Inspired by Sunsets

 Our lovely friend Lynne has taken some stunning photos of sunsets recently. Several of them feature a very beautiful old Beech tree, which Deby at Inkylicious made into a stamp a few years ago. This prompted talk of ink colours and bending brushes, followed by Lynne challenging us to recreate the scene. We had a choice of photos, but this was the one that I chose, and here is my card:

Nowhere near as beautiful as the real thing, but I'm happy. The base card was stamped with Crafty Individuals stamps in dried marigold and versafine black. The sky behind the tree was done with Distress inks and ink dusters, using mustard seed, fossilized amber, spiced marmalade, ripe persimmon, rusty hinge and fired brick. I stamped the tree in Archival black and extended the ground and fence to fill the width of the card with a black pen.

Please do take a look at everyone's beautiful art work, inspired by Lynne's gorgeous photos.

I am sure Lynne, Sandma, Viv and Joan would love to have you visit them. These lovely friends are so wonderfully supportive and their creations on their blogs and on facebook are a real feast to the eyes. 

Whilst I am here, I've got a quick reminder for you that Jean Hardy is on Hochanda tomorrow with some stunningly beautiful new stamps designed by Sandma. The programmes are at on10am and 2pm, straight after the lovely Lesley Wharton of Chocolate Baroque (9am and 1pm) I will leave you with a sneaky peek at one of the cards I made for the show 😁

Thanks for looking!

Stag Sunset

Here is a lollystick plaque made using the larger lolly sticks, stuck together with hot glue. I then painted it with Acrylic paints (nothing fancy, just some from Wilkos) and stamped with inkylicious stamps and versafine ink. I am going to try another like this with versafine clair to see if I get a crisper outline. I have a couple of projects on the go at the moment which I will share with you soon. The craft fest is in full swing, lol 😁
Thanks for looking!

July at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning! It is the first Sunday of the Month and time for a new Challenge over at Stamping Sensations! This month our theme is

********Anything goes with a stamp and ribbons********

 I used my ink dusters to create the scene above.  All stamps are from Inkylicious and the inks were Memento Dandelion, Cantaloupe and Rosebud, oh yes, and Tuxedo black of course! The finishing touch is a luxurious black satin ribbon The usual rules apply, you can enter up to three times, combine with other challenges, use any make of stamp......but can I please remind you we are a stamping challenge and stamping must be the focal/predominant element of your work. 
Our sponsors this month are Crafty Ribbons who have supplied this wonderful prize for us to offer to you.
 

 Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the fantastic creations by my lovely teamies. Also please say a big welcome to our new Teamie, Marlies. There are some stunning DT cards again this month! Hope you get the chance to join in and I'll look forward to seeing all your lovely creations!
Oh, yes, and if you aren't too busy today do try and catch one of the Be Creative shows on Hochanda - they have some great gadgets to help with all your crafting! 

Elephants, or the story of a lost card

Back in June I made this card for a colleague. I sent it off around school for everyone to sign, but it never made it's way back to me! With 2 days to go no one could find it, so I sent a blank card around so I could finish it that evening. I had forgotten that I had made the previous one landscape and everyone had signed this in portrait, so it had to be a bit different! All in all I was not a happy bunny, and a few naughty words did pass my lips!

Looking at them now I prefer my second version! For this one I used memento inks in grape Jelly, Paris Dusk Dandelion and Tangelo. Stamps are from Little Claire (Elephants), Woodware (leaves) and Waltzing Mouse (Zig Zag).
Thanks for looking!

My new favourite ink combination!

After all those gorgeous sunsets in Wales (see this post), and more in Scotland when I went to visit Lynne last weekend, I had to have a go at seeing whether I could recreate those colours. I opted for Memento inks in Grape Jelly and Lilac posies with some Lemon yellow Impress ink on silk art card. This is what I came up with.

 I stamped the Inkylicious 'Tree of Life' in Black Archival and used the tree roots to make the border. The sentiment is from the set 'Sentiments one'.

This next card uses the largest of the Northern Pine set,  Birds from Windswept and a sentiment available soon!  The images were stamped in Memento tuxedo black. Below the masked area I used a wet brush  over the dusted inks to give the impression of water. It looks better in real life than on the photo. This might be my next video tutorial I think. Let me know what you think.
Thanks for looking, and enjoy the rest of the bank holiday weekend x
Edit: You can find a video tutorial to make this card here.

Skies

Just got back from a lovely break in Wales. We had a week on the North Pembrokeshire coast followed by a week in the Tanat Valley. Did lots of walking, eating (whoops!) and bird watching. Thought I would share a few of the spectacular sunsets we saw.
In Pembrokeshire...

Love this last one - those grasses in the foreground look just like the windswept stamp from Inkylicious! Lots of peach bellini, mountain rose, denim and eggplant on these, Lynne!
In the Tanat Valley...

These three were all taken from the place we were staying. I could definitely live with waking up to that view each morning! Hope you are all having a good summer. I will be using some of these for inspiration for some inkiness very soon I think! Thanks for looking!

Blog Candy Winner and a few bits and pieces

It has been a whole week since my last post and to be honest I have done very little besides go to work. The heat left me rather lethargic. The weekend has brought a reduction in temperatures here and I have felt a little more creative. I have completed a few small cards including this one.

The flower stamp is one of the Inkylicious Twinchies, a bargain at £1, but only currently available at shows. I stamped and them coloured in with promarkers, thinking of the Bellis that Steve's Dad grew until a couple of years ago. I love any daisy-type flowers and I knew this would be lovely as a background or a focal image. I can see I will use it lots!
So onto the Blog Candy. I put the names in a pot and pulled out a winner.  The winner is... Mags! Please email me with your postal address, Mags, so I can send you the Molly Blooms stamps. My email is on my profile page.  I have been rather lucky on the Candy front today myself, winning a huge stash of Crafty individuals products, so a big thank you to Jean and Malcolm. Perfect timing to be having a play too!
Finally, I will share a few sunset photos with you, taken in our garden as I have been trying to cool off a bit!

Thanks for looking! I will be having some more blog candy (not cute this time!) very soon.

Been busy...

Hi There! Well, this week reached Friday and I hadn't been near my craft table once, so I got inky for a couple of hours to make up for it! Here are the results.

 For this one I used Daydreamer and Delicate Vines stamps from Inkylicious, creating the background with my ink dusters and dye inks. The base card was stamped and dusted with big and juicy soothing sunset. Next I went for some more subdued colours...

For the base card I stamped the skeleton leaf with Memento Desert Sand and Adirondack Aqua. I then dusted the main panel with the same colours but with a little water on the dusters which gives a slightly streaked effect. The stamps I used were All about Allium and Wild Meadow. I used frosted lace stickles on the flower heads.
We have now had our HMI visit and I am pleased to say they won't be back for a while. Also I finished my reports this morning, so things should get back to normal now for a while. I have still not played with some stash that I bought at Doncaster, so I am due some serious crafting time!
Thanks for looking and hopefully I will catch up with you very soon!

Silhouettes at Craft-a-Scene

The theme this month at Craft a Scene is Silhouettes. Now I was thrilled that they liked my card so much last month, and wasn't at all sure what to do this month, but after a fair bit of mulling, opted for an interpretation of one of the photos taken last week. Here is the card...

and here is the photo...

Well, it had to have a moon/sun on it and a bird too! I brayered the background with Adirondacks in Peach bellini, Sunshine yellow, Sunset orange and Pitch Black. The tree is an Andy Skinner stamp by Personal Impressions and all other stamps are from Inkylicious. I added a few lines and spots of white gel pen to highlight the twigs in the corner. The black panel was embossed and then rubbed over with rub and buff.
The die-cut leaves are a Marianne die and the roses were hand cut and rolled from gold paper. Here is a close up so you can see them better.

I think this is going to be Meg's Birthday card, as she took the photo and she also loves her birds of prey.
Before I go I want to mention the wonderful lady from whom I learned how to use a brayer. She doesn't know me from Adam, but I have spent many a happy hour looking at her work and following her tutorials. I first discovered her work back in 2008 and have learned so much from her. If you have never visited Michelle Zindorf's blog 'Freedom in Creating' make sure you pay her a visit. She is truly inspirational, and does it all for love, giving freely of her talent. She isn't the only one either. There are many other amazingly talented and inspirational crafters out there too, and I am so delighted to have found this great challenge, along with the fabulous DT for even more inspiration.  Isn't the internet an amazing thing? Well, thanks for looking and I hope you have a great day.

Fresh Air and Wildlife!

I'm back! Meg and I have spent the last three days in Scotland with Lynne. The Scenery is breathtaking and although it was a little bracing at times we got out for a walk every day. Here are a few photos.

Lichen encrusted tree trunks,

 

A male bullfinch,

 

A red squirrel (his ear tufts are being blown flat in the wind!)

 

Another red squirrel, who loves to pose for the cameras,

 

A lovely sunset over the river,

and a tree (well, I have to include trees somehow!). Now I think I have an Andy Skinner stamp that looks a bit like that...

Well, thanks for looking. Hope you have a great Easter weekend!

Lovely papers and some photos

I popped onto Pink Petticoat's website to look at their gallery, and found they had a sale on. This set of 'Perfect' papers, twenty four in all, were just £1.25! Bargain! I bought some more too, which no doubt you will see very soon. I teamed them up with a Waltzing Mouse frame cut with Nestie labels 18. The Butterfly is an old Elusive Images/ Chocolate Baroque one coloured with promarkers.

 At Allsorts this week they are having a Free and Easy February, so I've decided to enter it into their challenge.
Well, I've got a week off school, so I'm going to indulge myself with a bit of crafting this week. Best place to be in this weather! I drove up to see my Dad for a couple of hours this afternoon and couldn't resist stopping to take a few photos. There is something about  the light on days like today that I just love.

Thanks for looking!
P.S. I'm feeling very honoured that Chrissie and Mandi of  "Less is More" chose my card as one of the showCASe cards for week 52.

A few more CAS cards

I have been busy all week with Panto at school, so tonight is the first time since the weekend I've had enough time to stamp. We have one more matinee to do and then it is all over for another year. The song my class sang is called 'Life is a wonderful thing', and it is the sort of song that gets into your head and is there every waking moment. I found myself singing it as I was pushing the trolley round the supermarket! Anyway, on to my cards. I started with a couple more hero arts wreath cards, but as I had run out of red gems I used red tulip paint and stickles instead, and as I'd not used the tulip paint since last Christmas it had separated a bit and was a bit runny in places. I added a rather large tartan bow to cover a splodge on the next one!

Next I got out my Lavinia Mistletoe stamp and Versafine Olympia Green. I have made quite a few Christmas cards using this design since I first saw Tracy Dutton demo it at Doncaster about four years ago.

I added a bit of icicle stickles to the berries and a sentiment from Hero Arts. I tried to stamp another, but this time it didn't quite meet, so I added a bow in the gap.

The bow and sentiment don't look quite central on this one, but it doesn't look as bad as the photo in real life!

Finally I want to share some photos with you that I took on the way back from visiting my Dad on Saturday. 

 I thought of Adirondack eggplant and peach bellini the minute I saw that sky!!! I had a chat with Brenda and challenged her to recreate it and you can see the results here. She did an amazing job! Unfortunately the journey wasn't all good as a passing vehicle kicked up a rather large stone that cracked my windscreen, and the crack that was about 3cm long on Sunday was about 20cm long by Tuesday. I am now £75 lighter in the purse. At least it wasn't today it was being replaced - wouldn't have fancied that job in those winds and rain! Talking of the weather, I hope those of you in Scotland have made it through the day without problems caused by those winds, and are tucked up safely in your homes. Thanks for looking!

More ATCs

These are my final two ATCs for the Crafty Individuals competition. They both use stamps from the crafty elements range. The leaves are stamped over an adirondack colour wash background using butterscotch, lettuce and cranberry. I overstamped the leaves in versamark and brushed over with Blonde Moments pigment powder in Gold.

The last was meant to be a very quick stamp and sponge, but I made 4 before I was totally happy! This is not the one I sent, as I was hurrying to get them in an envelope, but it was the next best! Adirondack Dye inks in Butterscotch, lettuce and Red Pepper this time.

Sunsets

I had a look on Michelle Zindorf's latest blog entry and she asked about favourite colour combinations for sunsets, so I had a look for some of the sunsets Meg and I took photos of on holiday in the summer. Some are in the Lakes and some are views across the sea to Arran and Ailsa Craig on the West coast of Scotland. I love the colours in all of these.