Had to post this as I just finished this picture and I am so pleased with it....

I bought some Bockingford watercolour board to experiment with - as I love to cover my creations with ink and paint etc. and I wanted a surface that was a bit more robust so that I could go mad; and it was really great to use......I didn't really know what I was going to create....so I started off just creating a background with acrylic paints, bubble wrap and lid tops stamped and a few micro beads and I left it at that with plans of adding some stamping at some point. I came back to it today and decided on using the two Stampotique stamps I have (although I wish I have more!) and I stamped those with rainbow ink pads and then used a brush and water to colour them in by just bringing in the ink from the stamped image - which is something I have been playing with over the last couple of days because I saw it in a magazine. I also did the same with the mushrooms (which are Dylusions stamps)  - I cut them out and after creating a cloud for them stand on stuck them down with matte Mod Podge. I used Staz on ink to stamp the flowers round the edge which are a mixture of Tim Holtz stamps and a couple of Hobby Art stamps; and then finally I stamped the Tim Holtz sentiment stamp with black archival - and it turned out way better than I imagined and I managed not to make any inky fingerprints on it which is my usual mistake! Oh and just to frame it I went around the edge with black soot distress stain....

I seem to be getting back in to scrapbooking lately as I hadn't found time to do any for ages.....and now I've done a few pages in a matter of weeks. Here is one I finished the other day......I was keen to stop just using rectangular photos and so I cut out the photos and I think it looks pretty good. I also used two of the free stamps from Craft Stamper magazine......I just recently got hold of a couple of back issues........I love this magazine as it really shows you new techniques and is inspiring and I read my copies over and over again......needless to say I finally submitted and bought a subscription...

The brown shell stamps are Paper Artsy and I added a few other embellishments. I used distress stains on the chipboard shape and then stamped on the "Seaside fresh air" stamp which again is Paper Artsy. Oh and I almost forgot I used a paint dabber to replace the sea that I chopped off the original photo and stamped on the spiral background (from Lindsay Mason)

 

It's that time of the year again.....time to have fun planting seeds and watching them grow! Here are some of this year seedlings so far......

 Baby sweetcorn and a tomato (Roma) above

Then a variety of seeds.......cabbage, French bean, more tomatoes, leek, morning glory, cactus etc......and then even more to be sown directly in the garden........I think I don't know when to stop but I just love experimenting even if it's just growing one of something.....and last week's sunshine sent me off to the garden centre to get even more supplies.....let's just hope the sun comes back soon :)

Hello,

Happy Mother's Day!

Here is this years present and card.....

I cut out the sunflower from some scrapbooking paper I've had for ages and so I had to work up the courage to cut it up! I put micro beads in the middle and distressed the edges. Then I stamped with sepia archival on the butterfly background paper and again distressed the edges....and stamped on a sentiment.

For the frame I painted some blue, green and white acrylics on the blank frame and them made use of some UTEE shapes that I made plus I coloured the shells and starfish that I already had with alcohol ink and paint. I added some glitter to look like sands, some little sequins and some micro beads then found a suitable photo - creating the fish tank you don't need to look after! hehe!

Here are two more cards that I made recently. The top one was inspired by me playing with distress stains which I used to create the background to the stamped image; which is a Paper Artsy hot pick stamp and then I built up the card around that. The background on the card itself was one of a set of Lindsay Mason stamps of background squares. I dyed the edge of the large flower with distress strains, and then used some more stamps to make the sentiment.

 I then returned to my pink and purple roots to create the second card as I was having withdrawal symptoms hehe! Again the main flower stamp was a Paper Artsy hot pick and I stamped the middle image with paint from a paint dabber and then the two either side with distress ink; then I used one of those above mentioned background squares to go around the edge. I embossed the glitter card and used an edgeability and finished it off with the flowers and ribbon.

This was this years Valentines day card. I made some UTEE embellishments; the two hearts were made by using silicon moulds which is really good fun as you can put things like glitter, perfect pearls and micro beads in the bottom of the moulds before you pour the UTEE in and some of them will adhere on to the embellishment when it sets e.g. the glitter on the red heart; and then I poured clear UTEE on to thesaurus pages through a metal cookie cutter which I really like the effect of.

Oh and the background stamp was the one free on the cover of Craft Stamper magazine!

My sister bought me a soap making kit for my birthday, and so I made my first attempt today. I used my melting pot which I was glad of as I didn't fancy messing about in the kitchen. Although I was a little timid with the temperature as I hadn't used soap in it before so it took me ages.....but in the end they turned out OK. I didn't quite have enough left to fill the third mould so it is a little fuzzy around the edges but I don't think it was a bad attempt!

I had some Dylusions stamps as a present and I made this card.......I used some clear rock candy crackle paint on the wings and the hat.....and I used a rainbow pad to make the background with the hat. I coloured in the image with promarkers.

This was last years Christmas cake.....I saw them demonstrating how to make the trees on Create and Craft and so it inspired me.....I also cut out the candy canes with a cutter and added the little stripes of white icing

Blimey here's a few more Christmas cards.......I quite liked the glitter effect I got by sprinkling glitter onto double sided tape....and a little penguin coloured in with promarkers.....then above the reindeer was a free stamp with Craft Stamper magazine and then the other card I put some glitter and sequins and glued it on the back of some acetate....then put some shapes and a sentiment on the front.

I made these two little trees for my niece and nephew to decorate....

Here is a selection of last years Christmas cards.....a variety of stamping, distressing, brayering and colouring...

Here are two more cards......first a brayering attempt.....I got the sky a bit too blue but I hand drew the scarecrow and field of corn which I was quite pleased with. The second was for my sister's 40th and I cut the numbers out of glitter card on the cricut, put it on an embossed background also on glitter card and then behind that I made an alcohol ink background on glossy card

This was my favourite of last years Christmas cards that I made....it was a Lili of the Valley stamp coloured in with promarkers then die cut, and then with a bit of distressing round the edges and a few embelishments and some background paper.

I made these little pizza cookies from a recipe out of a book I have.....the "cheese" is grated marzipan; the "tomato sauce" is red coloured icing; the "olives" are cherries and I sprinkled on some green edible glitter for herbs in replacement of angelica which I couldn't get hold of at the time.

Here was last years Mother's day present. I painted the pot with acrylic paints and distress crackle paints; then I cut down some artificial flowers and arranged them in some oasis foam; then I glued on some artificial moss and some tiny mushrooms to finish it off

Here is a scrapbook page......I was pretty pleased with how this turned out.....I punched around the edge of the page courtesy of Martha Stewart.....and distressed around the edge of the photo to make it look more like a daydream

Here's a few more cards.....I think I must have had my big shot around this time....as there's quite a bit of die cutting and embossing going on. Also a few perfect pearls experiments too; not forgetting the pro-markers of course! I think the brightly coloured happy birthday was coloured with gel pens.

This was a card where I stamped into UTEE......I don't think the glitter I added around the edge liked being heated....but it turned out OK in the end; and there is a stamped sentiment on the bottom

Thought I would post some old stuff I have made....so I have got a record to look back on...

 This was a Valentines day card from a couple of years ago....a cross stitch......the design was out of a magazine....