Lisa's Craft Garden

Embellish It With The Stampman

2012-01-27T12:00:00.004Z

Hello lovely Crafters. Another week nearly done and another year older for me. Yes it's my Birthday today-yikes...how old!!!!

It's also time for a new theme over at the Stampman Challenge Blog and this week we are asking you to "Embellish It" and that's anything you like so we're hoping to see all sorts of lovely projects.

For my DT project I made a background with Dusty Concord and Rusty Hinge Distress Inks by splatting them on my craft mat, spraying with water and then swooshing the card round in the ink. I daubed the dried card with some starburst stains for my first bit of bling.

The panels of the butterfly have been clear embossed to create a tile effect and I stamped the butterfly again with the distress inks onto Shrink plastic for the little ribbon embellishment.

Some left over card made the strip at the bottom which has been embellished with some card candy.

Don't forget to pop over to see what the rest of the team have created and as always there is a £10 Voucher on offer for the winner to spend at the new Stampman online shop.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend whatever you are up too.

WOYWW 138

2012-01-25T16:24:00.005Z

Afternoon lovely Crafters and WOYWW friends. I hope I find you well this Wednesday.

My desk today is back in my Craft Room. You may well wonder why it changes from week to week. Well, as most Crafters I know, I take over most of the house when I'm crafting and sometimes if it's really cold I craft at the dining table and then when it's sunny I prefer my Craft Room as it gets all the afternoon sunshine. Today has been a sunny day, or partly, so you find me in my lovely room surrounded by all my stash.

It's been a colouring day. I treated myself last week to the new Polkadoodles Pretty Sweet CD which is full of cute girls. It seemed a better option and than buying lots of stamps and my daughter loves them too so we can print off the Digistamps and colour them to our hearts content. I'm not generally a cutie type of person but there are times when you just need them!!

This is the first card I've made and I was especially pleased with the punched flowers after being inspired by the very talented Jules who makes these all the time.

Pop over to see the Desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE to find out what WOYWW is all about if you still haven't discovered why Wednesday is the most important day of the week.

Before I shuffle off and get on with some desk hopping I thought I'd leave you with a photo I managed to snap out of my craft room window last week of those spectacular sunsets we had.

Has any one been lucky enough to see the Northern Lights this week? I was desperate to see them on Monday when it was clear but my Hubby very kindly pointed out that I needed to look North after I kept saying I couldn't see anything out on the window. We face East-West!!!!! I had to go and stand in the garden but still didn't see anything.

Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW 137

2012-01-18T11:47:00.003Z

Morning dear crafters and lovely WOYWW friends. I'm not going to trot out the usual "hasn't the week gone quick" as we all know it has and it's far more interesting just to get onto desk stuff. If you want to join in the fun of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, then get yourself over to see our Desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE.

I've spent the last few weeks indulging in my first love of scrapbooking. The creative juices have been a bit sludgy and each layout has taken me days, I must be the slowest scrapper in the world, still I'm enjoying myself and that's what it's all about isn't it?

On the work in progress on my desk I've had a go at creating my own paper with paints and inks. I've been enjoying the new Scrapbook Magazine Scrap 365 and being from the Craft Stamper stable there are always interesting articles about getting messy, which inspired me to do just that with this one. I've been trying to find some papers to match and am just at the stage of cutting them up and seeing where it all goes!!

So that's me this week, it's been a funny old week, I hope the next one is a bit better, but for now I'm going to get a cup of tea and enjoy seeing what everyone else has been up too.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Lovely Winter Walk

2012-01-15T17:34:00.004Z

Afternoon lovely Crafters. I hope I find you well this Sunday evening. Haven't we been blessed with gorgeous weather here in the UK for once. I love the cold, crisp, bright days.

We got out at last for a lovely walk in the beautiful countryside we have on our doorstep this morning and I thought I'd just share a couple of photos with you. The light was lovely, although we didn't have the sparkling sunshine of yesterday.

It's already frosty again and the fog is coming down so hopefully we'll manage a few more days of proper Winter before the wind and rain returns.

Before I sign off, I know I'm not alone in having trouble in leaving comments and I've just found out that after thinking I'd fixed the problem, I haven't, so I apologise if I've left any funny looking comments over the last few days. I've now switched to Chrome and that seems to be working at the moment, fingers crossed.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you've had a lovely weekend.

Seeing Red at The Stampman

2012-01-13T12:00:00.000Z

Hello lovely crafters. I hope your week has gone well and you are winding down for the weekend. For once the forecast here in the UK sounds OK, cold and bright, my type of weather. We might get that walk in we've been promising ourselves since Christmas.

We have really enjoyed seeing all your favourite creations of 2011 over on The Stampman Challenge Blog. There are some amazing things but now it's time for the first challenge of 2012 and to start you off the very talented Vix has asked us to see red. Either lots or just a touch, it's up to you.

I have been organising my new stamps that Santa very kindly brought and so needed a new book to store them in so I decided to make the cover for my DT project.

It's the time of year when we start thinking about hearts so I decided to make a grungepaper heart that was inked with Red Brick Distress ink, run through the cuttlebug with a swirl folder and then sprayed with mica powder. The second heart was stamped and embossed with iridescent embossing powder.

The layers were stamped using various Aspects of Design and Tim Holtz stamps in Red Brick and archival ink and the writing was computer generated and then traced using my new light box. Yes Santa was very kind!!

The rest of the Team have created some gorgeous things so don't forget to pop over and check them all out. Jill is offering a £10 Voucher to spend in her online shop as always so lets see all your red creations.

Thanks for stopping by. I'm off to catch up with some blog hopping. For some reason Mr Blogger seems to have changed the Comments Box on some blogs and it's taken me two days to figure out how to access them, yes I know, but I've figured it out now so have some catching up to do.

Have a great Friday and enjoy the weekend whatever you are up too.

WOYWW 136

2012-01-11T12:21:00.006Z

Well, here we are at Wednesday and time to share those workdesks again. I thought that with a new year the weeks might slow down a bit, no chance of that, I only seem to have blinked and Wednesday is here again. Although it seems more like March than January. Isn't it mild? I had a look at the garden yesterday and there are crocuses out, roses from last year and a red Salvia that has flowered continuously since last June!! These poor plants will be so confused if we actually get any temperatures that look more like Winter.

Anyway, I digress, here is my desk today.

I come into the showing off category this week!!!! Santa brought me a glass mat and I love it, no more swapping mats around to do different things. I catch up with you all eventually, I know Julia has been shouting glass mat praises for months!! I've been making cards with one of the gorgeous Polkadoodles CD's on it. Lots of cutting out involved but it's been quite therapeutic to sit quietly and snip away listening to the radio.
Here's one of the cards I've made.

If you want to join in with all this What's On your Workdesk Wednesday desk swapping then pop over to see our Desk Headmistress, Julia HERE.

Just before I go and make some lunch and settle down for some serious desk hopping I thought I'd just share our Christmas cake with you. You may remember these snowmen from a previous post. Well they danced around our cake happily and now that the cake has all been eaten, yes we are cakeaholics in this house, they have been safely put away for next year. As you can see my writing piping needs some practise although the piping round the bottom was done by my 10 year old daughter!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Wednesday.

WOYWW 135-A mess....Nothing New ThereThen!!

2012-01-04T18:36:00.004Z

The first WOYWW of 2012 and a very Happy New Year to you all. I'm sorry I was missing in action last week, I completely forgot it was Wednesday until someone mentioned it about 10pm and by then it was far too late to post my desk, not that there was anything on it other than a pile of ironing that didn't get done before Christmas and you wouldn't have been interested in that I know!!

Normal service has been resumed this week though and here is my desk as of 9.30am this morning.

I'm in full card making mode to restock my supplies before other things crop up and my beloved Cuttlebug is getting a good work out. I've been looking out at driving rain all day so it's been prefect to be cocooned with the radio on.

If you haven't yet got yourself involved with the weekly ritual that has become What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday then pop over to see our esteemed Head Deskmistress, Julia, HERE and get desk hopping.

Short and sweet from me today. I need to get round and catch up with you all. It seems ages since I've had a chance to blog hop.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are all staying safe in this wild weather.

The Stampman 3rd Annual Awards

2011-12-30T16:50:00.005Z

Evening folks. I hope you've all had a great Christmas and are enjoying some rest and relaxation now that all the hectic time is over. I've been totally confused over what day it is being out of normal routines which is a lovely feeling and have been busy doing Christmassy things like playing games and doing jigsaws with no crafting in sight!!

Jill is holding her Annual End Of Year Awards over on The Stampman Challenge blog and has asked the team to share their favourite project of 2011.

I chose my Nightime project which was one of those that just evolved. I had no real plan in my head but it just grew into something that seemed to work and that for once I was reasonably happy with.

We'd love you to share your favourite project from the last 12 months with us. It doesn't have to be something that was created for a Stampman challenge, it can be anything that you've made that has become your favourite for any reason. Just up load it onto the challenge site HERE and you could be in line for one of Jill's amazing prizes. She is going to select the winner from random who will then receive a £30 voucher to spend in the online shop. There will also be several runner up prizes. All the details can be found on the challenge site.

All that remains is for me to wish everyone a Very Happy New Year and I'd just like to thank all my lovely followers for your continued support and encouragement over the last 12 months. I feel truly blessed to have made so many friends, some real and many only in cyberland and I look forward to many more chats and laughs over the coming year. You are an amazing bunch and you never fail to brighten my day.

WOYWW 133 Christmas Has Arrived

2011-12-21T14:57:00.004Z

Afternoon lovely Crafty Friends and WOYWWers. It's time for a last nosey at all your desks before the big day arrives and on the Winter Solstice too. If you have just come out of hibernation and have missed all this WOYWW fun then get yourself over to our DeskMistress Julia, HERE and join in all the fun. It's addictive.

I love this week full of preparation and expectation, it's my favourite time. Lots of cooking and wrapping with Christmas songs on the radio and of course food shopping, not looking forward to that bit.

Here's my desk today with those last minute pressies still being made. I can't tell you who the box is for but I can tell you it started life as a persil tablet box!! I've got some lovely goodies to put inside.

I was lucky enough to be the very happy recipient of some of Lunch Lady Jan's Christmas bunting and here it is gracing my Craft Room. I can't get in there to craft at the minute, it seems to have been taken over by Santa!! but I love seeing the bunting hanging there.

And this last photo is for Jozarty. She asked what our favourite traditions are and one of ours is putting all the baubles we have collected and made over the years on the tree. A lot of them are handmade by both Grandma and DD and they all find a space. We also buy a new decoration each every year so as you can see it's very full but I absolutely love seeing it twinkling in the corner and especially love how the lights shine on the wall behind. Magic!!

I would just like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a very Peaceful and Healthy New Year and special wishes to Julia, the lady who brings us altogether on a Wednesday and who we have to thank for many new friendships.

A New Technique For The Stampman Challenge

2011-12-16T12:28:00.005Z

Afternoon lovely bloggers. Well, just a week to go now until the big day. It's been soooo cold here this week but at least we missed the winds. We were just reminiscing back to last year, can you believe we were under mountains of snow. Doesn't look like it'll be a white Christmas this year, I've checked the forecast and it looks like it'll be mild and damp!!

Over at The Stampman Challenge our lovely teamie, Sue, is asking you to think about a new technique you haven't tried before so if you want a break from all the preparations why not have a go. Jill is offering a £10 voucher to spend at The Stampman for the winner.

I struggled to think of something, as you know I love playing with all sorts of things, but then I remembered seeing a demo somewhere recently where they were stamping with alcohol inks. It appears you can stamp with anything if you try hard enough. Anyway, I'd never tried this.

I made a background by putting the inks on my craft mat with some blending solution and then slooshing some glossy card round in it. The I stamped with the gold mixative and sure enough it works brilliantly. Just for a laugh I then tried with the steam alcohol ink and that worked too although it spread out when it hit the blending solution on the paper but I quite liked that.

The dragonflies were stamped and I then tried colouring them with promarkers which did work OK. Vellum wings were added to the big dragonfly and some stickles.

I inked up some pages from an old book with the alcohol inks and pleated them across the bottom on the page, something else I've never done before.

The rest of the design team have created some beautiful projects with techniques I need to try now so don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog for a peek.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely weekend, whatever you are up too.

WOYWW 132 & Something To Make You Think

2011-12-14T09:07:00.004Z

Morning lovely Bloggers. I hope I find you well this Wednesday morning and if not I send you wishes for a speedy recovery. Here we are with one more week of workdesks before the big day, can you believe it? I have to admit that now the decorations are up I'm feeling more festive but it still seems like 5 minutes since the Summer holidays!!

I can't wait to see what the rest of you are up to in WOYWW land this week, what's the betting that most desks are full of Christmas preparation? Mine certainly is.

I'm still in Christmas card mode although there are some finished ones now and one has actually been delivered, yes, I know...amazing. My goal is to finish them today, write these and the bought ones and post them tomorrow, well, that's the plan anyway.

If you want to see what the rest of the WOYWWer's are up to pop over to see our Desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE.

I recently came across this little gem and have been meaning to share it with you so as we are approaching a time of year when we tend to end up running around and getting stressed I thought today was the perfect moment. I know time is precious and you don't want to read reams of typing but please do, it's well worth it.

When things in your life seem too much to handle, when 24 hours in the day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee.....

A professor stood before his philosophy class with some items in front of him.

He wordlessly picked up a very large, empty mayonnaise jar and filled it with golf balls before asking his class if it was full. They agreed it was.

He then picked up some pebbles and poured them into the jar, shaking it so that they rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar which of course filled up all the remaining spaces. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students all agreed it was now definitely full.

The professor then produced two cups of coffee and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now", said the Professor "I want you to recognise that this jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things, your health, your family, your children, your friends and your favourite passions, things that if everything else is lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.

The sand is everything else, the small stuff.

If you put the sand in the jar first there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children, take time for health checkups, take your partner out to dinner, play 18 holes. There will always be time to clean the house and mend the shed roof.

Set your priorities. Take care of the golf balls first, the rest is just sand."

"But what about the coffee?" One of the students asked.

The Professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked that. It just goes to show that how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee."

And with that I'll say thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your week. Don't forget the golf balls and the coffee!!!

A Few H20 Samples

2011-12-12T20:01:00.006Z

Evening all. I hope you all wrapped up safe and warm and out of this wet and windy night. I can hear the rain lashing the windows as I type but it's all snuggly here with Christmas songs on the Ipod and the tree lights twinkling. Yes, I think Christmas has arrived at The Craft Garden, although Christmas cards are STILL being made!!!! I seem to be making a real job out of it this year and keep finding other things to do, naughty!!!

Anyway, as I haven't done anything else crafty over the weekend I thought I'd share some of the cards I made for Sheena Douglass' shows on Create and Craft last Friday. Not many were actually shown on the programmes and as I made quite a few it seems a shame not to share them with you , my blogging friends, instead.

The first one is gold embossed with gold sparkly WOW powder and painted on black card. I love this effect, it's a bit like stained glass.

This was strips of air dry clay with Sheena's fern stamps pressed in and dried. I then painted them with the H20's and rubbed mica powder over to highlight them. The backing paper was made by stamping with paint using the same stamps.

The last one is the violets from the "Wouldn't It Be Lovely" set of stamps painted with the H20's. I made the backing paper by just splodging colour onto watercolour paper.

Right, I'd better go and get those Christmas cards finished so that I can post them tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely evening.

Golden Christmas Pud Recipe

2011-12-07T11:48:00.002Z

I took this recipe from the Good Food Magazine some years ago and it says it serves 10-12 people so if you want a smaller one I would halve the quantities.

3 tbsp golden syrup
227g can pineapple rings-drained and chopped
grated zest 1 orange
2oz toasted flaked almonds
2oz dried cranberrries
2oz dried apricots
2oz raisins
4oz freshly grated carrot
6oz butter softened
6oz dark muscovado sugar
3 eggs
6oz self raising flour
1tsp cinnamon
2oz fresh white breadcrumbs

1) Butter 3 pint pudding basin and spoon in golden syrup. Put quarter chopped pineapple and cranberries, a few flaked almonds and a little orange zest into the syrup in the bottom of the basin.

2) In a separate bowl mix the rest of the pineapple, orange zest, almonds, cranberries, raisins, apricots and carrot.

3) Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well, then fold in flour, cinnamon and breadcrumbs.

4) Stir fruit mixture into egg mixture and mix well. Pour into pudding bowl and level the top.

5) If microwaving, cover loosely with cling film and microwave on medium for 20 minutes. (Our microwave wasn't a very high powered on so I found it took about 40 minutes checking every 10 mins or so)

6) Or if steaming in a pan of boiling water, butter a piece of greaseproof paper and fold a pleat in the middle. Put over pudding and secure tightly with string . Cover with pleated piece of foil.
Steam for 3 hours checking water level every 30 mins and topping up if necessary.

7) Run a knife around bowl and invert onto a serving plate.

8) Store in a cool dark place for 2 days or freeze for up to 1 month.

WOYWW 131

2011-12-07T11:07:00.005Z

Morning everyone. Another Wednesday closer to Christmas. I think I need to hide in a dark corner for a while and calm down. The weeks are just flying by in a blur and I don't feel at all ready for the big day. How are all your preparations going? I bet you are all organised.

Another WOYWW and today there is no crafting happening yet....... Christmas cards HAVE to be made later, or at least the important ones. I think I may have to resort to bought ones for those distant relations that have no idea I craft!!

Instead, there is cake make happening, or rather there was at 9.15am when I took this photo. The cake is now out of the oven and smelling delicious. It's just a plain sponge but I make one every year for the Husband of a good friend who sells my cards in her shop as a thank you. It's his birthday on Saturday so that gives me tomorrow to decorate it.

Don't forget to share your desk with the rest of us by visiting the Head Deskmistress, Julia, HERE.

I must also share with you this exciting parcel that arrived this morning from the lovely ladies at the Just Traceys challenge. I was thrilled to win their recent sketch challenge with the LO of my dear Hubby enjoying the sunshine.

Just to prove that I have been busy creating and not just sitting with my feet up thinking about Christmas cards instead of making them, here's one of the cards I made for yet another up coming show on Create and Craft with Sheena this Friday. This time she asked us to play with the new Twinkling H20's and I've had a great time with them. I've had some of the old ones for years and used them to colour the odd butterfly and that was about all but to think about using them in different ways has been exciting. The new colours are beautiful. I think they will quickly become a firm favourite.

Apologies for the slightly out of focus photo!!!

I just clear embossed the tree, the beautiful colours didn't really need anything else.

For those lovely WOYWWer's who asked for the Christmas Pud recipe from last week, I'm going to do a separate post after this one so that I don't bore the rest of you to death with miles of typing to read.

Now, time for a cup of coffee and then those Christmas cards!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Wednesday.

The Stampman Challenge-An Ornament

2011-12-02T12:00:00.002Z

Hello everyone. How's your week been? I hope you all staying clear of these nasty bugs that are flying about at the minute and if not that you feel better really soon.

It's time for another challenge over at The Stampman and this time Mrs Stampman herself, Jill, has asked us to make an ornament. This can be anything from an altered piece to an ornament shaped card, so plenty of options to play with.

Here's my DT piece this time and as you can see I opted for a Christmas Wreath using the tattered Florals Die. It was a great way of reducing my pile of scraps and very easy to make.

My DD helped with the cutting of all the florals and then scrunching them up before adding a brad and spraying with mica powder to crinkle them further. I added some stickles glitter when they were dry and then stuck them on a doughnut of navy card, cut out by drawing round two plates.

I added some silver elegant Flourishes cut from another die for a bit more interest and a piece of oddment ribbon to hang it up with. It's now hanging on a cabinet in our lounge and looking very seasonal.

Jill is offering a £10 voucher to the winner to spend on her shiny new website so why not have a go. The rest of the DT have some gorgeous projects to give you more inspiration so don't forget to pop over to the Challenge blog and have a look.

Thanks for stopping by and have a really lovely weekend whatever you are up too.

WOYWW 130 and the biggest Christmas Pud in the World.

2011-11-30T09:11:00.000Z

Morning lovely Bloggers. Here we are at Wednesday again when it's time to share all those delicious workdesks that can be found all over the world on What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. If you don't know what I'm talking about where have you been? Pop over to see our Head Deskmistress, Julia, HERE to find out more.

Here is my mess of a desk today. It's early, hence the lights but as you can see the all important mug of tea has pride of place, next to that cup of peasoup looking liquid which is actually my paint water. Yes, I have nearly mixed them up before you ask!!!

I'm busy getting things done for the School Fayre on Saturday, why do I always decide it's a good idea to try and get another hundred things made three days before the Fayre? I really don't know why I give myself the extra pressure, but my paint fusion wall hangers have been selling like hot cakes lately so I wanted to get some more made before Saturday.

I thought I'd also share the finished Christmas Pud we made last Sunday. My Hubby says it's the biggest pudding he's ever seen. It is a much lighter pud than the traditional one, having no suet but lots of fruit like Apricots and pineapple instead. I also cooked it in the microwave. It only took 20 minutes compared with 6 hours in a steamer. No contest really. We've now cut it into three and put it in the freezer. I think it might well be christened before we get to the big day so I'll let you know how it tastes. It certainly smells good.

Lastly, just to answer so many of your questions last week, this little beauty is a Lantana. This was one of my cossetted plants in full flower in the greenhouse in the Summer.

It was really interesting to learn from my Australian friends that this plant is treated as an invasive weed there. The things we learn on a Wednesday!!

Well, that's me for today so thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Wednesday whatever you are up too.

Some Sparkly Love

2011-11-27T14:35:00.004Z

Afternoon lovely Bloggers. I hope you are all having a lovely weekend and haven't suffered any damage from the winds during the night if you live in the North of the UK. It banged around a lot here and blew the bins over but I think it always sounds worse than it actually is at night, especially as our bedroom faces due West so we get the full force of it on our windows. I put my head under the covers and I think that was the best place to be.

It's lovely and sunny today but the wind is freezing so I am going to make my Christmas puddings in a minute.

Before that I thought I'd just share another of my Sheena Douglas samples using the Luminarte Radiant Rain sprays and rub on foils. If you are interested in more ways to use these, there are some brilliant tutorials on Sheena's blog which are well worth checking out. You can find them here.

I sprayed some core-dinations paper with the pearl gold spray through the rose stencil and although it doesn't show very well in the photos, it just gives a subtle background on this lovely turquoise colour, one of my favourites.

I cut out the card and stuck it to these Heart chipboard shapes and inked the edges before adding the foils and some silver embossed swirls. The paper flowers were made from white cartridge paper edged with broken china distress ink and then sprayed with the pearl gold spray.

You may be able to spot it in real life on Sheena's shows on Create and Craft tomorrow. She is doing 4 shows, the first at 9am so don't forget to set your Sky Box if you are at work.

Right, I'd better get on with those puddings so thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday 129

2011-11-23T12:16:00.004Z

Afternoon folks. Here we are at Wednesday again which can only mean one thing, it's time to get those desk out again and bare all!!!!!

Well, not much happening on mine today I'm afraid. I have some lovely new stamps to play with which haven't made it out of the packets yet but that's about all.

I've been busy today doing Housework.... yes I know... a naughty word, but we were beginning to disappear under the dust and although I have a very understanding Hubby who never complains and would get the hoover out himself, I always feel guilty if he does.

I've also brought in my Lantanas to try and get them through the winter. I put them in the Conservatory last year and lost the lot so this year they have pride of place in my craft room so that I can nurture them.

I've shown you mine so lets see yours. Pop over to see our honourable leader, Julia HERE and get desk hopping. I will try and get round more desks than I did last week. Apologies if you stopped by here and I didn't manage to return the visit. DT work has just taken over lately.

Talking of which here's another of the projects I made for Sheena with the Luminarte sprays.
I've become totally addicted to doing canvases, everyone will be getting them for Christmas at this rate, and the sprays are great for adding some shimmer.

I stencilled the pale yellow painted background with white acrylic paint through a leaf stencil and then used a bigger leaf stencil to dab clear ink through so that I could clear emboss the stencilled shape. The sprays then picked out the leaf veins.

I added a Paint Fusion pine branch and cone and painted in the word and then stamped with bubble wrap and various swirls using the daubers as ink to add darker detail. They tend to just evolve and it's knowing when to stop, never easy!!!!! I hope I got it right.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your Wednesday.

More sparkly playing

2011-11-22T13:02:00.003Z

Hello lovely Bloggers. Did you see The Choir last night? I've only just stopped blubbing!!!! What brilliant TV and what courageous women. I hope Chris Evans succeeds in his quest to get their song released for Christmas.

I've also just been having a catch up with all the lovely things I've missed over the weekend while I've had my head buried in my craft stash and I apologise if I haven't managed to get round to everyone yet. I'll get there eventually.

Here's another of my Sheena Douglass DT samples. I had so many bits of paper and card sprayed, it was difficult to know where to start so I thought I'd stick to what I feel happiest with and do a scrapbook layout.

The blue card was sprayed with a Luminarte gold pearl radiant rain though a rose stencil. It shows up nicely but is very hard to photograph.

The circle was one of my first plays with the colours. I just sprayed them onto cartridge paper to see what colours I had and they made an interesting background that worked with the photo of one of my roses. I also sprayed the cuttlebugged title letters and the flowers.

If this was a layout I was keeping I would've added some journalling which I always feel is the most important part of doing a layout but as it wasn't I didn't!!!! Does that make sense?

Well, that's me for today so thank you for stopping by and I hope your Tuesday is going well so far.

Sheena Douglass Sneaky Peaks

2011-11-21T20:40:00.004Z

Evening folks. How has your Monday been? I hope you've all managed to shake off that horrible fog if you live in the UK. We are not used to inclement weather this Autumn are we?

I have been closeted all weekend making DT samples after a box of lovely goodies arrived last week from Sheena Douglass headquarters. It was like an early Christmas with lots of lovely Luminarte mica sprays and daubers, core'dinations card, various stencils and lovely foil rub ons and instructions to get messy.

I never need much persuasion to get messy and that is exactly what I got, getting very strange looks when I popped to the shops and handed over my money with sparkly green fingers!!!

Anyway, here is the first card I came up with.

I sprayed some thin watercolour card with lots of colour and then covered it with cling film and wrinkled it up before letting it dry. The mica sparkle settles into the wrinkles and makes a lovely background for stamping onto. I didn't want to cover up too much of it so kept the stamping simple colouring the image with a brown whisper pen and the moon with an orange one.

The flowers are embossed with Bark Wow powders, my favourite colour at the moment and then I sprayed some cuttlebug embossed card with matching colours and coloured my matting layers and ribbon with a promarker to match.

Sheena will be launching these sparkly lovelies on Create and Craft on 28th November and I shall be back tomorrow with some more sneaky peaks.

Thanks for stopping by. I'm off to enjoy the wondeful Garath Malone teaching those wonderful ladies to sing.

A New Challenge At The Stampman-Tim's Tags Inspiration

2011-11-18T14:25:00.003Z

Afternoon lovely Bloggers from a very dismal Yorkshire. We had amazing sunshine yesterday but today it's just grey and drizzly. No one day is ever the same at the minute is it?

It's time for a new challenge over at The Stampman and this week the lovely Brenda has asked us to be inspired by one of Tim's Christmas tags to produce anything we fancy, it can be a tag, card, altered project or anything else your creative juices can come up with. There are plenty of them so you should find something to inspire you.

I was inspired by this tag

but didn't want to make it Christmassy so went for Autumn colours instead.

I covered my tag with old music paper and then inked it with distress inks, using one of Tim's decorative edge dies as a mask. The Funky Flower was painted with Starburst Stains and Cosmic Shimmer mists. I cut it out and covered it with glossy accents.

Unfortunately I don't own a single one of Tim's metal embellishments so had to make my own by triple embossing with silver embossing powder. They are a bit rough round the edges and I would have preferred to use the proper thing, but hey ho, that's life.

Don't forget to have a look at what the rest of the Design Team have created, they are stunning.

As always we have a £10 voucher on offer for the winner to spend at The Stampman's brand new website and there are plenty of lovely goodies on there to tempt you.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend whatever you are up too.

WOYWW 128-Sugar & Spice and All Things Nice

2011-11-16T12:59:00.005Z

Morning Folks. I hope I find you well this Wednesday. I know we all say it but WOYWW comes around every other day, or so it feels.

So, what's on my desk today? It changes on a daily basis at the minute. I'm in full Christmas flow and today am making some sugarpaste characters to sell at the school Christmas Fayre along with lots of cards and some fabric hearts for which I have to thank my WOYWW friend Lunch Lady Jan for the inspiration.

I've discovered that the kids like things they can buy with their pocket money and it's the parents that buy the cards. The lovely children are my best customers so I have to think what appeals to them. It's a steep learning curve doing Fayres, but I'm getting there.

My DD loved these characters after we saw Ann Pickard making them on Create and Craft and the instructions are so clear in her book that they are a pleasure to make.

Here are my first penguins...

And don't you just love Mr Snowman

I've got choir boys and Eskimos to have a go at now so excuse the quick post. I need to get finished so that I can have a good nosey round everyone else's desks.

If you want to join in with all this desk madness then pop over to see Head Deskmistress, Julia, HERE.

Thanks for stopping by and for all your lovely comments. I feel blessed every day for belonging to such a lovely community.

A Rare Sight!

2011-11-12T15:03:00.004Z

Afternoon lovely Bloggers. I hope, like us, you've been enjoying some gorgeous sunshine this Saturday, after what has been a very dreary, damp week. I've had washing out and the windows open and it certainly lifts the spirits.

Thank you for all your kind wishes for everyone. I'm pleased to say everyone is doing fine and my cold is a lot better apart from bunged up sinuses. Aren't the tail ends of colds worse than the things themselves?

Anyway, as I've been confined indoors for most of the week I indulged in some scrapbooking, a rare thing these days, and decided to take part in the sketch challenge over at Just Traceys.

Sometimes a sketch is just what you need to get started and I really enjoyed this one.

I took this photo a few weeks ago during an outing to Harewood House. The flowers were stunning and so was the weather and I caught DH sunning himself unawares while we were taking some photos of the beautiful borders.

I made some twisted flowers from old book pages and inked them with spiced marmalade distress ink for my embellishments

and the big letter was core-dinations card embossed and sanded. I coloured in the "doing" with permanent markers to match. The papers are all Basic Grey which, along with Bo Bunny, are my favourites.

I really must do more pages. I've so many photos waiting to be done. Maybe that should be my New Years Resolution!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the weekend. Lets hope this sunshine is here to stay for awhile.

WOYWW 127

2011-11-09T09:29:00.004Z

Morning all from a dark and gloomy Yorkshire this Wednesday. I'm not sure I like this November weather. I feel cocooned with the lights on although I have a stinking cold and haven't been out of the house since Saturday so it's been quite cosy.

I'm so glad to be back amongst all you lovely WOYWWer's this week. Sorry I was missing in action last week. We have had my MIL in hospital for a week with a mystery illness so one of us was shooting off to Leeds each teatime to visit while the other got tea and looked after DD. Thankfully she is home now and recovering but still a mystery!!!!. My Mum had a cataract op last Friday so I was looking after her on Saturday, not that she really needed looking after. It's incredible what they can do nowadays. She was fair bouncing and couldn't get over how much she can see. I got home from her house and promptly went down with the lurgy. I think we're all in need of another holiday!!!!!

Thankfully, I have now got back to some crafting therapy and so here's my desk this morning. I had to use the flash on my camera as it's so dark but as you can see I'm back to the pink canvas for my dear MIL.

I added the sweet peas yesterday. I absolutely love painting sweetpeas using Sheena's paint fusion. They are so easy and you get a lovely result. They have been liberally sprayed with glimmer mist so have a lovely shimmer. I'm now on with the green swirly edges but am not happy with it yet so will play a bit more today.

I have lots of desks to catch up with so am off to have a good nosey around now. If you want to join me pop over HERE to see Julia, head WOYWWer.

Thanks so much for stopping by and enjoy your Wednesday what ever you are up too.

A New Challenge At The Stampman

2011-11-04T12:00:00.002Z

Well here we are on yet another Friday. I'm sorry I've been a bit absent this week. There's lots been happening in The Craft Garden which has meant blogging has had to take a back seat for a while.

I've managed to scrap in just in time with my DT project for the new Stampman Challenge. Our lovely Team mate Angela has set the theme of Collage and has done a brilliant Tutorial on the Challenge site to give you lots of ideas.

Initially I struggled when I put my mind to this theme but I was inspired by an article by Tracy Evans in Craft Stamper. She used a collage background and these paper moulds. I already had a stack of these ready made after seeing Sheena Douglass demonstrate them years ago but had never used them. I coloured the dragonfly with Starburst Stains and then painted the wings in with Crushed Olive distress ink.

They are very easy to make. You just layer about 6 sheets of very cheap tissues over your stamp. Spray them well with water and then stipple the paper into the stamp with a stiff brush. They need to be left to dry for 24 hours and then carefully removed from the stamp. The impression of the stamp stays in the paper.

I made the background with Broken China and Crushed Olive Distress ink, layering up all sorts of images, bubble wrap stamping and sequin waste and sticking on some inked ripped text. The edges are embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Lapis Sapphire UTEE Embossing powder and the background of the main card is blended Broken China with little flowers stamped all over.

If you haven't found it yet, The Stampman have a great new Website. They are still in the process of getting things loaded up but there's lots of goodies to be found including all the things I've used on this project. The winner of the challenge will win a voucher to spend on it too so why not check out Angela's tutorial and have fun with your collage.

Thanks for stopping by and have a happy and safe Bonfire Night.

Another Sheena Peak

2011-10-28T16:50:00.003+01:00

Afternoon lovely Crafters. Another week has sped by and it's Friday again. It'll be Christmas in a blink of an eye at this rate.

I just popped in to give you another Sheena sample to tempt you with these lovely stamps.

With this card I used three different plates to create a typical Lakeland scene using just distress inks for that soft light. The tree was embossed with Bark and Olive WOW embossing powders and cut out before being stuck on. You could emboss straight onto the card if you feel brave enough. I didn't with this and find cutting out quite therapeutic really.

Don't forget to watch Sheena's programmes on Create and Craft on Sunday. There's bound to be lots of inky techniques occurring.

Sorry to be brief today, there's lots happening in The Craft Garden at the minute and time is pressing.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

Another Sheena Sneaky Peek

2011-10-27T11:30:00.004+01:00

Morning lovely Crafters from a damp drizzly Yorkshire. It's definitely an indoor day today so lots of crafting is going on.

Before I get involved with anything I'd like to share with you another card I made for Sheena Douglass using her gorgeous new stamps.

These are something a bit different, lovely silhouette flowers that you can get all arty with. I stamped these onto glossy card with versamark, white embossed them and then rubbed distress ink over the top. I then stamped the flowers onto the base card in the same colours and added one of Sheena's lovely new greetings.

Hope you like it and if you're really good I'll be back tomorrow with yet another one.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Thursday whatever you are up too.

WOYWW 125 & a Sneaky Peek

2011-10-26T09:44:00.005+01:00

Morning lovely Crafters and WOYWWer's. Here we are again at another mid point of the week and a beautiful sunny one it is too. I know some of you haven't been so lucky this week but for once we've had a lovely week of mild temperatures and sunshine, perfect for half term.

I've had a busy few days having some lovely trips out and then grabbing a few hours in my craft room doing DT work for the launch of a new set of gorgeous stamps from the lovely Sheena Douglass on Create and Craft next Sunday 30th October.

More of that later but in the meantime, as the cards are now parcelled up to be sent off to Douglass Towers this morning, there is nothing, not a jot, on my desk as I tidied up and put everything away ready for the next project.

Doesn't look tidy to me I hear you cry. Well, when I went up to take my photos late last night I'd forgotten I'd got a load of papers out looking for my MOT and Insurance documents to tax my car today. Don't you just love having to do these jobs.

Just to give you a glimpse of the other side of my desk, the one I normally keep hidden, you can see the organised chaos. I like to keep all my Nesties and embossing folders close to hand so they sit in a basket on my desk all mixed up with my cake decorating bits and bobs and other crafty things.

My ribbon stash is also outgrowing it's space, can you ever have enough ribbons?

If you have something interesting happening on your desk today or just want to share your crafty space then pop over to see the Desk Headmistress, Julia HERE and share it all with us.

Now, back to Sheena's gorgeous new stamps. These have been right up my street. Those of you who know me well know of my love of The Lake District so when these little beauties fell through my letterbox I was thrilled to discover they are all Lakeland inspired. I feel like I've been travelling sitting at my desk.

Here's a Sneaky Peek of one of the samples I made. The sets all combine beautifully to build up scenes but I love these rowing boats so I decided to keep them simple and just used Vintage Photo Distress Ink for it all.

The rest of the team have produced some gorgeous creations and you can see more by popping over to Sheena's blog.

I will share some more with you tomorrow.

Well, better go and get the car taxed and then I think we are going into Leeds for some lunch and a look round the big shops, now there's an adventure for you. I used to work in Leeds every day but now we go once in a blue moon so it really does feel like an adventure.

Thanks for stopping by.

It's A Nightime Challenge at The Stampman

2011-10-21T12:00:00.000+01:00

Morning folks. I just have to say I have the nicest Followers in Blogland. Your comments give me a lovely warm glow. Thank you all.

After the crisp sunshine of the last couple of days it's grey and dark here today but we have to be grateful for all the nice days we get at this time of year so I'm not complaining.

It's time for a new challenge over at The Stampman again and this time my dear friend Michelle has set a NIGHTIME theme. This panicked me slightly to begin with and then I was inspired by a stunning tag the very talented Artyjen created here and this got the old juices flowing.

Not having a black distress ink I used Chipped Sapphire and Walnut Stain blended over the masked moon. I liked the idea of a big moon and the Tim Holtz clock seemed to work with it. I used some clock hands my DH had brought me from bits and pieces he found at work. Goodness knows what they use them for but they are perfect for crafting.

Mr Umbrella Man had to come out again but I silver embossed him this time and he's walking in the shower of stars stamped with Brilliance Starlite Silver with Diamond Stickles added. (The stamp was actually the flower centre from the Funky Flowers stamps)

The sentiment was computer generated and I clear embossed the black background with some text just to add some extra interest.

The rest of the Design Team have created some simply stunning work so don't forget to pop over to the Challenge blog and have a closer look. Mrs Stampman is offering a £10 voucher to spend at their sparkling new website for the winner so lets see all your nightime projects.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely weekend whatever you are up too.

WOYWW 124

2011-10-19T10:11:00.005+01:00

Morning lovely crafters. I hope I find you well this Wednesday morning. I've just realised I've not posted since last Wednesday, goodness where did that week go. No excuses, just trying to get ahead of myself ready for half term which, for us, starts tomorrow and they go back on 1st November. Three training days have been added on so crafting will be hit and miss for the next week or so. My DH is also off next week so lets hope the weather behaves itself so that we can get out and about.

You find me with a busy workdesk again this week. I'm trying to get some Christmas pressies made and put away and I have a canvas in progress for my MIL. She doesn't have the internet so I know there's no risk of her spying anything. She admired the one I did for my Mum in the Summer so I thought I'd do one for her in her colours. She has a burgundy colour scheme so I've started with pale pink and will work up to the darker shades, hopefully. I just tend to play and see what happens.

I've shown you mine so lets see what you are up too. Pop over to see the desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE and get snooping.

As we are at the mid point of another month it's time to provide a bit more inspiration for The Stampman ATC swaps, which this month has an Oriental theme. I am still struggling with ATC's but was quite pleased with how this one turned out. I used Barn Door DI on glossy paper and overstamped with some text. The flower was gold embossed and then coloured in with promarkers using darker reds. I found the beads in a toy shop in Italy and thought they had a lovely antiquey feel. Funny the things you find when you're not looking.

I am also walking round with a warm glow this morning, and not from sitting on the radiator either. You may remember the Christmas Paint Fusion wall hanging sample I did for Sheena's Pick Of The Week shows some time ago. If you don't you can see it here.

Anyway, Sheena asked me if I would mind if she taught it at her workshops. Mind, I was thrilled that she thought it was worthy and there is a photo of some of the hangers her ladies have produced on her blog today. They are really lovely and it has made me want to make another one now to hang up with the decorations come Christmas.

Right, my washing machine has just finished so I must dash and get them outside before the weather changes yet again. The sun's out and there's a good breeze today so I'll just say thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting.

WOYWW 123 or What 'Orrible Yucky Wet Weather

2011-10-12T09:33:00.000+01:00

Morning all. Wednesday yet again. I'm sure someone is winding these weeks on faster and faster. It seems to be time to bare all on my workdesk every other day. It maybe has something to do with the terrible weather we have been having here in Yorkshire this week. It started raining on Saturday morning and apart from a quick glimmer of sunshine yesterday afternoon, hasn't stopped since. Oh how I long for that glorious weather of only a week ago!!

Here is the view out of my kitchen window this dismal Wednesday morning.

Still, it's perfect crafting weather, so onto my desk. You can see my first attempt at an inked panel, which I've been meaning to try for months after first seeing them in Craft Stamper and then all over Blogland at one time or another. The circle Fairy card from the last post was meant to be one of these but the inking went wrong, hence the lengthy process. I think I've cracked it now and today's attempt was fairly successful.

I hand cut a rectangular mask trying to keep things simple and inked it with Bundled Sage and Broken China Distress ink before spraying it with gold mica powder and giving it a quick dry with the heat gun.

The stamps are all from Inkylicious, my new favourite company. I'm in love with all their stamps at the minute. I finished the card with just a simple black mat and some stickles.

While we were on holiday in Italy my Mum fell and broke her wrist and since we got home I've been taking her to hospital on a regular basis to first have a new pot on, then have it taken off and this week for physiotherapy. She has now been signed off and after we got home on Monday afternoon I had my lunch and thought if I don't go and do something with this dark weather I'm likely to doze off which is definitely not allowed so I decided to tidy my craft room. Well, this turned into a huge reorganisation and clean. It is now very tidy and very clean and I love this new storage idea, a shoe hanger that hangs over the door, another thing I saw in Craft Stamper this month. It's a brilliant way of creating extra storage without taking up anymore space.

Well, that's me this week. If you want to join in with all this desk nosiness then pop over to see our leader of desks, Julia, HERE.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have found some sunshine in your part of the world and if you have can you send some my way please.

Circle It With The Stampman

2011-10-07T12:00:00.000+01:00

Morning lovely Crafters. Another week done and dusted and as it's Friday again that must mean a new challenge over at The Stampman. Lisa Sparkle has asked us this time to CIRCLE IT!!!!!!

After many attempts this is what I finally came up with. A circle Easel. I had the initial idea of the little fairy scene but couldn't decide what to do with it and several cards ended up in the bin. Once the circle easel popped into my poor brain though things started to work and I just kept going adding the embossed stars and edging. You would never believe it's taken me three days would you???

The background to the fairies was done with Bundled sage and various blue distress inks, starting with Stormy Sky and working through Faded Jeans to Chipped Sapphire and then over sprayed with gold mica spray. I always stick the moon on after inking now, saves the hassle of masking and I quite like the raised effect. I added some stickles to the edge of it for a touch of sparkle and some to the stars too. All the stamps come from the Aspects of Design Starburst Fairies and Daisy Daydreams.

The greeting stamp on the bottom is straight but I found by bending it it would stamp out curved. It had to be done quickly though before it popped back into shape being rubber.

I'm still not sure about the flowers, they were punched out and sprayed with water and scrunched, with stickles added when they were dry. They look better in real life but I need to try this technique again with some brighter paper. Still they do the job of keeping the card upright.

Don't forget to check out what the rest of the Design Team have been up to, there are some gorgeous projects to look through and we are delighted to welcome another new team member, Caroline this week.

So lets see all you circle projects. Jill is offering a £10 voucher to spend at her brand new website which will be up and running very shortly, please bear with her, there is a tremendous amount of work involved.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a lovely weekend. I don't think we are going to be lucky enough to have the weather we enjoyed last weekend but at least the wind and rain seems to have calmed down today and we have some sunshine again even if it's a bit chilly.

WOYWW

2011-10-05T12:29:00.004+01:00

Morning everyone, or is it Afternoon. Anyway, I hope I find you well this Wednesday. Not sure what is happening with our weather this week. It was freezing yesterday but I've just been outside to stand up some blown over pots and it's really warm in the sunshine again today.

It's time to bare all with those WOYWWer's again and I've had a busy morning in my craft room with some DT work which is determined to cause me grief. Why is it that some projects just go together nicely and others are a struggle. I can't show it yet so you can see on my desk a card I'm making for a lovely girl by the name of Willow, don't you just love that name, the daughter of our good friends, who reaches the grand old age of 13 this week. It was also our 13th Wedding Anniversary last Monday so you can imagine the size of her Mum on our Wedding photos!!

I haven't got any stamps suitable for a teenager so decided to use some images from the Polkadoodles Sundae of Seasons CD. I'm not a CD crafter usually but I love this one, it's so bright and cheerful.

The first shot is a daredevil one taken by standing on my stool so I thought I'd show you the other end of the table where my lovely promarker rack has pride of place with some lovely artwork from my Australian friend Shaz displayed on top. My heatgun is cooling from lots of action this morning, yes I know, highly dangerous stood on a pile of paper!!

My lovely old key came from Italy this year and has hooks. I haven't decided what to use it for yet but it's ideal for hanging up little canvases. The rest of the desk is just a mess, but it is organised mess if that's any excuse!!

I've shown you mine so let's see yours. Pop over to see Julia and find out what it's all about HERE.

Well, I need to go and make myself respectable and get up to school for some crafty fun with the children so I'll say Cheerio for now and thanks for stopping by.

A Sweetpea Hanger For A Special Lady

2011-10-02T20:16:00.003+01:00

Evening lovely Bloggers. I hope you've all managed to enjoy this fabulous Indian Summer we've been having. It seems to be over in this part of the world today. We have had cloud and rain on and off all day but it's still been very warm and hasn't stopped me pottering in the garden.

Before all the hot weather started I made this little hanger for a very dear neighbour of ours whose birthday it was last week. I thought it made a nice alternative to a card and doesn't have to be put away after a few days.

I cut each of the ovals with a nestie with a matching backing just out of white card to hide the painty mess on the other side and the ribbon attachment. The poem is stamped from a set from Inkylicious and then I fusioned sweetpeas on the other two and rubbed the edges with peeled paint distress ink.

I'm no painter and the results of the fusion always amazes me as it makes flowers so easy to paint and to achieve results I'm really happy with, which I can assure you, is no easy task as I'm a born fiddler when it comes to painting.

Before I go and get my weekly dose of Downton Abbey I'd just like to give you a heads up about some great Blog Candy Jill from The Stampman is offering at the moment.

She has recently been selling some incredibly popular Old Bags which contain all sorts of lovely goodies. They have all sold out now but Jill spirited one away for one lucky Winner.

The Bag she is offering has a game theme and is filled with all sorts of things which are perfect for, among other things, configuration boxes.

You have until Midday (GMT) Tuesday 25th October to enter and full details can be found on Jill's blog HERE.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a really good week.

WOYWW or should that be Garden!!!

2011-09-28T19:58:00.007+01:00

Evening all. I shall refrain from the usual utterance of Goodness is it Wednesday again. I think we all say the same thing every week. Why is it that when you do something on the same day every week that day just always seems to be here? It must be one of life's little mysteries.

Anyway, WOYWWer's. I hope I find you well and if you are in the UK, what about this gorgeous weather. Septemebr 28th and 25 degrees here in Yorkshire. Perfect.

So instead of showing you my desk which I can assure you I have not been sat at today, I thought I'd share with you my garden which I have been sat in. My dear friend Shaz in Australia shared some of her exotic plants last week and so I thought I'd share mine this week, not as exotic but equally beautiful.

We bought two Dahlia bulbs that were reduced to 99p and these are the results. The plants and flowers are huge. I love their cheerful faces.

My Lucky Lips Salvia. What a great name.

It's been a terrific year for roses and they are still going strong.

Although the temperatures are Summery, there is still a definite touch of Autumn and what about all these spiders!!!!!!!

If you want to share your workspace this week, pop over to see Julia HERE.

Just to prove I have been a bit crafty earlier in the week, I made a card for my best friend who has been very poorly recently and I just wanted to tell her I was thinking about her.

This lovely Papermania image is stamped and watercoloured with distress inks and I spotted a brilliant article about making your own Bakers Twine with crochet cotton and promarkers here and so here is my first attempt. I love the fact that you can match it to your project perfectly.

Right, I'm off to hop around some desks so thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your week.

Pears or Pairs at The Stampman

2011-09-23T12:00:00.000+01:00

Here we are at Friday again. I could swear the weeks go faster and faster. I do hope no one gets hit by a chunk of Satellite today. We are all wearing hard hats just in case!!! With all the technology available to the scientists these days you would've thought they could give us more warning than just saying they WILL land somewhere wouldn't you?

It's time for a new challenge over at The Stampman and firstly we are thrilled that the very talented Siobhan has agreed to join the team. Her blog, Recovering Stampaholic is full of her beautiful work.

This challenge, the lovely Janet has asked us to think about PEARS OR PAIRS. She has done some interesting research into the meaning of Pears around the world and it's amazing what she's discovered. If you want to know more pop over to the Challenge blog and have a look.

After a good rummage through my stamps I couldn't find a pear image anywhere so I have gone for Pairs and a few of them to make up for my lack of the fruity kind.

My regular readers will know how much I'm in love with the Umbrella man so what better than to have two of him. My original idea was to put him on a pair of tags but this expanded into something a bit larger and I created a background for everything with distress inks and Tim Holtz stamps on this lovely textured paper.

The photo corners have been triple embossed with the same stamps and a pair of TH Sissix swirls added for good measure.

I used mainly Dusty Concord and Spiced Marmalade on one tag and umbrella man was then stamped with dusty concord and clear embossed and on the other the main colour is Stormy Sky. I added Starburst Stains to the tags to give them some sparkle but as always this doesn't show up too well on the photos.

I'm not going to bore you with all the finer points of what I did. I always think I waffle on too much and must bore you all to death, but if you want to know anything, please don't hesitate to shout.

The rest of the Design Team have created some wonderful Pear delights so don't forget to have a look and as always the Winner will receive a £10 voucher to spend at The Stampman so why not have a go.

Thanks for stopping by and mind those falling satellites!!!!

WOYWW and Getting Organised

2011-09-21T16:22:00.005+01:00

It's that time of the week again when we are officially allowed to be nosey and have a good rummage around each others desks under the watchful guidance of the Desk Leader, Julia so if you want to join in with all the WOYWWer's pop over HERE.

I felt an urgent need this week to organise my life which is not an easy task. I keep everything and have a huge pile of empty boxes of every shape and size under my desk waiting to be turned into something amazing but in the meantime fall on me every time I sit down. Stamps are shoved into my filing trays and my promarkers are in a wooden box and make a terrible noise when I rummage for that certain colour that is always at the bottom!!

First job was the stamps. I keep them in handmade books and so this is what I have in progress on my desk this week. The front and back is two pieces of thick card that were at the back of a pack of envelopes in a previous life. I painted them with acrylic paint and then made a panel for the front with distress inks and paint fusion daisies.

The pages inside are thin card which the clear stamp protectors are stuck to and I make a note of the make and name of each set for future reference and hey presto. Stamps organised and easily found.

Hubby made this fantastic holder for my promarkers out of a sheet of foam board from Hobbycraft which cost all of £2.50. It sits neatly in the box the pens lived in previously to keep it all rigid and it's light enough but strong enough to be moved about easily. Isn't he clever? I love the fact that they look so organised and I can get just the colour I want first time.

By the way, if you are wanting new promarkers, Hobbycraft are selling them at £1.49 each, which is the best price I've seen them at.

So I'm feeling much tidier now. There's just that mountain of boxes to tackle...... well maybe next week!!!

I'm off to see what all the other WOYWWer's have been up to so thanks for stopping by and I hope your week is going well so far.

With A Little Help From My Friends

2011-09-19T16:31:00.005+01:00

How are you this Monday afternoon? I hope you are all doing OK. There are so many funny bugs and viruses about at the minute but I hope you've managed to avoid them and if not are beginning to feel much better. We've both been suffering silly colds recently but thankfully they have shuffled off from where they came now.

I have to say a big thank you to you all for your wonderful suggestions following my last post. I read and pondered them all and firstly took Claire's suggestion to sleep on it!!!

Lesley suggested a quote, white fluffy clouds and birds (Shaz also agreed with the bird idea) which I liked and Jo thought a straw hat would be good and Gay suggested decoupaging it. Both worked a treat.

I didn't want to add a quote to the front as I quite like the big sky look so added it to the edge instead. It reads:

A garden of sunflowers beckoned to me,
Come join us, my lady and joyous you'll be.

So I now have a finished canvas I'm happy with. I knew you'd come up trumps and you didn't let me down. I feel like I've had a lovely crafting session with all my talented friends.

Today I've had to go back to card making for yet another Golden Wedding. We seem to be surrounded by Golden Wedding couples at the minute, how wonderful to reach 50 years of marriage. I hope we get there one day.

Anyway, here is the card I've made using the lovely Stampin Up medallion stamp. It was quite quick and simple but this is such a beautiful stamp I don't think it needs much else.

I raised up the main panel and cut the 50 using a Sissix die.

Well, I'd better go and get tea on so I'll just say thanks for stopping by and see you soon.

I've just looked at the photo of the card on the post and realised the bow was wrong at the top and it's now in the middle!!!!!

What Do You Think?

2011-09-16T09:51:00.004+01:00

Morning lovely crafters. Is it really Friday already? After the gorgeous mellow Autumn sunshine yesterday it's a bit grey and gloomy here today but at least it's dry.....so far.

I recently bought this lovely La Blanche stamp, there's just something about that hat that called to me. She looks like she's stood in a field of sunflowers which led me to this little canvas. I used the Fusion daisies to create my sunflowers as the actual fusion sunflower stamps are too big. The canvas is only 5"x7".

