Merry Christmas Everyone

HI All keeping it short this week as lots to do. Over at SCD this week is the last of this years weekly challenges and of course the theme is "Merry Christmas" on this months TAG. They are changing there format in the new year and it sounds very exciting. Hope you like my tag, and Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year. Pebby XX

Bears - Christmas Characters

Hi All

Over at SCD this week it is "Christmas Characters" I nearly didn't have time to take part this week what with Christmas shopping, visitors and the Bramford crop to go to. Luckily I found a bit of spare time to pop out to my cabin and take part. For me BEARS are my favorite characters and they lend themselves to all times of the year, so I chose a Christmas bear as my character I sparkled him up and I do hope you like him. Happy Christmas Shopping. XX

Oh Christmas Tree

Hi All, well what a season it has turned out be already, SNOW SNOW and more SNOW - the good news is it has given me time to take part in the challenge set by SCD (to slippy for me to venture out). A new month and new challenges this month it is tags and this week it is "Trees" I love this theme as I love trees. Obviously I chose Christmas tree. I love Christmas Trees and could not pass the opportunity to use this fab stamp from crafty individuals. I back washed my stamp with silver cosmic shimmer paint, then stamped it with what I thought looks like leaded windowx. I then stamped the Christmas tree, which I beaded using green beads, the tree is decorated with sequins and beads, the tree skirt is a piece of red silky fabric the tag is bordered in lace. I finished off with glitter gel. I love pulling together inking and painting techniques with fabrics. MERRY CHRISTMAS. xx

Crop, SCD & Fans

What a fabulous weekend I have had and I include Monday into that. Saturday I spent the day at papermaze crop finishing my granddaughters wedding album (it is her Christmas present)she married in May. Sunday I did some gardening, cooking and the then turned my attention to the SCD challenge. This week it is numbers and I immediately thought of my lovely little bear stamps. This is so me, now I don't normally blow my own trumpet but I am somewhat known as a miniature bear artist and make my miniature bears exclusively for the Norwich bear shop. I have been doing this for quite a number of years so when I saw these little stamps it was a no brainer and this week a fabulous excuse to use them. Today I spent the afternoon at a fabulous workshop run by Quilters Haven making a fan. I am a self confessed "all crafts welcome" person and I do love to sew stuff as well as alter stuff. Deep Joy :-) HID well he did the ironing and got the meal ready LOL. Have a good week all.

The Few - Remember Them

This is Remembrance Sunday and I was inspired by this weeks challenge over at SCD which is "WINGS". Now as a child who grew up during WW2 and I lived locally with all the airbases dotted around. I saw the daily flights and mostly more went out than came back. I felt I must make my challenge piece a tribute to those boys (and boys they were). I had a lovely little airplane stamp in my stash which I used. I used DI blue jeans and graduated the inking to produce a sky and then I used my favorite pearly water colours for the bottom half. Then stamped some poppies. I called my piece "The Few" to which I will always be eternally grateful for their sacrifice. I am pleased with this piece and it is meant to make us happy to remember. My daughter Sandra said I excelled myself, praise indeed. Take care all.

Houses, Gingerbread and Nigella

The design team over at SCD really know how to make a challenge a challenge LOL. When I saw the theme of the week "Houses" I thought blimey whatever will I be able to do for that. Having just bought some new stamps none of which really hit the spot for this week. I nearly didn't bother. Then whilst quietly watching Nigella Lawson who talked about Gingerbread houses I knew exactly what needed to be done. Funny where inspiration comes from isn't it. HID kindly down-loaded me a template and I draw out the gingerbread house. I painted it with my pearly water colours and punched out the roof tiles ( a Martha Stewart punch) made the tiny holly leaves and added stickles and white acrylic for snow. The gingerbread man punch I have had in my stash for years nice to find a renewed use for it, then just added stars and icicles and a fab ribbon. Great Challenge Thanks DT.

Claret & Blue

I have had a lovely Sunday with my daughter (Sandra) visiting a local papercraft fair it turned out to be well worth the visit, we did make and take workshop and viewed lots of demonstrations. Obviously I only bought stuff I really really needed LOL. On Saturday I tackled the difficult colour combo of "Claret & Blue" this was the weekly colour challenge from SCD. I needed a card topper for a birthday card hence the shape. I inked the background with DI stormy sky and placed 2 white lace flowers which I had coloured with barn door and a pinky ink to create claret just added some pearls and bits of red and white lace to lift and finish. Actually it was not as daunting as I first thought. Can't wait to see the new month challenge from SCD. HID says we must batten down the hatches before all the trick & treaters start knocking Grrrrr LOL. Enjoy your Halloween whatever way that might be.

Green, Yellow & a Woodland Nymph

This week over at SCD the weekly theme was green & yellow. The DT designs were just brilliant and I liked this colour combo. It just shouted woodland nymphs to me or was it cause I wanted to use my stamp of a little woodland nymph LOL (I am so into fairies at the mo). I was going to spend today creating a master piece but HID wanted me to help him de-gunge the pond :-( which I did. Eventually I got to go into my hobby hut and I came up with this little tag. I used my new pearly shimmer paints yellow well made a change from glimmer mist LOL. I stamped on trees & ferns in dark green then my new little woodland nymph stamp (she is just so cute) she is resting on the ferns. I added stickles to try to give depth and then the butterflies which I coloured in with gel pens. I just fell I could not get the depth but I did enjoy trying.

Holidays & Challenges

My holiday last week was very enjoyable, I shared a barn in North Norfolk with my daughter, son-in-law and other family members. We really did have a good time, lots of walks that always ended up in a tea shop obviously cake and tea is just the thing after a walk LOL, followed by crafting at the barn. It began with a spending spree at Sew Simply in Taverham for those of you that don't know they sell all sorts of craft stuff from quilting to artists, we certainly found stuff to buy LOL. As we were going onto a scrapping weekend at Overstrand and to take the opportunity to share my new found knowledge. It was decided we would all make a frame, like I had at Carols workshop held at papermaze during the summer. Everyone really enjoyed this and painted and inked the week away. For mine I choose to do faires & flowers the frame is tando as are the flowers. Carol would have been proud. I also made time over the weekend to complete the challenge set by SCD, I kept it simple as I only had a few stamps with me, my inspiration came from one of the articles in Craft Stamper. I used a mixture of DIs to make orange and stamped then distressed the edge of the tag and added black ink. Oh the other frames can be seen on Sandra's blog.

Purple & Green

Hi All, What a simple gorgeous weekend it has been, but I have been ever so busy so it has just flown by. I did just manage to pop over to SCD this week to look at this weeks challenge, the theme is purple and green. Oh no I just don't have anything purple in my stash! it is a Sandra (my daughter) colour so I did panic a bit. I was determined to take part. Thankfully I remembered Carol's words to me "Just Play" so I began by fiddling with stuff ( I am sure you know what I mean) LOL. I used my reeves watercolour crayons and mixed them together with a water brush to create purple for the background, then I had a vision FAIRIES or was it HID LOL. Anyway I stamped my fairy and painted her in with the water crayons mixing more colour to add shading and also used my new copic brush pens (these are really lovely) added a few embellishments, edged with perfect pearls pale lavender spread round with an ear bud. I must say I like it. Well I am off to pack as some of us Girls in the family are heading into North Norfolk for a Girlie break and YES we are taking all our craft stuff Yippee. HID gets to stay home Yippee.

A new challenge and a new month

Where does the time go! here we are autumn again. Now I actually do love this time of year particularly the colours in my garden. Of course I have to spend time clearing out the bedding plants and replacing with violas and pansy. But that is not too much of a chore as I love my garden to look good. Last year I held an open day in aid of the hospice but that's another story. Anyway I was pleased to read the challenge this month at SCD is colours of autumn and no restriction on shape of the piece. So I began by fiddling about with my DIs and ended up using tea dye and spiced marmalade for the background. The stamped the border and flowers these I painted in the oranges and reds, I then could not resists using the fern and ivy stamps from my little morsels set in green (still plenty of green around in autumn). Of course I then spritzed the whole thing with glimmer mist. I really enjoy these challenges and glad that Sandra (my daughter) encouraged me to try my hand and use the techniques I have learnt this summer at Carols workshops held at papermaze. Great work DT. Have a lovely week all.

Fab Ally Pally Day

I had a lovely trip to Ally Pally yesterday it is always a lovely show with lots of goodies to buy and add to my stash and boy did I do it justice. I bought this lovely owl stamp I have used for the challenge by SCD s last week of Arches and the theme is Birds, I used DI wild honey, and stormy. I dabbed cosmic shimmer mist onto the page mainly because it does not spray anymore but dabbing seems to add another dimension, I then stamped trees backgroundfor depth. The I used my new owl stamp on shrink plastic (I love shrinking stuff). So here it is. Looking forward the the next challenge I think I ma getting the hang of the challenges and enjoy it.

SCD Challenge Stars

Having just returned from a lovely holiday in Malta where the weather was soooo lovely and hot and the food was sooooo good (boy I must get back to my diet, but it was oh so good). As it was a lovely buffet and all layed out for us I can't get back into cooking and HID is still waiting for his dinner LOL.He was so hungry he even cooked dinner on Saturday LOL. I relaxed and caught up with my emails and looking at the blogs I follow and getting ready for the papermaze crop yesterday. I thought the 1950s  entries were just fab. This week I decided to join in again as the theme "stars" made me think of John Wayne one of my all time hero's. I have been lucky enough to visit (on a number of occasions) the mid west and the locations of some of his westerns. For the background I used DIs storm sky and antique photo and a touch of whispers and barn door. naturally I spritzed with antique walnut (I am known as the glimmer mist queen). The photo was downloaded from the Internet courtesy of HID (I am not to good with technical stuff, but getting better). The precious stamp of JW I have had in my sewing bag for a long time. I often get it out to look at, but now I have found the perfect mount for it and I am very pleased with the result. Nice one DT.

1st go at SCD Challenge

Hi All, I have spent this afternoon in my hobby hut, HID said it needed a 3rd coat of protective paint, I seem to spend more time painting the outside than working in it LOL, anyway I was working on the challenge set by the folks over at SCD. I have been following the challenges for the last 2 months, I am amazed at the work the DT and other participants produce. My daughter Sandra & niece Suzy always take part. Sandra said it is about time I had a go after all I have spent the summer practising stuff as taught by Carol (she has run courses over at Papermaze). I think it was the lace that made me want to have a go, one of my many weaknesses is lace. I have the most fabby stash of lace, mostly antique lace. I just love to look at my lace and really hate using it LOL. Well here is my 1st attempt. I inked with TH Victorian velvet, stamped an image and coloured with glaze pens and gave a spritz of glimmer mist, the lace flowers I made and I used fabric pens and cosmic shimmer to colour. The lace I used is antique cotton mmmmm lush. I am quite pleased with my 1st attempt, I really enjoyed making it.

Been Busy Bag Making

I have been very busy making a bag for my daughter Sandra amongst other things like keeping my garden looking beautiful (one of my passions) and spending time in my hobby hut (another passion). I am a lucky girl as I have a small and cosy hobby hut to go and create in or just muse when I need to get away from HID which is quite often LOL. HID did surprise me this week with a little book he had profeesionally made up of just some of the photos of my miniature bears (another of my passions) Boy I do have a lot of passions don't I LOL. Here is the bag I made it out of old jeans and used up odds and ends of fabric then beaded it all, I added a Kachina charm (Sandra love all things native American) and a limited edition button that has a little bear on.

My First try

Sandra has shown me how to build a blog this tecky stuff blows my mind LOL