Kinkade Windows

It's my turn to do the weekly tutorial over on the CHF Be Creative blog and today's technique focuses on selective colouring. Find out how to bring a homely glow to a Kinkade window and leave a comment over there if you'd like to be in with a chance of winning the Foxglove Cottage stamp (still my favourite Kinkade stamp, I think!)

Kinkade Windows Tutorial

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Foxglove Cottage East or West, Home is Best

Paper:
Simply Smooth
Kraft

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Prismacolor Pencils/OMS/Stump
Sewing machine and thread
Brad
Labels One Nestabilities by Spellbinder

Thanks for stopping by!

Soak away the ills!

It's the season of coughs and sniffles, isn't it? I've been having fun with some new images from the Saturday Evening Post line to make some pick-me up projects.

Masculine get well cards are even more difficult that average, I reckon - flowers are an easy fall back for feminine ones but the blokes are a bit more tricky. I think this would work though!

I was so pleased to find the sentiment fits perfectly on the end of the bath tub and I stamped the "Sorry you are ill" phrase to make a pattern on the paper at the top. A small scale Basic Grey pattern that's slightly reminiscent of old-fashioned tiling and a little Glossy Accents on the tub's feet and rim and you're done!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms): Common Cold (Saturday Evening Post line - releasing Friday 4th December)

Paper:
Prism Island Mist Medium
Simply Smooth
Offbeat patterned paper by Basic Grey

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Weathered Wood)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)

Other:
Copic markers
Glossy Accents
Paper frill (Doodlebug)
Corner Chomper
Labels Four Nestabilities by spellbinder

Then I thought it would be fun to try using the same image for something other than a get-well project. This would make a great way to present a spa treatment token or dress up a little bottle of bath bubbles or massage oil.

I used an empty ribbon spool to make the base of the tube and stuck a strip of corrugated card (found at my local pound shop - any sturdy card would do) around it. Just tuck tissue in to finish off the top.

The bubbles are doodled and have dots of Glossy Accents over them to make them shiny.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms): Common Cold (Saturday Evening Post line - releasing Friday 4th December)

Paper:
Simply Smooth
Corrugated blue

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Fluid Chalk ink by Clearsnap (Ice Blue)

Other:
Copic markers and Multiliner
Glossy Accents
Silk ribbon
Dymo label maker
Labels Four Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Empty ribbon spool

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are not in need of a get-well wish yourself but take plenty if you are!

Baby love

Do you have some types of card that you always struggle with? For me, it's baby and wedding cards! I think the baby ones just got easier though - Baby Dear and Vintage Baby Expressions should help things along! I do like a bit of vintage so if I just forget the baby bit and focus on the vintage bit things should go along much easier!

I went for a mono sepia look on this card, aiming for a sort of vintage photo look. The base layer and the border inside the cut out circle are coloured with a marker so this is a minimum supplies project - just white cardstock, a handful of markers, embossing folder, a couple of pearls and a die cut.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Baby Dear (Rummage Bin line)
vintage Baby Expression (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Smooth White

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)

Other:
Copic markers
Textile Texture Embossing Folder
Pearls (Kaiser)
Labels Four Nestabilites by Spellbinder
Fiskars circle cutter

I bought the blossom top box template from Everything Creative a few weeks back and finally got chance to play. I was so pleased to find that the ETA stamp from the Baby Dear set is an absolutely perfect fit! I alternated it with the stork from the Vintage Baby Expressions set around the six sides of the box and finished off with faux brads - they're just cardstock punched out with a Crop-a-Dile and coloured with the ink pad.

Wouldn't this be a cute way to present a tiny gift to an expectant mum? Any favour box would look great with the same treatment.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Baby Dear (Rummage Bin line)
vintage Baby Expression (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Smooth White

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)

Other:
Copic markers
Pearls (Kaiser)
Labels Four Nestabilites by Spellbinder
Fiskars circle cutter

Thanks for stopping by!

A thing of beauty...

The monthly challenge over on the Bubbly Scrumptious blog is to use the quote "A thing of beauty is a joy forever" on your project. I chose to make a simple card. I have a stamp that includes that quote plus an equally lovely one from Confucius so I reached for that and used this week's sketch from Card Positioning Systems to pull it together as a quick make.

I used the out of the box technique for the butterfly and positioned it to pull your eye to the start of the quote around the circle (I hope!). I used a hole punched with a Nestability die to mask the stamped circle and tinted with blue and green chalk and then stamped the silhouette flowers with the mask still in place.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Ornamental Beauty (Rummage Bin line)
Nature's Silhouettes (Kim Hughes Collection)
Vintage Butterflies (Saturday Evening Post line)


Paper:
Black
Cryogen white
Offbeat collection by Basic Grey

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Old Paper)

Other:
Paper frill (Doodlebug)
Sewing machine and thread
Chalks (Pebble Inc)

Thanks for stopping by - hope you find something of beauty in your day today!

RSS with stamina required!

The new challenge at Ready Steady Stamp requires some stamina - it's spread out over the next four challenges in the run up to Christmas and we're building a project as we go! We have an imposed shape (inverted triangle) and we need to pick a colour scheme for this first one that we carry across the other weeks. At the end, we'll link our triangles together to make a Christmas banner. Here are the ingredients this week:

I've picked black, gold, ivory and red as my colours - we'll see how the proportions of each change over the weeks!

I had a bit of a nightmare photographing this for some reason, I hope you get the idea! My triangle is about 4" across the top and 6" from the top to the tip of the point. The cardinal is cut out and popped up on some foam tape and I added some tiny star brads to the embossed swirls - they came to me as part of a swap so I'm afraid I have no idea of the maker.

I added some Spica glitter pen over the wing and crest of the cardinal for some subtle shimmer.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Swirl from Beautiful (Rummage Bin line)
Evergreen Holiday (All Things Considered line)

Paper:
Black
Cryogen white

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Detail gold embossing powder
Mini star brads
Nail art gems
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Antique Gold from the Patina kit)
Krylon Leafing Pen (Pale Gold)
Glossy Accents (dotted on for the cardinal's eye)
Sewing machine and thread
Copic Spica glitter pen (red)
Foam tape

I'm not sure how they'll join together yet so I haven't punched any holes or anything - the top edge looks a little plain to me at the moment but I'm hanging fire until I see how the whole thing shapes up before I add anything!

Je sais qu'il ya beaucoup de participantes françaises pour les challenge RSS - si vous voulez me laisser un commentaire, mais vous n'aimez pas le faire en Anglais, s'il vous plaît n'hésitez pas à le dire en Français! Je ne le parle pas bien, mais c'est OK pour la compréhension de commentaires court. Merci de votre visite!

Thanks for stopping by!

Krafty Coffee

Today's challenge over at Daring Cardmakers is to use kraft cardstock on your project. I love kraft so this wasn't a difficult one for me! For those of you in the UK, I usually get the ribbed kraft recycled cardstock from PDA as I like the texture it has.

I've made a little gift card holder rather than a standard card. It's basically the same as the pop up one I did a wee while ago (in this post - link to instructions for it there too) but I've changed the proportions and used a standard A4 sheet so the piece that holds the gift card is just a little shy of half way on the folded bit in the middle.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
The Cafe (Shady Tree Studio line)

Paper:
Simply Smooth
Kraft

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Coffee Bean, of course!)

Other:
Copic markers
Antique copper mini brads (Making Memories)
Circle punch
Sewing machine and thread
Linen thread

Thanks for stopping by!

Skinny snowflakes!

It's Ready Steady Stamp time again and I didn't have any ingredient issues this time so I'm playing along (couldn't find my hessian last time - frustrating as I'd only used it a couple of days earlier!).

Here are the ingredients for RSS8 - nice ones, I think!

I've never done a skinny so that made a nice change. I went for totally simple treatment on that bit and thought it would be fun to make a fairly modern looking card with a vintage style stamp set so The Night Before Christmas got an airing (OK, I only managed the snowflake and sentiment but still!).

I used silver metallic thread and did crazy machine stitched lines in the hope they'd look kind of like the drift lines if you're watching snow fall through a light source. Sorry the photo doesn't really pick up the metallic sparkle - it's like glitter really isn't it, you really need movement for the effect to show!

I added crackle by using Rock Candy paint on a die cut snowflake. It's very cool stuff but you do have to be patient, especially if you add a reasonably thick layer so you get bigger crackles. You can speed it up with a heat gun once it's started to crackle but that can seem like a long time coming! Impatient? Me?

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

Paper:
Smooth white, black, lilac (Bazzill)

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Snowflake Wonder dies by Spellbinder
Crystal brad (Making Memories)
Silver metallic thread
Distress Crackle paint by Ranger (Rock Candy)

Technique: machine stitching

Great challenge girls - thanks!

Thanks for stopping by today, I appreciate you taking the time!

Je sais qu'il ya beaucoup de participantes françaises pour les challenge RSS - si vous voulez me laisser un commentaire, mais vous n'aimez pas le faire en Anglais, s'il vous plaît n'hésitez pas à le dire en Français! Je ne le parle pas bien, mais c'est OK pour la compréhension de commentaires court. Merci de votre visite!

Tea for Two?

Tea bag holders make cute little gifts when you want something to give just as a "token". I used these instructions for my holder but turned it so that the ribbon is at the top. The kind of tea bags that come in their own sachets are best for this and they're bulky and light enough that the belly band holds it all together tightly enough that they won't slip out, even though they're pointing downwards.

You can substitute anything you can think of for tea bags in these - how about a couple of After Eight mints or those little squares of Green and Blacks chocolate that often appear in the shops round about Christmas time? You can also make a small square message card and pop that into one of the pockets if you prefer not to write on the insert itself. If you go for heavier contents like chocolate, it's probably best to keep the "book spine" orientation though to make sure nothing falls out!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Domestic Love (All Things Considered line - releasing Tuesday 3 November)
Fine Houndstooth Scrapblock

Paper:
Teal medium, Razzleberry medium (Prism Papers)
Cryogen white
Black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Pool)

Other:
Copic markers
Copic Multiliner
Fiskars edge punch (Threading Water/Scalloped Lace)
Labels Four Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Gingham ribbon

Thanks for stopping by!

Gingersnap Thank You!

Gosh, October has flown past, hasn't it? This is the last of the challenges for CHF's month of sponsoring the Gingersnap Creations blog. The challenge this week is a Random Redhead one of "Thankfulness". I decided to go for a straight "thank you" card to say thanks to the Gingersnap blog for making us so welcome as guest designers this month!

I felt like doing something completely different in terms of my style when I sat down at my stamping table and this is what happened! Inspired by Jo Capper-Sandon's sprayed background in Craft Stamper mag a couple of months back, I made a sort of ethereal background piece by putting a few hedge clippings on white cardstock and spraying with Red Maple Glimmer Mist. I overstamped with dragonflies, script text and clocks then added one cut out clock where the dragonfly wings are coloured with Spica glitter pens and the whole lot is coated with Rock Candy Crackle paint.

We've been using natural materials in our Gingersnap projects this month and I think I could have claimed that the hedge trimmings were it but I decided to push it a bit further and found some birch twigs for a more dimensional effect (we have lots of birch trees and the wind we had at the weekend meant finding twigs on the ground was not difficult!). I've hung the tags directly on the twigs using linen thread.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Botanical Bliss (All Things Considered line)
Fancy Thank You

Paper:
Smooth white
Black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)

Other:
Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels (Red Maple)
Birch twigs
Linen thread
Distress Crackle Paint by Ranger (Rock Candy)
Tags Trio dies by Spellbinder
Spica Glitter pens (turquoise and green)

Thanks for stopping by today, I really appreciate your visits!

No snowflakes or mittens!

The challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week has been set by Kathy who wants us to pull out a few of our favourite things to make a card! I've avoided the Julie Andrews route though!

So... you may have noticed I like to stamp :) I also love vintage images and my favourite colours are at the blue-green end of the spectrum.

I like lace, especially if it's vintage or "rescued" from clothing etc and I often sew on my cards as I love the textural interest it brings.

Teeny tiny gems intended for acrylic nail art tend to find their way onto my project when I want a bit of bling that's not too in your face.

Add in colouring with Copics and adding subtle pattern to the card base (in this case with Perfect Pearls over a black base, just at the bottom of the card - you'll probably have to click through to the larger view to be able to see it) and I think I'm over Kathy's quota of at least five things.

Just for good measure, I added something I don't often do but is a fave when I see it on other people's work (Kaz was the first person I was conscious of noticing it on) and that's the little tea rose threaded through the Prima.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Leopard and Beauty (Saturday Evening Post line - releasing 27th October)
Ornamental Beauty (Rummage Bin line)

Paper:
Simply Smooth
Teal Medium (Prism Papers)
Black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Versamark by Tsukineko

Other:
Copic markers
Vintage lace
Prima flower
Tea rose
Perfect Pearls (Blue Patina)
Acrylic nail art gems
Sewing machine and metallic thread

Thanks for visiting, hope I managed to include some of your favourites, too!