A Bit of Romance

Hello everyone, I have a couple of projects to share with you today, both with a slightly romantic feel, showcasing stamps used from last month's shows on Hochanda.

My first project features a beautiful image from the Harlequin Rose stamp set. I love this image, and it has proved so useful for Weddings and Anniversaries over the years. It can be used on its own, or linked with another one, as I have done on this card.

I chose a piece of patterned paper designed by Lesley, and stamped and embossed the image twice, using white embossing powder. I fussy cut the images, and cut one of the hearts where I needed to join them together. I simply slipped the 'broken' heart through the gap in the other heart. I used a piece of the same paper as a background, and cut a slightly smaller piece of kraft card as the forground. (If you are trying to stretch your papers as far as possible, you can use what would be hidden underneath for the hearts). I embossed the sentiment using white embossing powder once more, and added faux stitching using a white gel pen.

The addition of the kraft card makes this a great Anniversary or Valentine's card for a man. Using patterned papers makes it fairly quick to make, even with the fussy cutting, as there is no extra colouring involved, so why not have a look through your stash of pretty papers to see what you can use up.

To create my second card, I coloured some Drawing Cartridge using Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink on a craft mat, spritzing it with water, and patting the Drawing Cartridge into the ink. I dried the paper with a heat gun, and then blotted up some of the remaining ink before drying the background once more. I stamped the Tagtastic stamp at one end of the background and cut this out, the remainder of the background was sufficient to create a background for the card.

I used words from the Amazing Mackintosh Words stamp set to create a random background on the tag, stamping them in black ink. I stamped some horizontally and some vertically, making sure that they were straight, whichever direction I was stamping. I stamped a rose from the Rose and Thistle stamp set onto a spare piece of Drawing Cartridge, coloured it in with Distress Inks and fussy cut it out. I attached this to the tag, and added some bright red ribbon to the tag. I attached the tag to the larger background, added a Birthday sentiment, and used some black card as a matting layer. You could add some of the tiny rosebuds from the Rose and Thistle set to the background if you feel that the background is too plain, but I did not mind it like this. I had added some red spatters to the tag as a contrast anyway.

I hope that you will try some of my ideas out for yourselves, thanks for stopping by, xx

A Bunch of Roses

Hello everyone, I have two projects to share with you today using little worker stamps. These small stamps are often overlooked on a stamp set in favour of the bigger images. You can quickly create a lovely card using the small images by creating a bckground, and adding a sentiment or topper.

My first card uses some images from the Rose Set, with a Rennie Mackintosh feel to them. I love this style, and chose soft colours to create a vintage look for the card. I placed a circle mask onto a piece of drawing cartridge, then added colour to the background by placing some chalk ink onto a large acrylic block, spritzing it with water, and dragging it across the drawing cartridge. Once the background was dry, I stamped the two small rose images with burgundy and green ink, and stamped them in first, second and third generation stamping randomly over the background.

I removed the mask and embossed the sentiment in the middle using gold embossing powder. Using gold embossing powder again, I stamped the larger circle image nine times onto a spare piece of card. I coloured the image using the same colours of ink that I had used on the background, adding the colour with a water brush. I cut the circles out and attached them using 3D foam.

For my next card, I stamped the little rose sprigs from the Rose and Thistle stamp set randomly over the background. I added a topper stamped with an image from the Rose Stem Script stamp set. In my fabric sample, I added a sentiment from the Words to Dazzle and Sparkle stamp set. The images were coloured with Inktense pencils.

In the second sample, I stamped onto Textured Art Card to give a feeling of fabric, and coloured the images with Koh-I-Noor paints. The sentiment comes from the Rose Stem Script stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Live in the Moment

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

For my first projects, I stamped some Mushrooms from the Autumn Poppy stamp set onto large sticker sheets before cutting them out. This is an alternative to stamping and masking images, and allows you to add your images to patterned backgrounds very quickly. I found a lovely speckled background in my stash box which was a great colour for some mushrooms, which I had created using the wrinkle free distress method. I coloured the Mushrooms with Polychromos pencils.

I stamped the sentiment onto spare card, splitting it in two, and colouring the edges with coordinating Distress Ink.

The next two cards show how backgrounds which are not altogether successful can be used when adding something over the top. The first, a remake of an old project that I made a long time ago, I actually spilled my cup of tea on the background! However, I liked the colours, so carried on anyway.

The next is the TV demo itself, and although I do not like this background so much, perhaps with a bit of pencil shading around the mushrooms, it will grow on me.

I used The Toadstool Garden next, embossed in white on a piece of kraft card, then added some paper piecing for a change. I simply rummaged through my stash box again for scraps of backgrounds left over from other projects, and stamped parts of the image using white embossing powder as before. I cut out the flowers and mushrooms before adding them to the main image. Small details were coloured with Koh-I-Noor paints and a few splatters added to the background for added interest.

So there you have it, a few more ideas for you using these fabulous images. I hope that you will try some of them out yourselves. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Kim's Houses

I have a few cards to share today showcasing the newest collection of stamps by Kim Moody. Kim created these fabulous houses as a set that could be put together as a street, or equally work brilliantly as stand alone images. He has also drawn some smaller add on images which are so useful for creating scenes and completing your artwork.

 The Posh House is sure to make you smile, it really is very delapidated, with its crumbling plaster, exposed brickwork, and an air of genteel neglect. It is calling out to be fixed up, and its name suggests that it feels superior to its neighbours who are in far better shape!

I have used Distress Oxides for my backgrounds, and added a large tree image from the Trees a Crowd stamp set to finish the card. The sentiment is also one from Kim's stamp plates, something new this time.

Our House is a super tall skinny house, great for creating terraces, or again, as a stand alone house. The little cat looking up at the pie in the open window, the milk bottles, and the bird on the roof, are all great little details.

I used an acrylic tag, stamped with Archival Ink and painted the image with acrylic paints. I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of patterned paper and then attached it to back of the tag with matte medium.

I stamped and masked the house, created a wash of colour over the background with Distress Inks. I added a woodland using trees from Trees a Crowd, and then added the little removal van. I coloured the images with pencils.

Gran's House is full of character with the beams and the wonky handrail on the steps. The cracked plaster on the walls and the lovely old door simply add to the quirky nature of the house.

I chose kraft card and white embossing to create my card. I added trees from the Trees a Crowd stamp set, omitting the trunk from one of them to make it look like a bush instead. I used a Versamark pen to complete the landscape, and added the embossing powder over the top. I coloured the images with Koh-I-Noor paints.

I have used some of the little words to create a set of party invitations by stamping onto Gelli plate backgrounds. These were really quick and easy, and made in just a couple of minutes. I added a faux stitched border with a fine liner pen.

The Shop is asuch a detailed image, every time you look, there is something else to see. Check out the little mouse underneath the boxes, and Kim's signature bird on the roof. You can have so much fun planning which colours to use for all of the fruit and vegetables.

I used Masking Tissue to mask The Shop, and Posh House so that I could stamp the other two houses afterwards. I then masked all of the houses to add a Pan Pastel background and trees from Trees a Crowd in first and second generation stamping. I coloured the images with pencils.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Mushroom House

Hello everyone, I have two projects to share with you today featuring the fabulous Mushroom House stamp set featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda.

My first card is a moonlit scene and was a demo on one of the shows. I stamped the image onto a piece of drawing cartridge, and then masked the image with masking tissue, also masking off a moon shape in the sky. I drew the rest of the grass line with a permanent fineliner pen and then added colour with Distress Inks. I added some extra yellow from the moon across the sky, falling where the moolight would shine on the image and the grass.

I removed the masks and added colour to the moon with Distress Ink. I then coloured the Mushroom House with pencils, colouring all down the right hand side with a yellow pencil to represent the moonlight. Finaly, I added some white dots in the sky with a gel pen for some stars.

To create my second project, I again used a piece of drawing cartridge for the background. I inked the bottom part of the image, using masking tape to cover the top part, and then before I stamped the image, I removed the masking tape. I then cleaned the stamp and inked the top part of the image, using masking tape to prevent getting ink on the bottom part of the stamp. I removed the masking tape before I stamped the top part of the image halfway up the card.  I drew hills with a fineliner pen to create a scene, and coloured the sky, hills and houses with Distress Inks and a waterbrush. I added extra stamping using images from the Teeny Weeny Meadow stamp set.

I had a lot of fun working with this particular stamp and hope that my projects have given you a few ideas. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Stamping on Patterned Paper

Hello everyone, I have some more projects to share with you today showcasing the beautiful bookmark style houses that we brought to Hochanda last month. These three projects formed part of a TV demo that I did on one of the shows. I wanted to demonstrate how to stamp onto a patterned surface, and when an image is coloured, the image pops out, and the patterned surface recedes to the background.

I used a piece of Lesley's Chic Script Designer paper pack, and cut  a piece of the script paper to size. I stamped the Tree House onto the paper. I added a few lines at the bottom using a fineliner pen to finish the landscape, and coloured the image with pencils. I added shading with grey pencil for added depth.

I took a plain piece of green paper from the pach, and using one of the trees from Trees a Crowd and a sentiment, I created a piece of background paper using Pistachio Memento Ink. This was really quick to create, and you can have your own designer background in minutes! I inked the edges of both pieces of paper with the green ink for definition. As you can see, the script paper looks great as a background, and the house sits really well on the pattern.

For my second card, I used the large Tagtastic stamp and stamped onto a piece of book paper. I stamped the Garden House image inside the tag, and coloured the image with pencils once again. I added a bit of shading on the background using Distress Inks.

For the large background, I used a large acrylic block and added pink, blue and green Distress Oxide which I spritzed with water. I smooshed it across a piece of drawing cartridge in one go. I stamped two bees from the Honey Bee stamp set, and added a sentiment. I coloured the bees with pencils and added Stickles to the wings.

For my final card, I created a gelli print background, adding a bubble effect texture, and stamping a sentiment randomly over the background. I used a Crafty Individuals script effect tag and stamped the Heath Robinson House, which I then coloured with pencils. I added bright red highlights which I matched with a bright red ribbon. I added shading to the tag with Distress Inks, matching the colour of the gelli print background.

I hope that you have enjoyed my projects this month, I will be back next month with lots more to share with you, thanks for stopping by, xx

Large Trees

Hello everyone, I have two projects appearing on the Design Team Blog today in the Fifteen Minute blog post. This is a monthly feature made up of quick cards and projects, each taking no more than fifteen minutes to complete.

My first card was made using a scrap of background from my stash, which had originally been created by inking around some leaves from my garden, using Ripe Persimmon Distress Ink on yellow card. I stamped the large tree from Trees a Crowd onto a piece of watercolour paper using Black Archival Ink, then carefully sprinkled red, green and orange Brushos just where I wanted them. I spritzed the Brushos with water. I used some green Brusho and a waterbrush to 'ground' the tree. I inked around the panel with Ripe Persimmon Distress Ink. I added a sentiment strip to complete the card, inking around it as before.

My second project is a large tag, I added background colour by covering a large acrylic tag with Distress Ink and spritzing it with water before swiping it across the tag. I used the same tree image as before and added a smaller tree image from the same stamp set stamped using green ink in first and second generation stamping to create the foliage. Again, I used some extra Distress Ink to 'ground' the tree, as I do not want the tree to be floating in mid air. A sentiment, ribbon, and hand drawn birds completed the tag.

Do check out the Design Team blog to see what my Team mates have been up to with their Fifteen Minute creations. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Beautiful Homes

Hello everyone, I am sharing two projects today showcasing the fabulous bookmark style houses that we brought to Hochanda last month. These lovely designs drawn by Sue have been a delight to work with,I hope that you will enjoy my samples this month.

My first project is an acrylic tag, and I have stamped the Garden House onto the reverse of the tag using Archival Ink, then painted the image using acrylic paints. I used a piece of patterned paper from the Chic Script Designer paper pack, and stamped the sentiment onto the paper before adhering the paper to the tag using Matte Medium. The photograph does not really do this tag justice, I love the way these acrylic tags turn out, and they may become addictive!

To create my second project, I stamped the Acorn House twice, masking the image as I went along. (I took care not to ink the sun in the second repeat of the image, by covering it with masking tape first, inking the image and peeling off the masking tape before stamping). I coloured the background with a watercolour wash, then stamped the large tree from the Trees a Crowd stamp set several times. I added foliage using Glade Design a Tree and several colours of Versafine Clair ink, building the colours with first and second generation stamping.

I removed the masks and coloured the house with pencils. Finally I added a sentiment to finish.

The sentiments on these stamp sets are so uplifting and would be suitable for lots of occasions.

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

Butterflies and Bubbles

Hello everyone, I have a couple of projects to share with you today, showcasing stamps featured in last month's TV shows on Hochanda.

For my first project, I wanted to compare the card that we brought to the show, a mixture of gloss and matt card, and to see how each surface worked with ink. I embossed an image from Punky Romance on both pieces of card using Versamark and white embossing powder, before creating a background, blending Versafine Clair Ink on the surface. I used a mix of purple and mustard, which is very cheery. I stamped another image from the same stamp set using Memento Ink in a deep purple shade over the top, taking care to rub away any ink that covered the white embossing with a piece of kitchen paper.

It is not very easy from the photograph to tell the difference between the two surfaces. The glossy card (on the right) really shines, and takes the ink very well. The matt card (on the left), apart from the embossing, looks printed, it is so smooth. It depends which effect you prefer, I like them both. This card will be a staple product on the website in the future, just like our Drawing Cartridge and Textured Art card.

I embossed three butterflies onto vellum using the white embossing powder, and cut them out, adding them to the background to complete the card.

To create my second card, I created a wash over a piece of drawing cartridge, using blue watercolour ink. I added a bit of sea salt and left the background to dry. I stamped the heart image from A Heart Full of Love onto another piece of card using dark blue ink. I coloured the image using Ecoline markers and added a bit of sparkle using a silver sparkle pen. Once the background was dry, I removed the salt and stamped around the edge with a bubble image from Floral Heart to tie in with the bubbles on the main image, adding highlights with the silver sparkle pen once more.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Fifteen Minute Cards

Hello everyone,  today sees the monthly Fifteen Minute Cards blog post over on the Chocoloate Baroque Design Team blog. I have created two projects for the post, the first card was created by stamping and embossing the heart image randomly over a piece of scrapbook paper using a teal embossing powder. I used the same colour for the sentiment on a smaller strip of the paper. I edged both pieces of the paper with Teal ink, allowing them to dry before assembling the card.

For my second card, I stamped the broken heart using red Memento ink onto a white card blank. I then stamped the heart again onto a mini gelli plate before then using the gelli plate as a stamp and stamping the image from the gelli plate beside my first stamped image on the card blank to complete the heart. I added the sentiment using black ink, then flicked some watered down red Distress Ink over the card to create splatters.

Do hop over to the Design Team blog to check out the projects that my team mates have created.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Hearts Full of Love

Hello everyone, I have a few projects to share with you from last month's TV shows on Hochanda, featuring the lovely heart stamps.

My first projects are three very quick cards, 4" square, using images from the Floral Heart stamp set. I stamped straight onto the card blanks to create a set of clean and simple cards that could be used as little notelets.

The first card uses three different colours of blue Memento ink and the bubble heart, around one of the sentiments which was stamped in black ink. I covered the card very quickly, simply stamping the heart in the different colours to create an all over background.

The second card was created by stamping the large heart, and then stamping the flower cluster down the side using four different colours. I then painted the flowers in the large heart using the four colours and added white highlights.

The third card was created by stamping the heart in second generation randomly over the background with red ink. I stamped the sentiment in black ink as before. Using a small white board circle from the Hearts and Circles pack, I added red ink before coating the circle with UTEE, heating it with my heat gun and stamping the same heart image into the hot embossing powder. I brushed some gold mica powder over the image to pick out the detail. The variations that you could create using this little stamp set are huge, and these little cards can mean so much to someone. I quite like working on this small size!

The following cards were shown as a demonstration on one of the TV shows last month. I created a Toile de Jouy background using the flower sprig from the A Heart Full of Love stamp set, stamping onto 160gsm Luxury Smooth paper I cut a smaller square of the paper to stamp the corresponding heart image. I coloured the heart with pencils, before matting both layers with coordinating card. I coloured a piece of ribbon with Distress Ink to get the ribbon to match the project exactly. I created a couple of colour options for the show, one pale, and one much brighter, to show that by changing the colours, you can create a very different effect. Apologies for the photo of the paler card, it has been given away now, so I cannot photograph it again.

I stamped the first card using a Blue Archival Ink, and the second using Grey Archival Ink. They are not necessarily colours that you would think to use, but once you start to colour the images,the ink colour recedes into the background. Toile de Jouy is created in lots of different colour options anyway.

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

Positive Thoughts

Hello everyone, I have two projects for you today, the first was created using a limited edition kit that we brought to Hochanda last month featuring a wide paintbrush, which I decorated. I painted the brush using a pale blue paint from Little Birdie and dry brushed it with Quinacridone Magenta paint for an accent colour. I stamped some linen fabric which had also been painted with the blue paint, using Plum Archival Ink. I chose one of the ribbon trim images from the Floral Mannequins stamp set. I cut the image out and gathered it up around the top of the bristles with cotton, and stuck it down using double sided tape. I added some Little Birdie Flowers that had been dry brushed with the magenta paint. To complete the project, I stamped part of the large image from The Folk Art Garden onto card, coloured it with Zig clean colour brush markers and cut it out, before adhering it to the paintbrush. Who says paintbrushes should be used for decorating!

To create my second project, I cut a piece of luxury smooth 160 gsm ivory paper to the required size, and made a gelli print. I used two colours of Distress Ink, and added a textured pattern to the plate before I pulled a print. I added the stamped image from The Folk Art Garden all over the background using Sepia Archival Ink. I stamped the sentiment onto a spare piece of paper created in the same way.

To complete the card, I added a strip of hessian, and some toning ribbon before adhering the background to a card blank. The sentiments on this stamp set are so useful to add to a card for someone who needs a bit of encouragement or positivity.

I will be back next month with more projects to share with you. Don't forget to look out for Lesley and I on Hochanda on Tuesday at 10.00 a.m. and 3.00 p.m. with some brand new stamps. Lesley will also be featuring on the screen on Sunday and Monday, so you will have lots of opportunities to see her in action!

Thanks for stopping by, xx