I'll do anything....

And so, we hope, will you! It's a nice and easy February Challenge at Stamping Sensations,  where our theme for the month is

* * * * * ANYTHING GOES * * * * *

We're delighted to welcome back the fabulous Little Claire Designs as our sponsor, and the prize which they have generously donated is a fantastic £35 gift voucher to spend on their site.

I've used stamps from Little Claire's "Hot Air Balloons" set for my card. The balloons and the ground are all separate stamps, giving scope for an endless variety of designs. 

Having first made a background with my ink dusters, I stamped all the stamps on various patterned papers (Basic Grey), cut them out and paper pieced them to create my design. This was then diecut with Spellbinders dies, mounted on to another Basic Grey paper, matted with a yellow border on to a 7" square card and embellished with a ribbon and sentiment (Craft Stamper magazine freebie). 

As always, you'll find plenty of inspiration on the Challenge Blog, and we'll look forward to seeing all your amazing creations!

Animal Antics

My goodness, isn't this year flying by! The first of June already, and being a Sunday that means it's time for another challenge at Stamping Sensations. We had a fantastic amount of entries for our anything goes theme last month, and a big thank you to everyone who entered, it was a real treat looking through all your gorgeous projects.

For this month, however, we have narrowed things down a bit, although I think our topic will be equally popular as it is

***** ANIMAL ANTICS *****

We would like to see your depictions of creatures from the animal kingdom.

NB. Please remember that we are a stamping challenge. If you wish your entry to be considered for the prize it must include hand stamped elements. Digital stamps (which are in effect clipart) do not qualify. Sadly there were several entries last month that were ineligible because we could not see any hand stamping on them, so please do make sure that your project includes some hand stamping. You can check out our full challenge rules here 

For our sponsor this month we are delighted to welcome back Crafty Individuals, who are very generously inviting the lucky winner to choose anything from their website up to a value of £35! Besides their fabulous stamps, they also have a gloriously eclectic range of papers, printed images, masks & dies and many other crafting accessories and "must haves", so the winner will truly be spoilt for choice.

I've made two cards for this month. Inspired by the fact that we live next door to a farm, and it is so lovely to be able to watch all the animals out in the fields, I've used some of the gorgeous images from the Crafty Individuals Miniatures Book "Nature's Beauty". and stamps from their "Winter Trees" Elements plate (code CI-209).

My second card is completely different!

Of course, I don't normally do cute, but I couldn't resist the "Max & Whiskers" paper pad by Basic Grey when it came out, as it is just so bright and cheerful. Unfortunately it is now discontinued, so I am hoarding the sheets I have left! Fortunately there are two sheets of each design, so I could use one of the cat backgrounds here! The large cat stamp (Funstamps) has been in my stash for years, and gets an airing every now and then if I have to make a card for a cat lover. I cut and mounted it with Spellbinders Nestabilities dies. The small cats, words, and the cheeky dog in the corner are from a freebie set from Papercraft Inspirations magazine. All the cats were coloured with Promarkers.

Lots of delightful animal antics going on in the DT's samples, so do go and take a look at them on the Challenge Blog. Thanks for looking at mine, and I look forward to seeing yours!

Blog Candy!

A warm Hello and Welcome to all my new blogging friends. I promised that when my total number of followers reached 100, I would give away some blog candy, and so here it is! No complicated rules, all you need to do to be in with a chance of winning it is to be a follower and leave me a comment to say you'd like to be included in the draw. If you'd also like to link to it on your own blog, that would be great, but not compulsory.

In the parcel will be a selection of unmounted stamps by Crafty Individuals, an Enveloper Pro for making your own envelopes, a Basic Grey 6"x6" paper pad (now retired, so you can't buy one in the shops!) an A5 notebook to alter, a mini book to decorate, 8 sheets of peel-off stickers, 12 chipboard tags, various sizes, and a pack of ribbons & fibres. Plus maybe a surprise or two!

I also have a few more Crafty Individuals stamps which I will give away as a second prize, with maybe a couple of extras. I'll post to anywhere in the world. The draw will be random, and you have until midday on Saturday April 28th BST to leave me a comment. Good luck everyone!



A birthday and a secret!

It's the first of the month again, and time for me to let you in on the secret I've been sitting on for the past few weeks! I'm now a member of the Sir Stampalot Challenge Design Team! Sadly, Lorraine has had to step down, and while she'll be a very hard act to follow, I'm thrilled to bits and very honoured to have been asked to join the team.

