April Butterflies

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have lots of projects to share with you this month, using stamps that we featured on the TV shows on Create and Craft. I will spread them out over a few posts, and show you some older projects as well, using the same stamps, I hope that you don't mind.

Our A Year of Stamping stamps are proving to be very popular, and this month's edition, a cluster of butterflies, is no exception. I created several examples to demonstrate if necessary for the shows, but just ended up showing one in the end. I always like to be prepared! I made a background using red, yellow and orange Brushos, sprinkled onto Drawing Cartridge, which I spritzed with water. I let this dry completely. I them stamped the A Year of Stamping Issue 4 - April with Versafine Clair Nocturne and clear embossing powder. This makes the image more vibrant, and creates a gutter for painting, very handy, especially when I need to paint quite quickly during a demo.

I sprinkled a little bit of each of the three colours of Brusho onto an acrylic block and spritzed them with water, then using a paintbrush, I painted the three large butterflies. I added a little bit of red where the dots indicated shading near the butterfly bodies.

I made my own card blank using two pieces of black card. I cut two strips 15.2 cms long. I scored one at 15.2 cms, then folded it on the line. I trimmed the excess away leaving about one and a half cms beyond the fold, and then attached the second strip of card. I then shut the card, and cut the back piece to match the front, using a sharp knife and a ruler. This card is small enough to run through a standard die cutting machine and cut a circle aperture in the front, which is what I needed. I placed the painted background into the card, and put the spare piece of black card, (slightly trimmed) behind it, for stability. The black card base really makes the image pop.

Some time ago, I created a project using this image. I stamped the image three times, once onto book paper, once onto smooth stamping card, and then finally onto patterned paper. I decoupaged the image to create a very colourful project. We showed the card last month as a sneaky peek on the TV shows.

I wanted to recreate this project as a potential demo, but in a different colour option. I used Inktense pencils to colour the book paper and smooth stamping card on the bottom two layers. I chose a zingy green and orange, as they contrast each other so well. My top layer is a patterned paper designed by Lesley, but I have added some Distress Ink to darken it a little bit. I have embossed the top layer with clear embossing powder, when I stamped it. I chose a green card for the matting layer, and used a corner rounder on the edges, to follow the shape of the stamp itself. Again, I have used black card, to make the colours pop. This project requires a bit of cutting out, but I listen to some music, or watch a favourite TV programme, and I am finished before I know it!

My last project using this stamp was to remove the background entirely, and to create a backgound myself. I applied some Distress Oxide to an acrylic block- Twisted Citron and Broken China, which I spritzed with water. I pressed the acrylic block onto a piece of Drawing Cartridge to get a watery background, which I left to dry completely. I inked around the edges with Wilted Violet Distress Ink, and the using Warm Breeze Versafine Clair, I inked up the Square Bubbles stamp, and stamped little bits of it randomly over the background. I held the stamp in my hand, and curled it up, so that only a little bit of the stamp touched the background each time. I did get rather messy fingers!

I used a background paper designed by Lesley once more, and added a bit of Distress Ink again, to tailor the colours exactly to my design. I stamped and embossed using Versamark and white embossing powder. I added the antennae using a white gel pen.

I will be back very soon with more projcts to share with you. Thanks so much for stopping by, 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

Glorious Flowers

Hello everyone, I have a few projects to share with you today showcasing the fabulous new stamps that we brought to last month's TV shows on Hochanda.

My first two cards use the same stamp as the focal point, but show what very different looks you can achieve with the same stamp. For my first card, I created a bold background, adding texture paste through a Chocolate Baroque Strip Stencil, and then stamped images from Make your Mark using coordinating colours, plus black ink for the circles. I chose to stamp the words in grey ink for a softer effect. The circles are just the right size to add these word collections, and I will be using this effect a lot for backgrounds, as I really like how it looks.

I took a smaller piece of card and stamped the seed pods and masked them with Masking Tissue. I then stamped the Square Bubbles and added colour as before. I took away the Masking Tissue and coloured the image with Polychromos pencils, and added some grey shading along the edge of the image with a pencil for dimension.

For my second card, I coloured a piece of book paper with Scattered Straw Distress Ink and stamped the seed pod again several times up one side, masking it each time to create  a cluster of pods. I added the small flower sprigs from the same Glorious stamp set, and coloured everything with Polychromos pencils. I edged the book paper with Seedless Preserves Distress Ink.

I stamped the single leaf and flower sprig randomly across a larger piece of kraft card, using green and purple Versafine Clair inks, and also stamped the sentiment onto a small piece of kraft card. These pieces of card were also edged with Seedless Preserves Distress Ink.

My final card uses the large fantasy flower from the Glorious stamp set. I stamped the image onto a piece of cotton fabric using Archival Ink. I coloured the image with Inktense pencils, and blended them with a waterbrush. I frayed the edges of the fabric and adhered it to a layer of dark card using strong double sided tape.

I created the background using a piece of drawing cartridge stained with tea, but you could use Distress Ink, or any other water based medium, it's up to you. I like the speed of running a wet tea bag over the drawing cartridge, and tend to colour several pieces in one go, as I make a jug of tea especially for this purpose. I then have lots of backgrounds ready for future projects.

I stamped a couple of images from Make Your Mark randomly over the background, giving the loose impression of cracked plaster, by sticking to a warm brown colour palette.

I will be back later in the month with more projects to share with you, thanks for stopping by,

 xx

A Burst of Colour

Hello everyone, I am back to share more of my prickly projects with you today, featuring the stamps from last month's TV shows on Hochanda.

To create my first card, I trimmed two pieces of drawing cartridge slightly smaller than A5 in size. I sprinkled Purple, Lime Green and Turquoise Brushos over one piece of card and spritzed the card with water. I then placed the second piece of card over the first, to create two coloured backgrounds. I left both backgrounds to dry. The second background will be useful for a project at a later date.

I stamped three of the images from the Scrumptious Succulents stamp set onto the background, then covered the images with masks that I had already stamped and cut out. I stamped two more images in between the masked images and then drew a line between all of the images to create a landscape, using a fineliner pen. Using the Square Bubbles stamp, I stamped below the landscape line using second generation stamping. The stamp creates a stone effect, which is perfect for the cacti to stand upon.

I used the same colours of Brusho powders to colour the cacti images, adding a couple of additional colours, (red, orange and yellow). I sprinkled a little bit of each colour onto a large acrylic block, but you could use your craft mat, and added a bit of water to them, so that I could use them like watercolours. More water creates a paler colour, but you can then go over the images with a bit of stronger colour to add shading. You can be as creative as you like with the colours, I had a lot of fun creating a vibrant fantasy collection of cacti. I then painted the little stones in the same colours, being completely random. I added a sentiment from the Blossom and Grow stamp set.

My second project is full of colour too. I wanted to create a lovely sunset, and stamped the tall leafy image from the Blossom and Grow stamp set a couple of times first of all. I masked the images and masked an area for the sun, then coloured the background with Distress Inks. I chose Seedless Preserves, Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon and Fossilized Amber, blending them, and adding a spritz of water.

I stamped some foliage from the Wild Meadow and Silhouette Grasses stamp sets, using Versafine Clair inks. I added the little birds from Landscape Edges and a sentiment from Scrumptious Succulents. I removed the masks and coloured the foliage with Faber Castell watercolour pencils.

I hope that you will be inspired by my projects to try out some of these ideas. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Mostly Masking

Hello everyone, I have several projects to share with you today showcasing the lovely stamps featured on the May TV shows on Hochanda. We also took Masking Tissue onto the show, and a lot of my projects reflected the use of this product.

For my first card,  I created a Pan Pastel background, tearing strips of paper to create hills, and adding a green colour at the bottom half of the card, toning in some grey as I moved up the card, to represent hills in the distance. I created a sky using blue and pink pastel coloured tones. I hardly ever use Pan Pastels these days, and this background was so easy to create. I always wonder why I do not use Pan Pastels more often!

I stamped the floral spray from the Lords and Ladies stamp set repeatedly across the lower half of the card, varying the height of the stamp. I added a stamp from the Silhouette Grasses stamp set using second and third generation stamping for this stamp, to create some depth, as if there were a meadow of flowers. Two little butterflies from the Baroque Meadow stamp plate, and a sentiment from the Words to Dazzle and Sparkle stamp set completed the card. All of the stamping was done with Olympia Green Versafine ink, and the images were coloured with Faber Castell watercolour pencils. This little card will make a great store cupboard card and I might make a few more of these.

I wanted to create a one layer card that would be cheap to send in the post, but still have the look of a multi layered card. Using a piece of masking tissue, I cut out a hexagon shape using a die. I used both the inner and outer pieces of the masking tissue on my project. I coloured a piece of drawing cartridge with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink, first around the outside of a masked central panel, adding shading with Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink, and then stamped over the background using the Square Bubbles stamp and Danube Blue Memento Ink. I then removed the mask, and added the corresponding reverse mask, leaving the central panel uncovered, and inked the edges of that area with the same background colour as before.

I stamped the foliage stamp from the Rose Duo stamp set using first and second generation stamping in Danube Blue and Cottage Ivy Memento Inks, then ensured that all of the ink was completely dry. I stamped and embossed the foliage image with Versamark Ink and copper embossing powder. An optional extra at this point was to edge the background with Versamark and tip copper embossing powder over the edges, before embossing the foliage.

My next two cards are based on a very similar colour scheme to each other, and use the lovely Cuckoo Pint image from the Lords and Ladies stamp set. For the first card, I created a background using the foliage stamp from the previous card, stamping onto kraft card with Plum Archival ink. I created the main image by stamping the Cuckoo Pint, masking the image, and again stamping the foliage, again using plum coloured ink for stamping. I coloured the flower with Polychromos pencils. adding Distress Ink to the background for a soft finish.

The next card was created by adding Brushos to kraft card and spritzing them with water. I added some toning hessian, a button and ribbon to the background. To create the focal piece, I stamped the Cuckoo Pint, and masked the image before stamping the On The Tiles image. I coloured the image with Distress Inks and a water brush. The two images have been coloured in similar colours, but the different mediums give a very different effect.

Thanks for stopping by, xx