Happy Christmas

Wow well this year seems to have flown by especially this month, I can't believe that tomorrow is Christmas Day. I would like to thank all of my followers for your very kind comments over the past year and to wish you all A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Hope to see you all here again in the New Year.

Sue

November Rudolph Days

Well this year has certainly flown by, I can't believe that this is the last Rudolph Days challenge before Christmas. Firstly I want to apologise as I'm not going to be around for a couple of weeks to comment on your blog posts. My card/s for the challenge this time have all been made using Tattered Lace dies and Charisma decoupage called over the Mantelpiece, even the large sentiment dies are from Tattered Lace too. All are 8x8 cards and have several layers, it's a good job that these are going to hand delivered. I do hope that you can join in with the last challenge this year, I know that Maureen has a wonderful prize for the lucky person chosen at random at the end, so do pop over and check it out.

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Unicorn

I'm back from my week away, I had a great time but it's now back to reality with a bang. I have so much catching up to do including taking my Mum to get her Flu jab later this week. This is a card that has been made for our Great Niece who turns 18 next week. I will admit that since photographing this card I have added 18 Today to the card. It was made using an 8x8 card base and the stamp which is from Pink Ink designs. I then coloured using very pastel shades and then inked around the edges using matching colours.

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

October Rudolph Days

Just popping in quickly this morning with my entry for this months Rudolph Days Challenge. Once this is posted I'm off for a few days away. I found some gorgeous wide ribbon in my local Costco recently and decided to make some cards using it. The ribbon is 2 1/2 inches wide, so makes quite a statement. I cut the ribbon to length and then placed around some white card before adding a sentiment to a base card and then adding the piece with the ribbon. Quick to make so I made 5 of each to add to my collection this year.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

There Be Dragons

I'm here today to share a card made for my Eldest Niece's birthday earlier this month. It was made using Lavinia stamps and Distress Oxide sprays. I tend not to put sentiments on the front of these type of cards as I know that a lot of people that I've made them for have kept them out all year round. I do like the new dragon stamps that were bought out recently, especially when making cards for more adult cards.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

A Workshop Or Two

Last weekend saw me up at the crack of dawn, no I lie it was still dark when I got up, as I was off to a one day workshop with a friend. It was just outside of Coventry and held by Clare Charvil from My Creative Spirit. Where we made a lovely Travellers Notebook using the beautiful papers from the Graphic 45 Kaleidoscope Collection. It was going to take about 2 hours to reach the venue from home, which involved a trip up the A34 between Newbury and the M40. Then along the M40 for some way. I'm just glad to say that the weather was better than today. When we got onto the M40 and joined there were hundreds of Motorcyclist on the road, and when I say hundreds we drove past 22 miles of them, it was quite a sight to see. We found out later that it was the Ride To The Wall. (I've linked the last bit for anyone who wishes to find out more). We arrived with time to set up and grab a cup of coffee before the day started at 10.00 am.

Only a picture of the front of my Travellers Notebook as I've not taken any of the inside yet. We finished up the day by having a meal with a friend that we met up with for the day before heading from Coventry over to Kettering for the night. Where on the Sunday we were off to another one day workshop.

Sunday saw us finding our way to Brigstock  Village Hall, were we attended the first ever workshop to be held by Pink Ink. We were greeted by Mel and Kathy on our arrival and were made to feel very welcome. We were split into two groups and the first half of the day we spent with Kathy learning how to stamp and paint onto fabric. This was something that I had wanted to try for sometime, but was a bit nervous of trying it. I hope you'll agree that my first attempt didn't turn out bad. In the afternoon we moved over and had a wonderful time With Pauline Butcher using paints, ink and water colour brush pens and made the decoupaged card below. I used the same stamp for both of my projects, the new Donkey stamp that has just been released. This was given to us as part of the workshop (the choice of one of the four new stamps that were released the previous week), although we did have the choice to work with any of their beautiful stamps. I'm glad to say that we had a fantastic weekend and the weather even stayed fine for the journey home.

