Rudolph Day - September 21

Hello there,

It's the 25th of the month, so time for another 'Rudolph Days' challenge over on Scrappy Mo's blog.

Here's the card that I've made:

Well I have to say that I've really enjoyed making this card.  I love it when you can take stamps from different companies and they all work together in the way that they've done on this card.  

I masked off the snow to add the background colour.  Next, I masked off the snow again and added the CI trees to the skyline. The over hanging trees are by Stampscapes and the sleigh and moon are by Inkylicious.  The beautiful hare and foliage in the foreground are by Crafty Individuals. 

That's all from me for today, so take care of yourselves and stay happy xx

I'd also like to add this card into the following challenges:

A Bit More Time To Craft - Anything Goes

The Holly And Ivy Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Challenge #412 (Hare made with a snippet of card)

As You Like It Challenge - Autumn/Winter and Why? - (Winter) Because I love it when the ground is covered with snow and everything looks so perfect and peaceful.)

Daring Cardmakers - A Walk On The Wild Side 

Jingle Belles - Dashing through The Snow

Crafty Calendar Challenge - Anything Goes

Autumnal Art Journal Page

Hello there Peeps and how are you all doing?

I've had a good week so far.  Hubby and I had a lovely morning walk yesterday collecting elderberries and blackberries for wine making over the coming weeks.  I'll have to let you know how that goes as I've never made either of them before.  I made some elderflower wine earlier on in the year and that was really successful, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for the next lot.  I spent yesterday afternoon making an autumnal art jounal page with a little bit of a twist as I have a dancing girl in the center.  I hadn't planned to do that but I was just drawn to the stamp, so I went with the flow!  Here it is:

The 'Dancing Woman' stamp is by Rubber Dance (NBUS)  I'm ashamed to say that I've had this stamp for the last year or so and it's the first time that it's been used!  All of the leaves that I've used with this exeption of a few small die cuts are by Inkylicious.  I pressed my ink pads into my craft mat, then spritzed before picking up the colour on my card.  Once it was completely dry, I then stamped in VersaFine and clear embossed it to set the ink.  Next, I spent a good couple of hours cutting them out and that's a labour of love, I can tell you!  There are a few tiny leaves that I die cut as I wanted to have a good variety of shapes and colours on the page.  Next, I had to decide whether to use a sentiment or not but in the end, I decided to go with one that came as a freebie with Creative Stamping magazine a couple of years ago.  Also, I forgot to mention that I used a leaf stencil on white card which I used as the base of my design.  Although you can't see very much of it, I fussy cut around it as I didn't want to have a straight edge.  All done now and I'm very happy with it and I hope that you like it too.

I would like to add this journal page into the following challenges:

Country View Challenges - The Leaves Begin To Fall

Sparkles Monthly Challenge Blog - Autumn Colours

A Bit More Time To Craft - Anything Goes

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Ruby's Memory  (Very rare that I use snippets on my inky cards, so joining in just for fun with this challenge as I have loads on this journal page :)  

Make My Monday Challenge - Autumn/Fall Card

Happy Little Stampers Water Colour Challenge - Anything Goes

NBUS

A Scenic Tutorial

Hello there,

I mentioned in my last post that I had made a scenic tutorial, so here it is as promised.  This is the card that I made:

1. Start by adding some colour to your background.  When I'm creating a scene such as this one, I try to use the same colour top and bottom as it will then give a reflection of the sky colours in the water

2. Use a sheet of copy paper to mask off the sky to create the water

3. Keep the mask in place and stamp in the trees

3. Use a stencil or a piece of torn copy paper to create some hills in the background

4. Stamp some images in the foreground

5. Add some hanging branches to the top of your card, then heat emboss with a clear powder as you will be adding some colour over this and you don't want it to smudge

6. Blend some colour over the branches.  This will help to frame the image and draw the veiwers eye into the scene that you've created

7. Time to add some colour now.  This will give your scene the detail that it needs.  Also, don't be afraid to add more stamps if you feel that they are needed.

8. All finished, so sit back and admire what you've just created!

I hope you've enjoyed this photo tutorial and I'd love you to drop me a quick comment to let me know what you think of it.  Better still, have a go at a scene like this yourself and let me know how it goes, I’d love to see what you create xx 

Magic Maggie, you cracked me up with your last comment about the car boot sales.  Keep looking……. I’ll be the one buying all the crafty stuff, not selling it! :) :) :)

Published In Papercraft Society

 Hello there,

At the beginning of August, I had a couple of my projects featured in one of the Papercraft Society Box magazines (23) (August Edition) over at Craft Stash.   It contained some lovely designs by Jean Hardy from Crafty Individuals, although they didn't make any of the products themselves.  Here's what I made:

This one was made using stamps and a stencil from the kit.  As it was an autumnal themed box, these were the colours that they wanted me to use.

For my second project, I used stamps and dies from the kit.  Again, I had to use autumnal colours but I think they work so well with these stamps.  I die cut the tiny leaves and then shaped them before adding hot glue to give them dimension.  The idea was to make them look like fallen leaves.  

I had to provide a photo tutorial for both projects and I have to admit that I made a bit of a boo boo with my first card.  I was so eager to get started that I did the whole card before reading the instrusctions again, which clearly stated that I needed to use the stipulated colours!  That will teach me won't it!  On the plus side, I now have another photo tutorial that's good to go, so I'll post that here on Friday.

That's all from me for today, so I'll wish you all a very happy week xx  

CAS Autumn Colours

Hi there,

Just a quick post from me today to share a card that I'd like to enter into a couple of challenges:

The stamps that I've used are my Crafty Individuals, Inkylicious and Stampscapes.  I stamped the branch with VersaFine to give a good image, then I went over it again with various Distress inks before spritzing it and stamping it again to give a water colour effect.  The owl is water coloured with Distress and Adirondack inks.

I'd like to add this card into the following challenges:

CAS Mix Up Card Challenge - Autumn Colours

Addicted To CAS Challenge - Nature

Happy Little Stampers - Winged Things

A Spotty Card For A Worthwhile Cause

Hello there and how are you all doing? Good I hope :)

I'm here today to share a card that I've made for a challenge that my crafty friend 'Chris Frazer' of 'All She Crafts' blog is running on FB.  The idea of Chris' challenge is to raise the awareness of how to spot the signs and symptoms of Leukaemia by asking people to create something spotty using any crafty medium.  I've chosen to to use some Crafty Individuals stamps and a stencil to create my spots and here's the card that I've made:

I absolutely adore this seagull stamp and the fabulous spotty stamps in the background were all designed for Crafty Individuals by my lovely crafty friend 'Flo Langley' who was a previously a DT member. 

September is Blood Cancer Awareness month and today a campaign is being launched to 'Spot Leukaemia' and it's all about spotting the six signs and symptoms which are listed below:

I'm happy to be supporting Chris in this worthwhile cause and I think that my card hits the brief.

Wishing you all a very happy day xx

Message for Magic Maggie

Thank you for your kind comments on my last post.  In answer to your request for a sky tutorial, I tend to use the same technique for most of my cards.  This can be found on my 'Tutorials’ page but here's a link to one that probably shows it best.  Hope this helps you Maggie and many thanks for your continued support x