Black and White ( By Marga)

Hello everyone here a card from me today

Today I used only black and white. Mostly I'm a colour girl but sometimes you must go out of your comfort zone.

I used black embossing powder for the flowers and stamped the sentiment with Versafine Onyx Black.

The dots I made with a black and white gel pen.

Stamps I used are: Diamante Delights and Birthday words.

Hugs Marga

Dare to Dream (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have two projects to share with you today, showcasing the beautiful I Shall Be Your Wings stamp set that we featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda.

For my first project, I decided to make a dreamcatcher. I chose a large flower from the Diamante Delights stamp set, as it reminded me of the centre of a dreamcatcher, and stamped that onto a piece of drawing cartridge. I drew two circles around the outside, using a circular die, and drew some lines inside using a fineliner pen to complete the design. I added three feathers underneath the circle, and again, hand drew some beads on 'strings', to add to the design, using the fineliner pen.

I wanted to create a very soft, dreamy background, and used a combination of soft colours on the background, blending Distress Ink, and splattering it with water. I painted the images with watercolour pencils and a water brush. Finally, I stamped the sentiment onto a spare piece of drawing cartridge, and cut it into sections, before adding it to the background.

My second project was a TV demo, which you may have seen. When I saw these stamps, I knew instantly that I wanted to make both of these projects, and they turned out just as I imagined them. I drew a large circle onto a piece of drawing cartridge, then stamped two of the feathers before adding a mask. I stamped the other two feathers, and masked them as well. I added foliage using one of the images from the Lords and Ladies stamp set, and I used first, second and third generation stamping to build up depth.

I painted some twigs using a medium and small brush with Distress Ink and water. I wanted the twigs to look rather rustic, so I added some little wispy bits with the finer brush. I added the rose from the Rose Duo stamp set, which I had coloured with pencils and fussy cut. A sentiment in the centre finished the project before I matted the background onto dark green card.

I hope that my projects have inspired you to use these lovely stamps. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Pretty Steampunk (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope you caught Lesley's fabulous Steampunk shows last week on Hochanda, featuring an eclectic mixture of Steampunk images. I love working with this genre of stamps, because you can use the images in so many different ways; very grungy, adding lots of texture, or more feminine in style, altogether prettier, using brighter colours.

I have created a floral card, which could be for a friend's Birthday, or just to show that you care, using a sentiment from the brand new Punky Expressions stamp set which will be available on the website in the next few days.

I started to create my card by blending several colours of Distress Ink onto a piece of smooth Cartridge paper. I spritzed the background with water, to create a mottled effect, blotting the background here and there with a piece of tissue. I stamped the large script stamp from the Eccentric Edwardian stamp set over the background, using blue ink. On a spare piece of card, I stamped the small clock three times, and cut it out. I added a bit of yellow ink to age the images slightly.

I die cut some flowers from some Crafty Individuals paper, and scrunched them to give them a bit of texture and movement. To complete the flowers, I stamped three stems using an image from the Diamante Delights stamp set onto the background, and some leaves from the Bold Blooms stamp set onto some scrapbook paper, which I cut out. I added the clock faces to the centre of the paper flowers, and used some 3D foam behind the central flower.

You may have caught sight of one of my old samples on the show created using images from some of our Steampunk stamp sets, featuring the fabulous beetle from the Steampunkery stamp set as a focal point. I have again used paper flowers to create this design, but added cogs in the centre, dropping beads into the middle of each one, and stamping onto the leaves this time.

I will be back later in the month with more ideas to share with you, do keep checking in to see more fabulous ideas from my Design Team mates. Thanks for stopping by,

A Snowy Scene and a Fragment Flower (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a couple of samples to share. I always look forward to the release of the new Christmas stamps and this years stamps are gorgeous. I've used the gorgeous snowy cottage from Snowy Scenes as the focal image from this card

The background was made using some of the new snowflake stamps and the Christmas Magic clear stamp collection. I stamped and embossed the sentiment with silver embossing powder. Next I  stamped the snowflakes using Distress Ink in Iced Spruce and lightly distressed the edges of the card before matting on grey card. I stamped the image with the same ink and used a waterbrush to add some shading. Next I used a zig glue pen and clear glitter to add some sparkly snow. I die cut the image with a spellbinders die and layered it up over another die cut adding some silver gilding wax to highlight the embossing. I added a de cut poinsettia and a holly vine to finish off.

My second sample today was made using Tangled Fragments. As soon as I saw this stamp I had the idea to use it as a flower head.

I began by stamping the fragment in versamark on some card that I'd covered with some Ranger Tissue Wrap. I embossed with Gold embossing powder and added some colour with a red Graph'It marker.

 I stamped in the stem using a stamp from Diamante Delights and added some black seam binding ribbon. To finish off I added a couple of crystal buttons topped with little twine bows.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx