Christmas at Stamping Sensations

 Good Morning! It is the first Sunday of November and so it is time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month we have the Theme of Christmas and we have the wonderful Little Claire sponsoring us. Here is my card featuring the Little Claire stamp 'Stocking owls'

I stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with promarkers. I added some inkylicious 'fluffy Puffy stuff ' (Like liquid applique if you remember that!) and heated it to make it puff up. The retro DP is the last sheet of a very old dovecraft pack. The sentiment is also a Little Claire stamp from the set 'The magic of Christmas.'

Whilst I was here I thought I would show you another fabulous Little Clare stamp - Robin Redbreast. This one is very popular with all the bird watchers in my family!

Again it was coloured with promarkers and I added lots of diamond stickles for the snow. The DP is another very old one from Dovecraft. The border was cut using a tonic border punch.

 

Our prize this month from Little Claire is a £35 voucher to spend in their online shop. How cool is that? I could spend it very quickly, lol!
Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the gorgeous projects from the DT. They really have excelled themselves this time! Thanks for looking!

What day is it?!

 I've been a bit quiet for a few days. I took Dad to the hospital for his Hip replacement on Thursday. I was up at 4.30 and on the road by 5.30 to get him there for 7am. I saw a barn owl and a pair of roosting buzzards right next to the road, so there was an up side to being on the go at that time! Dad's operation has been successful and he is on the mend, although a little dizzy and nauseous still. If he is okay tomorrow then he will be coming home with his zimmer!  Ever since Thursday I have struggled with knowing what day it is. Yesterday felt like Saturday, and it has thrown me completely!

Anyway, thought I would share a picture of another card made with gelli plate papers. It is the same techniques and same stamp set as the last one I made - Inkylicious Hydrangea stamps, distress inks, distress markers etc. Scroll down to the last post if you want more details.
Before I go the last lot of snow brought  a few more visitors to our garden bird feeders. First was a black cap,

who was in perfect focus until he turned round, lol!
After that we had more Siskins on the feeder at the bottom of the garden, hence the blurriness on this one!

Such pretty birds! As I drove home from the hospital this afternoon the light was so beautiful. A real peach bellini glow and some eggplant clouds. I feel a scene coming on!
Happy  Easter for tomorrow and don't forget to put the clocks forwards tonight!
Thanks for looking!

Floral and gelli papers

I managed to have a good play yesterday, staying in the warm! Here is a card that has been in my head since I made the papers on my gelli plate, and I am rather pleased with how it has turned out. I was thinking of Brenda's follower celebration, knowing how much she loves getting inky or painty, distress markers, floral, a butterfly, ribbons and the odd pearl! The stamps used are all from Inkylicious and the inks are all Distress inks. The paints used on the gelli plate papers are all Do Craft Artiste Pearl (Wisteria and Ice blue). Here is a close up of the papers. There is another post on my gelli plate papers here and here.

 You can see the shine of the paint but also the ink dusting and stamping that I added in the white spaces. Here is a close up of the butterfly.

I first inked it with shaded lilac DI and then used Versamark and kaleidoscope EP to get the shimmer. Finally here is a close up of the main image.

 I coloured the stamp with a mixture of distress markers, huffed on the stamp and stamped on to watercolour paper. I then used a water brush to drag the colour onto the image. I finished it off with some ink dusting and the script stamp in tumbled glass DI, and a spray of glimmer mist in iridescent gold.
As well as Brenda's follower celebration, I am also entering this into Heck of a challenge, where the theme is butterflies and pearls, Visible Image Challenge where the theme is Spring and By the Cute and Girly (Favourite things: mine are inkylicious stamps, distress inks and my gelli plate!)

Another play day!

On Sunday I managed to have another play session with my gelli plate. I went for yellows, oranges, reds and Chocolate Baroque stamps (oh, and the CI elegant swirl made another brief appearance!). I also tried using cuttlebug embossing folders as texture plates, which were probably more pleasing than the stencils I tried On Saturday. See what you think to these. Some of the whiter ones may need dusting with some inks I think, or a bit of stamping. I am beginning to see loads of potential - not sure I will ever buy papers again!

The stamps are the Sunny sunflowers from Chocolate Baroque. Well, that is another 20 pages of backing papers, so I'd better make some cards with them!
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments on my backgrounds. I wasn't sure if people would like them or not. some are a bit grungy.

A few Christmas Cards

Well, I've only been home for half an hour, as it is Panto Week at school (Oh yes it is!). We just have two matinees to go now, so the late nights are over. I made a few Christmas cards at the weekend, but just haven't got round to posting them until now. These are all using stamps from Little Claires, which I bought or had bought for me (Thank you, Lynne!) at Doncaster.

