Happy New Year (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all keeping well and that you have had a good break over the festive period. I want to wish you all a very Happy New Year and all the very best for 2022. 

I am sharing a couple of projects with you today showcasing stamps that were featured on last month's shows on The Craft Store. The first is a little book made from a huge tag and I have used the Damask Panel stamped three times onto a Brusho background, using a metallic embossing powder.

I adhered the pieces onto the tag, and then cut away the excess from the third piece to get the tag shaped end. I added some pretty scrapbook paper on the inside of the tag, and punched the hole again at the top of the tag.

I scored inbetween the pieces, to create the book. I cut a few pages, and sewed them into the book using bookbinding thread. 

 

I added a piece of teal ribbon through the hole at the top of the tag to allow the book to be closed. This simply wraps around the book, and ties in a bow. These little books make great gifts, and are really quick to make. You could add any kind of pages; old book pages, kraft paper, watercolour paper, whatever you like, to create a mixed media book, but I used drawing cartridge for my sample.

My second project is an old project, which I thought I would share again. I stamped Ophelia onto a piece of Drawing Cartridge and masked the image with Masking Tissue. I coloured the background with Distress Inks and splattered the background with water, which I blotted with tissue. I added some stamping over the top using a stamp from the Texture Fragments stamp set. I stamped and embossed the fronds from the Underwater stamp set before removing the mask. I coloured Ophelia with pencils. I added some foliage from the Song Thrush Silhouette stamp, which coloured this way tie in with the flowers in her hair quite well. I added a bit of Glossy Accents to the centres of the flowers.

I will be back later in the month with more projects to share with you, take care and thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

Birthday Sunflowers (by Corine)

Hello everyone, today sees the first of three posts from our regular Guest Design Team member Corine. She has created a beautiful floral card for your inspiration.

Corine writes:

Hello!

Here I am again. In November I will post three times a card as guest designer. I am very pleased to do this. Today is my birthday, so I'm starting with a birthday card.

I used stamps from the sheets:

Sunny Sunflowers

Texture Fragments

Two of my favourite stamp sheets

Apply one colour of Distress Oxide to a stencil. Mist the ink with water. Apply the stencil on watercolour paper, press lightly with a tissue. Remove the stencil carefully. Apply a different colour Distress Oxide through a different stencil. Don't use the whole stencil, just a bit is nice.

Stamp the flower with waterproof ink over the background, do this again on a separate piece of paper.

Stamp a background stamp with Brilliance in the background (bottom left and top right). Set the paper aside to dry.

Colour the flower on the separate piece of paper with markers. Cut out the flower. Touch the edges with a black marker if necessary.

Then colour the parts of the flower that you continue to see in the background, this can be very light or with a contrasting colour. Use colours that match the background.

Stamp the text on a separate piece of paper. Sponge this piece of paper with the colours of the background. Sponge the card here and there and around the edges with Distress Oxide.

Stamp the leaves and colour them in a bit, cut them out and use them on the card.

Used Ink:

Distress Oxide Salvaged Patina, Picked Raspberry and Peacock Feathers.

Brilliance Pearlescent Coral

I hope I have inspired you. If you want to try this technique, I wish you a lot of fun.

Until next week!

 

Kind regards,

Corine van Kuilenburg

Autumn is coming......(by Miranda)

Hi peeps,

Miranda here with some Autumn inspirations...........

Autumn is my favorite season(next to Spring), I love all the colors and the changing of the season....the smell.....

And most of all I love the toadstools!

Well CB has several sheets including toadstools so let's get started......

I had two lovely water colored backgrounds in my stash......most of the time I create a whole pile of these backgrounds so I have always something to work on...

These are the sheets I have used:

Autumn Poppy rubber stamp sheet A4

Texture fragments rubber stamp sheet A4

I worked with the Texture fragments in the background, definitely one of my most favorite and most used stamps!

I stamped and masked the toadstools and colored them using colored pencils and some pastel pencils.

When the background was made I have also used an Iridescent medium so there is a lot of shimmer.....always hard to catch on a photo....

here you can see some of the shimmer.....

Hope you did like my Autumn inspiration and maybe you are inspired to get these sheets out or maybe even buy them.......

Next time, more Autumn inspirations!

 

Feeling Like Spring (by Pat)

Hello everyone, this month our Guest Design Team member Pat is joining us to inspire you with some creative projects. For her first appearance, she has made a lovely Spring themed card.

Pat writes:

Hi everyone, I'm so pleased to be back with my first of three guest posts for this month. I decided to make us feel as though Spring has arrived, even though it will be a couple of months or so before we feel that Spring is in the air. I am using the Spring Bird Crocus set, Texture Fragments, a small dot stamp from Freedom Flower, the graph stamp from Small Graph Paper and the sentiment from Spring Bird Tulip set. Also Distress Inks- three greens, a lilac, purple and two yellows, clear gloss embossing powder, a waterbrush, a blending tool, and permanent purple and white pearlescent ink.

I stamped the smaller crocus image and the little flower border four times onto a 4" square piece of white card using the purple permanent ink and heat embossed with clear gloss embossing powder. I coloured the flowers using a waterbrush and the Distress Inks mentioned above, and applied the dots around the edge using the purple and some white pearlescent ink. 

I then made the background using the same Distress Inks and stamped one of the Texture Fragment stamps, then the little dots, and finally the graph paper stamp. I also blended more of the purple around the edges. I finished with a sentiment stamped with the permanent ink and heat embossed again with the clear gloss embossing powder. I used a stitched tag die and the sentiment from the Spring Bird Tulip set, and then blended more of the lilac and purple Distress Inks around the edges.

That's all from me for now but I'll be back again next week.

Best Wishes,

Pat.

Key to my Dreams (by Corine)

Hello everyone, Corine is back with her final post of the month:

Hello! Today it is my third and last time to post a card as a guest designer.

I used stamps from the sheets:
Dusky Damask
Texture Fragments
Key to My Dreams
Gothic Fragments

Choose three colours of Distress Oxide Inks. Apply this on an acrylic block. Spray water on this. Also spray water on your watercolour paper. Print the block on the paper. Let the inks blend nicely, dry it with the heat tool.
Stamp with various colours of Distress Oxide inks, various prints on the paper.
Stamp the text with waterproof black ink.
Emboss the keys with copper embossing powder on watercolour paper. Colour these with watercolour markers and cut them out. Stick them on the background. Create a shadow with a charcoal pencil and draw a line along the keys with a black fineliner (0.2mm).

I hope I have inspired you with my cards.

Kind regards,
Corine van Kuilenburg

Springtime Tulips (by Corine)

Hello everyone, Corine is back with her second post for this month, a beautiful Spring themed card.

Corine writes:

Hello!

Here I am again. This is my second post in March. I will show you today a Spring card with tulips.

I used stamps from the sheets:
Spring Bird-Tulip
Texture Fragments

Stamp the tulips on watercolour paper with black water resistant ink. Mask the first print and then place the second print. Colour the image. I used watercolour paint for this.
Use Distress Oxide to create a background on watercolour paper with the colours Worn Lipstick and Seedless Preserves. Stamp the fragment with Wilted Violet.
With a white gel pen I put dots in the background.
Stamp the text with Archival Dusty Concord on a separate piece of paper.
Sponge the edges with Distress Oxide Wilted Violet.

Stick the background on a white card. Then stick the 'tulips' with foam tape on the background and attach the text to the right of your card.

Kind regards,
Corine van Kuilenburg

Black and White collection - by Magda

Hello
Here I am with a quick way to prepare a last minute card for an unexpected circumstance using only black and white pencils and a little colour touch for creating a contrast.

I used the following stamps

Blossom and Grow
Scrumptious Succulents
Texture Fragments

I hope you had fun in following me during my new succulents adventure and liked my projects
Magda

Sunny Sunflowers (by Corine)

Here we are at week two of our Guest Designer posts and this week Corine has chosen to combine three sets of stamps to give her project a real tropical feel.  Enjoy!

Hello!

Here I am again. This is my second post in March. I will show you today a sunny card with a sunflower.

I used stamps from the sheets:

Sunny Sunflowers

Gothic Fragments

Texture Fragments

• Create a background with Distress Oxide inks, a stencil and Distress Resist spray. 
• Stamp images from Gothic Fragments with Memento luxe ink. 
• Emboss the flower and leaves on watercolorpaper and colour with watercolour markers. 
• Stamp images from Texture Fragments on a piece of paper and sponge with Distress Oxide.
  Mat and layer the pieces of paper on green cardstock. 
• Cut out the flower and leaves and attached as shown.

Thank you for looking, next week will be my last project for this time.

Kind regards,

Corine van Kuilenburg

Another lovely combination of CB stamps, I really like the depth the Corine has achieved using the fragment stamps. Thank you once again for an inspiring project.

Thank you for popping in, I hope you will come back again soon to catch up with the fabulous samples our wonderful ladies made as part of our tv shows last month.