An apple a day .

Good afternoon all, 

And welcome to another new follower. 

I am always so chuffed when we have another member joining our 

crafty family. 

Today I am sharing another recent sample with you. 

This uses a lovely stamp set 

#450 - Basic Fruits by Bipasha BK 

For Aall & Create. 

When I decided to stamp this out I wanted to use a different colour to black. 

I think we tend to use black ink all the time. 

So I went for another favourite colour of mine, Shady Lady 

Look how wonderful it looks in green 

Because I had used a permanent ink, I could then add colour with oxide inks and water. 

This is where a dabble with watercolour painting 

To add extra depth, I used my chalk pastel pencils 

Some matting and layering and the obligatory white posca splats, 

and my design was finished .

I was so pleased with the way that this worked out, 

Here is a closer look 

Thanks to all of you that have messaged asking why I haven’t been on Hochanda recently.

I have been asked but I just don’t feel well enough, especially,  with all the travelling. 

I really have to put myself and my family first .

Hope that makes sense,,

Thanks also for popping in today , 

We have a workshop tomorrow, so I must get my craft room organised 

Take care everyone 

Much love and hugs 

Jo xxx

Beautiful Buttercups.

Good morning all, 

I hope your day has started well. 

Very wet and windy here in Cheshire , with lots of branches blown down. 

There are lots of big puddles too. 

So it was definitely a day for wellies whilst walking Eric. 

Today I have a lovely little project to share with you.

Perfect for us to create together whilst having our brew and catch up. 

Sometimes it is so nice just to create a small but beautiful piece of art. 

You can find the YouTube video 

Here 

https://youtu.be/VkoRAWJeBRE

I hope you enjoy it. 

Take care all 

Much love and hugs 

Jo xxx

Time to grow.

Good morning all, 

How are you today? 

Poor Karl hurt his ankle yesterday so we haven’t had much sleep. 

It just seems one thing after another here. 

I think we both need a day off, 

The trouble is we have both worked throughout lockdown, Karl hasn’t had a day off for over 12months. 

Oh sorry, he had Christmas Day off and then was on call Boxing Day. 

Definitely time to recharge our batteries. 

Anyway enough of that, I will just drink more coffee and get on. 

Today I have a project to share with you. 

I often look for inspiration in Magazines, nature and well everywhere. 

When I was reading all our lovely Christmas cards this year , I noticed this beautiful scene, 

I challenged myself to create something similar.

I don’t like to copy, but take inspiration. 

This is what I came up with 

It was a real challenge for me, and stretched me, but I must say I enjoyed every minute of it. 

I started by stamping the Lavinia trees 

Next I added some watercolour sky 

And some landscape 

Followed by some details 

My favourite colours, 

Next came some acrylic paint for the snow 

This was the point where it nearly went into the bin. 

So I walked away , had a brew, and then came back to it 

I addd shadows using my chalk pencils, you know how much I love using these. 

Some sticklers glitter glue, 

But I still felt that something was missing. 

So I just added some purple tones to the shadows..., yes, I think that works well.

It is fun to challenge yourself, 

and just move out of your safe, comfort zones once in a while. 

I might even create more pieces like this. 

I hope you like it too, and maybe take some inspiration from the card 

Have a lovely day

Much love and hugs 

Jo xxxx

Up, up and away

Good afternoon all, 

I hope your new week has started well. 

Not a good start here as I have chest and back pains, but 

my day got a whole lot better when the postman delivered these. 

All gluten free,,,,

Yummy 

Thanks so much Janet and Susan..❤️

Today I am sharing another recent Aall & Create sample with you. 

It uses one of the new stamp sets from Tracy Evans 

#467- Up, up and away. 

Here is how I created it 

I started with some stamping 

Next I added some colour 

and some lovely stencil work in the background 

I cut a space in the basket ready for the addition of the chicks 

I thought that the alphabet stamps worked so well here 

Some doodling, and the whole design was just missing something...

Oh yes, the rabbit,,,

That’s better 

Here is a closer look 

Thanks so much for joining me today..

Enjoy your evening 

Much love and hugs 

Jo xxx

More Veggies

Good morning all, 

Hope today has started well, at least it is Friday. 

We have made it to the end of the week. 

I must admit I have a migraine today, 

So it is going to be another slow day here. 

So I thought I would have a cup of decaf tea, and a catch up with friends. 

That always makes me feel better. 

I have a tag to share with you.

I really enjoyed creating this, 

Just my sort of thing. 

I used stamp set #448-Basic Veggies by Bipasha BK for Aall & Create. 

Here is a closer look

So many layers and details. 

Here is how I created it 

I started with a grey board tag  and added some inks, direct to paper, 

Gradually building  up the colours, 

then added some water splats. 

Next I added a die , cut in half, which is a great way to add dies to your artwork. 

Plus some highlights with a distress crayons. 

The next layer was the stamping layer, 

Plus I stamped on some stamping card too. 

I used my chalk pencils to add the colour, and then fussy cut the images. 

You know these are my latest obsession. 

They give such a fabulous result...

Look 

I added some washi tape, plus posca splatters. 

A fabulous vintage tag, 

I hope you have a nice weekend planned 

We have a workshop tomorrow morning 

Melt pot play time. 

I am really looking forwards to it. 

Take care everyone 

Much love and hugs 

Jo xxx

Heart Grunge

Good morning all, 

How are you today ? 

I got up early, walked Eric, and have walked to the Post Office. 

I have so much to do today, so I needed an early start. 

I am still struggling with my chest, and this fatigue thing...

So everything takes twice as long. 

I am really trying to keep up with all my craft commitments, 

but between you and me, 

It really isn’t easy.

The demands on being on a design team are so tough, 

and obviously I’m not the sort of person to let anyone down.

Karl was in Aberdeen last night, he is so busy too, 

So I worked late, just to tick a few more jobs off my list. 

I had Eric to keep me company, so that was good. 

Today I have a recent Aall & Create sample to share with you. 

I have used #453- Heart Grunge by Tracy Evans. 

As always I have a little tutorial for you. 

I started by creating my background, just simply mixing the inks on the stamp, I adore this effect. 

Next I stamped some hearts, cut them out and scored them.

I had an idea to honeycomb one of the hearts. 

I did this technique a while ago with one of the balloon stamps, 

It is such a fun thing to do and reminds me of some Christmas decorations we had at home when I was younger. 

I added some extra ink to the edges of my background, and matted it onto dark brown card. 

Now as you know I have a thing about wooden sticks, and these word stamps are just the right size. 

Thanks Tracy

Once I had the position of the hearts I added some drop shadows. 

Just to spice the design up a little I added a pop of yellow. 

Followed by some posca splats, 

Not white , 

but yellow to compliment the whole design. 

Here is a closer look. 

The beauty of this heart is that it will fold flat for posting. 

Thanks for joining me, and thanks as always 

for all your support

Take care all

Love and hugs 

Jo xxx

Spring blooms from the gel press

Good afternoon everyone, 

Another lovely , sunny day here , although to be honest. 

It isn’t as warm outside as it looks. 

Today I have another little video to share with you. 

This time we are using the gel press, versafine Clair inks and some Lavinia stamps to 

create our spring meadow. 

This is such a fun technique, I do hope you have. a play. 

As always I would love to know how you get on. 

The link to the video is here 

https://youtu.be/KomgLiBsYoM

Have fun. 

Take care 

Much love and hugs 

Jo xxx