The first two feature the Christmas Owl tree (so cute!) and some rather old Dovecraft papers. I added a ribbon and a sentiment from Craftwork Cards. The image is coloured with promarkers, which I tried to match to the papers. The first one here is for Crafty Cardmaker's challenge where I used the photo inspiration (Tree and colours).

For the next two cards I used Robin Redbreast and more old papers! I coloured again with promarkers, and then went a bit mad with stickles!

The border on these two is a tonic punch.
Challenges:
Little Claire's Monthly challenge 27 - Christmas
Thanks for looking!
 I hope to catch up with you very soon x

A snippet card and a little announcement

Woohoo! I've managed to get back to the playground at last! I'm here to join in Di's crafty snippets challenge with another baby card for work. I think this is the last baby card for a while! (they must have moved the chair!)

I used a digi from squigglefly, a stamped sunflower(Chocolate Baroque), snippets of papers from kaisercraft and some very old ribbon. As I'm back in the playground I want to show you what I brought back from Rwanda for you... the Zebra were a bit elusive and kept nipping off into the trees, but this guy was very obliging! Now I know Miss Di is probably having a bit of a turn as to where we are going to put him, but we can get out of the tree house really quickly by sliding down his neck!

Now for my news...

 If you are a regular visitor to Craft a Scene you will have seen last weekend that I have joined their DT. I know that many of you who visit here regularly will know that I was delighted when the challenge started, and have loved making little scenes with my stamps to fit their themes. When Nancy asked if I could join the DT I had to say yes, especially after my top 3 spot last month on the theme of trees! Keep a look out for my DT card on the theme 'Majestic Mountains' on 21st October.
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments.

Another tree

This year at work it is a year for big birthdays - there are 5 40ths and a 50th during 2012! This was the 40th birthday card I did for my boss, just before I went to Rwanda. To be honest I wasn't particularly happy with it, but it has grown on me.

The leaf is a chocolate baroque stamp, the papers are a double sided piece of 12 x 12 from magenta and the tree is from The Artful Stamper. I used my ink dusters to make the background and added two tone fine glitter to the falling leaves. I am hoping to find time and energy to make some cards this weekend. I have been feeling so tired all week, and not been able to get my head around anything requiring thinking!
I'd better go. Pop back and see me on Sunday for the launch of Stampalot's October challenge. Thanks for looking!

A birthday card for someone special

I have been working on my God daughter's twenty first birthday card for about a week in every spare moment I have had, and finally it is finished!

She will be away from home having a holiday by the sea with three friends, so when I saw this stamp and papers from crafty individuals I had to have it, especially as the second girl from the left looks just like her from the back! I added the bunting (Whimsy stamps and Whimsy Dies) and added a few stamped shells (Crafty Individuals) on the base of the easel card. It was really easy to match up the colours of the beach huts/ papers with the bunting by using distress inks in Fired Brick, scattered straw, faded jeans, worn lipstick and bundled sage.

The challenge at Allsorts this week is to make a Birthday card for someone special, so I think this qualifies. The challenge is only a part of their third Birthday celebrations, which includes a blog hop and lots of prizes too.
I am not sure if I will get round to the hop as I am marking SATs at the moment.
Thanks for looking!

Steve's birthday and a waltzing Mouse sketch

Today is my lovely Hubby's birthday, so we have just been out for lunch. Here is the card I made for him using a Sheena Stamp.

The papers are from a K & Co 6x6 pad kindly given to me by my lovely friend Milena. The fern leaves are hiding where I accidentally dropped the ink pad on the card! I coloured the image with distress inks. 

My next card is a little fussy for my taste, but it may well be a wedding anniversary card for my nephew.

I had been experimenting stamping patterns with waltzing mouse stamps and distress inks (Victorian Velvet and bundled sage) I decided to use it for the front of a card when I saw this week's Waltzing Mouse sketch.

All stamps are from Waltzing Mouse except the heart which was from Crafty Individuals.

Well, thanks for looking and I hope to see you again soon.

How long?!

I can't believe how long it is since I posted last! Truth is I think Mr Mojo is having a little holiday. I have made a few bits and bobs, but I'm not particularly happy with them. I even resorted to reworking a couple of cards I'd already made for an order. Anyway, here are two that didn't end up in the bin!

 This first one uses papers from my Artylicious Essence of Nature cd and an Aspects of design stamp. The sentiment is computer generated.

This second one feels like a bit of a cheat really because the paper was a freebie from Glenda Waterworth and the only stamp was the sentiment from Paula Pascual. The spellbinders border and ornate circle are from the Parisienne accents set.
Thanks for looking and I hope I will come up with something half decent soon. If you happen to see my mojo please send it back here!

Stamptacular snippets!

