Lets Ink It Up DT call

I thought I would try out for the DT call here at Let's Ink It Up. They are looking for 2 or 3 new members to the team who want to be involved in an exciting challenge blog, who love rubber/clear stamping and who love to get inky. That sounds just what I would love to do more of and have been yearning for such a chance for quite a while now.

So to be eligible for consideration I need to show 3 of my favourite projects using rubber or clear stamps and ink. I have chosen - in no particular order -

1. Stamping and watercolouring;
stamping and embossing
and stamping and inking to edge patterned papers.





2. Stamping and inking metal and grungepaper.

3. Using ink and stamping to create a shape and background.








I hope I have given a flavour of some of the styles I can do. I know there are some wonderfully talented artists who have already submitted their entry, but if I don't try I will never know. What's the saying? 'You have to be in it to win it'.

So I am in and a big thanks to the girls at LIIU for the opportunity.

Wish me luck.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Childhood Memories

Last week I went to LB Crafts with my sister, we had never been there before and we decided to go and see what they had in stock. We picked up a few bits and pieces and I spied this stamp called Ives River, but what attracted to me it is that it is the bridge going over the River Ouse at St. Ives in Cambridgeshire. Now as a child I used to live there and at that time it was in Huntingdonshire (which now no longer exists). Of course I couldn't resist it because it brought back so many childhood memories (and apart from that it was a bargain, half the normal price). So it seemed quite spooky when the theme at Simon Says Stamp and Show this week is precisely that - CHILDHOOD MEMORIES. If you live in, near or know of St. Ives please leave me a message and tell me what your contact with it is. The nearest blogging friend to there I know is Dawn, who is at St. Neots, which is where I was born. Do you recognise this Dawn?

Other challenges that have given me inspiration are - Paper Sundaes - Distressing, Stampin' Sisters in Christ - Vintage, Papertake Weekly - the sketch and Gingersnap Creations - Coffee and Cream.

I made my own collage backing paper with vintage images that I have downloaded. I stamped the image onto 300 gms watercolour paper and used DIs to paint the scene. I clear embossed the tickets from the TH Admit One set of stamps and then inked over it. I splashed water over that and heat dried it. The flowers are made from the tattered flowers die - grunge paper, inked with acrylic dabbers and over-stamped with an Invoke honeycomb stamp. The buttons are from my collection bought at Sandown last weekend.

Other challenges to have fun with

Sweet Stampin - Brown + one

Ink on my fingers - Buttons

Tuesday Throwdown -  Distressing

Crafts and Me - Monochrome

Frosted Designs - Monochrome

Another post from me this week and the second today - I have lost count. But I have work to do next week, so it will all quieten down here. Thanks for stopping by and a huge thankyou to those of you who have popped in to see me nearly everyday.


I have a great steampunk ATC coming up at the begining of next week for the new ATC swap over at the Stamp Man.

Take care, happy Friday. Luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

The Stamp Man Challenge # 15 - Oriental

Hi there. It's Friday, it's the end of the week and it's the Stamp Man Challenge - woooo.

This week it is Sarah who is hosting and her theme is 'Oriental'. Now this is one type of card I have never tried before - so please be kind to me as this is a first for me.

I stamped my own background paper, stamped and embossed the flower vase and cut out. I also stamped and cut out the flowers to put in it and I added Promarker colour and Sakura glitter pen. I stitched the coin to the red ribbon with some gold thread then tied it to the sides.

Supplies I used are -

Habico clear stamps - Oriental

DIs - Barn Door, Worn Lipstick, Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage

Sakura glitter pens

Gold embossing powder

Oriental coin, fan and flowers

I think this has an oriental feel to it, and I did go and research the colours and designs to try out. I  have some oriental stamps, but they haven't been used before, so maybe now they will see more light of day.

Have fun with the theme and be thinking about our next challenge as well, which will be 'Hearts'.

Have a great Friday and an enjoyable weekend.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Scrap Creations - Black, white and red
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - Add hardware ( the coin and fan)
Daring Cardmakers - Oriental or Rabbit

Compendium of Curiosities week 29 - Weathered Wood Grunge

It's CoC week again and as soon as I saw the theme I immediately thought of trees and so that's what I stayed with. (The little birdie is sitting on a weathered wood grunge tree stump). I used the technique as described on P.50 in Tim's bible, but I have covered most of it up, it is there, I promise Linda. Do pop over to Studio L3 to see all the lovely entries and to see Linda's interpretation too, such inspiration, just fabulous.

So here is my tag. I used paper from the lost and found stack, the caged bird die, sizzix leaf die, tattered florals die and a philosophy tag. The flowers are made from 300gms watercolour paper, victorian velvet DI and aged mahogany re-inker sprayed with cosmic shimmers and glimmer mist. The pearls and ribbon are from my supplies.

I am having such fun this week, I haven't had any work so I think I have been able to post every day, but back to normal next week, never mind.

Enjoy the rest of the week and thanks for sharing this with me.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Crazy Amigo - Tags
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - Add hardware
The Pixie Cottage - Flowers
Simon Says Stamp - Animal antics (a bird is part of the animal kingdom isn't it? he looks as though he has got an eye on something!!!)

Tutorial for Raggedy Flower

June asked me how I made the raggedy flower that I used on my under the sea collage.

Very simply I cut 2 strips of muslin about 5cm wide and 32 cm long. I was going to add some brown stamens at this stage but actually I didn't like it too much.

I used Martha Stewart four cut scissors and made lots of cuts down the strips.

Take distress inks and swipe them on your craft sheet. Add perfect pearls (or similar) if you want the inks to have a slight shimmery effect.

Mist the inks until globules of colour form.

Colour one strip with distress inks and water and leave the other strip white. Put the wet one to dry - for speed use your heat gun.

Roll the two strips together tightly and tie them together.

Cut into the base to flatten it and pull out the raggedy edges.

It is now ready to use. You could mist with glimmer mists to add some more shimmer. 

I hope this makes sense and helps you make this shabby raggedy flower. If you have any questions, please email me, my addy is on my sidebar.

Have fun.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

MAWTT Challenge 83 - Springtime

Ok, ok everyone, just don't faint at my style this week. I have made a totally CLEAN card. Can you believe it???? Just not me normally, cos I like to get a bit messy with my distressing inks, but I can honestly say I didn't use one on this.

So today is MAWTT challenge day and this week the theme has been set by the lovely Heidi, but sadly she has decided to step down from the team to concentrate on work. We are gonna miss her but will be able to keep in touch through blogland. Good Luck Heidi, I hope everything goes really well for you.

The theme this week is SPRINGTIME and here is my contribution.

The image was downloaded, the papers from my box of bits, I used some pearls my husband bought me for Christmas and a Martha Stewart punch. But I did use the sewing machine for a change, haven't done that for ages.

Enjoy your Thursday whatever you are doing and thanks for popping in to have a look.

Luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -

Fairy Fun Fridays - Happy Birthday

Quirky Crafts - In the Spring garden (does this download count as a digi image? - not sure)

City Crafter - Add sewing

Dezinaworld - Beneath the Ocean

I have made this framed collage today to enter the spot prize at Dezinaworld. June has some amazing images that can be used both digitally and for hybrid work. Her collage sheets are very reasonably priced and she also has a retirement sale at the moment too. Do go pop along and see what she has got  - images are changing all the time.

I have taken the photo in the half light this afternoon and like the blue tones it has given me, quite watery I thought. This project has given me an opportunity to use both real shells and some resin shells that I have in my collection and although you can't see it very well I have used a Cuttlebug embossing folder with inks and foils again.

Here's a photo taken with the flash on, which gives it a different feel altogether, but you can see where I have painted some of the fish scales with perfect pearls and cosmic shimmers and I used round dome stickers over the fish's eyes. I have also accented the fish using the Inkssentials white pen.

You can see the distressed frame on this photo, which was painted with acrylics and rock candy crackle paint. I really like this very shabby flower.

Each Thursday there is a spot prize for those who enter. I have wanted to for ages, but the time hasn't allowed me to do so, but I have stepped down from the OSAAT DT this week so I will have a little more time to play with different media and messy things. I also experimented with making a water anemone with muslin and distress inks and again I am pleased with the outcome.

Hope your day has gone well.

Don't forget to leave me a comment on my Blogaversary Giveaway telling me what is your favourite piece I have done in the last few months.

Thanks for stopping by and have a good evening.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

One Year Blogaversary and Giveaway

On the 29th January my blog is ONE year old. I can't believe I have been doing this for that amount of time, and still just loving it. I have looked back at the things I was posting in those early days and oh boy how different my work is now. I have experimented (and I still am experimenting) with so many styles of papercrafts and altering and have learnt so much from all you bloggers out there. This is such a wonderful community for sharing ideas and techniques and for making friends. Long may it last.

So to celebrate I am posting a small giveaway. Just a few bits and pieces that you may like. (But not my basket hehe).

In the basket is -
Sizzix Halloween embossing folders
Papermania ATC clear stamps
Jolly Nation Women accessory stamps
Making Memories Wedding stamps
Personal Impressions Cute Characters stamp set 2

Outside the basket is -
2 boxes for altering
1 x pack gem brads
1 x pack pearl brads
1 x 12 white gem flowers
1 x 12 pink gem flowers
Crafty Bitz pink and red flat back gems
1 pack Pergamano create your own cards.
I may well add some extra bits over the next couple of weeks.

All I ask is that you are one of my friends/followers (and I hope that if you decide to become a follower you do so because of the work I do and not just for the giveaway), and that you leave me a comment telling me your favourite card or project of mine that I have done in the last few months. I am interested to see what style people feel I do the best.

I will do a draw (using that random thingumy) on Valentine's Day, which is Monday the 14th February, so you have till midnight on the day before to leave me a comment.

I must thank Sarah at Sarah Wright Designs for her blog candy which I won woo hoo, so I have a nice pressie coming in the post too. Thanks Sarah xxx.

Good Luck and thankyou all so much for being part of my creative journey and for all your support.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Shabby Birthday and Pay It Forward

Here is a birthday card I made yesterday which will be part of a set. Last week whilst shopping I found two tins of eye shadows left over from the Christmas gifts section. They were greatly reduced to 25p each because the shadows were completely ruined, so I snapped them up seeing the possibilities for altering the tins. This will be a fab project at some point and the set of cards will fit inside beautifully.

Resources used -
Stamp - Crafty Secrets Bird Notes
Pink and white paper - Blue Cardigan designs 'Shakespeare'.
Martha Stewart punch.
Happy Birthday rub on.
Other papers and button from my supplies. (The button came in a huge bag that Bev and I found at the craft show at Sandown and you wouldn't believe they were only 50p a bag and included some of these gorgrous silver, pewter and gold ones - woweee what a steal eh?)


Yesterday I found that 2 of my blogging buddies are taking part in a swap. This has come from both Zoe and Angela and for taking part they will send something to me and I will do the same for the first 5 people who make a comment here on my blog post.

So if you are interested in this then the first 5 people who leave me a comment and who say they are interested will get something handmade by me sometime in 2011. I don't know what that might be but who likes handmade surprises? However to be eligible, you must repost this status, offering something handmade to five other people. The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent to your 5 people sometime in 2011. I will check you have done this before I send my gift out.

Have a great week everyone and thanks for stopping by.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges that gave inspiration are -
Card Patters - Sketch
Stampin Sisters in Christ - Vintage
Sunday Stampers - Push the button
Stampin' Royalty - Anything with wings
Paperplay - Back to black
Fairy Fun Fridays - Happy Birthday
Simply Create - Use your punches
Craft Your Passion - 2 patterned papers
Pollycraft - Black, White + 1 other

'Love Blog' Award

I have been given and accepted this award from my blogging friend Dora at Especially for You Cards. Thankyou Dora I really appreciate this.

Here are the conditions for the 'Love Blog' award


You have been TAGGED and want to participate?

Create a post where you post the 'LOVE BLOG' image.

You should also blog the person's link that gave you the award and inform her/him that you accept the award.
You can then choose 3 - 5 favourite blogs which you also link in your post, then each blogger will inform you that they have been tagged.

I would love to give this award to all my followers, who without them I wouldn't be here, but since there are rules to follow I am going to pass this on to these people who I haven't shared awards with before but all deserve exposure because they create beautiful things.


Angela - Pages by the Sea

Pami - Pami's Crafty Creations

Sue - Little Imperfections

I hope they like the award, it is given with great respect for the work they do. The aim of this action is that we bring unknown, good blogs to light, so I would ask you not to blog fellow bloggers that already have 3,000 followers.




luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox