December at Stamping Sensations

 It is the first Sunday of the month and time for our December challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month we have a lovely easy theme, perfect for this time of year....

****Anything Goes****

My cards this month were made with a woodware stamp. I stamped and paper-pieced them all. The first and second were made with a cheap and cheerful paper Addicts pad called Yuletide Wishes that I picked up in 'The Works'. 

For my third card, I embossed the base card and added a die cut snowflake border, also from The Works. The blue and gold paper was left over from an inky mica spray session a while ago.

   

Please can I remind you we are a stamping challenge so must see a stamped image which reflects the theme as the focal element of your artwork , this means:

Stamping must be the central point of attention and interest

Our prize this month is A £25 voucher to spend at Be Creative!   Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous creations from my talented team mates and more details of that great prize! Thanks for looking!  
About an hour after this post goes live I will be setting up for our local craft fair (just round the corner) and hoping to sell lots of cards, candles and MDF. If you are near Nottingham, I will be at Woodthorpe Park Plant Shop in the green houses from 10 am to 4pm today. Pop and see me and say hello!

April at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning! It is the first Sunday of the month, so time for our April challenge at Stamping Sensations, where this month we have a great theme of........

********One for the Girls********

Now I decided to veer away from the predictable and create a couple of cards that are feminine, but not pink or cute! My first card features that Woodware Clear Magic single flower, coloured with alcohol markers and added glitter glue. The base card (Colourplan White) was stamped in citrus shades of Distress Ink using an Inkylicious leaf and the flower was mounted on a strip of stardream card, embossed with a stencil for Inky Doodles.

  The stamp on my second card is another Woodware Clear Magic one, and I have paper pieced it to imitate some of the wide range of converse style footwear available. I added white gel pen to the laces and eyelets.
  we are being sponsored by PDA Cards and Craft this month. I am a very lucky crafter as I live only a 25 minute drive away from PDA at Langley Mill, and visit (and spend lots!!!) often. Their paper and card selection are wonderful and they also stock a wide range of other crafting products, including some Woodware stamps, promarkers and stickles!
Here is the prize:                                                                            
                                        
 I'd be very happy to help you with the spending of that if you want, lol!  Be sure to pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the stunning feminine creations that my talented team mates have created.
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments too.

Festive flowers and foliage at Stamping Sensations

 Good morning! It is the first Sunday in November and time for a new Challenge at Stamping Sensations. Our theme this month is Festive Flowers and Foliage, so show us your holly, ivy  flowers and mistletoe! Our Sponsor is a new sponsor called  'be Creative!'
Here is my card featuring 'be Creative!' Winterland papers.

I stamped the poinsettia (Penny Black) twice in versamark ink and embossed it with sparkle gold embossing powder before cutting it out and decoupaging it using 3d glue. I attached another of the papers from the pad to the front of the card and then attached the flower. I added a crafts too die cut holly spring and pearls to the flower. Finally I added the sentiment from the recent Creative Stamping magazine on a spellbinders die-cut, and a ribbon.

My second project is a tree decoration using the same papers. I used 'Jus-Cutz' scalloped star dies. I will be writing a tutorial for this very soon! The Prize is about £60 worth of fabulous goodies - feast your eyes on this!
 
                               
Now for a bit more about our new sponsor  'be Creative!'.
  have just launched a brand new range of craft products. They will be launching their new web site very soon but in the meantime you can keep up to date by following their Facebook page where you will see some of  the new products. You can also contact Gordon and Justin by phone on 01623 818910 . The products were recently very well received at their launch on Hochanda and will also be available at the NEC Hobbycraft show on 5th through 8th November. As a member of their DT I can honestly vouch for the quality of every single product!
Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the wonderful creations from our DT, mostly created with  'be Creative!' papers.
Thanks for looking!

April at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning and Happy Easter! It is the first Sunday of April and time for a new Challenge at Stamping Sensations! I am pleased to say that it looks like our internet issues are sorted, touch wood, just in time to get my post finished for the new challenge! Our theme this month is Pretty in Pink and we are being sponsored by PDA Cards and Craft. I am a very lucky crafter as I live only a 25 minute drive away from PDA at Langley Mill, and visit (and spend lots!!!) often. Their paper and card selection are wonderful and they also stock a wide range of other crafting products. The items used on the card above all came from PDA. The stamp is a Woodware Clear Magic one, and I have paper pieced it to imitate some of the wide range of converse style footwear available. I added white gel pen to the laces and pink sparkle to the eyelets. I also added a bit of shading in ivory and pastel blue promarker.

My second card is a little fairy scene using fairy toadstool and grass stamps from Inkylicious. I used my ink dusters, a moon mask and adirondack inks to make the background. I stamped the fairy and grasses in versafine black and coloured the toadstool with distress markers and white gel pen. The background paper was created using dylusion sprays on copier paper. Once the bright colours were dry I placed a leaf stencil from 'that special touch' over and spayed with the white spray.

