My Top 5 of 2014

Good morning! Still plenty of the crisp and even stuff here. Hope you are managing to stay warm. I am joining in again with Debby's Top 5  for the year. I had to go back through very carefully and had completely forgotten some! It was so hard! I think my choices are based on the reaction of the people who received them more than anything. Here goes then. My first card was inspired by a photo and stamped with Inkylicious stamps- the post about it (and the photo) is here.

 My second card was for a dear friend and colleague. Softy that I am, the sentiment on this card was so pertinent that I it made me cry. All stamps on this one are from Inkylicious and the original post is here

 My third card, using Inky Doodles stamps, was for another dear friend who loves foxes.

 My fourth card was the one I gave Steve for our Silver wedding Anniversary

 My fifth card was Steve's Birthday card

I couldn't just choose 5 though, so I have three runners up!

 First is Meg's birthday card using a mixture of Inkylicious and Crafty Individuals stamps. Find out more here. I was pretty pleased with the realistic shadows and waves breaking on the shore!

Next is one of the cards that I produced as a part of my third video tutorial

and finally a play with my dylusions, treasure gold, distress markers and Crafty individuals stamps which was a DT card for Stamping Sensations. More details here. Do pop over to Debby's blog and take a look at her lovely top 5 (+)!
Welcome to my latest followers Joey, Desire, Rita,Barbara and Viv. Sorry it has taken a while to welcome you! It is great to have you here. Thanks for looking and I will see you on Sunday for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations!

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!

Moody Birds again!

After all the comments from my Less is More friends I decided to have another go, and I have to say, Mandi and Chrissie, you were right!

Now, being me I couldn't manage it first time without a smudge or two which I hid with sponged mountains at the bottom! I had to augment the branch a bit too. After a good wash and cleaning/ tidying up my workspace I managed to come up with this...

The sun is better, the branch and bird placement look better. I am still itching to add something else, but resisting the temptation!

Sunshine at Tuesday Taggers

Okay, who stole the weekend?! I can't believe it's Tuesday already! Anyway, here is my card for this week's Tuesday Taggers challenge where the lovely Michelle chose the theme 'Sunshine'. You could've ordered us some of the real stuff as well, Michelle!

I used masking and sponging on the background with Adirondack butterscotch and Wild Honey distress inks. I stamped the wheat (Hero arts) and Grass (Elusive Images) with Adirondack Lettuce and Espresso and finished it off with a swirly organza ribbon.
Hope you can make your own sunshine and join in with us this week. Pop over to Tuesday Taggers and check out the fab projects my lovely teamies have made. Thanks for looking!

Tag you're it - Who inspires you?

The challenge on Tag you're it this week is to create a tag in the style of someone who inspires you. I really struggled to choose between several people for this. Eventually I decided on Michelle Zindorf. I have spent many an hour looking at her wonderful creations and tutorials, and it was her blog that encouraged me to get my brayer out (after many failed attempts) and have another go. I'm still learning, but I throw a lot less away these days!

For this tag I used a big and juicy ink pad (Spice), Leaf flourish stamp (Hero Arts), tree stamp (stampin' up), Bullrushes stamp (Stampscapes) and butterscotch Adirondack ink for the moon and a white gel pen

I have also picked up a few tips along the way from Brenda, Tracey Dutton and Barbara Gray. I can recommend watching all of them demonstrating!
Told you I was in the mood to get inky! Thanks for looking!