Back to winter!

Well, after all the water which came down in March, April turned out to be a great month! Dry, warm and sunny for the most part. Anyone would have thought it was summer already! It was obviously playing tricks on us, though, as right now it's so cold it feels as though we're back to winter, at least up here in the north. And even further north it's been snowing, apparently! Minus temperatures are forecast for us tonight. I think I put the thermal undies away too soon! How all that fits with global warming, I've no idea, so I'll just move swiftly on to this month's Stamping Sensations Challenge, where our theme for May is

* * * * * IN AN ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN * * * * *

We'd like your projects to show what you might find in a typical English country garden, so you could include, for instance, flowers, trees, birds, insects, wild animals, etc., or perhaps garden furniture, shed, greenhouse or even washing on a line! Whatever you choose, your main image must be stamped and relevant to the theme, otherwise your project will not be eligible. See here for our full challenge rules. You will not want to miss out on the chance to win this month's fab prize of these 2 beautiful A5 stamp sets, kindly donated by our lovely sponsors Chocolate Baroque.



I have used Chocolate Baroque stamps on my card.

I created the background with my Gelli Plate, covering it with Distress inks and then lifting off some of the colour with stamps from the Chocolate Baroque Spring Foliage set before taking the print.

The central image is from the Home Sweet Home set and the robin is cut from the main image in the Robin the Spruce set. I coloured the butterflies (Just Butterflies set) to look like Orange Tips, which have been visiting my garden during the past few weeks. The flowers on the grass at the front are from "The Spinney" Design A Tree set.

The main image is coloured with Polychromos pencils and cut out with a Spellbinders die. I used Arteza brush pens for the robin and butterflies.

There is some truly delightful inspiration from my teamies over on the Challenge Blog, so please do go and check it out. I am so looking forward to seeing your entries for this theme.

Mine is a Scottish Country Garden but it has plenty in common with an English one! I'll leave you with a few recent photos.

Orange Tip butterfly. Hard to photograph as they are hardly ever still!

Lesser Redpoll

Auricula

Ivy Leaved Toadflax, growing in the garden walls. In our garden, the wildflowers sit happily alongside the cultivated ones. We do not have weeds!

Bank Vole. We have a family of them living in the undergrowth behind the bird feeders. The baby ones are so cute!

Yellowhammer. Due to recent population decline they are now classed as an endangered species. Not apparently so in our garden! Last year we counted 20 here on one occasion. Not so many yet this year, but still several pairs visiting regularly.

Bluebells. This seems to be a really good year for them as there are lots about, both wild and cultivated. 

Sycamore. The warm April weather brought most of the trees bursting into leaf. This is my favourite time of year, when everything is fresh and new.

Heron. Not in our garden, but I took the picture from the garden as it took off from beside the river which is next to our house. We are so lucky to live here, surrounded by beautiful wildlife. It makes up for all the rain!

Anything Goes with a twist!

It's time for our August Challenge at Stamping Sensations, and this month we thought we'd leave the theme up to you, but - there's a twist! It's

* * * * * ANYTHING GOES WITH A STAMP AND A DIE * * * * *

Your topic can be anything you choose, but you must use at least one stamp and one die in your project.

Our sponsor this time is Tattered Lace, who have the most beautiful dies designed by Stephanie Weightman. They have generously donated a fantastic £50 voucher for the winner to spend in their Online Store.

I've used a Tattered Lace Owl die on my card (one of a set of two), I believe this set  - Owls -  is exclusive to Hobbycraft. I adhered the owl to brown card and then cut round it by hand.

The background was made with my Gelli Plate and a Crafter's Workshop stencil. The "branch" is by Inky Doodles, All other stamps by Chocolate Baroque, except for the tiny butterfly with the sentiment, which is by Just Rite. The tag die was a freebie from Papercraft Essentials magazine. The "moon" was stamped with white acrylic paint to get a good opaque colour. I gave the owl some twinkly eyes with a couple of stick on gems.

My lovely teamies have some stunning samples for you this month, don't forget to check them out on the Challenge Blog, and I will look forward to seeing all your wonderful stamp and die creations!

Unrepeatable!

One of the characteristics of the Gelli Plate is that it is highly unlikely you will ever get identical prints. This can be a good thing, because half the fun is not knowing what the print will come out like until you see it. However, it can be annoying when you get a really good print and know you'll never be able to repeat it!

I was playing with some Crafter's Workshop masks, one of which was the Mini Roman Letters (by Dina Wakley). This is the first print I made with it. Possibly my best Gelli print yet!

I didn't want to cover up too much of it, so all I added was some stamped clocks (Crafty Individuals), a column top (Non Sequitur) (I think it's actually Greek but I'm pretending it's Roman) a couple of gods (part of an Aspects Of Design stamp) and a printed picture (Crafty Individuals).

Think I might have to keep this card. I'll never be able to make another like it!

Been playing.....

....with my new Gelli Plate! It's rare these days that I have time just to play and experiment, but I've been itching to get my hands on one of these and couldn't resist any longer, so I had to make some time!

My first attempts at prints were rubbish! Put too much paint on and it just got muddy. I get cross if I can't do things straightaway, and have to keep telling myself that, like most things, it just needs some practice. I wanted to make some backgrounds for cards, and eventually I got one I was happy with, and had to make the card forthwith!

For an earlier print (rejected!) I had used some skeleton leaves as masks, but they didn't show up very well. However, the leaves looked quite good covered with the paint. I decided to try stamping on one, and embossing it. I used an Inkylicious stamp, the same one I used to make the background print, and I think it worked quite well.

 I sprayed over the background with a Crafty Notions spray ink (a gold shimmer, but unfortunately it doesn't really show in the photos) and then overstamped it with a  a Stampin' Up text stamp. The sentiment is also by Inkylicious. The centre picture, which quite fortuitously matched the Inkylicious flower stamp, is from a Crafty Individuals Miniatures book (Flowers and Butterflies), and I framed it with a Nestie die.

The paints I used on the Gelli Plate were old ones (10 years +!) and I think half the problem was that they had become too thick. I couldn't seem to get a smooth thin covering with them. Living up here in the wilds of Dumfriesshire is wonderful, but craft shops are thin on the ground, to say the least. I wanted new paints, but couldn't wait for mail order, so on Friday I made my first solo expedition down into Carlisle since we moved up here, and visited the recently opened Hobbycraft! It's so long since I was anywhere with decent supplies that I was like a kid in a sweet shop! I found the paints I wanted (plus a few other bits and pieces - well, it made sense to get them while I was there and not have to make another journey, didn't it?!) but will now have to make some more time to try them out.

Watch this space!

Ps. Note to Sally, you HAVE to get a Gelli Plate!!