NEW 'Back to Basics' with Craftascope and MORE

Hello Friends and Crafters, I do hope you are all well and the weather is getting better for you, I know it was bitterly cold on my last couple of days. Well today I have started a new series of Videos 'Back to Basics with Craftascope'. This was following my Natter with Nick on Wednesday, there were a couple of comments with regard to Masking, subsequently I received a couple of messages about the same thing. It occurred to me that there are so many new crafters and there is very little out there to help, so I though the Back to Basics might be a great idea. This is one of the cards I made in the show.

This is really to test the water and see if anyone does find it useful. I will keep an eye on the messages and comments to see if it's something that crafters would like to see regularly. If it is popular then I am more than happy to continue with the shows. So if there is anything at all that you would like to see, pleased add your comments below the Back to Basics Video on Youtube, so I know that this series is something you want to continue. Here is another card I made during the show today.

The Natter with Nick show was great on Wednesday, it was good too see some of you there and chat. The offer for the show is the wonderful Textures 1 stamps, these are great to add to any collection so if you don't have them. it's a great time to add them to your collection. There is a 5 pound saving on them until Midnight on Sunday (16th June). Here is the link for the Back to Basics Show.

There is also a welcome reduction on my Craftascope 'Blooming Marvelous' Collection, normally 79.95, now only 58.95, but this is only while this stock lasts. It's been a really popular offer and there are literally only a handful left. I know some people have it in their baskets, but if someone buys it you will lose out. I hate to see people who want things lose out, quite a few people missed out on the Retro Banner Stamps and the Rose Petal Dies, so do be quick.

This is the first chance I have had to say a huge thank you to everyone of you who has supported me on my short Craftascope Journey. It really has been terrific to have had so much support from you, I was over the moon that so many of you embraced the One Day Special, I was so proud of my Retro Collection. I've been thrilled to see all of the amazing creations being made and shared by so many, Above is a link for one of the shows with Charlie, if you would like to have a look, some inspiration or simply a refresh. For now take care and Happy Crafting.xx

Natter with Nick Episode 2 and more

Hi Friends and Crafters. Well it's Wednesday and time for another Natter with Nick tonight at 7 pm. I have broken it into two this week to see if they are faster to upload and I have to say that they were, I left enough time in case it was another 8 hours, but it was less than half that this time. I do hope you will join me for a natter, some demos, Hints, tips and some Wednesday night fun.

Part 2 of this weeks episode will go live at 7.30, to give time to have a chat answer any questions etc. I hope you enjoy  part 2 just as much as the first part. I will take this time to let you know about the 'BIG GIVEAWAY', I have still had a lot of people who don't know about it, I have shared it as much as I can, but obviously with the way Facebook share, there are people who will miss out. What do you have to do? Leave an Honest review for any Craftascope Purchase on my Etsy store. Thats it, then you will be in with the chance of winning my Brand New August collection, consisting of 3 Beautiful Stamp Sets, Stencils and dies.

When you have watched the Natter with Nick, please get in touch if there is anything you would like me to include in my future shows. Anything crafty at all, I will always try and include it. I want these shows to be enjoyable and informative, so your feedback is extremely valuable.

Well I will see you tonight at 7 pm and again at 7.30 pm. For now Take care and Happy Crafting.xx

Blooming Marvelous Collection

Morning Friends and Crafters. As promised I have now had the chance to upload the Blooming Marvelous collection Launch show with Dave Bradford. I know a lot of people have asked for it, so I thought it would be a good idea to add it here and on my Youtube Channel, so it will still be around after it's removed from the Hochanda Rewind service.

There are a couple of the Rose petal Dies sets still available on my Etsy site, so please do take advantage if you did want them. There are also a small amount of the other items available after selling out. I am doing my best to bring them back to Hochanda, so hopefully I can add them to my launch next month. I do hope you will join me then, for something rather exciting. For now Take care and Happy Crafting.xx

Hi Friends and Crafters

Hi to you all, I have a few days left before I travel back to Bulgaria. As soon as I get back I will be adding my tutorials for you and some more inspiration that will hopefully give you even more ideas. For now I am sharing the second show where I launched the Media Medley Collection on Hochanda. I hope you enjoy watching it.

It takes a while to upload but at least this way it will be available for you even once the rewind edition has finished. I will upload the launch show of the Blooming Marvelous range overnight and hopefull have it ready for you all for tomorrow. For now take care and Happy Crafting.xx

ATC Antics

Morning my lovely friends and crafters, What an amazing few days I have had, A really enjoyable visit to Hochanda and a catch up with friends, meeting all of the lovely people that bring us such great shows and then the launch of  the next installment of my Craftascope Library. Today, I wanted to spend some time showing you the stamp sheets in detail. There really isn't the time on the show to do that as well as present the demo's that we all love to see. I want to show just how versatile these stamps are and show the smaller stamps that are so valuable to us crafters, whatever our style or crafting experience.

ATC Antics:

This was specially designed to coordinate with the ATC die set which sold out, I have managed to squeeze some additional stock but there wont be anymore available after that. It's a real go to collection, enabling you to make a complete card or add detail, texture and dimension to any project. I have included some feel good sentiments along with words that can be mixed with others in any of the Craftascope collection to form new sentiments or phrases. Two of the boys appear in a smaller and more natural look, giving you even more scope to coordinate a tag, gift and matching card. I have included a positive and negative bubble wrap, that gives the most amazing texture, it's a huge improvement on the real thing allowing you to do so much more, with texture, dimension as well as opening up a whole new way of crafting.

Such A Card:

I have designed some of these to layer and they look amazing in any colour combination to give a wide range of looks and feels. They work perfectly well as single stamps and dont have to be layered to give a wonderful look. Again they are great to add to any project to add texture and dimension, but as I demonstrated in my shows on Hochanda, they can be used to make a super but simple fast card and we all need one of those from Time to time. These are really different to anything else that is out there and give a unique feel to you crafting.

Textures 1:

This is the beginning of a small collection of wonderful texture stamps, sized to make it simple to extend them to suit your project. Being Thermo Plastic Rubber, they allow you to use all of your techniques, extending the use but remaining clear for positioning. There are some really interesting and unique textures here in this collection of 4, a really cost effective way of adding interest to anything.

Handy Helpers:

Oh my goodness, this was another early sell out, but I did manage to get a little ore stock on extended delivery, so I do hope you wont miss out. This is an amazing set of unique stamps and where this whole collection started. The 3 hands give you the opportunity to use on any project, I have used feel good phrases on one, Crafty words on another and included a plain to cover all bases. There are also some super and different sentiments in this set which will match all projects and occasions.

As I have said before all of the words in every launch of the Craftascope Library collection will mix and match to give 1000's of sentiments that you can create, rather than tie to you specifics, we all want to get as much value as we can from our supplies and this is an excellent way of covering every possible scenario.

I do thank you for all of your support, without it I wouldn't be able to bring you the collections that I share with you. I want to be able to give you a collection of usable, different and unique stamps that build your collection over the months and years to come. I don't want to bring the same images or things that are already available, I want to help you evolve and try something different in your crafting. I am launching another new collection on Tuesday at Hochanda with Dave, so I do hope you will join me then. For now Take care and Happy Crafting.xx

War-bonnet Wilderness

Today, I am sharing another card that I made using the new range of stamps from Bee Crafty. They were launched on Friday 20th May, if you missed Bev's shows they are still available on Hochanda's website, via the TV schedule, using the catch up feature. Please be quick as they're stored for 7 days.

I started off with a sheet of A4 velvet card. I didn't know exactly the size of my finished project, but I was hoping for approximately 7-8''. First I drew a simple hat in pencil and then fashioned it into the base of an Indian War Bonnet. When I had rubbed out all of the excess pencil lines, I went over the required shape with a waterproof black fine liner pen. Then I masked off with Pebeo Drawing Gum.

I worked out which part of the large wing I would need to complete the head dress and applied washi tape to mask off the unwanted part of the stamp, then inked up using Versamark, removed the tape, lined up the stamp with the hat base. I used black fine detailed embossing powder to emboss the feathers.

I then took the small straight feather from the same set to be the hanging side feathers of the head dress. Then took the medium curled feather and masked off the base with washi tape as I only wanted to use the tip. Using black versamark I positioned them about 5-10 mm away from the wing. I added black dots between the head dress and the feathers and joined them together with a very fine line using a black fine liner. I wanted the feeling of movement so they appeared free to move in the breeze. I then applied drawing gum to the whole image.

I cut my project down to size and drew two deckled lines around the edge at 5 and 10 mm with my black fine liner.

I stamped the sentiment I had chosen from the collection. Then added the landscape using Antique Linen,Tea Dye and Frayed Burlap. I added some Brushed Corduroy in the mountain range. I then placed my mask for the Sun/Moon, For the sky I used mainly Shaded Lilac, then from the outside blended in some stormy Sky and finally a little Faded Jeans just around the edges blending into the rest.

To create the Tippee's, I cut a triangle from copier paper and ripped a slim strip also to lay across the base. I blended Frayed Burlap inside the triangle. I drew the base, posts and door flap with my black fine liner. I removed the Drawing Gum and coloured the head dress with a selection of Alcohol markers.I then coloured the inside deckled frame with my black marker.

Finally I mounted the card onto a black card base leaving approximately 5 mm around the card.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today. I hope you like the card I have made using these beautiful stamps from Bee Crafty and enjoyed my step by step of how it came alive. Thank you for all of your lovely comments and I hope you will visit again soon. Tomorrow I will be sharing another card that I made using Leonie Pujol's new stamp collection and I hope you will stop by for that. Take care xx

Stamps by Leonie Pujol My Launch Samples Part Two

Welcome to Part two of my samples for the Launch of Leonie Pujols' Brand New Stamp collection on Hochanda. I hope you liked Part One. If you haven't seen it please take a look at the post, I really enjoyed using these stamps and I know you will too.

There are six sets of stamps in the collection and they are: Just Be, Kaleidoscope Dreams, Flight To Freedom,Flight Of Fancy Backgrounds, Flights Of Fancy and Of She Flew. All of the stamps compliment each other perfectly allowing you to get the most from the stamps.

Thank you for taking the time to look through the samples. I hope you have enjoyed them as much as I did making them.

Please also take the time to visit the other wonderful crafters who make up Leonie Pujol's design team.

My fellow Design Team Members, They are:

Elaine - Cakecoffeecraft.blogspot.co.uk

Jane - Isleofcraftycreations.blogspot.co.uk &

Katrina - Cornishkat.blogspot.co.uk 

From tomorrow I will be adding more details and step by steps of them for people who want to know how they were made. Take care and bye for now. xx

Funky Door Hanger Using Leonie's Collection

Morning, I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my other designs over the last few days. Today I am sharing the Door Handle sample I made for the launch of Leonie Pujol's new collection.

Once again I forgot to take step by step photos, so my only option was to make it again to show you. I have to admit that while making this i had a disaster with the masks, my spray was faulty and by the time I realised that water was pouring out it was too late. So I have altered the final step and used the stencil to add the two words rather than the original design. I have included both photos at the end. I think I like both ways.

I painted the MDF hanger with 2 coats of white gesso. Once dry I stamped my sentiment in place, I used a sentiment stamp from Bee Crafty.

Next, I positioned my masks, using Crafters Companion Stick n Spray (re-positionable adhesive spray). Then I added my stamps in the areas I wanted. I stamped around the small art stencil with solid stamps as I wanted the inside to just be the ink.

Then I masked of the mid section with copier paper and washi tape. I wanted this area to remain white to highlight the sentiment.

I then used Pebeo Drawing Gum to mask all of the open stamps before sprinkling Brushos across the surface. I used Violet,Scarlet,Cobalt Blue and Emerald Green. Before I spritzed this with water to activate the colours I added yellow Ink spray in a couple of places.

I allowed this to dry, but as I mentioned before, the water completely ruined the masked words and therefore I decided to stencil the same words using Indigo Blu Sleeping Beauty and Vodka Martini.

On the original I used Leonie's bubble stamp inside the words and coloured with alcohol markers, For this I used the same stamp but coloured using a white Sharpie marker.

Lastly with both Door Hangings, I removed the drawing Gum and used alcohol markers to colour them. Here are both finished projects.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog, I hope that you have enjoyed this step by step. Please stop by again soon. Take care xx

Sepia/Brown Illusion Coaster project

Here's another of the projects I made using stamps from the new Leonie Pujol range. 

To prepare the MDF coaster, I gave it tow coats of white gesso. When it was dry I marked out the first line of my edge border lightly in pencil, I have made it slightly darker here so it shows up a little better.

Next I added my first bars with a ruler and fine liner (05) in sepia.

Then I marked out my second line for the edge border in pencil, followed by some more bars using the ruler and fine liner. The more bars you add, the greater the dimension as it creates the illusion of depth. It's worth bearing in mind though that the more you add, the more spaces that are created to fill with stamps. You want to try and leave some larger spaces so the stamp designs stand out.

I started adding the bars I wanted to appear closest and then worked backwards. Careful not to go over any lines.

Time to mask and and stamp the edge and bars ready to stamp. I used washi tape for the edge and Pebeo drawing gum for the bars.

When It was dry I selected the stamp I wanted and filled the space between to form the border.

After removing the tape and gum, I used the straight edge of copier paper to mask off the other areas for stamping until the design was complete.

When I finished the stamping I took the sepia fine liner and drew a deckled edge around both sides of the border avoiding crossing any lines.

Then it was just a case of adding shading to the design with either alcohol markers or pencils and varnishing with an appropriate sealer depending on which medium you have used. I used crafters companion Spray and Shine.

Black & White Zentangle Using Stamps from Leonie's Launch

How Excited am I. Loved Leonie's Launch show and I am sure you did too. Now I have the opportunity to share some of the samples I made.

These stamp collections and Stencils are so versatile. I have to admit when they first arrived, I was suffering from Craft Block. But once I got going, there was no stopping me. Dont know why I was so worried about completing 6, I could have done 60.

I have been playing with them for weeks. I have 17 projects to share from this launch. Some of them are very simple, using only one stamp and others are more elaborate. I have to let yo know how easy it has been to create such a variety of looks and styles. Well done Leonie, a great collection.

For this card, I started out by marking out the square for the finished card. Then with hardly any pressure on a pencil (Almost resting between your fingers) I marked out the  main focal point. Then I added a couple more around the edge. I have made the pencil lines a bit darker so they show up.

Taking the first stamp I made a couple of masks as these are needed as the images overlap. Then I stamped along the line being careful to make sure the right images were masked. I then did the same with the other stamps I selected on the other main lines.

When I had completed that, I took my other stamps to fill in the spaces. Then took graphite sticks to add shade and dimension. In areas that I wanted a more dramatic look I used black fine liners.

This would look stunning in colour maybe monotone and completely different using  mixture of vibrant colours.

I am entering this card into the Suzy Bee's Challenge.

A Wedding Card Using Sheena Douglas Stamps

Day Six and another update.

Not bad I hear you say. Today, I thought I would share a wedding card I made using stamps from Sheen Douglas and a Die from Sue Wilson. For the outside of the card I used the outside die from Sue Wilson's Australian Collection, the background set. I cut that out to create a frame for the stamped image behind.

I stamped the frame with a selection of swirl stamps and words, also by Sheen Douglas. I used distress ink to stamp the swirls and the colour was Tattered Rose. Then I used the a few distress inks around the frame to blend into the background, The inks were, Tattered Rose, Antique Linen and Victorian Velvet.

I stamped the main image twice onto Crafters Companion watercolour card using Black archival ink as I wanted to use watercolour, also I wanted to decoupage the car. The blossoms were also stamped in black archival ink and painted using the same distress inks used for the frame. Finally the image was painted using a selection of Tim Holtz Distress inks, used with water from the craft mat. To finish the card, I used foam on a roll to add dimension to the frame and 3d glue gel to decoupage the car. The I tied a bow using double sided satin bow for the top left hand corner and a wrap of the same colour ribbon on the bottom right hand corner. I was going to glaze the car but decided against it on this card.

A Little Bit Sketchy Greeting Card.

I love Sheena's Stamps and for this card I chose from the 'Little Bit Sketchy' Range from Sheena Douglas, the name of the stamp set is 'Believe'

I chose some leaf stamps from Justrite, It's the Shabby Chic Range 'Autumn Leaves'

I create the background using a background stamp, also from Justrite, called Autumn Swirls.

The dies I used for this particular card were from Tonic, The Oval Layering Dies straight and scalloped set.

To start with the background, I took a piece of white card and using a versamark inkpad stamped the Autumn Swirls background, used detail fine white embossing powder and heated. Then distress the edges with Antique Linen, building up the colour.

I chose a selection of leaves from the set and stamped them using black momento ink and coloured using a selection of copic markers. These were then cut out, shaped and put aside.

I used a selection of copics to colour the image of the church from Sheena Douglas, the lovely thing about this stamp is you can easily change the season depending on the colours you use. The atmosphere of the finished piece can also be changed dramatically by using different colouring mediums.

The coloured image was then cut using the oval die and layered onto a slightly larger mat, cut from black pearlesant cardstock from(www.annamariedesigns.co.uk/)

I layered the background on the same black cardstock, glued the topper onto the card and then arranged the leaves around part of the image to look a little like they had fallen from a tree.

I hope you like the finished result.