Believe in ...( By Marga)

Hello everyone, today another Christmas card from me. I'ts going well with the Christmas cards.

I made the backgound on photopaper, put the ink on it and blew the ink with a straw over the paper.

On another piece of the paper I embossed the pear with gold embossing powder and cut it out and pasted it on the paper. The sentiment I stamped with Archival Ink.

Hugs Marga

Floral Christmas (by Julie)

Hello, today I have another couple of Christmas themed cards. My first being stamped with the rather lovely Hark The Christmas Rose

The base card has been coloured with green and red Distress inks and then over stamped with the mistletoe image from Pears and Baubles. The centre panel was created on water-colour card. First I spritzed the card with water and then dragged the wet card through red and green Distress inks that I had applied to a non stick mat. Once the card had dried I inked up Hark The Christmas Rose with Onyx Black Versafine and stamped in the centre of the coloured card-stock. I coloured the image with Polychromus pencils and applied water with a paint brush to all of the card surrounding the stamped image. Kitchen towel was then used to blot dry. The Christmas Rose now stands out much more from the paler background and once completely dry, cut to size, matt onto black card-stock and apply to the front of the card.

My second card is quite quick and would be ideal for batch making. It doesn't matter what size card you have as you can just adjust your matting and layering accordingly.

The sentiment was stamped with Onyx Black Versafine and along with the mistletoe image that was stamped in the four corners of the card, comes from Pear and Baubles.

The fir tree branches come from Robin The Spruce and have been stamped with two different shades of green dye ink.

The mistletoe was coloured with pencils and then the panel was cut to size before being matt and layered onto black card-stock and applying it to the card blank.

Lets Get Festive

Hello there! I have a few more samples from July's shows using the Serena stamp, Hark the Christmas Rose stamp, Robin the spruce  and Let's get festive stamp sets.

In this first one I created a background using inks and stamped the serena image onto a cut out round piece of card. I used inks to colour this too. 

I stamped the hark the Christmas Rose stamp in archival ink and coloured it in water soluble inks. I then added this to a background created using a sentiment from the Lets get festive stamp set.

For my tag I used paints to create the background and coloured the stamped image (from robin the spruce stamp set) in distress inks.

I hope this has given you some ideas of projects you can make using these stamps!

Have a great day!

Hugs

rachel x

Mini Book (by Magda)

Hello everybody
Here is a tiny "Mini Book" for your next Christmas memories.

Stamp the bauble  of  Pears and Baubles stamp in different colours on a white cardstock , cut out the images and make a hole at the top of each one.

Stamp the sentiment in black with Versafine on a white cardstock and glue it on one bauble.
Blend Distress Ink Pad on the reverse side of the decoupage cut and stencil a little star as decoration

Assemble the baubles, at the end the mini-book will look like the photograph below:

For this card I used  the background stamp, the bauble and the sentiment from Pears and Baubles

From the same stamp sheet, Pears and Baubles   I stamped the Tree, while the borders are the snowflakes from Winter Edges stamp set. I stenciled stripes for giving some movement to the background.

I wish you a nice Christmas Crafting Time,  full of ideas, and fun in creating.

Magda 

Christmas Candle Box and Card (by Anne)

Good morning. Today I am sharing a couple of Christmas project ideas with you.

The first is a festive card with a bit of a grunge feel. I was experimenting a bit with this one – just had to add a bit of glitter bling though (no stopping me – ha ha). Stamp sets used: Winter Edges, Pears and Baubles plus Let’s Get Festive.

How it was done:

The card blank was stamped with the snowflake border and black dye based ink (12cm square texture Kraft card).

A die cut tag was spritzed with green and gold ink sprays. When dry the background was stamped with snowflakes and the sentiment using black ink and opaque metallic gold acrylic paint. A little black ink was blended around the edges. Black and white Bakers Twine was tied onto the tag and around the card front.

The tree was stamped with gold paint onto black card. A little opaque red gouache paint was added to the branches. This was cut out and mounted onto white card to create a border around the tree. It was lightly shaped before gluing to the card.

Next for the bling: I added Stickles (Gold and Sprinkled Sugar). Glossy Accents was also added over some of the elements to add shine and depth.

My second project is a festive candle box using the lovely Robin The Spruce stamp set – lots of bling on this one! The decorative background stamp from the Pears and Baubles set was also used to decorate the inner box panels, plus the Seasonal Elements Stencil  to add sparkly snowflakes to the inner acetate box lid.

How it was done:

I first created a little plain box with acetate lid to go inside and hold 4 small T-light candles (approx. 8cm square and 2cm deep). Viva Décor glitter paste was applied through the stencil to decorate the acetate lid.

An A4 sheet of silver decorative metallic card was used to create the outer box. This was a little deeper than 2cm (to accommodate the inner box) and approx. 9.5cm X 13cm (large enough to fit the stamped panel and sentiment on the front). The candle box was glued inside and Pinflair Snow Dust used to create a snowy effect.

Instead of a fitted lid I created fold over flaps for the top (approx. 13 X 8cm each). Inner panels were stamped in green ink onto smooth white card and coloured with watercolour and sparkle pens. Red glaze pen was added to the berries. The panels were glued to the inside flaps. Thin magnets were added between the card layers to give a magnetic closure, plus a little ribbon tab added for opening. A little obligatory bling was also added with silver glitter glue.

The sentiment was stamped with black ink onto a die cut panel. Foliage was stamped in green around the edges, and yes …. more silver glitter glue.

The front panel was stamped onto acetate with black StazOn ink. The back was coloured with alcohol ink pens. A piece of plain white card was trimmed and glued to the back creating an opaque background layer.

Glaze pen was used to colour the berries and rosehips, and glitter glue added to the snowy hills.

June Fairy (by Doreen)

Hello everyone, today sees the last post this month from our Guet Design Team member Doreen. She has created a dreamy monochrome card, using some stamps from our fairy collection.

Products Used:

Chocolate Baroque June Fairy stamps
Watercolour card
Distress Oxide inkpads: Chipped Sapphire, Mermaid Lagoon, Salty Ocean
Distress Inkpad: Chipped Sapphire
White gel pen
Gold gel pen
Circular mask

Thank you for looking,

Love Doreen.

Christmas roses (by Veronica)

 My last samples for this month share a theme of Christmas roses, and both stamps are great for colouring in.
The first stamp is called 'hark the Christmas rose'  and has a background of music for the carol 'hark the herald angels', which i thought was a lovely combination.
 The first one was stamped with versamark onto black card and gold embossed before painting with some very ancient mica paints - I think this one used H2Os. Trimmed down, mounted onto gold card, then onto a white card blank that had been randonly stamped with the roses using a gold inkpad.

 The second version is very similar, but embossed in silver and the paints were from an anonymous palette of mica paints - it is so old that the clear lid has disintegrated, but the paints still work fine!
This time i stamped and white  embossed the snowflakes from winter edges to make the background, then sponged a light grey ink round the edges before adding matting layers of black and silver









The serena stamp does count for this theme as it has a small bunch of Christmas roses!
My first card was the simplest, stamped with versamark onto cream card and gold embossed.
Painted again with the mica paints, a thin gold mat and mounted onto a white base card randomly stamped using the Christmas roses which were gold embossed. The sentiment is from 'lets get festive'.










The final version I stamped serena three times,  once onto white card and twice onto black and silver embossed all the images.
One of the black cards was trimmed to size, and a versamark pad dragged roughly round the edges which were then silver embossed.
Serena was painted with the mica paints on the white card and fussy cut out, then glued onto the image on the black card.
The roses and candles were painted on the third image, then fussy cut out and glued on.

I hope that you enjoyed Christmas in July, there are loads of lovely samples coming up from the girls, so keep looking!

Frosty Night in Laketown - by Penny

Hi everyone - Penny here again with a bit more crafty fun to share with you.  Today I have another of my Christmas samples from last month featuring stamps from the Winter Edges, and Let's Get Festive sets; a Blue Sparkle pen, black Versafine ink, clear embossing powder, die cuts and glitter from my stash.

I took a piece of Drawing Cartridge  card and stamped and embossed the town image in black.  I then created a background with the Sparkle pen and added a gold star in the sky.

I created a reflection of the town using acetate as a stamp and used gold pen on the embossed image as highlights.  I then took a white base card and cut an oval aperture into the front, and attached the focal panel to the inside of the card front, so that it showed through the aperture.  I took some Christmas foliage  die cuts from my stash, added some ink and glitter and attached them to the card around the aperture, to frame the scene.  Finally I stamped and embossed a sentiment at the bottom of the card.

Thank you all for popping in today  and taking the time to read this post, I hope you've found it inspiring.  For more details check out my blog:   https://ladypenelopesfabcraftyblogspot.blogspot.com


See you all next time,

                                         x  Penny  x         

Christmas Baubles (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have some more Christmas projects to share with you today, featuring some of the stamps that we used on last month's TV shows on Hochanda.

For my first project, I have created a piece of home decor in soft vintage colours. I wanted to use very non-traditional Christmas colours, and this soft pink and green was exactly what I had in mind for my project. I used a canvas from my stash, which I painted with acrylic paint, and added some ivy die cuts all around the edge. I painted a piece of dictionary paper with the same acrylic paint, but thinning the paint, so that it allowed the words to remain visible.

I used Pearl Soft Form Relief Paste, coloured with Brushos to create my focal images, and these were left to dry overnight. I dry brushed some of the same colour of Soft Form Relief Paste over the ivy leaves, which acted as a kind of gilding paste, and it gives a lovely shimmer to the leaves.

Once the two pears were set, I peeled them from the stamps, trimmed the rough edges, and added a tough of gold gilding paste to the surface, before adhering them inside the canvas.

My second project is much more colourful! I created a background using Distress Inks , and added the large textured background image from the Pears and Baubles stamp set. I stamped three baubles onto a spare piece of card and cut them out. I attached them to the background, along with some bold purple ribbon.

A sentiment from the Let's Get Festive stamp set completes the card.

Thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

Colourful Festivities (by Zoe)

Good morning Lovelies and welcome to my final post for August, you might need your sunglasses lol!

I blended Distress Oxides around a circle mask and flicked some water and dabbed dry. I used a stencil to fill in the moon. I repeat stamped these fabulous stamps using various colours in both Oxides and Versafine inkpads. I dried them thoroughly and then heat embossed in white. I added some glitter glue dots for berries.

Very similar technique to the first card, but I used Distress inkpads for the background.

I made a tag sampler using a layering die. I used Distress Oxides on both sides of each tag, which was put onto a mat, spritzed with water, and then picked up the colour on the tag. I dried between each layer until I achieved the desired look, (wrinkle free distress technique), and added lots of layered stamping, and some heat embossing.
I have to apologise for my mucky hands in the photos.

Thank you once again for visiting and leaving your comments. Have a wonderful day xx Zoe xx

Shabby Chic Roses by Brenda

Hello all, Brenda here with some more inspiration using the beautiful new stamps that featured in Lesley's recent TV shows on Hochada.

The beautiful Hark the Christmas Rose was a big hit with all the Design Team and the above card was the first I made when I inked it up, it just said Shabby Chic to me so I went down the Kraft card and soft pinks route. The image was stamped with Versafine black, a little colouring added with pencils and the edges 'ruffed' up after adding tea dye DI before matting and layering on to coordinating card stock.

The backgound of this one has been repeat stamped using Distress Markers and images from the new Robin the Spruce set. The lovely Robin is from the same set, again stamped with Versafine black, a mask and Pan Pastels for the sky then coloured in and mounted on foam pads over the background.

This is Serena and her name really does befit the beautiful image whic after stamping with Versafine black I coloured in with sparkle pens, lightly inked the background, framed her and uased some organga ribbon and a snowflake brad.

My final share today has a Distress Ink background which brayered on randomly to give varying textures, then overstamped with stamps from Robin the Spruce and Pears and Baubles alsong with Large Crackle Backgrund around the edges stamped with Versamark and embossed with Detail Gold. The pears are also from Pears and Baubles stamped on to a background created in the same way as the main piece, heat embossed with detail gold again and cut out. Finally a sentiment from Lets Get Festive.

Many thanks as always for your visits and kind comments.

Baroque Butterflies (by Doreen)

Hello everyone, it is time for the second post from our Guest Design Team member Doreen this month. She has created a lovely delicate card, featuring flowers and butterflies. 

Products used:

Chocolate Baroque Smooth White Paper
Baroque Meadow stamp
Chocolate Baroque Mask- Kaleidoscope of Butterflies
A little heavy gesso
Distress inkpads: Mowed Lawn, Chipped Sapphire and Wild Honey, applied using soft blending brushes
Sentiment from Essence of Nature stamp set
Black Archival inkpad

Thank you for looking,

Love Doreen

Happy Christmas ( By Marga )

Hello everyone. 

This time another Christmas card.

I first stamped the background with Versamark and embossed it with white embossing powder. Then I made the background with Distress Ink. I took an iron and a piece of print paper and I ironed off the embossing powder. The Christmas balls stamped with Versmark and white embossing powder. Cut them out and pasted them on the card.

Hugs Marga

Fifteen Minute Cards

Hello everyone, it is time for our monthly selection of quick projects brought to you by the Design Team as a whole. This month, we are looking at mostly Christmas cards, as we are sharing some of the projects that we created for last month's TV shows on Hochanda, featuring some of our brand new stamps, and some older, much loved favourites as well.

If you are starting to think about making your Christmas cards, then this post will be perfect for you, as we have created lots of quick cards, perfect for batch making. You can create a production line for your cards, and have lots of the same design made in next to no time, saving lots of time and effort. By varying the colours, your cards can have a unique feel, making the recipients feel as if you have taken lots of time to make their cards feel very individual.

So, grab a cuppa, sit back and enjoy the blog post. We hope that you will enjoy our designs and time-saving ideas, and that you can find something to inspire you along the way.

Our first card comes from Anne, she has used a piece of Crafty Individuals background paper, and roughed up the edges. She stamped the Bearing Gifts image onto a piece of white card, colouring with watercolour pens in the darker areas. The colour was brushed out with either a water brush or sparkle pen to give the shading. The image was cut out and added to the background with foam pads. The sentiment was added with white embossing powder.

For her next card, Anne used a background created with ink sprays and Brusho powders from her stash. She stamped the scene from Winter Edges across the centre using Versafine Onyx Black ink, and stamped again without re-inking just above and to the left slightly, to create distance. The stamp was turned upside down and stamped along the base. Trees were then stamped randomly, inking only parts of the stamp. The reflection was created by stamping onto acetate and pressing this down onto the card to transfer the ink.

The scene was edged with black alcohol marker to frame, and mounted onto red and white card.

A simple, elegant black and white card by Marga next. This card could be created in any colour choice, and would be perfect for batch cards. Marga has chosen one of the foliage stamps from the Robin the Spruce stamp set to create a background, then used the robin on a branch image for the focal part of the card. Black matting lifts the design, and separates the layers.

I have created some quick and easy batch cards for you. The first four are all based on the same layout, using images from the Winter Edges stamp set and using sentiments from the Let's Get Festive stamp set.

I trimmed some offcuts of scrap card, scrapbook paper, and left over coloured pieces of paper from previous projects, all lurking in my stash box, so that they would fit to one side of a 7" x 7" card blank, leaving room for a sentiment.  The first two cards are exactly the same layout, just different colour options:

You could add white highlights to the kraft card option, giving it a Scandinavian feel. The second background is a gelli plate background, using bubble wrap to create the pattern.

My next card is stamp onto a Brusho background, with Stickles for highlights:

Finally, white embossing onto some scrapbook paper:

A smaller, simple card with stamping onto ribbon, and clear embossing over red stamping for the tree, you could add a few red gems in the corners if you do not like too much space:

Rachel has created a lovely wreath using foliage from the Robin the Spruce stamp set. She stamped the foliage in different colours, building up the depth. She added the sentiment and bird to finish, using black ink.

To create the following card, she masked the top and bottom of the card, and applied Distress Ink. She stamped the trees and added pen marks inbetween the trees.

For her next card, she stamped and masked a bauble, then masked an area on the card. She applied Distress Ink, and flicked water over the ink. Once she had removed the masks, she applied some red to the bauble.

Rachel created a Brusho tag for her final piece, and added white embossing for the wow factor.

Two cards from Penny next, using a similar layout for both cards, but showing how using different colours can change the look of a card completely. The first card is using textured card and green glitter embossing powder.

 The second card using white embossing powder, and has the addition of glitter glue.

We have a lovely selection of cards from Brenda next. Her first card uses second generation stamping to create the background, and she has added the robin on the branch in a deep blue to create a delightful monochrome card. It just goes to show that robins do not always need to be red! These silhouette stamps can be any colour that you like.

She has created a wreath by stamping with water based markers, spritzed with water. She then added the sentiment using a brown Versafine Ink.

The mistletoe was stamped with brown Versafine ink, and she added liquid pearls for the berries. Red bows and a red matting layer finish off the card perfectly.

Brenda's final two cards this month are simply stamped using black ink, and then she added some gems to the trees.

Pat has created two cards for us this month. She has used white embossing for the images, then added several shades of Distress Inks for the background. She has added some stars with a white gel pen. The sentiment was added using silver embossing powder.

For her second card, she has used red glitter embossing powder on red card for a tone on tone effect. The background was created by stamping one of the foliage stamps onto kraft card using Versamark and adding clear embossing powder.

We have a huge selection of projects from Magda this month, she is definitely gearing up for Christmas! For her first four cards, she has stencilled the backgrounds, stamped the images, and then added Stickles to embellish:

She has created some super gift tags, firstly using some baubles:

She has used Distress Inks to create a background, and stamped images from the Winter Edges stamp set over the top to create the following gift tags:

Next a banner for the tree:

Finally, we are taking a step away from Christmas, and looking at one or two other projects. Magda has created a set of Diwali cards. She has used warm tones for the backgrounds, adding stencils to build up texture and a bold silhouette image for the stamping. She has added a computer generated sentiment.

She has been busy with her Birthday cards as well, the first has a textured background, great crackle effect, and a lovely sentiment:

The next, a bit of colour coordinated splattering to tone with the simple colouring of the focal image:

Finally, who does not love butterflies? She has added some subtle stencilling to add interest to the background:

Our final card is from Carole, She has stamped the scene and words with Versafine Onyx Black Ink. The sun rays are extended through a stencil using Distress Inks and the blue added lightly around the edges. The sentiment is overstamped with a red Versafine inkpad.

Well, that brings our selection for this month to a close. We hope that you have enjoyed what we have shared with you this time around. We will be back next month with another bumper selection of cards and projects to inspire you. In the meantime, do keep visiting the blog for a daily dose of inspiration from the regular Design Team posts.

Thanks for stopping by,