Some Funky Flowers

Well I guess it is about time I showed you one of the cards that I made the other week when I was struggling to make anything at all!!  This is one of the cards that I finally created for one of my classes at The Craft Barn that I took the other Saturday.  I am sure that you will recognise the stamps as coming from my Funky Flowers and Fancy Flourishes stamp sheets!!  The backgrounds were created using some of the different flourishes from the Flourish stamp sheet along with some different coloured inkpads to build up a layered look.

The flower panel was coloured using Copics and then flourishes were stamped around them and some light sponging added.

The wording that you see was also off of the Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet. Both of these stamp sheets can be purchased from The Craft Barn along of course with the Copic Ciaos.

We Have Frost!!

Instead of all the horrible wet weather this morning we finally had a proper wintery morning with frost on the rooftops and cars and with the sunshine on the frost it was all glittery and sparkly, just like a proper winter morning should be!!

However my posting today doesn't go with the weather at all but I wanted to show you another of the cards that I made a few weeks ago now for when Jill and I did our live TV show.  For this show we had some packs of vellum so I used my set of Fancy Flourishes to decorate it and then coloured my main image (taken from Funky Frames) to match.  As I'm sure you will remember my stamp sheets can be purchased from either The Stamp Man or The Craft Barn.

Talking of my stamp sheets, Jill is currently offering a giveaway of one of my latest stamp sheets to THREE lucky people!!  Click here to head on over to her blog to find out more!!  Also if you want to do some last minute Christmas shopping Jill is offering free postage on all orders over £10 over on The Stamp Man's online shop.  And talking of free postage The Craft Barn is currently offering free postage on all UK orders until December 21st and free postage on European orders over £15 so now is a great time to order anything that you have had your eye on! (Including my stamp sheets of course!!)

I am going to see if I can get myself a little bit more organised over the next few weeks and wondered if any of you out there have any great ideas on how to store the Nestabilities templates?  These pesky things keep slipping and sliding all over the place and keep mixing themselves up so if anyone has any ideas that they would care to share I'd LOVE to hear them!!

Absolutely Shattered!!

Morning everyone.  What can I say??  I really did not want to get up this morning as I am just soooooo tired!!  I worked it out this morning that in the past 5 days I have driven around 570 miles and unfortunately my body knows about it!!  (So far I have yelled 3 times today where the sciatic pain down my leg has taken me unawares!!)  Anyway I am home safe and sound which is the main thing and I don't have to do anymore motorway driving for a couple of weeks.  I just don't know how other people manage with all the commuting - travelling anywhere these days on the roads is a nightmare!

Still I hope that you managed to catch Jill and I yesterday on Create and Craft and that you enjoyed the show.  Although it was my first 'live' show I've got to say that it was no different really from doing a 'pre-record show' as Jill and I always do those in one take anyway.  By the way did you notice how well Jill and I matched with each other??  As most of you know we don't live anywhere near each other as Jill is based in Yorkshire and I am on the south east coast so we communicate with each other either by email or phone.  We were both trying to work out what to wear and discussing it with each other a few days ago on the phone and I couldn't believe how well the colours we had chosen matched each other - we obviously see colours the same as each other as another of our outfits (that we had brought with us) also matched too!! 

Unfortunately we didn't get Nigel as our presenter (who we had booked) and we had Dave instead who neither of us had worked with before.  However he seemed very nice and at least he let us both speak which was a good thing!!  There will be more happening with Jill and I on Create and Craft very soon but I will let Jill tell you all about that on her blog so keep an eye on The Stamp Man's blog.

The card I've posted up today was one of the ones that I managed to make for yesterday's show using both the Funky Frames and the Fancy Flourishes stamp sheets.  I have got to say that I just can't stop using my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet at the moment as there are just so many different backgrounds that you can create with them.

For You

Morning everyone. It is a lovely sunny morning too here on the south east coast of England.

The blog candy has now been claimed but my sincere thanks to all of you who entered.

Today I am posting up the very last of the cards I did for The Craft Barn's Extravaganza Weekend in June. This was made (as I am sure you can guess by now!!) with my Funky Frames and Fancy Flourishes stamp sheets. The imagery was coloured using Coloursoft pencils and Sansador.

All the products including the stamp sheets are available from The Craft Barn plus of course you can purchase the sheets from The Stamp Man as well.

I still haven't had chance yet to upload the cards we did at The Glitter Pot the other week but I'll see if I can do that either today or tomorrow and then I'll post them up.

I have made a whole host of cards recently but haven't had the chance to scan any of them in so I'll have to see if I can start doing that at a later date - but it is going to be a mammoth task!!

Best Wishes Butterflies

Here's a card using the Funky Frames and Fancy Flourishes stamp sheets that I also did for The Craft Barn's June Extravaganza. I can't believe that it won't be too long now before the next one in September - we just seem to be whizzing through this year at such a fast rate!!

I used the Coloursoft pencils and Sansador to colour the imagery on this card. Sansaor or Zest It blending solution really is a great way of getting a lovely blended look to your colouring and it is SO easy to do - I LOVE IT!!

Butterfly Card from The Craft Barn's Summer Extravaganza

Hi Everyone. I don't think that I have shown you this card but if I am duplicating myself I do apologise!! Things here are mega busy at the moment so I don't have time to check!!

A quick posting this time I'm afraid. The butterflies are from the Funky Frames stamp sheet and that fine flourish is from the Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet. The butterflies are also on textured shrink plastic that was heated and shrunk first with a different flourish then stamped into it whilst it was still hot - one of my favourite techniques infact with shrink plastic.

I'll try and post again tomorrow............

For You

My thanks to everyone who's left me comments over these last few days - I have really enjoyed reading them. Sorry that I haven't been able to respond but I have had my nose firmly to the grindstone and will continue to have for the next couple of weeks. After that I may be able to lift my head up now and again from my workspace and look around instead of having my eyes firmly glued to the table!!

Anyway here is another of those cards from The Craft Barn weekend. (Can you believe that it will only be a few weeks before the next one??) The flowers are from my Funky Frames stamp sheet and have been coloured using Coloursoft pencils and Sansador and the words and flourishes are from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet. Not my usual sort of colour scheme this one but I do actually quite like it - I hope you do too!!

Shrunk flowers

Good morning. My thanks to those of you who have left me such lovely comments over the past couple of days. I am still really busy so haven't had the time to reply to them but be assured that I am reading them and that they mean a lot to me!!

Anyway with that said here is another of those Craft Barn cards made with the Funky Flowers and Fancy Flourishes stamp sheets. As you can see this time I stamped the flowers onto frosted shrink plastic using Graphite Black Brilliance. I did all my stamping and colouring (using Coloursoft pencils) on the frosted side and then shrunk them down. They actually shrink down to quite a nice size.

The background paper is that Arabella one again from Basic Grey with flourishes stamped over the top of it and around the edge. I really like decorating my background papers in this way. Being a stamper first and foremost, using background papers is a bit alien to me but being able to decorate them somehow makes them more appealing to me!!

Tall Dragonflies/Butterflies

My thanks to everyone who commented on yesterdays card - you seemed to really like that one!

For this card I stamped the backing paper (Basic Grey) using one of my flourish stamps and then added small strips of the same backing paper and stamped the wording onto them. Both the wording and the flourish came from the Fancy Flourish stamp sheet. The dragonflies/butterflies (from the Funky Frames stamp sheet) were coloured using Coloursoft pencils and Sansador and the shrink plastic tiles behind them were stamped with one of the flourish stamps.

All the materials used on this card are available from The Craft Barn and the stamp sheets can be purchased from either The Craft Barn or The Stamp Man.

Craft Barn's Extravaganza Weekend Card 3

Here's another card using those Funky Frames and Fancy Flourishes stamp sheets.

The Basic Grey 'Arabella' backing paper that you can see on the left of the card was stamped with some of the flourishes first and then put through the Cuttlebug and embossed with Stylized Flowers.

The flowers were coloured with Coloursoft pencils and Sansador.

The pencils, Sansador and Basic Grey paper are all available at The Craft Barn and the stamp sheets can be bought from either The Craft Barn or The Stamp Man.

Craft Barn Extravaganza Weekend Card 2

Oops sorry guys. I had fully intended to post this up yesterday but just ran out of time!!

The dragonflies/butterflies (whatever you want to call them!!) are from my Funky Frames stamp set and the wording and flourishes are from my Fancy Flourishes set.

The image was stamped with Graphite Black Brilliance and coloured using Coloursoft pencils and Sansador to get a soft look to them.

The products used are all available from The Craft Barn and the stamp sheets can be obtained from both The Craft Barn or The Stamp Man.

Craft Barn's Extravaganza Weekend Card 1

Hi everyone. It is now time for me to start sharing the cards that I made for The Craft Barn's weekend that I demoed at in June. They have been made in the same style as those that I made for Jill.

Here's hoping you like them!!

The flowers (from the Funky Frames sheet) were coloured with Copics and the background paper is by Basic Grey. The wording and flourishes are from the Fancy Flourish sheet.

The Last of Jill's Cards

Morning everyone. I am already behind this morning as I just did not want to get up after doing my classes yesterday at The Glitter Pot. I nearly fell asleep again on the settee last night but just about managed to hold it together!! I think that everyone enjoyed the classes yesterday - the feedback that I got was certainly very positive which always makes it really worthwhile so thanks guys!

I will begin loading up the cards that we did tomorrow so you can see what we got up to. Meanwhile here is the last of the cards that I sent to Jill, who as I type this will be busy at the Doncaster show. If anyone out there reads this blog and goes to this show do let me know what you think of the cards in real life. I have got to say that this is probably my least favourite of the ones that I did for Jill as again I thought I would try a different colour scheme and didn't really like this one but then just because I don't like it doesn't mean that other people won't so I decided to include it. The background on the left of the card was done with a couple of colours from the Mayday Meadow Starburst Stain set and then was stamped with different flourishes and inkpads. The panel that you see on the right of the card was a piece of plain green textured card that I just stamped over with those flourishes again. The dragonflies/butterflies are from the Funky Frames stamp sheet. Perhaps you guys can help me out with this? I originally drew these insects as being dragonflies but now I can't make up my mind whether they look like dragonflies or butterflies!! What do you think???

Pretty In Pink

Here's another one of those cards that are now with Jill in readiness for the Doncaster show. Again I built up the background using different flourishes from the Fancy Flourish stamp sheet. The wording was also taken from this sheet and the letters cut out individually.

The main image is from the Funky Frames sheet and was coloured using Coloursoft pencils and Sansador to give a nice muted finish. Out of all of the ones I did for Jill I think that this is probably my favourite. Infact I nearly couldn't bring myself to part with it so she doesn't know how lucky she is that she has got this one!!

The Coloursoft pencils and Sansador along with the stamp sheets can be purchased from The Craft Barn or of course you can get the stamp sheets from Jill at The Stamp Man.

Sunny Flowers

Hopefully by now Jill will have received this card and all the others that I sent along with it so don't forget if you are going to the Doncaster show this weekend to stop by The Stamp Man's stand and see these in real life!!

The flowers are from the Funky Frames stamp sheet and are coloured using Coloursoft pencils and the flourishes and wording are of course from the Fancy Flourish sheet.

************

By the way don't forget to catch the Stamp Addicts girls live on Ideal World tomorrow morning at 11am. In honour of them being on the telly I have decided to post up one of my Demo cards tomorrow from when I was up there in May.

Citrus Flowers

For this card I chose an orange, lemon and lime theme but in muted shades so that it didn't end up too fierce looking!!

As you have already probably guessed the main image is from the Funky Frames stamp sheet and the words and flourishes are from the Fancy Flourishes sheet. Just like the card I posted up a few days ago I started off with 2 plain pieces of Bazzill cardstock and built up my backgrounds using different flourishes and inkpads. This is such an easy thing to do but looks really effective especially when you use 2 or 3 different sorts of flourishes.

The flowers were coloured with Copics again which I have got to say I just love!! The ink from these markers just glides onto the paper and as I said yesterday you achieve such a nice, clean, fresh look with them - perfect for summer flowers!! Sets of Copic Ciaos can be purchased from The Craft Barn and as you know by now the stamp sheets can be bought from either The Stamp Man or The Craft Barn.

Mini Dragonfly Card

Good morning. So here is another of those mini cards that will be winging its way to Jill very shortly. The scanned in image has come out darker than it is in real life and again has not picked up the glitter both on the dragonfly and the background. The dragonfly is from the Funky Frames stamp sheet and the wording and flourishes are from the Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet. The background paper is by Basic Grey and I just embellished it using different flourishes and inkpads. The tile behind the dragonfly is made from clear shrink plastic. I stamped into it while it was still hot with one of the flourish stamps to give it texture. The dragonfly was coloured with Coloursoft pencils, Sansador and paper stumps.

All the materials used are available from The Craft Barn and the stamps are available from both The Stamp Man and The Craft Barn.

Lilac Flutters

I have just completed some cards to send off to Jill (from The Stamp Man) using the new stamp sheets and I just had to share this sweet little card with you that I have just finished. It only measures 10x10cm but I really like making these tiny little cards as they look so sweet in real life.

The butterfly is from the Funky Frames stamp sheet (Don't forget to enter Jill's blog candy to stand a chance of winning this stamp sheet!! The link is on my sidebar.) and the wording and flourishes are from the Fancy Flourishes sheet.

The background is made up of layered stamping of the flourishes along with a strip of Basic Grey background paper and the butterflies were coloured with Coloursoft pencils, Sansador and paper stumps. All the materials are available from The Craft Barn and the stamps are of course available from both The Craft Barn and The Stamp Man. I hope you like it............ I like this one because it incorporates my favourite colour of lilac!! Funnily enough though most of the cards I have done this time I have striven to stay away from this colour as I thought that it would do me good to create some cards in other colours too!!

Guess What Came Today?

My wait is over as this morning my stamp sheets arrived from The Stamp Man. Yippeee!!!! So this means that they have now got them in stock!

No prizes for guessing what I will be doing later on today - providing I get time that is!

Fingers crossed that my mind doesn't shut down once I start working with them. If anyone else purchases any of these sheets and makes a card please let me know as I would love to see what you come up with.

Right I'm off to go and finish the cards that I am currently working on...........

Funky Flower stamp sheets

Hi guys. Just a quick post for now to let you know that you can see the designs of the 3 new stamp sheets (Apsects of Design un-mounted stamp sheets No's 56, 57 and 58) on The Stamp Man's website! Click here to see them. Plus you can pre-order them too as we now expect them to arrive sometime this week.