Totally Chuffed!!

Two posts in one day, yes I know, totally out of character but I just have to share my lovely news. I am absolutely delighted and over the moon to have been chosen as the winner of The Stampman's first challenge with my Nautical card.

Being actually chosen, rather than just randomly selected is fantastic and I still can't quite believe it. Thank you so much to Jill and the DT.

Grunge Roses and Art Journalling

Hello all my lovely blogging buddies. I hope your week has gone well. Is it really Friday again. I thought the weeks during the Summer holidays might go a bit slower with different routines but this week has gone faster than ever. It's certainly been a full one though.

We've had some friends visiting from Ludlow which has been lovely. It's always a treat to catch up.
DD and I went shopping on Tuesday to a M&S superstore nearby to get some new school uniform and had a wonderful time trying on all the fancy hats and just about every pair of sunglasses in the place. We did mange to get what we went for too!!

On Wednesday we tried our hand at Art Journalling with the very talented Michelle and Janet at The Stampman in Skipton. It was a chance for Mums and their offspring to create together and learn something new, well for us anyway. We had a great time painting, inking and spritzing and the time flew by.

This is what we came home with, although I will play with mine a bit more I think.

This is Mine


and this is DD's.


I have also been having a play with grunge roses after seeing them done by the very talented Jo. She turned hers into Handbag bling which really caught my eye so I decided to have a go. This is how mine turned out and I love wearing it on my very tatty handbag. The beads jingle nicely.


Frankie has chosen paper roses as her theme for the TIO challenge this week so I shall enter it into this. The grunge roses are twisted and then I sprayed mine with lime and copper cosmic shimmer spray. There's an excellent tutorial for them by Lynne Forsythe if you want to have a go.

Thanks for stopping by and you hope you all have a really wonderful weekend. We are going to a Wedding so I hope the weather behaves itself.

Anything Goes

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend. We've had some sunshine and also a lot of cloud but at least it's been dry and warm. Summer might just return.

The school holidays have now arrived, goodness, where did that school year go? It was a very emotional last day on Friday with both the Deputy Head and Headmaster retiring after more than 20 years. I've never seen so many children looking so distraught at home time. They will both be missed. Six weeks now stretch out before us but I'm sure they'll whizz by. We have lots of things planned.


While I still had my freedom I managed to complete a card for The Stampman's new fortnightly challenge blog where Anything Goes for this first challenge.

I recently treated myself to the Nautical Aspects of Design sheet and really enjoyed playing with Starburst stains and Moonglow inks. They all lend themselves brilliantly to these stamps.

The script was stamped directly onto the card and broken china and brushed cordoray DI rubbed around the edge.

I scrunched starburst stains on cartridge paper and once dry rubbed Walnut Stain DI over the top.

The script was then stamped with Walnut Stain DI onto watercolour paper that had been sprayed with Moonglow ink.


The main stamp was stamped and clear embossed and I added the pale blue Starbust stain on top. It has a lovely shine in real life. The compass was stamped again and more brushed corduroy added to darken it and then I added it with foam pads for some dimension.

Thanks for looking and for your wonderful, chatty comments. I really do love reading them. I shall do my best to keep up with my return visits but, please bear with me if things go quiet. I will catch up with you all eventually.

Loving LOTV

Hello, lovely Bloggers. I've just dropped my SIL off at the airport so that she can jet off to meet up with her Hubby in Venice!!! Unfortunately, she only had hand luggage so there's no way on this earth I could squash myself into it so here I am, back home hoping that someday it'll me jetting off to my dream place!!

It's been really hot here today, totally unexpected after the weather we've had lately so I'm afraid I've made the most of it and sat out with my book, just as well really 'cos it's raining now so I don't feel too guilty.

I did take some colouring out with me too. At the minute I'm totally in love with the gorgeous Lily of the Valley stamps. I don't normally do cute but these have really taken my fancy and they are a joy to colour, especially with distress inks.


I'm going to enter this one into the LOTV challenge this week. The sketch proved a challenge in itself as it's the first time I tried following a sketch for a card but I'm quite pleased with the result.

This little fairy is my all time favourite. She is stamped on a Nestie and the papers were all off a freebie docrafts CD. The roses were made out of pearl paper with chalk ink rubbed on the edge. The sentiment is from Dawn Bibby. Where would I be without her brilliant sentiment stamps!! A little bit of stickles added the fairy magic to her wings.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Monday is going well so far. Just as an after thought, while blog hopping over the weekend one kind blogger was giving away seeds from her garden and that reminded me I have some blue Aquilegia seeds freshly gathered. If anyone wants any just drop me an e-mail with your snail mail address and I'll gladly pop them in the post.

WOYWWand A Completed LO

Has a week really gone by since I first joined in WOYWW? I had every intention of visiting other work spaces but only managed a few so apologies for that and thank you to the lovely new visitors who stopped by last week and left such lovely comments.

It's been a very busy crafty week in The Craft Garden. The weather hasn't pulled me outside so I've knuckled down and made a batch of cards for a project I have in hand at the minute so am feeling quite pleased with myself. As my regular bloggies will know card making does not come easy, maybe practise will improve things.


So that's what's going on on my table. It's utter chaos and I can never find what I want apart from my much needed and often forgotten 'till it's cold cuppa and my sweetie jar of jelly babies that needs filling up when I go shopping tomorrow.

