September DT Project for Snazzys Part 2

Good Morning All,

Over on the Snazzy DT blog I'm showing the 2nd part of my project for this month.  Here's a couple of peeky pics and I hope you have time to go over and see the whole thing.

Once again I thoroughly enjoyed working with the fab products from Snazzys' which included Darkroom Door Stamps - Music Collection, Tando Creative Music Mas and chipboard Music Shapes and Tim Holtz Tissue Tape, amongst other things.

Thank you for your visit today.  I always appreciate you stopping by.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

September DT Project for Snazzys

Hi everyone,

Just a little post to say that my September project for Snazzys is being shown on the DT blog now (link in my sidebar).  I was sent some lovely products to pl .... er, work with, lol!  The stamps are the Music Collection from Darkroom Door and my DT pack also included a gorgeous Tando Creative music score mask, some Tando chipboard music shapes and some of Mr. Holtz' Tissue Tape. 

This is a teensy taster so if you'd like to see the rest of it please do pay us a visit over on the Snazzys DT blog and if you have time to leave a comment that would be great.  Of course the products I used are available from Snazzys.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Romance and Relaxation ???

Happy Weekend Everyone,

Sorry, I've got to be very English here and mention the weather because it's glorious this morning where I am.  Beautiful blue sky with whispy clouds and bright sunshine.  At the moment the temperature is just right but it doesn't bode well for my craftroom later, lol!  I may have to brave the heat though as I've been away for a few days looking after little Izzy before nursery reopens next week and I'm getting withdrawal symptoms!  On Thursday I took Izzy to Newby Hall in North Yorks and we had a really fun filled day.  I haven't been in the hall but the gardens are lovely and there's a really great adventure garden for kids (which is where we spent most of the day, lol).  Izzy isn't four until December but she is such a daredevil and she spent the day making me a nervous wreck watching her daring exploits.  My Daughter said I would have been okay to sit and watch her from one of the many seats but as her Mamma I felt I had to be 'right there' to catch her if she fell, Ha! Ha!  I don't know who was the most exhausted at the end of the day but we did have a good time and I would recommend Newby Hall as a lovely family day out with something for all ages.  Oh yes, there's a really good restaurant too where I tried their very nice Beetroot and Spicy Parsnip Soup ....... delicious!

Anyway, on to the crafting now.  Finally, I have something I can show you on my own blog.  Everything I've made for quite a while has been DT stuff that I can't blog on here, at least not yet.  However, my card today was made for my lovely friend Jo's birthday a few weeks ago and I couldn't show that until now because I used some lovely new Chocolate Baroque (formerly Elusive Images) stamps which have only been released this week.  There are two new A5 stamp sets called Music Fanfare and The Art of Chess and if you check out the DT blog (link in my sidebar) you will see lots of inspiration from the Design Team.  Please scroll down over the last few days as Glenda has been publishing our draft posts since the middle of the week and she kicked the launch off with a look at the two stamp sets, some inspiration from the Queen of Stamping herself and a hint that there might be a random give away.  I would guess that means the more comments you leave on the DT blog and the teams individual blogs the more chances you have!

The colours I used for Jo's card were rather delicate shades of Versamagic ink blended over a lovely Tando Creative music score mask (mask available from Snazzys).  All the stamped images are from the two new Chocolate Baroque sets and the flowers and leaves were left over from the decorated initial I did for the Snazzy DT launch which fitted in with my colours perfectly.  The little violin charm (from IndigoBlu) was originally an antiqued brass colour so I rubbed some silver Inca Gold into it.

I always forget to mention that most of my photos are clickable, once to zoom and again to get a real 'in your face' closeup, lol!  I always like to look at closeups on other people's creations to get a better idea of the texture and dimension.  It's the next best thing to actually touching them I think.

 Don't forget to hop over to the Chocolate Baroque DT blog as there are some beautiful creations to see.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and thanks for sparing time to visit.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx



PS   I thought it was time I gave a bit of explanation for my lack of posting in recent months and lack of commenting on my favourite blogs to some extent too (I do drop by them often though).  Unfortunately we have had a few family trials and tribulations which are likely to be ongoing for quite sometime and these are also the reason I haven't managed to do the blog post I intended on Jenna and Tony's Wedding.  Around the time of the wedding I had set in motion an assessment of my 83 year old Mum and what we suspected has been confirmed, she has Alzheimers and we are now waiting for an ECG next week to see if she is able to have the drugs which will hopefully slow down the effects of this awful disease.  It will be October before she sees the consultant to get the prescription though so that's another month for the deterioration to progress.  The other event which  as a Mum and doting Mamma is occupying much of my time and thoughts is that our lovely Son's marriage has ended.  I know it happens all the time and is not the end of the world, it happened to me over 40 years ago but thankfully, I had no children at that time and could quickly move on with my life.  Jamie has a little girl (as my regular visitors will know) who he adores and the effect this is having on both of them is the really upsetting (to put it mildly) part.  Anyway,  that's the situation put very simplistically and I'm trying hard to recover my normal rather leisurely rhythm, lol!  I'll be back a bit quicker next time I hope but in the meantime thanks for bearing with me.  Lots of love Lesley  Xx

Snazzys DT project #2 ............ and 2 of my special people.