Anyway, I'm happy with it so far but after finishing all the foreground sunflowers thought my figure should probably have been further up the canvas and I'm now left with a lot of plain sky but I don't know what else, if anything to do with it so I'm picking your brains. What do you think? What can I do on the rest of it? I need someone to bounce ideas off.

While my little canvas sits waiting for it's finishing touches I'm off to play with some other new stamps I treated myself too. Why is it that when you've been deprived of crafting for a few weeks you go mad with the crafting pennies. I must be good now until Christmas!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend whatever the weather.

Blowing In The Wind

2011-09-12T18:53:00.000+01:00

Afternoon everyone. I hope you are not being blown away in this invigorating weather. I've just been out in the garden rescuing my tubs from hurtling across the garden. Still at least the sun is shining and the sky is blue.

Following on from my Scrapbook resolution last Wednesday, the beauty of the Bo Bunny papers are that they are double sided and both sides are utterly gorgeous and just have to be used so here is the Layout I did on the reverse of the page you saw on my Workdesk.

I'd bought these papers in anticipation of visiting Venice while we were in Italy, which unfortunately didn't happen this time due to unforeseen circumstances so I've used some pictures of the gorgeous painted buildings we found up in the Dolomites instead.

DD has also been busy crafting after being inspired by the wonderful workshop by Barbara Gray on Create and Craft the other Saturday. She was showing how to create scenes with a brayer but DD used a shaving brush to create hers and she intends to do four, one for each Season, but here are the three she's done so far.

Don't you just love those two birds chatting on the telephone wires?

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your Monday has gone well and you stay safe in these winds.

New Stampman Challenge-Monochrome

2011-09-09T12:00:00.001+01:00

Hello everyone. I hope you are managing to keep dry. What a week for weather we've had.

Over at The Stampman Challenge it's time for another new theme and it's my turn to host this fortnight and I'd like you to think in Monochrome!! Not just Black and White but White and one other colour so that should give you plenty of scope.

Here's what I came up with using the lovely Non Sequitur stamps Jill currently has on the website at half price so they are a real bargain and you gets lots of stamps on each sheet.

I teamed my image with some embossed Nestabilities and a Martha Stewart punched ribbon. The background was stamped too with another little stamp on the same themeplate. I added some perfect pearls to my lovely lady and there you have it.

The rest of the Design Team have created some beautiful projects so I hope you have time to pop over and admire them, they are well worth it.

Jill is offering a £10 voucher for the winner to spend on The Stampman website so come on, let's see all your Monochrome projects.

I'm also going to enter my project into the Try It On Tuesday challenge. They also have a monochrome theme this week.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

WOYWW and A Bit Of A Catch Up

2011-09-07T19:12:00.007+01:00

It's been a real crafting day here with this awful weather. I've sat in my craft room watching the rain heading in over the moors and felt quite cosy. It's hard to believe that this time last week I was sat on a sunlounger enjoying gorgeous hot weather.

It feels like ages since I last joined in WOYWW and sad to say the first thing I thought of this morning after I'd waved DD off to school was I must take my workdesk photo!!!! so here it is.

My Autumn resolution is to do more scrapbooking which is my first love and sadly has been neglected this year so I've made a start on my holiday photos using some gorgeous Bo Bunny paper I bought a few months ago in readiness. It's still in the early stages but I'm loving the colours already.

You might also be able to spy my new embossing folder and nesting die I bought at the weekend along with a tub of ice cream sprinkles that now contains cogs and watch hands and other exciting things my lovely Hubby collected for me after we watched a programme on Steam Punk the other day.

I can't wait to catch up with some of my favourite desks and if you want to join me then you need to visit the desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE.

Just before we went away I received some exciting packages from dear blogging friends with some amazing artwork inside so I thought I'd share these with you and take this opportunity to say thank you again to the lovely Shaz all the way from Australia who sent me the top pieces in the photo, aren't they gorgeous!!

and also to my dear friend, Jo, who I know many of your WOYWWer's know and love. She sent me one of her stunning Star creations. The photo just doesn't do it justice, the sparkle and stamping detail on it is amazing. I love them all and have them displayed where I can admire them everyday. Thank you so much ladies for your kindness.

You may remember that I'd also been very busy making samples for Sheena Douglass' new Christmas Paint Fusion Pick Of The Week Shows on Create and Craft back in August and I was absolutely delighted that one project in particular was very well received so I thought I'd share it with you.

I made a hanger from the circle chipboard pieces and the Christmas Tree and spruce branch set of stamps which also has pine cones in. My pine cones need a bit of practice to my critical eye but I really enjoyed making it and intend to make another one to hang on the fireplace at Christmas.

The edges of the chipboard have been embossed with gold WOW embossing powder and really sparkle.

I also made a card from the same set of stamps and it just goes to show the different looks you can achieve. I created the sky on this one using distress inks and mica sprays and the paint fusioned trees work a treat with it and they are really quick and easy to do.

Thank you for stopping by and for your lovely comments. It's so good to be back in Blogland. Enjoy the rest of the week

I'm Back!!!!!!

2011-09-05T12:14:00.006+01:00

This morning the schools went back here and the weather turned decidedly Autumnal, how strange is that.

Anyway, I'm back after a lovely rest and raring to go with all sorts of things and I have an awful lot of catching up to do with all my lovely blogging friends, I had a quick peek last night and can't wait to see everything you've all be up too.

We came back last Wednesday from a brilliant holiday in the absolutely beautiful Lake Garda in Northern Italy. If you've been you'll know what I mean, if you haven't then try and go, it's a magical place with views at every corner. You'll be spoilt for photo opportunities.

This was our third visit. We don't normally revisit places as there are so many new things to see in the World but it just sort of draws you back and there are still new things to discover. We were also incredibly lucky with the weather. It's a mountainous area and so you cannot always be guaranteed sunshine but after weeks of rain we hit upon a fortnight when they were having a heatwave and the temperatures were in the mid 40's. Too hot really but a good excuse to lie on my sunbed and spend hours in the pool with DD.

Here are just a few photos to give you a flavour.

Looking down on all the higgledy piggledy buildings.

Lots of picturesque harbours.

How about these for lemons!!

The lake is alive with wind and kite surfers in the morning winds.

Someones beautifully decorated house name plate. Looks like Sheena may have been here with her paints!!

Thank you for all the lovely comments you left me while I was away . I can't wait to get back into my craft room and then do some blog hopping so thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting.

Christmas Paint Fusion

2011-08-11T19:45:00.004+01:00

Evening lovely Crafters.

I hope you are all keeping well and safe in this horrible world we suddenly find ourselves in here in the UK. For the first time in my life I feel ashamed to be British. It all makes me so angry that people can behave in such a despicable manner. There is no excuse for any of it, despite what the media seem to want to make us believe.

Now onto to brighter and happier things. Our Fusion Master Sheena Douglass will be on your screen tomorrow launching a Pick Of The Week on Create and Craft with her new Christmas Paint Fusion stamps and if you like anything floral and festive, you'll love these. They can be used in lots of ways, not just with paint fusion and they are bound to get your creative juices flowing.

Sheena also has some Blog Candy to give away this week and you can check it out here.

Here are some of the samples I have made with the lovely new stamps.

The last two are from the same set and can be made into a wreath or a garland and all the embellishments are separate so you can play around to your hearts content.

I have to say a big thank you to all my lovely Blogging Buddies who have continued to leave such lovely comments depite my poor blogging of late. I do apprecate you all so much.

I will be having a little break now from Blogland until DD goes back to school in September. I want to spend some quality time with her and DH without the distraction of computers and crafting. They are both very understanding of my hobbies but I feel guilty when I don't pay proper attention to what is going on around me. DD is growing up fast and time is precious so I hope you'll understand if I don't get round to visiting you for a few weeks.

Enjoy the rest of your Summer, whatever the weather and see you in September.

An Explosion Of Butterflies

2011-08-06T17:18:00.004+01:00

I hope I find you well and enjoying your Saturday.

What a mix of weather we've had this week. After a sweltering first half, we then had thunderstorms followed by a really wet day on Thursday. Yesterday was warm and breezy and today is damp and misty.

Despite the rain we had a run to Ilkley this morning. They are having a three day continental market on the main street and there are all sorts of interesting foods to try and things to look at. We had a lovely browse and came home with several bags of delights.

I managed to finish my exploding box in time for my Aunt and Uncle's Golden Wedding celebrations last weekend so I thought I'd share it with you since it has now been safely delivered.

I find these really hard to photograph so please forgive the poor pictures but I think you can see the general idea.

I've used this same design on many occasions but saw recently the side panels embossed somewhere on blogland and liked the texture it gave. It's also much quicker than all the stamping I usually do which is great when I've left things until the last minute as usual.

The butterflies are from the recent Kanban QVC TSV which was a brilliant buy. I love all the stamps in the set and have already used most of them. These were coloured with H20's and then some diamond stickles added.

The sentiment was computer generated and cut with a Nestie and coloured with some Stampin Up dye ink.

It was also the start of a new theme over at The Stampman ATC swap and we are asking you to think of all things to do with the Ocean this month.

I embossed mine with swirls which I always think look like waves before colouring it with Starburst stains and distress ink. The ship, from the Aspects of Design Nautical set, was cut out and added with foam pads.

Thanks for stopping by and for putting up with my poor blogging at the minute. I hope you are all enjoying your Summer whatever you are up too and thank you again for your lovely comments. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Some Stitching At The Stampman & 100 Followers

2011-07-29T12:00:00.001+01:00

Hello lovely Crafters.

I am so thrilled today as I have at last reached that magical figure of 100 followers. I can scarcely believe it really. When I first set up my Blog two and half years ago I never thought anyone would follow and then when Sally became my first follower I was jumping up and down with excitement. Not only was Sally my first follower, she has continued to leave regular comments and has now become a firm friend. I am blessed with so many regular followers who I now count as true friends, some of which remain cyber friends and some which have become very special real life friends so thank you all and welcome to my new followers. I appreciate and treasure every comment you leave.

I will be having some blog candy to celebrate but am going to make you wait until September when things quieten down a bit round here and I can do it properly.

Now, onto crafty matters. Sue is hosting The Stampman challenge this time and has asked us to get stitching on our projects.

For my design project I decided to hand stitch, which I love doing on my scrapbook layouts, but have never done on a card before.

I was inspired by an article in Craft Stamper this month by Rachel Jackson where she stamped using the watercolour technique with pencils. I used distress inks instead and created a background by just splodging some mustard seed onto watercolour card and then spritzing with yellow cosmic shimmer mica powder mixed with water to make it all run and then over stamping with a script in Antique Linen.

The Aspects of Design Flowers were inked up with various distress inks and spritzed with water before stamping and once dry I over stamped with neat ink.

I cut out and coloured a flower with more ink, added a french knot centre and sprayed the whole thing with mica powder before adding it.

The red mat is Barn Door wiped onto more watercolour paper and overstamped with the same script stamp from the Aspects of Design Nautical Set and then I stitched all the way round using some decorative thread I've had for years.

I used a different thread for the French Knots. They are not as neat as I'd like, the thread was a bit fluffy for doing this with.

The rest of the team have made some gorgeous creations so why not pop over to the challenge site to have a look and then show us some stitching on your creations. The winner will receive a £10 voucher to spend at The Stampman as always.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend, whatever you are up too.

WOYWW-A Pile Of Paper!

2011-07-27T19:48:00.006+01:00

Evening folks. I thought once we got into the Summer Holidays the weeks would slow down a bit but no, it's Wednesday in the blink of an eye and time for WOYWW and another nosey around everyone's interesting and creative workspaces. Why not pop over to see Julia HERE and join in the fun.

I am sharing my dining table now with my little mate and fellow crafter DD. She is making a paper model of Neuschwanstein castle that her Dad found for her on the internet. We visited it last year for real so she's enjoying making it although there is a lot of fiddly cutting out.

I have just started an exploding box for my Aunt and Uncle's Golden Wedding Anniversary on Saturday. I sat and made the gold roses in front of the TV last night and am going to add some butterflies to them too. As I type it is much further on and just needs putting together so I may actually get it finished tonight. No coffee, frothy or otherwise on the table this week although the eagle eyed will spot my Jelly Babies.

Can you also spot the dragon game? I had a sort out of DD's wardrobe at the weekend and have a pile of baby things to go in the loft until we can decide what to do with them and this game was one of them. Of course they were all long lost treasures and need to be played with again. This is one of those that you push pegs in and try to avoid popping up the dragon.

Do you remember the start of my blue canvas the other week? Well, the finished thing was delivered to my Mum for her birthday last week so I can share it with you now.

I loved every minute of creating it and just kept playing until I was happy. I paint fushioned Sheena's lovely daisies using grey as the base coat rather than the pale blue. I like the shadow this gives.

They were then over sprayed with denim glimmer mist which also made the dye ink stamping underneath run, another accident I liked. I over stamped again mainly with bubble wrap and then traced on the word and painted it with Forest Moss Distress Ink.

Mum was delighted with her gift and has it hung in her new conservatory and I already have plans buzzing around for my next creation. I love this way of using the Paint Fusion stamps.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a good week. We are keeping our fingers crossed for some sunshine, so far all the week has given us is cloud.

WOYWW

2011-07-20T11:41:00.006+01:00

A blink of an eye and it's Wednesday again, how does that happen? I hope where ever you are in the world you are having a good WOYWW and life is treating you well today, even if the weather isn't if you live here in the UK. Is this July or October, I'm not really sure. We had three solid days of rain, then yesterday was gorgeous and hot and then back to rain today!!! I hope it cheers up for the school holidays!!

If you haven't discovered the heady delights of WOYWW yet, then pop over to see Julia, HERE and join in all the fun. Even my Hubby gets involved. As he left for work this morning he asked what I was up to "apart from WOYWW of course".

Here's my desk this morning. Not a lot happening really. I'm just getting a few cards made to stock up my supplies as I'm not sure how much crafting I'll get done over the next 6 weeks. The weekly routine disappears when DD is at home and we're out and about much more so I'm just trying to get ahead of myself for once. My friend, Sylvia , would be proud of me for having a frothy coffee on my desk this morning. She says that's the only way to drink coffee.

I'd also like to share with you another card I many for Sheena Douglass' Create and Craft shows recently. This one didn't get shown but you know how much I like triple embossing so I couldn't resist having a play with the lovely WOW embossing powders.

They are such unusual colours and are perfect for this technique. I used the flower barrow from the "Wouldn't It Be Lovely" stamps and also had a play with the rolled flowers. These were my first attempt but I have a feeling they will be appearing on my cards much more in the future.

I'm so sorry I didn't get round many desks last week, I will do better this week, but thank you so much all you wonderful WOYWWer's who leave such lovely comments, I really enjoy reading them.

Thanks for stopping by.

Ooops Late Again

2011-07-17T12:01:00.004+01:00

What has happened to the weather, it's been so soggy this weekend hasn't it. Yesterday was torrential rain that soaks and today is heavy mizzle that soaks. I hope it hasn't spoiled anyone's plans too much. We've had a nice time doing a bit of crafting, cooking and playing board games, which has made a lovely change.

I even managed to get my design project ATC done for The Stampman ATC swap mid month inspirational nudge, yes I know it's a few days late, sorry about that. Janet asked us to think Vintage this month so I used these lovely Non Sequitur stamps. Jill has them all half price on the web site and they are gorgeous so make sure you have a peek.

I used various distress inks to build up the background and then cut out the rose and elements to add some depth. Stickles were added to the rose head for some bling. I love a bit of sparkle!!

Short and sweet from me today, I'm needed in a game of scrabble, so thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Anything Tim At The Stampman

2011-07-15T17:50:00.007+01:00

It's 6pm and the first time I've sat down all day, I even missed lunch. It always make me laugh when people say "oh, you don't work, what do you do to fill your day?" In my case I don't know how I found time to work, the days are so busy, but I do know how lucky I am so you won't hear any grumbles!!

Mrs Stampman has set us the challenge of "Anything Tim" over at The Stampman Challenge this time. It always sounds such a great theme but I have to confess I didn't know where to start with this one. I love using Tim's stamps and inks but when I see some of the amazing projects people do using all the ideaology metal pieces I know I could never do anything in the same league. Some of my Teamies are masters at this so make sure you pop over to the blog to have a look at them.

I decided to play it safe and go with a Scrapbook Layout for my design piece.

I used Tim's Compass mask and Brushed Corduroy and Forest Moss Distress ink on a plain piece of card stock and then stamped on it too before spraying with some perfect pearls and distressing the edges for my backing paper.

The Alphabet was cut with the Vintage Market Sissix Die and then stamped on and some Stickles added. It was stuck on with silicone glue.

The Tattered Flower was one I had in my box made from cartridge paper that had been inked and stamped with Broken China and I layered it with the elegant flourish stamped with Forest Moss. The little bits of chain had alcohol ink applied to tie in the colours.

I made my metal embellishments by silver triple embossing using one of the stamps from the Urban Chic set which I love.

I think the rest is pretty self explanatory, I don't want to bore you with loads of detail except to say the photo is of one of my favourite places, Lake Zell in Austria.

I'm sure this theme will inspire loads of you to get your Tim things out and the team can't wait to see what you create. As always Jill is offering a £10 Stampman voucher to the winner.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the weekend, whatever the weather. It has just started pouring down here which, I think, is a sign of things to come.

WOYWW and More Sheena Samples

2011-07-13T20:01:00.006+01:00

Is it really Wednesday again? I seem to blink and the week has whizzed past in a blur and it's time to post another workdesk. Maybe it's that reason why it always seems to be Wednesday!!!!

Anyway, here's my desk this week in a state of cakiness again. You should have seen me madly washing and cleaning my craft desk down so that no bits of embossing powder and ink find their way into icing, that would not be a good look. Luckily over the Summer months I do most of my crafting downstairs at the dining table so that I can have the door open and get some fresh air so my cake area was pretty clean and craft free this time.

I have been asked to make a sponge cake and just green ice it and nothing else. The lady who ordered it is going to turn it into a garden and has made all the decorations herself. I can't wait to see some photos of it.

If you are wondering why I am showing you a green cake on Wednesday you need to pop over to see our esteemed WOYWW Leader, Julia, who will explain all HERE.

Did you manage to catch any of Sheena's shows on Create and Craft today. I was so excited to see lots of my cards shown and Nigel even commented on two of them.....fame at last!!!!!!

Here are two of them. The first one is another of Max and Molly on the beach just painted in Faded Jeans Distress ink. All the mat layers were done with the same ink just using the cloud stamps off the same set and embossing and edging them with WOW embossing powder. This was my hubby's favourite
.

And the second is from the "Wouldn't It Be Lovely" set. I've seen this technique used lots of times around Blogland with trees and so tried it with this elegant trio. The main image is coloured with pro markers and I made the edging strips just by stamping some of the elegant curly wording on the same set with Broken China Distress ink to get a random pattern.

Right, I'm off to see if I can get round a few more desks than I managed last week so thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your week.

A Hint Of Christmas

2011-07-11T20:28:00.005+01:00

Evening lovely Crafters. I hope you had a lovely weekend despite the mix of weather we had. For once we choose the right day to go out and had a lovely walk in The Dales with a pub lunch, sat outside in the sunshine on Saturday. Although we took all the wet weather gear with us we spent the whole day in t-shirts so were really lucky, especially as it rained for most of yesterday.

The reason for my recent spell of busyness and lack of blogging is due to the fact that I've been up to my eyeballs in lovely stamps, embossing powders and distress inks making lots of samples for some upcoming TV shows Sheena Douglass has on Create and Craft on Wednesday of this week.

She is revisiting her stamps from pre fusion days and it's been lovely to play with them all again.

I enjoyed the Christmas sets most, probably because it's so long since I played with glitter and snowy scenes so they came out fresh and this is one I made with the Bah Humbug set.

It was stamped onto watercolour paper with Chipped Sapphire distress ink and then the detail was painted in with Brushed Corduroy. The Chipped Sapphire ran as well and although I initially panicked I was really pleased with how it turned out. One of those happy accidents. Some diamond Shrinkles was added for that winter frostiness.

I used Chipped Sapphire and Dusty concord for the sky and masked out the moon, then sprayed the whole thing with a blue mica spray before adding santa in his sleigh.

The sentiment was stamped onto shrink plastic which had been cut with a Nestie and I created the background paper by embossing some snowflakes from the set with platinum WOW embossing powder and then wiping more Chipped Sapphire distress ink over the top.

I apologise for giving you Christmas in July and next time I promise there won't be a snowflake in sight.

Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW

2011-07-06T20:05:00.004+01:00

Evening lovely Crafters. Here we are at Wednesday again and I've been really naughty and missed the last couple of WOYWW's. Talk about withdrawal symptons. I've had plenty on my desk but nothing I could share with you at the minute so I thought it best just to keep quiet for awhile but normal service has been resumed thank goodness.

Here's my desk this morning just as I left it last night.

I've just started a canvas. Something I've never attempted before but my Mum asked me to make her one for her new conservatory and bought the size she wanted. I have lots of ideas flying about in my head and spent a lovely hour last night slapping paint on and stamping and masking.

I'm quite happy with this as a start for the background but think I need to start playing with darker colours to build it up at bit more. I intend to paint some Sheena Douglass Paint Fusion Daisies on it as the main focal point. With anything I create I tend to have a general idea and then just start and see where it goes so who knows what will happen.

I've missed everyone else's desks over the last couple of weeks so am looking forward to having a good nosey later on. If you want to join me then pop over to see our esteemed leader, Julia HERE and find out what it's all about.

Just before I sign off tonight I thought I'd share a couple of photos I've taken during this beautiful weather we've been enjoying lately for no other reason than they made me smile.

Here is one of our cats, Nerys, enjoying the garden

and this was an amazing Mackerel sky last Monday morning when we had the really hot weather. It only lasted about 10 minutes and then it was gone. I just had time to nip in for my camera.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of the week.

Alcohol Inks and/or a Sketch at The Stampman

2011-07-01T16:47:00.006+01:00

Afternoon everyone. I hope you are all well and enjoying the sunshine again.

Things have quietened down around here for now so hopefully I'll be back to posting a bit more regularly. We are also getting towards the end of Wimbledon, another big distraction for me. I'm typing this right at the start of the Murray Nadal match so that I can settle down and watch it right to the end but I'm not telling you who I'm supporting!!!!

Over at The Stampman Challenge Blog, Brenda has challenged us to get messy with our Alcohol inks and combine it with her sketch if we want to although you can just use the sketch or just use your inks so how flexible is that?
I decided to go for both for my DT card. I sometimes find a sketch keeps me on track when card making as I tend to struggle with the layout.

For the inky background I squirted some Lettuce and Stream alcohol ink onto my craft match and then some blending solution and swooshed around some cheap photo paper. I know some people say this paper doesn't work and you should use glossy card, but I've always found it fine and it's cheap as chips.

Once I was happy with the result I stamped on top of it with various stamps from the Aspects of Design Butterfly Garden plate using black Stazon. I put the paper on top of the inked stamp and then used my fingers to press, you can also slowly peel the paper away bit by bit to check you have good inky coverage, laying it back on and pressing again if not.

I inked up two mat layers, one with Broken China and one with Faded Jeans Distress Ink and then masked off a panel on my base card and stamped butterflies with Broken China, sponging more colour around the edges.

A Papermania punched butterfly with added stickles and some gems and a ribbon and the jobs a good 'un.

The rest of the DT team have been very busy creating some gorgeous things so why not pop over to the challenge site and take a peek and then get yourselves busy. The winner gets a £10 voucher for The Stampman as always.

Thanks for stopping by. Must dash, I have an important date with the tennis now. Have a great weekend and enjoy the sunshine if you can.

Just so busy.....

2011-06-24T22:10:00.007+01:00

Evening lovely Crafters. I've just realised it's a week since I last posted anything, goodness that went quickly and I wish I could say I've been sunning myself somewhere nice but unfortunately, no, I've been here in wet old Blighty being incredibly busy. It looks like that's the way of things for another couple of weeks so forgive me if my posts are a bit erratic but I will try and get round and visit you all even if I'm not here in The Craft Garden.

I've been doing more bold colouring with my promarkers and am loving the results. When we were at the Harrogate Papershow in March I loved all the samples on the Polkadoodles stand and one of them was a beach hut made from their cottage stamps so this is my attempt. I just matted it with a greeting. Do you think it needs anything else?

I tried the same technique with one of Sheena's gorgeous Little Sketchy stamps. I think this is my favourite of the three and when my friend came for a coffee and saw it on my desk she said "Oh that's lovely it looks like my Niece and Nephew, Max & Molly" so from now on that's what these two little cuties will always be called. I did a little bit of paper piecing for their costumes.

I always sign off by saying I hope your week has gone well and that you have a great weekend but I am very aware tonight that for some of my dear blogging friends, life is pretty tough at the minute so I'll just say thanks for stopping by and look after yourselves and each other. I treasure all your friendships very much.

Butterflies and Dragonflies at The Stampman

2011-06-17T18:11:00.004+01:00

Afternoon lovely Crafters. I'm sitting here feeling quite smug tonight as everyone on the radio keeps saying how awful the weather is today and we've actually had a really nice day in our part of Yorkshire with warm sunshine. I had a lovely time out in the garden when the housework was finished. Sorry if I'm rubbing it in!!

It's time for a new challenge over at The Stampman and this time our lovely new team mate Angela is asking us to use Butterflies and Dragonflies, what a lovely theme, so here's my DT piece.

I was so excited about getting started with this one but I think it was a case of having too many ideas and I actually had about three false starts before I actually produced something I was happy with.

I made my own backing paper with a Kay Carley Funky Flower stamp and Broken China Distress Ink and then added some faux stitching. The Butterfly from the beautiful Aspects of Design Butterfly Garden plate was stamped in Broken China and Brushed Corduroy and then I brushed it with some mica powder to give it a sheen. The sentiment is from the same plate. In the end it was a very simple card and I didn't actually use many things, very unusual for me.

If you need a good excuse to play with all those butterfly and dragonfly stamps you have and I know you'll all have loads, then this is it. Don't forget the winner will receive a £10 Stampman voucher.

Thank you so much for all your tooth kindness and suggestions for nice things to eat. You really are a wonderful set of friends. It is feeling much better today although I am still sticking to nice easy things to eat.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend whatever you are doing and lets hope the weather isn't too wet. It's our Carnival tomorrow and then we are hoping to go to a vintage car show on Sunday for Father's Day. We may be needing the wellies!!

Have Fun and Happy Crafting

WOYWW and a Friendly Spider

2011-06-15T19:02:00.005+01:00

Evening lovely Crafters. I hope you are all well. Thank you for your kind comments and thoughts about my poor tooth. It is now well and truly out but I am running out of soft things I am able to eat. Yesterday all I had all day was a bowl of soup so I went to bed with a rumbly tumbly. Today has been a bit better but I never knew meals could take so long. The good thing was I had strict instructions from my lovely dentist to take it easy all day yesterday and not do anything so I had a great excuse to sit in the garden in the hot sunshine with my book.

Normal service has been resumed today and as it's Wednesday it must be Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday again so here is my desk as I left it on Monday night. I've been playing with the gorgeous Polkadoodle house stamps and trying to colour them as Nicky Hall demonstrates using the broad end of the Promarkers and just laying down colour without worrying too much. For once I am quite pleased with the results. It is not natural to not be careful when colouring but I'm getting addicted.

I've also been continuing with the pom pom spiders at school this morning and I got permission to take a picture of them for you. I love the colourful legs although we've had to put out an appeal for more wool, it's surprising how much has been used already and we're only half way through the class. Hopefully, the parents will come up trumps otherwise we might have to make up blue and green spiders instead!!

Don't forget to pop over to see our esteemed WOYWW leader Julia to see what's on everyone elses desks this week, there are some beauties out there.

Thanks for stopping by. I'm off to do some more colouring now and listen to the new Take That CD that my lovely Hubby surprised me with when he came home tonight. I am a lucky girl!!

A Special Card

2011-06-13T10:11:00.003+01:00

Morning lovely Crafters. I hope you had a smashing weekend despite the typical British Summer weather!!! It seemed to be catching as we sat waiting for the Canadian Grand Prix last night watching the pouring rain in Canada and listening to it on the windows here. They have promised a better day today so I've hung my washing out...watch this space!!!

As I mentioned in previous posts it was was my lovely Hubby's birthday last weekend. He was 21 again!!!!! Well, that's what he kept telling everyone. I always find it difficult to come up with a card for him that I feel is special enough and usually end up going out and buying one but not this year. I recently found some absolutely gorgeous stamps at The Craft Barn from Impression Obsession, a brand I haven't come across before but I struggled not to buy them all.

This lovely lighthouse is one and I simply stamped it with Broken China Distress Ink onto watercolour paper and then painted in the detail. I'm really liking ripped edges at the minute so matted and layered it with some vellum and the script was stamped with my bargain Colour My World Background stamps, I think they were £3.99 for two and they're really big.

Another favourite is this Martha Stewart Baker's Twine, a blog candy win and the starfish came from my local market, another bargain buy!!

Right, I need to go and be productive today, I have a date with the dentist tomorrow to have a wisdom tooth taken out, ouch!!!! and I'm not looking forward to it so I might not get much done afterwards. I'm getting prepared to feel sorry for myself!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Monday goes well.

WOYWW The Week After PIF

2011-06-08T19:22:00.004+01:00

Evening lovely friends. I hope I find you all well today, better than the weather anyway. It's been showery and cool here all day but that's been OK as I didn't need the temptation to be in the garden as you will see from my workdesk this week.

I've spent the day decorating a 11" chocolate cake for a lady whose FIL is celebrating his 90th Birthday on Friday. Luckily she chose the same design as I made for my friend Sylvia last year so I knew what I was doing. It still took most of the day though. I made the cake yesterday and it's a good job no one could see me, have you ever tried whisking 15 egg whites. My bowl wasn't big enough and it was like a volcano. Still alls well that ends well and the cake is all boxed ready to be delivered tomorrow, I just hope she likes it.

It's been an exciting week with all the delights of the 2nd Anniversary pif and I'd just like to say a huge thank you to our esteemed leader Julia, the head of team WOYWW who not only gets all these wonderful people together every week but also suggested the pif and it's a huge credit to her that everyone took part so enthusiastically.

I was absolutely delighted to receive mine on Monday from the very talented Laura. She said she was on tenterhooks to know whether I would like it or not. She needn't have worried.

Not only is it beautiful but so useful especially to someone like me who has a memory like a sieve. I've been showing it to everyone and it now has pride of place in my craft room so that I can jot down everything I need to remember and I'll think of Laura everytime I use it.

It's been so nice to make two new friends this week as I also had the pleasure of sending my pif to the lovely Lisa-Jane.

This is what I sent her and the eagle eyed among you may recognise it from The Stampman challenge the other week. While I was messy with inks and embossing powder and happy with what I was making I made two hangers, just changing the wording on this one. I was quite nervous about posting it off too, hoping it would be OK but I'm pleased to say Lisa-Jane says she loves it, phew!!

Thanks, as always, for stopping by and for the lovely comments you leave, I really do appreciate them. You are a wonderful bunch of friends.

A New Stampman Challenge For The Boys

2011-06-03T22:04:00.004+01:00

Evening everyone. Sorry I'm a bit late posting my DT piece for the new challenge over at The Stampman this time, the gorgeous weather got in the way today. Hasn't it been just beautiful?

Michelle has set us the challenge of making a card for the men in our lives which is very appropriate with Father's Day just round the corner. It's also my Hubby's birthday on Sunday so I was glad of the practice. He isn't getting this card but one similar. I'll share that one with you once he's opened it!!

Jill has lots of brilliant stamps in the shop for masculine cards and the Aspects of Design Nautical set has to be my favourite. I kept this card very simple and just stamped it with Vintage Photo Distress ink onto watercolour paper so that I could paint in all the details. I tore and inked the edges and then did the same with the script background. The Bakers Twine is from some Martha Stewart blog candy I won ages ago but just love it and I made the paper beads to thread onto it.

If you want to get organised with your Father's Day cards then why not join us, the winner will receive a £10 voucher to spend at The Stampman as usual.

Just before I sign off tonight I thought I'd share a photo of our trip out yesterday. For years I've wanted to see the Anthony Gormley statues of the men on Crosby Beach called Another Place. Unfortunately, we left gorgeous sunshine behind and ran into cloud all day, that'll teach us to venture over The Pennines!!!! You'll understand that if you come from Yorkshire or Lancashire!! But I was really glad we finally got to see them. Some had been dressed up with scarves and ties which was funny, but they looked really strange just standing there staring out to sea. The only disappointing thing I thought was the state of the beach, not the cleanest I've been on!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend. I hope you get to enjoy the weather for as long as it lasts.

HAPPY WOYWW 2nd ANNIVERSARY

2011-06-01T09:00:00.000+01:00

Morning lovely crafters and all my WOYWW friends, the big day has finally arrived. My pif is made and ready to go so I hope whoever follows me on the list today likes it, it was made and will be sent with my love. I thought I better get posting early as we are up early and on our way out. It's half term here in the UK and Hubby has the week off too, his first holiday since Christmas, so we are making the most of it.

Here is my desk as I left it last night. I am in the middle of a card making session spurred on after making the ATC for The Stampman swap, which you can see further down this post. I had the beautiful Habico Oriental stamps out and decided to carry on stamping with them. I've coloured them with distress inks and promarkers, nothing like mixing mediums!!

You can't see from the photo but I'm also sharing the dining table with my Hubby who is on his computer on the other side playing World Of Warcraft!!!!! Don't get me started. Still he doesn't complain about my crafting so I try not to complain about his gaming obsession.

If you want to celebrate with Julia the 2nd Anniversary of this wonderful world of work desks she has created then pop over to her lovely blog and see what it's all about. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Now, on to the ATC I made for the Stampman ATC Swap. The first of the month certainly comes round with some speed and this time the theme is TREES. I saw a lady on C&C using shaving brushes with inks and remembered I had some stashed away and dug them out to have a play with creating a little scene using torn paper. I used Broken China and Bundled Sage Distress Inks after masking the blossom branches which were stamped first. The flowers are painted in with Worn Lipstick and some stickles added for a touch of bling. After struggling with the size of ATC's initially I'm beginning to like the challenge now.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the week whatever you are doing.

Cards For Two Special People

2011-05-30T20:43:00.003+01:00

Evening lovely Crafters. I hope you enjoyed your Bank Holiday Monday despite the weather. It was great crafting weather wasn't it. I've managed to catch up on a few things that needed to be done so am a happy bunny tonight.

May and June are extremely busy for Birthdays and Special Days for me and I'm on a bit of a production line at the minute. I made this card for two ladies who have birthdays days apart but live at the opposite ends of the country so I knew there was no risk of them seeing each others.

The flower is a Papermania build a rose stamp which I've had for ages and not used. I painted it with Cosmic Shimmer watercolours paint and was pleased with the finished result although it was bit time consuming cutting out all the separate petals to build it up.

The background stamping is using a Colour My World background stamp. The top and bottom panels were stamped in Bundled Sage Distress Ink, my new favourite colour and the middle one is clear embossed and the ink rubbed over it to create a negative effect. I coloured the mat layer with a grey promarker and the greeting was stamped onto an inked Nestie that has been cut in half and finished it off with perfect pearls.

I'd like to enter it into the Dream Valley challenge this time which is to Stamp Something, no digi images allowed.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting.

WOYWW

2011-05-25T16:08:00.004+01:00

Afternoon folks. You really are the most encouraging and supportive group of people I know. Thank you so much for your wonderful comments about my Paint Fusion. Showing you painting is a bit more personal than paper craft as there is no where to hide and, as my Hubby will tell you, I am very self critical so your support is more appreciated than you'll ever know.

Thank goodness the wind has died down at last. Although we've not had the sunshine they promised us it's been a bit warmer and I've spent most of the day in my greenhouse so my poor craft desk has been neglected and as we speak there is nothing on it so for WOYWW this time I thought I would show you my outside work desk again.

Everything is growing nicely and once these chilly nights have gone for the Summer hopefully things can be moved outside. At the minute I'm busy potting on and planting up tubs ready for the Summer but it's a constant juggling of space.

