The Bird Stamps have arrived !

Well I got back from the office Saturday and there on the door mat were the new ''Bird Stamps'' by Elusive Images that I won courtesy of Glenda Waterworths' Blog . The stampbord hasn't arrived yet but when it does I'm hoping a couple of these stamps will fit it perfectly.

So here's a sneaky peak at what I've made this evening ....

Morning Glory . . . reminiscent of early morning, when a fine mist dances around a meadow and the birds gather to sing.

Shown below ... I 've tilted the card so you can see the gold shadow under each bird which helps them to stand out. I haven't mounted it fully yet as I have quite afew birthdays etc this month so untill I know which occassion it will be used for I won't put a greeting on .



I'll update this post later with some more pics of how I made it etc ... I need a coffee :-)

Now Don't Forget - Glenda Waterworth is giving away some Free stamps.

If you want to be in with a chance to WIN some of Glendas Newest Faery Stamps then you need to leave your comment on the BLOG CANDY post !

A Few Pics from Cuba

Sunset in Havana, Cuba
One of the fantastic buildings ... and there's the other half stood in the middle !
Unfortunately - most are in this condition .
Cayos, Cuba - Now if you ever have heard the Saying ... Stop the World I wanna get off - then here's the place to do it ( apart from the Maldives ... but that's another set of photos waiting for me to upload ! ) Diving in the Mangroves in the Cayos ... Now these parrot fish should give you some colour inspiration !


Right back to finding my book !

Help ...

I've spent the day really having a well deserved sort out in my office - that is office come craft room ! and I still can't find my special dates list book , you know the ones we have with everyones birthdays, anniversary's etc in.

I'm not doing anything until I find it !

Until tomorrow when I check where the dot matrix printers are stored I'll leave you with some of my pictures from Mexico the other year ... and if you're really lucky you may spot the hubby diving past in one !

Just to say apart from Stamping I have a love for diving and architecture. Mother nature just can't be beaten and I have been honoured to have travelled to some of the most beautiful unspoilt destinations in the world. The camera I use is a special Fuji underwater camera - only problem is the fish won't stay still ! LOL



Wait till you see Cuba ! - stunning !

BLOG CANDY .....

FREE BLOG CANDY

Yes You Read That Correctly

FREE BLOG CANDY

If you have found your way here then you have found one of the 3 Blogs which have been chosen to give away one of the New Elusive Images

“Away with the Faeries”

collection of stamps from the inspiring

Glenda Waterworth and the Graphicus team.

" Unicorns ''

To win this magical collection of stamps all you simply need to do is leave a comment here - the winner will be chosen by a random number generator.

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But hey - don't just leave a comment here - Why not visit Glenda's blog to see the other enchanting Faery stamps and maybe try to find the other two themeplates !

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Click on the picture of the Unicorn Faeries themeplate to be fairy dusted away to Glendas' wonderful spellbinding blog x and don't foret to go Blog-Hopping to try to find the other 2 sets !!!

All the Best To My Son x My Hero x

I'm not normally one for preaching or moaning on the net or elsewhere, or to get in political agendas about the rights or wrongs of war ..... but I was a tad disappointed when listening to the news the other day , when our Olympic team were returning from China. Yes the GB team have done brilliantly - such great athletes but to hear they had put on the plane heroes ! ???


I have a son in the Army, we are so proud of him , yet despite his tours of Iraq - on his and his platoons return to the UK , there was no well coming party, no commander or any officials to welcome them home - nothing. Even families weren't told when they were due to land so we couldn't even be there to welcome them.
Unfortunately not all come home as they leave and my heartfelt wishes go out to all Mothers, fathers, wives , husbands and families of those who have lost loved ones in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.


These men & women are our heroes - though mostly unsung and un-noticed.


I spent this evening chatting with my son ( far left in the picture below ) as he flies out to Canada on exercise for the next 3 months - he's been given instructions by me to please try to photograph some of the stunning scenery out there !

This is him trying out his new Officers mess dress ... very smart ! very embarrassing !!!

Thank You All

I'm absolutely thrilled to have won the Stampbord challenge and thank you all to who-ever voted for me , it really does mean alot x

Incidentally I gave everyone a vote as Art is Art and all of us who entered made some beautiful work.

Well I'm totally shattered after a long drive back up from Cornwall , a million and one emails to answer and customers to sort out ... so unfortunately it's straight to my office to sort a few bits out x

More to come tomorrow xx

Vote for Me

Just a quickie as I'm away at the mo in beautiful Falmouth but my lovely friend has allowed me to quickly use her laptop.

Glenda has now put the Vote page on for her Stampboard competition , so even if you're just passing through or a regular visitor please feel free to vote for my Stampboard Sunset Choir :-)


I'll be back on Tuesday xxx

Sunset Choir - Glendas' Stampbord Challenge

" Sunset Choir " - AKA Labour of Love !


Ok so Glenda Waterworth aka Graphicus aka Artylicious has set us another challenge competition - this time using Stampbord, so here's my entry and once again I have chosen "Other Item" - this time this is a large 10" square panel picture. The panel picture is based upon a summer evening ( sorry we haven't had too many of those lately ! ) when the birds are giving their last song of the day. Once again everything used is from Graphicus - except my cardstock.

