Just a reminder

Just to remind my followers that I've posted my Art Doll on our sister blog Craft Stamping Quartet today. Please pop over and have a look if you are interested. There is a detailed explanation of how I made her on the blog. Don't forget to leave me a comment over there if you take a look! Thanks, Judith x

My Dad and other matters

I am a bad blogger at the best of times, and I appreciate my loyal followers who put up with that, and still take the time to comment on my cards and other bits and pieces. I am posting today, because I don't know when I shall get the chance to post again. I have to go and stay at my Mum and Dad's house which is an Internet-free zone, aaaaargh! Seriously though, some of you know that my Dad is unwell, he has had two bleeds into the brain, and last week, he had a serious fall, banging his head. He was rushed into hospital, and had some blood clots removed from his brain. The fall itself brought the bleeds to the Doctors' attention, or they may have gone unnoticed for goodness knows how long. Dad then unfortunately got the dreaded bug that goes around hospital, and had to go into a side ward, as the ward was closed down. Eight other people got it too. He is making a good recovery now, and I am waiting for his impending discharge from hospital, before going back up to help out for a few days. I was actually staying at their house when he went into hospital, but was out for the day at the Harrogate Show. I live four hours drive away from them, and it is very hard knowing when to be there for them.
I am posting a couple of pictures today of Tent Cards . I made these with my class last week, having seen samples throughout Blogland, and thought that they looked fairly simple. I have not gone overboard with the embellishments, as I wanted to make them as samples for the class to follow. I have used a LOTV stamp in one and an Elusive Images Butterfly in the other.

I am also posting a few sneaky peeks of my Art Doll project which I will be posting in it's entirety tomorrow on our sister blog Craft Stamping Quartet It's an Art Doll with a twist, a bit quirky, but aren't they all? Elaine and Lesley have already posted theirs, they are gorgeous, and Jo will be following me on Thursday, (shh, that's April Fool's Day!) I will also be announcing the project that I have chosen for us to tackle in April.

She is a tall lady,  she stands about 32 cms high on her cotton reel! But as you have read in previous posts, my cotton reels are larger than life anyway. I needed a large cotton reel because of a certain element of the construction, and I can say no more at this point! You will have to wait until tomorrow. Bye for now, Judith x

Mother's Day

Well, I hope all of you Mums out there had a lovely Mother's Day, and everyone else had a lovely weekend. I thought I'd show you my two 'babies', firstly about eighteen years ago, (Megan, if you're reading my blog, look away, now!) and then a more recent, much loved photo that I have near a favourite seat of mine. I had a very lovely card from Megan that made me a bit teary, because the sentiment was so thoughtful, and a hand written letter from Ryan. Both told me how they felt about me as a Mum, and I was quite taken aback, and very moved that they wanted to let me know.
I must have done something right over the years! I am very proud of them both, and don't show them to you, but this once, I'm making an exception.

I've been playing with a newish stamp today, it's the Hero Arts Dandelion Frame Cling stamp. It's a lovely stamp, and I'm sure that I will make lots of cards with this stamp. I have stamped it a few times using different coloured inks onto patterned paper for potential cards, I also plan to stamp it onto acetate as an overlay.

 On my finished card however, I have stamped it onto a piece of card that I have sprayed with Glimmer Mists. I have mounted this onto a piece of pearlescent card, punched out some little butterflies with a Martha Stewart punch, and added an Elusive Images fairy, whose wings I have coloured with Inktense pencils. I have matted the whole thing onto a piece of patterned Artylicious paper from The 'Echoes of Italy' pack which I have stamped with a thistle stamp. This again was matted onto the pearlescent card. I have used a little bit of Stickles on the butterflies and the fairy's wings. The detail on this stamp is fantastic, if you click on one of my pictures, it will enlarge it for you, so that you can have a better look. I have really tried to get my photos in focus for you! Thanks for looking, Judith x

I love wood

Today is a good day, I got home from work in the rain, to find a post box full of post, containing my ticket for the GNPE Show at Harrogate next weekend. Next, there was a carrier bag on my door handle from my woodturning friend Tony. I am so happy! On Tuesday evening, I was discussing the possibility of him making me a large replica of a wooden cotton reel for a project on our sister blog Craft Stamping Quartet because a normal cotton reel would be too small for the project that I have in mind, and three days later, he has made me three beautiful, gorgeous, lovely, marvellous, to die for,  large cotton reels. Wow!

See what I mean? He is such a gentleman, when I went on the Graphicus Retreat, in November, I asked him if he had any ephemera that I could use, and he gave me approx 30 half wood turned mushrooms which I shared out among everybody and we used them on our mini canvases.Most of us used them to look like trees in the end, but they look just great. I love the tactile nature of wood, especially after he has polished it . We live in a house with oak floors, and oak beams. We have oak doors with latches on them, so we have a woody theme going on there too. Our garden is full of fruit trees, (and chickens!), and when I look out of my craft room window, I can see trees. The rain has stopped now, and the sun is shining, see, I told you it was a good day! Judith x

Mother's Day

THIS IS MY SECOND POST TODAY, PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO READ MY EARLIER POST.

Well my Mother's Day cards this year were dictated by what I was teaching my card making class. I am currently going over backgrounds. Last week, we covered direct to paper with ink pads, and then stamped over the top with images to create a fabric like background. We then used some lovely Elusive Images Flower stamps as our main images which we either watercoloured with Distress Inks, or coloured with Inktense pencils. I have done one of each. Personally, I prefer the orange toned card, which is unlike me, because I used Glossy Accents on the bulb jar, and the Distress Inks ran slightly. I also prefer the backing paper on the orange one. That one is intended for my MIL, but as my Mum doesn't read my blog, she'll never know!

I also had another attempt at making one of those faux porcelain flowers with my brand new Melt Pot. I have lots of ideas for what else I'd like to try, but not enough hours in the day. Maybe another time. Thanks for looking, Judith x

Totally Gorjuss Challenge

I decided to enter the following card into this week's Totally Gorjuss Challenge using the sketch provided.

 I love the DPs that I have used, which I have hoarded for ages by Kelly Panacci. I have used an image from Mo Manning which I have coloured with Coloursoft pencils and Zest it. A piece of velvet ribbon and a flower made with my Blossom Nesties, edged with DIs and Glossy Accents finishes the card. The huge brad is from a pack that I bought at the Hobby House stand at Stamperama a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for looking, Judith x