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!



The Tree

It took me a while, but I have managed to make my photo of The Tree (see this post) into a digistamp! I had no idea of the best way to do it, so I fiddled around with it in my editing programme (which isn't P****shop) until I got a good silhouette, and then erased the background from around it, which took ages! I'm sure there must be a better, and quicker way! Any advice much appreciated for future efforts! Anyway, I was happy with the end result. This is the photo I used.

And here's the card made with the digistamp. (Computer generated sentiment, cut out with a Nestie, background coloured with Memento inks using ink dusters.)

And here they are together in the same picture!

Lovely blogging friends!

During our Stampalot Birthday Blog Hop (go here if you'd like to join in - there's still time) I've gained some lovely new followers. Just wanted to say welcome to them all. Also, I've just realised that my total number of followers is now 99! If I reach 100,  I'll post some blog candy........

Less is More Week 62

Well, it's been quite some time since I last made something for the Less is More Challenge. Nine months, believe it or not! Just before the move up to Scotland. Since then, other things have had to come first, but at last I have time to enter again. The topic this week is "Three shades of green".

I immediately thought of paint samples, and found the perfect one. I stamped over it with one of my favourite Chocolate Baroque images, and added a greeting (Personal Impressions). Quick and easy, clean and simple, right? Wrong! Three cards went in the bin before I got one right! The problem was that the paint sample card was non absorbent, and very difficult to stamp on to without the stamp slipping. I tried various different stamps and inks until I got a combination that worked. In the end I used Archival ink. Anyway, here it is.

It's very green up here just now! After a few weeks with very little rain, we've had quite a lot over the past few days. The sheep in the field next door are certainly enjoying the fresh new grass.

And yesterday there was a beautiful rainbow.

Finally, specially for Sally, a photo of The Tree, at sunset. This tree is quite a landmark hereabouts, and Sally and Megan were really taken with it when they came up to stay last week. We all agreed it should be made into a stamp!



Happy Birthday Stampalot Challenge!

It's a rather special month at Stampalot Challenge. It might be April Fools day, but we're not joking -  you really are going to be spoilt rotten this month! There are absolutely loads of prizes to be won, because it's our Second Birthday! Naturally the challenge theme is

Happy Birthday

You can make absolutely anything you want as long as it's to celebrate a Birthday and as usual there's a fantastic prize from the lovely people at Sir Stampalot for this month's lucky challenge winner:

But it does not stop there, as in time honoured tradition we are having a Blog Hop and what fab prizes Sir Stampalot are offering in addition to the challenge prize above: one at each of the DT's blogs and another for the winner of the correct blog hop answer. I know lots of you are familiar with what you need to do, but as we are seeing so many new crafters joining our challenge, here are the details:

Visit each of the DT's blogs listed below.

Leave each one a comment to be sure you are in the draw for the prizes on each of the DT's blogs.

Pick up a letteR fRom each DT blog you visit. (You might have to look foR a clue to the letteRs!)  My letteR should be faiRly obvious!

Assemble those letteRs into two words - each word has four letteRs, and there's a clue in the prize! - and send youR answers to brenda@ibas.co.uk by noon GMT on 30th ApRil.

All correct answers will go into the draw for this super prize, some rather yummy Hero Arts goodies!

Here's the list of names you need to follow, each one will tell you where you should have arrived from and where you need to go next, but if you get lost you can always go back to the Challenge Blog and start again and don't forget you need to leave a comment at each blog, otherwise you won't be in the draw for all those prizes.


Sally

Pinky

Clare

Brenda

Ruth

Tracy

Lynne - You are here!

Francesca

To get here you should have come from the very talented Tracy and your next and final port of call will be the fabulous Francesca. Then you will have collected your eight letters and rearranged them into the two words to send off to Brenda.
This is the prize you can win on my blog:

And there are yet more prizes, because as this is a special month for us, this month Top 3 challenge entrants will also receive a little prize rather like this which Brenda has put together...........

Amidst all the excitement, I almost forgot to show you my card for our birthday challenge!

I've been making Mothers' Day and Easter cards with some of my classes at school, and they were mostly based on punched flowers. Being in a punch mood, I thought I'd do something with them for my challenge card. I've also just learned how to make crochet flowers (thanks for the lesson, Mairi!) and this one seemed to be the perfect embellishment for the card.

The background paper is from Crafty Individuals, and the flowers are punched from the same paper. The little butterfly is a Nellie Snellen punch. Not sure what all the others are, but they and the Nestie (Blossom 3) I've mounted them on are all available from Sir Stampalot.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Don't forget to go and have a look at the DT's gorgeous samples on the Challenge Blog, where you will also find all the details of the challenge and blog hop, and I look forward to seeing your entries.

Get ready for the hop!

Just a quick reminder that this Sunday (April 1st) will be Sir Stampalot Challenge's 2nd birthday, and we'll be celebrating with a Blog Hop!

There'll be lots of fantastic prizes, and lots of fun. It would be great if you could help us spread the word and put the logo in your sidebar. Hope you can come and join in on Sunday. See you there!

Challenged to Inspire, Part 2

Happy Mothering Sunday, everyone! It's a beautiful morning here, hope the sun is shining for you too. I've just watched a pair of buzzards fly past the kitchen window, and a pair of exceptionally cute baby bunnies are keeping the grass tidy at the back!

Here is the card I made from the second kit which the Stampalot DT were given for this month's "Take Inspiration" Stampalot Challenge. This kit (details of which are on the Challenge Blog) is entitled "A Krafty Affair". I loved these DPs (by My Mind's Eye), which were chosen by Janice, and they and all the items in the kit are available from Sir Stampalot. The papers are double sided, so I took photos to show each side.

I made an easel card, and turned the diecut hinges into posts to hold the bunting, which I cut with Whimsy dies.

I decided I wanted to use the celebrate sentiment, which was a Craft Stamper freebie (I masked off the border which surrounds it), and then searched through my stamps for something suitably celebratory. The only one which seemed to fit the bill was my one and only House Mouse! (Inherited from my late MIL  - as you know, I don't do cute!) The Happy Birthday is by Papermania. The scalloped borders were cut with Nestabilities, and the one around the Happy Birthday was cut by hand.

 Anyway, that's the second part of this month's Challenge. If you haven't entered yet, there's still plenty of time, and Janice has now revealed the prize, which is as stunning as usual!

And I can also let you in on the exciting news that was hinted at earlier. The 1st of April will be Stampalot Challenge's 2nd birthday! It's been a fantastic two years, and the fact that the DT has remained substantially the same since the beginning says a lot about what a great challenge it is, and I'm honoured to be part of such a fab team. However, much of our success is down to Brenda's inspirational leadership and the tremendous amount of work she puts into it. So thanks, Brenda,  and here's to many more Stampalot Challenges. We're going to be celebrating, so don't forget to look in on April 1st and join in the fun!

Challenged to inspire!

Something a little different for this month's Stampalot Challenge. Brenda sent all the DT members two kits, the brief being to come up with something using the materials in each kit. There were slight variations in the papers and ribbons (although they were all from the same family of items) but each member's kits were substantially the same, so it is fascinating to see how different are the things we made. As an added twist, you will only get to see one project from each of us today, but you will be able to see the second batch of DT work on 18th March, when we will also be sharing a bit of exciting news with you!

Anyway, you obviously want to know what the challenge actually is for you this month! It's simply

                         * Take Inspiration*

We want you to take your inspiration from any of the DT's pieces of work or the kit itself. You can make anything you like and choose where you take your inspiration from........... perhaps some of the kit colours, pearls and swirls, or maybe one of the DT card designs and go with your own colours. All we ask is that you remember to tell us in your post where you took your inspiration from and of course follow the rules at the top of the Challenge Blog.

The first kit we are showing is called "Pearls and Swirls". This is the kit I received. Details of it are on the Challenge Blog. (I inked the edges of the base card before I remembered to take the photo!)

And this is the card I made from it.

I stamped Hero Arts "Old French Writing" stamp over the background paper, and used Memory Box dies to cut the butterfly, and punches for the flowers. The little dots at the top were cut with an ordinary hole punch, and given a bit of dimension by shaping them with an embossing tool.

The prize for this month is........

......... being carefully selected by Janice right now! But you know it will be fabulous, as always!

So go and take a look at the inspiring work by the rest of the team on the Challenge Blog, and don't forget to check back on the 18th of March for Part Two!



Just because

It's the first time for ages that I've had chance to make something just for its own sake, rather than for a particular occasion. Some of the ladies at one of the schools I work at are keen to set up a craft club, just amongst themselves to begin with, but with the intention of opening it up to parents and the local community once it gets going. They asked me if I'd like to join them. I said yes, of course!

They hadn't heard of teabag folding, so I made a couple of cards to show them what it is. I used to do a lot of teabag folding at one time, but that was a long time ago. I really enjoyed going back to it. There are many websites which have free papers to download, and one I really like is Derek's Teabag Tiles which has loads of lovely designs. The butterfly papers I've used here are from Derek's.

The first card has the teabag design backed with a Nestie Butterflies Circle.

I love the butterfly circle but it's very difficult to get it out of the die! I found that putting a layer of waxed paper between the die and the paper you're cutting works wonders! The butterfly corner is a punch I've had for years, in fact one of the first punches I ever bought.

The second card uses a simple kite fold, with the same papers from Derek's and a Nestie Lacey Circle. The corner stamp was from Elusive Images (now Chocolate Baroque) and the centre message from Craftwork Cards.

Having made my teabag cards, I started to put my things away and noticed the Butterflies Circle cut from the wax paper, still on my desk. Loth to throw it away I sat and looked at it for a moment, wondering what I could do with it. Then I remembered the faux batik technique. Very carefully so as not to tear it, I crumpled up the circle and smoothed it out again. Then I ironed over it on to a piece of glossy card so that the wax was transferred to the card. Next I brayered over the card with ink from a Big And Juicy inkpad (Spice). The wax resisted the ink and the pattern was revealed.

I finished the card with a banner stamp by Waltzing Mouse, sentiment by Chocolate Baroque and two of the tiny butterfly cutouts from the punched corners.

It feels great to be back crafting again because I want to, rather than because I have to. I had got out of the habit, I think, with all the upheaval of moving house and settling in to a new job, and indeed a new way of life, but I'm pleased to say my enthusiasm is returning. Watch this space!

In The Garden

You can't see much in our garden at the moment, because it's covered with snow!

That is actually a colour photo! However, underneath the snow, the snowdrops are out, and the daffodil shoots are already well up. The weather since we moved up to Scotland has been quite miserable, on the whole, although we have had a few lovely days too. I doubt we have finished with winter yet, but when the spring bulbs start to appear, they always lift my spirits.

And what better theme for Stampalot's February Challenge than

IN THE GARDEN

Guaranteed to lift everyone's spirits! Here's my take on the subject.

Having rediscovered old stash when sorting out my new room, and realised the extent of it, I decided that I must try and use as much as possible! So - the background for this card is a paper napkin I've had for at least ten years. The stamped image is part of an equally old Hero Arts set, and it and the sentiment (Hobby Art) are stamped and matted on scraps. I have to confess that the butterfly and border dies are new (Memory Box - couldn't resist them) but the ribbon is old! I mounted the butterfly over a scrap of Crafty Individuals background paper which is a bit old!

The Design Team have produced some really beautiful samples this month, so do go over to the Challenge Blog and take a look. And the prize is just as stunning - the most gorgeous selection of garden-themed goodies!

I can't wait to see the entries this month. I'm sure this will be a very popular theme.