Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

At last its here, Christmas that is. I do love the build up to Christmas, shopping, works drinks and visiting family. SCD have the final challenge of the year and it is "Merry Christmas" very apt. Next year the format of SCD will change and I am looking forward to the new challenges. BUT for now here is my

"Merry Christmas"  I used DI red lipstick and bundled sage for that Christmas colour look then edged with rub on metallic red, green and gold, stamped baubles and small tree added a tando tree which I had coloured with inca gold just finished off with glitter glue. Merry Christmas XX

Its Christmas (well nearly)

 
Today I was Christmas shopping phew, now I love the pre Christmas manic-ness of shopping even if it is a fight to get to the checkouts LOL, that's what it is all about. I then chilled out in my craft room and did the SCD challenge this week it is "Christmas Characters" I chose an angel (mainly because this is a new stamp and I was determined to use it) and a few fairies. I used Christmas colours DI bundled sage and worn lipstick and metallic rubs red , gold & green (there must be a song there somewhere) around the edges. My little girl angel is stamped in brilliance sparkle black and I added red & green glitter glue to her dress and wings. Its a lovely tag and the photo does not do the tag justice. Last weekend I made this little hanging for my cousin (Sue) it was her birthday. I thought I would share that with you all. Enjoy the Christmas rush it will soon be here and gone again. XX Off to the bramford crop tomorrow YIPPEE.

Trees

Hope you have all been enjoying the snow this week, Tilly and me did play in it just for a while LOL well you have to don't you?. This week over at SCD the theme is TREES and as it is a new month we must use tags. I am loving the theme as I am a bit of a tree hugger. I used a brayer for the background 'creole spice' and I  deliberately used a small tag so that I could my miniature tree clarity stamps. (The diamond bought these for my birthday and I just love them) I stamped in trees and fence in black then I high lighted in white pen for depth and used London fog for the tree back stamping gave it a rock candy stickles moon and a bit of snow in the foreground. I have also included a photo of my other tree (hope you don't mind as it is not a tag), I have just made this quilted advent calender for The Diamond. Yes I know what you are thinking he is too old for all that. BUT I have filled each day with grown up chocolate and at the weekends miniature JDs that's when he decided he wasn't too old for all that LOL.XX

SNOW & The Big Event

The theme at SCD this week is SNOW very apt considering half the country is covered in the stuff. Luckily non in my are yet. Well having had a very busy weekend Sunday spent at the "The Big Event" a day of indulging in myself in my favorite past time of scrapping with other like minded folk and workshops to choose from a fab day. I had made some Christmas cards and for the snow theme I have used one of these. The card is painted in a silver cosmic shimmer wash and stamped with a little Christmas tree and embossed with a dark green almost black for the snow I stamped in white, very simple. Enjoy your week and I hope you don't get snowed in.

Numbers - Christmas Count Down

Had a fab day at papermaze crop Saturday, the crop kit was beautiful and I am already looking forward to the Big Event next Sunday, it is going to be packed full of workshops and kits. Over at SCD challenge this week is "Numbers" and judging by the responses already this is hugely popular. As a novice it is really interesting to follow this challenge site and see what the other participants produce, such talent. I am feeling decidedly Christmasy today probably because I spent Sunday morning at a local garden centre (Notcutts) looking around their Christmas displays. If you have children or grand children you really must visit as it is a wonderland. So my piece is called "Christmas Count Down" I used a tag as I already had it cut out, I then inked using a brayer and big juicy called sunset.I backed stamped with maya road clock stamps in chateau gray and then used my lovely crafty individuals Christmas tree stamp with dewdrop starlight black ink (it is very sparkly but the camera flash doesn't really show it up) I heat embossed the 25 with a lovely dark purple. Another great challenge.

WINGS SCD Challenge

I find myself asking the same question every weekend. Why do weekends go so quickly? I wish I knew the answer. I seem to cram so much into 2 days. Saturday I was at the Bramford crop chatting with friends and doing a page. My cousin "Suzy"  made me a lovely "S" key chain, she used a technique that has given the chipboard an enamelled look. The colours are just fab.  I am so pleased with it. Sunday! well a bit of this and that and of course the SCD challenge which this week was "wings" this seemed to be hugely popular with the other participants. I really didn't know where to start, but Mum bought a set of paperartsy stamps from yesterdays crop (a real bargain) just perfect for wings, so of course I borrowed them LOL (Mum already knew what she would do and I think it is inspired do take a look at her blog ). I also inked and stamped a background then stamped the main theme and added a butterfly stamped inside with humming birds.I finished off with rock candy crackle paint and rubbed in inka gold. Have a good week all. Roll on next weekend.

Houses at SCD

This week over at SCD it is a new month and a new challenge this time it is again anything goes but this week it must be "houses". I really wanted to use my new steam punk stamps which I had as a birthday present so I managed to incorporate this into my house. The house I cut out from my cricut Christmas cartridge, I then used DI  faded jeans and barn door then stamped with the steam punk, I then used rock candy crackle paint and once dry rubbed in DIs. The crackly paint seems to distort the card as it dry so I backed onto card and then used inka gold to edge and also rub this into the crackles. Lots of new techniques used this week. A good challenge and I got to use my stamps LOL. And the mouse: well it is a house after all.

Claret & Blue

Phew what a really tricky colour mix, you girls on the DI team really know how to challenge all of us, guess that's what it is all about getting to do stuff out of your comfort zone. Well I had to mix red and dark pink ink to get claret I used grunge board and my TH flower dies, then stamped my text in blue and to give it a lift a swirl in white acrylic paint, I then edged in blue glitter pen. I thought it still looked rather flat so I punched out leaves in blue glitter card and mounted on black card run through an embossing folder. I am very satisfied with the outcome, thanks DI team for this challenge I rather enjoyed it. Off to enjoy a curry this evening as my sons and wags have visited for my birthday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Green & Yellow (OMG)

I have had a relaxing weekend and despite not feeling well on Saturday I spent a lovely afternoon with Jenni (my daughter in law to be) designing save the date and wedding invites. We ended up with a really quite simple design and we are both very pleased, just need to start making them.Can't show pictures as all under wraps.

I then turned my attention to SCD weekly challenge, now this gave the The Diamond a nasty turn when I started talking about all things "Green & Yellow " LOL. obviously it was too much after all he is a staunch Ipswich Town supporter and the colours belong to the dreaded Norwich City FC. I think he has recovered from the shock, GLH. Needless to say I found this a tricky colour to work with. Eventually I painted a background with my green pearlised shimmer paints and stamped a lovely background stamp of swirls, flowers and hearts using tea tree green then highlighted with a green gel pen. added a few hearts with background in yellow versa and painted over in yellow shimmer paint and yellow ribbon. I think it is quite pretty definitely shimmery, otherwise not sure about it. Have a lovely week.all.

Orange & Balck

Following all the fun with making the frames (see post below) the Diamond, Trudy & Tilly went home, the rest of us went onto a craft weekend at overstrand (hosted by Sally from creative memories). Despite suffering craft fatigue we managed to scrap the weekend away but I did find time to take part in the SCD challenge, I love these challenges so I rang TD and asked him to look for me. Now I love orange and black obviously it is very Halloween the nearest I got to Halloween is using pumpkin paint for the background, I then inked over this with scattered starw to dull down and Inca gold the edges. The stamps I love as quilting is another of my hobbies so I thought them very apt. Enjoy the rest of your week everyone.

A Fab Week in Norfolk

I spent last week at a large barn in north norfolk craftiing with some of  my family, the diamond lived up to his reputation and came along and cooked for us MEGA HUGS to Steve aka the diamond XOXOXO, of course Tilly came too. We had lovely walks in the morning and then came back and crafted the rest of the day away pure bliss. I wanted the others to try something different so I decided to share the learning from the frame workshop I had attended with Carol at Papermaze during the summer. Everyone enjoyed this and it was a lot of fun and very messy LOL. But all the frames were finished and all very unique.  Mine was a Christams frame. You can see the others below, and Mums on her blog. 

Purple & Green

A nice relaxing day in my craft room creating something purple and green. This is the theme from SCD this week. I love this colour combo (nice one Carol) it really reminds me of Christmas but I did resist the urge to do a Christmas scene LOL its bad enough that all the shops are pushing Christmas goodies. I used a tag and edged in DIs forest green and then embossed with the text, I then brushed Victorian Velvet over the text, then used a rather lovely flower stamp and water coloured in with shades of green and purples. I added butterfly's coloured with gel pens and ribbon. I am disappointed with the photo as it does not show the true colours, guess it is my old camera, Ho Hum. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

It really is Autumn

Over at SCD it is a new month and a new challenge this week the challenge is partly freeform providing you use autumn colour "orange, reds, browns". To be given freedom to use the colours on anything was quite daunting. But I love Autumn colour and the season is one of my favorites (despite the windy rain we have today). So here is my effort.
I cut out a large leaf shape from my new cricut create, (oh yes my latest toy is fab) and used DI dried marigold, spiced marmalade and worn lipstick. I then edged with inka gold and kept rubbing it as the you rub the shin gets brighter. then stamped with walnut stain text and my lovely butterfly swirls added flowers in red and touched up butterfly in red sparkle I then added a smaller leaf that is DI scattered straw and edged again in inka gold. I have called my piece "FALL" well I couldn't fit on Autumn LOL. The leaf is backed with a sparkle brown paper. I am now off to get ready for the Bramford crop tomorrow Yippee.

The Birdie Song

Had a fab day at the Ally Pally yesterday at the Big Stamp show, spent plenty of dosh (Oops) but got some fab goodies. Must admit to feeling worn out today must be all the spending LOL. Anyway this morning I relaxed and sorted out my new found stash and settled down to the last of the "Arches" challenges from SCD this week it was "birds" (The Diamond thought this was a good theme, but a little disappointed when he discovered it to be the feathered type LOL he is naughty XX. He did start humming "The Birdie Song" which gave me a spark of an idea). I inked the background using my new brayer and inks (Creole Spice) then stamped with my little bird and tree branches I picked up for 75p yesterday gave it a bit of a spritz and touched up with glitter and gel pens, then added the notes and title. Great month DT looking forward to the next challenge.

Zany Star Tree

This has been a very enjoyable weekend, had a lovely day at papermaze crop and finished a little book for my niece it was all about her hen night. Then I spent Sunday moving things around in my hobby room as when I got home Saturday the diamond xx had put up some more shelves for me. Have you ever found no matter how much space we have for our hobbies there never is enough I always just spread the mess out further LOL. The prompt this week over at SCD was "stars" I have used it as an excuse to use my new tattered angels Glimmer Glam paint (they are yummy) hence my stars turned out a bit zany LOL. I gave the backing a wash in cosmic shimmer twilight, then edged with DI Victorian Velvet stamped my fav tree stamp and used a mask to paint the stars in the glimmer glam. I then added the text stamping and sequins on my star tree. Did you know stars grow on trees, they do now. XX 

A Relaxing week

Well here we are Sunday evening already and work looming :-( The diamond and me have had a fantastic break at CenterParcs last week. Plenty of time in the sauna (I felt like a shrivelled prune, but very chilled) we had some lovely walks and saw red deer and fallow deer. Ate far too much and am now paying the price.

The weekend has just flown by, I actually did some cooking apple pie and a lemon drizzle cake (whew) I also attacked the garden and just about found time to do the SCD weekly challenge, the 1950's was quite a decade obviously as I was born in 57, Rock and Roll, Elvis began his hip swivelling, Dr Seuss published cat in hat, Castro in Cuba, Dior 50s fashion etc etc. I took my inspiration from fashion of the 50s I think the fashion was very feminine and pretty, it also remind me of the dress making patterns my Mum always had around (she always made clothes for herself, me and for paying customers) so here it is. I inked with TH distressed sugar spun, worn lipstick. I used the sequin offcuts and painted through it with silkies to get the embossed look, I then stamped the background with floral swirl in purple sparkle ink. I stuck the images downloaded from the net on top and used glossy accent to high light them.  Can't wait to see what the other participants have done. Have a good week all.

All things Lace

What a beautiful early autumn day it has been pity we don't get more of them, even more of a shame that we miss them when at work. Anyway I have spent a part of this lovely day in my room working on the SCD  challenge, this month it is Arches and this week Lace. I think we all must have a passion for Lace. I know my Mum has she has a gorgeous selection accumulated over the years. She is a well known miniature bear artist.. I persuaded her to join in this challenge which she did and I am pleased to say she really enjoyed.

On my piece I used my new silkies range of water based paint, called Indian Spice I used it to paint the base on the card it has a lovely shimmer. Then I stamped over it with my newest stamp (it is a beautiful stamp) although the ink I used (versfine black) did not sit well with the paint. I then added some antique lace to the top and side, I have had in my stash for a while.The gold butterflies and a lace border which I inked with TH to finish. Keep the fabulous challenges coming DT.

Of the Sea

The last of the Torso challenges this month over at SCD this weeks theme is "Of the sea" I really liked this theme as I love being near the sea. The DT efforts were so inspirational and I can't wait to view the other participants torso's. I have had a very busy bank holiday weekend as my sons and wags descended on me and the Diamond went off to play bowls on Sunday leaving me to cook Sunday lunch. Those who know me will be totally shocked with this revelation I am surprised I still know how. Needless to say I felt like laying in a darkned room with a wet flannel on my head LOL. All my plans for crafting away the whole weekend have fizzled out into this afternoon only ho hum. Well eventually I produced this effort using inking and stamping, a die cut fish tarted up with glitter pens and a glimmer mist spray. I am looking forward to the swop and also next months challenge what will the DT team think of next.

SCD Red & Black

This week over at SCD Torso is still the shape to use, but this week we were asked to use Red & Black

I always find colours as theme quite tricky not sure why, so I went contemporary. I spritzed with Laver red cosmic shimmer over sequin cut off, then stamped a swirl in black and added some red glassy beads and black bling, I thought it looked lacking so then stamped the eye and art. The other participants are looking forward to the swop but I don't feel very confident that my creations are up to it so I am not to sure about this part of the monthly challenge. Anyway here it is Red & Black. Keep up the good work DT. While your here take a look at my Mum's blog she has made me the most fabby denim bag. She is know as the bag lady as she is always making lovely bags. Thanks Mum I love it XX

Memories in the Making

The SCD challenge this week was Memories. Now I thought this theme was really lovely it reminded me of all the lovely memories I have tucked away in my head, it has taken half lifetime (and a bit) to amass so many. I instantly new what I would do. My son Paul and his lovely finance Jenni are just beginning their journey together and it seemed fitting to make that my subject. I used a photo of them and changed it to sepia for the aged look and my favorite  DI dried marigold and touched the edges with spiced marmalade and antique paper. I stamped with a lovely hearts and text and a second with swirls. Then printed the words and stuck them to a fragment and a bit of bling. I must say I love the look and it feels so personal. My other project this weekend was a bit of a disaster I tried the crackle box out of the July Craft Stamper. It says to paint a layer of acrylic paint on a box let dry, then paint PVA spritzed with water and whilst wet paint on a light colour acrylic and whist it dry it will crackle. But NO it did not crackle don't know what I did wrong DOH, if anyone can help with advice?. So no other pictures of alterted art to share except my torso.

SCD Torso challenge and Daniel Craig

Well those clever designers over at SCD did throw me a "curved ball" as they say. Torso's indeed and the samples that the DT produced just fabulous.Trouble is all that came into my head was Daniel Craig  you know the scene him walking out of the sea (MMMmmm), I just can't get past that picture LOL, don't even ask me where I was going to put the bling LOL. Well eventually when I did come into land, I came up with this. Not to happy with it. First I stamped card and embossed in clear then I applied a wash of a cosmic shimmer waterpaint then topped up colour with DI Dusty Concord then decided to go with butterflies as it completed the stamped image All in all I prefer Daniel Craig's torso. Great challenge DT; have a good week all.

The SCD Blues (Oh and orange and brown)

Where has the weekend gone, one minute its Friday and I am enjoying a lovely evening at my cousins sons wedding. Saturday cropping all day and time you blink it is Sunday evening and! OMG I must do my SCD tag challenge. Today is also my Auntie Nerta's birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Auntie Netta.

