Carol of the Bells and a Happy Christmas :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6x-pjVL67A

Happy Christmas to all my blogging friends! I hope that you have a peaceful and happy time.

Apologies for my absence yet again, life has just got terribly busy. I'm hoping to join you all here again in the new year, hugs Gay xxxx

Oh My Gosh!!

What a lucky lady I am, Hello my lovely friends, yup I'm back from my break. Exhausted, spoiled and jet lagged but a happy crafter resides here tonight!

Guess who I met on my hols?

wanna clue?

Okay, yes, I actually shook the hand of Emerson Quillin, perhaps you may not have encountered this talented chap before but I have been a fan of his humour and expertly drawn images for many years now. I was like a giddy groupy and he was totally underwhelmed, understandable really I mean, how could he have ever heard of little ol 'mustavcoffee'?? Or even Gay from the UK?? LOL
He really didn't know what to make of this mad woman from the UK but was happy to sell me some of his stamps at a bargain price, YES !!! What a lucky chap, fancy living on that fabulous Island!

This is his studio and shop, look palm trees people :D

Click on his name for the link to his website where you will find all sorts of fun stuff!!!!
HERE is a link of a card that I made with on of his stamps, a card for my lovely friend and crafty buddy Darnell

 Then to top it off as Hubby and I were on our way back to Blighty, we took a little detour and visited Whim So Doodle in St Petersburg, WOW I could happily spend a day or two going through this wonderful store! They were very kind and welcoming :D
So, many dollars lighter I arrived home early this morning, itching to get crafting again.
Thank you for your patience my friends, whilst I pull myself together, hugs to you all, Gay x

A little R&R

Hi Folks,
Have taken some time away, rest and recouperation. Hopefully I'll be joining you all and posting again soon.
I hope the world is being kind and the sun shines for you,
Hugs from Gay xx

So sad.

RIP Lynn Everson, 

13/3/1950   15/10/2014

 My wonderful sister lost her battle with cancer. This is her with my grand daughter.

MIA again!!!

Just a quick post to say sorry for my absence, my dear Sis is very unwell. I hope your weeks' have been a lot better. And I also hope you will forgive my not returning your comments, it's a hard time.
Hugs Gay xx
Update, 7/10/14
Thank you so much for your support lovely friends :) xx

Get your SPOOK on ......

That's the call from the lovely Carol over at the Stampotique Designer's Challenge this week!! Hi folks, hope I find you bright eyed and bushy tailed? I hope so and if not I hope you are real soon :D
I made a card,

Run for your lives they're coming to get you !!!!!!
Spooky skulls from the Stampotique Halloween cube 2 This one is full of spooky pumpkins too, it is my favourite, so big smiles here, I have teamed it with Spider Wings, another favourite!!
Have a great weekend folks, Hugs Gay xx

Colours!!!

Hello there, Welcome, today I have a card for the Sprinkle of Imagination challenge

The green is Cosmic Shimmer sprayed through a Crafter's Workshop mask and some purple Tattered Angel splashed and dripped then sentiment printed from the computer! Stamp from Stampers Anonymous!

Thank you for your insights into blogging, Google+ and Face Book, we all do it slightly differently it would seem but I am pleased that you explained and shared your preferences. :D

It's been a fabulous summer so far but we are inundated with crane flies, Mr Peplow hates these flying nightmares :) Myself it's the spiders that all seem determined to join us for the evening that upset my equilibrium! When we're sitting minding our own business, why do they have to run helter skelter across the floor only to disappear right under the sofa where I am sitting? What is that all about? LOL !!

Thanks for joining me here, have a great week folks :D  Gay xx

I have had some things going on at home that are difficult to deal with lately. I am working through my replies but it's taking me a long time to get to you all, Thank you so much for your patience. Hugs Gay xx

Tangled Enthusiasm all tied up!

I'm baaack!! LOL  Inspired today by the lovely, talented Sam who's Challenge it is  at the Stampotique Designers Blog  which goes like this.......

"One of the beauties of Stampotique stamps is even though there are 18 amazing artists designing our rubbery goodness and their images work so well together it's great to use a lot of stamps for one project, I often do.

So this week, I am challenging myself too and inviting you to use just one stamp . . . wondering off scratching head and rubbing chin . . . this is going to be SO hard to choose!!

So I got Tangled Enthusiasm out ( he is new to me :D ) and played.....

 The paint shimmers and changes colour in the sunshine, sometimes green and then a bright blue, sometimes light green and then gold, yum!

A while ago I made some Gelli plate backgrounds, a whole afternoon having fun and I was surprised how difficult it was to get it right! All afternoon I played and was only really pleased with this one the one you see behind Tangled I die cut some stars in acetate and used the positive and negative as masks and stencils.
The paints are Pebeo Studio acrylics, some are iridescent and some fluorescent I love the effect in the sunshine. To make the stars stand out I have used Copics and a Multiliner to give depth.
I'm looking forward to another session where I can make something I really like with the Gelli plate. Mastering it will be fun, wish me luck :D
And a big THANK YOU for visiting me here, I really do appreciate your comments :D Lately I have been posting on Facebook and trying to get my head around Google + woah, I feel a bit confused as to which I prefer, what about you? What have you chosen? I guess we are going to use more than one medium online and we will just reach different audiences! So many choices!
Have a happy week my friends :D Hugs Gay x

Drink me!!!!!!

Hi folks,
Today I am sharing a quick post for LIM where Chrissie and the team said

Our challenge this week is back to one layer once more and we have the theme of 

BEVERAGES

Any beverage will do; I wonder if our choices say something about us!!

 So my card, taken in the warm , fading September sunshine....

 My image is an Inkadinkado stamp, which I have coloured with Inktense water colour pencils

 The stencil behind highlighting her small glass is Tim Holtz, Shatter, inked with Seedless Preserve DI, she says, 

"I will be needing a much larger glass"

Well Chrissie, I guess this one does say a lot about me LOL Don't you just love a really big glass!!!

Lacking my mojo lately, feeling totally uninspired and I have new schtuff! So no excuse! I think I need a good shaking LOL!!! Thanks for stopping by, Hugs Gay xx

 

Curiously cute!

Yep that's right I have visited my cute side for this post and I wanted to share :D
Edited to say, Darnell has invited me to link up with her 2nd NBUS challenge, check it out it's so much fun :D

Lily of the valley stamps, I need cute stamps for the family at Christmas and i enjoy making them so I took advantage of a special offer at LOTV and bought 2 stamps, how cute are they??? Sentiment stamps by Mama elephant!  Great to see you and Thanks to Darnell, hugs Gay xxx

Chocolate and mint!!!!

Hi folks, Here is my LIM offering this week . The challenge is a colour and the choice is Chocolate and mint, 

It's been a very busy and quite difficult week, this has taken so long to put together, it just wouldn't go right :(

Spellbinders Die and glitter card in mint, a little Treasure Gold paste and done!

 The light is dull today so no sparkles either. You will have to imagine LOL
I am catching up on lasts weeks post and hope to be with you soon, thanks for dropping by :D Hugs Gay xx

Life on the ocean waves

Well hello there lovely people,
Today I have a card for LIM where the lovely ladies have challenged us to make a nautical themed card, they said....................

We have another song theme which this time is... 

I do like to be beside the seaside!

Anything with a reference to the sea or the beach or things nautical will be fine as long as your creation is Clean and Simple!

My card is stamped onto layers of white and pastel blue tissue paper and adhered to the card but leaving the edges loose.
I used
The Stamp Man's Aspect of Design Stamps, unavailable now I'm afraid :(
On the outside edges I used Treasure gold in 'White Fire'
Sentiment by Isabelle Norris.
Thanks for joining me today :D Hugs Gay x

Stampotique, still waters......................

Run Deep? Is that right, not sure but anyway I digress, today at Stampotique the wonderful Arwen has challenged us to go 'Under the Sea'
 My offering is a recycled cardboard box entitled,
"Under the Water Under the Sea, catching Fishes for my Tea"

 Old Timey Frog has been crackled and then inked with distress to show the cracks, a little glitter is good for you! The bubbles and fish have glaze on them too.

They're behind you.........

 Followed by Smushallaum who is a slightly green hue today !! She has her beady eye on you :D

 

I originally made a card for this week but on Face Book a beautiful tag appeared using the same stamp......... so I made a box, just for variety you understand LOL  :D
I made it this way.............

Smushalluam is just one layer painted in DI and also coloured with Copics, I find this gives the colouring more depth. I masked her and the background is a circles mask. The text is from Shakespeare.

The box was inked around all the edges with Vintage Photo and on a separate card I made the background with Brusho's ( thanks go to Eileen and Sarn for introducing me to these brilliant paints) Then Old Timey Frog was stamped onto card coloured with Copics and cut out, I did the same with Smushallaum and Octopet  and then adhered them to the box. The fish, I drew and they got the same treatment!

 Sad today because this is my last week as a Guest designer for Stampotique, I have loved every minute !!!
Thank you for joining me here today and why not have a go at the challenge over at the Stampotique designer's blog, you never know you could win the $30 for stamps!  Hugs Gay xx

Rudolph day again !!!

Hi there, It's Rudolph day at Sarn's YAY!! I made two quick CAS cards

 

This Santa is my favourite one for a long time, he is so cute

Simply stamped and coloured with Copics, a few little peel off embellishments to highlight the baubles and parcels. I had loads of fun with these, sorry I don't know who they're by.
Thanks to Sarn my Christmas card stash has grown by two!!!  Gay x

Stampotique Flowers, got to be quirky right?

Hi folks, me again, and yes my Stampotique flowers are definitely quirky, I made them with the spider wings stamp :D,Spiky and so inspiring!
The challenge this week is from the lovely Kristen and she said.................

 We may be nearing towards the end of summer, and for most, the flowers are fully bloomed, but for me, some of the best flowers are yet to come.  I love the gigantic sunflowers and the autumn mums, and for that reason, I challenge you to use flowers in your creations this week. Have fun !

So as Guest designer for the month of August ( lucky me :D ) I made a card

 Baby Cthulhu is carrying flowers for his/her sweetheart!

 The flowers are Spider wings coloured with Copics and rolled, using a stalk from a die cut, sepals from remnants of die cutting and stamen stolen from a paper flower. First I made a very plain background, really subtle colours and a little glisten of glitter but I wasn't happy so I cut him from the background and started again

 The background is now distress inks blended and stamped with water. I used Stringed Lights
with water and then  stamped again with Picked Raspberry DI, A natural sponge damp is great for adding texture to the Distress ink.  Daniel's Hearts also stamped with water hopefully makes the blue more interesting :D
Which do you prefer the pale or colourful background?

 This photo was with the flash and looks so much warmer that the ones without!!
I hope you will be inspired to join in and make something with Flowers there is a chance to win the $30 monthly prize for Stampotique stamps YAY !!!
Busy here lately Grandchildren visiting, fun but exhausting :D Thanks for joining me here, Gay x

Grrrrrrrr!

Hi There, It's Saturday YAY!!!And I have a card for Less Is More woohooo!!

For your theme this week we have chosen

ANIMAL

Anything in the animal kingdom will do, it doesn't have to be a one layer this time but we still want to see that Clean and Simple style.

 

Mr Tim Holtz stamp for this one and bold colouring with Copics, one layer cos I can :D Hope you like and thank you for checking my card out :D I hope you have a great weekend, hugs Gay xx

If music be the food of love play on!

Hello, welcome to my blog :D Today I'm sharing my latest Stampotique Designers Challenge make ! The lovely Kathi's challenge is all about Music .....................................

"I love music and enjoy most genres ranging from liturgical music to rap, from classical to head-bangin' rock! Music fills my soul and moves me emotionally and physically.

Let's see how music inspires you! Use song lyrics, music notation, or words associated with music in your project and share it with us!"

My offering is a milk carton................

 

"And for that one moment while the music plays, 

you know who you are and everything you wish to be"

'Kellie Elmore'

Wonderful quote I found on Pinterest HERE , it is, in my experience, to feel this way when listening to a favourite piece of music,  it looks like Stampotique's  'Underwhere' feels pretty much the same, he is deep in reverie !
The background was dripped with 3 different water colours, it was a real temptation to do too much, thank goodness I resisted LOL The milk carton was made with a 'Get in Shape' template, easy to do :D

A small aside, I used the word whilst instead of while, thinking that was perhaps correct, it would seem I was wrong follow THIS link for an explanation why! It would seem I'm a bit old fashioned LOL Nothing new there :D
Check out all the other wonderful music makes at Stampotique designer challenge, such talent :D
Lovely to see you, have a great hump day!! Hugs Gay xx

Foliage for LIM :D

Happy Sunday everyone, at last the sun shines :D
Today I am sharing a card for LIM, foliage is the challenge in a one layer card just as it says on my title :D

 

I have a little step by step, just because there were quite a few steps to making this card.........

Note:
My photo shows the mask removed but you do need both masks to ink the Versamark or you will cover the leaf design and be unable to ink the leaves.

 My masks were Stencil Girl for the palm leaves and Crafter's Workshop for the circles. Sentiment by Winnie and Walter The Big the Bold and the Fun :D
Lovely to see you thanks for dropping in, Hugs Gay x

Less is More

Hi folks, Today I have a card for Less is More, where its a

Colour Challenge 
This month we have chosen to use one of the Colour Seeds inspiration pictures.
It reminds us of a mojito!

Sarah's birthday week too, Happy Birthday Sarah :D Hope you had a lovely day!

My card is inked through a grid mask with Distress inks.  I just caught the top of the 'K' with some wet ink and it messed with the colour a little :(

This is my/our card to thank our hosts for a fabulous wedding last weekend, we had such a great time :D Thank you too for stopping to look, Hugs Gay x

I used, Winnie and Walter stamps from Make the Day Special

Distress in, Squeezed Lemon, Shabby Shutters, Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers, Weathered Wood and finally Pumice stone!

Stampotique Bows!!!!

Hi everyone, Thank you for joining me here today :D
I have been given the privilege of being the Guest designer for the month of August at Stampotique, Woopppeee I love their beautiful quirky stamps. The challenge this week is from  the lovely, talented Jackie This is what she said.......

Ribbons have been around since the Middle Ages. Merchants travelled the world, buying and selling ribbon, many of which had gold and silver in the silk. ribbons were a sign of nobility and worn only by the rich. By the  seventeenth century ribbon was part of the fashion industry and was part of clothing.

Today ribbon has numerous uses, and it is a favourite crafting accessory, I have lots of it! 

You can make fabulous bows with it to adorn your cards, scrapbook page,  tags, journals etc.

So I would like to see you adding a bow to your project, if you don't have ribbons, bows can be made out of many mediums such as paper, clay, string to name but a few!

I looking forward to seeing your creations with a bow!

And here is my offering

        
It's a tag and envelope using bows for the fastening at the back of my envelope and Roc's Angel has some bows holding her cape. I had so much fun with this one I hope you like it!

Agatha is thinking about her Guardian Angel and she is very grateful to have her watching over her, and her help. I found out that an uneven number of holes doesn't lace nicely so I have one set too many, lesson learned!
Stampotique stamps;
 Roc's Angel, Agatha Star and the sentiment, I thought of you today
I'd love to see your bow creations, go have fun :D Thanks for stopping here today, Hugs Gay xx

Guest designing at Stampotique!!

Hi there lovely crafty friends,
Sorry I have been AWOL, a wedding in Norfolk was my wonderful excuse, what fun we had and the Sun shone kindly on us :D I was away for 4 lovely days and it was fab :D But I just wanted to share my good news..............................
OOh what a lucky lady I am, for the month of August you will find some of my offerings at the Stampotique designers challenge where I have been given the opportunity to be a guest designer Wooppeee!!
I have really enjoyed using Stampotique stamps for quite a few years now, I love their quirky nature, they're so individual and such good quality, what more excuse do I need?  LOL Don't have anything crafty to share tonight but hopefully I will very sooon ! Hugs Gay xx

Stampotique Christmas in July

Yep, just what it says on the tin, " Christmas in July"
Hello there folks, Over at Stampotique the lovely Gez has challenged us to produce a project for Christmas, here goes

My card features 'Santa Baby' from Stampotique, he is a star and has a gift :D His gift is very twinkly because I cut it out of holographic card :D His sentiment is from Mama Elephant, nice!

I hope you are liking this hot weather we have here in the UK? I LOVE it :D Sorry if you don't like it! Though, at least today it's not humid, pretty near perfect if you ask me but we Brits are weather obsessed I know LOL Thank you for stopping by, Hugs Gay x

The BFG

Hi there, Me again :D Today I received some Roald Dahl Stamps and I LOVE them, I just wanted to share them with you because I think they are simply lovely

Tee hee, I understand exactly what he is saying!!
A big warm welcome to my latest follower Maria, Wonderful art work oh her blog :D Thank you for following and a big thank you to all my lovely loyal followers, you know who you are :D

I have been finding it difficult to keep track of my comments lately and I may have missed out getting back to some of you. Please be assured I genuinely appreciate all comments left for me but in order to keep track I have had to put moderation back on I'm sorry.
 Hope you're enjoying the warm weather and have a lovely day :D Hugs Gay x

Book inspiration :D

Hi folks, Yes! I love reading, it's my own little world going on inside my head whilst I run through daily life. It fills me with pleasure!
Thank you for dropping in, I hope the day goes well for you :D
 Here the sun shines off and on, still very warm :D
Today I have a card for Stampotique, The lovely France asked

I would like to know about your favorite books. So my challenge for you, should you accept it, is to create a piece, inspired by your favorite book. Let the story, the title, the cover, a quote inspire you! Now you might have a problem choosing your all time favorite book, don't worry, it's not like you are writing it in stone, just pick one. Or maybe your problem is that you don't like reading at all. Here is how to cheat: go for your favorite film based on a book, we won't tell ;)))
Here is my card

 

I wonder if you can guess which book I chose? The young ladies' names were Meg, Amy, Jo and Beth

  I read this book in my formative years, it's probably really dated but I thoroughly enjoyed it!
 This isn't a line from the book but I do believe it says a lot about the spirit of the book, in my opinion! I found it on Pinterest.
Check this pin out...

Makes you think huh? I can't help agreeing :D LOL From Pinterest

My choice for this challenge is ..................... 'Little Women' By Louisa May Allcott.
Brief overview of the book HERE

I stamped the girls onto shrink plastic painted them with H2O,s then cut them out, shrunk them and got stuck!!! At one stage they were on a journal page, that didn't work, tried them on a larger card, nooo so this final incarnation sees them with a background using a stencil/mask by Heidi Swapp and Cosmic Shimmer, Golden Mint.
Stampotique stamps are   Noelle, Relaxin', Gooseneck and Mela