Furry Friends

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have some projects to share with you showcasing stamps from this month's TV shows on Create and Craft.

My first two cards feature stamps from a new set of stamps called Over the Rainbow, designed by Donna St. Pierre. I created a background for my cards by adding Distress Oxide to an acrylic block and spritzing this with water. I placed a piece of Drawing Cartridge over the block and pressed it down . Once I had removed the Drawing Cartridge, I scrunched a piece of cling film onto the surface, and left the background to dry. This technique creates a fabulous marbled effect.

Once the background was dry, I added some first and second generation stamping along the bottom with a foliage stamp from the Silhouette Grasses stamp set, using a green Versafine Clair ink. I used the same Distress Oxide inks to shade around the edges of a whiteboard heart using blending brushes. I then stamped the silhoette cat or dog onto the heart in second generation stamping, using a soft grey for the dog, and a yellow for the cat. I only wanted a faint impression of the image. I used three different coloured pencils and small pencil strokes to create fur for the animals. I started with the lightest colour first, and worked up to the darkest colour last. I let some of the inked image show through for highlights in the fur. My pencil colours were a brown, grey and black for the dog, and two shades of orange and a terracotta for the cat.

I added a little butterfly and a sentiment from the same stamp set to each heart, then more of the silhouette grass to create a little scene. I attached the heart to its background to complete the card.

My next card was created using both of Donna's sets, Over the Rainbow, and Hevenly Pets. I am a cat lover, and so I have chosen to use the cat for my sample, but you could use the dog image and create a similar project. I stamped the cat image onto smooth stamping card, and then masked the image off with Masking Tissue. I stamped the rainbow bridge image so that just the bridge and rainbow would be visible. I added a soft background using Wilted Violet, Kitsch Flamingo and Tumbled Glass Distress Ink blended softly over the background. I added a sentiment which fitted this card perfectly. I removed the mask and coloured the images with pencils. You could use whatever medium you like to add colour, I simply had my pencils nearby, and they are generally my go to medium of choice.

I am sharing an older sample created with another stamp set of Donna's, A Vase full of Love. I really enjoyed creating this card, the hummingbird is such a lovely image, as are the fuchsias.

We also had some beautiful designer papers on the show. They are a fabulous size, perfect for creating a card in no time at all. I simply trimmed one of the papers slightly, as I wanted a white edge, and added a bit of ink to the edges. I chose some words from Punky Expressions which I stamped in the corner, and I added a couple of vellum butterflies. This butterfly comes from the Butterfly Mind stamp set. 

You could use the papers as beautiful backgrounds, cut the flowers out, decoupage them, add stamping or inks, coloured pencils, or a vellum strip with a sentiment, they are so versatile. 

I will be back soon with more projects to share. Thanks so much for stopping by, I always appreciate your visits. Take care xx

Mini Cards

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have a trio of cards to share with you today using stamps from last month's TV shows.

I have made some little 4" x 4" cards, I really like this size of card, as they are lovely to send as a Thank You card, or just to cheer someone up when they are feeling down. They are perfect for gift tags too, or for popping a voucher or money inside.

I made a gelli print as the background for all three cards in various colours, using Distress Inks, and stamping on the gelli plate with a texture tool to create an interesting patterm before I pulled a print. For one of the cards, I then used the Square Bubbles stamp all over the background, using Versafine Clair ink in a lovely Teal colour. I added a couple of the butterflies and a sentiment from Butterfly Mind and also decoupaged the butterflies, using some Drawing Cartridge that I had coloured with Distress Ink picked up from my craft mat.

For the second card, I randomly stamped the largest butterfly around the edge of the background using black ink, and added another sentiment in the centre.

For the final card, I added a sentiment horizontally and vertically, and then used the smallest butterfly to fill in the gaps. Finally I took the splatter stamp in my hand and added sections of it in between the other stamps.

I hope that I have shown you just how versatile these stamps can be. Even though these cards are small, you can use these ideas on your bigger cards, they will work just as well. I will be back later in the month with more ideas to share with you. Take care, and thanks for stopping by, xx

Butterflies on Film

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all keeping well. I have a couple of projects to share with you today, showcasing stamps from last month's TV shows.

My first project was created by covering a piece of Drawing Cartridge with a wash of cold tea. This is a really quick way of adding a vintage look to your backgrounds, and I tend to colour several sheets of paper at a time, let them dry and save them for another time.

I stamped the film strip from Butterfly Mind down the background, and masked the background, leaving only a segment of the film strip uncovered at a time, so that I could stamp a portion of a butterfly into the area. I moved along to the next portion, covering where I had stamped previously, and rotated the butterfly, for a different angle.

I added the splatter stamp from the same stamp set to the background, using two different colours of ink. I coloured the butterfly wings in toning colours, to match the background splatters. The sentiment also comes from the same stamp set.

The following two projects are not new, but I thought I would share them with you again. I have used the film strip from Butterfly Mind once again, but added it to one of the fabulous flowers available from Chocolate Baroque, Floral Grunge. The film strip helps to create a fabulous collage effect, and with the use of Masking Tissue over the flower, was really easy to create. 

Finally, I created a bokeh effect background over some Brushos, using a stencil and white ink, then added three brightly coloured butterflies from Butterfly Mind. By choosing contrasting a colour for the background, the butterflies really pop.

I will be back soon with more projects to share, thanks for stopping by, xx

Beautiful Bold Butterflies

Hello everyone, I am sharing more butterfly cards with you, following on from my last post. Butterflies are such a universally popular image, and I hope that you will enjoy what I have to share with you today.

I created my first card using the Just Butterflies and Butterfly Blush stamp sets. I coloured a piece of drawing cartridge using Distress Oxides and then stamped some of the butterflies from Butterfly Blush using Versafine Clair. I added some white dots using charcoal through a stencil, however, you could achieve a very similar look by using white paint and one of the dotty stamps from Make Your Mark.

I added some texture paste to a piece of MDF, and once it was dry added some paint and gilding wax. I stamped and embossed the butterflies onto vellum, cut them out and layered them up onto the panel. The sentiment from Butterfly Mind was stamped onto a spare piece of background.

The following two cards are older projects, but once again, I hope that you do not mind me sharing them with you. I masked off  the edges of the cards, and added Distress Ink in the centre of the cards. I was aiming for aurora borealis effect, and hopefully achieved that feeling in these cards. I added water splatters, and then stamped the foliage from Briar Rose Butterfly along the bottom using black ink. The butterflies were stamped onto sparkly acetate using Archival Ink and I added coloured vellum to the back, but you could just stamp them onto card, colour them as normal and use a sparkly pen over the top to achieve a similar look. The sentiments come from the Birthday Words stamp set.
 

By changing the colours and foliage, you can create a completely different look, these are really pretty and would make a nice set to give as a gift as well.

 

Thanks for stopping by, stay safe and take care, xx

Sending Hugs

Hello everyone, I am sharing my last post for this month, and once again, hoping that you are all safe and well. 

 

My first card was created using a stamp from last month's TV shows on Hochanda, Floral Grunge, and I have mixed it with a few other images to create a card that could be used for lots of different occasions. The sentiment I felt was particularly apt for now when lots of people could do with a hug, but we cannot give them one.

 

I started my card by stamping the main image onto Drawing Cartridge using Versafine Clair ink. I masked the flower head and then stamped and embossed the film strip from Butterfly Mind. I used the same colour ink, but added clear embossing powder over the top. I added a few extra splodges with a stamp from the same stamp set around the flower head and then removed the mask. I coloured the image using Polycolour pencils, before replacing the mask, and adding more splodges of colour with Distress Oxides to tone in with the colours that I chose to colour the flower head. The sentiment is from Amazing Mackintosh Words.

I am also sharing some older cards that I made using some of Kim Moody's stamps, that were also featured on last month's shows. Sadly I did not have a chance to make any fresh samples with these fabulous stamps, but I thought you might like to see some of these again...

A street made from all of the houses, using a bit of masking, and I added some treees from Trees a Crowd in the background. This was such fun to make!

A moving day, who would not like to get away from it all and live in such a picturesque spot? We live near the forest and love taking long walks in the woods.

White embossing on kraft always looks so effective, especially painted with Koh-I-Noor paints.

This almost spooky version of the Posh House was another favourite sample that I enjoyed putting together with the trees.

I will be back next month with some projects from our One Day Special shows. Thanks so much for stopping by. Take care and stay safe, xx

Floral Collage

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all keeping well. I have a project to share with you today using some of the stamps that were featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda. 

I created a background using a stencil and a piece of drawing cartridge. I brushed three colours of Distress Ink through the stencil, (Dutch Doobadoo A5 Mask Bubbles), the colours are Faded Jeans, Wilted Violet and Peeled Paint, to give a soft backdrop for the rest of the design. I added a stamp from the Baroque Ephemera 1 stamp set in each of the four corners, using Versafine Clair Twilight and Shady Lane, and then stamped the Movie Strip Collage image onto the background. I stamped and embossed the flower portion of the image three times onto a spare piece of drawing cartridge using gold embossing powder, and coloured the images with watercolour paints.

 I cut the images out, and worked out the positioning of the flowers on the background. Before I stuck them onto the background, I added some extra splats using an image from Butterfly Mind, and a fern leaf from Wild Meadow. I used the same Versafine Clair inks as before.

I will be back later in the month with more projects to share with you. Thanks for stopping by, take care, xx

Butterfly Mind

Hello everyone, our unusual lockdown life seems to be rather normal these days. Crowds and large gatherings almost feel out of place and it will be strange to go back to a life where we can meet up and see friends once again. Hopefully you have been able to catch Lesley's daily Butterfly Tree Facebook Live get togethers and have been getting lots of inspiration from her demos and tips. Maybe you have made new friends through these virtual gatherings, and do not feel so isolated being able to share in the chat and crafty experience. I have been 'meeting' some of my friends for online video chats, and at least we can still keep in touch with each other. I hope that you are all managing okay and finding ways of dealing with life as we know it right now.

I am sharing a couple of cards today featuring stamps used from last month's TV shows on Hochanda. I actually made these cards a little while ago, but never blogged them, so decided to show them to you this time around instead. The first card features the Bokeh technique on the background, and is a bright, zingy card, sure to brighten anyone's day. It would be great for any occasion, and you could add a sentiment to suit the situation.

I created a background using Brushos, and chose a palette of greens and blues, making sure that I covered the background really well. I dried the background, and then using a range of circle stencils, and white ink, starting with the largest stencil, I stencilled over the background. I added enough of the largest circle until I was happy, then moved onto the medium circle, overlapping some of the larger circles, then added the smaller circle, again overlapping some of the other circles.

The Bokeh technique is used to recreate a photographic effect which looks like an out of focus blur on a photograph. It is great for backgrounds, to then add something sharper in the foreground. I chose to add some of the butterflies from Butterfly Mind. I stamped them onto some card that I had coloured with orange Brushos for a really great contrast of colour, and cut them out. I omitted the stamens. I stamped the butterflies once more directly onto the background, and layered the cut out butterflies over the top. I added a sentiment from the same stamp set.

I did create an alternaitive colour option, using blue for the background, and yellow for the butterflies. A zingy pink background with green butterflies might look equally striking, why not try these out for yourself, and see what you think?

For my second card, I created a gelli print background using Distress Inks. I stamped the large film strip butterflies directly onto the gelli print and stamped the butterflies again onto a piece of coloured card, and decoupaged them onto the background. I added the splatter image around the edge of the background to complete the card.

Take care everyone and stay safe, thanks for stopping by, xx