Rudolf Day and a Digi from Dora

There aren't many days left in May, so it is time for the Rudolf days Challenge over at Scrappy Mo's. This first card is a little inkylicious scene, stamped in Memento Paris Dusk and watercoloured with Chipped Saphire distress in. I then mounted it on a base card that had been dry embossed with a magazine freebie snowflakew embossing folder.

My second card used Crafty Individuals stamps CI 463, CI 465 and CI 541. The papers were sprayed with mica sprays and the photo certainly doesn't do it justice in all it's sparkliness. Do pop over to Maureen's blog for more Christmas inspiration

Also, here is my DT Card using one of Dora's wonderful new floral digis, tulips, which I coloured with pencils. You can find Dora's fabulous Digis on her website here.
I have been busy beavering away at my samples for the next Crafty Individuals shows which will be on Hochanda on Tuesday 2nd June at 7am and 1pm. I really hope you can tune in and watch. The new stamps are absolutely gorgeous and I love them. I can't wait to show you! I will be posting all my makes with them here on my blog once the Hochanda shows have been aired, so very soon!
It looks like craft shops will be opening again here on 15th June, but workshops and shows will probably be a way off from that as social distancing will still be in place for a while. In the meantime I hope you have plenty of stash to keep you going, and, as we will have missed at least one craft show, you have the opportunity to treat yourself to a little something.
Stay safe and I hope you are well xxx

Green fingers and gardening...

I made this card for my SIL to give to my nephew for his birthday. He has been enjoying his garden recently. Stamps are all from Hobby art and are watercoloured with brush pens. the base card was inked with distress oxides and stamped in versafine clair.
I'm entering it into the Boys and Men challenge over at Penny Black and more and Anything goes at Allsorts. I'm taking it to The Male Room too where the theme is 'in the garden' ( thanks for letting me know, Faith x).
Hope you are all okay. I am fine, if a little green around the edges due to an accident with my brushos!!! I went to pull out the pin on the lid and the entire lid came off. I thought I'd cleaned it all up, but I keep discovering more. It mixes really well with handcream to give an all over green tinge, and I must have sprinkled a minute amount on the bath mat when I went to wash my hands again, as when I got out of the shower this morning I noticed green footprints. I managed to rescue the card I was making, but whether I can rescue the bath mat remains to be seen😂😂😂. Remind me never to try shampooing the craft room carpet!
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!

 

May at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning! I hope all is good with you, and that you are well.  It is May, and time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations and the theme this month is

***Say it with Flowers***

Also this month we have two fabulous sponsors, Chocolate Baroque and our very own
Dora, who has her own range of wonderful digital images, as well as designing some stamps for Crafty Individuals. 
My first card features the beautiful honeysuckle from the Chocolate Baroque fragrant honeysuckle stamp plate and was coloured with zig clean colour real brush markers.

 My second card is one of the stunning new digi flower stamps just released by Dora and coloured with pencil crayons.The sentiment and text stamp on this one are from Crafty Individuals. 

 Please remember we are a stamping challenge and the focal element of your work must reflect the theme (i.e. Flowers), a few added flowers as an embellishment will not suffice and not be eligible for the prizes. Whist we prefer conventional stamping, digital images are allowed. You can check out the challenge rules here.

Do go to the challenge blog to check out the breathtaking creations from my multi-talented teamies. You can also find more details of the fantastic prizes! 

Thanks for looking and for your lovely comments. Apologies for the randomly highlighted parts of my text. Not entirely sure what has happened there but after 20 minutes of playing around trying to change it I have given up. 
Stay safe friends xxx

April Rudolf Days and a Digi from Dora

We are quickly approaching the end of April, so it is time for the Rudolf days Challenge over at Scrappy Mo's. I've brought two very contrasting cards this time, made with two stamps/ sets I've had in my stash for a long time. The first uses stamps from Little Clare, who I'm sad to say are no longer with us. I stamped in memento and coloured with alcohol based markers. The 3 geese at the front are on an extra fold in the card.

The second card was made with a wood mounted stamp from Penny Black, with hero arts French script in the background and a greeting from woodware. The paper was made with all sorts of sprays with a fair bit of mica in them, so is quite shiny in real life and the trees were embossed in white.
Do pop over to Maureen's blog and take a look at the fabulous inspiration. No harm in making a start on Christmas cards whilst we have the time if you haven't already. 

Finally, here is my DT Card using one of Dora's wonderful digis with a lovely oystercatcher and it's chick at the water's edge, which I coloured with pencils. You can find Dora's fabulous Digis on her website here.
 I do hope you are all okay, and coping with things. How is your hair? I am defintiely ready for a haircut now. Lockdown ponytail seems to be my style, lol. I am sorry I haven't been around as much as I intended here in blogland. I've done 3 zoom karate classes this week and might pull in a 4th if I can. One I ran myself and although I was nervous at first it went well, and I had 10 students. there will be a few more next week too I think. GKR seem to have put things in place very quickly and it is good to see my training buddies and students again.
 Thanks for looking and for your lovely comments. Stay safe xxx
Oh yes, and if you have time, please give my crochet post below a bit of love 😉 Thanks!

