I'm joining Crafty Individuals :)

Hello there,

I have some very exciting news to share with you all today.  I'm absolutely thrilled to announce that I'm joining the lovely Jean Hardy and the rest of her wonderful Design Team over at Crafty Individuals.

I'd like to share with you a few of the cards that I've made, three using their latest Landscape stamps and one using some old favourites of mine.  I hope that you like them:

Many thanks to Jean and Malcolm for giving me this opportunity and I'm really looking forward to working with you all.

Sandra x

Rudolph Day - May 17

Hello there,

Just a really quick post from me today to share with you my contribution to this month's Rudolph Day challenge. It doesn't seem two minutes since the first one in January and here were are now in Summer.  At least we've had some sunshine this week :)

Here's the card that I've made:

I've made used white ink on Kraft card to give a faux parchment look.  All of the stamps that I've used are by Inkylicious.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend x

Village Life

Hello there,

I hope that you are all keeping well and happy.

Just a quick post to share with you a card that I've made with some new stamps by Crafty Individuals. They only arrived this morning and I just couldn't wait to have a play with them :)

I can see these getting a lot of use, and isn't the Pub a great stamp for masculine cards!

Take care and enjoy the rest of your weekend x

Let's Go Wild

Hello there,

I hope that you're all enjoying your weekend.

It's time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this time it was my turn to choose a theme and I chose 'Lets Go Wild.'  I've had an absolute blast making this card and fortunately, I did remember to stop and take some photographs along the way, so I'll be adding this one into my 'Tutorials' page.  Let me show you the finished card:

Here's how I made it:

I started by stamping the Leopard with Versafine Black Onyx as it makes a really clear impression and I added a mask to protect him whilst I was colouring and stamping the background.

I masked off the Sun and then I used Ink Dusters to start adding colour to my background.

I removed the mask and then started to build up the colour and add some clouds over the sun to give a more natural effect.  I always start with the lighter colours first, then build up colour gradually.  As Barbara Gray would say "You can always add it but you can't take it away."

I used a Mountain Valley stencil to add the mountains; you can really see the picture starting to take shape now.

I then stamped the trees and animals.  If I'm not quite sure where I want things to be placed, then I often stamp onto acetate and move it around against the background to see where the stamp works best.  I decided to place the large tree behind the leopard to bring him into the foreground.  I love the card at this stage and it could have been left here, and maybe a sentiment added,  I think the leopard works equally as well without colour.

I coloured the leopard with inks and a little chalk, just to accentuate his nose. Finally, I stamped in the grass to complete the scene.

I'm really pleased with this one if I do say so myself and I really hope that you like it too. 

Here is a photograph of the things that I used to create my card.  There should also be some Distress Walnut Stain ink which I used to stamp the grass.

We would love you to join us in this challenge but please remember that we are a stamping challenge, so please don't use digital images or too many die cuts, just good old fashioned stamping, and lots of it!

Wishing you all a wonderful day x

Destination Unknown

Hello my crafty friends,

I'm here today to share this card that I've made with one of my new sets of  Invisible Image Stamps, which I'm loving, especially the 'Stay Wild' set, which I will share with you at a later time.  I wasn't sure what direction this card was going to go in but I'm happy with the outcome and I really like the colours for a masculine card:

My background was made using Memento Morocco, Distress Mermaid Lagoon and bleach.  I dabbed the ink onto my craft mat and then spritzed it with water before picking the ink up on the card.  The beach then lifts a little of the colour off.  I stamped the title and then the paper aeroplanes before adding the other words. Next, I stamped the planes again, fussy cut them out and then added them with a little shadow to give a little more dimension.  I joined them altogether using a fine liner before finishing off the words with a white highlighter pen.  There was still something missing at this point, so I took a small plastic cap and stamped some rings using Versafine Black Onyx and white acrylic paint. 

The sun is shining and my garden is calling for some attention so I'll leave you for today but I'll be back on Sunday with my card and a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges.

Wishing you a happy day x

'Butterflies Fairies and Fantasy'

Hello there, and a very happy Sunday morning to you all.

As most of you will already know, I was lucky enough to win the March challenge over at Stamping Sensations. This really came as a huge surprise to me as there were so many beautiful entries.  I won a fabulous prize of some 'Tattered Lace' dies, and I was also asked if I would be their Guest Designer for May, so I jumped at the chance and here's the card that I've made for them:

The main Fairy stamp that I've used is by 'Make Your Mark.' They have a wonderful little stamp shop on Goodramgate in York, so if you're having a trip out to York, then it's well worth a visit. The rest of the stamps that I've used are all by Inkylicious, with the exception of the butterfly which is one that I got in a small set from The Works.

The inks that I've used are by: Adirondack; Distress;Versafine.

I used Perfect Pearls on the tips of the flowers to give some dimension and to make them stand out a little. I think this works particularly well against the dark inks. I also added some iridescent glitter to the Butterfly Fairy's wings, although I'm not sure that it shows up too well in the first photo, so here's a close up:

Just before I go, I would like to show another photo of just a few of the flowers that I've made so far with my prize from Stamping Sensations.  I just love the Lily, which looks so real, what do you think?

That's me done for today and I hope that you like what I've made. 

Wishing you a very happy and relaxing day x

A Face And Some Sunshine Colours

Hello there my friends,

It's funny how sometimes we can have a complete lack of mojo, and at other times, the ideas just keep on flowing, well I'm very pleased to say that I've had a very happy and productive morning  in my craft room and here's the result:

I have to say that I've fallen in love with this tag.  I'm not really sure why, or what's different about it. Maybe it's just the warm, bright colours.  I actually started out with the intentions of just adding colour and stamping, but then one thing lead to another and I couldn't stop myself, so it's ended up as a piece of mixed media and I'm very happy with the end result.

I started by stamping the face and masking it to protect the image. I then used my Ink Dusters to add some colour to the tag. Next, I added some torn pieces from a book and then coloured over them too. The stamps that I've used are all by Inkylicious and the inks are: Distress - Fired Bricked Red; Carved Pumpkin; Impress: - Old Rose and Versafine Black Onyx.

The die cuts that I've used are by Tim Holtz and Tattered Lace and the butterfly is one that I printed out and then fussy cut out.  I finished by adding a black lace bow to the lady's neck, which I felt gave the tag the balance that it needed.

Chocolate Baroque Revisited

Hi there,

Just a really quick post with my second and final entry for this month's challenge over at Chocolate Baroque:

The stamps that I've used are from the Chocolate Baroque 'Wild Meadow' set.

Enjoy the rest of your day x

Chocolate Baroque Tag

Hello my trusty blogging friends,

I hope that you're all enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend.

I'm here today with a tag that I've made for this month's colour challenge over at Chocolate Baroque.

I started by brayering some green acrylic blue/green paint onto my Gelli plate and then pressing a piece of lace into it.  I removed the lace and then pressed my white card onto it to pick up the lace pattern. This looked great when I first did it but then I lost some of the pattern once I started to add the other colours around the edge. I think you can still just about see it if you look closely at the center. The Thistle stamp that I've use  and the stamp around the edge are both from Chocolate Baroque's Wild Meadow set.

I do hope that you're getting the chance to spend some time doing what you love the most x