O Little Town

Hello.  Welcome.  A special hi and hello to Jade.  So happy you have joined my jolly little band.  Hugz to all my followers and friends.  Your support and comments are marshmallows and cream on the hot chocolate of life.  HUGZ

I couldn't resist this lovely new stamp from Crafty Individuals.  It arrived today and I could hardly wait to get it inky.  It's called The Star in the East.  Looks like 'O Little Town' to me......

Please excuse the poor photo.  I embossed with gold powder and the glare meant I needed to take the picture from a strange angle.  I'll try again tomorrow.  I kept it simple.  I used an Ultramarine brusho wash for the background and then used distress inks and my waterbrush to colour the roofs.  

Joining the fun at
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - CAS Christmas
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Wonderful Watercolours
OCS October Challenge - Christmas/Halloween/Fall
The Craft Barn Weekly Challenge - Light I'm going with star light

Thanks for dropping by.  Hugz

Butterfly Blues

Hello.  Welcome.  Winnie and Walter have been celebrating World Card Making Day all week.  7 different challenges with the chance to win gift vouchers to buy Winner and Walter stuff.  I have been linking up all week.  The only one I was missing was the sketch challenge!  So here's my take on Gayatri's lovely sketch.

All stamps are Hero Arts.  I masked the kraft card, stamped  Lotus Background and embossed with white powder.  I stamped and embossed the butterfly from Collage Background and coloured with Ultra Marine brusho powder.  

Joining the fun at
A Blog Named Hero - Kraft, White + 1 Colour 
Winnie & Walter WCMD 2015 - Sketched with Gayatri
Butterfly Challenge - E is for Embossing 

Thanks for dropping by.  Hugz

Orinoco Models Autumn Leaf

Hello.  Welcome.  Over at Paperartsy the theme this fortnight has been Wearable Art.  I was quite excited by this cos I recently bought a load of plain t-shirts and have had vague ideas about personalising them.  So I was very excited to see Wanda's post.  I am still excited about that but, because I am sadly lacking that fabric medium she used, I decided to go with some shrink plastic jewelry.  

Oh wow, womble in the shrubbery.  Ain't he cool.  Forget the necklace a minute.  I have to just tell you this Womble was made for me by my grandmother 40ish years ago.  My grandmother is 92 now and still going strong.   I have three siblings and every year she would make us all a cuddly toy.  One year it was wombles.  I got Orinoco, hat and scarf included.  He agreed to go naked for this picture.  If you haven't got a clue what I'm on about then just celebrate your youth........  I'm sorry, but I don't think a teletubby is even in the same league.  You got to feel sorry for the kids of today......

I started by stamping the large oak leaf from HP1105 on white shrink plastic and coloured with distress inks.  Here's the before (11ish cm) and after (4.5ish cm) size.

Then I did a bit of bead work, keeping with neutral and autumny colours

A close up of my little helper

Love how the detailed stamping is so clear.  

Joining the fun at
Paperartsy - Wearable Art
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Autumn is in the Air 

Thanks for dropping by.  Hugz

Bow Wow Wow

Hello.  Welcome.  A CAS Christmas card.  This stamp is one of the oldest in my collection.  An Anita's wooden stamp.  I was reminded of their existence this weekend when my niece visited and wanted to do some colouring.  I didn't have any colouring books but you should have seen the delight on her face when I started stamping.  Magic!! 

I stamped the dog in the santa hat, coloured with distress inks and masked.   I used Wink of Stella clear on the bauble and fluffy bit.  I inked Sizzix Bricked embossing folder with Barn Door distress ink and stamped it on the card.  The sentiment is from Rubber Dance Frosty Friends set.  

Joining the fun at
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - CAS Christmas 
CASology Week 167 - Silly 
OCS October Challenge - Christmas/Halloween/Fall 
Winnie & Walter WCMD 2015 - Watercolor with Vanessa 
Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday September 2015 - Use a Stamp 
Addicted to CAS Challenge 74 - Sparkle 

Thanks for your visit.  Hugz

Birthday Boos and a Discount for You

Hello.  Welcome.  As I hope you know, I am very fortunate to be on the Rubber Dance Stamps Scandinavian design team.  So for you, as a little reward for following my blog and being such wonderful supporters of my crafty endeavors, I have been given an exclusive code that you can use on any order this year.  You will get a whopping 15% off your order at Rubber Dance by using gail2015.  Easy peasy, go get you some bargain rubber.  I have a link to the shop in my sidebar and I've added the code underneath so it's easy for you to find.  Just don't forget to use the code and remember, Bibi offers very reasonable flat rate shipping worldwide.  Are you still here??   Oh yes, the boos.........

