My new favourite ink combination!

After all those gorgeous sunsets in Wales (see this post), and more in Scotland when I went to visit Lynne last weekend, I had to have a go at seeing whether I could recreate those colours. I opted for Memento inks in Grape Jelly and Lilac posies with some Lemon yellow Impress ink on silk art card. This is what I came up with.

 I stamped the Inkylicious 'Tree of Life' in Black Archival and used the tree roots to make the border. The sentiment is from the set 'Sentiments one'.

This next card uses the largest of the Northern Pine set,  Birds from Windswept and a sentiment available soon!  The images were stamped in Memento tuxedo black. Below the masked area I used a wet brush  over the dusted inks to give the impression of water. It looks better in real life than on the photo. This might be my next video tutorial I think. Let me know what you think.
Thanks for looking, and enjoy the rest of the bank holiday weekend x
Edit: You can find a video tutorial to make this card here.

Red Poppy

After my blue poppy on Tuesday I thought I would share this red poppy I coloured in a couple of days ago.

The Botanical poppy from Inkylicious was stamped in Archival black ink and coloured with Distress markers in shabby shutters, crushed olive, chipped sapphire, fired brick and barn door. I then coloured around the image with a mixture of weathered wood and antique linen distress markers. I added a bit more shading around the edges by dusting with tea dye distress inks and an ink duster. I added a layer of green card, stamped with the tiny script stamp and edged with the tree of life stamp. The base card was stamped with the worn paint stamp and bundled sage distress ink. It is such a gorgeous image to colour I can see me using it lots!
Well, we have been celebrating here as Megan has done incredibly well in her GCSEs, and we are so proud of her. She really deserves those results as she has worked so hard. I would like to congratulate all those teenagers who got their results this past two weeks. I really hope you got what you needed to follow your dreams. Too many times these days we hear such derogatory comments about young people, and it is so wrong! It is time the government stopped bagging our teenagers too, by saying that their exams are so much easier than ours were. Give them some credit for working hard! Right, I will climb down from my soapbox and get on with the housework!
Enjoy your bank holiday weekend and thanks for looking!

Blue poppy

I have seen lots of stamping and colouring on Kraft recently, so I thought I would have a go with the beautiful botanical poppy from Inkylicious.

I coloured the poppy with my watercolour pencils and then used my water brush to blend. The base card is stamped with worn paint background in tumbled glass Distress ink and then dusted with walnut stain. I stamped flourish 2 with walnut stain distress ink too and added a sticky ribbon (free with a magazine many years ago!)
As this poppy stamp is new stash, I am entering it into this week's Allsorts Challenge where the theme is 'use your new stash'.
Thanks for looking!

Holiday Wildlife

Thought I would share a few pics of some of the wildlife we saw whilst in Wales. The first three photos are from our trip to Ramsey Island.

 a seal, red deer,

and choughs.

Next a Heron and a Curlew.

And finally some insect life taken on a footpath near lake Vyrnwy. A Ringlet and a grasshopper.

 This little fella was named Jim by Megan, and he enjoyed a bit of sunshine whilst sitting on her jeans!

After a while we persuaded him onto my finger before he was encouraged back into the undergrowth!

Thanks for looking!

Anniversary card

I just realised that I haven't shown you my anniversary card to Steve. It was our 24th wedding anniversary at the end of July, and when I saw my lovely prize from Crafty Individuals, one stamp leaped out at me. Steve LOVES ducks and we have a number of duck related ornaments and objects around the house.This stamp and sentiment fit the bill perfectly! (Whoops! bit of a pun there!)

 Using silk art card, I stamped the ducks in archival black and coloured with distress markers and a water brush. I ink-dusted the background and then added foliage (Inkylicious stamps) in memento Pear Tart and Bamboo Leaves. I added some faux stitching around the edge with the tumbled glass distress marker. I thought the sentiment was perfect too. Thanks again, Jean and Malcolm for my wonderful prize. A CAS card, and he loved it!
I am entering this card into two challenges:

• Crafty Individuals where there is an open theme this month

• Allsorts challenge blog where the theme is stitching

Thanks for looking!

A bit more Welsh Scenery

 During our visit to Wales we took a boat trip around Ramsey Island before landing there and spending some time on the Island (an RSPB reserve). This first picture shows Megan at the top of the highest point on the island.

 It turned into a beautiful day, and by the end of it we had all caught the sun a little, despite the suncream.

 We really enjoyed the visit and saw lots of wildlife too - choughs, red deer, ravens, kestrels and a peregrine falcon.
This is where we stayed the first week, close to Strumble Head.

 We stayed in that little white cottage down there, very close to the 'garn' which we climbed up to get the photos.

Thanks for looking.

Skies

Just got back from a lovely break in Wales. We had a week on the North Pembrokeshire coast followed by a week in the Tanat Valley. Did lots of walking, eating (whoops!) and bird watching. Thought I would share a few of the spectacular sunsets we saw.
In Pembrokeshire...

Love this last one - those grasses in the foreground look just like the windswept stamp from Inkylicious! Lots of peach bellini, mountain rose, denim and eggplant on these, Lynne!
In the Tanat Valley...

These three were all taken from the place we were staying. I could definitely live with waking up to that view each morning! Hope you are all having a good summer. I will be using some of these for inspiration for some inkiness very soon I think! Thanks for looking!

Another sunflower

Hi there! I had a sunflower or two left over from the stamping with distress markers and water brushing that I did for my card on Sunday. I cut one out with a spellbinder and added a hint of green with the ink dusters whilst the die was in place. I then used up a sheet of paper made on the gelli plate. I added a few spots of copper glitter glue to the centre of the flowers to finish it off.
Thanks for looking!

Things with wings and a touch of vintage at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning! It is time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations, and this month we have Things with wings and a touch of vintage for our theme. I made two cards this month (Can't you tell I am off work?!) For my first I chose Birds as my things with wings and went for the vintage bird stamp from Inkylicious.

I coloured the image with Distress Markers and stamped the backing card with delicate vines (Inkylicious) and Distress inks.
My next card is also made with inkylicious stamps and distress markers, this time using them to colour the stamp.

The stem and leaves are from the Hydragea set and the sunflowers are from the Sunflower Sunshine set. This one was dusted and stamped on linen look card, using Wild Honey, Broken China and Faded jeans distress ink.the bumble bees(Inkylicious) are stamped onto acetate with Stazon and then coloured on the other side with promarkers.

We are sponsored this month by Crafty Devils, who are offering a £35 voucher for the fabulous prize. they sell such a wide range of crafting products it would be very easy to spend that and more!

 

Do pop over to the challenge blog where you can see the wonderful creations by our very talented DT. They are an amazing bunch of crafters! Thanks for looking!

A quick share

Hi There! I'm still being a bit of a bad blogger, not getting round to visiting much. I promise it will change soon. I am having a bit of a craft room sort out, although it it still at that point where it looks worse before it gets better!
In the meantime I have a card to share with you. It was on the possible discard pile for a while there, but in the end I decided it was okay after all!

I used linen look card stock and just wet my blue, green, yellow and brown ink dusters to get the effect! you have to be careful not to damage the surface of the card with this technique, but if you get it right it is very effective. The stamp set is All about Allium, stamped in black versafine, with highlights in white gel pen.
Thanks for looking!