Tall Houses

Hello everyone, I am sharing a few projects today showcasing the beautiful stamps that we shared on last month's TV shows on Hochanda. These lovely house stamps designed by Sue Page were such a delight to work with, and demonstrate, as always, Sue's eye for detail and her talent as a designer. We celebrated Sue's wonderful work during these shows, and she will be sadly missed. Her artwork will continue to be appreciated through your projects and creativity.

My first project is a colourful street created using the Dutch House stamp set. I stamped the image several times, masking the image to enable me to add the subsequent images slightly behind the first central image. I also added some background foliage by stamping a tree from Trees A Crowd. I coloured the background using Distress Ink, then set to colouring the houses with Polychromos pencils.

For my second project, I stamped the Bridge House onto a piece of scrapbook paper using Archival Ink, and coloured it with pencils once again. I stamped foliage from Silhouette Grasses onto an Acrylic Tag using Plum and Olive Archival Ink and allowed this to dry completely. I covered the paper with Matte Medium and stuck it to the tag.

My final project was a TV demo, showing how to create a project with just three colours. I used some Koh-I-Noor acrylic paints to splatter across a piece of kraft card to create a very quick background. I then stamped the Turret House onto a piece of watercolour paper and coloured the image using the same three colours of paint; red, blue and yellow, mixing them to create orange, purple, brown and grey, by simply adding a little bit of one of the colours each time.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

A Little Catch Up

Hello everyone, I do not generally post anything other than craft related matters on my blog, but occasionally I decide to make an exception to that rule. Two recent events have been causing life to be more than a little eventful, and 2019 has certainly not been an easy year.

Sadly on 20th August, my lovely Mum passed away, and yesterday was her funeral. She would have been 80 years old, and we celebrated her life with a birthday cake and her favourite flowers. We sang Happy Birthday to her and talked about happy memories.

The wreath on the coffin was beautiful, heart shaped, and again in her favourite flowers. Such cheery colours and not sad at all.

My memories of Mum are mostly craft related, Mum taught me to knit and sew, plus lots of other skills as well. I crafted with Mum from a very tiny age right through to more recent times. We went to craft fairs together and even had stands of our own selling our handiwork at lots of different venues. Mum was incredibly proud of me, telling everyone 'our Judith is on the TV', and loved to watch me doing my demos. Crafting was a great way of us spending a bit of time together, having a catch up and a bit of a natter. It was quiet time, and we could share a common interest. Mum's illness was hard, and she is at peace now.

My second piece of news is more joyful and those of you who are friends with me on Facebook will already know. I became a Grandmother on 25th August when my Daughter gave birth to little Ruby Isla, weighing just 5lbs 9oz. Little Ruby is a ray of sunshine at this time, and we love her to bits. She is such a little sweetheart and I was very priveleged to be at the birth. Megan and Ruby are doing well, and we are looking forward to spending lots of time with them both.

Thanks for stopping by, normal crafty posts will resume again soon! xx

My House, Poppy Cottage

Hello everyone, I have a few projects to share with you today featuring a very special stamp showcased on last month's TV shows on Hochanda, but first of all I would like to talk to you a little bit about the background of the stamp.

You are all probably very familiar with the very talented Kim Moody whose stamps are manufactured by Chocolate Baroque. His quirky stamps feature architectural images, and seaside scenes which are such a delight to work with. Kim also does commission drawings of houses and other buildings, adding his particular eye for detail. I decided to ask Kim some time ago to draw a picture of my own house Poppy Cottage, and we discussed adding lots of features that I love about my house; the dragonfly door knocker, the wrought iron butterflies on the balcony, the dovecote in the garden, and of course, he needed to include Poppy and Bella, my two cats. Poppy is a bit plump, and Bella is rather skinny, so you can tell them apart! I sent a few photographs, and Kim came up trumps with a delightful drawing, beautifully framed for me.

A few months on, and I asked Lesley if it would be possible to have the stamp made, as I would really love to create Christmas cards using 'Poppy Cottage' as a personal touch. We hoped that you would love the image as much as we did, and decided to try it out as a small batch on one of the TV shows. I was so touched that you really liked it!

I created a couple of samples for the show, the first one was created by stamping an image from the Poppy Edges stamp set a couple of times, then masking these images before stamping Poppy Cottage itself. I masked the house also, then added a Pan Pastel background.

I added foliage from the Silhouette Grasses stamp set before removing all of the masks. I coloured the images with pencils and added one of the sentiments which I stamped onto sections of card, and edged with a plum coloured ink. I chose the same coloured card to mat the project onto before adhering it to a large card blank.

My second project was a Christmas card, to show the versatility of this lovey stamp. You could use it at any time of the year really, by adding extra foliage, and varying the colours. I have chosen to stick to the true colours of my house for these samples, but you can let your imagination run riot.

I stamped the house once again, and masked the image. I used a snowflake from The Christmas Garden and white embossing over the top two thirds of the background. I covered the background with Distress Ink, and the embossing acted as a resist.I coloured the image with Koh-I-Noor paints, and added a bit of Stickles for some Christmas bling. The sentiment comes from the Let's Get Festive stamp set.

My final project was a heart stopping TV demo, and it could have gone horribly wrong on live TV, but fortunately, it all worked out well. I decided to create a little key ring or handbag charm using shrink plastic. I die cut a large tag, and stamped the image using Archival Ink. I coloured the image using Copic markers and cut a hole at one end. I shrunk the plastic using a heat gun, turning it over regularly to ensure even heating, and flattened it with an acrylic block before it had time to cool.

I drew around the shape onto a piece of greyboard, and covered this with some scrapbook paper using Matte Medium. For the keyring, I stuck the shrink plastic to the greyboard shape with Matte Medium, but for the handbag charm, I let the shrink plastic swing freely.

Even shrunk down you can still see the details so clearly, and these little charms make a fabulous little gift. You could try this idea using the Tagtastic stamp and any of the tall houses that either Kim Moody or Sue Page have designed recently.

I will back later in the month with more ideas to share with you. I hope that you will watch Lesley on this month's TV shows on 3rd September, she has some amazing new stamps to share with you. Sadly I will not be there this month due to family circumstances, but I will be back again in October.

Thanks for stopping by, xx