The Stamp Man Curls 'n' Swirls Challenge

Hi everyone.  Today is the start of a brand new challenge over on The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog and this time around we would like to see entries incorporating Curls 'n' Swirls!  I've got to admit that this is right up my street as I love all the swirly elements and stamps that are around at the moment!

This is a book that I did earlier this year to store some of my Nesties in using both my Funky Flowers (Aspects of Design No.56) and my Fancy Flourishes (Aspects of Design No.58) un-mounted stamp sheets along with the Cuttlebug Stylized Flower embossing folder which is just full of swirly bits! (All available from The Stamp Man.) As you can see I punched out some extra swirls too in order to embellish it further.

For the main flower panel I built up an arrangement of flowers, leaves and swirly bits using some of the elements from the Funky Flowers stamp sheet and then watercoloured them using Sakura Stardust pens which gives them such a delicate look as well as adding some gorgeous shimmer!  Then using a light blue chalk inkpad I stamped one of the flourishes (from the Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet) around the flowers then used a silver inkpad and Stardust embossing powder around the edges of the panel.

For the inside of the book I cut up some magnetic sheets and stuck them either side of some square bits of mountboard. To separate the pages of the magnetic sheets I added some sheets of plasma and stuck pieces of DP on the bottom of the plasma to make pockets.  I then bound it altogether using the Bind It All machine.

Then as you can see I photocopied part of the front of the matching Nestabilities leaflet and popped it into the pocket.

Hope you like it and that you will play along with the Curls 'n' Swirls Challenge. Don't forget to hop on over to The Stamp Man's Challenge blog to see all the other gorgeous creations that the rest of the DT have made!

Have a great weekend everyone!

(NB The magnetic sheets and Sakura Stardust pens are not listed on The Stamp Man's website but they can be purchased from The Stamp Man's bricks and mortar shop/unit.) 

Playful Pepper

Hi guys.  Today I thought I'd share a card with you that I made for a very good friend of mine.

I stamped and embossed the background using that lovely Scrolling Along Penny Black stamp again. (See told you this was one of my favourite stamps!!)  The happy birthday is also a PB stamp too and the dog (Pepper) came from a Helz Cuppleditch clear stamp set.

It's been a while now so can't remember whose DP I used but it did come from The Glitter Pot as too did the clear stamp set and PB stamps.  For some interest I used my Floral Lace MS edging punch and the EK Success swirl punch.

I stamped Pepper with black Memento ink and coloured him with Copic markers, die-cut him with my Deckled Rectangles Nesties and added faux stitching with a white opaque pen.  The flowers are Prima and the pearls are from my stash.

As this card was for a special friend I went ahead and decorated the inside of it too using those Deckled Rectangles Nesties again along with that same flourish punch and another MS punch Doily Lace Trim (from The Craft Barn).  The wording stamp is by Penny Black and is such a lovely sentiment.

Here's a closer look at Pepper and the bee.  Hopefully you can make out that I stamped that Scrolling Along stamp around Pepper with Versamark Dazzle to add some soft decoration around him.

I hope you like it!!

I'd like to enter this card into Sir Stampalots All Creatures Great and Small Challenge as with Pepper being after the bee it seems quite apt!

New Classes at The Glitter Pot and A Card.

Hi everyone.  As some of you already know I have been taking a bit of time off recently from teaching but all being well I will be back teaching at The Glitter Pot next month.  I have added a new page to my blog where you can find out where I'll be teaching and demoing.  Haven't loaded up too much as yet but you can click here to see or simply click on Classes/Demos under my header.  As from now my classes will be limited to a maximum of 6 people at The Glitter Pot which I hope will benefit everyone more so if anyone fancies booking on it'll be great to see you!

Now as some of you may remember near the end of last year I bought the Grand Calibur die-cutting machine.  Haven't really 'played around with it too much yet but here is one of the cards that I did create with it towards the end of last year in order to try it out!  I must say that I was REALLY pleased with the machine as it cut through the two layers (A4 folded in half) really easily and enabled me to make this shaped card using the Grand Labels 1 Nestabilities die.

Now the Grand Calibur only takes thin metal dies but I did find that with a little bit of trial and error that I was able to emboss my Daisy Pattern with it too by using one of my plates from my Cuttlebug along with the Grand Calibur plates.  This means that I am able now able to emboss far bigger panels of cardstock which I was very pleased with!

Anyway back to the card.............I used one of my flourish stamps (Aspects of Design No.58 Fancy Flourishes) for the base panel and used the Daisy Pattern embossing folder for the top panel.  The wording was also from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet.

I stamped Phoebe With Dove onto smooth white cardstock with black Memento ink and coloured her with Copic markers before glittering her wings etc... with Stardust glitter glue.

All these products came from The Glitter Pot.

Copics used:
Skin - E11, E00, E000 and R20
Hair - E35, YR23 and E50
Eyes - BG13 and BG10
Flower - Y00, RV95 and RV91
Dress - C3, C1 and C00
Dress trim, shrug and headband - C7, C5, C3 and Clear Spica
Bow and heart - RV95 and RV91
Wings and fur - BG18, BG13 and BG10
Dove - C7 (beak), C1(feathers) and RV91 (cheeks)

Say It With Flowers

Morning everyone!  Now I know I said that I would show you the rest of Mum's snowflakes but I thought I'd hold onto them for a bit and wait to see if we get any more snow and post them up then so that it is 'seasonal'!!

So instead I've got a flowery card for you today which I thought I'd enter into the Penny Black At Allsorts Say It With Flowers challenge.  I used one of my favourite Penny Black stamps called Clusters and used another favourite PB stamp - Scrolling Along to decorate around my main image and the background panel. 

I stamped the burgundy panel with Moonlight White Brilliance ink and the Mince Flourish stamp by Judikins.  I'm afraid that I can't remember whose the 'Friends Always' stamp is but the 'Birthday Wishes' is a Craftwork Cards Oh My Words! Message.

The flowers were coloured using Coloursoft pencils and then glittered using Stickles.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Celebrations at The Craft Barn

TIME TO CELEBRATE

It's been 3 years since Sandy and Ian took over The Craft Barn and they would like to invite everyone to join in with their celebrations.  This weekend they have some special things going on!!!!

FREE POSTAGE

From 9am Friday 11th through to 9am Tuesday 15th February 2011 it's free postage on all UK and Euro Zone 1 orders  Don't worry if you live elsewhere they haven't forgotten you, if you please an order of £25 or more you will also receive free postage.

BIRTHDAY SPECIALS

Find out more on The Craft Barn's blog

http://thecraftbarnblog.blogspot.com/

Snowflakes

Hi guys.  I hope that you are all well.

As promised here are some more of my Mum's quilled snowflakes that I made some cards up with.  As I mentioned before on a previous post each of the snowflakes are different and although I designed the cards for them to match one another - each of these are slightly different too.  Take a look and you'll see what I mean!

As before I used the Papermania Snowflake folder to emboss a white panel and then decorated the embossed panel using the Winter Trails Inkadinkado stamp set along with a silver inkpad and Stardust embossing powder.  The wording (which came from an old Impressions Obsessions stamp set) was stamped using Brilliance Starlight Black.

Here's a closer look at Mum's snowflake for you which she lightly glittered using Silver glitter glue.  As you can see I mounted into some Nestabilities die-cuts - Petite Scalloped Circle and Circle.

Same decorated background for this card - just a different Nestabilities used - Blossom.

A closer look at the snowflake for you.

And another snowflake card - this time with a Labels die-cut.

See what I mean about each of the snowflakes being different!

And another snowflake card with a different Label die-cut.

Quite a lacey looking snowflake this one!

So after doing quite a few of these silver and white snowflake cards I decided to ring the changes a little and introduce my favourite colour of lilac!  I've told Mum that she is to give me this as my Christmas card next year but I'm not sure if she'll take any notice!!

She did a good job with all the different snowflakes didn't she?  This isn't all of them though!!  I did make 3 more up into cards which I'll show you next time plus she has got a box full of snowflakes for me to tackle another time!!

Now back at the beginning of the year I was delighted about being given this lovely award from Sharon and what with one thing and another I hadn't gotten around to accepting it!! (Sorry Sharon!)  Anyway here it is and I am REALLY thrilled to have it as this one is REALLY special as the winners get to qualify for a free digi stamp from Digi's With Attitude!  How cool is that?

In order to qualify for your $5.00 Digi's With Attitude! Gift Certificate you must state 3 things that make you different from everybody else and nominate 5 blogs. Lastly you need to display the Blog Award Badge (above) in your sidebar and link it back to the Digi's With Attitude! Challenge Blog.

So here are my three things-
1. I am right-handed but when using cutlery I eat left-handed.
2. I don't like cheese but LOVE cheese scones, cheese straws and cheesecake.
3. I would love to be able to wolf whistle or to even whistle loudly but I JUST CAN'T DO IT!!

So without further ado I would like to pass this award onto-

Vix - http://vixykins.blogspot.com 
Debbie - http://debbie-thedolphins.blogspot.com
Lou - http://louisemolesworth.blogspot.com
Sally - http://sal-utations.blogspot.com
Brenda - http://stamping-fantasies.blogspot.com

Although to be honest I would have loved to have passed it onto a lot more people!!

Have a lovely weekend everyone.