Rudolf Days for September

 We are galloping towards the end of September so it is time for another Rudolf day's Challenge. I have made two very simple cards using Woodware Stamps this month.

First is a DL sized card simply stamped with sky blue pearlescent Brilliance ink.

Second is a Woodware wreath stamped in versafine clair on to Kraft and coloured with arteza colouring pencils. I added some stickles to the Honesty and glossy accents to the berries.

Do pop over to Scrappy Mo's blog and take a look at the wonderful Christmas inspiration. Thanks to you all for motivating me every month xxx

Just like buses, there will be a few daily posts here due to how my DT posts have fallen. I do hope you can visit and see them! Thanks for looking! 

Rudolf Days for August

 I'm here a bit last minute for the Rudolf days challenge. The end of the month has crept up on me as I am sure it was only about 18th last time I looked! Hope you are all keeping well and enjoying some craft time yourself. 

I've knocked up two simple cards using a woodware stamp set and distress inks in old paper, bundled sage and iced spruce. there are a few bits of sparkle and berries using liquid pearls and stardust stickles. The colouring on the top one was done with distress markers, and I must apologise as it isn't up to my usual standard. I was colouring when it was raining yesterday, and really should have put the light on as it did go very dark.

Do pop over to Maureen's lovely blog and take at the Christmas inspiration. 

I have had a less productive week for some reason. The mojo hasn't disappeared completely, but it isn't at it's strongest. Father-in-law (who is 4 months off his 100th birthday) has a fall during the night on Monday and has broken his hip, so is confined to hospital for a while. We will know more next week. We were worried that he had to have surgery, but he made it through okay and is recovering. He seems to be in good spirits, which is the main thing. I've made a few more masks and done a bit of needlefelting and embroidery, which I will share with you soon.
Thanks for looking!

Mid month inspiration for Stamping Sensations

 

It is mid-way through the month and time for  a reminder of our challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month our theme is

 ***Make it Masculine***

I seem to have a bit of a sheep theme going on this month as my mid month offering is this lovely sheep from Woodware. For anyone who is interested it also comes with both English and Welsh Happy Birthday sentiments. The base card was stencilled with a lovely leaf d'inkable from Bee Crafty.  

Do go to the challenge blog to check out the  wonderful creations from my talented teamies and more info on this month's prize.

Thanks for looking! 

Rudolf Days for June

It is time for Rudolf Days at Scrappy Mo's. I have got to admit it has snook up on me once more so have only made my cards today. They are two very different ones this time. My first was inspired by the lovely Sandra at Sandma Cards, who made some beauties for Crafty Individuals using their bare trees. I stamped the base card with CI-430 and distress oxide in shaded lilac. The background for the tree was inked with distress oxides in shaded lilac and blueprint sketch. I splattered it with water and mopped off the excess. I used white embossing powder on the largest tree from CI-209 before adding a little more ink, glitter, fine tipped pen and liquid pearls to the foreground.

My second card is a woodware stamp, coloured with ecoline brush pens with a little added glossy accents and frosted stickles.

I do hope you are all okay out there. I'm keeping busy with a mixture of stamping, crochet, karate, baking, gardening, sewing and embroidery. I've still not been bored enough to wash the car! I'm doing 3 hours of karate via Zoom each week, which is helpiing me to stay fit, along with a few walks. The crochet has slowed down whilst the weather is hot, but I am sure I will still have finished it by the Autumn.

 

This is probably the half way point.

Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments.

Mid month inspiration for May

It is mid-way through May so time for our mid month inspiration for Stamping Sensations where the theme is

***Say it with Flowers***

 My mid month creation has a sentiment from Hobby art, and two recent woodware stamps - Vetch and Cow Parsley over an ink dusted background. I added a few highlights in white and silver pens. I do hope you get chance to enter the challenge. 

