Sugar Nellie love

Whilst in my " let's look through my stash" phase I have found loads of Sugar Nellie stamps that I love, but they have not all been inked!  This one is pretty I think, very dreamy! It has been very simply coloured with promarkers....but I think it suits this style. I'm going to enter it in to the sugar nellie challenge blog which is anything goes.

Christmas before you know it!

I have been sorting out my craft stuff and succeeded in finding things that have been long forgotten including my promarkers, so they came out for this little cutie! It's a di's digi download and it is still available over at Di's store.

Animals acting like humans.

Over at Dis digi designs challenge. The challenge this week is animals acting like humans. These sweet sewing mice caught my eye and I enjoyed colouring then in with promarker! I have been trying to destash and all I am succeeding in doing is digging stuff out and saying "ooh I like that! " then I use it and don't get rid of it! I am using stash up though!

Last Lili of the week.

Such a cute Teddy, carrying his presents on his sledge! This Lili of the valley stamp is called " Christmas bears sledge" bet that took a lot of thinking about! I have dug out a martha stewart punch for this one and again been using up the Lakeland sentiments. Papers are old papermania ones that are a little glittery and sparkly, which sadly doesn't show up very well. Anyway, it's Friday everybody so enjoy the weekend. x

Light the lamp

Love these sweet carol singers and just loved colouring these sweeties. Papers from my stash...yep old ones! Bits of left over ribbon and the snowflake is a noor design one, sorry cant' rememebr the number or name. The stamp I have used is a Lili of the Valley one and it's called " In the lamplight"

Retired stamp

This little sweetie is now retired from Lili of the valley. It's called Christmas magic. She has such a sweet little face. Hardly any doilies left now and that's the last of that red ribbon and only a couple of the hearts left. Plenty of papers still to go though! At this rate I'll be able to buy new papers in several years time!

Feeling Blue?

I just love these little cuties posting their letter, probably to Santa! I'm still on my quest to use up bits and pieces! So I have used very old papers from several years ago, doilies...I only have a few of these left now and scraps of card to cut the snowflake. The little heart stick on was a freebie from a magazine a while back....so yay my stash is reducing...be it very slowly! The stamp I have used is called Festive Post, but at the time of writing I see that it's out of stock.

Christmas is coming!

Whilst I was away on holiday I coloured in a little stash of Lili of the valley images. Some of them, I am ashamed to say, have never been inked up, so I have decided to go through them all and use every single one! That should keep me busy! I just love colouring and These images are just so cute and cry out for lots of pretty patterened paper and embellishments. I can't resist them. being a good girl though I  am trying to reduce my craft stash by using up neglected embellishments, or sentiments, ribbons etc, so that I can buy more once it's all gone! Ha hum.....that's what I have told hubby as he looked at my paper mountain!! We don't talk about the stamps....it's easier not to! So first up is this cutie. The papers are very old ones from my stash , the ribbon is a snippet that was in my stash, and the sentiment is years old. the stamp I used is called Winter walk and is still available to buy at Lili of the valley. My image has been coloured with copics, my favourite colouring medium.

Crafty thoughts!

I met my friend Kathy yesterday at the tollgate tea rooms, which is a lovely little place serving enormous tea cakes, real tea with proper tea leaves, excellent if you like the taste of tea and a snug, cosy feel to it, even if the wood panelling did attack my ankle as I opened the front door, and the lights went out and the parking spaces were quite limited as it was busy! Anyway, catching up with Kathy was lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed our natter about the important things in life like stash, what you use most, haven't touched for years and the shocking truth you are faced with once you look at how much of it you have! Kathy told me about the summer club she had been involved with and told me that she had loads of patterend paper that she hadn't used and some things she had given to a friend as she no longer used which included peel offs. She also talked of being liberated to paint....this set me thinking once I got home. I too have loads of stash...I NEED it all you understand, but some of it has been very neglected and at the time cost a fair bit of money. I looked through my colouring mediums and discovered some LYRA aquacolour crayons. I dusted them off and thought to myself I wonder! "Liberation " ran through my ears and brain!!

I spritzed the back of this stamp with water and scribbled........yes SCRIBBLED three colours on to the back of it I then pressed down..........oh............not a very crisp outline and a bit splodgy. In temper I stamped it again, trying to remove the colour and low and behold my second print was much better. Rightly or wrongly I then got hold of a black fine liner and thought I'd try to define the image... Ok , it's not perfect and a wee bit clunky, but I think I might try this again with a different stamp as I quite like the effect it gives. It's sooooo different from my normal work and is VERY CAS for me! It's better from a slight distance than close up, but for quickness and easiness, I think it's great!

 

Then I thought about the peel offs that Kathy had talked about. I have loads of them and I do use the fine lined ones but can't remember the last time I used the more solid ones.  I dug out my promarkers this time and I haven't used them for ages either, some of them were not in a good way! I also dug out my buttons and I realised I do have a button addiction, but they don't get used! I quite like this for quickness and simplicity too.

It's amazing when I look back at old cards that I made using the same ingredients, how much more stylish the results are. I thought this would make a lovely little notelet to send .

 

So thanks Kathy, our trip out was very productive. Next weekend I'm going to dig out some more " old stash" and I'm going to enjoy using it in new ways!

 

Fabulous fall colours

Over at Dis' digi downloads challenge the challenge this fortnight is fabulous fall colours. This is very appropriate here as the council have drastically cut back the trees behind our garden. You would not believe how much light has flooded back in to our house and oddly how much it has lifted both mine and my hubby's mood! It has also shown up the dust, but hey that's a good thing because it's forced me to declutter some stuff as well. Anyway moving swiftly on, this is my little effort for the challenge. Loved colouring this little cutie and enjoyed making the huge bloom as well!

Off out this afternoon with a crafty pal for a coffee and I see that the sun has come out....in the misheard words of my four year old nephew....." The sun has got his "hap"on....hip hip, hip hip hooray." Bless..he started school this week and after his first visit he said " I don't think I'll go there again, I didn't think much of it!" His next visit, he asked his mum how long he had to stay and she told him " two hours" so he promptly went up to his teacher and said " I'm only staying for two minutes mind!"

Happy Birthday

Here's the card I made for my dear auntie' s birthday today. The image is from di' s digi downloads. Love these cute mice.