April the 1st marks a special day for the Stampalot Challenge because it's our 1st Birthday! It has been a brilliant year, and with fantastic support from everyone in blogland, it's become one of the best challenges around.

Now, not only is it our Birthday, it's also April Fools Day !! So this means as well as a brand new challenge we've got something extra special lined up with a twist or two. But let me tell you about the April challenge first. The theme has been chosen by our very own Lady (Janice) Stampalot who has decreed it will be:

"LADIES AND FASHION"

For one lucky winner, this is the fantastic prize on offer from Sir Stampalot:

So now for the real fun bit.........this month the Design Team will be displaying their Challenge work on their own blogs only. And on the Challenge Blog we have a collection of pictures and pieces of artwork.............a picture of each DT member along with a piece of their work with they have selected which they think best depicts their style of crafting.

Have you guessed what you need to do? That's right, you have to decide which of our Design Team fits which pairing of picture and artwork! Hop over to the Stampalot Challenge Blog for all the details of what to do. When you think you have the answers, email Brenda brenda@ibas.co.uk with your list. There will be a couple of prizes on offer selected from those with all or the most correct pairings that reach her before 25th April. Any received after that date will not be included.

Anyway, here's my card for the “Ladies and Fashion” theme.

Stamps by Hero Arts (the sentiment is part of a larger stamp), coloured with Promarkers, background paper by Basic Grey (sadly discontinued), lace and recycled button from my stash.

I'm so looking forward to seeing everyone's entries, and hope you all enjoy our first birthday challenge!

Got new stamps

Ever since I bought my first set of Nestabilities, I have thought that there should be stamps to go with them. Since then I've found that there are some companies making some. A while ago I bought a few Just-Rite stamps, but I'm not impressed, either with the designs or with the fiddly mounting system. But last week I discovered Waltzing Mouse! Wow! What a revelation. Just what I have been looking for! The company, based in N. Ireland is owned by the wonderful Claire Brennan, who designs all the stamps. To get some idea of her genius, check out not only her Nestie-compatible (and other) stamps, but also the "Secret Stamp Set", the idea behind which is quite simply brilliant! You need a password (provided) to see it! The website also has a fabulous gallery of inspiring samples.

The problem was which to order first! I settled on sets to go with my Labels 2 and Labels 10 Nesties, but then couldn't resist the "Rescue Remedies" set, so I will now have to buy the Nesties to go with the stamps!

I used Ella Blue papers (by GCD Studios) as a background for the stamps, which I had to cut around, not having the dies. (Yet!) The sentiment, I think, is an old Craft Stamper freebie.

The next card has the Waltzing Mouse border stamps on the Nestie die-cuts, Basic Grey Cappella papers, and an Impression Obsession sentiment. There is a bit of glitter glue in the flower centres and butterfly body, but it doesn't show up in the photo.

I have two more of the stamp sets already on order. I don't think they'll be the last!

Serendipity!

"Drat!" I thought, when I dropped my Memento Rich Cocoa dew drop ink pad, ink side down of course, on to the pristine sheet of white paper I was just about to stamp on.

Then, "Hmm," I thought, "that looks like a petal." So I dropped it a few more times.

Then I cut out the shapes and made a flower!

Papers: Basic Grey (Capella), punches: Martha Stewart, sentiment: Personal Impressions.

Had a funny old week, busy at work, and then decided to catch up with various little jobs which I've been meaning to do for ages but somehow never got round to, mostly sewing and mending. Yesterday was such a glorious day weather wise that we decided to go out for a walk, just a few miles around our local area, but it was good to get out and get some fresh air and exercise. My pre-new year resolution is to get more exercise! I spend far too long on the computer. I'm sure that the act of switching one on enters you into a time warp, so that you think you've been there for half an hour, but in reality it's more like three hours! I'm sure many of you will know what I mean!  Anyway, we both enjoyed the walk & I took some photos along the way, including this beautiful holly tree, such a lovely shape and laden with berries, in the local cemetery.



If only the weather was like that every weekend! Hope you all had a good one too.



New Stash

Here's a card using a stamp I bought when we went to Sir Stampalot last weekend. It's one of this year's new ones by Hero Arts. I've had the Basic Grey "Stella Ruby" paper (now discontinued, unfortunately) for some time and had been looking for a suitable stamp to go with it. This one was perfect. The card is for my sister-in-law. I wanted the image to be the focal point, but also wanted the background paper to show as much as possible, so I've kept it quite simple; watercolour pencil on the dresses, Martha Stewart punch down the side, a few buttons from my button box, a bit of ribbon (also from Sir S), but I think she'll like it.