Hi Everyone,

I hope you've all had a fab weekend with some time to do something nice.  We had our son Jamie and granddaughter Alexa for lunch yesterday which was definitely a happy few hours for us.  Also over the weekend I got to download some photos we took last Sunday when all our family had a day out at the zoo so I thought I'd share a couple with you.

This one is Jamie and Alexa

and this one is Izzy (Isabella) and her Daddy (our SIL Tony).  She just had to have a quick nap to restock the energy levels, lol!

Finally, I just wanted to remind you that it's my turn to post my first proper DT project over on the Snazzys DT Blog.  If you would like to have a look click on the picture of Snazzys in my sidebar.  Here's a little peek.

 

I hope your week is good to you.  I really appreciate your visit.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

Beautiful Grasses

Hi Everyone,

All I am going to say about the current weather is PHEW!!!!!! lol!

Today I have a card to share with you that I made using the lovely  Home Sweet Home set of stamps from Chocolate Baroque.  This particular stamp is my personal favourite from the set simply because I love grasses but all the stamps in the set are lovely.

Although it looks a relatively simple card it did take a bit of math to work out the positioning of the embossed lines separating each image (and math has never been my strong point, lol).  I used three different colours of ink, mostly Distress Inks, to blend around the edges of each of my squares and a co-ordinating shade of either Versafine or Archival ink to stamp the images.  I rounded the corners if each square and matted them onto co-ordinating coloured card leaving a narrow border round each one.


                                     
 Before attaching the brown square to my base card I tied some wired paper cord round it and then attached the word Hello on a little tab with 3D foam pads.

 I used a Cuttlebug die and embossing folder set to cut and emboss the butterfly from perlescent card and just attached it by the body to the wings could be shaped and left free.

 I was really pleased with this particular card, possibly because I got the embossed squares right first time, lol!

Don't forget you can still give yourselves extra chances to win this gorgeous set of stamps by leaving comments on as many DT members blogs and the Chocolate Baroque Design Team blog as possible.  Glenda will be drawing a random winner soon.

Have a lovely afternoon everyone.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

The Changing Seasons!

'Morning Everyone,

It's almost weekend and according to our local forecast it looks like being a pleasant one weather wise which is good for me because we are having a family weekend and hope to have a trip out somewhere on Sunday.

Over on the Chocolate Baroque blog you will find Glenda has just launched a lovely new set of stamps called Home Sweet Home.  These are really lovely (as are all the CB stamps, lol) and are very much in the quite distinctive style of Clarice Cliff.  There are some really useful stamps on this A5 set too and my favourite is one of grasses silhoutted against a sun/moon.  Glenda is doing a giveaway of one set of stamps and the winner will be taken at random from the commentors on the Chocolate Baroque DT blog, Glenda's own blog and any DT member's blog posts using this set of stamps which will be published over the next few days.  All the details are on the DT blog here. I've already done a post over there with an acetate card I made for the DT and now I'm going to share a different project on here.

In my cross stitching days, a friend of mine did a set of round cross stitched wall hangings all done in the Clarice Cliff style using blocks of bold colour and when I saw these stamps that's what sprang into my mind immediately.  I remembered I had bought a set of coasters which were meant to have cross stitched pieces of work inserted into them.  They had been stuck in the cupboard for at least 12 years, ahem! so I got them out and made inserts using the lovely house stamps.  I decided to create one for each of the seasons and drew in some extra hills in the rather childlike fashion that mimmicked my friend's cross stitched pieces.

Don't forget to visit the DT blog and all my teamies (the link is in my sidebar) and leave a little comment.  Wish I could invite you all for coffee to christen the coasters but I've passed them on to Glenda, lol!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

I HAVE EXCITING NEWS !!!!!!!

Good Morning Everyone,

Wow, do I have some fab news today.  I'm really excited and happy to give you some news I've been keeping under wraps (with great difficulty) for several weeks now.  I have been invited to join a brand new Design Team for Snazzy Stamping and Scrapbooking Ltd.!  I first discovered this lovely company and the fabulous stuff they sell two years ago at the Artisan show and saw them there again last year.  I 'spent' quite a long time watching and enjoying Val's demos and then did a different kind of spending using my plastic friend, lol!  Since then I have kept an eye on their website waiting and hoping for an online shop and it was on one of my 'web checks' that I saw the DT call.  I decided to apply and was completely taken by surprise and very thrilled when I was offered a place on the team.

Unfortunately Val and Don, the owners of Snazzy's are experiencing some technical difficulties with the online shop so have had to delay that launch for a short time but have decided to go ahead with the launch of the brand new Design Team Blog.  The blog is opening with an introductory post from each of the four DT members starting today with our illustrious and very talented DT Co-ordinator, Gillian, with my post tomorrow, Paula, whose work I have long known and admired, on Saturday and last but most definitely not least, Astrid on Sunday.  On Monday, Gillian will kickstart the posts of the projects we have been making and we do hope that you will pay us a visit, be inspired by our creations and leave us a comment.

I'll leave you with a little taster of something that will be revealed in my post tomorrow and hope to see you on the new blog.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx