And now for something completely different!

I have been having a sort out of some bits of paper I had sprayed with Adirondack colour washes and Crafty Notions creative colour sprays. I sprayed them about two years ago at least, and thought I really ought to use them! I found one bit that I particularly liked and covered the front of a card with it. I stamped some text (Inkylicious) and added a ribbon that I spritzed a little too. Then I stamped the image and the sentiment (Indigo Blu) with archival ink onto some scraps of silk art card and ink dusted them with some Adirondack inks.
This is very much a card made from snippets so I'm off to share it with Miss Di and the girls in the playground.(Pixie's Crafty Snippets). The theme at Allsorts this week is masculine cards, so I thought I would share it there too, as I am hoping it will go down well with a teenage fan of Harry Potter and Merlin.
Thanks for looking.

Snow, Goldfinches and Siskins

I decided to join in the RSPBs Big Garden Birdwatch this morning, and saw a lot more birds in an hour than I saw last year. I think it helps that we have snow on the ground and fully stocked bird feeders! After a few minutes  5 Siskins flew in. This is the first time I have seen Siskins in our garden, although I think they may well have been visiting for a little while as the Niger seed feeders have been emptied regularly, and the Goldfinches don't manage that on their own! Anyway, instead of me talking about them here are some photos.

This is a male Siskin, and the following blurred effort is a female.

 Here are a few of Goldfinches too, again not great photos but good enough to identify them!

As for snow, it is melting fast, but this morning it was about 5 1/2 inches deep...

I used my crafting ruler to measure the snow on my patio table! Hope you are managing to stay warm and you are enjoying your weekend. Sorry I haven't been around blog land quite so much this week. Again, work has had to take priority I'm afraid. Hopefully I'll be back in the next few days with a card and to visit you. thanks for looking!

Another Snowy Cottage for Craft a Scene

 Here is my second offering for Craft a Scene this month where the theme is snowy cottages. For this one I used a snowy cottage stamp from Sheena Douglass, and added an extra tree and a few bits of foliage from Inkylicious. I stamped it in Memento London Fog and coloured with promarkers, but the sheep were blending into the background. I wasn't sure what to do about it, but eventually got my fine liner and went over them in black. I think it turned out okay. I added a couple of die cut flourishes at the corners (a Christmas present) and some turquoise flat backed pearls. Thanks for looking and I hope you will have a go at our Craft a Scene challenge this month.

Flower Power at Allsorts

Hi there! I hope you are having a good weekend. I am here alternating between crafting and school work after driving up to my Dad's this morning to take his shopping and make sure he is behaving himself!
I made a card using some bits and pieces that were lying around. I coloured the stamp (Inkylicious) with my distress markers onto a shape cut with my Spellbinders Decorative labels one, and with the die still in place I ink dusted the background in green and blue. I used tea dye DI to dust the edge to bring out that detail a bit more then mounted on the next size up of labels 1 with some silicone glue. I cut the two embossed panels (Cuttlebug Victoria embossing folder) so they were the same size and mounted onto some gold card, adding a little more tea dye with my ink dusters. I added an organza ribbon at the bottom and stamped the base card with an inkylicious swirl and some antique linen DI. I'd just finished it when I spotted that the challenge at Allsorts this week is Flower Power. I did get round to making a card for Allsorts last week, but I never got it photographed, never mind posted, so it will have to wait until another day.
I will leave you with a few photos of my journey today. The snow laden trees were rather lovely!

Thanks for looking, and I hope you  are managing to stay warm!

A couple of thank yous

The challenge for January at a Heck of a challenge is Thank you, so I thought I would enter these two cards that I made a couple of weeks ago. The first uses stamps from Inkylicious and white embossing powder. The Distress inks I used were bundled sage, dried marigold and spun sugar on silk art card. 

 My second card is a Chocolate Baroque image, coloured with Distress markers and mounted on a piece of card that was embossed and dusted with tea dye DI. 

Hope you are warm and cosy and the snow isn't affecting you too much.  I was on a course today (Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling), but the people who were running it were very flexible so we opted for a shorter lunch and to not have a tea break in the afternoon and we rattled through and finished three quarters of an hour early. I was home about the time school would be finishing. So far nowhere near as much snow as was originally thought here. How about you? I am hoping to take my Dad his shopping tomorrow, so I hope it doesn't snow any more until I get back.

I am keeping my follower candy open until I have the chance to pop out to a craft shop and get a few bits and bobs. I have a few bits, but they are mostly cute, and some of you don't do cute.When I have been I will post a picture. 

Thanks for looking!

P.S. Anyone else had a problem with their blog background disappearing completely and not going back on? I have ended up using a different template. Didn't want to, but I suppose it will have to do.

A bit minimalist

Happy Sunday! Hope you are keeping warm. We woke up to a layer of snow this morning - very pretty, but not a great deal and now we have reached mid afternoon it is looking quite patchy. The light has been beautiful all day, though, casting a tinge of very pale apricot across the garden. I thought I would share a card that I made just before going back to work. I used some of my favourite colours - Peach Bellini, Mountain Rose, purple twilight and Eggplant. The stamps in the foreground are Stampscapes and I coloured them with distress markers and white gel pen. The hills were just masks and ink. The flourish on the corner was a new die I had for Christmas. I tried the card with 2 , but it covered up the detail in the foreground, so I just stuck a scrap triangle of black under the image. The black pieces were both scraps so I am entering this into Di's Crafty Snippets challenge. I know they are a tiny part of my scrap mountain but every little helps! It will be good to be in the playground again. I have been away too long!  This scene is a bit minimalist for me, and I am really tempted to put some birds in the sky or some dangling branches, but in the end I've gone with it as it is.
Well, I'd better go and see what I can find for my followers candy before I get tea ready. Thanks for looking!

Snowy Cottages at Craft a Scene

Good Afternoon! The first Challenge of 2013 for Craft a Scene  is Snowy Cottages, and this month we are being sponsored by my good friend Teri of Delicious Doodles. This little scene is called A Crofter's Winter, and I coloured it with promarkers, adding a few bare twigs with berries on in the foreground (Inkylicious stamp). The base card is stamped with 'Snow Dust' (Penny Black) and dotted with diamond Stickles. To add to the Scottish theme I added a tartan ribbon and a die cut snowflake.
I do hope you will come and make a scene with us this month. Do visit the challenge blog where you will see some amazing scenes from my lovely teamies. Thanks for looking!
P.S. I am very aware that I promised some blog candy for when I reached 200 followers, which was a few weeks ago, but with all the hustle and bustle of the holiday I still haven't done it. I haven't forgotten, and as soon as I have the chance I will sort something out. I promise!

Stamping Sensations Friendship Challenge

It is the first Sunday of the month and time for a new Challenge at Stamping Sensations. Our January theme is FRIENDSHIP and this month we are being sponsored by Stix 2.
I used a stamp from Inkadinkado and coloured it with distress markers before stamping it onto cartridge paper. I added a few flourishes (Inkylicious) to the patterned paper underneath, that has been in my stash for a very long time. I embossed the flourishes with brass wow embossing powder. The base card was covered in the other side of the patterned paper. I again stamped it with the same flourishes from Inkylicious, this time in Tea Dye distress inks. I finished it off with an ivory ribbon and some paper roses.
Now, let me show you a picture of the prize...

Loads of sticky stuff and goodies! Well, I do hope you will join us this month at Stamping Sensations. Pop over to the Challenge blog for some more inspiration from my lovely teamies. Thanks for looking!

My favourite 5 of 2012

I thought I would join in with the review of last year and show you my favourite 5 cards that I have made over the year. It is my first time joining in with Debby.

My first has to be the Birthday card I made for Meg back in April which you can find here.

The second is the Tryptich I made for My Father in law, for Primrose Day. The original post is here.

  My third is the notebook and matching card I made here using the gorgeous spring distress ink colours!

 These trees are also favourites, along with my craft a scene lighthouse and troubled sky.

Hmm, trees and scenes...bit of a theme there, lol! There were several other close runners, also with trees and rather scenic too!
I will leave you with photos of the desserts I provided on New Years Day. We had to do a detour to and from our friends' house due to the road being flooded, but they aren't totally cut off, thank goodness. I made a Chocolate gateau

and the biggest pavlova I have ever attempted - 12 inches across! It just fit in my Pizza tray!

May 2013 bring everything you hope for and, for all those affected by floods, some drier weather! Thanks for looking!

More tree scenes

I needed to make a Birthday card for my Brother, so went to Pinterest for some inspiration (won't say how much time I spent on there, lol!), and found this amazing card by Theresa Momber. I just loved the way she had given the hill some definition with copics. The scene had a masculine feel to it, and so I set about trying to produce something similar. Here is what I came up with.

I used Distress inks with my ink dusters today, starting with squeezed lemonade in the middle, dried marigold around that, then wild honey and tea dye, finishing off with walnut stain at the edges. The hill was masked and coloured with wild honey and walnut stain. As my distress markers were on the table I thought I would try adding a bit of definition with those, which left a little bit of a line, so as I applied the Distress marker I used an ink duster to blend the edges, and was very pleased with the result. All of the stamps are from Inkylicious. I feel this is different enough from my inspiration to enter it into a challenge, so I am entering it into fashionable stamping challenges where the theme is 'surprise us'

I decided to try again with the Scots Pine stamp from Inkylicious on an off-cut from my first hill. I did both on Silk Art Card.
Hope you enjoy your New Year celebrations. We are off to a friends house later for our annual scrabble tournament and lots of good food. Enjoy whatever you are doing and Happy New Year. Thanks for looking!

All purpose cards

I have made some 'all purpose' cards that may well end up as Thank you cards. For both I used a sentiment and the Morris background stamps from Inkylicious.

With both I added a ribbon too. On the first I used a white gel pen to add a bit of highlighting and the sentiment on the second was placed on a spellbinders die cut that was dusted with ink and stamped with versamark. I brushed a little mica powder over the top.
I hope you have a brilliant new year and thanks for all your lovely comments in 2012. I look forward to seeing you in blogland in 2013. Thanks for looking!

Been playing...

My lovely hubby was very kind and got me some Stampscapes stamps, with some serious unsubtle hinting (i.e. I want those for Christmas, lol!) Once all our visitors had been and gone I was able to reclaim my craft table and have a play. I only have a couple of shares today as I have been busy making some DT cards, but those will be here on the first Sunday in January.
So, here are my cards. First is a sunset using the Lakeside Cabin set.

I used Adirondack inks in Peach Bellini, mountain rose, purple twilight and denim. I coloured the rocks in the foreground with weathered wood and frayed burlap distress markers. I even tried making a few stars with white gel pen and a little bit of white ink on a cotton bud. The sentiment is from Inkylicious.

For the second I tried a scene with the Country Chapel set and added a tree or two from the Lakeside Cabin set and some sky from the Light and the Sea set. I didn't manage to capture the light and dark very well on this one, but it isn't bad for a first go. I absolutely love the sedge filler, as you can just create hills with it!
Today I took my Dad for his first appointment for a hip replacement. It looks like it will be done by Easter! They confirmed it was very worn and that it was just the left hip, and not his knee as well, which is good. The surgeon said that he would be extremely pleased if he had my Dad's mental fitness at the age of 83, and seemed even more impressed when he heard about his gardening, walking and table tennis! Not one to sit around, my Dad! Hopefully a new hip will keep him going for a good while longer too. Well, I'd better go and get on. Stamps to play with and all that, lol!
Thanks for looking, and I hope Santa was good to you too!