It's been a while ...

...since I spent time making a complete card, never mind two.

I have had the pleasure of attending three workshops with the most beautiful friend Tracy Easson. She is from Scotland and her very kind hubby has driven her down to teach at Art Workshops.

Tracy teaches her drawings in small steps making them achievable.

When I saw her newly released stamps I knew they would be fab, so I had to have a little purchase. I ordered the stamps on Friday at around 3 and they arrived at 10.20 on Saturday morning, great service from Which Craft.

The first is Francesca, which I have painted with DecoArt paint and Oak House Studio inks for the background.

Georgina is so dreamy to colour, I used alcohol pens and distress inks.

Here is Dawn and I with our 'Baker of Dreams' at the end of a workshop, we always have a giggle.

Last weekend I was talking to a friend about all the UFO's I have and this week intend to make a start on finishing some of them before I attempt to remember the steps for the painting that was done by the ladies and gents that attended the retreat.

Long time no blogging

I started my blog a few years ago to record for me, my creations. Looking back over the last couple of years it shows how my hobbies and loves have changed. I spend any spare time making allsorts of stuff. I have a passion for card making mainly using stamps and ink and that will probably never change.
Over the last three years, I have been fortunate to be involved with Art Workshops organised by my buddy Sue. I have met some lovely, talented, unique ladies and gentlemen during this time which I love to meet up with and I think of them as good friends.

We have a lovely location right by the river Tees and the room we use is light and airy, perfect for creating.

I have had the pleasure of attending two retreats in the past and thoroughly loved every minute of them both. Last weekend I was involved in hosting a retreat with Sue and it was amazing.

I will organise the photos and post later this week.

Debbie

xxx

Danelion Clocks with Brusho Inks

Sometimes it you just need to clear everything off your desk and limit the amount of things you work with. I am a terrible clutter bug as I like all things close by but it was becoming a hindrance.

So I selected a limited selection of stamps and a packet of note cards, I have in my stash, Brushos, white card, black and grey inkpads and clear embossing powder.

I started by stamping and embossing the Dandelions from three different sets of Chocolate Baroque which are firm favourites of mine. Very carefully I tapped the Brusho pots only wanting a small amount of colour on the dandelions. Next, I sprayed a fine mist of water over the powder and watched the magic happen.

I love the way the inks have spread around.

Here are a couple of close up photographs of these quick make cards.

Many thanks for visiting

Debbie

Abstract Patchwork Butterfly

 

Good morning.

 

I had time this weekend playing with an old friend, my Gelli Plate. Like many people that have purchased them mine is really underused. I attended a workshop recently and it inspired me to keep it on my work desk. If you haven't used yours for a while, they are perfect for making paint or inky papers and backgrounds.

 

I have a 6x6 plate and tend to cut the card or paper to the size when using it for ease.
The colours of paint were lime green, bright pink, orange and yellow. I used objects that were on my desk to make the patterns in the paint, bottle tops, corrugated cardboard, stencils etc.
The butterfly was the first print and the colour was a lot stronger and when dry I stamped with Versamark ink and black embossing powder.
For the background, only a small amount of paint was added and more printing then another print was taken. I love the abstract feel to the background. I stamped the beautiful Irish verse from the Patchwork Butterfly A4 set in the top corner.

Thank you for visiting

Debbie

Birthday Month Heart Stamp from Chocolate Baroque

 

Morning, I have a couple of projects to share today,
The first is the card that Lesley sent out a photograph of with the newsletter last Thursday.

 

I stamped the Floral Heart with black Memento ink and coloured with alcohol pens. The flowers were not coloured as the detail of them is beautiful. I matted onto pink and grey card. For the base card, I stamped the Baroque Orchid four times with grey ink.

 

 

My second share is again the Flowering Baroque Heart, this time the flowers coloured and I used Adirondack inks. The dye ink pads are great for water colouring with. I cut out the heart and added to the lace square die cut. The card is a square gate fold.

 

 

   

 

And finally, I was very lucky to attend a workshop with Kate Crane at the beginning of last month where we decorated the Journal that Lesley had in stock and it flew off the shelves. The journal is one of the favourites that I have as you can add to it easily and it's a great size for notes, the covers are sturdy and could be decorated with paints or papers. The inserts and covers are sold separately so more inserts can be added.

 

Many thanks for stopping by

Debbie

Flowers for all Seasons

 

Good morning.

 

I am always looking for different media to work with and when Lesley showed me these stamping blocks a while ago I knew what I wanted to do with them. The Wood Art Blocks make fantastic mini stamping surfaces, they sit on my craft desk and I look at them often.

 

Each of the blocks has been painted with a matt paint and then stamped onto with black ink. I stamped the quotes from Positive Beauty and the flowers are single clear stamps which I think show the flowers from different seasons.

 Magnolia, Remembrance Poppy and Snake's Head Fritillary Clear stamps.

The flowers were coloured with watered down distress inks, being careful not to add to much at once as the colour will bleed on the painted surface. I felt they need a little more detail so used the dots and crackle stamps from Natural Eggs.

                

I hope this post has given a little inspiration for using different surfaces and stamps.

Thank for visiting

Debbie

Spring Thistle Butterfly

Good morning.

 

 

 

For my card today, I reached for my Thistle Butterfly stamps, they are a definite go to set that I have in my stash. I made the background using circles that are die cut into a piece of plastic sheet. They are great to use as a mask. The distress ink colours I used are Twisted Citron and Squeezed Lemonade. I started with the large circles and overlapped with the smaller. The stamp was inked with Black Versafine and embossed with clear powder. I stamped and coloured a second butterfly to sit on top of the image.

 

Many thanks for visiting

Debbie

Babushka Frame Gift

I've been playing lots with the Babushka Dolls this month and decided to make a gift for my niece for her bedroom. She isn't a chocolate lover so I am not giving her an egg for Easter. Her bedroom has recently been decorated and I thought this framed project would look pretty on her windowsill.
The dolls have been stamped onto cream card with red ink and embossed with clear powder, then cut out. I stamped the mount frame with one of the stamps from Seasonal Fragments.

 

This card will accompany the gift. I dripped ink onto a strip of card and mounted onto red card the drew a broken line onto it to add a little more detail. The dolls have been coloured using distress inks. I attached the dolls with foam squares for dimension.

 

Many thanks for visiting

Debbie

Babushka Doll, Quick Make

 

 

Hello.

I have a quick make card to show today which is very different to my last project.

 

 

I sat one evening in front of the television, colouring an A4 sheet of the Babushka dolls that I had stamped and embossed with black ink and clear embossing powder. They are coloured with distress inks and a watercolour brush then cut out.

I kept the layout to the card simple and haven't added a sentiment as this card is going into my card stash box.

Many thanks for visiting

Debbie

Russian Memories

 

 

It is a delight to be posting one of the first projects using the new release Babushka stamps. I had seen the draft stamps a while ago and they reminded me of my Dads visit to Russia. He was in the Merchant Navy and had told my sister and myself that he would bring us both a set back with him. Unfortunately, they crew were not allowed to leave the ship so we didn't get them. The stamps brought back so many lovely memories of his visits abroad.

 

 

I started with a stencil and texture paste onto a piece of MDF board then covered with black Gesso. When the Gesso was dry I lightly brushed many colours of metallic paint building up the intensity of colour. The flowers were painted and seed beads were added to the corners. The Babushka dolls have been stamped onto white card with black Archival ink and water coloured with Distress Inks. I curled the dolls to give them dimension and added glaze to them to make them look highly polished.

 



 

There's lots more inspiration to come from the Design Team

 

Debbie

Poppies in a variety of warm colours

This is the card I made for this months Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge.

 

 

 

 The Design Team have come up with many different suggestions using this months colours.

 

I

If you like to partake in challenge, the prize on offer is a £15.00 gift voucher to spend over at Chocolate Baroque.

 

Many thanks for visiting

Debbie



Crackling Rose in full bloom

Good morning, a quick make from me today.

 

The background for this card was a play day make that had been sat on my desk waiting to be used. I had been playing with my Blueprint Sketch inkpad from Ranger and a gold mica spray.

 

 

 

The ink was applied with a sponge and sprayed with the gold mica. I wasn't happy at the outcome so covered with the blue ink again. Next, I stamped the crackle egg shape from Natural Eggs Clear stamp set with the same blue. I wiped the edges of the stamp with a baby wipe so the oval shape was not visible. The Crackling Rose was stamped directly to the card and embossed with black powder. For the rose head it was stamped onto white card and coloured with water soluble crayons then cut out. To finish it was mounted onto black card and a birthday greeting was added.

Many thanks for visiting

Debbie

Flora Musica

 A quick post today of a card I made using one of this months released stamps Flora Musica from Chocolate Baroque.

 

Thanks for visiting

Debbie

Harleqiun Bouquet

Good morning.

 

It's a miserable weather day so I think the mess on my work desk will be added to today. I will be venturing out for an hour to collect my new reading glasses. Everything later today will be a little bit sharper.

This card came from an idea I had about using a triple ink pad from Oak House Studio. I stamped the Harlequin Bouquet with the ink and made the mistake of using the lighter brown on the flower side and just wasn't happy when I coloured with water colour pencils.
I sat for a while and couldn't quite decide why it wasn't working for me. The light bulb went on and I turned the inkpad around and stamped the darker brown on the flower side then coloured for a second time. An oval was die cut from Kraft card and to add detail I stamped the diamonds from Harlequin Fragments with Versamark ink and embossed with clear powder.
It's very rare that I throw mistakes away but the first stamping just didn't work for me.

Thanks for visiting

Debbie

Happy Valentines

 

Hi,

I hope that everyone has a lovely day today and the postmen around the world are managing to rest after carrying all the sacks full of cards yesterday.

 

Today is a special day as my sister received a kidney transplant 34 years ago today. She had a really uncertain time at the end of last year and needed to have many tests. The upshot of all of them she is one of a handful of kidney transplant patients in the world (yes the world) who have had their transplant so long and are not on anti-rejection medication.

 

Thanks for visiting

Debbie

Crackle Rose

 

 

 

 

I am totally in love with the latest release single stamps from Lesley at Chocolate Baroque. When they arrived I set to and made a notelet set using them. This is the Crackle Rose and it's a perfect size for the notelets and extend beautifully for larger cards too. I coloured the stamp with water colour pencils using lighter pink for the tips of each petal to give dimension. These stamps are drawn beautifully and the crackle is a great background to the flower.

Thanks for stopping by

Debbie

Painted Flowers

 Good morning.
I have a card and a tag to show today. Both using the same colours of paint and technique but look different because of the change of amount of each colour.

 

 

The Crackling Roses stamp is a fantastic size for cards, I used a 15cm x 15cm. I painted the background using Decoart paints randomly and when dried stamped the Rose with Versamark ink and embossed with black powder.  The rose was painted with well watered white paint, more colour was added with coloursoft pencils. Green was painted onto the leaves.

 

 

I wanted to keep the washed out look to the tag so didn't add any colour other than white to the flowers of the Flora Musica.

 

Many thanks for visiting

Debbie

Steampunk Travel

Good morning.

 

A couple of Steampunk Travel cards from me today, they were made for Lesley's visit to The Craft Channel. The first was made with a masculine theme and the second more feminine with the fantastic winged boot.

 

 

 

For the card above I started with a piece of grey board and painted it dark blue and when dry applied a thin layer Crackle Paste with a palette knife. It was set aside to dry over night and do it's magic.

The next day I applied a light wash of thinned blue paint then stamped the bird house and sentiment onto card and coloured. The words were stamped onto the kraft card to add interest. I found the compass disc/frame at a flee market and had wanted to use it for a while.

 

This card is for my daughter who loves all footwear and pink.

 

 

Many thanks for stopping by

Debbie

Challenge Nineteen over at Chocolate Baroque

This week over on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog I have a couple of cards that I made. The inspiration card is made from one of my favourite stamps sets, Seaside Dreams.
The colours are soft blue, green, lemon and pink which was a great inspiration so I made three cards.

 

If you would like to join in the challenge hop over to the challenge page, the link is at the top of this post. The winner will receive £15 to spend on the Chocolate Baroque site.

 

Thanks for visiting

Debbie

Baroque Orchids Birthday Card

 

Good morning.

 

I made this card quite some time ago for Lesley from Chocolate Baroque to take to The Craft Channel with her. I saw the Baroque Orchids stamp a long time ago as a preview from Lesley and was blown away by the detail. I wanted to make a card that picked up the detail so stamped it twice with Versamark and embossed with Gold powder. The stamp is 5.25 X 4.00 inches so it is quite large and stamps beautifully. I stamped it twice as the card it is on is an 8 x 8 inches. I also made this card in white and silver for an anniversary card only needing to change the sentiment. 

 

 

The close up photograph shows the detail of the stamp.

Thanks for visiting

Debbie

Italian Brick Wall

Good morning.

The New Year started quietly here , just as I like it, sitting with a little bit of colouring in and crochet.

 

I made this card before Christmas for Lesley to take onto The Craft Channel with her and was delighted to see it on the counter displayed. This stamp makes me think of sitting in a beautiful Italian garden drinking a large coffee in the morning sunlight.

 

 

For the white base card, it was die cut with a square die and the flower stem was coloured with blue and green watercolour pens then breathed onto the stamp to activate the ink. A second square slightly smaller was cut from blue card and fixed into position. The Brick Wall stamp was stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with black powder. The colouring is done using alcohol pens and watercolour pencils. I only added a little colour to the brickwork as subtle shading because I wanted them to look as though it has been white washed. The stamped piece of card was added behind the frame and the sentiment was fixed to the top corner.

Many thanks for visiting

Debbie

Under the Sea

 

Hi, the weather hasn't been at it's best so I've spent a few hours over the weekend playing with stamps,inks and paints.

 It was really relaxing being shut away just playing and experimenting sometimes away from my comfort zone. I even got my dusty Gelli plate out of the cupboard then couldn't locate the brayer so put it back.

This card was made with sprays, stamps from Chocolate Baroque and mica powders.

 

Thanks for visiting

Debbie