Music

The theme at Allsorts this week is Music, so I thought I would join in with a couple of guitar cards I made recently. The guitar stamp and the mandala stencil on the first is from Bee Crafty, and the second has the soundwaves dots stamp (Bee Crafty) and a variety of stencils in the background. For both I used oxide inks.

On both I applied a layer of glossy accents over the guitar. Here is a close-up.

Before I go I thought I would share a few photos from our recent trip to Wales. We visited Powis Castle and as usual the gardens were alive with butterflies and bees. I have a list of plants I would like one day, based on some of their borders 😄.

Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments.

Rudolf day for August

 Happy Rudolf day! August has flown by hasn't it? I decided to dig out a stamp I haven't used in a very long time. This is the Chocolate Baroque Poinsettia, bought when they were still Graphicus. I was never very satisfied with my colouring of it back then, but decided to have a go with my (now) favourite colouring medium, zig clean colour markers on watercolour paper. I added a few highlights with a white gel pen and a stardust gel pen. With the second card I added a bit of stamping down each side of the base card with Hobby Art stamps from Christmas foliage.

Do pop over to Mo's blog and take a look at the gorgeous DT cards, and there are still a few days to get working on building your Christmas card stash!
Thanks for looking!

A Wedding

Yesterday my lovely niece was married. She is an ecologist and a bit of an expert on Dragonflies. I knew straight away which stamps to use when I started making her a card. The Hobby Art dragonflies were coloured with zig cleancolor markers and I added a little gelly roll sparkle pen and glossy accents to the eyes. When the eyes were dry I painted over the dragonflies with glossy slap-it-on from Indigo Blu. The reason I went for the two products is that they have different levels of shine. The background was created with ink dusters and then stamped with hobby Art wildflowers and dotted with white and stardust gel pens.

Here is a close-up of those eyes and the detail of the wings.
And here are a few photos from the big day...

Thanks for looking and please leave some love on my mid month inspiration post from yesterday too!

(Anyone would think I was on holiday - two posts in two days, lol)

Mid month inspiration

The challenge at Stamping Sensations this month is to use your current favourite stamp. As we are being sponsored by the lovely Bibi at Rubber Dance, I thought I would use this beautiful cat stamp to give a little more inspiration. Again I created the background on the base card by sponging oxide inks through a Bee Crafty Mandala stencil, then used alcohol markers to colour in coordinating colours as a background for the cat.
Do check out the other mid month inspiration over on the challenge blog, and pop back soon as I am hoping to share another creation tomorrow too!

Anniversary

Steve and I have just celebrated our 29th Wedding anniversary and this is the card I made for him. The moon, sentiment and leaves on the base card are all from Inkylicious and the Hares and Grasses are from Lavinia. I added a few highlights with a white gel pen. I'd better start thinking now about next years  - this was very last minute and I wasn't sure if it was dry when I put it in the envelope!
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments.

August at Stamping Sensations

It is the first Sunday of the month and time for our August challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month we have a lovely theme....

********Anything goes using your current favourite stamp********

I always have great difficulty choosing a favourite stamp and it does tend to vary from week to week. My project this month features a new-to-me stamp from our sponsor, Rubber Dance. I love Hedgehogs and this little guy was a must as soon as I saw him! He is called Handsome Hedgehog and is available here. The base card was coloured with Distress Oxides through stencils from Bee Crafty.

Even though it is an easy theme, we need you to play by the rules:

Please can I remind you we are a stamping challenge so must see a stamped image which reflects the theme as the focal element of your artwork , this means:

Stamping must be the central point of attention and interest

 We are pleased to welcome Rubber Dance as our brand new sponsor this month, with a fabulous £25 store voucher for our lucky winner. There are some wonderful stamps on the website, and I will definitely be purchasing more!
Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous creations from my talented team mates, many featuring Rubber Dance stamps!
Thanks for looking, and I look forward to seeing your entries.

Happy Rudolf Day with Christmas foliage!

Good Morning! I had a lovely evening playing with my new Christmas foliage stamps from Hobby Art to celebrate breaking up from school 😃 last weekend!
 For both cards I stamped the square of Kraft card with the stamp in olive ink and coloured it with watercolour markers. I used Candied Apple oxide ink to colour the yew berries and a white posca pen to colour the mistletoe berries. I stamped the same stamp randomly over the base card in Memento desert sand and added a very old sentiment from Woodware.  

Now normally I stop at two cards, but as I only managed one last month I carried on. I was tidying my table and I found an inkylicious twinchie with two little sprigs of Christmas foliage on it. It called out to be made into a wreath, so I used more Kraft card and stamped the holly sprig in lucky clover distress oxide. I added stickles and liquid pearls, and a sentiment in Candied apple Distress oxide. It was okay but I could do better...

Next I tried again, stamping the  holly six times around the circle in Iced Spruce distress oxide, then six times with the lucky clover. I was happier with the result this time. I added a variety of stickles and liquid pearls

As my title says, I am entering these into the Rudolf Days challenge over on Mo's blog. Mo has made some fabulous inspiration so do pop over and leave her some love. I am really looking forward to hearing all about her cruise around the UK.