Twinkling H20 Bluebell Tutorial

Evening folks. I have been dragged inside by DH as it's too dark now to see anything in the garden, although I love the cool evenings, so I thought I'd do the tutorial for my bluebell card that I've been promising for so long.

I used the Basic Rainbow set of H20's. Initially when I first got these I thought they were very boring compared to all the lush colours in the other fancy sets but now they are my favourites. The colours are so vibrant and I use them for almost everything I do. You need to mist them to activate them and then leave them for a few minutes.

Next spray your background card liberally with water. A good thickness of card works best due to the fact that it will become very wet.

Then comes the technical part....not. Randomly splodge your chosen colours all over the wet card with a good sized paint brush. I limit myself to three colours so as not to muddy them.

Once you are happy spray the card again to make the colours run into each other. Bend the edges of the card up a bit to stop the paint running off the edge and blot anywhere that has run too much.

Either leave to dry, in the scorching weather it won't take long, or use a heat gun.

You then need to ink up your chosen stamp by painting it with one of the H20's. Make sure it is the consistence of cream to get a good stamped impression but don't be too fussy with how they stamp out. I like a variation with some being a bit more watery. You need several flowers.

With the paint that's still on the stamp once you've finished, lightly mist holding your stamp upright and then stamp onto your background. You'll be surprised how many impressions you can get from one inking and then remisting.

Dry the outline of your individual flowers thoroughly, paint them and once dry cut them out.

Arrange them on your background and jobs a good un.

I used the same technique for all four cards I made for Sheena using each set of flowers and it's still one of my favourites and one I shall go back to too again I'm sure. H20's are so diverse, to think all we ever used to was paint with them. Stamping with them is such fun and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I hope this has been helpful and if you try it please pop over and let me know so that I can come and admire your results.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting.

Alfresco Crafting

Morning folks. Sorry I've been so quiet lately. Summer arrived and I've just been enjoying it so no crafting for over a week. You have to make the most of the sunshine don't you? It'd be rude not too.

Last night was Craft Club and it was such a beautiful evening we crafted in the garden of the cafe were we hold it. I taught the ladies how to make this card I created for a recent Sheena Douglass show.

It's a good messy and very easy technique using lots of water and H20's and the gorgeous flower stamps. I've been asked on several occasions how it is done and have sorted out a photo tutorial which I'll post in the next few days.
Everyone did their own version last night, we had poppies, daffodils and forget me nots in all sorts of colours. Ever card was unique and equally gorgeous and the ladies really enjoyed themselves.

The best thing of all was that we were outside on this beautiful evening in an idyllic setting. Aren't we lucky to live in such a beautiful place?

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the weekend whatever you are up too.

Happy Crafting

WOYWW 214 or should that be 213???

Morning lovely crafters and dear WOYWW friends. Here we are in the middle of yet another week and over half way through the year as well. They say times goes faster as you get older but I wish some one would invent a brake to slow it down a bit. We'd have more crafty time then. I have so many things I want to do and just never seem to get round to.

Anyway, here's my desk as of last night. It hasn't changed this morning and won't as I'm off to work in a minute.

I've been asked to do a Ruby Wedding card and have been playing with these rolled flowers, which I love. It's the first time this Spellbinders die has had an outing but I decided to cut a few and make them up for later projects. You can never have enough flowers can you?

As you can see I'm back up in my craft room. I tend to go there when I have things I have to do and use the dining table for things I want to do. The scrapbook layout is still on that but has progressed. I took it all apart after last week and started again and things flowed much better. I still have bits to stick down and finish hence the wonky angles but am much happier with it now.

I have also been recycling an old beige plastic mirror and pine shelf for my DD's new bedroom. She's really pleased with the finished results and they match her new wallpaper really well.

So that's me for another week. If you want to share your desk with a few hundred very friendly crafters, then pop over to see the lovely Julia, Queen of WOYWW, HERE.

I shall look forward to catching up with all your desks later in the day but, in the meantime thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting.

WOYWW 213

Morning lovely crafters and dear WOYWW friends. Although I haven't much on my desk, Mr Mojo has packed his suitcase at the minute and gone on his holidays, I couldn't miss the opportunity to catch up with you all.

I thought how lovely it would be now that I have no crafting commitments for a while to craft just for myself so started a scrapbook page with some gorgeous new papers I treated myself too. I've messed around with it for 3 days and have got absolutely nowhere. Just goes to show that working under pressure gets creativity flowing I think.

I got so fed up with it that I retreated to the garden and the beautiful sunshine yesterday. So as that's as much of a work desk this week here's a little piccy. It's all a bit of a jungle and things are growing faster that I can get to them but I like it like that. I'm only showing you the tidy bit though!!!

I mentioned last time that I made a scrapbook in a tin for my dear MIL's birthday last week. Although the inside was personal to her this is what I did on the front. I used alcohol inks on the tin itself and then made some flowers from some scraps of sprayed paper.

Short and sweet I'm afraid this week as I'm flying out the door to work but I'll be round later to have a nosey so get the kettle on.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting.

A Little Sheena Reminder

Evening folks. I hope you've managed to enjoy the little taste of Summer we've enjoyed today. It's been a lovely day here in Yorkshire

I'm just popping by tonight to remind you that Sheena has two Christmas shows on tomorrow at 11am and 3pm on IDEAL WORLD not C&C as mentioned in my last post.

Here are another two samples I created for the shows using the gorgeous new stamps. There is one plate of backgrounds with a lovely ivy corner, always useful, not just at Christmas and the other is a folk art, stitched plate, again not just for Christmas me thinks.

Short and sweet I'm afraid as it's past my bedtime so thanks for stopping by and for all the lovely comments you always leave, I so appreciate you taking the time to say hello.

Happy Crafting.

A little Bit Of Sheena Christmas

Evening folks. I hope your week has gone well. It's been a bit of a blur in The Craft Garden of Christmas samples one minute and birthday scrapbooks for my MIL the next!!!! No wonder my poor blog gets sadly neglected these days!!

Anyway, it's time to unveil the first of my Sheena samples. It's very strange doing Christmas in June but I must say with these new stamps it's been a pleasure to get in the festive mood. They will be launched on C&C on Wednesday 19th at 11am and 3pm as current schedules stand and in total Sheena has 6 new stamp plates, all very different from each other but all equally gorgeous.

This first one is great to work with. It's a large image and can be used in so many ways. My fellow Inkoid, Linda even turned it into a lovely Summer scene. Anyway, here is my winter version.

I used distress inks for the sky and then painted the image with H20's before stamping all around the edge with the snow storm stamp that's on the same plate and embossing with silver WOW powder.

I loved making this second one and it turned into such a big image I had to make a card to fit it!!!! Talk about getting carried away.

I treated it like the collage I did a while ago with the abbey arches stamp. The image was bleached out of the distress inks with water before being over sprayed with the gold pourables that had been decanted into a mini mister. I then stamped the snow storm all over with white acrylic paint  and the ivy corners were gold embossed and painted with green H20's.

It really had a lovely sparkle to it.

Well, that's me for today so thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a lovely weekend whatever you are up too.

WOYWW 210

Hello folks, I very nearly didn't join in with WOYWW this week but after missing last week due to big birthday celebrations, not mine I hasten to add, I couldn't miss a look round all your desks again so here's mine for this week.

Not much to show, I'm afraid. I've been up to my ears in DT work. Christmas in June, very weird, especially as Summer has at last decided to show it's face, so my desk has become a bit of a dumping ground, especially as DD piled most of her stuff in my room while we decorated hers. I'm climbing over a rug and some bedding to get in to take the photo as it is.

Jo's (Jozerty) gorgeous Hoya plants she sent me a few years ago are at last flowering, can't tell you how excited I was at that, doesn't take much I know and there is a lovely little pile of envelopes that contained these beauties. I can't tell you how thrilled I was to receive so many gorgeous ATC's.

From left to right the creators are, Ria, Sam , Jo and Sue
                                                           Laura, Jill and Annie
                                                           Jan and Sandra De.

Thank you all. I will treasure each and everyone. Jan I feel very honoured to receive your lovely 1st edition stamping.

Here's mine. I thought it was appropriate considering how the weeks fly by between WOYWW's, let alone the years.

If you haven't yet discovered the huge weekly desk hop, then you need to go and see Julia, HERE and she will point you in the right direction.

Right, I need to go and get a fresh cup of coffee before I come and see what you've all been up to so thank you for stopping by and Happy Crafting.

Anyone Got The Time? & Did You Know Sheena Has A DT Call Out?

Afternoon folks. I hope you are all enjoying summer. How wonderful to get some warm sunshine at last. It certainly lifts your spirits doesn't it? The trouble is I'm now torn between my garden, which desperately needs some attention and doing what I need to do in the craft room, oh well, not a bad dilemma to have I suppose!

Yesterday was my dear Hubby's 50th Birthday. What a frightening number that is, thank goodness I have a good few years before I catch him up, although it doesn't bother him at all. We both managed to get the day off work, a rare luxury these days and made the most of it by going into Leeds shopping and doing lunch. It was a really lovely day.

I had struggled with what to buy him for his big day, he is a man of few wants although he loves his gadgets like most men but he has always wanted a large clock for his office so that is what he got. This is what I made him.

I never thought I'd struggle with it like I did, there are three different colours under this final one. I think I'm happy with the blue and brown now though. The stamps in the middle are Chocolate Baroque Punky Romance, love this set and I painted them with Sheena's Pebeo acrylic's, the iridescent ones out of the big set, love those too. The crackle stamp is Sheena's Ageing Beautifully and the Roman Numerals are from Inkylicious.

He has taken it to work to hang in his office!!

Before I go I'd just like to say a big hello to all my new followers. I couldn't understand it yesterday when I saw you all and wondered why I was suddenly so popular but then when I checked Facebook and saw the post from Chief Inkoid Fiona all became clear. I'm glad you found us all and you are very welcome.

If anyone doesn't know Sheena has a DT call out for 2 new Inkoids. For all the details please click this link. The closing date is the 20th June and all the information on how to apply is clearly set out.

She also has some shows on C&C this Saturday so watch out for them. I didn't make any new samples for these shows but the other Inkoids have been busy creating and are showing them off on their blogs if you want to have a look.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy this beautiful sunshine.

Happy Crafting.

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY WOYWW-Week 208

Well here we are again on another special WOYWW day celebrating four wonderful years of meeting up on a Wednesday to share not only desks but bits and pieces of things that are going on around our desks too all thanks to the amazing Julia, who had the brilliant idea of starting this thing off in the first place. If it wasn't for her we wouldn't have this midweek day which I think all WOYWWer's look forward too as it means we can put down what we are doing for an hour or so each week and just have a good old nosey around each others spaces and a bit of a chin wag while we are at it. I have made so many friends from all over the  World and there's not many places you can do that.

So without further ado, here is my desk as of about 5 minutes ago!!

I am still, hanging head in shame, making my ATC swaps!!! This has been a work in progress since Friday night because DD is having her bedroom decorated at the minute and so we have spent every spare minute clearing drawers and emptying toy boxes of 12 years worth of stuff and trying to prise baby toys she is so attached to from her grasp. Most of them are now in the loft!!

The ATC's will be finished and on their way out very soon I promise and thank you so much for the ones I have already received.

Here are two from Annie (on the left) and Jozarty (on the right). Thank you so much ladies I love them.

If you'd like to swap with me, please drop me an e-mail with your snail mail addy and I'll get one in the post, I promise!!

Last week you might remember I was experimenting with some uncompressed paper and lots of you asked what it was like for flowers.

Well the answer is brilliant. I love them and have been making lots. What do you think of them?

Finally, as the weather was so beautiful we had our first trip to The Lake District in nearly two years. I was having serious withdrawal symptoms as it's one of my favourite places in the world. So to sign off I'd thought I'd share a photo with you of the Langdale hills from Elterwater.

Thanks for stopping by and  here's to many more years of WOYWW. Cheers Julia for all you do.

What A Beautiful Day

Afternoon folks. I hope you are enjoying this beautiful sunshine today. What stunning weather and as clear as a bell. We have been out onto the moors this morning and you could see for miles. Magic!! So different from yesterday. Lets hope it lasts!!

Sheena had two brilliant shows today and as usual sold out of most things which is great. That means you love these stamps as much as us Inkoids!

I enjoyed making the samples so much I thought I'd share some daffodils with you today.

Another completely H20'd card, hope I'm not boring you with these, but the stamps just lent themselves to creating a set.

This second one is again painted with H20's but I made the background out of distress inks and over stamped with the Ageing Beautifully set.

Thanks for stopping by and have a brilliant Bank Holiday.