J is for......

Hello bloggers....I know I haven't seen you all for a good long while but I have been pretty busy with lots of stuff so unfortunately I just haven't even given my blog a thought! But as I have been asked to explain how I made a sample for the recent Claritystamp Birthday weekend I thought I would do it on here.
Did any of you see all the shows on Hochanda? They are really good weren't they! And covered all the bases! Brilliant.

Anyway this is one of the samples I made for the shows.

I made this using the J from the alphabet set and the Jayne Nesterenko frame. I also used one of the butterflies from the Jayne Nesterenko sets.
I also used the artistry inks to colour it.

1. Stamp the frame into the middle of a piece of 7x7 stencil card using black archival ink.
2. Stamp the J in the centre of the aperture and stamp it again on a spare piece of stencil card along with the butterfly.
3. Now use low tack tape to mask off the areas of the frame you want the flowers in and use the J stamp to fill these areas. Do one at a time until all 4 sides are stamped. Give this a quick blast with the heat tool to dry the ink.
4. Mask off the outside edge of the frame and then brush yellow ink over the stamped flowers and in the aperture around the J leaving the centre white.
Remove the masking tape.
5. Use the artistry inks to colour the flowers on the spare J and also on the butterfly. Leave to dry.
6. Use a fine paintbrush and artistry ink to add colour to the flower border, frame and to the main image.
7. Trim back the card so there is an even white border around the frame. 
8. Mat this on a piece of green card then onto a 6x6 card blank. 
9. Fussy cut out the spare flowers and decoupage onto the J and fussy cut out the butterfly and stick on to one corner of the card.

I hope you can follow these instructions.
Remember that if you change the colours of ink you use it will look very different. And you could use any of the letters like this.


Have a great day 
Happy Crafting 

Pink Painted Butterflies

Good morning all and I hope you are having a good Good Friday! It is actually nice to have some lovely weather on a bank holiday too I cant quite remember when that happened!

Whatever you do and however you choose to spend the day, enjoy it and kick back a little if you can!.

I have a few jobs I need to do but then I can get on with some crafting and who knows I may sit outside for a while...wasps and bugs allowing. That's the downside of being extremely allergic to things....I need to cover up which seems to defeat the object of sitting out! But it's nice to see sunshine.

I was looking through my projects and I found this one I had made in March in preparation for the live shows from the NEC and thought it looks perfect for a day like today. As usual the ingredients and instructions are below.

Ingredients.

Oval  Picot Die and matching plate

Rectangle  Picot Die and matching plate

Linda's Butterfly Plate. GRO-AN-40817-03

Wing Tool

Drop tool

Perga Liners

Fine Paintbrush

Indian summer  designer card

Pastel brads

1. Working on plain parchment, cut an oval using the 5th die and the rectangle using the 4th die.

2. on the rectangle emboss the double lines. IN each corner use the drop tool to make the little flowers . Emboss white work in them. Put to one side.
3. On the oval emboss the 5th and 6th double lines.  Semi perforate around the insides of each double circle using the wing tool and emboss the lines around the perforations.
4. Emboss the flower and butterflies in the inner oval avoiding the perforations. Add colour to the flowers on the reverse then paint the butterflies on the front using Pergaliners. Re-perforate using the wing tool.
5. Cut the designer card with the 2nd picot die. Layer up the two pieces of parchment and attach to the card with brads.

6. Mount on a card blank.

Have a great day everyone

Happy Crafting

Happiness is....

Hello to you all. I have been a little busy this last week so haven't really had much time to blog ...sorry! However I have a few minutes now so thought I would share something with you. 

I am off out later to meet up with a few friends in Hobbycraft in Stockport. We take stuff to do but probably chat more than craft...Hahaha! But it give us a chance to share ideas and look at things each other has done.

Anyway here it the project I want to share with you today. 

Ingredients.

Nested Square plate GRO-PA-40037-03

Happiness is a butterfly GRO-WO-40523-04

Butterfly Plate  GRO-AN-40943-01

Large Dragonfly plate GRO-PA-40899-01

Basic Piercing Grid diagonal GRO-GG-40383-14

Rainbow River  Designer Paper

Perga Glitter

Sticky ink

Mapping pen

1. Working on plain parchment emboss the 5th square. Emboss the poem and the butterflies in the square. Emboss the butterflies on each corner of the frame. Add the centre one on each line then add the ones in between to make the frame.

2. Emboss the dots in the butterflies with the poem and on the alternate ones in the frame.
3. Perforate around the frame and in the butterflies using the bold 2 needle tool. Cut away waste leaving the outside edge until last.
4. Attach to a piece of designer  paper with brads and mount on a 7x7 card blank. Add dots of perga glue under the cut out butterfly centres.

5. Add sticky ink with a mapping pen to the butterflies with dots in and add perga glitter.

Hope you have a great day whatever you are doing

Happy Crafting

 

Phoenix rising!

Hello and welcome all to today's blog!

It is all getting exciting now on the wedding front and I know over the next few weeks I am going to be mighty busy! But that's good as it keeps me out of mischief! I hope I still have time to do the occasional blog for you all! 

I was looking through things I haven't blogged yet and things I had! I noticed that I had blogged the Groovi version of the Phoenix but not the Stamp version so that is what I have for you today.

Ingredients.

Phoenix  Stamp

NDC 42 fireworks stencil

versamark pad

Clear detail embossing powder

Adirondack inks Black dark blue and indigo

Artistry ink Golden turmeric and blaze

Theuva Card

Brayer 

1. Working on Theuva  card cut to 14cm x 20cm, stamp the phoenix stamp with archival ink. and mask off. This is only for the positioning.

2. Attach the stencil and add yellow and red ink. Wipe the stencil clean then reattach.

3. Sponge versamark through the stencil . Remove the stencil and the mask and emboss the fireworks with detail clear powder. Repeat this process to make the embossing smoother.

4. Use the brayer to make a night sky. Use a mix of indigo , blue and black ink to do this.

5. Add hills at the bottom of the card using torn paper and the ink on the blending mat with the brayer. Wipe the ink off the embossed areas.

6. Mat onto black card then mount on a card blank.

7. On smooth decoupage card stamp the phoenix 5 times and colour with promarkers. Cut out and layer up over the stamped image using 3D foam pads.

For those of you who find the brayer scary you could do the sky with brushes but it would take longer to build up the depth of colour! 

I hope you have a good day whatever you are doing! Happy Crafting.

Dream time!

Hi there everyone and welcome to the newbies!

I hope you are well. 

I am off to meet a friend today for lunch and have a good old catch up. We both retired early  from teaching so can be ladies that lunch these days! It's nice as we worked together a long time. Living the dream now! Haha!

Here is todays card I want to share with you all. It's a nice simple and bright one. I have given you the ingredients and instructions below.

Ingredients.

Fairy with Daisies and Butterflies Stencil

Follow your dreams stamp

Gemini Machine or similar

Distress ink - Picked raspberry, Salty ocean, mustard seed, Black soot.

Northern Lights paper

1. Add black soot ink to the stencil and place carefully on to the stencil card. Run it through the Gemini to emboss the card and transfer the ink. Remove the stencil and clean it.

2. Replace the stencil to cover the black then using a blending tool and sponge add the 3 distress inks randomly over the exposed white card overlapping the colours to give full coverage. Flick with water and blot with a paper towel.

3. Trim the edge of the card to leave an even border. Adhere to a piece of designer paper and mount on a card blank.

4. On a spar piece of card stamp the sentiment and then colour with the three colours from the background. Edge with a black sharpie pen. Attach to the card with some 3D foam pads.

Have a good day and happy crafting

Home alone!

Hi there everyone!
I have the house to myself today …..well 'til mid afternoon I do! It doesn't happen often these days! I was up early so feel like I have had a long day! 
I thought I would share a groovi sample today. This one uses one of the Queen lace plates. They really are beautiful! I find that if I perforate around the outside first I can get it to line up first time every time. I am glad I have the lightwave though! 

Anyway here is the card and the ingredients and instructions are below.

Ingredients.

Anne Lace Frame Pattern Grid GRO-GG-41138-12

Leafy swirl Plate GRO-TR-40338-03

Mini  word chains 17&18 GRO-WO-41175-09

Nested square Picot dies and matching plate

A4 Apple green parchment

Indian summer  paper

pastel brads

1. On green  parchment  emboss  dots for the frame. Turn the plate and parchment over and perforate the design. Emboss the white work in the frame. Reperforate then cut away waste.
2. From the remaining parchment cut a square to fit in the centre and then use the plate the emboss the lines around the edge and use the centre square to make the sentiment box.
3. Emboss the patterns around the centre box and emboss white work as shown.
4. Attach the frame to the designer paper with pale green brads then attach the small square with brads.
5. Mount on to a card blank.


Hope you are having a good Sunday.
Happy Crafting 

Look for beauty

Hello there again and welcome to the newbies! 
Our Maria will be on TV later with some really cool Groovi stash. I hope you will be able to watch her tonight and tomorrow too! 
But for now I want to share something I did when Leonie launched her first lot of stencils. They are brill and can be used to make pretty much any style of item from really grungy stuff to pretty CAS cards. 
This one was a journal page I did using the stencils as a background and then adding stamps to build up the layers.  I will be honest with you..this kind of art used to terrify me!! But watching Leonie and now Louise on TV, plus meeting up with Louise for play days, has actually shown me that it really is nothing to be scared of. It's mixing mediums but also layering that gives your project the desired look.
This project could be done on paper or directly in a journal depending on how you want to work.
I have given you the ingredients and the instructions but you could change it easily by using different colours or images or by adding other words that are more poignant to you.

Ingredients.

Leonie's frameless stencils

beauty Wordchain stamp

Alphabet Wordchain

Marigold and friends stamp set

Basic circle and friends Stamp set

Blues / Greens and Orange Paints

Artistry inks in similar colours to the background

Book pages

Charcoal pencil

Green archival ink

Mixed media paper or work directly into a journal

1.  Use the paint to create a background by adding different colours in different areas and covering the complete paper.

2. Place stencil with squares over the page and sponge white paint through the stencil. Move the stencil around to cover the page. Change the stencil to the one with little circles on it and sponge blue and yellow paint through small areas and again move it round across the page. Leave to dry.

3.On spare decoupage paper stamp the flowers outline 3 times. Use artistry ink to fill in one of them and cut out the circle. The other need cutting out. Stamp the words for the sentiment and brush ink over them .

4. On the page stamp the infill stamp in green archival ink around the page. Add some strips of torn book pages and the flowers and words. Stamp the circle a few times around the flower circle. 

5. Use the charcoal pencil around the elements and rub in with your finger.

Feel free to leave me a comment below especially if you feel inspired to have a go.
Hope you have a good day and happy crafting.

An inky/parchment crossover.

Hello to you all. 

I am off out later to Stockport to meet up with a  small group of folks who are all into mixed media and journals. It's a great little group and we haven't been able to meet since December due to various things. I love going as it is one of my inky playtimes. It's only for a couple of hours but I seem to have got loads of stuff to take with me. Oh well I am sure I will have fun. and that's what crafting should be about. 

Yesterday I shared a card made with the Garden Heart stencil. So today I thought I would share one done with the stamp set. This one is done on parchment and uses a groovi plate to create an embossed frame for the heart and verse to sit in. It also has some embossing done on the reverse to create white areas within the heart design. The thing to remember when stamping on parchment is you need to let the ink dry properly before you start yo do any work on it. You stamp on the front of the parchment to get the image the correct way round. However if you want to create a reflection or a mirror image to something stamp one on the front and one on the reverse and bingo! 
Any way here is todays card and as usual the ingredients and instructions are below for you.

Ingredients.

Garden heart stamp set

Rainbow river Parchment

Rainbow River Paper

Nested rectangle plate GRO-PA-40524-04

1. On a piece of designer parchment  Create a rectangle measuring 11cm x 16.5 cm

2. Stamp the heart and sentiment in black archival ink and leave to dry thoroughly.

3. Working on an embossing mat and using the Number 3/4 Groovi embossing tool add white work to areas.

4. Use and eraser to remove the colour from the parchment then use a green pencil to colour them in.

5. Trim evenly around the frame with a paper trimmer then attach to a piece of white card with brads and then mat on a piece of matching designer paper and mount on a card blank.

Have a good day whatever you are doing.

Happy Crafting

A heart for you

Hi there everyone.
Its a very pleasant spring day today for the start of the most promising season. And its just 4 months to the wedding so I am feeling very happy and content with life. Things are going well.
Colin is busy repotting his little trees and generally pottering about in the garden so he's feeling better. I think he worries that his trees may not make it through the winter so when they show signs of life and coming into bud it makes him happy! 
I thought I would share a sample using the garden heart stencil. I love this image and have it in all forms made by Claritystamp. And I can now tell you that Amy chose the stamp version for her invitations. It fits in perfectly with her theme of rustic and lace!
Anyway back to todays artwork. The stencil has no frame so can be used in lots of different ways and with a variety of mediums. I chose to keep it fairly simple. As usual I have given you the ingredients and instructions below.

Ingredients.

Garden Heart stencil

Hugs& Kisses mini word chain 15 STA-WO-10062-XX

Hope Frame & Celtic Shapes Unmounted Clear Stamp STA-PA-10384-A5

Worn lipstick Distress oxide ink

1. Add oxide ink to the stencil and spritz very lightly with water. Place carefully in the middle of a piece of 7x7 stencil card and pass through a Gemini or similar to emboss the stencil and transfer the ink.
2. Use a blending toll to add ink to the corners of the card. Use the stencil to add texture to the corners by using the blending tool  lightly over it. Flick water at the corners and blot. Use the Love stamp from the Hope Frame set and stamp in 2nd and 3rd generation oxide ink.
3. Stamp the Hugs and kisses in grey archival ink and edge the card with a grey sharpie pen. 
4. Mount on a card blank.

It would be easy to change the look of this by using different colours of inks. I just like PINK!

I hope you are having a good day today.

Happy Crafting

A peacock in many guises!

Good morning to you all. And welcome to my new followers I hope you like what you see here.

Today I am just sharing some artwork with you that I haven't shown on here before just for a bit of inspiration. 

These peacock images were designed by Linda Williams with groovi in mind but they were made into the most fabulous stamps too. They were launched at the NEC a year ago and were so well received by all! Here is a selection of the stamped samples I made plus two groovi versions too.

I hope you find something that you like!

Have a great day whatever you are doing 
Happy Crafting

Bee Happy

Good morning! It's gone quite cold again and we've been having a mixture of sunshine and showers. But the showers have been heavy and wintery! Not really what we want to see at this time of the  year. Mind you this time last year we had snow lying on the ground  so I suppose it's a little better than that.
I have a few things I need to do today including tidying up my space... It's got a bit muddled over the last couple of weeks so once I have finished mounting some secret stuff I can set to and have a really good sort out before the next lot arrives! 
I want to share with you one of the samples I did for the Groovi show on Friday from the NEC using the new tools along with the plates designed by Linda Williams plus a few extra things which I have listed below.

Ingredients

Round Picot Die and matching plate

Happy Word chain border plate GRO-WO-40563-09

Linda's Bee Plate. GRO-AN-40816-03

Wheel embossing Tool

Lozenge Perforating tool

Perga Liners

Northern lights designer card

1. Working on plain parchment emboss the single line circle using the 6th circles on the picot plate. Emboss the flowers and the bee in the circle.

