Been busy...

Hi There! Well, this week reached Friday and I hadn't been near my craft table once, so I got inky for a couple of hours to make up for it! Here are the results.

 For this one I used Daydreamer and Delicate Vines stamps from Inkylicious, creating the background with my ink dusters and dye inks. The base card was stamped and dusted with big and juicy soothing sunset. Next I went for some more subdued colours...

For the base card I stamped the skeleton leaf with Memento Desert Sand and Adirondack Aqua. I then dusted the main panel with the same colours but with a little water on the dusters which gives a slightly streaked effect. The stamps I used were All about Allium and Wild Meadow. I used frosted lace stickles on the flower heads.
We have now had our HMI visit and I am pleased to say they won't be back for a while. Also I finished my reports this morning, so things should get back to normal now for a while. I have still not played with some stash that I bought at Doncaster, so I am due some serious crafting time!
Thanks for looking and hopefully I will catch up with you very soon!

Happy Summer Solstice, just!

Hope you managed to get a glimpse of the sun today. It certainly didn't feel like the longest day! When I sat with my coffee at breakfast there was a news bulletin from Stonehenge, and I was reminded of this card I made about a fortnight ago for a work-mate's birthday. The stone circle is a stamp from Non-Sequitur, and the rest are from Inkylicious. I created the background with masks, adirondack inks and ink dusters. I didn't base it on a real place, but the stone circle does remind me of a couple in Derbyshire. (This one particularly)
Thanks for looking!

Some Girly Cards

I was asked to make an 8x8 card for a friend's daughter who is 18 today. The young lady in question is very fashion concious and loves her shoes, so I used a mixture of Pink Petticoat papers, Digistamp boutique digis and a digi of my own (the shoe, drawn by me, with some help from Meg to turn it into a digi). I then did some paper piecing and embellished with 3d paint and mini punches.

The sentiments were done on the computer too. As I'd got the papers and the digis to play with I did a couple more.

Not my usual thing, but very popular, and snapped up immediately from my sales box. All of these I made a little while ago. At present it is report writing time, so I may not be here as frequently as I would like. Thanks for your comments and I will try my best to visit you soon, when I have finished writing them all!
Thanks for looking!

A busy weekend

 

I've just made this card for my friend's daughter's birthday. I used Inkylicious daisy fields and  delicate vines stamps and my ink dusters. The inks were cherry pink and lemon yellow Impress inks, Slate Adirondack and on the base card Big and Juicy soothing sunset. I used a fine pen to put the dots round the ink dusted panel, and a few dots of glitter glue. I am entering this in the Allsorts challenge this week where the theme is 'In the Garden'.

I had a lovely trip to Doncaster with Lynne on Sunday where we did some shopping and I also did a bit of demoing on the Inkylicious stall (Thanks for letting me play Deby!) Thanks to all those people who popped by and for all your lovely comments. I really enjoyed it and it helped to curb my spending, lol! As a result I have put a new page on my blog with tips for Ink dusters on it. Currently there is just some info about inks, but I will add to it some more in the summer. 

Meg didn't come with us to Doncaster on Sunday as she was busy...

She graded to brown belt! I am aiming to do the same in September. There are three Sensei that have helped us on our journey, and two of them were there to see Meg grade. Sensei Alex is stood just behind Meg on the first photo and Sensei Xavier is in the second photo. The Giant in the third photo is our Area Sensei - Sensei Karl, who describes himself as a 6 foot 6, 18 stone skinhead -tongue in cheek but just a teeny bit scary! Meg reckons I should have my photo taken with him too, but as I am less than 5 foot tall, he may have to kneel, lol! Meg was highly praised by Sensei Karl, which is a real honour. I am so proud of her!

Well, I'd better go. Thanks for looking!

Grassiness for Father's Day!

Here is my Father's Day Card, and for those of you who are regular visitors he is doing very well! He had his hip replacement in March and is now managing to walk a good mile, sometimes more several times a week. He is looking forward to going back to play table tennis, but he can't for another month. He is 84 and very active! He loves to watch the birds and has always done a lot of walking, so a swallow over the reed beds seemed an ideal choice! All stamps from Inkylicious and the background was created with Ink Dusters, Adirondack, Impress and Distress inks.

 

The next card is for Steve's Dad. At 92 he is a little less active than my dad, but still manages a weekly shopping trip to town and loves to go and sit on a park bench in the local nature reserve/park. There were thousands of dandelions there a few weeks ago, and he too loves watching the wildlife. The stamps are mostly inkylicious, with a few Hobby Art and a Lavinia park bench.

Then I decided to have another play with the Whispering Winds stamp. It is so simple, but so versatile!

First I made a sunrise with Impress and Adirondack inks. I dotted a gold gel pen on the seed heads too.

Next I used the off-cut to make a CAS card inspired by the paper packaging that comes with the stamp - some of Deby's own art work. I used a touch of gold embossing powder on the seed heads this time.
I also made a CAS card using the Poppy Lea stamp.

Finally I have a card to show you that a friend of mine made. She used to make lots of cards until she was very ill in 2008, and her eyesight, hearing, speech and dexterity were affected. Having never used an ink duster before this is what she produced after a little lesson from me!

I am very proud of my student!!! I am hoping she will be encouraged to dust off her stamps and start making cards once more.
Tomorrow sees the wonderful Stamp Magic show at the Doncaster Dome. I will be there and will probably visit the Inkylicious stand for a little while, so if you see me come and say hello! I will be there with Lynne from Creative Lynks who has come down to visit for the weekend. She is my partner in crime when it comes to crafty spending, lol!

More vintage, less pink!

here are some more cards using the Inkylicious vintage stamps. First there is Vintage Voyage. Above was stamped on watercolour paper and coloured with distress inks. The paper was made with the almanac stamp and Tea Dye distress ink on scrunched copy paper.

This one was much simpler, stamped on silk art card and coloured wioth the dusters, mostly, and a bit of distress marker

Next we have the Vintage birds, again stamped on silk art card and coloured with Distress Markers and almanac in the background.

The same stamp, same type of colouring, gelli plate background paper made with the skeleton leaves and the flourishing vine.

And finally the vintage butterfly, first on watercolour paper and coloured with water-soluble oil pastels and an Adirondack colour sprayed  background. 

This last one was coloured with distress markers on silk art card and a starburst stains background on scrunched paper. The iridescence here is not apparent but it did have a jade green shimmer. Please forgive me if I don't get round to visiting you back over the next few days. We are awaiting an HMI visit at work so I'm extra busy at the moment. I will try and get round to popping over to visit you at the weekend. I've got stacks more cards to show you, as I made my father's day cards and several birthday cards last week during half term. thanks for all your lovely comments. If you are going to Doncaster on Sunday I may see you there!

Considering I don't do pink...

In the words of my lovely daughter 'Considering you don't do pink you have made some very pretty pink cards this time!' These are the ones she was referring to.

All of these cards made their way to Inkylicious, although not all of the stamps were on Create and Craft. The Vintage French Rose was on the show and here I have coloured it with spun Sugar Distress Marker to show how delicate it can look in contrast to the one I posted on Monday. In the background on the first is the delicate vine - great for backgrounds and corners. The background on the second is the fully repeatable Lattice stamp. The third features a new stamp called Fairy Tale and a gelli plate background made with pearlised paint and the Sweet Pea stamp. In real life it is a little more pink than it looks in the photo! Finally, for the last card I used Say it with flowers, and one of the twinchie stamps to make the background.
Going back to the pink comment, although it is definitely not my colour clothes-wise, I have to say it is growing on me once more where cards are concerned!
Thanks for looking!

Summer Blooms at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning, and lets hope June brings some lovely weather! We certainly need it to help the garden catch up! Our theme at Stamping Sensations is Summer Blooms, and when Brenda chose it I am sure she wasn't thinking about Daffodils and Magnolia in May! The first blooms that I thought of were Sweet Peas, a particular favourite of mine, but only scented ones! I won't bore you with a rant about silly people breeding the scent out of Lavender and Sweet Peas (what is the point!?) but I will share a picture of my card for this month.

I fell in love with this stamp from Inkylicious as soon as I saw it, and here I have coloured it with Distress Markers and Tombow pens. I used Delicate Vine and Tiny script (both from Inkylicious) around the image and then used the vine again on the base card, cut with a grand Nestie. I dusted both with tumbled glass and shaded lilac distress inks. The ribbon was a part of my secret Santa gift from work (they know me well!!!)
So, onto the prize. Feast your eyes on this lovely lot from Heartfelt Creations


Aren't they wonderful? Shame I can't enter too!
My lovely teamies have created some amazing floral delights over on the Challenge blog, so I hope you will pop over there for some inspiration before you rush off to make your entry. I will look forward to visiting you to see your entries.
Thanks for looking!

Boxes and Hearts

 Here is the box I decorated for Inkylicious. I saw it in Dunelm Mill for £3.99 and immediately loved it. It has a small chalkboard behind the picture, which I had thought about painting onto, but the colour and texture of the wood made me think of the beach, so I added a beach scene, using the windswept stamp, on silk art card and some shells. I ummed and ahhed about whether to add anything else, but Meg said it was fine as it was so I left it. 

 Here is a close-up of the lid. the larger shells were collected from the Norfolk coast a few years ago, and have been in a bowl in my bathroom ever since. the tiny shells were bought on the east coast - a bag full for £1.00! I found some sand in a bucket in my garage which we had bought a couple of years ago when nowhere had any salt left in the snow. I managed to spill sand all over my craft space and had to spend Sunday clearing it all off as everything was crunching! Next time I will use sandpaper - much less messy! Magic hands used it as the cup of chance on the show, which made me laugh - hope no more sand escaped!

I also found a wooden heart in The Range for 99p. I gessoed it and then tried stamping on it but the images lost their definition with water based ink and I didn't have the shades I wanted in any other ink. I gessoed and started again. Next I tried stamping in acrylic paint and it worked brilliantly. I used docrafts pearlised acrylic in blues and purples, dusting just a bit of purple ink over too. The sentiment was stamped in Versamagic ink and comes from the 'Simply Said' stamp sheet. They tried to show this on Create and Craft, but the lights were way too strong, and the pearlised paint reflected them!Hope this photo in my porch on a dull day gives you a better idea!
Thanks for looking!