Dasher Deer!

Good Morning All and may I wish you a very Merry Christmas!

No, I haven't completely lost the plot, but I do want to introduce you to one of the new Xmas stamps from Sam Poole at Creative Studios!!

The stamp I've used to make the card below is "Dasher Deer" and he is just so cute.  If you loved the range of Woodland stamps Sam did earlier in the year, then you're in for a treat this winter.

I'm afraid that my photography isn't showing how well this came out.  I'd love to be able to pass it around you all.  If you're coming to the October workshop at Martells, not only will you be able to see it, you'll be making it too!
Of course, there are the step by step instructions on the Creative Studios Blog.

There is a hedgehog, robin and partridge as well as some trees and a poinsettia.  I'll be blogging those over the next few weeks but if you can't wait, I'll have all the stamps for you to see on Crafty Sunday (3rd August).

So, until next time, have a fab week!

WOYWW

Good Morning All and a very happy WOYWW.

To kick things off, here's a photo of my desk.

You'll be able to see a pot of Cosmic Shimmer Summer Meadow Gilding Flakes, some Flake and Glitter Glue, my scooshy and a large A6 Dot background stamp from Sam Poole at Creative Studios.  There's also the stamped and gilded card at the front.  I'm working on a project for the workshops at Martells in February next year! 
The next workshop is on Saturday and we won't be having any after November until next year and I know they'll want to know what we're going to do!

I've posted my DT piece on the Creative Studios blog this morning (for link, go to Sam on the right).  It's a Christmas card, thought I'd better get started!  All of the step by steps are on the CS blog.

Here's the finished card...non-traditional colours for a change!
Yesterday was my first "official" post as a DT member for Creative Expressions and you can see the card and step by step in yesterdays post.

Onto other matters.  Some of you may know about the kitten that my daughter rescued from a sealed cardboard box.  He seemed poorly on Saturday and so she rushed him to the emergency vet 20 miles away.  He told her that the kitten was going to die possibly in the next few days or months and that he could put Gonzo to sleep there and then.  It seems that the poor little chap has a congenital condition that will always afflict him.  Sam (my dd) wanted a second opinion from her own vet so took the kitten there on Monday (she was in tears thinking that he wouldn't be coming home with her).  Her own vet said that although Gonzo has a problem he could live a very happy life for years to come but would always need extra help.  It seems that an aorta to the brain didn't grow properly and so he is always going to be very slow and disabled.
The upshot is that he is fine but will always be like a tiny kitten in his ways and won't ever be able to go outside.  He can, however, play and enjoy his many cuddles.  One much happier daughter who is fully prepared to give him as much love and care as he needs.  I really think that she was meant to find him.  We're kitten sitting while she goes to work and as her partner works shifts, it means that the kitten always has someone there with him.
Someone told her she was being cruel keeping him alive as it would restrict her freedom!  It wasn't the vet who told her that there was no reason to put Gonzo to sleep.
We're so glad that she got a 2nd opinion and trusted her instincts.  Glad I got that off my chest but it'll be a long time before I forgive the 1st vet for putting her and her partner through so much stress.

Well, that's it for today.  Sorry it's gone on a bit!  The blog candy is still there. down to just 13 more now.  I might be a bit late getting around the desks this week as I have to go out today. 

Many thanks for your visits and comments. Until next time...

PVA Crackle

Today's offering is a card we'll be making at the May 18th workshop at Martells in Cliftonville.

I used a size 8 tag and painted it with blue Eco Green acrylic paint then applied a layer of PVA glue.  Dried it a little then painted over it with white acrylic.  Next, heat up wuth your heat gun and crackles will appear.  I very gently applied Black Soot Distress Ink around the edges.

The stamps are from Creative Expressions.

The background was made using Faded Jeans Distress Ink and a wet smooshing technique.  I roughed up the edges with a pair of scissors then distressed with Black Soot again.

This is only a very quick post as we're off to Ally Pally at 7am and we still need to load the car up and I need more tea!!

Hope to see you there and thanks for stopping by. 

Mixing it up

I do wish that the photo had come out better!

You're going to have to use your imagination a bit with this.

The background was made by inking up a mask with Perfect Medium, running it through the Grand Calibur with black card then adding clear embossing powder and heating.  Tip: use your anti-static bag on the card before you start!

The tag was a really cheap and nasty one from a stationers..I don't think they'd recognise it now!

I inked it up with Perfect Medium and added UTEE then heated.  Next I got a teaspoon and added some silver and black emboss powders (Cosmic Shimmer) in different areas on the tag and heated again.  I always let it cool and then apply Perfect Medium between each stage.  When you're happy with the coverage, heat it again and, using a teaspoon, add some Luna Silver Mica Flakes and Micro Beads.  They stick really well into the UTEE.

The tag was put on with 3d foam pads after I'd removed the string and added some ribbon instead.

In real life the card is very sparkly.  It's one that we're making at the May 18th workshop at Martells.  Hope you like it.

The very fab Sue Wilson has a Pick of the Day on Create & Craft from 9pm tonight so don't miss the shows....they're bound to be fab.

I'm up to my neck in packing for the cruise.  I'm sure that most of the clothes have a sprinkling of gilding flakes on them!  It's a fairly tight schedule as we get home from Ally Pally on Saturday evening and leave for the cruise on Sunday morning.  This is where organisation comes into it's own....does anyone know where I can buy some!!

Back down to the studio for more sample making ready for Saturday.  Hope you all have a fun, crafty day and thank you for visiting.

Carrying on with the Bird Theme

Of Course you can Fly.
I designed this card for a workshop later this year at Martells.  I had no idea where I was going with it when I started putting it together but I was so pleased with the end result.
I made the background using the wet smooshing technique with Distress Inks and overstamped some tiny birds with Black Archival, they were 2nd and 3rd generation stamping.
The birdcage was cut using a Spellbinder Die.  When I decided where I wanted it to go, I stamped a bird to fit in the cage and a branch for it to hang from.  The larger bird is also a die from the same set as the cage and I wanted him looking in at the other bird.
I stamped a swirl in the bottom corner and added some black seam binding and a dazzler.  The message was stamped on the same background then stuck on with 3d foam pads.
All of the items used were from Creative Expressions..visit their website for product details.  There's loads on there including their own blog.
I spent a merry few hours playing with some gilding flakes yesterday.  When I'd finished the studio looked like an explosion in a fairy factory and so did I.  I'll take a piccie of the finished piece and you can let me know what you think.
Anyhoo, samples to make for Ally Pally today so better get on with it.
Thanks for visiting and any comments are always lovely to see.  You do sometimes wonder if there's anyone reading this!  One last thing.....please remember the blog candy!
 



An Oldie but a Goodie

This card was made using such an old technique but one that's great fun.

The background was embossed with the Fretwork Mask through the Grand Calibur and lightly inked with Spun Sugar Distress.

The next stage was to make the background for the stamped image.

Cut your cardstock to size.  Put shaving foam into a container...I use a throwaway plastic plate.  Smooth the shaving foam down with a ruler.  Add ink...for this card I've sprayed Cosmic Shimmer Vintage Misters onto the shaving foam but you could use Distress Re-Inkers.

Swirl the inks around but try not to "muddy" them too much.  Whatever you see on the top of the shaving foam is what you will get on your card.  Press the piece of card down onto the foam, lift and remove excess foam.  Voila..you now have a piece of marbled background card!  It even smells nice!  Use the very cheapest shaving foam you can find...mine was about 45p!

The stamp is from a set by Creative Expressions as were the hat pins, fabric rose and seam binding.

Now onto other matters!!!

Many thanks to all of those who came to the demo yesterday.  I had great fun "playing" and I hope you went away with a few new ideas.  Hope to see you again at the workshops or perhaps we can persuade Henry to have another demo!  Don't forget, if he doesn't have an item in stock from Creative Expressions, he can order it for you.  If you have any problems, please contact me.

I'll be demo-ing Gilding Flakes at Ally Pally on Saturday 13th April.  Just waiting for the "goodies" to arrive from the lovely Sue Wilson so I can get started playing  working, I mean working!!!

Anyway, off to the studio to tidy away all of the stuff I took with me yesterday and wait for inspiration to strike.

Many thanks to all who visited the blog yesterday...I'm going on a mission today to visit as many desks as I can!

The blog candy is still there so look for the posting about how to enter for it.

Until tomorrow...have fun and happy crafting.

WOYWW

Good morning and Happy WOYWW.

I thought I'd take a piccie of my "heat it" station!

This is where the iron, heat gun and Melt Pot live (along with essentials like the kettle!)

My Melt Pot had gathered dust on a shelf until I saw Hels on C&C and I just had to get it back out and play.  I should have been prepping for todays demo but this was much more fun!  Anyway, here is the result.

I had a really cheap canvas that needed cheering up so covered it with Vintage Shabby Tim Holtz paper.

I melted Beeswax on a low setting in the Melt Pot, stamped some images onto a single layer of tissue and applied them to the canvas using the wax.  The stamps are also by Sir Tim.

I covered a small square of Studio 490 Art Parts with the same paper, stamped a message and 2nd generation pattern then painted the wax over the top.

The flowers and leaves were made from Spellbinder dies as where the flourishes.

I used Hels tip of scrunching up the leaves before coating them in wax.  The sides of the canvas and the Art Part were painted with Eco Green Black Acrylic Paint.  It's a great range of paints and I love them because they dry really quickly.  Everything I used is available from Creative Expressions. So, once again, many thanks to Hels for getting my Melt Pot mojo working again!  I'm also entering this as my Sunday Stamper entry...it's nature themed this week.  Pop over to Hels blog for details.

I've got some candy up for grabs...please see previous post for details.  It's a fab set of stamps and masks.

Off to pack up the car with all the demo stuff...really looking forward to it and I'm taking the canvas with me to sit in pride of place!

I'll try and get around to as many of you as I can but thank you for visiting and all your lovely comments...I was blown away last week.

More Nautical!

Thought I'd show you another Nautical themed card today but with a completely different look to yesterdays.

It can be difficult to make mens cards unless they like a pint or play sports but these Nautical stamps from Creative Expressions are great.  Even if they have no interest in the sea, there are maps and a globe.

The background for this card has been made with Cosmic Shimmer Misters.  I sprayed a piece of card with gold, placed the fretwork mask over the top and resprayed with green.  The edges were distressed with Peeled Paint.

For the globe, I sprayed the colours onto my craft mat, then used a paintbrush to colour it in.

The ships wheels were stamped, cut out, coloured with Distress Ink then triple thick embossed.  Other than that, just normal stamping and embossing.

This is another card from a workshop at Martells later this year.  I'm trying to be very organised this year and have all the workshops planned well in advance.  It's actually working and I only have 3 more projects to sort out for November!

The boot fair was a wash out...or should I say a snow out!

We ended up in a lovely country pub with a roaring log fire and met up with some friends that we hadn't seen since August last year.  A much better way of spending a very cold afternoon!

I'm off to the studio now to finish prepping for the demo on Wednesday.  I just hope people turn up!!

Also want to sort out some candy so please look out for that.

Many thanks for visiting and leaving comments. 

Nautical but Nice!

Another day, another card...hope this one makes you think of holidays to warmer places!

I love to make my own backgrounds instead of using patterned paper, at least that way it saves time on trying to colour match!  The other problem with paper is that I never want to use it...just sit and stroke it (or is that just me!)

The background for this card is a collage of different stamps from one of the Nautical sets from Creative Expressions.  I've also used a large dot background stamp.  The edges have been distressed and heat embossed with gold Cosmic Shimmer.

For the main image of the ship, to make it stand out more from the background, I've painted over it with Ranger Rock Candy Crackle Paint.

I love the message, Confucus knew a thing or two!

I'm not giving too much away with the full techniques as this is a project from a forthcoming workshop at Martells!  Don't forget the demo on April 3rd if you can make it.

I'm trying to put together some candy to celebrate the fact I've finally got around to re-starting the blog so please keep your eyes open for that.

Have a very Happy Easter Sunday...hope you remembered to put your clocks forward!

We're off to a boot fair..if I can get anyone else out of bed..wish me luck!



While it's Cold!

Thought I'd post a Christmas card I've designed for the September workshop at Martells!  I know, it's Easter, but while the weather is so chilly it almost seams right for an Easter card this year!

 

I've used Studio 490 stamps for the message and red stamped background.

In the set is the most gorgeous swirl which I stamped 4 times in Crimson Archival ink.

Before that, I used the Micro Dot mask to emboss the white card in the Grand Calibur and inked the edge with Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

The holly leaves are also in the same set of stamps but much bigger!  I thought I'd get out my Shrink Plastic for these...it's been on the shelf for ages.  After stamping, I coloured them with Promarkers, then heat shrank them.  Cosmic Shimmer Dries Clear Glue works a treat for gluing them into place.

The matt for the message was cut with Spellbinder dies.

I stamped the message onto the white card before cutting it and covered it with double sided adhesive.  After it had been cut, I covered it with Micro Beads.  You can just about see the sparkle.

I may have got a new camera but the photography hasn't improved!

Well, that's it for today,  Hope you're all having a good Easter Break and relaxing.

Should be back tomorrow but we're planning on going to a Boot Fair...I want to buy some bits to "alter!"

Happy Easter to all.

Another Quick Card

Happy Easter everyone, hope you all have a great weekend with lots of time for crafting.

I thought that I would show you another very simple card that will be taught in one of my upcoming workshops at Martells.

 

First of all, I cut a matt from some Fancy Pants paper then a smaller one from Coconut white card.  The white card was put over a mask and embossed in the Grand Calibur.

I cut the flowers in the same paper using the Bitty Blossoms Spellbinder Dies and a couple of leaves from a Foliage set.  The tag was cut from another Spellbinder set..

The next step was to make the flowers up which couldn't be easier using these dies.  I do get asked quite often how to roll them and the answer is to start from the outside and roll in towards the centre.  I always use a glue dot to hold them in place but Cosmic Shimmer Dries Clear Glue is brilliant for it as well.

I stamped a message from a Sam Poole set of stamps...I think it was the "Art Sayings" set.  If you haven't got this set yet I'd advise you to get hold of it.  There are so many useful phrases in it.  I know that Martells in Cliftonville stock this set of stamps (as well as lots of other Creative Expressions goodies!).  You can also see the set on the Creative Expressions website.

The next step was to thread the ribbon through the tag and stick it onto the card.  The flowers and leaves were the next to be added.

Once the card was put together, I applied Cosmic Shimmer Gold glue to form faux pearls in the embossed flower background. 

It really is an easy card to make and I hope that the bright colour makes you all feel as though Spring can't be far away!

Hope that some of you can make it to the demo on Wednesday...it would be great to see some friendly faces!  There will be lots of Distress, masks, emboss folders, paint and mess!!

Hope to be back tomorrow with another card.  Sorry the details are a bit sketchy on some of these but I don't want to give the whole game away before I run the workshops!!

Thanks for visiting and I do love to read any comments that are left for me.

Woyww

WOYWW

 

Well, good morning all.  This is the mess that is my workshop desk today!

 

Believe it or not, I'm prepping a workshop for Christmas Cards...thought it might be difficult this time of year but with all the pictures of snow I keep seeing, it's not too bad!  The workshop isn't taking place until November for the Xmas projects but this year my resolution is to be MUCH better organised!

 

 

This is a card I designed for a workshop taking place in July this year.  I thought I'd include it today for Hels challenge of stamped and shiny!

I've stamped Studio 490 flowers onto vellum and embossed with True White.

The background is silver card, painted with black Eco Green acrylic paint then put through the Grand Calibur with the Creative Expressions Bark embossing folder.  The paint was sanded off to reveal the silver underneath.

The message is from the same set of stamps as the flowers and I've stamped it onto a Spellbinder Fancy Tag die.

I've also stamped the butterflies onto vellum, cut them out and layered them.

Just a few gems, hat pins, a piece of black seam binding and a Dazzler and voila...it's done!

All of the items used are from Creative Expressions.

Hope you all like it...makes the mess on the desk worthwhile when I finally see the finished results.  Hopefully I'll have the "work in progress" in the top picture finished today.

Don't forget the demo at Martells on April 3rd.  I'll also be doing a demo at Ally Pally on Saturday 13th April so hope to see some of you there.

Thank you for visiting and leaving any comments. 

Simples!

 

Lace work style card

 



This is such a nice quick card to make and looks so effective when it's finished.

 

I've used a Spellbinder die for the pinwheel in the centre.  Firstly, cut a square of card to the right size then cover it with a double sided adhesive sheet.  Run it through the Grand Calibur with the die.  Remove the die and covering from the adhesive sheet and dip it into a container of Micro Beads.  Make sure that you press the Micro Beads firmly into place.

 

The next step was to run the white card through the Grand Calibur with a mask for an embossed look.

 

I cut out 4 corners with a Spellbinder die and glued them onto the main card before matting and layering.

 

The final touch was a Black Dazzler for the centre.

 

This is one of the cards we'll be making at a forthcoming workshop at Martell Press.

 

All of the products mentioned are from Creative Expressions and if you go to their website you can find a list of local retailers.

 

Hope you all managed to see Dee yesterday on Create and Craft...she had some great ideas for using gilding flakes which I can't wait to try.

 

I'm really looking forward to the demo at Martell Press on 3rd April and hope to see some of you there.

 

Until next time, hope you all stay warm and safe in this crazy weather we're having!