Shades of warmer climes!

Hi Everyone,

I hope the week is treating you all kindly.   Today I have a tag to share which I made for this month's UK Stampers Forum swap on FB. 

I'd already created the background when I was trying to get my bottle of Goosebumps texture spray to work.  I'd managed to unclog the spring in the top but the nozzle still wouldn't 'spray' and instead spat out big blobs of the liquid so I tipped the tag to let the blobs run.  This created a resist over which I blended Distress Oxides.  I then did a little stencilling using Oxides again and finally some stamped images from Chocolate Baroque both top and bottom.

The gorgeous lizard is from a totally new set of stamps called Creepers and Crawlers from Illusionary Artists (France Papillon design and manufactured by Chocolate Baroque).  I stamped it onto some tissue using a couple of different Archival inkpads and tore round the image before applying it to the tag with Golden Matte Gel Medium.  Now, I have no idea where the tissue came from but am sure it was wrapping I saved from something and it turns out it was really strong and quite thick so when I stuck it on the tag it didn't blend into the background too well.  I ended up quite liking the effect as it reminded me of when you stand on wet sand and the water squeezes out around your feet so my little lizard is in his own little puddle on a hot sandy beach, lol!  The words are from another new set from France Papillon too.

See you again in a day or two.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

A Card for my Mum

Hello everyone and thanks for dropping by.

Just over a week ago it was my Mum's birthday and although creative card ideas have been a bit thin on the ground recently I knew I had to make one and not resort to buying .............. she'd never forgive me, lol!  Now, a week or so before Mum's birthday I went over to the opening of Indigo Blu's new shop and I have to say it I was very impressed.  If you're thinking of popping over, the shop is only going to be open 1 Saturday a month I think so check first.  Anyway, I was late getting there and after a good browse in the beautifully set out shop which has lots of artwork on display, I almost missed the demos.  I did manage to catch a few bits though and there was one card I glimpsed that stuck in my mind so I decided to make my version.  I think it was Indigo Blu DT member Linda whose table I saw the card on so I do hope I'm giving credit to the right person.  If I'm wrong and someone would like to let me know I'll change that detail.

This is a clean and simple card for me and I knew my Mum would love it especially the colours I chose.

NB If you click on the pics you can see an enlargement of the images.

I used a selection of Versamark chalk inks to stamp the images which are Indigo Blu's set called Stylised Flowers.

For one single flower I used black Versafine and when it was completely dry I placed a mask I had made by cutting a circle from a piece of card over it and blended Distress Inks over the flower.  I removed the mask and added tiny spots of Glamour Dust fine glitter.

I stamped the sentiment which is from a Chocolate Baroque set (love that font) along the bottom again using black Versafine.

Finally I added the ribbon and the diecut butterfly and then layered onto co-ordinating card and then again onto the basecard.

That's it from me today.  Thanks again to Linda for the inspiration and thank you for your visit today. Until next time ..........

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Normal Service Resumed ?!?

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all feeling fine and dandy .......... 'cos I'm not, lol!  No seriously,  I have been a bit under the weather since just before our big day last Saturday.  I caught some sort of virus from one of the little ones and have had a really nasty sore throat and chest.  My voice virtually disappeared, which our granddaughters thought was hilarious and they took great delight in getting me to sing to them with my squeak, Ha! Ha!  Lullabies have never sounded so truly awful.  Things are finally settling down a bit so I'm hoping the weekend to come will get rid of the bugs completely.

I thought I'd just pop in a quick post to say hello while I'm waiting to get the photos of Jenna's wedding.  They should have the cd very shortly and as they will own the copyright I will be able to share some of them with you.  Much better than our amateur snaps!  As my only makes other than wedding stuff have been for design team work I haven't anything to show you just yet so I'm going to show you the wedding invites I made plus some postcards.

This is actually a picture of the 'prototype' as the photo of the final article seems to have gone missing.  The only difference though was a natural shell button with a tiny bow made from thread in the centre of the rosette and there were four sets of colours, dusky pink, dusky mauve, pale blue and a pale greeny yellow.  The reason for the sweetpeas was because when Jenna was little, every week through the summer my late Mother-in-Law used to send her home with a lovely posy of sweetpeas from her garden for me so this was Jenna's way of including her in the wedding.

