May Fairies

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have a few projects to share with you today featuring our May Fairy set of stamps that were showcased on this month's shows on Create and Craft. 

My first project is a simple card using some of the May patterned papers designed by Lesley. I trimmed the paper slightly and added it to a DL black card base. I stamped the fairy and a couple of butterflies onto some smooth stamping card, and coloured them with pencils to match the patterned papers. I cut them out and attached them to the background. I popped the fairy into a flower, as if she was resting there, and added some shading under her foot using a green pencil. I stamped a sentiment from Words to Dazzle and Sparkle to complete the card.

I have used a mixture of stamps to create my next card. I found a background paper designed by Lesley from my stash, and used the colours as the basis for the colour scheme. I added a dandelion head from Not More Flowers! and some dandelion seeds from Seasonal Fragments. The foliage stamped in green and heather tones is from Autumn Hedgerow, stamped in first and second generation stamping. The fairy blowing the dandelion appears to be making a wish, so I have used the same sentiment as before because it fits this card so perfectly.

I have used a couple of the smaller stamps from the May Fairy stamp set to create a little bookmark. I cut a rectangle of Drawing Cartridge and stamped the iris and butterfly from the stamp set. I added a sentiment from the Mindfulness stamp set. I painted the images with watercolour paints. I created a border with black card, punched a hole at the top and bottom and added some ribbon. This was quite a quick project, and you could make several of these in a session to give as gifts.

I made a pretty Floral card using the main image from the new Floral Abundance stamp set. I stamped this using a heather coloured ink for a change onto smooth stamping card and coloured the image with pencils. I created a background by stamping the Mindfulness word cloud repeatedly over a Distress Ink background. I used the same Heather coloured ink for the stamping to tie everything together. I used the Mindfulness stamp loose in my hand, rather than on an acrylic block, so that I could partially stamp the image in the little gaps between the circles, thereby creating a complete background.

Finally, I am sharing a quick progress photo of my concertina book. I am making this throughout the year using the patterned papers that Lesley designs each month, and using the fairies from each month's stamp sets. Once I had constructed the book, and added the black matting layers to each page, all I needed to do each month was to create the individual pages. The covers are designer papers from another set that Lesley created. I have decorated the front cover with stamps from the first half of the year, and intend to decorate the back cover with stamps from the second half of the year. It will be great to see this project through to the end and to look back at all of the designs once I have finished my book.

Thanks for stopping by, your visits are always much appreciated. xx

Floral Collages

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have a couple of projects to share with you today, featuring stamps from our most recent TV shows on Create and Craft. We had a great mixture of brand new stamps and some fabulous useful favourites on the show, alongside some beautiful papers and some great little tools.

My first project is a journal page spread featuring lots of the stamps from the show. I started by stamping Rosella, a lovely large poppy stamp onto one of the pages, and masked this using Masking Tissue. I stamped a large circle from Make Your Mark, and masked this as well. I then started to build up the background, adding images from Numeri, Edgy Edges and Make Your Mark. I stuck to a colour palette of bluey purple, green and grey. I love this colour combination, and will definitely use it again. I added splatters of watered down watercolour paint over the background, and stamped the Rosella image twice more onto the opposite page.

I stamped the flower heads four times onto some scrap drawing cartridge and coloured these with watercolour paints. I cut them out and decoupaged the layers in sets of two and added them to the two flowers on the left hand page. I removed the circle mask from the other flower and added a circle frame mask so that I could add some colour to the circle shape itself on the page using some green ink. I removed the frame and the poppy mask. I coloured the flower using the watercolour paints.

Finally, I stamped some sentiments onto some scrap card that I had coloured when making a previous project. It toned in really well with my colour scheme. I also used masking tape to cover up parts of the Mindfulness stamp to leave a couple of the big wors, which I inked up, removed the tape, then stamped these onto some of the same coloured background. I added the sentiment strips onto the pages in a balanced way.

I really enjoy making journal pages. They are a great way of trying out ideas, that you can often adapt to cards at a later date. For example, the single flower with the circle highlight would make a great CAS card. You could use the flower with a single background stamping of the Numeri stamp on a card, or go for a more colloaged effect using a combination of these stamps as I have done in these pages. You can vary the colours, go for a monochrome colour scheme, opt for a traditional red poppy, or use similar colour to this layout, the sky really is the limit. If your ideas don't work out, just turn the page and start again. It's only a piece of paper, after all.

 My second project is a tag card. I used a plain white tag, but you could use the really useful Acrylic Tag Template Tool to create something similar. I stamped Blossom Spray twice onto the tag, and masked the images with Masking Tissue. I added some background colour to the tag using Distress Oxide Ink and a blending brush. I then stamped Scripted Fragments with grey Versafine Clair ink over the top before removing the masks. I coloured the flowers and leaves with coloured pencils.

I used a piece of black card to make a card blank, chopping off the corners to echo the shape of the tag. If you used the tag tool to make your tag, you could do the same thing with your folded black card to make your card blank, simply by using one of the circles around the tag template to get the larger size.

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

Butterfly Bookmark

Hello everyone,

I hope that you are keeping well. I have a useful little project to share with you today, using a combination of stamps from Chocolate Baroque. This project was a demonstration that I did on this month's TV shows on Create and Craft, which featured a whole host of butterfly themed stamps.

I started my project by creating a background using Distress Inks on my craft mat, which I spritzed with water. I placed a sheet of Drawing Cartridge onto the mat, dried the background, and picked up any remaining droplets of ink, before drying the background again. I repeated this proces with both green and blue ink.

I then stamped an image from Slim Word Strip 1 onto the background using teal ink. I stamped a butterfly from the Patchwork Butterfly stamp set onto smooth stamping card using Versafine Clair black ink, and coloured this with pencils. I coloured the body with a fineliner pen, and cut the image out, chopping off the head and bottom of the body.

I cut the butterfly in half and stuck it to each end of the word strip with glue. I drew a pencil line along the top and bottom of the word strip. It does not matter if a little bit of the words are going to be trimmed away. 

Using a ruler and a craft knife, I cut along the pencil lines, and then I cut around the butterfly shapes using scissors. I added some shading around the word strip using the blue Distress Ink that I used on the background previously. I also used a black pencil to run around the edges of the butterfly to ensure that there were no white edges from either the smooth stamping card or the Drawing Cartridge.

I scored along the middle of the strip and folded back the butterfly halves to create the bookmark. To make the bookmark more sturdy, and a bit more decorative, you can add some patterned paper to the back.

This was such a fun project to make, and I hope that you will try it out for yourselves! Thanks for stopping by, take care xx

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

Over the Moon

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. It's been a while since I have posted, as life here has been very busy. More of that later in my post. I have a couple of projects to share with you today, featuring stamps from this month's TV shows on Create and Craft designed by Fiona Randall. I do hope that you were able to watch the shows. You can still watch them on catch up if you missed them.

I used kraft card to create both of these cards. It's such a fabulous surface for colouring, and I wanted to create a very dramatic card, so it was a great background choice. Grey card would have made an equally good backdrop for this design. I stamped the moon moth twice, and masked the image. I used a circular stencil and sponged some colour onto the background. I could have cut a mask from paper or acetate, but this option was much quicker. You just need to be a bit careful not to go over the edges. I used Speckled Egg and Twisted Citron Distress Oxide Ink. I removed the masks and added some pencil colouring to the images, and then added a sentiment from the same stamp set, which is called Over the Moon. I used a fineliner pen to go over any areas of the images that had been washed out by the Distress Oxide Ink, they can look a bit milky, and the fineliner pen just sharpens up the outlines again.

My second project is very similar to the first, but I chose to stamp the butterfly instead. I used Speckled Egg Distress Oxide, and then used a piece of sponge and added Faded Jeans Distress Ink over the top to create areas of shading. The circle looks rather like the moon, or even the Earth this time. It was so quick to achieve this effect. I have not gone over the milky areas of the stamped image in this photo with a fineliner pen, so you can see the difference between the two projects.

I used Faber Castell Black Edition pencils to colour my images. They are great for colouring on surfaces like kraft, or other coloured surfaces. You could use your Koh-I-Noor pencils, Polychromos, Polycolours, whatever pencils you enjoy using normally, and paints would work equally as well. I tend to grab whatever is at hand, and go through phases of what I enjoy using most.

So as I mentioned earlier, life has been very busy lately. My beautiful granddaughter Ruby has just finished nursery school, and will be starting school in September. She is not quite four years old, so it feels very early for her to be at this momentous point in her life. Her birthday is later this month. She had a little graduation ceremony at her nursery school, with a cardboard mortar board hat and a scroll to mark the occasion! We were so proud to be there.

A couple of weeks ago, my daughter got married at a stunning location in North Norfolk. The whole weekend was amazing, and we had a wonderful time. Megan looked so beautiful, and we had the happiest of days, despite the rain which did not dampen our spirits at all. We could not have asked for a more perfect day.

Proud Mother of the Bride moment, I always think that Megan is beautiful, but she looked amazing on her wedding day.

The rain did not stop the happy couple from having a wonderful day together.

My granddaughter felt that my outfit needed a special accessory to finish it off!

Thanks so much for stopping by, your visits are always appreciated, take care xx

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

Reuse, Recycle

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

My first project features a bit of recycling, and when I showed it Lesley, we both laughed, as we had both thought up very similar projects! I started by creating a vibrant background using red, orange and yellow Brushos on a piece of Drawing Cartridge. These backgrounds are a great starting point for a project and you could have a crafty afternoon making lots of them and save them for later.

I then cut up a brown paper shopping bag, the sort that you get your groceries in from a supermarket, and ironed a smalled piece nice and flat. I stamped the Poppy Ledger image using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink. I put a small amount of yellow, orange, red and olive green Brusho onto an acrylic block and gently spritzed each colour with water. I used a brush and some extra water to paint the image with these colours. I then used a couple of the colours to splat the image with my brush afterwards, to make it look a bit older. 

I added a piece of scrap card behind the image to make it a bit stiffer, then attached it to a piece of corrugated card that I had trimmed to become a mount. I think that this card would look great with some little tickets and some twine added to finish it off, don't you?

I have a couple of older projects to share with you. On my next project, I decided to stamp the lovely focal image from Fragile Wings onto dark blue card for a change. I used white pencil for highlights and than added some blue and green pencil for a pop of colour. The blue/green background uses a couple of useful background stamps that tie in well with the main image.

 

Next, this card featuring Floral Study is another older card, but I like the greens contrasted with the pinks and oranges, it feels quite warm. I have added stamping from the Glorious stamp set in the background, and used watercolour pencils to colour the main image.

I am also sharing some projects using some stamps from the tree house stamps that we brought to the shows. My next project uses the fabulous Tree House stamp set, and I chose to stamp the image onto a piece of patterned paper created by Lesley a while ago. The paper had lovely pink and green elements, and this became the basis for my colour scheme. I created a background for the card using Picked Raspberry and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks, then added a tree image and sentiment from the Trees a Crowd stamp set using a dark green ink. I stamped both repeatedly over the background.

I coloured the focal image with pencils, and then added extra shading around the main image and background using the Picked Raspberry Distress Ink.

You could create a similar look if you did not have the patterned paper, using a piece of black and white script paper or a piece of plain smooth white stamping card. You could add script and a subtle floral image to the plain background, or some coloured stamping to the script background, plus a bit of shading. You can very easily achieve a patterned background that looks every bit as nice as the one that I started out with.

I have some older 'house' projects to share with you today, to round off this month's selection. I hope that you enjoy them. 

This one is created using the Mushroom House, and the moon reflecting on the house at night.

This one is the Heath Robinson House. I stamped the main image on a tag, coloured it with pencils, and used one of the sentiments to create a background over a gelli print.

 This one is Italian House, with a couple of Trees from Orchard Design a Tree, words from Words of Wisdom, and circles from Make Your Mark. I have added texture paste through a stencil and coloured the images with pencils.

This card was created using the Dutch House, and a tree from Trees a Crowd. I wanted the colourful houses to look like a street in Amsterdam in the Spring. 

Finally, a project from the Garden House. I stamped the image onto book paper, using the Tagtastic stamp as a frame. I added a couple of bees from the Honey Bee set and a sentiment onto the watercoloured background.

Thanks so much for stopping by and take care xx

Fun With Flowers

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

My first project was created by stamping and embossing the very pretty Wish Flower repeatedly over a piece of Drawing Cartridge using Versamark and white embossing powder. I then added Wilted Violet and Broken China Distress Oxide over the top. The white embossing acts as a resist, and creates a beautiful design. 

I then stamped the flower again, complete with its accompanying words onto a piece of fabric using Archival Jet Black Ink. Don't be worried about stamping onto fabric, you just need to allow a little bit more time for the ink to do its job, so allow the stamp to sit for a bit longer before you lift it off. I coloured the image with Inktense pencils, first a pale green and a lilac, then added water with a brush. While the image was damp, I added a deeper green on the leaves and stems, and a turquoise on the flowers in the dotted areas for shading. As the fabric was damp, the colour was a little bit deeper.

I chose to leave the fabric as it was, but I could have frayed the edges, sewn the piece with a sewing machine, or drawn some faux stitching around the edges with a fineliner pen, (see my example below). You can really play around and experiment with fabric, it can be a lot of fun.

My second project was a pretty little acrylic bookmark using one of Lesley's newest patterned papers. These are all bookmark size, so perfect for this project. I stamped the image from Garden House using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink, then needed to decide what materials to use on the top. Because I knew that I was going to use Matte Medium to adhere my bookmark to the acrylic piece, I could not use anything that might react to something wet, for example watercolours or Distress Inks. So I chose to colour the image with pencils to be on the safe side. I added a bit of shading at the bottom, again with pencils, and also used pencils to colour through a stencil. 

I added a sentiment at the top, which normally would have been too wide, so I used masking tape to cover parts of the sentiment each time I inked it up, enabling me to break it into three parts. Finally, I covered the whole bookmark with Matte Medium and adhered it to the acrylic tag. I allowed the glue to dry before sanding the edges and punching a hole at the top. If you chose to make one of the bookmarks and stick it to a chipboard shape, you could use all sorts of mediums, paints, watercolours, Distress Inks, whatever you like. It was purely because I was inking over the top that I needed to be so careful.

I have an older project using the fabulous Wish Flower that I am sharing with you today. I have stamped the image onto patterned paper and coloured it with pencils. I then took a piece of greyboard and painted it to match the patterned paper, adding some stencilling and the words from the stamp to create a matching background.

I will be back soon with more projects to share with you. Thanks so much for stopping by, take care xx