Christmas Wreath

Hello!  I'm back with another Christmas card, this time a CASE of a CASE.  It all started when I saw Michele's CASE of Bonnie's cards.  I didn't have the stamp set but sometimes you've just got to check on eBay, and guess what I found?

I'm entering it into Colour Hues - Scarlet and Green.  (I did have another card lined up for this challenge so I might be back soon with another entry.)

and Darnell's NBUS challenge.

The extra leaf sprig is from Uniko, the bow from Tim Holtz and the berries from a Posca paint pen.  The green ink is Altenew.

NBUS - Missees

 

Hello!  I'm rather taken by these gorgeous creatures called Missees by Karin Joan from Studio Light after seeing Carol Just Me C creating fabulous cards with them.  The bad news is that they're not readily available from Europe now that we've Brexited - international postal charges are a complete muck-up at the moment.

Anyway, I'll just work with what I have!  I managed to get my hands on the Primarina set, and this is my first attempt at using it. (I need the other sets!)

I'm entering this into NBUS challenge #29 (of course!)

and Inkspirational Designer's Choice - Spots/Dots

 

and Time Out Challenges - Inspired By Words.  I've gone for friend.

and Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Seize The Birthday - Texture

 

Hellooo!  We've got a new challenge for you at Seize The Birthday - my choice of Texture.  

"the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface or a substance"

You can add texture in a number of ways, using pastes, dry embossing, fabric etc. or you can give the appearance of texture using stamps or stencils.

I found this panel in my stash that had gold texture paste through a stencil, so I sponged colour onto the rest of the panel then water-stamped the word 'birthday' - you can just about make out what is literally a watermark.

The girl is from a set by new-to-me company L'Encre et L'Image and the sentiment and banner diecut are from Taylored Expressions.  So I'm entering this into Darnell's NBUS #19 challenge.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog to see how the rest of the design team and our surprise party guest Angie have interpreted Texture, and play along with us.  You can just play along with our Anything Goes theme if you prefer.

Jane and Tim

Helloooo!  Long time no blog... I haven't been blogging much this month, but I'll be stepping it up from next week because the STAMPlorations Inspiration challenges are back, so they'll get me back in the groove.  I've been making plenty, but not making time to blog.

I'm playing along with Darnell's NBUS #12.  Twelve, for goodness' sake.  How did that happen?  Anyway, my NBUS is some Jane Davenport face stamps and stencils.  I've been making traveller's notebooks (you can see a couple here), and those notebooks needed inserts.  So I made some inserts from cartridge paper and wanted to test out the paper.  I stamped a face on each page so that I could practice.  I ended up finishing all the pages in one go (so much for practising, I was having too much fun!), and you'll be seeing the rest of them over the next few posts.

Here's the full page for this girl.  Because it's mainly watercoloured (with Distress Inks) the page is curling, hence the photo-prop pebbles.

So the face is a stamp, the flowers are a stencil, the hair is black pen and white Posca paint pen, and her top is stencilled with my exclusive Tim Holtz stencil.

I'm also playing along at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, Anything Goes.

Look who I was with on Sunday!

I was one of the lucky ones who managed to book onto Tim's Creative Chemistry Live UK Edition!!  It was a fantastic workshop, and Tim and Mario were an impressive team - the attention to detail was second to none.  Tim's delivery was faultless and fun.  The. Best. Workshop. Ever.  And that's why I've got some exclusive Tim Holtz stencils, made just for the CC Live UK workshops :)

Plenty of time for selfies after the workshop.  That's my friend Mel.  Not sure who's photobombing ;)

His suggestion, not mine!  But I had to oblige ;)

STAMPlorations Inspiration #117

It's Inspiration Tuesday at STAMPlorations, and I've got a little sneak peek of what's coming in an hour from now - my newest stamp set, Fowl Play!  I've paired my chickie with balloons from Becca's A Snarky Birthday To You.

I'm adding this to Darnell's NBUS #10.  Not only are the stamps NBUS, but the grass is too - it's a Sharpie Paint Pen which I've had for ages and never used.  No optional bubblewrap for me today, but I'm sure I'll be back to play again with bubblewrap.

And to Less Is More (I haven't played there in ages!) where the theme is one or more balloons.

While we're on the subject of balloons and bubblewrap, there's some popping to do.  Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog for more fabulous inspiration from the design team, and leave a comment for a chance to win gift certificate.  Then pop back in an hour for more of my Fowl Play stamps.

Speaking of which, if you are thinking of buying any stamps, stencils or dies from STAMPlorations, you can get 20% off, even on sale prices, if you use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY at the checkout.

Oh, Dear, What Can The Matter Be?

...
This old lady was locked in the lavatory
I was there for two hours actually
Nobody knew I was there.

But before I tell you about that, a card.  I'm playing along with Darnell's 5th blogaversary NBUS party, where the prompt is twofold: use some NBUS, and coloured pencils on kraft.

My NBUS stamps are The Bee's Knees Winter Mug and Shery's Coffee For All Seasons.  These were released in November, but because I was away I didn't get to play with them until now.

*****

So.  Back to the bog.  DH was going out to do a bit of shopping and take the dog for a walk.  I'd gone into the bathroom, and as I turned the door handle to come out, the spring broke, and the handle was turning nothing.  I climbed on the bath to shout out of the window only to hear the car driving off.  B*gger!  So I emptied the bathroom cupboard looking for anything that I could improvise with, but surprisingly there were no screwdrivers, lock picks or hammers in there.  DH could be gone for a couple of hours, so I cleaned out the now empty cupboard and sorted the contents.  Did some exercises.  Cleaned a bit more.  More exercises.  Only half an hour had passed....  Fortunately for me, Florence isn't too good on her pins right now, so DH was back fairly soon.

Me (shouting through door):  Can you come up here?
DH: What, now?
Me: NOW!!!
...
Me:  Can you open the door please?
DH:  It won't open ...

B*gger again!  I'd just thought it would open from the other side.  Cue tool box, shoving screwdrivers under door, sliding credit cards down door frame, resorting to big hammer.  During all this:

DH:  Well, I had my mobile on me, you should have rung.

Bless.

Currently there is no handle on the door, but there is a screwdriver in the cupboard.

I wouldn't care, but this is the second time it's happened to me.  A few years ago we were in Thailand, we'd checked out of the hotel earlier, but used the shower facilities before our journey to the airport.  DH went first while I sat with the hand luggage, then I went.  There was a changing room and separate shower room, so I got undressed, showered, went back to the changing room, and it had locked me out.  There was an English lady drying her husband's underpants under the hand dryer (I kid you not) and she offered to get the receptionist to sort it out, but there was obviously a language problem (or she'd run off laughing, not sure which) and nobody came.  So out I go into the hotel lobby, draped in two towels, trying to attract DH's attention.  I certainly attracted attention, but it took a while to get DH to look at me ;)  Eventually one of the hotel porters was sent around the back with a ladder to climb through the changing room window and unlock it from the inside.  Meanwhile, another porter had loaded our bags onto the wrong minibus, and our suitcases were already on their way to the airport... fortunately I had my change of clothes in the hand luggage.  Then, when I got to the airport, I went to the loo and realised I had my knickers on inside out.  But there was no way I was jinxing things and changing them!!!

Too much information??

NBUS And A Song Or Two. Or Three.

Just popping in with a quick post so that I can join in with Darnell's NBUS Challenge #7.  I got this gorgeous set from Uniko Studio in May, and there it was, still sitting unopened.  NBUS to the rescue!

I went with a graphic offset design, channelling my inner maria f with overlapping solid and outline images.

I'm also playing along at Uniko Studio's Challenge #35 - Inspired By A Song Title.  I've got three titles for you. You just want to tuck hibiscus flowers in your hair, so how about:

San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair) - Scott Mckenzie.  Or
I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair) - Sandi Thom.
But these flowers are so summery it also put me in mind of In The Summertime - Mungo Jerry.  Which one will you be singing?

NBUS Birthday Ballerina

I'm playing along at Loll and Bonnie's new challenge, CAS Mix Up (Mixed Media cards, but keeping them clean and simple).  This first challenge is all about stamping and watercolouring, then adding mediums/techniques of your choice from the list.

Well, the stamping and watercolouring is self-evident.  The background is a 5x3 Gelli Plate panel using pink and purple acrylic inks with lace, and bubblewrap stamping with white acrylic ink.  I also doodled a border around the panel with purple gel pen before fussy cutting it, stamping the sentiment and adhering it to the card base.  Oh, and there's a touch of Stickles on the little ballerina's tiara.

I'm also playing along at Darnell's NBUS Challenge with the ballerina stamp (Crafter's Companion).  I've got some other new NBUS stamps, but I can't remember where I put them....

ETA:  Just realised it's eligible for Simon Says Monday challenge - Make Your Own Background.

STAMPlorations Inspiration and NBUS5

Time for some STAMPlorations inspiration for you.  I've used the frilly dress and tailor's dummy from The Bee's Knees PartyDresses, and the sentiment from Party Time.  And lots of splishy splashes and splatters, love 'em!

I'm also playing along at Darnell's NBUS challenge #5.  Perched on the very top of Mt NBUS is this lovely border edge die, which I coveted recently and which promptly jumped into one of my many shopping baskets.  I'm hoping to have a look around Base Camp at Mt NBUS soon, see what I can find.  I'm sure it will all come back into fashion one day...

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog for more inspiration from the Design Team, and to see how you can win prizes by playing along.  (STAMPlorations are also one of the sponsors for Darnell's fabulous NBUS challenge.)

Birthday Bicycle

I'm playing along with Darnell's NBUS challenge again before it closes tomorrow, this time inspired by Darnell's card to her Mister - doing a reverse-DJKASE.  I hadn't used this embossing folder for ages, then seeing Darnell's card prompted me to get a Distress Ink print off it.  My NBUS is the bicycle stamp.

Darnell's card

 

Darnell's poor Mister is reduced to wearing raggedy shorts held up with a bathrobe belt while Darnell spends all the housekeeping on more NBUS (isn't that what it's for?).  She's hoping some kindly widow lady might offer to take care of him.  Not me, I already got one, and one's definitely enough!

(We could always have a whip round for some new shorts for him, though.)

I'm also playing at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, Anything Goes.

Blue Flower Canvas

I have several box canvases in my attic that I bought at bargain prices years ago, hoping that I would actually use them one day.  Well, this week I took the plunge and slapped some paint on one, after being inspired by this post by Ellen Vargo at Paper Artsy.

Ellen's canvas

Ellen had stamped into the layers of paste on her canvas - I just attacked mine with some gesso and a credit card, then some antique cream, white and smoky blue paint, mixing them directly on the canvas.  I sponged Distress Inks (Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire, Salty Ocean) onto a spare piece of card, then stamped the leaf/petal stamps from E Lin Brown 07 several times, cut them out and mounted them onto the canvas with red liner tape.  I drew the stems with a navy Sharpie pen.  For reference, my canvas is about 15 x 11 inches (381 x 304cm).  Here are a few close-ups of the detail and texture.

I've been dying to play along with Darnell's NBUS challenge, but everything I've made lately has been with used schtuff rather than NBUS.  But that has now been rectified thanks to the languishing canvas.  It now hangs in my craft room, as it matches the colour scheme - by coincidence rather than design!

Two New Stamps

I've been playing with new stamps.  Or to be more precise, I've been playing with my Teresa Collins Stampmaker and I've been making new stamps.  I bought the machine last November - it was going to be a birthday present but I changed my mind before my birthday, thinking I probably wouldn't use it.  But then it was on offer and I managed to get 35% off, so I decided I needed it after all.  And there it's been, Darnell - languishing in the NBUS department.

Before I get to the detail, (and before I forget!) I'm entering this into Darnell's NBUS challenge which is a friendship theme (there's no sentiment on mine, but flowers are a token of friendship) and Time Out Summer Flowers.

 

So. Two things prompted me to have a go with the machine:  

This fabulous creation by Ruth which was the winning entry in the Craft Stamper Take It Make It potato stamping challenge.  Ruth used gingko cookie cutters, I've drawn some flower shapes and made stamps from the images.

Ruth's card - isn't it fabulous?

The other thing that prompted me was that I wanted a walking boots stamp for male cards and I couldn't find one.  Not one to take the easy route, I decided that I would create my own stamp from a photograph.  Got walking boots, got a camera, got a stampmaking machine.  Easy, right?  Almost. I couldn't fade out the background completely so in the end I printed it out then traced over the photo to get my image.  The quality of the stamp isn't brilliant because I printed the negative on the wrong setting, but I actually like the roughness of it, reminds me of a charcoal drawing.  The photo on the left is what I traced, and the image on the right is the stamped image rather than the traced image.

 So here are a couple of cards I made with the stamp:

I'm entering this first one into One Layer Simplicity Challenge where the theme is I've Been Framed and Keep It Simple, where it's Splatters.

And I'm entering this second card into Simply Less Is More where it's a One Layer Off The Edge challenge, and Just Add Ink where you've to use three out of the five colours.

The HB2U stamp is part of the new release from STAMPlorations.  Look out for our birthday blog hop coming soon!

Sorry it was a mega post but two of the challenges are closing today and it was easier to combine into one "new stamp" post.  Thanks for sticking with it to the end ;)