A few Christmas cards and tags

Hello from a very rainy Lancashire. I'm just taking a coffee break chance to do a quick catch up and share one or two more images of things I've been up to this week. On Saturday I'll be at Card-io in Wigan from 10am - 4pm where I'll be showcasing my Christmas range of stamps and various messy techniques - as well as some cleaner ones!

Here are some of the things I've been creating for Saturday's demonstration....

The first card was made using my "Little Festive Houses" set and I also added the tiny snowman from the "Cold Hands Warm Heart" set. The background was spritzed with Shimmer Goosebumpz before I blended various blue and purple Distress inks over it. 

Next up is a card featuring a Dylusions ink sprays background - with the white ink sprayed through a stencil over the other colours. I've used images from my "Moon Gazer" stamp set...I really like the whole moon gazing hares imagery and have a small hare in the garden that gazes upwards...not a real one of course! Though we do get hares in the fields behind the houses on my lane.

Now for a couple of tags....

.....both have snowmen from the "Cold Hands...." set. The trees in the left hand tag are from the "Little Festive Houses" set and the ones on the right hand tag are from "Peaceful Christmas" which I inked and then stamped onto scrap card before stamping onto the tag itself. Both backgrounds are made using Distress inks swept across the craft sheet, spritzed with water and then picked up on the tags. 

I added TH Christmas remnant rubs in white to the right hand tag before inking as the rub ons resist the inks to give a nice, soft finish.

Thank you for the great feedback I've had about the new stamps and especially these little chaps.....

 ....they are from the "Merry Christmas to Whoo" set. It's a shame that the camera doesn't pick up the amazing sparkle on this card - I used Tsukineko Shimmer Spritz, in Sparkle, over the whole front and it gives a very delicate sparkle to the picture that really does look like fairy dust! 

Here's one of the two Christmas Zendoodle word stamps used on a very simple card - great when you need to make plenty in a short space of time though!

This stamp is called, unsurprisingly, "Zendoodle Peace"! I took the photo using flash in the evening, hence the slightly creamy tinge. All I did was stamp, colour and add Crystal Stickles to the letters with some added dots of Stickles around the word - really easy and pretty quick!

A last tag to share using the "Doo Lally Pip Tree Fairy" stamp set.

This was a tag from my bag of unfinished bits and pieces - we all have those I think! I didn't really like the colours or how they had come together but I decided to go with it. I stamped the string of stars a few times across the surface and used a white gel pen to pick them out to brighten up the muddiness of the background a bit. More TH remnant rubs added very randomly to add more white highlights. Then I stamped, coloured and cut out little madam and added her before glittering her wings. Doesn't look quite so dreary now!

Talking of cards, I have added some Christmas cards for sale on my Etsy site and will be adding more items as and when I can....I have neglected my shop for quite a while so am determined to get cracking with it once more!

I've not been able to get into the garden this week what with work and the temperamental weather, but I've collected some more rocks for my latest project. Well, to be fair, I thought they were rocks but they turned out to be lumps of concrete! However, once they're half buried and have plants growing around them they will be fine and will do the job of keeping the soil in place.

I thought I'd end with a piece of music that I've been listening to a lot this week. It's sung by Enya and is from the Lord of the Rings trilogy which David and I absolutely loved....can't count how many times we watched the films. We always said we'd have a trilogy day where we'd watch the three films back to back in one go but we never quite found the time to do it!

Things are a bit rough here at the moment and, at times like this, I miss David more than ever, so this song pretty much sums up how I feel....

                                 

A bit of all sorts!

Just a late night post before bed time. It's been a busy day here one way and another. This morning I had the final dental appointment to fit my second replacement crown. This should have been done almost two weeks ago but the new crown had a fault so it had to be made all over again. It's nice to have a decent smile back, though it will take me a while to realise that everything's normal again I think! As my homegrown sweetcorn are very nearly ripe for harvesting, I asked the dentist if my new choppers would withstand biting into the cobs....apparently yes, so I shall look forward to that!

The sweetcorn have been very interesting as I've never grown them before and didn't really know exactly where the cobs grew. I foolishly thought that the yellow spikes growing at the top were going to magically turn into corn and was a bit disappointed at the idea of only one ear of corn per plant! As it turns out, the male flower is at the top and the female flowers that shoot out from the sides are what become the edible cobs - at least three or four on each plant...can't wait!

