It's been a while...

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. Goodness it's been a long time since I last posted. Life has been busy, and before you know it the weeks and months have rolled past. My Husband and I have both celebrated a significant birthday since I posted last, and we are starting to feel a few creaks in our bones! However, I am determined to keep fit and healthy for my granddaughter, who seems to think that I should be able to keep up with her as she runs around and expects me to join in with all of her crazy games. 

I have been keeping busy with my knitting and crochet, and managed to finish a couple of knitted jumpers for myself, as well as continuing to crochet lots of blankets and other projects, including toys and gifts for Ruby, my granddaughter. 

I have several projects to share with you today from our recent TV shows on Create and Craft, along with several older projects, which some of our more recent viewers may not have seen before.

My first project was created using the February Fairy stamp set, and several of the images from the Wild Meadow stamp set. This is such a useful stamp set for creating fields of flowers. I have used several different colours of Versafine Clair, and first and second generation stamping to create depth in the foliage. I have coloured the images with pencils, and added a tiny bit of glitter glue to the fairy dust.

Sticking with the Wild Meadow stamp set, I decided to create a journal page for my next project. This idea could easily be turned into a card. I took a small piece of polyester, and inked it up with some Distress Ink. I used Fossilized Amber first, and spritzed it with water, then randomly placed it over the journal page. I dried the page, then repeated the process with Salty Ocean Distress Ink. Using Nocturne Versafine Clair Ink, I stamped images from Wild Meadow onto the page to create a scene, and then added a sentiment from Artistic Expressions.

I created an optional panel using a stamp from the Eastern Grasses stamp set. This could be placed here on this page, or on the facing page, which could have the same background colour, and some journaling to complete your double page spread.

I created a super quick card using an oval mask and two different colours of Distress Ink for a background. I then stamped the silhouette fairy from this month's stamp set, a thistle from Wild Meadow and a sentiment from Birthday Words, all using Versafine Clair black ink. You may have seen the gift card set that I shared on the TV shows with lots of the fairy images throughout the year. They were all made the same way as this card.

I made a couple of little 4" x 4" cards using Eastern Grasses and some of the little worker stamps from Tranquility and Serenity. These stamps work so well together. I used an acrylic block to add colour very quickly to the background. I simply coloured the block with Distress Ink, spritzed it with water, and pressed it onto a piece of Drawing Cartridge. Once the Drawing Cartridge was dry, I stamped the images, and coloured them with pencils.

Coming full circle back to Wild Meadow, I made a pretty bookmark using some of the beautiful patterned papers that Lesley designed especially for February. I added some extra colour with Distress Inks, and used coloured Versafine inks once more. I added some script in the background from Words of Gratitude. The little bird from Serenity looks right at home amogst the foliage.

I have a couple of older cards to share, a card using Butterfly Dress and Floral Edges. I have cut out some of the butterflies from the dress to create a flurry of extra butterflies.

The following card was created using the lovely Birdcage Collage stamp:

Well, thanks so much for stopping by, I hope not to leave it so long befoe I post next time. Take care, xx

Really Useful Cards

Hello everyone, I wanted to show you some really useful ideas for cards. We often need a card in a hurry, and need to rustle up some thing in next to no time. Lots of these cards could be made in different colour options, you could make a set of them and give them as a gift to someone.

My first two cards were made using textured linen card, and I blended three colours of Distress Ink over the background first. I used a circle mask to create a sun in the sky. I then stamped the foliage from Eastern Grasses across the top using Versafine Clair ink in a couple of colours. I used first and second generation stamping to create a bit of depth. I added a sentiment from the stamp set using the same inks as before.

 You could make lots of these and just choose your favourite colours, they are quite quick to make, just vary the sentiment to suit the occasion.

I have left the sentiment off the next card, it could be used for any occasion. I chose a large bloom from Fresh Florals and inked it up with two different colours of red Versafine Clair. I stamped the image randomly over a piece of kraft card to create a background. I stmped the poppy image onto an oval of drawing cartridge and coloured the image with Koh-I-Noor watercolour paints. I added a touch of Distress Ink around the edge.

This last card is an older card that I made some time ago, but I thought that I would share it with you again. I used some very thin masking tape across the background and then added Distress Ink in between each section. I removed the masking tape and stamped the image onto the panel using black ink. I backed the panel onto black card. I coloured some ribbon with the green Distress Ink, and once it was dry, I stamped the ribbon with the words from the Amazing Mackintosh Words stamp set using black Archival ink.

I hope that you will try some of these ideas for quick cards. Thanks for stopping by, stay safe and take care, xx

Stamping on Fabric

Hello everyone, I have some projects to share with you today incorporating fabric. I really like to add some texture into my projects whenever I can, as it adds a bit of interest and makes the project look and feel quite expensive, for very little cost. I demoed these three projects on last month's TV shows on Hochanda, and I hope that you managed to watch Lesley and I in action.

To create the first card, I cut some small pieces of cotton fabric, and put some Distress Ink onto a craft mat, which I spritzed with water. I chose relatively earthy colours, Fossilized Amber, Ripe Persimmon and Shabby Shutters. The colours are quite muted, and you could go for much bolder colours if you like, it depends on what sort of look you want, I just wanted a subtle backgrop for the stamps on this occasion. I patted the fabric into the ink, moving it around to blot up the ink. I added more ink and water if necessary to get a good coverage of the fabric, but was happy to leave some areas uncoloured. I left the pieces of fabric to dry by themselves, so that the colour did not fade too much, drying the fabric with a heat gun would cause the colour to be much lighter in the end.

I frayed the edges of each piece of fabric, and stamped a silhouette image from one of the stamp sets: Tranquility, Serenity, Wisteria Lane or Eastern Grasses, and added a sentiment as well. I chose words from Artistic Affirmations, Amazing Mackintosh Words, and Words to Dazzle and Sparkle. I used Archival black ink to stamp all of the images onto the fabric, leaving the stamp on the fabric slightly longer than I would on card or paper, to allow the ink to grab onto the fabric. You do not need to press any harder.

I attached the fabric pieces to a piece of black card before matting them onto a card blank. A little button with paper string tied through was a finishing touch to each card.

For my next card, I created a paint swatch effect by masking sections of a piece of cartridge paper, and inking three toning colours of  Distress Ink. I chose Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean and Shaded Lilac. I stamped the silhouette image from the Eastern Grasses stamp set onto the piece of card. I matted the panel onto black card before adding the panel to a piece of linen card.

I coloured a piece of cream ribbon with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink and stamped it with Archival Ink as before, using a sentiment from the Amazing Mackintosh Words stamp set. I attached the ribbon to the background and then placed the background on a square card blank. I like to colour my ribbons to match projects, it is so quick and easy, check back to this project for another example.

For my final project, I used a Crafty Individuals tag, and stamped the main image from the Tranquility stamp set across the bottom of the tag. I coloured the image with pencils. I added the wisteria image using water based markers across the top, using first and second generation stamping for a fuller effect. The ribbon was made in exactly the same way as before, picking up colour from the craft mat, and then once dry, stamping with Archival Ink. I used a word from the Serenity stamp plate.

 

I hope that my projects will inspire you to try some stamping on fabric, I will be back later in the month with more projects to share. Thanks for stopping by, xx