I saw this card over at DRS and today, whilst hunting for black card, I saw these holographic scratch sheets and remembered I have that embossing folder.  So I ran it through the bigshot and this is the result before I removed more of the black coating.  It looks pretty cool already.  Like Julie says the Sizzix folders do give a really deep emboss.  In fact, I don't use any tabs going through the bigshot and there's less chance of splitting your card. 

Just wanted to share my base card cos you don't get to see much of it in the final picture.  I used an orange card and I stamped with the barbed wire stamp I made yesterday by cutting craft foam with Cheery Lynn's Barbed Wire die.  I've also smudged my edges and beyond with black archival.  Love this.

So, once I'd cleaned a bit more of the black off my embossed letters I added that panel to the base card.  I used Cheery Lynn's Barbed Wire die again to cut well, barbed wire!!  The skeleton is from TH Retro Halloween, stamped, embossed and fussy cut.  I meant to give him a humerous speech bubble but wasn't sure he had a funny bone in his body.   Bwahahahahahahaha.  Sorry about that. 

Joining the fun at
Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge 205 - Halloween 
The Craft Barn Weekly Challenge - People well, maybe ex-people.....
Winnie & Walter WCMD 2015 - Make it Masculine 
DRS Designs Challenge 195 - Spooky or Cutesy 
Repeat Impressions WIW Color Challenge - Orange, Lime & Purple/Black 
OCS October Challenge - Christmas/Halloween/Fall 
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Autumn is in the Air 
Scrapyland Challenge 27 - AG with a Die 

Thanks for dropping by.  Don't forget to use my code if you go shopping for Rubber Dance stamps.  Hugz

Purple Dilemma

Hello.  Welcome.  Becca's having a hop.  The Hop To Stop domestic violence.  It's looking very purple on Becca's blog.  I am glad I am in the 2/3rds that haven't experience this, but my heart goes out to that 1/3rd of people who have.  This was the stamp I wanted to use for this project because although it is very beautiful, I also saw a darker, hidden side to this image.  All stamps are from Unity.  Some of them are NBUS.     

I stamped She Is (NBUS) in black cherry chalk and embossed with clear powder.  I used Chicken Wire Background and Butterfly Collage with lavender chalk ink. 

Using the same lavender chalk I stamped Numbers Etc., you make me sign (NBUS grab bag stamp) and Harmony girl on the negative side (rhs).  I stamped the hearts from You Are My Main Squeeze and a grab bag butterfly on the positive (lhs), again in lavender ink.  I also stencilled Stamplorations Some Birds on the plus side.  The barbed wire is a Cheery Lynn die cut from funky foam and stamped with Dusty Concord distress ink. 

Lots of inky smudges going on and the five sentiments (NBUS) from the She Is kit.  Yup, you get 5 sentiments.  I tried to match them with my positive, negative and neutral positions. 

'she came to know the truth of who she was'

'she was like the moon, part of her was always hiding'

'she believes in herself'

'she designed the life she wanted to live'

'she knew this transition was not about becoming someone better, 

but about allowing herself to become who she had always been'

Thanks for dropping by.  Hugz  

Joining 

Unity Stamp Co. Friends
Unity Stamp Co. Be Inspired Challenge 32
The Hop to Stop

The Craft Barn Weekly Challenge - People

Winnie & Walter WCMD 2015 - Background Stamping
Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge 282 - Collage Stamping
Craft Stamper Take it Make it Challenge October 

Forgive and Forget

Hello.  Welcome.  Working on a simple card for Rubber Dance Stamps using stamps from the Sew Sweet stamp set.

This months challenge at Rubber Dance has gorgeous colours and the optional theme of Autumn

I inked my paper with pumpkin shades of distress inks and then stamped and embossed the sentiment.  I made the border by partially stamping the button stamp repeatedly.  I stamped the thread, masked and stamped the dress form.  I mounted the stamped panel on a black base card.

Do check out the challenge post.  Lots of lovely inspiration from the DT and the chance to win some lovely Rubber Dance stamps.  You don't have to use Rubber Dance stamps to enter but of course we would love to see them.  Newsflash...... just between you and me.....  brand new lovely stamps in the shop this week and a chance for one lucky person who leaves a comment on this post to win the set of their choice.  Are you still here??  Wait!!  Before you hop off!  Maybe you'd like to leave me a little love as well.......

Thanks for dropping by.  Hugz

Joining the fun at
Winnie & Walter WCMD 2015 - Partial Stamping with Kelly
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Autumn is in the Air
Penny Black and More October Challenge - Warm Autumn Colours
Stamping Sensations October Challenge - Colours of Autumn