Kay's Crafty Corner

Flowers and Swirls

2011-09-13T12:09:00.000+01:00

Oh my!! I can't believe that it is almost a month since I last posted anything!! First up my sincere thanks to all of you who have sent me your best wishes - they are all truly appreciated. I am REALLY sorry but at the moment I am struggling to sit for any length of time so just haven't been able to make it round to your blogs lately as the time I spend on the computer is so limited. I hope you'll bear with me on this!!

Anyway talking of limited time I had better get on with showing you my card for today. I realised this morning that I had never gotten around to showing you a card that I did actually manage to make this year for my Mum so thought I'd show you her Mother's Day card.

The papers used were by Prima and were from the Jack and Jill collection and the main image was stamped from my Daisy Daydreams stamp set (Aspects of Design No.38). The swirls were die-cut using a Magnolia swirl die and the added flowers were numerous ones that I had got in my stash. The Happy Mothers Day was a stamp that I cut into three pieces.

I coloured the main image using Copics and added a muted dotty background around the flowers using my lighter coloured Copics.

I then took a dark brown Copic and run it around all the edges of the die-cut swirls to help them stand out and also used my Copics to lightly stain some of the flowers to match the distressed look of the background papers.

This was a circle that I punched out from a piece of scrap Prima paper and then handwrote the words.

As this was a 'special' card for my Mum I went ahead and decorated the inside of it too using those same Prima papers and nestabilities dies.

Here's a closer look at the left hand panel. I used a LOTV sentiment for the wording and mounted it too a large yellow daisy to simulate the 'sunshine' sentiment.

And a closer look at the right hand panel before I went ahead and wrote in it. I added some 'distressing' of my own to the nestabilities panel using distress inks to match the papers and a sponge to apply them with.

I hope you like it!!

I'd like to enter this into the Allsorts Week 120 Flowers and Swirls Challenge.

Nestabilities Storage

2011-08-16T12:01:00.000+01:00

Oh my goodness I cannot believe that I haven't blogged for almost a month!! Where does the time go??

My sincere thanks to those of you who keep asking how I am. The truth of the matter is that I am currently waiting to have an operation performed on my back. Actually I say 'an' operation, it is infact two major operations in one go. It seems that my back has got to the stage where it won't get better on its own and so I've agreed to have these operations done. It will take me 3-6 months to recover from the operation itself so during this time I won't be demoing or tutoring at all and probably not even card making either as I won't be able to bend, twist, lift anything or infact do very much at all. Originally I thought the operation would be happening this month but my surgeon is on leave and it won't be happening until around mid November. I'm finding it very hard to sit for any length of time which is why I haven't been blogging very much. However I do still have some things to show you that I made last year so when I feel up to it I will pop on and load up something for you!!

So without further ado here is one I made earlier - lol!! As you can see I used my Bind It All on the side of this to hold the pages together which consist of magnetic sheets and plasma as this is one of my notebooks that hold some of my nestabilities.

The cute image is by StampAvie which I stamped with black Memento ink and coloured using Copics and then die-cut it with one of the nestabilites labels die.

I find the magnetic sheets so useful for holding the nestabilities in place.

The paper is from my stash that was from one of the collections by My Minds Eye.

StampAvie stamp, paper and copics from The Glitter Pot
Magnetic sheets from The Stamp Man
Bind It All from Stamp Addicts

I'd like to enter this into -
Allsorts Anything But A Card Challenge
Sir Stampalot Anything You Fancy Challenge

Summertime

2011-07-21T22:48:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone. I thought I'd amaze you all by not leaving it too long this time before showing you another card!!

This is one that I made a little while back using a cute stamp by Penny Black along with some swirls and wording from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet. Thought this would be quite an appropriate card to load up as the sunflowers are just beginning to come out now even with the distinct lack of sunshine that we've been having recently!!

The image was coloured using Copic markers, (What else - lol!!) and the background stamping was done using a Versamark inkpad and Crystal embossing powder.

Penny Black stamp and Prima flowers from The Glitter Pot.

Fancy Flourish stamp sheet from The Glitter Pot or The Stamp Man.

Don't forget that if you fancy picking up a bargain to check out The Craft Barn's half price Summer Sale!!

I'd like to enter this card into the Flower Power challenge at the Penny Black at Allsorts Challenge blog and also into the Allsorts Free and Easy Challenge Week 112.

Shaped Stepped Card

2011-07-14T13:16:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone. First of all I would just like to say thank you to everyone for your kind comments regarding my Copic Certification. They were all very much appreciated! (Also I know that some of you have been asking how I am now - I'll tell you all another time!!)

Without further ado here is the card that I've got to show you today which is one that I made earlier this year using some of the fabulous Molly Bloom stamps from Sir Stampalot. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed working with these stamps! As you can see I thought it would be nice to make something a little different with the stamps and decided to create a garden scene with dimension!

The girl (Molly), the stamped flowers, butterfly and bee are all from the Molly Bloom range, the fence and flower border are MS punches and the large blue die-cut flowers and swirls are Magnolia DooHickey dies. The shaped panel at the back is a large Nestabilities die (Labels One) and the papers are from an old range by My Minds Eye.

Here's a closer look at the back panel for you. The stamped leaves around the flower panel are from a Leafy Swirl clear stamp set by Woodware that Francoise Read designed and the wording is from a Personal Impressions stamp set designed by Paula Pascual. The shaping at the bottom of the panel is a MS edging punch called Topiary. The small punched out flowers were done using the MS Hydrangea punch.

And here's a closer look at Molly for you. All the colouring was achieved using Copic markers. I hope you like it!!

Molly Bloom stamps from Sir Stampalot.
Copic markers and MS punches from The Glitter Pot or The Craft Barn.
Grand Nestabilities Labels One die and Magnolia DooHickey dies from The Glitter Pot.

And talking of The Glitter Pot and The Craft Barn they are both having a 50% of Summer Sale at the moment so you may want to check them out and see what bargains are to be had!!

I'd like to enter this card into the Allsorts Free and Easy July Challenge (Week 111) and the Sir Stampalot Anything Goes July Challenge.

A Summer Snooze

2011-06-24T14:28:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone. Sorry that I've been missing for so long but things here are a little challenging at present!!

Anyway today I thought I'd share another card with you that I made using that Penny Black Make A Wish clear stamp set. (As I think a lot of you already know I just love this set and so I thought I'd enter this card into the Penny Black at Allsorts June Challenge.)

The background paper is by Basic Grey, the wording came from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet and the imagery was coloured with Copics. And talking of 'Copics', I am now
Copic Certified!!! Hurray!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's a closer look at the main panel for you.

I also added some subtle sparkle to the dandelion heads using the Clear Spica pen. Hopefully you can see it a little clearer here!!

All products and materials used on this card came from The Glitter Pot.

Hope you like it!!

Having Fun?

2011-05-18T11:47:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone. First of all many thanks to those of you who left me such lovely comments on my last post - I truly appreciate each and every one of them so THANK YOU!!

Today I thought I'd share a card with you using one of my favourite clear stamp sets by Penny Black called Make A Wish. There are quite a lot of stamps in this set and they all interact with one another really well. For the background swirls and the 'best friends' wording I used my Fancy Flourish stamp sheet. The paper is from my stash and is an old Basic Grey one from the Kioshi collection. I distressed around the edges of some of the panels using a brown inkpad.

I used three separate stamps to create my focal panel which I stamped with a black Memento inkpad onto Craftwork Cards smooth Digital White cardstock and coloured using Copic makers.

Here's a closer look at the colouring for you. Hope you like it!

I'd like to enter this into the Teddy Bear's Picnic challenge over on the Allsorts Challenge Blog. (After all with all the fun these cuties are having they must have packed their picnic basket - it's just not in view!! LOL!!)

All products used came from The Glitter Pot. Talking of which don't forget that it is their Spring Spectacular weekend coming up next weekend on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th May and then the weekend after it is The Craft Barn's June Extravaganza weekend (Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th June) and this time they have 24 demonstrators to show you lots of different techniques and products. Most definitely a date for your diaries!! Click here to find out more about the Extravaganza. Unfortunately, much to my chagrin, this time around I am unable to be at either event but I know that they will be super weekends!!

Stepped Easel Card

2011-05-10T11:36:00.000+01:00

Morning everyone. Today I'm sharing my second and last card that I have made for the Belles 'n' Whistles Challenge Blog as part of my guest dt work. The challenge this time around is called Shaping Up For May Flowers. To find out what it is all about click here to go and visit the BnW Challenge Blog.

For this challenge I thought I'd make a stepped easel card which I think worked out quite well. I have photographed it at a slight angle so that you can see what I did. I used the BnW Wishes stamp for my main image along with some green Basic Grey backing paper, the Magnolia Lovely Fence DooHickey Die, Prima flowers to decorate, the Martha Stewart Flower Patch edging punch and the Frond Branch punch.

Here's a closer look at the front step of the card where I used the Flower Patch edging punch and hand drew the grass.

Here you can see the fence die a bit better which I coloured using Copic markers. I also coloured and shaped the punched out Frond Branch pieces before sticking them into place.

And here is a close up of the main image which I stamped with black Versafine onto watercolour card and coloured using Distress inks.

I hope you like it!

Belles 'n' Whistles Wishes clear stamp and Martha Stewart punches came from The Craft Barn.

Magnolia Lovely Fence Doohickey Die and Prima flowers came from The Glitter Pot.

A Card For A Special Friend

2011-04-26T23:21:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to win one of the Belles 'n' Whistles challenges and my prize for winning is to guest design for the next couple of challenges. Luckily for me I had already got some of their beautiful images already coloured and just waiting to be made up into cards so I grabbed my Tea Time girl (from The Craft Barn) and assembled this card following Anki's sketch. (Click here to see the sketch and to see how to enter this challenge.) The background paper is from one of the Basic Grey 6x6 paper pads - can't remember which one!!)

I used my circle nestabilities die to cut a circle from the dp - embossed it using the Daisy Pattern embossing folder and coloured the embossed daisies with light coloured Copic markers. I then handwrote the Happy Birthday and added the faux stitching using a 0.3mm Copic black multi-liner.

I used my Labels Twelve Nestabilities die to cut out the Tea Time girl. Once I'd stuck these components to the main card I stamped the Leafy Swirls with Walnut Stain Distress ink.

The flowers are by Prima from their E Line collection, the butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch and I used an assortment of self-adhesive pearls for decoration.

The girl was stamped onto The Craft Barn's smooth white Copic card and coloured using Copic markers but as I did this last year I'm afraid I can't remember the colours I used!! Still - I hope you like it anyway!!

All the products used came from The Craft Barn apart from the Prima flowers which are from The Glitter Pot.

Best Friend

2011-04-20T11:58:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone. I'm afraid I am still struggling, so hence me not posting very regularly at the moment. Luckily I do still have some cards to show you that I made last year and just haven't yet posted up, so here is one of those cards!

I originally made this for a demo at The Glitter Pot using some very pretty double sided background paper and the Kira With Kitten stamp by Wild Rose Studio. (I'm afraid that it has been so long that I can't remember whose paper this is but it did come from The Glitter Pot!) The best friend wording came from my Funky Flourishes stamp sheet.

I stamped Kira with black Memento ink and coloured her using Copic markers - can't remember the colours!!

Here's a closer look at the colouring for you.

All materials used on this card came from The Glitter Pot and talking of this fabulous shop reminds me to tell you that in just over a months time they will be hosting their Spring Spectacular weekend on May 28th and 29th. You can find out more about it here.

Then the weekend after that it is The Craft Barn's June Extravaganza which is always a fantastic weekend with loads of demonstrators. Click here to see the line up and find out all about it!! With both of these fantastic events looming I'm going to start saving now!!

Spring has Sprung!

2011-04-08T11:02:00.000+01:00

Morning everyone. My goodness I cannot believe how warm it is here on the south east coast of the UK at the moment. The garden is just springing to life and all the birds are twittering. So as all the spring flowers are looking gorgeous at the moment I thought I'd share a floral card with you.

All the images on this card came from my Swirly Flutters 'n' Floral stamp sheet. The background for this card was sponged using Bundled Sage Distress ink and then stamped using the text and swirl stamp from the Swirly Flutters 'n' Florals stamp sheet along with Bundled Sage and Tumbled Glass Distress inkpads.

The colouring was done with Copic markers then some glitter glue was added for some subtle sparkle.

All products used on this card came from The Craft Barn.

I'd like to enter this card into the Bloomin' Blossoms challenge over on the Allsorts Challenge Blog.

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Tim Holtz Blog Candy

2011-04-06T22:30:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone. Just a quick post to let you know that The Stamp Man is offering up some wonderful Tim Holtz blog candy. Click here to go and find out all about it!! You have until the 26th April 2011 to enter.

Craft Stamper E-Zine and Thanks Everyone!!

2011-04-02T11:42:00.000+01:00

Hi guys!! First of all I would like to say a huge thank you to all of those who voted my 'You're Grounded' Craft Stamper project as one of the best projects of 2010 - I am sooooooo thrilled!!

Katy has put together the 12 most popular projects of 2010 into an e-zine which is absolutely FREE to download for the next 6 months. Click here to download your FREE copy. And that's not all!! There is some blog candy up for grabs too just for advertising Craft Stamper on your blog. Click here for the details.

I would like to thank everyone for their recent kindness too regarding my last post. I honestly can't thank you all enough for the kind comments you left me both here on my blog and via email. I must just say an extra special thank you to Mustavcoffee and Tracy (Craftnut) who both sent me cards which were so unexpected and therefore really made my day. I'm really sorry that I haven't been able to reply to you all individually but am finding it a little difficult at present, especially after taking a fall yesterday and hitting my spine against the wooden base of my bed!! By the way I wouldn't recommend doing this as it doesn't exactly help matters!! I'm now off to lick my wounds............................

Just before I go I must just say that I think that Sam was a deserving winner last Sunday night on Dancing On Ice!! Sunday nights won't be the same for a while now!!

An Explanation and an Award!

2011-03-27T12:55:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone. As some of you may have noticed I haven't been posting as regularly as I used to nor have I been able to visit everyone's blogs as much as I would like to! There is a valid reason for this and as some of you have been asking how I am I thought it was maybe about time that I let you know what is going on with me!

Basically for some time now I have been struggling due to having a poorly back. I have had a 'naughty' back ever since childhood as I have a twisted spine. Over the years my spine has become more twisted and this in turn has caused all sorts of other stuff - most of which I cannot even begin to spell the terminology let alone pronounce!! Anyway without boring you all rigid it has meant that for the past few months in particular I have been in a lot of pain in my back, neck and leg which means I cannot sit for any length of time - hence me not doing much blogging or crafting!

Tomorrow I am off into hospital - (just for the day) to have a procedure done on my back which may or may not help, so if you can all keep your fingers crossed for me I'll be VERY grateful!! It'll then depend on the outcome of this procedure as to whether anything more will need to be done.

Anyway enough of all that.........................has anyone been watching Dancing On Ice on ITV? I just love this programme and tonight it is the final so you can all guess what I'll be doing tonight!! I cannot make up my mind if I would like Sam or Laura to win - does anyone else have a preference?

I am so thrilled to have received a blog award from my friend Jo. Thanks so much Jo - I cannot say just how much I appreciate receiving these awards!!

Now apparently I need to tell you 7 things about myself and pass it onto 7 people so here goes-

1) As you now all know I have got a 'naughty' back!

2) I absolutely adore milk chocolate but can't eat it so much now due to being allergic to dairy products although I think some may be called for this week!!

3) I'm allergic to fur so we have no pets.

4) My favourite colour is lilac.

5) I'm a natural blond but last year I got fed up with my hair colour and so went first a plummy/red colour then to a bright red and lastly to a brown with reddy undertones before going back to blond again! It's amazing just how different you look with such a drastic change of hair colour!!

6) I probably have the biggest collection of jeans than anybody. As far as I'm concerned you cannot have too many pairs of them!

7) I love all things Vampire especially the Twilight films and books and The Vampire Diaries!

Right now for the REALLY hard bit of passing this onto just 7 people-

Sharon - The Little Stamper
Tracy - Craftnut Designs
Sandra - Stamping For Pleasure
Louise - Just Love To Stamp
Mustavcoffee - Crafty Musings
Sarah - Sarah Wright Designs
Lisa - The Craft Garden

Hope eveyone is enjoying their weekend.

Shaped Card

2011-03-24T10:34:00.000Z

Morning everyone. Today I thought I'd share a card with you that I made using the Grand Nestabilities Labels One die and the Grand Calibur machine. (I must say that I am soooooooo pleased that I went ahead and bought the Grand Calibur!! The only drawback is that it doesn't take thick dies but as I don't tend to use these very much anyway it isn't really a drawback for me.)

For this card I used the largest Labels One Grand die and then folded it in half to achieve my base card. I was then able to emboss the top two thirds of the card using the Cuttlebug's Daisy Pattern folder by opening the card out flat and positioning the folder exactly where I wanted it and running it through the Grand Calibur - you just cannot do this with the Cuttlbug machine as it is too small.

Next I stamped a piece of teal bazzill cardstock using one of my flourish stamps (Fancy Flourishes) then used that same size Labels One die to cut it. I trimmed it down and stuck it to the base of the card and used one of the shaped bits (left over from die-cutting the panel) for the top of the card.

The wording was stamped with black ink (taken from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet). The girl is by Wild Rose Studio (Ava with Present) and was stamped with black Memento and coloured with Copics.

All materials used came from The Glitter Pot including the Grand Calibur. Hope you like it!!

Springtime

2011-03-15T11:32:00.000Z

Hi everyone. Today the sun is shining and the spring flowers are peeping through the ground so I thought I'd share a spring like card with you today which I'd like to enter into the Anything For Spring Challenge over at the Belles 'n' Whistles Challenge blog.

There are some lovely bright pink tulips out near us at the moment so I took these as inspiration for my colour theme of pink and green. The background paper is by Best Creations which came from The Craft Barn - as too did everything else that I used on this card apart from the flower punches.

I stamped my main image (Watering) onto smooth white Copic card with black Memento ink and coloured using Copics. The wording (from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet) was stamped with brown ink and the whole card was misted with a pearl glimmer spray.

I'm afraid that I forgot to make a note of what Copic colours I used but here is a closer look at the panel for you. I kept the colouring quite soft for this and as you can see she has got a pink tulip behind her!!

As I've already mentioned all the stamps and materials used here came from The Craft Barn and right now The Barn are getting lots of new yummy products in including the Tatty Button stamps and some of the Polka Doodles range too!! And the new glitter card they are now stocking is just gorgeous! This card doesn't shed its glitter and comes in so many wonderful colours so if any of you are in the vicinity you might like to stop by and check out all the new yummyness for yourselves!!

Spring Flowers

2011-03-11T11:51:00.000Z

Well it seems that spring is just around the corner so I thought I'd share this card with you today.

All the stamps on this card are by Denami Design (from Stamp Addicts). Flowers were coloured using Polycolor Pencils - also from Stamp Addicts.

Have a great weekend everyone.

The Stamp Man Curls 'n' Swirls Challenge

2011-02-25T12:00:00.014Z

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

2011-02-22T12:09:00.001Z

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.

2011-02-19T12:19:00.000Z

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

2011-02-12T10:58:00.000Z

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

2011-02-11T12:10:00.000Z

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

2011-02-04T11:04:00.000Z

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.

The Stamp Man's Oriental Challenge

2011-01-28T12:00:00.015Z

Well it is Friday which means that it is time for another Stamp Man challenge. This time around we want to see some oriental cards - click here to go to the Challenge Blog and find out all about it as well as see the stunning cards that the rest of the DT have made to inspire you.

As some of you are aware I do have my own range of oriental stamps so this was the ideal time to dust them off and use them! Normally the first thing that pops into my head when I think of oriental are the colours red, gold and black but I thought that I would steer clear of these and go for pretty colours instead to show that oriental can look great in delicate colours too.

So here is what I finally came up with using my Japanese Plum Blossom set but as you can see I couldn't resist adding some black accents to it!

The background for the card was made using one of the beautiful Starburst Stains called Frosted Forget-Me-Nots which is available to buy on its own or if you have the Icicle Creek Starburst Stain set you'll find it in there too. I then simply stamped the panels using stamps from the Japanese Plum Blossom sheet and a Stormy Sky Distress inkpad. As you can see I couldn't resist using my Floral Lace Martha Stewart edging punch on the bottom panel as I thought this went so well with my main image! The wording was stamped using a black Tombow pen (as this is infact all one stamp), so I just inked up the 'friends' part first and stamped it at the top of the card, cleaned my stamp before inking up the rest of the sentiment and stamping it near the base of the card. The accent strips of paper were off-cuts from the background that I stamped with the plum blossom branch and a black inkpad before trimming to size and adding to the card.

I stamped the main image using black StazOn and then watercoloured the flowers and branches using Tombow pens and then painted the background with the Frosted Forget-Me-Not stain.

In order to add a touch of gold to the card I then used a glue pen in the centres and stamens of the flowers, allowed the glue to turn clear and then applied gold leaf to it which when it catches the light really lights up.

Anyway I hope you like the card and feel inspired to give The Stamp Man's Oriental Challenge a go! Good luck!!

A Couple of Challenges!!

2011-01-26T23:14:00.000Z

Hi everyone. I have two cards to share with you this time as I thought I'd play along with a couple of challenges before the time is up!

Now as some of you already know my Mum loves to do quilling but she never actually does anything with the pieces she makes up. Ages ago I did promise her that I would have a go at making some cards up for her if she quilled some snowflakes. I had no idea that she would then go absolutely beserk and quill an enormous amount!!! I ended up making 9 cards for her using her quilled snowflakes - each of them based on the same layout but all slightly different. I will show you the rest of them next week as all the snowflakes that she quilled were individual and no two were the same. (She did actually quill a whole lot more than 9 so I have some more cards to do for her when time allows.) I thought it might be fun though to enter our shared card into the current Sir Stampalot challenge - A Winters Tale.

So without further ado here's the card I've chosen to submit for this challenge! I created the background using the Papermania snowflake embossing folder along with an Inkadinkado Winter Trails stamp set, Silver inkpad and Stardust embossing powder. The 'winter' wording came from a rather old Impression Obsession wording stamp set.

Here's a closer look at Mum's marvellous snowflake that she did out of strips of white paper. As you can see I simply stuck the snowflake onto nestabilities die-cuts before sticking it to the main card.

Onto the second card and I would like to enter this into the Penny Black at Allsorts challenge - All You Need Is Love. Ok I realise that this isn't a traditional lovey dovey stamp but it is VERY sweet and they do look as if they are almost kissing so I think this counts - lol!! This particular stamp is called Hedgy Gift which I coloured using Copic markers. The flourishes and wording came from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet and the lacey edging was done with the Doily Lace Martha Stewart punch.

Here's a closer look at the colouring for you. Can't remember the colours off-hand that I used but I'll see if I can find my notes and edit this later for you!

I'll be back on Friday with The Stamp Man's latest challenge so hopefully see you then!

A Mammoth Post!!

2011-01-21T14:20:00.000Z

Hi guys! I cannot believe how quick the time has flown past since Christmas and also that this is my first post for 2011!! Oops!! Have you missed me????

To make up for being absent for so long this is going to be quite a long post so I hope you are comfortable! I'm afraid that I never did get around to loading up all those Christmas cards that I made last year so I have saved them and will load them up later on this year once we all start thinking about Christmas again.

Today I thought I'd share a 'special' card with you that I made last year for my Mum's birthday using the adorable 'Sisters' stamp by Belles'n'Whistles. When I see this stamp it reminds me of stories that Mum has told me about her and her big sister so I thought it quite appropriate! The card itself is quite large at 20x20cm so I was able to fit quite a bit onto it! The pretty background paper was from the Kioshi collection by Basic Grey. The wording stamps are from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet apart from the letters spelling out 'MUM' which came from a clear Hero Arts stamp sheet. The lovely delicate flourish stamp that I've used around the main card and the Sisters panel is one of my favourite flourish stamps of all time by Penny Black called Scrolling Along.

As you can see I chose to add some interest to the main card using two Martha Stewart punches - Garden Trellis and Doily Lace Trim along with some Prima flowers from the E Line range, some pearl sprays from my own stash, punched out daisies, self-adhesive pearls, brads and spacers.

I stamped my main image using black Versafine ink onto watercolour card and used Distress inkpads to colour in my image,to stamp my wording with and the Scrolling Along flourish. Lots of Diamond and Platinum glitter glue was then added to the card to make it sparkle!

As this was a special card for a 'special Mum' I chose to decorate the inside of the card too. This is a picture of the whole of the inside of the card before I wrote in it. As you can see I used the same papers as for the front of the card as well as some light green Bazzill card and used my Labels Nine Nestabilities dies for my centre panels.

Here's a closer look at the left side of the inner card. You can see that I decorated the plain green panel by stamping it with the Scrolling Along stamp using a pale green inkpad and then used a darker green inkpad to stamp it again along the top and bottom. I used another of my Martha Stewart punches - Floral Vine to provide some decoration along with some punched out squares, self-adhesive pearls and nailheads and of course lots of glitter glue!

I stamped the Belles 'n' Whistles Tea Time stamp into the Labels Nine die-cut and watercoloured the image using Distress inkpads. Then I popped the corresponding Nestabilities back over the die cut and used my blending tool along with a Bundled Sage Distress inkpad to softly ink around the edges of the die cut.

I also did this for this panel too which I then wrote in afterwards. The wording used on these inner pages of the card came from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet.

I'd like to enter this card into the current Belles 'n' Whistles challenge Anything But Winter.

So are you still with me? I did warn you that it was going to be a loooooooong post!! I did make a box for this card to go in which I decorated too but I never got around to taking a photo of it.

I hope you liked this card - Mum did! I'll try and do another post soon!! Meanwhile a Happy New Year to you all.

The Stamp Man's 2nd Annual Blog Awards Event

2010-12-31T12:00:00.018Z

Hi everyone and welcome to The Stamp Man's 2nd Annual Blog Awards Event!! We do hope that you will all join in with us as this is open to everybody. We had such a lovely response to this event last year that we thought it would be fun to do it again.

We would love it if you would enter what you consider to be your best crafting project of the year over on The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog via the Inlinkz button, then take this award blinkie and pop it onto your blog for entering the challenge and post the event blinkie (above) with your best crafting project on your own blog.

Plus today is the start of The Stamp Man's Blog Hop which begins over on The Stamp Man's blog. Now if you are already hopping along then you should have got here via Lisa and the letter that you need from me is R.

Don't forget to collect all your letters as you hop along and then rearrange the letters and email your answer to: thestampman@btconnect.com by 9pm (GMT) on Thursday 13th January 2011. Please put 'bloghop answer' as the title. You will need to leave a comment on ALL of the blogs in the blog hop to be eligible to win a prize! (Details of the prizes are listed on The Stamp Man's blog.)

Now I had a hard time choosing my best project as I don't think I've got one this year but in the end I decided to go with this one, which is the Mother's Day card that I made for my Mum this year. The picture above shows one side of the concertina card and the picture below shows the other side. The stamps featured on this are from my own stamp range - Aspects of Design No.56 Funky Flowers and Aspects of Design No.58 Fancy Flourishes. (The middle panel under 'Mum' lifts up and this is where I wrote my message.)

Now this is probably a little confusing as there is lots to remember for the blog hop and awards event!! So here is a run down of what you need to do to be eligible for one of the fabulous prizes:

Join in the actual challenge on The Challenge Blog with your best/favourite projected linked with Inlinkz
Follow your way around the blog hop collecting all the letters you will find on each blog. Write these down then work out the answer when the hop is finished.
Leave a comment on ALL the blogs you visit in the blog hop
Post our event blinkie onto your blogs or a post about the event with your best/favourite project
Take your award blinkie with pride
Email the answer to: thestampman@btconnect.com by 9pm (GMT) on Thursday 13th January 2011. Please put bloghop answer as the title

Lastly you need to now hop on over to Sarah

Good luck!

The Stamp Man's Blog Hop

2010-12-28T14:03:00.000Z

Hi everyone. I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and got everything that you wanted!

I just wanted to let you all know that The Stamp Man are going to be running a blog hop this Friday where you will be in with a chance of winning some super prizes! Please feel free to take this piccie to let all your friends know about the event. More details will be announced on Friday!!

Merry Christmas!!!

2010-12-24T11:51:00.000Z

Hi everyone! I just want to take the opportunity to wish everyone who stops by a very Merry Christmas and to thank all of you who have become followers and an extra special thank you to those of you who have left me comments this past year - I do so enjoy reading them!

So sorry that I haven't been blogging as much recently - I'll try to do better next year!! I've still got loads of Christmas cards to show you so you may find that I post a few of them up over the next couple of weeks!

This particular card was one that I made for The Craft Barn's September Extravaganza using one of the fantastic Gorjuss Girls stamps! The background around the stamp was created using a Katzelcraft flourish stamp and a Stampendous snowflake and for the background of the card I used the Papermania Snowflake embossing folder along with that same flourish stamp. The snowflake embellishments are a mixture of a Woodware snowflake punch, a Martha Stewart Glacial Snowflake punch and a Marianne Design Creatables die.

The image as you've probably already guessed was coloured using Copic markers and the background around her was done using my Watercolour Resist technique with the markers. (See the December issue of Craft Stamper!) All products used on this card came from The Craft Barn.

Have a great Christmas everyone and once again thank you for following my blog and leaving me wonderful comments - I truly appreciate all your support.

Allsorts Free and Easy Challenge

2010-12-18T10:30:00.014Z

Morning everyone. Bet you can't believe this can you - two posts in two days!! Well today is my last stint as guest designer for Allsorts and I'm sure you are all going to love this challenge as it is called Free and Easy! As always to find out how to enter and what prizes are up for grabs simply click here to go to the Allsorts Challenge blog. Whilst you are there you'll see the fabulous artwork that the Allsorts DT have created for you.

Without further ado here is the card that I've created for this one. I couldn't believe how long it took me to colour this so I definitely wouldn't recommend creating this as a last minute thing! The backing papers came from The Glitter Pot but I don't have any of them left now and can't recall whose they were! All the stamps used on the card are by Penny Black (Gift of Giving, Winter Whites and Greens and Snow Scroll) and again came from The Glitter Pot. I started by sticking the papers together and then stamping Snow Scroll along the top and bottom using Moonlight White Brilliance.

For the main panel, I stamped Gift of Giving with black Memento ink and coloured using Copic markers. Then I created a background around the girl and sleigh using my Watercolour Resist technique with Copic markers. (See the December issue of Craft Stamper on how to do this.)

The snowflake embellishments are a mixture of Martha Stewart Glacial Snowflake and Woodware's Snowflake with a 5mm self-adhesive pearl coloured with a red Copic to match the red in the image.

Here's a closer look at the colouring for you. The white detail on the coat, hat and ribbons was done using a Ranger Inkssentials White Opaque pen - just love this pen as it is great for adding detail such as this over dark colours.

You won't believe this but I actually thought it would be lovely to recreate this card to send out as my Christmas cards this year - however once I realised how long it took me to do this card I soon re-thought that idea!!

Anything Goes Tag

2010-12-17T12:00:00.003Z

Hi everyone. Can you believe that it is only a week until Christmas Eve! Oohhhhhhhhhh!! Can't wait!

Meanwhile though today is the start of a brand new challenge over at The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog and the theme this time around is Anything Goes Tag. This is what I came up with for this challenge using another of my Christmas stamp sheets - A Winter's Bouquet. I started by stamping the holly bouquet in black Memento and coloured it with Copic markers. I then embossed around the holly bouquet using the Papermania snowflake embossing folder. The actual tag was cut using a Labels 10 Nestabilities die and embossed with the snowflake folder before lightly swiping a Moonlight White Brilliance inkpad over it.

Here's a closer look at the colouring for you! As you can see the holly leaves were simply block coloured using two shades of blue/green markers but the bow was shaded using 3 shades of red then lots of glitter glue was applied over the top.

Christmas Eve

2010-12-15T14:45:00.000Z

Ok so it isn't Christmas Eve yet but this is what this sweet image by Penny Johnson reminds me of! This is one of the cards we did at The Craft Barn in November. The green backing paper is by Prima, the holly leaves are from the Snowflakes and Candies clear stamp sheet, the wording is from Woodware's Must Have Xmas Words and the jewels and pearls are cut from Crystal Clusters - all from The Craft Barn.

The main image was stamped onto smooth white Copic card using black Memento ink and coloured using Copic markers. (Can't give you the colours I'm afraid due to this being a class card.)

Here's a closer look at the colouring for you.

Last Minute Christmas Challenge

2010-12-11T10:30:00.003Z

Good morning everyone. Here I am again with my second card as my stint as guest designer for Allsorts. This time the theme is Last Minute Christmas so for this I chose to go with a favourite Penny Black stamp of mine called Christmas Park. Because this is a Brushstroke stamp it is really quick to do as you just colour the stamp with waterbased markers, stamp it out and hey presto you've got a lovely coloured image already for you to mount up!

For the rest of the card I simply tore a piece of Magnolia paper (one of last years designs) and stuck it to a white landscape card and added some scraps of co-ordinating card along with tiny punched out snowflakes. The wording is also a Penny Black stamp but I omitted the word 'Merry' and just inked up 'Christmas'. Then of course with it being a Christmas card I added lots of stickles glitter glue!

Here's a closer look at those trees for you.

As you can see I inked them up with blue and purple coloured water-based pens (Tombows) to give a frosty/icy feel to them.

Don't forget to nip on over to the Allsorts Challenge Blog to see the rest of the wonderful cards that the DT have created and also to find out what you can win if you enter! Have a great weekend!

More Sarah Kay

2010-12-09T11:58:00.000Z

Hi guys! A little while ago I showed you one of the Sarah Kay cards that we made when I was last at The Craft Barn. Here is the other one that we made as well, although to be honest the ladies only had chance to colour up one of the images as there is quite a lot of colouring to do with these little works of art! I must say though that they did a really fantastic job!

I just love the Sarah Kay stamps as the detail is just incredible so as soon as I saw this image (which is called Eloise and Mimi Saying Hello) I just had to have it, although as it takes a little while to colour I don't think I'll be using it on my own Christmas cards this year!

The papers are by Bo Bunny (the brown one which I decorated by stamping snowflakes onto it with white ink) and Prima which I stamped with the wording and ivy using brown ink. (The Prima papers are absolutely gorgeous - so pretty and pastel. I want them all!!) The snowflakes and ivy came from the Personal Impressions Snowflakes and Candies clear stamp set and the wording and small snowflake is from Woodware's Must Have Christmas Words clear stamp set.

Here's a slightly closer look of the papers. As you can see I used my Martha Stewart Snowfall edging punch as well to add some decoration to the Prima paper. (Just love this punch set.)

As you've no doubt already guessed the image was coloured using Copic markers and then stickles was added to the snow area. (Once again I'm afraid that I can't tell you the Copic colours used due to it being a class card but I chose markers that would match the papers.)

All products on this card came from The Craft Barn. I hope you like it!

So how is everyone's Christmas cards coming along then? I've only just begun to make a start on mine!!

The Craft Barn's Christmas Challenge

2010-12-07T11:20:00.000Z

Hi everyone. I hope you are all keeping warm in these cold temperatures that we are having in the UK at the moment.

I've just popped on to let you know that The Craft Barn are currently running a Christmas Embellishment Challenge this week! To find out all about it click here to go and visit The Craft Barn's blog.

If you enter here's a little taster of what you could win!

Light Up The Night

2010-12-04T10:00:00.013Z

Hi everyone. I bet you can't believe that I am actually doing two posts in two days!! Well the reason for this is because I have been asked to Guest Design this month over on the Allsorts Challenge Blog! So without further ado here is the card I made for the Light Up The Night challenge theme using the very sweet Popcorn Bear stamp set.

This particular set is called Beary Merry Christmas (from The Glitter Pot). The wording and the pine branches that I've stamped around the background paper using sepia ink are both Penny Black stamps - again from The Glitter Pot. The background paper is by Bo Bunny from their Winter Joy range and the snowflakes are Martha Stewart punches - Glacial Snowflake and Himalayan Snowflake. I think I got the ribbon from Fantastic Ribbons at one of the stamp shows.

This is actually quite a large square card as it is roughly 8x8 inches in size so here is a slightly closer look at the main panel and the surrounding area. The white dots on the wording and main panel were done with white Liquid Pearls and I used self-adhesive rhinestones for the centres of the snowflakes. (The Hobby House) I edged the punched out snowflakes with Tiara glitter glue so that they really catch the light and sparkle.

For the main panel, I began by stamping the bears with Tuxedo black ink and coloured them using Copic markers - I did this a little while ago now so I'm afraid I can't remember the colours for them but I think for their fur I used E35, E33, E31 and E50. For the blue hat and scarf I used B97, B95 and B93 and I think for the pink scarf it was RV34 and RV10. For the sky area I used B63 and B60. Once I'd done all my Copic colouring I stamped the music notes using Starlite Black Brilliance and stamped the snowflakes using a light blue chalk inkpad then finished off some areas with the Clear Spica Copic pen and lots of Stardust glitter glue.

So if you fancy joining in with the Allsorts Light Up The Night challenge click here to visit their blog and see what gorgeous creations the rest of the DT have made to inspire you and find out what you can win if you enter.

Enjoy your weekend and stay warm!! Unfortunately my class today at The Glitter Pot had to be cancelled due to the amount of snow, so I'm sure I won't be straying very far from our log burner today!

The Stamp Man - Challenge 11

2010-12-03T12:00:00.014Z

Hi guys. I hope you are all managing to keep warm! First of all I must just say that I am SO pleased that I went Christmas shopping on Wednesday as yesterday we were snowed in and couldn't have gone! Also it was an absolute dream going around the shops as there was hardly anyone about. I think it was my best Christmas shopping experience ever! The shops were deserted, Christmas music was playing and I think it is the first time I've Christmas shopped in the snow - VERY seasonal indeed! The only drawback is that it was absolutely bitter so I can sort of understand why everyone else had stayed at home!!

Onto my card for The Stamp Man's latest Challenge over on their Challenge Blog which is Take Any 3 Colours on a Christmas theme. Now by now you probably know that I just LOVE Christmas and have loads of Christmas stamps but I thought it would be nice to use one of my sets again. This time I used my 'A Winter's Night' stamp sheet and as you can see I kept an icy theme on my card by using white, aqua and purple - one of my favourite colour schemes especially for Christmas cards.

I started by sticking a purple panel to an aqua panel then tore a strip of white card to go across the join of the panels and to emulate snow. Next I stamped and embossed the wording (from the sheet) onto a panel of aqua vellum using a white pigment inkpad and White Detail embossing powder, which I attached to the main card using brads. For the main panel I simply stamped the trees in dark grey and watercoloured them using Tombow pens and a water brush and applied lots of glitter glue afterwards! Quite a simple card really but I hope you like it.

Don't forget to hop on over to The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog and find out how you can enter the Take Any 3 Colours Christmas theme and see the rest of the DT's stunning work!

Oh by the way The Craft Barn are currently running a really fun competition over on their blog called Find The Owl so you may want to head on over there to find out all about it!! Click here for the Find The Owl details!

'Tis The Season

2010-12-01T12:00:00.001Z

Hi everyone. Can you believe that today is the 1st of December!! (Oooooooohhhh!! Not long to go until Father Christmas comes!!) The trouble is we have got Christmas weather now and I just know that all this Christmassy white stuff will have vanished by the time Christmas gets here - it always does!! Oh for a proper white Christmas!!

Anyway enough of me whittering on about Christmas - today I've popped on to tell you that as it is the 1st of December it means that it is the start of a brand new ATC swap over on The Stamp Man's ATC Swap blog. The theme for this one is 'Tis The Season so as you can see I opted to go for a wintery looking Christmas tree using my Swirly Trees stamp set.

I embossed my actual ATC using a Papermania Snowflake embossing folder and very lightly coloured the embossed snowflakes using a pale lilac Copic marker. I stamped and embossed the tree border using a white inkpad and Detail White embossing powder onto mauve Bazzill card. For the main image, I stamped using black Memento ink and then coloured the image using Copics before cutting it out and mounting it to my ATC.

Once I'd coloured my tree I then used my Ranger Inkssentials White Opaque pen to trace over the branches of the tree and also to make the background dots white to emulate snow.

Here's a slightly closer look so you can see what I mean!

However I'm sure that all you ATC'ers out there can do a much better job than I can so why don't you hop on over to The Stamp Man's ATC Swap blog to find out how you can participate.

Until my next post - try and keep warm and think of me battling the -10c wind chill factor whilst doing some Christmas shopping! That is of course if I can get the car out of the drive!!

Winter Fields

2010-11-27T11:30:00.000Z

Hi guys. So have any of you (in the UK) had snow yet? We have had a few flakes falling but nothing of any substance yet!! However for our region they are forecasting blizzards for Tuesday and Wednesday so we have been out and bought snow shovels and rock salt in preparation!! Which of course will mean that we won't see a single snowflake now that we are all prepared! Even without any snow it is absolutely freezing here as the current temperature is -1c - thank goodness for our log burner!

So with snow (and cold temperatures) in mind I thought I'd show you one of the cards we made at The Craft Barn last Saturday using one of the new Christmas releases by Sarah Kay. Isn't she sweet? This one is called Francesca in the Winter Field and being that she is so lovely I had to have her! The background papers are by Prima and Bo Bunny and the ivy and snowflake stamps are from the Snowflakes and Candies clear stamp set by Personal Impressions and the wording is from Woodwares Must Have Xmas Words.

The image was stamped using black Memento ink and coloured using Copic markers. (Sorry can't give you the colours as this was a class card!) The brown snowflakes were punched using a Martha Sewart edging punch from the Snowfall set.

All products used on this card including the ribbon and the self-adhesive pearls came from The Craft Barn.

Here's a closer look at the colouring for you. As you can see I opted to create a snowy ground by adding touches of blue here and there with the grass tufts peeking up through the snow.

Hope you like it!

My New Toy!!

2010-11-21T12:46:00.001Z

Hi everyone. Thank you all so much for the lovely comments you have left me under my last couple of posts. I have so enjoyed reading them! I will be round to visit you all just as soon as I can so don't think I've forgotten you!

After teasing you in my last post I can reveal that some of you were right in your guess and I did infact succumb to the Grand Calibur! As soon as I saw this machine I just knew that I wanted it and of course with the VAT increase coming in January I had to have it NOW!! Haven't bought any of the Grand Nestabilities yet to go in it though - even I have to limit my spending sometimes!! They are of course on my wish list.

My poor Calibur hasn't made it out of the box yet but I'm hoping that perhaps I'll get some time to play with it in a few weeks time! After my classes on the 4th December at The Glitter Pot I will be taking a break from teaching for a little while so this should afford me some 'play time'!!

If any of you haven't seen this machine and the Grand Nestabilites you can check them out here.

Then of course after being at The Craft Barn yesterday I just couldn't leave there empty handed!! No toys for me this time though but a great stack of white card - infact 150 sheets worth!! The Craft Barn do a really nice weight of plain white card (300gms). It's not only great to make your base cards from but it is also a really brilliant white plus it is REALLY smooth so is absolutely great for stamping onto and using your Copic markers and best of all it is only 20p per A4 sheet! Talking of Copics I had to have a few of those too as I want to start experimenting with the 0000's!! I think perhaps that it is a good thing that I am taking a break from teaching for a while as it costs me a fortune going to these places!! (However again I had in mind the VAT increase so of course it made sense for me to buy them yesterday - didn't it?? At least that is what I'm telling myself - lol!!)

On Friday it was the start of a brand new challenge over on The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog. The DT have made some wonderful samples to give you some inspiration using Tim Holtz's stamps as the challenge is to make something Christmassy using Tim's products. To find out more click here.

Meanwhile I hope to be back again soon as I have lots of card samples to show you!

What A Great Weekend!

2010-11-16T16:18:00.000Z

Hi everyone. Sorry that I've been missing for a bit but I'm currently having to limit my time on the computer! I won't bore you with all the details as to why!!

Anyway I've found a bit of time to pop on here and I must say I had a lovely weekend (just gone). No, it wasn't because I was at The Glitter Pot on Saturday - although of course that was VERY nice. It was actually because Take That were on the TV on both Saturday and Sunday and I got to see all my boys back together again! (I know I'm VERY sad!!)

Talking of The Glitter Pot...............I was there on Saturday taking a couple of classes and my thanks go to all the ladies who joined me for them. At the end of the day I didn't leave empty handed and came away with a new crafting toy which I just had to have!! Can you guess what it is??? Can you?? Can you???? CAN YOU?? Unfortunately I haven't had time to play with it yet though :(

Onto my card for today and I thought I'd enter this into the It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas challenge over on the Penny Black at Allsorts Challenge Blog. As you can see I used that same Watercolour Resist technique for the pine needles!! Just love this technique and it really is so easy to do. (Still not going to tell you how to do it though - you'll just have to look in the Dec issue of Craft Stamper!!)

All the stamps used on this card are by Penny Black - the main image is called Gift Of Giving, the pine needles and wording come from the Winter Whites and Greens clear set and the flourish is called Snow Scroll - all came from The Glitter Pot.

The paper came from The Glitter Pot as well but can't remember whose it is now and the snowflakes are a Martha Stewart punch called Glacial Snowflake.

I stamped Gift of Giving in black Memento and then coloured her using the Copic markers. I used Copics for the pine needles too. (I think this makes such a lovely wintery scene!)

Copics used -
Skin - E11, E00, E000, R20
Hair - E99, E35, E50
Clothes and holly- E49, E47, E43, E41, YG67, YG63, G40, R59, R37, R32
Gifts - YG67, YG63, G40, YG95, YG91, R59, R37, R35, R32
Sleigh - E47, E43, E41, R37
Background - E47, E43, YG67, YG63, G40, BG11, BG10, W3, W1, 0

Hope you like it!! Don't forget to let me know if any of you give the Watercolour Resist background a go!!

Frosty

2010-11-10T12:09:00.001Z

Hi guys. Thought I'd share a card with you that I made using the 'Resist Watercolour' technique with Copic markers. The snowman is coloured in the traditional way using Copics but the branches have been coloured using the new technique that I came across using Copics.

Some of you I know have already seen my article in the December issue of Craft Stamper showing you how to do this technique but for those of you who haven't you'll just have to buy the mag to find out how it's done!!

The snowman is called Happy Soul, the stamped snowflakes (on the green background), the pine branches and wording are all from the Winter Whites and Greens clear stamp set and the scroll is called Snow Scroll - all of which are by Penny Black and available from The Glitter Pot.

The white card was embossed using the Snowflakes folder by Crafts Too which came from The Craft Barn.

The large punched out snowflakes are a Martha Stewart punch (Glacial Snowflake) and the smaller ones are a Woodware punch.

Here's a closer look at the main panel. You'll find that I have used these same stamps in my magazine article too! Hope you like it!

(By the way I'm also teaching how to do this technique this Saturday at The Glitter Pot. Click here for more details.)

An ATC Challenge

2010-11-08T15:52:00.000Z

Hi everyone and in particular all you ATC'ers out there!! I thought I'd pop on and let you know that The Craft Barn are currently having an ATC Challenge over on their blog so if you fancy a challenge and the chance of winning a little something pop on over there and have a look. But be quick as it finishes this Wednesday!

The Stamp Man's Christmas Challenge

2010-11-05T12:00:00.001Z

Hi folks. Today is the start of the Christmas challenge over on The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog. I'm sure by now that most of you have already made a start on making some Christmas cards so why not pop on over to the Challenge Blog and see how you can enter the Christmas challenge?

This is the card that I made for this challenge using my Flitter Flutter Snowflakes stamp sheet (which is currently on offer over at The Stamp Man). I love the fact that the snowflakes are so easy to add colour to! I started by sticking purple and aqua card to a white square card then I stamped and embossed the snowflake background (from this sheet) all over a piece of vellum using a white inkpad and detail white embossing powder. (I just love the look of vellum as it gives such a soft look to your cards which I think is ideal for snowflakes!)

Next I stamped the large snowflake and one of the smaller ones onto white card using black StazOn. I coloured them using Sakura Stardust pens, cut them out and mounted the little snowflake onto the larger snowflake before mounting onto the card.

I hope you like it!

So Sweet!

2010-11-03T12:20:00.001Z

Hi guys. I thought I'd stick with my Christmas theme for today and show you a card I made for The Glitter Pots Xmas Spectacular Weekend. As you can see I had a go at doing an easel card!

The stamps are all by Penny Black and the main image is called Snow Kiss. Aren't they sweet? I used a Crafts Too Christmas Greetings embossing folder for the sentiment and a Crafts Too Snowflake embossing folder to emboss the bluey/green card - both of which I got from The Craft Barn.

The snowflakes that you can see on the base of the easel card came from the Penny Black Winter Whites and Greens clear stamp set and the scroll on the main panel is called Snow Scroll.

I stamped the main image onto smooth white cardstock using Tuxedo Black Memento inkpad and coloured the image using Copics. (Digital Smooth card by Craftwork Cards is ideal to use to stamp and colour onto as too is the smooth white card by Personal Impressions that The Glitter Pot sells.) The snowflake embellishments were done using the Glacial Snowflake Martha Stewart punch and a Woodware snowflake punch and decorated with self-adhesive pearls.

Here's a better look at the main panel.

Copics used:
Skin - E11, E00, E000 and R20 for blush
Hair - E99, E35 and E50
Clothes - E49, E47, E43, E41, BG09, BG34, BG10, R59, R37 and R32
Holly - YG67, YG63, G40 and R29
Bear - W3, G00 and G000
Background - W3, W1, B60, G00 and BG000

In my December class at The Glitter Pot I'll be showing you how to achieve just this sort of background behind Mimi and the Polar Bear using the Copic markers. Meanwhile I hope you like the card!

More Denami Christmas

2010-10-31T12:44:00.001Z

Finally we have got some gorgeous Autumn colour here in the south east of England. I had to take a trip out to The Glitter Pot and The Craft Barn in order to pick up some supplies yesterday and it was amazing to see the difference from when I did this same journey only a week previously. On that occasion most of the trees were still green with only the odd one having turned colour but this time around all the trees had their Autumn colours on display and looked glorious. I was beginning to think that perhaps they had forgotten how to do it but thankfully they didn't let me down!! With all this talk of Autumn I really should be showing you some Autumn cards but I still haven't done any and don't think I'll be getting around to it so instead here are some more of those Denami Christmas cards that I made.

First up is this one using the Elegant Floral Wreath as my main image which was stamped with a gold inkpad and embossed with Gold Twinkle embossing powder. Merry Christmas (which I think is a Printworks stamp)was then stamped in the middle of it using a Starlite Black Brilliance inkpad. On the silver pearlescent card I stamped and embossed the Elegant Floral Leaf Sprig and a snowflake using a silver inkpad and silver embossing powder. On white Bazzill I stamped snowflakes in silver and stamped and embossed the Large Dot Swirls to create a border.

The wreath was coloured using the Zig Brushable pens.

For this next card I stamped the Elegant Floral Wreath and the Merry Christmas wording with Starlite Black Brilliance and then die-cut it with one of my Nestabilities Labels dies. On the silver card I stamped and embossed the Elegant Floral Blossom using a silver inkpad and silver embossing powder and on the black Bazzill Bling card I stamped the Elegant Floral Arch with a white StazOn inkpad. The punched out flowers are from the Hydrangea Martha Stewart punch.

And once again the colouring was done using those Zig Brushable pens. You can probably just make out I used my trick again of using my glue pen along with silver embossing powder to add the silver dots to the middle of the top flower. (I quite like this card and am hoping perhaps to make some for me to send out at Christmas this year if I get time!)

And here's that wreath again! This time stamped and embossed in silver and cut out. Before mounting onto a Nestabilities Scalloped Circle, I wrapped silver ribbon around the wreath and secured the ends to the back of it. Merry Christmas was stamped with white StazOn as were the snowflakes on the black Bazzill Bling strips of card. The main card was stamped using the Elegant Floral Vine and Starlite Black Brilliance and the flowers were punched using the Hydrangea Martha Stewart punch with silver pearls added to the centres.

As you've no doubt guessed the wreath was coloured using Zig Brushable pens but this time I used a very light green Brushable to colour in the background of the wreath to make it more 'wreath like'.

Well that's all from me today!! I hope you like the cards. All the stamps used on these cards are by Denami Design except the Merry Christmas stamp which I think is Printworks. All of the stamps and materials can be bought from Stamp Addicts.

A Few Cards To Show You

2010-10-28T16:41:00.001+01:00

Hi guys. I've got quite a few cards to show you today! These are what I made a little while ago back in August for the Stamperama show using some of the new Christmas stamps by Denami Design.

First up is my lilac and black creation. For this one I stamped the main image (Elegant Floral Circle) with Starlite Black Brilliance and coloured it with Zig Brushable markers. (These markers are double ended with a light colour on one end and a corresponding shading colour on the other.) Then I stamped Elegant Floral Arch with the same inkpad onto White Bazzill Bling card and Snowflakes onto Black Bazzill Bling card using white StazOn.

Once assembled I used a glue pen and silver detail embossing powder to add silver embossed dots onto the dotty circle and into the middle of the flowers and heated it with a heat gun. This gave me some nice metallic accents.

For this card I once again used the Elegant Floral Circle but this time I stamped it with a Gold Encore inkpad and embossed with Gold Twinkle embossing powder before colouring in with the Zig Brushable pens. You can't see if very well but I also stamped and embossed a small vine stamp and a snowflake stamp onto the pearlescent silver strip of card and once again stamped the snowflakes onto the Black Bazzill Bling card using the white StazOn inkpad.

Here's a closer look at that main image.

And lastly here's another take using that Elegant Floral Circle using a Gold Encore inkpad and Gold Twinkle embossing powder again and some different coloured Zig Brushable pens. For the background I stamped and embossed a snowflake and the Elegant Floral Leaf Sprig using a Silver Encore inkpad and Silver Detail embossing powder onto silver card and then used a white StazOn inkpad to stamp the same sprig randomly onto Black Bazzill Bling card.

I really like these colours of pens as I think it makes the flowers look rather Christmassy.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post all the stamps used are by Denami Design and can be purchased from Stamp Addicts as too can the Brushable markers.

Next time I'll show you another batch of cards that I made along this same theme using some of the other Denami stamps.

By the way believe it or not these are actually quite quick cards to make as the layers are kept to a minimum and the colouring of these simple but effective images is also really quick to do.

It's Christmas!!!...........

2010-10-25T14:27:00.000+01:00

.................well ok not literally! It's just my way of telling you that I thought I'd show you a Christmas card! This is one of the cards that we made last time I was at The Glitter Pot using this cute Merry Bear stamp from the Laurence Collection by StampAvie along with some Penny Black Christmas Stamps - Starlit (the tree), Winter Whites and Greens (snowflakes and wording) and Snow Scroll.

The background was created by stamping the tree and snowflakes using Moonlight White Brilliance ink and the embossed snowflakes were done using the Crafts Too Snowflakes embossing folder. All of which are available from The Glitter Pot.

No prizes for guessing that I coloured in my main image using my trusty Copics. (Sorry can't tell you the colours I used this time as it isn't fair to those that paid to attend this class!)

For anyone that is interested in doing a Christmas based Copic class I am back again at The Glitter Pot on Saturday 13th November where we will be doing this sort of blended colouring in the morning using some cute Christmas stamps and in the afternoon I'll be teaching my new technique using Copics called Resist Watercolour. (Look out for my Snowman project coming up in the December issue of Craft Stamper which shows this technique.) Click here for more details on the classes.

Then on Saturday 20th November I am at The Craft Barn using Copic markers again along with the new Sarah Kay and Penny Johnson Christmas stamps. (These Craft Barn classes will be limited to a maximum of 8 people so that I will be able to devote more time to each person so you will need to book quite soon to avoid disappointment as these classes tend to be quite popular!) Click here for more details on the classes.

Lastly but certainly not least my thanks to everyone who booked on my classes this Saturday (just gone) at The Craft Barn - it was lovely to see you all and I am so pleased that you enjoyed the classes! Hope to see you again soon!

Allsorts Bingo Challenge

2010-10-22T13:18:00.001+01:00

Today I thought I'd enter one of my cards into the Lets Play Bingo Challenge over on the Allsorts Challenge Blog. This is one that I made for The Craft Barn's June Extravaganza Weekend using the Sisters stamp by Belles and Whistles along with flourishes and wording from my own Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet. From the Bingo selection I have chosen Pearls, Mist/Stickles and Ribbon.

I have used two of my Martha Stewart punches on this too - Floral Vine and Monarch Butterfly as well as a Stormy Sky Distress inkpad for all the blue stamping.

For my main image I stamped onto watercolour card with black Versafine and watercoloured my image using Distress inkpads and a water brush. The inkpads I used were Spun Sugar, Stormy Sky, Bundled Sage, Shabby Shutters, Mustard Seed, Brushed Corduroy, Antique Linen and Tattered Rose.

Here's a closer look at my watercolouring attempt! I definitely still prefer my Copics but I guess it is good to try and master other stuff too!

To finish off the card I sprayed it with a pearl glimmer mist and then added touches of glitter glue which doesn't show up very well from these photos but trust me it is there!!

All products used came from The Craft Barn.

Talking of challenges - today is the start of a brand new challenge over on The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog so you may like to head on over there and see what they've got in store for you this time!!

Have a great weekend and for those of you who are booked onto my classes tomorrow, I'll see you VERY soon!! By the way, talking of classes I have updated My Event Diary in my sidebar to include the dates and details for my November and December classes.

The Stamp Man Blog Hop Winners

2010-10-19T11:53:00.000+01:00

Just to let you know that all the winners have now been announced over on The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog for our Altered Letters Blog Hop.

The winner of the prize I was offering of the AOD No.46 Rob and Rosie un-mounted stamp sheet is

SUE THE IRON

Congratulations Sue! If you would like to go to the Challenge Blog you can find out how to claim your prize and for those of you who took part in the blog hop you also might like to head on over there to see if you won one of the other prizes!! You only have 7 days to claim your prizes so don't delay!!

