I am back in the groove!!!

At last I have found time for a little crafting and this card meets two challenges that I am keen to enter. The first is  The Play Date Cafe and the colour palette was chosen by Sarah this week, it was a little tricky not my usual choice of colour but I had a go anyway, after all it is a challenge!

This is the challenge colours and this is my finished card.

The background is distressed with both Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint and then stamped with two Hero Arts stamps in fact I have used 5 Hero Arts stamps in total (hope I haven't over done it ). This card also fits the challenge running over at Hero Arts this month the themes are 'Keeping in Touch' and 'Back to school'.
Its been hard to get my creative juices flowing again after the holiday but just checking out a few of my favourite blogs has helped.

Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps. S5213 Dots and Flowers, S4878 Old Letter Writing, F5158 Heart Winged Butterfly. CG119 Flourish Background . LL019 Ribbon Messages. Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint distress ink. Hero Arts Flowers.


Here are a couple more of my holiday photos, this first one is of a little church in the Piazza at  Cervo, I love the colour of the Bougainvillea plants growing all around Italy.

These colours are bound to inspire a card very soon!!!

I am sure if there had been a gust of wind this lady and her balloons in the Piazza in Torino would have taken off, the sky looks amazing in these photos and yes it really was that colour for the whole of the holiday, back in England its dark a gloomy today.

Hope you are enjoying the weekend, we are off to the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Bristol tomorrow, hope the weather improves!!

Sallyx

I am Back and I can't wait to craft!!!

I have just spent the last two weeks driving through France and Italy with my lovely hubby, we arrived home yesterday and now I  have some brilliant memories and a suitcase of washing! This photograph is of Cervo in Italy and it was the view from our apartment balcony in Liguria, Italy. This shot was taken in the evening sun, the light was amazing and I now know why artists have always flocked to the south of France and northern Italy to paint, I wish I was an artist as I was totally inspired but taking lots of photos was the best I could do!!

This is Hubby sitting outside a gorgeous little cafe in the town of Arles in southern France, Vincent Van Gogh spent many years here and painted lots of his most famous paintings in and around the town.

This stunning garden inspired this famous painting.

Now its back to reality, lots of washing and ironing to do and the garden is so overgrown its going to take ages to sort! I still need to craft though and have itchy fingers that need to stamp, hopefully I will have time at the weekend.  I will upload some more holiday photos as well and I promise to visit lots of blogs and catch up with all your cards!
Please keep an eye on my blog as I will be having a little giveaway next week for my one year blogaversary, as a way of saying thank you to all of you who have left me such encouraging comments.

I am off on holiday (Yipee)!!!!

These stunning apricot roses were a gift from a lovely mummy at my school, aren't they gorgeous the photograph doesn't do them justice really, they smell divine and the colour is much richer than shows here.
I was lucky enough to receive a few gifts including lots of yummy chocolates, check these out, it was a shame to eat them as each animal is a work of art.
Here are a couple of mini thank you cards that I have made, the first one isn't my usual style but I was inspired by Jenny's cards, they always make me smile.

This is a great thank you card for a child and I had fun creating the scene, as I have used lots of stamped images I will enter it in Jenny's current challenge.

The second one was made using stamped scraps from my scraps basket, it always feels good to use some up!
This will be my last post for two weeks as I am off to sunny Italy tomorrow, I can't wait!!  We are driving down through France and sightseeing in a few french towns before we get to the Ligurian coast. I shall take lots of photographs to show you while I am away.
Sallyx
Supplies for top card: Hero Arts Stamps,S5317 Starburst Lace, S5215 Clouds, CL383 Antique Engravings, B4972 Spot, . Bundled Sage, Broken China, Spiced Marmalade distress inks.

Supplies for bottom card: Hero Arts Stamps,CG102 Antique Brocade, S5135 Outline Flowers, Cuttlebug butterfly and chipboard butterfly.

Paper Play Colour challenge

I was so pleased with the design of the card in the last post that I decided to make another in a brighter colour combination.  The embossing powder that I used this time is Antique Verdigris and it creates a lovely greeny gold shimmer.  The base card is cream and I watermarked it with Versamark and the Hero Arts flourish background stamp, the edges are lightly distressed with Bundled Sage ink.

Week 29's challenge at the Paper Play blog is Blue, Cream and a colour of your choice, as you can see my colour is green! Just a quick post today lots of washing and ironing to sort for my holiday!
Sallyx
Supplies: Hero Arts StampsS5317 Starburst Lace, CG119 Flourish Background, CL383 Antique Engravings.  Bundled Sage distress ink.   Antique Verdigris embossing powder.

Play Date Cafe Challenge 39

I am doing a happy dance as last week I was the lucky winner of The Play Date Cafe Challenge 38 with this card.
For week 39 the colours are a little more challenging.  Julie Ranae was inspired by a trip to Dublin and a stay at The Russell Court Hotel and this is the colour palette they use.

I have had this lovely rich brown embossing powder in my stash for ages and its never really seen the light of day! At last it has proved that I didn't waste my money , the result is like molten chocolate and I will definitely be using it again.

The cream card is distressed with "Tea Dye" ink and the letter writing is also stamped with the same ink.  The ribbon is gathered onto some strong double sided tape to create the ruffled effect.

Yesterday the school where I work broke up for the summer holidays (Yipee!!) it has been a long tiring term so I am looking forward to relaxing for the next five weeks.  On Wednesday we are off to Italy for a fortnight,I can't wait!!
Sallyx
Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps,S5317 Starburst Lace, S4878 Old Letter Writing, CL383 Antique Engravings. Tea Dye distress ink.

Such a beautiful day!

Its been such a beautiful day here again that I was inspired to join in Jenny's challenge "Summer Fun".  I love this little beach hut stamp and had a few images already stamped onto some distressed backgrounds.  I have just got the Antique Engravings set from Hero Arts and the little shells fit perfectly with this design.  Then added a little bunting and attached it to an old postcard. 
The wording was the tricky bit so I decided to be brave and do it in my own handwriting, it hasn't turned out too bad!
Only three more days to the school holidays, I am really looking forward to the break as it has been a long tiring term.
Hope you are having a great week.
Sallyx
Supplies: Hero Arts Stamp CL383 Antique Engravings. The English Stamp Company Beach Hut.   Bundled Sage,  Broken China, Tea Dye, Wild Honey and Mustard seed , distress ink.

Vintage Birds

This is the colour palette chosen by Sarah this week at The Play Date Cafe ,  I have been so busy lately that I have not had time to play on this challenge for two weeks and I have really missed it.  I love colour challenges and they always choose great colours , this one is no exception, greens and lilacs go so well together.

I have had fun on this vintage style card using both digital images and traditional stamping. The vintage looking post card is from a digital image from Hero Arts called "Skyland Birds".

The background stamp is called Lace Background and is also Hero Arts , I stamped this in peeled paint, embossed in clear and then distressed.

I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend and only one more week till we break up from school for the summer, can't wait!!

Hope you all have a relaxing weekend too.
Sallyx
Supplies: Hero Arts Stamp S5341  Lace Background, Hero Arts Digital Kit  Skyland Birds,  Peeled Paint distress ink.

Starbust

Yipee at last I have found some time to make some cards!  I was inspired when I saw this amazing card by the lovely Pia in Denmark.  The Starburst Lace stamp by Hero Arts is really versatile and I have seen some beautiful cards in the flickr group, I also used my new cling Dots background, both these stamps were part of my prize for my June win.

The panel is distressed with Tea Dye ink and lightly stamped with Old Letter Writing also a Hero Arts Stamp.  The Moxie Fab World current challenge is classy and elegant, so I am entering these cards.






















This small card is just 2inches by 5 3/4 and is made with the scrap from a home made card blank, the background paper is Basic Grey.

Hope you are having a good week.
Sallyx
Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps  S5317 Starburst Lace, S4878 Old Letter Writing,  Tea Dye distress ink. Pirate Gold embossing powder.  Basic Grey Papers.

My Garden

Just a few photographs of some of the pots in my garden, its been such a busy couple of weeks that I haven't had time for crafting.  My daughter has been home from University and its also been so busy at the school where I work.  We are coming up to the end of term (only a week and a half to go and then 6 weeks off yipee) and there is always so much to do in the office at this time of year!
Sorry if I have not visited your blogs recently, I am hoping to catch up a bit this week.
Sallyx

Spotty Poppies.

This beautiful poppy has been self seeded into my garden and what a stunning colour it is, a gorgeous pink with these burgundy dots.
I was inspired to play again with my poppy stamp and came up with this.

Its not a brilliant picture as its dull here today, never mind you can still see the effect I was trying to achieve.  The background and poppy stems are all done with distress inks to create a soft watery looking background.  The poppy heads are cut from pink BoBunny spot paper.
I have had a really busy week and its the first card I have had time to make since last weekend I am going to add this to sweet Jennys challenge this week, which is a "Free for All" you can post any card you make between 11p.m. Saturday and the end of the challenge.
Hope you are all enjoying your weekend.
Sallyx