It’s Been A While

Hello there my crafty friends,

Hi do hope that life is treating you kind and that you’re all coping in these troubled times.

It’s been quite a while since I posted anything other than scheduled posts and so I thought that I would take five and let you know what’s been happening in my life.   Sadly, in the first week of May, I lost my precious Sister-In-Law.  It was all very sudden and and I can’t begin to tell you just how heartbreaking it’s been for us all.  She’s always been such a big part of my life and I can’t image what life will be without her.  It was her funeral last week and as my Brother, two nieces and their children made up the ten that were allowed attend, I had to stand outside the crematorium and watch from a distance.  It was totally surreal and just felt like a bad dream.  Never in a million years did I ever imagine not being with her on her final journey.  On the plus side, I have been totally blessed to have her in my life and I have to keep reminding myself of that.

Moving on to happier things, after totally loosing my mojo for a couple of weeks, once again, crafting has brought me some comfort.  I treated myself this week to the two new sets of Hobby Art ‘Scene It’ stamps that were on Hochanda last weekend and it’s two of the cards that I’ve made with them that I’ll share with you today.  I only owned one small Hobby Art stamp set before buying these but I’m very happy with them and I can see them getting plenty of use, especially as I’m now making some Christmas cards with them.  Here they are:

In other news, the lovely Jean Hardy is on Hochanda again next Tuesday with some fabulous new stamps and other products, so you might see some of my samples on there, I only made a few this time around due to the sad circumstances.  The shows are on at 7am and 1pm, so I hope that you’ll be able to watch them, or maybe catch up later.  

That’s all from me for today and I hope that the sun keeps shining for you all.  

Take care, stay safe and be happy xx

Mid Month Inspiration - May 20

Hello there,

It's time for me to offer some mid month inspiration at Stamping Sensations, so here are my card:

This card features one of my favourite stamps by Chocolate Baroque.  Just like our lovely Brenda, I love my Poppies :)

I've used a stencil and some Adirondack ink to colour my background and flowers.  The sentiment and corners are also by Chocolate Baroque and I've stamped them using VersaFine Clair Nocturn.

Here's my second card featuring a beautiful image by our very own Dora.  I've coloured it using my trusty Koh-I-Noor watercolours and Derwent Inktense pencils: 

         We are very generously sponsored this month by Lesley and David from

'Chocolate Baroque'

Please see Stamping Sensations for details of the prize

And by:

'Dora' 

Who is offering 4 of her beautiful digital images.

There's still plenty of time for you to join us in our 'Say It With Flowers' theme but please remember that Stamping Sensations is a 'STAMPING' challenge, so we must see a stamped image, sentiment or quote as the focal element of your artwork, this means: Stamping must be the central point of attention and interest.

All the details of our challenge rules can be found here

That's all from me for now, so I'll wish you a happy and peaceful day x

Say it with Flowers

Hello there my crafty friends,

It's time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations and our theme this time is 'Say It With Flowers.' Here's my card:

We are very lucky to have two sponsors this month and my first card today features a beautiful Poppy stamp by Chocolate Baroque who are one of our sponsors.  Just for a change, I stamped my flowers using Shady Green VersaFine Clair and then I water coloured the image using Koh-I-Noor paints. The verse is by Inkylicious.  Chocolate Baroque do some beautiful sentiments but unfortunately, I don't have any, so I may need to rectify that at some point:)

My second card uses a digital image by our very own 'Dora.' Dora is such a talented artist and she has also designed some beautiful stamps for Crafty Individuals.  I've water coloured this image using Koh-I-Noor paints.

We are very generously sponsored this month by Lesley and David from

'Chocolate Baroque'

Please see Stamping Sensations for details of the prize

And by:

'Dora' 

Who is offering 4 of her beautiful digital images.

We'd love you to join us this month and to be inspired by our 'Say It With Flowers' theme but please remember that Stamping Sensations is a 'STAMPING' challenge, so we must see a stamped image, sentiment or quote as the focal element of your artwork, this means: Stamping must be the central point of attention and interest.

All the details of our challenge rules can be found here

That's all from me for now, so I'll wish you a happy and peaceful day x

Mid Month Inspiration - April 20

Hello there you crafty lot :)

It's time for me to give you a little Mid Month Inspiration over at Stamping Sensations, so here's the card that I've made:

I started be creating my background by blending various rainbow coloured inks using my Ink Dusters.  I then stamped various stamps by Inkylicious using VersaFine Clair Nocturn and then heat embossing to set the ink.  Quite a stamped card but I think the sentiment works really well with the stamped images.

Don't forget that we are very generously sponsored this month by: 

Be Creative 

who are kindly offering the lucky winner a £25 voucher to spend at their online store.

We would really love it if you could join us with a piece of your artwork featuring this month's theme but please remember that Stamping Sensations is a 'STAMPING' challenge, so we must see a stamped image, sentiment or quote as the focal element of your artwork, this means: Stamping must be the central point of attention and interest.

All the details of our challenge rules can be found here

I'd like to add this card into this week's challenge over at Allsorts.  Their theme is Flowers and/or showers.

Happy Easter

Hello there,

Before I share my card, I'd just like to wish you all a very happy Easter and I hope that you can make the best of it in your own way during these troubled times.  We usually spend time with our children and grandchildren and this is what I'll miss the most.  As hard as it is, I'm counting my blessings that they are all safe and well at this time, so I'm happy to ride out the next few weeks until we can see them again.  Thank goodness for FaceTime as we can still keep in contact this way and it sort of feels like we've spent some time with them.

Here's a card that I've made for the challenge over at 'Allsorts.'  Their theme this time is 'Something Old, Something New.'  Here's my card:

I've used my old Distress inks in the background, the new is my stamp from Chocolate Baroque and blue is the colour of the freesias.  I adore this stamp and I've made cards in lots of different colours using it but this colour combination is one of my favourites.

Take care of yourselves, stay safe and be happy xx

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Hello there my crafty friends,

It's that time of year again when it's starting to get a little warmer and nature is starting wake up.  It’s time for another new challenge at 'Stamping Sensations' and our theme this time is 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow.'  We had a similar theme last year and it was really popular, so we decided that we would do it again.  After those long, cold winter months, it's nice to start thinking about warmer days and so this theme gives us lots of scope to add lots of lovely rainbow colours.  Here's my card which I hope might inspire you to join us:

I started by using my Giotto coloured pens to add the colours of the rainbow to my large 'Spatter Circle' by Inkylicious before spritzing with water and allowing the colours to blend a little.  Next, I stamped onto some white card and used my heat gun to dry it off.  I then used the tiny stamp that's included with the splatter circle to add the black dots around the outside. I used VersaFine Clair Nocturn to do this as it gives a lovely, dark impression.  I used the same ink to stamp my gorgeous fairy, which is another one by Inkylicious.  The sentiment was a freebie with a magazine but I sorry that I can't remember which one it was now.  Finally, I cut out and mounted my design.

We are very generously sponsored this month by: 

Be Creative 

who are kindly offering the lucky winner a £25 voucher to spend at their online store.

We would really love it if you could join us with a piece of your artwork featuring this month's theme but please remember that Stamping Sensations is a 'STAMPING' challenge, so we must see a stamped image, sentiment or quote as the focal element of your artwork, this means: Stamping must be the central point of attention and interest.

All the details of our challenge rules can be found here

Wishing you all a happy and colourful day xx

Colours Of The Rainbow

Hello there,

I hadn't planned to do a blog post today but I'd like to share an art journal page with you that I've made for a challenge that giogioscrap.blogspot.com is running on Instagram. (#craftingwithgiogio) Every other day there's a different prompt and these are all shown in advance, so you are able to choose the ones that you'd like to join in with.  The first one is 'Colours of the Rainbow.'  As the rainbow has now become a shared symbol during these recent troubled times, I knew that I wanted to join in with this one and here's the art journal page that I've made:

I made a rainbow background using Brushos, then stencilled over it using Distress Oxides.  The sentiment is by Visible Image, the face is by Inkylicious, the eye by Pink Ink and the corner stamps are by Chocolate Baroque.  I bleached a little of the colour from the eye and face to give a little contrast.

Thank you for your visit today and I hope that this art journal page might brighten your day.

Take care of yourselves and stay safe x