Rudolf Day!

Oh deer (pun, lol!) I nearly forgot Rudolf Day over on Sarns Blog! I have had a very quick twenty minutes making one layer cards using two set of stamps from Paula Pascual called Joyful bubbles and Large Christmas. I have gone for Aqua, pool and teal inks. I may well go back when the ink is dry and add some glitter, but they will do as they are if I forget!

 Don't look to closely at this first one. I didn't get it very straight!

Two more cards towards next year. I will try and be better prepared in March. Thanks for looking!

Butterflies and flowers

I made it to Mrs A's first Butterfly Challenge just in time! I made a monochromatic card using the Inkylicious Daisy fields stamps, A hero Arts butterfly and a sentiment from Inkylicious. The inks are Shaded lilac Distress ink and Memento Grape Jelly. As the matte and layers and butterfly are all made from snippets I am also taking this to the snippet playground. I am also entering this into Brenda's 5th Bloggerversary draw  where she asks us to use our favourite craft item. Mine is definitely my ink dusters, which I used here to get the lightly shaded and graduated background. I know Brenda loves her butterflies too, so I am sure she will like this one.
Here is a closer view of the butterfly...

I feel the mojo is more or less back to normal now, thank goodness!
Do you want to see what else I have been making?

Feel the calories!!! I made it for one of the Sensei at Karate who gives Meg a lift home from senior class every week, not that we are trying to slow him down or anything, lol! I have offered to make another that we will raffle off to raise funds for trophies and medals, like the one Meg won in December.

As it was half term I have trained at two classes this week and did a karate seminar on Saturday - Five hours of Karate in 3 days. I am pleased to say I can still walk, lol! A few aches and bruises, but nothing serious. I must be fitter than I thought!!!
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments.

Snippets for the playground

I am still rather lacking in the mojo department, but rather than stare at craft stuff, I have used the time wisely and got on with preparation for next half term. I did have to make one card though, which is my nephew and his wife's anniversary card. I got my drawer of snippets out and found several pieces that went together, originally from Pink Petticoat. I arranged them on the card and was left with one little hole, which was fine as my sentiment was on a largish nestie that could cover the hole! The sentiment is one from Inkylicious, and I use it for weddings, anniversaries and valentines too! I added some faux stitching to finish it off and a punched flower and leaves.
Right, I've got my waders and I am off to Miss Di's snippet playground to see if I can help with the Ark Building project. There is a roll over week with extra special candy for anyone who enters three times, too. Hopefully I will get round to another couple of entries. Thanks for looking!
P.S. If you are interested Meg has put four of the songs she has written on sound cloud and you can find them by clicking on the picture on the right.

I'm back!

I can't believe it has been over a week since I posted! I have been a bit lacking in the mojo department, and that last week of the half term at school was really busy, including a twilight course, Staff meeting, valentine disco and Governors meeting, all after the school day finished. Needless to say I needed to switch off, and I spent most of Sunday reading (and finishing) a book that I had fallen asleep with several times during the week!
On Monday we were invited to the local Council Chambers where Meg was presented with a copy of the book in which her short story has been published (Proud Mum and Dad moment!).

 Today we decided to take a trip to Dearne Valley and RSPB reserve at Old Moor. We were lucky to have some sun and we saw plenty of birds. It was lovely to get some fresh air and exercise!

 As you can see the sun shone this morning and the blue sky was wonderful! It was a little less bright as the day went on, but we enjoyed watching the shovellers .

 This was a rare moment when their heads were above the water and we could see those magnificent beaks. Most of the time we had this view!

 There were still lots of berries in the hedgerows, but most were past their best now.

They still provided some lovely colour though.
Hope you enjoyed the photos. I will be back soon with some cards hopefully. I am still lacking in ideas, but hopefully a bit of pinterest surfing should sort me out!
Thanks for looking!

Dad's Birthday

Last time I went to see my Dad he had been having a good look through his handmade cards from the past few years. His favourites were his eightieth birthday card (post here showing each of the panels I made for it) and the second card in this post. He likes a scene, lol! So I set to work on this year's birthday card, as it is his birthday tomorrow...

I stamped the scene in Archival Black before dusting with Memento Bahama Blue, Danube Blue and Adirondack Butterscotch inks. The rocks in the foreground are coloured with distress markers(Shades of Brown and grey), the cabin too(Brushed Corduroy). All stamps are from Stampscapes except the birds, which is an Inkylicious stamp. Do those colours make it look tropical? Dad is more of a Lake District fan than warmer climes!
With all those colours beginning with B I had to enter it into Allsorts this week, as that is their theme!
Thanks for looking, and I hope you stay warm and dry with all these storms!

Scary! My Art Journal - a work in progress

I am taking the plunge and sharing with you my first ventures into art journalling. I am not really sure if I know what I am doing or not, but it was a good excuse to try out my portfolio pastels! I haven't written anything - I know that writing is a part of the process, so I will add words, but I quite like what I have done so far and don't want to spoil it!!! If you have any suggestions please let me know!

 I am reasonably pleased with this first one. I like the way the colours blended when I used my water brush on the pastels.

This second one didn't turn out at all as I had imagined it, and I am still not sure I like it. I might have another go and start with the tree. I was inspired by this art, but I think my colours are too bright and not blended enough. I also need to think about using stamps, stencils and paints too!
Thanks for looking!

Wings, fantasy and fiction at Stamping Sensations

This Month at Stamping Sensations we have a theme of Wings, Fantasy and Fiction. I had a big pile of paper coloured with a mixture of sprays - Dylusions, Adirondack Colour washes and Crafty Notions creative colour sprays. These seemed the perfect backdrop to some butterflies and a lovely sentiment from Inkylicious. Stamps in the background are also from inkylicious  stamped in Brilliance Starlight Black.

This month we are being sponsored by Crafty Devils, and this is the wonderful prize they are offering.

Just think of all the super goodies you could get with that! Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the fabulous inspiration from my lovely teamies. I am really looking forward to seeing all your fabulous creations. Thanks for looking!

Steve's Birthday card

It was Steve's Birthday yesterday, so here is the card I made him. He loves Ducks, so this Crafty Individuals stamp was a must buy! I stamped it in archival black on silk art card and coloured with distress markers and dusted with distress inks. The background paper on the base card was sprayed with a combination of Adirondack, dylusions and crafty notions sprays. I stamped the grass (inkylicious) with Memento Olive Grove and put faux stitching round the edge with a Gelly Roll pen. I'm taking this to Di's snippet playground as the mulberry paper and the sentiment circle were snippets from my snippet mountain, as was the silk art card that the main image was stamped on.
 Hope you are all managing to stay warm and dry. Here it has rained rather a lot (no playtimes at all today!) and we had some decent sized snowflakes a couple of times, but nothing settled, much to my classes annoyance! Right, better go and get on. I've had a headache for a couple of days and I think only good sleep will cure it, so I am having an early night.
Thanks for looking!

Happy Burn's Night and Rudolf Day!

Hi there! Well, the 25th January came round very quickly didn't it? I have been busy doing the Big Garden Birdwatch and making a Hot Marmalade Pudding for our Burn's Night celebrations tonight at a friend's house. It is my turn to provide pudding. I have spent ages trying to get hold of a Drambuie miniature to make the custard with, but haven't found one. Should have tried at Christmas or in Scotland!
Whilst it is in the steamer I have been having a play and made two cards for Rudolf Day over on Sarn's Blog, so here they are.

and here are some 'closer-ups'.

The image on this one is a digi from Doodle Dragon Studios, the base card is stamped with Inky Doodles backgrounds 2 and the poinsettia is a Marianne designs die. The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.

My second card is a one layer card stamped with Inkylicious stamps and a sentiment from woodware. I added various glitter glues, although you can only really see the red here. All inks used on both were by memento.
If you haven't done the Big Garden Birdwatch there is still time, as tomorrow is eligible too. Not as many unusual visitors this year for us as last, but that could be down to the snow we had last year. About half an hour after I finished we got a pair of black caps, coal tits and blue tits, which were noticeable by their absence earlier! The seasons certainly are out of kilter this year, as we saw hundreds of Catkins on the way home from shopping this morning - at least 4 weeks early. Our daffodils are a few inches tall too.
Hope you have had a productive day and you have managed to avoid the hail storm we had earlier. Half past two looked more like half past six here, it was so dark, and the hailstones were marble size rather than pea size!
Thanks for looking!

Maple leaves

Here is another of those beautiful Nicecrane images from the Incredible Jessie Willcox collection. I loved the blue dress contrasting with the autumn leaves and so layered the image on snippets of copper and blue papers and mounted on a card base. This had been dusted and stamped with the Inkylicious maple leaves in Kaleidacolor Autumn leaves ink. The sentiment is from Inky Doodles. I am off to Miss Di's snippet playground with this one. Hope it is a bit drier than it is here - might need a hot toddy to keep me going! Steve went out to fill the bird feeders in time for this weekend's big garden Birdwatch, and it was rain that hurt! Great big spots that were cold and blown at you with force!
I also needed another thank you card for a male, so I used the larger of the maple leaf stamps and Kaleidacolor Creole Spice.

The Sentiment is from Chocolate Baroque and fit perfectly in the stripe where I put the masking tape. This ended up less clean and simple than I'd intended - another 'save' where my fingertips had left their little smudges! I do love this ink pad!
Thanks for looking!

Playing with Dylusions

I took the plunge and bought the latest dylusions colours with my Christmas money, mainly because they were in a set and less money that way.
I've sprayed loads of bits of paper, but so far only managed to make two into cards! It was loads of fun, though!!!

This first card has now reached it's destination, so I can post it. As well as the Dylusions I used memento inks in teal zeal, grape jelly and lilac posies. All stamps are from Inkylicious. The button has been in my stash for so long (Nearly ten years at a guess!) I loved how well it went with the colours.

On this second one I also used a dylusions stencil and a creative expressions mask, black and white pen and a bit of card candy for the flower centre. This is the same Inkylicious daisy stamp as on the card above. Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments. I will be round to visit as soon as I can. At the moment I am writing posts at the weekend and scheduling / publishing them to space them out.

Stamping Sensations mid month inspiration

Welcome! It is time for a bit of mid-month inspiration at Stamping Sensations. I have made another card using the incredible Jessie Wilcox images from Nicecrane. I love them because they are such delightful images of children reading and take me back to my childhood. I had an Andy Pandy fancy dress outfit very much like the one this child is wearing (but blue and white)!

Mrs A said my last card using these gorgeous images reminded her of Milly-Molly-Mandy, which took me right back! I read them all! Does this one remind you of anyone or a book character? I used the delicate vine stamp to add some interest to the backing paper and used scraps of various papers to matte and layer.

Over the next few months our lovely DT are going to feature some of their favourite cards and projects on the challenge blog that they have made over the years. This month it is my turn, so here it is.

Back in August I created this card after seeing some amazing sunsets whilst on holiday in Wales.(See my post here)  Meg persuaded me to make a tutorial for it on youtube, which she filmed and edited for me, and you can find it here.

Ink duster tutorial #2

There is still plenty of time to get your entries in for this months challenge. We are really enjoying seeing your superb cards featuring ribbons, buttons and bows. Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments