Snow and ice already!

Good morning, peeps and a bit of a chilly one it is too!

Well it's been really busy around here lately and I've hardly emerged from my craft room!  However, I shall be heading over to Craftrange.com at Burnley later for their big demonstration evening that starts at 5 o'clock.  I'm demonstrating the wonderful Polka Doodles range and my fantastic DT teamies have made some stunning samples for me to take along so I thought that today I'd show you one of the samples that I've made myself and here it is:

I've used stamps from the Christmas Neighbours set, which I love - there's just everything you need in this set to make a Christmas card with a difference.  I've coloured it in the style perfected by Nikky herself using Copic pens from the Cool Grey range.  The 'light' in the windows is created using Y11 and then enhanced with a Wink of Stella clear pen although it's not really showing in the photo, probably because the light was virtually gone by the time I took the picture!  Glamour dust provides the snow effect and the snowflake die is a Whimsy one called Winter's Jewel, which I think is the perfect description for it.

The background papers are from the Paper Boutique Vol 2 CD, which is called 'Creative Christmas' and has loads of wonderful papers you can print as well as 21 templates for Christmas crafting.

This is one of those cards that definitely looks better in real life because the cool greys look a little odd on blue background papers in the photograph but not on the card that's beside me as I type.

If you're planning to be at the demonstration evening later, do come and say hello - it would be great to meet you but, whatever you're doing today, have a good one.  I'll be back tomorrow with another Polka Doodles Challenge card.

Thank you for looking today and I hope my icy card didn't make you shiver too much!

Hugs

Reminder of Summer

Good morning, peeps and how are you all today? Isn't it getting autumnal? The hillside I look out on from my craft room is changing daily it seems and I watch the lovely greens change to the wonderful Autumnal colours. Wouldn't it be great if we could have the rich colours of Autum without the cooler weather? I know it's not possible but I can dream! Anyhoo, speaking of losing the lovely greens of Summer, I thought I'd share this card with you today:

If you've been watching Barbara Gray on the Pick of the Week Show on Create and Craft TV, you'll have seen this card already because Barbara asked me to make some staged samples for her to help out with the massive task of preparing so many demonstrations for all the shows being aired this week. Please follow the link if you want to buy Barbara's DVD 5 at a real bargain price!

If you didn't see the show, this card was made by stamping the Birch Tree stamp twice across an A6 Clarity Card using a dye based ink pad, then covering the trunks with Versamark pen and embossing with clear embossing powder. The clouds were produced over a cloud shaped template using a make-up brush and Adirondack Stonewashed ink. The Birch Tree Leaves were then stamped with Kaleidacolor Fresh Greens ink. I used the same stamps and inks to make the backing paper on the base of this card but blotted the stamps twice before planting them on the paper. The pale blue card mount is cut from a Go Kreate die because I was trying to echo the shape of the clouds and make the whole design fit with the lovely verse that forms the stop for the easel card.

I'm making every effort to be a better blogger and post more regularly although I can't promise every day. I really don't know how you peeps that post every day manage it but perhaps I just need to be more organised.

I'm working hard on samples for the Polka Doodles dem on Thursday evening that I told you about in yesterday's post. Some wonderful sample cards have just arrived in the post from my lovely Teamies Dee, Emma and Lis. Do hop over and look at their work, it's just fabulous!

I do hope you like this memory of Summer and thank you for looking today - I'll see you again soon.

Hugs

Hello from an absentee blogger!

Good afternoon, peeps! Well, did you think I'd fallen off the face of the Blogosphere? If you did I'm not surprised - I'd rather not think about how long it is since I last posted, but I thought I'd check in and show you a little of what I've been working on craftwise and the first thing is a memory of Summer with these poppies:

I so much enjoyed making this card for two main reasons; firstly, poppies are one of my favourite flowers and secondly, I love the medium of watercolour, which is what I used to colour the large poppies. Sadly, this card did not pass its screen test (or something) so didn't make it on to the screen during the Stamping with Clarity at the beginning of the month so it's making its debut here. Its mount is very plain, as many of my Clarity cards are because I think the images speak for themselves. I simply brayered some sky and some grass and added the small poppies in Memento London Fog to add some depth and that wonderful little verse to complete the picture.
If you live in the North, I'll demoing Polka Doodles stamps and CDs at Craftrange.com in Preston on Thursday evening from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. Do click on the link and check it out because there are lots of demos happening on that evening so it will be well worth a visit. Then, on Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4p.m., I'll be teaching a Copic/Promarker colouring class at Samuel Taylors in Roseville Street, Leeds.
Have a wonderful evening, y'all and I promise I'll be back sooner with something else.

Hugs

This one doesn't scare the birds!

Good morning, peeps! Well, thank crunchie it's Friday and it's time for another Polka Doodles Challenge and, this week, the tiitle of the challenge is 'Autumn Leaves', which means that we have to create something that shows the colours or subjects related to Autumn so here's my contribution:

I'm sorry about the poor photograph but the bulb died in one of my daylight lamps and I'm having difficulty getting another daylight bulb but there's one on order now. This cute scarecrow has now been named Cedric, in consultation with Nikky, and he's from the Sundae of Seasons CD. There is so much wonderful material on this CD as there is on all the Polka Doodles ones. I used one of the papers from this CD on the first layer of matting that covers almost the whole front of the card. Cedric and his feathered friends was great to colour with my Copics and Prismas and I hope you like my Autumnal offering.

I live right on the Pennines and all I can see as I look out of my craft room window is a hillside covered in trees and I have to confess that many of them are starting to show colours other than green! Of course, it's wonderful to watch the changing seasons and especially to see the wonderful colours of Autumn but I can't help but feel that we've missed out on Summer - again! Maybe we'll get an Indian one this year. Thank you for looking today and I do hope you'll be able to join in the challenge. Here's the card recipe:
 
Recipe:
DPs: Polka Doodles (see above), Fancy Pants Like Father Like Son
Ribbon and buttons: from stash
Button Twine: The Ribbon Girl
Copics:
Face, hands and feet: E41, E43, E44
Hat and tunic: B91, B93, B95, B97
Coat: E11, E13, E15
Tunic trim and grass: YG91, YG93, YG95, YG97, Y28
Birds: BG70, BG72, BG75
Bows Y21, Y26
Hearts: YR12, YR18

Whatever you're doing over the weekend, have a great one. I'm teaching a colouring class tomorrow at Samuel Taylor in Brighouse and aiming to have a day off and watch Barbara Gray on Create and Craft TV on Sunday.

Hugs 

Have you seen this man before?

Good morning, peeps!

I hope you're all bright eyed and bushy tailed this Bank Holiday morning and generally having some down time doing what you love best!

The answer to the question in the title will depend on how long you've been looking at my blog because this chap, Aubrey Bumblethorpe, made an appearance in his faded Black Sabbath T shirt and denims exactly one year ago when it was my gorgeous hubby Brian's birthday last year. Go here to see that post and his look alike in the form of my DH!

Anyhoo, he's making a reappearance this year complete with his birthday cake.



As you can see,this year he has a hangover! However, I don't think that Brian will be in this state because, as I type this post on Sunday 28 August, he is in bed with a horrible chesty cold! I do hope he's better for Tuesday which is his actual birthday. I know he doesn't like birthdays too much these days but catching this is really extreme!

You may be thinking that it's risky posting this before the birthday boy has seen it but there's really no problem since he never looks at my blog. I do hope that Aubrey makes you and him smile. I've made an insert on the computer for the inside that says 'Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the hell happened!' which I've borrowed from a card that the lovely and talented Mina showed on the card she posted this morning so thanks, hun and I do hope you don't mind my borrowing from you. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and if any of you haven't seen Mina's work yet, please follow the link I've posted and leave her some love - her work is wonderful.

Please send some positive thoughts for Brian to get better in time to celebrate his birthday and here is the recipe - not for the cake, but for the card!

Recipe

Image: Digi image from Just Inklined
DPs: K & Co 'Hopscotch'
Star die: Sizzix Primitive Stars
Buttons: from my stash
Button twine: The Ribbon Girl (and it only arrived yesterday - wonderful efficient service!)
Copics:
Skin: E000, E00, E01, E21, R11, R20, R30
T shirt: W1, W3, W5, W7, R22, R24, R27, R29
Beard: C0 C1, C3
Denim: B91, B93, B95
Icing/Plate/Doily: E50, E51,E53, BG11, BG13
Table: E53, E55, E57
Ice pack/candles: YR14, YR16, YR17
I used Prisma pencils and Sansodor to create the shadow and enhance the picture a little.

