Hugs and kisses!

The lovely and very talented Di is running a competition over on Tando Creative at the moment. The prize is something a little bit special as it's completely unique and brings together the work of 11 papercrafters. Di invited us to decorate a piece each for a "Hugs & Kisses" game board. It's a larger version of the board available from Tando and having settled on a brown and cream colour scheme, we each decorated either a hug (heart) or a kiss (X) without seeing each other's work.

Everything is now finished and all together so I can show you my piece. I must confess to finding the shape a bit of a challenge but once I got going it came together fine!

I gessoed my piece and then sponged Antique Linen Distress ink over it before stamping a script stamp in Latte and the little key in Espresso. I did the same on the back of the piece, too.

The little tab is stamped with the sentiment and sponged a little. I tinted an acrylic nail teeny-tiny gem with a Copic so it matched the peach tone of the rose better and finished off with a key charm and a bit of gold acrylic paint around the cut edge of the piece.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Key Elements (All Things Considered line)
Key Expressions (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Tando chipbaord game piece
Simply smooth vanilla (CHF)

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso, Latte)

Other:
Gesso
Paper rose
Key charm
Linen thread
Acrylic nail art gem
Gold acrylic paint

If you'd like to see the finished board and all the pieces and find out how you could be in with a chance to win it for yourself, check out the details here on the Tando blog. You'll find details of Tando stockists too if you follow the "shop" link from the blog and then click on the "stockists" link under the "Articles" heading on the left.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope your weekend is filled with hugs and kisses!

Shabby chic chintz

One of the very first things that drew me to Cornish Heritage Farms was the range of background stamps. I may have a phobia of patterned paper but give me a background stamp and I'm happy. Nope, makes no sense to me either! I've gone shabby chic with this latest release, Vintage Chintz. I decided to play up the fabric connection by using the faux linen technique. This is an easy way to add texture and variation to a stamped piece - just stamp on glossy cardstock and then use sandpaper first vertically and then horizontally to create the linen "weave". Sponge on a lighter ink colour to provide extra variation and interest. Of course the fashionista ladies seemed like a perfect choice for a fabric-inspired piece! I love this sophisticated pair. Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms): Vintage Chintz Backgrounder (releasing Friday 29th January) Haute Couture (All Things Considered line) Paper: Glossy cardstock by Ranger Simply Smooth Vanilla (CHF) Ink: Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso, Latte) Other: Copic markers Nestabilities by Spellbinder (Labels Four) Paper flowers Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels (Coffee Shop) Glitter and velvet brads (Making Memories) Vintage lace Hope you're having a great weekend, thanks for taking the time to stop by!

Double challenge!

Sorry - look away now if you don't want to see a Christmas card just yet! Over on the Bubbly Funk forum we decided to do our "25th Club" again. The idea is to spread out the card making over the year rather than leave it all to November/December by making a certain number by the 25th of each month. I'm aiming for two cards per month.

To try to keep us motivated, we're having a theme or challenge each month. I set January's and it was to use turquoise/silver, something shiny or sparkly and a swirl of some sort. Despite the fact I set the recipe, I have in fact forgotten the swirl on this one! I was concentrating so hard on trying to combine with Kathy's sketch challenge that I clean forgot to get swirly. Can I just claim those snowflakes are creating swirls as they fall, do you think?!

Kathy set a sketch challenge on the Bubbly Scrumptious blog {here}. I've turned it through 180 degrees and "dangled" the snowflake from some stitched silver lines for the vertical lines on the sketch.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Night Before Christmas (Rummage Bin line)

Paper:
Simply Smooth
Black
Vellum

Ink:
Versamagic by Tsukineko (Turquoise Gem)

Other:
Snowflake Wonder dies by Spellbinder
DekoIce glitter (Efco)
Sewing machine and metallic silver thread
Crystal brad

Right, only one more Christmas card this month! I'll try to remember all the ingredients next time ;o)

Thanks for stopping by!

Oriental influence

Have you noticed how Oriental influences seem to be ever-present? While many trends come and go, it seems that Asian-inspired art is never very far away. Continuing that long tradition, the Saturady Evening Post release at CHF today is Asian Portraits. Pulling together cover art from the 1920s and 30s, the set has plenty of variety.

I thought this lovely woman had a dreamy look about her so I found a web site with Japanese (kanji) characters here and printed off "dream" to make the charm here - it's hanging from a fishing swivel to give it some movement.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Asian Portraits (Saturday Evening Post line)

Paper:
Simply Smooth
Black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers
Cuttlebug corner embossing folder
Silver metallic thread and sewing machine
Nestabilities by Spellbinder (Labels 9)
Medium circle squeeze punch by Fiskars
Fishing swivel
Glossy Accents by Ranger

I blogged another couple of projects over on the CHF Be Creative blog if you'd like to see what happens when a ginger jar is not a ginger jar!

Thanks for stopping by today!

About time I chicked in

Happy New Year everybody! Sorry I'm a bit slow off the mark - blogging seems to have fallen a bit by the wayside over the festive season. The horrible cold and cough probably didn't help much. So, I thought it was about time to "chick in" ;o)

Tom Allen has been around at Cornish Heritage Farms for a while now - he's the illustrator behind the Friendly Kritters line of stamps. Tom's just launched a new line at CHF called Tom Fun and hard on the heels of some adorable bears comes the Spring Chicks and More set so I thought I'd share a couple of cards I created with that.

The first is a clean and simple, one layer card created for a little boy's birthday - no frills and doo-dads for him to pull off! A little bit of masking and reverse masking and a dab of Glossy Accents for the balloon means there's still plenty of interest though, I love it when you manage to pull off a card with impact using minimal supplies!

Then I had a little fun teaming up the chick in overalls with a truck from one of the General Motors sets. Maybe I was in a masking kind of mood since I did it here too! I think simple masking was the first stamping technique I saw that made me say "oh, oh, oh!" and jump up and down with excitement! I still get a fantastic childish kick when I peel the mask off and reveal a scene! You know the kind of thing: "It worked, it worked - look! The chick is standing right in front of the truck! Yay!" lol!

I added some denim from an old pair of jeans for interest and to play up his overalls. Denim just needs orange stitching though, doesn't it?

There are more cute stamps in this set - you'd never guess it from these two cards but it's actually the perfect set for Easter (bunnies, chicks and eggs galore!).

Stamps for both cards (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Spring Chicks and More (Tom Fun Collection - releasing Friday 15th January)

Birthday card:
Birthday Centers tamp set (Mona Lisa Moments line)
Smooth white cardstock
Adirondack dye inkby Ranger (Espresso, Stonewashed)
Tim Holtz dye ink by Ranger (Shabby Shutters)
Number rub on
Copic markers
Glossy Accents by Ranger

Truckin' Chickie card:
Keep on Truckin' stamp set (General Motors line)
Simply Smooth cardstock
Copic markers
Denim (old jeans)
Sewing machine and thread
Antique copper mini brads (Making Memories)

Thanks for stopping by!