Autumn Colours

When I saw the themes at Allsorts and heck of a challenge I just had to join in. I love this time of year for the richness of colour and quality of light, so the theme called for a scene, and here it is...

The photo isn't the best as I took it after dark, under my daylight lamp on my craft table. All stamps used are from Inkylicious, and I used a combination of Adirondack and Distress inks for stamping and ink dusting. I had plans to make it an 8x8 card and stamp the background, but ran out of time, so it is a simple scene. As I said above, I am entering it into Allsorts and Heck of a Challenge where the theme is Autumn Colours. I've also spotted the challenge at Sweet Stampin' is also Autumn, so I'm entering it there too
I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to half term and having time to not only get inky, but to wander through blog land too! Thanks for your patience and I will visit you soon. Thanks for looking!

My new favourite ink combination!

After all those gorgeous sunsets in Wales (see this post), and more in Scotland when I went to visit Lynne last weekend, I had to have a go at seeing whether I could recreate those colours. I opted for Memento inks in Grape Jelly and Lilac posies with some Lemon yellow Impress ink on silk art card. This is what I came up with.

 I stamped the Inkylicious 'Tree of Life' in Black Archival and used the tree roots to make the border. The sentiment is from the set 'Sentiments one'.

This next card uses the largest of the Northern Pine set,  Birds from Windswept and a sentiment available soon!  The images were stamped in Memento tuxedo black. Below the masked area I used a wet brush  over the dusted inks to give the impression of water. It looks better in real life than on the photo. This might be my next video tutorial I think. Let me know what you think.
Thanks for looking, and enjoy the rest of the bank holiday weekend x
Edit: You can find a video tutorial to make this card here.

Two very different colour challenges

Hi there!
The long weekend was great! I got to finish preparations for work, have half a day in the garden, see some friends and make three cards and two cakes too! I wanted to join in with Less is more where the challenge was to use yellow. I had been meaning to try the sun rays technique that I saw used by Glenda Waterworth some time ago and came up with this:

 I used squeezed lemonade and wild honey distress inks with my ink dusters and some masking to make the rays. The main image is a Chocolate Baroque stamp and the sentiment and border are from my new Waltzing Mouse stamps. I used a Wild Honey distress marker to do the faux stitching and a die from Go Kreate.
I hope that is enough white space for you ladies.
I couldn't let my mask go to waste so I used it again! This time I coloured the stamp with distress markers in wild honey and peeled paint. I used the same colours as last time for the rays, but added a bit of Brushed corduroy to the yellow soil. Not strictly yellow, and no white space so not really eligible, but I thought I'd show you anyway!

The sentiment on this one is from Waltzing Mouse too. After that I decided to have a go at Allsorts challenge this week where the theme is black and white.

The lace and pattern stamps are from the Waltzing Mouse French Country set. The sentiment and circle border are also from Waltzing Mouse.Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments xxx

Blues and Greens at Sir Stampalot

Well, it's the first Sunday of the month and time for a new challenge at Sir Stampalot. The theme this month is a colour challenge and we chose Blue and Green.

I began by creating a background using a Woodware holly swirl and versamark ink, then sponged broken china, shabby shutters and pine needles distress ink over the top. I used the same inks, plus forest moss to create a background on watercolour paper which I spayed with iridescent gold glimmer mist. When it was dry I stamped the Poinsettia (Penny black slapstick cling - Christmas pride) and embossed it in gold. The ribbon was recycled from a box of chocolates and the greeting is very old from Stamporium (no longer available). the beads used for the centre of the poinsettia were from my stash. I cut the shaped card using an XL frame Go Kreate die called frilly #1.
I'm entering my card into Allsorts Challenge this week where the theme is 'Anything but a square'.
There's lots more fabulous inspiration over on the Stampalot Challenge Blog, so do pop over and check it out!

What is the prize this month? Well, we are keeping that a secret for a little while, but I am sure I don't have to tell you how fabulous the prizes are from Sir Stampalot, and it will be just as AWESOME as it always is!

Tuesday Taggers with silver, gold and purple

Our lovely Ildiko has chosen the theme this week at Tueday Taggers, and she has chosen silver, gold and purple with some stamping. I am beginning to think about Christmas (I know, a bit later than most!) and came up with a tri fold tag card.

 The poinsettia stamp is a cling one from Magenta coloured with distress inks and has a bit of tulip paint, stickles and glossy accents added. I mounted on silver mirriboard. The corrugated card was sprayed with a variety of creative colour sprays (Crafty Notions) in shades of purple and gold. The base card is a pale gold pearlescent card that has been partially run through the cuttlebug with the divine swirls folder. The ribbon was a gorgeous find on our last trip to Sir Stampalot and the tinselly cord was a generous donation from Megan's stash.
This will be my last post for Tuesday Taggers for a while, as I'm taking a break whilst things are a bit hectic at work with post Ofsted and Christmas preparations.
A quick update on the home front. Steve is a dab hand with the crutches now and is able to get about the house reasonably well. He even ventured out to the postbox on Sunday, and on to the patio to help fill up the bird feeders.
Can't have the birds going hungry!

Rosie D's Challenge 75 - Burgundy, Pink and Cream

Oh my what a bad blogger I'm becoming! Bear with me because it won't last for much longer hopefully!
Here is my entry for this fortnight's Rosie D's where the theme is burgundy Pink and cream. I used the hero Arts stamp Dogwood, and paper-pieced the flowers. The leaves were coloured with promarkers. I used micro beads for the flower centres and used a MS punch for the edge. The pink panels were run through my Swiss dots cuttlebug folder, adding a few punched retro flowers and leaves to finish.
I've been busy trying to sort things out at school as I'm moving classroom. I've been in there for five years so it's a bit like moving house. My laptop has died and cannot be repaired, so I need to replace it. It wasn't very old and has had lots of problems, so I'll be looking for another make. There are quite a few meals and parties coming up with work, and last week I made an appearance as Freddy Mercury in the school talent show (don't ask!). Hopefully by the beginning of August I'll be back to my usual self! Thanks for looking!

Tueday Taggers gets Messy!

Tuesday Taggers this week is sponsored by The Craft Barn, and the challenge is to get messy. I very definitely did! I got out lots of different sprays - Adirondack colour washes, Creative colour sprays and my starburst stains (these were in pots originally, but I transferred them to some spray bottles I found in Sainsburys!) Firstly here is a picture of a bit of my mess...

and now I'd better show you the results...

All of the stamps are from Stampscapes apart from the geese flying over, and those are Lavinia stamps. It is a 'Joy Fold' card. Not sure why it's called that, but I saw a couple last week and decided to have a go. The backgrounds are all done with Adirondack colour washes apart from the scrunched/ creased one, which was done with starburst stains. I had such fun, and now I have a stash of background to use, so no doubt you will be seeing lots more!
Thanks for looking!

Tuesday taggers burst of colour

Here is my entry for this weeks Tuesday Taggers. The challenge is 'a burst of colour' so I hope this fits the bill. The stamp is by 'The Artful Stamper. The background is done with posh rainbow inks on a sponge. The glitter on the leaves is two tone green and copper, and the border and card are two tone too. The photo doesn't really do it justice.

This weeks challenge is sponsored by the craft barn.

Autumn Colours at Chatsworth

I just wanted to share with you some of the lovely shades of Autumn we saw at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire on Tuesday. We went to see the Exhibition of sculptures in the gardens, but Mother Nature well and truly upstaged them!

Graphicus August Challenge - Complementary Colours

It's a while since I did the Graphicus Challenge, but, after reading Glenda's article I think this meets the complementary colours theme.(Sorry, Glenda. I couldn't bring myself to do anything on a Christmas theme yet!) I used distress inks in Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold, Dusty Concord and Worn Lipstick. I swiped them across my craft mat and spritzed with water before laying white cardstock on top. When it was dry I stamped it with my favourite stamp of all time - the Fern from the Wild Meadow theme plate. The darker ones were stamped in versafine imperial purple, and the ones in the background are stamped with Adirondack Cool Peri. I finished it off with a dragonfly brad that I coloured with my promarkers. Hope you like it!

Playing with my brayer

I had really good intentions of tidying my table, but had to have another go with the brayer before I put it away... five cards later, there wasn't any time left to tidy! I won't bore you with all of them, but here are two. The first was the last one I made with the dregs of ink still left on the brayer. The stamps are from the ISC tranquil plate. I extended a few of the branches with a marker pen. It was partly inspired by D.K. Fisher's photo here

The second card features one of my all time favourite stamps from the Artful Stamper. I brayered the background of both with Kaleidacolor Calypso. I ran my brayer over a sheet of scrap paper first for this second one. the colour is still quite intense, but I do like colour! I coloured the leaves with metallic gel pens. the background paper is made with creative colour sprays from crafty notions.

Blue...

The latest three cards I just made have a distinct blue theme. The first was inspired by something I saw when blog hopping last night, and it is here, on Heart Prints. It involves putting the card through 2 cuttlebug embossing folders, and I love the effect. I coloured it with chalks. The greeting is from Graphicus (Paisley Elephants plate)

With my second card I covered one side of the embossing folder with Brilliance Peacock and then used prima flowers on the bottom edge

This last card uses paper from my Artylicious Butterfly Bliss cd and a graphicus stamp using turquoise gem versamagic - simple, but I love the colours.

Brick and Teal Graphicus Challenge

Well, here is my entry for the Graphicus Brick and Teal colour challenge, and I have to say it hasn't been easy! I discarded several attempts saying that isn't brick and that isn't teal! I eventually settled with a mixture of Rust and terracotta for brick and stream adirondack for teal. Stamps are from Butterfly Whimsy plate and Paisley Elephant plate. I also used the paisley cuttlebug embossing folder and Versamark ink pad.

Plum and Gold Challenge

Here is my entry for the Graphicus Colour Challenge, Plum and Gold. The background behind the bird was made with Adirondack colour washes in cranberry and eggplant. The background paper was made using versamark ink and rubbing over with twilight, cranberry and eggplant inks.

Sunsets

I had a look on Michelle Zindorf's latest blog entry and she asked about favourite colour combinations for sunsets, so I had a look for some of the sunsets Meg and I took photos of on holiday in the summer. Some are in the Lakes and some are views across the sea to Arran and Ailsa Craig on the West coast of Scotland. I love the colours in all of these.