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Busy Month With Birthdays

It's been a busy month so far with lots of celebrations going on. First it mine and hubby's 39th wedding anniversary on 4th, then on the 5th it was my eldest niece's birthday closely followed by her younger sister on the 8th. Then yesterday it was my Daughters birthday. My mum has 4 grandchildren and the 3 girls are all born within days of each other although on different years. Which brings me to my card today which was made for my Daughter using another of my favourite company's stamps, Lavinia. The background was made using distress oxide sprays, then some shading and hills added using distress ink, I used three different shades of browns for the leaves on the trees to give the feel of Autumn. I'm off now to join in the challenge over at Stamping Sensations which this month is Trees, Leaves and/or Autumn.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comment which are always appreciated.

Sue

Whale Hello

This week over on the Allsorts Challenge Blog they want to see things for Boys to Men. This card is for a friend who's birthday is tomorrow and as he doesn't look at my blog I'm fine to post it on here early. Again I've used a Pink Ink stamp and this time the beautiful whale. I've been whale watching twice now and on both occasions was lucky enough to see these magnificent creatures. The second time was with the friend this card is for, hopefully it will bring back memories of the great time we had. The background was created using Distress Oxide Sprays in various colours of blue and green, then when dry I over stamped using similar colours around the edge and then stamped the main images in black. Finally I stamped the large whale again and coloured then fussy cut it out and stuck over the top.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Trees And Leaves

I'm here today with a card for the Allsorts Challenge, which this week is Trees and Leaves. A perfect excuse to use this happy chappy from Pink Ink - Merryfall. I stamped him onto some white card that I picked up at a show in a pack, it's very smooth so I was a bit worried about how well it would stamp and would I be able to colour using Alcohol pens. I shouldn't have worried as it was wonderful, the pens didn't even bleed through the card. You can bet that I will have trouble finding that same card next time. After stamping the main image and colouring I stamped around the edge with the leaves taking them off of the page slightly, then also stamping onto the left over bits from the A4 sheet and cutting out the leaves.  Then I after mounting the card I placed the cut out leaves over the top and off of the edge slightly. I'm sure you'll agree that he looks like he having great fun falling through the air and landing on what must be a pile of leaves on the ground. Or maybe that's my over active imagination making up stories.

I'm also going to enter this into the Cards For Guyz Challenge which this time is - Trees or Leaves or both.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

September Rudolph Days

Wow September already and not only that it's the 25th which means that it's time for  the Rudolph Days Challenge over at Scrappy Mos. For my card/s this month I cased a card that I had seen over on Eileen Godwin's Blog, she was teaching the technique at her workshops at the beginning of September. As I knew how to do part of the technique and also had the stamp that she used I decided to see what I could do. The background is made  with a score board and then distress inks pulled gently over the top, I then stamped the large bauble from the wonderful set by Pink Ink  and coloured with Alcohol Markers, then finally I added a sentiment which was from a set by Crafters Companion. I must admit to being please with the results and I now have nine more cards to add to my stash. I do hope that you have time to pop over to Maureen's blog and see what the DT have to inspire this month and come and join the fun, there's even a prize for one lucky person chosen at random.

 Below are the different colour combinations that I tried.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Anniversary Card 2

A couple of weeks ago I showed the card that I had made for my Sister-in-law and Brother-in-laws Wedding Anniversary. I'm back again today to show you the card that I made for my Father-in-law to give to them. For this card I used the downloadable papers from the Tattered Lace magazine Issue 68 and the die that matched the Charisma download. I'm glad to say that she loved both of the cards that I made them and they had a great day celebrating 49 years. The card is 8x8 and uses two matching background papers along with several layers of the decoupage. As I used downloadable papers and a graphics program for this card I'm off to join in at CD Sunday this time.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Pixies Snippets Playground

It's been a while since I took a trip along to the Pixies Snippets Playground, but I've been trying to tidy my Craftroom for the last week (I'm getting there), but while clearing a shelf I found this image already coloured and ready to go. So I stopped long enough to get it made up. I can't remember were the stamp is from, as it was stamped as a result of a crafty play with a friend who bought the stamp along with her. But as I said I had coloured it at the time intending to make it into a card. The base card (5x7) was made out of a piece of card in the scrap box, one end was badly damaged so I cut it down to make the base, the silver glitter card was an off cut from a previous project too. Well I'm off to Ikea this afternoon to get some more shelves, hopefully once up I can get my room finished and back to some serious crafting.

