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.