A digi from Dora and a walk in the woods

A couple of years ago Dora drew this digi (Flower 7) from one of my photos, after a walk to look at the bluebells in Ploughman's Wood.  We had a lovely walk there again on Friday and so I thought I would use this digi for my DT card for her this month. I printed the digi onto Kraft and coloured it with my Arteza pencils. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I teamed it up with some crafty individuals paper and then stencilled the base card with distress inks through a Bee Crafty D'inkable. The sentiment is from Hobby Art, and I added a few drops of liquid pearls. You can find Dora's digis here.

Here are a few of the photos I took in Ploughman's Wood on Friday, featuring the beautiful Wood Anemones, including a few pink ones. 

And of course a few bluebells too...

Beautiful nature, beautiful weather and the signs of spring definitely put a spring in my step! 

Thanks for looking! 

A Digi for Dora and last minute Rudolf Days

 Hi There! What am I like eh? nothing for a week then 3 posts in 3 days, and there will be more, lol! 

My first offering here is one of Dora's digis. The DT have all used the same digi this month and they are all so different! You can find Dora's Digis here

Next up are two Christmas cards made with Bee Crafty stamps and inkables for this month's Rudolf Days Challenge. I am a bit late as the challenge finishes at the end of tomorrow, but I made it just in time! I used distress ink on the base card and some splatters of Pretty Gets Gritty explosion powders too. 

Do check out Mo's blog for amazing inspiration to get your Christmas cards made every month! 

Thanks for looking and I hope you like them all! I will be back before Friday with a sneaky peek of the new Crafty Individuals stamps that are on Hochanda (Soon to be The Craft Store) on Friday at 10 am and 2pm. 

A digi from Dora

 

Hi There!  I am here to share my DT card for Dora over at  Dora-knutselhoekje . Isn't it a beautiful bird image? I printed it onto some white card and coloured it with coloured pencils, hoping to resemble a thrush, although it would be lots better if I had found a picture to model it on rather than relying on memory. The clouds and snowflakes were created using stencils from Inkylicious and Bee Crafty and distress inks with a make-up brush. The sentiment is from Inkylicious too.

Thanks for all your lovely comments. Hoping to spend a little time in blog land this afternoon and leave some comments myself x

A Whale of a card

Its time to show you another of Dora's delightful images. This month she has drawn some wonderful new sea creature images for us. There are whales, turtles, and even Narwhal! My DT Card features a wonderful whale, which I coloured with silver paint. The background was created using distress oxides in peacock feathers and salty ocean, water spray and some bee crafty stencils. I've never thoroghly wet a digi before and I am quite pleased that there was only a tiny bit of bleeding. The shell stamp is from Crafty Individuals CI-272. You can find Dora's fabulous Digis on her website here.

Thanks for looking!

Rudolf Day and a Digi from Dora

There aren't many days left in May, so it is time for the Rudolf days Challenge over at Scrappy Mo's. This first card is a little inkylicious scene, stamped in Memento Paris Dusk and watercoloured with Chipped Saphire distress in. I then mounted it on a base card that had been dry embossed with a magazine freebie snowflakew embossing folder.

My second card used Crafty Individuals stamps CI 463, CI 465 and CI 541. The papers were sprayed with mica sprays and the photo certainly doesn't do it justice in all it's sparkliness. Do pop over to Maureen's blog for more Christmas inspiration

Also, here is my DT Card using one of Dora's wonderful new floral digis, tulips, which I coloured with pencils. You can find Dora's fabulous Digis on her website here.
I have been busy beavering away at my samples for the next Crafty Individuals shows which will be on Hochanda on Tuesday 2nd June at 7am and 1pm. I really hope you can tune in and watch. The new stamps are absolutely gorgeous and I love them. I can't wait to show you! I will be posting all my makes with them here on my blog once the Hochanda shows have been aired, so very soon!
It looks like craft shops will be opening again here on 15th June, but workshops and shows will probably be a way off from that as social distancing will still be in place for a while. In the meantime I hope you have plenty of stash to keep you going, and, as we will have missed at least one craft show, you have the opportunity to treat yourself to a little something.
Stay safe and I hope you are well xxx

May at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning! I hope all is good with you, and that you are well.  It is May, and time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations and the theme this month is

***Say it with Flowers***

Also this month we have two fabulous sponsors, Chocolate Baroque and our very own
Dora, who has her own range of wonderful digital images, as well as designing some stamps for Crafty Individuals. 
My first card features the beautiful honeysuckle from the Chocolate Baroque fragrant honeysuckle stamp plate and was coloured with zig clean colour real brush markers.

 My second card is one of the stunning new digi flower stamps just released by Dora and coloured with pencil crayons.The sentiment and text stamp on this one are from Crafty Individuals. 

 Please remember we are a stamping challenge and the focal element of your work must reflect the theme (i.e. Flowers), a few added flowers as an embellishment will not suffice and not be eligible for the prizes. Whist we prefer conventional stamping, digital images are allowed. You can check out the challenge rules here.

Do go to the challenge blog to check out the breathtaking creations from my multi-talented teamies. You can also find more details of the fantastic prizes! 

Thanks for looking and for your lovely comments. Apologies for the randomly highlighted parts of my text. Not entirely sure what has happened there but after 20 minutes of playing around trying to change it I have given up. 
Stay safe friends xxx

A digi from Dora

It is time to showcase another Digi from Dora. Our DT theme this month is farms and horses. I used this lovely horse image, printed on to kraft paper and coloured with my arteza professional colouring pencils. A bit of Mulberry paper and some old designer paper from my stash, with a spellbinders die cut to finish it off.
You can find Dora's digis on her blog here.
I'm entering this in the current challenge at Allsorts where the theme is creatures from the animal kingdom
Thanks for looking!

February Rudolf Day and a Digi from Dora

 It's the 27th of February and time is ticking fast for Rudolf Day this time! I am here with my offering. First is a Christmas card using Inky Doodles stamps. The background is stamped and embossed too.

My second card has stamps and papers from Crafty Individuals as well as some rather nice sticky letters that have been in my stash for ever. I'm popping these over to Maureen's blog, for Rudolf Days challenge, where there is some gorgeous inspiration for Christmas cards.

This last card is a wonderful spring digi from Dora's blog that you can find here. I love magnolia and this is so beautifully drawn by Dora - a pleasure to colour with alcohol based markers.

A Winter Digi from Dora

Hi there! I m here with my DT card for Dora Knutselhoekje. 
The  theme the DT are following this month is Winter. I used the Winter Wren image, printed onto card and coloured with alcohol pens. The splatter stamp on the base card and the sentiment are from Inkylicious.  There are lots beautiful samples on Dora's blog from the rest of the DT. Do pop over there and take a look at Dora's fabulous images.
Thanks for looking!

Dora's Digis for March

Carrying on with the African theme I have been playing with my ink dusters to create a background for Dora's fabulous Elephant that you can find here. The background stamps are all from Inkylicious and the inks are Izinks. I coloured the elephant with alcohol based markers.

I also made a card with one of the squirrels which you can also find on the realistic animals page. It was a sunny morning for once so the base of the easel card is a bit too washed out in the photo.

I'm hoping it got to it's destination on time.
Here is a photo of our resident squirrel during the recent snow

 
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments.

Spring Flowers

 Here are my DT cards for Dora this month. Our theme was spring flowers and the magnolia and snowdrops are some of the first spring flowers in the garden. My card was made with  digis drawn by Dora, which you can find on her blog here.

I coloured both with alcohol markers and used papers from the Dovecraft Bohemian pad. Tag sentiments are from Craftwork Cards.
We had a lovely Burn's Night supper last night and did our bit for citizen science with the Big Garden Birdwatch yesterday morning. We got 13 species in an hour, but no starlings or sparrows at all! There is still one more day to join in if you can. We learn so much about our garden birds when we do. It is the first time Steve and I have done it together, now he has retired and is home on Saturdays.
I have finished Steve's Birthday card and made 2 baby cards for colleagues at work today which I will share with you in due course.
Thanks for looking and I hope you have had a wonderful weekend.

Rudolf day for September

Here is my Rudolf day card for this month. I have only managed one again I am afraid, so I will attempt to do three next month. Especially as I will have half term.Anyway, enough waffling. My card was made with a digi from Dora, which you can find on her blog here. Dora's digis are a delight to colour - I used alcohol markers to colour this one.
The papers are from Craftwork Cards and the snowflakes are a lawn fawn die. The ribbon is silver, not that you can tell in this light!
Do pop over to Mo's blog and take a look at the lovely creations from her and the Design Team
Thanks for looking!

Happy Father's day

Here are the two cards I made for Father's day this year. The first is for my Dad. We were chatting about a holiday he took some years ago where he visited Skomer in June. There were puffins everywhere! This was the ideal opportunity to use my new puffin stamps from Hobby Art , the current monthly special. I coloured them with a mixture of Zig clean color markers and distress markers. I am entering this one into the current challenge at Penny Black and more where the theme is anything goes

For my Father-in-Law I used one of Dora's digis - a squirrel drawn from one of my photos. I used a woodgrain embossing folder and made a circular aperture in a piece of Kraft card. The leaves are from a stamp set by Hobby art. You can find Dora's digis here on her blog.
I do hope you are having a good weekend and not suffering too much with the heat. Do forgive me if I don't visit so much for a couple of weeks as I am writing reports at the moment - five done, 22 to go!

Wood Anemones - a reminder of spring!

Here is my latest DT offering for Dora's Digis which are here on her blog. I coloured it with Be Creative Alcohol markers. The background paper is from Be Creative and the ribbon and lace were in my stash. Dora drew this from my photos of wood anemones that we often see at Bluebell time...

They come in a variety of shades of pink and white....

Hope you are all coping with the variety of weather being thrown in this week. We had only a few flakes of snow and now it is grey and wet.
Thanks for looking!

Another Digi from Dora

Here is my latest DT offering for Dora's Digis which are here on her blog. I coloured it with Be Creative Alcohol markers and created the background in the panel with ink dusters.I added some stamped birds (Inkylicious) The background paper is from Craftwork Cards and the ribbon was in my stash. This reminded me so much of my visit to Rwanda where I walked with the Giraffes in the Akegera National Park.

 We got out of the minibus and walked towards the giraffes, and they walked towards us...
 Here is a photo I took.

Such beautiful creatures! Thanks for looking!

An Elephant Card

It's time for a card made with one of Dora's beautiful digis. This month her theme is elephants and she drew this gorgeous lifelike elephant! I coloured it with Be Creative Alcohol markers and created the background in the oval with ink dusters. I stamped the base card with a very old stamp by Katy Widger from Rubber  Poet(I don't think you can get them any more). I used Kaleidacolor creole spice ink. This reminds me so much of the colourful fabrics I saw in Rwanda, so is an ideal backdrop for an African Elephant. You can find Dora's Digis here on her blog.
Thanks for looking!

Another card using Dora's Digis

Whoops! I just realised I should have posted this on Tuesday! I had it all prepared then didn't get any further!  To make my 7x7" card I used Be Creative papers and markers. I printed this lovely image (one of the birds reversed) on to smooth white card stock before colouring in and adding sky, hills and grasses with  ink dusters and inkylicious stamps. Dora and I have been wondering what chicks they are and the nearest we have come up with are Stone Curlews. I love their quirkiness and those cute little wings! You can find Dora's Digis here on her blog.

Sorry I haven't been around much. I have been quite busy at school (still 2 more days before we break up!) but there is light at the end of the tunnel! Steve's dad is now out of hospital and recovering nicely at home. His warden aided complex has 'chocolate and chat' in the lounge most evenings and he ventured down the corridor to join his friends on Friday. He is still a bit wobbly, but coming along nicely.
Meg went camping with some old friends for a few days and had a great time...unfortunately so did the insects that bit her, in fact it looks like they had more of a party than she did! Bless her, she has become very tasty to the insect world in the past couple of years.
Right, I'd better go and catch up with my DT commenting. Once I have done that and got my latest magazine article finished I will be in blog land a little more, hopefully!
Thanks for looking!

Another of Dora's delightful digis

 It is my turn again to post a photo of a creation made with one of Dora's digis. I coloured it with Be Creative alcohol Markers and then die cut it. I wanted to make the dragonfly stand out so I covered the first one in glossy accents. I noticed some creases around the edges to tried to iron them out... did you know that glossy accents melts under heat?.. I ended up making a second card after cleaning the iron, lol. You can see the original on the digi shop, but I prefer the second ;)... take a look at the close up...

For this one I went over the dragonfly using a versamarker and then applied some of the new embossing powders from Be creative. This one was fairy wings. It took two coats to get the finish, but can you see that glitteriness? (Is that a real word, lol?) Perfect for insect wings as well as fairies!

Do take a look at Doortje-digis shop. You will find this and lots of other Digis there too! You could also pop over to the Once Upon a stamp website to get your hands on bargain Be creative alcohol markers (£60 for the whole set!!!). The wonder embossing powders are available from Hochanda and will be in OUAS's online store in due course.
Thanks for looking and I hope you have put your name in Mr Linky for my follower candy.

A New Design Team

I am delighted to tell you that I have joined my lovely friend Dora's DT for her digi blog, Doortje-digis shop. I used Dora's beautiful Rosebay Willowherb in the foreground, coloured with Be Creative alcohol Markers. Behind I created a little scene of hills and mountains behind using inks, ink dusters and stamps from Inkylicious. I used tartan papers from Craftwortk Cards and some ribbon from my stash.
Do take a look at the digi shop. There are lots of beautiful digis there.
Thanks for looking!

A Squirrel Card

Whilst photographing the Squirrels last week (see previous post), I remembered that Dora had borrowed my photos from a previous visit to draw some digis. She very kindly let me have them, so I had a lovely half hour colouring and making this card. If you fancy it, you can purchase the digi from Dora's digi shop.

I coloured it using Be creative markers. For the squirrel I used natural oak, light orange and yellow ochre. Mixing the light orange and yellow ochre produced the lighter shade. I used some Be Creative paper too. The little die cut leaves are a Joy crafts die that I absolutely love. The brown card and the gold paper are oth snippets so I am off to Miss Di's snippet playground with this. 
The house is feeling rather empty as Meg returned to uni on Sunday and I still have a week of holiday. I am thinking I will take a trip to a craft shop to take my mind off it, lol! I particularly need some of the lovely whimsical flower stamps from the woodware range. One of them has my name on it, quite literally! Thanks for looking!