I also added a bit of subtle sparkle to the fairy and the night sky using a sakura gellyroll clear sparkle pen. You can see the effect in this photo. If you are going to Ally Pally on 11th and 12th April You can get a closer look at it on the Inkylicious stand.
The prize this month is a very generous £40 voucher to spend in the PDA store.

 I'd be very happy to help you with that if you want, lol!  Be sure to pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the stunning pink creations that my talented team mates have created.
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments too.

Some Girly Cards

I was asked to make an 8x8 card for a friend's daughter who is 18 today. The young lady in question is very fashion concious and loves her shoes, so I used a mixture of Pink Petticoat papers, Digistamp boutique digis and a digi of my own (the shoe, drawn by me, with some help from Meg to turn it into a digi). I then did some paper piecing and embellished with 3d paint and mini punches.

The sentiments were done on the computer too. As I'd got the papers and the digis to play with I did a couple more.

Not my usual thing, but very popular, and snapped up immediately from my sales box. All of these I made a little while ago. At present it is report writing time, so I may not be here as frequently as I would like. Thanks for your comments and I will try my best to visit you soon, when I have finished writing them all!
Thanks for looking!

A bit of a long one!

I hope you have had the fabulous weather we have had this weekend. Because it was so lovely, we had a walk in the woods yesterday, although there was a bit of mist around, despite the warmth and brightness of the sun. Here are a few photos.

Today I have done some gardening and made a couple of cards using snippets. My first card features some waltzing mouse stamps, a spellbinders border and some Pink Petticoat papers (which you are probably getting bored of by now!)

I used a little distress ink to add colour for the tea and around the stamped frame. I took a photo of it outside and unfortunately there was a bit of shadow that I didn't spot.
For my second card I paper pieced and decoupaged a Woodware singles stamp using lots of snippets. I am rather proud of the little stack I used up with this one!

Again I used some pink petticoat papers, but the other scraps have been hanging around for a very long time! Not the best photo, either I'm afraid. I will try to get a better one in the morning. Here is a close up of the 2 types of stickles and the glazed 'chocolate' and cherries.

I'm entering both of these into Di's Crafty snippets challenge, where I think I may get to be tuck shop monitor this week! Thanks for looking and I hope you have a good week.

Purple, snippets and paper piecing

I have made a few more cards this weekend. Thought I would try and squeeze in a few challenges before going back to school.
First up is my offering for this week's Less is More where the theme is 'predominantly purple' - one of my favourite colours incidentally.

I used ink dusters to make the background with purple twilight and eggplant adirondack ink. I then stamped the plant (indigo blu) with eggplant and added a bit of stickles to the flowers.
Next up is my snippet creation for this week.

I used snippets of snippets from last week's card and a larger piece that has been lurking for a couple of years I think! the flowers (Hero Arts) were stamped and cut from another snippet too, with added stickles.

 I coloured the centre of the flower with a promarker. If you want to join in with your snippets pop over to Pixie's crafty Snippets challenge.
Finally I have also completed some paper piecing for this week's theme at Allsorts.

This was done with snippets too. This fabulous Woodware Poppy was a Christmas present from a lovely friend.
Well, it is back to work tomorrow, so don't be surprised if it is a while before I post again! Thanks for looking!

Playing Bingo at Sir Stampalot

Well, it's the first Sunday in December so it's time for a new challenge at Sir Stampalot. We are having a little game of bingo, and here is your bingo card.

I chose pearls, stickles and ribbon, and came up with these two Christmas cards

The stamps are Woodware Tipsy trees paper pieced with faux stitching added. The papers are from my stash. "What is the prize?" I hear you ask. Well, feast your eyes on these goodies!

I think Santa may have had a hand in this as well as Andy and Janice!

I do hope you will be able to join in with us this month and I look forward to visiting. Pop over to the Stampalot Challenge blog for details of our rules and more fabulous inspiration. Thanks for looking!

Made a start on Christmas

Well, I have finally managed a card that I'm happy with. It isn't brayered and it isn't CAS, and I gave up trying to think of something to fit a challenge this week and started the Christmas cards - a little early for me this year!

I used the Woodware Tipsy Tree set that I was introduced to by Chris at the Sir Stampalot  blog girl day last year, and fell in love with! Paper piecing works brilliantly with this set and I'm rather pleased with the colour combo - a new one for me on Christmas cards.  I got a bit carried away with my Faux stitching because I have just treated myself to a new very fine pen. I also used liberal amounts of Distress inks in tea dye and walnut stain.

Now, the good thing about paper piecing like this is that you get two for the price of one, so here is the other one.

More stitching on this one too, along with some old and rather temperamental stickles that needs replacing, hence the blobby blobs! I was rather pleased that I could use up some scraps of paper in such an economical way.
Life at work is very busy already, so I'm going to be a bit hit and miss leaving comments, apart from on the stampalot challenge blog for a bit. I am attending a course tomorrow on 'Middle Leadership' that I think will require me to do some extra activities over and above my regular teaching. I'm just hoping I can get my head around it all - especially after lunch on Friday afternoon!
Thanks for looking!