A snowy bauble

 

Hi there! I thought I would show you today how I decorated this MDF bauble.

I began by painting the backpiece with gesso and the rim in gilt acrylic paint.

Whilst this dried I stamped sky terrace onto some shrink plastic and coloured it. On the frosted shrink plastic I thought by colouring it on the back with alcohol markers, it would show through, but it didn't once shrunk. I use stazon very rarely, but I find it is the least likely to smudge on shrink plastic

I shrunk it with my heat gun and added a bit of colour with coloured pencils

Next I used the horizon 2 skyline inkable to add some snowy hills with salty ocean distress oxide

I added glitter glue to the tops of the hills and some snow

I used gel medium to attach the house, the frame and some super chunky glittery snow stuff I found in my stash (no idea where it came from, sorry!) I think the stickles glitter gel might work well for this too.

finally I added some white pen around the frame

Here is another look at it. 

I used:

MDF baubles

white Gesso

Dina Wakely acrylic Gilt paint

Salty ocean distress oxide ink

Skyline inkable Horizon 1

Sky Terrace regular stamp set

Shrink plastic

Stazon ink

Coloured pencils

glitter glue

Ultra thick gel medium

Chunky glitter/ fake snow 

Posca pen

If you haven't entered the Bee Crafty Facebook group Challenge yet, we are looking for creations on MDF this month, and you have until Wednesday night to get them done. hope this has given you a bit of inspiration! 

Thanks for looking! 

Stamping Sensations for July

Good morning, It's time for our July challenge at Stamping Sensations and this month we are looking for

 ****The Earth Laughs in Flowers****

 As the title suggest we would love to see your hand stamped creations showing us beautiful flowers. I am sure you will come up with lots of fabulous and colourful designs. 
My card features flower and grass stamps from our wonderful sponsors this month, Crafty Individuals. They were coloured with Arteza watercolour brush pens.  I used a sentiment from Hobby Art and distress inks to create the background. Our prize this month is a £25 voucher for the Crafty Individuals online store. There are so many gorgeous products to choose from too!

Please ensure you check our challenge rules before entering, it may save you embarrassment and make sure your entry receives comments from the team and is entered into the prize draw. We run our challenge for fun in our spare time. It is your responsibility if entering to make sure you check our challenge rules.

Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the gorgeous designs from all my talented teamies! They really have made some wonderful cards again this month! 
 

Thanks for looking!

December at Stamping Sensations

 

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

****Winter Sparkle****

For my card this month I used stamps and a stencil from inkylicious and embossing powder and glitter glue from our Sponsors this month, Be Creative.

You can just see a bit of the Ice Blue Topaz glitter glue sparkle on this close up. The snowflakes were die-cut from wonder sheet and embossed using Wonder white Diamond embossing powder. The background was done with dried marigold and iced spruce distress oxide inks.

Please remember, 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 back Be Creative as our sponsor this month, with a fabulous £25 store voucher for our lucky winner. There are some wonderful stamps and other crafty goodies on their website
Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous creations from my talented team mates!
Thanks for looking!

Another Harbour and a thing with wings!

Here is another harbour scene using Hobby Art Stamps. Centre front is a cheeky seagull, keeping his eyes peeled for any unsuspecting passers-by with chips or an ice-cream! I used Lakeland Inktense pencils to colour it . The outer edge of the base card was stamped with Inkylicious splatter effect stamps and Bahama Blue memento ink. I also added a few blobs of Be Creative Teal Emerald glitter glue. With the seagull I think it qualifies for entry to Allsorts this week, where the theme is 'Things with Wings'.
Apologies that I haven't posted for two weeks. I came down with a very nasty cold last weekend and didn't feel like doing much for about four days. Feeling much better now though. Now Steve has retired there are lots of things he is doing around the house. We have just had a weekend of moving a single bed to his Dad's flat and a rather heavy double bed back to ours. Next I need to do a bit of rearranging of craft stuff so we can fit a keyboard in the front room. I may need a craft retreat once he starts sorting the loft!!!
Thanks for looking and I hope you have enjoyed some sunshine this weekend. I will be back next weekend with a new theme for Stamping Sensations and hopefully to join in this months Rudolf days before that!

Rudolf Day for May

 It's time for Rudolf day (25th of every month) where lots of us make a couple of Christmas cards in readiness for the festive season. I love the fact that it gets me organised, although the last two months have been a bit of a disaster organisationally! Anyway, to make up for short falls I am posting three cards this month.

 

I don't know about you but I received quite a lot of monotone cards with a hint of red both last year and the year before. There were some M&S ones with the same colour tones and lots of glitter too.  I used memento grey flannel (London fog would probably have been better, but I only have a dewdrop pad that needs replacing) on my ink duster and a mountain valley stencil to create the background. I hadn't put away the Inkylicious birch trees stamps and thought they would make a great snowy woodland scene.The trees in the background are just second generation ink.I finished them with more inkylicious stamps and stickles in frosted lace and star dust. The red berries are garnet liquid pearls.

Do pop over to Mo's blog and take a look at the fabulous DT cards. I love the Rudolf Community - everyone is always so friendly!

Fairies

I'm going to share something with you... prepare yourself for a shock...my new favourite stamp is not a tree!!! I have fallen in love with the inkylicious Moonscape stamp and stencil set, and it seems to be featuring on every card I make at the moment, lol! 

I've made two cards for young ladies who like fairies...

Both feature the inkylicious moon, some Lavinia stamps and lots of ink (Memento, Adirondack and Distress inks) applied with ink dusters.

