Feather Projects Part One

Hello everyone, I have two projects to share with you today, showcasing the beautiful I Shall Be Your Wings stamp set that we featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda.

For my first project, I decided to make a dreamcatcher. I chose a large flower from the Diamante Delights stamp set, as it reminded me of the centre of a dreamcatcher, and stamped that onto a piece of drawing cartridge. I drew two circles around the outside, using a circular die, and drew some lines inside using a fineliner pen to complete the design. I added three feathers underneath the circle, and again, hand drew some beads on 'strings', to add to the design, using the fineliner pen.

I wanted to create a very soft, dreamy background, and used a combination of soft colours on the background, blending Distress Ink, and splattering it with water. I painted the images with watercolour pencils and a water brush. Finally, I stamped the sentiment onto a spare piece of drawing cartridge, and cut it into sections and edged it with a fineliner pen, before adding it to the background.

My second project was a TV demo, which you may have seen. When I saw these stamps, I knew instantly that I wanted to make both of these projects, and they turned out just as I imagined them. I drew a large circle onto a piece of drawing cartridge, then stamped two of the feathers before adding a mask. I stamped the other two feathers, and masked them as well. I added foliage using one of the images from the Lords and Ladies stamp set, and I used first, second and third generation stamping to build up depth.

I painted some twigs using a medium and small brush with Distress Ink and water. I wanted the twigs to look rather rustic, so I added some little wispy bits with the finer brush. I added the rose from the Rose Duo stamp set, which I had coloured with pencils and fussy cut. A sentiment in the centre finished the project before I matted the background onto dark green card.

I hope that my projects have inspired you to use these lovely stamps. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Steampunk Flowers

Hello everyone, I hope you caught Lesley's fabulous Steampunk shows last week on Hochanda, featuring an eclectic mixture of Steampunk images. I love working with this versatile genre of stamps, because you can use the images in so many different ways; very grungy, adding lots of texture, or more feminine in style, altogether prettier, using brighter colours.

I have created a floral card, loosely based on the idea of dandelion clocks, which could be for a friend's Birthday, or just to show that you care, using a sentiment from the brand new Punky Expressions stamp set which will be available on the website in the next few days.

I started to create my card by blending Wilted Violet, Salty Ocean, Abandoned Coral and Fossilized Amber Distress Ink onto a piece of smooth Cartridge paper. I based my colour scheme around the papers that I had chosen for the flowers that I was going to make further along in the project. I spritzed the background with water, to create a mottled effect, blotting the background here and there with a piece of tissue. I stamped the large script stamp from the Eccentric Edwardian stamp set over the background, using Salty Ocean Distress Ink. On a spare piece of card, I stamped the small clock three times, and cut it out. I added a bit of yellow ink to age the images slightly.

I die cut some flowers from some Crafty Individuals paper, and scrunched them to give them a bit of texture and movement, inking the backs of the flowers with blue ink. To complete the flowers, I stamped three stems using an image from the Diamante Delights stamp set onto the background using grey ink, and some leaves from the Bold Blooms stamp set onto some scrapbook paper, which I cut out. I added the clock faces to the centre of the paper flowers, and used some 3D foam behind the central flower.

You may have caught sight of one of my old samples on the show created using images from some of our Steampunk stamp sets, featuring the fabulous beetle from the Steampunkery stamp set as a focal point. I have again used paper flowers to create this design, but added cogs in the centre, dropping beads into the middle of each one, and stamping onto the leaves this time.

I will be back later in the month with more Steampunk ideas to share with you, do keep checking the Design Team blog to see more fabulous ideas from my Design Team mates. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Sending Love and Best Wishes

Hello everyone, it's the start of a brand new challenge over on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog this week, and the colours are bold and bright, lovely blues and greens. I always remember that old adage my Mum used to tell me.....blues and green, must never be seen....but I love working with them together.

Anyway, I rummaged through my scrap box again, and found this lovely background, made when I was experimenting with my Golden paints ages ago, and it suited the colour scheme perfectly. I stamped the Swirl Centre Flowerhead, and some leaves from the Diamante Delights stamp set onto a spare piece of watercolour paper, usding Versamark and Wow brass embossing powder. I coloured the images in using Zig Clean Colour marker pens and cut the images out. I die cut a circle of card, and coloured it using Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink. I stamped over the top using an image from the Texture Fragments stamp set and Salty Ocean Distress Ink.

I assembled the card, adding a dark layer of card to mat my layers, and adhered the leaves and flowers around the edge of the circle.

Thanks for stopping by, xx