Phoenix Inspirations

Hello all - how many of you have browsed through the catalogues in my side bar and thought "I want this, this, this and this"? But then thought "but how can I afford all this lovely stuff"? Well that's where my Stampers Six Club comes in. Join my Stampers Six Club and spread the cost of your stamping addiction over six months - plus you get FREE stuff too. Interested? - then read on Email me on deezinesart@gmail.com to let me know you would like to join. Be prepared to committ to spending £25.00 each month for six months. (There will also be an additional charge for p&p). When I have six people ready I will begin the club. You will then belong to a group of six other like minded crafters who will each receive a complimentary copy of the current catalogue and any other published during the six month period. Also during the six months you will each take a turn at being a Hostess - this means that when it is your Hostess month in addition to your £25....

Hello friends - long time no blog! Well things have not been so good lately. My poor dad who has been battling cancer for many years is not going to be with us much longer. It's been a terrible shock and it's taking time for it to sink in. I'm with mum and dad in Bridgnorth at the moment as we are seeing someone today who will discuss how we are going to proceed in the next few weeks. As you can imagine crafting is last thing on my mind however I do have a few DT cards made for the next few weeks . Whether or not I will have the chance to up load them we will have to see. Thanks for listening xx

Good morning - it's a Wednesday and we have another new challenge ready for you in  The Male Room . This week the theme is SHADES OF BLUE. Blue always reminds me of water so that's what I did. I used the Wetlands stamp set with that gorgeous goose image - take a look Night of Navy is the main blue used on this card with some Soft Sky thrown in for good measure! Thanks for looking - see you soon xx

Last week I held my monthly workshop and we made screen cards. So easy to make but wonderful to decorate - here's one of the samples I took on the night I love creating scenes too - mostly with my brayer but this one was created by sponging ink over torn copy paper. Start off with a light distance slowly getting darker as the foreground comes into focus. Finally add the details - in this case Sheltering Tree. This is from the new Spring/Summer mini which can be viewed in my side bar - want to order it? Simply drop me an email for more information - deezinesart@icloud.com. Thanks for looking today xx

The challenge this week at  52{Christmas} Card Throwdown  is ................. And here is my card I love the Bells and Boughs set sadly now retired - it makes such a lovely card. I loved colouring all the elements in too. The bells were stamped cut out and attached using dimensionals and I drew a frame around the edge in which to place my sentiment. Please do pop over to the 52 blog and take a look at all the other DT work - it really is stunning this week - thanks for looking xx

Hmmm - this one nearly had me stumped! It's this week's challenge at  Make My Monday  and Marina's choice and actually I think that I made a pretty good attempt at some Pop Art - take a look I went back in time to my A Level art days remembering how I used to love all things Andy Warhol especially his Marilyn Monroe artwork and decided to give the Lotus Blossom the same treatment! I think I even impressed my hubby too - when I told him yesterday that I was going to do a Pop Art card with Stampin' Up stamps he sort of snorted and replies 'good luck with that one' - how rude! He had to eat his words when he saw my card!! So - tell me what you think, I love to read your comments and then please pop over to see the other works of art over on the blog - thanks for looking xx

I'm very pressed for time today as it's my monthly workshop tonight and I'm running around like a headless chicken trying to get everything sorted! Plus I was in the middle of making a cake and I noticed that the cooking wasn't working!! That's bad. Anyhow back to the business in hand - I'm attempting to do this on my iPad as it takes too long to get the laptop going so - bear with - and  I'll see if it works! Today's card is for our latest challenge over on  CAS - Colours & Sketches   and it's a colour - take a look And here is my card I used the Cherry Cobbler and Basic Black on the flower and Crumb Cake ink for the sentiment. Crumb Cake is very much like Kraft which is what I used for my card base and I also used a little natural twine. Thanks for looking - hope you can pop over and take a look at all the other lovely DT work xx

Every Wednesday Stampin' Up select a few items which they offer in a weekly deal - that means that for one week only they are cheaper - yippee! Take a look at the deals for this week So - take a look and if anything takes your fancy - drop me an email ( deezinesart@icloud.com) and I can place an order for you - thank you xx

It's my monthly workshop this week (Thursday) and we are making a Screen Card - you may remember this one from a previous post I did I also made this one with a matching envelope This one uses the new Painted Petals which can be found in the new Spring/Summer Mini - it's my new favourite!!!! if you live in or around the Malvern area and would like to join us - email me on deezinesart@icloud.com and I will reserve you a place.

It's the start of a brand new week and the start of a new challenge over on  Make My Monday . Laura has set the theme and it's A WINTER BIRTHDAY - here's my card This is one of my new sets - Sheltering Tree, don't you just love those snowdrifts? The set is from the new Spring/Summer mini - you can browse the full catalogue by clicking the picture in my side bar and don't forget that for every £45 you spend you get to choose a FREE Sale-a-bration item. Please do email me on deezinesart@icloud.com to place an order or if you would like any more information.

I have been in my craft room all day today playing - you will get to see what I have been working on at a later date. However what I can show you is the little friend keeping me company - take a look He comes in so often now that he has his own cushion permanently in place! He's no trouble - I just have to make sure that when he jumps up and starts his journey to his cushion he doesn't leave dirty paw prints all over my work! He has changed a lot over the last couple of years - take a look at his first foray into my study just after we had had him See you tomorrow xx

It's time for another Christmas challenge over on the  52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown  and this week Deborah want us to use this colour combo Here is my card I used my snowflakes from the Endless Wishes set and I splatted some images from the Gorgeous Grunge too. I can't remember how many blues I used for this I'm afraid -but it was a lot!! We will all be feeling a little blue over on the blog so please do pop over to say 'hi'!

I am going to play along at  CASEing Christmas  again this week as it's giving me a good excuse to keep using my fab Christmas stamps - like the Bright and Beautiful stars for instance And here is the lovely card that I CASEd Thanks for stopping by to take a look - come back tomorrow for some more Christmas crafting xx

Have you taken a look at the new catalogues in my side bar yet? - Just click on the pictures and you can peruse an online catalogue. Don't forget too that for every £45 you spend you can choose a FREE Sle-a-bration item. Perhaps the Lotus Blossom stamp set? This is a very simple set of three images which make up the flower. It's really easy to do too - I did this without a Stamp-a-ma-jig (stamp positioner), all you need are three colours similar in shade that go from light to dark. It works too by stamping off on a piece of scrap paper before stamping the first image. Here are some more - I made a set I teamed these up with the very useful Gorgeous Grunge set along with a multitude of Stampin' Write Makers. Thanks for stopping by today - pop back tomorrow for anther Christmas challenge xx

Good morning - it's the first challenge of the New Year over at  CAS - Colours & Sketches  and we have a sketch for you - take a look And here is my card I have used my FREE Sale-a-bration set Lotus Blossom, isn't it lovely? Three stamps layered up create this beautiful flower. I stamped the first image in white craft ink onto Crumb Cake card stock. The next layer was added in Crisp Cantaloupe and the third in Calypso Coral. I then cut it out and attached it using dimensionals. Thanks for looking today - please do pop over to the blog to take a look at all the other wonderful cards from the dt - we have two new dt ladies too so do say 'hi'.

Golly it's cold this morning in my little cottage. The garden is looking very bleak and the wind is making the trees sound very spooky indeed - I can't wait for Spring! Meanwhile we have a new challenge this morning in  The Male Room  - the theme for the next two weeks is - NEW BEGINNINGS. I didn't make a card this time but another desk calendar -take a look I cannot take credit for this as I followed the video tutorial over on Paula's blog  HERE  -it's a lovely clear tutorial and very easy to make so do have a go! I have used Soft Suede and Early Espresso card stock for this with a little Very Vanilla too and the image is from the Traveler set. The base has also been stamped with the World Map stamp - it's huge and perfect for manly backgrounds such as this. Don't forget that this is a very special time at Stampin' Up - if you want FREE goodies take a look at my post  HERE  and drop me an email to place your orders.

Well you can have it because today is the day that Stampin' Up launches it's annual Sale-a-bration event. Just spend £45 on Stampin' Up catalogue items and then choose a FREE item from the Sale-a-bration leaflet. Nothing you want in the main catalogue?? But wait....... today Stampin' Up have also launched their NEW Spring/Summer Mini catalogue Host a party and get even more FREE stuff Join my team and still get more FREE stuff If you're interested in starting a Stampin' Up direct sales business, there are plenty of incentives to do so during Sale-a-bration. You will pay just £99 for your starter kit and choose £130 worth of products to put in it. Catalogues, business stationery and delivery is included in the price and, during Sale-a-bration only, you'll also get to choose two Sale-a-bration items OR any project kit from the spring summer catalogue as an extra bonus.  Just pop over to the side bar to take a closer look at the c...

/////My good friend Mynette has started a new blog -  CASE-ing Christmas  and guess what??? It's another chance to get ahead on your Christmas crafting. It's all about CASEing - Mynette provides a sample card and the challenge is to CASE it - here's the card to CASE And here is my take on the card -  The elements I chose to CASE were the bird and foliage, the layout is pretty similar too. I added a sprinkling of glitter to the robin and berries to give that extra festive feel. thanks for looking today xx

It's time for a new start at  Make My Monday  and this week Fliss has chosen the theme of NEW BEGINNINGS for our challenge. I didn't make a card for this but instead a perpetual calendar - take a look Pieces of mount board were cut to size and stamped on with stamps from last year's Sale-a-bration offer. I used a variety of markers to colour my stamps and overlapped the images. I also stamped more than once before re-inking. I then added the calendar details using the Stampin' Up Project Life Day to Day stamp set. All the elements are separate so can be used for any year. This is going straight on my desk - I'm hoping that it's going to keep me organised this year - maybe help me to get my posts done on time!!!! Thanks for looking - please do take the time to pop on over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the other beautiful creations from the dt.

I had a few moments to play today and decided to dig out a set that I haven't really used enough. It's a two step stamping set called Too Kind - take a look Pink and green are one of my favourite colour combos and here I've used Blushing Bride and Gumball Green - that one is now retired but I was having a bit of a clear out before I was distracted by card making and I thought I'd use it up. The darker pink is Melon Mambo and I added a scrap of seam binding ribbon which was also lurking on the desktop! I am linking this card to the Tic, Tac, Toe challenge over on the  Polkadoodles Challenge blog I went for the middle column - Image, Ribbon and Buttons - I only have one button - I hope that's OK. Thanks for looking - see you tomorrow with the new Make My Monday Challenge.

That's right people - Christmas crafting already. I shall tell you why I do it: I love stamping and making cards and it always used to grieve me to have to put away my lovely Christmas stamps at the end of December and then wait a whole 11 months before I started using them again. I always hated the last minute rush and panic too to get lots of Christmas cards done in such a short space of time because lets face it - when you're a card maker everyone expects a handmade card don't they?! So, that being said two years ago I decided to set up a Christmas card challenge blog to run all year - the  52{Christmas} Card Throwdown  and every week at this same time you will find a Christmas card here on my blog. Want to join in? Well we are starting the New Year off with a round of challenges set for us by dt member Deborah and our very first sketch of the year is this - You can change the orientation of the sketch and even change the focal shape - but please do keep the ess...

Hello - actually good evening! I had huge plans to do loads today, take down decorations and give the lounge a good clean, do some crafting and cleaning in my room of stash but instead I went out for lunch with my daughter and then shopping afterwards - it was great. However on my return my fingers were itching to do some crafting - even for just a few minutes so I decided to make a New Year card and it literally took minutes to make! Here it is I used a C6 card base and mounted up my trees from White Christmas. I used a Stazon ink pad and stamped directly onto my card base. I then added a bird in a tree and the polar bear. This can be done so quick because the images are all in the same set and I used the same ink for all. I then quickly added red to the bird with a marker pen and added some pale blue for shadows to give a snowy effect - the sentiment is from the Good Greetings set and was stamped in the same red marker that I used for my bird. In fact I think it has taken lo...

A Happy New Year to all my lovely blog readers, may this year be filled with much fun and craftiness. 2014 was a difficult year for me and ended with me being quite ill. There are still uncertainties on the horizon as dad is still facing issues with his cancer. However I am determined to rise up and make 2015 my year - this year I am going to be happy - no matter what. I will be paper crafting, beading, felting and knitting - perhaps a little painting too and I will be showing it all here - I hope you will join me.