A Touch of Ivy

Bonjour lovely crafters from a very proud Yorkshire Lass tonight. What a day we've had. I will share some photos tomorrow of all the crowds that lined the Tour De France route in town today, I've never seen so many having a great time. I even managed to snap the cyclists as they whizzed by. Someone even saw The Beckhams nearby but unfortunately I missed them, lol!!!!!!

Anyway, onto crafty matters, I need to share another sneaky peek of Sheena's lovely Christmas stamps with you.

This one is a huge sentiment that will make those important quick cards when you need to make loads in a hurry. I've gold embossed it and teamed it with the Ivy corner set from last year.

Don't forget to try and catch the Craft Clinic on Monday with Sheena to see lots more lovely samples and ideas from the lady herself and the rest of The Inkoids.

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

Christmas In July mixed up with the TDF!!

Afternoon lovely crafters. I'm waving from a very excited Yorkshire as we prepare for the Tour De France tomorrow. Otley has gone totally mad, it's full of cyclists and people today and the shops are running out of food as no deliveries are being made and the roads are closing tonight until Sunday, good job we are well stocked! Apparently it takes over an hour to do a 5 mile journey along to Ilkley, not that we tried it, with all the cyclists trying out the route. We saw Chris Froome and the sky team whizzing by yesterday. The town looks totally amazing though and is full of yellow bikes, flowers and bunting and all the pubs have been re named in French.  I'll be waving madly tomorrow so look out for us on the TV!!!!

Now onto crafty matters. Our Sheena is launching some Christmas stamps on C&C on Monday where she is doing the 2 hour Craft Clinic at 11am. There are 4 sets in total and they are just lovely.

This is one of the samples I made, it's strange getting into the Christmas spirit when it sweltering outside but I enjoyed playing.

One of the sets is a set of baubles with all the pieces separately so that you can add the collars and the decorations as you wish. I stamped mine onto Christmas paper, added glossy accents and glitter and the background is created from another of the sets which has pine branches and music notes on stamped onto Kraft card.

I'll be back tomorrow with another sample or too so enjoy your Friday whatever you are up too and Au Revoir!!

WOYWW 264

Morning lovely crafters and dear WOYWW friends. Looks like the hot weather has deserted us after a gorgeous few weeks. I must admit it means the housework will get done, when the sun is shining it's just too tempting to be outside.

Although I'm joining in with WOYWW this week, I have no desk to show you. The dreaded C word has landed in my craft room but it's nothing I can share at the minute, just lots of samples in progress.

Instead I'm sharing the lovely collection of ATC's I received even though I didn't officially join in the birthday celebrations.

Thank you to Sandra De, LLJ, Diane and Sam, you are all very kind.

I also wanted to share some photos I've taken around town. We are preparing for the great excitement of The Tour De France on 5th July. It is coming right through the centre of town and for the last month or so yellow bikes have appeared everywhere and the flowers look fantastic.

This week we have flags flying and all the shop windows have been painted with Tour De France images.

It's going to be a real spectacle and despite the fact that the roads in every direction are totally closed for the whole day, we won't care as we will hopefully have a roadside viewing spot within walking distance of home.

If you want to join in the WOYWW fun, then pop over to see Julia, HERE. 

I hope you will forgive my lack of desk but I'll be around to have a look at yours when I get in from work so thanks for stopping round and Happy Crafting.

WOYWW 263

Morning all. It's lovely to get back to WOYWW. I've swapped my days to work so have a Wednesday to myself at last....and the sun is shining again so what could be better, apart from hopping round a few desks.

First things first, I would just like to wish our esteemed leader Julia a speedy recovery after her Spanish adventures. It's good to see you home safe and sound, Julia.

Now, my desk as of last night. I am sharing it with my daughter.

We have been playing with some Lavinia stamps together. She had to make a birthday card for her Grandma yesterday and these came out and now there's no stopping her. You can see the pile on the table there. You can also see my Project Life things, I'm just about managing to keep up with my documented weeks. Hopefully I'll get some done later.

Here are a couple of Lavinia cards I made. I intend to have more of a play today while DD is at school.

You might also remember last time I joined the register I was in the middle of painting our new bathroom. Well, it's all finished now so here's a quick picture. We love it. A grown up bathroom at last.

I revamped the pine bathroom cabinet too. My Hubby thinks it's very funny.

If you want to join in the WOYWW fun then pop over HERE and see what it's all about.

I'm off to make a cuppa now and then I'll be round to see what you've been up too so enjoy your day and Happy Crafting.

My Birds Samples For Sheena

Morning folks from a very wet, gloomy Yorkshire. What a day after glorious sunshine yesterday. You really have to make the most of the nice days when you get them at the minute don't you?

I'm just popping by this morning to share the rest of my samples for Sheena's shows yesterday. I hope you managed to catch one of them. I had meant to share them with you earlier in the week but I was struck down with a horrible virus and had hay fever on top so have felt pretty rotten all week.

This first one is all distress inks.

A wall hanging on cardboard done with Luminarte silks. The birds are on acetate and coloured with Alcohol markers.

And these shrink plastic earrings that my Mum helped me with, I am a complete novice when it comes to jewellery but I think I need to learn

went into this wooden box which was again painted and stamped with Luminarte Silks.

I hope you like them.

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

Happy Crafting.

A Little Birdie Told Me About A Sneaky Peek!!

Afternoon lovely Crafters. I hope I find you well today. I've been closeted in my craft room all day but the sun has made an appearance at last so it's time to head into the garden to see what the slugs have eaten today. Last week it was all my lovely new petunias. I now have a pot full of stalks!!!

Anway, you didn't pop in to hear about my gardening woes, instead I have a treat for you in the shape of a sneaky peek at Sheena's gorgeous new stamp sets full of birds and fantastic sentiments. These beauties will be launched on C&C this Friday with shows at 11am, 4pm and 7pm so I hope you will be able to catch one.

I'm sharing my favourite with you today.

This gorgeous Kingfisher is just lovely to work with and I've combined him with the Ancient Arches which was stamped in Weathered Wood Distress Ink. The bird himself is coloured with Spectrum Noirs.

Right, back to the gardening so thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting.

WOYWW 259

Morning lovely crafters and dear WOYWW friends. Long time no see. A good friend of mine, Sandra from Sydney reminded me that we are approaching another WOYWW birthday so I thought I'd better show my face!!!!

I have no crafty desk to share with you today, that has been sadly neglected over the past weeks but here is my workdesk.... which does contain paint.........so hopefully it counts.

We have had our bathroom ripped out and replaced with, amongst other things, a lovely sparkly huge shower. I love it, but you've never seen a mess like it. We seem to have been tiling for days, both walls and floor and I shall be back up there after posting this!!!! Yesterday I painted the walls. What do you think of the colour? DD and I love it but my poor Hubby isn't so sure, he's a bit more conservative. The only comment I got out of him was WOW!!! Still he'll get used to it, I'm not changing it, harsh I know.

We have used dark tiles, they still need grouting so don't look too closely!!

Well, that's my workdesk.... of sorts. I'm sure yours is more exciting and I'll be round to have a look later once those tiles are on the wall.

If you want to join in with WOYWW then pop over to see the lovely Julia, HERE.  

By the way, I will be joining in with the ATC celebrations so if you want to swap with me, just shout out.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting.

Another Sheena Sample

Morning lovely Crafters

I hope you've got your wellies on if you are venturing out. It's a wet start to the weekend here in Yorkshire.

I'm just popping by with another card I made for Sheena's new shows on Monday.

This took a couple of goes to get right and was a technique I found on Pinterest. The background is blended distress inks, I used bright colours, Barn Door, Mustard Seed, Mown Lawn and Ocean. Versamark was then applied to the debossed side of the embossing folder and the card run through. Clear embossing powder was heat set and then I applied Chipped Sapphire over the top to highlight the debossed areas. Originally I used Black soot but didn't like the starkness and found chipped sapphire gave a softer result.

The highlighted elephant has been cut from another piece of embossed card and the same inks applied.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting.

A Little Bit Of Embossing

Afternoon lovely Crafters

I'm just popping by to let you know that our Sheena is on C&C next Monday at 9am and 3pm with the Indian Embossing Folders from her recent 4DD. She is promising new techniques!

Here is one of the samples I made for the show.

 
This is one of the papers from the CD that has been embossed with the Ornate screen folder that has had versamark applied to it first. I tried the glycerine but didn't put enough on so went back to versamark. I then heat embossed with silver embossing powder and went over any areas that had missed with glycerine and a paintbrush and embossed again. I like the way that you can pick out certain areas with this method.

The rest of the team have created some gorgeous projects as usual and you can find links to their blogs here. 

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend. It sounds like it's going to be perfect crafting weather!

We Have a Teenager!!

Hello folks. Goodness I hadn't realised it was so long since I last posted anything, where do the weeks go?

Yesterday our DD turned 13!! A teenager at last. It doesn't seem two minutes since we were bringing her home from hospital and know she's as tall as me!

Well a special birthday deserves a special card so I had a play with a card in a box, which seems to be the in thing at the minute. My fellow Inkoid Donna made several recently and has a brilliant tutorial on her blog so once I got started it was really easy to put together, thanks Donna.

This is the end result.

I shall definitely be having another go at these, I really enjoyed creating it.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting