Not long to go now

A quickie share from me today as I am off on my travels again - a few days in Norfolk!

Not a holiday as such as it is part of my Presidential duties. (Not long now - just two more duties after this one!)

I am slowly trying to make my stash more balanced - I have made a few baby cards and in the last couple of days have concentrated a little on Love cards which can be used for engagements or anniversaries etc
This one was a simple CAS card made with my much loved Hero Arts flourish stamp and a snippet of red card.
The flourish is stamped with Encore Metallic Silver - got a lovely shiny surface in real life.
A die cut stitched heart and some blingy gems and the sentiment stamped in Versafine Crimson Red.
Just rounded off the corners so it didn't look too uninteresting and plain!

Overall it may be a simple card but I like it!
Joining in with
Tic Tac Toe - (Bingo) Sparkle/Love /Free
TIOT - Fire (Red Heart) and Ice (Metallic Silver)
Sweet Stampin - Valentines/Love
ATS&M - A/.Goes

So that's it for me until the end of the week. We have really high winds here so the long 5 hour journey is going to be fun..... not. Hoping it eases a little the further South and East we get!
Thanks for looking at my share today - see you all soon! x

Can't see the Trees for the Wood?

Have had a bit of a card making frenzy over the last few days - mainly because the weather has been too bad to do anything else!
Looking at the ever growing stash I have a plentiful supply of cards suitable for women and not a lot of anything else! So after a friend who has her own salon offered to take some from me to offer to her clients (proceeds to my charity) I thought I had better make sure I had a good selection.
I made a list and of course the dreaded men's cards (as well as babies, wedding anniversaries, lovey-dovey ones) were in short supply.

I started off with men cards - (cos I don't like doing them) and had to go mooch round Pinterest for some ideas.
I now have a few cards done which I will share in due course, but here's one to be going on with.

Background hardwood stamp on a piece of leftover pale blue card. Stamp inked in Versafine Smokey Grey.

Little bit of inkiness on a scrap of white card for the panel - a moon mask and Tumbled Glass DI.
Tree stamps from Inkadinkadoo, embossed with WOW Metallic Platinum.
Teeny scrap of blue card with the sentiment embossed and a silver button. 
Some silver matt card to edge it all with.

Sharing over at
Addicted to Stamps - It's Cold Outside
Cardz 4 Guyz - January Blues
Sweet Stampin - Men's Cards
SOS - Birthday
Gem of a Challenge - Cool in Blue
One Crazy Stamper - A/Goes + Blue+Buttons
and of course as there were a few scraps used up I am away to the Playground.

We have some terrible high winds here at the moment - hoping it eases a little as tomorrow OH and I are travelling to Leicester to say a final goodbye to my crafting buddy and good friend Maureen.  We met a long time ago through DoCrafts, at one time had our own group called Art N Soul, where we delved into the world of Mixed Media and other crafty stuff.
Our jaunts to the Craft Shows and the annual picnic with the husbands in Trentham Gardens I shall miss very much  - she encouraged me to try so many different things and was so very talented -  I will miss the fun we had.
Thanks for stopping by today - I hope all is safe and well in your part of the world.  x

Spotlight

What a strange few days weather wise! We've had snow, high winds, blue skies, lightning, rain - the works!
Was a good excuse though to just sit up here and make inky.
Two cards to share today -

both made with odd bits laying about so I will be venturing into the Playground to 'show off my snippets'!!!
A Brusho background using Lemon and Turquoise on some scraps of watercolour card.
Two other odd bits treated the same then a die cut circle.
Stamp is from Woodware.

Have used up quite a lot of scraps this past week and would you believe I didn't have enough white card for 2 sentiments? (I know - unbelievable!) But didn't want to cut into an A3 sheet for a tiddly sentiment so the one on the left ended up stamped direct onto the card!
I added a wee bit of stickles to finish.
Think these will be quite good note cards.

Joining a couple of challenges -
Flower Challenge - Spotlight Stamping
Crafty Creations - A/Goes
Paper Girls - Watercolour
Simon Says Wednesday - Add a Sentiment
Create & Inspire - A/Goes

Thanks for stopping by and hoping all is well with you in blogland. x 

January Muddle

This last week has whizzed past at a rate of knots! We've had some friends staying for a few days which was really nice. We've done a bit of shopping, eaten a lot (with the usual glass accompaniments 😁😁) and generally had a lovely long lazy weekend.

Those of you who follow my blog know that after dropping many LARGE hints, Dear Husband bought me some Altenew Stamp Sets for Christmas - so I have been having a little dabble with them.
(I apologise for the truly dreadful picture - the weather has been awful here and is not the best picture taking light)

I am really pleased with this card!
The background is a bright white (I am beginning to think though that the trouble with my pics is the card I am using - everything either has a blue tinge (if I am taking on my usual white background) or looks grey (if I take it on a cream or coloured background - nearly gave up!!)
Anyway, I stamped the peonies in Versafine Smokey Gray and the layered colour is Versacolour Orchid Pink. The stems and leaves coloured with Shabby Shutters and Mowed Lawn DI.

I think this is one of THE best sentiments ever!
A relatively quick card and I thank Dear Husband for the stamps this year and the MISTI last year which makes stamping positioning so much easier.
Another card done for my stash and as we now have snow and sleet today it will be the craft room for me for the rest of the afternoon - and a chance to play with those lovely stamps again!

I hope all is well in your corner of blogland. Thanks for looking and leaving any comments. x 
Joining in over at -
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes (Twist - something new)
Allsorts - No Patterned Papers
MTTC - Something New

January Blues

Time for our first challenge of the New Year at Stamping Sensations.
Our theme this month is - COLD AND FROSTY COLOURS - so blues, lilacs, whites etc
I messed about with Alcohol Inks before Christmas and used up all the backgrounds I had made on Christmas Cards. 

This 'grid' card was really fiddly to do.
I have a Dienamics Die that cut out the grid which was fine - it was all the stamping and embossing that took forever!
This was definitely not one for mass producing.

I used Sail Boat Blue and Stream A.I's and added a bit of Silver onto a piece of aluminium foil and used a technique demonstrated by Loll here to cover the Yupo Paper.

The stamps are just random ones from my Christmas Stash.

The squares were matted onto white then onto matt silver card before being mounted onto the base card. 

Just a word of warning - you have to be very careful heat embossing onto inked Yupo! If you hold the heat gun too close or over heat the embossing powder, the Yupo behaves like shrink plastic and curls up!

We have a great prize again on offer this month -
so get out all your new stash and come and join us.
If you need inspiration, my teamies have come up with some great projects which am sure will give you some ideas over on the challenge blog.

Please remember though - WE ARE A STAMPING CHALLENGE - .
So must see a stamped image, sentiment or quote as the focal element of your artwork , this means:

Stamping must be the central point of attention and interest

I hope everyone is recovered from the New Year festivities! Thanks for stopping by today - have a great day whatever you're doing! x

Experimenting

Things back to normal here now. Tree down (2nd January) and the house straight.
I was lucky as this year I received several stamp sets that I wanted... (So Dear Husband was listening when I was muttering "I'd LOVE this set"... 😊😊 - and to his credit he made a note of them!)
They are not new releases but they ARE what I wanted!
The first one is using Altenew's  Amazing You set.

I had seen a card done stamping and colouring white onto black cardstock and thought I would give it a go.

I am really happy with this, my first attempt although no doubt there is room for improvement.

The rose and the sentiment are all white embossed.

Coloured the flower with a white watercolour pencil and made a few background spatters.

All in all, not too bad.

Managed today to get to the cancelled hair appointment, although didn't much feel like going anywhere after having some bad news yesterday - one of my friends (and a very talented crafter) had passed away. It was such a terrible shock.
She was one of the first people I ever swapped an ATC with many years ago and she encouraged me to try all kinds of new things when I first started crafting. It was she who got me into mixed media and I shall really miss her.
It has hit me really hard particularly as although we have kept in touch with mail/phone, owing to my Presidential commitments I hadn't managed to see her this Summer and we had missed our annual outing/picnic to Trentham Gardens where we met up every year.  We had made plans to meet up in the New Year - so I am feeling quite sad today.
I hope that all is well with you in your part of the world and thank you for reading my ramblings and I hope you will continue to visit! x

Linking up to -
Shopping our Stash - Watercolour
Simon Says Stamp (Wednesday) - Something New
Always Fun - Anything Goes