How are you doing? Hope you are okay and staying safe and well. I think we are all on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster at the moment. It is important to realise that it is okay to not be okay at the moment, but equally, talking about it can help. I'm keeping very busy with various things including some really amazing new stamps from Crafty Individuals that are going to be on Hochanda, along with shows from Chocolate Baroque on 2nd June.  see if you can catch the shows - you won't be disappointed! I'm continuing with the craft sort out, doing some sewing and crochet, doing karate on Zoom 3 times a week as well as helping to manage the Crafty Individuals facebook group. We would love for you to join us there if you haven't already - just click the link. We have a project of the week award for a stamp prize, a monthly challenge (ATCs this month) for a larger prize and Jean also does giveaways on her Facebook Lives which are at 2.30pm on Wednesdays and Fridays.  

Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments!

 

Mid month Rainbow inspiration

It is mid-way through April so time for our mid month inspiration for Stamping Sensations where the theme is  

****Somewhere over the Rainbow****

 For my card I used another woodware stamp over a distress oxide background. The sentiment is from Hobby Art. This one is currently on display in my front window, in support of our wonderful frontline workers. I do hope you get chance to enter the challenge. It is certainly cheering me up to see the entries.
Thanks so much for visiting my blog and leaving comments. Over the past week on our local walks, we have seen people doing things like washing their driveways and I can't help but be thankful that I have plenty of hobbies to keep the boredom away. I don't think I would ever be bored enough to wash my driveway 😂 May your stash be immense and your mojo be endless in these difficult times.
Take care friends  xxx

Stamping Sensations challenge for April

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

****Somewhere over the Rainbow****

Rainbows seem particularly apt at the moment as they are seen as symbols of hope, and many children across the uk are drawing rainbows and putting them in their windows to cheer passers by. As the title suggest we would love to see your hand stamped creations that reflect that song or the colours of a rainbow. I am sure you will come up with lots of fabulous designs.

My card this month was made with a woodware stamp and matching stencil. The stencil was sponged over with distress oxide inks and the stamp was coloured with zig clean colour brush markers.  
Our sponsors this month are Be Creative.

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

 Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous creations from my talented team mates and more details of that prize from Justin and Gordon!
Before I go, Jean Hardy and Crafty Individuals are on Hochanda on Tuesday 7th April at 7am and 1pm. There should be some lovely demos and a chance to see the new stamps and papers as well as oodles of great samples from my teamies.  
Thanks for looking! 

Rudolf Days for March

Hi there! How is everyone doing? I have sent off all my samples for the next Crafty individuals show and now I am just catching up with a few bits and bobs here in blog land. We are observing social distance rules, exercising regularly and only braving the supermarket once a week. Crafting, gardening and crochet with local walks and a bit of karate practice is seeing me through. The only thing that is being curtailed at the moment is baking, due to panic-buying, stock-piling nicompoops (Don't get me started!) Hope you are coping okay.
Anyway, now is the perfect time for preparing for a handmade Christmas, lol. Many friends will be receiving a crocheted gift, and of course we can get on with Christmas cards. Without further ado, here are my two cards for the Rudolf Days challenge this month, both using a woodware wreath stamp that I had for Christmas.

They were both coloured using watercolour pens (a mixture of Zig and Arteza) with added dots of glitter glue and liquid pearls. The design papers were from a pack I bought from the works, as were the stitched dies.
Do pop over to Maureen's blog to take a look at the inspiration there.
Thanks for looking!

Very different for me!

A few weeks ago I did a workshop at PDA, Langley Mill with Suzanna from Belle and Olive. Suzanna is a textile artist who specialises in all things vintage. We tea-dyed, stamped on fabric, sewed and embroidered. I didn't finish mine in the 2 hours we were there, but brought home my pieces thinking I'd like to add some more colour. After playing around for several days with distress ink and other scraps of paper and fabric, here is my finished piece.

I have to admit that I hadn't done french knots for about 25 years, but it didn't take me long to get back into embroidery. I cross-stitched lots around the time Meg was born, but used to find I'd wake up with painful hands the morning after an evening of cross stitch. I'm happy to say I have been able to do this with no problems.
I decided to try something similar with my own stamps and opted to use one of the small fennel stamps from Woodware.

 I found an off-cut from some shorts I made and used tea to dye it. I then stamped in versafine clair and used a mixture of normal embroidery silk, metallic embroidery thread and seed beads to add to it, which you can see here.

 A bit of mulberry paper, old music, lace and a kraft notebook finished it off.
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 easy theme, perfect for this time of year....

****Anything Goes****

My cards this month were made with a woodware stamp. I stamped and paper-pieced them all. The first and second were made with a cheap and cheerful paper Addicts pad called Yuletide Wishes that I picked up in 'The Works'. 

For my third card, I embossed the base card and added a die cut snowflake border, also from The Works. The blue and gold paper was left over from an inky mica spray session a while ago.

   

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

Our prize this month is A £25 voucher to spend at Be Creative!   Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous creations from my talented team mates and more details of that great prize! Thanks for looking!  
About an hour after this post goes live I will be setting up for our local craft fair (just round the corner) and hoping to sell lots of cards, candles and MDF. If you are near Nottingham, I will be at Woodthorpe Park Plant Shop in the green houses from 10 am to 4pm today. Pop and see me and say hello!

November Mid-month inspiration for Stamping Sensations

Good Morning! Here is my mid month inspiration for Stamping Sensations where the theme is 'Traditional Christmas Colours', meaning red, green and gold. My first card was made with my 4" round gelli plate and distress inks in bundled sage and tea dye. I stamped the berries (studio light) and embossed in gold, colouring with zig real brush pens. I added a bit of splatter stamping (inkylicious) around the edges of the white panel and added a sentiment (woodware) in Memento Rhubarb Stalk, finishing off with a little bow.

My second card was made with a woodware wreath stamp and tartan papers from Craftwork Cards. The base kraft card blank was stamped with a uniko leaf in brown versafine.
You still have plenty of time to enter the challenge, so do pop over to the challenge blog for more inspiration. Don't forget to check your entry against the challenge rules and take a look at the fabulous inspiration!
Thanks for looking!

Rudolf day for October

 I've been thinking about the environment a bit more this year, so this month for the Rudolf Days challenge I am showing a couple of cards made with recycled products. The first was made for a competition at PDA, and is made with 'cup-cycled' card. Judging by the colours I think it may be Costa coffee cups! It only comes in this shade of pink. I stamped with Woodware stamps using brilliance ink, fussy cutting the main image and sticking on to a circle cut from some amazon packaging and sprayed with gold glimmer mist. The buttons were from grandma's button box, and I added a few drops of stickles and nuvo drops. I am entering this one into the Penny Black and More challenge where the theme is 'Pretty in Pink'.

My second card was made using the 'Crush' range of card stock from PDA which is also recycled. I used a woodware stamp and a hobby art sentiment. I coloured with Zig clean colour markers and added liquid pearls for the berries.
Do pop over to Scrappy Mo's blog and take a look at the fabulous christmas inspiration.
Thanks for looking!

A bit of Silver

The challenge at Allsorts this week is to add something gold or silver. I embossed this lovely Woodware stamp in silver and coloured the background with zig pens. I matted and layered using silver mirri paper and stuck it on the front of a silver grey card. I managed to leave a versamark fingerprint on the base card, so I stamped round it with my inkylicious twinchie stamp in versamark then dusted with silver mica powder. It covered it up nicely 😁 In the past I would probably have cut away the base card or even binned it and started again. These days I try and find ways to cover up mistakes. Well placed sequins, splatter stamps, doodle stamps, liquid pearls and embellishments are all very useful, lol. Do you have a prefered method for covering fingerprints or smudges?
Thanks for looking xxx

September Rudolf Days

It is 25th September (where did that go?!) and time for another Rudolf Day over at Scrappy Mo's. I have a bit of a poinsettia themed month this month. First is a Single layer card, stamped with a Uniko stamp and coloured with my Arteza coloured pencils. I have been experimenting with adding shadows and feel like I got it right this time!

Next up is oxide inks through a Sweet Poppy Stencil, splattered with some gold ink spray and a stamped sentiment.

Finally I used a woodware set, stamped and dusted in Memento Bahama Blue, and finished off with some diamond stickles and liquid pearls. This was super quick and took longer to dry than to make!
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments. Do pop over to Mo's blog and take a look at the wonderful Christmas card inspiration.

New Woodware stamps

I bought these Francoise Read Woodware stamps a little while ago and forgot I hadn't blogged any cards with them. These two were very quick makes. I had the backgrounds ready smooshed with Distress oxides, so all that was needed was stamping with Versafine Clair and a few spots of liquid pearls and glaze. The stencil on the second is from Woodware too.

I am so enjoying myself at my craft table. I will share some more with you very soon. Thanks for looking!

Clean and Simple at Allsorts

The new challenge at Allsorts this week is Clean and Simple, a perfect opportunity to share this card. I dusted the background with citrus twist, mermaid lagoon and wilted violet distress inks, placing a moon mask over the top after the first dusting. I stamped Inkylicious tiny script in memento lulu lavender, then stamped the Woodware fennel and sentiment in versafine clair ink.
Thanks for looking. I'm hanging on for dear life as we stampede towards the end of term... just 10 more 'get-ups' to go!

Woodware Flowers

 This woodware flower has been in my stamp collection for several years and I have used it in a variety of ways over that time, but mainly as an embellishment. I love the fact that it is so easy to cut out, as are the leaves (also Woodware). I decided stamp several and to colour them brightly with my Zig markers on watercolour paper and give them a black background.

I added some liquid pearls, glitter glue and white posca pen to finish them off. Hope you like them. They will be used for birthday cards in the next month or two - there are quite a few coming up.
I am entering these into the Challenge at Penny Black and More where the theme is All Things Feminine
Thanks for looking!

April at Stamping Sensations

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

****April Showers bring May flowers ****
 As the title suggest we would love to see your hand stamped creations that reflect that phrase. I am sure you will come up with lots of fabulous designs involving flowers, gardening and the odd rain cloud, brolly or wellies! 
My card this month was made with a Woodware stamp that I stamped in versamark and embossed with Be Creative detail white embossing powder. I had used faded lilac, peacock feathers and cracked pistachio distress inks on the panel. I went over the flowers and leaves with distress markers to intensify the colour in places before splattering with a little water and gold mica spray. The base card was dusted and stamped with the inkylicious water droplets stamp in the same shades of ink.  
Our prize this month is a £25 voucher from our sponsors, Be Creative. Gordon and Justin have a lovely range of embossing powders, adhesives,  a stamping platform and the screen-pal as well as some fabulous layering stamps.

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. It is not our responsibility to read your posts and remind you if you fail to comply. If you do not follow the rules we will simply ignore your entry.

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 beautiful cards again this month! 

Thanks for looking!

Mid month inspiration for March Stamping Sensations Challenge

Here is my mid month inspiration for Stamping Sensations where the theme is Somewhere over the Rainbow. For the first card I used the Inkylicious XL splatter circle and inked up with distress oxides. I also used the same inks and stamped the base card with Inkylicious worn paint background stamp. Both had a spritz of water before stamping. Once the splatter circle was dry I stamped Woodware 'Going to Seed' in Versafine Clair. I have added a few bits of sparkle with a gelly Roll clear stardust pen, but you can't see it here.

You still have plenty of time to enter the challenge, so do pop over to the challenge blog for more inspiration. Don't forget to check your entry against the challenge rules!
Thanks for looking!

A card and some news

Hi there
Thought I would share a card I made a couple of weeks ago with you. It is very plain and simple. The teasel is a woodware stamp and the sentiment is from Bee Crafty and I LOVE it. I did the background with brushos. As the hexagons were cut from snippets I am popping over to the snippet playground. Sorry I have been absent for so long Miss Di! Onto my news...
  This summer marks thirty years since I became a teacher. Round numbers are good aren't they? I have decided that thirty is enough and it is time to stop being envious of my lovely hubby and time to join him in retirement.  I am looking forward to more baking, more walking, more card making, more blogging and more karate. I am also looking forward to watching TV instead of marking, being able to go to the loo when I need to and drinking more water (those last two are linked lol).  I might not be able to afford as many stamps as I can now but I will have the time to use what I have already got. Hoping to get a few more magazine commissions to get some spending money and maybe some DT work too. What I do know is that I will be happier, less stressed and not constantly guilty when I have 'me time'.
 Thanks for looking and for your lovely comments