Hugs

Apple Harvest

Good morning, peeps!

Apple Harvest - is it that time already? Well it is on my card for the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge this week, where we are challenged to use a sketch inspired by Korin Sutherland and here it is:



and this is what I produced for it:



I'm ashamed to say that I've had this lovely image of Mimosa with Apple Basket for the better part of a year and this is the first time she's seen ink! If you like her, she's available here at Bunny Zoe's Crafts with an amazing 25% off the normal price! She still looks as pretty as when I bought her and I really enjoyed the colouring, on which I spent hours - literally! Everyone says how therapeutic colouring is and I certainly find it so and I never get bored when I'm colouring or try to find an excuse to do something else (I'm sure you all know what I mean!). You may have noticed that I still stamped the image in Memento London Fog after I said in a previous post that I thought I might go over to using black for the outline. Immediately after I posted that, I noticed a trend amongst many artists to work with a light outline so I'm still persevering with that but I think I need to get more definition into the lighter areas like the skin and blonde hair so that these areas don't fade into the background - more practise is required.

Our sponsor this week is Sweet and Sassy Stamps so do come and join in this wonderful challenge. The sketch is a great one to work with and I can see myself using it again sometime.

If you're wondering what happened about the wallet damaging trip to find a new car for me, I'm now the proud owner of a 3 year old Smart car, whose name is Black Bess so no prizes for guessing what colour it is then! I'm still getting used to driving her and it's weird not having a clutch but it gets better with every trip.

Anyhoo, here's the recipe for the card:

Recipe

Stamp: Bildmalarna 'Mimosa with Apple Basket'
Sentiment: Pink Petticoat Curly Girly Sentiments
DPs: Basic Grey 'Sweet Threads' (one of my current faves!)and the dotty one is from Polka Doodles CD 'Sundae of Seasons'
Flowers & Stamens: Wild Orchid Crafts
Lace: from my stash
Leaves: Magnolia Doo Hickey Die
Copics:
Skin: E000, E00, E01, E21, R20, R11, R30
Hair: E50, E51, E53, E55
Dress & wellies: R21, R22, R35, R37, R59. The wellies have Glossy Accents added.
Petticoat: R81, R83, R85, RV0000
Grass & apples: G20, G40, YG11, YG93. The apples have Glossy Accents added.
Basket: E40, E41, E42, E43
The 'sky' effect behind Mimosa was added with Prisma Pencils blended with Sansodor.

Have a great weekend, whatever you have planned!

Hugs

Single layer card

Good morning, peeps!

A single layer card is the challenge at Polka Doodles this week, which is definitely a challenge to me! Well, you've probably seen my cards before and it's usually more a question of what else can I ladle on to them in the form of embellies! Anyhoo, here's what I came up with:



Now, if you've seen Nikky's work before (for those that aren't familiar, Nikky is Mrs Polka Doodles), like here, you'll see that I've completely CASEd her. (By the way, if you're not familiar with the expression, CASE stands for Copy And Share Everything.) I confess that I've been completely fascinated with Nikky's method of creating these scenes for several weeks and have seen her demonstrate it three times now. Anyhoo, I finally plucked up courage to have a go at it myself - it's not as accomplished as those Nikky produces but I'll keep practicing! The shading is produced with Promarkers and the sentiment was printed from the All Around and Everywhere CD, which has a fabulous selection of papers, sentiments and images just like all the Polka Doodles CDs.

If you live anywhere within reach, I'm teaching this technique at Samuel Taylor, Brighouse on Tuesday 13 September and at the Roseville Street, Leeds store on Thursday 15 September, so maybe I'll see you there?

Whatever is your style, I hope you'll join us for this challenge, put away all your embellies and just see what happens when you have only one paper surface.

Well, it's back to other DT work for me but we'll be taking a break later to look at cars because that painfull time for the bank balance is starting to look imminent. Whatever you're doing today and over the weekend, have a good one and I'll see you again soon.

Thanks for looking today and please leave me a comment to let me know you've been around, I do so appreciate them.

Hugs