Talking of things horticultural, I was pretty miffed a couple of weeks ago when my new neighbours decided to cut back the shrubs that are between our front gardens. The shrubs are growing from my neighbour's side and they said they'd like to trim them a bit. The plants have come over onto my side and I said I was fine with them being trimmed as long as it wasn't too drastic as the birds like to perch in them. It was agreed that we'd do the trimming when I was at home so that we could all agree on what got cut back.

Unfortunately, when I was out one morning, my neighbour decided to get busy with the saw and hacked away at everything. Worst of all, he came into my garden and cut back the foliage that was hanging over my low wall as well as breaking one of my solar lamps in the process! I was quite annoyed to say the least. However, nothing has been mentioned and I don't want to fall out with new neighbours who are, otherwise, very pleasant. I'm sure they thought they were doing me a favour, but it has left my garden looking very bare at one side and with no privacy from next door...gggrrrr!!!

To make things worse, there's very little soil on my side in this area so I have been puzzling over what to do next. So, after visiting our mum this morning, Heather and I went to the garden centre and I got some bags of topsoil, compost and grit with a view to creating an area that I can plant up. Last night I found some large rocks that were hidden from view by overgrown Heathers, so I heaved them out and split them with a hammer and chisel. This is as far as I got this afternoon......

.....I've moved a few things around and now I need some new plants!

The gaps above the wall used to be full of lovely shrubbery with blossoms and berries : (  

I've moved some of my pots to fill the gravelly areas that have no soil at all and I've put some new plants into the deeper soil that will, hopefully, grow and create some privacy once more....

...it's not that I'm antisocial, but I don't like having an uninterrupted view into next door's garden! I've planted a lovely fern that I dug out of Heather's garden....she did give me permission! Next to it are a couple of Sunflowers that should flower nicely now that they're in open ground and, to the left of the fern is my bargain of the day..... 

....it's a "Magical Four Seasons" Hydrangea which, apparently, goes through four colour changes through the year. Heather and I loved the vintage look of it and I've wanted a Hydrangea for ages.This one was a steal in the special offers section!

Well, from gardens back to festive makes and here are one or two more examples of what I've been up to with my new stamps. This one is using my Zendoodle ready to go Angel set and the words are from my Inspirational Quotes set. The strip down the side features the Tsukineko Irresisible spray in Lulu Lavender which I then blended over with Shaded Lilac Distress ink.

Here's another card featuring my Peaceful Christmas set. I used a background from my selection that I have ready to use...it was created with Dylusions ink sprays onto damp 300 gsm white card which I then spritzed with white Dyusions through one of Tim's stencils. Not an especially festive stencil, but the colours worked really well and give a Northern Lights glow to the card. For this scene I simply added torn strips of white card with some shading of course....Distress ink applied with a waterbrush.

I'll be making more examples with the new Christmas stamps tomorrow, so will share them as and when!

I thought you might like to see a couple of new spots that Thomas has decided are great places to be. The last couple of days have seen him enjoying being in my company in the garden, but he soon gets bored of me taking more notice of plants than of him! His latest sleeping bed is here......

...curled up on top of the Heathers which make a very springy, if slightly prickly, cushion. If I pat him he goes up and down as if he's on a trampoline!

This morning I couldn't find him in any of his usual places until I went into the bathroom and discovered that his newest resting place is here.....

.....in the bath! Who knows what goes on in the feline mind!

Well, a bit of an eclectic mix of piccies tonight, but I'll be back with more Christmas creations in the next day or two. Nighty night all.

Forgot my hat!

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Warning....Christmas images...!

Hello all, two weeks since I last posted - yikes! I had a really good couple of weeks off work - didn't go away but I just pottered in the garden, relaxed in the sunshine with a couple of books, had a few evenings with friends and generally just had time out.

Last Saturday I was at Samuel Taylor's in Brighouse, so a big hello to everyone who came to see me there. Hope you are all making good use of your new stamps, Inca Gold and Dylusions sprays!

This last week though has been a very busy one, getting samples made for my day at Coleman's Warehouse tomorrow. It's one of their demo events so there will be several designers there...click on the link to get more details. So, I'm all packed up now and will be off to the station in an hour or so for my trip down to Northamptonshire. The scorching weather has been replaced with monsoon like downpours so I think I may have to get a cab - otherwise everything in my tote bag (let alone me!) will be drenched. : (

Most of my latest Christmas stamp sets are in stock now, so tomorrow will be my first demonstration with the new designs. Always great to launch new stamps and, after all these years, it's still exciting to see them on the shelves. 

