Pretty Poppy

The weather this morning is certainly taking a turn here in the UK. The rain is pouring down the windows and the wind is howling through the gaps in the open windows. I needed to run out and rescue our garden parasol as it was on it's way into our neighbours garden. The gardens certainly need the rain but I hope there is still plenty of colour left when the weather settles.
My card has one of my favourite flowers on, I love to see poppies spread across the fields growing wherever they seed.

The poppy is stamped with black ink and embossed with clear powder and coloured with alcohol pens. I usually trim around the stamped image and end up with a square or rectangle so to be a little different, drew a circle and cut it out. A little Antique Linen around the edges helps separate it from the doily behind. For the background I used red paper and kraft card to tie in with the main image.

The current stamp of the week is the Carousel Horses and while moving furniture around the house I saw a project I made some time ago, it was hidden behind a vase. The first photograph is of the diorama I made and the second a sample card using the horses.

Many thanks for stopping by
Debbie

A fun weekend getting inky and painty

I spent last weekend in the company of a group of the most wonderful group of ladies. A friend (Sue) organised the weekend with Hels Sheridan and we played for two days with paint, ink, stencils, stamps and many other media.

We created two projects over the two days, the first was a burlap covered frame and it was great to walk around the room looking at the different finished work. The colours I chose I wasn't completely happy with and brought it home and fiddled with it. Happier with the results here is my finished piece.

It has some of the things I love included, sewing, nature and of course stamping.

I was lucky to have another canvas so here is another the second, lighter colours than the first.

I sorted three sacks of paper, card and stuff I won't use on Monday and found some letters in a Xmas kit and they paint over beautifully so I used them. I must say that NO PEEL OFFS were thrown away, damaged or burned during the tidy up.

The second day was a canvas that I learned so much from. I often struggle letting things flow as I think the uniform and organised side of my brain takes over. I really love playing with stencils and paste so that was right up my street.

Hels gave each of us a gorgeous melt pot flower but I couldn't put it on I'm going to make it into a brooch or ring so I cut a grungeboard flower and added wire to the centre an idea nabbed from Lou.

I made small squares similar to an ATC's for each of the ladies, we did this when we were at the Graphicus retreat and I still have mine on display around my craft room.

Thanks for visiting
Debbie

Anniversary Canvas

I thought I'd posted a picture a little while ago but when I looked back realised I hadn't. I was very fortunate to see lots of canvas paintings created by a friend and they were amazing. Everything about them was so inspirational. So I headed to the shops to buy one (a very large one). I'm timid when it comes to using colour so started with a limited colour palette of cream, green and blue. Stepping out of my comfort zone I attacked it with orange paint watered down so was able to run down the canvas.

It was our 23rd Wedding Anniversary in April and wanted to make it into a piece that would actually be displayed on a wall. I scanned a wedding photograph from our album and converted it to greys. I did have peach roses in my bouquet as my Mum had on her wedding day. With the photograph in the centre I added more paint, texture paste, inked wallpaper strips and flowers. The canvas is hung in our bedroom but isn't finished as I've other bits and pieces to add to it, a work in progress.

Thanks for stopping by

Debbie

Stitched Poppy

Good morning.
My project today was inspired by my lovely friend and DT buddy Judith as I thought her beautiful poppy cottage will have gorgeous soft furnishing and a cushion with a poppy on would be perfect. I recently discovered my 18 month old sewing machine could free motion quilt so I purchased a foot that would able me to play.

I cut the calico to cushion size and stamped the poppy from Poppy Meadow with black fabric ink pad into the centre and waited for it to dry. I then cut the wadding and another piece of calico and pinned together. With the pieces of fabric sandwiched together I started by machine stitching the outline of the poppy with black cotton and then the oval which I had drawn around a nestabilities oval. I drew a flourish and transferred it to the calico with a water soluble pen. I stitched around the flourish and then set to with the free motion stitching.

I hand stitched the detail of the poppy and leaves and added French knots to the flower centres. Finally, the cushion was assembled.

I hope this project has helped to show that stamps aren't only for paper or card.

Thanks for stopping by
Debbie

Fabulous Fantasy Flowers

Good morning to all. I hope everyone has been enjoying the wonderful weekend weather.
The selection of flowers from the Fancy Flowers stamps is great and the DT girls have been thoroughly enjoying them.




I started with a tag in mind and coloured with Distress Inks, Seedless Preserves, Peacock Feathers and Ripe Persimmon. I added a little stencilling across the centre and stamped the corners with the seedless preserves. As the card is a DL size I only stamped in the two corners. The flower was stamped with black Versafine and embossed with clear powder then coloured it with Graph It pens from the Home and Fashion set of twelve pens. I love the colours of these pens. I added white pen to the petals to help draw the eye to them. The top was chopped off the tag and it has been mounted onto black card. For the background of the card I stamped the small flower and distressed the edges.
Hopefully our warm weather will last.

Thank you for visiting.
Debbie

Pastel Poppy Meadow

For my card I took inspiration from a photograph my husband had taken while out walking on a sunny day. I wanted the colours to be soft so used my Distress inks to paint with.

The flowers from Poppy Meadow were stamped with black Versafine and embossed with clear powder, to make it easier to colour. I stamped them twice to allow me to decoupage the poppy flower. I used Tattered Rose, Antique Linen and Peeled Paint for the flowers and coloured the centre of the die cut panel with Tattered Rose. When dry I cut out the flowers and added to the oval die cut. The background paper is from the Essence of Nature CD which has such a beautiful selection of papers in many different colours. I stamped the beautiful corners with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to frame the card.

Here is a close up photo of the flowers showing the poppy better.

Don't forget to scroll down and leave a comment on Glenda's post for the opportunity to win these gorgeous stamps.

Many thanks for visiting
Debbie