heartfelt (by Veronica)

For my first post this month I chose the  Harlequin Rose and Words of Love stamp sets - I thought they would be appropriate as Valentine's day is approaching......

The first one  is 7" square, the background is distress oxide inks  squeezed lemonade, peeled paint and salvaged patina sponged randomly and part images from the Rose Stem Script set and  words from Tall Trees set also used to overstamp.The sentiment is from Words of Love, stamped in black versafine and candy apple distress oxide inks. The main images were stamped onto spare card with verxafine ink, coloured with watercolour pencils and fussy cut out. If you snip  the leaves carefully you can weave two images together. I glued just the bottom halves onto the card, so the the centre pieces will stand up slightly

The second card is a very simplified version of the first, with red and black lines drawn with marker pens round the image and no sentiment - this is a 6"square card

Another  6" square version, again coloured with pencils this time trying to get a rainbow effect - in hindsight I think it would have been better to start the rainbow at one side of the image and not do individual leaves....

this was a single image, fussy cut round the edges of the design only and glued onto a distress oxide background. Background was stamped with the rose from Rose Stem Script coloured with marker pens and randomly stamped over the card, thne spritzed with water to blend the images. Distress oxide inks were then sponged over the dried card , sentiment added in black versafine and the wobbly lines drawn with a fineliner.

 

More Masculine Cards (by Lesley Ebdon)

Hello everyone, Lesley is back with two more beautiful cards to inspire you this week. She wanted to create cards that are not necessarily using traditional male colours, or dark and sport themed. She has chosen images to suit the personalities of her recipients, and the second card is a reminder that Spring is here and the trees are turning beautiful shades of green.

This is what she had to say about appearing on the Design Team blog once again:

Hello everyone,

I was delighted to be asked recently if I would like to do a guest spot on the blog joining so many talented crafters, some of whom have been friends for many years. It's a bit like coming home lol, and it's lovely to be here again. 

This first card was for my Brother who was a draughtsman before he retired, drawing industrial buildings, so Lesley's Wild Cornflower Blueprint was the perfect image for his card. I did some blended stencilling in the background then stamped the main image using Morning Mist VersaClair ink. I used Distress Inks picked up from my craft mat to watercolour the image. I then stamped the building plan onto my card base using a blue VersaClair, matted the topper onto black card and adhered it to the card base. Finally I stamped the sentiment from the recently released Say It Vertically stamp set.

 

The second card was for my Hubby. 

 

Again I did some soft stencilling top right and bottom left using Distress Inks onto the base card, and then used the lovely little foliage stamp from my chosen stamp set with first and second generation stamping in the top right corner. I then masked off a narrow border round a piece of card for a topper and softly blended Distress Inks to give an impression of an early morning sunrise. I inked up the image from the Tall Trees set using brush pens so that I could get the variation of shading to the foliage and stamped it onto the topper, grounding it a bit with a little more ink, and added the topper to the base card with foam pads. Finally I stamped the sentiment direct to the card (I like to risk all on the last bit, lol) again from Say It Vertically.

Thank you for your visit. I hope you enjoyed my creations as much as I enjoyed making them and that you might use some less traditional male images and colours for some cards for the men in your life once in a while.

Stay safe and I'll see you again soon.

Lesley xx

 

Tall Stories

Hello, I am sharing some of my cards today using Ephemera 1 and  Ephemera 2. 

I love ephemera, all the stories and memories that they hold.....

My first card was made during the first lockdown when Lesley started some Challenges over on the Facebook page. I do recommend you take a look as there have been some fabulous entries over the months. Certainly kept us motivated!

This card uses some pattern papers, die cuts and flowers to make a pretty 21st birthday card. I have highlighted the 21 with an inked bottle top.

For this card I used parts of ephemera and over stamped with the Tall Trees stamp set. I added the focal point from Gerbera and Friends.

This is known as a "W" shaped card and is a great way to use smaller stamps and quotes from Tall Trees, each becoming a little work of art in their own right.

My last card uses the main stamp from Tall Trees, a large bare tree. I have stamped it over a Distress Ink background which I added droplets of water for a snowy effect. I stamped and embossed the trees in white and cut into 3 equal parts and then glued onto a piece of dark card.

 Thanks for looking

Sandra x

Butterfly Frame (by Carole)

Hello everyone, we are joined today by our regular Guest Design Team member Carole Cann. Carole will be creating three projects for us this month to inspire you, and her first project is a fabulous piece of home decor; a pretty picture to give to a friend, but that you may want to keep for yourself!

Carole writes:

Good morning  everyone. I am delighted to be showing you my first project as Guest Designer for September.

I have used the small butterfly from Butterfly Poppy Collage, a stamp from Poppy Meadow and the words from Pretty Poppies. The ivy at the top is from the Tall Trees set.
Permanent inkpad
Watercolour pencils
Glossy Accents
Chalk finish inkpads
15cm wooden frame
25cm square frame I had in my stash

I have started with a 15cm wooden frame which has an 8.5 cm heart aperture in the centre.
When I make a project like this, I always try it out on paper first. This enables me to make mistakes in the positioning and layout, which I can correct before stamping onto the real frame.
I did work out beforehand that the butterflies would stamp evenly around this size aperture.
Of course, it does not need to be an aperture, you could make a 15cm card with a heart die cut in the centre, and the butterflies surrounding it.
When I stamped the butterflies, I started with the top three and then stamped one side, trying to space them as evenly as possible. I then 'mirrored' the butterflies on the other side.
Make sure they are completely dry before colouring them in.
I covered each butterfly with Glossy Accents and left them to dry thoroughly.
Then I wiped over the background with the chalk green inkpad.
The background in the larger frame is stamped with another of the Poppy Meadow stamps and the ivy.
For the centre, I used the frame as the template and drew lightly around the aperture with a pencil onto a square of green card.This helped me to position the words and flowers correctly. Rub out the pencil line, stick to the back of the frame and attach to the background.
Further details can be found on my blog.

Thank you for visiting and I look forward to showing you my second project next week.

Happy crafting,

Carole.

Thank you for a delightful project Carole, and for the advice about practising on paper first. We often recommend that you try your ideas out on a cheap piece of paper first, as it takes away the pressure of wasting your more expensive card and other materials. Top Tip Carole!

Cycling Steampunk Style (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a couple of cycling themed cards to share with you today, using the stamps featured on last month's Steampunk shows on Hochanda.

To create my first card, I stamped the penny farthing image from the Steampunkery stamp set, and then masked the image using masking tissue. I created a series of hills using Distress Ink, and added some trees from the Tall Trees stamp set, using dark green Versafine Ink. I added a bit of pencil shading to 'ground' the smaller trees. I used blue Distress Ink to create the sky, masking off a circle for the sun. I stamped the sentiment from the Punky Expressions stamp set, and added some birds from the Landscape Edges stamp set.

I removed the mask and coloured the penny farthing with pencils. Finally, I matted the background onto a large black card blank.

For my second card, I wanted to create a collaged feel, using lots of stamping to build up backgrounds. I started by using a patterned Crafty Individuals tag, and added some images from the Eccentric Edwardian stamp set in muted colours. I also added the gentleman on the bike as the focal image, using darker ink.

I made a larger background in toning colours on a piece of kraft card, picking the same images that I had used on the tag to create the background. I picked a grey card to mat the background, as it was a colour running through the tag. I added a cheery tan ribbon to the tag, and stamped a sentiment from the Punky Expressions stamp set onto a small piece of scrap card.

I hope that you have enjoyed my Steampunk inspiration this month, and that you will try some of the ideas for yourselves. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

In the pink by Brenda

Good morning Peeps.

I am back with some more shares from Lesley's recent shows using the some of the beautiful Tree stamps which as with all Chocolate Baroque stamps were a delight to work with.

Above I have used Dylusions to create a background over which I stamped (second generation) one of the images from Indian Textiles  as I wanted to create some subtle background interest, then stamping one of the trees from Fantasy Woodland with Versafine Black and colouring in with sparkle pens and adding white highlighter. The sentiment is again from Birthday Words.

I will be the first to admit I am not a particularly frugal crafter but I do save all the smaller pieces of Fabriano which I always seem left with after cutting square pieces from the A3 sheets as they are the perfect size for creating a triptych card. I inked all three pieces with Oxide inks and using Black Versafine stamped three trees from Fantasy Woodland and Tall Trees stamp sets and a sentiment from Birthday Words.

My starting point for this card with a Dylusions background and my usual spritz of pearl mica spray to blend the colours followed by stamping around the edges with Large Crackle Background.............such a useful stamp that we all need in our stash......... using Versamark and embossing with detail gold powder. I then stamped Poppy Meadow Words of Inspiration with Versafine black and bleached out the colour, but as I added the bleach I mopped each flower with a piece of kitchen towel so it left some of the colour to give a pinkish finish. I stamped the sentiment onto an offuct sprayed with the same Dylusions and added some ribbon to finish.

I am really still not sure about this one, it's all rather dark although did look better in the flesh. I stamped the main panel onto a piece of card coloured with Oxide inks using a stamp from Butterfly Daisy Collage and Butterfly Poppy Collage multi buy. I then used Versamark and detail clear embossinng powder to glaze the panel, giving it three coats of both. I stamped the flowers from the same multi buy onto card coloured with the same inks, cut out and covered them as well with embossing powder before layering up. I placed the panel inside a die cut frame and arranged the flowers and some ribbon.

I hope you have a lovely day.

More Autumn by Brenda

Hello Peeps, I am back again with some more of my samples from Lesley's recent Autumn shows on Hochanda.

So more indulgence in inky Autumn colours and Poppies and my starting point for the top card was a background of  Mica powders spritzed with pearl mica spray to bleed the colours and add some sparkle. I then stamped the Poppy heads from the Poppy Meadow set along with some smaller ones from Natures Table and some grasses from the same set. Next I used a stencil and Distress Inks to add some sun rays, then stamped some more poppy heads across the top. The sentiment is from Natures Peace which is one one of the sets in the multi buy. I added colour to the Poppy heads using the same mica powders and highlighted with a white pen.

Scenes are something I really enjoy creating and for the card above I started with a cloudy sky using distress inks and bleaching out some clouds. I then stamped trees from the Autumn Edges and Tall Trees using Gathered Twigs DI and added leaves with DI's using just the top of one of the larger stamps in the same set. Using watered down DI I painted in some hills and stamped leaves along the top using another stamp from the same set. The fauna in the foreground is stamped with an image from Silhouette Grasses and sentiment from Birthday Words.

On this one I tried to create warmth using DI's for the background and then added some stenciling. The focal images is from Fantasy Woodland. After cleaning the larger stamp I masked off a section so I could ink and stamp just the tiny trees alongside the small tree to the right. Inking just the tip of the flower stamp in the set I added a border around the piece and finally stamped a sentiment from Birthday Words.

Another Oxide background here with some stenciling, followed by some background stamping using the scrip stamps from Butterfly Poppy Collage and then the lovely harlequin and Poppy head stamp using Versafine Black. After stamping I cleaned the stamp, masked the Poppy heads and inked just the harlequins to extend the pattern. The two Butterflies are from the same set and coloured in with the same inks used for the background.

I hope you all have a lovely day with some crafty time as well.

A Tree (By Marga)

Hello everyone. Today a new card from me.

I used some tape and Distress Ink for this card to make the framework inside the card. Then I stamped the sentiment and the trees. I love the sentiment very much.

The stamp I used: Tall Trees

Hugs

Marga

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........

Autumn Woodland (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with some projects made for Lesley's shows on Hochanda. I was really happy to have a play with these gorgeous stamps.

This first card features stamps from Tall Trees. I created a little scene on linen card using a torn paper mask and distress inks before stamping the trees with brown ink. I then cleaned the stamp and inked up the top part of the trees with gilding glue and stamped again before applying glitter in shades of green, orange and brown. The sentiment is from Birthday Words.

My second project is a canvas board. I began with a brusho background and then stamped the trees (from  Fantasy Woodland) and embossed with gold embossing powder. I added some little dots of clear glue and created some foliage with beadazzles.

Next I took some brown acrylic paint and grounded the trees. Once that was dry I stencilled in some leaves using green acrylic paint and the Useful Leaves stencil. Next I added some falling leaves using the Seasonal Elements stencil and the word Autumn using the Seasonal Journey stencil and iridescent paste. Once the paste was dry I coloured the leaves and word with alcohol markers.

Last but not least I've made a little kraft card using the beautiful toadstool border from Autumn Edges. I coloured the image with pencils, added white spots with a white Posca pen and sketched in some foliage. I added a sentiment embossed in white (from Birthday Words) and added some red pompom trim.

Thanks so much for visiting today, keep checking back as my teamies have some gorgeous projects to inspire you.

Claire xx

Butterfly scene cards (by Anne)

Good morning. For my texture project today I have made 2 variations of a butterfly scene card.

I have used ink spritzing and stamping with texture stamps to create interesting backgrounds. I have used the large gem slice stamp and heat embossing with sparkling pink powder to add a colourful textured foreground for my scene. The butterflies were also stamped and embossed, then coloured and cut out.

Both scenes were created in the same way but I took one of them a step further by mounting on a larger card with a textured embossing powder border (using heat resistant tape to adhere the powder before heating), die cut foliage and floral gems, finishing with another of the lovely stamped butterflies. Of course I just had to add PVA pearls and glitter in there too.

We have all had so much fun creating with this month’s theme of texture.


Materials:

• Just Butterflies, Nature Fragments, Abstract Fragments and Tall Trees stamp sets
• 12 X 15cm and 15 X 17cm white card blanks
• 11 X 14cm watercolour card
• Ink spritzers (lime green with mica and bright pink)
• Watercolour pens for colouring and background stamping (green, teal, blue, pink and purple)
• Glitter pens (blue and green)
• Heat embossing powders (cerise with glitter, and textured mix of fine and chunky pink, black and white)
• Inkpad for stamping trees (dark green)
• Glitter glue (aqua holographic)
• Alcohol markers for edging card and colouring die cuts (green and pink)
• Floral shaped faux gems (pink and blue)
• PVA pearls (purple)
• Heat resistant double sided tape (Wonder Tape - for heat embossed border)
• Foliage Dies

Guest Post- Winter Skies by Gerrina Poncin

Hello everyone, it's time for Gerrina's second post this month on the Design Team Blog. She has created something a little bit different for you, so relax and enjoy her post.

Gerrina writes:

Today is the second post this month from me, and I have a lot of photos for you. Next to stamping, I really like to take photographs. Through taking photos I started scrapping and by using a few little stamps in my photo scrapbook, I started stamping more and more, so now I can say that I am addicted, (in a healthy way), to stamping....Of course I still take pictures, and there is nothing better than combining these two hobbies in a Project Life kind of way.

Materials:

Stamp sets: Tall Trees, Patchwork Landscape

Versafine Onyx Black Ink
Distress Inkpads: Black Soot, Broken China, Worn Lipstick, Stormy Sky, Weathered Wood, Pumice Stone, Hickory Smoke, Antique Linen
Memento Inkpads: Desert Sand, Peanut Brittle, Elderberry, Rose Bud, Teal Zeal, Summer Sky
Other: Aquarel paper, Elegant Writer pencil, waterbrush, pencil, (and eraser), White Sharpie, Wink of Stella pencil, blue finewriter, brush and water, blue and purple cardstock.

This was the view from my craft room on 25th January this year. I took some pictures. The view inspired me to try and make some skies the same way that Nature showed me, and I put them together in a book:

Stamp the trees three times and use a waterbrush, bigger brush and water with Distress inkpads to colour your scene. Glue the picture and photo onto a piece of cardstock, and then onto a piece of purple cardstock.

For this picture, colour your stamp with the Elegant writer, or other water based marker, and mist some water over the stamp. Stamp it onto aquarel paper, and use a waterbrush, bigger brush and water to let a little bit of the blue and purple pigment show. The sky is made with Distress Ink and a waterbrush.

This is a simple quick card; put the different ink colours directly on the stamp, and stamp on the paper. Place the second image a little lower. Draw three lines and add a sentence that fits the images.

This card is made in a similar way to the second card, just use even more water on the card after stamping, and stamp the text with black ink.

Creatieve groetjes, Gerrina

Thanks Gerrina for such an informative and creative blog post. Your photos are beautiful, and your matching cards capture the feeling of those Winter skies perfectly. Look out for Gerrina's final post of the month next week.

 

Cheery Flowerhead Top (by Anne)

Good morning. Today I am sharing a stamped and coloured T shirt top using the gorgeous Flowerhead stamps and alcohol ink pens to colour. I had ruined this top while cooking a curry and couldn’t get rid of tiny yellow stains splashed across the front. Now you would never know that they are there.

I hope that you like this fun project. We need some summery florals to brighten up these darker winter days.

 

Materials:

• Flowerhead stamps (Mesh Centre, Daisy Ring and Dotty Centre), Leaf from Tall Trees stamp set
• Dye based inkpads suitable for fabric (black and dark blue)
• Alcohol ink pens (citrus greens, yellow, pinks, orange, greenish blues and turquoise)

 How to do it:

1. Wash and dry the item thoroughly and do not use conditioner.
2. Place some scrap paper under the shirt to absorb any ink that may bleed through. Stamp the Flowerheads with black ink and the leaves in blue ink.
3. Colour the images with alcohol ink pens. Note: it is not possible to get controlled colouring and blending as the ink instantly sucks into the fabric. I used absorbent cartridge paper underneath to take up the excess ink (keep the stained paper to create backgrounds on your cards – it looks quite pretty). I used the lighter more transparent colours for the main colour fill (so as not to obscure the stamp detail), then added accent shading with the darker colours.
4. Leave overnight for the inks to ‘set’ into the fabric. Iron fix with a dry iron (at the hottest setting that your fabric will tolerate) to make the images and colouring permanent and washable.

Anne x.