A Hint Of Christmas

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

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

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.....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.