Open Garden Scheme

A couple of weeks back I remember I told you I had visited a couple of gardens that people had opened to the public as part of the National open Garden scheme. This is where they open their gardens and charge a small fee for opening which goes to a charity. Many sell plants and have refreshments on sale too.

All of the photos here were from the first garden we went to, just a short walk from our house. They have a smallish plot, but it is on several levels and is chock full of wonderful plants, particularly Clematis, Roses and Hosta.

I took rather a lot of photos of these two entwined clematis

This stunning apricot rose had a wonderful scent too - quite spicy

I rather liked this geranium - such delicate colours

This clematis head was huge!

I loved the sunny faced pansies too.

It was a very enjoyable afternoon!
On the way back, Steve and I talked about our own garden and thought about what we had seen. In both gardens there were definitely not enough bees! Our marjoram is flowering at the moment and is a mass of bees. It is good to know we are doing our bit for the bee population. If I could have my own 'collection' of plants, I think I would choose something like Lavender - beautifully scented and a haven for bees.
What would you choose?

December 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's theme is...........

********Floral Fancies********

As the title suggests we want to see lots of flowers this month..........

I've chosen roses and started by creating an inky background with distress inks on Silk art card. I then placed a stencil over the top and removed some of the ink with a baby wipe. Once this was dry I stamped the rose image (Inkylicious) in memento back ink.

This card is done in the same way but different colours and a touch of glitter on the tips of the petals.

Please can I remind you we are a stamping challenge so must see a stamped image, sentiment or quote as the focal element of your artwork.Conventional rubber/acrylic stamps and digital images are acceptable, but pre-coloured digital images and toppers are not. And please note: if we do not comment on your entry it will be because it does not follow the theme, qualify under our rules, or because we are asked to sign in or provide additional data to comment. We do not want to be rude but we do want to be fair to those who do follow the rules.

We have a fabulous bundle of Sizzix goodies from one lucky winner this month, but there is more......in the spirit of Christmas our Top 3 will also receive a surprise gift from us.

Sizzix, there's no bigger or better place for craft materials, custom dies and machines that can die-cut, emboss and texturize many materials, including cardstock, paper, construction paper, fabric, faux fur, felt and foil plus much more.

 

 Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the fantastic creations by my lovely teamies. There is some wonderful inspiration again this month! Hope you get the chance to join in and I'll look forward to seeing all your lovely creations! 

Wild Roses

I've been having a little play with the Wild Rose 1 stamp from Inkylicious. I went traditional for my first card and coloured it much like the Sally Holmes rose in my garden.Here's a photo of it...

To colour the stamped image I used a waterbrush and Distress inks in dried marigold, squeezed lemonade, Victorian Velvet, Mowed lawn and crushed olive.
 I saw a fabulous colour combo of Distress inks on Pinterest so decided to experiment on a tag after stamping the rose in Versafine black. This was twisted citron, peacock feathers, salty ocean and blueprint sketch. After inking I used the waterbrush to go over the rose, blotting as I went. I was rather pleased with the results.

I am entering them into the Challenge at Allsorts where the theme is Fabulous florals. I used snippets for both so I am off to Miss Di's snippet playground. The tag and the peach paper have been in my snippets drawer for eons, lol! Do pop over to the playground and join in the fun!
Thanks for looking!

More garden visitors and flowers

Over the weekend I had a few moments in the garden with my camera and sat near the bird feeders.
The first visitor was Bobby's offspring. This young robin was so curious...and so cute too! Think we might call him Scruff!

Next was the squirrel who took great delight in scaring the pigeons!

He also tried the hamster technique with the peanuts...

Here are a few of the flowers...

As you can see I am still putting my camera through it's paces, and have to say I am very happy with it!
Hope you enjoyed sharing a few minutes in my garden.
Thanks for looking!

Special snippets

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky to win a prize in the snippet playground. It was a gorgeous set of rose themed stamps by Lindsay Mason. One of my first thoughts once half term arrived was to press them into use to make a thank you card for Miss Di, and here it is.

The panel of paper on which I stamped the rose background was left over from some dylusion spraying (After midnight, cherry pie, funky fuchsia and white linen). I stamped everything in memento elderberry. The black strip that the rose background is mounted on is also a snippet. The sentiment is from Inkylicious.
As I used up a couple of snippets I am taking it to the snippet playground, where there is a fantastic prize on offer - only some of Sarn's zentangle stamps!
Me and Sarn have been talking about a bit of karate in the playground. I just need to persuade Sensei Alex to come along, whilst Mrs A is enlisting some muscular fire fighters for us to grapple with!!!
Thanks for looking!

Saying it with Flowers at Allsorts

The challenge at Allsorts this week is to say it with Flowers. I was asked to make a Diamond Wedding Card for a colleague's parents, so set to work. Unusually for me I didn't stamp at all! I had made a few roses using the tutorial Brenda directed me to,  on Lee's blog and a five petalled retro flower punch. Here is a close up

I coloured them with Victorian velvet and wild honey distress inks, then dotted crystal glaze onto the petals. I also used a tonic punch, Nesties, a Marianne die, a cuttlebug embossing folder, Hero Arts gems and a computer generated sentiment.
Now I have been reminded by the lovely Di, I'm submitting this for her crafty snippets challenge . The silver paper was two separate snippets, the roses were made from some white linen card that had been trimmed from a larger sheet because it was a bit discoloured (It was donated to me by  the lovely Lynne. It was in her loft, and she had forgotten it was there!)
Thanks for looking!

What ever you fancy at Sir Stampalot

This month at Sir Stampalot we have a theme of 'Whatever you fancy' . For my DT card this month I used one of the new Woodware singles stamps - a rather lovely rose available here. A bargain at £3.99 I think you will agree.

The background was created with Wild Honey and Victorian Velvet distress inks, over stamped with Old french writing (Hero Arts) in the same colours. The label and corner die (Spellbinders) were cut from ivory pearlised card. The rose was also stamped onto the pearlised card and given a hint of colour using sponges and the same distress inks. I stamped the rose three times, decoupaged it and used pinflair glue to glue it some dimension. The stem was painted with shabby shutters distress ink. The sentiment is from
Rubber stamp tapestry.
Now, on to the prize...

What a lot of lovely stash! 

Make sure you are in with a chance of winning it by entering a card, but do make sure you stick to the rules and don't enter more than 6 challenges including Sir Stampalot with that project. Well, thanks for looking and please go and visit the challenge blog for more fabulous inspiration!

A Wedding and an Anniversary

I've been busy making a whole host of cards for colleagues at work. A couple of birthdays, three people who are leaving and a wedding that will be happening over the summer. Here is the wedding card. I used Bearly Mine designs vintage lace papers, A Waltzing Mouse frame stamp, some punches (Woodware and Martha Stewart) and dies(Marianne Designs), some pearlescent beige brilliance ink (Embossed with clear embossing powder) and some Tea Dye distress ink.

The subtle colours on the papers don't show up on the photo, but they are beautiful! I'm entering this card into these challenges:
Allsorts - Free and easy July
Moving along with the Times - My favourite things (Roses, Tea Dye distress ink and anything with a vintage feel!)
Simon says Stamp and Show - Embossing

My second card is one I was asked to make for a couple celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. My friend had seen a card I had made with the lovely 'Jack and Ginger' image by Mo Manning and asked if I could use that. This is what I came up with.

 

I coloured it with promarkers and added a panel of pearlised card that I dry embossed in a diamond pattern and added gems. Not sure if I have gone a bit overboard with the bling, but 60 years is some going these days! Well, I'd better go. Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday Sir Stampalot!

It's the first of the month again and a bit of a special day for us here at Stampalot Challenge because it's our Birthday.........woohoooooooooo..........we are one year old today.
And what a fabulous year it had been, the support from all of you peeps out in blogland has been phenomenal and of course it's you who have made our challenge such a success. Thank you one and all.
Now as well as our Birthday it's April Fools Day !! So this means not only a brand new challenge, but we've also got something a bit special lined up with a twist or two.

But let me tell you about the April challenge first. The theme has been selected by our very own Lady (Janice) Stampalot who has chosen:

"Ladies and Fashion"

I wonder what you will come up with for this one? I can see so many possibilities and am so looking forward to seeing all your entries. For one lucky winner, this is the prize on offer from Sir Stampalot: 

Fabulous isn't it?

My DT card for this month is a little soft and floaty lilac number...

The top and skirt are stamps from a clear set by Art Impressions. The set includes  flowers, footwear, a handbag and a rather lovely jacket too. I stamped onto patterned vellum and cut them out, adding ribbon and punched flowers. The punched square was made with a Martha Stewart round the page set, and  I added faux stitching to the edge of the base card with a quicky glue pen and glitter.

My roses were my first attempt at this sort of flower (You've already seen my second!) and I have to say they were very quick and easy. 

Now, onto the fun and games over on the Sir Stampalot challenge blog. There are a whole bunch of very cute little girls over there and you need to try and guess who is who. There is the added clue of a card that is in each DT member's particular style. There are three prizes on offer for the first three correct entries drawn. More details can be found on the challenge blog along with some exquisite cards, so do pop over and have a guess. Can't wait to see what you come up with for your cards this month too!
I'm entering this in the Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT challenge where the theme is handmade flowers

A very quick post

Hi everyone
Another very busy week, but I'm okay! Thanks so much for your kind words and for popping on to comment. I have been making a few cards for colleagues at work - March is a very popular month to have your birthday at our place! Here are two I made for the lovely Teaching Assistant I share my class with, one from all the staff and one from me.

This is the one from the whole staff on an 8x8 card using that huge butterfly by Elusive images. I coloured some watercolour paper with a mixture of Twilight and cranberry Adirondack ink, sprayed with glimmer mist and then stamped and embossed the butterfly in Sheena's platinum WOW powder. Not the best photo I'm afraid, and I can say the same about the next one too!

This one was a very quick make as I suddenly realised it was needed the evening before. The freehand cut numbers are a little naff, but I was quite proud of the roses in the top corner. I saw these being made on C&C last weekend and loved them! The bottom right flower is another Elusive images stamp and if you look closely you will see my favourite stamp on the base card. the papers are a papermania capsule collection set. Thanks for popping by. I will try my best to visit you over the weekend.

Scrap Sunday and an award

Last week I got a bit carried away with my scrap Sunday project, as inspired by Jules. I found some little offcuts of spritzed and sprayed paper and decided to weave it. It was very fiddly and time consuming and took longer than I'd intended! I added a couple of roses and some leaves punched from the same scraps of paper.  What do you think? I'm not sure! My scrap project for this week is much more to my liking. I went for a sepia tones for this one.

The main stamp is a very old Stampourium one stamped onto watercolour paper using Walnut Ink DI with a hint of wild honey DI in the colouring of it.

Finally I would like to say a huge thank you to Kay Carley who gave me this award. This one is REALLY special as not only has it come from an amazingly inspirational crafter, but the winners get to qualify for a free digi stamp from Digi's With Attitude!  How cool is that?

In order to qualify for your $5.00 Digi's With Attitude! Gift Certificate you must state 3 things that make you different from everybody else and nominate 5 blogs. Lastly you need to display the Blog Award Badge (above) in your sidebar and link it back to the Digi's With Attitude! Challenge Blog.

So, here are my three things:
      1. I LOVE spiders, but am afraid of bees and wasps
      2. I drink my coffee black with sugar but my tea white without
      3. I have been known to appear as Freddy Mercury and Jon Bon Jovi at the school talent show!
I now need to pass this on to 5 people, although I could choose so many more! Here they are:
1. Lynne 
2. Lisa
3. Chris
4. Brenda
5. Jules
Thanks for popping by x

Anniversaries at Tuesday Taggers

Good Morning! Our Theme at Tuesday Taggers this week is anniversaries, because my lovely teamie, Teri has her wedding anniversary this month. As a matter of fact it's mine at the end of this month too, and Steve and I are celebrating our 21st just like Teri is! Anyway, here is the card I made for a friend's Mum and Dad.

I was told they would appreciate something elegant and immediately thought of the Birthday card I got from my lovely friend Brenda. So Brenda, this is inspired by you. I used gold embossing powder on the Penny Black 'footnote', my MS Doily lace punch, and Wild honey distress ink over clear embossing on the central panel. The sentiment was computer generated. The rose was made with gold vellum.
Pop over to Tuesday Taggers and take a look at the fabulous DT makes to celebrate all sorts of anniversaries. I do hope you can join us this week! Thanks for visiting and for your lovely comments.

Suggestions please!

It's been a busy weekend. Yesterday I spent the morning turning up trousers for my Dad. After lunch we went to see him and took his Birthday things. He loved the card, and we went for a lovely walk in the sunshine. When Steve came home from work we went out for a Chinese meal to Cheung's, where the food is wonderful and the spare ribs are to die for! His Sister had bought him a cake with the word Fifty in candles on the top, so we finished off with a slice of that some hours later!!!
Today I've made a couple of cards this morning and been out to look at cars this afternoon. We put a deposit on one and I will pick it up a week tomorrow! I'm so excited! This is the first time I've changed my car because I want to, not out of necessity. The previous one was barely more than scrap and the one before that I'd had to change as the baby seat wouldn't fit into the back being a 2-door!
Anyway, onto the cards. The first is a first attempt at a wedding card for my nephew, and I'm rejecting it as it didn't work. More roses will start to look like a funeral wreath, and less leaves didn't look right either. Any suggestions?

My second card is a cute one. The mouse is from Whiff of Joy and the papers are digi downloads. The swirly one was from Funky Fairies, sadly no longer available, and I'm not sure about the other. The sentiment is from Aspects of Design funky frames.
Don't forget to pop back tomorrow to see something I've been working on for a few days that I'm rather pleased with, nudge, nudge wink, wink!
I'm off to rethink the wedding card now, whilst cooking tea.

A card for Lynne with more roses!

I've been looking forward to posting this one, but didn't want to put it on the blog until I'd given it to Lynne. I took my inspiration from Brenda who made this lovely card and box. I loved the colour combination and of course the beautiful roses. I saw it 'for real' at the Sir Stampalot demo day on 5th December, and it is even more beautiful than the photo suggests.
I stamped the pine branch (All Night Media) in versamark onto the green paper and embossed with Kaleidoscope embossing powder. The greeting was stamped in versafine and embossed with some cinnamon scented red embossing powder.
I was shown how to make the lovely roses by my friend Brenda. She has since put a very clear and easy to follow tutorial on her blog here. I used kaleidoscope embossing powder on my roses too. These are made using a 1 inch six petalled flower punch. I added some punched leaves too.
With the snow showers yesterday the light was very variable, so the top photo was taken with a flash. It is probably the best representation of colour, but the rose detail is lost. The other photos were taken in daylight.
I have been very lucky in the past week. My Christmas tree card for Tuesday Taggers won me a guest slot on the Design Team in January, and on Saturday I won the Allsorts Challenge for Pearls and Swirls. Mr Random.org has favoured me despite the fact I was number 13! I am really looking forward to the postie bringing my goodies, and thanks to the wonderful Design teams on both challenges for providing such wonderful inspiration!