I’m a bit of a night owl and I love to craft late at night. When the house is quiet late at night and everyone else is asleep I love to tiptoe out of bed in my Pj’s and craft. The phones aren’t going to ring and I love the peace and quiet. No background TV or radio just me and my crafting. It’s all a bit zen.

So when I go away and stay in hotels overnight on my own it seems the natural thing to do to take some supplies and my craft tote. These are the result of my Zen time recently crafting into the night at the Hilton Milton Keynes. Simple but smart cards I’m rather pleased with them.

The simplest way to craft. Take a beautiful image and a pre folded notecard and just enjoy simple inking. Calypso Coral and Old Olive the perfect match.

Sadly sympathy cards or cards to say I’m here for you to very sick friends are often needed. My goodness they are often the most appreciated too. The simplest stamping just black ink on whisper white card then mounted on silver foil and black for a stylish finish. Completed with a simple sentiment not too mushy but heartfelt.

I have a family birthday coming up and I wanted a pretty but not fussy card. I’m happy with this simple image and used my dye based Marvellous Markers in Calypso Coral , Real Red and Old Olive to create the coloured image. I love creating multi coloured images this way by colouring the stamp itself before pressing it to the paper. If I had taken a water brush I might have blurred a few of the edges to give an even greater watercolour effect after printing but I like what I managed with the few resources I had taken.

The one thing I didn’t stint on was the blenders I took just over half of my collection so had loads to choose from. I wanted some Noah’s Arcs ready for my Stamping Colouring classes later in the year. Here’s one of many I coloured while away. Thanks Hilton for a great light and a long dressing table ideal for colouring. I love the pool party outline. It’s something I like to do when colouring larger images. It is strange in that you often don’t even notice it but somehow without it the image looks less effective. I hope you agree it gives it a solidity and grounds it rather well.