A Little Bird House

How's your weekend going? I hope everyone is getting a chance to enjoy this lovely weather we are being blessed with. I'm so glad the sun was shining for a very special Wedding that was taking place today. Liam and Fizz, I wish you a wonderful life together.

At last I am getting back into the swing of all the challenges I've been missing recently and this one is for Tuesday Taggers who have the theme of houses this week. They are being sponsored by The Craft Barn so it is definitely worth checking out.


I decided on this lovely Bird House. The stamps are all from Dawn Bibby and I coloured them with promarkers. The background was stamped with the little flower stamp using baby's breath colourbox Q pigment inks. I then cut some out and coloured them, adding a jewelled centre.


Nothing too complicated I'm afraid. Just getting it done in time was an achievement. I really must get back to the messy stuff again. I think I'm having withdrawal symptoms from Distress inks and Glimmer mist!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Making a Scene

Hello all you lovely Bloggers. How's you're Monday going?

There's some strange wet stuff falling out of the sky here today. It seems very strange to have to put a coat on but at least I won't have to water the garden tonight. Our grass is so parched and going bald in great patches. It desperately needs a good drink.

It's perfect weather for crafting and over at Tuesday Taggers, the lovely Michelle has thrown down the challenge to make a scene this week.


My scene has been inspired by the very talented Barbara Gray. I love watching her brayering but cannot get anything like the same results but loved this technique of creating reflections by stamping the trees, turning the paper round and stamping directly underneath without reinking the stamp and then sponging through torn paper to create the hills behind. By using watercolour paper you get a lovely textured effect too.

I've made two of these cards for retirement cards for Freya's class teacher and Head teacher, both of which are men.

Well, that's me done for today so I'll say thank you for stopping by and enjoy whatever you are doing.

All That Blooms

Well, it's Friday again and another week nearly done. Is it me, or do they just go faster and faster?

What's happened to the weather, or was that Summer? We've had a week of solid rain, mist and general gloom and it's soooo cold, I'm back in sweaters again. We had to laugh though, last weekend we bought a lovely little table and two chairs for the patio, somewhere to sit and have coffee on those lovely Summer mornings and our Neighbour said "that's it, you've done it now, it'll do nothing but rain" and that's exactly what's happened. I've just admired our lovely table from the window.

In the last post I shared the Wedding card I'd made for my friend who'd got married over the Bank Holiday. She's works at my daughter's school and the teachers asked me to make an exploding box for them to give her. She's a huge Bradford Bulls Rugby fan and actually got married at the ground so they wanted rugby balls to come out of it.


This is what I came up with. I kept the outside quite plain and just used a textured pearly cream card to decorate it, matted with gold mirricard and added a paper rose on the lid.


All the teachers signed the inside and I printed the rugby balls off the Internet, cut them out and glossed them. The bouquet of roses and leaves hid all the acetate and I let the leaves come up the strips of acetate so that they had a bit of movement too. The roses were made out of a cream textured paper and I just added a hint of brushed corduroy to them. The punched leaves had a swirly stamp added to look like veining.


She is absolutely thrilled with it and has it on her desk and shows anyone who comes by. She's stood it up in the lid so that the roses and balls are on the top of the box and it looks really good, I would never have thought of turning it inside out.


I'm entering it into the Tuesday Taggers challenge this week as their theme is "All That Blooms".

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great Weekend. I think the forecasters are promising at least a little bit of sunshine!!

Enjoying the weather....

Hello all you lovely Bloggers. I hope you are all well and have enjoyed the beautiful weather we have again been blessed with over the last few days.

I have to apologise yet again for being a Bad Blogger. We have all been on Holiday this week, not literally but no work or school so we've been out and about enjoying ourselves most of the week so it's felt like being on holiday.


We had a lovely day in Knaresborough, which is so local to us but always has a holiday feel and enjoyed a leisurely lunch alfresco at the side of the river. The following day we went to Scarborough. The traffic was a nightmare and the journey took twice as long as it should both ways but it was all worthwhile. We enjoyed the Sealife centre wondering at the alien like jellyfish and the graceful Seahorses. Isn't nature wonderful!! The weather was so beautiful we spent the rest of the day on the beach exploring the rock pools, paddling and eating ice cream. Simple pleasures!!


I made a Wedding card for a friend who got married last weekend and thought it fitted the bill for this week's challenge at Tuesday Taggers which is texture. They are being sponsored by Tanda Stamps so it's definitely worth checking out.