I've added fairy dust in the form of liquid pearls and glitter glue. The moon is equally effective whether stamped in bold colours or pastels, and with the mask being the perfect size it enables you to get 3d effects! 

Both of these cards would fit the current theme at Stamping Sensations. If you haven't seen the inspiration there then please pop over and try entering this month. There are some lovely goodies to win! 

I will be back soon with more moons no doubt, lol!

April at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning! It is the first Sunday of the month, so time for our April challenge at Stamping Sensations, where this month we have a great theme of........

********One for the Girls********

Now I decided to veer away from the predictable and create a couple of cards that are feminine, but not pink or cute! My first card features that Woodware Clear Magic single flower, coloured with alcohol markers and added glitter glue. The base card (Colourplan White) was stamped in citrus shades of Distress Ink using an Inkylicious leaf and the flower was mounted on a strip of stardream card, embossed with a stencil for Inky Doodles.

  The stamp on my second card is another Woodware Clear Magic one, and I have paper pieced it to imitate some of the wide range of converse style footwear available. I added white gel pen to the laces and eyelets.
  we are being sponsored by PDA Cards and Craft this month. I am a very lucky crafter as I live only a 25 minute drive away from PDA at Langley Mill, and visit (and spend lots!!!) often. Their paper and card selection are wonderful and they also stock a wide range of other crafting products, including some Woodware stamps, promarkers and stickles!
Here is the prize:                                                                            
                                        
 I'd be very happy to help you with the spending of that if you want, lol!  Be sure to pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the stunning feminine creations that my talented team mates have created.
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments too.

March Challenge at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning! It is the first Sunday of the month, so time for our March challenge at Stamping Sensations, where this month we have a great theme of........

********Flower Power********

Perfect for Mother's day, and spring! For my first card I used a stamp by Honey Doo Crafts, coloured with Be Creative markers and decoupaged  over an ink dusted oval. I used the same pens to make a coordinating layer before mounting on a base card covered in paper from the pastel inspirations pad. I added a stamped sentiment framed using a Be Creative  bottle cap. 

 For my second card I used a digi (girl) from Digistamp boutique and a flower woodware singles stamp. All images were coloured with Be Creative alcohol markers. The paper on this card is from the Vintage Collage pad, and I also used be creative glitter glue.
The Usual rules apply, you can enter up to three times, combine with other challenges, use any make of stamp......but can I please remind you we are a stamping challenge and stamping must be the focal/predominant element of your work. Conventional rubber/acrylic stamps and digital images are acceptable, but pre-coloured digital images and toppers are not. It so upsets us to see names come out in the draw who are not eligible for the prize because they have not read the rules. 
Now onto the sponsor and prize this month 
We are being sponsored by Be Creative who have put together a great prize! Feast your eyes on these goodies!  

 Paper pads, pearls and gems galore! You can see loads of ideas of how to use Be Creative products on the design team blog. Do pop over and become a follower!
Also don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the fabulous inspiration from my multi-talented teamies too! 
It will be a very strange Mother's day for me as Meg is not able to come home this weekend and I'm the only Mum left in the immediate family. We are postponing Mother's day here until 20th March, when Meg will be home for her Easter holidays.
Thanks for looking, and if you are celebrating Mother's day today, I hope you have a great day!

Colouring faces

 I've been colouring some different images over the past couple of weeks. Different  in that I don't normally go for this style of image!  I downloaded the flower maiden from Aurora Wings etsy shop and gave her a pastel look with my be creative alcohol Markers. I added glitter glue and liquid pearls to her hair too - here's a close-up...

 The base card is covered in paper from Be Creative's Vintage collage paper pad. I have to say it was a joy to colour her and I will definitely be buying more of Mitzi's images. There is a sale on at the moment too!

 My second image is another digi download, this time from Lavinia. Again I coloured her with Be creative alcohol markers and added liquid pearls and glitter glue. The base card was covered in a gelli print made some time ago with pearlised paints and a stencil. Here she is at a different angle so you can see the sparkle on the glitter glue.

Whilst I am showing you digis, can I please make a plea to you all. If you want a digi, go to the artist and buy it! Please avoid those sites that seem to think it is okay to steal,  or give away images without the artist's permission. I know several artists who spend hours, sometimes days producing images to sell for a very small price compared to rubber stamps. They need to sell at least 15 to 20 of those images to buy their child's next pair of shoes, or pay for that guitar lesson. If, like me, you teach workshops involving colouring, it is common courtesy to ask permission too. I have found artists are very obliging when it comes to letting me use their images at workshops, and if it helps to spread the word on how lovely their images are then all the better. Just keep in mind they need to make a living too. Rant over - thanks for listening!

Christmas foliage and some autumn photos

Here is a very quick card I made whilst experimenting! I was wondering if I could use the Be Creative glitter glue through a stencil, and look! It worked. I used a cheap and cheerful card blank, and when I try this again I will use something a bit more substantial! However, I did discover that the glitter glue will stand heat, as I ironed it to get it flat again! The Die is a frantic stamper one, and the border and gems are also from Be Creative. This would be a great card to enter into the challenge at Stamping Sensations this month and win the wonderful prize below! It is such a shame I can't enter! Remember you can enter anything Christmassy with a flower/ foliage/ holly/ pine branch/ wreath etc!

I took my Camera when I drove up to Dad's today and stopped for a few minutes on the northern edge of Sherwood forest. There were lovely Autumn colours...

Then I saw this cloud passing over...

 so headed back to the car...

just as it's shadow reached me! By the time I had started the engine, the wipers needed to be on!
Hope you have managed to stay dry today!
Thanks for looking!