Grace

Morning Friends and Crafters. Today I am sharing a card that is just perfect for Batch making. Great for making for charities and fund raisers as well as raising funds for yourself too. These would wonderful boxed as a set, maybe a selection make in different colours. They make wonderful Thank You cards and as mentioned, changing the look is as easy as changing the colour strip. This uses just a few stamps from Sara's wonderful Enchanted Forest range along with a stamp from my collection and just 3 Distress Oxides. I hope you enjoy the tutorial.

You will Need:

Craftascope 'Dolphin' A5 Media Stamp Set 1

Enchanted Forest 'Dandelion' Die and Stamp Collection

Enchanted Forest Peg Stamps

Distress Oxides: Candied Apple, Squeezed Lemonade and Blueprint Sketch

Copier Paper

Stick n Spray

Versafine Black Ink Pad

White Stamping Card 8 x 6'' Approx

Mat Black Card 8 1/4 x 6 1/4'' Approx

Centura Pearl Card Base Silver/White 8 1/2 x 6 1/2

Step 1: Tear your paper to give you a slightly wobbly line. Secure to your card using a little Stick n Spray.

Step 2: Use the oxides to apply the colours either side of your card first, then add the center colour overlapping the one either side to give a nice blend. Remove the copier paper mask and then remove any excess adhesive with a piece of kitchen roll.

Step 3: Position and stamp the large 'Grace' stamp with the black ink. It has a really nice open text, that really lets the colour shine through, tying it together with the background. Next stamp your beautiful dandelions, elongating the centre stem. To do this mask off the dandelion with copier paper, all but the lower part of the stem, ink up your stamp and join it at the base. Add the little seed heads, blowing in the wind, make sure to stamp some off the page.

Step 4: Measure your black matt to make sure it leaves a narrow border around you topper, dont secure just yet.

Step 5: Gut this layer using any of your dies, not only does this save a lot of card, it reduces waste and postage, saves money and can be used for another project.

Step 6: Layer this onto your base card with tacky glue.

Step 7: Add your 'Grace' Topper to your card, it makes a beautiful card for any occasion, there are plenty more wonderful and uplifting words and phrases in my collection. See my live show link below.

My collection is still available at a wonderful offer price on Hochanda with Freedom Discount and Flexi Buy on the full collection. HOCHANDA LINK. I also have the collection available at my CRAFTASCOPE ETSY SHOP.

If you did miss my very first Hochanda show and the launch of my collection, it is still available on Rewind, via the Hochanda Website, it was last aired on Tuesday 20th November so please be quick.

NICK'S FIRST LIVE HOCHANDA SHOW LINK

Just a little extra here: If you have not shopped with Hochanda before, here is a voucher code giving you 30% off your first purchase (FEY5JBP7) it can be used for any purchase, feel free to share it.

Thank you ever so much for popping by today, I do hope you enjoyed the tutorial along with the finished card. I hope you will stop by again to see what else I have to share. For now Take care and Happy Crafting.xxx

Time - Showing us what Matters

Hello, I've got something a little different to share with you this morning. Yesterday Kim from Paperbabe Stamps brought her Male Mixed Media, stamps and stencils to Hochanda. I bought them a little while ago, they really are fantastic. I never been able to draw a successful face so these have really been amazing to use and have allowed me to try something new. If you didn't see the shows, they will be available on 'Rewind' via the Hochanda website.

For this I used the 'Side Swept Bangs' template, the instructions are super easy to follow. I used Stick n Spray from Crafters Companion on the back of mine to hold it in place. Next I positioned the facial features, using the coordinating stamps. For the eye's I used Blueprint Sketch Distress ink.

Once completed, I used a 0.3 & 0.5 black Copic Multiliner pen to darken the lines before rubbing out all of the pencil markings.

I started building up the skin tone with my alcohol markers, blending to add shape to the face.

I continued to blend, darkening around the sides of the face and hairline. Below the shoulders, I faded to the lightest shade.

I took a warm golden base for the hair, my chosen hair colour was dark brown but I like to start with a lighter base, after adding the darker colours the tones does show to give a more realistic look.

Next I took my 2nd beige colour to start the blending. Working with the hairs natural movement, blending from the root and from the tips, leaving a bridge in the mid-lengths. 

I continued with a deep warm brown applying in the same way.

Lastly, I took my darkest brown to add even more depth and tone before blending with the warm brown I had used previously.

Then using copier paper, I made a mask to cover the whole image.

The colours I used for this background were Blueprint Sketch, Dusty Concorde and Chipped Sapphire. I wanted to blend areas while still keeping some white without it starting to look patchy.

I made a stencil from the clock die from the 'Time Traveller' collection by Sheena. I also used another from Clarity, stippling through with Blueprint Sketch and Chipped Sapphire.

With Memento Black ink, I stamped a sentiment stamp from Bee Crafty, using the 'Time' part on the left had side and the rest in the top right hand corner. I next took the Hourglass stamp from Sheena's Time Traveller collection and stamped using Blueprint Sketch Distress ink.

I finally removed the copier paper mask.

Many thanks for taking a look today, I do hope you have enjoyed this step by step and the finished piece. If you would like to do something similar, I would highly recommend the stencils and stamps from Paperbabe, they have really helped me to do something that I have always wanted to do. Hope you will join me again soon, Take care and Happy Crafting.xx

Memories

For this card, I wanted to make my word float across a fantasy sky, so what better than the Glitter Brush pens from Leonie. I also wanted to have things hanging from the word, the stamps and stencils are from the collection Leonie launched on Hochanda on October 13th. Please do check as the shows might just still be available Via 'Rewind' on their website.

This time I wanted to fill my word 'Memories', so I secured the stencil to my card with Stick n Spray from Crafters Companion and stamped with the Foliage stamp from the collection.

I removed the stencil and replaced it with the mask. I used the heart stamp to hang from the letters using another of the stamps to connect them. I then added some of the flying dragonflies.

Next I added some of the balloons, I love these and they are such a useful stamp to have and great for so many occasions.

Leaving the mask in place, I masked the stamped elements with Pebeo Drawing gum. For the background I used the Glitter Brush Pens, to blend the sky from very dark blue to a deep purple, I also wanted a lighter area in the centre. The colours I used from top to bottom were Cobalt and Arctic from the 'Frosty Christmas' set. Then Lilac, Lavender and Iris from the 'Wrapped Up' set. When this was dry I removed the drawing gum and coloured the stamps with my alcohol markers.

To finish, I layered it onto Centura Pearl 'hint of silver', then onto deep blue Centura Pearl, both by Crafters Companion. I used the Collall Tacky Glue to secure.

Thank you for visiting today, I still have a lot to share so I hope you will come by again. For now Take care and Happy Crafting.xxx

I love to Laugh

I apologise in advance for anyone who gets this song stuck in their heads, Like I have even as I write this I can hear it in my head. lol I had just watched Mary Poppins before I was using the 'Laugh' Mask. I have also used the stamps that Leonie Launched on Hochanda on Thursday along with some from her previous launch.

I positioned 'Laugh' using Stick n Spray from Crafters Companion. I also secured some copier paper that I had torn to mask off and give me a centre strip to add my colour.

Using Distress Inks to add my colour, I used Squeezed Lemonade, then Spiced Marmalade and blended to remove any joins, the third colour was Candied Apple. For the opposite side of the strip I used Salty Ocean, which also gave me the green I wanted, then Blueprint Sketch and finally Chipped Sapphire. I then removed the copier paper when I was happy with the blending.

To add the 'Love' I used the stamp from Leonie's last collection, I cut this up so I could stagger the letters and place the back to front 'E'. I then masked off the 'L' so that I could use just the empty box and add the letter 'I' and 'To' Below the colour strip I used the 'HO HO HO' stamp and changed it to read 'HA HA HA' I coloured the piece in using a selection of Spectrum Noir Aqua Markers.

I built up my design, making sure to keep it balanced, I also used some stamps behind a couple of the letter boxes.

I hope you like this fun card and the step by step I have shared today. Thank you for stopping by and I hope that you will visit again very soon. Take care and Happy Crafting.xxx

Dreams

Welcome to my first step by step using Leonie's new collection, Launched on Hochanda on Thursday Evening. If you did miss the shows, you can still see them on the 'Rewind' section of the Hochanda website. The shows with Leonie are always packed full of inspiration.

After spraying my masks with Stick n Spray from Crafters Companion, I positioned them onto my card. Here I used 3 sizes of the 'Dream' Word.

To begin with I started to build up my pattern by stamping either end of the main focal word and the smaller words, keeping the balance.

Next I added more stamps to my design along with a few to bring the smaller words together without actually joining them up. Once I was happy with the design, I masked the images with Pebeo Drawing Gum.

I then gently started blending my colours within the centre with Shaded Lilac Distress Ink, then to the edges of the piece. I continued to blend until I had deepened the colour enough.

Next I deepened the colour further by adding Blueprint Sketch and finally adding some Chipped Sapphire.

Then I removed the masks along with the Drawing Gum, I also removed any residue that was left from the spray.

I coloured the stamping with Spectrum Noir Aqua Markers.

To frame the piece, I matted it onto Mat black card with Cosmic Shimmer glue before mounting it onto a purple Centura Pearl base from the darks collection.

Thank you so much for visiting today, I hope you enjoyed the step by step and what I have shared today. I look forward to you stopping by again very soon. Take care and Happy Crafting.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