Alice Day Challenge

This year Sid of UK Stampers on Facebook is kindly hosting the Alice Day Challenge. The wonderful goodies above are for one random winner. Including one pad of 6x6 fabulous papers by Craft Box and one Snip Art Card frame. Looking forward to seeing all of the lovely Alice makes. Alice has lots of different themes, tea parties, roses, toadstools, cards, hearts, hares  rabbits and lots more... 

Alice Day  is on 6th July this year, and the random winner will be announced then xx

Thank you to We Love To Create and A Vintage Journey for selecting my Alice In Wonderland book as one of their top 3 choices. Xx

Thank you for stopping by xxx

Flower Meadow

Hello, how are you? Thank you for stopping by xx Today I can share my card, which was in last months Craft Stamper. The new edition is out this month with lots of wonderful articles in!

A meadow full of wildflowers is one of my most favourite sights to behold! I created the background for my 7in/7.78cm square  blank  card by using Aquamarkers. I scribbled them onto a splodge mat, following with a spritz of water.I laid the front of the card  into the colours, and lifted it up to reveal the pattern. If I wasn’t  happy with the result, I would have let it dry and repeated. 

I used the ink pad to stamp out my chosen stamps, which I watercolured before fussy cutting. I shuffled  them around my card without adhering, until I was happy with the result. I could then see where the most suitable place would be to stamp the sentiment.

I used foam pads to adhere the girl and flowers to the background. I created the meadow grass by cutting a piece of card 7in/17.78 cm x 2in/5.08cm and then cutting a fringe along the length. To give the grass a more realistic look I snipped diagonally into the grass blades, and curled some of them a little. I adhered it to the bottom of the card, and placed another flower in between the grass blades.

I was surprised and delighted a few days ago to discover  that a card I made for a family friends 91st birthday had won a prize in Papercraft Inspirations! I am happy to say she loved her card, and I will send her the page from the magazine, she will be thrilled!

Thank you so much for visiting, take care xx

Alice In Wonderland Book

Hello, and thank you for stopping by. Today I am happy to be escaping to Wonderland. 

“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.”

 Lewis Carroll

I used a papier-mâché  book from Hobbycraft, on reflection I wish I had purchased a better quality one as this one had lumps and bumps, and was not very sturdy. I covered it with beautiful Alice rice papers and paint. I also added a white rabbit as he wanted to be followed into the book. 

I had never used moulds before, but when Stamperia released their new Alice range and it included moulds I of course had to get them! I used clay many years ago, but it was clay which had to be baked in the oven, and I made things freehand. So air drying clay and moulds were all new to me.After many attempts I decided to use one of the white rabbits which did not turn out too badly, some of them were dreadful, and looked a bit frightening ! I used acrylics to paint him. 

To cover the inside of the bookI used  pages from a vintage Alice book and stamped over them with playing card suits and other whatnots from my large collection of Alice Stamps.

I fussy cut the beautiful scenes  from the Stamperia papers and folded them and assembled it into the book so they would pop out when opened. I worked it all out on copy paper first :  )

I had fun adding lots of embellishments, hanging some down from the top of the book etc.

Thank you for popping into Wonderland today, and I hope you enjoyed your visit xx

I would like to enter my Alice book into the following challenges.

Craft Stamper Anything Goes

Vintage Journey Book It 

Love To Create Anything Goes Mixed Media

Wish Upon A Star

Hello how is your winter going ! Well it feels like winter here! Let’s hope the warmer spring weather arrives soon.

I was  thinking of warm summer evenings when I created this small canvas. I used a lovely new stamp set from Hero Arts called “Wish I Might” . I actually like the way this canvas came out, which is a very rare event, as I don’t like a lot of the things I make. 

I used Brushos to create my starry sky and the grassy ground. After stamping the doggie with black versafine , I fussy cut him , of course being very careful not to nick him! A trimmed piece of little bark made a nice seat for his swing, and I  tied it up to the tree branch with thin string. I finished by embossing stars,  and the sentiment to the sky and adding  pressed flowers to the garden. I have a lot of pressed flowers, the Forget-Me- Nots are finally coming up in the garden so I will be  collecting and pressing them soon. 

I also crumbled up some dried petals and adhered them to the bottom of my canvas  along with a few little stars to add some extra magic

I hope you like this little magical canvas, and let’s hope that the  sun and magic will arrive with us all soon. 

Thank you so very much for paying me a visit. Take care xx

I would like to add my Wish Upon A Star canvas to the following challenges.

Craft Stamper Anything Goes

Artistic Stamper Textures

Stamping Sensations In An English Country Garden

Happy May

Happy May! 

I have always loved using items from nature in my craft projects I have a large bag of twigs, berries, dried flowers etc. Hopefully the weather will be getting better now it is is May, and I can wheel through  forest and replenish my supplies.  (Fallen twigs only) 

The garden Forget Me Nots seem to be taking a long time to come up this year, they always press up so nicely. I thought I would share just a few of my nature projects from the last Six  years or more. 

I have just started making a new nature piece and hope to share it next week - if it works out ok. Thank you so much for stopping by, I appreciate it. Take care xx

Foil Quill

Hello how are you today? 

Exciting news yesterday my Foil Quill finally arrived. I purchased it in January from a UK store.Sadly the manufacturer supplied one of the tv craft channels with all of their stock so there was none left for the small retailers who had taken preorders! I always support small UK stores so I waited.

The Foil Quill adds foiling to your projects without any of the usual mess involved in foiling! It comes with  four adopters to use with the Silhouette, Brother, Cricut, or Sizzix die cutting machines. I purchased just one of the stylus tip pens in the standard size, but there is one finer, and one thicker available  too.  I also purchased some 6 x 4 foil sheets. I soon learned that this made it a little difficult to calculate the size of my image or word to make sure it fitted on the sheet! I will be buying some foil rolls  : ) 

Installing the stylus was easy enough but it has a very short lead, and I had to use a plug extension to put it in. I am going to look into getting a usb power bank as it would also be good to have for my phone too. 

I used washi tape to hold down the foil, unfortunately on one occasion I had a accidentally used 2 sheets together as they are very thin and tend to stick together. I loved the results, and made a few different images. It was really quite quick to complete. It was only a short first play, but I am sure that I will be experimenting with it some more, and using other colour combinations.

I was very happy with the results, and it was easy to install and use. I just need to be more exact with my measuring ! 

Thank you for stopping by xxx

Quiet Blogland and Jazz centre cards

A small selection of my music themed cards are on sell at The Jazz Centre UK. It is based in Southend, and it’s mission is to promote, preserve, and celebrate the culture of Jazz in all of its forms. It is enthusiastically run by Digby Fairweather, trustees, and volunteers.  

Thank you for visiting today. Blog land is very quiet recently. I know several companies have closed their blogs as they no longer generate enough money. Social media has very much taken over. The google + removal has caused me some problems and lost followers, so I will see how it goes. I have been blogging for many years now. It would be a shame to stop altogether, my health isn’t so good, so I often go long periods without posting. 

I will have to wait and see.....

Best wishes xx