Krafty cottage

Here is a card made with the Hobby art Old Barn stamp set. I was trying to get a sepia effect with zig clean color markers, but I might have been better using distress markers for a more vintage look. All images were stamped in versafine vintage sepia. I also used the wheat stamp from the 'In the Cornfield' set on the base card, colouring it with coloured pencils.
If you haven't tried Hobby Art stamps, then I can highly recommend them! They are exceptionally good quality, excellent designs and lots of them work so well together, especially the scene-it stamps. My collection is growing and I have had to extend it to a fourth folder recently! I can also tell you they have amazingly good customer service too. It really is like shopping with a very good friend! They have a super talented design team too, and there is lots of inspiration in the gallery on their website.
I will leave you with a photo of me with Jenny, taken at Doncaster in June. She is a really lovely lady.

Three days left until we break up for the summer. Soooooo tired! Thanks for looking!

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?

Fennel and Pixie Powder

I love using my Small Fennel Woodware stamps for CAS cards, and I thought they would go well with the Cosmic Shimmer pixie powders I bought recently. I am quite pleased with the results. 😃 The pixie powders are like brushos in that they are in powder form, but they are mostly just single colours and pearlised so they have an amazing sheen

I bought 5 colours originally, but went back and bought 5 more a couple of weeks later. You just scatter them onto the card and spray with water.

Here are some close up shots so you can see the shimmer. I stamped over the backgrounds in versafine black and clear heat embossed.

Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments. 2 and a half weeks to go till I break up. This is the longest term!

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's theme is.....

***Anything with Flowers*** 

As the title suggests we want to see your projects featuring your favourite flower stamp.  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.
As our sponsors this month are Crafty Individuals, I am using my favourite flower stamps from them. the first card uses Crafty Individuals CI-302 and Crafty Individuals Paper Book 3 Springtime. For the second card I used Crafty Individuals CI-411 and CI231. In each case the stamp was stamped onto silk art card in archival ink and coloured with Zig clean clean color markers and Distress markers.

Jean and Malcolm have a huge range of unique rubber stamps, papers and other crafting items, all amazing quality and value. You can find their online shop here They are offering a fabulous £35 voucher as our prize. If you win and need help spending that, I am definitely your woman 😁😁😁 There is also a second mystery prize on offer, too!
Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the gorgeous creations from my multi talented teamies, and I look forward to visiting your great entries!
I finally finished writing reports and that has coincided with the arrival of some lovely Hobby Art stamps, so my crafty time is sorted for this weekend. 
Thanks for looking!

Happy Rudolf day for June

 Can't believe it is Rudolf day again already! Who stole June? I am going to be short and sweet today as I am writing reports and hoping to do at least another three this evening. My first card is a single layer card. I masked off a strip with masking tape and stamped stamps from the winter spruce set from inkylicious on either side. I added dots of glitter glue and liquid pearls. After removing the tape I stamped the sentiment (Personal Impressions) in the space.

 

My second card has a background stamped with Crafty Individuals snow flakes (not very well) and a panel with a stamp from Inkylicious. I'm disappointed with this one. I might try adding some sparkle to it to see if it improves.

Do pop over to Mo's blog and take a look. It is the best way of keeping up with your Christmas cards.

I did have an hours break this afternoon at an open garden on our street, and I will share the photos of their stunning roses and clematis soon.

Thanks for looking! 

Happy Father's day

Here are the two cards I made for Father's day this year. The first is for my Dad. We were chatting about a holiday he took some years ago where he visited Skomer in June. There were puffins everywhere! This was the ideal opportunity to use my new puffin stamps from Hobby Art , the current monthly special. I coloured them with a mixture of Zig clean color markers and distress markers. I am entering this one into the current challenge at Penny Black and more where the theme is anything goes

For my Father-in-Law I used one of Dora's digis - a squirrel drawn from one of my photos. I used a woodgrain embossing folder and made a circular aperture in a piece of Kraft card. The leaves are from a stamp set by Hobby art. You can find Dora's digis here on her blog.
I do hope you are having a good weekend and not suffering too much with the heat. Do forgive me if I don't visit so much for a couple of weeks as I am writing reports at the moment - five done, 22 to go!

Fishing in the Moonlight...

The moonscape stamp and mask has been out again! This time I teamed it up with other inkylicious stamps to create a boating scene. I just dampened my blue ink duster and swiped it across the lower half for the water. I used a mixture of mermaid lagoon, blueprint sketch and faded jeans for the sky. I am very pleased with how the moon in the sky came out - it looks quite 3d when you dust around the inside edge of the stencil with the blue. The moon was stamped and dusted with Memento Canteloupe and Dandelion yellow.
I thought I'd share this now to serve as inspiration for father's day next weekend, although I don't think it will be my Dad's card... I'd better go and try and make his card so I can get it in the post mid week.
Happy Crafting!

June 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.....

***Use your favourite stamp*** 

As the title suggests we want to see your projects featuring your favourite stamp. The choice is up to you but we do need to see something stamped.  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.
As our sponsors this month are Visible Image, I am using my favourite Visible Image stamps leave your fears  and where your dreams take you as well as my favourite Moon from Inkylicious.  The background was created with Memento inks and ink dusters along with the stencil set that comes with the moonscape stamp. The Visible image stamps were stamped in versafine black ink and a little highlighting was added to the crow in white pencil crayon.

 

The prize this month is a generous £35 voucher for the Visible Image online store! Another challenge I wish I could enter myself! 
Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the gorgeous creations from my multi talented teamies, and I look forward to visiting your great entries!

Rudolf Day for May

 It's time for Rudolf day (25th of every month) where lots of us make a couple of Christmas cards in readiness for the festive season. I love the fact that it gets me organised, although the last two months have been a bit of a disaster organisationally! Anyway, to make up for short falls I am posting three cards this month.

 

I don't know about you but I received quite a lot of monotone cards with a hint of red both last year and the year before. There were some M&S ones with the same colour tones and lots of glitter too.  I used memento grey flannel (London fog would probably have been better, but I only have a dewdrop pad that needs replacing) on my ink duster and a mountain valley stencil to create the background. I hadn't put away the Inkylicious birch trees stamps and thought they would make a great snowy woodland scene.The trees in the background are just second generation ink.I finished them with more inkylicious stamps and stickles in frosted lace and star dust. The red berries are garnet liquid pearls.

Do pop over to Mo's blog and take a look at the fabulous DT cards. I love the Rudolf Community - everyone is always so friendly!

Fairies

I'm going to share something with you... prepare yourself for a shock...my new favourite stamp is not a tree!!! I have fallen in love with the inkylicious Moonscape stamp and stencil set, and it seems to be featuring on every card I make at the moment, lol! 

I've made two cards for young ladies who like fairies...

Both feature the inkylicious moon, some Lavinia stamps and lots of ink (Memento, Adirondack and Distress inks) applied with ink dusters.

I've added fairy dust in the form of liquid pearls and glitter glue. The moon is equally effective whether stamped in bold colours or pastels, and with the mask being the perfect size it enables you to get 3d effects! 

Both of these cards would fit the current theme at Stamping Sensations. If you haven't seen the inspiration there then please pop over and try entering this month. There are some lovely goodies to win! 

I will be back soon with more moons no doubt, lol!

Dora's Digi and a Bluebell Walk

Hi there! I'm here with a card that is my DT offering for Dora's Digis which are here on her blog. I coloured it with Be Creative Alcohol markers. Again I am a few days late, I'm afraid! The papers are from an Artylicious CD rom (Chocolate Baroque - not sure if they are still available) I do love a dragonfly 😊
Whilst I am here I thought I would share some photos from my belated birthday lunch and bluebell walk with my Sister and Brother in Law, last weekend. It was a beautiful day!

 A lovely view across Linacre reservoir. There are three dams and three lakes all surrounded by woodland on the outskirts of Chesterfield.

 Marsh Marigolds (a member of the buttercup family), affectionately known as May Blobs by my grandfather

 And lots of Bluebells

 Don't you just love the contrast of the fresh greens, the old beech leaves and the bluebells?

 Ransoms (Wild Garlic) in amongst the bluebells

 These two trees remind me of a Lavinia stamp....
I hope you enjoyed the stroll in the sunshine. Apologies for not making it into blog land as much as I'd like at the moment. It is pointless government test time in primary schools. Don't let anyone tell you that we don't have to do them any more, because we do and they are making them harder and harder. There are questions on the KS2 paper that are like the ones that were on O level papers in my day. I'd better get off my soapbox and go and cook tea.
Thanks for looking!

May 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.....

***Butterflies, Fairies and Fantasy*** 

As the title suggests we want to see your projects with one of these items as a MAIN FEATURE. The perfect opportunity to ink up all those butterflies, fairies and other magical images, the choice is up to you but we do need to see something stamped and associated with the theme focally on your artwork.......a small punched or die cut Butterfly will not suffice. 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.
 For my card I created a distress oxide background (smooshing technique), then stamped with the Bigz Butterfly 1 from Inkylicious in versafine black, embossing in clear embossing powder. I added glossy accents over the butterfly to give some dimension and it helped to highlight the colours too. I used a grey pencil rayon aroundthe betterfly to gibe the impression of a shadow. My verdict on distress oxides? I NEED all the colours!!!
What is the prize I hear you ask? Feast your eyes on this lovely lot! 

I wish I could enter!  

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!  
Before I go I want to share some photos from Last Sunday's walk at Whyming Brook Nature reserve, a 20 minute drive from Sheffield. It really is a most beautiful place...

Thanks for looking!