A Hoot of Owls

This is a quick birthday card, using Inkadinkadoo clear stamps. There are two birthdays this week that I need cards for, another owl card is made and waiting for the silicone glue to dry before I finish it. I'll load the other one later.

Penny Black Week 25 - no patterned paper

This has been a barren week craft-wise, we are all struggling with various stages of a cold (or man-flu depending what sex you are) in the family. Tonight I've kicked myself into making a card for Penny Black's Challenge, which is not to use patterned paper. As the most creative thing I've done all week is to print out sheets from my Artylicious Season's Greetings CD this wasn't terribly efficient but I like the plain look here. White embossed on green, some gems added to give it a bit of sparkle.

Landscape in need of...?

I've been brayering, after demoing it at Stamp Attic last week, using Art Impressions trees reflected in "water". The images are ok, but they are not really inspiring. I know it will look better matted up and on a card, but I feel it needs a bit more... it's too wishy-washy just now. Does anyone have any suggestions please?

Friday Sketchers, Spoonful of Sugar and SBS25 Challenge

Here's a card for three challenges!

Spoonful of Sugar has Blooming Marvellous as its theme this week; my blogging "sisters" have the challenge to use light blue, light pink, light green and light yellow and, last but not least, I have used Friday Sketcher's sketch for this week. Phew!

The flowers are stamped from two favourite Hero Arts stamps that I've had for a while now, inked with Marvy le Plume watercolour pens. The papers are three lovely co-ordinates that I bought at Stamp Attic earlier this week. They're so pretty, I love the green with pink/white daisies on, behind the stamped image. Sentiment embossed with Adirondack Aubergine powder.

Beautiful Trees ATCs

Here are the ATCs that I received from ATCsforall.com's Beautiful Trees swap, all 3 absolutely gorgeous. Thanks Ithica, Cordelia and leslielynn.

Snow & Snowflakes - Cute Card Thursday Challenge 37

http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.com/ has a snow and snowflake challenge this week.

So, more snowflakes, more snow. This time I've painted in a Penny Black image and added Fluffy Stuff to it. Decorated papers and felt snowflakes from the Stamp Attic finish it off. The white circles under the snowflakes are embossed with swiss dots on the Cuttlebug, but it doesn't really show...

Teabag Folding - sort of quick Christmas Cards

I had a go at teabag folding with some free papers that came with a magazine, put them on cards with a matching paper and a Graphicus Guild paper, as well as some ribbon.

Not works of art, but two more cards completed :)

I Did It!

I went one month without buying a single stamp!!! OK I've bought more paper than usual, a supply of Stickles, a design CD... but I got there. I would have broken my pledge last weekend if Ideal World hadn't cancelled Glenda Waterworth's show, but that's another story :)

Think I'm going to surf some sites and see what's new.

Papertake - Let It Snow!

http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/2008/11/let-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow.html This is my card for the Let It Snow Challenge. I've painted a Penny Black image and used Fluffy Stuff and Stickles to help the snow effect. The background paper is from my Graphicus Guild papers that are sent each month.

SBS Challenge 6 - BLING!

OK it's not very Bling - but I tried! :)

Snowflakes embossed with bright white, pearls added to centres, blue Stickles blinging up the points, would have showed better on a higher contrast background...

The felt snowflake embellishments from The Stamp Attic aren't Bling but they're there because I like them

Bonfire Night ATC Swap

Last night I went to http://www.thestampattic.co.uk to their monthly meet. We had a smart new venue this month to meet in, with more space and good light.

The ATC swap was Bonfire Night, we had to make 13 identical cards. This was a real struggle as a theme, I found it difficult but discovered I was not alone on moaning about this one :). There is no tradition of exchanging cards for Bonfire Night, though I'm sure it's only a matter of time until Hallmark seize this as a new marketing opportunity.

Also there is only so much time one can spend on 13 ATCs. My image came from searching Google images, it has a metallic thread "fuse" poking out from the barrel. I've used silicon glue to give the barrel dimension. It's on a Glimmer Misted background with stamped and embossed fireworks that are a snowflake stamp I bought last year.

I also agreed to do a 10 minute demo for the group, as everyone has to take their turn. It was rather "blind leading the blind" as I've not been stamping very long, but I demoed my brayer, the first gadget that I ever got. I used it for landscapes, for mirror imaging stamps, with rubber bands around it and also the bouncing brayer technique. Finished up with some nice samples which I hope to tart up and do something with.

Happy Birthday Mum

This is the only card I've made this week, it was my Mum's birthday yesterday. I didn't want to put the card on here until I was sure she had it, Mum is not computer literate but Dad is!

The stamping is all embossed in bronze for a change, on a Glimmer Mist background. I've used my Art Impressions tree stamp, the owl is from Elusive Image's Wise Owl themplate. The background paper is from the Graphicus Guild's papers and the ribbon came from a chocolate box, it worked well with the rest of the card.

A Busy Week

Usually I have to go to at least one evening meeting a week for work. This week I had none, so you might think I would have more time. This was not the case!

We went to see the wonderful Leafhound in concert on Wednesday night. http://www.leafhound.net/

On Thursday, in between work crisies, Sainsburys shopping, parent's evening for oldest son and picking a friend up from Didcot station for the racing, there was no time for crafting.

Friday and Saturday we went to Cheltenham for a very exciting two days of racing. There was much controversy on Friday with a jockey losing his whip and taking a whip from another, as well as the jockey in the cross country race that was believed to have taken a short cut by all on the course - except the stewards! Saturday was very high-class racing, marred only by the serious injury to Ruby Walsh who suffered a ruptured spleen and is now recovering from its removal. We were lucky to be very on form with our betting and I have a nice pot of money for the end of my stamp diet...

Quick Twins Card

One of Geoff's work colleagues and his wife gave birth to twins yesterday. Mum and both baby girls are doing well, though the twins are quite small.

I'd been struggling with how to make a twins card without spending lots of money on a stamp I'd be unlikely to use again... Oh and without knowing what sex they were until they arrived.

Luckily, I bought some Stamping Bella images online a few weeks ago and, by chance, this was among them. Also, the acrylic "Proud Parents" slider was in a free gift with a recent Graphicus order, which fits the twins theme fine.

Today I just had to buy some pink ribbon from the Stamp Attic, paint the card with some pinks and it's done.

I think the twins did arrive pretty fast but of course it is the card that is quick, not the twins :)

Sukkersott Challenge 15

http://sukkersott.blogspot.com/2008/11/utfordring-15-skisse-4.html

Sukkersott's Challenge for Week 15 is a really nice sketch by Anita. Again, I've used my Penny Black stamp, in stamped in blue Stazon this time. I've used Pearly Stuff for the berries and raised the circles on glue pads. The bird has Glossy Accents on him to make him stand out. The background for the stamping is Glimmer Misted. The other two papers that co-ordinate so well with it are from the Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD.

I've stuck to my stamp diet (so far) but I've bought a CD instead! :0). On Thursday, still recovring from migraine and migraine drugs, I sat in front of the TV in the early evening and switched it to Create & Craft to see what was on. There's usually little to hold my attention and I'd only switched it on to drown out the firework noise that was upsetting the dogs. But by some lucky fluke a Glenda Waterworth programme had just started, using the Season's Greetings CD. And of course once Glenda demonstrates just how versatile a product is, well you just have to have it, don't you ;) . Both papers were from the Starry Night collection and the CD is, indeed, as straightforward as you can get to run. I think this will be very helpful to create some quick and easy cards, just need to keep a good supply of printer ink now...

Quickie Christmas Cards

I've made a couple of quick Christmas cards. Both use free papers that came with a magazine. The first one uses the Penny Black stamp I bought, with Stickles on the berries. The second uses an Art Impressions watercolour stamp that I bought last year. They're both quickie cards, to add to to not-very-big pile of cards that are ready :)

Remembrance Sunday

Remembrance Sunday in Lambourn is a poignant ceremony. I grew up in a large-ish suburban town where there were many hundreds of names inscribed on the War Memorial. In a small village, there are, of course, fewer names.

After the ceremony outside, we all went into the church and Pete, a native Lambournite, read through all the names of the dead, from the First and Second World War and from other conflicts since, just as his father did before him.

Many of the names are those of families that are still in the village and it is brought home to those listening that those who died were brothers, great-uncles, family, of villagers who are here today. It is also noticeable that, in the First War, many surnames were repeated, where brothers or perhaps cousins, were killed.

It was time to think of those fighting at present, and time as a mother to hope that my two sons never have to fight.

Stamp Something - Simple

This week's challenge on Stamp Something is in celebration of six months of creating challenges. Congratulations to them! So, the brief is to: "Make us a card using only one layer of cardstock. You can embellish it, stamp it, color it, do anything you wish, but you must only use one layer!"

I've had a long but enjoyable day teaching quilting at Lorne Hill Farm and I decided that something simple was just what I needed :). So I got out the first stamps I ever bought, which come from http://www.laviniastamps.co.uk/lavinia.html .

I went to Sewing for Pleasure a couple of years back and diverted into the Hobbycraft section where I came across Tracey Dutton demonstrating her stamps. She was working with a brayer and Adirondack dye inks to produce backgrounds on which she used gorgeous sillhouette stamps. I was hooked immediately :). The stamps weren't too pricy either, (though I seemed to "need" rather a lot when I looked at them) nor were the ink pads, or the brayer. But oh dear the total on the credit card slip was alarming, how ever did such a small bag of stuff cost so much?!

I try to avoid buying too many silhouette stamps these days, it's so much fun to paint/ colour images. But I do still love these stamps. I made some brayered backgrounds tonight that I didn't like, which will cut up for ATCs, and in the end I settled on a chalk ink background. I'd like to call this card New Dawn and have it symbolise a new birth, but this foal is not that young, his tail is far too long for a new born :). Still a lovely stamp though. I've added no embellishments at all and really kept this simple, I feel it works better like this. I've mounted my one piece of cardstock onto a card, I hope this meets the challenge requirements. It's just too messy a technique to use direct onto the card!

MagnoliameetsStampavie Challenge Week 1

http://magnoliameetsstampavie.blogspot.com/2008/11/week-1-sketch-it.html I've made this card for the first week where the two Challenge blogs have amalgamated. I'm not very sure about this card, it's a bit too fussy I think. Flowers looked even fussier, so I stuck some buttons down instead. I'd better be sure to give it to someone rather than post it, I can see the Post Office charging a fortune and damaging it too, with all the bulky buttons :)

Thank you Janet!

This lovely card came in the post yesterday, from Janet in Canada, another of my lovely blogging "sisters". Thanks Janet :)

I've won an award! Thanks Vanja

Vanja, http://justheather-valems.blogspot.com/ one of my stamping "sisters" has nominated me for an award! Now I know lots of people have blogs covered in many awards, but this is my first, so I'm very excited about it :). Thanks Vanja! Have a look at Vanja's blog, she does lovely work.

The rules are:1. The winner may put the logo on their blog

.2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.

3. Nominate 5 blogs

.4. Put links to their blogs

.5. Leave a message for your nominees.

I'm nominating: Mumur http://leblogdescrapmumur.blogspot.com

Phree http://inkstainsurvivor.blogspot.com/

Viv http://vivsvisuals.blogspot.com/

Stepher http://stippleshapes.blogspot.com/ and

Cheri http://cheribella.wordpress.com/

They all have blogs with inspirational work on that I love to read. Thanks! Now I just have to find out how to put my award up :)

SBS25 Challenge #5 & Papertake's Simply Sparkling

I keep missing the deadlines for our group of stamping bloggers. Janet sets the Challenges and this week I was determined to take part. There could be no excuses as she set a nice easy challenge: two different printed papers and some glitter. I'm also submitting my card for Papertake's Challenge, which this week is Simply Sparkling http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/2008/11/simply-sparkling.html

The papers and the sentiment are free ones that came with a magazine (can't remember which!). The sparkle and glitter are on the narrow ribbon. Also I've used glitter for snow on the trees and on the foreground of the stamped scene, and around the edge of the sentiment. It doesn't show up very well, if you enlarge the photo you can see it a bit more. The lovely, lovely tree stamp is an Art Impressions one that I bought from Sir Stampalot at Ally Pally last month.

Friday Sketchers Challenge 26

http://fridaysketchersblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/challenge-nr-26.html I found this week's Challenge quite difficult, the asymmetric triangle was hard to work with for me. :) Tilda sits in front of some winter trees, her background is papers that I bought when I first began cardmaking. I've posted this just in time - I hope - I've been laid low with a migraine and although it has now gone I'm avoiding spending time at the computer...

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge 5

This week's challenge is to use the sketch and also to use brown, pink and white. I went back to my trusty Hero Arts cupcakes for this card, brown says chocolate to me :). Used the Cuttlebug embossing folders with swirls and with Swiss dots, also some pink lace from my sewing cupboard.

Whiff of Joy Challenge 6 and Cute Card Thursday Challenge 35

Cute Card Thursday's theme this week is "Cheers" - drink themed cards. http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.com/

Willow is enjoying her hot chocolate here,there may or may not be a measure of creme de menthe in it ;).

Whiff of Joy's challenge is to use burgundy and green this week. http://wojmondaychallenge.blogspot.com/ They would be great colours for a Christmas card, obviously, but as I only have Willow and her chair at present I've steered clear of a Christmas theme.

Coloured with watercolours, green circle embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and green chalk ink applied. Background paper from Graphicus Guild's paper.

ATCs received - Pub Signs & Birds and Bees

Today I had my swaps back from UKATC's pub sign swap. Everyone else seems to have been sensible enough to put the pub name on the front of their ATc - unlike me! Lovely ATCs and all so different.






Yesterday this lovely set arrived from ATCsforall.com, from the Birds & the Bees swap.

Stamp Diet Blip

No, I didn't buy any stamps, I deleted my countdown by mistake! :)
I was very tempted to change the date on the counter when I put it back again... but I didn't.
Geoff's away this weekend and I can feel the pull of the websites, the lure of the shops full of stamps. Better get back into the craft room and play with all the stash that I do own.