2. Emboss the white work and add colour on the reverse of the parchment. Emboss the bee trail using the wheel tool.
3. Use the lozenge tool and semi perforate around the circle. Emboss a pattern around the perforations.
4. Use the 5th picot die to cut out the circle and at the same time cut a piece of blue card the same size as the parchment.  Emboss the double lines on the picot plate. Reperforate  around the circle with the lozenge. Put to one side
5. Make a wrap for the card using spare parchment ripping the edges. Emboss the bee,  the word and the honeycomb. Add colour to these.
6. Layer the  blue card and circle of parchment and attach to the designer card with brads. Attach the wrap by sticking on the back.
7.  Mat onto silver card then mount on a card blank.

I hope you like this project and if you have any comments please leave them below
Have a super day whatever you are doing.
Happy Crafting

Frog and Friends

Good morning all! Welcome to my new followers! I just noticed I have a few more following this blog now! I hope you enjoy what you see and please let me know in the comments! 
I am sorry I missed a blog yesterday. We had had a power cut in the night and whether that was the reason why we had no internet or TV til about 2pm I don't know but by the time we were up and running, I was busy perforating and snipping a project. I can't tell you what yet but you will find out in due course. 
Anyway here I am back again today so all is good.
Today I want to share a canvas I made using the woodland animals stencils. Mel Turner designed this one for Claritystamp. She is so clever how she draw! Her drawing though makes it easy to create great looking pieces of artwork. Maria had these on her show back in November 2018. I can't believe it was that long ago! 
Here is the result of what I did and below are the things you will need to make it and the instructions.

Ingredients

Frog and friends woodland stencil  STE-TP-00470-4S

8x8 canvas board

Texture paste that dries clear

Mica powders

Acrylic paint

1. Working on a canvas board add colour by dry brushing with random colours of acrylic paint to create a background. Leave to dry.

2. Attach the stencil to the canvas so the image is central. Add texture paste through the stencil. Remove the stencil
3. While the paste is still wet add mica powder randomly to the image. Gently tap the excess off.  Use a heat gun to dry the texture paste so the mica sticks and the paste bubbles slightly to create texture. Leave to dry completely.
4. Use a soft cloth to gently polish the mica and remove any from the canvas.

Hope you have a great day whatever you are doing.
Happy Crafting

A heart of Flowers

Good morning to you! 

For those of you that didn't see yesterdays blog post you may notice that my blog has had a slight change from Bits to place and a new URL. This is thanks to Facebook not liking the original name that this blog has always had! But all is good as it's only a small change but one that means I can now share my blog again! It will still be me sharing my artwork with you and maybe one or two other bits too!

Today I thought I would share a piece I did for Tina's show in January.

Ingredients.

Nested Square GRO-PA-40037-03

Nested Hearts GRO-PA-40094-03

Tina's Floral Petites Tall flowers GRO-FL-41143-01

Floral Spacer GRO-FL-41161-20

Straight Border grid No.1 GRO-GG-40350-14

Basic Piercing grid  diagonal GRO-GG-40383-14

Tina's 3D Flowers and Butterflies GRO-FL-40553-15

Semi square perforating tool

Brighton Rock designer paper

1. On plain parchment  emboss the 2nd and 4th largest hearts then make a border around the hearts using the 1st, 3rd and 4th largest squares.  Add the flowers into the heart. Use the floral spacer to fill the widest part of the square frame and add the pattern off the border grid in the narrow part.

2. Emboss dots in the heart frame and white work to the flowers as shown. Add colour using Perga colours on the reverse.

3. Emboss and perforate the grid pattern.

4. Semi perforate around the design with the semi square tool. Emboss zigzags within the perforations then reperforate. Cut waste from this edge and also in the grid pattern.

5.  Attach to a piece of designer paper with brads and mount on a card blank.

6. Using spare pieces of parchment make a flower and leaves and attach to the front adding a flat backed pearl to the centre.

I hope you stay safe, warm and dry today. It isn't very pleasant outside so I won't be going far today

Happy crafting