Waxing Lyrical!!!

After thinking I might get some stamping done on Monday I got sidetracked........nothing new there then......lol!!! The old sideboard and worktop in my room has been bugging me for ages so I decided all of a sudden that it had to go. I then proceeded to rearrange everything and I am still at it.........you know the 'pint into a half pint pot' thing........ho yes we have some of that going on here at Manic Towers. I thought I had done a good sort out a few weeks ago but I have still taken two bin bags of rubbish down and burnt them so I don't know where all that came from.
Anyway it's getting there now so normal service should be resumed at the weekend......that's if I can find anything......lol!!!

On to the card then.........the small panel is floor wax and Adirondack reinkers on acetate with tissue paper and the background is the same image stamped over and over again then coloured with the same inks but picking up the colour from a pad.
The green at the bottom of the wax panel came out a little dark so I will add less ink when I do it with my ladies tomorrow.

Watched Avatar on Monday night...........WOW.......what a fabulous film.......I loved it. Did wish that I gone to the cinema to see it on a big screen though. It must have been doubly awesome.

Just need to do a bit of research on the old www and then I need sleep.

Thanks for dropping by.
Sheila-x-

Fabulous Weekend!!!

Oh we had such a lovely time with Ruby over the weekend. She is such a good baby. Very smiley and just too cute for words.
As predicted I didn't get much sleep but that was down to me........Ruby slept from 8:30pm through to 6am and when she did wake she just lay there blowing bubbles and making little noises to herself.
When DS and DDIL picked her up yesterday they were going straight off to London for a few days with DDIL's family.
Today I am.......to put it bluntly.......knackered.....lol.......so after I have tidied up down here I am off upstairs and will hopefully be back later with a card or something.

Thanks for dropping by.
Sheila-x-

Butterfly Wings!!!

This is the last of the Isopropyl backgrounds for now.
Here I have used Teal and Royal Purple StazOn.
The stamped image is a butterfly wing pattern which is from a set by Creative Expressions. It has been stamped over the background using Versamark and silver EP.

I didn't get much crafting done yesterday as I took advantage of hubby being out to have a good baking and cooking session. It was lovely and peaceful having the house to myself which doesn't happen often.
Today I am doing laundry and cleaning up a bit ready for the arrival of Ruby Doodle. I am so excited about her staying over night but also nervous and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if I end up staying awake all night to keep my eye on her..........or maybe she will keep me awake......who knows........lol!!!

Hubby didn't hear about the job he went for so he obviously didn't get it. They didn't have the courtesy to ring and let him know that he hadn't. I think that is just plain rude when they had said they would let him know either way.

Well another load has finished and is ready for me to peg it out in the sunshine. It's such a beautiful day here in Staffordshire. Lovely bright sunshine but not too warm which suits me down to the ground.

Hope you are having a fab weekend.
Sheila-x-

I Want To Be........A Tree!!!

Sorry that this is yet another Isopropyl background but I am doing quite a few different samples for putting around the shop so this is what I am working with at the moment.
The tree stamp is from Kanban.
The swirl is hand drawn and then gone over with yellow stickles.
I did a class today with this technique and it was absolutely fabulous. We had such fun.

Came home with my bag of Tim goodies. The dies are just wonderful. I had five Bigz including the flowers and the flourishes. Then I had a couple of the 'On The Edge' dies and a Vintage Market alphabet. Can't wait to get time to play with them now.
We had another delivery today of the most gorgeous narrow cotton lace in colours with matching grosgrain ribbon. The colours are divine and I have my eye on some beautiful red and green for adding to Christmas cards.

Tomorrow is mucking out day as I have the house to myself for a good while. DD will be in bed and hubby will be out.........bliss. I do like having the house to myself as I get ten times more jobs done than when they are all under my feet.

Tonight I am treating myself to a couple of hours in front of the goggle box to watch some more episodes of Private Practice. I have to wait until hubby has gone to bed as he is not too keen on it.

Night night.
Thanks for dropping by.
Sheila-x-

Bit Of A Numpty!!!

Honestly.....the older I get......the dafter I get. Bought a card home to photograph for posting tonight and I have totally forgotten to do it........duh!!!
I got so tied up in the job I was doing......pretty boring stuff......packing card blanks and envelopes that I want to get rid of at the car boot.......that it went straight out of my mind so I'll get it done in the morning and post it tomorrow night.

We had a very nice delivery at the shop today..........Tim Holtz dies from Sizzix. Unfortunately it wasn't a complete order so most of it is to fill pre-orders but I think there may be a couple to put out. My name is on several of them as you might expect and they will be coming home to live with me tomorrow night........oh yum!!! I did open the box and have a tiny peek and I'm so much in love with the vintage alphabet strip die........so glad I ordered that. Ooooh I love new toys.

Hubby who took early retirement/voluntary redundancy at the end of last year is on tenterhooks at the moment as he went for a job interview yesterday and will hear on Friday if he has been lucky or not. In the meantime he is doing the nervous eating thing and the pacing thing bless him. If he doesn't get it......well more fool them......they don't know what they are missing.

I'm in a snuggling mood tonight so I think I might go and throw myself under the duvet and read for a while once I have finished on here. I would kill for a mug of hot chocolate but will settle for tea seeing as how I am supposed to be being good. Hoping that when I go for my checkups next month that there will be some improvements as I have lost about two stones now and the clothes I bought for my holidays were several sizes smaller than I used to buy.

Right I'm off.
Thanks for your visit.
Sheila-x-

A Bit Of Zing For Spring!!!

Tonight I am sharing a card made with leftover pieces of the StazOn and Isopropyl backgrounds.This time though I have made it a bit brighter and added glitter and have used a funky floral stamp from a set by Inkadinkado. The dotty stamp I used for the bottom of the blue card is from a set by Habico which I must have had for three years and have never used.
The glitter is Stickles in Lime, Orange and Yellow.

Just a note for ladies who read my blog and visit the shop in Ashby......From May 1st we will no longer be open on Wednesday.

I'm getting a bit excited as we are going to be looking after Ruby Doodle overnight on Saturday so that mummy and daddy can have a night out. She is coming to us at lunchtime and staying until Sunday evening. Unfortunately DD is at work so I expect I shall be dealing with the nappy end of things which is about the only thing I am not looking forward to.......lol!!!

I am off to find something to watch on IPlayer then I shall be snuggling under my new duvet. It's feather filled and just like sleeping under a soft fluffy cloud. I swear I slept better than I have for years last night.

Bye for now.........and thanks for dropping by.
Sheila-x-

Bright And Shiny!!!

Today I am sharing a card made with some of the inky backgrounds I was playing with the other day.
I used the StazOn and Isopropyl Alchol technique to colour some white gloss card. The red background is a mixture of Cherry Pink and Black Cherry which I then stamped over with a Stamps Happen harlequin background stamp.
After cutting around the image it was wrapped with gold thread and embellished with Woodware gold nail heads.
The musician image (Judikins) was stamped onto three different coloured backgrounds of the same StazOn technique then cut and pieced. He is layered onto an experimental background of pigment ink with Isopropyl Alcohol.
For the card blank I stamped the Crafty Individuals flourish stamp using alabaster chalk ink and once it was dry I went over it with a soft gold metallic crayon.
I don't think this image is actually a harlequin but I just like the way the word looked stamped in the tiny peg stamp alphabet.

Back to work tomorrow.......that came round quick.......so I am off to tidy up my pit of a workroom before I sort out my clothes and bag ready.

Thanks for stopping by.
Sheila-x-

Home Again!!!

Well here I am.....home again and feeling like I blinked and missed the holiday. It went by so quickly.
Monday was mostly taken up with travelling and as we couldn't take over the caravan until 4pm the day was pretty much done by the time we got settled.
Tuesday DD and I went off to Graphicus to purchase my birthday present and here's what I came back with............. The two A4 sets of alphabet stamps were an absolute bargain at £6 each and the other stamps have been on my wish list for quite some time so they were snapped up pretty smartish.

Stunningly gorgeous laser cut chipboard by ScrapFX. Some pieces were very expensive but a wonderful treat for using in some art pieces for myself.

Christmas embellishments from K & Co, Tims game spinners and some large clear Dew Drops.

More ink pads to add to my collection.

On the way back we stopped at Rheged and I picked up a couple of cookery books.

Wednesday we went off to Gretna Green as hubby had always wanted to go there. It was a glorious day weatherwise and I sat out in the sunshine while hubby went tasting whisky......yuck. As I sat there a piper started playing and that was it.....he set me off bawling. The sound of the bagpipes has that effect on me unfortunately.

Thursday was my birthday and after a morning visit to Maryport we decided to spend the rest of the day vegging out at the caravan as it was really cold. Don't know when I enjoyed a birthday so much.

We were home by lunchtime yesterday and now we are back into the swing of things with hubby out in the garden and me in the kitchen baking. There was however some very unusual activity in the kitchen this evening........DD decided that she was cooking tea and served up Fajitas which I have never had before. They were absolutely gorgeous and little does she know that whenever I want a night off cooking I shall be asking for them for tea........and she will have to cook as I don't know how to make them....wink, wink..........lol!!!

I've spent some time today doing some inked backgrounds and will hopefully get chance to do some stamping tomorrow.

Thanks for dropping by.

Sheila-x-

Jewel Swirl!!!

This will probably be my last post before I go away tomorrow. I'm just snatching a few minutes before I start on the jobs and packing again.
Hubby is cooking lunch and then I have to do some baking to take with us and finish off the ironing. It's all go.
Ruby Doodle was coming to visit today but hubby has a cold and would hate for her to catch it so I won't see her now until next weekend:( I only just saw her last Saturday but it seems ages ago now.

Anyway onto the card
The background is mountboard with gesso applied with cling film and then inked.
Butterflies are stamped onto mountboard and clear embossed. I have added wire antennae as I am useless at cutting around fine detail........especially on mountboard.
The tiny lime gems in between the clear ones have been put on with my Kandy Kane which I have had for about four years and have probably used once.....lol!!!

Oh yum.......lunch is ready.
Thanks for dropping by.
Sheila-x-

Grunged Glitter!!!

It never ceases to amaze me how us stampers keep discovering new techniques be it by design or by accident. Yesterday I was cutting up and diecutting glitter card. I don't like it but have always kept it in just in case I needed it to use on special orders etc. Anyhoo since I lost the local shop it doesn't get used and if it isn't earning it's place on the shelf then it has to go.

So I got to the point where I was fed up of doing the cutting and I fetched my Moonglow Inks off the shelf to sort out as I hadn't used them for years. Some of them had dried up so I added some water and tested them out on a piece of card. The piece of card happened to be an offcut of glitter card............and the rest they say is history.

The embossed background on the card above then is what I am calling Grunged Glitter and here is how you do it..........

What you need-:

Pale coloured glitter card (the kind that sheds it's glitter)

Moonglow Ink-Burnished Brass

StazOn-Timber Brown

Metallic Rub Ons (the waxy ones)

An embossing folder

Sanding block

• Start by stirring up your Moonglow Ink to distribute the mica powders into the walnut ink base.
• Take a paintbrush and paint the ink all over your card ( I used an A4 sheet which will be cut up for several projects). It will bead and that is fine. Now dry it with a heatgun. Your piece of card will still look like glitter card but it will have tiny brass speckles on it.
• Paint on another coat of ink. This time you will have bigger patches. Dry it with the heat gun. You will find that it takes longer to dry and that some of the glitter will melt and leave small bare patches on the card. That is fine......it all adds to the texture.
• Add another coat of ink. For this layer you will get even bigger patches and the glitter will melt into the ink when you heat it making it look like crusty rust in places.
• Next you need to cut a piece of card to the size you need for your project and emboss it in the embossing folder using your chosen diecutting system.
• Now sand over the embossed pattern to remove some of the glitter and colour then dust off the residue.
• Take the Timber brown ink pad and lightly brush over the raised pattern. You don't want to colour the background as well. The dark brown ink creates a nice base for the final stage which is to rub a gold coloured wax over the raised areas. Leave this to dry and then buff with a soft cloth...........and there you go........Grunged Glitter.
• Let me know if you try it out. I would love to see what you do with it.
• A little tip..........if you don't have the Moonglow Inks you could make up a base of walnut ink and add Perfect Pearls or Cosmic Shimmer powders.
• For the rest of the card........I have used a door stamp from Crafty Individuals to create a Faux Batik effect onto some Kraft card colouring the image with Distress inks before ironing off the embossing.
• The gold edgings match the embossed background and they are from a Cuttlebug A2 Cut and Emboss set.

Other than the creating today I have waded through a pile of laundry, cooked hubby some lime and garlic chicken to go with a salad for tea, been into town and hammered my store card buying new jeans, PJ's and some new tops for my holiday. I know I'm only going for four days but I don't want the good people of Cumbria thinking I'm a tramp..........although I will be 'tramping' along some part of Hadrian's Wall hopefully.....lol!!!

I've had a really fabulous day.........hope you all have too.

Oh.....while I think about it. After today I am no longer going to be posting on Manics Inky Antics. I have a bit of a job keeping up with both of them and deciding which one I need to post things on. So in future, all of my work will be here on Manicstamper and I will remove Manics Inky Antics.

Thanks for your visit.

Sheila-x-

Holiday.......Yay!!!

That's work done for me now for nearly a fortnight.......yay!!!
We're not off until Monday so I'll be doing housey stuff in the day and crafty stuff at night for the next couple of days and then packing on Sunday. It makes me laugh when I think that years ago I used to start packing a month before we went anywhere. Putting stuff into the case and taking it out again. Now it all gets stuffed into a bag the day before.......lol!!!

Hubby has been busy in the garden today and planted our potatoes. He also sowed the salad leaves seeds we got free with the Lakeland gardening catalogue. He has green fingers when it comes to planting and sowing things......me.......everything burrows for Australia.....lol!!!
I'd better put my DG hat on tomorrow and cook him something nice for tea.

Think I might go and put my feet up and read for a bit now as I want to be up early in the morning.

Tara for now.
Sheila-x-

Guess(o) What I've Been Doing!!!

Hooooey......that title is bad even for me.......lol!!!

This is the card that got left at the shop yesterday.
The background is gesso applied with cling film to a piece of mountboard and then inked over with Adirondack inks in Lettuce and Stream.
When they had dried I gently wiped over the piece with a baby wipe to remove the ink from the gesso.
Floral image (Artemio) was stamped in StazOn Olive Green.
The butterfly (Creative Expressions) was stamped onto mountboard and coloured with the Lettuce and Stream and then embossed with UTEE.
Once the UTEE was cool I sprayed a little Cosmic Shimmer-Silver over the piece and reheated it before adding another layer of UTEE.

Well after having got two cards done yesterday today was a complete contrast and I didn't have time to make any as it was quite busy in the shop. Luckily I was there early this morning and got the prep done for the class tomorrow, tidied up and swept the floor. I always like to get it done just in case we have any travel hold ups in the morning.

Have just woken up after falling asleep in the bath. I hate doing that as I feel so yucky when I wake up. So now I am going to snuggle up on the sofa and chill out for a while.

Thanks for dropping by.
Sheila-x-

In The Pink!!!

Evening all!!!
By rights......as I did manage to make two cards at work today........I should have a pic for you but the card I particularly wanted to post is is laying on the table at the shop in Ashby so will have to come home with me tomorrow night. The other card is just too embarrassingly pink to be seen on here so will be staying on the table........lol!!!

I had quite a nice day at work today and then got home to find that all of the herb seeds hubby sowed for me in the kit I bought from the garden centre have sprouted.....even the parsley. It's just a bog standard windowsill collection of basil, coriander, chives and parsley but it came in a lovely distressed box which I shall be snaffling for my desk once the herbs have been removed to bigger pots.

Off to sleep now.
Thanks for dropping by.
Sheila-x-

Inks And Gesso!!!

Hi there and a belated Happy Easter to you all.

Had a busy old day on Saturday.........9 hours baking and preparing food.......I must be totally mad. My back and legs weren't fit to be used yesterday so I spent most of the day upstairs playing about with inks and gesso after seeing a fab technique in the latest Craft Stamper. I have enough gesso to bath in so it was great to see another way of using it.

The collage card was done on smooth card and worked a treat but the top card was done on textured and I don't think it came out quite as well. You can't see on the photograph but I added an all over layer of Patina Stickles to the turquoise background using my finger to smooth it out very thinly and it does look very pretty IRL.

There is another card done with this technique HERE

After tea I need to go and clear my mess up and pack a bag for work tomorrow then I need to bleach my hands which are mottled with purple, green and yellow ink....lol!!!

Thanks for dropping by.

Sheila-x-

Flutterby!!!

Had a busy day today but all I have to show for it is this fairly simple card made with Distress Inks.
I have only just had the Dusty Concord and absolutely love it with the Peeled Paint.
Stamped images are Artemio. The butterfly has been stamped onto brushed silver card with black Stazon.
Went off to Ikea this afternoon with DD. What a flaming nightmare it was to get into the car park. Very very busy.
I did spend just a little bit of money on a salad spinner, a flour sifter, a couple of gorgeous green bowls and a huge glass salad bowl which was such a bargain at £1.99.

Tomorrow I have a houseful for tea so will be doing buffet style as there isn't room for us all around the table. We have DS, DDIL and Ruby Doodle plus my brother in law and his partner then us three. Might put the gazebo up and do a BBQ......only joking.....lol.....you won't get me sitting out in the garden until at least July.
So I shall be baking for most of the day I expect and probably won't get any crafting done which seems to be getting a bit too regular for my liking. I'll have to start and put my foot down with a firm hand.

Ready for a cuppa now so I shall go and brew one and then do a bit of browsing.
Tara for now........thanks for visiting.
Sheila-x-