Rudolf Days for October

 Here are the cards I made last month and forgot to post plus a few more I have made this month. Last month we had a really busy weekend karate wise with 8 of my students at a tournament on the Saturday and another 7 going to grading on the Sunday. They were all amazing and did me proud - 5 gold medals 4 silver and 2 bronze in the tournament, then all acing their gradings too! I was so proud I was euphoric for days, completely forgetting Rudolf Days!  I made chocolate cupcakes for the whole class. 

Anyway, on to my cards. 

I used stamps and stencils from Inkylicious for these three. All very similar with two on cream cards and one on a white card in shades of blue ink. I added a shadow to make it look 3d - Deby has done a wonderful tutorial on the Inkylicious you tube channel if you want to know how it is done.  

The next one is also using inkylicious stamps and a stencil cut using a die at a crafty session at PDA. I might add a sentiment eventually. 

The next two are also done with inkylicious stamps in more traditional colours, but still single layers. 

Very simple but perfect for quick cards.

Do pop over to Mo's blog for more inspiration and to enter if you get the chance! Mo, if you get round to visiting , I am thinking of you and the family. I really hope your hubby makes a full and speedy recovery. Big hugs! 

Thanks for looking!

Stamping on fabric for Bee Crafty

 

Good morning! I am here with a little Bee Crafty DT project and to bust a few myths, lol! Let's start with those. Firstly you don't need special ink to stamp on fabric unless you are going to wash it. If it is going on a card it isn't going to be washed, so most inks will work well. I have used versafine, versafine clair, memento luxe, stazon, brilliance and versamagic. All worked fine, but I was particularly impressed with the versafine clair, which is not waterbased and can be coloured and dampened after stamping without it changing.

Secondly, you can colour your fabric with most mediums. All those sprays like dylusions and distress oxides can be sprayed on fabric. It would wash out, but for a card they are wonderful. You can also colour with inktense pencils and blocks which I am told can be heat set, becoming permenant after ironing. You will need to iron your fabric a couple of times during the process. You can also use a range of fabric. The best thing to do is experiment and see!

Let's get on shall we?

I used dylusions spray inks, Beautanicals large branch and tree stamps, Wordage small words, Brown Versafine clair ink, sequins, seed beads and green embroidery threads

First I started with a piece of calico and sprayed with dylusions and water. Once it was almost dry I ironed it. I've also used poly cotton pillow cases and curtain lining which also worked well. I tend to rip the fabric to give a frayed edge along the weave so it is straight.

I placed the flat coloured fabric in my stamp platform and stamped the tree using versafine Clair. If you want to use an embroidery hoop make sure your fabric is big enough and you stamp centrally. You can always make it smaller afterwards.

Next you can use up some of the little stuff from your stash! I sewed on small seed beads in the middle of sequins. Check your needle is narrow enough to pass through your beads before you thread it, lol.

Next I added some smaller and larger seed beads on their own.

To ground my tree I added 'grass' which is just straight stitch in 2 different shades of green. It doesn't have to be neat and it can be all different lengths, just like grass. Just keep going until the gaps are filled. I used single strands of embroidery thread for my grass. You could add some embroidery to the tree too. Single Chain stitch makes good leaves and french knots also look good. There are plenty of you tube videos for these. Once you have finished, iron your fabric again taking care around the embellishments.

Mat and layer your fabric to your card. Double sided tape works well, or use a good glue stick to stick fabric to paper. You could even sew it together! 

Finally add a sentiment...

I am really enjoying getting back into needlework at the moment. I've realised there are lots of stamps I can use for this sort of project and it is good to experiment, mixing paper, card and fabric, as well as inks and sprays!

Before I go, just out of curiosity, would you be interested in doing something like this as an online workshop? A little kit to sit and stitch together? It would have to be via facebook I think, or possibly zoom. If so leave me a comment as it is something I am thinking about 😀

Thanks for looking!

September at Stamping Sensations

 

It is the first Sunday of the month and time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month our challenge theme is 

***The Great Outdoors***

I used stamps from Bee Crafty  in their Beautanical range to make my tree scene. I do love seeing the heather turn the hills purple at this time of year!

Please remember we are a stamping challenge and the focal element of your work must reflect the theme (i.e. makes suitable for boys and men). Whist we prefer conventional stamping, digital images are allowed. You can check out the challenge rules here.

Do go to the challenge blog to check out the breathtaking creations from my multi-talented teamies. You can also find details of the fantastic prize! 

Thanks for looking!

April Rudolf Days and a Digi from Dora

We are quickly approaching the end of April, so it is time for the Rudolf days Challenge over at Scrappy Mo's. I've brought two very contrasting cards this time, made with two stamps/ sets I've had in my stash for a long time. The first uses stamps from Little Clare, who I'm sad to say are no longer with us. I stamped in memento and coloured with alcohol based markers. The 3 geese at the front are on an extra fold in the card.

The second card was made with a wood mounted stamp from Penny Black, with hero arts French script in the background and a greeting from woodware. The paper was made with all sorts of sprays with a fair bit of mica in them, so is quite shiny in real life and the trees were embossed in white.
Do pop over to Maureen's blog and take a look at the fabulous inspiration. No harm in making a start on Christmas cards whilst we have the time if you haven't already. 

Finally, here is my DT Card using one of Dora's wonderful digis with a lovely oystercatcher and it's chick at the water's edge, which I coloured with pencils. You can find Dora's fabulous Digis on her website here.
 I do hope you are all okay, and coping with things. How is your hair? I am defintiely ready for a haircut now. Lockdown ponytail seems to be my style, lol. I am sorry I haven't been around as much as I intended here in blogland. I've done 3 zoom karate classes this week and might pull in a 4th if I can. One I ran myself and although I was nervous at first it went well, and I had 10 students. there will be a few more next week too I think. GKR seem to have put things in place very quickly and it is good to see my training buddies and students again.
 Thanks for looking and for your lovely comments. Stay safe xxx
Oh yes, and if you have time, please give my crochet post below a bit of love 😉 Thanks!

Favourite Stamps at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning and Happy New Year! As it is the first Sunday of the month, it is time for our January challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month we have a lovely theme....

****Use your Favourite Stamps****

For my card this month I used stamps and stencils from Inkylicious and a little white gel pen and liquid pearls. My favourite stamps are the inkylicious moon and tree, but I do reach for the splatter stamp and the willow  twigs on a regular basis too!

  The background was created using ink dusters, sponges and inks.  I used memento lulu lavender to stamp the moon and to blend the paler to darker inks. Adirondack mountain rose and peach bellini made the moon shine section of sky. Dusty concord, chipped sapphire and black soot Distress inks formed the darker sky and the hills, using a mountain valley stencil.  

Please can I remind you we are a stamping challenge so must see a stamped image which reflects the theme as the focal element of your artwork , this means:

Stamping must be the central point of attention and interest

Our prize this month is from  our lovely sponsors, Tattered Lace.  Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous creations from my talented team mates and more details of that prize! Thanks for looking! 

Happy New Year and a few favourites

So here we are approaching 2020. I am looking forward to starting the new year with crafting, karate, walking, cooking and enjoying nature at the top of my list of things to do.  I thought I would take the opportunity to share a few of my favourite crafty projects with you. It is a very quick and randomly selected top ten, that If I looked again I would probably change, lol.

 First up is one of my favourite Inkylicious tree stamps and that XL spatter,

 Next is a tree from Bee Crafty and that gorgeous sentiment. I made this after a walk in the woods when I'd decided that I was going to resign, so holds a special place in my heart!

 I invested in many hare stamps this year, but this was my first and I loved how well it worked on that background.

 More inkylicious stamps on this one. The wolves are great for male cards.

 This was my first foray into candle decorating, which ultimately led to joining Crafty individuals DT and craft fairs and tables, sales and lots of fun!  

 I've enjoyed having the time to work on my colouring skills, like this 'no-line' Hobby Art christmas wreath coloured with zig clean colour real brush markers.

 Whilst we are on the subject of Hobby Art, this little owl had to be on here somewhere. He flew off to a friend in Japan, and is going to be framed. A little owl is not just for Christmas!!! 😂

 My Crafty individuals robin and kingfisher candles were popular too.

 Here's more of my favourite inkylicious stamps on Meg's christmas card,

and finally this is the plaque I made for my lovely friend Lynne (we met in about 2002 or 3 when we taught together...I think we were boh dragons, lol!)
Thank you all for your continued crafty friendships and support.  I really appreciate each and every one of your comments and I look forward to visiting you all in 2020 to see more of your wonderful creations.
                                   Happy New Year! 

Northern Lights

I've spent many an inky hour trying to recreate the Aurora Borealis using brushos like watercolours on watercolour card. All stamps from Inkylicious and dots of white posca pen for stars. 

This round easel card was for Lynne's birthday (Creative Lynks) who gets to see the phenomena occasionally from where she lives. Short and sweet today and I will be back on sunday for the next Stamping Sensations challenge

My Favourite Stamp...or is it?

The Challenge over at Allsorts this week is to use your favourite stamp... now that is a tricky one! I've ummed and ahhed  and thought about hares (my latest favourites), moons, leaves and trees, and finally came up with this tree from Inkylicious. The splatter circle is also a stamp and a very useful one too.

I stamped the Inkylicious splatter circle with second generation oxide ink in candied apple, fossilised amber, cracked pistachio, tumbled glass and wilted violet, sprayed with water. Once dry I stamped the inkylicious tree with versafine clair in Morning mist, grounded it with a little sponging and added buds with gold and green liquid pearls. The base card was sponged with the same distress oxide inks through an inkylicious stencil. You will be able to see the first generation stamping of the splatter circle on my mid month card for stamping Sensations Rainbow themed challenge, tomorrow.
A close contender for favourite stamp has to be one of my new purchases from Pink Ink designs. Here is my first inking of the lovely Meadow Hare.

 I stamped him onto a piece of watercolour card left over from another project and coloured him with Zig clean colour markers. I cut him out then stamped his tail again onto a snippet of white card, cut out and stuck in place with 3d glue gel. I did the same with the butterfly wings. I then stamped it once more onto a piece of smooth white card dusted with wilted violet, peacock feathers and citrus zest distress ink using a moon stencil. I coloured with the same pens and added dots of liquid pearls and glitter glue to the hare and the background. These stamps are such a joy to work with! I am taking this card to a couple of challenges. There is Cardz 4 Galz where the theme is March Hares or Rabbits and Miss Di's Snippet playground.

    Thanks for looking!

February at Stamping Sensations

Good morning, It's time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations and this month we are looking for

****All things Bright and BEAUtiful****

As the title suggest we would love to see your hand stamped creations that reflect that hymn or celebrate the beautiful wonders of nature. I am sure you will come up with lots of fabulous designs.

My Card this month features gorgeous tree stamps from our lovely sponsors,  Bee Crafty. I created the background with spectrum noir sparkle pens first, then once it was dry, stamped with Versafine Clair in Nocturne and Morning Mist. A few dots of silver pen and a sponged hill or two finished the picture. The sparkle is fab but very hard to see in photos! The base card was stamped with another stamp from the set in Distress inks in Spun Sugar, Tumbled Glass and Shaded Lilac. I think this has to be my favourite sentiment at the moment - so true! 

Please ensure you check our challenge rules before entering, it may save you embarrassment and make sure your entry receives comments from the team and is entered into the prize draw: We run our challenge for fun in our spare time. It is your responsibility if entering to make sure you check our challenge rules, it is not our responsibility to read your posts and remind you if you fail to comply. If you do not follow the rules we will simply ignore your entry

As I mentioned above our sponsor is Bev from Bee Crafty. She is offering the lucky winner £25 worth of gorgeous goodies from the Bee Crafty store! There are gorgeous stamps, stencils, inks and all sorts of other goodies just waiting to fall into your basket!

Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the gorgeous designs from all my talented teamies! They really have made some outstanding cards this month! 

Thanks for looking!

More December Sparkle

Here is my mid month inspiration for Stamping Sensations where the theme is winter sparkle. Our sponsors this month are Be Creative! For my card I used their black sparkle fine detail embossing powder with some Inkylicious trees ... take a closer look!

It is a subtle but rather gorgeous sparkle!
Sorry it is so short and sweet. The end of term is in sight!!!

Rudolf Day for October

It is 25th October so time for Rudolf Day and there is only one more left after this! As it is half term I have found the time to make 3 cards this month. The first two were made with inkylicious stamps (and an inkylicious stencil on the first). I used oxide inks and white pigment ink on the first, which is a lovely effect on Kraft card. The background on the middle one was made with cosmic shimmer pixie powders so it really sparkles in the right light.

 

The stamping around the edge is a splatter twinchie from Inkylicious, stamped in citrus oxide ink and brilliance gold

My third card was stamped with the Woodware lino-cut wren...I can see me using this stamp a lot and it produces a very quick and easy card. Papers are from Craftwork Cards.
Before I go I will just introduce you to the new addition to the garden wildlife family. Buster and partner had at least one baby this year...we think they might have had two, but haven't managed to spot all four squirrels at once yet!
                  
He (or she) is already a dab hand at raiding the bird feeders, but is very wary of the larger birds like pigeons and the magpie. The parents seem to relish scaring those birds away! No doubt his escapades will keep me amused throughout the winter!
Thanks for looking, and do pop over to Scrappy Mo's if you fancy joining in!

Cold and frosty colours

The Current challenge at Allsorts is to use cold and frosty colours. I have been playing with Bare Trees 3 from Inkylicious for a couple of cards and had just created this little scene when the theme popped up.
Here is another card made with the same tree, but in warmer tones and with a Card-io sentiment.

The Inkylicious set comes with two trees, speckles and grass and will be great for any season - I'm just in winter mode at the moment!
Sorry it is so short and sweet after no posts for a fortnight. Meg and Grant have just arrived home for 3 weeks and last week was Panto week at school. I've been all out completing assessment data, but only 4 days left to go at work so the end is in sight!
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments!

December at Stamping Sensations

 

Good morning, It's time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations and this month we are looking for

********Winter Trees and Flowers********

There is plenty of scope here and I am sure many of you will find the theme fits in very nicely with your Christmas card making, so we look forward to seeing what you create. I have focused on Christmas cards using stamps from inkylicious and techniques that Deby and Emma have been demonstrating recently. I used silk art card and Tea Dye distress ink on the first card and the second was smooth stamping card and the Fruitcake Kaleidacolor ink pad. the base card was stamped with a Crafty Individuals snowflake.The snowflake is a lawn fawn die.

Please can I remind you we are a stamping challenge so must see a stamped image, sentiment or quote as the focal element of your artwork , this means:

Stamping must be the central point of attention and interest

On to our prize and this month. We have a super collection of crafting goodies from Stix 2 plus another small prize from them for a second winner.

Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the gorgeous creations from my multi talented teamies, and I look forward to visiting your great entries!

Thanks for looking! 

At the end of the rainbow

I've been wanting to play with the Inkylicious birch trees 2 stamp set for some time, but had been struggling for time and mojo. Then this week I got shingles. I have been very lucky as it was a very mild dose and I got treatment very quickly. As shingles is contagious in the form of chicken pox to those who haven't had it yet (especially children), I was told I had to stay off work. I have rested, crafted, surfed the net and generally enjoyed myself whilst taking some huge tablets (5 a day, 4 hours apart)
Anyway, on to my card. I used distress inks in stormy sky, dusty concord, picked raspberry, fired brick, spiced marmalade, twisted citron, mermaid lagoon and chipped sapphire with my ink dusters for the background. The panel is mounted on black and silver paper and I added a few dots of white gel pen.
I am entering this into the current challenge at Penny Black and More where the theme is Anything goes and Cards in envy where the theme is 'keep it simple'
Hoping life gets back to normal this week. Oh yes, Before I go a big welcome to my new followers. Sorry if you have been here a while and I hadn't noticed - what a bad blogger! Hope to get over to visit you soon.
Thanks for looking!

Stamping Sensations October Challenge

Good Morning! It is the first Sunday of the Month and time for a new Challenge over at Stamping Sensations! This month our theme is

*****Autumn*****

  For those of you that know me you will know of my addiction to tree stamps, and the latest trees from Inkylicious were a must buy as soon as I saw them! They are called Midnight trees, and I used them with a range of Memento inks onto smooth stamping card.  The background tones were created with memento inks and ink dusters. The usual rules apply, you can enter up to three times, combine with other challenges, use any make of stamp......but can I please remind you we are a stamping challenge and stamping must be the focal/predominant element of your work. Conventional rubber/acrylic stamps and digital images are acceptable, but pre-coloured digital images and toppers are not.
Our sponsors this month are  Penny Black who have supplied a wonderful prize for us to offer to you - take a look.
                          

Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the fantastic creations by my lovely teamies. There are some absolute stunners again this month! Hope you get the chance to join in and I'll look forward to seeing all your lovely creations! 

Same stamp and die, different looks

A couple of weeks back I had a lovely parcel arrive from Justin and Gordon at Be Creative. It had the new wonder crystals (embossing crystals) in it and I just didn't have time to play! I managed some time last week and this is what I came up with.
The scene behind the trees was created using inkylicious stamps and ink dusters. I then cut the tree die from a wonder sheet. I peeled one side of the wonder sheet off and covered it in the crystals before heating. Once melted the crystals are so flexible. I then peeled off the backing and applied over the scene.  I wouldn't have thought of doing it that way round but it worked a treat and meant no buckled card from the heat underneath! The base card was covered in Be creative paper from the Nature's portrait pad. I rather liked this, so decided to have a go with a different colour scheme.

For this one I stamped the base card with leaves. I think this colour for the silver birches might work a bit better over a dark blue or purple scene.
Then I tried purples and peaches...

 The papers behind this one are from an Artylicious CD from Chocolate Baroque. The small leaves are a Joycraft die and have been rubbed over with gilding wax.
The crystals are lovely to use and with all of these gave a great coverage with one sprinkling. You won't need to triple emboss with them. Double embossing will be thick enough.
I am still experimenting, and will try to show you more soon. Look out for the crystals on the Hochanda website and at shows. More colours will also be available soon.
Thanks for looking!