all white Christmas wishes

 a very old set old Shenna Douglas dies....

its a miserable drizzly day here and we made the mistake of going into town to get some christmas bits from Bettys,it was just rammed with tourist not fun at all...

The afternoon is going to be spent just playing in my craft room....thanks for popping by today

this weeks christmas card...

still using stash....

last years July purchases actually used for the first time...Sheena's christmas rose set of stamps and dies....wish I had never bought them ...I just don't understand dies that don't actually fit stamps no matter which way you use them....I have tried die cutting then stamping...and the other way all I end up with is inky fingers and a mess....determined to use them.....
hope you are having a lovely day crafting and thank you for popping by today....

a sunday christmas card

doing a bit of experimenting this week...just playing and seeing what happens...

I have used Sheena Douglas's christmas lights embossing folder and dies for the lights and the sentiment...gilding wax and stickles for the sparkle......
Hope you are having a happy weekend and enjoying your crafting ....thanks for popping by my blog today I really appreciate it .

Christmas card club challenge....23 Reindeer

this weeks challenge is Lorraine choice ....and I have been dying to use my Sheena Douglas purchases but haven't really had the courage to get going...it all looks so easy when I watch  her demo...but getting those stamps and dies to line up takes a bit of practise...well for me .....

this is my second go...you really don't want to see the first it ended up in the bin .....
this one is scenic winter with matching stamps and tree dies.....I coloured using a mixture of the aqua pencils and distress inks....lots of cosmic shimmer iced snow which is really blingy....
please do pop round the other girls blogs..their links are on my side bar...theymake wonderful christmas cards.
thank you for popping by my blog today and I hope you are enjoying your weekend and having some crafty fun .....

Christmas card club challenge 20 Festive birds

this weeks challenge has been set by Valery (mrs A ) and as my favorite bird is the robin ...and its festive .......

I have used Sue Wilsons Holly background die and Sheena Douglas's robin stamp...coloured with copics....the sentiment is a tonic one....
Please pop round the other girls blogs to see their lovely creations,their links are on my side bar
thank you for popping by my blog today

a Sunday workshop with Sheena Douglas

a real treat...my niece Elizabeth,great niece Caitlyn and I treated ourselves to a day out at crafter's companion at Newton Aycliffe to take a Sheena Douglas workshop...we had a wonderful time getting inky and playing with aqua tints...glad I took my pinny.....

it was a great day and Sheena kept us laughing all day....

but the day ended on a sad note as when we returned home it was to a phone call at 7pm to say that my sister in law had died...she slipped into a coma on saturday after days of refusing to eat or drink...and decided to leave us after her friend for the past 60 years left her side after visiting time, she had lost the will to live and just wanted to go.laughter and sadness its what life is...

Christmas Card Club challenge 22...Mary's choice ...a cardinal or other christmas bird

sadly I have only one cardinal image in my whole crafty stash so I have opted for another christmas bird......

I have used a Sheena Douglas stamp and yes I sat down and had a wonderful time coloring with my copics ...its so long since I did any colouring and I had forgotten how relaxing I always found it....I mounted the image on a piece of card embossed with another of sheena's embossing folder...inked up and then used white embossed the Sheena snowy stamp...I then decided to highlight the ivy with some gold  gilding wax to make it pop a bit....mounted onto soft gold card and white....glossy accents on the holly berries.....
Hope you're having a good weekend ...do pop round and see the other girls creations their links areon my sidebar.....

Sheena Douglas stamps.....

oh I just love this set of stamps and die....

stamped onto gesso covered Kraft card...just loving this technique..embossed with one of the texture embossilicious folders...the stamps are from the words of wonder sets by crafters companion...my inspiration for the card came from the samples for the create and craft show....
Hope you are enjoying your crafting.....

playing with Gesso.....

Its Wimbledon......wheee so I become a couch potato every afternoon and my hubby cooks tea....how many meals can possibly involve sausages and beans!......still I am having fun playing in the mornings once the cores are done.....washing out today its so beautiful.....

I have been playing with my Shenna Douglas stamps...this set is briar rose.....

coloured with distress inks....the background is kraft card painted with gesso....embossed with an embossalicious embossing folder and sanded back......

hope you too are having fun crafting...and keeping cool.....

another Poppy card

I am just loving the Shenna Douglas poppy stamps.....

I have made the background from Sue Wilson's Portuguese background ...a voyage of discovery as its the first time I have cut it...very pleased with the results.....
The poppies are coloured with aqua tints and scrunched up while wet....
Another wet day here so back to my crafting!.....

Sheena Douglas stamps

I know I said I wasn't going to buy new stamps but I just loved the new Sheena Douglas victorian  ones.....they are however quiet large and do need to be the focal point of at least an 8x8 card.....
I took my inspiration from a sample I saw on create and craft......

I coloured the poppies with aqua tints after watching Sheen doing her demo on the TV.....the sentiment is a tonic die.....
Hope you are having fun crafting today......

back to using unstamped stamps!

after watching Sheena Douglas on create and craft the other day I remembered buying some butterfly stamps a couple of years ago.....I remember thinking when they arrive that they were very big and I think that put me off using them....well the time has come!

I have done my stamping with brown stazon and then distressed with walnut stain....the stamps cut out beautifully on my scan and cut so that saved some time!
The die cuts are the Sue Wilson nobel dies....
getting through my unused stamps only about 10 years to go.....

stamping with Sheena Douglas.....

I just fell in love with this stamp ...

its from the Sheena Douglas perfect partners Little Acorn rubber stamp set.....coloured with distress inks
I hand cut the squirrel but the leaves and acorns I cut out with my scan and cut ....that saved time!....I used a very old stamps away mask for the background which I letter pressed with walnut stain distress ink and then painted the leaves and acorns with more distress inks,
 and the sentiment is a Clarity stamp....
I made the mistake of using glossy accents on the squirrel and leaves which makes it horrible to photograph but certainly intensified the colours in real life I am very pleased with the effect....
I hope you are having a happy crafty day....its raining here today so guess where I will be.....

a birthday card

I thought this image may evoke some memories for my cousin John who has lived in New Zealand for the last 40 odd years....memories of train spotting at York station.....

the stamp is Sheena Douglas all aboard...coloured with spectrum noir pencils.....
keeping it simple......

My Brother in Law's Birthday card

well he is mad on trains so I know I said I wasnt buying any more stamps this year but when I saw this Shenna Douglas set I just thought perfect!

Kept it simple.....stamped with walnut distress ink....background....mustard seed and scattered straw distress ink.....a bit of faux bleaching.....mattedonto softgold and a cream base card....yeh all done.....its a lovely stamp set....a little bit scenic...all aboard....I just love the sentiment stamp...anyway I hope he likes it.

New Shenna Douglas Christmas stamps...

yes I know I said I wasnt going to buy any new stamps but I just had too......

I used the embossalicious snowflake A4 folder for the background inked with walnut stain distress ink.....the images are from the little bit festive...City Christmas just stamped with the same distress ink and the colour pulled out a bit with water....a bit of mustard seed ink round the moon and on the roof top and window a bit of cosmic shimmer iced snow on the roof....matted onto soft gold card...the sentiment is a Kanban one inked with walnut stain again.....fun playing!

Getting inky day 3.....

just thought I would finish off using more white outlining ......

well I have had great fun learning .....

getting inky day 2

so this time I tookthe Sheena Douglas A4 flowers folder and inked up the folder with Stazon...as I wanted to use distressed inks...

so I ended up with black in the deboss.....again I used the same colours as day 1and distressed....did a little white edging to some of the flowers and then gilding waxed the edges of the whole area....matted and layered onto black card and adhered to a 8x8 white card....
I stamped the flowers...Heartfelt Daisy patch.....and the leaves...Heartfelt Classic leaves...in black stazon and then cut them out on my Brother scan and cut.....and then the flowers distressed with mustard seed....I really liked the bright contrast ....the centres of the flowers are filled with clear large micro beads that have been coloured with Marabu GlasART...Gleb....which is still going after 12 years!...and a bit of Tim Holtz mustard seed distress glitter......
The sentiment is from Sheena Douglas's only words..."through the rain" set....
Can you see the smile on my face....and the inky fingers.....bleach I think!

Getting inky day 1

this is something I just havnt tackled before....I have watched demo's on create and craft the lovely Sheena Douglas finally has persuaded me to have a go...so day 1...gently does it....

I embossed Sheena's 5x7 flower embossing folder and then randomly inked with broken china,pickled raspberry and mustard seed distress inks........outlined some of the flowers with a white paint marker.....matted and layered on to matt black card....
Stamped Sheena's...greeting from the" only words-from the heart" stamp set...distressed with pickled raspberry...matted and layered onto black card.....
Still getting the ink of my fingers....but I did enjoy doing it...so tomorrow !!!!