Have you missed me? ..........

Surprise!!

Yes it's me, I am still here!

I know ....... it's been a while since I blogged ....... well over three months in fact!!!!   

In case any of you have been wondering where I've been well, I've no real excuse except to say that life happens, and just gets in the way!

 

Since my last post, we've had many birthday celebrations (including mine!).  We celebrated Burn's Night back in January at our favourite restaurant (the owner is Scottish!).

We had more snow on the island in March ...... woke up to this one morning! (thankfully it didn't hang around too long!).

We saw Elvis at the Villa Marina (well sort of)

and Boyzlife ....... (I'm getting too old to be watching these guys!)

and we had our first motorhome trip of the year, which was unfortunately cut short because hubby wasn't well.  

Nothing too serious (we think, we hope), just a lot of back pain which meant he couldn't drive, so we had to head home early.  

Since then he's had blood tests, physio, and an MRI (which we are waiting for the results of), but things seem to be getting better (fingers crossed!).

All these sort of things just seem to take over, and then the longer the break from blogging gets, the harder it is to get back into the swing of things.  Plus, I haven't really been spending a lot of time in the craft room recently, and when I have been in there, it's just been me playing in my journals, so nothing really to blog!  

I am going to try and get back into the habit of being here more often, and, I'm going to have to get back in the craft room on a regular basis, as my card stash is dwindling fast!!!

Anyhow, welcome to May!  I hope you're all well and have enjoyed the long weekend, the first of three this month here in the UK.  I say here in the UK because that's where we are at the moment ...... Scotland to be exact!  

We're on our latest roadtrip in the van.  We've been across since last Thursday (27th April) and we're not back on the island until May 20th, so it's a nice long trip, and as I said we're here in bonnie Scotland, again.

Our trip started with a morning ferry from the Isle of Man across to Heysham.  We then drove up to Falkirk and had an overnight stay not far from the Kelpies ........

The weather wasn't brilliant when we got there but, I had to go and see them ....... twice.  Well, it would have been a shame not to see them all lit up ...... they looked amazing.

Next day we headed off to Killin, and the Falls of Dochart.  

We had three nights on a lovely little campsite just outside the village.  

We visited the falls ......

Sampled the local food ........ my first haggis of the trip

Walked along the banks of Loch Tay .....

And of course purchased a couple of souvenirs ......

Again, the weather wasn't great ...... this is Scotland, in the beginning of May, we weren't quite sure what to expect, but we didn't get wet which was a bonus!

This morning, we drove north-west, through stunning Glencoe, and we're now parked on the banks overlooking Loch Linnhe.  Our home for the next few days is Bunree Campsite not far from the town (or village) of Onich.  

Not a bad way to spend the Bank Holiday ........

Well, enough about our travels for now, I actually have some crafty stuff to share.

If you're a Sweet Poppy Stencils fan then you've probably seen that they have a gorgeous new stamp release ...... a collection of nine beautiful botanical images, designed exclusively for Sweet Poppy.

If you love floral images, and you like to colour, then these will be perfect for you.  The hard part will be choosing your favourites!

I had chance to work with a few of the new stamps before we left on our trip.  

Here's a couple of ideas using one of my favourites ........ the pretty Sweet Pea

I do love Sweet Peas and this is such a pretty stamp.

I masked off the edges of a piece of white cardstock and then used Distress Inks to add some colour to the background.

With the masking tape still in place I stamped the Sweet Pea image off the edges of the coloured panel using Versamark Ink, and heat then embossed with WOW's new Polished Silver EP (my new favourite embossing powder ...... it's so shiny!) 

Once this was heat set, I removed the masking tape and used watercolour paints to add colour to the flowers ........ 

A few ink splatters in the same shades, a simple sentiment and a few sparkly gems finish everything off nicely.

Next up ...... Brushos.  

I stamped and embossed the image again, this time using a black ink and a clear EP

Then I used Brusho Pigment Powders to add the colour ...... lightly sprinkling the powder onto the flowers, and then spritzing with water to move the colour around.  The more water, the more the colour moves.  As you can see I wasn't too careful to keep the colour just on the flowers, I wanted it to spread outside the lines. 

Once this was all dry, I used the same colours of Brusho to paint over the flowers again, adding more colour to the petals, and building up the depth of colour gradually

A sentiment stamped on the bottom .....

 

and some co-ordinating cardstock layers ties everything together.

Last one for now is my favourite ........ I love a bit of fussy cutting!

A nice CAS design, using the pretty floral stamp to create a decorative edge for my card

Stamped and embossed, this time in gold, and coloured the flowers using Brush Markers 

I then fussy cut around the outer edge of the stamping, leaving a small border around the image (this is more forgiving than cutting right up to the embossed line)

To make this stand out more when the card is closed, I picked out one of the shades from the flowers and attached a piece of similar coloured card to the inside, adding a touch of shading with a Distress Ink to the edges

 A simple sentiment stamped on the front, and a few ink splatters to finish it all off

That's just one of the new stamps ....... pretty isn't it!? 

I'll share some more of the new floral designs with you over the next few days.

Well, I think that's just about covered everything for now.  It's so nice to be back, and hopefully you've made it to the end of this rather long post.

My intention is to get back in the habit of blogging more frequently, and once we get back home the craft room should be well and truly open again ....... mojo permitting!

Thanks for popping by .......... have a great week.  

We have the Coronation celebrations to look forward to this coming weekend.  

We will be travelling again on Saturday but, hopefully we'll get to see some of it.

In the meantime ...... 

Cheerio until next time ....... from the banks of Loch Linnhe.  

Not a bad way to end the day!

Today's the day ...........

Happy Wednesday ........

I hope you're all well, and enjoying your week.

  

Today's the day when Lucy is back on our TV screens, with the fabulous first new release of 2023 from Sweet Poppy Stencils.

Grab a cuppa, settle down, and watch Lucy work her magic with the brand new designs.  

The collection is definitely full of must haves ...... stencils that are perfect on their own if you're new to Sweet Poppy but, they also work so well with all the other amazing designs if you're already a Sweet Poppy fan.

If you like the Aperture Circle and Square frame stencils then there's two gorgeous new designs to add to your collection ...... the Retro Floral and the Twisted Vine.

Perfect frames to use along side the new word stencils.

I've used Distress Oxides to colour the frame ...... love this retro design!

I stenciled just the capital letter from the Friend stencil in the centre square, finishing off the word with a stamp this time

I layered up those pretty flowers for dimension.

A little bit of matting and layering, and for extra interest I cut out the centre square, attaching that flat onto my card and then raised the actual frame just a touch, with foam pads.

Here's a totally different look using the Twisted Vine ......

Inked the frame with Distress Inks, and stamped a sentiment in the centre and heat embossed

I then attached the frame at an angle onto the front of a card, and trimmed down the edges.  

And to finish I stamped a simple sentiment underneath, and attached a pretty vellum die cut

I hope you like the new collection, I'm sure there's something for everyone in there!

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.

We had a snow day here on the island yesterday.  Woke up and everywhere was white over ....... it all looked so pretty

Alex was happy because there was no school, Arthur not so much.  He wasn't quite sure what to make of all this white stuff!

Things are getting back to normal this morning.  The snow is still around in places but, it is melting.

If it's snowy where you are ..... stay safe and warm.

Cheerio until next time ........

More from the January release from Sweet Poppy Stencils .......

Good morning! ...... Happy Sunday!

I hope you're having a lovely weekend.

After two days of strong winds battering our little island things are a little calmer out there today, and the sun is shining ..... for now anyway!

There's less than 24 hours to wait before the first brand new release of 2023 from Sweet Poppy Stencils goes live on the website.

If you're a follower of Sweet Poppy on Facebook then you've probably seen the preview of the new stencil designs ..... what do you think?  Do you need them in your stash?  Is it time to make a shopping list?

I've been playing with some of the new designs and they are lovely.  Check out some ideas for using the large word stencils on my last blog post.

Today it's the gorgeous Floral Crescent Moon ....... how pretty is this

A fabulous large stencil, with a pretty floral cluster.  Perfect for square card designs, and gorgeous to use as is but, just think of all the add ons you can use. 

I've stamped one of Lavinia Stamp's cute little hares on the bottom of the moon ....... I love this little guy!

He's looking up, wishing on a star

I used Delicata Golden Glitz ink to colour the crescent moon, and Distress Inks for the flowers.  I also stenciled these a couple of times onto separate pieces of white card, fussy cut them and layered them up to add dimension ..... so pretty!

Even though this is a large stencil you can make smaller cards, and if one layer is your thing then this design is great for that too .......

This is a 7x5 inch card and I've taken the stencil slightly off the edge.  

Simply stenciled with black ink, and I've added a little bit of doodling with a gold gel pen for some extra detail

A few pretty pearls, a stamped sentiment, and some gold ink splatters to finish off

Use just the flowers from the stencil in other ways to ........ 

How about making your own floral embellishments to add to other stencil designs ...... use pretty coloured inks, fussy cut and layer.

Oh look ..... could that be another stencil from the new release in the background!  Don't you just love it when everything works together!

All the stencils from the new release are available on the Sweet Poppy Website from 10am tomorrow.  And, if you fancy more inspiration and ideas for making the most of them, then tune in to Lucy on Create and Craft on Wednesday the 18th January.

Thanks for popping by ...... enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Cheerio until next time ........