Trick or Treat

Hi All

I told you that Kids and Grand kids all love Halloween.

As you can see they all had a fabulous time getting into the spirit of the evening.

 This was Emma yesterday,

And then her Pumpkin outfit 

 to start the day today.

 Love the pumpkins.

 

 The are absolutely amazing.

I told you they enter into the spirit. This is the front of the house.

 Emma the skeleton 

 and Saskia the Corpse Bride.

 Saskia, and Ciaran the Cyberman.

 Big sister Megan was Cat Woman.

 And I am guessing that one of these rather scary individuals is big bother Reece.

 Emma and her Dragon.

And here she is with her stash at the end of the evening.

Shame she is too little to eat it, I guess Mum and Dad will just have to help her out lol.

Have a great night.

Hugs Kimx

Happy Halloween

Hi Everyone,
I hope that you are all having a spookily good day.
I am sitting in the shop at SirStampalot wearing a spider headband as I write this, having worn devil horns and a tail at work yesterday..............don't ask lol.

My girls love Halloween, although it is something that they have come to in adulthood, as it was not something that we celebrated when they were kids.
This card was made for a lovely lady who comes into work, to give to her son whose birthday is today.

I have fussy cut one of my LOTV toppers and attached it to the card with silicon.

The background to the card was created using a Dutch Doobadoo spiders web stencil,, embossing machine,  distress inks and glitter glue.

The sentiments are by Marianne and are a combination of stamps and dies.
The cat is also a very useful Marianne die. It is actually a pair of cats, but I separate them and use them an awful lot especially for Good Luck cards.
I'm sure that the Grandchildren will be having great fun today carving pumpkins, making chocolate apples (toffee was considered a little bit too dangerous) and eating lots of sweeties.
I have left strict instructions that I need plenty of pictures, especially when they have all dressed up.
Have a good evening.
Hugs Kimx

A Sketch at Woodware

Morning All
Well here is my take on this weeks sketch over at Woodware, after my initial little senior moment.
For those of you not in the know I made a card for todays post using next months sketch!!!

As luck would have it I had created this little stamped panel the night before in an effort to use up a piece of background paper that I had made while cleaning up one of my small acrylic blocks.
I told you I'm very sad, and on a mission to use up all my left over bits and pieces. I had better live till I'm 106 to be in with a chance of ever fulfilling this lol.

I had used the block as a paint palette (I tapped the kaleidacolour inkpad onto it and then picked up the ink with a waterbrush), but there is always too much ink left to just wipe away.

So I spritzed it with water and stamped the block onto a piece of plain white card stock.

Do this several times to create a piece of background paper before stamping and embossing on to it using an Artemeo stamp set.

The background papers are from my Woodware stash and matched the panel perfectly.

I stamped and embossed on to them using a combination of dye based inks, versamark and clear embossing powder and gold metallic ink.
The sentiment is from one of Jane Gill's peel-offs, and the butterflies and border are from a sheet of Magenta

peel-offs from my stash.
I do love working from a sketch, which is just as well after my little glitch. At least I didn't have to think too hard which is probably just as well.
Have a great day.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Ten little fingers and ten little toes

Hello again,
Have you had a good day?
It occurred to me this morning when I heard that my best friend had become a Grandmother for the second time in a month, that I had never shared the Birth Announcement and Thank you cards that I made for Becki on the birth of my own new Granddaughter Emma, back in July.
Where on earth have those 3 months gone to?

I love this photo from the early days, it is one of my favourites.

I created the cards out of some background papers from my stash,

and a lovely rocking horse die that was part of one of the Christmas Limited Edition DooHickey Die Club.

With a little bit of careful planning (some would call it OCD) I managed to use both the die cut and the piece of paper that it was cut from.

I made a small announcement card to go inside each one as a little bit of a keepsake. They were made using the magic stamp of Emma's hand and foot print.

The inside of the Thank You card was also personalised using her footprint.

This photo was taken the day she came home from the hospital and it really is a little bit of deja vu.
Emma is sleeping in the moses basket that my parents bought me for Becki over 30 years ago!!
Emma was able to sleep in it straight away, unlike her Mum who spent her first night at home sleeping in a drawer because I had no bedding for the moses basket.
Still it doesn't seem to have done her any harm, and she could still sleep for England given half the chance.
Let's hope that they all get a good nights sleep tonight, especially the very new Mum and Dad.
Hugs Kimx

I'm getting ahead of myself

OMG, that will teach me to try and get ahead of myself.
I got so far ahead that I missed the last Woodware challenge for October altogether.
There I was, all pleased with myself for having e-mailed pictures to Dorothy and writing and scheduling my own blogpost.
Imagine my horror this morning when I checked the blog before work and discovered that I had used completely the wrong sketch.
I really have got ahead of myself - right into NOVEMBER.
So I think I had better go and lie down, preferably in a darkened room and try and catch up with myself again lol.

Before I go, here are a couple of cards that I sent out this week.

  A couple of them are even went in to the postbox early.

See I told you I was getting ahead of myself.
Night, night.
Hugs Kimx

Beware Picture Heavy Post

Evening Everyone,
Here we are at the start of another week, and I am now officially on count down till my bi-annual holiday to Sirstampalot.
I can't wait. As the Grandkids would say, only 5 more sleeps lol.
I am trying to get organised and ahead with a few of my crafty commitments so that I can concentrate on play when I am on holiday.

A couple of weeks ago Dorothy set us a 'Flourish' challenge over at Woodware, and as usual I got a little bit carried away.

Most of them use stencil paste and this beautiful Holly Flourish stencil from Dreamweaver.

This one just uses dye based ink through the stencil which was then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

I love this sentiment, such a useful size.

The central panel on this card has also been created using stencil paste and dye based ink,

but the red background card has been stencilled with Versamark ink and then brushed with Dreamweaver Mica powders.

The background to this final card has also been created using stencil paste onto a piece of background paper from my stash which has then been covered with inks, gilding flakes and mica powder.

Better get to bed now.
Bye for now.
Hugs Kimx

Good Luck for the future to The Craft Barn

Hi All,
Last Sunday saw the end of an era, when The Craft Barn closed the doors on its bricks and mortar shop forever.
Although the management has changed over the years, and even the venue at one stage, it will always hold a special place in my heart as it is the place where my creative journey began over 20 years ago!!
It was in the original Barn that I first learnt about all things stamping, and where I was given my first opportunities to demonstrate and then ultimately teach.
I have made many good friends there, and met some of the best in the business, so I felt that it was only fitting that I should mark its passing into an on-line only shop by entering their very appropriate challenge this week and wish them Good Luck.

I love Francoise Huge Word stamps.

They are so useful and with careful cutting out it it easy to create several cards from the one set of stamped images.

With each of these cards I stamped the image on to card and created my background before adding the paper pieced letters.
I added some Gelli Roll Stardust pen to the small overlapping areas of the letters for a little added interest.
I would like to wish everyone at The Barn good luck in this next stage in their adventures, and hope that people will continue to shop with them and be inspired by their classes, which I understand will be continuing.
I for one will be forever grateful for the wealth of knowledge that I acquired during my many visits over the years, as well as some of my rather large stash.
Good Luck in the future everyone.
Hugs and happy crafting.
Kimx

Christmas Cards with Animals for Woodware

Evening Everyone,

I'm sorry that this post is so late but my computer decided to throw a hissy fit on Thursday evening and it has taken me till now to coax it back into service!

This week at Woodware Dorothy challenged us to make Christmas cards with Animals.

I have several young ladies of my acquaintance who have all had, or are still expecting, babies this year. So as soon as I saw this beautiful stamp designed by Jane Gill I knew that it would get a good workout.

I did a bit of paper piecing on the rocking horse before adding it to the card over the top of the die cut dotty heart.

I also added a bit of faux stitching  and some glitter glue.

As I said I have several cards to make using this stamp so here is another card that I made with the leftovers.

This time I went for an easel card using some papers and die cut leaves from my stash.
So that is two down and another two to go. Better get on with it, it will be Christmas before we know it lol.
Hugs
Kimx

Autumn Colours at CCM&More

Hi All,
It's time for a new challenge over at CCM&More, and our host Jackie would like to see anything with Warm Autumn Colours.

I love Autumn with all its glorious colours so this was an easy challenge for me.

The central panel was created by tapping a Kaleidacolour inkpad on to an acrylic block, and then spritzing it with water before stamping onto watercolour card stock.

There is usually enough ink left on the block to create a second background, just spritz with more water before stamping.

.

This card has been made using this second generation background. Once it was completely dry I stamped and embossed the panel with one of Jane Gill's fabulous Weeds and Grasses stamps.

The background paper was from my stash and I have toned the colour down a little by sponging it with some co-ordinating dye based ink before stamping and embossing it with the same stamp as the main panel.

I wrapped the stamped panel with some bakers twine and then added a LOTV circular sentiment.
I hope that you will join in with us this fortnight. Why not check out what the rest of the team have come up with, there are some truly stunning samples to inspire you HERE.