I found it quite tuf this week. What to do with those colours?. In the end I used it as an excuse to use my newest stamps, I confess to buying these recently when I realised that Blades in London is do-able in my lunch break (now that is very dangerous for my purse LOL). I inked the tag with DI parchment, walnut stain and stamped in blue with my text stamp. , then I cut out a square of blue paper with a very delicate background design, I inked the edges with spiced marmalade and stamped my tree with dried marigold and added some bling to make a bling bling tree. Oh and punched out an edge in orange card then added a small sparkly blue butterfly. I am quite pleased with the result.

Round and Round in Circles

After a busy week at work it was at last Saturday. Now I had been looking forward to this very much not only because it was Saturday but also I was booked in to go along to the altered art workshop at Papermaze  run by Carol. This workshop was the culmination of 3 previous workshops where we worked on various techniques. We made a fabulous frame where I put to good use all the previous learning, whew it was intense but Oh so worth it, thanks Carol I really enjoyed all the workshops and I have learnt so much. On Sunday I used what concentration I had left to design my CIRCLE which is the theme for this months tag challenge over at SCD. I inked with my favorite DIs, stamped some swirls that looked circle-ish then cut 2 inner circles inked again and stamped. I made a centre peice with a little stamp I have that has a cute little circle and butterfly I put this in a fragment and there you have it. Funny how something as simply as a circle can be a tricky theme. Well done to SCD for coming up week after week with such great challenges. And the round and round in circles? well it is work again and looking forward to next weekend and more crafting. Have a good week everyone.

Have you ever wondered how the stars get up in the sky?

Well! when I was sitting by a pond on a lovely warm moonlit evening, I saw all the little sparkling evening bugs gathering around a waterlily. The waterlily very slowly opened it's petals and all the little sparkly bugs began dancing with excitement, when suddenly: the stars came out from inside the waterlily and floated up into the night sky. Pure fantasy? maybe and maybe not. The Tag is sprayed with glimmer mist, then I masked a flower stamp for a partial print and embossed, highlighted with a glitter gel pen. I then added sequin stars and grunge butterflies coloured with glitter gel pen and beaded, stamped some little bugs in silver. Great theme from the SCD team lets the imagination run wild.  

Saturday's Crop

Saturday was Papermaze crop day and I managed 2 pages again this week, phew! I amaze even myself sometimes. I did the kit from Bramford crop courtesy of Ang, I changed it a bit as I used a photo of my Son's couldn't use flowers now could I. I also had time to do the Papermaze kit of the day. There was a lot of glimmer misting in this kit I love that stuff it gives such a nice look. The photo's on this are me and Mum at sheringham hall in Norfolk searching out the spring flowers. Both really nice kits.

Sunday an SCD

Well this week over at SCD the theme for the week was "Chairs" now this did blow my mind, how was I going to do something with this even though the team had posted some inspirational work on the theme. I did struggle as I have only a small selection of stamps and things (it is growing though LOL) but after some thought I got inspired by a photo of a robin sitting on a fork which is on the front of a nature book I have and this is the result. I used TH DI antique linen, sage and dried marigold (which has become a firm favorite of mine) I also tried out my lush new stamp from crafty individuals as a background stamp. I then made a fork handle out of grunge paper ( I love this stuff) and used some of my teeny weeny stamps The Diamond XX recently bought me. All in all I really enjoyed myself. Oh and apologies for the uneven letters I stamped, I admit to enjoying a glass of wine whilst working well it is hot and it was a refreshing pinot. Take care all and have a good week.

A day of Crafting

On Saturday I spent a lovely day at Bramford crop, where I completed two pages. Now this is unheard of for me as I usually spend a considerable amount of time shuffling paper and chatting (well I consider it threapy LOL). Oh ok I have to confess that I fished out two of my lovely kits I bought from Anna at  My Creations, she designs lovely layouts and sometimes I just want it all put togther for me. Here are my pages, one of my son and his finance photo taken at a recent wedding. The other is my mum and me resting on a log when out wlaking in North Norfolk,  last April we spent a relaxing week in a cottage just chillin,walking and eating plenty of cake (Yummy).

