Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from a beautiful snowy North Wales, it's the first white Christmas we've had in a long time. Off to see what Santa has brought, have a fab day everyone xxx

Snow across the Bay

The two snowy pictures at the bottom are of Colwyn Bay and also looking across to Rhos on Sea, where the snow is still on the beach. The three pictures at the top are of our back garden looking up towards the woods. Pre car squashing!!!!!!!

Rainbow Lady's Challenge 131 Vintage Delight

Another cold day here in beautiful white North Wales!! Perfect for a day in the warm and (nearly) dry craftroom.
The background card and also the holly embellishment are from Anna Griffin The Stamped image is by Personal Impressions and stamped out in memento tuxedo black ink on text and graphic paper, which is perfect for using promarkers on. I then cut out the image with one of Nellie's frames and tinted around the edge with fired brick distress ink to match the background card.
Can't believe this time next week I'll be sat chopping veg, Merry Christmas. Elizabeth xxx

TIO 62 Golden Haze

Sir Tim with a little Anna Griffin!
Inked up the tag in scattered straw and black soot distress inks trying to keep muted gold tones.
The stamps are also sir Tim's from two different sets (pressie from Oscar for Christmas shssssh). The flourish and the corner were stamped out in versamark and then heat embossed with Sheena's pearl gold sparkle, which is a really pretty pale gold with a gorgeous sparkle which doesn't show up very well on here.
The Lion and the text were stamped using black soot again, and to finish off a royal crown from Anna Griffin.

Frames

Rubbish photo's I know, have got a daylight lamp, but it doesn't stand a chance today it's so dark! These are a couple of the frames that I've made for the fair tomorrow. The Lady that ordered them wanted photo frames, but sadly my frames are still in the post somewhere. So made a substitute and if she doesn't want them I'll just pop them out on the stall. Primed the frames with Eco friendly acrylic paint in lake, then I've used a mixture of cosmic shimmer ultra thick embossing powders and also Sheena's WOW embossing powder in silver bell's. As the ironing board was up I had a play with fantasy film and fibres, along with a Lavinia stamp. Added a touch of colour to the Mermaid on the reverse with promarkers, then just glued her in to the shadow box with Art Institute glitter glue.

Rainbow Lady's Challenge 130 Christmas Food or Drink

The one thing that's always on my Christmas table is chocolate cake made with my Nana's recipe.
My nana was a fab baker and we all looked forward to Sunday tea at her house, apple pie, scones and the yummy chocolate cake with chocolate icing on top!!!
I made my chocolate cupcakes with Elusive Image cakes embossed with Sheena's Wow powders for sparkle!
The flowers and leaves are cut our using Crealies Dies (on everything I make at the moment LOL) and the sentiment and backing paper are from craftwork cards. No doubt No 1 Son will be starting Christmas morning with his selection box as usual for his breakfast, twenty something going on five on Christmas morning LOL Elizabeth xxx

TIO 60 Time Flying for Christmas

Have spent the day tucked up in my craftroom with the heating on and far too many cups of hot chocolate!!
Have enjoyed playing with a mixture of inkadinks, promarkers and distress inks to colour this tag.
The stamps are an eclectic mix of HOTP, Stamp Camp and numerous others, sorry folks the wrappers are long gone and they live in a box now!
Hope you like.
Elizabeth x

Rainbow Lady's Challenge 129

Here's my little Christmas critter!
All the paper's that I've used are HOTP leftover's from a pad I bought year's ago. Value for money or what?
The Penguin is from Craft UK and coloured in with promarkers, with a hint of broken glass distress ink around the edge for shading. Finished off with a couple of frames cut out with Nesties.

LOTV Challenge 76 A few of my favourite things

My favourite things, ink, paper, promarkers and putting the star on the tree!
Another cute image from LOTV coloured with promarkers and a hint of colour added around the edge with tumbled glass distress ink.
The background paper is from DCWV and the flowers are cut out using the new crealies dies, which seem to have a permanent home out on the desk. LOL Elizabeth x

Another Blue One!

I've got to sort my camera out, it's useless trying to scan some of these cards, o well best effort.
Having ventured out this morning as the road was looking a little better, managed to hit black ice as I got half way down the hill. The car and I are back home in one piece, but I'm definately home for the rest of the day!!
You know it's time to hyburnate when there is snow on the beach!! Am topping up the Christmas cards for Friday's Country market down in Rhos on Sea so I thought I'd share a few with you.
The stamp is LOTV and was coloured in using promarkers, then tinted with tumbled glass distress ink around the edge. The backing card is DCWV (I think) and the flowers cut out with crealies dies.

Bah Humbug Challenge 46 Feeling the Blues

Feeling blue with cold here, although Snowdonia is beautiful when it's covered in the white stuff, shame about my front path!!
The background papers I've used are all from Hot Off The Press, and have been lurching for a few years now. The main stamped image is a stamp from Imagination Crafts. I stamped this out using Hydrangea Blue Stazon ,then shaded around the edge with a mixture of Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans Distress Inks. The flowers are cut using a Crealies die from Graphicus, the swirl was cut out from a Cricut cartridge and the border punch is Martha Stewart. Can't believe it's the last challenge already, well done Girl's. Merry Christmas Love Elizabeth xx

TIO 59 Colours for Christmas

Very cold here today the Irish sea is full of white horses! Should really be finishing off stuff for the Christmas Fair on Saturday, but have been distracted by challenges!!!
I chose the cool icy shade of tumbled glass for this project, along with faded jeans and a touch of black soot.
All of the stamps are from a theme plate called "Joy" by Curious by Design and stamped out using black soot. I added a touch of colour with promarkers.

More Country Market

Quick visit to share what I've been up to.
Am in Birthday mode
so everything has flowers on it!
am aiming to get another six
cards done this afternoon then I will have to sort everything out ready for the early morning start. Still don't know when Gerry is coming home, apart from it's sometime this weekend, peace over!!!!

Rainbow Ladies Challenge 127 Edge It

Phew quick visit from me. This is one of the many cards I've been making. The background paper is by K&Co and the paper used to mount the Clarity Lady on and also punched out at the bottom of the card is from Brenda Pinnock Designs. The flowers are Prima and the leaves are cut out with a Crealies die. Enjoy x

Country Market Stash!

Well here are a few of the card's I have ready for the Country Market down at Rhos on Sea, Friday morning. It's quite a long time since I've done a market and am quite looking forward to it, well except for the early start and probably scraping ice off the windscreen! Am getting some general cards ready at the moment, so I will share them later. Thanks for looking Elizabeth x

Rainbow Ladies Challenge 126

Scrapbook page for a change.
The paper is from HOTP it reminded me of the checked shirt's my Grandpa used to wear for work. The photo has been printed out on to text and graphic paper as I wanted to keep the image as matt as possible, then mounted on to black mirri board.
The Kanban poppies have been stamped out using memento tuxedo black ink and coloured in with promarkers, then a touch of black glitter added in the centre of each one. They were cut out and added around the photo. The font is cut out from the Cindy Loo Cricut cartridge, I decided not to use the top layer as it was too fussy. The handsome tanned chap in the foreground was my Grandpa, a Royal Engineer that made it home, a fantastic pianist, bookworm and my playmate whilst growing up. My Hero.

Rainbow Ladies Challenge 125 Make a Picture

Better late than never!
The background is inked up in peeled paint, brushed corduroy, tumbled glass and black soot distress ink.
The very (ups) large stag is one of the new stamps from Lavinia. The tree's in the foreground are from Clarity and the background tree's and house are Hobby Art stamps all stamped in black soot.
Finished off with Art Institute glitter in crystal for the snow.

TIO Challenge 57 As you like it!

As Christmas "inchies" nearer thought I'd have a play with some festive stamps.
I used a combination of antique linen, faded jeans and peeled paint distress inks to create the backgound, and also the inchies. For a change I thought I would try the inchies at a different angle, making them in to a diamond pattern.
I used a Christmas theme plate from Crafty Individuals, which has got a fab selection of tree's, houses and loads of filler in stamps. I used memento tuxedo black ink to stamp the images at an angle, then added some extra colour with Lyra polycolour pencils.
We are lucky this time as the challenge is being sponsored by Crafty Individuals who have put some fab blog candy up as a prize. I would love to win as it's all seaside related, and as you know I live at the seaside. Fingers crossed.

Gothic Arches Challenge - Jester

Sorry the whole Jester thing had me laughing from the start!!
Started off by printing off the baby image then trimming in to an arch shape. Tinted with faded jeans, antique linen and shabby shutters distress ink. Added Fairies from Lavinia Stamps with memento tuxedo black ink, and a fab sentiment from Stamp Camp (USA) bought at Port Sunlight last weekend. Made the Jester hat myself, and ok I confess I am that Baby hehe xxx

Bah Humbug Challenge 39 Cuties

Here's my cute offering for Challenge 39.
The stamp is one of the Ladybug and Friends designs, stamped out with Memento tuxedo black, and coloured in using promarkers. Matted on to HOTP Christmas paper with the addition of a few silver snowflake peeloffs.

Rainbow Ladies Challenge 122 Around the World

With Rainbow Ladies challenge this week being "Around the World" I thought I would Christen one of my new stamps from Stamp Camp.
Venice is somewhre I would love to visit hence the stamped quote!
The scene was stamped out using Memento Tuxedo black ink then coloured in using Lyra polycolour pencils. The edge of the image has been given an aged look using brushed corduroy distress ink.
The stamps, passport and backing paper are out of one the HOTP Artsy collage books. Again the edge of the backing paper has been aged with the brushed corduroy distress ink.

Rainbow Ladies Challenge 121 Gothic Christmas

These Christmas stamps are from Artemio, I love the way they have a hand drawn look about them.
The holly was inked up using fired brick distress ink and the leaves were carefully inked up with peeled paint distress ink.
The edge of the arch was tinted using the peeled paint and a piece of cut and dry foam. The holly was then coloured in with lyra polycolour pencils. The noel was stamped with tuxedo black memento ink and again coloured with lyra polycolour pencils.

Bah Humbug Challenge 38 Across the Miles

Ups not quite straight but I am still getting used to my new set up, sorry.
For this card I have used one of the ladybug and Friends stamps and coloured it in using promarkers. Once the image was dry I sprayed over with iridescent spray and sparkle, and mounted it onto a Nellie Snellon die cut frame.
The background papers, sentiment and holly are all left over bit's form a Hot Off the Press kit from a couple of years ago.

TIO 55 Bead Dazzled!!

Better late than never !
The background of my tag is inked up in a mixture of antique linen, tattered rose and brushed corduroy distress inks.
Both the sentiment and the Lady are from the new range of acrylic stamps that Kanban brought out this month. They are stamped using memento tuxedo black ink and coloured in with lyra polycolours.
Bronze and clear gems were added as jewell's and the beads to creat the loop at the top of the tag, have been around in my stash for ages.

Gothic Arches Challenge Daisies

daisies galore!
Used a scrap piece of DCWV Pet Stack card stock and inked around the edges with brushed corduroy distress ink.
Stamped the Art Journey Carte Postal stamp with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and added daisies in an assortment of colours from my stash. Don't think I've ever used so many on one project before. The stamp was free in a goodie bag from Craft Stamper Magazine in May at Port Sunlight.

TIO 52 The Face

These are the stamps that were in our goodie bag, back in June from the Stamp Addict retreat.
The tag is inked up in a mixture of shades from the Big and Juicy "Waterfall" ink pad. Then over stamped with a crackle effect stamp in the darkest shade of the ink pad to add some depth.
The border, face and the butterflies were then added with memento Tuxedo black ink, and tinted using a mixture of pastel chalk pencils and Lyra polycolour pencils to add colour.

TIO 51 Die Cuts

Silk, Leather and Lace! Well Silkies any way!
Created the background of the tag with an Anna Griffin stamp using the faded jeans distress ink pad, along with antique linen to blend the colour down. Cut out the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals using scraps of leather, love both the texture and the smell. Also cut out the Tim Holtz Fanciful Flight in chipboard (old box from work!) coloured it with a mixture of silkies and then added some fantasy film behind the wings to add another texture the tag.
Really must buy a new camera as the flowers have a fab shape when they are not squashed by the scanner!!!!

TIO 50 Music

I know slapped leg's I'm late again!
Can't believe we are up to No: 50!
Inked up my tag with a mixture of tattered rose and dried marigold distress ink. Then added music notes and words from the "Joy" Curious by Design set with brushed corduroy distress ink. The rub on's are left overs from another project I'm working on, and the flowers are Prima.
Promise to be earlier for the next challenge xxx

TIO 49 Paper Roses

Oooow sorry I'm Frankie have been having a war with my camera. Have decided I need a new one after seeing how blurred this photo turned out!
I used the new Artylicious Essence of Nature cd rom for the papers. Cut out the tag shape and inked around the edges with brushed corduroy. I cut the flowers out of a co ordinating paper using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die, and also edges them in brushed corduroy. Created the roses in the usual way, loose one petal, then two etc. Sadly you can't see the stamped Clarity sentiment very clearly, I think I should have used a deeper shade of brown. Hey Ho!
Ups forgot to say I had changed the photo for the scanned image as it was slightly clearer, must have been the Lynx effect I was suffering at the time! Kids!!!. xxx

TIO 48 Say it with numbers

Inked up the tag with a mixture of inkadinks using an ink duster. Stamped the Anita's cat stamp on to some stamp board with memento ink and shaded around the edge. I then coloured the cat's eyes with a promarker.
The chipboard 9 was first coloured in with a mix of onyx satin and emerald satin silkies, left to dry and then coloured over with a green promarker. When that had dried out I went over with rock candy distress paint, sprinkling a little iridescent glitter in to the mix as an experiment! Used a Studio G alpabet set to spell out "Lives".

Rainbow Lady's Lavender and Lace Challenge 112

Well the feather found a home......... The background paper is from papercraft 4 you and the lavender and sentiment stamps are both freebies. The background of the lavender stamp was made with left over bits from playing with silkies and versafine ink. The brads and card stock were in a pack of Tim Holtz goodies from a couple of years ago. Where did the feather come from????????????? Might glitter the flower heads..... well maybe a little????

TIO 47 Shabby Chic

With feather or without?
This is my offering for Frankie's Tag It On Challenge this week Shabby Chic.
I had great fun creating the background with a mixture of Silkies, distress inks and a black versafine ink pad. The stamps are from the vintage sewing plate by Sam Poole for Creative Expressions, with the exception of the "Vintage Buttons" stamp which arrived in a goodie bag! I used the very gorgeous cosmic shimmer Lapis Black ultra thick embossing crystals for embossing, which are perfect for distressing. The lace is from my local Haberdashery shop in Llandudno, and the Antique Button's, well I collect them!

New Artemio Stamps

One for the boys today!
These stamps are from the Belgium Company Artemio and are great value for money! The main stamp consists of script, postage and a compass. This was stamped out using the Big and Juicy Spice pad and also added the Airplane from the same stamp set. The edges were inked with the Spice ink pad, and then colours were picked out using Lyra Polycolour pencils. The map was left over from another project and seemed to fit the bill perfectly. The card was covered in croc effect green paper and the images were added by using good old lick and stick photo corners!!! The "Dad" tag is from Hot off the Press and the idea was pure Harrison Ford!!!

Tio Challenge 46 Inchie by Inchie

Frankie's challenge this week was to include inchies, at least one stamp and only three colours.
I decided to go with a blue, green and black colour scheme and chose faded jeans, shabby shutters, peeled paint and memento black.
Inked up the tag in the two shades of green using a combo of an ink duster and blending tool. Cut out the inchies from some scrap Brenda Pinnock card stock and inked around their edges with faded jeans. Used various stamps some QVC specials and some Artemio. Added some extra colour with Lyra polycolour pencils and raised some of the inchies on foam pads.

Tio Challenge 45 Metallic

Bit of a change from last week's challenge!
Stamped up the background of the tag with brushed corduroy and added images in the same colour. Over stamped again using black staz on and darkened the edges of the tag a little more. Ran a piece of gold mirri card through the cuttlebug with the new Clockworks folder, distressed it with an old nail file and then inked over the whole thing with black staz on. Trimmed around part of the image and finished off by adding brads, paper clips and other metal pieces. I can't remember where the stamps are from as I've had them so long, great for backgrounds though.

Rainbow Lady's Art Deco Challenge

This is one of the free downloads I received this morning from Mad About Cards digi image shop.
Printed it out on to160gsm text and graphic paper, then mounted the images on to black stardream card before adding them on to the chocolate coloured base card. Added a message and some pearls to finish it off as I wanted to keep the design simple, elegant and unfussy.

Tio Challenge 44 Heart and Soul

I typed out my sentiment and printed it on to text and graphic paper, then using a mixture of fired brick, dried marigold and scattered straw I inked up my background around the edges.
The dragonfly and fern stamps are from Imagination Crafts by a company called Chapel Road Artstamps. I inked up both stamps with the fired brick ink and blotted before adding the images on to the tag. The smaller butterflies and dragonfly stamps are secret until this weekend! Guess you know where they came from then? I finished off by adding some extra colour by using my pastel chalk pencils, I love the delicate shading that you can get from these, and they work beautifully on matt cardstock!

Fun in the sun!

I am in so much trouble! How did we get to the 23rd? My friend's birthday, have bought all the pressie's but not wrapped or finished her card off! So funny I can't actually remember how old she is (due to too many holiday's telling fib's to get free drink's! ups!) All I can remember is she is younger than me......
Stamped out the Penny Black images with memento ink and coloured in using promarkers, which I might add are fab on stardream card. The main image was stamped out on Text and Graphic paper and mounted on to rust coloured card stock.