Red Maisy

Hi guys. Today I thought I'd share with you a card that I made as part of my DT work for The Craft Barn.  Over on The Craft Barn's blog today they are having a 'red day' so this was my contribution!!  If you want to see the other gorgeous cards that the DT made then click here. 

The main image is called Maisy and she is one of the Ketto range  by Stamping Bella.  (The Craft Barn currently stock a great selection of these stamps.) The background papers are by Basic Grey from the Nook and Pantry collection and are available from The Craft Barn too.

I've included a close up of the image which I coloured using Copic Ciaos and then added some Smooch Illuminate which you can just about make out on the red scalloped oval which of course was done with my Nestabilities.

You've probably noticed that I used my new Swirl Flourish punch on this card too that I got from The Hobby House - I just LOVE this punch!!

Anyway I hope you like the card.

Been Buying Again!!

Oh dear!!  I just can't seem to stop myself these days!!  There are just too many nice stamps and products out there at the moment that I just can't help myself!!  As you can see from the packaging these un-mounted stamps are all designed by Elisabeth Bell for SCACD and are available in the UK from Quixotic Paperie.  Aren't they lovely?  I can't wait to use them but I will have to control myself for a little while as I must do my work stuff first!!

Oh look!!!  And here we have some more stamps that I just had to have!!  These are also designed by Elisabeth Bell but this time for Belles & Whistles.  (That Elisabeth Bell has got an awful lot to answer for as she is keeping me VERY poor at the moment!!  Someone really ought to tell her to stop designing - lol!!)  These also came from Quixotic Paperie and at the moment they have got a sale on some of the Belles and Whistles stamp range including all of the stamps you see here so now is most definitely the time to get them!!

Oh I soooooooooooo need to find some time to play...................

Mini Dragonfly Notebook

Morning everyone.  I don't know about you but I most definitely didn't like getting up earlier this morning, due to the clocks going forward an hour last night!!  I missed my hour's sleep!!  Still it could be worse - I could have been demoing at the NEC in Birmingham as of course the Hobbycrafts show is currently on there (with today being the last day), so I shouldn't complain really as after all it didn't really matter what time I got up!!

Today I thought I would share a mini notebook that I made last year for a friend of mine.  I am so pleased that I took the plunge last year and bought a Bind-It-All machine (from Stamp Addicts).  Ok, I must admit that it isn't something I use every day but I have found it really handy having it and it has allowed me to make personalised notebook type things to give to people as presents.

For those of you who buy Craft Stamper magazine you should recognise the background to this notebook as it is the same background that I did for my project in the March 2010 issue of the magazine.  I had some bits left over from this project and I certainly wasn't going to waste them!  I also used the same technique of stamping onto frosted shrink plastic and colouring with the Copics that I covered in this issue too. The dragonfly stamp is one that I designed last year for the front cover of a Craft Stamper issue and I think I am right in saying that the 'friends' wording came from an Inkadinkado clear stamp set.

On a totally different note today is the final of Dancing On Ice!!  Wooooo hoooooooooo!!  Have I mentioned that I just LOVE this show!!  Can't wait for this evening!!  Infact come to think of it, it might have even been worth losing that hour for!!!

Wavy Flowers

Morning everyone.  With all the flowers that are starting to pop up in the gardens now I thought I would share this card with you today that I made a while back for the Stamparama show using the latest release of Denami Design stamps.  As I think I have said before, I really like the clean lines of these images and very little colouring is required making them nice and quick!

Once again the flowers, grass etc... have all been done using the Polycolor pencils along with a Splender pencil. (Lynne - thanks for letting me know that you succumbed to these.  If you ever have any questions regarding them just leave me a comment below any post and I'll try and answer them for you!)

For the rest of the card I stamped and embossed the Large Dot Swirl over the white card front using a Versamark inkpad and Crystal embossing powder and layered a panel of Creative Imaginations/Denim Paisley paper to the base of the card. I then used the Large Dot Swirl again to act as a border along both the top and the bottom of the card. Crystal glitter glue was added to the flowers and leaves to make them sparkle.

Stamps used:
Denami Design stamps - F187 Wavy Stems Trio
                                      PF Whimsical Flowers set
                                     M65 Large Dot Swirls

These can all be bought along with all the other products used from Stamp Addicts.

***********

Jenny - in answer to your question about whether I have any new stamps coming up - the answer is not at present as I've been having a rest from designing!  However The Stamp Man is currently being kept very busy with some new releases by their new designer Tracey Coates. Click here to see them!

And The Winner Is...............

Hi Guys.  Thanks to everyone who entered my blog candy.

I can now disclose that the Random Number Generator picked

 No.15 which is Mckinkle.

So Mckinkleif you would like to email me your address I will get the candy wrapped up and sent to you!

Many congratulations!!

By the way does anyone know how you add the results of the Random Number Generator to your blog?  I have seen that some people do this but don't know how to myself so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Last Few Hours

Hi guys.  Just a quick post to let you know that for those of you who haven't yet entered my Rachelle Anne Miller Blog Candy (see above) you still have a few hours left to do so.  The candy will end at midnight tonight (UK time).  If you aren't in it you can't win it!!

Whiff Of Joy GD Challenge

Hi guys!  I thought that I would be brave and have a go at entering Whiff Of Joy's GD challenge which is currently running.  I love the Whiff Of Joy range of stamps so to be able to work with them for a couple of months would be a dream job!

The challenge is to follow a recipe -
1 x cardstock, 2 x pieces of patterned paper, 1 ribbon and 1 button!  This was SO hard to do as I do like to embellish my cards with extra little bits but I am quite proud of myself as I followed this recipe to the letter.  (I did wrap my piece of ribbon around my card twice but I did only use one piece so hopefully this is ok!!)

The papers I used were by Bo Bunny (black) and Basic Grey (light blue).  As you can see I embellished my one piece of cardstock by punching it with my Martha Stewart Eyelet Lace punch that came from Stamp Addicts.  I also added a little subtle stamping to the background papers too by using my Judikins Mince Flourish stamp (also from Stamp Addicts) around the edges of the papers but I kept this very muted so that all the focus would be on the main image.  Then in two of the corners I applied some dots of Baby Blue Liquid Pearls

Here is a close up of my main panel which is of Willow With Flower Basket.  I stamped her with Graphite Black Brilliance and coloured her using Copics.  I also subtlety stamped that Mince Flourish again around the edges of the panel using a light blue inkpad and then overstamped the wording which came from the Tiny Phrases stamp set by Woodware.

Lastly I added some faux stitching with a fine black pen and then applied some Stardust glitter glue to parts of Willow, the grass area and around the main panel.

Fingers crossed!!!!!!!!!!!

The Craft Barn's June Extravaganza 2010

Morning guys.  I am so pleased to be able to finally tell you all that The Craft Barn have now released full details about THE event of the year!!  If you click on the title of this post it will take you to their website where you can find out all about it.

 

This year the June Extravaganza is being held on the 12th and 13th of June and most definitely promises to be their best ever Extravaganza yet.  This year they have got 23 demonstrators and 4 venues!!  Last year they held their September Extravaganza in 2 venues which gave everyone a lot more space and provided more room around each of the demonstrators which allowed everyone to see so much better, so this year they have decided to build on this success and spread everyone out so that it won't feel too crowded for all concerned.

 

The venues will be-

• The Victoria Club (in Lingfield High Street)
• The Community Centre (opposite The Victoria Club on the other side of the road)
• The Day Centre (behind The Community Centre)
• The Craft Barn

 

There will be signs and directions up for all the venues around the village so hopefully you shouldn't get lost!  There will also be some workshops that you can book on as well so keep checking The Craft Barn's website for details on these.

 

As for who they have got demoing for them this year.................................well I think it is best that you head on over to The Craft Barn and find out!!

Spring Time

Morning everyone.  Well with all the fine weather we have been having recently I thought I would share a card with you that I made a little while ago using spring like colours of purple and lime which puts me in mind of crocuses!  Talking of which, when I was out and about the other day I saw a garden full of both purple and yellow crocuses and it looked absolutely beautiful - such a cheery sight!

Anyway enough about flowers and onto the card!  This is a card that I made last year for my Colouring Techniques DVD using both Copics and Copic Spicas to colour my main image with.  Unfortunately the scanned in picture didn't pick up the sparkle of the Spicas so you'll just have to trust me that she does sparkle!  By the way did you know that the Spicas now come in even more colours?  Obviously when I found this out I just had to have them all!  The Craft Barn are currently selling all the new colours individually - click here to go and check them out!

My main image for the card is one of the Ketto stamps by Stamping Bella called Charlotte.  I just love these Ketto stamps and am currently working on some more cards with some of the other Ketto designs so when they are finished I'll post them up.  They may not be the biggest stamps in the world but what they lack in size they sure make up for in funkiness. (If there is such a word!) You can get all your Stamping Bella stamps online from The Craft Barn and they have a great selection to choose from. Click here to go and check them out.

The wording is a Stamps By Judith stamp which I got from Stamp Addicts and the paper was so long ago that I can't be absolutely sure whose it is!  I think that it was a Daisy Bucket one but I could be wrong!

Some Class Dates and a New Challenge Blog

Hi everyone - I hope you are all looking forward to the weekend!  I know that it is the Harrogate show this weekend and I am sure that lots of you will be going to that and buying lots of lovely things!  Unfortunately it is too far away for me - although with the way I've been spending recently perhaps that is a good thing!

I have added some class dates to My Event Diary on my sidebar incase anyone is interested?  I will be taking a morning and an afternoon class at The Glitter Pot on 17th April.  You can click here to find out more about them.

I found out yesterday that my good friends at Sir Stampalot are soon going to be doing a new Challenge Blog!  I am really hoping that I can find the time to have a go at some of these challenges as I just know that the prizes will definitely be worth having as they stock some wonderful products!  That is of course if they don't mind me entering!! If you want to find out more about it click here and it will take you straight to their brand new Challenge Blog which is being run and orchestrated by the very talented Brenda!  I am really looking forward to the 1st April 2010 when it all kicks off!

Raindrops Keep Falling!

Hi guys.  Thankfully the title of this post doesn't have anything to do with the weather here - it is only the title of this card.  Luckily the weather seems to be behaving itself here in our little corner of the UK and although we don't currently have bright sunshine, it is both fine and fairly mild so I can live with that!!

Onto the card - this is one that I did for Stevenage using the latest release of Denami Design stamps.  I really do like this Mimi stamp and it is just right to use for the next coming month as April is synonymous with April Showers!  I just wish that I could look as stylish in my wellies as Mimi does!

For this card I stamped Mimi In The Rain with Starlite Black Brilliance and coloured her using the Polycolor pencils and a Splender pencil which 'polishes' the pencils and gets rid of any pencil lines as well as blending the colours. Next I stamped the Raindrops using the same inkpad and coloured the drops using a Clear Sakura Stardust pen and then lightly stamped a couple of Large Dot Swirls in a couple of the blank areas - again using the Starlite Black Brilliance.  The Small Umbrella was stamped three times and coloured in the same way and then cut out and added as embellishments to the card.  The Heard You're Under The Weather wording I stamped in Graphite Black Brilliance as I wanted this to stand out more and then gently coloured around the panel using the Polycolor pencils.

The actual card I stamped and embossed using the Decorative Flourish and a Versamark inkpad and crystal embossing powder so that it would gently twinkle when the light catches it.  The paper is by Creative Imaginations and is called Denim Paisley. I still felt that the background needed something else so I stamped the Large Dot Swirl in the bottom right corner using the Starlite Black Brilliance, cleaned it and stamped and embossed it into the top left corner using Versamark and Detail White embossing powder.  After that it just needed a few little embellishments with some brads and gems and a doodle with a fine black pen.

Here's a close up of the Mimi panel so that you can see after I had done my colouring I actually traced over parts of the image with a Silver Sakura Stardust pen and then added some Crystal glitter glue to highlight certain areas.

I hope you like it!!

All the products used and mentioned can be bought from Stamp Addicts.

Spring Challenge

Morning everyone.  I thought that I would have a go today at my very first blog challenge!  Normally I don't get the time to do this sort of thing but for once I wasn't snowed under so thought this would be fun to do!  So this is my entry for the StampAvie Challenge 19 - Spring.  I thought that it would be most appropriate for me to use this Sarah Kay stamp as it is called Spring Is Back!  The 'spring' wording I took from an old Penny Black stamp which reads 'spring is here' and just cut off the words that I didn't want.  For the background panels I chose to use some flourish stamps and as you can see I used another of my Martha Stewart punches called Floral Vine!  The wide open lilac ribbon came from Quixotic Paperie and the dotty ribbon was given to me by a friend of mine.  The Prima flowers came from The Craft Barn and the lilac flourishes were done using my new punch from The Hobby House.

Here's a closer look at the Sarah Kay panel which I stamped using Graphite Black Brilliance and coloured using Copics.  Although you can't see it very well  in these photos I added Stardust Stickles here and there to make it sparkle.

I hope you like it!

The Other Half!

Hi everyone.  I hope that you all had a good weekend.  We have got lovely bright sunshine here today which is very welcome!  Well as promised here is the other half of Mum's Mother's Day card.  Yesterday I showed you the first side of it.  Well this is now the reverse side.

As you can see I kept the colour scheme the same on this side.  Instead of using the Blossom Nestabilities die I chose to use Labels Three for this side but I kept the rest of the elements the same so that it would correspond seamlessly with the other side. 

Here's a close up of the first panel on this side. Once again I used stamps from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet to create the backgrounds and then stamped elements from my Funky Flowers stamp sheet onto the die-cut and also some extra corresponding flower heads which I used for embellishments. I used my Floral Lace Martha Stewart punch to add some interest to the background panel. (Just love this punch!!  Well I would really wouldn't I as it is daisies!!)

Here's a closer look at that central panel. Once again I used light coloured Copics to colour the flowers and leaves and then added corresponding colours of Sakura Stardust pens over the top which I softened using a water brush. You'll see that I lightly stamped around the flowers as well using one of my flourishes and a light blue inkpad just to take away the starkness of the white background.

Onto the middle panel now. The layout for this I kept quite similar to the layout on the other side as this kept it balanced. Again the stamped wording was taken from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet and the cut out letters were from the Cuttlebug Curls 'n' Swirls alphabet set.  As you can see I stamped three flower heads from my Funky Flowers stamp sheet and cut them out and layered them over my new sprig punch that I bought from The Hobby House. (Just love this punch already and I know that it is going to get a lot of use!  You can't tell very well from this photo but the bottom part of this panel lifts up and that is where I wrote my greeting to Mum.

Onto the last panel now which I stamped using the same flourish stamps and used the same shades of Bazzill card as for the first panel, but altered the layout slightly.  As you can see I used my Floral Lace Martha Stewart punch again as well. Plus I used some cut out flower heads too to act as embellishments just like I did for the first panel in order to keep it all matching.

And here is a close up of that centre panel where you can see I stamped the centre flower head first and masked it so that I could then stamp the other flower heads either side of it.  I then drew in some stems with a fine black pen and stamped the leaves either side of them.  I've got to say that I had great fun using the different elements off of the Funky Flowers stamp sheet and ended up making far more panels than I needed as I just couldn't stop!  Still they will come in handy for some other cards!

Once again all the materials I used on this card came from The Craft Barn apart from that sprig punch which came from The Hobby House.  If any of you have already got these stamp sheets I hope that it has given you some ideas!

Happy Mother's Day

Hi guys. First of all I just want to wish all you Mums out there a very happy Mother's Day.  I am lucky enough to still have my Mum around as some of you already know from reading previous posts.  So today I thought I would share with you half of the card that I made her this year.  Yes I did say 'half'!  I made Mum a concertina card and for you to see it all properly it would be a mega long post so I thought it would be easier to show you half of it today and the other half tomorrow.  I have got to admit that I am not the quickest card maker in the world but this took me a week to make as I kept tearing it apart and starting it again where I just wasn't happy with it!

Anyway without further ado here is the box that I made to put it into.

I made the box from thick white card and then decorated the top of it to match the card inside.  The panels were stamped and decorated using stamps from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet and the top left panel was embossed using the Cuttlebug Stylized Flower embossing folder. The main panel was stamped using some of the elements from my Funky Flowers stamp sheet and then coloured using Copics and Sakura Stardust pens.  The 'Mum' wording was die cut using the Cuttlebug Curls 'n' Swirls alphabet.

Here is the first side of the card. To make the concertina card all I did was stick two 14.5x14.5cm square white cards together. This saves you buying a large piece of thick white card as doing it this way you can stick as many pieces together as you like and also makes it nice and sturdy.

Here's a better look at that first panel.  Again I have used flourishes from my stamp sheet to decorate the background panels and also that Stylized Flower embossing folder. For the main panel I cut a blossom nestabilities from white card and then stamped elements onto it from my Funky Flowers stamp sheet and just drew in the stems using a fine black pen.

Here's a better look at that centre panel.  The colouring was achieved by using light Copics first and then Sakura Stardust pens over the top along with a water brush.  This gives a delicate shimmery effect.  You can also see that I subtlety stamped the background of the die-cut using a flourish and a light blue chalk inkpad.

Onto the second panel now using the same two stamp sheets to create the background and also the daisy flower element. This time I chose to cut out the flowers after stamping them to use them as an accent.  To keep the flower theme going I also used my Martha Stewart Floral Lace edging punch too.  The stamped wording came from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet and the die-cuts were done using that Cuttlebug Curls 'n' Swirls alphabet.

And here is that third panel which I did to match the first one but just changed the panels around.  Again I stamped the elements from the Funky Flowers stamp sheet onto my blossom nestabilities die-cut to create my main panel and stamped out extra flower heads which I cut out to use as embellishments.

Here's another close up for you so you can see that I achieved this layout by doing some simple masking of the large central flower.  This is what I had in mind when I first designed the Funky Flowers stamp sheet as I thought it would be great fun to be able to stamp your own designs to fit perfectly into all the different nestabilities dies.

Thankfully after all that work my Mum did like the card!  Tomorrow I will show you the other side of it.

All the materials used on this card can be purchased from The Craft Barn.

Some Spring Cheer!!

By now regular followers of this blog will know that I live in the south east corner of the UK which is supposedly one of the warmest parts of the whole of the United Kingdom.  I say 'supposedly' because whilst I was watching our local news and weather I was informed that today we were colder than Scotland (the northern part of the UK), and to be honest I can quite believe it as it was freezing out there and has been for the last few days.  We have been well below the average temperature for this time of year as we have only been hitting about 5c - apparently normal temperatures should be around 10 or 11c.

So I thought I would cheer myself up a bit and post up a pretty flowery card to remind myself that it won't be long before all the spring flowers start to make an appearance - with a bit of luck!!

The flower stamp I've used is one of my favourite Brushstroke stamps by Penny Black called 'Blush'.  I simply coloured the stamp with brush markers and then stamped it three times onto my panel without any reinking so as to get some variations in depth of colour.  Along the bottom of the panel I stamped Judikins's Mince Flourish by colouring the stamp using a green brush marker and stamping along the base of the panel - again without reinking the stamp between each stamped impression. The wording (taken from the Penny Black clear Salutations stamp set) was stamped using a Brilliance Graphite Black inkpad and the Denami Large Dot Swirls that you see on the background panels were stamped using the Brilliance Starlite Black inkpad which is much softer than the Graphite Black. 

I hope you like it and reminds you all that (hopefully) it won't be too long before we get some warmer weather!

Background panel - Arabella by Basic Grey from The Stamp Man
Penny Black stamps from Sir Stampalot
Judikins and Denami stamps from Stamp Addicts
Prima flowers, self-adhesive pearls and nailheads from The Craft Barn

Blog Candy!!

THIS BLOG CANDY IS NOW CLOSED

Morning everyone!!  I thought that it was about time I did some blog candy again.  I was sorting through some of my stamps yesterday and came across some stamps that I have never used so thought it would be a good idea to offer them up here.

So if you fancy winning the above stamps here are the rules-

1) You need to be a follower of this blog.
2) For those of you with blogs you will need to show a picture of my candy on your sidebar with a link back to my blog and leave me a comment below this post.
3) For those of you without blogs you will need to leave a comment below this post including your full name - anonymous entries will not be accepted.
4) Candy is open to everyone and will run as from 2 weeks today finishing on 23rd March 2010.

Don't forget that you need to be in it to win it!!  Good luck!!

My Spending Spree!

Morning everyone.  Well as promised here are a few piccies of all the lovely goodies I bought whilst I was at the Stamparama show. 

First up are these wonderful Martha Stewart punches that I got from Stamp Addicts.  My only gripe with these punches is that once they are out of their packaging you no longer know what the designs are called which can be frustrating!!  Still can't wait to find a project to use them on though!

Next up is some of my stash that I got from The Hobby House.  I ended up not being able to take a photo of everything that I got from this stand so had to split the products up!  I've already used both of these punches that you see here.  The little packets that you can see with gold and silver items in them are different metal middles that you can put into your punched out flowers.  (I know that they are called something but the name escapes me for the moment.)  The Hobby House had loads of these to choose from and they really do lift your punched flowers.  I also succumbed to some of the beautiful Prima flowers too - they always look so lovely in their jars.  They might not be very cheap but again you only need one or two of these gorgeous flowers to embellish your card.  Actually I thought I was very restrained just sticking to 3 jars of these as I could quite happily have had them all!

The next two pictures are close ups of the above photo so that you can see the items a bit better.

The Hobby House didn't have an awful lot of these ribbons left by the time I got over to the stand but again they were all absolutely beautiful.  I loved the fact that they had sorted them into colourways.  The little pots contain different colours of brads and again there were just so many to choose from - a lot of them were pearlescent too which made it even harder to just stick to a few!

You can see even more of these little pots of brads in this photo!

Lastly here are all the packs of self-adhesive rhinestones and pearls that I got from The Hobby House - again there were just so many beautiful colours of these to choose from that it made it really difficult!

I think that it was definitely a good thing that I didn't get to visit this stall until just before the end of the show as their stocks by then were very depleted and if I had visited them before the show opened they might not have had any stock left to sell!!

*********

On a totally different subject did anyone watch Dancing On Ice last night?  If you did wasn't Hayley fantastic!!  I think she definitely deserved those 6's!!  I did think that Gary deserved a higher score than what he got though as his actual skating always looks so smooth and relaxed.

Pretty Flowers

Woo hoooo!!  It is my favourite day of the week again when I get to curl up on the settee and watch my favourite show - can't wait!!  Last week I had to record it due to being at Stevenage but this week I'll be able to watch it at its proper time.

Talking of Stevenage, here is another of those cards that I did for this show using the latest release of Denami stamps.  What I like about these stamps that I have used here is that you can mix them as the Wavy Stems Trio is one stamp and the flower heads are from the Whimsical Flowers stamp set which consists of the two different flower heads that you see on this card along with a solid flower head and a pair of small open leaves.  All I did for this card was stamp the Wavy Stems Trio along the white panel and then stamped my flower heads onto the tops of each of the stems.  Really simple but effective.  What I like the most is that you can have different layouts using these stamps together.

The pretty pink background paper is from the Basic Grey Sugared Paper Pad and the darker paper is called Denim Paisley by Creative Imaginations.  I particularly liked the Denim Paisley paper and used it on quite a few of my demo cards so you will keep seeing this appear on my blog for a little while!

You will probably have noticed that I decorated the papers a little as well by stamping the Large Dot Swirl around the edges of the panels using the Graphite Black inkpad.  The Thanks A Bunch wording was also stamped using this same inkpad.

For those of you who have seen my last few posts you can no doubt guess what I used to colour the flowers!  Polycolor pencils and a Splender pencil of course!!  I had first stamped them with the Starlite Black Brilliance inkpad though and heat set the ink.  (By the way if you are colouring with wax based pencils such as the Polycolor pencils, Coloursoft pencils Prismacolor etc... don't ever stamp your image with StazOn as you will find that this ink will smudge when you colour with these types of pencils - this is one of the reasons why I use a Brilliance ink with pencils and either heat set the ink or allow it to air dry before colouring.)  Also if you use smooth card you will find that the pencils will blend a lot easier with the Splender pencil.  Although you can't see the shimmer from this photo I did trace over the stamped imagery with a silver Sakura Stardust pen and then added some Diamond glitter glue to the flowers for some extra sparkle.

All of these stamps and products can be obtained from Stamp Addicts.

I have actually gotten around to taking some photos of what I bought last Sunday so I will show you these tomorrow!!  The trouble is I am still wanting to get lots more things!!

Under The Weather!!

Morning everyone.  What with all the rain we had last week I should really have posted this card up then as it would have been most appropriate!!  Thankfully the weather over the last few days has been a lot kinder here but I thought I'd still post this up for you to see anyway!

This is another of the cards I made for last Sunday using the new Spring/Summer range of stamps by Denami Design.

The papers I used were from the Basic Grey Sugared Paper Pad and I don't know how well you can make it out from this photo but I actually stamped and embossed the Small Solid Umbrella onto the backing paper using Versamark and an Iridescent Sparkle embosssing powder.  The Large Open Umbrella and the Small Umbrellas I stamped with Starlite Black Brilliance ink and coloured using Polycolor pencils and a Splender pencil.  Using the Splender pencil over the Polycolor pencils helps to blend your colours and 'polishes' the pencils to get rid of the pencil lines - I definitely wouldn't be without this!  The handle of the umbrellas I coloured with a clear Sakura Stardust pen so that it looked metallic and sparkly and then did my trick of tracing over the outline of the designs using the silver Sakura Stardust pen in order to add some shimmer.  Then of course no colouring of mine would be complete without adding a little glitter glue - in this instance I opted for Diamond.  The Under The Weather wording was stamped using the Graphite Black Brilliance which is a much stronger black than the Starlite Black.

Here's a close up of the main panel so that you can see the colouring a little better!  You'll notice that I tinged the edge of the panel as well to take away the starkness of the white background.  I did this by colouring a little of the lighter pink that I had used for the umbrella around the edge of the panel then I used a blending stump and some Zest It blending solution to smudge and blend the colour towards the centre of the panel.

All of the stamps used are by Denami Design and these can be bought along with all the products used from Stamp Addicts.

Monochromatic Roses

Hi Guys.  Sorry that I've been a bit quiet over the last few days - lots going on at home!!  So I haven't had chance yet to take a picture of all my lovely goodies that I purchased last weekend but as soon as I do I'll let you see!

Anyway this is one of the cards that I created for last Sunday when I was busy demoing at Stevenage.  A very simple card but quite effective.  This was actually a first for me as I have never done monochromatic flowers before as I do like pretty flowers but I was pleasantly surprised with the result!

Literally all I did for this card was stamp the Denami Design Rosebud Trio centrally onto my card panel and then stamped either side of it using the Starlite Black Brilliance - a dark grey inkpad.  I then coloured the flowers using my Polycolor Pencils and blended it with a Splender Pencil.  To add some subtle shimmer to the flowers. leaves and stems I then traced over them using a silver Sakura Stardust pen and then added Crystal glitter glue where I wanted some proper sparkle.

The background paper was by Creative Imaginations and is called Denim Paisley which I  decorated using the Ranger InkssentialsWhite Opaque pen to add some white swirly dots and as you can see I used one of my Martha Stewart punches!!

I hope you like it!!

All of these products are stocked and can be purchased from Stamp Addicts.

The Craft Barn's Blog March Challenge

Hey guys.  Just had to tell you that The Craft Barn are now running a monthly challenge over on their blog.  This piccie shows what you can win if you enter.  The challenge will run until the end of this month.  The sketch has been designed by Poupette - one of our very talented DT members.  To find out more about it click on the title of this post!!

Too Many Nice Things!

Hey Guys - I hope you are all ok.  I had a lovely time at the Stamparama Show at Stevenage on Sunday demoing the new Denami Design stamps.  It was a very busy show so I hope that if any of you went that you enjoyed it and were able to get in to see the things you wanted to see!  I didn't get chance to look around the show until just before the show ended and then I only managed to visit one stall!  The trouble was there were so many lovely things on this particular stand that I just couldn't tear myself away from it and I ended up spending an absolute fortune!!  It probably would have been better for me financially if I hadn't had ANY time to look around!  The stall that I happened across was called The Hobby House and they had some truly lovely embellishments on their stand.  What caught my eye to begin with were the amazing card samples that they had up using the Whiff Of Joy and Sarah Kay images which I just adore!!  The cards were absolutely beautiful and were designed by a lady called Bev Rochester. Now many of you will probably know her work but this was the first time I had come across her (as I just don't get the time to go blog hopping) but she is one VERY talented lady.  I have since found her blog and will certainly be visiting it from time to time. Click here to go see it. I'll take a picure of all the lovely goodies that I got from this stand and post it up later on this week so that you can all drool.  If any of you see The Hobby House at any of the shows then you definitely need to go and see all their lovely products - I can guarantee that if you like embellishments you won't come away empty handed!

There just seems to be so many lovely things on the market at the moment and I also had to succumb to some more Martha Stewart punches that Stamp Addicts were selling.  Stamp Addicts also had all the new colours of  Distress Inks too which I also have got to have but I think that these will have to wait until next time!

I have decided that I really should not be allowed out of the house as each time I go to a show or craft shop I just succumb to all the lovely goodies that I see and I know that I don't necessarily NEED these things but I have just got to HAVE them.  I'm sure you all know what I mean!!  It is like the new Sarah Kay images and all the new Elisabeth Bell ones too - I most definitely NEED them!!  It really doesn't matter that I already have lots of these images already!  And just don't get me started on all the gorgeous background papers that are out there!!

Normally when I am at these type of craft shows I am actually there working so I only tend to get about 10 minutes to have a scoot around to see who else is there, if that!!  However this year I am not working at the Ally Pally show in April and am seriously considering visiting this show as a shopper - it has been many years since I have been able to do this as I've normally been working there so again haven't had chance to look around. So I was wondering if any of you went to this show last year and would recommend it?  I really miss not only seeing what lovely goodies are out there but seeing other people demoing their products.  Is this a good show for seeing on stand demos still?  I know that it used to be but it has been about 4 or 5 years now since I have looked around this show so would welcome any feedback!!