As well as popping along to the playground this week, I'm also going to join in the following challenges.

Allsorts Challenge ... Anything Goes
A Bit More Time To Craft Challenge ... Anything Goes

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Say It With Flowers

My card today is for my Sister-in-law and Brother-in-law for their 49th Anniversary which is next week, I'm safe to show it on here as she doesn't follow my blog. With the weather turning colder over the past couple of days I'm hoping that the bright colours on these Heartfelt Creations Peony's will brighten the day for them. As well as using the stamps from the Peony collection I've also used the paper pad for the background. I printed the sentiment on my PC and used a die to cut the banner. I am going to enter this into the challenge over at Stamping Sensations this month which is Anything Goes With Flowers.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

CD Sunday - Anything Goes

I always used to take part in the CD Sunday Challenge and was even on the DT at one time. However I find that these days I don't use CD's in my crafting so much. Recently CD Sunday have changed the rules of the Challenge to include CD's, USB's and Digital Images and as I  had recently made this card from a download from Crafts You Print I thought I would hop along and join in the challenge this time. I can't tell you who the designer is for this as it was a long time ago that I bought it. It's an 8x8 card base and although it doesn't show well lots of decoupage too.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

August Rudolph Days

Well I'm rather late to the Rudolph Days challenge this month as I've been away with my Daughter and Grandsons. We had a wonderful time with glorious weather returning on Tuesday after the Bank Holiday rush. My washing and ironing is now done and put away,so time for my card for this month. I used a Penny Black stamp for the background, the stag is a new stamp from Crafters Companion and the sentiment from Chocolate Baroque. I first stamped the background then masking with paper used distress inks to colour. Then I stamped the stag and sentiment before finishing with some glitter and a white posca pen for the snowflakes. Now as you know I never just stop at one card, below are a further six (should have been seven but one fell victim to fingerprints).

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

With Wings

Well at the beginning of the year I had hoped to be a better blogger this year, but I've not managed it this past month. Lots of reasons why, my having a bad bout of tonsillitis being one of them. However I am now recovered and showing today the card that I've made to enter into the Stamping Sensations Challenge this month which is Things With Wings. My first reaction was to reach for the Lavinia stamps, but I stopped myself as that was too easy, next was to go for one of the many bird stamps that I have, but then I spotted this Pink Ink stamp that was released earlier this month (that I had to have) and decided to use her instead. Yesterday was the perfect day to stamp and get inky, while it poured down outside I was nice and dry having some me time. I don't very often water colour but for this stamp I decided to go with that for a change, I'm quite pleased with the results. Now I have to go and pack a suitcase, I'm away for just over a week with my Daughter and Grandsons, here's hoping the weather is going to be nicer in Devon next week.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

July Rudolph Days

I can't believe that on what is forecast to maybe the hottest UK day on record that I'm posting a Christmas card. But today is the 25th so time for this months Rudolph Days challenge. Those of you how follow my blog regularly will know that I recently attended a two day workshop with Sweet Poppy Stencils. I have adapted a card that I made there into this one which is a smaller version, which will be cheaper to post when December gets here. I used the Holly Wreath stencil and translucent paste topped with green glitter while the paste was still wet. I then found a stamp that would fit into my small circle and matt and layered this into the middle using red and gold mirri card. I finished by matting and layering onto the same red and gold mirri card and popped onto a 6x6 card base. I do hope that you can join in the fun over on the Rudolph Days Challenge blog this month. It runs until the end of the month and there is a choice of two wonderful prizes on offer for the winner of the draw.

 Now it would not be me if I didn't make more that one, I made eight to add to my stash. These will be shared between myself , my mother and my father-in-law at Christmas.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Chameleon

I think I might have mentioned in an earlier post that I'm a bit addicted to Pink Ink Stamps at the moment, so when I saw this one for sale it jumped right into my basket shouting Buy Me, Buy Me. So what else could I do, I bought it. It was stamped onto Sheena's stamping card and then coloured with Spectrum Noir pens, I blended a little ink around the outside and added some Nuvo drops to the flowers. Then it was popped onto some black card and a 8x8 card base. I thought I would go and join in the challenge at A bit More Time To Craft which at the moment is Anything Goes.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

The Earth Laughs In Flowers

My card today is for the Stamping Sensations Challenge which this month is The Earth Laughs In Flowers. I made this card for a friend who recently had an operation and I know that she has received it now. I used a beautiful stamp called Fantasy Flower Panel, by Chloe and some of the wonderful sparkly embossing powders that she uses too. First I stamped and embossed onto a piece of white card stock, them stamped the image again several times onto parchment paper and again embossed with the same powder. I then cut out the flowers and layered them on top of the main image adding a gem in the middles to finish. As the embossing powder that I used had a lilac colour to it, I matted onto a purple card base.

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Sweet Poppy Stencil's Retreat

First I apologise for the amount of photos in this post. Last weekend I  went to a Sweet Poppy Stencil retreat, it was held in a beautiful hotel in the midlands. Lucy and Paul were excellent hosts and kept us busy all weekend. We made four completed projects, these are that top four cards. Then we also made another seven which were bought home to finish. The reason these were not finished on the day/s is because they needed to dry before being put onto cards. As you can see there were lots of different techniques tried.

Glitter on paste then dried air dried.

Oxide sprays and then black ink through the stencil, then cut out with matching dies.

Glitter on paste then dried with a heat gun.

Micro beads over gold paste, there were three different shades of micro beads mixed together.

Distress inks through the stencil, then translucent paste and clear micro beads.

Distress ink background, black ink through the stencil then a mesh stencil with translucent paste.

Pearlised paste, when dry place stencil back over the top and colour with distress inks.

Paste and three colours of glitter over the top.

Three colours of paste marbled together and iridescent glitter over the top.

 Paste onto black card then mica powders over the top and then heat set with heat gun. Gives this lovely metallic look when buffed after it's cooled down.

Finally pearlised paste and three different colour micro beads over the top, gives the appearance of flocking.

Thanks you for sticking with me until the end and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Rudolph Days June

Last week I had some new dies and stamps arrive from Crafters Companion, so I wanted to use them straight away. I rummaged through my scraps boxes and found the right colours to make this card using the Poinsettia Die set. Everything came out of the scrap box, even the card base was made with an off cut of some A 3 card that I had laying around. This is where I admit to having made this last week but it's taken me until today to take the photo off of the camera and get it posted. I'm off to join in with both the Rudolph Days Challenge and Pixies Snippets Playground, it's been a while since I was last in the playground to play.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue 

Fantasy World

My card today has been made for the challenge over on the Allsorts Blog, which is Fantasy World this week. I needed no excuses to get the Lavinia Stamps out and inky again. I decided to go for warm oranges and yellows for this card, I was hoping it would influence a change in the weather, but no such luck.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Show Your True Colours

The challenge over on the Stamping Sensations Blog this month is Show Your True Colours. Now if you had asked me what my favourite colours were a few years ago I would have said Blues and Greens, but I also like Yellows and Oranges. More recently I find my self reaching for all sorts of colours which was how I came up with this card for the challenge, using my Lavinia stamps of course. I'm off on a crafty retreat with friends this weekend, just got to load my supplies into the car and then I shall be off.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Black, White and Green

My card today has been made for the Allsorts Challenge which this week is for Black, White and one other colour. For my card I've used an unbranded die bought from the Internet. I cut it out in black card, placed over a background made using the gel plate with some green paint that had bubble wrap placed over the top for texture. I then put onto a 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch card base. I've not added a sentiment to this one at the moment but will add it once I know where it is going.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

For A Boy/Man

The new challenge over on Addicted-to-Stamps is for a Boy/Man. As I have just finished this card using the brand new stamp from Pink Ink it seemed right to enter it. I have several male Birthday coming up so made this with one of them in mind. I've used several different brands of alcohol markers to colour the image then blended distress inks top and bottom to give some perspective.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Country Garden

My card today has been sat on my desk for the past week stamped but not coloured. So I grabbed the pencils this morning and I've now finished it ready to go and join in with the challenge over at Stamping Sensations this month which is In An English Country Garden. I've used stamps from Hobby Art to build my scene using two different sets. I do like using Hobby Art for building scenes the stamps sets just seem to go together so easily, you could take stamps from several sets and they would still look great together.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue