Rudolf Day for May

I can't believe it is the end of May already! Every Month on the 25th I am trying to join in with Sarn's Rudolf day by making 2 cards ready for Christmas. This month I have gone with Christmas trees of a more ornate nature. This is the Inkylicious Christmas tree flourish in the small size. I also used the damask background on all the panels. The side panels are stamped and dusted in Bundled Sage DI and the main panel is Tea Dye for the background and vintage photo for the tree.

For my second I added a panel in Aged Mahogany DI to go with the bundled sage and Tea dye. I also stamped the base card with Holly Panel in Tea Dye DI. I edged the main panel by using the edge of the tree. Dots of liquid pearls in platinum pearl, Gold pearl and avocado finished it off.

Do Pop over to Sarn's blog and take a look at her Christmas cards for this month. She has made some real beauties again.
As I used up several snippets of silk art card to make these two, I am also taking them to the playground for Miss Di's snippet challenge.
Thanks for looking!

That Tree Again!

 I had another play with the Inkylicious Willow tree and lots of ink! The background paper was made with Adirondack colour washes in eggplant, denim, stream, lettuce and butterscotch. I made the background ages ago and have nearly finished using the pile of papers I made with just a few sprays! I over-stamped the paper with Hero Arts Silhouette Grass stamp and Inkylicious French style Script . I also used some sequin waste with my ink dusters and Adirondack eggplant ink.

Then I took an arch die (Once upon a stamp) and cut a shape from silk art card. I dusted this with memento inks in Grape Jelly, Bahama blue, Teal Zeal, with some crushed olive DI at the bottom - why I didn't use the same Adirondack inks as the washes I used for the background, I am not sure!
The willow tree was stamped with memento Tuxedo black, and the glitter added once it was all dry. I wasn't sure if this pale green glitter would work, but I think it does. The Willow Tree will be available soon! If you want a good look at all of the gorgeous stamps that Inkylicious produce, on 8th June they will be at Stamp Magic, Doncaster, or if you can't wait you could visit the website!
I have broken up for half term today, so I am looking forward to some rest and relaxation, although I have my reports to write so it isn't all fun! I am going to try and have a good look around blogland too, as I feel I have neglected you all over the past few weeks.
Thanks for looking and have a wonderful evening!

A mid month reminder at Stamping Sensations!

It is time for a mid month reminder at Stamping Sensations and time to reveal the mystery prize! I will keep you waiting a bit longer though, as I want to tell you about my card!  I have had a bit of a play with my H2Os and some washes/sprays I bought so many years ago I can't remember who made them! The stamp is from Sheena Douglass, embossed and painted with H2Os. You can see a bit of the sheen from this angle

I finished it off with a piece of lace and a biow made from Sari ribbon. I am quite pleased with the results - must play with my H2Os again soon!
Okay, now I will show you the prize!

 Loads of goodies! Do pop over to the challenge blog to take a look at all the fab creations my lovely DT buddies have made, and don't forget to enter your creations in the anything goes challenge.
Thanks for looking!

Owl be thanking you!

Thanks for all the lovely messages wishing me Happy Birthday last week. I spent a bit of my birthday money on this gorgeous stamp by Little Claire. I made a quick one layer card with it to say thank you to my friend Sarah for the money, and for buying lots of my cards too. The sentiment is from Inkylicious and the background is dusted with memento grape jelly, lilac posies and dandelion yellow. The image is stamped with versafine black. I don't think it looks quite so grainy in real life!

On the subject of owls I got a lovely treat a couple of days before my birthday. We had organised for a company called Hawks of Steele to come in to school to bring owls to the year 2 class who are learning about nocturnal animals. Knowing how much I love owls I got invited through to have my photo taken.

Isn't he a beauty? He was so friendly too. Not sure if it was this one or one of the others that was in Harry Potter (as an extra!)  You can read more about the wonderful work Hawks of Steele do on their website.
I will leave you with  a photo of  belated birthday flowers given to me on Thursday. I have never thought of hyacinths as a cut flower before, but they look and smell amazing!

Thanks for looking!

A Bluebell Walk

On Sunday we went for a stroll around Bunny Old Wood, famous for it's bluebells in Nottinghamshire. Here are a few photos, some by me and some by Meg.

As well as bluebells there were lots more wild flowers.

 Red Campion,

 Greater Stitchwort

and Arum Lilies.

The hawthorn hedges were dripping with blossom too. Thanks for looking!

Anything Goes at Stamping Sensations

It is the first Sunday of May so time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations.

 It is an 'anything goes'  theme this month, so thought it would be the perfect opportunity to use some newish stamps! For my first card I used some paper that I had sprayed with dylusions and stamped crafty Individuals CI -182 in Gesso. I added a snippet border (CI -147) stamped in versamark and brushed with gold mica powder. The owl stamp (CI -225 ) was stamped in archival black onto silk art card and coloured with distress markers before cutting out and matting onto an embossed panel rubbed with treasure gold sapphire using 3d glue.This too was from my snippet drawer.

For my second card I stamped the base card with versamark using the border stamp CI - 147 and rubbed over with pan pastels. I then aged it a little by dusting around the edges with Tea Dye distress ink. I added a snippet panel sprayed with irridescent ink and some lace. The main image is CI - 387, stamped in archival black and coloured with distress markers. I mounted it on a couple of snippets and put together with 3d glue.
So, what is the prize this month?

We have a mystery prize so you will just have to keep an eye the challenge blog to find out!
Do pop over there and take a look at the fabulous creations my lovely teamies have created this month, too.

All you need to remember is that we are a stamping challenge and your focal element must be a stamped image, you can enter up to three times and combine your entry with other challenges.

I am off to enjoy my birthday with a walk in the woods looking at Bluebells, happy in the knowledge I don't have work tomorrow! Don't you love Bank Holidays?!
I have just realised that there are several snippets on both of these cards, so I am off to Di's Crafty Snippet playground with them. Will be back soon to share photos from my walk x

Pastel colours

 I needed a birthday card for a colleague and I was feeling a bit uninspired so I took the layout I had for this card and adapted it with different colours and stamps. I stamped the base card with one of the Inkylicious twinchie stamps, a daisy, in spun sugar, tumbled glass and shaded lilac Distress ink. I then dusted some silk art card with the same colours. I stamped the main image (woodware) and sentiment (Inkylicious) in Memento Grape Jelly ink.

When it was all dry, I added stickles and dots of gel pen to the flowers/ seed heads.
Thanks for looking. Sorry I haven't been around much in blog land. I am looking forward to a long weekend and some surfing time! 

A couple of snowmen with snippets

 Here are my cards for this month's Rudolf Day and this week's Snippet playground. Both feature a digi which I think was a freebie from Cuddly Buddly ages ago. Not sure it is still available. I coloured it using promakers. I found some snippets of Christmas papers and trimmed them into a square. I then added some stitching and dots with gelly roll pens. Unfortunately, I managed to get three red dots on the side of my hand (I am left handed and always smudging things!) which I transferred to a random place on the base card, hence the random dots everywhere! IRL the colours match way better than in this photo!

I managed to do the faux stitching on the second without mishaps and left it at that, lol! Hope the girls are all okay in the playground. It is a while since my last visit. I will take a big bag of toffees to share. So pleased Parsnip has got over his embarrassment of the rabbit ears!
Do pop over to Sarn's blog and Di's blog to take a look at their fab creations.
Thanks for looking!

Puffins!

I realised that I haven't posted Meg's Birthday card yet, and luckily it has birds on it, Puffins to be exact - great for a couple of challenges!

The rocky ledge stamp is from Stampscapes, the puffin is from Crafty Individuals (CI - 349) and the grass, flying birds and posts are Inkylicious stamps. I created the background for the scene using my ink dusters and a mixture of memento and distress inks, and coloured the puffins and ledge with distress markers. I also drew the shadows of the posts with an antique linen Distress marker. Although you can't really tell in the photo, I used diamond stickles for the breaking waves. Meg loved it. Puffins are such wonderful birds, and one of her favourites.
Here is a close up

I am entering this into Allsorts challenge for this week where the theme is Birds and feathers, Fashionable stamping Challenge, where the theme is Flying things and My Time to Craft where the theme is Up, up and away.I am also entering this into the Crafty Individuals challenge for April where the theme is Nature's Beauty
Thanks for looking and I hope you had a good Easter. Back to work for me tomorrow. 

Inkylicious Willow Trees

If you went to Ally Pally and stopped by the Inkylicious stall you may well have seen this gorgeous tree stamp. I love it! It is so delicate and beautiful. I have been playing with it for a few days, and I can see it will be used lots! For my first card I ink dusted the base card in dandelion, lilac posies and tuxedo black Memento ink. I then did the same with a silk art card panel, masking off a moon/sun. I stamped the tree and added spots of quickie glue to all the buds on the branches before sprinkling with irridescent glitter. Here is a close up.

I then stamped delicate vine in black onto the base card to form a sort of frame adding some punched flowers with liquid pearl centres. I think it needs a sentiment top left, but can't decide which one to use yet! All suggestions welcome!

My second card is a one layer card. I masked off a panel that I dusted with Adirondack inks in mountain rose, slate, black and denim, masking a moon. I removed the masks before stamping the tree and added spots of star dust stickles. With this sky I was trying to recreate a sky we had during that smoggy week we had at the beginning of April. I may well try that sky again with a pinker sun next time.
If you need this tree, keep an eye on the Inkylicious Website or look out for Inkylicious at Stamp Magic, Doncaster Dome on 8th June 2014 or Summer Crafting, Doncaster Race course on 12th and 13th July.
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments!

Warning! You may put on weight just looking!

When I asked Meg what she wanted to do for her birthday she said 'Karate', so as her birthday falls today we are both going to her regular Thursday class. We aren't going empty handed though...
Meet the Banana Cupcake...

...a light banana sponge topped with cream cheese frosting, dried banana chips and a drizzle of toffee sauce! New for me, next is the Rolo Cupcake...

 ...a chocolate sponge with a secret caramel centre, topped with chocolate and caramel frosting and a rolo! Adapted from this recipe( I left out the chopped rolos from the cake mix and added 25g more flour). Only taking 11 of these with us as we had to test one! Here are the rest though...

Finally we have the 'Death by Chocolate Easter cake' which carries the warning 'Consume at your own risk!'

This cake is being raffled off to raise funds for the Karate Club, and has already raised about £30! Hoping for a few more ticket sales when they see it for real tonight!
I have inhaled rather a lot of icing sugar and all I can smell is chocolate - can sugar get into your blood stream through inhalation?! I hope not!!!
Right, I'd better go and finish cleaning up - enjoy the rest of your day and thanks for looking!

Ivy wall playtime

I've had a bit of a play with Inkylicious Footprints on our hearts and  Ivy Wall. I began by stamping it in Memento black onto silk art card, along with the sentiment. I coloured it with distress markers (rusty hinge, antique linen, peeled paint, pine needles, crushed olive and weathered wood) and a water brush. I should probably have used an archival ink, as there was a little bleeding of colour from the black ink, but it isn't obvious. I dusted the rest of the panel with rusty hinge distress ink and ink dusters and popped it on the front of a 5" x 7" card.
I am entering this card into a few challenges
Sister act Challenge - Anything goes
Vintage stamping challenges - Anything goes
Lexi's creations - Focus on the sentiment
Thanks for looking!