'What you do speaks so loudly, I can't hear what you say.'
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thursday 29 January 2009


First card ISC image on Home made Glimmer Mist background, highlighted with Inkssentials white pen on Stampers Anonymous Frame, embossed and coloured with Starburst Stains dabbers. Love these rich colours!

Second card an Image (ISC) on alcohol ink background, layered onto dictionary page, then onto Adirondack sponged resist.
Colorbox Fluid chalks. The stamp around the edges is one of my all time favourite stamps - a Stampendous cube with four different marble type backgrounds.
Adirondack inks on glossy card. Love these words - they're from Stamp Camp

Monday 26 January 2009



I have a basket full of (new- oh dear!) images stamped on backgrounds I've been making for years and today, I finally got round to making cards with some of them. Just wish it didn't take me quite so long to match colours! I didn't set out to use purple/lavender shades, but that's what I ended up doing.
I absolutely love the colours on the first one. It's one of those quickly made Alcohol ink backgrounds with Gold mixative running through it and is incredibly striking. I could probably never get that same colour blend again! Image from Innovative Stamp Creations.
The second one's from Paperbag Studios and the greeting's from Simple Expressions, which may soon be available again. I used a lot of the Ranger Inkssentials pen on this one, but it's hard to see without a close up, which Blogger won't allow at the moment! I'm working on it.
The third one's from Artistic Outpost. I shamelessly borrowed Jo Capper Sandon's idea of using book pages (or newspaper) for the flower - thanks for a fab project in Craft Stamper, Jo.

Wednesday 21 January 2009


My brother was home for most of December - he now lives in New Zealand, along with my parents and my other brother and his family. It was great to see him and we actually got to spend some quality time together for a change. In fact, I saw him more in the three weeks he was here than I saw him in the past couple of years before he left!

One day, we went to visit Little Moreton Hall, a moated Tudor Manor in Cheshire. It was the only grey and drizzly day in December, which stopped us spending too much time in the maze garden, but it was fascinating. There was a display of a Christmas feast, with people in Medieval dress explaining everything to us, along with a sample of the meagre comparison a servant or farming family would have eaten, then a guy was playing Medieval musical instruments in the Great Hall, with everyone singing Christmas carols, which was excellent. In the Chapel there was a Storyteller, who enthralled us for half an hour or so - she was brilliant! Well worth a visit and I'd love to go again when the Gallery is open and we can have a good look around the gardens.

I took part in a Secret Santa swap just before Christmas - lots of fun - and this was the handmade gift I received from my 'not so secret' Santa, Vix! Aren't the colours fab?

Chris (Rubbaluvva) sent me this gorgeous book as a surprise and I LOVE it! Thanks, Chris.



I've had some very sad news today. A really special friend of mine, Ronnie Henthorn, passed away this morning and he'll really leave a huge hole in a lot of people's lives. I can't stop thinking about him and his lovely wife, Sylvia, so I worked on finishing the Stamp Club project we did a couple of weeks ago.
This was a great project devised by Jo Pritchard, a very talented lady. I decided to go with Black and White, since it was a biggish project, thinking I'd have chance to finish it while there. It still needs some tweaking and the photos are dreadful because it was dark and gloomy by the time I'd finished. Just the way I felt, too.
Stamps are mainly from About Art Accents but there are a couple from Stamp Camp, Lavinia Stamps, Artistic Outpost and a few from Crafty Indviduals.

Saturday 10 January 2009

This is the black and white version of the ATC concertina. I used the Cuttlebug Allegro embossing folder on all ATCs, just to add a little texture, so it was really quick and easy.




Didn't realise this month's was the recycling issue as I haven't yet had my copy, but here's a sneak preview of what I did. I also did an alternative (black and white) version, which wasn't used, so will upload a couple of pics of that later.

Oops, where's this month going to? I've been doing loads of stamping, but just haven't got around to posting any, yet. Hope to do some later this week.

We had a fab Stamp Club last weekend, where Jo showed us how to make a fab flappy, stand up cardy thing - very difficult to describe, but I'll finish mine off this week and will upload.