We're all going on a ....................................

........................................... Crafting Holiday!!!!!

Hello and Happy Bank Holiday everyone. It's been a very miserable start to it here in my neck of the woods with rain almost all day yesterday but today has been pleasant if a little windy. Tomorrow should be a bit warmer though so we'll see.

Well, as I said in the title, I'm going away for a few days next week and here's the best bit, I'm going with my three Craft Stamping Quartet buddies. A few months ago we decided to arrange our own little mini crafting retreat. Elaine found us a couple of very reasonably priced cottages on a farm in Bedford for four nights. It's just about central for us all to get to and we've worked out an itinerary to include a couple of fairly big projects and a few smaller ones where we will share tips and techniques with each other. We're also going to spend one day at a workshop with Linda Elbourne at LBCrafts. Ooooh, I can't wait for that one as I'm a big fan of Linda's work. How much of our projects we manage to get done remains to be seen as we could well spend a lot of time chatting and laughing as the four of us rarely manage to all be together at the same time.

The only problem with organising our retreat has been trying to decide what and how much of my craft stash to take. I seem to be taking everything but the kitchen sink but I'm convinced that the one stamp or inkpad that I decide to leave behind is bound to end up being the one I really, really need, Lol!

Anyway, before I tootle off down the M1 I thought I ought to show you something I made recently just so you don't think I've dropped off the face of the earth, Lol!


This simple card was made using a Nestie label die to cut out the base card, making sure that the top edge just overlapped the fold. I used a stamp from the Elusive Images Glorious Spring plate and inked the image up using Marvy markers so that I could colour each bit of the image individually. I deliberately kept the ink patchy on the hare and coloured the flowers infront of him after stamping the image as they are in the negative on the stamp. I then blended a little Distress Ink round the edges of the card and stamped the little quote which is from the same themeplate.



There are some lovely springtime stamps on this plate including pussy willow branches and primroses and it makes a change to have a hares instead of a rabbits too.

This next card was made using another Elusive Images set of stamps called Patchwork Butterfly. One of the stamps is a huge beautiful butterfly image plus a couple of smaller ones but for this card I decided to use this lovely flowery image.


I stamped the image onto glossy cardstock and then watercoloured the flowers, etc. I mounted this onto some Bazzil cardstock which I had run through a Cuttlebug embossing folder and gently wiped over with ink on Cut'n'Dry. I dry embossed some lines on my Scor Pal and stamped some flourishes down the side from the same stamp plate.


The sentiment is yet another EI stamp and I love that loopy font.

Well, as I said, I'm off on a jaunt on Tuesday but something happened today that nearly put paid to my trip. I tripped over my backdoor step and crashed onto my knees and into our patio table, hitting my right eye on the edge of the table. I've ended up with a lovely shiner, cut eyebrow and very bruised knee to go away with!!! It could have been very much worse though. At the very least I cannot understand how my glasses are still in one piece but I'm so glad they are as I would have been struggling all week with my old ones.

Anyway, have a really good week everyone and I hope I manage to finish one of our projects next week to show you when I get back. As always, I thank you for your visits and especially appreciate the time you take to leave a comment.

Hugs
Lesley Xx