Stamp as a mould (by Magda)

I wish you all a good morning with my first post of October.
As you can see, my card  today has as a decoration an usual border and to make it I used the stamp as a mould.

Step by step :

1.  Apply some Distress Inkpad Vintage Photo on the stamp Floral Edges, this will give a random
     colour at the background
2.  Cover all the stamp with a coat of Soft Relief Paste
3.  Let dry for one or more days
4.  Peel gently from the stamp the dried film of paste and cut around the edges
5. Stamp on both mats that you will glue on the card, in second and third generation here and there
    the same stamp from Floral Edges, with  Distress Inkpad Vintage Photo
6. With the same colour of inkpad, stamp the sentiments of Amazing Mackintosh Words
7. Assemble the card as shown.

Thanks for reading my post, happy crafting

Magda

Eastern Promise by Brenda

Good monring, Brenda here welcoming you to our first post of September. This month myself and the Design Team will be sharing our artwork from the August Hochanda shows which had an Eastern feel to them with lots of colour, Elephants and bold patterns.

My first piece above started with a Distress Oxide background over which I stenciled some sun rays using pearl texture paste. I then stamped the large Palance from Indian Textiles and extended it across the piece by stamping part of the stamp a second time. The flowers across the top are from Indian Elephant, stamped coloured and cut out to decoupage and the stamped some small leaves. The sentiments are from Amazing Mackintosh Words.

Here I have a little book, the base pages are a heavyweight acetate and the stamping mats watercolour card, all coloured with Distress Inks, stenciling using Silhouette Palace 1 and Silhouette Palace 2. 

Each page stamped with a mixture of images from Indian Elephant, Indian Textiles, Paisley Elephant and Natures Paisley. The front page also has a sentiment from Amazing Mackintosh Words.

The Elephants have all been coloured in with Sparkle Pens and a littler bit of gold highlighting.

Many thanks for popping by today and keep an eye open for more Eastern Promise from my team mates.

natural colours? by Veronica

 For my last post this month I am back (mostly) to my favourite brusho powders - I just love the vibrant colours and the randomness of the results!
The large honeysuckle stamp was ideal, I stamped and embossed with white EP before sprinkling the red, yellow and green powders roughly where I would like them to stay, then spritzing fairly heavily with water. The EP resists the water, and also traps some of the colour into the image.
Sentiment from Mackintosh words stamped in black versafine, image trimmed down to fit onto a square white card blank with a deep red mat.





This one is far more muted, just a very light dusting of yellow powder to create a background. Image stamped with black versafine and coloured with watercolour pencils - have to admit I can't remember which set the sentiment came from!


For my final samples this month I have used the lovely big tree stamp from essence of nature.
The first one is very restrained, not a speck of brusho in sight!
I used a square white card blank as the base, and stamped the tree stamp all over  to create the background. I used hickory smoke distress ink and held  the stamp in my hand so that only part of the image stamped at a time.

 The focal image was stamped onto black card with versamark ink and I used a rather ancient bonding powder (which thankfully still worked) before using the gold and coppery mix of gilding flakes. For some reason i never got on with stamping using glue when i had the gilding flakes with everything craze years ago, but the bonding powders worked every time...




My final card was back to brusho for the foacl image. Stamped onto white card using black versafine ink and clear embossed before using yellow, red and blue powders to create the sky.



I started with a square back base card , and added the background card at an angle. This was a square of white card stamped with the trees in hickory smoke distress ink and sponged round the edges.
I trimmed the brusho image down, added a black mat and glued onto the background.

Thanks for looking, and many thanks to Judith for doing my last post for me when i had internet problems - a relief to be back, you don't realise how much you need it until you haven't got it!

In an English Country Garden by Brenda

Good morning, it's my turn to share some more inspiration using the beautiful cottage garden flowers which featured in some of Lesley's recent Hochanda shows.

I adore Digitalis so the Honey Bee stamps set used on the above card really appealed to me, well all flowers do but anything associated with a traditional cottage garden reminds me of my childhood which is now reflected in my own gardens.

I started by stamping the Digitalis twice onto a piece of card, then cut around part of the blooms so that I could use a die to cut a square aperture.........by doing this you can carefully place the cut section outside the die so that they then lay over the aperture.

Next I have a 6"x8" canvas, it was a pre primed canvas but I gave it another coat of gesso  before building up the colour with acrylic paints and then added some texture with a stencil and texture paste coloured with the same yellow acrylic paint. I did the same with the tiny blue dots and then stamped around the edges with the honeycomb stamp from the Honey Bee stamp sheet. The digitalis were coloured with the same paints but watered down and the each cut out to place onto the canvas. The sentiments are from Amazing Macintosh Words.

The base of this card is brown and gold metallic acrylic paint brushed in both directions across the card and water added to give a ramdom look, he the honeycombe from Honey Bee stamped around the edges with Versafine Toffee. I stamped, coloured and cut out six of the Sunflowers from the same set, layered them up and added a sentiment from Words to Dazzle and Sparkle.

For my final card I usea a piece of black card for the base layer, a stencil and sprayed mica which was simply gold mica powder and water mixed together. The flowers from Fragrant Honeysuckle and Bee were stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with detail white powder then coloured in with sparkle pens.

As always I really appreciate your visits and kind words.

Bee-utiful Bees by Penny

Hi there Peeps, I'm back again to share a couple of cards with you all, featuring the 'bee-utiful' Chocolate Baroque Bee and Floral stamps from last month's tv shows.

Buzz-y Bees

The first card I want to share with you features stamps from the Honey Bee and Rose Tree sets, Distress Inks, sepia Versafine ink, masking tissue and an embossing folder from my stash.

I stamped and embossed the bee hive image and a couple of bees onto white drawing cartridge card using sepia ink.  I used masking tissue to cover the images and created a colour wash with the Distress Inks.

While the images were still masked I stamped the silhouette Foxglove image repeatedly across the background panel.  I then removed the masks and coloured the images with pens.  I matted the panel onto dark brown card to compliment the Sepia ink.  On some spare card I stamped and embossed the large Foxglove and Sunflower images, and coloured them with pens before cutting them out.   

Using a cream base card I embossed the front in a folder with a 'honeycomb' style pattern.  I added some DI around the edges and attached the background panel.  I then attached the flowers with 3D glue.  I stamped a sentiment onto white card, embossed it and die cut it.  I added some ink through the die, stamped a couple of tiny bees and attached the panel with 3D glue.





Roses are Red.

My second share is a simple but elegant card featuring stamps from The Rose Tree and the  Amazing Mackintosh Words sets; pearlescent acrylic paints, gold embossing powder and Versamark ink.

On a piece of black card I stamped and embossed the Rose Tree image in gold, then painted it with pearlescent paints.  I then matted the panel onto gold mirror card. 

Using some spare black card I stamped and embossed a couple of butterflies and the ladybird in gold and painted them as before.  I then cut them out.

I attached the focal panel to a white base card then attached the insects with 3D glue.  Using some more spare black card I stamped and embossed a sentiment in gold on two small panels, added gold pen around the edges, and attached them with 3D glue again. 

Thank you very much for dropping in today, I hope you've enjoyed your visit and that I have inspired you to create something lovely with your stamps! 

Until next time, sending you all crafty hugs,

                                                                                  Penny

Fabric Stamping (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have some projects to share with you today incorporating fabric. I really like to add some texture into my projects whenever I can, as it adds a bit of interest and makes the project look and feel quite expensive, for very little cost. I demoed these three projects on last month's TV shows on Hochanda, and I hope that you managed to watch Lesley and I in action.

To create the first card, I cut some small pieces of cotton fabric, and put some Distress Ink onto a craft mat, which I spritzed with water. I patted the fabric into the ink, moving it around to blot up the ink. I added more ink and water if necessary to get a good coverage of the fabric, but was happy to leave some areas uncoloured. I left the pieces of fabric to dry by themselves.

I frayed the edges of each piece of fabric, and stamped a silhouette image from one of the stamp sets: Tranquility, Serenity, Wisteria Lane or Eastern Grasses, and added a sentiment as well. I chose words from Artistic Affirmations, Amazing Mackintosh Words, and Words to Dazzle and Sparkle. I used Archival black ink to stamp all of the images onto the fabric, leaving the stamp on the fabric slightly longer than I would on card or paper, to allow the ink to grab onto the fabric. You do not need to press any harder.

I attached the fabric pieces to a piece of black card before matting them onto a card blank. A little button with paper string tied through was a finishing touch to each card.

For my next card, I created a paint swatch effect by masking sections of a piece of cartridge paper, and inking three toning colours of Distress Ink. I stamped the silhouette image from the Eastern Grasses stamp set onto the piece of card.I matted the panel onto black card before adding the panel to a piece of linen card.

I coloured a piece of cream ribbon with Distress Ink and stamped it with Archival Ink as before, using a sentiment from the Amazing Mackintosh Words stamp set. I attached the ribbon to the background and then placed the background on a square card blank.

For my final project, I used a Crafty Individuals tag, and stamped the main image from the Tranquility stamp set across the bottom of the tag. I coloured the image with pencils. I added the wisteria image using water based markers across the top, using first and second generation stamping for a fuller effect. The ribbon was made in exactly the same way as before, picking up colour from the craft mat, and then once dry, stamping with Archival Ink. I used a word from the Serenity stamp plate. I like to colour ribbon myself to coordinate with a project, you can see another example here.

 

I hope that I have inspired you to to have a go at stamping on fabric, I will be back later in the month with more projects to share. Thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

Cards and ATCs (by Magda)

Hello girls,
as my third and last blog post for this month, I would like to inspire you with some cards and ATCs.


The background of this first card was created by blending Distress Ink Pad on which I stamped with Versafine Onyx Black, different stamps from Chocolate Baroque  and coloured them with watercolour pencils.
The collections are : Landscape Edges ( sun and wall), English Cottages (house and tree), Village life (tree)

Here is a very clean and simple card

I just stamped  with Versafine Onyx Black, two stamps from Village life  and the birds from Landscape Edges  on a blended  Distress Ink Pad background, using  the beautiful 250gr A4 white cardstock

On Your Birthday card

has as focus points the red label with the sentiment from the  Words to Dazzle and Sparkle  stamp plate and the glittered Stickles light coming behind the clouds. In Landscape Edges  you can find all the stamps for this card. The background is again blended with Distress Ink Pad  on A4 white cardstock

Three ATCs from the same  A4 white cardstock wiped with Distress Ink Pad and water. The stamps from Landscape Edges are stamped with Ranger Archival Inkpad Jet Black, as well as the sentiment from the Amazing Mackintosh Words collection. 

Thank you for passing by and I will see you next month with another Chocolate Baroque stamp series

Magda 

Moonlit Trees (by Judith)

Hello everyone,

I have a simple project to share with you today, using the Landscape Edges stamp set. I wanted to create a quick scene, and this treeline image was perfect for the effect that I wanted to achieve.

I started by placing a circle mask onto a piece of smooth cartridge card, and adding some dots of masking fluid across the area of sky. I placed a piece of torn paper along the lower part of the background to cover the portion of the card that was going to be the hills, and then started to add some colour for the sky. I chose a series of Distress Ink colours, graduating out from the moon, getting darker as I moved further out.

I added some green Distress Ink underneath the sky for the hills, and stamped the tree image over the top, using Versafine Ink. I added some detail to the trees with a white pen to give the impression of moonlight falling on the trees. I rubbed the masking fluid away from the sky area, revealing the 'stars', and added a sentiment from the Amazing Mackintosh Words stamp set

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Scene Building With Polyester (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a project to share with you that was created for the February TV shows on Hochanda. I wanted to show how to create a scene using polyester sheets as a quick and simple mask or stencil.

I chose two stamps from the Sunburst Scenes stamp set, and placed one of them onto a piece of copy paper where I thought a hill might be in my design. I drew the hill with a pencil, and then using a piece of polyester over the top, drew the line again with a permanent pen. I cut through the polyester along the line and was left with the positive and negative part of the mask. I also planned a set of masks for smaller cards by drawing the shape of a smaller card on a piece of copy paper, and creating a hill in the same way.

Once I had the masks, I stamped the windmill and house onto a piece of smooth cartridge paper that had been trimmed to size, and covered them with an image stamped onto masking tissue. I used my 'hill' mask to draw the hill underneath the windmill, joining up with the line attached to the stamp design. I reversed the mask to add another hill behind the first hill, and then drew the final smaller hill in the foreground by hand. I used both masks to cover over the areas as I needed to, so that I could add colour for the sky and hills. To create a bit of depth in the hills, I added some deeper green once the initial colour had been placed all over the area.

I also created a stencil from polyester using circle dies so that I could add suns or moons in various sizes, and I used one of these to add a sun in the sky. I kept the blue inking quite blotchy, to give an impression of a cloudy sky.

The house and windmill were coloured with pencils once I had removed the masks. I added some birds from the Landscape Edges stamp set, and a sentiment from the Amazing Mackintosh Words stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Turquoise and Green (by Carole)

Hello everyone, it is time for the last post of the month by our Guest Team Design member Carole Cann. Carole has created a stunning card for us using Brushos and white embossing. Here is Carole's post:

Good morning everyone, today I am showing my final project for this month. A card for a special friend.
I really like the look of white embossing with vivid colours, so decided to get my Brushos out which I shockingly, don't use very much.

Stamps used: Fleurs Nouveau- background, Flora Musica, Amazing Mackintosh Words

Stamp and white emboss the the beautiful flower border horizontally down the card on the left. This is repeated on the right side so that the base of the stamp is just touching the previous stamping.
Stamp and emboss the Flora Musica image and then cut away the background. Stamp the message with blue ink.
Now for the Brusho fun. I did a small section at a time.
With a wet brush, paint around the inside of several flowers and then sprinkle on some blue Brusho. Let it spread, helping it into any holes with the brush.
Repeat with the other flowers and leave to 'do its own thing' for a while. Dab dry with a cloth.
Swipe over the background with a wide, wet brush and repeat the process with a green colour. Help this along by brushing across, trying to avoid the flowers, then leave to spread. Dab if necessary.
Repeat with Flora Musica, then leave to dry.
Once Flora Musica is dry, cover the flower heads with Glossy Accents.
Trim the side edges off the background, making it 16.5cms x 18cms, (6 1/2 x 7 1/8 inches).
These strips are used to make the corner bands at the top of the card, picking up one of the individual flowers as the centre.
Matt and layer onto coordinating card.
The final size of my card was 19cms x 19.5cms (7 5/8 x 7 6/8 inches).

I hope you have enjoyed my three posts as much as I enjoyed making them, and thank you for the lovely comments you have sent. They are much appreciated.

Happy crafting,

Carole 😊

Carole will be back later in the year with more projects to share with us. You can see more of her work on her blog, and she regularly creates projects for our TV shows on Hochanda.

trees (by Veronica)

 I loved working with these tree stamps, and these cards are all fairly straightforward, and quicker to create than they look!

The first one uses trees from tall trees, fantasy landscape and teeny weeny meadow to create a scene, with the grass and hills created using torn paper as a mask and distress inks sponged on.
A simple mat of black card and a sentiment from lets get festive to finish.

The image from tall trees was stamped in black versafine ink, and the rocks stamped onto acetate then pressed onto the card below the stamped image to give the reflection. Distress oxide inks sponged over to create the evening sky, and a mixture of distress inks to create the grasses and the reflection. Cut down to a panel to fit an 8" sqaure card, and the words from tall trees stamped at the side.











The last card has the image from fantasy landscape stamped in black , with a background from sponged distress inks. Image was die cut and added to the card blank with a sentiment from amazing Mackintosh words

Apologies for the poor quality of the scans, I seem to have managed to change the settings without noticing at the time! (Needless to say, I couldn't have done it deliberately if I had tried to!)

There are lots of very useful smaller stamps in these sets, and an example is here on my blog.
There are some fab ideas coming up from the girls........

Chequered Flower and Baroque Corners (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with some cards made for Lesley's shows on Hochanda. I've used Baroque Corners for my first sample

I love corner stamps as they are such versatile stamps, obviously great for decorating corners but also great for pattern building. I also love white embossing on kraft card so I combined the two to make this card.

It can be a little tricky to stamp exactly where you want and I don't have one of these fancy stamping platforms so  I used a pencil to lightly mark the centre of the card (horizontally and vertically) as this makes it loads easier to position the stamp. It also helps to trim your stamp very close to the image for this technique.

 I stamped the large corner 4 times with versamark, carefully lining up the centre of the stamp with my pencil mark and rotating the image to create a pretty doily effect. I heat embossed each corner before moving on to the next as this also makes it easier to see where you are stamping. I used the smaller corner stamp in the corners and then used it to create a border in between the corners, again embossing with white embossing powder. I didn't want to cover the pretty effect but I did want to add a sentiment so I tore a strip of vellum and stamped and embossed the sentiment (from Mackintosh Words.). I attached the vellum with a couple of pearl brads.

My second card features Chequered Flowers, such a beautifully detailed stamp. I've stamped and embossed it with silver embossing powder on a very sparkly Caught in Crystal background and it was very hard to photograph so apologies for the poor photo. 

I'd made the background a while ago, using shimmery inks, lots of glitter and some floor polish (the clear stuff for a shiny finish, I can't remember the make but it was from the pound shop) on tissue paper and then applying a layer of acetate I just stamped the image with versamark, embossed with silver EP and layered a die cut frame over the top. I find it's really handy to batch make backgrounds like this so they are ready to go when you want a quick card.

Last but not least I've made a tag using the same stamp. I created an inky background using Wilted Violet, Picked Raspberry and Peacock Feathers distress ink. I stamped the flowers along the bottom of the tag with versamark and embossed with gold EP. I also stamped the large Baroque corner along the top of the tag and again embossed with Gold EP.

I added some colour with watercolour paints and splashed some paint here and there too. Once it was dry I stamped the sentiment (from Artistic Affirmations) and again embossed with Gold EP. I edged the tag with gold gilding wax and used a scrap of eyelash fibre to decorate the tag.

Thanks so much for visiting today, 

Claire xx

A Mixed Bunch (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have more projects to share with you using the fabulous new stamps featured on last month's shows on Hochanda.

I was very taken with the Floral Harmony stamp, and love the flower head image part of the design in particular. I decided to use this as the focal point for a couple of my projects.

I applied texture paste through the Useful Leaves Stencil onto a large Tando Tag, and allowed this to dry completely. I covered the tag with gesso, and once this was dry, applied a combination of pale pink and turquoise paint to the background.

I stamped the leafy spray stamps from the Take It or Leaf It stamp set, using teal coloured ink onto the background. I stamped several of the floral images onto to some spare white card, and coloured them using water based markers. I added a bit of Stickles to the centres for added bling. I coloured a piece of white card with water based marker that I had scribbled onto an acrylic block and spritzed with water. I then die cut a small rectangle and stamped a sentiment from the Amazing Mackintosh Words stamp set. I edged the rectangle using Distress Ink.

I added the flowers and sentiment to the tag, and finally coloured some ribbon using the same paints as I had used for the background, to give a coordinated feel to the project.

For my next project, I rummaged through my stash, and found some brightly coloured backgrounds, and cut out some squares of orange card, I then inked up the flower head part of the stamp, and pressed the squares of card onto the stamp to obtain the image. I also stampd several of the large leaves from the Take it or Leaf It stamp set, and then cut all of the images out. I arranged them onto a large black card blank, to create a wreath shape. I added some Stickles to the centre of the flowers once again, for a bit of sparkle.

I die cut a circle from another piece of the orange card, and stamped a sentiment from the Amazing Mackintosh Words stamp set.

For my final project, I decided to work within my favourite colour palette, and created a soft background of turquoise and purple, using Distress Ink. I stamped the Baroque Corners using Archival Ink, and added a sentiment from the Amazing Words stamp set. I edged the background with a toning Distress Ink.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with these lovely stamps, and hope that you have been inspired to try out some of the ideas that you have seen shared by myself and the rest of the Design Team. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Make a Wish (by Brenda)

Morning Peeps, I am back again with a few more shares using the lovely new stamps Lesley launched on Hochanda a few weeks ago.

The background of the above card is actually the leftover from another one which I mopped up from my craft mat and rather likes the the muted colours. Using the small leaf from the Take It Or Leaf It set I randomly stamped the background with second generation stamping and a red Distress Ink, I then used the first generation ink to stamp the Chequered Flowers which I have to say I just love, they remind me of Thistles but with so much more interest going on. Finally I added a sentiment from Words to Dazzle and Sparkle.

A canvas now which I primed with Gesso, then acrylic paint and crackle glaze before adding leaves and 'spots' using Useful Leaves and Seasonal Elements stencils and texture paste. When dry I placed the stencils back in place and coloured with acrylic pain, then using the same paint coloured some elements from one of the colouring pages from the Colouring Collection which I then cut out and added to the canvas. I added three chipboard Butterflies painted with the same colour and stenciled some leaves onto the largest. Finally some gold Gilding Wax here are there and a sentiment from Amazing Mackintosh Words.

My thanks for popping in today and I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Leafy Florals (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have three projects to share with you today showcasing the new stamps recently featured on the July TV shows on Hochanda. These floral stamps are really fabulous, suitable for all sorts of occasions, and styles.

For my first card, I used a favourite technique, stamping on a piece of book paper, and colouring the image with pencils. I stamped the Hanging Flowers image using Versafine Onyx Black Ink, and then edged the book paper with Distress Ink. The larger background was from my stash, and I used the same stamp to stamp around the edges with dark green ink to create a frame. I used kraft card to mat and layer the edges, giving a more natural feel.

For my second card, I used some background card from my stash, and simply stamped and embossed the main image using Versafine Onyx Black Ink and clear embossing powder. I stamped the two leaves randomly over the background to create a very quick design. Black matting layers give a very bold feel to this monochrome card.

For my final card, I used masking to combine an image from the Take It or Leaf It stamp set with the Chequered Flowers image, and coloured the images with pencils.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx