Just Saying Hello

Morning folks.

Just a flying visit to say Hi and sorry for not being around much lately. My Mum is in hospital after a knee replacement op and things are not going quite as smoothly as we'd hoped so I haven't had a lot of free time to do any blogging after hospital visiting and looking after things here at home.

If you managed to catch Sheena's last shows on C&C when she was revisiting the Divine Inspiration stamps then you'll have seen the card in my last post in the flesh. I was delighted that Sheena thought it worthy of being demoed, what an honour.

I also had a play with the beautiful, huge, tree stamp and haven't shared the results with you yet, so here they are. Very simple, but then the stamp speaks for itself.

This one was just white embossed on pink vellum.

And I created a washy background with distress inks and just stamped this one with Peeled Paint.

Thanks for stopping by and I shall have a catch up with all my blog visiting just as soon as I can.

Happy Crafting!

A Little Bit Of Sheena

Hello folks. Isn't this sunshine lovely? We could just do with the wind dropping a bit here in Yorkshire. It blew my sheets off the line today. I had to go and unravel them from the roses bushes.

For those of you Sheena fans, she is back on the tele this Thursday. At the minute the times on C&C are 10am and 3pm. The stamps featured will be the beautiful Divine Inspiration set from a few weeks ago and I've really enjoyed playing with this lovely stamp again what I still think of as Fountains Abbey.

I was inspired by some artwork I saw recently on a lovely blog from Ria Gall where she had created a collage with the arches. I decided to take this one step further and stamp the image several times over a distressed background. I then bleached out the detail and over stamped with crackle and splodges before adding the words in gold embossing. The fence has been stamped with white acrylic paint. I love the effect it gives.

This is the first time I've played with my new Summer Distress inks and I'm loving the bright colours although I had to tone them down a bit as I went overboard with them as usual.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting!

Some Mushroom Shoes

Afternoon folks. Sorry I've been such a poor blogger this week. We are still on Easter Break and there's been plenty going on to fill our time but I thought I'd pop by to share a couple of cards I managed to make with my lovely new Katy Sue Design Shoe stamps.

I fell in love with these mushroom shoes the first time I saw them. I don't think they'd be too practical to wear though do you?

Both cards have just been coloured with Promarkers but I want to try watercolouring them with Distress inks now.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely weekend. I think it's meant to be getting warmer. Fingers crossed that Spring might finally be near.

Sheena on the Tele

Afternoon folks.

I hope you enjoyed the little taste of Spring we were treated to over the weekend. Hasn't it been lovely?

I just popped by to let you know that Sheena is on Create and Craft tomorrow with the rescheduled shows from the other weekend when her car broke down and she didn't make it. The shows are 8am and 11am and it is Stamping Sheena Style so there's bound to be plenty of paints and ink in the mix.

I was really surprised and honoured to spot on the Easter Saturday shows a card I'd made for the Floral shows some weeks ago that Sheena had taken apart and put in a frame. This was the original.

I painted the Magnolia fusion style and then embossed it with the gold powder to put the details back on. The background was all sorts of Distress and Adirondack inks mixed.

Well, short and sweet from me today so thanks for stopping by and I hope your Monday has got the week off to a good start.

WOYWW 200!!

Morning lovely Crafters and dear WOYWW friends. I hope I find you well this lovely sunny morning and full of chocolate after the Easter Holidays.

It feels like a momentous week at WOYWW with the 200th edition. If you want to join in and enjoy hopping around lots of inspirational desks, then pop over to see our lovely Desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE.

My desk this week.

I am still crafting on the dining table as I like to be amongst everything while everyone is on holiday and I'm still playing with the Pebeo paints and paint fusion stamps. I blame my good friend Hettie for all this painty activity. She has just got these paints and stamps and we have been chatting about them and it made me want to play again and now I can't stop. I'm making some hangers instead of cards for some special birthdays coming up.

The best thing about my desk this week is the mug of tea!!!!!! Thanks for all your kind wishes last week. I am feeling much better now.

You might also be able to spot the corner of the canvas I was working on last week. I've fiddled for days but am now happy that it's finished. What do you think?

I painted the background with acrylic paint and sponged some blue and white paint in the corners. Added some texture paste through a stencil on the other corners, sprayed with mica powders and stamped with distress inks before painting the lilacs and adding the words.

It's hard to know when to stop but I found propping it up on the light and living with it for a while was the best way.

Right, I have some washing to peg out, what a great sentence that is at last, so I'll be back later to see what you've all be up too.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Wednesday.
  

WOYWW 199

Morning lovely Crafters and dear WOYWW friends. I hope I find you well today and if not then I wish you a speedy recovery. It's still bitterly cold here in Yorkshire but thankfully the snow is beginning to thaw although we are having some gentle flakes falling again this morning. Some of the snow drifts that have been on the news are spectacular. I've never seen anything like them before and the poor people that have been cut off from civilisation for days.

My photo is of my desk yesterday. It hasn't changed much since except for being moved slightly so that we could eat tea!!

I had my Wisdom tooth out yesterday morning and was told to do nothing more strenuous than sit in a chair so that's what I did. I had started a canvas at the weekend so worked a bit more on that.
I'm afraid the usual suspect of a nice cuppa is missing as I wasn't allowed a hot drink. Boo Hoo. Better make up for it today!! I have my basket of Pebeo paints out and the yellow sunshine you may be able to spot is my magic rubber thingy for opening jar lids. These paints haven't been used for awhile and some of the lids have stuck.

I had to share this with you. As I was typing up this post I could hear a funny noise and turned to see this.

Why do cats like water from any place other than their bowls? Before you all shout in alarm, I'd just changed it for clean water. You might be able to spot the canvas propped up against the light. I'm just debating whether it needs another leaf adding!!

Thanks for all the Spam advice last week, what a lovely lot you are. I did as you suggested and, touch wood, have been spam free since.

Well short and sweet from me this week so I'll see you at a desk near you later in the day.

If you wondered why I'm showing off my desk then pop over to see the WOYWW Headmistress, Julia. HERE.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting.

A Fairy Keeping Out Of The Snow

Afternoon folks. I hope you are keeping warm and safe. We have had a weekend not stirring very far due to the cars being buried under more snow than I've seen for many years and the roads not having been cleared. It's been lovely to have had a good excuse to stay indoors although DD has been outside building snowmen and generally having a great time.

When we were at the GNPE last weekend in Harrogate we discovered that Lavinia stamps now has a new challenge blog and this month their theme is Anything Goes. DD made a lovely card for Mother's Day for her Grandmas. I helped her with the first one and she did the second one all by herself so we are entering that this month.

The fairy has been embossed with black embossing powder and then various Distress and Adirondack  inks were blended with a shaving brush. The foliage was overstamped and some stickles added for a bit of sparkle.

Before I go I thought I'd continue the snow theme this week with that poor Daffodil that I've shared several times. It is still peeping out from the pile of snow.

You can see how much we've had from the amount piled up on the window ledge.

Thanks for stopping by and keep warm.

A Spring Card But No Spring Weather

Morning folks. I hope you are keeping warm today as we suffer yet more Wintery weather. Here in Yorkshire we have woken to about an inch of the white stuff but the forecasters are saying it won't stop until some time tomorrow and then start again on Sunday. Can someone tell the Weather Gods that Spring actually started some time ago please!!

I am not braving the biting winds to go outside so excuse the spattered windows but my poor daffs have their white hats on again.

Last night, before the snow came, it was our fortnightly Craft Club at a local farm and this is the card I demoed and the ladies really enjoyed making it. The Cuttlebug has now been renamed The Mangle amid much giggling!! It was a lovely night and Sue, our hostess, had a roaring open fire going so it was lovely and cosy.

I have given myself another Snow Day so am going to have a full day of playing, something I haven't done for so long. Just can't decide whether to scrapbook or play with paints and a canvas. Oh to have so many choices.

I hope whatever you are doing today you are keeping safe.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

WOYWW 198

Morning lovely crafters and dear WOYWW friends. Another week has rolled by and still we seem to be no nearer Spring here in the UK, it is snowing again this morning!! I shall enjoy popping over to look at some sunny desks in other parts of the world later to get my weekly dose of sunshine. If you want to join in with this great big desk hop, then pop over to see our lovely Desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE.

I am back on the dining table today, purely so that I can spread out a bit as I'm playing with my new Spellbinders.

They are taking a bit of getting used to as I've only used the really basic shapes before but I'm getting there slowly. You might just be able to see a card emerging through the piles of stuff on my mat.

One thing I love is using the wax paper. You get two wonderful cuts for the price of one and I'm sure there must be something you can do with the wax paper shape. I have tried adding alcohol inks and love the result so just need to find a way to use it now. I think it could find it's way onto a scrapbook LO very soon. You might just see a pile of photos at the back that I've sorted to start scrapping later on hopefully.

We had some lovely sunshine yesterday morning and as you have to make the most of every bit I dashed out to the greenhouse to pot up these plug plants that I have been entrusted with by my Mum. She is waiting to go in for a knee replacement in a few weeks and can't get into the garden so I am babysitting them for her. They are new perennial foxgloves. I have brought them back into the conservatory though as the temperatures still seem too low in the greenhouse and I'd hate them to shrivel!

Before I go I seem to have been bombarded with spam comments recently and wondered if anyone else is finding the same. Blogger used to filter them but it doesn't seem to nowadays. Just wondering!!!!

Well, that's me today so I'll see you at a desk near you very soon.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Wednesday.

More Snow and a Touch of Easter

Morning folks. We have woken up to yet more snow again here in West Yorkshire. I'm getting a bit fed up with this endless Winter now, when will Spring finally arrive? I ventured into the garden yesterday with the vain hope of doing something but I was so cold after half an hour I retired back in to a pile of ironing instead!!

This is the view from my kitchen window today. Even the cat is fed up at not being able to go out. She hates wet feet.

The poor little daffs have white hats on.

Even if the weather has other ideas I have heard a rumour that Easter is not far away so I've been busy making some cards. I got these Forever Friend Easter stamps last year in a sale and I love the fact that there are some Easter Eggs on their own so you don't have to have the bears if you don't want. I love those cute chicks though.

I've kept them quite simple and coloured them with promarkers.

As the weather is so miserable I have given myself the day off to play with the new goodies I treated myself too at the GNPE in Harrogate on Saturday. I had some Christmas and Birthday money to spend and couldn't resist the new CHA spellbinder dies. They are gorgeous. I'll be back later in the week to share what I make with them.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely Monday if you can.

Keep warm and Happy Crafting.