Week 148 Photo Inspiration

Good Morning My Fellow Bloggers,

Well what a fabulous week we have had with the weather - I think it is a little confused but I'm certainly not complaining!  Although the weather forecast does speak of snow at Easter!

Well lets move on from being typically English talking about the weather and let's talk about this weeks Allsorts Challenge that the lovely Debs has set for us.  This is the first time I have done a week with a Photograph for Inspiration.  Pop over to the Allsorts Blog and it will be explained to you much better than I can!  Basically you are given a group of photographs and whatever inspires you from these you use to create your project for this week.  The colours and flowers all inspired me to make this card

The stamp set that I have used is from the fabulous Jayne Shasky that I am sure you have all heard me going on about both in the shop and on C and C.  She has produced a CD Rom with the most amazing images entitled the Heart of the Garden and now we have 3 sets of stamps with the same images to play with.  Joanna Sheen has produced both the CD and the stamps and the quality is fabulous.

The set that I have taken this gorgeous image from is called A Slice of Heaven.  It really shouted out Spring and hopefully you will agree links in with the photograph that Debs has given us.

I have also used some of the backing paper from the CD Rom.  The frame has been embossed with the Bark embossing folder from Creative Expression and I have used distress inks (of course!) to ink around the edges.  Pro-markers were used to colour the stamped image and you may not be able to pick this out, but, I have glittered the tiny flowers to give them a bit of sparkle.

I have also used Nellie Snellen punches that emboss too to finish off the framework.

I hope that you will pop over to the Allsorts Challenge Blog to see what you are inspired to do. I am very much looking forward to seeing what you all create from looking at the photograph.

I have quite a busy day ahead as I am going to teach at a Dabble Day for the lovely Jean at Busy Bees which is being held at Beighton Sports Centre, Nr Sheffield.  Jean has a fabulous shop in the Market Square in Sheffield and she holds regular Dabble Days throughout the year and they are a fabulous day.  Today I will be showing the ladies and gentlemen how to decorate a plaque using the Jayne Shasky CD Rom, Crackle paint technique and inks so I hope that they enjoy themselves!

If you are in the area of Sheffield pop along to Jean's shop and you will find details on her blog of all the activities that are planned http://wwwbusybeescrafts-busybeescrafts.blogspot.co.uk/.

Do pop over and join in the fun of the Challenge as always there are great prizes to be had and the Design Team are showing you what has inspired them to do.

I hope that you all enjoy a fabulous weekend and all of you that have given something up for Lent it is only 1 week until you can indulge in what you have given up!  (Mine has been chocolate and Good Friday cant come fast enough!!!!  Lol)

Bye for now

and thank you as ever for all your fabulous comments

Jo xxx

Week 147 - Use a Recipe

Good Morning Everyone!

Well we have woke up to a gorgeous morning and it only looks as if it is going to better.  Spring has finally arrive and thank goodness too!

This week at Allsorts lovely Helene has given us our Challenge for the week and it is Use a Recipe in our creation of choice so here is my offering:-

and this is the inside of the card.  (I know it isnt brilliant to see but hope that you can make it out!)

I have used Joanna's Country Kitchen Spiced Peaches set of stamps, I had the pleasure of demonstrating these on a C and C show a few weeks ago and they are a set of 5 at the moment.

The detail on the stamps are super and make a really unusual card for lots of occasions.

As you can see I have used lots of vintage colours (vintage photo & spiced marmalade) and hopefully made it look a bit Victorian. The papers were from my stash and the lovely foliage is from the Tim Holtz die.  If you can spot it in the foliage there is a shrink plastic jam jar from Joanna's stamps.  

Not sure if I got where I wanted to go but I was happy with the result. What I love about this set of stamps is that the recipe is included.



I hope that you all pop over to the Allsorts Challenge to have a look at the stunning ideas from the design team and I hope that you can join in this week too.  We have some fabulous sponsors again.

Must dash now I have 10 lovely ladies that are waiting for me to start a scrapbooking class!!

Have a fabulous weekend and enjoy the super weather and .....

Dont forget to alter the clocks!!!

Bye for now

Jo xx

Week 146 - Three in a Row

Good Morning

Thankyou for popping in to see what I have to show you today. I have the pleasure of hosting this weeks Allsorts Challenge and it is Three in a Row

I thought this was quite perfect for this weeks Challenge as the butterflies are perfectly in a row.  This is the project that we made in the Tim Holtz workshop at the trade show in February and I thought I would save it for posting now as it really fitted the bill.

I was thrilled with the finished piece and really enjoyed doing it (it was a huge benefit that we had the master to teach us!!  Tim Holtz.)

The project started with 2 canvasses with TH tissue tape wrapped around it and then distressed with vintage photo.  The list of other products that we used is endless but I will list a few but please feel free to get in touch and ask me about any further detail.

The stamps that we used were Stampers Anonymous Attic Treasures

Idea-ology screw eyes, tissue wrap, adornments, sprocket gears, game spinners,film strip ribbon, journaling ticket, metal corners (these are stunning!) grungeboard and a pen nib.

We also used Sizzix alterations to cut the heart. This is in the movers and shapers range.

The most impressive product that we used are the Distress Markers.  We used these for the first time as they were launched at the show.  (I have ordered a full stand for the shop, cant wait for it to arrive!)

We coloured the butterflies with these, if you are a lover of Distress inks you will love these too.  The ink in the pen is the exact colour of all the existing DI's.

We also used clear Rock Candy distress crackle paint which is fab to use and creates a great finish to grungepaper or board.

I hope that this has inspired you to have a go at an altered canvas. With  these quality products you can't fail to create a masterpiece.

Thankyou for popping in today and I would really love to hear what you think to the project.  All your comments are so appreciated.

Also pop over to the Allsorts Challenge to see the other fab designs from the Design Team members.

Have a fabulous weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all the Mums, I hope that you are all spoilt rotten and relax while everyone runs around you for a change!

Bye for now

Jo xx

                                                                    

Week 145 - Say it with flowers

Hello Everyone!



I hope that this finds you all well and happy and have had a great week - has anyone done anything really exciting that they want to share? 

I have been busy doing loads of paperwork for the shop .........  boring, but it has to be done unfortunately, I have also been doing lots of orders for Mother's Day too which I love.

This week on the Allsorts Challenge is all about flowers.  I am sure that there isn't any crafter out there that will struggle to do a card with this title. 

I have chosen one of my Indigo Blu cards that we did in a workshop last week at the shop.  I am just loving these stamps. Kay and Alfie are doing a fabulous job tempting us with such gorgeous designs.

This particular stamp is the Anemone corner which I must say is one of my favourites.  I decided to use the guilding flakes with it and I chose Yorkshire Dales as it has a good percentage of green mixed with copper - a gorgeous mix.  I applied Flitter Glu to the stamp and then used the flake.  This technique is so straight forward but so effective.  The colour on the image is from promarker cool aqua (I think! it was something aqua anyway!!) Just take care not to colour over the flake as it will rub it off a little.

The words were from the same stamp set and I used Labels 1 Spellbinder and added Bundled Sage DI to put a little colour around the edges.

A piece of organza ribbon and Creative Expressions Pearl glue finishes off the design.

I hope that you are tempted to have a go with the Indigo Blu stamps and the Flitter Glu - you will enjoy using it - everyone in the class certainly did!

As always the other members of the DT for Allsorts have left some gorgeous samples on the Challenge Blog so pop over and have a look.  As ever there are some fabulous prizes up for grabs.

Thank you, as ever, for stopping by.

Enjoy a lovely weekend and I hope that you pop a comment in to say hello.

Bye for now

Jo x



Week 144 - Spread your Wings

Good Morning Everyone,

I am hoping this finds everyone well and happy and have enjoyed the last couple of lovely Spring days. 
Today's card is my design that I have popped onto the Allsorts Challenge blog this week.

I have used the stunning decoupage from Joanna Sheen's Giordano collection.  The detail is amazing and if you love your cutting out decoupage, as I do, this will be right up your street.

I decided to marry it up with the beige, golden and brown colour scheme which I really like.  The brown dot paper is Bo Bunny the other paper that I used was out of my stash.  As you can see I have used Tim Holtz distress tool and vintage photo distress ink to really vintage it up. 

Pop over to the Allsorts Challenge site and have a look at the gorgeous cards from the design team and it would be lovely if you could join in too!  Please bear in mind that the wings need to be included in the main image of the design.  There are some fabulous prizes up for grabs from Crimson Cloud @ http://www.crimsoncloud.co.uk/.

Thank you for popping by and having a peep, I would love it if you left a message.

Enjoy a lovely weekend whatever you are planning.

Bye for now

Jo x