I like to grow things that live in the greenhouse too so that there is something nice to look at and these are my favourites. They are called Lewisia and don't like getting wet so are no good in the garden but I can give them the attention they need inside and they reward me with these beautiful little flowers. I have all shades of pink and orange but this little beauty is a bit different.

Outside the Aquilegias are at their best and at last I have some colours other than blue.

And here is a long shot of the garden. It is only small but I cram it to the rafters.

The excitement is mounting as there's only one more week until Julia celebrates the 2nd Anniversary of WOYWW with her Pass It Forward and it was hilarious how many closed desks were on view last week with people hiding their makes. If you are wondering what it's all about pop over to see head desk hopper, Julia and get involved in this mad world. It's totally addicitive I warn you.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your week.

A Finished Corn Field

2011-05-23T22:56:00.003+01:00

Evening lovely Crafters. I've been singing "Just blown in from the windy city" all day today. Hasn't it been breezy, although I know we have nothing to complain about compared to those of you who live in Scotland. Are you still standing up there?

It certainly hasn't been a day to be outside gardening, apart from tying things down which I have had to do from time to time so I managed to finish off my Paint Fusion field of Poppies, although now it's finished I'm more happy with the daisies. The poppies still need a bit of work to get right, the petals look a bit flat to me. Still it's a good excuse to do another painting.

I did the ears of corn in the same way that Sheena does the Lavender and I was quite pleased with the results of those.

The whole thing is done on canvas and I created the crackle background with the matt emulsion and PVA glue. It gives a lovely surface to paint on and is very forgiving in that you can correct any mistakes with the acrylic paint while it is still wet by rubbing it away with water without spoiling the background layer, something I am eternally grateful for. I envy people who paint effortlessly, I fiddle around for ages!!

I want to try the poppies again but maybe in a different colour. I have lots in my garden but very few red ones, I love the pinks and mauves of the Oriental poppies so maybe that'll be my next play.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Game Of Bingo At The Stampman

2011-05-20T15:56:00.004+01:00

Afternoon everyone, hope you are all well. The end of another week. I sometimes wonder whether I doze off for a couple of days each week, they seem to get faster and faster. We've had an afternoon of rain too, I can see all my plants reviving as I look at them.

It's time for another challenge at The Stampman and Lisa Sparkle has given us a bingo card to play with. You can select any line vertically, horizontally or diagonally and must use all the ingredients in that line although you can use other things too. Pop over to the challenge blog to see what delicious things she's included.

I chose the bottom line which included Die cuts, Homemade paper and Bling or Sparkle and made a door hanger.

I daubed Starburst stain over the base and then stamped some stars from the Starburst Fairies set over the top before edging it with Lapis Blue Cosmic Shimmer embossing powder. It was from the UTEE set so gave a rougher finish but I quite like that.

I then made some homemade paper for the tattered flower by putting distress ink on my craft mat, spritzing with water and swooshing cartridge paper around in it. For the darker one I used Broken China, Chipped Sapphire and Vintage Photo and the lighter one was Broken China and Bundled Sage which I then stamped text over with Broken China. After cutting them out with the Tim Holtz die I dipped each layer into some melted clear EP. I used a large pie dish for this and my heat gun not having a melting pot and although it was a bit messy it worked OK.

The letters were cut out using Tim's Vintage Market die and the swirl was yet another of Tim's dies.

The rest of the team have come up with some amazing projects so make sure you check them out and don't forget the prize is a £10 Stampman Voucher so it's well worth joining in.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend whatever you are up to. We are hoping for a nice day tomorrow. It's our local country show and I'd rather not have to put my wellies on.

WOYWW and A Lovely Award

2011-05-18T13:18:00.004+01:00

Afternoon lovely Crafters. Blimey, is it Wednesday again!! These weeks are just flying. I have spent the morning making pom pom spiders with my lovely class of 7 year olds. I did wonder when the teacher suggested them whether the kids would get bored winding wool, but how wrong could I be, they absolutely love it and are so thrilled with their finished spiders. We still have many to make but they are looking great hanging from the classroom ceiling.

If it's Wednesday , it must be WOYWW again. Only two weeks to go to the 2nd Anniversary and my Pif is finished and ready to go so I'm a relieved bunny this week. If you're wondering what on earth I'm talking about, then pop over to see the lovely Julia and she will explain all.

I'm in the middle of a bit of Paint Fusion at the minute. I had the idea of trying to represent a cornfield full of Poppies and Daisies. It's still a work in progress but I'll share it with you when it's finished.

I also have a photo printed off ready to do a LO when I've finished painting and the Scrapbook mag is open ready to provide some inspiration.

I was also thrilled this week to receive this lovely award from the very talented and inspirational Emma. If you haven't come across her blog than it's definitely worth a look, she is on the Clarity Design Team and does some fantastic work with Barbara's superb stamps and is a very supportive blogging buddy.

I am supposed to tell you seven interesting facts about myself which is really difficult but here are some that I've come up with.

1- I love my bed and hate getting up in the morning so we are always rushing about to get out of the house in time.

2- I have a button phobia so my poor husband has to sew his own on and I will never wear anything with them on, apart from jeans or trousers.

3- I was an Insurance Underwriter in a previous life.

4- I was born in Nottingham so am not a true Yorkshire woman.

5- I couldn't live without my garden and spend as much money on plants as I do on craft stash, forget shoes and handbags!!!

6-I am addicted to Neighbours and can't miss an episode, sad I know.

7- I feel truly blessed to be apart of this wonderful Crafty Blogging Community and treasure all the friends I have made through it.

I can never choose who to pass awards onto as you are all worthy, so if you haven't already received this one, please feel free to help yourself.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your week is going well so far. It's still chilly and windy here but there is promise of some better weather at the weekend, here's hoping.

Friendship

2011-05-16T17:07:00.006+01:00

Afternoon lovely Crafters. What a strange weekend with Mr Blogger going AWOL on Friday. He seems to have eaten some of my lovely WOYWW comments from last week too so if you stopped by and left a comment and I haven't visited you back, thank you so much for them and please forgive me. I will try and get round a few more desks before this Wednesday!!!!
I do know that you eagle eyed folk spotted the tin of Science Putty on the table and wondered what it was used for. Sorry, I don't have any mysterious new crafting technique to share, it belongs to DD and is a tin of neon orange squidgy stuff that she molds into shapes and then it gradually goes all flat and smooth again. Very weird but she loves it!!

Also for those of you who are interested, there are some choccies left inside those boxes. I can make chocolate last. My downfall are the sour chewy sweets. Give me a bag of those and they're gone in 10 minutes!!

Now on to more sensible things. We are half way through our Friendship ATC swap at The Stampman and Lisa Sparkle is providing some extra inspiration if you want to join in. I am still find ATC's a challenge but after scouring Craft Stamper for some inspiration here is what I came up with this time.

I printed the Friendship definition off the Internet and then inked up the background with Broken China, Chipped Sapphire and Dusty Concord distress ink, using a Tim Holtz Swirl die as a stencil. I then doodled on the stencil swirl and stuck it on as well adding some more doodling in white and black gel pen. A couple of brads and some fibres finished things off.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Monday has got the week off to a good start. If you are in the part of the country with the warm temperatures and sunshine, please can you send some back up North. It's so windy and cold up here at the minute. I don't like having to put jumpers back on after the gorgeous weather we've had.

WOYWW 101

2011-05-11T18:59:00.004+01:00

Evening lovely Crafters. Two posts in two days, wonders will never cease.

I've been AWOL from WOYWW for several weeks but was determined to join in this week. I've been missing my weekly fix of nosiness. If you're not sure what I'm wittering on about, pop over to see Julia at Stamping Ground and all will become clear.

Here is my desk as I left it last night. Nothing has changed today because I've been out on a school trip to RHS Harlow Carr with DD's class, pond dipping and running round a meadow with an insect net. Great fun!! It's absolutely amazing what is all around us that we never even see.

Anyway, back to the desk. My friend asked me if I could make her a bookmark and just said she liked purple. My first attempt was using a Kanban set of birds and I decided yesterday to make a more arty one with the TH Umbrella Man so that she had a choice. The second bookmark has just been gessoed and is waiting for it's coat of Cosmic Shimmer glitter paint before being decorated.

You can also see my books of clear stamps in their handmade covers ready for some quick thank you cards that need making and also hiding in the corner two, yes two, boxes of delicious Thorntons choccies, my Easter eggs!!

I can report back that my friend chose the bird bookmark and here is a close up of the front and back. I stamped and clear embossed the images onto Grungeboard and then painted them with H2o paint before rubbing the edges with Dusty Concord Distress Ink.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your week is going well so far. We are over half way to the weekend yet again!!

Cards, Cakes and Hearts

2011-05-10T09:22:00.005+01:00

Morning lovely Crafters. I hope I find you all well on yet another sunny morning. I really hope this isn't Summer and come next month Autumn will return!! Is that being pessimistic?

We have had a really busy, fun weekend. It was DD's 10th Birthday on Saturday. I can't believe my little baby is so big, where do the years go? Anyway, after the horrible birthday she had last year when she was so poorly, we were determined to make it really nice for her this year and so we spent Saturday bowling and eating Macdonalds with some of her friends at lunchtime and then various members of the family came in the afternoon. She was thoroughly spoilt but said it was the best birthday ever. Can't ask for much more than that.

She has gone completely off birthday cake and buttercream so asked for buns instead. I forgot to take a piccy of them all but these were what was left at the end of the day and no I didn't make the flowers, they were bought, how lazy is that!!

Her card was inspired by one I saw in the new Creativity magazine and I used the free Tatty Teddy stamp that came with it. The F was printed on the computer and then cut out of Kanban paper. I stamped the Teddy 3 times and coloured it with grey die ink and promarkers and decoupaged it and then decorated the letter with flowers and punched butterflies and doodled swirls.

Thankfully, Mr Mojo has come back so I have been busy with all sorts of things, but none of them finished yet so I thought I'd finish by sharing with you the completed wall hanging I made using Sheena's Paint Fusion Sweetpeas and heart die cuts recently. It is now hanging in our Conservatory and spurring me on to do more fusioning, I just need more hours in the day if anyone has any to spare.

Thanks for stopping by and for all the generous and supportive comments you always leave and welcome to my new followers, that counter is creeping up to the 100 slowly which I can scarcely believe. I remember being so excited when I had one follower, my blogging buddy Sally, who has been a brilliant follower and friend right from the beginning.

The Stampman Poppies Challenge

2011-05-06T12:34:00.003+01:00

Happy Friday everyone. I hope your week has gone well.

It's time for another challenge over at The Stampman and this time the lovely Janet has set us the theme of POPPIES.

Her husband is organising a fund raising concert for The British Legion in Skipton on 25th October and thought it'd be great to have some handmade cards to sell. So if you'd like to be challenged, dig out all those lovely Poppy stamps you have in your stash and get creating. If you'd like to donate your cards to Janet, via The Stampman, she'd be thrilled, but there is absolutely no obligation. You will still be in with a chance of winning the £10 Stampman vouchers whether you donate them or not, so have fun.

Here is my Design project this time.

I used a Hero Cling stamp coloured with distress inks and then cut out and decoupaged with some stickles and glossy accents to highlight the lovely flower.

It is mounted on some embossed card using the Script Cuttlebug folder which had lime green chalk ink lightly rubbed over. The other embossed card is some Core'dinations Black magic which has been lightly sanded to show the red through.

The Sentiment is in an Aspects of Design Framie and I coloured some white nail heads with a promarker to match.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Our Day Out

2011-05-03T19:29:00.004+01:00

Evening lovely Crafters. Weren't we blessed with amazing weather over the Bank Holiday weekend. It was quite a shock to wake up to cloud today, although it did brighten up later but has been much cooler here. We desperately need rain,though, the garden is like dust and with the strong winds my pots were looking very sad and wilted last night. I had to go out and generously water all of them which is something I expect to do in July, not early May.

I thought I'd share some pics of our day out yesterday. I bet all my Yorkshire Blogging Buddies will recognise where we went, but if you don't know, this is a local beauty spot called Malham Cove. Aren't we lucky to have this on our doorstep. There were plenty of people about but everyone was very friendly and when we climbed all the steps to the top, and there were plenty I can assure you, everyone was encouraging each other and there was lots of banter about. I think the good mood of the Royal Wedding was still in the air. It was a lovely atmosphere.

This was the view from the top looking over the limestone pavement. Pretty stunning isn't it. We could actually see the huge fire burning on the top of Halifax Moor which is a good distance away, the air was so clear.

It was a lovely day out but now we are back to normal so I must knuckle down and get some crafting done.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Tuesday has gone well..

Happy May Day

2011-05-01T16:28:00.003+01:00

Afternoon lovely Crafters and apologies for my poor attendance this week. It's been a funny week with holidays all over the place and the spectacular Royal Wedding on Friday. Wasn't it just perfect. A day for us all to be so proud to be British. I loved every minute from the beautiful music in the service, the wonderful dresses, didn't Kate look beautiful, to seeing all the happy, smiling people fill The Mall. What a sight!!

My Mojo also seems to have gone on holiday without me so I haven't touched anything crafty all week. I hope it packs it's bags and gets back here soon, I have things I need to do and this lack of enthusiasm is worrying!

So, as you might guess I have nothing crafty to show you today, so instead I'll share the Maypole dancing we went to watch in town this morning. The weather was perfect, if a little breezy and the children had a great time.

I hope what ever you have been doing this long weekend, you've had a relaxing time and enjoy whatever you do tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by and DD would like to thank everyone for the lovely comments you left her for her tin. She is more excited about receiving her own comments I think than actually doing the project.

DD Alters A Tin

2011-04-26T20:00:00.004+01:00

Evening lovely crafters. Are you all shivering in this chilly weather? I think we've all got used to the warm sunshine haven't we.

Just a quick post tonight to share with you an altered tin DD was asked to create for another GDT spot she was delighted to receive from the ladies at Try It On Tuesday this week. I'm finding it hard to keep up with her these days.

She decided to use some of the flowers she made at the Easter Lovin Ink workshop and coloured a Tilda to match using promarkers. We punched the butterfly out of the scrap paper the flowers were placed on to be sprayed. It's lovely and sparkly and of course the colours match perfectly.

The little ticket sentiment is from a Whimsy set that are fast becoming a favourite.

The Design Team have created some gorgeous tins too so it's definitely worth popping over for a look.

Thanks for stopping by and for all the lovely comments you leave, they are so much appreciated.

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T11:10:00.006+01:00

I just popped on this morning to wish all my crafty blogging buddies a very Happy Easter and I hope you have all been left a little chocolatey goodness by the Easter Bunny.

I have been very lucky and have a nice little stash to keep me going in those busy crafty moments and DD was awake at 6.30 this morning wanting to see what she had been left. Anyone would have thought it was Christmas. Still, long may the excitement continue.

I thought I'd share with you my little Easter tree which I decorated with eggs inspired by two of the most generous and kindest blogging buddies I feel honoured to know.

The marble eggs were the inspiration of Jo and the stamped eggs from Michelle. Thank you both.

Thanks for stopping by as always and I hope whatever you are doing this Easter Sunday, you have a wonderful day.

A New Challenge at The Stampman

2011-04-22T12:00:00.000+01:00

Is it really only Easter, it feels more like the height of July with this wonderful heatwave we are having. It's so hard to drag myself indoors to actually do a bit of crafting these days.

Over at The Stampman it's time for a new challenge and I have the honour of hosting this time and our theme is RESIST. Hubby quipped, "does that mean you have to resist chocolate?" He thinks he's hilarious!!

No, we want you to have a play with a resist technique and here's my design project.

There are so many variations, the possibilities are endless but to give you some ideas this is the resist technique I used and it's one of my favourites.

I learnt this from the main man of craft Sir Tim but it's very simple and uses white acrylic paint as the resist.

Liberally cover your stamp with white acrylic paint and stamp in the normal way. Please remember to wash the stamp straight away. If the paint dries you'll never get it off!!

Leave the stamped image to dry thoroughly. You can use a heat gun but don't heat too closely or the paint bubbles.

Rub over various colours of distress ink using cut and dry foam. Make sure you use a good depth of colour so that the resist shows up nicely on the finished project.

Buff the painted image with a soft cloth to wipe off any excess ink.

You can then decorate your background in any way you want to. I used a tag and over stamped the painted swirl with walnut stain distress ink before adding a dragonfly from Kay Carley's lovely Daisy Daydreams stamps, painted with Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paint and a Woodware gold curly clip.

I had a play with embossed resist some time ago and you can see the results here, with a link to the original tutorial.

The rest of the Design Team have created some wonderful projects and have links to other great tutorials too so pop over and have a look at some other ideas before you start playing with your paints, inks and powders.

Don't forget The Stampman offer a £10 voucher for the winner so don't resist our challenge and get entering.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Easter Weekend. I hope the Easter bunny is very generous to you all.

Chocolate and Good Company

2011-04-16T20:34:00.003+01:00

Evening lovely Crafters. I hope you are all well and happy in your crafting.

The nice weather has returned here again today after a few dull and dreary days and it's been so lovely to be outside again. I hope it lasts until the Easter weekend.

Yesterday, DD and I spent a brilliant day at an Easter workshop run by the Lovin Ink ladies, Michelle and Janet and this is what we created.

The eggs are a plastic mould and have a chocolate outside, yes, real chocolate, and then the inside is painted and decorated with handmade flowers. Michelle taught us how to make 3D flowers including Orchids and snapdragons and we had a brilliant promarker tutorial from Kerry before we coloured our Tilda.

This is mine

And this is DD's. She keeps asking when she can eat her egg, but hopefully it'll last until next weekend.

Here are some of the flowers we made sprayed with various inks and mists. They are curled with a ball tool and layered up. Can you guess whose is who? I'll give a clue. I'm the conservative one!!

It was a lovely day with very good company and as always we learnt so much. Thank you ladies, we both thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to the next one.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

WOYWW

2011-04-13T10:08:00.007+01:00

Morning lovely Crafters and Happy WOYWW. I can't believe I'm actually posting my desk early for once. Wonders will never cease. We are nearly at the end of our Easter Hols here and DD has been spending a few days with her Grandma. She came home last night and is this morning soaking in the bath. She's been there for an hour so far, you'd have thought the water would've gone cold by now.

Anyway, I thought I'd grab a few minutes and get my desk posted. It's also raining in our little bit of Yorkshire, good for the garden but not for my piccies!!

I have lots on my desk this week. There are two scrapbook layouts waiting to be worked on. The photos are printed and papers chosen and I've got lots of ideas for them, hence the Cuttlebug sitting waiting patiently to cut some tattered flowers out.

I've also been playing with different colours for the Lavinia card I made for Mothers Day. It's nice and quick, when I find a design I like I tend to stick to it until I get fed up with it!! You can see the piece of scrap paper where I've been trying out my promarkers for matting the stamped designs onto. I always think the colours look different to the actually pen label and need to try them out first for the colour I want. Playing with different inks has been good fun and I think I like these two best.

If you want to join in the fun and share your desk with the world pop over to see Julia at Stamping Ground and start browsing.

On Saturday we made the most of the fantastic weather and had our first trip of the year to Ambleside in The Lake District. It's been hard to believe it's only early April with temperatures over 20C hasn't it. I could get used to it.

Up at the crack of dawn, we stopped for bacon butties on the way and were parked up enjoying ourselves by 10am. If I could live anywhere in the UK this would be where I'd choose, how about you?

Thanks for stopping by and I apologise if I haven't visited you for awhile. My blogging time has been limited during the holidays but normal service will resume shortly so please bear with me. I need to catch up on all the lovely things I've been missing.

The Stampman Challenge-Embossing

2011-04-08T19:46:00.005+01:00

Evening lovely Crafters. Summer has arrived, that must have been the shortest Spring on record, Shhh don't say that tooo loudly, I want this wonderful weather to last.

I was complaining last week about the fact that our Easter school holidays are so early this year, but with the weather being so glorious we are having a great time and have been out and about everyday and when at home we've been in the garden, so apologises for my lack of blogging activity, it is just too nice to be indoors!!

Saying that I did manage to get my DT piece done for The Stampman's new challenge this week which is Embossing. We were very sad to say cheerio to our lovely team mate Sarah, who is off on new and exciting adventures, but on a positive note we can say hello to Neil who hopefully will keep all us Ladies in order. He creates some gorgeous projects so pop over and take a look at his blog if you've got a minute.

Back to my project. I wanted to play with UTEE again but couldn't think where to start until I was watching the Clarity programme on C&C last weekend and saw a lovely card that gave me the inspiration to start. I thought the card was made by my blogging buddy Emma, but she hasn't shown it amongst her samples this week so I'm not so sure now. If it's not one of yours Emma, I apologise, but go and check out Emma's cards anyway, you won't be disappointed.

All the stamps I've used are from a Non Sequitur stamp sheet called Italy and it was in The Stampman's sale section in the shop.

The border was stamped and embossed with Moonglow Midnight Emerald Obsidian, which is the same powder I used for the central UTEE disc. The main piece of UTEE was done with Cosmic Shimmer Lapis Azure and dusted with a mica powder to highlight the texture.

I brushed some Starburst Stain over the Cuttlebug Script embossed background and added a bead to the UTEE piece.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend, whatever you get up too and enjoy the sunshine.

WOYWW-A Few Sweetpeas

2011-04-06T17:19:00.003+01:00

Afternoon lovely Bloggers and happy WOYWW. I hope the weather has been as gorgeous in your little part of the World as it's been here in Yorkshire today. Warm sunshine, perfect.

We have made the most of it and spent the morning at Harewood House where little people can run off lots of energy and then in the garden this afternoon, so my desk is just as I left it after I had cleared up last night. I had a very satisfying few hours with Sheena's Paint Fusion Sweetpeas. You can see the scrap paper with all the practising on, so it wasn't instant, but I got there in the end and for once I'm very happy with the results.

I've made this little hanger for my kitchen. It still needs putting together but the messy paint bit is finished.

And just to send you a little cheer if the weather hasn't been as good as ours or if you just need a smile sending your way, here's one of my beautiful Tulips in the garden being visited by a little buggy friend.

If you want to share your crafty space or just want to be nosey, then pop over to see our esteemed leader, Julia at Stamping Ground and prepare to be wowed by what you find.

Thanks for stopping by.

Stampman Blogcandy and A Card For My Mum

2011-04-04T17:07:00.003+01:00

Afternoon Crafters, how's your Monday going? It's the first day of the Easter holidays here and as the weather has been a bit chilly and damp we've spent the day having a blitz on DD's bedroom, well it had to be done!!!! You can now actually see the colour of the floor again and I know that all the clothes in the wardrobe do actually fit. Would you believe at nearly 10 she still had clothes sizes age 4-5 in her drawer. To be fair, they did still fit last Summer but she's had a bit of a growth spurt over the last year.

To get your week off to a good start The Stampman are offering some scrummy blog candy in the form of Tim Holtz loveliness. Jill has put together a collection of new products and some from way back to the value of £60 so if you want to be in with a chance to get her hands on it, all you have to do is put the above photo on your sidebar with a link back to Jill's blog and make sure you add your name to her post. The candy is open until 9pm (GMT) on Tuesday 26th April so what are you waiting for!!

Here in the UK it was Mother's Day yesterday and I hope all you Mums had a lovely, relaxing day and were spoilt rotten. Did you see that advert that was on yesterday that said "she is just an arm, a leg" etc and was dedicated to Mums. I blubbed my eyes out when I saw it. Daft or what. It just caught a spot!!

Here is the card I made for my Mum with some of the lovely new Lavinia stamps I bought from Harrogate a few weeks back.

I used distress inks for all the stamping, starting with Antique Linen. The words are Brushed Corduroy which I also added around the edges . The leaves are Rusty Hinge and Bundled Sage and the little mushrooms are Aged Mahogany. I always seem to struggle to get a good dark image for silhouette images but with this one, after stamping it, I used the fine liner that comes in the promarker sets to darken it up which seemed to work well.

The whole thing was finally sprayed with gold glimmer mist to add a bit of shimmer. Mum was thrilled with it, but I did have a head start because I know how much she loves Lavinia stamps!!!

Well, I need to go and get tea out so thanks for stopping by and enjoy your evening.

Stampman ATC Swap

2011-04-01T19:36:00.005+01:00

Evening lovely Bloggers from a very windy Yorkshire. We've been battered about over the last two days. I think the weathermen were kidding when they said it was going to be the warmest day of the year today. Perhaps is was an April Fool's joke!!!

It's been a very busy week here and I'm absolutely delighted to tell you that I sold every single one of the 30 bookmarks I made. The children loved them and when it's all for such a good cause as school funds I'm thrilled. Roll on the Easter Fair on Easter Saturday although that will be hopefully for my crafty funds as well as helping the school of course.

As it's the first of the month, that must mean it's the start of a new theme over at The Stampman's ATC swap and this time it's birds.

ATC's are still something very new to me and I'm not sure they've hooked me like tags have but here is my effort for my design piece this time.

I had another go at the resist technique everyone was playing with a week or so ago but this time tried watercolour paper. All the stamps I've used are from the Urban Chic stamp set from Tim Holtz. The script was clear embossed and then Antique Linen distress ink put on an acrylic block and spritzed with water before being stamped onto the paper. I over stamped with another script using Brushed Corduroy and the scroll at the top used Aged Mahogany and was spritzed with water before being stamped

Lastly the bird and little sentiment was added in Forest Moss.

Thanks for stopping by and for the lovely comments you always leave. I appreciate them so much.

Wishing you a lovely weekend.

WOYWW

2011-03-30T16:40:00.003+01:00

Afternoon lovely Bloggers. Not sure I like this dismal weather after the lovely sunshine. I can feel my mood taking a downturn too. Isn't it funny how the weather affects how you feel. Hopefully the sun will return tomorrow.

Well here we are at WOYWW yet again. These Wednesdays just come round faster and faster.

My desk is full of bookmarks, again!!!!! The Mothers Day stall is tomorrow and Friday morning and I suddenly felt I needed to make some more. You watch, I won't sell a single one now I've got a box full. I decided to laminate them to make them more hard wearing and these in progress have poppies on them. I've stamped and coloured one half of a long strip and then folded and stuck the halves together to cover up the bleed through of the promarkers.

If you want to check out what all the other WOYWW'ers have been up too, pop over to Julia's blog, Stamping Ground. You'll be sure to find some inspirational work happening.

DD has been invited the party of her best friend on Saturday and wanted to make a special card for her. I've been desperate to play with my new big Go Kreate dies and as an Easel card was wanted this seemed the perfect opportunity. I cut all the pieces while DD went through my stamps and chose my one and only Magnolia stamp. She stamped, coloured and cut her out and also stamped and coloured the Happy Birthday and then put all the pieces together so it was a joint effort.

I think I need to take colouring lessons from her!!

I have also been very busy with pressies for both my Mums but I can't share those with you until after Mother's Day.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your week.

The Stampman Challenge-Anything Tim

2011-03-25T13:12:00.003Z

Afternoon lovely Bloggers. I hope you are still enjoying this lovely sunshine.

Frankie is hosting The Stampman challenge this time and is in her element with Anything Tim. I think we've all been looking forward to this one, who can resist playing with products from the King Of Craft.

This is my DT piece and I thought it was time for another box.

I used some new alcohol inks I bought from The Stampman at Harrogate last weekend, Citrus and Pool, to make the background and then stamped the heart from Tim's Urban Chic Stamp set in black Stazon.

The main part of the box was inked lightly with Broken China Distress ink.

The hearts inside were cut out and painted with turquoise Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paint and turquoise stickles added on top. I sandwiched the acetate between two hearts. For a change I added a little raised platform in the middle of the box just to give another dimension.

Unfortunately I didn't have any Tim hardware for the lid so raided Hubby's shed and added a washer and nut and little knob I found as a homage to Tim!!

There are some stunning pieces from the rest of the Design Team so please pop over and have a look and be inspired. As always, The Stampman are offering a £10 voucher for the winner so it's well worth having a go.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the weekend.

WOYWW and some Fushioneering

2011-03-23T19:34:00.004Z

Evening lovely Bloggers. I think Spring has finally arrived. Hasn't it been wonderful over the last few days? I apologise for my lack of Blog Hopping but as you can guess I've been making the most of the sunshine and getting the garden knocked into some shape. I will catch up with you all I promise.

If it's Wednesday it must be WOYWW but there was nothing on my workdesk today so I'm showing you where I have been working instead. My other favourite workdesk, my greenhouse bench. As you can see I've got some little seedlings showing their heads in the warmth and some lavender cuttings I took when trimming back some pots I have in the garden. Hopefully, I'll get lots more from this pot full.

I planted this basket of Violas in the Autumn for some Winter colour and they have survived temperatures of -18Oc, snow and wind and have flowered their soaks off and now the sun's come out they look wonderful.

The Forsythia is also looking gorgeous against the blue sky.

If you have a workdesk you want to show to the world, don't be shy, just get yourself over to see our esteemed leader, Julia at her blog Stamping Ground and get yourself linked up.

Last week I had another play with my Paint Fusion stuff and came up with this wall hanger. I used the Simply Sweet set of stamps and embossed them with the brass WOW powders before painting the design.

The crackle background was done with matt emulsion and PVA glue. If you haven't seen Sheena demonstrate it yet, it's really easy and very cheap. Paint some card with dark matt emulsion and dry with a heat gun (not too close otherwise the paint bubbles), then paint slightly watered down PVA glue over it and dry slightly before painting with a light Matt Emulsion and when you dry this layer you get lovely crackles. I did this with DD and she got really deep crackles and mine were more delicate. I guess the more you just slap the layers on the better the result. Tester pots are great and very cheap but make sure you get MATT.

The edge was finished with more brass WOW embossing powder and Peeled Paint Distress Ink was rubbed over the finished thing. I then made some little paper roses out of cartridge paper that had been spritzed with glimmer mists .

The lettering was done on the computer, traced onto the hanging and then painted with acrylic paint.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the sunshine.

What A Weekend

2011-03-20T21:32:00.005Z

Evening lovely Bloggers. I hope you've had a great weekend. Where do they go?

I had a very special day yesterday which started at 4.45am. Can't say I was exactly thrilled at having to get up at that time on a Saturday morning but once out of bed it was fine. It was my MIL's 70th birthday last June and the whole family clubbed together and bought her a hot air balloon ride which is something she's always wanted to do. Well, the weather was not kind to us last year and each trip was cancelled but at last she got the all clear and take off was 6.30am yesterday morning from York race course.

It was a stunning morning. Frosty, clear and calm and off she went. The flight lasted about an hour but after seeing her today she has still not come down to earth and is still floating among the clouds. A once in a lifetime experience.

After getting home and having breakfast I went off to the Northern Papercrafts Show at Harrogate and had a lovely day, shopping and chatting. I met so many friendly bloggers and crafters it was wonderful. I was very restrained in my shopping but got some gorgeous new stamps that I can't wait to play with and was thrilled to have a chat with Sheena Douglass who is as nice in real life as she is on the telly. She was kind enough to give me the sample she painted, which I shall treasure and keep on my workdesk as constant inspiration.

Before I sign off for another early night I thought I'd share some of the bookmarks I've finished for the school Mother's Day stall.

The flowers are from Inkadinkadoo and were just coloured with promarkers and I coloured the holders with Peeled Paint distress ink and stamped a smaller version of the flower in the same ink.

Thanks for stopping by and I wish you a happy and safe week.

WOYWW and Being Clean!

2011-03-16T13:07:00.004Z

Afternoon lovely Bloggers. Here we are at Wednesday again and we seem to have had several seasons in one week here in Yorkshire. Monday was fabulous, sunny and warm and since then we have had cold, damp, thick gloomy fog. It's so dark I'm having to craft with the light on as you can see on my workdesk this week.

I've been having a play with making some bookmarks I saw the very talented Barbara Gray making some time ago. I've been asked to make some things for my Daughter's school to sell on their Mother's Day stall. The idea is the children can buy things to give to their Mums so everything is priced at around a £1. Obviously they make their cards in school so I've had to rack my brains for something quick and inexpensive and that will appeal to 4-11 year olds. Now there's a task.

I'm just at the experimental stage but think these will work OK. Fingers Crossed!!!

As you can see I've decamped to the dining room table at the minute. I've been up to my eyes in Sheena's Paint Fusion over the last few weeks and as I need loads of space for paints and stuff, I find the table is much easier to spread everything about on. You might be able to spy a lavender propped up waiting to be finished. Anyway, I seem to have taken root as slowly all sorts of other things have gradually crept downstairs.

If you want to see what all the other WOYWW'ers have been up too this week pop over to Julia's lovely blog Stamping Ground and get snooping.

I have also been persuaded to join in with the huge phenomenom which is the new challenge Blog Less Is More. I've been seeing some stunning entries all over Blogland in the last few weeks and so didn't need much arm twisting to get involved and so here's my very first entry for this week's theme, Off The Edge.

Just a little update on the decorated specs at school. They are still a work in progress. I only get two children at a time as they come out of their lessons to do them so we only get about 8 finished in a morning's session. When they are finished and displayed, I'll make sure I photo them and show you as they are gorgeous. In the meantime, here's one of mine that I use to give them some ideas.

Thanks for stopping by and I'd just like to finish by saying that along with the whole of Blogland, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan. The horrors that are all over the TV at the minute are almost beyond belief.

The Stampman Challenge-Flowers For Mother's Day

2011-03-11T12:40:00.003Z

Hello lovely Bloggers. I hope you haven't been blown away by the awful wind over the last few days. Thank goodness it's dropped a bit today and we have some lovely warm sunshine.

It's a Training Day for us today, the kids are at home more than school at the minute. It's the Easter Hols in 3 weeks time!!!! Anyway, we've had a lovely walk into town this morning and a wander round the shops and a look at all the swans and ducks on the river so I thought I'd just get a bit of blogging done while I rest my feet.

Here's my DT piece for the new challenge over at The Stampman. This time Vix is hosting and she has the theme of Florals with Mothers Day just around the corner.

I made the background using Moonglow mica powder which is applied after swiping versamark liberally over watercolour paper and then stamping into it and finally clear embossing the whole thing. You can see full instructions for this technique here.

My clear embossing powder has been contaminated with bits of glitter but in this case I quite like the effect it gives.

The flowers are Aspects of Design Funky Flowers painted with Cosmic Shimmer watercolours and layered up and the others are white embossed on heat proof acetate.

As always there are some stunning creations from all the Design Team so it's well worth popping over to have a look and there is a £10 Voucher from The Stampman for the challenge winner so why don't you have a go.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend whatever you are up too.

WOYWW

2011-03-09T15:45:00.006Z

Afternoon folks. How's your Wednesday going? Today is the day I volunteer at my Daughter's school and I cut out 36 cardboard spectacles this morning ready for them to be decorated, including the holes where the lenses go. To say my fingers are sore now is an understatement so only gentle crafting for me tonight!

This might go to explain what is on my workdesk today. Here it is in it's full glory for WOYWW. If you haven't shared your desk yet where have you been. Pop over to Julia's and join in with the ever growing phenomenon which is WOYWW. You're bound to meet some great people and find some totally inspirational blogs.

I sell a few cards in my hairdresser's shop, which is how I fund my crafty habit and over the months I've discovered that the cards that sell really well are pretty decoupage with ribbons and bows. My lovingly stamped and coloured ones tend to be much slower to go. It's quite nice though to craft without too much thought, it's quite therapeutic and here you can see a really pretty Hunkydory die cut decoupage kit in progress. I have mounted them on a Marianne D die I had for my birthday. It's quite big and the perfect size for these.

Here's one of the finished cards

Just to remind me of "proper" crafting I have a beautiful card on my desk sent to me by my lovely blogging buddy Sally.

Thanks for stopping by and I will do my best to get round as many desk as I can this week although I may still be visiting next Tuesday, there are so many nowadays so bear with me.

Delicate

2011-03-06T16:17:00.005Z

Afternoon lovely Bloggers on this beautiful Sunday. I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful sunshine if you live in the UK. I know in other parts of the world it is either very warm or very cold at the minute depending on which continent you are living. Whatever you have I hope you are having a great weekend.

I'd just like to say a big hello and welcome to my new followers, there have been a few lately and I'm very happy to see you. I hadn't realised that I've been blogging for just over two years now and when I started I never thought anyone would visit at all so I'm always thrilled to see a new face and I appreciate the loyalty and friendship both through cyberspace and now in real life of many of my long term followers. Who'd have thought life could change so much just by trying to prove to my lovely Hubby that I could do something on the computer by myself without his help, which is how this blogging lark started for me!!

Now back to crafty things. Frankie's Tag It On challenge this week is DELICATE inspired by a brilliant tutorial by Shari Carroll. It you love techniques pop over and have a look, she has some wonderful stuff on her blog. Thanks to Frankie for pointing me in her direction, I love finding new inspiration.

Here is my tag, which is the third attempt to get something I was happy with. It's a very easy technique but as there is quite a bit of water involved my poor tag wasn't really thick enough to cope with it.

The script is from Crafty Individuals and is clear embossed and then Milled Lavender Distress Ink was rubbed over the top and sprayed with water. This is not quite how Shari does it but I struggled with her method to get a colour that showed the script through.

I used Peeled Paint, Broken China and Dusty Concord Distress inks on my craft mat, using them as an ink pad for this Elusive Images stamp. Water is then sprayed on the stamp before using it. Again my image was much darker than I wanted so I sprayed it with water and blotted it to make it more delicate.

I then went back over with cut and dry and the Milled Lavender to make the script pop a bit more. With a bit of playing I ended up with something I was reasonably happy with.

I want to try it again with much sturdier paper. I think it'll work much better doing it the way Shari does.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Field Of Poppies

2011-03-03T18:55:00.005Z

Evening lovely Bloggers. How's your week going? It's been grey and cold here today after some lovely sunshine earlier in the week. The weather doesn't seem quite sure what to do with itself at the minute does it?

The flowers are beginning to make an appearance now though which is wonderful. I saw my first daffodils today so Spring is definitely nearer than Winter I think.

I have been playing with more of the great new stamps from Sheena Douglass this week. Anyone who knows me will know how much I love my garden and plants, there is a constant battle from now on for my time between gardening and crafting so to have some gorgeous flower stamps to play with is my idea of heaven.

These poppy stamps are great as they come in separate components so you can build your design as you go. I haven't mastered the painting technique for these yet so decided to paint them with Barn Door and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks and decoupage them. A few flowers were finished with pearlescent paint. The middles were done with texture paste before being painted.

The background was done with Peeled Paint DI. I blended it with cut and dry foam, spritzed it with water and then stamped some pale poppy leaves all over before edging it with more Aged Mahogany and gold embossing.

I also made a bookmark with the same stamp using grungeboard. The background was painted with Cosmic Shimmer Angel Gold sparkle paint before the leaves and poppies were stamped on and painted with acrylic paints. The paint is so thick it doesn't matter if you stamp the flowers over the leaves as long as the leaves are not painted too darkly. I added gold embossed swirls for a bit of bling.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the end of the week. Thank crunchy it's nearly Friday!!

Just Playing.

2011-03-01T19:08:00.004Z

Evening lovely Bloggers. I hope you have all been blessed with the beautiful sunshine we have had in Yorkshire today. It's been wonderful and I have spent most of it in the garden so am one happy bunny tonight.

I don't know whether any of you have been watching Sheena Douglass on Create and Craft this week. She had a Pick Of The Week with her new Paint Fusion last Friday which was a run away success and had completely sold out within 48 hours, which I have never heard happening before.

It's a new painting technique and she makes it look very easy. The DT were lucky enough to receive all the goodies to have a play with along with Sheena's new DVD which explains everything in great detail and is a brilliant watch. Some of the techniques are incredibly easy and so effective but others take a bit of practice and my hand eye co-ordination is not quite getting it yet. Still that means lots more playing time for me!!

I thought I would share a card I made yesterday with the daisy stamps which are my favourite at the minute and I'm entering it into the Try It On Tuesday challenge which this week is a card Inspired by a song. If you haven't worked it out mine is "Daisy Daisy give me your answer do" I'll stop singing now, it's not pretty.

I embossed the flowers first with the Platinum sparkle WOW embossing powder so that you can just see it once they are painted. My technique is still not quite right, I'm being a bit stingy with the paint on my brush but if you want to see how it should be done, have a look at the gorgeous samples on Sheena's blog.

I've had another first this week, my first ever ATC which was for The Stampman's ATC swap. You won't believe how long this took me as I had to look up what size to make it. I kept it simple and made a distress ink background with faded jeans and peeled paint wiped over and then sprayed with water and blotted to make it really pale. The script was stamped in peeled paint and then the text in broken china as was my lovely Umbrella Man. I clear embossed him and stuck him on with foam pads. The DT have made some far more detailed and gorgeous examples so if you're into ATC's why not pop over and have a look.

Thanks for stopping by.

The Stampman's Swirls and Curls

2011-02-25T09:00:00.002Z

Morning lovely Bloggers. It's nearly the weekend again. Where do these weeks go too?

It's time for a new challenge over at The Stampman and this time our lovely team mate Sue has set the theme of Swirls and Curls. Bet that got you all excited didn't it. Who can resist swirls, I know I can't. I have to have them on everything.

Here's what I came up with and I made all the paper on it myself and had a lovely, messy time.

Making your own backgrounds is so much fun and also so much cheaper because you already have all the stuff and I generally use cheap printer paper unless it's for the main body of the card when I use either stiffer card or in this case some watercolour paper.

Here's the original sheets for all the things I used on my card.

The first is the watercolour paper sprayed with moonshadow mist Treasure Island Aqua (don't you just love that name). It had a few swirls stamped all over it from Kay Carley's Funky Flowers stamps and I then used a Tim Holtz mask and sponged over it with Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick Distress Inks.

There is a lovely shimmer from the Moonshadow mist.

The die cut swirls where cut from a sheet of printer paper that had been liberally splattered with French Country Starburst stains and then scrunched up, carefully opened and left to dry. The colours all blend and go soft and the creases have a beautiful shimmer.

For the flower I used another sheet of printer paper. Put some distress ink on my craft mat sprayed with water and then swiped the paper over it. When it was dry, the Tim Holtz swirls were stamped all over with perfect medium and heat embossed with Cosmic Shimmer gold powder.

I cut up the whole sheet and die cut some Tattered Flowers, the extras will come in handy in the future.

The piece of matting was card with bundled sage DI rubbed round the edge and I used the same colour to stamp the swirls on the main card.

Lastly, I didn't have any gold brads so I used some purple ones, dipped them in gold EP and this is the result.

A few liquid pearls were added for a bit more swirl effect, well you can never have enough can you?

All the things I used can be bought from The Stampman so come on show us your Swirls and Curls, the Stampman have a £10 voucher on offer as the first prize.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend whatever you are doing.

WOYWW and some Exciting News

2011-02-23T15:31:00.005Z

Happy Wednesday everyone. How's your week going so far? The weather hasn't cheered up much although it's a bit milder here today.

Here's my desk this WOYWW with a scrapbook page in full flow. Yeah, crafting for myself for once, a rare thing these days!! It's at the planning stage with nothing stuck down and lots of ideas floating about so you'll have to wait a few days to see the finished result.

If you're wondering what WOYWW is, where have you been? Pop over to see our esteemed leader Julia and check out some of the wonderful workspaces that are laid bare each week.

Now, on to the exciting news. I was very honoured a few weeks ago to get an e-mail from the very talented Sheena Douglass asking me to join her Design Team. Well to say I was gobsmacked was an understatement and once I'd picked myself up off the floor I jumped at the chance.

My first huge box of goodies arrived last week and I've had a lovely play this week. Can't say too much at the moment but if you love what Sheena does and enjoy getting messy take a peek at Create and Craft on Friday at Noon where she has a great Pick of the Week.

I have also received this award from two of my lovely blogging buddies, Lynda and Eiglas. Thank you so much ladies, I appreciate it enormously. As you know I can never choose who to pass awards onto, there are so many talented people out, there so I'd like to give it to anyone who visits, please feel free to help yourself.

Thanks for stopping by and for all the wonderfully generous comments you always leave. DD was absolutely delighted to receive so many for her box.

An Altered Shoebox

2011-02-22T09:00:00.000Z

Morning lovely Bloggers. What has happened to the weather. It's been shocking here over the weekend. We even had fresh snow on Saturday although it was very wet and soggy, not nice at all. Today has been so dark and dismal with more sleet and we've had to have lights on all day. Where have the hints of Spring gone? I hope they come back soon!

Do you remember when DD won the tag challenge over at Try It On Tuesday some weeks back? Well her prize was to be a team guest designer for a week and this is the week. The theme is to alter a shoebox and we had a great day playing with paints, sprays and ink and this is the result. DD decided on the colours and what she wanted to do and I just supervised and suggested a few ideas. All the work is hers using lot of the techniques she learnt from Michelle and Janet on their Art Journalling workshop last Summer . Not bad for a nine year old don't you think?

The box is painted with various acrylic paints and then she used bubble wrap with another paint colour to add more texture. It was then stamped on and sprayed with glimmer mists using a big swirl mask.

We had a slight argument!!!! over the colours. DD chose a lime green mist which gave sparkle but didn't show up very well. When I suggested a turquoise colour she was not happy saying it would ruin it. Dad just shook his head and left the room muttering something about living in a house full of women!!! Anyway, she let me demonstrate on some scrap paper and then decided to give it a go. Thankfully she was happy with the result otherwise I would never have heard the end of it.

She stamped the butterflies from the EI Patchwork butterflies plate, painted them with Twinkling H20's and cut them out. The swirly trails were from the same plate and she used the same swirls to edge the lid.

The box contains all her paper dolls with the press out clothes that you attach through slots on the doll. Do you remember having them when you were young? I do. DD still loves playing with them and has a huge collection. They now have a very smart home to live in.

I love the fact that my daughter loves crafting as much as I do and shows a real talent for it already. There are many occasions when we do something together and I think her composition or the colours she's chosen are better than mine. We have spent the whole day painting today. There can't be many Mums who have such contented children on a wet half term Monday and yes, I do know how lucky I am and immensely proud.

Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW

2011-02-16T19:30:00.004Z

Happy Wednesday all you WOYWWer's and all my other lovely blogging buddies. Hasn't it been an absolutely glorious day. The crocuses have been showing their faces to the sun and Spring was definitely in the air. Wonderful. I have also just read that I have been breathing the same Yorkshire air as one Tim Holtz who is doing some workshops in Harrogate tomorrow and who has been shopping in Leeds today. He must almost have driven past my house!!!!! Enjoy it Sylvia, I want every last detail my friend!!!!!

Now back to WOYWW and here's my desk today after I dragged myself in out of the garden.

I had lots of new promarkers for my birthday and so have been trying to improve my colouring. I have loved the cute Country Companions characters for years and so was thrilled when these sets of stamps were released by do-crafts. I merrily stamped away and then realised that colouring them was a bit of a challenge. How do you colour a Hedgehog?

I bit the bullet and this was the result. I don't think they are too bad. All the tutorials I have been watching lately are beginning to pay off although I still find colouring quite stressful, not relaxing like painting with distress inks.

These cheeky chappies have yet to be made into a card but here's one I managed to finish this afternoon before making tea.

If you haven't yet shared your desk with the rest of us, what are you waiting for, get yourself over to our esteemed leader, Julia who lives in the Stamping Ground and and be prepared to be amazed by some pretty stunning desks and creations that happen on them.

Thanks for stopping by and thank you for your help on my change of blog address problem, they are all up and running now. What a great bunch you are.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T11:44:00.003Z

Morning Lovely Bloggers and Happy Valentine's Day. I hope you all have a little bit of love in the air today.

For those of you who haven't received anything special I'd like to send you this beautiful little snowdrop that I snapped in the garden last week looking beautiful and full of the promise of Spring.

Frankie's Tag It on Challenge this week is Time and here is the tag I had great fun playing with.

The background is Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink spritzed with water and then the Tim Holtz clock stamped in the same ink, along with the sentiment.

The little watch (and sentiment) was the Craft Stamper freebie this month stamped with a Stampin Up ink around the edge and then another embossed and cut out with a bit more DI painted on the face before glossy accents were applied.

Before I go I wonder if anyone knows how to update a blog address. I have a couple of blogs I'm following that have moved to new addresses recently and I can't seem to update them on my blog so new posts are not showing on the dashboard. I'm probably missing something obvious but would be really grateful for some help.

Thanks for stopping by and for the wonderful comments you always leave. I appreciate them so much.

The Stampman's Hearts Challenge

2011-02-11T09:00:00.001Z

Morning lovely Bloggers. Here we are at the end of another week which means it's the start of a new challenge at The Stampman.

This week we are asking you to think about Hearts and for my design project I wanted to get away from the usual red, black and pink associated with Valentine's and this is what I came up with.

It started life when I saw an article in this months Craft Stamper about making a background by stamping onto cream and white paper with different background type stamps, ripping them into strips and sticking them together in a collage effect on an A4 piece of card before giving them a coat of gesso. I used various stamps from the Aspects of Design Nautical and Daisy Daydreams stamps and some old music paper I had in my stash (thanks Janet). This was the end result.

I then gave mine a very thin coat of lime green acrylic paint wiping it on with a baby wipe. When it was all dry a very pale starburst stain was daubed all over to give it a shimmer. I then stamped some swirls from Kay Carley's Funky flowers around the edge in Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

The Heart was triple embossed with Cosmic Shimmer UTEE and then stamped into with a Funky Flower stamp and highlighted with moonglow mica powder. I then wrapped some gold thread around it.

I coloured some scraps from the background strips with Broken China Distress Ink and clear embossed them for the little bits on the edge and then made some more hearts by hand cutting them from thin card and adding more UTEE until the colour was deep enough. One was added to the Swirly clip with some seed beads.

The sentiment was done on the computer and coloured with more Broken China.

It started life as a card but I always begin with just a basic idea and things tend to develop as I go along so I ended up with a wall hanging!!

The Stampman has all the products I used (apart from the music paper and the ribbon which was some I found on holiday in Austria last year) in stock at their shop or on the website and we can't wait to see what ideas you come up with this time.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

WOYWW-Not Much Really

2011-02-09T15:05:00.007Z

Afternoon lovely Bloggers and Happy WOYWW. How's your week going so far? Can you believe it's Wednesday again already. I really don't know where the weeks go to.

I'm sorry to say there isn't much on my workdesk this week. I've been having a big tidy up and trying to organise myself better so the only thing on my desk is a binder full of Scrabooking magazines that I've been looking through in the hope of finding some new ideas.

I've had a sticky time mounting all my rubber stamps onto U- Mount. Is there a worse job? They have then all been mounted onto laminated sheets and filed away hopefully in some sort of order.

I've also organised all my card and paper into colour schemes and done the same with my scrap in the hope that it'll be used more.

I was very lucky to receive some beautiful cards from some wonderful Blogging buddies recently when yet another birthday slipped by and it always seems a shame to put them away after a week, so I display them in my craft room along with all the other things I've received over the years and bits and pieces that have been collected.

If you're wondering why on earth I'm showing you all this, it's the madness that has become WOYWW. If you want to discover more then you need to pop over to see the lady in charge, Julia, who will make you very welcome and explain what it's all about.

Just to prove that a little bit of crafting has happened in The Craft Garden, here is another card I made using those beautiful Marion Emberson stamps stamped on a Nestie that works beautifully with these shaped cards from Craftwork Cards.

I was thrilled to receive an award from a Australian Blogger I met through WOYWW, Shaz In Oz, who is a very talented Calligraphy artist, among other things. As you know, I can never choose who to pass awards onto, everyone deserves them, so please help yourself if you'd like it.

Thanks for stopping by and for all of you out there who love doing challenges I have just heard of another one that is starting up. You can find them here. They are also looking for new DT members. These days when there are so many craft shops disappearing it's lovely to hear about a new one. Just Traceys Crafts are based in the West Country and I know they'd love your support.

A Touch Of Love

2011-02-05T16:58:00.005Z

Afternoon lovely Bloggers. Are you surviving this awful weather? We've had terrible winds over the last couple of days but I know my Blogging buddies in Scotland have just about been blown away. I hope it's better for you today. We just have rain here.

I've been nursing a horrible cold this week that waited until I'd been out for a belated Birthday lunch with a friend on Wednesday before it decided to really hit home so I can't complain really. Thankfully, it's a lot better today so I've been making marmalade and these are the results.

It looks yummy doesn't it. I don't like sweet marmalade so find making my own I can get it just right. This little lot should last until next January, I've just finished last year's batch. If you'd like the receipe you can find it here.

I also managed to finish the Valentines card that was on my desk the other week so here it is. It's very simple and straight forward. I stamped one half and used embossed red card for the other with some heart ribbon in the middle. I used a Martha Stewart punch on black card and the sentiment is computer generated.

As we are nearly at Valentine's Day I'd better show you another one I made.

For this one I used the big SU Medallion stamp just clear embossed on black card. The heart was hand cut and mounted on some paper I made myself on the computer. I'm going to enter this one into the Try It On Tuesday challenge this week which is Love and they are being sponsored by One Stop Card Crafts so it's well worth checking out.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Making A Statement

2011-02-01T11:56:00.005Z

Morning everyone. I thought they said it was supposed to feel a bit milder today, it doesn't feel it to me, although I am struggling with a bit of a cold so maybe that's it. The sunshine has just made an appearance though which is nice to see.

Frankie over at Tag It On has set the challenge of a tag Making a Statement this week. I knew straight away that I wanted to use my favourite poem "He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven" by WB Yeats but wasn't sure how to include it. In the end I decided to just use the last two lines which is my favourite bit and used the computer to print it on. A tricky operation. You have to print it on a piece of A4 paper first and then tape the tag over the text in the right place with some masking tape and then run it through the printer again. It took two attempts to get it right, but I think it looks OK.

I used a paper mask for the moon and then blended some pigment ink over it shading from light to dark. I love using pigment ink because you can blend it to get a lovely soft effect. It stays wet longer so you can keep playing with it and the colours blend into themselves easier than dye inks.

I used the same ink to stamp this beautiful butterfly stamp from Imagination Crafts .

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Tuesday.