I like the white on white look so tried mixing together two cuttlebugged designs and just added a touch of silver. The heart stamp has been in my box for years and never been inked up. It has no name on so was probably a bargain buy at some time. I silver embossed it and the sentiment, which is from Dawn Bibby.

Thanks for stopping by. I shall try to catch up with all your lovely blogs over the next few days to check out all the inspirational things I've missed out on.

Curls and Swirls

Happy Sunny Thursday to you all. Isn't this weather just lovely.

This weeks theme over at Tuesday Taggers is Curls and Swirls and they have a great prize from Crafty Individuals so it's well worth checking out. Who can resist Swirls and Curls?

I have been enjoying my new Tim Holtz book, A Compendium of Curiosities and thought I'd have another play with all the lovely techniques he demonstrates.


I stamped the swirls with white acrylic paint and let it dry thoroughly and then blended distress ink over the top (peeled paint, dusty concord and broken china) and wiped over the paint with a damp cloth to remove the ink and then over stamped with brushed corduroy and blended around the edge.

The butterfly was from Graphicus and was painted with H20's and cut out, with stickles added for the bling. I added a gem trail and a woodware gold curl.

Before I go I'd just like to say thank you for your lovely Blogarversary wishes.

Thank you for stopping by and enjoy the sunshine.

Getting Messy

Hi everyone. I don't know about you but I've had enough, it was lovely the first time and even the second but not after 3 months. What is she rambling on about you might ask. SNOW!!!! We had another fall last night and it's wet, cold, foggy and HORRIBLE. I really NEED the Spring now!

Sorry about that, I am calm and collected again now.


To cheer everyone up I thought I'd share with you a photo I took on Monday at our local RHS garden, Harlow Carr which gives hope that, even though there is snow on the ground, the flowers are still there and beginning to appear. Aren't these little cyclamen just so bright and cheerful.

Over at Tuesday Taggers, they have asked us to get messy fingers this week. Well I don't need to be encouraged twice, especially when they offering a prize from The Craft Barn.

I have been having a go at the acrylic stamp storage book that was brilliantly demoed in this months Craft Stamper and this is the cover for it. I think I used every product I own which was great fun and I did get extremely messy.


The mountboard cover is painted in blue metallic acrylic paint and then the background is various shades of acrylic paint randomly applied. I over stamped this with Graphicus Wildflower meadow stamps in various colourbox queue pigment inks.


The background for the main panel is alcohol inks and then over stamped from the same flower set and white embossed. I used a small grass stamp from the set to edge the border on both panels.

The quotation background is Broken china distress ink and the quotation is from the Inspirations themeplate again from Graphicus. I have matted everything with silver mirriboard.

I was having a playing session trying out a lot of the techniques I've seen or read about recently and luckily (quite unplanned) the colours all went together nicely so for once I could put to good use all the bits and pieces I made. I've just got to make the stamp holders to go inside now!

I hope you are all coping with this rotten weather and as always thanks for stopping by.

Time.... For More Snow!

Happy Sunday again and for those of you under a white blanket again, stay warm!!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the curtains this morning, another good covering of the white stuff. After the last few glorious days it was a real surprise. Although yesterday was sooo cold. We had beautiful, crystal blue skies here but went 12 miles down the road and ran into thick fog and the car thermometer said -3oC. How funny that the weather can be so different in such a few short miles.

This week's theme over at Tuesday Taggers is "Time." Something I think we all probably wish we had more of, I know I do. A few more hours in the day would be perfect.

I've been loving doing tags again at the minute so forgive me for another one. I will do something different for next time I promise. I've combined a clock with my love of Dandelion clocks too. I don't own any clock stamps, something that will have to be put right, so I printed this clock face from the internet and stuck it on the tag and then inked over it to look a bit like the moon.


The background was done with various colourbox pigment inks and the stamp is a Bella Panel from Stamptivity stamped in Brilliance graphite black. I always have trouble getting a dense black image with these stamps so touched up with a bit of the ink afterwards and I've noticed the image looks a bit patchy. Something to get right next time.

A few stickles were added to the stars and some foliage from the same stamp set around the edge to finish things off.

Thanks for stopping by and if it's back to school tomorrow after half term, I hope it's not too bad. We have one more day to go. A Training Day has been tagged on.

Love Is All Around

Happy Valentine's Day to you. No matter what you are doing or whether you are sharing it with someone or not, I hope you have a lovely day.

The theme for this week's Tuesday Taggers challenge is "Love Is All Around" and they have a lovely prize from The Craft Emporium so I thought I would do a tag using all the things I have been playing with this week.


The heart is triple embossed using Blue Maroon Aurora Cosmic Shimmer EP and Gold Lustre just dropped into it while still hot. Don't ask me whose stamp it is, it's one I found at the bottom of my box and doesn't have a name on.


The swirls were those QVC foam swirls again. I can't get enough of them and the letters were cut on my new Slice, which I'm still getting the hang of. I stuck silver gems on to provide a bit of bling and then made some paper beads, which I have discovered this week and are now being put on everything I do!!! They are very simple and don't cost anything, an added bonus. I would be happy to provide instructions if anyone is interested.

It's not a pretty, pretty tag, but I was making a card for my Hubby at the time and think I've got into the habit of thinking from a male perspective and not being girly!!

Before I go, I must just apologise for my lack of blog visiting this week. I have been a very poor blogging buddy and will try and get round all your lovely blogs and see what you've been creating in the next day or so. I'm so aware that you are visiting me and leaving such wonderful comments and I love reading them and feel guilty when I don't return the compliment.

Thank you, as always, for stopping by.

A Hint Of Green

This weather is certainly perfect for crafting and not a lot else, although we did have a lovely morning shopping in Harrogate yesterday.

Lots of little bits of secret Santa shopping needed doing so plenty of sneaking into shops while creating a diversion was going on. Freya is very good, we can get away with buying things when she's with us and saying it's being sent away to Santa, although she will be getting plenty of surprises so don't worry!

It was thick fog and drizzly rain while we were out and by the time we got home the wind had got up and it was pouring. A perfect excuse for a crafting afternoon.

Freya and I had a play with alcohol inks, her results were better than mine, I was too heavy handed so I did them all again. Fancy being shown up by an 8 year old. Anyway this was all in aid of Frankie's Tag It On Challenge which was to use alcohol inks and faces. I have made my tag but you'll have to wait to see that one 'cos I had so many bits of inked paper left I decided to make a card and while I was putting it together realised it fitted the Tuesday Taggers challenge this week of red, gold and green. I have to confess to having to think hard how to get the green in but if you look closely you'll see the little green gems!!!


We made the background by putting the alcohol ink onto a craft mat and squirting it liberally with blending solution and then twisting some cheapy photo paper around in it and just kept going until we had something we liked. The gold ink was added in the same way at the very ink. I think I used Cranberry and Denim Blue for the card.

The Crafty Individual ladies were stamped in Brilliance Crimson and the background was a script stamp also from Crafty Individuals which was stamped several times and gold embossed. I gold embossed the chipboard swirls to match.


I was also honoured by receiving this lovely award from the very talented Rhonda who lives in beautiful Vancouver and makes gorgeous tags.

Apparently, I have to tell you 5 interesting facts about myself, how hard is that!!!!

Well here goes-

I'm very grumpy first thing in the morning until I've had my first cup of tea, which my lovely hubby brings me in bed every day, how lucky am I!!!!

I love to be outside in the sunshine, it just makes me so happy, which is why Spring and Summer are my favourite months.

I can't understand people with a handbag and shoe fetish, I only have one bag and a couple of pairs of shoes for Winter and Summer, but I absolutely love buying plants and craft stash instead.

I love my music. Music of all kinds, I don't really have a favourite. Some music makes me happy and want to dance (not very well I hasten to add) and some just makes me want to sit and listen. But I have music on all day!

I adore silly American dramas like Everwood, Brothers and Sisters and ER and cannot miss them, yes I know ER has finished now. I shall be in mourning for ever. If I'm going to miss an episode I'll go to any lengths to see it!!! Sad I know.

Blimey that was a struggle.

I don't normally pass awards on, it's so hard to choose but because I'm nosey and some blogs especially make me smile I'd like to pass this award to the following.

Jill (Mrs Stampman)
Sarah (In The Zone)
Polly
Kathy
and Ei for her wonderful e-mails.

and everyone else who'd like it.

Well I hope you are all having a lovely weekend. I'll be back soon with that tag. I think I've wittered on enough for one day.

Thank you for stopping by.