This was a 'poster' which Jenna asked me to make to put up in her office at work to save me doing about 20 separate invites.

and these were a few of the 80 odd 'postcards' I and my lovely Craft Stamping Quartet buddies made.  Thankyou girls!  Jenna borrowed a vintage suitcase from a friend for guests to deposit their cards, etc., in and we scattered the postcards around the case and asked people to choose one and write a message to the Newleyweds on the back instead of a guest book.  Everyone thought it was a lovely idea.

We had a wonderful day but I'm not going to say anymore until I have some proper pics to show you.

Hopefully I'll be back very soon either with the wedding photos or something I've made.

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend everyone.

Love and Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Gothic Arches Diptych.

Hi Everyone,

I hope today finds you all well and maybe feeling a little more cheerful now we have slightly more daylight each day.  I must say it does me a power of good not having to switch lights on before 5 pm because I hate the short days.  I'd certainly be no good for anything if I lived where they have 24 hour darkness in winter and the reverse in summer, Lol!

Anyway, today I want to share a piece I made last year using at least four sets of lovely Crafty Individuals stamps.  One set in particular struck a chord with me because they are of a place called Fountains Abbey which is just about my favourite place to spend the day.  If you go here and here you will find a couple of posts I did after visits there and lots of lovely photos of the place.  It's a good job I didn't blog all the ones I took because I have at least 200, Ha! Ha!  For my diptych I thought the Gothic Arch shape was very apt and I used lots of Distress Inks with masks, punches and dies and mixed some of my photographs with the stamped images.

This is the front cover.
                                                

and the inside pages

and finally the back cover

For the front and back covers I also used some background papers from an Artylicious pack with lots of overstamping.  These will probably be available in a different format from Glenda's new company, Chocolate Baroque, which will be opening it's virtual doors very soon (watch this space or the Chocolate Baroque blog).

In case you hadn't already noticed Crafty Individuals have just started a new blog and it's already full of fabulous inspiration for using their products.  I think nobody does 'small but beautiful' like the lovely Jean Hardy and have you seen April's issue of the Craft Stamper mag?  Mine dropped through the letterbox this morning and Jean has the most adorable little birdhouse on the front cover.  There are also lots of projects throughout the mag using CI products and (close to my own crafty heart) the free stamp is a beautiful butterfly design by Chocolate Baroque and there is a lovely two page spread showing projects using this stamp and others which I and my fellow DT teamies are working with at the moment.

Well, that's it from me tonight.  As always I love to read any comments you have time to leave and really appreciate them all.  Have a warm and cosy evening.

Love and hugs
Lesley  Xx

Much Awaited News!

Good Morning All, (it's just past midnight, lol!)

I'm sorry I've not been around much recently.  Many reasons for this but I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say at the moment I have one of those 'stop the world I want to get off for a rest' feelings, lol!  Helping our daughter plan her wedding and making the invites and table decorations, etc., is taking up a lot of my time but I wouldn't miss it for anything really.

Anyway,  the main reason for this particular post of to announce Glenda Waterworth's new company name.  It is ............... tada da da dada ........................... CHOCOLATE BAROQUE!!!!!  There is a little while to go before the website is up and running  (mainly due to technical delays) but it is only a matter of days now.  However,  if you click on the name or click on the gorgeous new button in my sidebar you will be gently transported to the new Design Team blog when I and my teamies have been posting examples of our work for this month.  They feature the first sets of stamps which will be released under the CHOCOLATE BAROQUE banner and they are really lovely not to mention very useful.  They are four set of mini stamps, some of which are completely new but others are miniatures of previously issued stamps and they work perfectly to create backgrounds for the main size images.  If you visit the new DT blog (that's if you haven't already) and scroll down through the new artwork until you get to Glenda's post, you will find out how you may be able to win a set of these lovely stamps.  Glenda has also very kindly added a freebie download to the blog and if we reach 200 followers she will add another one, so hop over and see what we have been up to.  There's also a tiny peek at a few more new sets that will be issued over the coming weeks.

Here's a little sneak peek of the card I posted on the DT blog last Friday when the new name was officially launched.

                                      

I hope to be back tomorrow with a couple of awards that I have been thrilled to receive over the past couple of weeks.  Till then ...........................................

Night, night and love to all.
Lesley  Xx