As this is a large panel picture it will sit on an easel frame near my landing window so every time I pass it, the word Inspire will do just that !

How I made it etc all details below . . . . . . . . . . . . . Click the pictures to open them in new window and then click again to see them in their full glory !

All the various Stampbord pieces - 21 in total - were placed in the arrangement I wanted prior to being sprayed, as I wanted the background colours to flow into each other. The main center panel is 6 pieces of 2" square tiles. I used a combination of Glimmer Mists and also Tim Holtz spray inks ( all available at Graphicus ) to create the shaded background working from the green through to the deep russet. The centre panel was rubbed off slightly as I wanted a more highlighted effect for this panel.

The panels in general needed some fore-thought as I didn't want to over stamp each one and the effect I wanted was for the stamped panels to flow on from each other, IE: the vines on the bottom centre panel then flow outwards to the side panels, which in turn the stamping then flows on to the next panel. The same with the centre panel, the foliage from the tree flows down to the top centre panel to match and again on the bottom panel.

The 4" x 6" centre panel was stamped with the Graphicus Guild Members stamp from the June newsletter. The left & right edges were then stamped using the Leaf flourish from the Lily Themeplate . All detailing was made with the scraper tool and various scratches were then rubbed over with colour to highlight them - ( see the birds chests ) this gives a great effect as the colour deepens within the scratches and gives the birds some dimension. Spots of gold were added to the leaves. Before anyone asks I didn't leave gaps between the stampbord pieces as it made the birds look like they were caged - not my kind of thing.

I didn't want to overdo the scratching on the outer panels as these were meant just as highlights to the stamped flourishes. The lettering down the side was stamped with the Sketchy Alphabet as this could really then be highlighted with the scratch tool.

Each stampbord piece was mounted on to black card, then onto a gold pearlescent card - then again on to another black card. Each Matted & Layered panel was then glued to the main gold pearlescent backing card which was then matted to yet another piece of black card.

All in all this has taken over a week to make as I had to do bits in between my other work - hence the labour of love x

Buttercup Fields

Ever since my daughter was 2 years old ( 20 years ago ! ) we have always had buttercups in a corner of our garden. She always said they were her flowers and I wasn't to pull them out. We've been asked on many occasion why do we grow weeds ... Weeds .. No they are such lovely flowers and I will always have a little corner somewhere for my daughters flowers.

The card below is inspired from the above and was made using the stunning new Themeplates from Graphicus - the buttercup is from the Fuchsia and not only has the outline version but also a reversed solid version.

The background card is stamped with the outline buttercup head in an Olympia Green Versafine, the next layer is a Glimmer Mists ( I will have to check the colours as I just spritzed away ) the edge was then stippled with the versafine using those lovely little ColorDusters from Judikins ( like mini shaving foam brushes ).
The top layer was fun as this is parchment, you can get the mottled type and the great thing about parchment is when wet is creates dimples - so with Glimmer Mists in hand I lightly spritzed the parchment to give a soft subtle effect. You can see the dimple effect better in the next picture.
I tried various ink pads on a spare piece of parchment as I was after a soft shadow effect for the solid buttercup, the one that gave the look I was after was the Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Peeled Paint which when combined with the parchment gave the soft shadow. The outline buttercups were then stamped over with the Green Versafine. To highlight the buttercup flowers I just used some of the Glimmer Mists - Lemon Zest as a colour wash.
Organza ribbons in limey green and yellow threaded through an antiqued buckle lower down.
Top corner Stampboard - first spritzed with some Glimmer Mists and the same stamping method - soft shadow for the solid and outline for the main.

The text is from Serendipity Stamps which came via Joanna Sheen and are great as they are already pre-trimmed and mounted on to EZ mount !

Remember click any of the pictures to see the full sized versions.

This shows the dimpled effect better of the parchment.
See the glimmer !
The inside was again made with a soft stippled edge and another soft shadow style stamp in the lower corner with the solid buttercup.

Quickie Card ...

You know when you need a quickie card ... yep one of those which is needed in the next 30 mins !
So here's a quickie for a male that I had to make earlier !

Just love those glimmer mists for painting with - the colours blend so beautifully.

Conkers !

Look at those lovely Conkers ! was my exclamation to my husband just before he nearly choked on his cuppa !

They are nice though aren't they ?

Ooops

Well so much for once a week !

I currently have 1001 things on the go at the moment and never seem to have enough time in a day to concentrate on 1 thing solely !

So pleased as I did my first international order for my Anti Static Bags the other week and they emailed today to say how pleased they are with them - I did offer that if they wanted I would go out and demonstrate them for a week ! ( Anything for a bit of Sun ! )

Our shop is being refurbished at the moment so it's somewhat chaotic there and my poor office never seems to get anymore organised. I've gotten in a terrible habit of stamping, then cleaning my stamps & popping them in a large tray at the side of my work desk. Normally when I've finished I then go and pop them back on the appropriate sheet in their folder. The tray is now full of stamps and I need a good day to sort them all out again.

Thank you to all for the awards ... I'm not normally an awards person but on these occassions I will happily accept them x

Our local Co-Op was selling some chocolates on special offer so I bought a few .. not for the choccies but the containers they were in ... again all will be revealed as soon as I've completed the projects ! Ok so I did eat a few !

I will be back shortly ... hopefully with a card or tag or box !