Giddy up we're homeward bound

Just a quick hello from me this morning to say I have not been MIA but we got back from holiday last night, having had a fantastic 2 weeks in Lanzarote. The title is from the song the girls were singing yesterday whilst waiting at the airport - very apt wouldn't you say?

A huge thanks to everyone who has stayed in touch with my scheduled posts while I have been away and I will be over to see you a soon as I have got some washing sorted out - yes the mundane things have got to be done haven't they?

I thought I would post a few photos of us. The girls love the pool and had a great time swimming every day. We took them to the beach and of course had some lovely meals out in the evenings.

I am looking forward to seeing what I have missed whilst I have been away and catching up with you all.

Luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Bird's Nest - hybrid card

There are times when I really get stuck for men's cards - like many people they are not my first choice card to make. But this one was fairly quick and easy.

Look on sites like Dezinaworld, Graphics Fairy and Bumble Buttons for free downloads. Print them as they are or use PSE and layer some of the images together. Add a sentiment, maybe some stickles and distress inks; some simple embellishments like buttons and a sticker and another card finished fairly quickly and easily.

Have a great day.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Handmade Flowers Wendy Vecchi style

Today is the second challenge for Fashionable Stamping  and we were so pleased to see so many of you amazing crafters enter our 'Anything Goes' last week.

So we hope you will join in again this week by adding your own handmade flowers to your project and showing us what you can do. Don't forget to show us some stamping too.

I have used Hero Arts 3 dotted flowers with their leaf and a Wendy Vecchi Art Parts base and used one of her wooden borders to create a little shelf. Both were primed with gesso and then painted with Claudine Hellmuth acrylic paints. It is stood with a TH small easel behind it.

Flowers coloured with distress stains and DIs and little Syntego pots to put them in. I used a mini glass bottle and filled it with real poppy seeds and made the label in PE. The little button is one of my moulds.

Supplies -
DSs - weathered wood, faded jeans, fired brick, spun sugar, wild honey, antique linen.
DIs - walnut stain, vintage photo, dusty concord, wild honey, fired brick, peeled paint
Stamps - Wendy Vecchi - love to make art, hero Arts - 3 dotted flowers, Our daily Bread - butterfly, PaperArtsy - man of numbers plate, Prima - hex net
Grungepaper (for the flowers, butterfly and foliage).
Charms, bits of old jewellery and chain.

Well I hope August is warm wherever you are in the northern hemisphere.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Summer Colours

Do you believe in life-long learning? I do - but it is difficult to get children to understand what it means. So this card is dedicated to the whole philosophy that we continue to learn new things all our lives. I have used my favourite saying and there is a hidden message there. Can you see it?

This piece is for Lisa's 'Anything Goes - with Summer Colours' challenge over at the Stamp Man. Do pop over and take a look at the most fabulous inspiration from my very talented teamies.

My inspiration for this card came from Joanne Wardle's article in the August Craft Stamper magazine for using resist techniques, but I didn't keep mine to a one layer card - of course I went on to embellish it more. I used art masking fluid as the resist for the centre sentiment to be stamped onto.

The flowers were made very simply with pre-cut, bought white paper flowers, swooshed in distress inks, heat dried - being scrumpled and curled in all the right places, and then beadazzles added to the centres. I thought they looked very summery, just like a patch of marigolds.

The butterflies were stamped with embossing ink onto card I had distressed with DIs, cut out and then DSs swooshed all over them. The depth of colours really soaked into all those tiny cracks and crevices.

Supplies used -
Stamps - TH good thoughts, papillon and artful flight
DIs - peeled paint, mustard seed, spiced marmalade.
DSs - peeled paint, forest moss, wild honey, fired brick, walnut stain.
Paper flowers, beadazzles, adhesive ribbon, gems
Dies - marianne and crealies.
Promarkers (just the lettering on the sentiment).

I hope we will see you over at the Stamp Man for our summer colours challenge and don't forget that Jill generously provides a £10.00 voucher for every challenge to spend in her on-line shop - so that's gotta be worth entering for. I hope you are having a good summer (or winter if you are in the southern hemisphere) and that you are having some good crafty time for yourself (especially if you have children who are off school for the summer holidays).

Take care.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxoxox

Special Birthday Wishes for Divas by Design

Well I hope you are having a good August and that the sun is shining on you. Have a happy holiday if you are away for your summer break.

This is my design team card for the next challenge at Divas by Design and for this fortnight we want to see your birthday creations.

I have used a glittered backing paper from my First Edition Spring Fest pack, edged with cranberry and the flowers paper from Porcelain, edged with peeled paint. The rosette is a Tim die (of course) and I added a sentiment I made myself in PE. The shabby bow I made using my vintage ribbon and spritzing it with water and swooshing it through the Adirondack cranberry ink.

Have a great week, wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

It's Your Day

I needed a quick card the other day so I got out those lovely Kanban dress forms with card to match. But this time I chose to use the Desert Blooms paper pack for the background.

So you can see it didn't take long to put this together with the decoupaged dress form, bought flowers and a handmade sentiment and butterfly stamped onto acetate and cut out.

Et voilà. Not like some of my projects that take days and days - but good to see something finished in lightning time for a change.

A quick card and a quick post.

Hope you are all well and see you soon.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

SSSS Top 3

Just a very short post tonight but I had to post that I have been given another Top 3 place at Simon Says Stamp and Show. I receive this amazing accolade for my 'Sew Special' canvas. How fabulous is that?

Many thanks to the team at SSSS for choosing me, I feel it is for me and my dear Mum. She would have felt very proud for me.

Enjoy the rest of the week everyone.

Luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Tag for two challenges

Well I hope the two Lindas don't mind that nearly everyone will combine both the Grungy Monday and the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenges this week as we have a fabulous Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas to follow and make a tag at the same time. What luck.

To see what techniques were used in the making of this tag, take a look at Tim's tutorial and why not have a go yourself - if you haven't already that is.

Supplies used -
Stamps - TH - papillon and artful flight; La Blanche leafy flourish; Rubber Stampede text.
DIs - worn lipstick, weathered wood, stormy sky, vintage photo.
Black, green and burgundy embossing powders.
Vellum and archival ink.

I have the perfect present for this tag and hopefully I will show you some pictures of it - the wedding book project I have been making. I am nearly there.

Just a little reminder that there is an 'Anything Goes' theme over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges, unfortunately it hasn't been advertised so we would appreciate anything you could do to get the word out as there are two prizes this fortnight. I hope I will see you there.

Have a fabulous week.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

The Ocean ATC

This is an ATC for the Stamp Man ATC swap and the theme for August is The Ocean.

I created this by colouring the card with watercolour pencils and giving it a wash. Over that I used distress inks and some sequin waste to create some 'bubble' effects. Over the top of that layer I brushed some gesso to give it a more cloudy and watery feel to it then at the bottom I pooled some green, white and blue inks and blew them with a straw to create an organic shape to be my seaweed. I used a sakura glaze pen to give it some highlights and shadow. The stamps are all from Crafty Individuals and the little seahorse was stamped and pieced onto the ATC. I added some real little shells.

Supplies -
Watercolour pencils.
DIs - faded jeans, chipped sapphire, vintage photo and walnut stain.
White drawing ink
Blue and green inks.
Gesso

Well we are now into August so I hope you have a lovely holiday if you are away this month.

Take care.

luv and hugs {brenda] xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Take a word - Song - Swallowed in the Sea by Coldplay
Come and Get It - Anything goes
Stampin Sisters in Christ - Use any creature
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Under the sea
Paper Cutz - Under the sea
By the Cute and Girly - The Sea
Alter It Monthly - The Ocean

Sew Special - New challenge blog called Fashionable Stamping

Good morning everyone and what a great day to be telling you about the start of a new challenge blog dedicated to the rubber/clear stamper. Please go take a look at the new challenge blog and also my amazing teamies and their incredible DT pieces. Sorry those of you who love to work with your digis this one is about getting messy with inks and sprays and all that glorious mess one makes when using real stamps.

First though I must wish my dear hubbie Ken a Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary. Yes we got married on his birthday 37 years ago, I can't believe it is such a long time ago and we had been together 4 years before that !!!!

This is my piece to introduce this new challenge which for this fortnight is 'Anything Goes'. I am not going to give a blow by blow account of how I made this only through photos and captions, so pull up a coffee and take a look. I warn you though this is really photo heavy - but the detail has to be shown through the photos and can't be done in words.

This is a 40 x 15 cm canvas.

I stamped over a piece of dressmakers pattern and glued it to the canvas.

Love the crinkled look.

When the glue was dry I covered it in gesso.

Then added some neutral acrylic paint.

Then some darker acrylics. After this I sprayed with glimmer mists.

Woops - messy table, but started to position the elements I wanted to include.

There are 3 main sections and I used alot of DI.

The little tray was primed then painted with Leandra's Fresco Paint and I glued in some more of the paper pattern. The sewing machine and the mini dress form are some of my moulds. Notice the little bottle with beads in it?

The pins came from Mum's collection of bits and the scissors were a gift from Lisa - thanks Lisa. The background paper has been inked and glimmer misted.

Here are the four little individual sections of the tray. The little silver button is from Mum's box, I am so glad I kept it all when she passed away.

Moulded sewing machine and a charm given to me by Lucy - thanks Lucy.

The sewing machine spool came from my dear Mum's sewing box.

I got this little bird charm from Ebay this week. It was an old gold colour so I used inka gold on it - both haematite and gold.

The buckle is from a carboot and they told me it was vintage.

Wooden letters. Dress mould made in clay made when I went to Lucys.

An old(ish) button tab from Mum's box, as there were only 2 buttons left I glued on some snaps. The charm was given to me by my sister - thanks Chris.

The wings I made from clay using a mould of some jewellery I got last week at a carboot sale. Painted lightly with Haematite inka gold and the rubbed with gold inka gold - cor what a mouthful - I think it will be IG in future!!! The pink rose is off an earing.

The spool tops are courtesy of the duke of distress, Mr TH himself.

Supplies used -
Stamps - TH haberdashery
DIs - vintage photo, walnut stain
Paint - white acrylic, Fresco Finish vintage lace and london night.
Inka Gold - gold, rose, haematite
Glimmer Mists - coffee shop, vanilla breeze
Dressmaking pattern, small 4 section tray, sewing embellishments (including some of my moulds)
Lace and hessian.
Beads in a bottle.
Vintage buckle.
Paper and coloured dress form from Kanban.
Wings - more of my moulds.

I have now started putting a bee somewhere on my larger pieces - did you spot it?

We would love to see how you use stamps in your projects so please join in with us. You have until the 13th August for this challenge. So what are you waiting for? There are 2 prizes for this challenge - so will that spur you on more?

Enjoy some inky craft time.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes
Just for Fun - Fabric or fiber