Oh My Goodness!!

2010-10-14T16:42:00.000+01:00

Where does the time go??? I cannot believe that it has almost been a week since I last posted anything!! Sorry everyone. There's just so much upheaval here at the moment and the days just disappear before I realise!

So without further ado here is a card for you!! It has been so long since I've entered a challenge but I thought that I would enter this card into The Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 122 as I've used all PB stamps on this card.

You probably can't tell very well from the photo but I embossed the main card and blue/green panel using my Cuttlebug along with a Crafts Too snowflake embossing folder. The ribbon did start out white but I coloured it with one of my red Copics to match my image and the snowflakes are a combination of a Martha Stewart punch (Glacial Snowflake) and a Woodware snowflake punch.

For the main panel I stamped my girl image (Gift of Giving) with black Memento onto Digital Smooth Cardstock (from Craftwork Cards) and onto a Post It note to act as a mask. I next coloured her with Copics popped my cut out Post It note mask over her, tore a piece of paper to act as a further mask for the snow area and then inked the tree stamp up (Starlit) with a Bundled Sage Distress inkpad and stamped it along the panel making sure to overlap the trees now and again. These were then lightly coloured with a G40 Copic marker. The sky and snow areas were also done with Copics and a Copic Blender pen and then the wording (from Winter Whites and Greens) was stamped over the top with a brown inkpad.

Copic Colours
Skin - E11, E00, E000 and R20 for cheek
Hair and Sleigh - E99, E35 and E50
Clothes and presents - R59, R37, R35 and 0
                                   G99, G94 and BG11
                                   E35 and E50
                                   R85 and R81
                                   E47, E43 and E41
Snow - W3, W1, BG11 BG10 and 0
Sky - B63, B60, W1. B000 and 0

All Penny Black stamps, Copics and general materials used came from The Glitter Pot apart from the Digital Smooth card which came from Craftwork Cards.

The Stamp Man's Autumn Challenge

2010-10-08T12:00:00.001+01:00

Hi guys. Today is the start of a fresh new challenge over on The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog which is Autumn! Here is my offering -

I created the backgrounds for the card using Tattered Rose and Shabby Shutters Distress inkpads then stamped Branch Songster along the bottom of the larger panel using Walnut Stain and my leafy flourish (from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet) around the edges of the top half using Dried Marigold and Frayed Burlap Distress inkpads. For the smaller panel I stamped Autumn Flower with Walnut Stain and coloured the leaves wtih a gold metallic pen and the acorn with Copic Spica markers.

If you hop on over to The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog you can see what the other design team members came up with and find out details on how to enter the Autumn Challenge.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

Mouse Mischief

2010-10-07T12:36:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd stay with the Spring/Summer theme and show you this card that I made for one of my Glitter Pot demos. The background paper is by Basic Grey and you can see on the background of the card that I added some soft stamping using one of my flourishes from my Fancy Flourish stamp sheet. (The wording is from this sheet too.) The flowers are by Prima (Glitter Pot) and the leaves were punched.

For the main panel I used stamps from the Penny Black Make A Wish clear stamp set - just love this particular set! These were stamped using Tuxedo Black Memento ink and coloured using Copics.

Copics used were -
Teddy - E37, E35, E31, E30 and C7 for his nose
Mice - E35, YR23, E31, E000 and R20 for cheeks
Urn - C5, C3 and C1
Daisy Flowers - Y17, Y11, V15, V12 and V000
Dandelions - BG11, BG10 and Clear Spica
Greenery - YG63 and G20
Grass - YG06, YG03 YG00 and G40
Background - B63, B60, C1, V000 and 0

All of these materials used on this card are available from The Glitter Pot.

Here's a closer look at some of the colouring.

Hope you like it!

What's A Girl To Do?

2010-10-03T16:31:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. Well I've had a trawl through all my cards that I still have to show you from when I was just too busy to actually post them up and they are either Spring/Summer cards or Christmas cards!! I've got nothing inbetween suitable for Autumn so I'm afraid that you will have to bear with me as we go leaping around the seasons on this blog!!

For today I thought we would visit Spring/Summer and show you this card that I made earlier this year for one of my classes at The Craft Barn. (At least I think it was a Craft Barn class!!) This was using one of my older stamp sheets called Flitters and Flutters which is full of dragonflies and butterflies in different sizes along with some leafy sprigs and appropriate butterfly and dragonfly wording.

Do you know it has been so long since I did this card that I had to look in my notebook to see what inks I used to create this!! So I can now tell you that I used Bundled Sage and Frayed Burlap Distress inkpads to create the background for this card and then stamped it using different stamps off of the Flitters and Flutters stamp sheet, so that the leafy (background) sprigs perfectly correspond with the leafy sprigs in the dragonflies wings.

The dragonflies themselves were stamped onto white card using Tuxedo Black Memento ink and coloured using Copics. (Here's a better look at one of them for you.)

Copic used were -
RV34, RV10 and RV000
G94, YG11 and 0.

And here is the other card that we created using the remainder of that background paper, complete with inky smudge from me picking it up with inky fingers!! Oops!!

Especially For You

2010-10-01T13:37:00.000+01:00

Well it seems as if Autumn is now upon us! The trees are starting to turn colour and some of them are dropping their leaves now. Infact as I write this the road outside is covered in yellow leaves - very pretty!

This is one of the cards I made earlier this year for The Craft Barn's June Extravaganza Weekend using the Beary Big Hugs Belles 'n' Whistles stamp along with my Retro flower punches which I just love!

The image was stamped onto watercolour paper using black Versafine and then watercoloured using Distress inkpads. The writing (from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet) was stamped using Brushed Corduroy and the panel was distressed with Antique Linen.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

A Christmas Bumble Bee!

2010-09-28T16:46:00.000+01:00

Hi guys! This is one of the cards I had on display at The Craft Barn's Christmas Extravaganza Weekend using the Bumble Bee Gorjuss Girl! I decided that if I coloured her in non Bumble Bee colours she could then double up as a fairy for Christmas which I think works quite well!!

For the card itself I used a white Pearlescent Bazzill panel which I embossed using a Papermania Snowflake embossing folder through my Cuttlebug, tore some Nitwit Christmas background paper and then stamped and embossed the Katzelcraft Flourish stamp around the edges of the card using a silver inkpad and silver detail embossing powder. Then I edged the panel using a red Copic marker.

For the Gorjuss Girl panel - I stamped her with Tuxedo Black Memento ink onto smooth white card (that The Craft Barn sell for Copics) and used my Deckle Edge Nestabilities Rectangles to die-cut her. I stamped and embossed snowflakes around her using Versamark and Crystal embossing powder and coloured her with Copic markers. The words (from Woodware's Must Have Christmas Words clear stamp set) were stamped using Tuxedo Black Memento. The snowflakes were done using the Martha Stewart Glacial Snowflake punch and the self-adhesive 5mm pearls were coloured using a red Copic marker.

Here's a closer look at the Gorjuss Girl so you can see the colouring a bit better.

Copics used were -
Skin - E11, E00, E000 and R20 for blush
Hair - 100, C9, C7 and C1
Dress and socks - R59, R37, R35, R32, YG95 and YG91
Wings - B00 and B000
Ground and background - W3, W1, BG10 and B000

All materials used are available from The Craft Barn. By the way some of the Copic colours I've listed are only available in the Copic Sketch markers which The Craft Barn now sell but haven't yet put online.

The Stamp Man Blog Hop and Altered Challenge

2010-09-24T12:00:00.026+01:00

Hi guys. Today is the start of The Stamp Man's Altered Challenge and also of their blog hop! For those of you who are taking part in the blog hop (which is open to everybody) you should have come here from The Stamp Man's ATC Swap Blog - if so then you are on the right track!! And for those of you who don't know what I am on about can I suggest that you visit The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog in order to find out all about it and to begin the blog hop!

Basically the 'blog hop' will be happening over the next 2 weeks to co-incide with The Stamp Man's Altered Challenge. You will need to collect letters along the way (that each of the hosts will give to you) which will make up an anagram and leave comments on each of the blogs, that are taking part in the blog hop then lastly leave a comment at the last blog hop solving the anagram!! You'll find that each of the blogs are offering different prizes with there being 12 different prizes to be won!!

So in summary here's what you need to do -

- Display The Stamp Man Challenge blinkie on your blog (if you have a blog).

- Create a post about our blog hop with a link back to our challenge blog

- Leave a message on each blog you visit, if you do not leave comments at each one, you will not be eligible for the prize. If you don't have a blog you must put your full name in your comment.

There is a letter on each of the blogs, once you have worked out the anagram leave your answer on the post below the last letter you visit, instructions will be given there.

So don't forget to leave me a comment at the end of this post in order to be in with a chance of winning one of my stamp sheets which is one of my creations - AOD 46 Rob and Rosie Robin unmounted stamp sheet.

Now I've got to say that I've never altered anything before in my life as I just don't do 'altering'. It isn't something that really appeals to me but I have had a go for this challenge. But I'm sure that you will all do a much better job than me!

Anyway here is my effort and to be honest I think this will be my first and last go at this as I really didn't enjoy doing it! As you can see I had a letter 'T' to decorate so after it had been painted with gesso (which Mrs Stamp Man kindly did for me) I used two green colours of alcohol ink to colour the letter itself. Then I stamped strips of black card using a gold inkpad. (All stamps used on this letter came from either AOD 50 Japanese Thoughts or AOD 51 Japanese Minis unmounted stamp sheets - both of course available from The Stamp Man.) I stuck the strips of black card to the letter and then stamped, coloured and cut out elements from these 2 stamp sheets to decorate the letter with. Both the front and the back of the letter were decorated in the same way.

This photo shows you a closer look at the plum blossom branch so that you can see the colouring a bit better which was done with a mixture of Tombow pens and twinkling H20's.

In this one you can see the dragonflies a bit closer up. After colouring them I applied glitter glue to them so that they really sparkled!

On the sides of the letter I stamped some Japanese wording from one of the stamp sheets using black StazOn and cut out a couple of plum blossom flowers to pretty it up a little.

This is just a different view of the letter as a whole so that you can see the writing on the sides as well as the decoration on the front.

And this picture shows the very top of the letter which as you can see I decorated with flowers and tiny dragonflies. I can't remember now how long this letter took me to do as I did it a few months back. However I know that at the time it seemed to go on for days!! Anyway back to the blog hop............

Now that you have seen my Altered Letter the actual letter you need from me is infact the letter

Now you need to hop on over to Frankie's blog to get your next letter! Have fun and good luck and don't forget we want to see your altered items over on the Challenge Blog!!

Christmas Flowers

2010-09-20T16:30:00.000+01:00

So as some of you didn't seem to mind that I had started showing you Christmas cards I thought I'd take the opportunity and show one that I made back in August for Stamp Addicts's Stamperama Show using the latest release of stamps by Denami Design.

What I particularly like about the Denami range of stamps are the clean and simple lines - nothing is too fussy and this makes the images so quick to colour in which is ideal when you have a lot of cards to make for the festive time of year.

To create the background for my card I stamped the Merry Christmas circle and snowflake with a silver inkpad onto white Bazzill Bling and stamped the Floral Arch onto black Bazzill Bling using a white inkpad. Really quick and simple but quite effective I think.

For the main image I stamped and embossed using silver ink and silver twinkle embossing powder then coloured with the double ended Zig Brushable pens - again really easy. Then I used a circle Nestabilities die to cut it out.

I might even duplicate this card and do some for Christmas being that it was so quick to do!!

Hope you like it!!

All products used came from Stamp Addicts.

Denami stamps used were-
Elegant Floral Arch
Merry Christmas Circle
Elegant Floral Circle
Snowflake from Snowflakes stamp set

At Last - A Card!!

2010-09-17T12:06:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. I thought it was about time that I actually posted up a card!! I've had a busy few weeks making them, followed by a busy few days loading them onto the computer so I think it is about time you saw just what I have been up to recently!

I'm afraid that Christmas is now here as all I've been making for the last couple of months are Christmas cards!! However I promise that I won't overload you with Christmas cards over the next few weeks as I still have loads of other cards to show you too that I just haven't gotten around to posting up as yet!

So here is one of the cuties that I made for The Glitter Pot's Spectacular Weekend using the latest Christmas release of Penny Black stamps. The little girl is from the Mimi range by Penny Black and is called The Gift of Giving. I also used the Starlit Christmas Tree to create my background on the main card which I simply stamped with Bundled Sage Distress Ink. (Really like this stamp.) The red snowflake paper is by Imaginisce and is called Swirly Snowflakes. The punched out snowflakes were done using the Martha Stewart Glacial Snowflake punch and a Woodware snowflake punch and the self-adhesive pearls were coloured with a Copic marker.

For the main panel I stamped the girl with Tuxedo Black Memento ink onto Craftwork Cards Digital Smooth cardstock and coloured her using Copic markers, then used my Ranger Inkssentials White Opaque pen to add the white stitched detail. Next I stamped and embossed Penny Black Snow Scroll around the image using Versamark and Crystal embossing powder. Lastly I used Frosted Lace glitter glue for the fur trim.

COPIC COLOURS
Skin - E11, E00 and E000
Hair - E99, E35 and E50
Clothes - R59, R29, R27, R20, YG67, YG63 and G40
Sleigh and presents - R85, R83, R81, YG67, YG63, G40, R59, R29, R20, YR68 and YR61

All materials mentioned came from The Glitter Pot apart from the Digital Smooth card which came from Craftwork Cards.

A New Look!

2010-09-15T08:54:00.016+01:00

Good morning everyone. I just had to pop on to tell you about the brand new look that The Craft Barn have now got over on their website and blog! It is just SO colourful and I absolutely LOVE it. The new design has been created by the mega talented Chris Dark from The Craft Barn's design team. She is one VERY clever lady!!

They have also got a brand new 'I shop at The Craft Barn' logo too, as you can see!! Isn't it great!! Please do take this picture and add it to your blogs.

Talking of The Craft Barn I have added my October classes to My Event Diary in my sidebar now. For those of you who saw me demonstrating at the weekend with the Gorjuss Girls I have a day of classes using these stamps on Saturday October 23rd. Click here for more details.

I also have a day of classes booked for The Glitter Pot on Saturday 9th October using some of the new releases by StampAvie and Copic markers. Click here for more details.

So if you fancy any of these you know what to do!!

More Awards!!

2010-09-14T15:53:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. Well I am finally back up and running again with internet access after having been without for about 5 days - most frustrating it was too!! Anyway I am back now and have been trying to catch up in blogland!

My thanks to everyone who stopped by my table at the weekend - it was lovely to meet you all and thanks so much to all those of you who said such kind things to me! I do hope that you enjoyed all the other demos there too.

I have been really fortunate over this last week or so to be given two more blog awards!! I NEVER get these so it means SO much to me to have got three awards in two weeks!! I can't thank the ladies in question enough.

So without further ado my first award is this one from Julie.

Apparently to qualify for this award there are 5 rules that I need to adhere to-

1) I need to thank the person who gave me this award. Thanks so much Julie!!

2) I need to post it on my blog. As you can see I've done that!

3) I need to list 3 things that I love about myself!! Now this is really hard but I'll have a go......................I love that I've been blessed with common sense as my poor Mum really doesn't have any which has got her into a few scrapes in the past! (Sorry Mum!!) I love that I'm a natural blonde although very recently I tried out several different hair colours!! And lastly I love that I have a crafting ability as this has enabled me to try out several different types of crafts all of which I've enjoyed doing.

4) I need to post a picture that I love. So here you go...............this is of me when I was 19 months old with my Nan who is sadly no longer with us.

5) And lastly I need to pass this onto 5 other blogging friends and this is the really hard bit!! But here goes - Sharon, Tracy, Mustavcoffee, Chris Dark and Lisa and to all of you who have supported me since I started my blog as I truly appreciate it!

Now onto my second lovely award which I've been awarded both by Sharon and Tracy - thanks so much guys!!

Apparently I need to tell you why I began blogging and the answer is VERY simple - when I was demonstrating at stamping shows or taking classes at shops I kept being asked why I didn't have a blog so in the end I thought I had better get my act together and start one up!!

Now I am supposed to pass this onto 10 other people but I just can't choose so to anyone who has left me a comment over the last 10 days please take this award as a thank you!!

The Stamp Man's Distress Challenge

2010-09-10T12:00:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone. For those of you who are going to The Craft Barn's Extravaganza Weekend (tomorrow and Sunday) I hope to see you there!! But meanwhile it is time for The Stamp Man's next challenge which this time is 'Distress'. Now I must admit that I don't really do distress so I chose just to use the Distress Inkpads for my card to qualify for the theme!

I began by using two of the Distress inkpads - Tattered Rose and Shabby Shutters to create my background papers and then stamped over them using the flourish stamp from my Funky Frames stamp sheet.

Next I stamped out one of the flower frames from this sheet and watercoloured them using the Distress inkpads. Then once the image was dry I added some Diamond glitter glue for some sparkle.

I'm sure that many of you can do 'distress' much better than me so why not hop on over to The Stamp Man's Challenge blog and find out how to enter and check out the other DT's creations whilst you are there!

Hit and Miss!

2010-09-07T12:23:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. Just wanted to quickly say a huge thank you to all of you who wished me a Happy Birthday either by leaving comments on here, emailing me or to those of you who wished me a Happy Birthday in person at the weekend. All of them were so nice to receive so thanks VERY much guys - really appreciate each and every one of them.

I'm afraid that things will probably be quiet for the next few days as my router is playing me up and so my internet connection is VERY hit and miss so I'm sorry but I won't be able to get around to some of your blogs just yet. I'm having to make the most of when it is up and running to catch up with work stuff! Just be assured that I haven't forgotten any of you!

Hope normal service will soon be resumed!
xx

Busy, Busy, Busy!!

2010-09-03T11:21:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. Sorry that I haven't been posting very much these last couple of weeks but have been busy with card making stuff!! Thanks so much to all of you who have wished me a happy birthday for tomorrow - really appreciate it. Infact I have a confession to make!! As I'm not here tomorrow I have just opened my birthday cards that came through the letterbox this morning - sshhhhhh, don't tell anyone!!

So sorry that I haven't been getting round to some of your blogs recently but I will aim to do better after next weekend when things will have simmered down a bit.

I haven't gotten around to uploading any of the cards that I've done this week for The Glitter Pot's weekend so instead I thought I'd share a card with you today that I made for when I was last demoing there. I'm afraid that it has been so long since I made this that I can't remember whose the paper is - but it did come from The Glitter Pot so I'm sure you'll find it on the website somewhere!!

The flowers are just sooooo pretty and are by Prima, the leaves were done with a punch and the wording is from one of the Craftwork Cards Oh My Words sets. These are great for when you want something quickly and are a real life saver!!

The main image is called Kira With Kitten and is by Wild Rose Studio. I stamped her onto Craftwork Cards Digital Smooth cardstock with black Memento ink and coloured her using Copics. (Sorry just don't have the time at the moment to find and list the colours I used!!)

All materials used on the card came from The Glitter Pot apart from the Digital Smooth card which came from Craftwork Cards.

Anyway I hope you like the card and hopefully I'll see some of you tomorrow and Sunday at The Glitter Pot. .

Have a great weekend everyone.

'The Look' ATC Swap

2010-09-01T12:00:00.004+01:00

Well today is the 1st of the month which means that it is time for another Stamp Man ATC swap with the theme being 'The Look', which of course fits in really nicely with Tracey's Alluring Ladies stamp sheet that she designed for The Stamp Man as this has the 'eyes' stamp on it.

Now I must admit that I am not really an ATC'er but I did have a go at this one and used the free stamp from the cover of Craft Stamper which is a mini version of the 'eyes' stamp - just right for an ATC infact!! As you can see I opted to keep mine monochrome but if you hop on over to The Stamp Man's ATC blog you can see what the rest of the DT came up with and also find out all the details on how to enter and join in!

What A Lovely Surprise

2010-08-30T12:21:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone. I was totally amazed and delighted to be presented this award from Mustavcoffee. Thank you so much hun!!

Apparently upon receiving this award I need to tell you 7 facts about myself and pass it onto 7 people. So here goes-

1) This won't come as any surprise to those of you who visit my blog but I absolutely LOVE rubber stamping. When I very first discovered rubber stamping I was told that it was VERY addictive and I must confess at the time I though 'What a load of rubbish!'. It just shows how wrong you can be!!

2) I'll be another year older this Saturday! Will I be taking it easy and just relaxing and enjoying my day??...................................No!! I'll be demoing all day at The Glitter Pot's Christmas Spectacular Weekend!

3) I just LOVE squirrels - both our native red ones and also the cheeky grey ones! I was VERY fortunate to have a close relationship with several wild grey squirrels several years ago now, and because of this I discovered what great and individual personalities they all have. There is something very special about a wild animal totally trusting you.

4) As you may have already disovered from my posts on my blog, I just LOVE shopping - whether it is for craft related products or clothes, shoes, make-up etc... I LOVE IT!! Infact both Mum and I are the original 'shop 'til you drop' girls!

5) This will also come as no surprise to you (considering the colour of my blog) to know that my favourite colour is lilac.

6) I must have one of the biggest rubber/clear stamp collections ever and although I have got rid of some of the stamps that I no longer use (several times!) my collection shows no sign of dissipating as I just keep buying more! What can I say?? There are just too many lovely designs out there!

7) I like things to be neat and tidy but unfortunately my crafting table can NEVER be called that - lol!!

Ok so now comes the hard bit.........................passing this onto just 7 people! There are so many wonderful blogs out there but after a lot of thinking, I would like to pass this onto the following bloggers -

I hope that you are all enjoying the bank holiday weekend!

Me In My Hat!!

2010-08-26T11:21:00.000+01:00

Good morning. After Julie saying I should show the photo that I was referring to in my last post; here it is!!

It turns out that I wasn't 4 years old in this photo as I originally thought. I was actually almost 2 years old. See what I mean about the hat - lol!!

Everything Goes

2010-08-25T11:55:00.001+01:00

Morning guys. Today I thought I'd enter the current Belles and Whistles challenge of Everything Goes. The only rule is to use a Belles 'n' Whistles stamp in your creation so that's easy for me then considering how many of these cuties I have accumulated recently!

For this card I chose to use the Tea Time stamp by Belles 'n' Whistles. Every time I see this stamp it makes me quite envious as I would love to be sat outside just kicking back whilst having a cup of tea and a biscuit!

In a way this stamp reminds me of when I was younger as my Mum took a picture of me of when I was about 4 years old, sat on a sun lounger with a big straw hat on (to protect me from the sun), eating my marmite sandwiches!

Anyway I am digressing..................back to the card! The background papers are by Bo Bunny, the wording is from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet and the image was cut using a Labels Three Nestabilities die.

I stamped the main image onto Craftwork Cards Digital Smooth cardstock (which is just excellent to use with your Copics) in Tuxedo Black Memento ink and then coloured her using Copics. (I don't currently have the list of Copic colours with me but if I find some time I'll edit this later to include them.) You might also just be able to distinguish that I add a slight shadow around the girl using a light blue Copic (B60), just to give a hint of sky around her.

All the products used on this card (apart from the Digital cardstock) are from The Craft Barn.

Been Buying!

2010-08-21T12:13:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. Sorry I haven't been posting this week but it has been all go here.

Today I thought I'd share my 'buying sins' with you! Why is it that I have a craft room filled to overflowing but it doesn't prevent me from buying and wanting more stuff?? One of these days I really must have a good turf out otherwise soon the walls will be bulging where I can't cram anything more into my room!!

As you know I was demoing at the Stevenage Show last Sunday and I was able to have a very quick look around and so stumbled across a few items which then fell into my hand! Strange how that happens isn't it??

First up are these punches which I'm unable to remember which stall they came from - sorry!! They are widely available though. The punch on the right punches out the shape and then you put it into the punch on the left and it embosses it. Of course I just had to have both sizes of these flower punches and then thought the stamen punch would be handy too! Wish they did snowflakes in these.

Next door to the 'punch stall' was Stamps and Memories and Wendy had some gorgeous packs of flowers. (See what I mean?) Now I know that I have just shown you the punches to punch out my own flowers but this doesn't stop me buying pre-done ones I'm afraid, especially when they've already got their own gemstone centres! Being white means that I can colour them to match any project too!

The blue packet is my favourite as the flowers are all glittery................. see!! (How could I resist?)

Now I just love embellishments and wanted to make sure that I found time to visit The Hobby House as I just love their packs of rhinestones and pearls. In my opinion you can NEVER have too many! I wasn't banking on them also having lots of packs of wonderful silver charms too though.............so what was a girl to do....................??

Also came across these wonderful brads which is something else that I feel you can't have too many of. The photo really doesn't do these justice but the actual brads are silver coloured with different coloured middles such as purple, blue, yellow, green etc.... I got the smaller brads in pastel and bright colours and the middle sized brads in pastel colours too and then some wonderful spacers for the brads to sit in. (Oh The Hobby House has a lot to answer for - lol!!)

It seems on that day my resistance to lovely things was VERY low as I came across the Fantastic Ribbons stall too and yes you've guessed it..............I just LOVE ribbon as well........................Actually it seems that I LOVE everything doesn't it? Stamps, papers, embellishments..........................I LOVE IT ALL!! LOL!!! So I really think it best that I don't even mention what came through the post this week!!

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

Watering The Flowers

2010-08-18T12:12:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. Sorry for being absent for a few days, but you know what it's like!!

Today I thought I'd enter this card into the Belles 'n' Whistles Warm Colours Challenge. The main image is of course a Belles 'n' Whistles stamp called 'Watering', the papers are from the Double Dots range by Bo Bunny, the flowers are a mixture of Petaloo and punched out flowers and the flourishes and wording (stamped in Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink) are from my Fancy Flourish stamp sheet.

I tinted the paper Petaloo flowers using a light orange coloured Copic so that they matched the card.

I stamped the main image using a black Versafine inkpad onto watercolour paper and coloured her using Distress Inkpads - Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Frayed Burlap, Walnut Stain, Bundled Sage, Shabby Shutters and Pumice Stone.

All of the products mentioned came from The Craft Barn.

Talking of Belles 'n' Whistles - for those of you who haven't seen it yet I have got a 4 page project in the (current) September issue of Craft Stamper using some of these delightful stamps along with Copic markers. The project concentrates on showing you different ways of grounding your imagery to give a more realistic result to standing/kneeling figures and in the next issue of the magazine (October), I have an article showing you a few more tricks on how to 'ground' sitting figures too.

Anything Goes Easel Card

2010-08-13T12:00:00.003+01:00

Hi guys. Well it's time for another Stamp Man Challenge and this time we want to see your easel cards. The theme for this is Anything Goes so the subject matter is entirely up to you - the only criteria is that it needs to be an easel card.

This is the one that I made for this challenge and is actually my first easel card ever!! I like the idea of easel cards - I just don't get the time to play around and do them as they are a little bit more work than a normal card.

The stamps are all from my Funky Frames stamp sheet and the paper is Arabella by Basic Grey. Both of which came from The Stamp Man. For this card I just had to use my Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly and Floral Lace edging punches too as they went so well with the stamps - both of these are from The Craft Barn. Infact it seems I went a bit 'punch mad' as I also used my EK Success Flourish punch and Retro Flowers. (The Hobby House)

Here's a closer look at the main panel of the card. As you can see I used the flourish (from the Funky Frames sheet) to stamp onto the background of the card to add some interest using both a Versamark inkpad and a Starlite Black Brilliance inkpad.

I didn't have any ribbon to match my card so I simply took one of my green Copic markers and used the chisel end to colour a length of white ribbon. These markers are just SO handy!! Not only do I colour ribbon with them but also things like pearls and gemstones when I don't have the right colour to match my card. (Jill - take note you should definitely stock these!! LOL!!) This time around I had the perfect match with my gemstones though which came from The Hobby House.

So no prizes for guessing what I coloured my image with!! What can I say.....................I just LOVE the crisp, clean, printed look that can be achieved with the Copic markers. You just don't get this with any of the other colouring mediums. I am most definitely hooked on them!! (I'm afraid I didn't make a note of the colours I used for this though so no numbers this time!) I managed to get my hands on some Craftwork Cards Digital Smooth White card (which I used on this card) and I must say that the Copic markers blended really easily on it. It's really affordable too - retailing at £9.95 for a pack of 50 A4 sheets!

So don't forget to head on over to The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog to find out how to enter this challenge and to check out all the wonderful samples that the rest of the DT made.

Stamperama Is Nearly Here

2010-08-12T11:19:00.000+01:00

Morning guys. Another quickish post from me again this morning as time keeps marching on.............. At the moment I am busy preparing for this Sunday for the Stamperama Show (at Stevenage)!! Once again I will be on Stamp Addicts's stand working with some of the latest releases by Denami Design!! Just LOVE the simple lines of these stamps.

Above is one of the cards I made for this time last year which was such a simple and quick card to make. This was made using two of the tree stamps that Denami released last year along with the Denami Large Dot Swirl stamp to add some interest to the background.

As for which of the new stamps I'm working with this time..................................well you'll just have to come and stop by my table on Sunday and see!! Hope to see you there!!!

Wishing Well Wishes

2010-08-09T14:07:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. This is going to be a quickish post from me today as I've just got back from the chiropractor and am supposed to be resting!

Todays card is the other card we made back in June at The Craft Barn!! Yes I know it's been a long time in coming!! I still have lots of cards to show you from the June Extravaganza too!! I'll get around to it sometime I promise!

Anyway back to this card. The papers are by Bo Bunny and I stamped on them using flourishes from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet. (The wording is from this sheet to.)

The main image is a Belles 'n' Whistles stamp called Wishes and is coloured using Distress inkpads first with Copic Spica pens added afterwards for some subtle shimmer which you can't see from this photo. You'll just have to take my word for it!

All products came from The Craft Barn. And talking of The Craft Barn it won't be long now until their September Extravaganza which is being held on 11th and 12th September at both the Community Centre and The Victoria Club. I hope to see you there!!

A Day At The Glitter Pot

2010-08-06T11:24:00.000+01:00

So tomorrow I will be at The Glitter Pot all day teaching a couple of classes based on Copics. So in honour of that I thought I'd show you a card today that I made when I was demoing Copics last month there.

The background paper is a double-sided one by Imaginisce called Frilly Floral and as you can see I punched one of the panels with my favourite Martha Stewart edging punch - Floral Lace. The flowers were made using EK Success Retro Flower punches - I just love these and use them all the time!

The main image is called Kira With Flowers and I stamped her with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and coloured her with my Copics. The wording was taken from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet and I used Diamond and Platinum glitter glue to add some sparkle to the card and image.

COPIC COLOURS

Skin - E11, E00, E000 and R20 Blush

Hair - E35, YR23, YR21 and YR20
Basket - E47, E43, E31 and E50
Flowers and leaves - Y15, RV25 and RV21
Clothes - R37, R35 and R32
RV25, RV23 and RV21
Grass - YG67, YG63 and G40
Background - B02, B00, R00, BG000 and 0

All materials used came from The Glitter Pot.

For those of you that have booked on the classes..............I'll see you tomorrow!! Personally I can't wait to see how the new premises are shaping up as it has been a few weeks since I was there now.

Time For A Break

2010-08-02T14:20:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. Thanks so much to all of you who have been leaving me such lovely comments recently - I have had great pleasure in reading them!

Today I thought I'd share one of the cards that we made on my class at The Craft Barn back in June using the Tea Time stamp by Belles and Whistles along with Copic markers. I must say that everyone on the class did an excellent job with their colouring.

As I'm sure some of you are aware, Belles and Whistles recently launched some more stamps(!! ) -some of which I've been lucky enough to receive in my DT pack from The Craft Barn - I really can't wait to ink them up! (Click here to view the range.)

Anyway back to this card! The dotty papers are from the Double Dots range by Bo Bunny and as you can see I used my favourite Floral Lace punch by Martha Stewart to add some interest to the dp. The dotty flourish and wording are from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet.

The large circle and scallop circle were cut using Nestabilities dies. I stamped Tea Time with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and coloured her using Copic Ciaos first and then added some of the Copic Spicas for some subtle shimmer.

You can see the colouring a bit better in this photo. Once the card had been put together I gave it a light misting with Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist.

All products used came from The Craft Barn.

COPIC COLOURS
W1, W3 and W5 Warm Greys, E47 Dark Brown, E43 Dull Ivory, E50 Egg Shell, E31 Brick Beige, E11 Barely Beige, E00 Skin White, E35 Chamois, YR20 Yellowish Shade, R20 Blush, R27 Cadmium Red, R22 Light Prawn, R00 Pinkish White, YR02 Light Orange, YR00 Powder Pink, Y06 Yellow, YG67 Moss, YG63 Pea Green, G21 Lime Green, YG11 Mignonette, B63 Light Hydrangea, B60 Pale Blue Grey, 0 Blender

SPICA COLOURS
Sand, Silver, Red and Clear

Thanks for looking!

The Stamp Man's Second Challenge

2010-07-30T12:00:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone. Today is the start of The Stamp Man's 2nd Challenge which is Take Two Colours. As you can see from my card I opted for some nice bright colours of purple and green which I thought would make a nice fresh looking card.

For the background I used the Cuttlebug Stylized Flowers embossing folder and some plain vellum. After I'd embossed it I coloured the reverse side of the vellum with some markers in order to pick out the detail of the embossing.

For the main panel I used one of my stamps from the Funky Flowers stamp sheet and coloured this using Coloursoft pencils and Sansador in order to give it a soft muted feel. I then took one of the flourishes from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet and stamped and embossed around the flowers using Versamark and Crystal embossing powder.

The birthday wording is from my Funky Frames stamp sheet.

I really hope you like the card and fancy having a go at submitting a card of your own into our challenge. Click here to go and visit the Challenge blog and find out what you need to do to enter.

Enjoy your weekend!

Summer Rain

2010-07-28T11:50:00.000+01:00

Good morning everyone. I thought I'd stay with the Denami range of stamps and show you the card that I made back in May for my class at Stamp Addicts. As you can see this one is a bit more involved than the one I showed yesterday!

I just LOVE the Mimi range of stamps as she is just so chic and stylish looking. They don't take long to colour either!

For the background of the card I stamped and embossed the Decorative Flourish using Versamark and Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder and then stamped a couple of the Large Dot Swirls using a soft brown inkpad.

For the Mimi panel, I stamped Mimi using Graphite Black Brilliance and then stamped the flower heads (from the Whimsical Flowers set) either side of her using the same inkpad and drew in the stems and leaves using a fine black pen.

I then coloured her in using Polycolor Pencils and a Splender pencil and added some shimmer using the Clear Sakura Stardust pen which you can't see from the angle of this photo!! Once I'd finished my colouring I used a brown Polycolor Pencil to go around the edge of the panel and then pulled this colour into the panel using Zest It blending solution and a paper stump. Lastly I added that Large Dot Swirl using the soft brown inkpad and then using Versamark and Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder.

All of these products came from Stamp Addicts.

Denami stamps used:
Mimi In The Rain
Whimsical Flowers stamp set
Decorative Flourish
Large Dot Swirl

Simple Flowers

2010-07-27T12:01:00.000+01:00

Sometimes...................just sometimes...............I like to make a relatively simple card and this is one of those cards. As you can see there are no 'extra bits' at all on this card keeping it very clean and uncluttered looking.

All the stamps used on this card are by Denami and can be bought from Stamp Addicts. The pink paisley paper is by Denami too and I simply stamped the large dotty swirl over it to jazz it up a little.

This was such a quick card to make as the colouring is very minimal.

I first stamped the Wavy Stem Trio and then stamped the individual flower heads onto each stem and coloured them using Polycolor Pencils and a Spender Pencil.

For the stamped background on the main card I used a Denami flourish stamp and a pale pink dye based inkpad.

Denami stamps used:
Wavy Stems Trio
Whimsical Flowers
Decorative Flourish
Large Dot Swirls

At Last!! - Sharon's Card!!

2010-07-24T08:00:00.003+01:00

Morning guys. I have been meaning to show you this card for absolutely ages, that I was very honoured to receive from Sharon when I was last up at Stamp Addicts. Just after the class finished that I took up at Stamp Addicts in May, Sharon (one of the ladies on my class) presented me with this gorgeous card! I was so thrilled to receive it - especially as when I opened it I found that Sharon had been really kind and had stamped me out some different 'cute' images to colour with my Copics! Now I must confess that I haven't had chance yet to actually colour any of them in but I have looked at them several times and am itching to find some time to attack them!

So what do you think? Isn't this lovely!! It is currently displayed in my craft room as I can't bear to take it down. As those of you who read my blog regularly will know, I don't often get hand made cards and truly treasure those that I do get. (I still have those Christmas cards that some of you were kind enough to make me last year!)

Here's a closer look at that gorgeous teddy stamp from Lili Of The Valley. I'm pretty sure that Sharon coloured him in with Pro Markers but I'm afraid that I have no idea on whose papers she used.

Sharon doesn't currently have a blog of her own but she does visit mine regularly so I am sure she would love to read any comments that you might care to leave!

I really am so lucky with the ladies that I get on my classes - you are all such a fabulous bunch!!

The Craft Barn's Candy

2010-07-23T12:04:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone. I thought that maybe some of you might be interested in some blog candy that is currently available over on The Craft Barn's blog!! Click here to go and check it out!! I have seen some of Carol's cards first hand that she has made using the stencils and paste and they are absolutely amazing!!

Milton

2010-07-22T12:24:00.000+01:00

Well in my last post I introduced you to Mille so this time I felt it was Milton's turn! This particular image is called Milton With Card and again he is by Wild Rose Studio. The background paper is by Bo Bunny and is called Peacock Lane/Tweet, the flowers are from the Athena range by Prima, the leaves are a punch and the wording came from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet. The sheer ribbon was originally white but I coloured it with a Copic marker to match the rest of the card.

I stamped Milton using Tuxedo Black Memento ink and coloured him with Copics. I added some sparkle to the Prima flowers using Platinum glitter glue.

Here's a closer look at the colouring of Milton so you can see that I added some texture to some of his fur to make him more scruffy looking than Millie. This was done by using a flicking motion using my second darkest fur colour of E33.

COPIC COLOURS
Fur - E35, E33, Y11, Y000 and E30
Inner ears - R20 and R22
Card - V15, V01 and V000
Ground - C5, C3 and C1
Dotty background - C1, V01 and V000

Millie

2010-07-20T11:37:00.001+01:00

Morning everyone. So sorry for my lack of postings this month!! I do have loads of cards to show you I just keep running out of time to blog! Anyway today I have managed to snatch a few minutes and thought I'd share this card with you that I made for The Glitter Pot when I was there demoing the other Saturday. The stamp is from Wild Rose Studio and is called Millie With Pot. I think she is so sweet! There is also a male teddy bear called Milton who is just as adorable. Infact Wild Rose Studio have just released some Christmas stamps featuring Millie and Milton and I can't decide which one I like the best! Click here to see.

Anyway back to the card.............I used my Nestabilities Labels Twelve die to stamp Millie onto and two of my Martha Stewart punches edging punches - Floral Lace and Flower Patch to add some interest to the actual card. The backing paper is by Bo Bunny and the punched out swirls were done with an EK Success punch.

I stamped Millie using Tuxedo Black Memento ink and then coloured her using Copics which of course I just LOVE! I wanted her to look very smooth and neat (as if she takes pride in her appearance!) so I blended the colours really well to give her a nice smooth appearance. (For the male teddy Milton, I actually made him more textured looking, in order to make him look more scruffy, which I'll show you another time.)

Here's a closer look at Millie so you can see how the colours blended together. I think I am right in saying that I actually used 5 different colours to achieve this result. As you can see I also added a soft background to her using the Copics. Once I'd finished my colouring I used a few different colours of the Copic Spica pens to add some subtle shimmer and then applied some Stardust glitter glue.

COPIC COLOURS
Fur - E35, Y13, Y11, Y000 and E30
Inner ears - R20 and R22
Flower pot - C5, C3 and C1
Flowers and leaves - Y13, V15, V000, BG15, BG10, YG06, YG03 and G20
Dress and hair bow - V09, V15, V01 and V000
Ground - C5, C3 and C1
Spotty background - B00, B32, BG000, and V000

I hope you like the result!

The Craft Barn's Summer Sale

2010-07-18T12:11:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. Just wanted to let you know that The Craft Barn are currently having a summer sale!! There are all sorts of bargains to be had including 40% off Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, over 50% off selected Woodware's clear stamp sets and lots of other things that are too numerous to mention apart from my particular favourite of 40% off the Dahlia Box Blends. So what are you waiting for?.......................... Go grab yourself a bargain because once they are gone..............they're gone!!

The Stamp Man's First Fortnightly Challenge

2010-07-16T12:00:00.051+01:00

Hi everyone. Today is the start of The Stamp Man's new Fortnightly Challenges over on their new Challenge Blog. Click here to head on over and find out what you need to do to enter and don't forget to read the few rules that we have whilst you are there.

The first theme to get us up and running is Anything Goes which means that you can make anything you like!

Here's what I came up with for this challenge. First of all I used my Nestabilities Blossom die to get my centre piece and then stamped components from my Funky Flowers stamp sheet to make up my own arrangement within the die-cut - just like I showed how to do in the May 2010 issue of Craft Stamper. The beige background papers were stamped with two Hero Arts cling stamps (Flowing Flowers and Leaves and Reversed Flowers and Leaves) and a Distress Inkpad in Antique Linen. I then stamped over this using my fine flourish from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet and Walnut Stain Distress inkpad.

The brown swirls and squares were punched out of brown Bazzill card using a medium square punch from Woodware and an EK Success Flourish punch from The Hobby House.

I coloured my main image using Sakura Stardust pens and a water brush which gives a lovely soft shimmer to them. Once I'd done this I took the dotty stamp from the Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet and a light green inkpad and stamped all around the edge of the die-cut to give the speckled effect. I then used this same inkpad to stamp the leafy flourish from the Flourish stamp sheet at the base of the flower stems to add a subtle background.

I hope you like it and that you now feel inspired to join us for our Anything Goes Challenge!

Little Miss MissMatch

2010-07-13T12:05:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. I thought I'd share this card with you today that I made some time ago as part of my DT work for The Craft Barn. I really like the colour scheme of this one as I thought the pink and aqua colours really complemented each other. The main stamp is called MissMatch and is from the Ketto range by Stamping Bella. Isn't she great? The DP is from the Alyssa range by Bo Bunny which came from The Craft Barn - not too sure if they still have it now. The stamped and embossed flower sprigs came from my Daisy Flutters stamp sheet. The circles along the bottom of the card are the Craftwork Cards Card Candy.

I stamped Miss Match with Tuxedo Black ink and coloured her using my Copic markers. By using the lighter colours of markers I was able to give her a nice pastel look to go with the rest of the card. (Can't remember now which colours they were though!) I then added lots of Stardust glitter glue to the card to give lots of sparkle.

All products came from The Craft Barn.

Glitter and Pearls

2010-07-11T11:53:00.001+01:00

Morning guys. Well I must say that I am most impressed with The Glitter Pot's new premises as it is absolutely HUGE!! The Glitter Pot team must have been working overtime as I couldn't believe how straight it was looking and how much stock they had got out and organised already - what an achievement!! They still have lots to do to get it just how they want it with sorting out some of the other rooms and putting in a lift etc... but at least they are back up and running again. Their new classroom is sooooo much bigger than their last one and has a lovely feel to it.

My thanks to everyone who stopped by my table yesterday and kept me company! It is always lovely to see some friendly faces!

Well onto todays card and I thought I'd have a go at entering another challenge! This time I'm entering the Belles and Whistles Glitter and Pearls challenge and have used a B&W stamp called Wishes. (As I think we all know by now I just LOVE these stamps and The Craft Barn now have all the latest ones in too and I'm definitely wanting them all!!) The wording and background flourishes on the card were taken from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet.

You'll notice that I am getting some use out of my Martha Stewart punches too as I have used the Floral Lace Edging Punch and the Monarch Butterfly on this card. The Sweet Pear paper is from the Double Dots range by Bo Bunny - just love these papers as they go with anything and are great to stamp over too!

I punched the Monarch Butterflies out from Tutu Double Dots Bo Bunny paper and added a little touch of colour to them using my Copic markers. Self-adhesive pearls were used for their bodies. I hand drew the wiggly frame around the main panel using the fine end of a Sepia Marvy Marker and then traced over it with Platinum glitter glue.

The wishing well image was stamped using Tuxedo Black Memento ink and coloured in using my Copic markers. You can't see it very well from this photo but I also added a delicate sky area around the Wishing Well too using Copic markers in B63 and B60. To add some glimmer I coloured selected areas using Copic Spica pens and then added touches of Diamond glitter glue.

The whole card was then sprayed with Iridescent Gold glimmer mist so lots of different layers of glimmer and sparkle happened on this card! Everything used on this card came from The Craft Barn except for the Retro Flower punch and the Sepia pen.

Anyway hope you like it!

The Glitter Pot Has Moved!!

2010-07-09T16:43:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. First of all my thanks to everyone who have been leaving me such lovely comments recently - I do so enjoy reading them!!

I don't know if you have heard but this week The Glitter Pot moved into their new premises and they are now located in Burgess Hill. Click here for the proper details! As everything is very new at the moment I will be demoing there tomorrow (Saturday) instead of taking my classes. So if anyone fancies stopping by to check out their new venue please stop by my table and say 'Hello'! I will be demoing with the Copic markers from 10am-4pm. That is of course if I haven't melted by then!!

I hope you all enjoy the weekend!

A New Challenge Blog

2010-07-08T12:05:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. Time keeps marching on here and I can't believe that it has been a few days since I last posted!!

If you scroll down a little bit you will notice that there are some new blinkies in my sidebar. The Stamp Man people have been very busy recently and not only are they hosting a new ATC blog but now they are setting up a new Fortnightly Challenge Blog too!! As you already know the ATC swaps are up and running and we have already had some marvellous entries. Click here to go and visit and see the ATC's and learn how to win some blog candy.

The new FortnightlyChallenge Blog will be going live very soon in a weeks time. Cick here to find out all about it.

Anyway all this talk of challenges has made me decide to try and enter some challenges now and again and after having a brief blog hop this morning I have stumbled on yet another new challenge blog called Penny Black At Allsorts so having made a few Penny Black cards recently for The Glitter Pot's demo weekend, I thought I would enter one into their very first challenge called A Burst of Summer Colour.

So here is my entry for this challenge using the Penny Black Sunny Days stamp. I don't think anything can say 'summer' better than sunflowers! I just love their cute stamps and this is just so sweet!

As you can see I did quite a bit of decoration for this card. The delightful background paper is from the Kioshi Collection by Basic Grey and is called Motochi. I used my tiny daisy punch and also a McGill pine punch to decorate around the wonderful Prima flowers.

You can see these extremely pretty flowers a bit better in this photo. They are from the Athena range and I just added some Platinum glitter glue around the edges of the petals and some Diamond glitter glue to the centre.

The main Sunny Days image I stamped onto smooth white card using Tuxedo Black Memento and then coloured using Copic markers. After I'd done my basic colouring I added some shimmer using the Copic Spica clear pen and some Diamond glitter glue.

All of the items mentioned can be bought from The Glitter Pot apart from the McGill punch which I purchased from The Hobby House.

I hope you like it!

Miranda

2010-07-04T12:15:00.000+01:00

Hi all. I know I keep saying this lately but I just don't know where the time keeps disappearing to!

Anyway today I have found a few minutes so I am back with another card to share with you. This one was made months ago now as part of my DT work for The Craft Barn.

This little cutie is called Miranda and she is part of the Green Bean Baby/Teacup Girls range. I don't know about you but I just LOVE her spiky hair. All of the Teacup Girls have sweet little features which really appeals to me.

I'm afraid that it has been sooooo long that I can't remember whose paper this is but it did come from The Craft Barn. You might be able to make out that I did some stamping and embossing onto the pink Bazzill card too with one of my own stamps from the Double Delights stamp sheet. As luck would have it there was a stamp on there which is really similar to the decoration on the tea cup so I just had to use this with it! I then added some punched out flowers etc... to decorate the card.

The actual image was stamped using black Memento ink and coloured using Copics - both Ciaos and Spicas. You can hopefully see the colouring a bit better in this picture.

Well that's all from me today. I hope you like the card!

Two New Challenges

2010-07-01T11:37:00.001+01:00

Hi guys. Today I have two new challenges to tell you about! The first one is happening over at The Craft Barn's blog and this challenge is to make an unusual shaped card. Click here for more details.

This is the card that I made for this challenge using my Marianne Creatables die that I bought a little while ago from The Craft Barn. I had it in mind at the time that this would make a brilliant shaped card and was quite pleased with the result! The background papers for the card were made using a large Hero Art stamp called Reversed Flowers and Leaves that I bought from The Glitter Pot. This is such a lovely stamp and iit makes great background papers just by inking it up with your inkpads. I used Distress inkpads in Antique Linen and Milled Lavender for these papers. Not only does the Marianne frame cut out this wonderful shape but it embosses the design around the outside too which I coloured to match the rest of the card using Copic markers.

Here's a closer look at the middle panel for you. You can see that background stamp in more detail now. The main image is one of my favourite stamps at the moment called Beary Big Hugs from the Belles 'n' Whistles range. She was just the right size for the panel too! I coloured her with my Copic markers and then used the darker plum coloured Copic (that I used on her sweater) to colour my ribbon to match. I took this same marker and used the brush tip to go around all the cut out detail of the frame. The wording 'special friends' came from my Fancy Flourish stamp sheet.

To add some sparkle I used touches of both Platinum and Diamond glitter glue.

Here's a different view of the card. No doubt you will see some more of this type of shaped card as I really liked the effect it gave. By the way the winner of this challenge will receive a surprise £30 goodie bag!! So don't forget to head on over to The Craft Barn's blog to find out all the details to enter and also to see the other cards that some of the DT came up with!

Okay now onto Challenge Two and this one is happening over on the new Stamp Man's ATC Swaps blog. The theme for this first challenge is - Wings. What I like about ATC's is that you only have a small space to decorate so these don't tend to take so long to do. Although it does depend on how intricate you decide to make them!

As you can see I actually kept my offering quite simple! (GASP!!) See I can do simple - sometimes!! Well sort of! I made the background paper myself using a Bundled Sage Distress inkpad and then used the same inkpad to stamp the spriggy background. (The sprig came from my Japanese Thoughts stamp sheet.) I then used a Gold Encore inkpad to randomly stamp a smaller sprig and the smaller dragonfly (both from my Japanese Minis sheet) onto a strip of black card. Next I stamped and embossed the rectangular dragonflies frame (also from my Japanese Minis) using a black pigment inkpad and clear detail embossing powder. I coloured the imagery using Tombow pens and a waterbrush and added some sparkle (which you can't really see!) using Diamond glitter glue. The Japanese Wording (from my Japanese Minis stamp sheet) was stamped using a black dye based inkpad.

The rest of the DT have done some really fab ATC's too which you can see over on The Stamp Man's ATC blog.

By the way The Stamp Man are currently doing all of their stamp sheets at 20% off so now is a great time to get any that you might have been thinking about! Plus they are also doing free P&P at the moment!! Click here to go and see!

Well that is finally all from me today. I hope that you made it to the end! If you did I hope you are all enjoying some lovely weather!

Scarlett In Pink

2010-06-29T11:19:00.000+01:00

Morning everyone. First of all my thanks to all the ladies that were on my classes on Saturday - you all made it such a lovely day and each of you did a splendid job with your cards! I do hope that you were pleased with them! I am back at The Craft Barn again teaching on the 24th July incase anyone fancies it - more details for this can be found in My Event Diary on my sidebar.

Today I wanted to share with you a card I've made for the Stamping Bella In Pink theme that is being shown over on The Craft Barn's blog. The rest of the DT have also made some beautiful cards for this. Click here to go and see!

Do you remember those Bo Bunny Double Dots background papers that I had to have a little while ago from The Craft Barn? Well as you can see I used one of these sheets for my background along with a paper out of the 6x6 Porcelain Basic Grey paper pad which I bought at the same time! They really work well together don't they? I punched the Basic Grey paper with my favourite Martha Stewart punch (Floral Lace) - I just had to use this one as it went so well with the image! I then used my mini daisy punch to punch out some extra flowers to go along the base of my card and added a self-adhesive pearl to the centre of each one. The wording came from my Fancy Flourish stamp sheet and I was delighted to find that the pink ribbon (from The Craft Barn) was an absolute perfect match for the paper!!

I used my Labels Twelve Nestabilities dies for the main image which I cut out using my Cuttlebug. Scarlett The Teacup Girl was then stamped centrally using Tuxedo Black Memento ink and then coloured using Copic markers. The background was also created using the Copic markers. As you can see I used those self-adhesive pearls again for the centres of the daisies in her hair.

Once I had finished all my colouring I used some Smooch Illuminate on the daisies, (I've angled the card in this photo so that you can see the shine that this gives - fab isn't it!) and then used Stardust glitter glue around the edge of the die cut. I hope you like it!

Don't forget to head on over to The Craft Barn's blog too to check out the rest of the cards that the DT made. While you're there, if you scroll down a bit to one of the Extravaganza posts you can also see a really bad photo of me!! (And yes I was talking at the time - but then again when aren't I?? Lol!)

Never Enough Hours In The Day.........

2010-06-25T17:28:00.001+01:00

Well I think that I am finally starting to make some headway and with a bit of luck by next week I will have caught up with everything that I need to do!!

So sorry that I've been a little quiet this week but I've been trying to get everything done that needs to be done - I'm sure you know how it is!! Tomorrow I am off to The Craft Barn to take my classes using the Belles 'n' Whistles stamps so I thought I'd take this opportunity to show you one of the cards that I made for the Extravaganza Weekend using the Belles 'n' Whistles Cupcake stamp. (And no this isn't one of the cards we'll be making tomorrow!)

Infact Belles 'n' Whistles have currently got a challenge going over on their blog to make a card using the colours White, Pink and Brown so I thought I'd enter this card for it.

The background for the card was made using Bo Bunny Double Dot papers in Almond Dot, which I stamped over using my fine flourish stamp off of my Fancy Flourish stamp sheet. (The wording also came from this sheet too.) As you can see I used my Martha Stewart Cupcake punch for this card to create my border and the whole of the card was lightly spritzed using Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist.

I coloured my Belles 'n' Whistles image using Copics in shades of pink and brown and then lightly distressed around the panel using Antique Linen Distress ink and a blending tool. I used the same inkpad to ink up the fine flourish stamp to create a border down the left side of the panel.

Here's a closer look so you can see the colouring a bit better of the image. You can't really tell from this photo but once I'd finished colouring the image with my Copic Ciaos I then used the Copic Spicas to add some shimmer here and there before using small amounts of Diamond and Platinum glitter glue. So all in all this is one very sparkly card!!

A House In The Country

2010-06-22T22:52:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. I had fully intended to post earlier than this but you know the story by now about how time flies etc...!! As you know a few days ago I was talking about making Dad his Father's Day card - well this is what I finally came up with! My Dad was born in the country and grew up there and only moved away when he married my Mum - he has always dreamt of returning to the country but unfortunately the price of houses in the middle of nowhere are out of his monetary reach so I decided to recreate a house in the country for him for his Father's Day card this year!

As I mentioned previously I always struggle with mens cards as not only do I find subject matter hard to find but I also have to resist on 'prettying' them up. However this year I think I rose to the challenge as I didn't even apply any glitter glue - although I did want to!!

For the background of the card I used some scenic stamps by Stampscapes which I stamped using Frayed Burlap Distress ink onto green Bazzill card. I have got loads of these stamps in my stamp collection which I absolutely love but it has been quite a few years now since I have played with them. The detail on these stamps is just amazing and the way these stamps join seamlessly together is fantastic. For those of you who have never come across these stamps before they are sold in the UK by Serendipity. Click here to go view their website. The quality and detail of the stamps is outstanding. After using them for the background on Dad's card it has made me want to start using them again to create proper scenes - I just need to find some time to play!!

Anyway here is a closer look at the bottom right corner of the card. Because of the texture of the Bazzill card and the fine detail of the stamps - it gave a patchy effect which I actually found perfect for this type of background as I really didn't want a solid look for this. (I also decorated the inside of the card too with these stamps but I'm afraid I got carried away and wrote in it before I photographed it so I'm afraid I can't show you the inside!!)

For the main panel I chose to use stamps by Art Impressions (availabe from my good friends at Sir Stampalot) which is yet another stamp company that I love but rarely have time to play around with now! (For those of you who have got my Basics and Beyond DVD I used the same techniques to create this panel as I showed in the last section of the DVD where you ink up the stamps using water based pens and stamp them out several times fading out the ink.) For the house and fence I actually used a dark grey pen to colour the stamp and then watercoloured the images by scribbling the pens onto a palette and picking up the colours with a damp paintbrush. The wording was taken from my Fancy Flourish stamp sheet. (Available from The Craft Barn.)

Here's a closer look at the main panel so that you can see the detail a bit clearer. Making these sort of cards where you are using lots of different stamps to create a scene or a picture really appeals to me as this is when stamping starts to become more of an art form although it's a bit scary as well when you haven't done it for a while!!

Anyway I hope you like it - it's a bit different to anything else I've posted for a while I know, but sometimes it is nice to return to things you haven't done for a while!! It is actually a year since I have picked up any Art Impressions stamps and probably about 5 years since I've done any sort of work at all with the Stampscapes range but bizarrely I still rate them among my favourites - strange eh??

Lots Happening!!

2010-06-22T09:27:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. I just had to pop on and tell you all that there is lots going on over at The Stamp Man's blog. Currently Jill is offering some wonderful Tim Holtz blog candy which is running until the end of July so if you fancy winning this little lot which is worth over £50 then click here to head on over to The Stamp Man's blog to find out how to enter.

Also there is now a new blog on the block as Jill has decided to bring back the popular ATC swaps and has dedicated a challenge blog to this. To advertise the fact she is offering up yet some more blog candy with the total value being over £60!! So again to find out more simply click here.

I'll try and pop back later to post up a card!