A Perfect End to A Perfect Week and my SCD

Well as I said on my Friday blog I have had a fabulous week off work and this weekend continued the same way, apart from the news about my Aunties wee dog Ben passing away he was a dear little chap and they will have some wonderful memories to cherish big hugs to AN & UJ. I beavered away this afternoon on my SCD challenge (Hearts; lovely subject this week). I first inked the card with TH antique and dried marigold then edged with bundled sage, I stamped with a floral swirl in grey and I cut out some hearts from a lovely piece of paper I had been cherishing to use at the right moment and inked the edges and stuck them on. I made a wire heart (I say I, but actually the Diamond did this bit for me XX), I then covered it with raffia and silk ribbon. The leaves, flowers, and butterfly I made from grunge paper and  inked and also beaded the butterfly. I must say I really love this piece and I will put it on my workroom wall. Hope you all enjoyed this weeks challenge as much as I did, seeing everyone,s work is really inspiring, keep it up everyone.

Inky Fingers & Broken Nails

I have had the most wonderful week off work, lucky for me it has been too hot for The Diamond so we decided not to got out for days as we originally planned. You probably think I am mad to say we couldn't go out, But: I am lucky enough to have a craft space of my own (The Diamond  GLHXX agreed I could have half the garage converted into a hobby space last year) so I spent the entire week indulging myself in my favorite pass time of making stuff, Oh and of course popping out to buy craft goodies, obviously stuff I really needed. I decided I needed a challenge and made the squared art piece designed by Linda Elbourne in last months Craft Stamper, it is the first time I have used grunge paper and I am now a total convert. The article said it was not for the faint hearted and boy was that right LOL. Now anyone who knows me will understand that I HATE inky fingers and I got covered, not only that but OMG I broke 3 nails. Oh How I suffer for my art. Well I am very pleased with the outcome, it will have pride of place in my work space. I also made a card using the recently learnt techniques and part of a design and the new stamp from Craft Stamper this issue. Now you see why I am soooooooo HAPPY.
Can't wait to get stuck into this weeks SCD challenge.
Enjoy your weekend everyone.

FAB WEEKEND

What a lovely weekend! and I don't just mean the weather, of course that was simply fabulous. I mean I had a really good time on Saturday at the Stamping and Embossing techniques workshop held at Papermaze, run by Carol, (what a font of crafting knowledge Carol is). This is the 3rd workshop and I have learnt so much and had the courage to try the techniques at home (still struggling with embossing though) I am really pushing boundaries now. It was also a fab weekend because two son and finance was staying, always nice to have them here and one son popped in for a flying visit on his way back from the motor GP in Holland.
This Friday on the SCD I was really pleased to read the theme was Flora and Fauna great I thought one of my favorite themes shouldn't be to difficult to produce something after all I have a few flower stamps LOL., how wrong can a person be. I had such a difficult time choosing what to use and then what to do with it, (you can probably tell by looking at it),. But it does contain techniques as taught by Carol except sorry Carol I forgot to mask. I did enjoy making it, I first stamped with a small flower and a little bird which I embossed in yellow and brown, I used a TH mask and inked with dried marigold.I then stamped a large flower (it is the free flower from this months Craft Stamper) and added a few leaves and vines plus a little bug. Did I get carried away not sure.

Something Blue and White

I have had a very nice weekend, a good day at Otley crop lots of chatting and even nearly finished a page. Sunday had the folks over to dinner as it was Fathers day. Number One son also dropped in for lunch (two son working this weekend) which pleased The Diamond all very nice. The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to produce something blue and white for SCD weekly challenge. I found the theme quite a task as I didn't really know what to do. After a couple of false starts I finally produced something blue and white. I fell back to my knowledge of quilting and had the idea to use blocks of blue paper I then stamped over them. It was the Life Happens paper that gave me the inspiration of Love Life, Life Happens so I added a stamped heart which I used glossy accent to give it a shine and along with a few other bits and bobs I had a finished skinni, phew it was tuf. I think I am pleased but I always feel I could do much better. Anyway here it is.

Friday Hooray

Well best day of the week Friday as it herelds the start of the weekend. Off to Otley crop tomorrow really looking forward to that but I really need to go an get ready. I started this blog to join in with the SCD crew but having just looked at the taleneted people contributing to the challenges I now feel very embarressed with my attempts.:-( Must try harder.

June 16th 2010

Wow I have created a blog spot this was in response to recently becoming hooked on SCD blog spot and the weekly challenges that I want to take part in. I did the alst 2 weeks as a non blogger see my novice attemps.