Alphabetise Your Life

Hello Everyone
A few months ago I was lucky enough to receive Ornate Alphabet by Oxford Impressions to play with and knew immediately what my first makes would be, personalised key chains as gifts for friends.
Back in April I made a keychain using Stampbord which I  enjoyed making, knowing I would make some more in the future. The Ornate Alphabet set allowed me to bring a  personal touch to this gift idea.You can possibly guess which friend this was made for!Unusually, a very short post from me!
Thank You for your visit to my Blog today.
Wishes
Lynne

A Sweet Giveaway! (Now Closed)

Hello Everyone
I have something to Giveaway today.
May is a month which is brimming over with birthdays, including my dear Mum who celebrated a special birthday and my own birthday will be any day now.  When we celebrate our birthdays we are the ones on the receiving end of beautiful gifts, cards and possibly birthday cake  so I thought it would be nice to be the one to give something to one of you lovely people.
Crafty Individuals have an abundance of fabulous stamps but I opted for this Alice Palace design because the cupcakes are as close to birthday cake as I could get and also it has a sense of fun and celebration.
It is packaged as one stamp but when I used this stamp myself, I cut around the individual elements.
(Please note that this is brand new.  The blue pen mark at the top of the package is where the person wrote the price of the stamp with a biro pen. )Would you like to win this stamp?
If yes,  then leave a comment and your name will go into the hat to be randomly selected on 5th June. The winner’s name will be announced here so keep a look out.
Good Luck!
Lynne x

How Much Is That Doggie?

Hello Everyone
One of the pure pleasures of connecting with others through our passion for creating and our blogs is to be on the receiving end of art arriving through the mail.
I was lucky enough to win a Giveaway held by the lovely Corrie (MadeByChook).  Corrie is a wonderful artist and our styles might be quite far removed from each other but I can tell you that I find her artwork to be inspirational, fresh and so often it is brimming with humour.
I might not have a dog but I love dogs and I am Auntie to a very old furry chap who goes by the name of Kyle.  Kyle is my sister and BIL’s west highland white terrier and he is the grand old age of 15+.    I hope he won’t be too jealous when he sees these rather adorable triplets!!!

(I did receive Corrie’s permission to share her postcard on my Blog)Corrie, thank you for randomly selecting my name to be the lucky winner.  It is a privilege to be the owner of a piece of your art.
If you have not visited Corrie’s Blog before then it would be lovely if you managed to find the time to pay her a visit and admire more of her art.
Wishes
Lynne

UPA Spotlight – Fabric Frenzy

Hello Everyone
Today I am delighted and honoured to share the news that over at Unruly Paper Arts (UPA) my Fabric Frenzy Guest Designer project is being showcased.
A little peek …I share my use of Lesley Riley’s Transfer Artist Paper with a photo real stamp and also transforming cotton fabric with paint and stamps.
Thank you to UPA for having me as their Spotlight Artist for May.
Wishes
Lynne

Hot Chocolate, Drinking Chocolate

Hello Everyone
The final Sunday for this month sees me dipping into products which I have used on all the cards shared at That’s Crafty for the month of May.  Maybe not the exact same products but definite similarities:- stamp company, stencils, paints and tags.The project with instructions and supply list and of course, detail photographs, can be viewed HERE, along with an explanation for the title!
Have a lovely Sunday whatever your plans may be for today.
Wishes
Lynne

The Lone Butterfly

Hello Everyone
If you are a regular visitor to my Blog then you probably have read that this year has seen me dig out my Twinkling H20s, after too long being neglected by me.  It was when I had them out for other DT posts that I continued playing with them, making this Darkroom Door card featuring a stunning butterfly from the aptly titled, Butterflies stamp set.
If you would some more information on this card then you can view the post over at the Darkroom Door Blog.
I’ve always liked paints, in fact, paints are something I immediately incorporated into my stamping from the very outset, using old art supplies I already owned then sourcing paints from the local DIY store for heritage colour emulsion paints and the local supermarket for children’s metallic paints, happily combining them with my traditional artist supplies.  Then, via a stamping group, I discovered Twinkling H20s.  One of the reasons why I particularly like Twinkling H20s, is for their watercolour nature with the added bonus of that subtle shimmer.For this card I had in mind a dreamy, painterly background with one of the larger butterflies from the stamp set as the focal.
When making backgrounds like this I find it so therapeutic, allowing the paint to do the work and knowing that there will never be two backgrounds the same.  With some subtle stamping and my favoured paint flicks, the background was complete.I usually never have a strong idea of what a piece will look like on completion but what is normal is for me to have a few keywords that I keep in my head. That sounds really pretentious, doesn’t it!!!! So for this card I knew from the outset that I wanted a lone  butterfly as the focal with the words floating around in my head:- painterly background, texture and fragments of richness.
I love transforming ordinary pieces of paper with paint. Simple pleasures! The final pieces of adornment for this card. I would say that anyone who loves butterflies would love this set as there is a beautiful range of sizes and styles of butterflies.
It is possible I might not be around much at the weekend but I do have my usual That’s Crafty sneaky peek post scheduled for Sunday 25th. Hopefully I will be able to visit as many of you during Friday but if not, I will try and catch-up with your Blog posts as soon as possible.
Have a lovely weekend.
Wishes
Lynne

Amongst The Flowers (Guest Artist for Altered Pages)

Hello Everyone
It was such a lovely surprise to be invited by  Altered Pages  to be their Guest Designer.
From the outset I knew that I would work with fabric and Lesley Riley’s TAP but it was such a difficult choice selecting which collage image sheet to work with.   However I had to go with the Flower Maidens image sheet as it is brimming with stunning images and one of my all time favourites is the one I eventually decided to feature as the focal on my fabric wall hanging.Whether a collage image or rubber stamp, she has long been a favourite of mine, I like the dreamy quality to it.Last year my lovely friend Dorthe gifted me trims which she had stained with berries. There was one piece in particular which I was saving for a rainy day, waiting for the perfect project to use it. It appears to be a piece cut from a vintage linen tablecloth, trimmed with crochet lace which Dorthe had stained a lovely deep berry colour.  I noticed when I printed the image onto TAP that the colours of some of the flowers would match perfectly with the stained linen.  What made the linen all the lovelier to work with as a base for the wall hanging, there were pretty stitched elements which you can see peeking at the right side of the photograph above.
I was keen to add flowers somewhere onto the hanging but somehow fabric flowers weren’t working and paper flowers didn’t look right either, not for the feeling I wanted to exude, so I delved into my stash of pressed flowers, selecting what are favourites of mine.  A few scattered down the side creates a pretty border and adds another texture to the panel.  I  favour rugged textures, such as the burlap (and the corrugated cardboard) against soft, feminine textures, in this instance the flower petals.One of my favourite trims at the moment is this creamy, rose lace.Initially I planned on stamping a sentiment relating to nature but my eyes happened to fall on a rubber stamp depicting one word, Moments. In my eyes, perfect, reminding the viewer that we should all take the time to savour moments throughout our day.It was fun creating this wall hanging with an Altered Pages image and an honour to be their Guest Artist.
I know you are all such busy people but if you would like to visit Altered Pages to read my short post, then that would be lovely.
Thank You for your visit.
Wishes
Lynne

The elegance and grace of her

Hello Everyone
It is time I shared with you some Darkroom Door DT samples, focusing on, for this post,  one of the new collage stamps, Lady Lace.
Both cards have already appeared at the Darkroom Door Blog so if you want further information on supplies or instructions then please visit HERE.
When I set out making the two cards for some strange reason I selected, black, white and grey, colours I don’t work with that often, maybe the colour palette suited the feel of this stamp, I really don’t know.  The eagle eye amongst you will  notice that as well as the black, white and grey another colour makes an appearance, a colour which some might say breaks the rules but I am not that structured when working with colours, so I am more than happy to allow that almost creamy colour which is the natural colour of the vintage paper and the cream lace to make an appearance.French women are always deemed as being elegant so I just had to use this Darkroom Door stamp on the card.The second card is a variation on the theme. For both cards I stamped Lady Lace in the same way, I like the added hint of texture achieved from working with a stamp in this way.One of the reasons I like to work with collage style stamps is taking the time to study the stamp to see what elements I can stamp, providing me with stamped elements to add to my card.  On both cards I used the lace edge and on the second card you can see in the photograph below that I also made use of the text on the stamp.Graceful ….. with pearls and a flower.
Thank You for visiting my first post for this brand new week.
Wishes
Lynne

A Walk In The Garden With Maude

Hello Everyone
Yes, that time of the week once again when I share with you a sneak peek at my latest offering over at the That’s Crafty Blog.
If you would like to take a walk in the garden with Maude then please visit the That’s Crafty Blog for the full project, supply list and instructions.
Enjoy your Sunday.
Wishes
Lynne

That’s Krafty – That’s Crafty Challenge Blog

Hello Everyone
A short post to announce some details of the new challenge theme at That’s Crafty Challenge Blog.
The new theme, which is now underway is That’s Krafty – you must use Kraft card somewhere on your entry.  For all other entry details please visit the Challenge Blog. It is well worth your while entering as the prize is a That’s Crafty gift voucher.
Good Luck and Happy Krafting!
Lynne