Weekly Stills #4

Hello everyone, I hope that you have all had a good week. I have been away again, and those of you that know me through Facebook will have seen that I celebrated my Wedding Anniversary in London over the weekend. The Hotel organised a little surprise in our room for our arrival:

It was such a nice surprise for me anyway, and not the only surprise that I had that weekend. My OH had also spoken to the restaurant, who presented my dessert on a special plate!

We had a jam packed weekend, visiting St. Paul's Cathedral, somewhere we have tried to visit several times, missing the opportunity, due to a busy schedule in the cathedral.

En route to another part of London, we stumbled across a bronze statue dedicated to the Jewish children who came here during the war, it captured my imagination:

On Saturday, we went to Spitalfields Market, a really bustling area, full of lively stalls and lots of great gift ideas. We spent several hours wandering through the market and looking at the perimeter shops, grabbing some lunch along the way:

We then headed to Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park, a huge German style market with an ice skating rink and all sorts of Christmas related things going on. It was very busy, and sadly, we did not have time to even see a fraction of what was on offer:

We headed off to our main destination of the evening. We had to walk, as the tubes were so congested, and took lots of photographs along the way:

 

We finally made it to the theatre to see a performance of 'Dance Till Dawn' by Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace who you might know from 'Strictly Come Dancing'. The Show was fabulous, fantastic dancing, beautiful music, and brilliant costumes.

It's a grey November day here, but at least it's not raining. I've had a wander around the garden, and along the street where we live, (not that you can see our house as we are tucked away).

It's very quiet in my village, apart from the occasional tractor!

This coming week we will be visiting some Christmas Markets, and as we head into December, our thoughts will be turning towards Christmas preparations. I tick another Birthday off the list, and have a couple of meals to look forward to celebrating the event. So, I will be back next week hopefully older and a little wiser!

Thanks for stopping by,

Autumn Mushrooms

Hello everyone, I have a couple of DT projects to show you today, showcasing the Autumn Edges stamp set. On my first card, I wanted to show how well the various stamp sets from Chocolate Baroque mix and match together, so I have used the Nature Table stamp set alongside the mushroom edge stamp to create an Autumn scene.

I began by stamping the mushroom border and a mushroom cluster from the Nature Table stamp set along the bottom of the card. I used a permanent black pen to add a few lines to join them together. I masked the images before stamping the mushrooms on a tree twice on the left hand side of the page. I drew a continuation of the tree to the top of the page, adding in some detail on the tree, and again masked all of these images.

I coloured the background with Brushos, using a combination of yellow and orange, with a hint of violet, until I was happy with the overall colour. I dried the background with my heat gun, and then added foliage stamping along the edges and behind the mushrooms, using various shades of archival inks. I used bleach to remove the colour from some of the foliage, and then proceeded to colour all of the images with watercolour pencils. I also coloured the foreground with watercolour pencils.

I stamped lots of small leaves onto oddments of scrapbook paper and other bits of backing paper that I had left over from various projects, and stuck these onto the card, some on the ground, and some tumbling down randomly, as if they were falling from the trees overhead.

 

I am aware that this first card might seem a bit daunting to a beginner, and so I wanted to show how a much simpler card could be made using the same mushroom stamp, taking much less time, but producing a really pretty card nonetheless. I made a mask with an oval aperture in the centre, which I placed onto a piece of smooth watercolour paper. I then stamped the mushroom border onto the paper, and coloured it using Distress Inks and a waterbrush. I used a loose style, not trying to be too precise. I used Pumice Stone and Weathered Wood Distress Inks to colour the mushrooms. I dried the image and then covered it with the mask that I had used from my first card. I added a small circle mask to represent a moon, and then coloured the sky, using a combination of three Distress Inks in Dried Marigold, Stormy Sky and Seedless Preserves. I removed the circle mask and added a little bit of Weathered Wood to soften the starkness of the moon, before swiping some Mustard Seed Distress Ink across the moon and a bit of the sky to either side.

I removed the mushroom mask, and coloured the tops of the mushrooms with a bit of Mustard Seed DI as well, to represent the light from the moon. I then coloured in the ground with a bit of Milled Lavender. I added a streak of Mustard Seed for the moonlight, deciding where it would shine.

I stamped the sentiment taken from the Bewitched Moonlight stamp set, and a fairy from the Summer Fairy stamp collection using Versafine Onyx Black Ink.

A much quicker card, and hopefully something that would appeal to the CAS lovers out there as well. I hope that I have given you some inspiration with these versatile stamps. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Weekly Stills #3

Hello everyone, welcome back to another look at life in Norfolk  and anywhere I might have been during my weekly travels.

This week, I popped to Ely, in Cambridgeshire to a food and gift fair held in the Minster. It was extremely busy, as it is a very popular event. The stalls were full of lovely Christmas gift ideas, and lots of tasty foodie treats from all over the country. We did have to sample a few things. The atmosphere in the cathedral was really uplifting, with the Christmas lights hung about.

 I have a favourite spot along one of the corridors where there is a section of modern stained glass.

Outside there were a couple of reindeer, not something you see every day. I was concerned that they might be unhappy with the people milling about, but they were eating their food in a nice large enclosure, which was tucked away in a quiet spot for them.

I have been crafting away this week, using my pencils on lots of projects. Here are just two of my collections. My watercolour pencils, and my Polychromos pencils in the wooden box with drawers. My box is in dire need of a make over these days, as I cart it all over the country, and it is looking a bit battered.

Finally, I just wanted to show you my tote bag that I received today. It is based on a piece of original artwork painted by my friend and boss at Chocolate Baroque, Glenda Waterworth. She has finally bitten the bullet and decided to go commercial. I love the vibrant colours in this bag.

Well, I'm off to London tomorrow for my Wedding Anniversary weekend with my best friend and OH, they are one and the same person, I'm not taking two people with me, lol! So, who knows what I might have to show you next week. I hope to see you then, thanks for stopping by,

Challenge Five for Chocolate Baroque

Hello everyone, there is a new challenge starting over on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge blog today, using some delicious new colours and a piece of original artwork from my Design team mate Shirley. I have made a project as part of a collection of inspirational projects from the Design Team girls, and thought that I would post it here with an explanation of how I put it together.

I started with a smooth piece of watercolour paper, and stamped my focal image, the feisty angel from the Gothic Angels stamp set, and then created a mask to cover the image. I stamped and embossed a bauble image from the Ivy Trails clear stamp set using Versamark and clear embossing powder repeatedly along both sides of the background. I used a mixture of Memento Inks and Distress Inks, to get the colours that I wanted. I covered the background randomly, blending the colours into each other. I used Milled Lavender, Peacock Feathers, Grape Jelly and Lilac Posies for your information.

Once I had covered the background completely, I ironed off the embossing powder, by covering the card with paper, and ensured that all of the embossing had disappeared completely, by replacing the paper a few times. I then stamped the ivy branches over the top of the embossed areas. I stamped the ivy again onto teal coloured scrapbook paper and decoupaged the leaves.

I coloured the angel with watercolour pencils and added a touch of turquoise glitter to the large circle around her head. Finally, I chose a deep teal card as the base for my background.

 

Well, that is another Christmas card completed! I hope that it has given you a little bit of inspiration and that you will hop over to the challenge blog to see what my team mates have been up to. Remember, you stand a chance of winning a £15 voucher to spend at Chocolate Baroque if you enter the challenge, so why not have a go at making something and enter yourself? Thanks for stopping by,

Weekly Stills #2

Hello everyone, I'm just popping in with another snapshot of what I've been up to this week. It's another mixed bag for you, Poppy is into my knitting bag, she just loves bags of all sorts, and wants to be in on the action.

 

 

  The Winter pansies are out in the garden, so I thought that I would capture them while they are in bloom.

 

 

 I've been wandering around Cambridge, and so there are a few pictures of my time in the city. I always love this view in the park, it's so pretty in the Summer, but even at this time of year it looks lovely:

 

 This is our walk into town, and you can see lots of other shoppers are on their way in and out as well:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I've also included a skyscape from across the Fens, showing how flat part of our local countryside can be. If you go two miles in the opposite direction, we are surrounded by thick forest, we live in an area of great diversity.

  A couple of food related treats from across the week...

 

 

Finally my WIP from last week which I promised my play day friends that I would finish:

I'll be back next week with another slice of life, thanks for stopping by,

Ten Minute Makes

Hello everyone, we are quite often aware that our Design Team cards are elaborate and complicated, which can be a bit off-putting for a newbie or less experienced crafter. With this in mind, we are running a series of 'Ten Minute Makes' over on the Design Team Blog, showing some simpler designs.  I have a couple of quick cards for you today, using the Mellow Fruitfulness stamp set. For my first card, I punched out four squares of smooth watercolour paper from my stash of scrap card, but any smooth card will do. I coloured three of the stamps using Distress Markers, and then stamped them onto the squares. I embossed them with clear embossing powder. I used one of the sentiments for the fourth square. I used Festive Berries Distress Ink to add a bit of colour to all of the edges of the squares. To finish the card, I simply chose some deep red card, and a piece of gingham ribbon. The ribbon reminded me of jam jar covers, so I felt that it fitted the theme quite well.

I quite liked one of the images on my first card, and so I decided to use it again on my second card.I stamped it again onto a die cut oval, embossing it as before with clear embossing powder, and adding a touch of red Distress Ink around the edges. I chose another sentiment which I turned into a little tag with the addition of a hole and some string.

I found some gingham paper in my stash and used some more of the red card, with a touch of green ribbon this time, to tie all of the elements together.

 

Two very quick cards, using these lovely stamps, showing that you do not have to spend ages to create a fun project. I hope that I have given you some inspiration, thanks for stopping by,