Summer Rain

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

Spring Rain

Morning everyone - I hope that you are all enjoying your bank holiday weekend! I spent all of yesterday working as today I am actually having the whole day off!!  Can't promise not to work tomorrow though!!!

Today the weather here is not too good - currently raining.  So I thought this would be a most appropriate card to load up!  I know that you have seen this stamp before from previous posts but this time I have added some flowers around Mimi's feet to represent spring.  (I will be doing a card similar to this for my class at Stamp Addicts later on this month so if you fancy having a go at this you know what to do!)

Stamps used:
Denami Design -
Mimi In The Rain
Whimsical Flowers
Large Dot Swirls
Decorative Flourish

Papers from the Sugared paper pad by Basic Grey.

Coloured using Polycolor pencils and a Splender pencil.

All products from Stamp Addicts.

Spring Blossom

When I was out and about the other day I couldn't help but admire all the lovely spring blossom that is out on the trees now and so I thought this would be the ideal time to share this card with you as it reminds me so much of the pink blossom. 

I'm sure you will recognise the image as being Mimi In The Rain from the new Denami Design stamps which I combined with some Basic Grey papers from the Sugared Paper pad - LOVE these papers and most definitely need more of them!

I stamped the bottom background panel with the Denami Small Solid Umbrella to help tie it in with the main image and then stamped the Decorative Flourish into the top left and bottom right corners of the card using a deep plum inkpad. The bigger pink flowers were done using my Retro Flower punch (from The Hobby House) and the smaller flowers were stamped using the Solid Flower from the Whimsical Flowers stamp set.

Regarding the Mimi panel - I stamped her using Starlite Black Brilliance, heat set the ink and then coloured her using my Polycolor Pencils along with a Splender Pencil. To make her eyes look as if she is wearing mascara I simply traced over the lashes using a 0.1mm Zig Millenium pen. For sparkle I traced over some of the imagery using a Silver Sakura Stardust pen and then added some Diamond glitter glue.

All of these products can be bought from Stamp Addicts.

For those of you who may be interested I will be taking a class at Stamp Addicts on Friday 21st May from 3-5pm where I will be using some of these stamps by Denami that I have been showing you over the last few weeks.  Click here for more details on how to book. 

Then on Saturday 22nd May I will be demoing using these stamps at Stamp Addicts as part of their May Demo Day so if any of you have any questions as to how I achieve my colouring with these stamps etc...  I'll be able to show you first hand!!

Flower Power

Well what a treat it is now to see all the spring flowers coming up and to actually see some colour in the gardens and verges!!  When I went out the other day I was amazed to see all the daffodils that were out - there just seemed to be so many of them.  They really were fantastic to see.

So with all these flowers popping up out of the ground I thought I'd post up a flower card today.  I'm sure that some of you will recognise these stamps!!  They are (of course) from the latest release by Denami.

For the main panel I used my Labels Three Nestabilities and stamped the Wavy Stems Trio in Starlite Black Brilliance and then stamped the different flower heads (from the Whimsical Garden stamp set) on top of each of the stems. Then for the border I repeatedly stamped the Rosebud Trio onto a panel of white paper, varying the height of the flowers and then cut around the top part of the flowers.

All the colouring was done with my Polycolor Pencils and a Splender Pencil - hopefully you can see the shading a little better in this image.  To add some shimmer I traced over the stamped impressons using a Silver Sakura Stardust pen and for sparkle I used small amounts of Crystal Glitter Glue.

The background paper is that Denim Paisley by Creative Imaginations which I just LOVE and the Thanks A Bunch wording is by Denami from an earlier release.

All of these products can be bought from Stamp Addicts.

Yellow Roses

Oh what a treat - we have actually got bright sunshine here as I write this!  It's not meant to last though!!

With this being Easter weekend it would have been nice for me to share an Easter card with you but this year I just didn't get round to making any!  So instead I thought I'd share my Yellow Rose card with you as at least it shares the same colour as daffodils! 

This was made using stamps from Denami Design's latest release again.  I stamped the Rosebud Trio along my white panel using Starlite Black Brilliance and coloured using Polycolor Pencils and a Splender Pencil.  For the cream background panel I stamped and embossed the Decorative Flourish using Versamark and Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder and overstamped the Large Dot Swirl using Jet Black StazOn. To create the black panel I actually used a Stamps By Judith stamp called Loose Weeds and a white StazOn inkpad. (In the UK this is available from Stamp Addicts 01234 855833 but cannot be shown on their website.)

To add a little sparkle to the roses I traced over the outline of the flowers, leaves and stems using a Silver Sakura Stardust pen and then added small amounts of Diamond glitter glue.

All products available from Stamp Addicts.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!

With all the rain we have been having lately and with more forecast I thought this would be quite an appropriate card to load up today!!  For those of you who visit me regularly you will probably already recognise both the stamps and the paper!!

The stamps are of course by Denami Design and the paper is called Denim Paisley by Creative Imaginations and is available from Stamp Addicts.

I began by stamping the Large Open Umbrella using Brilliance Starlite Black and coloured them using my Polycolor Pencils and a Splender Pencil, omitting the handle.  For this I coloured with my Clear Sakura Stardust pen and then traced over the umbrella lines with my Silver Sakura Stardust pen.  I next lightly added some Crystal glitter glue over the top which you may see clearer in the second image.

The wording was stamped with Brilliance Graphite Black as I really wanted this to stand out, then for the background I used the Large Dot Swirls, Versamark and Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder.  All of which can be purchased from Stamp Addicts.

I hope that the weather is treating you more kindly wherever you are!!

Wavy Flowers

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

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

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

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

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

***********

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

Raindrops Keep Falling!

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

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

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

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

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

I hope you like it!!

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

Pretty Flowers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Under The Weather!!

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

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

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

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

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

Monochromatic Roses

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

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

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

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

I hope you like it!!

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