Hi There! I am getting to be such an infrequent blogger these days. However, half term, Doncaster stamp magic (23/10) and the 4th Stampalot Ultimate rubber stamping Demo day (29/10) are all coming up, so I'm looking forward to finding lots and lots of inspiration!
Anyway, here is my first offering for today...

I managed to use up all the scraps of paper left over from my boxes I made for cookies and cupcakes (post before last) and came up with this. The cake stand stamp was a freebie from the front of the magazine 'Quick cards made easy' and the sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse. The roses are cut with a Marianne design die and here is one in close up.

The papers are the 6 x 6 pad from Kaiser Craft called the Devonshire collection.

I'm entering this into Jules's craft snippets and Stamptacular Sunday, where the theme is  'You choose!' It would also be very suitable for the Food glorious food theme at Sir Stampalot this month - there are still a couple of weeks left to enter and a great prize on offer!

My second and third offerings are cards requested by colleagues. A baby girl card...

The paper is from Bearly Mine designs and the baby digi is from Squigglefly, coloured with promarkers. I love the fact that this image could be a boy or a girl.

Finally a digi hydrangea from my friend Teri at Delicious Doodles.

again coloured with promarkers. The paper is from an Artylicious CD - Seasons Greetings, but I'm sure you will agree not particularly wintry!

Thanks for looking and I will hopefully get round to visiting you all soon!

Cute!

 

Here is a card I made recently for a friend of mine. This is 'Milton with a daisy' (Wild Rose Designs), and although he is a bit too cute for my liking I know my friend will love him.  I have watercoloured him with my aqua markers. Although I love my promarkers, I am getting more and more into watercolouring. The papers were some that I bought from funky fairies when the they were closing down. I do love these two colours together! The lace was a donation from my lovely friend Lynne - Thank you! I thought it matched perfectly.

A day of craft

As it's the first day of the Easter Hols I decided I would spend the day doing fun stuff (and a bit of washing). I did try going to Once upon a stamp, only to find they were at the NEC and not open, so came home and used up some stash instead. The main image is a free digistamp from Cuddly Buddly. I coloured it with promarkers in meadow, aqua, pastel blue, sky blue, lavender, lilac, maroon, burnt umber and purple. I hadn't decided what else to do with it when I saw these papers and realised it was a good match! I thought I would enter it in this week's Passion for Promarkers where the theme is Springtime with an animal.

My second card features a Penny Black stamp bought from Sir Stampalot. I coloured it with promarkers and used papers from the Papermania capsule collection. Not many days now until the Sir Stampalot Challenge launches. I hope you are signed up as a follower and have your name in Mr Linky for the last goody bag candy draw.
Thanks for looking!

It's Spring!

I've been out in the garden without my coat on admiring the crocuses, snowdrops and the lovely tête a tête daffodils that are just coming out. The sun is out and there are even a few bees around. I've also been putting the finishing touches to an easel card I started last night.

This lovely hyacinth, coloured with promarkers, is a Graphicus stamp and the papers are from the capsule collection by Papermania. I found the ribbon in my stash and sprayed the flowers with creative colour sprays to blend in. I'm entering this in three challenges - Allsorts, Rosie D's and By the Cute and Girly, Where the themes are Spring is in the Air and Think Spring. Thanks for looking and don't forget to check out the Sir Stampalot challenge blog!

Lovely papers!

I've been busy preparing a few DT items this week, so I'm not able to post what I've done yet. After a fairly busy week at school I sat down to have a bit of a play this morning. When I saw these papers from Kaisercraft I fell in love with them. There are several sheets using this colour combination. I picked them up from Sir Stampalot when I was there last. The stamp is from Craftwork Cards botanical set.

Talking of Sir Stampalot, have you visited the new Challenge blog yet? There are two lots of blog candy left and then on 1st April the monthly challenges will start. You can be in with a chance to win the blog candy just by signing up to follow and popping your name into Mr Linky. Grab this blinkie and help spread the word!

A very quick one

I made yet another following the Allsorts sketch and using up more Laura Ashley papers - the contemporary collection this time. The stamp is another of the graphicus Big Flowers. I think the rest of these papers will be going into a future blog candy along with the LA stamps I bought to go with them. I've not used them at all and I want the space!

Allsorts Challenge - old or new plus a sketch

Here is my entry for this weeks Allsorts challenge. I was very good and used old stash and a stamp I haven't used in ages. the stamp is Non Sequitur and the papers are some Dovecraft Laura Ashley ones. I bought both the traditional pack and the contemporary pack when they came out, but they weren't what I expected and I've not used them at all until today. The leaf punch was a Christmas present and the roses are made as Brenda showed me.

Now when I saw the freebie papers that were on offer from the Funky Hand I had to download them and use them too, so I did another one just for fun! The Stamp is from the Graphicus plate Big Flowers. Thanks for looking!