You can also see that LO in the background from last week which was still not finished when I took the photo. Well I can happily report it is now and here it is to prove it.


I took a sketch from Scrapbook Magazine and turned it round. I like the look of two layouts in one. The flower edging was all punched and little gem middles attached and for the title I used Papermania stickers.

I love how the Craft Stamper freebie flowers turned out. I blended Broken China and Spiced Marmalade DI on watercolour paper and then spritzed it with water before stamping with black archival. The main flower has two layers with stickles added for a bit of bling and lots of small gems for the middle. The leaves were from Paperartsy stamped onto green paper with swirls added.


The black die cut swirl is Tim Holtz and the flourish stamps are Heidi Grace. I stamped them in white on the Navy side and then went over with a green souffle Sakura pen.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are managing to keep dry this week. We've just had a thunder storm here and with the wind and rain it's felt like Autumn although it's still really warm. The garden is getting a lovely water though so I'm not complaining.

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.

WOYWW

Well if you can't beat them, join them. I was having an extremely nosey look at Kathy's workspace last Wednesday and she dared me to join in WOYWW this week so here it is.


Not as interesting as some I have to add. I have to clear away every night so that we can eat our tea so don't have the luxury of leaving stuff out. I know I have a craft room, but I still craft at the dining table-old habits die hard and I like to be amongst things!!

You can see my custom made tool holder made out of a tissue box and lots of tubes. I've tried pencil cases but they get so full and I get so cross rummaging about in them. This has been brilliant. It holds absolutely everything I need everyday and everything is easily at hand.


I'm working on a scrapbook LO as you can see. I took the second photo as there was actually some crafting going on. I'm making some flowers with this month's freebie Craft Stamper flower stamp using distress inks to go on the LO . I think this will quickly become a favourite, it gives beautiful results.

The best thing at the moment is my gorgeous new craft mat. I used my heat gun on the old one and warped it and have been crafting at funny angles for months. I decided a new mat was in order and am being extremely careful with it, hence the cork mat!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and I must say a big thank you to Lynda and Lynne who have both gone above and beyond in my Umbrella Man search and I'm pleased to say that I have now found him and he will be joining the Craft Garden very soon.

Looking For The Man With The Umbrella

Happy Monday to you all.

Well, it's certainly cooled down hasn't it and boy was it windy yesterday. I've spent a good hour today fastening things back up in the garden and re staking plants that were leaning at alarming angles.

It's been a very rare day today when I didn't have other things to do and so have spent the whole day crafting, what bliss. This morning was spent spritzing and spraying background papers to replenish my fast dwindling stocks and this afternoon I've caught up on cards I need for this month so for once I feel quite organised.

I haven't managed to take photos of anything yet and it's too dark now so I thought I'd share with you a lovely present my wonderful Hubby made for me. He'd been closeted in his shed for several hours after work and presented me with this last Thursday, complete with all the ribbons in place. When he'd sneaked the box out of my craft room I'm not sure. Apparently, DD helped with the painting of it!! Aren't they a brilliant pair!!


The whole thing revolves so that I can get to each row easily, isn't that ingenious? It now has pride of place in my craft room although I have to admit that I did re arrange the ribbons into colour order. Yes, I know, I'm slightly obsessive!!

Now, you might be wondering where the Umbrella Man comes into all this and who he is!!

I was just wondering whether any of you lovely Crafters out there have the Tim Holtz Umbrella Man stamp that you no longer want and would be happy to give him a new home. I would be willing to part with some pennies!!! I adore this image and would dearly love to have him, but, not having an endless supply of craft tokens, I would never use the other stamps on the sheet he comes from and so can't justify the cost of it.

If anyone could possibly help, please e-mail me and I shall be eternally grateful.

Well, thanks for stopping by and thank you for your lovely comments. I love that you take the time to share your stories and memories with me. I know keeping up with everyone is a full time job and I really appreciate that you take the extra typing time. I feel that I know you all so well now.

Too Hot To Craft!!

Phew!!!! I'm sitting here melting. I love the hot weather, but today has been soooo hot and I feel so lethargic that not much crafting has happened. There's also been the tennis to keep an eye on.

I've nothing new to show you so I thought I'd share a few photos of our day out on Monday. It was a training day and my DD is becoming really interested in photography and wanted to go somewhere where she could practise so we went to our local RHS garden, Harlow Carr. She certainly experimented with great gusto and came home with 260 photos!!!!! Thank goodness for digital cameras. She got some great shots though, being small and lying on the grass created some unusual angles!!

I was a little more restrained and these are some of mine.

Harlow Carr is famous for it's Primulas and they were just at their best. A real riot of colour.


The Long Borders were just coming into flower. In a few weeks they'll be spectacular.


My shot of a foxglove by sitting (not lying, I'd never get up again) on the grass.


A new bed had been planted up just with blue poppies. Each one was a different variety, I didn't know there were so many and this was my favourite. It had a mauve tint and was much frillier.

Aren't we lucky to have this on our doorstep. I heard one lady telling another visitor that this was her local park. That's how we feel and there's some thing new to see on every visit, even in the depths of winter.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a good week so far. I don't envy you if you've been stuck indoors. They are promising that it'll be a bit fresher tomorrow, here's hoping!!