Anyway, before I go, here are just a few of the cards I made this week....

 

....this one showcases "Zendoodle Dove Ready to Go" (that means ready doodled....not a dove ready for take off!!! Lol!). The background is texturised with Tsukineko Irresistibles and the sentiment is from my "Inspirational Quotes" set. A clean and simple card with just one wing overlayed for a little height and movement.

A bit muckier now (ooh er missus!), well, you know me, I can't stay clean and simple for too long! This card has a background made using Dylusions sprays and a TH stencil that's been spritzed through with the white ink. I love making these backgrounds and my tip about having an afternoon just making backgrounds for later use really helped me this week as I could dip into my collection of ready made ones to save me some time.

 .....my "Doo Lally Pip Tree Fairy" is perched on the top of the "Zentangle Tree Ready to Go" which is just peeking up from the bottom of the card. The swag of stars and the words are from the same set as the fairy. I'll be using her wings on other characters long after Christmas!

Last one for today features one of my favourites sets from the new collection, "Merry Christmas to Whoo"....

....the background was made the same way as the previous card but using a Crafter's Workshop snowflake stencil. I stamped the icicles branch a few times and then added the owls that I stamped, coloured and cut out separately. One admission for the observant amongst you....I realised, after stamping the lowest branch, that I shouldn't have positioned it at an angle - my icicles are not hanging straight down! Well, I was too happy with the background to scrap it, but I won't be making that mistake again!

Right, I had better get myself ready and book that taxi - the rain is getting heavier if anything. Hope to see lots of you there tomorrow...I may even be wearing my Christmas hat....oh no!!!

Have a great weekend whatever you're up to...despite the weather.

New designs...

...yes indeed, my new Christmas stamp designs are now on the Personal Impressions website. It makes all the intense work worthwhile when I see them up there! However, at the moment there are no images showing, just tantalising titles! If you'd like to check out what's in store and maybe have a guess as to what they will be (Lol!) then you can take a look here. As you can see, there are quite a lot of them!

My trip to the dentist went fine this morning and almost an hour later I had a temporary crown in place after everything had been prepared and measured for the genuine article in two weeks time. I must say I have never felt so glamourous as when I was lying flat out on the dentist's chair with a huge lump of bright blue moulding material crammed into my mouth - I'm sure it looked really attractive! I've got to be a bit careful what I eat for the next fortnight but at least I sort of have a smile back!

I'm off to the Vicarage this evening for the first of our study sessions based on Les Miserables, so am really looking forward to some lively conversation. The characters in the story are all fascinating in varying ways and we'll be looking at a different one each week. Then tomorrow evening, after a day of working on new samples, there is another puppet rehearsal at Church. We're learning how to become more adept at using the sticks that can be attached to the puppets' wrists to allow us to manipulate their hands and arms. It's a bit like patting your head and rubbing your tummy but I'm sure we'll get there eventually!

This was one of the performances we did last year. There were three of us behind the screen working five separate sheep!

And, looking back at today last year this was one of the photos I took....

...inside St Chad's Church on one of the first days that I was helping out as assistant Verger.

I was looking back last night at my blog posts that were on that day going back over the years. I found one from 2011 and one photo was this one of a page from my art journal....

...I was contemplating whether to add two figures to the page, representing David and me. I did draw us into the picture, battling against the elements. David always joked that he noted I was sheltering behind him! So, it seems poignant to look back and see the empty boat.I haven't done anything in my journal for a while but I am hoping to get some time in the next few weeks to put that right.

Well, a bit of a strange mix of a post this one! I had better get myself ready to walk round to the Vicarage now and I'll post some peeps at my new stamp sets as soon as the images are released.

Northern Papercrafting

Hello my blogging friends, and, once again, apologies for being awol for a week or more. It's been an especially busy time with shows and demonstrations on the work front and other activities also taking up my time.

As promised, here is a photo of the cute tags that Diane added to the two bags of cat treats that she gave me for T&T when I was down at A Maze of Memories a week or so back.....

 .....each tag has a little cat image and a different poem inside. As you can see, Tara wanted to get in on the act.......

.....thanks again Diane - once they've finished all the treats I will be carefully removing the tags and adding them to my Doo Lally display area.

Last Saturday I was back at Coleman's Craft Warehouse in Rushden, Northamptonshire, which is a huuuge store, crammed full of goodies. I didn't take my camera as I was already loaded up and, going off last time I was there, I knew I'd probably not have time to take any pictures anyway! Thank you to all the staff for, once again, looking after all the demonstrators so well (teas and coffees on tap and sandwiches in the fridge!) and to everyone who came along to watch....and spend! It was another really fun day and, hopefully, I'll be back in the Spring.

This Wednesday I was at Inspirations in Preston, so hello to everyone who I met there. Once again, myself and the other demonstrators were really well looked after (it does make a difference!) and I had plenty of space to work which is always a bonus....

Here are some of the things I got up to on the day.....

.....as ever, when I take photos at a demonstration, the background is usually my grubby craft sheet, so not the most beautifully presented image! Anyway, I used one of the Steampunk snowmen from my Nicicles as Icicles stamp set to make a Christmas tag with a slightly Halloween feel....dangly spiders anyone?! 

I made the tag background by dabbing Liquid Pearls onto the card using some scrunched up plastic bag (I usually just snip a bit off a carrier bag, but you can use cling film) and then drying the tag before blending Distress inks over the surface. This gives a shimmery effect and it's nice to use the Liquid Pearls in a different way.

I stamped the snowman onto the tag and separately onto white card....I'm not cutting round those fiddly arms for anyone, so I was able to cut them off the second image! I used a metallic gold pen to colour the arms on the tag, then coloured and cut out the second snowman before sticking him down. Some black gem spiders with webs and legs drawn with a fine black pen always add a nice touch! The snowy area is just scrunched tissue glued to the base with a wet glue and more glue squelched over the top to strenghen it - and to adhere some Rock Candy glitter to of course!

Here are two quite different effects using my Winter Silhouettes and Winter Critters stamp sets.....

.....The one on the left has a background made with my trademark faux bleaching technique using Distress inks and a water brush. I think I must have demonstrated this over a thousand times now, but I always get asked to do it again! The stag was inked up with a little Dusty Concord followed by a touch of Frayed Burlap Distress inks - just use one colour if you are a bit precious about keeping your ink pads absolutely pristine! I stamped him directly onto the card, resulting in a slightly two tone image...sometimes a silhoette image will come out slightly patchy, so just tickling it with the water brush will even everything out.

I stamped the sentiment in black and then overstamped it in Dusty Concord but ever so slightly to the above left to give a shadow effect - not too much or it will make your eyes go squiffy!

The card on the right has a much bolder look, created by the wonderful Goosebumps sprays. I used the clear (gloss) one on this one. I simply sprayed it over 300gsm white card and allowed it to dry for about ten minutes. It dries to a textural finish but is also a brilliant resist medium. Some Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade inks were blended just below centre and I then worked various blue and purple Distress inks in from the edges to create the snow filled sky. I used the old torn white card trick to create the snow drifts and then turned to heat resistant acetate to stamp the stag and also the trees from the Winter Critters set.

I stamped them with Archival black which won't dry on acetate unless given a quick blast of heat. I cut around the trees and added a couple of bits of black 3D foam behind the trunks before popping them in behind the "snow". The stag was trimmed out and then coated with glue (not the antlers) before adding Black Soot Distress Glitter. He was stuck to the foreground and I used a little Gesso to anchor his feet.

On the non-work front, I've been rehearsing my role as Camille the Camel again - this time for the Harvest service on Sunday, so it's a little sketch with two lugubrious camels discussing where their food comes from. The children at church love the puppets, but the adults also usually find something to smile about as well.

Last night was one of the rehearsals and, of course, the rain, which had held off all day whilst I was at home, decided to come down with a vengeance as soon as I set off to church! After the rehearsal I was then going to a WI meeting but had twenty minutes to spare, so I "treated" myself to a bag of chips for my very unhealthy but nice, dinner! The WI meeting was a visit from a local bee keeper so very interesting and, even though I thought I knew a lot about bees, I learned lots of new things about these fascinating creatures.

Everyone has a single raffle ticket on the night and mine was 999! I never win these things, but I did last night - it was either a box of chocs or the wine. I don't eat chocolate anymore, so it had to be the wine....I don't really drink either, but I'll force myself!

I'm all set now for my day at the Northern papercraft show where I'll be on the Ali Craft stand tomorrow. Hope to see lots of you there, so do say hello. It's going to be a busy day!

I'm really looking forward to next Thursday as I am going on a coach trip to York with others from church. We come under the Diocese of Blackburn and a new Bishop, Julian, has been elected and is being ordained on Thursday at York Minster. It's a wonderful opportunity to experience the full splendour of this magnificent building and will be a spine tingling ceremony I'm sure with the full choir and the service taken by the very charismatic Archbishop John Sentamu. Not sure if we're allowed to take any photos, but I'll take my camera just in case!

Well, I'd better get a shift on now, or there will be an empty space where I'm supposed to be tomorrow! Have a great weekend everyone.

...and relax!

After a very busy couple of weeks it's nice to have few days to relax a bit, although I'd have been happier if the weather hadn't turned so grim as I had planned to get some outdoor jobs done. The front door and window frames are in desperate need of some renovation, so I've got the paint and am ready to remove the peeling paintwork, fill, sand and prime before giving everything a nice shiny makeover....no chance yet though!

After being ensconced in the Doo Lally room (going a bit doo lally myself too!) making samples it was good when Thursday came around and I set off for the three day show at Event City in Manchester. I had a brilliant time there and it was lovely to see so many familiar faces, including people that I hadn't seen in ages. Thank you to everyone for the kind words, comments and very positive feedback that I received, as well as a few hugs! It did my heart good. Welcome to new blog followers and a special thanks to Neet for the fruit teas and to the mystery lady who passed the angel and heart gift to me anonymously - very much appreciated and it meant a lot.

Well, it was a busy three days needless to say! I didn't get much time to take photos, but here are a few from the show....

 

 .....lots of my Christmas stamps on display behind my demonstration table...and the odd pot or two of Glue n Seal of course!

.....that was meant to be me showing my newly painted Christmas top, but I look more like I'm trying to "get down with the kids".....or is that me showing my age there?!?!

Here's my area, surrounded by samples and products......

This card features one of the first things that I sold out of.....Goosebumps spray from Tsukineko. It's a bit like having Glossy Accents in a spritzer form and creates a texture over any paper or card stock. Of course, as it also creates a resist against Distress Inks, I had to use it to make a snowy sky!

 It's fabby stuff, available in matte, gloss or, the one I was using, shimmer effect. The closer you spray it to the card the bigger the spots will be, or hold it around 12" away for a finer spray. It's very sticky, so I recommend holding the card with tweezers, checking the vicinity for cats (!) and spraying over newspaper or other scrap surface.

Here's Wendy, on the other side of the stand, demonstrating her beautiful cards and techniques with her own range of stamps.....

Wendy works in a very clean and neat way, creating an endless array of delicate foliage and scenes. Talk about two different styles on one stand - if I tried making Wendy's cards they would be covered in inky fingerprints!

Excuse the tatty backdrop to these two tags....I just laid them on my messy craft sheet to take a quick snap!

I just wanted to show the lovely Die-Versions dies that I used on them. The Elf has a greeting taken from the Complements set and the fairy has words made from the Flutterby font set. I really like the way the letters are all diffferent sizes in that set. One rather amusing moment came when I was using Flutterby letters to add words to a snowman tag that I'd been working on. I was deciding exactly what would fit best and was trying out various words, placing letters down on the tag as I popped them out from the die cut sheet. I looked down and saw that the letters had managed to assemble themselves as "Le Snot" which caused some merriment around the table. I hastily began re-arranging everything and a few more letters finally spelled out Let it Snow!

A very busy, fun but tiring few days. You can see how shattered I was in this picture.....

 .....worn away to a frazzle! Sorry - I just couldn't help myself there! 

I'll be with Card-Io again at the leigh show in October, as well as at their new shop - more details soon.

Onto next weekend now, and I'll be down at A Maze of Memories in Long Crendon near Aylesbury on Saturday 21st where I'll be hosting make n takes and demonstrating. You'll need to book a place on the make n takes (contact the shop about this) but the demonstrations are free to all. Really looking forward to this event as everyone is always so welcoming and friendly and we have a real hoot! Susanne, I'm really sorry you won't be able to come this time and hope there aren't too many tears when you wave adieu to your daughter.

Meanwhile, I am off to keep a watchful eye on the weather and check if I dare to start work on that door....not looking good though! 

PS I forgot to say that my Blog Candy finishes at midnight tonight so last chance today to leave a comment on the post titled "Catch up time & American Candy". My neighbour will be picking a winner from the "hat" tomorrow, so be sure to call back and check if you've won!

Some painting diversions

I've been painting today...fabric painting that is to say. It was time to get some Christmas themed tops made up for when I'm out and about demonstrating, especially at the shows and I thought you might like to see what I came up with. Although it's getting colder now (almost daily it seems) some of the venues I'm at get pretty warm, so I've painted a turquoise Tee.....

 He's a bit of a grumpy old elf I'm afraid! Not sure he agrees with the sentiment! Mind you, I'd probably be grumpy with those spindly legs! He is one of the characters on my "Santa's Helpers" stamp set, but I've enlarged him here of course. The words are from my "It's a time to give" set. I had great fun painting this - especially adding the snowy white on top of all the letters.

I've also done a sweat shirt, this time featuring one of the steampunk snowmen from my "Nicicles as Icicles" set. The colour looks a bit more like puce here, but it's actually more of a lilac shade.

I'm really impressed with the DecoArt So Soft fabric paints which really are permanent....my other tops have been through the washing machine loads of times now and they look as good as when I first painted them. No ironing needed either - just paint and allow to dry for 48 hours before wearing...oh...and don't forget to wash the garment before painting. The white really does cover well, even on darker fabric....I can really recommend them wholeheartedly.

Well, those are two of the tops that I'll be wearing when I'm at the Event City show next week, so you should be able to spot me if you're coming along!

As well as my new Christmas stamps I'm also going to be using a range of dies called Die-Versions. I had a delivery of some of them this afternoon and they really are lovely. The packs are really dinky, but they pack a punch. Look at this lovely "Winter Wonder" die.....

.....can you see the words cleverly set within the snowflake?

There are lots of font dies too, here are a couple......

....again, small packages (great because they don't take up lots of space) but each set has two dies and the letters and digits are a good size.

Well, it's been a gloomy, rainy and chilly day here....I've had to put the heating on a couple of times, but not for long, just enough to take the nip out of the air. Thomas has loved snuggling up on the bench under the window in my Doo Lally room so he can rest his chin and paws on the hot radiator! I decided to be lazy tonight and had a slam in the oven ready meal.....a big Yorkshire pudding filled with beef slices and gravy - perfect for a chilly evening - yum! I even cheated and used frozen peas and instant mash! I have to say that instant mash is tons better than it used to be. It was a nice easy dinner after a long, busy day and hardly any washing up either!

I've been packing my case up for my trip over to the Victoria Stampers group tomorrow where we'll be having lots of messy fun with stamps, inks, cardboard, grungeboard, glitter......lots of stuff! I'll try and remember to take a few photos of what we get up to.

Right, time to sign off now and get the kettle on so I can settle down for the Masterchef final. Heather and I both love watching this show (David loved it too) and we can't decide who's going to win this series. Of course, Strictly Come Dancing starts on Saturday - unfortunately I'll have to watch most of the episodes on my little laptop screen as I'm usually not back home from travelling about until late in the evening. Not too many people in this series that I am familiar with, though I do like Dave Myers and Mark Benton. There are one or two that I can't stand as well, but I won't say who they are!

Okay, coffee time now, so I'll sign off and wish everyone a great weekend. 

PS Don't forget to leave a comment on my post "Catch up Time & American Candy" further down the page - I'll be closing the candy on 17th September, so you still have a week or so to join in and be in with a chance to win.

PPS Well done to ? ? on winning Masterchef! (no spoilers here!) It was a close run thing but I absolutely agreed with John and Greg's decision.

Thoughts of snow

Thinking of snow has been a help over these past few very hot days. Thankfully it's been a little fresher here this afternoon, with a subtle breeze wafting through the open doors and cooling things down a little.

Anyway, back to the snow. I have a couple of snowmen cards to share today though they are two quite different characters. This first one is from my Doo Lally Pip Steampunk Snowmen set and I've used a decorative aperture card for a change.

 I distress inked the sky using a scrap of paper to mask off the snow line, then stamped a few simple trees from my Winter Silhouettes set. A couple more layers of scrap card edged with a touch of Tumbled Glass ink created a bit more depth to the scene.

I stamped, coloured and cut out the snowman before coating him with Rock Candy distress glitter - it's much less glitzy than everyday glitter, more of a vintage look.

I stuck him down quite loosely so that his stove pipe hat was slightly above the background.

The second card features a completely different style of snowman, one with a very friendly face! This one is from my Snowtime Snowmen set. I've teamed him with a great Sizzix die, one of Tim's Bigz dies called Holiday Lamp Post, which I cut from black Kraft Core card so I could sand it back for a slightly worn look.

 To give the lamp post a more rounded out appearance, I used a black pen to draw lines where the shadows would be. I also cut a piece of white card to fit behind the lamp which I inked to match the background sky before streaking some oranges and reds into the centre. I stuck a piece of acetate behind the lamp followed by the inked card to give a nice glowing light.

I've also added some white Gesso and I may well add some to the holly...not quite decided yet!

Due to those twiggy arms, I've stamped the snowman directly onto the card using Coffee Archival ink and then again onto white card ready for colouring. The hat and scarf were stamped onto decorative paper which I shaded a little before assembling everything. The robin and little nest were also coloured and cut out a second time before sticking down.

Well, hope you like my little touch of Winter on another very warm day! The eagle eyed among you may also spot some of my ubiquitous bleached out fir trees in the background too....well, it's got to be done!

Hope everyone's having a great weekend.

 

All sorts!

I'm just having a little break from the Doo Lally room. Even though it's one the coolest side of the house, it's been so bakingly hot today that Ive been flagging a bit! So, it was time for a cold, really cold (!) shower, a long cool drink and a break from the inks and stamps. Tara's been hiding under the long leaves of the Crocosmia and Thomas even let me drape a soaked towel over him when he plonked down looking a bit frazzled!

Tara found a rather shady spot yesterday after the UPS delivery man had called with a very large box.....

 ...she's such a comic and every new box has to be investigated and claimed as her own! However, I was more interested by what was in the box, which was the second of two parcels that were delivered. The first was somewhat smaller, but here's what arrived.....

 .....the small package contained the three tubs of DecoArt Metallic Lustre which I'll be making good use of in my Christmas samples. Behind them is a new wheelie bag for my travels....my faithful, twice "re-wheeled" Tardis of a suitcase has been really struggling of late. Well, it's me who's been struggling really, with the worn out wheels, pull out handle that gets stuck and the holes that are getting bigger with every trip! I'm so attached to that case, and it holds so many memories for me that I can't bring myself to throw it out, so it will find a place in the garage where I can still look at it from time to time and remember happy times - I know that sounds weird, but inanimate objects do evoke feelings don't they.

Anyway, my new bag is very posh, a Marie Osmond one from Advantus, very lightweight and spacious. The only problem now is that I've got so used to packing my old case in a particular way that I'll have to learn from scratch again now!

Last night I picked some cherries...they are being snaffled quite quickly by the Blackbirds now, so I won't get too many more....

 ....I strategically placed them on the plate so you can't see all the dinks made by the ants which I have to nip out before eating them! (the cherries, not the ants!) They're delicious but between the birds and the bugs I don't get a lot. I'm happy for the birds to have a good feast though.

Yesterday was one of those days where I got very little done. The phone never stopped ringing and I couldn't get into a flow of work. Today I've got quite a bit done though, and I'm working my way through my new Christmas stamp sets. Here's one for a different occasion though.......

 .....mind you, the art journal fans amongst us will know that characters like this can be used at any time! This is Mr Pumpkinhead from my "Fright Night" Doo Lally Pip set. I know the photo is a little busy, but I couldn't resist positioning the card amongst some of my orange flowers! 

I used Graphic 45 "Magic of Oz" paper for the backing and the characters on the left which were cut from another sheet from the range, except for the bottles which are from the stamp set. I've used Glue n Seal to draw the webs on the stamped panel before Distress inking it. The "Fright Night" words were stamped onto white card and then cut into a suitably drippy edged panel before inking.

Here's a wintry card with no snow for once!

The colours look a little different than in "real life" unfortunately, and it's quite hard to see the orange glow in the windows. Anyway, this one's made using my "Winter Silhouettes" stamp set which I used over a background made with Dylusions ink sprays. No surprises in my colour choices I'm afraid! I cut hilly shapes from black Bazill card stock and overlayed them using silicone glue - hard to see the dimension here. I added a touch of white gel pen along each card layer just to define them more. It's a really simple card but I love using silhouette stamps for that very reason.

Well, I have made more than two cards today, but that's all my pictures for this post. I'm now getting too warm sitting at the computer, so I think I'll drain my glass and get back into the work room for a few more hours. Keep cool everyone!