Seahorses and Cruisers

Good evening all!

Apologies for the lack of blogging, but I have had a busy time, much of it has been to do with crafting which makes me very happy!

I have just returned from a weekend in Stockton at the NE Art Workshops run by Sue Tucker.  The tutor was Olga Heldwein from the AALL & Create team.  She is such a lovely lady and a brilliant tutor, we made some lovely projects.  I will take some photos and show you soon.  I also had chance to meet and spend time with some of the Hochanda DT and Abs as well, which was lovely.

My card tonight features a brand new product from AALL & Create - dies!!  Dies which match the stamps - even better - because you know how I feel about fussy cutting!!

Having said that, I didn't actually have the stamps which matched these dies so I just used the dies...

Stamps #74 Classic Cruiser by Bipasha, #10 by Abs
Stencil #70 Diamont Life and Die #5 Seahorse by Olga

I had a nice, appropriately coloured background already in my stash, so I simply die cut the seahorses and shells, then inked round all the edges and shaped them with an embossing tool on a soft mat., then added black gems for the eyes of the seahorses.
I stamped the Classic Cruiser on another piece of the same background and cut it to size.
One of my very favourite stamps from AALL & Create is an early one designed by Abs, it is stamp #10, it has lots of lovely background elements and is one of the stamps that drew me to the company when I first saw Abs on TV.  I was really pleased to see it on the 2nd anniversary show and I used it on many of my samples!  In this case I brayered a little white paint on the circle stamp and added them in the background.  I matted the background on red card then added the seahorses and shells.. I used the rest of the paint to add a few splatters (well it would be rude not to!)
.

Thank you so much for visiting
Hope you have a lovely evening
Janet xxx

Ladybug

Good evening,
I hope everyone is well and enjoying the warm weather. It has been a week of ups and downs for me but it is beginning to settle down again now...

Tonight, I have chosen a card made featuring the lovely Ladybug stamp by Tracy Evans

Stamp sets 161 Ladybug by Tracy Evans and
118 Border Marks by Louise Nelson

For the background, I added some ink to a piece of acetate, then spritzed it and pressed onto the card.  I repeated with two colours.
When dry, I stamped the ladybug, this is an A4 stamp, so I just inked the part I needed.
I also stamped the border along the edge of the stamped image
I stamped the ladybug on a separate piece of card, coloured it in and added some glossy accents, when dry I cut it out and attached it over the main image
Then I just spot coloured a few of the squares and some of the lines in the borders.
Thank you for visiting! 
Janet xxx

Monstrous Wishes

Good morning!

Yesterday was not a good day for me!  I had planned to have lunch out to celebrate my niece's graduation, she has done brilliantly well, has won a prize for coming top in her year and is now a doctor!  Scary - it only seems like yesterday she was a baby!
My plans were thwarted however because one of the cats has a really sore eye and needed to go the the vet.  Of course the only appointments available were at lunch time, so I cancelled lunch.  The cat then disappeared completely and I didn't see her again until 9.00 in the evening!

The better part of the day was chatting to lovely Sammy in Kenya and planning my next trip out there.  I had planned to go in January, but that can't happen now for the very best of reasons - Sammy has a job booked for January through to mid March.  This is the low season so he is really lucky to have work, so I am happy to reschedule.
We had a lovely time chatting and planning what we are going to do when I go, and I am looking forward to seeing what Sammy organises for us.  We will go to different places and will get to meet his Mum, which will be amazing!

On to my card...  I love these little monsters by Olga, they are so quirky! 

Stamps 218 Monterous Wishes by Olga,
117 Organics by Louise
Stencil 36 by Olga

I can't remember the exact order I did things for this, it is one of those cards which is completely different to my original plan.
I used stencil #36 by Olga to make a little background behind each monster
I stamped and coloured the base for each monster with one of the stamps from #117 Organics by Louise
I stamped the monsters separately, coloured and cut them out ~(I know Veronica, I am getting worried now!!!) then stuck them in place.
I stamped and coloured the greeting under each monster
It all looked a bit bare, so I added the leaves from set #117 and coloured them too and added a bit more stencilling.
I think that's it! Oh!  I added a few splatters....

Thank you so much for visiting!
Have a lovely day!!
Janet xxx

It's all black and white...

Good morning,

It is a bit grey and overcast here in rural Norfolk today, but that doesn't bother me because I am off out soon for Sunday lunch with my family to celebrate my sister's birthday.

I had a wonderful day yesterday at a workshop at That's Crafty in Essex.  Aida had come over on holiday and ended her week here by teaching a mixed media workshop.  It was a bit out of my comfort zone, but I enjoyed it very much and am really pleased with my finished pieces.  I still have a bit of finishing to do, then I will show you...

I do enjoy making cards with layers and texture, but every now and then I have to keep it simple...
This card is really simple..

Stamp set 208 Hexagonal tiles by Tracy Evans

I stamped out all the hexagons and cut them out, decided on my arrangement then stamped the words directly on the card and added some die cut borders
Run a black pen round the edges and stick it all together, then you are done!

Have a fab day!
Janet xxx

Collage in Orange!

Good evening!
Jo Channon was on Hochanda today with stamps and stencils from AALL & Create, she did a great job and made some lovely projects.

This is one of my samples which I did for the show..

I love watching Abs putting together a collage, it always looks as if everything is meant to be there.  I am not so keen when I have a go...it often looks like a random bunch of stuff plonked down!  I binned my first attempt with these stamps, but I decided to give it another go and am fairly happy with this one.  I am going to keep practising though because I like collage!
I kept the colours pretty simple and added some stencil work in the background.   I love this face by Kaitlin Paltridge - very edgy!

Thanks for dropping by,
Janet xxxx

Botanicals

Good evening,

An evening blog today.  It has been lovely here today and after a nice family Sunday lunch out, I came home and spent some time in my garden.  Yay!  I finally got some gardening done!!  I am hoping I will get more done tomorrow too!

So on that theme..tonight's card is made with two lovely sets by Bipasha and a stencil by Abs

Stamps #153 Botanicals and #207 Botanicals Modified by Bipasha
 and stencil  #30 by Abs

I decided I wanted a bit of a vintage feel to this..
I started by putting ink on the stencil, spritzing with water and pressing on to the card, making sure to blot up any seepage!
I stamped the images all round the card and included some the words too. I added a bit of extra ink round the edges.
I coloured everything in with Inktense pencils and added an extra greeting on a die cut circle
Mount on kraft card and tear round the edges, then mount on the base card.
Thanks very much for visiting
Janet xxx

Hanging about!

Good morning!

July already!  Is it me or is time going by more quickly??  July promises to be an exciting month for me in a crafty sense: I have a workshop with Aida to go to in Essex, a weekend workshop with Olga in Middlesborough and a couple of other exciting things in the pipeline (if they work out!)

stamp set 215 Sleepy Sloths by Olga and stencil 39 Lotza Dotz by Abs

I thought this card had a nice lazy summer feel to it.  This one is pretty much stamping and colouring!  There is also a tiny bit of stencilling in the sky, which doesn't show so much in the picture...
Have a lovely day and thank you for visiting
Janet xxx