Crochet Lockdown style

Before I show you what I've made you need to understand a bit of background. My Mum was an amazing knitter. She made the most exquisite baby jackets, bootees and hats, jumpers, cardigans and gloves. I remember she came with me to a university interview and virtually knitted a whole cardigan in the station at Lancaster when our train home was late! Although I'm left-handed, I learned to knit right-handed and was incredibly slow and laboured, giving it up as a bad job at the age of about 18. I'd never picked it up again or ever tried crochet. At the beginning of March, one of my crafty friends and another Leftie showed me some basics of crochet. I learned just one stitch, then 2 weeks later she showed me another two stitches. I was worried that I would forget what to do, so kept practising about an hour each day. Let's face it, If I could forget what I went into the kitchen for, forgetting what to do is not outnof the question!  I am loving it and can say I'm definitely hooked, lol.  Some yarn fell into my trolley in Aldi and my first neckwarmer was created...

Then I managed to get more yarn from our local Boyes store and number 2 was made...

And then number 3, 4 and 5...

By now I could crochet with the TV on and it wasn't taking me years to make something, lol. Three of them have new homes to go to as well. I was however running out of yarn. I had walked past a local wool shop on the way to the post office at the end of March, so found their facebook page and discovered they do deliveries and paypal. I asked for Autumn colours and decided to try learning another stitch and make granny squares. I can totally recommend Bella Coco's you tube channel, as she does left and right handed demonstrations. Also, through a friend on facebook I found Attic 24 that has some brilliant step by step photos and patterns. Both of these are British sites with UK terminology which is different to American terminology.  I am hoping to have a nice granny square blanket for cold evenings in the Autumn. I'm 50 squares in and can do trebles now, lol. I'm already planning what my project will be after that. I fancy the Attic 24 moorland blanket - such beautiful colours.

I think my Mum would be doing a happy dance now and I'm adding Yarn to my list of crafty addictions.  It just goes to prove you are never too old to learn a new skill.
Thanks for looking!

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

Non-stamping craftiness

Thanks so much for all your lovely comments on my previous post. Thought I would share some of the things I made before lockdown. I had this post all ready to go, but hadn't published it, so I've tweaked it a little and here it is now. 

I've done a little needle felting over the past few months. I am a complete beginner, but had been introduced to it by my lovely friend Lynne as stress relief last year. I bought some leaf templates from Mum's Makery and started felting oak leaves. With a bit of stitching and a few seed beads I've begun to turn them into brooches. All this sewing and needlework made me realise I could do with a pin cushion and after a quick internet search I found a very easy tutorial to make one in the style of a pumpkin, and here is my first attempt, made with an Aldi fat quarter and a pair of old tights for stuffing.

Mid March, one of my crafty friends found me some orange fleece fabric and I made 3 more, which look so much better with decent stuffing in them! The missing one has gone to live with Megan in Sheffield 😀

 I did wonder about trying to sell a few pin cushions, but not sure how many people would want one...

Thanks for all your birthday wishes for Meg. She is currently taking a break from her medicine course and is not on the front line, like the rest of her year group. They will not be doing any final exams, but have all been allocated hospitals to work in taking on the role of F1s. Meg is currently working for two health related charities, and will hopefully be starting a masters in human nutrition in September for a year, before going back to finish her degree the following year.
Thanks for looking!
  

How is it going?

I hope you are well and coping in these strange times. Three weeks into social isolation here and this week I haven't had a whole lot of mojo. I've sat in front of my craft table and not done anything constructive, card-wise several times. It just didn't feel right to be having fun creating with everything that is going on. On Thursday I knew I had to get myself motivated to make a birthday card for Meg, which needed posting and I will share with you in due course, and finally found a bit of inspiration. After that I decided I should create a scene I'd like to walk through, even though the countryside is a little too far to walk to at the moment.

So here is my riverside scene with stamps mostly from Crafty Individuals except the one at the top, which is from Inkylicious. The background scene is on satin finish art card, brushed with very old adirondack inks. the background stamping was done with memento ink. I stamped the kingfisher in versafine clair onto watercolour card and coloured with zig clean color markers and a bit of white gel pen. Finally I cut her out, shaped her a little with an embossing tool and stuck her on with 3d glue. Did you know the female kingfisher has a black upper bill and a red lower bill?
I'm entering this at Allsorts, where the challenge is something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. The old is my adirondack inks in mountain rose, pool and peach bellini, and the blue is my kingfisher.
I'm also entering it at Penny Black and more, where the theme is Anything Goes.
I hope my card gives you the same feeling of peace that I got from making it. Maybe we could have a virtual stroll along the river and spot kingfishers together.
Thanks for looking!

Get the telly on!

Here is a journal page I made using the new papers that are being released by Crafty Individuals on Hochanda today (Tuesday 7th April). The first show is 7.00am and the second show is 1.00pm. There are some fabulous stamps, papers and images, as well as lots of stunning samples from our lovely Jean and other super-talented teamies. Hope you can join us or if not, watch on catch-up. You won't be disapointed!
Thanks for looking!

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! 

Men and Boys (and anyone who likes insects)

The challenge over at Allsorts this week is to create something for Men and Boys. I picked up some 'Tool' stamps from PDA a few weeks ago (never heard of them before) and thought I would try them out. Here are the results...

 As a continuation of my stamping on fabric and adding embroidery, I decorated a small notebook cover. The paint I used is irridescent so it shines nicely when you tilt it.

 I also made a card using a cosmic shimmer paint palette and distress oxides on the base card, then made a second note book

I hope you like them. Thanks for looking!