Keeping it simple...

Happy Sunday,

Day 2 in Darlington and a simple card for today just using the borders and flourishes set of clear stamps from my Christmas range.

I stamped the seasons Greating stamp around a frame made using the double pierced squares dies.  I shaded the edges using basil leafy colour cloud bending ink.  Next I stamped the solid ivy flourish corner around all four corners of a square cut with the double pierced squares.  Next I stamped the open ivy corner over the top to define the lines and make it look like I had coloured them in by hand.  I shaded around the square and added this to the card blank.

I stamped the star wreath form my elegant reindeer set in the Green gold sparkle embossing powder. I mounted the stamped frame over this and added t to the card blank.

Hopefully a simple quick card perfect for you batch cards!






IMPORTANT NOTE I have had loads of emails regarding the sticky and other embossing powders I have used I only use Cosmic Shimmer embossing powders so all instructions are for the use of these, different embossing powders (especially Sticky or bonding powders form other companies may work differently and I have no experience of them)

enjoy...

Christmas Friday...

Happy Friday,

I thought i'd blogged this card however i think i popped it on Facebook!  I have to admit that whilst this was originally designed as a Christmas card I would send it all year.

I stare by stamping the scripted rose background stamp using crimson kiss colour cloud I then shaded the stamped image to give the cloudy effect.  I cut this and mounted it onto a piece of white then antique gold foundation card.

For the wreath I sprayed water onto  piece of watercolour card and added candy pink and rich gold pixie powder and allowed it to spread creating the beautiful marbled pattern. Next I stamped the medium and smallest roses from my Christmas rose elements clear set.  I then cut these out with the matching dies and shed them on my stamping mat with a ball tool.

Next I cut the rose leaves from the same die set in antique gold card.  I arranged the leaves around a circle cut with the double pierced dies and arranged the roses over the spaces.


I simply mounted the wreath, with from tape, over the stamped background. I added cosmic shimmer dries clear glue in the centre of each rose and added gold microbeads.





I added a bow made form reversible pink satin ribbon and gold twine from my stash with a couple of Tim Holtz Christmas muse tokens on the end of each of the gold twine bow.


To make up the card I embossed a panel of white card with the star swirls embossing folder and shaded it lightly with more of the crimson kiss colour cloud.  A few layers of white and gold and finished.

Enjoy...

Christmas Shades...

Happy Thursday,

I'm sorry this post is a couple of days late I had planned to sneak peak the my new Christmas Shades paper pad on Tuesday however I wanted to make the projects in each colour and that proved more time consuming than I thought!

To start with the first picture is a collection made with just a few of the Soft Berry shade of papers form the pad.  I have made a Large gift bag, Pillow box, Christmas Card and a small gift bow.  I have also used, of course,m a selection of the stamp release as well!

I thought It would be fun to introduce the pad by making one of my favourite things a box and to do it, as shown, in every colour.  The colours are Soft Berry, Amethyst, Soft Gold, Sapphire, Ice Blue & Soft Holly.  As usual I have matched these to as many Creative Expressions ranges as possible so that you can easily match your products to make beautiful creations of your own.

These small gift boxes were the perfect idea for me to show the different colourways as well as how I have teamed Creative Expressions  double sided satin ribbon to the colours.

Shown here are the Soft shades and below the Modern shades hopefully giving maximum crafting possibilities.  I also wanted to make the pad multiuse so some of the patterns can be used all year round in fact there is only one design that says Christmas!

Another sneak peak tomorrow,

Enjoy...

Pixie Nasturtiums...

Happy Friday,

I thought I would share with you today a card I have made specially for my demo at the new Crafters Companion Flagship store in Newton Ayecliffe on Saturday.  I cant wait to see the new shop and have a look around at what they have on offer.  The store stocks loads of Creative Expressions products and that is what I will be demoing ( as well as this card)

This card uses some of my favourites form the new die range as well as my fave stamp set the nasturtium elements clear set.

I stared by drawing round the inside of the number 3 die in the double pierced circles with a pencil onto bright white foundation card.  I then stamped the large nasturtium element from the set twice around this circle in opposite corners using perfect medium.  I heat embossed the stamped design with Cosmic Shimmer brilliant sparked embossing powder in black mirage.  Next I coloured the flowers using pixie powders taking Julia Watts technique of adding water to a small amount of powder in a palette and using a water brush to pick up and paint.  one these had dried I mixed some of the white pearl pixie powder in the same way and used this to add highlights to the flowers.

I next cut into the middle of the circle with scissors and simply cut out around the flowers ( not that neatly see the pictures) I then added the die into the centre putting the stamped and coloured images over the top of the die so that they didn't cut.  the russet was I got the beautiful pierced circle leading to the flower sprays but they were left in place.

I then used the number 4 deign the set and cut a smaller circle from cobalt foundation card.  I cut the original circle with the double pierced squires set and foam mounted this over the cobalt cutting around the edge to give a neat blue border around the square.

I the took a piece of the new silver shine pearl card and cut the stitches lattice form this putting the die back int o extend the pattern to make almost an A4 sheet of lattice.  I added this behind, again with moire from tape, and added a PVA white pearl glue dot at each intersection.


Finally I added a sentiment form my larkspur everyday sentiment set stamped in cobalt archival ink and added a border of the cobalt cut with one of the centres form the Swiss die range.

a few layers of cobalt and white and finished.

If you are around the Crafters Companion store on Saturday I will be demoing between 10am and 4pm it would be great to see some familiar faces there!

Enjoy...

Summer Blues...

Happy Wednesday,

A sample form my recent stamp launch shows today using the Nasturtiums trying to keep in the summary feel!

Today's offering is an actual card, rare for me not being just a front but we have to change it up sometimes and I loved the ease and simplicity of this one.

I stared by stamping the leaves, large and medium flowers from the Nasturtium elements clear set onto coconut white card using watering can archival ink.  Next I "coloured' the flowers using frosted aqua and sky colour cloud blending ink and a smoothie.  I then simply fussy cut these out and shaded around the edges with more of the colour cloud ink and a mini smoothie adding matching Frosted sky PVA pearls in the centres of the flowers.

Next I cut a panel to fit the front of the A5 card black and embossed it with the rambling rose embossing folder.  I shaded the edges using frosted sky colour cloud and added this to the front of the card.  I cut the smallest tag from the Spellbinder fancy ribbon threader die and threaded some seam binding, coloured with the colour cloud, through the side and tied a simple bow.  I stamped the sentiment, from the same set, and shaded the piece whilst in the die.

Finally I made up the card as shown using the branches form the Spellbinders cherry blossom die to anchor the flowers around the top left corner placing the tag in the centre.

A simple card that is quickly made but that hopefully invokes a summery and light feel.

Enjoy...

Lilac Nasturtiums...

Happy Thursday,

More samples form my new stamp release today and another sample made for the Hochanda shows earlier in the week  however this didn't make it to the show.  For some reason this went missing over the weekend so I want able to show it (if you caught the shows you may remember me telling Leonie about this card!)

Today's card is made using the Nasturtium elements clear stamp set and is relatively simple to make.

I stared by drawing round the inside of die number 3 in the double pierced background rectangles deduced by Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions.  Next I took the largest stamp in the set and stamped this over one corner making sure that the edges of the leaves and flowers were stamped over the edge lines.  Next I rotated the piece of foundation card and  stamps the same image over the opposite corner.  I then stamped the sentiment, form the same set, in the centre.

Next I cut out the flowers and leaves that hung over the edge of the drawn line then slid the die in over the card making sure the sections that hung over slipped through to the front of the die ( this is so much easier to show than explain!)  I then cut the die which gave the pierced rectangle but dissent cut the overhang that you pop through to the other dies of the die.  I will try to demo this again as soon as I can or shoot a video on this.  I then coloured the image using my Alcohol markers using different shades and leaving some white areas to make the flowers look more realistic.  I ran a light grey around the edge to give a drop shadow and make the stamped image look like it is coming off the page.

For the background I wet one half of a piece of watercolour card leaving half completely dry.  I then added Purple Violet pixie powder over the wet section and allowed it to soak the colour in where it was wet.  Where the paper is dry the pixie powder doesn't stick or spears leaving an ombre effect where the colour finished and goes to white.  To make this more obvious I added the powder at the bottom edge which means that the colour weakens as it reached the border between wet and dry card.

Hopefully I will find this card somewhere in my stash or craft cave, if not I may have to try to recreate it!

Enjoy...

Flowers for June...

Happy Wednesday,

Wow what a brilliant set of shows I had such a laugh with Leonie and Charlie!  U thought Id show you another sample form the shows this time using the set that appears to be my favourite as I have made so many samples with this one.  Therefore what I thought I would do is show a couple of card each day this week!

This was my first demo on the One Day special so if you want to see how this one was made you can watch it HERE on Hochanda Catch up!

The second card is also using this set this time using the matching Sentiments et.  You may notice that the shape of these sentiments are familiar to followers of Sue Wilson and her Blog family.  I designed these to match the Belgian collection set of dies as they are drawn to match the centre shape that goes across all of the Belgian collection.













I used the Elements stamp set for the larger flowers on the strip stamped in perfect medium and then coloured by dusting mica powder across the designed.  The background which I demoed on the Hochanda shows, is made using the letterpress technique, rambling roses embossing folder and mica powder.

Enjoy...

Stamp Launch day 2...

Happy Tuesday,

I hope you all liked the hand painted shirt I wore that night I really enjoyed the show, don't forget I am back on Hochanda today at 9am, 12pm, 4pm and last chance at 7pm.  !  I thought today I would show you another fabric painted project however this is a card.  It great when you can mix your crafts so the idea of using stamps on fabric just makes them more versatile and better value for me!

To make this one I stamped the flowers from the Peony elements clear stamp set onto plain Calico ( bought from Sew Simple at there weekend) using jet black archival ink.  I stamped the smaller peony twice and added a couple of extra leaves and the smallest of the flowers.  Next I simply coloured them in using the fab new Cosmic Shimmer Fabric paints I used the pink, pearl, the silver and green mixed to make all the shades shown ( sorry I don't know the formal names for these as I just have tester pots!)

Next I simply cut around the stamped and coloured image with scissors and then frayed the edges meaning i didn't need to sew anything! ( the idea was suggested by my Boss, she loves the fabric paints!)

I placed this on a larger mat of Kraft card , punched holes at the corners and added some brads form my stash to attach to the card.  I then added a thin layer of Baby Pink foundation card around this to match the pink in the paints!

I stamped the sentiment, again from the peony set, onto a scrap of the Kraft card and cut it out with the smaller ribbon threader die form the Spellbinders set I have on the show. Instead of threading the ribbon I added a flag cut piece  behind this so it shows through the slots.  I added thin border of the pink.

I added a panal of the Kraft card embossed with the rambling roses A4 embossing folder which I shaded with Frosted Mink colour cloud blending ink again with a pink mat.

Finally I made up the card as shown adding more of the ribbon and a few layers of the pink and Kraft card.

I hope you can tune in today for one of the shows.

Enjoy...

New Stamp Launch...

Happy Monday,

Don't forget I am on Hochanda this evening at 8pm with the launch of the One Day Special.  This launch will be my new Summers Child stamp set along with 5 new clear sets designed with summer in mind.  I thought I would start today with the Summer Child set and one of the card I will be demoing this evening.

This set covers the birthdays for June, July & August and, as usual, has all the extras including sentiments that I always try to include.  Here is a close up of the full set.

AS its soon the first of June I hope these are in time lol!

I have added a few other cards that use this set tune in to see more!

Sneak Peak Saturday...

Happy Saturday,

Well today's card is a bit of a sneak peak so I'm not giving any details on today's card I'm sorry, what I will do if you can guess what new product designed by me I will send this card out to the whoever guesses     (or the first one drawn at random if you all work it out)

I have added a few more pictures to help you guess and hopefully get some inspiration form the card.

The full ranges for spring 2016 will be released tomorrow at the trade show so there will be reveals each day next week from Monday.

Enjoy...