Katy Sue Christmas Stamps - and a winner.....

Here are some cards I made with some really lovely Christmas stamps just released by Katy Sue Designs. I used white embossing for this first one, distress inks for the background, and the stars were done with texture paste sprinkled with glitter

this silhouette Santa and tree (separate stamps, I used a mask) were stamped in black, then heat embossed. The tiny stars in the background were heat embossed with Rangers queens gold embossing powder....

I went a bit mad adding strings of liquid pearls and stickles to the tree.....

This last one is one of those cards that didn't photograph well, in real life it is very pretty, and this was the one that took the longest to make for some reason! I sponged a background with distress inks and then flicked water onto it to make it look like a starry sky. The star was stamped in silver embossing twice, once onto the card, then I lined it up so that the bottom of the star was also stamped onto the vellum sentiment panel which I stuck on in just a couple of places with glossy accents, then covered the glue with a couple of sequins.....

We are driving home today after a really lovely week in Ambleside - huge thanks to Anne, for inviting us to stay at her lovely cottage, great company and lots of laughs. Lots of you have said you love the Lakes, so if ever you are looking for a place to stay, you won't find a nicer and more comfortable cottage than Silver Howe - and you can bring your dog!

On to the winner of the Aquamarkers. Congratulations to

SandraH

Email me with your address Sandra and they will be in the mail on Monday

I'll be back at my desk on Monday, creating crafty chaos as I try to catch up after my week off - and I am doing my volunteer thing at the charity shop in the afternoon, so who knows what tales I will have to tell....see you then x

More Potting Shed Cards...

 Here's a couple more of the card samples I made for Craftwork Cards sell out Create and Craft TV shows, using the lovely Potting Shed collection...

For this one, I die cut an aperture and glued one of the toppers onto the back of the card behind it, then I suspended a sentiment banner across the aperture. The embossing was done with a Tim Holtz folder for Sissix then inked with Tea Dye distress ink.... 

and another simple card - I love this chicken wire paper!

are you tired of looking at beautiful Lake District views? Here's a couple I snapped today, and yes, the sun is still shining. These were taken as we made our way to Keswick, a lovely little market town, where we wandered around, sat in the sun to have coffee and lunch, and generally had a good time.... 

I am always fascinated and awed by the precision and skill that goes into the building of dry stone walls - no cement, no mortar, just stones carefully laid, and the walls stand for centuries! Eventually they become mossy and little plants take root in the cracks and tumble over the walls

I'll be back with the winner of the Aquamarkers tomorrow, see you then x

In (another) English Country Garden

No card today, but as promised some photos from the Lake District. Yesterday, we went to a most beautiful garden called Holehird, overlooking Lake Windermere - and were secretly smug that while wind and rain lashed the rest of the UK, we had glorious warm sunshine...

Autumn is just starting to show her face, some of the trees are just starting to turn ....

I love taking photos of flowers, I get such a lot of inspiration for crafting through the camera lens - the way certain colours blend perfectly in nature, sometimes in an unexpected way.....

So there we are, photo heavy, but I hope you don't mind tagging along on holiday with me this week....

See you tomorrow x

Art Impression Gals

 I do love these stamps by Art Impressions - I found this one in a drawer, totally separated from it's sentiments, but I found this one that I thought fitted the bill....

When I make cards like this, I keep the card itself pretty plain and let the stamp make the impact - gems, flowers etc, would just muddy the waters here I think.....

And as always, when I am colouring one of these stamps, my imagination runs a bit wild, and I end up giving them all personalities, they are quite real to me....

So, Edna (in pink) is the ringleader, she thinks she is the 'elegant' one of the group, everything always matches. You would never catch Edna wearing black shoes and carrying a navy bag. Never, it doesn't happen. She has cute little bracelets and earrings to match all her outfits, and when she found this nice little blue top, she took it to her hairdresser so that her blue rinse was just the right colour. Her grandson told her about selfies, so she is taking this one to show everyone next Thursday when she goes to old time dancing (wearing sparkly shoes with a matching sparkly top)

Mavis (in the purple top) on the other hand, hasn't a clue really about clothes. What she really cares about is having a good time. She is blowing a kiss to the camera, hoping that Wilf in the Old Time Dancing group will see it and think it's for him........ 

Madge (in the hoodie) is trying to look cool. She's joined a gym and is hoping that her very fit personal trainer will look at her with new eyes when she turns up in cool gear that she bought on sale in Abercrombie and Ffitch. The others know that this is not very likely, as the very fit personal trainer is only 27 and Madge is......well, a bit older than that

Doris at the back is a bit squiffy, she doesn't care about clothes, men or dancing, as long as she has her bottle of wine with her lunch and another one later on (for medicinal purposes), she is happy as a clam (when she isn't falling over) 

And before you all accuse me of ageism, I'm old, I can say what I like!

More Potting Shed.....

You can catch Julie with this new collection again today - if you are not in the UK, did you know that you can watch Create and Craft TV online, live? Go HERE and click on the link for 'watch us live'

So here's another card made for the show using the Potting Shed papers and embellishments, I thought I would give 'Dad' a potting shed of his own...

If I don't seem as chatty as usual this week it's because I have scheduled these posts in advance, and I am having such a good time, I haven't got around to adding any updates. But I'm watching you all, to check you are behaving yourselves while I'm away - see you tomorrow x

In the Potting Shed......

I've been given permission to share with you some sneaky peeks of the lovely new Potting Shed collection from Craftwork Cards, on Create and Craft TV this weekend.

Shh, don't tell them but I am going to show you a couple of the cards I made, Julie will be too busy being on TV to notice. So my sneaky peeks are more like a sneaky disclosure....scroll down......

So as well as gorgeous papers and card toppers, they have bought out these fun wellington boot cards - now for some reason I am a sucker for wellies - I am always buying cute ones for the grandchildren. There is something so adorable about tiny feet in boots!

So the first cards I made were all with a welly theme, I cut this umbrella on my Scan N Cut, I thought it made a cute get well card.....

This one has one of the sentiments, tied on with a bit of garden twine, and the tools were cut from one of the papers and given a coat of glossy accents....

This next one is my favourite, but may need a bit of explaining to those of you not in the Uk. 'Give it some welly' is a phrase of encouragement, it means 'put your heart and soul into it' or 'do your very best'. Where this came from, I have no idea, but it seemed the perfect sentiment for this card......

I'll share a couple more of my Potting Shed makes tomorrow - sneaking them in through the back door while Julie is busy charming all the presenters on Create and Craft

Right, our bags are packed, off to the Lakes we go, but I'll be posting as usual from there, hopefully with some holiday snaps to bore enchant you...

Pearly flowers and a giveaway

It's my turn to post on the Letraset blog today, click to see how I got the pearly sheen on these watercoloured flowers, and see my other card for today

Now I have a treat for one of you. An artists set of watercolour markers - you get Raspberry, Mahogany, Sunburst Yellow, Fern Green, Peacock Blue and Cranberry, plus a black fineliner pen, a tips and technique sheet, and six large sheets of watercolour paper PLUS a set of six neon watercolour markers - you get Spark Red, Electric Pink, Radiant Orange, Luminous Yellow, Glowing Green and Volt Blue, so between the two sets you will have all you need to do some great watercolouring

**Note that I have taken the Artists set out of the original packaging, which adds to the postage costs, and as I pay for the postage myself, it's a little economy that I hope you'll understand, they are, of course, brand new and unused**

All you have to do is leave your name below this post, and pop over to the Letraset blog to leave a comment. Good luck, I will, as always, post worldwide and draw a winner next Thursday 

Talking of winners, look at this lovely thank you card I received yesterday from Cheryl, who won one of the blending sets recently. She is a faithful blog friend to me, and I so appreciated this card. Thank you Cheryl x 

I'm busy packing our bags - we are off to the Lake district on Saturday for a week's break, so looking forward to it, but I'll be making a few posts over the week. See you  tomorrow x

In an English Country Garden....

No card from me today so if you came over for inspiration, click away now.... but a picture heavy post as I am sharing photos of our trip to Le Manoir in Oxfordshire, I thought that those of you overseas would enjoy the ride!

Owned by Raymond Blanc, this Michelin starred hotel and restaurant is perfection. An ancient old manor house at the top of a long drive......

passing little scenes like this, just look at the apples trained to grow around the arch........

and a sculpture of a ball boy, holding the mallets on the croquet lawn.....

Inside was just as elegant, we sat in this room for drinks before lunch

I loved this flower arrangement, so elegant, just lilies wound around the base of a big round bowl....

I could sit at this window seat for ever, just daydreaming and looking at the view....

They bought us a few nibbles to eat with our drinks...

and the food was, well sublime.........

(I forgot to take a photo of the fish course which arrived after the Gazpacho, you'll just have to imagine smoked salmon on a bed of horseradish mousse...)

and here's the lady of the manor waiting for coffee (not really, it's me...)

and just in case seven courses had left us a bit peckish, out came some sweet nibbles with the coffee....

Then we wandered around the grounds....

 There were sculptures everywhere, in quite unexpected places, like these sweet children playing in a little woodland clearing......

and this elegant bronze scarecrow standing guard in the extensive vegetable garden...

and here's that lady of the manor again, mimicking the pose of the lady of the manor!

I hope you've enjoyed your little tour. We certainly enjoyed our day, one to remember

I'll be back in crafty mode tomorrow with my Letraset post, and you know what that means...see you then x