Beautiful Ladies (by Carole)

Hello everyone, we are joined today by Guest Design Team member Carole Cann for the second of her posts this month. Carole is sharing two delightful projects featuring two very feminine designs to inspire you. Here is what Carole has to say:

Good morning everyone.
This is my second project for the Guest Design Team slot and I have used one of my favourite stamp sets, Mackintosh Beauty. I really like the Mackintosh style and also Art Nouveau.

Products used: Mackintosh Beauty stamp set
Baroque Orchid- background
Versafine inkpads- Onyx Black, Satin Red
Versamark inkpad
Grey/blue, pink chalk inkpads
Embossing powder- clear, white
Brushos
Die cut
Light silver grey and red card
Clear mica pen

The background is repeat stamped onto an 18cms x 13 cms (7 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch) piece of white card, with the Baroque Orchid image and red ink.
I swiped over the background with a grey/blue inkpad.
When dry, I went over the whole background with a Versamark inkpad and clear embossed the whole piece. I then die cut the centre.
The die could be positioned further to the left to hide the join too, and then there would be more room on the right hand side for a message.
The large flowers were embossed with white embossing powder, and the small corners stamped with red Versafine.
Both of these elements were coloured with Brushos to give the lovely vibrant colours.
The lady is stamped with Onyx Black Versafine and coloured with the pink inkpad.
The message was stamped with red ink onto grey card.
The elements were layered onto red and grey card.

Judith also asked if I would post my next project too, showing a different lady who is equally lovely.

Stamps used: Summer Fayre, Exquisite Edges, Patchwork Butterfly
Wooden 15cm heart
Versafine Onyx Black ink
Watercolour pencils
Clear mica pen
Blue/grey chalk inkpad
Archival black inkpad
Black card or felt
Small silver bead trim
Permanent inkpad suitable for drying on metal
Silver metal
Border punch
Square wooden base 25.5cms x 25.5 cms (10 1/4 x 10 1/4 inch), painted black
Alcohol ink or markers

Background:
I stamped the border frame first with Versafine and cut it down to a square 24cms x 24cms, (9 1/2 x 9 1/2 inch).
The flowers were then coloured and a damp brush used to pull the colour out.
The corners were cut from a strip which was punched with a border punch.
This was then mounted onto the base board.

Heart:
I stamped the main image onto the heart with an archival type black inkpad, you can use any black inkpad that will not bleed into the wood.
Make sure this is dry before colouring with watercolour pencils. Pull the colour out with the mica pen, but do not put too much moisture on the heart or it will bleed.
Ink around the edge of the heart with the blue/grey chalk inkpad and stamp tiny butterflies with the same colour ink onto the background.
Mount the heart onto a piece of black card or felt and cut around the edge, leaving a thin border.
The bead string was stuck onto the border and around the edge of the heart with a good quality, clear drying glue.

Butterfly Embellishment:
My butterfly was made with silver metal sheet, but it could be made with a piece of card.
I stamped the metal with a permanent inkpad and when it was dry it was embossed and cut out.
A little colour was added with alcohol ink.
Everything was then assembled.

I hope that you have enjoyed my projects. I will be back next week with my final contribution for this month.
Thanks for your visit, and happy crafting.

Carole.

Summer Fayre (by Carole)

Hello everyone, today sees the final post from our latest Guest Design Team member, Carole Cann. She has created a beautiful Summery card for your inspiration. 

Carole writes:

Hello again, my card today uses the lovely Summer Fayre stamp. I know that this stamp has been well highlighted recently because of Lesley's Hochanda shows, but I couldn't resist using it, as it is such a beautiful image.

The background is from my stash and is made with Distress Inks. This has been over stamped with the Floral Weave stamp. Summer Fayre has been stamped onto parchmennt paper and clear embossed. Working from the back of the parchment, I highlighted the centre of the poppies and some strands of hair. These look white on the right side of the image. It was then coloured with watercolour pencils, also on the back, which gives a lovely soft look.
The sentiment is from the Harlequin Rose stamp set.
Thank you again, and happy crafting.

Carole 😃

Thank you so much Carole for another inspirational project. Carole will be back with us in a few months' time, but in the meantime, she will be helping out with lots of TV samples for the Hochanda shows, and contributing to the Fifteen Minute blog posts. You can see more of her work on her blog.

From Summer To Winter (by Julie)

Hello, lovely to see you. I can't believe that we are nearly at the end of July so I thought I had better get my Summer Solstice card in quick as before we know it the Winter Dawn Lady in my second card will be the order of the day...

For my first card I stamped and then masked the Summer Fayre lady. Next I took the Seasonal Journey stencil and applied teal and orange dye ink through the Summer Solstice words and added white, paint pen, highlights. 

The shimmering sun has been stencilled with the Seasonal Elements using a sponge and yellow acrylic paint. Once dry I went over the entire background with Old Paper Distress ink and added more white, paint pen, highlights.

Once I removed the mask from the lady I coloured with pencils and then edged the card with Evergreen Bough Distress paint.

This beautiful Winter Dawn lady was stamped onto Kraft card with a blue Versafine ink and then coloured with Polychromos pencils. I cut the card to size and edged with Picket Fence Distress paint and Crystal Stickles. The base card was stamped with the snow flake stamp from Sparkling Trees, before applying the blue card-stock and the stamped Winter lady. The card was finished off with dabs of Crystal Stickles and die cut snowflakes.

Many thanks for taking a peek. Please call back very soon for more Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

Summer Day and Winter Solstice (posted by Claire)

Good morning, I hope you're all having a lovely weekend. I love all of the gorgeous seasonal ladies and it was a real treat to find that Lesley had produced some lovely stencils to go with them. I've used both the stamps and stencils for my projects today.

To make Summer Day I began by stamping Summer Fayre on to kraft card and colouring her with Lyra pencils. I dry brushed around the image with white gesso and also applied gesso to a piece of corrugated card. Once the gesso was dry I applied different shades of green acrylic paint through the Useful Leaves stencil to create the background, this is definitely a useful stencil but so pretty too. I added the lettering using the Seasonal Journey stencil and a little red acrylic paint. To finish the wall hanging I added some ribbon, gingham trim and little paper poppy.

I've used a much darker more dramatic colour palette to create Winter Solstice. I began by stamping 

Winter Dawn onto white car and coloured her with Graph'It Markers. I outlined the image with a black marker annd then applied black gesso all round and then added some colour using Twinkling H2O paint in blued and purples. I stamped the image again on acetate using versmark in and embossed with a sparkly white powder. I cut the snowflakes out and layered them up over the image. I added a little glue and glitter too give some more dimension. I added some stencilling around the image using the Seasonal Elements stencil and glassy gel medium, sprinkling with more glitter while the medium was still wet. The colours of the paint have bled through this while it was drying, a happy accident as I love the effect!  I applied clear versamark ink through the stencil to create the wording and embossed with white sparkly powder. I added a little scrap of ribbon and a snowflake embellishment to finish off.

Thanks so much for visiting today, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

seasonal ladies

 I have three of my sample cards for last month's tv shows to show you today. It was hard to have favourite ladies, but I think these two stamps are well in the running!
For both cards the summer fayre stamp was stmaped using black versafine ink and coloured with watercolour pencils, masked with masking fluid, and brusho backgrounds added.
For the first card I partially diecut the lady out, leaving the butterfly and poppies outside the die. The base card was coloured with distress oxide inks, leaves added using the useful leaves stencil and overstamped with the large crackle stamp. The poppies in the foreground are from the floral notes plate, stamped onto leftover paper coloured with brushos and fussy cut out.



The base card was done in the same way for the second version, but the lady was cut down to a rectangle and matted onto gold card. I  sprinkled red brusho over the green background to try to create a poppy field effect, but it didn't quite work....




For the autumn medley stamp I tried to create a wood effect with the brushos, using my version of a  technique found on Youtube. I started with a piece of white card, sprinkled brown and red powder at the top, and used a damp sponge to drag the colour down the page. The colours are more blended together than the original, which used acrylic paints to blend the powders, but i was quite pleased with the result. back ground mounted onto black and gold, then onto white base card blank.
The lady was stamped with black versafine ink,  coloured with pencils and fussy cut out. I stamped the hair part again several times onto a spare piece of card coloured with orange, yellow and brown brushos, and fussy cut out the best leaves and decoupaged them onto the original.

Flowers in Her Hair (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a colourful project to share with you today, featuring the Summer Fayre stamp that was part of the recent TV shows on Hochanda.

I have stamped the image onto a square topper, and then masked the image. I coloured the background with Distress Ink, and then loosely coloured the image with water based markers, sometimes using a water brush to dilute the colours.

I created a larger background using matching colours of  Distress Ink, and spritzed the background with water. Once the background was dry, I stamped an image from the Poppy Edges stamp set, to frame the central image, using Distress Ink. I added a large red bow before I assembled the card, choosing a toning olive green card to finish.

I hope you like her pink hair and green eyeshadow. She reminds me of a festival goer, with her bright accessories!

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Poppies in her hair (by Brenda)

Good morning Peeps, I am back with some more shares using the Mackintosh and Seasonal Lady stamps that featured on Lesley's June shows on Hochanda.

Kraft card is something I am always buying but rarely use so I though I would try and remedy that and quite like how well it works with white and red, a combo that I will be trying again. Using the new masks which match the Seasonal Ladies I used the leaves from one of them and white Dylusions, masking section of the cardstock as I went along so the spray could be directed through the mask. Then using red Distress Ink I sponged the word repeatedly at different angles.

The lovely Summer Fayre image was stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with detail white powder and coloured in the flowers and Butterfly with the same red Distress Ink. I stamped the Butterfly again and cut out and also one of the flowers, coloured both with the same ink, cut out and decoupaged.

Taking the stem Rose from Machintosh Beauty stamp set I repeat stamped with Black Archival to create a circle and coloured in with sparkle pens. The sentiment is from Amazing Mackintosh Words, stamped with the same black ink and cut out using dies and matted into the centre of the Roses.

The background of this card is Distress Inks and repeat stamped with flowers from Mackintosh Windows and Mackintosh Beauty. A strip of vellum placed across the middle and an image from Mackintosh Windows stamped with Versafine Black and heat embossed with detail clear powder, cut out, coloured with Distress Inks and placed over the vellum.

My final card has the lovely Winter Dawn which I stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with detail silver, cut out with an oval die and went round the edges with a thick silver pen before mounting onto a base stamped with the same ink and powder and Large Crackle Background stamp. A silver bow to finish.