Flowers and Butterflies (posted by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have been working with one of the new individual cling mounted stamps currently available on the website, Butterfly Dress. The image is full of my favourite things, flowers and butterflies, and I had great fun creating this card.

I stamped the flower edge from the Floral Edges clear stamp set across the bottom of the piece of smooth white card. I needed to stamp the image twice to fill the space. I stamped the image again onto a piece of spare card a couple of times, so that I could colour some extra flowers to decoupage onto the original image. I stamped the Butterfly Dress image above the flower border, and cut a mask of the image and covered it over. I used a cloud stencil and Memento Summer Sky to create clouds across the background. I stamped the Butterfly Dress image twice more onto a piece of spare card so that I could decoupage the butterflies.

I coloured all of the images with pencils, and cut out the extra flowers and butterflies before adding them to the card. Finally, I added a layer of green card to correspond with the grassy green of the lady's skirt and the grass of the border.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Guest Post: Serenity Prayer Card Shaz Brooks

Our guest designer this week is Shaz Brooks who has designed this beautiful card using a variety of our stamps. This is a long and detailed post, but well worth the read. So pull up a chair and take time to enjoy.

(Measurements are in inches, as firstly, I still think that way, and second, my Tim Holtz ruler is in inches!)

One of the wonderful things about Glenda's stamps is how beautifully they mix and match, you are never limited to working just with the stamps in a particular set. For this project, I’ve used stamps from four different Chocolate Baroque sets: Serenity, GothicFragments, Floral Edges and Words of Wisdom. 

I began by taking a piece of white card roughly 6” x 6”.  I sprayed it with a mix of blue and purple; I mixed Distress Re-inkers (Salty Ocean and Seedless Preserves) with water in mini misters, but any spray inks will do the job. After spraying, I blotted the paper with kitchen towel, which left a lovely muted background.

Now I overstamped this piece with a couple of stamps from the Gothic Fragments, one of the Floral Edges and the Wisteria branch from Serenity. So the overstamping stayed soft to match the background, they were all stamped in Salty Ocean, and each time I stamped the image onto scrap before stamping on my background, giving me a paler second generation image.  I sprayed a second piece, roughly 3” x 6”, in the same way, then overstamped with another of the Gothic Fragments, finally inking up the Old English Prayer from the Words of Wisdom set in Versafine Majestic Blue and stamping that over the top.

Next I took another piece of white card, and stamped the Buddha image from Serenity in Memento Tuxedo Black, as I was going to colour it with Promarkers.  Using the ink left on the stamp, I also stamped a post-it note mask for the image. I trimmed the mask on the lines, so I would not get a ‘halo’ effect around my image. The post it mask was placed over the top, so that I could add colour to the ‘sky’ around the image, using Adirondack inks in Aqua, Stonewashed, Sailboat Blue, and just a touch of Denim at the edges, with a Colorbox Stylus tool. You can do this with sponges, an ink applicator or brushes, whatever your preferred method is. The sky took up roughly 2/3 of the image, so the bottom third was coloured for grass, again with Adirondacks in Willow, Citrus and a little Lettuce.

After this was totally dry, I added colour to the image using markers. The final touch was to add gilding flakes to the shrine the Buddha is sitting inside, and to the adornment on the Buddha's head. The background sheet, Buddha and the Prayer were each matted onto dark blue card.

For my base card, I cut two sheets of dark Grey Metallic card to 9”x 7 1/2”. Measuring in 1 1/2” from one short edge on each sheet, I scored a line down the card. At this point I also cut two sheets of white copy paper to make an insert for the greeting later, always wise when using a dark card base. Sandwiching the two white sheets between the two pieces of card, I punched two holes in the narrow section that had been scored. Now I threaded fibres through these holes, and tied together.  You could use twine/ribbon/string,  whatever you like. My ‘fibres’ are actually ‘eyelash wool’. I added a pale purple and pale blue brad top and bottom of the spine to secure it firmly.

Now the background sheet was stuck to the card front using double sided tape, and the Buddha image mounted on top of that, again with tape.  I added little foam pads to the back of the Prayer, to give a little dimension, and mounted it at an angle partly over the Buddha image.The final little embellishment I spotted lying on my desk- a little punched dragonfly. I had some scraps from a project a few weeks ago, using gilding flakes on black card, and had punched a few dragonflies and butterflies from the last bits. I added him with a little blob of silicone glue.

I hope you enjoy this project, and it encourages you to mix up your CB stamps a little. All the inks and tools I have used can be swapped for what you have with no ill effects, you can use Distress Inks instead of Adirondacks, for instance. You can even mix Distress Inks and Adirondacks if you wish.

I’ve really enjoyed doing this, although I have to admit my nerves were a bit frayed at the edges whilst I was doing it, I was sure something was going to go horribly wrong, especially as I got closer to being finished; I had visions of a dropped inkpad ruining everything!

Thank you so much for this Shaz, we have enjoyed having you as a guest designer. And if this post has inspired you why not leave a comment. To see more of Shaz's designs check her blog out here

Colourful Steampunk Birds (by Shirley)

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well during this busy Season.

I have a couple more designs today using stamps from the new Steampunk Birds set, the first one features the super cool Rooster, I love him !

The background started with Seedless Preserves Distress Ink using the Acrylic Block technique.   Next I stamped the cog fragment from Steampunk Butterfly with Dusty Concord DI.   I stamped the grasses from Floral Edges with Seedless Preserves DI.   The Rooster was embossed with copper powder on separate card stock, coloured with Inktense pencils, cut out and attached.    The sentiment is from Birthday Words.

I used the quirky bouncing birds and birdhouse from Steampunk Birds to create the design below.

 

I started by stamping cogs from Punky Flowers with white Colorbox Pigment ink.    I blended green and blue pigment inks over top and then rubbed ink off the cogs for the ghost effect.   Next I blended a little Broken China Distress Ink with TCW Gears stencil at the top for the 'clouds'   The birdhouse, bouncing birds and sentiment from Steampunk Birds were stamped with Cocoa Memento Dye ink and coloured with Prisma pencils.    

Also, just in case you missed Glenda's exciting post yesterday, here is the link to her Open Design Team call.

Thanks for stopping by, 

Seasons Greetings!

Shirley

Bliss with Gorgeous New Florals (by Shirley)

Hello everyone, I hope you are enjoying the weekend.

I love the new gorgeous Floral clear stamps and thoroughly enjoy working with them.  I used the new beautiful Snake's Head Fritillary on this card:

   
The background was created with Vibrant Turquoise and Cut Grass Dylusions spray inks.   I added a little sea salt while the inks were still wet.   I stamped branches from Spring Foliage with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink and the rest of the stamping was done with Cobalt Blue Archival ink.   The foliage at the top is also from Spring Foliage and the bottom edge is from Floral Edges.   I highlighted the Fritillary and branches at the top with Prisma Pencils.   Bliss is from Artistic Affirmations, another word stamp set that I use frequently.  I also added glitter on the top branch and on the leaves of the Fritillary.

Thanks for your visit and I hope you can come back often, as we have lots to show you:)
Shirley

Fancy Flower Clock (posted by Claire)

Good morning, I hope you're enjoying the glorious sunshine. I've got a project to share this morning using some of the lovely stamps from Fancy Flowers using some bright sunny colours.

I've used an MDF clock blank, painted with emulsion paint and sanded before giving it another base coat. I began by stamping the larger flowers and then masking them to stamp the smaller flowers and flourished. I stamped the buds too (using Memento Tuxedo Black) and then coloured the flowers with Graph'It markers. I stamped the gorgeous leafy stamp from Floral Edges around the edges using prgment ink, using first and second generation stamping to create some depth.  I used an old CD as a template to add the line connecting the sprays of flowers.  I sprayed the project with sealer and added some pearls for the remaining hours and lastly attached the clock mechanism.

Thanks for visiting today,

Claire xx

Poppy Meadow (posted by Claire)

Good morning folks, Claire here with my first sample featuring this months new stamps. I've used one of the images from Poppy Meadow for this card. 

I stamped the image and coloured with Graph'It Markers before inking the edges with Peeled Paint distress ink. The background was made using various shades of green distress ink and the wrinkle free distress technique. I over stamped the background with one of the lovely border stamps from Floral Edges. I've matted the image and background on white card then red card and added some gingham ribbon to finish off.

I think these new stamps are going to be firm favourites, they are such pretty stamps. My talented team mates have some up with some beautiful projects to inspire you so keep popping by

Claire xx 

Indian Sunrise (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, I have a sample to show you using the new Indian Textiles rubber stamp sheet and the Indian Elephant rubber stamp sheet.

I have created a scene by first stamping and embossing the building with white embossing powder. I wanted to evoke a feeling of the Taj Mahal. I then used a paper mask to cover first the bottom of the page, and then the top, as I used various inks to colour the background. I stamped the tree from Landscape Edges clear stamp set along the horizon, and added some flowers from the Floral Edges clear stamp set in the foreground.

I coloured the elephants with Distress Markers before cutting them out and attaching them to the scene.

Keep popping back to see what my Team mates have got in store for you over the coming days. They have some fabulous designs to inspire you with these great new stamps. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Leafy Border (by Debbie)

My card today uses the new Floral Edges Clear stamps and a sentiment from Birthday Words unmounted rubber stamps. The card is a white 6x6 square and I started by stamping the leafy border with versamark ink and embossing with gold WOW powder. I used Peeled Paint Distress Ink to colour the card. The sentiment was stamped with black ink and embossed with clear powder then cut out with a die. If the die is left in place, it is possible to ink the inside and leave a white border. This was repeated with a larger die as a layer. The clear borders have endless possibilities for playing with. Keep popping back to see what the Design Team have been doing with them. Debbie

Yummy New "Chocolatey" Stamp Sets! (by Clare)

Hello!  As you probably already know, Fantasy Woodland is the new stamp set of the month!  What an amazing set of stamps - so many different types of trees!  Beautiful images to work with!  Click on the name of the set above, and you will be taken directly to the stamp set on the website, where you can see all of the stamps in this set.  

Below are a couple of projects I made using this set, and I hope they'll inspire you a little!  There are so many great projects that the design team has made, so please check the other posts on this blog for more ideas!  The little house is from the set, Home Sweet Home, as well as the wheat grass.  The bottom border is from a brand new clear set, called Floral Edges, released February 14!  There are two other clear edge sets that have also been released - Decorative Edges and Landscape Edges - please check them out!  They are awesome!

 

My next sample has the orange tree image from the Fantasy Woodland set, and several "Thank you's" from the Words of Gratitude set.  Those oranges look good enough to eat!

 



My next card is framed with one of the trees from the clear Fantasy Woodland set.  I used several dies to cut out the shapes, and hand made the roses.  

 

 

This card was made with last month's new set, called The Rose Tree.  I used the new clear Floral Edges on the background.



I've enjoyed your visit, and hope you did too!  Thanks for stopping in!