Saturday 27 May 2017

Introducing My New Craft Space!

Hi lovelies

As some of you will remember, about a month ago I shared some photos of the space I was planning to use as my new creative space.

Well, after some decorating, building of furniture and a really good sort out of my stash I can now share it with you.

I've decided to add all the details to a page rather than a post so I can update it as and when I need to.  So, for my happy page please click here or follow the tab above.

Here's a sneaky peek of my new workstation!



Thanks for popping by!

Less is More Week #330

Hi guys

Another week has zoomed by so I'm back to announce the challenge just starting over at Less is More.  This week we have a Recipe challenge and this is what we would like to see on your CAS creations this week...



After having a missing mojo for the last week I finally managed to create a couple of cards for you.  Then came the next challenge, getting a decent photo of the shimmer!  My lamp made everything really bright so apologies, these pics aren't the best!


Here's my first...


This was quite an easy make.  I wanted to use a colour of cardstock I don't normally reach for so I chose this apricot/pale peach colour.  I used some anti-static powder before stamping the flowers in VersaMark and then heat embossed with some pearl powder to create a shimmer effect.  The sentiment was also stamped in VersaMark but heat embossed in white.  The cardstock was quite thin so had warped a little from the heat so I used some fun foam to mount it to the cardbase which straightened it out nicely.



Materials used:

  • Cardstock: Bazzill Basics
  • Stamps: Honey Doo Crafts - Delicious Dahlia; Uniko - Originally Organic
  • Ink: VersaMark
  • Embossing Powder: Wow! - White Pearl and Opaque Bright White

Challenge entries:

Time Out - Challenge #84 - 'Flowers and friends make life a garden'
AAA Cards - Game #90 - Embossing




I used a Wink of Stella pen to create the shimmer on my second card...


I die cut the stitched aperture from the top panel and marked with pencil on the card base roughly where the window would be.  I stamped the butterflies in black onto the card base in the area which would show through the window.  I then coloured the butterflies with Derwent Inktense pencils and used a clear Wink of Stella pen to blend out the colour instead of water.  The sentiment was stamped onto the top panel before adhering over the card base with 3D foam.




Materials used:

  • Stamps: Butterfly from set free with a publication; Clearly Besotted - Sunshine and Smiles
  • Ink: Archival - Jet Black
  • Die: MFT Die-namics - Rectangle Peek-a-boo window
  • Coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils
  • Accents: Wink of Stella - clear

Challenge entries:

Dream Valley - Challenge #156 - Things with Wings
Stamping Sensations - May Challenge - Butterflies, Fairies and Fantasy



There are lots of shimmery products out there so hopefully you can play along this week and I'm sure the shimmering gallery will look stunning!

My new craft area is pretty much all set up now :)  I've had a really good sort out and organised my stash a little better.  Still not perfect but will be great for the time being.  My hall doesn't have great light in the evenings so hopefully this weekend I can get some decent daylight photos, although it's not very bright down here in Devon this morning.  Come on sunshine!  I'm really excited to be sharing it with you soon, it's been a long time coming!



Saturday 20 May 2017

Less is More Week #329

Hi guys

Firstly, apologies that it's been a whole week since my last post.  I have been really busy making....but not cards.  I've been busy building my Ikea furniture and filling it with my stash!  Woohoo!!  I'm still trying to get everything in its ideal place and have a good tidy up of my existing cupboard so once that's done I'll share some pics with you.  It's a small area so it's taking some organising but I'm getting there! :)

So, that said, I'll move on to the real reason for today's post.

It's week three of May so this week at Less is More it's the turn of our regular Theme challenge.  Here is what we want to see...




We have another Guest Designer joining us this week, our lovely April winner, Julie Beech.  Please do pop over to her blog to see her inspiration project :)


After going back to basics last week I really struggled this week and I think I was trying too hard again.  They are a little busier than I would have liked but I have managed two card samples for you.


I recently picked up a lovely card pack called Midnight Blush and I wanted to use it on this first card.  The pack contains cardstock in four shades of grey and some sheets in a lovely blush colour.  The photos don't really do it justice but I think it's a gorgeous combination.


The cardstock in the pack isn't thick enough to use for card bases so I started by covering a card base with the blush card.  I then cut a dark grey piece slightly smaller than the base and used some transparent gloss texture paste through a squares stencil.  Once dry I mounted the panel onto the card base using fun foam.  I then die cut the doily from the blush cardstock and a sentiment strip onto which I stamped the sentiment in charcoal ink.

Here's a better view of the glossy paste, I need to get a better spatula/scraper to avoid the line marks...


Materials used:
  • Cardstock: Papermania (DoCrafts) - Midnight Blush Capsule Collection
  • Stencil: STAMPlorations - Just Squares
  • Texture Paste: Ranger - Transparent Gloss
  • Die: Clearly Besotted - Geometric Doily
  • Stamp: Personal Impressions - Mix and Match
  • Ink: Versa Color - Charcoal

Challenge entries:

Daring Cardmakers - Two Colours
Crafty Catz - Challenge #371 - Anything Goes with twist of more than two layers
Freshly Made Sketches - Challenge #288 (flipped it to the right)



I went for a rainbow on my second card...


I used some dark grey cardstock to cover my card base and then cut a white piece slightly smaller.  I die cut some circles from a scrap of cardstock and placed this over my white panel.  I then placed a stencil over the top and blended ink through the circles in rainbow colours, placing the stencil in different directions for each circle.  I finished off with a bold sentiment in charcoal ink and mounted the white panel on fun foam.

Materials used:

  • Stencil: The Crafter's Workshop - Mini Solace
  • Ink: Distress Ink - Mustard Seed, Carved Pumpkin, Festive Berries, Wilted Violent, Blueprint Sketch, Mermaid Lagoon, Lucky Clover, Twisted Citron; Versa Color - Charcoal
  • Stamp: Paper Smooches - Bold Buzzwords



My teamies, as always have created an array of wonderful inspiration for you this week so please do pop over to the challenge blog and follow the links to their personal blogs.

Happy Saturday everyone!

Saturday 13 May 2017

Less is More Week #328

Good morning!

It's new challenge time over at Less is More and if you're a regular LIMette then you'll probably know which week it is....One Layer week!  Yay....boooo!  haha   Whether you love it or it fills you with dread, hopefully you'll have a go.  Here is our theme for this week...




We also have a lovely Guest Designer joining us this week....Sue of Sue's Card Craft who was our lucky winner for March.  So please do pop over and say hi!

Right, onto my cards, and I have four for you this week!  First up is one that I think is a great masculine design, something I often struggle with but this came together really easily...



I simply stamped the diagonal stripes then overstamped the sentiment.  The dots were then stamped in pigment ink and I clear embossed them to add some shine.

Materials used:

  • Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Diagonal Stripes, Brushed Greetings II; MFT - Bokeh Builder
  • Ink: Versa Color - Sky Gray, Atlantic, Turquoise, Bamboo; Versafine - Onyx Black;
  • Embossing Powder: Wow! - Clear Gloss

Challenge entries:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #241 - Anything Goes




I little ombre stamping and masking on this one...



I used a recently purchased set from Clearly Besotted for this one.  I stamped the sentiment first to ensure I had enough room, then stamped the cup and saucer in two shades of orange to create some depth.  I stamped the steam and then masked the cup and saucer to stamp the stripes, again overstamping to create an ombre effect.

Materials used:

  • Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Warm Solutions, Basic Stripes
  • Ink: Altenew - Sunkissed, Orange Cream, Bamboo, Parrot, Olive, Moss, Limestone; Versafine - Onyx Black



Super simple stamping and masking for my third...



I started by stamping the dotty butterfly in the centre.  I then masked it and stamped the block of vertical stripes.  A little off-centre sentiment finished off this super simple card.

Materials used:

  • Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Butterfly Wishes III, Building Blocks
  • Ink: Versa Color - Lavender, Ash Rose; Versafine - Onyx Black



I stripe of dots and stripey score lines too...



I masked off a vertical strip and stamped the dots in three colours.  I then added double score lines either side (which I messed up as one isn't quite lined up as I wanted!)  Then a sentiment in black to finish.

Materials used:

  • Stamps: MFT - Bokeh Builder; Paper Smooches - Sentiment Sampler
  • Ink: Versa Color - Atlantic, Mint, Heliotrope; Versafine - Onyx Black




Thanks so much for visiting today.  One layer cards don't have to be difficult.  Apart from the tea card which took some time with multiple stamping and masking, the rest were pretty quick to create.  Just lately I've been overthinking my designs a little too much and trying too hard.  So this week I went completely back to basics and kept them really simple.

I hope you can find the time to play along this week :)

Sunday 7 May 2017

Honey, I Shrunk the Kit - May 2017

Good morning!

It's time for another get together with my Honey Babes.  I'm so happy to be part of this fun team and thoroughly enjoyed creating with the crafty bundle we received last time.




Every couple of months one of our team put together a bundle of crafty loveliness and send it to the other team members.  It's so great to receive the secret happy mail and to see how each of us use the same products in different ways.

This time it was the lovely Shona's turn to host the challenge and what a cute set we received, full of cute critters and hugs!  Thanks, Shona.

Here is the Honey line up...

Hazel Hodgkins - Hazel's Paper Designs
Sarah Platt - Sazzle Dazzle Crafts
Sarah Gray - Funky Fossil Designs
Anita Bowden - Neet & Crafty (That's me!)

Sadly, we've lost the lovely Sandie who has decided to step down from the team.  So sad not to have you with us this time, Sandie xx


This is the fab package we received from Shona...


The kit included:

Neat and Tangled
 Sequins
Big Hugs die-cut
Awesome die-cuts
Awesome Stamp set (sentiments)

Winnie and Walter
Friend die-cut

My Favourite Things
Hugs die-cut
Cool Cat stamp set
Beast Friends stamp set
Otterly Love You stamp set

Studio Katia
 Stitched Creative Nested Squares die-cut (on watercolour cardstock)

Pretty Pink Posh
 Stitched Rectangle die-cut (on watercolour cardstock)
Stitched 3-window die-cut



You might want to grab a cuppa as I've made six cards using items from the kit, and still have lots left over.  My fussy cutting skills were put to the test with this kit!  So here goes.

As a cat lover I couldn't resist the little furbabies and I made three cards using the cute kitties in the pack so I'll start with those.


Card 1:


I just had to colour this little kitty to look like my beloved Elmo who sadly passed away last year.  He was always standing up like this on his back legs (usually up to no good!).  I created a little scene through a window die by Clearly Besotted, blended some clouds using a die cut by Lawn Fawn with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink (apologies, the photo doesn't show the clouds very well) and then I used the trees that were part of the Beastie images from the kit.  I thought a Missing You sentiment was perfect for this little scene, this one is Clearly Besotted.  My images were coloured with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers.





Card 2:


I started by stamping some paw prints by Dovecraft in VersaMark and heat embossed these in white before emboss resist blending with Distress Ink in Victorian Velvet.  I then die cut with a stitched heart by MFT.  I cut down the sentiment from the kit, mounted it onto some grey cardstock and then popped the little kitty up on 3D foam.  He was coloured with FlexMarkers.

Challenge entry:

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Cats and/or Dogs



Card 3:


For this card I started by masking off the edges of the card base and then blended some Milled Lavender Distress Ink through a Tim Holtz mini stencil to create a backdrop for my images.  I then coloured the cat, cushion and food bowl with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers and fussy cut the images before adhering to the card base.  Another sentiment from the kit was cut down and mounted onto some green cardstock.


Card 4:


I used the die cut stitched rectangle from Shona's kit to create a scene.  The top part was blended with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink using a die cut piece using a Lawn Fawn cloud die.  The water was blended first with Stormy Sky Distress Ink and the ripples were created by using a scalloped edge die cut by Clearly Besotted and Faded Jeans Distress Ink.  The otter and rocks were coloured with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers before being fussy cut out, and I finished the scene with some grass using a die by Clearly Besotted.  I die cut the sentiment from the kit using a stitched rectangle to match the larger die cut behind.  The panels were then popped up on 3D foam.


Card 5:


Included in the kit were the Awesome die cut and the co-ordinating shadow.  I coloured the shadow part with a black ProMarker to make the word pop out.  I blended through a stencil by The Crafters Workshop to create the burst and cut down the You Are So sentiment and coloured with with a blue marker.  The whole panel was then popped up on 3D foam.


Card 6:


I had to use one of these cute little beasties from the kit.  I decided to go with the one wearing the scarf and went with the Christmas theme.  I coloured the beastie once again with markers, and the Santa hat, then created an ombre blend with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink on the Friend die cut included in the kit.  I found some patterned paper from a pad by Doodlebug, cut down the beastie sentiment, adhered all the elements and stamped the Merry Christmas by Clearly Besotted at the base.



Are you still with me?  Thanks so much if you are, that was a lot to get through.  I had great fun creating these makes.  If you have time, please do pop over to visit my fellow Honeys following the links above.  I will be off there myself in a short while to see how they've worked their magic with the kit.  Right now I'm no doubt still in bed as it's my birthday today and I'm determined to have a lazy lie-in!


Saturday 6 May 2017

Less is More Week #327

Hi there

It's the first Saturday of the month which means it's time for a Colour challenge over at Less is More.  But before I give you details of the challenge, I need to introduce you to our three new fabulous members of the DT!  All of these lovely ladies have been regular participants of Less is More for a long time and are all well known in our little blog world and I'm sure you'll agree they are all perfect additions to our LIM family...

Izzy of Izzy Scrap

So please do pop over and congratulate them on their new roles.  We're super excited to have them on board! 


So, on with the challenge and this is the colour combo we want to see you using this week...



And we have a new sponsor for the month of May too

Uniko

And we also have Bev from Uniko Guest Designing with us this week so please do pop over to show her some love!



I love this colour combo, and although I've only got one card to share with you this week, I'm super happy with it.  I used some gorgeous stamps by our sponsor too...


On a panel of white cardstock I stamped and heat embossed the Cosmos flowers in white before colouring them in with my Zig markers and water.  I then masked the flowers as well as two of the edges before blending through a stencil with grey ink and fading it out to preserve some white space.  To finish I stamped the sentiment in black before popping up the panel on 3D foam.

Materials used:

  • Stamps: Uniko - Pure Florals Cosmos, Originally Organic Additions
  • Ink: VersaMark; Versafine - Onyx Black; Distress Ink - Hickory Smoke
  • Stencil: MFT - Fishnet
  • Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
  • Coloured with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens

Challenge entries:

Time Out - Challenge #82 - Flowers (no optional twist this time)
Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #240 - Photo inspiration



I hope you'll play along this week.  This colour combo is so pretty, as you can see from the projects made by my fellow teamies, over on the challenge blog.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.  Today marks the start of my week off work, no actual holiday away but it's my birthday tomorrow and I'm looking forward to some relaxation and hopefully some days out if the weather stays good.  Hopefully if I'm feeling energetic I can get some decorating done before I take delivery of my Ikea furniture next Friday....eeeeek!

Bye for now


Tuesday 2 May 2017

Happy Little Stampers May 2017 CAS Challenge

Good evening, crafters!

It's new challenge time over at Happy Little Stampers.  The May challenges have already kicked off with the Watercolour challenge already live, and today it's the turn of the CAS challenge.  Here's the cue word for this month...



The winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop!

Don't forgot to keep your designs clean and simple for this one.


Here's my DT card...



There is a great set from HLS called Rainy Days which would have been ideal for this challenge but I don't have it! (some of my teamies have created their projects with it so please do check out the main challenge post).  So, after a little brainstorming, on a panel of grey cardstock I used the three different circle stamps from the HLS Mix Mash stamp set to create my cloud, using white pigment ink.  I then stamped three flowers in the bottom corner, and the rain was created using a stencil and Distress Ink.  I finished by stamping the sentiment in VersaMark ink and heat embossing in white, before popping the panel up on 3D foam.

Materials used:

  • Stamps: Happy Little Stampers - Mix Mash; Hero Arts - Share Laughter (flowers); Clearly Besotted - April Showers Additions
  • Ink: Hero Arts - Unicorn; VersaMark; Versa Color - Pink, Violet, Green; Distress Ink - Weathered Wood
  • Stencil: Memory Box - Scraped Paint
  • Coloured cardstock from stash


All of the HLS challenges will run until the end of the month, with the remainder kicking off during the next week.  So plenty of time to play along.

Thanks so much for popping by.

Monday 1 May 2017

Muse Challenge #214 - Stencilled Daisies

Good afternoon

It's time for a new a challenge over at Muse and this week it's my turn to be your designer.

The idea at Muse is to draw inspiration from the designer's creation each week.  Hopefully I've given you some scope with this one....stencilling, ink blending, the colours, floral design, bold sentiment, etc.




I used to think stencils were quite boring until I discovered that they can be used to create some fabulous effects with numerous techniques.  They are an inexpensive product to add to your stash too, so that's a good enough reason for me and I've bought quite a few now.

For this one I chose three Distress Inks that I thought would blend together well, taped my stencil to a white cardstock panel and blended through with my sponge blending tools.  Using my mini MISTI I then stamped the bold sentiment in black, twice to ensure a good impression.  I then mounted the stencilled panel onto a piece of plum coloured cardstock to co-ordinate with the colour in the centre of the design.  This was then adhered flat to the card base.

Materials used:

  • Stencil: The Crafters Workshop - Mini Daisy Chain
  • Ink: Distress Ink - Seedless Preserves, Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers; Versafine - Onyx Black
  • Stamp: MFT - Brushstroke Birthday
  • Coloured cardstock from stash

Thanks so much for popping by, and hopefully I've inspired you to play along at Muse this week.  It's a great little challenge as it is voted for by your fellow participants.

If you're in the UK I hope you've been enjoying a nice bank holiday weekend.  The weather down here in Devon has gone downhill since the lovely day we had on Saturday so I hope it's better where you are, or you're managing to make the most of the long weekend.

I'll be back tomorrow evening with information about the next CAS challenge at Happy Little Stampers so I hope to see you then.



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