Oooh, Busy week ahead!

Hello Everyone,

Welcome on this rather nippy Monday morning.  This week is the half term break for schoolchildren and although neither of my granddaughters are yet of school age, by necessity they have to attend nursery while Mummies and Daddies go to work and their nurseries are also closed  As a result, from this evening I will have Alexa having a sleepover at Mamma's and staying until Wednesday evening and tomorrow she will be joined by Izzy who will be sleeping over until Friday evening.   I doubt very much I will get any crafting time to myself :(, I probably won't have the energy either ;) but if Izzy and Alexa have a play with their 'stash' I'll post some pics next week, lol!

I'm so thankful we could manage on my Hubby's salary when our kids were small so I didn't have to contend with the constant juggling mums and dads have to do these days.  I would have hated other people seeing/hearing  their milestone achievements during those first precious years while I missed out.  Unfortunately, most of today's young couples don't have a choice as two incomes are necessary just to keep their heads above water.

Anyway, before I crack on with all the jobs I have to do before they descend upon me (there'll be no housework done for the rest of the week either ........... I don't multi task anymore, lol) I just wanted to share a couple of cards I made recently.

Recently I have been taking an online 'Back to Basics' stamping class with Glenda Waterworth of Chocolate Baroque.  If you click on the Chocolate Baroque online community logo in my sidebar and then look down the right side of the page you will see a link to Glenda's online classes hosted by My Creative Classroom.  Glenda has another five week course starting on Wednesday this week called 'Terrific Techniques' and I'm looking forward to starting that one but it will probably have to wait till weekend when my little lodgers have both departed. 

                                                 

Although I already know the basics for most of the techniques I wanted to refresh my inkpad knowledge and use the spur of the classes to revisit techniques I've not used in ages.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself and still have things I didn't get chance to finish during the course but I have the lessons saved so I can work through them when my mojo deserts me for a while.  Anyway, the piece shown above was my very first attempt at creating a background by stippling.  I have always used Cut'n'Dry foam to create a similar effect and once in a while I've used brushes but in a sweeping motion not actually stippling with a pouncing action.  I was really chuffed with the effect I achieved and then continued by adding the stamped Clarity trees  and Chocolate Baroque wild flowers to complete the picture.  The poem excerpt is also a Chocolate Baroque stamp.

                                       

 

And finally, I turned it into a card I wanted to send to a blogging friend who needs some TLC at the moment.

My second card was actually made to add to some parcels I was sending out. Way back in January, I joined in the Pay if Forward group of crafters whereby you agreed to send a piece of your artwork/crafting to the first five commentors on that post.  You had until the end of 2011 to send them out and I finally got mine parcelled up to send and wanted to make a little card to include.  This was the result.

I blended Distress Inks on the bottom left corner, dabbing a little through some sequin waste and then created layers of one leaf stamp using the same colour DIs.  Apart from the darkest colour, I stamped off onto scrap once before stamping onto the card.  I stamped the sentiment using Onyx Black Versafine.  The leaf image comes from a Hero Arts clear set which I bought from Snazzys stand at the Happy Stampers show a couple of weeks ago and the sentiment is from a Paper Artsy set.

It will probably  be a couple of weeks before I have anything else to show you of my own so in the meantime, I wish you all a happy time and for those of you with small children, time to enjoy them this week.

See you soon and as always thank you for taking the time to visit.

Hugs

Lesley Xx

Still My Baby!

Hello Everyone,

About a week ago it was our lovely daughter's birthday.  I never did get round to doing the big blog post I had threatened you all with following her wedding in May (I sort of got overtaken by less happy family matters but enough of that) but here's a few photos of  what she described as her Perfect Day.

 With her new Hubby (note the broken foot!)

 With her Dad.  I love how happy she looks.

Little Isabella had to get in on the act here.

And now here's the card I made for her birthday.  The photos aren't brilliant as I was late finishing it and had to rush the pics before shooting off up the A1 to deliver it in person.  It would have been much cheaper to post, lol!

I used another of the gorgeous Prima masks which I bought from Chocolate Baroque recently and the sentiment is one of my favourites from CB too.  The lovely main image is from Indigo Blu and called Ella Bella.

I used Versamagic inkpads to blend over the mask to create the background and followed this with some overstamping of a pretty swirly image, again from Chocolate Baroque.  I forgot to make a note of which stamp set it is from but I'm sure it was from one of the recently released ones.  I then stamped Ella Bella using an Onyx Black Versafine inkpad.
 

Finally I spritzed with some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist before arranging the flowers and leaves cut with Crealies dies, again from Chocolate Baroque.

Jenna said she loved her card ............ but then she would say that, wouldn't she, lol!

I hope you've all had a good day today.  I'm looking forward to a couple of nice weather days to get my washing basket emptied.  Mind you, that will only add more to the ironing pile, lol!

As always, thank you for taking the time to visit.  I do appreciate it.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

EDIT  Just a little message to my Twitter friends.  Whilst downloading some photos from my mobile phone last week I installed some updates.  Biiig mistake as it's changed everything round on my  phone and I don't like it :( but the main problem is it's completely deleted Twitter and I can't find it anywhere.  I'm hoping my more technologically minded Son will be able to sort it for me this weekend but until then I'm not ignoring you and I'll be back soon I hope.  Xx

Snazzys October DT project - Kaisercraft

'Morning Everyone,

Just a very quick share this morning as it's my turn to post a project over on the Snazzys DT blog.  This month we had some lovely Kaisercraft products to play with including stamps, papers and an MDF piece to alter.  I will admit I was a bit fazed by the MDF piece at first but once I started wor ............ er, playing with it I soon started to enjoy myself, lol!  I'd be so pleased if you have time to pop over and have a look.  Perhaps you can say whether you think I was 'working' or 'playing'  ; ).

Here's a little sneaky peek.

I had a lovely time on Saturday at the Happy Stampers North West show at Port Sun light where Val and Don, owners of Snazzys were exhibiting for the first time.  It was great to be able to say hello to them.  I also got to share the long journey with my navigator and buddy Jo and we met up with a 3rd member of the Craft Stamping Quartet, Judith.  As always one of our merry band was missing, namely Elaine and it always makes us a bit sad.  Another extra bonus was seeing several members of the Chocolate Baroque Guild which is always a treat.  All in all, it's well worth the long drive there and back for such a great show specifically aimed at stampers.

I'll be back again in a few days with another make.  See you then and thanks for stopping by.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Christmas???? ................. we still have a little bit of summer here!

Goooood Mooorrrrnnnnniiing Moooonnnnnndddaayy!!!!

I'm sorry to rub it in to those of you who don't have lovely weather this morning, but we have a beautiful day here in Nottinghamshire although we did have a few spits of rain a little while ago and it's obviously not here to stay for long but while it lasts I'm making the most of it to get my holiday washing caught up with.  We have a lovely breeze which is drying perfectly.

Last week my Hubby and I had a much needed few days break in Mid Wales.  We stayed in a log cabin at a little place called Victoria Wells, Llanwrtyd Wells, Powys.  It's a sort of log cabin motel and the accommodation is basic but comfy for a short break and includes a full English breakfast and 3 course dinner.  The menu choices for dinner were excellent and the food was lovely.  The place itself is beautiful and perfectly situated to explore the Brecon Beacons which I have fallen in love with.  I think we will definitely be staying there again sometime.  When I've had time to download and edit my pics I'll post a few.

In the meantime here's a quick post of a project I made recently using some new Chocolate Baroque Christmas stamps.  I made a gift wallet the template for which I found on the Splitcoaststampers site.

The backing paper is one of Glenda's designs and I think might be from her downloadable ones which should be available on the site soon.  The stamped images and sentiments all come from the same new set of stamps called Christmas Cheer.  I love this set and think there's a really nice mix of images including one particular sentiment stamp which I especially love.

There is still new Christmas inspiration being posted daily by the Chocolate Baroque DT over on the blog (link in my sidebar) showcasing the new stamp sets.  My second post for this particular theme is tomorrow so I hope you get chance to pop over for a look.

Right, I had better get a wiggle on (as my crafty friend Judith says) as I have loads to catch up on.  Unfortunately, a lot of it is housework chores, yuck! 

As always thank you for taking time to visit.  I really do appreciate you dropping by.

Have a lovely day and I'll be back soon.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx