting your entries. Thanks for looking!

New Beginnings...

It seems hard to believe that it will soon be our Challenge's third birthday! From very small beginnings on Brenda's blog it has grown into the fantastic challenge it is today, and that's all down to YOU, the wonderful crafters who keep coming back to support us month after month. A HUGE thank you to all of you! We have decided it is now time for a new direction, and so we have a brand new name -  STAMPING SENSATIONS - and a fresh new look! We also have wonderful new sponsors, so you can look forward to some great prizes!  There is  new-look logo too (find it here!) for you to display on your blogs, so please grab it and spread the word!

Our challenge was the brainchild of Brenda, and the team were 'hand picked' by her too, so we will let her explain all about its 'rebirth'. Please go over to the Challenge Blog and learn about the exciting things we have planned for the future.

Our November challenge will begin on Sunday, the 4th, with a theme we know you will love. Hope to see you then!