Published in Papercraft Inspirations

Hello there,

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas.

You may remember a card that I posted back in November called ' Forest Magic.'  I made it using some free stamps that were in the Christmas edition, issue 159 of Papercraft Inspirations.

I loved the little Woodland stamps and couldn't wait to have a play with them.  I was really pleased with the card that I made and so I decided to enter it into their monthly card competition.  As you can imagine, I was absolutely thrilled when they wrote back and asked if they could feature my card in a future edition. I'm really proud and excited to say that the new edition is out today and my card is featured on page 17.

Here's the card that I made:

There hasn't been much crafting going on here over Christmas as I've been trying to have a good tidy up and sort out in my craft room.  I'm hoping that normality will be restored shortly.

Hope to see you soon x

  

MERRY CHRISTMAS

WISHING YOU ALL A PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS

AND

ALL THE VERY BEST FOR 2017

I just want to say a big thank you to my loyal friends and followers for their continued support and for taking time out of their busy lives to visit my blog to leave such kind words and comments. I really appreciate it, thank you so much. 

In a world filled with turmoil, you restore my faith in human nature.

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

X X X

FSC 'The Night Before Christmas'

Hello there,

I'm here today with the card that I've made for our new challenge over at 'Fashionable Stamping Challenges' and the theme this time is 'Anything Goes,' chosen by our lovely Shirley.

It's actually the first Anniversary this month of my joining the Fashionable Stamping Design Team and I've loved every single minute.  I couldn't quite believe it when Shirley asked me if I would like to join them and I still have to keep pinching myself to believe it!  My teamies are such a lovely bunch of ladies and they are all extremely talented and have their own unique styles of stamping. I feel really proud and honoured to be part of such a fabulous team and would like to thank each and every one of them for making my first year such a pleasure :) x

Now moving on to business.......

As we are now well and truly into December, I thought that I would go all out with the festive bling and create a scene around the Night Before Christmas.

I knew that I wanted to use the Girl Reading a Book by Flonz as my main focal image when just by chance I found some old Christmas cards with pictures of a fireplace on them which were just perfect for what I needed. I stamped the girl using VersaMark and then heat embossed her using a detailed black embossing powder. I then cut out a window using a Marianne Window die and used this to frame my image.  Having done this, I then needed to create the outside Christmas scene.......

I started by stamping the bricks using Distress Tea Dye and the Old Wall stamp by Inkylicious and then tore strips of white card to make the snow drifts.  The lamp is by Flower Soft. I stamped it onto white card and then pained it grey, I then used a gold pen to pick out the intricate metal parts before cutting it out and adding it to the card.

No Christmas would be complete without a tree and so I used a stamp that I've had for years by Sheena Douglass.  I cut out the tree and then set about trimming it up.  I started by wrapping gold wire around it which I thought might give it some texture and dimension but unfortunately, it was too thin and just didn't show up, so I then went over the wire with gold Stickle glue which looked much better. As I wanted to give the impression of clear white lights, I used small diamond gems.

I was happy with my scene at this point but still felt it was lacking a little something, so I used some die cut Ivy to frame the top of the card.

Christmas Bauble Tutorial

Hello there,

A few months back. I made a small Christmas bauble as a sample for Inkylicious for one of their shows on Hochanda. After the show, I added it to my blog and onto Pinterest and I received so many comments and emails asking me if I would do a tutorial.  I thought I would use a slightly different stamp and a larger MDF bauble for the tutorial as you will see below.  I was just about to post the tutorial on my blog when Craft stamper put out a request for 3D Christmas baubles.  I sent off my email, not really expecting to get a reply but then much to my surprise, I was asked to send my ornament off to them.  Due to their Social Media Guidelines, you are asked not to show more than a fraction on the image until the following edition is released.  This is the reason why I'm posting this much later than I would have liked too, so apologies for that as I know that Christmas is fast approaching!

Here's the finished bauble and a photo tutorial of how I made it:

I started with a plain MDF bauble 

I gave the bauble a couple of coats of Gesso to give me a surface that I could then stamp on and ink up.

I stamped the Winter Lodge by Inkylicious in black StazOn ink.  It doesn't take long for this to dry and it is a permanent ink that won't smudge once you start to colour the image. I wouldn't advise using a pigment ink for this as it would definitely smudge on the shiny surface.  

Below is a picture of all the product that were used to colour the Lodge that you can see in the next photograph:

If you look carefully here, you can see that there is a shadow image just above the lodge.  This is where I originally stamped the image but unfortunately, I didn't get a clear impression, so I gave my bauble another coat of Gesso to cover it before stamping it again.  Having just thought this through, I could probably have just removed it with StazOn cleaner and I'm not sure why I didn't think of that at the time!   

Once the image was completely dry, I them used a mask over the image to ensure that it wouldn't be spoiled whilst I was inking up the sky.

These are the products used to create my Northern Lights sky:

I always start with the lighter colours first.  Using an ink dauber, I made upward strokes from the lodge. Try to do this randomly if possible as the end result will then look more natural. 

I then did exactly the same with the pink.  I've masked off with post-it notes at this point to avoid getting colour onto my snowy area.

And again with the blue and green.  Note how the pink and blue create a lovely purple colour.  As you add in the colours one by one, this will then start to give you natural blends as you would see in the in the Northern Lights. 

When you are happy with the sky, this is the time to turn it into night.  I use a black Memento Tuxedo Black  to do this as it dramatically darkens the sky.

Now it's time to remove the mask to reveal the almost finished project. At this point, I added glitter to the roof and Fluffy Puffy Stuff to the edges of the roof and to the trees and I used a white gel pen to add snow to the top of the fence, although the photo doesn't really show it.

Here are the products that I use to whiten the snowy area and to create the snow drifts. Ordinarily, I would use Ink Dusters or a sponge dauber to do this but as the ornament is so small, I opted to use a cotton bud.  You need to make sure that you gently rub this onto a piece of copy paper first to remove the excess ink.

I use a Mountain Valley Stencil to ink in my snow drifts but you could also do this just as easily with a piece of torn copy paper.  Although, I thought the bauble was looking okay at this point, I though that I would add a little Gesso  to whiten it a bit more, that's when I had an idea........

  ......Why not add more Gesso and use a flat paint  brush to push it upwards and create some 3D snow drifts.  This worked and absolute treat and gave the image a more realistic look and added extra dimension.  You need to do this fairly quickly though as the Gesso seems to thicken and dry in a very short time.  If your paint brush gets clogged up, then just rinse it in water, dry wit a paper towel and start again.

I finished by adding a fine ribbon to hang the bauble and then a thicker ribbon to create a bow to dress it. I chose red as for me, it's the perfect Christmas colour 

I really hope that you've enjoyed my tutorial and that I might have inspired you to have a go yourself.

Until next time, Take care of yourselves and happy crafting :) x

Rudolph Day - November 16

Hello there,

Just a quick post from me today with a card that I've made for the very last Rudolph Day Challenge of this year.  Many thanks to Scrappy Mo and all of her Design Team for their hard work in running such a warm and friendly challenge.

All of the stamps that I've used on my card are by Inkylicious and the Northern Lights were created with Brushos.

Just a Little Change and a Splash of Colour

Hello there,

Well, as you have probably noticed, I've given my blog a bit of a face lift! I think it looks a lot fresher and I hope that you like it too. I'll keep working on it but I'm always terrified that I might do something that I shouldn't and then it won't work properly!

I have had quite a few new followers join me since my last post so I'd like to welcome you all and say thank you for joining me on my crafting journey.  If you have blogs of your own, then please leave me a comment to let me know so that I can visit you too. :)

As I've been busy making an order for a few of my Christmas ornaments, there hasn't been much going on in the card making department this week but I would like to share a card with you that I made quite recently.  It features one of my favourite silhouette stamps from Inkylicious and the raindrops, and sentiment too.  The stencil that I've used is one that Deby gave me a while back and I really like it in the background of this card:

I hope the rainbow brightens your day a little and I wish you all a very happy day x

FSC 'Tis the Season'

Hello there,

It's time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges. The theme this time is 'Tis The Season.'  and this one was chosen by our lovely Dot, She was happy for us to choose either an Autumn or Winter theme and as I really like to keep Christmas for December if I possibly can, I've opted for more of an Autumnal theme and here's the card that I've made:

For the main focal point of my card, I've used the 'Owl at Old Tree' stamp from Flonzcraft, and isn't he a beauty.

I coloured the Owl using various inks and watercolor pencils and then used a white pen to highlight some of his feathers. Once I was happy with the Owl, I masked him off before stamping the Midnight Tree in the background.  I used a Post-it-Note mask for the moon and then colored my early evening sky using Ink Dusters.  The sentiment that I've used is a Christmas stamp but as it had the exact wording of Dot's challenge, it seemed like the perfect choice.

For the outer border of my card, I used a the small Midnight Trees stamp by Inkylicious which I stamped with Memento Black Tuxedo before sprinkling over Light Brown and Orange Brusho inks. I then spritz them with water so that the colours would spread and blend into each other. Once this have completely dried, I sponged a little yellow and orange ink around the edges to fill in the gaps and give an extra burst of Autumn colour.

I finished my card by adding some Ivy which I made with a Memory Box die and then I mounted the image onto the background.  I opted for a white border in between to match the Moon and the outer edge of the card. I thinks that's Autumn well and truly done now for another year but it's been such a beautiful Season as always.

Remember

Forest Magic

Hello there, I hope that you are all keeping well and happy.

I was having a browse through the Craft Magazines whilst shopping this weekend and I came across a copy of Papercraft Inspirations which came with a free twenty piece stamp set called 'Forest Magic.' It was all woodland animals, trees and a Christmas Robin and as these things are right up my street, I had to buy it.

I had an idea of the sort of card that I wanted to make and here it is:

I started by by using a Clarity Woodland stencil. I masked off the moon and the snowy area and then created my night sky using Distress Bluepint Sketck, Adirondack Denim and Eggplant.  I let this dry before spritzing on white acrylic paint to create a starry night. Whilst the mask was still in place, I stamped the top row of trees.  I then removed the mask and stamped the smaller trees in front to give a more natural looking effect.

As I wasn't sure at this point how many animals I was going to use, I stamped and coloured them in using inks and water coloured pencils before sticking them onto my background.  Once the animals were in place, I then used a stencil to create the snowy hills and to ground the trees. Next, I used one of the snowflake stamps and a sentiment from the set and heat embossed them in white.  I then used my Ink Dusters with the Denim and Eggplant to dust around the edges of the card. I also used a touch of Distress Wilted Violet, which I thought would compliment to blue tone of the card.  I used a selection of the trees to create the bushes in the foreground and then dusted over them in purple. Last of all, I gently rubbed over the snowflakes and sentiment to brighten the up.

I'm really happy with the end result and very happy with my free stamps which I'm sure will get plenty of use, especially on masculine cards.

Wishing you all a wonderful day x

December Craft Stamper

Hello there my crafty friends and welcome to my two new followers.........Lilian Freeman and Elaine Parsons. Thank you both for joining me and thank you Lilian for taking the time to leave me a lovely comment on my last post :)

Tomorrow (Friday) will be a very exciting day for me as I'm having one of my Christmas ornaments featured in the December edition of Craft Stamper (Page 56.)  It's the first time Iv'e had anything published, so you can imagine just how thrilled I am.  It looks like it's going to fabulous edition with lots of festive features.

I actually made the ornament back in September and I have a full tutorial which I'll be able to post on my blog as soon as the next edition of Craft Stamper is released but just for now, here's a sneaky peak:

My ornament features the wonderful 'Winter Lodge' stamp from Inkylicious, so my thanks go to Deby for making such a fabulous stamp to work with.

The magazine also features a Christmas ornament by a very talented lady, Jannet Blay from Enchanted Place on page 54,  and there's also a feature by the talented Florence Langley of Florence and Freddie part 2 on page 60.  

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of the magazine so that I can see how many other familiar names I can spot from blog-land.

Until my next post, I wish you lots of 'Happy Crafting' x

Little Robin Redbreast

Hello there,

I have a few new followers who I would like to welcome to my blog,.......Michelle Martin, Office, Maria Bellekens, Diane C and Denise Hind. Thank you for joining me.

Just a quick post from me today with a card that I've made using stamps by Crafty Individuals.

The Tree is from one of the first stamp sets that I ever bought many years ago and the little Robin Redbreast  was one of the stamps that I won from Crafty Individuals back in August,

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend x

New Inkylicious Goodies

Hello there, I hope that life is treating you kind :)

A couple of weeks back, I had a lovely surprise when Emma from Inkylicious sent me some new crafting goodies.  The first stamp that really caught my eye was one called 'Fantasy Dandelion.'  I love silhouette stamps and this one is fabulous. I haven't had much crafting time lately and so the cards that I've made are quite simple but the possibilities are endless and this is one stamp that will definitely be used again and again. Here are the cards that I've made using the stamp:

Hope you like them as much as I enjoyed making them and thank you so much Emma for the unexpected but fabulous surprise.

Happy Crafting x

FSC Trees

Hello there and welcome to my new follower......Jeanette Kirby. Thank you for joining me :)

It's time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and it was my turn this time to choose a theme.  As we are well into Autumn now, I thought that 'Trees' would be an appropriate choice.  Here's the card I've made for the challenge:

I started by creating my background using Ink Dusters, starting with the lightest colours first and then gradually moving on to the darker colours. I used a Mountain Valley stencil to bring in the mountains and then I used a circular mask to make the sun.  I masked off the sky and spritz my Ink Dusters with water before dragging them across the card to give the water some movement.

I stamped the trees twice to make a long line before adding the Twiggy Branch and the birds to finish off the sky. I chose the Memories sentiment to use on this card as it uses the word 'Reflection' and I think that it works perfectly with the tree stamp.  I used the Bulrush stamp and grassed in the foreground and then finished by dusting around the edge with Memento Paris Dusk that that the eye would be drawn into the scene

Inks Used:

• Memento: Dandelion, Paris Dusk, Tuxedo Black, 
• Adirondack: Peach Melba, Mountain Rose, Purple Twilight, Water Melon
• Versafine: Black Onyx
• Distress: Carved Pumpkin

Thank you for visiting.  Happy crafting :) x

Sandy Toes and Salty Kisses

Hello there, and welcome to my new followers.......WelshPixels and Christine Bedford, thank you both for joining me.

I've entered a couple of my cards in this month's challenge over at Crafty Individuals. I didn't really feel that my first card met the criteria of CAS but I was happy enough with my second card which featured the Sweet Robin Redbreast.  I didn't have any intentions of entering a third card until yesterday when I received a photograph from my Son. The photograph is a picture of our little Grandson enjoying his first time at the seaside.  As soon as I saw the photo, it reminded me so much of the stamp that I won a few weeks ago from Crafty Individuals called Sandy Toes and Salty Kisses.  

Here's the card that I've made, inspired by our Grandson's first time at the seaside :)

Here's the photo of our little Cherub seeing the sea for the first time :)

Wishing you all a happy weekend, Sandra x

One For The Boys

Hi there, and welcome to my two new followers.........Cynthia and Lesley, thank you for joining me.

I'm here today with a card that I've made for the challenge over at Stamping Sensations which  is called 'One for the Boys.'  I'm quite late with my card this month but it's a challenge that I always love to take part in, so better late than never as they say;)  Here's my card:

The stamps that I've used on this card are by Flonz  Craft and are from a set called True Gentleman.  I think the stamps lend themselves perfectly for a Vintage Masculine card.

I started my background by adding Distress Tea Dye ink with Ink Dusters then randomly stamping Clocks and Hats.  I stamped the Gentlemen and the other focal images using Ground Espresso to give me a nice dark image, without using black. I then used the Tea Dye ink as a water colour to paint the dogs and the Gentleman's suit on the left.

Thank you for visiting and I hope you have a lovely day x

My Mixed Media Book Box

Hello there my Crafty Friends, I hope to find you all well and happy today :)

I have a few new followers....... Leanne, Mary Cheryl, Maggie, Bobbie, Anne, Ria, Karen and Stephanie and I would like to 'Hello' to you all and thank you for joining me on my crafting journey. I have tried to find out if you all have blogs but without much success, so if you do have one, then please leave me a comment and let me know so that I can pay you a visit in return and update this post with a link.

Right then, moving onto crafty things :)

On my last visit to Inkylicious, Darren, Deby's husband was busy making lots of different projects with his new laser cutter and he was kind enough to give me an MDF Book Box that he'd just made. This post is to show you how my project progressed.

I'm really new to mixed media, having only done a couple of canvas' before, so the box sat in my craft room for a few weeks until I felt inspired enough to have a go at decorating it. So this is how the story goes:

This is the box as it was made and given to me by Darren, so the first thing that I did was to give it a coat of black acrylic paint.  I don't have any Gesso, so I hoped that this would be okay and it was.  It was a tube that wasn't very expensive that I had purchased from 'The Works' but it covered perfectly, without the need for a second coat.

The faux hinges, lock and clock stencil were given to my by Deby and Emma, so thank you to you both as I think they all worked beautifully together.  It's the first time I've used the clock stencil and I made a batch of embossing paste to use with it to give the project some dimension.  I've seen lots of clocks used on mixed media, so I thought i'd give it a go.  The other pieces of white that you can see on the picture are Tim Holtz die cuts that I stuck on.  The last thing that I did here was to add some braiding to the top and bottom of the box.  This was something that I picked up in a charity shop years ago and it's the first time I've used it.

The next thing was to cover the whole project with a second coat of black acrylic. I think you can see it starting to take shape now :)

I then dabbed on various colours of acrylic paint and blended them slightly with a screwed up ball of cling film, and then with the flat part of my fingers. Di, if you're reading this it was......VERY, VERY MESSY.  I think at this point that you just have to embrace the mess and release your inner child!

As I wanted a nice metallic look to the book, I then covered the colours with a bronze acrylic paint

.After letting the whole thing dry, I then used gold gilding wax to highlight the clock and all of the other part that you can see are gold.  The frame inside the clock face ia an MDF shape that I painted with bronze acrylic and I stamped and Inkylicious sentiment on the inside of it.  

Just the finishing touches to add now and so I made some roses which I covered with black acrylic and then used Cosmic Shimmer UTE powder on them whilst they were still wet. I added three coat of the embossing powder which left the roses rock hard.  I was really pleased with the result at it means that the roses are much more robust than they would have been if I had just left them as they were. The black Ivy was made using a Memory Box Die.

So there is is, my mixed media book box. It does actually look much better in real life, unfortunately, the photo doesn't do it justice. I'm not sure I would have ever done something like this if I hadn't have been given the Book Box, so many thanks to Darren, Deby and Emma at Inkylicious for believing that I might do something wonderful with it.

Take good care of yourselves and Happy Crafting x

Crafty Individuals - Take Two

Hello my Crafty Friends,

I'm here today with the second card that I've made for this month's challenge over at Crafty Individuals.  Now, it's only as I'm writing this and putting in the link that I've found that I may have made a big mistake here, lets see if you can spot it........The Craft Individuals stamp that I've used is called  'Sweet Robin Redbreast'  Oh Dear Me!

Okay, let's start again....... I've made this card with a beautiful stamp from Crafty Individuals as the main focal point, and I've used my 'Artistic Licence' to paint the Robin in different colours. Phew, I think that  just about covers it!  ;)

I started by stamping the Robin with Versafine ink to give a crisp, clear image and I then stamped the branch below to give the little bird something to stand on. I masked off the Robin whilst I used Ink Dusters to create the background.  I used an Inkylicious sentiment that I thought would work well with the Robin stamp and I added interest to the background by using a Harlequin stencil. I then removed the mask and painted the bird.

The inks that I've used are:

• Distress- Blueprint Sketch 
• Distress- Tea Dye
• Distress - Twisted Citron
• Memento - Dandelion 

I'm not sure it's absolutely CAS, but it looked far too plain and uninspiring at its most basic, I'm now happy with the end result and I hope you like it too :)

FSC Autumnal Colours

Good morning my crafty friends.

It's time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and the theme this time is 'Colours of Autumn.'  

I've taken some time here and actually remembered to take some photographs of my card and it's progression.

I started by cutting out a circular mask for the Sun and then coloured it using my Ink Dusters and Distress inks. I always use a deeper shade, or a second colour of ink on approximately one third of the outer edge of the sun to give it some shade.  You can see this here at the top left:

Next, I used a VersaMark embossing ink to add my silhouette image which is from Flonzcraft.  You shouldn't really be able to see the image at this stage as the VersaMark ink pad is clear but unfortunately, mine has been well used.  This isn't a problem when using dark embossing colours but it wouldn't be suitable if you were wanting to create a clear or white image.

I used a detailed black embossing powder and heat embossed it to create the silhouette figure.

The next bit is where my colour of Autumn come into play.  After masking off the Sun, I used a Stampin Up leaf stamp from the 'Lovely as a Tree' set to stamp randomly all over the card.  I used a Big and Juicy ink pad to do this as I knew that the colours would then all bend together beautifully. Unfortunately, these fabulous ink pads are no longer available.

The next bit was definitely a labour of love as it took me most of an afternoon to water colour each leaf that I'd stamped.  I tried to ensure at this point that I had a good selection of each of the Autumn colours.  Once again, I used the Big and Juicy ink pad for my colour palette. Once this was all dry, I used a sponge dauber around the sun to give it a warm glow and then dusted around the edge with a deep red to help fame my image.

Last leg now as I just needed to find a base card that would compliment the colours in my image, so I opted for a rich gold.  As you can see, I also layered my card with cream and black card too to create a frame.  

I think I've hit the brief here and I hope that you like the end result.